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STUDENT DIGITAL NEWSLETTER ALAGAPPA INSTITUTIONS

Milton Kramer, MD

However laptop causes erectile dysfunction generic 200mg red viagra fast delivery, identifying the responsible driver is not possible at the packet level latest erectile dysfunction drugs buy 200 mg red viagra mastercard, since the packets are already in transit and do not contain identifying information erectile dysfunction treatment clinics generic red viagra 200 mg fast delivery. Instead of trying to prove that an abstract model of rule semantics is correctly implemented by the code erectile dysfunction doctors new york buy 200mg red viagra, which is usually intractable for the Linux kernel erectile dysfunction drugs nz 200mg red viagra for sale, we limit our focus on rule correctness and consistency checking erectile dysfunction when drunk discount 200mg red viagra overnight delivery. The technologies we reference in this section are illustrative examples of how these goals can be met. If the new rule has a unique name, all the values of conditions are in range, and it does not conflict with any existing rules, the rule is correct. While the name and the value checks are straightforward, there are different conflicting cases between the conditions and the action, particularly when a rule does not contain all conditions. For example, a rule can be contradictory with, a sub rule of, or the same as another existing rule. As such, we define the general conflict between two rules as follows: general con f lict(Ra, Rb) Ci C: (Cia ((Cia Cia Ra Cib Ra Ra Cib Rb value(Cia) = value(Cib)) Rb) Rb). We consider a general conflict to occur if the new rule and an existing rule would fire on the same packet. Based on the general conflict, we define weak conflict and strong conflict as follows: weak con f lict(Ra, Rb) general con f lict(Ra, Rb) action(Ra) = action(Rb). While weak conflict shows that the new rule could be a duplicate of an existing rule, strong conflict presents that this new rule would not work. The weak conflict, however, depending on the requirement and the implementation, may be allowed temporarily to shrink the scope of an existing rule while avoiding the time gap between the old rule removed and the new rule added. Later on, the user decides to block write operations only for the Kingston thumb drive by writing rule B, which is weak conflicted with rule A, since both rules have the same destination and action. When the user wants to unblock the Kingston storage by writing rule C, rule C is strong conflicted with both rule A and B, since rule C has a different action, and will never work as expected because of rule A/B. By relying on the logic reasoning of Prolog, we are able to guarantee that a rule before added is formally verified no conflict with existing rules 3. In this setting, malicious devices have to impersonate benign devices to allow communications, which are still regulated by the rules. These types of devices are a type of trojan horse; they appear to be one device, such as a storage device, but secretly contain hidden input functionality. When attached to a host, the device can send keystrokes to the host and perform actions as the current user. Then we add following rules into the host machine: usbtables -a mymouse -v busnum=1,devnum=4,portnum=2, devpath=1. Physically disabling the headset microphone is often the only mechanism for permanently removing it, as there is no other way to guarantee the microphone stays off. Users can mute or unmute the microphone using the desktop audio controls at any time after login. By adding the interface number (ifnum=2), we avoid breaking other functionality in the headset. After these rules are inserted into the kernel, reconnecting the malicious device does nothing. Interestingly, vim reports files on the device to be read-only, despite the filesystem reporting that the files are read-write. The phone is unable to be used for storage or tethering after the rule is applied. Webcams can easily be enabled and accessed by attackers from exploiting vulnerable applications. Once access has been established, the attacker can listen or watch the environment around the host computer. As expected, the user can use the webcam from his Skype but not from Pidgin, and other users cannot start video calls even with Skype. The measurement host is loaded with the rules mentioned in the case studies above before beginning benchmarking. We measure the time used by the Prolog engine to formally verify a rule before it is added into the kernel. For each new rule, the Prolog engine needs to go through the existing rules and check for conflicts. The time interval for each transmission is 10 seconds, and each test runs 5 minutes (30 intervals). Though having different transmission patterns, the average bandwidths of both are close, with the stock kernel at 2. Regardless of transmission patterns, average bandwidth of the two kernels is similar, with the stock kernel at 3. All time measurements are in seconds except the Chrome workload, where scores are given, and are divided by 10 to fit into the figure. Figure 8 shows the comparison between the two kernels when running these workloads. All these packets are delivered to the Xorg server in the user space, which then dispatches the inputs to different applications registered for different events. To correctly mount the filesystem in the storage device, the kernel has to read the metadata saved in the storage. The lsusb command under Linux provides a lot of useful information that can directly be mapped into rule construction. To use these devices, users have to run these binary files without knowing if these drivers are doing something else in the meantime. However, a malicious storage driver may use control packets to stealthily exfiltrate data as long as the malicious storage is able to decode the packet. Modern operating systems implicitly approve all interfaces on any device that has been physically attached to the host. Likewise, defenses against unauthorized or malicious device interfaces [41, 33] and disabling device drivers are coarse and cannot distinguish between desired and undesired usage of a particular interface. Besides, users may have to update the policy each time when different devices are plugged into the same port. Guardat demonstrates a means of expressing a robust set of rules for storage access but requires substantial new mechanisms for operation within a host computer, such as implementation within a hybrid disk microcontroller [45]. Netfilter [40] has become the de facto network firewall standard on Linux due to its ability to perform fine-grained filtering on network packets between applications and the physical network interface. Furthermore, fine-grained filtering has been applied to the usage of filesystem objects by applications [13, 35], however, these filters take place after the host and operating system have enumerated the device and loaded any device drivers. Attackers can discreetly connect unknown and unauthorized interfaces, causing device drivers to be automatically loaded and allowing malicious devices access to the host. Through tracing each packet back to its associated process, our system can successfully block unauthorized interfaces and restrict access to devices by process. With a default deny policy for new devices, administrators can restrict connection of unknown devices using granular identifiers such as serial number. American Academy of Pediatrics Bioethics Resident Curriculum: Case-Based Teaching Guides October 2017 Revision Editors Douglas S. When the idea of a case-based teaching guide for residency training programs was initially presented to the Committee on Bioethics it was wholeheartedly and enthusiastically embraced. The first edition was published in 2011 with 15 modules under the leadership of Mary B. This second revision includes updates of all the previously developed modules along with four new modules. As editors, we are deeply grateful to each of the authors for their willingness to work with us and for their stimulating cases and thoughtful discussions. Without their commitment to addressing the critical need for resources in bioethics education, we would not have been able to develop this teaching guide. American Academy of Pediatrics Bioethics Resident Curriculum: Case-Based Teaching Guides. We have developed a case-based modular curriculum designed to function as a how-to resource for residency and fellowship training programs. These instructor guides are aimed at assisting pediatric faculty in helping trainees develop basic competencies in bioethics. The modules review relevant resources and identify current debates important in the teaching of bioethics to medical trainees. References are separated into "Suggested Reading for Instructor" and "Further Reading," allowing instructors to efficiently identify pertinent resources on the topic. We recognize that the demands of medical training dictate that residents are unlikely to be available to attend all the sessions. Therefore, important concepts are repeated with a different emphasis from one module to the next. For example, many of the concepts in Session 3, "Informed Consent and Assent in Pediatrics," were covered in Session 4, "Minors as Decision-makers. Alternate cases are presented to provide potential material for faculty wishing to dig deeper into the topic or pursue additional perspectives. The discussion presented in the question-and-answer format of the primary case yields sufficient material to provide a background if faculty wish to use alternate cases. There are multiple analytic methods or theoretical models available in clinical ethics. These teaching guides use a variety of different analytic methods for the different cases. These different analytic methods serve as a starting point for ethical reflection and can assist in organizing the medically and morally relevant questions intrinsic to any ethical inquiry. Familiarity with different approaches is useful, and a variety of different approaches are used in different modules. The approaches include but are not limited to principle-based ethical theories like the Beauchamp and Childress framework of autonomy, beneficence, nonmaleficence, and justice, or the European approach to principlism that emphasizes the primacy of patient welfare, patient autonomy, and principle of social justice. Examples include the ethics of care, which evaluates the moral dimension of relationships with others; communitarian ethics, which places a value on the health of the community and can override autonomy; virtue-based approaches that place more emphasis on the character of the person performing the action than on the action itself; and feminist ethics, which uses the ideas of feminist theory to evaluate ethical issues from a gender-based perspective. Even though some modules use only one theoretical model in the discussion, it is not our intention to present any single analytic method or theoretical model as the only right way to approach ethical issues. Individual faculty may wish to use these teaching guides to inform and develop active participation opportunities for trainees. The casebased teaching guides use a question-and-answer format that easily facilitates the development of learner-centered small group activities. Active participation ideas include role-plays, interactive lectures, small group discussions, and brainstorming sessions. Using these teaching guides to develop and implement active participation may provide trainees valuable opportunities to examine their own attitudes and values. It is helpful for trainees to determine the degree to which they have the potential to be coercive or disrespectful to a family who holds a different opinion from their own. This potential for personal examination is particularly relevant in cases found in Session 5, "Religious, Cultural, and Philosophical Objections to Care," and Session 13, "MaternalFetal Conflict," but can certainly be identified in every module. Using these teaching guides to develop active learning opportunities for the practice of skills necessary for ethical discourse with families and colleagues is encouraged. That said, we recognize each institution has needs that are unique; therefore, the presentation of the material in each module is structured to be a self-contained unit to allow maximum flexibility in implementation. These modules and cases presented in them are not intended to direct outcomes in resolving the ethical dilemmas that instructors or trainees encounter. Cases are meant to provide a platform for discussing important principles and build a foundation for ethical reflection. Many cases are provocative and those with whom you work and teach may have different impressions of what the best outcome would be. This is realistic because the ethical questions we face in the practice of pediatrics are not simple. Ethical engagement in real life requires decision-making in the face of medical uncertainty as well as moderating conflicts between interested parties who may have different opinions about the most desirable outcome. We trust you will find these modules beneficial as we work together to incorporate bioethics into pediatric education. Ethics education has, therefore, been made a priority in medical training programs. As a result, faculty are often called on to teach ethics and professionalism to trainees. Common questions about ethics education include: how should ethics education be approached What ethics resources are available to attending pediatricians to help facilitate and promote ethics education among residents and fellows This module highlights the importance of ethics education in pediatric training and identifies the resources needed to become involved in ethics education. It reviews the goals of ethics education and discusses research on the use and impact of ethics curricula. Participants will learn general approaches to ethics curricula for pediatric residents and fellows and describe the current state and current debates in the teaching of ethics to medical trainees. Over the course of several years, despite what you perceive as an increased prevalence of ethical 1 issues in the clinic setting, you feel that the residents are less attuned to them. You decide that you would like to develop an outpatient ethics curriculum for your residents that would explore ethical issues in everyday clinic encounters. The chief pediatric resident asks you to join her in leading a session with a number of residents who have been involved in the care of an 18-year-old girl with anorexia. You have been the emergency department attending the last few times this patient has come in, and the chief resident would like you to provide a synopsis of the ethical dimensions of this case to start off the discussion. You are the coordinator for the pediatric resident noon conference lecture series. You agree to help, but despite your interest in resident education, you have no experience developing a formal ethics curriculum. An ethics curriculum for the pediatric residency program: confronting barriers to implementation.

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If we assume that length must be longer than width impotence at 33 purchase 200mg red viagra visa, then the possibilities are: Length Width Area Perimeter 120 1 120 242 60 2 120 124 40 3 120 86 30 4 120 68 24 5 120 58 20 6 120 52 15 8 120 46 12 10 120 44 b erectile dysfunction best medication best red viagra 200 mg. Identify/create patterns in real-life situations; extend/find rules for number patterns (E-4 erectile dysfunction organic purchase red viagra 200mg with amex. Use customary units of measure; multistep story problems using combination of operations; division by multiples of 10 (E-2 erectile dysfunction pills review generic red viagra 200mg on-line. Explore the use of variables and open sentences to express relationships; multistep problems using a variety of operations (E-4 erectile dysfunction protocol real reviews purchase red viagra 200 mg with amex. Use models to solve real world problems involving fractions; relate fractions using models to represent equivalencies (E-1 erectile dysfunction treatment philippines buy discount red viagra 200mg on line. Add, subtract, multiply amounts of money; make change; collect/organize/interpret data (E-2. Multiples/ square numbers; represent and describe mathematical relationships through looking for a pattern. Area 1 = 1; area 2 = 1; area 3 = 1; area 4 = 1; area 5 = 2; area 6 = 2; area 7 = 2; area 8 = 2. Compare and order whole numbers; identify/create patterns in real-life situations. Choosing the appropriate problem solving strategy; add/subtract/multiply amounts of money. Note: Because of its difficulty, this problem would be better used as a performance event with students working together than as an open response question. Multistep story problems; choosing the appropriate problem solving strategy; add/subtract amounts of time. The digit in the ones place is at least twice as large as the digit in the tens place. Park Danali Gates of the Arctic Katmai Kobuk Valley Lake Clark Glacier Bay Number of Acres 4,716,726 7,523,888 3,716,000 1,750,421 2,636,839 3,225,284 (E-1. If they walked a total of 60 miles over the 5-day trip and did not walk more than 18 miles on any one day, how many miles could they have walked each of the last two days Varies, but should include fact that 6 mph for 10 hours would give 60 miles, but would assume that the entire trip was over flat terrain - unlikely. Methods of estimating sums include front-end, clustering, finding a range, and rounding. Estimate each of the following, indicate which method you used for each sum, and explain why you used that method. How would the rules differ, if any, when adding a 4-digit number to another 4digit number Suppose you estimate a difference between two 3-digit numbers using front-end digits. Give an example in which: a) the estimate is less than the actual difference b) the estimate is greater than the actual difference Ans. Marlene has a board game in which it is possible to land on spaces worth 1, 3, 5, or 7 points each. For example, Problem: 4 2 2 Solutions: 4 = 2 + 2 or 4 - 2 = 2 a) 8 8 4 4 b) 18 9 2 36 c) 2 14 20 4 1 Ans. If you can do this so that the two piles have exactly the same worth, you may keep them all! Use your reasoning and problem solving skills to find how many cars and how many motorcycles there could be in the parking lot this day. During this meeting, 8 people will meet to decide upon the location, while another 8 people will meet to discuss which booths will be present this year. The criteria for seating arrangements include: the two groups of 8 people each want to be separated and each person will require the use of one side of the table. Use (a) the distributive property; (b) a sketch; and, (c) grid paper to explain how the problem was worked. When you multiply large numbers, is there any way to estimate how many digits an answer will have Look at the following examples and see if you can find a pattern that will help you to answer this question. Yes, you can predict the number of digits by finding one less than the total number of places in both numbers being multiplied as well as a front-end estimate of the product of both numbers. Thus (f) would have 7 digits since (3 digits + 4 digits) - 1 = 6 and 4 x 4 = 16 or one additional decimal place. What other perimeters are possible if you can build shapes other than rectangles, but the shapes must all be made with tiles that share sides (see example) Place the numbers 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, and 6 in the spaces so that each side will give the same sum. Problems such as 3 x n = 84 can be solved by several methods, including guess-and-check, fact families, and a table of multiples. Solve this problem and explain how you solved it using at least two of these methods. When the new parents come to pick up their babies she needs to make sure to give them the right ones. Baby 1 = Janie, Baby 2 = Kevin, Baby 3 = James, Baby 4 = Kelsie, and Baby 5 = Klyde. Possible solutions include Room 1-B; Room 2-C; Room 3-A; Room 4-D, or Room 1-D; Room 2-A; Room 3-B; Room 4-C, etc. There are less than 15 houses on one side of a street that are numbered 2, 4, 6, etc. The numbers of all the houses numbered below hers have the same sum as all those numbered above hers. Imagine you are talking to a student in your class on the telephone who has been absent from school for an illness. Part of the homework that you are trying to explain to him requires him to draw some figures. Write a set of directions that you would use to help the other student to draw the figures exactly as shown below. Figure out how much of each ingredient is needed for preparing the recipe for only half of the servings. Explain how you arrived at your answers and then rewrite the recipe for that number of servings so that you and your family members can use the adjusted recipe in the future. Sharon, planning a party, bought some compact discs, pizzas, ad helium-filled balloons. If the triangle stops so that the letter "T" is again in the upright position, what possible distances could it have rolled Varies, but will always be the first number selected followed by the second number selected. For example, if the first number chosen is 15 and the other number is 25, then the final result is 1525. If n = 16, then 2n = 32 os b) Add 2 to each successive number, resulting in the even numbers or the multiples of 2. Three friends, Chris, Ward, and Phillip have decided that they will each buy a dessert and share the cost evenly. List the first three whole numbers that will have a remainder of 3 when you divide by 7. Describe the pattern and explain how you found these numbers and how you would solve any similar problem. Explanation varies, but should mention that the pattern in the solution differs by the divisor and that it is found by adding the remainder to each of the multiples. Varies, for example: Using distributive property - (45x25) - (45x2) or, (45x22) + 45 (M-1. Adam, Betty, Charles, and Darlene were using their calculators to work on their math homework. The first problem they had to do was the following: 3+4x6/2-5 Adam used his Casio and got an answer of 16. Finally, Darlene used her Sharp calculator and the display showed an answer of 16. They knew they pushed the right keys and they thought that each calculator worked the problem correctly, but the displays were different. The Casio and Sharp calculators worked the problem from left to right (arithmetic logic). The Math Explorer and Hewlett Packard calculators used the order of operations (algebraic logic) and did the multiplication and division first. Key entries on the Casio could vary, but would stress that the multiplication and division would have to be done first. If 13 days is over a 2-week period, then the store sold 54 pieces of jewelry per week. A famous mathematician, Christian Goldbach, stated that every even number, except 2, is equal to the sum of two prime numbers. Examine these number patterns: 15 = 7 + 8 15 = 4 + 5 + 6 9=4+5 9=2+3+4 15 = 1 + 2 + 3 + 4 + 5 a) What kind of numbers can be written as a sum of 2, or 3, or 4 consecutive numbers Numbers which are multiples of 3 can be written as the sum of 3 consecutive numbers. Numbers that can be written as the sum of 4 consecutive numbers are those in which twice the product of the sum of the middle two numbers is equal to the sum of all four numbers. Numbers which are not multiples of 3 cannot be written as the sum of 3 consecutive numbers. No odd numbers can be written as the sum of 4 consecutive numbers, not can an even number be written as the sum of 4 consecutive numbers if it is divisible by 4. Dividing it by 2 gives 19 and the two consecutive numbers that add to 19 are 9 and 10. Thus the two middle numbers are 9 and 10 and the remaining numbers are 8 and 11, i. Varies, but will likely include beginning with some blocks that cover the shape and then substituting pieces one by one until the right number of total pieces is found. Strategies could include showing arithmetic steps, making a table/chart, making a pictograph/bar graph, etc. Fraction pieces: Counters: + + the teacher should have been more specific in the instructions. Varies, but should include not only rounding, but also at least one other method, such as front-end, compatible numbers, or truncating. Michael began working on his division homework and his work on the first problem looked like this: 8 26 182 208 Explain where Michael got the 208. Varies, but should state something on the order of: "Michael estimated that 182 could be divided by 26 8 times, and when he tried it 8 x 26 was 208. I would try 7 because it is the next closest number (or I know that 6 x 7 = 42 and the dividend 182 also ends in a 2). Describe any that might be the same if you changed their orientation, that is any that would be the same if you moved them around. One day, in some haste, they left home with each wearing the hat and coat of one of the others. When Joyce joined the Army, she decided to give her boom box to Ron and Jim, her two high-school-age brothers. After she heard Ron and Jim quarrel over using her boom box, Joyce told them they had better figure out a fair method of division so that one of them would get the stereo and the other would get a fair payment. Alice, Bill, and Carl have jointly inherited a piano, a car, a boat, and $20,000 in cash. Decide which person receives each item, and what cash payments are made so that Alice, Bill, and Carl all feel they have received at least what each considers to be his or her fair share of the inheritance. Because of the high cost of living, Kimberly, Terry, and Otis each holds down two jobs, but no two have the same occupation. Consider a circle divided by n chords in such a way that every chord intersects every other chord interior to the circle and no three chords intersect in a common point. While three watchmen were guarding an orchard, a thief slipped in a stole some apples. On his way out, he met the three watchmen one after another, and to each in turn he gave half the apples he had and two besides. In windy cold weather, the increased rate of heat loss makes the temperature feel colder than the actual temperature. In a college mathematics class all the students are also taking anthropology, history, or psychology and some of the students are taking two or even all three of these courses. If (i) forty students are taking anthropology, (ii) eleven students are taking history, (iii) twelve students are taking psychology, (iv) three students are taking all three courses, (v) six students are taking anthropology and history, and (vi) six students are taking psychology and anthropology. Start the investigation by placing any two natural numbers in the first two rows of column one of the record sheet and then complete the column by adding the consecutive entries to obtain the next entry in the Fibonacci manner. Lastly, prove that your conjecture is correct by placing a and b in the first and second positions in the last column and then repeating the process as before. Use the fractions 2, 1, 1, 5, 1 and the whole number 1 to fill in 3 3 6 6 2 the spaces below so that each side of the triangle will have the same sum. Arrange four points on a plane so the distance between any two points is one of two possible lengths; for example, one possible solution would be to have the four points be the vertices of a square. They discovered that 27 members have visited Mexico, 34 have visited Canada, 12 have been to England, 18 have visited both Mexico and Canada, 6 have been only to England, and 8 have been only to Mexico. Some club members have not been to any of the three foreign countries and, curiously, and equal number have been to all three countries. Solve each of these problems and indicate the subtraction facts illustrated by each. The eighth grade class at Washington Middle School is raffling off a turkey as a moneymaking project.

While many areas along the Gulf Coast require such restoration erectile dysfunction treatment natural medicine cheap red viagra 200mg otc, the Mississippi Delta and the Gulf itself requires special attention erectile dysfunction kegel safe red viagra 200mg. Advancing Restoration Options for Offshore Ecosystems and Resources Beyond restoration of Delta and other coastal ecosystems erectile dysfunction natural supplements order red viagra 200mg otc, a broader restoration effort- guided by new research and an understanding of what long-term damages may be resulting from the spill-seeks to improve the environmental quality of the marine habitat erectile dysfunction treatment orlando red viagra 200mg with amex. These issues link a complex web of problems (including the annual appearance of the lowoxygen dead zone in waters of the Louisiana-Texas continental shelf) with the continued efforts to conserve the biodiversity and resources of offshore ecosystems how do erectile dysfunction pills work purchase red viagra 200 mg on line. Hypoxia kills or excludes most marine animals over vast areas of the continental shelf impotence herbal medicine red viagra 200mg with visa. Scientific investigations have shown that such extensive and severe hypoxia is a recent phenomenon, fueled by the increased loads of nutrients carried down the Mississippi and Atchafalaya rivers, largely as a result of fertilizers used to support intense agriculture within the river basin. These hypoxic seafloor habitats could become prime candidates for restoration efforts in the aftermath of the Deepwater Horizon disaster. A plan of action produced in 2001 and updated in 2008 by the Mississippi River Gulf of Mexico Watershed Nutrient Task Force* outlines how to proceed. The original target date for achieving this goal was 2015, but implementation has languished. As part of a comprehensive restoration program, regulations that limit discharges under the Clean Water Act could be more rigorously applied, and federally-authorized conservation programs could be better targeted to achieve greater results. Hypoxia abatement should also be integrated with coastal ecosystem restoration in order to optimize nutrient removal by river diversions and to reduce the risks of injecting greater nutrient loads into the waters of the continental shelf. Oil and gas companies lease individual blocks within this grid for exploration and production. All this activity also makes the Gulf a crowded space administratively, with coordination insufficient to resolve potential conflicts among oil and gas development, fishing, navigation, and military operations. The National Oceans Council, created by Executive Order in July 2010,11 is authorized to set and manage executive-branch marine policy and to implement recommendations of a task force appointed by President Obama in 2009. Scientists and policy advocates use the phrase "coastal and marine spatial planning" to describe a suite of technologies, best practices, and inter-industry networking to optimize the use of resources for all. Massachusetts and Rhode Island recently formalized this approach to their state waters. The Department of the Interior is already charged to manage energy resources on the outer continental shelf in a way that is, among other requirements, "consistent with the need. Within the context of coastal and marine spatial planning, there are opportunities for protection and restoration of resources harmed not only by the present oil spill, but also by oil and gas development generally and other commercial activities. Marine protected areas have been effective as a means to conserve marine biodiversity and enhance the resilience of fish stocks in the face of harvest pressures. Modern management tools can go a long way toward making Gulf fisheries more robust by preventing overfishing. The policy divides the total allowable catch in a fishery into shares held by individuals and various entities. The holders of the catch shares must cease fishing once they have reached their limit. This is one step toward protecting the health of commercial and recreational fisheries. The land at the mouth of the Mississippi River differs from that of neighboring regions: the underlying rock is hundreds of feet below the surface,19 buried by mud deposited over many millennia. River-borne sediment has, literally, created the land-a coastal habitat of remarkable biological productivity, and a buffer that protects the densely settled land upriver from the full force of battering waves. The Mississippi River, extending some 2,300 miles upstream to Minnesota, runs through the heart of the third largest watershed in the world (after the Amazon and the Congo). Under largely natural conditions (before the 1930s), the river cast this sediment across the wetland plain before draining into the Gulf. The accumulating material attracts the microbes and marsh grasses that undergird the coastal ecosystem. During the 7,000 to 8,000 years since the end of the last ice age, the Mississippi has shaped and reshaped its delta-even, on occasion, carving wholly new routes to the Gulf. Voices from the Gulf 203 203 Voices from the Gulf "Louisiana is paying a grave price for what the rest of the country is enjoying. As Principal Chief (from 1997 until 2010) of the 17,000-member United Houma Nation, whose people lived in and made their livelihoods from the coastal lands of southeastern Louisiana, she said, "We have seen small canals turn into large bayous; we have watched hundreds of acres of wetlands wash away; we have seen freshwater bayous turn into saltwater. When I was little there were fields that we [the Houma People] raised cattle and horses on. When the oil spill happened, I was hopeful that all the attention it was bringing might finally wake people up. But our tribal citizens are paying the ultimate price, because we live along the coast of southeast Louisiana. We as a nation, not only people in Louisiana, not just people on the coast, but the nation, need to evaluate our dependency on oil and gas. This change would have been catastrophic to communities and industry along the lower river, leaving the port of New Orleans on a silted-in bayou without a freshwater supply. Army Corps of Engineers built the Old River Control Structures: a series of dams, completed in 1963, that ensure 70 percent of Mississippi waters flow past New Orleans and 30 percent reach the Gulf through the Atchafalaya. Flooding is the process that feeds this landscape, causing the accretion of sediments through which nature constructed the Delta. Managing the flow down the Atchafalaya was only the most recent intervention that has disrupted the natural mechanisms at work in the Delta. The re-engineering of the Mississippi River system-resulting in the "sediment starvation" of the Delta-began even before the Great Flood of 1927, when 145 levees failed, at least 246 people died, and floodwaters throughout the river basin caused the modern equivalent of $2 billion to $5 billion in damage. The Corps now manages the resulting protective system, with 2,203 miles of levees. In written remarks to the Commission, Senator Mary Landrieu decried the "strangulation" of nature: "For more than a century, the federal government has mismanaged critical water-resource projects, placing delicate ecosystems like the Mississippi River Delta at extreme risk of complete and utter collapse. In effect, the system built by the Corps is causing southern Louisiana to disappear (even though the Corps has, during the past 20 years, begun taking steps to offset these unforeseen consequences). Even as the altered river delivers less sediment to replenish the Delta, the relative sea level is rising in southern Louisiana-the net result of land subsidence and actual sea level rise. In some places near the outer Delta, subsidence is nearly 10 millimeters per year, largely from manmade impacts. One is that sediment rich in organic material behaves like a sponge: squeeze out the water and it shrinks. Relative sea level rise endangers marsh grasses and other swamp trees as they become subject to inundation by the salty Gulf. The Corps in 1968 finished the Mississippi River Gulf Outlet-affectionately, or derisively, called "Mr. Heralded as a boon to economic development, the project never proved transformative-except environmentally. Construction destroyed the existing ecosystems and excavated more than 270 million cubic yards of material-slightly more than was removed to build the Panama Canal. By the late 1990s, multiple stakeholders had pressed the Corps to close the canal. By the early 1950s, Gulf coast researchers had become aware of gaps in understanding how coasts naturally worked. Scientists there and elsewhere sought to explain the relationship between floods breaching natural levees and the health of marshland and barrier islands fed by the sediment. Fish and Wildlife Service in 1959 sent the Corps a memorandum suggesting that the declining health of oyster reefs caused by increasing salinity might be addressed by diverting fresh water from the Mississippi into discrete areas. None approach the necessary scale for meaningful restoration49, although they have provided smaller successes and helpful organizational models. Simulations predict that, at the current rate of land loss, much of southern Louisiana will disappear by 2100. The region will transition from marshy lowlands to a fully aquatic system because of erosion and submergence,50 leaving New Orleans an expensive island fortress. In 1989, the Louisiana legislature passed Act 6, establishing a wetlands authority and an executive office to prioritize and manage a restoration strategy and projects. The following year, Congress enacted the so-called Breaux Act, named for its sponsor, Louisiana Senator John Breaux. It authorizes civil works aimed at marsh regeneration, shoreline protection, barrier-island reconstruction, hydrologic engineering, and the use of dredged material for restoration purposes. The Act has a dedicated funding source, the Sport Fish Restoration and Boating Trust Fund, which receives taxes on gasoline for motorboats and other small engines, and on sport-fishing equipment. The report was based upon original research and 65 public meetings, and was supported by 20 coastal parishes. This led to creation of the Louisiana Coastal Area Ecosystem Restoration Program under the 2007 Water Resources Development Act. After the Office of Management and Budget opposed the high price tag of a more comprehensive proposal-about $14 billion-the Corps slimmed its initial implementation down to 15 projects that would together cost more than $2 billion. Weeks after Hurricane Katrina ravaged much of coastal Louisiana and Mississippi, the Louisiana legislature established a Coastal Protection and Restoration Authority that combined responses to wetland loss and hurricane risk-related goals separated in state bureaucracy. In September 2006, Louisianans approved a constitutional amendment that explicitly ties state revenues from oil and gas activities in federal waters to storm protection and rebuilding wetlands. In the meantime, construction for storm protection is tangible and has been readily funded. The Corps has been able to fast-track building new levees to protect New Orleans from the projected "100-year storm"; the project should be completed in 2011-just five years after it began. By contrast, direct instructions and guaranteed funding have mostly eluded restoration efforts. The state has engaged the Corps to design and build two new, large levee systems, but their effects on southern Louisiana communities and wetland survival are still being studied. Congress also asked the Corps to develop comprehensive statewide hurricane-protection options after Hurricanes Katrina and Rita. The Department of Defense Appropriation Act of 2006 directed the Corps to design a suite of improvements to the Louisiana and Mississippi coasts, including improvements for "hurricane and storm damage reduction, prevention of saltwater intrusion, preservation of fish and wildlife, prevention of erosion, and other related water resource purposes at full Federal expense. Duplessis was born in 1945 in the small Gulf Coast fishing community of Davant, just north of Pointe-ala-Hache, he became the seventh generation of his family to live in Plaquemines Parish, Louisiana. Marine Corps, served a tour of duty in Vietnam, and met his wife, Bonnie, who served in the Navy. In 1989, when the plant shut, he says, "I had a young family to feed, clothe, and educate. I went fishing and my children paid their college tuition by working as deckhands. Even then, though the entire region was wiped out and the insurance companies packed their bags and left us, there was still a solution. After the storm we faced the difficult task of rebuilding, but that was the solution. This is the worst of our problems because we have no answers, no solutions, only questions. As we watch our livelihood and even an entire culture being washed away by crude oil and chemicals that no one knows the long term effects of, we ask: [W]ill we have the mortgage payment next month In the fall of 2009, President Obama directed the Council on Environmental Quality and the Office of Management and Budget to cochair a Louisiana-Mississippi Gulf Coast Ecosystem Restoration Working Group, made up of federal agency and state representatives. After the spill, the President in June commissioned Secretary of the Navy and former Governor of Mississippi Ray Mabus to study Gulf coast recovery and propose ways to address chronic Gulf marine and coastal issues. The resulting "Mabus report," published on September 28, 2010, analyzed ecosystem restoration, human health, economic recovery, and the nonprofit sector. The twentieth-century re-engineering of the Mississippi River basin, and subsequent piecemeal efforts to restore its nourishing flows of water and sediment, teach important lessons about any future, comprehensive approach to coastal management. The many layers of federal, state, and local authorities-some overlapping and conflicting-make it difficult as a practical matter to devise, implement, and make mid-course corrections to a strategy for restoration. And secure, sustained sources of funding on the scale required to do the necessary work are not now in place. Estimates of the cost of Gulf restoration, including but not limited to the Mississippi Delta, vary widely, but according to testimony before the Commission, full restoration of the Gulf will require $15 billion to $20 billion: a minimum of $500 million annually for 30 years. Chapter Seven 211 211 the Deepwater Horizon disaster provides a significant opportunity to begin funding restoration sooner. It will generate monies that can be directed to jumpstart key Gulf restoration projects. And it can provide the basis for launching a long-needed federal-state entity capable of managing the restoration effort over the longer term, guided by a clear set of principles. In the aftermath of the spill, the responsible party (or parties) will be liable for damages in the amount necessary for "restoring, rehabilitating, replacing, or acquiring the equivalent of " natural resources harmed by the spill. The Act provides for a civil penalty for unpermitted discharges of up to $37,500 per day of violation or up to $1,100 per barrel of oil discharged. Secretary Mabus recommended that the President urge Congress to pass legislation to dedicate some of the penalties for those purposes. Although the details of early proposals varied, most recognized the need for a single, Gulfwide decisionmaking authority and a strong leadership commitment to fund only those projects that conform to an agreed-upon vision for long-term restoration. Planning and program design for any comprehensive Gulf restoration effort will have to be based on sound science. In different circumstances, the Exxon Valdez Trustee Council Science Panel reviewed all proposed projects both for technical merit and for consistency with the overall restoration goals (as set forth in the Restoration Plan) and annual work plans. Ideally, it would provide a science program with the resources to evaluate individual projects for consistency with a comprehensive plan; to research long-term restoration issues; and to develop and apply performance measures and indicators of long-term restoration that allow decisionmakers to adjust the plan based on new science or changed circumstances. Particularly with respect to long-term research issues, the diverse resources and expertise of the federal government should be brought to bear. Finally, no authority will succeed without the confidence and support of the citizens of the region. Leaders of restoration efforts emphasize the importance of gaining the support of those most directly affected by restoration projects. Local citizen support is important for several reasons: it can reduce delay of projects due to litigation or other opposition; it contributes to political support for overall goals and funding, in the short and long terms; and it contributes to overall trust in government, which results in support for local projects. For example, the concept of "enhancement" that emerged after Exxon Valdez gave trustees additional latitude in restoring Prince William Sound and its ecological region.

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Shell shifted to managing production from its large number of deepwater developments impotence 35 years old proven red viagra 200 mg. Based on their analyses erectile dysfunction questions red viagra 200 mg mastercard, they began to believe that the deepwater frontier could ultimately hold 40 billion barrels of commercially exploitable oil-four times the prevailing estimates erectile dysfunction jacksonville florida buy red viagra 200 mg low cost. Energy Information Administration As this chart makes clear erectile dysfunction symptoms treatment order red viagra 200mg with mastercard, overall production of crude oil in the U generic erectile dysfunction drugs in canada generic red viagra 200mg otc. However erectile dysfunction treatment bangalore generic 200mg red viagra fast delivery, production from deepwater wells in the Gulf of Mexico (Offshore Lower 48) is on the rise. Outpacing most of the industry by a year, the company shifted its sights to prospects in much deeper waters. Rich rewards followed with a historic string of giant oil finds in subsalt formations ranging out to 7,000 feet of water. That find alone catalyzed yet another rebirth of offshore oil in the Gulf of Mexico. The same year, those two partners announced their Na Kika project, a joint subsea development of five independent fields tied back to a central semi-submersible floating production facility, an industry first for the Gulf of Mexico. There is the sheer scale of the facilities and the size of the investment required-all this before a drop of oil ever comes out of the ground. From 2001 to 2004, operators found 11 major fields beneath water 7,000 feet deep or more. Most deepwater discoveries were made in relatively young sandstones of the lower Miocene era. But companies increasingly explored down into the deeper and older Paleogene or "Lower Tertiary" strata found in the foldbelts near the edge of the Sigsbee Escarpment, a salt sheet that resembles a near-surface moonscape extending to the base of the continental slope. In 2006, Chevron and its partners Devon Energy and Statoil disclosed promising test results from a two-year-old discovery at its Jack prospect, proving that Lower Tertiary reservoirs could produce oil at pressures encountered at great depths, creating excitement that the Lower Tertiary play might ultimately yield between 3 billion and 15 billion barrels of hydrocarbons-collectively rivaling the size of the great Prudhoe Bay discovery. This implied a future for ultra-deep drilling, ranging out to 10,000-foot water depths and 25,000 feet beneath the seafloor. Reported the Oil & Gas Journal, "The Jack-2 test results boost confidence in that potential and highlight the central role technology plays in future supply. Evacuated crews returned to find the semi-submersible production facility listing badly. After repairs and thorough analysis, additional problems were discovered that put the platform further behind schedule. Reed/digital version by Science Faction Canyon-with total potential reserves of 2. The spar, successfully demonstrated in 1996, is a giant buoy consisting of a large-diameter, vertical cylinder supporting a deck for drilling and processing. Its deep-draft floating caisson keeps about 90 percent of the structure underwater, giving the structure favorable motion characteristics. All four projects would be linked by pipeline to a platform hub, where crude oil would be transferred into a 390mile pipeline, the Cameron Highway, and transported to refineries at Texas City and Port Arthur. The selection and development of technology on all these projects was a major challenge at every step, given the extreme water depths, reservoir conditions, and associated environmental issues. Atlantis was located under complex seafloor topography near the steep Sigsbee escarpment, and a large portion of the field was subsalt. Mad Dog lay under a massive salt canopy, causing large uncertainties in describing the actual reservoir. A major incident in drilling occurred even before the semisubmersible facility was put in place. In May 2003, the top of the drilling riser on the Discoverer Enterprise broke loose from the vessel, ripped apart again 3,000 feet under the surface, and left the lower marine riser package to collapse on and around the top of the blowout preventer, where the riser and drill pipe snapped off. The columns and other areas of the hull had filled with water, causing the facility to list to one side. Investigations later revealed that a valve in the bilge and ballast system had been installed backward, allowing seawater to move into the hull, a failure exacerbated by electrical pathways that were not watertight. Similar work on the Atlantis semisubmersible production platform pushed its installation back several months, too, until July 2006. The company made the difficult decision to pull out all the manifolds and subsea equipment that had a similar weld configuration- adding hundreds of millions of dollars to the cost of the project. After a lengthy investigation, engineers found that minute cracks had formed in the thermal insulation on the manifold pipe work, leading to reactions that embrittled the weld interface. Thunder Horse finally delivered its first oil on June 2008, three years behind schedule. In September 2002, Hurricane Lili blew into the heart of the Ship Shoal, Eugene Island, and South Marsh Island areas, damaging platforms and pipelines. Two years later, Ivan-a Category 4 storm-swept through the alley east of the Mississippi River delta, causing mudflows and anchor-dragging by mobile drilling units that tore up undersea pipelines. The following year, Hurricane Katrina flooded New Orleans and points east, with horrible effects. A month later, Hurricane Rita, storming farther west, wiped out 66 platforms and broke up another 32. The majority of the platforms obliterated in these two storms were from an early generation of Gulf facilities, more than 30 years old. The two hurricanes also damaged more than 70 vessels and nearly 130 oil and natural gas pipelines, as they hit more prolific and sensitive areas than previous storms and, accordingly, caused much more extensive damages. Ominously, the short interval between the two storms exhausted the resources available for normal recovery and overwhelmed support bases. Drilling in 4,000 feet of water and to a world-record total depth of 35,055 feet, Deepwater Horizon tapped in a pool of crude estimated to contain 4 to 6 billion barrels of oil equivalent, one of the largest U. By 2010, the industry had announced 19 discoveries in the Lower Tertiary trend, 14 of them containing more 100 million barrels of oil equivalent. The sandstone reservoirs are tightly packed, and ensuring hydrocarbon flow through risers and pipelines can be difficult. According to a 2008 report from Chevron engineers for the Society of Petroleum Engineers, all these factors "separate many [Gulf of Mexico] deepwater and ultradeepwater wells from deepwater and ultra-deepwater wells in other parts of the world. Risers connecting a drilling vessel to the blowout preventer on the seafloor have to be greatly lengthened, and they are exposed to strong ocean currents encountered in the central Gulf. Connecting and maintaining blowout preventers thousands of feet beneath the surface can only be performed by remote-operating vehicles. A 2007 article in Drilling Contractor described how blowout preventer requirements got tougher as drilling went deeper, because of low temperatures and high pressures at the ocean bottom. More generally, he suggested "some fundamental paradigm shifts" were needed across a broad range of blowout-preventer technologies to deal with deepwater conditions. Methane gas locked in ice ("fire ice") forms at low temperature and high pressure, and can often be found in sea-floor sediments. Temperature and pressure changes caused by drilling, or even by natural conditions, can activate the release of 160 cubic feet of gas from one cubic foot of methane, collapsing surrounding sediment, and thus destabilizing the drilling foundation. As hydrocarbons are produced and transported in cold temperatures and high pressures, hydrates can form and block the flow through deep pipelines and other conduits. Government, academic, and industry research programs on hydrates and associated flow problems begun in the 1990s are continuing. Geological conditions are complicated and vary from prospect to prospect, and from well to well. Each well, indeed, has its own "personality" that requires maintaining an extremely delicate balance between the counteracting pressures of the subsurface formation and drilling operation. Beneath the salt, pressures in the pores of the sediment are exceedingly hard to predict. Reservoirs in the Lower Tertiary are thicker and with higher viscosity than the fluids found in younger rock. Finally, ultra-deepwater developments are far removed from shore and thus from established infrastructure. The offshore industry had enjoyed a long run in the Gulf without an environmental catastrophe. The hurricanes of mid-decade had caused widespread damage, but not a major offshore spill. In recent years, the industry had touted its relatively clean record in the Gulf as a justification to allow exploration elsewhere. In 2007, Shell and Total bid aggressively for federal leases offered in the Beaufort Sea, and in 2008, Shell spent $2. Not incidentally, both were earning even greater revenues from ever-more ambitious exploration. The fate of the town of the Macondo, as described in a memorable passage by Marquez, presaged the fate of the Macondo well and summed up the challenges facing the industry as a whole as it plumbed the depths of the Gulf: It was as if God had decided to put to the test every capacity for surprise and was keeping the inhabitants of Macondo in a permanent alternation between excitement and disappointment, doubt and revelation, to such an extreme that no one knew for certain where the limits of reality lay. For nearly three decades a single departmental agency, the Minerals Management Service, was at the center of the offshore-oil saga. The regulatory context for the leasing procedures and safety and environmental oversight that led up to the Macondo blowout took shape in the 1970s, when two conflicting priorities dominated the political landscape. The first to appear, in the early 1970s, was the public mandate for environmental protection, which prompted enactment of an extraordinary series of sweeping regulatory laws intended, in the language of the National Environmental Policy Act, to "create and maintain conditions under which man and nature can exist in productive harmony. The federal regulation of offshore drilling awkwardly combined the two priorities, as a series of Congresses, Presidents, and Secretaries of the Interior-responding to competing constituencies in explicitly political ways-sought to reconcile the sometimes conflicting goals of environmental protection, energy independence, and revenue generation. In some offshore regions, oil drilling was essentially banned in response to environmental concerns. Elsewhere, most notably in the Gulf, some environmental protections and safety oversight were formally relaxed or informally diminished so as to render them ineffective, promoting a dramatic expansion of offshore oil and gas production and billions of dollars in federal revenues. Secretary of the Interior James Watt created the agency with great fanfare in January 1982, aiming from the outset to promote domestic energy supplies by dramatically expanding drilling on the outer continental shelf. He combined, in one entity, authority for regulatory oversight with responsibility for collecting for the U. Treasury the billions of dollars of revenues obtained from lease sales and royalty payments from producing wells. Revenue generation-enjoyed both by industry and government-became the dominant objective. Any revenue increases dependent on moving drilling further offshore and into much deeper waters came with a corresponding increase in the safety and environmental risks of such drilling. Those increased risks, however, were not matched by greater, more sophisticated regulatory oversight. Industry regularly and intensely resisted such oversight, and neither Congress nor any of a series of presidential administrations mustered the political support necessary to overcome that opposition. Nor, despite their assurances to the contrary, did the oil and gas industry take the initiative to match its massive investments in oil and gas development and production with comparable investments in drilling safety and oil-spill containment technology and contingency response planning in case of an accident. On April 20, the inherent risks of decades of inadequate regulation, insufficient investment, and incomplete planning were realized in tragic fashion. For a regulatory agency to fall so short of its essential safety mission is inexcusable. Finally, the third part explores in more detail the application of environmental protection requirements to offshore drilling, highlighting the particular ways in which the requirements were effectively diminished or ignored. The vigorous debates preceding enactment of the new law and its early implementation gave the impression that it was all about the money. In 1945, President Harry Truman had proclaimed federal authority over the subsoil of the U. California, Texas, and Louisiana defied this proclamation and continued to lease offshore land, prompting suits by the U. Estimates of the value of federal land offshore ranged from $40 billion to $250 billion. He argued that setting the federal offshore area aside, in the Naval Petroleum Reserve, would ensure that the oil and gas would be there later when needed for strategic purposes. Various senators proposed dedicating the funds to deficit reduction or to education. But in the end, the new money from lease sales, rents, and royalties would flow into the general treasury. During the first week of September 1954, Secretary of the Interior Douglas McKay announced the first federal lease sale: rights to explore 748,000 acres off the coast of Louisiana. The Rise of Environmental Law At the outset, environmental restrictions on offshore drilling were very limited. The 1953 legislation governing offshore mineral development authorized the Interior Department to prescribe rules "for the prevention of waste and conservation of natural resources" of the outer continental shelf,20 but "conservation" at that time mostly referred to the desire not to waste the resource physically by destroying the oil and gas reservoir. The Department did announce, however, that the Fish and Wildlife Service would have to approve all offshore drilling in wildlife refuges and that oil and gas leasing there that endangered "rare" wildlife species (like whooping cranes or trumpeter swans) would not be allowed. The Interior Department toughened its rules in response to the spill (after first issuing a moratorium on offshore drilling and production in California waters pending those new rules), the first changes since 1953. It requires federal agencies to prepare "environmental impact statements" for all proposed "major Federal actions significantly affecting the quality of the human environment" in order to ensure that decisions are based on full consideration of their environmental consequences. It was initially focused on scientifically characterizing areas and providing baseline environmental data, but later shifted its focus to research directly linked to resource management decisions by the offshore leasing program. President Jimmy Carter created the Department of Energy in 1977 and secured passage of the National Energy Act of 1978, consisting of five separate laws, some designed to promote development of domestic energy supplies and others to encourage energy conservation. Those skeptical of accelerated offshore leasing-including many coastal states, local governments, fishermen, and environmentalists-sought, to that end, opportunities to ensure that offshore oil and gas leasing complied with strict safeguards and a greater voice in the decisionmaking process. They were concerned about the broad discretion the Act conferred on the Secretary of the Interior over control and management of offshore energy resources. By contrast, advocates for expanded domestic production wanted to ensure that the new legislation did not allow environmental protection laws to stifle exploration, development, and production of significant offshore oil and gas reservoirs.