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Stephen Leahy, International Environmental Journalist
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"It doesn't cost the world to save the planet" — Economist
30/03/2015 29/03/2015 Stephen 1 Must Read, CLIMATE CHANGE/GLOBAL WARMING, Energy, ENVIRONMENT, Global Issues and Perspectives, global warming, News, Science	acidification, Alberta, biofuel, Canada, carbon, climate change, co2, coal, extreme weather, Flood, fossil fuel, Greenhouse gas, ocean acidification, oil, oil sands, tar sands
By Stephen Leahy
UXBRIDGE, Canada, Apr 22 2014 (IPS)
Hopefully, on Earth Day today, high-level ministers from all countries are thinking about what they can bring to the table at a key set of meetings on climate change in early May.
This will be the first opportunity for governments to discuss their proposed climate action plans in light of the final Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) report released last week.
"There is a clear message from science: To avoid dangerous interference with the climate system, we need to move away from business as usual." — Professor Ottmar Edenhofer
That report warned that carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions from burning fossil fuels are still rising far too fast, even with more than 650 billion dollars invested in renewable energy in the last three years. However, over the same time period even more money was invested in getting more fossil fuels out of the ground.
The latter investment is keeping humanity and the planet locked onto a devastating path of a global temperature increase of four to five degrees C, the IPCC's Working Group III report warned.
Scientists and economists say that unlocking ourselves from disaster will require a massive reduction in emissions – between 40 percent and 70 percent – by midcentury. This is can be readily accomplished without inventing any new technology and at a reasonably low cost, reducing global economic growth by a comparatively tiny 0.06 percent.
"It doesn't cost the world to save the planet," economist Professor Ottmar Edenhofer, who led the IPCC team, said at a press conference.
It does mean an end to investments in expanding fossil fuel infrastructure as the annual growth in CO2 emissions from burning oil, coal and gas must peak and decline in the next few years. The atmosphere already has 42 percent more CO2 than it did prior to 1800.
This extra CO2 is trapping more heat from the sun, which is heating up the oceans and land, creating the conditions that spawn super storms and extreme weather. And it will do so for the next 1,000 years since CO2 is a very durable molecule.
Current emissions are adding two percent more heat-trapping CO2 each year. That will push humanity's 'CO2 contribution' to 50 percent four years from now.
"There is a clear message from science: To avoid dangerous interference with the climate system, we need to move away from business as usual," Edenhofer said.
The IPCC's first report released last September as part of its Fifth Assessment Report (AR5) clearly stated once again that the climate is changing rapidly as a result of human activity and urgent action is needed.
This was followed last month with a strong confirmation that climate impacts are already occurring on every continent and throughout the world's oceans. This second report warned that one of the major impacts will be declines in food production unless emissions begin to decline.
The fossil fuel sector, the richest in human history, appears to be ignoring the IPCC warnings.
Earlier this month, oil giant ExxonMobil issued a report to its shareholders saying it does not believe the world will curb CO2 emissions and plans to extract and sell all of its 25.2 billion barrels worth of oil and gas in its current reserves. And it will continue investments hunting down more barrels.
"All of ExxonMobil's current hydrocarbon reserves will be needed, along with substantial future industry investments, to address global energy needs," said William Colton, ExxonMobil's vice president in a statement.
The IPCC agrees oil, gas and coal will still be used in future but there is a CO2 maximum to have a reasonable chance of staying below two degrees C. That fossil energy cap won't be enough to meet global energy needs so Working Group III recommends shifting to large-scale bioenergy and biofuels, waste incineration, nuclear power and carbon capture and storage (CCS).
These energy sources are controversial and risky. Large-scale bioenergy and biofuels needs huge areas of land and vast quantities of water and will compete with food production.
Studies show ethanol results in more emissions than burning gasoline. Even making ethanol from the leftovers of harvested corn plants released seven percent more CO2 than gasoline while depleting the soil, a new study revealed in Nature Climate Change this week.
The IPCC acknowledges bioenergy and biofuels can increase emissions, destroy livelihoods and damage the environment, says Rachel Smolker of Biofuelwatch, an environmental NGO.
"It is a shame they put so much stock in something that would make things worse rather than better," Smolker told IPS.
Given all this, what climate action plans are governments going to propose when they meet in Abu Dhabi on May 4 and 5th? This is an informal 'put your cards on the table' regarding a new set of commitments on emission reduction targets and action plans to be made public at the U.N. Climate Summit in September.
Current reduction targets will not avoid four degrees C, most experts agree.
In hopes of getting countries to increase their reduction targets, U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon asked governments to bring new proposals to New York City in September. With the current U.N. Climate Change Convention meetings deadlocked on key issues, the New York Summit is intended to kick-start political momentum for an ambitious, global, legal climate treaty in 2015.
The May get-together titled the "Abu Dhabi Ascent" is the only meeting before the Summit where governments, and invited members of the private sector and civil society will come together to explore how to get ambitious action to reduce emissions.
The Abu Dhabi meeting will be a window into the future of humanity: ascent or descent?
first published as Charting a Course for Survival, or Oblivion?
We Have Five Years to Stop Building Coal Plants and Gas-Powered Cars
21/09/2014 22/03/2017 Stephen 1 Must Read, Agriculture/Food, CLIMATE CHANGE/GLOBAL WARMING, ECOLOGY, economics, Energy, ENVIRONMENT, Global Issues and Perspectives, global warming, News, OCEAN, Pollution and Toxics, Science, Science/Tech, sustainability	acidification, arctic, carbon budget, climate change, co2, coal, emissions, extreme weather, fossil fuel, global warming, Greenhouse gas, ipcc, oil, oil sands, Renewable Energy, tar sands
[Authors note: One of the most difficult and important articles I've written in 20 years of environmental journalism. Originally published Sept 6 2014 @Vice Motherboard]
Here's the frightening implication of a landmark study on CO2 emissions:
By 2018, no new cars, homes, schools, factories, or electrical power plants should be built anywhere in the world, ever again, unless they're either replacements for old ones or carbon neutral. Otherwise greenhouse gas emissions will push global warming past 2˚C of temperature rise worldwide, threatening the survival of many people currently living on the planet.
Every climate expert will tell you we're on a tight carbon budget as it is—that only so many tons of carbon dioxide (CO2) can be pumped into the atmosphere before the global climate will overheat. We've already warmed temperatures 0.85˚C from pre-industrial levels, and the number rises every year. While no one thinks 2˚ C is safe, per se, it's safer than going even higher and running the risk that global warming will spiral out of our control completely.
Last year, the latest Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) report established a global carbon budget for the first time. It essentially stated that starting in 2014, the carbon we can afford is up to around 1,000 billion tons of CO2. In other words, our cars, factories, and power plants can only emit 1,000 billion tons (1,000 Gt, or gigatons) of CO2 into the atmosphere if we want to have a greater than 50/50 chance of keeping our climate below 2˚C of warming.
Even considering that humanity pumped 36 gigatons of CO2 into the atmosphere last year alone, 1,000 Gt still seems like a big budget. It might even seem like we have room to spare.
WORLDWIDE, WE'VE BUILT MORE COAL-BURNING POWER PLANTS IN THE PAST DECADE THAN IN ANY PREVIOUS DECADE
New research shows that we may not have been paying attention to the entire CO2 emissions picture. We've only been counting annual emissions, and not the fact that building a new coal or gas power plant is in reality a commitment to pumping out CO2 for the lifespan of a given plant—which usually ranges from 40 to 60 years. These future emissions are known as a carbon commitment.
A new study has tallied the carbon commitments from all existing coal and gas power plants by looking at their annual CO2 emissions and current age. The study assumes an operating life of 40 years. A 38-year old coal plant will have far smaller future CO2 emissions, and thus smaller carbon commitment than one built today. The study, "Commitment accounting of CO2 emissions," determined that most new power plants that went online in 2012 have a very large carbon commitment—19 Gt of CO2.
Building new power plants means more carbon commitments to eat into our 2˚C carbon budget. Build enough giant coal plants today, and their future emissions would tie up the entire budget, leaving no room for any other source of CO2 emissions.
Meanwhile, the rate at which new plants are built far outpaces the closure of old plants. Many US coal plants operate for longer than 40 years; the oldest is currently around 70 years.
"Worldwide, we've built more coal-burning power plants in the past decade than in any previous decade, and closures of old plants aren't keeping pace with this expansion," said study co-author Steven Davis of the University of California, Irvine.
Image: Flickr
Fossil Fuels Power Plant Carbon Commitment: 300 Gt
In the study, Davis and co-author Robert Socolow of Princeton University calculated that the existing coal and gas power plant carbon commitment turns out to be very large—more than 300 Gt.
Non-Power Plant Carbon Commitment: 400 Gt
The reality of carbon commitment applies to any new fossil-fuel burning infrastructure, including office buildings and homes using gas heating or automobiles and planes burning jet fuel. All of these have an operating life of several or many years during which they will emit CO2 from now until they are 'retired.' These future emissions also count as a carbon commitment. In another upcoming study, Davis calculated the carbon commitments from other CO2 sources, including from the transport, industry, commercial and residential sectors. He estimates that as of 2013 this carbon commitment exceeded 400 Gt.
Together with the power plant commitment of 300 Gt laid out in the current study, that's more than 700 Gt in carbon commitments on a global carbon budget of 1000 Gt. That leaves less than 300 Gt for future power plants, steel mills, cement plants, buildings, and other stuff that burns fossil fuels.
At current rates we'll have accounted for the remainder of the budget in only five years.
Here's how it breaks down:
Estimated Annual Emissions 2014-2018: 200 Gt
Global CO2 emissions from all sources amounted to 36 Gt in 2013. Annual emissions have been growing at a rate of 2 to 3 percent per year. Without major efforts to reduce emissions, another 200 gigatons of CO2 will be emitted between 2014 and 2018.
Estimated New Carbon Commitments 2014-2018: 100 Gt
Davis and Socolow determined that carbon commitments from new fossil fuel burning infrastructure will average at least 20 Gt per year, totaling 100 Gt over five years.
300 + 400 +200 +100 = 1,000 Gigatons of Carbon, Locked in by 2018
Unless coal and gas power plants or other major sources of CO2 are shut down before the end of their life span, the 1,000 Gt global carbon budget will be fully allocated sometime in 2018. No one will notice, because things won't look or feel too much different than today. CO2 is akin to a slow, trans-generational poison. The climate impacts of blowing the carbon budget won't be felt until 2030 or 2040 —and for a long time after.
WE'VE BEEN HIDING WHAT'S GOING ON FROM OURSELVES: A HIGH-CARBON FUTURE IS BEING LOCKED IN BY THE WORLD'S CAPITAL INVESTMENTS
Even the climate experts won't notice much, because annual CO2 emissions have been the sole focus of countries and the United Nations process to address climate change said Davis.
"That's like driving down the highway and only looking out of the side window," Davis told me.
Politicians, business leaders, investors, planners, bureaucrats and whole lot of other people should be looking out the front window and paying attention to the hard reality of carbon commitments. If Davis and Socolow's calculations are correct, it means no new coal or gas power plants can go online after 2018 unless they're replacing retired plants. It means freezing the size of the global automobile fleet, and the industrial and commercial sectors, unless their energy efficiency increases. And so on.
The fact that much of our current and future infrastructure carries huge carbon commitments is blindingly obvious, but receives little attention.
Can't solve a problem by making it worse
"If you build it, there will be emissions year after year. This should be a fundamental part of the decision to build most things,"" Davis said.
Ignoring the reality of carbon commitments means we're investing heavily in technologies that make the problem worse, he said.
"We've been hiding what's going on from ourselves: A high-carbon future is being locked in by the world's capital investments," said co-author Robert Socolow. Any plan or strategy to cut CO2 emissions has to give far greater prominence to those investments. Right now the data shows "we're embracing fossil fuels more than ever," Socolow told me.
So what can we do to begin to prepare for a jam-packed carbon budget? First, we need to stop building fossil fuel-reliant power plants.
Surprisingly, it appears the Australia is a pioneer here, despite recently rolling back its pioneering carbon tax. Thanks to wide-spread adoption of solar energy on homes and business the country's electricity use is in steep decline. For the first time in its history, no new coal or gas power capacity will be needed to maintain supply over the next 10 years, according to the Australian Energy Market Operator. Germany too is rapidly adopting clean energy sources like wind and solar, so as to avoid building coal or nuclear power.
Next, we need to think about meeting energy demand by improving efficiency, instead of building more power generation.
Potential energy efficiency gains of 50 percent are possible across many sectors in most countries, Socolow said, and could reduce the number of fossil fuel energy power plants.
The US is the king of energy waste by most estimates. This costs Americans an estimated $130 billion a year, according to the Alliance to Save Energy. But despite the potential for huge cost and emission reductions, governments everywhere put nearly all their energy research efforts into new sources of energy like new power plants rather than helping to develop energy-efficient cars, buildingsm and appliances. It's 2012 international study also found that improving energy efficiency provides by far the best bang-for-the-buck for energy security, improved air quality, reduced environmental and social impacts and carbon emission reductions.
However, efficiency improvements take time, and there is precious little time left to make the CO2 emissions cuts to stay below 2˚C, said Socolow.
While refusing to say a planet that's 2˚C hotter is inevitable, he did say that all efforts to reduce emissions must be undertaken as soon as possible: "3˚C is a whole lot better than 5˚C, the current path we're on."
No Safe Havens in Increasingly Acid Oceans
21/07/2014 20/07/2014 Stephen 1 Must Read, CLIMATE CHANGE/GLOBAL WARMING, Global Issues and Perspectives, global warming, News, OCEAN, Science, WILDLIFE	acid oceans, acidification, calcium carbonate, carbon, chile, co2, ocean acidification, Pacific Ocean
Oil, gas and coal are contaminating the world's oceans from top to bottom, threatening the lives of more than 800 million people
UXBRIDGE, Canada, Oct 15 2013 (IPS)
Oil, gas and coal are contaminating the world's oceans from top to bottom, threatening the lives of more than 800 million people, a new study warns Tuesday.
"It took a year to analyse and synthesise all of the studies on the impacts of climate change on ocean species," Camilo Mora, an ecologist at University of Hawai'i in Honolulu and lead author, told IPS.
"We are seeing greater changes, happening faster, and the effects are more imminent than previously anticipated." — Alex Rogers of the University of Oxford
Mora is also lead author of ground-breaking climate study published in Nature last week.
"It was very sad to see all the responses were negative. We were hoping there might be some safe havens," he said.
The study found that carbon emissions from burning fossil fuels are overheating the oceans, turning them acidic and reducing the amount of oxygen in seawater. This is happening too fast for most marine species to adapt and ocean ecosystems around the world will collapse.
By 2100, no corner of the oceans that cover 70 percent of the Earth's surface will be untouched.
"The impacts of climate change will be felt from the ocean surface to the seafloor. It is truly scary to consider how vast these impacts will be," said Andrew Sweetman of the International Research Institute of Stavanger, Norway, co-author of the PLOS Biology study published Oct. 15.
This ambitious study examined all the available research on how current and future carbon emissions are fundamentally altering the oceans. It then looked at how this will impact fish, corals, marine animals, plants and other organisms. Finally the 29 authors from 10 countries analysed how this will affect the 1.4 to 2.0 billion people who live near the oceans or depend on them for their food and income.
Some 500 million to 870 million of the world's poorest people are likely to be unable to feed themselves or earn incomes from oceans too contaminated by fossil fuel emissions, the "Biotic and Human Vulnerability to Projected Changes in Ocean Biogeochemistry over the 21st Century" study concludes.
"We are making a big mess of the oceans. Climate change is having a major impact illustrating the need for urgent action to reduce emissions," said Mora. Continue reading →
"We're all scared…But we must tell the truth" — Experts Fear Collapse of Global Civilisation
02/04/2013 31/03/2013 Stephen 1 Must Read, CLIMATE CHANGE/GLOBAL WARMING, ECOLOGY, News, OCEAN, Science, Science/Tech, sustainability	acidification, Anne H Ehrlich, Conservation Biology, Ehrlich, Energy, etc group, food security, fossil fuel, London, materialism, overconsumption, Paul Ehrlich, Proceedings of the Royal Society, Stanford University
UXBRIDGE, Canada, Jan 11 2013 (IPS)
Experts on the health of our planet are terrified of the future. They can clearly see the coming collapse of global civilisation from an array of interconnected environmental problems.
"We're all scared," said Paul Ehrlich, president of the Center for Conservation Biology at Stanford University.
"But we must tell the truth about what's happening and challenge people to do something to prevent it," Ehrlich told IPS.
Global collapse of human civilisation seems likely, write Ehrlich and his partner Anne Ehrlich in the prestigious science journal, Proceedings of the Royal Society.
This collapse will take the form of a "…gradual breakdown because famines, epidemics and resource shortages cause a disintegration of central control within nations, in concert with disruptions of trade and conflicts over increasingly scarce necessities", they write.
Already two billion people are hungry today. Food production is humanity's biggest industry and is already being affected by climate and other environmental problems. "No civilisation can avoid collapse if it fails to feed its population," the authors say.
Escalating climate disruption, ocean acidification, oceanic dead zones, depletion of groundwater and extinctions of plants and animals are the main drivers of the coming collapse, they write in their peer-reviewed article "Can a collapse of global civilisation be avoided?" published this week.
Dozens of earth systems experts were consulted in writing the 10-page paper that contains over 160 references.
"We talked to many of the world's leading experts to reflect what is really happening," said Ehrlich, who is an eminent biologist and winner of many scientific awards.
Our reality is that current overconsumption of natural resources and the resulting damage to life-sustaining services nature provides means we need another half of a planet to keeping going. And that's if all seven billion remain at their current living standards, the Ehrlichs write.
If everyone lived like a U.S. citizen, another four or five planets would be needed. Continue reading →
Ocean Acidification Leaves Mollusks Naked and Confused
17/10/2012 17/10/2012 Stephen 1 Must Read, Biodiversity, CLIMATE CHANGE/GLOBAL WARMING, Energy, Food, Global Issues and Perspectives, global warming, News, OCEAN, Science	acidification, Australia, carbon, Carbonic acid, chile, climate change, co2, French National Centre for Scientific Research, gattuso, Institute of Marine Sciences, Marine biology, Monterey, Monterey California, Ocean, ocean acidification
Chilean intertidal carnivorous crab (Acanthocyclus hassleri)
Climate change is making oceans warmer and more acidic…expect the worst
When the carbon dioxide absorbed by the oceans dissolves in seawater, carbonic acid is formed and calcium carbonate, vital for the formation of the skeletons and shells of many marine organisms, becomes scarcer.
MONTEREY, California, Oct 2 2012 (IPS)
Climate change will ruin Chilean sea snails' ability to sniff out and avoid their archenemy, a predatory crab, according to Chilean scientists who presented their findings at an international science symposium here.
Researchers from Australia also revealed that as the oceans become more and more acidic, some fish become hyperactive and confused, and move towards their predators instead of trying to escape.
"The conditions in oceans are changing 100 times faster than at any time in the past," said Jean-Pierre Gattuso, a marine biologist with CNRS-INSU and the Laboratoire d'Océanographie de Villefranche in France.
Climate change is making oceans warmer and more acidic. "We are beginning to understand what will happen. I think we can expect the worst," Gattuso told Tierramérica*.
Gattuso is one of nearly 600 scientists from around the world who presented their research on Sep. 24-27 at the Third International Symposium on the Ocean in a High-CO2 World: Ocean Acidification in Monterey, California.
Researchers discovered only 10 years ago that burning fossil fuels like coal, oil and gas has made the oceans about 30 percent more acidic since the beginning of the Industrial Revolution. Continue reading →
06/10/2012 14/10/2012 Stephen 1 Must Read, Biodiversity, CLIMATE CHANGE/GLOBAL WARMING, ECOLOGY, global warming, News, OCEAN, Science, Science/Tech, WILDLIFE	acid oceans, acidification, calcium carbonate, carbon, chile, co2, crab, mollusk, ocean acidification, Pacific Ocean
MONTEREY, California, Oct 2 2012 (IPS) –
via IPS – Ocean Acidification Leaves Mollusks Naked and Confused | Inter Press Service.
Revealed: In Acidic Oceans Sunlight Kills Planet's Most Important Organism — Marine Algae
15/05/2012 17/05/2012 Stephen 1 Must Read, Agriculture/Food, Biodiversity, CLIMATE CHANGE/GLOBAL WARMING, ECOLOGY, Energy, Global Issues and Perspectives, global warming, News, OCEAN, Science	acidification, algae, arctic ocean, climate change, Kiel, ocean acidification, Oceanography, oceans, Phytoplankton, plankton, Plymouth Marine Laboratory, Scripps Institution of Oceanography, Xiamen University
A number of marine diatom cells (Pleurosigma), which are an important group of phytoplankton in the oceans.
Credit: Michael Stringer
"There's a synergistic effect between increased ocean acidity and natural light"
"It's clear we are conducting a giant experiment on the planet and we don't know what we are doing."
UXBRIDGE, Canada, May 8, 2012 (IPS)
Without major reductions in the use of fossil fuels, sunlight will kill an unknown number of ocean phytoplankton, the planet's most important organism, a new study reports this week.
Not only are phytoplankton, also known as marine algae, a vital component in the ocean's food chain, they generate at least half of the oxygen we breathe.
In the not so distant future, sunlight, the very source of life for phytoplankton, will likely begin to kill them because of the ocean's increasing acidity, researchers from China and Germany have learned.
"There's a synergistic effect between increased ocean acidity and natural light," says Ulf Riebesell of the Helmholtz Centre for Ocean Research in Kiel, Germany.
Riebesell added that it was also possible "phytoplankton could adapt".
Researchers were surprised to discover that diatoms, one of the most important and abundant types of phytoplankton, fared very badly during shipboard experiments conducted by co-author Kunshan Gao, from the State Key Laboratory of Marine Environmental Science at Xiamen University, Xiamen China.
Previous experiments in labs like Riebesell's found that diatoms actually did better in high-acid seawater, unlike most other shell- forming plankton. Burning fossil fuels has made the oceans about 30 percent more acidic researchers discovered less than 10 years ago. Oceans absorb one third of the carbon dioxide (CO2) emitted from using fossil fuels.
The good news is this has slowed the rate of global warming. The bad news is oceans are now more acidic and it will get worse as more CO2 is emitted. This is basic, well-understood ocean chemistry. Continue reading →
Reducing Fossil Fuel Use Only Way to Save Dying Corals
21/11/2011 20/04/2017 Stephen 1 Must Read, Biodiversity, CLIMATE CHANGE/GLOBAL WARMING, ECOLOGY, Energy, ENVIRONMENT, Food, Global Issues and Perspectives, News, OCEAN, Pollution and Toxics	acidification, Australia, Australian Institute of Marine Science, Coral, Coral Reef, corals, Great Barrier Reef
Another important reason why continuing to burn more fossil fuels is very dangerous for all of us. Excerpts from July 2008 article — Stephen
'The world's fossil fuel economy is like the Titanic — we know its going to hit an iceberg but it takes a very long time to stop a really big ship..'
FORT LAUDERDALE, U.S., July 12, 2008 (IPS)
The rapid decline of coral reefs around the world offers a potent warning that entire ecosystems can collapse due to human activities, although there is hope for reefs if immediate action is taken, coral experts agreed at the conclusion of a five-day international meeting Friday.
"Reefs are in serious trouble, but don't write them off," Terry Hughes, a marine ecologist at Australia's James Cook University told 3,000 scientists, conservationists and policy makers attending at the 11th International Coral Reef Symposium (ICRS) in Fort Lauderdale, Florida.
"We can save reefs if we take immediate action," Hughes said.
More than 20 percent of the world's reefs have died, and large areas are failing due to a combination of climate change, overfishing, pollution and sea level rise. Most of the fabulous corals that attract tourists to the Caribbean are gone and half of remaining reefs in the U.S. are in serious decline.
[Update 2010 – Here's a list of Stephen Leahy's latest articles on corals Coral Reefs and Acid Oceans Series]
"We may be facing ocean deserts in the future," said Guillermo Dias-Pulido of Australia's University of Queensland.
Reefs and Forests Burn as Climate Disruption Takes Hold NOW
10/11/2010 12/07/2011 Stephen 1 Must Read, Biodiversity, CLIMATE CHANGE/GLOBAL WARMING, Energy, Forests, global warming, News, OCEAN, Science	acidification, Biodiversity, bleaching, co2, corals, extreme weather, forest fires, global warming
A lot of coral reefs have died this year due to unprecedented ocean heating largely due to climate change. I broke that story last summer. Few coral reefs will survive the next 50 years most experts say without immediate action to reduce greenhouse gas emissions.
Forests are next in line according a new study in PNAS. Huge uncontrollable wildfires will dominate forest landscapes of the near future without dramatic reductions in the burning of fossil fuels the study found.
I would have done a full article explaining all this but simply can't find a publication willing to pay me to do the work. That's why I am trying community supported journalism where readers donate small amounts so these articles get done and made available for millions to read.
— Stephen (November 10 2010)
Oceans on the Brink: Dying Plankton, Dead Zones, Acidification
06/08/2010 28/04/2016 Stephen Biodiversity, CLIMATE CHANGE/GLOBAL WARMING, ECOLOGY, Energy, global warming, News, OCEAN, Science	acidification, boris worm, dead zones, fisheries, plankton, stratification
A number of marine diatom cells
VIENNA, Jul 31, 2010 IPS
The oceans are the lifeblood of our planet and plankton its red blood cells. Those vital "red blood cells" have declined more than 40 percent since 1950 and the rate of decline is increasing due to climate change, scientists reported this week.
"Phytoplankton are a critical part of our planetary life support system. They produce half of the oxygen we breathe, draw down surface CO2, and ultimately support all of our fisheries," said
Boris Worm of Canadas Dalhousie University and one of the worlds leading experts on the global oceans.
"An ocean with less phytoplankton will function differently," said Worm, the co-author of a new study on plankton published this week in Nature. Plankton are the equivalent of grass, trees and other plants that make land green, says study co-author Marlon Lewis, an oceanographer at Dalhousie.
"It is frightening to realise we have lost nearly half of the oceans' green plants," Lewis told IPS.
"It looks like the rate of decline is increasing," he said.
A large phytoplankton bloom in the Northeast Atlantic -NASA Earth Observatory Collection.
[See also my series of articles on ocean acidification]
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Climate change is warming the oceans about 0.2C per decade on average. This warmer water tends to stay on top because it is lighter and essentially sits on top of a layer of colder water. This layering, or stratification, is a problem for light-loving plankton because they can only live in the top 100 to 200 meters.
Eventually they run out of nutrients to feed on unless the cold, deeper waters mix with those near the surface. Ocean stratification has been widely observed in the past decade and is occurring in more and larger areas of the world's oceans. Continue reading →
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text:
import math

class Sensor(dict):
    def __init__(self, message):
        super(Sensor, self).__init__()
        # print '>>> received:'
        self.parse(message.strip('\x00'))

    def parse(self, message):
        tokens = message.split('(')
        for token in tokens:
            reading = token.strip(')').split()
            if len(reading) > 1:
                key = reading[0]
                values = reading[1:]
                if key in ['opponents', 'track', 'wheelSpinVel', 'focus']:
                    # print key, values
                    self[key] = map(float, values)
                else:
                    # print key, values
                    self[key] = float(values[0])

        self['minOpponents'] = self['opponents'].index(min(self['opponents']))
        self['minOpponentsDistance'] = self['opponents'][self['minOpponents']]
        self['minOpponentsAngle'] =  math.radians(180 - self['minOpponents']*10)

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaGithub


text:
Koenraad Tinel (Gent, 31 maart 1934) is een Belgisch beeldhouwer en tekenaar.

Levensloop
Koenraad Tinel groeide op in een familie van muzikanten die in de Tweede Wereldoorlog collaboreerden met de bezetter. Zijn vader was beeldhouwer, zijn moeder speelde piano en zong. Al heel vroeg begon hij te tekenen en vanaf zijn vijfde kreeg hij pianoles. In 1944 vluchtten zijn ouders met hem en zijn zus naar Duitsland, een odyssee door de puinen van Europa die onuitwisbaar in zijn geheugen gegrift staat. Hij beleefde het einde van de oorlog en het Duits debacle in de toenmalige Russische en Amerikaanse zone. Hoewel hij een getalenteerd pianist was wilde de jonge Koenraad beeldend kunstenaar worden. Hij studeerde beeldhouwen aan het Hoger Instituut La Cambre te Brussel. Na zijn opleiding maakte hij in 1956 een memorabele studiereis per 2CV naar Midden-Indië (tempels van Ellora en Ajanta). Aan de afdeling entomologie van het Koninklijk Instituut voor Natuurwetenschappen in Brussel werkte hij een tijd als wetenschappelijk tekenaar.
Koenraad maakte zich alle technieken van metaalbewerking eigen en startte in 1963 met een eigen smederij. Voor diverse musea en belangrijke opdrachtgevers in Europa ontwierp en vervaardigde hij metalen meubilair en sokkels voor kunstwerken. Drie jaar later vestigde hij zich met vrouw en kinderen in een Brabantse vierkantshoeve in Gooik (Pajottenland) en begon er een bronsgieterij voor eigen werk. In 1971 stopte hij met smeden om zich volledig te kunnen wijden aan het vrije beeldhouwen en tekenen. Tegelijk aanvaardde hij het docentschap aan Sint-Lukas Hogeschool in Brussel waar hij tot 1999 titularis van de beeldhouwafdeling was. In 2020 ontvangt hij samen met zijn vriend Simon Gronowski een eredoctoraat van de Brusselse universiteiten VUB en ULB.
Koenraad Tinel woont en werkt in de oude kasteelhoeve Leysbroek in Vollezele (Pajottenland) aan de rand van het Stiltegebied Dender-Mark.

[[Bestand:Galmaarden - Vollezele - Congobergstraat z-n - Prima Mater (Koenraad Tinel) (2011-06-27 11-07-17).jpg|miniatuur|'De ontvoering van Europa''' in Vollezele]]

 Werk
Koenraad Tinel creëert vooral in metaal en mixed media. Hij verraste publiek en critici met spraakmakende tentoonstellingen en verwierf ook brede erkenning voor zijn uitzonderlijke tekenkunst. Belgische galerieën organiseerden individuele tentoonstellingen en presenteerden zijn werk in het buitenland. In 2000 organiseerde de Vlaamse Gemeenschap de openluchttentoonstelling 'BRGL' met 42 monumentale werken in het kasteeldomein Gaasbeek-Groenenberg. In de Brigittinenkapel (Brussel) stelde hij zijn 'Apocalyptische Ruiters' tentoon. Ook verdiepte hij zich met inkt en bister in de mythen en oerverhalen van de mensheid en illustreerde hij literair werk van o.m. Isaac Babel, Isaac Bashevis Singer en Joseph Roth.
Met 'Scheisseimer' (2009) en 'Flandria Catholica' (2010), zijn getekende jeugdherinneringen, wekte hij alom bewondering. Dit werk gaf aanleiding tot meerdere tentoonstellingen en een succesvolle theatertournee. De VRT-documentaire 'Oorlogskinderen' (2012) en het boek 'Eindelijk bevrijd' (2013) over zijn vriendschap met Simon Gronowski voegden hier nog een fel opgemerkte nieuwe dimensie aan toe. In 2013 publiceerde hij  zijn 'Verhalen van het Pajottenland'. Doorheen de jaren werkte hij ook vele malen samen met bevriende muzikanten, theatermakers en schrijvers. Zo zorgde hij in 2000 voor de scenografie van de productie 'Larf' van Josse De Pauw en Peter Vermeersch, waarin hij ook live optrad als schilder van een metershoog decordoek. Voor het project 'Multiple Voice' van het saxofoonensemble Bl!ndman maakte hij het beeld 'Athanor' voor het openingsconcert van Brugge 2002, Culturele Hoofdstad van Europa, een stalen sculptuur die te midden van de muzikanten opdoemde als een monumentale bron van licht en klank. In opdracht van tal van organisatoren – Festival Van Vlaanderen, Krijtkring, Zinneke, Stad Tongeren, Stad Genk, … – realiseerde hij meervoudig bespeelbare instrumenten en wagens.

Publicaties
 Koenraad Tinel. Sculpturen Tekeningen, Kritak, 1992
 BRGL, Leysbroek, 2001
 Apocalyps, Leysbroek, 2005
 Skeletvrouw, Leysbroek, 2006
 Inkt, Leysbroek, 2006
 IJzeren Hans, Leysbroek, 2007
 Scheisseimer, Uitgeverij Lannoo, 2009
 Flandria Catholica, Uitgeverij Peeters, 2010
 Eddy, DW B, 2011
 VertelGenkVertel, Stichting Kunstboek, 2013
 Eindelijk bevrijd. Geen schuld, geen slachtoffer, Uitgeverij Hannibal, 2013
 Verhalen van het Pajottenland, Uitgeverij Atlas-Contact, 2013
 Silent Navigations, Leysbroek, 2015
 Koenraad Tinel, Crux, MER, Paper Kunsthall, 2017
 UDSJUEN - Koenraad Tinel, Lannoo, 2019
 Tinel tekent Babel en Singer'', uitg. Oogachtend, 2022, ISBN 9789492672551

Externe links
 Officiële website
 cobra.be (cultuursite VRT)

Belgisch beeldhouwer
Belgisch tekenaar

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaWikipedia


text:
The Correlation of Noise with Serum K+I 67 in the Organ of Corti of Rattus Norvegicus
Author(s): Yusa Herwanto, Syafruddin Ilyas, Juliandi Harahap
Email(s): yh67.yh@gmail.com
Address: Yusa Herwanto1, Syafruddin Ilyas2, Juliandi Harahap3
1Faculty Medicine, Universitas Sumatera Utara,
2Faculty Biologic and Mathematic, Universitas Sumatera Utara
3Faculty Health and Community Medicine, Universitas Sumatera Utara
Noise according to Occupational Safety & Health Administration (OSHA, 2010) has safety limit not more than 85dB.Noise exposure, noise frequency, noise intensity and individual sensitivity to imunological enhancement in serum and response to repair the damaging of cohlea corti organ. Methods: The study was a pure experimental study in vitro. The sample used in this study was the organ tissue corticcell membrane basilaris cohlea. The study were conducted in 2 stages, the first stage of the study wasexamination ofthe culture cell organ cortic which was basilar membrane, which had been treated by noise> 80 dB in the 5 treatment groups. The second stage of the study was immunohistochemical Ki67 examination in cochlear tissue into the treatment groups. Result: Analysis of ANOVA showed that there was significant difference for the level KI67. The lowest mean of Ki67 was found in group rats control with mean of 0.09 (SD = 0.009) and the highest was found in the group P5 which received treatment noise 80-110 dB with mean 0,41 (SD = 0.07). The results by using Anova test showed that there was significant mean (p <0.001) for the level HSP 70 between the group P0 to group P5. The lowest mean HSP 70 was found in the control rats group with mean 2.79 (SD = 0.43) and the highest in the rats group which was given treatment noise 80-110 dB with mean of 17.08 (SD = 3.22). Discussion: Ki67 had significant positive correlation which very strong (r = 1) with HSP70. All the group of rats showed that the similar result in the study (Hu et al, 2009; Makishima et al., 2011; Herwanto, 2014) which strongly related to apoptosis in the internal mitochondria in the cochlea
organ cortic
serum Ki67
Yusa Herwanto, Syafruddin Ilyas, Juliandi Harahap. The Correlation of Noise with Serum K+I 67 in the Organ of Corti of Rattus Norvegicus. Asian J. Pharm. Res. 2019; 9(1): 19-21. doi: 10.5958/2231-5691.2019.00004.2
Yusa Herwanto, Syafruddin Ilyas, Juliandi Harahap. The Correlation of Noise with Serum K+I 67 in the Organ of Corti of Rattus Norvegicus. Asian J. Pharm. Res. 2019; 9(1): 19-21. doi: 10.5958/2231-5691.2019.00004.2 Available on: https://asianjpr.com/AbstractView.aspx?PID=2019-9-1-4

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaCommonCrawl


text:
Like Obasanjo, Burundi President, Pierre Nkurunziza, Carpets Constitution, Goes For A Third Term Mandate
by Musa Abdullahi & Agency Reports
Burundi's president was Saturday declared as the ruling party's candidate for a third term in office, despite mounting protests over a move the opposition says is unconstitutional.
Opposition figures warned that President Pierre Nkurunziza's effort to cling to power could push the central African nation back into violence.
They also vowed to defy a nationwide ban on demonstrations and warnings the army could be deployed. The country, situated in Africa's troubled Great Lakes region, only emerged from civil war in 2006.
In Nigeria, Former President Olusegun also wanted third term mandate to continue ruling after two terms but was challenged by stiff opposition both within and outside his party, the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP.
Meanwhile, the UN Security Council on Friday called upon all parties in Burundi to "refrain from any acts of violence and intimidation before, during, and after elections" in the country.
"The members of the Security Council stressed the need for the government and political opposition to refrain from any acts of violence and intimidation before, during, and after elections and to actively support the conditions for a peaceful, timely, credible and inclusive elections process," the 15-nation UN body said in a statement issued to the press here Friday night.
"In this regard, they condemned the March 15 assassination attempt against the wife of opposition leader Agathon Rwasa," the statement said. "They also expressed concern with the impact of this situation on the region, including reports of increased Burundian refugee flows into Rwanda by persons who cited a fear of violence."
Burundi is scheduled to hold communal and legislative elections on May 26 followed by presidential elections on June 26 and senatorial elections on Aug. 24.
One unique point of Burundi's 2015 elections is that the process will be monitored by UN electoral observers in conformity with a resolution of the Security Council.
Related Topics:BurundiCivil WarelectionsPresident Pierre NkurunzizaPresidential Polls
"Why Are The Citizens Not In Their Countries?" How Jacob Zuma Reacted To Xenophobia In South Africa
And You Say Kagame Is Africa's Best? Rwanda Chad & Togo Listed Among Top 10 Most Unhappy Nations In The World
Political contestations, violence and conduct of elections in Africa
For 2023, Northern youths advocate for a Southern President
INEC Officials Jailed for 42 years for receiving bribes


Gryffindor Common room | Flickr - Photo Sharing!
I just love my common room!!!
If you've ever wondered what it would be like waking up in the Gryffindor common room or in the deep dark dungeons of Slytherin house, imagine no more.
My favorite is Gryffindor common room not because I'm a gryffindor, but it have a sense of warmth to it.. And it looks so welcoming to me.
... remain anonymous, said: "They chairs were used in Gryffindor's common room. I purchased them some years ago from a major film set props company.
And here is another iconic set from all of the Harry Potter movies—the Gryffindor common room!
Do you remember what the password was to the Gryffindor Common Room in the first movie? If not, I'll give you a hint…it begins with the letter "C".


This is a project that incorporates paper as a design medium that translates both two- and three-demensional design aspects. I created a mailable pamphlet that informs the user about the Cahokia Mounds State Historic Site in Illinois, focusing on portraying the vast scale of the site with statistical numbers and photographs. The key user interaction in this project is that as the user unfolds the pamphlet, the information reveals itself bit by bit.
Adobe Illustrator, Adobe Photoshop, and Adobe InDesign were used to create this project.


Agency broker ITG has launched an analytics suite to enable asset managers to benchmark their trading investment performance against 20% of global institutional trading activity.
The service lets institutional investors examine raw execution-level trading data , but also offers detailed performance reporting and consulting.
ITG said the service will help clients to improve their investment performance, and estimates that trading impact costs US institutional investors over US$15 million each trading day.
By using Peer Analytics to compare trade costs to an anonymous data set, investors will be able to refine their own trading processes to minimise these costs. The service will also be supported by ITG's team of consultants, who can give hands-on recommendations to help clients improve performance.
Data can be used to generate rankings, reports and view best practice within a firm's peer group.


text:
from ConfigSpace import Configuration, ConfigurationSpace
from ConfigSpace.exceptions import ForbiddenValueError
from ConfigSpace.hyperparameters import CategoricalHyperparameter, \
    UniformFloatHyperparameter, UniformIntegerHyperparameter, Constant, \
    NormalFloatHyperparameter, NormalIntegerHyperparameter, \
    OrdinalHyperparameter, Hyperparameter
from ConfigSpace.conditions import InCondition, EqualsCondition, NotEqualsCondition, \
    LessThanCondition, GreaterThanCondition, AndConjunction, OrConjunction
import ConfigSpace

from sklearn import datasets, neural_network, metrics
from hpbandster.core.worker import Worker

def get_complete_configspace():
    """Creates a configspace that includes all kinds of parameters with
    complicated values. The idea is to provide a configspace that can be
    used to check modules using ConfigSpace as a dependency to check
    compatibility with e.g. Constants, log-scale, etc.

    Returns
    -------
    cs: ConfigurationSpace
        cs containing all kinds of parameters
    """
    cs = ConfigurationSpace()

    hp = {}
    # Add Constants for all allowed types ('int', 'float', 'string')
    hp['alpha'] = Constant("alpha", 0.0001)
    hp['tol'] = Constant("tol", '0.0001')
    hp['verbose'] = Constant("verbose", 1)
    # Add numericals
    # Add Floats
    hp['beta_1'] = UniformFloatHyperparameter("beta_1", 0.85, 0.95, log=False)
    hp['beta_2'] = UniformFloatHyperparameter("beta_2", 0.85, 0.95, log=False)
    hp['power_t'] = NormalFloatHyperparameter("power_t", mu=0.5, sigma=0.1, log=False)
    # Add Ints
    hp['momentum'] = UniformIntegerHyperparameter("momentum", 0, 100, False)
    # # # hp['beta_2'] = NormalIntegerHyperparameter("beta_2", mu=0.85, sigma=0.001, log=False)  # not working - need beta smaller 1
    # Add Floats (log)
    hp['learning_rate_init'] = UniformFloatHyperparameter("learning_rate_init", 0.0001, 0.1, log=True)
    #hp['random1'] = NormalFloatHyperparameter("NormalFloat", mu=0, sigma=1, default_value=1, log=True)
    # Add Ints (log)
    #hp['random2'] = UniformIntegerHyperparameter("UniformInt", 2, 100, log=True)
    #hp['random3'] = NormalIntegerHyperparameter("NormalInt", mu=0, sigma=1, default_value=1, log=True)
    # Add Categorical for allowed types
    hp['activation'] = CategoricalHyperparameter('activation', choices=['identity', 'logistic', 'tanh', 'relu'])
    hp['solver'] = CategoricalHyperparameter('solver', choices=[-2, 0, 2])  # corrresponds to: 'lbfgs', 'sgd', 'adam'
    hp['batch_size_auto'] = CategoricalHyperparameter('batch_size_auto', choices=[True, False])
    hp['learning_rate'] = CategoricalHyperparameter('learning_rate', choices=[-0.5, 0.0, 0.5])  # corresponds to {'constant', 'invscaling', 'adaptive'}
    # Add Ordinal
    hp['batch_size'] = OrdinalHyperparameter('batch_size', sequence=[32, 64.0, '128'])

    for k, v in hp.items():
        cs.add_hyperparameter(v)

    # learning_rate only with sgd
    c = InCondition(hp['learning_rate'], hp['solver'], [0])
    c = EqualsCondition(hp['momentum'], hp['solver'], 0)
    # learning_rate_init only with sgd or adam
    cs.add_condition(OrConjunction(EqualsCondition(hp['learning_rate'], hp['solver'], 0),  # sgd
                                EqualsCondition(hp['learning_rate'], hp['solver'], 2)))  # adam
    # batch_size only with not batch_size_auto
    cs.add_condition(NotEqualsCondition(hp['batch_size'], hp['batch_size_auto'], True))
    # complicated way for solver == sgd
    #cs.add_condition(AndConjunction(LessThanCondition(hp['power_t'], hp['solver'], 1),
    #                                GreaterThanCondition(hp['power_t'], hp['solver'], -1)))
    # betas with adam
    cs.add_condition(EqualsCondition(hp['beta_1'], hp['solver'], 2))
    cs.add_condition(EqualsCondition(hp['beta_2'], hp['solver'], 2))

    return cs

class MyWorker(Worker):
    def __init__(self, *args, **kwargs):
        super(MyWorker, self).__init__(*args, **kwargs)
        digits = datasets.load_digits()  # load the digits dataset
        n_samples = len(digits.images)
        data = digits.images.reshape((n_samples, -1))

        # split it into training and validation set.
        split = n_samples // 2
        self.train_x, self.valid_x = data[:split], data[split:]
        self.train_y, self.valid_y = digits.target[:split], digits.target[split:]

    def compute(self, config, budget=None, *args, **kwargs):
        """ overwrite the *compute* methode: the training of the model happens here """

        print(config)
        # Modify if necessary
        config['momentum'] = config.get('momentum', 0) / 100.0
        config['tol'] = float(config['tol'])
        config['solver'] = {-2 : 'lbfgs', 0 : 'tanh', 2 : 'relu'}[config['solver']]
        config['batch_size'] = 'auto' if config['batch_size_auto'] else int(config['batch_size'])
        config.pop('batch_size_auto')
        config['learning_rate'] = {-0.5 : 'constant', 0.0 : 'invscaling', 0.5 : 'adaptive'}[config.get('learning_rate', 0.0)]
        #config.pop('random1')
        #config.pop('random2')
        #config.pop('random3')

        clf = neural_network.MLPClassifier(max_iter=int(budget),
                                           **config,
                                           )
        clf.fit(self.train_x, self.train_y)

        predicted = clf.predict(self.valid_x)
        loss_train = metrics.log_loss(self.train_y, clf.predict_proba(self.train_x))
        loss_valid = metrics.log_loss(self.valid_y, clf.predict_proba(self.valid_x))

        accuracy_train = clf.score(self.train_x, self.train_y)
        accuracy_valid = clf.score(self.valid_x, self.valid_y)

        # make sure that the returned dictionary contains the fields *loss* and *info*
        return ({
            'loss': loss_valid,  # this is the a mandatory field to run hyperband
            'info': {'loss_train': loss_train,
                     'loss_test': loss_valid,
                     'accuracy_train': accuracy_train,
                     'accuracy_test': accuracy_valid,
                    }  # can be used for any user-defined information - also mandatory
        })

def get_configspace():
    """ Returns the configuration space for the network to be configured in the example. """
    # BOHB does not support Ordinal -> convert to Cat
    cs_invalid = get_complete_configspace()
    cs = ConfigurationSpace()
    for hp in cs_invalid.get_hyperparameters():
        if isinstance(hp, OrdinalHyperparameter):
            cs.add_hyperparameter(CategoricalHyperparameter(hp.name, choices=hp.sequence))
        else:
            cs.add_hyperparameter(hp)
    return cs


text:
===========================
 API Reference
===========================

:Release: |version|
:Date: |today|

.. toctree::
    :maxdepth: 2

    kombu.connection
    kombu.simple
    kombu.messaging
    kombu.entity
    kombu.compat
    kombu.pidbox
    kombu.exceptions
    kombu.transport
    kombu.transport.pyamqplib
    kombu.transport.librabbitmq
    kombu.transport.pypika
    kombu.transport.memory
    kombu.transport.pyredis
    kombu.transport.beanstalk
    kombu.transport.mongodb
    kombu.transport.pycouchdb
    kombu.transport.base
    kombu.transport.virtual
    kombu.transport.virtual.exchange
    kombu.transport.virtual.scheduling
    kombu.serialization
    kombu.compression
    kombu.abstract
    kombu.syn
    kombu.utils
    kombu.utils.functional
    kombu.utils.compat
    kombu.utils.finalize


The semi-finals competition features 20 talented teen performers, who will be performing before a live audience and a panel of judges in the APJCC Auditorium. Based on the semi-finals, 10 contestants will be chosen to advance to the finals.
This is a great chance to see some of the best teen talent in the South Bay!
Ticket prices and more information coming soon. Or contact Diana Schnabel-Arevalo, South Bay Teen Idol Producer, at diana@apjcc.org.
For more information about South Bay Teen Idol, see apjcc.org/idol.
South Bay Teen Idol is made possible, in part, through Diamond level sponsorship by Coldwell Banker/Bill Lister; Platinum level by BASIS Independent Silicon Valley; Family Medicine/S. Wilturner, MD; PNC/Jeff Rhodes; and San Jose Youth Symphony; Gold level by Anonymous Donors and Avery Kaufman & Richard Borenstein; and Vinyl level by the Balaban Family, Doris & Rick z"l Davis, and Virginia & Randy Hess.
Sponsor: Coldwell Banker/Bill Lister; BASIS ; S. Wilturner, MD; PNC/Jeff Rhodes; SJYS; and individuals.


text:
focus / Wednesday, March 9, 2022
Drugs & Elderly
Safety of drugs in the elderly population in Italy
In recent years, the concept of deprescribing has been introduced, based on the reduction of the number of drugs taken in order to optimize the risk-benefit ratio of polypharmacy taking into account the goals of treatment and the preferences of the patient; however, the available intervention strategies are not numerous.1
Deprescribing is one of the issues addressed in the National Report on the use of drugs in the elderly population in Italy,2] produced in collaboration between the Istituto Superiore di Sanità (ISS) and Italian Medicine Agency (AIFA), which describes some local experiences of deprescribing carried out in different care settings.
The experience in nursing homes
A first experience concerns nursing homes. These facilities host elderly with chronic diseases, often treated with numerous psychotropic drugs3 that should be suspended to improve cognitive and functional performance.4 The experience, conducted in 10 nursing homes in Northern Italy in 2013-2014, concerned the identification of potentially inappropriate drugs in the institutionalized elderly (psychotropic: antipsychotics, antidepressants and benzodiazepines) and the subsequent modification of the prescription with the use of a software (INTERCheck). Results (272 participants) showed a reduction in the average number of medications (from 7.0±2.9 to 5.9±2.6) and in the percentage of subjects treated with psychotropic medications (-11.5%). Antipsychotics used for behavioural disorders in patients with dementia were reduced by 5.2%, benzodiazepines by 5.9%, and selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors by 8.1%. Thanks to this deprescribing intervention and the multidisciplinary approach that improved polypharmacy in the elderly, the percentage of subjects exposed to at least one potentially serious drug interaction was reduced (-21.3%) and there was no increase in adverse drug reactions.
The experience in hospital
Multidisciplinary interventions are found in the experience of deprescribing in the elderly hospitalized patient, where the hospital pharmacist also participates in the management of therapy during hospitalization. A study, conducted at Polyclinic of Milan in 6 departments of Internal Medicine and Geriatrics, evaluated the effect of recognition-reconciliation-revision therapy (RRRT) on prescribing choices. The pharmacist, going within 24-72 hours from the entrance of the patient in hospital, carried out the RRRT intervention through the use of various tools (including the software INTERCheck-WEB3, developed by Mario Negri Pharmacological Research Institute), identifying potentially inappropriate drugs taken before admission, the possible occurrence of adverse drug reactions not reported and treatments not supported by real therapeutic needs. Everything was discussed with the physician, who chose whether to modify therapy. At discharge, after a new RRRT, a form was completed for the general practitioner to support the new therapeutic choices. Over the 12 months of the study, each ward enrolled 15 patients aged ≥75 years, chronically treated with at least 5 medications and a life expectancy >6 months. On average, 9.4 (±3.7) medications were taken during the inpatient stay, and 455 Drug-Related Problems (DRPs) were identified, 5 per patient, which mainly involved the prescribing of inappropriate medications and/or those at risk for serious interactions (Table 1). Deprescribing (n=56) was the most frequent action following the reporting of a drug-related problem.
Table 1. Number and types of drug-related problems (DRPs) identified as part of the therapeutic reconciliation-review process and actions taken by the physician after discussion with the pharmacist2
The experience in general practice
The use of platforms to support prescribing5 and the shared approach of therapeutic remodulation, have led to a reduction of various drug-related problems in the elderly hospitalized. These interventions also support general practitioners who, for continuity of care, should ensure the monitoring of patients' therapies, also taking into account psycho-physical changes that may modify the overall benefit/risk ratio of therapies.
In this setting, in order to analyze deprescribing, an ad hoc study was conducted on the use of statins for the primary prevention of cerebro-cardiovascular events in elderly patients who do not benefit from such treatments6 through the analysis of data from the Health Search database of the Italian Society of General Medicine and Primary Care (SIMG). Among 9,568 patients aged over 80 years (without history of cardiovascular events), 20% were deprescribed statins. This intervention was similar between men and women but increased with age (31% in patients aged ≥90 years), also showed a geographical variability (deprescribing more in the North of Italy, 21%, than in the Centre, 18%, and in the South, 17%).
Deprescribing interventions are based on criteria of inappropriateness of medication use that allow limiting prescriptions of high risk drugs for the elderly.7,8 In a 2017-2018 study involving general practitioners and nursing homes from 9 Local Health Authorities in Emilia-Romagna Region, first indicators of inappropriateness most adequate to the context were identified, then measured and evaluated on the use of prescribed medications. Following clinical audits, post-intervention changes were assessed with a focus on drug interactions that, especially in nursing homes, were very frequent during the pre-intervention phase (Figure 1). There were decreases in the prevalence of simultaneous use of at least 10 drugs (6%), inappropriate prescriptions of proton pump inhibitors (20%), and benzodiazepines taken chronically (10%). At the territorial level, cases of non-adherence to statins, antidepressants and bisphosphonates were reduced (by 30%, 14% and 6% respectively). About 30% of patients had at least one combination, among the 159 considered, of drugs at risk of interaction: corrective interventions led to a 10% decrease.
Figure 1. Pre-intervention analysis: prevalence of potential drug interactions in nursing homes of different Local Health Authorities2
Individual Local Health Authorities are represented by a letter. The numbers within the bubbles represent the prevalence as a percentage of patients observed
SSRI: selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors
ASA: acetylsalicylic acid
PPI: proton pump inhibitors
The National Report2 describes some experiences of deprescribing based on the sharing of methods and activities to achieve defined and measurable objectives, useful to direct clinicians towards a better appropriateness of use of drugs in the elderly. Deprescribing represents an action of primary importance to be carried out in the various care settings and, starting from local experiences, should be extended to the whole national territory. The achievement of this objective should then be maintained through monitoring with a high degree of quality of prescriptions and optimal standards of care in the elderly.
Ilaria Ippoliti1, Graziano Onder2, Roberto Da Cas1, Luca Pellizzari3, Paola Ruggeri1
1 National Center for Research and Preclinical and Clinical Evaluation of Drugs, Istituto Superiore di Sanità (ISS)
2 Department of Cardiovascular, Endocrine-Metabolic Diseases and Aging, Istituto Superiore di Sanità (ISS)
3 Geriatrics A, Verona Integrated University Hospital
Jansen J, Naganathan V, et al. Too much medicine in older people? Deprescribing through shared decision making. BMJ 2016;353:i2893
Osservatorio Nazionale sull'impiego dei Medicinali. L'uso dei farmaci nella popolazione anziana in Italia. Rapporto Nazionale 2019. Roma, Agenzia Italiana del Farmaco, 2021. https://www.aifa.gov.it/documents/20142/1577699/OsMed_Farmaci_anziani_13...
Cioltan H, Alshehri S, et al. Variation in use of antipsychotic medications in nursing homes in the United States: a systematic review. BMC Geriatr 2017;17(1):32.
Gedde M, Husebo B, et al. Less is more: the impact of deprescribing psychotropic drugs on behavioral and psychological symptoms and daily functioning in nursing home patients. Results from the cluster-randomized controlled COSMOS trial. Am J Geriatr Psychiatry 2020;29:304-15.
Riduzione della politerapia negli anziani attraverso l'uso di uno strumento elettronico di supporto decisionale: i risultati italiani di uno studio controllato randomizzato multicentrico europeo. Osservatorio Nazionale sull'impiego dei Medicinali. L'uso dei farmaci nella popolazione anziana in Italia. Rapporto Nazionale 2019. Roma, Agenzia Italiana del Farmaco, 2021
Van der Ploeg M, Floriani C, et al. recommendations for (discontinuation of) statin treatment in older adults: review of guidelines. J Am Geriatr Soc 2020;68:417-25.
By the 2019 American Geriatrics Society Beers Criteria® Update Expert Panel. American Geriatrics Society 2019 updated AGS Beers Criteria® for potentially inappropriate medication use in older adults. J Am Geriatr Soc 2019;67:674-94.
O'Mahony D, O'Sullivan D, et al. STOPP/START criteria for potentially inappropriate prescribing in older people: version 2. Age Ageing 2015;44:213-8.


text:
When did hydraulic fracturing become such a popular approach to oil and gas production?
Hydraulic fracturing in vertical wells has been used for over fifty years to improve the flow of oil and gas from conventional reservoirs. However, the current practice of horizontal drilling coupled with multiple applications of hydraulic fracturing in a single well was pioneered in the late 1980s and has continued to evolve. Since the final years of the 20th century, the use of this technique to produce oil and gas from previously unproductive formations has dramatically increased, which has pushed hydraulic fracturing and related processes into regions where oil and gas had not previously been produced.
Topics (field_topics)
Select Year20202019201820172016201520142013201220112010
Sort by Original SortRelease Date DescTitle AscTitle Desc
Why have some estimates of undiscovered technically recoverable oil or gas changed so much from previous estimates?
Petroleum geologists have long known that oil and gas resources were present in "tight" or impermeable formations such as shale. But there was no feasible way to extract that oil and gas, so they were not "technically recoverable" and were not included in USGS assessment results. Thanks to new technologies, oil and gas can now be extracted from "...
Where in the United States is hydraulic fracturing being used for oil and gas extraction?
Hydraulic fracturing is used in many established oil and gas producing regions of the country as well as some areas new to the petroleum industry. Maps of major shale gas, tight gas, and tight oil basins are available from the U.S. Energy Information Administration, although not all of the shale basins shown currently have production.
Who is responsible for monitoring the issues associated with hydraulic fracturing and protecting our environment?
Individual states regulate many aspects of oil and gas exploration and production. Federal land managers, such as the Bureau of Land Management (BLM), the U.S. Forest Service (USFS), and the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (USFWS) have some oversight of oil and gas activities on the lands they manage. This includes conducting environmental impact...
What is hydraulic fracturing?
Hydraulic fracturing, informally referred to as "fracking," is an oil and gas well development process that typically involves injecting water, sand, and chemicals under high pressure into a bedrock formation via the well. This process is intended to create new fractures in the rock as well as increase the size, extent, and connectivity of...
What is in the fluid injected into the ground during hydraulic fracturing?
In general, hydraulic fracturing fluid is composed of water, proppant (typically sand), and chemicals. A public website known as FracFocus has been established by industry that lists specific materials used in many, but not all, hydraulically fractured wells. Individual companies select a few chemicals to be used from hundreds that are available...
What is the USGS role related to hydraulic fracturing?
The USGS is a science research agency with no regulatory, land management, or enforcement powers. This includes: research and assessments on the location, quantity, and quality of unconventional oil and gas resources whose production could involve hydraulic fracturing. Resource assessments estimate the quantity of oil and gas that is yet to be...
How much water does the typical hydraulically fractured well require?
There isn't really a "typical" fractured well because the amount of water used depends on the rock formation, the operator, whether the well is vertical or horizontal, and the number of portions (or stages) of the well that are fractured. In addition, some water is recycled from fluids produced by the well, so the net consumption might be smaller...
What environmental issues are associated with hydraulic fracturing?
The actual practice of hydraulic fracturing (or "fracking") is only a small part of the overall process of drilling, completing, and producing an oil and gas well. Environmental issues that are specifically related to hydraulic fracturing include: water availability spills of chemicals at the surface impacts of sand mining for use in the hydraulic...
How is hydraulic fracturing related to earthquakes and tremors?
Reports of hydraulic fracturing causing felt earthquakes are extremely rare. However, wastewater produced by wells that were hydraulic fractured can cause "induced" earthquakes when it is injected into deep wastewater wells. Wastewater disposal wells operate for longer durations and inject much more fluid than the hydraulic fracturing operations...
How does hydraulic fracturing affect the surface or landscape of an area?
An area undergoing production of oil or gas using hydraulic fracturing technology shares many features with areas where conventional oil or gas is being developed, including: Roads Pipelines Compressor stations Processing facilities. Features that are unique to areas in which hydraulic fracturing is used include: Fewer but larger drilling pads,...
How does hydraulic fracturing differ from traditional petroleum development methods?
In a conventional oil or gas field, where the oil or gas is in relatively porous and permeable rock (i.e. the pores are connected), the oil or gas can usually flow naturally from the reservoir rock to the wellbore. Nonetheless, a variety of techniques are often used to improve the flow of oil or gas, including hydraulic fracturing. Rock formations...
Can hydraulic fracturing impact the quality of groundwater or surface water?
Conducted properly, hydraulic fracturing (or "fracking") has little possibility of contaminating water supplies. Properly constructed wells prevent drilling fluids, hydraulic fracturing fluids, deep saline formation waters, or oil and gas from entering aquifers. Carefully constructed and operated well sites have the ability to contain potential...
Select TopicsEnergy (1)
Select Year2015 (3)2012 (1)1998 (1)
Select TypeReport (3)Article (2)
Unconventional energy resources: 2015 review. Shale gas and liquids
Introduction As the source rocks from which petroleum is generated, organic-rich shales have always been considered an important component of petroleum systems. Over the last few years, it has been realized that in some mudrocks, sufficient hydrocarbons remain in place to allow for commercial development, although advanced drilling and...
Fishman, Neil S.; Bowker, Kent; Cander, Harris; Cardott, Brian; Charette, Marc; Chew, Kenneth; Chidsey, Thomas; Dubiel, Russell F.; Egenhoff, Sven O.; Enomoto, Catherine B.; Hammes, Ursula; Harrison, William; Jiang, Shu; LeFever, Julie A.; McCracken, Jock; Nordeng, Stephen; Nyahay, Richard; Sonnenberg, Stephen; Vanden Berg, Michael
Attribution: Eastern Energy Resources Science Center, Energy Resources Program, Northeast
Myths and facts on wastewater injection, hydraulic fracturing, enhanced oil recovery, and induced seismicity
The central United States has undergone a dramatic increase in seismicity over the past 6 years (Fig. 1), rising from an average of 24 M≥3 earthquakes per year in the years 1973–2008 to an average of 193 M≥3 earthquakes in 2009–2014, with 688 occurring in 2014 alone. Multiple damaging earthquakes have occurred during this...
Rubinstein, Justin L.; Mahani, Alireza Babaie
Attribution: , Earthquake Science Center, Natural Hazards, Earthquake Hazards Program
Rubinstein, Justin L. and Alireza Babaie Mahani (2015), Myths and Facts on Wastewater Injection, Hydraulic Fracturing, Enhanced Oil Recovery, and Induced Seismicity, Seismological Research Letters, v. 86, no. 4, pp. 1060 - 1067, doi: 10.1785/0220150067.
Trends in hydraulic fracturing distributions and treatment fluids, additives, proppants, and water volumes applied to wells drilled in the United States from 1947 through 2010: data analysis and comparison to the literature
Hydraulic fracturing is presently the primary stimulation technique for oil and gas production in low-permeability, unconventional reservoirs. Comprehensive, published, and publicly available information regarding the extent, location, and character of hydraulic fracturing in the United States is scarce. This national spatial and temporal analysis...
Gallegos, Tanya J.; Varela, Brian A.
Attribution: Energy, Eastern Energy Resources Science Center, John Wesley Powell Center for Analysis and Synthesis, Central Energy Resources Science Center, Energy Resources Program, United States of America, John Wesley Powell Center for Analysis and Synthesis
Water quality studied in areas of unconventional oil and gas development, including areas where hydraulic fracturing techniques are used, in the United States
Domestic oil and gas production and clean water are critical for economic growth, public health, and national security of the United States. As domestic oil and gas production increases in new areas and old fields are enhanced, there is increasing public concern about the effects of energy production on surface-water and groundwater quality. To a...
Susong, David D.; Gallegos, Tanya J.; Oelsner, Gretchen P.
Attribution: Fort Collins Science Center, Utah Water Science Center, Eastern Energy Resources Science Center, John Wesley Powell Center for Analysis and Synthesis, Water Resources, Ecosystems, Energy Resources Program, Northeast, John Wesley Powell Center for Analysis and Synthesis
Water quality studied in areas of unconventional oil and gas development, including areas where hydraulic fracturing techniques are used, in the United States; 2012; FS; 2012-3049; Susong, David D.; Gallegos, Tanya J.; Oelsner, Gretchen P.
Unconventional natural gas resources on U.S. federal lands
Crovelli, Robert A.; Schmoker, J.W.; Nuccio, Vito F.
Unconventional natural gas resources on U.S. federal lands; 1998; FS; 030-98; Crovelli, Robert A.; Schmoker, J. W.; Nuccio, Vito F.
Select TopicEmployee in the NewsFeatured StoryNational News ReleaseScience SnippetState News ReleaseTechnical Announcement
Water Used for Hydraulic Fracturing Varies Widely Across United States
The amount of water required to hydraulically fracture oil and gas wells varies widely across the country, according to the first national-scale analysis and map of hydraulic fracturing water usage detailed in a new USGS study accepted for publication in Water Resources Research, a journal of the American Geophysical Union.
Attribution: Energy and Minerals, Energy Resources Program
Hydraulic Fracturing (Frac) Sand Sources and Production in the United States
Newly released research from the U.S. Geological Survey describes U.S. hydraulic fracturing (frac) sand deposits and their locations, and provides estimates of frac sand production, consumption, and reserves. A companion map of producing and potential frac sand and resin-coated sand source units in the conterminous U.S. is also included.
Attribution: Energy and Minerals, Mineral Resources Program, States and Territories, Region 3: Great Lakes, Geology, Geophysics, and Geochemistry Science Center, National Minerals Information Center
Historical Hydraulic Fracturing Trends and Data Unveiled in New USGS Publications
Two new U.S. Geological Survey publications that highlight historical hydraulic fracturing trends and data from 1947 to 2010 are now available.
USGS Releases Unconventional Gas Estimates for Five East Coast Basins
Using a geology-based assessment method, the U.S. Geological Survey estimated a mean undiscovered natural gas resource of 3.9 trillion cubic feet and a mean undiscovered natural gas liquids resource of 135 million barrels in continuous accumulations within five East Coast Mesozoic basins, according to a new USGS report.
Attribution: States and Territories, Region 2: South Atlantic-Gulf (Includes Puerto Rico and the U.S. Virgin Islands)
Hydraulic Fracturing Well Heads
Well heads hooked up in preparation for a hydraulic fracturing operation at a drill pad in the Fayetteville Shale gas play of Arkansas.
Withdrawing Water for Hydraulic Fracturing
Equipment set up to pump water from a lake to an impoundment for hydraulic fracturing in the Fayetteville Shale of Arkansas.
Perforating Gun for Hydraulic Fracturing
Unused and spent perforating gun used in oil and gas drilling and hydraulic fracturing. The pipe on the bottom left, shows holes created by the explosive charges mounted inside the pipe.
Hydraulic Fracturing Operation Underway
A hydraulic fracturing operation is underway at this drilling pad in the Marcellus Shale gas play of southwestern Pennsylvania.
Hydraulic Fracturing Drill Site
A typical drill pad in the Marcellus Shale gas play of southwestern Pennsylvania.
Generalized image showing the key points in hydraulic fracturing
Generalized image showing the key points in hydraulic fracturing for oil and gas development where water is part of the process.
Attribution: Energy and Minerals


Children's Ministries exist in our churches throughout the Pennsylvania Conference with the mission of leading children to the knowledge of God's love for them. Our desire is that children are positively overwhelmed with the awesomeness of God's love and that they are compelled by the Holy Spirit to wisely surrender their hearts, souls, and minds to Jesus while they are still young.
Children's Ministries programs, when consistently, properly, and faithfully administered, are the hub of church life for families with children. Many parents make decisions about whether or where to attend church based on the programs that are offered for children. Children who take part in programming specifically for children (such as Adventurers, Pathfinders, Sabbath School, Vacation Bible Xperience, and Kids' Clubs) and who serve in the church, both up front and behind the scenes, are more likely to become and remain active adult church leaders.
Pennsylvania Conference Children's Ministries' goal is to provide information and instruction that will equip church members to train children to be disciples of Jesus who will in turn make disciples of their friends and family.
Research from Barna Group shows that the moral foundations of a person are generally in place by age nine. Children find meaning and value and make a personal response to the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus by age eighteen – with the majority making this decision by the age of 12. Jesus Himself was about His Father's business by age 12. Further, research shows that most people make up their minds about spiritual matters by age 13. After 13, the focus shifts to confirm their existing beliefs rather than forming new ones. It is vital that we connect our children with our Savior while they are still young and as we see the signs of Jesus' second coming approaching.
Ellen Lazo is a wife, mom, teacher, with a passion for connecting children to Christ through teaching, fun, activities, and ways that will inspire creativity, passion and a desire to know more about God.
The Pennsylvania Conference is committed to Children's Ministries and the protection of children in all aspects of ministry in churches and schools.


The Anne Springs Close Greenway offers a variety of photography options on its 2,100 acres with respect to landscape and architecture. The Greenway is private property and photographers must comply with policies.
All photography must be scheduled. To schedule a session or purchase an Annual Photography Pass, please contact Linda Turner at 803.548.7252.


It does not take a disaster to get your air ducts dirty. An exterior environment near factories or traffic can increase the number of impurities found inside your home, and much of this ends up inside your ventilation system.
We can add air duct maintenance to cleaning services you already have scheduled for your home or business or schedule them as a stand-alone service. Keeping ducts free of unnecessary dust and debris also removes loose microbes, spores, and pollen that can dislodge and find its way into the air that you breathe.
If a disaster has happened, cleaning the air ducts can help keep mold and spores, as well as soot and odors from using your ventilation system to spread throughout your property. SERVPRO of Southwest Dallas is always here to help make your property as free of risks as possible.
For more information on HVAC and air duct cleaning, call us today, (214) 463-5880.


text:
package org.springframework.security.oauth2.provider.token;

import java.util.Collection;
import java.util.Collections;
import java.util.Date;
import java.util.HashSet;
import java.util.concurrent.ConcurrentHashMap;
import java.util.concurrent.DelayQueue;
import java.util.concurrent.Delayed;
import java.util.concurrent.TimeUnit;
import java.util.concurrent.atomic.AtomicInteger;

import org.springframework.security.oauth2.common.ExpiringOAuth2RefreshToken;
import org.springframework.security.oauth2.common.OAuth2AccessToken;
import org.springframework.security.oauth2.provider.OAuth2Authentication;
import org.springframework.util.Assert;

/**
 * Implementation of token services that stores tokens in memory.
 *
 * @author Ryan Heaton
 * @author Luke Taylor
 * @author Dave Syer
 */
public class InMemoryTokenStore implements TokenStore {

	private static final int DEFAULT_FLUSH_INTERVAL = 1000;

	private final ConcurrentHashMap<String, OAuth2AccessToken> accessTokenStore = new ConcurrentHashMap<String, OAuth2AccessToken>();

	private final ConcurrentHashMap<String, OAuth2AccessToken> authenticationToAccessTokenStore = new ConcurrentHashMap<String, OAuth2AccessToken>();

	private final ConcurrentHashMap<String, Collection<OAuth2AccessToken>> userNameToAccessTokenStore = new ConcurrentHashMap<String, Collection<OAuth2AccessToken>>();

	private final ConcurrentHashMap<String, Collection<OAuth2AccessToken>> clientIdToAccessTokenStore = new ConcurrentHashMap<String, Collection<OAuth2AccessToken>>();

	private final ConcurrentHashMap<String, ExpiringOAuth2RefreshToken> refreshTokenStore = new ConcurrentHashMap<String, ExpiringOAuth2RefreshToken>();

	private final ConcurrentHashMap<String, String> accessTokenToRefreshTokenStore = new ConcurrentHashMap<String, String>();

	private final ConcurrentHashMap<String, OAuth2Authentication> authenticationStore = new ConcurrentHashMap<String, OAuth2Authentication>();

	private final ConcurrentHashMap<String, OAuth2Authentication> refreshTokenAuthenticationStore = new ConcurrentHashMap<String, OAuth2Authentication>();

	private final ConcurrentHashMap<String, String> refreshTokenToAcessTokenStore = new ConcurrentHashMap<String, String>();

	private final DelayQueue<TokenExpiry> expiryQueue = new DelayQueue<TokenExpiry>();

	private int flushInterval = DEFAULT_FLUSH_INTERVAL;

	private AuthenticationKeyGenerator authenticationKeyGenerator = new DefaultAuthenticationKeyGenerator();

	private AtomicInteger flushCounter = new AtomicInteger(0);

	/**
	 * The number of tokens to store before flushing expired tokens. Defaults to 1000.
	 *
	 * @param flushInterval the interval to set
	 */
	public void setFlushInterval(int flushInterval) {
		this.flushInterval = flushInterval;
	}

	/**
	 * The interval (count of token inserts) between flushing expired tokens.
	 *
	 * @return the flushInterval the flush interval
	 */
	public int getFlushInterval() {
		return flushInterval;
	}

	/**
	 * Convenience method for super admin users to remove all tokens (useful for testing, not really in production)
	 */
	public void clear() {
		accessTokenStore.clear();
		authenticationToAccessTokenStore.clear();
		userNameToAccessTokenStore.clear();
		clientIdToAccessTokenStore.clear();
		refreshTokenStore.clear();
		accessTokenToRefreshTokenStore.clear();
		authenticationStore.clear();
		refreshTokenAuthenticationStore.clear();
		refreshTokenToAcessTokenStore.clear();
		expiryQueue.clear();
	}

	public void setAuthenticationKeyGenerator(AuthenticationKeyGenerator authenticationKeyGenerator) {
		this.authenticationKeyGenerator = authenticationKeyGenerator;
	}

	public int getAccessTokenCount() {
		Assert.state(accessTokenStore.isEmpty() || accessTokenStore.size() >= accessTokenToRefreshTokenStore.size(),
				"Too many refresh tokens");
		Assert.state(accessTokenStore.size() == authenticationToAccessTokenStore.size(),
				"Inconsistent token store state");
		Assert.state(accessTokenStore.size() <= authenticationStore.size(), "Inconsistent authentication store state");
		return accessTokenStore.size();
	}

	public int getRefreshTokenCount() {
		Assert.state(refreshTokenStore.size() == refreshTokenToAcessTokenStore.size(),
				"Inconsistent refresh token store state");
		return accessTokenStore.size();
	}

	public OAuth2AccessToken getAccessToken(OAuth2Authentication authentication) {
		OAuth2AccessToken accessToken = authenticationToAccessTokenStore.get(authenticationKeyGenerator
				.extractKey(authentication));
		if (accessToken != null && !authentication.equals(readAuthentication(accessToken.getValue()))) {
			// Keep the stores consistent (maybe the same user is represented by this authentication but the details
			// have changed)
			storeAccessToken(accessToken, authentication);
		}
		return accessToken;
	}

	public OAuth2Authentication readAuthentication(String token) {
		return this.authenticationStore.get(token);
	}

	public OAuth2Authentication readAuthenticationForRefreshToken(String token) {
		return this.refreshTokenAuthenticationStore.get(token);
	}

	public void storeAccessToken(OAuth2AccessToken token, OAuth2Authentication authentication) {
		if (this.flushCounter.incrementAndGet() >= this.flushInterval) {
			flush();
			this.flushCounter.set(0);
		}
		this.accessTokenStore.put(token.getValue(), token);
		this.authenticationStore.put(token.getValue(), authentication);
		this.authenticationToAccessTokenStore.put(authenticationKeyGenerator.extractKey(authentication), token);
		if (!authentication.isClientOnly()) {
			addToCollection(this.userNameToAccessTokenStore, authentication.getName(), token);
		}
		addToCollection(this.clientIdToAccessTokenStore, authentication.getAuthorizationRequest().getClientId(), token);
		if (token.getExpiration() != null) {
			this.expiryQueue.put(new TokenExpiry(token.getValue(), token.getExpiration()));
		}
		if (token.getRefreshToken() != null && token.getRefreshToken().getValue() != null) {
			this.refreshTokenToAcessTokenStore.put(token.getRefreshToken().getValue(), token.getValue());
			this.accessTokenToRefreshTokenStore.put(token.getValue(), token.getRefreshToken().getValue());
		}
	}

	private void addToCollection(ConcurrentHashMap<String, Collection<OAuth2AccessToken>> store, String key,
			OAuth2AccessToken token) {
		if (!store.containsKey(key)) {
			synchronized (store) {
				if (!store.containsKey(key)) {
					store.put(key, new HashSet<OAuth2AccessToken>());
				}
			}
		}
		store.get(key).add(token);
	}

	public OAuth2AccessToken readAccessToken(String tokenValue) {
		return this.accessTokenStore.get(tokenValue);
	}

	public void removeAccessToken(String tokenValue) {
		OAuth2AccessToken removed = this.accessTokenStore.remove(tokenValue);
		String refresh = this.accessTokenToRefreshTokenStore.remove(tokenValue);
		if (refresh != null) {
			this.refreshTokenStore.remove(tokenValue);
			this.refreshTokenToAcessTokenStore.remove(tokenValue);
		}
		OAuth2Authentication authentication = this.authenticationStore.remove(tokenValue);
		if (authentication != null) {
			this.authenticationToAccessTokenStore.remove(authenticationKeyGenerator.extractKey(authentication));
			Collection<OAuth2AccessToken> tokens;
			tokens = this.userNameToAccessTokenStore.get(authentication.getName());
			if (tokens!=null) {
				tokens.remove(removed);
			}
			tokens = this.clientIdToAccessTokenStore.get(authentication.getName());
			if (tokens!=null) {
				tokens.remove(removed);
			}
			this.authenticationToAccessTokenStore.remove(authenticationKeyGenerator.extractKey(authentication));
		}
	}

	public OAuth2Authentication readAuthentication(ExpiringOAuth2RefreshToken token) {
		return this.authenticationStore.get(token.getValue());
	}

	public void storeRefreshToken(ExpiringOAuth2RefreshToken refreshToken, OAuth2Authentication authentication) {
		this.refreshTokenStore.put(refreshToken.getValue(), refreshToken);
		this.refreshTokenAuthenticationStore.put(refreshToken.getValue(), authentication);
	}

	public ExpiringOAuth2RefreshToken readRefreshToken(String tokenValue) {
		return this.refreshTokenStore.get(tokenValue);
	}

	public void removeRefreshToken(String tokenValue) {
		this.refreshTokenStore.remove(tokenValue);
		this.refreshTokenAuthenticationStore.remove(tokenValue);
	}

	public void removeAccessTokenUsingRefreshToken(String refreshToken) {
		String accessToken = this.refreshTokenToAcessTokenStore.remove(refreshToken);
		if (accessToken != null) {
			removeAccessToken(accessToken);
		}
	}

	public Collection<OAuth2AccessToken> findTokensByClientId(String clientId) {
		Collection<OAuth2AccessToken> result = clientIdToAccessTokenStore.get(clientId);
		return result!=null ? Collections.<OAuth2AccessToken>unmodifiableCollection(result) : Collections.<OAuth2AccessToken>emptySet();
	}

	public Collection<OAuth2AccessToken> findTokensByUserName(String userName) {
		Collection<OAuth2AccessToken> result = userNameToAccessTokenStore.get(userName);
		return result!=null ? Collections.<OAuth2AccessToken>unmodifiableCollection(result) : Collections.<OAuth2AccessToken>emptySet();
	}

	private void flush() {
		TokenExpiry expiry = expiryQueue.poll();
		while (expiry != null) {
			removeAccessToken(expiry.getValue());
			expiry = expiryQueue.poll();
		}
	}

	private static class TokenExpiry implements Delayed {

		private final long expiry;

		private final String value;

		public TokenExpiry(String value, Date date) {
			this.value = value;
			this.expiry = date.getTime();
		}

		public int compareTo(Delayed other) {
			if (this == other) {
				return 0;
			}
			long diff = getDelay(TimeUnit.MILLISECONDS) - other.getDelay(TimeUnit.MILLISECONDS);
			return (diff == 0 ? 0 : ((diff < 0) ? -1 : 1));
		}

		public long getDelay(TimeUnit unit) {
			return expiry - System.currentTimeMillis();
		}

		public String getValue() {
			return value;
		}

	}

}


Warning: Spoilers for Rise Of The Planet Of The Apes and Dawn Of The Planet Of The Apes are in play. If you haven't seen either film, bookmark this page and come back when you're up to date.
By the end of Dawn Of The Planet Of The Apes, ape leader Caesar (Andy Serkis) and human leader Malcolm (Jason Clarke) had remained friends but sadly had to part company, anyway. The reason being that the events involving Koba's sabotage and Dreyfus' (Gary Oldman) call for back up had basically locked humanity into the long, hard struggle that would eventually see the Planet Of The Apes come to historical fruition. While we're not going to get to that point just yet, we do have an idea where things are going, as the new title for the 2017 sequel has been revealed. You've seen the Rise and survived the Dawn… now it's time to prepare for the War Of The Planet Of The Apes.
Collider broke the exclusive tidbit this afternoon, as a source of theirs has reported that the title to the untitled Planet Of The Apes sequel has decided to beat the drums of war. The scoop also provides a great refresher on why this title makes sense on a surface level, as Caesar's last lines were confirming that "Apes start war… and Human will not forgive." It looks like director Matt Reeves and company weren't only setting us up for a really effective ending with that line, but they were foreshadowing the fact that they're ready to go all out in the next film.
Of course, there's a slight downside to the next film being titled as such. While War Of The Planet Of The Apes is a grabbing title, and promises a lot of mayhem involving primates of all shapes and sizes, it puts a little added pressure on the story. Depending on how far of a jump in time there is between Dawn and War Of The Planet Of The Apes, the direct mention of war in the title promises a lot of forward action for the ape civilization. This goes against Matt Reeves' storytelling approach of a slow, eventual arrival to the world we know from the original Planet Of The Apes. But most important, it doesn't spell a good end for Caesar.
Both Caesar and Malcolm could try to push for peace within their time, as neither of them really wants a conflict. Just because Caesar acknowledged the coming storm doesn't mean he wants to get wet when it all comes down. Having already survived one attack by a compatriot who felt that humanity needed to go, it's only a matter of time before another challenger tries to usurp the throne. It's not personal, it's just the way nature goes. Of course, there's plenty of time for speculation and guesswork, as the film isn't scheduled to be released until 2017; but for now we've got a pretty awesome title to build a ton of high expectations and fan art off of.
War Of The Planet Of The Apes gears up for conflict on July 14, 2017; and our fingers are crossed that at least one more tie in book will fill in some of the gaps that will undoubtedly be present between the present and future installment.