http://static.ddmcdn.com/gif/tasty-tech-july-14-sydney-opera-house-670.jpg Above: From May 22 to June 8, the city of Sydney, Australia, became home to the Vivid Festival, where light, music and innovation were celebrated. Numerous light installations -- such as this one on the Sydney Opera House -- and grand-scale projections turned the city into the world's largest outdoor art gallery.
A man was recovering in hospital Saturday after spending a night trapped in a crevice with multiple injuries on central Australia's popular tourist attraction of Uluru, also known as Ayers Rock.
The 27-year-old, reportedly Taiwanese, was believed to have strayed off a well-worn route on the daunting formation on Thursday, and plunged up to 20 meters (65 feet) into the crevice.
"It is believed the man took an alternative route to reach the base and became separated from his group," a police spokesman said.
He was reported missing shortly before sunset on Thursday with rescue workers locating him after an aerial search and then spending much of Friday trying to extract him.
The difficult rescue involved traversing a steep rock face and abseiling down to the man before he was winched free and airlifted to hospital.
"It was very exhausting for the man and crews, but just after 5.30 pm on Friday he was winched out," Northern Territory Superintendent Louise Jorgensen told reporters.
"He was taken out to the Yulara clinic with head injuries and leg injuries."
He was later transferred to Alice Springs Hospital with a spokesman on Saturday saying his condition had since been downgraded from critical to stable.
For many tourists, seeing the giant red rock in the middle of the vast desert and making the arduous climb up its steep slopes is a must-do on their visit to Australia.
But tackling the sandstone monolith, which rises 348 meters (1,148 feet), is not an easy exercise and there have been several deaths on the rock over the years.
The striking geographical feature, surrounded by thousands of square miles (kilometers) of desolate Outback, forms a key part of Aboriginal creation mythology and attracts about 350,000 tourists a year.
It’s been a bumpy ride for a prototype solar sail spacecraft, which was put into orbit two weeks ago by the Atlas 5 rocket that carried the Air Force’s X-37B robotic space plane.
Ground controllers lost contact with the experimental spacecraft, known as LightSail, two days after launch due to a computer software problem. After more than a week of silence, a stray cosmic ray hit apparently rebooted the spacecraft. Relieved flight controllers prepared to manually deploy the spacecraft’s thin sails.
LightSail, funded by The Planetary Society, a space exploration advocacy organization, is intended to serve as a steppingstone for a full demonstration of solar sailing next year. The precursor LightSail CubeSat mission is designed to test communication systems and the spacecraft’s deployment mechanism.
Solar sailing is an alternative, chemical-free propulsion method for in-space transportation. It takes advantage of the pressure of photons from the sun striking a thin, sail-like film to generate forward motion.
Flight controllers hoped to deploy the spacecraft’s sail on Friday, following what appeared to be a successful solar panel release. Instead, they are grappling with a battery issue.
“Following solar panel deployment, it was noticed that all of the battery cells were drawing near-zero current. This indicated that the batteries were likely in a fault condition stemming from the solar panel deployment event,” mission manager David Spencer wrote in an update posted on the project’s website.
Engineers briefly considered bypassing LightSail’s battery cells and directly tapping solar power to deploy the sail, but decided to wait to see if they would be able to gather more information to better understand the spacecraft’s condition.
“LightSail’s power system can enter a variety of failsafe conditions based on the behavior of the batteries. Engineers ... are working through a complex fault tree to determine the spacecraft’s likely state, as well as options for moving forward,” wrote Planetary Society digital editor Jason Davis.
It may fall to Mother Nature, for a second time, to fix the problem.
“The spacecraft orbit is in a geometry where eclipse occurs roughly 2,100 seconds each orbit ... Over the next couple of weeks, the orbit will precess to a full-sun condition, where the entire orbit is sunlit,” Spencer wrote.
Saturday, June 6, 2015
#Day#Short#Stories
Outer space might be the toughest environment for life, but some hardy microbes have been able to survive in it for surprising amounts of time. How long they can do so and why they are able to withstand the difficulties of space remains a topic of controversy. Still, understanding how well microbes can survive in space is of importance when sending out orbiters or landers around bodies that might present the right conditions for life, such as Mars. Scientists want to be careful to avoid contaminating other worlds with life from our own. And microbes' resilience to outer space enhances the prospects of panspermia, in which life can be seeded between planets via meteors and other traveling bodies.
This basis formed part of the rationale for a study led by Rocco Mancinelli, a senior research scientist at the Bay Area Environmental Research Institute, a nonprofit space and atmospheric science research group.
"Results from of this study are relevant to understanding the adaptation and evolution of life," Mancinelli wrote in an e-mail to Astrobiology Magazine.
In his experiment, Manicelli took pure cultures of two salt-loving microbes, Halorubrum chaoviator and Synechococcus nägelli, from solid salt crusts and grew them. After drying them, some of the samples were sent to the International Space Station's external platform space exposure facility, called EXPOSE-R. Those microbes remained on the exterior for nearly two years. Other microbes were held back on Earth as control samples.
Surprisingly, some of those in space survived, Mancinelli said.
"Those organisms that were exposed to only the space vacuum all survived. Those exposed to high doses of ultraviolet radiation died, those exposed to lower doses of UV showed some survival," he said.
That said, the typical time to move between the planets is millions of years, making the result "irrelevant" if they were SNCs, Mancinelli said. Microbes could, however, survive in meteorites with a transit time of a few years, providing they are shielded from UV radiation.
“Today’s morning report from NASA contains a Hubble photo I thought worth sharing,” Holdren wrote in the White House briefing. “The astonishing density of stars — most of which, we now know, have planets — really does make one wonder whether there’s anybody else out there. And this is just one piece of our own galaxy. There are an estimated 100 billion other galaxies in the observable universe. Enjoy!”
As noted by Holdren, it’s images like these that really put things in perspective, and makes us question our place in the universe and whether there is life elsewhere. Astronomy is a profound science; it has the ability fire-up our sense of wonder and question our very existence. By looking into the furthest-most reaches of the universe, we are actually seeking answers to questions we didn’t know we had about our own existence. Humanity can be very myopic, we only really care about what’s happening down here on this tiny speck of life-giving sand, but the possibilities the universe provides makes us want to push the envelope, to look out further, to explore............
In the future, we might not have to touch devices at all to control them.
On a mission to revolutionize how we interact with technology, Google’s new venture calledProject Soli enlists the help of radar to accurately detect minute hand and finger movements and control devices without making any physical contact with them.
Consumers would be able to pinch their fingers together, slide a thumb over an index finger or use other hand motions to control the volume on a stereo or turn a device on or off.
Google’s Advanced Technology and Projects lab built a full gesture recognition pipeline that has high positional accuracy and allows radar to sense the tiniest of motions. A sensor tracks the movements of hands, which control the input into a device.
The team unveiled the new technology recently during its I/O developer conference, displaying how users could move their fingers in the air to control objects in the virtual world. See a video that explains the tech below.
The radar technology can fit onto a chip the size of a fingernail and can be produced at scale. Google wants to put the chip into small electronic devices like smartwatches, along with everyday objects.
The release date for the API to Soli has not yet been announced yet.
Promoting your article for maximum impact – It’s as easy as 1, 2, 3 (… and 4!)
Published Apr 20, 2015
Download the newly updated “Get Noticed - Promoting your article for maximum impact” brochure. This brochure is a great reference for librarians who want to publish and a teaching tool to help researchers maximize the impact of their articles. It covers four stages within an article lifecycle:
A Share Link for authors is a personal, customized short link that an author will receive after final publication of the article, providing 50 days free access to the newly published article on ScienceDirect to anyone clicking on the link. Each customized link is ideal for sharing via email and social networks such as Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, and Mendeley. Users clicking on the Share Link will be taken directly to the article with no sign up or registration required.
Finding the right journal
There are some great tips on the Elsevier website for finding the right journal to publish in, including a tool that allows you to enter your title and abstract to find a match: Elsevier® Journal Finder.
Get visual
Information abounds on the Internet about how images and other rich media can boost sharing. Try adding AudioSlides (short, webcast-style presentations) and Graphical Abstracts (visual summaries of the main findings of the article) to your article and sharing them on social media.
- See more at: http://libraryconnect.elsevier.com/articles/2015-04/promoting-your-article-maximum-impact-it-s-easy-1-2-3-and-4#sthash.4lHh8kW2.dpuf
Monday, June 1, 2015
stories, newepoha.blogspot.com short stories SHORT STORY. Everyone has a Story in Life #Day#Short#Stories
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Carol Tenopir answers questions from academic, special and public librarians on starting ................
Could you elaborate on collaborating with faculty?
As libraries continue to shift emphasis from focusing on collections that can be found in other ways (for example, open access or at other libraries), personalized and unique services from librarians become more important. For faculty and students, this includes digitization, web guides, and instruction, but for faculty it can also include becoming a partner in research projects. As time allows, it may be by participating in a faculty-led grant contributing your expertise in finding information, or building databases or websites, assisting with data management plans, or digitizing historical resources, or researching information needs or … (Each person has to fill in this blank with their own area of specialty.) Collaboration may start with your Office of Research or with the faculty members themselves.
Do you think that doing action research is suitable for librarians?
Almost any kind of research is suitable for librarians; it depends on what you’re interested in. I am ecumenical when it comes to different kinds of research methodologies. With action research, you do something and see how it influences the community. In a sense we do that all the time. For example, if you’re trying out a new method of instruction and then you’re testing to see if it was effective or how it influenced your users or community. I personally do not do action research, but that is only because I have focused on other things in my career.
Do you have any advice for librarians working outside of academic libraries interested in getting started in research?
No matter what kind of library you’re in, the first rule is to find good collaborators. In a public library your mission is different, so I would look at community groups and research that would serve them. Ask yourself how you can develop services that would improve your citizens’ quality of life. In an academic setting, you might partner with other librarians or departmental researchers, but in a public setting the partners might be a museum or community center. Action research (mentioned above) is quite appropriate in the public library community if done well. You can offer a service that can have transformational effects on members of your community.
I am a solo librarian in a corporate setting supporting an R&D department. How do you build the case for time to work on research or similar career development goals?
I started as a corporate librarian at a pharmaceutical firm and then subsequently moved to an architectural firm. In a nonacademic setting, it’s critical to ensure that your research will improve the efficacy, efficiency and quality of the services at your corporation or organization. It can’t be a personal interest with no professional outcome to further the mission. It should be practical and tie into other services and aims, for example, research data management. Also like any other setting, it’s very important to have a good relationship with your boss.
Do you have any ideas for librarians working in a special library that caters to biodiversity?
Research data management is huge in biodiversity right now. In projects such as DataONE, the University of California DMPTool, and others, the role of the information professional has been key in making sure that biodiversity researchers know the value of data management planning, good metadata, and preserving/depositing their data. There is still a long way to go, as a majority of scientists do not yet do any of these (except when a grant proposal requires it.) You might start with education; check out the education modules on the DataONE website that are freely available to use or adapt. Offering to help researchers get their data ready to be preserved (finding a repository, assisting with metadata) can make you very popular!
- See more at: http://libraryconnect.elsevier.com/articles/2015-04/carol-tenopir-answers-questions-academic-special-and-public-librarians-starting#sthash.6mwh5LMw.dpuf
This vitamin is rare in the Western diet and hasn’t received much mainstream attention.
However… this powerful nutrient plays an essential role in many aspects of health.
In fact, vitamin K2 may just be the “missing link” between diet and several killer diseases.
What is Vitamin K?
Vitamin K was discovered in 1929 as an essential nutrient for blood coagulation (blood clotting).
The initial discovery was reported in a German scientific journal, where it was called Koagulationsvitamin. That’s where the “K” comes from (1).
It was also discovered by the legendary dentist Weston Price, who travelled the world in the early 20th century studying the relationship between diet and disease in different populations.
He found that the non-industrial diets were high in some unidentified nutrient, which seemed to provide protection against tooth decay and chronic disease.
He referred to this mystery nutrient as Activator X, but this is now believed to have been Vitamin K2.
There are two main forms of Vitamin K… K1 (phylloquinone) is found in plant foods like leafy greens, whereas Vitamin K2 (menaquinone) is found in animal foods and fermented foods (2).
Vitamin K2 can be further divided into several different subtypes, but the most important ones are MK-4 and MK-7.
Bottom Line: Vitamin K was initially discovered as a nutrient involved in blood clotting. There are two forms, K1 (plants) and K2 (animal foods).
It is more than just building material for bones and teeth, it plays a crucial role in all kinds of biological processes (3).
The main function of Vitamin K is modifying proteins to give them the ability to bind calcium.
In this way, it “activates” the calcium-binding properties of proteins.
However… the roles of Vitamin K1 and K2 are quite different and many feel that they should be classified as separate nutrients altogether.
Vitamin K1 is mostly used by the liver to activate calcium-binding proteins involved in blood clotting, while K2 is used to activate proteins that regulate where calcium ends up in the body (4).
Bottom Line: The main function of Vitamin K is to activate the calcium-binding properties of proteins. K1 is mostly involved in blood clotting, while K2 helps regulate where calcium ends up in the body.
Vitamin K2 May Help Prevent Heart Disease
Calcium build-up in the arteries around the heart is a huge risk factor for heart disease (5, 6, 7).
For this reason, anything that can reduce this accumulation of calcium may help prevent heart disease.
This is where vitamin K2 is believed to help, by helping to prevent calcium from being deposited in the arteries (8).
In the Rotterdam study, those who had the highest intake of Vitamin K2 were 52% less likely to develop calcification of the arteries, and had a 57% lower risk of dying from heart disease, over a 7-10 year period (9).
Another study of 16,057 women found that participants with the highest intake of vitamin K2 had a much lower risk of heart disease. For every 10 micrograms of K2 they consumed per day, the risk of heart disease was reduced by 9% (10).
For the record, vitamin K1 had no influence in either of those studies.
However… keep in mind that the studies above are so-called observational studies, which can not prove cause and effect.
Unfortunately, the few controlled trials that have been done used the K1 form, which seems to be ineffective (11).
We are in desperate need of some long-term controlled trials on K2 and heart disease. There is a highly plausible biological mechanism for its effectiveness, and strong correlations found in observational studies.
The importance of this can not be overstated… cardiovascular disease is the world’s most common cause of death. It killed 14 million people in the year 2012 alone (12).
Bottom Line: A higher intake of vitamin K2 is strongly associated with a reduced risk of heart disease. Vitamin K1 appears to be less useful.
Vitamin K2 May Help Improve Bone Health and Lower The Risk of Osteoporosis
Osteoporosis (“porous” bones) is a common problem in Western countries.
It is especially common among elderly women and strongly raises the risk of fractures.
As mentioned above, Vitamin K2 plays a central role in calcium metabolism, the main mineral found in bones.
Vitamin K2 activates the calcium-binding activity of two proteins called Matrix gla protein and osteocalcin, which help to build and maintain bones (13, 14).
Interestingly, there is also quite a bit of evidence from controlled trials that K2 has major benefits for bone health.
A 3-year trial in 244 postmenopausal women found that those taking vitamin K2 supplements had much slower decreases in age-related bone mineral density (15).
Lengthy studies on Japanese women have shown similar benefits, although they did use very high doses. Out of 13 trials, only one failed to show significant improvement.
Seven of those trials also reported fractures and found that vitamin K2 reduced spinal fractures by 60%, hip fractures by 77% and all non-spinal fractures by 81% (16).
In line with these findings, the Japanese officially recommend vitamin K supplementation for the prevention and treatment of osteoporosis (17).
However, some researchers are not convinced. Two large review studies concluded that there is not enough evidence to recommend vitamin K supplementation for this purpose (18, 19).
Bottom Line: Vitamin K2 plays an essential role in bone metabolism and studies suggest that it can help prevent osteoporosis and fractures.
Vitamin K2 May Improve Dental Health
Researchers have speculated that Vitamin K2 may affect dental health.
However, no human studies have tested this directly.
Based on animal studies and the role vitamin K2 has in bone metabolism, it is reasonable to assume that it impacts dental health too.
One of the main regulating proteins in dental health is osteocalcin, the same protein that is critical to bone metabolism and is activated by vitamin K2 (20).
Osteocalcin triggers a mechanism that stimulates growth of new dentin, which is the calcified tissue underneath the enamel on your teeth (21, 22).
Vitamin A and D are also believed to play an important role here, working synergistically with vitamin K2 (23).
Bottom Line: It is believed that Vitamin K2 may play a critical role in dental health, but there are currently no human studies to support this.
Vitamin K2 May Help Fight Cancer
Cancer is a common cause of death in Western countries.
Even though modern medicine has found many ways to treat it, new cancer cases are still on the rise.
Therefore, finding effective prevention strategies is of utmost importance.
Interestingly, several studies have been done on Vitamin K2 and certain types of cancer.
Two clinical trials suggested that vitamin K2 reduces recurrence of liver cancer and increases survival times (24, 25).
An observational study on 11,000 men also found that a high vitamin K2 intake was linked to a 63% lower risk of advanced prostate cancer. Vitamin K1 had no effect (26).
Hopefully we will have some better studies on this in the near future.
Bottom Line: Vitamin K2 has been found to improve survival in patients with liver cancer. Men who consume the most K2 have a lower risk of advanced prostate cancer.
Foods Rich in Vitamin K2
Humans can partly convert vitamin K1 to K2 in the body. This is useful because the amount of vitamin K1 in a typical diet is ten times that of vitamin K2.
However, current evidence indicates that the conversion process is inefficient, because we benefit much more from eating vitamin K2 directly.
Vitamin K2 is also produced by gut bacteria in the large intestine, and there is some evidence that broad-spectrum antibiotics can contribute to K2 deficiency (27, 28).
Unfortunately, the average intake of this important nutrient is incredibly low in the modern diet.
Vitamin K2 is mainly found in certain animal foods and fermented foods, which most people don’t eat much of.
Rich animal sources include high-fat dairy products from grass-fed cows, liver and other organs, as well as egg yolks (29).
Vitamin K is fat-soluble, which means low-fat and lean animal products don’t contain much of it.
Animal foods contain the MK-4 subtype, while fermented foods like sauerkraut, natto and miso contain more of the longer subtypes, MK-5 to MK-14 (30).
If those foods are inaccessible to you, then supplementation is a valid alternative.
The benefits of supplementing K2 may be enhanced even further when combined with a vitamin Dsupplement, because the two vitamins have synergistic effects (31).
If you are interested, then there is a good selection of Vitamin K2 supplements on Amazon.
I do eat plenty of grass-fed dairy and eggs myself, but I also take a K2 supplement every morning.
Although this needs to be studied a lot further, the current research on Vitamin K2 and health is extremely promising.
