text: GBAtemp.net review of the... Acekard R.P.G. aka: Acekard RPG, Ace Kard RPG, AKRPG, AK R.P.G. Manufactured by: Team Acekard Review written by shaunj66 - 28th November 2007 Review Contents & Index: Introduction - Official feature list Packaging and Contents - Box Contents Cart & Linker Design Setting Up & Using - Initial connection & firmware - Copying content across - GUI (OS) Additional Features Performance - ROM compatibility - Multiplayer, Download Play and Nintendo Wi-Fi Connection support - Battery life - Save Game support Homebrew Support Conclusion Introduction Welcome to the GBAtemp.net review of the Acekard R.P.G. – the first commercial open source flash kit. The Acekard R.P.G. is one of the latest in the range of slot-1 flash kits for the Nintendo DS and is also the latest product from the Acekard Team who brought us the original Acekard and later, the Acekard+. The original Acekard, while not received very well; was revolutionary at its time because it was the first flash kit to boast perfect compatibility with all DS games. Unfortunately the cart suffered from a few major user interface problems that prevented it from being the coveted cart it could have been. Buggy PC software and a proprietary file system made using the cart a chore. The team later released the Acekard+, which they offered as a FREE upgrade to owners of the previous Acekard no less. The Acekard+ resolved the issues of the original by offering simple drag and drop support and allowing FAT file systems to be used. The Acekard+ was a major improvement but it came too late, with other carts arriving on the scene, the Acekard+ was again left behind. After a ten month hiatus the team are back with their latest creation - the Acekard R.P.G. (R.P.G. standing for Real Play Gear). The Acekard R.P.G. has turned a few heads as it is the first DS flash kit to offer both internal flash memory and support for Micro SD and Micro SDHC cards; quite a feat for such a small device! The Acekard R.P.G. is also the first commercial flash cart to go open source. The team have released the source code and the build environment for the loader (not firmware) files. The Acekard R.P.G. is currently available with 1GB (gigabyte), or 8Gbit as they advertise it, of on-board "ultra fast" NAND flash memory. An industry standard mini-USB port is situated on the top of the cart used for managing the contents of the on-board flash memory. A spring loaded micro SD slot is also found on the cart which will accommodated either a standard micro SD card or the new higher capacity micro SDHC cards. SDHC cards will support up to 32GB of storage on a single card in the future but are currently only available in various sizes of up to 8GB. Perhaps the most interesting feature of the Acekard R.P.G. is that it is open source. This means that anyone talented enough to do so can customise, add to, improve on, or even completely overhaul the team's original loader files. Let's take a quick look at the feature list of the Acekard R.P.G Worlds first Dual storage slot-1 card. Utilizes built in NAND flash as well as MicroSD cards. Build in "Quick Exchange" Technology" Worlds First "Auto Save Type Detection" Build in USB connector, support U-Disk 100% Compatibility for all NDS games Support for most Homebrew programs/games Built in "Rom Trimming" Function Fully touch screen operation Original game cart size, simple plug and play, no passme or flashed NDS needed. Can be used as a Passme to boot from slot-2 flash cards Using "write balance" technology, able to re-write NAND flash more than usual Save files are directly written to memory Micro SD files exchange Support Multi-language Easy Skin Change Open Source Acekard R.P.G future function Packaging and Contents The Acekard R.P.G. sample we received came packaged as you can see in the photos. Our sample came with just a replacement shell and a small paper slip warning users to be careful when changing casing. Oddly enough no mini-USB cable was included (which is absolutely required to use the Acekard R.P.G. - you'll need it to write to the onboard flash memory where the GUI loader software belongs). The Acekard team have assured us that future retail units will come packaged with a mini-USB cable. So here's a list of what is apparently included in retail boxes:- Box Contents - Acekard R.P.G. - Mini-USB cable No CD or support files are included with the cart, but it's not too surprising; the Acekard R.P.G. does not require any PC side software. When connected via USB, Windows XP (and most modern operating systems) will recognise and install the device automatically, and from there it's just a case of dragging and dropping files. Any additional (3rd party) software can be downloaded from the net. The Acekard R.P.G. is packaged in a nice little plastic box surrounded in a cardboard sleeve. The overall package looks professional and has a nice run down of features on the front and back of the sleeve and is almost "Engrish" free... Well, it wouldn't be a flash kit if it didn't have some "Engrish" on it! Inside the plastic box are clips for holding the Acekard R.P.G. and also space for a GBA cart. No mention from the team as to whether they plan to release any GBA slot peripherals or add-ons in the future, but it looks like they've taken the initiative to accommodate the cart if that ever does happen. Cart & Linker Design Moving on, we'll now take a look at the Acekard R.P.G. cart itself. At first glance the Acekard R.P.G. is a very unique looking cart, what with both the mini-USB port and micro SD slot. The mini-USB port is used for writing to the 1GB of onboard flash memory, and the micro SD slot can accommodate a regular micro SD or new high capacity micro SDHC cards. It's really amazing how they've managed to fit all this onto one single DS cart and have managed to maintain the form factor. The Acekard R.P.G. is currently only available in black. A silver/white cart is shown on the Acekard website, but that's the only place you'll find it for now. Build quality wise, the Acekard R.P.G. seems sturdy enough. It's built from a tough feeling semi-transparent black plastic and the mini-USB port, which some people believe to be fragile, actually feels quite strong. And just like the DS-Xtreme the USB port is held on to the cart PCB by 5 separate points which should prevent it from being damaged as long as due care is taken. The micro SD slot is spring loaded, which you may or may not be happy to hear! While I doubt the spring will break if the cart is used properly and carefully, if it does manage to break, there is actually a lot of "grab" space around the top of the micro SD cart slot which should make pulling the card out manually easier. A shiny sticker can be found on the back of the Acekard R.P.G. and not the front, where instead you'll find and engraved Acekard logo which I must admit, looks pretty darn nice, which is more than can be said for the sticker. The team have opted for a shiny and almost metallic sticker and in this reviewer's opinion, it's just plain ugly. Not so much for the logo design on the sticker, but its shape. It's slightly too large for the beveled area in which it lays and ends up looking slightly bent and misshapen. I opted to pull mine off after this review and haven't regretted it; the engraved logo on the "front" does a nice enough job of branding the cart anyway. The cart is held together with clips surround the 4 edges ala. DS-Xtreme. To open up the cart to take a peak at its innards you must pry these clips apart carefully. And I say carefully because if you bend them too much you'll end up stressing the plastic and will risk snapping the clips or turning the bases of them an off-white colour. Here are the innards of the Acekard R.P.G. in all its naked glory. The Acekard R.P.G. slots into the Nintendo DS slot-1 quite nicely and without too much friction (I think any friction that may occur will be due to the carts label). And just like all new slot-1 carts; it fits flush with no external over-hang. Unlike the DS-Xtreme, the The Acekard R.P.G. USB port is slightly receded into the cart, making plugging in a USB cable whilst the device is inserted into your DS almost impossible. So you'll most likely have to remove the cart to connect via USB. The micro SD slot is also inaccessible when the The Acekard R.P.G. is in your DS. You simply won't be able to remove the micro SD card without removing the Acekard R.P.G. first. All in all, the Acekard R.P.G. is a nice looking cart (sans the label) and it's truly astonishing how they managed to fit everything inside the slot-1 form factor. Setting Up & Using Enough babbling about the aesthetics, let's move on... The Acekard R.P.G. is another true modern slot-1 flash kit. What does this mean? It means a trained monkey could operate this cart! Flash kits have evolved so much that the absolute minimum of effort is required from the end user. The dragging and dropping of files is almost all that's needed. That means no patching software, no hacking, no modifying of ROM files etc. Almost everything is handled by the carts firmware/operating system. What's more, now the majority of homebrew that requires file system access uses DLDI, which on some flash carts requires the apps/games to be patched with the appropriate DLDI driver on the PC, the Acekard R.P.G. auto detects DLDI capable files and automatically patches them whilst they're launching. This is another task that the end user does not have to worry about. As the Acekard R.P.G. offers two different means of storage - the 1GB of onboard flash memory or micro SD & SDHC support; you actually have a choice to make as to where you store your games, homebrew and other files. You may find that you want to copy a few of your most favourite games to the onboard flash memory, or perhaps; if you don't have a top performance micro SD card, you could place some of the few games that are prone to "slow-down" when running from low performance micro SD cards onto the faster onboard memory. Either way you'll be pleased to hear that the Acekard R.P.G. GUI allows you to organise your files between both memory mediums by copying, cutting, pasting and even deleting without even using your PC (more on that later). Part One: Initial Connection & Firmware To get started you'll need the following equipment: - An Acekard R.P.G. of course - A mini USB cable Optional: - A micro SD or micro SDHC card - A micro SD or micro SDHC compatible card reader You NEED to be able to write to the onboard flash memory as that's where the loader files (Acekard R.P.G. GUI/operating system) are required to be put. So a mini USB cable is required. Connecting the Acekard R.P.G. to your PC is easy. It doesn't require any drivers or software. As long as you're using Windows XP or later (or if you're using a Linux distro then you probably know what you're doing anyway!) the Acekard R.P.G. will automatically detect and install as a simple removable storage drive just like a standard USB memory stick. Now you're ready to start using the cart, head on over to the team's official website or the GBAtemp Download Centre (links can be found at the bottom of this review) and download the latest loader files. Open up the archive that contains the latest loader and you'll find an .NDS file (the loader itself) and a directory labelled "__rpg" which contains required operating system files. You need to extract both of these to the root of the onboard flash memory. Remember, these CAN'T be run from the micro SD card. Updating the loader is easy should the team release an update in the future. Just delete both the __RPG folder and the .NDS file you extracted in the previous step and extract the files from the latest loader archive. Part Two: Copying Content Across Now you can begin copying games, homebrew and other files to the onboard flash memory or micro SD card. The Acekard R.P.G. loader supports directories on both the onboard and micro SD memory so you can organise files into separate folders to keep things clean. Unfortunately, contrary to some initial speculation, the onboard USB port of the Acekard R.P.G. cannot be used to access the contents of the micro SD card inserted into the Acekard R.P.G. You'll still need to use a regular micro SD card reader on your PC. This perhaps would have been a nice feature possible perhaps through a small switch on the unit, but due to the size of the Acekard R.P.G. it may not be entirely feasible or even worthwhile to create such a feature. As stated earlier, no modification of files is necessary on the PC unless you want to trim the ROMs to remove useless padding to save space. So just drag and drop all your games and homebrew across. Just a quick reminder, the onboard memory and micro SD can be formatted in either FAT or FAT32 mode. Both are supported and neither should affect performance. Part Three: GUI When you turn on your DS with the Acekard R.P.G. inserted, unlike some other flash carts, the main DS menu will not be skipped. The Acekard R.P.G. shows in the main menu like any regular game pak along with its own icon. Tap the slot-1 option to boot the Acekard R.P.G. A loading message will flash on the screen for less than a second (during my testing) and a short flicker of the screens will appear before the main Acekard R.P.G. menu will be displayed. This initial loading is very fast and I was actually quite impressed, the entire process (during my testing) before you are able to take control of the Acekard R.P.G. menu is less than three seconds. On first glance you may realise how different the main Acekard R.P.G. menu screen looks when compared to some other kits on the market. On the top screen is the console name, the date and time and a calendar. It all looks very similar to the main DS menu screen with the exception of it being skinned to match the rest of the Acekard R.P.G. GUI. On the bottom screen is a "directory up" icon that will allow you to backtrack through folders, a sun icon that allows you to adjust the brightness of the screens (DS Lite only), a Start button that contains additional options/settings and a small slot-1 icon in the bottom right that acts as a type of "hard disk LED" that lights up and flickers when the Acekard R.P.G. is accessing the micro SD memory card. And lastly there are the three main menu icons as listed below: - Flash Memory - microSD Card - Slot2 Card The slot-2 option allows you to boot directly to a flash kit device in your Game Boy Advance slot, but does NOT support official game paks. The other two main icons allow you to start browsing the contents of either the onboard or micro SD card memory. When browsing the contents of your Acekard R.P.G. is done on the lower touch screen, you are presented with a file list that stands four items tall. The current path is shown on the top of the touch screen. The currently selected file or icon is highlighted by a bar and its associated icon pulsates. Only three types of files are recognised by the Acekard R.P.G. menu system; .NDS and .SAV files and folders. All other file types are unrecognised with a question mark icon beside them. Fortunately you may choose what types of files are shown or hidden inside the Settings menu. .NDS files are listed by filename which seems like a strange choice taken by the team. You can view their internal 3-line header name by selecting File Info, but personally I would much rather this be reversed or optional. If you prefer, you may use a "classic" file listing mode where the icons are replaced with numbers (file 001, 002, 003 etc.) which allows for 10 items to be shown at once (this is done by hitting Select). Browsing the contents of the onboard flash memory and micro SD card is for the most part very fast. Unfortunately when it comes to entering folders loaded with games there is a slight pause indicated by the flashing "loading" icon in the bottom right of the screen where the Acekard R.P.G. is reading the contents of that folder and possibly fetching the icons and header info(s). This can sometimes be quite frustrating when browsing folders as you may think you didn't properly tap the button/folder and you may end up pressing it 2 or 3 times which, once the folder is opened may launch you into the first selected game within that folder forcing you to reboot the DS. Personally I'd much prefer the directory scanning to be done on the boot of the Acekard R.P.G. sacrificing boot time; just so later file browsing is instantaneous. If you're a fan of Japanese games, but aren't Japanese yourself, chances are you'll have a few Japanese only games on your cart, but will keep the Acekard R.P.G. loader in English. If this is the case, it's worth noting that Japanese characters cannot be displayed while the Acekard R.P.G. is set to English as the appropriate font will not have been loaded. Even though games are displayed by filename in the file browser, you can still view the 3 line header by hitting File Info in the Start menu with a game selected, but any Japanese characters in the header will not be displayed and will be replaced by an underscore. Japanese characters display fine when setting your Acekard R.P.G. to Japanese. The Start menu provides access to the main bulk of options available in the Acekard R.P.G. loader. The available options don't differentiate between screens, they stay consistent. The following options are shown in the Start menu (as of loader version 4.04): - Copy - Cut - Delete - Paste - Special - System Settings - File Info - Help The Acekard R.P.G. is the first slot-1 DS flash kit to enable users to manage cart contents from their DS and this is a very welcome and intuitive feature. While the speed of copying and pasting files is not as fast as on a PC it's still a convenient feature. We tested copying a 128MB (megabyte, 1024Mbit) file from the micro SD card to the onboard flash and it took just under 3 minutes to complete the operation, which although by no means very fast, still fairly respectable seeing as it's done on the DS. We then copied the file back from the onboard memory to the micro SD card and measured a time of just 2 minutes and 20 seconds. We tried this test with slower and faster SD cards and neither speed seemed to improve (only by about 5~10 seconds) so we'd assume the DS hardware has more affect on the speed than the media. Because of the dual memory feature, a lot of Acekard R.P.G. owners discovered an interesting use of the file management feature - copying and sharing Save Game files or even ROMs between friends, which I find to be an interesting and unique ability of the Acekard R.P.G. If you wish, you can enable an option in the Settings screen to set the file copier to automatically trim dummy data from ROMs if required. We've tested this and it works fine, fortunately unlike some PC side ROM trimmers, the Acekard R.P.G. ROM trimmer does not affect download play ability. The entire GUI can be controlled by using either the stylus or the normal controls. Unfortunately in my opinion the touch screen control is not as fluid as it could be. While touch screen accuracy, unlike cards such as the G6 DS Real, is pretty much spot on, dragging the screen to scroll up and down happens too fast and is inaccurate. The screen does not slide to the actual tip of the stylus like the CycloDS Evolution, but rather scrolls at about twice the speed/height of the stylus tip. Meaning you only have to brush the stylus down very slightly to perform a full "page/screen" scroll. The OS can also be quite inaccurate when tapping games or files to load, which can easily happen by accident when attempting to scroll up and down. Hopefully the team will fix these touch-control issues in future updates as it's the only real grief I have with the loader. Let's take a look at the remaining options in the Acekard R.P.G. Start menu. Special - The Special option takes you to a settings screen which allows you to configure 3 options that affect ROM playback. You can choose to enable Download Play support (Single Card Play) which will load ROMs in such a way that the chances of Download Play working are improved. You should enable this option when launching a game with multiplayer in mind. Generally I'd advise to leaving this enabled at all times, as I have yet to experience any compatibility or performance issues during games since enabling this. The second option in the Special settings screen is to enable In Game Cheat (Action Replay) cheat support. I will cover the Action Replay cheat support of the Acekard R.P.G. later on in this review. The last option here is to toggle in game soft-reset on/off, again, I recommend you leave this enabled so you can easily return to the Acekard R.P.G. menu during gameplay without turning off your DS. System Settings - This is the main settings screen with 5 options currently available. The first option lets you choose between the available skins on your Acekard R.P.G. There are 2 pre-installed skins on the Acekard R.P.G. - a Black and almost "gothic" theme, and a Zelda theme which is the default. The Acekard R.P.G. GUI is highly customisable and we'll go into greater detail on this later in this review. The 2nd option allows you to choose the Language of the entire GUI. There are currently 8 available languages - English, Simplified Chinese, Traditional Chinese, Japanese, French, German, Italian and Spanish. The languages files are stored as part of the menu file structure on the flash memory and are easily editable text files. The 3rd option lets you configure the backlight brightness (DS Lite only). The 4th option allows you to set what files are displayed or filtered in the file browser. You can choose between "NDS", "NDS + SAV" and "All". It's worth noting though, that even though you can choose the GUI to display all file types when browsing, that only NDS files are supported, no other file types will launch. The last option in the Settings screen allows you to enable the ROM Trimmer for the on board file manager as previously mentioned. File Info - This screen lets you take a closer look at whatever is currently highlighted in the File Browser. If you select this item when one of the 2 main menu icons (Flash Memory, Micro SD Card) are highlighted you get a brief disk information summary, such as how much space is being used, how much is free and the total capacity which is a handy feature. When ROMs are highlighted this option will popup a small window with some ROM/file information. You can view the 3 line internal header of games, their filename, last file modification date and time, the file size (in MB) and the save type which can also be configured from this screen. By hitting the Save Type button you're able to manually set the save type of a game which may prove useful with future problematic games when the Automatic save type is wrong. So normally you won't have to touch the save type as it's automatically handled, but it's nice to know the option is available. Help - Help is a simple small screen that shows you the button shortcuts for navigating the GUI. And that's it for the Start Menu. The Acekard R.P.G. GUI is very much skinnable. Almost every aspect you see can be modified through simple bitmap and .INI settings files which are part of the loader package which reside on the flash memory. You can change placement of text; font sizes, colours; language text; icon animation and more... Skin enthusiasts should be very happy with this carts offerings in this department. The Acekard R.P.G. GUI, while not perfect, is brilliant. It looks very modern and clean, is highly customisable and offers some nice and well placed options. The team have obviously put a lot of time into perfecting the GUI, and it shows. There's a lot of class in this GUI and little things such as the cart resetting when you apply a new theme just shows the level of depth the team have gone into. The unfortunate downfalls of the GUI are the lack of features such as multimedia support, the delay when opening folders and dodgy touch screen control. Hopefully the team address these issues, as they shouldn't be too hard to improve (especially the last 2). Then it will truly be one of the best flash kit loaders I've played with. Additional Features When first released, the Acekard R.P.G. was severely lacking in the features department. Besides the open source aspect, the Acekard R.P.G. really didn't have anything else going for it besides the very basics. A lot of people were put off by this and slated the card. Fortunately, recent official loader updates to the Acekard R.P.G. have added more features people have come to expect from modern flash kits. Let's take a brief look at some of the additional features of the Acekard R.P.G. Open Source The Acekard R.P.G. is THE first commercial open-source flash cart. The team have released the full source code and build environment to the public, and continue to do so with each loader update. Unfortunately for the team... The source does not seem to have been touched. No 3rd party modifications have been made public. You could blame this on the fact that the team have not supplied enough interested English developers with kits or the lack of interest. Either way, there's nothing to get excited about so far regarding the open-source of the Acekard R.P.G. Hopefully time will change this. Cheat Support As of loader version 4.03 the Acekard R.P.G. supports Action Replay cheats. Cheats are added by creating a blank text file with Action Replay codes in and saving it alongside the ROM, with the same filename except a .cc suffix. The contents of the text file should look similar to the following: Code: @Infinite Lives--------Enable this code. 020973ec 00000063 # Infinite Health------Disable this code. 1208fce4 00000880 1210679c 00000008 Once you have enabled Cheat code support in the Special settings screen from within the Start menu, you can press 'Start+Select+UP' during gameplay to enable cheats and 'Start+Select+DOWN' to disable. The implementation of Action Replay cheat support feels a bit lacking. Unlike other flash kits you can't enable or disable specific cheats before loading a game. Hopefully the team will improve on the cheat system in future loader releases. Multimedia Support The Acekard R.P.G. does not have official support for multimedia. If you want to view multimedia on your Acekard R.P.G. we recommend Moonshell. Micro SDHC support Just in case you missed it already, the Acekard R.P.G. supports the micro SDHC standard. Soft Reset As of loader version 4.05 the Acekard R.P.G. supports soft reset. Enable it in the Special Menu and hit ''L+R+A+B+Down' in-game to reset back to the main menu. Boot to Slot-2 From the Acekard R.P.G. main menu you can boot to any slot-2 flash kit that is inserted. It does not boot official GBA game paks. A quick look at the Acekard R.P.G. and the loader (no sound) Performance Time to do some real testing and to see how the Acekard R.P.G. really performs! Most flash kits these days offer 100% ROM compatibility. That means glitch-free playback, no slowdown, corruption or incompatible games. So let's see if the Acekard R.P.G. offers that 100%. During the testing portion of this review we will put the Acekard R.P.G. to the test with various ROM images of games, from randomly selected games to games that are known to have particular issues playing on flash kits. We will also test some homebrew games and applications. We will be using the latest firmware available at the time on the cart. We will be using micro SD cards of varying brands and quality, and standard clean ROM images that have not been modified or trimmed in order to maintain fair testing. Here's a list of our testing equipment: - European Nintendo DS Lite - Full volume + brightness settings - Fully charged - Acekard R.P.G. final product - Acekard R.P.G. loader 4.05 final - USB 2.0 Micro SDHC card reader - Windows XP SP2 - The 1GB of NAND flash memory onboard the Acekard R.P.G. - Sandisk 4GB Micro SDHC card (class 2) (made in China) - Sandisk Ultra II 2GB Micro SD Card (made in Taiwan) - PNY 1GB Micro SD Card (made in Japan) Please note that due to the fact that 100% compatibility is expected these days, we no longer list every single game played. Instead we only make note of ROMs that have had issues. When launching games for the first time from inside the Acekard R.P.G. menu, the Acekard R.P.G. will check to see whether it's the first time the game has run or not and will then continue to launch. This can take anything from 1 second to 3 seconds, which is the maximum time I've encountered, but this speed will vary between micro SD cards. Launching games again takes just a few seconds. ROM Compatibility Q: Is there any game that hasn't worked properly? A: All games tested (65+) have worked fine without a hitch. There are currently no known compatibility issues. Q: Do you have to perform any ARM7 patching or modifying, such as Worms: Open Warfare 2? A: No. All games work fine without prior tampering. Q: Have you experienced any slow down and or lag in games? A: The 'Castlevania: Dawn of Sorrow' introduction FMV has regularly been used as a benchmark for DS flash kit SD card read access because of the heavy compression used in the video and the rapid, extremely fast read access required by the DS to play it without lag. We tested this game on all types of memory listed above in the test equipment list. Here are the results: Castlevania: Dawn of Sorrow intro FMV speed test results: - The 1GB of NAND flash memory onboard the Acekard R.P.G. -- The FMV played back fine without any lag whatsoever = PASS - Sandisk 4GB Micro SDHC card (class 2) (made in China) -- The FMV lagged terribly at nearly 1 frame per second in the last half of the movie = FAIL - Sandisk Ultra II 2GB Micro SD Card (made in Taiwan) -- The FMV lagged terribly at nearly 1 frame per second in the last half of the movie = FAIL - PNY 1GB Micro SD Card (made in Japan) -- The FMV played back fine without any lag whatsoever = PASS Q: Have you encountered any freezing in games such as Castlevania: Portrait of Ruin? A: This time we turn to 'Castlevania: Portrait of Ruin' for this part of the testing, a game known to freeze on slower access SD cards during game play. We tested this game on all types of memory listed above in the test equipment list. Here are the results: Tests performed: Constantly pausing and unpausing the game, save points & portals. - The 1GB of NAND flash memory onboard the Acekard R.P.G. -- No freezing was experience in any part of the game = PASS - Sandisk 4GB Micro SDHC card (class 2) (made in China) -- The game locked up randomly during testing = FAIL - Sandisk Ultra II 2GB Micro SD Card (made in Taiwan) -- The game locked up randomly during testing = FAIL - PNY 1GB Micro SD Card (made in Japan) -- No freezing was experience in any part of the game = PASS Q: Does it matter what micro SD card I use? A: See the above questions. I recommend you buy a quality micro SD card or use the on-board memory for known problematic games. Q: Does the DS Opera Web browser work? A: If you have the patched ROM and corresponding slot-2 flash card (G6, M3, Supercard), then yes. Otherwise, if you choose to use the unpatched ROM, you'll need the official memory expansion pak. Q: How fast are the read and write speeds on the onboard memory? A: Here are our HD Tach results (using USB 2.0 controller): Average read speed: 10.4MB/s , Average write speed: 8.9MB/s. (Random access: 48.4ms) As you can see during our extensive testing, just as it is the case for most other flash carts; the PNY Japanese card is the card of choice for speed. It's a shame to see the Acekard R.P.G. fail some of these tests, as a handful of other flash kits on the market do not have speed issues regardless of micro SD card. Let's not forget though, that the onboard memory passed these tests; so whatever SD card you have, you can keep games prone to slowdown on the onboard memory and enjoy them at full speed. Good for those who fancy getting an Acekard R.P.G. but want to keep their old micro SD card(s). Multiplayer, Download Play and Nintendo Wi-Fi Connection support As of loader version 4.04 the Acekard Team have fixed support for Download Play in what they call the "majority" of games. Single cart download play is a problem that has plagued a large number of flash kits. Not all kits support download play, or have trouble in particular games. Download Play is when a game offers multiplayer gameplay between 2 physical DS' over a local wireless connection using only 1 game pak in 1 of the 2 DS. We have tested the following games that support Download Play, and here are our results: Pass: 42 All-Time Classics / Club House Games Big Brain Academy Bomberman Land Touch! New Super Mario Bros. Point Blank DS Super Mario 64 DS Super Monkey Ball DS Tetris DS Snowboard Kids SBK Yoshi Touch & Go Zoo Keeper Fail: None As you can see, the Acekard R.P.G. (as of loader version 4.04) has support for download play in the handful that we've tested; a rather pleasant result. Nintendo Wi-Fi connection works fine on all games, just like any other flash kits - no problem here. Battery Life Results: Test condition: Fully charged European Black Nintendo DS Lite Acekard R.P.G. v4.05 Using onboard memory New Super Mario Bros. Running Main Menu and movie looping continuously Screens at max. brightness (level 4) Sound at 100% Results: Retail New Super Mario Bros cart = 4 hours 55 minutes Results are not yet available. Please check back later. Save Game support Like most recent flash kits, the Acekard R.P.G. automatically detects save types of games and creates save game files automatically. Although, as mentioned earlier in this review, the Acekard R.P.G. does allow you to manually override the automatic save type if need be. This can be done via the File Info screen in the Start Menu. The Acekard R.P.G. creates .SAV files with the same file name as the game they were created for, inside the same folder as the ROM. The size of the .SAV file depends on the specific save type of the game it's linked to, unlike other flash kits that create a 512KB .SAV file regardless of the actual required size. During gameplay, save game files are written directly to the memory card and are not stored in a temporary memory, eliminating the potential loss of save games. I have had no issues with games with save types of all sizes, ranging from 4KB - 512KB, running on the Acekard R.P.G. Homebrew Support The Acekard R.P.G. supports automatic DLDI patching. What is DLDI? DLDI is a recent breakthrough in the homebrew scene which eliminates compatibility issues when running homebrew on different flash kits. Simply put, the author of the homebrew makes their game or application support DLDI, and then each flash kit manufacturer releases a DLDI driver file or implements automatic DLDI patching support within their flash kit loader, which is the case with the Acekard R.P.G. This means no matter what homebrew you get, as long as it supports DLDI, you know it will work. Unfortunately due to the coding of some homebrew, some compatibility issues may remain, but this is commonly due to the coding of the homebrew rather than the flash kit itself. Because the Acekard R.P.G. has two different memory mediums, the cart is required to detect where the homebrew is running from and then patch it with the relative DLDI driver, whether it be on the flash memory or micro SD card. This works without a problem. We'll now test a variety of homebrew applications and games on the Acekard R.P.G. to see how they perform. BeUp Live 0.3 - Pass Colors! 1.05 - Pass DSOrganise - Pass IRC DS - Pass Lemmings DS - Pass Linux DS - FAIL:- Could NOT get this to work NESDS - Pass Picodrive DS - Pass ScummVM - Pass Moonshell 1.71b - Pass As you can see, most homebrew worked fine, with the exception of DS Linux that I may have installed incorrectly. Not a bad result. The majority of the most popular homebrew will work fine. If you're one of those people that would rather handle the DLDI patching themselves then you'll be glad to hear that the standard .DLDI driver files are included in the loader package. Of course, one for the onboard memory and the other for micro SD. They are used by the loader itself when autopatching, so can be found in the __rpg directory. Conclusion In this reviewer's opinion, if you're going to introduce a new flash kit to the market, you should improve upon and include any major (at least) features that previous flash kits have offered (see Enhanced in-game menus, slow-motion, cheat selection etc.). Taking a step back in such areas, but then taking a step forward in non-critical areas such as dual memory just seems like the wrong way to go about things. That being said, the Acekard R.P.G. should be seen as a serious contender in the slot-1 world. It's a fine tuned piece of hardware that the team have obviously taken a lot of time into perfecting. It just feels that they've concentrated too hard in some areas such as the dual memory solution and the GUI and not enough in other places that put simply, are quite lacking (such as the scantness of features or poor implementation thereof, such as cheats). It feels like the team released this cart to the market before the bulk of it was ready. The Acekard R.P.G. offers top-notch compatibility like its predecessor, and a very aesthetically pleasing and highly customisable GUI, that is only let down by the lack of multimedia support and erratic touch screen control. The team have released some great updates to the cart already that offer "new" features such as cheat support and soft-reset. I also applaud the team for creating the first open-source flash kit and do hope (and believe) that some good comes of it. So to wrap up, if you're looking for a slot-1 flash kit with 100% compatibility and the dual memory solution, open source aspect or the great GUI entice you, and you're not particularly interested in many extra features then I see no reason not to recommend the Acekard R.P.G. Pros: + Dual memory - on board & micro SD + Micro SDHC compatible + Open source + 100% ROM compatibility + Full download play support + Drag and drop all files - no patching of any kind needed - auto DLDI patching + On-board file management & trimming + Great aesthetically pleasing and modern GUI + A few extra features have made their way in through loader updates + Easily skinnable + Good build quality, fits flush Cons: - Extra features are lacking in number and performance - No multimedia support out of the box - Slow-down in some games on slower micro SD cards - Touch control is not perfect - Currently only available in black External Links: - Acekard Website - GBAtemp Download Centre Your browser does not support iFrames. This review was written for GBAtemp.net ONLY. The article and all included photos are property of GBAtemp.net If you see this review on any other site please let me know via e-mail - shaunj66 [@at@] GBAtemp [.dot.] net


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Deepika Padukone, xXx 3 Star, Is "Proud To Represent India In Hollywood"
Deepika Padukone is preparing for the premier of her first Hollywood venture "xXx: Return of Xander Cage"in India. Co-starring Vin Diesel the film is slated to release in India on 14th January, five days ahead it releases worldwide.
The 30 year old star told news agency IANS that she's proud to represent India in Hollywood and that she's sure "the content of the film will entertain all."
At an event on Sunday, Deepika told media: "I want to be known as a good person and an actor. That is more important to me. But I feel very proud that I get to represent my country (in Hollywood). I am very excited for this action franchise and also very sure that the content of the film will entertain all," reports IANS.
"There is a lot of action and adventure in the film which we haven't seen in Indian movies before. I am very excited that we will be presenting the movie here," she added.
Deepika will be seen in Sanjay Leela Bhansali's historical drama Padmavati The film also stars her Ram Leela and Bajirao Mastani co-star Ranveer Singh and Shahid Kapoor.
Deepika told IANS her new resolution is to be able to spend more time with her family. "My resolution for the New Year is to spend maximum time with my family. I miss my family a lot," she said.
Stay tuned for more from Bollywood, only on Bollywood Red.
#DeepikaPadukone #XXXXanderCage #VinDiesel #Padmavati #Premier #RanveerSingh

subset: commoncrawl


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At Seattle University we are a community of many spiritualties! So in Campus Ministry we welcome people of all faiths and spiritualties to explore their own tradition or delve into other traditions. Be assured that whatever you're perspective from devout to spiritual but not religious we want to know you that we have options for you to explore and grow in your faith.
And, as always, if you have ideas for programs or events come to campus ministry in student center 120 and let us know what you are thinking!
If you are interested in exploring Catholic Faith, becoming Catholic (RCIA) or in receiving the Catholic Sacrament of Confirmation, please contact Campus Ministry at (206) 296-6075 for more information.
If you are a Christian Protestant or Christian Non-Catholic and are interested in Bible Study, Faith sharing, and Christian worship please contact Victoria Carr to get involved or take a look at some of your options here.
For explorations in Islam, Judaism, Hinduism, Buddhism and more, please be in touch with Victoria Carr or take a look at our offerings here!
Spiritual Consultation and Pastoral Care provide a chance for individual exploration in a one-on-one confidential setting with a Campus Minister experienced in the art of assisting others with personal and spiritual growth. Please drop by campus ministry or make an appointment with any Campus Minister. For more information, please contact Campus Ministry at (206) 296-6075.


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Bug decoding: By sequencing the genomes of numerous samples of the drug-resistant bacterium MRSA (shown here in yellow), scientists have confirmed where and when the superbug emerged. Credit: CDC, Janice
Haney Carr, Jeff Hageman, M.H.S.
Analysis of MRSA starts to reveal its journey around the globe–and within a hospital.
MIT Technology Review, February 2, 2010, by Emily Singer — By sequencing the entire genome of numerous samples of the notorious MRSA (Methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus) bacteria–a drug-resistant strain of staph responsible for thousands of deaths in the United States each year–researchers at the Wellcome Trust Sanger Institute in the United Kingdom have gained clues as to how the superbug travels both around the globe and in local hospitals. Scientists say the approach will shed light on the epidemiology of the troublesome bacteria and help public health programs target their prevention efforts most effectively.
The research, which would have been impossible just two years ago, was enabled by fast and inexpensive sequencing technology from Illumina, a genomics company based in San Diego. "The work demonstrates the value of applying high-resolution sequencing technology to public health problems," said Caroline Ash, a senior editor at the journal Science, where the research was published, at a press conference on Wednesday. "Potentially the technology could pinpoint the origin of the outbreak and the origin of its spread."
About 30 percent of people carry Staphylococcus aureus bacteria on their skin, often harmlessly. But for some people, the microbes can cause severe problems, including serious skin infections, sepsis, and death. Antibiotic-resistant strains of the virus emerged in the 1960s, and these now account for more than half of all hospital-acquired infections in the U.S.
In the current study, researchers sequenced 63 MRSA samples, some collected from across the globe during a 20-year period, and some from a single hospital in Thailand over 20 months. While standard analysis methods, which analyze only a small portion of the microbes' DNA, classified each isolate as being of the same subtype, sequencing the whole genome allowed scientists to identify very small genetic differences between the microbes.
The researchers constructed an evolutionary tree for the microbes and confirmed that MRSA likely first emerged in Europe in the 1960s, coinciding with the growing use of antibiotics to treat staph infections. The tree also showed that the superbugs evolved drug resistance multiple times over the past 40 years. "That demonstrates there is immense selective pressure caused by antibiotic use worldwide," said Simon Harris, the lead author on the study, at the press conference.
The researchers also analyzed minor genetic differences in MRSA samples collected in a much more localized setting–a single hospital in Thailand–and discovered greater than expected diversity among the microbes. That suggests that patients were infected by new strains coming into the hospital, rather than patient-to-patient transmissions, says Harris. That finding might affect control measures. "If you institute infection control settings in this hospital, it will only have limited success because, in this case, it looks like patients appear to be getting the infection from other sources," said Sharon Peacock, a clinical microbiologist at the University of Cambridge who also participated in the research, at the press conference.
(The analysis will not affect how individual patients are treated, because all variants of MRSA are treated the same. Tests that classify subtypes of the bacteria are used to track the spread of infection, rather than to make treatment decisions.)
It's not yet clear how the technology might be incorporated into standard public health efforts to track and control MRSA infections. "I believe this approach will expand our understanding of the evolution of MRSA, but I don't think it will catch on right now in hospitals," says Dan Diekema, a physician and epidemiologist at the University of Iowa, who was not involved in the study. "I think most hospitals find our current typing methods to be adequate in helping to guide prevention efforts. It's not exactly clear to me how having a finer-grained look would impact prevention efforts."
Peacock aims to address that question with ongoing studies. "We hope to clearly define through prospective studies of this tool what its value is and how to incorporate it into a hospital setting," she said. The technology would need to undergo some major changes to transform from research tool to standard surveillance measure. "Before being adopted in standard clinical practice, the technology needs to be adapted so that it can be used in any major laboratory," said Peacock. "We want the readout not in terms of sequencing but in what potential virulence it carries, and what its origins might be."
Currently, sequencing a MRSA genome takes four to six weeks and costs about $300. "Even though turnaround time has been dramatically reduced from years to weeks, it's still not a practical timescale for use in clinical settings," said Stephen Bentley, senior author on the study. "But I expect that with third-generation sequencing technology, the turnaround time could be reduced to hours and the per sample cost might be reduced to the £20 mark [about $30]."
The project is part of a growing trend that capitalizes on increasingly affordable sequencing technologies to track the origins, evolution, and migration of human pathogens. "It's going to require scientists to do some real innovative thinking to fully explore the potential of this technology," said Bentley. Researchers at the Sanger Institute have already applied it to a number of other infectious organisms, including those responsible for tuberculosis, pneumonia, and meningitis.
Prepregnancy screening: To determine the risk of passing rare inherited diseases to their offspring, prospective parents spit in a tube (shown here) and then send the sample to Counsyl, a California-based startup. The company screens the sample for genetic mutations linked to more than 100 diseases.
Startup aims for routine preconception genetic testing
MIT Technology Review, February 3, 2010, by Emily Singer — Counsyl, a Stanford startup based in Redwood City, CA, has developed a genetic test for prospective parents that determines their risk for passing more than 100 different genetic diseases on to their child. The test, which costs $349 and is already covered by some major insurers, could rapidly expand preconception screening for rare inherited conditions. For most people, screening recommendations are currently limited to the chronic lung disease cystic fibrosis, with broader testing offered to some ethnic groups.
While the genetic culprits for more than 1,000 rare inherited diseases have been identified, screening for them has been limited, largely due to cost. The comprehensive nature of Counsyl's test and its reasonable price tag reflect rapid advancements in screening technologies. "When cystic fibrosis testing first started in the early '90s, it cost on the order of $350," says Philip Reilly, a clinical geneticist, now with Third Rock Ventures, a Boston-based investment firm. "Now [Counsyl] is offering to test for 100 disorders for the same price, and it will fall lower." In the late 1990s, Reilly, who is not involved with Counsyl, launched a similar company, which he says failed partly because testing was still too expensive.
Counsyl's test detects genetic variants linked to rare inherited conditions such as cystic fibrosis, Tay-Sachs disease, and Pompe disease, a metabolic disorder featured in the new film Extraordinary Measures. (Counsyl, which until recently was operating in stealth mode, appears to have pegged its public debut to the film's release.) While individuals carrying a single copy of the mutation for such diseases are typically healthy, those who inherit two copies, one from each parent, are guaranteed to develop it. Many of these diseases are incurable and have devastating consequences, including early death.
The rate of single-gene disorders in the United States is estimated at about 0.3 to 0.5 percent of live births. According to Counsyl, about 35 to 40 percent of people who have taken its test are carriers for at least one disease in the test. Both prospective parents carry the mutation about 0.6 to 0.8 percent of the time. Those couples would have a 25 percent chance of having a child with the disease, thanks to a 50 percent chance of inheriting the disease variant from each parent.
The genetic variants screened in Counsyl's test themselves aren't new–all can be tested for individually or as part of other screens. (Ashkenazi Jews, for example, often undergo screening for a handful of inherited disorders that occur more frequently in that group.) The novelty in Counsyl's test comes in grouping together such a large number of conditions–the company's founders say it can detect several hundred variants responsible for more than 100 different genetic diseases.
If parents discover that they both carry risk variants for the same disease, they can choose to undergo in vitro fertilization and have embryos screened for the disease prior to being implanted in the womb. Or the woman can choose to get pregnant the normal way and then they can have the fetus screened during pregnancy.
Testing is likely to lead to an increase in techniques such as in vitro fertilization and preimplantation genetic diagnosis, which together cost about $12,000 to $17,000. But that figure is still drastically lower than the hundreds of thousands to millions of dollars it can cost to take care of a child with a severe genetic disorder. "That's why we got insurance coverage so rapidly, which is extremely unusual for a new diagnostic test," says Balaji S. Srinivasan, chief technology officer at Counsyl.
In addition to getting the test through fertility clinics, consumers can order it directly through the Internet, similar to services provided by startups 23andMe, Navigenics, and DecodeMe. While these companies have largely pioneered the concept of direct-to-consumer genetic testing–and garnered extensive media attention doing so–their goal is much different than Counsyl's. Their screens are designed to detect common genetic variants that have a fairly minor impact on an individual's risk for a number of common diseases, while Counsyl's test detects rare genetic variants linked to serious diseases in people carrying two copies of it.
Reilly predicts other companies will soon follow suit. "I think there will be lots of other groups offering similar tests in the future," he says. "There's no reason why 23andme couldn't do this, or Navigenics or Baylor or the Mayo clinic."
Counsyl uses a technology called a molecular inversion probe array, which can capture small, select pieces of DNA and allow them to be analyzed with high accuracy. Srinivasan says the company will publish details of the method as well as its accuracy in a peer-reviewed journal this week. He says the company also plans to change its screening methods in the near future, using gene sequencing technology, which determines every letter of the selected genes.
The test is not foolproof. It doesn't detect a number of genetic and environmental factors that can affect a healthy pregnancy. In addition, many of the mutations underlying the conditions encompassed by the test have not yet been discovered, meaning someone may still be a carrier
Towards Creating Blood Vessels
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Boosting blood vessels: Exposing human embryologic stem cells to a small inhibitor molecule dramatically boosts production of endothelial cells (green), which form the inner lining of blood vessels. The bottom image shows a culture of cells exposed to the inhibitor, while the cells in the top image were not. Credit: Daylon James
Scientists find a better way to make more of the cells that make blood vessels.
MIT Technology Review, February 2, 2010, by Jennifer Chu — An efficient new method of making endothelial cells, which give rise to blood vessels, could prove a huge boost for tissue engineering and regenerative medicine. By first finding a way to effectively tag endothelial cells, researchers at Weill Cornell Medical College developed a simple way to increase production of these cells by more than 30-fold. The cells might one day by used to create blood vessels in engineered tissue or administered to patients directly to repair injury after heart attack or stroke, resupplying blood to damaged organs.
"[Eventually], we want to be able to inject slurries of these cells into people who have suffered heart attacks, and allow those tissues to recuperate by renewed blood flow," says Daylon James, assistant research professor in the department of reproductive medicine at Weill Cornell Medical College, who led the research.
Our bodies house billions of endothelial cells, which line the interior of blood vessels. This vast network is responsible for maintaining vascular health, controlling blood pressure, managing clotting, and giving rise to new blood vessels. While researchers already knew how to turn embryonic stem cells into endothelial cells, the challenge has been a matter of commitment and scale. Once stem cells turn into endothelial cells, it's difficult to make them stay that way. Getting endothelial cells to expand to numbers great enough to engineer functional artificial blood vessels has been another major roadblock.
While previous methods produced about 0.2 endothelial cells for every embryonic stem cell, James and his colleagues have found a much more efficient way to make committed endothelial cells. The new technique yields seven endothelial cells for every stem cell, according to research published in the advanced online edition of the journal Nature Biotechnology. When these differentiated cells were injected into mice, they formed tiny, capillary-like structures.
To create the new method, the team first developed a way of identifying endothelial cells among cultures of differentiating embryonic stem cells. James recognized a gene called VE-cadherin that only appears in endothelial cells, making it an ideal marker. He then genetically engineered a green fluorescent protein to turn on in embryonic stem cells only when VE-cadherin is expressed, signaling in real time that the stem cell has differentiated into an endothelial cell.
Researchers then looked for molecular triggers that ramp up endothelial differentiation and production. Shahin Rafii, a professor of medicine at Weill Cornell Medical College, and a Howard Hughes Medical Institute investigator, carefully selected various drugs and small molecules, and tested their effects in cultures of embryonic stem cells. Rafii found one candidate in particular that significantly boosted the yield of differentiated, committed endothelial cells.
This molecule, which goes by the technical label SB431542, is known to inhibit TGF-beta, a protein involved in cell differentiation and proliferation. Researchers found they were able to get the highest yield of endothelial cells when they first allowed TGF-beta to act uninterrupted, then introduced the inhibitor molecule to turn off TGF-beta at just the right time. Properly timed exposure to the TGF-beta inhibitor boosted production of endothelial cells 36-fold.
That increase could have real clinical significance, says Joseph Wu, assistant professor of medicine and radiology at Stanford University School of Medicine. "This new protocol is a significant advance, and a very good amplification process, because in order to translate therapy to humans and animals, you have to scale up the numbers," says Wu, who was not involved in the research. Heart grafts to treat cardiovascular disease, for example, would likely require 20 million to 50 million cells, he says.
The researchers now plan to determine whether the cells can actually restore blood flow to damaged tissue by injecting them into injured animals. The group is also working to grow engineered endothelial cells into functional blood vessels in vitro, on three-dimensional scaffolds that simulate the real conditions in the body. Sina Rabbany, a bioengineering professor at Hofstra University, is designing polymeric scaffolds, and growing endothelial cells on grafts of smooth muscle cells.
"Almost every body part requires a vascular supply, and endothelial cells are the building blocks of that supply," says Rabbany. "So now that we can make these cells, how can we make them grow in a 3-D setting and make conduits that carry blood, and can provide oxygen and nutrients to other cells? [Because] whether you want to grow a pancreas for diabetes, or help treat Parkinson's disease, every cell in the human body is next to an endothelial cell."
Dental Calamities That Can Truly Hurt
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The New York Times, by Nicholas Bakalar — Dental cavities are not good news, but when it comes to preventive oral health, they may be among the smaller problems.
The advice is familiar: brush and floss regularly, use fluoride mouthwash, limit snacks and sweet drinks, visit the dentist twice a year. Good suggestions, even if not everyone follows them: by age 12, 50 percent of children have cavities. But there are two much more serious problems, common dental diseases that can lead not only to loss of teeth but also to loss of life: periodontal disease and oral cancer.
Periodontal disease — a chronic bacterial infection of the gums that destroys the bone and tissues that hold the teeth — is the leading cause of tooth loss in adults. Some people are genetically susceptible, and the problem can be aggravated by smoking, taking certain medications, stress and other factors.
Several studies have found that gum disease is associated with an increased risk for heart attack. "It isn't nailed down yet," said Dr. Martin J. Davis, professor of clinical dentistry at the College of Dental Medicine at Columbia, "but there seems to be a link between the inflammation of gums and the inflammatory markers of heart disease."
It may be that oral bacteria enter the bloodstream, attach to fatty plaques in the coronary arteries and cause clots to form. Or maybe inflammation itself increases plaque buildup. A 2007 study showed that periodontal disease increased the risk of heart disease in men by one third and doubled it in women, even after controlling for smoking.
Studies also suggest that gum disease is associated with the risk for stroke, altered glycemic control in people with diabetes and adverse pregnancy conditions like pre-eclampsia (pregnancy-induced high blood pressure), low birth weight and preterm birth. When periodontal disease is treated by reducing inflammation and lowering the quantities of harmful bacteria in the mouth, it can have a major impact on inflammation in the rest of the body.
Oral cancer is the second serious dental problem. It afflicts about 34,000 people a year and kills 8,000. Dr. Michael Kahn, a professor of oral pathology at Tufts University, compares oral cancer with the 11,000 cases of cervical cancer that are detected by the 60 million pap smears administered every year. "A person dies every hour around the clock from oral cancer," he said, "yet it's a struggle to get insurance to cover any of the new screening tests. It causes at least twice as many deaths as cervical cancer, but we've paid for pap smears — which have reduced cervical cancer by 90 percent."
Smoking and alcohol abuse are the major causes, but 25 percent of oral cancers appear in people who have never smoked or drunk to excess. The suspected cause of at least some of these cancers is human papillomavirus, or H.P.V., the same sexually transmitted virus that causes most cervical cancers, which can invade the mouth during oral sex. "Some are already hypothesizing that if kids are inoculated against H.P.V.," Dr. Kahn said, "there will be a turnaround in the oral cancers caused by H.P.V., too."
For now, prevention, screening and early treatment are crucial to lowering the death rate.
The first sign of oral cancer is often a tiny white or red spot in the mouth, but the disease can be detected before a sore appears. In the last two or three years, manufacturers have produced noninvasive devices for detecting abnormal tissue that may be invisible to the naked eye, and some dentists are beginning to use them, even though their effectiveness remains controversial.
"The literature says they work," Dr. Kahn said. "Some would like more or stronger evidence, but for others, they're convinced. In dentistry, you don't have much time to look. The theory is that if you use one of these devices, it gives you some additional help." If a dentist finds a suspicious lesion, Dr. Kahn recommends referral to an oral pathologist as the next step.
There is more to good oral health than conscientious brushing and flossing, even though they remain important. "You have to take care of your mouth like any other part of the body," Dr. Davis said, "because it's linked to the rest of the body."
New Compound Improves MRI Contrast Agents
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Nano pyramid: Gadolinium ions (green) are chemically linked to the surface of a nano diamond to form an MRI contrast
A nano diamond agent is 15 times more sensitive.
MIT Technology Review, February 3, 2010, by Corinna Wu — Magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) has become an indispensable medical diagnostic tool because of its ability to produce detailed, 3D pictures of tissue in the body. Radiologists often inject patients with contrast agents to make certain tissues, such as tumors, stand out more on the final image. Now, researchers have synthesized an MRI contrast agent that is 15 times more sensitive than the compounds currently used. This could allow less contrast agent to be used, thus reducing the potential for harmful side effects.
The researchers created the new compound by chemically linking gadolinium ions to nano diamonds–tiny clusters of carbon atoms just a few nanometers in diameter. Gadolinium, a rare-earth metal, is used in MRI contrast agents because of its strong paramagnetic properties (magnetism in response to an applied magnetic field). But alone, gadolinium is toxic, so it has to be bonded to other, biocompatible molecules to be used clinically. Many groups have been trying to improve the properties of gadolinium-based contrast agents by attaching the metal to a variety of materials, ranging from large organic molecules to nanoparticles.
"We've done this with many classes of nanoparticles and have never seen this extraordinary increase in sensitivity," says Thomas J. Meade, the Eileen M. Foell professor of chemistry and director of the Center for Advanced Molecular Imaging at Northwestern University. He and his colleagues published their findings online in Nano Letters last month.
Meade collaborated with Dean Ho, assistant professor of biomedical and mechanical engineering at Northwestern, and his group, which has been studying nano diamonds as vehicles for drug delivery. Unlike some carbon nanomaterials, Ho says nanodiamonds are well-tolerated by cells and do not change gene expression in adverse ways. The researchers coupled the nano diamonds to gadolinium and tested the properties of the resulting complex to assess how good of an MRI contrast agent it might be.
MRI works by surrounding a patient with a powerful magnetic field, which aligns the nuclei of hydrogen atoms in the body. Radio wave pulses systematically probe small sections of tissues, knocking those atoms out of alignment. When they relax back into their previous state, the atoms emit a radio frequency signal that can be detected and translated into an image.
Because of its strong paramagnetic properties, gadolinium alters the relaxation of hydrogen atoms when it's nearby. Contrast agents containing gadolinium can be designed to collect preferentially in tumors, thus enhancing the contrast between the tumor and the surrounding tissue. The contrast agent's ability to alter the relaxation of hydrogen atoms is expressed as "relaxivity", which accounts for the relaxation time and the concentration of gadolinium in the tissues.
The high relaxivity of the gadolinium-nano diamond compound can be partly attributed to its ability to attract water, which helps boost the MRI signal. "If you look at the shape of a nano diamond, it's like a soccer ball but more angular around the faces," Ho says. "It's not totally round." The different faces have alternating positive and negative charges, which helps to orient water molecules in such a way that they create a tight shell of water around the nanodiamond.
The researchers tested the gadolinium-nano diamond on different types of cells in the lab and did not find evidence of toxicity. The next step, Ho says, is to test the compound's safety and effectiveness as a contrast agent in animals. "We're excited to see what kind of increased performance we can get," Ho says.
"I think it's a very interesting system," says Kenneth N. Raymond, professor of chemistry at the University of California at Berkeley. "They've obviously got a one order of magnitude increase in relaxivity that's quite significant." Many researchers have tried to attach gadolinium ions to high molecular weight compounds, like proteins and dendrimers, he says. "The little nano diamond, as far as I know, is quite novel, and, I think, a very clever thing to do."
Currently, radiologists need to inject what amounts to several grams of gadolinium into a patient to get good contrast on an MRI. By increasing the sensitivity of the contrast agent ten-fold, "you could use one-tenth as much gadolinium," Raymond says. "There's a lot of concern in the clinic for certain classes of patients about gadolinium toxicity. Toxicity is very closely connected to dose."
Ten Small Steps for Better Heart Health
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Harvard Medical School, February 3, 2010 — Change is an important part of living with heart disease or trying to prevent it. A jump in blood pressure or cholesterol earns you a lecture on healthy lifestyle changes. Heart attack and stroke survivors are often told to alter a lifetime of habits.
Some people manage to overhaul their exercise pattern, diet, and unhealthy habits with ease. The rest of us try to make changes, but don't always succeed. Instead of undertaking a huge makeover, you might be able to improve your heart's health with a series of small changes. Once you get going, you may find that change isn't so hard. This approach may take longer, but it could also motivate you to make some big changes.
Here are 10 small steps to get you on the road to better health in 2010.
1. Take a 10-minute walk. If you don't exercise at all, a brief walk is a great way to start. If you do, it's a good way to add more exercise to your day.
2. Give yourself a lift. Lifting a hardcover book or a two-pound weight a few times a day can help tone your arm muscles. When that becomes a breeze, move on to heavier items or join a gym.
3. Eat one extra fruit or vegetable a day. Fruits and vegetables are inexpensive, taste good, and are good for everything from your brain to your bowels.
4. Make breakfast count. Start the day with some fruit and a serving of whole grains, like oatmeal, bran flakes, or whole-wheat toast.
5. Stop drinking your calories. Cutting out just one sugar-sweetened soda or calorie-laden latte can easily save you 100 or more calories a day. Over a year, that can translate into a 10-pound weight loss.
6. Have a handful of nuts. Walnuts, almonds, peanuts, and other nuts are good for your heart. Try grabbing some instead of chips or cookies when you need a snack, adding them to salads for a healthful and tasty crunch, or using them in place of meat in pasta and other dishes.
7. Sample the fruits of the sea. Eat fish or other types of seafood instead of red meat once a week. It's good for the heart, the brain, and the waistline.
8. Breathe deeply. Try breathing slowly and deeply for a few minutes a day. It can help you relax. Slow, deep breathing may also help lower blood pressure.
9. Wash your hands often. Scrubbing up with soap and water often during the day is a great way to protect your heart and health. The flu, pneumonia, and other infections can be very hard on the heart.
10. Count your blessings. Taking a moment each day to acknowledge the blessings in your life is one way to start tapping into other positive emotions. These have been linked with better health, longer life, and greater well-being, just as their opposites — chronic anger, worry, and hostility — contribute to high blood pressure and heart disease.
Read more from Harvard Medical School………..
Switching from heels to flats
Q. I know high heels are bad for the feet, but when I switched to flats, my feet started to hurt. Why?
A. Wearing heels for long periods can result in a shortening and tightening of the Achilles' tendon. When you walk in a relatively flat shoe, your foot flexes up (dorsiflexes) when your heel hits the ground and then flexes down (plantarflexes) as you toe off. If the Achilles' tendon is short and tight because of high heels, the foot loses its ability to flex up and down, so switching to a flat can cause heel and calf pain. Flats can also aggravate conditions like plantar fasciitis if they lack good arch and heel support.
If you're moving away from high heels to flats, do so gradually, wearing lower heels at first. That will give your Achilles' tendon time to relax and stretch out. You might also try doing some of the standard exercises for stretching the Achilles' tendon.
The basic maneuver involves keeping your heel on the ground and your leg straight as you lean forward.
— James P. Ioli, D.P.M.
Brigham and Women's Hospital


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Considering Medical Alert System: Does it concerns you?
A medical alert system can assist the senior and differently abled people on living their life without having as much as available interference from other individuals. Therefore, this raises the extent of freedom they could take in.But before thinking about joining to any medical alert system service provider, the following are the things that you ought to understand.This alert system consists of a band transmitter that is either worn on the wrist or neck bearing resemblance to a wristwatch and a necklace. Like any other alarm system, this must be brought frequently.For example, accidents and medical complication takes place– one could tick on the transmitter being put on to tell the medical alert monitoring system.This assists the monitoring center expert to better recommend you in the event of a medical emergency, and they might at the same time give emergency medical aid if needed.Not only that, a monitoring center could simply speak to any relatives or friends noted when risks occur. All you have to do is pressing the help button.Any medical alert system compensates according to frequency and quality of service will be needed by the patient. The fee is remarkably convenient and affordable as a substitute to any assisted living centers.
Advantages of Medical Alert System in Tannersville New York
Emergency systems have a lot of uses and functions related to it.One of principal benefits of it is that they can be quickly contacted specially when one does not possess an accessible telephone to consult with emergency medical services.Since the medical alert devices are worn on their wrists or across their necks, all they have to do is to stretch up and hit the assigned button and they will be contacted with the medical alert company immediately.This component of medical system is just among one of it's benefits.This form of medical system gives freedom to patients who does not desire to get accompanied by healthcare personnel too often. That is why, this device is really important to get not left.This system makes it possible for patients such as disabled person to stay on their homes and anywhere without minding any threats or harm that could occur. This could relieve the family's mind any time they're out for work understanding that they have a medical alert system.These medical alert devices are quite expensive yet definitely worth a shot.The fee is based upon what kind of system is being purchased.Subsequently, a monthly monitoring fee for the devices is incorporated to the charge.The prices will differ from company to service provider in Colorado but mainly the cost is reasonable and is usually approximately $30 each month.Visualising it in a greater spectrum, investing to this system is entirely worth a penny. Imagining it's advantages and comfort it offers to your family.
Getting Medical Alert Systems Close to on your Vicinity in NY
Modern Instruments on Medical Alert System
You can not visualize how much points have alter on the industry of healthcare and medicine.The following involves medical procedures, medicines, and equipment were being made to aid everyone.There are a great deal of people who are starting to keep their confidence on today's health care systems due to the fact that patients have been treated and spared from these strategies and procedures.Some of these success are because of the utilization with medical alert system.Well you may be expecting this is all about rescuing when emergencies happens– it's certainly not.The alert system functions also on communicating your families and relatives every time any incidents occur in order to keep them notify.When signing up to this course, you are going to require and write upon contacts of families and relatives to ensure that they could reach into them in case of accidents.This way the significant people in your life can find out what happen to you.This is just one from many advantages upon signing up to these systems.As an overview, this program is associated on giving medical services to people most especially on threats. That is why, it is important to people to take precautions through registering to this program.The system ensures it's patient on giving an excellent medical assistance that anyone could get. This additionally ascertains that your loved ones will figure out instantly about the accident.
Nearest Medical System to Me Greene County 12485
Understanding Personal Emergency Response System
A medical alarm can make a big impact in the lives of elderly people and people with special needs.popularly recognized similarly as medical alert or Personal Emergency Response System (PERS). This system locates emergencies and accidents associating with the clients who registered to this system.People who live on their own most likely the senior and disabled people makes use of and obtains this system commonly.Household accidents are prevalent, but there are occasions where they can be fatal.}There are a considerable amount of situations that it could have been saved if medical assistance was taken sooner.The seniors and persons with disability exhibits more of these threats. Moreover, they don't have adequate strength and power to call for immediate medical assistance.This is when medical alarms will be placed to good use.Usually customers have inquiries relating to on the standard of help that they'll be provided.Employees at the monitoring center who return your calls are knowledgeable enough to perform medical emergencies. They are practiced enough on giving medical assistance.Records and history of the clients are also kept confidential. This info are liable on taking first aid and medical assistance during dangers and complications.Among the reasons that elderly people switch to assisted living facilities and leave their homes is the fear that there would not be any one to aid in an emergency or accident while living by itself.However, there are numerous who feel that they may lose their feeling of independence inside a an elderly care facility or retirement home.Utilizing a medical alarm can effectively prevent the key factor for going into an assisted living situation and enables seniors to have their dignity and independence intact.Similar to most consumer products, medical alert systems differ in terms of price and features such as range, hours of standby power, repair and replacement options, payment alternatives, and setup time.Ahead of purchasing, it is vital to administer an examination and investigation to products and services to companies available today.This way, consumers could be ensured of a product that fits their needs and lifestyle.
The Definition of Medical Alert Alarms
This medical alert alarms could be attached to your telephone lines.Incredibly, it incorporates an audible and loud speaker with a strongly sensitive microphone.This enables customers to talk while the monitoring agency hears them. After this, the patient's friends, and family are then gotten in touch with.There is basically a communication system using the telephone developed to contact the monitoring agency which then gives updates to the medical agency and to relatives of the patient.Also, varying type of Medical Alert Alarm Systems are offered in the marketA transmitter button or switch can be installed in your pillow, which can activate just with the pressure of your head and therefore contact the crucial help.Identical button kinds can likewise be set up in beds. This is to maximize the access of these buttons in the event accidents happen.Thinking this is just for elders? Each person could utilize this medical alert alarms.We are all prone to risks and dangers. That is why, acquiring these alarm systems could help us a lot.Understanding these are installed, families could bond and live a life much less troubled and worry.These devices elevates independence. This enhances self-esteem and increases security against accidents and harm.Also, these systems are extremely simple to use.
Medical Alert System: how it could aid you?
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Let's state you are having a bath and after that, it seemed like your heart wounds severely and then, you suddenly drops down.Or the fact that you get epilepsy, and senses it's gonna attacks but you are heading to the market.In these sort of life-threatening circumstances, the patients and their family members stay tense every moment and are therefore nagged by a feeling of insecurity that takes away their peace of mind, making it hard to focus on every day life.If this continues every day then it will make you deranged.To get back the self-confidence and the sense of security, you should install Medical Alert Alarms.We age each day. It's a reality that we should all face.The lifeline medical alert system is a particular sort of medical device that is made to help conserve lives.Emergency response teams are associated with these systems and the likely clients, the senior citizens receives the additional care.The systems are simple to use.Similar to the latter, these are likewise undertaken and worn by the patients.Just touch the button and the systems will determine your voice by means of an installed voice communicator.When tapping the button, someone will undoubtedly connect to you so as to help you mitigate your condition.The lifeline medical alert system is a terrific product that has assisted millions of men and women all around the world.Permitting an elderly parent or a person who has physical needs to also think that they have their independence is a substantial deal.It's dismaying and irritating to see our own selves being continuously aided by other individuals.With personal emergency response systems, the individual does not need to.Along with these system, you could live a convenient life without anyone frightening you and contact anytime you seek for assistance.


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Short Fiction
Robert – February 2016
There Were No Clouds Above Them – February 2015
The Rain – October 2014
Antis – March 2014
Cheryl – February 2014
A City Up North – February 2014
1973 Ford Falcon – January 2014
Analogous – January 2014
Mark Zuckerberg Fan-Fiction – December 2013
paulwrankin.com – Jekyll source code for this website.
Fountain Mode – GNU Emacs major mode for screenwriting in Fountain plaintext markup format.
Olivetti – GNU Emacs minor mode for a nice writing environment.
McQueen – Style for HTML screenplays.
envbot – Super simple directory-specific shell environment variables.
t_done – The simplest CLI todo list manager ever.
LaTeX template for screenplays – A set of LaTeX macros to reliably output PDF screenplays.
Launch Agents – A BitBar plugin to view and manage
launchd services.
The Filmington Post – A website about cinema and filmmaking. (Source)
CPU Load – A BitBar plugin to display the CPU load percentage (without using


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Saturday, 1 March 2014
Chilli beef pancakes.
21 comments:
Just in time for Pancake Day, My mum used to make something very similar. Commenting for myself and on behalf of BritMums and thanking you for taking part.ReplyDelete
Please double check the terms and conditions and ensure you have a working link to the egg recipes website to quality in this challengeReplyDeleteReplies
Thanks for letting me know Kate, I don't know what happened there! It should now be a working link, I hope I am still aloud to take part in the challenge.Delete
- Anonymous14 June 2014 at 18:56
Great idea for a cheap & cheerful midweek meal Denise :-) #recipeoftheweekReplyDeleteReplies
Thanks hun :-)Delete
I've never added baked beans to a chilli before - a great way to stretch a great meal even further!ReplyDeleteReplies
Yes when feeding a family of five it's always good to stretch out meals :-)Delete
These look delicious - my eldest (16 yr old bottomless pit for a stomach boy...) would LOVE these, right up his street.ReplyDeleteReplies
Thank you Kate :-)Delete
This is interesting! They sound so lovely. #receipoftheweekReplyDeleteReplies
Thank you Eileen :-)Delete
Would never have thought of chili on a pancake - gives variety!ReplyDeleteReplies
It certainly does :-)Delete
These look fab and not something I would think of making! Thanks for linking up to #tastytuesdaysReplyDelete
Great idea, they look great #tastytuesdaysReplyDeleteReplies
Thanks Tina :-)Delete
We often eat sweet pancakes on Sunday morning and I always forget they are just as good in a savoury dish.ReplyDeleteReplies
Yeah, I was the same before we started having this.Delete
What a great pancake filling - my husband adores chilli beef so this would definitely get his vote. Thanks so much for linking up with #recipeoftheweek. I've pinned and tweeted this post. There's also a fresh linky live now so if you haven't popped over yet this week, please do!ReplyDeleteReplies
Thanks hun :-) This is one of my hubby's favourites too.Delete


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Three Pakistanis being probed for theft at Indian HCs houseDecember 10th, 2007 - 3:18 pm ICT by admin
Islamabad, Dec 10 (ANI): Police are investigating three Pakistanis employed at the residence of Indian High Commissioner in Islamabad, Satayabrata Pal, on charges of stealing a laptop and a briefcase last month.
"Yes, we are aware of this case and are pursuing the matter. We have narrowed the theft to three local Pakistanis, and are now questioning them. But no arrests have been made as yet," police sources said.
"We have also sent questionnaires to some Indian citizens inside the High Commission as well. We hope to get to the bottom of this theft soon," the sources added.
Meanwhile, Pakistan Foreign Office has criticised the theft at Pals residence, and said that this is not a good thing that has happened, as Pal is a guest in Pakistan.
This has happened despite the fact that there is heavy security outside the High Commission, and this is probably the first time that such a theft has taken place, The News reported.
Intelligence sources said that it is unlikely that Satayabrata Pal would have entered any sensitive material on his laptop, as both Indians and Pakistanis are extra careful about this issue.
The Indian Ministry of External Affairs had sent a team of its experts to Islamabad to probe the theft on the night of November 13 and 14.
A report about the stealing of a laptop and a briefcase from the residence of the Indian High Commissioner in Islamabad has been submitted to the Ministry of External Affairs.
According to Indian reports, two Pakistani sweepers and a gardener were working in the High Commissioners residence at the time of theft.
The thieves walked away with these two items only. (ANI)
Tags: briefcase, foreign office, gardener, hcs, heavy security, high commissioners, indian citizens, indian high commissioner, indian ministry, indians, intelligence sources, islamabad, ministry of external affairs, pakistanis, pals, police sources, questionnaires, sensitive material, sweepers, thieves


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This is not something to bash any player that has been labeled as a cheater or a user of PEDs but instead try to figure out why players in baseball are chastised for cheating more so than athletes of the other major leagues. If you're caught cheating, the players, the fans, and the sport writers will never let you live it down.
Now Ryan Braun made his life hard when he lied about taking PEDs. He even fooled his good friend from the Green Bay Packers, Aaron Rodgers, who publicly supported Braun, also making him look bad. Braun has paid his debt to the league, serving a 65 game suspension and lost $23.5 million but yet his name will never be clear.
As you can hear in the video, fans are not going to give Braun a break. The hatred for Braun is so strong, you can even hear a fan shouting out "CHEATER!!!!!" at the top of his lungs. I don't expect Phillies' fans to be great host to Braun and the Brewers but this is what he will hear every night for the rest of his career. Of course you can use it as motivation, but your name will now coincide with the word cheater. Even if Braun never fail another drug test, fans will still yell "CHEATER!!!!!!!"
Michael Pineda went super hard in his second start of the 2014 season. In his first win since 2011, Pineda pitched 6 innings with an ERA of 1.50, only allowing 4 hits. But during the 3rd and 4th inning, attention was drawn to Pinadas pitching hand, which looked to have pine tar on it. During those innings, Pineda strike out 3 and retired 5 of the 6 batters he faced. By the 5th inning the substance was gone and Pineda allowed a home run in the 7th before coming out the game.
After the game, everyone was trying to figure out was it pine tar or not because we all know that is illegal. Pine tar gives pitchers better grip and more control on the ball, which gives them an advantage. Pineda said it was dirt, which I don't believe, and manager Joe Giradi acted like he didn't know what was going on. The Red Sox didn't seem to upset about though, all the big names said it wasn't an issue but they didn't say they don't think it was pine tar. I'm not sure how the league will handle this but I don't think their going to just let it go.
If in fact Pineda was using pine tar, he too will be apart of a long group of chastised "cheaters" that have been outcast in the MLB. I do not support cheating but I don't think a players career should be based on one mess up and in baseball that happens a lot. Look at Peter Rose, never used PEDs but gambled on games as a manager, which is against baseball rules. That one mistake has kept him out of the baseball hall of fame, even though he is the All-time hit leader.
International sports such as track & field are also harsh on their players for cheating, athletes like Marion lost gold medals because of performance enhancements.
I don't think baseball should be so stringent on PED users when it comes to their carer. Their is no reason why Barry Bonds, Mark McGwire, Sammy Sosa, or anyone else from that "Steroid Era" as they like to call it shouldn't be enshrined in the baseball hall of fame. PEDs might help you get stronger, faster, and bigger, but they do not help you swing the bat better. You can be the strongest player in the world, but if you don't know how to swing a bat, you're not hitting 500+ home runs. I'm sure Ryan Braun is being tested after every game, and as a clean player he can still hit 3 home runs in a game. Its all about the swing.