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Princess Seams (Shape):Tartantown's highland dance jackets are worn by World Champions! They are hand-tailored to SOBHD specifications from the finest 100% cotton velvet and cotton lining.
They are trimmed in either silver or gold 1/2" metallic braid with ten corresponding medium-sized buttons down the front and five small-sized buttons on each sleeve. The jackets are fully lined, interfaced with high quality haircloth and boned in the front to provide a crisp, tailored look.
With a wide choice of colors to match the tartans, they are finished with a zipper closure.
Sizes 32 and larger includes a princess seam.
No returns on this size garment in any colour other than black.


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✓ 24/7 automatic processing of online orders
✓ Knowledgeable and professional Product & Technical Support
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Cat. No. / ID: 28306
✓ 24/7 automatic processing of online orders
✓ Knowledgeable and professional Product & Technical Support
✓ Fast and reliable (re)-ordering
The QIAquick Nucleotide Removal Kit provides spin columns, buffers, and collection tubes for silica-membrane-based purification of oligonucleotides and DNA. Unincorporated nucleotides, salts, and other contaminants are removed and oligonucleotides (>17 nt) and DNA fragments ranging from 40 bp to 10 kb are purified using a simple and fast bind-wash-elute procedure and an elution volume of 30–200 µl. The procedure is fully automated on the QIAcube Connect.
The QIAquick Nucleotide Removal procedure removes nucleotides, enzymes, salts, and other impurities from DNA samples (see figure " Complete removal of nucleotides from labeled oligos". Using a microcentrifuge, 17mer – 10 kb DNA is purified. For sample volumes smaller than 50 µl the DyeEx Spin kit can also be used.
QIAquick Kits contain a silica membrane assembly for binding of DNA in high-salt buffer and elution with low-salt buffer or water. The purification procedure removes primers, nucleotides, enzymes, mineral oil, salts, agarose, ethidium bromide, and other impurities from DNA samples (see figure " Complete removal of nucleotides from labeled oligos"). Silica-membrane technology eliminates the problems and inconvenience associated with loose resins and slurries. Specialized binding buffers are optimized for specific applications and promote selective adsorption of DNA molecules within particular size ranges.
To enable faster and more convenient sample processing and analysis, gel loading dye is provided. GelPilot Loading Dye contains three tracking dyes (xylene cyanol, bromophenol blue, and orange G) to facilitate the optimization of agarose gel run time and prevent smaller DNA fragments from migrating too far (see figure " GelPilot Loading Dye").
The QIAquick system uses a simple bind–wash–elute procedure (see flowchart " QIAquick Nucleotide Removal procedure"). Binding buffer is added directly to the sample, and the mixture is applied to the QIAquick spin column. Nucleic acids adsorb to the silica membrane in the high-salt conditions provided by the buffer. Impurities are washed away and pure DNA is eluted with a small volume of low-salt buffer provided or water, ready to use in all subsequent applications.
QIAquick spin columns are designed to provide two convenient handling options. The spin columns fit into a conventional table-top microcentrifuge. The QIAquick Nucleotide Removal Kit, in addition to other QIAGEN spin-column-based kits, can be fully automated on the QIAcube Connect, enabling increased productivity and standardization of results (see figures "Spin column handling options A" and " QIAcube Connect").
DNA fragments purified with the QIAquick system are ready for direct use in all applications, including sequencing, microarray analysis, ligation and transformation, restriction digestion, labeling, and microinjection.
Features | Specifications |
Binding capacity | 10 µg |
Technology | Silica technology |
Recovery: oligonucleotides dsDNA | Recovery: oligonucleotides, dsDNA |
Format | Tube |
Elution volume | 30–50 µl |
Processing | Manual |
Sample type: applications | DNA, oligonucleotides: PCR reactions |
Removal <10mers 17–40mers dye terminator proteins | Removal <10mers |
Fragment size | 40 bp – 10 kb |

subset: commoncrawl


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DC Universe Streaming Service to Become Comics-Only Site
It sometimes feels like there are an infinite number of streaming services out there. Some companies even own more than one. AT&T, for example, has its newly launched HBO Max as well as DC Universe, a streaming service dedicated to the movies and shows of DC Comics. But HBO Max also has a whole section of DC movies and shows, meaning the company is essentially competing with itself. As more and more DC Universe shows like Doom Patrol and Harley Quinn have migrated over to HBO Max, it seemed inevitable that DC Universe would cease operations, and get folded into the much larger HBO Max library.
That's essentially what's been announced today, with the news that DC Universe is becoming a comics subscription service platform called "DC Universe Infinite." According to the press release, the newly reworked site will feature "access to more than 24,000 comic books at launch," and will also include "digital-first comics, exclusive access to DC fan events, as well as a steady stream of recently released comics six months after the physical versions hit store shelves." That will make DC Universe Infinite a direct competitor to Marvel's comics streaming service, Marvel Unlimited, which has been running for several years. It offers a deep library of about 27,000 comics, along with new books that are available online six months after they're first released to comics shops.
DC Universe had comics in its initial form, but the selection was not extensive; when I personally tried out the service, that was one of its biggest disappointments. If you didn't want to watch the movies or shows available at any moment, there wasn't much more to that — and DC Comics has such a massive library, dating back almost 100 years now, that it seemed like a missed opportunity.
DC Universe Infinite launches on January 21, 2021. It will cost $7.99 a month, or $74.99 a year. And HBO Max also announced today that it is renewing DC Universe's Harley Quinn series for a third season.
Gallery — Every DC Comics Movie, Ranked From Worst to Best:


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- How University of Sask. researchers hope cannabis could one day help pets
- Cannabis market provides growth, job opportunities to Sask. First Nation
- 'Start low and go slow': How some Sask. seniors are getting up to speed on cannabis
- Province plans to remove cap on number of cannabis retailers next year
- 1-year-old child found with suspects in van carrying 3.2 kg cannabis, 900 packages of shatter: police
- First Nation creates own regulations, opens cannabis dispensary
- 'Hands tied behind our back': Sask. cannabis sellers react to new branding rules
- 'May not take effect for hours': What the Sask. government wants you to know about cannabis edibles
- Sask. Weed Pool: Independent pot retailers form co-op to compete with big players
- 'There are different rules for medical patients': Regina woman says she was wrongfully charged for possession of medicinal cannabis
- 'We have jurisdiction over our lands': Pheasant Rump opens cannabis shop despite lack of provincial permit


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UNIVERSITY OF WISCONSIN River Falls
Tammy Britt and Debra Martin were cited for outstanding service with the Chancellor's Recognition Award to Classified Staff.
Britt, a Custodian 2 in Housekeeping, has been an employee at UWRF since 1990.
Martin, a Program Specialist 1, coordinates facilities, equipment, catering services, and technical services for events held on campus.
Classified staff members are those who support departments throughout the university in such positions as program assistants, custodians, security officers, and computer programmers.


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Things To Think About When Purchasing Your Young Adult A Home Monitoring System
May 16th, 2022
Eventually, the time will come when a York person's son or daughter chooses to leave the nest. Some parents look forward to the day. They feel like it leaves them with an empty house to do as they please. However, other guardians dread the occasion. They don't know if they have adequately prepared their offspring for obstacles that life is sure to throw their way. Most guardians have done their due diligence though.
Hence, they have to let their no-longer little ones make their own mistakes. The chances are pretty solid that the kiddo has a great head on his or her shoulders, which means they will probably make good decisions. It is not usually the sons and daughters that the caregivers have to worry about anyway. Rather, parents should be troubled whether their kid is safe and secure in their new place.
After all, dangers seem to be lurking around every corner these days, including right here in York. Burglaries, home invasions, and more could become part of the equation. So, why not send your child a home monitoring system to help them remain safe and sound. It is a smart idea to research the various units on the market instead of running right out and buying the first one that you see. Hence, keep these things in mind ahead of making the purchase.
Be Sure That The Device Allows For Remote Monitoring
The security camera needs to come with an app that allows the youngster to view live footage from their smartphone or tablet. Then, they can check in on their house or apartment whenever they feel the need. Also, he or she can receive a text or email alerts whenever an alarm is triggered. This element is ideal as it can prevent your son or daughter from walking into a dangerous situation. So, give them the power to see trouble when they are away from home with the few swipes of a finger.
Check To See If The Equipment Is Wireless
There is no point in having a wired system in the 21st century. All sorts of wireless cameras and sensors are on the market today. The products are battery-operated, reliable, and dependable. This feature is a massive draw for many consumers as the devices can be moved quickly and easily if security needs change. In other words, your young adult can mount them just about anywhere.
High-Definition Is A Must-Have Feature
The last thing York parents want is to give their son or daughter equipment that produces grainy and hard to see images. Therefore, the home monitoring system that you select should record in high-definition. This aspect will ensure that your kiddo can see precisely what is happening in their residence. Don't take any chances when it comes to their safety and well-being. Instead, buy a unit that has these bells and whistles to get the most bang for your buck. In turn, you and your child will gain peace of mind in knowing that the device is top of the line.
Give our office a call today to discuss your home monitoring system needs.


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Chasing the Devil (2014)
Patrick McCord doesn't accept the explanation of his sister's mysterious death as suicide, and instead teams up with a team of paranormal investigators to delve deeper into the inexplicable circumstances that surround what he believes to be murder. The team's investigation leads them from one bizarre and frightening clue to another, at the center of which seems to exist something evil and terrifying, a presence well beyond their wildest imaginations and experiences. Before long, they realize this deadly entity has now targeted each of them, and they are confronted with the impossible challenge of defeating it and saving their own lives. In the end, what survives, and is presented here, is the disturbing footage that Patrick and his team shot, footage that if seen by others, likely endangers the viewer, marking them as the next victim of this powerful and evil force. Be careful what you chase…you just might end up catching it.
Genre: Horror
Director: Mark Haber
Producer: Bill Haber, Jeffery Hayes, Joseph McKelheer, Douglas Segal, Ron Walton, Norma Walton, James Reach
Writer: Douglas Segal
Cast: Tim Phillipps, Vivan Dugre, Chris Yule, Cory Knauf, Ary Katz, Challen Cates, Elise Eberle, Christopher Devlin, Colleen Donovan, Maura Soden, Stephen Smith Collins, David Goldman, Andres Perez-Molina


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WASHINGTON – With Congress returning Monday to deal with an auto industry in dire financial straits, the Bush White House stressed that it supports help, but not at the expense of the $700 billion Wall Street rescue program.
With the Senate ready to start work on assistance to the industry, press secretary Dana Perino issued a statement saying the administration "does not want U.S. automakers to fail." She complained that reporting on the White House's statements on this issue has involved "attempts to shorthand the administration's position."
Perino's early morning statement also made clear, however, that the administration steadfastly opposes drawing funds from the bailout plan to help Detroit. She said the $25 billion that Democrats favor taking from the rescue plan should come, instead, from a Department of Energy program previously approved and funded to develop fuel-efficient vehicles. The White House opposes the idea of automakers getting an additional $25 billion.
Democrats want to use part of the $700 billion Wall Street bailout for emergency loans to help prop up the Big Three carmakers. General Motors Corp., Ford Motor Co. and Chrysler LLC are seeking an infusion of $25 billion, a figure that several Senate Democrats embraced Sunday.
Senate Democrats plan to introduce legislation Monday attaching an auto bailout to a House-passed bill extending unemployment benefits. A vote was expected as early as Wednesday.
"There's a high degree of urgency" for federal action if GM is going to stave off a financial crisis, Rick Wagoner, GM chairman and chief executive, said Sunday in a joint appearance with United Auto Workers President Ron Gettelfinger on WDIV-TV in Detroit.
"It's really time to move on this," Wagoner said.
In her statement Monday, Perino said, "The auto industry is an important part of our manufacturing base, and we want the industry to succeed and compete in the global economy." But she also said that media reports have erroneously depicted the administration as taking too harsh a stand on financial relief.
Her statement Monday seemed aimed more at elaborating on the administration's position than revising or tweaking it.
"We believe this assistance should come from the program created by Congress that was specifically designed to assist the automakers — from the $25 billion Department of Energy loan program," Perino said.
She said the $700 billion rescue program "was never intended by Congress to assist automakers or other sectors of the economy. It was solely intended to deal with what is an ongoing credit crisis in our financial sector." Perino also said that any new legislative effort to help the big carmakers should require that those manufacturers are viable companies, ones willing to restructure themselves for the long term.
President-elect Barack Obama said he believes aid for the auto industry is needed but that it should be provided as part of a long-term plan — not simply as a blank check.
"For the auto industry to completely collapse would be a disaster in this kind of environment," Obama said in a "60 Minutes" interview aired Sunday night on CBS. "So my hope is that over the course of the next week, between the White House and Congress, the discussions are shaped around providing assistance but making sure that that assistance is conditioned on labor, management, suppliers, lenders, all of the stakeholders coming together with a plan — what does a sustainable U.S. auto industry look like?"
House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., has embraced an auto bailout, though she hasn't set a price tag. But passage is less certain in the Senate, where majority Democrats will need at least a dozen GOP votes to prevent opponents from blocking their measure.
On Sunday top Republican senators said using any of the Wall Street bailout money to help carmakers would be a mistake. Sen. Richard Shelby of Alabama called the U.S. auto industry a "dinosaur" whose demise would simply be stalled by a bailout.
"I don't believe the $25 billion they're talking about will make them survive," said Shelby, the senior Republican on the Senate Banking, Housing and Urban Affairs Committee. "It's just postponing the inevitable."
Shelby spoke on NBC's "Meet the Press."
Congressional Democrats have some internal power struggles to settle this week.
The House's longest-serving member, 82-year-old John Dingell of Michigan, is fighting to keep the chairmanship of the powerful Energy and Commerce Committee. And in the Senate, Democrats will have their own showdown Tuesday when they decide whether to strip independent Sen. Joe Lieberman of Connecticut of his chairmanship of the Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee.


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I spent a long time in my teens and early 20's working in restaurants. To be honest, I loved just about every minute of it. It's exciting, you're never idle, and it's usually not boring: you either get immediate gratification from happy customers leaving a nice tip, or you're on the defensive, thinking on your feet to save an experience after something has gone wrong.
In contrast, technology, I've found, requires more of an investment to get to the gratification of a job well done. I've also always felt like certain aspects of technology, like coding, are somewhat therapeutic for me, whereas restaurant work mostly wasn't. And, occasionally, technology work can be monotonous and boring.
In spite of the quite dramatic differences between the two working environments, I sometimes find myself thinking about restaurants when I'm working on software or systems. It turns out that some of the tenets of restauranteurism, or just waitering or bartending, can be applied to work in the tech sector. Allow me a bit of license to riff on some of them here:
- Treat your station as a single table. If one table needs a refill on a drink, chances are so do one of the other 4 tables that are all within 10 feet of that one. Save yourself some running by checking with all of the tables when one asks for something. In geek terms, this maps to looking for wins across multiple projects in your environment. Does your app need user authentication or a mail transport service? Chances are other projects do too. Looking for these kinds of wins can also help distribute the load of creating the requirements, and foster a sense of shared ownership in the result.
- Anticipate the need. Your customers shouldn't have to ask for everything they need. Ideally they wouldn't need to ask for anything they need, because you'd keep an eye on their drinks, you'd notice that someone wasn't eating their salad and suspect something is wrong, you'd know that having kids means the first thing to the table is a huge stack of napkins, etc. The point is, there's what's happening now, and what is, in your professional opinion, likely to screw that all up. Your experience will likely guide you to solutions that are likely to keep that from happening. If not, you're about to get more experience. Just like in technology 😉
- Presentation counts. All restaurants fiddle with the light levels, the music rotation, how food is placed on the plate, the garnishes added to drinks, and any restaurant you'd want to eat in is fastidious about tiny, tiny details from sweeping the entry foyer, to replacing tablecloths, to tossing old-looking napkins, to replacing chairs with tiny pinhole tears in the leather. Why? Because a restaurant is, in the process of serving you, also constantly selling you through your experience there. Of course, your software should do this, but you can get deeper than that: all of those ideas you have that nobody listens to, or you can't get approval for? You're missing some details. You don't have any metrics, or you're giving a geeky experience to a business-y audience, or you're not presenting your idea in the form of an experience, or you're creating a vision of a present instead of a product in the mind of the person with the checkbook.
- Presentation can't save poor quality. You can put all kinds of shiny AJAX-y Bootstrap-y stuff all over your site. It could be the nicest UI in existence. If the service doesn't work, you're toast. And those ideas you're trying to sell internally? You'd better be confident they'll work and have a solid execution plan, because a couple of bombs and no amount of presentation goodness is going to get you to "yes" again.
- Consistency! Food quality, presentation, service… the entire dining experience, from the moment you set foot on the property to the moment you leave, should ideally be completely 100% consistent. Completely predictable. Zero surprises. It makes the restaurant easy to get to know, because if you've seen one, you've basically seen them all. Now think about the naming of your variables. Do you abbreviate here and write it out there? Think about how you package your software. Do you sometimes provide an XML config file and sometimes INI format? Think about your code layout. Do you sometimes use inheritance and sometimes composition, when either will do? Do you sometimes test? Do you sometimes… anything? Small inconsistencies add up. I believe we're pretty much all guilty of them sometimes, but we should all strive to minimize them.
- Minimize Complexity. Very little inside of a restaurant is complicated or complex. Inevitably, the friction points where small complications live are where problems arise. A huge number of issues within a restaurant are human error: mistaken orders, mismatching food to table when the tray is assembled, food under- or overcooked, drinks made wrong or sent to the wrong table, miscalculated bills, forgotten requests for drink refills or side orders, the list goes on for an eternity. Ironically, computers are employed to help with some of it, and the food service world is better for it on the whole. In technology, and I'm sure in most jobs, most of the issues are more with the people than the technology. From forgotten feature details to overlooked metrics, from miscommunicated load projections to undocumented security policies, the clumsy inner workings, and inter-workings of human beings gets us every time.
- Mise en place! This is a French term, and I don't speak much French, but in a kitchen it means "have your shit together and easy to reach, kid". Chefs on a line will have a shelf or some other space that's within arm's reach where they put bowls and bottles of things they need all the time. The pre-meal time for a chef is spent double-checking that this small area is picture perfect, double-checking that refills and extras will be easy to grab during the shift, and making sure there's no excuse for failure. I see teams fail at this quite a lot, actually. The mise en place for a technology worker are all of those things that need to be in place in order for a service to go to production. Metrics and monitoring. Hardware allocations. Infrastructure service dependencies. Security concerns. Power! I cannot count how many times a service has gotten to the week of deployment before a request to allocate storage in production was created, or the number of times hardware arrived before anyone thought about where it would be plugged in, or what that would do to the uptime provided by the UPS during an outage.


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MANILA, Philippines – More than 400 people were hurt by powerful firecrackers and gunfire in New Yea's Eve celebrations in the Philippines, down 17 percent from a year earlier but still high enough to make it one of Asia's most violent parties to welcome 2013.
Health Secretary Enrique Ona said Tuesday that the 413 wounded and hurt included a child who was hit in the head by a stray bullet fired by an unidentified person at the height of New Year's revelry in suburban Caloocan city in metropolitan Manila. The 7-year-old girl is fighting for her life.
"The bullet's still embedded in her head," Ona told a news conference. "It looks like she may not be saved."
Police said another child was accidentally hit by a shell fired by a homemade shotgun and died during celebrations in Mandaluyong city, also in the Manila region, but health officials said they have not received the details of the incident and could not immediately include the death in their casualty list.
Ona said the 17-percent drop in gunshot wounds and firecracker injuries "is still not enough." As an example, he said one man had his hand blown off in an accident while lighting a huge, prohibited firecracker called "Goodbye Philippines," while at least eight people were hit by celebratory gunfire.
Many Filipinos, largely influenced by Chinese tradition, believe that noisy New Year's celebrations drive away evil and misfortune. But they have carried that superstition to extremes, exploding huge firecrackers and firing guns to welcome the new year despite threats of arrest.
Although the number of injuries has tapered off in recent years, largely due to hard economic times and government scare campaigns, the figures remain alarming.
The scare campaigns include television advertisements with doctors displaying brutal-looking surgical saws and cleavers used in amputating hands and fingers of firecracker blast victims. Also in December, a top health official danced in schools and other public areas to South Korean rapper Psy's Youtube hit, the "Gangnam Style" video, to get attention and preach against firecracker use, specially by children.
The large number of firecracker injuries came despite a police crackdown that led to the arrests of more than 300 vendors and users of illegally huge firecrackers in Manila and elsewhere ahead of New Year's Eve.
The crackdown, however, was marred by an incident where several policemen were seen on video helping themselves to boxes of confiscated illegal firecrackers shortly after these were shown to reporters at a news conference in the capital over the weekend. The policemen could face administrative charges or dismissal.


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Are you planning an event and need a venue?
With over 60 school buildings across the city of Montreal, the English Montreal School Board has numerous convenient locations for your event.
Gymnasiums, auditoriums, cafeterias, and other school facilities are available for rent in the evenings and weekends.
Interested parties must complete an application form and be covered by civil liability insurance. Authorization from the school administration is required. A caretaker employed by the school board must be on the premises at all times.
Payment must be received in advance. Subsidized rates available for groups with proof of non-profit status.
- Interested parties must complete an EMSB Rental Application and provide proof of $ 2M civil liability insurance required, minimum.
- All applicants are encouraged to review the EMSB Rental Regulations.
- Please send your completed EMSB Rental Application and proof of insurance to email@example.com
- Please note that incomplete applications shall not be processed.


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Each month you can find Medicare and health insurance information to help you keep up with the latest healthcare news and get the information you need to make informed decisions about your healthcare. Simply browse through the newsletter links below to read the March editions and learn about useful information pertaining to your Medicare. Check back each month for new articles.
Barclay Buzz: serving Silverthorn and Pristine Place communities
Weeki Wachee Buzz: serving Glen Lakes and Woodland Waters communities
Sterling Hill: serving Sterling Hill communities


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Dave Mustaine Says Credit Dispute Nixed Metallica's 'No Life 'Til Leather' Reissue
Dave Mustaine said Metallica haven't released a deluxe reissue of 1982's No Life 'til Leather because he can't agree with Lars Ulrich on songwriting credits.
Mustaine, who left Metallica in 1983, said he was contacted by James Hetfield two years ago about the possibility of returning to their earliest songs. "We were going to officially release the No Life 'til Leather demo as a record, with 27 tracks, pics, the whole enchilada," Mustaine wrote on Twitter, "and the talks broke down because Lars wanted credit on two songs I wrote every note and word to. I have the texts. I passed."
Back in 2015, when Metallica announced a limited-edition cassette-only reissue of No Life 'til Leather for Record Store Day, it seemed the demo was next in line for an expanded look back. "It's time for us to put out some next-level reissues and do the song and dance of the catalog that everyone else has done – the U2s and the Led Zeppelins and the Oasises," Ulrich told Rolling Stone. "Instead of starting with Kill 'Em All in 1983, we figured we'd go back another two years to when the band was formed in 1981."
Instead, they moved directly to Kill 'Em All and Ride the Lightning. (The latter was Metallica's last album with Mustaine, who subsequently formed Megadeth.) The long-awaited reissue of 1986's Master of Puppets followed earlier this month.
Many of the tracks on No Life 'til Leather were later updated for Kill 'Em All, though the LP contains several exclusive songs, including "No Remorse," "The Four Horsemen" and "Whiplash." It's been widely bootlegged over the years, and was even portrayed (with tacked on crowd noise) as an early live recording in one particularly egregious knock off.


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1999 Saturn Wagon Touch Up Paint
- Order the same Saturn Wagon touch up paint used by industry professionals
- We guarantee the color match to the factory color
- Easy-to-follow instructions for selecting the right products
Select paint based on your color code.
There can be more than one color code shown below. For example, the color code '96/WA8867' listed on our site can be shown on your vehicle as '96U' or '96L' or '8867' or 'WA8867'. Often there will be a 'BC CC' before the color code. This stands for Basecoat/Clearcoat. The 'U' in the paint code means the Upper Color and the 'L' means the Lower Color. Two tone vehicles will have each color coded, i.e. '96U' and say '36L'. Also, it could be '8867L' or '8867U'.


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How does it work? What makes it different?
The world's fastest and easiest-to-use GNSS RTK rover
The GS18 T allows to measure and stake out points faster and more conveniently than ever before. With the GS18 T, it is not necessary to level the pole vertically while doing a measurement or while setting out. You can literally forget the bubble (#ForgetTheBubble). Following a Q&A with Leica Geosystems GNSS Business Director Bernhard Richter about the new product, the following interview with Application Engineer at Leica Geosystems Paul Dainty gives us deeper insights about how to use the new Leica GS18 T and how it works.
What makes the GS18 T different? How does it work?
The Leica GS18 T is different from any other product in the market because it does not rely on a magnetometer to correct the pole tilt for each measurement. A magnetometer is affected by metallic objects, like vehicles, iron fences and beams or even reinforced concrete, all of which are often found on construction sites. In order to provide accurate and reliable tilt values, Leica Geosystems developed an application-specific, powerful and lightweight inertial micro unit (IMU), which is built into the GNSS antenna. The real -time tilt compensation combines GNSS data with the IMU's tilt and direction values. Different to magnetometer-based GNSS antennas, the GS18 T's tilt compensation does not need to be calibrated and is immune to metallic object interference.
What about the measurement performance in difficult conditions, such as urban canyons or woods with heavy canopy?
Like the Leica Viva GS16, the Leica GS18 T is a self-learning GNSS Smart Antenna with a high-class performance. This adaptive measurement engine with RTKplus provides measurement engineers on construction sites with the best position by automatically selecting the optimal signal combination. In addition, the GS18T is well prepared for the future. With its 555 channels, it is able to track all signals from all major GNSS systems worldwide, like Glonass, Galileo, BeiDou or QZSS (more details can be found in the GS18 T datasheet).
And how accurate are the measurements made with tilt compensation?
The accuracy depends on many factors. There is the accuracy of the GNSS position. If we look at the specified RTK solution, it is the same as with the GS16 – typically 8 mm + 1 ppm (single baseline length) Hz and 15 mm + 1 ppm (single baseline length) V. The accuracy of the tilt measurement is divided between the tilt accuracy and the direction of tilt accuracy. The tilt accuracy will typically be better than 0°12'00" and the direction of tilt accuracy typically better than 1°00'00". This means over a 1.8 metre pole length, the overall tilt accuracy is typically better than 20 mm at the pole tip with a tilt angle of 30°. This accuracy is comparable and most of the time better than using a conventional GNSS pole with a 20' level bubble to make the pole vertical.
If the pole is tilted more than 30°, the accuracy of the tilted measurement reduces for two reasons:
- Tilt accuracy declines as the tilt is increased and the direction of tilt accuracy has higher impact
- With increasing the tilt angle, the antenna starts to lose track of some satellites, therefore reducing the GNSS position quality.
In any case, the position quality indicator in Leica Captivate shows the combined GNSS position quality and tilt quality, therefore representing the true pole tip accuracy.
Pole tip accuracy of 0.0175 metres, shown in Leica Captivate v3.0 on the field screen.
Does staking out also work with a tilted pole?
Yes, the tilt compensation can be used in any Captivate app where you can measure, meaning staking out is also much quicker and much more convenient than ever before. When setting out with conventional GNSS equipment, several different steps have to be done at the same time:
- Watching and interpreting the instructions on the screen
- Orienting, moving the pole according to the instructions
- Holding the pole vertical.
Holding the pole vertical, though, is no longer needed. With the GS18 T and the new Captivate v3.0, setting out is hugely simplified and a completely new experience. Utilising the tilted pole information and sensor heading, the intuitive 3D stake instructions now make it much easier to navigate to a stake point.
Staking out drastically simplified: With the powerful and intuitive 3D viewer, navigating to the point is easier.
What does Leica Geosystems mean with "Measure difficult to reach points that could not been measured before"?
With a conventional GNSS RTK rover, points like building corners, walls, fences, light posts or points underneath obstacles, like cars, cannot be directly measured with a vertical pole. To measure a building corner for example, you would have to measure a point nearby, and apply an offset to the point or measure it with an alternative method such as a total station – both options take time to do that reduces productivity. With the GS18 T, a building corner can be measured directly because the pole can be tilted and the pole tip placed easily and quickly to the corner. The same goes for all other difficult to reach objects, meaning the GS18 T makes measuring easier and quicker than ever before.
For a better understanding, I would recommend to watch the GS18 T how-to-video:
Isn't the accuracy going to be affected, measuring next to buildings?
That is a very good question and one that people have been asking. When measuring next to buildings, the amount of multipath is likely to increase and a part of the view to the sky will be obstructed by the buildings, reducing the number of visible satellites. This makes for challenging GNSS conditions. The GS18 T with RTKplus technology is self-learning, meaning the sensor will automatically use the best signals and widely mitigate the multipath signals to compute its position. As long as the sensor can track enough satellites, an RTK position will be computed and the GNSS position quality will be displayed. So, whilst the accuracy is not likely to be quite as good as when measuring with an open view of the sky, the displayed GNSS position quality can be trusted so that you always know what accuracy your measured point will have.
Where can the new Leica GS18 T be tried out?
Easily, just contact your local Leica Geosystems distributor and ask for a hands-on demo.
Paul Dainty
Application Engineer at Leica Geosystems


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Copyright© Bill Graham Archives and affiliates
We are looking out from where we sit and all we can see is a scrum of broken lights, circling the ground like an obedient racecar or pony following the rabbit. We see the outlines of gyrating boys and girls, their erogenous zones and their sweaty bangs in neon colors. We can sniff out the scents of these same things, the remnants of a night that once was and is now slowly eroding from memory - though at the time, it was as memorable and as bumping as anything in that memory. We see and feel all of these things as brief and faded flashes, for we're thinking about them on a Tuesday or a Wednesday, possibly a Thursday afternoon, with the new weekend so close that it's right in front of our noses. It borders on the anticipatory as well as the retired fun times, enjoyed solely as sparks of the bygone. Oakland, California, two-piece Wallpaper brings this confliction to a head with its brilliant, instantly singable songs that should be the staples for any reputable dance club. "T REX" is a song of particular importance in this discussion as it details a young man who seems to eat up the downtown scene when it comes time for another weekend to roll through. He works all week long, works hard for his weekend and yet the picture that's painted is one of someone who puts on a separate face and body for his wee hours gallivanting, for the opportunity to let loose and obliterate his normal self, to completely disown his life of order and due diligence. He kills them off at quitting time on Friday afternoon and becomes a club hound. Ricky Reed sings in this song about "getting paid on the regular" and about how the main character "gets off" when he pays his bills on time, seeming to suggest that there are no financial concerns or debts to pay. All of this allows the fella to go BIG on the weekends, just like a tyrannosaurus rex, the original go-bigger of a creature. It's a massive slice of dance music that promotes a free-for-all, a situation that just dares anyone not to throw all cares aside and just blow it out.
Reed and Arjun Singh have made the sort of dance music that isn't over-the-top or tries to hard to get those bodies moving. It's literally just what it is: the kind of stuff that you pre-party to, playing flippy cup to in the kitchen or faux dining room of an apartment and then head out on the town, only to want to hear those same songs in a drastically more inebriated state. It will make for an inner roar, one that turns all of the juices and all of the synapses up to 11, making those evenings and the after hours taco truckin', talkin', smoochin', shaggin' and smokin' all seem like the kickers to some nights well-spent. They are nights that you will never want to give back. Wallpaper songs are not at all about regrets. They aren't filled with brags or boasts, just all of the wonderful sensations that come when the alcohol is settling into our veiny veins, as they so helpfully remind us. It's just our insides doing extra dancing for its own enjoyment. These are the moves that strike us as genuinely, embarrassingly poignant and worthwhile. Then it's back to those Mondays and earning two more of those days to cut loose through.*Essay originally published November, 2010


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Updated November 22, 2022 at 11:45 AM ET
Seated on a mat in a muddy courtyard set back from a trash-strewn street, a small group of children are devouring their daily meal: a small hunk of fried bread dipped in tiny glasses of sugary green tea. The light is still low and blue-gray so soon after dawn, but the family patriarch, Youssouf Ibrahim Abderaman, must shortly leave to find work as a day laborer.
Abderaman, who is having breakfast with the youngest members of his extended family, has nine children, and several more grandchildren — exactly how many, he struggles to enumerate. Nonetheless, around him the distended bellies and desperation for such meager portions indicate all are hungry.
"If you earn a living day by day you eat whatever you get," Abderaman explains. "Sometimes you don't get anything to eat for a day. Sometimes you are able to buy food for the whole day, sometimes half a day. That's how it goes."
A scramble for survival
At his baked brick home, he describes his family's daily scramble for survival in this small town of 50,000 on the southern edge of the Sahara Desert, in central Chad. Abderaman is dressed in a long white robe, and is painfully thin, emblematic of the food shortages that have grown ever more acute in this land-locked nation — among the poorest in Africa. A complex combination of climate change, regional conflicts and rising commodity prices — including wheat — has driven the shortages, which have been exacerbated this year by Russia's invasion of Ukraine many thousands of miles away.
"When there is enough food, you eat together. Otherwise, you just give it to them," Abderaman says, describing the difficult decision he makes with increasing frequency when he fails to find paid work in the nearby fields — prioritizing his children's stomachs over his own.
Several blocks away at the town's only bakery, daybreak is marked by trays of baguettes brought out from the oven — a culinary reminder of the country's French colonial history. Several young men strap white sacks of the light yellow loafs to small motorbikes, or pile them high in a pick-up truck that's pulled into the yard. Balancing several bags on the back of his own bike is Mahamat Tahir, responsible for the bakery's distribution, who says there are now far fewer customers who can afford to buy their daily bread. "Sales have dropped hugely," he says. Fuel to power the ovens has skyrocketed in price, as has the bread's other key constituent, flour. "We're continuing to function just to avoid closing down," he adds, before revving up his engine to depart on his delivery round. "The company is not making any profit."
In the town's dusty market later that afternoon, several stalls are open and display small bowls of grain, nuts and some vegetables — but there are very few customers to purchase those products still for sale. For Alhadj Adoum Berkedaï, president of the local chamber of commerce and one of the largest wholesale importers in Moussoro, the conflict in Ukraine and its consequences represent a huge threat to his business. "In the past, prices increase after the rainy season," he says, referring to the annual period — known as the "lean season" — when food supplies run short in the wider sub-Saharan region called the Sahel. During that time, crops have been planted in soil moistened by heavy rains and residents must wait months for them to be harvestable. In the meantime hunger often stalks many Sahelian communities.
Walking through his warehouse and pointing to storerooms that now sit entirely empty, Berkedaï says the prices of pasta, flour, rice and millet have soared higher than ever because of the rising diesel costs for truck drivers who carry the goods across the desert for several days. "These past few months, the Ukraine-Russia conflict made everything expensive," the trader concludes. "We have managed to import some, but what's the point if people are not able to buy it? We will end up with stocks of unsold product and go out of business."
Prices have doubled
The U.N.'s World Food Programme found that prices for sorghum, a common local crop, had risen 40% this spring compared to the same period last year, while beans — another common staple of the Chadian diet — had in some parts of the country almost doubled in price.
"A little shock actually can cause incredible distress to the populations," says Enrico Pausilli, the deputy country manager for the U.N. agency's efforts in Chad, "be it economical or in terms of food security and malnutrition." And that shock is especially felt in small, rural settlements like the village of Chabaka, half an hour's drive southwest of Moussoro, where hundreds of families gathered recently for food handouts from one of the World Food Programme's local partners.
Representatives from roughly 500 families sat for hours outside a small fence until an organizer with a bullhorn and registration list called them forward by name. In groups of four, each was permitted to enter a large, grassy patch of land on the edge of the village, where they were handed two months' worth of food, equivalent to slightly more than 20 pounds of grain per week.
Mothers with young babies had them checked for signs of malnutrition, the circumferences of tiny arms measured and recorded in paper notebooks. Data from the U.N. published this year indicates that 1.3 million children in Chad lack sufficient food, and roughly 40% of the total population aged 5 or younger suffers from stunted growth because of poor nutrition.
For Sadick Mahamat Rozi, overseeing the food distribution in Chabaka, the reliability of food supplies in this part of Chad has been weakening since 2010. But a severe drought across the region last year meant local food stocks ran even lower, even earlier than usual this lean season, and that was then compounded by the Kremlin's Black Sea blockades.
"The number of malnourished children is increasing," he says, gesticulating around him with urgency as families load their supplies onto wooden carts drawn by donkeys. "But now, with the situation in Ukraine, it's getting even worse. Each harvest the crisis is increasing."
Willem Marx is a London-based journalist.
Copyright 2022 NPR. To see more, visit https://www.npr.org.


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A few of you may have seen my summary posts on the RC thread and I wanted to re-post it here as well. It's still a work in progress, and I'm working on a "Part 2". I've also posted in on Reef2Reef and plan to post it on several other sites as well. So if anyone has comments, suggestions, or input of any kind, I gladly welcome them. Also feel free to post pictures of any kind of example (good, bad, ugly) that I can use in future summaries.
So here it is:
Algae Scrubber Build Basics Summary
There are many options when it comes to building your own scrubber. Hopefully this series of posts will wrap up all the basic concepts as clearly and concisely as possible. It seems that many people look at this concept and think they can make some kind of major improvement, and post their idea. Then, a newbie can look at that and think that it makes great sense and mimic it, without understanding the pitfalls. I feel that it is important to understand the concept and purpose behind the basics, and why you should rarely deviate from them without fully understanding the basic concepts first.
Most of the issues people encounter with their DIY builds can be directly attributed to missing one or two of the basic principles. So consider this a "best practice" summary. That is, there are several ways to build a scrubber, but there is always a cheap and easy way, as well as the most effective and efficient way.
The Vertical Waterfall Algae Scrubber
99% of this summary is dedicated to the basic of designing and constructing a modern, vertical screen, waterfall-style Algae Scrubber, illuminated from both sides. This is simply because this design is currently by far the most efficient and effective type of Algae Scrubber design, and the only one that I recommend building. Mention is made of what considerations to make for building a single-sided or horizontal scrubber.
The vertical waterfall style algae scrubber is very efficient for a couple of reasons. The design allows you to illuminate the algae from both sides and place the lights very close, which reduces the distance that light has to travel through water in order to reach the algae. The water flow over the screen is relatively thin and moves fast; this is important, because algae requires turbulent flow in order for nutrients to reach the cells on a microscopic level (this is referred to as the boundary layer). Because of both of these factors, vertical scrubbers require less light and material than the older style horizontal scrubbers for equivalent filtration capacity.
The Slot Pipe, Screen, and Fasteners
The principal component of the modern vertical waterfall Algae Scrubber is the slot pipe and plastic canvas screen. The screen is inserted into a section of horizontal PVC pipe which has a slot cut into it. The screen is typically held in place with a fastener through a cut-out section of the screen, like this:
Slot Pipe
The slot pipe itself should be Schedule 40 PVC at a minimum. Don't use vent pipe, flexible hose, or thin-walled PVC. The reason is that cutting a slot in the tube weakens it enough that it can bow over time and cause the slot to change width. This is especially true for a wide, tall scrubber. Anything over 24" should probably have 2 slots, with a small section in the center left uncut (maybe 1/4") with some kind of means of support at the center. It may look fine at first, but with heavy growth, you start to see this:
I'm not saying that it won't work, and I'm not critiquing the design pictured above. It just got me thinking that it can't be good to have that pipe flexing that much. So this is a recommendation I am making for scrubbers with screens over 24" wide. But check out that growth!!! That's 6.5 pounds of algae (drained).
Pipe Diameter
When running a scrubber fed directly from the overflow, there is usually no need to deviate from the size of the drain pipe that you currently use. But, that all depends on your total resultant flow to the pipe, length of screen, etc. In the majority of cases, this doesnt change anything. However, if you had a large tank, and were combining 4 1 drain lines together to feed one large scrubber, you have different considerations.
If you're doing a pump fed scrubber, either top of tank or sump, try to match the size of the slot pipe and other PVC components to the recommendations from the pump manufacturer, and if in doubt, err on the side of larger pipe. Larger pipe puts less head pressure on the pump, which will increase the flow rate.
Cutting the Slot
The width of the slot should be approximately 1/8" wide, the same length as the screen which you are using (as exact as possible), and as straight as possible. Cutting a straight, even width slot is arguably the most difficult part of building a scrubber. It is also one of the most important steps. If the slot is crooked, the screen may not hang properly, and there may be areas where the flow is lighter and heavier. This can result in sections of weak growth.
However you go about this, you might need a few tries to get good at it. PVC is cheap, so practice on a small section so you get used to how this is done. Its going to take a little time and patience dont rush it. Mark the slot, and cut carefully. If you mess up, do it again. Once you solvent weld an end cap and a union to it, it is not as cheap to replace (but still relatively cheap).
Doing it right means using a power tool. Probably the most common tool for this use is a rotary tool, or a Dremel, using a cutoff wheel:
Very recently, someone reported great success by using an oscillating tool. So if youre looking for a reason to add another tool to the arsenal, heres your chance.
Another idea is to use a router. Since plastics are grabby, and plunge routing plastic takes extra grip and control, extra precautions apply - so this is not for the inexperienced, but it makes very straight slots. This method requires building a guide jig for the router, and a clamping system to keep the PVC firmly in place.
Reportedly, the best way to cut a perfectly slot straight is by using a table saw. However, there really is no way to cut a slot in the middle of a section of pipe (or across the whole length of the pipe) without removing the anti-kickback device and lowering the pipe on to the spinning blade. You could also do it with a handheld circular saw, but like the router method, you would need a jig and clamp system, and you still are lowering a spinning blade onto the PVC (if youre cutting the slot in the middle and leaving the ends uncut). I have never tried this and I do not recommend this method because it sounds too dangerous.
However you decide to cut the slot in the pipe, remember to observe all necessary safety precautions. Either that, or have someone else do it for you.
Screening Material
The search for the "perfect material" for growing algae in the vertical waterfall configuration has always come back to the same material, the Clear #7 Mesh Plastic Canvas. This can be found at almost any fabric (Jo-Ann Fabric) or craft-type hobby store (Michaels), usually in the knitting materials section. I have seen it at Wal-Mart, next to all the yarn. If you google plastic canvas youll find hundreds of links. You can feel free to experiment, but this material has been proven to work over and over again.
The reason that it works so well is because it is cheap, flexible, light, and easy to rough up. It is also translucent, which is critical. As algae grow thicker on a screen, the outer layer starts to block light to the lower layers. This causes weakening of the algae at the point of adhesion to the screen material. Allowing light to penetrate to the base of the screen from both sides helps to prevent the lower layers from weakening and detaching from the screen. Any material that blocks light is fundamentally inferior, all other things being equal. This also means dont use any of the colored screening materials that you will see.
A brand new screen is slick and smooth. Except for the top edge of the screen, it needs to be roughed up with a hole saw or a rasp so that the algae has anchoring points. This is a critical step and it absolutely must be done properly. Once the screen is established, algae can grow very thick, it can hold a significant amount of water, and it will get heavy. I have seen pictures of screens that weigh several pounds. This weight is distributed across the screen, and with a rough base, it will hold very well.
To rough the screen up, you want to use a bi-metal hole saw. These saws have teeth that protrude out to a sharp point, and are great for tearing up the screen
As the above picture shows, you need to drag is back and forth across the screen. I suggest you sit in the garage or outside with a cutting board on your lap and lay the canvas on that. When you start roughing the screen, do a lot of random movements. Dont concentrate on one spot for very long or youll wear through the screen and tear it. Rotate the screen often. You can also tilt the saw bit as you drag it so that the teeth wont snag the screen. You should get a good heaping tablespoon of plastic from each side of a 10x10 screen.
After its all done, your screen should look like this:
Give the screen a good rinse and a light scrub with an old toothbrush to clear off all the pieces that are hanging by a string. These pieces are inert plastic, but still, you dont really want these floating around in your aquarium.
Though I havent used one myself, I have heard that a rasp (available at any hardware store) is also great for roughing up this material. There are handheld rasps (similar to a Ped-Egg for your feet, except much sharper), and there are bit-mounted rasps (for power drills). It looks like it could be a little easier to tear the screen with this tool, but there is much less elbow grease involved. The drill bit rasps I have seen dont appear to have protrusions large enough to dig into the screen and result in a cactus-rough surface.
Some have tried other methods of roughing up the screen. 80 grit sandpaper will definitely rough up the screen, but it doesnt leave it prickly, so its not very effective. Recently, someone put a screen in the oven for a few minutes, then sprinkled it with aragonite sand and pressed it on; this blocks the light from penetrating to the base from both sides, but its still a cool idea, so time will tell on that one.
The bottom line here is that there really is no shortcut. You only have to rough up the screen once, so stick to the tried and true method, unless you feel like experimenting on your aquarium.
As previously mentioned, the top edge of the screen (where it is inserted into the slot pipe) should not be roughed up at all, or else algae can easily grow into the slot and restrict the flow. The amount of material you leave smooth depends on your design, mainly, how far you plan on inserting the screen into the slot pipe. Regardless of this measurement, the smooth section should extend at least 1/8 down below the slot.
I repeated get questioned about the risk of the slot clogging with algae and overflowing your tank. Instead of addressing this concern here, this will be addressed in Part 2 (which I again promise to get done soon).
Most people use zip-ties to secure the screen to the slot pipe, since they are cheap and easy to use. Generally you have to use new ones each time you clean the screen (because you have to cut them), or you can re-use them if youre handy with the tip of a razor blade and can get them to release.
You can also use releasable zip ties (I found them in the electrical section of Home Depot), but theyre not as easy to release as you would think they would be, unfortunately. I use them, and I still need a mini-screwdriver to take them off.
Velcro straps can also be used, however they need to be free of adhesives, and I have never been able to get an answer from manufacturers about the stuff that has hooks on one side and loops on the other (such as OneWrap) regarding their safeness in aquaria. Medical Grade would be the safe way to go, but I havent looked much into those.
The latest one brought to my attention is the nylon beaded cable tie, which, like the zip-tie, is inert, but super-easy to release, so its good for months and possibly years.
The only drawback I can see it that you cant cinch them down super-tight, but this doesnt matter unless you hold the screen in place at the center only with the screen inserted all the way into the tube. Most people hold the screen in with one tie at each end, and maybe one in the middle, so this is less of an issue.
Another method of holding the screen in place is to use plastic shower curtain rings. It works very well, however you should have extras on hand in case one breaks when youre removing it.
Yet another is to use sections of PVC pipe, one size larger that the slot tube, to make rotatable rings. This works very well, just make them narrow so that they dont block too much flow.
Ive seen a few designs that dont use fasteners, but there are considerations to make with these designs. I decided to discuss these issues in Part 2.
Preventing water creep along the pipe
This is an important part of the slot pipe design. The issue here is that when you are running water though a horizontal pipe with a slot in the bottom of it, the water has a tendency to creep along the bottom edge of the pipe, not matter how perfectly horizontal you install it. If your scrubber is positioned completely over your sump, this may not be a big issue, as any errant flow will just drip into the sump. If your pipe ends extend close to the edge of the sump however, a steady trickle of water can result in gallons of water on the floor. I can attest to this.
The solution is very simple. Right at the point where the slot ends, place a large plumbing gasket, such as an o-ring (use several, theyre cheap), or even a bulkhead gasket. The point is that it needs to prevent water from getting past it. I can tell you from experience that a standard zip-tie will not work the profile is too low.
In many cases, you need to put this piece on the pipe before you weld the cap on the end of the pipe, or else it will be very difficult to install. This one is a ballcock washer, and definitely needs to be installed before the cap is installed:
Planning your Scrubber
There are 2 basic ways of supplying flow to a scrubber: directly from the overflow, or from a dedicated pump.
The above diagram does not illustrate the top-of-tank scrubber, which would apply to someone running a sumpless system, however this is just a modification of the pump-driven scrubber with the pump in the display tank.
The very first step you need to do before buying, measuring, or sketching up anything, is to decide how you are going to supply your scrubber, and determine what your available flow rate is.
Available Flow
In any case, you need to measure the flow rate. Do this step. It is critical. Do not, I repeat, do not calculate the flow rate based on pump curves and head-feet of pressure. This may sound like a total pain in the behind, but just trust me on this one. Would you rather go through all the effort of building a scrubber, only to have problems and find out that you didn't have as much flow as you thought you did? Believe me, I've been there.
If you've been reading this thread, you will see that at some point I started making a big deal about this. The reason is that it is a big deal and I think many people don't realize that their pump does not pump at the rated flow, and in the majority of cases, it doesn't come close to the flow calculated by using a standard head-foot calculator program or table. So I have chosen to make it the #1 priority for scrubber design, hands down. You have to know your actual flow.
For a drain fed scrubber, fill a pitcher with the water entering the sump. You will probably need to rig up a temporary pipe or routing configuration so that you can fill the container. For a pump-fed scrubber, set up the pump in a sink filled with water to the same level as your pump will be submerged, and connect the tubing required to reach the height of the connection to the horizontal slot tube, so that you mimic as best as possible the actual conditions. Backpressure created by the slot/screen is negligible unless your flow rate significantly exceeds 35 GPH per inch of slot length.
Now that you've done all this, fill the container and record the time it takes to fill it. Do this at least a dozen times. The way I do this is by using a recording device, like a digital voice recorder, and just calling out "Go" and "Stop", then afterward, playing it back and using a stopwatch to get the time intervals. You could also have someone else run the stopwatch and write down the times. Average out the times and then figure out how many gallons per hour of flow you are actually getting. If you have multiple drains, measure and extrapolate GPH for each individually, and then add together.
For instance, if you are using a 1/2 gallon pitcher, and it takes 4.5 seconds to fill it, then you would have (0.5 gallons / 4.5 seconds) x (3600 seconds / 1 hour) which would be 400 GPH.
Don't be surprised if you have a lot less flow from your pump than you thought you had. I had less than 1/2 of what I thought it was. Head-feet calculations are usually way off, because most people don't use big enough return hose or have other restrictions in the plumbing. Some of it is inherent to reef-ready aquarium design (1" drain, 3/4" return, Danner Mag-Drive 9.5 and larger pumps need 1.5" return, see a problem?). So don't feel bad. A lot of people are in your situation, but they just don't know it.
Start with a clean pump. If your pump is not clean, soak it in vinegar for 15 minutes and scrub it good. After running a scrubber for about 4-5 months, your pump flow will drop about 15%, and by 6 months, it will have dropped by 25%, so you want to know your best-case flow and build around that. It's a lot easier to start with a throttled-back clean pump and open it a little when the flow rate decreases. Figure out your system flow rate, multiply by 80%, and that will be a good starting point. But, it's not going to kill you to start at full flow, and end up with a little less over time. You might just want to clean your pump a little more often, say every 3 months. So it's up to you. Just being aware of your system conditions puts you miles ahead.
Screen Size
Once you figure out your available flow, then it's time to figure out your optimal screen dimensions.
There are 2 ways of looking at this: square inches based on length and width dimension, and square inches based on illuminated surface area. The latter is technically more accurate, but since most people light both sides, the former is usually referenced.
For every gallon of water in your display tank, you need 2 total square inches of illuminated screen material. This means that if you run a screen that is vertical and lit from both sides, then you need a screen with dimensions (length times width) that is equal to the size of your tank, or 1 square inch of material per gallon. This is what you will see commonly referenced, and what I continue to reference for simplicity's sake. Double the dimensional measurement for a vertical screen, lit from only one side. Double it again for a horizontal or slanted screen.
Sizing of the screen generally does not require inclusion of the volume of water in the sump, unless you have some kind of bio-load in there, like a refugium for a recovering fish, pods, or a frag tank, etc.
So, just so we're 100% clear on this:
Vertical, lit from both sides: 1 square inch of screen material per gallon (2 square inches of illuminated screen area per gallon)
Vertical, lit from only one side: 2 square inches of screen material per gallon (which is also 2 square inches of illuminated screen area per gallon)
Horizontal: 4 square inches of screen material per gallon (4 square inches of illuminated screen material per gallon). Lighting must increase by a factor of 1.5 (discussed in the lighting section). Also note that this is a correction to what was listed on Post #1 of this thread (that post listed that a 10 x 10 screen was good for 40 gallons, instead of 25 gallons)
Screen Dimensions
So now that you know your actual flow rate AND the total size of your screen (and you need to know the total dimensional area for this part, not the total surface area), now you are ready to figure out your dimensions.
You want the flow to be as close to 35 GPH per inch of screen width as possible. You can get by with a lower flow rate, but your scrubber may not be strong enough depending on your bio-load. You can have higher flow also, which is generally not a problem as long as your screen is rough enough and you arent getting black slime algae (which is a sign of high nutrients, and needs more frequent cleaning until it lightens up. What you want to achieve is enough flow so that you have a full sheet of water across the screen off the bottom edge, like this:
Simply take your GPH (that you just measured) and divide by 35, and this will be your optimal screen width. Then, take that number and divide it into the gallon size of your display tank to obtain the height dimension of the screen. Use the size of your tank, not the gallons that you think are actually in it (so do not account for volume of Live Rock, fish, decor, etc) and do not include your sump volume (unless there is significant bio-load, as previously described). The result is the total area of roughed-up screen that you want.
In general, you want to add at least one inch to the height dimension for the section of smooth screen that will be inserted into the slot pipe. Specifically, you want to allow for the distance that the screen will be inserted into the slot pipe, plus at least 1/8" of smooth screen below the slot tube to help prevent algae growth into the slot. This "one inch" is just a good rule of thumb, and should be increased depending on the diameter of your slot pipe and how far you insert the screen into the slot pipe. A little extra smooth screen at the top never hurts, as it can be trimmed off later.
The critical area, and the only area that contributes to scrubbing power, is the roughed-up and illuminated portion of the screen. Figure out your necessary screen dimensions, then add the extra smooth section to the height dimension.
There are 2 basic types of light sources that 99% of people use: CFL and T5HO. In both cases, the optimum spectrum / light temp for growing algae is 2700K-3500K, with 2700K-3000K getting the best results.
Proper wattage of light and proper flow to the screen are the critical factors; color temperature / spectrum comes in behind those. You can use higher K ratings, but the real-world (anecdotal) evidence suggests that the optimal range for growing algae is heavy in the red spectrum. If you look at regular plant grow lights, you will find that most of them (especially LED grow lights) are very heavy in red.
Power Compact, or PC lamps, are not recommended, because they run way too hot for the amount of light you get out of them. I don't even care for them for tank lighting.
I have slightly expanded the discussion regarding LEDs. This is still a relatively unproved area, but as more people build LED scrubbers, more information is being confirmed. There are still plenty of unanswered questions, so LED scrubbers are really more of an advanced subject.
Quantity of lighting is dependent on the size of the system. In general, you want 1 watt (actual, NOT incandescent equivalent) of light per gallon for optimal scrubbing power. You can get away with less, but at the worst case you should use no less than 0.5 watts per gallon.
When I say watt per gallon here, I am referring to the size of the display tank, which is what is used to calculate the size of the screen. For the majority of people, the size of the screen matches the display tank size. If you decide to under or oversize the screen, you would then match the wattage required to the screen size. So if you have a 100 gallon tank, but you build your screen like it was on a 150 gallon tank, then you would want 150 watts of lighting.
As you will notice throughout this thread, it is generally stressed to follow the 1 watt per gallon guideline. This is because it solves many scrubber issues. The reason behind this is scientific. Light interacts with algae and causes N and P (and ammonia & nitrite, among other things) to be absorbed, and chlorophyll is created (among other things). The more light, the more nutrient reduction you get. There is a direct correlation between the quantity of light supplied and the amount of nutrient reduction capability.
A horizontal or slanted scrubber requires 1.5 watts per gallon, without exception. This is mainly because the horizontal scrubber has a much larger surface area to cover, so you need more light sources to spread the light out evenly. Also, horizontal/slanted scrubbers are generally not as efficient, unless you use a dump-bucket or surging style, which are more complicated.
You need to run your lighting for 18 hours on, 6 hours off. All life needs downtime. Plants are no exception. They have adapted to the environment over millions of years, and as the saying goes, you cant fool Mother Nature. So don't go thinking that you can run lights 24/7 and get 25% more algae growth, it doesnt work that way. The lights should be run on the reverse cycle of your display tank lighting; this assists in maintaining pH at night, as well as spreads the light-induced heat load more evenly throughout the day.
You want the lights as close as possible, within reason. The effective power/intensity of light follows the inverse square law. If you move a light twice as far away, the intensity drops by a factor of 4. If you move it twice as close, you get 4x the intensity. The balance point seems to be about 4" from the screen for CFL, and about 2" with T5HO. The reason for 4" away for CFL stems from hot spot issues due to the concentrated signature of the lamp; CFLs need to be a bit further away to cover the proper area without too much intensity. T5HOs do not have this problem, as the light is very evenly spread.
As far as spacing is concerned, CFLs need to be spaced according to the allowance of the design. If you need 2 per side, just position them for the best coverage. This is really on a case-by-case basis. As for T5HO, you generally want a lamp spacing of 2-3". For T5HO, your scrubber will generally need to be designed around the lamps and spacing. CFLs are more flexible in this respect, allowing a variety of configurations.
The lamps must be replaced every 3 months. This is not just a rule for scrubbers, you will see many people make this suggestion for refugium lighting as well. That is because there is a power drop-off and a spectrum shift that takes place over time, and when you go much past 3 months, you hit that drop-off point. We can't see the difference, but then again, we're not algae - it can. The result is that your screen will slow down growing and reduce filtration, which you do not want.
The light source needs to be positioned so that it is pointing directly at the screen material. Do not place the fixture so that it points parallel to the screen (from the ends or the top), place it so that directs the light toward the screen. Perfectly perpendicular is optimal, but if you have to point it at somewhat of an angle just to make it work, that will be fine. This is more of a concern for CFL than linear sources (T5HO), however I have seen a few T5HO build with the lamp 4 inches above the screen, shining straight down. They didn't work so well.
CFLs and Reflectors
The most common CFL used is the 23W Spiral. This is the actual wattage, not the equivalent wattage. There are a few different type of CFL lamps, and each one has a different ideal application. These are: spiral CFL, linear CFL, floodlight CFL.
A bare lamp will work without a reflector, but it will do the job much better with one.
Spiral CFL
The spiral CFL is definitely the most common type available and the most widely used. There are 2 ways to orient the lamp: with the end pointing at the screen or with the side facing the screen.
With the end lamp pointing at the screen, a reflector is a must-have piece of equipment. Without a reflector, a lamp pointed directly at the screen will do very little, since a small percentage of the light comes out of the end of the lamp. The cheapest, easiest, and most common reflector for this orientation is the dome-style reflector, which is available just about anywhere.
This reflector provides a wide light signature, since the side light is reflected to the front. They come in several sizes, and you want the biggest reflector you can fit in the space.
The dome reflector does the job just fine, and one of these should be used at a minimum. However, it is by no means the perfect reflector. The reflector has a ribbed, dull surface that does a good job of diffusing the light, but it is not as efficient as a shiny, highly polished spectral reflector. Also, about 1/4 or so of the lamp (depending on the brand) sticks out past the reflector, and most of that light does not get directed toward the screen.
Using several different sized round reflectors can be done also when space is a limiting factor, even though the smaller reflectors are not as effective.
With the side of the lamp facing the screen, the reflector is usually a DIY job With a side-style orientation, more light is shed directly to the screen, but you still need to re-direct the light from the sides and back of the lamp towards the screen. There are a few fixtures that you can buy with integral reflectors, but most are very small. Most off-the-shelf light fixtures are for use in a shop or garage and have a half-round solid section, which may or may not have a reflector. If it does not, you can simply line it with aluminum foil or another highly reflective material.
The setup below uses off-the-shelf shop lights. The fixture on the left has reflective material installed.
The advantage to the side-lamp design is that since you can hang the lights from above, they generally take up less space (depending on your reflector) versus the dome reflectors.
In order to spread the light out evenly and wide (but not too wide or youll lose intensity at the screen), you want a wide reflector. Finding such a reflector is not easy. Since spiral CFLs can be considered a point source (more of a blob source, but this is for simplicity), using an HID reflector can be effective. A DIY beer can reflector can work also. Even some Mylar or aluminum foil will do the job.
Searching for a flexible reflector material and making your own reflector will yield the best results. A properly made reflector for a side-lamp orientation, such as the one shown below, can direct almost 100% of the light toward the screen.
Linear CFL
Linear CFL lamps are commonly referred to as twin, triple, or quad tube, etc. They are similar in nature to Power Compacts in that the lamp is in a U shape, but commonly have an integrated ballast like a CFL. They are usually higher wattage than standard CFLs, are more intense, and can run hotter. However, since they use the screw-in base just like CFLs, they are easy to use and I have recently looked at a couple of nice builds using them, so I thought it was worth adding a section covering them.
Linear CFLs would be installed similar to the sideways spiral CFL, hanging the lamp from above. Reflectors are generally the same principle; however the source is now more linear, so your reflector in turn should follow the line of the lamp and curve around it. Here are a few of the better ideas for this that Ive seen. One uses cut-up linear fluorescent reflectors, the other uses mirrored acrylic.
A reflector similar to the last one in the spiral CFL section could be done. Because the lamp profile is more linear, the reflector would be slightly different dimensions probably more square than rectangular.
Floodlight CFL
The floodlight CFL is simply a spiral CFL enclosed in a lamp housing like you would see for a standard incandescent floodlight. They are not very efficient at spreading light when placed in close proximity to the screen, as the light is diffused at the end of the bulb and the reflector is of a small diameter. However, they are good for use on smaller, narrower screens ones that have one dimension less than 6 inches. They should generally not be used for primary lighting, unless you are running a small scrubber, like for a 20-35 gallon tank
You can see in this picture that the floodlight only provides significant light to the area directly in front of the lamp and thats the only place thats going to provide adequate filtration:
They can be useful in situations where space is highly restricted, but for larger scrubbers, more total wattage will likely be required over what would normally be needed.
They can also be helpful to supplement light from dome-reflector setups that just need a little more light but theres not enough space for another dome.
One thing to remember when handling CFLs: install them gently. Most people are used to twisting in an incandescent lamp tightly. CFLs fracture easily at the base where the element (tube) meets up with the ballast. Cranking on them like causes these fractures. So if you can't grab on to the base to tighten, just get the lamp in there snug enough for the connection to be made. This goes for the lights in your house and office also - it's the #1 reason why CFLs burn out early.
T5HO lamps and Reflectors
T5HO lamps are inherently superior to CFLs. They spread the light out more evenly than CFLs, and they can be placed closer to the screen without overpowering the algae. Notice in this picture below how use of T5HO can result in almost perfectly even light coverage:
With that factor alone, bare T5HO lamps likely fall in between bare CFL and properly reflected CFL as far as scrubbing power is concerned.
Reflected T5HO is very arguably superior to all. However, it is more difficult to build a T5HO scrubber. You either need to buy and build around a stock fixture, like the Nova Extreme 1126/1127, or build something upon which to mount and protect endcaps, then connect to a ballast. Also, since the reflectors are generally one of the more expensive components, enclosing the screen in an acrylic or glass box is pretty much a given. However, in my opinion, it is worth every penny.
As far as lamps go, the same rules apply. I personally use the PlantMax 3000K Red/Bloom lamp, I can get them for $4 in packs of 8, which is about the cheapest Ive been able to find for good quality lamps. Heres my scrubber, Revision #2 (Rev 3 coming soon)
With a custom build, you can really use all the power of a T5HO lamp. The TEK-II reflectors from Sunlight Supply are expensive, but I have had great results. Other individual-lamp reflectors, such as Ice Caps, work very well. Stock fixtures work best when each light has an individual reflector, but just about any reflector will do better than none.
Sunlight Supply also makes a T5HO fixture that needs no external ballast, and you can daisy-chain up to 10 of them together. However, the reflector they make for it is just plain aluminum and nowhere near as reflective as the TEK-IIs or Ice Caps, which use Anolux-MIRO IV (which is something like 96% reflective)
The disadvantage to T5HO is that youre pretty much locked into a dimension that you have to build around. T5HO lamps come in standard lengths of 24, 36, 48, and 72. There are shorter lamps, such as 18, but its difficult to find lamps in the right color temperature, and theyre generally much more expensive than 24 or 48 lamps (which are the cheapest T5HO sizes). This means that the dimensions of your scrubber are locked into about 20-22 in length, which is the illuminated length of the lamp (the fixture is 24, the lamp right around 21 long). This means your flow to the screen has to be around 700-800 GPH. You can make the screen narrower, but you will end up wasting part of the lamp. The benefits of T5HO over CFL would outweigh this loss to a certain point though.
This can be overcome if you have a dedicated fish room, or enough space to make a vertical T5HO scrubber, like this:
And to my knowledge, those endcaps are no longer available, or else I would totally be using them.
LEDs are a completely different source of light. Fluorescent, metal halide, HPS, and other HID lighting are all mercury based, and the light is shifted from the ultraviolet range into the visible range with phosphors. LEDs emit certain colors of light depending on the compounds used in the diode itself, so it is initially visible light; phosphors are then sometimes used to shift wavelength to achieve various colors.
Generally speaking, LED lighting has advantages over other type of lighting. The most obvious one is lamp life - they never actually burn out (unless you drive them too hard). LEDs have what is called an L70 (or L80) rating, which is the number of hours, running at rated junction temperature, at which the lumen output will have dropped to 70% of its original output. At this point in time, that is usually about 50,000 hours. If they are on 18 hours/day, that's about 7.6 years to L70. Some negative factors for LED are the long-term phase shift and the effect of steadily decreasing output. Phase shift is the reason that most small municipal airports are avoiding LED lighting: white LEDs are actually blue with phosphors added, and they fade over time, and shift to blue. Runway lights are white, taxiway lights are blue, and getting them confused is bad. The LED industry is rapidly evolving, so the L70 numbers will continue to increase, cost will decrease, and issues like phase shifting will likely be improved upon.
But at the current state, there is a decent mathematical reasoning for going LED. Just using T5HO lamps as a baseline, lets say you need 4 24W lamps ever 3 months for a 100 gallon scrubber, each costing $4 each. Thats $64 per year, and over 7 years, thats $448. If you use 23W CFLs and you can find a stellar deal on them, you might be able to get them for $1 each, or about $112 over 7 years. So the cost of designing and building and LED fixture falls somewhere in between the two, IMO. If you DIY it, the material will cost you a couple hundred bucks, and the design time youre going to spend either way, so most of that is offset.
The desired spectrum can theoretically be tuned to exactly what you need. This means that you can potentially overpower a scrubber if you use the same wattage as you would use for a CFL or T5HO scrubber, and just like you can bleach your corals with too much light, you can bleach algae with too much light. Also, it is important to note that there has been no study that I could find that indicates what exact LED spectrum is perfect for algae growth for this specific purpose. At this point, you probably should not rely on an LED scrubber for total filtration, only for supplemental filtration. There are many unknowns, but it has great potential.
Theres not a lot of information regarding how these factors will impact algae growth. The phase shift is probably the biggest factor that is not known. Although, anyone who builds their own LED fixture will likely want to build another, better one in 2 years when more efficient and cheaper LEDs come out. So if you feel up to building your own LED scrubber, at this point, I say knock yourself out. Just make sure you do your homework before putting pen to paper; study other designs and learn from the mistakes and successes of others.
Just make sure you realize that 1) LED scrubbers do not have a long track record to speak of, 2) only recently have there been builds with any sort of success, 3) they are still not tested for long-term stability and reliability.
The general consensus among those that have built multiple LED scrubbers (believe me, there are not many that have built more than one) are that at a minimum, you should use Warm Whites, and ideally you want to use 630nm Reds, or a combination of the two. The jury is out on the need for any blue at all, and the effectiveness of 660nm Deep Red might be offset by the fact that the 630nm Red is more intense and therefore more efficient. Remember, flow and light intensity trumps spectrum.
LED builds to date vary in size, shape, number and arrangement of LEDs, use of lenses and/or diffusers, and on and on. This one uses 630nm Reds, warm whites, and in the middle are a couple of 660nm 5W Deep Reds, and a 5W Blue. This one uses bare LEDs and a diamond diffuser plate to spread the light.
This scrubber uses Warm Whites and Reds
This is an older one I found, it uses a panel covered with a combination of red and blue 1W LEDs. It was very expensive at the time ($700 I think)
There are also LED floodlights starting to hit the market. This one below is a 3000K 75W incandescent equivalent, which equates roughly to an 18W CFL:
I like that this one uses high-quality Cree LEDs. However, since there is very little data on the effectiveness of these lamps, the same guidelines for CFL floodlights apply to these. Spreading the light out adequately is the main problem with LEDs in general. Its difficult to tell from this picture, but it appears that the light is focused similarly to a CFL floodlight:
An off-the-shelf LED fixture is generally more expensive than a DIY job. For scrubbers, there are very few choices in LED off-the-shelf, its pretty much limited to plant growth lamps. Theres plenty of them out there, but theyre rather expensive and lots of them are made overseas, where they use cheap LEDs, under-drive them so they dont blow, and put them in cheap housings that arent made for use anywhere near water. The American made fixture are much more reliably built, but the prices are coming down. Its only a matter of time before LEDs are tried and tested.
Electrical Protection
This should really go without saying, but you should always plug your lights into Ground-Fault protected receptacles (GFCI). You should actually have all your equipment plugged into GFCI receptacles, and on as many separate circuits as feasible but thats another discussion.
Always use waterproof sockets for your CFLs and end caps for your T5HO lamps. This is a little more expensive, but is necessary to avoid corrosion and electrocution. Generally, waterproof CFL sockets do a pretty good job of sealing the base and socket from moisture, but they still should be silicone sealed for an extra layer of protection. T5HO waterproof end caps do an excellent job of sealing the end of the lamp, but the wires that feed into the bottom of the sockets are not sealed, so after all wiring is complete, you need to fill in the bottom with silicone caulk.
You can't see it, but there will be tiny amounts of salt spray that will build up where you screw a CFL bulb in, and also where you make electrical connections. When the buildup gets thick enough, it can short out and trip a breaker or GFCI receptacle, or shock you. So each time you replace a CFL screw-in lamp, re-seal it. You should be able to pour water over it without it causing a problem (but dont try it). Use GE Silicone I Door & Window caulk, which is generally accepted as aquarium safe, especially since you dont intend for it to be in direct contact with water anyways.
Spray Protection
As far as spray and salt creep is concerned, you want to avoid buildup on the lamp itself. No matter what you do, there will still likely be some buildup due to evaporation, so you will want to wipe off the lamp periodically (as needed). Make sure the lamp is completely cooled down before wiping the lamp off, remove the lamp if possible, and wipe it down with a soft cloth and warm to hot water. This is rather easy to do in place with T5HO lamps, and more difficult for spiral and multi-tube CFLs; just be gentle so you dont crack the tube.
The water will cascade down the screen smoothly, and then drop off the bottom edge. If you dont let the bottom of the screen sit in the water, its going to pour off and crash down, and splash everywhere. Thats not the problem Im discussing here, Im talking about spray from the slot pipe or screen.
The ideal solution is to block the source of salt creep or spray the slot pipe itself. While 99.99% of the water that cascades down the screen will stay on the screen, occasionally there will be droplets of water that pop and fly around, and over time these can cause salt creep. If you have a lot of spray on a consistent basis, then you have a different problem this generally should not happen, and will be covered under the troubleshooting section in Part 2.
The best spray blocker is a box that totally encloses the screen on all 4 sides and bottom, and has a removable lid. Such a box would have a drain hole in the bottom, and would typically be made out of acrylic, but could be made from glass also. This is beneficial for other reasons too, but were just talking spray blocking right now. If you go this route, you want to read the section regarding enclosed boxes in Part 2 for more details - which is coming, I promise!!
Closing the top with a lid, or at least extending the blocker up to the top of the slot pipe, will minimize the random drops that occasionally fly upward, as well as evaporation. A lid should not lip over the outside of the box, rather the inside so that any condensation will tend to stay inside the box.
The next best would be an enclosure with an open bottom. The advantage to an open-bottom enclosure is that it's easy to build. If you extend the screen to the water level inside the sump, you virtually eliminate noise and microbubbles. Pictures illustrate this best:
The most basic spray blocker would just be a couple of plastic panels draped over the tube. Here are a few examples:
I dont recommend enclosing CFLs in glass jars. IMO, it is difficult to allow for adequate air convection with such an arrangement. I dont recommend using plastic bottles either. CFLs get hot; you cant touch them when theyre on. If the lamp gets in contact with the plastic, it could melt.
End of Summary #1
As mentioned at the start of this summary, I will write up Part 2 which will cover various troubleshooting pointers, enclosed boxes, growth types, customizing to your specific system, overflow protection, increasing flow, operation, maintenance, cleaning, etc
If you have any suggestions or corrections, please post them or shoot me a PM and I will note them for future summary posts.


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A lovely vintage pattern for very pretty mother and daughter crochet dresses. Both dresses could be made as long dresses, very pretty for a summer wedding or party.
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Amazon Conservation Policy Working In Brazil, Study Finds
- Date:
- June 30, 2009
- Source:
- Michigan State University
- Summary:
- Contrary to common belief, Brazil's policy of protecting portions of the Amazonian forest from development is capable of buffering the Amazon from climate change, according to a new study.
- Share:
Contrary to common belief, Brazil's policy of protecting portions of the Amazonian forest from development is capable of buffering the Amazon from climate change, according to a new study led by Michigan State University researchers.
The study, to be published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, contends state and federal governments in Brazil have created a sustainable core of protected areas within the Amazon. And even if the remaining Brazilian Amazon is deforested, the climate will not significantly change – thereby protecting the Amazon's ecosystems.
"The thought has been that if you deforest up to a certain point in the Amazon, the forest will completely lose the ability to recover its tropical vegetation – that you will basically convert it to a desert, especially in the south and southeastern margins of the basin," said Robert Walker, MSU professor of geography and lead researcher on the project.
"But our research shows that if you protect certain areas of the Amazon, as the Brazilian government is currently doing, the forest will not reach a tipping point, which means we can maintain the climate with levels of deforestation beyond which was originally thought."
Roughly the size of the 48 contiguous states, the Amazon River Basin is home to the world's largest rainforest, most of it in Brazil, and is the largest freshwater source on Earth. The Amazon is made up of a wide variety of exotic plant and animal life, including macaws, jaguars, anteaters and anacondas.
In Brazil, the government has set aside about 37 percent of the Amazon basin as protected area, Walker said.
Meanwhile, about 17 percent of the Brazilian Amazon has been deforested since the opening of the basin to development in the mid-1960s, he said.
Critics warn the Amazon is close to a tipping point in which the continued stripping of forests will stem rainfall and turn the tropical region into scrubland. Because trees pull moisture from the ground and release it back into the atmosphere, leading to rainfall, cutting them down threatens this "vegetative recycling" process, Walker said.
Walker and fellow researchers from Brazil and the United States conducted three years of atmospheric computer modeling on the region. Their study assumed the worst-case scenario – that all of the Brazilian Amazon not protected by the government would be deforested.
Even under this scenario, their findings indicate rainfall levels would not decrease to the point of changing the landscape and harming the ecosystems within the protected areas.
"Some people think the tipping point is going to occur at 30 percent to 40 percent deforestation," Walker said. "Our results suggest this is not the case; that you can have quite a bit of deforestation – perhaps up to 60 percent – before you get to the crash point."
The study also assumes the government-protected forests would not be altered beyond their current condition.
The research was supported by a grant from NASA and conducted under the auspices of the Large-scale Biosphere/Atmosphere Experiment in Amazonia, an international project led by the Brazilian Ministry of Science and Technology.
Joining Walker on the research team were Nathan Moore, Cynthia Simmons and Dante Vergara from MSU, and researchers from the University of Florida, Kansas State University, Hobart and William Smith Colleges in New York and the Universidade Federal Fluminense in Brazil.
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