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When Stiv Wilson was a sophomore at the University of Montana, he and his friends would get drunk on Carlo Rossi wine and steal light bulbs off porches at night.
The thefts weren't random. Wilson and crew would try to create simple geometric shapes out of the swaths of darkness they left behind across Missoula. Afterward they would climb a hill at the edge of campus to view their handiwork.
One night police busted Wilson. The judge was chuckling, Wilson recalls, as he handed down a small fine.
The prank, while mildly criminal, also embraced the kind of creativity, commitment and indifference to authority that mark Wilson's work today.
"A natural-born ringleader and happy instigator" is how Decemberists frontman Colin Meloy describes Wilson, his longtime friend.
"A rockstar," declares state Sen. Mark Hass—speaking not of Meloy but of Wilson.
Eighteen years after his Missoula bust, Wilson is on the verge of either a stunning victory or a shattering defeat in a battle he's been waging for four years. With Hass' help, he is seeking to ban from Oregon the ubiquitous plastic grocery bags that clog recycling machines, obstruct city sewers and take centuries to decompose. Oregonians use about a billion of them each year.
Wilson began pushing for a ban in 2007 after visiting a remote Oregon beach. He had parked his Vanagon off U.S. 101, picked up his surfboard and hiked for an hour south of Cape Lookout—only to find a stretch of sand littered with plastic lighters, toothbrushes, polyethylene sinks and bottles, some of them with Chinese characters.
Now Wilson has devoted himself full-time to fighting plastic pollution, sailing 14,000 nautical miles in the past year to document the stain of plastic on Earth's oceans.
"We're not trying to rid the world of plastic," Wilson says. "If I go to the hospital or want a tattoo, I sure as hell want the stuff. But so much of it lasts forever and is used for seconds. That's what we're trying to prevent."
If Hass' bill passes, it would arguably be the most groundbreaking piece of environmental legislation in Oregon since the state's pioneering 1971 bottle bill. The proposed ban is being closely watched by lobbyists and activists across the nation.
The bag ban has bipartisan support and is backed by grocers, but its fate is far from certain. The bill is currently tied up in a committee. Hass, a Democrat from suburban Washington County, puts the bill's chance of passing the Legislature at 50 percent.
If it succeeds, the victory will largely be due to Wilson's relentless grassroots advocacy. But if it fails, the loss can also be blamed—at least in part—on recently debunked claims about a Texas-sized garbage patch that Wilson and his fellow activists have played a part in propagating.
Wilson's story proves how much can be accomplished—especially in a state like Oregon—through sheer passion and commitment to a cause. But it's also a cautionary tale of how idealism can lead to overreach and exaggeration that can threaten even the most admirable of goals.
Wilson grew up in Minneapolis with staunch Republican parents—his mother was the head of an anti-abortion group. His given name is Stephen, but a childhood friend dubbed him Stiv (pronounced like "give"). The name stuck.
At the University of Montana, Wilson would take his friends sailing around Flathead Lake in a 19-foot wooden sloop.
"Stiv was like the Great Gatsby of Missoula, Montana, though I tend to think he was as broke as the rest of us," Meloy recalls. "He had that boat, and he lived by himself in a nice apartment with two big leather chairs, and he had a car—a Saab—which he would not neglect to remind you was designed by Swedish aeronautic engineers or some such shit."
Wilson moved to Portland with Meloy and other friends in 1998. They lived in a 2,000-square-foot studio space off Northeast Martin Luther King Jr. Boulevard. The goal, says Meloy: to start an art collective.
"It never really happened, but ideas about it were discussed at great length over beers at the Shanghai Tunnel, and it was always Stiv who presided," Meloy recalls. "You don't need to know Stiv for very long until you're suddenly roped into doing something ridiculous for him. And you're happy to do it."
While Meloy pursued music, Wilson tried writing. He staged a play, To Have and Have Had Hadley, and cranked out three novels—"all of which suck," Wilson observes. Money came from freelance writing (he was an occasional food critic for WW) and a job as a sous chef at the now-defunct Tuscany Grill.
In 2006 Wilson joined Wend, a Portland-based adventure magazine founded by his friend, Ian Marshall. Marshall made Wilson editor-in-chief, but he says Wilson's personality alienated some members of the publication's small staff.
"He's very committed and very opinionated," Marshall says, "which half the people adore and half the people hate."
The stress of working at Wend, Wilson says, was partly responsible for busting up his marriage to Molly Kramer, a college sweetheart who now works for the Oregon League of Conservation Voters. Five years after they wed, the couple split in 2010.
Today, Wilson lives in a one-bedroom Craftsman home in the Woodstock neighborhood with a roommate and Pork Chop, an 8-year-old Dalmatian-Labrador-Australian shepherd mix. The roommate has the bedroom, and Wilson crashes in the basement. Between freelancing and a full-time job with an environmental nonprofit, he pulls in a modest salary.
His house is cluttered with books (recent reads include The Structure of Scientific Revolutions by Thomas Kuhn and The Selfish Gene by Richard Dawkins). On a Tuesday afternoon last month the fridge held a bachelor's collection of assorted condiments, a carton of organic eggs and a plate of leftover sausages from Otto's (preferred by Wilson because they wrap food in wax paper, not plastic).
Out front is Wilsonâs Volkswagen Vanagon, with a Westfalia pop-up roof and a bumper sticker that says âNature Bats Last.â
Marshall taught Wilson to surf—his gangly limbs and tall frame made him a powerful paddler, and he excelled at the sport. Wilson joined the Portland chapter of Surfrider, a conservation group for surfers. It was his first foray into environmental activism.
After encountering the plastic garbage at the remote beach surfers know as Boy Scout Camp, Wilson made the plastics issue his own. And his lifestyle began to morph.
At restaurants, he began refusing carry-out food if it came in plastic boxes. He stopped using disposable razors. Plastic straws became verboten. And he started using paper instead of plastic bags to pick up after Pork Chop.
"Which is hardcore, I'll tell you what," Wilson deadpans.
It's to the point now where Wilson refuses to wash his hair because shampoo comes in plastic bottles.
"What's really funny is that a lot of my friends are afraid to use plastic around me," he says. âIâm not a Nazi. I realize we live in the world.â
Wilson came to believe that one major culprit could be easily eliminated—the plastic grocery bag.
"For me, it's the tip of the iceberg," he says. "It's not that difficult of a behavior to change. All the places that have done it [see context, below], there have not been riots in the streets."
Wilson took the idea to Surfrider, and the group signed on to push for a city-wide ban in Portland. In early 2009, Wilson approached the office of newly elected Mayor Sam Adams, still smarting from the Beau Breedlove scandal.
Adams' staff told Wilson the mayor was enthusiastic. But by spring 2010, Wilson says, he was growing frustrated with the lack of progress at City Hall.
So Wilson rallied other environmentalists to the cause. He and other volunteers launched a petition and letter-writing campaign, and they filled City Council chambers with supporters of a ban—including the spectacle of several people dressed as plastic-bag monsters.
Adams had enough votes on the Council. But at the last moment, Hass—the state senator from Washington County—persuaded Adams to hold off so Hass could seek a statewide ban. Adams' ordinance became a nonbinding resolution. It was a delay—perhaps ultimately, a defeat—snatched from certain victory.
But Wilson had already entered a wider battlefield in the fight against plastics pollution.
In early 2010, a nonprofit called the 5 Gyres Institute invited Wilson to sail on a 72-foot steel-hulled cutter from the Virgin Islands to the Azores to see how much plastic is bobbing in the North Atlantic Gyre—an enormous, swirling mass of water set in motion by currents and prevailing winds.
The inspiration came from a similar voyage in 1997 by a retired furniture refurbisher named Charles Moore who sailed across the North Pacific Gyre and reported seeing widespread plastic debris.
"I couldn't come on deck without seeing plastic waste," Moore told WW. "It impressed me to the point where I thought, 'I have to measure this.'"
Moore launched a publicity blitz to draw attention to the problem. In interviews with reporters, he described plastic littered across an area the size of the United States. Other scientists jumped on board, describing the gyre as an area twice the size of Texas. As Moore and his supporters tell it, it was the media that twisted those statements into reports of an enormous, floating island of plastic.
No one today seems able to pinpoint where the claim was first made. But the story was repeated in the mainstream press until it became an accepted fact.
The San Francisco Chronicle reported in 2007 on a "heap of debris floating in the Pacific that's twice the size of Texas." In a story published Nov. 28, 2009, The Oregonian called it "a flotilla of plastic and debris in the Pacific Ocean twice the size of Texas." Oprah Winfrey devoted an entire program to the issue. Sitting at a table stacked with jars of plastic waste, Oprah called the Pacific garbage patch âthe most shocking thing I have seen.â
Wilson says his first voyage with 5 Gyres confirmed that a similar problem exists on the opposite side of the globe, with plastic infesting the North Atlantic Gyre the same as in the North Pacific. In spring of last year he penned a long article for Wend entitled "Greetings from the North Atlantic Garbage Patch."
"It is often mistakenly referred to as a floating island the size of Texas or America—almost giving the impression that you could tie your boat up and live there quite comfortably for a while. But these descriptions, though media sexy, are a misnomer," Wilson wrote.
He continued: "Try to think of the plastic in the ocean as the lava in a lava lamp. If you could accumulate it all in one place, like the lava at the bottom of the lamp when you turn it off, the debris would become a mass about double the size of Texas."
Wilson quit his job at Wend and became communications director for 5 Gyres, which counts world-renowned environmentalist Bill McKibben on its board of advisers. Wilson serves as the organization's public face, prolific blogger and video producer.
"We found fish living in buckets, we found lots of shotgun shells, we found rollerblade wheels," Wilson says. "The ocean is so unbelievably huge, and everywhere you look, you find plastic. When I had the revelation of that type of scale, that's when I realized I had to work on this full-time."
In January of this year, Wilson was on another excursion checking on the South Atlantic Gyre with 5 Gyres (there are five major oceanic gyres across the planet, hence the name). Again, Wilson and the crew documented widespread plastic pollution, as seen in videos shot by Wilson (watch them at wweek.com).
While Wilson was on that trip at sea, there was trouble back on land.
On Jan. 14, Oregon State University sent out a thunderbolt of a press release. Angelicque "Angel" White, an assistant professor of oceanography at the Corvallis campus, called bullshit on the longstanding claim that the North Pacific garbage patch is twice the size of Texas.
"There is no doubt that the amount of plastic in the world's oceans is troubling, but this kind of exaggeration undermines the credibility of scientists," White wrote. She called the claim "grossly exaggerated" and said it threatens to "drive a wedge between the public and the scientific community."
Taking the highest amount of plastic ever reported at sea in previously published research, White calculated that if you pushed all of the plastic in the North Pacific together, it would actually be less than 1 percent the size of Texas.
In other words, somewhere between the size of Rhode Island and Delaware.
White's findings rocketed around the globe, with papers that had once trumpeted the Texas claim (including The Oregonian) rushing to print stories debunking a legend they had helped propagate.
White sailed the North Pacific on a research trip in 2008 and saw for herself there was no plastic island. She tells WW she was sick of hearing inaccurate claims—including, she says, from Adams when he was pushing for the bag ban in Portland.
"It's not just one source," White tells WW. "It's just pervasive."
It wasn't only reporters and politicians who had inflated the myth. Wilson and other environmentalists were also responsible. And some continue to perpetuate what White calls "hyperbole."
Even after White's work gained widespread circulation, the website for Environment Oregon for weeks prominently displayed the "twice the size of Texas" claim. The Greenpeace website still calls it "the size of Texas."
Asked repeatedly by WW whether making that claim hurts the conservation movement's credibility—as White maintains—Environment Oregon's Dave Mathews insists it does not.
"We recognize that there is a scientific debate," Mathews says. "Our fundamental message is still that there's way too much trash."
Keiller MacDuff, a spokeswoman for Greenpeace, defends the wording and says it makes the problem "meaningful" to the public. "They just mean that it's really freaking big," MacDuff says.
For his part, Wilson maintains the exaggeration was mostly the work of the media. Activists, he concedes, were guilty of failing to correcting the mistake.
"How do I characterize this to save a little face here?" Wilson says. "My thinking has changed on this in a year's time. I would never write that they would be twice the size of Texas today."
Wilson insists there's not enough data for White or anyone else to make authoritative claims about how much plastic is in the ocean. A key goal of the 5 Gyres expeditions, he says, is to gather more information and establish a baseline.
But now that the Texas-sized claim has been debunked, it threatens to sink Wilson's long-held dream of banning plastic bags.
"That's one of a dozen things that the plastics industry has seized upon to confuse Oregonians on this issue," says Hass. "It's very difficult when you've got an expensive, high-profile disinformation campaign to deal with."
At a hearing last month in front of the Senate Committee on Energy and Natural Resources, an employee for a large plastic-bag manufacturer called Hass' proposed bag ban a seriously misguided effort. One of his main arguments was White's release about the size of the Pacific garbage patch.
"The patch is hyperbole and an exaggeration that drives a wedge between public and scientific communities," said Roger Vingelen, a Portland employee of Hilex Poly, pulling his words straight from the White's press release.
Other opponents have seized on White's work to argue against the ban, including the editorial board at the Salem Statesman-Journal.
Of course, the issue is a red herring—plastic bags wouldn't be found on the ocean's surface because they sink. Instead, they've been reported to litter the seabed and foul anchors.
"It shouldn't be part of the debate at all," White herself says.
A central criticism of environmentalism—one voiced by conservationists and skeptics alike—is its seeming addiction to doomsday scenarios. A 1995 book by Gregg Easterbrook, a journalist sympathetic to environmentalists, argued that the movement damages itself by refusing to acknowledge its own success.
Wilson may be partly responsible for helping spread an exaggeration that could help defeat the bag ban. But he also recently saved the bill from a premature death.
Last month, Hass says he received an attractive offer from Hilex Poly. The company, he says, promised to build a recycling center in Oregon, creating jobs in a state starving for work. The tradeoff? Hass had to kill his bill and also pass a law preventing local bans. (Hilex Poly disputes that version.)
Torn by the offer, Hass phoned Wilson, who took the call on his living-room couch. Within minutes, Wilson had persuaded Hass to throw the offer back in the company's face.
"He just sort of brought me back to reality," Hass says. "It clearly helped convince me that these guys were not playing in a straightforward way. They were just trying to buy their way in."
Minutes after hanging up the phone with Wilson on Feb. 24, Hass dashed off a strongly worded letter to the company's president and CEO, Stanley Bikulege.
"Your offer goes against the grain of everything that makes Oregon special," Hass wrote. âMr. Bikulege, this is not how we do business. Oregon is not for sale.â
FACT: If Senate Bill 536 passes, Oregon would be the first state in the nation to ban plastic grocery bags. A statewide ban failed to pass in the California Legislature last year. Local bans are in effect in San Francisco and Los Angeles County as well as smaller cities in Florida and North Carolina. The nations of Italy, South Africa, Bangladesh and Thailand have bans.
Paper Or Plastic?
WW tested both kinds of bags for strength—holding beer, of course. Watch the results:
Bag Test from wweek.vimeo on Vimeo.


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Boston Bombing Suspect Caught: Kim Kardashian & More Tweet Reactions
The manhunt for the alleged Boston bombing suspects is finally over. After the second marathon bomber Dzhokhar Tsarnaev was captured and arrested on April 19 in Watertown, Mass., celebrities took to Twitter to express their feelings.
Justice was finally served after Boston police captured the surviving bomber Dzhokhar Tsarnaev on the night of April 19. Millions watched as authorities went on a 22-hour manhunt for Dzhokhar after he escaped a violent shootout with police early that same morning on April 19. As soon as the Boston Police surrounded and captured the 19 -year-old, celebrities took to their Twitter accounts to praise the police for their heroic deeds serving justice for all those killed and injured by the bombers' horrific actions.
Kim Kardashian, Nicki Minaj & More Tweet About Dzhokhar Tsarnaev's Arrest
Kim Kardashian: "Watching the news right now. This is insane. I'm glad they finally captured the 2nd suspect!!! #prayersforBoston"
Nicki Minaj: "Thank the Lord… RT
@Boston_Police Suspect in custody. Officers sweeping the area. Stand by for further info."
JWOWW: "Thoughts are with everyone in mass tonight." — with an instagram photo of her holding a sign that says "Prayers For Boston Boston Strong NJ <3 Boston"
Olivia Wilde:"So goddamn relieved. Boston, I love you. May the bars stay open til dawn."
Robin Roberts: "Suspect in custody. Tremendous relief. Remarkable united effort of law enforcement & the public. Thoughts w/families who lost loved ones. XO"
Rosie O'Donnell: "relief all around – answered prayers –
Oprah Winfrey: "Our hearts beat with yours, Boston."
Debra Messing: "THANK YOU Boston Police , FBI. And EVERY Hero that brought safety to the Boston area, and peace of mind to our entire country.
John Legend: "Came off stage to great news in Boston! What a relief."
Charlie Sheen: "Bravo..! RT @Boston_Police CAPTURED!!! The hunt is over. The search is done. The terror is over. And justice has won. Suspect in custody"
Eva Longoria: "Bostonians and all law enforcement did an amazing job. God bless Boston and hope you begin to heal…
Hollywoodlifers, what are you thoughts on the capture of the final Boston bomber suspect?
WATCH: Boston Bombing Suspect Killed in Shootout With Police
— Brittany Chanel Jackson

subset: commoncrawl


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Suspects liken driving into joggers to playing video game
CAPE GIRARDEAU, Mo. – Police in the southeast Missouri town of Cape Girardeau say two men accused of driving into a group of joggers likened it to playing a video game.
Three joggers suffered bumps and bruises Sunday morning when they were struck by a car. Police believe it was intentional
The suspects, 19-year-old Vincent Anderson of Little Rock, Ark., and 27-year-old Marcus Jones of Cotton Plant, Ark., are both jailed. Police say Anderson was driving a 1994 Ford Thunderbird that was reported stolen moments before the joggers were struck.
The Southeast Missourian (http://bit.ly/S9REzH ) reports that according to a probable cause statement, cellphone videos found with the suspects indicated they thought the experience was "fun" and likened it to the video game "Grand Theft Auto."


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Breech babies present with their bottoms down and their heads up. When a woman is 28 weeks pregnant, her baby has a 25% chance of being in the breech position. As the pregnancy progresses, the likelihood of a baby staying in the breech position gets smaller. At 33 weeks of pregnancy there is around a 5% chance of a breech presentation. At full-term around 3-4% of babies remain in the breech position. There are different types of breech babies and they are described by the position that they are in. There is the 'complete breech' which is where the baby sits cross legged. The "frank breech" where the baby's legs are straight and held flat against his/her body. There is the rare 'footling breech' where the baby's foot or feet are coming first (before their bottom). There is the very rare 'kneeling breech' where the baby is in a kneeling position.
Sometimes there are contributing reasons for the baby being in a breech position. Reasons like when the baby is born premature (remember the earlier the pregnancy, the more likely a baby is to be in the breech position.) Some women have a septum in their uterus. A septum is a structure that can divide the uterus. A septum makes it more difficult for the baby to settle into a head down position. If a woman has a growth in her pelvis such as a tumour or fibroid, this may also prevent the baby from turning to a head down position. Other reasons that increase the likelihood of a breech baby include: An abnormality of the baby, placenta praevia, multiple pregnancy, excessive amniotic fluid, unusual shape of a woman's pelvis or if the woman has very week or very tight abdominal muscles. However a breech baby can occur in a healthy woman with a healthy baby. In these cases a baby simply likes being the other way around.
A midwife or doctor can usually diagnose a breech baby during pregnancy, although occasionally it is not found until a woman is in labour. The midwife or doctor usually can feel the soft bottom near the pelvis and the baby's head somewhere in the upper abdomen. Often women who have a breech baby report that they feel a hard ball or a very sore spot under their ribs.
Though most breech babies will turn naturally before their due date, some remain in the breech position. It is then that the woman and her partner will be faced with choices on what to do regarding trying to turn the baby and what is the best way to give birth.
What is the best way for a breech baby to be born? A study called the Term Breech Trial endeavoured to answer this very question. The conclusion of the study reported that overall it was safer for full-term babies in the breech position to be born by a caesarean birth. While the study design has some serious flaws it resulted in many doctors recommending a caesarean for breech babies.
Since the results of the Term Breech trial were published the level of skill for midwives and doctors in assisting breech births has declined greatly. If you chose to have a vaginal breech birth you will need to seek a skilled birth attendant (and such a person may be difficult to find). You will also need to find out what type of breech is it? A complete breech has far less complications than a footling breech for example.
It is important to remember that both vaginal breech births and caesarean births carry risks. There is plenty of information both in books and on the internet about breech babies and breech births. There is a lot to consider when choosing the right option for birth and it is important to discuss the issues with the health professional providing your care.
The procedure where a doctor attempts to turn a breech baby to head down position is called an 'external cephalic version'. Research clearly supports that external cephalic version substantially reduces the number of babies who remain in the breech position. The research also says that an external cephalic version should not be done until the baby is full-term (at least 37 weeks). This helps reduce the number of babies who turn back to the breech position. During an external cephalic version a doctor manipulates the baby externally, through the woman's abdominal wall, to make the baby roll forwards or backwards. The doctor uses minimal force. Sometimes medication is given to help relax the woman's uterus. External cephalic version is not without risks. There is an increased risk of fetal distress, spontaneous rupture of membranes and problems with the placenta. The risks and benefits should be discussed with a doctor or midwife.
Acupuncture has been used successfully to turn breech babies. I have seen two well controlled research studies supporting its use. They found that acupuncture can successfully turn up to 70% of breech babies. Treatment can be commenced as early as 32 weeks. The most common treatments used by acupuncturists are moxibustion alone or moxibustion in combination with acupuncture. Moxibustion is a method of applying heat to an acupuncture point using a cigar-like stick of the dried herb moxa (Fursland, 1992). The acupuncture point used to turn breech babies is located just near the little toe. If choosing this method it is important to consult a qualified acupuncturist.
There are a number of alternative methods which have been used to assist the breech baby to turn. Pulsatilla, a homoeopathic remedy, has been claimed to be successful by some practitioners. Pulsatilla can be given as a single dose and helps stimulate the baby to move. To obtain Pulsatilla you would need to consult a qualified homoeopath.
Positioning has been recommended by some as a method to encourage the breech baby to turn. Balaskas (1989) recommend walking an hour a day. The theory behind this is that the baby's head is the heaviest part of the baby's body and will move down because of gravity. Another positioning technique that has been used is one that has the woman's bottom higher than her head. This type of position discourages the baby's bottom from settling into the pelvis. One way of doing this is by getting onto the floor in the hands and knees position and then place your head on the ground (known as the knee chest position). Try this exercise three times per day for 15 minutes at a time. There has been some uncontrolled studies that indicate this last method has a high incidence of breech babies turning. Further research on positioning techniques is needed, so we know if they are effective or not. Remember before commencing any treatment it is important to consult a qualified health professional.
(updated 27th January 2010)
6 comment(s) on this page. Add your own comment below.
My daughter at 38 weeks has been told her baby is in the breech position. She has reported that her pregnancy has been normal everything good etc ...................... She has also said movement occasional, placenta high . At 28 weeks she went back 3 times to get a 3D scan and 3x baby was hiding behind placenta each time. Yes I am an anxious granny to be but I am just wondering about making the links between what she has experienced so far and breech positioning at 38 weeks. And if anyone reads this advice about options at this late stage greatly appreciated
*my doctor consalted me about my baby being breeched, I walked to work that was 30min a day, and was on my feet all day everyday. I had a miscareshed and they said my servix was being forward, is that also a reason for my baby being breeched? I had a c-cut at the end, but my heart wanted to do normal birth.
As a practicing Chiropractor I have seen hundreds of breech presentations in 25 years and have about a 95% success rate using the Webster In-Utero Constraint Technique. It's a very simply procedure that looks to correct misalignments in the mother's pelvis which may be hindering the baby's ability to turn.
I don't find it very useful that this article contains both acupuncture and homeopathy as recommendations. Both of these pseudosciences have been proven to be no more beneficial that a placebo. In most cases the baby would have turned on its own - using homeopathy and acupuncture as they reason they did is more than likely anecdotal. This is a very anti-science approach and I fell you should amend it. Please anyone reading, talk to your doctor and obstetrician. Don't waste money on alternatives - including chiropractic. Another pseudoscience.
My 4th daughter was born footling breech at 40wks 4 days gestation via vaginal delivery. I had no psin relief or drugs etc. Labour was quick & prior to labour she was in Frank Breech position, changing to Footling while in labour. Midwives freaked and began getting me ready to have a c section, much to my dismay. But my waters broke & a foot was delivered, three midwives delivered her at 2am, healthy. Room full of medical staff on hand and the OR team in the hallway of delivery waiting to take me up to theatre. I was talk of the ward :)
James, the article was written by someone who is a midwife and who I believe discussed several popular (gaged by what is out in the cyberspace as discussion points and in several journals and textbooks) options which in her opinion/knowledge/experience and review of literature are considered options. In fact Jane cited several peer reviewed journal articles and textbooks; and in regards to what you term "pseudoscience" she has cited the well respected peer review publication - The Journal of the American Medical Association. However, more importantly Jane has closed her article with the best advice she can give and that is to warn readers to consult any of these methods with a qualified health consultant. As an academic myself, I see nothing wrong with her article she was simply writing about current practices in a Q&A kind of way! You on the other hand, whilst there may very well be truth in your opinion, as it stands it is simply that your opinion and has offered no respectable evidence to support such an opinion. So before you shoot the author and damage the reputation of alternative sciences (which are actually very well supported on this topic throughout a lot of the medical literature, albeit ranging from small to quite large percentages) please support your opinion with the evidence.


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Fuld is Making the Numbers Work for Him
Since the Tampa Bay Rays assembled
their full squad back in mid-February, Rays outfielder Sam Fuld has
been on my "watch list". Brought into the Rays fold via a trade
from the Chicago Cubs for Rays fire baller Matt Garza can be pressure
enough just to make the squad, but Fuld has seemed to be on some sort
of mission early on in this young 2011 season, or maybe it is just
part of his family linage.
Fuld comes from a family of high
achievers. His mother is a state Senator in the tiny state of New
Hampshire, his father a well respected member of academia as the Dean
of the College of Liberal Arts at the University of New Hampshire.
Fuld himself attended the brainiac Stanford University and interned
at Stats, Inc, which covers 85 International sports leagues
(including MLB) after his 2005 season with Peoria in the Midwest
League .
Number have always seemed to follow
Fuld, who graduated with a degree in Economics and always seemed to
have calculations ans statistics with him, even at a young age. His
mother, Senator Amanda Merrill proudly said,
"He didn't carry
around the typical teddy bear or worn-down baby blanket when he was
young. He carried a book of numbers. He had a baseball stats book
with him all of the time, like a security blanket. He kept the
history of the game and numbers. That's what he loved."
Before Opening Day in 2011, Fuld has
spent only 140 days on a Major League Baseball roster, but this
Spring and in the early stages of the 2011 season, Sam Fuld is
showing everyone around the MLB why this spunky 5'10 ( yeah right)
spark plug has been watched with such anticipation. His determination
and strive to achieve well above his vertical stature has him right
now on a mantel with the Rays Republic.
Not even 8 games into the 2011 season
and Fuld has constantly shown defensive plays that astonish and
amaze. His "superman" leap towards a dying liner hit by Chicago
White Sox outfielder Juan Pierre with the bases loaded as a firm
example of the lengths Fuld will go to give his Rays a chance to
celebrate nightly.
Pierre, hit the ball into the perfect
spot for not only extra bases, but a possible inside-the-park Grand
Slam, but the breakneck speed of Fuld, and a perfectly timed leap
instead left most fans at home and the assembled masses in U S
Cellular Field bewildered. You know you have done something truly
amazing when the home team fans stand up and cheer your play.
Statistically, Fuld should not of had
even a glove on that ball, but possibly being a fan of those same
numbers, Fuld knew the possibilities and still thrust himself
sideways on the Rightfield warning track region to bring in that
small white sphere.
Even after heading to the Rays dugout
after the conclusion of the bottom of the inning with Rays trainer
Paul Harker attending to his multiple scrapes and abrasions, the
magnitude of the moment probably had not hit Fuld yet. The play was
probably going to be the best defensive play not only for the Rays
but in the MLB so far in 2011, or until Fuld pulls off another daring
display of man versus gravity.
The wild part is so far in 2011, Fuld
has thrust himself also into the fold of the Rays Republic by making
defensive play after play early on this season, showing why Rays
Manager Joe Maddon and the staff selected him as the 25th
member of the Rays roster. I have a feeling Fuld never fretted about
the numbers game, he already knew his odds were good if he played "
his game".
Fuld's incredible run at the numbers
continues as he has already stolen his fifth base, which leads the
American League and is tied with Diamondback Willie Bloomquist and LA
Dodger Matt Kemp for the MLB lead. With 5 steals in his first 8
games, Fuld has done something only 2 other Rays have ever done:
Former Rays OF Carl Crawford had an MLB leading 6 SB after 8 games in
2004, and SS Julio Lugo had an MLB high 5 SB after 8 games back in
2005. While Fuld has had 3 20 SB seasons in the minors, he had only 2
total steals in 98 games over 3 seasons for the Cubs.
Fuld has already hit three times in the
revered Rays lead-off spot, garnered 2 outfield assists, ans is
wearing the past uniform number of another swift Rays outfielder who
retired from his playing days this past Spring. Only negatives you
can find right now is early on his usual BB/K ratio has taken a hit
as Fuld currently has 3 BB and 3 K's to his credit.
Over 5 of his past 6 professional
seasons, Fuld has usually totaled more walks than strikeouts. His
ratio of 66 Walks to 37 K's last season at Triple-A Iowa was the
second best in all of Triple-A baseball. Fuld has only struck out
more than once in 7 of his 301 games.
This might be the only part of his game
right now that begs for improvement, but considering Fuld is on his
first run through the American League, some adjustments might be in
order. Fuld has already provided some extreme bright spots for the
Rays so far in the 2011 season. Most might think his offensive game
needs tweaking, but his defensive format is perfect for the Rays.
Even during this White Sox series, Fuld
has seemed to be at precisely the right outfield position at the
right time to make a hard play seem simple, or even an amazing play
just jump off the page at you. Much like former Rays OF Rocco
Baldelli who did the same thing for so long in a Rays uniform wearing
the same number 5. Maybe Fuld does understand the numbers……Hmmm?
33 Comments
Interesting to read about Fuld's background. That's quite a pedigree he's got! Hopefully he can prove to be a good fit for the Rays.
So far he has proven to be a nice base stealing alternative, plus has made more than a few nifty defensive plays to keep himself in the Rays line-up.
Now all he needs is the Rays 2-3-4 hitters get some contact, then he will get the additional "stats" to have Fantasy owners take notice.
Rays Renegade
The guy looks like superman in the one photo. Wow. Get that kid a cape!
My heart my lie with my ChiSox, so you and I would have been at odds at the game this week, but I don't have anything but praise for Fuld during this series. He's definitely one to watch. I know I'll be keeping my ears and eyes open as the season progresses. Great post.
My heart my lie with my ChiSox, so you and I would have been at odds at the game this week, but I don't have anything but praise for Fuld during this series. He's definitely one to watch. I know I'll be keeping my ears and eyes open as the season progresses. Great post.
My heart my lie with my ChiSox, so you and I would have been at odds at the game this week, but I don't have anything but praise for Fuld during this series. He's definitely one to watch. I know I'll be keeping my ears and eyes open as the season progresses. Great post.
My heart my lie with my ChiSox, so you and I would have been at odds at the game this week, but I don't have anything but praise for Fuld during this series. He's definitely one to watch. I know I'll be keeping my ears and eyes open as the season progresses. Great post.
Got word there might be an old Rays kids promotion hanging in Fuld's locker when he gets to Fenway……I knew that Rays "Superman-type cape would come in handy some day.
Rays Renegade
Got nothing but respect for ex-Ray player, current Head Sox Ozzie and his crew. They have always been a tough team to get leads off of, and victory have come in short supply at US Cellular Field.
I can tell you loved the classy move by the White Sox faithful of applauding Fuld's attempt. In that other "Sox town", they would have heckeld him for not catching it on his feet while sitting on their hands.
Stay classy Southside.
Rays Renegade
Oh I love smart guys that can play. All he needs is the glasses to look like Superman like Jenn said.
Maybe I will try and find an extra pair of the promo Maddon thick black glasses (He went to a thinner pair this season).
Maybe I can get someone to monogram them with Fuld's initials….customized so they do not get lost in the shuffle.
Rays Renegade
Fuld will be missed here in Chicago. He was just the odd man out in a situation with way too many outfielders. I'm glad he's getting the chance to play everyday. He's as hardworking a player as I've seen… and I will fondly remember his many daredevil plays in the outfield with the Cubs. Good luck Fuld. It was hard to see you go.
Fuld already is doing the daredevil label justice. scraped up his entire forearm on that play Sat against Juan Pierre…Heck, if he was 2 inches taller, he would of robbed a Home Run off Beckham on Sunday…….Like his fire, and his ability to scoot around the bases.
Rays Renegade
I finally found the video, for your SuperFuld viewing pleasure. This was our very first glimpse of Sam as a September callup *BOUNCING* off of the bricks in Wrigley (9/22/2007).
Just as I was reading this, he laid out and made another diving catch at Fenway. Looks like the Rays are getting some much-needed offense tonight as well!
As I am writing this, Fuld just hit a triple……only needs a single for a cycle……
The Rays do not have to get "up" to play the Red Sox. They know every win puts the Red Sox another game back, or tonight, ties them again with the Rays in the cellar…with 2 to go….
Rays Renegade
I remember seeing him last year in Iowa. The fans there really seemed to like this guy, and why shouldn't they have. He could be the spark plug the Rays need.
'Minoring In Baseball'
Plays like that are starting to look routine for him. Hope his dynamic plays doesn't get stereotyped into his " dramatics" being more important than his " ability"
Would hate to have people label him a gimmick or showboat when he is truly hustling and doing his thing on the field.
Heck, even the ball he missed last night was just a touch out of his reach….Maybe if he was really 5'10"?
Rays Renegade
Sam Fuld is a great pick up. We kind of miss him with the Cubs.
—Mark Gauthier
The Cubs love to give away good players… it's their m.o.
This post was spot on for last night's game, too.
HR, triple, double… double… Lots more numbers to add to the list. He's on a hot streak right now and it's exciting to see.
This post was spot on for last night's game, too.
HR, triple, double… double… Lots more numbers to add to the list. He's on a hot streak right now and it's exciting to see.
Why the Sigh, Renegade? :) I'm with you. He's a great young player, and I wish we'd had a roster spot for him the last few years. I'm glad he's got a place to play now, he was wasted in Iowa.
I saw a replay of that catch against Pierre – wow! But, ow, that's gotta hurt!
Rants, Raves, and Random Thoughts
Loved that VIDEO.
Always thought the IVY was tougher than that….Guess Fuld show it who's da BOSS.
Seriously, the guy is a human highlight reel. Even the simple ones (like the last photo) seem to just pop out at you.
Rays Renegade
We gave you guys the human "Duke Blue Devil", complete with chin hair.
Heck, Fuld gave me his SPPD cap on Spring Training Opening Day…
That cap flew with me to San Francisco and did the I-10 roadtrip on my dashboard.
So I gotta like him…..right?
Rays Renegade
Excellent post on Fuld! I loved him with the Cubs and still love him with the Rays. He's one of those players that I enjoy watching play.
Think the Cubs are the "impulse Shoppers" of MLB. Always seem to be looking either for a bargain, or a player who will take them to that next level.
Some have worked, some have been Fukedome's
Rays Renegade
Every season the Rays have been able to put out a player or rookie who turns a few heads. The Rays actually had 2 of them on the field last night Fuld and starter Jeremy Hellickson.
By the end of the season, Hellickson might be the reason James Shields is on another team…just a hunch.
Other good Triple-A pitchers waiting impatiently in the wings.
Rays Renegade
As much as I am also caught up in the Fuld maddness, his success will damper a Desmond Jennings or JUstin Ruggiano promotion.
Plus, I thought Chris Carter had a heck of a Spring, and Fuld beat him out….Tells you how much the Rays like Fuld.
Rays Renegade
Even Superman had a few bumps and bruises, of course that was after he got spiked by Kryptonite. Fuld is the Rays "lunchpail" guy for 2011.
Brings his lunch to work and plans on staying all day…my kind of player.
Rays Renegade
Even Superman had a few bumps and bruises, of course that was after he got spiked by Kryptonite. Fuld is the Rays "lunchpail" guy for 2011.
Brings his lunch to work and plans on staying all day…my kind of player.
Rays Renegade
I just think Fuld is a stand-up guy. He is really good with the fans, plus had a nice group ( about 60 people) come down to Fenway and watch him play against the Red Sox….Got to love hometown support.
Rays Renegade


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Anales de la Asociación Química Argentina
Print version ISSN 0365-0375
An. Asoc. Quím. Argent. vol.94 no.1-3 Buenos Aires Jan./July 2006
A study by molecular dynamics simulation of the effect of the ionic strength on the properties of a model DPPC/DPPS asymmetric membrane.
López Cascales, J.J. *
Universidad Politécnica de Cartagena, Centro de Electroquímica y Materiales Inteligentes (CEMI), Aulario II, Campus de Alfonso XIII, 30203 Cartagena, Murcia, Spain.
FAX: +34-968-325932, E-Mail: email@example.com
Received April 28th, 2006. In final form June 5th, 2006
Dedicated to Prof. Imre G. Csizmadia on the occasion of his 75th birthday
In this work we focused our interest on the study of the effect of the ionic strength of the solution on the properties of the lipids that form an asymmetric membrane composed by DPPC and DPPS-. The Molecular Dynamics Simulation was the simulation technique chosen to carry out the study. The asymmetry in the lipid bilayer was generated by placing the charged lipids (DPPS-) in only one of the two leaflets of the membrane. In the opposite leaflet, the layer was composed only by neutral lipids (DPPC). The ionic strength of the aqueous solution was simulated at two different concentrations of NaCl, corresponding to 0.25 and 0.5 M. From the analysis of the simulated trajectories, information related to steady and dynamics properties of the system with atomic detail was obtained. Thus, the translational diffusion coefficient of the lipids, lipid head orientation, lipid hydration or the structure of the hydrocarbon zone of the membrane has been studied.
En el presente trabajo, nuestro interés ha estado centrado en el estudio del efecto de la fuerza iónica de una solución acuosa sobre las propiedades de los lípidos que constituyen un modelo de membrana asimétrica compuesta por DPPC y DPPS-, mediante la técnica de simulación de dinámica molecular. El modelo de membrana fue generada al distribuir asimétricamente las moléculas de DPPS- en una de las dos capas de lípidos que forman la membrana. El efecto de la fuerza iónica fue estudiada para dos concentraciones diferentes de NaCl (0.25 y 0.5 M). Del análisis de las trayectorias de simulación generadas se obtuvo información con resolución atómica de diferentes propiedades tanto estacionarias como dinámicas de los lípidos en ambos lados de la membrana, tales como el coeficiente de difusión translacional, la orientación de las cabezas lipídicas respecto a la normal a la membrana o la ordenación de la membrana en su zona hidrocarbonada.
Phospholipids play a crucial role in biological cells controlling the diffusion of small molecules between the interior and the exterior of the membrane, and providing a proper environment for other molecules embedded or anchored to the membrane [1], such as proteins, polysaccharides, and others. In addition, in eukaryotic cells, lipids are asymmetrically distributed between both leaflets of the membrane cell. Thus, the phosphatidylserine (PS) lipids are asymmetrically located in the inner leaflet of the membrane where the lost of this asymmetry seems to be a hallmark of the early stages of the cell apoptosis and thus, dying cells are removed from the blood stream [2].
In this work, we focused our interest on the study of the behavior of an asymmetric lipid membrane composed by DPPC and DPPS-, at different ionic strength in an aqueous solution. In this setting, Molecular Dynamics Simulation [3,4] is the computational technique used for obtaining information with atomic detail of the behavior of the different components forming the system. Thus, during the last decades, numerous articles have been published in the field of MD simulations of symmetric bilayers [5,6,7,8,9,10]. More recently, with the improving of program codes and the raising of computing power, longer trajectories and bigger systems have been achievable [11,12] to further studies. However, the common point of all these works is related to the fact that all of them correspond to studies of symmetric membranes were the same type of phospholipids were distributed in both leaflets of the membrane. However, the study of asymmetric bilayers is crucial due to its relevance to biological membranes. In this setting and on the basis of the recently work of López Cascales et al. [13] in which a model of asymmetrical phospholipid bilayer has been developed, in this work we focused our interest on the study of the effect of the ionic strength of an aqueous solutions on the properties of the membrane.
Among other properties, the lipid hydration, lipid-lipid charge bridge interactions, atomic density across the membrane, lipid head orientation and translational diffusion coefficient of lipids will be investigated.
Method and models
With the goal of studying the effect of the ionic strength on the lipid properties in the membrane, four different simulations were carried out:
1. DPPC bilayer in water, divided in two layers of 36 DPPC lipids each.
2. 54DPPC/12 DPPS-/12Na+ in water divided in two leaflets of 30 DPPC in the first leaflet and 12 DPPS plus 24 DPPC in the second one.
3. 54DPPC/12 DPPS-/12Na+, in a 0.25M NaCl aqueous solution, with lipid distributed on both leaflets like in case 2.
4. 54DPPC/12 DPPS-/12Na+, in a 0.5M NaCl aqueous solution, with lipid distributed on both leaflets like in case 2The DPPC bilayer was generated as follows: A three dimension periodical system was generated, starting from a single DPPC molecule, figure 1, placed perpendicularly to the water layer. This DPPC molecule was randomly rotated and copied 36 times in both leaflets of the bilayer. The existing gap above and below the lipid bilayer was filled with 2501 water molecules from an steady and well equilibrated computing box of water of the SPCE water model [14].
The system composed by 54DPPC/ 12DPPS- / 12Na+, 12 DPPC were randomly substituted by 12 DPPS-, figure 1, in one of the two leaflets. In the another leaflet (composed only by DPPC), 6 DPPC molecules were removed so as to reproduce the surface area of a pure DPPC bilayer. Next, 12 water molecules were substituted by 12 Na+ to maintain the charge-balance of the system.
Figure 1. Atomic numbering of a single DPPC and DPPS lipid, such as they will be referred to in this article
The other two systems corresponding to 0.25M and 0.5 M in NaCl in aqueous solution, 24 and 48 additional water molecules were substituted by 24 (12 Na+ + 12 Cl-) and 48 (24 Na+ + 24 Cl-) Na respectively. figure 2 depicts a snapshot of the systems generated following the procedure described above.
Figure 2. A snapshot of the DPPC+ DPPS- bilayer. Big dark beads correspond to sodium ions (Na+), medium size light beads to chloride ions (Cl-)
and small gray beads to water molecules. DPPS- are plotted by sticks and DPPC by wire-frames
The engine of the MD simulations described in this work was the GROMACS 3.1.4 package [15,16]. The force field parameters used to run the simulations were the previously proposed by Marrink et al. [8] and Lopez Cascales et al. [10] in previous simulations of pure bilayers of DPPC and DPPS-. The electrostatic interactions were evaluated using the particle mesh Ewald method [17,18], using a 0.9 nm cutoff and the reciprocal space interactions were evaluated on a 0.12 nm grid with a fourth order spline interpolation.
After a steepest descent energy minimization procedure was applied to the whole system, 500 ps of simulation was carried out at the temperature of 500 K to remove undesired interaction between neighboring atoms. In this case, the leap frog integrator algorithm was used, with a time step of 4 fs (femtoseconds). The temperature coupling time was of 0.1 ps, and an anisotropic pressure external bath of 1 atm, with a coupling constant of 0.5 ps [19] was used. Finally, 20 ns of trajectory length was carried out at the temperature of 350K, well above those of the transition temperature 314 and 326 K for bilayers of DPPC [20,21] and DPPS- [22,23] bilayers in their liquid crystalline respectively.
In this setting, the first 5000 ps of our generated trajectories were discarded, due to the fact that this part of the trajectory was required to equilibrate the systems, in a good agreement with our previous simulations [13]. The data from the last 15 ns of the trajectories were used to extract the properties that are presented in this work. All the simulations were carried out on a parallel HP ES 45 cluster Alpha Server with four processors, 3 days of intensive computing was required for each simulation.
Results and discussion
Membrane structure
From the surface area of the DPPC of the leaflet in absence of DPPS-, the following values were obtained: 0.703, 0.68, 0.64 and 0.65. Each of these values corresponds to each of the four cases studied in this work: DPPC bilayer, asymmetric DPPC/DPPS bilayer in absence of salt, asymmetric bilayer with a 0.25M and 0.5M in NaCl respectively. We observe how the surface area of the DPPC bilayer agrees with the experimental results of a DPPC bilayers in absence of salt, considering the spread of results that we can get from the bibliography [24]. For the neutral DPPC/DPPS membrane in the absence of salt, we observe how we are able to reproduce the surface are of a DPPC bilayer, avoiding the presence of artifacts in our simulations. Finally, for the two simulations corresponding to 0.25 and 0.5M in NaCl, a shrinking of the lipid surface is measured compared with the two other cases, which are in a good agreement with the reported results of DPPC bilayers in presence of salt [11,12]. In this regard, we must remark how for the case of 0.25M, it seems as if the system would have reached a saturation point compared with the case of 0.5M in NaCl
Figure 3 displays the atomic density across the phospholipid bilayers for the system at different salt concentrations. This figure shows how the asymmetry of the system, due to the presence of DPPS- in only one of the two leaflets, introduces a certain dehydration and asymmetry in the membrane, compared with a symmetric DPPC bilayer. This dehydration is enhanced by increasing the concentration of NaCl. This effect appears to be due to sodium ions displacing solvating water molecules and lipid-lipid bridge interactions between neighboring lipids.
Figure 3. Atomic density across the asymmetric lipid bilayer. The density of the DPPC bilayer was overlapped
on the different figures to observe the respective changes.
The radial distribution function g(r) is often employed to identify close interactions between neighboring atoms. In this regard, the radial distribution function g(r) is defined as:
g(r) = N(r)/ 4pr2rdr (1)
where, N(r) is the number of atoms in a spherical shell at distance r and thickness dr from a reference atom, and r is the number density taken as the ratio of atoms to the volume of the computing box.
To analyze the hydration under different salt concentration in both leaflets of the membrane, we calculated the g(r) around one of the two oxygens of the phosphate oxygen group (atom number 10 in figure 1). From numerical integration of the area of the radial distribution function under the first peak, we are able to obtain the hydration numbers around the atom 10 (phosphate oxygen) of the DPPC. Thus the values of 2.06, 1.95 and 1.96 were obtained for the above mentioned atom of DPPC in the leaflet without DPPS- and 1.96, 1.90 and 1.91 for DPPC in the leaflet with DPPS-, corresponding to the three studied cases: in the absence of salt, 0.25M and 0.5M of sodium chloride (NaCl) respectively. Concerning the DPPS-, we obtained the hydration numbers of 2.13, 1.97 and 2.03 for the same atom 10 (phosphate oxygen) in the absence of salt, 0.25M and 0.5M respectively. The simulations indicate that in all the cases, the DPPS- is slightly more hydrated than DPPC and almost no dehydration was observed from our simulations for the oxygen carbonyl group with the salt concentration.
In addition, to explore on the charge bridge between phospholipid-phospholipid, the radial distribution function g(r) was also used. Thus, the NH3 of the DPPS- (atom 1 in figure 1) was taken as the reference atom to calculate the radial distribution function, and several oxygen atoms of the DPPC as the atoms of coordination. figure 4 depicts the radial distribution function of two different DPPC atoms around the NH3 group: phosphate oxygen (atom 10, figure 1), and carbonyl oxygen group (atom 16, figure 1) corresponding to one of the two lipid tails. In the both cases, the bridges between neighboring lipids are strongly affected by the salt in solution. Thus, the bridges between the NH3 of the DPPS- and the phosphate oxygen and the oxygen carbonyl group depend of the salt concentration in solution: higher salt concentration promote the bridge formation for the deepest atoms of the membrane (oxygen of the carbonyl groups) but for lower salt concentration, bridge charges with phosphate oxygen groups prevail over the carbonyl groups. This effect is strongly related to the fact that higher salt concentration promotes the cation penetration inside the membrane and thus, the bridges with the carbonyl groups, in good agreement with the results proposed by Berkowitz et al [11] from a mixed bilayer of DPPC and DPPS.
Figure 4. Radial distribution function of several DPPC oxygens around the NH3 of the DPPS-, for several concentrations of NaCl.
As a consequence of the lipid-lipid and lipid-ion interactions, figure 5 depicts the distribution of head group center-of-mass for the leaflet containing DPPS-, in the presence and in the absence of NaCl salt. It appears that the presence of the salt induces the formation of domains, presumably due to cross-linking of the anionic DPPS- head group by sodium cations. Hence and due to this inhomogeneous distribution of lipids on the leaflet, transient domains with different density, hydration and electrostatic charge emerge in the leaflet.
Figure 5. DPPC and DPPS head distribution on the leaflet 2 containing DPPC and DPPS without NaCl (left)
and with 0.25M NaCl (right) respectively. DPPC (O) and DPPS (•)
With the goal of gaining an insight related the structure of the hydrocarbon zone of the lipid membrane, the deuterium order parameter SCD has been used. Thus, the order parameter -SCD is an experimental measurement of the disorder of a membrane, measured from NMR experiments. This order parameter is associated with the orientation of the hydrogen of a CH2 group with respect to the normal to the lipid bilayer. Due to the fact that our simulations do not explicitly take into account the hydrogens of the CH2 groups, the order parameter -SCD on the i +1 CH2 was defined as the unitary vector normal to the vector defined from the i to the i+2 CH2 group and contained in the plane formed by the groups i, i+1, and i+2. As a consequence, the -SCD on the ith CH2 was defined as follows:
-SCD = (3 cos2(q) - 1)/2 (2)
Where q is the angle substended by the unitary vector defined above and the Z axis. Note that the -SCD can adopt any value in a range from -0.5 (which corresponds to parallel to the lipid/water interface) to 1 (oriented along the normal to the membrane surface).
In this regard, Seelig et al. [20] and Browning et al. [25] provided experimental data of the order parameters of DPPC and DPPS- bilayers respectively, obtained from NMR experiments. The deuteron quadrupole splitting is related to the order parameter -SCD as follows:
DvQ = - ( 6e2qQ/8h )SCD (3)
where eq is the electrostatic field gradient parallel to the C-D bond direction in the laboratory coordinate frame, e is the electric charge of the electron, Q is the nuclear quadrupole moment and h is the Planck constant. The deuteron quadrupole constant e2qQ/h has been found to be 170 kHz [20,25]. Considering this value, we were able to obtain the order parameters that are introduced below.
Figure 6 shows the results obtained from simulation compared with the experimental data [26] obtained from NMR experiments of a DPPC bilayer at the temperature of 350K. Thus, for the leaflet containing only DPPC, we observe a perfect agreement between simulation and experimental data in the DPPC bilayer and asymmetric DPPC/DPPS bilayer in the absence of NaCl.
Figure 6. DPPC order parameter for both lipid leaflets: (a) corresponds to leaflet 1 without DPPS lipids and (b) corresponds to leaflet 2 with DPPS. Circles refer to our simulation results of the DPPC bilayer and stars to the experimental results of a DPPC bilayer [26].
When the salt concentration increased, the order parameters of DPPC placed in the leaflet in absence of DPPS increased, in good agreement with the simulation results of Berkowitz et al. [11] for a DPPC bilayer in the presence of NaCl. On the other hand, the order parameters of DPPC placed in the leaflet containing DPPS-, the presence of DPPS rises up the order parameter of the DPPC, compared with the values from the other leaflet, where there were only DPPC molecules. In all the cases, we obtained a good correlation between the increasing in the order parameter of the lipid hydrocarbon tails and the shrinking of the area per lipid head obtained above. On the other hand, focusing our interest on the order parameters of the DPPS- with the salt concentration, figure 7 compares the variation of simulated and experimental order parameters of the DPPS hydrocarbon tails at different salt concentrations [25]. In this regard, we must point out the good agreement found between the simulation results and the experimental data in the absence of salt. In this case, the DPPS- order parameters follow a similar trend to that obtained for the POPS- [27] in the presence of salt, where the order parameter increases with the salt concentration.
Figure 7. DPPS- order parameter. Symbol * refers to experimental results [25].
Another aspect that was explored in this work was related to the lipid headgroup orientation as a function of salt concentration. In this regard, an angle q was defined as the angle of P-N vector of the lipid-heads with the outward normal of the bilayer. Thus, figure 8 depicts the angle distribution function for the asymmetric membrane. The leaflet composed by DPPC in absence of DPPS was called as leaflet 1, and the leaflet containing DPPS as leaflet 2. Our results agree with previous results [11,12] where they measure that P-N angle remains parallel to the membrane surface independently of the salt concentration.
Figure 8. Distribution of the angle between the vector joining the P-N vector of DPPC and the outward normal of the bilayer on both asymmetric phospholipid leaflets. Leaflet 2 correspond to the lipid layer composed by DPPC+ DPPS- and the leaflet 1 to the formed only by DPPC
Table 1 shows the mean angle q of DPPC in both leaflets. In this regard, a slight reduction of less than 5 degrees in the tilt of the P-N vector was estimated compared with the angle measured for a symmetric DPPC membrane. In this sense, we must remark that even when the mean angle remained almost invariable with the salt concentration, the shape of the angular distribution function of the DPPC (in the leaflet in presence of DPPS-) changed with the variation of the salt concentration. However, for the leaflet in absence of DPPS-, neither the mean angle nor the shape of the angular distribution function of the lipid head orientation was affected by the salt concentration in the range of ionic strength studied.
Table 1. Mean angle between the vector joining the P-N of the DPPC lipid head group and the outward normal to the lipid bilayer.
Translational diffusion coefficient of phospholipids.
Concerning the study of the effect of salt concentration on the dynamic properties of the lipids, we focused our interest on the study of the translational diffusion coefficient Dt of lipids in the membrane plane. This property can be calculated from the mean of the free square displacement of the center of mass of the lipids as follows:
< x2 + y2> = 4Dtlat t, (4)
< z2 > = 2Dttranv t
Where the x and y axes correspond to the axes on the membrane plane and the z axis is perpendicular to the membrane plane. However, in the case of a bilayer, a free displacement can be only considered in the x-y plane. The translational diffusion coefficient along the z axis is not relevant in these simulations because it doesn't fit to the explicit condition imposed by equation 4. Thus, discarding the first 1000 ps of simulation where rapid motions of the lipids take place associated to vibrational motions, instead of diffusive processes, we are able to estimate the translational diffusion coefficient of DPPC in both leaflets of the membrane for different salt concentrations. table 2 depicts the calculated diffusion coefficients on both leaflets at different salt concentrations. These data show that, in the leaflet without DPPS-, the translational diffusion coefficient of DPPC remains unaltered with the presence of salt. On the other hand, the diffusion of DPPC in the leaflet with DPPS-, increases from 1.19x10-6 cm2/s in the absence of salt to 1.85x10-6 cm2/s (around a 55 %) at 0.5M in NaCl. This behavior maybe related to the breaking of DPPC/DPPS- charge bridge interactions between neighboring lipids such as we described above, increasing in this way the freedom of the lipids to move on the lipid plane. Related the diffusion of DPPS-, the diffusion coefficient remained constant with the salt concentration. Even when these values are typically one order of magnitude higher than the experimental ones Dxy ~ 10-7-10-8 cm2/s [1]), we must consider the difference in temperature at which we performed our simulations.
Table 2. Translational diffusion coefficient in cm2/s parallel to the membrane plane. Leaflet 1 and 2 corresponds to the leaflets without and with DPPS respectively.
An asymmetric lipid membrane was studied by Molecular Dynamics simulations from several equilibrated models with atomic detail. From the analysis of the simulated trajectories, we realized the effect of the ionic strength of the solution on the structure of a model biological membrane. Thus, from our simulations, we observed how each leaflet of the lipid membrane follows a different behavior with the variation of the salt concentration. Thus, the first conclusion of this work is related to the fact that the behavior of the DPPC molecules on both leaflets behaves almost independently of each other. This conclusion was obtained after comparison of the translational diffusion coefficient, lipid head orientation, lipid-lipid interactions, lipid hydration and order parameters of DPPC in both leaflets.
In this sense, the presence of a charged lipid DPPS- in one of the two leaflets modified noticeably the properties of the neutral DPPC (sharing the same leaflet) compared with the DPPC of the opposite leaflet in the absence of DPPS-. This different behavior between DPPC of opposite leaflets arises from the ionic strength of the solution for both, dynamic and steady properties of the lipids. In this regard, the presence of salt in solution diminished the lipid-lipid interaction between neighboring lipids and as a consequence, an increasing of the translational diffusion coefficient of the DPPC was measured. In addition, a dehydrating of the lipid heads was evidenced when the salt concentration increased.
In summary, an increasing of the salt concentration perturbed the properties of the lipid in each leaflets, and on the other hand, each leaflet follows an independent behavior, in that the changes in one leaflet didn't correlate with the lipid behavior of the other.
The author acknowledges the Spanish Ministry of Education and the Seneca Foundation of the Murcia Region for financial support, projects BQU-2001/0477 and AR-8-0271/FS/02, respectively.
[1] Yagle, P. Ed. The structure of Biological Membranes; CRC Press, Inc.,1991. [ Links ]
[2] Fadok, V.; Bratton, D.; Rose, D.; Pearson, A.; Ezekewitz, R.; Henson, P. Nature 2000, 405, 85. [ Links ]
[3] van Gunsteren, W.F.; Berendsen, H.J.C., Angew. Chem Int. (Ed. Engl.), 1990, 29, 992. [ Links ]
[4] Frenkel, D.; Smit, B., Understanding Molecular Simulations; Academic Press, 2002. [ Links ]
[5] Bassolino-Klimas, D.; Alper, H.; Stouch, T., Biochemistry 1993, 32, 12624. [ Links ]
[6] Heller, H., Schaefer, M.; Schulten, K., J. Phys. Chem. 2003, 97, 8343. [ Links ]
[7] Alper, H.; E. Bassolino-Klimas, D.; Stouch, T.R., J. Chem. Phys. 1993, 99, 5554. [ Links ]
[8] Egberts, E.; Marrink, S.J.; Berendsen, H.J.C., Eur. Biophys. J. 1994, 22, 423. [ Links ]
[9] Tieleman, D.; Marrink, S.J.; Berendsen, H.J.C., Biochemica et Biophysica Acta (BBA) 1994, 1331, 235. [ Links ]
[10] López Cascales, J.J.; García de la Torre, J.; Marrink, S.J.; Berendsen, H.J.C., J. Chem. Phys. 1996, 104, 2713. [ Links ]
[11] Pandit, S.; Bostick, D.; Berkowitz, M., Biophysical Journal 2003, 84, 3743. [ Links ]
[12] Sachs, J.; Nanda, H.; Petrache, H.; Woolf, T., Biophysical Journal 1980, 86, 3772. [ Links ]
[13] López Cascales, J.J.; Otero, T.F.; Smith, B.; Gonzalez, C.; Marquez, M., J. Phys. Chem. B 2006, 110, 2358. [ Links ]
[14] Berendsen, H.J.C.; Grigera, J.; Straatsma, T., J. Phys. Chem. 1987, 91, 6269. [ Links ]
[15] Lindahl, E.; Hess, B.; van der Spoel, D., J. Mol. Mod. 2001, 7, 306. [ Links ]
[16] Berendsen, H.J.C.; van der Spoel, D.; van Drunen, R., Comp. Phys. Comm. 1995, 91, 43. [ Links ]
[17] Darden, T.; York, D.; Pedersen, L., J. Chem. Phys. 1993, 98, 10089. [ Links ]
[18] Essmann, U.; Perea, L.; Berkowitz, M.; Darden, T.; Lee, H.; Pedersen, L., J. Chem. Phys. 1995, 103, 8577. [ Links ]
[19] Berendsen, H.J.C.; Postma, J.P.M.; van Gunsteren, W.F.; DiNola, A.; Haak, J.R., J. Chem. Phys. 1984, 8, 3684. [ Links ]
[20] Seelig, A. Seelig, J. Biochemistry 1974, 23, 4839. [ Links ]
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text:
Gov. Tom Wolf took office after running on a platform embracing clean energy, but coupled with the reality that he will have to work with a strongly conservative legislature to develop joint priorities on energy and policies. Gov. Wolf's administration is bringing some new faces to state departments and the Public Utility Commission, which efficiency and clean energy advocates hope will put the state on a more progressive path. This could include formal entry into the Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative (RGGI).
Regulators and utilities delivered several important decisions and filings recently. The first was an Order extending Act 129 — the state's energy efficiency and conservation program — for another five years and reviving the state's dormant retail demand response program. However, the same order failed to expand program funding beyond the legislatively assigned two percent of 2006 utility revenues, limiting savings targets to about .8 percent of retail sales. Subsequently, Duquesne Light and Power, Metropolitan Edison, Penelec, PennPower, WestPenn Power, PECO, and PPL submitted their Act 129 Phase III plans.
The second Order revised the Commonwealth's cost-effectiveness screening processes to include savings associated with reduced water and fossil fuel consumption.
Complementary Policies
On May 1, 2018, the Pennsylvania Uniform Construction Code Review and Advisory Council announced a critical update to its state code by adopting the 2015 IECC. Energy codes are often adopted alongside a suite of other codes including fire, mechanical, and plumbing, and that is the case with Pennsylvania. Before this, the state remained stagnant at the 2009 IECC. With energy savings of up to 25 percent over the commercial 2009 IECC, the 2015 IECC update will help buyers and occupants of new homes and buildings save money, save energy, and reduce their carbon footprints.
Policy & Program Information
Pennsylvania at a Glance
|Direct Jobs in Energy Efficiency
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|$217.2 million
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|$12.7 million
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|904,238 MWh
|Electric Savings as Percent of Retail Sales
|Annual Gas Savings
|1 million therms
|Gas Savings as Percent of Retail Sales
2015 program year data are taken from the ACEEE's 2016 Scorevard, and E2's Energy Efficiency Jobs in America report


text:
The game is set in a near future, thirty years after the events of Killzone 3.
The world is a very different place; two rival factions known as the Helghast and the Vektans live side by side in a futuristic city, divided by a vast wall.
From responding to bold attacks, to quiet infiltrations or all out combat, you will be required to adapt and think on your feet as you have to face a variety of escalating events that could destroy your home world.
Eschewing genre conventions of broadly accessible player classes, Killzone Shadow Fall Intercept — maintaining the hardcore essence of the main game it's built upon — embraces cooperative gameplay in the truest sense of the word. Combat Roles are highly specialized and highly interdependent; those who fail to collaborate will find the greatest level of difficulty.
Killzone Shadow Fall Intercept's cooperative philosophy is grounded in four different "Combat Roles." The Marksman is the master of medium-to-long distance warfare. The Assault role is a close-combat terror. The Medic and Tactician fare worse in constant battle; rather, the former excels in reviving and resupplying comrades, while the latter is a master of boosting team defenses via turrets and Nano Shields.
*DLC Download Requires Killzone Shadow Fall game
Hit the enemy where it hurts as the Insurgent – a lone operative trained to cause maximum disruption by stealing weapons and hacking hostile combat drones.
Download this multiplayer expansion pack to go into battle as this additional character class and you'll also get an extra ability and weapon for each of the three existing character classes to combat this unpredictable new threat.
As an Insurgent you'll start each game with just a pistol and have to build up your arsenal by stealing enemy weapons and adding them to your loadout, while you hack hostile turrets and other drones to turn them against their masters.
Important Notices
"PlayStation" and the "PS" Family logo are registered trademarks of Sony Computer Entertainment Inc.
PS4 is a trademark of Sony Computer Entertainment Inc.


text:
Welcome, to begin a restaurant or food search simply type in any keywords like restaurant, food or cuisine name in the 'Search' field box and click 'Search' Button' to perform wild matches. To make an Advanced Search, click on the drop down bar, select an option from the list and click search.
If you run into any troubles or wish to update the restaurant info, please don't hesitate to send a support ticket to us


text:
Consumer companies in the United States are suffering from a prolonged economic slowdown, and recent figures show the European economy is shrinking. So deep is the malaise in the West, some are calling this the lost decade.
But many emerging markets in Asia are powering ahead, and Indonesia, to the surprise of many, is leading the pack.
In recent weeks shopping malls, superstores, and outdoor markets here have been packed with shoppers stocking up for the Eid al-Fitr celebrations that mark the end of Ramadan, a month when Muslims fast from dawn to dusk. In Indonesia, home to the world's largest Muslim population, spending spikes during Ramadan as Muslims buy food for elaborate fast-breaking ceremonies. Toward the end of the festive season, which concluded this weekend, they also buy new clothes, and increasingly, big ticket items like cars and electronics.
In years past consumers would spend a year's worth of savings on the holiday. But spending like this now occurs throughout the year.
A strong economy, rising wages, and easier access to credit are the main factors driving domestic spending. And as wealth levels rise, Indonesian consumers have begun to splurge on higher quality brands.
'It's down to lifestyle'
"It gives me a shock how women here shop," says Patricia Mulyadi, a public relations executive pondering the $45 price tag on a black ruffled skirt at Zara, a Spanish clothing retailer, in one of the city's ritzier shopping malls. She says she spends more on her clothes and personal appearance because she feels the pressure to keep up with friends.
"I make a decent income, but it's down to lifestyle," she says.
Ms. Mulyadi is just the type of shopper international companies are targeting as they seek to profit from rising wealth in a country where more than half of the economy depends on consumer spending.
Last month Indonesia beat economists' expectations by posting second quarter growth 6.4 percent above the same period last year. That makes it the second fastest growing economy among the world's top 20, just behind China, and the only one where growth is expected to continue.
Despite a rising trade deficit and yawning gap between export revenue and the cost of imports, Indonesia has overcome the global slowdown, mainly through rising investments and soaring domestic spending, driven by Indonesians' growing wealth.
"Many international brands are wanting to open a store in Indonesia," says Astri Permatasuri, a marketing manager for Plaza Indonesia mall in Jakarta. "From high-end brands to middle brands, they're pretty excited because they know this is a very [big] potential market for them."
Rapidly growing middle class
The reason Indonesia is now drawing attention from investors in the US and Europe is obvious, say analysts: a young, rapidly growing middle class that accounts for more than half the population in a country of 240 million people.
For now, the majority sit at the bottom of the middle class band, defined by the World Bank as those who spend between $2 and $20 a day. Multinationals that already have a foothold in Indonesia have long targeted this market.
They include Anglo-Dutch multinational Unilever, which sells individual sachets of shampoo for less than $1, and Swiss-based Nestle, which is expanding production of individually wrapped chocolate wafers and snacks that are cheap and easy to transport.
But companies just starting to look toward Indonesia see potential among the middle class that is driving sales of cars, mobile phones, cosmetics, and housewares.
Ace Hardware and Procter & Gamble
Chicago-based home appliance retailer Ace Hardware recently announced plans to spend around $20 million this year to open more outlets in Indonesia, while Procter & Gamble, a consumer goods company headquartered in Ohio, is building a factory in West Java to produce baby diapers for Indonesia's nearly 20 million infants.
"That is certainly a message: that a company like P&G understands what opportunities there are in the consumer sector here," says Dennis Heffernan, an independent consultant and governor with the American Chamber of Commerce in Jakarta. "They not only want to market their goods, but they also want to make their goods here."
Multinationals, particularly textile and footwear companies, have long taken advantage of cheap manufacturing costs to produce goods here for export. But now more companies are producing goods to sell within the country.
Heffernan says the amount of attention US companies are devoting to the retail and consumer sector has "ramped up radically" in the past two years. The US Commercial Service has been leading trade missions here to seek opportunities for small- and medium-sized businesses.
"A lot of multinationals have been running to China and India in the past, but now it's becoming clear that Indonesia is a good place to invest and do business," he says.
Major European retailers are also scrambling to get a foothold. Swedish retailer Ikea, for instance, plans to open its first Indonesian outlet in 2014, while cosmetics company L'Oreal is set to open its new factory, its largest in the world, in the coming months.
Market research firm Roy Morgan, which monitors the consumer market, says consumer confidence is at a record high. But some investors remain reluctant about putting money into a country still plagued by a lack of infrastructure, high costs of doing business, and unclear regulations governing investment.
Chatib Basri, the head of Indonesia's Investment Coordinating Board summed up the interest last week. "Indonesia is no paradise for investors," he says, noting a gross lack of infrastructure and high costs of doing business. But, "where else do they go? You can't miss Indonesia simply because of its size."


text:
I am quite surprised at the number of finishes I have for February. Six! Six ornaments stitched to be gifted or to grace my own tree next Christmas which, if you can see my countdown counter, is only 299 days away!!! Happy dance, happy dance!!!
Friday, February 28, 2014
February Finishes
I am quite surprised at the number of finishes I have for February. Six! Six ornaments stitched to be gifted or to grace my own tree next Christmas which, if you can see my countdown counter, is only 299 days away!!! Happy dance, happy dance!!!
Posted by Shirlee at 11:40 AM 30 comments
Thursday, February 27, 2014
Posted by Shirlee at 9:49 AM 20 comments
Wednesday, February 26, 2014
SALing with Sally
Sally & I started a SAL back on New Year's Day. Thursday is our actual stitching day. We are stitching Snow Angel by Lone Elm Designs. I don't think I've posted a photo of my progress since that first week (shame on me!) but this is my progress as it appeared at the end of last Thursday's stitching.
Posted by Shirlee at 4:48 PM 21 comments
Saturday, February 22, 2014
Happy Birthday Daddy!
Posted by Shirlee at 10:01 AM 31 comments
Thursday, February 20, 2014
Do You Have Any Favorite Christian Books?
Posted by Shirlee at 8:15 AM 10 comments
Wednesday, February 19, 2014
Valentine's Day Revisited
Last Friday was not only Valentine's Day ... it was our 38th wedding anniversary : ) John & I exchanged gifts, then went to Lexington where we had a luscious meal at Red Lobster ending with a visit to the Half-Price Book Store near Fayette Mall. I know what you're thinking ... a visit to the Half-Price Book Store on your anniversary? Well, they were celebrating their 1-year anniversary being open at that location. The first 100 people through the doors would receive a tote bag containing a few goodies with 99 of those bags containing a $5.00 gift card & one bag containing a $100 gift card. John said that he'd like to stop by so that each of us would get a $5 gift card & this would give him $10 toward a future purchase. I jokingly told him that would be fine with me but it would be part of his present : )
When we arrived at the store about half an hour before it opened, there was one couple standing in line & several cars in the parking lot. We joined the line about 5 minutes before opening time. We were either the 5th & 6th or the 6th & 7th people in line. They opened the doors & started handing out the tote bags. I took mine from a girl that had been handing them out on the right side of the door. Another girl came up on the left side as John came in & he took a bag from her. I opened my bag & found my $5 gift card, but when John opened his bag, he found this!
Posted by Shirlee at 7:59 PM 31 comments
Monday, February 17, 2014
Do You Hook Rugs?
Posted by Shirlee at 6:54 AM 13 comments
Friday, February 14, 2014
Happy Valentine's Day!
Posted by Shirlee at 7:20 AM 16 comments
Wednesday, February 12, 2014
Always Remember
Posted by Shirlee at 7:22 AM 19 comments
Thursday, February 6, 2014
Recipe for Living in the Devil's Playground
Posted by Shirlee at 11:06 AM 17 comments
Tuesday, February 4, 2014
Here it is February, & leave it up to me, I am still posting about Christmas ... lol! Of course a couple days after Christmas through last month was filled with illness so I never got around to posting this. I think today is a good day for doing so, especially since I'm enjoying an absolutely delicious cup of tea right now : )
I have been asked what kinds of goodies were in some of the Christmas packages my husband so lovingly gave to me. Well, among other things, knowing how much I enjoy tea, he decided to treat me with a wonderful selection!
Posted by Shirlee at 12:52 PM 25 comments
Monday, February 3, 2014
Any Ideas?
Any help will be appreciated : )
Posted by Shirlee at 10:13 AM 17 comments


text:
Covering the Bases: Game 22
FIRST: Jon Lester. I mean, what else is there to say after that 2-0 stinker against the Red Sox, really?
Seven innings. One hit. 11 strikeouts.
Blue Jays: baffled.
"That's the best I've seen him," said Aaron Hill. "He just absolutely dominated us tonight — that's the bottom line."
That said…
"You don't want to give him too much credit, because he's an opposing pitcher," Hill added. "There's no excuse for a one-hit, two-hit — whatever it was."
And that's more to the point, because it hasn't just been Lester. The Jays have now gone 17 innings without a run, their longest skid since being blanked 31 frames in a row from May 9-12, 2008.
This after Toronto pounded out 12 runs on 16 hits in a loss to the Sox on Monday night. Jays have now dropped five games in a row and are in fourth place in the East.
Blue Jays manager Cito Gaston always has a way of sifting through the wreckage and pulling out the positives…
"The way we're losing is certainly not as bad as you think," Gaston said. "You don't want to get beat up out there every night. Our guys have been keeping us in the game and giving us a chance to win. If we can just stay at the same pace, then we've got a chance to win some games. We've just got to score some runs. That's all."
SECOND: You've got to love it when a guy admits he was out for a little revenge.
Last May, Cecil was absolutely drilled in a brief appearance at Fenway Park, where Boston slugged five homers off the young lefty. In two losses to the Red Sox in 2009, Cecil allowed 12 runs over nine innings with seven homers surrendered.
Was that showing on his mind when he took the hill Wednesday?
"Absolutely," Cecil said. "Nobody gets tore up like that last year and doesn't look for a little extra something against the team."
Cecil delivered with a strong performance against the Sox in the spring and he followed it up with a solid six-inning outing on Wednesday. The lefty scattered five hits and allowed one run.
"I feel like I've gained a little bit of their respect this year," Cecil said of the Sox.
THIRD: That bring us to the fact that Cecil — despite his performance — was pegged with a big "L." But, Blue Jays fans are growing accustomed to seeing such results by now, right? Consider this…
Through 22 games, Toronto's rotation has turned in 14 quality starts (at least six innings pitched with three runs or fewer allowed), posting a 2.13 ERA in those outings. Nine of those starts have resulted in a loss or a no-decision for the starter.
Said Cito: "I guess the only thing we can take out of it is hopefully our hitters know that if we can go out and get four or five runs, we have a chance to win with the way these guys are pitching. It's just one of those things. We're just not driving in any runs or getting any hits right now."
HOME: There's got to be a silver lining in here. Let's look to the eighth and ninth inning. Josh Roenicke logged his first inning of the year for the Jays and blanked Boston and struck out two in the eighth. Rommie Lewis made his big league debut in the ninth with a shutout frame of his own. (Pay no attention to the run Casey Janssen allowed in the seventh, making it 19 runs allowed by the Jays' bullpen over its last 14 innings of work)
EXTRAS: Only three times over the course of Toronto's first 21 games did Gaston use a pinch hitter. In the eighth on Wednesday, Gaston used three pinch hitters in a row: lefties Adam Lind, Fred Lewis and Travis Snider to face righty Daniel Bard with a runner on second base. So much for that idea, though. All three struck out in order.
4 Comments
In 10 or so years from now, when Cecil hangs it up, he should remember the day he cut his finger, slicing up chicken breast, as the day he solidified his career as a major league pitcher. That incident, which I'm sure flustered Cecil at the time, forced him to throw only fastballs and his new pitch, the change up, which Walton has been pushing to all the young pitchers who've all had great success with it.
It was exactly the medicine needed and gave Cecil that extra arrow in his quiver and the confidence to go out there and face a line up who annihilated him last season…
The results speak for themselves and yes, we just got swept, but imo, we also just solidified a starter who at 23 shows the poise and skill of a steely eyed veteran who will only grow and improve from here and be in our rotation for a long, long time.
So far ever 5th day, I've made a post on Henderson Alvarez's start the day before. Today is no different and I expect each time he goes this year will be the same.
Last night, Alvarez faced the Tampa Bay Yankees, went 5.1 innings, gave up 6 hits, struck out 5, with 8 go's and 2 fo's, to lower his year to date era to a microscopic .37 with a whip of .90.
In 4 starts, 24.1 innings, Alvarez has only give up 1 earned run and his win/loss record is now 3-0.
I guess the other bright side of this is that 16 of the 17 scoreless innings were against Papelbon, Buchholz, and Lester, and they all brought out their A game. A tip of the hat to them.
Hitting with RISP is still a problem, but the only way you learn to hit with RISP is to go out there and hit with RISP. Go do it.
I wonder if the present bullpen woes stem from the fact that The Jays had a ton of pitchers in camp this Spring. Most of the relievers only threw 4-5 innings, so they may be going through a dead arm phase. Nice problem to have, really. Pitch through it.
So what happens when Tallet comes back? I would like to see Tallet in the bullpen and Cecil starting. However, we all know that Cito is big on a player not loosing their position due to injury. Unless there is an injury to another starter, I am afraid Cecil gets sent down.


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