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Dear ALMA newsletter recipients,
As this editorial is written, we have seven antennas at the Chajnantor plateau, the "High Site". Seven antennas means twenty-one baselines, i.e. more than twice as many as we had only two months ago. As you know, the bonus we have in interferometry is that the the number of baselines increases roughly with the square of the available antennas. The image quality can be further enhanced, because the projection of a celestial source onto the existing baselines changes due to the rotation of the Earth.
A large number of baselines is important but not sufficient to fulfill one important promise of ALMA, namely to provide crisp images. Unlike the sharp images from the Hubble Space Telescope, images from ground based optical or radio telescopes are blurred by the Earth's atmosphere. It is the Holy Grail of observing astronomy to overcome such atmospheric effects. Recently, ALMA has made a big step toward this goal by using Water Vapor Radiometers operating at 183 GHz to measure the amount of atmospheric water vapor at any instant in the line of sight of each antenna, and applying a corresponding correction to the astronomical data received. This not only improves the image quality, it is essential for using ALMA at its lowest wavelengths of around 0.3mm and at baselines exceeding several kilometers. Achieving this has a been a collaborative effort involving many parts of the project and there are all to be congratulated.
JAO has now moved into our new Santiago Central Office in Vitacura next to the ESO premises, ending a phase of two years were Santiago based staff was distributed in two different buildings. This new ALMA office will also host the ALMA archive. Although ALMA users are normally not expected to come to Chile to observe, there will be office space for visitors, since ALMA has been and will always be a cooperation of people from many countries and many fields of science and engineering.
This newsletter contains a list of workshops, schools and conferences dealing with ALMA, reflecting the interest of the astronomical community in our project. I invite everybody to join these events in order to discuss the exciting science made possible with ALMA, and to learn how to use this instrument in an efficient way. After all, the first call for ALMA observing proposals will be released very soon.
After having served as ALMA Project Engineer since 2004, Rick Murowinski has decided to go back to Canada. We thank him for his important contributions to our project during very crucial years and wish him all the best for his future career. Enjoy ALMA's universe!
Enjoy ALMA's universe!
Thijs de Graauw, ALMA Director
The Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array (ALMA), an international astronomy facility, is a partnership of Europe, North America and East Asia in cooperation with the Republic of Chile. ALMA is funded in Europe by the European Organization for Astronomical Research in the Southern Hemisphere (ESO), in North America by the U.S. National Science Foundation (NSF) in cooperation with the National Research Council of Canada (NRC) and the National Science Council of Taiwan (NSC) and in East Asia by the National Institutes of Natural Sciences (NINS) of Japan in cooperation with the Academia Sinica (AS) in Taiwan. ALMA construction and operations are led on behalf of Europe by ESO, on behalf of North America by the National Radio Astronomy Observatory (NRAO), which is managed by Associated Universities, Inc. (AUI) and on behalf of East Asia by the National Astronomical Observatory of Japan (NAOJ). The Joint ALMA Observatory (JAO) provides the unified leadership and management of the construction, commissioning and operation of ALMA.
Correcting for the Effects of the Atmosphere
The reason that ALMA is located where it is - on a high mountain plateau in an extremely dry part of the world - is of course to minimize the effects of water vapour in the atmosphere. Water has a number of undesirable effects from the point of view of millimeter-wave astronomers. First of all, it absorbs the signals that we are trying to observe. This is illustrated in the well known plot of the transmission of the atmosphere as a function of frequency, shown in Figure 1.
Here the narrow absorption features are due to Ozone (which is another story) and a few of the other lines are due to Oxygen, but almost all the rest of the absorption - both the wide deep lines and the broad absorption covering all of the higher frequencies - is due to water vapour. This can be seen from the fact that the amount of absorption changes with the amount of water, as shown by the different colours. The amount of water in the atmosphere is here represented by a thickness - the values 0.5, 1 and 2 millimeters. This is simply the thickness of the layer of water that would be formed if all the water vapour in the atmosphere were to be precipitate out onto the ground. We call this the "precipitable water vapour". On a typical sea-level location this quantity would be 10 or 20 mm and essentially no sub-millimeter signals from space would reach the ground at all. The values on the ALMA site are typically in the range shown in the plot and it is sometimes even drier. Last month we recorded values as low 0.12 mm!
Since the amount of water is varying all the time, and since this changes the amount of attenuation that is suffered by the signals that we are observing with ALMA, it is clear that we need to be able to measure the amount of water that the telescopes are looking through, so that we can correct for this attenuation. We do this by using instrument called a "water vapour radiometer". This is mounted in the receiver cabin and looks up at the sky in the direction where the signals are coming from. Figure 2 is a reminder of how the ALMA antennas collect the millimeter-wave signals. The signals fall first on the main reflector, which focuses them on the small subreflector supported by the four "legs", and this reflects them through the hole in the center of the main reflector and into the receiver cabin behind.
Inside the cabin the signals come to a focus and can pass into one of the "windows" in the top of the (blue) cryostat containing the exquisitely sensitive receivers used to detect the astronomical signals. There is, however, an additional item in the receiver cabin called the "optical relay", which picks of the signals that arrive right in the middle of the focal plane and takes them off to one side. Figure 3 shows this arrangement.
The radiometer itself is mounted to one side of the cryostat, and from the outside appears as a rather undistinguished box seen in Figure 4.
Once they are installed, it is not possible to see both the relay and the radiometer at the same time, but the overall scheme can be seen in Figure 5.
Figure 5 also gives an impression of what is inside the radiometer, and this is shown in more detail in Figure 6.
The radiometer is actually another millimeter-wave receiver, but a very specialized one. The point is that in addition to causing absorption, the water vapour in the atmosphere also emits millimeter wave signals. In fact, there is a fundamental law of physics that anything that acts as an absorber will also act as an emitter, with the amount of emission being proportional to the amount of absorption multiplied by a function of the temperature of the material. In general, this emission from the water in the atmosphere is another nuisance for the astronomers in that it adds to the noise in the observations. Here, however, we can turn it to our advantage and use the emission to measure the amount of water. The radiometer is designed to detect the emission at around 183 GHz where there is a strong emission line of water. This is one of the features that can be seen in Figure 1.
The radiometer includes a chopper wheel (purple object in the centre of Figure 6), which spins rapidly and is shaped so that the signals arriving at the "horn" on the detector (on the left in Figure 6) come first from the cold load, then from the sky (through the relay and the reflectors of the antenna), then from the hot load, and then again from the sky. Since the temperatures of the hot and cold loads are accurately controlled, the signals from them can be compared to those from the sky making a very accurate measurement of the amount of emission from the sky possible.
After the signals enter the horn they are down-converted to lower frequencies and divided into four channels on either side of the emission line. This is illustrated in Figure 7.
By combining the readings of these four channels it is possible to make an accurate estimate of the amount of water along the whole path though the atmosphere through which the astronomical signals have passed. As already explained, we need to know this in order to correct for the attenuation which the signals have suffered.
The reason that we have taken so much trouble over the design and construction of the radiometers is, however, to correct for a further effect of water, which is in some ways even more critical for ALMA than the attenuation. As well as producing absorption and emission, the water vapour also acts as a dielectric, which means that it slows down the propagation of the signals. Another way of saying this, is that it is as if the signals have had to propagate over a slightly longer path, so they arrive a little later than they would if there were no water at all in the atmosphere. Roughly speaking 1 mm of precipitable water vapour causes 6 mm of additional path. Figure 8 shows the estimated values of this excess path deduced from the readings of the radiometer on three of the ALMA antennas over a period of about half an hour.
It can be in our example here that the excess path has been falling slowly with time and the reason for this is that the object being observed was rising so the amount of water that the signals had to pass through was falling.
So long as the water is distributed very evenly in the atmosphere, as it was when the data shown in figure 8 were taken, then this has little effect on the astronomical observations. Much of the time, however, the water distribution is not at all uniform because turbulence mixes air from different levels in the atmosphere where the amount of water is different. Figure 9 shows what happens in this case: the excess path varies as the wet and dry air passes through the beam and of course the effect is different for the different antennas.
The fact that the paths to the antennas differ and that these differences vary with time causes a serious problem for ALMA, since is means that coherence between the astronomical signals would be at least partially lost if nothing were done about it. In particular the variation in the paths causes errors in the phase difference that is observed between each pair of antennas. These errors would then distort the images formed from the signals. This effect is of course very similar to the "seeing" effect of the atmosphere, which distorts the images formed by optical telescopes, although the main cause of optical seeing is the fluctuations in the temperature of the air instead of the fluctuations in the amount of water vapour. In the case of ALMA we can use the estimates of the excess path made from the radiometer data to correct for the path fluctuations. This is illustrated in Figure 10.
The effect of the path fluctuations on the images depends on the observing wavelength: when the peak-to-peak variations are comparable to the wavelength the images become almost completely washed out. So in conditions like those when the data shown in Figure 10 were taken observing at wavelengths shorter than about one millimetre would be virtually useless without phase-correction, whereas with correction it should still be possible to obtain good, sharp images down to the shortest wavelength for which ALMA is designed, which is about a third of a millimetre.
The use of this method of correcting for the atmospheric fluctuations is one of the things that are being testing during the commissioning phase of ALMA. As indicated above, what we are finding is that there are times when the atmosphere is rather stable and no correction is needed, and that there are times when there are strong fluctuations and the correction can be applied and works rather well. There are unfortunately also occasions, and in general this is when there are clouds present, where there are strong phase fluctuations but using the data from the radiometer in the relatively simple way illustrated here does not help very much. This is probably because the emission from the water droplets in the clouds is invalidating the readings from the radiometer, but we plan to investigate this further and see how much correction can in fact be achieved under these conditions.
The radiometers were designed and are being built by Omnisys Instruments AB, Gothenburg, Sweden. They make use of concepts developed in a prototyping phase carried out jointly by the Cavendish Astrophysics Group in Cambridge, England and Onsala Space Observatory, Sweden. The water vapour radiometers are an ESO deliverable and the program is being managed by European Front End IPT. The enhanced analysis algorithms are being developed at the Cavendish Astrophysics Group under a contract from ESO supported by the FP-6 program of the European Union.
Here is a short synopsis regarding the recent progress of the site construction work:
After the move of an antenna from the 2900m altitude Operations Support Facility (OSF) to the 5000m altitude Array Operations Site (AOS) on 6 September, we have now 7 antennas at the Chajnantor plateau. These will be joined by an eighth at the beginning of October. The twenty-eight baselines available between these eight antennas will definitely offer a marked improvement in ALMA's imaging ability. With five antennas, the array provided ten baselines; imaging excellence increases approximately as the square of antenna number.
Over the last couple of months, most of the available time was taken up with technical tests of the antennas and other systems and demonstration of new features.
There were spectacularly good conditions at the end of June, as illustrated in this plot of precipitable water vapour for the evening of 30 June (It actually carried on down to 0.12mm!). While essentially all of the ALMA hardware is in place, the software that enables its use is deployed in incrementally, at six-month intervals. Hardware functionality can only be fully tested according to the ability of the software releases to accommodate the tests. A new software release containing many new capabilities was released in June and installed on the array. A particular focus now is, of course, the testing of capabilities that are scheduled for availability during ALMA Early Science, expected next year.
Antennas are moved to the AOS after being conditionally accepted at the contractor's site and moved to the OSF. Each antenna is outfitted with electronics and put through exhaustive tests at the OSF by the Assembly, Integration and Verification (AIV) team. So far, twelve antennas have been conditionally accepted by the Project and have entered into this process. After outfitting and initial tests, the antennas at the OSF are normally combined into a two- element interferometer for final tests, performed to improve the capabilities of the instrument. For example, we find that we can do pointing measurements much more accurately with the interferometer than with a single antenna working alone.
Here is the analysis (made with the TPOINT™ package from Patrick Wallace) of such an interferometric pointing run demonstrating conformance with the ALMA requirement of 2 arc second rms accuracy over the whole sky.
This two-element interferometer also provides a staging platform for new software, as was done for the recent release. At the moment, three antennas are undergoing testing at the OSF and interferometry there will undergo a short hiatus as tested antennas move to the AOS. In the mean time, many other antennas are being assembled and tested at the antennas assembly sites.
At the East Asian site, two MELCO (Mitsubishi Electric Corporation) 12-meter diameter antennas are now close to meet ALMA stringent technical specifications and thus begin the acceptance review process. A 7-meter diameter antenna is submitted to an holography campaign, a process in which the antenna observes the signals from a special transmitter located on a nearby tower. The surface measurement of this 7-m antenna has demonstrated very good performance, the best test conducted so far having concluded to an accuracy less than 6 micrometers rms. Four 7-meter diameter antennas have been shipped to Chile and might join their peers in a couple of weeks.
The North American assembly site is receiving its sixteenth antenna this month. Being nine of these antennas already conditionally accepted by ALMA, the work performed by the Vertex and NRAO teams is mostly focused on the other seven antennas currently on site. These are in different stages of construction and are submitted to the more than 200 tests that will eventually lead to the acceptance by the Project and their move to their new home at the OSF for further testing and integration, before being moved to their final location at the Chajnantor plateau.
Significant progress has been achieved at the European Antennas assembly site as well, where one antenna is ongoing acceptance testing while five others are in different stages of assembly.
Among these five, two are under final commissioning, one is in final assembly stage (commissioning phase should start in a few weeks), one is waiting for the Reflector to be installed at the end of the month and the last one is just starting its site assembly phase.
One of the major achievements was the relocation on June 23rd of the two first AEM antennas in one day using the ALMA transporter. This was the first time that AEM antennas had been lifted with the transporter, the whole process was fully successful.
Operations Support Facility
Construction of the ALMA Camp dorm expansion continued these last months. 24 of the 40 new dorm rooms were completed in August and are being occupied. The remaining 16 rooms will be completed during September.
Site Power
The kick-off meeting for the Multi-Fuel Power Generation System contract was held in early June. Completion of this final major piece of the permanent power system is scheduled for August 2011. Twenty-three kV power system work continues on schedule for trenching and installation of the power and signal transmission line between the AOS and OSF, and on civil works for the permanent power substations at the AOS and OSF.
Santiago Central Office
JAO moved to the new Santiago Central Office on 23 August. The new building is in Vitacura (Santiago) next to the ESO building. The new mail address of JAO is Av. Alonso de Córdova 3107, Vitacura, Santiago, Chile. All the phone numbers remain unchanged.
Sense and sensitivity - how ALMA's receivers work
In previous articles, we described how electromagnetic waves emitted from objects in the sky are collected by the ALMA antennas (Anatomy of ALMA), and how they are combined in order to produce images. Before these images can be processed, they are picked up by the antennas and concentrated by the large main mirror and a smaller secondary mirror in the so called focal point of each antenna. In order to process the data they must be first converted to electromagnetic waves of a lower frequency and amplified. This is the role of the ALMA receivers. In principle they work like a normal FM receiver, but at much higher frequencies. Here we describe how they work and what makes them special.
The receiver systems used for ALMA are the most sensitive built so far. There will be up to 10 different receivers per antenna (also known as ALMA Receiver Bands 1 to 10 ), each of which is sensitive to a specific wavelength (or frequency). By offsetting the telescope and tilting the subreflector one can select which receiver shall be used. Each receiver is equipped with a feed horn, that funnels the energy that is coming from the sky via the antenna into the receiver with minimal losses. It is difficult to amplify and process the high frequency radiation collected by the ALMA antennas. This is why the concept of mixing is employed in a first stage. This is the same principle as in a commercial FM receiver: The incoming (sky) signals are combined with an artificial oscillator signal of similar frequency. This produces a beat signal with a frequency that is basically the difference between the sky and the oscillator signal, but still contains all the information received from the celestial source. For obvious reasons, this stage is called the mixer. All ALMA receivers produced so far use superconducting components, the so called SIS (superconductor-insulator-superconductor) diodes, as mixers. The performance of these mixers was presented in ALMA Newsletter #2.
Briefly, the Front Ends can be described in the following. There are three essential items that contribute to the superior sensitivity of ALMA. These are: (1) the high, dry site, (2) the large collecting area and (3) the receiver system. The ALMA project has devoted a great deal to maximize the sensitivity contribution from the first two items. These include the Chajnantor site and the collecting area provided by 66 antennas that allow operation to 1 Tera Hertz. In the optical and near infrared (near IR) wavelength range, the sensitivity of astronomical detector systems has improved by about a factor of 25 since the 1960's. The sensitivity of millimeter and sub-millimeter astronomical receivers has improved by at least this factor over the same time. In the last few years, receiver sensitivity has improved by another factor of 2 to 4, due to the ALMA development program.
The optical and near IR detectors convert the incident radiation to electrical current in an efficient way. The millimeter and sub-millimeter (mm/sub-mm) receivers must fulfill a number of additional requirements beyond those that apply to the optical and near infrared detectors, that is, the mm/sub-mm receivers must also preserve additional properties of the incident radiation. The most important of these additional properties is the relative arrival time of this radiation at each antenna, that is, the relative phase. In addition, the polarization properties must be accurately recorded. All of this must be done without corrupting the properties of the radiation, or adding more than a small amount of noise power. To accomplish this, the incident radiation is shifted to a longer wavelength (lower frequency) in the first element of the receiver (in a process called down-conversion). Then the power level of the radiation is increased by an enormous factor. Then this output is transferred to the Technical Building at the Array Operations Site (AOS), where the radiation is processed further to produce images.
The noise added by radio astronomy receivers is measured in temperature units, Kelvins. This is universally used as a measure of power for a unit bandwidth. Thus above 200 GHz in the plot of Fig. 3, the smooth horizontal line at about 70 K is the ALMA specification, while the uneven line starting at about 50 K is the actually measured receiver performance. It is interesting to compare the receiver noise with noise from the earth's atmosphere. The ideal situation is for a receiver mounted on a lossless antenna outside the earth's atmosphere. We can calculate the noise added to an earth-bound receiver to reach such an ideal. For an ALMA antenna on a very dry site at elevation 5 km, the earth's atmosphere would add 10 K to the noise of a Band 6 receiver. In this situation, the atmosphere adds about 20% to the measured noise of the Band 6 ALMA receiver. Thus, the sensitivity of millimeter receivers, such as Band 6, could still be improved somewhat, but for sub-millimeter receivers, such as Band 9, the earth's atmosphere adds a substantial amount of noise to the receiver contribution. Thus, ALMA receivers are close to ideal systems, especially in the sub-millimeter wavelength range where the earth's atmosphere contributes more noise.
It is worthwhile to present some of the principles needed to achieve the receiver noise temperatures of ALMA receivers. First, the receivers are superconducting devices, so-called Superconducting-Insulating-Superconducting (SIS) devices. The SIS is cooled to 4 Kelvin. The principle is that a flow of electrical current is hindered by the insulating layer. For a given receiver setting, the current will flow when the astronomical signal shines on the device. The SIS device has three useful properties: (1) converting radiation from the sky to electrical current, (2) by combining the frequency of the incoming astronomical signal with the one generated at the AOS building, converting the sky frequency to a much lower frequency (down-conversion), and (3) adding a minimum amount of noise to the astronomical signal. A specific example can be given for Band 7. The astronomical frequency could be, as an example, between 275 and 373 GHz (0.87 millimeters). If the astronomical signal of interest is at 345 GHz, this will be converted to 8 GHz (about 4 centimeters wavelength) with the signal properties such as amplitude, phase and sense of polarization preserved. The signal is then amplified. After amplification, the signal (plus a small amount of noise) is sent to the ALMA back end for transmission to the AOS building where it is combined with the outputs of the other ALMA antennas. Once combined, the outputs from 66 antennas are processed to produce an image.
Due to their nature, the SIS mixers contribute just a very small amount of electronic noise to the signal received, and give rise to only a small loss of the power entering the feed horn. As an example, if we are interested in a frequency range between 340 and 348 GHz in the sky, the astronomer or telescope operator first selects the corresponding band 7 receiver by offsetting the telescope and tilting the subreflector via the telescope control system. The power entering at 340 to 348 GHz is converted to a frequency of 4 to 12 GHz by the SIS mixer. The portion of sky frequencies to be measured is selected by the Local Oscillator (LO). This is an extremely stable, narrow band signal which is sent to all antennas. The power is subsequently increased by a vast amount, to 1 milli Watt, which is a power that can easily be processed.
Following the SIS mixer is another set of mixers that shift the single 4 to 12 GHz band into four bands, each from 2 to 4 GHz. This is done to allow identical electronics for the following stages. In each of those steps the information content of the signals (i.e. the relative frequencies, the relative intensities and, most important the phase, i.e. the timing of each wave) must be preserved. These 2 GHz wide bands, which are still analogue signals, are then digitized in the antennas. The digitized outputs are formatted to insure that no information is lost. These signals are now coded on top of signal of optical light, and transmitted on optic fibers, which are buried in the ground, to the Technical Building (TB) at the ALMA Operations Site (AOS) for further processing, needed to produce images. This process was alluded to in the description of "How ALMA will make images" in the last newsletter.
The preceding paragraph gives a correct, but not very informative description of how ALMA will function. A perhaps more enlightening version makes use of analogies. This is given in the following.
In Fig. 6 is a schematic of a single radio receiver of the type used in ALMA. These are referred to as heterodyne receivers. The system shown on the left has a box labeled "RF Amp". This is not present in the ALMA receiver Bands used so far but would be used in the lowest frequency receiver, Band 1, which will be working at such a low frequency that direct amplification is still possible. In ALMA, the final stage is not demodulation (detection with a square law device, that is, the output is the square of the input) but rather further processing of signals in the correlator. On the right are a series of sketches that show the time and frequency behavior of the signal voltage at each stage of the reception process. The topmost line is the signal received from the sky frequency (in the above example from 275-373 GHz). The time behavior shows very rapid variations. The next line shows the behavior in time and frequency if one would amplification at the sky frequency in a rather narrow range of frequencies. Here the time variations of the sky frequency input, are slower since the time variations are inversely proportional to the frequency range filtered out. On the next line, the center frequency of the input is lowered by the action of the mixer (in our example to a frequency range between 4 and 12 GHz). This is shown in the even slower oscillation time. The lowest two lines show the effect of the detection. There is an analogy for ALMA in that the variation of fringes in the correlation of two antennas is much slower than the variation of sky or IF frequencies.
One can consider a two element interferometer to understand the more complex ALMA system. On the left is a sketch of two elements. In the receivers, located after the antennas, there are a series of narrowly spaced parallel lines. These are frequency bands of 2GHz or less. This allows interferometric spectral line observing and also for continuum observation, since narrower frequency bands make signal processing simpler.
In the method shown, each of the antennas must be equipped with an identical set of filters. For a large system such as ALMA this would be a very formidable task. There is an alternative however (this is the system actually used for ALMA). In this approach, the outputs from the two antennas are sampled at equal times. These samples are shifted relative to each other in time and then multiplied. This process is referred to as correlation. When the correlated products are converted from time to frequency the results are completely equivalent to the setup with two sets of filters. However, the extension using this method to many antennas is rather simple. For the user of ALMA the complex scheme of amplifying, downconverting and processing of astronomical data will be very transparent (if he or she wishes) since the Observing Tool and the data reduction pipeline are designed to translate the scientific goals of ALMA users into system configurations and to convert the visibilities measured into image cubes.
"Preparing for ALMA" in the NRAO Synthesis Imaging Workshop
A "Preparing for ALMA" session was held as part of the 12th Synthesis Imaging Workshop in Socorro on June 8-15, 2010 in Socorro, NM. Over 150 students participated in the Workshop which included tutorials on data reduction and on ancillary programs. Also, end-to-end user tests have been executed under the guidance of the JAO. These have included proposal submission, technical assessment, judgement before a mock review committee, generation of observing instructions ('schedule blocks') for successful proposals and proposal tracking.
Attendees at the NRAO's Twelfth synthesis Imaging Workshop listen to a presentation by Claire Chandler, Deputy AD and Head of the Array Science Center. The school comprised of a week of lectures on aperture synthesis theory and techniques, including two days of data reduction tutorials. There were 154 participants from 14 countries. A majority of the participants were graduate students but undergraduates, postdocs, scientific and engineering staff and faculty also attended.
There are positions for astronomers to be filled in Chile, both as members of the Commissioning Team and in Operations. Commissioning is part of the ALMA construction project and is of course focussed on getting all of the components fully working as a unique telescope and verifying the quality of the data coming out, so we are looking for people with particular interest in and experience of instrumentation and in-depth data analysis. The Science Operations team is now being built up and there are posts to be filled covering a wide range of activities, including instrumentation and data analysis but also planning and scheduling.
Advertisements for these posts will appear in due course on the ALMA website and those of the ALMA partners, but we are always pleased to hear from qualified people who are keen to join the science team in Chile. If you are interested and well-qualified (i.e. with a doctorate and relevant experience) please do contact either Alison Peck ( Esta dirección electrónica esta protegida contra spambots. Es necesario activar Javascript para visualizarla ) or Lars Nyman ( Esta dirección electrónica esta protegida contra spambots. Es necesario activar Javascript para visualizarla ), rather than waiting for announcements to appear. In addition, there is a Visitor's Program in place for people who wish to participate in Chile for periods of about 3 months to a year.
2010 Asia-Pacific Radio Science Conference
The "2010 Asia-Pacific Radio Science Conference" (AP-RASC'10) will be held at Toyama International Conference Center, Toyama, Japan on September 22-26, 2010. The AP-RASC is the Asia-Pacific regional URSI conference held between the URSI General Assemblies. The objective of the AP-RASC is to review current research trends, present new discoveries, and make plans for future research and special projects in all areas of radio science, especially where international cooperation is desirable, and a particular emphasis is placed on promoting various research activities in the Asia-Pacific area. Scientific sessions composed of oral and poster papers will be organized at this conference in order to cover all scientific activities by URSI Commissions A-K:
A: Electromagnetic metrology.
Further details and a registration form are at:
Commission J: Radio Astronomy
Dates: September 22-26, 2010. Location: Toyama International Conference Center, Japan.
7th IRAM Interferometry School 2010
The 7th IRAM millimeter-interferometry school will take place from October 4th to 8th; it is intended for PhD students, post-docs and scientists who want to acquire a good knowledge of interferometry and data reduction techniques at millimeter wavelengths.
Dates: 4 to 8th October 2010. Location: IRAM headquarters. Grenoble, France.
Grote Reber Medal
The Reber Medal for outstanding and innovative contributions to radio astronomy is a prize specifically for radio astronomy. The nominations for the 2011 prize close on 15 October 2010.
The Reber Medal was established by the Trustees of the Grote Reber Foundation to honour the achievements of Grote Reber and is administered by the Queen Victoria Museum in Launceston, Tasmania. The 2010 Grote Reber Gold Medal has been awarded to Dr Alan Rogers, a Research Affiliate at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology Haystack Observatory. Rogers is being honoured for his many pioneering developments in radio and radar interferometry, radio spectroscopy, and for his application of radio astronomy techniques to society. The previous winners of the Grote Reber Medal have been Professor Bill Erickson (University of Maryland, 2005), Professor Bernard Mills (University of Sydney, 2006), Professor Govind Swarup (Tata Institute of Fundamental Research, 2007), Dr Sander Weinreb (Caltech-JPL, 2008) and Dr Barry Clark (NRAO, 2009).
To nominate an achiever in radio astronomy for the Medal, please send a covering letter and supporting material (e.g. CV and bibliography) to:
Martin George
Dates: October 15, 2010. Location: Queen Victoria Museum in Launceston, Tasmania.
Observing with ALMA - Early Science
The European ARC node at IRAM will be organizing a workshop on the ALMA Early Science, from Nov. 29th to Dec 1st. The goal of the workshop is to provide astronomers with the practical information needed to plan ALMA Early Science observations and answer the first Call for Proposals: status and performances of the instrument, preparing and submitting a proposal with the Observing Tool, etc.
Dates: 29 November to 1st December 2010. Location: IRAM headquarters. Grenoble, France.
Observing with ALMA - Special Session
At the 217th AAS meeting in Seattle 9-13 Jan 2011 there will be a Special Session -- "Observing with ALMA". The AAS has scheduled this session for Wednesday, 12 January 2011, 2:00-3:30 pm. Details will be forthcoming soon.
More information: http://aas.org/meetings/aas217
The Fifth NAASC Workshop will highlight transformational science enabled by modern high resolution wideband spectroscopy.
The National Research Council of Canada (NRC), the North American ALMA Science Center (NAASC), and the Center for Chemistry of the Universe (CCU) will jointly host a major science conference titled ALMA: Extending the Limits of Astrophysical Spectroscopy in Victoria, British Columbia, 15-17 January 2011. The website is now open for registration: http://www.almatelescope.ca/Spectroscopy2011/
The capabilities of new Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array (ALMA) instrumentation will be highlighted at this meeting via invited science talks in astronomy, astrophysics, and astrochemistry.
Over the next several years, the NRAO research facilities will provide the scientific community with unprecedented advances in high spatial resolution, broadband observing capabilities over frequency ranges that are sparsely covered by other facilities. ALMA will be capable of recording more than 2 GHz of instantaneous bandwidth at high spectral resolution and will routinely deliver high fidelity, high spatial resolution astronomical images. Spectroscopy is a vital tool to improve our understanding of the Universe, enabling scientists to probe physical and chemical environments, investigate kinematics and dynamics, and explore the high red-shift Universe while also obtaining abundances, concentrations, and temperatures of exotic molecular species.
In conjunction with the Spectroscopy conference, those arriving early on 14 January are invited to attend a panel discussion on ALMA Development, and on 17 January following the conference there will be an optional tour of the Herzberg Institute of Astrophysics.
Specific focus areas for this science conference will include:
* The Atomic Universe: Atomic Spectra as Probes of Cool Gas
Dates: 15-17 January 2011. Location: National Research Council of Canada, Victoria, British Columbia
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NMMI lawsuit moves to Carlsbad
Chaves County District Court judges bowed out of hearing the New Mexico Military Institute's lawsuit against its expelled Alumni Association, sending the contentious litigation [auth] to Eddy County.
The Institute filed the suit June 10 at the Chaves County Courthouse, asking the court to freeze all Association accounts—including $5.2 million in a Wells Fargo brokerage account and an estimated additional $1 million in unrestricted funds.
The case was assigned to 5th Judicial District Judge Steven Bell, who recused himself, or asked the court to be removed, June 18.
The court then reassigned the case to DistrictJudge Charles Currier, who asked to be recused Thursday.
The case was reassigned Friday to Judge Jane Shuler-Gray in Carlsbad. Gray, who was elected in 2006, is the first woman to serve as a district judge in the district. She presides over civil and criminal cases.
The Institute's Board of Regents ended its nearly 50-year relationship with the Association in April. After a failed negotiation period between the Institute and the Association, the non-profit was locked out of its offices on campus.
The Institute has since opened its own Office of Alumni Services.
The Institute's lawsuit asks the court to freeze the Association's funds "to preclude waste and misuse of the corporate assets;" stop the Association from using the Institute's logos, trademarks and name; place its funds into a trust until issues of management are resolved; appoint a receiver to handle the funds; and order the Association to account to the Institute for the funds it has received.
The Institute also asks the court to order the Association to transfer all monies it received for a charitable purpose to the NMMI Foundation—the Institute's non-profit arm that is supported by earnings on investments and revenues from real estate sales, operations and other donations.
The Association's newly named president, John Phinizy, vowed mid-June to "vigorously defend" the Association against NMMI's lawsuit and maintain control of the funds.
The group continues to operate as a non-profit and seek contributions. Phinizy confirmed during an interview June 20 that the Association hired an executive director, an accountant and an attorney.
The Association also signed a three-year, $1,200 lease for office space at the Best Western Sally Port Inn & Suites on North Main Street, according to ex-Association member Jerry Phifer.
Oddly, the Sally Port Inn leases its land from NMMI's Foundation.
Positive Investments Inc., of California, bought the hotel in 2006 and its remaining lease, owned by the "New Mexico Military Institute Foundation Inc." according to the Chaves County Assessor's Office.
The Foundation will meet 10 a.m. Friday, July 12.
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A 12/12/13 letter from Senator Charles Grassley to John Sandweg, Acting Director of ICE, with follow-up questions to a Homeland Security Investigations memo on security concerns with the EB-5 program.
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Accidently Broke a gas pump nozzle hose!
Okay, I was going to fill it up with premium, and I paid 15 dollars worth of gas. Went into the station, paid, and went back to my car. It didn't work, so I went back into the station and she said "I'm sorry, go to pump 5" I was in a rush because at that time the station was really busy, and I didn't want any one to get my gas. So the nozzle was still in my car, and I was rushing out for got to take it out, and drove off to the other pump. I heard a sound, and some one yelled dumb ass. Of course I almost started to cry a little because I was treated horrible as a little kid, and this happened. Just brought back a lot of memories, and of course I felt so freaking stupid. So what will happen? I went back into the store, and I thought the cashier knew and she said it's okay, but I'm just not sure she really knew what had happened. I filled up, and drove away all shakey, and felt very sick.
Also another factor which made me in a hurry was I pay my payments at the dealer where I got my car bi weekly. If I'm a few hours late they shut my car off. Now I'm worried, and stressing like hell.
What if some one wrote down my license plate number, or called the cops? I've passed at least two constables, and they didn't do any thing. I'm just scared.
Has any one did this before? I can't afford any fees, charges, or any thing.
Since I get paid very little I can't afford insurance of my own. I have the dealers in house insurance, and they don't give out proof of insurance. I still have to get liability in my name though, and since I'm only 20 it would make it even harder for me.
Please help me.
16 Attachment(s)
You have no idea how often that happens.
Chances are, you won't have to do anything since you spoke to the cashier and she let you off the hook.
You made a booboo, it happens.
Edit: Did some reading and apparently it is up to the gas station whether or not they pursue payment for the broken pump. It seems to me the girl was not trained in handling the situation because she should've alerted the manager and taken your contact information.
What brand of station did this occur at? This happens on average once a month at gas stations across the US and most stations leave it up to the managers whether or not they file a claim with insurance or press any charges. If the situation is handled poorly (like in this case where the cashier did not follow any type of procedure) it will be difficult for the station to put any blame on you. YOU talked to her, they'll have that on camera if they need to review it. She let you go without getting your contact info.
I wouldn't worry. If anything comes back to you make sure you've got your story and go into the situation with an apology. Those pumps are about $300 to fix and lord knows the gas companies make more than that every minute. The chances you'll have to pay for anything are minimal.
Pics or it didn't happen.
Dont worry about it, things like that happen all the time, you let the cashier know, you should be fine.
And get your own insurance. If something happens you'll be glad you have it.
Yeah, they installed a GPS device in my car. They do this to all their cars. If your a day late, and some times when their in a bad mood a few hours late for what ever reason they shut it off. When you try to start it nothing happens like there isn't a battery installed.
I don't think the cashier actually knew. I walked in there as scared, and embarrassed I was, and she said it's okay. I didn't have time to say any thing. So since I was scared I just walked out. She was with a lot of customers, and I didn't really want to say what I just did.
Like I wanted to take a picture of the biggest blond moment I've had in my life, lol.
Probably caught you on their Security Cameras..................
I think you NEED proof of insurance if you get pulled over...
Oh and don't go back to that station for a while LOL.
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Starving Horses Update
Published May 19th, 2009
We have an update tonight on the story of three starving horses rescued from a farm in Ocala.
Two of those horses have been upgraded to stable condition.
The third horse, a 4-month-old foal named Tonka died Monday night.
But his mother and another mare are now eating and maintaining a normal body temperature despite being so starved that they looked like walking skeletons.
A veterinarian came to the rescue farm - Beauty's Haven Farm and Equine Rescue in Morriston - and said the horses' conditions were improving.
Employees say charges are pending against the owner and caretakers.
Related Stories
- 2 Starving Horses Found Boarded Up in Stall
- Starved Horses and Ponies Moved
- Alachua County Sheriff's Deputies Rehabilitate Two Starved Horses
- Starving Horses in Ocala
- Starving Horses Recovering
- Equine Rescue Wants Justice for Starved Horses
- Starving Economy Hurts Large and Small Restaurants
- Buffalo Carcass left to Rot, Others Starving
- Horses Helping Horses event raises money for horses in need
- From Horse Jockey to Horse Doctor


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2011 marketplace progress was great! In couple of hours we will all be entering a whole new beautiful year with great expectations. Feel free to share your 2012 marketplace strategy.
- 1. What other marketplace do you intend to venture in 2012?
- 2. How do you intend to progress and enrich your portfolio?
- 3. What are your new year resolutions?
- 4. What are your 2012 targets?
- 5. And how do you intend to make a difference across all marketplaces so that anyone that sees your item even without your logo and your profile name will know that this file belongs to you? That is distinguishing your files from other authors.
I believe this thread will help you to start now to map out your plan for 2012 and how you will make more sales than you have ever made during the previous years.
I want to try entering in the tutorial market! I'm ready for it
I believe you will do exceeding well Giallo. Saw one of your tuts you posted here (forum), seeking for opinion. It look great! Keep up the good work mate!
Try my best at everything ! I am relatively new so I definitely need a well thought strategy.
Smaller, faster, easy for the eye themes And more of them. Buy a bike And get into the outdoors
PS. If you guys are fans of Top Gear, watch it. The new India special. I pissed my self laughing! GREAT !
One of my 2012 strategies is to venture/explore 'Themeforest'.
I joined on July 2011 and because I have been very busy with my other projects and productions, there was no time for me to upload my packages. I finally decided on 30/31 Sept. to invest my time on Envato as a whole and my 3-solid-month (from Oct to Dec) graphicriver experience was amazing and paid-off more than I expected. Thanks to all my loyal customers and Envato support. I can't thank you enough!
Godbless to all and may 2012 be far better for all both 'Envato staff and my co-authors'. Finally, "more grease to your elbow."
At first I wanted a Gold paw, but now i think about it, i reckon I can get into that elite club Gunna work my ass off these next 12 months!
quickandeasy said
At first I wanted a Gold paw, but now i think about it, i reckon I can get into that elite club Gunna work my ass off these next 12 months!
Sure thing! Hard work and right items are all it will take! Making your customers happy by giving them exactly what they need for their projects. However, to get to 'Ellite club' on-time, one needs to invest time on "Themeforest." It is one of Envato's most progressive marketplaces… as I see it.
It is, but I'm sure it can be done here with just as much effort. The time it would take me to learn to design websites, code them and wordpressify them, I probably could've design a billion flyers!
In fact, I bet reclameworks, indieground and rayzong aren't far from elite….


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Come one, come all, to the first Interhacktives meet-up, where we ask:
- How can online communities assist and enhance traditional journalism?
- What does a community manager actually do?
- Which are the most useful social media and online tools?
At this meet-up four experienced industry panellists will talk about their experiences of community journalism, with plenty of time for questions from the audience and a chance to meet other people working in this field.
Date: Wednesday 13th March 2013
Time: 7pm
Venue: The Blacksmith & The Toffeemaker
Location: Angel, Islington
It gives us great pleasure to announce our excellent speakers:
Nick Petrie is Social Media and Campaigns Editor at The Times and The Sunday Times. Interested in communities, conversations and storytelling, he founded Wannabe Hacks, a popular site for would-be journalists.
Hannah Waldram is a Community Coordinator at the Guardian, working to engage with online readers and enhance storytelling through experimentation with new tools. A dance enthusiast with a background in hyper-local journalism, she co-founded the #cmLDN meet-ups.
Sarah Drinkwater runs a team of community managers at Google who persuade city dwellers to share their favourite places, from parks to cafes. She sees citizen journalism as very similar, her job being to encourage useful, high-quality debate. "It's democratising opinions; sometimes the critic is wrong and your best friend is right."
Tom Phillips is International Editor at MSN. A hat-wearing ex-comedian, he runs the Is Twitter Wrong? verification service to debunk myths and separate facts from fiction.
It's free to come along, but please reserve your place here.
For anyone with an interest in community management, social media and journalism.
[…] I'm also joining them for a pint to chat all things community on March 13th, feel free to swing by […]
[…] other group have set up a community journalism themed meetup, 'Meet the Managers', in Islington on Wednesday 13 March 2013, also featuring Nick […]


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Moderators: gotduck68415, HoCoHunter
Snafu518 wrote: I guess if I drove the 48, I would try and help my wife out also. :mrgreen:
Snafu518 wrote:38 days till Richmond......
gahunter wrote:snafu you are right on the money about the 48 and 24
gahunter wrote:I agree, it ain't gonna be McMurray and who gives a crap if he does or doesn't. :laughing: I sure don't. Were you maybe meaning Carl Edwards?
Snafu518 wrote:I want to pick "smoke" to win it all this year. He is on fire, and I don't see any firefighters around to put him out. I might change this halfway thru the homestead race depending who is doing better.
Snafu518 wrote:MM77, are you saying that the 24 is kissing the 48's boo-boo's?
:getdown: I hope JJ is ok...but you have to make fun of it.
Snafu518 wrote:Anybody that says they never cheer when a driver they don't like gets wreaked out of a race, pukes an engine, has a tire go down, is a liar. As long as they are OK that is.
Snafu518 wrote:I would love to see him win in that car just to give hendrick a silent middle finger. Even if that finger is only in my own mind.
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By Eagle1 • DEVALUING THE U.S. DOLLAR
With all the comments that have been made during the past few weeks, and expressions of concern over the coming devaluation of the U.S. Dollar, it seemed appropriate to answer concerns and questions for everyone. Let me see if I can provide a bit of background info first.
In 1973, Richard Nixon took the U.S. off the gold standard and allowed the U.S. Dollar to float freely, along with gold. All monies printed after that lacked any kind of asset backing. They simply were declared to have value, backed by "the full faith and credit" of the U.S. Treasury.
Hence, the concept of "fiat." I've referred to it for a long time as "funny money" since there was nothing to back it. The U.S. Dollar has pretty much been like playing the game of Monopoly. In Monopoly, the money is only as good as the game participants say it is.
In 2002, as concerns began to mount over growing national debt — not only in the U.S., but in many nations around the world, most notably within the European Union — George W. Bush initiated a cooperative effort to help restructure and avert an impending crash of the world economies.
As part of a joint project with the IMF, the UN and the World Bank, a plan was initiated under the rather bland title of the Basel III Protocols.
One of the primary parts of these protocols was a move to restructure world currencies in order to get rid of the fiat monies being printed by central banks and circulated world-wide creating crazy cycles of inflation and economic crashes or (in some cases) depression-like results among certain countries.
Studies were implemented by the IMF and various organs of the UN on the short-term and long-term economic effects of large-scale currency devaluations and "appreciations" in order to determine what the best approach would be to implement such a plan.
Previous such studies had taken place with widely differing and contradictory results, and the parties to Basel III needed agreement between themselves in order to proceed effectively.
There's a much longer story and history behind Bush's efforts that I won't take the time to go into today. Suffice it to say that [from what I know, and have seen] he was trying to fulfill and complete a plan originally created by President Reagan and sabotaged by folks who had a different agenda.
A major part of Reagan's plan was to put the U.S. back on some kind of solid footing and eliminate the economic risks associated with "funny money." In addition, Reagan wanted to provide a reserve of funds within the U.S. Treasury so that Americans could have respite from federal taxation and the government could operate in the near-term without digging into everyone's pockets.
Not since the early days of America's existence had such a thing existed! In fact, Andrew Jackson was the last President to actually pay off the national debt. (Here's a funny unrelated tidbit for you: John C. Calhoun, who was Jackson's Vice-President was one of Della's ancestors.)
President Bush and his economic team concluded that it wouldn't help much if the U.S. was the only country on solid footing.
Through joint cooperation between the IMF, the World Bank and the U.S. Treasury, the Basel III Protocols were initiated to put all of the major currencies of the world back on some kind of asset-backed basis.
Knowing there wasn't enough gold in the world to put everyone on the gold standard, a decision was made to add other kinds of assets — silver, diamonds, various minerals, oil, water, agricultural produce, etc. — some of which each country was likely to hold in order to establish some kind of realistic asset base.
When the Iraq War began in 2003 over the WMD issue, (and the WMD issue was real — not contrived like the left media has screamed) the removal of Saddam Hussein and the inclusion of the Iraqi Dinar became a major boon to what was going to be referred to as the Global Currency Reset (or GCR).
Prior to Saddam's invasion of Kuwait in 1990, the IQD had been worth $3.22. Following Saddam's invasion, sanctions were placed on Iraq by the IMF and the IQD crashed in value, sinking as far as 4000/1.
After the U.S. led invasion of Iraq toppled the Saddam Hussein regime, Iraqi national (and financial wizard) Dr. Synan al-Shabibi was brought in from the IMF to take over the Central Bank, and a gradual rise in the value of the Dinar began. (Here's another tidbit for you, folks! Shabibi's picture is back up on the CBI website as the Governor of the Central Bank.)
The GCR was kicked into high gear when U.S. soldiers discovered enormous veins of gold in Iraq, right under the streets of Baghdad, when they were digging their defensive trenches and foxholes.
Suddenly, there was a whole lot more gold in the world than anyone had considered. We had pictures of some of that posted here on the forum two or three years ago.
With the U.S. having been so over-leveraged, debt-ridden (our true debt exceeds $83 Trillion — not the $16+ reported in the media) and on a spending-spree driven by the current administration, there is no way that the GCR can do anything but devalue the USD.
The actual amount of devaluation will somewhat be cushioned by whatever the final rate of the IQD turns out to be when the rate is released — and if we see an RI, the rate will surely float or be kicked up methodically to a full RV.
The reason why the USD devaluation could be mitigated by the RI/RV of the IQD is because of the amount of IQD held by the U.S. Treasury.
In 2003, when George W. Bush said on national television that the Iraq War was fully paid for (and the leftmedia scoffed and mocked him for saying so), he wasn't kidding.
The U.S. Treasury had provided access to $400 Billion for Shabibi to begin the process of rebuilding and restructuring the Iraqi economic platform.
In exchange for that $400B, we received trillions of IQD — IQD which the U.S. could hold as part of its asset base to back the Dollar, and a portion of which would be used to purchase oil from Iraq at a favorable price.
A worst-case scenario for the Dollar when the reset takes place could be a devaluation of 40-60%. How that devaluation is actually implemented is a process [I believe] still in flux. Should we get a true RV with an IQD exchange rate of $7+ (as I noted roughly a year ago when it appeared as an FRA on the Frankfurt and Paris FOREX exchanges) the devaluation of the USD could actually be in the 30-40% range.
Either way, folks are going to take a hit in their pocket books — at least in the short run. As other world currencies go through their restructuring during the remainder of the year, the effect of the USD devaluation will be mitigated and compensated for, and Americans will find that the Dollar is actually worth something for the first time in many years.
The short-term chaos in our markets will yield to some longer-term stability.
Now, let me say one more thing and I'll quit. Unless our administration and/or successive administrations repent from their socialist, spendthrift, steal-from-the-rich-to-give-to-the-poor, Robin Hood mentality and practices, the reprieve we get from the GCR will be short-lived.
In five-to-seven years we will again be bankrupt, and there will be no more GCR to fix things. We will see firsthand the Revelation 18 scenario unfold before our eyes as utter collapse takes place to the entire "Babylonian" system. That's a topic I won't delve into here, but plan to address at a later time — most likely in the regular Coffee Break series that I publish.
I honestly believe that the GCR is a reprieve for the body of Christ to take advantage of the greatest transfer of wealth from the wicked to the righteous in the history of the human race.
The purpose is to advance the Kingdom of God, to provide an unlimited flow of finances in order to ensure that the Gospel of the Kingdom goes forth unhampered and unhindered, and that the Lord Jesus Christ has for Himself a company of people — a Bride who has readied herself for Him, and is truly His Counterpart and Other Self! There! Was that a windy-enough explanation? Blessings on you. Eagle1


text: Almost once, on a bulldog. He attacked the two dogs I was walking, but retreated before I could get unholstered (it's not easy to unholster while holding the leashes of two dogs engaged in a fight). I'd be pleased as punch if that is the closest I come to ever justifying my sidearm :)


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Type of Document Master's Thesis Author Arro, Jie Alojado Author's Email Address email@example.com URN etd-01202005-134859 Title Genetic Diversity among Sugarcane Clones Using Target Region Amplification Polymorphism (TRAP) Markers and Pedigree Relationships Degree Master of Science (M.S.) Department Agronomy & Environmental Management Advisory Committee
Advisor Name Title Collins Kimbeng Committee Chair Kenneth Gravois Committee Member Prasanta Subudhi Committee Member Keywords
- molecular markers
- trap
- coefficient of parentage
- genetic diversity
- sugarcane
Date of Defense 2004-12-15 Availability unrestricted AbstractGenetic diversity is indispensable to sustain genetic gain in breeding programs. Cultivated sugarcane is a highly heterozygous hybrid derived from crossing two highly heterozygous parents. Sugarcane breeders traditionally rely on pedigree records to select parents. Molecular markers now make it possible to assess genetic diversity at the DNA level. Sixty three sugarcane clones were characterised using Target Region Amplification Polymorphism (TRAP) markers and pedigree relationship (Coefficient of parentage (COP)). The TRAP is a PCR-based marker with a fixed primer designed from Expressed Sequence Tag (EST) sequences paired with an arbitrary primer. It is supposed to unravel trait based polymorphism in the intronic- or exonic-regions of the genome. Ten genes evidently involved in sucrose accumulation (SUC), cold tolerance (CT) and trichome development (TRICH) were paired with four arbitrary primers. A total of 3,170 bands were scored of which 2,684 (85%) were polymorphic. Cluster and Multi Dimensional Scaling (MDS) analyses revealed a very narrow genetic diversity among the entries with genetic similarity (GS) ranging from 78 to 94%. Parentage did not seem to contribute to the grouping pattern in either the overall or individual gene family (SUC, CT and TRICH) clusters which was confirmed by the lack of correlation (r = -0.008) between the TRAP and COP-derived GS matrices. The complex genome of sugarcane and the strict assumptions inherent with estimating COP may account for this disparity. Analysis of Molecular Variance (AMOVA) revealed no structure in the population with regards to era of release (Pre- versus post-1980) with among clones accounting for up to 99% of the total variation and only 1% of variation attributable to era of release. Mixed Model Analysis on the MDS axes generally revealed no significant differences among era of release. Thus, pedigree records can enhance interpretation of marker-derived information especially in an interspecific crop like sugarcane where ancestral species possess and contribute different characteristics. Results from this study needs to be supplemented with sequence analysis of TRAP fragments to definitively relate the derived information to trait variation. Files
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28.8 Modem 56K Modem ISDN (64 Kb) ISDN (128 Kb) Higher-speed Access Arro_thesis.pdf 3.70 Mb 00:17:08 00:08:49 00:07:43 00:03:51 00:00:19
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In 2000, the American Muslim Political Coordinating Council, comprised of four major organizations, endorsed George W. Bush for President. The criteria for the endorsement were opposition to using secret evidence in trials and providing access to the Muslim community to government. For the 2004 Presidential Race, 10 Muslim organizations formed the American Muslim Taskforce (AMT), a group organized to advocate for civil rights and access to government through the electoral process. AMT is led by the experienced stewardship of Dr. Agha Saeed, who has dedicated his time and efforts to marshal the civil rights of American Muslims. In pursuit of increased dialogue among Muslim organizations, MPAC worked with AMT while choosing not to be a member of the umbrella group.
President Bush's appointments of neo-conservatives have raised questions on the direction of our country and the deterioration of civil liberties. These actions have overshadowed the positive statements he has made about Islam, especially during the sensitive moments immediately after 9/11. Frozen assets of American Muslim charities have been consumed by legal and administrative costs at the expense of the donors' First Amendment right to freely practice the fifth pillar of Islam, zakat (charity). We are disappointed in the performance of the Bush Administration, and polls suggest that American Muslims are ready to support the challenger, Senator John Kerry, for President.
Our response to those polls, however, should not be a reactionary blank check endorsement for the Senator from Massachusetts. We believe that he should have demonstrated a personal interest in American Muslim issues to receive such a gesture of confidence. At the very least, he should have met with Muslim communities in battleground states, such as Michigan, Ohio, Pennsylvania or Florida. Or, he should have met with American Muslim community leaders. Instead, Senator Kerry chose to avoid us, probably out of political calculation that right-wing pundits would pounce on him for being seen with Muslims. In contrast, Governor Jean Shaheen and Senator Ted Kennedy, whose leadership in addressing issues of importance to our communities should be commended, met with Muslim community leaders. We also thank those staffers in the Kerry campaign who reached out to American Muslim organizations and lobbied for courting our vote.
A major factor in our decision is that we simply don't know what the Senator thinks about issues of concern to the American Muslim community. To endorse someone we have never met is reckless. We are, therefore, going to continue to provide analysis of the distinctions between President Bush and Senator Kerry. We also expect from our community an 80% voter turnout. Based on the recent political history of American Muslims, that goal is achievable, and exit polls will determine in whose favor the American Muslim community voted. An endorsement is far too important to give away without delivering solid promises to the community that their interests will be of paramount importance to the next President. Leaders of other religious and ethnic communities throughout our country do not endorse unless they receive such promises. We should not be any different.
The role of American Muslim leadership is not to simply amplify the will of the popular vote; rather, it is to encourage elected officials to engage with American Muslims on a variety of levels. The popular vote is political engagement at the popular level. Engaging with the voters as a collective group is accomplished by meeting with community leaders. While polls indicate that Kerry will get the vast majority of American Muslim votes, it is the candidates' responsibility to demonstrate their interest and commitment to the community. As marshals of the American Muslim interest, we cannot report that Senator Kerry has been willing to engage with American Muslims in a substantive manner and, therefore, we cannot in good conscience offer him our endorsement.
We trust the political judgment and maturity of American Muslim voters. In this election, Muslim voters must vote their conscience based on what is best for themselves, their communities and their country. Our decision not to endorse a candidate in the 2004 Presidential election must not be viewed as a directive for American Muslims to reconsider their decision. Rather it is a reminder that although candidates are willing to take our votes, they are not yet willing to announce such to the country.
Omar Ricci is a board member of the Los Angeles-based Muslim Public Affairs Council.


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By pulping, which operation is performed in pulping engines or beaters, the washing is expeditious and thorough.
In return, they taught him to milk, and let him do little jobs—chopping hay or pulping turnips—just as much as he liked.
At least two score of different makes of pulping machines are in use in the various coffee-growing countries.
The process of pulping is simplicity itself; the trees are felled in the forests on the hillsides close by, and sawn into blocks.
The materials are thoroughly washed and treated with lime and soda before and after pulping.
It may be pulped by some of the pulping machines now in use, the day it is gathered, then washed and dried.
The process above described is the old method of pulping the potatoes by using steam.
pulping of its tissue existed over a wide area both at the points of entrance and of exit.
Well, I think that pulping sprucepaper spruceis likely to be scarce soon.
The pulping being complete, the contents are run into poachers for the final washing.
c.1400, "fleshy part of a fruit or plant," from Latin pulpa "animal or plant pulp; pith of wood," earlier *pelpa, perhaps from the same root as pulvis "dust," pollen "fine flour" (see pollen); extended to other similar substances by early 15c. The adjective meaning "sensational" is from pulp magazine (1931), so called from pulp in sense of "type of rough paper used in cheaply made magazines and books" (1727). As a genre name, pulp fiction attested by 1943 (pulp writer "writer of pulp fiction" was in use by 1939). The opposite adjective in reference to magazines was slick.
1660s "reduce to pulp" (implied in pulping), from pulp (n.). As "to remove the pulp from," from 1791. Related: Pulped.
1660s "reduce to pulp" (implied in pulping), from pulp (n.). As "to remove the pulp from," from 1791. Related: Pulped.
pulp (pŭlp)
A soft, moist, shapeless mass of matter.
Dental pulp.
The soft, moist part of fruit.
The soft tissue, containing blood vessels and nerves, that makes up the interior of the tooth.
: a pulp romance
A magazine printed on rough paper and devoted to adventure, science fiction, cowboy stories, rude erotica, etc (1931+)


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Home repossession figures are expected to show an increase tomorrow as the troubled economy starts to take its toll on households.
he Council of Mortgage Lenders (CML), which will release records for the second quarter of 2012, predicts that repossessions will rise from 37,000 in 2011 to 45,000 this year, as people's budgets remain under pressure at a time of high unemployment and low wage rises.
There were 9,600 repossessions in the first quarter of this year, representing a 10 per cent increase on the last three months of 2011, but stable when compared with a year earlier.
The body, whose members include banks and building societies, has said that lenders' forbearance has helped to ease the situation, with some reducing rates temporarily, as well as extending payment dates.
But explaining its prediction in its fortnightly newsletter yesterday, the CML said: "Continuing economic and employment uncertainty, combined with the effect on household finances of higher living costs and squeezed incomes, have led us to forecast an increase in the number of cases of repossession to 45,000 this year."
More than a million home owners saw their mortgage rates rise in May, following a string of increases announced by lenders, blaming the weak economy and the increased funding costs.
Lenders have also been tightening their borrowing criteria in recent months, causing a drop in the proportion of mortgage approvals, making it tougher for people to get a mortgage or switch to a cheaper deal.
The CML has called for the Government to extend some temporary benefit arrangements for at least another year to help those who are struggling.
It said that repossessions have so far been kept down to a much greater extent than predicted due to the Support for Mortgage Interest (SMI) scheme, which helps those who are having trouble with their mortgage payments.
The body has said the decision to offer SMI on more generous terms, which are due to be scaled back next year, has helped nearly 250,000 people to remain in their homes at any one time.
The Government has said the SMI payments system, which costs £400 million a year, is not sustainable.
A Department for Work and Pensions spokeswoman said: "We are committed to supporting people to stay in their own homes when times are hard but we also need to find the right balance between making a reasonable contribution to owner-occupiers' housing costs and providing value for money for the taxpayer.
"We are looking at how the scheme should operate in the future and we will provide an update on future policy as soon as possible."
- More about:
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1 bookable site within 40 miles of Maldon
Waldegraves Holiday and Leisure Park
Colchester, Essex, England Show on mapLast booked
|Gold 3 bedroom static caravan
|6 x
|From £139/€157.79/A$233.30/US$176.17/CA$234.84/CHF171.46/kr1,546.16/kr1,178.97/kr1,502.70/kr18,533/$2,883.82/$115,833/PEN577.72/NZ$243.13/R2,305.14/zł672.80/R$588.24/Kč4,161.68/RSD19,306 per 4 nights
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Shangri-La Rasa Sayang Resort and Spa - Penang
Penang or Pulau Pinang ~ Batu Feringgi Beach ~ 5 star resort and spa
Room Type
304 elegant and spacious guestrooms and suites, within which are 12 types of room categories, with sizes ranging from 42 to 242 square metres
Room Description
Most rooms and suites have breath-taking views of the sea, grounds and gardens and are facilitated with an in-room locker, data port for Internet and facsimile, IDD telephone with voice mail, satellite television with non-stop in-house movies, individually controlled air-conditioning, tea and coffee making facility, iron and ironing board, a stocked mini bar, non-allergic pillows and stationary.
Rasa Wing ~ Rasa Wing is an exclusive wing set amid the lush Shangri-La gardens. The 26 Rasa Deluxe Rooms on the ground floor boasts a private verandah and 26 square metres of private garden providing direct access to the resort's expansive garden grounds and swimming pools. In additon, the 52 Rasa Premier Rooms on the upper floors at 62 square metres offer all the refinements of a suite in one spacious room including a bathtub on the balcony. All guests staying in the Rasa Wing are entitled to complimentary champagne, wine, cocktail, juices and canapes throughout the day (alcoholic beverage service starts right after breakfast until 7:30 pm), a la carte breakfast at the Feringgi Grill, personalized smooth and quick check in and check out in the room, shoe shine service, tea and coffee facilities in the room, welcome amenities and tea service for all guests upon check in, welcome gifts for all female guests, turn down amenities and service, personalized concierge service.For all Rasa Wing Suites, guests are entitled to personal butler service, laptop on request, bath service, personalized stationery and fax machine
Facilities & Activities
Spice Market Café is a casual restaurant serving local and western cuisine, Feringghi Grill serves Western with vegetarian options, Feringgi Bar serves Cocktails & Canapés , Tepi Laut serves Poolside lunch menu with vegetarian options, Pinang at the poolside serves lunch and caters for themed evenings with vegetarian options, Rasa Wing Lounge. CHI, The Spa at Rasa Sayang Resort offers a holistic form of rejuvenation and relaxation. Inspired by traditional Asian healing philosophies, treatments are based upon the principles of restoring balance and harmony to mind and body. The Spa Boutique , Yoga Studio , jungle trekking, beach walks, nature walks and bird watching. Informative tours such as visits to nearby villages and traditional houses are also available. Within the Resort's 30 acres of lush gardens are three swimming pools, including a safe and fun children's pool, a Par-3 Executive Golf Course, a children's playground and floodlit tennis courts ; Baby-sitting / Child Care, Business Centre, Gift Shop, Hair / Beauty Salon, Butler Service in Suites (Rasa Wing only), Hospitality Lounge, Laundry & Valet Service, Non-smoking Rooms, Florist, Foreign Exchange Counter, Complimentary Shoe-shine Service, Cigar Shop, Conference Facilities, Parking Facilities, Photo Processing Service, Postal / Courier Service, Safe Deposit Box, Facilities for the Disable
Car Rental Service, Airport Transfer, limousine service, City Shuttle Service, Clinic, Travel Agency / Tour Desk
Rasa Sayang Room Rates ~ valid till 31st March 2015 (rates based on per apartment)
|Suite Category
|Low Season (Nett)
|Shoulder Season (Nett)
|Peak Season (Nett)
Min 05 nights stay
|Garden Wing
|Deluxe Garden View
|RM 835 nett
|RM 970 nett
|RM 1210 nett
|Deluxe Seaview
|RM 1000 nett
|RM 1240 nett
|RM 1390 nett
|Superior Family Room
|RM 975 nett
|RM 1145 nett
|RM 1310 nett
|Deluxe Family Room
|RM 1095 nett
|RM 1260 nett
|RM 1420 nett
|Executive Family Room
|RM 1240 nett
|RM 1398 nett
|RM 1588 nett
|Rasa Wing
|Low Season (Nett)
|Shoulder Season (Nett)
|Peak Season (Nett)
|Rasa Superior
|RM 945 nett
|RM 1108 nett
|RM 1268 nett
|Rasa Deluxe
|RM 1540 nett
|RM 1698 nett
|RM 1899 nett
|Rasa Premier
|RM 1920 nett
|RM 1998 nett
|RM 2250 nett
* All rates are inclusive of 10% Service Charge and 6% Government Tax * Rates are subject to change without prior notice
|16 Jun 14 - 31 Aug 14 ; 06 Jan 15 - 31 Mar 15
|19 Dec 14 - 05 Jan 15
|~ Min 05 nights stay
|Compulsory New Year's Eve CountdownParty at Ballroom
|~MYR348.00nett per adult
|~MYR174.00nett per child
|Family Room
|~Rooms are inclusive of breakfast for 02 Adults & 02 children below 12 yrs old
|Bedding configuration
|~Superior Family - 01 King + 01 Single bed
|~Deluxe Family - 01 King + 02 Single beds
|~Executive Family - 01 King + 02 Single beds
|Family Plan
|~Child = 06 - 11 yrs old
|~Max 01 child below 12 yrs of age sharing the same room with parents
|~01 extra bed / rollaway will be provided free of charge, subject to availability
|~Complimentary buffet meals for max of 01 child
|Rasa Wing Benefits
|~Ala Carte breakfast at the Feringgi Grill, Rasa Wing from 0700hrs - 1030hrs daily
|~Afternoon-Tea is served at the Rasa Lounge from 1500hrs - 1600hrs daily
|~Selected alcoholic beverages including cocktails are served at Rasa Lounge from 1800hrs - 1900hrs daily (charges are applicable after 1900hrs)
|~Pre-dinner canapes are served at the Rasa Lounge from 1800hrs-1900hrs daily (charges are applicable to invited guest).
|~Tea, coffee, juices and soft drinks are served throughout the day at Rasa Lounge
|~Complimentary coffee, tea and soft drinks are served at the Rasa Wing Pool from 0900hrs-1700hrs.
|~Complimentary wireless internet access at the Rasa Lounge
|~Shoeshine services
|~Late check out till 1500hrs - subject to availability
|Notes :
|~The Rasa Wing Lounge is located on the ground floor of the Rasa Wing and is open from 0700hrs - 2300hrs daily.
|~Smart casual attire is required at Rasa Wing Lounge (gentlemen with long pants).
|~The resort discourage the presence of young children at Rasa Wing Lounge from 1800hrs - 1900hrs
|~Rasa Wing swimming pool is strictly for guest of 16 yrs and above
|Extra bed - Rasa Wing
|~Rasa Superior & Rasa Dlx = Sofa bed.
|~Rasa Premier = Rollaway bed
|Bonus Free Nights
|Validity : 01 Apr 14 - 15 Jun 14 & 01 Sep 14 - 18 Dec 14
|Applicable to Deluxe Garden View, Deluxe Seaview, Rasa Superior, Rasa Deluxe and Rasa Premier
|~Stay 05, Pay 04
|~Stay 07, Pay 05
|~Stay 10, Pay 07
|Notes :
|~Free night inclusive of breakfast
|~Maximum 03 free nights
|~Combinable with Honeymoon Offer only
|Honeymooners Special
|Applicable to Rasa Superior and Rasa Deluxe
|~Fruit platter in room on arrival, chocolates,welcome drink, and a bottle of sparkling wine
|~Guaranteed king sized bed
|~Complimentary room upgrade from Rasa Superior to Rasa Deluxe OR Rasa Deluxe to Rasa Premier,subject to availability
|Notes :
|~Proof of marriage certificate is required upon check-in
|~Combinable with Bonus Free Nights only
|Cross Signing
|Cross signing facilities are available between Traders Hotel Penang, Golden Sands Resort and Shangri-La's Rasa Sayang Resort & Spa, Penang, in respect of all chargeable facilities and services available at the prevailing applicable rates.
|Check-in and Check-out
|Check-in : 1400hrs
|Check-out : 1200hrs
**Please Note that there will be a non-refundable handling charge on payment made. Conditions apply.


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DENVER, Colo. – The Western Athletic Conference (WAC) has announced that 14 members of the NAU swimming & diving team have received Academic All-WAC honors for the 2011-12 season. Five more Lumberjacks had qualifying grade point averages and may be added to the list following the spring semester, at which time they will have completed one academic year at the university and qualify for the award.
"After the great GPA we had in the fall this is another nice honor for the girls to receive for all their hard work in the classroom," NAU head coach Andy Johns said. "We're proud of their achievements and its part of the goals and expectations of the program to do a great job in the pool and in the classroom."
To be eligible for Academic All-WAC honors, a student-athlete must have completed at least one academic year, have at least a 3.00 cumulative grade point average and have participated in at least 50 percent of the team's contests.
In posting a program-record 3.44 team GPA during the fall semester, NAU tied for the 14th best grade point average among all Division-I women's swimming & diving teams in the nation according to the College Swimming Coaches Association of America (CSCAA) Scholar All America Team. The team had seven student-athletes - Fi Connell, Andrea Derflinger, Ashani Gottlieb, Alexis Juergens, Emily Lewandowski, Rachel Palmer, and Stirling Smith - record perfect 4.00 GPAs during the fall semester.
With the 14 selections from the swimming & diving program, NAU student-athletes have now totaled 104 All-Academic conference selections during the 2011-12 academic year. Here are the swimming & diving honorees:
Cassie Anderson - Sr.
Kristy Ardavanis - Jr.
Tori Braudaway - So.
Jordan Burnes - So.
Fi Connell - Jr.
Andrea Derflinger - So.
Holly Frost - Sr.
Ashani Gottlieb - So.
Kristin Jones - Sr.
Emma Lowther - So.
Kelsey Loy - Jr.
Krista Maier - Sr.
Rachel Palmer - So.
Stirling Smith - So.


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Wisława Szymborska, 1923-2012
The Associated Press and The Polish Cultural Institute have both just reported that poet Wislawa Szymborska died today. More:
Her personal secretary says that Poland's 1996 Nobel Prize-winning poet Wislawa Szymborska has died. She was 88.
Michal Rusinek said Wednesday that Szymborska died "quietly, in her sleep." She resided in the southern city of Krakow.
The Nobel award committee's citation called her the "Mozart of poetry," a woman who mixed the elegance of language with "the fury of Beethoven."
Szymborska has been called both deeply political and playful, a poet who used humor in unforeseen ways.
The winner of the Goethe Prize in 1991 and, yes, the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1996 (her Nobel speech can be read here), Szymborska once said, "I prefer the absurdity of writing poems to the absurdity of not writing poems." Also a translator and essayist, her poetic output was small and careful, with no more than 250 published poems. Poems New and Collected, in English, was published in 2000. Other collections of her poems that have been translated into English include People on a Bridge (1990), View with a Grain of Sand: Selected Poems (1995), and Monologue of a Dog (2005).
"Hence the indispensable / silver lining," you can read and listen to her poem "Consolation" here. As well, read "Clouds," below.
I'd have to be really quick
to describe clouds—
a split second's enough
… for them to start being something else.
Their trademark:
they don't repeat a single
shape, shade, pose, arrangement.
Unburdened by memory of any kind,
they float easily over the facts.
What on earth could they bear witness to?
They scatter whenever something happens.
Compared to clouds,
life rests on solid ground,
practically permanent, almost eternal.
Next to clouds
even a stone seems like a brother,
someone you can trust,
while they're just distant, flighty cousins.
Let people exist if they want,
and then die, one after another:
clouds simply don't care
what they're up to
down there.
And so their haughty fleet
cruises smoothly over your whole life
and mine, still incomplete.
They aren't obliged to vanish when we're gone.
They don't have to be seen while sailing on.
— Wisława Szymborska
(Translated by Stanisław Barańczak and Clare Cavanagh)
Posted in Uncategorized on Wednesday, February 1st, 2012 by Harriet Staff.


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text:
Trinity Washington University Rules the World
Before it became a university that has been justly praised for educating low- and middle-income African American women from D.C., Trinity Washington University was Trinity College, a small Catholic liberal-arts college for women, a number of whom came from political families on the East Coast. Famous alumnae include Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi, former Kansas Governor and current Secretary of Health and Human Services Kathleen Sibelius…and Cathleen Black, the newly appointed chancellor of New York City Public Schools. I don't know if it's a coincidence that the same institution that sent such a disproportionate number of graduates into the halls of power also made the unusual transition to pursuing a socially responsible educational mission rather than grabbing for the brass ring of exclusivity, but it's interesting in any case.Return to Top


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In the name of the Lord Jesus Christ, we appeal to such people--no, we command them: Settle down and get to work. Earn your own living.
2 Pray, too, that we will be saved from wicked and evil people, for not everyone believes in the Lord.
3 But the Lord is faithful; he will make you strong and guard you from the evil one.
4 And we are confident in the Lord that you are practicing the things we commanded you, and that you always will.
5 May the Lord bring you into an ever deeper understanding of the love of God and the endurance that comes from Christ.
7 For you know that you ought to follow our example. We were never lazy when we were with you.
8 We never accepted food from anyone without paying for it. We worked hard day and night so that we would not be a burden to any of you.
10 Even while we were with you, we gave you this rule: "Whoever does not work should not eat."
12 In the name of the Lord Jesus Christ, we appeal to such people--no, we command them: Settle down and get to work. Earn your own living.
13 And I say to the rest of you, dear brothers and sisters, never get tired of doing good.
14 Take note of those who refuse to obey what we say in this letter. Stay away from them so they will be ashamed.
16 May the Lord of peace himself always give you his peace no matter what happens. The Lord be with you all.
17 Now here is my greeting, which I write with my own hand--PAUL. I do this at the end of all my letters to prove that they really are from me.
18 May the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with you all.