Retaining the original color of a hardwood deck extremely difficult

Q. We recently put in a large mahogany deck (about two monthsago). The builder applied three coats of Thompson's water seal, andit is now starting to gray in places and fade. Please let us know howto restore the nice red color and then what to do for routinemaintenance.

A. Unfortunately, you put wax on your deck, which is just aboutthe worst thing you could do. Technically, once wax is placed on ahardwood, it never leaves completely. You have a very hard wood deck.As you are now aware, all hardwoods gray very rapidly. It isextremely difficult to retain the original color of a hardwood deck.On top of that, many of the imported hardwoods are so dense they donot accept stain …

Using a population-based health information system to study child health

ABSTRACT

Objective: This paper describes the population-based analyses of measures of child health status used throughout this supplement.

Methods: The articles in this supplement examine health-related data for children 0 to 19 years. Most analyses cover the period from April 1, 1994 to March 31, 1999. Administrative and survey data were used to assess child health and well-being. For regional comparisons, data were broken down by subregions of Manitoba, called Regional Health Authorities (RHAs), and neighbourhoods of Winnipeg, called Winnipeg Community Areas (Winnipeg CAs).

The premature mortality rate (PMR) was used as a proxy of the overall health of the …

Mississippi River spill idles ships near New Orleans

Dozens of cargo ships, petrochemical tankers and smaller vessels stacked up Thursday near a closed stretch of the Mississippi River, a day after a collision between a barge and tanker spilled more than 400,000 gallons (1.5 million liters) of fuel oil into the nation's busy shipping waterway.

The Coast Guard said reopening nearly 100 miles (160 kilometers) of river to ship traffic could take days, and efforts to clean up the oily sheen left by largest oil spill on the river since 2000 could take weeks. Many of the ships waited at the river's Gulf of Mexico outlet to head upriver to grain and petrochemical terminals above New Orleans, one of the world's busiest …

Adopt Krugman ; The Nobel laureate's trade theory can change India's business paradigm.

My aim was that i would produce a certain volume of cars andcreate a very low-cost, very low-break-even point plant that a youngentrepreneur could buy. A bunch of entrepreneurs across the countrycould establish such assembly operations and Tata Motors would traintheir people, oversee their quality assurance and they would becomesatellite assembly operations for us. It would be satisfying if thesmall car created 10-15 satellite groups of young engineers whocould get together and do a business. They would never otherwise beable to get into the assembly of cars,Ratan Tata had told anewspaper on January 10, 2008, describing his business plan for theRs 1-lakh Nano.

By design …

Stoichiometry and Substrate Affinity of the Mannitol Transporter, EnzymeII^sup mtl^, from Escherichia coli

ABSTRACT

Uptake and consecutive phosphorylation of mannitol in Escherichia coli is catalyzed by the mannitol permease Enzymell^sup mtl^. The substrate is bound at an extracellular-oriented binding site, translocated to an inward-facing site, from where it is phosphorylated, and subsequently released into the cell. Previous studies have shown the presence of both a high- and a lowaffinity binding site with K^sub D^-values in the nano- and micromolar range, respectively. However, reported K^sub D^-values in literature are highly variable, which casts doubts about the reliability of the measurements and data analysis. Using an optimized binding measurement system, we investigated the …

Suspicious vehicle closes roads near White House

WASHINGTON (AP) — A block of Pennsylvania Avenue near the White House in Washington has been closed because of a suspicious vehicle.

Secret Service spokesman Max Milien says there are closures on Pennsylvania …

Harvick wins wild race at Daytona

Kevin Harvick lined up next to his Richard Childress Racing teammate for a two-lap sprint to the finish at Daytona International Speedway.

He and Clint Bowyer didn't bother to talk strategy.

"It was every man for himself at that point," Harvick said.

The Sprint Cup points leader sailed to his second win of the season, leading a strong RCR contingent in a wild night of racing at Daytona. There were a record 18 leaders, 47 lead changes, a 20-car accident and numerous angry drivers when it was over.

Harvick earned high praise from team owner Childress, who compared his driver to the late Dale Earnhardt, considered one of the best …