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Distinguished Professor Sang Yup Lee Honored with ..
< Distinguished Professor Sang Yup Lee > Vice President for Research Sang Yup Lee received the 2021 Charles D. Scott Award from the Society for Industrial Microbiology and Biotechnology. Distinguished Professor Lee from the Department of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering at KAIST is the first Asian awardee. The Charles D. Scott Award, initiated in 1995, recognizes individuals who have made significant contributions to enable and further the use of biotechnology to produce fuels and chemicals. The award is named in honor of Dr. Charles D. Scott, who founded the Symposium on Biomaterials, Fuels, and Chemicals and chaired the conference for its first ten years. Professor Lee has pioneered systems metabolic engineering and developed various micro-organisms capable of producing a wide range of fuels, chemicals, materials, and natural compounds, many of them for the first time. Some of the breakthroughs include the microbial production of gasoline, diacids, diamines, PLA and PLGA polymers, and several natural products. More recently, his team has developed a microbial strain capable of the mass production of succinic acid, a monomer for manufacturing polyester, with the highest production efficiency to date, as well as a Corynebacterium glutamicum strain capable of producing high-level glutaric acid. They also engineered for the first time a bacterium capable of producing carminic acid, a natural red colorant that is widely used for food and cosmetics. Professor Lee is one of the Highly Cited Researchers (HCR), ranked in the top 1% by citations in their field by Clarivate Analytics for four consecutive years from 2017. He is the first Korean fellow ever elected into the National Academy of Inventors in the US and one of 13 scholars elected as an International Member of both the National Academy of Sciences and the National Academy of Engineering in the USA. The awards ceremony will take place during the Symposium on Biomaterials, Fuels, and Chemicals held online from April 26.
T-GPS Processes a Graph with Trillion Edges on a S..
Trillion-scale graph processing simulation on a single computer presents a new concept of graph processing A KAIST research team has developed a new technology that enables to process a large-scale graph algorithm without storing the graph in the main memory or on disks. Named as T-GPS (Trillion-scale Graph Processing Simulation) by the developer Professor Min-Soo Kim from the School of Computing at KAIST, it can process a graph with one trillion edges using a single computer. Graphs are widely used to represent and analyze real-world objects in many domains such as social networks, business intelligence, biology, and neuroscience. As the number of graph applications increases rapidly, developing and testing new graph algorithms is becoming more important than ever before. Nowadays, many industrial applications require a graph algorithm to process a large-scale graph (e.g., one trillion edges). So, when developing and testing graph algorithms such for a large-scale graph, a synthetic graph is usually used instead of a real graph. This is because sharing and utilizing large-scale real graphs is very limited due to their being proprietary or being practically impossible to collect. Conventionally, developing and testing graph algorithms is done via the following two-step approach: generating and storing a graph and executing an algorithm on the graph using a graph processing engine. The first step generates a synthetic graph and stores it on disks. The synthetic graph is usually generated by either parameter-based generation methods or graph upscaling methods. The former extracts a small number of parameters that can capture some properties of a given real graph and generates the synthetic graph with the parameters. The latter upscales a given real graph to a larger one so as to preserve the properties of the original real graph as much as possible. The second step loads the stored graph into the main memory of the graph processing engine such as Apache GraphX and executes a given graph algorithm on the engine. Since the size of the graph is too large to fit in the main memory of a single computer, the graph engine typically runs on a cluster of several tens or hundreds of computers. Therefore, the cost of the conventional two-step approach is very high. The research team solved the problem of the conventional two-step approach. It does not generate and store a large-scale synthetic graph. Instead, it just loads the initial small real graph into main memory. Then, T-GPS processes a graph algorithm on the small real graph as if the large-scale synthetic graph that should be generated from the real graph exists in main memory. After the algorithm is done, T-GPS returns the exactly same result as the conventional two-step approach. The key idea of T-GPS is generating only the part of the synthetic graph that the algorithm needs to access on the fly and modifying the graph processing engine to recognize the part generated on the fly as the part of the synthetic graph actually generated. The research team showed that T-GPS can process a graph of 1 trillion edges using a single computer, while the conventional two-step approach can only process of a graph of 1 billion edges using a cluster of eleven computers of the same specification. Thus, T-GPS outperforms the conventional approach by 10,000 times in terms of computing resources. The team also showed that the speed of processing an algorithm in T-GPS is up to 43 times faster than the conventional approach. This is because T-GPS has no network communication overhead, while the conventional approach has a lot of communication overhead among computers. Professor Kim believes that this work will have a large impact on the IT industry where almost every area utilizes graph data, adding, "T-GPS can significantly increase both the scale and efficiency of developing a new graph algorithm." This work was supported by the National Research Foundation (NRF) of Korea and Institute of Information & communications Technology Planning & Evaluation (IITP). -Publication: Park, H., et al. (2021) "Trillion-scale Graph Processing Simulation based on Top-Down Graph Upscaling," IEEE ICDE 2021, Chania, Greece, Apr. 19-22, 2021. Available online at https://conferences.computer.org/icdepub -Profile: Min-Soo Kim Associate Professor http://infolab.kaist.ac.kr School of Computing KAIST
Mobile Clinic Module Wins Red Dot and iF Design Aw..
< Mobile Clinic Module developed by the Korea Aid for Respiratory Epidemic initiative. > The Mobile Clinic Module (MCM), an inflatable negative pressure ward building system developed by the Korea Aid for Respiratory Epidemic (KARE) initiative at KAIST, gained international acclaim by winning the prestigious Red Dot Design Award and iF Design Award. The MCM was recognized as one of the Red Dot Product Designs of the Year. It also won four iF Design Awards in communication design, interior architecture, user interface, and user experience. Winning the two most influential design awards demonstrates how product design can make a valuable contribution to help contain pandemics and reflects new consumer trends for dealing with pandemics. Designed to be patient friendly, even in the extreme medical situations such as pandemics or triage, the MCM is the result of collaborations among researchers in a variety of fields including mechanical engineering, computing, industrial and systems engineering, medical hospitals, and engineering companies. The research team was led by Professor Tek-Jin Nam from the Department of Industrial Design. The MCM is expandable, moveable, and easy to store through a combination of negative pressure frames, air tents, and multi-functional panels. Positive air pressure devices supply fresh air from outside the tent. An air pump and controller maintain air beam pressure, while filtering exhausted air from inside. An internal air information monitoring system efficiently controls inside air pressure and purifies the air. It requires only one-fourth of the volume of existing wards and takes up approximately 40% of their weight. The unit can be transported in a 40-foot container truck. MCMs are now located at the Korea Institute of Radiological & Medical Sciences and Jeju Vaccine Center and expect to be used at many other facilities. KARE is developing antiviral solutions and devices such as protective gear, sterilizers, and test kits to promptly respond to the pandemic. More than 100 researchers at KAIST are collaborating with industry and clinical hospitals to develop antiviral technologies that will improve preventive measures, diagnoses, and treatments. Professor Nam said, "Our designers will continue to identify the most challenging issues, and try to resolve them by realizing user-friendly functions. We believe this will significantly contribute to relieving the drastic need for negative pressure beds and provide a place for monitoring patients with moderate symptoms. We look forward to the MCM upgrading epidemic management resources around the globe." (END)
What Guides Habitual Seeking Behavior Explained
A new role of the ventral striatum explains habitual seeking behavior Researchers have been investigating how the brain controls habitual seeking behaviors such as addiction. A recent study by Professor Sue-Hyun Lee from the Department of Bio and Brain Engineering revealed that a long-term value memory maintained in the ventral striatum in the brain is a neural basis of our habitual seeking behavior. This research was conducted in collaboration with the research team lead by Professor Hyoung F. Kim from Seoul National University. Given that addictive behavior is deemed a habitual one, this research provides new insights for developing therapeutic interventions for addiction. Habitual seeking behavior involves strong stimulus responses, mostly rapid and automatic ones. The ventral striatum in the brain has been thought to be important for value learning and addictive behaviors. However, it was unclear if the ventral striatum processes and retains long-term memories that guide habitual seeking. Professor Lee's team reported a new role of the human ventral striatum where long-term memory of high-valued objects are retained as a single representation and may be used to evaluate visual stimuli automatically to guide habitual behavior. < The ventral striatum shows increased responses to high-valued objects (good objects) after habitual seeking training. > "Our findings propose a role of the ventral striatum as a director that guides habitual behavior with the script of value information written in the past," said Professor Lee. The research team investigated whether learned values were retained in the ventral striatum while the subjects passively viewed previously learned objects in the absence of any immediate outcome. Neural responses in the ventral striatum during the incidental perception of learned objects were examined using fMRI and single-unit recording. The study found significant value discrimination responses in the ventral striatum after learning and a retention period of several days. Moreover, the similarity of neural representations for good objects increased after learning, an outcome positively correlated with the habitual seeking response for good objects. "These findings suggest that the ventral striatum plays a role in automatic evaluations of objects based on the neural representation of positive values retained since learning, to guide habitual seeking behaviors," explained Professor Lee. "We will fully investigate the function of different parts of the entire basal ganglia including the ventral striatum. We also expect that this understanding may lead to the development of better treatment for mental illnesses related to habitual behaviors or addiction problems." This study, supported by the National Research Foundation of Korea, was reported at Nature Communications (https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-021-22335-5.) -Profile Professor Sue-Hyun Lee Department of Bio and Brain Engineering Memory and Cognition Laboratory http://memory.kaist.ac.kr/lecture KAIST
Microbial Production of a Natural Red Colorant Car..
Metabolic engineering and computer-simulated enzyme engineering led to the production of carminic acid, a natural red colorant, from bacteria for the first time < Figure: A schematic biosynthetic pathway for the production of carminic acid from glucose. Biochemical reaction analysis and computer simulation-assisted enzyme engineering was employed to identify and improve the enzymes (DnrFP217K and GtCGTV93Q/Y193F) responsible for the latter two reactions. > A research group at KAIST has engineered a bacterium capable of producing a natural red colorant, carminic acid, which is widely used for food and cosmetics. The research team reported the complete biosynthesis of carminic acid from glucose in engineered Escherichia coli. The strategies will be useful for the design and construction of biosynthetic pathways involving unknown enzymes and consequently the production of diverse industrially important natural products for the food, pharmaceutical, and cosmetic industries. Carminic acid is a natural red colorant widely being used for products such as strawberry milk and lipstick. However, carminic acid has been produced by farming cochineals, a scale insect which only grows in the region around Peru and Canary Islands, followed by complicated multi-step purification processes. Moreover, carminic acid often contains protein contaminants that cause allergies so many people are unwilling to consume products made of insect-driven colorants. On that account, manufacturers around the world are using alternative red colorants despite the fact that carminic acid is one of the most stable natural red colorants. These challenges inspired the metabolic engineering research group at KAIST to address this issue. Its members include postdoctoral researchers Dongsoo Yang and Woo Dae Jang, and Distinguished Professor Sang Yup Lee of the Department of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering. This study entitled "Production of carminic acid by metabolically engineered Escherichia coli" was published online in the Journal of the American Chemical Society (JACS) on April 2. This research reports for the first time the development of a bacterial strain capable of producing carminic acid from glucose via metabolic engineering and computer simulation-assisted enzyme engineering. The research group optimized the type II polyketide synthase machinery to efficiently produce the precursor of carminic acid, flavokermesic acid. Since the enzymes responsible for the remaining two reactions were neither discovered nor functional, biochemical reaction analysis was performed to identify enzymes that can convert flavokermesic acid into carminic acid. Then, homology modeling and docking simulations were performed to enhance the activities of the two identified enzymes. The team could confirm that the final engineered strain could produce carminic acid directly from glucose. The C-glucosyltransferase developed in this study was found to be generally applicable for other natural products as showcased by the successful production of an additional product, aloesin, which is found in aloe leaves. "The most important part of this research is that unknown enzymes for the production of target natural products were identified and improved by biochemical reaction analyses and computer simulation-assisted enzyme engineering," says Dr. Dongsoo Yang. He explained the development of a generally applicable C-glucosyltransferase is also useful since C-glucosylation is a relatively unexplored reaction in bacteria including Escherichia coli. Using the C-glucosyltransferase developed in this study, both carminic acid and aloesin were successfully produced from glucose. "A sustainable and insect-free method of producing carminic acid was achieved for the first time in this study. Unknown or inefficient enzymes have always been a major problem in natural product biosynthesis, and here we suggest one effective solution for solving this problem. As maintaining good health in the aging society is becoming increasingly important, we expect that the technology and strategies developed here will play pivotal roles in producing other valuable natural products of medical or nutritional importance," said Distinguished Professor Sang Yup Lee. This work was supported by the Technology Development Program to Solve Climate Changes on Systems Metabolic Engineering for Biorefineries of the Ministry of Science and ICT (MSIT) through the National Research Foundation (NRF) of Korea and the KAIST Cross-Generation Collaborative Lab project; Sang Yup Lee and Dongsoo Yang were also supported by Novo Nordisk Foundation in Denmark. Publication: Dongsoo Yang, Woo Dae Jang, and Sang Yup Lee. Production of carminic acid by metabolically engineered Escherichia coli. at the Journal of the American Chemical Society. https://doi.org.10.1021/jacs.0c12406 Profile: Sang Yup Lee, PhD Distinguished Professor leesy@kaist.ac.kr http://mbel.kaist.ac.kr Metabolic &Biomolecular Engineering National Research Laboratory Department of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering KAIST
Identification of How Chemotherapy Drug Works Coul..
< Professor Yoosik Kim and PhD candidate Yongsuk Ku > The chemotherapy drug decitabine is commonly used to treat patients with blood cancers, but its response rate is somewhat low. Researchers have now identified why this is the case, opening the door to more personalized cancer therapies for those with these types of cancers, and perhaps further afield. Researchers have identified the genetic and molecular mechanisms within cells that make the chemotherapy drug decitabine—used to treat patients with myelodysplastic syndrome (MDS) and acute myeloid leukemia (AML) —work for some patients but not others. The findings should assist clinicians in developing more patient-specific treatment strategies. The findings were published in the Proceedings of the National Academies of Science on March 30. The chemotherapy drug decitabine, also known by its brand name Dacogen, works by modifying our DNA that in turn switches on genes that stop the cancer cells from growing and replicating. However, decitabine's response rate is somewhat low (showing improvement in just 30-35% of patients), which leaves something of a mystery as to why it works well for some patients but not for others. To find out why this happens, researchers from the KAIST investigated the molecular mediators that are involved with regulating the effects of the drug. Decitabine works to activate the production of endogenous retroviruses (ERVs), which in turn induces an immune response. ERVs are viruses that long ago inserted dormant copies of themselves into the human genome. Decitabine in essence, 'reactivates' these viral elements and produces double-stranded RNAs (dsRNAs) that the immune system views as a foreign body. "However, the mechanisms involved in this process, in particular how production and transport of these ERV dsRNAs were regulated within the cell were understudied," said corresponding author Yoosik Kim, professor in the Department of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering at KAIST. "So to explain why decitabine works in some patients but not others, we investigated what these molecular mechanisms were," added Kim. To do so, the researchers used image-based RNA interference (RNAi) screening. This is a relatively new technique in which specific sequences within a genome are knocked out of action or "downregulated." Large-scale screening, which can be performed in cultured cells or within live organisms, works to investigate the function of different genes. The KAIST researchers collaborated with the Institut Pasteur Korea to analyze the effect of downregulating genes that recognize ERV dsRNAs and could be involved in the cellular response to decitabine. < Schematic diagram of the molecular mechanism of decitabine. Differences in immune responses in the body according to the expression of Staufen1 and TINCR. > From these initial screening results, they performed an even more detailed downregulation screening analysis. Through the screening, they were able to identify two particular gene sequences involved in the production of an RNA-binding protein called Staufen1 and the production of a strand of RNA that does not in turn produce any proteins called TINCR that play a key regulatory role in response to the drug. Staufen1 binds directly to dsRNAs and stabilizes them in concert with the TINCR. If a patient is not producing sufficient Staufen1 and TINCR, then the dsRNA viral mimics quickly degrade before the immune system can spot them. And, crucially for cancer therapy, this means that patients with lower expression (activation) of these sequences will show inferior response to decitabine. Indeed, the researchers confirmed that MDS/AML patients with low Staufen1 and TINCR expression did not benefit from decitabine therapy. "We can now isolate patients who will not benefit from the therapy and direct them to a different type of therapy," said first author Yongsuk Ku. "This serves as an important step toward developing a patient-specific treatment cancer strategy." As the researchers used patient samples taken from bone marrow, the next step will be to try to develop a testing method that can identify the problem from just blood samples, which are much easier to acquire from patients. The team plans to investigate if the analysis can be extended to patients with solid tumors in addition to those with blood cancers. -Profile Professor Yoosik Kim https://qcbio.kaist.ac.kr/ Department of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering KAIST -Publication Noncanonical immune response to the inhibition of DNA methylation by Staufen1 via stabilization of endogenous retrovirus RNAs, PNAS
Plasma Jets Stabilize Water to Splash Less
< High-speed shadowgraph movie of water surface deformations induced by plasma impingement. > A study by KAIST researchers revealed that an ionized gas jet blowing onto water, also known as a 'plasma jet', produces a more stable interaction with the water's surface compared to a neutral gas jet. This finding reported in the April 1 issue of Nature will help improve the scientific understanding of plasma-liquid interactions and their practical applications in a wide range of industrial fields in which fluid control technology is used, including biomedical engineering, chemical production, and agriculture and food engineering. Gas jets can create dimple-like depressions in liquid surfaces, and this phenomenon is familiar to anyone who has seen the cavity produced by blowing air through a straw directly above a cup of juice. As the speed of the gas jet increases, the cavity becomes unstable and starts bubbling and splashing. "Understanding the physical properties of interactions between gases and liquids is crucial for many natural and industrial processes, such as the wind blowing over the surface of the ocean, or steelmaking methods that involve blowing oxygen over the top of molten iron," explained Professor Wonho Choe, a physicist from KAIST and the corresponding author of the study. However, despite its scientific and practical importance, little is known about how gas-blown liquid cavities become deformed and destabilized. In this study, a group of KAIST physicists led by Professor Choe and the team's collaborators from Chonbuk National University in Korea and the Jožef Stefan Institute in Slovenia investigated what happens when an ionized gas jet, also known as a 'plasma jet', is blown over water. A plasma jet is created by applying high voltage to a nozzle as gas flows through it, which causes the gas to be weakly ionized and acquire freely-moving charged particles. The research team used an optical technique combined with high-speed imaging to observe the profiles of the water surface cavities created by both neutral helium gas jets and weakly ionized helium gas jets. They also developed a computational model to mathematically explain the mechanisms behind their experimental discovery. The researchers demonstrated for the first time that an ionized gas jet has a stabilizing effect on the water's surface. They found that certain forces exerted by the plasma jet make the water surface cavity more stable, meaning there is less bubbling and splashing compared to the cavity created by a neutral gas jet. Specifically, the study showed that the plasma jet consists of pulsed waves of gas ionization propagating along the water's surface so-called 'plasma bullets' that exert more force than a neutral gas jet, making the cavity deeper without becoming destabilized. "This is the first time that this phenomenon has been reported, and our group considers this as a critical step forward in our understanding of how plasma jets interact with liquid surfaces. We next plan to expand this finding through more case studies that involve diverse plasma and liquid characteristics," said Professor Choe. This work was supported by KAIST as part of the High-Risk and High-Return Project, the National Research Foundation of Korea (NRF), and the Slovenian Research Agency (ARRS). < Cavity formation at the water's surface subjected to a neutral helium gas jet (left) and a weakly ionized helium gas jet (right). > Image Credit: Professor Wonho Choe, KAIST Usage Restrictions: News organizations may use or redistribute these materials, with proper attribution, as part of news coverage of this paper only. Publication: Park, S., et al. (2021) Stabilization of liquid instabilities with ionized gas jets. Nature, Vol. No. 592, Issue No. 7852, pp. 49-53. Available online at https://doi.org/10.1038/s41586-021-03359-9 Profile: Wonho Choe, Ph.D. Professor wchoe@kaist.ac.kr https://gdpl.kaist.ac.kr/ Gas Discharge Physics Laboratory (GDPL) Department of Nuclear and Quantum Engineering Department of Physics Impurity and Edge Plasma Research Center (IERC) http://kaist.ac.kr/en/ Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology (KAIST) Daejeon, Republic of Korea (END)
Centrifugal Multispun Nanofibers Put a New Spin on..
KAIST researchers have developed a novel nanofiber production technique called 'centrifugal multispinning' that will open the door for the safe and cost-effective mass production of high-performance polymer nanofibers. This new technique, which has shown up to a 300 times higher nanofiber production rate per hour than that of the conventional electrospinning method, has many potential applications including the development of face mask filters for coronavirus protection. Nanofibers make good face mask filters because their mechanical interactions with aerosol particles give them a greater ability to capture more than 90% of harmful particles such as fine dust and virus-containing droplets. The impact of the COVID-19 pandemic has further accelerated the growing demand in recent years for a better kind of face mask. A polymer nanofiber-based mask filter that can more effectively block harmful particles has also been in higher demand as the pandemic continues. 'Electrospinning' has been a common process used to prepare fine and uniform polymer nanofibers, but in terms of safety, cost-effectiveness, and mass production, it has several drawbacks. The electrospinning method requires a high-voltage electric field and electrically conductive target, and this hinders the safe and cost-effective mass production of polymer nanofibers. In response to this shortcoming, 'centrifugal spinning' that utilizes centrifugal force instead of high voltage to produce polymer nanofibers has been suggested as a safer and more cost-effective alternative to the electrospinning. Easy scalability is another advantage, as this technology only requires a rotating spinneret and a collector. However, since the existing centrifugal force-based spinning technology employs only a single rotating spinneret, productivity is limited and not much higher than that of some advanced electrospinning technologies such as 'multi-nozzle electrospinning' and 'nozzleless electrospinning.' This problem persists even when the size of the spinneret is increased. Inspired by these limitations, a research team led by Professor Do Hyun Kim from the Department of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering at KAIST developed a centrifugal multispinning spinneret with mass-producibility, by sectioning a rotating spinneret into three sub-disks. This study was published as a front cover article of ACS Macro Letters, Volume 10, Issue 3 in March 2021. Using this new centrifugal multispinning spinneret with three sub-disks, the lead author of the paper PhD candidate Byeong Eun Kwak and his fellow researchers Hyo Jeong Yoo and Eungjun Lee demonstrated the gram-scale production of various polymer nanofibers with a maximum production rate of up to 25 grams per hour, which is approximately 300 times higher than that of the conventional electrospinning system. The production rate of up to 25 grams of polymer nanofibers per hour corresponds to the production rate of about 30 face mask filters per day in a lab-scale manufacturing system. By integrating the mass-produced polymer nanofibers into the form of a mask filter, the researchers were able to fabricate face masks that have comparable filtration performance with the KF80 and KF94 face masks that are currently available in the Korean market. The KF80 and KF94 masks have been approved by the Ministry of Food and Drug Safety of Korea to filter out at least 80% and 94% of harmful particles respectively. "When our system is scaled up from the lab scale to an industrial scale, the large-scale production of centrifugal multispun polymer nanofibers will be made possible, and the cost of polymer nanofiber-based face mask filters will also be lowered dramatically," Kwak explained. This work was supported by the KAIST-funded Global Singularity Research Program for 2020. < Figure. (A) Schematic illustration of the centrifugal multispinning polymer nanofiber production process. (B) The polymer nanofibers spun by the system. The increase of the number of sub-disk shows the proportional enhancement of the productivity. (C) Face masks and mask filters fabricated using mass-produced nanofibers (inset). > < Image. Journal Cover > Publication: Byeong Eun Kwak, Hyo Jeong Yoo, Eungjun Lee, and Do Hyun Kim. (2021) Large-Scale Centrifugal Multispinning Production of Polymer Micro- and Nanofibers for Mask Filter Application with a Potential of Cospinning Mixed Multicomponent Fibers. ACS Macro Letters, Volume No. 10, Issue No. 3, pp. 382-388. Available online at https://doi.org/10.1021/acsmacrolett.0c00829 Profile: Do Hyun Kim, Sc.D. Professor dohyun.kim@kaist.edu http://procal.kaist.ac.kr/ Process Analysis Laboratory Department of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering https:/kaist.ac.kr/en/ Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology (KAIST) Daejeon 34141, Korea (END)
Acoustic Graphene Plasmons Study Paves Way for Opt..
- The first images of mid-infrared optical waves compressed 1,000 times captured using a highly sensitive scattering-type scanning near-field optical microscope. - < Post-doc Researcher Sergey G. Menabde (Left) and Professor Min Seok Jang (Right) > KAIST researchers and their collaborators at home and abroad have successfully demonstrated a new methodology for direct near-field optical imaging of acoustic graphene plasmon fields. This strategy will provide a breakthrough for the practical applications of acoustic graphene plasmon platforms in next-generation, high-performance, graphene-based optoelectronic devices with enhanced light-matter interactions and lower propagation loss. It was recently demonstrated that 'graphene plasmons' – collective oscillations of free electrons in graphene coupled to electromagnetic waves of light – can be used to trap and compress optical waves inside a very thin dielectric layer separating graphene from a metallic sheet. In such a configuration, graphene's conduction electrons are "reflected" in the metal, so when the light waves "push" the electrons in graphene, their image charges in metal also start to oscillate. This new type of collective electronic oscillation mode is called 'acoustic graphene plasmon (AGP)'. The existence of AGP could previously be observed only via indirect methods such as far-field infrared spectroscopy and photocurrent mapping. This indirect observation was the price that researchers had to pay for the strong compression of optical waves inside nanometer-thin structures. It was believed that the intensity of electromagnetic fields outside the device was insufficient for direct near-field optical imaging of AGP. Challenged by these limitations, three research groups combined their efforts to bring together a unique experimental technique using advanced nanofabrication methods. Their findings were published in Nature Communications on February 19. A KAIST research team led by Professor Min Seok Jang from the School of Electrical Engineering used a highly sensitive scattering-type scanning near-field optical microscope (s-SNOM) to directly measure the optical fields of the AGP waves propagating in a nanometer-thin waveguide, visualizing thousand-fold compression of mid-infrared light for the first time. Professor Jang and a post-doc researcher in his group, Sergey G. Menabde, successfully obtained direct images of AGP waves by taking advantage of their rapidly decaying yet always present electric field above graphene. They showed that AGPs are detectable even when most of their energy is flowing inside the dielectric below the graphene. This became possible due to the ultra-smooth surfaces inside the nano-waveguides where plasmonic waves can propagate at longer distances. The AGP mode probed by the researchers was up to 2.3 times more confined and exhibited a 1.4 times higher figure of merit in terms of the normalized propagation length compared to the graphene surface plasmon under similar conditions. These ultra-smooth nanostructures of the waveguides used in the experiment were created using a template-stripping method by Professor Sang-Hyun Oh and a post-doc researcher, In-Ho Lee, from the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering at the University of Minnesota. Professor Young Hee Lee and his researchers at the Center for Integrated Nanostructure Physics (CINAP) of the Institute of Basic Science (IBS) at Sungkyunkwan University synthesized the graphene with a monocrystalline structure, and this high-quality, large-area graphene enabled low-loss plasmonic propagation. The chemical and physical properties of many important organic molecules can be detected and evaluated by their absorption signatures in the mid-infrared spectrum. However, conventional detection methods require a large number of molecules for successful detection, whereas the ultra-compressed AGP fields can provide strong light-matter interactions at the microscopic level, thus significantly improving the detection sensitivity down to a single molecule. Furthermore, the study conducted by Professor Jang and the team demonstrated that the mid-infrared AGPs are inherently less sensitive to losses in graphene due to their fields being mostly confined within the dielectric. The research team's reported results suggest that AGPs could become a promising platform for electrically tunable graphene-based optoelectronic devices that typically suffer from higher absorption rates in graphene such as metasurfaces, optical switches, photovoltaics, and other optoelectronic applications operating at infrared frequencies. Professor Jang said, "Our research revealed that the ultra-compressed electromagnetic fields of acoustic graphene plasmons can be directly accessed through near-field optical microscopy methods. I hope this realization will motivate other researchers to apply AGPs to various problems where strong light-matter interactions and lower propagation loss are needed." This research was primarily funded by the Samsung Research Funding & Incubation Center of Samsung Electronics. The National Research Foundation of Korea (NRF), the U.S. National Science Foundation (NSF), Samsung Global Research Outreach (GRO) Program, and Institute for Basic Science of Korea (IBS) also supported the work. < Figure. Laser-illuminated nano-tip excites the acoustic graphene plasmon in the layer between the graphene and the gold/alumina. > Publication: Menabde, S. G., et al. (2021) Real-space imaging of acoustic plasmons in large-area graphene grown by chemical vapor deposition. Nature Communications 12, Article No. 938. Available online at https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-021-21193-5 Profile: Min Seok Jang, MS, PhD Associate Professor jang.minseok@kaist.ac.kr http://jlab.kaist.ac.kr/ Min Seok Jang Research Group School of Electrical Engineering http://kaist.ac.kr/en/ Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology (KAIST) Daejeon, Republic of Korea (END)
Distinguished Alumni Awardees 2020
The KAIST Alumni Association (KAA) announced the four recipients of the Distinguished Alumni Awards for the year 2020. The Distinguished Alumni Awards recognize graduates who have achieved outstanding accomplishments in their professional and personal lives, and who have been an inspiration to fellow alumni and students in Korea and around the globe. The four distinguished alumni of the year 2020 are listed below. President Dong-Won Kim (Department of Industrial and Systems Engineering, M.S., Class of '82) of Jeonbuk National University is making significant contributions to the advancement of local industrial technology and the cultivation of professional personnel through outstanding research outcomes. As an educational administrator, his leadership is helping to realize long-desired projects at the university, through which he is strengthening the competitiveness of the university and the local community. Tae-Kyung Yoo (School of Electrical Engineering, M.S. and Ph.D., Class of '83 and '85 respectively), CEO and Chairman of Lumens, is a first-generation entrepreneur in the light emitting diode (LED) industry in Korea. He runs Lumens, a globally renowned company specializing in and leading the technological innovation of LEDs. He thereby contributes to strengthening national competitiveness and the advancement of science and technology. President Nak Kyu Lee (Department of Mechanical Engineering, M.S. and Ph.D., Class of '85 and '87 respectively) of the Korea Institute of Industrial Technology (KITECH) has shown excellent results in his research in which he developed core production technologies to lead the nation's industries. He also focused on supporting on-site technologies involved in field work to apply what he developed into real production processes, and contributed greatly to improving the competitiveness of nationwide manufacturing. Hyeon-Mo Ku (School of Business and Technology Management, M.S. and Ph.D., Class of '85 and '93 respectively), CEO of KT Corporation, helped the nation's leading communications company roll out the first 5G network in the world. He also strengthened national competitiveness in AI technology through 'AI One Team,' an industry-academic corporation project, and took the lead in developing the home-grown cloud industry. His involvement in the innovation of Korea's ICT technology was highly recognized. Since the establishment of the award in 1992, a total of 107 alumni at home and abroad have brought distinction to the university and been honored as recipients. These recipients are playing major roles in society, and some of the notable former awardees include: KAIST President Sung-Chul Shin (2010), Samsung Electronics Vice Chairman Ki-Nam Kim (2012), Nexon Chairman Jung-Ju Kim (2007), and Krafton Chairman Byeong-Gyu Chang (2006). The President of the KAA and Advisor of Samsung Electronics, Chilhee Chung, said, "The Distinguished Alumni Awards are an honor given to alumni who have contributed to the development of the nation and society, and raised the name of their alma mater." He added, "We can see the proud position of KAIST in the global arena just by looking at the accomplishments of our awardees." (END)
Wirelessly Rechargeable Soft Brain Implant Control..
Researchers have invented a smartphone-controlled soft brain implant that can be recharged wirelessly from outside the body. It enables long-term neural circuit manipulation without the need for periodic disruptive surgeries to replace the battery of the implant. Scientists believe this technology can help uncover and treat psychiatric disorders and neurodegenerative diseases such as addiction, depression, and Parkinson's. < Optical image of a wirelessly rechargeable, soft optoelectronic system held with fingers. The device is emitting blue light from its bilateral probes. > A group of KAIST researchers and collaborators have engineered a tiny brain implant that can be wirelessly recharged from outside the body to control brain circuits for long periods of time without battery replacement. The device is constructed of ultra-soft and bio-compliant polymers to help provide long-term compatibility with tissue. Geared with micrometer-sized LEDs (equivalent to the size of a grain of salt) mounted on ultrathin probes (the thickness of a human hair), it can wirelessly manipulate target neurons in the deep brain using light. This study, led by Professor Jae-Woong Jeong, is a step forward from the wireless head-mounted implant neural device he developed in 2019. That previous version could indefinitely deliver multiple drugs and light stimulation treatment wirelessly by using a smartphone. For more, Manipulating Brain Cells by Smartphone. For the new upgraded version, the research team came up with a fully implantable, soft optoelectronic system that can be remotely and selectively controlled by a smartphone. This research was published on January 22, 2021 in Nature Communications. The new wireless charging technology addresses the limitations of current brain implants. Wireless implantable device technologies have recently become popular as alternatives to conventional tethered implants, because they help minimize stress and inflammation in freely-moving animals during brain studies, which in turn enhance the lifetime of the devices. However, such devices require either intermittent surgeries to replace discharged batteries, or special and bulky wireless power setups, which limit experimental options as well as the scalability of animal experiments. "This powerful device eliminates the need for additional painful surgeries to replace an exhausted battery in the implant, allowing seamless chronic neuromodulation," said Professor Jeong. "We believe that the same basic technology can be applied to various types of implants, including deep brain stimulators, and cardiac and gastric pacemakers, to reduce the burden on patients for long-term use within the body." To enable wireless battery charging and controls, researchers developed a tiny circuit that integrates a wireless energy harvester with a coil antenna and a Bluetooth low-energy chip. An alternating magnetic field can harmlessly penetrate through tissue, and generate electricity inside the device to charge the battery. Then the battery-powered Bluetooth implant delivers programmable patterns of light to brain cells using an "easy-to-use" smartphone app for real-time brain control. "This device can be operated anywhere and anytime to manipulate neural circuits, which makes it a highly versatile tool for investigating brain functions," said lead author Choong Yeon Kim, a researcher at KAIST. Neuroscientists successfully tested these implants in rats and demonstrated their ability to suppress cocaine-induced behaviour after the rats were injected with cocaine. This was achieved by precise light stimulation of relevant target neurons in their brains using the smartphone-controlled LEDs. Furthermore, the battery in the implants could be repeatedly recharged while the rats were behaving freely, thus minimizing any physical interruption to the experiments. "Wireless battery re-charging makes experimental procedures much less complicated," said the co-lead author Min Jeong Ku, a researcher at Yonsei University's College of Medicine. "The fact that we can control a specific behaviour of animals, by delivering light stimulation into the brain just with a simple manipulation of smartphone app, watching freely moving animals nearby, is very interesting and stimulates a lot of imagination," said Jeong-Hoon Kim, a professor of physiology at Yonsei University's College of Medicine. "This technology will facilitate various avenues of brain research." The researchers believe this brain implant technology may lead to new opportunities for brain research and therapeutic intervention to treat diseases in the brain and other organs. This work was supported by grants from the National Research Foundation of Korea and the KAIST Global Singularity Research Program. -Profile Professor Jae-Woong Jeong https://www.jeongresearch.org/ School of Electrical Engineering KAIST
A Biological Strategy Reveals How Efficient Brain ..
- A KAIST team's mathematical modelling shows that the topographic tiling of cortical maps originates from bottom-up projections from the periphery. - Researchers have explained how the regularly structured topographic maps in the visual cortex of the brain could arise spontaneously to efficiently process visual information. This research provides a new framework for understanding functional architectures in the visual cortex during early developmental stages. A KAIST research team led by Professor Se-Bum Paik from the Department of Bio and Brain Engineering has demonstrated that the orthogonal organization of retinal mosaics in the periphery is mirrored onto the primary visual cortex and initiates the clustered topography of higher visual areas in the brain. This new finding provides advanced insights into the mechanisms underlying a biological strategy of brain circuitry for the efficient tiling of sensory modules. The study was published in Cell Reports on January 5. In higher mammals, the primary visual cortex is organized into various functional maps for neural tuning such as ocular dominance, orientation selectivity, and spatial frequency selectivity. Correlations between the topographies of different maps have been observed, implying their systematic organizations for the efficient tiling of sensory modules across cortical areas. These observations have suggested that a common principle for developing individual functional maps may exist. However, it has remained unclear how such topographical organizations could arise spontaneously in the primary visual cortex of various species. The research team found that the orthogonal organization in the primary visual cortex of the brain originates from the spatial organization in bottom-up feedforward projections. The team showed that an orthogonal relationship among sensory modules already exists in the retinal mosaics, and that this is mirrored onto the primary visual cortex to initiate the clustered topography. By analyzing the retinal ganglion cell mosaics data in cats and monkeys, the researchers found that the structure of ON-OFF feedforward afferents is organized into a topographic tiling, analogous to the orthogonal intersection of cortical tuning maps. Furthermore, the team's analysis of previously published data collected on cats also showed that the ocular dominance, orientation selectivity, and spatial frequency selectivity in the primary visual cortex are correlated with the spatial profiles of the retinal inputs, implying that efficient tiling of cortical domains can originate from the regularly structured retinal patterns. Professor Paik said, "Our study suggests that the structure of the periphery with simple feedforward wiring can provide the basis for a mechanism by which the early visual circuitry is assembled." He continued, "This is the first report that spatially organized retinal inputs from the periphery provide a common blueprint for multi-modal sensory modules in the visual cortex during the early developmental stages. Our findings would make a significant impact on our understanding the developmental strategy of brain circuitry for efficient sensory information processing." This work was supported by the National Research Foundation of Korea (NRF). < Figure 1. The image depicts the retinal origin of functional maps of neural tuning in visual cortex. > < Figure 2. The image depicts the orthogonal intersection of cortical tuning maps that are initiated by the topographic tiling of retinal ganglion cell mosaics. > < Figure 3. The regularly structured retinal circuits provide a blueprint of the clustered topography of multiple tuning maps in the primary visual cortex. > Image credit: Professor Se-Bum Paik, KAIST Image usage restrictions: News organizations may use or redistribute this image, with proper attribution, as part of news coverage of this paper only. Publication: Song, M, et al. (2021) Projection of orthogonal tiling from the retina to the visual cortex. Cell Reports 34, 108581. Available online at https://doi.org/10.1016/j.celrep.2020.108581 Profile: Se-Bum Paik, Ph.D Assistant Professor sbpaik@kaist.ac.kr http://vs.kaist.ac.kr/ VSNN Laboratory Department of Bio and Brain Engineering Program of Brain and Cognitive Engineering http://kaist.ac.kr Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology (KAIST) Daejeon, Republic of Korea Profile: Min Song Ph.D. Candidate night@kaist.ac.kr Program of Brain and Cognitive Engineering Profile: Jaeson Jang, Ph.D. Researcher jaesonjang@kaist.ac.kr Department of Bio and Brain Engineering, KAIST (END)


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TIME named Kenya-based data and technology company Ona one of the world's top 50 "Genius Companies" of 2018 today, in its first annual list recognizing innovative businesses that are changing the way we work, live and play.
Ona, one of five African companies selected for the list, focuses on solving public health and social sector challenges through technology. Using mapping and data technologies from its namesake mobile survey platform, Ona builds mobile apps such as OpenSRP, which helps frontline health workers deliver services more effectively to rural families. The mapping work, referenced in TIME, is the result of a four-year partnership with Zambia-based Akros to co-develop mSpray and more recently Reveal, an innovative approach to support precision service delivery. Ona also created Canopy, an enterprise data analytics and visualization platform, specifically to support the needs of humanitarian and international development organizations.
Ona is a group of software engineers, data analysts, public health experts and designers with main operations in Nairobi, Kenya and employees in Burlington, VT, New York, NY, Bethesda, MD and Seattle, WA in the United States. As a social enterprise that builds the data systems to drive change, our mission is to use technology to provide vital services to those in need. We believe technology affords new opportunities for governments and development organizations to be increasingly data-driven, collaborative and accountable. Our goal is never simply to build a great product, but to support great outcomes. Ona was founded in 2013.
Recent accolades include being named a Gavi INFUSE 2018 Pacesetter and Saving Lives at Birth 2018 winner and having OpenSRP recognized as a Digital Square Global Good.
To assemble the first annual list of Genius Companies, TIME asked its global network of editors and correspondents to nominate businesses that are inventing the future. Each candidate was evaluated on key factors, including originality, influence, success and ambition. The result: 50 companies that are driving progress now, and bear watching for what they do next. Find the full list here: http://time.com/collection/genius-companies-2018.


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Posted September 15, 2016 by Josette Farrell in News.
Rest in Peace Gerard Murphy, Cahernahoon, Cummer. Tuam, Co Galway and resident of the Pope John Paul Centre, Ballybane, Galway. Unexpectedly on September 13th 2016. Sadly missed by his loving parents Johnny and Maureen, brothers Francis, Owen, Michael, Noel and Thomas, sisters Mary and Bernie, sisters-in-law, brothers-in-law, uncles and aunts, nieces and nephew, relatives and all the staff and friends of the Pope John Paul Centre.
Remains reposing at The Laurel's Pope John Paul Center on this Thursday evening from 5–7pm.
Remains reposing at Lackagh Mortuary Chapel on this Friday evening from 6pm until 8pm. Requiem Mass in the Church of Our Lady of Knock, Lackagh on Saturday at 11am with Burial afterwards in Lackagh Cemetery.
Family flowers only by request. Donations, if desired, to the Pope John Paul Centre, Ballybane.


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Tag: Animal Cruelty
New Jersey woman arrested for animal cruelty after puppy found in submerged cage
North Jersey woman arrested for animal cruelty
Police have arrested a North Jersey woman in connection with the death of a puppy.
Tonya Fea, 47, has been charged with two counts of animal cruelty after a golden retriever puppy was found in a submerged cage in a pond in West Milford last Tuesday.
Authorities said an investigation led them to Fea.
The puppy's cause of death has not been released.
Officials said the sentencing on each count of animal cruelty carries a maximum of 5 years in New Jersey State Prison.
Fea is scheduled to appear on the charges May 22.
Author THE FEARLESS REPORT PODCASTPosted on May 8, 2019 May 8, 2019 Tags Animal Cruelty, Golden Triever puppy, New Jersey State Prison, Tonya FeaLeave a comment on New Jersey woman arrested for animal cruelty after puppy found in submerged cage
Aurora man sentenced to 6 months in jail for having sex with dog; animal to be euthanized
Frederick Manzanares and Bubba the dog (Left photo: Aurora Police Department; Right photo: Aurora Animal Shelter).
AURORA, Colo. — An Aurora man who allegedly had sex with a dog in the backyard of their trailer home was sentenced to six months in jail on Tuesday and the dog will be euthanized.
Frederick Manzanares, 51, was sentenced to up to six months with work release in an Arapahoe County Jail and two years of probation for participating in sex acts with the dog and his former girlfriend.
Manzanares pleaded guilty to two counts of animal cruelty in September and faced up to 18 months in jail.
The dog that was abused, a male Akita mix named Bubba, was in the care of the Aurora Animal Shelter and they determined that Bubba has become aggressive and is not safe to be adopted and therefore will be euthanized, according to Aurora spokesman Michael Bryant.
Manzanares and his former girlfriend, Janette Solano, 49, were arrested in March for cruelty to animals.
The discovery of the animal abuse was triggered by a call to the Aurora Police Department on a report of domestic violence in 2017.
Solano told police that she and her boyfriend got into an argument after she refused to have sex with their dog.
An affidavit detailing the allegations said Manzanares began "introducing her to bestiality videos, bestiality forums, as well as providing her different literature on bestiality."
The "sex chamber" consisted of a padded bench designed to have sex with the dog.
Manzanares allegedly used a dog hormone spray to arouse the dog and would take pictures and videos during the sex acts.
Police found videos of Manzanares, Solano and the dog having sex.
Solano told police that she was jealous of her boyfriend's relationship with the dog.
Colorado law defines bestiality as an animal cruelty offense. Sex with animals was allowed under Colorado law until 2007.
Author THE FEARLESS REPORT PODCASTPosted on November 17, 2018 Tags Animal Cruelty, Bubba, Euthanized, Frederick Manzanares, sex chamber, Sex with animals, Sex with Dog, ZoophiliaLeave a comment on Aurora man sentenced to 6 months in jail for having sex with dog; animal to be euthanized

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaCommonCrawl


After successfully conducting four Breakfast Ride events, big bike groups have again bonded together, but not for happy times and motorcycle talk. It's time to be Good Samaritans, they say.
Organizers of the Breakfast Ride, led by riding couple Raymon and Malou Gabriel, are now calling on fellow riders to help in relief operations for the hundreds of thousands of victims of super typhoon 'Lawin' (international name: Haima), that hit many parts of Northern Luzon last October 20.
Worst hit areas include Cagayan and Isabela, where weather officials hoisted Typhoon Signal No. 5—the highest tropical cyclone signal. At the height of its devastation, Lawin packed maximum winds of up to 225kph and gustiness of up to 315kph.
Also affected were the areas of Apayao, Kalinga, Ilocos Sur, Ilocos Norte, Abra, Mountain Province, Ifugao and the Calayan islands. Thousands of houses were swept to the ground by Lawin's strong winds. Heavy flooding and landslide incidents were reported in many areas in the region. Two weeks have passed after Lawin wrought havoc in the area, and affected Ilocanos are still appealing for assistance.
Dubbed as "One Ride, One Mission," the Breakfast Ride participants will proceed to Cagayan and Isabela on their motorbikes on November 5 and 6 for the outreach program. The Breakfast Ride community has around 1,500 members, and it is composed of different big bike groups coming from the various parts of the country.
In partnership with Petron Corporation, the Breakfast Ride movers are asking for donations from the riders before they motor to the Lawin-affected areas in Regions 1 and 2.
"We are knocking on your doors. Let us help our kababayans," Raymon posted in the group's Facebook page. "Distribution will be done to families that need it the most as assessed by fellow riders in the badly affected areas," added Ada Bautista Mamon, another BR official.
Volunteers are expected to converge at the Petron Marilao station at 4am on November 5, before they proceed in two groups to Ilagan, Isabela and Tuguegarao, Cagayan for the relief operations. On November 11, another group of riders from Mindanao will join the Breakfast Ride community for the second relief mission also in Isabela and Cagayan.
The riders will be given the chance to interact with the affected residents, who are willing to share not only their hardships, but also their resilience in recovering from the calamity.
A good motorcycle group promotes camaraderie and companionship. A great one helps those in need. We're glad to know one of the latter.


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The Supreme Court deserves better
Jeffrey Simpson
The Parti Québécois government, gearing up for a possible election and therefore especially anxious to attack Ottawa, has launched a legal challenge against Justice Marc Nadon's appointment to the Supreme Court.
The PQ claims that Justice Nadon has been living outside Quebec for a long time, hasn't sat on a Quebec court (he sat on the Federal Court) and hasn't practised law in Quebec for two decades. As such, the PQ insists that Justice Nadon, who sat on the Federal Court, does not meet the special requirements for the three civil law judges from Quebec guaranteed under law for the Supreme Court.
The Quebec challenge misses the telling point: Justice Nadon is undoubtedly a nice man and perhaps a competent judge, but he is not qualified enough to sit on the Supreme Court of Canada. Residency questions aside, his record in law and on the bench does not make him what the Supreme Court needs. His is at best an ordinary appointment, and at worst sub-par.
The workload of a Supreme Court judge is a killer, especially the preparation and writing of judgments. Yes, there are clerks who help justices perform their tasks. But judging at the very highest level is intellectually challenging and of consequence for all Canadians.
We live with Supreme Court rulings in our daily lives. The institution helps shape the country. Supreme Court judges are often around longer, sometimes much longer, than elected officials. Only the very best will do.
Justice Nadon was a supernumerary judge at the age of 64. For those not familiar with the term, it means he was part-time. Supernumerary judging is one of the biggest boondoggles in the public sector. It allows judges, after a period of full-time service, to collect salaries while working only part-time.
Going supernumerary is what many judges do when they want partial retirement. If Justice Nadon was in semi-retirement at 64, how is he going to handle a Supreme Court judge's workload?
Justice Nadon practised law in Montreal before his appointment to the Federal Court. Nothing in his practice suggests the kind of career that characterized Supreme Court justice John Sopinka, who was one of Canada's top litigators. Nor does it compare to the outstanding litigation career of Guy Pratte, another potential Supreme Court nominee.
Justice Nadon has no record of academic contributions to the law, unlike Nicholas Kasirer, the former law dean at McGill. He did not serve on the Quebec Court of Appeal, which usually deals with far broader issues than the Federal Court. Civil law cases are more likely to bubble up through the provincial court system than the Federal Court, and Quebec judges on the Supreme Court must be among the best at civil law.
There have been previous nominees from the Federal Court, but most have been people of remarkable accomplishment. Frank Iacobucci, for example, moved up from the Federal Court, but he had been federal deputy minister of justice, vice-president of the University of Toronto and a law scholar of note. On the Supreme Court, he wrote decisions that shaped the country, such as extending equality rights protection for gays.
It is said that Justice Nadon has a special knowledge of maritime law. Which is good, except that maritime law cases might make it to the Supreme Court once in a quarter-century.
He did pen a decision siding with the federal government in a case involving convicted Canadian terrorist Omar Khadr. Perhaps this recommended him to a "law and order" government – who knows? All the government keeps saying is that he is well-qualified, without pointing to a single thing in his career that makes it so.
There were very highly qualified judges in Quebec – many of them female – who lawyers and law professors believed had earned a Supreme Court nod. It could be that they were asked and did not want to move to Ottawa.
The Commons committee charged with questioning Justice Nadon was given just two days to prepare and flubbed the job by not asking hard questions. The country's law associations and professors knew so little about such an unknown judge that they fell silent. The Supreme Court deserves better.
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Review: Starburn – A Fast-Paced Space-Western Romp
Shi Min·
ComicsReviews
· September 27, 2015 ·2 min read
Reader Rating1 Vote
Guns Blazing!
Fast paced storytelling
Beautiful art
Outta Ammo!
Needs to go beyond to stand out from traditional comics
I'm one of the lucky few who got to review Kelly Bender's Starburn (first story arc), all at once—its first issue was released at STGCC last year, and I couldn't believe that I hadn't heard of it. I did some googling (yeah, okay, so I cheated a little) and found that many people liked it, so I was psyched to give it a shot. Most sites have compared it to Star Trek, Guardians of the Galaxy and Firely. It's easy to see why.
The plot stars a band of morally questionable mercenaries onboard the fastest ship in the world—Starburn. The crew has to pick up and drop off a package, and runs into a lot of trouble along the way. We zoom in on the human, Gauge, who questions the dubious nature of the mission, and we're off on a fast-paced, visual treat.
Starburn's plot is a fun romp, with action and adventure at every turn. We see characters improvising when things don't go according to plan, and they have to use their abilities to solve any emergency that is thrust upon them. It's easy to keep track of the characters and what they do, and there are a few interesting plot twists that keep readers on their toes. However, the story still reads like a traditional space western—while that's not a bad thing, there is room for more creative and subversive writing that will surprise the reader.
Art-wise, Starburn's strong lines and illustrations leap off the pages, and it's apparent that the visual team—Balondo, Docolomansky, and Lee—work well together. Like the plot, Starburn's art plays it safe and is reminiscent of the visuals we're used to seeing in DC and Marvel comics. Yet, this style carries the plot forward to its dramatic climax, with some stunning panels for good measure.
While it's great that there is a burgeoning market for indie comics, Starburn wouldn't look out of place on a shelf full of titles by Marvel and DC. It reads too much like the established publishers, and there is more room to play with art styles and plot to make it stand out as an independent comic.
Skully is Adorable, But It'll Roll You to Rage Quitting
Geek OutPC / Console GamesReviews
Having the main, white male character (Gauge) come into his own in a "special snowflake" moment wihout foreshadowing is cliché and follows the well-trodden path of famous heroes. Making a female character strip to her underwear and using the gratuitous cleavage of another feels contrived and read as a cheap play to get people to turn the pages. Not to mention that the implausibility of the former scenario shocks the reader out of his/her suspension of disbelief.
While Starburn might have a couple of shortcomings, fans of space westerns and operas will love this quick read. While its writing and art is sound most of the time, it would serve the creators well to expand the universe to be more inclusive and less reliant on the all-too pervasive tropes that plague mainstream comics.
Indie comics are known for turning conventions on their heads. Bender and crew now have to challenge them.
Starburn is available on comiXology.
ComicsIndependantKelly BenderReviewStarburn
Shi Min
The Indie
Shi Min's interests include travelling (sometimes alone), scuba diving, and reading comics that aren't just from DC and Marvel. Her favourites include Fables, The Unwritten, and Saga. She lives with a kitten named Shadow Cat, and her first children's book will be launched next year. She tweets @smxie.
Tom Clancy's Rainbow Six Siege Now Available on Xbox Series X | S And Playstation 5 – Operation Neon Dawn Launched


Do you think China is afraid of their homo love?
It looks like nothing can come between these old men's love for each other.
I had to force down some rising vomit after seeing the unveiling of this competition-winning mascot for the upcoming Japanese election. Starry eyes or not, I'd be satisfied with his reign if his delusional views don't cause wars with the neighbors or any more nuke accidents.
Just remember that this hot politician's party daddy is the decrepit Abe, who 7 years ago resigned from the Prime Minister job after 10 months of service due to stomach problems. Why is he leading this cute guy's party, again? Are they trying to confuse the feminine public? He seems very confident about his abilities to count to three using his fingers.
Update: My bad. Actually this pretty politician, with a cloth condom on his mike, works for another decrepit political daddy, Noda, current prime minister and pro-nuke anti-populist. And we haven't even mentioned far-right wing Ishihara, who is against women, gays, immigrants, and French people, plus he'd like to add more friction (and not the sexual kind) with China.


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Дубро́вицька міська́ ра́да — адміністративно-територіальна одиниця та орган місцевого самоврядування в Дубровицькому районі Рівненської області. Адміністративний центр — місто Дубровиця.

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Міській раді підпорядковані населені пункти:
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20-Year-Old Wanted Black Man, Father Of 2, Shot Dead By US Marshals
Shortly before he was shot on Wednesday, Webber posted a live video on Facebook that showed him in a car, rapping and apparently smoking marijuana.
World | Posted by Ria Saini | Updated: June 14, 2019 07:45 IST
Agents of the US Marshals Services killed the man while trying to arrest him.
The young black man killed by U.S. marshals in Memphis, Tennessee, whose death sparked clashes with police overnight, had recently become a father for the second time and was the subject of multiple felony warrants, according to his family and officials.
The victim, identified by authorities as Brandon Webber, 20, was the eldest of eight sons, his father, Sonny Webber, said in an interview on Thursday. He had two young children of his own, a 2-year-old boy and a newborn daughter, and was expecting a second daughter soon.
Sonny Webber said his son had sold marijuana but was not a drug dealer.
"He wasn't a bad guy," he told Reuters. "He wasn't even living long enough to be a bad guy."
Public records show the younger Webber was arrested previously for possessing marijuana and drug paraphernalia and driving with an expired or suspended license and with an improperly displayed registration plate. It was not immediately clear if he was ever prosecuted.
Agents of the U.S. Marshals Service shot and killed Webber while trying to arrest him on multiple felony warrants at about 7 p.m. local time on Wednesday, the state Bureau of Investigation said. The incident triggered overnight clashes with protesters that left at least two dozen police officers injured, officials said.
A U.S. Marshals Service spokesman declined to specify the nature of the felony warrants. Webber was shot by the agents in "response to a threat posed by the subject," the Marshals Service said in a statement.
Shortly before he was shot on Wednesday, Webber posted a live video on Facebook that showed him in a car, rapping and apparently smoking marijuana. In the video, he looked out the window and said he saw police. With a laugh, he looked directly into the camera and said what sounded like the officers would "have to kill me."
The video appeared to have been removed from his Facebook page late on Thursday morning.
Webber's father said his son was shot between 16 and 20 times, but the number of shots could not immediately be confirmed.
In the hours after his death, friends flooded Webber's Facebook profile with messages of love, grief, disbelief and outrage at the authorities responsible for his death.
"I don't see a man that deserves 20 shots. I see a father, a friend, a big bro, a rapper from the heart ... a song writer, a college student, a homie, a brother," wrote Derrion Davenport, who posted a picture of Webber looking down at his newborn baby.
The Tennessee Bureau of Investigation said Webber rammed his vehicle into vehicles operated by the U.S. Marshals Service before getting out with an unspecified weapon. The service, an arm of the U.S. Department of Justice, is charged with apprehending fugitives.
According to his Facebook profile, Webber had graduated from Memphis Central High School. His father said he had planned to take classes at the University of Memphis in August.
Some US Passengers' In-Flight Behaviour Was Secretly Monitored For Years
California Attorney General To Probe Sacramento Police Shooting Of Unarmed Black Man
Mexico Studying Request For US Air Marshals On Cross-Border American Flights
US Marshalsblack man shot dead


INTERNET ACCESS: IS THE UNITED NATIONS ABOUT TO TAKE CONTROL? IS ACCESS TO THE INTERNET A HUMAN RIGHT?
change from their governments. For the participants in the uprisings that swept the Arab world, one of the most important tools at their disposal was Internet access.
Social media is a very powerful mode of communication and, like it or not, it is here to stay. Governments realizing the power people have when afforded Internet access have made every attempt to try to cut it off and suppress its influence.
has grown from the low millions to the low billions." Professor Shirky continues to say that,"…social media have [sic] become a fact of life for civil society worldwide…" With this many global citizens now having Internet access, make no mistake about it, the "social media genie" has already been let out of the bottle – and it is not going to be put back.
streets were uploaded and viewed on YouTube and many individuals on the ground kept us informed through real-time Twitter feeds. No, this was not the first instance of social media being utilized to force change; but to the degree to which it was used, and the number of people and countries involved, it was unprecedented.
All of this prompted me to think and ask: Was Internet access a human right for the protesters of the Arab Spring?
is certainly difficult not to respond to these questions in the affirmative knowing what we all know now.
Those who believe the United Nations is about to take over the Internet need to step back, take a deep breath, and closely examine the facts.
The mass hysteria began last December at a meeting of the International Telecommunications Union (I.T.U.). Russia and China led efforts to seize control of the oversight function of the Internet handled by a consortium of public and private groups and transfer the authority to the I.T.U.
The conclusion drawn by many of the anti-U.N. advocates could only be one thing: The U.N. is "calling the shots" on all matters related to the Internet, and this was their way of taking control of it.
This kind of rhetoric ignited the passions of those who would like nothing better than to see the U.N. become a marginalized global body, or more extremist viewpoints foresee it eliminated altogether.
The I.T.U. December meeting documents were leaked last month, and they revealed no indication whatsoever that the I.T.U. has any plans to take control of the Internet. Moreover, the U.N. agency stated it does notseek Internet governance authority.
The hallowed principles of free speech and expression cherished by every American, and many of our fellow global citizens, will remain protected as the U.N. stands with the U.S. in protecting these ideals. In addition, the I.T.U. specifically believes in an individual's right to access the Internet as a human right.


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WORLD Opinions
by R. Albert Mohler Jr.
The parable of David French
This is how conservatism dies, and this is how marriage is surrendered
David French speaks at the 2012 Conservative Political Action Conference. Wikimedia Commons
From time to time, just one human story becomes something akin to a modern parable. David French—writer, lawyer, public intellectual—is now that person. It is no insult to say that French, in himself, contains multitudes. In two recent articles, French defends both what is wrongly called the "Respect for Marriage Act" and his own process of thinking about same-sex marriage. He says that he has written these articles as acts of personal intellectual honesty, and I have no reason to question his integrity of mind. What I mean to criticize most strenuously is the ideas he now promotes. I do not argue that David French is disingenuous. I argue that he is wrong, and dangerously wrong at that.
In a piece published last week at The Atlantic, French argues that the Respect for Marriage Act rightly "protects same-sex marriage" and "contains religious-freedom protections for religious dissenters, including explicit protections for tax exemptions." His main argument is that the legislation codifying same-sex marriage nationwide rightly balances competing interests (LGBTQ rights and religious liberty) and thus represents "how pluralism is supposed to work." He argues that the bill just maintains "the legal status quo."
But French's piece also appeared to argue civil marriage should include same-sex marriage, or at least should do so after the Supreme Court's Obergefell decision of 2015. He asserted that the bill, while imperfect, "still contains provisions that can comfort (almost) everyone."
Well, I remain uncomforted. I agree with the religious freedom advocates who see the "protections" offered in this bill as woefully inadequate. In expansive language, the bill offers vague promises that, in turn, assert protections already in place, address arguments no one was making, or leave religious schools and organizations extremely vulnerable. French once worked as an attorney for Alliance Defending Freedom, but the ADF president has called the claim of real religious protections in this bill "hogwash." I am not sure that was meant as a technical term of law, but it is language clear enough we can all understand.
Sen. Mike Lee, R-Utah, stated by tweet: "I offered to support the bill if the sponsors would include my amendment to prohibit the government from removing tax-exempt status based on religious beliefs about same-sex marriage (for or against). The sponsors adamantly refused even to consider that. Why?"
One of the first problems I see is that, while the bill as passed by the Senate contains language assuring that no religious congregation will be required to perform same-sex ceremonies, protections for religious teachings against same-sex marriage (and the range of claims associated with LGBTQ identity politics) are clearly inadequate. There is much more to say about the threat to religious liberty seen here, but the issue of David French's change of mind on same-sex marriage demands a closer look, given his years of influence among evangelicals.
What, dare we ask, are the allowable boundaries of respectable pluralism? In answering this question, David French is particularly unclear.
In a second piece, published just two days after his Atlantic article, French explained "Why I Changed My Mind about Law and Marriage, Again." Again? In this essay, French tells us that he had offered public support for redefining civil marriage to include provision for same-sex couples back in 2004, before reversing his position in light of the Obergefell decision of 2015. He says that he makes a clear distinction between Christian marriage, which can always mean only a man and a woman, and civil marriage, which he sees as rightly decided by some balancing of interests. French made direct reference to the ominous statement in the Court's hearings on Obergefell in which Donald Verilli, then Solicitor General of the United States, had told the Court that claims against religious institutions that did not affirm same-sex marriage "will be an issue." French tells readers that he "became concerned that the movement for same-sex marriage would be ultimately ruinous for religious liberty." He was right, then.
He is wrong now when he asserts that the Supreme Court sufficiently values religious liberty so that legislation like the Respect for Marriage Act can now codify same-sex marriage without threat. To borrow the right word, hogwash.
So, as David French acknowledges, he changed his mind on same-sex marriage, again. But what about his view of same-sex civil marriage in itself? Here is where we now see something we had missed before—or at least I had missed before. I had no knowledge of French's argument in 2004. It was, a decade later, his defense of religious liberty after Obergefell that caught evangelical attention and appreciation.
But was French flatly against same-sex civil marriage? It now appears that the answer is no, and has been no for a long time. French identifies as a civil libertarian who wants to see a balancing of interests and claims within pluralism. As for his position on redefining marriage as a civil institution, he writes, apparently of his 2004 position: "I wanted gay couples to enjoy marriage-equivalent legal protections but without changing the legal definition of marriage. I wanted gay couples to enjoy the legally protected right to build a life together without creating a legal superstructure that ripped apart religious freedoms that are indispensable to the health of the republic and to the flourishing of countless millions of American lives."
That argument should astound evangelical Christians. The key issue seems to be French's basic confidence in pluralism as the great civic goal and central political principle. But pluralism requires careful definition and boundaries. In a recent book, French explains, "I recognize pluralism as a permanent fact of American life and seek to foster a political culture that protects the autonomy and dignity of competing American ideological and religious communities." But what, dare we ask, are the allowable boundaries of respectable pluralism? In answering this question, David French is particularly unclear. If he is clear, his view would undermine any stable public morality based on any objective moral truths.
In their noteworthy debate over "Drag Queen Story Hour" programs for children in public libraries, Sohrab Ahmari proclaimed French's mixture of civil libertarianism and ideological pluralism as "David French-ism." Well, David French-ism exploded into view with these two recent articles.
One of the most perplexing marks of our time is the defection of so many "conservatives" from the cause of conserving what Russell Kirk called "the permanent things." If marriage is not conserved—if civil marriage is not conserved as a man-woman union—then nothing genuinely conservative can last, at least for long. Support for the Respect for Marriage Act is bad enough. The way David French frames his argument is worse. This is how conservatism dies, and this is how marriage is surrendered.
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Albert Mohler is president of The Southern Baptist Theological Seminary and Boyce College and editor of WORLD Opinions. He is also president of the Evangelical Theological Society and host of The Briefing and Thinking in Public. He is the author of several books, including The Gathering Storm: Secularism, Culture, and the Church. He is the seminary's Centennial Professor of Christian Thought and a minister, having served as pastor and staff minister of several Southern Baptist churches.
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Tennis Pro Tours In the years before the open era, male professionals often played more frequently on tours than in tournaments because head-to-head tours between two stars paid much better than tournaments and the number of professional tournaments was small.
They added Deuce, Advantage, and 2 chances per serve. In July of the same year, the site was selected. It was built between and by Leary. The first American National championship was played there in September The mother remarried a Mr.
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After Leamington, the second club to take up the game of lawn tennis appears to have been the Edgbaston Archery and Croquet Society, also in Birmingham. How was it started? If at least three points have been scored by each side and a player has one more point than his opponent, the score of the game is "advantage" for the player in the lead.
For most of the 20th century, the backhand was performed with one hand, using either an eastern or a continental grip. The new star was Norman Brookes, the first in a long line of Australian champions and the first left-hander to reach the top.
He married Martha Blanchard, who came from Waukegan, Illinois as a school teacher, on February 2, Pro Championships Pro Slams [ edit ] Main article: This very simple game was designed by Thomas T.
The referee, who is usually located off the court, is the final authority about tennis rules. The old Barnes home is not lived in at present but is used for a storehouse.
In the s and s, computers were not only exceedingly expensive, but used a technology that could not allow integrating them into a video game system. These thoughts never enter our mind as we pass through the little village today.
A difficult shot in tennis is the return of an attempted lob over the backhand side of a player. Joe McCauley determined that foronly 7 professional tournaments were played by the top international players, and 2 other professional tournaments the British Pro and the German Pro were reserved for domestic players.
Tom Louis and their family, and Mr. Average club players under this system would rate 3. Lines The lines that delineate the width of the court are called the baseline farthest back and the service line middle of the court. It was renamed the Davis Cup following the death of Dwight Davis in He settled here inbut did not locate permanently, with his wife and children, until Accordingly, in the s the U.
Low Impact Cardio Tennis This Tennis program fits in between a Cardio and Instructional clinic, where students will get a moderate workout while learning more about doubles positioning and strategy.Introduction: The video game history started in a strange and complicated way and it is important to avoid confusions with what happened in the s and s.
Federer's biggest rival Rafael Nadal is regarded as the greatest competitor in tennis history by some former players and is regarded to have the potential to be the greatest of all time.
Nadal is regarded as the greatest clay court player of all time. Greatest female players. As with the men. Chris Evert Charities was created to help fund programs that benefit children, focusing on programs that keep families intact.
Any history of tennis that ignores its origins in the game that was (and is still in certain circles) known as tennis until "lawn tennis" became popular in the late nineteenth century is inaccurate. The Davis Cup, an annual competition between men's national teams, dates to An exploration of the nature and history of capitalism.
Global capitalism, colonies and Third-World economic realities. Dorset is a county of great beauty, a land of contrast and breathtaking scenery. It is one of the maritime counties of southern England, fronting the English Channel which separates the United Kingdom from mainland Europe.


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Barbara Hammer (born May 15, 1939) is an American filmmaker in the genre of experimental films.
Biography Hammer was born in Hollywood, California. She is a graduate of the University of California at Los Angeles with a Bachelor's degree in psychology. She also holds two Master's degrees from San Francisco State University, one in English literature and one in film. She also took postgraduate classes in the field of digital media.
Eve Heller
Eve Heller is an american experimental filmmaker cinema producer. Her work has been displayed in the American Whitney Art Museum, in the Anthology Film Archives and at the New York and Rotterdam festivals.
Storm de Hirsch
Storm de Hirsch (1912–2000) was an American poet and filmmaker. She was a key figure in the New York avant-garde film scene of the 1960s, and one of the founding members of the Film-Makers' Cooperative. Although often overlooked by historians, in recent years she has been recognized as a pioneer of underground cinema.
Peter Hutton (born August 24 1944 in Detroit, Michigan; d. June 25 2016) is an filmmaker, known primarily for his silent cinematic portraits of cities and landscapes around the world. He has also worked as a professional cinematographer, most notably for his former student Ken Burns. Hutton studied painting, sculpture and film at the San Francisco Art Institute. He has taught filmmaking at CalArts, Hampshire College, Harvard University, SUNY Purchase, and Bard College, where he has served as the director of the Film and Electronic Arts Program since 1989.