From BBC News | Science & Environment | UK Edition:
Minuscule tubes coated with a chemical fuel can act as a power source with 100 times more electrical power by weight than conventional batteries. As these nano-scale "fuses" burn, they drive an electrical current along their le
From EETimes:
A Stanford team is claiming successful demonstration of an inexpensive, solution-based spin-coating dispersion technique for fabricating graphene anodes for organic LED displays, promising to sidestep indium tin oxide electrode shortages and clear the way for developm
From electronics to aerospace and automotive, bogus spare and replacement parts are an increasing problem and safety issue. The NSF International recently instituted a certification program that would ensure the safety of aftermarket structural metal auto parts, such as bumpers, energy absorbers, an
Toyota is actively recalling hundreds of thousands of vehicles and retrofitting or replacing floor mats, gas pedals, and brake assemblies. Jerry Flint, a longtime auto industry pundit, suggests that the problem might not be with the mechanical parts, but rather that software bugs are to blame for ru
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WHICH MATERIAL IS SUPERIER FOR SOUR SERVICE APPLICATION "CS NACE versus SS 316L"
Related to my heatpipe discussion, I'm looking for commonly available materials to use as a wick. Like a sugarcube on a spoon soaking up coffee. Except that since I'll probably be using water as my working fluid, the wick will need to be insoluble in water, as well as heat proof to a couple hundred
I need an information related to Car Battery Load. What is the normal Load (in Ampere) drawing from battery when car is in running condition in 12VDC system.
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Purposely trying to destroy the economies of Republican-leaning States?
by Eric Dondero
As the Wall Street Journal notes this morning, Obama in his State of the Union address to Congress, promised "new offshore areas for oil and gas development." Now, just a few weeks later he is completely reversing his stance. This, despite the fact that a FOIA request clearly shows the American public overwhelmingly in favor of drilling.
From the WSJ:
Congress's ban on offshore drilling expired in September 2008, and a Bush Administration plan for leasing the energy-rich Outer Continental Shelf was due to begin this year. Yet within a month of taking office, Interior Secretary Ken Salazar halted leasing by extending the public comment period by six months. When that period ended last September, Interior said it would take "several weeks" to analyze the results. It has yet to release a summary.
Newt Gingrich's American Solutions group used the Freedom of Information Act to obtain Interior emails suggesting that the public comments ran 2-to-1 in favor of drilling. Instead of acknowledging this, Mr. Salazar last week informed Congress he was scrapping the Bush plan and that leasing will not begin for at least another two years.
The biggest losers? Virginia, Utah, Wyoming and Alaska; coincidentally all Republican states. Newly-elected Republican Governor Bob McDonnell ran on a strong platform plank of pushing for offshore drilling. Utah is being hammered by the administration for something called "onshore" drilling:
Interior canceled oil and gas leases on 77 parcels of federal land in Utah (a handful have since been reinstated). Mr. Salazar also yanked eight parcels from a lease sale in Wyoming. Several weeks ago a leaked Interior Department memo disclosed plans to have Mr. Obama use executive power—under the Antiquities Act—to designate 10 million acres of western land as "monuments," putting them off-limits to energy development as well as current timber or mining work.
Bush fought for offshore drilling; Obama kills it off with one swift flick of the pen
And then this frightening assessment from the Washington Examiner:
Drilling was supposed to begin this July. But Salazar said he intends to discard the 2010-2015 lease plan developed by the Bush administration in favor of a new plan that won’t even go into effect until 2012.
“Secretary Salazar has finally confirmed what had long been feared – that the Obama Administration has no intention of opening up new areas for offshore drilling during his four-years in office,” said Rep. Doc Hastings, the ranking Republican on the House Natural Resources Committee.
So for the next three years and probably more, trillions of dollars in domestic energy assets will remain untouched while billions of dollars more are spent on foreign oil.
But it could be even worse than just Republican-leaning states losing out. Rush Limbaugh said on his radio show yesterday that like a 60's radical Obama was trying to "overthrow the United States." Limbaugh has been promulgating the idea for months now, that every action Obama has been taking has been with the expressed purpose of destroying the United States economy and rebuilding it upon a socialist model.
With news like this, it's getting harder and harder to doubt Limbaugh.
How often can you say that you've seen the components of a space telescope being worked on at NASA? The answer is probably "rarely, if ever." However, thanks to NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Md., that has now changed.Web cameras in Goddard's largest clean room are now providing daily, live coverage of work being done on components of the upcoming James Webb Space Telescope. You could say they're "Webb-cams" and they provide one image per minute so people can see what happens behind the scenes. Of course, the work happens during regular working hours, so there may not be action on screen all the time.
John Decker, Webb telescope Deputy Project Manager at NASA Goddard was the motivator in getting the "Webb-cam" up and running. "I thought it would be a great way for everyone to see what happens behind the scenes as components of this exciting new space telescope are being tested and coming together here at NASA Goddard," Decker said.
The Webb telescope project is managed at Goddard, and several components of this next generation space telescope are already in a clean room here.
Clean rooms are like operating rooms in hospitals. They are pristine areas kept as free as possible of contaminants that could interfere with delicate technology. There are several clean rooms at NASA Goddard.
Anyone that works in a clean room, such as engineers and scientists, have to wear sterile bodysuits, head covers, gloves, boots, and face masks. It takes about 10 to 15 minutes to get dressed before entering, and it's important because even one speck of dust or a fingerprint could severely damage the sensitive telescope components and instruments. Clean rooms act to filter out these harmful contaminants through a unique ventilation system and an entire wall of air filters.
The clean room ventilation system circulates almost one million cubic feet of air every minute through 9,000 square feet of HEPA filters located along one wall. The HEPA filters are specially designed to last several decades. All of these features provide the largest Goddard clean room with a Class-10,000 rating. That means any cubic foot of air in the clean room has no more than 10,000 particles floating around in it larger than 0.5 microns. A micron is one-millionth of a meter, and typical “outside” air has millions of such particles. A human hair is between 20 and 200 microns wide.
The advantage to the Webb-cam is that the average person doesn't need to do a micron-type clean up and spend time donning protective gear. Anyone can sit at their computer and see what's going on, no matter what they're wearing.
Related Links
› Watch the Goddard clean room Web cam
› More James Webb Space Telescope images at Goddard's Flickr page
› More about NASA's James Webb Space Telescope
› More about Goddard's clean room
› Other Goddard testing chambers
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I am using 62.5kva diesel generator . If it runs for 100% load what is the upl for this generator? The Specific Fuel Consumption (SFC) for this generator is given as 164gm/bhp-hr. This is a 4 cylinder and 90BHP engine.
In contrast to optical cameras, radar does not 'see' surfaces. Instead, it is much more aware of the edges and corners which bounce back the microwave signal it transmits. Smooth surfaces such as those on the station's solar generators or the radiator panels used to dissipate excess heat, unless directly facing the radar antenna, tend to deflect rather than reflect the radar beam, causing these features to appear on the radar image as dark areas. The radar image of the station therefore looks like a dense collection of bright spots from which the outlines of the space station can be clearly identified. The central element on the station, to which all the modules are docked, has a grid structure that presents a multiplicity of reflecting surfaces to the radar beam, making it readily identifiable. This image has a resolution of about one meter (about 39 inches). In other words, objects can be depicted as discrete units--that is, shown separately--provided that they are at least one meter apart. If they are closer together than that, they tend to merge into a single block on a radar image.
Since this image was taken, the station has expanded and is more than 90 percent complete, including a full complement of solar arrays.
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Dr. Joseph E. Queen Baltimore Sun "The first year of medical school was the worst year of my entire life," he said in his memoir. "The teachers were of the old school and used scare tactics. ... |
My previous posts have described guest lecturers at my medical school campus, invited by a student interest group in CAM. Those events continue; currently ongoing is an 8-weekend certification course in Ayurveda for the subsidized cost of $1500 (includes “tuition, syllabus, and personal guru”). I could pick on this student group, but what’s the point? There will always be medical students who organize to promote ideas that you or I disagree with, whether it be political, religious, or personal. The fact that Tim Kreider disagrees with a particular student group is not terribly interesting.
The more important issue is how CAM is treated by faculty in the curriculum. Particularly during the preclinical years, medical students are in the habit of transcribing and commiting to memory everything uttered by the professors who grade them. A lack of rigorous skepticism is frankly necessary given how much information we are required to master. Where would CAM fit in among the lectures on anatomy, physiology, and pathology?
This post describes a lecture to the first-year medical students given by a respected faculty member and high-ranking administrator at my university, whom I will call Dr. P. This lecture was a mandatory part of the core curriculum. Dr. P comes across as an intelligent, reasonable, sincere, caring, and competent physician. It just so happens that he reaches some very different conclusions on questions of CAM than do I and my role models on this blog, and these conclusions have led him to become director of CAM programs at my university and a major player in the integrative medicine movement nationally. This post and my next will attempt to summarize how Dr. P presents his message when he has an entire medical school class for an audience.
[A note on my anonymization of Dr. P: my goal in writing for SBM has never been to bring bad publicity to my medical school, which is a terrific institution in most ways that matter to me. Identifying Dr. P would make my university affiliation obvious. I write not to call out a particular professor or program or university but rather to illustrate from a student's perspective a situation that may be increasingly common at US medical schools. Feel free to criticize my decision to keep him anonymous for now, but please honor it by not naming him in the comments, if you know his identity.]
Dr. P stressed throughout his lecture that he is not trying to advocate specifically for CAM use. In fact, he dislikes the label “alternative” because it implies abandoning “conventional” medicine. Instead he is promoting “integrative medicine” (IM), which he described as “the practice of medicine that reaffirms the importance of relationship between practitioner and patient, focuses on the whole person, is informed by evidence, and makes use of all appropriate therapeutic approaches, healthcare professionals, and disciplines to achieve optimal health.” (quoted by him from a consortium of IM programs) This definition by itself sounds eminently reasonable and completely consistent with everything we are taught about compassionate, professional, evidence-based practice. Indeed, after presenting this definition Dr. P said, “it isn’t different from what we do in conventional medicine.” So why do we need IM at all? Do we need a new label and concept for something we agree is already our goal? Dr. P insisted that IM is not simply a re-branding of CAM, as he knows we skeptics suspect, but rather a more open-minded and inclusive approach to care that may or may not involve particular aspects of CAM. My concern with IM, as I will describe, is that Dr. P and I seem to have different thresholds for what kind of evidence is compelling in determining an appropriate therapeutic approach. All the changes in labeling seem to me, in my most cynical moments, to be little more than a savvy marketing strategy.
Part of IM is attention to spirituality, by which Dr. P means not religion but rather values and sources of meaning. Dr. P shared with his audience that he derives personal meaning, for example, from his family and children, and he described how he engages his patients in discussions about what is important to them. Such talks, he told us, can be particularly helpful in establishing a therapeutic relationship and plan in the face of chronic or life-threatening disease. Dr. P spoke eloquently and compellingly here, and these segments of his presentation could easily fit into separate sessions on these topics that we have throughout med school. But what, I wonder, does this have to do with CAM, and why do we need IM in order to promote such discussions? This common conflation of CAM with humanism contributes to my suspicion that physicians who embrace CAM do so not because they reject science—Dr. P is a smart guy who understands statistics and methodology—but rather out of objection to the business aspect of medicine or to problems with its delivery in our current system.
Another confounder, in my opinion, is preventive care. Dr. P is a practicing internist, but both his graduate training and his academic appointments also involve preventive medicine. Part of the appeal of his message about IM is how it is wrapped up in a concern for improving disease prevention and health maintenance in primary care. I agree that this concern is a laudable goal and hopefully an uncontroversial one. What frustrated me was how Dr. P explicitly condemned “conventional medicine” for ignoring preventive care, even to the point of saying that most docs “just talk” about prevention rather than really do it! (I was stunned by this casual dismissal, particularly given that our school has faculty who actively combat lead poisoning, vitamin D deficiency, and low vaccination rates in our community, just to name a few initiatives.) Although it may be that such sentiments on crank websites reflect theoretical disputes over “true cause” of disease, I suspect that the issue for most IM-sympathetic physicians is rather the practical constraints and financial incentives that restrict physician-patient interactions. I am happy to discuss ways that physicians could more effectively promote good nutrition, exercise, and stress management. Can’t these system problems be addressed without using language about “alternative” approaches that opens the door to implausible therapies?
Dr. P introduced CAM using the NCCAM categories: alternative whole medical systems (naturopathy, Ayurveda, TCM); biologically based practices (herbs, supplements); energy therapies (Reiki, Qi Gong, TT); manipulative and body-based practices (chiropractic, massage therapy); and mind-body medicine (Yoga, meditation). His language while describing these categories was most instructive, as he refrained from making specific claims that I might offer for evaluation. He described energy therapies and alternative systems as the categories most “foreign” to our “Western” approach, whereas I would say they represent pre-modern, magical thinking that limits their value. He made the important distinction between modern DO physicians (like MDs) and osteopathic manipulation (like chiropractic), and I noticed at that point that he almost said “allopathic” before correcting himself with “conventional.” (Another deliberate marketing strategy, perhaps?) He warned us about the challenges of quality assurance and unsupported claims that plague the unregulated supplement market, though he seemed more optimistic than I about finding diamonds in that rough. He said that mind-body techniques are the “most integrated” of the CAM modalities, meaning most supported by evidence, and he seemed more impressed by their effects on psychological stress and wellbeing than purported physiological effects. The impression he gave while discussing these general types of CAM was not of an ideological booster but rather of an open-minded investigator, whose only fault might be too much hesitance to conclude that a CAM modality is worthless. He comfortably points out weaknesses and challenges while remaining enthusiastic overall.
Following the categories, Dr. P showed a few photographs of examples of CAM. He reminded us that his goal was not to teach or encourage CAM but rather to make us aware so that we can respond appropriately to patients. Photo and description of acupuncture, of course. At a photo of a child’s back covered in horrible bruises he told us that if we didn’t know about the alternative practices of “cupping” (e.g.) and “coining” (e.g.) we might mistake such marks for child abuse… Again, my interpretation differs: although I agree that knowledge about culturally-specific practices is helpful for interventions, I might argue that injuries without benefit are indeed a form of abuse, no matter how well-intentioned.
Dr. P made one of several valiant attempts at audience participation by soliciting any family or folk remedies that we had encountered at home. Crickets chirped as students kept quiet in front of 180 peers. One brave soul volunteered that his mother swears by Airborne, which got no reaction from Dr. P. (I suspect he was hoping for a remedy not quite so laughable.) Dr. P suggested as an example the common use of prunes for constipation and pointed out that we are unlikely to see anyone fund a randomized, controlled trial (RCT) for that indication. Fair enough. Failing RCT evidence, continued Dr. P, we need to look for other supporting evidence. As an example of such non-RCT evidence, he showed the abstract from a 2000 Chest publication describing an inhibitory effect of chicken soup extract on neutrophil chemotaxis in vitro, as support for grandma’s home flu remedy. While this “chicken soup for the cell” (my snarky phrase, not his) is amusing and perhaps intriguing, I cannot fathom how this level of evidence meaningfully influences clinical decision making, beyond being an excuse to give advice that we might give anyway. While the goal of this presentation was explicitly not to detail the evidential support for any particular CAM, I was disappointed that such a lame example was given. Even if I buy it, though, how does the efficacy of chicken soup for a cold have any relevance to homeopathy? Here is a danger of accepting a garbage pail category like CAM as a coherent discipline, in my opinion.
What followed next was an extended appeal to popularity, not necessarily to claim that CAM is useful per se or that we should embrace it in our practice, but at least to convince us to take it seriously as something our patients may use or want. Dr. P cited the 1993 NEJM survey that reported CAM use by 34% of Americans (see Dr. Crislip on this oft-cited report). Discussing the results of this and later surveys, Dr. P suggested that changes in relative rankings of modalities reflected rational responses to evolving evidence, specifically a fall in the popularity of Echinacea and spinal manipulation for head colds following negative RCT evidence. He showed a New York Times article describing how alternative medicine is popping up in US hospitals, though to my reading the article paints hospitals more as selling out and cashing in than as thoughtfully adopting newly proven practices. For the second time, Dr. P mentioned the consortium of 40+ medical schools with IM programs (including Harvard, you know). He noted 2006 Resolution #306 of the American Medical Association, which recommended promotion of physician awareness of the “benefits, risks, and evidence for efficacy or lack thereof” of CAM (see the students’ initial proposal and then search for the watered down amended version here), as well as practice guidelines for addressing CAM use in lung cancer patients prepared by American College of Chest Physicians.
Dr. P seemed to be familiar with common objections to his support for CAM, and he tried to deflect them by telling us how difficult it is to rely only on solid RCT evidence in practice. He readily admitted that much CAM research has methodological flaws, and he explained that many CAM therapies are too individualized for conventional study methods. Dr. P pointed out that only 20-30% of conventional medicine is based on RCTs, anyway. Although we are “focused on evidence” at this stage in our training, he said, later on we’ll see that physicians have to do the best they can with limited available evidence. I commented in my notes at this point that some of his reflections on the limitations of EBM seemed similar to what I read on SBM… though given the different verdicts reached on CAM, it seems that IM and SBM fall back on different sources of evidence when the RCTs are inconclusive!
Dr. P’s message to us was to be open and non-judgmental to patients who use CAM, which of course is appropriate. He did not counsel us to practice any CAM that we do not first specifically obtain training in, but rather to consider referring patients to qualified CAM providers when necessary. He described doing literature searches to answer patient questions, such as whether acupuncture might help with in vitro fertilization. I am sure that Dr. P is a great physician to have if you are a patient who wants CAM; so long as your desired CAM is not harmful and does not replace proven, needed care, he is willing to work with you. While that attitude may be valuable in a particular context (keep the patient happy in order to ensure she gets “conventional” care along with the CAM), I find myself wishing that Dr. P would admit that some of CAM is frankly nonsense and that not every proposed CAM indication deserves research. At least to us, if not to the patient in his office.
This talked was billed as a general introduction to CAM and IM, given in order to help us be more receptive to patients’ beliefs and practices. The details of or evidence for specific CAM modalities were not discussed, rather the field was painted with a broad brush as probably harmless and sometimes effective and increasingly evidence-based and, by the way, very popular. The presentation also conflated CAM use with compassionate and preventive care; if this is a deliberate tactic to win acceptance, it is a savvy one. The talk seemed like it would be quite attractive, or at least not at all objectionable, to a shruggie. I could not help but notice, however, that although Dr. P did not dwell on the more outlandish CAM modalities (homeopathy, Reiki), he also refrained from saying anything critical of them. He was very careful and seemed quite reasonable, making it difficult for me to offer specific criticisms despite leaving the lecture with a sense that he and I would disagree on much.
My next post will cover Dr. P’s lecture to second-year medical students on CAM, ethics, and the law. That lecture offered a little more insight than this one in how Dr. P thinks differently than some of us do on questions of CAM usefulness.
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Well I can't believe our Super league season is all over. We feel short of the playoffs and we ended the season with two losses instead of two wins... both games were tough. We finished the season 513 a tough record for the Elks but an improvement from thier 2 wins last year. It was an up and down season I have to say. We had some high moments and also some low moments. One of the high moments
3rd June lsquo09OK so I'm polishing the trailer. I know it's the sort of thing I'd ridicule Namibian for and still might given half a chance but it looks nicer now. And it's a jolly sort of job in the sunshine which is becoming harsher by the day. In fact it's boiling in Portugal which exacerbates Namibian's leg cramps. Despite tipping shakers of salt on his dinner he still makes sud
Sorry I havenrsquot been such a diligent writer lately so here are just a few highlights of my last two weeks in Tours1. Giving my host sisters their presents from Ireland. I got Bea a rubix cube with sheep on it and Marguerite sheep slippers and their reactions were absolutely fabulous Apparently Marguerite has always wanted slippers like that and I had guessed the right size Yay2. Everyon
I've just returned from my adventures around 'Eastern' Europe. First I spent 2 nights in Vienna. I spent the days seeing the sights and the nights drinking punch or hot wine at the Christmas Markets. The ones near the Rathaus are amazing. We just don't have anything like it in Australia they're just so Christmassy Luckily I didn't have much money or I would have been buying everything Th
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