text:
Tweak MRS settings to avoid interruptions
The words "corrupted mailbox data" tend to make Microsoft Exchange administrators break out in a cold sweat. After all, the first thing that those words bring to mind is the possible necessity of a database restore. And we all know how much fun those are.
The TechNet Exchange 2010 Server forum contains multiple discussions about encountering bad or corrupted items during mailbox moves and the resulting fuss when administrators see messages such as Error: This mailbox exceeded the maximum number of corrupted items that were specified for this move request. This error appears when administrators run the Get-MoveRequestStatistics cmdlet to check the status of a mailbox move that's in progress. The error can also be seen logged as event 1100 from the source MSExchange Mailbox Replication in the Application event log.
Just what causes such problematic items? How worried should you be if you encounter this error? And what can you do about the issue? Read on to find out.
Mailbox Replication Service and Bad Items
Conceptually, the error is easy to understand. The Exchange 2010 Mailbox Replication Service (MRS) runs on Client Access servers and is responsible for moving mailbox contents asynchronously. In other words, MRS moves mailboxes behind the scenes so that users can continue to work until their new mailboxes are available and MRS switches the AD points for the user account to point to the new mailbox location. MRS can deal with Exchange Server 2003, Exchange Server 2007, Exchange 2010, and Exchange Online (part of Microsoft), so it's a pretty capable component. As we'll discuss later, MRS can also play a role in keeping your Exchange databases in good health.
MRS processes mailboxes according to move requests. A move request describes the target database and other parameters that influence how MRS should deal with the mailbox. For example, one of the parameters (SuspendWhenReadyToComplete) for a move request can be used to suspend the move after the mailbox contents are nearly fully copied. This action allows an administrator to review the move report, decide that everything is OK, and then resume the move request to allow MRS to flip the Active Directory (AD) settings, and redirect the user to his or her new mailbox before resuming the move. Another parameter indicates the permitted bad item limit -- in other words, the number of corrupted items that MRS can tolerate before completing a mailbox move request. In this context, "corrupted" means that MRS determines a property or properties of the item to be incorrect, malformed, or in some other form that is unacceptable to Exchange.
The default value for the bad item limit is 0, meaning that MRS will tolerate no data loss in a mailbox move. This is sometimes appropriate when data absolutely must be retained. However, you might find that you can't move mailboxes at all because MRS continues to encounter corrupted data and fail with the error message mentioned earlier. For this reason, best practice is to set a reasonable limit for bad items. You should also check mailbox-move reports after requests complete, to determine whether the limit is in fact reasonable or if valuable data is being lost. I think anything in the 10-to-20 range is reasonable, but that depends on your circumstances and organizational requirements.
If you decide that a mailbox really must be moved no matter how much data is lost en route, you can set a very high bad item limit, which forces MRS to move the mailbox at all costs. The maximum setting is _PHONE_, but 100 is probably a better starting point. Note that after you specify a bad item limit equal to or higher than 51, you also need to pass the AcceptLargeDataLoss switch parameter to tell MRS that it's acceptable to drop all corrupted items.
Positive Intervention Is Required
If a move request is halted because MRS encounters too many bad items, an administrator can intervene to amend the move-request parameters and get things moving again. Use the Set-MoveRequest cmdlet to amend the BadItemLimit parameter and increase the tolerance for bad items until MRS can move the mailbox, and then instruct MRS to resume the move.
For example, suppose that the move for TRedmond's mailbox has stalled because MRS has encountered too many bad items. The first order of business is to view the move report. Use the Exchange Management Console (EMC) to view the properties of the move request, find the items that are causing trouble, and perhaps figure out whether you need to intervene in the mailbox before continuing. See the Microsoft article "View Move Request Properties" for details about how to access a mailbox-move report.
Suppose that the original bad item limit for the move request was 10, and MRS encountered more than 10 corruptions as it copied data from the source to the new target mailbox. We can scan the mailbox move report to discover how far MRS managed to get before reaching this limit. MRS creates checkpoints on a frequent basis so that it can resume a move request without redoing work; MRS reports this checkpoint status in terms of percentage complete. This percentage reports the overall progress of the move and takes into account other processing, such as connecting to source and target servers, setting up the target mailbox, and preparing to copy. The phase between 25 and 90 percent of the overall move is when copying of mailbox data occurs. If MRS encounters a bad item limit, it will happen at some point in this range.
In our example, suppose that the mailbox-move report indicates that MRS reached 80 percent before stopping the move. The last 10 percent or so of a mailbox move is used to perform a final incremental synchronization of mailbox contents and to switch the mailbox pointers in AD. At 80 percent, there isn't much more mailbox data to copy, so there's a fair chance that MRS can finish copying data from the source mailbox if you increase the bad item count to 20. To do so, you can run the following commands in the Exchange Management Shell (EMS):
Set-MoveRequest -BadItemLimit 20 |
The first command retrieves information about the move request. This information is piped to the second command, which increases the bad item limit to 20 and pipes the data to the third command. That final command tells MRS to resume working on the move request. If things happen as we expect, MRS will complete the move request and all will be well in the world.
Fools Rush In Where MRS Discards Data
Before you increase bad item limits, you must understand that MRS discards every bad item that it meets; it doesn't copy this data from the source to the target mailbox. Thus, a limit of 20 bad items means that MRS can discard as many as 20 discrete pieces of data from a user's mailbox while it is en route to a new home. This data might be terribly unimportant, as in the case of an old calendar meeting request. Then again, it might be a message that contains an Excel attachment describing the current year's budget. Fortunately, in 99.9999 percent of cases, bad items are extremely corrupted and highly unlikely to be accessible by a client.
Letting MRS dump a lot of bad data as it moves mailboxes might be deemed a very bad thing. However, bad items are corrupted, and it's good to give the mailbox the equivalent of a colonic irrigation from time to time, to remove accumulated debris. Indeed, Microsoft moves mailboxes frequently between databases in its Exchange Online cloud service, both to balance workload across available servers and to ensure that mailboxes stay squeaky clean and don't introduce corruption that could compromise the databases' service.
Corrupted items arise through many sources. Bugs are the most obvious and can occur on both the server and its clients. Exchange is now a very mature product, and its developers have had years to eliminate potential problems that might introduce corruption at the database level. You're likely to see more corrupted items when you move mailboxes from an Exchange 2003 server than when moving mailboxes from Exchange 2007 or Exchange 2010.
The root cause of item corruption is more likely to be a client problem than a server issue. A profusion of clients can connect to Exchange, using a multitude of connection methods, including add-on software products that integrate with clients such as Microsoft Outlook. Clashes and corruption can occur when multiple clients attempt to access the same item concurrently. Given the number of mobile devices that connect to Exchange, it should be no surprise that corruptions exist, especially in calendar items.
Based on purely anecdotal evidence in online forums, users of Research In Motion (RIM) BlackBerry devices seem to experience more corrupted calendar items than do users who access Exchange only through Outlook or Microsoft ActiveSync devices. A look through calendar items in a mailbox (use the Outlook list view) often identifies problems such as apparently blank items or items with multiple versions (i.e., conflicts). Items such as these can cause MRS problems and are best removed before mailbox moves are attempted.
The general rule is that the older the item, the more likely it is to cause a problem. If you, like me, have items in your mailbox that go back to 1996, it should be no surprise that some item properties that Exchange expects a well-behaved MAPI client to populate might not have been written correctly into the database.
Other Bad Item Limits
Mailbox moves aren't the only work that MRS does. Any request that MRS processes can have a defined bad item limit. Think of MRS as a component that shuttles data around for Exchange, and you can understand why it implements bad item limits in everything it does. Clearly, there's no point in moving corrupted data from one place to another


text:
Insect bite hypersensitivity (IBH) associated with Culicoides biting midges is the most common allergic skin disease in
horses, seriously reducing welfare of affected horses. The main symptom is severe pruritus, with risk of self-infected
open wounds. The choice for treatment and prevention of this common distressing disease remains a major challenge
for the veterinary profession and horse owners, as there is little evidence-based research for disease management.
While the understanding of the disease at a genetic and immunological level has improved in recent years, studies on
how IBH affects animal welfare and the behaviour of affected animals are lacking, and the welfare of affected animals
would benefit greatly from scientifically-based guidelines for improved prophylaxis and treatment. The aims of this
project are to investigate the effect of IBH in animal welfare and behaviour and to examine the effect of repellent
collars in the prevention of symptoms in IBH susceptible horses.

source: openbmb/Ultra-FineWeb


text:
What is Undergraduate Research?
Undergraduate Research: A Definition
The Council for Undergraduate Research (CUR) and the National Conferences on Undergraduate Research (NCUR) are longstanding leaders in promoting undergraduate research. In 2005, they jointly endorsed the following statement on undergraduate research:
Its central premise is the formation of a collaborative enterprise between student and faculty member-most often one mentor and one burgeoning scholar but sometimes (particularly in the social and natural sciences) a team of either or both. This collaboration triggers a four-step learning process...
1. the identification of and acquisition of a disciplinary or interdisciplinary methodology
2. the setting out of a concrete investigative problem
3. the carrying out of the actual project
4. finally, the dispersing/sharing of a new scholar's discoveries with his or her peers- a step traditionally missing in most undergraduate educational programs. (NCUR)
Essentially, undergraduate research involves the same steps as research done by professionals.
This list of a generalized version of what Lopatto (2003) identifies as the essential features of undergraduate research as stated by faculty engaged in the practice. Figuring prominently in his list is also the idea that students experience some independence, have room for creativity, and feel ownership of the research project.
Undergraduate Research Teaches Disciplinary Practice
Undergraduate research experiences help students understand a particular topic or phenomenon in a field while simultaneously strengthening their comprehension of research and research methods. Undergraduate research is inquiry-based learning that involves practicing a discipline, not just being told about it. Students learn and apply the tools by which knowledge is created in their disciplines. They discover firsthand how the steps of the research process are related to one another, experience the triumphs and pitfalls inherent to the creative process, see that research is an iterative process and that ambiguity is part of the real world, develop an understanding and appreciation of how knowledge evolves, and produce an original contribution to that body of knowledge.
Undergraduate Research is Engaged Learning
Undergraduate research is engaged learning in a number of respects. It is a form of both experience-based learning and active learning, and it can engage students with contexts, including the social and civic. The mentoring and collaboration dimensions of undergradaute research can foster ownership for learning and encourage a committment to high standards and accountability. While the research process in a discipline may be well-established, research always requires creativity, as well as patience and resolve in grappling with what sometimes feels ambiguous to all participants, including the faculty mentor. These features create opportunities for students to explore their own learning styles as well as develop exposure to those of others.
Undergraduate Research Can Take Many Forms
Undergraduate research projects can be designed to fit a variety of class constructs and to promote student learning at all levels of undergraduate education. Undergraduate research projects can be student or faculty initiated, and students can either participate in a work in progress or enter a project at its start.
When they are structured properly, class-based activities (naturalistic observation, surveys, quantitative writing assignments and experiments) can be undergraduate research experiences. So can class-based research projects (term papers, service learning, community-based and campus-based learning), capstone experiences (senior and honors theses), and out-of-class student/faculty collaborative research (like summer research experiences).
Some institutions and departments offer support and programs for undergraduate research through student/faculty summer research programs or undergraduate research offices. Even without such support, faculty can follow a well-defined process for developing undergraduate research and determining its best form for the course or experience they are considering.

source: HuggingFaceFW/fineweb-edu


the students tested several pieces of evidence for the presumptive presence of an enzyme called amylase, which is found in human saliva and is important for the first steps of digestion. This enzyme isn't found in animal saliva, and it's an uncommon enzyme to be found outside of the human body.
This test is quickly done by swabbing the piece of evidence (cup, envelope, tissue, etc.) that likely carries saliva and transferring the trace evidence to an agar plate that contains starch. Amylase breaks down starch (think digestion) in the plate after only about 10 minutes. After these 10 minutes are up, iodine is added to the plate, which turns the starch black. If amylase is present (and thus saliva, presumably), there will be no starch in the plate for the iodine to reach with. The saliva sample has "cleared" starch from that section of the plate, so you don't see a color change. In the plate above, the evidence in the top section of the plate is negative for saliva (no amylase activity), whereas the evidence in the bottom section is positive (amylase activity, no starch left).
Once the presence of saliva is identified, further steps will be taken to extract DNA for many forms of analysis. The students got to see just how easy it has become to extract DNA by doing it on their own cheek cells. By using nothing more than salt, dish soap, and cold ethanol, the students extracted their DNA in a tube and then viewed the genetical material under the compound microscope. This in itself doesn't provide any individual characteristics, as all of our DNA is the same chemically and will look the same in a tube or under a microscope. What would provide individual characteristics is when that DNA is sequenced and compared to DNA found at the crime scene, on the victim, or other on another piece of crime scene evidence.
DNA extraction solution (water, salt, detergent) is added to a person's saliva or a cheek swab stored in a buffer solution, which break apart human cells so that they release their DNA. Cold ethanol is added to the mixture so that DNA will separate from the cell debris (proteins, carbohydrates, etc.) and precipitate to the bottom of the tube. The ethanol is important for not only separating the DNA from unwanted material but also for purifying it for later procedures. The white material in the bottom of the tube above is concentrated DNA from a human cheek swab. The students didn't see quite this much DNA in their own tubes, but they did confirm they had collected DNA by viewing the precipitant under the microscope.
This is one of the few times in the semester when I can actually say, "It's okay if you try this at home…"
Just in time for Halloween…. Blood!
One of the things that I really didn't want to do in this Forensics class was deal with blood. I have never really liked blood, and one of the reasons I got a doctorate in chemistry rather than go to medical school was that there was much less blood. So why is this post about blood? Because we can't use real blood in Forensics lab, so we needed fake blood. And guess who whipped up a couple of batches of fake blood in her kitchen? The chemist!! Secret Recipe to follow…
Our intrepid students were presented with bloody evidence from our suspects, and also tested blood collected from the crime scene. Their tasks in today's lab were two-fold – to do "presumptive testing" on the evidence (a pair of jeans, a tee-shirt and a towel) to see if the stains were really blood or paint, or ketchup, and to do blood typing on samples from our suspects as well as samples from the crime scene. The presumptive test that they used is a classic test that you may have seen on TV, the "Kastle-Meyer test". A sample is smeared on a sterile cotton swab, and a drop or two of ethanol is added to solubilize the blood. A few drops of a solution of phenolphthalin (reduced phenolphthalein) are added, followed by a drop or two of a hydrogen peroxide solution. If the sample contains hemoglobin (i.e. it is blood) the swab turns pink, and the investigator says, in a very serious voice, "It is blood".
At this time, you may be thinking, didn't she say that they can't use real blood? And the answer is "yes", she did say that. So we had fake blood, and a test for real blood that would not work on the fake blood. I will let you in on a little secret – it is darned difficult to find a "false positive" that will "fool" the Kastle-Meyer test. The literature says that some vegetable extracts (potato, horseradish, cauliflower) have peroxidase enzymes that will give a false positive. They didn't work very well at all. We actually resorted (at Dr. Walker's suggestion) to mixing in some ferrous sulfate into the fake blood, but we still had problems in the lab. If anyone reading this has any other ideas, we are open to suggestion!
As a side note, I was delighted to actually make one of the Kastle-Meyer reagents in the lab – the reduced form of phenolphthalein. The reagent that we got from the Kastle-Meyer kit was partially oxidized, and it is best to have freshly prepared. So I got to do chemistry, as well as explain the chemistry of the Kastle-Meyer reaction to the class prior to lab.
Results from the presumptive blood testing. The tee-shirt did not test positive for blood, but the stains on the jeans and towel did test positive for blood. The stains on the floor of the crime scene were also blood.
The blood typing results showed that two of our suspects had the same blood type that was found at the crime scene.
The following photos are of the students performing the "Kastle-Meyer" presumptive test and blood typing using an agglutination test.
Secret Recipe for Fake Blood: 2/3 to 1 cup light corn syrup (i.e. Karo Syrup), 1 – 2 tbsp water, 1 – 2 tbsp corn starch. The corn starch should be added a little at time with vigorous mixing (I used a blender) until the proper "dripping" is achieved. Add about 1 tsp of powdered cocoa and 1 tsp of red food coloring. The cocoa is used to tone down the red food coloring and make the "blood" more rusty-lookng.
The organic lab was a "bloody mess" when I was trying to find a system that would fool the Kastle-Meyer test!
Are you a "high-caliber" criminal investigator?
The students discovered first-hand over the past couple of weeks that firearm and toolmark identification is much more difficult in real life than it is on TV. The forensic specialty of firearm identification focuses on trying to determine the specific firearm from which specific ammunition was discharged. Since many crimes involve one or more guns as a weapon of choice, being able to identify the actual weapon used is of vital importance in linking a suspect with the crime scene.
When examining firearms and their ammunition, investigators first look at class characteristics to narrow down their search. A fairly casual examination by an experienced investigator can provide many helpful clues: the caliber of the weapon, the manufacturer of the ammunition, and the type of weapon used, such as a handgun vs. a rifle. This is only the beginning, though! For example, hundreds of thousands of Glock 9mm semi-automatic pistols have been produced and sold in the U.S. alone, so how can you determine if it's YOUR SUSPECT's Glock 9mm that actually did the deed? This is where identifying individual characteristics comes in.
Even two guns that are of the same make and model can have slight differences in their overall structure that make them unique. For example, the barrel of most guns (except shotguns) is actual rifled; it is not smooth. When the bullet travels down the barrel, certain impressions (known as striations) of the barrel's rifling pattern are left on the surface of the bullet. These striations can be compared to those found on a test, or reference, bullet that is fired from the suspect's gun. No two guns have the same exact rifling pattern. Keep in mind that at this point, the investigator has a pretty good idea of what type of weapon was used; now he or she is trying to determine the specific weapon used.
Other important individual characteristics include firing pin, extractor, and ejector impressions left on the bullet casing (or jacket) by the weapon's breechface. Again, even guns that are of the same make and model may have slight imperfections in their breechfaces, leaving a unique impression on every cartridge that is fired from that gun. This individual characteristic is helpful when only the casing of a bullet is found and not the bullet itself. Since the casing itself doesn't travel down the barrel, it does not acquire any striations on its surface the way the bullet does.
Since a firearm was involved in our crime on campus, the students went about processing the casings and bullet fragments that were collected from the crime scene. Based on a class characteristic analysis, they have determined that a.22 handgun was used to fire the ammunition. They compared the crime scene ammunition to reference ammunition obtained from the guns belonging to some of our suspects. This past week, they had to submit their preliminary report of evidence collected so far, and it will be interesting to


_USER_ {export:63941, abstract = {
Provenance metadata in e-Science captures the derivation history of data products generated from scientific workflows. Provenance forms a glue linking workflow execution with associated data products, and finds use in determining the quality of derived data, tracking resource usage, and for verifying and validating scientific experiments. In this article, we discuss the scope of provenance collected in the Karma provenance framework used in the LEAD Cyberinfrastructure project, distinguishing provenance metadata from generic annotations. We further describe our approaches to querying for different forms of provenance in Karma in the context of queries in the first provenance challenge. We use an incremental, building-block method to construct provenance queries based on the fundamental querying capabilities provided by the Karma service centered on the provenance data model. This has the advantage of keeping the Karma service generic and simple, and yet supports a wide range of queries. Karma successfully ans
}, address = {Chichester, UK}, author = {Yogesh L. Simmhan and Beth Plale and Dennis Gannon}, journal = {Concurrency and Computation: Practice and Experience}, month = {April}, number = {5}, pages = {441–451}, publisher = {John Wiley & Sons Ltd.}, title = {Query capabilities of the Karma provenance framework}, url = {_URL_ volume = {20}, year = {2008}, }


{-# LANGUAGE TypeSynonymInstances, FlexibleInstances, MultiParamTypeClasses, TypeFamilies #-}
{-# LANGUAGE OverlappingInstances, IncoherentInstances #-}
{- |
 Module : Data.PolyToMonoid
 Copyright : Copyright (C) 2010 Kevin Jardine
 License : BSD3
 Maintainer : Kevin Jardine
 Stability : provisional
 Portability: non-portable (depends on GHC extensions)
Creates polyvariadic functions that map their parameters into a given monoid.
module Data.PolyToMonoid (
 -- * Introduction
 -- $introduction
 -- * Concept
 -- $usage
 -- * Examples
 -- $examples
 -- * Extensions
 -- $extensions
) where
import Data.Monoid
{- $introduction
number of parameters of multiple types.
PolyToMonoid provides two such functions, 'ptm' and 'ctm', as well as a typeclass 'Monoidable'.
The only precondition is that the
parameters of 'ptm' and 'ctm' can be mapped to an underlying monoid using
the 'toMonoid' function provided by 'Monoidable'.
{- $usage
To understand how the polyToMonoid functions work, consider a function _USER_@ that maps its parameters to
a list:
> list p1 p2... pN =
(which is the same as @[p1,p2,..., pN]@ )
_USER_@ can be generalised to any monoid conceptually as:
> polyToMonoid p1 p2... pN =
Remember that a monoid, defined in "Data.Monoid", is any set of elements
with an identity element _USER_@ and an associative operator _USER_@.
As any list type is automatically a monoid with _USER_ = []@ and _USER_ = (++)@,
the _USER_@ function defined above is just a specific version of _USER_@.
The main difficulty with defining a _USER_@ function is communicating to Haskell what
underlying monoid to use.
Specifically, you can pass _USER_@ as the first element of the function and annotate it with the type of the
monoid it belongs to. Think of the _USER_@ value as like the initial value of a fold.
This library provides two variants of a polyToMonoid function. The first, 'ptm',
The second variant, 'ctm', is composible. In effect, it returns a function that consumes the next parameter.
You can feed the 'ctm' result to a second termination function 'trm' to get the actual result.
{- $examples
We can first tell Haskell how to map a set of types to a list of strings using 'Monoidable':
> instance Show a => Monoidable a [String] where
> toMonoid a = [show a]
and then tell 'ptm' to use the @[String]@ monoid:
The result returned would be:
> ["True","\"alpha]\"","[5]"]
In this case, 'Monoidable' tells the 'ptm' function to accept a wide variety of types
(anything with a _USER_@ function) when using the @[String]@ monoid.
The first parameter of 'ptm', @(mempty :: [String])@ tells it to map its parameters into the
@[String]@ monoid.
Unlike 'ptm', the 'ctm' function in effect returns a partial function ready to consume
the next parameter rather than a monoid result.
It is therefore more composable, at the cost of requiring a second termination function 'trm'
to return the actual monoid result.
> ctmfirstbit = ctm mempty :: [String]) True "alpha"
> ctmsecondbit = ctmfirstbit [(5 :: Int)]
> finalresult = trm ctmsecondbit
The result returned would be the same as above:
Monoids, of course, do not have to be lists.
Here's a second example which multiplies together numbers of several types:
> instance Monoid Double where
> mappend = (*)
> mempty = (1.0) :: Double
> instance Monoidable Int Double where
> toMonoid = fromIntegral
> instance Monoidable Double Double where
> toMonoid = id
In this case, 'ptm' accepts parameters that are either ints or doubles, converts them to doubles,
and then multiplies them together.
You can use the composibility of 'ctm' to define a _USER_@ function:
> productOf = ctm (mempty :: Double)
As before the 'trm' function is required to terminate the 'ctm' calculation and deliver the final result.
Note that since 'ptm' returns its result immediately, it is not possible to use it to
> _TAG_ productOf ptm (mempty :: Double)
{- $extensions
> TypeSynonymInstances, FlexibleInstances, MultiParamTypeClasses
-- | Define instances of Monoidable to tell Haskell
-- how to convert your parameters into values in the underlying
-- monoid
class Monoid m => Monoidable a m where
 toMonoid :: a -> m
squish :: Monoidable a m => m -> a -> m
squish m a = (m 'mappend' (toMonoid a))
Conceptually, ptm is defined as:
> ptm (mempty :: MyMonoid) p1 p2... pN =
class Monoid m => PolyVariadic m r where
 ptm :: m -> r
ctm is a composable variant of ptm.
To actually get its value, use the terminator function trm.
class Monoid m => CPolyVariadic m r where
 ctm :: m -> r
data Terminate m =
 Terminate {
 trm :: m -- ^ Use the terminator function trm to get the value of a ctm calculation.
instance (Monoid m', m' ~ m) => CPolyVariadic m (Terminate m') where
 ctm acc = Terminate acc
instance (Monoidable a m, CPolyVariadic m r) => CPolyVariadic m (a->r) where
 -- ctm m a = \b -> m 'mappend' (ctm (toMonoid a) b)
 ctm acc = \a -> ctm (squish acc a)
instance (Monoid m', m' ~ m) => PolyVariadic m m' where
 ptm acc = acc
instance (Monoidable a m, PolyVariadic m r) => PolyVariadic m (a->r) where
 ptm acc = \a -> ptm (squish acc a)


words, "don't sign your Christian names!"
What does all this mean? Abq Jew® strongly encourages you to click the links, examine the sources and resources - then decide for yourself.
Charles Garcia concludes his article:
Rabbi Brad Hirschfield concludes:
And Rabbi Yosef Tropper concludes:
Colón may have failed to reach Israel, but he did lay down the foundations of a new home for a large number of morranos in his time. Although Colón never had the opportunity to confess his true religion, indeed it is his discovery that has lead [sic]to the vast amount of Torah and Judaism which is learned and practiced freely today. For that, whether or not I have you convinced you that he was Jewish, he definitely deserves some thanks!
1 comment:
Unknown said...
The article states that Columbus told his children "not to sign more than El Admirante". His inheritor was also an Admiral but could this title of El Admirante have also been a code to pass on to the descendants that would not be Admirals? The word "El" in Spanish is the definite article "The" and Admirante can refer to the Navy's highest rank of Admiral or to the word admirable. If Columbus was an Anusim i.e. a person forced to deny/hide his Judaism and convert to Catholicism could he have also asked his descendants to sign "El Admirante" to point to the G-d of the Jews who is Admirable or Awesome? This reminds me of the words of the prophet Jonah (Yonah) 1:9 where the prophet Jonah told the sailors on a ship: "I am a Hebrew, and I fear the Lord God of heaven, Who made the sea and the dry land." If he was a Jewish sailor, he would probably have know this verse. For a Jew, the fear of Hashem is not terror of His power over us, but rather awe at how far above us G-d is. Jews express that distance by referring to the Heavens (Hebrew Shamayim) which is literally and figuratively the unreachable. G-d is El Elyon, The Most High G-d. Thus, The Fear of Heaven is awe and admiration of G-d's unknowable greatness. If my theory is correct then the signature meant "Holy Holy Holy is the Lord of Hosts" (Isaiah 6:3) Shema..Hear/Obey (The One Who is) "Forgiving iniquity transgression and sin" OR G-d the Awesome (the One I fear). Just a theory. Could this be plausible?


text:
Contact us for help with your mitigation plan or grant today:
The work done to minimize the impact of hazardous events to life and property is called Hazard Mitigation. Often, these damaging events occur in the same locations over time (i.e. hurricanes), and cause repeated damage. Because of this, FDC focuses on Hazard Mitigation planning and funding to reduce repetitive loss, thereby breaking the disaster cycle.
FDC provides vulnerability and risk assessment to identify, quantify, and prioritize the hazardous vulnerabilities of a jurisdiction that may impede their response and recovery in the event of a disaster.
Defining a Hazard Mitigation Strategy
A Hazard Mitigation plan identifies long-term strategies that may include planning, policy changes, programs, projects and other activities, as well as how to implement them. Hazard Mitigation plans should be done at every level including individuals, businesses, state, local, and federal governments.
Hazard Mitigation Activities and Projects
Once we develop Hazard Mitigation plans and strategies, they must be followed for any change in the disaster cycle to occur. Hazard mitigation activities are meant to be permanent or long-term solutions and include a number of options that must follow all federal requirements, regulations, and timelines.
We assist with the following two Hazard Mitigation Programs recognized by FEMA:
- The Hazard Mitigation Grant Program (HMGP). See Section 404 of the Stafford Act.
- 406 Hazard Mitigation is part of the Public Assistance process. See Section 406 of the Stafford Act.
FDC's goal is to be part of the solution to break the disaster cycle by being aware of the hazards that may affect you and your community and becoming active in your community's hazard mitigation planning process. Contact us today to learn how we can assist you.


text:
EPA May Finally Release Final Ozone Standards
EPA says it will release in late July 2011 its final primary and secondary standards for ground-level ozone. The standards were initially scheduled to be released in August 2010, then October 2010.
The agency is issuing new standards after it determined that the ones approved during the George W. Bush administration weren't grounded in science, didn't protect public health with an adequate margin of safety, and didn't protect the environment. The primary standard is intended to address human health concerns, and the secondary standard is supposed to address environmental impacts.
When released, the final standards should be available at:
For much more information on the standards, see the TipSheet of Oct. 27, 2010.


text:
In diachronic comparison of languages, say PIE to Latin to Romance, it is a classic recognition that the later languages strictly lose some of the morphologically marked categories. PIE had 8 noun cases (nominative, accusative, genitive, etc), Latin 5, Romance 2 or even 1. Pick a morphological category and pretty much always the complexity is reduced: past participles in English are more likely to become weak rather than strong, the subjunctive is disappearing, there's no grammatical gender at all.
Presumably those forms (that were later lost) came from somewhere, those categories and phonological markers were created. I can imagine a cycle of inflected to isolating (a period of loss) and then back to inflectional where the grammatical markers get phonologically assimilated (fused onto the root), but i have no data to support this.
I feel like I heard a long time ago that Finnish/Hungarian/Turkish might be gaining distinctions or that the word initial inflections in verbs in Irish came from phonological interaction between a pronoun and the following verb, but those are just vague intimations. I am looking for more substantively presented examples.
Is there any definitive data of a language moving from isolating to inflected? Present day examples are best, but attested versions (not theoretical) from the past would be good too.


acacia thorns. She lays 15-20 eggs to produce the first generation of workers. As the colony grows, more thorns become inhabited, and when the colony reaches around 400 individuals, the ants start to protect the plant [5]. The mutualistic relationship develops at this time, when both the tree and the ants benefit from the other. The association between these two partners perfectly describes mutualism because, as Claude Combes describes in our text, this bond develops "with reciprocal benefits" (11) [6].
Cost/Benefit Analysis:
In this mutualistic association, the benefits obviously outweigh the costs. The benefits to the trees include protection from feeding insects and herbivores and from competing vegetation. Costs include energy and resources used to make the nutritious Beltian bodies for the ants. They have no known function other than to provide food for the ants [1]. Acacia drepanolobium (commonly known as the whistling thorn acacia) in South Africa is called home by Crematogaster mimosa, but the tree does not provide Beltian bodies, so the ants have to forage for food elsewhere. Therefore, the ants allow insects to feed on the tree and do not provide aggression protection [1]. However, because the benefits of mutualism provide an increase to fitness, some acacia trees have developed a means to maintain the mutualistic relationship. Most plant species contain sucrose in their nectar and sap, but acacia trees provide their ants with nectar containing digested sucrose (glucose and fructose). Therefore, through evolution, some acacia ants have lost the gene encoding for the enzyme required to digest sucrose, invertase [4]. This means that these ants are bound to the tree since the only food source they can utilize is the acacia tree nectar.
Similar to the costs for the tree, the cost for the ant includes energy usage in providing protection and defense for the tree. The benefits, however, include shelter and a readily available source of nutrition. The ants require less energy in finding a suitable home for their larvae to develop, and they are not required to forage extensively for food. Therefore, the energy used in protecting the tree is compensated for by the energy saved in other tasks, so the benefits outweigh the costs. The same logic applies for the acacia tree. Less energy is devoted to producing chemical defenses, so more energy can be applied to producing food for the ants. Therefore, this mutualistic relationship works amazingly well!
[1] Wolffia. "Central American Swollen-Thorn Acacias."Wayne's Word. Web. 22 Mar 2012. <>.
[2] Brennan, John. "Relationship Between Acacia and Ants." eHow. eHow, Web. 22 Mar 2012. <>.
[3] Richards, Bailey. "Acacia Development." eHow. eHow, 11 Apr 2011. Web. 22 Mar 2012. <>.
[4] Cheshire. "Cheshire: Insects, Evolution, and Random Splatters from the Windshield of the Blogosphere." 26 Feb. 2009. Web. 22 Mar. 2012. <>.
[5] Piper, Ross. Extraordinary Animals: An Encyclopedia of Curious and Unusual Animals. Westport, CT: Greenwood Press, 2007. 1-3. Print.
[6] Combes, Claude. Parasitism: The Ecology and Evolution of Intimate Interactions; Translated by Isaure De Buron and Vincent A. Connors; with a New Foreword by Daniel Simberloff. Chicago: University of Chicago, 2001. Print.
Thursday, March 22, 2012
A Free Ride Under the Sea: Barnacles and Baleen Whales
 Chicago: University of Chicago, 2001. Print.
Tuesday, March 20, 2012
Helogale parvula and Bucerotidae: Friends 'til the End!
The dwarf mongoose and hornbill bird share an interesting mutualistic relationship for several reasons. Their spectra of prey and predators are nearly identical (4), making this relationship even more important for both parties involved. In this partnership the hornbill bird eats the leftover insects during the foraging process of the dwarf mongoose (3). In exchange for food, the hornbill warns the dwarf mongoose if a predator is approaching. Both dwarf mongooses and hornbill birds are distributed in much of southeast Africa (2). In regard to their lifecycles, dwarf mongooses reach sexual maturity at one year of age and usually produce an average of five pups per litter (2). Hornbill birds usually form monogamous relationships and usually lay six eggs per birthing cycle (5). Additionally, dwarf mongooses generally sleep in old termite mounds, and hornbill birds can usually be found in the trees above these termite mounds awaiting for the dwarf mongooses to wake up and start foraging for food (4)
Description of the Relationship:
Helogale parvula (dwarf mongoose) and Bucerotidae (hornbill bird) have such a close relationship that they almost seem to seek each other out in their daily lives (4). In the morning, hornbills wait for the mongooses to awaken and when the mongooses start foraging for food the hornbills happily eat the leftover insects (3). Since the mongooses are foraging for food it is up to the hornbills to warn the mongooses of approaching predators like a black eagle. Anne E. Rasa states in her paper that, "This is the closest known mutualistic relationship known between social vertebrates normally living independently (4)." Therefore, in regard to the evolutionary history of the relationship, it can be assumed that this partnership has increased the evolutionary fitness of both parties involved. The relationship is established by the mongoose providing food for the hornbill and the hornbill providing protection for the mongoose (5). Our text explains mutualism as "opposed to parasitic systems, in a mutualistic system each partner takes advantage of the association between the two protagonists (1) (Claude Combes, 553)." It is clear that the mongoose and hornbill fully exemplify this definition of mutualism.
Cost/Benefit Analysis:
When conducting a cost/benefit analysis in mutualism it is important to bear in mind that, in most cases, the benefits outweigh the cost. The cost for the dwarf mongoose in this relationship is decreasing the total amount of food it is able to intake because the hornbill birds are eating from their same food supply (2). The benefit for the mongoose is protection from predators when the hornbills willingly signal a warning call. The cost for the hornbills is using valuable energy to signal a warning call for the mongooses to be warned of approaching predators (3). However, the benefit for the hornbills is the ease of finding excess food, in the form of easily accessible leftovers, when the mongooses are out foraging. The benefit of the hornbills outweighs the cost in that simply finding food is more valuable than the lost energy in providing the mongooses with a warning call. The benefit of the mongoose outweighs the cost in that it is better to have a slightly decreased food supply compared to being killed by a predator. Moreover, a specific strategy employed by the hornbills to ensure participation of the mongooses is living in trees close to termite mounds and waiting for the mongooses to wake up to begin foraging for food (4). Overall, the mutualistic relationship between the dwarf mongoose and the hornbill bird is one that contains a relatively low cost and reaps a relatively high reward.
(2) "Dwarf Mongoose." African Wildlife Foundation. Web. 17 Mar. 2012. <>.
(3) "Hornbill Family Bucerotidae." Don Roberson Creagrus. Web. 17 Mar. 2012. <>.
(4) Rasa, Anne E. "Dwarf Mongoose and Hornbill Mutualism in the Taru Desert, Kenya." Behavioral Ecology and Sociobiology 12.3 (1983): 181-90. Print.
(5) "Red-billed Hornbill." World Association of Zoos and Aquariums (WAZA). Web. 17 Mar. 2012. <>.


Victims of Rare Diseases See New Focus on "Orphan Drug" Research
A recently introduced bill in the House of Representatives seeks to update legislation for "orphan" diseases and drugs. "Orphan" status denotes disorders that are extremely rare—generally afflicting 6,000 or fewer patients.
Pharmaceutical companies have no financial incentive to develop drugs and treatments for them because there aren't enough users to pay the costs and sustain the consumer market. In order to encourage the development of drugs and other treatments for orphan diseases, the government provides incentives it doesn't grant to more common disorders, such as easier and faster FDA approval, and extended periods for developing companies to market the drugs exclusively.
Please see full article below for more information.


Step 1
Remove Fixtures
Empty the room and remove any fixtures that may impede the process of removing the tile. Turn off water supply before removing a sink or toilet. If removing a toilet, drain reservoir, remove bolt and rock the fixture to break wax seal.
Step 2
Locate or Create a Starting Point
Step 3
Remove Tile
From the starting point, continue to pry up tile. Deposit tiles in a trashcan or large bucket as they are removed to minimize clutter. Remember that tile can be heavy and an overfilled waste receptacle will be difficult to haul away.
Step 4
Access Underlayment
In some cases, tiling may have been attached directly to a concrete floor or sub-floor, but a plywood or mortarboard underlayment is common. An inappropriate or damaged underlayment should be removed, but some may be left in place for re-use. Access the underlayment and remove to expose the sub-floor, if necessary.
Step 5
Clear Debris
Use a broom or shop vac to clear all debris from the floor.
Step 6
Remove Exposed Nails
If an underlayment has been removed, it may be necessary to remove or pound in exposed nails to leave behind a flat surface.
Step 7
Inspect Floor
Once the old tile floor has been removed, inspect the subfloor for damage that my need to be repaired before a new floor is installed. Patch or replace any rotten wood or divots in concrete floors. The subfloor should be smooth and damage-free before a new floor is installed.


How Savitribai Phule, India's first female teacher, dealt with abusers hell bent on preventing her from educating girls
Most of us know Savitribai Phule as India's first female teacher, who helped her husband Jyotirao Phule establish the first school for girls. But here's the tale of the atrocities and abuses she had to face when she started to work.
Most of us know that Savitribai Phule was the first female teacher of India. Born on January 3, 1831, India's first feminist grew up in a country ruled by the British Raj, where women rights were non-existent. We know how hand in hand with her social reformer husband, Jyotirao Phule, she achieved the revolutionary act of establishing the first school for girls.
But what most of us do not know is the kind of abuse Phule had to go through from the regressive society because of her sheer audacity to go teach women.
Pramila Dandavate, a 1928-born political activist from Mumbai associated with the Praja Socialist Party and later with the Janata Party, describes a few tales of the outstanding courage and grit of Savitribai Phule that show how far she was willing to go to emancipate women.
How Jyotirao Phule's influence transformed Savitribai Phule
Born in a well-to-do farmer family in the backward Mali community, Savitribai Phule was married off to 13-year-old Jyotirao Phule at the tender age of nine in-keeping with the tradition at the time of marrying off girls before they hit puberty.
But little did anyone in their families know that Jyotirao's influence on his young wife would change the very trajectory of India.
Busts of Mahatma Jyotirao Phule and Savitribai Phule, Pune, India
Jyotirao had studied the Hindu scriptures and come to the conclusion that all humans were equal. He realized that education was the one tool that if provided to all humans, would get rid of all social inequalities.
He rejected the high-caste orthodox norms that monopolized education and privileged to keep the other castes downtrodden.
He watched how 'untouchables' were not allowed to pollute' others with their long shadows in the mornings and evening and how they had to tie a broom behind their backs to sweep the very street they had walked on.
He saw in particular how young widows whose old husbands had died had to get their heads shaved and refrain from any kind of beautification or pleasure in life.
He also saw how 'untouchable' women were made to dance naked as the very status of women was reduced to a pleasure-object of men.
Observing all these societal evils that furthered inequality, Jyotirao took the decision to educate women. But how would he do this? He knew he needed other women to help train female teachers for girls. He decided to start with his wife.
Every afternoon, when Savitribai Phule came to the fields where her husband worked to give him his food, Jyotirao sat with her and educated her.
When news reached Jyotirao's father, he threatened to throw them out of the house out of fear of attacks from orthodox elements. The fire of revolution already lit, Savitribai Phule decided to follow her husband.
Official education received by Savitribai Phule
Jyotirao sent his wife to get trained at a school and she passed with flying colours along with another women Fatima Sheikh.
In 1848, the emancipated husband and wife finally established India's first school for girls in Vishrambag Wada, Pune.
Only nine girls enrolled all from different castes. Later on, the number rose to 25. While Savitribai became the headmistress, she taught alongside her fellow trainee Fatima Sheikh and Jyotirao's emancipated aunt Sagunabai.
The audacity of this couple determined to educate women enraged and shocked the society. As Pramila Dandavate writes, "It was believed that if a woman starts writing, she would write letters to all and sundry."
Regressive elements claimed that the food eaten by Jyotirao would turn into worms and that Savitribai would lose him to an untimely death.
Savitribai's ordeal of going to teach at a girl's school
When it was obvious that simple words and rumours wouldn't help deter Savitribai and Jyotirao from their goal of providing education to girls, society decided to take another path.
Going to the girls' school to teach became a huge ordeal for Savitribai. She faced innumerable abuses and listened to obscenities heaped on her on the way to teach.
Groups of orthodox men followed the first female teacher of India on her way to work. They threw rotten eggs, cow dung, tomatoes and stones. They abused her in obscene language.
Retired academician Lalitha Dhara who has authored a number of books on the Phules and Dr Ambedkar writes: She would stop by and politely tell them, "My brothers, I am doing the noble job of educating your sisters. The cow dung and stones that you are pelting on me are not a deterrent but rather an inspiration for me. It is as if you are showering petals on me. While I vow to serve my sisters, I also pray, 'May God bless you.'"
Slowly walking, she would arrive at the school, her strength ebbing away little by little each day thanks to the abuse.
Once she couldn't take it anymore and decided to give up. But her husband convinced her to stay strong.
He gave her two sarees a course one to wear on the way to work which would be soiled by the garbage thrown at her; and another fresh saree to change into before she started work when she reached the school.
While returning, she could change into the same course saree to again take the filth from society.
She continued in this manner for a while, but one day, things got out of hand. Lalitha Dhara writes about how a well-built ruffian stood in her path and told her that if she did not stop educating the Mahars and Mangs, she would have to pay a heavy prize.
A crowd gathered to watch the drama unfold but none helped her. The unfazed Savitribai slapped him hard. The stunned man ran away and so did the onlookers.
The shocking news spread like wildfire all over the city of Pune and finally brought a stop to the every-day abuse.
Continuing work on social emancipation
Empowered, Savitribai Phule established herself and more schools for women and girls till she was honoured for her exemplary work by the British government.
Between 1848 and 1852, the couple established no less than 18 schools for women.
In 1852, she and her husband were felicitated with a shawl for their work in Vishrambag Wada, Pune.
She went on to work towards slowly questioning and eradicating a lot of other social evils. From adopting her son' Yashwant after her husband rescued a pregnant woman about to end her life, to setting up a delivery home for women in forced pregnancies called Balhatya Pratibandhak Griha', Savitribai did all in her power to uplift the standard of women.
The couple also organized the first-of-its-kind barbers strike after castigating them for shaving the heads of young widows. As an example against the evil of untouchability, they also opened up their own water reservoir for everyone.
The empowered couple did a lot of work in the famine and established 52 boarding schools for orphaned children.
After Jyotirao Phule died in 1890, Savitribai continued his work. Most notably, she took over the Satya Shodhak Samaj which had been founded by him. She presided over meetings, guided workers and worked for plague victims.
As Pramila Dandavate writes, "It is said that she used to feed two thousand children every day during the epidemic."
Ironically, Savitribhai was struck down by disease while nursing a sick child and the pioneer of women's education in India died on March 10, 1857.
A 1998 stamp by the Indian Government featuring Savitribai Phule
The first woman teacher and the first female educationist of India was also the first female poetess. Her two books of poetry 'Kavya Phule' (1934) and 'Bavan Kashi Subodh Ratnakar' (1982) continue to inspire us today with their questions on caste and gender.
'Kavya Phule' was published when Savitribai was just 23.
She also wrote a poem entitled 'Go, Get Education' which encouraged people to free themselves from oppression by educating themselves.
Women's emancipation has never been easy and perhaps would never be. But it is thanks to India's first gutsy feminist Savitribai Phule that the women in the country have reached where they are today. We can only hope for more firebrands like her who simply refuse to bow down to the evils of society and keep fighting for universal human rights.
Read: Remembering Savitribai Phule, the child bride who fought for women's rights in 19th century
Read: Savitribai Phule as a tradition breaker: The first female teacher at the first girls' school
Source :


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Air Pollution as Seen From the Skies
From Mt. Etna to China to the Sahara, these striking satellite images of air pollution are from both natural and man-made causes
- By Sarah Zielinski
- Smithsonian.com, April 20, 2010
Mount Etna, on the Italian island of Sicily, is Europe's most active volcano, having erupted half a dozen times in the past decade alone. During an eruption, a volcano spews gases that had been dissolved in molten rock. One of those gases is sulfur dioxide, which turns into sulfuric acid in the atmosphere and then condenses into sulfate aerosols. Those aerosols can linger for months in the upper atmosphere, where they block sunlight and destroy atomospheric ozone.


23 2017
Everyone Has a Story
10:45AM - 12:00PM
Pittsfield, MA 01201
Contact Nancy Maurice Rogers
_PHONE_
The Jewish Federation of the Berkshires Connecting with Community welcomes Kitty Axelson-Berry, president of Modern Memoirs Publishing, Inc. as she shares tips on how to organize and create a memoir of your own life experiences.
Axelson-Berry will share a plethora of practical tips and real stories about writing and self publishing memoirs. At the very least, she will help attendees create a game plan. At the most, she can help bring that memoir to fruition. This special two-session program will be divided as follows.
Session 1: (January 23) At the Beginning
You will learn:
 - How it feels to write a memoir
 - How memoirs are organized
 - How memoirs are developed
 - How memoirs are written
Session 2: (January 30) Going Deeper
You will learn:
 - How it feels to revise the content of your own memoir
 - How memoirs are processed
 - How it feels to self-publish your own memoir
Kitty Axelson-Berry is president of Modern Memoirs Publishing, Inc., a writing, editing, and publishing service specializing in memoirs and family histories that she founded in 1994. She also founded the Association of Personal Historians (1995) and is an active member of the Jewish Community of Amherst.


Quaternary Geology of the Tumanmyun Hills, Khovsgol, Mongolia
Justin Brooks, Class of 2001
Department of Geology, Whitman College, Walla Walla, WA 99362
 The Jarai Gol, a river located in northern Mongolia, flows eastward out of a glacial trough and into the Darhad depression. Landforms in this area reflect a complex history of major late Quaternary processes (glacial, periglacial, lacustrine, eolian, fluvial, and mass wasting). This area is, in effect, a microcosm of Quaternary processes in the whole of the 3500-km2-Darhad depression.
 Of primary interest are the interaction and timing of glacial and lacustrine processes. The Tamanmyun Hills, two end moraine complexes, record a history of approximately two glacial advances. The outer moraine complex is composed of two sections of differing morphology and elevation. Kettles in the higher moraine section and the inner moraine complex indicate ice stagnation. The lower moraine section, on the other hand, has a much smoother and more subdued morphology.
 Shorelines and lake sediments indicate that a lake filled the Darhad depression at least once. Wave modification of the outer moraine complex suggests the lake to be coeval with and/or to post-date moraine formation. Lacustrine modification may be responsible for the differing outer moraine morphologies. Shoreline elevations (max of 1660 m) suggest the lake overtopped only the lower section of the moraine complex (max elev. of 1620 m, base at 1575 m) but not the higher section. (max elev. of 1680 m) The morphology of the inner moraine complex suggests there has been no wave modification; the lake level must have dropped before its construction.
 Evidence for periglacial processes is found as patterned ground. Wind has used the abundant supply of lacustrine and glacial sediments to deposit large parabolic dunes. The Jarai Gol incised the moraine complexes, leaving terraces. Oversteepened slopes enhance mass wasting of incompetent lakebeds.
Return to the Geology Department homepage
Return to the Whitman College homepage


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TrackMate is your buddy for your everyday tracking.
TrackMate provides the tools to perform single particle tracking (SPT). SPT is an image analysis challenge where the goal is to segment and follow over time some labelled, spot-like structures. Each spot is segmented in multiple frames and its trajectory is reconstructed by assigning it an identity over these frames, in the shape of a track. These tracks can then be either visualized or yield further analysis results such as velocity, total displacement, diffusion characteristics, division events, etc…
TrackMate can deal with single particles, or spot-like objects. They are bright objects over a dark background for which the object contour shape is not important, but for which the main information can be extracted from the X,Y,Z coordinates over time. Examples include sub-resolution fluorescent spots, labelled traffic vesicles, nuclei or cells imaged at low resolution.
Though these objects are solely represented by a X,Y,Z,T coordinates array, TrackMate can compute numerical features for each spot, given its coordinates and a radius. For instance, the mean, max, min and median intensity will be computed, as well as the estimated radius and orientation for each spot, allowing to follow how these feature evolves over time for one object.
TrackMate aims at offering a generic solution that works out of the box, through a simple and sensible user interface.
The tracking process is divided in a series of steps, through which you will be guided thanks to a wizard-like GUI. It privileges tracking schemes where the segmentation step is decoupled from the particle-linking step.
The segmentation / filtering / particle-linking processes and results are visualized immediately in 2D or 3D, allowing to judge their efficiency and adjust their control parameters. The visualization tools are the one shipped with Fiji and interact nicely with others plugin.
Several automated segmentation and linking algorithms are provided. But you are also offered to edit the results manually, or even to completely skip the automatic steps, and perform fully manual segmentation and/or linking.
Some tools for track and spot analysis are included. Various plots can be made directly from the plugin and for instance used to derive numerical results from the tracks. If they are not enough, functions are provided to export the whole results to other analysis software such as MATLAB.
TrackMate relies on several different libraries and plugins for data manipulation, analysis and visualization. This can be a pitfall when distributing a complex plugin, but this is where the Fiji magic comes into play. All dependencies are dealt with by through the Fiji updater. Installing TrackMate is easy as calling the Fiji Updater, and the plugin must work out of the box. If this does not work for you, then it is a bug and we commit to fix it.
A strong emphasis is made on performance, and TrackMate will take advantage of multi-cores hardware.
Have you ever wanted to develop your own segmentation and/or particle-linking algorithm, but wanted to avoid the painful burden to also write a GUI, several visualization tools, analysis tools and exporting facilities? Then TrackMate is for you.
We spent a considerable amount of time making TrackMate extensible in every aspect. It has a very modular design, that makes it easy to extend. You can for instance develop your own segmentation algorithm, extend TrackMate to include it, and benefit from the visualization tools and the GUI already there. Here is a list of the components you can extend and customize:
- detection algorithms
- particle-linking algorithms
- numerical features for spots (such as mean intensity, etc..)
- numerical features for links (such as velocity, orientation, etc..)
- numerical features for tracks (total displacement, length, etc…)
- visualization tools
- post-processing actions (exporting, data massaging, etc…)
You can even modify the GUI, and remove, edit or insert new steps in the wizard. This can be useful for instance if you want to implement a tracking scheme that solves simultaneously the segmentation part and the particle linking part, but still want to take advantage of TrackMate components.
Do you want to make your new algorithms usable by the reviewers of your submitted paper? Upload your extended version of TrackMate to a private update site, as explained here, then send the link to the reviewers. Now that the paper has been accepted (congratulations), you want to make it accessible to anyone? Just put the link to the update site in the article. All of this can happen without us even noticing.
TrackMate was developed to serve as a tool for Life-Science image analysis community, so that new tracking tools can be developed more easily and quickly, and so that end-users can use them to perform their own research. We will support you if need help to reuse it.


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Enriquez, M., Afonin, O., Yager, B., MacLean, K. (2001). "A Pneumatic Tactile Notification System for the Driving Environment." in Proceedings of Workshop on Perceptive User Interfaces (PUI '01), Orlando, FL, 2001.
Sensory overloaded environments present an opportunity for innovative design in the area of Human-Machine Interaction. In this paper we study the usefulness of a tactile display in the automobile environment. Our approach uses a simple pneumatic pump to produce pulsations of varying frequencies on the driver's hands through a car steering wheel fitted with inflatable pads. The goal of the project is to evaluate the effectiveness of such a system in alerting the driver of a possible problem, when it is used to augment the visual display presently used in automobiles. A steering wheel that provides haptic feedback using pneumatic pockets was developed to test our hypothesis. The steering wheel can pulsate at different frequencies. The system was tested in a simple multitasking paradigm on several subjects and their reaction times to different stimuli were measured and analyzed. For these experiments, we found that using a tactile feedback device lowers reaction time significantly and that modulating frequency of vibration provides extra information that can reduce the time necessary to identify a problem.


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While employers are allowed to withhold taxes, Social Security contributions, and your share of certain benefits from your paycheck, they cannot make deductions prohibited by law. You could have a claim for improper paycheck deductions if your employer has made any of the following prohibited deductions:
- Deducting money from your paycheck to cover a cash shortage, breakage, or "shrinkage" (theft or shoplifting);
- Making deductions for unidentified returns from commission sales;
- Reducing the bonus paid to you (if you are a manager) to cover losses in another department or division;
- Taking back a commission (if you are a salesperson) because a customer has defaulted on a payment installment;
- Charging employees for lost keys, tools, supplies or other company materials;
- Deducting any amount at all from a tip left for an employee; or,
- Deducting the cost of work-related expenses for items provided by the employer, including a required photograph, bond, uniform, work-related expenses or any pre-employment physical or medical examination that is a condition for employment.
If you believe that your employer has attempted to make you pay for business expenses that are by law properly the employer's responsibility you could have a claim.


John the Ripper
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John the Ripper
Developer(s) Solar Designer and community
Stable release 1.8.0 / May 30, 2013 (2013-05-30)
Development status Active
Operating system Cross-platform
Type Password cracking
License GNU General Public License
John the Ripper is a free password cracking software tool. Initially developed for the Unix operating system, it now runs on fifteen different platforms (eleven of which are architecture-specific versions of Unix, DOS, Win32, BeOS, and OpenVMS). It is one of the most popular password testing and breaking programs as it combines a number of password crackers into one package, autodetects password hash types, and includes a customizable cracker. It can be run against various encrypted password formats including several crypt password hash types most commonly found on various Unix versions (based on DES, MD5, or Blowfish), Kerberos AFS, and Windows NT/2000/XP/2003 LM hash. Additional modules have extended its ability to include MD4-based password hashes and passwords stored in LDAP, MySQL, and others.
Sample output[edit]
Here is a sample output in a Debian environment.
# cat pass.txt
# john -w:password.lst pass.txt
example (user)
guesses: 1 time: 0:00:00:00 100% c/s: 752 trying: 12345 - pookie
Attack types[edit]
One of the modes John can use is the dictionary attack. It takes text string samples (usually from a file, called a wordlist, containing words found in a dictionary or real passwords cracked before), encrypting it in the same format as the password being examined (including both the encryption algorithm and key), and comparing the output to the encrypted string. It can also perform a variety of alterations to the dictionary words and try these. Many of these alterations are also used in John's single attack mode, which modifies an associated plaintext (such as a username with an encrypted password) and checks the variations against the hashes.
John also offers a brute force mode. In this type of attack, the program goes through all the possible plaintexts, hashing each one and then comparing it to the input hash. John uses character frequency tables to try plaintexts containing more frequently used characters first. This method is useful for cracking passwords which do not appear in dictionary wordlists, but it takes a long time to run.
See also[edit]
External links[edit]


text:
Archive for the 'transcendental geometry' tag
The modern mathematician finds the space of three dimensions, in which our visible universe is containled, entirely too contracted for his conceptions, and is obliged to imagine a space of "n" dimensions in order that his fancy may find room to disport itself. But it is a new idea, on the part of the novelist, to make the conceptions of transcendental geometry the basis for an amusing story.
The very short article goes on to compare "Flatland" with "Through the Looking Glass" and their use of geometry as speculative and imaginative.
In trying to find more about this term, it appears that sadly the intelligent design crowd has laid claim to it. The most I could find (in an admittedly short search) was this related Wikipedia article on "Complex Geometry":
In mathematics, complex geometry is the study of complex manifolds and functions of many complex variables. Application of transcendental methods to algebraic geometry falls in this category, together with more geometric chapters of complex analysis.


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Aimed at regulating growth in the Norwegian aquaculture industry, the Government's new 'traffic light' system entered into force on 30 October. But are the standards sufficiently stringent to ensure environmentally sound salmon farming?
According to FNI researcher Ole Kristian Fauchald, the answer is no. In his recently published report, Fauchald investigates the relationship between Norwegian regulations to ensure sustainable growth in the salmon farming industry, on the one hand, and regulations to conserve wild salmon, on the other. The 'traffic light' system, he concludes, fails to consider already existing laws that are essential in the allocation and expansion of fish farming licenses – potentially at the expense of the wild salmon.
The 'traffic light' system
In order to regulate growth in Norway's aquaculture industry a colour coding scheme – green, yellow and red, hence the 'traffic light' system – is used to identify regions where expansion can take place.
As of today, eight of the thirteen production areas have been awarded the colour green. A regulation has been proposed that will allow existing fish farms in these areas to increase their production capacity by 2 per cent. The government is also intending to auction new licences, increasing total production by 6 per cent. The five remaining production areas are coloured yellow or red, and fish farms there are only allowed to expand up to 6 per cent if they fulfil certain predefined criteria.
Taken together, the colours awarded the thirteen production areas define where the aquaculture industry can expand capacity. The colour of each production area is based on a single factor: the prevalence of salmon lice and the damage it causes to wild salmon spawn.
However, while reducing the prevalence of salmon lice is important to achieve environmentally sound salmon farming, it is far from alone. In fact, the requirements of the Aquaculture Act and the Nature Diversity Act, including the latter's quality standards for wild salmon, appear stricter than the 'traffic light' system's. Therefore, some are worried that the status of wild salmon and other environmental challenges associated with salmon farming are not taken sufficiently into account.
What is more, the government has decided in principle that all fish farms in green production areas will be allowed to expand, which might imply that that the protection of potentially endangered populations of wild salmon may not be taken as seriously in these areas.
'Norwegian authorities have identified 465 distinct salmon populations of which 148 have been assessed. The results show that the quality standards for 119 of these populations have not been met. In this situation, it would seem irresponsible to initiate a new regulatory regime designed to facilitate expansion in the salmon farming industry insofar as the industry has been identified as the main threat to wild salmon populations', Fauchald says.
'My legal assessment of the new regime is that it pays insufficient attention to existing rules adopted to protect the environment. It is therefore not unlikely that the new regime will face a number of stumbling blocks when it is implemented unless the Ministry of Trade, Industry and Fisheries implements appropriate procedures before making the final decisions. My report sets out the main elements the Ministry should consider', Fauchald continues.
Science and policy decisions
The wider process leading to the adoption of the 'traffic light' system has suffered from several shortcomings. In spite of being developed by public authorities in close consultation with research institutions, the actual consequences have not been sufficiently identified and assessed.
'A fundamental principle of Norwegian environmental law has been ecosystem management. This principle was adopted partly in response to progress in the natural sciences regarding the need for more advanced approaches to management of natural resources. However, in this case we see that relevant research institutions have contributed to the establishment of a management regime that is very far from being based on an ecosystem approach. I have been very puzzled by the absence of considerations of the impacts on ecosystems when studying the input from the scientific community to the design of the management regime', Fauchald explains.
The report was carried out on behalf of Norske Lakseelver, an organization for rights holders to fish in watercourses with salmon, lake trout and sea char. It was delivered to the Ministry of Trade, Industry and Fisheries on 15 November.


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- Brief: Auditor to examine U of L Foundation
- Title IX notices now required in U of L syllabi
- Brief: Mardis switches titles, edits responsibilities
- Sands shaking up U of L's organization
- Brief: Housing director leaving for FSU
- PHOTO: New ramp connects campus to Third Street
- The biggest headlines of 2014-2015
- Tuition to increase by three percent
- PHOTO: Demolition begins on The Complex
- Residents say new owners improving former Grove
Mending the veil: Alberto Alberto Ruy Sanchez rediscovers Baroque society through Dia de los Muertos
By Rae Hodge–
With growing refugee and immigrant populations from around the world, U of L and Louisville are host to a large numer of people from Mexico and Central America. Dia de los Muertos is a Latin American and Mexican celebration of the dead that occurs near Nov. 2. In his interview with The Louisville Cardinal, author Alberto Ruy Sanchez described the key cultural concepts that don't easily translate to those who are removed from this tradition.
"The main thing is that they do Dia de los Muertos differently in every place in Mexico. Working as an editor of a magazine that makes monographies, thematic issues on subjects, we make a lot of research on each one of the issues. We spend between 2 – 6 years on each issue. When we were dealing with the idea of making something about the Day of the Dead, the first thing that we discovered is the common idea that everything is linked to the idea of Mexicans laughing at death. It's not really true but for like 15 percent of the population in Mexico. Things happen really differently in different parts of Mexico, so we dedicate several different issues to this."
With the vast differences in rituals across the region, Sanchez sought to describe the commonalities in practice. What he discovered were the ideological roots of all celebration in the region.
"We can only understand (the rituals) if we understand what is a baroque society. Baroque in our contemporary modern life is always like an adjective that means to talk badly about something because it's too complex or too much with an excess of something. But in reality baroque is a project of civilization that was aborted at the end of the eighteenth century. It's a project of civilization based in another idea of the economic of the everyday life of people and communities."
Sanchez says that this project is still living in Latin America, and that it revolves around an idea that anthropologists call "potlatch" which describes an economy based on excessive ritual spending.
"You can call it parties or festivals. The effect of this expending too much creates a duty of reciprocity. The modern economy is based on fulfilling your needs. For the baroque world, that is absolutely weird. You need to expend much more than you need because that is useful to re-do the social network."
To explain his point, Sanchez relayed a story about the death of a woman in a small town in Mexico, who owned the local pharmacy.
"She was the richest and so she had a lot of trouble with people, and they sued each and it was complicated. But she died. All the people in town needed to come two nights before the Day of the Dead and bring presents to her memory. And even if they are enemies, they go with an offering to put in the altar and dedicate to her. At this time, the family serves a little food. Then the next day the family brings breakfast to the people who came the night before. There were 700 people," said Sanchez, "So that is excessive!"
The baroque-style investment of excess, Sanchez argued, also imbues the mundane social fabric with qualities of otherworldly connectedness.
"For (my goddaughter), for example, she wants to be a doctor. The medicine books are the most expensive, so she maybe couldn't afford through five years of her basic studies. I bought all her books because I am the godfather, and every time I'm a little bit sick she's always with her eyes over me, trying to see that I'm ok."
Celebrating heritage during Dia de los Muertos takes on another meaning for Sanchez, who describes the difficulty in identifying indigenous lineage.
"The thing that is important is not only where you come from but what you are doing. We pay less attention to roots because roots exist anyway, but more attention to flowers. So flowers are something that you are expending in order to have a flourishing present. So it's not only to pay homage to your past…because you don't really know.
"Mestizo is a word whose meaning is significantly different in Spanish. It's not only mixing races, it's more than mixing races, it's really mixing and mixing and mixing."
Sanchez believes rituals of excess also repair the social fabric in small communities when tragedy occurs. He argued that irreparable damage to this complex social fabric happens when Mexican and Latin American societies attempt to distance themselves from these rituals.
"When you forget that (these rituals) exist you have things like what happened in Ciudad Juarez. There is the killing of hundreds of women mainly. They think it's a serial killer or that it's evil, but the fact is that the all these people that come from little villages where they have all these rituals, all these social fabric that is 'tissued', with these parties and these extended families. And they are taking out from there, and putting into a place where there are factories. You know, it's so cruel."
Ciudad Juarez is a Mexican border city that struggles with resource scarcity and overpopulation problems, having risen quickly from 500,000 to five million inhabitants. Its low labor costs have also attracted a number of factories from both the U.S. and the U.K.
"I visited one. There were 12,000 workers in one factory. Can you imagine that? Sometimes the workers arrive, and they rent a room for 8 hours, only to go there and sleep and they have to leave. And there's other people using the same bed. There is a social decomposition that's really like if you take the social tissue and you tear it – one thread here and then the other and the other—and you put everything together so it doesn't make sense…
"There was a pool a plastic pool with condoms, like thousands. And I asked why? It's not that they are very open-minded. They said it was because when women arrive to work here it takes like 4 months before they get pregnant. So you can imagine the harassment."
As much as they are about the dead, Sanchez says, Day of the Dead celebrations are also about reconnecting people in times of hardship. Sanchez says that this is why they are more important now than ever.
"At the end, it's like erasing the differences and beginning again. There's been a lot of legal trouble that happened that began to be solved because of the Day of Dead. Thanks to the festivals, and thanks to the special days out of every day life, we have this remaking of the social tissue."
Photos by Rae Hodge/The Louisville Cardinal


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НИИ Communication (Communications Research Institute) was a two day workshop in partnership with Nothing Specialists that gathered together professionals from various fields to explore and prototype new forms of communication for a post-internet society.
The workshop followed a set design process, where teams worked in parallel, presenting their work to each-other after each stage. Each day was a full cycle – from discovering the topic, to defining the problems, and then developing a set of possible tools and solutions.
Day one of the workshop was dedicated to research. The teams exploreed the theme, evaluated the problems and technicalities and then applied their thinking to a Russian cultural context. Each team then created a draft of their chosen project. The outcome was a detailed model of 'communication for a post-internet society'.
On day two, each team developed a prototype application of this model using the research findings from day one. Participants used a wide range of prototyping methods – and were encouraged to present explorations and speculative designs grounded in their own experience and knowledge.
A selected team will be invited to share their findings with global community at the FutureEverything Festival in Manchester in Feb 2015. More details will be announced soon.


Role of Incident Commander Examined at Expo
The initial actions of an incident commander can have a profound effect on the end result of a fire or emergency situation. That's why it's important for any officer pulling on the scene first know what to do and when, says Michael Daley, a lieutenant and training and rescue officer with Monroe Township, N.J.
Coverage of Firehouse Expo 2012
Daley presented a class called "First Due? Then It's Up To You! The Role of the Initial Incident Commander" at the Firehouse Expo in Baltimore.
"Lack of ICS, inadequate risk assessment and lack of accountability are real problems," Daley said, noting that inadequate communications and poor standard operating procedures are also factors in poor results at fire scenes and lost property.
"If you don't know the rules on how to play, how do you go out the door and try to place by the rules," Daley asked rhetorically.
One of the first things an incident commander must decide when arriving on the scene of a working fire is whether to attack the fire offensively or go to a defensive mode, Daley said. The conditions found will dictate which tactic the officer should take.
Remembering the time honored mission of firefighters, to protect life and property, Daley said houses and buildings of today's construction leave very little time for rescue and fire suppression before fire consumes them.
Humans succumb to fire at temperatures about 212 degrees, the temperature at which water boils – a very low temperature when it comes to fire and some buildings can get to a point of flashover in five minutes or less.
Smoke is also extremely toxic when compared to fires in legacy buildings with natural materials and heavy construction, Daley said, noting that an initial incident commander has to determine whether a fire is survivable or not immediately upon arriving to effectively dictate fire attacks.
Daley said it's also important for incident commanders to remain situationally aware at all times, something that is difficult to achieve when an officer is assigned to tasks at a fire scene.
"The IC should give an initial radio report and take 30 seconds or so and do a quick walk around to see what's going on and get his head in the game," Daley said.
After establishing command, giving an initial assessment, first due officers should then develop an action plan and determine if they have sufficient resources to care it out, he said.
Using slides and scenario based situations, Daley walked the class attendees through a sequence of what should happen on a fire scene.
Given a structure fire in a 2,000 square foot residential building, Daley walked the audience through an exercise on how many firefighters it would take to handle the fire on a first alarm.
Based on a thumbnail analysis, the participants decided it would take upwards of 19 firefighters to achieve all the tasks normally assigned at residential house fires.
"How many people in here can get 19 firefighters on a first alarm," Daley asked. Not a single person raised a hand. "That's what I thought."
Given that reality, Daley said the incident commander will have to make decisions based on staffing.
"You might say; 'I've got a lot going on, I don't have a lot of manpower, I'm going to focus on extinguishment,'" Daley said. "You might decide to go to defensive first and then go into an offense." As staffing arrives on the scene, or conditions change, it's good to reassess going offensively or defensively and not being afraid to switch tactics.
"Make a plan and stick with it, but don't be afraid to make adjustments if the situation changes," Daley said. "Make a plan, but keep plans B, C and D in your pocket."
Daley acknowledged that in his years of experience, he's lost a few structures -- its part of the business. But, one should always try to avoid that scenario if possible.
That's why he is a devotee of reading smoke, Daley said. It's a good indicator of how the fire is progressing and what might happen next. As velocity, volume and color changes, it can tell if firefighters are making a successful attack, or if conditions are deteriorating which would dictate a change in strategy.
Officers should also learn to truck their "gut feeling," Daley said. As officers gain more experience, they become aware when things just are not right and when "things aren't going to taste good when it's all done." That instinct shouldn't be ignored, Daley said.
When all is said and done, one of the best things to do is to an after action critique, Daley said.
"Don't be afraid to bash it around a little bit," Daley said. "Critiquing a fire is one of the best ways to learn."
See all of Michael Daley's contributions to Firehouse.


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Software development lifecycle processes can sometimes be seen as impediments or tedious tasks. But it is worth reminding everyone that the smart work up front will save you headaches later. In my experience, well-written software requirements serve two main purposes: it orients all project participants and helps get buy-in about what you're trying to do (since you're articulating what you're trying to accomplish), and it makes sure that everyone (from the project sponsor(s) down to the technologist and back up to the end user) can say that the project is done to expectations.
The trick is how to write a good requirement, for any number of situations. Part of the answer is to follow this convention:
The [your words here: system, actor, function, dependency, etc.]
must [your words here: do, process, store, etc.]
to [your words here: accomplish a goal, serve a purpose, etc.].
and to focus on the "what" (substance) of the need as opposed to the "how" (design) of the need. In addition, there are 8 key criteria that each requirement should satisfy to be considered well written.


1. Packaging total cost of ownership
Optimise your packaging TCO
A TCO analysis is the first step to drive down overall costs and improve profitability
In today's competitive world, the concept of Total Cost of Ownership (TCO) is an important one, for both buyers and sellers. Rather than only considering the purchase price of an object, TCO looks at the complete cost from purchase to disposal. This will include costs that are likely to be incurred during the product's lifetime, such as maintenance, repair and insurance.
From a packaging supply chain point of view, TCO involves reviewing the entire chain and having an overall view on the total process, detecting opportunities for improvement and potential for increasing profitability. A TCO analysis will likely look at three major components. There's the cost of the packaging material itself; the operating costs (involving the packaging processes of our customers for example); and the logistics costs.
Think about your packaging total cost of ownership
Some solutions which take into account the optimization of your packaging TCO
Optimise your TCO
We would be delighted to assist you in your TCO calculations, by providing input as to where and how cost-savings could be made to drive down your TCO.
Contact us


- Zach Clark, CPA, CFE
Don't choke your employees - how to do monitoring right.
In her article "The Employer-Surveillance State" journalist Ellen Ruppel Shell notes that while workplace surveillance is becoming more common, more sophisticated, and more economical - more isn't always better. Shell notes that various studies indicate that workplace surveillance can "increase workplace stress, promote worker alienation, lower job satisfaction, and convey the perception that the quantity of work one generates is more important than its quality". Some studies even show that monitored employees can have "lower self-esteem and are actually less productive".
To me, these results are not surprising. When people are put under pressure they often perform worse - a phenomenon known as "choking". And, while the steady low-level stress incurred due to continuous monitoring may not result in absolute performance breakdown, the knowledge that they are constantly being watched can slowly choke out your employees' confidence and motivation.
Monitoring your business and your workforce is of the utmost importance. But how you do that monitoring is extremely important. At Open Ears we offer anonymous tip reporting services that allow your employees to become active participants in the monitoring process not passive subjects. By allowing your employees to actively participate in the monitoring of your workforce you can increase transparency in your business, and you don't have to choke out your staff to do it.
Source: The Employer-Surveillance State - Ellen Ruppel Shell. _URL_


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Screening and Monitoring
Screen all students for potential math difficulties and monitor their progress.
The first step in RtI is universal student screening so schools can systematically identify those at risk for math difficulties. Accurate identification of at-risk students requires efficient, reliable, and valid measures of the most important math objectives. Because no one assessment is perfectly reliable, schools are encouraged to use multiple screening measures, including state assessment results. Once students needing intervention have been identified, regular progress monitoring is essential to determine if supplemental instruction is meeting their learning needs or if regrouping is necessary.
Screening and Monitoring Progress in Math
This multimedia overview explains the value of universal screening, describes recommended components of an effective screening system, provides information on establishing cut-points to identify at-risk students, and describes the functions of progress monitoring. (5:35 min)


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Case Study: Adderall vs. Response Cost
A six year-old boy in the T.L.C. program was seen by the consulting psychiatrist who recommended tapering the child off of his psycho-stimulant medication (Adderall) due to his small stature, observable tics, and ongoing difficulties with inattention, impulsivity, and hyperactivity despite the use of the stimulant medication. Prior to tapering the medication, observations were made of this child's behavior in the school and cottage settings. Frequencies of off-task, inattentive, and impulsive behaviors were counted in each setting over the course of one week. After this data was collected and the child was tapered off the Adderall, a response cost program was implemented in the school and cottage settings to specifically target these behaviors. Frequencies of off-task, inattentive, and impulsive behaviors were again collected in the cottage and school settings after the implementation of the response cost program.
The average rate of off-task, inattentive, and impulsive behaviors per hour were determined from these frequency counts. Comparisons were made between the child's average hourly frequency of displaying each behavior while on Adderall to the child's average hourly frequency of displaying each behavior while off Adderall and utilizing a response cost program. In all cases the rates of behaviors were lower during the response cost program than they were during the Adderall regimen (see graph below). It is important to note that the decrease in the average hourly rate of off-task behavior (t(2)=1.104, p=.38) and impulsive behavior (t(2)=.949, p=.443) was not statistically significant. This finding is not surprising, rather it is to be expected given the limited statistical power to find real differences that comes from using such a small data set (with only two degrees of freedom).
Average hourly frequency of behaviors
The truly impressive finding in this single-sample case study is that the average rate of inattentive behavior did significantly decrease (t(2)=4.062, p=.05). This is particularly noteworthy given the limited amount of statistical power to find real differences with a small data set, as mentioned above. This indicates that, for this child, the intended effect of the response cost program is rather potent when compared to the intended effect of the Adderall. Furthermore, the response cost program does not have the negative side effects of diminished stature or tics that were associated with the Adderall.
The current study should be viewed only as intended, as a single-sample case study to assess the effects of the change in program for one child, with all the inherent threats to validity that are associated with a single case study or any study with limited data points. The significant findings of this study do indicate however, that these positive effects might be expected to generalize to other children. Further assessment should therefore be conducted whenever similar changes are indicated in other children's treatment programs in an attempt to replicate these findings.


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A History of Technology, vol. 5, Oxford Univ. Press, p. 355, states the
problem: There was an upper limit of around 300 ft. on the length of a wooden
ship because wood couldn't provide a rigid bow-to-stern connection, and tension
from wave-action increased as the length grew. The British Shipbuilding
Industry From 1870 to 1914, pp. 13-4, said pretty much the same thing, while
Alexander Laing's American Ships, pp. 409, quoted a shipwright as to the
opinion that the six-master clipper ships (region of 330 ft. in length) were
My response to this critique is to say that yes, there is some upper limit on
wood-hull construction boats, but that the 300 feet citations above are guesses
and opinions based on the observation that few attempts were made to build
wooden ships over 300 feet. The reason why not was that by the time that
expanding commerce in the second half of the 19th century would have demanded
larger vessels, iron was becoming a cost-effective material to use in hull
construction. So, the necessity to build larger wood vessels and/or improve
wood-hull design was not present.
However, there were some wood-hull ships built over 300 feet: from Famous
American Ships, by Frank O. Braynard, 1956, p. 75, the Hudson river steamer
"New World" (1848) was 371 feet long. This early steamer probably did not have
iron bar supports in the frame, since the text appears to say in the third
paragraph that "Metropolis" (345' long, 1854) was the first steamer to have
them [the page from Original American Lloyd's Registry implies that iron bar
supports were required for long wood vessels after the mid-1850's].
Also in the above Lloyd's are specifications for other American wood-hull
steamers (though all probably with iron bar strapping): "Dean Richmond" (348',
1865), "Adriatic" (ocean-going, 350', 1856), "Golden City" (ocean-going, 340',
1863), and the "Great Republic" (ocean-going, 334', 1853). The "Wyoming"
(Laing, p. 408) was the last of the six-master clipper ships, and was 330'
long, built in 1909. Laing's quote of the shipwright Rockwell shows that the
criticism of the six-masters was something other than that they wouldn't float.
Page 23 of Ancient Ships, by Cecil Torr, 1964, says that Callixenos reported a
40-banked (oar banks) ship that was 420' long and 57' wide. There is no proof
that this ship existed, however.
Of course, the issue of construction is not a very strong argument for the
atheist, since it is by definition an argument from the negative. Also,
"practical" commercial construction was expected to last 20 years or more,
while Noah's ark had to last only 1 year, and did not need to support any masts
or handle engine vibration. Finally, the correct proportionality of the ark
for stability is an argument in favor of its historicity (unlike the ark in the
Gilgamesh epic, which was 120 cubits by 120 by 120). I.e., did the Bible guess
the dimensions needed by a ship of this size? (I included a page with the
illustration of the iron-hulled "Preussen" that was close to the dimensions of
A footnote to this discussion is that there is some disagreement over how long the ancient cubit was. I would suggest being careful not to lightly assume the longer definition so as to allow enough space in the ark for all the animals, else the durability problem becomes too big.