function xmlhttp () 
  { var httpRequest = false;
    if (window.XMLHttpRequest) { // Mozilla, Safari, ...
      httpRequest = new XMLHttpRequest();
      if (httpRequest.overrideMimeType) {
        httpRequest.overrideMimeType('text/xml');
        // See note below about this line
      }
    }
    else if (window.ActiveXObject) { // IE
      try {
        httpRequest = new ActiveXObject("Msxml2.XMLHTTP");
      } catch (e) {
        try {
          httpRequest = new ActiveXObject("Microsoft.XMLHTTP");
        } catch (e) {}
      }
    }
    return httpRequest;
  }

  function makeRequest(url, params, element) 
  { top.document.getElementById(element).innerHTML='<span style="width: 100%"><br/><br/><img src="imgs/ajax-loader.gif" align="right"/></span>';

    var httpRequest = new xmlhttp();

    if (!httpRequest) {
      alert('Giving up :( Cannot create an XMLHTTP instance');
      return false;
    }

    httpRequest.open('GET', url+'?'+params, true);

    httpRequest.onreadystatechange = function () {
      if (httpRequest.readyState == 4) {
        if (httpRequest.status == 200) {
            
          top.document.getElementById(element).innerHTML=httpRequest.responseText;
          myscript = document.getElementById("hydroScript");
          if (myscript) { eval(myscript.text) }
          myscript = document.getElementById("phytoScript");
          if (myscript) { eval(myscript.text) }
          myscript = document.getElementById("stateScript");
          if (myscript) { eval(myscript.text) }
          myscript = document.getElementById("regionScript");
          if (myscript) { eval(myscript.text) }

        } else { alert(httpRequest.statusText); }
      }
    }

    httpRequest.send(null);
    //return true;
  }