Google’s New AI Can Recognize Voices It’s Never Heard Before

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Speak Up

If you’ve ever been on a conference call, you know how important it can be to identify a person just from their voice. After all, how will you know who to deliver that report to if you can’t tell who asked for it?

This skill is even more difficult for an artificial intelligence (AI) to master, but Google thinks it now has a system adept enough at it for real-world applications — and it can operate in real-time.

You Heard

Identifying the voice of a speaker it’s already heard isn’t so hard for an AI — after all, we’re able to train AIs such as Alexa and Siri to recognize our voices. It’s getting an AI to recognize a voice we haven’t trained it to recognize as soon as the voice starts speaking that’s proven difficult.

On Monday, Google AI Research Scientist Chong Wang published a blog post detailing how his team was able to create an AI better at speaker diarization — that’s the process of splitting an audio clip featuring more than one speaker into segments based on the person talking at any given moment — than previous attempts.

Active Listener

Wang’s explanation is highly technical, but the crux of it is this: While most speaker diarization systems rely on clustering — a machine learning technique focused on the grouping of data points — the Google team’s system makes use of recurrent neural networks, which are a type of machine learning model that processes sequences of data points.

Using this method, the Google team was able to create an AI capable of speaker diarization with an error rate of just 7.6 percent. The team is now focused on improving the system themselves, and it’s also posted its algorithms on GitHub, meaning anyone can download the files for their own research.

Eventually, we could end up with an AI capable of near-flawless real-time speaker diarization, which could improve how we caption live events, transcribe doctor-patient conversations, and more.

READ MORE: Accurate Online Speaker Diarization with Supervised Learning [Google AI Blog]

More on AI: You Have No Idea What Artificial Intelligence Really Does

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Google’s New AI Can Recognize Voices It’s Never Heard Before

A Deodorant Maker is Using Machine Learning to Detect Your B.O.

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Underarmer

Unilever — that’s the owner of prominent deodorant makers Axe and Dove — has teamed up with an all-star squad of academics and electronics manufacturers to create a machine learning-powered gadget that’ll tell you if you have body odor.

That’s according to a detailed story in the magazine IEEE Spectrum about Unilever’s work with chipmaker Arm, electronics firm PragmatIC, and researchers at the University of Manchester. They aim to use some of the most advanced artificial intelligence (AI) and sensor technology in the world — to tell you whether you smell bad.

Smell-O-Vision

The gadget will take the form of a thin plastic strip, according to IEEE, with a tiny processor and an array of organic semiconductors that detect “gaseous analytes” — chemical signs, apparently, that you’re giving off a nasty pong.

And because those gaseous analytes are complex, the system will employ machine learning to analyze the data and decide whether it’s time for a fresh misting of the “hot chocolate” and “red peppercorn notes” from Axe’s Dark Temptation XL Body Spray.

Food Waste

The technology wouldn’t just provide relief for your family and coworkers. It could also potentially evaluate food freshness, according to IEEE — possibly cutting into the 1.3 billion tons of food that went to waste in 2016.

And, to be fair, it also represents a step forward for AI and sensor technology, which have become adept at recognizing sights and sounds but struggled to categorize smells.

READ MORE: Arm Leads Project to Develop an Armpit-Sniffing Plastic AI Chip [IEEE Spectrum]

More on smell technology: FeelReal Brings Sense of Smell To Virtual Reality

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A Deodorant Maker is Using Machine Learning to Detect Your B.O.

The UK is Testing Robots to Deliver Food and Ammo to Soldiers

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Picking Teams

The British military is going public with its love for drones and other military robots. On Monday, it began its four-week “Autonomous Warrior” experiment, the largest military exercise to focus on robots in British history.

Primarily, MIT Technology Review reports, the Ministry of Defense hopes to use drones and other autonomous robots to improve reconnaissance work in and around a battlefield and to keep logistical supply chains open, getting resources to soldiers who need them. But, ­because of course it is, the U.K. is also interested in combat-ready drones as well.

Drone Wars

The U.K. called for a set of artificial intelligence ethics guidelines as recently as April, so it’s ironic that the country is now fully embracing weaponized AI.

That’s not lost on activists in the U.K., who recently published a harrowing report of all the dangerous ways that military AI could be misused or glitch with deadly consequences.

Drone on

Still, it’s unlikely that any new protest will make the British government abandon their work towards autonomous drones on the battlefield, whether or not AI is employed in any weapons systems or if the robots just handle recon and deliveries.

As MIT Tech reported, Autonomous Warrior is the next step in a major push in defense research that began back in 2016. So for all the UK’s posturing, it sounds like this has been in the works for a while.

READ MORE: The British Army is carrying out a massive test of military robots and drones [MIT Technology Review]

More on military drones: Five Experts Share What Scares Them the Most About AI

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The UK is Testing Robots to Deliver Food and Ammo to Soldiers

How a Neural Network Runs a Family-Owned Japanese Dry Cleaner

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Closed Circuit

In the Japanese prefecture of Tagawa, automation could one day enable dry-cleaning businesses to operate without any employees at all.

At least that’s Daisuke Tahara’s goal, according to WIRED. Already the owner of eight dry cleaners, Tahara taught himself the basics of machine learning and used them to build a system that lets customers create a service ticket by laying all their dirty clothes on a table to be scanned by a computer vision system.

Trickle Down

Tahara’s story is one of four short profiles published by WIRED on Tuesday. The common thread is that each subject decided to tinker around with artificial intelligence, usually teaching themselves to harness an algorithm’s ability to solve an everyday problem or, in Tahara’s case, streamline his family’s business.

AI giants have strong incentives to keep all of their developments to themselves. But they often choose to share some of their research to help foster a stronger research community and, presumably, to boast.

If you Build it

These glimpses into top AI labs can help the tech-savvy get started with their own AI pet projects.

The most impressive AI developments are still likely to come from those tech giants that have an absurd amount of money to throw at engineers and their labs. But in this era in which most AI research is on new uses for algorithms rather than major breakthroughs, more diversity among those who can build AI will only help the technology move forward.

READ MORE: THE DIY TINKERERS HARNESSING THE POWER OF ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE [WIRED]

More on the AI community: An AI Conference Refusing a Name Change Highlights a Tech Industry Problem

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China’s “Artificial Sun” Is Now Hot Enough for Nuclear Fusion

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It’s a Hot One

Things are heating up in China.

On Tuesday, a team from China’s Hefei Institutes of Physical Science announced that its Experimental Advanced Superconducting Tokamak (EAST) reactor — an “artificial sun” designed to replicate the process our natural Sun uses to generate energy — just hit a new temperature milestone: 100 million degrees Celsius (180 million degrees Fahrenheit).

For comparison, the core of our real Sun only reaches about 27 million degrees Fahrenheit — meaning the EAST reactor was, briefly, more than six times hotter than the closest star.

Nuclei Smash

When two hydrogen nuclei combine, they produce an enormous amount of energy. That process, known as nuclear fusion, is how our Sun generates light and heat, and it’s the great white whale of the energy world — if we could find a way to harness it, we’d have a near-limitless source of clean energy.

Tokamaks like EAST could help us do just that. They’re devices that use magnetic fields to control plasma in a way that could support stable nuclear fusion, and it’s this plasma that EAST heated to such an incredible temperature.

Going Nuclear

Not only is EAST’s new plasma temperature milestone remarkable because, wow, it’s really hot, it’s also the minimum temperature scientists believe is needed to produce a self-sustaining nuclear fusion reaction on Earth.

Now that China’s “artificial sun” is capable of heating plasma to the necessary temperature, researchers can focus on the next steps along the path to stable nuclear fusion.

READ MORE: How Hot Is the Chinese Artificial Sun? [Chinese Academy of Sciences]

More on nuclear energy: Tech Billionaires Are Pouring Money Into Fusion Research

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China’s “Artificial Sun” Is Now Hot Enough for Nuclear Fusion

JUUL Will Stop Selling Flavored Vape Juice in All Retail Stores

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Up in Smoke

Facing criticism about underage users, e-cigarette maker JUUL has decided to pull all flavored JUUL pods from retail stores, and is adding additional age-verification systems to its web store.

In an update on its website, the company also said that it will stop retail orders to over 90,000 retail stores in the U.S.

Anybody who wants to buy flavors other than tobacco, mint and menthol will have to prove their age by giving up information like “name, date of birth, permanent address, and the last four digits of their social security number” to verify they are older than 21.

The news comes after the FDA raided the company’s headquarters in San Francisco in October, seizing thousands of documents about the company’s marketing strategies.

Social Media Crackdown

JUUL has also announced it will shut down its U.S.-based social media accounts on Facebook and Instagram. It will also start asking other accounts to remove “unauthorized, youth-oriented content” from their feeds.

“By deterring social media promotion of the JUUL system by exiting our accounts, we can better prevent teens and non-smokers from ever becoming interested in the device,” read the statement.

Age-Gating

In the future, JUUL says it hopes its next generation Bluetooth-enabled product will “break new ground on access restrictions at the user level” once it’s released in the U.S.

Pulling JUUL flavors off retail shelves is bound to make it harder for underage users to get their vape on, but will it be enough? Unlikely, considering the company’s brand is only one of hundreds.

READ MORE: Juul Will Stop Selling Most E-Cigarette Flavors in Stores and Halt Social Media Promotions [The New York Times]

More on JUUL: The FDA Just Raided the Headquarters of E-Cigarette Maker JUUL

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JUUL Will Stop Selling Flavored Vape Juice in All Retail Stores

Ron Paul, Rising Political Star – CBS News

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This column was written by Michael Crowley.A star had just been born when, a day after the May 15 Republican presidential debate in South Carolina, I met Texas Representative Ron Paul for lunch on Capitol Hill. The meeting had been scheduled for several days; but, as luck would have it, the previous night Paul had gone from an oddball obscurity to a major sensation in the political world when, answering a question about September 11, he seemed to suggest that the attacks were justified by an aggressive U.S. foreign policy in the Middle East. "They attack us because we've been over there. We've been bombing Iraq for ten years," Paul explained. The ever-macho Rudy Giuliani was quick to pounce. "That's an extraordinary statement," he marveled. "And I would ask the congressman to withdraw that comment and tell us that he didn't really mean that." The crowd roared its approval. A previously flagging Giuliani suddenly enjoyed his best moment of the race.

But it was also, oddly enough, Paul's best moment. The response to his comments was fast and furious: Angry Republicans, including the party chairman in Michigan, former Senate candidate Michael Steele, and unnamed South Carolina sources cited on Fox News, called for his exclusion from future debates. Sean Hannity couldn't wait to bully Paul in a post-debate interview. John McCain even added a line to his stump speech bashing him. But the outrage was instructive: Suddenly, Republicans were taking seriously a quirky 71-year-old Texas libertarian whose national support has hovered in the zero-percent range.

Nor was the attention all negative. Far from it. Paul won several instant polls on the debate, including one at the conservative Newsmax.com and a Fox News text-message poll. Incredibly, Paul's name began beating out "Paris Hilton" as the number-one query on the popular blog-searching website Technorati. (Granted, it's possible that Paul's fervent supporters are manipulating such online metrics.) The incident prompted a feisty exchange among the ladies of ABC's "The View," of all places. And, to top it off, within a day of the debate, Paul's campaign had raised $100,000 about one-sixth of his entire haul for the first three months of 2007. Paul's spokesman says the campaign headquarters has been "inundated with phone calls" ever since 80 percent of them supportive.

When Paul ambled through the door of a cheap Mexican joint on Capitol Hill last Wednesday, he hardly looked like a freshly-minted celebrity. His slight frame, elfin face, and reserved persona suggest the doctor he used to be, not a politician. But Paul turned heads all the same. As he approached his table, a man seated nearby extended his hand with a broad smile and a hearty "congratulations." Paul explained that he had received a similar reception among his colleagues in the House. "I've had probably ten people come up to me and compliment me including people I thought were war hawks," he said. "It was a tremendous boost to the campaign."

Who would have expected it? At its outset, Paul's campaign promised to be a curiosity. The nominee of the Libertarian Party in his previous run for the presidency (in 1988), Paul seemed likely to play a predictable gadfly role using his stage time to press hoary libertarian bugaboos like the abolition of Social Security, the legalization of drugs and prostitution, and Paul's special obsession a return to the gold standard. Instead, thanks mainly to his adamant opposition to the Iraq war, he has assumed a far more serious role. In a Republican field that has marched in lockstep with George W. Bush on the war, Paul's libertarian isolationism has exposed an intraparty fissure over foreign policy that is far wider than has been acknowledged, encompassing not only disgruntled libertarians but some paleocons and social conservatives, as well as such GOP lions as William F. Buckley, George Will, and Bob Novak. As populist-isolationist Pat Buchanan wrote in an op-ed last week, Paul was "speaking intolerable truths. Understandably, Republicans do not want him back, telling the country how the party blundered into this misbegotten war."

Paul, for his part, thinks his view is commonsensical. "This is a very Republican position," he told me. "I just think the Republicans can't win unless they change their policy on Iraq."

Before Paul became an antiwar hero, his support consisted largely of libertarian activists people like Michael Badnarik, the Libertarian Party's 2004 presidential nominee. Badnarik refuses to get a driver's license (even though, he conceded to me, "I have my car operational") and warns against anyone who might try to force a smallpox or anthrax vaccination on him. ("You bring the syringe, I'll bring my .45, and we'll see who makes a bigger hole.") Badnarik recounts rallying support for Paul at a recent conference of the Free State Project, a group of libertarians who have relocated to New Hampshire in the hope of concentrating their power and more or less taking over the state government. "I asked how many people would drive without a license and not pay income taxes, and three-quarters raised their hands," Badnarik recalls. "I'm choking up. I've got my heart in my throat. And I said, 'We need to do something and Ron Paul's campaign is the shining star. We need to contribute the full two thousand dollars now. Tell all your friends.'"

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What is nanotechnology?

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A short introduction to nanotechnology, and why you should care about it.

The video dives into materials science and advanced materials, and looks at how designing and engineering substances from the atoms they're made of upward allows novel properties to be developed and used. It also looks at responsible innovation when it comes to grappling with the benefits as well as the health and environmental risks of nanoparticles and nanomaterials.

Stand-alone copies are available on request from Andrew Maynard at Andrew.maynard@asu.edu

USEFUL LINKS

NOVA nanotechnology resources: http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/nova/search/r...

Nanotechnology 101 from the US Government: http://www.nano.gov/nanotech-101

K-12 nanotechnology lesson plans, from NISE Net: http://nisenet.org/search/product_cat...

Nano & Me: Nanotechnology in our lives: http://www.nanoandme.org/home/

24 questions and answers on nanotechnology safety: http://2020science.org/2010/02/12/24-...

Nanotechnology basics from nanotechnology for Dummies: http://www.dummies.com/how-to/educati...

Nanotech rewards (video from Discovery): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yYXWH...

Nanotech risks (video from Discovery): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qc0KL...

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

This video was developed as part of the NSF-funded Nanosystems Engineering Research Center for Nanotechnology-Enabled Water Treatment (NEWT), under NSF Award Number EEC-1449500. It was produced in collaboration with Claire Cook.

RISK BITES

Risk Bites videos are devised, created and produced by Andrew Maynard, in association with the Arizona State University School for the Future of Innovation in Society (http://sfis.asu.edu). They are produced under a Creative Commons License CC-BY-SA

Backing track: Mandolin Highway by Olive Musique. http://www.premiumbeat.com/royalty_fr...

Risk Bites is your guide to making sense of risk. We cover everything from understanding and balancing the risks and benefits of everyday products, to health science more broadly, to the potential impacts of emerging technologies, to making sense of risk perception. If you enjoy our videos, please subscribe, and spread the word!

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What is nanotechnology?

How Dangerous is Deep Space Travel to Mars and Beyond ?

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NASA has a mission protocol which says that if a Low Earth Orbit mission increases the lifetime risk of the crew getting cancer by more than 3% they wont go ahead with it but the upcoming mars missions may expose the crews to levels that would be beyond that limit and other hazards, so how dangerous is deep space travel to Mars and beyond.

Patreon : https://www.patreon.com/curiousdroidPaypal.me : https://www.paypal.me/curiousdroid

You can now translate this and other curious droid videos, see my video about it here https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xLPVg...

With Elon Musk pushing to get men on Mars by the mid 2020s and NASA looking to do the same for the 2030s, just how much have we learned since Apollo and from the space stations.50 years on from the beginning of the Apollo missions and we have yet to send any man back to the moon let alone on the much more arduous journey to our nearest viable planet Mars.Now whilst much of this has been lack of political will in the face of our own manmade problems here on earth, its also down to the increasing sophistication of robotic probes and landers and that they are much cheaper to make, launch, can go where no man could and can continue working for sometimes years at a time, the Voyager probes are still going 40 years after their launch. If we relied on manned discovery only we would know a fraction what we do now.With data from the probes which we have sent around the solar system since then, we have built up a picture which is far from the vision of just whizzing through inter planetary space. That and along with the joint NASA Russian experiment of having men in space for a year onboard the ISS, we now have a much better understanding of what they may experience on the two and half year round trip to Mars.

Title: Adam Are You Free?zzAuthor: P C IIISource: http://www.pipechoir.comNightingale sounds from Gerry Gutteridge flic.kr/ps/Mk2zULicense: Creative Commons Attribution 4.0

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How Dangerous is Deep Space Travel to Mars and Beyond ?

Exchange 2010 – www.extropy.com

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In my experience, when you have Exchange 2010 in a volatile environment, you open yourself up to the cluster behaviors of the Exchange cluster to behave unexpectedly, or just plain fail. If you're running in DAC mode, then to gain those benefits, you have to manually fail/fix sites to prevent services from staying down, or worse, going split-brain.

Because Exchange 2010 relies heavily on Microsoft FCS (Failover Clustering Service) and AD (Active Directory), there are many scenarios where these distributed decision making functions can fail. When all the servers fail in the primary data center, the second data center takes over as it should, and when the primary data center comes back online, it does not automatically fail back; this is by design (per Microsoft). I have found that to fail services back, you must do two crucial things:

The sites seem to recover after a few minutes, but the changes are not immediately apparent, and the databases take a few minutes to re-mount. The reasons for these commands were not readily obvious to me, but I've come to the conclusion that the following conditions must be considered:

Also, the Microsoft documentation is decent (not great) on this, and is definitely worth reading:http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/dd351049.aspx

A bit about this environment:

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Exchange 2010 - http://www.extropy.com

Progress Residential | Rental homes with amenities in great …

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Find A Perfect Rental Home Its time to start enjoying the perks of living in a single-family rental home! Progress Residentials homes are located in the countrys most desirable communities and include spacious backyards, garages and room to grow. Were also pet-friendly! We dont place restrictions on size, breed or the number of pets you have. Let us help you find your dream home today.

Find A Perfect Rental Home Its time to start enjoying the perks of living in a single-family rental home! Progress Residentials homes are located in the countrys most desirable communities and include spacious backyards, garages and room to grow. Were also pet-friendly! We dont place restrictions on size, breed or the number of pets you have. Let us help you find your dream home today.

Find A Perfect Rental Home Its time to start enjoying the perks of living in a single-family rental home! Progress Residentials homes are located in the countrys most desirable communities and include spacious backyards, garages and room to grow. Were also pet-friendly! We dont place restrictions on size, breed or the number of pets you have. Let us help you find your dream home today.

Find A Perfect Rental Home Its time to start enjoying the perks of living in a single-family rental home! Progress Residentials homes are located in the countrys most desirable communities and include spacious backyards, garages and room to grow. Were also pet-friendly! We dont place restrictions on size, breed or the number of pets you have. Let us help you find your dream home today.

Find A Perfect Rental Home Its time to start enjoying the perks of living in a single-family rental home! Progress Residentials homes are located in the countrys most desirable communities and include spacious backyards, garages and room to grow. Were also pet-friendly! We dont place restrictions on size, breed or the number of pets you have. Let us help you find your dream home today.

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progress – Wiktionary

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English[edit]Etymology 1[edit]

From Old French progres (a going forward), from Latin prgressus (an advance), from the participle stem of prgred (to go forward, advance, develop), from pro- (forth, before) + gradi (to walk, go).

progress (countable and uncountable, plural progresses)

a moving forward

advance or growth of civilization

From the noun. Lapsed into disuse in the 17th century, except in the US. Considered an Americanism on reintroduction to use in the UK.

progress (third-person singular simple present progresses, present participle progressing, simple past and past participle progressed)

to become better or more complete

Translations to be checked

terms related to progress

Via other European languages, ultimately borrowed from Latin prgressus (an advance), from the participle stem of prgred (to go forward, advance, develop), from pro- (forth, before) + gradi (to walk, go).

progressm (1st declension)

socilais progress social progress

cilvces progress humanity's progress

raoanas efektivittes paaugstinans pamats ir zintniski tehniskais progress the basis for the increase in production effectivity is scientific and technical progress

mkslas progress - t nav vienkra attstba art progress: this is no simple evolution

Declension of progress (1st declension)

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progress - Wiktionary

Progress (spacecraft) – Wikipedia

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The Progress (Russian: ) is a Russian expendable cargo spacecraft. Its purpose is to deliver supplies needed to sustain human presence in orbit. While it does not carry a crew it can be boarded by astronauts when docked with a space station, hence it being classified as manned by its manufacturer.[1][2][3] Progress is derived from the manned Soyuz spacecraft and launches on the same vehicle, a Soyuz rocket.

Progress has supported space stations as early as Salyut 6 and as recently as the International Space Station. Each year there are between three and four Progress flights to the ISS. A Progress remains docked until shortly before being replaced with a new one or a Soyuz (which will use the same docking port). Then it is filled with waste, disconnected, and de-orbited, at which point it burns up in the atmosphere. Due to the variation in Progress vehicles flown to the ISS, NASA uses its own nomenclature where "ISS 1P" means the first Progress spacecraft to ISS.

Progress was developed because of the need for a constant source of supplies to make long duration space missions possible. It was determined that cosmonauts needed an inflow of consumables (food, water, air, etc.), plus there was a need for maintenance items and scientific payloads that necessitated a dedicated cargo carrier. Such payloads were impractical to launch with passengers in the restricted space of a Soyuz. As of December 1, 2016 there have been 155 Progress flights with three failures. All three failures have occurred since 2011.

Progress is of much the same size and shape as Soyuz. It consists of three modules:

Reduction in mass was possible because the Progress was designed to be unmanned and disposable. This means that there is no need for bulky life support systems and heat shields. A small amount of weight is saved due to the lack of automatic rescue crews system and lack of parachutes. The spacecraft also has no ability to split into separate modules. After undocking, the spacecraft performs a retrofire and burns up in the atmosphere.

There were many small variations between the different flights, but the major upgrades are reflected in the change of name.

There were 42 spacecraft built using the initial Progress design, the last one being launched in May 1990.

The bureau in charge of designing the freighter was TsKBEM (now RKK Energia). They began work on the design in mid-1973, assigning Progress the GRAU index 11F615A15. The design was complete by February 1974, and the first production model was ready for launch in November 1977. Progress 1 launched on 20 January 1978 aboard the same rocket used to launch the Soyuz. It still featured the same launch shroud as the Soyuz, though this was purely for aerodynamic purposes as the launch escape system had been deactivated.

This first version of Progress had a mass of 7,020kg and carried 2,300kg of cargo, or 30% of its launch mass. It had the same diameter as the Soyuz at 2.2 metres, but was 8 metres in lengthslightly longer. The autonomous flight time was 3 days, the same time as that of the Soyuz ferry. It could spend one month docked. Progress always docked to the aft port of the station it was resupplying (the aft being where the main rocket engines of the station and their tankage, for refueling by the Progress, are located).

The upgraded Progress M (GRAU: 11F615A55, manufacturer's designation: 7K-TGM) was first launched in August 1989. The first 43 flights all went to Mir; following Mir's re-entry, Progress was used as the resupply vehicle for the International Space Station. As of August 2014, there have been 56 flights to the ISS and more are scheduled.[4]

The Progress M is essentially the same spacecraft as the Progress, but it features improvements based on the Soyuz T and TM designs. It can spend up to 30 days in autonomous flight and is able to carry 100kg more. Also, unlike the old Progress crafts, it can return items to Earth. This is accomplished by using the Raduga capsule, which can carry up to 150kg of cargo. It is 1.5 m long and 60cm in diameter and has a "dry mass" of 350kg. Progress M can also dock to the forward port of the station and still transfer fuel. It uses the same rendezvous system as the Soyuz, and it features solar panels for the first time.

A new modification of the Progress spacecraft, with new TsVM-101 digital flight computer and MBITS digital telemetry system,[5] was first launched on 26 November 2008, at 12:38 UTC from the Kazakhstan's Baikonur Cosmodrome spaceport aboard a Russian Soyuz rocket. The first spacecraft of this series was Progress M-01M.

The spacecraft belongs to the so-called 400 series (GRAU: 11F615A60), and all modifications applied to it were subsequently used in the production of new Soyuz-TMA-M[6] manned spacecraft.

Progress M-27M was launched on April 28, 2015, but communication with the vessel was lost soon after, and it was destroyed as it re-entered the atmosphere on 8 May 2015.[7] The last launch was Progress M-29M

Progress M1 is another variant, capable of carrying more propellant (but less total cargo) to the space stations. There have been 11 of these flights.

Progress M2 was a planned variant, which was a proposed design for the proposed Mir-2 space station, but was dropped due to financial issues. The M2 variant would have a larger service module for larger cargo or space station modules and would have been launched on a Zenit rocket as the spacecraft is bigger.

Progress MS is an improved variant which first launched on 21 December 2015.[8] It has the following improvements:[9]

This article needs to be updated. Please update this article to reflect recent events or newly available information. (June 2018)

Progress spacecraft are currently used to resupply the International Space Station (ISS). Between 1 February 2003 and 26 July 2005, they were the only spacecraft available to transport large quantities of supplies to the station, as the Space Shuttle fleet was grounded after the breakup of Columbia at the end of STS-107. For ISS missions, the Progress M1 variant is used, which moves the water tanks from the propellant and refueling module to the pressurized section, and as a result is able to carry more propellant.[citation needed] Progress M-67, the final flight of a Progress-M spacecraft, was launched 24 July 2009 on a Soyuz-U.

More recently, on the 9th of July 2018, Progress MS-09 broke a previous record by reaching the International Space Station in 3 hours and 48 minutes with a 3 ton payload of propellant, oxygen, food, and other supplies. After the spacecraft docks, the six crewmembers of Expedition 56 will spend the next few months unloading the cargo, which includes 1,170 lbs. (530 kilograms) of propellant, 115 lbs. (52 kg) of oxygen gas, 930 lbs. (420 kg) of water, and 3,450 lbs. (1,565 kg) of other "dry" cargo like food and other equipment, NASA public affairs officer Dan Huot told the media.

The European Space Agency (ESA) operated its own type of robotic supply freighter, the Automated Transfer Vehicle (ATV). The first of these, named Jules Verne, was launched at 04:03 GMT on 9 March 2008. ATVs can carry up to 8.85 tonnes of cargo into space, roughly three times as much as the Progress, and were launched annually by Ariane 5 rockets from 2011-2014 as part of ESA contribution to ISS upkeep. The design is currently being adopted as the Service Module of the NASA Orion spacecraft.

NASA's Orion spacecraft, which will replace the Space Shuttle, was initially designed to have an unmanned variant of the Crew Module similar to Progress, however this capability has since[when?] been removed.[10] SpaceX's commercial (private owned) Dragon spacecraft and Orbital Sciences' Cygnus spacecraft also handle American logistics to the International Space Station.

RKK Energia has proposed the Parom (ferry) spacecraft as a replacement for Progress. This new spacecraft would retrieve either the proposed Kliper spacecraft or any cargo container with a Russian airlock and weighing up to 15 short tons (14t) back to the ISS.[citation needed]

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Progress (spacecraft) - Wikipedia

Psoriasis – What is Psoriasis? Basic Symptoms and Types

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Articles OnPsoriasis Psoriasis Psoriasis - Psoriasis Overview What Is Psoriasis?

Psoriasisis askindisorder that causes skin cells to multiply up to 10 times faster than normal. This makes the skin build up into bumpy red patches covered with white scales.They can grow anywhere, but most appear on the scalp, elbows,knees, and lower back. Psoriasiscan't be passed from person to person. It does sometimes happen in members of the same family.

Psoriasis usually appears in early adulthood. For most people, it affects just a few areas. In severe cases, psoriasis can cover large parts of the body. Thepatchescan heal and then come back throughout a person's life.

Thesymptoms of psoriasisvary depending on the type you have. Some common symptoms forplaque psoriasis-- the most common variety of the condition -- include:

People with psoriasis can also geta type of arthritis called psoriatic arthritis. It causes pain and swelling in the joints. The National Psoriasis Foundation estimates that between 10% to 30% of people with psoriasis also havepsoriatic arthritis.

Other forms of psoriasis include:

No one knows the exactcause of psoriasis, but experts believe that its a combination of things. Something wrong with the immune system causesinflammation, triggering new skin cells to form too quickly. Normally, skin cells are replaced every 10 to 30 days. With psoriasis, new cells grow every 3 to 4 days. The buildup of old cells being replaced by new ones creates those silver scales.

Psoriasis tends to run in families, but it may be skip generations. For instance, a grandfather and his grandson may be affected, but not the child's mother.

Things that can trigger an outbreak of psoriasis include:

Physical exam. Its usually easy for your doctor to diagnose psoriasis, especially if you have plaques on areas such as your:

Your doctor will give you a full physical exam and ask if people in your family have psoriasis.

Lab tests. The doctor might do a biopsy -- remove a small piece of skin and test it to make sure you dont have a skin infection. Theres no other test to confirm or rule out psoriasis.

Luckily, there are many treatments. Some slow the growth of new skin cells, and others relieveitchinganddry skin. Your doctor will select a treatment plan that is right for you based on the size of your rash, where it is on your body, your age, your overall health, and other things. Common treatments include:

Treatments for moderate to severe psoriasis include:

Theres no cure, but treatment greatly reduces symptoms, even in serious cases. Recent studies have suggested that when you better control the inflammation of psoriasis, your risk ofheart disease,stroke,metabolic syndrome, and other diseases associated with inflammation go down.

Psoriasis affects:

SOURCES:

National Institute of Arthritis and Musculoskeletal and Skin Disease.

National Psoriasis Foundation.

The Psoriasis Foundation.

American Academy of Dermatology.

UpToDate: Epidemiology, clinical manifestations, and diagnosis of psoriasis.

FDA: "FDA approves new psoriasis drug Taltz," FDA approves Amjevita, a biosimilar to Humira.

Medscape: "FDA OKs Biologic Guselkumab (Tremfya) for Plaque Psoriasis."

National Psoriasis Foundation: Statistics.

PubMed Health: "Plaque Psoriasis."

World Health Organization: Global report on psoriasis.

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Psoriasis - What is Psoriasis? Basic Symptoms and Types

Vogel and Motulsky’s Human Genetics: Problems and …

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Thefourth, completely revised edition of this classic reference and textbook presents a cohesive and up-to-date exposition of the concepts, results, and problems underlying theory and practice in human and medical genetics. In the 10 years since the appearance of thethird edition, many new insights have emerged for understanding the genetic basis of development and function in human health and disease. Human genetics, with its emphasis on molecular concepts and techniques, has become a key discipline in medicine and the biomedical sciences.

The fourth edition has been extensively expanded by new chapters on timely topics such as epigenetics, pharmacogenetics, gene therapy, cloning, andgenetic epidemiology, and databases forbasic and clinical genetics. In addition amulti/chapter section giving an overview on the main model organisms (mouse, dog,worm, fly, fish) used in human genetics research has been introduced.

This book will be of interest to human and medical geneticists, scientists in all biomedical sciences, physicians and epidemiologists, as well as to graduate and postgraduate students who desire to learn the fundamentals of this fascinating field.

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Vogel and Motulsky's Human Genetics: Problems and ...

Global Volcanism Program | Ambae

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Caldera lake bubbling; burned vegetation

"Three anomalous 'boiling' areas with large bubbles and burned vegetation were observed at Lake Vui on 13 July, by P. Fogarty (Chief Pilot of VANAIR). This was the first time he had observed such a phenomenon, and he noted that the vegetation had still been green in May. An aerial survey of the two summit calderas was carried out (during a VANAIR flight) on 24 July. At that time, no strong degassing was visible, but 3 areas of discolored water (each several tens of meters in diameter) were noticeable in the crater lake. Burned vegetation was observed up to the crater rim, 120 m above the water. On 26 July, microseismicity in the caldera was very weak and without any volcanic characteristics.

"Although continuous weak solfataric activity occurs beneath Lake Vui (Warden, 1970), an anomalously strong SO2 degassing is believed to have occurred between May and July. This event was unnoticed by island residents, but since Aoba has been quiet for 300 years, vigilance for this kind of phenomenon must be improved. The existence of a summit caldera lake, numerous lahar deposits, and thick layers of ash (vesiculated and accretionary lapilli) demonstrate the hazards that would accompany renewed activity. Thus, as a precaution, a seismological station was installed in July on the SW flank of the volcano.

Reference. Warden, A.J., 1970, Evolution of Aoba caldera volcano, New Hebrides: BV, v. 34, p. 107-140.

Information Contacts: C. Robin and M. Monzier, ORSTOM, Nouma, New Caledonia; M. Lardy and C. Douglas, ORSTOM, Vanuatu; C. Mortimer, Dept. of Geology, Mines, and Rural Water Supply, Vanuatu; J. Eissen, ORSTOM, France.

Volcanic seismicity felt during 1-7 December

Unusual seismicity was felt by island residents during 1-7 December 1994, with a maximum of seven small-to-medium events on the 5th. These volcanic events were of high-frequency and lacked individualized phases. At the suggestion of ORSTOM, the National Disaster Management Office (NDO) organized a helicopter reconnaissance on 7 December to inspect the volcano for evidence of possible eruptive activity. Activity at the Lake Vui crater and the fumarolic area on the shore of Lake Manoro was similar to that observed during previous aerial observations on 24 July 1991 and September 1993. At Lake Voui, small areas of hot and gaseous water were evident and the rainforest was completely burned around the crater. No large bubbles like those noted on 13 July 1991 (10 m in diameter) were observed (BGVN 16:07). An automated seismic alert station, with satellite transmission to Port Vila, will be installed near Lake Voui.

Information Contacts: M. Monzier, ORSTOM and Vanuatu Department of Geology, Mines and Water Resources, Vanuatu.

Increased steam emissions and seismicity in early March; evacuation preparations made

The following report, prepared on 17 March, is from volcanologists of the Institut Francais de Recherch Scientifique pour le Developpement en Cooperation, Office de la Recherch Scientifique et Technique Outre-Mer (ORSTOM), in Vanuatu and Ecuador.

Geological setting. Aoba is the largest basaltic shield volcano in the New Hebrides arc, with the base ~3,000 m below sea level, the summit ~1,500 m asl, and a volume of ~2,500 km3 (Eggins, 1993; Gorton, 1977; Robin and others, 1993). This rainforest-covered island lies in front of the d'Entrecasteaux collision zone, between the N and S Aoba Basins along an ~N50E fracture transverse to the arc (figure 1; see Greene and others, 1994, for more information). Two concentric summit calderas, the largest 5 km in diameter (figure 2), enclose the central crater containing the 2-km-diameter Lake Voui (Vui) (figure 3). Numerous secondary craters and cones lie along the N50E fracture, out to the extremities of the island, where previous magma-seawater interactions have produced several maars.

Eruptive history. Lake Voui and the Manaro Ngoro summit explosion craters and cones formed ~420 years ago. The Ndui Ndui lava flows issued from the N50E fissure ~300 years ago and reached the NW coast (Warden, 1970). Possible eruption-related lahars (or only secondary mudflows following heavy rains?) annihilated villages on the SE flanks of the island ~120 years ago, producing several casualties. An eruption possibly occurred in 1914 with ashfalls (?) and lahars (12 casualties). . . .

Robin and Monzier (1993, 1994) consider Aoba the most potentially dangerous volcano of the Vanuatu archipelago because of the wide distribution of very young deposits related to strong explosive eruptions. They also cite thick lahar deposits, the presence of Lake Voui, long repose periods (~300-400 years , Warden, 1970), strong degassing at the lake in 1991, and a population of ~3,500 within 10 km of the crater.

Activity in December 1994. Unusual seismicity was felt . . . during 1-7 December 1994 (BGVN 20:01). Records from ORSTOM seismic stations on Santo (70 km W) and Efate (260 km SSE) islands showed that peak activity lasted 24 hours with 13 events, the largest M 4.6 (Regnier, 1995). Crustal hypocenters were located under the S submarine base of the volcano. On 7 December, helicopter reconnaissance showed small areas of rising hot gaseous water at Lake Voui, similar to July 1991 and September 1993, but the rainforest appeared completely burned for up to several hundred meters around the crater. Despite the end of the seismic crisis, ORSTOM emphasized to the NDO the need to remain circumspect of the volcano. In mid-December, according to Robin and Monzier (1994), the following advice was given to NDO: "In the case of a resumption of volcanic activity in the summit area, it will be wise to evacuate, in a first phase, the population of coastal villages of the central part of the island (in a 10 km radius area surrounding Lake Voui) towards the less hazardous NE and SW extremities of the island. If the eruption occurs near these extremities, or spreads along fractures from central vents towards these extremities, then it might be necessary to evacuate part of the population to Santo or Maewo-Pentecost."

Activity in March 1995. According to a VANAIR pilot report on 1 March, Lake Voui was calm with gas emissions from numerous locations. The following day, the lake was steaming all over, bubbling up in the center, and its surface was rough; the pilot also reported black sediment ejections. Early on the morning of 3 March, people on Santo Island observed a gas plume rising 2-3 km above Lake Voui. Simultaneously, crustal seismicity similar to that in December 1994 was recorded.

On 4-6 March, ORSTOM geophysicists (M. Lardy and D. Charley) recorded strong continuous tremor at Ndui Ndui, ~9 km NW from the main crater. This tremor had a monochromatic signal with a 1.4 Hz mean frequency, several hours duration, and an amplitude of 3-4x background. Local observers were trained to watch the activity and the collaboration with VANAIR pilots was reinforced. As usual during the tropical summer, the top of the volcano was covered by thick clouds and rarely visible. However, on 5 March a gas plume was still visible above Lake Voui.

An island resident who stayed several days in the summit area during early March described lake levels and reported that soft mud had been blown all over the shores. On 4 and 6 March the surface of Lake Voui was at least 5.4 m higher than normal. However, on 9 March the lake was hot and steaming, and was ~4.8 m below the normal level, a change of ~10 m within 3 days. Tremor activity remained constant between 9 and 13 March, but with significantly less intensity than during 4-6 March. In addition, shallow, local micro-seismicity was noted since 11 March. During an aerial survey on 13 March, the entire lake was steaming and a strong sulfur smell had been reported around the summit area.

If activity increases in the central crater, magma-water interactions could produce falls of ash, dense lapilli, and accretionary lapilli, as well as pyroclastic flows, base surges and lahars. Lava flows may also erupt from flank fissures, N50E or other orientations. The ORSTOM seismological team in Vanuatu will be reinforced on 17 March by the arrival of a new seismologist, and 5-7 portable seismic stations will be deployed around the island as soon as possible to improve the focal locations and delineate possible areas of attenuation. Also, a new permanent seismic station will be installed on Aoba. Daily contact is maintained between ORSTOM scientists in Vanuatu and Ecuador; the latter are prepared to move to Vanuatu if necessary.

Evacuation preparations. On 8 March, after discussions between ORSTOM geophysicists in Vanuatu and volcanologists now based in Ecuador, the following advice was given to the Vanuatu Government: ". . .The size of the gas plume observed above Lake Voui crater on March 3, 1995 probably means that magma is now rising within the volcano . . . . Thus, Aoba volcano is now dangerous and it seems necessary to envisage the evacuation of the population of coastal villages located in a 10 km radius area surrounding Lake Voui towards the less hazardous NE and SW extremities of the island . . . ."

Following this advice, Aoba Island was placed on alert and preparations for evacuations were begun. On 9 March, aircraft within a 4-km radius of Aoba up to 2.2 km altitude (7,500 feet) were restricted to scheduled flights and those approved by civil aviation or disaster office authorities. Correcting previous statements that evacuations had already started, the UNDHA reported on 17 March that villages within 10 km of the crater had been identified as threatened, and those within a 5-km radius had been placed on stand-by for immediate evacuation. Evacuation centers were identified, and all available government and several private ships were positioned to assist in a possible evacuation.

References. Eggins, S., 1993, Origin and differenciation of picritic arc magmas, Ambae (Aoba), Vanuatu: Contributions to Mineralogy and Petrology, v. 114, p. 79-100.

Gorton, M.P., 1977, The geochemistry and origin of quaternary volcanism in the New Hebrides: Geochimica et Cosmochimica Acta, v. 41, p. 1257-1270.

Greene, H.G., Collot, J.-Y., Stokking, L.B., and others, 1994, Proceedings of the Ocean Drilling Program, Scientific Results, 134: College Station, TX (Ocean Drilling Program).

Regnier, M., 1995, Rapport prliminaire sur la crise sismique d'Aoba de dcembre 1994: Rapport ORSTOM, Port-Vila, 4 p.

Robin, C., and Monzier, M., 1993, Volcanic hazards in Vanuatu: Disaster Management Workshop by National Disaster Management Office, Republic of Vanuatu, 24-28 May 1993, Port-Vila, 8 p.

Robin, C., and Monzier, M., 1994, Volcanic hazards in Vanuatu: ORSTOM and Dept. of Geology, Mines and Water Resources of the Vanuatu Government report, 15 p.

Robin, C., Monzier, M., Crawford, A.J., and Eggins, S.M., 1993, The geology, volcanology, petrology-geochemistry, and tectonic evolution of the New Hbrides island arc, Vanuatu: IAVCEI Canberra 1993, Excursion guide, Record 1993 / 59, Australian Geological Survey Organisation, 86 p.

Warden, A.J., 1970, Evolution of Aoba caldera volcano, New Hebrides: BV, v. 34, no. 1, p. 107-140.

Information Contacts: C. Robin and M. Monzier (geologists) ORSTOM, Quito, Ecuador; M. Lardy (geophysicist); M. Regnier, J-P. Metaxian, R. Decourt (seismologists), and D. Charley (technical assistant), ORSTOM, Vanuatu; M. Ruiz (seismologist), Instituto Geofsico, Escuela Politcnica Nacional, Quito, Ecuador; J-P. Eissen (geologist), ORSTOM, France; BOM, Australia; UNDHA.

Crater lake exhibits convection cells and steaming as level drops

A pyroclastic explosion on the morning of 3 March 1995 generated a vapor-and-ash column ~3 km high (BGVN 20:02). Preliminary analysis of the resulting deposit did not reveal any juvenile material. On the morning of 5 March, a vapor plume rose ~500 m. It is possible that vapor plumes were emitted over several days, but were not observed at other times because of the thick clouds that usually hide the summit area. The center of activity on 3 March was between two small islands in Lake Voui (figures 4 and 5). Because of poor weather conditions, ORSTOM scientists were unable to observe the lake at close range until 13 March. Aerial photos taken on 20 March (figure 6) show the thermal contrast between Lake Manaro Lakua, formed by the accumulation of water in a low-lying area of the caldera, and Lake Voui, which fills the active crater. Convection cells, ~300-400 m in diameter, could be discerned within Lake Voui.

A drop in the level of Lake Voui that began on 6 March (BGVN 20:02) was visible in photographs taken on 20 March. During another overflight on 6 April, the level of the crater lake had dropped by ~2 m. By the time of a 27 June landing on the NW island in Lake Voui (figure 5), the lake level had dropped ~5 m below the maximum, as determined by recent vegetation. Water temperatures measured around the most accessible parts of the island averaged 38-40C, with highs of 63-67C. The strongly acidic (pH 2.3) emerald-green lake was mostly obscured by clouds, but vapor emissions were visible between the island and the NW edge of the crater. A small island seen on 6 April in the N part of the lake had enlarged noticeably because of the drop in water level. The topography of the islands is steep towards the center of the lake and gentle towards crater edge. All of the trees on the island were dead, but other vegetation was beginning to reappear. Some blocks of dried mud (40-50 cm in diameter) ejected during the phreatic explosion at the beginning of March were still visible. Sulfur deposits were noted, and gas bubbles were coming from numerous fissures at the edge of the island.

A bathymetric survey of Lake Voui has never been done, but ORSTOM estimates that it has a volume of 50 million cubic meters. Although activity has declined in recent months, ORSTOM will maintain the current low-level alert status until approximately the end of November.

Information Contacts: M. Lardy, D. Douglas, P. Wiart, and K. Kalkaua, Centre ORSTOM, Port Vila, Vanuatu, and Bureau des Desastres Nationaux, P.M.B. 014, Port Vila, Vanuatu; M. Regnier and S. Temakon, ORSTOM et Departement des Mines et de la Geologie et des Ressources en Eaux, Port Vila, Vanuatu; Chief N. Tahi, Village de Nambangahake (Ndui-Ndui) Aoba, Vanuatu; C. Robin and M. Monzier, Centre ORSTOM, Quito, EcuadorJ-P.Eissen, Centre ORSTOM de Brest, France; J-P. Metaxian, Universite de Savoie.

Monitoring and water chemistry at Voui crater lake

Following the 1995 phreatic explosion at Lake Voui (BGVN 20:02 and 20:08) a bathymetric survey of the crater lake was carried out. The 1996 survey confirmed the location of activity that had first been observed in 1992 on a SPOT satellite image. Monitoring of Lake Voui has continued through November 1998.

The average temperature over the whole 1 x 2 km surface of the lake (figures 7 and 8) stayed at ~30C during November 1996-November 1998, due in part to constant streams of gas that issued from the main vent. As a comparison, in June 1995, three months after the phreatic explosion, the surface temperature was 45C.

The ten major compounds dissolved in the lake's water have changed in concentration with time (table 1), but the samples, taken at the surface and at depths of 15-50 m, were consistent throughout the lake at any one time.

Table 1. Synopsis of the physical and chemical analysis of the waters of Voui lake derived from samples taken during 1995-98. Chemical constituents and ratios are given in mg/L. Courtesy Centre ORSTOM, Vanuatu.

The average volume of the lake was estimated at 50 x 106 m3, but the level varied significantly. A drop of 275 cm in surface elevation was observed between June 1997 and October 1998. Rainfall varied between 500 and 600 cm/year in the summit area.

Monitoring was conducted twice per year, complemented by seismic recordings taken from a station set up in the dry lake bed of Ngoro. This system is similar to that used on Tanna Island, Vanuatu (BGVN 21:08). The range of monitoring equipment in place on Aoba since 1996 was extended in October 1998 by the installation of an acoustic recording station (0.1-150 KHz) and a device for continuous measurement of lake-water temperature. The data are relayed through an ARGOS satellite transmitter. Identical stations have been set up on Kelut in Indonesia and at Lake Taal in the Philippines.

Information Contacts: Michel Lardy, Ins Rodriguez, Douglas Charley, and Pascal Gineste, Centre ORSTOM, P.O.Box 76, Port-Vila, Vanuatu; Michel Halbwachs, and Jacques Grangeon, Universit de Savoie, Campus Scientifique, F3376, Le Bourget du Lac, Cdex France; Janette Tabbagh, Centre de Tlobservation Informatise des volcans, CNRS-CRG, Garchy, France.

Increase in temperature and acidity at Lake Voui during April-August 2000

Since phreatic eruptions occurred at Voui crater lake in March 1995 (BGVN 20:02 and 20:08) the lake has been closely monitored. No reports of activity were received after October 1998 (BGVN 23:10) until Lake Voui's temperature and acidity increased above normal levels during April through August 2000. Charlie Douglas and Sandrine Wallez reported that in mid-April 2000 the temperature at Lake Voui was ~27C, but by August it had increased to 35.8 C (figure 9), which was the highest temperature recorded since they began monitoring the lake in 1998. They also reported that the water's acidity increased. Water analysis conducted on 15 June indicated that the increases were the result of an injection of fumarolic gases into the lake, perhaps related to ascent of new magma.

Information Contacts: Stromboli On-line, maintained by Jrg Alean and Roberto Carniel (URL: http://www.swisseduc.ch/stromboli/); Charlie Douglas and Sandrine Wallez, Geohazard Mitigation Section, Department of Geology, Mines, and Water Resources of Vanuatu (URL: http://www.sidsnet.org/pacific/sopac/members/vu.html); Michel Lardy and Michel Halbwachs, Institut de recherche pour le dveloppement (IRD), P.O. Box 76, Port Vila, Vanuatu.

Sustained elevation of Lake Voui's temperature indicates increased heat transfer

Voui crater lake's temperature and hydro-acoustic signals are measured continuously by an automated station that transmits in real time via satellite (BGVN 23:10). Recent measurements revealed heavy activity under the lake during March-June 2000 (BGVN 25:08), when the estimated 50 x 106 m3 volume of water rapidly increased in temperature by more than 7C (figure 10).

The increase was accompanied by acoustic signals covering a wide range of frequencies (figure 10, bottom). Those in the audible band (> 100 Hz) were thought to be associated with the emission of gas bubbles and an increase in submarine fumarolic activity. Those in the ultrasound band (30-190 kHz) could stem from fluids circulating within the hydrothermal zone beneath the lake (figure 11).

A consistent first-order rise in water temperatures persisted through December 2000 (figure 12). Despite seasonal variations in air temperature and the cooling effect of heavy tropical rainfall (~5 m/yr), Lake Voui's temperature remained stable at ~36C as of January 2001. The preceding rise and sustained high temperature indicate continued heat transfer from the bottom of the lake. The effect appears more substantial than the heating seen between 1996 and 1999, when water temperature averaged ~30C.

Information Contacts: Michel Lardy, Institut de Recherche pour le Dveloppement (IRD), Centre d"Ile de France 93143 Bondy Cdex, France; Michel Halbwachs, Universit de Savoie, BP1104, F 73376 Le Bourget du Lac Cdex, France; Jeanne Tabbagh, Universit Pierre et Marie Curie, Dpartment de gophysique applique, 75252 Paris Cdex O5, France; Douglas Charley, Department of Geology, Mines, and Water Resources, PMB01, Port-Vila, Vanuatu, Oceania.

New eruption begins on 27 November 2005 and builds cone in crater lake

A new eruption began on 27 November 2005 when vapor plumes and ash columns were observed originating from Lake Voui, a crater lake at the summit of Aoba (figure 13). The volcano is also referred to locally as Manaro or Lombenben. Prior to this activity, the most recent reported volcanism consisted of phreatic explosions from the lake during March 1995 (BGVN 20:01, 20:02, and 20:08). Bathymetry conducted by ORSTOM in 1996 showed that the vent feeding gases and magma into Lake Voui had a depth of about 150 m and a diameter of about 50 m. The volume of water in the lake (1 x 2 km) totals some 40 million cubic meters, with a mean pH of 1.8. Lake Voui and the Manaro Ngoro summit explosion craters and cones formed ~ 420 years ago (figure 14). Lake Manaro was formed by the accumulation of water in a low-lying area of the Manaro summit caldera.

Starting on 3 December a team of volcanologists from the Vanuatu Department of Geology, Mines, and Water Resources (DGMWR), the French Institut de recherche pour le dveloppement (IRD), the New Zealand Institute of Geological & Nuclear Sciences (GNS), and New Zealand's Massey University began collaborating on observations and monitoring. The amplitude of tremor recorded by DGMWR instruments from 30 November to 3 December was lower than during the March 1995 activity.

Scientists who visited the lake on 4 and 5 December (figures 15 and 16) observed a similar style of eruptive activity on both days, but some individual explosions appeared larger on the 5th. It was not possible to reach the lake to collect a water sample. There appeared to be two active vents, side by side, in the lake. One was producing eruptions of mud, rocks, and water, and the other appeared to be the source of the large continuous steam plume rising above the crater; the plume did not contain ash. There were no reports of ash falling on the island since the start of the eruptions the previous week. The team estimated that the cone being built in the lake, at an estimated height of more than 20 m on the 4th, was about 70% complete around the active vents, and grew 5-10% higher between 4 and 5 December. Continuous tremor was recorded during this time, and the level of eruptive and seismic activity seemed to be fairly stable.

Cloud cover and rain prevented a visit to the lake on 6 and 7 December. Earthquake recorders from the GNS were installed at the Provincial Centre at Saratamata, the Longana Peoples Centre (Lovonda village), and at Tahamamavi ("place of warm sea") (figure 17). On 7 December, a final recorder from the IRD was installed near Nduidui on the SW side of the island. Over 6-7 December continuous moderate-level volcanic tremor was recorded, with no significant change in its level; there was no other significant seismic activity.

On 8 December, the group noted that small-scale eruptions continued in Lake Voui, building a volcanic cone in the lake and producing a tall (2.4-3.0 km) steam-and-gas plume. Afternoon observations showed the cone growing taller and surrounding three sides of the active vents. However, the cone was not complete on its E side, allowing lake water to react with the rising magma. Though the resulting explosions became further apart and slightly larger, the total energy involved appeared similar to 4-5 December. There continued to be two active vents, one producing the small explosions, and the second the steam and gas emissions. Seismic recorders continued to record volcanic tremor, but very few local earthquakes. No volcanic ash was present in the plume. The eruption had no immediate effect beyond Lake Voui. The Volcanic Alert Level remained at Level 2. The level of seismic activity seemed to be stable. No other significant seismic activity was recorded.

While departing by air on the evening of 8 December, the group clearly saw the active vents (figure 18). The cone had grown to the W, joining and partly burying one of the old islands. All eruptions occurred from inside the cone. The largest individual eruptions threw material 150-200 m above the lake. There was also a gas-and-steam vent present within the cone, W of the other vent. The level of the lake appeared unchanged.

On 10 December, the small-scale volcanic eruption continued from active vents within the summit crater lake (Lake Voui). Molten material entered the crater lake and reacted with the water to produce small explosive eruptions and a plume of steam and gas. The eruption built a cone around the active vents, enclosing them on three sides, forming an island about 200 m across and 50-60 m high. There were two vents, one erupting water, rocks and mud, and the other producing a tall column of steam and gas. The eruption had little effect outside the crater lake (minor ashfall occurred only in the first three days of the eruption). Five days of seismic recordings show a moderate level of seismic activity (mostly volcanic tremor).No change was noted in the level of Lake Voui, and there was also no evidence of ground uplift or fractures near the lake.

Sulfur dioxide measurements. SO2 data collected using a DOAS spectrometer on the Islander planes of Unity Air Lines (3 December) and Air Vanuatu (5 December). On 3 December the flux was 32.6-33.6 kg/s (~ 2,900 metric tons/day). By 5 December the flux had decreased about 25%, to 24.7-26.4 kg/s (~ 2,300 metric tons/day). SO2 was clearly detected by the OMI (ozone monitoring instrument) sensor on the NASA Aura satellite (figure 19). One measurement of the volcanic gas output on 10 December showed a moderate level of sulfur dioxide (SO2) gas (about 2,000 t/d) from the active vents.

Lake temperatures. A monitoring station for continuous measurements of water temperature at Lake Voui was installed in October 1998. The station used a satellite ARGOS transmission system and recorded the last heating episode of 2001 (figure 20), but failed after three years due to the harsh acid environment. ASTER thermal infrared images can also be used for monitoring lake surface temperatures, and Aoba has a freshwater lake (Manaro Lakua) which can be used to remove the seasonal/diurnal variations in atmospheric temperatures. Unfortunately, the top of the volcano is frequently covered by clouds and few ASTER images are exploitable. The most recent ASTER image clearly showing both lakes was collected on 9 July 2005. Difference in temperatures between lake Voui and Lakua was 4.0C, slightly above background values during 2002-2003. Maximum background temperatures measured with ASTER during the September 2002-October 2005 were at 26.3C. The last ASTER images before the eruption, on 5 October 2005, showed no unusual temperatures at Lake Voui.

MODIS satellites have a more frequent coverage than ASTER but their spatial resolution is only 1 km. The surface area of Lake Voui (2.1 km2) is too small for an accurate measurement of lake temperature, but MODIS can detect rough temperature changes or an increased thermal anomaly. The MODIS pixel footprint is about 1 km along track and 2 km across track, so the measured temperatures are a mixed signal corresponding to the lake and some signal from the adjacent tropical forest (much colder than the lake at night at this elevation). MODIS SST imagery showed a strong thermal anomaly on 21 November 2005 (figure 20). Approximate lake temperatures, likely a minimum, were 30.4C on 20 November and 29.5C (Terra)/ 31.4C (Aqua) on 21 November. On 25 November the temperature jumped to about 42C.

Reference. Cronin, S.J., Gaylord, D.R., Charley, D., Alloway, B.V., Wallez, S., and Esau, J.W., 2004, Participatory methods of incorporating scientific with traditional knowledge for volcanic hazard management on Ambae Island, Vanuatu: Bulletin of Volcanology, v. 66, p. 652-668. (URL: http://www.proventionconsortium.org/files/tools_CRA/CS/Vanuatu.pdf)

Information Contacts: Esline Garaebiti, Douglas Charley, Morris Harrison, and Sandrine Wallez, Department of Geology, Mines, and Water Resources (DGMWR), Port-Vila, Vanuatu; Michel Lardy, Philipson Bani, Jean-Lambert Join, and Claude Robin, Institut de recherche pour le dveloppement (IRD), BP A5, 98 848 Nouma CEDEX, New Caledonia (URL: http://www.suds-en-ligne.ird.fr/fr/volcan/vanu_eng/aoba1.htm); Brad Scott and Steve Sherburn, Institute of Geological & Nuclear Sciences (GNS), Wairakei Research Center, Taupo, New Zealand; Shane Cronin, Institute of Natural Resources, Massey University, Palmerston, New Zealand; Alain Bernard, IAVCEI Commission on Volcanic Lakes, Universit Libre de Bruxelles, Brussels, Belgium (URL: http://www.ulb.ac.be/sciences/cvl/aoba/Ambae1.html); NASA Earth Observatory (URL: http://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/); United Nations, Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA), Regional Office for Asia and the Pacific.

Landscape changes resulting from November 2005 eruption

As previously reported (BGVN 30:11), a new eruption of Aoba began on 27 November 2005 when vapor plumes and ash columns were observed originating from Lake Voui, a crater lake at the summit. Activity continued into early January, building a large cinder cone in the west-central part of Lake Voui (figure 21). The new cone also contained its own crater lake.

An image taken by ASTER's visible, near infra-red (VNIR) telescope on 24 December 2005 (UTC) showed the two larger caldera lakes, and steam escaping from an island in the center of Lake Voui (figure 22). The VNIR telescope has a resolution of ~ 15 m and operates in the spectral range 0.52-0.86 ?m.

During September through December 2005, infrared satellite data provided by Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) and processed by the MODVOLC Hot-Spot algorithm at the Hawaii Institute of Geophysics and Planetology (HIGP) only observed a single-pixel thermal anomaly. It occurred at 0110 local time on 26 November 2005 ( the image was acquired at 1410 UTC on 25 November 2005). That was 1 day prior to reports of the eruption from ground-based observers, although the ground-based reports could easily have been delayed so it is not clear that the MODVOLC thermal anomaly was actually prior to ground based observations.

Matt Patrick noted that the anomaly is nicely centered in the caldera and is almost certainly volcanic ? no other anomalies occurred on the island in the previous 5 years.

Information Contacts: Alain Bernard, IAVCEI Commission on Volcanic Lakes, Universit Libre de Bruxelles, Brussels, Belgium (URL: http://www.ulb.ac.be/sciences/cvl/aoba/Ambae1.html); NASA Earth Observatory (URL: http://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/); Esline Garaebiti, Department of Geology, Mines and Water Resources, Port Vila, Vanuatu; Matt Patrick, University of Hawaii, Hawaii Institute of Geophysics and Planetology (HIGP) Thermal Alerts Team, 2525 Correa Road, Honolulu, HI 96822 (URL: http://modis.higp.hawaii.edu/).

Crater-lake photos and satellite temperatures data show ongoing activity

As previously reported, a new eruption at Aoba began 27 November 2005 in one of the crater lakes (Lake Voui). The eruption formed a cinder cone in the lake (figures 23 and 24) that contained a crater with a small hot lake (BGVN 30:11 and 30:12).

On 31 January a high, dark ash plume caused ashfall in the S part of the island. Small eruptions continued in February.

Alain Bernard recently processed a 26 January 2006 nighttime ASTER (Advanced Spaceborne Thermal Emission and Reflection Radiometer) image. Figure 25 shows the ASTER product called AST_04 (TIR?thermal infrared radiometer, 8.12-11.65 ?m wavelengths?band 10) unprocessed image of Aoba with Lakes Voui and Lakua. The TIR bands, with a spatial resolution of 90 m, give the ability to detect small thermal anomalies (a few degrees C), perform thermal mapping, and monitor temporal variations in the lake surface temperature. As shown in figure 26, Lake Voui's temperature in early January 2006 dropped by ~ 10C to a mean of 25.4C (down from 35.7C one month earlier). Temperature differences between Voui and Lakua dropped to 4.3C, reaching almost to the background levels observed in July 2005 (see plot "Temperature data from Lake Voui at Aoba, October 1998-December 2005 . . ."; BGVN 30:11). There is still a strong thermal anomaly of 46.1C inside the new island (figure 13).

As of 11 February 2006 at 1011 hours (10 February 2006 at 2311 UTC), Alain Bernard reported that Lakes Voui and Lakua temperatures were, respectively, 27.2C and 23.2C (delta T = 4C). The maximum temperature for the mud pool was ~ 57C.

Information Contacts: Alain Bernard, IAVCEI Commission on Volcanic Lakes, Universit Libre de Bruxelles (ULB), CP160/02, avenue F.D. Roosevelt 50, Brussels, Belgium (URL: http://www.ulb.ac.be/sciences/cvl/aoba/Ambae1.html, http://www.ulb.ac.be/sciences/cvl/multispectral/multispectral2.htm); Esline Garaebiti, Department of Geology, Mines, and Water Resources (DGMWR), Port-Vila, Vanuatu.

During May-June 2006, Lake Voui's water rapidly turns from blue to red

Alain Bernard reported that Lake Voui in Aoba-Ambae volcano (BGVN 31:01) was undergoing a spectacular change in its color?the previously aqua-colored lake was turning red (figure 27).

Images of a pale reddish Lake Voui were obtained by Esline Garaebiti, who flew over the volcano 28 May 2006. Philippe Mtois, who flew over on 3 June 2006, photographed a blood-red lake. These photos were are posted on the CVL website along with recent ASTER temperature data. This color change was tentatively attributed to a rapid shift in the lake water's redox state. The change might be linked to the ratio of SO2/H2S in the hydrothermal fluids.

Information Contacts: Alain Bernard, IAVCEI Commission on Volcanic Lakes (CVL), Universit Libre de Bruxelles (ULB), CP160/02, avenue F.D. Roosevelt 50, Brussels, Belgium (URL: http://www.ulb.ac.be/sciences/cvl/aoba/Ambae1.html, http://www.ulb.ac.be/sciences/cvl/multispectral/multispectral2.htm); Esline Garaebiti, Department of Geology, Mines, and Water Resources (DGMWR), Port-Vila, Vanuatu; Philippe Mtois, World of Wonders.

Acidic gas emissions destroy vegetation; islet lake breached

The Aura/OMI satellite detected elevated SO2 concentrations above Aoba volcano during July and August 2006. Comparison of MODIS imagery between 3 June and 31 August 2006 (figure 28) revealed the effects of emissions on vegetation around the crater. The conditions in the field were investigated by a scientific team from Institut de Recherche pour le Dveloppement (IRD). They concluded that a significant area of the summit (30 to 40 km2) was burned by acid gas emissions.

When IRD scientists conducted a visit to Aoba in late November 2006 vegetation surrounding the crater lake had been recently defoliated (figure 29), with trees completely burned and dead, due to plumes of acidic gas and aerosols during June-August 2006. They also concluded that heavy rainfalls since September 2006 diluted the acidity of plumes. Occasional green spots seen during the November visit were where new growths of ferns and tree ferns had become established. The acid effects were more extensive than previously seen since the early 1990s. This new behavior may reflect increased degassing from the source vent inside the ring-shaped tephra (or tuff) cone.

On 25 November 2006 an IRD team measured an SO2 flux of 3,000 tons/day. This value coincided with the measurement provided by the ozone monitoring instrument (OMI on the EOS Aura satellite). The value represented a marked reduction in SO2 degassing compared to that measured on 10 June 2006.

The team noted that the main lake in the crater, Lake Voui, was still a red color, an effect due to oxidation of the iron in its large mass of water (BGVN 31:05). Within that larger lake resides the ring-shaped island, which largely formed during the late 2005-early 2006 eruptions (BGVN 31:01). The island's form had been that of an unbroken ring, but by the time of their 25 November visit, the preceding month's heavy rains had eroded the smaller islands wall, allowing water in the two lakes to easily mix (figure 30). The W shore of Lake Voui has also been eroded, and fumaroles were observed in the lake. The breach in the tephra ring coincided with gas emissions ceasing.

The IRD team implemented the first permanent real-time temperature monitoring during their visit. Due to the heavy rainfall since June 2006 and the lowered levels of evaporation associated with the lowered average lake temperature (~ 25C on 25 November 2006), the lake level remained high. In addition, the average level of Lake Voui is higher due to volcanic material (ash, scoria) deposited between December 2005 and January 2006, and it should continue to fluctuate seasonally, as in the past.

Information Contacts: Michel Lardy, Institut de Recherche pour le Dveloppement (IRD), BP A 5 98 848 Noumea Cedex, New Caledonia (URL: http://nouvelle-caledonie.ird.fr/); Department Geology Mines and Water Resources (DGMWR), Geohazard Section, PMB 01 Port-Vila, Republic of Vanuatu; Alain Bernard, Universite Libre de Bruxelles, Brussels, Belgium (URL: http://www.ulb.ac.be/sciences/cvl/aoba/Ambae1.html).

Increased degassing starting December 2009

Our last Bulletin report (BGVN 31:12) on Aoba (Ambae) described the destruction of vegetation by acidic gas emissions and the breach of the islet lake during 2006. This report discusses comparative quiescence into late 2009 when degassing escalated (substantial gas plumes were seen) and the hazard status rose. The volcano has remained quiet into mid-2011.

The Vanuatu region lies ~2,200 km N off the New Zealand coast and ~2,100 km NE off the coast of Australia (figure 31). A 1999 census suggested ~9,400 people resided on Ambae. Cronin and others (2004) describe the residents as "dispersed amongst more than 276 small extended family settlements and villages (Wallez 2000). Settlements are mostly restricted to the lower island slopes within 4 km of the coast. The highest population densities occur at the NE and SE ends of the island."

The Vanuatu Geohazards Observatory (VGO) noted increases in activity from Aoba (Ambae) starting in December 2009.This began when local villagers near the volcano reported seeing a plume over the island. In December 2009 the Vanuatu Volcanic Alert Level (VVAL) was raised to Level 1. The scale ranges from 0 to 4: 0 represents normal low-level activity and 4 represents a large eruption and island wide danger. The reported source of activity is a recent cone located in the crater lake, Voui (BGVN 30:11 and 30:12).

The VGO went on to note that "An expatriate pilot based on Gaua, also witnessed a plume on Ambae on Tuesday 6th April on his way back to Gaua from Santo. Aerial pictures that were taken by two Geohazards staff on 11 April 2010 also confirmed gas emissions that were more concentrated than normal... [which] reaffirms the [Ozone Monitoring Instrument or OMI] satellite image of gas emissions above. Another observation made on Ambae is the presence of sulphur-hydromagmatic activity on the SE part of the second crater of Ambae enclosing Manaro Lakua indicated by what seemed like two fumarolic zones.... There was also some discoloration of the water in Manaro Lakua near the 'fumaroles' with some areas near the shore [colored] brown, and some areas [colored] pale bluea sign of the incorporation of sulphur dioxide. It was also reported that while flying above the area, strong sulphur dioxide gas could be smelt even at 5,000 feet [~1.5 km altitude] on 11 April."

The VGO also noted that the OMI satellite pictures depicted fluctuating gas emissions during this period. The image for 11 April 2010 indicated elevated SO2 and gave the integrated concentration-pathlength as 15 kilotons. On this day, VGO had noted SO2 fluxes over 3,000 tons/day.

References. Cronin, SJ, Gaylord, DR, Charley, D., Alloway, BV, Wallez, S, and Esau, JW, 2004, Participatory methods of incorporating scientific with traditional knowledge for volcanic hazard management on Ambae Island, Vanuatu, Bulletin of Volcanology, v. 66, pp.652-668, Springer-Verlag.

Wallez S, 2000, Socio-economic survey of the impact of the volcanic hazards for Ambae Island: geo-hazards mitigation program section. Department of Geology, Mines and Water Resources, Port Vila, Vanuatu. p 39.

Information Contacts: Vanuatu Geohazards Observatory (VGO) (URL: http://www.vmgd.gov.vu/vmgd/); Ozone Monitoring Instrument (OMI), Sulfur Dioxide Group), Joint Center for Earth Systems Technology, University of Maryland Baltimore County (UMBC), 1000 Hilltop Circle, Baltimore, MD 21250, USA (URL: https://so2.gsfc.nasa.gov/).

Minor activity likely continuing into early 2013

In our May 2011 Bulletin we reported that there was increased degassing at Aoba (also known as Ambae) starting December 2009 through at least April 2010. This report summarizes notices pereiodically posted by the Vanuatu Geohazards Observatory (VGO) and covers the time interval from 4 June 2011 through 26 February 2013. The Vanautu Volcano Alert Level (VVAL) remained at 1 (on a scale of 0-4.)

Observations on 4 June 2011 revealed that small explosions had been occurring from the crater lake and were accompanied by local ashfall around the crater. Some villagers in the N and W parts of the island had observed the explosions.

Based on analysis of data collected by the Vanuatu Meteorology and Geohazards Department (VMGD), the Vanuatu Geohazards Observatory reported that a small series of explosions from Aoba occurred on 10 July 2011. On July 11, VGO noted that there had been recent increases in activity from Ambae and that local earthquakes were volcanic. Satellite images collected by the Ozone Monitoring Instrument showed sulfur dioxide emissions. Photos showed that the volcano was quiet on 12 July 2011, although ongoing earthquakes were detected.

According to the VGO, Ambanga villagers reported that minor activity at Aoba began in December 2012. The OMI instrument detected strong gas emissions on 18 and 25 January 2013; the emissions continued at a lower level through 7 February. Field observations by the Geohazards team during 30 January-2 February 2013 confirmed that activity had significantly changed. Data retrieved from a monitoring station also confirmed ongoing activity. Satellite images acquired on 3 and 26 February 2013 detected substantial sulfur dioxide emissions.

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Global Volcanism Program | Ambae

Jitsi Community Forum

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Jitsi Community Forum - developers & users Discussions related to installation and configuration of all Jitsi products, including Meet. If you have a question on installation packages, building from source, environment specifics, or any of Jitsis configuration files and options then it belongs here. Discussions related to developing with the Jitsi codebase and architectural questions. Search here for bugs, to ask how the the various systems work, or post new issues. If you have a bug or issue related to a specific piece of code or repo, please create an issue in the appropriate github repo. Have a new feature or product idea you would like to see implemented - post and discuss it here! This is intended for more general ideas and new features as opposed to enhancements/fixes of existing capabilities (use Users) or requests related to developer issues (see Dev) Discussion related to the Meet UI, Meet features, Meet use cases, the meet.jit.si app, and basic usage of Jitsi products intended for end users. These discussions will tend to be less technical than those in Install & Config and Developers. Discussion on the Jitsi Desktop app (formerly known as Jitsi SIP Communicator). The home for Jitsi-related news and announcements. These are messages from prior to June 1, 2017 ported from our prior Users and Dev lists. This is a good place to search for past discussions. Discussion about this site, its organization, how it works, and how we can improve it. Home Categories FAQ/Guidelines Terms of Service Privacy Policy

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Jitsi (Build 3132) – OnSIP

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The following review was conducted inApril 2011.

Unbeknownst to many people, there are a growing number of free stand-alone VoIP clients, some of which arent half bad. Today Im going to be doing an in-depth look at one of these free downloadable clients, Jitsi, which is described as an audio/video Internet phone and instant messenger that supports some of the most popular VoIP and instant messaging protocols such as SIP, Jabber, AIM/ICQ, MSN, etc

The list is extensive, but it had me at SIP and Jabber.

Jitsi, which is written mostly in Java, is a free and open source VoIP, and instant messaging application for Windows, Mac, and Linux. Its currently in alpha. Stable releases come out every so often while nightly builds are released several times a day. When appropriate, users are automatically prompted to download and install the latest build (or you can just tell it to do this all without asking).

What separates this application from others like it is the inclusion of enterprise VoIP features such as attended and blind call transfer, call recording, call encryption, conferencing, and video calls.

This version of the application looks and feels great. The main UI is simple and clean, the pop-up call handling screen is easy to use, and the instant messaging feature is handled nicely. Jitsi certainly aims to accomplish a lot. While you can almost expect a few glitches here and there, it is certainly worth trying out.

[ Relevant Sidenote: This review was conducted on a Macbook Pro. ]

As usual, I am going to do a quick walk through of how to setup OnSIP with Jitsi. A lot of these steps apply no matter which VoIP provider youre using so I noncustomers will also find this useful. Youre going to need your user credentials. They can be found in your OnSIP admin portal under users. Here is an example of the fields you will need:

Setting Up VoIP Calling

Open up Jitsi and select +Add New Account under File. You should see a screen pop up that looks like this:

Select SIP as your choice from the options provided in the Network dropdown menu, and then hit Advanced in the lower left corner.

Youll be taken to another menu with 3 parts: Account, Connection, and Presence. Account is pretty self-explanatory. Under SIP id, youll want to input your entire SIP address. Password is your SIP password, and display name can be anything you want.

Next, in Connection, input your Proxy/Domain in the field marked Registrar, and your Auth Username into the field marked Authorization name. Youll want to uncheck Configure proxy automatically if it isnt already, and type sip.onsip.com into the field labeled Proxy if you are an OnSIP customer (Port 5060). Make sure that preferred transport is UDP and that the Keep alive method is Register.

In Presence, simply check Enable presence (SIMPLE) and leave everything else unchecked.

Hit the Next button. Youll be taken to a summary page where you can go over your settings one last time before you sign in.

Go into the Jitsi preferences. You should see a screen that looks something like the image above, with a list of all your active and inactive accounts. Select Audio and make sure that the codecs (or encodings) enabled are G722, PCMU, PCMA, and telephone-event.

Setting Up XMPP

Setting up IM is even easier. Here Ill show you how to get your my.OnSIP contacts in Jitsi. Once again, select +Add New Account under File. This time, youll want to select Jabber in the Network dropdown menu, and hit Advanced in the lower left corner. Youll be taken to another menu with 3 parts: Account, Connection, and Advanced. In Account, input your my.OnSIP login credentials. Skip the Connection section since you dont need to change anything there and uncheck the three options you see in Advanced (Use ICE, Auto discover STUN/TURN servers, and Use Jitsis STUN server in case no other servers are available). Click Next at the bottom of the menu, and then Sign In on the summary page that follows.

At Junction Networks, we put each of the phones we use through a multi-step interoperability test in which we apply ~30 test cases. An example of a test case would be the following:

Test phone calls phone B

B picks up

B puts Test phone on hold

B calls phone C

C picks up

B transfers test phone to C

Call must be transferred correctly to C. B must be released correctly after the transfer. When C picks up, audio must work in both ways between test phone and C. When test phone is on hold, there is no audio between it and phone B.

Build 3132 passed our test cases with no issues.

When I first installed Jitsi a couple of months ago, there was so much static that having an intelligible conversation was impossible. Whatever the issue was, it has since been patched and resolved.

Jitsi supports G.711 as well as the G.722 wideband codec. Narrowband calls sound about as good as a regular landline call.

High definition calls with the Jitsi sound absolutely fantastic. You can get HD VoIP calls as long as the person youre on the call is also using an HD capable device. I heavily recommend using a USB headset when making calls with a soft phone on your computer to get the optimum experience. You can pick up a good headset for less than $30.

For something that costs the end user nothing, Jitsi is a surprisingly good attempt at a unified communications client. I like to think of it as a bare-bones version of Microsoft Lync that doesnt cost me $700+ to setup, and $100 per download.

The main user interface of Jitsi looks a lot like any other IM client, except that you can have a dedicated section for voice contacts in your consolidated buddy list. Clicking on what looks like a small watch face will take you to your call history. You can conveniently redial from this screen. Right next to the watch face button is a search field, which will draw from both your contacts list and your call history. This field will also act as your dialer. Start typing in any number or SIP address, and a small green handset will appear that you can click to initiate the call.

Every contact in your buddy list and call history menus can be dragged and dropped into an ongoing call. What do I mean by that? With Jitsi, every call gets its own pop up window. Its here that youll find all of your call handling options: dialpad, create a conference call, hold, mute, record, video, desktop share, transfer, etc. Dragging and dropping people from your buddy list or call history menu into an ongoing call automatically creates a conference call. This seems to work without a hitch, and youre not just limited to a 3-way conference.

The image above shows the popup window you see during each call. You can have several calls going at once (simply call another number or SIP address using the dialer field in the main Jitsi UI and any active calls you have at the time will automatically be put on hold), and each one opens up a new window. Ill very briefly go over some of the functions of interest.

Youll notice that almost everything you can do with Jitsi is laid out in a row at the bottom. At the very left is a button that looks like an old school rotary dialer. This will append a numpad to the bottom of the window so that you can interact with attendant menus, etc. Next is your conference button. This brings up a window that you can use to invite multiple people to the call at the same time.

The next three buttons are self-explanatory: hold, mute, record (you can designate which file you want to save your recordings in the Advanced section of the application preferences).

Next is the button to turn on the video. Supported video compression formats include H.263 and H.264. Ill admit that I havent spent too much time testing out video calls on Jitsi, but the few video calls I have done (on Wifi, with just the built-in iSight camera on my Macbook and H.264 selected) were better than I was expecting. No experience-ruining frame rate or picture resolution issues here. I did try doing a video call with a coworker on her Counterpath soft phone and we werent able to get it working, despite the fact that they were using the same codec. We will do more testing and Ill update this review with our findings. Also keep in mind that a lot of factors will affect the quality of your video calls, and many of the problems you or I experience may have very little to do with the application. We plan to include video calling cases as part of JN interoperability test in the near future for applicable user agents.

According to the Jitsi development roadmap, there are tentative plans to implement multi-party video conferencing in Q1 2011.

Finally, Jitsi users can easily conduct blind and attended transfers. If only one call is active, clicking on the transfer button brings up a window where you can quickly input the transfer destination and send the caller on his/her way. If you have multiple calls active, clicking on the transfer button will open up a dropdown menu that includes all your active calls so that you can quickly conduct an attended transfer. Of course you can also choose to transfer to another number as well.

Now lets talk about some of the stuff that doesnt work quite as well.

If youre a my.OnSIP user, then you might be used to having the ability to click-to-dial and IM the same contact. You dont really get the same experience with Jitsi. My.OnSIP uses XMMP for IM and OnSIP uses SIP for voice, which means that youll have to have two separate accounts, and two separate contact lists for the same group of people. It can get especially confusing if the two types of contacts for one person look exactly the same. Long story short: Remember to use your SIP account for calling and your Jabber (XMMP) account for IM.

Adding phone numbers to the voice contacts could be better streamlined. Here is what the add contact form looks like:

Youll notice that you only get to specify the contact name. It actually works fine if youre adding a SIP address. If I type jondoe@example.onsip.com into the contact name field, Jitsi will know to use that as the SIP address, and will even cut off the domain in my contact list so that only jondoe is displayed. Adding actual telephone numbers is a little annoying since the contact name field is really the what to dial field. Sure you can go back after the contact is added and rename the number to a persons name but this seems like an unnecessary step.

Since Jitsi is a project that is literally updated several times every day, I dont think a Final Thoughts section is necessarily appropriate. The application has come a long way in a very short time, and there are big plans for the coming year. We expect a lot of updates and fine-tuning.

I would recommend giving this soft phone a download if you do not already have one on your computer, or if youre completely new to VoIP and SIP and just want a way to test out IP calling. Its free so what have you got to lose?

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Jitsi (Build 3132) - OnSIP

Download Jitsi 2.10.5550 – softpedia.com

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Jitsi is an application designed to offer you a simple and fun way in which you can keep in touch with the people in your life.

It offers you chat, video and audio communication, all of which are possible through a comprehensive and good looking graphic interface. It supports protocols like XMPP, Jabber, SIP, AIM/ICQ, Yahoo, Windows Live and others.

As is characteristic to nearly all IM applications, Jitsi offers you a main window that contains your contacts list from where you can perform various tasks. You can change your status, call a friend or send a file. Everything about the application is straightforward and user-friendly.

Contacts can be placed into custom groups, renamed and relocated at any time. You can edit their info and start a secure chat with them. With Jitsi its possible to make audio and video calls, perform desktop streaming, make audio conference calls and record them, as well as encrypt all your calls.

It proves itself to be a reliable means of communication for all kinds of environments, home, school and even business.

The level of security that Jitsi offers is one you should not overlook. It provides encrypted password storage, call authentication, call encryption and DNSSEC support.

As far as instant messaging goes, Jitsi offers you a lot of functions from the chat window. You can invite more people to join in, call a certain contact, initiate a video call, send a file, start secure chatting and of course insert various types of emoticons.

In case you are busy or away from the computer, Jitsi provides auto answer and call forwarding to any other accounts that are added to the application.

In closing, if youre looking for an environment that brings together all the major chatting platforms then you can try Jitsi.

Chat client Internet phone VoIP client Communicate Chat Messenger VOIP

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Download Jitsi 2.10.5550 - softpedia.com

Home – Lighthouse Public Affairs, LLC

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Rich Peterson, Founder email Rich

Rich Peterson is a respected Bay Area regulatory strategist and problem-solver, with a unique breadth of experience that spans business, government, nonprofit, philanthropic and political endeavors.

Over the last two decades, Rich has cultivated an expansive roster of meaningful relationships with local, state and federal elected leaders, appointed commissioners, senior staff, as well as business, community and nonprofit leaders. He has served in important public oversight and fiduciary roles for the City and County of San Francisco, and on behalf of numerous private nonprofits and philanthropies. His counsel is routinely sought by industry leading companiesincluding such clients as AT&T, CH2M/Jacobs, Genentech, Grocery Outlet, Hearst, LaSalle, Oceanwide Holdings, Prologis, Republic Services, Uniqlo, and Veritas Investmentswho trust his expert guidance to navigate successfully through the Bay Areas political and regulatory landscape.

Richs efforts in 2010 and 2011 on behalf of his firms client, bond insurer MBIA, Inc., were instrumental in brokering a successful financial compromise with the City and the Asian Art Museum. His guidance helped to identify and ultimately achieve a win-win scenario that few initially thought possible, restructuring Museum finances to save it from bankruptcy, while avoiding the needless costs and PR headaches of a possible legal dispute.

In 2012, Rich facilitated key government approvals that ensured the successful, on-schedule opening of global retailer Uniqlos first West Coast storewhich would be the largest store opening in San Franciscos history. He similarly worked in 2012 to guide the new owners of Market Street Place through a variety of regulatory and political challenges facing their project. Today, the 250,000-square-foot retail complex is poised to figure as a key cornerstone in the revitalization of the Citys Mid-Market area.

In 2013, Rich helped secure key approvals at San Franciscos Planning Commission on behalf of value grocer, Grocery Outlet, as it opened its first San Francisco store in the Citys Richmond district. In addition, Rich helped facilitate approvals at the San Francisco Public Utilities Commission and the Board of Supervisors on behalf of engineering leader CH2M/Jacobs related to engineering and design aspects of the Citys newest wastewater treatment facility. He provided ongoing regional political strategy to biotech leader, Genentechan original firm clientmost recently in connection with its private transportation system.

In 2014, Rich assisted Veritas InvestmentsSan Franciscos largest residential property ownerthrough a multitude of permit processes as well as community-engagement opportunities that reflect the fast-growing companys values. He also worked on behalf of several neighborhood organizations to facilitate a series of successful votes (all unanimous) before the Recreation & Park Commission, SFPUC, and the Board of Supervisors to convert a long abandoned reservoir into a spectacular new five acre park on Russian Hill, overlooking the Bay. He continued to assist Grocery Outlet through its San Francisco expansion, with the opening of its newest location in Visitacion Valley. Rich also advised CPMC (Sutter Health) on political strategy and community development efforts as it considers the redevelopment of its 5-acre California Campus.

In 2015, Rich helped LaSalle Hotel Propertiesone of the nations largest hotel companiesto maintain critical private automobile access to its Hotel Villa Florence on Powell Street. The move successfully carved out an exception for guests of the popular Union Square hotel within SFMTAs planned closure of the street to private vehicles. Rich also began his engagement with Beijing-based developer Oceanwide Holdings, LTD in its highly complex entitlement process for its proposed 2.25 million square foot, twin-tower, mixed-use project. The Oceanwide Center development is the largest single project within San Franciscos ambitious new Transbay Development District. Rich further continued to assist longtime firm client, the Hearst Corporation, on a variety of important regulatory and community matters. He served at the Mayors request as Chairman of the City Hall Centennial celebration, personally raising the funds necessary to support a series of events and improvement projects for the Citys most important building. The free public celebration of San Francisco City Halls 100-year milestone was attended by an estimated 30,000 residents and visitors.

In 2016, Rich continued to manage the firms entitlement work on behalf of the massive $1.5 billion Oceanwide Center project, securing successful and on-time approvals at the Recreation and Park Commission, Planning Commission, and Board of Supervisors. The focus has now turned to facilitating its timely and on-budget construction. Additionally, Rich is leading the public affairs efforts for San Francisco-based Prologis, the worlds leading developer and operator of industrial and logistics space, on its proposed 1M+ million square foot, four-building, multi-story manufacturing and distribution facility, the San Francisco Gateway. He also facilitated the opening of two more Grocery Outlets, most recently in the Citys politically complicated Mission District.

In 2017, Rich helped longtime client CH2M/Jacobs in a fiercely competitive bid process, winning the contract to serve as the prime design and engineering contractor for the Port of San Francisco to rebuild three miles of the City's seawall. Ultimately, San Franciscos seawall rebuild will cost upwards of $5 to $10 billion over the next 20 years, making it perhaps the most expensive single municipal project in Bay Area history. Rich further assisted Hines, a leading international developer, together with Hines partner Urban Pacific Development, in their ongoing efforts to secure the necessary entitlements for their 61-story condo, office and hotel project at 542-550 Howard Street, which will also include an accompanying 500-unit housing project located just three blocks east. Together, these projects are the largest remaining elements in the massive, transformative Transbay District. Rich also continued his ongoing work as lead local adviser to Prologis on political strategy and community engagement in relation to is its proposed state-of-the-art San Francisco Gateway distribution and logistics center that the San Francisco Chronicle praised as a potential blue collar salvation for jobs that have long been disappearing from the City.

From December 2007 to May 2010, Rich served as an appointed Trustee to the San Francisco Employees Retirement System, also known as SFERS. Acting as the elected Board President in his final year, Richs leadership of SFERS oversaw the approximately $20 billion public pension fund for some 55,000 current and retired employees of the City and County of San Francisco.

From January 2004 through October 2007, Rich served as an appointed commissioner to the San Francisco Redevelopment Agency, or SFRA. He was elected to three consecutive terms as president by his fellow commissioners. From 1948 through 2011, the SFRA was the primary driver of economic renewal in the City, with its main function being the direct promotion of economic vitality through the removal of urban blight in certain, dedicated, redevelopment Plan areas. Key projects completed or significantly advanced during his term include: Mission Bay, Yerba Buena Center, the St. Regis Hotel, and the Hunters Point Shipyard.

Personally, Rich is also recognized as among the most active and productive political organizers in the Bay Area, having assisted a multitude of local, state and federal candidates, and local and state ballot measures over the last 15 years. Rich served as a Finance Committee Chair for both of former San Francisco Mayor Gavin Newsoms mayoral campaigns, and he also served as president of Mayor Newsoms Inaugural Committee following his reelection in 2007. More recently, he has been acknowledged as one of the late Mayor Ed Lees largest fundraisers.

Rich has been an active volunteer over the last 20 years on behalf of an array of non-profit causes. Of particular note are his efforts on behalf of Town School for Boys, where he serves as a trustee; SPUR, San Francisco Bay Area Planning and Urban Research Association, which he serves as a director; The Guardsmen, which he formerly served as a director; At the Crossroads, where he sits on the capital campaign Advisory Board and assists with fundraising; and UCSFs Pediatric Epilepsy Center.

For the two decades Rich has also been an active investor in Silicon Valley multi-family real estate, and holds a current California real estate Broker license. He is married to Tanya Peterson, the President and Executive Director of the San Francisco Zoological Society (SF Zoo). They reside in The Presidio with their twin children.

A native San Franciscan, Rich has spent his entire life actively involved in the business, civic, philanthropic and social affairs of the Bay Area. Rich received his Bachelor of Sciences in Political Science from the University of California, Berkeley in 1990.

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