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I must have missed spring. Woke up at 4:30 to find several inches of snow on the ground, winds blowing about 30 mph and a two hour school delay. This is April? Back to the Y for 30 minutes on the ARC trainer, 30 minutes on the bike and 45 minutes of upper body weights and core work. My poor kids are moving today.
Mike - your stories remind me a lot of my childhood. We never got a television until I was in 1st or 2nd grade. Black and white of course. For a special treat my mother got one of those filmy screens in blue (sky), green (grass) and red (???) that you put over the television to make it look "colored." That woman could figure out more ways to stretch a food budget with six kids and a husband who chose not to work. She even diluted the skim milk by putting powdered milk and water in it.
Hope the weather is better where you live today...
Bushrat Runner
The weather in Wenatchee is supposed to turn rugged this afternoon...still waiting for papers...would like to leave before the wind gets over 30 kts...I'm too chicken to take off if the wind gets higher than that...
Troy Hamon
14 Days to Alaska
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Valley Road Run
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does high 40's count as spring - 30 degree drop from yesterday, but no snow.
Boston alert: work at the finish line has begun - no parking from today thru april 18th. extra room for bicycling on the road to work
Morning JLynne and Troy!
Mary, keep your eye open for my key when you look for your Garmin.
Great story, Mike.
We've got a storm coming in too, rain turning into ice pellets and freezing rain. Liking Erika's attitude.... shall I bring another bottle of wine to the party. White or red?
Henry, there better not be snow here in July.... I'd like to go running with you two!
3 TM miles before work, feelin' pretty good this time. Onward and upward.
ETA: Hi Marj!!
.....Nancy The road to hell is paved....... run trails!
37° and seemingly unending rain here. Somehow the basement is still dry but there is a flood watch posted until Friday afternoon so there is no guarantee it will hold out that long. Lots of streets flooded around town.
Personal trainer session at the gym this morning after a warm-up on the ARC trainer and then 2 miles on the treadmill to finish things off.
I feel like I have most the weekend beer & pizza out of my system and I am starting to feel 'normal' again.
What's the Boston weather looking like for Monday? Anyone checking it yet?
Humanity runs on coffee.
Mike--I loved your story. It's those little details that can communicate so much about class. This weekend I ran with a friend who is a college professor but who lives in a working class neighborhood. He was commenting on class issues and noted, "Yeah, my kid's the only one in the entire neighborhood with a bike helmet." Great detail.
No snow here. It was in the 70's already at 6:30 this morning, heading into the 90s again today. I got out there early but still had a tough run, even though it was just a scheduled EZ 7. I actually ran 6, then turned off the Garmin and walked it in. Yuck. I kept telling myself, "It won't be this warm Monday."
What's the Boston weather looking like for Monday? Anyone checking it yet?
The forecast was for sunny low 45/high 60, 11 mph wind.
But I haven't checked it in almost an hour.
yesterday afternoon at David's track meet I got some sunburn on my cheeks and nose. But I'm sure no one wants to hear about that. . . .
I thought he had a great meet. Coach mixed up his events a bit and he ran the 800m and 1500m instead of 3000m. Still ran the 4x400 relay and long jump though. He ran a 2:33 in the 800m to take 1st overall. He ran a 5:07 in the 1500m and took 1st in the 7th graders, but 2nd overall. Got beat out by an 8th grader and that disappointed David big time. He's relay team took an easy win and a new PR of 4:39. Long jump was poor yesterday. He kept missing his mark.
I have a lunch meeting today so will get in a run after work of about 4 miles or so. Should be another warm one here. about 70. I might have to find the sunscreen soon.
Tammy, your son is such an amazing athlete. It is fun to watch his progress.
I loved your story Mike. We were pretty poor too - discount stores, etc, Dad diluting the milk until payday, hoping we wouldn't notice. Lots of Kraft dinner. My friend had a good story....on a road trip when they were kids, his Dad would pull into a Super 8 motel and say, guess where we are staying tonight? The kids would get all excited, then he would tell them they were sleeping in the car, in the parking lot.
I recently read Caitlin Moran's "How to be a woman". Disclaimer, do not read this book if you are easily, or even not that easily offended. A lot of very rude stuff in there, anyway, she takes the prize with poverty when she says that once she became a teenager, and was growing out of her clothes, she got some new hand-me-downs........her mother's underwear! Ewwww.
No run last night, too busy getting kid's hair cuts, grocery shopping etc.
Maybe tonight.
Son is turning 13 on Friday and I have no idea what to get him. How pathetic eh?
"During a marathon, I run about two-thirds of the time. That's plenty." - Margaret Davis, 85 Ed Whitlock regarding his 2:54:48 marathon at age 73, "That was a good day. It was never a struggle."
I love hearing about your son, Tammy. I wonder how my life might have been different if I had been a runner at his age.
I had a humbling but worthwhile interval run yesterday. Today I've just done weights and maybe I'll go to a yoga class later. I had planned today as my one day not running and it's nasty weather so that was a good plan!
An update on the clinic proposal I mentioned the other day. I went in to see my Dean (an Associate Dean, not the big Dean) about it yesterday, and he shot me down. Without saying so, I thought he made it pretty clear I won't ever get a full-time position there (which is why I proposed the clinic, to create a position and help people at the same time). He pointed out how much it costs to run a clinic, and I know that law schools spend a lot on some things and not on others. Some schools have lots of clinics and some don't have any. I did a Skype interview about a month ago with the Univ. of Arkansas law school, and they're hiring one person for a position where we have 3 people here. Maybe it's a good thing I didn't get called back! I sent a follow-up email and they said they were interviewing other people.
"This is my approach as both athlete and coach: (quoting Steve Magness) Even if the training is perfect, if you don't buy into it, you will not run fast. Chase Consistency, Not Perfection." Neely Spence Gracey
Good afternoon, folks -
Snow in some places, 80s in others. Mother Nature must be on a humdinger of a binge, or she's PMSing like crazy!
My mom was very thrifty and could work a budget like nobody's business. My dad's favorite thing to say about my mom: "She could squeeze a buffalo off a nickel and make it give fertilizer." I, unfortunately, did not inherit my mother's budget gene.
Had a great tempo run this morning. Everything felt wonderful, and I had some paces I hadn't seen in awhile. . . . . Then I went to PT. A mild case of Achilles tendinitis that will go full blown if I don't take care of it. So no running at least until Monday with lots of stretching, icing, and massaging. Keeping fingers crossed.
(It's 2:30 and I've been trying to get this posted since about 12:15 . . . )
Leslie Living and Running Behind the Redwood Curtain -------------
Trail Runner Nation
2018: Mendocino Coast 50k - April 21
8 miles in screw shoes today, in an interesting mix of snow, slush, and mud. Gorgeous day, though, sunny and low 30's.
I hammered down the trail, passing rocks and trees like they were standing still.
Marathon Maniac #957
The forecast was for sunny low 45/high 60, 11 mph wind.
But I haven't checked it in almost an hour.
Re: thrift - cool stories, and many of us went through it as kids. I know when I was 9 my dad went bankrupt, and our family went through some rough times (powdered milk for one thing). I got a paper route and bought much of my own stuff from then on, re clothes, shampoo, etc. Three consecutive routes, each one larger, in 3 years, then a job at the library at 14, on to restaurants at 16. Too bad kids can't get paper routes anymore, all gone to motor routes. I remember my first paper route netted me $6.00/week - a fortune to a 9yo back then.
10 slow miles for me this morning - just no energy. Took advantage of a little more time given DD's ortho appt.
Life is a headlong rush into the unknown. We can hunker down and hope nothing hits us or we can stand tall, lean into the wind and say, "Bring it on, darlin', and don't be stingy with the jalapenos."
Maniac 505
RE: thrift
My parents were children of the depression. ( I suppose many here are in the same boat). when they were growing up, choices had to be made like food for the family or medicine for the baby? That cemented there spending habits to this day. My father was an attorney, and made a very middle class wage. growing up, there was nothing I needed that I did not get, but there were a lot of things I wanted that I did not get.
4 miles today, and my 4th one gallon batch of homebrew just went into the fermenter.
screw shoes in April - that is just wrong!! and snow for JLynne too .... please say it isnt so!!
Tammy your son is doing great!! Love the look of determination on his face in his running pics!!
OM - so sad you aren't joining us in Boston - I am going to have to take a roadtrip to you this summer!!
Mariposai - your run photos were absolutely gorgeous .... sorry for not posting about them sooner!!
Today was a mixed day .... went to the funeral of my cousin's 14 yr old daughter - she suffered from a very rare brain disorder where the two sides of the brain werent connected. She really wasnt expected to live very long but somehow survived 14 years with much love from her parents, a very dedicated primary nurse of 13 years and her two little brothers!! We know she is resting peacefully now but still so sad for her family. We spent a nice couple of hours as a family today and the next time we're together it will be for baptisms, bridal showers and weddings -- so thankful for the good times.
I also had my toenails painted BOSTON MARATHON blue!! Friday - want to do my nails blue and yellow for the BAA colors - have to wait to be done work tomorrow!! Oh ya -- running ....3.5 miles with 5 sets of 1/4 mile pickups/.1 recovery in the middle!!
Enjoy the gifts my friends!


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The wall of hollow organs of vertebrates is a unique structure able to generate active tension and maintain a nearly constant passive stiffness over a large volume range. These properties are predominantly attributable to the smooth muscle cells that line the organ wall. Although smooth muscle is known to possess plasticity (i.e., the ability to adapt to large changes in cell length through structural remodeling of contractile apparatus and cytoskeleton), the detailed structural basis for the plasticity is largely unknown. Dense bodies, one of the most prominent structures in smooth muscle cells, have been regarded as the anchoring sites for actin filaments, similar to the Z-disks in striated muscle. Here, we show that the dense bodies and intermediate filaments formed cable-like structures inside airway smooth muscle cells and were able to adjust the cable length according to cell length and tension. Stretching the muscle cell bundle in the relaxed state caused the cables to straighten, indicating that these intracellular structures were connected to the extracellular matrix and could support passive tension. These plastic structures may be responsible for the ability of smooth muscle to maintain a nearly constant tensile stiffness over a large length range. The finding suggests that the structural plasticity of hollow organs may originate from the dense-body cables within the smooth muscle cells.
- muscle mechanics
- stiffness
- ultrastructure
- three-dimensional electron microscopy
hollow organs such as the stomach, bladder, blood vessel, and airways undergo reversible volume or diameter changes in carrying out their physiological function. The volume changes are not simply passive reactions to internal or transmural pressures of the organs, but to a large degree determined by the activities of the smooth muscle cells lining the organ wall. Large changes in organ volume require smooth muscle cells to have a large functional length range. The ability of smooth muscle to carry out its function is aided by its structural plasticity (6, 10, 14, 22, 28, 35). It has been shown that smooth muscle cells are able to achieve multiple-fold length changes while maintaining substantial ability to generate force (11, 30), especially when the muscle is allowed to recover after a length change (12, 24). It has been shown that after a recovery period that normally lasts tens of minutes (during which the muscle is periodically activated and relaxed), the muscle regains its ability to generate maximal or near-maximal active tension (12, 22, 32). This process is called length adaptation (1, 34a). It has been further shown that length adaptation may involve addition or deletion of contractile units (akin to sarcomeres) within smooth muscle cells, leading to preservation of optimal overlap between the contractile filaments and maintenance of nearly constant force generation over the range of adapted lengths (12, 14, 22). Interestingly, the passive tension of relaxed smooth muscle is also affected by the process of length adaptation. Specifically, a slackened smooth muscle cell will gradually straighten and regain its resting tension during length adaptation, and the resting tension of a stretched muscle will return to its prestretch level after length adaptation (26, 33). That is, the underlying structure responsible for the passive tension in smooth muscle exhibits plasticity in addition to viscoelasticity. The exact subcellular structure that bears passive tension in smooth muscle is not known.
The current understanding of the structure of the contractile apparatus in smooth muscle is that it is made of contractile units, similar to sarcomeres in striated muscle, consisting of myosin-containing thick filaments, actin-containing thin filaments, and dense bodies acting as the equivalents of striated muscle Z-disks. The dense bodies are often depicted as small, discrete anchorage sites in a network of thin and intermediate filaments, distributed in a way that the thick filaments can be accommodated in between dense bodies (3, 7, 13, 29, 34a). This conventional depiction is in stark contrast with dense-body (DB) aggregates revealed in high-resolution 3-dimensional (3-D) images showing long, cable-like structures that do not contain thick filaments (19–21). The abundance of the DB cables and their parallel arrangement with the contractile filaments suggest that these structures could play a role in bearing passive tension in smooth muscle. In this study, we examined the ability of the DB cables to withstand externally applied tension and determined whether they display plastic behavior.
Muscle preparation.
Sheep tracheas collected from a local abattoir (Pitt Meadows Meats) were used in the experiments. The use of animal tissue for this study was approved by the Animal Care Committee of the University of British Columbia. The tracheas were stored in physiological saline solution (PSS) at 4°C (pH 7.4, 118 mM NaCl, 5 mM KCl, 1.2 mM NaH2PO4, 22.5 mM NaHCO3, 2 mM MgSO4, 2 mM CaCl2, 2 g/l dextrose). Before an experiment, a tracheal ring (∼9 mm in width) was removed from the whole trachea. Before the tracheal ring was cut open, the in situ length of the tracheal smooth muscle bundles that connect the C-shaped cartilage was measured. A rectangular piece of smooth muscle (∼9 × ∼10 × ∼0.2 mm in dimension, mostly free of connective tissues) was obtained. From each trachea, six strips (∼1.5 × ∼10 × ∼0.2 mm) were dissected and clipped on both ends with aluminum foil clips for attachment to the force transducer. The resting lengths of all six strips were the same.
Each muscle strip was mounted to the force transducer and bathed in PSS at 37°C. Before the muscle was chemically fixed for electron microscopy (EM), it was equilibrated (preconditioned) in the PSS for 1 h and followed by measurements described below. During the equilibration period, the muscle was stimulated by electrical field stimulation (EFS) for 10 s at 5-min intervals.
A reference length of the muscle (Lref) was established by stretching the muscle to the in situ length (±5%). The passive force in the muscle strip was ∼1.0 mN at Lref. The muscle was considered equilibrated when it developed a stable maximal active force. The maximal isometric force (Fmax) of each muscle at Lref was recorded; the strip was then ready for the next step of the experiment.
Experiment procedure.
Six muscle strips (of identical initial length) from the same trachea were used for each set of experiments. Three such sets of experiments were carried out for this study. A total of two tracheas were used, one used in one set of experiments, the other used in two sets of experiments. For each set of experiments, five muscle strips were fixed under conditions A–E, as described in results. The sixth strip was not fixed; it was used to assess irreversible damage due to stretching of muscle. No damage to the muscle strips was found after length changes; this assessment was based on the full recovery of active force after returning the muscle to Lref.
Measurement of passive stiffness.
The stiffness of resting muscle (passive stiffness) was assessed by applying a quick stretch to the muscle and measuring the force response. The size of the step increase in length was arbitrarily set at 10% of Lref, and the speed of stretch was fixed at 10% Lref per 100 ms. The duration of the stretch was 100 ms, and the muscle was maintained at the stretched length for 1 s before it was released back to its original length. The peak force response (which occurred at the end of the step increase in length, i.e., 100 ms after onset of stretch) divided by 10% Lref was used as a measurement of muscle stiffness.
Primary fixation (15 min) was carried out while the muscle strips were still attached to the apparatus. The fixing solution (1% paraformaldehyde, 2.5% glutaraldehyde, and 2% tannic acid in 0.1 M sodium cacodylate buffer) was preheated to 37°C. After primary fixation, the muscle strip was removed from the apparatus and cut into small blocks (∼2 × ∼0.5 × ∼0.2 mm in dimension) in cold fixation buffer and kept in the same fixative for 2 h at 4°C on a shaker.
For secondary fixation, the tissue blocks were transferred to 2% osmium buffer for 1.5 h at 4°C on the shaker, followed by three washes with distilled water (10 min per wash).
Standard methods for block staining, dehydration, embedding, and sectioning were used as previously described (12, 15). Images of the cross-sections of the muscle cells were obtained with an electron microscope (Philips FEI Tecnai 12 TEM). For 3-D reconstruction, images from ∼100 cell cross-sections (50-nm thick) for each of the 5 groups (fixed under conditions A–E, as described in results) were collected. All the images were taken with a digital camera (Gatan 792) at a magnification of ×37,000. To capture the whole cross-section of a single cell, it often required taking multiple images of different parts of a cell cross-section and merging the parts together by eye with the help of Adobe Photoshop.
3-D image reconstruction.
The serial sections in each of the 5 groups fixed for EM were aligned using Adobe Photoshop. The alignment was needed because each one of the serial EM images was taken from different sections, and these sections had slightly different orientations. Intracellular organelles and some cell features, but not dense bodies or intermediate filaments (e.g., mitochondria, endoplasmic reticulum, caveolae, thick filament, and microtubules), were used as markers for the alignment. Usually 3 or more markers from each of the adjacent sections were aligned to allow orientation of the image to be determined. The alignment was carried out manually by eye. Perfect alignment for multiple thick filaments adjacent to a chosen dense body could be achieved most of the time for consecutive 50-nm thin sections, indicating that the thick filaments were perpendicular to the sections. No adjustment was made for differential shrinkages, i.e., the magnification factor was the same for all images in the series. A great majority of the consecutive images could be aligned satisfactorily by simple shifts and rotation of the images without any additional adjustment. After the alignment, dense bodies and intermediate filaments were traced, and the 2-D traced sections were assembled by a program (Volocity) into 3-D images. Unlike the case with thick filaments, alignment of multiple intermediate filaments was not possible most of the time, indicating that individual intermediate filaments may not have the same orientation and may not be perpendicular to the cut, thin sections.
Determination of the length of DB cables.
A ∼5-μm segment for each muscle strip fixed for EM was cut into 50-nm-thin sections for 3-D reconstruction of the dense body structure. The length (along the long axis of the cell) of a DB cable within a cell segment was measured in 3-D space using the following method. The centroid of each dense body was first measured using ImageJ (version 4.0). In the 3-D analysis, we defined the transverse section of the cell as the x-y plane, and the z-axis was parallel to the long axis of the cell (and perpendicular to the x-y plane). Each dense body (centroid) measured was given an x-y coordinate with reference to the centroid on the first section (x = y = 0). The distance (D) between the centroids of two adjacent dense bodies in section i and i+1 of the same cable was the length of the DB cable in the ith section, as illustrated in Fig. 1. It followed that the length of DB cable in section i is Di = , where L is the section thickness (50 nm), and di is the projected distance on the x-y plane between the centroids of the two dense bodies in sequence in section i and i+1 and is calculated as di2 = . The total length of the DB cable in the cell segment was the sum of the Ds calculated for all serial sections. To obtain a numerical index of how straight (or slack) the cables were, we divided the 3-D cable length by the length of the muscle segment (i.e., 50 nm multiplied by the number of sections). This length ratio of DB cable-to-cell segment was used as an index of cable "slackness".
Statistical analysis.
In this study, a total of 15 sets of serial sections (∼100 for each set) were obtained from 15 cells. That is, 3 cells for each of the experimental conditions (A–E) were randomly chosen. For each cell, 3 DB cables were reconstructed. The total number of merged electron micrographs used in this study was 1,500. The "n" number referred to the number of cells from which the data were collected. Unless otherwise stated, data are shown as means ± SE. Statistical difference was considered significant at P < 0.05 using 1-way repeated-measures ANOVA followed by Tukey a posteriori test.
Serial transverse sections of ovine airway (tracheal) smooth muscle were cut for EM. Figure 2A shows an example of such a section. Dense bodies and the adjacent intermediate filaments were identified and traced (Fig. 2B) so that a 3-D image of these structures could be reconstructed from consecutive sections. Figure 3 shows dense bodies and intermediate filaments in a 750-nm cell segment consisting of 15 thin (50-nm) sections. In the 3-D image (Fig. 3), the dense bodies appeared to form elongated structures flanked by intermediate filaments that ran approximately parallel to the long axis of the muscle cell. We call these cable-like structures DB cables. The intermediate filaments in Fig. 3 appeared to be discontinuous. This is likely an artifact stemming from our 3-D reconstruction where we assumed the filaments were perpendicular to the cross-sections. The discontinuous appearance suggests that the intermediate filaments are "wavy," perhaps undulating in the same manner as the dense body structure along the long axis of the cell.
To determine whether the DB cables were mechanically interconnected in series throughout the cells within a muscle bundle and to the extracellular matrix, we examined their response to a stretch. We dissected 5 muscle strips (A–E) with the same initial length from a single trachea and fixed them for EM after adaptation at different lengths. Each strip was first adapted to its in situ length, and the maximal active force (Fmax) measured at that length was used to normalize other force measurements. The mean value for Fmax (in terms of force per muscle cross-sectional area, i.e., stress) was 143.3 ± 11.6 kPa (n = 3). Muscle A was fixed at its in situ length in the relaxed state and used as a reference. The length of muscle A (Lref) was used as the normalizing unit for all length measurements. Muscle B was fixed at 0.5 Lref after the muscle was passively shortened by 50% and then given a brief (1-s) EFS to shorten and straighten the muscle strip. The muscle was allowed to relax before it was fixed. The shortened strip remained straight after muscle relaxation. Longitudinal sections were examined to confirm that individual cells remained straight and aligned with the axis of force transmission. An example is shown in Fig. 4. Muscle C was fixed at 0.5 Lref after it was fully adapted to the shortened length, at which point it had recovered most of the force lost immediately after it was shortened. The protocol for adaptation consisted of periodic short EFS (10 s) applied to the muscle once every 5 min for 30 min. Full adaptation occurred when the EFS-induced force reached a maximal plateau. Muscle D was fixed at 1.5 Lref immediately after the stretch in the relaxed state. Muscle E was fixed at 1.5 Lref after the muscle was fully adapted to the stretched length. Passive tension in the muscle preparations just before they were fixed was recorded. This experiment was repeated two more times using tracheas from the same sheep and one additional sheep.
Figure 5 shows snapshots of reconstructed 3-D images of DB cables in a 5.25-μm segment of sheep trachealis containing 105 serial transverse EM sections. This particular muscle strip was fixed immediately after stretching the muscle from Lref to 1.5 Lref (muscle D described above). Only 3 out of ∼20 cables in the cell segment were traced and reconstructed. Figure 6 shows snapshots of 3-D images of DB cables from 2 cell segments fixed under a stretched condition (muscle D) and a shortened condition (muscle C). The images are shown mostly in the z-x plane, illustrating the general parallel feature of the cables with the horizontal axis (axis of force transmission); they also show that under the stretched condition, the DB cables appear straighter compared with those in shortened muscle. The appearance of discrete structures in an array that characterizes the DB cables we observed (e.g., Figs. 5 and 6) was at least partially if not all due to the way the 3-D images were constructed with relatively thick (50-nm) sections, just like the case of intermediate filaments shown in Fig. 3. The real structure of a DB cable is probably much less "discrete" than that shown in Figs. 5 and 6.
The passive tensile stress associated with muscle strips A–E is shown in Fig. 7A. Passive shortening of the muscle did not decrease the resting tension further because at Lref there was minimal tension to start. Stretching the muscle caused significant increase in resting tension. Figure 7B shows the length ratio of DB cable-to-cell segment in conditions A–E. The length ratio is an index of slackness in the cables because it was calculated as the measured length of DB cables in 3-D space divided by the length of the muscle segment within which the cables were embedded (see more details of the calculation in materials and methods). Stretching the muscle strips (D and E compared with A) significantly straightened the cables. Figure 7C shows the correlation between resting tensile stress in the muscle strips and the slackness of the cables. A significant correlation was found in muscle strips stretched from Lref (P < 0.05, goodness of fit r2 = 0.99). It should be pointed out that under all conditions (A–E), the same segment length (∼5 μm) was chosen for 3-D reconstruction. That means in the muscle strips fixed at 0.5 Lref, a 5-μm segment would contain twice as much "cell material" as a 5-μm segment from muscles fixed at Lref and 3 times more material as a 5-μm segment from muscles fixed at 1.5 Lref.
Passive stiffness (i.e., stiffness of resting muscle) of muscle strips was measured under different conditions (Fig. 8). At Lref, passive stiffness was measured after the muscle had been fully adapted to the length; this stiffness value was used as a reference for normalizing the subsequently measured values at 0.5 Lref. The peak force response to a 10% Lref quick stretch divided by the length change was used as a measure of muscle stiffness. The reference value of muscle stiffness at Lref was 3.21 ± 0.28 (Fmax/Lref) (n = 3). Under the "not adapted" condition, the stretch was applied to the muscle immediately after it had been passively shortened by half. The muscle was slack and wavy and gave no resistance to the stretch. However, after one brief stimulation (1-s EFS), the muscle became straight and remained straight after relaxation (Fig. 4). A stretch was applied to the muscle 30 s after complete relaxation, and the stiffness measured was plotted in Fig. 8 under "partially adapted" condition. Under the "fully adapted" condition (Fig. 8), stiffness measurement was carried out after the muscle had been adapted at 0.5 Lref for 30 min.
Compared with skeletal muscle, smooth muscle operates over a much larger length range to carry out its physiological function because of the large volume change normally associated with the function of hollow organs. Although its in vivo function does not require airway smooth muscle to generate force over a large length range, it nevertheless possesses the ability to do so (12, 14, 22, 24, 33), just like bladder (25) and uterine smooth muscle (35). Interestingly, smooth muscle maintains an approximately constant passive stiffness over a wide range of lengths (4, 26, 33). This property has perhaps evolved from the need to avoid excessively high or low vesicular pressure in hollow organs at large and small volumes, respectively. It has been known for a long time that all muscle cells are able to withstand some level of tensile stress even when they are not activated to produce active tension. The origin of the passive stiffness is believed to reside in the cell cytoskeleton, a structural domain separated (from a functional point of view) from the contractile domain. Titin filaments are believed to bear resting tension in striated muscle (2, 16). The role of titin in smooth muscle is less certain because of its low expression level and smaller isoform size in smooth muscle (17). Passive stiffness in skeletal muscle is not known to be adjustable lengthwise; perhaps this is because the working length range in skeletal muscle is small and limited by the skeleton. It is likely that the structure giving rise to passive stiffness in smooth muscle is different from that of striated muscle and that this structure possesses a unique material property, i.e., plasticity. The viscoelastic extracellular matrix (mostly made of collagen and elastin fibers) is therefore not likely to be the factor determining resting tensile stress in the wall of hollow organs; the adjustable passive stiffness is likely the results of an active process that involves plastic restructuring of subcellular elements within the smooth muscle cells. The most significant finding of this study is that we have identified one potential subcellular structure that could be (at least partially) responsible for the plasticity of resting smooth muscle and the wall of hollow organs.
Figure 7C shows a linear relationship between the amount of stretch applied to the muscle and the "straightness" of the DB cables, suggesting that these highly abundant parallel longitudinal structures may be responsible for bearing passive tension in smooth muscle. Figure 7 also demonstrates the plastic behavior of shortened DB cables capable of adjusting their length according to the cell length. This point may not be obvious from the figure and requires additional explanation as follows. Because the cell volume is conserved (14), when the cell length is changed from Lref to 0.5 Lref, the cell will become wider in diameter so that a 2.5-μm segment in the shortened cell contains the same amount of material as a 5-μm segment does in a cell at Lref. If the cable behaves like a string and does not change its length when the cell shortens by half, the average length of the DB cables in a 2.5-μm segment in muscles fixed at 0.5 Lref would have the same length as that in the 5-μm segment from a cell fixed at Lref. In other words, the DB cables in the 5-μm segment from muscles fixed at 0.5 Lref shown in Fig. 7B would be twice as long as that in the 5-μm segment from muscles fixed at Lref. Results (Fig. 7) show that the average length of DB cables from cell segments of muscles fixed at 0.5 Lref was in fact not different from that in cell segments of muscles fixed at Lref, indicating that the cables shortened by approximately half as the muscle length was halved. Because the cell volume is constant at different cell lengths, it is reasonable to assume that the DB material is conserved at different cell lengths, although it may appear in different forms including some that are not visible to EM. In this study, we did not quantify the volume of all dense bodies and the total number of DB cables in the cell segment and therefore cannot speculate on whether or how the volume of dense bodies is conserved (i.e., more volume per DB cable or more cables in parallel or a mix of both). On the premise that the DB cables are able to bear tension, findings shown in Fig. 8 suggest that plastic restructuring initially rendered the cables less able to support tension, but with length adaptation, the tensile strength of the cable returned to its previous level (before its length was halved).
Stiffness of airway smooth muscle (whether it is active or passive) directly contributes to airway wall stiffness, which in turn determines how effectively lung volume fluctuation (due to tidal breathing and deep inspiration) results in bronchodilation (9). Reducing stiffness of airway smooth muscle is therefore a potentially effective way of combating airway hyperresponsiveness as that seen in asthma. Although we know more about the molecular mechanism underlying smooth muscle stiffness associated with muscle activation (i.e., active stiffness) (8), much less is known about the origin of the passive stiffness. The general behavior of passive stiffness is predicted by the current theories on cytoskeletal rheology of living cells (5–6, 28) and network of actin filaments (23). Presumably, these theories also apply to the DB cables.
Evidence supporting the notion of dense bodies as the anchorage sites for thin filaments, analogous to the Z disks in striated muscle, has been provided by a series of elegantly designed and carefully carried-out studies (3, 7, 13, 29). The present study was not designed to examine the structural role of dense bodies in the contractile apparatus; it is possible that dense bodies play a dual role in smooth muscle, that is, they function as Z-disk equivalents and also support passive tension as part of the cytoskeleton. However, there are discrepancies between the findings of the present and the previous studies that need to be reconciled. One obvious discrepancy is in the description of the structural relationship between dense bodies. In the early studies, dense bodies were shown as discrete elements in series along the long axis of the muscle cell (3, 7, 13, 29), and the distance between them decreased in actively shortened muscle, presumably due to filament sliding caused by actomyosin cross-bridge interaction (7, 13), whereas in the present study, dense bodies were shown as longitudinal aggregates of (possibly) individual bodies linked by intermediate filaments (and likely thin filaments as well), without thick filaments in between them. The discrepancy could be due to the fact that 2-D structural information was used in the early studies in deriving the dense body structure. If we were to take a 2-D longitudinal thin section of the dense body cables shown in Fig. 6 (especially Fig. 6B), a continuous structure would not be revealed. Another possible explanation of the discrepancy is that the distribution of α-actinin along a DB cable is not even but punctuated. That would account for the discrete appearance of dense bodies seen by Fay and coworkers (7). However, this would not reconcile with the findings by Kargacin et al. (13). In their studies, phase-contrast microscopy rather than antibody staining was used to visualize dense bodies (13). Yet another possible explanation is that there are two types of dense bodies: one possesses long, cable-like structure and belongs to the cytoskeletal domain, and the other has the classic "fusiform" appearance, is smaller, and belongs to the contractile domain. In our 3-D reconstruction, we tended to follow larger dense bodies. It should be pointed out that we did not examine the relationship between dense bodies and the contractile (i.e., thin and thick) filaments. It is possible that the contractile filaments run obliquely between adjacent DB cables, as proposed by North et al. (21). However, we could not find evidence of obliquely aligned thick and thin filaments (15). Taken together, reconciliation of the disparate findings will require further studies that specifically examine the role of dense bodies as part of the contractile apparatus, keeping in mind that many, if not all dense bodies exist in long, cable-like structures. The DB cables observed in our 3-D reconstruction were likely longer than 5 μm. A smooth muscle cell is, however, much longer than 5 μm; it can be 100–500 μm, depending on how much it is stretched. It is possible that the DB cables do not span from one end of the cell to the other but are punctuated with gaps. These gaps could be occupied by thin, intermediate, and thick filaments. If this is the case, our finding is consistent with the classic model of the contractile apparatus of smooth muscle (3, 7, 13, 29, 34a), with a minor discrepancy regarding the dimension of the dense bodies.
The present finding defines a starting point of our understanding of intracellular structures responsible for smooth muscle cell and organ stiffness and plasticity. Besides the evidence shown above, the argument that DB cables are able to bear passive tension in smooth muscle tissue is also supported by a previous finding from our laboratory (15) that dense plaques on the cell membrane are physically connected to dense bodies and extracellular matrix. This explains how the force from an external stretch can be transmitted to the DB cables. In a similar experiment using magnetic beads bound to integrin receptors (in dense plaque areas), Deng et al. (6) measured the bead movements in a twisting magnetic field and concluded that the cell was made of soft glass-like material possessing plasticity. However, they did not identify the exact molecular structure responsible for the material property.
Recent findings regarding vimentin phosphorylation during smooth muscle activation (18, 27, 34) may shed some light on the molecular mechanism of DB cable restructuring. It appears that on activation and vimentin phosphorylation, disassembly of intermediate filaments occurs. This may allow the length of the DB cables to be reestablished when the muscle settles to its final resting length on relaxation and dephosphorylation of vimentin, followed by reassembly of intermediate filaments.
In conclusion, the present study provides evidence supporting DB cables as an intracellular structure capable of bearing passive tension. Furthermore, the plastic nature of the DB cables could be responsible for the length-independent passive stiffness and the reversible shifts in the passive length-tension relationship in smooth muscle. These smooth muscle properties in turn confer plasticity on the wall of hollow organs.
This work was supported by operating grants from Canadian Institutes of Health Research (CIHR; MOP-13271 and MOP-4725).
No conflicts of interest, financial or otherwise, are declared by the author(s).
We give special thanks to Pitt Meadows Meats (Pitt Meadows, British Columbia, Canada) for the supply of fresh sheep tracheas in kind support of this research project.
Present address of A. M. Herrera: Investigacion en Ciencias Básicas, Faculdad de Medicina, Universidad CES, Calle 10A #22-04, Medellín, Colombia.
- Copyright © 2010 the American Physiological Society

subset: commoncrawl


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A new research report published by Transparency Market Research states that the global non-invasive prenatal testing market is expected to witness a robust growth rate in the coming years. The report, titled "Non-invasive Prenatal Testing (NIPT) Market – Global Industry Analysis, Size, Volume, Share, Growth, Trends and Forecast 2014 – 2022", includes a 360-degree view of the market. The researchers have used primary and secondary data to compile this trustworthy document.
Browse the full Non-invasive Prenatal Testing (NIPT) Market (BambniTest, Harmony, informaSeq, MaterniT21 PLUS, NIFTY, Panorama, PrenaTest, verifi, VisibiliT and Others) – Global Industry Analysis, Size, Volume, Share, Growth, Trends and Forecast 2014 – 2022 report at http://www.transparencymarketresearch.com/noninvasive-prenatal-diagnostics-market.html
According to the research report's estimates, the global non-invasive prenatal testing market was worth US$0.5 bn in 2013 and is expected to grow at an incredible CAGR of 17.50% from 2014 to 2022 to reach a figure of US$2.4 bn by 2022. The impressive growth of the global non-invasive prenatal testing market is mainly due to the growing chances of fetuses developing chromosomal disorders such as Down syndrome, Turner syndrome, Edwards syndrome, Patau syndrome, and others. Non-invasive prenatal testing equipment is used for screening pregnant women who might have fetuses with these complications due to, among other reasons, higher maternal age than average.
The global non-invasive prenatal testing market is segmented on the basis of test and region. The tests in this market are Harmony, MaterniT21 PLUS, NIFTY, BambniTest, informaSeq, Panorama, VisibiliT, PrenaTest, verify, and others. Geographically, the global non-invasive prenatal testing market is segmented into Europe, Asia Pacific, North America, and Rest of the World.
All of these tests use the mother's blood to study the cell-free fetal DNA. Back in 2011, MaterniT21 PLUS was the first ever non-invasive prenatal test launched in the market for diagnosing trisomy 21. Over the course of two years, this diagnostic test had already grabbed a share of 36.1% in the overall market. However, analysts predict that as the popularity of other testing equipment such as NIFTY, Panorama, and verify grows, MaterniT21 PLUS' share will drop. Furthermore, demand for the Bambni test, which was recently approved by the CFDA, will also shoot upwards in the coming years.
Unfortunately, the global non-invasive prenatal testing market faces certain hurdles such as a tough regulatory framework and conservative ethical outlook towards prenatal testing. The other challenges complicating this situation are limitations of non-invasive prenatal tests and alternative screening and testing methods. However, the emerging economies of Asia Pacific are offering a new avenue for growth to the global non-invasive prenatal testing market in the near future.
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Some of the important companies profiled in the global non-invasive prenatal testing market report are Laboratory Corporation of America Holdings, Natera Inc., Illumina Inc., Berry Genomics Co. Ltd., LifeCodexx AG, BGI Diagnostics, Sequenom Inc., and Ariosa Diagnostics Inc. The research report gives a complete understanding of the competitive landscape of the market and offers an insight into the financial overview, product portfolio, research and development activities, business and marketing strategies, and investment outlook in the coming years.
Key segments of the Global NIPT Market
By Test
MaterniT21 PLUS
Major regions analyzed under this research report are:
North America
Asia Pacific
Rest of the World
About Us
Transparency Market Research (TMR) is a global market intelligence company providing business information reports and services. The company's exclusive blend of quantitative forecasting and trend analysis provides forward-looking insight for thousands of decision makers. TMR's experienced team of analysts, researchers, and consultants use proprietary data sources and various tools and techniques to gather and analyze information.
TMR's data repository is continuously updated and revised by a team of research experts so that it always reflects the latest trends and information. With extensive research and analysis capabilities, Transparency Market Research employs rigorous primary and secondary research techniques to develop distinctive data sets and research material for business reports.
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Thank you Li. Yes, it's not something you see everywhere!!
Amazing, and what a good idea, especially for a rainy climate! Thanks, Cathy.
Thank you Ank! Humm!? Perhaps the machine should dispense those little rain ponchos!?
Great idea Cathy, but not for me. I only hate rain when there is a lot of wind, and then you can't use them. So give me a jacket with hood, then you never have a problem. I don't have coats and jackets without hoods.
Thank you Denise!! I thought so too! Hug!
Wonderful idea cathy:-) LolHUgs
Thanks for your note Mariolyn!
That's a new one on me.
Thanks Rob. I guess necessity is the mother of invention! : )
What a nifty idea Cathy!!!
Thank you Jim. Yes, someone had a lightbulb over the head moment!!Thank you Lorna. Yes ... I'm sure they would be welcome on an unexpectedly rainy day.Thanks Lyndee. Yes, that's true. Sometimes an umbrella in not the best option!!Thank you Aggie. I basically leave a trail of umbrellas wherever I go!! : )))
Probably not a bad idea. My umbrella is never where I want it to be. But, most of our rains come as storms and an umbrella is not always good when there's a lot of wind.
Great idea. I have never seen one in the UK, but I am sure it would be a profitable scheme if introduced over here!
What a novel idea! Thanks, Cathy!
Hi Suzy! That's right. Natives have umbrellas or jackets with hoods at all times!!!!Ahoj Agnes!! Yes, I think it is a good idea! Thank you for your note! : )Thank you Floyd! I haven't seen one of these yet but I think they cost five dollars. The are in the skytrain stations.
Thanks Cathy. Good info for tourists. Do you know that asking price?
A good way for forgetful when left umbrella at home? Thank you, it's inspiring. This year, for us it's raining a lot. And when happen to sunny, so it is very hot.
Must be for tourists to the area. Natives would know to always carry an umbrella! :)


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Cheers to the season: Holiday pop-up bar will open in Market Square next week
Plus, a chocolate pop-up, a Lawrenceville bar opening and a new Dormont coffee shop
On a Monday night last month, Pizza Boat set up in the parking lot at Bar Marco in the Strip District, where Neapolitan-style pies were cooked in a 3,000-pound, dome-shaped wood-burning oven on a trailer a few steps away from a tented kitchen.
They were the evening's No Menu Monday, the weekly event that features chefs from restaurants around the city as well as home cooks who offer a short menu of dishes for modest prices.
Pizza Boat landed in Pittsburgh this past summer, when Jeff Ryan and Matt Watson, former cooks at the well-regarded Roberta's Pizza in Brooklyn, N.Y., moved here to start their own business. Mr. Watson, 28, is originally from Grove City, and Mr. Ryan, 29, grew up in Robinson.
Wearing aprons, wool hats and layers under hoodies to stay warm, Mr. Watson worked the oven while Mr. Ryan prepped pies, handling dough lightly. Their "street pizzas," as they call them, measuring 6 to 8 inches across, are made with very fine "00" flour.
Inside Bar Marco, the hungry and the curious waited in line for seats. The night's selections included a pierogi version dressed with the innards of the city's favorite dumpling, homemade lamb sausage and feta pizza as well as a margherita pizza "with a hot genovetta option for you pepperoni types," they announced on Facebook.
Rather than open a brick-and-mortar restaurant, they're looking for a permanent location to park Pizza Boat during the warm weather, something like Bayardstown Social Club, the 5,000-square-foot empty lot in the Strip District with picnic tables, lawn chairs, twinkly lights and a fire pit set up by DeepLocal.
"We want to do something unconventional," said Mr. Ryan, "yet we'd like a permanent location because the trailer is really quite heavy to cart around." Both Mr. Ryan and Mr. Watson also work at Dinette in East Liberty.
Mr. Watson and Mr. Ryan, both of Friendship, are do-it-yourselfers inspired by a nationwide movement to set up businesses in an organic, unorthodox manner. Instead of working their way up the kitchen line and breaking off on their own while luring investors, their model is scruffier and more flexible.
They're not the only ones shaping their own path here. They're joined by a handful of young entrepreneurs eager to make a mark on a city that's open to creativity on a shoestring budget. They include Evan Wood, baker and bagel maker of the Pittsburgh Bagel Club; Jared Lordon of Allegheny City Smokehouse; and Asa Foster and Matt Katase, also known as The Brew Gentlemen, who will be opening a brewery and taproom in Braddock next year. Each business has built a following through special events, social media and word of mouth.
Baking bagels
Evan Wood, 30, another alum of Roberta's in Brooklyn, moved to Lawrenceville in May 2012, when his wife took a new job here. He started as a freelance baker for Bluebird Kitchen, Downtown, making baguettes, ciabatta and sublime croissants, golden-brown and flaky with a buttery interior. He learned to bake in the bread program in Manhattan's French Culinary Institute (now International Culinary Institute).
With a child on the way, he took a tech job and bakes on the side. He began to play around with bagels in late July. "Pittsburgh doesn't have good bagels, so I decided to make them myself," he said. He focused on creating a crispy outside with a chewy interior that's not too dense.
Through trial and error, he developed his perfect bagel, but because the dough is so stiff, he had to make them by hand. "It would have broken the mixer."
Now he's making between 70 and 80 a week for friends and those who have signed up forPittsburgh Bagel Club via Twitter, a barter and swap with friends and those who have heard about his bagels. It takes eight hours over two days.
He continues to come up with new recipes. Just this past week he made "everything bagels" for the first time, incorporating garlic and onion inside, "so the stuff on top didn't burn."
Eventually, he would like to have a bakery "with a couple of really great products," such as bagels. "Maybe someone will offer me a bunch of money," he quipped. "I'd definitely sit down and talk."
Smoking meats
Jared Lordon, 33, of Mount Washington is the sous-chef at Up Modern Kitchen in Shadyside, where he hosts "Up in Smoke" from 4 to 9 on Sunday nights, featuring smoked ribs, chicken and brisket and an array of sides.
He used to pair with Kelly Patton as the duo behind Allegheny City Smokehouse, a weekend affair that involved smoking meats overnight in a shed off a rental property in Marshall-Shadeland. They sold meats on Sundays.
Mr. Lordon and Mr. Patton had worked together at Grove Park Inn in Asheville, N.C., and had been back in the area for a few years. Mr. Lordon worked at NOLA in Market Square while Mr. Patton worked in sales when they came across the North Side property.
They started with bacon and kielbasa and moved to brisket, pork belly, shoulder, hams for special occasions and eventually novelties such as cheese and butter. Allegheny City Smokehouse moved from Sunday sales to events such as the Commonwealth Press Meat & Greet, where they debuted a smoked kielbasa sandwich with celery seed slaw on pumpernickel. They called it the Polish Hammer.
As the shed fell into disrepair, Mr. Patton bowed out of the business and Mr. Lordon switched to a smoker for his Sunday event. He is also in the early stages of talking with investors with intent to build a barbecue joint.
"We don't have a sit-down place with beer and barbecue," he said. "And we need one."
Brewing beer
Asa Foster and Matt Katase, both 23, conceived their concept for a brewery as students at Carnegie Mellon University, where they built the brand as part of their entrepreneur classes.
"We were put in an interesting situation," said Mr. Foster, originally from Boston. "Long before we had anything to show for it, we had to publicize our plan sooner than optimal."
Since then, the duo has been honing recipes and working to open The Brew Gentlemen, a brewery and taproom in the former Harco Electric Supply building on Braddock Avenue in Braddock.
Since the Brew Gentlemen have come on the radar, beer geeks can sample wares at tastings scheduled at the brewery-in-progress as well as warm-weather events such as Tapped, the summer and fall beer garden pop-up hosted by Epic Development, a local economic development firm; Fukuda in Bloomfield; and Bar Marco.
At these events they debuted flagship brews such as the malt-centric, bittersweet General Braddock's IPA, an American red wheat called White Sky and Business Casual, a session beer. "We're also planning to experiment with one-offs and seasonal brews," said Mr. Foster, citing the Build and Destroy wheat stout, one of their newest creations.
The duo has been staying in the convent that's been converted into a boarding house down the street from the brewery, close enough to work on renovations. They plan to open by spring.
With their careers ahead of them, Mr. Foster and Mr. Katase are hungry for progress.
"Beer is only the beginning."
Melissa McCart: 412-263-1198 or on Twitter @melissamccart.
Hot Topic
Plus, a chocolate pop-up, a Lawrenceville bar opening and a new Dormont coffee shop
The road goes on forever, but the dining options don't for a young band working hard to make it big.
"Tree of Life: Turkish Home Cooking" by Joy E. Stocke and Angie Brenner
New winery is leasing Half Crown Hill Orchard market building until it builds its own permanent production and tasting room location.
Chef Giovanna Delli Compagni to cook a dinner hosted by Underground Kitchen at a secret location.
Want to get dinner on the table in a flash? Let a one-pot meal come to the rescue.


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Nearly two years after it began, a federal lawsuit filed by a Denver police captain against Mayor Wellington Webb and other city officials has been all but buried in a blizzard of paperwork and legal maneuvering, with no end in sight. The suit, which alleges sexual discrimination and political retaliation against Miriam Reed, at one point the Denver Police Department's highest-ranking female officer, has become so complex that it may be another two years--or more--before the case goes to trial.
The protracted legal battle isn't exactly good news for Reed or for Denver taxpayers, who are footing the bill to defend Webb, Chief of Police David Michaud, Manager of Safety Butch Montoya and the city against Reed's claims. But it's been a six-figure windfall for Anne McGihon, a private attorney hired by the city to represent its interests in the suit. City records indicate that her law firm, McGihon & Associates, has been paid more than $350,000 over eighteen months for its work on the case.
In fact, McGihon's aggressive defense of the city has already exhausted the city funds budgeted for the case through the end of next year; to continue to pay McGihon's legal bills, city officials will have to amend their contract with her firm, which has already been upped from $50,000 to $70,000 to $361,965.
City Attorney Dan Muse says he's satisfied with the job McGihon is doing. "I don't care what it costs," he says. "I'm not concerned that Westword may be concerned that the bill is $350,000. I have no apologies for spending whatever I need to spend to adequately defend the city's interest."
Muse notes that his office has relied on outside attorneys in a number of cases--usually complex environmental or securities matters in which staff attorneys may lack expertise, or when his office may be shorthanded or facing a possible conflict of interest. The most notable example is probably the $4 million the city coughed up for private legal help in defusing a Securities and Exchange Commission investigation into the sale of bonds to finance Denver International Airport, which Muse describes as "a well-spent investment."
"My strategy in that case saved the city millions and millions of dollars," the city attorney boasts. "The media always wants to jump on these stories about outside counsel at the front end and make sensational headlines, but nobody tells what a great job we do when we win."
The decision to hire an outside firm in the Reed case--at a cost now approaching four times Muse's own annual salary--is a clear signal that the city is treating the matter quite differently from a run-of-the-mill personnel dispute. Muse says the suit was filed at a time when his office's employment-law division had just lost two of its attorneys, but the McGihon contract lists several reasons for seeking the hire, including the "sensitivity" of the case as well as short staffing.
"I know of three other lawsuits against the police department and the city by current or former female police officers," says Reed attorney Ann Frick, "and in all three, the defense is being handled by staff attorneys at the city attorney's office. This is the only one I'm aware of that has outside counsel, being paid by taxpayer dollars."
Reed's lawsuit charges that she was passed over for the job of deputy chief because Chief Michaud and others in the Webb administration disapproved of her politics, from her outspoken crusading on domestic-violence issues (at one public forum, she reportedly claimed a 40 percent rate of spouse abuse among male police officers) to her support of Mary DeGroot in the 1995 mayoral election. Shortly after Webb's re-election that year, Reed filed a civil-rights complaint with the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission; the next day she was demoted from her position as division chief, a move she claims was retaliation for exercising her right of free speech. She now heads the department's records section.
City officials say Reed's claims are unfounded, and they have brought in McGihon to defend what they consider to be a crucial issue in the case: the police chief's right, under the city charter, to select his own management team. "This is not an issue about one particular female police captain," says McGihon. "This is an issue of the public safety of Denver."
A forty-year-old veteran of prestigious law firms in Florida and Washington, D.C., as well as Denver's Holland & Hart, McGihon has worked with the city on other cases involving environmental issues and affordable housing. She's also been active in Democratic Party circles as an organizer and fundraiser; last spring she finished second to Phil Perington in a bid to become the state party chair.
Although her firm's promotional materials don't claim a specific expertise in employment law, Muse says McGihon was chosen to handle the Reed case because "she's an excellent complex civil litigation attorney" with considerable federal court experience. And while the $157.50 per hour she's charging the city for her time (less for work performed by associates and law clerks) may seem steep, McGihon says it represents a substantial discount over her usual rates.
"That's not the rate I charge the general public, and I'm going to have pissed-off clients if you publish it," she says. "I billed a lot more as an associate at a D.C. law firm than I do now."
McGihon says she's had "ongoing discussions" with Reed's lawyers about streamlining the case, but after twenty months, the case still hasn't reached the discovery stage. It now encompasses two court actions; after several of Reed's claims were dismissed from federal court, her attorneys refiled them in Denver District Court.
Predictably, both sides have blamed the other for what McGihon calls "this enormous procedural morass," a boundless bog of complicated motions and counter-motions accompanied by not-so-brief briefs. (The legalese has waxed so thick that it's almost a parody of the form; one McGihon filing is captioned, "Defendants' response in opposition to plaintiffs' substituted motion and second motion to strike and/or dismiss defendants' setoff claims, or alternatively, to reconsider the dismissal of plaintiffs' breach of contract and promissory estoppel claims, including motions to strike under Rule 12f.")
"They have tried to bury me in paper," Reed attorney Frick says of the city's defense team. "I've never had a case where the complaint was filed a year and a half ago and the case has gotten nowhere. The case needs to get over these procedural battles and get into the substance."
Frick says McGihon's hardball tactics have included sending a letter to various current and former police officers directing them to not talk to Reed's investigators without the city's attorneys being present. Last fall, after Frick filed a motion complaining about the stonewalling, Magistrate Judge Bruce Pringle ordered McGihon to send another letter rescinding that directive.
But city officials say the case's mounting delays and costs are primarily due to the actions of Reed's own lawyers, who have made massive requests to obtain documents and interview witnesses and have repeatedly amended her complaint. "The reason the billings are five times higher than they ought to be is because Miriam Reed and her attorneys couldn't get their complaint straight and filed it five times," Muse snaps. "This is most extraordinary."
"They're pretty much driving the litigation, because they're generating the issues that have to be responded to," adds Wallace Wortham, supervisor of the city attorney's employment-law and risk-management section. "Every time my people have found a flaw in their complaint, we've asked the court to dismiss the complaint, and the court has permitted them to amend the complaint time and time again."
McGihon says she's had to respond aggressively to Frick's filings in order to protect her clients. "You can't play dead when you have a plaintiff's lawyer who's doing the exact opposite," she says. "I get something from her at least three times a week. What am I supposed to do? Roll over and not respond?"
McGihon notes that progress has been made in some areas, including the dismissal of several defendants and the narrowing of Reed's claims. Once the court decides whether Webb, Montoya and Michaud can be sued as individuals--a key ruling that both sides have been awaiting for months--the case should proceed more quickly, she says.
Yet a review of the court file suggests that some of the most costly wrangling in the case has involved peripheral issues. In the months of June and July of this year, during which McGihon & Associates billed the city more than $75,000 for its services, one major skirmish involved McGihon's attempt to file counterclaims against Reed, charging that she'd defamed the mayor and shown "disloyalty" to the police department. Reed quickly fired off a letter to Muse arguing that, since she was being sued in her capacity as a police officer, the city attorney's office should pay for her defense of the claims--in effect putting the city in the position of paying for both sides of the litigation.
McGihon then withdrew the counterclaims and refiled some of them as "affirmative defenses," but Frick maintains that the city should still indemnify her client for responding to them. (Muse, of course, disagrees.) In a letter entered in the court file, Frick also chided Muse for sending Reed's letter to McGihon, claiming that both Muse and McGihon have a conflict of interest in the matter. McGihon has since filed a motion objecting to the "scandalous and impertinent material" in the letter and demanding that it be removed from the court file.
Copies of McGihon's billings to the city, heavily redacted by the city attorney's office on the grounds of protecting attorney-client privilege, indicate that she charged the city for the time involved in sending a paralegal to the courthouse to see if the file had been removed. Her firm is now seeking to recover fees and costs in the matter from Reed, arguing that it was the plaintiff's responsibility to remove the letter. (Frick says the letter was filed with the court inadvertently and she thought it had been removed prior to McGihon's motion.)
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"This is a pending motion before the court, and I hesitate to comment on it," McGihon says of the letter brouhaha. "But yes, the city should be billed for this, because it's a letter designed by the plaintiff's counsel for what I view as a kind of press feeding frenzy. It is inflammatory and impugns the credibility of the defendants and their counsel."
Despite the growing cost of the litigation, Muse says he has no hesitation about renewing McGihon's contract, which will have to be done before her August bills can be paid. "She's done an excellent job to this point, and I see no reason to change that," he says. "She'll continue to handle the lawsuit for the next five years if necessary. Miriam Reed is raising questions about the integrity of this mayor and this administration. These are issues of public policy that are worth fighting for, whatever it takes."
If Reed prevails in her lawsuit, the city will be on the hook for her legal fees as well as those of its outside attorney. But Muse says there's no chance of that happening.
"We will win this case," the city attorney declares, with the bravado of Joe Namath circa 1969. "It's a slam dunk. It won't even be close. I look forward to trying this case. I can hardly wait.


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Photographer's Note
This is an oyster lease; view from Runningshoe Point of the Malaspina Penisula in Malaspina Inlet looking east towards Trevenon Bay, Coode Penisula and the Bunster Mnts. of Okeover Inlet, BC.
In the foreground are late summer afternoon shadows of tall Fir & Hemlock trees hovering over the tidal oyster beach. This beach is seeded & harvested with oysters about 3 times a year. Hand picked, graded & sent to market all over the world as singles by the dozens.
In the background is a grid of longlines using plastic barrel floatation systems to hold hectares of undersea vertical strings, 9' long. On these strings are thousands of oysters growing out over a three year period.
This oyster farm has been producing BC Pacific Gigass oysters for twenty years. It is now in it's expermimental/feasablity stage for also growing mussels & seaweeds.
Critiques | Translate
dsidwell (9783) 2003-09-03 14:27
I love the deep depth of field here, and the lines leading my eye to the rear of the scene. very nice tones and colors, too.
rich7691 (355) 2003-09-03 15:07
Very nice!! Scene colors and tones
ldallara (9) 2003-09-03 15:57
Maybe crop a little from foreground.. an awesome image, love the color.
Photo Information
- Copyright: Jean Momberg (momshu) (505)
- Genre: Places
- Medium: Color
- Date Taken: 2003-09-03
- Categories: Nature
- Camera: Canon G2
- Photo Version: Original Version
- Theme(s): aquaculture [view contributor(s)]
- Date Submitted: 2003-09-03 14:08


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This heirloom embroidery block design set is suitable for quilt blocks or pillow tops or a
doily center.
Quilt pattern NOT provided. 4x4 designs.
Designed to be placed together to form a larger block,
your accurate rehooping skills are required.
Corner piece (89.7mm x 89.3 mm) Round block when constructed @186.2 x 186.2mm
Additional bordering increases the size depending on your layout or extras allow you to
make extra filler blocks.
The detailed portions of this set allow for additional hand beading if desired.
Software may be required for rotation/rehooping required.
Basic block PDF directions are included.
(pillow projects from other polished posies sets available separately)
From The Needle Of: Anne
FTNOA0126 PolishedPosies Block6
Payment information: 15.00
4x4 Designs available in MULTI-FORMAT, HUS, JEF, PCS, PES, SEW, VIP, VP3 FORMAT.
Download the SET INFO for Measurements.
FromTheNeedleOfAnne Designs and Samples are copyright. Violators will be BANNED.
Designs or images are not to be used on another site without consent.


text:
Gabor J Tigyi
Detail Information
- Aiming drug discovery at lysophosphatidic acid targetsGabor Tigyi
Department of Physiology, University of Tennessee Health Science Center, Memphis, TN, USA
Br J Pharmacol 161:241-70. 2010..However, successful targeting of the pathways associated with this pleiotropic lipid will depend on the future development of as yet undeveloped pharmacons...
- Virtual screening for LPA2-specific agonists identifies a nonlipid compound with antiapoptotic actionsGyongyi N Kiss
Department of Physiology, University of Tennessee Health Science Center, Memphis, TN 38163, USA
Mol Pharmacol 82:1162-73. 2012....
- Controlling cancer through the autotaxin-lysophosphatidic acid receptor axisMari Gotoh
Department of Physiology, College of Medicine, University of Tennessee Health Science Center, 894 Union Avenue, Memphis, TN 38163, USA
Biochem Soc Trans 40:31-6. 2012..In the present article, we review some of the key findings that make the ATX-LPA signalling axis an emerging target for cancer therapy...


text:
1. Appling: Since returning from his injury, Keith has only scored three points total in the last two games. It has been apparent that his shot has been off, but Appling has only attempted three shots in the last two games combined. Watching him play over the years it has been obvious that Keith really relies on confidence in relation to his shot selection. Not being able to practice fully has truly had an impact on the Spartan point guard. With that being said, I expect to see more of the Appling we saw prior to the injury in potentially his last game against the Wolverines. Appling has been able to practice much more since the injury and the confidence he has gained through that practice should be showcased on Sunday. One important note on Keith is that he has retained his passing ability despite his shooting struggles and his 9 assists last game tend to back that up. If Keith can score near his season average of 13.9, the Spartans should leave Ann Arbor with sole possession of first place in the B1G.
2. The Big Men: Michigan lost Mitch McGary to season ending surgery, but in his absence Jon Horford and Jordan Morgan have really stepped up their game to fill the hole left behind by Mitch. Horford has nearly doubled his career points per game this year, while playing nearly 6 more minutes per game than he did a year ago. Morgan on the other hand, has seen 2 more minutes per game this year, but has increased his blocks per game significantly. Unfortunately for Michigan, Horford and Morgan combined barely grab the amount of rebounds a health McGary would pull down. For the Spartans, Adreian Payne's return from injury has been huge. Since returning, Payne has averaged 18 points per game, while grabbing 6.8 rebounds per game. In other words, he has been a pro. With the absence of Dawson for this game, Payne must grab quite a few rebounds. If he is able to play the way he has been, the combination of him and Costello should be a big advantage for the Spartans in the paint.
3. Derrick Walton Jr.: Sure, many of you are saying: What about Gary Harris or Nik Stauskas? Those two should be able to get their points. But for Michigan, Walton Jr. was the x-factor in the first meeting between these teams. In the first meeting, Walton Jr. scored his career high in points (19) and was clutch at the free throw line, making 9 of his 10 attempts. If the Spartans want to win this game, they cannot allow Derrick to have the kind of game he did last time. He has really struggled over his last 4 games, only averaging 6.5 points per game. He will have to get out of that funk if the Wolverines hope to sweep the Spartans this year.


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Box Tube is an attractive, clean theme with round edges. This theme uses a striking black, red, white, and gray color scheme giving it a crisp look. Best of all, Box Tube theme is FREE! You can thank Dezzain Studio for this WordPress theme. The author believes the theme is well suited for tech, mobile, or gadget blogs, however you can find even more topics to use the Box Tube theme.
Box Tube Theme for WordPress – Free
WordPress Ads Theme 2 and 3 Columns – Free
It's hard to find good WordPress themes! So, I am happy to share this awesome find with you. The WordPress Ads theme is a 2 and 3 split column theme. The wider column sits on top of the 2 columns on the right side.
(The image pictured above cuts off the lower part where the column splits into 2 – you'll have to visit the Demo page to see the whole page.)
I like the split column themes a lot. This one especially provides ease of use. In the WordPress widget area of the Admin panel, the Sidebar arrangement shows you the top, left, and right sidebars. No messing around with code in the .php files! Thank the author, Eric, for being considerate of bloggers in the creation of this Ads theme.
Now, the other feature I am quite fond of is the ad space in the header. Areas for Adsense ads are also built-in to the theme. Overall, the WordPress Ads theme is advertising ready!
The Ads theme for WordPress also provides you with the following WordPress plugins:
I tried it out in another blog for a friend and it was easy to install. We have not finished customizing it and I will comment here when it's done.
Best of all, it's free! Happy download!


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Do any of you guys have any information about the trail that's supposed to be opening above Mount Holly across the Catawba from the national whitewater center (near Mountain Island Lake)? What's been done? What's happening now? What's going to happen? Exact Location?
Rumors, hearsay, myths all welcome
Results 1 to 11 of 11
Thread: New Trail above Mount Holly?


text: Where is the best place to get such a thing? Iv found a place on ebay that does the fronts for £20 delivered http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/GENUINE-Audi-...arts_Vehicles_CarParts_SM?hash=item35a8cda817 and rears for £20 delivered http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/Audi-A3-A4-S3...arts_Vehicles_CarParts_SM?hash=item35a82ff52c Would you say that was a good price to pay? Also does anyone have a photo of the mod done and have a photo to show me how much light is set off by the at night? Regards Paul


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I'm riding at night mostly. Front light, back light (smal leds) 3M reflective on bike and helmet. Some scotch bright on my cloth and shoe cover so I'm not invisible. I see you you see me. I respect stop signs and red lights when car are around.
But still, some people feel like honking at me, but get this : As they cross me on the OTHER side. So I get honked at by incoming traffic !!??!!
Happened at least once by ride this week. On long, straight stretches of roads. WTF ?
Now honk at me if I'm riding mid day on the center lane ... but at 10 pm, by incoming traffic nontheless ... ? Why the hate ? What kind of sad life you're living here if for no reasons at all, you honk at this poor soul who really is minding his own business, getting a work out at the only time of the day he can ? . Do you get entertained by this ? Me wants to understand.
I so feel like stopping, turning back and give em the finger. Gee I would not mind having a word with these idiots. Honk at me : explain yourself you fat ****!
Results 1 to 45 of 45
Thread: Honking : I don't get it.
Members who have read this thread: 1


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The Tate Student Center Art Gallery is accepting exhibition applications from student and local artists to be displayed during the Fall 2007 semester.
The gallery features Southeastern, local and student artists, as well as traveling exhibits showcasing the works of national and international artists, some of whom may not be seen elsewhere.
Artists selected to show in the gallery will be paid a small stipend and publicity for each show will be provided. There is also a complimentary opening reception provided for each artist. Due to the upcoming renovations of the Tate Student Center, the gallery is scheduling exhibitions for Fall 2007 only. Alternate sites will be chosen for Spring 2008, pending construction progress.
Applications to hang an exhibit are available by calling (706) 542-6396 or by visiting www.uga.edu/campuslife/.
- Staff reports
© 2017. All Rights Reserved. | Contact Us


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Arizona State defensive back Alden Darby arrived at the first day of the Sun Devils' fall camp Friday boasting his usual strut.
The flamboyant junior loosely carried a ball with his left arm while skipping his way toward the practice fields and jawing with teammates.
Little did Darby know, however, first year coach Todd Graham's watchful eye had already focused in on the upperclassman even though practice hadn't even begun.
Article Continues Below
"Tuck the ball away son!" Graham said as Darby turned his cocky strides into an obedient jog.
While in previous seasons the first practice of fall camp took a laid back tone for players to get back into the swing of things, Friday's nearly three hour opening day of ASU football was, by all accounts, as fast-paced and upbeat as Graham promised when he took over the program in December.
"I was coming out here hyped up with a little bit of swag so coach told me to own the ball because that's our motto," Darby said. "Today was great though. There's still so much to work on but we were happy just being fast and running everywhere. It was a good productive day like I thought it would be."
Even though Darby, and most of his teammates, seemed to believe the practice ran at a fairly high tempo, Graham came away feeling like his staff eased up on the team a bit.
"Good first day, there was a lot of teaching so it was kind of slow," Graham said. "We're not used to that, that's something different for us, but it was productive. I'll tell you what though, by the third day for us, we'll be going fast."
Aside from the usual firsts that come with practice No. 1 of August, the Sun Devils' unquestioned leader, fifth-year senior linebacker Brandon Magee, was back on the field Friday in his first fall practice since suffering the torn Achilles injury that kept him sidelined for the entire 2011 season.
Magee admitted it took a few plays to shake the rust off but as the practice wore on, he felt more like himself.
"It felt great to be back, I'm ready to get going," Magee said. "I started making more plays later but I've got to get better every day though because there's a lot more running I'll tell you that. We shouldn't get tired during a game, if we get tired, I don't know what's wrong."
On the quarterback front, sophomore Mike Bercovici received the first snaps of the team drills while junior Taylor Kelly also saw action.
"I compete every day I come out here," Bercovici said. "My goal every day is to play like a starter. Knowing I can lead this team is something important to me, I try to get these guys fired up. Those o-linemen feed off the quarterback. I'm a natural leader in everything I do."
The third signal-caller competing for the starting job, redshirt freshman Michael Eubank, didn't dress for the morning practice but Graham said he'd be in action for the evening practice with the freshman and other newcomers.
Roll call
Like Eubank, a handful of other returning Sun Devils also didn't dress for Friday's morning practice in order to balance out the two groups. Those players, the vast majority of whom were reserves on the depth chart exiting the spring, are expected to participate in the evening with the newcomers.
Among those who weren't in action were senior wide receiver Rashad Ross -- the lone first-teamer exiting the spring -- redshirt sophomore cornerback Devan Spann and junior defensive end Davon Coleman, among others.
Junior college transfer defensive tackle Jake Sheffield was in a walking boot Friday but did participate in walk-throughs alongside his teammates. Sheffield said he pulled a muscle in his calf but expects to get the walking boot off later Friday.
Junior defensive end Junior Onyeali, who Graham previously suspended in the spring, is expected to participate in practice Friday evening for the first time since the coach took over the program. When asked if he was fully reinstated, Graham simply said, "Yes."
Summer workouts pay off
When Mo Latu first stepped on campus last season, the lineman weighed nearly 340 pounds. Now a year later, the redshirt freshman has slimmed down and appears closer to 300 pounds.
Latu credited much of the weight loss to a sinus infection but he and a lot of teammates have benefited greatly from the offseason weightlifting program run by strength and conditioning coach Shawn Griswold.
"I think we look completely different as a team," Graham said. "Most of our kids will say they are in the best shape of their lives. They've all leaned up. The mental and physical training is great. I felt like we've made great progress."
Many of the Sun Devils had never been through a workout program as grueling as Griswold's before he came in.
"We call it the Grizz-sanity workout," Darby said. "He tells us, 'Okay, you're sore, we're going to have a big squat day and we're going to run hard too. Be hurt after the workout.' He taught us a lot in the summer we didn't know we had in us. He taught us to be mentally tough, to perform when we're tired. He's a great strength coach."
When Graham first hired Griswold, he called the coach, "the best strength and conditioning coach in America." Judging from the reactions of the players, Griswold might have lived up to the hype this summer.
"We've never done anything like this before with the conditioning and lifting," sophomore linebacker Carl Bradford said. "It feels like if we had this last year we'd be amazing. Coach Grizz does a great job. He tries to get everybody right. I came out here today and feel way better conditioned than I did in the spring. I feel faster and lighter. I'm around 233 right now and last year I played at like 245 or 250."


text: Do anyone know if the Mii Channel is going to be updated? We could do with proper clothing rather than just body colours... hats, baseball caps, hoodies, glasses, better make up, tattoes and other great features, we could have the ability to wear designer clothers, footwear and jewelery. Any ideas people.


text:
It was fun trying to copy an ad in a mailer. My husband loves it
Welcome to the Quilting Board!
It was fun trying to copy an ad in a mailer. My husband loves it
That is neat and so manish!!
Wonderful! Reminds me of Gee's Bend quilts and abstract paintings.
I love it- also reminds me of abstract art. For many years I did not like abstract but I have a friend that is an artist and she really opened my eyes to alot - I have new appreciation.
Very pretty!! So colorful...
:thumbup: :thumbup:
Love the pattern and all the bright colors.
Beautiful and the quilting is striking.
An ad in a mailer, oh are clever. The quilt is just wonderful
Love it!! :D:D:D
love it
its Gee's Bend without being wonky
It looks kinda like a Gee's Bend quilt.


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text:
Israel News
Middle East
American Politics
Edition française
Green Israel
Robert J. Lefkowitz, a Jewish physician and path-breaking biochemist from New York, has won the Nobel Prize in Chemistry jointly with Brian K. Kobilka, a researcher at California's Stanford University. The Nobel Prize in Chemistry 2012 went to the scientists for "groundbreaking discoveries that reveal the inner workings of an important family ... of receptors: G-protein–coupled receptors," an Oct. 10 posting on the website of the Nobel Prize stated. Understanding how these receptors function helped further explain how cells could sense their environment, according to the text.
By REUTERS
By REUTERS
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text:
5 Phrases You Should Never Use In Online Dating
For all of you still trying to recover form being single this past Valentines Day, online dating may for you. I am in a great relationship and have been for going on 7 years, but in my single days I never had the guts or really desire to take the plunge online. But, If you feel so inclined our friends at E-Harmony and Time magazine have compiled a list of 5 phrases never to use in your profile. Now I took it upon myself to describe what they mean by these phrases.


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Strong families have always been regarded as an essential building block for a strong and healthy society. To that end, Catholic Family & Child Service support families in a variety of ways. From providing in home developmental assessments to bringing families together to share their challenges and successes in family life, families are often the best and most effective means of teaching and modeling success.
Family Leadership Training
Family Leadership Training groups are one night per week all year long for parents, teens and youth. Attendees learn how to maintain a positive family structure and how to have a positive impact and influence on school by adapting leadership lessons that work in corporate structures into their families, and neighborhoods and schools where empowerment and self-sufficiency are the name of the game. Leadership principles are irrefutably tied to success in business and high echelon work performance but are not often taught to members of low income communities. In this program, participants learn they can be positive change agents, and our motto is that change doesn't have to happen to them, but can happen through them, planting prevention seeds that will continue to yield positive change.
Community Cafes
Community Cafés are guided conversations based on the Strengthening Families Protective Factors Framework, leadership development, and parent partnership. Parent leaders host a series of 4-week groups, 3 times a year, using the World Café technique promoting social and emotional development of children; facilitating friendship and mutual support among parents; knowing how to get help and access the community resources necessary to cope and overcome adversity during family crises; being respectful and responsive to culture, valuing parent wisdom and reciprocity in systems and organizations.
Family Partnering
Family Partnering a skills-based, learning program for parents, children, and teens that combines 6+ curricula recognized as best practice, with innovative culturally sensitive Parenting with Dignity curriculum. This program runs 4 English & 4 Spanish 10-week series a year. These classes focus on issues such as appropriate communication with peers, parents, and other authority figures; friendship; self-esteem; self-efficacy; recognizing and handling emotions, such as stress and anger; positive discipline; family rules and more. Time is set aside during each session for parents and children to participate in activities which will provide both an opportunity to practice their newly learned skills with one another.
Strengthening Families
Strengthening Families for Parents and Youth ages 10-14 is an Evidenced Based family program that targets caregivers and their adolescents ages 10-14 as they enter the teen years. Caregivers learn practical skills to help their teen develop the skills they need to be sucessful during these years including how to avoid peer pressure and substance use. Youth learn effective coping strategies, refusal skills, and stress managment skills. Together, families work on increasing positive communication, ways of having fun together, and recalling strengths and uniqueness about their family. It is a seven week series that occurs one time a week for 2.5 hours. Programs typically include a family meal, which is included in the program and childcare for siblings under 9 years old.
Community Resource Outreach Team
The Community Resource Outreach Team (M.O.T.) utilizes a wrap around mobile resource model in efforts of early identification of areas of high risk to families and children. Bridging gaps with resource attainment and navigation through assessments and strength based follow up services ensuring success with families area of need. Bilingual resources are designed to assist in the early identification of developmental barriers, positive behavioral redirection and focus on bridging gaps by system's navigation and advocacy.


text:
From monday to friday: 9h00 - 18h00 (non-stop)
Saturday: 9h00 - 16h00 (non-stop)
A performance wax ribbon that offers excellent print quality on both coated and uncoated papers. This versatile ribbon is available at a competitive price, with all the benefits and exceptional quality you expect from Zebra.
Every effort has been made to ensure the accuracy of all information contained herein. e-nitiative shall not be liable for any changes resulting in wrong product description, tax code and/or price. The shown information (specifications, prices, taxes) should be considered as an indication and can be changed at any moment and without any prior notice.
From monday to friday: 9h00 - 18h00 (non-stop)
Saturday: 9h00 - 16h00 (non-stop)
Open on ALL working days,
Open on days between holidays and weekend.
Closed only on Sundays and holidays.
Tel. 02/5122332
Fax. 02/5139668
Design and development by :


text:
We have partnered with Microsoft to run key findings from a recent white paper entitled The IT Energy Efficiency Imperative as a ten-part series. To read the full series, click here. The white paper can be downloaded here in PDF format.
Lack of IT department control over end user computing environments can lead to a significant amount of wasted energy and higher-than necessary office building cooling costs.
Organizations with large numbers of PCs and monitors should understand the cost of space, cooling, and direct energy use by employee equipment through charge-backs to their business units. Closing the loop in this manner provides a solid basis for users to take action. IT departments can also provide guidance, ensuring that employees choose energy efficient PCs, make certain that power management capabilities are enabled and optimized, and require that decommissioned PCs are unplugged, returned, and disposed of properly.
It is particularly important that developers of PC applications ensure that applications support the power management capabilities of the hardware and operating system—for example, by allowing PCs to automatically sleep when idle but not while they are doing something useful. Applications that are "aware" of the current power source—battery or AC power—and react accordingly can also help improve the productivity of mobile users. Developers of Windows-based applications can find more information on these energy-smart development practices at http://microsoft.com/energysmart">the Windows Developer Center.
But still, the question remains:
To Sleep or Not to Sleep?
Turning computers off, or configuring them to sleep when inactive, can be a very simple way to reduce energy use. But because the computer manufacturing process itself has a significant environmental impact, arbitrarily turning computers off when idle is not necessarily the best way to amortize this impact over the life of the equipment. A better strategy might be to have idle computers perform useful computation instead, assuming excess power is available on the grid—particularly from renewable sources whose energy would otherwise be wasted. Mechanisms to enable this type of use could be integrated into public "volunteer computing" platforms and could conceivably involve some form of reimbursement to the energy bill payer for the electricity consumed.
The purchase of too many computers that are then underutilized can also have negative environmental consequences. Manufacturing of computers consumes a significant amount of energy, water, and raw materials (including so called "conflict minerals.") Such equipment typically becomes e-waste within just a few years. In the European Union, for instance, no more than one-third of e-waste is responsibly recycled in a verifiable way. The remaining e-waste often ends up in landfills or is shipped to developing countries, where it is typically dismantled using methods that can often contaminate the surrounding land, air, and water with toxic metals and chemical compounds, threatening the health of unprotected workers and others in the surrounding areas.
Many governments are also strengthening regulations governing e-waste.
In addition to existing laws based on European Union directives (such as WEEE and RoHS) that are aimed at manufacturers of electronic goods, most municipalities now prohibit the disposal of e-waste through standard waste streams and require it to be recycled.
Concern over being labeled "e-waste criminals" who dump broken electronics in developing countries is leading many large organizations to require assurances from recyclers that discarded equipment will be recycled and disposed of in an environmentally sound manner.
We'll be exploring these issues in depth in the coming weeks. Follow along here