text:
The Memorial Day weekend this year offered three beautiful days of birding at the Portage. I had no desire to go anywhere else; rather, I was interested to see what different birds I might discover each day, enhanced by the fact that a lot of birds were finally on the move to their summer homes. Here are photographs from Saturday, May 23rd.
While I think this was the last day I saw the male Scarlet Tanagers, there were plenty of Indigo Buntings. I am not aware of Scarlet Tanagers breeding at the Portage, but the Indigo Buntings certainly are a presence now every year. I suspect some of them that return may have hatched at the Portage.
I don’t know where the Green Herons are hanging out – likely on the Des Plaines River or perhaps across the railroad tracks in the low-lying water-collecting areas of Ottawa Trail – but I still see them fly over nearly every visit. I was fortunate enough to capture this one in flight.
This Scarlet Tanager looks orange compared to the other one. I imagine it is a function of the intensity and angle of the light.
Not too many warblers left…
Goldfinches are everywhere but not as easy to see.
There were plenty of Baltimore Orioles and they looked like they were busy tending to their nesting sites.
I finally managed to capture a singing Song Sparrow.
The turtles never miss a sunny day.
I love this Common Grackle posing, capturing the epitome of grackleness.
I fear for Black-capped Chickadees. Lately I have seen only one at a time.
One of many House Wrens.
A slow-motion Blue-gray Gnatcatcher.
Gray Catbirds are more often heard than seen but I was fortunate enough to enjoy both with this one.
A questioning look from the Great-crested Flycatcher below.
Perhaps this European Starling had just taken a bath in the last photo.
I have seen more Eastern Wood-Pewee’s this year. There’s even one in my neighborhood.
Subsequent visits gave me much better views than the Red-Eyed Vireo below.
Then, most exciting of all, as I was sitting down and contemplating leaving, I heard and then saw the Red-Headed Woodpecker below. I have been waiting to see this species for an entire year. I wonder if this is the same one that I have seen on rare occasions only.
I have no idea what kind of caterpillar this is but it was my last subject as I left for the day.
i will be back with Days 2 and 3 which were also quite birdy. My next visit to the Portage will likely be more challenging but I will continue visiting to keep track of the emerging families. I hope we humans find some peaceful solutions. The days are getting so very long now.
I never intend to go birding in the afternoon, but on Friday I jumped at the chance when we were encouraged to take the afternoon off. It was cloudy, and you can never count on what birds will be up to after lunch. Sometimes I like the cloudiness, though, because it reminds me of birding in South America.
Maybe cloudy was okay for capturing this Cape May Warbler.
Then there was a very active, backlit Warbling Vireo. This is likely the only Warbling Vireo I will photograph this year. There’s always one. But they are all very busy singing now and protecting their territories.
Sometimes I hardly ever see goldfinches, and at other times they seem to be everywhere. All I know is they’re not in my yard too much anymore so I suspect many of them are at the Portage or other nearby forest preserves.
With all the rain and now warmer temperatures, the green-up is happening rapidly.
I often hear Killdeer but don’t always see them. I managed to capture this one flying across the compost piles on the MWRD property.
Starlings have been entertaining. I have seen one doing happy dances a couple times, although unfortunately it was hard to get him in focus on this trip. But I did capture him flying.
And now how about paying some attention to the ladies? It seemed to be a good day to capture pictures of the girls. Maybe they thought they were less noticeable on a cloudy day.
I found the female Indigo Bunting below quite fascinating, in that she was preening or otherwise trying to get a grip on her feathers and the photos reveal her black and bluish feathers underneath. Who knew? (Forgive me for thinking “only her hairdresser knows for sure.”)
As a comparison to the above, here’s the male in all his glory and various feather colors.
Song Sparrows are more often heard than seen so it was nice to catch this one foraging for something.
And it’s not often I see a pair of Downy Woodpeckers. Maybe afternoons are lazier for the birds.
I had a wonderful encounter with a Philadelphia Vireo a couple years ago. I hope to see more of this species. And this was the first day I saw the Eastern Kingbird. By Memorial Day there were two Kingbirds hunting for bugs from their perches over the water.
Early on there was a small flock of Cedar Waxwings but they were hard to distinguish in the shadows and blended in perfectly with the tree colors.
Another elusive Black-and-White Warbler. These warblers are relatively easy to see, but so far had been defying my lens. However stay tuned because I have had some more productive encounters.
Even the Baltimore Orioles looked a bit washed out. But I noticed a nest, and that was a welcome sign. The female builds the nest, so I can only imagine she was inside of it.
It has been hard to go back to work after a long weekend, even though I have not yet returned to the office. Most amazing to me has been the time spent in the field, so to speak. I never feel like I have this luxury to fully absorb my surroundings except when I am on vacation. But something about the pandemic has slowed down everything after eliminated many social commitments. I can embrace birding religiously three days straight as a spiritual exercise. Even though I am encountering several more people on the trails, there is still enough space and quiet, with many moments left to witness how life continues beyond our immediate concerns.
Yesterday I was fortunate enough to participate in the Spring Bird Count in DuPage County. I have done this count for a number of years, but this time, with social distancing, it was different. We split up so we each covered one area. I was assigned the Silver Lake part of Blackwell Forest Preserve, a location I was not familiar with, but was easy to navigate with the map Jody gave me, and I can get lost anywhere. Since I could only do the morning and there was no time limit, I had a wonderful experience listening for and spotting all the birds I could identify at a leisurely pace.
I felt especially privileged because under the current New Normal, I would not have been allowed to visit DuPage County preserves because I am not a resident. The county decided last month to limit parking to its residents. We speculated there was an overflow of people from Cook County, where I live, due to the closing of the lakefront. So I don’t know when I’ll be able to revisit this lovely place, but now that I am more familiar with it, I plan to do so when restrictions end.
I was beginning to feel like I am the only person on earth who hadn’t seen a Rose-Breasted Grosbeak yet so I was happy to find one singing high up in a tall tree.
Love was definitely in the air, albeit chilly after freezing temperatures overnight, for local breeders. I usually can’t get a glimpse of a Blue Jay long enough to photograph, but this pair united for some courtship behavior, exchanging some tiny seeds you might be able to see if you click on the images below.
And when it was all over I somehow managed to catch this Blue Jay in flight.
Yellow-Rumped Warblers are usually quite common, however brief the period of spring migration, so it’s easy to overlook how truly beautiful they are. This one was happy to display all his yellow parts except for his namesake.
I have no idea what was going on with this European Starling but I could swear he was dancing and singing.
This Tree Swallow was saving his energy for later when the sun would start warming up the ground and the air and there would be bugs to catch.
At some point Blue-Gray Gnatcatchers are going to become impossible to find, let alone photograph, but that hasn’t quite happened yet.
Here’s two more of the goldfinch pair featured at the top of this post.
This distant Northern Flicker would have been impossible to capture were it not for the bright, clear sunshine.
I kept hearing this Common Yellowthroat and he was confusing me by not singing his “witchety-wichety” song, only a slow trill, if you will. So finally he came and sat right in front of me and continued singing. I have never had a Common Yellowthroat volunteer to be photographed. He must be a novice. Anyway, you can see in the third photo how windy it was.
Another warbler, only this one was harder to capture. Black-throated Green Warbler.
Robins are predictably everywhere but they get short shrift. I try not to take them all for granted and capture at least one.
A less-frequently-seen bird, also in the thrush family – a handsome Veery.
Song Sparrow taking a break.
This Canada Goose flew right in front of me so I couldn’t resist.
I heard the Orchard Oriole before I saw him. What a lovely tune.
Palm Warblers become commonplace too, but they are still pretty birds.
I miss seeing spectacles like 150 White-Crowned Sparrows or more on the lakefront, but am glad I was able to report the only White-Crowned Sparrow seen in our area on Saturday.
There were at least four Baltimore Oriole males. These two got into a little bit of a stand-off.
Downy Woodpeckers are busy this time of year and not quite so visible.
Here’s another one of the Bluebird.
So this morning I wasn’t planning on going out at all because of the forecast for all-day rain, but the rain stopped, so I went to the Portage to see if I could find anything. The cloudy sky was a more dramatic backdrop than usual.
Just my luck – the male Bluebird who has been at the Portage now for weeks happened to be hanging out. The exciting news which I meant to report a couple weeks ago is that we have a breeding pair. I saw his mate with nesting material a couple weeks ago. As long as I have been going to the Portage, Bluebirds have never nested there. Apparently they found a log or a tree stump with a suitable cavity for a nest. So I will be watching for their offspring in the coming weeks.
It started to rain, and I had to decide what to do – go back to the car, or keep walking? I put my camera in my backpack, kept walking, and then ran into a flock of warblers high up in the trees. Oh great – no light, it’s raining, and the tiny warblers are nearly impossible to see. These few images are what I could capture.
Tuesday morning I am going to try to go to the Portage early in the morning – when there is sunshine and warmer temperatures – and come home to work in the afternoon. I hope I get permission to do this because the forecast from Wednesday through the weekend is for rain and thunderstorms. My hope is to see more warblers. You’ll hear about it if I do!
I don’t think I’ve ever been so happy to see Red-Winged Blackbirds arrive at the Portage and start singing. It’s likely an intense desire to embrace any sense of Normal.
All these photos are from a quick trip to the Chicago Portage last Sunday morning, after the clocks were set ahead. There were not a lot of birds, but I managed to capture a few.
I’m happy to see the Robins returning too. The anticipation of spring is palpable. Now, if I can just get over the time change. It’s hard to get up in the morning, in the dark. Even harder perhaps knowing that nearly everything has been put on hold for voluntary, and increasingly involuntary, “self-distancing.”
After a fairly well-attended choir rehearsal on Wednesday, we received notice yesterday that the temple will be closed for the next four weeks, which totally puts on hold our entire schedule. We were to sing on Sunday and prepare for our special Choir Sunday on the 29th, but that’s not going to happen. No rehearsal, no services. We will stay tuned, but I know without rehearsal, it will be harder to hold those notes when we resume.
I managed to capture this Rusty Blackbird flying in with the Red-Wingeds, likely on his way north.
Even European Starlings are returning. They used to be present year-round but in the last few years I’ve missed their presence in the dead of winter.
There are always Downy Woodpeckers, though I might not always see them.
Same goes for the Black-capped Chickadees. It was chilly and windy but the days are getting longer and the birds have their work ahead of them.
Flyovers included a singular Ring-Billed Gull and One American Crow. I suppose Crows are a reminder of what happens if you don’t “self-distance”, as in the spread of West Nile Virus.
On the trail that runs behind the opening in the fence and runs parallel to the Des Plaines River, I witnessed a flurry of White-Breasted Nuthatch activity with what appeared to be one male and two females.
I missed any opportunity to snatch the last Super Moon because it was pouring rain on Monday night, but here’s a glimpse of what it looked like back home after swimming on Tuesday.
One more of this buff blackbird.
The extra time to lay low has given me an absurd sense of precarious calm, in that, I suppose, it takes a little pressure off the time crunch that normally accompanies my daily routine, even if it adds a new, rapidly-changing stress. Suddenly all the solo activities that I squeeze into tiny time fragments are clamoring for attention. Among them are playing more music, processing more pictures and writing more blog posts… There’s a desire to commence spring cleanup too. The challenge will be to stay awake. If I’m at home and sitting on the futon with my laptop, naptime is a real threat.
I hope for your wellness and safety, wherever you are. As much as we must distance ourselves physically, we need to come together in spirit all the more.
What a gorgeous day, to start the new year. The sun was shining brightly in a cloudless sky. It was quite cold and windy this morning, but who cares? I have something in common with the birds. We worship the sun.
It was nice to see the White-Breasted Nuthatch in the yard this morning. Also present were a multitude of House Sparrows, House Finches and American Goldfinches, with a female Northern Cardinal as a bonus.
So this is a brief post with some pictures from this morning and a couple from Christmas Eve. I have an embarrassing confession to make. I have been shooting with manual focus for so long, due in large part to trying to take pictures of warblers in trees, that I realized on my last trip I had no idea how to set up the camera for autofocus. Here I have all this fancy equipment with no idea how to use it. Duh. So it’s been on my list for the last several months to get on board with autofocus, to the point where it was really becoming a Big Deal in my mind. I needed peace and some uninterrupted time to sit down and figure this thing out.
Luckily there are enough videos and whatnot on the Internet. I finally sat down this morning at the dining room table with both cameras I’ve been using and realized that I was not that far off from using autofocus in the first place, it was just a matter of getting used to the buttons on the camera and what I was trying to do. Then I went out into the backyard with both cameras and started shooting. It took a bit of getting used to, but I really needed to do this! It fought me once when I tried to focus on a squirrel behind some branches, but that wasn’t worth worrying about. So now I can go to San Blas confident that I will get many more pictures in focus!
Here’s a Hairy Woodpecker that’s been coming to the yard the past week. Or at least I’ve been around enough to see him. There’s a female too, so I can only assume they are a pair. This picture was taken through the window last week.
I am getting mentally and physically ready for my next trip, trying to lessen the last-minute panic that always seems to accompany final preparations. Having the extra days off has been a big help.
This is probably my last post until after I come back. It’s still hard for me to believe I’m going but Sunday morning isn’t that far away. Best wishes to all for the New Year. We need something to look forward to!
The snow was quite beautiful this morning, adding to the first four inches or so we received since Sunday. It was very fluffy and soft, which made me sorry I had no time to take pictures, let alone play in it, but word has it there is much more to come. I managed to hang out with the birds in the yard for a few moments on Sunday morning, when these pictures were taken.
A male cardinal remained distant.
The sheer number of House Sparrows is sometimes daunting.
The Goldfinches show no signs of disappearing.
After I was back in the house, I looked out the kitchen window a while later and a Cooper’s Hawk was sitting right in the Sumac. But the kitchen window between us was the only way it was going to let me photograph it.We are in for a foot or more of snow starting tomorrow night, which will present challenges for everyone, including the birds. Maybe I’ll get a chance to take pictures this time.
It took a while to capture the goldfinches on the thistle socks but I was determined since I never know when they might disappear again. But they seem to be happy for the moment. This was the scene in the yard on Saturday. Try counting how many goldfinches are in the picture above. I get 17, but there could be a couple more on the other side of the socks that were not visible.
At first I took several pictures through the back porch windows, but even if they were clean, the screens would make the image fuzzy, so I decided to try going outside, knowing fully well that I would flush the birds and they might take their time coming back.
When nobody came back to the feeders after a few chilly minutes, I decided to walk out to the front yard when I heard crows calling from that direction. As far as I could tell they were not harassing a raptor. I was happy to see them hanging out in the vicinity. They were a bit too far away for the 300mm lens and I couldn’t get all six of them to line up at any one time but I managed to commemorate a crow presence.
There was a starling.
And a nice male House Finch.
A female house finch offered an even better pose.
But I really wanted to see how many goldfinches I could capture on the thistle socks before they dispersed, so I walked back slowly toward the yard and snuck up on them, hanging by the gate.
The goldfinches have shown their preference for fresh niger in three large socks. I have noticed from previous experience that the more socks I hang, the more will come. And I really think they like this situation because they don’t have to compete with the other birds for position, only each other.
Not much else to report locally at the moment, I’ll be back to pictures from Ecuador shortly.
Unwilling to venture out any farther than my yard this past weekend, I was rewarded somewhat when it proved to be interesting. I think if I were home more, the outdoor crowd would become used to me and then I wouldn’t have to wait ten minutes for them to start coming back to the yard after I have planted myself at a sufficient distance from the feeders. This past weekend the cold weather might have tipped my hand a bit.
I am grateful to have goldfinches back in the yard. Years ago I had dozens, and then they dwindled down to a few. It finally occurred to me that part of the problem was likely niger seed that had gone stale after I bought too much anticipating their return. Fancy thistle feeders did not seem to be appreciated either. I would get one or two goldfinches, but I knew there had to be more out there. So this year, I bought a small amount of fresh seed with the Audubon sale, and got a couple new thistle socks. At one point this past weekend I counted 20 goldfinches on two socks when they were full. The socks are even harder to fill with frozen fingers. But the goldfinches really like these socks, so I just bought some more, and filled up three of them last night in the warmth of the kitchen before hanging them outside. Maybe after another week or two of coddling, the goldfinches will make themselves more available for photographs. The only one I managed to get, above, was taken through the porch window and screen.
The heated bird bath is a big hit with the House Sparrows and everybody else, and probably the best thing I can provide. I have seen a couple birds actually take baths in this frigid weather and I don’t know how they manage to dry off quickly enough when the wind chill is 20 below. Must be a dinosaur thing.
I thought the starlings were gone for the winter but there seems to be a hardy bunch hanging out in the yard for the daily offering of peanut pieces.I couldn’t quite figure out what the cardinal was up to in the snow, and he was at a fuzzy distance, but I couldn’t resist his red.
At one point I went back out later New Year’s Day, I heard a lot of cawing and found four crows in a tree a block away across the alley. I suspected they were harassing a raptor but I didn’t see their target.
I went back inside after walking around the block. A bit later, I looked out the kitchen door window to see the raptor below sitting in the same tree the crows had been in. I managed to get my large lens out for a better look.
I had seen the Red-Shouldered a couple times in the neighborhood around the end of November. The first time I was on my way to work and it was calling from its perch on a different tree, so I was able to identify it as much by sound as sight. Now it seems it’s taken up residence for the winter. This is exciting to me because it’s not a bird I have seen very often anywhere, so maybe I’ll get more familiar with this species thanks to this individual.
But just as I was done taking that picture, the Cooper’s Hawk below flew into my yard and then quickly perched on a fence in my neighbor’s yard. Needless to say everybody else assumed hiding mode. I only wish the Cooper’s had found a more attractive perch.
Two of my Diamond Doves were sitting soaking up the sun that poured into the kitchen window. I wonder what they thought of all the strange yard activity.
I will be back soon with another post from Ecuador and a visual break from winter.
As I sat here last night trying to make sense of this random conglomeration of images before I went to bed, I wondered if we would indeed finally get some rain. It seems even our impending drought cannot ignore the possible impact of Nate, the current tropical storm. We have had some constant drizzly rain and it looks like we should eventually get some cloudbursts. But appearances on the radar can be deceiving. I will keep my hopes up.Continuing with last month’s visits to nearby Cook County Forest Preserves, young birds like the Cedar Waxwing and Red-Winged Blackbird above were getting ready to leave. It’s become evident to me over the past few years that European Starlings like the one below are not necessarily winter residents either. But the young Mourning Dove blending in with the dead stump below the it will likely stay.Hidden in the leaves about waist-length from the ground at Ottawa Trail was the Ovenbird below.And there just seemed to be too many ways to capture Northern Flickers. They have likely pretty much disappeared by now too. For a last look you can click on the pictures below for larger images.
American Robins don’t disappear completely in the winter but they will be traveling in flocks soon searching for any fruit left on trees.
Another hardy winter resident is the Black-Capped Chickadee.A few more Red-Winged Blackbirds.
Ottawa Trail’s landmark tree
Last year following my cataract surgery I got all turned around and could not find the trail that runs along the Des Plaines River at Ottawa Trail, but now I am finding it easily, and one reason why is because I have always located the landmark tree above.I am grateful for Northern Cardinals. They will be here all winter to brighten up the landscape.
I’ll be back soon with the last warblers… Still trying to find that work/bird-and-choir-life balance. I will bow deeply at the first thunder clap.
There was no time for birding last weekend. So I decided to visit the Chicago Portage two days in a row this weekend. It’s not a difficult decision to make this time of year. I took my chances that the rain Saturday night might cause a little warbler fallout and I was not disappointed. Not many species but it was still nice to see some activity.
Apart from birds, I saw more Monarch Butterflies the last two days than I have all summer, when I have occasionally seen only one or two. Yesterday I am sure I saw at least 15, which is still nothing compared to previous years.
The other late summer pleasure is spider webs like the huge one on the left below. On the right, the flowers are still laden with the last night’s raindrops.
Cedar Waxwings were everywhere both days, but in particular yesterday. I estimated there could have been a hundred but I reported a conservative 76.
The two robins below seemed to be arguing over the lower bird’s perch.
On the Des Plaines River, one Great Blue Heron and one Great Egret were still present on Saturday, but Sunday morning they were gone.
Indigo Buntings were still a presence but getting a bit harder to find. They are likely getting ready to leave.
Also nearly absent are Red-Winged Blackbirds.
For excitement, on Saturday I focused on the Red-Tailed Hawk below when it landed in a tree across the water, and then got lucky enough to capture its takeoff when it left.


Published on August 11th, 2014 | by gareth0
RAPTR’s Most Played PC Games of July 2014
You might expect overall gameplay hours to fall in the middle of summer, but they haven’t, at least not among Raptr members: Total monthly play time was up 30.19% from June And while Counter-Strike: Global Offensive, Hearthstone: Heroes of Warcraft, Smite, and Payday 2 all had big gains, Diablo III, Wildstar, and Watch Dogs headed in the other direction.
June’s top four games, League of Legends, DOTA 2, World of Warcraft, and Counter-Strike: Global Offensive, retained their respective rankings in July, and all enjoyed month-on-month play time increases of over 30%.
League of Legends’ highest peak in July was on the 27th, the final day of the featured game mode Doom Bots of Doom, where the AI bots were set to an extreme difficulty level. LoL was relatively quiet on the eSports front.
DOTA 2’s premier tournament, The International, took place mid-month and led to a significant play time increase.
Despite Blizzard’s announcement of a decline in WoW players, Raptr members showed no signs of slowing down. We’ll be watching to see what kind of impact WoW’s 10-year anniversary events have in the run-up to, and through, November.
CS:GO’s new Operation Breakout DLC introduced new missions, weapon balancing, skins, map fixes, and various other tweaks to the game at the beginning of the month, and had a significant impact. CS:GO gameplay time was up a staggering 65.19% versus June.
The news wasn’t so good for Diablo III, which slipped just one spot despite losing 20.66% play time compared to last month.
Hearthstone’s Curse of Naxxramas DLC started rolling out in July and had a very strong impact; the game was up two ranks and play time climbed 53.33% over June. The weekly content roll-out schedule seems to be working very well for retention.
Battlefield 4 also climbed two ranks, thanks in part to its Dragon’s Teeth DLC that went live in mid-July for premium members, with everyone else getting the extra content at the end of the month. EA also kicked off Battlefest — a series of community contests and activities, including Raptr’s own Instant Replay contest — in July.
Payday 2 rose five places, riding the tail end of a big sale and a big boost from the Gage Shotgun Pack DLC, which included new weapons, masks, ammo, and achievements.
Smite was the biggest gainer of the month, shooting up eight spots and 128.27% over June, although a series of rewards in Raptr’s Rewards Store was certainly a significant factor there.
Final Fantasy XIV Online also had a big month, gaining five spots thanks in large part to a free login weekend in the latter half of the month as well as the Defenders of Eorzea content update.
The new MMO WildStar lost seven spots in its second month of release — but more worryingly, gameplay was down 45.63%. We’ll see if its latest PvP game mode, Sabotage, launched on July 31, can help spur a rebound, though initial signs point towards probably not.
Though we predicted last month that both The Elder Scrolls games likely wouldn’t chart in July, a major Quakecon-related sale proved us wrong — at least about Skyrim, which jumped five places. The Elder Scrolls Online, however, dropped six ranks to 26.
Throwback RPG Divinity: Original Sin missed the top 20, coming in at the 25 spot, while Watch Dogs tumbled 25 ranks to #33, with gameplay down 67.72%.
Note: The Share number by each game represents that title’s gameplay time as a percentage of the total time spent on all the PC games played by Raptr members, and is useful for comparing the relative amount of playtime between particular games.


text:
See 'Additional Information'
Gram negative bacilli
Normal flora of the human gastrointestinal tract.
Can be associated with a wide variety of infections ranging from urinary tract infections to life-threatening pneumonia, liver abscesses, endophthalmitis and bacteremia.
Patients may require contact precautions in cases of extended spectrum beta-lactamase (ESBL), carbapenemase (KPC) and metallo-beta lactamases (MBL).

domain: biology


By Jerome Idaszak, Contributing Editor July 21, 2009 The shift in tone was subtle, but there was no doubt that the relationship between Congress and the Federal Reserve is changing, with more Hill demands for openness. Bernanke seemed to acknowledge that in advance, at least indirectly, by penning an op-ed in the Wall Street Journal defending his handling of the financial crisis and reaffirming his pledge to keep inflation in check. Still, when Bernanke appeared before the House Financial Services Committee for his semiannual briefing on the economy, more Congressmen seemed willing to challenge him across a range of issues including whether the Fed's powers should be expanded, as President Obama has proposed. Sponsored Content The top Republican on the committee, Rep. Spencer Bachus (D-AL) said, "Republicans believe that the Fed's core mission will be seriously undermined" by expansion of its regulatory authority. Rep. Ron Paul (R-TX) pressed his argument that the Fed should be more open to audits of its discussion and decision-making in setting interest rates. He said when the Fed insists on independence. it means, don't let Congress know what's going on. Bernanke held his ground. He told Paul and others that audits of monetary policy formation would result in higher interest rates demanded by a bond market suspicious of political meddling . The economy wasn't ignored. In a hearing that goes for three hours there's room for discussion of all the major issues: When the recession will end, the risk of inflation down the road, the impact of higher federal budget deficits and how much rising unemployment will add to home foreclosures. And, the threat of large bankruptcies in commercial real estate. In the end, no new ground was broken as both sides continue to stake out their position. Bernanke said giving the Fed a larger role in financial regulation is merely "a modest reorientation of the current system." No one believes that. The debate will go forward. As one Republican said, "It's easier for Congress to find out more about the CIA than the Fed."


text:
AEW had to move out of Jacksonville, Florida for their television tapings. Their plan was to record as much content as possible. They weren’t counting for a visit from the police.
Wrestling Inc reports that Georgia authorities showed up to AEW’s undisclosed location while they were taping today. The company was using QT Marshall’s gym in Norcross, Georgia.
The fuzz was unsuccessful in shutting AEW down as they had all the required paperwork to continue shooting. State officials still stayed throughout the entire filming to make sure that guidelines were followed.
The state of Georgia is going on a stay at home order on Friday which will run until April 13th. It was noted that AEW filmed enough footage to last until mid May.

domain: news


text:
- When did Martin stop using hide glue?
- How strong is Titebond hide glue?
- Where can I buy Titebond hide glue?
- Does hide glue spoil?
- What dissolves Titebond glue?
- What glue do luthiers use?
- Does hide glue sound better?
- How long does Titebond hide glue last?
- Is hide glue waterproof?
- How do you hide glue?
- What is Titebond glue?
- Do they really turn horses into glue?
- Is hide glue stronger than wood glue?
- What is hide glue used for?
- What wood glue has the longest Open time?
- Does hide glue smell?
- How long does hide glue last?
- Is titebond Stainable?
- What is the strongest glue in the world?
- Is titebond III a PVA glue?
When did Martin stop using hide glue?
Martin continued to use some hide glue, on the top/rim joints up to around 1975.
However, all the other structural joints changed over to white (PVA) glue when they relocated from the old to the new factory in 1964..
How strong is Titebond hide glue?
Bond Strength ASTM D-905 (On Hard Maple)TemperatureStrengthWood FailureRoom Temperature3,591 psi72%150°F. Overnight3,207 psi59%
Where can I buy Titebond hide glue?
Titebond Liquid Hide Glue, 8-Ounces #5013 – Wood Glues – Amazon.com.
Does hide glue spoil?
If the glue bends, then it’s bad. If it crackles, then it’s still good. If stored in a cool basement the Titebond stuff supposedly can potentially last 10 years.
What dissolves Titebond glue?
Heat will melt the adhesive into the fabric and it will be permanent. Titebond II and Titebond III if allowed to dry will not release from fabric. A mixture of Acetone/Water/Vinegar will soften the adhesive but will not dissolve it. Scraping the softened adhesive should remove a majority of the adhesive.
What glue do luthiers use?
Hot hide glueHot hide glue or simply “hide glue” has been famous for being the luthiers choice in both guitars and violin family instruments for centuries. It dries very hard and is not susceptible to thermal plastic creep like many of the modern PVA glues.
Does hide glue sound better?
In theory, a PVA joint can absorb some of the vibration transfer between brace and soundboard. Hide glue, on the other hand, comes very close to a perfectly rigid joint between materials – optimum energy transfer implies better sound.
How long does Titebond hide glue last?
one two yearsThe minimum shelf life of Titebond III is stated as one two years. When stored appropriately at room temperature, Titebond III is expected to last beyond its stated shelf life. If thickened, shake vigorously by firmly tapping bottle on a hard surface until product is restored to original form.
Is hide glue waterproof?
Can hide glue be made waterproof? Yes, by adding 1/2-1% aluminum sulfate. Exposure to formaldehyde fumes will render dry hide glue insoluble.
How do you hide glue?
Hide GlueThe glue is workable when it’s hot—140° to 145°F—and adhesive when it cools, which doesn’t take very long at all. … Start off by putting one or two handfuls of dry glue into the can, and add cool water until the glue is just covered. … Veneering may be the best of all hide glue applications.
What is Titebond glue?
Titebond Original Wood Glue is the industry standard for woodworking. It provides a strong initial tack and fast speed of set to reduce clamp time. It also develops a bond stronger than the wood itself, offers excellent sandability and is unaffected by finishes.
Do they really turn horses into glue?
Are Horses Killed To Make Glue? Horses are in fact killed in order to make glue. Horses contain high levels of collagen which is a key ingredient in most animal-based glue. It is made into gelatin that is sticky when it is wet and hard when it has dried up.
Is hide glue stronger than wood glue?
Hide glue, unlike PVA glues, will never set up in one part of the bond and remain wet in another. Hide glues are much stronger than the wood itself whereas PVA glue joints are not. PVA glues also create another problem called “joint creep” since the bonds are stretchable.
What is hide glue used for?
Today it is used primarily in specialty applications, such as lutherie, pipe organ building, piano repairs, and antique restoration. Glass artists take advantage of hide glue’s ability to bond with glass, applying hide glue to glass. As the glue hardens it shrinks, chipping the glass.
What wood glue has the longest Open time?
The DAP resin you referred to is a powdered urea formaldehyde resin and will give you the longest open time of all available wood glues.
Does hide glue smell?
Guest. I’ve been using hide glue pearls for many years from the same supplier. It works well but I think it’s probably bone glue. It’s light brown and the smell is really offensive.
How long does hide glue last?
Re: Shelf Life of Hide Glue The dry granules will last almost indefinitely if kept dry and insect-free. My barrel is 9 years old now, and still shows no signs of going bad.
Is titebond Stainable?
The glue of choice for many woodworkers is yellow glue, also called carpenter’s glue. Common brands include Elmer’s and Titebond. … Elmer’s also sells a “stainable” wood glue that contains actual wood fibers to better accept stains.
What is the strongest glue in the world?
The name of the world’s strongest adhesive is DELO MONOPOX VE403728. This is a modified version of the high-temperature-resistant DELO MONOPOX HT2860. This epoxy resin forms a very dense network during heat curing.
Is titebond III a PVA glue?
Type-I (waterproof) and type-II (water resistant) PVA glues, such as Titebond II and III, contain water, but also strands of polymers that become entangled and chemically bonded to perform better in exterior conditions. … PVA glue can be cleaned up with water.

domain: chemistry


text:
Synopsis by Hal Erickson
The Moss Hart-George S. Kaufman Broadway hit George Washington Slept Here has herein been tailored to the unique talents of Jack Benny. In the original play, city dweller Bill Fuller, fired up with the spirit of "back to the soil," purchases a ramshackle Colonial-era farmhouse in upstate New York, dragging his reluctant wife, Connie, along for the ride. Everett Freeman's screenplay retains the basic set-up with one important difference: in the film, it is Connie Fuller (Ann Sheridan), an inveterate antique collector, who is all hopped up about buying and renovating the old farmhouse, while husband Bill (Jack Benny), with visions of abject poverty dancing in his head, hates the whole idea. This slight character alteration allows Jack Benny to indulge in the frustrated, put-upon slow-burn comedy he does so well, while still leaving Hart and Kaufman's dextrous plot twists and punch lines intact. Most of the humor derives from the thousand-and-one "little" flaws in the drafty old house -- collapsing walls and ceilings, antiquated plumbing, et al. -- all duly categorized by laconic caretaker Mr. Kimber (Percy Kilbride, in a brilliant performance). Also thickening the plot are the efforts by the near-bankrupt Bill and Connie to curry favor with their wealthy uncle Stanley (Charles Coburn), who turns out to be a cheerful old fraud. The resolution of the plotline is inherent in the title, but there's still one last indignity left to be dumped on poor Bill Fuller's head at fade-out time.
home-improvement, antiques, country-home, fish-out-of-water, house, husband-and-wife, Americana, letter

domain: artistic


PDS Tech Inc Flight Controls Systems Engineer in Fort Worth, Texas
PDS Tech Inc. is currently hiring for a Flight Controls System Safety Engineer in Fort Worth, TX.
We have openings for Flight Control Systems Engineers to support the development of new and novel products and platforms, such as autonomous Urban Air Taxi and Product transportation/delivery systems.
The Flight Control Systems Engineer will be responsible for:
• Design and test of Fly-by-Wire Flight Control Systems (FCS) with embedded software and complex hardware in a rapid development environment within a relatively small team working on cutting edge aerospace technology.
• Development of systems architecture, system and software design, redundancy management, electronic hardware design and integration, sensor design and integration, and actuator design and controls integration.
• Development of unique air vehicle control mechanisms, autonomous systems and control algorithms, and flight control law integration.
• Requirements management, systems specifications, interface management, system safety assessment, verification and validation testing in desktop simulation and systems integration labs, and participation in aircraft flight test activities
• Bachelor’s Degree in Engineering is required
• At least 5 years of experience is required
• Familiarity with embedded hardware and software design
o Electronic hardware, electric motor drive, signal conditioning, sensor integration, software implementation
o Data protocols – RS-422/485 UART, ARINC 429, Ethernet, SPI
• Experience with system architecture creation, design diagrams, interconnect diagrams, and interface control documentation
• Experience with creation of system specifications, requirements traceability, and verification
• Familiarity with avionics systems, inertial systems, electrical power systems, electro-mechanical actuation systems, and hydro-mechanical actuation systems
• Experience with flight control system development and testing in a lab environment
• Experience with aircraft installation, functional testing, and troubleshooting
• Experience with the following primary development environments:
o MathWorks MATLAB / Simulink
o C/C++ code
o Bench tools such as oscilloscopes, multimeters, power supplies
o Serena Dimensions / PVCS, Git
o RTOS, Linux OS, bare metal
All qualified applicants will receive consideration for employment without regard to race, color, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity, religion, national origin, disability, veteran status, age, marital status, pregnancy, genetic information, or other legally protected status.


text:
Front garden paradises being paved for parking
Beautifully tended front gardens were once a source of pride and an indicator of the owners’ social status, but they are increasingly being dug up and paved over to provide parking spaces.
The demise of the front garden has caused particular alarm among the organisers of the Chelsea Flower Show, who have launched a campaign to save them from being paved over.
The Royal Horticultural Society, which runs the show, is placing special emphasis this year on a front garden competition class.
Garden-grabbing — the practice of buying up a house with a garden and redeveloping it as flats or a mini housing estate — is one of the RHS’s chief concerns. It is estimated that at least 30,000 gardens are lost to development every

domain: sociology


text:
On 25 April 2017, the Federal Environment Ministry transferred the operator tasks for the Asse II mine and the Konrad and Morsleben repositories to the Bundesgesellschaft für Endlagerung. The archived project websites of the former operators and operating companies can be accessed via the following links.
Asse II mine
The archived websites of the Federal Office for Radiation Protection, the Helmholtz Zentrum München and the Asse-GmbH on the Asse II mine can be found here.
The archived websites of the Federal Office for Radiation Protection on the Konrad repository can be found here.

domain: library


text:
Yes, dogs can pee in their sleep. There are a number of different conditions that can lead to urination during sleep. They can also have trouble “holding it” until they get outside to go potty, so it may appear that they peed while they were sleeping but they were actually awake and aware. If you suspect your dog is peeing in their sleep, here are possible causes.
Snoring is fairly common in dogs. Just as with humans, it can range in intensity from cute to disturbing, and just as with humans, snoring in dogs happens for the same basic physiological reason: there’s some type of blockage in the airways that prevents air from passing unobstructed.
But what causes the blockage? There are many potential underlying causes of airway blockages that can cause snoring in dogs.
Getting enough sleep is vital for good health. But sometimes too much is too much. If your dog sleeps all day long, you might be wondering if it’s a sign that something else going on. And the answer is yes, it could be – excessive sleep is a common sign of many health conditions that need medical attention, some of which are discussed below. Or it could be a normal amount of sleep that’s no cause for concern. First let’s look at what’s considered normal when it comes to dogs and sleep.

domain: medical


text:
La Collection Memento n°2
Trucker denim jacket
- navy blue
Need help? 1-888-70-KENZO or 1-888-705-3696
Free shipping for orders over $220
Delivery within 3 working days
Free return, accepted within 14 days
La Collection Memento N°2 pays tribute to the origins of KENZO Jeans founded in 1986. Denim, structured cuts and strong prints have been restyled by the artistic directors Carol Lim and Humberto Leon.
The denim jacket is undeniably a wardrobe staple, so we couldn't have left it out of this collection. With its 'Trucker Jacket' style, this denim jacket will go with any outfit for a timeless style, with its coloured pocket adding a touch of originality.
Trucker denim jacket.
Long, buttoned sleeves.
Large flap pockets on the front, one coloured.
'Jumping Tiger' label to the front.
'Kanagawa Wave' patch inside.
Composition & care
- Complete the look
- You may also like

domain: design


MINNEAPOLIS — The Boogaloo Bois, a group of government and law enforcement-hating armed people, have been showing up at protests and demonstrations across the country, including in Minnesota.
Benjamin Teeter from North Carolina, one of two men now charged in federal court with conspiring to help a foreign terrorist organization, posted video, photos and messages from the looting that happened in downtown Minneapolis in August.
"Right now police are blocking off every entrance they can to downtown Minneapolis trying to isolate the protesters there," Teeter said in one post. "We need to get the word out so every Boojahideen in the area so they can respond appropriately to this situation."
The FBI, according to the criminal complaint, had been tracking Teeter and co-defendant Michael Solomon from New Brighton since late May during the unrest that followed the death of George Floyd.
When Solomon gave an in-depth interview about the Boogaloo Bois to the Star Tribune in July, posing with a gun, the FBI already had recorded him and Teeter talking about possibly shooting officers and blowing up a historical county courthouse in Northern Minnesota with dynamite, according to the criminal complaint.
"It's a movement that is first and foremost anti-government," said Jason Blazakis, director of the Center of Terrorism Extremism and Counter-Terrorism at the Middlebury Institute of International Studies "They, from my perspective, are the most threatening of the movements that exist right now. They want to create chaos. They are are anti-government. And that chaos would lead to some kind of civil war."
In one Twitter post on August 26, that's exactly what Teeter writes, "I am a left Anarchist. We want a war against the government. We want all citizens on the same side."
Blazakis said the Boogaloo movement is a far-right extremist movement, with some far-left beliefs.
"You have individuals who say they are left-wing in the sense they are against capitalism. They are against the government in many ways," he said.
Blazakis sees the Minnesota case as turning point of how far Boogaloo Bois are willing to go.
The court papers say the defendants wanted to create a training compound for Boogaloo Bois, and to get the money, they willing to build firearm suppressors for an undercover agent they thought was a member of the terrorist group Hamas.
"I think it demonstrates their willingness to work with anybody to achieve their objectives," Blazakis said.
The federal charges the defendants face carry up to 20 years in prison.


text:
From Hollywood to sports teams, there are plenty of reasons to celebrate the city these iconic kicks were inspired by, but the music scene surrounding it is one of the most influential in the world.
Home to some of the biggest rap acts in history, and some of the hottest names in the genre today, we’ve picked out five of the biggest hip hop artists to come out of the City of LA and the LA County. Check ‘em out:
Possibly the most influential hip hop collective of all time (sorry, Wu Tang), N.W.A. hail from the notorious city of Compton, Los Angeles County.
Started by Eazy-E in 1986, N.W.A. were the founders of gangsta rap, being the first group to openly glamourise crime in their lyrics. Original members included Arabian Prince, DJ Yella, Dr. Dre and Ice Cube, with the last two seeing huge solo careers when the N.W.A. posse eventually split after the release of their final album in 1991.
#2 KENDRICK LAMAR
As if N.W.A. weren’t enough talent to come out of Compton, one of today’s biggest hip hop artists is also from the same city.
Kendrick Lamar Duckworth was born in Compton in 1987, first signing to Top Dawg Entertainment in 2004 before moving over to Aftermath/Interscope in 2012. Also a member of rap supergroup, Black Hippy, and a Reebok rep, Kendrick is one of the hardest working players in the game.
His major label debut good kid, m.A.A.d city went platinum, with him receiving two Grammies in 2015 for his single “i”, which would later feature on his To Pimp a Butterfly LP, reaching #1 in the US and UK charts. No big deal.
#3 SNOOP DOGG
Long Beach’s finest, Snoop Dogg is one of modern hip hop’s longest serving artists. Discovered by N.W.A.’s Dr. Dre in 1992, Snoop first featured on Dre’s debut solo album The Chronic, and the rest is history.
A creative genius in the eyes of many, Snoop Dogg evolved into a Lion in 2012, taking a brief diversion from his rap career to produce a reggae album that no one expected. Turning 43 in 2014, Snoop’s output is as strong as ever, releasing his latest album, BUSH, in 2015.
#4 JURASSIC 5
J5 are a six piece alt hip hop outfit from the City of Los Angeles, making their debut in 1993 as a combination of two previous groups, Rebels of Rhythm and Unity Committee. Despite suffering a minor fall-out in 2007, Jurassic 5 are still going strong to this day.
Made up of four MCs (Chali 2na, Akil, Zaakir aka Soup and Marc 7) and two DJs (DJ Nu-Mark and Cut Chemist), their first release, Jurassic 5 EP, came out in 1997, with the collective’s most recent track dropping in 2014.
No one’s ever explained why they’re called ‘Jurassic 5’ when they have six members, though…
#5 ODD FUTURE
Love them or hate them, the Odd Future fam are a strong talent from the city of Los Angeles. In 2010, controversial lyrics and aggressive stageshows brought them to the forefront of the world rap scene, with the group going on to see global success, even starring in their own comedy sketch show ‘Loiter Squad’.
Passively announced by leader and founder, Tyler, the Creator, as no longer a ‘thing’ in 2015, plenty of Odd Future members are currently enjoying solo careers or other projects, including Tyler himself, Earl Sweatshirt, Mellowhype, The Internet and more.
What's your favourite LA music act? Are there any non-hip hop artists that deserve a shout-out? Let us know in the comments!
Feature image: Gnaphron


|Publication number||US3809144 A|
|Publication date||May 7, 1974|
|Filing date||Nov 20, 1972|
|Priority date||Nov 20, 1972|
|Publication number||US 3809144 A, US 3809144A, US-A-3809144, US3809144 A, US3809144A|
|Original Assignee||Garufo J|
|Export Citation||BiBTeX, EndNote, RefMan|
|Patent Citations (6), Referenced by (23), Classifications (5)|
|External Links: USPTO, USPTO Assignment, Espacenet|
United States Patent [191 Garufo [451 May 7, 1974  Inventor: James F. Garufo, 2716 George Washington Blvd., Wichita, Kans. 67210  Filed: Nov. 20, 1972  Appl. No.: 307,984
 US. Cl. 160/184  Int. Cl A47h 23/05  Field of Search 160/126, 184, 332, 349, 160/273; 52/2  References Cited UNITED STATES PATENTS 3,331,425 7/1967 Groves et al 160/184 X 3,592,256 7/1971 Knight 160/184 970,130 9/1910 Smith 160/273 R 2,939,467 6/1960 Meyer et al, .L 52/2 3,284,965 1 1/1966 Michenfelder.. 52/2 3,457,684 7/1969 Wood, Jr. 52/2 Primary Examiner-Mervin Stein Assistant Examiner-Philip C. Kannan Attorney, Agent, or Firm-Schmidt, Johnson, Hovey & Williams 7 9 57 ABSTRACT air-impervious barrier portion of the curtain above the pass-through, flap portion and along each end-thereof precludes air flow through areas of the curtain other than the flap portion to thereby further reduce the total volume of air passed by the curtain. A transverse,
air-inflated, stiffening tube extending across the curtain slightly above the flaps and an individual, vertically extendingstiffening tube on each flap rigidify the curtain and flaps so that the flaps quickly return to their undeflected positions instead of clinging to the wings and tail structure of the airplane as it moves -through the curtain. Zippered pockets of granular weight material along the bottom of the flaps provide variable ballast.
6 Claims, 6 Drawing Figures -J T l WEATHER CURTAIN FOR AIRPLANE ENTRANCE flow and outflow of air through the entrance during ingress and egress of objects such as airplanes from the enclosure;
Hangars of many diverse sizes and configurations have been provided in the past to accommodate airplanes for both storage and maintenance purposes. In many instances, such hangars encompass a wide expanse of floor area and are sufficiently tall to accommodate aircraft with high tail sections. Thus, large open areas are presented which cause difficulty in'heating and cooling the hangar to maintain comfortable working conditions, particularly in those climates where extreme heat or cold is experienced.
For example, in environments of extreme cold, it may be difficult in the first instance to bring the area within the hangar up to a comfortably warm temperature and to maintain it at such temperature, even with the hangar door fully closed. When the door is subsequently opened for entry or exit of an airplane, a large amount of the heat within the hangar may be lost through the hangar entrance, particularly in those situations where strong, gusty winds prevail. Moreover, since the door must remain open for a substantial period of time to allow. the airplane to fully clear the hangar entrance before once againclosing the door, further heat loss is ex perienced as a function of the time the door remains open. In situations where the heat loss is particularly severe, it maybe several hours before heating equipment for the hangar can once again bring the temperature to a comfortable level. Hangars having unusually busy traffic patterns are more susceptible to heat-loss than others, and may even render it virtually impossible to maintain a comfortable, working temperature within the hangar.
Similarly, in climates where air conditioning is required to cool the hangar interior to a comfortable working temperature, conditioned air is lost when the hangar door is opened, thereby creating unpleasant 'working conditions and causing the air conditioning equipment to function inefficiently.
Accordingly, one important object of the present invention is to provide a special pass-through weather curtain suspended across the entrance of anenclosure such as a hangar immediately behindthe door thereof which isdesigned to maintain substantial continuity of working conditions within the hangar when the door thereof is opened for passage of an object such asan airplane through the curtain and entrance.
Another important object of the present invention is to provide a weather curtain as aforesaidhaving a sub stantially solid, air-barrier upper portion throughwhich neither air nor partsof the object such as an airplane pass and a, lower pass-through portion which yields to the forcedentry of the object, but not to the efforts of air seeking to flow through the entrance.
A further important object of this invention'is to provide a special weather curtain having barrier and passthrough portions as set forthabove wherein the passthrough portion is only as large as thatnecessary to ac:
commodate the largest airplane or other object anticipated, thereby maximizing the air-repelling area of the curtain to maximize its ability to maintain continuity of working temperature within the hangar.
An additional important object of. this invention is to provide a double series of side-by-side, depending flexible flaps in the pass-through portion of the curtain wherein the flaps of one series overlap those of the other series to close slits presented between adjacent flaps which would otherwise permit airflow therethrough.
Yet another important object of the instant invention is the provision of an inflated stiffening tube which extends across the curtain slightly above the flexible, pass-through flap portion thereof and individual, vertically extending stiffening tubes on the flaps to increase the structural rigidity of the curtain and flaps to an extent that clinging of the flaps to the wings and tail structure of the airplane passing through the curtain is strongly resisted.
Other important objects of this invention include providingballast-increasing weight pockets filled with granular material along the bottom of each flap; constructing the flaps of transparent material to provide full and clear vision during entry and exit of an airplane; and providing a curtain which is capable of carrying out all of the above object without detracting from its ability to be raised and lowered by wrapping and unwrapping the same from around a storage cylinder or roll.
In the drawing:
FIG. 1 is a fragmentary elevational view of an enclosure in the form of a hangar employing a weather curtain which embodies the principles of the present invention, the hangar door being shown in a fully raised condition to reveal the curtain there behind, and the outline of an airplane behind the curtain being indicated in phantom;
FIG. 2 is a fragmentary, vertical cross sectional view through the hangar taken along line'2--2 of FIG. .1;
FIG. 3 is an enlarged, fragmentary cross sectional view through the curtain taken along line 3--3 of FIG.
FIG. 4 is an enlarged, fragmentary cross sectional view through the hangar and curtain taken along line has an entrance l2 closableby adoor which may be of any suitable character, here indicated as being of the vertically folding type. The weather curtain assembly of the present invention, denoted broadly by the numeral 16, is disposed immediately behind door 14 and includes a curtain l8 suspended acrossentrance 12 by an idler roll 20 and an actable motor 22 which provides power for raising andlowering of curtain 18 Adriven roll 24 operably coupled with-motor 22 provides a base upon which the curtain l8 may be rolled when not in use. 1
The curtain 18 includes a pair of back-to-back, identical sheets 26 and 28 of canvass or other suitably airimpervious material and has a generally upper, barrier portion defined by the flat expanse of sheets 26 and 28, and a lower, pass-through portion defined by a large opening 30 in each sheet. Marginal side extensions of the barrier portion are presented by marginal edge sections 32 on each sheet 26 and 28 on opposite ends of their respective openings 30. The sheets 26 and 28 are sewn together at least in two places along seams 34 and 36 as shown in FIG. 3 so that the openings 30 are in exact registration with one another and are maintained in such registration even during raising and lowering of curtain 18.
The openings 30 of sheets 26 and 28 are ach of such a size and configuration to minimize the pass-through portion of curtain 18 so that a large expanse of curtain 18 may be devoted purely to resisting the flow of air into or out of hangar during passage of an object such as an airplane through entrance l2. In this respect, it is important that each opening 30 conform generally to the basic shape of the object, in this instance an airplane 38. For airplane 38, each opening 30 has a lower, rectangular main area 30a which is adapted to clear the fuselage 40 and wings 42 of the airplane 38 and an upper, centrally located area 30b which adjoins and communicates with area 30a to clear the tail structure 43 of the airplane 38. It will be seen that by limiting the width and height of central area 30b to a size which is just sufficient to clear the largest and tallest tail structure 43 of an airplane contemplated to be using entrance 12, a relatively large expanse of curtain 18 may be retained on opposite sides of area 30b to function as a barrier and resist outflow or inflow of air through entrance l2.
The presence of the additional barrier area on opposite sides of open area 30b is especially important when it is considered that the hangar 10 may be situated in an environment of extremely adverse weather conditions, such as extreme cold with strong, gusty winds or extreme heat. In these situations, every extra amount of curtain 18 that can be devoted to the retention of the temperature controlled air within hangar 12 and the repulsion of ambient air contributes significantly to the maintenance of comfortable working conditions within hangar 10. In this respect, it should be noted also that the marginal side sections 32 of each sheet 26 and 28 further contribute to minimizing the open expanse of curtain l8 and should be as wide as permitted by the wingspan of the largest airplane contemplated for using hangar 10. The double thickness provision of curtain 18 as presented by sheets 26 and 28 is also important in minimizing the passage of air through curtain l8, and it is contemplated that where the cost is not prohibitive, sheets 26 and 28 may be constructed of a solid, homo.- geneous material as opposed to a woven fabric material such as canvas.
The sheets 26 and 28 are provided with an inner and outer series of depending, flexible closure flaps 44 and 46 which fill their corresponding openings 30 to provide limited entry therethrough. Each seriesof flaps 46 and 48 is secured to its corresponding sheet 26 and 28 along the seam 36, and the outer flaps 44 overlap the inner flaps 46 such that the slits presented between adjacent flaps 44 or 46 are covered to minimize the pasduring entry or exit of airplane 38.
Each of the individual flaps 44 and 46 is provided with variable ballast means in the form of a zippered pocket 48 at its lower extremity which is adapted to contain a granular weight material such as sand 50. Through the provision of a zipper 52 on each pocket 48, it is possible to add to or substract from the amount of sand 50 contained within pockets 48, thereby varying their effects as ballast for the flaps 44 and 46.
The curtain 18 is retained in place during passthrough of airplane 38 by the joint efforts of retaining and, guiding structure 54 (FIG. 4) along the ,sides of curtain 18 and transverse stiffening means 56 across the curtain 18. The guiding and retaining structure 54 includes a split tube guide track 58 which extends vertically along each side of curtain 18 on hangar 10 and a following bead 60 formed in each outer. extremity of the marginal sections 32 of sheets 26 and 28, each bead 60 being formed by sewing a flexible element between the sheets 26 and 28 as indicated in FIG. 4. The size of bead 60 is such that it will move longitudinally with ease within tube 58, yet may not be withdrawn from the latter through slit 62 in tube 58. The flexible nature of bead 60 permits curtain 18 to be rolled up during storage.
The transverse stifiening means 56 comprises a pair of inflated tubes 64 and 66 on the sheets 26 and 28 respectively which follow the outline of openings 30 a short distance above the upper extremities of the respective flaps 44 and 46. The tubes 64 and 66 decrease deflection of curtain 18 as a whole when airplane 38 passes through flaps 44 and 46, and thereby facilitate the movement of airplane 38 through flaps 44 and 46. Without tubes 64 and 66, the flaps 44 and 46 would tend to cling to the projecting parts of airplanes 38 since the whole of curtain 18 would bow in upon receiving the push from airplane 38. Tubes 64 and 66 provide a firm, rigid base from which flaps 44 and 46 can swing. Also, as clearly shown in FIG. 3, the tubes 64 and 66 project transversely outwardly from the curtain overhanging the regions within which the flaps 44 and 46 swing. .The tubes 64 and 66 therefore can act as upper limits for the swinging flaps 64 and 66 as is obvious from FIG. 3. In this regard, it will be noted that in hangars where the distance from the entrance 12 to the rear of hangar 10 is such that airplane 38 is maintained closely adjacent curtain 18 when the airplane 38 is parked within hangar 10, the clinging problem may be accentuated. However, the stiffening tubes 64 and 66 discourage such clinging even in this situation, limiting upward swinging of flaps 44 and 46 and urging the same to their normal depending positions, aided by the ballast pockets 48. As shown in FIG. 5, valve fitting 68 is provided on each tube 64 and 68 for inflating or deflating the same.
In addition to the action of transverse stiffening tubes 64 and 68, clinging of the flaps 44 and 46 to the airplane 38 is also discouraged by individual, vertically extending stiffening air tubes 70 (FIG. 6) on the individual flaps 44 and 46. The air pressure in the individual tubes 70 is separate from that of transverse tubes 64 and 66, and tubes 70 may be totally independent of one another or have a common connecting conduit. In ei- '5 ther event, a-valve fitting (not shown) similar to fitting 68 may be provided for tubes 70 to permit regulation of the air pressure therewithin.
It should be apparent from the forgoing that my weather curtain assembly 16 is ideally suited for solving the problems heretofore experienced in maintaining continuity of working conditions within large enclosures such as airplane hangars, particularly in environments of extreme heat or cold. The overlapping flaps 44 and 46 do not allow the passage of air when door 14 is raised; only the forced entry of airplane 38 is permitted. Accordingly, even though the winds outside of hangar may be cold and blustery, or hot and humid, door 14 may be raised and left open for substantial periods of time without fear of losing the comfortable working temperature within hangar 10. The airplane 38 may thus be moved through entrance 12 with all the de- I liberate care and speed which should be exercised when handling expensive, sophisticated equipment of this type.
Many of the flaps 44 and 46 remain undeflected during passage of airplane 38, and these provide a barrier to air seeking to escape from hangar 10 or the ambient air seeking to enter hangar 10. Moreover, the large ex- I pause of solid, barrier area above flaps 44 and 46 and along the ends of openings 30 increases the-ability of curtain 18 to prevent the passage of air substantially beyond that which could be obtained if flaps 44 and 46 extended the full height and width of curtain 18. In the event that the weather conditions existing at hangar 10 are moderate, the curtain 18 may be readily raised and stored in roll form on roll 24, although it may be necessary to first deflate tubes 64, 66, and 70.
Having thus described the invention what is claimed as new and desired to be secured by Letters Patent is:
l. A pass-through curtain for use on an enclosure at least one series of side-by-side, elongated closure flaps depending from said upper portion along the lower extent of the latter,
said flaps having a line of hinging movement defined at their upper ends by their junction with the upper portion,
' said hinge line extending transversely to said flaps for i the full length of said series thereof; and an elongated, overhanging, flap restraining element extending along said hinge line closely adjacent the same for the full length thereof to stiffen the curtain and to resist excessive deflection of the flaps,
said element in its transverse dimension'projecting outwardly for a distance from one side of the curtain beyond the flaps to provide a limit to upward swinging of the flaps in one direction during passthrough.
2. A pass-through curtain as claimed in claim 1,,
the opposite direction.
5. A pass-through curtain as claimed in claim 4, wherein each of said elements comprises an inflatable tube having its outermost periphery overlying the respective regions within which the flaps swing during pass-through. t
6. A pass-through curtain as claimed in claim 5, wherein each of said flaps is provided with a weight at its lowermost end for augmenting the swing-limiting action of said tubes.
|Cited Patent||Filing date||Publication date||Applicant||Title|
|US970130 *||Feb 27, 1909||Sep 13, 1910||Johney E Smith||Curtain-guide.|
|US2939467 *||May 6, 1957||Jun 7, 1960||Hans Meyer||Inflatable structure|
|US3284965 *||Feb 15, 1965||Nov 15, 1966||Erich P Michenfelder||Beach shelter with inflatable ribs|
|US3331425 *||Jun 25, 1965||Jul 18, 1967||Dunham Philip N||Pass-through curtain|
|US3457684 *||Jan 10, 1967||Jul 29, 1969||Midwest Research & Dev Corp||Self-supporting inflatable shelter|
|US3592256 *||Mar 20, 1970||Jul 13, 1971||Knight Silsby H||Curtain construction|
|Citing Patent||Filing date||Publication date||Applicant||Title|
|US4165778 *||May 5, 1978||Aug 28, 1979||John Smith||Flexible strip doors|
|US4232725 *||Dec 6, 1978||Nov 11, 1980||Bsl Corporation||Pass-through weather curtain for garages and the like|
|US4355678 *||Mar 3, 1981||Oct 26, 1982||Acoustic Standards||Acoustic strip curtain|
|US4420027 *||May 18, 1983||Dec 13, 1983||Bsl Corporation||Transparent access curtain for coolers and the like|
|US4550760 *||Dec 5, 1983||Nov 5, 1985||Bsl Corporation||Transparent access curtain for coolers and the like|
|US5025846 *||May 12, 1989||Jun 25, 1991||Frommelt Industries, Inc.||High speed folding door|
|US5170831 *||Mar 24, 1992||Dec 15, 1992||Bilt Michael M||Automatic auxiliary hangar doors and method|
|US5450890 *||Oct 1, 1993||Sep 19, 1995||Rite-Hite Corporation||Roll-up strip curtain barrier apparatus|
|US5520237 *||Sep 28, 1994||May 28, 1996||Kason Industries, Inc.||Strip curtain system|
|US5542463 *||Jul 15, 1994||Aug 6, 1996||Rite-Hite Corporation||Roll-up strip curtain barrier apparatus|
|US6050322 *||Aug 19, 1997||Apr 18, 2000||Kason Industries, Inc.||Strip curtain|
|US6464619||Mar 31, 2000||Oct 15, 2002||Anthony Bondi||Tactile play structure|
|US6470949 *||Feb 8, 2000||Oct 29, 2002||Miguel Angel Iglesias Ballester||Closing system for refrigerating chambers|
|US7390250||Oct 29, 2005||Jun 24, 2008||Paul Andrew Reinhardt||Temporarily mountable strip door system, especially for temporary climate control of an area|
|US7464506||Sep 24, 2004||Dec 16, 2008||Atkinson Allen J||Pneumatic hurricane shutters|
|US7578097||Sep 19, 2003||Aug 25, 2009||Rite-Hite Holding Corporation||Inflatable door seal|
|US8800632 *||Jun 8, 2010||Aug 12, 2014||Andrew Paul Cooper||Smoke or fire barrier|
|US20050060937 *||Sep 19, 2003||Mar 24, 2005||Jason Dondlinger||Inflatable door seal|
|US20060070305 *||Sep 24, 2004||Apr 6, 2006||Atkinson Allen J||Pneumatic hurricane shutters|
|US20060102297 *||Oct 29, 2005||May 18, 2006||Reinhardt Paul A||Method and apparatus for temporary climate control of an area|
|US20120125546 *||Jun 8, 2010||May 24, 2012||Coopers Fire Limited||Smoke or fire barrier|
|US20150083347 *||Sep 19, 2014||Mar 26, 2015||George V. Garcia||Architectural shield apparatus and methods|
|WO1985000050A1 *||Jun 15, 1984||Jan 3, 1985||Chemical & Power Ass||Self closing environmental barrier|
|International Classification||E06B3/00, E06B3/01|


George Howard-Chappell and the engineering team at Aston Martin Racing used a cutting edge new software package in the design of the new AMR-ONE Le Mans car. The team selected and implemented PTC’s Creo,a development of ProEngineer, which was only launched in late 2010. It also employed the same firm’s Windchill PLM software.
Aston Martin is the only manufacturer that produces a car to compete in every category of the FIA GT class structure. It has moved away from its previous third-party chassis strategy to develop its next generation LMP1, the AMR-ONE from scratch. This new racing vehicle is now being designed and engineered from the ground up using Creo Elements/Pro and Windchill to manage the development process. In addition to the designers, the purchasing department uses Windchill for its request for quotation process, enabling collaboration with suppliers.
“The PTC solutions have far greater capabilities than our previous toolset,” said Ian Ludgate, Chief Designer at Aston Martin Racing. “Although we are still very early in our learning of the system, we’ve already seen significant benefits in simple things like mechanism design, which is built into the Creo Elements/Pro toolset and subsequently distributed by Windchill.”
“We implemented Creo Elements/Pro to optimize our design process and Windchill to streamline and manage our processes,” said Steve Baker, PLM Specialist at Aston Martin Racing. “To achieve ultimate efficiency, we needed a single, comprehensive PLM system that supports the entire design from early-stage product development to manufacturing. With Windchill, our data will be complete and in one location, which means we will save time by accessing the right data quickly.”


text:
Back to: Landscapes
A January sunset across Black Moshannon Lake in central Pennsylvania. This motif will become the basis for a larger landscape in the future.
I came across this scene during a late afternoon hike following a fresh snowfall. I credit that park visit with helping me to break a terrible case of artist’s block. It was a serene, magical evening.
Nature nurtures and inspires.


2.2.3 Data storage
When referring to storage space, we use the term bytes (B). A single byte is a combination of 8 bits. Other measurements include:
- kilobytes (KB) − approximately one thousand (10^3) bytes
- megabytes (MB) − approximately one million (10^6) bytes
- gigabytes (GB) − approximately one billion (10^9) bytes
- terabytes (TB) − approximately one trillion (10^12) bytes
- petabytes (PB) − approximately one quadrillion (10^15) bytes
- exabytes (EB) − approximately one quintillion (10^18) bytes.
If you have never seen this symbol before ^ it is a common shorthand for a mathematical power. A power is a number that is multiplied by itself a number of times. For example 10 to the power of 2 (10^2) is 10*10 which is 100, again 10 to the power of 4 (10^4) is 10*10*10*10 or 10,000.
Over the years, the amount of available storage space has increased exponentially. For example, not long ago the storage space of hard drives was typically measured in megabytes. Today, terabyte hard drives are common.
There are three primary types of data storage:
- Local data refers to data that is accessed directly, by local devices. Hard disks, USB flash drives, and CDs/DVDs are examples of local data storage. See Table 3 for more information.
|Optical drives||USB flash drives||Hard drives||External hard drives|
|An optical drive is used to write data onto a CD or DVD. These portable storage devices are inexpensive and easy to label and store.||USB flash drives are removable and rewritable. These portable storage devices can hold gigabytes of data.||Hard drives come pre-installed on most desktop or laptop computers. These devices store data on magnetic platters. They can store large amounts of data, 1 terabyte or more.||External hard drives that are enclosed in a case and are usually attached to your computer via a USB or Firewire port.|
- Centralised data is stored and shared from a single centralised server. This information can be accessed remotely by multiple devices over the network or the internet. Using a centralised data server can result in bottlenecks and inefficiencies, and can become a single point of failure.
- Distributed data is managed by a central database management system (DBMS). Distributed data is data that is replicated and stored in multiple locations. This allows for easy and efficient sharing of data. Distributed data is accessed through the use of local and global applications. With a distributed system, there is no single source of failure. Should one site lose power, users are still able to access data from the other sites. See Figure 9.


text:
Chargers Hold L.A. Kickoff Ceremony At The Forum FIA Approves Sale Of F1 To Liberty Media NFL Gets Credit For Minority Hirings LPGA Committed To Joint Event With PGA Tour Goodell Bypassing AFC Title Game Draws Criticism Falcons' Seat License Sales Trending Up Chargers Introduce New Coach Anthony Lynn Strength Of U.S. Tennis Shown At Aussie Open Cowboys' Jerry Jones Hosts "Football Summit" Packers-Cowboys Sets Divisional Game Record
Upcoming Conferences and Events
May 31 - Jun 1
SBD/January 30, 2014/Leagues and Governing Bodies
Drew Brees Calls NFL's $765M Concussion Settlement "Just A Drop In The Bucket"
Published January 30, 2014
WANT MORE GREAT STORIES LIKE THIS?
CLICK ON ONE OF THESE BUTTONS
TIP OF THE CAP? The NATIONAL FOOTBALL POST's Jason Cole reported the NFLPA is debating whether to use a $2M per-team option to "help increase the salary cap" to more than $128M in '14. The move would "end a string of four consecutive years in which the cap has been below its high-water mark" in '09 under the previous CBA. The union also is "hoping to reverse two years of uncomfortable negotiations aimed at boosting the cap and avoiding player unrest." The salary cap is "preliminarily expected to increase" to $126.3M for the '14 season, which would "mark the fifth straight year that the cap was below" the '09 level. If the cap comes in at the current projection, the union could use the $2M option to "boost the cap" to at least $128.3M (NATIONALFOOTBALLPOST.com, 1/27).
TAX SEASON: ADWEEK's Katy Bachman noted two bills that are currently going through Congress "would take away" the NFL and NHL's non-profit, tax-exempt statuses. NFL and NHL franchises currently "are taxable, but the leagues themselves are not." Rep. Jason Chaffetz (R-Utah), who introduced the Properly Reducing Overexemptions Sports Act, said, "In reality, the NFL and the NHL are for-profit businesses, and they should be taxed as such. They are not charities nor are they traditional trade organizations like local chambers of commerce." Bachman noted Chaffetz' bill "is identical to the legislation introduced last fall" by Sen. Tom Coburn (R-Okla.) (ADWEEK.com, 1/29).


text:
Effect of Aerobic Exercise Training on Blood Pressure in Indians: Systematic Review
Introduction. High blood pressure (BP) is one of the most important modifiable risk factors for cardiovascular diseases, which accounts for one in every eight deaths worldwide. It has been predicted that, by 2020, there would be 111% increase in cardiovascular deaths in India. Aerobic exercise in the form of brisk walking, jogging, running, and cycling would result in reduction in BP. Many meta-analytical studies from western world confirm this. However, there is no such review from Indian subcontinent. Objective. Our objective is to systematically review and report the articles from India in aerobic exercise on blood pressure. Methodology. Study was done in March 2016 in Google Scholar using search terms “Aerobic exercise” AND “Training” AND “Blood pressure” AND “India.” This search produced 3210 titles. Results. 24 articles were identified for this review based on inclusion and exclusion criteria. Total of 1107 subjects participated with median of 25 subjects. Studies vary in duration from +3 weeks to 12 months with each session lasting 15–60 minutes and frequency varies from 3 to 8 times/week. The results suggest that there was mean reduction of −05.00 mmHg in SBP and −03.09 mmHg in DBP after aerobic training. Conclusion. Aerobic training reduces the blood pressure in Indians.
Elevated blood pressure, also known as hypertension, is one of the most important modifiable risk factors for cardiovascular disease and is accounting for 10% of overall deaths in India . In a meta-analysis of 142 studies from rural and urban populations of India, it was concluded that hypertension is emerging as a major health problem in India  and is more in urban than in rural subjects  and is associated with a higher risk of developing coronary heart disease (CHD), congestive heart failure, and stroke [4, 5].
Aerobic exercises are advised for health promotion and prophylaxis for many cardiovascular diseases. They refer to all exercises that involve major muscle groups and improve oxygen consumption by the body. Many methods of aerobic exercise are available like walking, jogging, running, cycling, and others. Recent meta-analytical study from western world confirms that aerobic exercise would result in clinically significant reduction in blood pressure . Aerobic exercise such as walking not only improves fitness but also improves overall quality of life and decreases all-cause mortality [7, 8].
Even though it is confirmed from western world that exercises are helpful, there is little available evidence from India. Many of Indian literatures are grey in nature, that is, short studies done for postdoctoral dissertation or doctoral thesis which are not available in standard electronic database, namely, Pubmed, CINHAL, and EMBASE. However, recent rise in electronic journals with or without print copy encourages young researchers from India to publish their research in them. But these journals are not indexed in major databases and hence are not noticed and reported by other authors. Thus the objective of this paper is to collect the available literature from India using secondary search engine “Google Scholar” and derive the conclusion whether aerobic exercise is reducing blood pressure in normal and pathological conditions or not in Indians.
Computerized literature search was performed using “Google Scholar” search engine during March 2016. Keywords or search protocol used for this review is “Aerobic Exercise” AND “Training” AND “Blood Pressure” AND “India.” Inclusion criteria for this review were as follows: (i) experimental study with post-premeasurement of BP, (ii) aerobic exercise as the exercise intervention with minimal duration of 3 weeks, (iii) full-text articles in English published in journals with ISSN number, (iv) study done in any part of India without any time limitation, and (v) subjects being either normal or with following clinical conditions: obesity, hypertension, and diabetes. A main exclusion criterion was other clinical conditions (2 articles were excluded based on this criterion). Search protocol resulted in 3210 articles. Authors Sonu Punia and Sivachidambaram Kulandaivelan reviewed 3210 titles individually and selected articles based on inclusion and exclusion criteria. Sonu Punia selected 19 articles and Sivachidambaram Kulandaivelan selected 24 articles. Authors Vandana Punia and Varun Singh studied 43 articles and selected 25 articles (18 were duplicates). Results were prepared by Varun Singh. During this, we found two articles which used the same results in their papers [9, 10]. Recent one was excluded from the review .
Mean difference with 95% CI (confidence interval) for individual studies was calculated using mean, standard deviation (SD), and sample size (this was not possible in [11–15] due to nonavailability of SD). If there are 2 or more groups in an article [12, 15–17], standard mean of all groups BP values was used as single measure. Subtotal and overall reduction in SBP and DBP were calculated by adding individual BP values divided by number of studies ( was excluded from analysis due to this criterion). Mean difference with 95% CI was calculated using standard formula as described earlier.
We selected 24 articles [10–33] with 1107 subjects (mean: 46; median: 25) for this review. Even though we did not use any time limits, all articles included in this reviews were from 2009 to 2015. Out of 24 articles, 13 articles [10–13, 16, 19–26] used healthy subjects and 11 articles [14, 15, 17, 18, 27–33] used clinical condition subjects with hypertension [14, 18, 27, 28] and diabetes [15, 17, 29–33]. Aerobic exercise was performed for the mean period of 40 minutes (median: 30) with a frequency of 4.8 days·week−1 (median: 5) and total duration of 12.5 weeks (median: 12) (Table 1).
A total of 5 articles [11, 16, 19–21] were included in young healthy adults population with total of 165 participants (mean: 33; median: 15; males/females: 73/92). The number of sessions in a week ranged from 3 to 8 sessions (mean: 5; median: 4). Total duration of program ranged from 4 to 16 weeks (mean: 11.2; median: 12.0). A total of 6 articles [12, 13, 22–25] were included in healthy middle and old age population with total of 541 participants (mean: 90; median: 25). Four articles mentioned the duration of session which ranged from 15 minutes to 45 minutes (mean: 35; median: 30). The number of sessions in a week ranged from 3 to 6 sessions (mean: 4.7; median: 5). Total duration of program ranged from 3 to 16 weeks (mean: 9; median: 11). A total of 2 articles [10, 26] were included in obese adults population with total of 40 participants (mean: 20; male/female: 30/10) (Table 1).
A total of 4 articles [14, 18, 27, 28] were included in aerobic exercise in hypertensive patients population with total of 122 participants (mean: 30.5; median: 28.5). Duration of exercise in single session ranged from 30 minutes to 60 minutes (mean: 40; median: 40). Frequency of exercise per week ranged from 3 to 5 days (mean: 4; median: 4). Total duration of exercise program ranged from 6 to 8 weeks (mean: 6.5; median: 6). A total of 7 articles [15, 17, 29–33] were included in aerobic exercise in diabetic patients population with total of 239 participants (mean: 34; median: 24). Duration of single session ranged from 15 minutes to 45 minutes (mean: 34; median: 30). Frequency of exercise per week ranged from 3 days to 7 days (mean: 5.3; median: 6). Total duration of the program ranged from 7 weeks to 52 weeks (mean: 21; median: 16) (Table 1).
Table 2 shows the effect of aerobic training of 3 weeks or more on blood pressure in individual studies basis. The results are classified into healthy adults and other clinical conditions, that is, hypertension and diabetes.
Figure 1 shows summary of aerobic training on SBP in Indians. There is a mean reduction of 3.71 mmHg (95% CI: −2.74 to −4.68) in healthy Indians, 5.38 mmHg (95% CI: −2.99 to −7.77) in hypertensive Indians, and 7.24 mmHg (95% CI: −5.89 to −8.59) in diabetic Indians. Overall, aerobic training with mean duration of 12.5 weeks reduced SBP to 05.00 mmHg (95% CI: −4.18 to −5.82) in Indians.
Figure 2 shows summary of aerobic training on DBP in Indians. There is a mean reduction of 2.79 mmHg (95% CI: −2.12 to −3.46) in healthy Indians, 3.66 mmHg (95% CI: −2.02 to −5.30) in hypertensive Indians, and 3.41 (95% CI: −2.61 to −4.21) in diabetic Indians. Overall, aerobic training with mean single session duration of 40 minutes reduced DBP to 3.09 mmHg (95% CI: −2.57 to −3.61) in Indians.
Out of 24 included articles (23 for meta-analysis), 10 studies used control group (5 healthy subjects and 5 subjects with clinical condition) [10, 12, 14, 17, 23, 24, 26, 30, 32, 33]. Subgroup analysis of control versus experimental group in healthy Indian subjects showed mean reduction of 2.92 mmHg in SBP and 2.25 mmHg in DBP in favor of experimental group. The same analysis in clinical condition showed mean reduction of 5.4 mmHg in SBP and 2.6 mmHg in DBP in favor of experimental group.
Primary objective of this review is to collect and present the literature from India of aerobic exercise on blood pressure. We found 24 articles from different parts of India (north, 5, south, 10, east, 3, and west, 6). Results show 5.00 mmHg reduction in SBP and 3.09 mmHg reduction in DBP. This result is supported by several meta-analyses from western population [6, 34–36]. Cornelissen and Smart  studied the effect of aerobic exercise on blood pressure in 105 study groups (93 RCTs) with 3500 subjects. Their results showed mean difference (MD) of −3.5 mmHg in SBP and −2.5 mmHg in DBP. Whelton et al.  studied effect of aerobic exercise on blood pressure in 53 RCTs (2419 subjects). They found MD of −3.84 mmHg in SBP (−4.97 to −2.72) and −2.58 mmHg in DBP (−3.35 to −1.81). Halbert et al.  analyzed 26 RCTs of at least 4-week aerobic training on blood pressure. Their results are similar to our findings (SBP, −04.70 mmHg, and DBP, −03.10 mmHg). All the three meta-analyses included here used either normotensive or hypertensive subjects only; diabetes was not reported in these meta-analyses. So we did another subanalysis for healthy and hypertensive studies which showed mean reduction of 4.03 mmHg (95% CI: −3.05 to −5.01) in SBP and of 2.96 mmHg (95% CI: −2.29 to −3.63) in DBP.
As compared to control group, aerobic training reduced 4.16 mmHg in SBP and 2.43 mmHg in DBP in experimental group of Indians which is lower end of 95% CI in post-premean MD of present study. This is in agreement with western meta-analysis [6, 35, 36]. We compared individual studies’ SBP MD (95% CI) with overall meta-analysis’ SBP mean (Figure 1) and results showed that 16 of 23 studies are in agreement with meta-analysis’ SBP mean. Three articles (2 healthy subjects [16, 22] and 1 diabetic subject ) only deviated from meta-analysis’ SBP mean. 17 of 23 studies’ DBP MD (95% CI) are in agreement with meta-analysis’ DBP mean (Figure 2). Two articles (both of diabetic population [29, 31]) only deviated from meta-analysis’ DBP mean. This suggests that all articles’ results are reliable to each other. The mean reduction of BP in all the three western meta-analyses [6, 35, 36] is within 95% CI of present meta-analysis; hence, we could predict that future studies from India will reproduce the same reduction after aerobic training.
Hypertension is a growing problem in India with every third to fifth Indian as hypertensive [2, 37, 38]. Approximately 10% of death in India was attributable to high blood pressure . It is the third leading risk factor for disease burden in both developed and developing nations worldwide . According to SEEK study, ischemic heart disease, stroke, and peripheral vascular diseases are significantly higher in hypertensive Indian population than in control . In a recent meta-analysis of 18 prospective cohorts, compared to normotension, prehypertension elevated the risk of cardiovascular disease (CVD) by 1.55 (relative risk, RR), coronary heart disease (CHD) by 1.50, and stroke by 1.71 . It is one of the most common modifiable risk factors in CVD. Mean reduction of 3.0 mmHg in SBP could reduce mortality from CHD by 6% and from stroke by 9% . Another study found that rise of SBP by 3.0 mmHg and DBP by 2.3 mmHg would result in estimated 12% increased risk for CHD and 24% increased risk for stroke .
There are some limitations observed in this review. We used improvement in BP using after minus before values, except one study , and one study used MD instead of blood pressure values . Sample size, training duration, session duration, and frequency of training are varied between studies which may underestimate or overestimate our interpretations in results and we do not use any statistical tests to see their association with BP lowering effect.
Aerobic training of 4-week duration would reduce BP to a clinically significant level in Indian population. This reduction is more pronounced in clinical conditions like hypertension and diabetes. So this type of training should be used as primary prevention in high risk population and as secondary prevention in hypertension, diabetes, and so forth.
The authors declare that there are no competing interests regarding the publication of this paper.
P. K. Changela, “A study to compare the effect of aerobic and resistance training on cardiovascular fitness in young obese sedentary females,” International Journal of Scientific and Research Publications, vol. 3, no. 2, 9 pages, 2013.View at: Google Scholar
S. Chaudhary, M. K. Kang, and J. S. Sandhu, “The effects of aerobic versus resistance training on cardiovascular fitness in obese sedentary females,” Asian Journal of Sports Medicine, vol. 1, no. 4, pp. 177–184, 2010.View at: Google Scholar
J. Golda and J. G. D. Margaret, “Impact of cardio-respiratory endurance training resistance training and core strength training on selected physiological variables among college athletes,” Journal of Academic Sports Scholar, vol. 2, no. 12, 5 pages, 2013.View at: Google Scholar
S. Selvakumar and S. C. Raja, “Effects of aerobic exercise programme on different terrains on blood pressure and assertiveness,” International Journal of Recent Research and Applied Studies, vol. 2, no. 13, pp. 55–58, 2015.View at: Google Scholar
S. Lakshminarayanan, S. M. Bala, M. Ramanujam, and G. Kannan, “Effectiveness of physical activity promotion in blood pressure and blood sugar reduction: a community-based intervention study in rural south India,” Journal of Family and Community Medicine, vol. 19, no. 2, pp. 81–87, 2012.View at: Publisher Site | Google Scholar
L. G. Saptharishi, M. B. Soudarssanane, D. Thiruselvakumar et al., “Community-based randomized controlled trial of non-pharmacological interventions in prevention and control of hypertension among young adults,” Indian Journal of Community Medicine, vol. 34, no. 4, pp. 329–334, 2009.View at: Publisher Site | Google Scholar
A. Sadhesh and G. V. Kumar, “Influence of low to moderate intense training between type 1 and type 2 diabetic,” International Journal of Health, Physical Education & Computer Science in Sports, vol. 16, pp. 68–72, 2014.View at: Google Scholar
H. Patel and D. Desai, “A study to evaluate the changes in blood pressure values of hypertensive patients post aerobic and progressive resistance exercise (PRE),” International Journal of Health Sciences and Research, vol. 3, no. 2, pp. 183–189, 2014.View at: Google Scholar
K. Munieskhar, M. V. Muralidhar, M. Venkatachalam, and D. Hemalatha, “Comparision of heart rate and blood pressure changes during walking and running before and after training in healthy adult women,” International Journal of Physiotherapy and Research, vol. 2, no. 3, pp. 537–541, 2014.View at: Google Scholar
J. M. Harsoda and G. Purohit, “Effect of different modes of aerobic exercise on cardiorespiratory efficiency and exercise performance in sedentary males,” International Journal of Basic and Applied Physiology, vol. 2, no. 1, p. 72, 2013.View at: Google Scholar
S. Karadkhedkar and N. D. Somwanshi, “Effect of aerobic training on VO2 max and other physiological parameters in working women,” Indian Journal of Clinical Anatomy and Physiology, vol. 2, no. 2, pp. 105–107, 2015.View at: Google Scholar
V. Singh, P. Thakur, and B. Khandelwal, “Effectiveness of short-term aerobic exercise program on cardiovascular risk profile in moderate risk adults: a randomized controlled pilot study,” CHRISMED Journal of Health and Research, vol. 2, no. 1, pp. 38–45, 2015.View at: Publisher Site | Google Scholar
L. Subitha, S. M. Bala, and M. Ramanujam, “Community based physical exercise program for the elderly in South India,” National Journal of Community Medicine, vol. 3, no. 4, pp. 675–680, 2012.View at: Google Scholar
P. S. Raju, “Twelve weeks of aerobic dance impact on cardiovascular parameters of male obese adults,” International Journal of Physical Education, Fitness & Sports, vol. 3, no. 1, pp. 51–55, 2014.View at: Google Scholar
A. V. Jaiswal, A. H. Kazi, S. B. Gunjal, P. M. Tawde, A. A. Mahajan, and S. M. Khatri, “Effectiveness of interval training versus circuit training exercises on blood pressure, heart rate and rate of perceived exertion in individual with prehypertension,” International Journal of Health Sciences and Research, vol. 5, no. 10, pp. 149–156, 2015.View at: Google Scholar
M. Bose and V. Dhanalakshmi, “Effect of short duration aerobic exercises on resting blood pressure and heart rate in pre-hypertensive and stage 1 hypertensive subjects,” International Journal of Physiotherapy and Occupational Therapy, vol. 6, no. 4, pp. 191–195, 2012.View at: Google Scholar
S. S. Ghosh and G. S. Roy, “Effects of six month aerobic training on selected physiological variables of moderately active female NIDDM,” International Journal of Movement Education and Social Science, vol. 2, no. 2, pp. 4–8, 2013.View at: Google Scholar
N. B. Sanghani, D. N. Parchwani, K. M. Palandurkar, A. M. Shah, and J. V. Dhanani, “Impact of lifestyle modification on glycemic control in patients with type 2 diabetes mellitus,” Indian Journal of Endocrinology and Metabolism, vol. 17, no. 6, pp. 1030–1039, 2013.View at: Publisher Site | Google Scholar
B. Sridhar, N. Haleagrahara, R. Bhat, A. B. Kulur, S. Avabratha, and P. Adhikary, “Increase in the heart rate variability with deep breathing in diabetic patients after 12-month exercise training,” Tohoku Journal of Experimental Medicine, vol. 220, no. 2, pp. 107–113, 2010.View at: Publisher Site | Google Scholar
E. Arora, S. Shenoy, and J. S. Sandhu, “Effects of resistance training on metabolic profile of adults with type 2 diabetes,” Indian Journal of Medical Research, vol. 129, no. 5, pp. 515–519, 2009.View at: Google Scholar
S. Shenoy, E. Arora, and J. Sandhu, “Effects of progressive resistance training and aerobic exercise on type 2 diabetics in Indian population,” International Journal of Diabetes & Metabolism, vol. 17, pp. 27–30, 2009.View at: Google Scholar
J. A. Halbert, C. A. Silagy, P. Finucane, R. T. Withers, P. A. Hamdorf, and G. R. Andrews, “The effectiveness of exercise training in lowering blood pressure: a meta-analysis of randomised controlled trials of 4 weeks or longer,” Journal of Human Hypertension, vol. 11, no. 10, pp. 641–649, 1997.View at: Publisher Site | Google Scholar
T. Midha, B. Nath, R. Kumari, Y. K. Rao, and U. Pandey, “Prevalence of hypertension in India: a meta-analysis,” World Journal of Meta-Analysis, vol. 1, no. 2, pp. 83–89, 2013.View at: Google Scholar
Y. M. K. Farag, B. V. Mittal, S. R. Keithi-Reddy et al., “Burden and predictors of hypertension in India: results of SEEK (Screening and Early Evaluation of Kidney Disease) study,” BMC Nephrology, vol. 15, article 42, 2014.View at: Google Scholar
P. Poirier, T. D. Giles, G. A. Bray et al., “Obesity and cardiovascular disease: pathophysiology, evaluation, and effect of weight loss: an update of the 1997 American Heart Association Scientific Statement on Obesity and Heart Disease from the Obesity Committee of the Council on Nutrition, Physical Activity, and Metabolism,” Circulation, vol. 113, no. 6, pp. 898–918, 2006.View at: Publisher Site | Google Scholar