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Pedicures/Calf Massage...total no-no?
In ,
Zucca4 wrote: *My lamaze teacher/labor nurse advised no calf massage at all during *pregnancy...something about the blood being heavier during pregnancy and *collecting in the lower body and massage unearthing a clot that could travel to *the lungs and.....you know the rest. I ran it by my doctor and he absolutley *agreed. I was a bit surprised as no one advised against this during the *beginning of my pregnancy The person who does my pedicures told me she couldn't do any foot massage during my third trimester for similar reasons. I told my doctor at my next appointment and he actually called her and reamed her out on the spot. What a bunch of BS. -- hillary israeli vmd http://www.hillary.net "uber vaccae in quattuor partes divisum est." not-so-newly minted veterinarian-at-large |
Pedicures/Calf Massage...total no-no?
Why would your doctor "ream" someone who was attempting to act cautiously on
your behalf regardelss of whether she was correct or not? I can understand some gentle "enlightenment" but a "ream" seemed hardly deserved.... I wish I had a doctor who had the TIME to call my pedicurist |
Pedicures/Calf Massage...total no-no?
In ,
Zucca4 wrote: *Why would your doctor "ream" someone who was attempting to act cautiously on *your behalf regardelss of whether she was correct or not? I can understand some *gentle "enlightenment" but a "ream" seemed hardly deserved.... Ok, maybe ream was the wrong word. He did start out very gently but he became somewhat heated when it became apparent the woman wasn't listening to him, that's all. *I wish I had a doctor who had the TIME to call my pedicurist Heh. My doctor was generous with his time for me. It sometimes took an hour and a half to get into his exam room, but once you were in, he was all yours until you were done. -- hillary israeli vmd http://www.hillary.net "uber vaccae in quattuor partes divisum est." not-so-newly minted veterinarian-at-large |
Pedicures/Calf Massage...total no-no?
"Zucca4" wrote in message ... My lamaze teacher/labor nurse advised no calf massage at all during pregnancy...something about the blood being heavier during pregnancy and collecting in the lower body and massage unearthing a clot that could travel to the lungs and.....you know the rest. I ran it by my doctor and he absolutley agreed. I was a bit surprised as no one advised against this during the beginning of my pregnancy (now in week 38) and I had a ton of pedicures with very deep accupressure to my calves. My doctor even went so far as to say that during a Charley Horse or leg cramp not to massage the calf which is so instinctive for me. He said it could be dangerous and I should just flex my foot or stand up. I'm kind of annoyed it wasn't mentioned earlier on. Anyway, thought I 'd share. Lisa Wow.......I go and get a Pedicure/Calf Massage twice a month sometimes 3 times a month depending on if I need a polish change. Anyways my doctor and a couple of midwives there told me I had nice feet and gave me nothing but compliments. Never once did anyone of them say not to get it done. Hmmmm.........I'm gonna ask them what they think and why they never said anything to me. Crystal |
The logic behind death by calf massage is certainly plausible, but it ends there. It's true that pregnancy put you at a hypercoagulable state, this is well documented (Pubmed ID:22145820 this article quotes a 6x increase risk in third trimester and a 22x increase risk 6 weeks postpartum). This is a risk multiplier, that's all. It DOES NOT GUARANTEE that you will have a clot. Obviously, if you smoke, AND take hormones, AND have cancer, your multipliers add up and you may actually get a clot. Secondly, venous thromboembolisms are common, but they are classified under superficial venous thrombosis and deep vein thrombosis (DVT), the difference between the two are that DVTs occur ABOVE the trifurcation (back of leg opposite the knee). DVTs are generally NOT life threatening and account for a very small percentage of clots. But DVTs in some cases can extend upwards and throw clots into your lungs, at which point it is called a pulmonary embolism (PE). The DEATH RATE from PE is 20-30% if untreated, and only 2-3% if treated. But you could just as easily develop a pulmonary embolism spontaneously, WITHOUT a DVT. Your DVT/PE risk are evaluated with the Well's Criteria (YOU SHOULD NOT ATTEMPT TO USE THIS CRITERIA ON YOURSELF UNLESS YOU ARE AN EXPERIENCED CLINICIAN AS DOCTORS OFTEN MISUSES IT) So, 1) the risk of clot during pregnancy is low 2) the risk of DVT is lower 3) the risk of PE from a DVT is even lower 4) the risk of pushing a clot from your leg into your lungs is super low, as people undergo this everyday in the hospital as part of ultrasound study to find out whether they have clots in their legs 5) the risk of dying from PE is 20-30% untreated, 2-3% if treated... I'm going to bet you will run to the ER if you start vomitting blood. I'm sure a few less intelligent mothers will ignore it.... there are all sorts of people after all. 6) Conclusion: clinically calf massage causing death through pulmonary embolus is astronomically low, you'll have better luck being run over by cars. Also, I would ask you to refrain from posting anecdotal experiences that are not followed by any medical or scientific support. They only serve to mislead and confuse people on this forum as they have no clinical judgement nor medical experience. I am not a hematologist, so I don't even attempt to use the Well's Criteria on people unless their pre-test suspicion for venous thromboembolism is high. The more stuff you post like this, the more people get confused. It also shows you have no sense of responsibility because you have not investigated it yourself. People will read this post and they will show up at their doctor's office asking a very very foolish question. This lowers the efficiency of our practices. I'm also not surprised when the other doctor tried to explain it he got very frustrated... sometimes patients want to believe they are going to die no matter what you say... but you know, if you ever wanted to sound insane to your doctor, this would be a good way to do it. Everyone, take on this example, every time you walk on carpet you generate static electricity, you pick up a charge, and sometimes you generate an ARC that zaps you. In a lightning storm, when you walk on carpet, you get hit by lightning and will die. Therefore you should not rub your hair or walk on carpet or rub vinyl strips as you can attract lightning to yourself and die. Does that make sense? Sure it does. Will it ever happen? ASTRONOMICAL!!!!!! People who die of calf massages are so rare they would end up as case-reports on prominent medical journals, try to find them... Last edited by hempboy : December 10th 11 at 01:45 AM. |
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ForumsQuestionsFolders, tags, context
Folders, tags, context
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angelique.augereau |
Hi there,
How do people use these three different ways of classifying to dos? Do you use all three in different ways or do you end up only using 1 or 2 and leave the other dimension alone? At the moment, I'm using folders for Work, Personal, Travel, etc. I see I could use tags for things like email, call, etc. but I'm struggling to see how I need three dimensions?? Thanks, Angelique |
replytoken |
I would suggest that you start by using what works for you. Eventually you may want to change your style to allow more control over your tasks, but I believe that you should start with what you know and let your style of management evolve.
--Ken |
roddyt |
I recommend, when you have some free time, that you go through old posts in these forums, especially "Getting Things Done." You'll find quite a few posts from people who've described their methods and how they use these fields. It's a learning experience. You'll find that there is no "right" way to do it. What you ultimately choose will be based on your own needs and style of working. But see what others have done and take ideas from them. You'll probably have to experiment to see what works best for you. Roddy |
Vin Thomas |
I use folders for areas of interest (work, school, ministry, etc), and contexts to associate the task with a particular place (@phone, @home, @mac, @store, etc), and tags for keywords if I need to quickly filter (clientX, bills, someday, etc).
But I agree with replytoken, you need to find something that works for you. I spent months tweaking my TD system. Now that I have one that works, my life is much simpler! |
saskia.x |
I use virtually the same system as Vin Thomas. I think of them as roughly analogous to the way that tasks are divided up in GTD (although my system is only losely based on GTD).
So: Individual tasks = actions Parent tasks = projects Folders = areas of focus/responsibility Short term goals = goals & objectives for the next year or so Long term goals = long term visions (3-5 years ish) Lifetime goals = purpose & core values, ultimate aims And obviously contexts = contexts! If you're not familiar with the GTD concept of a context, it is basically just about what situation you need to be in to do that task, which doesn't just mean physical location, but can also include things like the resources available. Contexts are useful for filtering tasks based on your current context (e.g. @home, @work, @computer), or for grouping tasks efficiently, e.g. you can bring up a list of all of the errands you need to do and do several of them in one outing. Mine include things like "@kids" for those tasks I can only do when my kids are around, and "@people/calls" for things I need to talk to someone about (this used to be two contexts "@phone" & "@people" but I realised there most of these could be discussed in person OR on the phone, so it was an artificial distinction). The distinction between contexts and areas of focus is useful, because the place where you do a task and the *reason* you are doing the task are often two separate things, but might have the same name, e.g. tasks that you are doing *for* your home won't necessarily be done *at* home (like buying something in a shop), and tasks done *at* work might not be done *for* work (e.g. personal phone calls that need to be made during office hours). Tags are used for a variety of things, like refining the contexts (e.g. I have an @home context, but use tags to group tasks that are all in the kitchen, say, so that I can do all those tasks at the same time) or classifying the type of task so that I can choose something to suit my current mood, e.g. "creative", "easy", "reading", "organising", "housework" etc. I also have a few very specific tags like "[tray]" which tells me that I have reference materials for the task stored in the filing trays on my desk (which each correspond to one of my Toodledo folders). Ultimately, though, as the others have said, you need to find a way of using Toodle that suits your own way of thinking, but it does help to get inspiration from other people's setups. This message was edited Apr 16, 2009. |
Vin Thomas |
I forgot to mention that I am a pro user, so it helps me to have subtasks. For the price (less than $15/yr) it is SO worth it! I love being able to expand only the projects I am working on. I use a parent task as a project, and sub tasks as actions connected to the project. It's great!
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TORONTO – J.A. Happ could see his Toronto teammates were having a tough time at the plate, and he didn't want their struggles to affect his own outing.
Joe Saunders and three relievers combined on a three-hitter and the charging Baltimore Orioles blanked the Blue Jays 4-0 Monday, cutting their AL East deficit to one game.
Happ said he was conscious of trying not to be too fine as Saunders sliced through Toronto's lineup, setting down the first 17 batters in order.
"You try not to think about it but when you're out there you just want to give us the best chance you can," Happ said. "Sometimes you try to do a little too much and be a little too fine, but I tried to stay aggressive.
"I was trying to be pretty selective in the pitches I threw to keep us in the game as best as I could," Happ added. "They chased me out of there quicker than I would have liked."
Happ (3-2) allowed three runs, two earned, and six hits in five-plus innings to lose for the first time since Aug. 7 at Tampa Bay. He walked two and struck out nine, one shy of his season high.
"I thought Jay had quality stuff today as evidenced by the number of strikeouts," Blue Jays manager John Farrell said.
Baltimore manager Buck Showalter praised Happ for not letting the Orioles build too big a lead.
"He bent but didn't break," Showalter said. "He gave them a chance to win today."
The Blue Jays, who were shut out for the seventh time this season, have lost three straight and 11 of 15.
The Orioles, who took two of three at Yankee Stadium over the weekend, moved even closer to New York after the Yankees lost 4-3 at Tampa Bay.
J.J. Hardy drove in two runs as the Orioles won for the eighth time in 10 games. The one-game gap marks the closest anyone has been to the Yankees since mid-June.
Baltimore, which had lost four in a row at Toronto, collected its eighth shutout of the season. The Orioles have won 20 of 28 overall.
Acquired recently from Arizona, Saunders (1-1) was perfect through five before hanging a changeup to nine-hole hitter Adeiny Hechavarria, who lined a two-out single to center in the sixth.
Saunders acknowledged he'd long been dreaming of the possibility of a perfect game or no-hitter.
"You think about it," he said, smiling. "I thought about it after the first. I was like 'Ooh, nice. I didn't give up a hit in the first.'"
Saunders bounced back nicely from his Baltimore debut, when he allowed six runs in 5 1-3 innings in a loss to the White Sox.
"Today he settled in a little bit more," catcher Matt Wieters said. "He was definitely in control the whole game and was able to mix in different off-speed pitches."
After Hechavarria's hit, Rajai Davis followed with a walk, but Saunders struck out Colby Rasmus to end the inning. Saunders allowed three hits in 6 1-3 innings. He walked two and struck out two.
"(Saunders) was the difference today," Showalter said.
Luis Ayala replaced Saunders after the Blue Jays loaded the bases with one out in the seventh. Ayala escaped by fanning rookie Moises Sierra and getting Jeff Mathis to fly out.
Pedro Strop worked the eighth and Jim Johnson finished for Baltimore.
Adam Jones had two hits and Nick Markakis reached three times for the Orioles.
The Orioles opened the scoring in the second when Manny Machado led off with a fly down the line in right. Fighting the sun and making a long run to the ball, Sierra couldn't come up with the sliding catch and was charged with a three-base error.
"Obviously Moises had a difficult time with the sun in right," Farrell said.
Machado scored when Nate McLouth followed with a sacrifice bunt.
Baltimore tacked on two more in the fifth on back-to-back RBI doubles by Markakis and Hardy. Happ avoided further damage by striking out Wieters, Mark Reynolds and Machado to strand runners at second and third.
"They were able to manufacture a couple of runs but he made a number of key pitches to prevent a big inning," Farrell said.
Hardy added an RBI single in the eighth.
Brad Lincoln replaced Happ after McLouth doubled off the wall to begin the sixth. A walk, a sacrifice and an intentional walk loaded the bases for Hardy, but he grounded into an inning-ending double play.
NOTES: Toronto recalled LHP Brett Cecil and activated RHP Jason Frasor (forearm) off the 15-day DL. ... The Orioles selected LHP Zach Phillips from Triple-A Norfolk and designated RHP Jason Berken for assignment. Baltimore also recalled RHP Tommy Hunter from Double-A Bowie. ... Blue Jays C J.P. Arencibia (right hand) has begun a rehab assignment at Class-A Dunedin and could rejoin the team by the end of the week, manager John Farrell said. ... The Orioles will recall RHP Zach Britton before Tuesday's game, allowing him to start against Toronto.


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Did President Barack Obama win a mandate from the American people last week? Fox News appears to think he didn't. Some people didn't vote for him. Dick Morris doesn't see a mandate, though he foresaw a landslide for challenger Mitt Romney. Haley Barbour, the former head of the Republican National Committee, said the election was pretty much a tie. And the Wall Street Journal said Republicans, by dint of holding on to the House of Representatives, have a mandate equal to the president's.
Bill Press offers a blunt retort.
Those naysayers are not only pathetic, they're dead wrong. … Obama didn't need the help of the Supreme Court. He won the election on his own. That's a mandate. With Florida, he won the electoral vote by 332 to 206. That's a mandate. … He beat Romney in the popular vote by almost 3 million. That's a mandate.
What's missing from this debate, if it can be called that, is that Obama's mandate is unique in the context of modern presidential history. In past elections, incumbents ran on their record, and his campaign was generally seen as a referendum of that first term. But this time, the race for the White House was framed as a choice between conflicting worldviews.
As Mother Jones' David Corn reports, Obama and his team chose to run on ideological grounds pretty much since the "shellacking" he received after the 2010 midterms. Obamacare, financial reform, the stimulus program, the killing of Osama bin Laden — all of these are stunning and underrated achievements compared to other presidencies, and all could have been legitimate grounds for launching a referendum election. But Obama chose a "values-and-vision" platform. Do you want to return to the trickle-down economic policies of the past 30 years or do you want to move forward with fair economic policies that benefit everyone?
Indeed, the president ran as an old-school Democrat, a populist for the people willing to speak for the forgotten Americans who face on their own the daily prospect of economic destruction. He successfully made the case that government should protect the people against the excesses of capitalism, and voters said yes. They want government to create more and better jobs. They want social insurance programs like Social Security and Medicare. They want higher taxes on the rich. And they see no problem with greater public spending on infrastructure, education and energy.
And Romney broadened and deepened that populist image. First by defending the supply-side policies of the Bush years (though, of course, he never uttered the word "Bush"). Then by pivoting from referendum strategy early in the campaign to a choice strategy some time over the summer. From that point onward, Romney helped Obama cast the race as a choice between worldviews: both, remarkably, characterized by class. Romney, emboldened by flawed polling that showed an electorate far more to the right than it actually is, sought to press an advantage that he didn't actually have. He thought he'd win the war of ideas, and he lost, badly.
Here's one way of looking at this: Populism is good for workers. Here's another way: It's bad for their bosses. The real bosses, the one per cent. For them, populism isn't rhetorical. They know what it means. They were listening when Obama railed against the rich for thinking they played by a different set of rules; when he said he'd go back and raise their taxes; when the crowds, in places like Ohio, gobbled it all up. If there's any doubt the bosses are worried, consider what they were prepared to do.
Prior to Election Day, Romney asked the CEOs of major corporations to "advise" employees to vote Republican. Sure, they said, warning workers they'd better support Romney or face unemployment. Georgia-Pacific, owned by the billionaire Koch brothers, did it. So did the heads of Cintas, ASG Software Solutions and Rite-Hite. Papa John's and Applebee's said they'd shed payrolls before yielding to the demands of Obamacare.
Wall Street is quaking. The big firms had bet big against the president, and after the election, the Dow Jones dropped by 2.4 per cent, or 320 points. Meanwhile, Murray Energy, the largest privately held coal mining company in the US, made good on its threat to can workers if Obama won. It laid off more than 150 workers this week, because it was in "survival mode". Future layoffs loom on the horizon. And even the rightist media followed suit. A literary blogger for Commentary, a Zionist neocon monthly, was sacked after making the conservative case for gay marriage.
The political right lost the war of ideas and is now engaged in a guerrilla war against the president's mandate. Who knows how long that will last? What they don't seem to understand is that one goes with the other. The more Romney pushed a pro-boss agenda, the worse things got for him (conversely, as we saw after the first presidential debate, the less he pushed, the better off he was). And now that the campaign that gave expression to this war of ideas has ended, the bosses themselves are picking up where Romney left off, and they think they can win.
They can't. But it will be fun to watch. The president won a mandate to champion the cause of Americans whose lives are threatened by economic forces beyond their control. The president has said that together we can make the country a more just place to live and work, and we can start by raising taxes on your bosses, the real bosses, the one per cent. And the people, by the widest margin ever given to a Democrat, said yes.
Now the bosses are making those abstract economic forces feel real by firing workers, and the more they do that, the more people have reason to stand behind the president.
We haven't hit a tipping point yet. Not by a long shot. But it's possible to imagine a brighter future for workers if Obama remains the populist that we saw so often on the campaign trail. The war of ideas is just beginning, and we are only now seeing the case being made that the bosses are not the makers – they are merely the owners. The real makers are the workers. And when workers are given a clear choice, as they were in this election, they choose the man who fights for them – and against their bosses.


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AMSTERDAM (AP) — The European Commission said Monday that Google's Motorola Mobility abused its market position in Europe by refusing to grant crucial technology licenses to rival Apple, then suing Apple for patent infringement when the company used them anyway.
Separately, Samsung settled a case where it had tried to use its patents to block Apple from bringing a phone to market.
But neither company was slapped with a fine.
At a press conference, the Commission's chief competition authority, Joaquin Almunia, said that's because it can be difficult to determine when a company has the right to protect its patents — which drive innovation — and when a dominant company is wielding the power a patent gives them to stifle competition and harm consumers.
"We are trying to trike the right balance" between patent holder rights and competition rules, Almunia said in Brussels, where the Commission, the European Union's executive arm, is based. "The Motorola case set up the framework we think should be followed."
Almunia said the dividing line should be when patents have become an industry standard.
In those cases, if someone wanting to use a patent agrees to pay "fair and reasonable terms" to use it, the holder must agree. In Motorola and other cases, disagreements about what's fair should be referred to arbitration — not used right away to block someone else from bringing a product to market.
Ultimately, however, companies may still decide to sue each other over patent infringement, as Apple, Samsung and others have been doing in courts around the world for several years.
Samsung agreed Tuesday not to try to seek injunctions against competitors for five years in Europe, and to submit future disagreements to arbitration along the lines Almunia suggested.
Google is in the process of selling Motorola to China's Lenovo.


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Verified Customer
"Outstanding service. They were extremely careful delivering the extra large container into our driveway." -- A. L. GARNER
Aside from serving local property owners, WRS Dumpster Rental also has multiple locations throughout Delaware, Maryland, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Virginia and Washington DC property owners have used WRS Dumpster Rental for all of their dumpster needs.Cleaning out an old home can be very time-consuming. Between how much time it takes to actually clean the house and remove all of the unwanted possessions, the number of trips one would have to make to the local dump can be staggering. Eliminate all of those countless trips to the dump by having the experts at WRS Dumpster Rental drop off a dumpster rental. The more time one can focus on just cleaning out the house, the quicker the difficult job will be over. More information on WRS Dumpster Rental and their selection of dumpster rentals can be found by visiting their website at https://wrsdumpsterrental.com. Anyone looking to rent a dumpster in the Baltimore area should give WRS Dumpster Rental a call today by dialing 410-413-1280. About WRS Dumpster RentalWRS Dumpster Rental serves Southeastern Pennsylvania as well as areas in Delaware and Maryland. Those in commercial and residential areas who are seeking quality dumpsters at affordable prices, do not have to look any further than this company. They offer roll-off dumpsters that can be used for residential waste, organic material, construction debris, clean fill, and more.For more information, go to http://wrsdumpsterrental.com/.For more information on this press release visit: http://www.sbwire.com/press-releases/wrs-dumpster-rental-helps-making-moving-a-breeze-971365.htm... (Digital Journal)
Jersey City, which coincidentally will also melt the paint right off a house and maybe give you an extra arm or two. Such is the life of us New Jersey folk, right?Jam "Chromium Homes" below, pre-order the album here, see Black Wail at the following dates, and make sure your speakers are turned the fuck up for this one.November 30 Brooklyn, NY Brooklyn BazaarJanuary 19 Jersey City, NJ White Eagle Hall... (Metal Injection.net)
Americans" in an alleged plot to set off three bombs in one day. The third device — a pipe bomb — exploded earlier at a charity race in Seaside Park, New Jersey, but didn't hurt anyone.Defense lawyers have called the government's evidence flawed and urged jurors to keep an open mind about their client.The trial has been adjourned until Tuesday. (mySanAntonio.com)
Mayor Ras Baraka, Members of the Municipal Council, Director of Public Works Kalif Thomas, and New Jersey Clean Communities Council Executive Director Sandy Huber announced today that the City of Newark, in partnership with Essex County, will host the 15th Annual "Gateway to a Cleaner Newark Citywide Cleanup" on Thursday, October 5, from 8 a.m. until 2 p.m.The cleanup will take place rain or shine, starting and ending at Lincoln Park on Broad Street and Clinton Avenue, in Newark's Downtown. Residents and business owners are being challenged to support this annual event and break out brooms and bags to clean up Newark's empty lots and sweep litter from streets, in an effort to "Slam Dunk the Junk."Last year more than 900 volunteers participated in the annual clean-up."Gateway Cleanup Day has become a great tradition in the City of Newark. For 15 years, it has showcased our determination to make our beloved Newark a cleaner City," Mayor Baraka said. "Residents of all ages and a variety of community organizations come together to remove trash from our streets and plant flowers, and physically transform the face and streetscape of Newark, making us a stronger as well as cleane...
Queens, N.Y., had told them to drive along Route 1 in Connecticut looking for unlocked containers of used cooking oil, police said.The New Jersey company listed on the truck is out of business and the telephone has been disconnected. (CT Post)


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Mitochondrial dysfunction induced by HIV postexposure prophylaxis
Mitochondriale Dysfunktion durch HIV Postexpositionsprophylaxe
Suche in Medline nach
Veröffentlicht: | 2. Juni 2010 |
Objectives: Both combination antiretroviral therapy (cART) and HIV itself may cause mitochondrial toxicity. To better define the specific influence of cART we monitored the decrease in mitochondrial transmembrane potential (ΔΨm) in HIV uninfected patients receiving HIV post exposure prophylaxis (PEP).
Methods: Twenty patients undergoing PEP and 9 individuals not receiving PEP were enrolled in the study. Blood was drawn before start of PEP (wk 0), after 2 and 4 weeks of PEP (wk 2 and wk 4), and 8 weeks after finishing PEP (wk 12) from available patients. FACS analysis of ΔΨm was performed by staining isolated peripheral blood mononuclear cells (PBMC) with JC-1, a fluorescent dye indicating mitochondrial transmembrane potential. Apoptotic cells were identified by Annexin-V-FITC and propidium iodide (PI) staining. Eighteen of the 20 PEP patients received a combination of emtricitabine, tenofovir and lopinavir/ritonavir.
Results: Measurements of ΔΨm and apoptosis at the different timepoints before (wk 0), during (wk 2, wk 4), and after PEP (wk 12) are shown in the figure. ΔΨm in isolated PBMC changed significantly over the 12 week course of observation (p=0.017). A significant decrease was found during the 4 weeks of PEP (p=0.0084). During the time period without PEP between 4 and 12 weeks ΔΨm increased significantly (p=0.025) to levels comparable to baseline. This was also found in the subgroup of the 18 patients receiving a combination of emtricitabine, tenofovir and lopinavir/ritonavir (p=0.04). No significant difference was found in the apoptosis rates during and 8 weeks after PEP (p=0.46).
(Figure 1 [Fig. 1])
Conclusions: A four week course of HIV-PEP using cART mainly consisting of tenofovir, emtricitabine, and lopinavir/ritonavir induced mitochondrial toxicity by causing a significant decrease in ΔΨm in PBMC; it did not affect the apoptosis rate of PBMC. Mitochondrial damage of longterm HIV cART may be significant even using newer agents thought to be less toxic, such as tenofovir and emtricitabine.


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I recently replied to ta question on the National Journal blog, "How is the absence of discussion about global warming going to affect our ability to do something about it?"
You can read more on the original blog post and other responses at the National Journal.
Here is my response:The near-absence of climate change from the recent national debate will hurt the United States economy and the global effort to address climate change.
Aside from brief mentions in his acceptance speech, at a few campaign stops, and in an MTV interview, President Obama has not raised climate change recently, while Governor Romney has gone silent on the issue since the mocking mention in his acceptance speech.
Worst of all, the campaigns' silence is emblematic of a society-wide climate silence. Just a few years ago, there was much more discussion about climate change. After Hurricane Katrina in 2005, for example, climate change was on the cover of almost every national news magazine. But following the failure of cap-and-trade legislation, politicians, businesses, faith leaders, and even many environmentalists fell silent, leaving the naysayers to fill the void. No wonder the public ranks climate change at the bottom of its list of priorities.
This, despite the fact that climate change is happening now and faster than anticipated, science points unequivocally to human activity as the primary cause, and the predicted increase of droughts, floods, wildfires, heat waves, and major storms like Hurricane Sandy has real costs to our economy and well-being.
Does it matter that our elected representatives aren't talking about climate change? Yes, because we need them to hammer out the policies that will address it.
Granted, both President Obama and Governor Romney are talking a lot about energy, and energy policy has huge and direct implications for climate change. Obama has consistently supported low-emitting technologies ranging from wind power to carbon capture and storage. Both candidates support research and development for energy technologies, including through the Advanced Research Projects Agency for Energy (ARPA-E), a branch of the Department of Energy established in 2007 to focus on transformational energy research.
But while it's fine for the federal government to invest in clean energy, only the private market will be able to sort out and deploy the best low-emitting technologies, and that isn't going to happen without a price on carbon emissions.
Market-based greenhouse gas reduction programs are either established or in the works in other nations – the European Union, Australia, New Zealand, South Korea, and China – but they can only go so far in the competitive global economy without the United States doing its share. Two greenhouse gas cap-and-trade programs in the United States — one covering power plants in nine northeastern states and California's soon-to-be launched economy-wide program — show that we can do this here at home as well.
For reasons good and bad (the vehicle fuel economy standards, the new access to shale gas, and the recession), U.S. greenhouse gas emissions are projected to be near or below 2005 levels through 2035. But we are not nearly on track to reduce emissions by 80 percent by 2050, a target that would reduce the risk of the worst consequences of climate change. To solve this problem, we must fully enlist the effort of the largest and most innovative economy in the history of the world.
Given the national climate silence of the past three years and the nasty partisanship of the current political season, perhaps it was just as well that the presidential candidates didn't brawl over climate change, which might have risked driving the partisan wedge deeper into the issue. Once this election is over, however, we have to start facing the climate change problem again or we aren't going to solve it.


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Resources & Tools
We offer the best mortgage tools available on the Internet – easy, convenient, on-line shopping for the best loan programs and most current rates available, together with the assistance of an experienced, "live" loan officer to guide you through the often difficult and confusing process of choosing and getting the exact loan to meet your specific needs.
Thank you for visiting our website. We look forward to putting our mortgage service to work for you!


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Although the mortgage company is responsible for paying your taxes, they sometimes get missed. Watch your mortgage statements or call your local treasurer to check that your taxes are being paid promptly. Michigan law holds the property owner responsible.
Show All Answers
No. Neither, the local treasurer, County Treasurer, nor State treasurer has authority to waive interest or penalties. Michigan law holds the taxpayer responsible to know that taxes are paid on time.
No, forfeiture is not foreclosure. If your property is in forfeiture, you still have a year before it will be foreclosed. However, the interest and fees will be higher. When a property is forfeited, the interest rate goes from 1% per month to 1.5% per month, back to the date the taxes became delinquent. A $175 title search fee is added along with other notice fees. We will record a Certificate of Forfeiture with the Grand Traverse County Register of Deeds, so it will come up on any title searches.
Even if you can't pay your taxes all at once, you can still make partial payments. Each payment will reduce the amount of interest that is added each month. The final payment must be made prior to the foreclosure date. Make your check or money order payable to the Grand Traverse County Treasurer. To ensure your payment is applied to your parcel, please write your parcel number on your check or money order along with the year you intend to pay. The mailing address is:
Grand Traverse County Treasurer
400 Boardman Avenue STE 104
Traverse City, MI 49684
Yes, at least 5 notifications will be made. 2 will be by first class mail, 2 by certified mail and the last notification will be delivered by personal service. In addition to these notifications, names and addresses of delinquent property owners may be published in the Traverse City Record Eagle.
Yes, once you are notified of the foreclosure you will need to fill out "Notice of Claim" no later than July 1. The following February after the property is sold you need to file a motion with the court requesting any remaining proceeds. At the hearing the judge will review the claim and order any appropriate refund.
Your initial tax bill is sent by your local township/city/village treasurer. Any questions or concerns regarding your current taxes must be directed to your local Treasurers' office.
Notify your township, city, or village office as soon as possible.
Contact your local township/city/village assessor's office.
Yes. Tax payments are quite often missed during the transitional time following a refinance. Be sure that your mortgage company is paying the taxes, as they should. Again, the taxpayer is ultimately responsible for seeing that the taxes are paid.
County Phone & Email Directory


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Universe : | Prime Timeline |
Location of Event : | Deep Space Nine [1] |
Year : | 2371 [1] |
Nature of Event : | Multiple future incursions [1] |
In 2371 a Romulan delegation travelled to Deep Space Nine to study intelligence reports concerning the Dominion, a favour which Starfleet granted in return for the Romulan's allowing the Defiant to use one of their cloaking devices. At the time Chief Miles O'Brien was suffering a mild case of radiation poisoning after an industrial accident. Relaxing in Quark's Bar, O'Brien suddenly found himself transported to another part of the room where he witnessed himself having a conversation with Quark. After a few seconds he was back where he had been - and immediately collapsed in pain. [1]
Dr. Bashir suspected that the radiation might have caused a hallucinations, as this is an expected side effect of this exposure. However, when O'Brien went back to Quark's a few hours later he had the exact same conversation that he had witnessed before. Jadzia speculated that the radiation had somehow caused O'Brien's to briefly jump forward five hours in time. Even as she explained, O'Brien jumped again - again to Quark's, this time into the middle of a fight between a group of Klingons and the visiting Romulans. [1]
Further examination by Bashir revealed that the time jumps were posing a significant and escalating threat to O'Brien's life. As he went back to Quark's to await the fight, O'Brien shifted again - and this time saw himself opening an inspection panel in a corridor only to be killed by a phaser weapon hidden inside. [1]
After his return to the present, the station crew investigated the panel but found nothing. Assuming that the weapon will be placed in the panel sometime in the next few hours, they agree to monitor the area for any activity by the Klingons or the Romulans. Meanwhile Bashir worked to remove the radiation from O'Brien's body. Shortly afterwards, Odo discovered that a surveillance had been beamed behind the panel. He suspected that the Klingons were spying on the Romulans, though there was no conclusive evidence of this. [1]
O'Brien shifted again, this time finding himself standing over his own dead body in the station infirmary. Dr. Bashir told him what had gone wrong with his treatment before the shift ended, and on his return he was able to give the doctor the information he needed to avoid the death. In the meantime Dax managed to discover the cause of the jumps - a quantum singularity was orbiting the station. At certain points in the orbit it was interacting with the radiation in O'Brien's body to trigger the jumps. As she explained, O'Brien jumped once again - this time to some of the crew evacuating the station in a Runabout as it was destroyed and the wormhole collapsed. [1]
Desperate for more information regarding this unknown threat, O'Brien injected himself with another dose of the radiation and triggered another jump into the future. He teamed up with his future self and discovered that the quantum singularity orbiting the station was in fact the engine core of a cloaked Romulan Warbird - it was this ship which had destroyed Deep Space Nine in his previous jump. The radiation finally overcame O'Brien and he collapsed - whereupon his future self returned to the present in his place. [1]
Commander Sisko expelled the Romulan delegation - stating that they had obviously decided to destroy the station and the wormhole to end the Dominion threat whilst making it look like a convenient accident caused by the Wormhole collapse. [1]
Canon source | Backstage source | Novel source | DITL speculation |
# | Series | Season | Source | Comment |
1 | DS9 | 3 | Visionary |
Series : | DS9 Season 3 |
Episode : | Visionary |
© Graham & Ian Kennedy | Page views : 28,729 | Last updated : 9 Apr 2005 |


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Striking changes are occurring in the NAND industry. Samsung (NASDAQOTH: SSNLF) began the mass-production of its 3D NAND modules in August last year, which compared to its planar NAND modules, are twice as fast, last 10 times longer, and consume 50% less power. Micron (MU 0.97%), SK Hynix, Seagate (STX), and Toshiba intend to follow suit and are currently developing their respective 3D NAND technologies. But, how exactly will 3D NAND make its place in the flash memory industry? Let's find out.
How is 3D NAND better?
Whether it's 2D or 3D NAND, the cost of manufacturing flash modules largely depends on die size.
To cut production costs, memory manufacturers strive to cram more transistors onto the same die by shrinking their fabrication process. However, we've reached a point where chip lithography can't be shrunk any further, thereby suggesting that the cost of planar NAND modules can't be drastically reduced.
To utilize the die area more efficiently, Toshiba introduced its 3D NAND technology back in 2007. These modules consist of vertically stacked NAND strings, which squeeze more transistors into the same die area. Thus, these next-gen flash modules offer better performance, higher density, and lower cost per GB.
According to Samsung, its 40nm 3D NAND produces an equivalent lithography of a 10nm planar NAND. As explained by Crossbar, a 3D NAND module fabricated using a regular 20nm process would produce an equivalent planar NAND process of 5nm. Therefore, mass-produced 3D NAND modules offer scalability at relatively lower costs.
Adios, 2D NAND?
Jim Handy of Objective Analysis explained that, since the fabrication process of 2D NAND is not shrinking, planar flash drives will continue to cost 10 times more than equivalent hard drives. This pricing barrier would be detrimental to the adoption of enterprise-scale planar flash drives, which is where 3D NAND will shine.
Enterprise SSD clients struggling to meet rising data storage needs will have to adopt 3D flash drives due to their high density and low cost per GB requirements. DRAMeXchange believes that this shift will propel 3D NAND's market share to 20% in 2015, up from 3% in 2014. IHS, being slightly more bullish, expects 3D NAND market share to expand to 49.8% by 2016.
Thus, the future looks bright for 3D NAND industry.
How this may impact companies
Since Samsung has been mass-producing enterprise scale 3D NAND modules since August last year, it has a technological head start. This enables the company to fix known bugs with the 3D NAND technology, before its peers. The company has managed to increase its production yield, which, according to DRAMeXchange, will enable it to lower production costs by 2015.
Micron is another formidable competitor. Jagadish Iyer of Piper Jaffray believes that the company will be sampling its next-gen non-volatile memory in the first half of 2014, and begin the mass production of its 256GB 3D NAND drives early next year. Meanwhile, the pure-play memory manufacturer will shrink its planar NAND fabrication process -- one last time -- to 16nm, which can later be utilized in the fabrication of its 3D NAND modules.
Investors scouting for a diversified memory manufacturer should consider investing in Seagate as well. The company manufactures hard drives and solid state drives, and plans to sample its 3D NAND modules during the first half of 2014. It has a strong foothold in the enterprise SSD and HDD segments, which altogether represents 39% of Seagate's overall gross profits. Plus, the company's entry into the 3D NAND industry will expand its product portfolio, strengthen its enterprise market position, and result in a balanced growth.
Foolish final thoughts
3D NAND is evolving fast and is expected to replace planar NAND over the long haul. Companies aiming to mass-produce these flash drives stand to benefit the most. So, memory-focused investors should invest in companies that are moving forward with new technology.


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Nikon V1 Image Quality
Saturation & Hue Accuracy
Very good accuracy and good saturation, with minor to moderate shifts in hue and intensity.
Saturation. The Nikon V1 pushes dark blues, reds, oranges and greens moderately, but not as much as many consumer cameras, and it actually undersaturates cyan tones slightly. Average saturation levels are a touch high at 112.2% (12.2% oversaturated), but still fairly typical. That's higher than the Nikon D3100 entry-level DSLR (107.6%), but lower than some recent Nikon digicams like the Coolpix S9100 (114.6%). You can always tweak saturation to your liking or select a different Picture Control option (see below). Most consumer digital cameras produce color that's more highly saturated (more intense) than found in the original subjects. This is simply because most people like their color a bit brighter than life.
Skin tones. Here, the Nikon V1 produced lighter Caucasian skin tones that looked natural in outdoor lighting when using auto white balance, with just a slightly pink tint, though darker skin tones were pushed toward orange. With manual white balance, skin tones were a touch too warm and orange. Where oversaturation is most problematic is on Caucasian skin tones, as it's very easy for these "memory colors" to be seen as too bright, too pink, too yellow, etc.
Hue. The Nikon V1 showed a few small color shifts relative to the mathematically precise translation of colors in its subjects, but its overall color accuracy was very good. Reds were shifted toward orange, cyan was shifted toward blue, and there were slight shifts in some oranges, greens and purples, but most shifts were relatively minor. (The cyan to blue shift is very common among the digital cameras we test; we think it's a deliberate choice by camera engineers to produce better-looking sky colors.) With an average "delta-C" color error of only 4.73 after correction for saturation, overall hue accuracy was better than average. Hue is "what color" the color is.
Picture Control
The Nikon V1 offers six preset "Picture Control" options. You can adjust Sharpening, Contrast, Brightness, Saturation, and Hue for any of the settings. (For Monochrome, Saturation and Hue are replaced by Filter Effects and Toning settings.) There's also a "Quick adjust" setting between -2 and +2 to vary the overall effect, though it's not available for Neutral, Monochrome, or custom Picture Controls.
Mouse over the links above to see the effect of the presets on our Still Life target. Click on a link to load the full resolution image.
Saturation Adjustment
The Nikon V1 lets you adjust the image saturation and contrast in seven steps each, brightness in three steps, hue in seven steps and sharpening in ten steps. There are also Auto settings for saturation, contrast and sharpness. As can be seen below, the saturation adjustment worked very well, providing a reasonably fine-grained adjustment over a useful range of control. The saturation adjustment also has almost no impact on contrast. That's how a saturation control should work, but we've often found interactions between saturation adjustments and image contrast (and vice versa) on the cameras we test.
Saturation Adjustment Examples | ||||
-3 | -1 | 0 | +1 | +3 |
The series of shots above shows results with several different saturation adjustment settings, showing the minimum step size around the default, as well as both extremes. See the Thumbnails index page for more (look for the files named V1OUTBSATx.JPG). Click on any thumbnail above to see the full-sized image.
See full set of test images
with explanations See thumbnails of all test and gallery images |
Exposure and White Balance
Indoors, incandescent lighting
Warm results with Auto and Incandescent white balance, though good color with Manual white balance setting. No exposure compensation required.
Auto White Balance 0 EV |
Incandescent White Balance 0 EV |
Manual White Balance 0 EV |
Indoors, under normal incandescent lighting, color balance was a little warm and reddish with the Auto white balance setting, though not too bad. The Incandescent setting was warmer and too yellowish for our tastes. (Some users may prefer this look, though, as being more representative of the original lighting.) The Manual white balance setting produced the most accurate results, if just a touch cool. The Nikon V1 does not offer a Kelvin color temperature setting. The V1 required no exposure compensation for this shot, which is better than average. The average needed among cameras we've tested for this shot is about +0.3 EV. Our test lighting for this shot is a mixture of 60 and 100 watt household incandescent bulbs, a pretty yellow light source, but a very common one in typical home settings here in the U.S.
Outdoors, daylight
Good color and exposure outdoors.
Auto White Balance, +0.3 EV |
Auto White Balance, 0 EV |
The Nikon V1 handled tough outdoor lighting under harsh sunlight well in terms of color and exposure. We found skin tones a little too warm in our "Sunlit" Portrait shot with Manual white balance, preferring the Auto white balance results here. The +0.3 EV exposure compensation required to keep the mannequin's face bright was slightly less than the +0.7 EV average for this scene, so exposure was better than average here. Color was also good in our far-field shot, just a touch cool. Exposure was very good, with just a few lost highlights in the white building, and few deep shadows in the foliage.
See full set of test images with explanations
See thumbnails of all test and gallery images
High resolution with ~1,600 lines of strong detail from JPEGs, about ~1,700 from RAW.
Our laboratory resolution chart revealed sharp, distinct line patterns down to about 1,600 lines per picture height in the horizontal direction, and about 1,600 lines per picture height in the vertical direction in JPEGs. (Some might argue for over 1,600 lines, but aliasing artifacts begin to appear before then.) Complete extinction didn't occur until around 2,400 lines in the horizontal direction, and 2,300 lines in the vertical. We were able extract slightly more resolution from RAW files processed through View NX 2 (about 1,700 lines), and the software was able to extend extinction of the pattern and suppress color moire better than the camera beyond the resolution limits. Adobe Camera Raw 6.6 beta was also able to extract a bit more resolution than the camera JPEG, though it produced more noticeable color moire than the camera or View NX 2. Use these numbers to compare with other cameras of similar resolution, or use them to see just what higher resolution can mean in terms of potential detail.
See full set of test images with explanations
See thumbnails of all test and gallery images
Sharpness & Detail
Good detail but a hint soft straight from the camera, with relatively minor edge-enhancement on high-contrast subjects. Fairly low noise suppression at base ISO.
Sharpness. The Nikon V1 produced good detail for a 10-megapixel sensor, but there's a slight softness in its images overall. Some minor edge enhancement artifacts are visible on high-contrast subjects such as the branches in the crop above left, but overall results are still quite good. Edge enhancement creates the illusion of sharpness by enhancing color and tonal differences right at the edge of a rapid transition in color or tone.
Detail. The crop above right shows fairly low detail loss due to noise suppression, as the darker areas of the model's hair show quite a bit of detail. Individual strands are distinguishable even in the shadows, though they begin to merge as shadows deepen, and in places where the tone and color of adjacent strands is very close. Still, a pretty good performance here considering the sensor size. Noise-suppression systems in digital cameras tend to flatten-out detail in areas of subtle contrast. The effects can often be seen in shots of human hair, where the individual strands are lost and an almost "watercolor" look appears.
RAW vs In-Camera JPEGs
As noted above, the Nikon V1 does a pretty good job at capturing what detail is available in its JPEGs, though images are slightly soft at the default settings. A little more detail can usually be obtained from carefully processing RAW files, though, without introducing additional artifacts. See below:
In the table above, mousing over a link at the bottom will load the corresponding crop in the area above, and clicking the link will load the full resolution image. Examples are shot at ISO 100, and include in-camera Fine JPEG, the matching RAW file processed through Nikon's bundled View NX 2 software at default settings, and finally the same NEF converted with Adobe Camera Raw 6.6 beta, then sharpened in Photoshop with unsharp mask of 250%, radius 0.3 pixels.
As you can see, the conversion using Nikon's bundled View NX 2 software produces results similar to the in-camera JPEG, though it rendered fine detail a little softer than the camera. On the other hand, Adobe Camera Raw rendered better detail than both the camera JPEG and View NX 2 conversion. We have however noticed that the Nikon V1 applies noise reduction to its high ISO NEF files (ISO 800 and up), which is something we'd rather not see in RAW files. The good news is it appears to be fairly subtle when High ISO NR is set to "Off".
ISO & Noise Performance
Very good handling of noise vs detail to ISO 400, though stronger noise reduction applied at higher ISOs.
High ISO Noise Reduction = On (default) | ||
Nikon V1 images show moderate amounts of luminance noise already at base ISO, and there's some chrominance noise visible in deeper shadows as well, though luminance noise "grain" is quite fine giving low ISO images a film-like appearance with very good detail. ISO 200 shows more of both kinds of noise, but noise reduction is still fairly light-handed, so fine detail remains intact. ISO 400 is similar, which slightly higher levels of noise but very good detail retention. At ISO 800, we start to see the effects of stronger noise reduction, which flattens out some of the finer detail, making images noticeably softer. Luminance noise is naturally higher at ISO 1,600, though the amount of smudging remains about the same, though with stronger sharpening. Chrominance noise is also stronger, with more visible purple and yellow blotches. As you'd expect, ISO 3,200 shows even stronger luminance nose, though chrominance noise is actually better controlled at the expense of slightly lower saturation and a slightly yellow cast. Noise reduction at ISO 6,400 is quite strong, blurring almost all fine detail while leaving quite a bit of chroma noise and a stronger yellow cast.
Of course, the impact of noise and detail loss are highly dependent on the size the photos are printed at, and pixel-peeping on-screen has surprisingly little relationship to how the images look when printed: See the Print Quality section below for recommended maximum print sizes at each ISO.
A note about focus for this shot: To insure that the hair detail we use for making critical judgements about camera noise processing and detail rendering is in sharp focus at the relatively wide aperture we're shooting at, the focus target at the center of the scene is on a movable stand. This lets us compensate for front- or back-focus by different camera bodies, even those that lack micro-focus adjustments. This does mean, though, that the focus target itself may appear soft or slightly out of focus for bodies that front- or back-focused with the reference lens. If you click to view the full-size image for one of these shots and notice that the focus target is fuzzy, you don't need to email and tell us about it; we already know it. :-) The focus target position will simply have been adjusted to insure that the rest of the scene is focused properly.
Extremes: Sunlit, dynamic range, and low light tests
Somewhat high default contrast. Dynamic range isn't as good as most DSLRs and some other CSCs, though pretty good given the size of the sensor. Good low-light performance, capable of capturing bright images in near darkness.
The Nikon V1 struggled a bit with the deliberately harsh lighting in the above test, but not as much as you might expect from such a small sensor. The +0.3 EV exposure did the best job here, as the model's face was still a bit dim at 0 EV and at +0.7 EV, too many highlights were blown. Default contrast is a little high, and quite a few highlights were lost in the shirt and flowers when exposure was adjusted for the mannequin's face. There are some very deep shadows as well, that are a little noisy compared to cameras with larger sensors. The camera's contrast adjustment however did a good job of decreasing overall contrast without producing strong color variations; see the section below. Note that these shots were captured with the Nikon V1's Active D-Lighting control set to "Off." See below for how Active D-Lighting and contrast settings help with highlights and shadows.
Because digital cameras are more like slide film than negative film (in that they tend to have a more limited tonal range), we test them in the harshest situations to see how they handle scenes with bright highlights and dark shadows, as well as what kind of sensitivity they have in low light. The shot above is designed to mimic the very harsh, contrasty effect of direct noonday sunlight, a very tough challenge for most digital cameras. (You can read details of this test here. In actual shooting conditions, be sure to use fill flash in situations like the one shown here; it's better to shoot in open shade whenever possible.)
Contrast Adjustment
We really like it when a camera gives us the ability to adjust contrast and saturation to our liking. It's even better when those adjustments cover a useful range, in steps small enough to allow for precise tweaks. Just as with its saturation adjustment, the Nikon V1's contrast setting meets both challenges, the contrast steps actually being a little finer than those for saturation, and thus even more to our liking.
Minimum Contrast | |
Contrast set to lowest, 0 EV |
Contrast set to lowest, 0 EV |
At its lowest contrast setting, the Nikon V1 did a better job of preserving highlight detail while, maintaining fairly natural-looking skin tones. Overall, results here are very good for a compact camera, especially when the contrast setting is tweaked.
Contrast Adjustment Examples | ||||
-3 | -1 | 0 | +1 | +3 |
The series of shots above shows results with several different contrast adjustment settings, showing the minimum step size around the default, as well as both extremes. There is also an Auto setting available. While you can see the extremes, it's hard to really evaluate contrast on small thumbnails like these, click on any thumbnail to go to the full-size image.
One very nice feature of Nikon's contrast adjustment is that it has little effect on color saturation. Contrast and saturation are actually fairly closely coupled, it's a good trick to be able to vary one with out the other changing as well. Nikon did a good job here.
Active D-Lighting
Active D-Lighting attempts to preserve detail in both highlights and shadows in high-contrast situations, while maintaining moderate levels of contrast. The shots below show the effect of the Active D-Lighting setting available on the Nikon V1 on our high-contrast "Sunlit" Portrait scene. Unlike recent Nikon DSLRs, the V1 offers just On and Off settings for Active D-Lighting. Also note that Active D-Lighting is different from the Playback menu's D-Lighting option, as it is performed during image capture instead of after. (It does affect only JPEG images though, Nikon very properly doesn't apply tonal adjustments like this to RAW file data. NEF files, however, are tagged so that Nikon software can automatically apply the effect when converted.)
"Sunlit" Portrait Active D-Lighting (0 EV)
ADL Settings: Off On (Default) |
Mouse over the links to see how Active D-Lighting affects our "Sunlit" Portrait shot at default exposure. Click on a link to get to the full-res image.
As you can see, shadows and darker midtones have been boosted brightening the overall exposure, while brighter midtones have been attenuated. But there are slightly more very bright highlights clipped with Active D-Lighting enabled, as indicated by the histogram.
Far-field Active D-Lighting (0 EV) | |
Here are the results with our Far-field shot. Mouse over the links to compare the effect. We see similar results here with Active D-Lighting enabled, with brighter shadows and a more even exposure, though more highlights are clipped as well, especially in the blue and green channels.
Aperture Priority Mode 0 EV |
Aperture Priority Face Priority AF 0 EV |
Face Detection. Here, we can see the effects of the Nikon V1's Face Priority AF mode versus just Aperture Priority mode. As you can see from the shots above, Face Priority AF resulted in a brighter image without applying any manual exposure compensation. Full Auto is capable of selecting Portrait scene mode with a larger aperture for better subject isolation, and also enables Active D-Lighting for better shadow and highlight retention, however we didn't capture an Outdoor Portrait sample using Full Auto.
Dynamic Range
A key parameter in a digital camera is its Dynamic Range, the range of brightness that can be faithfully recorded. At the upper end of the tonal scale, dynamic range is dictated by the point at which the RGB data "saturates" at values of 255, 255, 255. At the lower end of the tonal scale, dynamic range is determined by the point at which there ceases to be any useful difference between adjacent tonal steps. Note the use of the qualifier "useful" in there: While it's tempting to evaluate dynamic range as the maximum number of tonal steps that can be discerned at all, that measure of dynamic range has very little relevance to real-world photography. What we care about as photographers is how much detail we can pull out of the shadows before image noise becomes too objectionable. This, of course, is a very subjective matter, and will vary with the application and even the subject matter in question. (Noise will be much more visible in subjects with large areas of flat tints and subtle shading than it would in subjects with strong, highly contrasting surface texture.)
What makes most sense then, is to specify useful dynamic range in terms of the point at which image noise reaches some agreed-upon threshold. To this end, Imatest computes a number of different dynamic range measurements, based on a variety of image noise thresholds. The noise thresholds are specified in terms of f-stops of equivalent luminance variation in the final image file, and dynamic range is computed for noise thresholds of 1.0 (low image quality), 0.5 (medium image quality), 0.25 (medium-high image quality) and 0.1 (high image quality). For most photographers and most applications, the noise thresholds of 0.5 and 0.25 f-stops are probably the most relevant to the production of acceptable-quality finished images, but many noise-sensitive shooters will insist on the 0.1 f-stop limit for their most critical work. A full discussion of all the data Imatest produces is really beyond the scope of this review: Visit the Imatest website for details of what the program measures, how it performs its computations, and how to interpret its output.
Low Light. The Nikon V1 performed fairly well here, able to capture usable images down to the 1/16 foot-candle light level (about 1/16 as bright as average city street lighting at night), at all ISO settings. As is often the case, the V1's metering system struggled a bit with getting the exposure right at the lowest levels though, so we used manual exposure for these shots. Color balance with auto white balance was just slightly cool at higher light levels, but took on an increasingly strong blue or magenta cast as light levels dropped. Noise was fairly low up to ISO 800, though some chrominance noise was noticeable in the shadows at all ISOs. Noise levels were reasonable at 1,600 through 3,200, especially considering the size of the camera. We did not detect any significant banding issues, though there were a few hot pixels here and there. Quite a few bright/noisy pixels are visible with long exposure noise reduction disabled and high ISO noise reduction set at minimum (right-most column), but that's to be expected.
The camera's hybrid autofocus system was able to focus on the subject to below the 1/16 foot-candle light level unassisted with a 10mm f/2.8 lens, which is excellent. The Nikon V1 was able to autofocus in complete darkness with the AF assist enabled.
(Keep in mind that the longer shutter speeds here demand the use of a tripod to prevent any blurring from camera movement. A useful trick is to just prop the camera on a convenient surface, and use its self-timer to release the shutter. This avoids any jiggling from your finger pressing the shutter button, and can work quite well when you don't have a tripod handy.)
How bright is this? The one foot-candle light level that this test begins at roughly corresponds to the brightness of typical city street-lighting at night. Cameras performing well at that level should be able to snap good-looking photos of street-lit scenes.
NOTE: This low light test is conducted with a stationary subject, and the camera mounted on a sturdy tripod. Most digital cameras will fail miserably when faced with a moving subject in dim lighting. (For example, a child's ballet recital or a holiday pageant in a gymnasium.) Compact system cameras like the Nikon V1 do much better than point & shoots, but you still shouldn't expect a quick autofocus lock with moving subjects.
Output Quality
Print Quality
Very good print quality overall for 10 megapixels, with up to 16x20-inch prints at ISO 100 and good 5x7-inch prints at ISO 6,400.
As a 10-megapixel camera, it's impressive that the Nikon V1 can output a 16x20-inch image at ISO 100. There's a little chroma noise in the shadows, as can be seen in the crops, but it's not bad. Reduction to 13x19 inches renders them negligible.
ISO 200 shots are usable at 16x20 inches, but print a little better at 13x19 inches. Chroma noise is visible only in the shadows on close inspection.
ISO 400 images also look quite good at 13x19 inches, and the appearance of chroma noise seems less than it was at ISO 200.
ISO 800 images are slightly soft in only a few areas at 13x19, mainly in red and shadow areas. Shadows appear blurry mostly due to noise suppression, but higher-contrast detail looks just fine. Reducing print size to 11x14 reduces this effect somewhat, but not completely.
ISO 1,600 shots are quite contrasty and oversaturated, and noise suppression has taken a toll on red detail, but they're easily usable at 11x14, and quite good at 8x10 inches.
ISO 3,200 images are also pretty good at 8x10, but you can see detail and nuance in solid colors disappear thanks to the increase in saturation. Higher contrast detail is good, though.
ISO 6,400 images print surprisingly well at 5x7, though they carry a slight yellow cast that wasn't as prominent at the other settings. Saturation is also quite pumped.
Note that these results are from printing JPEGs at default settings, and one could expect to get better quality from RAW images. It's a very good performance, an even-keeled descent in print size as ISO rises, a credit to Nikon's efforts with this new sensor.
Testing hundreds of digital cameras, we've found that you can only tell just so much about a camera's image quality by viewing its images on-screen. Ultimately, there's no substitute for printing a lot of images and examining them closely. For this reason, we now routinely print sample images from the cameras we test on our Canon Pro9000 Mark II studio printer, and on the Pixma MP610 here in the office. (See the Canon Pixma Pro9000 Mark II review for details on that model.)
The images above were taken from our standardized test shots. For a collection of more pictorial photos, see our Nikon V1 Photo Gallery .
Not sure which camera to buy? Let your eyes be the ultimate judge! Visit our Comparometer(tm) to compare images from the Nikon V1 with those from other cameras you may be considering. The proof is in the pictures, so let your own eyes decide which you like best!


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This article is more than 1 year old
Secret teen hacker army ridiculed
Wayward minister making stuff up again?
The UK government's reported decision to employ ex-hackers to work at a newly-established Cyber Security Operations Centre have met with derision from both a high-profile former hacker and an acknowledged cybersecurity expert.
Lord West, the Home Office security minister, first suggested that former hackers (or "naughty boys", as he described them) might play a key role in Britain's revamped cyberdefence strategy back in June. At the time it seemed like just another in the admiral-turned-minister's growing list of eccentric observations on various aspects of security policy.
For example, he later suggested that a net-flinging entanglement "bazooka" designed to stop speedboats might be just the job for use on "topless lovelies". This was doubtless surprising to its developers, who saw it as a weapon against USS Cole-style suicide attacks.
However, last weekend the Sunday Express reported that the MI5 had hired "50 computer-savvy hackers – some of them still teenagers – to work in a newly formed top secret Cyber Operations Command." The majority of the teens are Asians, the paper adds. All are subject to the same level of background security checks used to clear the employment of other intelligence staff. The Sunday Express helpfully adds that this means they have signed the Official Secrets Act and are forbidden from "tell[ing] their parents or girlfriends what they do in the windowless basement area in the Security Service building beside the Thames".
Lord West reportedly described the new hires as "youngsters who use their talents to stop other hackers from closing down this country".
Mathew Bevan (AKA Kuji), a British hacker arrested and unsuccessfully prosecuted for hacking into secure US government networks back in 1994, who later became a successful security consultant, helped us pick apart the many implausibilities of the story.
"These hackers were described as having been 'naughty', but did not have any criminal records," Bevan told El Reg. "How on earth they came to the attention of GCHQ without getting caught (as being caught would suggest that charges would be brought, and if not how come?)."
Bevan noted the lack of buzz about any attempt to recruit hackers by members of the security service.
"I have not heard of any UK hacker/ex-hacker/naughty boy actually having been approached to work at this level," he said. "The truth is that of course they couldn't find 50 UK hackers, because those who are actively hacking are doing their best to not get caught. So they had to outsource to India or China. This begs the question, how on earth did these people even manage to pass the stringent security checks which are performed to work within government offices? Even the USA is saying that due to the amount of hacking coming out of China, that employing Chinese to secure America's Government machines is perhaps not a good idea."
The Welsh former-hacker turned successful hypnotherapist concludes that the whole MI5 hacker-hire story is exaggerated, at best. He speculates that the motive for creating such an elaborate yarn might be one of gaining bragging rights, a posture full of contradictions.
"So this elite team of 'naughty boys', of course, it's not true," Bevan said. "The details have been exaggerated at the least but most likely have been made up, just another attempt at psyops and a way of us to look cool to the American administration, which has said it has hired hackers."
"We have to go bragging to the world that we have ex-hackers in our employment whilst at the same time we are actively trying to extradite or prosecute others. This is sending out a conflicting message as to whether hacking is wrong or a career choice. When it comes to team size, if you have to claim that you have such a big and impressive one everyone knows that its probably very tiny and disappointing," Bevan concludes.
Security consultant Rik Ferguson, someone who has actually worked with GCHQ, said that the idea of idea of hiring reformed hackers to face off against state-sponsored cyberspies, tech-savvy terrorists and cybercriminals from eastern Europe is woefully misguided.
"What really upsets me with this story is the implication that *only* young (former) criminals have the skills required to carry out the work necessary to combat cyber terrorism," Ferguson writes. "I have not personally met any of the team that have been hired for these posts at Cyber Operations Command, but I have a feeling that they wouldn't care too much for the implication either."
Ferguson repeats Bevan's point that the government is sending out mixed messages about the legality of hacking, more influenced by Hollywood than reality, by suggesting it is both reprehensibly criminal and simultaneously a useful national security skillset.
"It is entirely unacceptable that our security services and our government are broadcasting the message that the only qualification necessary for a job in MI5 is being a hacker (one bad enough to have got caught). People who have been found to have broken the law should not be allowed to profit from their misdeeds, especially by way of an employment offer in the very field of their criminal activities. Would you hire a convicted embezzler as a your accountant? How about a teenage convicted embezzler?"
Ferguson's critique of "schoolboy tales of hiring 'naughty boys' for hi-tech derring-do" can be found here. ®


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Circular 39 - Wetlands of the United States
Circular 39 - Wetlands of the United States
The Wetlands of the United States was published in 1959 by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service and is commonly referred to as "Circular 39." The Circular 39 Classification System was the first method that the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service used to classify wetland basins in the U.S. It is composed of 20 wetland types of which eight are found in Minnesota.
The Circular 39 classification was inconsistently applied among regions primarily because of a lack of detail in the definitions of wetland types. In 1975 the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service developed a new classification that would serve as the basis of the new National Wetlands Inventory.
Minnesota Wetland Types
The eight wetland types found in Minnesota are:
Type 1: Seasonally Flooded Basin, Floodplain Forest
Type 2: Wet Meadow, Fresh Wet Meadow, Wet To Wet-Mesic Prairie, Sedge Meadow, And Calcareous Fen
Type 3: Shallow Marsh
Type 4: Deep Marsh
Type 5: Shallow Open Water
Type 6: Shrub Swamp; Shrub Carr, Alder Thicket
Type 7: Wooded Swamps; Hardwood Swamp, Coniferous Swamp
Type 8: Bogs; Coniferous Bogs, Open Bogs
A detailed description of each wetland type can be viewed on the
Minnesota Wetland Types
Circular 39 - Minnesota Wetland Types
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Why am I going on? I think too many people don't understand there is a coherent free-market, deregulated alternative. President Obama himself said today,
"I think the American people understand — and I think the justices should understand — that in the absence of an individual mandate, you cannot have a mechanism to ensure that people with pre-existing conditions get health care."This just isn't true. I don't blame Obama, but his health insurance advisers ought to know better. "Guaranteed Renewable," or "premium-increase insurance" is a possibility. It solves the genuine pre-existing conditions problem. It's been in the academic literature for almost 20 years (see e previous Articles, Opeds, Blog posts and citations in the Articles, especially to Mark Pauly's work and extensive coverage on Cato's health insurance and Universal Heath Care sites). A deregulated, competitive market can work.
The WSJ Oped:
Last week, the Supreme Court heard arguments on the constitutionality of the administration's health law, aka ObamaCare. Opponents are giddy with the possibility that the law might be struck down.
But what then? Millions of uninsured, both those who choose not to purchase coverage and those who can't due to pre-existing conditions, will still be with us. The rising costs and inefficient delivery of health care will still be with us.
The country can have a vibrant market for individual health insurance. Insurance proper is what pays for unplanned large expenses, not for regular, predictable expenses. Insurance policies should be "guaranteed renewable": The policy should include a right to purchase insurance in the future, no matter if you get sick. And insurance should follow you from job to job, and if you move across state lines.
Why don't we have such markets? Because the government has regulated them out of existence.
Most pathologies in the current system are creatures of previous laws and regulations. Solicitor General Donald Verrilli explained as much in his opening statement to the Supreme Court: "The individual market does not provide affordable health insurance," he noted, "because the multibillion dollar subsidies that are available" for the "employer market are not available in the individual market." Well, if the problem is subsidies, we know how to fix it!
Start with the tax exemption for employer contributions to group health-insurance policies—but if your employer contributes an individual, portable insurance policy, you pay taxes. This is why you have insurance only so long as you stay with one employer, why you face pre-existing conditions exclusions if you change jobs, and why individual lifetime insurance is unattractive to young healthy people who know they will be employed someday.
Continue with the endless mandates (both state and federal) on insurance companies to provide all sorts of benefits people would otherwise not choose to buy. It sounds great to "make insurance companies pay" for acupuncture. But that raises the premiums, and then people choose not to buy the insurance. Instead of these mandates, at least allow people to buy insurance that only covers the big expenses.
What about Medicare and Medicaid? Two words: premium support. The underlying point of premium support is simple. If insurance costs $5,000 and the government gives an individual a $4,500 voucher, that individual will still feel the correct economic signal to shop for cost-efficient health insurance and health care.
The main argument for a mandate before the Supreme Court was that people of modest means can fail to buy insurance, and then rely on charity care in emergency rooms, shifting the cost to the rest of us. But the expenses of emergency room treatment for indigent uninsured people are not health-care's central cost problem. Costs are rising because people who do have insurance, and their doctors, overuse health services and don't shop on price, and because regulations have salted insurance with ever more coverage for them to overuse.
If we had a deregulated, competitive market in individual catastrophic insurance, that market would be so much cheaper than what's offered today that we would likely not even need the mandate.
Meanwhile, staggeringly inefficient markets for health care itself need a thorough, competition-focused deregulation. Americans will know there's a healthy market when hospitals post prices on their websites, and when new hospital and health-care businesses routinely enter to challenge the old ones. Here too regulations keep competition at bay.
The number of new doctors is still restricted, thanks to Congress and the American Medical Association. Congress caps the number of residencies, the AMA has fought the expansion of medical schools, state tests make it difficult for foreign doctors to work here, and on and on.
There are hundreds of government impediments to competition. New hospitals? In my home state of Illinois, every new hospital, expansion of an existing facility or major equipment purchase must obtain a "certificate of need" from the Illinois Health Facilities Planning Board. The board does a great job of insulating existing hospitals from competition if they are well connected politically. Imagine the joy United Airlines would feel if Southwest had to get a "certificate of need" before moving in to a new city—or the pleasure Sears would have if Wal-Mart had to do so—and all it took was a small contribution to a well-connected official.
The result is a monstrous system in which insurance patients are gouged to subsidize Medicare, and cash patients are gouged most of all. Here's Mr. Verrilli again: "Insurance has become the predominant means of paying for health care in this country." Yes, the cash market has been badly damaged. Whose fault is that? Shouldn't we bring it back?
Group health plans in today's system may appear reasonable enough—they seem to resemble "buyers' clubs," where people pool together to get good deals from providers. But in a real buyer's club, each buyer still pays his own bill—you don't go into a Sam's Club and haul off whatever you can with only a fixed $20 copayment. And real buyer's clubs don't depend on where you work. Real buyers' clubs for health services could be a useful way to get competition going and revive the cash-and-carry market for individuals.
A deregulated health-care and health-insurance market can work. We can at least start by removing the obvious elephants in the room: all the legislation, regulation and interventions that needlessly keep prices up, keep competition and innovation out, shelter people from the economic consequences of their decisions, and prevent the emergence of real insurance that follows you from job to job and from health to illness and back.