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Implementing Highly Available and Scalable Solutions Using the WebLogic Cluster
- The Motivations for Clustered Infrastructure Solutions: Scalability and High Availability
- Understanding WebLogic Clusters
- Understanding How WebLogic Servers Communicate within a Cluster
- Designing the Architecture of a WebLogic Cluster
- Creating and Configuring a WebLogic Cluster
- Implementing a Load-Balancing Mechanism for Your Clustered Servlets and JSPs
- Implementing a Failover Mechanism for Your Clustered Servlets and JSPs
- Clustering Enterprise JavaBeans
- Summary
In This Chapter
- The Motivations for Clustered Infrastructure Solutions: Scalability and High Availability
- Understanding WebLogic Clusters
- Understanding Which Objects Can Be Clustered
- Understanding How WebLogic Servers Communicate Within a Cluster
- Designing the Architecture of a WebLogic Cluster
- Creating and Configuring a WebLogic Cluster
- Implementing a Load-Balancing Mechanism for Your Clustered Servlets and JSPs
- Implementing a Failover Mechanism for Your Clustered Servlets and JSPs
- Clustering Enterprise JavaBeans
The Motivations for Clustered Infrastructure Solutions: Scalability and High Availability
Scalability and high availability (fault resilience) are two key infrastructure adaptability requirements that organizations must reflect in the architectural (system) design of their mission-critical e-business solutions. As illustrated in Figure 25.1, during the client/server era, scalability and high-availability solutions were primarily implemented in the Database or Server tiers, where
Databases were partitioned to provide scalability to the data architecture.
Data-centric business processing was migrated from the Client tier into the Database tier whenever feasiblefor example, through the use of stored procedures, triggers, and packages in an Oracle database.
High availability was implemented in the Database tier through
Hardware and database software clustering solutions, which involved in-memory or file-system replication of data.
Hot-standby databases in conjunction with a robust and efficient backup and recovery solution.
Figure 25.1 Scalability and high availability within a client/server architecture.
To implement an agile and robust J2EE e-business solution, scalability and high availability solutions for the Database tier still remain applicable as they did for the client/server system, but now they address the Enterprise Information System (EIS) tier. However, as illustrated in Figure 25.2, scalability and high availability must now also be addressed at the distributed middle tiers of the J2EE Application Programming Modelthe Presentation (Web servers) and Application (Application servers) tierswhich brings a whole new dimension of challenges. These challenges are as follows:
Any potential points of failure must be masked from system users through effective Web and J2EE server failover mechanisms, thus eradicating or minimizing an application's downtime.
Performance should not be compromised for scalability through the dynamic introduction of additional online Web and J2EE servers and hardware.
Scalability and high-availability solutions should not incur complex development or management efforts for realization.
The hardware and operating system portability of J2EE solutions should not be constrained through the mechanics of introducing scalability or high availability.
Figure 25.2 Scalability and high-availability requirements within the J2EE Application Programming Model.
Scalability and high availability within a J2EE architecture are achieved through the implementation of client-request load-balancing techniques in combination with the clustering capabilities of the J2EE application server that constitutes the middle tier, such as the BEA WebLogic Server cluster. A cluster cannot possess scalability or high availability without the support of an intelligent and robust load-balancing service.
A cluster in a J2EE architecture is generally defined as a group of two or more J2EE-compliant Web or application servers that closely cooperate with each other through transparent object replication mechanisms to ensure each server in the group presents the same content. Each server (node) in the cluster is identical in configuration and networked to act as a single virtual server. Client requests directed to this virtual server can be handled independently by any J2EE server in the cluster, which gives the impression of single entity representation of the hosted J2EE application in the cluster.
The following sections introduce the three highly interrelated core servicesscalability, high availability, and load balancingthat any J2EE server clustering solution must provide.
How these services are implemented within WebLogic Server will be discussed later in this chapter.
Scalability refers to the capability to expand the capacity of an application hosted on the middle tier without interruption or degradation of the Quality of Service (QoS) to an increasing number of users. As a rule, an application server must always be available to service requests from a client.
As you may have discovered through experience, however, if a single server becomes over-subscribed, a connecting client can experience a Denial of Service (DoS) or performance degradation. This could be caused by a computer's network interface, which has a built-in limit to the amount of information the server can distribute regardless of the processor's capability of higher throughput, or because the J2EE server is too busy servicing existing processing requests.
As client requests continue to increase, the J2EE server environment must be scaled accordingly. There are two approaches to scaling:
Forklift methodThis method involves replacing the old server computer with a new, more robust and powerful server to host the J2EE server. The problem with this approach is that it is a short-term fix. As traffic continues to increase, the new computer will likely become obsolete, like the server it replaced.
ClustersClustering the J2EE servers makes it easy to dynamically increase the capacity of the cluster by just adding another node and updating the configuration of the load balancer to use the additional resource. Load balancers use a variety of algorithms to detect server request flows and monitor server loads to distribute server requests optimally across the cluster's nodes. Conversely, you can just as easily remove a node to scale down or replace a node during normal maintenance or upgrading.
By applying conventional wisdom, the most logical method for achieving scalability is though the implementation of a clustering solution.
High Availability
High availability refers to the capability to ensure applications hosted in the middle tier remain consistently accessible and operational to their clients.
High availability is achieved through the redundancy of multiple Web and application servers within the cluster and is implemented by the cluster's "failover" mechanisms. If an application component (an object) fails processing its task, the cluster's failover mechanism reroutes the task and any supporting information to a copy of the object on another server to continue the task. If you want to enable failover:
The same application components must be deployed to each server instance in the cluster.
The failover mechanism must be aware of the location and availability of the objects that comprise an application in a cluster.
The failover mechanism must be aware of the progress of all tasks so that the copy of a failed object can continue to complete a task where the processing last stopped without duplicating persistent data.
In the event of a failure to one of the J2EE servers in a cluster, the load-balancing service, in conjunction with the failover mechanism, should seamlessly reroute requests to other servers, thus preventing any interruption to the middle-tier service.
Additional Factors Affecting High Availability
In addition to application server clustering, which provides high availability in the middle tier of an application architecture, organizations must accept that people, processes, and the technology infrastructure are all interdependent facets of any high-availability solution. People and process issues comprise at least 80% of the solution, with the technology infrastructure assuming the remainder.
From a people and process perspective, the objective is to balance the potential business cost of incurring system unavailability with the cost of insuring against planned and unplanned system downtime. Planned downtime encompasses activities in which an administrator is aware beforehand that a resource will be unavailable and plans accordinglyfor example, performing backup operations, making configuration changes, adding processing capacity, distributing software, and managing version control. Unplanned downtime, also known as outages or failures, includes a multitude of "What happens if" scenarios, such as
What happens if a disk drive or CPU fails?
What happens if power is lost to one or more servers by someone tripping over the power cord?
What happens if there is a network failure?
What happens if the key system administrator finds a better job?
In practice, organizations should initially focus on developing mature, planned downtime procedures before even considering unplanned downtime. This is supported through extensive studies conducted by research firms, which concluded that 7090% of downtime may be directly associated with planned downtime activities. However, the organizational reality indicates that more time and effort are applied to preventing unplanned downtime.
From a technology infrastructure perspective, for a system to be truly highly available, redundancy must exist throughout the system. For example, a system must have the following:
Redundant and failover-capable firewalls
Redundant gateway routers
Redundant SAN switching infrastructure
Redundant and failover-capable load balancers/dispatchers
Redundant Enterprise Information System (EIS) layer, for example, content management systems, relational databases, and search engine systems
As stated earlier, the extent of redundancy should be directly related to the business cost of system unavailability versus the realized cost of insuring against system downtime.
Load Balancing
For a server cluster to achieve its high-availability, high-scalability, and high-performance potential, load balancing is required. Load balancing refers to the capability to optimally partition inbound client processing requests across all the J2EE servers that constitute a cluster based on factors such as capacity, availability, response time, current load, historical performance, and also administrative weights (priority) placed on the clustered servers.
A load balancer, which can be software or hardware based, sits between the Internet and the physical server cluster, also acting as a virtual server. As each client request arrives, the load balancer makes near-instantaneous intelligent decisions about the J2EE server best able to satisfy each incoming request. Software-based load balancers can come in the form of computers, routers, or switches with integrated load-balancing software or load-balancing capabilities. Hardware load balancers are separate pieces of equipment that provide advanced load-balancing features and additional reliability features such as automatic failover to a redundant unit.


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Allan W., James, 'Isfahan, Canton, Etruria - Persia and the China Trade in the 18th and 19th Centuries', ed. Sajid Rizvi, Eastern Art Report: Eastern Art in the Ashmolean Museum Oxford, Great Museums of the World, 4/2, (1995), p. 18, illus. p. 17 fig. 6
porcelain, underglaze painting
Ceramic material composed of kaolin, quartz, and feldspar which is fired to a temperature of c.1350-1400⁰c. The resulting ceramic is vitreous, translucent, and white in colour.
Painting applied to ceramic material before a transparent, or monochrome or coloured glaze for Islamic objects, is applied. The technique was initially developed in China.
Objects are sometimes moved to a different location. Our object location data is usually updated on a monthly basis. Contact the Jameel Study Centre if you are planning to visit the museum to see a particular object on display, or would like to arrange an appointment to see an object in our reserve collections.
© 2013 University of Oxford - Ashmolean Museum


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Chapel Hill Faucet & Sink Plumbers
A dripping or leaky faucet can keep you and your family awake throughout the night. Not only can it be a nuisance, but over time, those small drips can add up to big costs on your water bill. At Progressive, our Chapel Hill plumbers know how much of an inconvenience plumbing issues with your faucets, sinks, and drains can be. So if you're experiencing a leaky faucet or sink, we're just a phone call away. Our phones are staffed 24/7 and we'll get an experienced plumber to you quickly.
Struggling with a complicated repair or installation can make the problem worse, causing damage to your home. Call a professional plumber in Chapel Hill, like the ones at Progressive. Whether you need a sink fixture repaired or a new faucet installation or a faucet replacement, our experts can help.
Chapel Hill Faucet and Sink repair services:
- Emergency, Around-The-Clock Service
- Faucet Repair
- Sink Repair
Chapel Hill Faucet and Sink installation services:
- Low-Flow Shower Heads
- Hands-Free Faucets
- Sink Products (including name brands such as Delta, Moen and Kohler)
Contact the Pros At Progressive
All of our plumbers go through extensive training so you are sure to get a knowledgeable, experienced technician no matter what type of faucet type you have or how big your leak is. You know you're in good hands when working with Progressive's team of plumbers in Chapel Hill. You can trust us to deliver quality customer service while providing timely service and flat rate pricing, plus great financing options on larger jobs. When examining a repair, our knowledgeable plumbers will recommend a maintenance plan to keep your house functioning smoothly.
We're available 24/7 to answer any questions or concerns you may have. Contact us today and get your plumbing issues resolved.
From my first call to Progressive's office, my conversation with the electrical manager, through the end of the job when all was done, Progressive did a great job for me. They were very professional, friendly, and flexible. The work was to relocate receptacles and switches from a wall that was being removed from our house, and also to add receptacles to another room. They sent two men who had to spend several hours both under and in our house. I recommend them highly and will use them again.
- Bern Gartts (Nov 2015) - Review From Google
Brian performed maintenance check on the HVAC (I hope I used the correct term). His visit was just a few days we experienced unusually cold weather in mid-October. He was very helpful by providing answers to my questions. He also explained things that I was not aware of. I did not like the programmable thermostat and he replaced it with a simple thermostat which I understood much better than the programmable. I now feel much more comfortable after he inspected the system.
Jean Allen (January 2016) - Review From Google
I had Progressive install a new tankless water heater. The technicians name was Larry and his helpers name was martin. They were both very polite and their work looks very neat. We are very happy with our new tankless heater.
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We have had our HVAC replaced by this company and have a current service contract and loved them.Darryl who worked with us was great. The greatest part of the company though is how attentive, helpful, and responsible Kat was! She was constantly available and providing any assistance we needed.
Gina-Maria Pomanna (November 2015) - Review From Google


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Estimation of Multivariate Regression Models
Least Squares Estimation
Ordinary Least Squares
When you fit multivariate linear regression models using mvregress
, you can use the optional name-value pair 'algorithm','cwls'
to choose least squares estimation. In this case, by default, mvregress
returns ordinary least squares (OLS) estimates using . Alternatively, if you specify a covariance matrix for weighting, you can return covariance-weighted least squares (CWLS) estimates. If you combine OLS and CWLS, you can get feasible generalized least squares (FGLS) estimates.
The OLS estimate for the coefficient vector is the vector that minimizes
Let denote the nd-by-1 vector of stacked d-dimensional responses, and denote the nd-by-K matrix of stacked design matrices. The K-by-1 vector of OLS regression coefficient estimates is
This is the first mvregress
Given (the mvregress
OLS default), the variance-covariance matrix of the OLS estimates is
This is the fourth mvregress
output. The standard errors of the OLS regression coefficients are the square root of the diagonal of this variance-covariance matrix.
If your data is not scaled such that , then you can multiply the mvregress
variance-covariance matrix by the mean squared error (MSE), an unbiased estimate of . To compute the MSE, return the n-by-d matrix of residuals, (the third mvregress
output). Then,
where is the ith row of .
Covariance-Weighted Least Squares
For most multivariate problems, an identity error covariance matrix is insufficient, and leads to inefficient or biased standard error estimates. You can specify a matrix for CWLS estimation using the optional name-value pair argument covar0
, for example, an invertible d-by-d matrix named . Usually, is a diagonal matrix such that the inverse matrix contains weights for each dimension to model heteroscedasticity. However, can also be a nondiagonal matrix that models correlation.
Given , the CWLS solution is the vector that minimizes
In this case, the K-by-1 vector of CWLS regression coefficient estimates is
This is the first mvregress
If , this is the generalized least squares (GLS) solution. The corresponding variance-covariance matrix of the CWLS estimates is
This is the fourth mvregress
output. The standard errors of the CWLS regression coefficients are the square root of the diagonal of this variance-covariance matrix.
If you only know the error covariance matrix up to a proportion, that is, , you can multiply the mvregress
variance-covariance matrix by the MSE, as described in Ordinary Least Squares.
Error Covariance Estimation
Regardless of which least squares method you use, the estimate for the error variance-covariance matrix is
where is the n-by-d matrix of residuals. The ith row of is
The error covariance estimate, , is the second mvregress
output, and the matrix of residuals, , is the third output. If you specify the optional name-value pair 'covtype','diagonal'
, then mvregress
returns with zeros in the off-diagonal entries,
Feasible Generalized Least Squares
The generalized least squares estimate is the CWLS estimate with a known covariance matrix. That is, given is known, the GLS solution is
with variance-covariance matrix
In most cases, the error covariance is unknown. The feasible generalized least squares (FGLS) estimate uses in place of . You can obtain two-step FGLS estimates as follows:
Perform OLS regression, and return an estimate .
Perform CWLS regression, using .
You can also iterate between these two steps until convergence is reached.
For some data, the OLS estimate is positive semidefinite, and has no unique inverse. In this case, you cannot get the FGLS estimate using mvregress
. As an alternative, you can use lscov
, which uses a generalized inverse to return weighted least squares solutions for positive semidefinite covariance matrices.
Panel Corrected Standard Errors
An alternative to FGLS is to use OLS coefficient estimates (which are consistent) and make a standard error correction to improve efficiency. One such standard error adjustment—which does not require inversion of the covariance matrix—is panel corrected standard errors (PCSE) [1]. The panel corrected variance-covariance matrix for OLS estimates is
The PCSE are the square root of the diagonal of this variance-covariance matrix. Fixed Effects Panel Model with Concurrent Correlation illustrates PCSE computation.
Maximum Likelihood Estimation
Maximum Likelihood Estimates
The default estimation algorithm used by mvregress
is maximum likelihood estimation (MLE). The loglikelihood function for the multivariate linear regression model is
The MLEs for and are the values that maximize the loglikelihood objective function.
finds the MLEs using an iterative two-stage algorithm. At iteration m + 1, the estimates are
The algorithm terminates when the changes in the coefficient estimates and loglikelihood objective function are less than a specified tolerance, or when the specified maximum number of iterations is reached. The optional name-value pair arguments for changing these convergence criteria are tolbeta
, tolobj
, and maxiter
, respectively.
Standard Errors
The variance-covariance matrix of the MLEs is an optional mvregress
output. By default, mvregress
returns the variance-covariance matrix for only the regression coefficients, but you can also get the variance-covariance matrix of using the optional name-value pair 'vartype','full'
. In this case, mvregress
returns the variance-covariance matrix for all K regression coefficients, and d or d(d + 1)/2 covariance terms (depending on whether the error covariance is diagonal or full).
By default, the variance-covariance matrix is the inverse of the observed Fisher information matrix (the 'hessian'
option). You can request the expected Fisher information matrix using the optional name-value pair 'vartype','fisher'
. Provided there is no missing response data, the observed and expected Fisher information matrices are the same. If response data is missing, the observed Fisher information accounts for the added uncertainty due to the missing values, whereas the expected Fisher information matrix does not.
The variance-covariance matrix for the regression coefficient MLEs is
evaluated at the MLE of the error covariance matrix. This is the fourth mvregress
output. The standard errors of the MLEs are the square root of the diagonal of this variance-covariance matrix.
For , let denote the vector of parameters in the estimated error variance-covariance matrix. For example, if d = 2, then:
If the estimated covariance matrix is diagonal, then .
If the estimated covariance matrix is full, then .
The Fisher information matrix for , , has elements
where is the length of (either d or d(d + 1)/2). The resulting variance-covariance matrix is
When you request the full variance-covariance matrix, mvregress
returns (as the fourth output) the block diagonal matrix
Missing Response Data
Expectation/Conditional Maximization
If any response values are missing, indicated by NaN
, mvregress
uses an expectation/conditional maximization (ECM) algorithm for estimation (if enough data is available). In this case, the algorithm is iterative for both least squares and maximum likelihood estimation. During each iteration, mvregress
imputes missing response values using their conditional expectation.
Consider organizing the data so that the joint distribution of the missing and observed responses, denoted and respectively, can be written as
Using properties of the multivariate normal distribution, the conditional expectation of the missing responses given the observed responses is
Also, the variance-covariance matrix of the conditional distribution is
At each iteration of the ECM algorithm, mvregress
uses the parameter values from the previous iteration to:
Update the regression coefficients using the combined vector of observed responses and conditional expectations of missing responses.
Update the variance-covariance matrix, adjusting for missing responses using the variance-covariance matrix of the conditional distribution.
Finally, the residuals that mvregress
returns for missing responses are the difference between the conditional expectation and the fitted value, both evaluated at the final parameter estimates.
If you prefer to ignore any observations that have missing response values, use the name-value pair 'algorithm','mvn'
. Note that mvregress
always ignores observations that have missing predictor values.
Observed Information Matrix
By default, mvregress
uses the observed Fisher information matrix (the 'hessian'
option) to compute the variance-covariance matrix of the regression parameters. This accounts for the additional uncertainty due to missing response values.
The observed information matrix includes contributions from only the observed responses. That is, the observed Fisher information matrix for the parameters in the error variance-covariance matrix has elements
where is the subset of corresponding to the observed responses in
For example, if d = 3, but is missing, then
The observed Fisher information for the regression coefficients has similar contributions from the design and covariance matrices.
[1] Beck, N. and J. N. Katz. "What to Do (and Not to Do) with Time-Series-Cross-Section Data in Comparative Politics." American Political Science Review, Vol. 89, No. 3, pp. 634–647, 1995.
See Also
Related Examples
- Set Up Multivariate Regression Problems
- Multivariate General Linear Model
- Fixed Effects Panel Model with Concurrent Correlation
- Longitudinal Analysis


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Deposition ProcessMEMS Thin Film Deposition ProcessesOne of the basic building blocks in MEMS processing is the ability to deposit thin films of material. In this text we assume a thin film to have a thickness anywhere between a few nanometer to about 100 micrometer. The film can subsequently be locally etched using processes described in the Lithography and Etching sections of this guide. MEMS deposition technology can be classified in two groups:
This is by no means an exhaustive list since technologies evolve continuously. Chemical Vapor Deposition (CVD)In this process, the substrate is placed inside a reactor to which a number of gases are supplied. The fundamental principle of the process is that a chemical reaction takes place between the source gases. The product of that reaction is a solid material with condenses on all surfaces inside the reactor. The two most important CVD technologies in MEMS are the Low Pressure CVD (LPCVD) and Plasma Enhanced CVD (PECVD). The LPCVD process produces layers with excellent uniformity of thickness and material characteristics. The main problems with the process are the high deposition temperature (higher than 600°C) and the relatively slow deposition rate. The PECVD process can operate at lower temperatures (down to 300° C) thanks to the extra energy supplied to the gas molecules by the plasma in the reactor. However, the quality of the films tend to be inferior to processes running at higher temperatures. Secondly, most PECVD deposition systems can only deposit the material on one side of the wafers on 1 to 4 wafers at a time. LPCVD systems deposit films on both sides of at least 25 wafers at a time. A schematic diagram of a typical LPCVD reactor is shown in the figure below. Figure 1: Typical hot-wall LPCVD reactor. When do I want to use CVD?CVD processes are ideal to use when you want a thin film with good step coverage. A variety of materials can be deposited with this technology, however, some of them are less popular with fabs because of hazardous byproducts formed during processing. The quality of the material varies from process to process, however a good rule of thumb is that higher process temperature yields a material with higher quality and less defects. ElectrodepositionThis process is also known as "electroplating" and is typically restricted to electrically conductive materials. There are basically two technologies for plating: Electroplating and Electroless plating. In the electroplating process the substrate is placed in a liquid solution (electrolyte). When an electrical potential is applied between a conducting area on the substrate and a counter electrode (usually platinum) in the liquid, a chemical redox process takes place resulting in the formation of a layer of material on the substrate and usually some gas generation at the counter electrode. In the electroless plating process a more complex chemical solution is used, in which deposition happens spontaneously on any surface which forms a sufficiently high electrochemical potential with the solution. This process is desirable since it does not require any external electrical potential and contact to the substrate during processing. Unfortunately, it is also more difficult to control with regards to film thickness and uniformity. A schematic diagram of a typical setup for electroplating is shown in the figure below. When do I want to use electrodeposition?The electrodeposition process is well suited to make films of metals such as copper, gold and nickel. The films can be made in any thickness from ~1µm to >100µm. The deposition is best controlled when used with an external electrical potential, however, it requires electrical contact to the substrate when immersed in the liquid bath. In any process, the surface of the substrate must have an electrically conducting coating before the deposition can be done. Figure 2: Typical setup for electrodeposition. EpitaxyThis technology is quite similar to what happens in CVD processes, however, if the substrate is an ordered semiconductor crystal (i.e. silicon, gallium arsenide), it is possible with this process to continue building on the substrate with the same crystallographic orientation with the substrate acting as a seed for the deposition. If an amorphous/polycrystalline substrate surface is used, the film will also be amorphous or polycrystalline. There are several technologies for creating the conditions inside a reactor needed to support epitaxial growth, of which the most important is Vapor Phase Epitaxy (VPE). In this process, a number of gases are introduced in an induction heated reactor where only the substrate is heated. The temperature of the substrate typically must be at least 50% of the melting point of the material to be deposited. An advantage of epitaxy is the high growth rate of material, which allows the formation of films with considerable thickness (>100µm). Epitaxy is a widely used technology for producing silicon on insulator (SOI) substrates. The technology is primarily used for deposition of silicon. A schematic diagram of a typical vapor phase epitaxial reactor is shown in the figure below. Figure 3: Typical cold-wall vapor phase epitaxial reactor. When do I want to use epitaxy?This has been and continues to be an emerging process technology in MEMS. The process can be used to form films of silicon with thicknesses of ~1µm to >100µm. Some processes require high temperature exposure of the substrate, whereas others do not require significant heating of the substrate. Some processes can even be used to perform selective deposition, depending on the surface of the substrate. Thermal oxidationThis is one of the most basic deposition technologies. It is simply oxidation of the substrate surface in an oxygen rich atmosphere. The temperature is raised to 800° C-1100° C to speed up the process. This is also the only deposition technology which actually consumes some of the substrate as it proceeds. The growth of the film is spurned by diffusion of oxygen into the substrate, which means the film growth is actually downwards into the substrate. As the thickness of the oxidized layer increases, the diffusion of oxygen to the substrate becomes more difficult leading to a parabolic relationship between film thickness and oxidation time for films thicker than ~100nm. This process is naturally limited to materials that can be oxidized, and it can only form films that are oxides of that material. This is the classical process used to form silicon dioxide on a silicon substrate. A schematic diagram of a typical wafer oxidation furnace is shown in the figure below. When do I want to use thermal oxidation?Whenever you can! This is a simple process, which unfortunately produces films with somewhat limited use in MEMS components. It is typically used to form films that are used for electrical insulation or that are used for other process purposes later in a process sequence. Figure 4: Typical wafer oxidation furnace. Physical Vapor Deposition (PVD)PVD covers a number of deposition technologies in which material is released from a source and transferred to the substrate. The two most important technologies are evaporation and sputtering. When do I want to use PVD?PVD comprises the standard technologies for deposition of metals. It is far more common than CVD for metals since it can be performed at lower process risk and cheaper in regards to materials cost. The quality of the films are inferior to CVD, which for metals means higher resistivity and for insulators more defects and traps. The step coverage is also not as good as CVD. The choice of deposition method (i.e. evaporation vs. sputtering) may in many cases be arbitrary, and may depend more on what technology is available for the specific material at the time. EvaporationIn evaporation the substrate is placed inside a vacuum chamber, in which a block (source) of the material to be deposited is also located. The source material is then heated to the point where it starts to boil and evaporate. The vacuum is required to allow the molecules to evaporate freely in the chamber, and they subsequently condense on all surfaces. This principle is the same for all evaporation technologies, only the method used to the heat (evaporate) the source material differs. There are two popular evaporation technologies, which are e-beam evaporation and resistive evaporation each referring to the heating method. In e-beam evaporation, an electron beam is aimed at the source material causing local heating and evaporation. In resistive evaporation, a tungsten boat, containing the source material, is heated electrically with a high current to make the material evaporate. Many materials are restrictive in terms of what evaporation method can be used (i.e. aluminum is quite difficult to evaporate using resistive heating), which typically relates to the phase transition properties of that material. A schematic diagram of a typical system for e-beam evaporation is shown in the figure below. Figure 5: Typical system for e-beam evaporation of materials. SputteringSputtering is a technology in which the material is released from the source at much lower temperature than evaporation. The substrate is placed in a vacuum chamber with the source material, named a target, and an inert gas (such as argon) is introduced at low pressure. A gas plasma is struck using an RF power source, causing the gas to become ionized. The ions are accelerated towards the surface of the target, causing atoms of the source material to break off from the target in vapor form and condense on all surfaces including the substrate. As for evaporation, the basic principle of sputtering is the same for all sputtering technologies. The differences typically relate to the manor in which the ion bombardment of the target is realized. A schematic diagram of a typical RF sputtering system is shown in the figure below. Figure 6: Typical RF sputtering system. CastingIn this process the material to be deposited is dissolved in liquid form in a solvent. The material can be applied to the substrate by spraying or spinning. Once the solvent is evaporated, a thin film of the material remains on the substrate. This is particularly useful for polymer materials, which may be easily dissolved in organic solvents, and it is the common method used to apply photoresist to substrates (in photolithography). The thicknesses that can be cast on a substrate range all the way from a single monolayer of molecules (adhesion promotion) to tens of micrometers. In recent years, the casting technology has also been applied to form films of glass materials on substrates. The spin casting process is illustrated in the figure below. When do I want to use casting?Casting is a simple technology which can be used for a variety of materials (mostly polymers). The control on film thickness depends on exact conditions, but can be sustained within +/-10% in a wide range. If you are planning to use photolithography you will be using casting, which is an integral part of that technology. There are also other interesting materials such as polyimide and spin-on glass which can be applied by casting. Figure 7: The spin casting process as used for photoresist in photolithography. |


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Peter Brimelow
American journalist
Peter Brimelow (born 13 October 1947) is an Anglo-American conservative writer and political pundit who has lived in England, Canada and the United States.
This article on an author is a stub. You can help Wikiquote by expanding it. |
edit- Trudeauism: The Highest Form of Liberalism
- Chapter title from The Patriot Game (1986)
- Pierre Trudeau was too much of a professional politician to be described as a good man, nor, it can be argued despite much publicity to the contrary, was he a particularly clever or even wise one. But he was a great man, perhaps the greatest Canada has produced in this century.
- The Patriot Game (1986)
- The modern definition of 'racist' is someone who's winning an argument with a liberal.[1]


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Judgment and Mercy
When I began to consider what I should say in these pages, I found myself pulled in two directions. My first impulse was to lament the spiritual decay that people of my generation have observed at close range and to urge the next generation to carry on the struggle against it with unremitting faithfulness and courage. Upon reflection, however, it seemed right to me that we should also thank God for the amazing works of grace that are being accomplished at the present time, even under a clouded sky and in adverse circumstances. Perhaps I can manage the feat of moving in both directions at the same time.
Almost fifty years have elapsed since I was ordained to the gospel ministry. When I was a theological student and then a young pastor, many of us were impatient with much that we observed in the churches, but we also believed that we were on the verge of an awakening. We expected that such a movement of the Holy Spirit would sweep away the debris of liberal theology, restore the faltering church to the faith of the Scriptures, and bring about untold numbers of conversions. That our hopes have largely remained unfulfilled hardly requires evidence.
During the 1960s I gained a new perspective, while living for some years in the Netherlands and in England where the Christian witness had already deteriorated to an extent unthinkable at the time on this side of the Atlantic. I found that many Europeans tended to look upon the American churches with envy and disdain: envy because religious life in the United States was still so apparently vibrant; disdain because in their view we had not yet come to terms with the realities of modern life and thought. Since then the position in the United States has changed radically, and the very decline to which in our arrogance we thought ourselves immune is now apparent at every turn.
No simple explanation can be given for what has been taking place, and it is essential to maintain a historical perspective. In biblical times and across the centuries there have been other periods of similar barrenness that God has mercifully interrupted with reformation and revival. Those wise in their own eyes, past and present, have regularly belittled the 'credulity' of Christians and declared the gospel to be unworthy of serious consideration, but the desert sands of infidelity are littered with the whitened bones of foolish people who said to themselves and to others, 'There is no God'.
It should also be considered whether we may be living under a divine judgment, a famine 'of hearing the words of the Lord' (Amos 8:11). Is such an act of God the reason for the pervasive decay in many of the denominations whose testimony was once firm but who have lapsed into doctrinal, theological, and moral confusion? Is the widespread ineffectiveness even among churches that have continued to be formally orthodox a sign of God's displeasure? Surely I am not alone in describing much of what passes for Christian faith as superficial and hereditary, lacking in knowledge, faith, and fervour.
I do not write, however, as one with his back against a wall. The present disarray is no cause for disillusionment or despair. On the contrary, if we have eyes to see them, there are many reasons for gratitude and hope. I mention only a few.
We must be thankful for the availability of Christian books and periodicals. I remember as though it were yesterday when the first slender volumes published by the Banner of Truth Trust appeared on the shelves of our seminary bookshop in 1958. No one could then have predicted what would happen subsequently, but those little books proved to be a harbinger of the literary torrent that followed from publishers in many parts of the world. The writings of the Reformers, the puritans, and their successors have been reissued in numbers without historical precedent. Moreover, others are building on that foundation and giving us books that explore the teachings of Scripture and apply them to our own situation.
We can be thankful for earnest, faithful preachers of the gospel. While historic Christian churches in Europe, Canada, and the United States have collapsed, the gospel is being preached with power in our own land and over vast reaches in other parts of the world. The very fact that ecclesiastical ties are being stretched and even broken is itself an indication of authentic life. Lines of division have been drawn by courageous leaders who have chosen the path of obedience to God over denominational loyalty. Ours is a time of vigorous growth in Africa, Asia, and South America, a fact of which we should never lose sight.
We are right to be thankful for strong, sturdy congregations in which the lamp of the gospel is burning brightly. There are many that have not substituted 'feelings' for truth; that elevate faithfulness to God and his Word above all other considerations; that continue to honour the Lord's Day; that joyfully worship in accordance with biblical principles; and in which people – the elect – are being brought to Christ in saving faith.
Above all, we must be thankful that the universe, the world, and the church are in the hands of a sovereign God whose purposes are indefectible, whose plan is every day being carried out, who will unfailingly bring to himself every one for whom our Saviour died, and who must in the end receive all praise and glory.
Dr. John R. de Witt, after having served various pulpits since 1959, is now retired and living in Columbia, S.C. He also served as associate editor of The Banner of Truth magazine and translated Herman Ridderbos' Paul: An Outline of His Theology.
From Ligonier Ministries and R.C. Sproul. © Tabletalk magazine.
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The third milestone in my love for mobile connectivity, happened shortly after I bought my second phone. It was work that demanded I have no personal time and took steps to get me a Blackberry.
The Blackberry turned out to be a very different being, in comparison with my current phones. Everything about it screamed business - no frills; just a steady solid performer. It had everything I wanted to get work done, nothing that would make me buy one for myself. But it was the company that was paying for it, so my decision making process consisted of little more than asking a colleague which handset he recommended.
Thus I came to be in possession of my new Blackberry Bold. The feature list was pretty impressive, not to mention a paid for, always online 3G connectivity. Completing my enterprise activation was a breeze, and within time I had replicated my email and calendar on the perfectly usable mobile device.
The keyboard took a little getting used to. Realizing the power of being fully connected took a bit longer. But somewhere between checking the location of my next meeting without needing my laptop and being able to reply to quick emails at the extremes of each day, I realized something strange - I was no longer fascinated by the new device. In comparison with the time I spent configuring and personalizing my earlier phones - the customizations to my Blackberry were close to nil.
At the beginning I attributed this to my trivial approach to selecting it. But that wasn't it. What had changed was me and my attitude towards connectivity. Full mobile capability had quickly become a means to an end. With abundance came transparency - the Blackberry bold held little fascination beyond the emails it carried and the meetings it reminded me of.
I was no longer a connectivity virgin.


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Minneapolis, MN, September 19, 2017 –(PR.com)– RxFunction, Inc. is the manufacturer of Walkasins®, the first Wearable Sensory Prosthesis (WSP™) to help improve balance in patients who experience gait and balance problems due to peripheral neuropathy.
"This is a very exciting opportunity. There is a great clinical need out there that RxFunction is uniquely positioned to address," said Robert P. Rinek, board member of RxFunction.
Rinek brings 35 years of experience in the investment banking and private equity industry to RxFunction's board. He is currently a managing director in the Piper Jaffray merchant banking group, co-CEO of PJC Capital Partners LLC and a member of the general partner. In the late 1980s, Rinek established Piper Jaffray's financial institutions group within investment banking, and served as the group's global head until December 2007. He was with the Northern Trust Company and ITT Financial Corporation before joining Piper Jaffray in 1982. Rinek is also a former board member of Piper Jaffray Ventures. He is a founding member of Twin Cities Angels, an angel investment group in Minneapolis/St. Paul, and he has served on the board of Marshall Financial Ventures, an equity fund that invests in late-stage financial services companies.
Currently, Rinek is either on the board of, or has board observation responsibility for the following portfolio companies: Living Proof, PerfectServe, Harvest Power, LogRhythm and Brainyak, Inc.
Rinek is a graduate of Denison University and the University of Chicago Booth School of Business where he earned his Master of Business Administration degree. He also holds the Certified Management Accountant (CMA®) professional designation, and has served on the boards of numerous for-profit and non-profit organizations.
"I'm impressed with how RxFunction has been able to receive grant funding from NIH to develop this novel technology – that is not easy," said Rinek. "I look forward to working with this innovative company and help bring their technology to the market and patients in need."
"Bob brings deep professional experience to the company," said Dan Leach, CEO and co-founder of RxFunction. "We are happy and fortunate that he has joined our board of directors. He is precisely who we need involved at this stage of our development."
An estimated 20 million Americans have some form of peripheral neuropathy, according to the Foundation for Peripheral Neuropathy, commonly as a consequence of diabetes or chemotherapy. These patients may lose sensation in their feet, which affects balance and increases fall risk. Walkasins detect when the wearer begins to lose balance and send a signal to a cuff worn around the calf. The cuff vibrates to help the wearer know which way they are leaning, allowing them to correct their balance.
"Walkasins help replace some of these patients' lost sensory information that is important for balance," said Dr. Lars Oddsson, co-inventor of the technology and president of RxFunction. "Our recent data from the Minneapolis VA show that some patients display immediate meaningful improvement in clinical outcomes, which really is amazing."
Development of Walkasins has been supported by a Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) grant from the NIH (AG040865).
About RxFunction, Inc.
RxFunction is a wearable technology company with an initial focus on developing and leading a new business segment within the U.S. medical grade assistive technology marketplace. The company's vision is to improve physical ability for social participation and quality of life. Privately held and headquartered in Minneapolis, MN, RxFunction has taken assignment of patented technology developed by co-founder Dr. Lars Oddsson as a research professor at Boston University's Neuromuscular Research Center, and funded by Edina, MN investment bank, Cedar Point Capital, and the NIH's National Institute on Aging. Walkasins have not been submitted to the FDA for review, and are not available for sale at this time.
Contact Information:
RxFunction, Inc.
Dan Leach
Contact via Email
5201 Eden Avenue, #300
Edina, MN 55436
Read the full story here: http://www.pr.com/press-release/730422
Press Release Distributed by PR.com


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Team Sports Conference & Expo launches on June 27th 2016 at Chicago's famed Navy Pier, offering team sports industry professionals with an exciting new event for discovering the latest products that will assist in their efforts to develop winning sports programs.
Live drills and demos with athletes on the football field, multi-use field and basketball/volleyball court will add an exciting interactive element, and provide attendees with new ideas and strategies to take back to their teams.
Plus, targeted educational sessions over three days will feature successful coaches and athletic directors from all levels.
Sports-specific and general sessions will be held throughout the conference.
Coaches, athletic trainers and athletic directors alike will benefit from hearing from some of the biggest names in sports.
The trade show will include all the industry's top suppliers, showcasing products and services that a facility or team may need will be available on the Team Sports Conference & Expo show floor, including:
An exciting show floor will present 115 exhibitors. AmpliVox will be on hand exhibiting public address systems for all sports and athletic needs including:
Digital Audio Travel Partner Package
Powerful 250 watt amplifier delivers quality sound in areas up to 25,000 square feet. A proven road warrior specially tooled and molded plastic enclosure for exceptional durability. Travels and sets up easily with tripod mount plus retractable handle and wheels.
Bluetooth® wireless technology streams audio wirelessly from your smart phone, tablet, or any other Bluetooth® enabled device or play CDs and MP3s with integrated electronics.
Half-Mile Hailer Kits
When you need to project clear sound up to a half mile away, use the PA system that lives up to its name, the AmpliVox Half-Mile Hailer.
Half-Mile Hailer kits provide additional components such as horn speakers, 40ft. cable to connect the speakers, adjustable compact tripod that extends 28 to 49 inches, adjustable heavy duty tripod that extends 44 to 84 inches, Y adapters, and nylon carry case with luggage handle and wheels.
Titan Wireless Portable PA System
Equipped with a powerful 100 watt amplifier, wired handheld mic with your choice of wireless microphone, and a luggage handle with wheels. You can also play your music with the built-in CD player, USB Flash Drive input, or through the SD slot.
The Titan PA system can either be plugged in using AC power or run on rechargeable batteries. The Titan's lightweight design can reach up to 2500 people in room sizes of up to 10,000 square feet in optimal conditions.
Rechargeable Wireless Portable PA System
The AmpliVox SW720 is a powerful all-in-one PA system that puts you in command of your presentation for voice, music or full audio visual with all types of supporting media.
The SW720 has a built-in Bluetooth® module that allows a user to stream music wirelessly from any Bluetooth® music-playing device, transmitting audio music from your iPad, iPhone, or any other Bluetooth® enabled device such as a smartphone, PC or laptop computer.
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Communicating in large open spaces to large crowds or small is never a problem with an AmpliVox megaphone. Our lightweight, battery operated megaphones / bullhorns are essential to your public address activities and emergency preparedness kit.
Our new waterproof ProMarine model is built especially tough for marine and outdoor environments.
Stop by Booth # 224 during the Team Sports Conference & Expo to learn how our portable sound systems can help your team or facility.


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I understand that there are good and bad fats. I'm talking about the good ones, the fat that comes from avocado, flax seed oil, etc.
I am obese at the moment and wish to lose body fat quickly. I am eating a diet that is giving me a caloric deficit, it's composed of low glycemic complex carbs, proteins and dairy and no fat. Should I add a fat source to my diet?
I understand that eventually a healthy diet must have a fat source but given my situation as an obese person looking to lose weight quickly, should I add a good fat to my diet now or wait a while until I lose some weight first?
The bigger question is, do good fats actually get stored as fat in the body (if one's lifestyle isn't very active) or do they serve some other purpose?


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A short while after writing the review, I had a message from Jon who lives in Shetland. Did I know, he asked, that the Shetland Black sold in Waitrose is not the same as the Shetland Black grown by the crofters on the islands? Well no, I didn't. And when he kindly offered to send me a sample of the "real thing" it was not something I was going to turn down.
A box duly arrived with a generous stash of "real" Shetland Black tubers, and I saw what he meant. They are certainly similar to the commercial ones, in that they are black-skinned and yellow-fleshed with a trace of purple inside. But they are rounder in shape, with deeper eyes. The flesh is a stronger yellow, and instead of having a simple purple vascular ring, the purple is more diffuse and spreads into the flesh, although it still has about the same amount of purple overall. The skin is a softer charcoal black, with a slight coarseness and a few pale speckles but none of the distinctive 'corky spots' or netting of the commercial type. When the tubers sprout, the sprouts are purple rather than the glossy black of the commercial version. It is, as Jon put it, "subtly yet profoundly different".
The Shetland Black potatoes from Shetland, as grown by Jon.
And while I find the commercial Shetland Black very well flavoured, the flavour of the local version is really outstanding. It has an exceptionally rich, strong, old-fashioned flavour with no bitterness in the skin, and the flesh is dense and smooth. The flavour is excellent when boiled and the potato holds together well without breaking up … if the outer skin is undamaged it keeps its purple colour. It also makes nice roasties, albeit rather dense ones with a thick skin. But then I guess that isn't an issue if you peel them … it's just one of my personal funny little ways that I never, ever peel potatoes.
Interestingly, Alan Romans mentions in his Potato Book that the version of Shetland Black conserved in the National Collection is considered by many Shetlanders not to be "right", and the authentic local version is described as larger and rounder with deeper eyes - exactly what I have here. Jon tells me that even within Shetland there are several more variants, some with a paler skin colour.
Naturally I was intrigued to see how the plants compared to the ones I'd already reviewed.
Standard Shetland Black on the left, "real" Shetland Black on the right.
Darker skin, yellower flesh, rounder tubers. The flowers do look fairly similar, but the difference not visible in this picture is that the one on the left is a rarity! This is the only decent specimen I've ever seen on the standard Shetland Black, it's usually a saggy specimen with wonky anthers or none at all. Whereas the one on the right flowers profusely.
"Real" Shetland Black produced very large voluptuous plants with big, dark green leaves, again quite different from the standard Shetland Black which tends towards the straggly end of the spectrum. To my delight, its flowering habits are also very different. It produces masses of blooms, large, elegant and mauve-petalled, borne over a long season. The real delight for me though is that it is a natural berry setter, loading itself up with large purple and green mottled fruits. In fact it's a potato breeder's dream. It has fertile pollen which can be used to pollinate other varieties and make hybrids. It will also accept pollen from other potato varieties to make more hybrids. And it is self-fertile, so I can also use it to pollinate its own flowers and reshuffle the contents of its own genepool without crossing it with anything else. To put this in perspective, the number of cultivated potato varieties which are fully male/female fertile is thought to be around 4 or 5%. Among the 95% of others which have compromised fertility is the commercial Shetland Black, which rarely flowers at all, and when it does its rather half-arsed mauve and white blossoms quickly drop off without producing any berries.
So I have been using "real" Shetland Black as both a male and female parent in my breeding programme this year. This is a good thing for me, because it brings interest and diversity. But it's also a good thing for Shetland Black, because one of the surest ways to conserve heritage vegetables is to pass their genes forward into new recombinations. Next year I will be able to sample such joys as Shetland Black x Salad Blue, Shetland Black x [Mandel x John Tom Kaighin], Highland Burgundy Red x Shetland Black, Marfona x Shetland Black, Congo x Shetland Black and possibly others. Plus of course the self-pollinated Shetland Black x Shetland Black, which will be interesting in itself. Potatoes can show a trace of inbreeding depression from self-pollination because nature really made them to be an outbreeder and they're not supposed to be self-fertile (the mechanism for preventing it got screwed up when they acquired their doubled genome). But in practice, self-pollinated seeds often produce really sturdy plants, just as vigorous as a hybrid would be. There's enough genetic diversity in the potato's tetraploid makeup to allow for a healthy bit of internal reshuffling.
My guess, and I must emphasise that it is only a guess, is that the commercially available Shetland Black could be derived from this local version, as the high fertility makes it very easy to save and share seed from it, either self-pollinated (in which case it's a simple reshuffling of the same genetic material) or a cross with something else. The reason I think the local one is probably the older of the two is because of its deep eyes. Shallow-eyed potatoes are a relatively modern innovation, prized for ease of peeling, and although the deep eyes of the local variety are not proof of antiquity, the shallow eyes of the commercial version certainly suggest a more modern origin. And also, the commercial Shetland Black has such low fertility it would be extremely difficult to breed anything from it.
The crop of Shetland Black I grew this year produced tubers somewhat smaller than the ones Jon originally sent me, but made up for it by producing absolutely masses of them … the yield overall was high. My guess is that they will adapt within a year or two and start producing the full size ones. On the whole, the plants seem to be very happy growing down here.
Part of what I wanted to find out was how well the Shetland tatties would adapt to being grown this far south. To any Americans and Australians reading this, the British Isles probably seem very small, and relatively speaking they are, but all the same there's a huge difference between the clement lush greenery of south-west England and the rocky windblustered Shetlands so many miles out in the Atlantic Ocean, far beyond the northernmost tip of Scotland. Shetland potatoes are adapted to thin peaty soil overlaid on solid rock, which is naturally acidic and supports a very different range of plants from the deep sandy loam of Cheltenham, which is naturally infused with limestone.
At one time Shetland had quite a range of unique local potatoes, bred for the particular needs of the soil and climate and maintained through many generations, helped no doubt by the extreme remoteness of this group of islands. Potatoes are known to have arrived in Shetland in the 18th century and formed a very major part of the islanders' diet. In the past, whaling boats from Shetland travelled as far as South America, where potatoes are native, and it's just possible that they picked up some spuds on their travels which differed from those already doing the rounds in England and mainland Scotland. Unfortunately many of these unique local varieties are now lost. Jon says that many older people on the island remember a red potato called Marrister Red which appears to have vanished, and also one called Yell Blue. He was, however, able to send me a sample of a rare and precious survivor among traditional Shetland tatties, which hails from the really tiny island of Foula.
It's difficult to explain just how rugged this potato has to be in order to survive as a viable food crop in Foula. Shetland weather can be very extreme. When in 1936 the island became the setting for a film starring John Laurie (later of Dad's Army fame), the camera crew were astounded by the sight of water in a mill loch being blown 300ft into the air by the force of the wind. But when they tried to film this spectacle they found the wind so strong neither they nor the camera could stand up in it, and they ended up having to crawl back to base on their hands and knees. Magical and inspiring the landscape may be, but this is not a good environment for growing vegetables. The traditional solution to this problem is to grow them in plantie crubs - small circular enclosures made of stones and turf, where the walls are high enough to prevent the plants from being blasted away and a decent layer of soil can be maintained to supplement the thin squishy peat which constitutes the island's natural topsoil.
The Foula Red potato is rounded, sometimes slightly kidney-shaped, with very shallow eyes and a pink-red skin, having a slightly rough matt surface. The flesh inside is a pale yellow, and it doesn't have internal colouring like its Black counterpart. The sprouts are pale pink and the plants grow into fairly large sprawling specimens with unusually large and flat leaves, dark green and with a rosy blush on the leaf stems.
It does have one major drawback though. It is almost laughably low yielding. The spuds are a decent size, but four or five tubers per plant is as much as they can offer. They look so promising as you grub around the base of the plant and unearth the first voluptuous brick-red tuber, since the largest one is usually at the top. And so you eagerly scrabble through the earth to find the rest of them and … er … there aren't any.
The crofter who gave Jon the tubers said that it's traditionally a low-yielding variety and it's quite normal to get such a miniscule crop. The reason it was worth cultivating was that it showed better blight resistance than other varieties grown on the islands, and therefore ensured at least some harvest during bad blight years … an important consideration in a community traditionally dependent on its own food production.
Foula Red is a natural survivor. This plant had its stem damaged by snails, and responded by making stem-borne tubers.
Well, when I grew my Foula Reds for the first time in 2009 they came up happily enough and made fine plants, but were almost immediately struck down by blight! Really complete, devastating blight which killed them in a couple of days. What was most strange was that they were the only plants in the garden to succumb … all my other potatoes were fine. This doesn't mean, however, that Foula Red has been wrongly labelled as blight resistant. The fact is, blight is an incredibly fast-mutating fungal disease and even the most resilient potatoes become vulnerable over time. Since the arrival in Europe of two mating types of blight which quickly got loved up, the version of the disease we are currently blighted with is a new supersonic strain which raises merry hell and simply didn't exist here before the late 1970s. Foula Red may well have had good blight resistance, but the goalposts have moved.
So anyway, fearing I'd lost this precious rare potato, I searched the soil and found a few tiny baby tubers that had just started to form. They were barely bigger than peas. But I kept them safe over winter, and in spring they sprouted, and remarkably, have given me six fine healthy plants in 2010. And this time, they have survived long enough to give me their proud harvest of a couple of tubers each.
My English-grown Foula Reds made it to full size, and are as big as the ones Jon originally sent me. The one thing that is different though is the skin texture. As you can see, the big one in the photo has got the same smooth roughness of the originals but many of the others have a crazed surface where the outer skin is sloughing off, very rough to the touch. I assume this is down to soil differences, though I'm not expert enough in potato behaviour to know what causes it.
And having sampled the taste of them for the first time, I found the flavour really excellent. It's quite similar to Shetland Black in old-fashioned richness, but it's milder and sweeter. The texture is lovely, dense but refined. Worth growing as a delicacy.
It might seem a bit odd to want to keep growing a variety which is both low-yielding and blight susceptible, especially as it's also quite slow maturing which makes the blight more of an issue. But I think something has been lost in the modern culture of wanting to maximise everything. Potato breeding focuses primarily towards larger yields, which is great, but there is still a kind of magic in only having enough to make an occasional treat. If the Foula Reds only produce enough potatoes for a couple of meals, fine - those meals are a special event. And there's also the fact that it's a rare type with no commercial potential and very limited distribution, which creates more of an imperative to take care of it. Local, heritage and landrace varieties shouldn't be judged by the same criteria as modern commercial ones. Foula Red may not win any accolades for its bounty or disease resistance, but it survives on an island with boggy soil and 100mph gales. Who knows when those genes for climate resilience might come in useful, or how important they might one day be for our future food security?
Something else I noticed, unless it's just the shock of adapting to a new climate: Foula Red is a late bloomer. Most potatoes start to flower around the time they set tubers, and Foula Red duly produced a couple of apologetic looking bud clusters which promptly aborted before they even thought about opening. Then it made its tubers, and then … when the tubers were already full size and the season was nearly over, it began to flower properly. Not all the plants produced flowers, only the two biggest ones, but they were a lovely surprise. Very pretty, elegant flowers in a light mauve with bright yellow anthers. They were a joy to behold. More for the sake of scientific study than any serious hope of finding anything, I plucked an anther and prodded it to see if there was any pollen in it. There were veritable plumes of it! Masses and masses of pollen. In fact, left to dehisce naturally it was dumping big white splodges of powder on the leaves underneath. It's pretty rare for potatoes to produce pollen in that kind of abundance. Excitedly, I dabbed some of it on the pistils of its own flowers, and on one or two other potatoes which were still flowering, which wasn't many at that late stage in the season. To my delight, every dabbing resulted in a plump healthy berry. So Foula Red, as well as Shetland Black, belongs with the 4% or so of cultivated potatoes which have complete male/female fertility.
Foula Red flowers
This is really good news. As with Shetland Black, it will allow me to make new varieties from it (if I can find a partner for it which flowers at the same time). But more importantly, it is a huge help in ensuring the variety's future survival. Tubers have a finite lifespan, and any variety which can't produce its own seed (i.e. most of them) is difficult to maintain long term. Foula Red's ability to produce TPS, either by itself or by contributing its genes elsewhere, will enable it to regenerate. Of course being tetraploid (I assume Foula Red is tetraploid) the seeds from self-pollinations will not come "true" to the variety in every detail but they are nevertheless a recombination of the same genes. And who knows, they might even throw up a variant with decent yields. Ha.
So thank you very much Jon. And all credit to the crofters of the Shetland Isles who know a good tattie when they see one.


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Ativan is an antianxiety medication in the benzodiazepine family, the same family that includes diazepam (Valium), alprazolam (Xanax), clonazepam (Klonopin), flurazepam (Dalmane), and others. Ativan and other benzodiazepines act by enhancing the effects of gamma-aminobutyric acid (GABA) in the brain. GABA is a neurotransmitter, a chemical that nerves in the brain use to send messages to one another. GABA inhibits activity in many of the nerves of the brain, and it is thought that this excessive activity is what causes anxiety or other psychological disorders. Because Ativan is removed from the blood more rapidly than many other benzodiazepines, there is less chance that Ativan concentrations in blood will reach high levels and become toxic. Ativan has fewer interactions with other medications than most of the other benzodiazepines.
The contents of this site are for informational purposes only.


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Director, U.C.D.C. Law Program
Lecturer in Law
- B.A. University of Miami, 1996
- J.D. American University, Washington College of Law, 2000
Nicole Lehtman is Director of the U.C.D.C. Law Program, a consortium established in 2009 to give law students from UCLA, Berkeley, Davis and Irvine a full-time, full-semester externship experience in Washington, D.C. Prior to joining the U.C.D.C. Law Program, Lehtman served as the first program manager and adjunct professor for Arizona State University's Sandra Day O'Connor College of Law's Washington D.C. Legal Externship Program. In that position, she was responsible for counseling law students from across the country on available externship opportunities with the federal government and D.C.-based non-profit organizations. She also provided students with support and guidance throughout their time in Washington, D.C. Lehtman has also served as an adjunct professor in the Trial Advocacy Program at American University's Washington College of Law.
Lehtman has extensive government experience working as a federal prosecutor in the U.S. Department of Justice. Most recently, she served as a trial attorney in the Justice Department's Criminal Division and previously she served as an Assistant United States Attorney for the District of Columbia. Lehtman is a graduate, cum laude, of American University's Washington College of Law, and the University of Miami where she graduated with honors with a degree in political science and international studies.


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Learn the history of one of the most innovative concepts to hail from IWC's Apprentice Workshop, the "Tourbillon School", and the man who sparked the imagination of hundreds of young watchmakers, Walter Baumann. Download the special white paper below.
The IWC Apprentice Workshop was founded 50 years ago with the aim of training the watchmakers of tomorrow. One man was instrumental in the success of that workshop, Walter Baumann. Awarded IWC's "Probus Scafusia" prize in 2006 for his life dedication to watchmaking, Baumann was behind the development of comprehensive training programs for apprentices. In addiiton, he was part of IWC's effort to develop its own tourbillon.
IWC Museum Curartor David Seyffer delves into the history of the Apprentice Workshop, including the "Tourbillon School" in this special downloadable report. IWC is also celebrating the beauty of the tourbillon with a special exhibit at the IWC Museum until the end of May 2019.
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The IWC Big Pilot's Watch: The Start of Something Big
The Big Pilot's Watch: The Start of Something Big
IWC Introduces Le Petit Prince Special Editions
At SIHH 2019 in Geneva, IWC Schaffhausen will be presenting a new Le Petit Prince line in the Pilot's Watches collection. Learn more about the new collection here.
Author Alan Burdick on "Why Time Flies"
New York Times senior editor Alan Burdick explains the psychological relationship between us and time in his book Why Time Flies. Listen below.


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One of the most important aspects of SEO is establishing a load of links from other websites to yours. Website link building (also know as backlinks) takes a bit of work but has to be done. You cannot exist on the internet isolated and all alone - unless everyone already knows your business and/or website!
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Some great ways of getting links are:
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See our fees page for our website link building service costs.


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Weekly Approximate Screening Times for DOUBLE TAKE:
Tuesday-Friday - 11:00am, 12:20pm, 1:40pm, 3:00pm, 4:20pm
Saturday - 10:00am, 11:20am, 12:40pm, 2:00pm, 3:20pm, 4:40pm
Special Evening Screenings, 6:30pm:
• Wednesday, February 25 (Screening and Q&A with the Artist)
• Tuesday, March 3rd
• Wednesday, March 11th
• Tuesday, March 17th (A Double Feature Screening*)
*A screening of two Grimonprez films: dial H-I-S-T-O-R-Y and
Sean Kelly Gallery is delighted to announce a major exhibition of new work by Belgian artist Johan Grimonprez - his first since joining the gallery. The exhibition includes his new film DOUBLE TAKE. The opening will take place on Friday, February 6th from 6pm until 8pm. The artist will be present.
Grimonprez's second film essay, titled DOUBLE TAKE, questions how our view of reality is held hostage by mass media, advertising and Hollywood. Written by award winning British novelist Tom McCarthy, the film targets the global rise of fear-as-commodity, in a tale of odd couples and hilarious double deals. Paying tribute to the themes of doubling and mistaken identity, Grimonprez creates a unique interpretation of Alfred Hitchcock's illustrious cameo television and film appearances, through which Grimonprez examines the influence of this cinema-icon on a deeper, more socio-political level. The film covers the post World War II period, characterized by prosperity and innocent consumerism, as well as institutionalized fear, through the beginning of the 1960s featuring Sputnik, Nikita Khrushchev and Richard Nixon. The cold war era was characterized by the conquest of space, sexual politics, anxiety and paranoia disrupting the idyllic American suburban dream. In the words of Alfred Hitchcock, "Television brought murder into the American home, where it has always belonged." Not without humor, DOUBLE TAKE invites the viewer to question today's hegemony of the image, the truth and lies of reality and its influence on our society, politics and culture.
A compilation of short films, selected by Grimonprez and Charlotte Léouzon titled MAYBE THE SKY IS REALLY GREEN AND WE'RE JUST COLORBLIND accompanies the exhibition. Shown for the first time in New York, it is presented in the form of a YouTube-o-Theque library, which contains clips from online television, cell phone videos, blogs and YouTube. As a product of a sophisticated generation brought up on a diet of television, and homemade productions, Grimonprez mixes reality and fiction in a wholly innovative fashion, and presents contemporary history as a multi-perspectival context, readily open to manipulation.
Johan Grimonprez's work is included in numerous collections such as the Centre Georges Pompidou, Paris, France, the Kanazawa Art Museum, Japan, the National Gallery, Berlin, Germany, and the Louisiana Museum of Modern Art, Denmark. Curatorial projects have been hosted at major museums worldwide such as the Whitney Museum in New York, The San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, The Pinakothek der Moderne in Munich, Germany and the Tate Modern in London, England. Grimonprez achieved international acclaim with his film essay Dial H-I-S-T-O-R-Y at Documenta X in Kassel, Germany, in 1997, which eerily foreshadowed the tragic events of September 11th in New York. His films have been included in prestigious film festivals in Telluride, Los Angeles, Rio de Janeiro, Tokyo and Berlin. Grimonprez is currently a faculty member at the School of Visual Arts (New York).
Grimonprez's film DOUBLE TAKE will have an avant-premiere at the Hammer Museum in Los Angeles March 12, 2009. It has also been selected for the 59th Berlinale International Forum 2009 in Berlin. DOUBLE TAKE will be included in the following exhibitions: Un Certain Etat du Monde?, at The Garage, Center for Contemporary Culture in Moscow, Russia, March 19 2009, Magazin 3 in Stockholm, Sweden, March 28, 2009 and the Fruitmarket Gallery in Edinburgh, Scotland in May, 2010. A mid-career survey will take place at Blaffer Gallery, the Art Museum of the University of Houston, in 2010.


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Time magazine to be sold for $1.8 Billion in 2018
Meredith Corp. just announced that it is buying Time Inc.the parent company of Time Magazine for about $1.8 billion in a deal CEO Stephen Lacy described as "a transformative and financially compelling growth opportunity" that joins two giant magazine companies.
Meredith brings with it a magazine portfolio that includes Better Homes & Gardens, Family Circle, allrecipes and Shape, while Time Inc. owns properties including Time, Sports Illustrated, People, Fortune and Entertainment Weekly.
The companies said the deal was unanimously approved by their boards of directors and will close early next year. Meredith will pay $18.50 per share in cash for Time's nearly 100 million outstanding shares. It said it is using $3.55 billion in financing commitments from a variety of lenders and a $650 million preferred equity from Koch Equity Development, an investment arm of Koch Industries, to finance the deal and pay down existing debt. Prior to the announcement, Meredith had just $28 million in cash on hand, according to its latest quarterly report.
Combined, the companies posted $4.8 billion in revenue last year. Meredith expects it will save up to $500 million in costs in the first two years of operation and plans to "aggressively pay down" debt by 2020. Koch Equity Development will not have a seat on the board nor influence editorial operations, the company said.
Time Chairman John Fahey said the sale was in the best interests of the company and its shareholders, noting the price represented a 46 percent premium to the closing price of shares on Nov. 15, the day prior to media reports about the deal.
Reviewed by Unknown
Tuesday, November 28, 2017


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Good morning.
Our early headline:
-- Weather Outside Is Frightful; Tornadoes, Snow, Rain Lash Much Of Nation.
Some of the other stories making news today:
-- " 'Fiscal Cliff' To Bring President Obama Back Early From Hawaii." ( Los Angeles Times)
-- "Post-Holiday Retail Sales Are Now Key To Shopping Season Success." ( Forbes)
-- In Video, Commander Of Syria's Military Police Says He Has Defected To The Opposition. ( BBC News).
-- "Despite Protests, Egypt Has A New Constitution." ( Morning Edition)
-- "N.Y. Gunman: Killing Is 'What I Like Doing Best.' " ( The Associated Press)
And in case you missed these stories over the Christmas holiday:
-- "Jack Klugman, Half Of 'The Odd Couple' Dies At 90." ( Morning Edition)
Copyright 2016 NPR. To see more, visit http://www.npr.org/.


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Updated on Feb. 20th at 2:57 ET
President Biden has said many times that he wants most schools to be open by his 100th day in office, April 30. And on Friday, Feb. 12, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention released new guidelines intended to help schools operate in person safely. But some argue these guidelines will do little to promote school openings.
"Wake up call to parents! If schools start following this new guidance strictly, kids are not getting back to full-time school," Joseph Allen, the director of Harvard's Healthy Buildings Program and an expert on ventilation, told NPR's Steve Inskeep. Maybe not even by next fall, he said.
Rather than pour oil on troubled waters, the administration's guidance and public statements seem to have poured an energy drink over an already intense debate — one where the relationship among school operations, COVID-19 levels and politics is far from straightforward or uniform.
Some of the confusion is coming directly from the administration. At a CNN town hall on Tuesday Biden reiterated and clarified that he's talking about grades K-8 and said, "The goal will be five days a week." This contradicted recent statements by his press secretary, Jen Psaki, that the goal was just one day a week, without specifying K-8.
Another walkback happened earlier in February, when CDC Director Rochelle Walensky said vaccinating teachers was not a prerequisite for safely reopening schools; Psaki later said Walensky had been speaking "in her personal capacity." The new, official CDC guidance, however, matches Walensky's statement, saying "access to vaccination should not be considered a condition for reopening schools for in-person instruction."
The official guidance and White House statements are also running into complicated facts on the ground.
These new guidelines — which are intended as recommendations — come almost a year into the pandemic. In that time school districts have made their own decisions about reopening, with limited federal resources. About two-thirds of U.S. students already have the option of some in-person learning, as of Feb. 14. That's according to Burbio, one of the few organizations that has been tracking school reopenings throughout the pandemic. Burbio reports that 40.8% of students have the option of traditional, in-person instruction five days a week, with the remainder having the option of a hybrid schedule.
The number of schools teaching in-person has trended upwards since last fall — well before the CDC issued its latest, data-driven guidelines — and that figure is at an all-time high right now, according to Burbio. Texas, Florida and Georgia are three big states with mostly open K-12 schools; there arelots of open schools in the middle of the country too, in states like Montana, Nebraska, Iowa, Indiana, Kansas and Arkansas.
However, in many places, these currently-open schools aren't necessarily in harmony with new CDC guidance on matters like community spread, physical distancing or athletics.
Community spread
Cases have been falling across the country, as the CDC's Rochelle Walensky notedat a White House briefing on Friday. Still, Burbio calculates that, as of Feb. 19, about 76% of students are enrolled in schools located in areas that fall into the CDC's "red" category, with the highest COVID-19 transmission rates.
With that many cases in the community, CDC guidelines call for hybrid learning in elementary schools; and virtual-only learning in middle and high schools, unless those schools can "strictly implement all mitigation strategies" and have "few" cases. Bottom line: Unless and until caseloads fall more sharply, most schools can't be open five days a week and still comport with CDC guidelines.
Physical distancing
The CDC guidelines recommend physical distancing of 6 feet. That's the rationale behind hybrid schedules — they are intended to reduce class size, allowing elbow room in classrooms. But distancing is less achievable for the estimated 40% of students who have the option of in-person instruction five days a week.
Heidi Matthews is a teacher and the president of the Utah Education Association. She says, in her state, full-time in-person learning is the norm and class sizes are large.
"We can't keep our desks 6 inches apart, much less doing any sort of social distancing," Matthews tells NPR.
Bottom line: Without a huge infusion of money for more space and staffing, 6 feet apart five days a week may be out of reach.
In "red" zones — which, again, are home to three-quarters of U.S. students right now — CDC guidelines call for all sports to be virtual. With high-contact sports, like wrestling, masks can be dangerous and distancing impossible. Yet there are places around the country, like Pittsburgh and the Detroit area, and soon in parts of California, where schools are closed but kids' sports — either school leagues or independent sports — are in full swing. The Twitter hashtag #LetThemPlay tracks efforts around the country to keep youth sports going or to reopen them.
An evolving situation
The environment for school openings could improve before Biden's first 100 days are up. If community spread continues to fall quickly, more schools may be able to open, or continue to operate with few cases, and even offer more days in person. Vaccinating teachers, which is happening unevenly across states, may help with ongoing staff shortages, since the CDC says vaccinated people are no longer required to quarantine after an exposure, and since the peace of mind that comes with the vaccine may bring more teachers back into the workforce.
But equity advocates like Becky Pringle, head of the nation's largest teachers union, the National Education Association,are warning that schools that serve more vulnerable students in low-income communities may be less able to afford what the CDC is now recommending. That could put official scientific guidance at odds with the president's message.
In short, when it comes to practices like physical distancing, quarantining, contact tracing, coronavirus testing and ventilation, the CDC has provided guidance, but there's no guarantee that schools and communities will want to — or be able to — follow its rules.
Copyright 2021 NPR. To see more, visit https://www.npr.org.