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From Proteopedia
|1x6v, resolution 1.75Å ()
|PAPSS1, PAPSS, ATPSK1 (Homo sapiens)
|FirstGlance, OCA, RCSB, PDBsum
|save as pdb, mmCIF, xml
The crystal structure of human 3'-phosphoadenosine-5'-phosphosulfate synthetase 1
The high energy sulfate donor 3'-phosphoadenosine-5-phosphosulfate (PAPS) is used for sulfate conjugation of extracellular matrix, hormones and drugs. Human PAPS synthetase 1 catalyzes two subsequent reactions starting from ATP and sulfate. First the ATP sulfurylase domain forms APS, then the APS kinase domain phosphorylates the APS intermediate to PAPS. Up to now the interaction between the two enzymatic activities remained elusive, mainly because of missing structural information. Here we present the crystal structure of human PAPSS1 at 1.8 angstroms resolution. The structure reveals a homodimeric, asymmetric complex with the shape of a chair. The two kinase domains adopt different conformational states, with only one being able to bind its two substrates. The asymmetric binding of ADP to the APS kinase is not only observed in the crystal structure, but can also be detected in solution, using an enzymatic assay. These observations strongly indicate structural changes during the reaction cycle. Furthermore crystals soaked with ADP and APS could be prepared and the corresponding structures could be solved.
The crystal structure of human PAPS synthetase 1 reveals asymmetry in substrate binding., Harjes S, Bayer P, Scheidig AJ, J Mol Biol. 2005 Apr 1;347(3):623-35. Epub 2005 Jan 26. PMID:15755455
From MEDLINE®/PubMed®, a database of the U.S. National Library of Medicine.
About this Structure
1x6v is a 2 chain structure with sequence from Homo sapiens. Full crystallographic information is available from OCA.
- Harjes S, Bayer P, Scheidig AJ. The crystal structure of human PAPS synthetase 1 reveals asymmetry in substrate binding. J Mol Biol. 2005 Apr 1;347(3):623-35. Epub 2005 Jan 26. PMID:15755455 doi:10.1016/j.jmb.2005.01.005


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The Death of the Party
Did Shelly Yachimovich, by avoiding matters of national security, kill Israel's Labor Party?
For a party in the political doldrums and reliant on a tired and out-of-touch group of political veterans, Yachimovich was a breath of fresh air. In the Labor Party leadership election, her volunteer army of thousands both online and offline out-organized, out-enthused, and overwhelmed her opponents. Her appeal comes from both her obvious political charisma and also her compelling, nontraditional public image. When Yachimovich talks about the middle class it is not mere rhetoric: She is divorced (her son is currently serving in the army), resides alone in a small flat in Tel Aviv, and is known for riding her bicycle around town. It is a humble image quite different from that held by the current prime minister or even the majority of politicians in the country. Like her mentor, Amir Peretz, she has a down-to-earth element to her personality that is a crucial part of her political draw.
But for all that Yachimovich does, it is what she doesn't do that has garnered so much ill will, particularly in the run-up to the Jan. 22 election. During this campaign, she has given no major speeches or comments about the occupation, about Iran, about the Arab Spring, about the future of the settlements, and so on. Unless she is asked, she has practically nothing to say about any of these issues. In her political manifesto titled Us she remarkably makes no mention of the issues that have been at the heart of Israeli politics since the country's founding. It is the most startling element of her rise to power: She is the head of a party long associated with the vision of a two-state solution and yet has nothing to say about the existential questions that will shape Israel's future. When asked about how she would bring about peace with the Palestinians, Yachimovich regularly mouths the platitude that she supports the Clinton Parameters from more than 12 years ago—but not much else.
It's this position—or rather this lack of position—that has earned her withering criticism from the Israeli left. On the editorial page of Haaretz it is practically pro forma for the paper's columnists to lacerate Yachimovich for her complete inattention to security matters. And over the past several months, as security concerns have taken on even greater prominence with Operation Pillar of Defense, the Palestinian bid for statehood in the United Nations General Assembly, and the announcement of new settlement construction in the West Bank, it has shined a bright light on the paucity of her strategy.
For Daniel Levy, a former Labor foreign-policy adviser, Yachimovich's "lack of security focus is a result of Israelis having moved so far to the right that they have given up hope or expectation that you can move forward on a two-state solution." It is a reflection of the recurrent argument you hear from Israelis—even those that support a two-state solution—that Israel has no partner for peace. National polling bears this out: While approximately two thirds of Israelis say they support a two-state solution, 55 percent of Israeli Jews agree with the view that a "lasting peace between Israel and the Palestinians" will never happen. This pessimism about the possibility of a breakthrough has bolstered support for far-right parties and in particular Benjamin Netanyahu, who offers voters an uncompromising pledge to protect Israel's security and avoid any settlement deal with the Palestinians that doesn't provide ironclad guarantees against future attacks.
More than anything else, that appears to be the reason that Yachimovich has simply chosen to avoid what is clearly a losing issue for Labor and to focus on the growing cost of living and economic anxiety as a tool for returning the party to a position of power. Indeed, Buji Herzog admits that this is a highly coordinated Labor strategy. For years, said Herzog, "Labor was only identified with the peace process" and not the "core social issues" that had once defined the party. This, argued Herzog, led to disastrous election after election for Labor, including the last Knesset ballot, which saw the party score a mere 13 seats—a total that was soon reduced to eight after Ehud Barak fled the party and joined Netanyahu's government as defense minister.
"The fact that the left was considered only a peace movement and not a social justice movement is a real problem for the left," said Nissim Calderon, a professor at Ben Gurion University who is also on the slate for the left-wing Meretz party. "Labor and the left ignored the poor—and that undermined support for their peace agenda," he told me. Yachimovich's agenda, Calderon argued, is a function of the party's desperation to win back that support and also remain relevant.
Public-opinion polling suggests that this a fairly accurate reflection of the Israeli electorate's current mindset. A recent survey done for the Jerusalem-based think tank Molad shows that less than a third of Israelis believe that the left is able to effectively govern the country. Only 28 percent said that "the left offers constructive solutions for security challenges faced by the state." As Herzog pointedly told me, Labor's strategy is specifically endorsed by the party's U.S. political consultant, Stan Greenberg, who has advised Labor Party leaders going back to Shimon Peres in 1996.
Yachimovich has proved adept at seeing this strategy through, employing a tidy bit of revisionist history when necessary. Labor "is not a leftist party and never was," she said in November, arguing that it was always "a centrist party." She even went so far as to recently sign Labor's surplus votes agreement (an arrangement where surplus votes, beyond the current 2 percent threshold, are combined between two similar parties) with Yair Lapid's Yesh Atid rather than Labor's traditional partner, Meretz. The intended message was clear: Labor has more in common with the middle-of-the-road Lapid than with the left-wing Meretz. When Yachimovich is confronted with more controversial issues, like the future of settlements in the West Bank, she hews to the center or flip-flops. In 2005, for example, she complained that while "a welfare state was being obliterated here … a substitute welfare state was being established beyond the Green Line." Yet just last year, she said that those who would argue "if there were no settlements there would be a welfare state within Israel's borders" have "no connection to reality."
But it is on the question of two-state solution and the Palestinians that Yachimovich's absence from the public debate is so glaring and problematic. Despite the fact that the majority of Israelis see no partner for peace, few believe that the current status quo can be maintained forever. At some point, perhaps in the not too distant future, Israel will face difficult even existential decisions about the status of the West Bank and the more than 2,600,000 Palestinians who live there. That these issues are rarely confronted these days speaks to a disturbing national delusion among Israelis—what some call the "normalization" of the conflict—and a refusal to come to grips with the country's long-term challenges.
Operation Israeli Weather
It snows in Israel at least once every winter. So, why does the Israeli media cover it as though it was a war?

subset: commoncrawl


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Welcome Home
Oak Spirit Sanctuary, as a church of Shamanic Wicca, is proud to welcome home all Earth-honoring people of good faith. We worship in a Wiccan format, but invite others to share their traditions and practices, in keeping with the Natural Laws of the Land.
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Harvest Homecoming
August 29 – September 1, 2014
Welcome Home Oak Spirits
Our annual Harvest Homecoming is going to be wonderful this year! Morning Community meetings, Chant workshop and more, Women's Roundtable discussion, Triple Goddess Wine making, beautiful Rituals. We are also having the debut of our own performance group Gaia Rain as well as energy building jam sessions to wake the spirit so bring your noise makers. Vending is free with paid registration. Come stay on the land and enjoy your connection to Nature. Preregistration by August 15th is $45 per person. Registration at the gate is $60. Preregister and save! You can pay through PayPal using firstname.lastname@example.com or mail a check or money order to our address.
Potluck dinners contributed by the Community and eat on your own breakfast and lunch. Also work exchange discounts are still available and lots of work to be done before Harvest. Work exchange must be completed before the event. For more information email us on Facebook or email@example.com! We can't wait to see you all! Come Home for Harvest!
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Dry Branch - Local Area Photos and Information
Local Area Photos | Local Business Directory | Local Real Estate | Local Employment Center
Dry Branch is a populated place located in Twiggs County at latitude 32.801 and longitude -83.499.
The elevation is 361 feet. Dry Branch appears on the Dry Branch U.S. Geological Survey Map. Twiggs County is in the Eastern Time Zone (UTC -5 hours).
Twiggs County: Cities & Towns | ZIP Codes | Schools | Features (airports, churches, hospitals, etc.)
BOUNDARY MAPS: | North Twiggs Division | Twiggs County
Dry Branch - Searchable Map, Aerial Photos & Driving Directions
|BIG Map |
Driving Directions |
Data Source - USGS GNIS FID: 355553
BOUNDARY MAPS: | North Twiggs Division | Twiggs County
Nearby Cities, Towns & Census Designated Places
Dry Branch, GA
(< 0.1 mile)
Franklinton, GA (1.9 miles W)
Wheeler Heights, GA (3.9 miles WNW)
Crystal Springs, GA (4.3 miles NW)
Griswoldville, GA (4.9 miles N)
Lakeside, GA
(5.1 miles WNW)
Mogul, GA (5.1 miles NW)
Fitzpatrick, GA (5.1 miles SE)
Cross Keys, GA (6.3 miles NW)
Reids, GA (7 miles SW)
Nearby Neighborhoods, Subdivisions & Other Small Populated Places
Terrell, GA
(1.4 miles NW)
Thornton Heights, GA (2.7 miles NW)
Whispering Pines, GA (3.9 miles NW)
Smithsonia, GA (4.1 miles W)
Lanier Heights, GA (4.1 miles WNW)
Kings Park, GA
(4.3 miles NW)
East Macon, GA (4.3 miles NW)
Bridgeman, GA (4.5 miles WNW)
Tanglewood, GA (4.7 miles NW)
Morningside, GA (5.8 miles NW)


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November 15, 2010
Clark Junior Eileen Garcia Named NEWMAC Women's Diver of the Week
NEWMAC Women's Diver of the Week:
Eileen Garcia, Clark University, 2012 (New York, N.Y.)
Garcia swept the 1-meter and 3-meter diving events in a three team meet with Wellesley and Roger Williams. She took first place in the one-meter (245.40) and the three-meter (281.85). On the three-meter board, her score exceeded the NCAA's Division III Championship qualifying standard.


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Deborah Jowitt
A brief word about her. As dance lovers already know, she was fired from her staff position as senior dance critic of the Village Voice, which seems to take a special glee in leading the feral pack of magazines and newspapers trying to save a pittance by decimating their arts staffs. Bob Christgau was the first big name critic to go (he may now see himself as having been liberated), and now Jowitt. Both were the leaders of their particular packs, Bob of rock criticism, Deborah of dance criticism.
But dance criticism of a certain type, and here's where it gets more fraught. We live in a time in which the century-long tension between ballet and modern dance is being redefined in terms of ballet, with modern dance ("contemporary dance") relegated to ignored irrelevance or to a source for ballet choreography, usually dismissed when it happens. Jowitt knows ballet; she knows all of dance. But partly perhaps because that was her mandate at the Voice, she was the champion of the downtown New York modern-dance world, its spokesman and its conscience. Some people complained that she was too kind, falling back on description when she feared her judgments might seem too harsh. Yet her descriptions were so tactile, so apt, that they constituted a form of judgment all by themselves.
Apparently the Voice has offered her her old spot, but on a freelance basis. I haven't talked with her, but it will be interesting to see what she does. Will she turn elsewhere, her pride preventing her from doing the same job for less, and thus maybe shift her attention a little more uptown? Or will she feel an obligation to the community she has served so long and so well? There is no "right" choice here, and her voice will be heard wherever she writes, in print or on line. The pity is that the Voice put her -- and dance itself -- in this position in the first place.
Leave a comment
For an ongoing conversation and news reports about arts journalism, go to the blog of the National Arts Journalism Program, here.
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Terry Teachout on the arts in New York City
Andrew Taylor on the business of arts & culture
rock culture approximately
Laura Collins-Hughes on arts, culture and coverage
Richard Kessler on arts education
Douglas McLennan's blog
Dalouge Smith advocates for the Arts
Art from the American Outback
For immediate release: the arts are marketable
No genre is the new genre
David Jays on theatre and dance
Paul Levy measures the Angles
Judith H. Dobrzynski on Culture
John Rockwell on the arts
Jan Herman - arts, media & culture with 'tude
Apollinaire Scherr talks about dance
Tobi Tobias on dance et al...
Howard Mandel's freelance Urban Improvisation
Focus on New Orleans. Jazz and Other Sounds
Doug Ramsey on Jazz and other matters...
Jeff Weinstein's Cultural Mixology
Martha Bayles on Film...
classical music
Fresh ideas on building arts communities
Greg Sandow performs a book-in-progress
Exploring Orchestras w/ Henry Fogel
Harvey Sachs on music, and various digressions
Bruce Brubaker on all things Piano
Kyle Gann on music after the fact
Greg Sandow on the future of Classical Music
Norman Lebrecht on Shifting Sound Worlds
Jerome Weeks on Books
Scott McLemee on books, ideas & trash-culture ephemera
Wendy Rosenfield: covering drama, onstage and off
Chloe Veltman on how culture will save the world
Public Art, Public Space
Regina Hackett takes her Art To Go
John Perreault's art diary
Lee Rosenbaum's Cultural Commentary
Tyler Green's modern & contemporary art blog


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Yes you read that right. Did you think Fluid Dynamic sims were reserved for the C++ crowd? In this blogpost I'll take a stab at this CPU intensive exercise wielding both Criterium, JVisualVM Profiler and a former Epic Games Engine developer and show how Functional Fluid Dynamic simulations are very possible using Clojure.
Fluid Dynamics equations are notoriously hard to solve. Try to attack that problem from a High Level language like Clojure and you've doubled your trouble. Fortunately for me Per Vognsen could spare a few moments of his time during last week to help me sort out some of the more complicated issues. He has previously worked as an Engine Developer for Epic Games as well as Technology Engineer at NVIDIA - So suffice it to say, this wasn't a first for him. Per said, that Fluid Dynamics starts with reading a paper on the subject by Jos Stam, said to be the best FD guy in the business.
His paper is incredibly approachable even for a non-game developer liFke me and provides source code snippets in the archaic C language. The weird thing about C is that its not even prefixed like Clojure (+ 2 2), instead all operators are scattered between the arguments! Since this is heavy duty math, I then had to go look up the precedence rules for math operators in C and convert it into beautiful prefixed Lisp notation.
Well yes in a way. There are many definitions of what Functional Programming is and Rich Hickey says that an FP language stresses "immutable datastructures and pure functions" - I can give you half. Almost every part of this blogpost is designed to tweak mutable data for optimal performance, but the functions are all pure in that they take a mutable thing and return another mutable thing - The key is, the return values are always used and no side-effects are employed.
Navier-Stokes is a set of equations which describe how densities (the fluid) and velocities (the forces) move and react in a confined grid. The entire concept of Fluid Dynamics in computer graphics (as opposed to accurate analysis) can be cooked down to 3 disciplines:
We'll walk through these one at a time and finally combine them into a working simulator with a Swing GUI. But before we do, there's the tiny detail of performance.
As you all know, Clojure defaults to persistent immutable datastructures but in a way which is very fast. However... Its not nearly fast enough. So we'll just drop down a notch and use transients right? Wrong, I tried transients and they're much too slow. Since performance is crucial for this simulation I'm digging directly into Javas Arrays. And this is where the Clojure compiler shows its young age, as it provides little to no help.
When you're working with Java Arrays there is a performance killer which will slow a routine of a few milliseconds down to several seconds, its called reflection and it happens whenever the compiler needs to go look up which type of object you're sending its way. Normally you can initialize your programs with
(set! *warn-on-reflection* true)
But as Christophe Grand points out in his fantastic blogpost on the matter, the Clojure compiler doesn't support this type of reflection warning... yet. Fortunately Christophe provides 2 very good macros which take away much of the pain of this Java interop, but while his macros are good they are too advanced for a fluid-sim primarily because I know which types I'm sending in every single time so I've adopted them in a 10% faster form, but now hardcoded for 2 indices of the int type and one value of the double type.
(defmacro aget! ([array y] `(aget ~(vary-meta array assoc :tag 'doubles) ~y)) ([array x & ys] `(let [a# (aget ~(vary-meta array assoc :tag 'objects) ~@ys)] (aget! a# ~x)))) (defmacro aset! [array x y v] (let [nested-array `(aget ~(vary-meta array assoc :tag 'objects) ~y) a-sym (with-meta (gensym "a") {:tag 'doubles})] `(let [~a-sym ~nested-array] (aset ~a-sym ~x (double ~v)))))
In case you're wondering why everything is done with macros its simply this: All Clojure functions return some kind of boxed object and if we're ever going to be fast enough we need to work with primitives, ie. no boxing. Macros are a developers best friend.
In response to a previous blogpost I did on Benchmarking, Hugo Duncan mentioned that he was working on a Clojure version of Haskells Criterion, called Criterium and this has been a friend indeed. Criterium benchmarks your functions, measures variance and much much more and its super simple to use.
Diffusion is the most used function in a FD sim, because both densities and forces diffuse, so the function is applied both in solving the density equation and the velocity equation. The main principle is quite simple: In every time-step a cell gives away a portion of its density to its 4 closest neighbors as well as receives part of theirs. Visualized like so:
So basically you have this formula where you add the values of the 5 cells in question multiply the neighboring values by some diffusion factor relative to the boards size and then you divide that number with a constant - Very simple! The trick to being fast is then abstracting away as much of the board I/O as possible, so that I can keep the logic simple and the low-level functions fast. So lets just imagine that we have a macro which takes a board, the description of a cell, like (+ left right) and a lookup board for referencing the neighbor-values as its arguments and then applies that to our board, then we could describe diffusion as such:
(defn diffuse-board [board b diffusion dt] (let [sz (count board) dr (double (* dt diffusion sz sz)) dconst (double (* 4 dr))] (map! (/ (+ self (* dr (+ (+ above below) (+ left right)))) dconst) board)))
First of all, you should know that the + operator works different depending on the number of arguments. 2 arguments might inline where more will call reduce instead:
user> (do (time (dotimes [i 1e6] (+ 1 2 3 4))) (time (dotimes [i 1e6] (+ (+ 1 2) (+ 3 4))))) "Elapsed time: 496.621851 msecs" "Elapsed time: 171.294196 msecs"
Note also that I'm coercing a couple of values to doubles, this is to avoid boxing. Although this description of the diffusion algorithm is simple, its also accurate so if we can just make map! fast enough it would be the best way to go. Here's map!:
(defmacro map! [f lookup] `(let [[w# h#] [(count ~lookup) (-> ~lookup first count)]] (let [board# (make-array Double/TYPE h# w#)] (do-board [w# h#] (let [~'above (aget! ~lookup (unchecked-dec ~'i) ~'j) ~'below (aget! ~lookup (unchecked-inc ~'i) ~'j) ~'left (aget! ~lookup ~'i (unchecked-dec ~'j)) ~'right (aget! ~lookup ~'i (unchecked-inc ~'j)) ~'self (aget! ~lookup ~'i ~'j)] (aset! board# ~'i ~'j ~f))) (set-bounds board# 0))))
As you can see, map! calls the still undefined do-board which walks over all the cells of our array, exposing x and y values as i and j respectively. map! then looks up neighbors and exposes their values as above,below,left,right respectively. Set-Bounds is just a helper function, which makes sure that the borders of the board are kept intact. So we're all set to roll out Criterium and see how fast this puppy goes:
user> (let [dd (new-array 80 80)] (bench (diffuse-board dd 1 2 1))) Evaluation count : 29880 Execution time mean : 2.005787 ms 95.0% CI: (2.005737 ms, 2.005829 ms) Execution time std-deviation : 115.162227 us 95.0% CI: (113.903283 us, 116.213038 us) Found 2 outliers in 60 samples (3.3333 %) low-severe 1 (1.6667 %) low-mild 1 (1.6667 %) Variance from outliers : 1.6389 % Variance is slightly inflated by outliers
It averages at about 2 milliseconds and that result is 95% undisturbed by variance (good), with only 2 outliers in 60 samples. This is a very good result and similar in speed to Christophes Brians Brain sim, which also did 4 neighbor look-ups per cell in about 2 ms. But while Criterium tells us how fast an algorithm is, it doesn't tell us how fast it can be (though Hugo has been seen downloading the source to JVisualVM, so who knows, it may come). To answer that question we need to re-run diffuse-board while peeking at the inner workings through a profiler. So now I'll start it like you see below, then connect the profiler and let it perform the instrumentation, once thats done I hit ENTER and the actual profiling begins. **IMPORTANT** Do this in the Inferior Lisp buffer and not SLIME.
user=> (let [dd (new-array 80 80)] (read-line) (diffuse-board dd 1 2 3)) ;; ;; hit ENTER 1 time to evaluate the code, then attach the profiler! Profiler Agent: JNI On Load Initializing... Profiler Agent: JNI OnLoad Initialized succesfully Profiler Agent: Waiting for connection on port 5140 (Protocol version: 8) Profiler Agent: Established local connection with the tool Profiler Agent: 250 classes cached. Profiler Agent: 250 classes cached. Profiler Agent: 250 classes cached. Profiler Agent: Redefining 100 classes at idx 0, out of total 1403 Profiler Agent: Redefining 100 classes at idx 100, out of total 1403 Profiler Agent: Redefining 100 classes at idx 200, out of total 1403 ..... Profiler Agent: Redefining 3 classes at idx 1400, out of total 1403 ;; hit ENTER the 2.nd time to pass the (read-line) and diffuse the board! <double><double> ;; NOW STOP THE PROFILER
So now we can have a peek at diffuse-boards internals:
The first 4 lines look great, everything is named with its correct type Object[] for the array, int for the index etc, but at line #5 there's a problem. Numbers.add(object,object) means that 2 Clojure objects are being added after unboxing and this is eating 8% of my CPU time - I dont entirely trust the ms count as everything runs differently once the profiler is attached, but its a clear indication that something can be made faster!
Since it's Numbers.add which is complaining, the problem can only be in the (+ (+ left right) (+ above below)) line since this is the only place where addition is applied. Those 4 cells all get their values from aget! and since the board contains only doubles, the return is expected to be doubles right? Wrong. The problem is the calls to aget! in map!. We know that these return doubles (as the array contains only doubles), but like I said earlier no primitive can cross from one function to another, so Clojure is boxing it for me. A faster map! would then look like so:
(defmacro map! [f lookup] `(let [[w# h#] [(count ~lookup) (-> ~lookup first count)]] (let [board# (make-array Double/TYPE h# w#)] (do-board [w# h#] (let [~'above (double (aget! ~lookup (unchecked-dec ~'i) ~'j)) ~'below (double (aget! ~lookup (unchecked-inc ~'i) ~'j)) ~'left (double (aget! ~lookup ~'i (unchecked-dec ~'j))) ~'right (double (aget! ~lookup ~'i (unchecked-inc ~'j))) ~'self (double (aget! ~lookup ~'i ~'j))] (aset! board# ~'i ~'j ~f))) (set-bounds board# 0))))
And then we can roll out my trusty helper Criterium once again:
user> (let [dd (new-array 80 80)] (bench (diffuse-board dd 1 2 1))) Evaluation count : 93360 Execution time mean : 642.540222 us 95.0% CI: (642.427827 us, 642.661291 us) Execution time std-deviation : 553.156977 us 95.0% CI: (547.242040 us, 559.962465 us) Found 4 outliers in 60 samples (6.6667 %) low-severe 1 (1.6667 %) low-mild 1 (1.6667 %) high-mild 2 (3.3333 %) Variance from outliers : 9.4533 % Variance is slightly inflated by outliers
Wow, we're down from 2 milliseconds to 600 microseconds, 400% faster. Notice how much time is saved by wielding both JVisualVM and Criterium? Powerful cocktail.
This little helper is not heavy on board I/O since its basically just trimming edges, but almost every other function calls it at least once so it needs to be super fast. Here's a naive implementation:
(defn set-bounds [arr b] (let [N (int (- (count arr) (int 2))) n1 (unchecked-inc N) z (int 0) cswap! (fn [x y old p] (aset! arr x y (if p (- old) old)))] (loop [i (int 1)] (when (<= i N) (cswap! z i (aget! arr 1 i) (= b 1)) (cswap! n1 i (aget! arr N i) (= b 1)) (cswap! i z (aget! arr i 1) (= b 2)) (cswap! i n1 (aget! arr i N) (= b 2)) (recur (unchecked-inc i)))) (aset! arr z z (* 0.5 (+ (aget! arr 1 z) (aget! arr z 1)))) (aset! arr z n1 (* 0.5 (+ (aget! arr 1 n1) (aget! arr z N)))) (aset! arr n1 z (* 0.5 (+ (aget! arr N z) (aget! arr n1 1)))) (aset! arr n1 n1 (* 0.5 (+ (aget! arr N n1) (aget! arr n1 N)))) arr))
Seems very straight forward - I add a little garbage by defining an fn within the function itself, but its a small price for the simplified array access. Lets test-drive it:
user> (let [dd (new-array 80 80) sources (atom [[40 40]]) vv [(new-array 80 80) (new-array 80 80)]] (bench (set-bounds dd 0))) Evaluation count : 4980 Execution time mean : 12.193434 ms 95.0% CI: (12.192258 ms, 12.194447 ms) Execution time std-deviation : 1.322431 ms 95.0% CI: (1.284516 ms, 1.332446 ms) Found 6 outliers in 60 samples (10.0000 %) low-severe 3 (5.0000 %) low-mild 3 (5.0000 %) Variance from outliers : 1.6389 % Variance is slightly inflated by outliers
12 ms normally wouldn't be a cause of great concern, but in this case its terrible - We've just seen that an entire board can be scanned 5 times in 600 microseconds, so this shouldn't be slower than that. The problem, as you might have guessed, is that the integers passed to cswap! are being reflected, so lets give the compiler a hint:
(defn set-bounds [arr b] (let [N (int (- (count arr) (int 2))) n1 (unchecked-inc N) z (int 0) cswap! (fn [#^Integer x #^Integer y old p] (aset! arr x y (if p (- old) old)))] (loop [i (int 1)] (when (<= i N) (cswap! z i (aget! arr 1 i) (= b 1)) (cswap! n1 i (aget! arr N i) (= b 1)) (cswap! i z (aget! arr i 1) (= b 2)) (cswap! i n1 (aget! arr i N) (= b 2)) (recur (unchecked-inc i)))) (aset! arr z z (* 0.5 (+ (aget! arr 1 z) (aget! arr z 1)))) (aset! arr z n1 (* 0.5 (+ (aget! arr 1 n1) (aget! arr z N)))) (aset! arr n1 z (* 0.5 (+ (aget! arr N z) (aget! arr n1 1)))) (aset! arr n1 n1 (* 0.5 (+ (aget! arr N n1) (aget! arr n1 N)))) arr)) user> (let [dd (new-array 80 80) sources (atom [[40 40]]) vv [(new-array 80 80) (new-array 80 80)]] (bench (set-bounds dd 0))) WARNING: Final GC required 1.3085841065177402 % of runtime Evaluation count : 3449880 Execution time mean : 17.289233 us 95.0% CI: (17.288072 us, 17.290026 us) Execution time std-deviation : 24.574420 us 95.0% CI: (24.128797 us, 24.812547 us) Found 11 outliers in 60 samples (18.3333 %) low-severe 3 (5.0000 %) low-mild 8 (13.3333 %) Variance from outliers : 1.6389 % Variance is slightly inflated by outliers
Nice - Down from 12.2 milliseconds to 17 microseconds, incredible speedup. But I cant help but wonder how much faster it would be if let cswap! be a macro instead:
(defmacro cswap! [arr x y old p] `(aset! ~arr ~x ~y (if ~p (- ~old) ~old))) (defn set-bounds [arr b] (let [N (int (- (count arr) (int 2))) n1 (unchecked-inc N) z (int 0)] (loop [i (int 1)] (when (<= i N) (cswap! arr z i (aget! arr 1 i) (= b 1)) (cswap! arr n1 i (aget! arr N i) (= b 1)) (cswap! arr i z (aget! arr i 1) (= b 2)) (cswap! arr i n1 (aget! arr i N) (= b 2)) (recur (unchecked-inc i)))) (aset! arr z z (* 0.5 (+ (aget! arr 1 z) (aget! arr z 1)))) (aset! arr z n1 (* 0.5 (+ (aget! arr 1 n1) (aget! arr z N)))) (aset! arr n1 z (* 0.5 (+ (aget! arr N z) (aget! arr n1 1)))) (aset! arr n1 n1 (* 0.5 (+ (aget! arr N n1) (aget! arr n1 N)))) arr)) user> (let [dd (new-array 80 80) sources (atom [[40 40]]) vv [(new-array 80 80) (new-array 80 80)]] (bench (set-bounds dd 0))) WARNING: Final GC required 1.784657538184101 % of runtime Evaluation count : 4821600 Execution time mean : 12.454852 us 95.0% CI: (12.454578 us, 12.455117 us) Execution time std-deviation : 14.294381 us 95.0% CI: (14.249554 us, 14.361445 us) Found 3 outliers in 60 samples (5.0000 %) low-severe 1 (1.6667 %) low-mild 2 (3.3333 %) Variance from outliers : 1.6389 % Variance is slightly inflated by outliers
The macro brings it down to 12.45 microseconds about 9794x faster than the unhinted version, and 1.4x faster than the hinted version. In a sim like this all the little numbers quickly add up so its important to keep it as fast as possible at every turn.
The last little helper is do-board. This is quite similar to how you would think about dotimes, but I added it to avoid corner cases, so it starts from 1 and stops at N-1, while all the timing exposing i and j as representatives for the current x,y coordinates.
(defmacro do-board [[w h] & body] `(let [w# (int (dec ~w)) h# (int (dec ~h))] (loop [~'i (int 1)] (when (< ~'i w#) (loop [~'j (int 1)] (when (< ~'j h#) (do ~@body) (recur (unchecked-inc ~'j)))) (recur (unchecked-inc ~'i))))))
Given what we now know about primitives there shouldn't be any surprises and this can walk an 80x80 board and look-up every cell at about 90 microseconds.
Now that we have implemented diffusion, we should be able to add a fluid source to our board and watch if slowly diffuse unto the entire board. Initially I tested this just using an Ascii art renderer, but as I quickly learned (And Per repeatedly mentioned) your tools for testing and debugging are of the ultimate importance. For the same reason I've added a Swing frontend which renders the board and allows single clicks to add a perpetual source. If the addition of the fluid was just a one-off thing, it would quickly fade to black. Here's what it looks like:
I clicked once in each corner and the fluids keeping pumping into the sim, until they finally meet at the middle and then proceed to whiten the entire board. Thats diffusion.
Advection is where we start to get a feel of the physical dynamics, in that it takes the fluid (density) and moves along a grid of force vectors. For the sake of performance I've also used a multi-dim array of doubles to represent the forces - That means 1 array for the vertical forces and another for the horizontal. The math is simple is somewhat simple and the only really concern is that now densities might interact with neighbors farther away than 1 cell, so I narrow the width of the field I'm working in with 1 additional pixel.
(defn advection [densities velocities b] (let [sz (count densities) sz1 (- sz (int 2)) retr (new-array sz sz) half (double 0.5) [u v] velocities] (do-board [sz sz] (let [x (- (int i) (* sz1 (double (aget! u i j)))) y (- (int j) (* sz1 (double (aget! v i j)))) x (cond (< x half) half (> x (+ half sz1)) (unchecked-dec sz1) :else (double x)) y (cond (< y half) half (> y (+ half sz1)) (unchecked-dec sz1) :else (double y)) i0 (int x) i1 (unchecked-inc i0) j0 (int y) j1 (unchecked-inc j0) s1 (double (- x i0)) s0 (double (- (int 1) s1)) t1 (double (- y j0)) t0 (double (- (int 1) t1))] (aset! retr i j (+ (* s0 (+ (* t0 (double (aget! densities i0 j0))) (* t1 (double (aget! densities i0 j1))))) (* s1 (+ (* t0 (double (aget! densities i1 j0))) (* t1 (double (aget! densities i1 j1))))))))) (set-bounds retr b)))
I think this is about as fast as it can go, but if you've noticed something which can be optimized please let me know. One key to speed when working with primitive ints is the unchecked-* functions which go quite a bit faster than your regular increment, decrement, multiply, divide, subtract, negate, remainder and add functions:
user> (let [x (int 1)] (time (dotimes [i 1e9] (inc x))) (time (dotimes [i 1e9] (unchecked-inc x)))) "Elapsed time: 5047.601382 msecs" "Elapsed time: 3520.41237 msecs"
With advection in place, its a simple matter of combining that with diffusion to provide a solution to the density equation:
(defn density-step [d v sources] (when-let [s (seq @sources)] (swap! d add-sources s)) (swap! d diffuse-board 0 1 1) (swap! d advection v 0))
To test advection I've made a few different velocity initializers that apply some kind of force which I can then see the effect of. In the picture below I've used (up-array) which sets all forces to point upwards, so clicking at the bottom make a cone of smoke rise:
The final piece of the puzzle is solving the velocity equation, which fortunately can be done almost entirely using the functions you've seen above. The exception is the fact that the velocity grid actually moves along itself, so that a right-ward force is pushed across the field until fading out and disappearing - That process is called projection. If you email me claming that it could be implemented more elegantly than what I've shown here I won't put up a fight - This works, but it neither elegant nor beautiful
(defn project [velocities] (let [[u v] velocities [w h] [(count u) (-> u first count)] r (double (/ 1.0 h)) p (new-array w h) div (new-array w h) half (double 0.5)] (do-board [w h] (aset! div i j (* (double -0.5) r (+ (- (double (aget! u (unchecked-inc i) j)) (double (aget! u (unchecked-dec i) j))) (- (double (aget! v i (unchecked-inc j))) (double (aget! v i (unchecked-dec j)))))))) (let [div (set-bounds div 0) p (set-bounds p 0)] (do-board [w h] (aset! p i j (/ (+ (+ (double (aget! div i j)) (double (aget! p (unchecked-dec i) j))) (+ (double (aget! p (unchecked-inc i) j)) (double (aget! p i (unchecked-dec j)))) (double (aget! p i (unchecked-inc j)))) (double 4)))) (let [p (set-bounds p 0)] (do-board [w h] (aset! u i j (- (double (aget! u i j)) (/ (* half (- (double (aget! p (unchecked-inc i) j)) (double (aget! p (unchecked-dec i) j)))) r))) (aset! v i j (- (double (aget! v i j)) (/ (* half (- (double (aget! p i (unchecked-inc j))) (double (aget! p i (unchecked-dec j))))) r)))) [(set-bounds u 1) (set-bounds v 2)]))))
Fortunately, it doesn't need to be either of those things in order to work, it just has to be fast:
user> (let [v [(new-array 80 80) (new-array 80 80)]] (bench (project v))) Evaluation count : 10560 Execution time mean : 5.728711 ms 95.0% CI: (5.727787 ms, 5.729790 ms) Execution time std-deviation : 1.725619 ms 95.0% CI: (1.697002 ms, 1.759226 ms) Found 3 outliers in 60 samples (5.0000 %) low-severe 3 (5.0000 %) Variance from outliers : 10.9791 % Variance is moderately inflated by outliers
And clocking in at 5.7 milliseconds per iteration of an 80x80 board I'd say its pretty fast.
Now the density-step has already been shown and the velocity step is a trivial extension of that. Because I need both 1 thread to keep advancing the discrete timeline and another to do the rendering, I'll define yet another macro to simpify this work. This will run until the global atom running is set to false, which it automatically is when the Swing UI is closed:
(defmacro defworker [name args & body] " Defines a worker which discontinues looping his main body if the global atom 'running' is non-true. Exceptions are caught and printed " `(defn ~name ~args (while @running (try ~@body (catch Exception e# (-> e# .getMessage println))))))
When running things in Threads, Clojure tends to fail silently (at least run from SLIME), meaning that you can have processes that break down and die but never tell you about it. By adding the try/catch combo to this macro, you will see a println if something breaks (Thanks Hiredman). The rendering and physics are then plugged in like so:
(defn density-step [d v sources] (when-let [s (seq @sources)] (swap! d add-sources s)) (swap! d diffuse-board 0 1 1) (swap! d advection v 0)) (defn velocity-step [velocities] (let [drefv @velocities [u v] drefv] (reset! velocities [(diffuse-board u 1 1 1) (diffuse-board v 2 1 1)]) (swap! velocities project) (reset! velocities [(advection u drefv 1) (advection v drefv 2)]) (swap! velocities project))) (defworker dynamics [densities velocities sources panel] (velocity-step velocities) (density-step densities @velocities sources)) (defworker render [panel fps] (.repaint panel) (Thread/sleep (* 1000 (/ 1 fps))))
There's nothing fancy about the UI implementation so I'll not explain its implementation. Suffice it to say that you can drag your mouse around the surface to add densitity and force to the simulation. A single click (no motion) adds a perpetual source which constantly emits fluids. A Right-Click renders the velocity grid on top of the densities. But before you go play, lets see how we did performance-wise and ask Criterium to give us the grand-total:
user> (let [dd (atom (new-array 80 80)) sources (atom [[40 40]]) vv (atom [(new-array 80 80) (new-array 80 80)])] (bench (do (density-step dd @vv sources) (velocity-step vv)) :verbose)) i386 Linux 2.6.31-20-generic 2 cpu(s) Java HotSpot(TM) Server VM 14.1-b02 Runtime arguments: -Xms256m -Xmx256m -Dcom.sun.management.jmxremote -Djava.library.path=/home/lau/coding/lisp/tools/penumbra/native/linux/x86/ Evaluation count : 2280 Execution time mean : 26.436417 ms 95.0% CI: (26.435481 ms, 26.437417 ms) Execution time std-deviation : 770.305046 us 95.0% CI: (768.461031 us, 792.481366 us) Found 3 outliers in 60 samples (5.0000 %) low-severe 1 (1.6667 %) low-mild 2 (3.3333 %) Variance from outliers : 1.6389 % Variance is slightly inflated by outliers nil user> (float (/ 1000 26.43)) 37.835793
There are really cool ways in which you can extend this to run across several processors, but for a single-core Lisp implementation I think 37 FPS is pretty good. Granted there are finer levels of detail you can apply to this algorithm. If you read Mr. Stams paper you'll notice that he applied something called an Gauss-Seidel relaxation twice, which basically means re-run the inner loop in Diffuse-board and the middle loop in Project 20 or so times, which I gracefully skipped. This is what it looks like:
Clojure can be very fast, but the lack of reflection warning and silent failures in threads are annoying. Thankfully Criterium and JVisualVM provide great insight into how the code compiles and with a little tweaking it can be made to go extremely fast. If you're interested in Fluid Dynamics I highly recommend reading Jos Stams paper, after which you can extend these principles to 3D space as well - the possibilities are really endless, but all of them are cool to watch.
I would like to thank Chouser, CGrand and Per Vognsen for sparring with me on this! Thanks for reading!
Code: here


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As a university of design, the Bauhaus School revolutionised 20th century art and architecture around the world. Today the original buildings in Weimar and Dessau, along with a range of museums and exhibitions, provide an insight into a movement that still seems innovative today.
Appearing between 1913 and 1934, Berlin's six Modernist housing estates, with their promise of 'light, air and sunshine' for residents, provided a welcome antidote to the gloomy tenement buildings of Wilhelmine Germany. Their clean lines made them hugely influential in 20th century architecture and town planning.
As the first English-style landscape garden in mainland Europe, the 18th century Garden Kingdom of Dessau Wörlitz unites garden design and architecture in perfect harmony. Here you'll find manor houses, more than 100 buildings of varying sizes and a range of sweeping parks and gardens, all spread over an area of 140 square kilometres on and around the banks of the rivers Elbe and Mulde.
Built from 1911 to designs by Adolf Meyer and Walter Gropius, the subsequent star architect of the Bauhaus school, the Fagus Factory is widely regarded as the first truly modernist structure. Typical of the Neues Bauen style, the glass and steel facade and the huge, wrap-around corner windows free of supports lend the building an elegant feeling of lightness.
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Date of Award
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Doctor of Philosophy (PhD)
Engineering Physics
Professor Daniel T. Cassidy
Asymmetric Multiple Quantum Well (AMQW) lasers have wells of varying thickness and/or composition within a single active region. The different wells emit at different wavelengths. The thesis begins with a description of the basic properties of AMQW lasers which have been discovered through experimentation. Next, an experimental technique is introduced which employs AMQW lasers to study experimentally the non-uniform carrier distribution in MQW lasers. Results of three studies carried out using this new technique are presented. A theoretical model is developed to explain some of our experimental results. The theoretical treatment of carrier capture and carrier escape is discussed in detail and different treatments are compared to experimental data taken from AMQW lasers. Finally, the application of AMQW lasers as broadly tunable lasers is discussed and the key design issues for designing broadly tunable AMQW lasers are presented.
Recommended Citation
Hamp, Michael James, "Asymmetric multiple quantum well lasers" (2000). Open Access Dissertations and Theses. Paper 2641.


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Wow! Never again! Two Suggestions for the brave: only melt a little chocolate at a time as it cools and clumps too quickly for more than a few balls and in Step 3 "working quickly" means "become bionic" or hire The Flash. Not sure how the bonbons in the picture came out so nice. Good luck!
Ice Cream Bonbons
Kaia123 Posted: 08/18/12
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text: Tweet Natural wood floors add warmth and beauty to just about any room but when a wood floor can't stand up to another sanding I often recommend painting it. Paint can transform a less than perfect floor into a fabulous feature of any room design. Adding color to the floor can change the entire look […] Read more »


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Name: Mona
Origin and Meaning of the Name Mona
Miscellaneous Info for Mona
Used in:Arabic, English, Hindi and Spanish speaking countries
Additional Info:Anglicized form of the Gaelic name Muadhnait, a diminutive form of muadh (noble); hence, the meaning "little noble one".
It has sometimes been taken as connected with Greek monos (single, only) or chosen with reference to Leonardo Da Vinci's Mona Lisa. In the case of the painting, "Mona" was a common Italian contraction of "madonna," meaning "my lady."
Mona is also a variant of the Arabic name Muna, meaning "wish" or "desire".
Mona is a short form of the Spanish name Ramona, and of the Scandinavian Monika.
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The name meaning of Mona and the name origin of Mona have been reviewed by our name experts.


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Thought I'd share this video I made showing the results of some TLC on some of my Garand and M1 Carbine, nothing more complicated than boiled lindseed oil, elbow grease, patience and some finishing wax.
I'm pretty pleased with the results! What do you think?
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Looks good buddy. Where did you find the time a patience to do that many guns in a row? I restored a custom hawken and after 2 weeks of working on that Damn thing I was so fed up I didn't shoot bp for a month. Lol
I don't need No stinking signature.
Cool Video man. You're in Ballwin?! I go to school at Lindenwood up in St. Charles. I know you're close to August A. Busch and Reifschneider..ever been? I shoot clays on the team at Lindenwood at Gateway Gun Club.
At a shoot in Branson!
Go Cards!
Hey, nice to hear from a fellow St. Louis guy.
I do all my shooting at the Arnold Rifle and Pistol Club, it's about thirty minutes away.
I've not been bit by the sporting clay bug....yet. Our club has a skeet area and a five stand area.
I wish. I live in Western NY. I'm only there for school. But maybe I'll bring my buddy sometime to shoot it. Is it members only?


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The AAP released new guidelines on diagnosing and treating ADHD in younger children and adolescents. Take a moment to revisit the 2002 ADHD Special Supplement which presented controversies in the assessment, interpretation, and treatment of ADHD in early childhood.
Attention-Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD) Receives Widespread, Serious Consideration
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Monsoon floods in Pakistan have killed 1,500 people and destroyed tens of thousands of communities, sweeping away entire villages and leaving families homeless. An estimated 20 million people are affected, and 3.5 million children are in danger of contracting pneumonia, diarrhea and malaria. Opportunities to help and resources can be found at:
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Firefighters in Long Island take a fireboat(?) to a fire during a Hurricane Sandy flood. So that's what happens when there's a fire during a flood.
Definitely praying for everyone out in this… Especially those working to keep people safe.
And my boyfriend is out in this shit?I don't care what your religious preference is…keep all the emergency responders in...
Pfft. Communists.


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Top 10 Ways to Ensure Your Readers Will Read Your Content
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Say it isn't so! The rumor mills are working over time saying that Teen Mom 2 couple Leah Simms and Corey Messer -- by far the happiest and most stable of the teen mom couples -- are headed to divorce court.
Both In Touch and OK! magazines reported the split after only six months of marriage. For any of us who watch Teen Mom 2, the news was sobering. Not Leah and Corey! They were the only good thing to come out of the whole show in many ways. The rest of the couples were just a mess and even though some of the girls may land on their feet, Leah and Corey seemed to have the best shot at really making the family thing work.
Sadly, it may not be in the cards for them. In Touch reports that Corey has a spending problem and the final straw came last week when he took $19,000 out of their joint account to buy a new truck. They also claim he cheats.
File this one under: didn't see it coming. Honestly, I didn't.
Yes, I know that the statistics for divorce in couples who are married under 25 are not pretty, but they seemed supportive of one another and like they may be able to make it. They really supported one another through the problems with baby Ali. They seemed to have real longevity. Maybe not.
There is hope, though! E! Online reports that it is all lies and that the two are fine.
Let's hope it is. These are two I would like to see make it for the long haul if only just because they really are working so hard.
Do you think these two can make it?
Image via MTV
Leah said on Twitter that they are not divorcing.
OK! and In Touch are known for spreading untrue rumors. They've been saying Angelina and Brad are broken up for 5 years now.
we will all find out when we actually watch the show...LOL; I hope its not true though. I think they are too cute together. I wouldnt really believe anything I read in the tabloids like those mags anyways
Leah debunked this rumor on her Twitter!
And on her FB.
i don't think they will last. she was having second thoughts before she married him. plus it's hard to make a relationship work when cameras all over you business.
I hope it's not true. She said on the after show that she is not the type to want to divorce over everything and she takes marriage seriously. I hope she meant it.
I don't believe it. I mean... Everyone knows those magazines are notorious for the untrue rumors and lies they spew, lol.
In touch and Ok mag love printing rumors and have know to do so. I don't think it's true at all and I belive e news.


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Head over to DynastySeries to see the gorgeous Barbie Brittania in her latest spread with SHOW Magazine in its entirety. Barbie Brittania ethnicity is Filpino, Black, and Native American. Her measurements are 34b-26-40. You may have seen her work in a number of videos from recording artists including Wale, Rick Ross, Wiz Khalifa, Birdman, Fabolous and others.
CLICK: Barbie Brittania @Barbiebrittania in SHOW Magazine


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iShares MSCI Malaysia Index Fund (ETF)
Petronas Pursues Aggressive Expansion Despite Political Uncertainties
By Peter Pham - March 9, 2013 | Tickers: SNP, CEO, COP, XOM, EEM, EWM, PRQNF, RDS-A, VWO
After finalizing the acquisition of Canada's Progress Energy (PRQNF.PK), Malaysia's state owned oil and gas firm Petroliam Nasional Bhd, more commonly known as Petronas, is planning to spend as much as $60 billion (RM 186 billion) over the next five years to ramp up the country's oil and gas sector in a major exploration and production drive. Moreover, it is also expected to spend an additional more »
Asian Budget Carrier Wars Intensify
By Peter Pham - January 22, 2013 | Tickers: FAA.DL, EWM, BA
Rumors abound that one of Asia's biggest low cost carriers, the Indonesia based privately held PT Lion Mentari Airlines (Lion Air), a traditional Boeing (NYSE: BA) customer, is planning to place another massive order of more than 200 jets, this time however, with Airbus. In late November, Lion Air's Commercial Director Edward Sirait said, "We are studying every possibility to fulfill our target for the planes from every more »
Energy: Malaysia's Political Football
By Peter Pham - October 1, 2012 | Tickers: JJA, HES, EWM, BNO
Time is running out for Malaysia's Prime Minister Najib Razak to call a general election, which is constitutionally mandated to take place by April 2013. Many observers expect Najib may announce a November polling date, timing it to fall just after the Hajj, an important date on the religious calendar for this majority Moslem nation.
Malaysian consumers benefit from generous energy subsidies by the government, consuming some of the more »
Looming Elections in Malaysia Spur IPO Spree
By Peter Pham - September 14, 2012 | Tickers: FB, GS, HCA, EWM
Malaysia has become the global destination of IPO hunters this year with several deals exceeding the billion dollar mark. Last month, the continent's largest hospital operator, IHH, the Malaysian government's healthcare unit with operations in Malaysia, Singapore and Turkey, raised $2.1 billion in its IPO on the Bursa Malaysia.
This made IHH the third biggest IPO for 2012 behind Felda Global Ventures Holdings ($3.3 billion) and more »
The Water Shortage Investors Must Know About
By Peter Pham - August 28, 2012 | Tickers: XOM, EWM, EWS, RDS-B, RDS-A
As the time draws nearer for the next round of elections to occur in Malaysia, which have to take place by June 30th, 2013 and the current Barisan Nasional ruling coalition in its weakest position in over 40 years, the level of potential mayhem in the economy is very likely to rise. Sitting Prime Minister Najib Tun Razak has been steadily making sweeping changes to the structure of Malaysia more »
Handicapping Malaysia's Growth
By Peter Pham - July 20, 2012 | Tickers: C, HBC, EWM
We are a few months in front of potentially important elections in Malaysia, where the ruling UNMO party is facing a serious threat to its 50+ year dominance. The pressure from this is not lost on sitting Prime Minister NajibRazak who has made a number of moves to undercut many of the rallying issues of opposition leader Anwar Ibrahim. The most recent announcement was the repeal of a colonial-era law more »
Banking on Asia's Growth
By Peter Pham - July 10, 2012 | Tickers: BCS, ASEA, GS, EWM, EWS
Last week I began a rundown of the iShares MSCI Singapore ETF (NYSEMKT: EWS), highlighting three of the principle holdings of the fund to acquaint investors with one of the most important centers for growth in the coming years, as well as one of the most important financial centers in the world.
Since this week the West was rocked by the fraud perpetrated by Barclays (NYSE: BCS) over the fixing more »
Malaysia's IPO Market Refuses to Slow Down
By Peter Pham - July 10, 2012 | Tickers: FB, EWM, NES.DL
Last week the Malaysian government's palm oil giant Felda Global Holdings (FGV: MK) went public in the biggest successful IPO of the year, raking in more than $3.1 billion and rising with the KLCI Bursa Malaysia Index since then.
Note I said biggest successful IPO. Facebook's (NASDAQ: FB) IPO can be considered many things, but successful is not one of them, unless you are a litigator. And more »
ASEAN Monetary Momentum
By Peter Pham - July 6, 2012 | Tickers: EWM, THD, VNM
As we approach 2015 and the conversion of ASEAN into the AEC (Asian Economic Community) it is important to note whether we are seeing the necessary changes taking place at the fundamental level which show that the member nations are giving the whole concept more than just lip service. Banking and Finance integration is absolutely one of those bits of infrastructure that is necessary to see moving forward. And it more »
Malaysia's Energy Conundrum
By Peter Pham - July 6, 2012 | Tickers: XOM, EWM, VNM
The upcoming elections in Malaysia form a potentially uncertain backdrop to the country's future energy policy, to say the least. The state oil company, PETRONAS, which is the chief source of government revenue, is beginning to grumble about its role, as the company's profits have been increasingly used to fund political pet projects and what look like vote-buying schemes. That they have to do this in the face more »
Malaysia's Petronas Makes Big Natural Gas Moves
By Peter Pham - July 4, 2012 | Tickers: HES, EWM, PTR, RDS-B, RDS-A
The natural gas story gets more and more interesting by the day. There are some who have serious doubts as to the viability of the natural gas industry at current prices, which have dropped to historic lows relative to the price of crude oil in the past year. But the reality is that both dry and liquid natural gas demand is extremely high and only going higher as the century more »
Connections in the Sky
By Peter Pham - June 27, 2012 | Tickers: FAA.DL, EWM, BA
As ASEAN inches towards the Asian Economic Community becoming reality in 2015, participating countries are frantically making their preparations in order to meet their obligations under the agreement, while companies here are positioning themselves to take advantage of the new opportunities this regional cooperation is expected to bring.
The core principles of the union are based on the three pillars of peace (security community), prosperity (economic community) and socio-cultural community more »
Booze Cruisin' With Diageo
By Peter Pham - June 18, 2012 | Tickers: XLY, DEO, EWM, SPY
Diageo (NYSE: DEO), maker of favorite liquor brands like Johnnie Walker, Smirnoff, Guinness and Baileys has recently announced it is considering listing in Hong Kong to take advantage of growth markets in Asia.
Barreling Ahead
Diageo Chief Executive Paul Walsh cites big growth in emerging markets as the driver for the discussion, saying that over the next 15 to 20 years "there will be two billion new consumers coming into more »
ASEAN Building Social Infrastructure, Not Just Roads
By Peter Pham - June 18, 2012 | Tickers: FB, GOOG, EWM, EWS, LNKD
I've covered in the past the growing physical integration that ASEAN has prioritized to pave the way for the Asian Economic Community (AEC) due to become official in 2015. But, what has not been covered is the growing role that social media will play in enhancing the physical movement of goods and people. Since ideas are as important as things, ASEAN recently revealed plans to make use of social more »
Malaysia's Palm Oil IPO Reveals Global Trends
By Peter Pham - June 15, 2012 | Tickers: EWM, EWS
With the debacle that was the Facebook IPO the IPO market which was already somnambulant in 2012 has turned positively comatose. The uncertainty in the global markets has even reached the Asia-Pacific region with the proposed $3 billion F1 IPO on Singapore's exchange put on hold. In Hong Kong year over year IPO volume through May is off 85%. Excluding Facebook, U.S. IPOs are off 53% and globally more »
Palm Oil Holds the Key to Feeding the Next Billion
By Peter Pham - June 15, 2012 | Tickers: EWM, PSTL.DL
With the world's need for both edible fats and oils rising at a nearly unsustainable rate, palm oil represents a massive opportunity to fill that growing demand. Emerging markets are in an explosive growth phase in caloric needs. As they rise in wealth, so will their demand for calories and as such so will the demand for meat and dairy, the primary sources of saturated fats, which, despite propaganda more »
Can Asia Rejuvenate the World Economy?
By Peter Pham - June 12, 2012 | Tickers: FXY, EWM, VNM, TBT
This is the $41 trillion dollar question now isn't it? China cut their benchmark lending rate for the first time in 4 years on Thursday and now everyone is asking whether that will be the trend which will begin to stabilize the world economy. In Barron's latest heavy-hitter roundtable Bill Gross of PIMCO pointed out that policy makers in the U.S. are at the end of their more »
Malaysia's Growth Fueled by Islamic Bonds
By Peter Pham - June 8, 2012 | Tickers: EWM, SPY, DIA
In just about every macroeconomic measure that matters Malaysia has been at the forefront of consistency of growth. Since 2000 real GDP growth has averaged 5.1% with an average CPI inflation rate of 2.8%. By contrast Vietnam has seen very high GDP growth but it has done so at the expense of consumer prices and a massive devaluation of the Dong. Since 2004 Malaysia's GDP has doubled more »
ASEAN and Looming Currency Wars
By Peter Pham - April 30, 2012 | Tickers: RMB, EWM, EWS, JGBS
Among the many things that were on the table at the recently finished ASEAN Summit in Phnom Penh was an expansion of the Chiang Mai Initiative fund of foreign exchange reserves to defend against currency speculation of any one member. China, Japan and Korea are also contributors to this fund. Together they make up the ASEAN+3 bloc. The thirteen member group has proposed expanding the size of the fund more »
A Lucrative New Market for These Companies
By Peter Pham - April 25, 2012 | Tickers: DEO, EWJ, EWM, EWN
Early in 2011 international liquor and sprits giant Diageo (NYSE: DEO) entered into a joint venture with Vietnam's Halico, buying a 23.6% stake in the country's biggest branded spirits producer. Halico is the producer of Vodka Hanoi, the market leader in Vietnam. Later in the year Diageo raised its equity stake in the privately-held company to 30% paying nearly $11 per share in the OTC market, more more »
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The Shorty Industry Awards recognize the best campaigns and social media leaders of 2013. Entries for the Shorty Industry Awards are now closed. Visit the Shorty Industry Awards Site.
The Shorty Awards honor the best of social media. Millions of people participate in The Shortys to recognize individuals and organizations producing great content on Twitter, Facebook, Tumblr, YouTube, Foursquare and the rest of the social web. The 6th annual ceremony will be held in New York City and livestreamed on the web on April 7, 2014.


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"Adaptive Computing for Automated Design:
Some stories from the trenches"
will be presented by:
Professor David Cliff
Professor of Computer Science at the University of Bristol, UK.
here for Synopsis
The Keynote talks will be presented by:
Professor Hideyuki Takagi
Faculty of Design, Kyushu University, Japan
"New Types of Interactive Evolutionary Computing Applications and Latest Research on Reducing User Fatigue"
here for Synopsis
Dr. Yaochu Jin
Principal Scientist, Honda Research Institute Europe, Germany.
"Efficient Evolutionary Algorithms for Complex Engineering Design"
here for Synopsis
Other Invited Speakers:
Dr Zoran Kapelan
University of Exeter
"Some Recent Developments in Water Distribution Systems Rehabilitation"
Click here for Synopsis
Dr. Evelyne Lutton
Lab Director:
INRIA Saclay - Ile-de-France
"Overview of a large scale
and real-world multi-user IEC application in
Click here for Synopsis
Adaptive Computing for Automated Design: Some stories from the trenches.
Prof Dave Cliff
New Types of IEC Applications and
Latest Research on Reducing User Fatigue
Efficient Evolutionary Algorithms for Complex Engineering Design
Yaochu Jin
Honda Research Institute Europe
Carl-Legien-Str. 30, 63073 Offenbach, Germany
This talk starts with presenting a few challenging issues in employing evolutionary algorithms to solve complex design problems, such as how to improve the scalability of evolutionary algorithms to high-dimensional search space, how to reduce the computational cost when quality evaluations are highly time-consuming, and how to enhance robustness of the designs to internal and external perturbations. Existing approaches to addressing these issues will be introduced, focusing on the idea of incorporating domain knowledge into evolutionary algorithms. Two examples will be given to illustrate these ideas. In the first example, we will present a meta-modeling technique for single and multi-objective optimization using multiple surrogates. The second example shows how general domain knowledge, such as regularity in the distribution of Pareto-optimal solutions, can also be taken advantage of to significantly improve the scalability of multi-objective evolutionary algorithms. This talk concludes with some recent idea for engineering design inspired from evolutionary development in biology, where a cell growth model is used for designing of inner structures.
Some Recent Developments in Water Distribution Systems Rehabilitation
Dr Zoran Kapelan
University of Exeter
The performance of UK and other water distribution systems (WDSs) is deteriorating with time due to ageing infrastructure and increased urbanisation. At the same time, increased customer and regulatory expectations are to be met. As a consequence, WDSs need to be rehabilitated periodically. Since large costs are typically involved in the process whilst limited budgets are available, the WDS rehabilitation problem is formulated and solved as an optimisation problem. The multiple objectives are used to address the main trade-off between the rehabilitation cost on one side and the system performance on the other side. WDS optimisation problem is a large, complex, non-linear, discrete, computationally demanding problems and hence very difficult to solve. A number of past and recent approaches are presented involving application of a number of advanced optimisation methods including probabilistic model building genetic algorithms. The performance of these algorithms is tested and compared on a number of case studies ranging from benchmark to real-life problems.
Overview of a large scale and real-world multi-user IEC
application in e-learning.
experimentations have shown that the system is stable over-time and behaves as
expected :
The system is
currently in exploitation by Paraschool (http://www.paraschool.com)
and has been developed in collaboration with Pierre Collet (Strasbourg


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Kimberly Jill Dickey, D.O.Kimberly Jill Dickey, D.O.
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By Lisa Gulya
Have you ever been to a Bring Your Own Towel Party (BYOT)? If youre going to get naked and dont plan on standing all night, the host requests you bring your own towel to sit on.
If we acknowledge the full spectrum of sexual attraction, then we have to admit that there is little possibility for an asexual naked party, even if its single gender. But naked parties dont have to be about sex.
"The point of a naked party, in my mind, is that the participants throw away the superficial boundaries of clothing and attempt to see people as they really are," a recent male graduate wrote.
One junior man was nonchalant about the possibility of sexual tension. "I see nudity as a pretty wholesome thing, since I'm in the figure drawing class and I don't see much wrong with it," he wrote. "I guess I see the idea much like skinny-dipping, where it would be fun with close friends."
Nudity doesnt always lead to the explicit labeling of a gathering as a "naked party." It can simply be doing what you do with friends anyway, just without clothes. Maybe you want to sit around and talk or watch a movie, or maybe you prefer being crammed in a sweaty dorm room with a few friends (although we can all probably imagine how that would smell).
The most important factor in any successful naked party is making sure everyone feels safe and knows what to expect.
"I think that naked parties are what you make of them. Within naked parties there should be very clear outlines as to what you should do and that should be clearly defined and understood by everyone involved," the recent male graduate wrote.
If you thought youd be watching a movie with a few close friends and you discover that the intent was really to play naked Twister, feel free to leave if youre uncomfortable.
"There is always that potential for someone to go too far and grab and grope where they are not welcome ... which is something to be wary of," a senior man wrote.
Single-sex nudity can feel safer than diving right into co-ed nudity. Although I wouldnt call it a party per se, my experience with group nudity is limited to an impromptu frolic in a rainstorm in a fairly rural location with a few close female friends.
That experience was decidedly more comical than erotic, as we attempted lopsided cartwheels and played in the puddles on the asphalt. Yet, we were all invigorated and giddy by returning to the freedom that we enjoyed as toddlers, where we could get away with dropping trow and running sans clothing.
A naked party I was invited to last month, but was unable to attend, was nothing more than a small gathering of feminist women discussing body image. What better way to set the mood than to strip down and literally face the issue?
"The strangest thing was how not strange it was," the host, a junior woman, wrote. "It was the exact same kind of conversation we would have if we were clothed, but there was something freeing about being naked ... about knowing that it was comfortable and OK."
As far as the awkwardness of disrobing in front of others, the host wrote, "When we stripped down at the beginning it was quick and did not really disrupt conversation. When two people came after the initial strip, it was not odd for them to strip down and join us."
While these women attended a naked party just to talk, some Oles unabashedly favor of the naked party that might lead to group sex. "It would be an experience, a rush, a thrill and educational! I think everyone there really knows that it is all about group sex," a sophomore man wrote.
Others disagree that an orgy would be readily undertaken at St. Olaf. "I think a lot of people would be down with going to a naked party, but not an orgy, if not just for the difference in the word," a senior male wrote. "Theres a good chance that at a naked party at a school like St. Olaf, things are not going to turn into an orgy."
So, if you want to try a naked party, know your expectations and your limits.
Some people, even those who are sexually adventurous with their partners, have no interest in group nudity. But if you do join in, dont forget your towel.
Send feedback to email@example.com


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Matrix Partners leads Series A round for Kinnek
Kinnek said Monday that it has received $10 million in Series A funding. Matrix Partners led the round with participation from return backers that included Sierra Ventures, Version One Ventures, Naval Ravikant, CrunchFund and TriplePoint Ventures. Based in New York City, Kinnek helps small businesses find suppliers and manage purchasing.


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Donate to FM 106.1's Care-A-Van for Kids, benefitting the CAP Fund
Child abuse is the absolutely worst kind of abuse that can occur in this world, that is my opinion. Children can't fight back, children can't run for help, children can't save themselves in the most desperate times.
I am the second oldest of 16 children. All of us in my family were, I mean ARE, victims of child abuse. Every one of us was in a foster home, every one of us has endured the pain and horror of facing a parent who chooses violence.
My family has endured one of the worst cases of abuse in the history of Wisconsin. I have witnessed my baby siblings beaten in front of me as young as 8 months old – I could do nothing. My hair was chopped off with a knife. I was locked outside nearly naked in the middle of winter and could do nothing but learn to survive the extreme temperatures with no clothes. I was forced to watch my siblings tied up to poles and beat naked.
It was a tortured life. It was physical and psychological terror. I have been scarred for life, and I lived through decades of war in my own home. Now I am 39 years old and I'm trying to keep this from happening to a child ever again.
Had my parents used the services that are funded by the Child Abuse Prevention Fund, maybe there wouldn't be 16 children who are affected on a daily basis. It is a struggle every day. We watch each other, we want to break the chain of abuse and we won't allow our children to live like we did. I live less than a mile away from my mother. I want to keep an eye on her so she doesn't hurt anyone else.
You can help prevent child abuse by listening and donating to Care-A-Van for Kids, Thursday, Aug. 27, and Friday, Aug. 28, on FM 106.1. The CAP Fund raises money to fund valuable programs and the services to help parents like mine. Maybe my parents needed counseling, respite care or parenting classes. The CAP Fund helps fund these programs and saves the lives of children right here in our community.
Prevention is better than treatment. Had my 15 siblings and I had a life where abuse was prevented, then we would not live with the scars of abuse every day of our lives. You can be part of the solution. We can stop the senseless abuse of kids. What will you do today to help a child?
~ Jennifer Stephens, child abuse survivor, guest blogger
Please listen to my story during FM 106.1's Care-A-Van for Kids. I'll be on at 5:15 p.m. Friday, Aug. 28. And please pledge to prevent child abuse and neglect.


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Thornton to star in boxing drama
Director Shelton back on fairway for film
Report: 'Bull Durham 2' in the works
Feature: The 'N' word gets its own show
'Hollywood Homicide' relatively refreshing
Entertainment Today: Showbiz News
VideoView -- UPI Arts & Entertainment
Ron Shelton (September 15, 1945 in Whittier, California) is a U.S. film director, most notable for making movies about sports. Shelton is an alumnus of Santa Barbara High School and of the University of Arizona and Westmont College. Shelton is the oldest of four brothers, and grew up in Montecito, Calif.
Before beginning his movie career, Shelton was a minor league baseball player in the Baltimore Orioles' organization.
He is married to Canadian-born actress Lolita Davidovich, who has appeared in three of Shelton's films and with whom he has two children. The couple reside in Los Angeles and Ojai, California.