text:
NBC promotes fall season with Twitter contest
May 12, 2013
NEW YORK (AP) — NBC is giving the public more than just a new slate of programming. There are prizes to be had, too.
The network said Sunday that it's holding a Twitter-based sweepstakes linked to its fall schedule presentation to advertisers — a social-media twist on the annual TV rite occurring this week.
One of the prizes is a trip to Los Angeles to attend a final taping of Jay Leno's "Tonight Show." The other is a New York visit to see one of the first tapings of the relocated "Tonight" with new host Jimmy Fallon.
The contest opens Monday, when the network announces its lineup, and it runs through June 13. Fans can enter by following NBC's Twitter accounts of its upcoming schedule, which will include a new Sean Hayes sitcom.


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21 U.S. Code § 379j–31 - Authority to collect and use fees
prev | next
(a) In general
(1) Purpose and authority
For fiscal year 2010 and each subsequent fiscal year, the Secretary shall, in accordance with this section, assess and collect fees from—
(A) the responsible party for each domestic facility (as defined in section 350d (b) of this title) and the United States agent for each foreign facility subject to a reinspection in such fiscal year, to cover reinspection-related costs for such year;
(B) the responsible party for a domestic facility (as defined in section 350d (b) of this title) and an importer who does not comply with a recall order under section 350l of this title or under section 350a (f) of this title in such fiscal year, to cover food recall activities associated with such order performed by the Secretary, including technical assistance, follow-up effectiveness checks, and public notifications, for such year;
(C) each importer participating in the voluntary qualified importer program under section 384b of this title in such year, to cover the administrative costs of such program for such year; and
(2) Definitions
For purposes of this section—
(A) the term "reinspection" means—
(i) with respect to domestic facilities (as defined in section 350d (b) of this title), 1 or more inspections conducted under section 374 of this title subsequent to an inspection conducted under such provision which identified noncompliance materially related to a food safety requirement of this chapter, specifically to determine whether compliance has been achieved to the Secretary's satisfaction; and
(ii) with respect to importers, 1 or more examinations conducted under section 381 of this title subsequent to an examination conducted under such provision which identified noncompliance materially related to a food safety requirement of this chapter, specifically to determine whether compliance has been achieved to the Secretary's satisfaction;
(B) the term "reinspection-related costs" means all expenses, including administrative expenses, incurred in connection with—
(b) Establishment of fees
(1) In general
Subject to subsections (c) and (d), the Secretary shall establish the fees to be collected under this section for each fiscal year specified in subsection (a)(1), based on the methodology described under paragraph (2), and shall publish such fees in a Federal Register notice not later than 60 days before the start of each such year.
(2) Fee methodology
(A) Fees
Fees amounts established for collection—
(i) under subparagraph (A) of subsection (a)(1) for a fiscal year shall be based on the Secretary's estimate of 100 percent of the costs of the reinspection-related activities (including by type or level of reinspection activity, as the Secretary determines applicable) described in such subparagraph (A) for such year;
(ii) under subparagraph (B) of subsection (a)(1) for a fiscal year shall be based on the Secretary's estimate of 100 percent of the costs of the activities described in such subparagraph (B) for such year;
(iii) under subparagraph (C) of subsection (a)(1) for a fiscal year shall be based on the Secretary's estimate of 100 percent of the costs of the activities described in such subparagraph (C) for such year; and
(B) Other considerations
(i) Voluntary qualified importer program In establishing the fee amounts under subparagraph (A)(iii) for a fiscal year, the Secretary shall provide for the number of importers who have submitted to the Secretary a notice under section 384b (c) of this title informing the Secretary of the intent of such importer to participate in the program under section 384b of this title in such fiscal year.
(II) [1] Recoupment In establishing the fee amounts under subparagraph (A)(iii) for the first 5 fiscal years after January 4, 2011, the Secretary shall include in such fee a reasonable surcharge that provides a recoupment of the costs expended by the Secretary to establish and implement the first year of the program under section 384b of this title.
(ii) Crediting of fees In establishing the fee amounts under subparagraph (A) for a fiscal year, the Secretary shall provide for the crediting of fees from the previous year to the next year if the Secretary overestimated the amount of fees needed to carry out such activities, and consider the need to account for any adjustment of fees and such other factors as the Secretary determines appropriate.
(iii) Published guidelines Not later than 180 days after January 4, 2011, the Secretary shall publish in the Federal Register a proposed set of guidelines in consideration of the burden of fee amounts on small business. Such consideration may include reduced fee amounts for small businesses. The Secretary shall provide for a period of public comment on such guidelines. The Secretary shall adjust the fee schedule for small businesses subject to such fees only through notice and comment rulemaking.
(3) Use of fees
The Secretary shall make all of the fees collected pursuant to clause [2] (i), (ii), (iii), and (iv) of paragraph (2)(A) available solely to pay for the costs referred to in such clause (i), (ii), (iii), and (iv) of paragraph (2)(A), respectively.
(c) Limitations
(1) In general
Fees under subsection (a) shall be refunded for a fiscal year beginning after fiscal year 2010 unless the amount of the total appropriations for food safety activities at the Food and Drug Administration for such fiscal year (excluding the amount of fees appropriated for such fiscal year) is equal to or greater than the amount of appropriations for food safety activities at the Food and Drug Administration for fiscal year 2009 (excluding the amount of fees appropriated for such fiscal year), multiplied by the adjustment factor under paragraph (3).
(2) Authority
(A) the Secretary does not assess fees under subsection (a) for a portion of a fiscal year because paragraph (1) applies; and
the Secretary may assess and collect such fees under subsection (a), without any modification to the rate of such fees, notwithstanding the provisions of subsection (a) relating to the date fees are to be paid.
(3) Adjustment factor
(A) In general
The adjustment factor described in paragraph (1) shall be the total percentage change that occurred in the Consumer Price Index for all urban consumers (all items; United States city average) for the 12-month period ending June 30 preceding the fiscal year, but in no case shall such adjustment factor be negative.
(4) Limitation on amount of certain fees
(A) In general
Notwithstanding any other provision of this section and subject to subparagraph (B), the Secretary may not collect fees in a fiscal year such that the amount collected—
(B) Exception
If a domestic facility (as defined in section 350d (b) of this title) or an importer becomes subject to a fee described in subparagraph (A), (B), or (D) of subsection (a)(1) after the maximum amount of fees has been collected by the Secretary under subparagraph (A), the Secretary may collect a fee from such facility or importer.
(d) Crediting and availability of fees
Fees authorized under subsection (a) shall be collected and available for obligation only to the extent and in the amount provided in appropriations Acts. Such fees are authorized to remain available until expended. Such sums as may be necessary may be transferred from the Food and Drug Administration salaries and expenses account without fiscal year limitation to such appropriation account for salaries and expenses with such fiscal year limitation. The sums transferred shall be available solely for the purpose of paying the operating expenses of the Food and Drug Administration employees and contractors performing activities associated with these food safety fees.
(e) Collection of fees
(1) In general
The Secretary shall specify in the Federal Register notice described in subsection (b)(1) the time and manner in which fees assessed under this section shall be collected.
(f) Annual report to Congress
Not later than 120 days after each fiscal year for which fees are assessed under this section, the Secretary shall submit a report to the Committee on Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions of the Senate and the Committee on Energy and Commerce of the House of Representatives, to include a description of fees assessed and collected for each such year and a summary description of the entities paying such fees and the types of business in which such entities engage.
(g) Authorization of appropriations
For fiscal year 2010 and each fiscal year thereafter, there is authorized to be appropriated for fees under this section an amount equal to the total revenue amount determined under subsection (b) for the fiscal year, as adjusted or otherwise affected under the other provisions of this section.
[1] So in original. No subcl. (I) has been enacted.
[2] So in original. Probably should be "clauses".
Source(June 25, 1938, ch. 675, § 743, as added Pub. L. 111–353, title I, § 107(a),Jan. 4, 2011, 124 Stat. 3906.)
Nothing in this section to be construed to apply to certain alcohol-related facilities, to alter jurisdiction and authorities established under certain other Acts, or in a manner inconsistent with international agreements to which the United States is a party, see sections 2206, 2251, and 2252 of this title.
LII has no control over and does not endorse any external Internet site that contains links to or references LII.


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Updated: Think pythons can't kill an adult whitetail? Check out THIS exclusive gallery provided by Everglades biologist Skip Snow.
Also, I contacted noted herpetoligst (snake and amphibian scientist) Gary Casper, to get his take on the possibility of Burmese pythons having an actual detrimental effect on large mammal populations.
Casper said that if python numbers are exploding, it's possible they could have real impacts on mammal populations, and be pretty effective at finding newborn fawns.
"When they can, they eat a lot and grow fast," Casper said. "I have no reason to doubt Dorcas's conclusions, but haven't really studied the issue or looked for corroborating evidence."
Casper said most of these invasive species increase rapidly after an initial long period of low numbers, then explode with very negative impacts on everything around them, then crash and come to some sort of equilibrium.
"So we may be seeing an early phase, and it's already too late to do anything about it," Casper said. "Watch and learn."
Are pythons wiping out Everglades deer? They just might be. Could they cause a major population decline across the South? It's possible according to some researchers.
The newswires were abuzz yesterday with an NPR story about invasive Burmese pythons exacting a heavy toll on Everglades' wildlife populations. If you're a deer hunter, you should take note of this situation, because according to the lead researchers, raccoons, rabbits and opossums aren't the only Florida mammals in serious danger.
The story quotes Davidson College biologist Michael Dorcas in saying that his wildlife surveys have shown a 94 percent decrease in white-tailed deer observation, in addition to a 99.3 percent decrease in raccoons, 98.9 percent in opossums and 87.5 percent in bobcats.
Now, to be fair, the article points out that Dorcas' numbers are based solely on road counts, and do not indicate a comprehensive census. Yet road surveys are an accepted scientific method of tracking population trends. Plus, researchers points to several documented cases of white-tailed deer predation by pythons. So although the study numbers might be slightly anecdotal, the trend certainly seems real.
Even more worrisome for hunters could be the fact that the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service considers the pythons a threat for a much larger area. According to the Service's research, pythons could live almost anywhere in the Southern U.S.
Many hunters never expected wild hog populations to harm deer hunting in their neck of the woods. Now, that seems to be the case in many areas. Could pythons be the next invader to hurt deer hunting in the South?
What do you think?


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Lots of things in life come in threes. Three strikes, Three Blind Mice, third time's a charm, and every mom's favorite, "I'll give you to the count of three to get upstairs." But the best triplets we've seen in a while are the Three Principles of Personal Finance {via Mint.com}:
- Spend less than you earn. It's an obvious one, but some of us need to be clonked over the head a few times before we get a clue.
- Be smart about what you do with your money. Before you go tearing out checks for the mortgage, the Feds or the gas company, put some of your greenbacks into a interest-generating money market account. If you fancy investing, choose the right stocks that will pay off in the long term or shop around for the right mutual fund, preferably one that will outperform the S&P 500 index. If your employer offers a 401K, contribute (it's not taxed!).
- Expect the unexpected. Such a cliché, but so true. Everyone should have an emergency fund like a high-yield savings account – in case the toilet in the bathroom above the kitchen explodes – and insurance, whether it's health, home, life or renter's. You just never know.
Read more on Mint.com: Three Principles of Personal Finance: All You Need to Know for Financial Success by Aaron Patzer


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Julianna Goldman and Roger Runningen
Monday, 03 December 2012 09:26 AM
Obama's posture was shown in the proposal Timothy F. Geithner laid out for congressional leaders last week: a reprise of the president's prior budget proposals, with $1.6 trillion in tax increases and about $350 billion in health care savings, primarily in Medicare. He also asked for an Aug. 1 deadline for decisions on income tax overhaul and further spending cuts. It's all part of his move to avert a so-called fiscal cliff, with $607 billion in spending cuts and tax increases taking effect in January unless Congress acts.
"You could see the shock in the Republicans — this is not what they were expecting from the White House," said Stan Collender, managing director of Qorvis Communications LLC in Washington and a former staff member for the House and Senate budget committees. "There was almost euphoria among Democrats that the president was playing hardball."
The two parties are in stalemate over what spending cuts and revenue increases should be approved to cut a budget deficit that's exceeded $1 trillion for each of the four years Obama's been in office. The administration says no agreement is possible unless Republicans agree to increase tax rates for the highest earning Americans, a stance underscored by Geithner in a sweep of the Sunday talk shows. Republicans oppose any tax rate increase and demand deeper cuts than Obama has offered, a line that House Speaker John Boehner drew on one show Sunday.
No Compromises
Both administration officials and congressional Republicans say they want a deal before year's end — without either side publicly offering any compromises.
"There's not going to be an agreement without rates going up," Geithner said in a taped interview that aired Sunday on CNN's "State of the Union" program. Republicans will "own the responsibility for the damage" if they "force higher rates on virtually all Americans because they're unwilling to let tax rates go up on 2 percent of Americans."
Obama wants to boost top income-tax rates back to the levels they were when President Bill Clinton left office. The top rate then was 39.6 percent, compared with 35 percent today.
Boehner said Republicans aren't ready to give in, and the president should take the lead by offering concessions.
House Majority
"They must have forgotten that Republicans continue to hold a majority in the House," Boehner, an Ohio Republican, said on "Fox News Sunday." "The president's idea of a negotiation is 'roll over and do what I ask.' We need to find common ground, and we need to find it quickly."
Collender puts the odds of failure at 60 percent, as both sides need to prove their mettle to core supporters.
The risk for Obama is that Republicans will match his brinkmanship and no deal will be reached. The result would be the fiscal cliff, the more than $600 billion in automatic spending cuts and tax increases that start kicking in automatically at the beginning of the new year.
The nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office said in an August report said the tax increases and spending cuts would shrink economic output next year by 0.5 percent and push the unemployment rate to about 9 percent.
Moody's Investors Service said in September it may join Standard & Poor's in downgrading the U.S.'s credit rating unless the president and Congress reduce the percentage of debt to gross domestic product.
Markets React
Stocks have been whipsawed since the election as Obama and Boehner dueled in public.
The benchmark Standard & Poor's 500 Index increased 0.5 percent to 1,416.18 last week and it extended its rally since Nov. 16 to 4.1 percent. The Dow Jones Industrial Average advanced 15.90 points, or 0.1 percent, to 13,025.58.
The bond market hasn't demonstrated the same level of concern. While total national debt has soared to more than $16 trillion from less than $9 trillion in 2007, U.S. borrowing costs have tumbled. The yield on the 10-year note touched a record low 1.379 percent July 25, down from more than 5 percent in mid-2007.
Treasury 10-year yields climbed two basis points, or 0.02 percentage point, to 1.64 percent at 8:41 a.m. New York time, according to Bloomberg Bond Trader data. The rate fell eight basis points last week and reached 1.59 percent on Nov. 30, the lowest level since Nov. 19.
The dollar fell to a six-week low versus the euro on concerns that agreement won't be reached. The euro strengthened 0.5 percent to $1.3056 and climbed as high as $1.3075.
Obama Strategy
Obama's strategy is borne, in part, out of lessons Obama and his advisers take from the failed 2011 attempt to reach a grand bargain on long-term debt reduction.
Obama and Boehner tried to forge a compromise in private talks. Instead of clearing the path, their effort collapsed and served to increase resistance among members of both parties in Congress.
The president's team, particularly his political advisers, concluded that it was a mistake to stay in Washington instead of campaigning on behalf of his plan. So on Nov. 30, Obama took Air Force One to Pennsylvania, where he spoke at a toy factory on the need for deficit action — including raising top-income tax rates. His appearances have been tied to campaign-style appeals for support on the Internet.
Democrats Alienated
In 2011, Democratic backers were alienated by Obama's willingness to offer deep cuts in entitlement programs, such as Medicare and Social Security, without getting Republicans to agree on more revenue from taxes on high-income earners.
Jim Manley, a Democratic strategist and former aide to Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, said Obama's team made the mistake of holding on too long to the idea that Boehner and Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell would compromise.
"They took that lesson to heart and they're not going to allow themselves to get suckered into reaching bad agreements to get a deal," Manley said.
Obama's allies say the president's election victory and polls showing a majority of Americans support raising taxes on top earners means he doesn't have to make the same concessions on entitlements that he did in the summer of 2011.
'Negotiating Leverage'
"Unlike last year, Democrats now have all the negotiating leverage, and Republican hostage-taking threatens not just the economy, but the future of the Republican Party," Richard Trumka, president of the AFL-CIO who attended a fiscal cliff meeting at the White House last month, said in a Nov. 30 statement. Republicans "are still insisting on the very things voters rejected so resoundingly: tax cuts for the wealthiest two percent and benefit cuts to Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid."
The administration has rejected Republican complaints that it's not offering enough specifics.
The White House is proposing spending cuts of about $2.4 trillion. That consists of $1 trillion in cuts already enacted last year, $350 billion in healthcare savings, $250 billion on non-health programs, such as farm subsidies, and $800 billion as war costs are pared.
The administration proposes $1.6 trillion in tax increases, with about $866 billion of that from allowing income-tax and estate tax cuts expire for the wealthiest 2 percent of Americans. Obama also proposes about $200 billion in "economic growth" incentives, including stimulus programs, subsidies for mortgages deemed underwater and and extension of the 50 percent bonus depreciation.
Business Leaders
Besides campaigning outside Washington, Obama has been selling his stance at the White House. Over the last several weeks, he has hosted groups of business leaders, assuring them that he'll accept entitlement cuts if he can win his push for higher tax rates on wealthy individuals like themselves.
Republicans, who won another two years in control of the House, are warning Obama that he's not the only one to have re- election on his side, and say he's overplaying his hand.
Representative Pat Tiberi, an Ohio Republican and a member of the tax-writing Ways and Means Committee, said he is frustrated at Obama's approach.
"Clearly, the president won 50 states and 75 percent of the vote," he said. "That's what they're acting like."
Before the election, Republicans privately believed Obama would cave in a budget deal to avoid risking the fiscal cliff, yet after the last week, they see it as a possibility.
'Contrived Cliff'
"The president has decided, I am convinced, that he wants to just go over this contrived cliff because that's exactly what he's wanted," Senator Jim DeMint, a South Carolina Republican, said in an interview. "He wants more tax revenue, and he wants to cut the military. So that's what's going to happen."
Republican opposition to a $1.6 trillion in tax increases over a decade, $50 billion in stimulus spending, home mortgage refinancing and Obama's plan to end direct congressional control over raising the debt ceiling should be taken in context, said Patrick Griffin, former legislative affairs director under President Bill Clinton.
"You've got to open with something," Griffin, who is associate director of the Center for Congressional and Presidential Studies at American University in Washington. "And they're still talking."
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Description of Courses for the Online Master of Arts in Education in Adult Education
ADED 510 – Introduction to Adult Education - Offered Winter, Summer, and On Demand
Catalog course listing: Survey of principles, models and techniques of adult education. Topics will include
history, philosophies, and theories of education of adults.
The purpose of this course is to provide an overview of the field of adult education, its definition, a brief history, some of its philosophies and models, and some methods commonly used to educate adults. This course will help introduce adult educators to some of the common knowledge found in the field of adult education.
ADED 520 – Methods for Teaching Adults - Offered Spring
Prerequisite: ADED 611
Catalog course listing: Adult educational theories, models, and approaches and their use in practice.
This course has been developed to provide instructors of adults methodology and practices used to educate adults. Students will learn various approaches to establishing an educational setting, providing materials and instruction to adults, and assessing their outcomes. As adult educators begin the process of learning how to teach adults, they will need to know the various models of teaching adults. Students of this course will learn factors that influence the way adults learn, such as the physical, emotional, and learning environment. Emphasis will be placed on how to organize and conduct a learning experience for adults.
ADED 530 – Program Development for Adults - Offered Fall
Prerequisite: ADED 510
Catalog course listing: Program planning and development for adults in technical schools, colleges, workplace,
and lifelong learning endeavors. Includes methods for designing, implementing, and
evaluating programs and their objectives.
This course has been developed to provide instructors of adults knowledge of methods for establishing needs for programs, developing objectives, designing functional programs and then evaluating their effectiveness. As adult educators seek to develop programs, there are several approaches and techniques to determining the potential participant's needs, providing for those needs, and evaluating how well those needs were met. The purpose of this course will be to cover a variety of those approaches and engage students in the process of program planning and evaluation.
ADED 540 - History and Philosophy of Adult Education - Offered Fall
Catalog course listing: Philosophy and history of adult education in the United States. Covers history of
adult education from the colonial period to today. Includes major philosophies that
guide adult education.
This course has been developed to provide instructors of adults the history of the development and growth of adult education in the United States as well as the philosophies that have helped guide practice in adult education. "Adult Education: Evolution and Achievements in a Developing Field of Study" by Peters, Jarvis, and Associates (1991) recommends that all adult education graduate programs at the master's level provide a course of the historical and philosophical background of the field.
ADED 590 - Practicum in Adult Education - Offered Spring
1-3 hours
Prerequisite: Instructor permission and completion of at least 18 hours in the Master of Arts in Education in Adult Education program, including all core requirements except Capstone. Restricted to students admitted to the MAE Adult Education program. Supervised practical experience related to adult education studies. Grading is pass-fail.
ADED 595 – Readings or Research in Adult Education - Offered by Request
Catalog course listing: Individual readings or research. Arrangements must be made before enrolling.
This course has been developed to help those students who have specific interests concentrate on following those interests by providing a place for them to pursue individualized projects. These projects can be applied projects or research projects. The student and professor will jointly plan the direction and scheduling of such projects.
ADED 597 - Directed Study in Adult Education - Offered Fall
Catalog Course listing: Directed study related to best practices in adult education. Requires completion of research or applied project on approved topic.
ADED 598 – Adult Education Seminar - Offered by Request
Catalog course listing: Issues in the field of Adult Education. Topics will vary with faculty and student interest. This course has been developed to provide faculty the flexibility to provide special topics of interest to faculty and students. These topics would include areas of adult education that are of interest to faculty and students but do not warrant the development of a permanent course.
ADED 600 - Maintaining Matriculation - Offered Spring and Fall
1-6 hours
Prerequisites/corequisites: Permission of instructor. One to six hours for ADED students needing to maintain matriculation. (May be repeated up to a maximum of six hours.)
ADED 611 - Adult Development and Learning - Offered Summer, Fall, and On Demand
Catalog course listing: Psychological factors affecting adult development, learning, and motivation. Emphasis
on how diverse academic career/experiential backgrounds and objectives affect classroom
environments, teaching strategies, and testing and evaluation.
The course was developed:
- to help prepare future community practitioners for teaching traditional and non-traditional students through the study of student characteristics, development, interests, and motivation;
- to help students apply appropriate learning models and strategies, using materials and texts from their respective discipline;
- to help future faculty understand how different cultures and backgrounds affect learning;
- to understand the models of adult development
Some of the links on this page may require additional software to view.


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The Colorado Youth Advisory Council (COYAC) students make their second trip of the legislative session to the Capitol this week, and they've been busy preparing for their time with the legislators. The legislative youth council has capacity for 40 students from across the state and is officially recognized by the legislature to advise it on issues important to Colorado youths.
The high school students on COYAC study legislation already proposed during the session and, after discussion and debate, they decide whether or not to weigh in on those bills. The youth council members have also worked on the drafting and development of legislative efforts that they've proposed on a variety of topics.
New members will be selected for next school year by the current COYAC students based on applications received from interested students. We've been fortunate to have great representation on the council from different communities in southwestern Colorado, and I encourage any interested student to visit COYAC's website at www.coyac.org.
This session, COYAC's involved in renewing legislation establishing the council. Many of the students who started COYAC, five years ago, are now out in the real world, either working or in college. It's my hope, as the original sponsor of the legislation creating COYAC, that we'll begin seeing some of COYAC's "graduates" choose to go into public service at whatever level may interest them.
Other projects COYAC members have been working on this year are: developing a follow up survey of students across the state that will help shape the council's future priorities and focus and further work on the teen suicide prevention effort begun last year.
The youth council members also have been instrumental in helping the Chief Justice of the Colorado Supreme Court review over 1,150 applications from younger students seeking to be a part of the celebration of the new Colorado Judicial Center, opening on May 2. U.S. Supreme Court Justice Sonia Sotomayor will be at the opening and meeting that morning with those 100 students selected in an informal and rare opportunity for young people to interact with a justice from the highest court of our nation.
The new state judicial center is named after former Colorado governor Ralph L. Carr, a Republican, who, during World War II, forfeited his future political career by welcoming U.S. citizens of Japanese descent to Colorado at a time when they faced intense prejudice and relocation efforts solely because of their heritage. There's an enlightening educational exhibit at the History Colorado museum, located a block from the Capitol, that gives visitors an interactive perspective of the 1940's Japanese American internment camp located at Camp Amache, near Granada in southeastern Colorado.
In addition to having the pleasure of working with Colorado's youth on COYAC, my extracurricular activities include being a legislative board member for History Colorado, the statewide historical organization. The new History Colorado museum is located two blocks from the Capitol, with much to see. A current exhibit is "Jefferson's Bible: The Life and Morals of Jesus of Nazareth," which provides a fascinating look at the perspective and views of one of our nation's founding fathers. If you find yourself in Denver this spring, there's much to see and enjoy.
Finally, I want to join many others in wishing Rep. Mike McLachlan a speedy recovery and return to the legislature!
Ellen Roberts represents Senate District 6 in Colorado's General Assembly. The district encompasses Montezuma, Dolores, La Plata, Archuleta, Montrose, San Miguel, San Juan and Ouray counties. Contact Sen. Roberts by phone at (303) 866-4884, or email firstname.lastname@example.com.


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I didn't mean to get so deep in this introduction post.
I promise I didn't have this conversation with the kids!
We simply read the verses, looked at the uniform on our toys and then I tried to locate a song from years ago about the armor of God. I couldn't find it online but I did find
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. The kids liked it…
After a crazy dance party to the new song (ahem.) we decided to memorize Ephesians 6:10. I'm still debating if I want to try to memorize the whole passage (what do you think? anyone up for that?) but for sure this is one verse I want them to know.After a crazy dance party to the new song (ahem.) we decided to memorize Ephesians 6:10.
So, we made up motions for the verse and they were totally into it! That night when my husband came home, they did it for him. And later the next day, we were talking about it again and my daughter did it for me all on her own. Here's Asa doing it for you, too…Here's Asa doing it for you, too…
{can't see the video? click .}
{I know, you can't really understand him you probably can't tell what motions he's doing. But oh my. He is CUTE!}
Later this week, we'll begin in more detail with the belt of truth and do 2-3 activities with it. I'll be posting as we do them, so you can follow along, or wait till I'm a few weeks ahead so you can collect any supplies you might need. There will be lots of different activities–memorization, activities and a few crafts. I'm looking forward to it!
If you read
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(or have been around here long) you'll know I'm not about doing or having perfect, deep, amazing family devotions. I just want to spend purposeful time impressing God's Word on my kids' lives–as we sit at home, walk along the road, lie down and get up. And this is how it works in our family. I pray it will inspire you to be purposeful with your own family!
Oh, and a link to my
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, just in case you don't have any Roman Soldier playmobils laying around.
Next up in the Armor of God series…
Belt of Truth: What is it?
Belt of Truth: Invisible Armor David and Goliath
Breastplate of Righteousness: What is it?
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Breastplate of Righteousness Craft
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Beautiful {Smelly} Feet
Also you can't use IP unnumbered on multi-access interfaces like a Ethernet interface, only on point-to-point interfaces. Here's what happens when I configure an IP addres on my serial interface and try to borrow it from my FastEthernet interface:default interface FastEthernet 0/0 ip unnumbered Serial 0/0/0
You can see it fails since the FastEthernet interface is multi-access.
What about routing? are there any problems with IP unnumbered? Not really…let's look at an example here:
First we will configure this network where we have an IP address on each interface. I'll do this so you can see what the routing table looks like normally. Here is the configuration:ip address 192.168.12.1 255.255.255.0 ip address 192.168.2.2 255.255.255.0 ip address 192.168.12.2 255.255.255.0
Each interface has an IP address, let's enable a routing protocol:router eigrp 12 no auto-summary network 192.168.12.0 network 192.168.1.0 outer eigrp 12 network 192.168.2.0
Now take a look at the routing tables:
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Hhhm, so the routers don't care if they are not on the same subnet?
tnx alot man
Hi Francesco,
It's strange but that's correct. In my example above it works with EIGRP, it also works with OSPF.
You have to use ip unnumbered on both sides though, otherwise you won't get an adjacency.
you don't need to use IP unnumbered on both ends. The one without IP unnumbered will still check for valid subnet. IP unnumbered just disables it.
Hi Rene, My question is If R1 Serial Interface is configured for ip unumbered and R2 Serial interface is not configured for ip unumbered but instead it is configured for some different subnet, will that work??
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I am René Molenaar (CCIE #41726), Your main Instructor. My goal is to teach you everything about Cisco, Wireless and Security. I am here to Help You Master Networking!
Presents Lessons in an Understandable Way
Choose the filing status that has the best tax result for you.
A businessman calculating expenses at tax time image by Christopher Meder from Fotolia.com
Deciding the filing status you and your estranged wife should choose at tax time can be challenging. The Internal Revenue Service provides only two filing status choices for married couples — joint or separate. Your estranged wife can file separately, but depending on your situation you might qualify to select an unmarried filing status that yields better tax results and does not attach your wife to your return affairs.
You're considered married for the entire tax year if you aren't legally divorced or separated on or before Dec. 31. The IRS requires that married individuals file either a joint or separate return. If you file jointly, both you and your estranged wife must agree to do so. If you don't agree, you must file a separate return. However, if certain conditions are met, the IRS may consider you and your estranged wife unmarried.
If you and your wife live apart for the last six months of the year, the IRS considers you unmarried even if you haven't filed for legal separation. You and your wife can still choose to file a joint or separate return, but in some cases you might need to file as if you're unmarried. It may be difficult to file a joint return if your estranged wife is not in communication with you. Filing a separate return is still an option, but there might be disadvantages in doing so, especially if you have dependent children or claim certain tax benefits. If you consider yourself unmarried under IRS rules, two options are a single filing status or head of household if you have a qualifying dependent.
If you choose a married filing separate status, both you and your estranged wife will have higher tax rates. This status has tax rates similar to those for single filers. If you have high income and claimed "married" on the W-4 withholding allowance certificate you gave to your employer, you may have insufficient withholding to cover your tax bill.
The IRS disallows or reduces many tax benefits to married taxpayers who file separate returns. For example, if you have capital losses or rental real estate losses, your deduction is reduced to half the regular rate. As of June 2012, if you file a separate return, you can deduct only up to $1,500 in capital losses and up to $12,500 in rental real estate losses. If you have dependent children and file separately, you can't claim the child care credit, education benefits or the earned income credit. Filing as a single or head of household taxpayer in this case restores your ability to claim credits and deductions you're eligible to take.
With a background in taxation and financial consulting, Alia Nikolakopulos has over a decade of experience resolving tax and finance issues. She is an IRS Enrolled Agent and has been a writer for these topics since 2010. Nikolakopulos is pursuing Bachelor of Science in accounting at the Metropolitan State University of Denver.
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text:
anybody going???????????? dec.2.07 anybody?all my ( " " ) buddies back out.
anybody going???????????? dec.2.07 anybody?all my ( " " ) buddies back out.
Details please? I'm local.
dec 2 on sunday .i live in vernon hills,il.looking for other riders from aera to go.so far i know ride is on north side of chicago.i will get more details.ride safe
all info on motorcycle parade in chicago you can find here:http://chicagolandtft.org/mainevent.htm
What's the weather gonna be like?
My brother and I will be there. We'll be coming from the south.
Personally,I've done it several times. Past experience says hope for cold/wet weather.
Warm weather brings out the "undesireables",if ya know what I mean. And lot's of them.
Undesirable as in "drunk,messy,loud,ignorant" the list goes on. And because you choose to ride something different than what they consider the norm,they'll let you know about it.
Many ride obnoxious,giving "bikers in general" a bad rapt. I've seen it all.
I've found the cold wet events bring out the true riders on all sorts of brands,with a true reason for being there. Not just another getogether "Drunk Fest".
Will try to attend.
anybody coming from north burbs?
Cloudy, Very cloudy, high in the low 30's. No precip for the prior 4 days so that's a good thing. I might come down. Got the new heated Gerbings jacket and did 160 miles yesterday and was totally comfortable! Actually had to remove the inner winter liner from the jacket....
im coming,just got my bike ready.
this is my ride
and some other pics:


text:
Virtualization for Unified CCE 9.x
From DocWiki
(→Cisco Unified CCE-Specific Information for OVA Templates)
m (1 revision)
Revision as of 20:31, 16 July 2012
Updates to this Page
The following is a list of significant updates to this page:
|June 18, 2012
|New virtualization page for 9.x
|June 19, 2012
|Overall Edits for 9.x release
Information for Partners about Unified CCE on UCS Deployment Certification and Ordering
It is important that partners who are planning to sell UCS products on Unified Contact Center Enterprise read the DocWiki page UCCE on UCS Deployment Certification Requirements and Ordering Information.
This page contains essential information for partners about the following:
- Partner Certification Requirements
- UCS Server Ordering Information
- Important Notes on Cisco UCS Service and Support
Unified CCE 9.x Support for Virtualization on the ESXi/UCS Platform
Starting with Release 8.0(2), virtualization of the following deployments and Unified CCE components on Cisco Unified Computing Systems (UCS) B200 Series and C210 Series hardware is supported:
- Router
- Logger
- Agent PG
- Unified Contact Center Gateway
- Avaya ACD PG (Also supported on virtualized ESXi server on MCS-7845-I3-CCE2)
- TDM ACD PG (Also supported on virtualized ESXi server on MCS-7845-I3-CCE2)
- Cisco Agent Desktop (CAD) Server
- Administration and Data Server with one of the following roles:
- Administration Server and Real-time Data Server (AW)
- Configuration-only Administration Server (AW-CONFIG)
- Administration Server and Real-time and Historical Data Server (AW-HDS)
- Administration Server, Real-time and Historical Data Server, and Detail Data Server (AW-HDS-DDS)
- Historical Data Server and Detail Data Server (HDS-DDS)
- Administration Client
- Outbound Option with SIP Dialer (collocate SIP Dialer and MR PG with Agent PG in the same VM guest. Generic PG can also be collocated with the Agent PG in the same VM guest. Published agent capacity formula with Outbound Option applies.)
- Support Tools
- Rogger (a Router and a Logger in the same VM)
- The Unified Communications Manager (UCM) Clustering Over the WAN deployment model with Unified CCE is supported; see the section Support for UCM Clustering Over the WAN with Unified CCE on UCS Hardwarefor important information.
- Unified IP-IVR is supported with Unified CCE on UCS B-Series solution and on UCS C-Series with the model (UCS-C210-VCD2) only. Please refer to the IPIVR product specific pages for detail.
- CVP is supported with CCE on UCS solution. Please refer to the Virtualization for Unified CVP wiki page for details.
- Contact Center Management Portal (CCMP). See the Virtualization for CCMP with Unified CCE on UCS Hardware wiki page for details.
- Cisco Unified Intelligence Center (Unified IC). Please refer to the Cisco Unified Intelligence Center wiki page for details.
- Cisco E-mail Interaction Manager (EIM)/Web Interaction Manager (WIM). See the Virtualization for EIM-WIM wiki page for details
The following deployments and Unified CCE components have not been qualified and are not supported in virtualization:
- Progger (a Router, a Logger, and a Peripheral Gateway); this all-in-one deployment configuration is not scalable in a virtualization environment. Instead, use the Rogger or Router/Logger VM deployment configuration.
- Unified CCH
- Unified ICMH
- Unified ICME with more than 12,000 agents and/or the use of NIC, SIGTRAN
- Outbound Option with SCCP Dialer
- WebView Server
- Expert Advisor
- Remote Silent Monitoring (RSM)
- Span based Silent Monitoring on UCS B-series chassis
- Cisco Unified CRM Connector
- IPsec. UCS does not support IPsec off-board processing, therefore IPsec is not supported in virtualization.
|The hybrid (virtual and non-virtual server) deployment model is supported. Components that are not yet virtualized can continue to be on MCS in the UCCE on UCS deployment. See the Hybrid Deployment Options section for more information.
The following VMware features are not supported with Unified CCE:
- VMware Physical to Virtual migration
- VMware snapshots
- VMware Consolidated Backup
- VMware High Availability (HA)
- VMware Site Recovery Manager
- VMware vCenter Update Manager
- VMware vCenter Converter
Hardware Requirements for Unified CCE Virtualized Systems
Requirements for Cisco Unified CCE systems using UCS B200 or C210 hardware are located in the Unified Computing System Hardware. These are the UC on UCS TRC (Test Reference Configuration) models. For UCS C210, Unified CCE supports only the model (UCS-C210-VCD2) with a specific HDS Virtual Machine (VM) coresidence/population rule. See Sample CCE Deployments.
Cisco SmartPlay Solution Packs for UC/Hardware Bundles Support
Cisco SmartPlay Solution Packs for UC, which are the pre-configured bundles (value UC bundles) based on UCS B200M2 or C210M2 as an alternative ordering to UC on UCS TRCs above are supported with caveats:
- For B200M2 and C210M2 Solution Packs (Value UC Bundles) that have better specification than the UC on UCS B200M2/C210M2 TRC models (e.g., 6 cores per same cpu family, etc.), the UC on UCS spec-based HW support policy needs to be followed and these bundles are supported by UCCE/CVP as an exception providing the same UCCE VM co-residency rules are compliant and the number of CVP Call Server VMs cannot be more than two on the same server/host.
- For other Spec-based Servers according to UC on UCS Spec-based Hardware Policy that have specification equal to or better than the UC on UCS B200M2/C210M2 TRCs, they may be used for UCCE/CVP once validated in the Customer Collaboration DMS/A2Q (Design Mentoring Session/Assessment To Quality) process. This also means a particular desired spec-based server model may not be approved for use after the server design review in the DMS/A2Q session.
Unified CCE supports MCS-7845-I3-CCE2 with virtualization. For a list of supported virtualized components on MCS servers, see the appropriate Hardware and System Software Specification (Bill of Materials) for Cisco Unified ICM/Contact Center Enterprise and Hosted.Unified CCE does not support UCS C200.
VMware and Application Software Requirements
The following software requirements apply specifically to Unified Contact Center Enterprise:
- VMWare ESXi 5.0 is the only supported hypervisor for Unified Contact Center Enterprise release 9.x.
- If you are upgrading ESXi software, see the section Upgrade ESXi.
- The Windows, SQL, and other third party software requirements for the Unified CCE applications in the ESXi/UCS platform are the same as in the physical server. For more information see the appropriate Hardware and Software Specification (Bill of Materials) for Cisco Unified ICM/Contact Center Enterprise & Hosted.
ESXi 5.0 Software Requirements
When Cisco Unified CCE is running on ESXi 5.0, you must perform the following steps:
- You must install or upgrade VMware Tools for ESXi 5.0 on each of the VMs and use all of the VMware Tools default settings. For more information, see the section VMware Tools.
- You must disable Large Receive Offload (LRO). For details, see the section Disable LRO.
Unified CCE Component Capacities and VM Configuration Requirements
For supported Unified CCE component capacities and VM computing resource requirements, see the List of Unified CCE OVA Templates.
|You must use the OVA VM templates to create the Unified CCE component VMs.
For instructions on how to obtain the OVA templates, see Downloading OVA Templates for UC Applications.
Unified CCE Scalability Impacts
The capacity sizing information is based on the operating conditions published in the Cisco Unified Contact Center Enterprise Solution Reference Network Design (SRND), Release 9.x, Chapter 10, Operating Conditions and the Hardware and System Software Specification (Bill of Materials) for Cisco Unified ICM/Contact Center Enterprise and Hosted',Release 9.x, Section 5. Both documents are available at Cisco.com.
The following features reduce the scalability of certain components below the agent count of the respective OVA capacity sizing information.
- CTI OS Security - CTI OS Server capacity is impacted when CTI OS Security is enabled; capacity is decreased by 25%.
- Mobile Agents - Refer to the SRND, Chapter 10, Sizing Information for Unified CCE Components and Servers table for sizing guidance with Mobile Agents.
- Outbound Option – Refer to SRND, Chapter 10, Sizing Information for Unified CCE Components and Servers table for sizing guidance with Outbound Option.
- Agent Greeting – Refer to SRND, Chapter 10, Sizing Information for Unified CCE Components and Servers table for sizing guidance with the Agent Greeting feature enabled.
- Whisper Announcement - Refer to SRND, Chapter 10, Sizing Information for Unified CCE Components and Servers table for sizing guidance with the Whisper Announcement feature enabled.
- Precision Queues – Refer to SRND, Chapter 10, Sizing Information for Unified CCE Components and Servers table for sizing guidance with precision queues.
- Extended Call Context (ECC) usage greater than the level noted in the Operating Conditions will have a performance and scalability impact on critical components of the Unified CCE solution. As noted in the SRND, the capacity impact will vary based on ECC configuration, therefore, guidance must be provided on a case-by-case basis.
UCS Network Configuration
- IMPORTANT: For instructions on performing the network configuration needed to deploy Cisco Unified Contact Center Enterprise (UCCE) on UCS servers, see UCS Network Configuration for UCCE.
- QoS must be enabled for the Private network connections only (between Side A and B) of PGs using PG Setup and set to enabled on Router nodes using Unified CCE Setup. Refer to Chapter 12 of the appropriate Cisco Unified Contact Center Enterprise Solution Reference Network Design (SRND) for more details.
Support for UCM Clustering Over the WAN with Unified CCE on UCS Hardware
You can deploy the Unified Communications Manager (UCM) Clustering Over the WAN deployment model with Unified CCE on UCS hardware.
When you implement this deployment model, be sure to follow the best practices outlined in the section "IPT: Clustering Over the WAN" in the Cisco Unified Contact Center Enterprise Solution Reference Network Design (SRND).
In addition, note the following expectations for UCS hardware points of failure:
- For communication path single point of failure performed by Cisco on the Unified CCE UCS B-series High Availability (HA) deployment, system call handling was observed to be degraded for up to 45 seconds while the system recovered from the fault, depending upon the subsystem faulted. Single points of failure will not cause the built-in ICM software failover to occur. Single points of failure include, but are not limited to, a single fabric interconnect failure, a single fabric extender failure, and single link failures.
- Multiple points of failure on the Unified CCE UCS HA deployment can cause catastrophic failure, such as ICM software failovers and interruption of service. If multiple points of failure occur, replace the failed redundant components and links immediately.
B-Series Considerations
Cisco recommends use of the M81KR Virtual Interface Card (VIC) for Unified CCE deployments, though the M71KR(-E/Q) and M72KR(-E/Q) may also be used as per reference design 2 detailed at the dedicated networking page linked below. M51KR, M61KR and 82598KR are not supported for Contact Center use in UCS B series blades.
New B Series deployments are recommended to use Nexus 5000/7000 series data center switches with vPC PortChannels. This technology has been shown to add considerable advantageous to Contact Center applications in fault recovery scenarios.
See the configuration guidelines in UCCE on UCS B-Series Network Configuration.
C-Series Considerations
If deploying Clustering Over the WAN with C-Series hardware, do not trunk public and private networks. You must use separate physical interfaces off of the C-Series servers to create the public and private connections. See the configuration guidelines in UCCE on UCS C Series Network Configuration.
Notes for Deploying Unified CCE Applications on UCS B Series Hardware with SAN
In Storage Area Network (SAN) architecture, storage consists of a series of arrays of Redundant Array of Independent Disks (RAIDs). A Logical Unit Number (LUN) that represents a device identifier can be created on a RAID array. A LUN can occupy all or part of a single RAID array, or span multiple RAID arrays.
In a virtualized environment, datastores are created on LUNs. Virtual Machines (VMs) are installed on the SAN datastore.
Keep the following considerations in mind when deploying UCCE applications on UCS B Series hardware with SAN.
- This deployment must comply with the conditions listed in Section 3.1.6 of the appropriate Hardware & System Software Specification (Bill of Materials) for Cisco Unified Contact Center Enterprise. In particular, SAN disk arrays must be configured as RAID 5 or RAID 10.
- Note: RAID 6/ADG is also supported as an extension of RAID 5.
- Historical Data Server (HDS) requires a 2 MB datastore block size to accommodate the 500 GB OVA disk size, which exceeds the 256 GB file size supported by the default 1 MB block size for datastores (in ESXi 4.0U1, this may change in later versions). The HDS block size is configured in vSphere at datastore creation.
- To help keep your system running most efficiently, schedule automatic database purging to run when your system is least busy.
- The SAN design and configuration must meet the following VMware ESXi disk performance guidelines:
- Disk Command Latency – It should be 15 mSec or less. 15mSec latencies or greater indicates a possible over-utilized, misbehaving, or mis-configured disk array.
- Kernel Disk Command Latency – It should be very small in comparison to the Physical Device Command Latency, and it should be close to zero. A high Kernel Command Latency indicates there is a lot of queuing in the ESXi kernel.
- The SAN design and configuration must meet the following Windows performance counters on UCCE VMs:
- AverageDiskQueueLength must remain less than (1.5 ∗ (the total number of disks in the array)).
- %Disktime must remain less than 60%.
- Any given SAN array must be designed to have an IOPS capacity exceeding the sum of the IOPS required for all resident UC applications. Unified CCE applications should be designed for the 95th percentile IOPS values published in this wiki. For other UC applications, please follow their respective IOPS requirements & guidelines.
- vSphere will alarm when disk free space is less than 20% free on any datastore. Recommendation is to provision at least 20% free space overhead, with 10% overhead required.
- Recommend deploying from 4-8 VMs per LUN/datastore so long as IOPS and space requirements can be met, with supported range from 1-10.
See below for an example of SAN configuration for Rogger 2000 agent deployment. This example corresponds to the 2000 agent Sample CCE Deployment for UCS B-Series described in: Unified CCE Component Coresidency and Sample Deployments.
Example of SAN Configuration for Unified CCE ROGGER Deployment up to 2000 Agents
The following SAN configuration was a tested design, though generalized here for illustration. It is not the only possible way in which to provision SAN arrays, LUNs, and datastores to UC applications. However, you must adhere to the guidance given earlier in this section (above).
Rogger Side A
Rogger Side B
Steps for Installing/Migrating Unified CCE Components on Virtual Machines
Follow the steps and references below to install the Unified CCE components on virtual machines. You can use these instructions to install or upgrade systems running with Unified CCE 8.0(2) and later. You can also use these instructions to migrate virtualized systems from Unified CCE 8.0(X) to Unified CCE 9.0(X) or later, including the Avaya PG and other selected TDM PGs that were supported on Unified CCE 8.5(X). Not all TDM PGs supported in Unified CCE 8.5(X) are supported in Unified CCE 9.0(x). For more information, see the appropriate Hardware and System Software Specification (Bill of Materials) for Cisco Unified ICM/Contact Center Enterprise and Hosted.
- Acquire the supported servers for Unified CCE 9.0(X) or later release.
- Cisco UCS servers are specified in the Hardware Requirements for Unified CCE Virtualized Systems section.
- MCS-7845-I3-CCE2 is specified in the appropriate Hardware and System Software Specification (Bill of Materials) for Cisco Unified ICM/Contact Center Enterprise and Hosted.
- If there are PG VMs that are running on the following older MCS servers, MCS-7845-H2 or MCS-7845-I2, replace these servers with supported servers.
- Install, setup, and configure the servers.
- Configure the network. See reference at UCS Network Configuration.
Note: Configuring the network for the MCS servers is the same as configuring the network for the UCS C-Series servers.
- If VMware VirtualCenter is used for virtualization management, install or update to VMware vCenter Server 5.0 or later.
- Install and Boot VMWare ESXi. See the Cisco UCS B-Series Blade Servers VMware Installation Guide or the Cisco UCS C-Series Servers VMware Installation Guide. On C-Series servers or MCS servers, you must configure the ESXi datastore block size for the Administration & Data Server. See Configuring the ESXi Data Store Block Size for Administration and Data Server for instructions.
- Create the Unified CCE virtual machines from the OVA templates. See reference at Creating Virtual Machines from OVA VM Templates.
- Install VMware Tools with the ESXi version on the virtual machines. Install the same version of VMware Tools as the ESXi software on the virtual machines.
- Install Windows OS and SQL Server (for Logger and HDS components) on the created virtual machines.
Note: Microsoft Windows Server 2008 Standard Edition and Microsoft SQL Server 2008 R2 Edition should be used for virtual machine guests. See related information in the links below.
- Install or migrate the Unified CCE Software components on the configured virtual machines, using Fresh Install or Tech Refresh Upgrade, as described in Installing Unified CCE components on virtual machines and Migrating Unified CCE components.
Unified CCE Component VM Coresidency
You can have one or more Unified CCE VMs coresident on the same ESXi server (for example, B200M2 blade or C210M2 rack mount server). However, you must follow the rules described below:
- You can have any number of Unified CCE virtual machines and combination of coresidency of Unified CCE virtual machines on an ESXi server as long as the sum of all the virtual machine CPU and memory resource allocation does not over commit the available ESXi server computing resources.
- You must not have CPU overcommit on the ESXi server that is running Unified CCE realtime application components. The total number of vCPUs among all the virtual machines on an ESXi host must not be greater than the total number of CPUs available on the ESXi server. In the case of the Cisco UCS B-200 and C-210, the total number of CPUs available is 8.
- You must not have memory overcommit on the ESXi host running UC realtime applications. You must allocate a minimum 2GB of memory for the ESXi kernel. For example, if an ESXi server on B-200 hardware has 36GB of memory, after you allocate 2GB for the ESXi kernel you have 34GB available for the virtual machines. The total memory allocated for all the virtual machines on an ESXi server must not be greater than 34GB in this case.
- VM coresidency with Unified Communications and third party applications (for example, WFM) is not supported unless it is described in the following subsection.
The following table shows how Unified CCE components can be coresident on the same ESXi server. A diamond indicates that coresidency is allowed. For example, the first row shows that Unified Communications Applications can not be colocated with Contact Center Tier 1 Applicaitons. The third row shows that Third Party Applications can only be colocated with Contact Center Tier 3 Applications.
|Unified CCE Component Coresidency
|Contact Center Tier 1 Applications
|Contact Center Tier 2 Applications
|Contact Center Tier 3 Applications
|Unified Communications Applications
|Third Party Applications
|Contact Center Tier 1 Applications: Router, Logger, Peripheral Gateway, ADS-HDS
|Contact Center Tier 2 Applications: CVP Call + VXML Server, CVP Reporting Server, CUIC, CCMP
|Contact Center Tier 3 Applications: ADS/AW (any non-HDS), Admin Client, Support Tools, Windows AD DC, CVP Ops/OAMP Server, CVP Media Server, SocialMiner
|Unified Communications Applications: Communications Manager, Contact Center Express, IPIVR, CUP, Unity, Unity Connection, MediaSense
|EXCEPTIONS to the above VM co-residency table:
- On a C-Series server, the HDS cannot co-reside with a Router, Logger, or a PG.
- PG (in CCE solutions up to 1000 CTIOS agents or 500 CAD agents) VMs can be co-resident with UCM/CUP/IPIVR VMs on the same ESXi host/server.
For coresidency restrictions specific to individual Unified Communications applications that run on VMs, see the Unified Communications Virtualization Sizing Guideline docwiki.
Hybrid Deployment Options
Some Unified Contact Center deployments are supported in a "hybrid" fashion whereby certain components must be deployed on (bare-metal) Media Convergence Servers (MCS) or generic servers, and other components are deployed in virtual machine guests on Unified Computing System (UCS) or MCS servers. The following sub-sections provide further details on these hybrid deployment options.
Cisco Unified Contact Center Hosted
- NAM Rogger is deployed on a (bare-metal) quad CPU server as specified in the appropriate Hardware and System Software Specification (Bill of Materials) for Cisco Unified ICM/Contact Center Enterprise and Hosted.
- Each customer instance central controller (CICM) connecting to the NAM may be deployed in its own virtual machine as a Rogger or separate Router/Logger pair on UCS hardware. Multiple CICM instances are not supported collocated in one VM. Existing published rules and capacities apply to CICM Rogger and Router/Logger VMs. (Note: CICMs are not supported on bare-metal UCS.)
- As in Enterprise deployments, each Agent PG is deployed in its own virtual machine. Multi-instance Agent PGs are not supported in a single VM. Existing published rules and capacities apply to PGs in Hosted deployments.
Parent/Child Deployments
- The parent ICM is deployed on (bare-metal) servers as specified in the appropriate Hardware and System Software Specification (Bill of Materials) for Cisco Unified ICM/Contact Center Enterprise and Hosted.
- The Unified Contact Center Enterprise (or Express) child may be deployed virtualized according to existing published VM requirements.
- The Unified Contact Center Enterprise Gateway PG and System PG are each deployed in its own virtual machine; agent capacity (and resources allocated to the VM) are the same as the Unified CCE Agent PG @ 2,000 agent capacity. Use the same virtual machine OVA template to create the CCE Gateway or System PG VM.
Cisco Unified CCE-Specific Information for OVA Templates
See the following websites for more information:
Creating Virtual Machines by Deploying the OVA Templates
In the vSphere client, perform the following steps to deploy the Virtual machines.
- Highlight the host or cluster to which you wish the VM to be deployed.
- Select File > Deploy OVF Template.
- Click the Deploy from File radio button and specify the name and location of the file you downloaded in the previous section OR click the Deploy from URL radio button and specify the complete URL in the field, then click Next.
- Verify the details of the template, and click Next.
- Give the VM you are about to create a name, and choose an inventory location on your host, then click Next.
- Choose the datastore on which you would like the VM to reside - be sure there is sufficient free space to accommodate the new VM, then click Next.
- Choose a virtual network for the VM, then click Next.
- Verify the deployment settings, then click Finish.
- VM CPU affinity is not supported. You may not set CPU affinity for Unified CCE application VMs on vSphere.
- VM Resource Reservation - For Unified CCE 9.0(1) and later, VM resource reservation is supported for Unified CCE application VMs on vSphere. The VM computing resources have a default reservation setting when deployed from the OVA.
- You must not change the computing resource configuration of your VM at any time.
- You must never go below the minimum VM computing resource requirements as defined in the OVA templates.
- ESXi Server hyperthreading is enabled by default.
Preparing for Windows Installation
In the vSphere client, perform the following steps to prepare for operating system installation.
- Right click on the virtual machine you want to edit and select Edit Settings. A Virtual Machine Properties dialog appears.
- On the Hardware tab, select CD/DVD Drive 1. Under Device Type, select Datastore ISO File and enter the location of the operating system ISO.
- Click OK to save setting changes.
- Power up your VM and continue with operating system installation.
Remote Control of the Virtual Machines
For administrative tasks, you can use either Windows Remote Desktop or the VMware Infrastructure Client for remote control. The contact center supervisor can access the ClientAW VM using Windows Remote Desktop.
Installing VMware Tools
The VMware Tools must be installed on each of the VMs and all of the VMware Tools default settings should be used. Please refer to VMware documentation for instructions on installing or upgrading VMware Tools on the VM with Windows operating system.
Installing Unified CCE Components on Virtual Machines
Install the Unified CCE components after you create and configure the virtual machine. Installation of the Unified CCE components on a virtual machine is the same as the installation of the components on physical hardware.
Refer to the Unified CCE documentation for the steps to install Unified CCE components. You can install the supported Virus Scan software, the Cisco Security Agent(CSA), or any other software in the same way as on physical hardware.
Migrating Unified CCE Components to Virtual Machines
Migrate the Unified CCE components from physical hardware or another virtual machine after you create and configure the virtual machine. Migration of these Unified CCE software components to a VM is the same as the migration of the components to new physical hardware and follows existing policies. It requires a Tech Refresh as described in the Upgrade Guide for Cisco Unified ICM/Contact Center Enterprise & Hosted.
Configuring the ESXi Data Store Block Size for Administration and Data Server
This section is applicable to storing Virtual Machines on C-210 local storage. The C-210 Server comes with a default local storage configured with two sets of RAID groups. Disk 1-2 is RAID 1, while the remaining disks (3-10) are RAID 5.
The creation of the virtual machine for the Unified CCE Administration and Data Server requires a large virtual disk size. You must follow the steps described below to configure the ESXi data store block size to 2MB for it to handle the Unified CCE Administration and Data Server virtual disk size requirement before you deploy the OVAs for the following Unified CCE components:
Steps to configure the ESXi data store block size to 2MB:
- After you install ESXi on the first disk array group (RAID 1 with disk 1 and disk 2), boot ESXi 4.0 and use VMware vSphere Client to connect to the ESXi host.
- On the Configuration tab for the host, select Storage in the box labeled Hardware. Select the second disk array group with RAID-5 configuration, and you will see in the formatting of "Datastore Details" that the block size is by default 1MB.
- Right-click on this data store and delete it. We will add the data store back in the following steps.
- Click on the "Add Storage…" and select the Disk/LUN.
- The data store that was just deleted will now be available to add, select it.
- In the configuration for this data store you will now be able to select the block size, select 2MB, and finish the adding of the storage to the ESXi host. This storage is now available for deployment of the virtual machines that requires large disk size, such as the Administration and Data Servers.
Timekeeping Best Practices for Windows
You should follow the best practices outlined in the VMware Knowledge Base article VMware KB: Timekeeping best practices for Windows.
- ESXi hosts and domain controllers should synchronize the time from the same NTP source.
- When Unified CCE virtual machines join the domain, they synchronize the time with the domain controller automatically using w32time.
- Be sure that Time synchronization between the virtual machine and the host operating system in the VMware Tools tool box GUI of the Windows Server 2003 guest operating system remains deselected; this checkbox is deselected by default.
System Performance Monitoring Using ESXi Counters
- Make sure that you follow VMware's ESXi best practices and SAN vendor's best practices for optimal system performance.
- VMware provides a set of system monitoring tools for the ESXi platform and the VMs. These tools are accessible through the VMware Infrastructure Client or through VirtualCenter.
- You can use Windows Performance Monitor to monitor the performance of the VMs. Be aware that the CPU counters may not reflect the physical CPU usage since the Windows Operating System has no direct access to the physical CPU.
- You can use Unified CCE Serviceability Tools and Unified CCE reports to monitor the operation and performance of the Unified CCE system.
- The ESXi Server and the virtual machines must operate within the limit of the following ESXi performance counters.
You can use the following ESXi counters as performance indicators.
|Performance Indication and Threshold
|CPU Usage (Average)
| CPU Usage Average in percentage for:
|Less than 60%.
|CPU Usage 0 - 7 (Average)
| CPU Usage Average for:
|Less than 60%
|CPU Ready
|The time a virtual machine or other process waits in the queue in a ready-to-run state before it can be scheduled on a CPU.
|Less than 150 mSec. If it is greater than 150 mSec doing system failure, you should investigate and understand why the machine is so busy.
|Memory Usage (Average)
|Memory Usage = Active/ Granted * 100
|Less than 80%
|Memory Active (Average)
|Memory that is actively used or being referenced by the guest OS and its applications. When it exceeds the amound of memory on the host, the server starts swap.
|Less than 80% of the Granted memory
|Memory Balloon (Average)
|ESXi use balloon driver to recover memory from less memory-intensive VMs so it can be used by those with larger active sets of memory.
|Since we do not over commit the memory, this should be 0 or very low. Note: ESXi performs memory ballooning before memory swap.
|Memory Swap used (Average)
|ESXi Server swap usage. Use the disk for RAM swap
|Since we do not over commit the memory, this should be 0 or very low
|Disk Usage (Average)
|Disk Usage = Disk Read rate + Disk Write rate
|Ensure that your SAN is configured to handle this amount of disk I/O.
|Disk Usage Read rate
|Rate of reading data from the disk
|Ensure that your SAN is configured to handle this amount of disk I/O
|Disk Usage Write rate
|Rate of writing data to the disk
|Ensure that your SAN is configured to handle this amount of disk I/O
|Disk Commands Issued
|Number of disk commands issued on this disk in the period.
|Ensure that your SAN is configured to handle this amount of disk I/O
|Disk Command Aborts
| Number of disk commands aborted on this disk in the period. Disk command aborts when the disk array is taking too long to respond to the command. (Command timeout)
This counter should be zero. A non-zero value indicates storage performance issue.
|Disk Command Latency
|The average amount of time taken for a command from the perspective of a Gust OS. Disk Command Latency = Kernel Command Latency + Physical Device Command Latency.
|15ms latencies or greater indicates a possible over-utilized, misbehaving, or mis-configured disk array.
|Kernel Disk Command Latency
|The average time spent in ESXi Server VMKernel per command
|Kernel Command Latency should be very small in comparison to the Physical Device Command Latency, and it should be close to zero. Kernel Command Latency can be high, or even higher than the Physical Device Command Latency if there is a lot of queuing in the ESXi kernel.
|Network Usage (Average)
|Network Usage = Data receive rate + Data transmit rate
|Less than 30% of the available network bandwidth. For example, it should be less than 300Mps for 1G network.
|Network Data Receive Rate
|Less than 30% of the available network bandwidth. For example, it should be less than 300Mps for 1G network.
|Network Data Transmit Rate
|The average rate at which data is transmitted on this Ethernet port
|Less than 30% of the available network bandwidth. For example, it should be less than 300Mps for 1G network.
System Performance Monitoring Using Windows Perfmon Counters
You must comply with the best practices described in the Cisco Unified Contact Center Enterprise Solution Reference Network Design(SRND) section System Performance Monitoring, and in Chapter 8 Performance Counters in the Serviceability Best Practices Guide for Cisco Unified ICM/Unified CCE & Unified CCH Release 9.0.
|Back to: Unified Communications in a Virtualized Environment


text:
Let's Talk with Paula Mikkelsen about Marine Invertebrates and How They Move
Clams that bounce up and down like yo-yos, others that balloon their foot with blood, and squids that zip around using jet propulsion—the ocean's filled with remarkable creatures on the move!
More About This Resource...
In this Q&A interview, available both online and as a printable PDF, Paula Mikkelsen talks about her work as a malacologist and curator at the AMNH. She answers nearly 20 questions, including:
- Why is the way different organisms move around in the ocean an interesting thing to study?
- Are certain kinds of locomotion necessary at different points in an organism's life cycle?
- What got you hooked on studying mollusks?
- How do you obtain specimens?
- Did you ever find something really unexpected during the course of fieldwork?
- What books would you recommend for kids interested in mollusks?
Completion Time
Less than 1 period
Teacher Tip
Supplement a study of ocean life with an activity drawn from this profile of a malacologist.
- Send students to this online interview, or print copies of it for them to read.
- Ask students: Besides swimming, what are some other ways organisms move around in the ocean? List their answers on the board.
- Have students select a mollusk to research, learning more about its method(s) of movement as well as its eating habits and other behavior.
- Then, have students create a flip book that shows their mollusk in action.


text:
CH391L/S13/Metagenomics & Bioprospecting
- 1 Introduction
- 2 Bioprospecting: Hunting for Utility in Nature
- 3 Metagenomics: Biocoenosis Data Mining
- 4 Targeted Metagenomics: Bioprospecting with Metagenomics
- 5 Current status and the future
- 6 References
Metagenomics and bioprospecting are two 'umbrella' terms that were independently coined in the 1990's. These terms can create some confusion given shared characteristics as well as the opportunity for bioprospecting using metagenomics, which will be discussed later. It is best to remember that bioprospecting is not a separate field of research. Whereas metagenomics is indeed a field of research, bioprospecting is more akin to a strategy or process encompassing many techniques.
In considering these different but closely related concepts, metagenomics and bioprospecting are essentially "different sides of the same coin". As different sides or aspects to a common foundation, metagenomics - as fundamental science - and bioprospecting - as applied science - both draw upon access to the wealth of biological information found in nature. More specifically, metagenomics is the sum of all genetic information present in a given environmental samples. Conversely, bioprospecting is simply application-driven research aimed at the discovery of commercially relevant biomaterials.
Of these somewhat fraternal concepts, bioprospecting could be considered the older sibling. Bioprospecting derives from the field of chemical ecology wherein the discovery and commercialization of natural products was previously known as 'chemical prospecting.' While similar in principle, chemical prospecting ultimately employed chemical synthesis of newly discovered, commercially relevant compounds. The recent advent of next-generation sequencing, recombinant DNA techniques, and the field of biotechnology in general allowed the development of bioprospecting as a unique concept. Those same technological advances and an interest in natural products would also lead to metagenomics.
Bioprospecting: Hunting for Utility in Nature
Bioprospecting covers the many activities involved in discovery and utilization of biological material. In the past, bioprospecting primarily focused upon natural products and drug discovery. Still, bioprospecting has led to the discovery of numerous enzyme and protein tools widely used in the pharmaceutical and research communities. Current research efforts along with improvements in sequencing technologies may expand the breadth of activities that constitute bioprospecting.
Therapeutics & Drug Discovery
As expected, there are many examples of bioprospecting for the purpose of drug discovery. As an outgrowth from chemical prospecting, considerable bioprospecting efforts - both past and present - have focused on plant secondary metabolites. One potent chemotherapy drug, paclitaxel (i.e. taxol) serves as an excellent example of this transition from chemical prospecting to bioprospecting. The isoprenoid compound now know as paclitaxel was discovered in the bark of the Pacific Yew tree. Before the adoption of semi-synthetic production in 1988, therapeutic paclitaxel production relied upon low yield chemical extraction [1]. Using metabolic engineering techniques, researchers created transgenic Arabidopsis thaliana capable of producing taxidene, the first committed step in paclitaxel biosynthesis [2]. Since then, additional research led to production via plant cell fermentation. More recently, researchers engineered strains of E. coli and yeast with the capacity to produce taxidene and other isoprenoid compounds [1][3]. This was accomplished following the introduction of isoprenoid biosynthesis pathways. The tale of paclitaxel is principally considered a feat in the field of metabolic engineering. Still, those engineered strains of E. coli and yeast serve as platform technologies for tractable expression of other newly discovered enzymes.
Although terrestrial plants remain an important aspect of bioprospecting, increasing attention is being paid to marine biodiversity in the search for new therapies. Study of tunicated has led to the discovery of numerous cytotoxic compounds with potential anticancer properties [4]. Commonly known as seaweed, macroalgae offer another opportunity for bioprospecting [5].
Regarding second-generation or advanced biofuels, bioprospecting techniques are becoming an increasingly important strategy for biochemical pathway engineering and overall optimization. In a 2010 publication, LS9, Inc. reported the discovery of alkane biosynthesis pathways in a diverse set of cyanobacteria. Those enzymes were subsequently expressed in E. coli for the production of higher-value biofuel products [6]. That body of work provides an excellent demonstration of various bioprospecting techniques.
Research Tools
Fluorescent proteins are likely one of the most famous research tools derived from bioprospecting. Examples include dsRed as well as GFP and its many derivatives, which have been utilized throughout biological research. Interestingly, these fluorescent proteins are finding new purpose in medicine as visual guides during surgery. Before tumorectomy, a mouse with internal tumors is injected with a recombinant form of GFP, which is targeted to and accumulates on the cells of blood vessels. During surgical removal of the tumor, the introduced GFP provides a surgeon with a strong visual queue of nearby blood vessels greatly reducing the risk of blood vessel lacerations.
DNA and RNA polymerases are the workhorses of modern biotechnology. Almost every aspect of modern biological research depends upon nucleic acid polymerases in one way or another. Recombinant cloning techniques, Sanger sequencing, and qPCR cover a few of the most common uses. These examples also highlight the shared importance of nucleic acid polymerases and Polymerase Chain Reaction (PCR). It was the development of PCR using Taq polymerase that began the drive for bioprospecting of DNA and RNA polymerases. Over the years, several other polymerases of thermophilic origin have been discovered and rapidly commercialized. One area of considerable interest is the discovery or development of high-fidelity, thermostable reverse transcriptases.
Using bioprospecting techniques, one research group isolated and cultured a novel thermophilic bacterium from a hot spring. That bacterium's DNA polymerase I gene was subsequently cloned and engineered to alter its specificity from DNA to RNA. In this manner, the researchers mutated the DNA-dependent DNA polymerase into an RNA-dependent DNA polymerase (i.e. a reverse transcriptase) [7].
Metagenomics: Biocoenosis Data Mining
Consideration of biological organization greatly assists understanding the meaning of metagenomics. Within that conceptual framework, metagenomics would be a higher level element similar to the population or community tiers of biological organization. In brief, metagenomics refers to the sum of all genetic information present in an environmental sample. The term itself was coined in 1998 [8]. Shortly thereafter, researchers characterized the first bacterial rhodopsin protein, which was isolated from seawater genomic DNA fragments [9].
The Benefit and Cost of Pyrosequencing Technology
Since the turn of the century, metagenomics has bosomed as a field. Decreasing per basepair cost of pyrosequencing technologies has greatly increased the number of metagenomic research projects. The April 2012 release of the UniProt database comprised an impressive 20.6 million protein sequences. However, only 2.8% of those protein sequences were confirmed to exist by analysis at the protein and or transcript level. The matter is further complicated as the probability of feature identification is proportional to read length. So, there is a significant difference between the information derived from pyrosequencesing reads versus Sanger sequences [10].
Craig Venter and his Yacht
In the early 2000's, the J. Craig Venter Institute set as one of its goals to sequence the genomic diversity in the oceans. Craig Venter used his personal yacht, the Sorcerer II, to traverse the Earth's oceans, taking samples of oceanic life and sequencing using Whole Genome Shotgun Sequencing. From this adventure, they uncovered 6 million proteins (double the current database), which consisted of 1,700 clusters of gene families with no known homology. The data also revealed homology for 6,000 unknown ORF families (ORFan). They found that a very high proportion of new genes belonged to viruses (likely marine phage), which current databases had underrepresented. [11]
Targeted Metagenomics: Bioprospecting with Metagenomics
Targeted metagenomics is a useful combination of bioprospecting and metagenomics. This technique can be used to identify novel genes by screening ORFs derived from a metagenomic library. It is possible to conduct an initial screen computationally by first parsing identified ORFs for a desired homology. Following cloning, a functional screen is used to identify and recovery desired genes from the metagenomic library. Targeted metagenomic screens have led to the discover of new antibiotic resistance genes, cold-adaptive rRNAs, and cellulose degrading enzymes [12].
- Typical Targeted Metagenomic Pipeline
- Isolate nucleic acids (i.e. DNA, RNA) from an environmental sample
- Conduct Next-Gen sequencing
- Conduct computational analysis: ORF and sequence homology
- Heterologous expression of ORF library followed by functional screening
- Typical Targeted Metagenomic Pipeline
Cellulosic Biomass degrading genes found in Cow Rumen
Plant polysaccharides such as cellulose are not broken down with enyzmes found in mammals, but species such as Ruminents (cows) carry symbiotic bacteria that perform this job. These microbes cannot be cultured in lab. However, acquisition of the enzymes used to break down cellulose could be used to generate biofuel from easily grown plants like grass. Here, Mattias Hess and colleagues used Metagenomic analysis to identify 51 enzymes active in breaking down polysaccharides [13]. The authors isolated microbes from a nylon bag filled with switchgrass placed inside a fistula created into a cow's rumen. Various Next-Gen Sequencing technologies were used to generate 268 Giga-basepairs of sequences. From the various organisms, they predicted 27,755 putative polysaccharide enyzymes, of which 43% had less than 50% similarity to any known sequence. The authors expressed and tested 90 of these genes based on similarity to glycosyl hyrdolase domains, which identified 51 active enzymes. The enyzmes were active against various substrates used as biofuel crops. Finally, the authors generated 15 draft genomes of new microbial species. A number of earlier studies have also attempted to identify glycosyl hydrolases in species such as termites and panda [14][12]
Uranium Bioremediation
Bioremediation of uranium waste is an important industrial process. Here, the authors used a proteomics based approach to identify proteins in iron-reducing (FeIII) microbial species used in the reduction of soluble uranium to insoluble uranium [15]. Although the study here does identify new genes, it identifies new metabolic pathways. The authors started with 3 known Geobacter species stimulated with acetate and used in a bioremediation project and used the known proteins as a reference for performming 2D liquid chromatography tandem mass spectrometry. They identified over 13,000 peptides and 2,500 proteins. Not surprisingly, the authors show that acetate utilization increases via the TCA cycles (acetyl-CoA enzymes) presumably for increased growth as a fuel source. They also note high abundances of pyruvate ferrodoxin oxidoreductase, suggesting the bacteria are undergoing high carbon fixation processes.
Current status and the future
New genes found from Ruminant microbes are being used for generating fuel from biomass, proteins which have thus far been unknown to man. Genes identified in more extromophilic bacteria and archaea may be useful in metabolism of inorganic compounds. They may be useful in new genetic circuits in biotech applications. Finally, the genes will ultimately be useful as scaffolds for directed evolution studies, to generate new functions.
List of Parts found by Metagenomics
- glycosyl hydrolases (cellulose degradation)
- antibiotic resistance (tetracycline/bleomycin)
- extradiol dioxygenases (aromatic carbon usage)
- sulfate reductases
- deaminases
- Zn-dependent carboxypeptidases
- RNA-binding proteins
- many unique ORFans
For a review on methods of constructing metagenomic libraries to screen for useful genes as well as other useful genes isolated from the metagenome, see [16].
The Human Microbiome Project
In a 2007 Nature article, researchers outlined the logistics of and rationale for amassing a human-microbe metagenome. Those authors described a human as a conglomerate of both human and microbial cells. Accordingly, they went on to postulate that this project would lead to an understanding of an individual's micro-evolution, that human's health, and disease predisposition. The author's further postulated that the resulting database would deepen the understanding of diagnostic biomarkers while having potential ramifications in industry through novel enzyme discovery [17].
Development of metagenomic techniques and protocols has also stimulated the field of virology. Viral metagenomic studies have led to the discovery of many previously unknown viruses. These endeavors have generated a vast amount of viral sequences for which the majority of sequences are reported as unknown [18]. It is worth noting that viral metagenomics has its own unique difficulties. Some viruses employ modified nucleotides as one part of their infection strategy. Additionally, many viruses employ lytic genes that could kill bacteria used during routine cloning. These and other factors necessitate techniques such as LASLs or link-amplified shotgun libraries [19].
Boghigian Brett A. Simultaneous production and partitioning of heterologous polyketide and isoprenoid natural products in an Escherichia coli two-phase bioprocess. J Ind Microbiol Biotechnol, 2011
Besumbes, Oscar. Metabolic engineering of isoprenoid biosynthesis in Arabidopsis for the production of taxadiene, the first committed precursor of Taxol. Biotechnol Bioeng, 2004.
Engels, Benedikt. Metabolic engineering of taxadiene biosynthesis in yeast as a first step towards Taxol (Paclitaxel) production. Metab Eng, 2008.
Rinehart, K.L. Antitumor Compounds from Tunicates. Med Res Rev, 1999.
Pereira, Renato C. Bioprospecting for bioactives from seaweeds: potential, obstacles and alternatives. Braz J Pharmacogn, 2012.
Schirmer, Andreas. Microbial Biosynthesis of Alkanes. Science, 2010.
Sano, Sotaro. Mutations to create thermostable reverse transcriptase with bacterial family A DNA polymerase from Thermotoga petrophila K4. J Biosci Bioeng, 2012.
Handelsman, Jo. Molecular biology access to the chemistry of unknown soil microbes: a new frontier for natural products. Chemistry & Biology, 1998.
Beja, Oded. Bacterial Rhodopsin: Evidence for a New Type of Phototrophy in the Sea. Science, 2000.
Temperton, Ben. Metagenomics: microbial diversity through a scratched lens. Curr Opin Microbiol, 2012.
Yooseph, Shibu. The Sorcerer II Global Ocean Sampling expedition: expanding the universe of protein families. PLoS Biol, 2007.
Suenaga, Hikaru. Targeted metagenomics: a high-resolution metagenomics approach for specific gene clusters in complex microbial communities. Environ Microbiol, 2012.
Hess, Matthius. Metagenomic discovery of biomass-degrading genes and genomes from cow rumen. Science, 2011.
Chistoserdova, Ludmila. Recent progress and new challenges in metagenomics for biotechnology. Biotechnol Lett, 2010.
Wilkins, Michael J. Proteogenomic monitoring of Geobacter physiology during stimulated uranium bioremediation. Appl Environ Microbiol, 2009.
Daniel, Rolf. The soil metagenome--a rich resource for the discovery of novel natural products. Curr Opin Biotechnol, 2004.
Turnbaugh, Peter J. The Human Microbiome Project. Nature, 2007.
Rosario, Karyna. Exploring the world through viral metagenomics. Curr Opin Virol, 2011.
Breitbart, Mya. Genomic analysis of uncultured marine viral communities. PNAS, 2002.


text:
The release of the Nexus 7 set the tech world on fire (figuratively) when it showed us all how powerful and joyous a smaller tablet could be. However, for a user on China's Google equivalent, Baidu, the fire was started in a much more literal sense.
The user posted the above photo to Baidu, showing a Nexus 7 after a tragic meltdown. Apparently the device began smoking while charging using the official connector and ended up filling the entire room with thick, black smoke. The device had only been charging for a total of three hours. Not surprisingly, the internals as well as the shell were completely ruined in the fire.
There are a number of reasons that this fire could have started, not all of them directly related to a mistake made by Google or Asus. It could have been an infrastructure issue or electrical surge just as easily as a faulty battery or wiring issue. Plus, this isn't the first time a device has spontaneously combusted.
To Asus' credit the user's story has been taken as truth, even though there is really no way to tell who or what is at fault in a case like this. In response, Asus has allegedly offered to replace the Nexus 7 and include a free pair of Google Glass as an added bonus. It's certainly admirable that Asus has stepped up to the plate and plans to set things right. However, since this particular incident has been so highly publicized there's no doubt Asus realizes this is a necessary response if it wants to keep a positive brand image.
It's certainly a dangerous line for Asus and Google — if the offering of Glass is true — to straddle. Once one fried device is replaced, it opens the floodgates for similar cases. Unfortunately, not all of those cases will be legitimate. It's pretty easy (and arguably crazy) to torch a device once you've scratched the screen or broke some part of it. It may not be morally advisable, but we could see the generosity being exploited quite easily. Just as a disclaimer, if you're thinking of setting fire to your Nexus 7 to earn a replacement then please refrain.
Since we're innately curious about our readers, we have to ask if this has ever happened to you before. Any of you Nexus 7 owners had an unwelcome flame erupt from your tiny tablet? What about combusting devices in general? Any firsthand experience you'd like to share?
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