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Join our live RV chat - click HERE
when it's 10-20k less or is that small potatoes in the grand scheme of things.
Also, everyone says you will not be happy with your first RV, but I knew what I wanted and am very happy with the floor plan I chose.
And, when buying used, where's the guarantee that just because the hit list was taken care of by the first owner, they'll never be any other things go wrong?
And consider this... At $3.50 a gallon, $30,000 buys 8571 gallons of diesel fuel, and averaging 7.2 MPG, we could take a 60,000 mile trip (Maybe break it up into a few trips .) Kev
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A woman died after taking a controversial and dangerous diet pill likened to rat poison, an inquest has heard.
Rachael Cook, of Clarendon Road, Worthing, died in Worthing Hospital on May 15, three days after her 25th birthday.
At an inquest into her death, held in Horsham today (Friday December 11), West Sussex coroner Penny Schofield issued a stark warning over the dangers of taking Dinitrophenol (DNP).
The inquest heard that she took DNP at least twice after ordering the controversial substance from a Chinese website.
Dr Ryck Albertyn, an anaesthetist based at Worthing Hospital, said: "DNP is an awful drug. It is a poison - there is no other way to describe it.
"You may as well be taking rat poison. It should be moved from availability."
The substance is outlawed in the USA.
It causes the body to run out of energy, accelerates metabolism to a dangerously fast level, and causes the body's temperature to rise.
In 2013, Miss Cook and her partner Matt Watts decided to try for a family, but there were fertility issues and Miss Cook was advised to lose weight, the inquest was told.
Mr Watts said her weight dropped to as low as six and a half stone. She was eating just 300 calories a day, exercised regularly and took laxatives every day.
Miss Cook was taken to hospital on April 5 after suffering from symptoms including breathlessness, the inquest heard.
Her family then discovered she had taken DNP, but she was discharged.
On May 11, she met with her GP, who advised her of the dangers of DNP and told her people had died after taking it.
However, just three days later, on May 14, she was admitted to hospital again.
Miss Cook suffered a cardiac arrest, and though medical staff spent two hours attempting to resuscitate her, they were unable to save her.
Dr Albertyn said: "Nobody expected Rachael's heart to stop.
"Everybody was shocked - it was a panicky situation all around."
He also admitted to an 'oversight' regarding contacting Miss Cook's family when her condition deteriorated.
Dr Jackie Gordon, a psychiatrist based at Worthing Hospital, met with Miss Cook shortly before her death.
She said: "I thought she didn't want her life to end. She loved life, loved her partner, loved her family and was looking forward to having her own family one day.
"My concern from a psychiatric point of view was that she couldn't guarantee to me she wouldn't take this stuff again.
"The obsessional thinking around eating is very powerful and I felt she had that about her, however I have never come across anybody that has taken something as poisonous and nasty as this."
She added: "It was a substance I have never come across before in my 25 years of practice. It is clearly an awful chemical.
"I contacted a couple of professors of eating disorders and neither of them were aware of this substance."
Miss Cook's mother Julie told the inquest the family had gone for an all-you-can-eat buffet to celebrate her birthday.
At the dinner, she made an effort to eat as much as possible and made sure her family were aware, her mother said.
Julie Cook said: "I know she took it (DNP) the second time because we were going out for a big meal.
"If it wasn't her birthday, I don't think we would be here today."
In a statement read out during the inquest, she paid tribute to her daughter.
She said: "Rachael was bubbly, caring and selfless. She was adventurous and liked to try new things.
"She liked to rock climb and was very interested in vintage military vehicles, and went to military shows with her dad.
"Her main goal was to have a child. She was worried if she put on any weight she wouldn't be able to have children."
The family added: "We loved Rachael and we miss her terribly."
A post mortem revealed the cause of death to be fatal Dinitrophenol toxicity.
Recording her conclusion, Ms Schofield said: "She was clearly a much loved member of your family."
She recorded that Miss Cook died an accidental death.
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subset: commoncrawl


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Mid-South farmers and ginners are coping with "unprecedented times" as they try and adjust business models to high commodity prices, higher production/operating costs, and changing demands for crops, says David Blakemore.
The Campbell, Mo., producer/ginner/warehouseman was part of a panel discussion at the annual meeting of the Southern Cotton Ginners Association held in conjunction with the Mid-South Farm & Gin Show.
"I've seen three cotton depressions in my short career," he said. "We've been through many up and down cycles — the up cycle we're in now is just another, and it will change. The next cotton depression will probably be sooner rather than later."
Borrowing from a Bob Dylan song, "The Times They Are A'Changin'", Blakemore, who was 2010 SCGA Ginner of the Year, says, "The people we do business with are also changing — there is a generational shift going on in agriculture, with a combination of older farm customers and newer farmer customers.We have to adapt to new business models that will involve ongoing adjustments to the crops we grow and the acres we plant.
"Prices, too, are changing. Commodity prices are higher, but they are coupled with higher input costs and higher land costs. Cash rent is increasing, regardless of whether it's dryland or irrigated ground."
Everyone will need to play close attention to their balance sheets, Blakemore says.
"Improving your balance sheet does not necessarily mean retained earnings. Watching your balance sheet means more than your borrowing ability — it's important to have cash on your balance sheet. You have to be prepared for a future that will likely get much worse."
In 1989, Blakemore notes, the U.S. ginned 12 million bales; by 2005, that had jumped to 26 million bales; but in 2009, with the broad scale switch of acres to corn and soybeans, cotton bales ginned had dropped back to 11.7 million, almost where they were 20 years earlier.
"Cotton will come back," he says, "but not like before. Cotton came back in North Carolina and Georgia after eradication of the boll weevil. The two states grow more cotton now than they did at the bottom in the late 1980's and early 1990's.
"But, we've lost infrastructure. The market may make cotton stage a comeback of sorts in the short run, but we have to be prepared for a market that can get much worse in the longer term. Look, for example, at what happened to our textile industry."
Blakemore says his ginning operation is "doing what every gin should be doing — everything we can to maximize our value to the grower." Among other things, he says, "We're bringing gin trash back into the gin and cleaning it — all with the ultimate goal of providing the most value we can to the grower."
Greater reluctance to return to cotton
"The changes in Mid-South agriculture in the last five years have been more severe than anything I could ever have imagined in my farming career," Marianna, Ark., farmer/ginner Larry McClendon said in the panel discussion.
The monumental shifts to grains have also brought changes in operational lifestyles, he says.
"Because of higher costs and greater risks, there is a real reluctance of many farmers to get back into cotton after growing grains. Growing grains is easier, with less management and less financial risk — production cost increases for cotton have been pretty dramatic.
"I don't think we will ever regain all the cotton acres we had a few years back. It's just too expensive for a farmer to flip-flop between grains and cotton."
In the process of losing cotton acres in recent years, McClendon says, "We've also lost personnel, and demand for services and facilities has changed. In the past, most grain farmers relied on community elevators; now, many of them have their own on-farm storage facilities. Continuing consolidation and closings have resulted in fewer community gins and more centralized facilities."
Mills in the eastern U.S. once consumed 80 percent of the nation's cotton, with about 20 percent exported, he notes.
"Now, that situation is reversed. When I first started farming, my competition was cotton producers in other areas of the U.S. cotton belt. Then, as cotton spinning shifted to overseas mills, my competition was foreign cotton growers. Now, my competition is soybeans and corn."
In the Mid-South, McClendon says, "I think we will see farms continue to get much larger. We'll see a continuing reduction in government farm supports, and as a consequence forward pricing will be a mainstay of management. Acreages from year to year will be very volatile and highly contingent on price."
The acreages of individual farms will increasingly be tied to harvest capacity, he says.
"With each revolution in picker/moduling systems, we've almost doubled our harvesting capacity. When a grower is investing half a million dollars in a new moduling picker, he has to be sure he can utilize that machine as efficiently as possible, and he will more and more center his operations around what he can harvest. Technology will increasingly be a key component of farming operations, and in everything, we're in for a lot faster ride than ever before."
With increasing costs of production, land, rents, and equipment, McClendon says, "It will be increasingly challenging to farmers to finance their crops, with more collateral required and tighter lending limits. With higher costs and higher capitalization requirements, it will be more difficult for younger farmers to get into the business and for older farmers to facilitate the transition to the next generation.
"If somebody's got enough money to start in cotton farming, they've got enough money to quit."
Changes to facilitate trade
In travels to Central America and China last year, Richard Kelley, Burlison, Tenn., farmer ginner and 2010 SCGA president, says it was "an eye-opener to visit with our good customers — particularly so in China, to see how advanced they area technologically.
"They love our cotton, and they want our cotton, but they often can buy cotton closer and cheaper from other countries," says Kelley, who was another of the panelists.
"We may need to change our shipping and warehousing procedures in order to give them the quick delivery they want so they can make a quick turnaround in their processing operations."
"If we don't change and get better, our competitors will slip in and beat us to the punch.
"These are unprecedented times in terms of cotton prices and demand," Kelley notes, "and because cotton is now worth so much more and risk and liability so much greater, there are additional decisions we ginners must make in terms of insurance for cotton on gin yards.
"We will have to expand our gin storage areas in order to satisfy insurance requirements and we may need to consider transferring some of this insurance responsibility to producers.
Cotton yields haven't kept pace
For decades cotton prices have been basically stagnant, and when they started increasing there was an accompanying rise in production costs that "put us in a squeeze," Mississippi farmer/ginner Kenneth Hood said in the panel discussion.
And while corn and soybeans have seen significant advances in average yields, cotton yield advances have not been comparatively good, he says.
Nor do USDA projections out to 2020 show a very large increase in cotton yields.
"Farmers are going to have to continue to get larger if they're going to be able to buy half-million-dollar cotton pickers," Hood says.
Prices for cotton may be high now, "But we all have learned in this business that what goes up can pretty quickly come back down. We've all been there before."
With budget troubles and the focus on cuts in government programs, he says, "I think we will see supports for farm programs continue to erode."
In 1975, he says, "the module builder increased the farmer's harvesting efficiency and allowed us to extend the ginning season. Now, we're moving to yet another technology, pickers with on-board module builders, that will further increase efficiency.
"But, while the costs of growing cotton have kept going up, our income from the crop has remained basically stagnant. If farmers are going to buy these expensive new cotton pickers, their farming operations are going to have to get larger.
Our challenge is to find ways to improve yields, to deal with high energy costs, to adopt new technologies, to compete with other crops for land and water, increase global demand and retail consumption, and to find ways to stay competitive with man-made fibers. And I think we will see even fewer gins ginning larger amounts of cotton."


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Votre titre Audible gratuit
How to Retire the Cheapskate Way
Prix : 20,77 €
Unlike most retirement planning and lifestyle books that focus on investing - or at the other end of the spectrum, on how to get the senior discount on a Grand Slam Breakfast at Denny's - this new book from Jeff Yeager, America's favorite cheapskate, makes the compelling case that you can have a joyous, worry-free retirement by merely spending smart and focusing on what you truly want and expect out of retirement.
Combining Yeager's loveable humor and offbeat anecdotes that have garnered him an ever-growing fan base, the official "Savings Expert" for AARP shares with readers hundreds of retirement secrets and tips, including: How to Simple-size Your Way to a Better Retirement; The 20 Secret Cheapskate Principles for Retiring Comfortably on Less...Maybe Even on Social Security Alone; How to Survive the Medical Maelstrom (without resorting to DIY surgery at home); Plus Dozens of Fun Ways to Both Earn a Little Extra Income During Retirement and Painlessly Cut Your Expenses.
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- J. Byerly
- 30/04/2013
Encouraging Reinforcement for a Frugal Lifestyle
I appreciated that this is not one of those "you must have a million dollars to retire and here's how" books. It's practical and down to earth advice for living a more frugal lifestyle. Obviously, if you can learn to live on less, you can retire on less. There are many of us whose retirement plans fell apart and our hoped for retirement was supposed to be around the corner. What do we do now? Actually, there's a few ideas in here. It's applicable whether you are prepared or not prepared. I'm tired of the "We're all gonna die!!!" scenario if we didn't do everything perfect since we were 12. Some ideas are really creative and not for the faint of heart. I liked the idea (and plan to do the exercise) of writing down all the truly worthwhile things in my life. How is my life matching up to that? Do I need more money or a different focus? Have I really been chasing the wrong direction because I'm working too many hours? Could I actually be much happier and healthier and make less money? Much of it is just enforcing good habits, being better stewards of how ever much money we have. Nothing earth shattering, but thought provoking in places and worth listening to. Using even one of the ideas will save more than the book costs. :) (The narrator is not one of my favorites, but that's a personal preference.) JB
4 sur 4 personne(s) ont trouvé cet avis utile.
- Angela
- 20/05/2014
Repetitive, Redundant, Ridiculous
This book wasn't for you, but who do you think might enjoy it more?
I am not sure if anyone would enjoy it or find it useful.
Has How to Retire the Cheapskate Way turned you off from other books in this genre?
I would be very interested in a book that offer clear, specific and well-thought-out information on how to stretch the one's retirement dollars.
How did the narrator detract from the book?
He was okay.
If you could play editor, what scene or scenes would you have cut from How to Retire the Cheapskate Way?
I would delete much of the verbiage. The author repeats the same information, over and over again, indicating that some point he is going to get to the meat of book; however, he never does.
Any additional comments?
It is as if the author has very little to say on the subject, but is being paid by the word, so he stretches every idea and concept out in the vaguest of terms. He sort of talks in circles, repeating each idea over and over again.
2 sur 2 personne(s) ont trouvé cet avis utile.
- C. A. Martin
- 30/08/2017
dissapointed focus on young couples im not young of part of couple. dont look for amswers here if your close to retirement age
1 sur 1 personne(s) ont trouvé cet avis utile.


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After you finished creating your map and organizing your ideas, you are now ready to create a Presentation.
You have just entered the presentation mode. You will be able to see the following actions:
You will have a default slide, containing your central topic and the main topics driven from it. You can delete this slide using the Delete Slide or the context menu on each slide.
You can grab the corners of each Slide and drag to your desired size. As you cover topics, they will be included in the selected slide.


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The Steelers couldn't stop turning the ball over last Sunday against the Browns and now one of the Browns defenders has won some individual honors for his work in helping to force eight turnovers.
Linebacker D'Qwell Jackson is the lucky Brown to be named AFC defensive player of the week. Jackson had nine tackles in the 20-14 Cleveland win, their first over the Steelers since 2009. He also forced one fumble and recovered another of the five overall Steelers fumbles that Cleveland recovered during the contest. The eight takeaways were the most in a game by a Browns defense since 1989.
It wasn't just about the turnovers for the Browns defense, however. They also limited the Steelers to 49 rushing yards on a day when they were forced to start third-string quarterback Charlie Batch. That's the least rushing yards allowed by a Browns team in almost a decade.
Jackson was named the AFC defensive player of the month for September last season, but this is the first time he's ever been named the defensive player of the week.


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Tag Archives: roselle
Our Crazy Roads
Why do our roads go this way and that? It often depends on who created them. Large animals and the Indians who hunted them are probably responsible for the gentle curves of Algonquin Road and Dundee Road. The original trails … Continue reading
Posted in roads Tagged algonquin road, army trail, baldwin, dundee road, freeman, lake street, military, Native Americans, palatine township, quentin, rand, roads, roselle, trails Leave a comment


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Dearest friends,
As many of you may have noticed I have not been blogging much. AT ALL.
There was much talk and excitement from my side a few months back (or has it already been a year? waaaaa) about possibly pursuing this on a more full-time basis. But as it turns out, life had different ideas for me.
Besides still being the female half of welovepictures and documenting the love and joy that is the wedding celebration, I have recently also opened a little shop on behalf of Julie Gallagher called In Good Company, here in Cape Town, South Africa (see pictures of the shop here and here).
It has been a lovely, exciting and beautiful adventure so far, but as it turns out I now have even less free time for anything else really, except of course, hanging out with my amazing husband, our two dogs and our fat cat. And taking beautiful walks in the mountains and hanging out with God, riding bicycles with friends and adventuring to flea markets. And eating loads of great food and cheese! and drinking too many G+T's. And making a home... I wonder if I'll ever stop making a home. Oh and I just started surfing - we'll see how that goes.
But unfortunately my little blog is not on this list.
So! I've decided to take an official blog leave. I will maybe return to it one day, but until then I think it's best to close this little guy officially. Until further notice, no new content will be added to 'Love Made Me Do It' but it will however continue to stay open for readers to access past content.
Lastly, I want to send out a huge blanket THANK YOU to all my lovely readers, old friends, new friends and fellow bloggers for all the support, love and genuine interest in my little blog. Your sweet comments and encouraging words have always put a smile on my face. Thank you.
Image Source: I left my heart in Paris


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- Methodology article
- Open Access
Simulation methods with extended stability for stiff biochemical Kinetics
- Pau Rué1, 2,
- Jordi Villà-Freixa1Email author and
- Kevin Burrage3, 4Email author
© Rué et al; licensee BioMed Central Ltd. 2010
- Received: 19 November 2009
- Accepted: 11 August 2010
- Published: 11 August 2010
With increasing computer power, simulating the dynamics of complex systems in chemistry and biology is becoming increasingly routine. The modelling of individual reactions in (bio)chemical systems involves a large number of random events that can be simulated by the stochastic simulation algorithm (SSA). The key quantity is the step size, or waiting time, τ, whose value inversely depends on the size of the propensities of the different channel reactions and which needs to be re-evaluated after every firing event. Such a discrete event simulation may be extremely expensive, in particular for stiff systems where τ can be very short due to the fast kinetics of some of the channel reactions. Several alternative methods have been put forward to increase the integration step size. The so-called τ-leap approach takes a larger step size by allowing all the reactions to fire, from a Poisson or Binomial distribution, within that step. Although the expected value for the different species in the reactive system is maintained with respect to more precise methods, the variance at steady state can suffer from large errors as τ grows.
In this paper we extend Poisson τ-leap methods to a general class of Runge-Kutta (RK) τ-leap methods. We show that with the proper selection of the coefficients, the variance of the extended τ-leap can be well-behaved, leading to significantly larger step sizes.
The benefit of adapting the extended method to the use of RK frameworks is clear in terms of speed of calculation, as the number of evaluations of the Poisson distribution is still one set per time step, as in the original τ-leap method. The approach paves the way to explore new multiscale methods to simulate (bio)chemical systems.
- Stability Function
- Weak Order
- Stochastic Simulation Algorithm
- Chemical Master Equation
- Large Step Size
It is by now very well known that the biochemical kinetics involving small numbers of molecules can be very different to kinetics described by the law of mass action and differential equations [1–3]. This effect is a property of the intrinsic noise of the system and is associated with the uncertainty of knowing when a reaction occurs and what that reaction is. At the molecular level such intrinsic uncertainty is, in turn, a consequence of the stochastic nature of the fluctuations of the potential energy surface for any chemical reaction in the condensed phase [4]. When considering a collection of molecules, the intrinsic noise is accentuated when some chemical species have small numbers, as is often the case in genetic regulatory models where there are small numbers of key transcription factors that can bind to a limited number of operator regions on DNA [5–15]. Kurtz [16] and Gillespie [17] realised this fact and developed discrete methods to deal with this situation. The stochastic simulation algorithm (SSA, see [18] for a review) describes the time evolution of the dynamics of the species in a well-stirred chemically reacting system as a discrete nonlinear Markov process, resulting in an exact method to sample from the probability density function described by the chemical master equation (CME). Gibson and Bruck proposed a more efficient implementation of the SSA called the next reaction method [19].
The basic idea of the SSA is that at each time point a waiting time to the next reaction and the most likely reaction to occur must be sampled from a joint probability density function leading to an appropriate update of the state vector. But if the rate constants and/or the numbers of molecules in the system are large then the waiting time (time step, τ) can be very small [18]. Because of this Gillespie [20] introduced the Poisson τ-leap method, in which all reactions are allowed to fire in a given τ with a frequency extracted from a Poisson distribution. Since then many extensions of this idea have been developed. Cao et al. [21] have considered efficient mechanisms for selecting τ and have developed implicit methods suitable for simulating stiff systems. Tian and Burrage [22] introduced a modification of Poisson τ-leap methods known as Binomial τ-leap methods that avoids the issue of obtaining negative molecular numbers from which Poisson τ-leap methods can suffer. Chatterjee et al. [23] and Auger et al. [24] have considered modifications to Binomial τ-leap methods that improve some of the implementation aspects. On the other hand, Monk [25] and Mackey [26] noted the importance of representing delays, especially when representing processes such as transcription and translation. Accordingly, Bratsun et al. [12] and Barrio et al. [27] developed a delayed version of the Stochastic Simulation Algorithm. Leier et al. [28] and Anderson [29] extended these ideas to a τ-leap setting.
Although τ-leap methods can, in some cases, substantially improve computational efficiency compared with the SSA, when there is moderate stiffness in the system the efficiencies can be quite poor. One could resort to implicit τ-leap methods but then there are considerable implementation issues and subtleties. A different approach is to explore ideas from the numerical ODE (ordinary differential equations) and numerical SDE (stochastic differential equations) communities. Thus, with ODEs it is well known that stiffness leads to a step size restriction when using explicit methods and many classes of efficient implicit methods have been designed [30]. However, in the case of moderately stiff systems explicit Runge-Kutta methods with extended stability regions along the negative real axis have proven to be especially effective [31, 32]. Runge-Kutta methods are a class of one step methods which gain their efficacy by computing intermediate approximations to the solution within a step. Explicit Runge-Kutta methods with extended stability regions are based on explicit Runge-Kutta methods whose stability function is a shifted and scaled Chebyshev polynomial or some variant thereof. In the stochastic setting, there are some subtleties designing fully implicit methods due to possible unboundedness of the solution as the Wiener increment can take positive or negative values with equal likelihood [33]. Thus most methods are semi-implicit, that is implicit in the deterministic component. Abdulle and Cirilli [32] have, with some success, extended the ideas of explicit Chebyshev methods with extended stability regions to the SDE setting via their class of S-ROCK methods.
Here, we use the Runge-Kutta formulation to construct methods with large stability regions so that efficiencies are gained by allowing larger stepsizes. We note that this is exactly what Abdulle and Cirilli [32] do in the SDE setting, that is they use a Runge-Kutta formulation to construct methods with excellent stability properties and even though these methods are only weak order 1 they perform very well. It is noteworthy that in this work we are not using the Runge-Kutta formulation to get second order accuracy for τ-leap methods. This seems to be a difficult problem, just as it is the case for SDEs and will probably require double integrals of compensated processes to be simulated. In fact, Abdulle and Cirilli [32] also note that it is very difficult to construct weak order 2 methods with good stability properties and to our knowledge at the moment no such methods exist in the SDE setting. Note that in a stochastic setting we judge order of accuracy through two mechanisms: strong order (where trajectories are compared with the true solutions) and weak order (where moments are compared). Often a numerical method may have a higher weak order than its strong order. The Euler-Maruyama method is a case in point with weak order one and strong order a half.
Thus, in this paper, we explore a series of fully explicit multistage Runge-Kutta methods with extended stability for a fixed τ-leap stochastic simulation schema. Our methods involve the same number of Poisson evaluations per integration step as in the original τ-leap formulation but allow increasingly larger step sizes at the cost of an increasing series of deterministic evaluations in the internal stages. First we give some background on Runge-Kutta methods for ODEs and SDEs. In section Results we extend these ideas to the τ-leap methods and present a stability analysis for linear chemical kinetics, including its practical implementation. In section Numerical results we present numerical results for both the linear case and the classical stiff system described by the Schlögl reaction [34]. Finally, in section Discussion we discuss further implications of this work and, in particular, possible extensions to multiscale modelling.
Review of Runge-Kutta methods for SDEs and ODEs
Stability region for RK methods applied to ODEs
where bT = (β1,...,β s ), w = Ae and e = (1,...,1)T. Here A is the matrix with entries α ij and w is the column vector wT = (w1,...,ws)T. A Runge-Kutta method is said to be explicit if the s × s matrix A is strictly lower triangular. The method parameters are usually chosen so that a Runge-Kutta method has appropriate efficiency, order and stability characteristics. The Y i are considered to be approximations to the solution at the intermediate points t n + w i h for i = 1,...s.
where e is the unit vector, I s is the identity matrix of order s and ⊗ represents the Kronecker tensor product such that the (i, j) element of A ⊗ B is a ij B. Notice that, if Λ is a scalar value and taking z = h Λ, R(z) would be a scalar and take the form (4). Therefore we can refer to R seamlessly irrespective of whether the argument is a matrix or a scalar.
where r j = bTAj-1e, j = 1,...,s. Hence, R(z) is a polynomial of at most degree s for any explicit method.
Stability region for RK methods applied to SDEs
and non-overlapping Wiener increments are independent of one another. A sample of a Wiener increment W(t + h) - W(t) is simulated from a Normal random variable with mean 0 and variance h, N(0, h).
where ΔW n = (ΔW1,....ΔW d )T and ΔW i := W i (t n + h) - W i (t n ), i = 1,...,d are normally distributed random numbers with mean 0 and variance h. This method is known as the Euler-Maruyama method and it is known to have strong order (pathwise order) and weak order (moment order) 1.
In the later case, the solution is mean square stable if Re [a] + Re [b2] ≤ 0.
and in the (p, q) plane, with p, q ∈ ℝ, the stability region is a circle of radius 1 centered in (-1,0).
The τ-leap Runge-Kutta framework with bounded variance and extended stability domain
then X(t) = (A(t), B(t), C(t))T, ν1 = (-1, -1, 1)T and a1(X(t)) = cA(t)B(t).
and the algorithm repeats.
Where .
where L(τ, x) is given by (13) and represents the drift or expected stepchange. As our focus is explicit methods, the matrix A is strictly lower diagonal. We note that (17) requires the same number of samples of Poisson random variables per step as the Poisson τ-leap method.
Indeed any Runge-Kutta method for solving an ODE can be incorporated into this framework. We also note that other methods proposed in the literature can be put into this framework. For example, the midpoint method of Gillespie [20] can be represented with s = 2, bT = (0, 1), w = (0, 0.5)T and where the row-wise entries of A are 0, 0, 0.5, 0.
The linear case
If the Runge-Kutta method for ODEs underlying a Runge-Kutta τ-leap method (17) has stability function given by (4), then when the latter is applied to (18) we show (Additional file 1) that
Note that with the constraint |R(z)| < 1, z = -τ(k1 + k2) then the spectral radius of R(τ W) is less than or equal to 1, and as there is only one eigenvalue equal to one hence we have boundedness of the mean.
We call this the relative variance at the stationary state associated to R.
Let us consider some particular cases of this result:
Poisson τ -leap For this method R(z) = 1 + z and . Thus, the equilibrium variance doubles at z = -1, it rises fourfold at z = -1.5 and is unbounded at z = -2.
This is the methodology we propose in the following section for the derivation of particular Runge-Kutta methods with s steps. Note that if we required the same limitation on the variance with the standard Poisson τ-leap method we could only take . Thus with the two stage method we can take a stepsize almost six times as large.
This was first shown by Cao et al. [38]. In fact only those Runge-Kutta methods that have a stability function given by (25) can preserve the variance exactly for linear problems. These methods include the implicit midpoint and trapezoidal rules and have to be implicit.
Methods with bounded variance and extended stability domain
and optimise the value of ls, ϵsuch that the range for which this holds is (-ls, ϵ, 0].
Thus, similar to the case s = 2 in which we had one free parameter, γ, to optimise, if we assume r1 = bTe = 1 then we have s - 1 parameters, r2,...,r s , we can optimise. In this case, though, the search of the optimal set of parameters has to be performed with numerical optimisation methods rather than analytically. The problem of finding optimal sets of parameters can be stated as a nonlinear program, NLP, and thus its solution approximated numerically (see details in Additional file 1).
Stability regions for methods with bounded relative variance and optimal stability
Bound (ϵ)
Stages (s)
Stability (ls, ϵ)
Factor vs. τ-leap
Norm. factor τ-leap
Efficient methods with bounded variance and extended stability
It is thus clear that these methods are computationally more efficient than the general case as they only require s-1 evaluations of the expected step-change f(·) instead of the s(s - 1)/2 required in the general framework (17). A collection of methods have been implemented in a branch of the ByoDyn package, v.5.0 [39].
Numerical results
Reversible isomerisation
Schlögl reaction
Details of the Schlögl reaction system
k1 = 3·10-7
k1x(x - 1)A/2
k2 = 10-4
k2x(x - 1)(x - 2)/6
k3 = 3.5
k 3 x
k4 = 10-3
k 4 B
The MAPK cascade
Finally, we have tested the performance of our methods on a larger system of chemical reactions with stiffness due to different reaction time scales and species amounts ranging over several orders of magnitude. For this purpose we considered the Huang and Ferrell model for the mitogen-activated protein kinase (MAPK) cascade [41]. This model is available from the BioModels database [42] and consists of 22 species interacting through 30 reaction channels. The set of parameters used here (see Additional file 1 for details) renders the model stiff and with species amounts ranging from none up to 3·105 molecules. With the chosen initial conditions the system undergoes a transient change and finally settles down into a stationary state at around t = 150 minutes. We have simulated the model using SSA (Gillespie's Direct Method), the Poisson τ-leap and the RK methods presented here. To produce fair comparisons, all methods have been rewritten in ANSI C using the Mersenne twister [43] pseudorandom number generator from the GNU Scientific Library. The GNU C Compiler was used to compile the sources with the -O2 optimisation flag. The algorithms were run on an Intel(R) Core(TM)2 Duo Processor E8500 at 3.16 GHz and 6 MB cache. We have run the system to a final time T = 200. Simulations run with SSA took 61, 841 ± 74 seconds.
We have compared the methods in two distinct situations. First we have run them with the same time step τ = 5·10-5. In this case, the Poisson τ-leap method took 51.7 ± 0.4 seconds while Optimal RK τ-leap methods with s = 3 and s = 5 took 86.1 ± 0.4 seconds and 113.9 ± 0.3 seconds respectively. Hence, at the same time step the RK methods are approximately 66% and 120% slower than the Poisson τ-leap due to the multiple evaluations of the propensity functions per step. However, there is an important difference in the results. The relative variance at the steady state is 1.3 (see Additional file 1) for the Poisson τ-leap while for both RK τ-leap methods with s = 3 and s = 5 (ϵ = 0.1) it is less than 1.04.
Then we have compared these methods when run at their respective maximum time steps such that the relative variance at the stationary state is bounded to 1.1 (estimated from the simulations). The maximum time steps allowed with this constraint were: τ = 2·10-5 for the Poisson τ-leap, τ = 3.5·10-4 for the RK τ-leap (3, 0.1) and τ = 9.5·10-4 for the Optimal RK τ-leap (5, 0.1). With this setting, the runtimes obtained were: 111.9 ± 0.7 seconds for the Poisson τ-leap, 15.7 ± 0.06 seconds for the RK τ-leap (3, 0.1) and 7.8 ± 0.02 seconds for the Optimal RK τ-leap (5, 0.1). Thus, in this case the Poisson τ-leap approximately 7.1 and 14.3 times slower than the RK methods, respectively.
Biochemical kinetics typically deals with multiscale problems, in which several scales of time, space and concentrations, simultaneously affect the dynamical behaviour of the system. Thus, the systems biology community is deeply interested in the development of methods that lead to a multiscale view of biochemical systems. As a first step in this workflow, we have presented here a new set of methods that considerably expands the classical τ-leap implementation, from a stability perspective. The importance of the results shown here embraces not only the increase in computational speed for stochastic simulations, a key element for the understanding of the intrinsically noisy biological systems, but more importantly, a way to deal with fast reactions in multiscale settings. The methods developed here have been demonstrated for a first example of stiff system, the classical Schlögl autocatalytic reaction, and can be straightforwardly incorporated into hybrid SSASDE-ODE frameworks.
We see from Table 1 that if we require a bound on the equilibrium variance of 0.1 then the Poisson τ-leap method must take while for the RK methods the bounds on |z| are approximately 4 and 10, respectively with s = 3, 5. This is a very considerable improvement and all the more striking given that the same number of Poisson random variables are simulated per step in all cases.
Initially we had hoped that an approach via Chebyshev methods using ideas from ODEs and SDEs applied to the discrete cases would have been fruitful. It turns out that while such methods have good mean behaviour, the variance behaviour is poor. This is because the variance growth function satisfies (24) and an s-stage Chebyshev method would have s - 1 poles and zeros due to the oscillations in the stability function. Similar issues arise even in the damped forms of the Chebyshev formulation. This means that our optimisation approach is the only way of getting good bounds on ψ(z).
Our results on the nonlinear bimodal Schlögl problem show that the RK methods still behave appropriately even on nonlinear problems. For example, from Figure 3 we see that the Poisson τ-leap method is not very accurate with τ = 0.4 and quite poor in picking up the second peak with τ = 0.8. On the other hand the RK methods match the peak quite well, albeit with a slight shift in that peak. Furthermore, numerical results from the MAPK cascade simulations show that our methods can run an order of magnitude faster than the Poisson τ-leap and still give the same accuracy in the results.
Finally, we note that we could extend our RK methods to allow more than one set of Poisson random variables to be simulated per step. We imagine that this would allow even bigger stepsizes but at the cost of taking more simulation time in that the additional Poisson sampling is expensive. We emphasise that although our analysis of these new methods has been given for unimolecular reactions, the simulations of the nonlinear Schlögl reaction and the MAPK cascade indicate that these methods have a more general applicability and we will consider nonlinear analysis via Taylor series expansions in future work.
PR would like to thank Marta Dies for helpful discussions. PR acknowledges Obra Social "la Caixa" for funding through the Graduate Fellowship program. Support from Spanish MCINN grant CTQ2008-00755/BQU and from EC-funded projects BioBridge (FP6-2005-LIFESCIHEALTH-7 037909), QosCosGrid (FP6-2005-IST-5 033883) and VPH (FP7-2007-IST-223920) is highly appreciated. JVF participates in the COM-BIOMED network.
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Valve trains for commercial vehicles
Further optimization of the gas exchange in combustion engines is critical for complying with future emissions and fuel consumption targets while meeting the challenging requirements for efficiency in modern four-stroke combustion engines. The valve train plays a key role in this respect. Valve train systems control the gas exchange, which means that they represent a significant opportunity for optimizing the combustion process.
The system is continuously subjected to high mechanical loads during operation. Advances in friction reduction thus directly influence the efficiency of the entire engine. At the same time, the components still need to hold up for the required service life, which is particularly high for commercial vehicles


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Censored T-shirts are those pieces of clothing which have been, due to specific reasons, subjected to legal challenges. In some area, a ban is imposed to wear such t-shirts while in some areas, the selling or promoting such t-shirts is restricted. The restriction is imposed after declaring such piece of clothing inappropriate or illegitimate.
These t-shirts are regular garment having some picture or slogan on it which is considered unlawful, provoking or inappropriate to wear publicly by government of any region. But such t-shirts have gained quite popularity among people, especially youngsters and teenagers who love to make use of such tees to make a way for their own bold statement and to protest against the system. There have been many incidents in past. Some of such Censored T-shirts examples globally are as follows –


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And here are the blocks I made for charity. I am part of an online quilting bee that makes a quilt a month for a child in need. It makes me happy to know that I am doing something good every month.
The bottom two quilts are two of the quilts made using all of the blocks from 10 contributors. It's pretty cool how 10 people, from all-over the US and Canada, can use totally different fabrics and have the quilts turn out so beautiful.
Anyway, back to our regularly scheduled b!tch session:
2012 will be different. (I know, I know, you've heard that before.) I am going to take this little lesson learned, AND apply it to the goals I have set for this coming year. GASP. Before I get into the details of HOW, I must warn you to clean your glasses and put on your pocket protectors. It's going to get a little geeky.
I plan on holding monthly planning meetings with myself. I am going to schedule it onto my calendar, so I WILL remember it. I will reveiw what I have done, what I need to do and when the best time to do it will be. Furthermore, and hitherwither, I will have sub-committee meetings to determine what steps are necessary for each of my goals. Sounds really geeky. Doesn't it?!?! That's okay. I know it is. AND I am okay with it.
How 'bout you? Got any GOALS for 2012? If so, how are you going to attain them?


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We welcome new members, please and say hello, tell us about your rabbits or ask advice.
If you have a problem registering or accessing an exiting account please post a message in the help section describing the problem.
Hm, would it be possible to motivate the daughter to find new homes for the does?
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Debbie Reynolds Bares Huge Face Bruise In 'Bright Lights' Documentary (VIDEO)
Debbie Reynolds bared a massive bruise on her face during HBO's posthumous documentary starring Carrie Fisher … after falling flat on her face at home.
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She got injured in the process of getting an auction together to sell some of her Hollywood memorabilia … to neutralize debt she'd incurred.
Her son, Todd Fisher, says the fall didn't stop her from going on about her business.Â


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Iran: U.N. nuke inspectors are spies
Look who's attacking WND report on Fordow explosions
The head of Iran's Atomic Energy Organization Wednesday accused the United Nations' nuclear watchdog of leaking confidential information on Iran's nuclear program.
Fereydoon Abbasi, in an announcement on the organization's website, also insinuated that some inspectors for the International Atomic Energy Agency work for foreign intelligence agencies. He said that because the agency does not have adequate security, Iran should not provide it with sensitive information.
Abbasi said the media did not uncover any secrets on Iran's nuclear program, but that the IAEA did leak reports to the media. Although he mentioned reports on the installation of new-generation centrifuges at Natanz, he has not yet confirmed or denied explosions at the Fordow plant.
WND reported exclusively on Jan. 24 that explosions rocked Iran's nuclear facility at Fordow on Jan. 21 with updates on Jan. 27, 29, 30, 31, and Feb. 3 and 6. The blasts at first trapped 219 workers, including 16 North Koreans. The bodies of at least 40 people, including two North Koreans, have been recovered.
Iranian media reported Wednesday that the IAEA and the Islamic regime had failed for a second time in less than a month to agree on further inspections of Iran's nuclear activities.
Since WND's initial report on the explosions, all Iranian media have avoided mentioning Fordow, after initially denying the incident occurred.
As reported in a WND update, a high-ranking Iranian diplomat serving in Asia said the regime has ordered a total news blackout on the Fordow incident, referring only to statements by the White House and IAEA. A former Iranian diplomat now in Tehran verified the order and said that since the WND report, the regime's Supreme National Security Council has met several times and issued directives to all of its branches on the Fordow incident.
Two days after WND's initial report on Fordow, Iran notified the IAEA of its intention to install its new-generation centrifuges at Natanz and it now has informed the IAEA that the installation has already begun and that it plans to install thousands more. The regime had 2,700 of these machines, which enrich uranium at a much faster speed, at Fordow.
Al-Manar, a Lebanese TV station affiliated with the terrorist group Hezbollah, echoed a claim by the Islamic regime's official news agency IRNA and other media that the author of the WND reports, Reza Kahlili, is a lying defector and that Hamidreza Zaker, a former Iranian intelligence officer who has provided information on the Fordow incident, is another defector notorious for lying.
In a bizarre comparison, Al-Manar said that in the run-up to the Iraq war, many publications, including The New York Times, put out false reports about Saddam Hussein's weapons of mass destruction, which the Bush administration used as a pretext to war. No WMDs were ever found.
Al-Manar is under the direct supervision of the office of Hassan Nasrallah, the secretary general of Hezbollah who was placed on the U.S. terrorist list in 2004.The media organization is funded by Iran and is used as a propaganda machine against Israel and America.
Al-Manar referred to the White House statement that called the WND report not credible and said that the IAEA backed Iran's denial of the incident. It said Iran's nuclear program is peaceful, stating that, "U.S. officials have recently said that the assessment included in the 2010 National Intelligence Estimate, which claims that there is no evidence whatever of an Iranian nuclear weapons program, remains the consensus view of the U.S.'s 16 intelligence agencies."
Al-Manar claimed WND's report is a part of an Israeli campaign to spread false information on the Iranian nuclear program and that shortly after the initial WND story, the Israeli newspaper Yediot Aharonot supported the WND report, which was echoed by the Times of London's sources in Israeli intelligence.
"Recently and after having scored a heavy defeat in the last parliamentary elections, where he and his right-wing partner Avigdor Lieberman lost 25 percent of their seats in the Knesset, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu tried to hide his current political weakness by shifting the public's attention to Iran," Al-Manar said. "In his 'victory speech,' he insisted that his first challenge would be preventing Iran from obtaining nuclear weapons."
IRNA, in a report Jan. 30, called WND a "mouthpiece of the CIA" and Kahlili a CIA agent whose reporting was mere propaganda by the West before the start of renewed negotiations between Iran and the 5-plus-1 powers – the United States, Britain, France, Russia and China, plus Germany. The next round of talks is set to take place on Feb. 26 in Kazakhstan.
In what may be an ominous development, North Korea conducted another nuclear bomb test one day prior to President Obama's State of Union Address. Iran and North Korea collaborate closely on their missile and nuclear bomb programs, and as reported in December 2010, Iranian scientists monitor North Korean tests.
With both North Korea and Iran having launched satellites into space, a sign of intercontinental ballistic missile delivery capability, a source in the Revolutionary Guards intelligence division said that with Monday's test in North Korea of a more powerful and more militarized bomb, the two countries are much closer to clearing the last obstacle to arming their missiles with nuclear warheads.


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"This is probably the best I've played in a while. I've had years the last few years where I've felt pretty good but we kept my minutes down so the numbers didn't look the same, but this year I feel pretty good."
The evidence is in the numbers. According to the Elias Sports Bureau, the month of December Bryant just finished playing was historic for him, as he had never reached the averages of at least 33.79 or more points, 5.57 or more rebounds and 4.64 or more assists all at the same time for an entire month before in his career.
Along with Bryant's improved scoring and efficiency, he's playing 38.7 minutes per game, slightly up from the 38.5 minutes he played last season under Mike Brown and significantly higher than the 33.9 minutes per game he logged in his final season under Phil Jackson.
"I think it's just the minutes," Bryant said. "I'm playing more. And I'm also extremely healthy. I had a whole summer to really be healthy, to be in shape, to get stronger and I think that has a lot to do with it. Diet has a lot to do with it, too. Watching what I eat."
Bryant said he was playing on "one leg" in Jackson's farewell season in 2010-11 and the Hall of Fame coach tried to manage Bryant's health by cutting his minutes, something that led critics to declare Bryant's career was on the decline.
"I played OK considering I was on one leg, but the minutes were also down too so the numbers were down," Bryant said. "It was one of the things that kind of frustrated me. Everybody said I was on the decline but the reality is my minutes were just fewer. That's something I took to heart and wanted to come back this season improved."
D'Antoni is enjoying his steady diet of having Bryant on his team, rather than as an opponent.
"He's played awful good, so it's a high level we're talking about but he's playing phenomenal," D'Antoni said. "You watch him from Phoenix and New York, you get one opinion which is good, but then you coach him and you start to appreciate what he goes through and how he gets himself ready every game. You got to really respect what he's doing."
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May is National Stroke Awareness Month
Joshua C.
Monday, August 6, 2012
By: Joshua Crompton
April 18th 2012 started like any other Wednesday, I woke up at 9ish and lounged around my apt until I had to get ready for work at 1230pm. I am the night assignment editor for CBS News in Philadelphia, 31 years old and relatively healthy.
Going through my normal routine I set my phone up to play some music while I got ready. Todays choice? Elton Johns greatest hits. Starting with "Levon" and just letting it play I am singing along as one of my favorites starts..
As "Tiny Dancer" starts I smile and start to sing along much like the popular scene from "Almost Famous". Singing loudly and out of key I belt out the chorus "HOLD ME CLOSER TINY DANCER" no doubt annoying my cat as the off pitch melody echoes through my tiny one bedroom apt just outside of center city Philadelphia,PA.... Then it happened, as Elton was singing about his blue jean baby without any warning and with the force of what I can only imagine a gun shot feels like I collapsed. Knowing this isn't a normal headache I somehow am able to get to my feet and step out of the shower. Still not aware of what is happening, but knowing it isn't good I try to take a step to get to my phone, I collapse again as the paralysis has set in on my entire right side.
Struggling to slide around my small bathroom and get to my phone I am able to reach my left hand up to grab the phone, "tiny dancer" still going as I struggle to focus on my pass code, I couldn't understand why it wasn't working, but I knew I needed to get the EMTS on the phone, using the phones emergency call feature I get 911 on the phone and just keep repeating my address... The call is dropped.... Using all of the focus I have left I call 911 back and explain to the operator "I think I am having a stroke, and I need help.. "Ok sir, you are doing great we are on the way" I think is what the operator told me. Then the call is lost again...
In this moment I am very aware that it may be my last moments on earth, Elton John is still singing but has moved on to "Rocket Man" and then it hit me... I'm soaking wet, completely naked, and listening to Elton John... This is going to be one hell of a story for the EMTS. I have since called this scenario the perfect storm of awkward..
Not knowing how much time has passed, but knowing Elton is still singing the paramadics arrive and make their way into my small second floor apt and manage to get me to the emeregency room. This is the last thing I remember of the month of April.
It was explained to me that I had an AVM burst on the left side of my brain causing an active bleed, sending massive amounts of blood into my brain. I couldn't understand why this happened to me as I am young and try to stay in shape. I was told I was born with this malformation and having never had headaches or any other symptoms it took everyone by surprise.
I started the rehab process 2 1/2 weeks after the stroke and after an angeogram, and a round of paste shot into the effected area of my brain.
As rehab started I still had very little movement in my right side, but I did my therapy everyday and in my room every day on my own hoping one day it will all come back.
I don't know when it happened, or how it happened but the next thing I knew May is ending and my arm is working! I can write, feed myself and even shave (VERY SLOWLY). Still doing inpatient rehab I am working harder than I ever have before, I am scheduled to do an "outing" with my recreational therapist and physical therapist, to get me used to doing everyday things in "the real world." That days activity was scheduling a cab pickup and telling the driver how to get where I am going. I decide I want to go to the Philadelphia Art Museum, as we get to the Art Museum I am standing at the bottom of the massive stairs made forever famous by Sylvester Stallone in ROCKY, I look at my physical therapist and make a decision. I'm going to climb these stairs today.
With a can in one hand and my physical therapist on my arm I start the trek up the most famous steps in Philadelphia. As tourists run past me humming the the theme song from the movie I push forward one step at a time, tired and wanting to quit I channel the spirit of the fictional boxer from South Philly and keep slowly climbing the stairs, before I knew it I am at the top and my physical therapist and I stand in the spot where Rocky Balboa stood as I look down on the city of brotherly love; the reality of the situation hits me like a ton of brinks....2 months ago I was hours away from dying and was paralyzed...I just walked up the art museum steps! However a bigger problem has arrived... How the hell am I going to get down???? Looking at my therapist we made the long slow walk down the stairs.. We made it back down and went back to the Rehab center feeling like Rocky at the end of part 2 when he defeats Apollo Creed to become the champ.
I have since been released from inpatient rehab, but still do the art museum steps at least once a week and it is getting easier and faster! My arm is almost back to 100% and I am working hard to get my foot back, it is a process, but I am taking it one day at a time.
Display of the Faces of Stroke stories does not imply National Stroke Association's endorsement of any product, treatment, service or entity. National Stroke Association strongly recommends that people ask a healthcare professional about diagnosis and treatment questions before using any product, treatment or service. The views expressed through the stories reflect those of the authors and do not reflect the opinion of National Stroke Association.
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PROVO — Utah County prosecutors used a bathtub as a courtroom prop on Friday to demonstrate how the body of a former beauty queen was found when it was discovered by her youngest daughter and neighbors who came to her aid.
Michele MacNeill, 50, was found dead by then 6-year-old Ada on April 11, 2007, about a week after she had a facelift. Five years later, her husband, Martin MacNeill, was charged with murder. Prosecutors say he gave her a lethal combination of painkillers and drowned her.
Neighbor Kristi Daniels pointed to the head of the oval shaped bathtub to describe how a partially-dressed Michele MacNeill was slumped in the tub, with her head near the faucet, her knees bent and feet inside. Daniels testified that she went to the MacNeill home after Ada knocked on her door and asked for help. The girl was still dressed in her school uniform and "was very calm," neighbor Angie Aguilar testified.
The prop is not the tub from the MacNeill home in Pleasant Grove, but it is the same model, Judge Derek P. Pullan told the jury.
Daniels, one of three neighbors to testify on Friday, said she could hear Martin MacNeill screaming while she was still in the driveway. She ran to his aid and found Michele in the tub and Martin bent over the tub. She ran to get assistance from Aguilar and called her husband, Doug Daniels, to help. That call was made at 11:53 a.m., according to cellphone records presented as evidence by the defense.
Aguilar also testified that she and Kristi Daniels initially offered to help MacNeill get Michele out of the tub while waiting for Doug Daniels, but he put them off.
"He wanted a man," Aguilar testified.
It was fast, everything was fast.
–Kristi Daniels, neighbor
After the men got the woman out of the tub and on the bathroom floor, Kristi Daniels and MacNeill performed CPR. Michele's face had a green pallor and was covered in mucus as she performed chest compressions while MacNeill breathed in his wife's mouth, Kristi Daniels said.
When asked by prosecutors, neither the Daniels nor Aguilar said they saw Michele's chest rise or fall while MacNeill was administering CPR. They also gave differing accounts about whether MacNeill wiped away the mucous on his wife's face before giving her CPR, or if the mucous had transferred to his face. Doug Daniels believes MacNeill may have used a towel to clean her mouth.
"It was fast, everything was fast," Kristi Daniels said, describing the events of that morning.
Prosecutors are focused on the CPR and mucous details because they believe MacNeill may have faked the life-saving measure.
But even Ray Ormond, a former Pleasant Grove police officer who responded to the house, said he didn't notice whether Michele's chest moved up and down, although he said her color improved, the incisions on her face began to bleed and she gurgled before coughing up at least three cups of clear liquid — an indication that CPR was working.
As first responders worked, MacNeill began to rant and rage, shouting: "Why did she take the medication?" "Why did she have the surgery?" and that she didn't need the surgery, Ormond said.
Charging documents say MacNeill wanted to kill his wife in order to be with his mistress of more than a year, Gypsy Willis, with whom he exchanged nearly two dozen text message during his wife's funeral service.
Neighbors said that within weeks of the death, Willis was seen in the neighborhood and MacNeill introduced her as the "nanny" hired to help care for his four young daughters.
MacNeill, a former osteopathic physician and lawyer, has pleaded not guilty to the first-degree felony charge and second-degree felony obstruction of justice in 4th District Court.
Defense attorneys say the evidence in the case is circumstantial and that MacNeill was either at work or shuttling his daughters back and forth from school that morning, not at home. Based on a doctor's evaluation, Michele MacNeill is believed to have died sometime between 11:24 a.m. and 12:24 p.m.
A 2007 autopsy by the Utah State Medical Examiner's Office ruled Michele's death as natural and as a result of heart disease, more specifically "chronic hypertension and myocarditis, which are capable of causing acute unexpected arrhythmia and sudden death."
All three neighbors also said within days of Michele MacNeill's death, her husband told them that doctors had concluded she had died from an arrhythmia.
"He just said it was some kind of heart thing," Kristi Daniels said. "He said the doctor had called and made sure the family knew it was nobody's fault."
Also taking the stand Friday was Heidi Peterson, the dispatcher who talked to MacNeill when he called 911. She said dispatchers had trouble understanding the address that a frantic-sounding MacNeill gave for the home, but figured it out with the help of the dispatch computer system. MacNeill called 911 on a cellphone and twice either hung up or was disconnected after shouting that his wife was not breathing and he needed help.
Dressed in a suit and tie, MacNeill has appeared mostly expressionless during the trial so far. When prosecutors replayed the 911 call Friday, however, he appeared to tear up.
Testimony in the trial, which is scheduled for five weeks, is expected to resume on Tuesday.
Video Contributing: Sam Penrod


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|Quick Facts: Medical Equipment Repairers
$44,570 per year
$21.43 per hour
|Associate's degree
|Moderate-term on-the-job training
|30% (Much faster than average)
What Medical Equipment Repairers Do
Medical equipment repairers install, maintain, and repair patient care equipment.
Work Environment
Although medical equipment repairers usually work during the day, they are sometimes expected to be on call, including evenings and weekends. Because repairing vital medical equipment is urgent, the work is sometimes stressful. Those who work in a patient-caring environment are potentially exposed to diseases and other health risks.
How to Become a Medical Equipment Repairer
Employers generally prefer candidates who have an associate's degree in biomedical technology or engineering. Depending on the area of specialization, repairers may need a bachelor's degree, especially for advancement.
The median annual wage for medical equipment repairers was $44,570 in May 2012.
Job Outlook
Employment of medical equipment repairers is projected to grow 30 percent from 2012 to 2022, much faster than the average for all occupations. Greater demand for healthcare services and the use of increasingly complex medical equipment will drive employment growth. Those who have an associate's degree in biomedical equipment technology or engineering should have the best job opportunities.
Similar Occupations
Compare the job duties, education, job growth, and pay of medical equipment repairers with similar occupations.
More Information, Including Links to O*NET
Learn more about medical equipment repairers by visiting additional resources, including O*NET, a source on key characteristics of workers and occupations.


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Procedures and sanctions of the Office of Judicial Affairs are under the administration of the Vice President for Student Services and are conducted pursuant to the authority provided in Section 41301 of Title 5 of the California Code of Regulations. Copies of Section 41301 of Title 5 may be found in the University Catalog and the Campus Regulations available in the Office of Judicial Affairs. Copies of Chancellor's Executive Order 970, "Student Conduct Procedures" are also available upon request.
The Vice President for Student Services will report annually to the President and the Chair of the Academic Senate a summary of the charges concerning cheating and plagiarism brought before the Office of Judicial Affairs.


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Chapel Sing Stirs Special Wabash Memoriesby Kim Johnson • June 7, 2008 Share:
Thunderstorms forced Chapel Sing onto the "steps" of Chadwick Court as generations of Wabash men relived the rite of passage that once stood between their boyhood and becoming a true Wabash Man. See photo album here and here.
Each class took its turn in the spotlight singing, humming, and harmonizing its way through the two verses of "Old Wabash," some with arms linked or a class battle cry, others waving money in hopes of bribing the judges.
Their voices outlasted the storms and finally all the alumni, honorary alumni, current students, and a few friends of the College gathered together as one band of Wabash brothers (and a few sisters) to sing the beloved tune.
Ron Litterst '58 was in the Glee Club at Wabash, and had sung the song many times before. Still he said, "I had to practice all the way over (from Illinois)." This was his first time to attend a reunion at Wabash. He is part of this year's 50th reunion class.
Wabash College Athletic Director Tom Bambrey '68 couldn't be shaken off tune by the distractions Sphinx Club member Nate Powell '09 tried to use. "He's a Sigma Chi. I'm a Sigma Chi," Powell said. "I had to do it. As for the rest of them, a lot them would be in the Chapel right now."
Chris Thompson '83 returned to campus this weekend for the first time since graduation. "We drove through 15 years ago but did not stop. A lot has changed, especially the buildings."
Although he thought he only did "okay" during Chapel Sing his first time back, his wife Jolene said, "He did great."
Even though Chapel Sing was not in its usual spot, the voices of Big Bash 2008 still rang loud and proud.
Photo above: Ron Litterst '58 hugs his wife Lois after his class completes Chapel Sing.
Photo right: Nate Powell '09 talks with Tom Bambrey '68 after he tries to throw him off tune during Chapel Sing.


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Walter Todman
Walter Todman is my great grandfather. He lived most of life in Victoria, Australia. It appears he was possibly born in Essex, England and migrated to Australia sometime before 1891 when he married Martha Sarah Ellis in the All Saints Church, East St Kilda, Victoria, Australia. He died suddenly of acute heart failure in 1929 at around 63. Who Walter's parents were is not clear
Before his marriage where and who Walter is almost a complete mystery.
However in my quest to find my grandfather I have found two possible Walter Todmans who could in fact be the same person.
In 1890 a Walter Todman registered a patent in NSW for shearing equipment. In 1892 a Walter Todman is getting married to a Martha Sarah Ellis in Victoria.
The question then becomes are these two Walters the same person?
I have been unable to find either of them coming into Australia nor what happened to the Walter Todman who started off in NSW.
My research so far has focused on the following
Establishing where my great grandfather Walter Todman was born through his childrens birth certificates:-
1894 on his daughter's Martha's birth certificate he was born in Essex, England
1895 on his daughter's Ivy Florence birth certificate he was born in Stepheney, London
1897 on his son's Walter Victor birth certificate he was born in Surrey, England
1903 on his daughter's Hazel May's birth certificate he was born in Essex, England
1906 on his son's Lincoln James birth certificate he was born in Essex, England
1908 on his daughter's Charlotte Mary birth certificate he was born in Norfolk, England
1910 on his daughter's Alma Dudley birth certificate he was born in Norfolk, England
On all birth certificates the informant was Martha Todman, mother (& Walter's wife); although the place listed for the fathers (Walter's) birth is always different his age is always consistent with being born in 1866.
A second Walter Todman?
There is a Walter Todman who fathered a Walter Todman in 1890 in New South Wales Australia with a Jane Levey. This Walter Todman was born in Norfolk, England who was 25 years old at the time therefore being born c 1865. A possible match for my Walter. (note Walter and Jane were not married)
The address listed was 9 Bailey Street, Newtown
Pros as to why this might be the same person as my Walter Todman
* the potential birth date of both Walter's is almost the same
* Norfolk is listed as one of the possible birth places of our Walter and is listed as the birth place of this second Walter Todman
* He is also a blacksmith
[We have been unable to find the marriage or death of a Jane Levey or her son Walter Todman in N.S.W or Vic; perhaps Jane did marry or take some elses name and changed her son's name to that surname also?]
[Efforts to try and establish whether these two Walter Todman's are the same person
I have tried to locate the Walter Todman in NSW after/before 1892 particularly at 9 Bailey Street, Newtown. By following his movements I was hoping that we would be able to distinguish between the two Walter's if they weren't the same person
Records that we consulted while in NSW were:-
1. 1891 NSW Census - taken on 16th April 1891. 9 Bailey Street Newtown was uninhabited. This could indicate a number of things, that after Walter Todman son of Jane Levey and Walter Todman was born the couple moved from the house either together or separately.
2. Sydney Sands Postal Directory - 1888 - 1890 did not list a Walter Todman at any location. In 1890 the person living at 9 Bailey Street, Newtown was Miss Mary A Currey. This could mean that Miss Currey lived by herself or was incharge of a boarding house or ??. If the dwelling was a boarding house or similar Walter and/or Jane could have lived there as well. There were Todmans listed in the Directory including a George F Todman and in 1890 a Herman Todman, neither of these were living near Newtown.
3. In the Sands Directories: Sydney and New South Wales, Australia 1891 there was a Walter Todman listed at 9 Bailey Street, Newtown, New South Wales, Australia
3. Electoral Role 1889 - 1890 no Walter Todman listed. In 1889 a George Todman was listed (not mine as far as I can establish)]
A Jane Todman shows up on Sand and Macdougall directory in Coburg, Victoria in 1907 only. This may only be a coincidence - but if this was infact Jane Levy, her son Walter would have been about to turn 18 perhaps she had appeared to collect his share of his inheritance or something.
*why would you call a second son by the same name? i.e. Walter Victor Todman by the same name as your first son?
With a bit of luck someone can give me a clue on where I should head next or perhaps even have further information to help shed light on the mystery.


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Study Finds Common Mineral Could Bring PMS Relief
(NEW YORK) -- Women who suffer from premenstrual syndrome, or PMS, know the physical and emotional symptoms can often be miserable. Now researchers say a common mineral may bring relief.
Many women take iron supplements to fight fatigue. A study reported in the American Journal of Epidemiology finds that an iron-rich diet can relieve the symptoms of PMS by up to 40 percent.
The researchers at the University of Massachusetts-Amherst started studying the total iron intake -- from both diet and supplements -- of some 3,000 women without PMS.
Over 10 years, a little more than 1,000 of them were diagnosed with PMS, while the others remained free of symptoms.
Those who took in over 20 milligrams a day of iron from plant-based sources and supplements reduced their risk for PMS, according to the study findings.
Scientists think the connection is that iron is needed to produce serotonin, a brain chemical involved in regulating moods.
Copyright 2013 ABC News Radio


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Business leader frets over tax increases
Robert Lapsley is a worried man.
For one thing, he warned a group of business leaders in San Francisco Thursday, you'd better start meeting with your tax advisers right away. That's because - if you didn't already know - those tax increases on the wealthy passed by state voters this week are retroactive, meaning some people will be coughing up more taxes on income earned this year.
Add to that the possible end of the federal Bush-era tax cuts, and the elimination or cutting back of other tax breaks and loopholes, and the money starts to seriously add up.
The president of the California Business Roundtable didn't stop there. The state's cap-and-trade program, scheduled to take effect next week, will cost heavy industry as much as $3 billion in its first year of operation, and up to $6 billion a year by 2015 to purchase mandated emission allowances, he says. With the implementation of the Affordable Care Act, he says, health care costs for many businesses are also likely to rise.
Most worrisome, however, is the postelection landscape in Sacramento, where for the first time since 1933 one party has a veto-proof supermajority in both houses of the Legislature, he noted.
"The Legislature will want to backfill the spending cuts made over the last five years. Every tax increase will be called a fee. This is what we're prepared for. These could be grim times," said Lapsley, speaking at a conference at the City Club sponsored by the Bay Area Council Economic Institute.
Lapsley appears not to have taken much comfort from state Senate President Pro Tem Darrell Steinberg, D-Sacramento, who talked on Wednesday of "bringing in more revenue" for schools, health and human services and the courts, and placing limits on ballot initiatives - particularly, some people believe, the tax-reduction kind.
But, Steinberg added, "I certainly don't intend to suggest to my colleagues that the first thing we do with our new powers is to go out and seek to raise more taxes. We can begin investing more when the budget is stable, and I think the budget now will be stable."
Gov. Jerry Brown said Wednesday that any new tax proposals would have to be voted on by the people, and noted that the passage of Proposition 30 is "just going to keep us from getting deeper into this financial black hole, but it won't get us out of the hole. We have to make sure over the next few years that we pay our bills, we invest in the right programs, but we don't go on any spending binges," he said.
To Lapsley, California's Democratic governor "is now the sole backstop for the business community," but he also hopes the private sector reaches out to a "business-friendly Democratic coalition in the Legislature to head off what we fear coming."
As in Washington, Sacramento lawmakers - and there are business-friendly Democrats among them - are making encouraging noises. "We're not looking to figure out new ways to do things that we've said we're not going to do," said Assembly Speaker John Pérez, D-Los Angeles. That includes raising taxes.
More immediately, a business coalition called the AB32 Implementation Group, which includes the California Business Roundtable, the Bay Area Council and the California Chamber of Commerce, has been circulating a petition and running online ads calling on Brown to delay implementation of the cap-and-trade program, pending some alterations. When asked Thursday, Brown's office said "the auction will take place on Nov. 14. We will be monitoring the program very closely and the Air Resources Board will make modifications as appropriate."
"It's a new world," said Lapsley. "and we're playing defense."
-- Presentations made on the U.S., California and Bay Area economies at the annual economic forecast conference are at www.bayareaeconomy.org.
Andrew S. Ross is a San Francisco Chronicle columnist. E-mail: firstname.lastname@example.com Blog: www.sfgate.com/columns/bottomline Twitter: @andrewsross Facebook: sfg.ly/doACKM