Barbara Heath Land Race – 2012
By the time Barbara Heath visited Horsham, the town and the surrounding Wimmera District of Western Victoria were in the process of recovering from a decade-long drought. To inform her work, which was initially to address issues of drought, Heath held a number of planned and fortuitous conversations with the assistance of Horsham Regional Art Gallery staff, which came to focus on the changes in agricultural practices in the area.
The list of people with whom Heath consulted is lengthy, but Dr Bob Redden, curator Australian Temperate Field Crops Collection of the Grains Innovation Park became her main contact. In an email of August 2011, Dr Redden wrote to Heath: ‘Now with unprecedented population levels and growth, there is a risk of disconnect and taking food supply for granted, even with climate change. Humans will need to change if they wish to continue their increasing diverse interests, but will need to prioritise agricultural research, better understanding our available genetic resources, plant growth and development, and imaginative paths to harnessing science and truly earn the title ‘Homo sapiens’.
Land race is a direct response to the urgency of maintaining biodiversity. Agriculture today requires economies of scale that change the social landscape and limit population diversity. This results in the erasure of many small communities, loss of connection to the past and cultural loss. Dr Redden explained his department’s work to ensure plant gene diversity by sourcing and saving seed from land race crops. ‘Land race’ is the term used to describe heritage seed varieties now being displaced by International Seed Uniformity Standards.
Heath’s Land Race series shows distinct levels, from biodiversity in the soils to the patterns of farming practices above. Each Land Race also features a remnant plant species that reaches up and through the tractor track patterns: briar, apple and aloe.
There are numerous hero shots (one above) and details prepared (below), we will wait for the show to get under way and publicise a little later. The preliminary research is in an earlier blog post – click here.
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MIT professor’s book digs into the eclectic, textually linked reading choices of people in medieval London.
CAMBRIDGE, Mass. -- Following the 1997 creation of the first laser to emit pulsed beams of atoms, MIT researchers report in the May 16 online version of Science that they have now made a continuous source of coherent atoms. This work paves the way for a laser that emits a continuous stream of atoms.
MIT physicists led by physics professor Wolfgang Ketterle (who shared the 2001 Nobel prize in physics) created the first atom laser. A long-sought goal in physics, the atom laser emitted atoms, similar in concept to the way an optical laser emits light.
"I am amazed at the rapid progress in the field," Ketterle said. "A continuous source of Bose-Einstein condensate is just one of many recent advances."
Because the atom laser operates in an ultra-high vacuum, it may never be as ubiquitous as optical lasers. But, like its predecessor, the pulsed atom laser, a continuous-stream atom laser may someday be used for a variety of applications in fundamental physics.
It could be used to directly deposit atoms onto computer chips, and improve the precision and accuracy of atomic clocks and gyroscopes. It could aid in precision measurements of fundamental constants, atom optics and interferometry.
A continuous stream laser could do all of these things better than a pulsed atomic laser, said co-author Ananth P. Chikkatur , a physics graduate student at MIT. "Similar to the optical laser revolution, a continuous stream atom laser might be useful for more things than a pulsed laser," he said.
In addition to Ketterle and Chikkatur, authors include MIT graduate students Yong-Il Shin and Aaron E. Leanhardt; David F. Kielpinski, postdoctoral fellow in the MIT Research Laboratory of Electronics (RLE); physics senior Edem Tsikata; MIT affiliate Todd L. Gustavson; and David E. Pritchard, Cecil and Ida Green Professor of Physics and a member of the MIT-Harvard Center for Ultracold Atoms and the RLE.
A NEW FORM OF MATTER
An important step toward the first atom laser was the creation of a new form of matter - the Bose-Einstein condensate (BEC). BEC forms at temperatures around one millionth of a degree Kelvin, a million times colder than interstellar space.
Ketterle's group had developed novel cooling techniques that were key to the observation of BEC in 1995, first by a group at the University of Colorado at Boulder, then a few months later by Ketterle at MIT. It was for this achievement that researchers from both institutions were honored with the Nobel prize last year.
Ketterle and his research team managed to merge a bunch of atoms into what he calls a single matter-wave, and then used fluctuating magnetic fields to shape the matter-wave into a beam much like a laser.
To test the coherence of a BEC, the researchers generated two separate matter-waves, made them overlap and photographed a so-called "interference pattern" that only can be created by coherent waves. The researchers then had proof that they had created the first atom laser.
Since 1995, all atom lasers and BEC have been produced in a pulsed manner, emitting individual pulses of atoms several times per minute. Until now, little progress has been made toward a continuous BEC source.
While it took about six months to create a continuous optical laser after the first pulsed optical laser was produced in 1960, the much more technically challenging continuous source of coherent atoms has taken seven years since Ketterle and colleagues first observed BEC in 1995.
A NEW CHALLENGE
Creating a continuous BEC source involved three steps: building a chamber where the condensate could be stored in an optical trap, moving the fresh condensate and merging the new condensate with the existing condensate stored in the optical trap. (The same researchers first developed an optical trap for BECs in 1998.)
The researchers built an apparatus containing two vacuum chambers: a production chamber where the condensate is produced and a "science chamber" around 30 centimeters away, where the condensate is stored.
The condensate in the science chamber had to be protected from laser light, which was necessary to produce a fresh condensate, and also from hot atoms. This required great precision, because a single laser-cooled atom has enough energy to knock thousands of atoms out of the condensate. In addition, they used an optical trap as the reservoir trap, which is insensitive to the magnetic fields used for cooling atoms into a BEC.
The researchers also needed to figure out how to move the fresh condensate - chilled to astronomically low temperatures - from the production chamber to the science chamber without heating them up. This was accomplished using optical tweezers - a focused laser light beam that traps the condensate.
Finally, to merge the new condensate with the existing condensate in the science chamber, they moved the new condensate in the tweezers into the science chamber by merging the condensates together.
A BUCKET OF ATOMS
If the pulsed atom laser is like a faucet that drips, Chikkatur says the new innovations create a sort of bucket that collects the drips without wasting or changing the condensate too dramatically by heating it. This way, a reservoir of condensate is always on hand to replenish an atom laser.
The condensate pulses are like a dripping faucet, where the drops are analogous to the pulsed BEC production. "We have now implemented a bucket (our reservoir trap), where we collect these drips to have continuous source of water (BEC)," Chikkatur said. "Although we did not demonstrate this, if we poke a hole in this bucket, we will have a steady stream of water. This hole would be an outcoupling technique from which we can produce a continuous atom laser output.
"The big achievement here is that we have invented the bucket, which can store atoms continuously and also makes sure that the drips of water do not cause a lot of splashing (heating of BECs)," he said.
The next step would be to improve the number of atoms in the source, perhaps by implementing a large-volume optical trap. Another important step would be to demonstrate a phase-coherent condensate merger using a matter wave amplification technique pioneered by the MIT group and a group in Japan, he said.
This work is funded by the National Science Foundation, the Office of Naval Research, the Army Research Office, the Packard Foundation and NASA.


One of the most significant fault lines in Western culture opened up in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, when what we now know as the “modern” world separated itself from the classical and medieval world. The thinking of Descartes, Spinoza, Leibniz, Kant, Newton, Jefferson, and many others represented a sea change in the way Western people looked at practically everything. In almost every telling of the story, this development is presented as an unmitigated good. I rather emphatically do not subscribe to this interpretation. It would be foolish indeed not to see that tremendous advances, especially in the arenas of science and politics, took place because of the modern turn, but it would be even more foolish to hold that modernity did not represent, in many other ways, a severe declension from what came before. This decline is particularly apparent in the areas of the arts and ethics, and I believe that there is an important similarity in the manner in which those two disciplines went bad in the modern period.
In his classic text After Virtue
, the philosopher Alisdair MacIntyre lamented, not so much the immorality that runs rampant in our contemporary society, but something more fundamental and in the long run more dangerous; namely, that we are no longer even capable of having a real argument about moral matters. The assumptions that once undergirded any coherent conversation about ethics, he said, are no longer taken for granted or universally shared. The result is that, in regard to questions of what is right and wrong, we simply talk past one another, or more often, scream at each other.
In his masterpiece Brideshead Revisited, Evelyn Waugh implicitly lays out a program of evangelization that has particular relevance to our time. “Brideshead” refers, of course, to a great manor house owned by a fabulously wealthy Catholic family in the England of the 1920’s. In the complex semiotic schema of Waugh’s novel, the mansion functions as a symbol of the Catholic Church, which St. Paul had referred to as the “bride of Christ.”
Just in advance of Christmas, the film version of J.R.R. Tolkien’s The Hobbit
appeared. As I and many other commentators have pointed out, Tolkien’s great story, like its more substantive successor The Lord of the Rings
, is replete with Catholic themes. On Christmas day itself, another film adaptation of a well-known book debuted, namely Victor Hugo’s Les Misérables
. Though Hugo had a less than perfectly benign view of the Catholic Church, his masterpiece is, from beginning to end, conditioned by a profoundly Christian worldview. It is most important that, amidst all of the “Les Miz” hoopla, the spiritual heart of Hugo’s narrative not be lost.
Like Star Wars
, The Divine Comedy
, and Moby Dick
, J.R.R. Tolkien's The Hobbit
is the story of a hero's journey. This helps to explain, of course, why, like those other narratives, it has proved so perennially compelling.


Coming soon! Nanotech on your desktop
Within 15 years, desktop nanofactories could pump out anything from a new car to a novel nanoweapon, says a technology commentator.
And he warns that society needs to start preparing for this brave new world.
Mike Treder from the Center for Responsible Nanotechnology (CRN) in New York says advanced nanotechnology, like these nanofactories, could help solve world poverty but it could also wreak economic and social chaos.
"It's the biggest challenge we've ever faced as a species," says Treder, who has been addressing scientists in Australia this week.
CRN is a non-profit organisation advised among others by the so-called father of nanotechnology, Dr Eric Drexler.
The organisation says it aims to raise awareness about the benefits and dangers of molecular manufacturing, the precise assembly of products atom-by-atom.
While molecular manufacturing is not yet a reality, Treder says researchers are already working on building molecular-scale machines that could eventually move atoms around to make products.
And he says that in less than 15 years, nanoscale factories could be making consumer products from cups and chairs to cars and house bricks.
Raw materials like carbon would be pumped into the nanofactory, where atoms would be rearranged to make products according to programs downloaded from the internet, says Treder.
Treder says such desktop nanofactories could help reduce poverty and starvation in developing nations, and provide tremendous medical benefits. But society needs to guard against its potential risks.
In particular, he says CRN is concerned that these desktop nanofactories would lead to a nano "arms race" in which hard-to-detect nanoweapons could be designed, manufactured and tested much quicker than they are today.
"Imagine a suitcase filled with billions of toxin-carrying flying robots that could be released anywhere to target a population," he says.
"You could make a suitcase full of these things overnight for a few dollars."
The mass production of consumer goods by private desktop factories could also trigger social chaos due to economic disruption, says Treder.
"If I can make my own car at home for a couple of hundred dollars with a design downloaded from the internet that means I'm not a customer of the auto dealer down the road."
Waste from such easy manufacturing, or nanolitter, is another issue that needs to be thought about, he says. As is the prospect of nanospam.
"If someone could send you a product online that you don't want but they just make it pump out of your nanofactory, how are we going to prevent that?"
Experts are generally sceptical that desktop factories could exist so soon but welcome Treder's discussion of impacts of nanotechnology on society.
Dr Peter Binks of Nanotechnology Victoria, a sponsor for Treder's tour, says his organisation does not "yet buy into the idea" of the desktop factory.
"But we don't dismiss it either," he says. "We think there are a large number of technical hurdles to be overcome."
William Price, professor of nanotechnology at the University of Western Sydney says desktop factories may be possible but technical issues will mean this will not be within 15 years.
Professor Chennupati Jagadish of the Australian Research Council Nanotechnology Network, which is also a sponsor for the tour, thinks Treder's views are imaginative and futuristic.
"Expecting those sorts of machines in 15 years is probably too optimistic," he says, estimating they would be more like 30 or 40 years away, if at all.
And it's this challenge that makes Professor Ned Seeman, of New York University, who is involved in self-assembling arrays of DNA machines, sceptical of Treder's claims.
"I think this suggestion is wildly optimistic," he says. "Most of the basic principles have not been demonstrated, much less in a 'desktop' context."
But even he is not willing to rule the technology out completely.
"One hundred years from now anything is possible."


Ki Tisa(Exodus 30:11-34:35)
Two Types of Religious Encounter
Framing the epic events of this week's Torah portion are two objects - the two sets of tablets, the first given before, the second after, the sin of the Golden Calf. Of the first, we read:
The tablets were the work of God; the writing was the writing of God, engraved on the tablets.
These were perhaps the holiest object in history: from beginning to end, the work of God. Yet within hours they lay shattered, broken by Moses when he saw the calf and the Israelites dancing around it.
The second tablets, brought down by Moses on the tenth of Tishri, were the result of his prolonged plea to God to forgive the people. This is the historic event that lies behind Yom Kippur (tenth of Tishri), the day marked in perpetuity as a time of favour, forgiveness and reconciliation between God and the Jewish people. The second tablets were different in one respect. They were not wholly the work of God:
Carve out two stone tablets like the first ones, and I will write on them the words that were on the first tablets, which you broke.
Hence the paradox: the first tablets, made by God, did not remain intact. The second tablets, the joint work of God and Moses, did. Surely the opposite should have been true: the greater the holiness, the more eternal. Why was the more holy object broken while the less holy stayed whole? This is not, as it might seem, a question specific to the tablets. It is, in fact, a powerful example of a fundamental principle in Jewish spirituality.
The Jewish mystics distinguished between two types of Divine-human encounter. They called them itaruta de-l'eylah and itaruta deletata, respectively "an awakening from above" and "an awakening from below." The first is initiated by God, the second by mankind. An "awakening from above" is spectacular, supernatural, an event that bursts through the chains of causality that at other times bind the natural world. An "awakening from below" has no such grandeur. It is a gesture that is human, all too human.
Yet there is another difference between them, in the opposite direction. An "awakening from above" may change nature, but it does not, in and of itself, change human nature. In it, no human effort has been expended. Those to whom it happens are passive. While it lasts, it is overwhelming; but only while it lasts. Thereafter, people revert to what they were. An "awakening from below", by contrast, leaves a permanent mark.
Because human beings have taken the initiative, something in them changes. Their horizons of possibility have been expanded. They now know they are capable of great things, and because they did so once, they are aware that they can do so again. An awakening from above temporarily transforms the external world; an awakening from below permanently transforms our internal world. The first changes the universe; the second changes us.
Two Examples. The first: Before and after the division of the Red Sea, the Israelites were confronted by enemies: before, by the Egyptians, after by the Amalekites. The difference is total.
Before the Red Sea, the Israelites were commanded to do nothing:
Stand still and you will see the deliverance God will bring you today ... God will fight for you; you need only be still. (14:13-14).
Facing the Amalekites, however, the Israelites themselves had to fight:
Moses said to Joshua, 'Choose men and go out and fight the Amalekites (17:9).
The first was an "awakening from above", the second an "awakening from below."
The difference was palpable. Within three days after the division of the Sea, the greatest of all miracles, the Israelites began complaining again (no water, no food). But after the war against the Amalekites, the Israelites never again complained when facing conflict (the sole exception - when the spies returned and the people lost heart - was when they relied on hearsay testimony, not on the immediate prospect of battle itself). The battles fought for us do not change us; the battles we fight, do.
The second example: Mount Sinai and the Tabernacle. The Torah speaks about these two revelations of "God's glory" in almost identical terms:
The glory of God settled on Mount Sinai. For six days the cloud covered the mountain, and on the seventh day God called to Moses from within the cloud. Then the cloud covered the Tent of Meeting, and the glory of God filled the tabernacle.
The difference between them was that the sanctity of Mount Sinai was momentary, while that of the tabernacle was permanent (at least, until the Temple was built, centuries later). The revelation at Sinai was an "awakening from above". It was initiated by God. So overwhelming was it that the people said to Moses, "Let God not speak to us any more, for if He does, we will die" (20:16). By contrast, the tabernacle involved human labour. The Israelites made it; they prepared the structured space the Divine presence would eventually fill. Forty days after the revelation at Sinai, the Israelites made a Golden Calf. But after constructing the sanctuary they made no more idols - at least until they entered the land. That is the difference between the things that are done for us and the things we have a share in doing ourselves. The former change us for a moment, the latter for a lifetime.
There was one other difference between the first tablets and the second. According to tradition, when Moses was given the first tablets, he was given only Torah shebikhtav, the "written Torah". At the time of the second tablets, he was given Torah she-be'al peh, the Oral Torah as well: "R. Jochanan said: God made a covenant with Israel only for the sake of the Oral Law, as it says : "For by the mouth of these words I have made a covenant with you and with Israel" (Ex. 34:27).
The difference between the Written and Oral Torah is profound. The first is the word of God, with no human contribution. The second is a partnership - the word of God as interpreted by the mind of man. The following are two of several remarkable passages to this effect:
R. Judah said in the name of Shmuel: Three thousand traditional laws were forgotten during the period of mourning for Moses. They said to Joshua: "Ask" (through ruach hakodesh, the holy spirit). Joshua replied, "It is not in heaven." They said to Samuel, "Ask." He replied, "These are the commandments - implying that no prophet has the right to introduce anything new." (B.T. Temurah 16a) "If a thousand prophets of the stature of Elijah and Elisha were to give one interpretation of a verse, and one thousand and one sages were to offer a different interpretation, we follow the majority: the law is in accordance with the thousand-and-one sages and not in accordance with the thousand prophets." (Maimonides, Commentary to the Mishneh, Introduction)
Any attempt to reduce the Oral Torah to the Written - by relying on prophecy or Divine communication - mistakes its essential nature as the collaborative partnership between God and man, where revelation meets interpretation. Thus, the difference between the two precisely mirrors that between the first and second tablets. The first were Divine, the second the result of Divine-human collaboration. This helps us understand a glorious ambiguity. The Torah says that at Sinai the Israelites heard a "great voice velo yasaf" (Deut. 5:18). Two contradictory interpretations are given of this phrase. One reads it as "a great voice that was never heard again", the other as "a great voice that did not cease" - i.e. a voice that was always heard again. Both are true. The first refers to the Written Torah, given once and never to be repeated. The second applies to the Oral Torah, whose study has never ceased.
It also helps us understand why it was only after the second tablets, not the first, that "When Moses came down from Mount Sinai with the two tablets of Testimony in his hands, he was unaware that his face was radiant because he had spoken with God" (34:29). Receiving the first tablets, Moses was passive. Therefore, nothing in him changed. For the second, he was active. He had a share in the making. He carved the stone on which the words were to be engraved. That is why he became a different person. His face shone.
In Judaism, the natural is greater than the supernatural in the sense that an "awakening from below" is more powerful in transforming us, and longer-lasting in its effects, than is an "awakening from above." That was why the second tablets survived intact while the first did not. Divine intervention changes nature, but it is human initiative - our approach to God - that changes us.


|Why are these strange little spheres on Mars?
rover Opportunity chanced across
these unusually shaped beads earlier this month while exploring a place named
Kirkwood near the rim of Mars'
The above image taken by Opportunity's
Microscopic Imager shows that some ground near the rover is filled with these unusual spheres, each spanning only about 3 millimeters.
At first glance, the sometimes-fractured balls appear similar to the small rocks dubbed
blueberries seen by Opportunity eight years ago, but these spheres are densely compacted and have little iron content.
Although it is thought that
these orbs formed naturally, which natural processes formed them remain unknown.
Opportunity, an older sibling to the recently deployed
Curiosity rover, will continue to study these spheres with the hope that they will provide a new clue to the ancient history of the surface of the
Mars Exploration Rover Mission,


We are banishing darkness from the night. Electric lights have been shining over cities and towns around the world for a century. But, increasingly, even rural areas glimmer through the night, with mixed – and largely unstudied – impacts on wildlife. Understanding these impacts is a crucial conservation challenge and bats, as almost exclusively nocturnal animals, are ideal subjects for exploring the effects of light pollution.
Previous studies have confirmed what many city dwellers have long noted: some bats enjoy a positive impact of illumination by learning to feed on insects attracted to streetlights. My research, however, demonstrates for the first time an important downside: artificial lighting can disrupt the commuting behavior of a threatened bat species. This project, using a novel experimental approach, was supported in part by BCI Student Research Scholarships.
Artificial lighting is a global phenomenon and the amount of light pollution is growing rapidly, with a 24 percent increase in England between 1993 and 2000. Since then, cultural restoration projects have brought lighting to old docks and riversides, placing important river corridors used by bats and other wildlife at risk of disturbance.
Studies of bats' foraging activity around streetlights find that these bats are usually fast-flying species that forage in open landscapes, typically species of Pipistrellus, Nyctalus, Vespertilio and Eptesicus. Such bats are better able than their slower cousins to evade hawks, owls and other birds of prey.
For our study, we chose the lesser horseshoe bat (Rhinolophus hipposideros), a shy, slow-?ying bat that typically travels no more than about 1.2 miles (2 kilometers) from its roost to forage each night, often flying no more than 16 feet (5 meters) from the ground. The species is adapted for feeding in cluttered, woodland environments. Its global populations are reported decreasing and the species is endangered in many countries of central Europe. The United Kingdom provides a European stronghold for the lesser horseshoe bat, with an estimated population of around 50,000.
These bats' slow flight leaves them especially vulnerable to birds of prey, so they leave their roosts only as the light fades and commute to foraging areas along linear features such as hedgerows. Hedgerows are densely wooded corridors of shrubs and small trees that typically separate fields from each other and from roadways. Such features are important commuting routes for many bat species, which use them for protection from predators and the elements. We suspected that lesser horseshoe bats would avoid illuminated areas, largely because of a heightened risk from raptors.
We conducted arti?cial-lighting experiments along hedgerows in eight sites around southern Britain. We first surveyed light levels at currently illuminated hedgerows, then duplicated those levels at our experimental hedgerow sites, all of them normally unlighted. We installed two temporary, generator-powered lights – about 100 feet (30 meters) apart – that mimic the intensity and light spectra of streetlights. Each site was near a maternity colony and along confirmed commuting routes of lesser horseshoe bats.
Bat activity at each site was monitored acoustically, with mounted bat detectors, during four specific treatments: control (with no lights); noise (generator on and lights installed but switched off); lit (full illumination all night for four consecutive nights); and another night of noise only. We identified horseshoe bat calls to species and measured relative activity by counting the number of bat passes per species each night.
We found no significant difference in activity levels of lesser horseshoe bats between the control nights and either of the two noise nights, when the generators were running but the lights were off. The presence of the lighting units and the noise of the generators had no effect on bat activity.
The negative impacts came when we turned on the lights. We documented dramatic reductions in activity of lesser horseshoe bats during all of the illuminated nights. In our study, 42 percent of commuting bats continued flying through the lights; 30 percent reversed direction and left before reaching the lights; 17 percent flew over the hedgerows; 9 percent flew through the thick hedgerow vegetation; and 2 percent circled high or wide to avoid the lights. We also recorded some strange behavior on one night when two bats flew over the hedge in a dark area between two lights, then flew up and down repeatedly, as though trapped between the lights.
We examined the effects of light on the timing of bats' commuting activity. The bats began their commute, on average, 29.9 minutes after sunset on control nights, but 78.6 minutes after sunset when the lights were turned on. Light pollution significantly delayed the bats' commuting behavior. Interestingly, the activity began a few minutes earlier (23 minutes after sunset) on the first, but not the second, noise night. It is possible that some bats emerged early to investigate the generator noise.
We clearly demonstrated how artificial lighting disrupts the behavior of lesser horseshoe bats. We found no evidence of habituation: at least on our timescale, the bats did not become accustomed to the illumination and begin returning to normal activity or timing.
These results suggest that light pollution may fragment the network of commuting routes used by lesser horseshoe bats, causing them to seek alternate, and probably longer, paths between roosting and foraging habitats. For some bats, this increased flight time can increase energy costs and stress, with potential impacts on reproductive success. It is critical, therefore, that light pollution be considered in conservation efforts.
Light pollution is an increasing global problem with negative impacts on such important animal behaviors as foraging, reproduction and communication. Yet lighting is rarely considered in habitat-management plans and streetlights are specifically excluded from light-pollution legislation in England and Wales.
I plan to use these results as the basis for recommendations for changes in policy, conservation and management for bat habitat in areas that are subject to development. This knowledge is fundamental for understanding the factors that impact bat populations not only in the United Kingdom but around the world, and in developing effective bat-conservation actions. I hope these findings will also help guide further research.
Scientists need to determine what levels of lighting particular bat species can tolerate, so we can take appropriate measures to limit the impact. These might include reducing illumination at commuting times, directing light away from commuting routes and constructing alternative flight routes.
We sincerely hope this research and similar studies will cause both officials and the public to think more about the consequences of artificial lighting on bats and other wildlife.
EMMA STONE is a Ph.D. student at the University of Bristol and a researcher at the university's School of Biological Sciences. This project earned her the national Vincent Weir Scientific Award from the Bat Conservation Trust of the United Kingdom. Visit her project website for more information: www.batsandlighting.co.uk.
This research was originally published in the journal Current Biology, with co-authors Gareth Jones and Stephen Harris.


Mexico scrambles to cope with egg shortage
A city worker sells eggs at government subsidized prices as people line up outside the city truck in Mexico City, Friday, Aug. 24, 2012. The Mexican government is battling an egg shortage and hoarding that have caused prices to spike in a country with the highest per-capita egg consumption on earth. About 11 million chickens were slaughtered after a June outbreak of bird flu. / AP Photo/Alexandre Meneghini
(AP) MEXICO CITY - The Mexican government is battling an egg shortage and hoarding that have caused prices to spike in a country with the highest per-capita egg consumption on Earth.
A summer epidemic of bird flu in the heart of Mexico's egg industry has doubled the cost of a kilo (2.2 pounds), or about 13 eggs, to more than 40 pesos ($3), a major blow to working- and middle-class consumers in a country that consumes more than 350 eggs per person each year. That's 100 more eggs per person than in the United States.
Egg prices have dominated the headlines here for a week, spurring Mexico City's mayor to ship tons of cheap eggs to poor neighborhoods and the federal government to announce emergency programs to get fresh chickens to farms hit by bird flu and to restock supermarket shelves with eggs imported from the U.S. and Central America.
The national dismay over egg prices has revealed the unappreciated importance of a cheap, easy source of protein that's nearly as important to Mexican kitchens as tortillas, rice and beans. Added boiled to stewed chicken, raw to a fruit-juice hangover cure and in every other conceivable form to hundreds of other foods, the once-ubiquitous egg has disappeared from many street-side food stands and middle-class kitchens in recent days.
"Eggs, as you know, are one of Mexicans' most important foods and make up a core part of their diet, especially in the poorest regions of the country," President Felipe Calderon said Friday as he announced about $227 million in emergency financing and commercial measures to restore production and replace about 11 million chickens slaughtered after the June outbreak of bird flu.
Calderon said he was sending inspectors to stop speculation that he blamed for high egg prices, which have almost single-handedly driven up the national rate of inflation.
He said that the government had already begun large-scale importation of eggs and that about 3 million hens were being sent to farms hit by the flu outbreak.
The Mexico City government has sent a refrigerated trailer-truck of eggs into working-class neighborhoods over the last three days, selling kilo packets for less than half the current market price. Several thousand people lined up for about two hours Friday morning to buy eggs from the truck in southeastern Mexico City's Iztacalco neighborhood.
Isidro Vasquez Gonzalez, an unemployed 43-year-old cook, waited with his niece and nephew to buy three kilos of eggs that they said they would eat almost immediately in a lunch of meatballs with chopped eggs.
"You can make eggs with anything scrambled eggs, with pork rinds, eggs with beans, green chiles, poached eggs, green beans with eggs, eggs with tomato sauce, " Vazquez said, with a wistful look in his eyes. "People here eat a lot of eggs. They were the cheapest, but now they're the most expensive. They're more expensive than meat."
The crisis began with the June detection of bird flu in the western state of Michoacan, which produces roughly half of Mexico's eggs. Some 11 million birds were killed to prevent the spread of the disease, sharply cutting into the national supply of more than 2 million tons of eggs a year.
Government officials blame speculators in the wholesale egg business for driving up prices beyond the hike resulting from bird flu.
After existing stocks of eggs ran out, prices rose sharply in August.
"Eggs are what we eat the most these days," said Gertrudis Rodriguez, 68. But with the higher prices, she said, "if we eat beans, we don't eat eggs, or if we eat eggs, we don't eat beans with them."
Mexico City's public Food Supply Center, which provides government-subsidized fresh food to low-income residents, dropped other ingredients from its truck this week in favor of eggs, and will distribute 18 tons by the time its current stocks run out Monday, director-general Raymundo Collins said.
Calderon said more than 150 tons of eggs had already crossed the border from the U.S. and 100 trailers carrying 500 more tons would arrive in the country over the weekend.
"The federal government will keep using every tool in its power to keep family's quality of life from being eroded by unfair increases in the price of eggs," the president said.
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Asthma is a lifelong disease that causes wheezing, breathlessness, chest tightness, and coughing. It can limit a person's quality of life. While we don't know why asthma rates are rising, we do know that most people with asthma can control their symptoms and prevent asthma attacks by avoiding asthma triggers and correctly using prescribed medicines, such as inhaled corticosteroids.
The number of people diagnosed with asthma grew by 4.3 million from 2001 to 2009. From 2001 through 2009 asthma rates rose the most among black children, almost a 50% increase. Asthma was linked to 3,447 deaths (about 9 per day) in 2007. Asthma costs in the US grew from about $53 billion in 2002 to about $56 billion in 2007, about a 6% increase. Greater access to medical care is needed for the growing number of people with asthma.
Asthma is increasing every year in the US.
Too many people have asthma.
- The number of people with asthma continues to grow. One in 12 people (about 25 million, or 8% of the population) had asthma in 2009, compared with 1 in 14 (about 20 million, or 7%) in 2001.
- More than half (53%) of people with asthma had an asthma attack in 2008. More children (57%) than adults (51%) had an attack.
- 185 children and 3,262 adults died from asthma in 2007.
- About 1 in 10 children (10%) had asthma and 1 in 12 adults (8%) had asthma in 2009. Women were more likely than men and boys more likely than girls to have asthma.
- About 1 in 9 (11%) non-Hispanic blacks of all ages and about 1 in 6 (17%) of non-Hispanic black children had asthma in 2009, the highest rate among racial/ethnic groups.
- The greatest rise in asthma rates was among black children (almost a 50% increase) from 2001 through 2009.
Asthma Action Plan Stages
Green Zone: Doing Well
No cough, wheeze, chest tightness, or shortness of breath; can do all usual activities. Take prescribed longterm control medicine such as inhaled corticosteroids.
Yellow Zone: Getting Worse
Cough, wheeze, chest tightness, or shortness of breath; waking at night; can do some, but not all, usual activities. Add quick-relief medicine.
Red Zone: Medical Alert!
Very short of breath; quick-relief medicines don't help; cannot do usual activities; symptoms no better after 24 hours in Yellow Zone. Get medical help NOW.
Full Action Plan: http://www.cdc.gov/asthma/actionplan.html
Asthma has a high cost for individuals and the nation.
- Asthma cost the US about $3,300 per person with asthma each year from 2002 to 2007 in medical expenses.
- Medical expenses associated with asthma increased from $48.6 billion in 2002 to $50.1 billion in 2007. About 2 in 5 (40%) uninsured people with asthma could not afford their prescription medicines and about 1 in 9 (11%) insured people with asthma could not afford
their prescription medicines.
- More than half (59%) of children and one-third (33%) of adults who had an asthma attack missed school or work because of asthma in 2008. On average, in 2008 children missed 4 days of school and adults missed 5 days of work because of asthma.
Better asthma education is needed.
- People with asthma can prevent asthma attacks if they are taught to use inhaled corticosteroids and other prescribed daily long-term control medicines correctly and to avoid asthma triggers. Triggers can include tobacco smoke, mold, outdoor air pollution, and colds and flu.
- In 2008 less than half of people with asthma reported being taught how to avoid triggers. Almost half (48%) of adults who were taught how to avoid triggers did not follow most of this advice.
- Doctors and patients can better manage asthma by creating a personal asthma action plan that the patient follows.
Asthma by age and sex US, 2001-2009
Percentages are age-adjusted
SOURCE: National Center for Health Statistics; 2010.
Asthma self-management education by age, US, 2008
SOURCE: National Health Interview Survey, 2008, asthma supplement.
Adults with asthma in the US, 2009
SOURCE: Behavioral Risk Factor Surveillance System, 2009
Federal, state, and local health officials can:
- Track asthma rates and the effectiveness of control measures so continuous improvements can be made in prevention efforts.
- Promote influenza and pneumonia vaccination for people with asthma.
- Promote improvements in indoor air quality for people with asthma through measures such as smoke-free air laws and policies, healthy schools and workplaces, and improvements in outdoor air quality.
Health care providers can:
- Determine the severity of asthma and monitor how much control the patient has over it.
- Make an asthma action plan for patients. Use this to teach them how to use inhaled corticosteroids and other prescribed medicines correctly and how to avoid asthma triggers such as tobacco smoke, mold, pet dander, and outdoor air pollution.
- Prescribe inhaled corticosteroids for all patients with persistent asthma.
People with asthma and parents of children with asthma can:
- Receive ongoing appropriate medical care.
- Be empowered through education to manage their asthma and asthma attacks.
- Avoid asthma triggers at school, work, home, and outdoors. Parents of children with asthma should not smoke, or if they do, smoke only outdoors and not in their cars.
- Use inhaled corticosteroids and other prescribed medicines correctly.
Schools and school nurses can:
- Use student asthma action plans to guide use of inhaled corticosteroids and other prescribed asthma medicines correctly and to avoid asthma triggers.
- Make students' quick-relief inhalers readily available for them to use at school as needed.
- Take steps to fix indoor air quality problems like mold and outdoor air quality problems such as idling school buses.
Employers and insurers can:
- Promote healthy workplaces by reducing or eliminating known asthma triggers.
- Promote measures that prevent asthma attacks such as eliminating co-payments for inhaled corticosteroids and other prescribed medicines.
- Provide reimbursement for educational sessions conducted by clinicians, health educators, and other health professionals both within and outside of the clinical setting.
- Provide reimbursement for long-term control medicines, education, and services to reduce asthma triggers that are often not covered by health insurers.


Beginning with the establishment of a glass factory at Jamestown in 1608, manufacturing grew slowly during the colonial era to include flour mills and, by 1715, an iron foundry. During the 19th century, the shipbuilding industry flourished, and many cotton mills, tanneries, and ironworks were built; light industries producing a wide variety of consumer goods developed later. The strength of the Commonwealth's diversified manufacturing sector is shown in its 10.2% employment increase between 1970 and 1993. During this time period, national manufacturing employment declined by 8.3%.
Richmond is a principal industrial area for tobacco processing, paper and printing, clothing, and food products; nearby Hopewell is a locus of the chemical industry. Newport News, Hampton, and Norfolk are centers for shipbuilding and the manufacture of other transportation equipment. In the western part of the state, Lynchburg is a center for electrical machinery, metals, clothing, and printing, and Roanoke for food, clothing, and textiles. In the south, Martinsville has a concentration of furniture and textile-manufacturing plants, and textiles are also dominant in Danville.
The total value of manufacturing shipments in 1997 totaled $87 billion, or 15th in the nation. In 1997, Virginia was the headquarters for 16 Fortune 500 companies.
Earnings of persons employed in Virginia increased from $129 billion in 1997 to $138.3 billion in 1998, an increase of 7.2%. The largest industries in 1998 were services, 29.6% of earnings; state and local government, 10.5%; and retail trade, 8.7%. Of the industries that accounted for at least 5% of earnings in 1998, the slowest growing from 1997 to 1998 was federal civilian government (7.0% of earnings in 1998), which increased 0.4%; the fastest was finance, insurance, and real estate (7.0% of earnings in 1998), which increased 9.9%.


(CNN) -- Months after rescuers found them struggling and covered in oil, 33 endangered and threatened young sea turtles are finally going home to the Gulf of Mexico.
Scientists from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, the Louisiana Department of Wildlife and Fisheries and the Audubon Nature Institute freed the turtles Thursday in waters about 40 miles southwest of Grand Isle, Louisiana.
This marked the latest mass release of turtles since about 500 were rescued in the weeks and months after the massive months-long oil spill.
"We were able to release these turtles because they're now healthy, and we're seeing recovery in the surface habitats of the Gulf of Mexico," NOAA Administrator Jane Lubchenco said in a news release.
The spill began after an April 20 explosion on the offshore drilling platform Deepwater Horizon that killed 11 men. Two days later, the platform sank and oil started gushing into the Gulf. In early August, owner BP used cement and mud to plug the damaged Gulf of Mexico well.
Officials formally declared an end to the oil spill disaster on September 19, though considerable efforts remained to clean up area waters and revive wildlife affected by the spill.
Earlier this month, NOAA reopened federal waters off the Louisiana coast to fishing. Thursday's release marked another milestone in the area's recovery, according to those involved.
"Returning this group of sea turtles to their home waters is ... a sign that Louisiana is on the path towards recovery," said Randy Pausina, an assistant secretary for Louisiana's office of fisheries.
The 33 turtles had been rescued more than three months ago by federal officials and state wildlife authorities from Louisiana, Florida and Georgia, as well as the Riverhead Foundation and the In-Water Research Group. They were rehabilitated at the Audubon Nature Institute in New Orleans.
They included green, Kemp's ridley and hawksbill sea turtles, which are classified as endangered species. There also were loggerheads, which are a threatened species.
With 270 turtles having been cleaned, nursed back to health and released, there are more than 200 still in rehabilitation sites around the area.
Scientists did extensive aerial and shipboard tests earlier this week on the waters near the release point, making sure the sargassum algae was clean. Young turtles thrive in such areas, which provide protection from predators and ample food, including small crabs, snails and other creatures.
"Six months ago, it was nearly impossible to imagine this day would ever come," said Ron Forman, the Audubon Nature Institute's CEO and president.


In July 2004, the Cranfills Gap Independent School District (Cranfills Gap ISD), located in Hamilton County, Texas, was identified as one of 54 school districts in the state meeting the criteria that initiate an Appraisal Standards Review (ASR) of the county appraisal district that served them. In April 2005, the Comptroller's Property Tax Division (PTD) began an Appraisal Standards Review of the Hamilton County Appraisal District (Hamilton CAD).
Appraisal Standards Reviews
The 78th Legislature, Regular Session, directed the Comptroller's office to conduct appraisal standards reviews of county appraisal districts if the Comptroller's office finds in its annual Property Value Study (PVS) that the appraisal district has one or more "eligible" school districts. Eligible school districts are those that meet all of the following conditions:
- the district's values are invalid in the most recent property value study;
- the district's values were valid in the two studies preceding the most recent study; and
- the district's local value is above 90 percent of the lower threshold of the margin of error.
In Texas, public education is paid for by a combination of state and local funds. Local funding comes from local property taxes. The chief appraiser of each county appraisal district (CAD) determines local property values, and school districts set tax rates that determine the amount of local tax revenue. Appraisal districts, under most circumstances, are required by law to appraise property at or near market value. Market value, in simple terms, is the price for which a property would sell under normal conditions. State funding is based on the total taxable property value within each school district as determined by the PVS.
The PVS independently estimates the taxable property value in each school district to ensure that state values reflect market value, which in turn ensures that school districts have approximately the same number of dollars to spend per student, regardless of the school district's property wealth or lack of property wealth. School districts with less taxable property value per student receive more state dollars for each pupil than districts with more value per student. The state's fair distribution of school funding depends largely on the Comptroller's taxable value findings.
By conducting appraisal standards reviews, the Comptroller's office helps school districts to understand the reason for the invalid finding so they can effectively work with the appraisal district to correct the problems and achieve market values. ASRs identify problems and recommend changes in procedures or methods to improve appraisal accuracy.
An ASR examines and evaluates a county appraisal district's appraisal practices, including appraisal planning, appraisal procedures and methodology, and application and adherence to appraisal standards. The Tax Code and Comptroller rules are the major criteria used to measure the appraisal district's performance. The evaluation of the appraisal district's appraisal methods are based on a comparison of local methods and procedures to those generally accepted by the mass appraisal industry in Texas. The Tax Code dictates certain appraisal procedures or standards such as the Uniform Standards for Professional Appraisal Practices (USPAP), specifically Standard 6: Mass Appraisal and Standard 7: Personal Property. Also the International Association of Assessing Officers Standards (IAAO) Standards on Assessment are used as guidelines on the operation of an assessment office.
The two principal focuses of the review are to determine why a school district served by the CAD was deemed eligible and to make recommendations to improve appraisal practices so the school district's values can be determined valid in future studies. The review evaluates five broad functional areas of CAD operations: information processing systems, district staffing, property mapping and discovery, appraisals and appraisal standards.
The review methodology includes a self-assessment completed by the CAD, staff interviews, reviews of written policies, procedures, plans, financial and management audits, and assessments of manual and automated records systems.
As the result of the review process, the Comptroller's office is issuing this report of its findings that includes recommendations for change and commendations for exemplary district appraisal practices. The appraisal district is required by law to comply with the recommendations within one year of the release of this report. If the Comptroller determines that the appraisal district board of directors failed to take remedial action within one year after the issuance of the review, the Comptroller shall notify the district judges serving in the county, who shall appoint a five-member board of conservators to implement the recommendations. The board of conservators shall exercise supervision and control over the operations of the appraisal district until the Comptroller determines pursuant to the annual property value study, Section 403.302, Government Code, that in the same year the taxable value of each school district for which the appraisal district appraises property is the local value for the school district. The appraisal district shall bear the costs related to the supervision and control of the district by the board of conservators.
While the review team found several commendable practices implemented by dedicated and hardworking district employees, Hamilton CAD is facing a number of challenges in achieving and maintaining consistent valid findings, including:
- improving the management of office operations;
- documenting procedures; and
- enhancing reappraisal tools and appraisal methods.
Key Findings and Recommendations
Improve the Management Office Operations
Expand the detail of the budget presented to the board of directors for adoption to include the benefits for each position and a detailed list of each proposed capital expenditure. The district's budget lacks the detail necessary to comply with Section 6.06 of the Tax Code. The budget does not outline each set of benefits associated with each employee position. With 60 percent of the CAD's budget going to salaries, it's important for taxing units to understand where the money is being spent and ensure the district hires sufficient staff to perform appraisal functions.
Develop board procedures to evaluate the chief appraiser, insert a line for the chief appraiser's signature on the evaluation tool and use the newly developed tool to evaluate the chief appraiser annually. The board has not historically evaluated the chief appraiser in writing. After the onsite visit by the review team, the district developed an evaluation tool to allow the board to collectively evaluate the chief appraiser. The chief appraiser had not been evaluated with this tool. Setting annual expectations and evaluating the chief appraiser allows the board to communicate more effectively with the chief appraiser. The district should develop procedures to support the evaluation of the chief appraiser and begin annually assessing the chief appraiser's performance using the new tool.
Develop a comprehensive written policy and procedures manual for district operations. Hamilton CAD lacks well-documented policies and procedures to guide the day-to-day operations of the district in areas such as payroll processing, accounting, purchasing and related functions. Written procedures help guarantee tasks are performed correctly and provide useful training tools for new employees. By having a written policy and procedures manual for district operations, the district ensures consistency in performing daily functions and the procedures act as an internal control mechanism.
Continually update and review the personnel manual against current employment law. Hamilton CAD's personnel manual is currently being updated and is ready for the board of director's approval. The current manual is the board's by-laws and lacks information on the American with Disabilities Act and the Family Medical Leave Act, among more recent personnel law changes. An updated personnel manual protects management and staff from arbitrary employment practices and guarantees CAD employees are aware of their rights and responsibilities.
Enhance Reappraisal Tools and Appraisal Methods
Adopt and implement a detailed reappraisal plan. Hamilton CAD lacks a detailed reappraisal plan to ensure the execution of timely and accurate reappraisals. The CAD's reappraisal plan does not outline staffing requirements, a detailed work plan, a budget or how the district's ratio studies will be used in establishing reappraisals. A detailed plan assures management is aware of the process that the district will use in conducting reappraisals, ensures resources are available for conducting reappraisals and provides a roadmap for completing the reappraisals.
Develop and implement effective appraisal maintenance programs based on ratio studies to identify and correct market value deviations. The 2003 PVS results indicate that Hamilton CAD's appraisal maintenance programs for at least one of its school districts did not achieve the desired result of identifying market areas whose values no longer reflect the market, so adjustments can be made. Cranfills Gap ISD's 2003 PVS eligibility was primarily attributed to under valuing rural residences while other property categories were inconsistently valued, or consistently over- or under-valued. Appraisal districts use ratio studies to plan appraisal maintenance programs. The ratio study results indicate those market areas in the appraisal district whose values no longer reflect the market. Frequent ratio studies and the appraisal maintenance that follows enable an appraisal district to keep its values at or near the market.
The review team identified commendable practices in Hamilton CAD that other county appraisal districts may do well to review and implement where appropriate.
Hamilton CAD backs up appraisal data and stores it in a secure location. The district has an established process for storing daily backed up appraisal data. In the event of a disaster, the district would be able to get back to work quickly because its records are stored offsite and only a small amount of data would be potentially lost.


Doctors Urge Parents to Lower Volume Controls on Holiday Electronics
MONDAY Dec. 21, 2009 -- If you're giving your teenager an iPod or other music player this holiday season, consider a bonus present to help their hearing: Preset the top volume level to one-half or two-thirds of the actual maximum.
That's the advice from specialists at Vanderbilt University Medical Center. They warn that sound over 85 decibels -- well short of the volume limit some music players carry -- can cause hearing loss. People are also at risk when they listen to music for too long.
"As parents, we can't hear how loud their music is when they have the earbuds in, so this is an important step," Dr. Ron Eavey, chair of the medical center's Department of Otolaryngology, said in a Vanderbilt news release. "I can tell you that if you hear the music coming from their headphones, it is too loud, but an easier way to know for sure is to preset the device. This will still allow them to listen to and enjoy their music but will safeguard against ear-damaging volume levels."
Many music players can be programmed to not allow their volume to go beyond a specified level.
Anne Marie Tharpe, professor and chair of hearing and speech sciences at Vanderbilt, said in the same release that hearing loss isn't always obvious, especially in kids. "The symptoms can initially be subtle and include difficulty hearing when there is background noise. Such losses can result in significant challenges for children in classroom settings."
Learn more about hearing loss from MedlinePlus.
Posted: December 2009


Studies suggest that only 31% of Europe is thought to have a water supply that is either plentiful or sufficient to meet demands until 2015, and water stress indexes show a number of countries with traditionally wet climates such as Belgium and Bulgaria, under significant water stress. Therefore, there is both a desire and a need to reduce the consumption of water over much of Europe. For industry, often economics determine the viability of water recycling, which does not necessarily fall under the standards currently being set for the major water reuse schemes. While the additional annual recycling capacity in Western Europe is set to increase by 10%, much of the Global market is focussed on major reuse facilities based on the municipal sector. Within the industrial sector there are opportunities to achieve major changes in the water cycle which can have a significant impact on total water consumption. The impact on regional water consumption by industries efforts can be massive, as industry accounts for 50% of the water consumption in Western Europe. When benchmarked data across industry sectors is analysed, we find that industries ranging from paper mills, dairy, beverage, ceramic and electronics have opportunities to reduce their water consumption by around 50%. But what are the mechanisms that drive actions in the industry water cycle, and how great can the impact be? This paper explores industrial water costs across Europe, and the drivers leading to reduced water consumption. As operators of water and wastewater facilities for many industrial customers across Europe, Ondeo Industrial Solutions examine the raw water costs and the viability of recycle schemes. Economics is not the only driver towards the reduction in water consumption on industrial sites. There are political and legislative drivers that can often override the economics such as the European PPC (Pollution Prevention and Control) directive that can often lead to a programme of water consumption reductions.
Water Science and Technology: Water Supply is published as an adjunct to Water Science and Technology, in 6 issues per year, covering new developments in water supply. Papers are selected by a rigorous peer review procedure and the journal publi » Read more


Jamaican sprinter Usain Bolt's record-setting performances have unleashed a wave of interest in the ultimate limits to human running speed. A new study published in the Journal of Applied Physiology offers intriguing insights into the biology and perhaps even the future of human running speed.
The newly published evidence identifies the critical variable imposing the biological limit to running speed, and offers an enticing view of how the biological limits might be pushed back beyond the nearly 28 miles per hour speeds achieved by Bolt to speeds of perhaps 35 or even 40 miles per hour.
The new paper, "The biological limits to running speed are imposed from the ground up," was authored by Peter Weyand of Southern Methodist University; Rosalind Sandell and Danille Prime, both formerly of Rice University; and Matthew Bundle of the University of Wyoming.
"The prevailing view that speed is limited by the force with which the limbs can strike the running surface is an eminently reasonable one," said Weyand, associate professor of applied physiology and biomechanics at SMU in Dallas.
"If one considers that elite sprinters can apply peak forces of 800 to 1,000 pounds with a single limb during each sprinting step, it's easy to believe that runners are probably operating at or near the force limits of their muscles and limbs," he said. "However, our new data clearly show that this is not the case. Despite how large the running forces can be, we found that the limbs are capable of applying much greater ground forces than those present during top-speed forward running."
In contrast to a force limit, what the researchers found was that the critical biological limit is imposed by time -– specifically, the very brief periods of time available to apply force to the ground while sprinting. In elite sprinters, foot-ground contact times are less than one-tenth of one second, and peak ground forces occur within less than one-twentieth of one second of the first instant of foot-ground contact.
The researchers took advantage of several experimental tools to arrive at the new conclusions. They used a high-speed treadmill capable of attaining speeds greater than 40 miles per hour and of acquiring precise measurements of the forces applied to the surface with each footfall. They also had subjects' perform at high speeds in different gaits. In addition to completing traditional top-speed forward running tests, subjects hopped on one leg and ran backward to their fastest possible speeds on the treadmill.
The unconventional tests were strategically selected to test the prevailing beliefs about mechanical factors that limit human running speeds –- specifically, the idea that the speed limit is imposed by how forcefully a runner's limbs can strike the ground.
However, the researchers found that the ground forces applied while hopping on one leg at top speed exceeded those applied during top-speed forward running by 30 percent or more, and that the forces generated by the active muscles within the limb were roughly 1.5 to 2 times greater in the one-legged hopping gait.
The time limit conclusion was supported by the agreement of the minimum foot-ground contact times observed during top-speed backward and forward running. Although top backward vs. forward speeds were substantially slower, as expected, the minimum periods of foot-ground contact at top backward and forward speeds were essentially identical.
According to Matthew Bundle, an assistant professor of biomechanics at the University of Wyoming, "The very close agreement in the briefest periods of foot-ground contact at top speed in these two very different gaits points to a biological limit on how quickly the active muscle fibers can generate the forces necessary to get the runner back up off the ground during each step."
The researchers said the new work shows that running speed limits are set by the contractile speed limits of the muscle fibers themselves, with fiber contractile speeds setting the limit on how quickly the runner's limb can apply force to the running surface.
"Our simple projections indicate that muscle contractile speeds that would allow for maximal or near-maximal forces would permit running speeds of 35 to 40 miles per hour and conceivably faster," Bundle said.
Peter Weyand is an associate professor of applied physiology and biomechanics in SMU's Annette Caldwell Simmons School of Education & Human Development.
Matthew Bundle is an assistant professor of biomechanics in the College of Health Sciences at the University of Wyoming.
AAAS and EurekAlert! are not responsible for the accuracy of news releases posted to EurekAlert! by contributing institutions or for the use of any information through the EurekAlert! system.


9.0 SleepWatch ® ( Actigraphy) Measure of Sleep on Workdays and Non-Workdays
It was hypothesized that deployment of a combination of four fatigue management technologies would result in increased sleep time (actigraph determined) under both Canadian hours-of-service (Study Phase 1) and U.S. hours-of-service (Study Phase 2). However, analyses of actigraphy data for sleep episodes in the NO FEEDBACK versus FEEDBACK conditions revealed no statistically significant differences in sleep duration in either the Canada study phase or the U.S. study phase (see "Prior Sleep" variable in Tables 13 and 24). "Prior Sleep" was defined by all the sleep time found in each 24-hour period (from noon to noon, across consecutive days in the 2-week period for each condition) using an actigraphic software program called "Action 4" (developed by Ambulatory Monitoring, Inc., Ardsley, NY), as well as software that could recognize and eliminate from consideration periods of time when the actigraph was not on the wrist of a driver.
Although the overall comparisons of actigraphically-defined 24-hour cumulative sleep time (Prior Sleep) were not different between the FEEDBACK and NO FEEDBACK conditions, it was clear that the U.S. study phase drivers had an average of 50 minutes less sleep per day than their Canadian counterparts during the NO FEEDBACK condition, and 39 minutes less sleep per day than their Canadian counterparts during the FEEDBACK condition (compare "Prior Sleep" in Tables 13 and 24). The reduced daily sleep times in the U.S. drivers were consistent with the differences between study phases in the predominant time-of-day for driving-Canada drivers had approximately 75% of their driving in daylight (and therefore, slept mostly in the nighttime), while U.S. drivers had approximately 90% of their driving at night (and therefore slept more in the daytime). It has long been established that sleep duration is reduced when people work nights, owing to circadian biological forces and environmental factors, which alone or together can truncate daytime sleep durations.
Analyses were performed to determine whether the actigraphically-defined sleep duration differences of 50 minutes (NO FEEDBACK difference between Canada and U.S.) and 39 minutes (FEEDBACK difference between Canada and U.S.) were statistically significantly different from each other. In addition, sleep durations would likely be affected by workdays and non-workdays, especially in the night driving U.S. subjects, such that non-workdays would likely involve significantly more sleep than workdays. As a result of these considerations, a series of analyses were conducted comparing actigraph-defined sleep obtained by Canada drivers and U.S. drivers on workdays and non-workdays, during the NO FEEDBACK 2-week period and the FEEDBACK 2-week period. These analyses yielded important new insights into the impact of FMT FEEDBACK on drivers' sleep durations. Tables 49 through 58, and Tables 7 through 9, display the results these analyses.
9.1 Sleep Durations on workdays and non-workdays
Tables 51, 52, 53, and 54 reveal that drivers slept significantly more on non-workdays than on workdays. During the NO FEEDBACK 2-week period of the Canada study phase, drivers averaged 7 hours and 17 minutes sleep per 24 hour period on non-workdays compared to 6 hours and 15 minutes on workdays (p = 0.023), a mean difference of 1 hours and 2 minutes (Table 51). Similarly, during the FEEDBACK 2-week period of the Canada study phase, drivers averaged 7 hours and 31 minutes of sleep per 24 hours on non-workdays compared to 6 hours and 14 minutes on workdays (p = 0.0005), a mean difference of 1 hour and 17 minutes (Table 53). Comparable results were obtained in the U.S. study phase. During the NO FEEDBACK 2-week period of Study Phase 2, the U.S. drivers averaged 6 hours and 32 minutes of sleep per 24 hours on non-workdays compared to 5 hours and 14 minutes on workdays (p = 0.018), a mean difference of 1 hour and 18 minutes (Table 52). Similarly, during the FEEDBACK period, U.S. drivers averaged 7 hours and 32 minutes sleep compared to 5 hours and 1 minute on workdays (p = 0.0004), a mean difference of 2 hours and 31 minutes (Table 54). These are relatively large differences in 24-hour sleep durations, suggesting that drivers developed sleep debts across the workweek.
Figure 7 graphically displays the workday versus non-workday sleep durations controlling for feedback condition. It reveals that the differences in mean daily sleep between workdays and non-workdays significantly differed between U.S. and Canada study phases (p = 0.028), which are referred to as "location" in Figure 7. Therefore, the NO FEEDBACK vs. FEEDBACK comparisons between U.S. and Canada were performed separately for workdays and non-workdays. Figure 8 reveals that during workdays, the NO FEEDBACK vs. FEEDBACK comparison did not significantly differ between U.S. and Canada study phases (p = 0.392) (Tables 55, 56, 57, 58). After removing the interaction, there was no main effect for feedback (p = 0.916), but mean sleep duration was significantly less for U.S. drivers compared to Canadian drivers (p = 0.011). Figure 9 shows that during non-workdays, the NO FEEDBACK vs. FEEDBACK comparison did not significantly differ between U.S. and Canada study phases (p = 0.506), and differences between U.S. and Canada were not significant during non-workdays (p = 0.460). Most importantly, in contrast to workdays, there was a significant increase in mean sleep duration during non-workdays in the FEEDBACK condition relative to the NO FEEDBACK condition (p = 0.046). In other words, FMT FEEDBACK resulted in drivers in both countries significantly increasing their non-workday daily sleep durations by an average of 45 minutes per day over what was the case in the NO FEEDBACK condition. This finding provides clear support for the hypothesis that a combination of four fatigue management technologies would result in more sleep (actigraph determined) under both Canadian hours-of-service (phase 1) and U.S. hours-of-service (phase 2).
While it might have been expected that increased sleep time would also have occurred on workdays when FMT FEEDBACK was provided, this did not occur. It is possible that workday schedules prevent drivers from acting on information from FMT devices indicating they need more sleep. Barriers to obtaining sleep may be absent on non-workdays, allowing drivers to increase sleep time. It remains uncertain if this pattern of increased sleep on non-workdays would be sustained over months and years with FMT FEEDBACK. Much more needs to be understood about the factors that determine when and where drivers obtain sleep on workdays and non-workdays, on the barriers to obtaining adequate sleep on workdays, and on the factors that convince them to get more recovery sleep on non-workdays. An average of 45 minutes (both study phases) more sleep per non-workday was associated with FMT FEEDBACK. While this may seem modest, research suggests it is especially beneficial in promoting recovery from chronic sleep debt in persons sleeping less than 6.5 hours per day, which was the case for virtually all drivers participating in the study during workday period.


Con Ed to Get the Lead Out
The project will remove about 2,400 tons of underground lead sheathing through 2009 as part its membership in the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency's National Partnership for Environmental Priorities Program. The voluntary program aims to reduce or eliminate chemicals that can linger for decades when released into the environment. The private-public program has targeted 31 priority chemicals, such as lead and PCBs.
Con Edison plans to replace 2,400 sections of underground lead-clad electric feeder cables this year with solid dielectric cables made of copper conductors encased in synthetic rubber. The new cables are easier to splice and better for electricity distribution.
In 2009, the company will continue replacing an additional 2,400 sections, each of which is estimated to have about 1,000 pounds of encased lead sheathing that will be recycled nearby.
Eventually the company wants to replace all lead-clad cables -- about 20 percent of the company's underground network -- by 2020, which could account for as much as 15,000 tons of reclaimed lead sheathing.
Faced with a tide of post-consumer plastic trash, organizations are thinking up innovative ways to profitably harness this potentially vast revenue stream. Read more
The sixth annual edition of research has been expanded to include data on 1,600 companies worldwide, as well as on the U.S.-based S&P 500. Find out where the world of sustainable business is headed -- and the leading indicators of future progress.
Read the stories and download the report.
Simran Sethi shares how our psychology and geography shape the ways we engage and share with each other. See our entire video collection


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Folded-List Study Tool
This article describes the Folded-List Study Technique, a method designed by Professor of Biology Paul Heideman at the College of William and Mary, to give students a fast and efficient way to learn, recall, and apply key science concepts. (It is designed to be used in conjunction with the “Minute Sketch” tool, which is available within this database.) This document explains the method: Using a blank piece of paper folded lengthwise into four sections, students create one column for words and one for sketches or images. In the words column, they write the term or phrase for the first key concept. In the next column, they create a simple sketch to represent the concept. They keep adding words and sketches until the page is filled (although, over time, they should be able to condense all the essential material from one entire lecture on the top half of one sheet). Next, students fold the earlier columns behind and engage in repeated sketching and writing of these concepts in columns three and four. The recopying and rethinking of these concepts engages a student’s motor memory and visual cortex. Dr. Heideman says that his method forces students to extract the essentials from a large amount of material and learn the key concepts as sequential events. It is an active-learning method that engages students’ attention and allows them to review material quickly and to assess how much they have accomplished within a given time. Dr. Heideman says the method can be applied to other study techniques, such as concept mapping.
Program Director: Margaret Somosi Saha, Ph.D.
Award Years: 1989, 1998, 2002, 2006
Summary: The College of William and Mary is a public research university in Williamsburg, Virginia. Its HHMI-funded educational initiatives emphasize the importance of interdisciplinary and integrative approaches to education and research. They include:
- The development of a Biological Mathematics program (which includes substantial curricular changes and the addition of new faculty positions), the strengthening of the interdisciplinary Neuroscience major, and the establishment of a new undergraduate Applied Science minor.
- The enhancement of both Introductory Biology and Chemistry and upper-level immunology, molecular genetics, physiology, and neurophysiology laboratories through new equipment and expanded laboratory exercises.
- The HHMI Freshman Research Program in Biology and Chemistry and related sciences, which allows participating students to conduct independent research with a faculty mentor very early in their college careers—as freshmen. Many of these students have the opportunity to continue their research during the following summer and throughout the next three years.
- Student participation in the National Genomics Research Initiative (NGRI), a national experiment in both research and education sponsored by HHMI’s Science Education Alliance. Through this initiative, groups of freshmen at selected colleges participate in an authentic research experience—integrated into an introductory laboratory course—on the genetics of phages or bacteriophages (viruses that infect bacteria). Freshmen in the College of William and Mary’s program discovered a new life form, a bacteriophage they named CrimD.
- The expansion of a summer fellowship program to include students at Thomas Nelson Community College and three neighboring HBCU—Hampton University, Norfolk State University, and Virginia State University. Students in this program have the option of continuing their research project throughout the academic year and receive an hourly stipend and weekend transportation and carpooling.
- Partnerships with Hampton University, Norfolk State University, and Virginia State University to enable faculty to work together with research students at both the home campus and the College of William and Mary. The objective and anticipated outcomes are to establish lasting collaborations that improve opportunities for publication and the development of ideas for competitive grant proposals, either independently or in collaboration with faculty from the College of William and Mary.
- The Saturday and Summer Enrichment Programs, which allow young children with high abilities to explore specialized areas of science, mathematics, and the arts and humanities.
- The Science Training and Research Program (STAR), a four-week residential summer enrichment program that serves high-school juniors from disadvantaged backgrounds. The program, which offers core science and mathematics courses and an opportunity to visit research centers and laboratories, is designed to introduce students to the world of science, research, and technology.
- A series of “Update Courses” tailored to help middle and high-school teachers develop both a knowledge base and practical experience with topics—such as microbiology and molecular biotechnology—that are the stated components of the Standards of Learning for the Commonwealth of Virginia. Participants also help design Teaching Modules that help integrate the science topics into the classroom.


Human expansion and interference have detrimental effects as civilizations continue to encroach on previously undisturbed habitats. As a result, many species of animals and plants must struggle to survive.
Biodiversity reveals the important role each of these life forms plays in its ecosystem as well as the irreversible and extensive consequences that would result from a massive loss of biodiversity. It explores the ecological and evolutionary processes, how these processes depend on the cohabitation of a wide range of life forms within an ecosystem, and how the existence of these diverse organisms maintains a crucial stability in the natural world. Beginning with an introduction to biodiversity, this new volume discusses its importance and history, the difficulties in maintaining it, and past and current efforts to protect ecosystems from greater destruction. It examines five specific case studies, including the United States, Indonesia, New Zealand, Madagascar, and Costa Rica, describing the current status and history of biodiversity, obstacles, and conservation efforts in the country at hand.
Maps. Index. Bibliography. Glossary. Chronology. Tables and graphs.
About the Author(s)
Natalie Goldstein is a freelance writer who has written numerous books for the educational market, including textbooks and teacher's guides for the middle school and encyclopedias for the high school. She also wrote Globalization and Free Trade and Global Warming in the Global Issues series.
Foreword author Julie L. Lockwood is director of the graduate program in ecology and evolution and associate professor in the Department of Ecology, Evolution, and Natural Resources at Rutgers University. She is the coauthor of Avian Invasions: The Ecology and Evolution of Exotic Birds and Invasion Ecology.


Participatory Video created by members of various indigenous communities in Itogon, Philippines, tracking the impacts of large-scale mining and now climate change on their environment and culture.
This film was created by members of various indigenous communities in the Cordillera region of the Philippines, during a Participatory Video project facilitated by InsightShare. The participants were taught to use video cameras during an intensive 9-day PV workshop in the barangay of Garrison, in Itogon, and created this 24-minute film to communicate the devastating impacts of large-scale mining wrought on their communities by various companies over the years, and now the increasingly alarming impacts of climate change.
This project was part of Conversations with the Earth project. Launched in April 2009, Conversations with the Earth is a collective opportunity to build a global movement for an indigenous-controlled community media network. CWE works with a growing network of indigenous groups and communities living in critical ecosystems around the world, from the Atlantic Rainforest to Central Asia, from the Philippines to the Andes, from the Arctic to Ethiopia. Through CWE, these indigenous communities are able to share their story of climate change. Through the creation of sustainable autonomous indigenous media hubs in these regions, CWE fosters a long-term relationship with these communities, based on principles of local control and supporting indigenous media capacity.


Last reviewed by Faculty of Harvard Medical School on January 24, 2013
By Harvey B. Simon, M.D.
Harvard Medical School
Chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) is the fourth leading cause of death in the United States. It's also the only disease among the top 10 killers that is seeing an increase in deaths each year. About 15 million Americans suffer from COPD. Men are affected about twice as often as women because male smokers have outnumbered female smokers.
COPD is not curable, but it is treatable. Lifestyle changes and medication can help people cope with chronic lung disease and live longer, fuller lives. But as you'll see, most cases of COPD can be prevented.
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What Is COPD?
COPD refers to chronic illnesses that block the flow of air and make breathing difficult. The two major forms of COPD are chronic bronchitis and emphysema. In both, narrowed air passages or bronchi make it hard to exhale. (Bronchi are wider during inhalation and narrow during exhalation.) Narrowed bronchi also cause asthma, but the narrowing is temporary and reversible. In COPD, it's permanent.
In chronic bronchitis, the mucous glands in the air passages are enlarged and produce too much mucous, which narrows the bronchi. In emphysema, the narrowing of the bronchi is caused by damage to the lung tissue and is more severe than in chronic bronchitis. Most patients with COPD have a mixture of chronic bronchitis and emphysema. Inflammation triggered by irritants that are inhaled also contributes to COPD. White blood cells try to fight off the irritation, but instead of controlling the damage caused by the irritant, they release chemicals that damage and eventually destroy lung tissue.
Smoking causes about 85% of COPD cases. Heavy smokers have the highest risk of developing COPD. Secondhand smoke and other inhaled toxins can cause COPD in some nonsmokers. In others, an inherited protein deficiency is to blame. But in some cases, no cause is apparent.
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What Are the Symptoms of COPD?
COPD starts gradually and progresses slowly over time. That's why the number of cases of COPD continues to increase years after many American men quit smoking.
At first, there are no symptoms. But little by little, symptoms appear, usually in middle age. A morning "smoker's cough" is often the first complaint. The cough gradually gets worse and occurs throughout the day. Next, shortness of breath develops. In the beginning, it only occurs during exercise, but as the disease progresses, breathing becomes a chore even at rest. Wheezing is another common symptom. Most patients also become tired and weak.
Patients with chronic bronchitis have a recurrent cough that brings up large amounts of thick, discolored phlegm almost every day for three months or longer. Over time, the lung disease puts a strain on the heart and men may develop cor pulmonale, a form of congestive heart failure. As a result, they accumulate fluid and gain weight. Their lips and skin may eventually turn bluish due to low blood oxygen levels.
Men with emphysema have a scant and dry cough, severe shortness of breath and they breathe faster than normal. Their skin stays pink and they dont retain fluid, but their appearance changes: they lose weight, their muscles tend to waste away, and they develop large, barrel-shaped chests.
Most patients with COPD have symptoms of both chronic bronchitis and emphysema. In addition to daily symptoms, most patients have two to three exacerbations each year. These are abrupt flares that are often triggered by lung infections. Symptoms get much worse and aggressive treatment is needed.
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How Is COPD Diagnosed?
The best way to diagnose COPD is with a simple, safe lung-function test, called the forced expiratory volume at one second (FEV1). It measures the amount of air you can breathe out with maximum effort in one second. Doctors can also use this test to check the results of treatment. X-rays, blood oxygen mearurements, and other tests may also help.
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People with COPD can take steps to control symptoms, and minimize complications and disability. The first rule is the most important: Avoid tobacco and secondhand smoke. This is a hard and fast rule. There are no exceptions.
Good nutrition is also important. A diet high in fruits, vegetables, and fish may actually help the lungs. There is no evidence that vitamin supplements help. In fact beta-carotene actually increases a male smoker's risk of lung cancer. Patients with chronic bronchitis and heart strain must avoid sodium (salt). Men with severe emphysema may benefit from high-calorie nutritional supplements. Drinking plenty of fluids will help keep phlegm loose and make it easy to clear out by coughing.
A program of low-to-moderate intensity exercise can help the muscles get the most from the oxygen that damaged lungs can deliver. Walking is best. Start with 5 just minutes of walking three to four times a day and build up to 45 minutes a day. Patients with severe COPD or heart disease may also need a structured pulmonary rehabilitation program, which can teach breathing exercises that strengthen chest muscles.
Preventing infection is essential. Be sure your flu and pneumonia shots are up to date. Keep your distance from folks with respiratory infections. Wash your hands carefully with an alcohol-based hand rub.
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Medications for COPD
Prescription medications can do a lot for patients with COPD. Your doctor will explain the benefits and possible side effects. Here is a summary of the major groups of medications.
- Bronchodilators - These relax the muscles in the walls of the bronchi, widening the tubes and easing the passage of air. The most popular short-acting bronchodilator is albuterol (Proventil). It is inhaled through a metered-dose inhaler (MDI) up to four times a day for quick relief of wheezing, coughing, or shortness of breath. Patients with mild COPD may need only a short-acting bronchodilator, but patients with more advanced disease also benefit from a long-acting bronchodilator. They help prevent symptoms rather than provide immediate relief. Salmeterol (Serevent) or formoterol (Foradil) can be inhaled twice a day as a spray or from a dry powder inhaler (DPI). Patients taking salmeterol or formoteral should continue using their short-acting albuterol MDI for that purpose.
- Anticholinergics - These are drugs that widen the bronchial tubes and reduce the amount of mucus without making it thick and difficult to bring up. They provide long-term control and are the most important medication for many men with COPD. The newer drug tiotropium (Spiriva) can be used just once a day, while ipratropium (Atrovent) requires more frequent use . Because anticholinergics and bronchodilators work in different ways, patients can benefit from using both types of drugs.
- Corticosteroids ("steroids") - These medications reduce inflammation in the bronchial tubes. Inhaled steroids can help many, but not all, patients with moderate-to-severe COPD. They are most effective for patients who are also taking long-acting bronchodilators. A combination of a steroid (fluticasone ) and a long-acting bronchodilator (salmeterol) is available for twice-a-day dry powder inhalation.
- Antibiotics - These can be critically important for flare-ups but are not helpful for maintenance therapy. Notify your doctor right away if your breathing becomes worse, if you develop a fever, or if your phlegm becomes thicker, discolored, or more plentiful.
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Does Oxygen Really Help?
People with COPD who have low blood oxygen levels can benefit greatly from long-term, round-the-clock oxygen therapy. At home, oxygen can be stored in cylinders or generated by machines called oxygen concentrators. Portable tanks can provide several hours of oxygen away from home. Oxygen therapy needs careful supervision by a physician. Because oxygen can be a fire hazard, patients and household members need to follow certain safety precautions.
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The Bottom Line
The average person will take some 600 million breaths during a lifetime. Most men can keep their lungs healthy simply by avoiding tobacco smoke and other harmful fumes. Early diagnosis and treatment can slow the damage, ward off complications, and improve the quality of life. New therapies are on the way, but simple prevention is the best treatment of all. And, after all, what's more important than preserving the breath of life?
Harvey B. Simon, M.D. is an Associate Professor of Medicine at Harvard Medical School and a member of the Health Sciences Technology Faculty at Massachusetts Institute of Technology. He is the founding editor of the Harvard Men's Health Watch newsletter and author of six consumer health books, including The Harvard Medical School Guide to Men's Health (Simon and Schuster, 2002) and The No Sweat Exercise Plan, Lose Weight, Get Healthy and Live Longer (McGraw-Hill, 2006). Dr. Simon practices at the Massachusetts General Hospital; he received the London Prize for Excellence in Teaching from Harvard and MIT.


IOWA CITY, Iowa (AP) — Groundbreaking pollster George Gallup may be known for founding the survey organization that tracks people's opinions on the president, but he began his career with a more personal concern: getting his mother-in-law elected to statewide office.
Ola Babcock Miller was a huge underdog in the 1932 race for Iowa Secretary of State. Gallup conducted an informal poll of voters for her and learned that highway safety was a top concern. Miller campaigned successfully on the issue and went on to found the Iowa State Patrol.
That campaign is recounted in a collection of papers that Gallup's family recently donated to the University of Iowa documenting the life of the father of modern political polling.
The papers are expected to be used by researchers studying early polling on elections and marketing.


DefinitionBy Mayo Clinic staff
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|Visual acuity test|
|Manual visual field testing|
A complete eye exam involves a series of tests designed to evaluate your vision and check for eye diseases. Your eye doctor may use a variety of instruments, shine bright lights directly at your eyes and request that you look through an array of lenses. Each test during an eye exam evaluates a different aspect of your vision or eye health.
- Pediatric eye evaluations. San Francisco, Calif.: American Academy of Ophthalmology. http://one.aao.org/printerfriendly.aspx?cid=2e30f625-1b04-45b9-9b7c-c06770d02fe5. Accessed Jan. 24, 2013.
- Comprehensive eye and vision examination. American Optometric Association. http://www.aoa.org/eye-exams.xml. Accessed Jan. 24, 2013.
- Clinical practice guidelines: Comprehensive adult eye and vision examination. St. Louis, Mo.: American Optometric Association. http://www.aoa.org/eye-exams.xml Accessed Jan. 24, 2013.
- Riordan-Eva P, et al. Vaughan & Asbury's General Ophthalmology. 18th ed. New York, N.Y.: The McGraw-Hill Companies; 2011. http://www.accessmedicine.com/resourceTOC.aspx?resourceID=720. Accessed Jan. 24, 2013.
- What is a doctor of optometry? American Optometric Association. http://www.aoa.org/x4891.xml. Accessed Jan. 24, 2013.