|Publication number||US3622369 A|
|Publication date||Nov 23, 1971|
|Filing date||Feb 24, 1967|
|Priority date||Feb 24, 1967|
|Also published as||DE1696621A1, DE1696621B2, DE1696621C3|
|Publication number||US 3622369 A, US 3622369A, US-A-3622369, US3622369 A, US3622369A|
|Inventors||Basche Malcolm, Kuntz Urban E|
|Original Assignee||United Aircraft Corp|
|Export Citation||BiBTeX, EndNote, RefMan|
|Patent Citations (8), Referenced by (12), Classifications (18)|
|External Links: USPTO, USPTO Assignment, Espacenet|
United States Patent inventors Malcolm Basche West Hartford; Urban E. Kuntz, East Hartford, both 01 Conn. Appi. No. 618,512 Filed Feb. 24, 1967 Patented Nov. 23, 1971 Assignee United Aircraft Corporation East Hartford, Conn.
PROCESS FOR FORMING STOICIIIOMETRIC SILICON CARBIDE COATINGS AND FILAMENTS 1 Claim, 3 Drawing Figs.
0.8. CI 117/46 CG,
l17/69,ll7/71R,117/71M,117/106A,117/106 C,117/121,117/l28,117/135.1,117/D1G. 10,
Int. Cl B4lm 5/24 Field oISearch 117/106 C, 106 A, 69,107.1, 46 CG Primary ExaminerA1fred L. Leavitt Assistant Examiner-J. R. Batten, Jr. Attorney-Richard N. James ABSTRACT: A process whereby stoichiometric silicon carbide is chemicaily deposited on a resistively heated wire from a reactant gas mixture including methyldichlorosilane and hydrogen together with a carbonizing gas such as methane.
'ellle PATENTED Nov 2 3 m:
SHEET 2 BF 3 BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION It is known that filamentary materials may be produced by pyrolytic techniques wherein the desired material is deposited on a resistively heated wire which is drawn through a gaseous reactant mixture containing the material to be deposited.
In a copending application Ser. No. 618,5 l entitled Process for Fonning Filamentary Silicon Carbide by Malcolm Basche and Urban E. Kuntz filed on Feb. 24, 1967 and now abandoned, which shares a common assignee with the instant application, there has been described a process wherein silicon carbide is deposited on a resistively heated wire from a gaseous reactant mixture including methyldichlorosilane and hydrogen. In that copending application, there is taught a method for producing continuous filaments of silicon carbide as well as methods for forming composite filaments such as boron with a thin coating of silicon carbide.
Silicon carbide, because of its relative inertness and its strength at elevated temperatures, offers excellent potential as the reinforcement material in fiber-reinforced composites utilizing a wide variety of matrix compositions. The strength of these silicon carbide fibers is, however, dependent upon their composition. While it may be desirable in some instances, as is hereinafter discussed in greater detail, to provide a silicon carbide filament or coating which varies from the stoichiometric composition, control of this variation is essential. This is particularly true in those instances wherein the silicon carbide is utilized to form a diffusion barrier on other filaments such as boron. Silicon or silicon-rich silicon carbide does not provide the desired substrate or matrix compatibility to the same degree as does the stoichiometric composition.
Using the process described in the previously mentioned copending application, satisfactory silicon carbide filaments have been produced in continuous lengths of 9,000 feet or more. It has been found, however, that without very careful attention to the process details, the silicon carbide filaments may be formed with a silicon rich outer layer which, although it might be advantageous in some instances, is nevertheless detrimental to the compatibility characteristics of the filaments in usage with the metal matrices.
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION The present invention relates in general to a process for depositing stoichiometric silicon carbide on a resistively heated wire and, more particularly, to a process for forming silicon carbide by chemical deposition from a gaseous reactant mixture including methyldichlorosilane to which a carbonizing gas, such as methane has been added. It contemplates not only the production of filaments which are predominantly silicon carbide but also the production of composite filaments wherein the silicon carbide is provided as a thin layer over a variety of substrates, principally boron.
BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS In the detailed description which follows it will be convenient to make reference from time to time to the drawings in which: FIG. 1 is a simple sketch, taken in elevation, of a reactor used in the pyrolytic deposition of silicon carbide.
FIG. 2 is a schematic view of the gas system used to provide the gaseous feed for the reactor of Fig. 1.
FIG. 3 is a graph of the pressure-temperature relationship as related to the composition of the deposit.
DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS Referring first to Fig. l, the preferred reactor configuration for producing the silicon carbide coating on a resistively heated wire 2 which is drawn downward through the reactor 4, may be seen to comprise a tubular containment vessel 6, having dual gas inlets 8 and 10 at the upper end of the reactor and a single-exhaust port 12 at the lower end thereof. Cooling hydrogen is fed through the inlet 8, and the inlet 10 is used for introduction of the reactant gas mixture including methyldichlorosilane (CI-I SiHCl and methane, and in some instances, hydrogen. The containment vessel is formed of Pyrex, although Vycor, quartz and a number of other dielectrics are suitable. In a different configuration, various metals are also satisfactory. The gas inlets 8 and 10, and the exhaust l2 penetrate and are electrically connected to the metallic end plugs 14 and 16 which provide convenient means by which poser may be supplied to the wire for resistance heating purposes.
Although the end plugs may readily be seen to differ in overall configuration, they both incorporate a number of common features. They are each formed to provide a well 20 and 22, respectively, for containing a suitable conductive sealant 24, such as mercury, which serves the dual purpose of providing a gas seal around the wire where it penetrates the end plugs and further providing electrical contact between the moving wire and the respective end plugs which are in turn electrically connected through the tubes 10 and 12 and the leads 26 and 28 to a suitable DC power source 30. A variable resistance 32 is provided in the external circuit to permit regulation of the power supplied to the wire and, hence, temperature control thereof. The upper end plug 14 is provided with a peripheral groove 34, which communicates with the mercury well 20 through the passageway 36, to provide peripheral sealing around the plug. Sealing between the end plug 16 and the lower end of the containment vessel 6 is provided by mercury contained in an annular well 38.
The respective plugs are further each formed with a centrally oriented orifice 40 and 42 which is large enough to accommodate the free passage of the wire therethrough but which, in combination with the wire, is small enough to retain the mercury, through surface tension forces, in the respective wells.
The hydrogen admitted through the inlet 8 enters the reactant chamber immediately adjacent the wire inlet and is used primarily for cooling purposes at the end plug 14. The reactant gases enter the reactant chamber in an enlarged chimney portion 50, reverse flow therein, and enter the tubular member 6 at opening 52. In order to maintain the methyldichlorosilane at a fixed and controlled level, a condenser is utilized to yield a gas mixture with a fixed dew point. Such a system is set forth schematically in Fig. 2. It has been found that at pressures of about 4 p.s.i., a dew point of between 12 C. and 15 C. produces filaments of good quality and consistency. At a dew point of 25 C. the concentration of said silane appeared too high and resulted in filaments of reduced strength. At a dew point of 0' C., said silane concentration appeared too low. Experiments were run utilizing both hydrogen and argon as the carrier gases and, in all cases, the hydrogen carrier produced filaments having the higher strength. In subsequent experimentation, tests were run utilizing methane as the carrier gas, dispensing with the hydrogen entirely, except that, in most instances a limited amount of hydrogen was used for cooling purposes at the upper mercury seal. Results were perfectly satisfactory. In general, a methyldichlorosilane molar percentage of from 10-60 percent, based on total flow, will be preferred, regardless of the carrier gas composition. In general, it was found that the peak temperature of the wire must be maintained within the range of l,l00-I ,500 C. and preferably within the range of l,200l,400 C.
In the gas system depicted in Fig. 2, hydrogen from a suitable source is introduced through conduit 60, through pressure regulator 62, flowmeter 64, and valve 66, to the evaporator 68. Part of the hydrogen is bubbled through the liquid methyldichlorosilane 70 in the evaporator and the hydrogen-methyldichlorosilane mixture is discharged therefrom through conduit 72 to the condenser 74 which is maintained at the appropriate temperature to provide an output having a dew point of the appropriate range, this output from the condenser being introduced into the reactor 4 through inlet 10 as previously described.
A portion of the hydrogen may bypass the evaporator and be introduced through line 76 to a three-way control valve 80 for reactor purging purposes or to further regulate the composition of the reactant gas mixture. Cooling hydrogen is admitted to the reactor through inlet 8 from conduit 82 through valve 84 and fiowmeter 86.
A study was made of the pressure-temperature relationship involved in the deposition of silicon carbide. In the formation of filamentary silicon carbide and in the formation of coatings of silicon carbide on reactive filamentary material, such as boron, it is extremely important that at least a substantial portion of the deposited material is approximately stoichiometric silicon carbide rather than silicon or silicon-rich silicon carbide. For this reason, the carbonizing medium such as methane is also introduced into the reactant gas mixture. The methane addition is introduced to the system through conduit 90. valve 92 and flowmeter 94. The reactant gas mixture may, therefore, be seen to preferentially comprise methyldichlorosilane, hydrogen and methane, although as previously indicated, the hydrogen may be omitted if desired.
The curve shown in Fig. 3 shows that to produce silicon carbide without free silicon, one must work above the curve for the desired results because at any point below the curve either silicon or a mixture of silicon carbide and silicon will be produced. The majority of experiments conducted were run at one atmosphere pressure, but the data accumulated was sufficient to demonstrate the problem.
The temperature distribution in the usual reactor operated at one atmosphere pressure is such that only a limited portion of the filament on which deposition is being effected, lies above the curve. Accordingly, there is a tendency to produce a layer on the wire which is rich in silicon. In a 30 inch reactor, a graded fiber has been produced which is stoichiometric silicon carbide at the surface abutting the wire and silicon-rich silicon carbide at the outer surface of the coating. Many of the problems that researchers have associated with silicon carbide fiber, such as reactivity with the metal matrix materials and strength degradation at elevated temperatures, can be ex plained by this high silicon content. Similarly, many of the problems associated with the operation of the reactors producing these fibers can be traced to this silicon formation. The addition of a carbonaceous gas such as methane to the reactant gas mixture, according to the present teaching, permits the formation of stoichiometric silicon carbide without the undesirable high silicon contents. As an obvious corollary, in those instances where a graded coating is desired the desired properties can be achieved by the judicious control of the methane content and the temperature distribution in the reactor. It has been found that satisfactory results obtain with a methyldichlorosilane/hydrogen ratio maintained in the reactor in a range of about l/l:1/3 on a molar basis and with methane comprising 10-60 mol percent of the total gas flow.
In one experiment utilizing approximately 16 mol percent methane in the reactant gas mixture consisting of methyldichlorosilane and hydrogen, silicon carbide filaments having tensile strengths as high as 571,000 p.s.i. were produced without difficulty, and microprobe analysis verified the absence of free silicon in any significant amount.
It should be pointed out that, in some applications, a filament can be produced which is basically silicon carbide having a thin outer layer of pure silicon. The resulting fiber, after careful oxidation of the silicon, would then actually comprise a composite, silicon carbide with a silica (glass) coating. This would be particularly excellent for use with the resin matrix materials.
EXAMPLE 1 In a system of the type described utilizing a 6l-inch long reactor formed from 9 mm. Pyrex tubing, a silicon carbide coating has been produced on boron fiber at a rate of 760 feet/hour. The filamentary boron substrate was of the type produced by chemical deposition on a resistively heated wire.
At an evaporator pressure of 2 p.s.i.g., a hydrogen flow rate through the evaporator of 483 cc./min. was maintained with no bypass hydrogen flow around the evaporator. The condenser was maintained at 14.5" C. and a methyldichlorosilane flow rate of 231 cc./min. was effected. Cooling hydrogen was admitted to the reactor at a rate of 114 cc./min. and the methane addition to the reactant gas mixture was made at the rate of cc./min., resulting in a total gas composition in the reactor of 15.3 mol percent methane, 23.4 mol percent methyldichlorosilane and 61.3 mol percent hydrogen. The wire temperature was established at approximately l,l30 C. In this regard, it should be noted that the maximum temperature must be below that temperature at which crystallization of the boron occurs.
EXAMPLE II In a test somewhat similar to that described, utilizing a 30 inch long reactor formed from Pyrex tubing having a diameter of 9 mm. silicon carbide filaments have been produced on a tungsten wire at a rate of 200 feet/hour. Gas flow rates and compositions approximated those set forth in the previous example, but the wire temperature peak was maintained in the range of l,2001,400 C. Over 9,000 feet of continuous silicon carbide filament was produced having ultimate tensile strengths as high as 571,000 p.s.i.
In general, the silicon carbide filaments were produced in the range of 3-4 mils. As previously indicated, those produced in processes utilizing the methane addition had strengths on the order of 571,000 p.s.i. while those produced without the methane addition were generally limited to ultimate tensile strengths on the order of 345,000 p.s.i.
Boron fiber is generally produced with a diameter of 3-4 mils. Tests on 3.8 mil boron fiber with a 0.2 mil coating of stoichiometric silicon carbide indicated that the composite fiber had essentially the same ultimate tensile strength as the basic boron or about 460,000 p.s.i.
EXAMPLE III In a similar test utilizing a reactor formed from 25 mm. tub ing 8 inches long, a silicon carbide coating of 0.2 mil thickness was produced on 4.4 mil boron fiber. Methane was utilized as the carrier gas and introduced to the evaporator at a rate of 520 cc./min., the evaporator being held at 14 C. This resulted in a methyldichlorosilane flow rate of 193 cc./min. Cooling hydrogen was admitted at a rate of 200 c.c./min. The total composition of the gas in the reactor, on a molar basis, was 57 percent methane, 22 percent hydrogen and 21 percent methyldichlorosilane A subsequent microprobe analysis revealed no excess silicon or carbon in the deposit.
In the course of experimentation, silicon carbide was deposited on various substrate materials including in addition to tungsten and boron, graphite and tantalum. Further, wire temperatures and gas compositions were varied extensively to optimize the process conditions. Still further, the various filaments were subjected to compatibility testing in various matrix materials, including aluminum, magnesium and titanium. No degradation of the silicon carbide fibers was found after heating them in aluminum at 580 C. for 24 hours, and in titanium at 730 C. for 24 hours. The compatibility of the boron-silicon carbide composite filaments was similarly established in other tests for periods of over 500 hours.
It will readily be seen that by this invention there has been provided a process for producing silicon carbide filaments and silicon carbide coatings whereby the character and chemistry of the silicon carbide may be precisely regulated with the resultant improvement in the quality of the filament produced and in the ease by which the filament may be produced.
1. A process for continuously depositing silicon carbide on a heated wired as it is drawn through a reactor comprising the steps of:
maintaining the wire at a temperature sufficient to effect tion of a coating of essentially stoichiometric silicon cardeposition of silicon carbide on the wire, the peak temi perature of the wire being within the range of'1,200-1 the methyld ichlorosilane/hydrogen ratio in the reactor 400'Q; being maintained within the range of about 1/ 121/3 on a 5 molar basis and the methane comprising lO-6O mol perexposing the wire to a gaseous stream consisting essentially of methyldichlorosilane admixed with hydrogen; and adding methane to the gaseous stream to effect the formacent of the total gas flow.
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|U.S. Classification||427/589, 428/391, 118/718, 428/390, 427/249.15, 118/724, 427/249.3, 118/733|
|International Classification||C23C16/32, C22C47/02, C22C47/00, C22C47/04, C23C16/54, D01F9/10|
|Cooperative Classification||C22C47/04, C23C16/325|
|European Classification||C23C16/32B, C22C47/04|


Routing Protocol of Wireless Sensor Network
A wireless sensor network (WSN) consists of spatially distributed autonomous devices called sensors, and one or more base stations to cooperatively monitor physical or environmental conditions, such as temperature, sound, vibration, pressure, motion or pollutants, at different locations. The research in sensor networks received a big boost with a number of funding initiatives by US military, NSF and DARPA SENSIT . Many novel sensor based applications have emerged in recent past. We may classify the sensor applications into following classes :
· Monitoring spaces: This class refers to passive data gathering recognizing occurrence of some events or conditions. The gathered data are typically inputs to a number of target applications. These target applications includes habitat monitoring, monitoring of crops (failure, pest attack), climate control, security surveillance, intelligent alarms (fire, flash flood, volcanic eruption), etc.
· Monitoring things: This class refers to gathering data to recognize occurrence of specific states of a system. On occurrence of these states the system may execute a sequence of internal transitions to get into a desirable state. The target applications could be structural monitoring (bridge health monitoring), equipment maintenance, medical diagnostics, etc.
· Monitoring complex interactions: It involves monitoring of complex interactions of systems and things. For example, wild-life habitat monitoring, disaster management, emergency response, smart environments, surface and sea navigation, health care, manufacturing process flow, etc., would require complex interactions of systems with objects or things.
Such wide-ranging applications requiring WSNs, make them candidates for intense research. The research spans hardwares, systems, networking, and programming methodologies. Considering ubiquity of applications, one of the crucial design decisions for sensor nodes has been to settle for a small form factor. The advantage of small form factor is that these miniature devices are inexpensive. Thousands of sensor nodes can be deployed with a small cost. Therefore, the key to success of sensor based applications is to network sensors in an efficient way for gathering sensory data from their respective deployed environments.
Every sensor has three basic units, namely, sensing, radio, and battery. The major constraint being limited energy (small battery unit). Consequently, a large number of sensor nodes can be networked to gather sensory data and each sensor performs two main responsibilities, namely, (i) sensing activities, and (ii) routing the sensed data to the base station or a controller. The base station is a master node which is generally fixed and assumed to have uninterrupted power supply or accessible for maintenance (such as replacement of battery). It acts as an interface of the WSN for complex interactions with other objects. The main responsibility of base station is to collect information from various sensor nodes and process it for further dissemination/actions.
Energy dissipation at sensor node is a major concern, as in many applications sensor have to be deployed in inaccessible environments. Sensing alone is not an energy consuming activity, but networking and programming certainly are. So, the major problem lies in activities like routing, addressing and support for different class of programming services. In this thesis our focus will be on routing problems.
The topology of a WSN determined by
- a set of external parameters such as node mobility, weather interference and noise, and
- Also by a set controllable parameters like transmission power, antenna type and direction, etc.
Normally the sensor nodes are uniformly spread over the whole of physical space to get the best coverage. The nodes are mostly static unless they are either mounted on moving vehicles, robots, or tagged to live animals.
Therefore, topology control is mainly possible through adjustment of transmission power, and associated radio adjustments. Thus, careful design of routing protocols that combine well with topology control mechanisms is extremely important for working of WSNs.
The design of routing protocols for WSN are influenced by many factors including hardware constraints, network topology, and power consumption. The sensor networks are mainly of two types – event-driven and time-driven (or continuous dissemination networks). In the event driven networks the sensor nodes sense the data and transmit it only if the data is considered critical enough to be communicated. In the time driven networks sensors sense the data and transmit it to the central controller periodically. The periodicity of relaying data packets is application dependent.
The two broad categorization of routing protocols are: (i) proactive, and (ii) reactive. In a proactive protocol, the routes are discovered and maintained using periodic messaging. Each node is expected to send periodic packets to the neighboring nodes. The packets contain the routing information of the sender node. The recipient nodes configure their routing tables based on received packets or make necessary updates as required. These periodic packets known as Hello packets indicate that the sender can still take part in routing process. As topology information is exchanged on the regular basis it causes unwanted overhead. On the one hand, a route to base station will always be available on request; but on the other hand the nodes unnecessarily update routing tables on periodic basis even for the routes which may not be required at all.
The reactive protocol discovers the route once and then maintains it reactively. Every time a path is unable to deliver a message, that path is rendered invalid and new path is discovered. Though the reactive protocols are quick to respond to the nodes moving in and out of the network, the latency for discovering a path could be long and may be inadmissible for certain applications. Both proactive and reactive protocols have their pros and cons. So, a protocol can best work mid way between the two.
The coverage area of a sensor node (or the reach ability of a node) depends on its transmission range. If the transmission range of all the nodes is high enough to reach the base station, then it is considered one hop network. Such networks do not incur overhead of additional control packets for route discovery and maintenance. However, as the wireless is a shared medium, one hop networks lead to densely connected networks and suffer from severe congestion. In other words, there is a trade off in selecting a suitable transmission range for the nodes and severity of congestion. The range should be chosen optimally to eliminate congestion and to retain desired network connectivity.
A network in which all the nodes have same transmission range, as in the example depicted by Fig 1.1(b) is called a Symmetric Network. In a symmetric network as indicated by Fig 1.1(b), if node A is in the transmission range of node B, then B must also be within transmission range A.
If the transmission ranges of nodes are configured at the network start-up time and all the nodes do not have same transmission range, then the network is considered to be an Asymmetric Network. Fig 1.1(a) provides an example where a pair of asymmetric links is shown to exist between nodes A and B. Node B is in range of A, but A is not in range of B
Figure1.1: a.) Asymmetric Link b.) Symmetric Link
As stated earlier, the sensor nodes due to their small form factor have limited power. In order to prolong the life of the wireless sensor networks, the routing protocols apart from being robust and scalable, needs to be highly energy efficient. A lot of research [7, 8, 23, 30] has taken place in this direction and various routing protocols are proposed to achieve these objectives.
The work reported in this thesis aims at designing of a multihop energy efficient, reliable and fault-tolerant routing protocol. In a fully connected network, all nodes can directly access the base station. However, wireless being a broadcast medium, the congestion  in such a network is very high. Typically, each node in a multihop WSN would discover a path to the base station and route its data through this path. This causes the nodes near the base station to be used more frequently than the nodes away from the base station. The reason is the former set of nodes not only send their own sensed data, but are also responsible for forwarding the packets from the far off nodes in the network. This results in a bottleneck around the base station. If the nodes around the base station go dead, then the nodes away from base station will be unable to send the data unless they increase their transmission ranges.
Figure 1.2: Example Network
Fig 1.2 shows an example of a typical sensor network. The filled black node is the base station. The lines depict the connectivity and the filled gray nodes are the normal sensing nodes. In this example node-2 and node-3 are one hop nodes. Node-2 is responsible not only for sending its own data but also for forwarding the data from nodes-4, 5, 6, 9 and 10. Similarly, node-3 is responsible for sending its own data and as well as forwarding data of nodes-7, 8, 11 and 12. Thus the nodes situated at a distance of one hop from base station are used more often than the other nodes. It causes such nodes to dissipate energy at a substantially higher rate than the rest of the nodes in the network. Consequently, the network becomes dead very soon. The residual energy in the nodes near the base station may be sufficient to sense, but may not be sufficient communicate the sensed data to the base station. This observation led us to think how a routing protocol may avoid the formation of transmission bottleneck around the base station. The underlying idea is to ensure that the energy dissipation at each node is more or less same over the entire network. The approach we devised is to adjust transmission range of individual nodes to provide connectivity of base station without involving the nodes near the base station as and when desired. It led to dynamicity in the sensor network environment. We can view the dynamicity as insertion of new nodes and deletion of nodes (node failure) at random time.
Our second observation is that WSNs experience high packet losses. So, reliability is also important for WSN. Transmission reliability can be achieved through an acknowledgment based protocol. It helps in deciding the requirement of retransmissions if the packet loss occurs and thus increases the reliability.
An usual trend in protocol design suggests that the location parameters play crucial role for the routing purposes . The determination of position parameters requires use of embedded GPS  receivers. But with embedded GPS receivers, will make the sensor nodes substantially expensive. Additionally, also the nodes will consume more power. Therefore, our aim is also to ensure come up with routing protocols which avoids use of location based information.
1.2 Problem statement and the Challenges Involved
The investigation in this thesis is oriented towards the design a multi hop routing protocol for time driven WSN which achieves following objectives.
· Avoid the formation of the congestion bottleneck around the base station
· Handle dynamic changes in topology caused by transmission power adjustments.
· Handle node failures on existing paths by a novel route repair procedure that leverages ability to adjust node transmission range.
· Ensure reliability through use of acknowledgements and limited retransmission of lost packets.
· Improve the network lifetime by considering residual node energy during route discovery.
· Analyze and compare the new protocol with the existing ones.
The objectives listed at items 1 and 5 are achieved by better utilization of the resources and treating the network as a dynamically changing asymmetric network. The topology change in the network is mainly determined by adjustment of transmission range from time to time. The resulting change topology modifies path from every node to base station. The routing protocol is, therefore, is a mix of both proactive and reactive protocol. The tasks of route discovery and route maintenance become more challenging in an asymmetric network, as Hello messages can not be used for such purposes in asymmetric links. The latency of route discovery also has to be minimized.
Balancing distribution of load for routing (forwarding packets) among the nodes shall ensure the uniform and better resource utilization. The concept of asymmetric network shall allow the nodes to use appropriate transmission ranges, which is more suitable for its longer lifetime depending on its position in the network.
Fault tolerance in routing protocols for WSN is a novel idea. It has been possible to tolerate node failure simply by eliminating failed nodes through a route maintenance step. It involves the adjustment of transmission power at some nodes for establishing connectivity with the base station when the routes are found to be broken due to node failures. We experimented with up to 5% node failures.
The objective concerning reliability in transmission is achieved by acknowledgments for the data packets. The protocol supports at most three retransmissions of the data packets to handle packet loss.
The routing metric is chosen by optimizing both latency of routes and residual energies at the nodes. The other desirable property of a protocol which is addressed is load sharing. The load for routing data packets is distributed over the multiple alternate paths available at a node. It ensures overall better utilization of energy resources and effectively extends lifetime of the network.
Finally, we performed simulation over OMNet++  and compared our results with other notable time driven WSN routing protocols such as LEACH  and SPIN . Our results show performance enhancement over symmetric routing protocols and over both SPIN and LEACH even without data aggregation.
1.3 Organization of Thesis
The rest of the thesis is organized as follows.
Chapter 2 discusses the related work and lays the background further discussion. The important existing protocols and the improvements subsequently proposed upon them are also discussed. It also indicates how these solutions differ from the new protocol proposed in this thesis.
In Chapter 3, the new protocol is described. We focus on robustness, network lifetime, routing latency to show how the proposed algorithm has potentials to outperform other existing protocols. The protocol is discussed in details by dwelling on its features, various phases of operation and implementation aspects.
Chapter 4 throws light on the actual logic of the proposal by presenting the algorithms. An analysis of performance parameters is also presented to provide an insight into its performance. The chapter also describes simulation software and the simulation environment. The details of the radio characteristics used for the purpose of empirical evaluation.
The results duly supported by the relevant plots for performance characteristics and related analysis are presented in Chapter 5.
Chapter 6 concludes the thesis with some directions for future work.
As explained in chapter 1, the design of routing protocols for WSN is a subject of intense research as both quality and quantity of information delivered to the end-users is very important for the applications centered on WSN. It has been observed that different protocols work better in different environments/applications. The issue of the effective utilization of energy resource has also been addressed in extensively in the literature. This chapter deals with related work and the underlying concepts which form the basis of energy aware routing protocols for WNSs.
Section 2.1 explains how simple routing ideas could lead to unnecessary wastage of precious energy resources. Section 2.2 deals with some initial thinking done by researchers on the ways to avoid broadcast storm which appear to be the main reason behind excessive energy wastage in routings ideas based on flooding and gossiping. Section 2.3 describes a number of routing protocols, namely, LEACH , PEGASIS  TEEN  and APTEEN  which try to eliminate redundant data broadcast and conserve the crucial energy resource by aggregation in some way or other. Later, section 2.4 which are relevant in context to this thesis. The subject of Discussion in section 2.5 is the quality and reliability of data delivered by the sensors.
2.1 Flooding and Gossiping
The conventional mechanism for relaying data from individual sensors to base station is Flooding or Gossiping . The underlying idea of flooding is that each sensor on receiving a data packet broadcasts the same to its every neighbor. This packet is further re-broadcast until it arrives at the destination or the maximum number of hops for the packet is reached. Quite obviously, flooding raises unmanageable broadcast storms as depicted in Fig 2.1.
Figure 2.1: Broadcast storm
It may be appropriate for networks which experience quick topology changes. WSN mainly consists of static sensors nodes. So, topology remains more or less static for a considerable period of time. Of course, it is possible to control topology by adjusting transmission power of sensor motes. But such power adjustments can only be realized by program controls and hence, predictable. The other serious problems with broadcast storm are redundancies, contentions and collisions which result in wasteful consumption of node energies. Since sensor nodes have only limited energy reserves in the form of small batteries, they can ill-afford such associated problems arising out of broadcast storms. Therefore, flooding does not seem to be an appropriate approach of design of routing protocols in WSNs. The deficiencies of data reporting by flooding can be viewed under three categories , namely,
- Implosion: it refers to nodes disseminating data to all of their neighbors regardless of whether the data has already been received by these neighbors. It results in wastage of energy across several nodes, since the same piece of data arrives at every node via multiple paths.
- Overlap: it is not possible to have a precise deployment whereby sensor could cover disjoint spatial regions. So nodes often have overlapping spatial coverage. Data dissemination by flooding, therefore, results in data from overlapping regions to be routed by different alternative sensors and flooded over the network.
- Resource ignorance: flooding does not require the nodes to modify their activities on the basis of energy threshold. Consequently, a node may run out of energy too soon to perform any meaningful data sensing or reporting. For example, nodes near the base station could run out of their batteries being over used while forwarding data from distant nodes. This may result in network going dead too soon even when many distant nodes have sufficient energy to carry out their reporting and sensing activities.
Gossiping  is just a slightly enhanced version of flooding wherein the recipient node sends the data packet to a randomly selected neighbor. That neighbor in turn picks another random neighbor to forward the packet to and so on. Another usual variation of gossip protocol is that the recipient could rebroadcasts or discard the data with probabilities p and (1


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Drugs In The Pipeline For 2013 And Beyond
In 2011, when the world's best-selling drug went off patent, the era of Pfizer's Lipitor began to close. Lipitor was just one of a number of blockbuster drugs losing patent protection this year and last, to wit: Eli Lilly's antipsychotic Zyprexa, Johnson and Johnson's antibiotic Levaquin and ADHD medicine Concerta, AstraZeneca's antipsychotic Seroquel, Merck's asthma drug Singular, and Takeda's diabetes drug Actos.
The coincidence of so many top-selling meds losing patent protection within such a short time frame led to the term 'the patent cliff.' The metaphor captures some of the panic drug companies feel as they lose their exclusive grip on blockbuster medications. So what's a poor pharmaceutical company to do when faced with losses in the millions if not billions?
Of course the first option for drug companies is to somehow stave off patent expiration. There are a variety of strategies for this, leading some, with a rather cynical take, to call it 'evergreening.'
But even testing the drug on children (an automatic 6-month patient extension) won't stave off the inevitable forever.
'The pipeline' refers to a biotechnology company's research and development progress and, for pharmaceutical companies, treatments that are already in clinical trials awaiting FDA approval. What's in the pipeline helps establish a company's investment potential, so it's important that there's a lot cooking in there--and that there's good press about what's coming through, as well.
Pfizer gets a lot of coverage in the financial papers--even if some of it turns out to be misguided.
For example, Pfizer got the media coverage all drug companies desire on May 4 from Seeking Alpha, a stock market blog that provides free stock market analysis. A piece entitled "Pfizer: Alzheimer's Drugs Will Carry Stock To New Highs In 2013” had a subheading "strong pipeline."
Turns out that was too optimistic, as Pfizer's Alzheimer’s drug--along with Johnson and Johnson's--both failed to produce. But many stock analysts still hold hope that Pfizer has a new 'cash cow’ coming down the pipeline.
Daily Finance notes that Pfizer currently has 87 drugs in its pipeline. While its true that most are in the early stages, 11 are ready to be reviewed by the FDA.
That number puts it ahead of most of its rivals, with Eli Lilly, a close second, having 63 drugs in Phases 1-3, plus one currently being reviewed. Bristol-Myers Squibb has 46 drugs in development, 7 under review, Merck has 35 drugs in Phase 2 or 3 with two under review, and Johnson and Johnson has 18 drugs that are already in Phase 3 clinical trials or up for FDA approval.
But, of course, as the journal points out, "Quality trumps quantity. . . . One or two blockbusters can be better than several lower-revenue drugs."
So what does Pfizer have up its sleeve that might begin to fill the very big shoes of Lipitor?
Well, the company has diversified the therapeutic areas under research, with 26% of R&D efforts going toward oncology treatments, 20% to neuroscience and pain, 17% to cardiovascular and metabolic diseases, 14% to inflammation and immunology, 5% to vaccines, and 18% toward 'other.'
Pfizer has several medicines for diabetes alone coming up, in Phase I and Phase II trials, almost all meant to treat type 2 diabetes.
But, notes Seeking Alpha, its blockbuster potential in this area is limited by the existing treatments of Merck and Sanofi. 10% of Sanofi's total sales come from Lantus, a diabetes drug useful for both types 1 and 2, and Merck made $1.3 billion off its Januvia franchise in the first quarter of this year alone.
So hopes are pinned on Pfizer's tofacitinib, currently under FDA review, as the treatment with the potential to earn $1 billion or more in sales, easing the gaping wound left by Lipitor. Tofacitinib prompts such high hopes because it might possibly treat rheumatoid arthritis, psoriasis, and irritable bowel syndrome. Some analysts have pinned this as the cash cow Pfizer so badly needs to replace treatments lost to the patent cliff.
If it gets approved, Tofacitinib would be first treatment for rheumatoid arthritis (RA) in a new class of medicines (known as Jenus kinase, or JAK, inhibitors), and the first JAK inhibitor approved for rheumatoid arthritis.
Tofacitinib showed statistically significant improvement compared to placebo in decreasing the symptoms of RA (as measured by 20% improvement in the American College of Rheumatology scale), in improving physical function (as measured by mean change in Health Assessment Questionnaire-Disability Index), and in leading to remission (as measured by Disease Activity Score 28 ESR).
Joel Kremer, MD, chief of medicine at Albany Medical College in N.Y., after analyzing the data, commented, "Tofacitinib appears to reduce the signs and symptoms of rheumatoid arthritis very quickly. We hope that after carefully considering the benefit/risk equation, this compound will provide an additional valuable treatment option for patients who have experienced inadequate response to prior treatments."
Pfizer also believes its blood thinner Eliquis, which it is developing with Bristol-Myers Squibb (see below) could be a big money-maker.
BMS held the patent on blood-thinner Plavix, one of the top 10 best-selling drugs of all time. In fact, in 2010 Plavix earned BMS and its co-marketer Sanofi-Aventis more than $6.1 billion in U.S. sales alone.
Plavix lost patent protection in May and went from almost 35% of BMS's sales to 25% in the last quarter alone--and further declines are sure to follow.
So BMS and Pfizer are holding out hope that blood thinner Eliquis (apixaban) could be a blockbuster. One analyst believes the potential market for the drug is $2.5 billion a year.
Initial responses to the clinical trials were effusive in their praise. One heart blog wrote, "In cardiology, apixaban may be the golden mean of anticoagulation, achieving the ideal balance of reduced strokes and deaths without causing any additional bleeding complications."
The Phase III clinical trials were large in scope, comparing Coumadin (warfarin), the most widely used blood-thinner today, with Eliquis. Hopes were that the treatment would not be too inferior to Coumadin--but researchers were overjoyed when the drug was not just not inferior, but actually superior in efficacy.
The drug trials found that Eliquis yielded a significant reduction in mortality, and reduced the risk of bleeding.
SeekingAlpha claims that by 2015 the drug could be worth nearly $3.5 billion, which would, indeed, make it the blockbuster BMS needs.
Eli Lilly has been hit hard by that patent cliff. Antipsychotic Zyprexa (olanzapine), which once earned $5 billion a year, came off patent in 2011, and its revenue plummeted. Its next largest drug is antidepressant Cymbalta, due to lose patent protection at the end of 2013. Humalog, its 4th largest drug, is also due to come off patent in late 2013.
Clearly, Lilly needs a strong future. Of Eli Lilly’s 63 drugs in the pipeline, 27 are in Phase I, 23 in Phase II, 12 in Phase III, and one, Liprotamase, for cystic fibrosis, is under regulatory review.
Biologically engineered Liprotamase is really a pancreatic enzyme replacement drug, which will also help those with pancreatitis and those who've had a pancreatectomy. It was acquired when Lilly purchased Alnara Pharmaceuticals Inc for $380 million, and was one of the main drugs in Alnara's pipeline at the time.
The FDA rejected approval of the drug initially, claiming its risks outweighed its benefits, and that it didn't increase fat absorption as much as similar treatments. The FDA requested an additional clinical trial.
But Lilly was undeterred, believing it has a strong chance at making a go with Liprotamase.
Eiry Roberts, a Lilly vice president, said in the statement, “Lilly is looking forward to further discussion with the FDA to address the items outlined in the letter and provide the requested information as quickly as possible."
The drug is meant to complete with Abbott Laboratories' Creon, Johnson & Johnson's Pancreaze, and Eurand NV’s (based in Amsterdam) Zenpep.
Two particularly hopeful treatments in terms of revenue potential farther down the pipeline are dulaglatuide, a once-weekly treatment for diabetes in Phase clinical 3 trials and Ixekizumab a treatment for psoriasis, which is in Phase II trials.
Dulaglatuide works by stimulating cells to release insulin only when blood sugar levels are high.
Gwen Krivi, Ph.D., vice president, product development, Lilly Diabetes, said of the drug, “We believe dulaglutide, if approved, can bring significant benefits to people with type 2 diabetes.”
In fact, it might help to control both diabetics' blood sugar and their high blood pressure.
Eli Lilly CEO John Lechleiter believes the drug has the potential to be a blockbuster. Lilly could be ready to seek approval by 2013.
Dulaglatuide isn't the only diabetes drug in Lilly's pipeline. The as-yet-unnamed insulin-like treatment, LY2963016, if approved, could be competition for Sanofi's diabetes treatment Lantus. EvaluatePharma writes of the drug, "The long-acting anti-diabetic is the [company's]. . . most valuable R&D product, and given its biological similarity to Sanofi’s Lantus success will be expected."
There's a way to go, though. The molecule is now being tested both in type 1 and type 2 diabetics. The studies include 600 type 2 subjects and 400 type 1 patients, comparing the treatment with Lantus. Lilly is hoping for results--and good ones--by year's end or by 2013.
Aside from diabetes care, Eli Lilly has another drug for which it has high hopes. Ixekizumab, an injection, treats psoriasis, a skin disease with itchy, red, scaly patches. The disease is one of the most common skin conditions in the world, affecting approximately 7.5 million people in the U.S. alone.
In a study of 142 patients, significantly more patients achieved improvement in their psoriasis than with placebo. 40% had their psoriasis plaques completely clear up. Notably, researchers found no serious adverse effects with the drug.
In Phase III studies, ixekizumab is also currently being evaluated for other indications, like psoriatic arthritis, rheumatoid arthritis and ankylosing spondylitis, a type of arthritis of the spine.
According to Seeking Alpha, Merck has "fantastic pipeline of new drugs, which should soon add demonstrably to its sales."
Merck is currently filing New Drug Applications or providing more data to the FDA for at least 4 treatments the company believes it can get approved before the end of 2013. They include Atozet, an investigational medicine for high cholesterol, Bridion, an anesthesia-related drug already approved in the European Union, Vintafolide, a form of targeted chemotherapy, and Suvrexant.
Suvrexant, for insomnia, together with the heart drugs Tredaptive, Vorapaxar, and anacetrapib [see “Merck is 'all heart' over the next few years"] due out in the next few years holds great promise for Merck. The sleeping drug has a potential $2 billion market (18 million U.S. patients.
In 2013 Merck is expected to submit AIT Ragweed (allergy), AIT grass (allergy), both Tredaptive and Vorapaxar, and Odanacatib, to treat osteoporosis, which affects approximately 200 million women.
FierceBiotech writes that "Suvorexant, which gained little attention while in clinical development, joins osteoporosis drug odanacatib, the anesthesia-reversing Bridion, an anti-hardening of the arteries drug dubbed Tredaptive and a vaccine called V503 as among the pharma giant's brightest hopes."
Abbott stands to be hit hard due to the patent cliff, as it loses patent on its Humira and Keletra treatments in the next couple of years.
Humira treats rheumatoid arthritis and is the world’s best-selling drug in the autoimmune market with an estimated market share of over 30%, with revenues expected to top $10 billion by 2013. Keletra, whose patent will expire in 2016, is an antiviral used to treat HIV, and holds an 8% market share in the $18 billion HIV antiviral market.
By 2016 both drugs will be off patent--and Abbott will need some highly promising treatments to maintain its stature and economic clout.
Currently Abbott has over 20 compounds in Phase II or Phase II clinical trials. Perhaps its most promising is a hepatitis C regimen, which can be taken orally, as opposed to the current injectable treatments.
Viral hepatitis is one of the main causes of chronic liver disease in the U.S. There are approximately 19,000 new infections each year in the US. More than 3 million people are chronically infected with hepatitis C virus in the US and around 170 million people worldwide. According to Abbott, over 350,000 people die from hepatitis C-related liver diseases each year.
Abbott's experimental drug regimen suppressed the hepatitis C virus in the majority of patients in their latest clinical trial. So Abbott is focusing its planning on a combination of three drugs (ABT-450, ABT-267, ABT-333) that are now moving into larger, late-stage clinical trials.
In fact, the trial was so successful that the treatment knocked out the virus in 99% of patients with the liver disease. Assuming newer trial results are strong, and they receive FDA approval, they'd like to start selling the drug therapy in 2015.
With the market for new hepatitis C treatments possibly reaching the $20 billion mark by 2020, a number of companies are in a race to find the best one.
With 11 treatments in Phase I trials, 8 in Phase II, and 13 in Phase III, Bayer has a strong pipeline.
By far the most interest currently, given that the latest reports came out October 21st, is rociguant (BAY 63-2521), which has had good news from its ongoing Phase III clinical trials of the treatment for pulmonary arterial hypertension, also known as PAH. PAH is a progressive condition that overburdens the heart.
Trials indicate subjects had improved heart function and could better tolerate physical exercise. Patients on riociguat improved their walking distance by 36 meters on average, while those on placebo showed no improvement.
Professor Hossein Ardeschir Ghofrani of University Hospital Giessen, the principal investigator, was quite pleased with the results and explained the value of the measurement. "The six-minute walk distance test is a well-validated clinical measure in patients with PAH, and therefore, the results of the PATENT-1 trial are encouraging. . .These data from the PATENT study suggest that riociguat may be a potential treatment option both for patients who have never been treated for PAH as well as for those who have received prior treatment."
Although Bayer put forth no sales estimate for the treatment, analysts predicted 2017 sales from riociguat of $480 million.
3 Schizophrenia Compounds From Smaller Companies
Three smaller companies are both putting their hopes on new drugs to treat schizophrenia, an illness that affects 1% of the general population. Given that there are over 2.1 million cases in the U.S., a new, effective drug has blockbuster potential.
A small Israeli company, BioLineRx, is sitting on something exciting in its pipeline--so much so that shares in the company jumped 11% in early October after results from a new clinical trial were released.
It's a new drug for the treatment of schizophrenia. It has demonstrated efficacy, without the extrapyramidal symptoms (EPS), which include akathisia, parkinsonism, and abnormal muscle tone and spasms, common with first-generation antipsychotics like Haldol and Thorazine, and also without the metabolic side effects from the second-generation antipsychotics, like Zyprexa and Seroquel. Additionally it may improve cognition, a tremendous boon in schizophrenia treatment.
BloombergBusinessweek reported that compound BL-1021 was even more effective than the well-established Risperdal (risperidone), and patients had significant cognitive improvement while taking it. BioLineRx writes, "Trial results indicate that patients treated with the 20-30mg dose of BL-1020 exhibited a clinically relevant and statistically significant improvement of 9.27 points [on a cognitive test] as compared to the placebo group (6.01 points) and the risperidone group (6.2 points)."
On September 24, the U.S. Patent and Trademark office gave a patent to BL-1020, which will last through 2031.
Additional data from clinical trials is expected next year.
Omeros Corp filed an Investigational New Drug Application for its schizophrenia drug OMS824, which means they had successfully completed all the preclinical trials. Seeking Alpha claims this drug also has the potential to be a blockbuster.
PDE10 is an enzyme found in the brain in patients with diseases that affect cognition, including schizophrenia and Huntington's disease. Cognitive dysfunction is a major contributing factor to disability in these illnesses. OMS824, according to YAHOO! Finance, "inhibits PDE10 and is being developed for the treatment of cognitive disorders, including schizophrenia where OMS824 could also have a beneficial effect on the positive and negative symptoms of the disease."
In early October the FDA cleared the application, allowing Omeros to begin Phase I clinical trials, which study healthy subjects, evaluating the drug for safety and tolerability. Omeros is hoping to have initial data before the end of the year.
Alexza Pharmaceuticals Ink focuses on acute treatments for central nervous system conditions.
Its major innovation is the Staccato system technology, which vaporizes a drug into an aerosol that can then be inhaled for rapid system delivery, significantly increasing therapeutic onset.
The products are rapidly absorbed into the patient's circulatory system within three-to-five minutes of respiration. While it's true that intravenous drugs are faster, this treatment is non-invasive.
Alexza has been working for years on its treatment for the acute agitation of schizophrenia or bipolar disorder I called ADUSAVE (Staccato loxapine).
The drug successfully completed two Phase 3 trials: a 344-patient trial for schizophrenia and a 314-patient trial for bipolar disorder. Results from both were more than satisfactory.
The FDA has sent the treatment back twice over safety concerns, but Alexza is convinced that the third time is a charm, and hopes for approval by December of this year. They aim big, too.
Alexza's CEO and president, Thomas King, is unguardedly optimistic about the treatment's earning potential. He says, "In the US, Adasuve will be approved for use in a hospital setting to treat agitation in adult patients with schizophrenia and bipolar I disorder. . . .We believe that the Adasuve market potential in this hospital setting is more than $200mm per year."
Of course all of these companies hold out high hopes for the drugs in their pipeline--they have dedicated years and millions of dollars to getting them there. But it is only the rare lucky few drugs that make it out of the pipeline, into the market, and create revenues that fully satisfy pharmaceutical companies still smarting from losing patent on their biggest sellers.

domain: medical


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Daphne Oz is one proud mama!
The Chew host took to Instagram on Sunday, May 8 to share a precious new photo of herself snuggling her two-year-old daughter, Philomena — and the pic is almost too cute for words!
"#Motherhood… this is never going to get old," the 30-year-old captioned the sweet black and white snapshot of herself admiring her little girl.
The TV star and her husband, John Jovanovic, welcomed Philo, their first child, in February 2014. The couple — who married in 2010 — are also parents to a baby son, Jovan, who was born in October 2015.
Click through the gallery below to see more of Hollywood’s cutest kids!

domain: celebrity


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domain: entertainment


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Rapper Black Rob, best known for his song “Whoa!” and his affiliation with P. Diddy’s Bad Boy Records, died Saturday, according to several reports. He was 51.
The death of the singer, born Robert Ross in New York City in 1969, was confirmed by several of his friends and former collaborators, including rapper Mark Curry and singer/producer Mario Winans, New Musical Express reported.
TMZ also reported the rapper’s death.
“Oh man, I’ve been dealing with this for five years. Four strokes … I don’t know what to tell you, man,” Rob said in the video. “I don’t got no house to live in — except maybe an apartment. Me and my man be trying to get together. I’m telling you man, this (expletive) is strange. It’s hard, you know what I’m saying?”
Born July 12, 1969, Rob began his career using the nickname Bacardi Rob, New Musical Express reported. He belonged to the rap group the Schizophrenics before joining Diddy’s Bad Boy Records in the mid-1990s.
In 2000, Rob released his debut album, “Life Story,” which included the hip-hop anthem, “Whoa!” The album also included “I Love You Baby” and “Spanish Fly,” a collaboration with Jennifer Lopez.
The album was certified platinum by the RIAA, according to New Musical Express.
He released his second album, “The Black Rob Report,” in 2005, the magazine reported. That was followed by the albums “Game Tested, Streets Approved” in 2011 and “Genuine Article” in 2015.


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domain: artistic


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Small Crane Tips Over & Strikes Tree At UMBC Apartment BuildingUMBC police say a small crane tipped over at the West Hill Apartment building on campus. But no one was injured.
Vermont Pulls Away From UMBC 85-72 Candon Rusin scored 18 points and three others hit double figures to help Vermont beat Maryland-Baltimore County 85-72 Sunday and advance to its third America East Conference championship game in four years.
UMBC Beats Binghamton 59-49, Locks Up 6th SeedRyan Cook scored 24 points to help Maryland-Baltimore County defeat Binghamton 59-49 Sunday and lock up the No. 6 seed in the America East Conference tournament.
Maine Beats UMBC 81-66 For 4th Straight WinJustin Edwards and Alasdair Fraser scored 17 points apiece and all five Maine starters hit double figures to lead the Black Bears past Maryland-Baltimore County 81-66 Saturday in an American East Conference showdown.
Man, 25, Shot In Leg In LochearnPolice say a 25-year-old man was shot in the leg in the Lochearn area of Baltimore County.
UMBC Holds Off Towson 66-62 On Cook's Free ThrowsRyan Cook led all scorers with 22 points and his late free throws enabled Maryland-Baltimore County to hold off Towson 66-62 Saturday night in a nonconference game.
Binghamton Survives UMBC 73-67 In OTBen Dickinson scored 21 points and pulled down a team-high nine rebounds as Binghamton beat Maryland-Baltimore County 73-67 in the first round of the American East tournament on Thursday night.
Boston U Beats Maryland-Baltimore County 73-52Senior Darryl Partin tallied a team-high 17 points, while freshman Zach Chionuma recorded a season-high 12 points with a trio of 3-pointers, to lead Boston University over Maryland-Baltimore County 73-52 Wednesday night.
Baltimore County Council Approves Transgender Rights BillThe Baltimore County Council approves a controversial measure protecting transgender people from discrimination. The bill was brought on by a high-profile attack on a transgender woman at McDonald's.
Hartford Hangs On To Edge UMBC 76-70Nate Sikma scored 20 points as Hartford hung on to beat Maryland-Baltimore County 76-70 Tuesday night.
Albany (N.Y.) Beats Maryland-Baltimore County 87-76Gerardo Suero scored a career-high 32 points, 21 in the first half, as Albany (N.Y.) downed Maryland-Baltimore County 87-76 Wednesday night in America East Conference action.
Thompson Paces Morgan State Past UMBC 73-60Kevin Thompson scored 17 points and grabbed 12 rebounds to lead Morgan State over Maryland-Baltimore County 73-60 on Wednesday night, ending an eight-game losing streak dating back to last season.

domain: news


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Prep roundup: Gaddis sets new school mark in long jump
AURORA — The previous school record in the girls long jump at Glenwood Springs High School isn’t so long anymore thanks to Delaney Gaddis.
The Glenwood senior broke a 34-year-old school record to win the long jump on Saturday, one of the many highlights for the Demons at the Grandview Invitational.
“A day like this really pleases me,” Glenwood coach Blake Risner said of this team’s all-around performance. “But with the kind of training we do and the kind of kids that we have, things like this don’t so much surprise me anymore.”
Gaddis had the biggest accomplishment of those Glenwood athletes. Her first-place jump of 17 feet, 6 inches, broke the school record of 17-5 previously set by Mary Ann Young in 1980. It ranks third among marks in 4A this year, with the best coming from Ashlyn Nolan of Discovery Canyon (18-2).
Also setting a new standard was Glenwood’s Kaden Weller, who won the 300-meter hurdles with a personal-best time of 39.01. That time not only won the event, but also serves as the state’s best in 4A so far.
Glenwood also got stellar performances from its relay teams. The Demons’ boys 4×400 relay of Garrett Goodstein, Evrett Marr, Zane Lundin and Weller was second in 3:25.89, which beat their previous-best time by close to 2 1/2 seconds and is the third-best time in 4A this season, according to http://www.co.milesplit.com. The same team of runners took fifth place in the 4×200 in 1:31.72.
The Glenwood girls 4×200 relay team posted fifth-place time of 1:49.06, setting a new season-best mark by more than 3 seconds. Carly Setterberg managed a seventh-place finish in the 100 hurdles in 17.28. Gaddis was also eighth in the 300 hurdles in 49.18.
Olathe sweeps twin bill from Coal Ridge
PEACH VALLEY — Olathe High School’s baseball team took advantage of its scoring opportunities against the Titans, winning the first game 15-3 before cruising in the second game, 14-3.
Zack Zordel led the way offensively for Coal Ridge in the opener, hitting a pair of doubles with two RBIs. The Titans (3-9 overall, 3-7 3A WSL) were limited to five hits in the second game by Olathe (8-5, 7-4).
“That’s probably the best team that we’ve played all season long,” Coal Ridge coach Dan Larsen said.
The Titans continue league play Tuesday at Roaring Fork.
Young Roaring Fork squad no match for Gunnison
CARBONDALE — Gunnison (12-1, 11-0) retained its spot as the team to beat in the 3A WSL on Saturday, beating Roaring Fork 15-2 and 14-4.
Tanner Nieslanik finished 2-for-2 with a double, and Alex Fisher hit a triple for the Rams in the opener. Fisher lead the way offensively in the second game, going 3-for-3 with a pair of doubles. The Rams (3-10, 3-7 3A WSL), however, started four freshmen thanks to some eligibility problems with four players on Roaring Fork’s roster.
“We did great with what we had today,” Roaring Fork coach Marty Madsen said. “The light bulb came on for a lot of kids on the field, and that was really good to see.
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Longtime Roaring Fork Valley golf club professional Doug Rohrbaugh is set to play in this weekend’s Senior PGA Championship at Harbor Shores Golf Club in Benton Harbor, Michigan.


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Sucker Punch’s Ghost of Tsushima is a hauntingly beautiful RPG, but its score stands as a separate entity and accolade altogether. The game’s official vinyl release is another work of art to admire, which should exist in every fan’s collection.
Distributed by Milan Records, the Ghost of Tsushima vinyl – featuring the score composed by Ilan Eshkeri and Shigeru Umebayashi – is the perfect format to contain this instrumental beauty. The composers’ work may have gone unnoticed at The Game Awards last year – giving way to Nobuo Uematsu, Masashi Hamauzu, and Mitsuto Suzuki for Final Fantasy 7 Remake (it’s a tough gig to rival Uematsu’s genius) – but the music continues to touch the hearts of the invested.
The vinyl’s artwork – created by manga artist Takashi Okazaki – speaks volumes from the front cover, featuring a black-and-white sketch of Jin Sakai’s battle-worn expression surrounded by scenes of Mongol combat terror. The back cover is licked with white flames and the three inside covers depict more action scenes in the style of manga. The vinyl art alone warrants the creation of a full manga adaptation of the stunning game, thanks to Okazaki’s incredible detail. The tracklisting is accompanied by red, white, and black stripes dotted with the Sakai symbol. The center of the discs continue the protagonist’s family motif in discrete harmony.
The vinyl release features over 100 minutes of powerful, bittersweet melodies intertwined with notes of traditional Japanese music. The samurai’s musical journey is pressed onto a trio of discs stored in a triple gatefold jacket – built to produce an outstanding piece to add to your inventory. The artist’s inclusion of a few, falling red leaves offers another eye-catching layer to the front cover – proving its worth as the centerpiece to your collection.
Eshkeri and Umebayashi’s masterpiece was influenced by their backgrounds in film composing – including 47 Ronin and House of Flying Daggers. We previously reported on the composers’ goal to showcase certain character traits of Jin Sakai, which were weaved into the carefully crafted score. We also touched on the recording process involving Buddhist monks and Abbey Road.
Next: Sucker Punch’s Newest Job Listing Seems To Confirm Ghost Of Tsushima 2 Really Is In The Works
- Game News
- Ghost of Tsushima
Jo recently got served a nostalgia trip playing Sony’s Spider-Man, as it brought back the exhilarating feeling of web-slinging from the PS2 days. While the giddiness of gaming still remains, Jo has put the adult brain to good use by spending the last few years dissecting the games industry and marveling at its insides.
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domain: hobby


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John Darkow has been a professional cartoonist for over 20 years, spending the last 10 as the staff cartoonist at the Columbia Daily Tribune. He is syndicated internationally by Cagle Cartoons.
Americans who thought that the Constitution is the nation’s highest law got a rude awakening last week. As it turns out, an even loftier lawmaking level governs the land: President Barack Obama’s personal opinion. Laws Obama doesn’t like, like those that enforce immigration, he ignores. In a demonstration of naked disregard, on Friday Obama announced that his administration would stop [Read More]


[Updated (8/29/2016, 6:27 p.m.) with comment from the company.]
ITT Technical Institute is not enrolling new students, the for-profit educator announced on Monday.
The halt in enrollment comes days after the Education Department barred its parent company, ITT Educational Services Inc., from enrolling students with federal financial aid, and increased the amount of cash it must send the department.
In response to a request for comment, a spokeswoman for the company said only that “we have voluntarily suspended new student enrollment as we assess our options.”
The department’s action last week reflected a continued crackdown on for-profit colleges. Another company, Corinthian Colleges Inc., folded last year after increased federal scrutiny.
Correction (8/31/2016, 3:10 p.m.): This post originally misstated the name of ITT Technical Institute’s parent company. It is ITT Educational Services Inc., not ITT Education Services Inc. The post has been updated to reflect this correction.Return to Top


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Matthew H's Ocean City, MD, USA
Bayside Skillet Crepe & Omelet
77th Street & the Bay
We loved the outside it was very inviting even the tire stops were hand painted. After being seated ...
Dumser's Dairyland - 124th Street
12305 Coastal Hwy
We stopped in many times for breakfast and lunch on two different trips to Ocean City. One in summer...
Ocean City Beach
I would recommend Ocean City Maryland for familys and couples alike. I enjoy going off season as wel...

domain: travel


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BRUSSELS – The European Commission will recommend that the European Union opens accession negotiations with Albania and Macedonia, according to a draft document seen by RFE/RL.
The document is part of the annual EU enlargement package that is set to be published on April 17 in Strasbourg and which outlines how far the non-EU countries of the Western Balkans and Turkey have come on their road to European Union membership.
The European Commission has recommended commencing negotiations with Macedonia every year since 2009, but EU member states in the council -- most notably, Greece -- have always blocked talks due to the name issue, which has soured relations between Athens and Skopje ever since Macedonia became independent in 1991.
Athens has objected to its northern neighbor using the name Macedonia, contending that implies territorial claims on its own northern province of the same name.
Negotiations between the two countries have gathered pace this year, fostering hopes of finding a compromise that will unblock Skopje's path to eventual EU and NATO membership.
Skopje has also survived bitter political infighting that culminated in April 2017 when several hundred protesters stormed parliament and beat up several lawmakers, including the current prime minister, Zoran Zaev.
With tensions subsiding since then, the commission's paper notes that Macedonia "has largely overcome its deep political crisis" and states that "the political will to move forward is once again clearly present," adding that "a positive change in the political mind-set has been seen across society, the lack of which had been a major impediment to reforms in recent years."
At the same time, it adds that "the necessary structural reforms are a lengthy process which will take years and the damage of recent years cannot be undone overnight."
The document also confirms that the commission, for the first time, recommends opening EU accession negotiations with Albania, which became an official EU candidate country in 2014.
The document states that "reform of the public administration [has been] consolidated, with a view to enhancing its professionalism and depoliticization."
It also adds that "further actions were taken to reinforce the independence, efficiency, and accountability of judicial institutions, particularly through advancing in the implementation of a comprehensive justice reform."
The European Commission does, however, warn that "continued, concrete, and tangible results in the reevaluation of judges and prosecutors will be decisive for Albania's further progress."
Montenegro, which is considered the front-runner of the six Western Balkan countries, started negotiations back in 2012 and has opened 30 out of the 33 chapters, or policy areas, in which aspirant countries must align their legislation with that of the EU. Podgorica has also finished talks on three of the 30 chapters opened.
The paper is, however, not entirely rosy, stating that "further work is required to consolidate trust in the electoral framework" and notes regarding the fraught relationship between the government and the opposition that "returning the political debate to the parliament is the responsibility of all parties."
There is also criticism of the judiciary, with the paper stating that "the entire rule-of-law system now needs to deliver more results" and that "no progress has been made in the area of freedom of expression."
For Serbia, which so far has opened 12 chapters, the document also voices worries over a number of policy areas with the commission, saying that "while progress has been made on the rule of law, Serbia now needs to strengthen its efforts and deliver more results, in particular in terms of creating an enabling environment for freedom of expression, in strengthening the independence and overall efficiency of the judicial system, and in making sustainable progress in the fight against corruption and organized crime."
The paper, however, makes clear that apart from rule-of-law reforms, the one issue that will determine Belgrade's pace in its EU integration is the normalization process with Kosovo that has been taking place under EU auspices since 2011.
The same is true for Kosovo, but Pristina's EU path is complicated by the five EU countries Cyprus, Greece, Romania, Slovakia, and Spain that still do not recognize Kosovo's 2008 independence. The document states that Kosovo's new government and assembly "should bring forward EU-related reforms as a matter of priority and build consensus on key strategic issues."
As with Kosovo, Bosnia-Herzegovina is only a potential EU candidate country at this stage. But Sarajevo submited an official EU membership application in 2016.
The European Commission noted that the country "delivered at a slow pace throughout 2017" when it comes to EU-related reforms and states that "economic developments remain slow, suffering from a weak rule of law, a still poor business environment, an inefficient and fragmented public administration, and major labor market imbalances."


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There has been a number of different benefits that you can get with a CBD tincture. The main component which makes it very effective is the CBD which is basically the reason for regulating a number of different functions for the body. In this article, we will be discussing more about the different benefits that you can get with CBD tincture.
The first benefits that you can get with CBD tincture is that is slow down the growth of bacteria. It is when you have a significant number of bad bacteria on your body that you will be able to experience intestinal problems, heart and gum disease.
Anther benefit that you can get with CBD is that it helps you feel energetic, clear-headed, positive and relaxed. You will be able to feel these things without the usual high that you will get with marijuana because CBD counter the psychoactive effects of THC.
Another thing with CBD is that it is also is great in reducing inflammation. The moment that you will have less inflammation in your body then you will be able to prevent certain diseases as well.
Another great thing about CBD is that it will help in the promotion of bone growth. People with a musculoskeletal deficiency will really benefit from CBD as it helps on the natural growth of the bones. People who are experiencing degeneration of bones, scoliosis and other bone abnormalities will be able to benefit from CBD hemp oil.
Another thing that CBD also provides us that it reduces the function of the immune system. This may sound weird at first but yes, it can reduce the function of the immune system. That is why people that suffer from a variety of autoimmune diseases will benefit from CBD as it helps in calming down your immune system in order to achieve a continuing health. The moment that your immune system overreacts, there are certain things that you might feel like numb fingers, migraines, and different body pains. It is this function of the CBD that is a big help for people that are experiencing such diseases.
The moment that you will use CBD, it will help you reduce the anxiety that you are feeling. For people that are experiencing chronic pain, they sometimes undergo anxiety attacks and CBD is a great way to address that problem. The moment that you will use CBD, you will feel more relax and will be able to handle the different stress that life will be throwing at you. Buy CBD oil now!

domain: biology


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Dawkins was in town Tuesday and spoke at the team's new state-of-the-art training facility in Camden, N.J. The nine-time Pro Bowl selection and four-time All-Pro pick played 13 seasons for the Eagles from 1996 through 2008.
"I don't want to encourage you, I don't want just inspire you, come here and be hyped for a practice or two, or the first couple of games," Dawkins told the team, according to NBA.com.
"I'm talking about when the season is in the grind ... will you remember this conversation, and will you have these conversations amongst yourselves during that time, of remembering where you came from. Because having goals and aspirations are wonderful, but if I'm not willing to consistently put in the work, have the conversations, hold one another accountable, it will not work. It'll be just another dream."
"He's a man's man," 76ers coach Brett Brown said of Dawkins on Tuesday. "The attitude, the toughness, the teammateship, the healthy lifestyle, the commitment to his organization, where do you stop?"
The former safety did several exercises with the team, including one where he told the players to look at each other and repeat after him.
"Look to your teammate to your left and your right," Dawkins said, according to NBC Sports Philly. "Tell your teammates 'I got you.' Everything in practice, 'I got you.' All season 'I got you.'"
THE Brian Dawkins at the Complex today talking to the team before practice. pic.twitter.com/42n0cOaEtm— Philadelphia 76ers (@sixers) October 3, 2017
Dawkins, 43, is the Eagles' executive director of football operations for player development.
"I want to make sure that I give these people something to cheer for," Dawkins said in a video from NBC Sports Philly. "I never stepped on that field expecting them to cheer for me. Let me repeat that. I never stepped on that field expecting them to cheer for me. It was my job to give them something to cheer about"


Angela Caldwell, one of several who applied for the position of Board of Education member to fill a vacant seat, was voted in by the board last night, as reported on our news alerts last night.
Caldwell, an approximately 50-year-old Lakewood resident, an employee at S.T.E.P.S., is a graduate of the Lakewood school system, and a graduate of Georgian Court University, a Board official said.
Additionally, “being an African American, she will add diversity to the board,” the Board said last night following the announcement of their decision.
Caldwell will be filling the seat of Yoni Silver, who announced his resignation earlier this year.
There were only five board members present last night, and Caldwell won the seat by a vote of 4-1.