Recent comments

:)) How re you ???
Marie Curie High School

my mom treated me un fairly thanksgiving day.i am 15 and my sister is 12.she has bladder trouble and has to wear diapers and plastic pants 24/7.yester my mom dressed my sister in her holiday dress and then came into my room with one of sisters diaper and plastic pants and ordered me to take off my panties and lay down on my bed so she could diaper me.i protested loudlt but she said there was no argument.i had to lay there while she put the diaper and plastic pants on me.she told me she wanted me in a diaper and rubberpants also under my holiday dress.mom told all the relatives that her two lovely daughters had diapers and rubberpants on under their dresses.i was so humiliated!

Doctors prescribed antibiotics again and again.Five weeks of antibiotics and no change, pain day and night, nose always plugged up despite the saltwater "teakettle" procedure.
Internet site suggests only every fifteens person helped by antibiotics.Mayo Clinic reports many cavities containing fungus,not helped by antib.
A home care nurse told me get acupuncture; the insurance even pays part of the bill. (in B.C. Canada).
I found an acupunturist, after my appointment I could not believe it;!!!instandly no more pain!!Within the hour my stuffed up nose started to clear, breathing freely again. Gee doesnt seem to matter to the Chinese whether the infection is bacterial, fungal or whatever; maybe its because the narrow entrances are plugged up or in a cramp?
It cost me $250.00 for antibiotics,6 weeks of pain,$ 130.00
for acupunture, can we catch up with chinese medicin,please?

I really dug this. Since vitamin c also reduces inflammatory markers, like C Reactive Protein, I bet the two would synergize very, very nicely. (see this study.)
Vitamin C supplements can reduce levels of C-reactive protein, a marker of inflammation and chronic disease risk in humans, according to a new study led by researchers at the University of California, Berkeley. [...] Participants who took about 500 milligrams of vitamin C supplements per day saw a 24 percent drop in plasma C-reactive protein (CRP) levels after two months.

As far as I know, Vitamin C, like fish oil, isn't particularly dangerous to take a lot of. Kind of convenient, since many also important supplements have a small threshold of activity, like Vitamin D.

Also, this article on omega-3 also mentions another muscle protein study:
Fish oil given to steers resulted in an increase in protein metabolism when compared to controls. The steers were able to use twice the amount of amino acids to synthesize new proteins. This is hypothesized to result from an increase in insulin sensitivity by the ingestion of fish oil in the steers. The ability to convert nutrients into muscle decreases with age, a consequence of increased insulin resistance of aging muscle cells.[50]

50. Gingras, Andrée-Anne; Phillip James White, P Yvan Chouinard, Pierre Julien, Teresa A Davis, Luce Dombrowski, Yvon Couture, Pascal Dubreuil, Alexandre Myre, Karen Bergeron, André Marette, M Carole Thivierge (2007-02-15). "Long-chain omega-3 fatty acids regulate bovine whole-body protein metabolism by promoting muscle insulin signalling to the Akt-mTOR-S6K1 pathway and insulin sensitivity". The Journal of Physiology 579 (Pt 1): 269-284.

(Note: This is in reply to Re: Re: range/domain transformation at <http://www.scienceblog.com/cms/blog/8227-finite-possibilities-finite-element-method-26331.html#comment-46518>.)

popiol:

You state:

Besides, this discussion has completely missed the point.

If this is the case, then who was it that took us into the computer architecture argument in the first place?

You then state:

The point is that instead of changing the set of basis functions one can restate the problem, and that can be done independently of the approximation method.

Did you not read my "Re: range/domain transformation" post (at <http://www.scienceblog.com/cms/blog/8227-finite-possibilities-finite-element-method-26331.html#comment-46472>)? If you had, you, hopefully, would have noted where I stated:

... since the "rational" part of Non-Uniform Rational B-splines (NURBs) is only about taking a ratio of B-splines, the modification, if you will, occurs wholly within the range... The same is true if you simply want to look at is as replacing y(x) with u(x)/v(x).

On the other hand, you are certainly free to consider leaving this ratio like "reformulation" (y(x) → u(x)/v(x)) to a separate issue from "the approximation method (as long as it's a general method)", at least so long as facilities are provided for the appropriate restrictions on the ratio functions* (such as constraints on the sum of squares of the coefficients of the denominator functions). Given this proviso, I have no issue with separating this from the rest of the method. ...

* Actually, since any given problem, presented to your "solver", may have any number of additional constraints on the functions, and/or their coefficients, such facilities really should be provided as a part of a general "solver".

So where's the disagreement here?

However, you go on to state:

The point is also that instead of restating the problem or changing the basis functions you can obtain the same result (with the same error bound) by adding more knots or increasing the approximation degree. Of course, the cost of these approaches, measured in the time and memory usage, will be different. Different, but not necessarily higher. For instance, adding more knots surely spends more memory, but evaluation of an approximated value for a given input can be actually faster because the approximation for each piece of a piecewise function will be simpler.

This is where you make unfounded assertions that suggest both a misunderstanding of floating-point architecture (see my "Computer Architecture (Re: Re: Re: range/domain transformation)", at <http://www.scienceblog.com/cms/blog/8227-finite-possibilities-finite-element-method-26331.html#comment-46556>), and the relationship between NURBs and B-splines (and, hence, any polynomial approximation).

The truth is 1) NURBs (computationally nearly trivially) reduce to B-spines (of the non-uniform variety, of course) when the control points of the "extra" dimension (that gets mapped to the denominator of the NURB) are all the same value (it is easy to choose constraints, mentioned above, such that the value is one/unity in such cases); 2) The addition of knots and/or increasing the approximation degree increases various forms of computational instability (though many can be traced back to issues of roundoff error, higher degree polynomial approximations have additional instability issues); and 3) The tradeoff in approximation power can be dramatic in many important cases (as I've tried to point out before). This tradeoff can be from an exact solution with only a single second order NURB segment (computed at only the additional expense of a single additional dimension in the range, and a single division per point that need be computed) vs. an arbitrarily large number of polynomial segments.

While it is true that if you only need to do the computations at a handful of points, you may be able to get away with as many linear segments as points to be evaluated (actually, a few less), but what good is such an approximation, especially if derivatives are needed as well? What if other points are desired later? Sure, I can approximate any continuous surface to arbitrary precision using only first order polynomials, but that can sure take an arbitrarily large number of such segments to get to any arbitrary accuracy.

I will certainly concede that there may be cases where using purely piecewise polynomials one may be able to save a little on memory and/or computational time. However, due to the nearly trivial reduction of NURBs to polynomials, this is not likely to be a large number of cases.

On the other hand, given the proviso I have restated above (about user constraint equations), as I have restated above, I have no problem leaving this as a choice for the users. Just don't force your "only polynomials" philosophy on the users, or pretend it's anything more than a choice/preference (that may or may not have benefits in some cases).

David

Hi, I'm Angela and you are just a amazing person with good hopes and great thoughts and should be awarded for giving your opinion. I truly believe people who are infected should live there lives normally. I have both HSV 1 and HSV 2. I'm the same person with or without this disease it doesn't control me. I don't get symtoms I'm very careful but the sick thing is my ex bf didn't have it and i found out i had it when i went to the doctors and i was currently still with my ex and thought he gave it to me but he didn't but i didn't test myself before i was with him so it couldv'e been my ex bf before him but anyway we kissed alot i didn't have any breakouts on my face and he didn't contract the disease i don't get it do you get from someone who has a sore on there face or people without sores on there face because obvisously my ex didn't get it so are they telling the truth about people still contracting this disease even without symtoms. Manifesto i believe in everything you have said. You helped me so much. You don't even know. hope we can keep in contact you are someone who has alot of knowledge.

This is a topic in which I have great interest. The citation here is from 1997, and Canup has done some additional interesting work since then.

However, it is important to note that the Giant Impact Hypothesis is still the one that most scientists find most convincing, as the Wikipedia article notes. Wikipedia is not a definitive source, of course, but this article seems balanced and had plenty of additional references.

The degree to which this is accepted is reflected in the terminology that us usually applied. It is called a hypothesis and not a theory, which means that even those who accept it as the most likely explanation are keeping their minds open to alternatives.

I included that impact event in the first chapter of one of my 2001 books for middle grade readers Collision Course: Cosmic Impacts and Life on Earth. I was not able to discuss the nuances of alternative hypotheses there. Instead, I used that purported impact to move into a discussion of what life on Earth would be like if there was no moon.

I also discuss that in my "Ask Dr. Fred" question on my website, What if the Earth had no Moon?.

Fred Bortz
Science Books for Young Readers

Hi Tad

Nice thinking. Most know there's plenty wrong with our current understanding of physics, but whether the truth would ever now be accepted is another matter!

Check this out; In the relativistic velocity adjustment; It's ok for observer B to see objects A and C approaching from different directions, at say v1 and v2 giving an observed closing speed between them of v1 + v2. Yet the superluminal motion often observed in the cosmos can't really be happening as it's said it would breach SR!
Are we really an intellegent species!??
Peter Jackson

Transvaginal appendectomies was published in 2001 under the name of “Operative Culdolaparoscopy: A new Approach combining operative culdsocopy with minilaparoscopy” JAAGL. 2001; 8: 438-441

Dear friend,

This concept of oldest language is a real nonsense,some of us agree this.But there are many who are trying to get some extra recognition by the world community.Nobody opposes self pride,if it doesn't hurt anyone.Why people never understand this.Just assume,If there was only one language in this world none of us would have been in nonsense disputes like this.But,why there is diversity? How can you really love and respect yourself while cursing and critisizing others simultaneously...........All these over critics and over arguments are just nonsense........One should understand the power of silence,and try to achieve the ultimate goal.It's very true that when we reach towards truth our thoughts will be unselfish..........

Try to have a broad mind........

Get rid of your well and see the big sea ahead your eyes...............

Hi,
i am a hairy girl...initially when i saw hair sprouting i was a bit upset, i wen to doctor and all and i was fine just a lil more male hormone which caused body hair.
To tell you i have dark , long body hair on my lower legs some on my thighs also, a visible dark hair in middle of abdomen "happy trail" but luckily fine hair on my arms and no hair on face/chest.
my hair is all natural and soft..i never let them get into my mind , i always have fun in my group which includes good looking boys!
i have a caring boyfriend and to tell you i have more hair on my legs than him and our happy tril is similar......and he actually loves my hair.!!

so does being hairy make any difference to life??
you just need to change the way you look at it and life.

I thought I had male hormones lol, cause of how hairy I was, Ive never let a guy get to close in my life cause I'm so hairy to. My legs are hairy like thick man hair, an little hairs on the side of my face, an light color hair on my chin. I have unwanted hair on my butt an back. It's do disgusting to me. I hate myself sometimes. Cause I have to shave everyday just to maintain my looks, cause I'm very pretty but I hate all this hair :(.. My toes even need to be shaved it sucks so bad. No one knows how bad I want laser hair removal. Maybe I'll get really rich one day.