July Scientiae: Fantasy Institute

This month's July Scientiae is from JaneB:

"You have been selected as the Director of a newly endowed research institute. It is your job to decide where the institute will be based, its codes of conduct, its structure, and who you will hire. Dream away! Tell us what would make your institute a haven for scientists." 

Photo by Glisglis

Location:

- Based in warm climate with fantastic public transportation and great restaurants. 

People:

- Nice, smart, and passionate about science. 

Facilities:

- On-site chef

- On-site, high-quality childcare with enough space for all employees

- Lots of green space (trees, shrubbery, etc), flowers, parks, benches, hiking trails, maybe a pond or two

Funding:

- Researchers never have to worry about funding or making a profit.  

- Funds are always available to buy cool research toys, the caveat being that you need to make sure at least two other colleagues have played with your toy.

- Funding is always available to travel to conferences, even if you don't have a paper accepted. 

Administration:

- Fantastic, friendly, helpful administrative support whom are well paid and well treated.

- When reimbursing travel/equipment, no one is allowed to make a fuss over anything less than $50. Ever. 

Work environment:

- Slacking is encouraged, in order to generate brilliant ideas. No one is allowed to feel guilty (or make others feel guilty) for sitting in the park reading a fiction novel, playing sports, going for a swim in the pond, or chatting with others. 

Our motto: Great ideas and great work come from treating people well. 

the great thing about stripes...

is that they look fantastic no matter what the settings....

*images courtesy bippity boppity boo, plush palate, oh happy day, luxe and lilies, tiny white daisies, coco and kelly, lucky boy sunday

Err on the side of "Doctor"

DrugMonkey's post on academic titles reminded me of something I wanted to mention.

Photo by Cybertoad

When addressing someone in an academic context whose gender and/or academic ranking is unknown, it's generally best to err on the side of "Doctor". The worst that happens is you're wrong and they're flattered.

Recently a colleague (C1) invited another colleague (C2) to review a paper. C2 is a woman, and a postdoc. C1 is a male academic researcher. If one searches for C2's name, the first few hits clearly show that she has a PhD, and also that she appears to be a "she". But for some reason, C1 entered C2's information into the reviewing system as "Mr. C2 Lastname". C2 has spent a lot of time in a country which has a masculine culture, so she's probably not phased by this, but I find I am a bit. Why is "Mr." the default?

Another FCS and I were once in charge of allocating a small pot of money and advertised a call for applicants. Several applications we received were addressed, "Dear Sir". I just couldn't wrap my head around this. If we both didn't have photographs on our webpages (which both show us very much looking female) I could maybe excuse this error. But even still, the applicants could have written, "Dear Committee Members" or even just "Dear FCS1 and FCS2." Ah well... too bad about that funding. ;)

what's a girl....

gotta do to sport a cute outfit like this one??! i think it needs to magically appear in my closet. it would be a lot cuter then the t-shirt and gym shorts i am currently living in these days. it's that elastic band that keeps me coming back for more....

*images courtesy of house and home, urban electric, the zhush

Mendeley news

Few months ago I posted about Mendeley, the reference management system. I've been using it all the time and I am really satisfied. It is much more convenient to have your papers on a server than on a flash drive. Also keeping meta-information about the papers makes dealing with them (exploring, reading, citing etc.) more pleasant.

In this month a major update was released and a monetizing scheme was introduced. There are now 3 tariff plans in addition to the free one that allows one to use up to 1Gb of server disk space. There are also restrictions on the max number of shared collections and the number of users per collection. It does not look critical after all: there are no features you cannot use in the free version, so the company seems not evil. However, on the sister project last.fm the radio feature became paid after years of free service, which caused many users drift to grooveshark.

The update has affected the design of the paper info right-hand bar, and the references bar was eliminated. They promise to rebirth the bar in the future releases. It was really unusable before. When you read a paper, it is handy to have the list of indexed references on the bar, especially if the reference-style citing is used (it is the major problem with reading papers from the screen: where the hell [42] is referencing to?) I hope the people in Mendeley realize it.

It would be great to have a possibility to find papers without leaving the application. In theory, you could drag a citation from the references bar to a collection, find its (more) precise details via Internet search, and you are likely to have the link, and if it is direct, you can add the pdf with the Add File dialog using the found URL. In practice, the found URLs usually are not direct, they refer to IEEE/ACM/Springer pages, where the paper could be downloaded (usually not freely). In the same time, the paper is likely to be available for free through the direct link on the author's homepage. Moreover, Google Scholar often finds them too, but Mendeley chooses indirect links.

Mendeley needs to be more "semantic" while working with authors and conferences. It stores the author name as it appears in the paper. When you want to filter your papers by author, you can see "Shapovalov, R", "Shapovalov, R.", "Shapovalov, Roman", "Shapovalov, Roman V." etc. in the list. There are bases like DBLP, Mendeley can build their own index, so the author should be identified. If we know the author (but not only her name appearance in the paper), we are able to filter Google Scholar results and retrieve the direct link to the paper hosted on the author/university site. Finally, it is feasible to create the system, where human don't need to find papers. If I see the reference, I can automatically retrieve the pdf in a few seconds. I want Mendeley to develop in this direction.

Mobile Scholar: Part I

Image by Mike Licht

I am trying to turn my iPad into a laptop in order to lighten my load while traveling (and save my poor neck). It will never replace a proper computer from a software development perspective, but from a scholarly reading and writing perspective I am almost there.

The Chronicle had a nice post in ProfHacker regarding PDF annotation and organization, and Christopher Long has also written in greater detail about how one goes about "Closing the Digital Research Circle". For PDF annotation, syncing, and citing, I strongly suspect Mendeley is going to win the race. As much as I love the idea of Zotero, I just don't use Firefox on any of my machines or mobile devices. (I did enjoy using the open source Aigaion, but once my entire bibliography got trashed while upgrading I decided to stick with the pros). Mendeley can be buggy, but as one person said, "When it works, it works really well," and they're right.

Anyway, that's still just consumption and management of existing content, which is only half the problem. The other is creating and editing manuscripts.

In my field, everyone writes papers in LaTeX. Some journals and conferences occasionally permit the submission of Word documents, but personally I have a hard time understanding how anyone can do that without pulling their hair out. The last time I wrote an article in Word I spent several days dealing with misplaced references, unusual figure formats, caption problems, and incompatibility issues. When I write in LaTeX I can just focus on the writing and ignore everything else. (Kind of like writing a program in Java vs. C++)

But how to write LaTeX on the go? Due to a lack of multitasking in the present OS, as well as Apple forbidding any applications that compile code (e.g., no easy way to typeset your documents), what's a body to do?

I recently found LaTeX Lab, which lets you edit and typeset LaTeX Google Docs. Hooray! Almost there!

...sadly, Google Documents are not yet natively editable on the iPad.

I can, of course, remote login to my machines back at the office using virtualization software and edit LaTeX files there, but that just feels so inelegant. So we're not there just quite yet. I'm going to try a few things over the next few weeks and will report back.

"But you don't look like a computer scientist!"

Joe McCarthy has an interesting post about the Boopsie Effect, "wherin women in upper-level positions in historically male-dominated professions find that 'attractiveness suggests less competence and intellectual ability'". He discusses some female computer science researchers he knows who have felt compelled to conceal their attractiveness in order to be taken seriously by their colleagues.

This is a picture of Hedy Lammar, silver screen 

actress and wireless security pioneer.

Photo by BooBooGBs

I thought this was an interesting comment, because I've fortunately never encountered this sort of problem from my male colleagues. However, I have most certainly encountered this from the lay public.

For example, I recently bought an iPad while traveling. Because I had suitcases to carry, I accepted the Apple store employee's suggestion to open the box and register the SIM card so I could leave all the packaging at the store. After he finished I began to gather my bags and he said, "Do you need any help setting up your email?" to which I replied, "No thanks, I'm a computer scientist." He had a look of shock on his face and said, "Oh! I underestimated you!"

I'm still not entirely sure what to make of that comment. What are we computer scientists supposed to look like exactly?

Of course this comment isn't nearly as bad as one I received a long time ago. I was out with some friends, and a man came over and started talking to me. He asked me what my profession was. I told him, and he said, "But you don't look like a computer scientist!" I had to leave the room for a second, and when I came back he was gone. Perhaps he was hoping I looked more like Hedy?

Interview with Jimmy Moore

About two months ago, I did an interview with Jimmy Moore of the Livin' la Vida Low Carb internet empire. I hardly remember what we talked about, but I think it went well. I enjoyed Jimmy's pleasant and open-minded attitude. Head over to Jimmy's website and listen to the interview here.

I do recall making at least one mistake. When discussing heart attacks,I said "atrial fibrillation" when I meant "ventricular fibrillation".

work with what you've got...

i am blown away by the sweet comments about walker and his room. thank y'all so much! i thought i would be here sooner but its amazing how time consuming staring at a newborn can be! he totally has me wrapped around his finger....

i wanted to answer some questions about the nursery and show how w/ baby #2, you've got to work with what you've got. which was basically zero $$ and tweaking taylor's super girly nursery into something a little boy could feel "manly" in.

1. the first challenge was the size of the room. usually a nursery is tiny and intimate but our two upstairs rooms are huge. the bed and end tables are loaners from my parents. my dad is super talented when it comes to building and he built the bed based off of maine cottage's lizzie bed. it's great to have a bed for when guests come and if i want to sleep in here instead of going up and down the stairs at night for feedings. the bedding was a great budget find....micheal kors duvet and shams from tj maxx. the "walker" pillow was a gift made by one of our family's oldest friends.

2. the crib was taylor's and is stokke sleepi in whitewash (i purchased it at b. braithwaite- FAB baby store in atl). i loved the oval shape of the crib when i was pregnant w/ tay but have since realized that you are limited to bedding when you have an oval mattress. luckily, one of my favorite companies, dwell studio, offers oval bedding. for tay's room we had the chocolate dots which warren thought wasn't boy enough. i loved the pattern owls so i got crafty and bought the shower curtain and took the bumper and had it recovered (i left the brown and white stripe on the inside). shower curtains are great ways to save $$ on fabric b/c they are 72" W but beware they are thin so they typically have to be interlined.

3. the changing table was taylor's...loved that dwell studio offers "cool" changing pad covers at great prices (also, they are constantly having free shipping so i buy during that time). i decided to go w/ the dots here b/c i think it adds some personality. the mirror was leftover from our previous house. and the mobile is blabla...it's leftover from tay's room and they don't offer these versions anymore but here is one on super sale :)

4. the chair and ottoman were taylor's. at the time, i thought a giant pink chair would be cute...i love it so much more now so i am very happy to have it recovered. plus when you order these gliders from baby stores, the standard fabric selections aren't great!! the new fabric is robert allen and was some in my hoarding stash. and my mother-in-law shared a great secret w/ me on reupholstery....the prison does it for cheap (like $20 a yd which is a 1/3 of the cost i am use to paying). you just can't be in a rush to have it back b/c they have things like "lock downs" at the jail (i kid you not) and it delays things...

5. the bookshelf was a find from habitat for humanity ($30). it was rather ugly when i purchased it but i loved the fact that it was real wood and had a bead board back. i bought leftover paint at habitat as well, $4 a gallon to paint it with.

other random information:

- the lights are potty barn kids...i found them at a neighborhood yard sale for $5

- the industrial initials above walker's crib were bought at bungalow classic (LOVE this store if you are in atl, go here)...i think they were $13 a piece.

- the metal baskets are old locker baskets...i love these things...i find them at antique stores. warren doesn't think they are very kid friendly but since walker isn't grabbing anything at this current time, they're staying :)

- playskool chalkboard...thrift store find...old school!

-roman shade is lulu dk catwalk..it was in my kitchen in my old house

- the bookshelf at the end of the bed is one that warren and dad made for tay's room...we just added the left over fabric for the top of it

okay, if you are still reading this i am impressed! thanks again for your sweet comments! i hope to post more regularly....i know it won't be daily just yet. have a wonderful weekend!

*ps. the designer's attic will back to its normal posts next week...i have some good ones too :)

Gandarusa, Potensial untuk KB Pria
Kamis, 24 Juni 2010 | 08:50 WIB

JAKARTA, KOMPAS.com - Tumbuhan sejenis perdu ini sudah lama dikenal sebagai campuran obat luar untuk mengatasi berbagai keluhan. Belakangan manfaat lebih gandarusa makin tersingkap, terutama sebagai kontrasepsi alami untuk pria. Beberapa penelitian telah dilakukan guna membuktikan khasiatnya.

Sejak dulu orang mengenal gandarusa sebagai tanaman untuk pagar halaman. Dengan tinggi di atas satu meter, tumbuhan yang memiliki nama Latin Gendarussa vulgaris Nees ini memang pantas dipilih sebagai tanaman pelindung.

Seperti Siti Hartini, pemilik kebun gandarusa di bilangan Pancoran Mas, Depok. Menurut wanita yang rajin belajar meramu herba ini, selain penampilannya enak dilihat saat ditanam di halaman, gandarusa juga memiliki beragam manfaat. Gandarusa biasa ia manfaatkan sebagai ramuan luar guna mengatasi gangguan keseleo atau terkilir.

“Ramuan itu sudah ada sejak zaman orangtua saya. Cara meramunya mudah, seperti membuat param agar luka memar atau keseleo tidak membengkak dan cepat sembuh. Bahannya 30 gram daun gandarusa segar dan temu putih secukupnya. Setelah dicuci bersih, kedua bahan tersebut ditumbuk hingga halus. Setelah itu, tambahkan air secukupnya agar menjadi adonan. Adonan itu selanjutnya dioleskan ke bagian tubuh yang memar atau keseleo. Lakukan dua kali sehari,” papar nenek dua cucu ini.

Selama ini berdasarkan beberapa kesaksian empiris, ramuan tersebut dapat mengurangi risiko bengkak dan meredakan rasa nyeri akibat keseleo.

Pelancar Darah
Khasiat gandarusa sebagai pereda nyeri juga pernah diteliti oleh Hotma Elisa Siregar dari Jurusan Farmasi FMIPA Universitas Sumatera Utara, pada tahun 1984, guna mengetahui efek analgetiknya. Hasilnya, pemberian infus daun kering gandarusa per oral pada mencit, dengan bahan pembanding parasetamol dan morfin, menunjukkan hasil positif atau adanya pengaruh.
Bagian tanaman yang sering dimanfaatkan adalah daunnya. Rasanya khas, sedikit pedas, asam, dan getir. Berdasarkan pengalaman, gandarusa dipercaya membantu melancarkan peredaran darah, juga sebagai pereda mual dan antirematik.

Sementara itu, di kalangan industri farmasi, bahan dasar atau ekstrak gandarusa sudah sering dimanfaatkan untuk jamu atau obat. Sayangnya, belum banyak penelitian yang dilakukan untuk menguatkannya.

Tanaman yang dalam bahasa Sunda dikenal sebagai handerasa atau gonorusa ini diketahui berpotensi sebagai kontrasepsi alami bagi pria. Sejak beberapa tahun lalu sampai saat ini sejumlah ilmuwan Indonesia terus meneliti penggunaan ekstrak tanaman gandarusa sebagai bahan kontrasepsi alami bagi pria.

Menurut hasil uji praklinis pada hewan coba, tanaman itu efektif menekan pertumbuhan spermatozoa. Keyakinan ini berawal dari temuan Prof. Ir. Moeso S. dan Drs. Agus P., gandarusa biasa digunakan masyarakat Papua sebagai obat KB pria. Penelitian lanjutan dilakukan oleh Drs. Bambang Prayogo, Apt., dari Jurusan Farmakognosi (cabang ilmu yang mempelajari tumbuhan sebagai obat) Fakultas Farmasi, Universitas Airlangga, Surabaya.

Serupa KB Hormonal
Dinyatakan Dr. Bambang, cara kerja senyawa gandarusa lebih mudah diterapkan dan berpeluang berhasil. Kondisi kembali subur setelah tidak memakainya juga cukup tinggi.
Temuan sekaligus tawaran gandarusa sebagai kontrasepsi alami bagi pria tentu menarik. Pasalnya, selama ini kontrasepsi pria lebih bersifat mekanis, yang membuat kaum pria ogah menggunakannya. Seperti senggama terputus, selain sulit mengontrol, juga mengurangi kenikmatan. Sementara itu, soal penggunaan kondom, banyak yang berkilah tidak alamiah, di samping ada beberapa wanita yang alergi kondom.

Ada KB pria yang dianggap manjur, yakni vasektomi, tetapi harus lewat jalan operasi. Belum-belum sudah bikin ngeri. Sudah begitu, vasektomi diragukan saat pemulihan ke¬suburan dan seringkali diduga memicu kanker prostat di kemudian hari.

Jadi, agar dilirik, kontrasepsi khusus pria haruslah dapat menjaga fisiologi (fungsi organ tubuh), psikologi, dan libido tetap normal. Mungkin serupa tetapi tak sama dengan kontrasepsi hormonal, entah susuk atau suntik. Lebih disukai bila berbentuk pil atau tablet, sehingga bisa digunakan secara oral.

Jika benar hal ini terwujud dan industri farmasi tertarik mensponsori penelitian serta pengembang¬annya, tentu menjadi sebuah harapan besar.

Meski begitu, beberapa kalangan, termasuk para peneliti, tetap menyarankan adanya riset mendetail dan komprehensif agar bisa diambil kesimpulan yang pasti tentang khasiat gandarusa sebagai solusi alternatif KB bagi pria.(Lalang Ken Handita)

NB: Sehatherbal menyediakan Gandarusa kapsul, harga 50rb/50 kpsul. Info lebih lanjut k 081310343598 atau budiprakoso98@gmail.com

Cloudy with a chance of iPhones

I was ... the first full-time woman faculty member in my department.
There really was difficulty among my male colleagues in associating
with a woman as a colleague. I think they literally did not know how
to talk to me, and as a consequence often just did not talk to me.
They would ignore me. They would not invite me to have lunch with
them, which was a very ordinary experience there ... they would walk
past my office and ask the next person and never ask me. [Years
later] I asked one of my colleagues why this was so. And he said,
`You know what would happen if I asked you to lunch ... People would
talk' ([Clark et al 1986, pages 36--37,] in [Sandler 1986, pages 7--8,]).

Ellen Spertus quoted this passage in an MIT tech report she wrote in 1991 on the topic de jour in various tech circles, "Why are there so few female computer scientists?" One part of the article I liked was the section entitled, The Masculine Environment: Behavior Due to Sex-Correlated Differences. Here she discusses how difficult it can be for women to talk with men about non-academic topics as their interests often do not overlap. She also points out that many of the "team-building" activities intending to foster communication among colleagues often involve things that tend to appeal more to men than to women. (In general).

Photo by Adam Crowe

For example, in my department, some recent events purporting to build camaraderie have been: World Cup viewing + drinking beer, happy hour, visiting a bar, some video game events, and recently a long string of XTREME sporting activities. Of the very few female faculty and students in my department, I don't think any participate in these activities. Several come from religious and cultural backgrounds that strongly prohibit drinking-related activities.

While we do have a great mentoring scheme set up for women coming into the department and supporting them while they're here which includes some social events, it's not really the same thing. In fact, while I applaud the efforts, sometimes going to these women-focused events makes me feel like I'm sitting at the kid's table at Thanksgiving. By trying to help us fit in, we are further made separate. I've suggested to various people in my department that perhaps there might be other group activities more amenable to helping us intermix a bit more, so perhaps things will change in the future.

But in the meanwhile: What can a lone woman do to fit in with the men?

The answer lies within the thing that got you into this crazy field in the first place - a deep love (or hatred) of technology. Think of this topic like the weather for computer scientists. I guarantee you that most people in your department are following the latest drama regarding Apple and Flash, Facebook's latest privacy fail, or what neat things the new Kinect will do. And if you're not up on the latest, I strongly suggest subscribing to the ACM's Tech News. It's only three emails a week which you can quickly skim to get an idea of what's happening.

Talking tech is a great way to break the ice and start to develop the rapport that is essential to being accepted into (and thus feeling comfortable in) a male-dominated department.

In Search of Traditional Asian Diets

It's been difficult for me to find good information on Asian diets prior to modernization. Traditional Chinese, Taiwanese and Japanese diets are sometimes portrayed as consisting mostly of white rice, with vegetables and a bit of meat and soy, but I find that implausible. Rice doesn't grow everywhere, and removing all the bran was prohibitively labor-intensive before the introduction of modern machine milling. One hundred years ago, bran was partially removed by beating or grinding in a mortar and pestle, as it still is in parts of rural Asia today. Only the wealthy could afford true white rice.

Given the difficulty of growing rice in most places, and hand milling it, the modern widespread consumption of white rice in Asia must be a 20th century phenomenon, originating in the last 20-100 years depending on location. Therefore, white rice consumption does not predate the emergence of the "diseases of civilization" in Asia.

In the book Western Diseases: Their Emergence and Prevention, there are several accounts of traditional Asian diets I find interesting.

Taiwan in 1980

The staple constituent of the diet is polished white rice. Formerly in the poorer areas along the sea coast the staple diet was sweet potato, with small amounts of white rice added. Formerly in the mountains sweet potato, millet and taro were the staple foods. During the last 15 years, with the general economic development of the whole island, white polished rice has largely replaced other foods. There is almost universal disinclination to eat brown (unpolished) rice, because white rice is more palatable, it bears kudos, cooking is easier and quicker, and it can be stored for a much longer period.

Traditionally, coronary heart disease and high blood pressure were rare, but the prevalence is now increasing rapidly. Stroke is common. Diabetes was rare but is increasing gradually.

Mainland China

China is a diverse country, and the food culture varies by region.

Snapper (1965)… quoted an analysis by Guy and Yeh of Peiping (Peking) diets in 1938. There was a whole cereal/legume/vegetable diet for poorer people and a milled-cereal/meat/vegetable diet for the richer people.

Symptoms of vitamin A, C and D deficiency were common in the poor, although coronary heart disease and high blood pressure were rare. Diabetes occurred at a higher rate than in most traditionally-living populations.

Japan

On the Japanese island of Okinawa, the traditional staple is the sweet potato, with a smaller amount of rice eaten as well. Seafood, vegetables, pork and soy are also on the menu. In Akira Kurosawa’s movie Seven Samurai, set in 16th century mainland Japan, peasants ate home-processed millet and barley, while the wealthy ate white rice. Although a movie may not be the best source of information, I suspect it has some historical basis.

White Rice: a Traditional Asian Staple?

It depends on your perspective. How far back do you have to go before you can call a food traditional? Many peoples' grandparents ate white rice, but I doubt their great great grandparents ate it frequently. White rice may have been a staple for the wealthy for hundreds of years in some places. But for most of Asia, in the last few thousand years, it was probably a rare treat. The diet most likely resembled that of many non-industrial African cultures: an assortment of traditionally prepared grains, root vegetables, legumes, vegetables and a little meat.

Please add any additional information you may have about traditional Asian diets to the comments section.

"Can I call you 'babe'?"

Recently I was chatting with some colleagues, and we were discussing a researcher joining our group. One person started to say, "And this new girl-,"  looks at me, "-Oh, or should I say, 'woman'?"

All the men in the room turned to look at me.

"Definitely 'woman'. I would only say 'girl' if I was speaking about a child."

This question actually sparked a good, productive conversation. Sometimes these situations can get awkward when one is asked to represent their entire sex, but I really appreciate it when people care enough about their language to ask.

Photo by Occhiovio

I also really appreciate when people correct me on my language usage. Lately I've been trying to not use ableist language in my speech, and am glad to be called on it. It's really difficult to deprogram yourself once you establish certain patterns, but it's worth it.

Why? Because language shapes thought. While the Sapir-Whorf Hypothesis is unlikely to be true in its strongest form (language determines thought), it is most certainly true in its weak form (language influences thought). Recently cultural neuroscience has been making a splash, showing things like how people raised in individualistic or collectivist cultures will respond to the same words in completely different ways. Other studies have suggested that education level affects how people differ in the way they consider concepts such as freedom and choice.  And who knows if any of the studies we've conducted over the past century have external validity outside WEIRD (Western, Educated, Industrialized, Rich, and Democratic) populations.


Words matter. So when talking to someone who represents a group that you are not a part of, it's not a bad idea to ask them what term they'd prefer you use when you refer to them or their group. Much better that then putting your foot in your mouth!

the little man....

is finally here.....and i can't get enough of him :)

we thought we had the perfect baby...the first night home from the hospital, he barely woke up to eat....the second night, a completely different story. we are a little sleep deprived (warren just made a grill cheese and forgot to put the top piece of bread on). here are some pictures of walker's room; promise to be more bright eyed later this week...well, maybe :) thanks so much for all of your well wishes for the delivery....it was very easy, thankfully.

*ps. taylor LOVES her baby brother, which is a good thing b/c he looks just like her!

KOPI Herbal - Kopi kaya dengan kandungan herbal

Kopi Herbal merupakan salah satu produk minuman untuk meningkatkan stamina dan kesehatan. Kopi ini mengandung berbagai macam herbal berkhasiat diantaranya:
1. Mesoyi, Kapulaga, serimpi, dan secang untuk mencegah masuk angin.
2. Jahe Merah dan Lengkuas merah untuk kebugaran tubuh.
3. Daun Dewa untuk melancarkan aliran darah.
4. Ginseng, dan Euricoma Radix (pasak Bumi) untuk stamina,
5. Pegagan untuk revitalisasi otak dan kulit (dimana kadarnya dibuat tepat sehingga efek sedatifnya berkurang)
6. dan Tribulus untuk menjaga organ reproduksi kita;
7. Tapak liman dan daun sendok untuk menjaga ginjal dan juga menjaga tekanan darah.

semuanya komposisi itu kita campur dengan kombinasi yang tepat dan kita extraksi sehingga bau-bau herbalnya menjadi berkurang tanpa mengurnagi khasiatnya.Disamping itu kopi yang kita gunakan adalah kopi arabica extract kita pilih agar kopinya harum, serta cream yang digunakan adalah non dairy creamer atau creamer nabati non kolesterol. Segera nikmati ....

Anda tertarik.. silakan contact : 021-96120932 (budi prakoso) untuk pemesanan. Harga 35rb/10sachet. MIn.order 4 kotak.

Object detection vs. Semantic segmentation

Recently I realized that object class detection and semantic segmentation are the two different ways to solve the recognition task. Although the approaches look very similar, methods vary significantly on the higher level (and sometimes on the lower level too). Let me first state the problem formulations.

Semantic segmentation (or pixel classification) associates one of the pre-defined class labels to each pixel. The input image is divided into the regions, which correspond to the objects of the scene or "stuff" (in terms of Heitz and Koller (2008)). In the simplest case pixels are classified w.r.t. their local features, such as colour and/or texture features (Shotton et al., 2006). Markov Random Fields could be used to incorporate inter-pixel relations.

Object detection addresses the problem of localization of objects of the certain classes. Minimum bounding rectangles (MBRs) of the objects are the ideal output. The simplest approach here is to use a sliding window of varying size and classify sub-images defined by the window. Usually, neighbouring windows have similar features, so each object is likely to be alarmed by several windows. Since multiple/wrong detections are not desirable, non-maximum suppression (NMS) is used. In PASCAL VOC contest an object is considered detected, if the true and found rectangles are intersected on at least half of their union area. In the Marr prize winning paper by Desai et al. (2009) more intelligent scheme for NMS and incorporation of context is proposed. In the recent paper by Alexe the objectness measure for a sliding window is presented.

In theory, the two problems are almost equivalent. Object detection reduces easily to semantic segmentation. If we have a segmentation output, we just need to retain object classes (or discard the "stuff" classes) and take MBRs of regions. The contrary is more difficult. Actually, all the stuff turns into the background class. All the found objects within the rectangles should be segmented, but it is a solvable issue since foreground extraction techniques like GrabCut could be applied. So, there are technical difficulties which could be overcome and the two problems could be considered equivalent, however, in practice the approaches are different.

There arise two questions:

1. Which task has more applications? I think we do not generally need to classify background into e.g. ground and sky (unless we are programming an autonomous robot), we are interested in finding objects more. Do we often need to obtain the exact object boundary?

2. Which task is sufficient for the "retrieval" stage of the intelligent vision system in the philosophical sense? I.e. which task is more suitable for solving the global problem of exhaustive scene analysis?

Thoughts?

Communication Styles and Skin Thickness

I've started this blog, mainly, because of some recent articles in the NY Times by John Tierney regarding the reasons why their are so few women in STEM. While some of his writing contained bits of truth, mostly it was a thinly veiled opinion piece that the editors should never have put in the 'science' section.

But I have no desire to attack Tierney or the Times editorial staff beyond voicing my displeasure at both. What I want to discuss here is why women really leave STEM.

It's all about the people, and their communication styles.

Photo by Articulate Matter

Throughout my life, I have participated in many activities where there are hardly any women - CS departments, engineering companies, tinkering groups, ham radio, some sports. Aside from occasional pleasant surprises in my professional life (such as once attending Grace Hopper), I'm often the only woman in the room. But generally I haven't found this to be a problem. I am lucky in this regard, I know this can be a problem for many women, especially at first. But over time I've learned strategies that help me to not feel intimidated giving a talk in front of a room full of men, to not feel worried about speaking up in meetings, and to hold my
own arguing to the death about software design.

But the one thing that has, on occasion, made me want to leave technology entirely and open a bakery are people who come across as jerks. People who are deaf to the tone of their affect, who do not understand that their mannerisms would be considered rude by most people, who act seemingly unconcerned about how others might feel in reaction to what they say. The good news is these people are usually gender-egalitarian in their thorniness, but I think sometimes for some women, enough encounters like this make you want to leave the rose garden.

"You need to grow a thicker skin" and "Don't take it personally" are comments I heard early in my career, and still hear as advice given to young women embarking on theirs. Women are told, particularly in academic science, that if they want to be successful they need to be able to handle the beatings that can come in a manner that is unquestionably brash, rude, and humiliating. We are told to not cry in front of others, we are told to not lose face, and ultimately, we are told to act like men. (Except not too much, because then you become unlikeable, and that's also a career killer for STEM women. Surprise!)

The problem is that most women I know have much lower emotional pain thresholds when it comes to their professional lives than most men I know. And while other professions have their share of people interaction problems, they seem to be less tolerated to the degree they are in STEM. I've attended many a talk where someone in the audience interrupts the speaker, repeatedly, to nitpick. Nobody will ever pull Dr. Jones aside and say, "You had some good points, Dr. Jones, but did you really have to be so rude making them?" The problem is, Dr. Jones is not going to notice the quiet sighs and subtle eye rolls every time zie acts up during seminar. Dr. Jones does not get hints. Dr. Jones may or may not respond to directness, but by the time others in the group have worked up the gumption to say something, it's years too late. The humiliated person is long gone, from the organization and perhaps from science itself.

This is a problem that needs to be addressed on mutiple levels. Yes, wronged people need to rise from the ashes, get their game on, and fight back. But everyone else needs to stop acting so tolerant of brash behavior in science. And for people who act brashly, they need to learn, as much as they are able, some more positive interaction behaviors.

I don't think most people are jerks. I just think many of them are completely unaware of how they are coming across.

Low Micronutrient Intake may Contribute to Obesity

[2013 update: I'm skeptical of the idea that micronutrient insufficiency/deficiency promotes obesity.  Although the trial discussed below suggested it might be a factor, it has not been a general finding that micronutrient supplementation causes fat loss, and the result needs to be repeated to be believable in my opinion.  Also, conditions of frank micronutrient deficiency are not usually associated with fat gain]

Lower Micronutrient Status in the Obese

Investigators have noted repeatedly that obese people have a lower blood concentration of a number of nutrients, including vitamin A, vitamin D, vitamin K, several B vitamins, zinc and iron (1). Although there is evidence that some of these may influence fat mass in animals, the evidence for a cause-and-effect relationship in humans is generally slim. There is quite a bit of indirect evidence that vitamin D status influences the risk of obesity (2), although a large, well-controlled study found that high-dose vitamin D3 supplementation does not cause fat loss in overweight and obese volunteers over the course of a year (3). It may still have a preventive effect, or require a longer timescale, but that remains to be determined.

Hot off the Presses

A new study in the journal Obesity, by Y. Li and colleagues, showed that compared to a placebo, a low-dose multivitamin caused obese volunteers to lose 7 lb (3.2 kg) of fat mass in 6 months, mostly from the abdominal region (4). The supplement also reduced LDL by 27%, increased HDL by a whopping 40% and increased resting energy expenditure. Here's what the supplement contained:

Vitamin A(containing natural mixed b-carotene) 5000 IU
Vitamin D 400 IU
Vitamin E 30 IU
Thiamin 1.5 mg
Riboflavin 1.7 mg
Vitamin B6 2 mg
Vitamin C 60 mg
Vitamin B12 6 mcg
Vitamin K1 25 mcg
Biotin 30 mcg
Folic acid 400 mcg
Nicotinamide 20 mg
Pantothenic acid 10 mg
Calcium 162 mg
Phosphorus 125 mg
Chlorine 36.3 mg
Magnesium 100 mg
Iron 18 mg
Copper 2 mg
Zinc 15 mg
Manganese 2.5 mg
Iodine 150 mcg
Chromium 25 mcg
Molybdenum 25 mcg
Selenium 25 mcg
Nickel 5 mcg
Stannum 10 mcg
Silicon 10 mcg
Vanadium 10 mcg

Although the result needs to be repeated, if we take it at face value, it has some important implications:

• The nutrient density of a diet may influence obesity risk, as I speculated in my recent audio interview and related posts (5, 6, 7, 8, 9).
• Many nutrients act together to create health, and multiple insufficiencies may contribute to disease. This may be why single nutrient supplementation trials usually don't find much.
• Another possibility is that obesity can result from a number of different nutrient insufficiencies, and the cause is different in different people. This study may have seen a large effect because it corrected many different insufficiencies.
• This result, once again, kills the simplistic notion that body fat is determined exclusively by voluntary food consumption and exercise behaviors (sometimes called the "calories in, calories out" idea, or "gluttony and sloth"). In this case, a multivitamin was able to increase resting energy expenditure and cause fat loss without any voluntary changes in food intake or exercise, suggesting metabolic effects and a possible downward shift of the body fat "setpoint" due to improved nutrient status.

Practical Implications

Does this mean we should all take multivitamins to stay or become thin? No. There is no multivitamin that can match the completeness and balance of a nutrient-dense, whole food, omnivorous diet. Beef liver, leafy greens and sunlight are nature's vitamin pills. Avoiding refined foods instantly doubles the micronutrient content of the typical diet. Properly preparing whole grains by soaking and fermentation is equivalent to taking a multi-mineral along with conventionally prepared grains, as absorption of key minerals is increased by 50-300% (10). Or you can eat root vegetables instead of grains, and enjoy their naturally high mineral availability. Or both.

pardon me....

while i pause for a week to add one more to our family :)

*image courtesy of misty bliss/ wide open spaces

10 things....

paloma was sweet enough to ask me to participate in her series 10 things i can't live without....if your interested, check them out on la dolce vita! thanks again paloma :) it was a lot of fun!

*image courtesy of bippity boppity boo

New Layout

I thought I'd spruce the place up a bit! Let me know what you think in the comments.

blog = amazing opportunity....

this blog has been a blessing for me for so many reasons and one of those was having the opportunity to be contacted by a magazine scout from BHG/ Meredith Group. i was beyond shocked when i received the email last summer asking if she could go see some of my projects. and luckily for me, the sweet team at BHG Kitchen and Baths Ideas liked what they saw. back in oct. i was able to go behind the scenes and witness how the magazines work w/ this photo shoot of my client's kitchen on sullivan's island (they also took pictures of the master bath which will be featured later this year). it is insane how much work is put into each shot and i tried to soak it all up...listening to how the photographers, editor, and stylist captured and tweaked each image (i think that would be so much fun). it took 2 full days to get 10 shots. and i couldn't be happier with the results or having the honor to appear on the cover of the july/ august issue. a huge thank you to sandi mohlmann for contacting me and for the best clients a girl could ask for, sammy and tracey, for giving me the opportunity to design their houses. and last but not least, for anyone out there contemplating what starting a blog could do for you....i hope this gives you the incentive to go for it :) i promise you won't be sorry!

*top 4 images from taken of actual magazine/ photographer richard leo johnson, bottom two me (behind the scenes)