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Additives Key to Lube Success
Conversely, says Purnhagen, water-based (emulsion) metalforming lubricants present a much greater design challenge. "The presence of water creates an ideal breeding ground for microbes, and control of corrosion is more difficult in a water-based system," Purnhagen says. "Performance additives used in metalforming lubricants include lubricity enhancers, extreme-pressure (anti-weld or sticking) agents, corrosion inhibitors, emulsifiers and biocides. Achieving long service life from water-based metalforming lubricants is not as simple as the introduction of a single 'silver bullet' type of additive, but a result of careful consideration of the entire performance additive system and the interaction between the various components. The additives that deliver the primary functions of the fluid for the forming operation—lubrication and corrosion protection—will cease to perform properly if the overall system in which they are delivered becomes unstable."
Emulsifier additives are the key components that allow for a lubricant to mix with water, and retain a stable mixture over an extended period of service. Various types of emulsifier additives are used in soluble-oil (milky appearance) and semi-synthetic (translucent appearance) metalforming-fluid formulations.
"These additives provide the ability to create stable emulsion of materials that are inherently insoluble in water," says Purnhagen, "such as petroleum oils, esters, vegetable oils and synthetic base stocks. In modern lubricant formulations, a carefully balanced ratio of several different emulsifier chemistries is used to achieve the ideal performance for a particular application. The emulsifier system must be durable enough to maintain consistency through the demanding service conditions in a stamping press, including high pressure and introduction of metallic content to the emulsion. In addition to their emulsifying properties, these additives can contribute supplemental corrosion inhibition and lubricity to the finished metalforming fluid, offering lubricant formulators tools that provide multiple functions simultaneously. Newer product developments in emulsifier composition include a focus on achieving multifunctional performance and reducing the emulsion foaming tendency."
The uncontrolled growth of microbes (bacteria or fungi) is one of the most common sources of emulsion degradation and reduced fluid-service life. Water-based metalforming-fluid emulsions contain an ideal breeding ground for microbes to thrive: water, organic food sources from oils and other performance chemistries, and typically a slightly elevated temperature from the service conditions. To keep microbial growth in check, lubricant suppliers introduce biocidal additives to the recipe, either as a fluid concentrate or as supplemental tank-side additions.
"When applied properly, including biocide product selection and consideration of the correct treat-rate concentration, biocides will effectively control the growth of microbes and promote a longer fluid service life," says Purnhagen. "All biocidal products are not equal, and the selection process must include knowledge of the compatibility with the overall lubricant formulation. For emulsions, biocides with solubility properties in oil and water can show superior long-term stability and deliver the best overall performance profile."
Suppliers of quality metalforming fluids generally include some degree of service or training so that biocides are used safely and effectively with their particular products. The results of uncontrolled microbial growth can include product performance degradation, emulsion instability, loss of corrosion protection, foul odors and irritation or illness for shop-floor workers.
Success in the Field
To learn how lubricant formulators are developing new recipes using additives from Lubrizol and other suppliers, we spoke with two Northeastern-U.S. companies that formulate and blend lubricants, coolants and cleaning compounds for metalformers, machine shops and others: Harry Miller Corp., Philadelphia, PA, and
"Additive suppliers have been making concerted efforts to develop replacement additives for chlorinated compounds," says Nick Ariano, technical director at Harry Miller, "and we've had success in several cases for metal stampers formulating lubricants with these new additive packages."
Describing such successes, Ariano explains how one customer recently replaced a chlorinated lubricant with a nonchlorinated product in a wire-shaving application performed to remove the outer layer of scale. And in another case, dating back to 2008, this one a Pennsylvania metal stamper forming heat-exchanger parts "with a lot of dimples and cup-shaped forms," Ariano says, "a nonchlorinated lubricant replaced a chlorinated product and the company has had a great track record with the lubricant ever since. Payback for the new lubricant came quickly thanks to reduced waste-disposal costs, with no loss in performance."
Severe Deep Drawing Still Requires Chlorinated Additives
While these two success stories make a great case for the metalforming industry's efforts to become more environmentally sound, the job is far from complete. Tony Kroker, a regional manager for Harry Miller Corp., explains:
"In simpler stamping applications, we can readily substitute for chlorinated paraffins (with ingredients such as sulphurized compounds, synthetic esters and calcium sulfonate), with great success. But in more challenging applications, such as deep drawing, compounded by the growing use of tougher materials such as stainless steels and cosmetic brasses, we've developed water-soluble draw lubricants that actually have an increased concentration of chlorinated paraffins. In these applications, we find that while we're not able to eliminate chlorinated products from the lubricants, we are able to switch metalformers over from straight oils to a water-soluble product and provide a more cost-effective product that's more environmentally sound and allows for easier cleaning. And, since the lubricant contains water, in many cases the presses can run faster."
Adds Ariano: "In these severe cases (as described by Kroker), the issue is not so much lubricity or the ability to draw the materials. The hurdle with nonchlorinated lubricants, so far, has been stickiness of the stamped parts after forming, as metalformers look to conduct post-forming tasks—stacking and destacking, assembly and the like."
"Replacing chlorinated paraffins in severe draw applications is an ongoing project," shares Harry Miller president Bruce Entwisle, "and the technology has a long to go to allow formulators to deliver effective and affordable lubricants. But I see the time coming—there's a lot of research and development work going on."
Drawing Cosmetic Brass Parts
Both Harry Miller and Angler supply custom-blended lubricants, as well as cleaning compounds, to metalformer Carby Corp., Watertown, CT, a deep-draw stamper operating some 70 Waterbury Farrel and U.S. Baird transfer presses, rated to 75-ton capacity. Up until 2005, Carby blended its own lubricants, but as suppliers of compounds started to discontinue some of their ingredients, the stamper looked to outsource lubricant formulation.
Among the products Carby now receives from Harry Miller is Hamilube 9900-C, a combination of oils, EP additives (chlorinated paraffins) and emulsifiers that allows Carby to severely deep-draw brass parts (90-10 and 70-30) to a strict cosmetic-finish specification. Draw ratios can exceed 30:1 on parts the company stamps for medical devices, writing instruments, electronic products and other applications.
Carby technical support manager Gary Coviello describes one particularly challenging job—deep-drawing brass parts for ink pens. "We used to run these parts using a water-based lubricant that contained lard oil," he says. "It satisfied our cosmetic requirements, but as an organic compound it created problems with sump life, particularly in warm weather. In some cases sump life would be as short as one week. Now, with the new water-soluble lubricant from Harry Miller, sump life typically is several weeks."
Among the products Angler formulates for Carby is a lubricant developed for deep drawing of stainless-steel parts. "Here, chlorinated paraffin in our previous lubricant caused corrosion and staining of the parts," says Coviello. "Angler's lubricant (Accu-Draw 4640) solved those problems."
For his part, Coviello is acutely aware of the EPA's close scrutiny of use of chlorinated paraffins in the metalworking industry, and so he's taking a hard look at "green" compounds. "We've just begun to test vegetable-based products for stamping some of our nickel-silver parts," he says, noting that not only will he evaluate stamping and drawing performance but also must consider sump life, cleanability and other factors.
"The parts we're looking at have a relatively high draw ratio (30:1) and also require a good surface finish," he says. "We're having problems with the chlorinated paraffin lubricant we're currently using on this application, as it's attacking our tooling—specifically, the binder in the carbide dies. Staining also is an issue, and we're hoping that the vegetable-based lubricant comes to the rescue." MF
See also: The Lubrizol Corporation
Related Enterprise Zones: Lubrication, Materials/Coatings


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Our business is helping you sell MORE.
That is why we have created a family of modules that deliver additional value to you and your vendors.
Combine the modules to match your business niche and gain advantage over your competitors.
Add features for social shopping platform, that will also boost your community.
Create attractive pre-paid seller packages with granted access to listing products, creating discount codes, even auctions for special licenses.
Include Video preview and User rating to make your platform safer and more convenient for your buyers.
If you want to sell your products like you would on eBay - this module is the solution for you. Enab..
This module is actually an entire subsystem for vendors, where they can create and manage promotiona..
The module adds a video to the product gallery listing to help your buyers better understand the adv..
CloneForest is all about you making money - in every way legally possible!
Review our selection of monetizing tools, and pick your method for earning extra income.
Pick a module - from displaying banner ads through various subscriptions - they are all plug-and-play solutions for establishing revenue channels on your marketplace site.
Feel free to combine modules together to your requirements, and let us know if you need any custom functionalities.
With this module you can set up, manage and display image and HTML banners in selected categories, o..
You can earn money from users who'd like to promote their products to the top of the home and ca..
Members of your file marketplace that subscribe for Power User privileges, will be automatically fol..
Once you have created user access groups using the built-in Groups and permissions module, you can m..
All products of the CloneForest family feature a built-in PayPal payment option.
Whenever you need MORE options - for one reason or another - you can rely on Amexi.
Use or CCBill module to receive payments from credit cards, the Bank transfer option, or combine with our Virtual wallet to never miss a lead again!
If you need a custom module - please contact us for a quote.
Enables payments for orders via bank transfer as an alternative to PayPal transactions. When a buyer..
If you are looking a payment method that supports credit card transactions, then Stripe is your prim..
Mix and match modules from this group to get a unique look and feel for your digital marketplace!
Purchase our Rest API module and go native on mobile, add the Tags and Interests by category modules to link products together, add the Home page slider banner, or add the Instant chat to attract younger audiences.
These and many other improvements can turn visitors into members and then leads.
The Affiliate module offers ways for both you and your members to increase their income. The modu..
This module stores previews and product image on Amazon S3 CDN instead on your local server to reduc..
This module lets you add various attributes to the description of a product - compatibility, version..
This module builds an entirely new section within your marketplace - a fully featured blog system. Y..
When configured with the data from a Facebook app, this module adds options to register and login us..
Install this module, insert your Google Analytics Pro tracking key, and you will be able to tr..
The slider module adds a configurable slide show banner to the home page of your website. Images can..
Protect your investment - limit access to your CloneForest admin panel by IP address. We know tha..
The basic system supports a single license type, and a single price for each product. This module ad..
With the Multi Language Module your file marketplace will support multiple languages. Visitors will ..
With the Multi-currency Module visitors in your CloneForest file store can see all prices in their p..
With the Tags module installed you can add keywords to each product. They appear on the product deta..
By installing this module you enable users to register and login using existing Twitter accounts, an..
We have discussed how important it is to earn the trust of potential buyers to increase their purcha..
Do you want to easily build buttons for 1-click pinning of items and articles on the Web? This mo..
This module adds a sign up form for a MailChimp mailing list. The details for the list are set throu..
Your file marketplace can quickly grow to hundreds and even thousands of different products, and potential customers have little time to search and review all of them to find what they need.
If you can provide them with more relevant search results faster - they will be happy to trade with you again.
To help your visitors discover the right products faster - just add our filters and bring potential buyers a step closer to the checkout.
This module creates visual rewards for users that are active on your website. Whether members have l..
People looking for products in your file marketplace will often try to match colors to something the..
Adds a new filter, with which user can set minimum and maximum price for the product he is looking f..
After the administrator installs this module visitors can order the products on a page by title, tim..
The module adds a category filter to your marketplace's home page, every profile and store withi..

subset: commoncrawl


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PowerPivot for SharePoint 2010 Installation
PowerPivot for SharePoint is a collection of server components that provide query processing and management control over PowerPivot workbooks that you publish to SharePoint. Services include the Analysis Services engine and PowerPivot System Service.
For information regarding SQL Server 2012 SP1 and installation with SharePoint Server 2013, see the following:
- The "SQL Server 2012 SP1" section of Overview of SQL Server Servicing Installation.
Analysis Services provides server-side processing for Excel workbooks that contain PowerPivot data. PowerPivot System Service works alongside Analysis Services, adding SharePoint integration, load balancing and connection management. PowerPivot for SharePoint extends Excel Services by pairing its large scale data processing capability with the data rendering services that Excel provides.
To install PowerPivot for SharePoint, use the SQL Server 2012installation media.
For instructions on advanced deployment scenarios, see Deployment Checklist: Reporting Services, Power View, and PowerPivot for SharePoint and Deployment Checklist: Scale-out by adding PowerPivot Servers to a SharePoint 2010 farm.
In This Section
Install PowerPivot for SharePoint 2010
Install the Analysis Services OLE DB Provider on SharePoint Servers
Install ADOMD.NET on Web Front-End Servers Running Central Administration
Install ADO.NET Data Services to support data feed exports of SharePoint lists
Install PowerPivot from the Command Prompt
Uninstall PowerPivot for SharePoint
Repair PowerPivot for SharePoint
Initial Configuration (PowerPivot for SharePoint)
See Also
PowerPivot Server Administration and Configuration in Central Administration


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Dan Amrich
The Operative: No One Lives Forever rights in limbo
Don't expect a re-release or remake of Monolith's The Operatuve: No One Lives Forever any time soon. In a post on his One of Swords blog, Activision community manager Dan Amrich explained that neither Activision nor Monolith own the rights, or have any idea who does. It seems possible that Warner Bros or FOX is […]
Dan Amrich headlines
Activision discusses the business behind region locking decisions
Activision community manager Dan Amrich recently discussed the decisions behind region locking. This process, which might stop games working outside of the territory they are bought in, often frustrates those looking to import.
Black Ops 2 Zombies to be "biggest, most ambitious yet"
Robots, horses, yadda yadda yadda – tell us about the zombies already, because Call of Duty: Black Ops 2 is going to have a lot of them.
Quick quotes: Activision on why THPSHD likely won't have original soundtracks
"Music licensing is a one-time deal. The songs from the original games were only licensed for those specific games on those specific platforms at that specific time. Any other versions created later would need new licensing deals. This is also why not all songs from earlier Guitar Hero games are importable into later games: they […]
Activision: No CoD Elite beta for PC until autumn
Activision social media manager Dan Amrich has said that PC gamers shouldn't expect the beta for Call of Duty: Elite until autumn at least.
Call of Duty Elite pulls 2 million beta testers
Despite the rage, Activision's Call of Duty Elite service is obviously attractive: over 2 million users have signed up for its beta.
Activision on its reputation: "Some people are going to hate because hating is more fun"
Without a doubt, Activision's the publisher that everybody loves to hate. But is the unending torrent of bile justified? After all the recent lay-offs and cancellations, you could be forgiven for thinking so. Activision community manager Dan Amrich, however, thinks gamers haven't quite given the "evil empire" its fair shake.
Activision on Bizarre shocker: Some "wallowing in the worst possible outcome"
Activision staffer Dan Amrich has carpet-bombed Twitter about the reporting of news that Activision is "exploring options" related to Bizarre Creations, claiming the studio has not "closed," and that some are "wallowing in the worst possible outcome".
DJ Hero moves 1.2M units despite slow start
Activision's Dan Amrich has rustled up some numbers on DJ Hero, which at launch in the US during October 2009 only managed to move 122K units, while debuting at 20 on the UK charts the following month.
West and Zampella's bonuses handed out to remaining Infinity Ward staff
Actvision has handed out the bonuses due to Jason West and Vince Zampella to the Infinity Ward staff that are still with the company.
Activision: More staff expected to leave Infinity Ward
Activision blogger Dan Amrich has predicted that more people will "probably" leave Infinity Ward – and may just end up at Respawn Entertainment, set up by ex-heads of the MW devs, Vince Zampella and Jason West.
Activision: Three new Call of Duty titles in two years
Activision blogger Dan Amrich has revealed that the company plans to release three new Call of Duty titles in the next two years.
Dan Amrich latest
Activision discusses the business behind region locking decisions
Quick quotes: Activision on why THPSHD likely won't have original soundtracks
Activision on its reputation: "Some people are going to hate because hating is more fun"
Activision on Bizarre shocker: Some "wallowing in the worst possible outcome"
West and Zampella's bonuses handed out to remaining Infinity Ward staff


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New Student-Poverty Measures Proposed for National Tests
Proposed indicators go broader, deeper
Aiming to get a clearer picture of how students' home and community resources affect their academic achievement, America's best-known K-12 education barometer, the National Assessment of Educational Progress, is building a comprehensive new way to gauge socioeconomic status.
The new measure, being developed by the National Assessment Governing Board and the National Center for Education Statistics, is intended to look beyond a traditional measure of family income to a child's family, community, and school supports for learning.
"This issue has just been on the burner for so, so long," said Maria V. Ferguson, the executive director of the Washington-based Center on Education Policy. "When NAGB starts talking about it, that does elevate it to a place where it could be part of a bigger policy debate," she said. "I wonder if the folks at NAGB are hoping this could be an opening salvo into a bigger conversation about how [different SES measures] might affect other programs."
The governing board commissioned eight researchers in education, economics, statistics, human development, and sociology that have been working on the new indicators since 2010. The panel released its initial proposal at a NAGB meeting here Nov. 29.
"We rapidly learned that socioeconomic status contains multiple dimensions and categories that don't neatly collapse back to 'low' versus 'high,' " said Charles D. Cowan, the chief executive officer of the San Antonio-based research group Analytic Focus and a member of the governing board's expert panel. "Over the last 10 to 15 years, there's been an explosion in the data available" on student characteristics, Mr. Cowan said. "Perhaps now is the time to think about alternative measures of SES simply because now we are able to think about it."
Beyond Free Lunch
The National Assessment Governing Board is considering a new method of identifying a student's socioeconomic status when disaggregating the results of the National Assessment of Educational Progress. NAEP researchers now rely primarily on a student's eligibility for the National School Lunch Program—which as of 2011 provided free or low-cost meals to more than 31 million students in poverty each day—as a proxy for socioeconomic status. This traditional indicator is bolstered by background questions on home possessions, such as washing machines, encyclopedias, and mobile phones.
Proposed New "Core" SES Indicators
• Family income and indicators of home possessions and that have been shown to be linked to educational access, such as Internet availability and number of books in the home
• Parents' educational attainment
• Parents' occupational status
Potential "Expanded" SES Indicators
• Family: For example, family structure, stability, and the presence
of extended family and other supportive adults
• Neighborhood: Including the concentration of poverty or linguistic isolation, the percentage of unemployed adults, and the availability of museums, parks, or safe walking routes
• School: The aggregate SES composition of students at the school the child attends, as distinct from the neighborhood SES level
Potential Additional Context Indicators
• Physical stressors: Local rates of illness or environmental problems
• Psychological stressors: Levels of crime in the school and community
• Psychological protectors: Student perception of parent involvement and expectations
SOURCE: National Assessment Governing Board
For decades, the universal proxy for students' socioeconomic status—for NAEP and nearly every federal education and child-health program—has been just such a high-low indicator: eligibility for subsidized meals under the National School Lunch Program.
Federal food aid does capture a huge swath of students in poverty: The school lunch program alone provides meals for more than 31 million children, at reduced cost to those living at or below 185 percent of the federal poverty line, and free to those who are at or below 130 percent of the poverty line or who are homeless, in foster care, or in certain other programs. In 2012 in the lower 48 states and the District of Columbia, children living in a family of four on $40,000 or less a year would be eligible for reduced price meals; the free-lunch cut-off for the same family would be $30,000.
From a research and policy perspective, however, experts say food-aid eligibility gives an incomplete picture of the resources of students in poverty, and no information about students who don't qualify. Moreover, those poverty counts notoriously underrepresent students as they get older and more self-conscious about applying for free or reduced-price lunch.
"There are many problems regarding the use of free and reduced-cost lunch," said Henry M. Levin, a research panelist and an economics and education professor at Teachers College, Columbia University, who is now on sabbatical at Peking University in Beijing.
"It does not distinguish in a sensitive way differences along the entire spectrum of SES," he noted in an email to Education Week. "Even for the poor or relatively poor, there are large differences" within the range of free-lunch eligibility.
The governing board has tried in the past to fill in the gaps using the background questionnaire students complete along with NAEP, according to William Ward, a senior research scientist for assessment at NCES, which administers NAEP. But some of those questions have become outdated or have not been found to be relevant to a child's real socioeconomic status.
"We used to ask, 'Do you have a washer-dryer?' but now everyone has a washer-dryer," Mr. Cowan said. "We used to ask, 'Do you have a cellphone?' Now, do any of your students not have a cellphone?"
More Than Income
The updated measure of socioeconomic status will look at broader resources and learning supports, Mr. Cowan said.
It will start with the "big three": the family's income, parents' level of educational attainment, and whether and where they are employed. This year's administration of NAEP has also tried out new background questions, including how long the child has lived in the United States, how many family members live with the child, and how many adults in the home have a job.
Because elementary students in particular may have difficulty identifying these, the governing board is considering supplementing the data with information from the U.S. Census Bureau's American Community Survey, an annual study of a representative sample of 3.5 million households nationwide that asks about family structure, employment and income, transportation, and other details.
The NAEP student survey would still include questions about home possessions that research has shown to be related to student achievement, such as access to the Internet and the number of books in the home, Mr. Ward said. But the board is considering supplementing the "core" SES measures with other indicators of resources in the child's neighborhood and school that could highlight differences between students living at the same income level in different areas.
For example, an 8th grader in New York's Spanish Harlem neighborhood could still have access to libraries and museums, while a peer in rural southern Utah may have no local library but live a bike ride away from national parks.
Indicators of school and neighborhood supports also may be pulled from administrative data and from the Census Bureau, such as the degree of concentration of poverty or linguistic isolation, the average educational degree earned, and the employment levels in the neighborhood.
The governing board panel plans to present its proposed socioeconomic indicators at the annual meeting of the American Educational Research Association in April before piloting their use in 2014 and reporting the results in 2015.
Vol. 32, Issue 14, Pages 6-7Published in Print: December 12, 2012, as NAEP Seeks to Test New Measure of Student Poverty
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Designed by Jane Gray for Stray Dog Designs. This is a super lush and leafy side table! Perfect as a decor stand, but add two together and you have a cute coffee table. They are expertly crafted out of premium recycled materials and finished with low VOC paints.
Would you like us to help you find a similar item? Talk with our Design Consultants toll-free at1-800-927-5164.
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International Customers (including Alaska and Hawaii) please contact a Customer Service Representative if you have any questions about placing an order with PoshTots.
This item is custom made especially for you upon order.Click here for our policy on custom made items.
Promotion codes cannot be used for sale item purchases.
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P.Lorente + J.Carreras
As provided in the Organic Law of Protection of Personal Data, Law 15/1999 of 13 December (hereinafter Act), ArteArtesanía informs you that the data obtained through this form will be included in an automated, recorded in the Register of the Data Protection Agency and whose responsible for this file is ArteArtesania WITHSTREET ADDRESS Sa Lluna 43 - Soller - 07100 BALEARIC ISLANDS, SPAIN.
The Organic Law 15/1999 of 13 December on the Protection of Personal Data (Act), is a Spanish Act which aims to guarantee and protect, with regard to the processing of personal data, civil liberties and fundamental rights of individuals, and especially their honor, privacy and personal and family privacy.
Its main objective is to regulate the processing of data and files, personal.
The personal data subject to processing may only be communicated to a third partyfor purposes directly related to the legitimate functions of the assignor and the assignee's prior consent.


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Translation Disclaimer
The following is a list of current solicitations for City of Berkeley non-construction Bids and RFPs. For construction projects, see below. If you are intending to respond to an item or engage in another vendor relationship with the City, please see Additional Information & Links, below.
Subscribe to this page to receive e-mail notification when new information is posted.
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For information on Public Works and Parks, Recreation & Waterfront construction-related projects, please see Construction Project Bid Opportunities.
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Radiofrequency Ablation
What is Radiofrequency Ablation?
Radiofrequency ablation (RFA) is a treatment for tumors found in the liver, lung and kidney and is being studied in breast and bone tumors. In some cases, tumors cannot be destroyed by chemotherapy, radiation or surgery. RFA uses heat to attack these tumors, destroying them without hospitalization and with few side effects.
RFA is performed by placing a small needle into the center of the tumor being treated. This specially designed needle is connected to a radiofrequency generator, which heats the needle tip, and in turn, the tumor cells, killing them. It is possible to have more than one tumor heated during the procedure. It takes approximately 30 minutes per tumor. This procedure damages the tumor only, sparing surrounding healthy tissue.
Is RFA an appropriate treatment for me?
RFA only treats tumors in the area where the needle is placed and will have no effect on any other cancer in your body. For this reason, RFA may be used in conjunction with other treatments that can reach cancer cells in other areas of the body. Tumors that may be treated by RFA include:
- Hepatoma (primary liver cancer).
- Kidney tumors.
- Metastasis (spread) to the liver from solid tumors (i.e. lung, breast, colon cancers).
- Lung tumors (primary lung cancer or lung metastasis from cancer in another part of the body).
- Metastasis in the bones from cancer in another part of the body.
- Breast tumors.
- Prostate tumors.
- Pre-cancerous cells associated with Barrett's esophagus.
You may need to have a CT scan or MRI to determine if your tumor is a candidate for RFA. In some cases the tumor may be too large or there may be too many tumors, making RFA an inappropriate treatment option. In the case of liver RFA, your liver function will need to tested prior to the procedure.
How is the procedure done?
RFA is done in the interventional radiology department by an interventional radiologist. An interventional radiologist is a physician with advanced training in minimally invasive treatments that use radiology imaging to guide them. You may also encounter nurses, radiology technicians and nurse practitioners in this department.
The procedure is done as an outpatient, meaning you will go home a few hours after the procedure. You will receive some sedation, so you will need someone to drive you home. You will be told to not eat or drink after midnight the night before the procedure. In the interventional radiology (IR) department, you will have an IV placed and will be givena sedative and an anesthetic will be used to numb the skin where the needle will be inserted. The IR team will use ultrasound, CT scan or x-ray to locate the tumor and guide the insertion of the needle. Once inserted into the center of the tumor, the radiofrequency generator is activated, heating the tip of the needle. You may feel the "heating" - this can be painful, which is why you will receive sedation and numbing medications prior to the procedure. The procedure takes about 30 minutes for each tumor treated. You can have multiple tumors treated during the same procedure.
Once the RFA is complete, you will remain in the IR department for observation for several hours. Most patients can resume their normal activities the next day.
What are the side effects of RFA?
You may feel tired or experience soreness or fever for 1-2 days after the procedure, which can be treated with acetaminophen. More serious complications are rare, but include infection and bleeding.
How will RFA help me?
In most cases RFA is a palliative treatment, used to alleviate pain or relieve other distressing symptoms, improving quality of life. For example, it can be used to shrink a tumor obstructing the flow of bile that is causing jaundice. RFA can be used to relieve pain associated with bone metastases. For some types of cancer, RFA is a treatment that can improve survival.
Diagram shows a liver tumor being treated with RFA.


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But, when the toy's bio was first seen, this apparently wasn't the case, for the bio contained some things contradictory to the cartoon character's portrayal. Upon closer examination, however, it was revealed that this Depth Charge hails from an alternate universe that had a very different history to that of the Beast Wars cartoon.
What's more is that that this alternate universe wasn't/isn't just some random one-off universe made up for Depth charge's bio. Rather, it was one that the Club had written about before, in the bio of Transtech Blackarachnia written in issue #25 of the TCC magazine.
And with the publishing of issue #49 of the magazine last February/March, an extended version of Depthcharge's toy bio elaborated even further on his backstory, solidly confirming him to be of the same alternate universe as described in Blackarachnia's bio.
Why do I keep insisting that it's an alternate universe instead of just the same universe as the Beast Wars cartoon? Well, for one, the history of this universe and its inhabitants described in both bios is quite blatantly different from that of the cartoon. and, the Depth Charge bio gave this world its own Universal Stream designation of Primax 209.0 Gamma ("Primax" for the G1 continuity family, "209.0" for February 2009 on an unknown day, and "Gamma" for "comic book"--even though it ought to be "Epsilon" for "Club/convention fiction").
Below are excerpts from both bios to explain the nature of this universe.
Blackarachnia's bio:
Intelligent, cunning, and fiercely loyal – there's no question why Blackarachnia was chosen by Alpha Trion to be his right hand woman. Along with Nightscream, Scavenger and Immorticon, she works closely with the ancient warrior as they try to escape the cage they believe the Transtech have built around them.
Although she and her three companions outwardly appear to be Transtech, inside the chassis of these four Transtech glow the Sparks of their outworlder doppelgangers; Maximals and Predacons, once lost and dejected, who were discovered by their would-be benefactor among the other lowtechs in the outskirts of Axiom Nexus. Upon discovering them, Alpha Trion soon found the leverage he needed to gather them into his herd.
On their own Cybertron, they were nothing but pawns. They were bred and trained to fight in a war whose original combatants had become old and tired. The Autobots and Decepticons were as ancient as Cybertron itself; their vocalizers crackled with age, and their structures encased in rust. The only thing that kept their Sparks fueled was the hatred they held for the other side So each faction built a new species to continue their battles. The designed them for war, and imbued them with the same hatred. Out on the battlefront, watching their comrades fight and die for a cause that was not their own, Blackarachnia and her battalion came to realize that they no longer hated their supposed enemy. No, their anger was now directed at the progenitors that had placed them on this chess board. The deaths of their fellow soldiers Silverbolt, Rattrap, and Rhinox were the final straws. They took up their weapons for what they had hoped to be the final time and struck down their commanding officer, Optimus Primal, who refused to turn against the Autobots. Predacon dissidents soon joined with their Maximal counterparts to fight against their oppressors. The uprising was costly, as they lost half their number in the struggle, and their new leader, Cheetor, lay damaged, dangling on the edge of stasis lock. So Blackarachnia and Nightscream fled, along with two Predacons (Scavenger and Immorticon), engaging an experimental transwarp engine, hoping to find themselves anywhere other than Cybertron.
Instead, when their optics booted, they found themselves right back where they had just left. It was still Cybertron... but different. Yet, it was still far too familiar for them. The priamry inhabitants still treated them like they were something less. Once again they felt that familiar twinge of anger, And Alpha Trion was more than willing to help them hone that anger into the blade he'd use to gain their "freedom" and to ensure his return back to his homeworld.
Depth Charge's bio:
Depth Charge's tracking skills are legendary. As defender, pursuer, and, if need be, judge, Depth Charge acts swiftly and with unquestioning resolve. So when the Autobot elders needed the murderous Protoform X captured and returned to them, Depth Charge was their first and only choice. It took the Maximal nearly nine stellar cycle and twelve doomed colleagues to hunt down the monster, but ultimately he succeeded and ended the massacre.
When he brought the shackled beast before the elders, he learned of his new task; two Maximals, Blackarachnia and Nightscream, and two Predacons, Immorticon and Scavenger, had participated in a rebellion that had left a Maximal commander offline and a distrust amongst the Maximal army ranks. The had stolen an experimental transwarp generator as a means of fleeing from authorities, and triggered the device in the outskirts of Cybertropolis. Retracing their steps with his own transwarp device, Depth Charge discovered their escape route was perhaps not of their own choosing - the experimental generator had malfunctioned, tearing a hole in the fabric of reality. Unable to relinquish his hunt, Depth Charge sabotaged his own transwarp device so that it would suffer a similar failure. Soon he too disappeared in to another reality.
When his optics rebooted, he found himself in a bustling world filled with strange faces. He had little idea of what this "Axiom Nexus" place was or how he had gotten there, but such questions were unimportant to him. He still had a trail to follow, which eventually led him to doors of a strange individual named Alpha Trion. The Autobot informed Depth Charge of how he encountered the four fugitives and had taken him into his home. He explained that once inside, they turned on him and threatened his life. He continued the explanation saying that his assistant - Topspin - was forced to intervene and use his unusual ability to extract and extinguish the fugitives' sparks. Depth Charge was unsure of the story he had just been told and and pressed Alpha Trion further, until Topspin showed him the four sparkless bodies. There was something about that Autobot that Depth Charge still didn't trust, but visage of the bodies appeared to be conclusive; his hunt was over.
Now unable to collect on the bounty or return home, the Maximal bounty hunter was trapped in a universe that was not his own. He took He took to prowling the streets of the "Low Tech" underworld, always searching for his next bounty. That is, until the Transtech came to call on him.
So, yeah, no Golden Disk theft, no time travel, no prehistoric Earth, no Pax Cybertronia, not even a "Beast Wars" event. The universe from which these Club characters all hail from lacks nearly all of the events from which the Beast Wars cartoon was known for, save only for Maximals and Predacons being the next generation after the Autobots and Decepticons, and Depth Charge hunting down and capturing Protoform X.
Speaking of which, it is more than likely that the character of new Protoform X toy, as well as that of the new Transmutate toy, will likely hail from this universe as well.


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Fiber Optic TV Providers in ID
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Site content by
Eric Richardson
© 2012 - WaferScale.com


text:
Apple has sold well over a billion apps for the iPhone since the launch of the market-leading smartphone, with the news this week that sales of iPhone-compatible books now outnumbers sales of games for the first time.
The latest figures are from mobile ad company Mobclix, which shows how the number of books in the iTunes store now exceeds the number of games.
Mobclix's data shows that there are over 26,000 books in iTunes, compared with a just over 24,000 games.
Apple vs Amazon
Popular iPhone e-book apps include (ironically) Kindle one, (Amazon-owned) Stanza and Classics.
What with the forthcoming release of the iPad – now rumoured for a 26 March launch in the US – will Apple be able to take on the might of Amazon's Kindle in the e-book market?
TechRadar also looked into the thorny issue of piracy of e-books recently – that great big elephant in the corner that the electronic publishing industry so far seems to be trying its hardest to ignore.
Via GigaOM.com


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Our mission is to provide unique Asian style products and art pieces with the highest quality service to our vendors, artists and most importantly, our customers.


text:
Lindy Ruff, Scott Arniel among coaching candidates for Canucks
Team Canada head coach Lindy Ruff speaks to players during a practice session Saturday, May 11, 2013 at the world hockey championships in Stockholm Sweden.
Photograph by: THE CANADIAN PRESS , Jacques Boissinot
VANCOUVER — Lindy Ruff and Scott Arniel both wish to be a head coach in the National Hockey League next season but only one was talking Thursday, at least about the new job opening behind Vancouver's bench.
By now, you've probably guessed that Arniel was the chatty one. The Canucks are in the market for a head coach after Wednesday's sacking of Alain Vigneault.
"Definitely I am interested," said Arniel, who is already family as coach of the Canucks' AHL affiliate. "Obviously being part of the organization, I know for a fact I'll get a phone call."
Ruff will likely get a phone call, too. When it comes to available coaches, none has his experience. He's logged 14 full campaigns with the Buffalo Sabres plus 17 games this year before getting the boot. He's posted two 50-plus win seasons and another four at 40-plus. He was also a member of Canada's gold-medal winning team at the 2010 Winter Olympics.
"My plans are to get back into it but, right now, I have no short-term plans," the 53-year-old Ruff responded when asked if the Canuck position held any intrigue for him. "I don't really think it's fair to comment on that situation right now. I only saw yesterday that they let the staff go there. Personally, I think Alain has done a heck of a job but the last couple of playoff years have been disappointing."
Arniel, 50, has had three separate stints with the Canuck organization, first as a minor-league assistant with the Manitoba Moose, then head coach of the Moose and, finally, head coach this past season with the Chicago Wolves. He is under contract for two more seasons as AHL coach.
He also had one unsuccessful stint as a head coach in the NHL with the Columbus Blue Jackets. In his only full season, 2010-11, the Jackets finished with 81 points and missed the playoffs. He lasted 41 games into the next campaign and was fired with the team sitting at a lowly 11-25-5.
"You know what?" said Arniel. "Columbus, for me, was an experience. Whether it's good or it's bad, you learn from the good and you learn from the bad. It gave me a chance to be a head coach in the NHL so, that part of it, I don't have to worry about going through the first-time things again.
"The last year and a half, I've learned an awful lot about the NHL," he added. "I've made a conscious effort to really watch a lot of teams, whether I was on the road scouting them, or watching on TV. I watched coaches and I watched players, probably more so than I had ever done in the past. So whenever that next opportunity comes, I want to make sure that I'm ready and I've been doing everything possible."
Arniel conceded that he has no NHL playoff resume as a head coach but noted neither did Paul MacLean when he was hired by the Ottawa Senators. Dan Bylsma won a Stanley Cup in Pittsburgh as a mid-season replacement and with zero NHL head coaching experience.
"Whether you have experience or not, it has an awful lot to do with your players and the team that's on the ice," Arniel said. "Whether you've been to Stanley Cups, or won Stanley Cups, every year is a new challenge and that team in front of you is really going to determine how much success you're going to have."
Arniel is certainly familiar with the current Canuck roster. He coached some of the players in the minors and has attended a number of Canucks training camps in his capacity as minor-league coach. Cory Schneider was his goalie in Manitoba for three seasons, including 2008-09 when the Moose reached the American League final.
"I think I have an idea what works and what would help the Canucks be better," he said. "I knew this (coaching change) was kind of on the horizon a little bit so once management has their ducks in a row after Wednesday, I'm expecting we'll be able to sit down and talk and take it from there."
Canuck GM Mike Gillis, appearing Thursday on the team's flagship radio station Team 1040, confirmed that Arniel would be a candidate to succeed Vigneault.
"Absolutely Scott will be considered," Gillis said. "He's got great experience. He's had tremendous success at the minor-league level and it seems that coaches learn an awful lot going through a negative experience and getting fired. They get introspective and they learn what that can do better."
Gillis also said he hoped to have an announcement next week on a new home for the Canucks' farm team. It's believed that will be Utica, N.Y.
Canucks poll: Who would be their best bet as next head coach?


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On May 19, 2015, the Aviation industry came together to protect Veterans and collectively oppose H.R. 476. Helicopter Association International (HAI), the Aircraft Owners and Pilots Association (AOPA), the Experimental Aircraft Association (EAA), the General Aviation Manufacturers Association (GAMA), the National Association of State Aviation Officials (NASAO), the National Business Aviation Association (NBAA), and the National Air Transportation Association (NATA) sent a powerful message to Congressional leadership opposing H.R. 476 and calling for its removal.
Industry leadership has called the proposed legislation a "..disservice to our nation's Veterans….discriminating against veterans seeking a flight-training degree from public institutions of higher learning".
Read the letter HERE. Then, please SIGN & SHARE The Petition HERE.
Request that Congress STOP H.R. 476.


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Oil's bull-market rally faltered as the shale boom still gives traders pause.
Futures fell 1.1 percent in New York after earlier reaching a five-month high. U.S. government data released Wednesday showed American drillers lifted output almost 9 percent during the past three weeks, the biggest three-week increase in half a decade. The exuberance of U.S. explorers may offset supply curbs by OPEC and allied producers such as Russia.
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Market Watch
Headline crude prices for the week beginning 17 February 2020 – Brent: US$53/b; WTI: US$49/b
Headlines of the week
Natural Gas/LNG
Forecast growth in demand for U.S. petroleum and other liquids is not driven by transportation and not supplied by refineries
The U.S. Energy Information Administration's (EIA) February Short-Term Energy Outlook (STEO) forecasts that in 2021, U.S. consumption (as measured by product supplied) of total petroleum and other liquid fuels will average 20.71 million barrels per day (b/d), surpassing the 2007 pre-recession level of 20.68 million b/d. However, the drivers of this consumption growth have changed. Since the 2007–09 recession, U.S. consumption growth has shifted toward liquid fuels that are used primarily outside the transportation sector and are supplied mostly from non-refinery sources. Despite this shift away from domestic demand for refinery-produced fuels, U.S. refinery runs have increased, and the excess products have been exported, greatly contributing to the United States becoming a net exporter of petroleum in September 2019. EIA expects these trends to continue for at least the next 10 years.
Hydrocarbon gas liquids (HGL) have been the main driver of U.S. petroleum and other liquids demand growth since 2007 (Figure 1). U.S. production and consumption of HGLs—a group of products that include ethane, propane, normal butane and isobutane, natural gasoline, and refinery olefins—have risen with increased natural gas production and demand from an expanding petrochemical sector. As a result, EIA forecasts U.S. HGL consumption will be 1.27 million b/d more in 2021 than in 2007, and will average 3.45 million b/d.
With the exception of jet fuel, EIA expects less U.S. consumption of refinery-produced products in 2021 than in 2007. Since 2007, increases in U.S. vehicle miles traveled, which normally increases total motor gasoline consumption, have been countered to some extent by increases in vehicle fuel efficiency. In addition, although U.S. total motor gasoline consumption exceeded 2007 levels for the first time in 2016, increased blending of ethanol into finished motor gasoline has displaced some of the petroleum-based, or refinery-produced, portion of gasoline consumption. Therefore, EIA forecasts 570,000 b/d less consumption of refinery-produced gasoline in the United States in 2021 than in 2007, while ethanol will be 0.5 million b/d higher. Ethanol is almost exclusively produced at non-petroleum refinery sites.
Some HGLs can be produced by both refineries and natural gas processing plants. Natural gas plant liquids (NGPLs)—a subset of HGLs that includes ethane, propane, normal butanes and isobutanes, and natural gasoline—can be extracted from natural gas production streams or produced at refineries that process crude oil. However, as U.S. natural gas production increased from 55.3 billion cubic feet per day (Bcf/d) in 2007 to 98.9 Bcf/d in 2019, the amount of HGLs extracted from natural gas production increased from 1.78 million b/d in 2007 to 4.83 million b/d in 2019. EIA expects HGL production from natural gas processing plants to continue to increase to 5.47 million b/d in 2021. Meanwhile, refinery HGL production has been flat at about 600,000 b/d (Figure 2).
Although HGLs have several different end uses, such as propane for space heating and normal butane for blending with motor gasoline, most of the growth in consumption stems from the use of HGLs as feedstock for petrochemical processes. The large increase in U.S. production of HGLs, and the resulting low prices, led to large investments in U.S. infrastructure to extract and transport HGLs to market, as well as investments in petrochemical facilities to consume it. Many of these facilities consume ethane, and to a lesser degree propane and normal butane, as feedstocks to produce intermediate building blocks for plastics, resins, and other materials with nonenergy uses. EIA forecasts that U.S. ethane consumption will reach 1.96 million b/d in 2021, up from 743,000 b/d in 2007, which represents 96% of the increase in U.S. HGL consumption between 2007 and 2021.
Removing HGL and ethanol consumption from the total demand for U.S. petroleum and other liquids indicates that EIA's 2021 forecast U.S. demand for principally refinery-produced products is about 16.31 million b/d, on par with the 1997 level (Figure 3).
Despite domestic demand shifting away from traditionally refinery-produced products, U.S. refinery capacity has increased 1.7 million b/d between 2007 and 2019. U.S. refineries have adapted to falling domestic demand for certain products, such as residual fuel, by investing in downstream coking capacity to upgrade it into more valuable products. More importantly, international demand for refinery-produced products has increased since 2007, allowing U.S. refineries to increase runs and utilization beyond what the domestic market demanded to supply products to export markets. As a result, the United States became a net exporter on an annual basis of distillate and residual fuel in 2008, of jet fuel in 2011, and of motor gasoline in 2016.
Similarly, demand for HGLs outside of the United States has increased and caused U.S exports of HGLs to increase from 70,000 b/d in 2007 to 2.07 million b/d in November 2019. Between 2013 and 2016, exports of HGLs were the largest contributor to the increase in U.S. exports of petroleum products. U.S. exports of HGLs are mostly of propane and ethane to markets in Asia and Europe, where they are also displacing refinery-produced naphtha as a petrochemical feedstock.
EIA projects that these trends of increasing U.S. production of HGLs, increasing domestic consumption of HGLs, and increasing exports of HGLs will continue beyond 2021. EIA's Annual Energy Outlook 2020 (AEO2020), released in January, shows projections for further growth in HGL production at natural gas processing plants from 4.91 million b/d in 2019 to a peak of 6.58 million b/d in 2029 and then slowly decline to 6.17 million b/d by 2050. Domestic consumption of HGLs will also increase, driven by continued petrochemical demand for feedstock, which rises from about 3.14 million b/d in 2019 to more than 4.0 million b/d in 2029. Meanwhile, in the AEO2020 Reference case, U.S. consumption of motor gasoline declines until 2042, distillate consumption declines until 2040, and residual fuel consumption continues declining out to 2050.
U.S. average regular gasoline prices rise, diesel prices decline
The U.S. average regular gasoline retail price increased nearly 1 cent from the previous week to $2.43 per gallon on February 17, 11 cents higher than the same time last year. The Midwest price rose nearly 5 cents to $2.31 per gallon. The Rocky Mountain price fell more than 3 cents to $2.47 per gallon, the West Coast price fell 1 cent to $3.14 per gallon, the East Coast price fell nearly 1 cent to $2.36 per gallon, and the Gulf Coast price declined by less than 1 cent to $2.08 per gallon.
The U.S. average diesel fuel price fell 2 cents from the previous week to $2.89 per gallon on February 17, 12 cents lower than a year ago. The Rocky Mountain price fell nearly 4 cents to $2.86 per gallon, the East Coast price fell more than 2 cents to $2.94 per gallon, the Midwest and Gulf Coast prices each fell nearly 2 cents to $2.76 per gallon and $2.66 per gallon, respectively, and the West Coast price fell more than 1 cent to $3.47 per gallon.
Residential heating oil prices increase, propane prices decrease
As of February 17, 2020, residential heating oil prices averaged more than $2.91 per gallon, almost 1 cent per gallon above last week's price but more than 31 cents per gallon lower than last year's price at this time. Wholesale heating oil prices averaged $1.80 per gallon, more than 5 cents per gallon above last week's price but 34 cents per gallon lower than a year ago.
Residential propane prices averaged more than $1.98 per gallon, less than 1 cent per gallon below last week's price and nearly 45 cents per gallon less than a year ago. Wholesale propane prices averaged more than $0.56 per gallon, more than 1 cent per gallon higher than last week's price but almost 27 cents per gallon below last year's price.
Propane/propylene inventories decline
U.S. propane/propylene stocks decreased by 3.0 million barrels last week to 74.3 million barrels as of February 14, 2020, 18.4 million barrels (32.9%) greater than the five-year (2015-19) average inventory levels for this same time of year. Midwest, Gulf Coast, East Coast, and Rocky Mountain/West Coast inventories decreased by 1.1 million barrels, 1.0 million barrels, 0.6 million barrels, and 0.4 million barrels, respectively. Propylene non-fuel-use inventories represented 7.5% of total propane/propylene inventories.
According to projections published in the U.S. Energy Information Administration's (EIA) Annual Energy Outlook 2020 (AEO2020), total dry natural gas production in the United States will continue to increase until 2050 in most of the AEO2020 cases, primarily to support growing U.S. exports of natural gas to global markets. The United States began exporting more natural gas than it imports on an annual basis in 2017, driven by increased liquefied natural gas (LNG) exports, increased pipeline exports to Mexico, and reduced imports from Canada. In most of the AEO2020 cases, net natural gas exports continue to increase through 2050, and most of the increase is in the near term.
The AEO2020 Reference case represents EIA's best assessment of how U.S. and world energy markets will operate through 2050, assuming no significant changes in energy policy occur. Side cases show the effects of changing model assumptions: the High and Low Oil Price cases simulate international conditions that could drive crude oil prices higher or lower, and the High and Low Oil and Gas Supply cases vary production costs and resource recoverability within the United States.
Source: U.S. Energy Information Administration, Annual Energy Outlook 2020
EIA expects dry natural gas production to total 34 trillion cubic feet (Tcf) in 2019 once the final data is in. In the AEO2020 Reference case, EIA projects that U.S. dry natural gas production will reach 45 Tcf by 2050. Production growth results largely from continued development of tight and shale resources in the East, Gulf Coast, and Southwest regions, which more than offsets production declines in other regions. Dry natural gas production from these three regions accounted for 68% of total U.S. dry natural gas production in 2019 and, in the Reference case, 78% of dry natural gas production in 2050.
Most of the increase in dry natural gas production is coming from natural gas formations such as the Marcellus and Utica in the East region and the Haynesville in the Gulf Coast region. A smaller but still significant portion of the growth is from natural gas production in oil formations (also known as associated gas), especially in the Permian Basin in the Southwest region.
Source: U.S. Energy Information Administration, Annual Energy Outlook 2020
In the Reference case, both U.S. natural gas exports by pipeline and U.S. LNG exports continue to grow through 2030. LNG exports account for most of the export growth because more LNG export facilities are becoming operational and more projects are under construction. In the Reference case, EIA projects that LNG exports will almost triple, from 1.7 Tcf in 2019 to 5.8 Tcf in 2030, the equivalent of nearly 16 billion cubic feet per day (Bcf/d). LNG exports remain at this level through 2050 as U.S.-sourced LNG becomes less competitive in world markets and as more countries become global LNG suppliers.
U.S. LNG exports are more competitive when oil prices are high (as in the High Oil Price case) and U.S. natural gas prices are low (as in the High Oil and Gas Supply case) because of pricing structures that link Brent crude oil prices to LNG prices in many world markets. In the High Oil Price case, U.S. natural gas net exports reach nearly 13 Tcf by the late 2030s, most of which is LNG. Conversely, in the Low Oil Price case and Low Oil and Gas Supply case, U.S. LNG is less competitive globally and remains lower than 5 Tcf per year through 2050.
By comparison, pipeline trade of U.S. natural gas is less sensitive to changes in assumptions about domestic natural gas supply and world oil prices. Pipeline trade of natural gas is highest in the High Oil and Gas Supply case because low domestic natural gas prices reduce U.S. natural gas imports from Canada.
Source: U.S. Energy Information Administration, Annual Energy Outlook 2020


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Sept. 26, 2011 -- Location, location, location: A new study suggests fruits and vegetables may help protect different parts of the colon against cancer.
Broccoli and cauliflower helped one part of the colon more, while carrots and apples helped in another part.
Australian researchers have found a link between different types of fruits and vegetables and cancer risk in different parts of the colon. Specifically, the study found that the risk of cancer in the part of the large bowel that runs up the right side of the abdomen and across was not associated with total combined intake of fruits and vegetables or total intake of either one. However, the family of vegetables that includes cabbage, broccoli, brussels sprouts, and cauliflower was linked to a lower risk of cancer in that part of the colon.
On the other hand, total fruit and vegetable intake and total vegetable intake alone were associated with a lower risk of cancer in the part of the colon that runs down the left side of the abdomen. That finding could have been due to chance, though, the scientists write. But they did find a significant connection between eating more apples and dark yellow vegetables, such as carrots and pumpkin, and a lower risk of cancer in the right side of the colon.
Why fruits and vegetables would affect various parts of the colon differently is not known, the study researchers write.
"Our study was based on the hypothesis raised by our colleague Barry Iacopetta, who suggested that the left and right sides of the colon had different cancers," researcher Lin Fritschi, PhD, a professor at the Western Australian Institute for Medical Research in Perth, says in an email.
Iacopetta, a co-author of the study, "has published a few papers showing that left and right colon cancers have different genetic makeups" and respond differently to chemotherapy, Fritschi says.
Iacopetta is particularly interested in the role of folate, Fritschi says, which is why she and her co-authors also focused on the family of vegetables that includes broccoli and cauliflower, a main source of the vitamin.
They called for more studies that follow larger numbers of people since the findings of this study only show an association, and do not prove cause and effect.
Eating a Variety of Fruits and Vegetables
Fritschi and her co-authors based their findings on a comparison of 834 people who had been diagnosed with colon cancer and a comparison group of 939 people without cancer.
Participants completed a questionnaire about their food and alcohol intake a decade earlier since it takes years for colon cancer to develop, and information about current intake wouldn't be as relevant. They also answered questions about their health history, such as their height and weight at age 20, their smoking status, and whether they had diabetes. Smoking, diabetes, and obesity are factors linked to risk for colon cancer.
"I think the message is a good one, and that is to eat a variety of fruits and vegetables," Marji McCullough, ScD, RD, strategic director of nutritional epidemiology at the American Cancer Society, tells WebMD.
Meat Intake Might Have Played a Role
However, noted McCullough, who was not involved in the study, the authors did not account for the amount of red and processed meats in the study participants' diets.
The World Cancer Research Fund International says there's "strong evidence" that such meats increase risk of colon cancer, and people who eat lots of them usually eat fewer fruits and vegetables, McCullough says. The American Cancer Society also states that diets high in processed meats and red meat can increase the risk of colon cancer. So, she says, meat consumption, not fruit and vegetable intake, might explain the Australian researchers' findings.
Fritschi says she and her co-authors looked in detail at meat consumption in only a subset of study participants, not enough to take into account in their analysis.
McCullough also says this type of research -- relying heavily on recall of diet in past years -- tends to find a stronger relationship between fruit and vegetable intake and colon cancer risk than studies that collect dietary information from people before they're diagnosed.
The authors note that limitation in their study. "The problem of bias and memory is a real issue with dietary measurement," Fritschi says. "We tried to do what we could, but it is a real problem for all these retrospective studies."
The study appears in the October issue of the Journal of the American Dietetic Association.


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Book M
An instrumental odyssey, Book M features full string sections, an
assortment of western and Persian, Turkish and Arabic stringed and
percussion instruments (some played by people who actually know how!),
'microtonally' adjusted synthesizers, organs and guitars, innovative
compositions, and off-the-map production techniques. The album is
focused and deliberate; the out-of-control aspects seem perfectly
natural. Moments of violent aggression are merged with the tenderness
and subtlety of the band's otherworldly passions. It's a drama of
dizzying complexity played out explicitly in the glowing artwork and
textual rants of an impressive 16-page booklet (with now legendary
cyphers that drop 7 levels down into the abyss).
Present is the unmistakable genius of violinist Eyvind Kang,
percussionist William Winant (neither of whom need any introduction),
and the cast from Mr. Bungle; drummer Danny Heifetz, bassist
multi-instrumentalist Bar McKinnon and producer / composer /
multi-instrumentalist Trey Spruance. The addition of the instrumental
expertise of Shamou on darbuka, zarb, riq, and zils, and Fatima on
santur, take the SC3 to new heights --- more than "ethnographic
forgeries", these are compositions emanating from another universe


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This is an archived article that was published on sltrib.com in 2012, and information in the article may be outdated. It is provided only for personal research purposes and may not be reprinted.
Two of Utah's two-year programs that train registered nurses are struggling to keep their graduates' pass rates up to par on licensing exams, according to state regulators at the Department of Commerce.
Broadview University, the for-profit West Jordan school formerly known as Utah Career College, is no longer accepting nursing students. For seven straight quarters, its student pass rates for the National Council Licensure Examination, or NCLEX, fell below the national average.
Also on notice to improve its nursing graduates' NCLEX pass rates is Stevens Henager College, a multicampus Utah school that operates a nursing program in West Haven.
These two are hardly the only Utah nursing programs with unacceptable pass rates for NCLEX, the exam graduates must pass before working as registered nurses.
But Broadview and Stevens Henager have recently signed deals with the state Division of Occupational and Professional Licensing (DOPL), obligating them to raise their pass rates to within 5 percentage points of the national average.
While school officials challenge the fairness of the rules, failure to meet the threshold could cost them their ability to operate nursing programs.
Pressure to pass • Utah's pass rate percentages are typically in the upper 80s and lower 90s, almost always in line with the current national average. Under DOPL rules, programs are in violation if their pass rates remain five points below the average for three quarters in a two-year period.
Stevens Henager administrator Vicky Dewsnup contends the quarterly reporting requirement is not fair to smaller programs, and notes few states have such a rule.
"You live and breathe by your NCLEX pass rates. In programs that have cohorts of 10 students, they may have two kids not pass and that will reduce your rate to 80 percent," said Dewsnup, who believes the pass rates should be reported annually.
In 2011, 33 of Henager's 42 nursing graduates passed NCLEX for a pass rate of 78.6 percent, nearly 10 points below the national average that year. But the year before the school's rate was 4.4 points higher than the national average.
Three times a year, Henager takes on new cohorts of between 15 and 20 students.
Last quarter, three new graduates chose to take NCLEX "cold," or without preparing, Dewsnup said, and only one passed, giving the school a miserable 33 percent pass rate based on the failure of just two students.
The school now requires its students to pass an exam administered by the testing firm ATI. For those who pass, Henager releases their transcripts so they can move on to the licensure exam. Those who fail must follow a "remediation plan" until they can pass ATI.
For Broadview, the issue appears to be moot because another for-profit school, Draper-based AmeriTech College, has agreed to complete the training for 29 of Broadview's remaining nursing students.
In August, Broadview officials told state regulators it was shutting down its nursing program, citing "a lack of resources" shortly after many of its faculty quit. A small group of Broadview students nearing graduation will be allowed to wrap up their studies this fall at the West Jordan school.
Increasing demand, challenges • Because of high demand for nursing instruction and limited spots at Utah's big public two-year schools, such as Utah Valley University and Salt Lake Community College, numerous for-profit schools have started programs to train RNs.
Most Utah programs, including the two facing disciplinary action, are accredited by the National League for Nursing Accrediting Commission, or NLNAC.
The state's eight for-profit programs graduated 252 students last year who passed the NCLEX. That number is sure to grow as these programs become more established. Everest College in West Valley City, Fortis College in Salt Lake City, Eagle Gate College with campuses in Murray and Layton, and Nightingale College in Ogden are now training students while seeking accreditation, according to nursing board records.
NLNAC recently denied Eagle Gate's application but has allowed it to re-apply for accreditation, while Everest failed to apply properly. Everest is now seeking accreditation from the Commission on Collegiate Nursing Education instead.
Even with national accreditation, the for-profit programs could pose unanticipated problems for aspiring nurses.
These two-year programs cost substantially more than their public counterparts often in excess of $40,000. Their credits and degrees are not readily transferable to a traditional university because the for-profit schools typically lack regional accreditation. Another limiting factor: finding the clinical placements that give them real-world experience. Schools rely on providers to offer spots and have little control over access to them.
AmeriTech recently informed the state Board of Nursing that it cannot find clinical placements for its former Broadview students because Intermountain Healthcare has reduced its spots for nursing students. Had the college known placements would become scarce, it would not have agreed to take on Broadview's students, program administrator Julie Aiken told the board.


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A liberal-leaning Democrat is waging a somewhat lonely but passionate fight against a mega-corporate merger. That's the kind of thing you're going to see talked about on the liberal-leaning cable channel MSNBC, right?
Not at the moment. Because that politician, Minnesota Sen. Al Franken, is talking about the Comcast/Time Warner Cable merger (New York Times, 4/11/14). And, of course, Comcast is MSNBC's parent company.
As we've noted before (FAIR Blog, 2/19/14), MSNBC mostly skipped the announcement of the merger. The only substantive coverage was on Morning Joe, where the CEOs enjoyed a victory lap. As co-host Joe Scarborough put it, "Comcast seems to be doing everything right over the past four or five years."
Not much has changed. Franken's questioning of company officials at a Senate judiciary committee hearing last week (4/9/14) drew notice from the likes of the New York Times (4/11/14), but it doesn't seem to change the dynamic over at Comcast's cable channel, which has a political point of view that you might think would be sympathetic to Franken's criticism–not to mention the dozens of public interest groups that have spoken out publicly against the deal.
Interestingly, CNN–which no longer has any corporate ties to Time Warner Cable–has done much more on the Comcast story, most recently on the media program Reliable Sources (4/13/14), which had also featured an interview with Craig Aaron of Free Press on the same subject (2/16/14).
But at this point, a merger of two massive media companies–which raises some fundamental questions about one corporation holding enormous power over cable, broadband and programming–isn't generating any interest over at MSNBC. If Franken and other Comcast critics need any more evidence showing how these media giants wield their power, they don't have to look very far.


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Lena Dunham's Side-By-Side Comparison Pics Go Viral for Right Reason
Insert the praise hands emoji here 🙌🏻 Lena Dunham's Instagram is going viral for all the right reasons. The Girls actress posted side-by-side photos revealing that she's gone from "sick in the head and tissues" to "happy, joyous, and free" and the number on the scale doesn't matter.
"On the left: 138 pounds, complimented all day and propositioned by men and on the cover of a tabloid about diets that work. Also, sick in the tissue and in the head and subsisting only on small amounts of sugar, tons of caffeine and a purse pharmacy. On the right: 162 pounds, happy joyous & free, complimented only by people that matter for reasons that matter, subsisting on a steady flow of fun/healthy snacks and apps and entrees, strong from lifting dogs and spirits," Dunham captioned the post, revealing that she's on the mend since previously revealing her years-long battle with chronic pain stemming from endometriosis.
"Even this OG body positivity warrior sometimes looks at the left picture longingly, until I remember the impossible pain that brought me there and onto my proverbial knees," Dunham concluded. "As I type I can feel my back fat rolling up under my shoulder blades. I lean in."
The HBO star previously slammed the tabloid that included her in their "20 Slimdown Diet Tips" feature, listing instead 20 other factors leading to her weight loss, which ultimately lead to her undergoing a total hysterectomy in February.
In an op-ed for Vogue, Dunham previously shared why she underwent the total hysterectomy, revealing that she couldn't handle the pain anymore and just wanted to be happy again.
"I may have felt choiceless before, but I know I have choices now," she concluded in Vogue, revealing she still plans on having children via surrogacy or adoption. "Soon I'll start exploring whether my ovaries, which remain someplace inside me in that vast cavern of organs and scar tissue, have eggs. Adoption is a thrilling truth I'll pursue with all my might."


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You Can Pre-Order Your iPhone 5C Today
Apple's Colorful iPhone Starts at $99 and at $79 at Walmart.
Sept. 13, 2013 -- A world of colorful iPhones starts today, or at least a world of colorful iPhones can be pre-ordered starting today.
Starting at 3:01 a.m. ET / 12:01 a.m. PT, Apple began taking pre-orders for its new iPhone 5C on its website. Other retailers, including Walmart and Best Buy, also began to take orders on the new phone, which starts at $99 with a two-year contract. Walmart actually has the lowest price on the phone; the 16GB model starts at $79 with a two-year contract.
The phone will be delivered on Sept. 20 to those who pre-order today and will be in stores that same day as well. The iPhone 5S, the higher-end model of the iPhone that Apple announced this week, won't be available for order until Sept. 20, the same day it will also be available in stores.
Deciding Between the iPhone 5C and 5S? Check out our first look at the new phones
The iPhone 5C comes in five colors -- white, pink, yellow, blue and green -- all of which match the wallpaper on the new iOS 7 software that will come pre-loaded on the phone. Unlike the $199 iPhone 5S, the 5C has similar specs to the iPhone 5, which it will replace. It has the same processor, camera and 4-inch Retina Display as the iPhone 5.
If you aren't in the market for a new iPhone though, on Wednesday, Sept. 18, Apple will update the iPhone 4, 4S and 5 with its latest software -- iOS 7. iOS 7 has a starkly different design than the previous versions of the software, with a new colorful design, icons and apps.
In other words, even if you don't get the iPhone 5C, you can still get a pretty colorful phone come next week.


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haven't did this in a while
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haven't did this in a while
May you go see my latest piece?
It's a Piano Concerto... I composed it in less than one day so there it can be improved :)
I'm waiting you to give your opinion in the comments :))
Thanks for reading and i hope you have a great day!
piano concerto: https://musescore.com/user/14519221/scores/5837478
Sorry but I thought that it should be done
Check out this show!
It's a really nice show, I'm sure you'd like it. Please leave any feedback or commentary on the score itself. Please share with others as well!
still, a work in progress need feedback and a name for the piece I'm open to ideas I'm not going to get offended if you say it's not that good
Hello my friends! Please check out my new score for violin and strings... Unfortunately I must say it has nothing to do with bananas.......
Obs: How do I add new score sheets to the group?
Thanks to all the new members for joining our banana party. There seem to be quite a few 'banana' composers here at musescore, whether ithe music is about the fruit banana or banana fish or banana fairies or whatever or if the music is just plain banana silly. Post your music, tell your friends. I even heard that some higher up in the government was thinking of joining since they have lots of experience in being completely bananas.
Hello my friends! Please check out my new score for violin and strings...
Obs: How do I post new score sheets?
Oh, I said it in the title. Anyone?
Can someone please tell me how to make a score? I have no idea and I have a beautiful piano and violin duet to be made.I have looked it up on my iPad and I still do not know how.Can someone please tell me step by step.Thank you, and sorry to bother you!☺
I decided to revisit one of my older string quartet arrangements. As you can probably guess, it is the K 545 sonata. This time, I had a harmonic analysis to help me stay more true to the original harmony. I decided, for now at least, to have the sixteenths in the second movement be played by the second violin. The countermelody method that I went right for in my first draft is tricky, especially to keep consonant with both the melody and the harmony. So, as I try to figure out a good countermelody, I have the sixteenth notes in the second violin in this draft. Hopefully, I will figure out a good countermelody so that I can put the sixteenth notes into the viola, and not have to do octave alterations as you can see I did in certain places in the second movement. Until then though, the sixteenths will be in the second violin, with the viola harmonizing the bass line.
Here is the second draft of my string quartet arrangement of K545:
I'm new to this community. I uploaded my second prelude for a string quartet. Check it out, and I hope you like it!
I uploaded a scherzo for solo violin , check it out:
It's really horrendous !
Hope you enjoy!
What instruments do you play?


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Robots Using ROS Part 3: TUM-Rosie, Marvin, CKBots, HERB
The third installment of Robots Using ROS features robots big and small:
- TUM-Rosie: TU München built a Kuka-based mobile manipulation platform to research robots with a high-degree of cognition.
- CKbots: the Modlab's small, modular robots are too small to run ROS themselves, but they can connect to a ROS system to test algorithms that need a bit more horsepower.
- Marvin: the autonomous car from Austin Robot Technology and UT Austin competed in the DARPA Urban Challenge and has now been ported to ROS.
- HERB: the mobile manipulator, based on a Segway RMP200 and Barrett arm, was built to be a "robotic butler" and is used as a collaboration between Intel Pittsburgh and Carnegie Mellon University.
- Care-O-bot 3: Fraunhofer IPA's mobile manipulation platform has broad support for ROS. The accompanying open-source repository includes everything from device drivers to simulation in Gazebo.
- Bosch RTC's robot: Bosch RTC's Segway RMP-based robot has been used to develop new ROS libraries, including an exploration stack.
- EL-E and Cody: Georgia Tech's Healthcare Robotics Lab has released drivers and has also released code to accompany research papers.
- Kawada HPR2-V: the JSK Lab at Tokyo University has
integrated this omni-directional variant of the HRP-2 with the ROS navigation stack.
- Prairie Dog: the Correll Lab at Colorado University
uses this iRobot Create-based platform for teaching and research.
- STAIR 1: the Stanford University mobile manipulation research platform that provided the predecessor of the ROS framework.
- Aldebaran Nao: a small, commercially available humanoid robot that demonstrated the ability of the ROS community (Brown University and University of Freiburg) to come together and develop open source drivers.
- i-Sobot: an even smaller humanoid robot controlled by the ROS PS3 joystick driver. The developer has been publishing a Japanese-language blog on ROS, helping ROS reach new audiences.
- Junior: Stanford Racing's autonomous car that finished a close second in the DARPA Urban Challenge. Junior's main software framework is IPC, but ROS's modular libraries have made it easy to integrate ROS-based perception libraries into their obstacle classification system.
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