text:
Safety and Efficacy Study Comparing Raltegravir to a Protease Inhibitor in Treatment-naïve, HIV/Hepatitis C Drug Users
The recruitment status of this study is unknown. The completion date has passed and the status has not been verified in more than two years.
Verified March 2010 by St. James's Hospital, Ireland.
Recruitment status was: Recruiting
Recruitment status was: Recruiting
St. James's Hospital, Ireland
ClinicalTrials.gov Identifier:
First Posted: April 16, 2010
Last Update Posted: July 21, 2011
Information provided by:
St. James's Hospital, Ireland
- Full Text View
- Tabular View
- No Study Results Posted
- Disclaimer
- How to Read a Study Record
Show Detailed Description
The purpose of this study is to compare how safe, tolerable, and effective a novel drug, raltegravir, is to a commonly used combination, atazanavir/ritonavir, as initial treatment in HIV/Hepatitis C co-infected injecting drug users on a methadone program.
|HIV Infections Hepatitis C
|Drug: Raltegravir Drug: Atazanavir/Ritonavir
|Phase 4
|Study Type:
|Study Design:
|Allocation: Randomized
Intervention Model: Parallel Assignment
Masking: None (Open Label)
Primary Purpose: Treatment
|Official Title:
|An Open-label, Randomised Pilot Study Comparing the Efficacy, Safety and Tolerability of Raltegravir With Protease Inhibitor-based Therapy in Treatment-naïve, HIV/Hepatitis C Co-infected Injecting Drug Users Receiving Methadone
Resource links provided by NLM:
MedlinePlus related topics: HIV/AIDS Hepatitis Hepatitis A Hepatitis C
Drug Information available for: Ritonavir Atazanavir Atazanavir sulfate Raltegravir Raltegravir potassiumU.S. FDA Resources
Further study details as provided by St. James's Hospital, Ireland:
Primary Outcome Measures:
- Incidence of grade 3-4 liver function test (LFT) elevations [ Time Frame: 4 weeks ]
- Incidence of grade 3-4 liver function test (LFT) elevations [ Time Frame: 12 weeks ]
- Incidence of grade 3-4 liver function test (LFT) elevations [ Time Frame: 24 weeks ]
- Incidence of grade 3-4 liver function test (LFT) elevations [ Time Frame: 36 weeks ]
- Incidence of grade 3-4 liver function test (LFT) elevations [ Time Frame: 48 weeks ]
- Incidence of grade 3-4 liver function test (LFT) elevations [ Time Frame: 60 weeks ]
- Incidence of grade 3-4 liver function test (LFT) elevations [ Time Frame: 72 weeks ]
- Incidence of grade 3-4 liver function test (LFT) elevations [ Time Frame: 84 weeks ]
- Incidence of grade 3-4 liver function test (LFT) elevations [ Time Frame: 96 weeks ]
- Viral suppression [ Time Frame: 24 weeks ]Viral suppression is defined as HIV-1 RNA less than 50 copies per mL
Secondary Outcome Measures:
- Viral suppression [ Time Frame: 48 weeks ]Viral suppression is defined as HIV- RNA less than 50 copies per mL.
- Immunologic response [ Time Frame: 96 weeks ]Recovery of CD4 count
- Overall safety in patients with mild to moderate hepatic impairment [ Time Frame: 48 weeks ]
- Outpatient retention rates [ Time Frame: 96 weeks ]
- QTc interval changes [ Time Frame: 4 weeks ]Effects of pharmacological intervention on corrected QT interval on electrocardiogram
- Immunologic response [ Time Frame: 24 weeks ]
- Immunologic response [ Time Frame: 48 weeks ]
|Estimated Enrollment:
|Study Start Date:
|August 2010
|Estimated Study Completion Date:
|December 2012
|Estimated Primary Completion Date:
|December 2012 (Final data collection date for primary outcome measure)
|Assigned Interventions
Experimental: Raltegravir
Raltegravir in combination with Tenofovir/Emtricitabine
Drug: Raltegravir
400mg orally twice daily. Number of cycles: unless toxicity or treatment failure occurs, there will be no anticipated treatment discontinuation.
Other Name: Isentress™
Active Comparator: Atazanavir/Ritonavir
Atazanavir 300mg orally once daily with Ritonavir 100mg orally once daily; together with combination of Tenofovir/Emtricitabine
Drug: Atazanavir/Ritonavir
Atazanavir 300mg orally once daily boosted with Ritonavir orally 100mg once daily. Number of cycles: unless toxicity or treatment failure occurs, there will be no anticipated treatment discontinuation.
Other Name: Reyataz™ (Atazanavir), Norvir™ (Ritonavir)
Show Detailed Description
Information from the National Library of Medicine
Choosing to participate in a study is an important personal decision. Talk with your doctor and family members or friends about deciding to join a study. To learn more about this study, you or your doctor may contact the study research staff using the contacts provided below. For general information, Learn About Clinical Studies.
|Ages Eligible for Study:
|18 Years and older (Adult, Senior)
|Sexes Eligible for Study:
|Accepts Healthy Volunteers:
Inclusion Criteria:
- Male or Female Patients Age ≥ 18 years old.
- Naïve to antiretroviral treatment.
- Subject must be willing and able to understand and provide written, informed consent prior to participation in the study.
- Subjects must be on concurrent methadone maintenance therapy.
- Documented HIV infection (antibody positive).
- Documented Hepatitis C co-infection (PCR positive).
- Indication for starting ART according to guidelines.
- Documented resistance profile taken at baseline and includes investigational medicinal products.
Females may be eligible for enrolment in the study if she is of:
- Non-childbearing potential; or, Child-bearing potential females must have a negative pregnancy test at initial screening and agree to an acceptable barrier and/or hormonal method of contraception; Sterilization
Exclusion Criteria:
- Subject is in the initial acute phase of a CDC Clinical Category C infection at Baseline. Subjects may be enrolled provided they are receiving treatment for such infections and are clinically improving at the Baseline visit.
- Concurrent treatment with an investigational drug or participation in another clinical trial.
- Use of an investigational drug within 4 weeks or 5 half-lives, whichever is longer, preceding the first dose of investigational medicinal product.
- Subject is, in the opinion of the investigator, unable to complete the study dosing period and protocol evaluations and assessments.
- Subject has evidence of genotypic (as defined by the current ANRS AC-11 algorithm) resistance to raltegravir, atazanavir and ritonavir at screening.
- Patients with alcohol and drug use problems that in the view of investigator will compromise participation in the study.
- Elevated alanine aminotransferase (ALT) > 5 times upper limit of normal (ULN)
- Subjects with severe hepatic impairment (Child-Pugh score > 9).
- Subjects receiving treatment for HCV.
- Subjects with concurrent HBV infection.
- Subject is pregnant or breast feeding.
- Subject suffers from any serious medical condition which would compromise the safety of the subject.
- Subject has a pre-existing mental, physical, or substance abuse disorder that may interfere with the subject's ability to comply with the dosing schedule and protocol evaluations and assessments.
- Subject has a condition or disorder which may interfere with drug absorption or render the subject unable to take oral medication.
- Subject has any acute laboratory abnormality at screening, which, in the opinion of the Investigator, would preclude the subject's participation in the study of an investigational compound. Any verified Grade 4 laboratory abnormality would exclude a subject from study participation.
- Subject has an estimated creatinine clearance < 50 mL/min via the Cockcroft-Gault method [Cockcroft, 1976].
- Subject is receiving, or has received within 14 days prior to screen, any drug that has been classified as 'contraindicated' from use with RAL or ATV/RTV.
- Subject has received treatment with radiation therapy or cytotoxic chemotherapeutic agents within 28 days prior to Screening, or has an anticipated need for these agents within the study period.
- Subject has received treatment with an HIV-1 immunotherapeutic vaccine or any agents with documented activity against HIV-1 in vitro within 28 days prior to screening, or an anticipated need during the study.
- Subjects who require treatment with any contraindicated medications within 14 days of commencement of investigational medicinal product, or an anticipated need during the study.
- Subject has a history of allergy to any of the investigational medicinal products or any excipients therein.
- Subject has prolonged QTc interval on screening electrocardiogram (repeated demonstration of a QTc interval >450ms in men and >470ms in women).
Contacts and Locations
Information from the National Library of Medicine
To learn more about this study, you or your doctor may contact the study research staff using the contact information provided by the sponsor.
To learn more about this study, you or your doctor may contact the study research staff using the contact information provided by the sponsor.
Please refer to this study by its ClinicalTrials.gov identifier (NCT number): NCT01105611
Please refer to this study by its ClinicalTrials.gov identifier (NCT number): NCT01105611
|Contact: Colm Bergin, MD, FRCPI
|Contact: James Woo, MB, MRCPI
|Department of Genitourinary Medicine and Infectious Diseases, St. James's Hospital
|Dublin, Ireland
|Contact: Colm Bergin, MD, FRCPI +35314162507 email@example.com
|Contact: James Woo, MB, MRCPI +353868108086 email@example.com
|Principal Investigator: Colm Bergin, MD, FRCPI
|Sub-Investigator: James Woo, MB, MRCPI
|Mater Misericordiae University Hospital
|Not yet recruiting
|Dublin, Ireland
|Contact: Patrick Mallon, MB FRCPI PhD +35317166311 firstname.lastname@example.com
|Principal Investigator: Patrick Mallon, MB FRCPI PhD
Sponsors and Collaborators
St. James's Hospital, Ireland
|Principal Investigator:
|Colm Bergin, MD, FRCPI
|Department of Genitourinary Medicine and Infectious Diseases, St. James's Hospital, Dublin, Ireland
More Information
Keywords provided by St. James's Hospital, Ireland:
Additional relevant MeSH terms:
Markowitz M, Nguyen BY, Gotuzzo E, Mendo F, Ratanasuwan W, Kovacs C, Prada G, Morales-Ramirez JO, Crumpacker CS, Isaacs RD, Campbell H, Strohmaier KM, Wan H, Danovich RM, Teppler H; Protocol 004 Part II Study Team. Sustained antiretroviral effect of raltegravir after 96 weeks of combination therapy in treatment-naive patients with HIV-1 infection. J Acquir Immune Defic Syndr. 2009 Nov 1;52(3):350-6. doi: 10.1097/QAI.0b013e3181b064b0.
Lennox JL, DeJesus E, Lazzarin A, Pollard RB, Madruga JV, Berger DS, Zhao J, Xu X, Williams-Diaz A, Rodgers AJ, Barnard RJ, Miller MD, DiNubile MJ, Nguyen BY, Leavitt R, Sklar P; STARTMRK investigators. Safety and efficacy of raltegravir-based versus efavirenz-based combination therapy in treatment-naive patients with HIV-1 infection: a multicentre, double-blind randomised controlled trial. Lancet. 2009 Sep 5;374(9692):796-806. doi: 10.1016/S0140-6736(09)60918-1. Epub 2009 Aug 3. Erratum in: Lancet. 2009 Dec 19-2010 Jan 1;374(9707):2054. Lancet. 2009 Sep 5;374(9692):786.
O'Connor PG, Selwyn PA, Schottenfeld RS. Medical care for injection-drug users with human immunodeficiency virus infection. N Engl J Med. 1994 Aug 18;331(7):450-9. Review.
Waldrop-Valverde D, Valverde E. Homelessness and psychological distress as contributors to antiretroviral nonadherence in HIV-positive injecting drug users. AIDS Patient Care STDS. 2005 May;19(5):326-34.
Lucas GM, Cheever LW, Chaisson RE, Moore RD. Detrimental effects of continued illicit drug use on the treatment of HIV-1 infection. J Acquir Immune Defic Syndr. 2001 Jul 1;27(3):251-9.
Lucas GM, Griswold M, Gebo KA, Keruly J, Chaisson RE, Moore RD. Illicit drug use and HIV-1 disease progression: a longitudinal study in the era of highly active antiretroviral therapy. Am J Epidemiol. 2006 Mar 1;163(5):412-20. Epub 2006 Jan 4.
Lucas GM, Mullen BA, Weidle PJ, Hader S, McCaul ME, Moore RD. Directly administered antiretroviral therapy in methadone clinics is associated with improved HIV treatment outcomes, compared with outcomes among concurrent comparison groups. Clin Infect Dis. 2006 Jun 1;42(11):1628-35. Epub 2006 Apr 28.
Graham CS, Baden LR, Yu E, Mrus JM, Carnie J, Heeren T, Koziel MJ. Influence of human immunodeficiency virus infection on the course of hepatitis C virus infection: a meta-analysis. Clin Infect Dis. 2001 Aug 15;33(4):562-9. Epub 2001 Jul 6.
Kassahun K, McIntosh I, Cui D, Hreniuk D, Merschman S, Lasseter K, Azrolan N, Iwamoto M, Wagner JA, Wenning LA. Metabolism and disposition in humans of raltegravir (MK-0518), an anti-AIDS drug targeting the human immunodeficiency virus 1 integrase enzyme. Drug Metab Dispos. 2007 Sep;35(9):1657-63. Epub 2007 Jun 25.
Iwamoto M, Wenning LA, Petry AS, Laethem M, De Smet M, Kost JT, Merschman SA, Strohmaier KM, Ramael S, Lasseter KC, Stone JA, Gottesdiener KM, Wagner JA. Safety, tolerability, and pharmacokinetics of raltegravir after single and multiple doses in healthy subjects. Clin Pharmacol Ther. 2008 Feb;83(2):293-9. Epub 2007 Aug 22.
Furlan V, Demirdjian S, Bourdon O, Magdalou J, Taburet AM. Glucuronidation of drugs by hepatic microsomes derived from healthy and cirrhotic human livers. J Pharmacol Exp Ther. 1999 May;289(2):1169-75.
Iwamoto M, Hanley WD, Petry AS, Friedman EJ, Kost JT, Breidinger SA, Lasseter KC, Robson R, Lunde NM, Wenning LA, Stone JA, Wagner JA. Lack of a clinically important effect of moderate hepatic insufficiency and severe renal insufficiency on raltegravir pharmacokinetics. Antimicrob Agents Chemother. 2009 May;53(5):1747-52. doi: 10.1128/AAC.01194-08. Epub 2009 Feb 17.
Le Tiec C, Barrail A, Goujard C, Taburet AM. Clinical pharmacokinetics and summary of efficacy and tolerability of atazanavir. Clin Pharmacokinet. 2005;44(10):1035-50. Review.
Perloff ES, Duan SX, Skolnik PR, Greenblatt DJ, von Moltke LL. Atazanavir: effects on P-glycoprotein transport and CYP3A metabolism in vitro. Drug Metab Dispos. 2005 Jun;33(6):764-70. Epub 2005 Mar 11.
Friis-Møller N, Sabin CA, Weber R, d'Arminio Monforte A, El-Sadr WM, Reiss P, Thiébaut R, Morfeldt L, De Wit S, Pradier C, Calvo G, Law MG, Kirk O, Phillips AN, Lundgren JD; Data Collection on Adverse Events of Anti-HIV Drugs (DAD) Study Group. Combination antiretroviral therapy and the risk of myocardial infarction. N Engl J Med. 2003 Nov 20;349(21):1993-2003. Erratum in: N Engl J Med. 2004 Feb 26;350(9):955.
DAD Study Group, Friis-Møller N, Reiss P, Sabin CA, Weber R, Monforte Ad, El-Sadr W, Thiébaut R, De Wit S, Kirk O, Fontas E, Law MG, Phillips A, Lundgren JD. Class of antiretroviral drugs and the risk of myocardial infarction. N Engl J Med. 2007 Apr 26;356(17):1723-35.
Ehret GB, Voide C, Gex-Fabry M, Chabert J, Shah D, Broers B, Piguet V, Musset T, Gaspoz JM, Perrier A, Dayer P, Desmeules JA. Drug-induced long QT syndrome in injection drug users receiving methadone: high frequency in hospitalized patients and risk factors. Arch Intern Med. 2006 Jun 26;166(12):1280-7.
Krantz MJ, Lewkowiez L, Hays H, Woodroffe MA, Robertson AD, Mehler PS. Torsade de pointes associated with very-high-dose methadone. Ann Intern Med. 2002 Sep 17;137(6):501-4.
Katchman AN, McGroary KA, Kilborn MJ, Kornick CA, Manfredi PL, Woosley RL, Ebert SN. Influence of opioid agonists on cardiac human ether-a-go-go-related gene K(+) currents. J Pharmacol Exp Ther. 2002 Nov;303(2):688-94.
Anson BD, Ackerman MJ, Tester DJ, Will ML, Delisle BP, Anderson CL, January CT. Molecular and functional characterization of common polymorphisms in HERG (KCNH2) potassium channels. Am J Physiol Heart Circ Physiol. 2004 Jun;286(6):H2434-41. Epub 2004 Feb 19.
Anson BD, Weaver JG, Ackerman MJ, Akinsete O, Henry K, January CT, Badley AD. Blockade of HERG channels by HIV protease inhibitors. Lancet. 2005 Feb 19-25;365(9460):682-6.
Ly T, Ruiz ME. Prolonged QT interval and torsades de pointes associated with atazanavir therapy. Clin Infect Dis. 2007 Mar 15;44(6):e67-8. Epub 2007 Feb 1.
Josephson F, Bertilsson L, Böttiger Y, Flamholc L, Gisslén M, Ormaasen V, Sönnerborg A, Diczfalusy U. CYP3A induction and inhibition by different antiretroviral regimens reflected by changes in plasma 4beta-hydroxycholesterol levels. Eur J Clin Pharmacol. 2008 Aug;64(8):775-81. doi: 10.1007/s00228-008-0492-8. Epub 2008 May 6.
Gallagher DP, Kieran J, Sheehan G, Lambert J, Mahon N, Mallon PW. Ritonavir-boosted atazanavir, methadone, and ventricular tachycardia: 2 case reports. Clin Infect Dis. 2008 Aug 1;47(3):e36-8. doi: 10.1086/589869.
Nordin C, Kohli A, Beca S, Zaharia V, Grant T, Leider J, Marantz P. Importance of hepatitis C coinfection in the development of QT prolongation in HIV-infected patients. J Electrocardiol. 2006 Apr;39(2):199-205. Epub 2005 Nov 28.
Iwamoto M, Kost JT, Mistry GC, Wenning LA, Breidinger SA, Marbury TC, Stone JA, Gottesdiener KM, Bloomfield DM, Wagner JA. Raltegravir thorough QT/QTc study: a single supratherapeutic dose of raltegravir does not prolong the QTcF interval. J Clin Pharmacol. 2008 Jun;48(6):726-33. doi: 10.1177/0091270008318007. Epub 2008 Apr 25.
|Responsible Party:
|Professor Colm Bergin, St. James's Hospital, Dublin, Ireland
|ClinicalTrials.gov Identifier:
|NCT01105611 History of Changes
|Other Study ID Numbers:
2010-018326-39 ( EudraCT Number )
|First Submitted:
|April 14, 2010
|First Posted:
|April 16, 2010
|Last Update Posted:
|July 21, 2011
|Last Verified:
|March 2010
Keywords provided by St. James's Hospital, Ireland:
Hepatitis C
Intravenous drug users
Additional relevant MeSH terms:
Hepatitis A
Hepatitis C
HIV Infections
Liver Diseases
Digestive System Diseases
Hepatitis, Viral, Human
Virus Diseases
Enterovirus Infections
Picornaviridae Infections
RNA Virus Infections
Flaviviridae Infections
Lentivirus Infections
Retroviridae Infections
Sexually Transmitted Diseases, Viral
Sexually Transmitted Diseases
Immunologic Deficiency Syndromes
Immune System Diseases
Atazanavir Sulfate
HIV Protease Inhibitors
Raltegravir Potassium
Protease Inhibitors
Enzyme Inhibitors
Molecular Mechanisms of Pharmacological Action
Anti-HIV Agents
Anti-Retroviral Agents
Antiviral Agents
Anti-Infective Agents


text:
Analysts and investors are usually very focused on company earnings numbers when they are released. Company earnings are a good way to evaluate the profitability of the company. Presently, covering analysts are anticipating athenahealth, Inc. (NASDAQ:ATHN) to report quarterly EPS of $0.27. The company's next earnings report is expected to be released on or around 2017-02-02 for the period ending on 2016-12-31.
Whether or not the company meets or beats this expectation, along with other factors, can often dictate where the share price might be headed in the near-term. Leading up to the release it's also important to take note of the direction the estimates are headed as analyst revisions can often give an idea of Street sentiment on expected performance.
Most recently, athenahealth, Inc. (NASDAQ:ATHN) posted actual earnings of $0.35 per share against the $0.21 Zacks consensus estimate. This represents a surprise factor of 66.67% or a difference of $0.14. There are currently 20 brokerage firms covering athenahealth, Inc., offering earnings per share estimates as well as future price target projections. On a consensus basis, analysts have pinned a $134.7 mean target price for the short term on the stock. The most lofty price projection sees the stock reaching $162 within the year, while the most conservative has a $97 target on the name. In looking at the standard deviation of all estimates, we arrive at 20.568.
Zacks provides a simpler approach for understanding analyst recommendations on stocks, using an integer based system which converts each recommendation into a 1-5 average, where 1 represents a Strong Buy and 5 a Strong Sell. Compiling all of the recommendations for the firm, athenahealth, Inc. (NASDAQ:ATHN) current has a mean recommendation of 2.11. Breaking those down we see that the ratings are as follows: 10 Strong Buy, 3 Rated Buy, 8 Rated Hold and 1 Rated Sell.
Analyst recommendations and estimates are for informational purposes only and should be used along with a number of other factors when considering an investment position. Part of the data in this report is derived from Zacks Research and FactSet. Ratings and estimates change daily and thus the numbers may differ slightly if a new report has been issued within the last 24-hours. The consensus numbers take into account the reports from over 160 brokerage firms. The job of analysts is to issue recommendations for their clients, and not typically for the general public. Analyst forecasts, earnings estimates and price target projections are issued to help their clients make money through stock investments. We in no way are suggesting that readers make any decision on athenahealth, Inc. (NASDAQ:ATHN) based on the information in this report.

subset: commoncrawl


text:
Turn back clocks, check detectors this weekend
MADISON – When you set your clocks back this weekend, Wisconsin emergency management officials say it's a good time to check on detectors in your home as well.
Daylight Saving Time ends at 2 a.m. Sunday, Nov. 3, meaning clocks are set back one hour.
Officials at ReadyWisconsin say check smoke detectors around the house, too. Make sure the devices are working properly and replace batteries if needed.
Also check to be sure carbon monoxide detectors are working properly.
To prevent carbon monoxide poisoning, have your furnace or wood-burning stove inspected annually to be certain it is functionally sound. Don't run a gasoline, propane heater or gas or charcoal grill inside a home or unventilated garage. Don't run cars in enclosed spaces, and keep generators a safe distance from the house.


text:
Why are leaves green?
Moderator: BioTeam
Why are plants green?
I`m a new member, and because, my first language isn`t English I`ll probaply have some spelling errors so I apolgise for them in advance. To be honest I`m not a biologyst , but I`m interrested int it. To be precise I study electrotechnics. A few days ago we learned about light, and our professor said that in the ordinary white light-ray the green component, which has the wavelength of some 550nm carries the most energy. Now if it`s true, then I have a little logical problem. I know from my previous physics studies that if an object reflects a specific wavelength in much greater measure than the other wavelengths than we see this object in that color wich is represented by that most reflected wavelength. So my question is,that if the aim of the photosynthesis is to make organic material out of energy and unorganic materials, than it`s normal that plants " want" as much energy from the sun as possible. Now if all that`s right, than why are they reflecting the most valuable wavelengths of the suns light-rays? Other words WHY ARE THEY GREEN?
IP.s: I`ve asked my physics professor and she said that she simply doesn`t know why, so I would be very pleased if some of you would be so kind to explain me this thing
Thank you in advance
The topic was about digestion but as your new i guess its ok.
I found this from here: http://www.madsci.org/posts/archives/ap ... .Bt.r.html
Chlorophyll gives plants their green colour. There are other pigments in the leaves too, such as xanthophylls (yellows) and carotenoids (yellows, oranges and reds). These pigments are also used in photosynthesis but occur in lesser quantities than the green chlorophyll. The combinations of the different pigments make different shades of green.
Now the reason that plants look green is that they are trying to obtain energy from the sun using a particular part of the light spectrum, mainly the red and infra red wavelengths. If you remember from your physics classes the colour you see is the colour that is reflected from the object, the other colours are absorbed. So in the case of green plants, the green wavelength is reflected and all the other colours, especially reds and blues, are absorbed to drive the energy cycle in the plants.
Chlorophyll does best in the red (around 670 nm) and blue (around 500 nm) areas of the spectrum. That's why many plants have the additional pigments (xanthophylls and carotenoids) called accessory pigments that feed light energy to chlorophyll "a" from light. Chlorophyll is almost useless in the green part of the spectrum, and doesn't absorb that colour. That is why most plants are green.
About the 550nm wavelength having the most energy. I think this is wrong. I knew this before but checked it here: http://www.scienceofspectroscopy.info/t ... IGHT_3.HTM
The shorter the wavelength the more energy it has. So violet has the most with 380-420nm. White light is about 400-700 btw. There are simple formulas to prove all this on the website above.
That's not the question, he's asking why plants do not produce a pigment to absorb the green wavelength of light i.e. why leaves don't appear black/red.
Living one day at a time;
Enjoying one moment at a time;
Accepting hardships as the pathway to peace;
Well, actually, they do. When leaves turn red in the fall, it is because they lost all their green pigmented chlorophyll, but retained their red, orange, and yellow pigmented chlorophyll for a little while longer.
During the summer, leaves have all color chlorophyll except blue and violet (if I recall correctly). The reason green shows up is because it is the dominant type of chlorophyll, and green light is mostly reflected.
Blue and purple are the only colors not reflected because it is visible light that is absorbed. As it has the shortest wavelength, it has the highest energy. This is the dominant color of visible light that is used in photosynthesis.
Well, I meant red as why are they not usually red. As you said, the light wavelength with the most energy should be absorbed so blue/violet is absorbed but why isn't green, a higher energy wavelength than red? Why did plants evolve the pigments to absorb the lower energy reds/oranges but not the greens?
Living one day at a time;
Enjoying one moment at a time;
Accepting hardships as the pathway to peace;
Re: Why are plants green?
the green portion of light which have the wave length of 550nm doesn't carry the {biggest}energy content because the energy content of the wave length is inversely proportional with the wave length.
i mean if for example there is a light with 400nm ,this light will have greater energy content that that of the green light so the green light do not have the highest energy content.so when plant reflect the green light [not another light] they are already absorbing a higher energy content that that of green light.i wish i could satisfied you.
Yeah, the leaves appear green because the only wavelength of light not absorbed by the pigment produced by chlorophyll is the wavelength of light for the color green. Thus if it is not absorbed, it is seen by us in the Visible Spectrum.
It green because....
Yeah, I think the leaves are green because they don't absorb the sunlight but the sunlight is used to 'break' the chlorophyll and get in to the photosystem 1 and 2. (siklic and non-siklic). After that they form their chlorophyll again...
I think the responses are not quite adressing the question. The question was this: Since the spectral peak of the sun is in the yellow-green portion of the visible spectrum, why doesn't chlorophill absorb at this wavelength? Why instead, does it reflect the most abundant wavelengths of light (not the most -energetic-).
I'm rather interested in finding out what the biological reason for this is.
I had a look on google and found a couple of arguments.
The first is that chlorophyll may have been easy to evolve due to it's similarity to cytochromes so a modification on an already existing pathway was all that was needed to capture some wavelengths of light.
Another argument is that very few plants actually have a shortage of energy input from light. It is only those that tend to grow in the shade of other plants that require further adaptations to get more light. Adaptations such as more chlorophyll and larger leaves may be easier to produce than another pigment.
The most convincing argument I found is that all plants have evolved from aquatic plants. Green light does not penetrate sea water very well so there was no advantage to being able to capture green light while plants were aquatic. Once they moved on to land the light levels were much higher than you get in water anyway so there was no need for further adaptation. There would have been no selection to develop another pigment.
I agree with that herb86, many photosynthetic plants /algae found some distance below the surface contain red pigments so that they can utilize the red wavelength, which is basically almost the only light wavelength that can reach deeper waters.
Another thing, many scientists believe that sometime in the past, chloroplasts are actually living cells that have been engulfed or had symbiotic relationship with other cells. This will explain why chloroplasts and mitochondria have their own DNA that is separate from the genomic DNA of photosynthetic cells.
So its possible that in the past, if these chloroplast ancestors were predominantly green pigmented, the leaf color that we see now are simply a carry over charateristic of those cells.
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text:
Janesville man, 74, hooked on long-distance hiking
JANESVILLE--Garth Fisher discovered the joy of walking at age 60, when he hiked the 2,165 miles of the Appalachian Trail.
During the journey of 5 million steps, he stumbled on slippery rocks and moss-covered roots.�
Still, he calls the trip much easier than the 630-mile trek he took last summer along England's South West Coast Path, considered one of the planet's greatest walks.
"I had to climb up big slopes all the time," the 74-year-old said. "I have pictures of me standing on one side of a valley and looking across at the other side."
When he finished, Fisher climbed and descended more than 115,000 feet, the equivalent of climbing Mt. Everest almost four times.
At one point, he was so worn out he toyed with quitting.
"A part of me said, 'You don't have to do all this,'" said Fisher, who had a hip replacement a few years ago. "But I made a commitment, and I needed to see the challenge through from start to finish. There is something in my core that says, 'Keep going.'"
Alone, he completed the strenuous walk in two months from the shores of Poole Harbour in Dorset to Somerset's Minehead on the edge of Exmoor.
Now back home in Janesville, Fisher is mulling more long-distance hikes, but he doesn't want to do them alone.
He hopes to connect with other men, age 65 and older, interested in backpacking trips. As spring arrives, Fisher is organizing a local hiking group to explore sections of the state's Ice Age Trail this summer.
In years ahead, he looks forward to more long-distance adventures, including the Cameno de Santiago Pilgrimage Walk in northern Spain, the Bruce Trail in Canada and the Grand Enchantment Trail in Arizona and New Mexico.
Between the Appalachian Trail and England's coastal trail, he hiked the 500-mile Finger Lakes Trail in New York. He also spent four summers working as a ridge runner for the Appalachian Trail Conference, patrolling 75 miles of trail that runs through northern New Jersey.
His motivation for grand hikes grew out of wanting to be healthy and to have adventure in life as he aged.
"As I approached my 70th birthday, I progressively felt like my life was over," Fisher said. "I realized I had never thought about my life beyond 70."
A psychiatric social worker, Fisher has focused on helping others for 45 years. He continues to work two days a week at the Janesville Psychiatric Clinic, but he realizes he also needs time for himself on some distant trail.
"Out there in the woods, no one knows your past or your present," Fisher said. "They just know you are a hiker who is out there enjoying nature."
Prior to the hike in England, he trained for six months.
"I lost weight, worked out and walked in the country with my backpack on," Fisher said. "If I had not done that, I would never have been able to finish the hike."
For the first three weeks, he slogged through fog and rain with headwinds and cold weather. For the next five weeks, sunshine and sea breezes blessed him as he focused on doing up to 10 miles per day.
"The day after I finished, it started raining again," Fisher said.
He walked close to the ocean most of the time and heard the waves and seagulls every day. He passed through fishing towns rich in history.
Fisher carried camping gear with him but often stayed in bed-and-breakfasts.
"That's not how I planned it," he said, "but it was hard to find what they call 'wild camping.'"
Fisher looks forward to the personal challenge of his next journey.
"There isn't a day goes by that I don't have some memory of one of my three hikes," Fisher said. "If my health stays OK, this is the stage of life to do things like this. I figure I still have a number of years left to keep going."
Anna Marie Lux is a columnist for The Gazette. Her columns run Sundays, Tuesdays and Thursdays. Call her with ideas or comments at 608-755-8264, or email firstname.lastname@example.com.


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Eyes wide open
Almost imperceptible to visitors, carefully disguised in plain clothes, our attendants are always in the thick of things. Captivated by the world of art, visitors occasionally wander insouciantly through the exhibitions with large bags and rucksacks until gently awoken from their reverie by an attendant sporting the unobtrusive "Kunsthaus Zurich" insignia, who politely points out that their luggage is a danger to the art on display.
In no time the offending item is deposited in the museum cloakroom. And the clearly relieved art lover can continue on his or her journey unhampered, whilst the "guard" fades into the background. Nonetheless, if a visitor, be they a Kunsthaus regular or a tourist, in a wheelchair or disabled, seeks advice then the attendants have an answer and are always there to lend a hand in a crisis and offer advice, explain, guide or help. They are at the front line of contact with visitors to the museum – ready to assist in many different languages, straightforward, friendly and professional.
They rotate sectors, pass through full and empty rooms always ready to react instantly and do what is necessary in the case of alarm….
It does happen – seldom, but it does happen – that an alarm is triggered! A shrill note pierces the stillness of the halls. Attendants immediately reach for their pagers, examine the info on display, and then they're off! They rush to the scene of the crime, where the would-be thief is removing the picture. Other attendants are guarding the automatically locked doors. A hectic rush to action behind the scenes too: security personnel and restorers hurry to the scene of the alarm, where together with the attendants they are ready to apprehend the villain.
"I just wanted to stroke the bronze dog by Alberto Giacometti", comes the plaintive cry as the startled visitor suddenly surrounded.
All clear! The main doors are unlocked and the visitors shut out can now enter once again whilst those locked in are free to leave.
What a contrast with the day-to-day situation:
You receive a friendly greeting from the ticket attendant who also provides information.
Always ready to catch a quizzical look, to give written or spoken information, they stand at the ticket counter or the entrance to an exhibition. So it is that visitors caught in two minds or a little hesitant can quickly and easily find their way around the museum either into an exhibition or to the artist of their choice.
With a friendly gesture he or she will also direct the visitor (with umbrella and coat) to the cloakroom, where everything can be left which has no place in the museum. Everything from light jackets, small and large bags, suitcases and rucksacks to bags full of shopping can be deposited here. Light or heavy, small or large everything disappears behind the counter of the attended cloakroom.
This is the real nuts and bolts work, and it isn't always as easy as it looks.
Rainy days are museum days and often a test of patience for visitors and cloakroom attendants alike as visitors crowding into the building to escape the inclement weather besiege the cloakroom, anxious to deposit their wet things as quickly as possible and enjoy a stroll through the exhibitions.
On days like this the hooks and hangers are all quickly taken and life is made that much more difficult and hectic for the attendants. Yet despite the rush the friendly and professional staff still find time to provide information and tips and wish visitors a pleasant and rewarding stay.
Impatient visitors, on the other hand, drag their belongings along with them into the exhibition – which brings us back to the beginning again.
It just shows how important and wide-ranging the work of our attendants is in all areas.


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iButtonLink moving into Whitewater Innovation Center
WHITEWATER�— iButtonLink, a research and manufacturing company specializing in networked sensor solutions, is moving into UW-Whitewater offices.��
The company, based in East Troy, signed a five-year lease Thursday. It will move into five suites on the first floor of the university's Innovation Center at the end of December.
It will be the building's largest private tenant, according to a news release.
iButtonLink was founded in 2003 and builds sensors and sensor networks for monitoring temperature, light and voltage among other things.
The move to a university will allow the company to collaborate with professors and students in terms of research and production, Rob Olson, iButtonLink president, said.
"We have seen the friendliness and flexibility of the university and having access and the ability to work with professors and use students for help and assisting is really great," Olson said in an interview.
iButtonLink will provide "technological expertise to the community," Richard Telfer, UW-Whitewater chancellor, said in the release.
Telfer is excited for the company's employees to interact with UW-Whitewater staff, faculty and students, according to the press release.
iButtonLink plans to participate in the Whitewater Incubation Program. The program provides coaching, mentoring and support services to any participating companies. Faculty and students help the businesses with marketing, potential growth opportunities and business plans.


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My friend Liz is offering up another generous giveaway from Noonday Collection. This time I was given the choice to keep the beautiful Dulce necklace [$78]- their most pinned piece on Pinterest- or I could do a giveaway. That was a tough decision, as I am a big fan of the statement necklace.
When I realized I didn't have anything to wear for Listen To Your Mother, Liz was kind enough to let me borrow her Cut Lace earrings for my show, and the Twisted necklace and Leather Leaf earrings for Madison's show.
And I hated giving those back.
And the Dulce is the best because it's so lightweight yet covers such a great area on your neck, with adjustable straps.
So anyway... I decided to part with it, but it's still in my possession so I could always change my mind if no one wants it. But if you would like the chance to win this very necklace, leave one comment below and let me know what else you adore at Noonday Collection. Or tell me about something fab you'll be doing this summer. Or whatever you'd like to say.
And a little background on Noonday's story: founder Jessica Honegger was fundraising for her family's international adoption and she dreamed of creating opportunities for people in the countries where she lived. By shopping online or hosting a trunk show, Noonday Collection uses fashion and style to put girls through school in Uganda, restore dignity to abandoned women in Ethiopia, and empower communities in Ecuador.
Connect with Noonday on Facebook and Twitter.
Winner will be chosen by Random.org after 11:59 pm Monday June 18. I'll ship anywhere.
Congrats to Meegs!


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Our Views: Janesville teachers deserve bonuses for good grades
A reasonable case can be made for giving teachers bonuses in light of the state's recently released report cards that show the Janesville School District getting high marks.
Janesville's score of 74.8 put it in the "exceeds expectations" category. It was highest among the state's 10 largest districts and also best among all districts in Rock County.
Still, Janesville School Board members Bill Sodemann and Scott Feldt are right to question why administrators should share the money.
Superintendent Karen Schulte wants to spread $600,000 among all employees because the board for years has been discussing rewards for superior performance as part of its Journey to Excellence program. That seems reasonable, except that administrators qualify for incentive pay in a separate program. Last spring, the board enacted the plan to give administrators a 1.5 percent raise this year and let them earn incentive pay, based on performance, of up to 4.5 percent.
Schulte notes that her reward proposal is based in part on tests students took last fall, while administrative incentives are based on this year's performance. OK, so the administrator incentive plan doesn't jibe with the glowing report card. We realize, too, that administrators went without pay increases in recent years and were tapped for benefit contributions earlier than teachers. Yet administrators enjoy incentive potential that teachers do not.
Yes, administrators played a vital role in enacting changes that helped the district report card look good. Yet it's teachers who work directly with students each day.
Some critics argue the report card indicates teachers are simply doing the job they're paid to do. You could argue that the report card includes not only test scores but factors such as attendance that teachers can't be directly accountable for, but to reason that teachers don't deserve bonuses because they're just doing their jobs is callous and shallow.
Even though private-sector raises have been miniscule or nonexistent during these difficult times since the Great Recession, many companies still reward employees with bonuses for exceptional work.
Besides, the school district's ability to dole out $600,000 comes largely out of savings from changes in the health care plan and the fact that teachers now contribute toward their pensions, as required by state law. So teachers have taken financial hits this school year, while their union and the district are at a contract impasse over even a modest pay increase and the two sides await word from a state mediator.
Bonuses for teachers would show the community's appreciation for the job they're doing under difficult circumstances. These circumstances include uncertainties over pay, benefits and working conditions. Administrators also are asking teachers to change how they work. The bonuses would boost teacher morale, and these dedicated educators deserve them.


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Edward Snowden: Whistle-blower or Traitor? What is YOUR perspective?
I myself agree with the New York Times' editorial of the first day of 2014 – Edward Snowden is a WHISTLE-BLOWER.� What is YOUR perspective?� I hope you will add an explanation with your vote.� I'll be reading with interest.
We KNOW that there is a case for each of the perspectives.� In fact, YOU will likely want to read Brian Knowlton's report published by the New York Times yesterday, "Senators Differ Sharply on Penalty for Snowden."
The article cites the statements made on the ABC News program, "This Week" by Senators Rand Paul (R-KY) and Charles E. Schumer (D-NY).
Senator Rand Paul - "I don't think Edward Snowden deserves a death penalty or life in prison; I think that's inappropriate, and I think that's why he fled, because that's what he faced."
Senator Charles E. Schumer - "I disagree with Rand Paul that we should plea-bargain with him prior to him coming back."� Schumer did support commitment to a fair trial with a "reasonable sentence."
The article reviews the whole situation vis-�-vis Edward Snowden.� Valuable information and perspective.
I agree with the New York Times' January 1, 2014 editorial, "Edward Snowden, Whistle-Blower."
I am persuaded that WE THE PEOPLE of the US owe EDWARD SNOWDEN appreciation that he took courage and revealed the ways our own government was intruding – sometimes illegally – on our privacy.� I do believe that the NSA did commit CRIMES against WE THE PEOPLE of the USA!
I agree with the Times' editorial, "The public learned in great detail how the agency has exceeded its mandate and abused its authority, prompting outrage at kitchen tables and at the desks of Congress, which may finally begin to limit these practices."
I agree with the Times' editorial assertion after reviewing the judicial reviews of the NSA's surveillance practices, "All of this is entirely because of information provided to journalists by Edward Snowden, the former N.S.A. contractor who stole a trove of highly classified documents after he became disillusioned with the agency's voraciousness. Mr. Snowden is now living in Russia, on the run from American charges of espionage and theft, and he faces the prospect of spending the rest of his life looking over his shoulder."
I agree with the conclusion, "Considering the enormous value of the information he has revealed, and the abuses he has exposed, Mr. Snowden deserves better than a life of permanent exile, fear and flight. He may have committed a crime to do so, but he has done his country a great service. It is time for the United States to offer Mr. Snowden a plea bargain or some form of clemency that would allow him to return home, face at least substantially reduced punishment in light of his role as a whistle-blower, and have the hope of a life advocating for greater privacy and far stronger oversight of the runaway intelligence community."� How do YOU feel about the US negotiating a plea bargain or some form of clemency for Edward Snowden?
I do NOT accept the claim by President Obama that EDWARD SNOWDEN would have been protected as a "whistle-blower."� "If the concern was that somehow this was the only way to get this information out to the public, I signed an executive order well before Mr. Snowden leaked this information that provided whistle-blower protection to the intelligence community for the first time," Mr. Obama said at a news conference. "So there were other avenues available for somebody whose conscience was stirred and thought that they needed to question government actions."� I would NOT trust the President or security officials!� Would YOU?
Further clarification is provided by the editorial noting the official N.S.A. documents clarified that the President's whistle-blower protection did NOT apply to contractors, only to intelligence employees.� Snowden was NOT protected!� And then, the editorial cites the Washington Post's informative article, "Edward Snowden, after months of NSA revelations, says his mission's accomplished" noting that Snowden reports that he did report his misgivings to two superiors at the agency, showing them the volume of data collected by the N.S.A., and that they took no action.� The editorial comments, "The N.S.A. says there is no evidence of this. That's almost certainly because the agency and its leaders don't consider these collection programs to be an abuse and would never have acted on Mr. Snowden's concerns."
I agree with the editorial's analysis, "In retrospect, Mr. Snowden was clearly justified in believing that the only way to blow the whistle on this kind of intelligence-gathering was to expose it to the public and let the resulting furor do the work his superiors would not. Beyond the mass collection of phone and Internet data, consider just a few of the violations he revealed or the legal actions he provoked:
The editorial asserts, "The shrill brigade of his critics say Mr. Snowden has done profound damage to intelligence operations of the United States, but none has presented the slightest proof that his disclosures really hurt the nation's security. Many of the mass-collection programs Mr. Snowden exposed would work just as well if they were reduced in scope and brought under strict outside oversight, as the presidential panel recommended."
So, my final agreement is the conclusion, "When someone reveals that government officials have routinely and deliberately broken the law, that person should not face life in prison at the hands of the same government. That's why Rick Ledgett, who leads the N.S.A.'s task force on the Snowden leaks, told CBS News' "Inside the NSA" aired on December 15, 2013 that he would consider amnesty if Mr. Snowden would stop any additional leaks. And it's why President Obama should tell his aides to begin finding a way to end Mr. Snowden's vilification and give him an incentive to return home."
Whistle-blower or Traitor?� What is YOUR perspective?
John W. Eyster lives in the Edgerton area. He is an adjunct professor assigned with the online/distance education faculty of Viterbo University, LaCrosse. He continues his personal mission supporting democracy/civics education in Wisconsin K-12 schools through Project Citizen, We the People, Discovering Democracy (Milton HS). John is a community blogger and is not a part of The Gazette staff or management.


text: If you are looking for a pet, skip the pet store and head over to an animal shelter. If you need more information about animal adoption you can log onto the Humane Society website or head down to a local animal rescue in your city or county and speak to a volunteer. Before looking for your new dog or cat there are some animal shelter terms that you should become familiar with.


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Local Views: Obamacare opposition is about its problems rather than race
The Oct. 26 Local Views column written by Ted Kinnaman of the Democratic Party of Rock County attempts to blame the dysfunction in Washington on the tea party and the Republican Party. Kinnaman ignores President Obama's promise not to negotiate with Republicans unless he got everything he wanted.
Sen. Harry Reid refused to bring multiple Republican bills that would have continued funding vital portions of government to a vote. Obama spent more precious money and resources to shut down parks, monuments and roadside viewing points than it would have taken to keep them open. Democrats won't even pass a budget, preferring to bump along from crisis to crisis with continuing resolutions. The Democrats are dysfunctional and entirely incapable of effective leadership.
Mr. Kinnaman accuses Republicans of opposing Obamacare because it is Obama's greatest achievement. Then Kinnaman goes to the Democrats' tired old staple and plays the race card. He said Republicans are against Obamacare because Obama is black. Then, of course, Kinnaman has to resort to comparing Republicans to Nazis.
No, Republicans are against Obamacare because it is disastrous for our country and for its citizens. Obama's claims about Obamacare lowering costs and medical records remaining private are not true. Obama has claimed dozens of times that if you like your doctor and your insurance plan you can keep it. Millions of Americans are finding his promise will be broken.
Forbes' did a close examination of Obamacare and found that the number of people losing their insurance coverage in merely three states exceeds that of people newly insured in all 50 states.
The National Review reported that more than half a million Americans have received notices that they will lose their coverage in California. Policy experts' estimates for the total number of people set to lose their coverage vary from 14 million to 16 million. What happened to Obama's promise that if you liked your plan you could keep it?
The Los Angeles Times reported on the sticker shock of Obamacare. Middle-income consumers face an average 30 percent rate increase. One young woman complaining about her 50 percent rate hike related to Obamacare said, "I was all for Obamacare until I found out I was paying for it."
That statement gets to the heart of the matter. Republicans realize that the bills for the unprecedented spending under Obama and the Democrats since 2008 will eventually have to be paid. It is not fair to pass their wasteful spending down to our kids and grandkids. That is why Republicans oppose Obama's policies, not because of his race.
The rhetoric, hatred, and falsehoods that Democrats like Kinnaman spread do not serve our country. They are meant to intimidate and silence anyone who wants to have an intelligent discussion about where this country is headed.
Nick Fitzgerald of Janesville is an executive board member of the Republican Party of Rock County. Readers can contact him by email at firstname.lastname@example.com.


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Kronolith is the Horde calendar application. It provides a stable and featureful individual calendar system with integrated collaboration and scheduling features. It makes extensive use of the Horde Framework to provide integration with other applications. It implements a solid, stand-alone calendar system, allowing repeating events, all-day events, custom fields, keywords, shared calendars, iCalendar support, generation of free/busy information, and managing multiple users through Horde Authentication.
XWiki is a WikiWiki clone written in Java that supports many popular features of other Wikis like the Wiki syntax, version control, attachments, security, and searching, but also many advanced features like templates, database and dynamic development using scripting languages (Velocity, Groovy, Ruby, Python, PHP, and more), an extension system and skinability, J2EE scalability, an XML/RPC remote API, statistics, RSS feeds, PDF exporting, WYSIWYG editing, an Office viewer and importer, and a lot more.
The WiKID Strong Authentication System is a highly scalable, secure, self-hosted two-factor authentication system. It is simple to implement and maintain, allows users to be validated automatically, requires no hardware tokens, has a simple API for application support (via Ruby, PHP, Java, COM, Python, etc.), supports multiple domains, and supports replication for fault tolerance and scalability. It also supports mutual /host and transaction authentication, wireless tokens only domains, locked tokens (to your PC), anti-keystroke logger keypad PIN entry, etc.
A porting tool for making Cygwin net releases.
An enhanced Elm with MIME, character set, POP, IMAP, and PGP support.


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g7ctrl is a daemon and a command shell that are used together with the Xtreme GM7 GPS tracker to help simplify its management and to make it possible to monitor alerts sent by the tracker. It is designed to run in the background and can be used to both receive location updates from a remote tracker and configure a tracker over USB. All received events are stored in a database and can be exported to GPX, KML, and CSV, with distances calculated. It can also execute action scripts upon receiving specific events or generate mail notifications. Extensive reference documentation (HTML and PDF) and Unix man pages are provided.
Concurrency Kit provides a plethora of concurrency primitives and lock-less and lock-free data structures designed to aid in the design and implementation of high performance scalable concurrent systems. It was designed to minimize dependencies on operating system-specific interfaces, and most of the interface relies only on a strict subset of the standard library and more popular compiler extensions.
Rodent filemanager is a fast, small, and powerful file manager. Its emphasis is on ease of use for the advanced user, not the computer illiterate. Rodent filemanager (a.k.a. xffm >= 4.6.0) is the next step in the evolution of Xffm, now with a threaded design optimized for multicore processors.
tvpvrd is a PVR daemon for Linux that offers the ability to schedule and manage TV recordings using one or multiple installed analogue TV capture cards, e.g. Hauppauge. The daemon is interfaced either through its full command language via a provided command line shell or through a basic (built-in) Web interface provided by the built in micro Web server. The goal is to provide an advanced recording and transcoding (using ffmpeg) server without the need to configure databases or a complex GUI. The server is completely self-contained and uses an XML DB in plain text format to store future recordings.
Safelock is a file-based locking primitive that provides mutual exclusion between unrelated processes and threads. It offers advantages over POSIX and BSD file locks such as: compatibility with multi-threaded applications, support for lock attempt timeouts, detection of crashed lock holders, and detailed lock status (PID, lock age, custom data).
ipclassify is a Linux user space application that blocks/marks connections from/to hosts based on lists specified in a configuration file. Currently, the block lists are in the format and obtained from iblocklist.com. If you are familiar with moblock then you know, essentially, what ipclassify is. The difference is that ipclassify can have multiple NFQUEUEs and is threaded (pthreads).
PacketDam is a cost-effective software solution against DDoS. It runs on off-the-shelf hardware and fits any budget or deployment scenario. If you are an Internet service provider or a content distribution network, if you offer hosting services, or if you are an academic institution, PacketDam may be just what you need to keep unwanted traffic outside your network.
A .NET component to create PDF documents without using Adobe Acrobat.
A PHP/MySQL guestbook script.


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Animals, hikers still active on winter trails
We had a short three mile hike around Lake LaGrange last Tuesday, as some of us planned to go to the local Ice Age Trail Alliance chapter meeting for their holiday potluck party and meeting.
It was a nice walk with warmer weather than that of last week. We saw many animal tracks and a large area of open water by the largest spring hole which always stays open all winter.
On Wednesday, we all carpooled to the John Muir bicycle/hiking trails. There we were met by others who were skiing across the road at the Nordic Trails. Twenty-one hikers plus two canine companions split into two groups. The shorter distance people walked counterclockwise on the white trail. The long distance group went clockwise.
I was with the shorter distance group. Shortly into the hike our canine companions were greeted by three others on leashes. There was a little friendly barking as the owners of all five pulled on their leashes when we passed.
At the point where the southeast loop split off the white trail this group split into two. Ellen led the shortest hike on the rest of the three mile white trail, while Jake and I took another contingency on the longer hike which added a couple more miles to our adventure.
Shortly after entering the longer loop we met the long distance hikers let by Norwin. We chatted a bit and continued on our way while they ended up taking the orange trail back for a hike of six or seven miles.
The trails were open to biking this day and we did meet one bicyclist who was also enjoying these trails on a bike with very wide tires.
After reconnection with the short white trail we stopped for a rest at a bench overlooking a large kettle swamp.
It had been a delightful hike with perfect weather. We regrouped at the LaGrange General Store for soup and sandwiches before departing.
Happy Trekking,


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Your Views: Blame Democrats for steering us wrong
The Democrat occupying the White House recently cost us over $100 million for a family trip to Africa, according to the White House. "Politcus USA" says he cost us $181,000 in lodging alone for his family "vacation" to Martha's Vineyard this year.
The "sequester" came from the White House. U.S. laws are passed by both houses and signed into law by the president. Democrats are two of the three who made this "sequester" law. The Democrats chose to furlough military members, cut defense spending and close the White House to us.
The Democratic-controlled Senate uses the pocket veto to squash budget proposals, driving our nation into "continuous" resolution battles that many of us are sick of. We haven't had a federal budget since Democrats took control—no federal budget in five years!
Sixty-six percent of our federal government's expenses are "mandatory spending" much of which are entitlements such as Obamacare. By law—via "mandatory spending"—you cannot really shut down the government.
The remaining 34 percent is "discretionary spending." Did you know government entitlements must be paid before national defense? National defense is "discretionary spending." Free cellphones before national defense—is that in the U.S. Constitution?
Everyone in Congress must vote to delay or repeal every aspect of Obamacare in this round of the "continuous" resolution; approve a federal budget; fully fund our military; close and protect our borders; and open our White House to the citizens who pay $1.4 billion a year to keep it operating.


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Noteworthy guest trumpeter at LGSO
Christopher Martin, principal trumpet player with the Chicago Symphony Orchestra, will be the featured soloist with the Lake Geneva Symphony Orchestra on Feb. 15 at Elkhorn Area High School.�
"The Chicago Symphony has been world renowned for generations in part because of its incredible brass section," said LGSO music director David Anderson. "We welcome one of the leaders of that section in February. Chris Martin is one of the best known orchestral musicians in the world."
Martin will perform Alexander Arutunian's "Trumpet Concerto" with the LGSO. The program also will include Beethoven's "Symphony No. 7." The Beethoven work is the fourth installment in LGSO's Beethoven Project, by which the orchestra aspires to perform all nine Beethoven symphonies in as many seasons.
In addition to his performance with the LGSO, Martin will lead a "trumpet day" event at the University of Wisconsin-Whitewater on Feb. 14, when he will work with trumpet students from the university and area high schools.
Martin was appointed principal trumpet of the Chicago Symphony Orchestra in 2005 and is an adjunct faculty member at Northwestern University. His playing can be heard in the soundtrack for the motion picture "Lincoln."


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Phyllis Ermina Mae Younger, Dousman, WI (1912-2013)
May 13, 1912 - November 18, 2013
Phyllis Ermina Mae Younger, age 101, passed away on Nov. 18, 2013, at the Masonic Health and Rehab Center. She was born on May 13, 1912, in Superior, WI, to Erma (Becker) and George McLeod. She married Theodore (Ted) Younger on Oct. 25, 1944, in Washington DC. Phyllis was a registered nurse and worked in hospitals, as well as, doing private duty nursing and, later, worked for the Visiting Nurse Assoc.
Phyllis and Ted spent many winters in Florida, during their retirement years enjoying the warmer winters, fresh fruit and fish. They had lived at Three Pillars Retirement Center for 15 years before moving to the Masonic Health and Rehab Center, 400 N. Main St., Dousman, WI.
Phyllis is survived by her husband, Ted; two children, Charles T. (Bonnie) Younger of Milwaukee, and Jocine L. (Robin) Merline of Menasha; four granddaughters: Elizabeth L. Younger of Boston, MA, Monica Merline of Oshkosh, Andrea (Ree) Rodriguez of Downey, CA, and Tammy Merline of Ozark, MO; and seven great-grandchildren.
There will be no service at this time.
SCHRAMKA-BORGWARDT FUNERAL HOME, 414-425-6060, is assisting the family.


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I don't make New Year's Resolutions. I don't think I ever really did, but the last decade or two would have been enough to stifle that impulse. I've just been too aware that I don't have that much control over what happens in my life.
Discuss the article on the Forums.
Comments on moronic study - related to other thread "Help! Daughter's university doing flawed study.
Discussion in 'General ME/CFS Discussion' started by BeautifulDay, Oct 5, 2017.


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Imaging Studies of Cognitive Impairment in Parkinson s Disease
This study has been completed.
National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke (NINDS)
ClinicalTrials.gov Identifier:
First Posted: May 24, 2013
Last Update Posted: July 2, 2017
Information provided by (Responsible Party):
National Institutes of Health Clinical Center (CC) ( National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke (NINDS) )
- Full Text View
- Tabular View
- No Study Results Posted
- Disclaimer
- How to Read a Study Record
No Study Results Posted on ClinicalTrials.gov for this Study
|Study Status:
|This study has been completed.
|Study Completion Date:
|February 3, 2015
|Primary Completion Date:
|January 30, 2015 (Final data collection date for primary outcome measure)


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2013 stories that shaped Walworth County
DELAVAN — Newspapers are like a snapshot. Each issue chronicles a slice of life in our communities at the time. In 2013, we reported on many events that became important stories for those who live in Walworth County. In this, our last edition of 2013, we take a look back at five of those stories that shaped the news.
Read the current edition here: http://www.server-jbmultimedia.net/CSI-WalworthCountySunday
Lake Geneva is for the birds
May 19
LAKE GENEVA — As tourists arrive in Lake Geneva each spring, so too do migratory birds. Tying the two together isn't new, but sometimes it takes extra effort to appreciate our feathered friends.
On May 19, Lynn Greene reported on Lake Geneva's designation as a bird city.
The Bird City program aims to ensure that Wisconsin maintains a healthy population of birds in rural and urban settings. The program is a coalition led by the Natural Resources Foundation of Wisconsin, the Milwaukee Audubon Society, the Wisconsin Bird Conservation Initiative and the Wisconsin Society for Ornithology.
Jeff Wall was appointed to the Lake Geneva Avian Committee two years ago and after a bird event drew nearly 100 people last year, he began promoting Lake Geneva as a bird city.�
Read the complete story HERE.


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Jailer is a database subsetting and browsing tool. It is a tool for data exporting, schema browsing, and rendering. It exports consistent, referentially intact row-sets from relational databases. It removes obsolete data without violating integrity. It is DBMS agnostic (by using JDBC), platform independent, and generates DbUnit datasets, hierarchically structured XML, and topologically sorted SQL-DML.
P6Spy is an open source framework for applications to intercept and log database statements. The P6Spy distribution includes P6Log, which intercepts and logs the database statements of any application that uses JDBC. This application is particularly useful for developers to monitor the SQL statements produced by EJB servers, enabling the developer to write code that achieves maximum efficiency on the server. P6Spy is designed to be installed in minutes and requires no code changes.
Apache uimaFIT provides Java annotations for describing UIMA components which can be used to directly describe the UIMA components in Java code without the need for traditional UIMA XML descriptors. This greatly simplifies refactoring a component definition (e.g., changing a configuration parameter name). It also makes it easy to instantiate UIMA components without using XML descriptor files by providing convenient factory methods. It is ideal for testing UIMA components because the component can be easily instantiated and invoked without requiring a descriptor file to be created first.
Aegis is a transaction-based software configuration management system. It provides a framework within which a team of developers may work on many changes to a program independently, and Aegis coordinates integrating these changes back into the master source of the program, with as little disruption as possible. Aegis supports geographically distributed development.


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Walworth County population holds steady
ELKHORN – The Walworth County population is growing at a speed drastically different than its historic past.
Since the 2010 census, the county's population has grown by .3 percent, or 351 persons.
That's less than the state average of .5 percent, according to the Department of Administration final population estimates released in January.
During the 1990s, Walworth County was the fourth fastest growing county in the state, adding 17,013 residents in ten years or about 1,700 new residents each year, said David Bretl, Walworth County administrator.
From 2000-10, the county's population grew by 10,215 residents, from 92,013 to 102,228, or about 1 percent each year, the Census reports.
During the same time period, Elkhorn was the county's fastest growing municipality, said Elkhorn City Administrator Sam Tapson.
Elkhorn's population grew from 7,305 to 10,084, or about 38 percent, according to Census figures.
The population estimates reveal the city actually lost 153 residents since the 2010 Census.�
"The conventional wisdom was that Walworth County was growing by leaps and bounds and was one of the fastest growing counties in the state," Bretl said. "While there is historical truth to that, you have to go back some time to when that happened."
Bretl monitors the Census and the Department of Administration final population estimates closely in order to work with other county officials and representatives when making decisions about building expansion and taxes.
Tapson doesn't put much faith into the Census and Department of Administration numbers because each reports different figures.
Instead, he looks at building permits.
During the 2000s, the city issued anywhere from 40 to 60 building permits a year. That has since trickled down, and last year the city issued only six, Tapson said.
Regardless of the numbers, Tapson is "not overly concerned" because he believes three years isn't enough time to define something as a trend.
The Department of Administration estimates the Walworth County population� to be 102,579.
Bretl doesn't have concrete reasons, only educated guesses, about what factors could account for the slow growth.
"I'm sure the recession or economic banking collapse in 2008 played into it, but it seems to me it has causes beyond that because that rapid growth was waning even before that collapse," he said.
Other hypotheses include increases in gas prices, possible employment options and property values.
Since 2010, 17 of the county's 30 municipalities had a population increase. The city of Whitewater has the largest increase with 350 people. The city of Elkhorn reported the largest decrease.
Like Bretl, Tapson says that could be due to the economy.
"This has not been a booming economy," Tapson said, citing the housing market collapse and loss of jobs that have continued to plague the country.
How the decrease in population affects taxes, budgets and communities in the county is something Bretl is looking into.
The decrease affects where the jobs are, Bretl said. People who moved into the county to work for construction or housing companies in the 1990s and 2000s could be searching elsewhere for work, then moving closer to those jobs.
Cities also depend on growth for budgets, Bretl said, so taxes could increase.
Tapson said decreases in population also can affect housing.
"The obvious implication is that there must be some housing vacancies," Tapson said. "There may be a decline in retailing because they feed off of rooftops."


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Home Adbi Books Urdu Zaban Ka Rasmul Khat by Syed Masood Hasan Rizvi
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My name is Tariq Iqbal. I belong to Sohdra, Tehseel Wazirabad. I am Electrical Associate Engineer and now a days working in NOMAC CO. in Yanbu Al Bahr, Saudi Arabia. Please visit my three websites.Urdu Pdf Books Library , Pakistani Novels and Quran & Science.


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Janesville seeks public input on mobile food vendors
JANESVILLE—The city of Janesville is seeking public input on the idea of street-side tacos, parking-lot gumbo, and whether they're a good fit for the city.��
The city is holding a public information and input session Tuesday to learn how residents feel about the city updating its rules on mobile food vendors—an issue that arose late last year after a Janesville man began selling Cajun food out of a modified recreational vehicle from a private parking lot.
The city has restrictions in its ordinances and zoning rules that make it hard for mobile food vendors to operate. The city is seeking direction from the public on whether—and how—the city could update its rules.�
"The point, really, is to start a dialogue on the concept of food trucks and how we'd want to handle them in the community," Building Development and Services Manager Gale Price said.
Late last year, Janesville resident Chad Measner set up in a private parking lot on the city's west side, and began to sell Cajun food out of an RV he had converted and gotten licensed by the state and the county.
He then learned the city has an ordinance that doesn't specifically allow mobile vendors on public property or rights of way. Also, a set of city zoning rules prohibit vendors other than "seasonal" merchants from operating out of vehicles in business districts.
Meanwhile, other city rules don't seem to clearly spell out how food trucks can handle point-of-sale cash payments for vendors, according to city officials.
For Measner, it meant he had to spend most of the winter parked in a private parking lot, which the city allows. He takes orders at his truck, but under city rules, he has to take payments from customers inside an adjacent business.
Customers have had to go through a byzantine, time-consuming process of following Measner from his truck, inside another business, and back out to the truck to get their food.
Price said a deluge of calls and emails came after a Gazette story in December detailed Measner's difficulties with city rules.
Price said most people, including a few who want to have their own food trucks, said they want the city to be more open and accommodating to mobile food vendors.
"We've had quite a bit of input and comment from people interested in food truck people who think it's a good asset to the community, and others who are interested in having food trucks as a business," Price said. "We believe it's an appropriate time to open up the dialogue and start discussing these facilities how they may be able to become accommodated with the city of Janesville."
City rules also allow local farmers markets to petition the city for permission to have the vendors it chooses, and "seasonal" vendors such as Christmas tree sellers, are allowed to set up in parking lots under certain guidelines.
There are no city rules prohibiting mobile food vendors from making arrangements with private industries to set up shop in parking lots there, but the city doesn't allow vendors such as ice cream trucks or hot dog carts to drive up and down residential streets or to park
The city council outlawed those businesses after a child was stuck and killed by an ice cream truck in 1983, Price said.
Measner has argued his business is different, because he's not trolling the streets. He's parked in one place, in a parking lot.
He has said he would like to see city rules allow him to park in public parking lots and to move around the city. He also argues the city should allow him to take cash payments at his food truck.
But Measner's business model might not be one other vendors would choose. Price said the hearing Tuesday could shed light on where residents and even business owners might want to see the trucks operate, and whether they should be able to move from spot to spot in the city.
"Before we commit to work on any policy, we really want input to form something that helps satisfy the customer base on both sides of the fence," Price said.
He said that would help the city work on potential policies and guidelines for mobile vendors. New city rules would have to comply with state and county rules on licensing and food preparation.
"It might be that people say food trucks are OK, but don't keep them in the business districts, and don't' let them in the neighborhoods," Price said. "I'm not saying that's what recommendations would be, but we need to hear from people."
The city of Whitewater has an ordinance that allows mobile vendors in its downtown. But not all municipalities in the area are as friendly to the idea.�
The city of Milton briefly considered a ban last year on mobile food trucks after business owners there got up in arms over a taco truck that was parked in a public lot on the city's east side downtown, selling food. The business owners argue the taco truck had an unfair advantage because it could move around and didn't have as much overhead as a "bricks-and-mortar" business.
The Milton City Council backed down from setting a ban, but it has stalled on setting any hard rules for Mobile food vendors.
Price said Janesville likely wouldn't be able to place an outright ban on mobile food vendors.
"Our attorney has looked at that, and the courts are not supportive of an all-out ban on commerce activity. It's not something we'll be able to implement," he said.
On Saturday afternoon, Measner's Cajun food truck was parked off Crosby Avenue, in the same lot it's been all winter. Measner and another employee in the truck served half a dozen customers over a 15-minute time span.
"And that's a slow day for us," Measner said.
A few days earlier, Measner said, he had a line of five customers at the truck, and he was juggling a dozen pickup orders at once. That day, a regular customer helped Measner keep up by trundling orders to customers while Measner dealt with the unorthadox cash transfer system he's been stuck with because of city rules.
"You could see how when we're very busy, the city's rules, the way they are, it makes it difficult. It's a hassle," Measner said. "I'm hopeful the city can get something figured out."


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Altgeld Park
515 S. Washtenaw Ave. Chicago, Illinois 60612
(312) 746-5001
Fee: $2 per child
Age Range: 5-11 yrs
Thursday, March 28 from 4-6pm. Altgeld park will host this event for children 5-11 yrs of age. The Bunny Holiday festival will include low organized games and arts & crafts for the children. Fee $2.


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Adoption Information
If you are interested in adopting this animal, please print this page and come to the Shelter as soon as possible. If this particular pet already has a new home, the Shelter probably has another companion waiting just for you. For fees and other information, please read the Adoption Procedures section of this website.


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Flood watch issued for this area
Sunday, April 13, 2014
SULLIVAN—A flood watch has been issued by the National Weather Service, Sullivan, and is in effect from 7 p.m. Sunday through Monday morning.
The watch includes portions of south central Wisconsin and southeast Wisconsin including Rock, Green, Walworth and Jefferson counties.
More heavy rain is expected this afternoon and tonight.
The heaviest rains of around 2 inches tonight are expected in the south. Due to the saturated soils and the half to 1-inch of rain in the south areas Saturday night, the additional rain could cause flooding.
There is an increased potential where these areas could see many rivers and streams approach or exceed flood stage and other general lowland flooding is possible.


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Next season promises to be jarring
My wife and I frequently travel that rough stretch of Randall Avenue just south of Mount Zion Avenue. Usually, I'm driving my vehicle. On Saturday, however, Cheryl was driving her car and—BAM! Despite trying to steer around them, she struck what seemed to be the biggest pothole available.
No doubt, many of you will unwittingly hit potholes in the coming weeks, as well. I can remember several years ago walking on Randall just south of Milwaukee Street, before that stretch was rebuilt, and a massive water-filled pothole springing a surprise on drivers and their suspensions. Each car that hit it sent a stream of water clear across the adjacent sidewalk.
Fortunately, as Marcia Nelesen reported in today's Gazette, the city will rebuild Randall between Mount Zion and Sherman avenues this year. It had planned to do so last year but put it off when it determined the project should be more extensive—and more expensive—than budgeted. Too bad. It will do nothing to help unsuspecting drivers this spring.
In the Feb. 9 Gazette, reporter Nick Crow interviewed area public works officials who expect that all that frost in the ground and all that salt spread because of so many snowfalls will likely add up to a worse-than-usual pothole season when the freezing-and-thawing cycle hits. Great. And after today's predicted big snowfall, the first thawing temperatures in a month are predicted for tomorrow. Proceed with caution.
On Sunday I read James E. Clausey's column in the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel. He reported that a 2013 study by TRIP, a Washington, D.C.-based transportation research group, found that pothole-ridden roads cost Milwaukee-area drivers an average of $700 a year. Maybe those drivers and their cars absorb bigger hits because TRIP deemed 48 percent of Milwaukee roads in poor condition, eighth worse among large U.S. cities.
That seems like a lot of money. Then I remembered the roughly $200 I spent last year on my 2006 vehicle to replace rear sway bar links. My dealer also recommended replacing the front ones. I'm no mechanic, but it seems like rough roads must be taking their toll on such equipment.
Speaking of rough roads, it's not just potholes we must watch for. Have you driven County A east of Highway 14 lately? I did about three weeks ago to enjoy a fish fry at the Duck Inn. At least the dinner was good. Stretches of the ride out there were like driving on a washboard. I hit one dip so hard at highway speed that I nearly bottomed out. That can't be good for all that hardware under the car. I couldn't remember exactly where that big dip was on the way back, but after hitting it hard again, I watched the mileage gauge and found it was almost exactly 2 miles east of Highway 14.
If Rock County hasn't posted a "caution, bump" sign there yet and the ground hasn't naturally ironed itself out, the county could save motorists lots of irritation and costly repairs by placing one.
In the meantime, if you know of a particularly nasty pothole that the city of Janesville should fill in, call the city services department at 608-755-3110. You might be doing all drivers a favor, even if their mechanics want the business.
Greg Peck can be reached at (608) 755-8278 or firstname.lastname@example.com. Or follow him on Twitter or Facebook.
Greg Peck can be reached at (608) 755-8278 or firstname.lastname@example.com. Or follow him on Twitter or Facebook.


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Your views: Wolf hunt will lead to dog fighting
Wednesday, October 16, 2013
There will be a wolf hunt this year in Wisconsin. Wisconsin will be the only state in the country that allows dog fighting. Dog fighting is illegal in all 50 states.
Unless a lawsuit against the practice is successful, wolf hunters will be allowed to use packs of dogs to hunt wolves. Wolves will not run away; they will turn and fight. Hence, we have a state-sanctioned dog fight. This is barbarism.
Sen. Fred Risser, D-Madison, authorized a bill to ban using dogs to hunt wolves. However, Sen. Neal Kedzie, chair of the Senate Natural Resources Committee, is refusing to let the bill go to the floor for a vote. Apparently the hunting factions have convinced Kedzie that dog fighting is indeed acceptable.
VIVIAN McQUOID


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Paul Ryan answers questions at Delavan-Darien High School
DELAVAN—"Wienermobiled" probably isn't a term that will come up on the Advanced Placement exam for government, but it's a real part of politics, Paul Ryan told Delavan-Darien high school students Monday.
Students in history and upper-level government classes spent about an hour learning about politics from Ryan, former vice-presidential candidate and current 1st District congressman.
Students in Adam Alter's AP Government classes had prepared questions that ranged from Ryan's favorite workout (it's p90x3 chest and back) to presidential ambitions.
Ryan tailored his responses to connect with his audiences. He talked, for example, about how the national debt could impact their generation, what they should do before considering a life in politics and the best way to pursue their goals—whatever they are.
-- Politics in the Internet age.
The session opened with a half-joking question about the Oscar Mayer Wienermobile, and Ryan's answer gave them an object lesson in politics.
As a young person, Ryan had an internship at Oscar Mayer, selling products to grocery stores. In his case, it was "Lunchables," a product that was new at the time.
At one point, he was at a store where the Wienermobile was doing a promotion. Although he wasn't one of the regular drivers, he ended up driving the hotdog-shaped vehicle from one town to the next.
"At one point I was asked, 'Did you drive the Wienermobile' and I said 'Yeah, as a matter of fact, I did,'" Ryan said. "So it went on Wikipedia that I had driven the Wienermobile, and then it went on that I was the Wienermobile driver, which is a totally different job."
As a result, Ryan got what he described as "one of those Pinocchio things that said I was embellishing or lying.
"That happens a lot in public life—it's a good story," Ryan said. "It's something you learn about the way the media works and had the Internet works, they take a bit of truth and it gets a life of its own and then it comes back to you, and that's the verb, 'wienermobiled.'"
-- Ryan's presidential ambitions
Is Ryan going to run for president in 2016?
"I don't know," Ryan said. "I've still got time to figure it out."
Then he added, "I don't know if I can still fulfill this vocation at the highest possible level and still have the family life."
He told them that he had "presidential-sized policy ambitions" but his personal ambitions were not as big.
"I'm not one of these people who think about the next big promotion or the next big job," Ryan said. "I think in Congress I'm in the policy making role that I want to be; I've never wanted to be in the elected leadership, the Speaker of the House, that's more of a political job than I personally prefer."
His decision would depend on who else decided to run and if he felt he could give them his unqualified support.
-- Debt reduction
One student wanted to know if America would ever be out of debt.
"Here's the way this works: Our government is making a lot of promises to you that it can't keep," Ryan said.
Social Security, Medicare and other social programs are giving the youngest generation an "unsustainable debt," he said.
"The debt went up a lot in the past five years, and it wasn't just President Obama's fault—we had this recession," Ryan said.
-- Local diversity
Delavan-Darien High School Principal Mark Schmitt told Ryan the district had the highest percentage of Latinos of any school district in the state. How could the district and the students make the most of it?
"I think cultural exchanges and integrating the community is really important," Ryan said. "We obviously believe that assimilation is really important; it's about families getting to know each other."
-- Life as a politician
Ryan told students that he hadn't planned to enter politics and originally thought he'd pursue a doctorate in economics. But internships and then jobs led, eventually, to a run for Congress.
You put up with a lot of things in this job—like time away from your family, like being Wienermobiled, the stress—but you can make a big difference in people's lives," Ryan said. "You can take an idea, put it on paper, move it through the legislative process and see it make a big difference in people's lives."


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Wal-Mart Stores Inc. is winning the lowest borrowing costs this year as its AA credit rating offsets challenges ranging from a corruption probe to reports of thinly stocked shelves.
The world's largest retailer, which has $5 billion of debt maturing through October, yesterday sold an equal amount of bonds in a four-part offering that included the lowest coupon on three-year notes in 2013, according to data compiled by Bloomberg. Wal-Mart's sale adds to a supply of AA-rated debt that has declined to 11 percent of the $4 trillion U.S. corporate market from 18 percent three years ago.
Wal-Mart, whose annual free cash flow exceeds the market values of about half the companies in the Standard & Poor's 500 stock index, is succeeding in the bond market even after forecasting quarterly same-store sales won't improve from a year earlier. The Bentonville, Arkansas-based retailer is also contending with a federal investigation into whether it systematically bribed Mexican officials and customer complaints of deteriorating service.
"The stable free cash flow is the major driver," James Goldstein, an analyst at CreditSights Inc. in New York, said in a telephone interview. "I don't think people are too concerned about the headlines."
Wal-Mart sold $1 billion of 0.6 percent notes due April 2016 that yield 30 basis points more than similar-maturity Treasuries. That's the narrowest spread for similar-maturity corporate debt this year, eclipsing the 35 basis-point gap awarded to GlaxoSmithKline Plc, PepsiCo Inc. and Praxair Inc., Bloomberg data show.
The deal also included $1.25 billion of 1.125 percent debt maturing in April 2018, $1.75 billion of 2.55 percent, 10-year debt and $1 billion of 30-year securities that pay a 4 percent coupon to match the 2013 low previously recorded by Medtronic Inc. and Anheuser-Busch InBev NV.
"Wal-Mart remains committed to maintaining a strong balance sheet, which combined with our solid free cash flow and AA credit rating helped us secure favorable coupons," said Randy Hargrove, a company spokesman.
Each of Wal-Mart's coupons are lower than the average for similar-maturity debt ranked AA, at least seven levels above speculative grade, as of April 3, according to prices compiled by Bloomberg. Wal-Mart is rated Aa2 by Moody's Investors Service and an equivalent AA by Standard & Poor's.
The company's weighted average coupon of 2.09 percent on yesterday's transaction is about half the 4.02 percent paid on its $3.69 billion of dollar-denominated debt maturing this year, Bloomberg data show.
"They're going to slash their interest expense with this issue," said Nikhill Patel, an analyst at San Antonio-based Frost Investment Advisors LLC, which oversees $9 billion. "Investors are drawn to the strong free cash flow and operating margins that Wal-Mart generates."
Wal-Mart's $12.7 billion of free cash in the 12 months ended Jan. 31 is more than eight times the funds generated by Costco Wholesale Corp., the largest U.S. warehouse club. An operating margin of 5.93 percent exceeds every U.S. food and staples retailer with market values bigger than $5 billion except Whole Foods Market Inc., Bloomberg data show.
Before yesterday's sale, Wal-Mart's debt underperformed similarly rated bonds this year. A price decline of 1.82 percent for the company's notes compares with a 0.7 percent drop in AA rated securities, according to Bank of America Merrill Lynch index data.
The company is facing obstacles. A decline in the retailer's U.S. workforce even as it opens new stores has coincided with customer frustration that there aren't enough employees to keep shelves stocked, cash registers manned and shoppers' questions answered. Staffing at Wal-Mart and Sam's Club outlets in the U.S. has declined by about 120,000 employees since 2008 to 1.3 million, according to regulatory filings. In the same period, the number of stores grew to 4,005 from 3,550, the documents show.
That's benefited companies such as Target Corp., which has an operating margin of 7.11 percent, as customers seek alternatives.
Wal-Mart's in-stock shelf availability is at historically high levels and averages between 90 percent and 95 percent, Hargrove said.
Same-store sales for Wal-Mart's U.S. locations in the 13 weeks ending April 26 will be little changed from a year earlier, Bill Simon, chief executive officer of Wal-Mart U.S., said on a Feb. 21 teleconference to discuss fourth-quarter results with analysts and investors.
The company, which spent $157 million in the year ended Jan. 31 linked to its investigations of possible bribery in its international operations, said last month that it expects to continue incurring costs related to the probes. The U.S. Department of Justice and the Securities and Exchange Commission, as well as federal and local government agencies in Mexico, are also examining bribery allegations.
While Wal-Mart doesn't expect those matters to have a material adverse effect on its business, the company said it can't reasonably estimate the potential loss.
"Most of the issues people raise are issues that a shareholder might care about but not a bondholder," said Carol Levenson, director of research at Chicago-based Gimme Credit LLC, which rates Wal-Mart's debt "stable." "This is perhaps the strongest, steadiest retailing credit out there. They know what they're doing and generally they execute superbly."


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Lillian M. Kelly, Brodhead (1928 - 2013)
April 6, 1928 - December 6, 2013
Lillian M. Kelly, age 85, of Brodhead, passed away unexpectedly on Friday, Dec. 6, 2013, at the Monroe Clinic Hospital. She was born on April 6, 1928, in Osseo, WI, the daughter of Jordan and Thora (Evenson) Torpen. She married Nathan L. Kelly on May 3, 1947, in Decorah, IA. He passed away in 1987. Lil attended the United Congregational Church of Christ, Brodhead. She was a lifetime member of the VFW Auxiliary Post #2312 and a member of the American Legion Auxiliary, serving as President of both. Following her marriage, Lil worked for Industrial and Clean Towel Co., LaCrosse, WI. In 1958, she was transferred to Beloit, WI, to start a branch office with her husband, Nate. In 1960, she and Nate moved to Brodhead, to become nursing home managers at the Withee Nursing Home for the next 12 years. Following this, Lil worked at the Krattiger Nursing Home in Brodhead. Lil continued in the care giving profession for many, many years. She was well known in the Brodhead area for her caring heart, friendly manner, and love of others.
Lillian is survived by her children, Karen (Ronald) Foss of LaCrescent, MN, Nancy (Nelson) Shell of Brodhead; siblings, James Torpen of Eau Claire, WI, Beatrice (Arnold) Larson of Osseo, WI, Clarice Gran of Pigeon Falls, WI, Sonia Andrus of Belle Plain MN; grandchildren: Denise Foss of Madison, WI, David (Karla) Foss of Lewiston, MN, Jon Russell of Brodhead; step-grandchildren: Chris Klessinger of Juda, WI, Kim Inman, Laura Usher, Sue Rosheisen, all of Brodhead, Aarin Schnackenberg of Ridgeland, MN; three great-grandchildren; 13 step great-grandchildren; four step great-great-grandchildren; and several nieces and nephews. She was preceded in death by her parents; husband; siblings: Raymond, Donald and Ivan Torpen, Joyce Leer and Evelyn Larson.
Funeral services will be held at 11 a.m., Wednesday, Dec. 11, 2013, at the UNITED CONGREGATIONAL CHURCH of Christ, Brodhead, with Pastor Marlea Gilbert officiating. Burial will be in Greenwood Cemetery. Visitation will be held from 5 until 7 p.m., Tuesday, at the D.L. NEWCOMER FUNERAL HOME, BRODHEAD, WI. Online condolences may be made at www.dlnewcomerfuneralhome.com