??Bowtech Products Ltd. (?Bowtech?), a market leader in underwater and harsh environment vision systems, has announced that they will be exhibiting for the first time at the Rio Oil and Gas 2012 exhibition, on the Subsea UK Pavilion, Annex 3/4, No 11, September 17-20th at the Riocentro Convention Centre in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. A leading oil and gas industry event in Latin America, Rio Oil & Gas Expo and Conference takes place in Rio de Janeiro every two years and began in 1982.?
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?Subsea UK?s pavilion will be showcasing British expertise within the subsea industry, with its largest ever delegation of member companies. Bowtech will be utilising Subsea UK?s high profile stand and graphic displays to promote their oil and gas systems, which include:
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? ? ? ? ? Oil and BOP Leak Detection System
? ? ? ? ? AHMS/ARMS ? Anchor Handling and Retrieval Monitoring System
Bowtech will also be discussing their latest underwater camera and LED lighting technology, including their 3D cameras and new Explorer Lite camera, the latest product in their low light camera range.
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Speaking from Maca?, Mike Winstanley, Sales and Marketing Director says: ?Latin America and especially Brazil are of key importance to Bowtech. We have been selling products into Brazil for 23 years and have recently had tremendous success. This I attribute mainly to the Brazilian operators having highly ambitious plans to exploit their resources, as effectively as possible, and also to their drive to embrace and implement new technologies and procedures, helping them achieve objectives efficiently; that?s where we come in with our innovative solutions. I fully expect a high level of interest at this exciting global event.?
Photo By: Jeff GoodmanStarting points Canby quarterback Sam Stelk (left) runs 11 yards for his team's first touchdown Sept. 28 against Oregon City at Pioneer Memorial Stadium. The Cougars went on to win 42-20, earning their ninth straight victory in the series.
OREGON CITY ? Hiding satirically underneath Trevor Sievers? jersey was a red shirt, created by the Oregon City faithful, that was emblazoned with the premature declaration, ?Cougar season is over in OC.
A Second Take on Meeting the Press: From an up-close look at Rachel Maddow's sneakers to an in-depth look at Jon Krakauer's latest book ? it's all fair game in our "Meet the Press: Take Two" web extra. Log on Sundays to see David Gregory's post-show conversations with leading newsmakers, authors and roundtable guests. Videos are available on-demand by 12 p.m. ET on Sundays.
Sony NEXVG900 Full Frame Interchangeable Lens Camcorder Video Camera with 3-Inch LCD(Black) by Sony (1) Date first available at Amazon.com: September 11, 2012 Buy new: $3,299.99 $3,298.00 (Visit the Hot New Releases in Camcorders list for authoritative information on this product?s current rank.)
Low Price On: #8: Sony NEXVG900 Full Frame Interchangeable Lens Camcorder Video Camera with 3-Inch LCD(Black)
Feng Shui is a way of life by which you can organize your living and working areas to bring about prosperity to your wealth and business, successful work and career or achieving long lasting relationship.
Whenever there is good feng shui bedroom furnishing, auspicious and balanced chi will always be present to bring balance into the physical bodies of individuals thereby promoting good health and a general absence of illnesses and disease.
To decorate your feng shui bedroom furnishing using feng shui principles, it is important to alter only one or two areas at a time as enhancing all areas at once will cause chi confusion.
Listed below are various feng shui bedroom furnishing you can utilize to attract and improve specific areas of your life.
1. Romance or Love
For those who are single
If your main focus is on relationships, love or marriage, be sure to sleep with your head pointing to your ?Nien Yen? or romance direction. This is the best direction to sleep in order to enhance the love sector in your life.
It is also possible to actually activate the marriage corner, thereby vastly improving your marriage prospect. One of the feng shui bedroom furnishing is done by hanging the red Chinese marriage mystical knot in the South-West corner or hanging a picture depicting double happiness Chinese characters.
You can also energize your peach blossom luck by displaying a pair of mandarin ducks. A pair of mandarin ducks is part of feng shui bedroom furnishing that symbolize happiness and fulfillment for lovers. You must never display a solo mandarin duck unless you wish to remain as a single forever.
For those who are married
If your love life need a quick boost, you can use the placement of feng shui bedroom furnishing to produce the romantic results you desire. For example, you can hang painting of peonies which symbolize a happy love life and marriage luck.
Another feng shui bedroom furnishing you can adopt is the double happiness symbol. It has always been cherished as one of the most powerful symbol of conjugal harmony. You can drape your wall with a picture of the double happiness symbol or wear a double happiness tassel close by your side to produce excellent chi of your marital bliss.
The double carp is also an excellent feng shui bedroom furnishing energizer for marriage luck. These auspicious carp symbolize abundant good fortune and marital bliss. Display a pair of auspicious carp in the living room to enjoy happy unions and family harmony.
2. Prosperity
If carving out a successful career is your main focus, you can utilize one of the feng shui bedroom furnishing by placing a phoenix figurine in your home or office.
The phoenix is one of the four celestial creatures of feng shui and is the king of all the winged creatures. This majestic bird is synchronous with good fortune and associated with opportunity career luck.
Feng shui bedroom furnishing such as plum blossoms pictures or ornaments are also good for career and success.
If you are looking to gain prosperity luck and wealth, carry three or eight antique Chinese gold coins which are often tied with a red cord. You can also display the antique Chinese gold coins as feng shui bedroom furnishing at home or in the office, facing your ?Sheng Chi? direction.
Another feng shui bedroom furnishing is to place a figurine of a frog by your main entrance discreetly beside a green plant. This signifies arrival of wealth.
In feng shui, the deer is a very popular symbol associated with speed,endurance and a long life. The Chinese word for deer is ?lu? which sound similar to a Chinese word that means continuous income and prosperity.
Therefore it is extremely auspicious to use a figurine or painting of a deer as feng shui bedroom furnishing in your office and home. The deer symbolise your wish for your family to enjoy a long life of ease and growing prosperity.
3. Health
?Wu Lou? for Health
The ?wu lou? or the bottle gourd is an extremely powerful symbol of longevity. The bottle gourd signifies good fortune and an abundance of blessings and it is often quoted to contain the elixir of immortality in the Chinese folklore.
The shape of the bottle gourd is also a representation of heaven and earth; the top half represent heaven and the bottom half signify earth. It is immensely beneficial for those who are ill to use bottle gourd as feng shui bedroom furnishing and place it by the bedside.
Another feng shui bedroom furnishing is by using the tortoise. It is the only one of the four celestial creatures that actually exists today. The tortoise is not merely a symbol of longevity,it is also a symbol of protection and support.
In feng shui,the tortoise signifies the protective hills of the north. You can display tortoise ornaments as feng shui bedroom furnishing in the north sector of your home to attract good health and abundance of prosperity luck.
Now you that you know some of the ways to attract and improve specific areas of your life, get ready to put some of these feng shui bedroom furnishing tips into practice.
If you are looking for a great deal on used office equipment, an auction might be the way to go. Auctions give start-ups, small businesses, or home offices the opportunity to purchase office equipment they might normally not be able to afford on a tight budget. There are several reasons an auction might be held, such as business liquidations, moving sales, fundraisers for non-profits, or government agencies selling surplus or confiscated items (e.g. GovDeals, http://www.govdeals.com/). There are live and online auctions and each can be found by searching the Internet, reading the local newspaper, or subscribing to auction house e-mail alerts. Before you participate in an auction, find out of if the company hosting the auction is a legitimate company, licensed, or bonded. Next, make a general list of items you need and are willing to purchase used, e.g. a color printer, a laser fax machine, a desktop computer; then decide the max you are willing to spend on each. Often times, buyers can preview the office equipment going up for auction first via a catalog or in person. This will give you a chance to make a more detailed list of the office equipment you may want to bid on based on the description. If possible, inspect the items in person and ?kick the tires? so to speak. If time allows, you can take it one step further and research the particular makes and models you are interested in online to check past ratings and current values. The past ratings may force you to eliminate some items from your list and the current values will help determine your spending cap.
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If you decide to bid on an item, review the terms and conditions first. If the office equipment is sold ?as-is?, you will be responsible for any maintenance and repairs necessary to get the item up and running. It might be a good idea to verify if the manufacturer warranty is still active as well. While at a live or online auction, it?s imperative to give it your full attention. Once a bid is placed, there is no turning back; so, you want to make sure that you are bidding on the correct piece of office equipment. Have you ever purchased office equipment from an auction? If so, we?d love to hear from you. Please share the details with us, like what items did you buy, did you feel like you got a great deal, was it a smooth process, and will you ever purchase office equipment from an auction again??
We'll have to give it to AT&T for going with something a wee bit different than what we're accustomed to seeing in the world of handy MiFis -- but with touchscreens apparently being a thing nowadays, it also shouldn't surprise us that the company chose to go this route. Either way, the newly introduced MiFi Liberate will surely be of help to those who need to stay connected while on the go, offering features such as LTE connectivity (provided the network's live in the area, of course), simultaneous pairing of up to 10 WiFi devices, 11-hour battery life, a microSD slot, DLNA capabilities and, as you can see above, a 2.8-inch touchscreen display. Unfortunately, the carrier didn't say when we can expect the Liberate to be up for grabs (or for how much), with a company representative only telling us that it'll be at some point "in the coming months." While we wait for those details, however, feel free to check out the extra pic located just past the break.
Contact: Kim Fulton-Bennett kfb@mbari.org 831-775-1835 Monterey Bay Aquarium Research Institute
(It's not what you think)
MOSS LANDING, CA About 100 years ago, marine biologists hauled the first vampire squid up from the depths of the sea. Since that time, perhaps a dozen scientific papers have been published on this mysterious animal, but no one has been able to figure out exactly what it eats. A new paper by MBARI Postdoctoral Fellow Henk-Jan Hoving and Senior Scientist Bruce Robison shows for the first time that, unlike its relatives the octopuses and squids, which eat live prey, the vampire squid uses two thread-like filaments to capture bits of organic debris that sink down from the ocean surface into the deep sea.
It's easy to imagine the vampire squid as a nightmarish predator. It lurks in the eternal midnight of the deep sea, has a dark red body, huge blue eyes, and a cloak-like web that stretches between its eight arms. When threatened, it turns inside out, exposing rows of wicked-looking "cirri." Even its scientific name, Vampyroteuthis infernalis, means "vampire squid from hell."
In reality, the vampire squid is a soft-bodied, passive creature, about the size, shape, and color of a football. A "living fossil," it inhabits the deep waters of all the world's ocean basins at depths where there is almost no oxygen, but also relatively few predators.
A few previous researchers have caught vampire squids in nets, hauled them up to the surface, and tried to figure out what they ate by examining the contents of their stomachs. The results were generally inconclusive. The stomachs typically contained bits and pieces of tiny, shrimp-like animals, microscopic algae, and lots of slimy goo.
In a recent article in the Proceedings of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences, Hoving and Robison show that vampire squids eat mostly "marine snow"a mixture of dead bodies, poop, and snot. The dead bodies are the remains of microscopic algae and animals that live in the waters farther up in the ocean, but sink down into the depths after they die. The poop consists of fecal pellets from small, shrimp-like animals such as copepods or krill. The snot is mostly debris from gelatinous animals called larvaceans, which filter and consume marine snow using mucus nets.
In addition to looking at the stomach-contents of vampire squids from museum collections, the researchers used MBARI's remotely operated vehicles (ROVs) to collect live vampire squids and study their feeding habits in the laboratory. They also examined high-definition videos of vampire squids taken by MBARI's ROVs. Finally, they examined vampire-squid arms and feeding filaments under optical and scanning electron microscopes.
One key to Hoving and Robison's discovery was that they used MBARI's ROVs to collect living vampire squids, and were able to keep them alive in the laboratory for months at a time. Hoving soon found that if he placed bits and pieces of microscopic animals into a tank with a vampire squid, the food particles would stick to one of the string-like filaments that the animal sometimes extends outward from its body. The vampire squid would then draw the filament through its arms, removing the particles from the filament and enveloping them in mucus. Finally, the squid would transfer the glob of mucus and particles to its mouth and consume it.
Using MBARI's video annotation and reference system (VARS), Hoving also identified every MBARI ROV dive over the last 25 years during which researchers had seen a vampire squid. He then pored over 170 of these video clips (over 23 hours of footage) to look for additional clues as to what and how the animals ate.
The videos showed that vampire squids often drift motionless in the water, extending one of their thin filamentsup to eight times as long as the animal's bodylike a fishing line. In many cases, Hoving saw bits of marine snow sticking to the filament. He also saw vampire squids slowly pulling in their filaments and scraping off the accumulated marine snow using their arms. Other vampire squids had globs of marine snow and mucus dangling from their mouths.
Under the microscope, the researchers observed that the vampire squid's suckers were covered with cells that produce mucus, which the animal apparently uses to collect and glue together individual particles of marine snow. Their filaments are covered with tiny hairs and a dense net of sensory nerves, which makes them extremely sensitive to touch.
When looking at vampire squids' stomach contents, the researchers did not see bones or pieces of individual animals that would indicate the vampire squids had captured live prey. Instead, they saw mostly amorphous bits of broken-up organic debris. The only prey they saw that might have been eaten alive were the remains of tiny crustaceans that sometimes "hitchhike" on sinking mucus nets or clumps of the marine snow.
After considering all the evidence, Hoving and Robison conclude that, "the vampire squid's filament is likely a multifunctional organ that is deployed to detect and capture detrital matter but at the same time may detect the presence of predators and perhaps small living prey."
The organic detritus that forms the bulk of the vampire squid's diet would not seem to be particularly nutritious. However vampire squids complement their frugal diet with an extremely energy-efficient lifestyle and unique adaptations. Their bodies are neutrally buoyant, so they don't have to expend energy to stay at a particular depth. Even better, they don't have to swim to find food, but simply extend their filaments to collect food that drifts past them.
Finally, vampire squids don't have to expend much energy avoiding predators, because they live at depths where there is so little oxygen that few other animals can survive. Conveniently, these deep, low-oxygen zones are often found where there is an abundance of life near the sea surface, which in turn creates lots of marine snow for vampire squids to eat. Hoving explains, "Because of its unique adaptations, the vampire squid is able to permanently and successfully inhabit the center of the oxygen minimum zone, an otherwise hostile environment where the vampire squid's predators are few, and its food is abundant."
Even though Hoving and Robison's research shows that the vampire squid is a "detritivore" rather than an active predator, its sinister appearance and stealthy habits will no doubt continue to fascinate both researchers and the general public.
###
This research was sponsored by grants from the David and Lucile Packard Foundation and the Netherlands Organization for Scientific Research (NWO).
Original Journal article:
Hendrik J. T. Hoving and Bruce H. Robison Vampire squid: detritivores in the oxygen minimum zone
Proc. R. Soc. B rspb20121357; published ahead of print September 26, 2012, doi:10.1098/rspb.2012.1357 1471-2954
For photographs to accompany this release, please see the online version of this news release at:
A video version of this release is available on MBARI's YouTube channel:
http://youtu.be/X8oWnbcLI40
[ | E-mail | Share ]
?
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.
Contact: Kim Fulton-Bennett kfb@mbari.org 831-775-1835 Monterey Bay Aquarium Research Institute
(It's not what you think)
MOSS LANDING, CA About 100 years ago, marine biologists hauled the first vampire squid up from the depths of the sea. Since that time, perhaps a dozen scientific papers have been published on this mysterious animal, but no one has been able to figure out exactly what it eats. A new paper by MBARI Postdoctoral Fellow Henk-Jan Hoving and Senior Scientist Bruce Robison shows for the first time that, unlike its relatives the octopuses and squids, which eat live prey, the vampire squid uses two thread-like filaments to capture bits of organic debris that sink down from the ocean surface into the deep sea.
It's easy to imagine the vampire squid as a nightmarish predator. It lurks in the eternal midnight of the deep sea, has a dark red body, huge blue eyes, and a cloak-like web that stretches between its eight arms. When threatened, it turns inside out, exposing rows of wicked-looking "cirri." Even its scientific name, Vampyroteuthis infernalis, means "vampire squid from hell."
In reality, the vampire squid is a soft-bodied, passive creature, about the size, shape, and color of a football. A "living fossil," it inhabits the deep waters of all the world's ocean basins at depths where there is almost no oxygen, but also relatively few predators.
A few previous researchers have caught vampire squids in nets, hauled them up to the surface, and tried to figure out what they ate by examining the contents of their stomachs. The results were generally inconclusive. The stomachs typically contained bits and pieces of tiny, shrimp-like animals, microscopic algae, and lots of slimy goo.
In a recent article in the Proceedings of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences, Hoving and Robison show that vampire squids eat mostly "marine snow"a mixture of dead bodies, poop, and snot. The dead bodies are the remains of microscopic algae and animals that live in the waters farther up in the ocean, but sink down into the depths after they die. The poop consists of fecal pellets from small, shrimp-like animals such as copepods or krill. The snot is mostly debris from gelatinous animals called larvaceans, which filter and consume marine snow using mucus nets.
In addition to looking at the stomach-contents of vampire squids from museum collections, the researchers used MBARI's remotely operated vehicles (ROVs) to collect live vampire squids and study their feeding habits in the laboratory. They also examined high-definition videos of vampire squids taken by MBARI's ROVs. Finally, they examined vampire-squid arms and feeding filaments under optical and scanning electron microscopes.
One key to Hoving and Robison's discovery was that they used MBARI's ROVs to collect living vampire squids, and were able to keep them alive in the laboratory for months at a time. Hoving soon found that if he placed bits and pieces of microscopic animals into a tank with a vampire squid, the food particles would stick to one of the string-like filaments that the animal sometimes extends outward from its body. The vampire squid would then draw the filament through its arms, removing the particles from the filament and enveloping them in mucus. Finally, the squid would transfer the glob of mucus and particles to its mouth and consume it.
Using MBARI's video annotation and reference system (VARS), Hoving also identified every MBARI ROV dive over the last 25 years during which researchers had seen a vampire squid. He then pored over 170 of these video clips (over 23 hours of footage) to look for additional clues as to what and how the animals ate.
The videos showed that vampire squids often drift motionless in the water, extending one of their thin filamentsup to eight times as long as the animal's bodylike a fishing line. In many cases, Hoving saw bits of marine snow sticking to the filament. He also saw vampire squids slowly pulling in their filaments and scraping off the accumulated marine snow using their arms. Other vampire squids had globs of marine snow and mucus dangling from their mouths.
Under the microscope, the researchers observed that the vampire squid's suckers were covered with cells that produce mucus, which the animal apparently uses to collect and glue together individual particles of marine snow. Their filaments are covered with tiny hairs and a dense net of sensory nerves, which makes them extremely sensitive to touch.
When looking at vampire squids' stomach contents, the researchers did not see bones or pieces of individual animals that would indicate the vampire squids had captured live prey. Instead, they saw mostly amorphous bits of broken-up organic debris. The only prey they saw that might have been eaten alive were the remains of tiny crustaceans that sometimes "hitchhike" on sinking mucus nets or clumps of the marine snow.
After considering all the evidence, Hoving and Robison conclude that, "the vampire squid's filament is likely a multifunctional organ that is deployed to detect and capture detrital matter but at the same time may detect the presence of predators and perhaps small living prey."
The organic detritus that forms the bulk of the vampire squid's diet would not seem to be particularly nutritious. However vampire squids complement their frugal diet with an extremely energy-efficient lifestyle and unique adaptations. Their bodies are neutrally buoyant, so they don't have to expend energy to stay at a particular depth. Even better, they don't have to swim to find food, but simply extend their filaments to collect food that drifts past them.
Finally, vampire squids don't have to expend much energy avoiding predators, because they live at depths where there is so little oxygen that few other animals can survive. Conveniently, these deep, low-oxygen zones are often found where there is an abundance of life near the sea surface, which in turn creates lots of marine snow for vampire squids to eat. Hoving explains, "Because of its unique adaptations, the vampire squid is able to permanently and successfully inhabit the center of the oxygen minimum zone, an otherwise hostile environment where the vampire squid's predators are few, and its food is abundant."
Even though Hoving and Robison's research shows that the vampire squid is a "detritivore" rather than an active predator, its sinister appearance and stealthy habits will no doubt continue to fascinate both researchers and the general public.
###
This research was sponsored by grants from the David and Lucile Packard Foundation and the Netherlands Organization for Scientific Research (NWO).
Original Journal article:
Hendrik J. T. Hoving and Bruce H. Robison Vampire squid: detritivores in the oxygen minimum zone
Proc. R. Soc. B rspb20121357; published ahead of print September 26, 2012, doi:10.1098/rspb.2012.1357 1471-2954
For photographs to accompany this release, please see the online version of this news release at:
A video version of this release is available on MBARI's YouTube channel:
http://youtu.be/X8oWnbcLI40
[ | E-mail | Share ]
?
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.
ScienceDaily (Sep. 27, 2012) ? Researchers have discovered in fruit flies a key metabolic hormone thought to be the exclusive property of vertebrates. The hormone, leptin, is a nutrient sensor, regulating energy intake and output and ultimately controlling appetite. As such, it is of keen interest to researchers investigating obesity and diabetes on the molecular level. But until now, complex mammals such as mice have been the only models for investigating the mechanisms of this critical hormone. These new findings suggest that fruit flies can provide significant insights into the molecular underpinnings of fat sensing.
"Leptin is very complex," said Akhila Rajan, first author on the paper and a postdoctoral researcher in the lab of Norbert Perrimon, James Stillman Professor of Developmental Biology at Harvard Medical School. "These types of hormones acquire more and more complex function as they evolve. Here in the fly we're seeing leptin in its most likely primitive form."
These findings will be published September 28 in Cell.
In order for an organism to function normally under varying conditions, its organ systems must learn to maintain a steady state, or "homeostasis." Coordinating food intake and nutrient stores with energy requirements is a key homeostatic mechanism referred to as energy homeostasis. Leptin regulates energy homeostasis by linking the organism's fat stores with caloric intake. It is the hormone that tells the brain, "You've had enough."
Researchers have known for the better part of a decade that molecules secreted by the fruit fly's fat tissue communicate such nutrition status reports throughout the fly's entire body. However, they have not known the identity of these molecules, or the nature of the signals they transmit. Rajan hypothesized that this signaling molecule most likely resembles the leptin hormone in humans, since flies and mammals share similar nutrient-sensing pathways.
Researchers had predicted that three molecules in flies were likely to be structurally similar to leptin. When Rajan knocked out one of them, a protein called Upd2, the flies behaved, on a metabolic level, as though they were starving -- despite consuming their normal caloric content.
"Since leptin is a nutrient sensor, this makes sense," said Rajan. "If you knock out the molecule that senses nutrients, the body thinks there are no nutrients. Blocking this molecule copied the phenotype of starvation."
Further tests showed that when flies were actually starving, levels of Upd2 went down, and when they received adequate nutrition, levels went up. This provided further evidence that, like leptin, Upd2 is a nutrient sensor.
Next, the researchers found that Upd2 uses a neural circuit similar to that of leptin to traffic nutrition information between the brain and fat tissue. When Upd2 reaches the brain, it regulates insulin secretion, in effect "telling" the fly to store nutrition and expend energy on growth.
Finally, Rajan and colleagues engineered a fly that lacked Upd2 altogether and inserted the human leptin gene in its place. The fly fully incorporated this mammalian molecule, and all normal nutrient-sensing functions resumed.
"The key significance here is that we can now take full advantage of the sophisticated genetic tool kit available in fly genetics to address profoundly complex questions pertaining to leptin biology," said Perrimon. "This is good news to scientists studying obesity at the molecular level."
Interestingly, the amino acid sequence of leptin diverges from that of Upd2. However, the proteins produced by each gene share many structural similarities. "There are very few examples of this in the literature," Perrimon said.
"Now that we've identified Upd2 as a fly's nutrient sensor and have begun to work out the brain circuitry, the next step is to go deep into the mechanisms," added Rajan.
This research was funded by the National Institutes of Health, grants 5P01CA120964 and 5R01DK088718.
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The above story is reprinted from materials provided by Harvard Medical School. The original article was written by David Cameron.
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During the month of July 2012, two landmark gatherings advanced global progress in sexual and reproductive health. The Family Planning Summit was held in London on July 11. Co-hosted by the UK Government and the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, the Summit?s goal was to offer millions of vulnerable women around the world renewed hope that they will soon have the means to determine the timing and spacing of their pregnancies through access to modern family planning methods. Less than two weeks later, the AIDS 2012 Conference was held in Washington, D.C. Organized by the International AIDS Society, AIDS 2012 was a multitrack, week-long convention of 24,000 attendees, including heads of state, celebrities, philanthropists, researchers, activists and people living with HIV. Their optimistic vision is to attain an AIDS-free generation.
World Contraception Day offers an opportunity to advance both causes.
Use of effective contraception is essential to achieving family planning goals. However, enabling women to choose how many children to have and when to have them plays an important role in achieving HIV objectives as well. Whether to optimize healthy conception and delivery or to prevent unintended pregnancies, providing fertility counseling and effective contraception to women living with HIV is a powerful intervention for preventing mother-to-child transmission (PMTCT) of HIV.
According to an analysis of data from 25 countries with the largest numbers of HIV-positive pregnant women, approaching the global target of reducing new HIV infections in children by 90 percent will not be met without comprehensive programming that includes efforts to eliminate the current unmet need for family planning. Another analysis of DHS data found that 14 percent of women living with HIV in six African countries have an unmet need for family planning, even though they are in contact with the health system for their HIV care. While these data indicate that the contraceptive needs of women living with HIV are similar to those of women who do not have HIV, they also suggest that opportunities to support women living with HIV in avoiding unintended pregnancies are being missed.
Most attention and resources for PMTCT programs to date have gone toward providing antiretroviral prophylaxis to HIV-positive pregnant women. While this intervention represents a major public health achievement, enabling HIV-positive women to assert their pregnancy intentions and safely achieve them must also be elevated as a programmatic priority. A recent impact evaluation of the national PMTCT program in South Africa reported that perinatal transmission rates had dropped below 4 percent in the country ? a success to be celebrated ? but close to two-thirds of the pregnancies among HIV-positive women in the study were unplanned. Notably, the only statistically significant risk factor associated with mother-to-child transmission in the study was unplanned pregnancies.
Practical, evidence-based strategies are needed to better meet the contraceptive needs of women living with HIV. One strategy that has extensive policy support from global health and development policymakers and funders is to integrate family planning and HIV services. And, the Integration for Impact 2012 Conference held last week in Nairobi, Kenya, confirmed that family planning/HIV integration is also a growing priority for the ministries of health and implementing partners in many countries in sub-Saharan Africa. Data are emerging to indicate that a variety of HIV service settings can be effective entry points for reaching HIV-positive women and couples with family planning information and services. As this evidence grows, we must ensure that it is translated into widespread practice so that the public health promise that family planning/HIV integration holds is realized. We must also continue to refine our understanding of what drives the successful implementation of family planning/HIV integration at scale so that those practices can be replicated elsewhere.
World Contraceptive Day celebrates the contribution that the field of family planning can make to global sexual and reproductive health as well as broader development goals. By empowering women to decide when and how often to conceive, making effective contraception more accessible advances dual sexual health goals ? preventing unintended pregnancies and maternal-to-child transmission of HIV ? which, in turn, offers far-reaching health, social and economic benefits.
Icon Energy provided an update in relation to the drilling of the Halifax 1 well in ATP 855P, located in the Cooper Basin, Queensland.
The company has been advised that the Halifax 1 well has reached a drilled depth of 3,885 metres.
Since the last advice to the market on 18 September the well has drilled a further 25 metres and is drilling ahead in the Patchawarra Formation.
A 25 metre core was cut in the Patchawarra Formation on Thursday 20 September. An evaluation of the two cores cut in Halifax 1 will commence shortly and is expected to take at least two months to complete.
Wireline logging was used to gather information for mineralogy across the REM section.
The Roseneath-Epsilon-Murteree (REM) sequence, as measured from the wire logging data, came in as prognosed with a thickness of approximately 460 metres. This compares to 393 metres in Encounter 1 (PEL 218) drilled 12 kms to the south?west.
Upon reaching total depth the well will be cased and suspended, with planned hydraulic fracture stimulation in Q4 2012.
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I came out to go to a party, and I found the kids splashing like this.? I think Zack figured puddles = free babysitting while I was getting ready!? They sure had a blast.? It was so muggy my lens kept fogging up, but I got a couple of them in puddle heaven.
We had fun at Jeremi's birthday party!
Trying sushi for the first time...which everyone knows you must do cross-eyed.
"It's a little good, and a little bad."
Little pest pounds more food than her big siblings.
"You gotta problem wit dat?" Chels was in heaven with her balloon.
She was whipping it around so fast.
And chasing it all over.
I'm so funny!
Nose smash!
That wispy hair is almost too much!
And of course we loved seeing our friends!
The birthday boy.
We had a fun girls night out to celebrate Lili's birthday!
BBQ at the Barbosas' house!
Chels adores Alex.
This pic is awful, but this was so ridiculous I want to remember.? I tried taking the kids to Zack's softball game on a school night.? Bad choice.? Cami started melting down big time, screaming and crying on the ground...and then Carson fell hard at the playground and came running up literally screaming at the top of his lungs and writhing around.? I thought he broke something!? (He didn't.)? I had him twirl his wrist around and realized he was okay, but he would not stop scream-crying like a crazy person.? I high-tailed it out of there laughing at the ridiculousness...Zack felt "bad" for me - but was all too happy to stay and finish his game, haha!? I don't blame him.? Carson screamed non-stop, "I broke a vein!!? I broke a vein!!" and "Take me to the doctor!!"? When we pulled up to our house, another round of crying started, "This isn't the doctor!!!!"? Ohhhh boy.? Tired kids all right.
Zack and Anthony took the big boys to a Card's game - here they are just chatting away!
This was my view driving home from running club one morning.? Running during sunrise is something I've come to just love.? We meet MWF at 5:45am and run 5 miles, and then I stay and run some more cause I'm just a running fool! :)? I've definitely been bitten by the bug.? We're doing a 10k next month - it'll be fun if it isn't too cold!? The last few mornings have been freezing.
Cheering section at Carson's first soccer practice/game of the season.
He got to play goalie.
As we walked back to the car, Carson saw this rock, and said kinda sadly to Cami, "A fifth grade class died here, Cami."? Oh my word, I couldn't stop laughing!? Had to grab a photo with my phone.
Another phone pic - my cuties at our playground.
Carson got off the bus with this drawn-on highlighter mustache.? I laughed at his creativity.? When he saw me laughing, he said, "Everyone on the bus said, 'Your mom is going to be sooo mad!' but I told them, 'No, she's going to laugh.'"? Maybe one of my sweetest mom moments?
Carson obliged and drew one on for Cami (aka Repeat) too.
And Chels was just fabulous as usual!
Some more typical Chels faces.? The raised eyebrows.
The look away.
The slow blink.? She is so funny and does this when she's being shy.
Okay, that was a good start!? Who's ready for some more??
?Bowtech Products Ltd. (?Bowtech?), a market leader in underwater and harsh environment vision systems, has announced that they will be exhibiting for the first time at the Rio Oil and Gas 2012 exhibition, on the Subsea UK Pavilion, Annex 3/4, No 11, September 17-20th at the Riocentro Convention Centre in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. A leading oil and gas industry event in Latin America, Rio Oil & Gas Expo and Conference takes place in Rio de Janeiro every two years and began in 1982.?
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Public release date: 26-Sep-2012
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