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How Do I Polish A Marble Fireplace?
We often get asked how to polish the edged on a marble fireplace. The answer and techniques used are often more complex than they initially appear. Essentially Marble is polished using a series of buffing pads and stones that remove the harsh layer and bring out the inner beauty of the marble. Marble can either be polished using a hand held machine or using a flat bed automated polishing line.
How To polish marble:
. The slabs used to manufacture Marble Fireplaces are imported pre-polished on the top face of the material . This means the sheets simply need to be cut to size and profiled accordingly (depending on the design).
2. The edges of the fireplace are then profiled and shaped according the design of the fireplace. Hence all curved and intricate edges are carved accordingly. The edges of the fireplace are usually polished using automated CNC (computer Numeric Control machinery) and then simply need to be assembled. It is advisable to also re-polish the edges of the material by hand (series of specialist sanding paper to ensure the highest quality standards are maintained).
3. It is often not possible to achieve the same high level of polish on marble by using hand held machines as the pressure exerted by automated machinery cannot be replicated by hand. About Us: At Creative Fireplaces we have been manufacturing marble fire surrounds for over 22 years. Each section of the fireplace is carefully crafted in our purpose built Nottinghamshire factory and delivered right to your door using our specialist drivers. We pride ourselves in value for money and quality.
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I am using "minirosetta.linuxgccrelease" for homology modelling. It is recommended at least 1000 outputs are needed. However, after running 3 days, my PC got a problem and only ~500 outputs have been generated. If I run a second run, can I just run another 500 outputs and combine them together with the first batch outputs, and assume those 1000 outputs are generated from same batch?
To extend the question, for most of the time, can I always assume the outputs from different runs are from a same batch? (Of course, all the input files and command line remain identical)
Thank you very much.
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Python Package: jw.util
Version: <= 2.3
Reported by: Joel
An exploitable vulnerability exists in the configuration loading functionality of
jw.util before 2.3. Configuration is a module for handling configurations from a YAML source and a class for simplifying access to a configuration tree. Load configuration from stream with YAML can execute arbitrary python commands resulting in command execution. An attacker can insert python into loaded yaml to trigger this vulnerability.
1 2 3
It should use
yaml.safe_load to parse yaml file.
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There are many different interactions in nature and systems could evolve according to more than one dynamics for short periods of time. Therefore, it is reasonable to think that the evolution of some natural processes could be explained by the alternation of different dynamics for relatively short periods of time. RIST’s Marius F. Danca has found that if the control parameter p, of a continuous-time nonlinear system belonging to a large class of systems, is switched within a set of chosen values in a deterministic or even random manner, while the underlying model is numerically integrated, the obtained attractor is a numerical approximation of one of the existing attractors of the considered system. The numerically obtained trajectory is extremely similar to the trajectory obtained for p replaced with the averaged value of the switched parameters. The algorithm could be considered as an excellent alternative for control and anticontrol of chaos for continuous-time systems. Moreover, this kind of attractor synthesis resembles Parrondo’s philosophy in a winning game: ”losing + losing = winning”. Thus, switching the control parameter within a set of values which generate e.g. chaotic attractors, one can obtain a stable periodic motion which, in Parondian terms this means: “chaos+chaos=order” (a kind of control like algorithm). Also one can have anticontrol: “order+order=chaos” or other possible combinations. The work leading to these results has been performed in the last four years, and has been documented through more than ten papers in nonlinear science journals. A review is presented in: Marius-F. Danca, M. Romera, G. Pastor, and F. Montoya, Finding Attractors of Continuous-Time Systems by Parameter Switching, Nonlinear Dynamics (2011), doi:10.1007/s11071-011-0172-6.
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The Grade 6-12 CCSS Literacy Standards support the reading, writing, speaking and listening skills that are crucial to the study of science. The ability to comprehend and communicate about complex scientific ideas, terms, texts, and media must be a crucial part of study in the sciences.
Being college and career ready in the disciplines of History, Civics, Geography, Economics and all of the Social Studies requires that students have the ability to comprehend and communicate complex ideas from high level texts. The Grade 6-12 CCSS Literacy Standards provide a literacy framework to achieve college and career readiness by supporting the crucial reading, writing, speaking and listening skills that are needed to be a U.S. and global citizen.
To be prepared to live in a diverse 21st Century world, students must be open to acquiring additional languages and the Grade 6-12 CCSS Literacy Standards provide a literacy framework that is aligned with Language Study. The intent of both CCSS Literacy Standards and World Language Standards are the same – learning to read, write, speak and listen at high levels.
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Is similar to visible light except it can not be seen or sensed. The wavelength is between 0.7 and 1 billionths of a meter. Like light it will not pass through a solid object but it can be refracted, absorbed and emitted. Your television, VCR, sound system, satellite system remote controls uses Infrared energy to send signals to your favourite electronic device.
Infrared Radiation is emitted from all objects by vibrations and rotation of atoms and molecules. The higher the temperature of the object the greater is the energy, this is what is detected by the Infrared camera.
(Mass per unit of volume of a substance)
A compressed section of an article will have different colour pattern than the main area of the article
A higher density material such as high strength steel will radiate heat differently that a less dense form of steel. The image for hard wood (oak) will not be the same as for a soft wood (pine). Knots covered by paint will be visible. (Emissivity)
A crack, dowels, nails, weld joints, etc. or abnormality in the object will be displayed even if not visible to the eye. A joint no matter how skillfully finished will have a different temperature than the main object. Material used to join / repair an item will present an image different than the base item.
The presence of a liquid in any area of the object will display a unique colour pattern different from dry sections, normally cooler.
Each type of dampness created by the combination of materials may have a unique colour pattern on the image, water will have a different colour than oil
The liquid or other substances may not necessarily be present on the surface, it could be concealed behind paint or other covering but it would affect the colour image.
A section of material that had been subjected to moisture and subsequently dried will likely display different colour characteristics than virgin material
If there is air infiltration or escape, moisture will accumulate on surfaces at the site of the air movement, if there is moisture there will be mould. Moisture and wood this is the favourite dinning site for termites.
The supporting structure behind the visible object may appear in the image as the temperature, density and depth of the support or content of the article will be different than the containment material.
The level of the contents of a tank will be shown as the temperature of the container above and below the level of the material will vary.
Pipes and wiring behind the view area may be visible on the image
The presence of water behind the exterior material may be indicated particularly if the water is in contact with exterior material.
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- Who is called drawee?
- What is the meaning of drawer signature?
- Who is drawer in promissory note?
- When a Cheque is drawn on a bank the bank is called the?
- What is difference between drawer and drawee?
- What is the difference between Bill of Exchange and Cheque?
- What is due date in bill of exchange?
- Why is a bill of exchange needed?
- What is Bill of Exchange and its essentials?
- Why is a bill of exchange unconditional?
- What is drawer and drawee and payee in bill of exchange?
- Who is drawee in bill of exchange?
- Who is drawer and who is drawee?
- What is difference between promissory note and bill of exchange?
- How many parties are there in a bill of exchange?
- What is drawer in accounting?
- Can drawer and drawee be the same person?
- What is Bill of Exchange with example?
- What are the types of bill of exchange?
- What is the payee?
Who is called drawee?
Drawee is a legal and banking term used to describe the party that has been directed by the depositor to pay a certain sum of money to the person presenting the check or draft.
The bank that cashes your check is the drawee, your employer who wrote the check is the drawer, and you are the payee..
What is the meaning of drawer signature?
12 – Drawer’s signature differs – implies that the signature of the drawer of the cheque (i.e., the person who has given you the cheque) does not match with his signature which is on the record of the bank. Due to difference in signatures, the bank did not pass the cheque in your favour.
Who is drawer in promissory note?
Two parties are involved in the promissory note. They are: Drawer/Maker: Drawer is the debtor who promises to pay the amount to lender or creditor. Drawee: Drawee is the creditor who is been promised by the borrower or debtor about the pending payment.
When a Cheque is drawn on a bank the bank is called the?
It is basically the bank on which the cheque is drawn and is called the “Drawee”. Always remember that a cheque is always drawn on a particular banker. The individual who is named in the cheque for getting the payment is known as the “Payee”.
What is difference between drawer and drawee?
The maker of a bill of exchange or cheque is called the “drawer”; the person thereby directed to pay is called the “drawee”.
What is the difference between Bill of Exchange and Cheque?
A cheque is always drawn on a banker, while a bill of exchange may be drawn on any one, including a banker. … A cheque can only be drawn payable on demand; a bill of exchange may be drawn payable on demand, or on the expiry of a certain period after date or sight.
What is due date in bill of exchange?
Due date – It is a date on which the payment is expected/due. Bill at Sight – Due date is the date on which a bill is presented for the payment. Bill after Sight –Here, the due date is the date of acceptance plus terms of the bill. For example, if the bill is drawn on 1st March and it is accepted on 5th March.
Why is a bill of exchange needed?
A bill of exchange helps to counter some of the risks involved with exporting. Long-term trading arrangements between firms in different countries can be badly effected by exchange rate fluctuations, so the fixed payment terms laid out in a bill of exchange provides exporters with the assurance of a fixed price.
What is Bill of Exchange and its essentials?
Essentials of Bills of Exchange A typical bill of exchange contains the following elements: It should always be in writing and cannot be oral. The drawer must sign the bill and undertake to pay a specific sum of money. The parties must be certain; they cannot be ambiguous.
Why is a bill of exchange unconditional?
“A bill of exchange is an unconditional order in writing, addressed by one person to another, signed by the person giving it, requiring the person to whom it is addressed to pay on demand or at a fixed or determinable future time a sum certain in money to or to the order of a specified person, or to bearer”.
What is drawer and drawee and payee in bill of exchange?
the drawer is the party that issues a bill of exchange – the ‘creditor’; the beneficiary or payee is the party to which the bill of exchange is payable; the drawee is the party to which the order to pay is sent – ‘the debtor’.
Who is drawee in bill of exchange?
The drawee is the party that pays the sum specified by the bill of exchange. The payee is the one who receives that sum. The drawer is the party that obliges the drawee to pay the payee. The drawer and the payee are the same entity unless the drawer transfers the bill of exchange to a third-party payee.
Who is drawer and who is drawee?
The drawer writes the various details including the monetary amount, date, and a payee on the cheque, and signs it, ordering their bank, known as the drawee, to pay that person or company the amount of money stated.
What is difference between promissory note and bill of exchange?
A bill of exchange is an unconditional written order made by the drawer on drawee to receive the specified sum within the mentioned period. Whereas, a promissory note is a written promise made by the borrower or drawer to repay the amount on a specific date or order of the payee.
How many parties are there in a bill of exchange?
three partiesA bill of exchange requires in its inception three parties—the drawer, the drawee, and the payee. The person who draws the bill is called the drawer. He gives the order to pay money to the third party. The party upon whom the bill is drawn is called the drawee.
What is drawer in accounting?
One who makes a draft. For example, with a check, the drawer is the party writing the check who demands that his/her bank pay to some third party the indicated amount of money. See also: Drawee.
Can drawer and drawee be the same person?
Accordingly, drawer and payee may be the same person. For instance, when the bill is drawn as ‘pay to me or my order’, drawer and drawee may be the same person. Similarly, when a principal draws a bill on his agent or upon himself, drawee and payee may be the same person.
What is Bill of Exchange with example?
Bill of exchange means a bill drawn by a person directing another person to pay the specified sum of money to another person. … For example, X orders Y to pay ₹ 50,000 for 90 days after date and Y accepts this order by signing his name, then it will be a bill of exchange.
What are the types of bill of exchange?
From the accounting point of view, Bills of exchange are of two types:Trade bill: Where the bill of exchange is drawn and accepted to settle a trade transaction, it is called Trade bill. … Accommodation bill: Where a bill of exchange is drawn and accepted for mutual help, it is called Accommodation bill.
What is the payee?
A payee is a party in an exchange who receives payment. The payee is paid by cash, check, or another transfer medium by a payer. The payer receives goods or services in return.
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Alireza Zavareh , pp. 30. ING/School of Engineering, 2012.
This thesis provides an analytical and two numerical methods for solving a parabolic equation of two-dimensional mean curvature flow with some applications. In analytical method, this equation is solved by Lie group analysis method, and in numerical method, two algorithms are implemented in MATLAB for solving this equation. A geometric algorithm and a step-wise algorithm; both are based on a deterministic game theoretic representation for parabolic partial differential equations, originally proposed in the genial work of Kohn-Serfaty .
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US 7519364 B2
A method for the seamless switching of a wireless device between wireless wide area networks (WWANs) and wireless local area networks (WLANS) includes automatically detecting the available WWANs and WLANs, selecting one of the available networks for use by the wireless device, and connecting the wireless device to the selected network. The method also includes maintaining the network connection by monitoring the connection and, upon determining that the connection has been lost, selecting another available network for use and connecting the wireless device the other network. Additionally, the method communicates information about the availability networks and connection status to a user of the wireless device, which allows the user to manually switch the wireless device connection from the automatically selected available network to another available network. Further, a wireless device implements the above described method.
1. A method of connecting a wireless device to at least one wireless network comprising:
searching for wireless networks that are currently available;
presenting a real time picture of a plurality of available networks to a user through a user interface of the wireless device and/or connectivity software interfacing to the wireless device;
the user selecting priority as to a preferred network from the real time picture of the available networks through the user interface of the wireless device;
responsive to detecting at least one wireless local network, and at least one wireless wide area network, evaluating the predetermined priority as to a preferred type of network to attempt to connect with initially;
responsive to the preferred network type, control software evaluating at least one pre-established rule to determine which detected network of the preferred type is to be selected; and
the control software automatically connecting to the determined network of the preferred type to provide communications between an executing applications program and a remotely executing application.
2. A method as in
3. A method as in
4. A method as in
5. A method as in
6. A wireless device for seamless roaming between a plurality of different wireless networks comprising:
first circuitry that executes a selected application program which communicates with a remotely executing application;
second circuitry, coupled to the first circuitry, that includes at least one wireless transceiver and which searches for and responds to a plurality of different available wireless networks;
a real time picture of a plurality of available networks provided to a user through a user interface;
a subcomponent of the user interface that allows the user to select a preferred network from the real time picture of available networks;
control software, coupled to the second circuitry, which selects the preferred network type and a network of the preferred type of the available networks to provide communications between the executing applications program and the remotely executing application, the control software monitors a connection therebetween, and
responsive to a connection loss, the control software automatically maintains communications between the executing applications program and the remotely executing application by selecting one of a preferred network type from those networks which continue to be available and initiating communications between the executing application program and the remotely executing application.
7. A device as in
8. A device as in
The present application is a Continuation of U.S. Utility Application No. 10/634,536 filed on Aug. 4, 2003 entitled “System and Method for Seamless Roaming Between Wireless Networks” and claims the benefit of priority under 35 U.S.C. § 119(e) from U.S. Provisional Application No. 60/400,615 filed on Aug. 2, 2002 to Nair, et al. and entitled “Seamless Roaming Between Wireless Networks” and which is incorporated herein by reference.
1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates generally to the field of wireless technology and, more particularly, to seamless roaming between wireless networks.
2. Description of the Related Art
Wireless technology allows electronic devices to communicate with one another without the use of physical lines (e.g., wire or fiber optic cable), and accordingly, has become increasingly popular in recent years. There are different types of access networks in wireless technology, for example, the wireless local area network (WLAN) and the wireless wide area network (WWAN). WWANs are used by traditional cellular companies to provide high-mobility access (e.g., for users moving in cars) over a broad coverage area. WLANs can be used in buildings (e.g., homes or businesses) for stationary or low mobility access.
While WLANs provide higher throughput rates (e.g., ranging from 11 Mbps to 54 Mbps), such networks generally do not provide a broad area of coverage, and thus, are not always suitable for high mobility access. On the other hand, while WWANs provide broad ranging coverage, they generally have lower throughput rates.
Previously developed techniques have provided for connections to both a WLAN and a WWAN by a mobile device. With these techniques, separate device applications were used to independently support and manage different kinds of connections. That is, one application would be used for WWAN connections, and another application would be used for WLAN connections. This was problematic in that the two applications were independent, and thus, did not provide the ability to coordinate connections for different types of wireless networks. Thus, whenever there was a loss of connection as a mobile device was moved out of the coverage area, of one kind of wireless network into the coverage area of another kind of network, the previously developed techniques were not able to automatically switch connections. Instead, a user had to manually switch from one application managing hardware for a connection of the first kind of wireless network to a different application managing hardware for a connection of the second kind of wireless network. In order to make this manual switch, the user was required to shut down all applications using the external network connection and then, after the switch was made, to reinitiate network connectivity and restart all applications. Accordingly, the previously developed techniques were disruptive, time consuming, and not user friendly.
Therefore, what is needed is a way to automatically and seamlessly switch between and among different types of wireless networks.
According to embodiments of the present invention, systems and methods provide un-interrupted and ubiquitous wireless access, with seamless hand-off between different kinds of networks. Thus, applications are not affected as a user roams between and among WLANs and WWANs. The embodiments of the present invention may also facilitate handing off a user to WLANs, whenever possible to more cost effectively use the available WWAN bandwidth. Important technical advantages of the present invention are readily apparent to one skilled in the art from the following figures, descriptions, and claims.
For a more complete understanding of the present invention, for further features and advantages, applicants now make the following description, taken in conjunction with the accompanying drawings, in which:
Turning first to the nomenclature of the specification, the detailed description that follows is represented largely in terms of processes and symbolic representations of operations performed by conventional computer components, such as a local or remote central processing unit (CPU), processor, server, or other suitable processing device associated with a general purpose or specialized computer system, memory storage devices operatively associated with the processing device, and connected local or remote display devices. These operations may include the manipulation of data bits by the processing device and the maintenance of these bits within data structures resident in one or more of the memory storage devices. Such data structures impose a physical organization upon the collection of data bits stored within computer memory and represent specific electrical or magnetic elements. These symbolic representations are the means used by those skilled in the art of computer programming and computer construction to most effectively convey teachings and discoveries to others skilled in the art.
For purposes of this discussion, an application, process, method, routine, or sub-routine is generally considered to be a sequence of computer-executed steps leading to a desired result. These steps generally require manipulations of physical quantities. Usually, although not necessarily always, these quantities take the form of electrical, magnetic, or optical signals capable of being stored, transferred, combined, compared, or otherwise manipulated. It is conventional for those skilled in the art to refer to these signals as bits, values, elements, symbols, characters, text, terms, numbers, records, files, or the like. It should be kept in mind, however, that these and some other terms should be associated with appropriate physical quantities for computer operations, and that these terms are merely conventional labels applied to physical quantities that exist within and during operation of the computer.
It should also be understood that automatic manipulations within the computer system are often referred to in terms such as adding, comparing, moving, searching, or the like, which are typically associated with manual operations performed by a human operator. It must be understood that, in most instances, no involvement of the human operator is necessary, or even desirable, in the present invention. However, some of the operations described herein are machine operations performed in conjunction with the human operator, or user, that interacts with the computer or system. Therefore, unless noted as a manual, user operation, all operations are presumed to be automatic.
In addition, it should be understood that the programs, processes, methods, and the like, described herein are but an exemplary implementation of the present invention and are not related, or limited, to any particular computer, system, apparatus, or computer language. Rather, various types of general purpose computing machines or devices may be used with programs constructed in accordance with the teachings described herein. Similarly, it may prove advantageous to construct a specialized apparatus, or hardware device, to perform one or more of the method steps described herein by way of dedicated computer systems with hard-wired logic or programs stored in non-volatile memory, such as read-only memory (ROM).
According to embodiments of the present invention, systems and methods provide automatic and seamless roaming between wireless networks, including between different kinds of wireless networks (e.g., WLAN and WWAN). Embodiments of the present invention can provide seamless access between two disparate wireless access technologies, such as a WLAN and a WWAN. The systems and methods of the present invention can provide or support automatic detection and connection to WLANs and WWANs.
System For Seamless Roaming
Each wireless networks 14, 16, 18 can be a communication network that supports wireless communication. Each network supports at least one wireless link or device connection. As such, the networks may support a variety of communications, including, but not limited to, analog cellular system, digital cellular system, Personal Communication System (PCS), Cellular Digital Packet Data (CDPD), ARDIS, RAM Mobile Data, Metricom Ricochet, paging, and Enhanced Specialized Mobile Radio (ESMR). The wireless networks 14, 16, 18 may utilize or support various protocols. Exemplary protocols for WLANs 16, 18 include IEEE 802.11, HomeRF, Bluetooth, HiperLAN and the like. Exemplary protocols for WWAN 14 include Time Division Multiple Access (TDMA, such as IS-136), Code Division Multiple Access (CDMA), 1xRTT, General Packet Radio Service (GPRS), Enhanced Data rates for GSM Evolution (EDGE), Global System for Mobile communications (GSM), Universal Mobile Telecommunications System (UMTS), and Integrated Digital Enhanced Network (iDEN) Packet Data. Each connection of a wireless network may have a respective identifier such as, for example, a particular Internet Protocol (IP) address. Transmissions over the wireless networks 14, 16, 18 may be analog or digital. The wireless networks may include or be supported by a public switched telephone network (PSTN) and/or a private system (e.g., cellular system) implemented with a number of switches, wire lines, fiber-optic cable, land-based transmission towers, space-based satellite transponders, and the like. In one embodiment, the wireless networks may include any other suitable communication system, such as a specialized mobile radio (SMR) system. Each wireless network 14, 16, 18 may have a respective range of operation. The ranges of the various wireless networks can overlap in coverage.
The wireless networks 14, 16, 18 can be maintained or operated by the same or different service providers. In general, a service provider can be an entity that delivers services to one or more users, who, for example, access the network with a wireless device. These services may include wireless service, and possibly a host of other services. including, for example, plain old telephone service (POTS), digital telephony service, cellular service, pager service, and the like. The user of the wireless device 12 can be a subscriber to one or more of the services provided by one or more of the service providers with the wireless networks 14, 16, 18.
The wireless device 12 can be an electronic device with capability for communicating by wireless technology. Thus, wireless device 12 can be, for example, a laptop or desktop computer, a wireless personal digital assistant (PDA), a cellular phone, or any other wireless-capable, suitable electronic device. The wireless device 12 can be used by a respective user, who can move among and through the effective ranges of operation for the various wireless networks 14, 16, 18. If the wireless device 12 is within the range a particular wireless network, the device 12 will be able to communicate through a link of that wireless network. The wireless device 12 may run one or more applications that exchange data/information through wireless networks as the applications are run. Such an application can be, for example, a network browser that exchanges information with the distributed remotely executing application 15 known as the “World Wide Web.” Another exemplary application 15 can be electronic mail or instant messaging services.
In general, WLANs provide higher throughput rates (e.g., from 11 Mbps to 54 Mbps and higher), but are not conducive to use in higher mobility applications (e.g., such as when a user is in a car). WWANs can be used in high mobility applications, but do not provide as much throughput as WLANs. Thus, to increase throughput rates for the user of the wireless device 12, it is desirable to connect to a WLAN when one is available and connection to it is possible, while connecting to a WWAN when a WLAN connection is not available or possible.
To provide uninterrupted and effective wireless access for the wireless device 12 in exemplary environment 10, the present invention provides systems and methods so that WLANs and WWANs are able to automatically and seamlessly hand-off communications with the wireless device 12 as it roams between or among them, without the applications executing on the wireless device 12 being adversely affected.
System For Seamless Roaming
A number of networking hardware devices, such as WLAN hardware 26, WWAN hardware 28, and combination hardware 30, support connections between wireless device 12 and various wireless networks. WLAN hardware 26 supports connection with a WLAN. WWAN hardware 28 supports connection with a WWAN. Combination hardware 30 supports connection with either a WLAN or a WWAN. The networking hardware devices could be a wireless modem, a wireless network interface card (NIC), or any other suitable hardware peripheral device for supporting a wireless connection. In other embodiments, such devices can be implemented in any combination of hardware and software. A driver layer 32, which may be implemented in software or hardware or both, functions as a hardware controller for the WLAN hardware 26, WWAN hardware 28, and combination hardware 30.
A user interface (I/F) 34 generally functions to enable a human user to interact with the wireless device 12, for example, to run applications (e.g., word processing), browse the Internet, check email, and the like. The functionality of the user interface 34 can be performed by one or more suitable input devices (e.g., keypad, touch screen, input port, pointing device, microphone, and/or other device that can accept user input information) and one or more suitable output devices (e.g., video display, output port, speaker, or other device, for conveying information, including digital data, visual information, or audio information). In one embodiment, each user interface 34 may comprise or be operable to display at least one graphical user interface (GUI) having a number of interactive devices, such as buttons, windows, pull-down menus, and the like to facilitate the entry, viewing, and/or retrieval of information.
The wireless device 12 may operate under the control of a suitable operating system (OS) 20, such as, for example, MS-DOS, MAC OS, WINDOWS NT, WINDOWS 95, WINDOWS CE, OS/2, UNIX, LINUX, LINDOWS, XENIX, PALM OS, and the like. One or more software applications 22 may run on the wireless device 12. Each application 22 may interact with the operating system 20. These applications 22 may support numerous services or functions such as, for example, document sharing, accounting, word processing, application sharing, file transfer, remote control, browser, voice over Internet Protocol (IP), user authentication, address book, files and folders, accounting, database management, and the like. At least a portion of these applications 22 may require the exchange of information over the wireless network with other electronic devices as the applications 22 are executing on the wireless device 12.
A connectivity application 24, provided in the software layer, acts as a pseudo router of network addresses and connectivity. The connectivity application 24 logically resides between the operating system 20 and the driver layer 32 of hardware controllers. The connectivity application 24 may logically “sit on top” of operating system 20. Connectivity application 24 may support the detection of wireless connections that are available in any given location to the wireless device 12. These connections include both WLAN and WWAN connections. Furthermore, unlike previously developed techniques, the connectivity application 24 maintains information and handles connectivity for different kinds of wireless networks. As such, connectivity application 24 is able to coordinate the connection of the wireless device 12 with different wireless networks, thereby providing seamless transition or handoff between the networks, including from a WLAN connection to a WWAN connection, and vice versa, as well as between WLAN or WWAN connections. Connectivity application 24 may provide the IP address of the wireless connection in use to the operating system 20, which in turn publishes this IP address to all applications 22. As depicted, in one embodiment, connectivity application 24 includes a user interface (UI) component 36, a core component 38, a WLAN interface component 40, a WWAN interface component 42, and a combination interface component 44.
WLAN interface component 40, WWAN interface component 42, and combination interface component 44 provide or support an interface with the driver layer 32 comprising device drivers, which can be supplied by the respective hardware manufacturers of the networking hardware devices (e.g., WLAN hardware 26, WWAN hardware 28, and combination hardware 30). WLAN interface component 40 may handle all the communications with, for example, any WiFi compliant 802.11a card and its driver. WLAN interface component 40 can, for example, interface with the application program interface (API) of the WLAN card. This component 40 implements both the standard interfaces as well as specific aspects of communicating with the WLAN card, to retrieve common information such as Status, Signal Strength, MAC Address, Firmware version, and the like. The WLAN interface component 40 also handles sending and receiving messages to the card. The WWAN interface component 42 and the combo interface component 44 have similar functionality to its WLAN counterpart, except that it is implemented to communicate with the API of the WWAN card.
The UI component 36 provides support for the presentation (e.g., visually, audibly, physically, etc.) of information relating to the wireless connections for the wireless device 12. This information may include, for example, network information for WWAN 14 and WLANs 16, 18. The UI component 36 may also allow a user to configure or set (e.g., enabling and disabling) the wireless connections for the device 12. In one embodiment, for example, UI component 36 may enable a user to readily and easily, yet manually or automatically, switch from one wireless network connection (e.g., for WWAN 14) to another wireless network connections (e.g., for WLAN 16) with no adverse effect on applications running on the wireless device 12.
The core component 38 is in communication with UI component 36, WLAN interface component 40, WWAN interface component 42, and combination interface component 44. The core component 38 implements the logic for keeping track of, handling, and managing the connectivity to the wireless networks and informing the operating system 20 about any changes. The core component 38 may also be responsible for automated switching of the connections which, in one embodiment, can be rule-based switching. The core component 38 may automatically authenticate and connect the wireless device 12 to preferred wireless networks that are detected.
In operation, as the wireless device 12 is moved between or among the effective ranges of various wireless networks (WLAN or WWAN), connectivity application 24 functions to change connections from one wireless network to another wireless network. In one aspect, the change of wireless connection can be automatic such that, for example, upon loss of connectivity from any one connection, the connectivity application 24 will automatically initiate a new connection and pass the respective IP address to operating system 20. Then, as applications 22 are subsequently refreshed using an IP connection, the applications 22 will automatically pick up the new IP address and start using the new address for wireless connectivity (e.g., according to the rules of core component 38). This may occur without any noticeable loss of connectivity to the user of the wireless device 12. In another aspect, the change of wireless connection can be manually initiated by the user. Connectivity application 24 supports the detection of wireless connections that may be available for any given location. Information about the available wireless connections may be accessed by the user from connectivity application 24 via user interface 34. Then, the user can select which wireless connection to use for connectivity (e.g., to the Internet).
As such, the system according to an embodiment of the present invention provides ubiquity of access to wireless data and efficiency of spectral usage in cellular bands when using wireless data. Thus, for example, Internet-enabled applications 22 do not experience a loss of connectivity as a result of connection loss by wireless device 12 with either a WWAN or a WLAN. Nor do the applications 22 experience loss of connection as result of transition from one wireless network to another (e.g., from WWAN to WLAN). Furthermore, the system allows cellular service providers to offer wireless data services supported by a combination of their existing two-and-a-half generation (“2.5G”) networks (such as, but not limited to, GPRS, CDMA 1xRTT) and IEEE 802.11 WLAN networks (such as, but not limited to, 802.11a, 802.11b, 802.11g, etc.), with minimal risk of wireless data consuming the entire available capacity of the cellular networks.
User Interface Component
The 3G UI subcomponent 50 may handle the connect/disconnect functionality for various WWANs, which can be the 2.5G or 3G of mobile communications technology. Examples of such technologies include, but are not limited to GPRS, CDMA 1xRTT and iDEN Packet Data services (for 2.5G) and W-CDMA based services such as UMTS and CDMA 3xRTT (for 3G). Relative to first generation (e.g., analog cellular) and second generation (e.g., digital PCS), 2.5G and 3G technology provides increased bandwidth. For example, 3G technology provides up to 384 Kbps when a wireless device is stationary or moving at pedestrian speed, 128 Kbps in a car, and 2 Mbps in fixed applications. 3G UI subcomponent 50 may present or display information for the signal strength of each available WWAN (e.g., 2.5G or 3G) connection, as well as type of connection (e.g., circuit-switched or packet-switched). This subcomponent 50 may also display or present information about the availability of WWAN service, or lack thereof.
WLAN UI subcomponent 52 can, among other things, keep track of and/or present all identified WLANs in the particular location of wireless device 12, as well as their current connections and encryption status. This WLAN UI subcomponent 52 may also handle selection by a user and connection of the wireless device 12 to the various WLANs.
Taken together, 3G UI subcomponent 50 and WLAN UI subcomponent 52 provide the user of the wireless device 12 with a real-time picture of all available connections to the various wireless networks, and may direct the user to a location where connectivity is available. A user of the wireless device 12 can toggle connections between WWAN and WLAN connections by interacting with 3G UI subcomponent 50 and WLAN UI subcomponent 52.
The inter-subcomponent communication module 54 is responsible for communicating the status of each of the subcomponents 50 and 52. The inter-subcomponent communication module 54 may notify core component 38 of connection status change for each of these subcomponents. The core I/F subcomponent 56 interacts with core component 38 of connectivity application 24. Core interface 54 may, among other things, communicate the status of the wireless connections and user interactions with UI component 36 to the core component 38.
The active connection selection 60 keeps track of the various wireless connections which are presently available (including both WLAN and WWAN connections) and also the particular wireless connection, that is currently in use by the wireless device 12. The active connection selection 60 publishes the active connection information to the operating system 20; that is, it provides the operating system 20 with information (e.g., IP address) for the current wireless connection. The wireless connection currently in use can be changed by modifying (or toggling) current active connection 60, either by a direct user intervention or as a result of one or more rules in the rules engine 62.
The rules engine 62 may implement and execute a number of rules for automated switching of the wireless connections, and authentication and connection of the wireless device 12 to a preferred wireless network. These rules may define, for example, what to do when a GPRS connection is lost. Rules engine 62 may also allow the rules themselves to be created, modified, or deleted, thereby defining the characteristic behavior of core component 38.
The rules engine 62 is responsible for making the decision as to which wireless network (e.g., WWAN 14, WLAN 16, or WLAN 18) to connect in the event of lost connectivity or the availability of multiple wireless networks. The core component 38 automatically detects any available wireless networks in the area of wireless device 12 and uses the rules engine 62 to determine to which network to connect. The rules engine 62 functions on the basis of a combination of inputs from the user as well as predefined rules provided by one or more service providers (who operate or maintain the wireless networks and/or provide services to the user). By way of illustration, two examples of the operation of rules engine 62 according to the present invention are presented below.
The first rule example illustrations the operation of a user supplied rule. In a user's neighborhood, there are two wireless networks, Network A and Network B. Network A provides fast connectivity, but is unreliable and down about 50% of the time. Network B is highly reliable, but provides only about 50% of the data rate of Network A. The user creates a rule in the rules engine 62 that gives higher priority to the Network A, rather than Network B. When the core component 38 uses the rules engine 62 to decide to which detected network to connect, the rules engine 62 will recommend that the wireless device 12 connect to Network A. In the event of loss of connectivity between the wireless device 12 and Network A, the core component 38 will again use the rules engine 62, which returns a recommendation that the wireless device 12 connect, secondarily, to Network B.
The second rule example illustrations the operation of a service provider supplied rule. A service provider provides WWAN services through Network P and WLAN services through Network Q. For technical reasons, such as preserving spectrum availability on the WWAN (Network P), a service provider may specify a rule in the rule engine 62 that recommends that a user, who is currently on the WWAN, must be intelligently switched to the WLAN, as soon as it becomes available, thereby minimizing the number of users on the WWAN.
Because core component 38 maintains information and handles connectivity for various kinds of wireless networks (e.g., WWAN and WLAN), connectivity application 24 is able to coordinate for seamless transition or handoff between wireless networks, including from a WLAN connection to a WWAN connection, and vice versa, or between different WWAN or WLAN connections. This seamless session switching functionality can be handled by a specific implementation of a well-defined standard such as, for example, Mobile Internet Protocol (IP) or IPv6 (which is also known as IPng, or IP next generation).
Method for Seamless Roaming
If at least one network is detected, then at step 106 wireless device 12 searches the rules engine 62 of the connectivity application 24 to identify one or more applicable rules for connecting the wireless device 12 to one of the detected networks. At step 108, the connectivity application 24 directs the wireless device 12 to connect to a particular detected network per the recommendation of rules engine 62. Once connected, the connection is monitored and maintained at step 110 (discussed further, below).
On the other hand, if at step 116 there has been user intervention, then at step 118 the connectivity application 24 determines whether there the user initiated an instruction to manually switch connection to another wireless network. If there is such an instruction, then at step 120 the connectivity application 24 directs the wireless device 12 to connect to the network specified by the user. Upon making this user-initiated switch, the method 100 returns to step 112 and begins monitoring of the new network connection. Otherwise, if there has been user intervention, but not to initiate a manual network connection switch, then the method 100 ends.
Although particular embodiments of the present invention have been shown and described, it will be obvious to those skilled in the art that changes and modifications may be made without departing from the present invention in its broader aspects, and therefore, the appended claims are to encompass within their scope all such changes and modifications that fall within the true scope of the present invention.
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Because of the continuing above average heat in Tucson this year, insects have been very active. Although the higher temperatures lead to warmer pool temperatures that many of us enjoy, they also lead to increased populations of many insects, including the aforementioned pests. Insects are cold-blooded. This means that their body temperatures are regulated by their surrounding environment. In cold weather the internal temperature of insects drop which causes them to be less active. But in hotter temperatures, they become more active. Not only that, but larvae grow at faster rates and reproduction cycles also increase in speed. The hot conditions also drive many insects indoors to seek cooler temperatures, so they become more noticeable in general.
This is why during the summer months in Tucson, your tenant may be noticing more insects and contacting you, the landlord, about exterminating them. In our lease, unless it is an infestation of some sort (bees, termites, etc.), the tenant is responsible for any spraying for insects, as opposed to the landlord. That being said, some landlords choose to pay for an extermination service for the tenant. Whichever way you decide to handle it, you simply need to make sure that you have communicated it to the tenant. The best way to do that is at the beginning of the landlord/tenant relationship through the lease.
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A medium-sized toothed whale that possesses a large tusk
Found primarily in the Canadian Arctic and Greenlandic and Russian waters, the narwhal is a uniquely specialized Arctic predator
The tusks are actually teeth. Usually, the canine tooth on the left side of the upper jaw becomes a tusk. All adult narwhals have two teeth. Narwhals don’t use their teeth for biting or chewing. Instead, they suck their prey down whole. In the females, both teeth usually remain in the skull. One in 500 males has two tusks, which occurs when the right tooth, normally small, also grows out
The total body size can range from 3.95 to 5.5 m (13 to 18 ft)
Recent research by Nweeia who works at Harvard University in Boston, Mass. suggests that Narwhals are using sound waves to stun the fish before they eat them. Research also revealed that the tusk has no enamel coating, protecting the nerves underneath. Without enamel, the Narwhal can sense changes in the water, like how salty the water is. When ice forms in the ocean the water will become slightly saltier, which is a signal to leave the area before ice forms over their head.
They feed mainly on species of cod, in some areas they include squid, shrimp, and various fish
Narwhals normally congregate in groups of about five to ten, and sometimes up to 20
Narwhals exhibit seasonal migrations, with a high fidelity of return to preferred, ice-free summering grounds, usually in shallow waters
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Editors’ introduction to our new special issue, Language-in-Use and the Literary Artifact (free for a limited time on Highwire)
Language-in-Use and Literary Fieldwork
by Michael Lucey and Tom McEnaney
The introduction begins:
Literary critics and theorists often shy away from talking about writers and readers as people who put language to use. Instrumentalized reason, positivism, and other watchwords warn against turning a literary artifact into mere data or information, or making it part of an exchange of language that is not exclusively aesthetic in nature. At the same time, when critics seek praxis in literature, speak about the performative attributes of a text, or discuss how to do things with words, they usually treat whatever text they are considering as a stable object. The contributors to this special issue of Representations are all interested in language-in-use as it applies to different kinds of linguistic artifacts and to text understood as the dynamic product of an interactive process. We take it that even the most literary of artifacts can be considered from this point of view. It is possible, for instance, through a kind of “literary fieldwork,” to discover the kinds of dynamic, social, indexical, and context-based negotiations of literary and cultural value that will be at stake in the essays making up this volume. Such negotiations are inevitably present in and around literary artifacts because those artifacts are made of language, and because in using them more language is frequently produced. Even in the midst of an argument for literary autonomy by someone taken to be a key spokesperson for the idea (Gustave Flaubert) we can locate the dynamic relationality of language-in-use and see how it is relevant to the texts he produced.
In late 1875, six or so months before her death and while he was working on his Three Tales, George Sand and Flaubert, in the letters they were exchanging, were having a discussion about the function of literary form. “It seems to me that your school is insufficiently attentive to the substance of things,” Sand wrote in mid-December, “and that it remains too much on the surface. Being so caught up with form, it slights substance.” Flaubert, writing from Paris, had informed her a few days earlier that while in the capital he tended to see the same group of associates on Sundays—Ivan Turgenev, Émile Zola, Alphonse Daudet, and Edmond de Goncourt—and he had asked her if she had any thoughts about the writing of a couple of people on the list. It was in her response to his query that she offered her opinion about the failings of his “school.” In his reply to her letter, he insists that he is doing his best to have no such thing, and he distinguishes himself from his associates by saying that they “strive for all that I scorn, and are only concerned in a mediocre way by the things that torment me.” He elaborates:
I consider technical details, local pieces of information, really the whole historical and exact side of things as quite secondary. Above all I seek Beauty and my companions have only a mediocre concern with that. I find them unmoved when I am ravished with admiration or with horror. I swoon in the face of phrases that seem to them entirely ordinary. Goncourt, for example, is delighted when he overhears in the street a word used that he can then stick in a book. Whereas I am most pleased when I have written a page without assonances or repetitions. (Correspondance, 513–14)
No empirical fact finding, no linguistic fieldwork for Flaubert, it would seem. He and his colleagues cannot form a school because their writing practices are too divergent and are based on different structures of taste.
This passage from Flaubert’s letter to Sand caught the eye of Pierre Bourdieu, who cites it in The Rules of Art in a discussion of the kinds of formal work that manage somehow to bring social reality into a work of art, to register some aspect of the social world. Part of what Bourdieu sees Flaubert doing in this passage from his letter to Sand is making a claim for the ways both his aesthetic agenda and his artistic practice are distinct from those of his contemporaries with and against whom he constructs his own aesthetic point of view, his own writerly practice.
Language, we could say, provides the occasion for its users to be distinctive when they use it, in many ways and across different scales, and in both oral and written forms. To varying degrees, Bourdieu suggests, some of us might “sense the meaning that the possible which the writer is in the midst of realizing may acquire from its being put into a relationship with other possibles.” Or, as he would put it in one of his last seminars on Édouard Manet, in March 2000, “To understand someone who makes something, it is necessary to understand that they aren’t making something else. It’s as simple as that. It is a lesson that comes from structuralism: a phoneme only exists in relation to a space of other possible phonemes.” All the information a phoneme carries, it is able to carry because of the difference between the way it sounds and the way other phonemes sound (or the way other people saying the “same” phoneme sound). Bourdieu is interested in the information that works carry because of the way they differ from other works around them (and perhaps even from works a writer only imagines to exist). Meanwhile, Flaubert’s difference from Zola, his difference from Goncourt, is not only something that he asserts in writing to Sand; it is a difference that makes its way into his work. It informs the work, and the work thereby harbors formally a relation (an indexical relation) to the works it somehow manages not to be like.
Bourdieu’s concept of a field of cultural production involves both makers and critics in conceiving a constantly evolving set of works and the complex indexical relations between those works and also between their makers, relations that themselves become discoverable through critical forms of fieldwork and archival inquiry. Yet his interest in the way a literary work might index, might register the social world around it, involves more than relations to other works in the same field of cultural production. The work done on language by writers such as Flaubert can, for Bourdieu, enregister the wider social world in which it comes into existence in innumerable ways. Bourdieu is interested in the specifics of Flaubert’s writerly practice or, perhaps better said, what transpires because of the specifics of that practice. Flaubert may not wish to be associated with the “realists” around him, the ones who want to describe minute technical details of what they have observed, or who collect snippets of spoken language with which to ornament their books. Yet for Bourdieu, Flaubert, perhaps despite himself, achieves a “realist formalism.” Bourdieu notes that in certain circumstances, in certain hands, “it is pure work on pure form, a formal exercise par excellence, that causes to surge up, as if by magic, a real more real than that which is offered directly to the senses and before which the naïve lovers of reality stop.” This more real real of which Bourdieu is speaking is the reality of the social world and all its immanent tendencies, the reality of the social topography we all move through with varying degrees of practical skill, the reality of the distinctions and distances that exist between different actors and different positions within the social field. The contours of that social world, and the distribution of people and positions within it, we might say, are indexed by formal elements of the work that it is possible to decipher using what Charles Sanders Peirce once called collateral observation. That term appears in Peirce’s 1907 essay “Pragmatism,” where he refers to cases in which “the whole burden of the sign must be ascertained, not by closer examination of the utterance, but by collateral observation of the utterer.” And, we might add, of the context in which that particular person makes that particular utterance.
It is precisely this difference in attention, from the referential or signifying aspect of a sign to its social function, that motivates the contributors to this issue. The writers we’ve gathered here begin from the somewhat obvious assumption that both texts and their makers are shaped by the forces that also produce the social world around them. Certain makers of texts, by the work they do in making them, reflect upon, or uncover, or recover (in a process Bourdieu calls “anamnesis”) the relationship between the writing they do and the way the social world is shaped and has shaped them. What does it mean, or what does it involve to find in certain formal features of a work (for example, the frequency or rarity of repetitions and assonance) aspects of its relation to the structures of the social world from which it emerged? How would one understand a literary artifact—a novel, for example—to operate within such a system? “The novel as a whole is an utterance just as rejoinders in everyday dialogue or private letters are,” Mikhail Bakhtin once wrote, adding a few pages later that “of course, an utterance is not always followed immediately by an articulated response. . . . In most cases, genres of complex cultural communication are intended precisely for [a] kind of active responsive understanding with delayed action.” Such an understanding involves the positing, the discovery (with the aid of Peirce’s collateral observation, of fieldwork) of an array of indexical relations between that novel and other utterances (obviously not only novels) with which it could then be said to be in some kind of dialogue. What that dialogue might be concerned with is an open question, and might substantially change what, at first glance, a novel or some other literary artifact might be said to be “about.”
For the contributors to this issue, one key implication of these remarks from Bourdieu, Bakhtin, and Peirce, taken all together, is that particular formal features of a given literary work (or other kinds of crafted utterances) can be taken to index aspects of the social world in which it or they originated. And the formal features in question are remarkably diverse. Noticing them depends on the work that is done to establish the context in which that indexical function can be perceived. If Bourdieu liked the contrast between Flaubert and Goncourt that Flaubert somewhat snidely drew (“Goncourt, for example, is delighted when he overhears in the street a word used that he can then stick in a book”), it is surely because Goncourt can be taken to represent a kind of naive empiricism in the face of social reality, whereas Flaubert’s hostility toward such empiricism counterintuitively helps him to produce works that register some other version of reality in more astute, if less easily discoverable, ways.
Our contributors are all interested in the way linguistic artifacts are linked by various indexical modes to surrounding social worlds, the worlds in which they originate, but also the worlds through which they circulate over time. Part of what various aspects of the form of these artifacts and their subsequent entextualizations do is to indicate, to give us the means to understand some thing or things that are happening in the worlds in which they originate and circulate. This way of looking at form asks that we discover in its features the places in a work through which it is attached to, and contiguous with, a variety of contexts from which much of its value and meaning come. Continue reading (free for a limited time on Highwire)…
This introduction offers an initial account of the usefulness of an interdisciplinary encounter between the fields of linguistic anthropology and literary/cultural studies and, in doing so, introduces a series of key terms from linguistic anthropology and its way of studying language-in-use as a locus in which culture happens: nonreferential (or social) indexicality, entextualization, and metapragmatics. It establishes a set of common attitudes toward language and cultural production found in work by Bourdieu, Bakhtin, and a number of linguistic anthropologists (Michael Silverstein in particular). It suggests three analytical levels on which such an interdisciplinary encounter might take place: analysis of (1) works that themselves show an interest in language-in-use (for example, novels by writers such as Proust, Eliot, or Dostoevsky); (2) the “interactive text,” of which any given literary artifact could be said to be a precipitate (one construal of Bourdieu’s approach to an author like Flaubert); and (3) the role of the ongoing uptake of given language-based artifacts in maintaining and altering their meanings and values.
MICHAEL LUCEY is Professor of Comparative Literature and French at the University of California, Berkeley. He is currently working on a project titled “Proust, Sociology, Talk, Novels: The Novel Form and Language-in-Use.”
TOM McENANEY is Assistant Professor of Comparative Literature at Cornell University. He is the author of several articles and the forthcoming book Acoustic Properties: Radio, Narrative, and the New Neighborhood of the Americas (Flashpoints Series, Northwestern University Press, 2017).
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Athletics and Title IX
Title IX and athletics have been closely tied together since the establishment of the law. Title IX provides equal opportunity for both men and women student athletes and coaches through addressing and working to prevent gender-based (sex) discrimination in athletic programs and activities. The three main components of Title IX in athletics include participation, athletic financial assistance, and treatment in program areas.
Title IX ensures equal opportunity for both men and women in athletic programs through:
- Practice schedules
- Game times
- Tutoring and academic services
- Travel, housing, and dining
- Locker rooms, medical, and competitive facilities
- Recruitment practices
- Assignment, compensation, and office facilities for coaches
Title IX states that financial assistance (e.g. scholarships) should be proportionate to both male and female athletes.
Title IX asserts that athletic budgets do not have to be equal, but must provide equal benefits.
Title IX addresses and prevents gender-based discrimination.
Testing an Institution's Compliance
A college must pass ONE of the following three-pronged tests:
- The number of participation opportunities for female and male athletes is in balance and proportionate to enrollment.
- The college has a proven history and continuing practice of expanding participation opportunities in response to the developing interests and abilities of the underrepresented gender.
- The college is fully and effectively meeting the interests and abilities of the underrepresented gender.
Edmonds CC and Title IX in Athletics:
- Each athletic program receives the same amount of government funding; any further funding is due to the team's fundraising efforts.
- Each player receives the same per diem during traveling.
- Game and practice schedules are designed with an effort to provide equal treatment to all teams and rental groups.
- Athletic participation is proportionate to enrollment at Edmonds CC.
- The college seeks athletic administrative and coaching staff that seek to better the athlete holistically, and who are innovative and experienced in skill and care.
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Dr. Weeks’ Comment: here below is an article reflecting the current thinking about resistance to chemotherapy. Note that there is NO mention of cancer STEM cells even though researchers agree that 1) cancer STEM cells are not hurt by chemotherapy and radiation and 2) cancer STEM cells are the ones which metastasize. See www.weeksclinic.com
Overview of resistance to systemic therapy in patients with breast cancer.
Adv Exp Med Biol. 2007;608:1-22.
Gonzalez-Angulo AM, Morales-Vasquez F, Hortobagyi GN.
Department of Breast Medical Oncology, Unit 424, The University of Texas M. D. Anderson Cancer Center, 1515 Holcombe Blvd., Houston, Texas 77030, USA.
Breast cancer is the most common cancer and the second leading cause of cancer death in American women. It was the second most common cancer in the world in 2002, with more than 1 million new cases. Despite advances in early detection and the understanding of the molecular bases of breast cancer biology, about 30% of patients with early-stage breast cancer have recurrent disease. To offer more effective and less toxic treatment, selecting therapies requires considering the patient and the clinical and molecular characteristics of the tumor. Systemic treatment of breast cancer includes cytotoxic, hormonal, and immunotherapeutic agents. These medications are used in the adjuvant, neoadjuvant, and metastatic settings. In general, systemic agents are active at the beginning of therapy in 90% of primary breast cancers and 50% of metastases.
However, after a variable period of time, progression occurs. At that point, resistance to therapy is not only common but expected. Herein we review general mechanisms of drug resistance, including multidrug resistance by P-glycoprotein and the multidrug resistance protein family in association with specific agents and their metabolism, emergence of refractory tumors associated with multiple resistance mechanisms, and resistance factors unique to host-tumor-drug interactions.
Important anticancer agents specific to breast cancer are described. Breast cancer is the most common type of cancer and the second leading cause of cancer death in American women. In 2002, 209,995 new cases of breast cancer were registered, and 42,913 patients died of it. In 5 years, the annual prevalence of breast cancer will reach 968,731 cases in the United States. World wide, the problem is just as significant, as breast cancer is the most frequent cancer after nonmelanoma skin cancer, with more than 1 million new cases in 2002 and an expected annual prevalence of more than 4.4 million in 5 years.
Breast cancer treatment currently requires the joint efforts of a multidisciplinary team. The alternatives for treatment are constantly expanding. With the use of new effective chemotherapy, hormone therapy, and biological agents and with information regarding more effective ways to integrate systemic therapy, surgery, and radiation therapy, elaborating an appropriate treatment plan is becoming more complex. Developing such a plan should be based on knowledge of the benefits and potential acute and late toxic effects of each of the therapy regimens. Despite advances in early detection and understanding of the molecular bases of breast cancer biology, approximately 30% of all patients with early-stage breast cancer have recurrent disease, which is metastatic in most cases.
The rates of local and systemic recurrence vary within different series, but in general, distant recurrences are dominant, strengthening the hypothesis that breast cancer is a systemic disease from presentation. On the other hand, local recurrence may signal a posterior systemic relapse in a considerable number of patients within 2 to 5 years after completion of treatment. To offer better treatment with increased efficacy and low toxicity, selecting therapies based on the patient and the clinical and molecular characteristics of the tumor is necessary.
Consideration of these factors should be incorporated in clinical practice after appropriate validation studies are performed to avoid confounding results, making them true prognostic and predictive factors. A prognostic factor is a measurable clinical or biological characteristic associated with a disease-free or overall survival period in the absence of adjuvant therapy, whereas a predictive factor is any measurable characteristic associated with a response or lack of a response to a specific treatment. The main prognostic factors associated with breast cancer are the number of lymph nodes involved, tumor size, histological grade, and hormone receptor status, the first two of which are the basis for the AJCC staging system. The sixth edition of the American Joint Committee on Cancer staging system allows better prediction of prognosis by stage. However, after determining the stage, histological grade, and hormone receptor status, the tumor can behave in an unexpected manner, and the prognosis can vary.
Other prognostic and predictive factors have been studied in an effort to explain this phenomenon, some of which are more relevant than others: HER-2/neu gene amplification and protein expression, expression of other members of the epithelial growth factor receptor family, S phase fraction, DNA ploidy, p53 gene mutations, cyclin E, p27 dysregulation, the presence of tumor cells in the circulation or bone marrow, and perineural and lymphovascular space invasion. Systemic treatment of breast cancer includes the use of cytotoxic, hormonal, and immunotherapeutic agents. All of these agents are used in the adjuvant, neoadjuvant, and metastatic setting. Adjuvant systemic therapy is used in patients after they undergo primary surgical resection of their breast tumor and axillary nodes and who have a significant risk of systemic recurrence. Multiple studies have demonstrated that adjuvant therapy for early-stage breast cancer produces a 23% or greater improvement in disease-free survival and a 15% or greater increase in overall survival rates. Recommendations for the use of adjuvant therapy are based on the individual patient’s risk and the balance between absolute benefit and toxicity. Anthracycline-based regimens are preferred, and the addition of taxanes increases the survival rate in patients with lymph node-positive disease. Adjuvant hormone therapy accounts for almost two thirds of the benefit of adjuvant therapy overall in patients with hormone-receptor-positive breast cancer.
Tamoxifen is considered the standard of care in premenopausal patients. In comparison, the aromatase inhibitor anastrozole has been proven to be superior to tamoxifen in postmenopausal patients with early-stage breast cancer. The adjuvant use of monoclonal antibodies and targeted therapies other than hormone therapy is being studied. Interestingly, some patients have an early recurrence even though they have a tumor with good prognostic features and at a favorable stage. These recurrences have been explained by the existence of certain cellular characteristics at the molecular level that make the tumor cells resistant to therapy. Selection of resistant cell clones of micrometastatic disease has also been proposed as an explanation for these events. Neoadjuvant systemic therapy, which is the standard of care for patients with locally advanced and inflammatory breast cancer, is becoming more popular. It reduces the tumor volume, thus increasing the possibility of breast conservation, and at the same time allows identification of in vivo tumor sensitivity to different agents. The pathological response to neoadj uvant systemic therapy in the breast and lymph nodes correlates with patient survival. Use of this treatment modality produces survival rates identical to those obtained with the standard adjuvant approach. The rates of pathological complete response (pCR) to neoadjuvant systemic therapy vary according to the regimen used, ranging from 6% to 15% with anthracycline-based regimens to almost 30% with the addition of a noncross-resistant agent such as a taxane. In one study, the addition of neoadjuvant trastuzumab in patients with HER-2-positive breast tumors increased the pCR rate to 65%.
Primary hormone therapy has also been used in the neoadjuvant systemic setting. Although the pCR rates with this therapy are low, it significantly increases breast conservation. Currently, neoadjuvant systemic therapy is an important tool in not only assessing tumor response to an agent but also studying the mechanisms of action of the agent and its effects at the cellular level. However, no tumor response is observed in some cases despite the use of appropriate therapy. The tumor continues growing during treatment in such cases, a phenomenon called primary resistance to therapy. The use of palliative systemic therapy for metastatic breast cancer is challenging. Five percent of newly diagnosed cases of breast cancer are metastatic, and 30% of treated patients have a systemic recurrence. Once metastatic disease develops, the possibility of a cure is very limited or practically nonexistent.
In this heterogeneous group of patients, the 5-year survival rate is 20%, and the median survival duration varies from 12 to 24 months. In this setting, breast cancer has multiple clinical presentations, and the therapy for it should be chosen according to the patient’s tumor characteristics, previous treatment, and performance status with the goal of improving survival without compromising quality of life. Treatment resistance is most commonly seen in such patients. They initially may have a response to different agents, but the responses are not sustained, and, in general, the rates of response to subsequent agents are lower.
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- "Planet Leera was ninety-two percent covered by water. Eight percent land in a few scattered islands and one continent. The land battle would take place on the continent. Neither we nor the Yeerks had much capability underwater where the Leerans built their cities. I could see several Leeran cities, usually built within forty or fifty miles of the continent or one of the islands. [...] Most of it was lush and green, primarily jungle. Green like Earth's forests and jungles, but with wide swaths of some brilliant yellow vegetation, too. The northern end of the continent was less fertile, more barren, probably colder."
Leera is the home planet of the Leerans and is ninety-two percent water. The Leerans make their homes underwater in huge lavish cities, but can use the land to lay their eggs as well as to commerce with other races. The oceans of Leera are as clear as air, allowing one to see for miles, and has a huge variety of underwater life. The Leeran continent was destroyed by the Animorphs to thwart the Yeerk invasion of the planet after the Andalites faked a major loss so that the Yeerks would deploy their forces en masse, as Leeran technology had advanced to the point where they no longer needed the continent to survive.
Major Cities[edit | edit source]
Natives[edit | edit source]
Appearances[edit | edit source]
- The Escape (mentioned only; referred to as "Leeran")
- The Decision
- Elfangor's Secret (mentioned)
- The Arrival (mentioned)
- The Test (mentioned)
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Scrabble word: ACROSTIC
In which Scrabble dictionary does ACROSTIC exist?
Definitions of ACROSTIC in dictionaries:
- noun - a puzzle where you fill a square grid with words reading the same down as across
- noun - verse in which certain letters such as the first in each line form a word or message
- A poem or series of lines in which certain letters, usually the first in each line, form a name, motto, or message when read in sequence.
- noun - a poem in which certain letters taken in order form a word or phrase
There are 8 letters in ACROSTIC: A C C I O R S T
Scrabble words that can be created with an extra letter added to ACROSTIC
All anagrams that could be made from letters of word ACROSTIC plus a wildcard: ACROSTIC?
Scrabble words that can be created with letters from word ACROSTIC
8 letter words
7 letter words
6 letter words
5 letter words
4 letter words
3 letter words
2 letter words
Images for ACROSTIC
SCRABBLE is the registered trademark of Hasbro and J.W. Spear & Sons Limited. Our scrabble word finder and scrabble cheat word builder is not associated with the Scrabble brand - we merely provide help for players of the official Scrabble game. All intellectual property rights to the game are owned by respective owners in the U.S.A and Canada and the rest of the world. Anagrammer.com is not affiliated with Scrabble. This site is an educational tool and resource for Scrabble & Words With Friends players.
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Network: Next Steps
- Learn who practices IA?
- What's behind local groups?
- How do IA pros network and collaborate?
- What initiatives are currently running?
- How can I join in the initiatives?
- What's the workflow of the translation initiative for example?
- How do existing Tools and platforms support me in network and collaboration?
Join the IA Institute Network
The Information Architecture Institute is a growing network of active IA specialists. The main goal of our online IA Network is to provide IA professionals worldwide the opportunity to find local IA networks, meet other IA pros, share knowledge and collaborate on projects that move our industry forward.
- Research and Education
- Local Groups
- Translation of Information Architecture
- IA Library
- IA Tools
- Careers Initiative
- Mentoring Initiative
- Volunteer Opportunities
- Meet our Volunteers
- Volunteer Guide - in production
- Initiative Leader Resources - in production
- Local Group Directory
- Local Group FAQ
- Start a Local Group
- Local Group Coordinator Survey
- Find Other Networks
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‘Universal’ Filter Frame
Camfil Farr has introduced a time-saving, universal filter frame for built-up bank HVAC systems. The FastFrame air filter holding frame uses exclusive new Camfil Farr compression tab technology. This innovation allows rapid filter change-out without the hassle of clips and fasteners, or the very common problem of finger cuts caused by the sharp edges on conventional framing systems. FastFrame is constructed of 16-gauge all-welded galvanized steel for long-term corrosion protection. Its unique design allows for convenient, simple filter replacement while preserving the integrity of the filter seal. FastFrame supports HVAC grade air filtration for commercial and industrial buildings, educational facilities, food processing facilities and other applications requiring high quality indoor air. Most importantly, FastFrame is compatible with all 5-Star air filters. Filters that have earned 5-Star designation have been shown to reduce HVAC-related energy use and waste disposal and meet other environmental criteria.
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When sharing Static Variables between a Trigger Context and an Async Operation such as Batch Apex, is it possible for there to be a conflict between the two? For example, say I have a Trigger that does some processing on some data, but if that dataset is too large, I default to a Batch Class that does the same operation, but limits the amount of data within the context. To reduce code overhead, a helper class is created with Static Variables and code that can be referenced from both the Trigger, and the Batch Apex contexts.
Now lets say that the Trigger is executed again immediately after executing Batch Apex. What would be the consequences of the Trigger firing while the Batch Apex job is running?
Is it possible that one of these processes could overwrite data in a Static Variable set by the other, or do they have two separate instances that execute in different threads?
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Battle of Gaines' Mill
The Battle of Gaines' Mill took place on June 27, 1862, the third engagement between Confederate General Robert E. Lee and Union Major General George B. McClellan in the series known as the Seven Days Battles. Also known as the First Battle of Cold Harbor and the Battle of Chickahominy River, Gaines' Mill was the largest battle fought during the Seven Days, taking a toll of more than 14,000 casualties.
Despite the battlefield victory at Beaver Dam Creek on the evening of June 26, 1862, the Union Fifth Corps under Fitz John Porter abandoned the strong position there shortly after midnight. Army commander George B. McClellan, aware of an approaching Confederate column under “Stonewall” Jackson, decided to relocate his base of operations south to the James River. For the next five days his army moved toward the river, fighting a series of rearguard battles in a desperate effort to stave off triumphant Confederates. The Battle of Gaines’s Mill, on June 27, marked the first in that series of battles.
McClellan deployed Porter’s Fifth Corps across an arc of 1 ½ miles, with its back to the swampy Chickahominy River. Porter recognized that his assignment was to hold off the pursuing Confederates while the balance of the Union army began its movement toward the James. With only 27,000 men, Porter had little hope of achieving any great victory, particularly when R. E. Lee brought approximately 60,000 Confederates to the attack. A small force of reenforcements elevated Porter’s strength to 34,000, but Lee enjoyed a great numerical advantage—one of the largest of the war for his army.
Although not entrenched in the usual style, the Union infantry made full use of the terrain and enjoyed fine fields of fire. Abundant artillery helped Porter’s men as the battle grew in scope and violence. The initial Confederate attacks only began at about 2:30, leaving just 5 ½ hours of daylight. For both sides, the ticking clock was of critical importance. If Porter’s men could survive until sunset, darkness would shelter their withdrawal across the river. If Lee could shatter the Union line during the daylight hours, he stood a real chance of fully destroying Porter’s command by driving it into the river.
For most of the afternoon the attacks of R. E. Lee's army sputtered and stalled, with substantial loss. A. P. Hill’s division began the battle, its six brigades colliding with the Federal divisions of George Sykes and George Morell. After one wrong turn, Stonewall Jackson’s wing of the army arrived and extended Lee’s force from the New Cold Harbor intersection eastward to the Old Cold Harbor crossroads. Jackson fed his divisions into the fight, producing a roar of rifle and musket fire that many veterans later remembered as the loudest they heard during the entire Civil War. The defensive power of Porter’s position played an important part in the initial success of his troops. In many places his infantry commanded long fields of fire. To reach the Fifth Corps, most Confederate attackers had to cross long open stretches where they were vulnerable to damage. On other stretches of the line, thick woods and steep slopes aided the defenders by blunting the momentum of the attackers.
Finally, less than an hour before sunset, Lee hurled his combined force into a final attack—the largest single attack he ever launched during the war. His infantry broke Porter's line in at least two places, but insufficient daylight remained to overwhelm the beaten Federal force. The division of William H. C. Whiting, spearheaded by “The Texas Brigade” of John B. Hood, earned accolades for securing the first break in Porter’s line. As the Federal lines crumbled, entire regiments wandered through the smoky woods and fell into captivity at the hands of victorious Confederates. Porter’s position unraveled. The last Confederate attacks aimed at his line of reserve artillery, all that stood between the survivors of the Fifth Corps and the Chickahominy River. Charging against those massed cannon, Lee’s men absorbed shocking casualties while securing many of the trophies. In the afternoon’s action they captured two dozen Union cannon and seized control of the battlefield. But the successes occurred too late in the day to produce the total destruction of Porter’s command. Darkness obscured the battlefield, allowing the remnants of the Fifth Corps to retreat across the river and rejoin their comrades. Engineers blew up the various bridges, leaving Lee in control of the battlefield and of the Richmond and York River Railroad—the line that had supplied the Union army during the preceding six weeks of operations outside Richmond.
Each side achieved its goal on June 27. Porter's men mortgaged lives (6000 total casualties, killed, wounded, and captured) to buy time for the balance of the Union army to make for the James River. The Confederates had their first large, sweeping tactical victory in Virginia since July 1861, but at the steep cost of approximately 9000 men killed and wounded. Today Richmond National Battlefield Park owns only 60 acres of this large battlefield—the largest battle of the entire Seven Days—including the spot where John B. Hood's Confederates achieved the first breakthrough in the Union line. The site is criss-crossed with walking trails and interpretive signs. The historic Watt House, centerpiece to the battlefield, still stands but is not open to the public.
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Diplomas Now, a program that increases support for students that are at risk of dropping out of school, has been shown to increase those students’ odds of graduating by 50%, America’s Promise Alliance reports.
By helping students improve their attendance, behavior, and grades in middle school, research shows that they stand a significantly better chance of graduating from high school on time.
According to a new report, Addressing Early Warning Indicators: Interim Impact Findings from the Investing in Innovation (i3) Evaluation of Diplomas Now, the research organization MDRC found that the Diplomas Now interventions succeeded by reducing the percentage of students that demonstrated early warning signs. The study also found that this kind of progress is possible consistently across multiple districts, even in the nation’s highest poverty middle and high schools.
Attendance, Behavior and Grades
When researcher Bob Balfanz and his colleagues first discovered the predictive power of early warning indicators, Balfanz says it was a “eureka moment†in education.
For sixth or ninth graders exhibiting even one early warning sign, like poor attendance, their odds of graduating from high school fall to just 25%. On the other hand, preventing students from struggling with discipline, attendance, or grades can improve their odds of graduating by 50%.
To better support struggling students, Balfanz co-founded Diplomas Now. The organization—a partnership between the Talent Development Secondary school improvement model from Johns Hopkins University, City Year, and Communities In Schools—received support from the U.S. Department of Education’s Investing in Innovation (i3) Fund.
Diplomas Now works by training teachers to monitor students’ attendance, discipline, and grades. After identifying high-risk students, the team works with City Year and Communities In Schools to pair students with everything from one-on-one mentors, to counseling, or housing services, depending on the student’s needs.
This whole-school approach focuses on increasing the number of caring adults young people can turn to for support. Research on the program has found that it’s having an impact, particularly on reducing chronic absenteeism. That’s important, because keeping kids in school increases their chances of graduating.
Research also found the following:
- Compared to students from other schools, students who got support from Diplomas Now were more likely to say they had a positive relationship with an adult at school who wasn’t a teacher.
- Students at Diplomas Now schools reported being more involved in after school activities that focus on academics.
For more information about Diplomas Now, visit its website.
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Lesson #1: If you feel it is necessary to continually remind people you are the leader, there is a real possibility you are not.
Lesson #2: Be Last.
Lesson #3: Praise Publicly. Correct Privately. Encourage Consistently.
Lesson #4: Listen and allow input. Never let yours be the only voice you hear.
Lesson #5: Leaders move forward and grow by looking back and learning. Leaders who are successful consistently evaluate past decisions to ensure better future decisions.
Lesson #6: Followership is a prerequisite to leadership. If you have a difficult time following you will have an even more difficult time leading.
Lesson #7: Be patient. There are times when no action is the best action.
Lesson #8: It is okay to not be the smartest person in the room.
Lesson #9: Leaders are well prepared and think of needs in advance.
Lesson #10: Lead by example.
Lead by example. It is likely the most important leadership principle. Leadership expert John Maxwell said it this way, “A leader is one who knows the way, goes the way, and shows the way.” Why is this principle so important? People will follow someone whom they believe is worthy of being followed. The leader of an organization must set the standard and be a model for others. If he/she wants the people to be compassionate, compassion must be genuinely demonstrated by the leader. If he/she wants the people to be above reproach and steer clear of the gray areas of life, leaders will do the same before their people. It impossible to ask someone to do something you cannot, or are not willing to do yourself. To do so is hypocritical and destroys organizational cohesion and separates the leader from the organization.
Leadership means being in front. Think back to the movies that portrayed reenactments of major battles from the Civil War. As the massive opposing armies stood facing one another, there was a common element – a general leading the charge. This motivated the soldiers in the ranks. They knew their leader was willing to endure what they were being asked to endure. There was a confidence their leader was willing to risk being wounded or even killed, the same thing being asked of them. John Maxwell wrote, “”Anyone can steer the ship, but it takes a leader to chart the course. Leaders who are good navigators are capable of taking their people just about anywhere.”
If a leader wants his/her people to run into the storm for the good of the organization, they had better be close to the front so others will follow. The behaviors that leaders want the organization to adopt must first reside within the leader. It doesn’t mean a leader must be the best at everything. It does mean he/she must be willing to move first and take the same risks as everyone else. This cannot be done from the safety of the bunker.
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- January 24, 2019
9:00 am - 5:00 pm
- March 7, 2019
9:00 am - 5:00 pm
- March 21, 2019
9:00 am - 5:00 pm
About this Course
Microsoft Excel 2016 is the most widely accepted spreadsheet tool available today. Students taking the Basic Excel course will familiarize students with spreadsheet terminology and the fundamental concepts of Microsoft Excel 2016, including identifying Excel window components, navigating worksheets, and downloading templates. In addition, students will learn the basics of entering and editing text, values, and formulas, and how to save workbooks in the native Excel format, as well as in other formats. They will learn how to move and copy data and formulas, how to determine absolute and relative references, and how to work with ranges, rows, and columns. Students will also learn how to use simple functions, and how to easily apply formatting techniques to worksheet data. They will create and modify charts, and work with graphics. Finally, they will review workbooks for spelling errors, modify page setup, and print worksheets.
Students taking this course should be comfortable using a personal computer and Microsoft Windows XP, Windows Vista, or preferably Windows 7. They should have little or no experience using Microsoft Excel or any other spreadsheet program. Students will get the most out of this course if their goal is to become proficient in using Microsoft Excel to create basic worksheets and charts for data tracking and reporting.
At Course Completion
After completing this course, students will know how to:
- Recognize spreadsheet terminology; start Microsoft Excel and identify the components of the Excel interface; create a blank workbook; navigate worksheets; and open a downloaded template.
- Enter and edit text and values; use AutoFill; enter formulas and examine the order of operations; save and update a workbook; and save a workbook in different file formats.
- Move and copy data; use the Office Clipboard; move and copy formulas; use AutoFill to copy formulas; use Paste Link; view formulas; work with relative and absolute cell references; and insert and delete ranges, rows, and columns.
- Use the SUM function, AutoSum, and the AVERAGE, MIN, MAX, COUNT, and COUNTA functions to perform calculations in a worksheet.
- Format text, cells, rows, and columns; merge cells; apply color and borders; format numbers; create conditional formats; us the Format Painter; and use Find and Replace to update the formatting for specific content.
- Create, format, modify and print charts based on worksheet data; working with various chart elements; and apply chart types and chat styles.
Insert and modify a picture; represent data graphically within cells by applying three forms of conditional formatting (data bars, color scales and icon sets); and insert and modify SmartArt graphics.
- Check spelling; find and replace text and data; preview and print a worksheet; set page orientation and margins; create and format headers and footers; and print gridlines.
- Topic A: Spreadsheet terminology
- Topic B: The Excel environment
- Topic C: Navigating a worksheet
- Topic D: Using a template
Unit 2: Entering and editing data
- Topic A: Entering and editing text and values
- Topic B: Entering and editing formulas
- Topic C: Saving and updating workbooks
Unit 3: Modifying a worksheet
- Topic A: Moving and copying data
- Topic B: Moving, copying, and viewing formulas
- Topic C: Absolute and relative references
- Topic D: Inserting and deleting ranges, rows, and columns
Unit 4: Functions
- Topic A: Entering functions
- Topic B: AutoSum
- Topic C: Other common functions
Unit 5: Formatting
- Topic A: Text formatting
- Topic B: Row and column formatting
- Topic C: Number formatting
- Topic D: Conditional formatting
- Topic E: Additional formatting options
Unit 6: Charts
- Topic A: Chart basics
- Topic B: Formatting charts
Unit 7: Graphics
- Topic A: Working with pictures
- Topic B: Conditional formatting with graphics
- Topic C: SmartArt graphics
Unit 8: Printing
- Topic A: Preparing to print
- Topic B: Page Setup options
- Topic C: Printing worksheets
Students taking this course should be familiar with personal computers and the use of a keyboard and a mouse.
Venue: LIVE Online
Live Online Training
Get the same training you expect in the classroom without leaving your office or home. These are NOT recorded classes. They are LIVE sessions with an expert instructor. We use the latest in video conferencing technologies and audio so you can confidently participate in any class just like being right there in person. We guarantee the effectiveness of our online training delivery approach that we will give you your money back if you are not totally satisfied. Ask us for a demo.
Online class requirements:
- Moderate to fast Internet
- Phone, or Speakers or headset (required in order to hear the instructor/moderator). You can use Voice Over IP (VoIP) or you can dial-in from a regular phone. Whether you decide to use VoIP or a phone, for convenience, we recommend a hands free headset.
- Training software must be installed on your computer (30 trial versions are acceptable)
- RECOMMENDED: Dual Monitors or computers. For optimal online learning experience, we recommend participants have dual monitors or dual computers. Your online classroom credentials allow you to login multiple times from multiple computers. Participants should use one monitor or computer to view instructor/moderator shared screen and another monitor/computer to work in the software.
What happens when you enroll in an online class
When you register for an online class, you will receive a welcome email followed by login access to the Citrix GoToTraining virtual classroom. A workbook (printed copy or eBook) will be sent to you prior to the start of class.
Online Training Advantages
Convenience: You don’t have to travel and can attend from your home, office or anywhere with an internet connection. Our online classes are conducted using GoToTraining, a more robust version of the popular GoToMeeting screen sharing and conferencing platform. To accommodate multiple time zones, courses are typically scheduled from 10am – 5pm Eastern with a one-hour lunch break at 12:30 – 1:30 pm Eastern and a 10-minute break in the morning and afternoon. When conducting custom online course for your group, class times can be modified to accommodate your timezone.
Interactive Learning: Our online training is fully interactive. You can speak and chat with the instructor and classmates at any time. Various interactive techniques are used in every class. Our small class sizes (typically 4 – 8 students), allow our instructors to focus on individual performance and issues and to work closely with you to meet your unique needs. Classes are designed to be a hands-on learning experience, providing opportunities for you to try your new skills while the instructor is available for review, questions, and feedback. You have the option to give the instructor permission to view your computer to provide one-on-one assistance when needed.
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ML for Security Applications – KeyBridge
Our mission is increasing the security posture of both Oracle cloud customers and the Oracle's teams operating the cloud infrastructure.
Our research vision is of automated detection and mitigation of security events, allowing security experts to scale their efforts to large infrastructures such as the cloud. In the process, we working on data preparation and data exploration, statistical analysis and anomaly detection, alert generation and presentation of results.
Our analytics toolbelt includes techniques from data exploration, statistical analysis and deep learning. Working with application logs means that representation learning, machine learning for code and embedding techniques are fundamental research topics for us. So is explainable machine learning. For the scalable processing of the high volumes of logs we get, we are developing a machine learning pipeline framework that operates on top of various state-of-the-art libraries and follows a modular design.
Our team is a motley crew of researchers with diverse backgrounds in data analytics, machine learning, network and system design, and software development. We share a passion to develop reliable, innovative solutions to security problems with practical relevance. We place high value on a collaboration spirit, an inquisitive mindset and a drive to deliver high quality.
If you share our interests and values, we would be happy to welcome you in the family. Some ideas of directions in which an internship can go:
- Explorative: investigation of what machine learning techniques are applicable to a particular security problem.
- Research in ML: development of machine learning solutions for log encoding, source code generation, information retrieval, anomaly detection, building behavior profiles.
- Research in HCI: investigation of approaches towards data presentation for operational teams.
- Software development: development of scalable machine learning pipelines
Point of Contact
To apply, please send an email with the required information (see How to Apply above) to [email protected].
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Build Better Python Web Apps With Your Data
Anvil is free to use. Start building now!
Prefer text to video? Read on to learn how to use Data Files
Python is great for working with data. With Anvil you can build web apps to interact with datasets and machine-learning models entirely in Python.
In this article, I’ll show you how to use Anvil’s Data Files service to attach static data to your web app. We’re going to upload a CSV dataset and plot the data from it using Pandas. Then, we’ll display the plot online for everyone to see - all in Python.
Uploading our CSV
We start by uploading our dataset into our app’s Data Files service. I’m using some example data of Apple’s stock price over time which you can download here:
Plotting our data
@anvil.server.callable def plot_data(): # Read the CSV file into a DataFrame using the Data Files path df = pd.read_csv(data_files['dataset.csv'])
We’ll use Plotly’s Pandas backend to plot our dataset as a line graph and return that figure from our server function.
@anvil.server.callable def plot_data(): # Read the CSV file into a DataFrame using the Data Files path df = pd.read_csv(data_files['dataset.csv']) # Then plot the graph using the Plotly backend df = df.set_index('Date') fig = df.plot.line(title="APPL Stock Price") return fig
Building our front-end
def __init__(self, **properties): # Set Form properties and Data Bindings. self.init_components(**properties) # Any code you write here will run when the form opens. self.plot_1.figure = anvil.server.call('plot_data')
Running our app
When we run the app, it will load the dataset and plot it with Pandas.
You can use Anvil’s Data Files to load and run machine learning models, complicated datasets, and more. To find out more about Anvil and using Data Files, check out the links below.
Why not have a play with the app builder? It’s free! Click here to get started:
Get Started with Anvil
Nothing but Python required!
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Christian Character - Likeness to Christ
Lewis C. Bond, Tavistock
The art of sculpture is rediscovered by every child who plays with plasticine. Its appeal probably lies, deeper than that of painting or drawing because by it we can represent things as they really are, not on the flat surface of paper or canvas, but in the actual forms they have in space. Almost certainly the first sculptors were imitators, making copies of things in nature; later came the idea of decorative sculpture with the carving of bone-handles of weapons, the trunks of trees, the walls of caves. More-advanced examples of the art were adornments of tombs and dwellings, monuments of people and events, and ornaments for parks and gardens. Many kinds of material have been used but the most common have been clay and wax, which can be shaped without using cutting-tools; wood, ivory, and stone, which must be cut; and bronze which when hot can be moulded to the shape of a pattern of clay or similar substance.
It is no uncommon sight to see a stone-carver at work, for wherever we five in this country we can find a monumental mason not far away. This method of carving is very simple, but not easy. The greatest sculptors who have worked with hard materials have used the same basic tools as the ordinary stone-carver. But have you wondered how statues in bronze are made?
Bronze Statues. The most primitive method of making them, and the one most used throughout the centuries, is known as the “cire perdue,” or “lost wax,” process. First of all the form of the statue (or other object to be produced) is made in plaster and thoroughly dried. This is called the “core,” and upon it the artist places a layer of wax which he shapes with his tools until it looks exactly as he intends the finished statue to appear. Metal rods protrude from the core through the wax and a little beyond. When the artist is satisfied with the wax figure, an outer covering is applied over the wax to form the “mould.” This is applied as a liquid, formed of clay and plaster sufficiently thin to find its way into every detail of the wax model. Several coatings of the liquid are applied and allowed to harden. The result is a solid outer casing and a solid inner core, held together by the metal rods, with the artist’s wax model between. The whole is then heated until the wax melts and runs out; then molten bronze is poured in and occupies every detail which the wax had filled. When cool, the outer casing is carefully broken away, the core is raked out as far as possible, the projecting rods are removed, and the statue which was modelled in wax appears in bronze. The artist anxiously examines the finished casting, because if anything has gone wrong in the process he must start all over again; his model on which he worked for so many hours is now “lost wax.” There are other, more modern, methods which are not so heart-rending for the patient sculptor!
This method of casting was probably used for making the most famous of all bronze statues, the largest known in antiquity.
The Colossus of Rhodes. This enormous figure, at the entrance of Rhodes Harbour, was the only one of the Seven Wonders which stood on an island. Rhodes Island lies in the eastern part of the Mediterranean, between Crete and the coast of Asia Minor. It was besieged in the 4th century B.C., and the heroic resistance of the islanders earned for them great renown, which was celebrated by the construction of the Colossus from the spoils left by the attackers. At the height of its prosperity the city of Rhodes was one of the finest in the world. It was a mighty fortress encircled by triple walls and moats, set against the imposing background of the mountainous island. Over 3,000 statues graced the gardens and buildings of the city. The Colossus was designed by the sculptor to represent Apollo, Greek god of the sun. It was more than 100 feet high, and its thumbs were thicker than the span of a man’s hand. A flaming beacon, held in one of its hands, guided ships entering the harbour. According to a popular tradition its feet rested on two piers which formed the mouth of the harbour, and ships passed between its legs. Shakespeare had this in mind when he wrote of Julius Caesar:—
“Why, man, he doth bestride the narrow world Like a Colossus, and we petty men Walk under his huge legs . . . .” (Cassius to Brutus). This giant figure took 12 years to build, and when it was completed in B.C. 280 it had cost 300 talents, or something like £100,000. After only 56 years an earthquake brought it crashing down, and it lay where it had fallen for nearly nine centuries until the Island of Rhodes was conquered by the Saracens in 656 A.D. They sold the remains as scrap metal to a man who used 900 camels to carry the pieces away.
The Character of Christ. Historians are unable to prove whether the Colossus stood at one side of the harbour or straddled the entrance, but it is agreed that it dominated the port. In like manner men have reasoned and debated about the Person of Christ, but, far above the level of all disputes, that Figure towers to the throne of God. Yet He is not remote from us, the subject of sublimely-worded creeds. There is a danger that we may think of the Incarnation, the Atonement, and the Resurrection, as merely things to be believed, and lose the full, warm reality of the character of the Living Christ. It was this that inspired John Oxenham to write:—
“Not what, but Whom, I do believe,
That in my darkest hour of need,
Hath comfort that no mortal creed To mortal man may give:
Not what, but Whom!
For Christ is more than all the creeds,
And His full life of gentle deeds Shall all the creeds outlive.”
Above all the figures that move across the pages of history, He is an age-long challenge to the moral and spiritual lives of all subsequent generations of mankind. But it is not enough that, looking back, we perceive Christ as the centre of history, the key to the Bible, the secret of the purposes of God; each one of us must fall at His feet, accept His forgiveness of our sins, and own Him as Lord of our lives.
The Christian Character.1 Man was first made in the image of God, but that original form was marred by sin. Redemption by Christ means that the spoilt form is “renewed . . . after the image of Him that created him” (Col. 3. 10). Wax in the hand of a sculptor is a vivid example of complete mastery over material, and illustrates how we should be in the hand of Christ. As the years pass on, the impressionable wax of our characters is shaped by the various forces to which we submit. Life seems singularly adapted to the moulding of character. For all other purposes, for the securing of fortune, or health, or happiness, life is not suited. The changes and uncertainty that make these ends elusive, are the very conditions that form character. In this discipline our high aim should be increasing conformity to the image of Christ, “unto the measure of the stature of the fulness of Christ” (Eph. 4. 13), like the true Church of which all true Christians are members “not having spot, or wrinkle, or any such thing; but . . . holy and without blemish” (Eph. 5. 27). The character moulded in the wax of our earthly selves will determine the form of the enduring bronze—the image we shall bear in the life to come. In the transition our bodies will be “fashioned like unto His glorious body” (Phil. 3. 21), but our spirits will never lose the impress received here and now.
1. For the germ of this paragraph the writer is indebted to The Fact of Christ by P. Carnegie Simpson.
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KDLTH056 - BRACELET STALAGMIT
Massive interconnected 5 hexagonal unit bracelet feauturing an abstract texture and big stones.
- Sterling silver 925% with oxidized finish.
- Soft nappa leather
- Completely handmade and higly detailed artwork.
- Any variation in color or detailing is a result of the handcrafted nature of this item and makes each piece unique.
- Stones in combination with the leather color
For a customized product, select the minimum details and add the item to cart. Before checkout, you'll write a note about your preferences and requirements.
MADE IN BALI
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In his book, “Aliens in Space” Major Donald Keyhoe, retired, pointed out that an alarming number of US military and civilian aircraft were reported missing, crashed, or lost while in pursuit of UFO’s. Keyhoe, whose articles pioneered coverage on flying saucers from 1950 on, also began to detect the growing government cover-up that quickly resulted on the issue once it was clear that the phenomenon could not be contained by the US military.
Although many UFO sightings had taken place from 1947 on as corroborated by recent FBI file releases, the problem of incursions into US air space increased to critical levels by 1949 and climaxed in 1952. When UFO’s were chased by US F-94C fighter jets over White House air space over several weeks, it was clear that something was wrong and our air defenses were not up to the task of defending our skies. Why? The Russians clearly lacked the capability, and they were our most prominent competitors as global super power, but were simply incapable of posing any threat of penetrating US air space. There was only one conclusion to draw.
Keyhoe pointed to the incredible volume of UFO’s witnessed , attempted intercepts, radar visual reports, and the inescapable conclusion of related aircraft losses. An unusually high incidence of losses occurred with veteran aviators who had logged hundreds or thousands of hours of combat experience. This made the likelihood of such losses that more uncanny. The disproportionate number of new state of the art jet aircraft lost or crashed indicated a very ominous conclusion that Donald Keyhoe openly voiced even though the Pentagon had been understandably guarded about publicly making any correlations over incidents.
Beginning with anti aircraft batteries trying to bring down a UFO over Los Angeles in 1942, the aerial harassment of a P-51 fighter over San Antonio airfield in 1949, and the attempted shoot down of a UFO reported by an F-86 pilot of a disk shaped craft by Captain Edward Ruppelt, Director of Project Blue Book that occurred in 1950, something clearly was afoot. The growing potential for aerial confrontations was becoming more and more contentious between human pilots and their extraterrestrial counterparts.
Motives for air to air engagements between UFO’s and aircraft of the US armed services were not just over issues of identification or air defense, but the race for superior armament between the Soviet Union and America. Each of the super powers were jockeying for position over nuclear arms, rocketry, and other highly classified projects. According to Keyhoe, in his interview with Navy fighter pilots, the aviators admitted that their superiors had urged them to ram UFO’s if they could safely eject. Why? Under pressure to attain advanced technical superiority before the Russians could recover it, US military leaders were getting desperate…..Full Article Source
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Gentlemen, if trips to the restroom require sudden dashes or are marked by difficulty urinating, your prostate may be enlarged. You’re not alone — the Urology Care Foundation estimates that 50 percent of men in their 50s have an enlarged prostate. The prostate is the gland that produces the fluid that carries sperm. It grows larger with age. An enlarged prostate, or benign prostatic hyperplasia (BPH), can block the urethra from transporting urine from the bladder and out of the penis.
Keep reading to learn about traditional treatments for BPH.
Don’t resign yourself to living with BPH. Addressing your symptoms now can help avoid problems later. Untreated BPH may lead to urinary tract infections, acute urinary retention (you can’t go at all), and kidney and bladder stones. In severe cases it can lead to kidney damage.
Treatment options include medications and surgery. You and your doctor will consider several factors when you evaluate these choices. These factors include:
- how much your symptoms interfere with your life
- the size of your prostate
- your age
- overall health
- any other medical conditions
This class of medications works by relaxing the bladder neck muscles and the muscle fibers in the prostate. The muscle relaxation makes it easier to urinate. You can expect an increase in urine flow and a less frequent need to urinate within a day or two if you take an alpha blocker for BPH. Alpha blockers include:
- alfuzosin (Uroxatral)
- doxazosin (Cardura)
- silodosin (Rapaflo)
- tamsulosin (Flomax)
- terazosin (Hytrin)
This type of medication reduces the size of the prostate gland by blocking hormones that spur the growth of your prostate gland. Dutasteride (Avodart) and finasteride (Proscar) are two types of 5-alpha reductase inhibitors. You’ll generally have to wait three to six months for symptom relief with 5-alpha reductase inhibitors.
Taking a combination of an alpha blocker and a 5-alpha reductase inhibitor provides greater symptom relief than taking either one of these drugs alone, according to an article in Current Drug Targets. Combination therapy is often recommended when an alpha blocker or 5-alpha reductase inhibitor aren’t working on their own. Common combinations that doctors prescribe are finasteride and doxazosin or dutasteride and tamsulosin (Jalyn). The dutasteride and tamsulosin combination comes as two drugs combined into a single tablet.
There are minimally invasive surgery options when drug therapy isn’t enough to relieve BPH symptoms. These procedures include transurethral microwave thermotherapy (TUMT). Microwaves destroy prostate tissue with heat during this outpatient procedure.
TUMT will not cure BPH. The procedure does cut down urinary frequency, makes it easier to urinate, and reduces weak flow. It doesn’t solve the problem of incomplete emptying of the bladder.
TUNA stands for transurethral needle ablation. High-frequency radio waves, delivered through twin needles, burn a specific region of the prostate in this procedure. TUNA results in better urine flow and relieves BPH symptoms with fewer complications than invasive surgery.
This outpatient procedure can cause a burning sensation. The sensation can be managed by using an anesthetic to block the nerves in and around the prostate.
Hot water is delivered through a catheter to a treatment balloon that sits in the center of the prostate in water-induced thermotherapy. This computer-controlled procedure heats a defined area of the prostate while neighboring tissues are protected. The heat destroys the problematic tissue. The tissue is then either excreted through urine or reabsorbed in the body.
Invasive surgery for BPH includes transurethral surgery, which doesn’t require open surgery or an external incision. According to the National Institutes of Health, transurethral resection of the prostate is the first choice of surgeries for BPH. The surgeon removes prostate tissue obstructing the urethra using a resectoscope inserted through the penis during TURP.
Another method is transurethral incision of the prostate (TUIP). During TUIP, the surgeon makes incisions in the neck of the bladder and in the prostate. This serves to widen the urethra and increase urine flow.
Laser surgery for BPH involves inserting a scope through the penis tip into the urethra. A laser passed through the scope removes prostate tissue by ablation (melting) or enucleation (cutting). The laser melts excess prostate tissue in photoselective vaporization of the prostate (PVP).
Holmium laser ablation of the prostate (HoLAP) is similar, but a different type of laser is used. The surgeon uses two instruments for Holmium laser enucleation of the prostate (HoLEP): a laser to cut and remove excess tissue and a morcellator to slice extra tissue into small segments that are removed.
Open surgery may be required in complicated cases of a very enlarged prostate, bladder damage, or other problems. In open simple prostatectomy, the surgeon makes an incision below the navel or several small incisions in the abdomen via laparoscopy. Unlike prostatectomy for prostate cancer when the entire prostate gland is removed, in open simple prostatectomy the surgeon removes only the portion of the prostate blocking urine flow.
Not all men with BPH need medication or surgery. These steps may help you manage mild symptoms:
- Do pelvic-strengthening exercises.
- Stay active.
- Decrease alcohol and caffeine intake.
- Space out how much you drink rather than drinking a lot at once.
- Urinate when the urge strikes — don’t wait.
- Avoid decongestants and antihistamines.
Talk with your doctor about the treatment approach that best suits your needs.
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Identification of carbon dioxide receptors in insects may help fight infectious diseaseDecember 13, 2006 in /
Mosquitoes don’t mind morning breath. They use the carbon dioxide people exhale as a way to identify a potential food source. But when they bite, they can pass on a number of dangerous infectious diseases, such as malaria, yellow fever, and West Nile encephalitis. Now, reporting in today’s advance online publication in Nature, Leslie Vosshall’s laboratory at Rockefeller University has identified the two molecular receptors in fruit flies that help these insects detect carbon dioxide.
The findings could prove to be important against the fight against global infectious disease.
"Insects are especially sensitive to carbon dioxide, using it to track food sources and assess their surrounding environment," says Vosshall, Chemers Family Associate Professor and head of the Laboratory of Neurogenetics and Behavior at Rockefeller. "The neurons in insects that respond to carbon dioxide were already known, but the molecular mechanism by which these neurons sense this gas was a mystery."
One protein, called Gr21a, was previously known to be expressed in the carbon dioxide responsive neurons, which are in the antennae of the fruit fly. Since in the fly, chemosensory receptors usually work together as a pair of unrelated proteins, Walton Jones, a former biomedical fellow and first author of the paper, began by looking for other members of the gustatory receptor family, and found that the Gr63a protein was always co-expressed with Gr21a, both in the larva and in the adult fly.
"I went on to look at the malaria mosquito and found two homologues of the fly genes, GPRGR22 and GPRGR24. They are also co-expressed in the mosquito’s maxillary palp, the appendage mosquitoes use to sense carbon dioxide," says Jones.
Using genetic manipulation, Jones was able to show that both Gr21a and Gr63a are all that is needed for a fly neuron to sense carbon dioxide. He took neurons that did not normally respond to carbon dioxide and found that only if he expressed both Gr21a and Gr63a together, those neurons now became excited by the gas. He also showed that when Gr63a is mutated, the mutant flies no longer respond to the high levels of carbon dioxide that wild type flies avoid.
These molecules are the first membrane-associated proteins that have been shown to sense a gas. All previously described gas sensors have been cytoplasmic. "Though we don’t know what other proteins might be involved in the signaling pathway, the identification of the carbon dioxide receptor provides a potential target for the design of inhibitors that would act as an insect repellent, "says Vosshall. "These inhibitors would help fight global infectious disease by reducing the attraction of blood-feeding insects to humans."
Source: Rockefeller University
"Identification of carbon dioxide receptors in insects may help fight infectious disease" December 13, 2006 http://phys.org/news/2006-12-identification-carbon-dioxide-receptors-insects.html
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A Plan to Ensure a Green, Sustainable Future for Peekskill
Peekskill’s greatest asset is its natural beauty and resources, and we need to take aggressive steps now as a city to safeguard our environment and collective health. The climate change crisis is here, and not enough is being done to combat it. It is absolutely vital to act now.
We worked closely on this platform with environmental experts and advocates who have been working on these issues in our community for years. We are proud to put environmental protections, sustainability and ensuring that our city grows in a green and healthy way at the center of our platform for Mayor & Council. Below is our official environmental platform.
Improve public health and quality of life to offset local impacts of climate change.
- Protect and expand green space, and combat the heat island effect, via:
- Passing a city-wide tree ordinance
- Restoring street trees throughout the city and creating a tree inventory
- Creating pocket parks and new green space where possible
- Reduce the number of vehicles on our streets and emissions in our air, by:
- Improving pedestrian accessibility
- Seeking grants for sidewalk repairs
- Creating a network of bike lanes and bike parking
- Calming traffic through street design to create a multimodal city
- Working with the state to reduce truck traffic along Main Street
- Clean up our streets, by:
- Enforcing litter ordinance that requires property owners — especially landlords — to keep their own property free of litter. First violation would result in a written warning, the second in a summons/fine.
- Working with landlords to improve tenant trash collection via discrete larger trash receptacles in the downtown area. This would also include recycling, and potentially expand to composting.
- Start a community discussion around phasing out Wheelabrator by incentivizing programs that dramatically reduce waste, starting with a food scraps program.
Ensure that Peekskill’s growth is environmentally sustainable.
- Create a new Master Plan to replace the current 1968 version to ensure our zoning and codes meet the requirements of the CLCPA, the anticipated impacts of global climate change, and foster sustainable, healthy growth, with a focus on smart growth and green building requirements.
- Seek Federal funding that is available to municipalities for infrastructure upgrades.
- Initiate a city-wide infrastructure audit, including water, sewer, roads/sidewalks, electric grid, and city buildings and property to ensure it meets future needs and the requirements of the Climate Leadership and Community Protection Act.
Prioritize sustainability across all city departments and policies.
- Hire a part time city Sustainability Coordinator to oversee all aspects and planning around the city’s sustainability efforts, as part of the effort to reach thresholds and unlock additional funding streams.
- Establish a Sustainability Task Force of city employees, residents and elected officials to work with the Sustainability Coordinator to achieve the city’s sustainability and environmental goals. This task force will draw on existing resources, including the Conservation Advisory Council, ICLEI – Local Governments for Sustainability, Sustainable Westchester and New York Power Authority.
- Achieve Climate Smart Community status, making the city eligible for State and Federal funding streams to reduce the burdens on taxpayers.
Standardize environmental impact as a measure for smart development.
- Adopt NY Stretch Energy Code that requires all new buildings to be 10–12% more efficient than the NYS base energy code (depending on climate zone and building type) to significantly reduce energy consumption, operating costs, utility costs and greenhouse gas emissions.
- Give priority permit review to all new and renovated buildings that achieve LEED certification and require new buildings to submit a LEED Checklist.
- Streamline permit process for local community-based renewable energy projects.
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On August 13, 2016, we published an image and video showing meteors streaking across the night sky. The perspective is a new one. Instead of looking up from the ground, the camera recorded the action from the vantage point of the International Space Station (ISS). In case you missed it, you can see the image and read the full story here. The video is reposted below.
[youtube 5j8i17-lDCI 666 375]
At 6 and 16 seconds into the video, bright meteors dash across the sky over Pakistan. The video was acquired a few days before the annual Perseid meteor shower reached its peak. But as one reader pointed out to us via email, only one of these meteors can be associated with the shower. The reason? The view from orbit shows them travelling in different directions.
Meteors within a shower all travel in roughly the same direction and speed. The map below illustrates that point, showing the ground tracks and speed of all Perseids observed in the United States in July and August 2016 by the ground-based all sky camera network. The map shows all Perseids within range of a camera; blank areas are outside the range of a camera.
“Note how their paths all move from top right to bottom left,” said Bill Cooke with NASA’s Meteoroid Environments Office. “This is what would be seen from the ISS or another space platform.”
Showers look vastly different to a person standing on the ground looking up at a wide view of the night sky. From this perspective, meteors associated with a shower can appear to radiate outward from a central point called the “radiant.” The central point in the night sky is linked to the shower’s name; the Perseids, for example, appear to stem from the area of sky near the constellation Perseus.
The phenomenon, however, is an illusion of perspective. The illusion has been compared to flakes that appear to radiate outward as you drive through a snowstorm, or parallel train tracks that appear to converge in the distance.
“The perspective from orbit is somewhat different, because you are not looking at the entire sky, just a small fraction of the total area,” Cooke said. “In this case, meteors from a particular shower will be all moving the same direction.”
So which meteors viewed from orbit are belong to a particular shower, and which are “sporadic meteors?” That’s the type of information that will ultimately be gleaned from the diffraction grating on the space station’s Meteor camera. It will collect spectroscopy data that can tell scientists about a meteor’s composition, which can ultimately be related back to the parent body—comet Swift-Tuttle, in the case of the Perseids.
Halos have a long and rich history in religious art, usually symbolizing the presence of someone or something divine. In the physical sciences, the beautiful displays of light are a sign of something more ordinary—the presence of hexagonal, plate-shaped ice crystals that make up cirrus clouds. As gravity pulls the ice crystals downward, their faces become horizontal with the ground and they function as dispersive prisms, breaking sunlight into separate colors and leaving rainbow-like ice crystal halos in the sky.
Sundogs are one of the most common types of ice halo. They occur when light rays enter the side of an ice crystal and leave through another side inclined about 60 degrees to the first. (See Atmospheric Optics for a good diagram that illustrates the process.) Sundogs are most easily seen when the Sun is low in the sky; the halos occurring on either side of it at about 22 degrees. The part of a sundog closest to the Sun always forms a layer of red, while greens and blues form beyond that. Sundogs are visible all over the world and at any time of year, regardless of the temperature at the surface. For more imagery of sundogs and other optical phenomena (such as sun pillars, circumhorizonatal arcs, and parhelic circles), it’s worth checking out the archives of Earth Science Picture of the Day.
In the last few weeks, we’ve had a number of readers send us their photographs of sundogs. The image above was taken by Nina Garcia Jones; the image below comes from Isa DeSil. Thanks for sending the photos our way. To the rest of our readers: keep your interesting photos of atmospheric, meteorological, or geological phenomena coming. We’ll occasionally post the best images on this blog, and we’ll do what we can to help explain the science behind them.
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Studio Kars + Boom
Studio Kars + Boom is a design studio consisting of Kevin Kars and Cynthia Boom. This design duo creates illustrations that can be read like infographics. With their illustrations they tell stories.
With its colorful designs Studio Kars + Boom aims to escape from reality. They create new worlds in which they would like to wake up every day. They want to make you laugh, stand still, look, amaze and discover. In their designs they are looking for the geometry in landscapes, shapes and patterns in cities, with which they create a new interplay of lines.
They do this in their free work and in their commissioned work, such as infographics, floor plans and product designs.
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As we’ve adapted to life in the pandemic, many of us have become hyperaware of germs and have taken our cleaning rituals up a notch.
A new company is trying to convince consumers to shell out $200 on a spray bottle that it says can transform regular tap water into aqueous ozone, which can kill a range of household bacteria, viruses, and fungal spores.
Jonathan Nussbaum launched O3WaterWorks last year, before the coronavirus arrived and there was a global rush on cleaning supplies. His goal was to create a more sustainable alternative to cleaning products on the market, which largely come in single-use plastic bottles and contain toxic chemicals.
Ozonated water is used as a cleaning agent in many commercial contexts. For instance, Dasani uses it to purify bottled water, and it is commonly used to sanitize farms. So how exactly does it work? With O3WaterWorks, its spray bottle takes tap water, sends it through a patented diamond electrolytic cell and converts the oxygen in the water into liquid ozone. The ozone reacts with microbes, breaking down their cell walls, which kills them. “We’re killing these organisms at a molecular level, by oxidizing them,” says Dr. Xu Simon, principal microbiologist at Enozo, which partnered with Nussbaum on the product. But because ozone in water has a short half life, it converts back into oxygen within 30 minutes, without leaving any residue.
Enozo has been working on using ozone as a cleaning solution for years. It filed the first patent for a handheld ozone spray bottle two decades ago; that product is now used to clean commercial buildings, like restaurants and hotels. Nussbaum, who previously founded home decor brand Greentouch Home, reached out to Enozo because he wanted to create a similar product for home use. “Because it’s nontoxic, there are so many more use cases for this spray than a regular cleaner,” he says. “You can use it on toothbrushes, or on your kid’s toys, without working about chemicals.”
To use the spray bottle, you first need to charge it, then fill the 10-oz. reservoir with room temperature tap water. The bottle’s battery is designed to be effective for up to 500 charges, or 600 reservoir fills, which should last several years.
In third party lab tests paid for by O3WaterWorks, the spray was shown to kill household microorganisms, like E. coli. Salmonella, and Staph. Right now, many labs can’t test products on SARS-CoV-2, the virus that causes COVID-19, since it is considered too dangerous, so a common practice used by virologists is to test on a similar coronavirus strain called 229e. The tests found that it killed 99.9% of this surrogate virus within 30 seconds.
Dr. Alvin Tran, a professor at the University of New Haven who specializes in public health, is intrigued by the product, particularly since it says it can clean things like fruit and toothbrushes. But he notes that using ozonated water in the home is still a relatively new concept. “I would like to see more research and data about a device like this before I recommend it as a public health intervention,” he says. Simple, inexpensive techniques, like handwashing with regular soap, and cleaning surfaces with diluted bleach, have been widely studied and shown to be effective in the midst of health crises. “It’s important for people to know they don’t need expensive products to stay safe,” he says.
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I'm reminded of the "helplessness" phenomenon shown by a rat when beaten by another rat. The loser often goes limp and elevates his throat, the victor holds the pose and relaxes the attack. I suspect Wilson or Dawkins would (and perhaps has) cite this as an adaptive mechanism that allows the weaker to survive and reproduce.
Playing dead, or a rabbit's freeze can pay off if a predators visual systems are gated by motion, especially rapid motion. If this relatively immediate response were to be prolonged by limbic systems then we may have a foundation for hopelessness (an "exaptation"?)
I wonder if there's a clinical difference between depression due to social rejection and that arising hopelessness? And, I wonder if there's a different response to various classes of antidepressants. Certainly, the SSRI's have effectiveness for lessening rejection feelings. I wonder if antidepressants with more of an adrenergic component would be effective for the hopelessness cases? Does anyone know of any data?
Also, someone could have a lot of fun combining these possibilities with hypotheses basing depression on responses to seasonal slow downs such as sleep changes (hibernation), higher fat intake, and motivational inertia.
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Technique for viewing a submicroscopic object's electric and magnetic fields in real time. Three electron waves descend upon the sample. One of the waves passes directly through the object, and its wavefront shifts after it interacts with the object's electric and magnetic fields. The other two waves serve as "reference waves"; the biprisms (shaded circles) deflect these waves so that they combine with the "object wave" to form an interference pattern on the image plane, where it is recorded onto a film or camera. The interference pattern provides direct information on the object's electric and magnetic fields. Shown is an image of an electrically charged latex particle (0.5 microns in diameter) along with its interference pattern. From the image, the researchers deduced that the latex particle's electric field was created by approximately 400 electrons in the particle. (Illustration by Malcolm Tarlton, AIP; photographs courtesy of T. Hirayama et al.)
To develop their real-time technique for imaging an object's electric and magnetic fields, researchers in Japan exploited the phenomenon of three-wave interference. In their particular setup, the researchers pass an electron wave through the object of interest and combine it with two "reference waves" to form an interference pattern. If the researchers were to combine the three electron waves in the absence of an object, they would get an interference pattern consisting simply of light and dark bands. When an object is present, however, its electric and/or magnetic fields reveal itself by darkening or brightening these bands.
How can one determine the electric or magnetic fields from these interference patterns? The first thing to note is that there are two ways to depict these fields. One way is to show their lines of force; for example, a single electron produces straight lines in all directions. A bar magnet produces lines of force stretching from its north to south poles. The second way is to view its "equipotential" lines, which are perpendicular to the lines of force. For a single electron, or any pointlike charged object, the equipotential lines should form concentric circles around the particle.
In this new three-wave technique, the interference patterns yields the particle's equipotential lines. In the case of the latex particle pictured above, we see a distorted circle around the particle. The circle (and the associated bands) are somewhat distorted because the two reference waves interact with the electric fields from the particle. From their image, the researchers determined that approximately 400 electrons in and on the latex particle were responsible for creating the electric field!
With their technique, the researchers can view tiny electric and magnetic fields with details as small as tens of nanometers, at a rate of 30 images per second with their current CCD camera (and potentially more with a faster-speed camera). This is useful for studying how electric and magnetic fields emanating from a particle change with conditions such as time and temperature.
Previous electron holography techniques could image these tiny fields, but not in real time. Unlike the current technique, which combines an object wave with two reference waves, conventional electron holography techniques combine an object wave with a single reference wave. The resulting interference pattern cannot provide direct information on an electric or magnetic field unless it is subjected to a second step in which the image is reconstructed with an optical reference wave. With three-wave interference, however, direct information on the fields can be recorded.
In addition to the latex particle, the researchers observed how heating up an alumina particle (a ceramic material) causes its electric field to change because some electrons obtained enough energy from the heat to move freely through the material. Also, the researchers imaged the magnetic field lines from barrium ferrite, which is widely used for magnetic recording media.
This research was reported by Tsukasa Hirayama, Guanming Lai, Takayoshi Tanji, Nobuo Tanaka, and Akira Tonamura in the 15 July 1997 issue of the Journal of Applied Physics (vol. 82, p. 522).
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[Enter AENEAS and Trojans]
- Aeneas. Stand, ho! yet are we masters of the field:
Never go home; here starve we out the night.
- All. Hector! the gods forbid!
- Troilus. He's dead; and at the murderer's horse's tail,
In beastly sort, dragg'd through the shameful field.
Frown on, you heavens, effect your rage with speed!
Sit, gods, upon your thrones, and smile at Troy!
I say, at once let your brief plagues be mercy,
And linger not our sure destructions on!
- Aeneas. My lord, you do discomfort all the host!
- Troilus. You understand me not that tell me so:
I do not speak of flight, of fear, of death,
But dare all imminence that gods and men
Address their dangers in. Hector is gone:
Who shall tell Priam so, or Hecuba?
Let him that will a screech-owl aye be call'd,
Go in to Troy, and say there, Hector's dead:
There is a word will Priam turn to stone;
Make wells and Niobes of the maids and wives,
Cold statues of the youth, and, in a word,
Scare Troy out of itself. But, march away:
Hector is dead; there is no more to say.
Stay yet. You vile abominable tents,
Thus proudly pight upon our Phrygian plains,
Let Titan rise as early as he dare,
I'll through and through you! and, thou great-sized coward,
No space of earth shall sunder our two hates:
I'll haunt thee like a wicked conscience still,
That mouldeth goblins swift as frenzy's thoughts.
Strike a free march to Troy! with comfort go:
Hope of revenge shall hide our inward woe.
[Exeunt AENEAS and Trojans]
[As TROILUS is going out, enter, from the other]
- Troilus. Hence, broker-lackey! ignomy and shame
Pursue thy life, and live aye with thy name!
- Pandarus. A goodly medicine for my aching bones! O world!
world! world! thus is the poor agent despised!
O traitors and bawds, how earnestly are you set
a-work, and how ill requited! why should our
endeavour be so loved and the performance so loathed?
what verse for it? what instance for it? Let me see:
Full merrily the humble-bee doth sing,
Till he hath lost his honey and his sting;
And being once subdued in armed tail,
Sweet honey and sweet notes together fail.
Good traders in the flesh, set this in your
As many as be here of pander's hall,
Your eyes, half out, weep out at Pandar's fall;
Or if you cannot weep, yet give some groans,
Though not for me, yet for your aching bones.
Brethren and sisters of the hold-door trade,
Some two months hence my will shall here be made:
It should be now, but that my fear is this,
Some galled goose of Winchester would hiss:
Till then I'll sweat and seek about for eases,
And at that time bequeathe you my diseases.
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the constraints of prestrain history and overmatch degree are positive for the same crack tip opening displacement level. The crack tip stress field was more significantly influenced by the strength mismatch than the prestrain history in examined cases. KEYWORDS combined effect, crack tip constraint, ductile fracture, mismatched welded joints, prestrain
Constraint Effect - an overview ScienceDirect TopicsIn addition to being most severely loaded, these flaws are highly influenced by constraint conditions and the fact that yield and fracture behavior of RPV steels are history dependent. Thus, the specific steel, its condition, nature of existing flaws, and the time/temperature of maximum loading all impact the margin from RPV fracture.
May 29, 2017 · Effect of Sigma Phase on Fracture Behavior of Steels and Weld Joints of Components in Power Industry Working at Supercritical Conditions. By Zdenk Kubo, árka Stejskalová and Ladislav Kander. Submitted:May 29th 2017 Reviewed:October 10th 2017 Published:December 20th 2017. DOI:10.5772/intechopen.71569
Effect of fracture path on the toughness of weld metal Oct 19, 2004 · The crack propagation direction may affect weld metal fracture behavior. This fracture behavior has been investigated using two sets of single edge notched bend (SENB) specimens; one with a crack propagating in the welding direction (B×2B) and the other with a crack propagating from the top in the root direction (B×B) of a welded joint. Two different weld metals were used, one with low and
Effects of Temperature and Crack Tip Constraint on J-Q-M theory (see Zhang et al, 1996) where both constraint effects due to geometry and material mismatch were included in the characterization of the local stress field ahead of the crack-tip. In this study, the effects of temperature and crack tip constraint on cleavage fracture toughness in weld thermal simulated X80 pipeline steel is studied.
However, the fracture behavior of these structural steels and weldments can be affected significantly by temperature, loading rate, stress level, and flaw size, as well as by plate thickness or constraint, joint geometry, and workmanship.
Geometry and material constraint effects on fracture Apr 13, 2016 · Under the condition of middle geometry constraint, the material constraint effect on fracture resistance is the most significant. With further increasing geometry constraint, the fracture resistance behavior of the interfaces is gradually dominated by the higher geometry constraint, and the material constraint effect becomes weaken.
Micromechanical Analysis of Constraint Effect on Fracture In this paper the micromechanical approach to ductile fracture was applied in a study of constraint effect on crack growth initiation in mismatched welded joints. The single-edged notched bend specimens (precrack length a0/W=0.32) were experimentally and numerically analyzed. The coupled micromechanical model proposed by Gurson, Tvergaard and Needleman was used.
The effect of yield strength mismatch on the fracture behavior of welded nodular cast iron Hakan Cetinel IntroductionThe results of various studies show that; strength mismatch due to different strength levels of weld metal (WM), base metal (BM), and heat-affected zone (HAZ) can significantly affect the structural performance, deformation and fracture behavior of welded joints [1,2].Effect of constraint on fracture behavior of welded Effect of constraint on fracture behavior of welded 17mn4 and aisi304 steels ter results for fracture behavior of welded ductile iron . In
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This is a five day course which aims to develop an understanding of the equalities agenda and looks at how to deal with a broad range of equality issues in the workplace. This course is mandatory for all GMB WO’s including Shop Stewards, Safety Reps and Equality Reps.
- An understanding of equalities issues that affect diverse groups.
- A GMB approach to equalities.
- An understanding of the Equalities Act and how to use it.
- Understanding and handling different equalities issues that affects diverse groups.
- Organising for equality in the workplace and in wider society.
- The role of the Equality Reps and Branch Officers.
- Developing an understanding and analysis of the equalities agenda.
- Developing the role of the Equality Reps & Branch Officers.
- Reviewing issues and problems that affect diverse groups.
- Developing organising techniques.
- Understanding and using equalities law to build the GMB.
- Understanding direct and indirect discrimination in the workplace.
- Handling members’ equalities issues.
- Negotiating for equalities.
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Verbs ending in -ender following this model and have alternation "e" -> "ie" in several forms: in 1st, 2nd, 3rd pers.sg. and 3rd pers.pl. in imperative, indicative and subjunctive present: tiende, enciende, hiende, defiende… The verb pretender is regular : pretende
20 verbs follow this model. Below an extract:
To see other models, refer to Model Table
Based on the ending, you can identify features that different verbs have in common. Click on the verbs above to see their conjugation tables and explore their conjugation patterns.
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The most frequent genetic causes of amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS) determined so far are mutations occurring in the gene coding for copper/zinc superoxide dismutase (Cu,Zn-SOD). The mechanism may involve the formation of hydroxyl radicals or malfunctioning of the SOD protein. Wild-type SOD1 was constructed into a transcription-translation expression vector to examine the SOD1 production in vitro. Wild-type SOD1 was highly expressed in Escherichia coli. Active SOD1 was expressed in a metal-dependent manner. To investigate the possible roles of genetic causes of ALS, a human Cu,Zn-SOD gene was fused with a gene fragment encoding the nine amino acid transactivator of transcription (Tat) protein transduction domain (RKKRRQRRR) of human immunodeficiency virus type 1 in a bacterial expression vector to produce a genetic in-frame Tat-SOD1 fusion protein. The expressed and purified Tat-SOD1 fusion proteins in E. coli can enter PC12 neural cells to observe the cellular consequences. Denatured Tat-SOD1 was successfully transduced into PC12 cells and retained its activity via protein refolding. Three point mutations, E21K, D90V, and D101G, were cloned by site-directed mutagenesis and showed lower SOD1 activity. In undifferentiated PC12 cells, wild-type Tat-SOD1 could prevent DNA fragmentation due to superoxide anion attacks generated by 35 mM paraquat, whereas mutant Tat-D101G enhanced cell death. Our results demonstrate that exogenous human Cu,Zn-SOD fused with Tat protein can be directly transduced into cells, and the delivered enzymatically active Tat-SOD exhibits a cellular protective function against oxidative stress.
- Amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS)
- Copper/zinc superoxide dismutase (Cu,Zn-SOD)
- Transactivator of transcription (Tat) protein
ASJC Scopus subject areas
- Biochemistry, Genetics and Molecular Biology(all)
- History and Philosophy of Science
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I assembled the following list of Uber safety tips for an article that didn’t get used. The tips are still useful, so here they are:
Remember that you’re getting into a car with a stranger. While millions of trips have been successfully completed on Uber, and I don’t want to sound too negative about what is a very useful service, it pays to bear the following points in mind:
Before you get in the car:
- Try not to travel alone. It’s safer with a friend.
Wait for the Uber in a safe place. This is likely to be indoors, or in a well-lit public place, not on a dark street. Ask to be dropped off in a public place too, if possible.
- Check the driver’s star rating. If the driver assigned to you has a bad rating, you can cancel before they arrive, and choose another option.
- Verify the identity of the Uber driver. The app gives you the driver’s first name, a photo of them, and a photo of the vehicle and its number plate.
- Make sure you get into the right car! If you don’t feel comfortable with the driver, don’t get in the car.
- Check the condition of the car. If there are flat tyres, funny engine noises, or something doesn’t feel right, don’t get in.
- Take a photo of the car, showing its number plate, and send it to a friend before you get in. If you don’t have any friends on with you on holiday, send it to somebody back home.
- Tell people where you are going. If you are meeting friends, the app lets you share your trip details and time of arrival. Your friend can then track your car along its route.
While you are in the car
- Don’t sit in the front passenger seat. This makes physical contact between you and the driver more difficult.
- Put your seatbelt on, just in case you are in an accident.
- Tell the driver that you are meeting somebody at the other end. Knowing that someone is expecting you to arrive could make them think twice about causing trouble.
- Prepare for an easy escape. Make sure your car door is unlocked, and keep all your belongings (including your phone) close at hand.
- Keep your phone in your hand, in case you need to send a message asking for help.
- Keep it friendly. Don’t discuss contentious topics or get into an argument with the driver.
- Keep an eye on where you are going. Look out for landmarks, places, and look at a map on your phone to check you are heading in the right direction.
- In case of emergency, dial the emergency services. Calls are always free. In the UK dial, and in Europe dial 112. (Little-known fact: 112 works in the UK as well, and calls are handled by 999 operators.)
Here is the Uber safety statement.
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Heys duders.it's st patrocks day and ive had a lot of guinness. I think im at the stage where:
- I can talk and type legibly
- I am tallkign bullshite
Anyways, here are a few random thoughts that pop into the head of t adrunk person:
- Why did i drink this much?
- hOW MUCH DID i DRINK?
- hOW DID i ACCIDENTALLY PRESS TH ECAPS LOCK KEY?
- why, in a shoping senter with one automatic door and lots of manule doors does everione go in and out in the auotomatic foor and no one used any of the the manyual doors?
- what does the user name mracoon mean? is it mr racoon, m racoon or just one thing mracoon?
- why do i want to constantly tipe the word awesomeness?
- awesomeness awesomeness awesomeness awesomeness awesomeness awesomeness awesomeness awesomeness awesomeness
- drinking = awesomeness
- jesus, how am i already up to 9
- why did i think posting this woudl be a good idea
- dont drink its bad for you. trust me kids, dont do it
- y0u twittr people are bad for encouraging me.e
- i'm about to listen to the laTEST BOMBCAST. WILL IT BE BETTER now WHEN DRUNK OR tomorrow when SOBER?
- DAMN CAPS LOCK KEY AGAIN
- sex = awesomeness
- why the hell am i so fat. someone needs to kick me into shape
- how the hell have i vome up wiuth so many dumb and stupid points
- why do i find this joke i jiust mad up about my mates recent ex girdlfriend so funny "why did web cross the road? because she was a dumb fuck and you need stop thinking about her!!!"
- why did i tell that joke to my friend
- why am is uch a terrible friendd?
- why am i still typing nonsens when i cood be in bed
- i've jus read over this blog gain. i couldn't stop laughting. it's hilarious.
- i;m sure it isne actually that funny, buyt its booom funny to me.
Rite, i'm sure thats it. goodnight.
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Enhance Wheat Quality, Functionality and Marketability in the Western U.S.
Wheat Genetics, Quality Physiology and Disease Research
Project Number: 2090-43440-006-00
Start Date: Jun 13, 2010
End Date: Jun 12, 2015
1. In cooperation with breeders and geneticists, identify and facilitate the manipulation of genetic variation of end use quality characteristics in western wheat. Specific end-use quality traits to be studied include: kernel texture (sub-objective 1a), starch and non-starch carbohydrates (sub-objective 1b), polyphenol oxidase activity (sub-objective 1c), and overall milling and baking performance of wheat breeding lines (sub-objective 1d).
Sub-Objective 1a. Alter wheat kernel hardness characteristics by identifying and incorporating novel puroindoline gene alleles and texture-related QTLs.
Sub-Objective 1b. Determine the degree to which manipulation of polysaccharide content and structure can affect the end-use quality characteristics of wheat flour.
Sub-Objective 1c. Determine the degree to which the many polyphenol oxidase genes in wheat impact noodle dough color stability.
Sub-Objective 1d. Develop wheat cultivars with superior end-use quality characteristics in collaboration with regional wheat breeders and geneticists.
2. Develop, modify, and evaluate technologies and methodologies for measuring wheat kernel characteristics that impact end use functionality. Specific characteristics to be measured include: Kernel texture (sub-objective 2a), arabinoxylan composition (sub-objective 2b), gluten quality (sub-objective 2c) and polyphenol oxidase activity (sub-objective 2d).
Sub-Objective 2a. Determine the reliability and performance of an endosperm brick test developed at the WWQL.
Sub-Objective 2b. Develop a diagnostic assay for oxidative gelation of arabinoxylans in flour batters using free-radical-induced/peroxidase-mediated oxidative cross-linking.
Sub-Objective 2c. Test a recently developed laser-based prototype instrument for measuring gluten strength via SDS-sedimentation (in collaboration with a scientist at GIPSA)
Sub-Objective 2d. Modify our existing PPO L-DOPA assay to identify very low levels of grain PPO.
3. Identify and manipulate the biochemical constituents of wheat to improve the nutritional functionality of grain and flour, specifically dietary fiber and antioxidant content.
Determine the molecular and genetic basis of wheat grain texture by assessing puroindoline gene structure. Determine the effect of two different hardness alleles on grain texture, milling performance and baking quality. Assess the molecular genetic basis of discoloration in Asian noodles by identifying and characterizing polyphenol oxidase from wheat. Develop or adapt methods to evaluate wheat end-use quality with an emphasis on early generation testing. Employ gene expression measurement technology to identify genes contributing to desirable Asian food characteristics.
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Now on to the meat of the matter. Prager spent the last hour of his program today attempting to clarify his views on the consequences of the decline of Judeo-Christian values and the rise of secular ideas. Specifically, Prager maintained that it is only the belief that man is created in God's image that could be a valid basis for believing in human moral superiority to animals. He further blamed the decline of marriage and reduced desire to have children on secularism. His third example consisted of foreign policy where the morality of the war in Iraq is to be decided by a UN consensus rather than the fixed viewpoints of religion. And finally he pointed to the absence of wisdom at the university, a largely secular institution, which has the distinction of discussing and advocating some of the most foolish ideas in society.
Interestingly Prager insisted he was not trying to convert any atheists or encourage anyone to believe in God. He was simply trying to make clear the consequences of what he termed secularism. He was arguing in effect that no matter what side of the issue one is on, one has to acknowledge that without religious Judeo-Christian values the consequences he enumerated are inevitable. Prager as usual is merely insisting on "clarity."
I will begin by commenting that not all the consequences mentioned by Prager are bad in my view. For example, the issue of whether or not one has children, everything else being equal, is not a moral issue in my view. Context can make it a moral issue in both directions: There are people to whom children would be a great value and there are people who should never have had their children. But human beings as such do not have a moral obligation to have children, notwithstanding the biblical view.
Prager is quite correct on the university as the source and instigator of numerous foolish (and in fact worse than foolish) ideas. They are in fact the source of his two other examples: The consensus view of morality and the moral equivalency of human and animal suffering. The consensus view dates back to the pragmatists such as John Dewey and Charles Peirce, who ultimately derive their ideas from Immanuel Kant. The moral equivalency of humans and animals is a view pushed by Princeton's Peter Singer, among others. Singer's utilitarianism traces its roots to the original utilititarians Mill and Bentham who themselves in effect combine the views of Epicurus and Kant. Ultimately the reason for the presence of these ideas is not secularism as such but a long philosophical development of increasing irrationality that started all the way back in times when most people (and universities as well) were still quite religious. It was the errors and absurdities of the various early religious philosophers which then culminated in the errors and absurdities in the later secular ones. There were parallel trends: The increasing secularism and the increasing tower of irrational errors. Initially, various religious ideas were quite properly rejected in the name of reason. Later on as philosophers made crucial mistakes in understanding how reason works and concluded that reason is impotent, they started to reject almost all abstract principles and concepts due to their initial mistakes. Religion was rejected at the same time as reason. This unfortunately doomed proper secular morality until the arrival of novelist/philosopher Ayn Rand's Objectivism in the 20th century.
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Seeing and Thinking: For an Understanding of Visual Culture
_Cultures of Vision: Images, Media and the Imaginary_
Bloomington and Indianapolis: Indiana University Press, 1995
Ron Burnett's book, _Cultures of Vision_ , is a dense and rich one. Its main goal is to highlight the relationship between *Vision* and *Knowledge*. Yet this goal is not attempted through a pure strict theoretical treatment, but rather through a large reasoning on the wide net of tropes which are related to that subject. Here lies its richness.
Burnett, as a matter of fact, doesn't choose a mere theoretical platform to discuss the bounds between Vision and Knowledge, rather he prefers to work on the conceptual borders by enlarging them with direct and indirect connections to the *praxis* of visual culture. Thus each specific theme he deals with is approached from many sides and facets, becoming a plastic fluid object that multiplies thoughts and suggestions in a random way, bringing it into the personal luggage of the reader. Therefore I would say that there is food for anybody in his book. The subject of *Vision* sets questions in many areas, philosophy and psychology, communication and media studies, film theory, semiotics of film, digital techniques, postmodern theories and so on. Burnett discusses these questions by deepening each problem with the help of many analyses -- of films, documentaries and experimental videos -- which centre on their formal stylistic features as well as with their *fabulae*, their characters and stories; and both those features are related to the material with a method that I would call *hermeneutic*, since its basic tools are not represented by stiff categories but rather they stem from interpretative argumentation. This wide interpretative walking through the various subjects also deals with a lot of quotations and references.
Burnett's reasoning has a progressive movement starting with the still image, passing through the moving image and electronic image, and ending with the role of images and visual practices within communities. I will try to follow this movement and its main theoretical tropes. Then I will conclude the paper by judging its outcome. In any case this will not be an exhaustive review, but only a trace, a key for reading. The book is hundred times richer than the sketch I present here.
1. Still Images.
Burnett starts the first pages showing the power of images (and of seeing) through the 'Images of Power'. He tells us the story of the decapitation of the statue of one of the founders of the Canadian Confederation in 1992. He compares this act with the similar actions that occurred in the same year in eastern Europe, where the statues of Lenin, Stalin and other local figures were toppled. These facts suggest to him the historical and symbolic linking of images, their being part of an infinite process of appropriation and interpretation where meanings are continuously redefined. He states that with this book he proposes to show that the Western Relationship to images is not 'as dependent on the activities of seeing or listening as we often presume' (3).
Burnett criticises the idea that 'to look means to see', recognising a complexity in the perception of images at a cultural level. Such a complexity escapes from reductive models of mind and consciousness, as well as of perception. He recognises that the debate is part of a broader philosophical and cultural one questioning the relationship between subject and object, and he points out the contradictions existing in the complex relationship between *Vision* and *Knowledge*. In particular Burnett underlines the traditional dualistic setting of the mind, swinging from a flat referring to something material (the brain) to a 'metaphysical notion of consciousness, within which there is no room for the body at all' (9).
Burnett is convinced that there are mental processes at the ground of perception, cognition and comprehension, yet he points out that such processes may not have a 'direct relationship to the experience of seeing or listening' (8). His argumentation is clearly directed towards recognising the active role played within knowing processes by cultural and social factors, and in doing so he declares not to be interested in exploring the mind as the site of rational activity, but rather in analysing what seems to be an: 'almost endless poesis, an eruption of meanings upon which we have to exercise restraint, into which we have to project structure and generate discourse, but from which more is drawn and created than is *present*' (10).
That means first of all an inquiry into the relation between what is seen within images and their related, presupposed reality. Burnett then (in this first chapter titled 'Images and Vision') discusses the case of photography and all the theoretical questions arising from the relationship between image and reality. His reasoning goes through many authors and tropes. For example, he quotes and criticises the principles outlined by Moholy-Nagy (Russian constructivist movement of the 1920s; see Kostelanetz: 1970) according to which photography is the technological empowerment of seeing and thus it is conceived of as a new strong tool for reaching truth and reality. Burnett considers Moholy-Nagy's statement to be nothing but a model of mind as a mirror of the world, a simplistic model that unfortunately 'continues to resonate with some power in present-day discussions of images' (13), and that denies any aesthetic value of images.
Then he discusses two facts that have been at the center of media attention, and that show the dynamics of images within communities: the Waco mass suicide (Texas 1993), inspired by the guru David Koresh, and the Rodney King affair (Los Angeles, 1992). Both facts are analysed in the interpretative processes they were subjected to, with all the social and cultural implications that emerged, from the *fictionalization* of the Waco story by NBC, to the fury of the black community of Los Angeles, which saw in the result of Rodney King's trial the oppressions and injustices of their own everyday life. Once again then, the historical and the symbolic meet each other in the cultural and social consumption of images. This means that:
'The photographic image is not the platonic world of illusions, that place and space within which the real is somehow transformed into a shadow or worse, the shadow becomes the real. Like a theatrical stage, the photographic image foregrounds the *mise en scene* of a hypothetical world, but unlike the stage, everything is reduced until what is left are pieces of paper, flattened, unmoving, which subsist on our yells and screams, on our invocations to the image to speak and on our desire to be heard and to be seen.' (17)
Thus the world that images depict is not flat, simple or transparent, because the subjective and intersubjective perception of that world by human beings is always subjected to interpretative processes of appropriation where meanings are in some way always redefined. This is the main thesis of Burnett's book. Communication is a complex interpretative process, which is not to be reduced to simple transmitting of information, to the 'equation of the visible with the communicative' (45). In the second chapter Burnett discusses this assumption more deeply by criticising Barthes' work _Camera Lucida_. His critique is quite interesting because if on one side, as Burnett points out, Barthes 'resists the idea that images are locked into place by unchangeable meanings' (47), on the other Barthes remains bound to the semiotic idea that *sign* stands for *reality*, an idea that Burnett conceives of in the case of photography as a 'need to search for the origins of meaning in a place *outside* of the photograph' (47). Yet Burnett assures us that he is not looking for the traditional opposition between reality and illusion, rather he is convinced that such oppositions don't seem to be capable of assuming an heuristic role, in what appears not to be a predictable combination of meanings, but rather 'an endlessly transposed and transposable interaction of significations' (47).
Therefore Burnett suggests that the concrete social and cultural context creates an *interpretative circle* which is more relevant to inquire into than the problem of whether the object of the photograph is true or not. Communication is the shifting from one code to another, a shifting that changes meaning continuously within the process of translation. Yet Burnett advises that he is not proposing an extremely subjective view of visual communication:
'This does not mean that every image is different for every viewer. Rather it means that what is shared by an audience, and there is much that is shared, cannot be located outside of the exchange process which in an endlessly circumscribed fashion establishes, denies and re-establishes the limits of spectating.' (65)
He seems then to place himself within a semiotic perspective, but rather he escapes the semiotic idea that signification is *standing for*, and his reflection seems to me to be a good one. As a matter of fact he recognises the reduction of the power of the symbolic that such a view involves. Accordingly signification (and this is at an upper level in the case of photograph) would then be nothing but a reproduction of the real.
In order to show how limited that view is, and to escape it, Burnett suggests thinking of *projection* as a challenge toward a new understanding of Visual Communication.
2. Moving Images.
In the third chapter, 'From Photograph to Film', he tries to ground this challenge by showing how difficult it is to conceive of film as a series of shots or frames. He analyses the textual approach to film introducing the discussion with the example of _Wavelength_, a film by Michael Snow, where a camera locked into a fixed position zooms from one end of a long room to an other. Towards the final shots of this movement a photograph on the wall becomes visible, and 'incrementally, as it fills the frame, the photograph reveals itself to be an image of the ocean taken from a cliff. As the film ends the photograph fills the screen. The waves are still, frozen in time.' (72) Burnett sees this film as an attempt to examine the borders of the relationship between photography and cinema, in terms that go beyond their mere opposition, by recognising the discoursive space which arises from the communicative context of what is seen.
This statement forms the background to his analysis of textual approaches to film. The first he analyses is that of Christian Metz. Burnett points out that the problem with Metz's work is his isolation of sets of discrete units (the shots) so that we are able to analyse the meaning of the filmic as a linear combination of still images. In doing so the textual setting of Metz *reifies* the filmic as an objective whole which is independent from the interpretative process of seeing it:
'The reduction of the cinema to a series of frames from which meaning can be distilled and then extracted collapses image relations into the equivalent of written texts. Cinematic specificity comes to be represented by the manner in which the stills taken from a film can express or exemplify a logical structure with the systematicity of grammar.' (80)
Thus this view implies a metaphor of spectators (as seeing) as if they were scanning with a camera eye. The symmetric equation, text/meaning, confers on the viewers nothing but a passive role. Burnett rightly individualises this perspective as coming from a static model of sign which belongs more to the verbal-oriented semiotic modelling. The matter in hand is the old question of cinema as *language*.
It is, for example, the case of John Carroll's work (1979) that approaches the filmic through the linguistic generative grammar of Noam Chomsky. Film is seen by Carroll as a language having its own precise grammar rules. Montage represents this whole of rules as a linear combination of shots, which Carroll conceives of as analogous to the linear way with which verbal sentences are constructed. Carroll supports his analysis with reference to the Eisensteinian idea of montage. Burnett objects that Eisenstein's idea was not that of cinema as language, but rather of 'cinema as *a* language' (113), since Eisenstein, as Burnett points out, was quite conscious of the fact that montage is a system which is not reducible to a combination of one shot next to the other. Yet:
'Both Eisenstein and Carroll do not distinguish between the staging of an event for the camera (production context) and the subsequent performance of that staging on the screen. There is a difference between, for example a gesture produced in any moment of film production and the transformation of that gesture onto the screen.' (115)
Burnett sees in the strong equation between *editing* and *structure*, such as that of Carroll, an attempt to eliminate any subjectivity in the process of viewing, but this leads to a prescriptive theory of film, a theory that would 'prescribe the condition of acceptability that govern projection and viewing' (115). Thus, once again, the creative use of film as communicative system seems to be denied. Burnett deplores that Carroll, in supporting with examples his ideas, refers only to some type of *rough-cut* commercial cinema as an example of the un-filmic, and avoids any reference to the experimental cinema, such as those of *nouvelle vague*, which would mostly flaw his model.
Thus film is not a linear combination of shots or frames, nor is it just a technical medium merely depicting reality. In the fourth chapter, 'Projection', Burnett seeks to make the point by setting some basic questions which a *mirroristic* approach as well as the traditional *textual* one do not gain. Such questions regard the relation between subject and object as a mediated one, and concern the gap existing between *seeing* and *thinking*, between *vision* and *knowledge*, a gap which is due to the mediated nature of such a relation. Burnett proposes to think of 'viewing' as a horizon that sets experiences:
'One way of thinking about mediation is to reflect on the storytelling experience. If you have ever listened to a fairy tale being recounted to you, then you will surely remember the rather extraordinary way the words and tone of the storyteller generated a variety of images in your mind.' (131)
This is one of the basic keys of Burnett argumentation. There is a space in between what is seen and our subjective being, a *discoursive space* where *constellations* of meaning are worked out, established, pictured, figured out, and thus the screen is 'an interactive point of contact within which the very drama of projection is worked out' (145).
Then, in order to support this statement Burnett offers us a pleasant interpretation of two films: _The Purple Rose of Cairo_ by Woody Allen, and _Germany, Pale Mother_ by Helma Sanders-Brahms. The first one suggests an opposition between reality and fiction in a way that tends to obscure its precise limits; the mirroring causal link falls into a gloomy area, and, in virtue of this, the relationship itself (between reality and fiction) appears to be clearer: it is an experience of *control* and *loss*.
The latter is the story of a German woman during the pre-period and the post-period of the Second World War. Lene is a victim of that individualism which brought Nazism to power. In her story Burnett sees the conflict between individuals and history, a conflict where 'new and different forms of discourse are created' (153), where reality and history are bound together within the symbolic mediation of representation, and it is thus given the possibility of both a (social and cultural) appropriation and a distantiation of the meanings which arise.
Both the films are good examples to speak of projection as a process of instability. Burnett conceives of the process of spectating as a struggle between 'knowledge and the lack of it' (160). Burnett quotes Iser's model of the space in between as a virtual one, that is to say that the place where meanings are defined and worked out is an area between text and reader/viewer, thus neither the text, nor the reader/viewer is the pole of meaning, but it arises in this discoursive space, that Burnett, by referring for a while to Winnicott's notion (Winnicott: 1971), compares to the *potential space*.
Burnett criticises the semiotic textual model because it suggests a fixed text and a fixed signification. On the contrary, he thinks that the communicative interaction is a process where the spectator tries to get an ordered set of meanings by framing the multiple chaos of what he sees. The struggle then is between order and entropy.
In hand with this comes the question of language within the filmic -- the problem of the relations existing between language and the visual, sounds and images. Burnett doesn't deepen this subject too much. He refers to Bakhtin's dialogical principle to sustain the idea that the verbal language of a film is also subjected to the rules of context, of concrete communication Then once again Burnett objects that meanings are not to be conceived of as being resident within the text, but they depend from the dialogical relationship between the screen and the viewers. Therefore:
'Seen as a social event, the projection of a film reveals a high degree of indeterminacy. The result is a lack of equivalence between screen and spectator, a time and space of contingency and substitution. But this in no way should suggest a viewing process devoid of the self-reflexive capacity to critique, question, and remake the image.' (186-187)
The *body of projection* is thus this embodiment occurring within the concrete interaction, where reality and imaginary are bound into the experience of viewing images that 'create the field within which a whole host of possibilities can be generated' (206). The projection dissolves the traditional opposition between subject and object into the discoursive dialogic space where subject and object identificate and distanciate each other at the same time. This means also a re-thinking of the notion of *truth*: not to fall within a sort of Cartesian idealism according to which the world is only a product of imagination, but rather to acknowledge the role that the social and cultural performing of the symbolic plays in the real experiencing and acting. In this sense Burnett criticises Levin and Baudrillard, seeing their critique of mediation as based upon a mirror-view of empirical truth, where the images of visual media-based communication falsify the *real* world of evidence, by substituting it. Thus it is the symbolic itself that is seen as a falsifying process, and *simulation* is then nothing but a *falsification*.
4. Electronic Image and Postmodern Communities
The latter question is faced by Burnett in regard of electronic image and the notion of *virtuality*. It represents, as a matter of fact, the opposite idea, since electronic technology has been addressed as a revolutionary transformation of culture and society. Electronic imaging and simulating are conceived of as positive practices -- they are not seen as falsification of reality but as an empowerment of perception and natural experience, leading to cognitive development and therefore toward a new knowledge of human dimension.
Burnett analyses the ideas of Virilio by recognising in his statements a new reduction of mind -- the metaphor of mind as technological machine. As a matter of fact the idea of the cyborg, in its being a mixture of human and artificial, seems to flat consciousness fully upon the machine itself: 'Consciousness becomes not only a reflection of the technologies that humans use, but the mind (in this case) evolves into a transparent representation of the machine' (220) Thus this mixture is in reality a new strong technical reduction of mind, where once again the relation to what is seen is a causal one.
Then Burnett discusses of the theories and practices of video activism, i.e. all those efforts to use video practices to change reality by teaching and informing and/or by opening up new dimensions. He tries to value and to re-dimensionate the sometimes too positive assertions of theorists of the electronic image: Burnett insists on his thesis that the context of concrete communication is the basic moment of communication, and he underlines how, on the contrary, most theories of the electronic image set at the center the making processes, and in doing so assign to the technique the realm of meanings. He objects once again: 'The investment of meaning in the image and what we draw from the experience cannot be reduced to the image itself .' (268)
In the last chapter of the book, 'Postmodern Media Communities', Burnett deals with the use of video within communities, and its presupposed role in building the *identity* of a group or a community. The matter in hand is again the power of images and its way of influencing our own view of the world we inhabit.
One of the best parts of this chapter is the one dedicated to the experience of Burnett himself in the field of video ethnography. Burnett analyses the work of the ethnographer Eric Michaels on the impact of video and television on indigenous culture, and specifically on the Warlpiri. Michaels highlighted this relation by studying the way Warlpiri used videoh. Particularly interesting is his analysis of Warlpiri *mise en scene* which reveals a rather different way of doing videos. The Warlpiri videos present a massive static representation of the landscape, which constitutes the place of their stories. Yet Burnett dissents from the assertions of Michaels that conceive of the *static* shots of Warlpiri as a resistance to the Western ways of filming, since he points out there are many examples of static shots in European and American film-making. Burnett sees the basic problem of Michaels work, as well as of ethnography in general, in thinking possible a *translation*, without recognising that 'what is inevitably involved are complex sign systems' which are difficult to interpret, even for people of the same culture, because 'images *seem* to contain within them not only messages but the maps needed to understand those messages' (300). Thus, studying a video of different cultures is a difficult process of intercultural communication, although the embodiment permits this encounter between different cultures as well as between different groups and communities. This fact, then, should to be extended to all types of media-based communications which can be reconceived as the taking place of a discoursive dialogic process, where it is to be recognised that the 'imaginary can ever be enclosed within the various technologies that any culture creates' (334).
I agree with the basic tension of Burnett's book, i.e. the effort to go beyond the traditional reductive setting of communication as an objective opposition between subject and object, and I think that his book opens up a lot of suggestions and thoughts that challenge our understanding of the relationship between media and knowledge.
In the specific field of film theory Burnett's book is in my opinion a first rate one, since he highlights the many actual problems and questions regarding the film/audience couple by referring the discussion to a lot of theoretical works as well as to a lot of videos and films, permitting any reader to enter directly into those problems and questions. He surely communicates then with a wide audience and in this way he also goes beyond the borders of any single discipline, setting the whole reasoning into a wide multidisciplinary discourse.
The only remarks I have to make regard: a lack in recognising film *not* as an image dominated medium; and a lack in exploring the possible use of a concept of text not limited to the traditional verbal notion of it.
I mean, Burnett seems to conceive of film essentially as a visual medium, and the little space he dedicates to the analysis of the relationship between speech and images within the filmic seems to be the sign of a lack which stems from his own experience of video practice. He seems to see it essentially in terms of taking images, whilst the filmic can also be a mixture of images and speech.
I think that, in any case, the notion of text as a particular (social and cultural) way of building significations, is a useful one. I see filmic practice as another way of doing texts, a new kind of textualization that the technology of camera has made possible. This should not lead us back to saying that meanings reside in the text. I agree with the critical analysis that Burnett makes of *textual approaches to film*, yet it seems to me that his stressing mostly on filmic images and his dealing with verbal language only for what concerns the interpretative moment of media-based communication, could suggest a dissolution of the filmic object itself into the interpretative process.
Burnett doesn't take in account the Russian semiotics of culture, for example, and I think it would be very useful to compare most of Burnett's reasoning to the works of this semiotic school. Their view of communication and culture is in many points really close to that of Burnett, although they can be seen as a textual semiotics. They see communication as a cultural activity; and culture as having a double tension, one towards order and one towards chaos, entropy. Yet they suggest thinking of the text as a cultural unity having its own role in this process.
I think we cannot dissolve the *text* within interpretation, because in doing so we will fail to legitimise any science directed to the study of human dimension. And the more basic fact is to recognise that by doing so we will also legitimise the objective view of human knowledge, thus neutralising all our efforts to recognise how great is the *reification* that the objective causal view makes of perception and knowledge.
I think that although on one side the traditional opposition between subject and object is to be abandoned, since it offers only a reductive model of communication, on the other side we should avoid a dissolution of one of the two terms. The relationships between a subject and object exists -- in the case of the filmic there is a viewer but there is also a phenomenal object, the *filmic text*.
Well, the traditional theories of communication exaggerate one of the poles: that of the message, of text, and that is a mistake; but it would be an analogous mistake to exaggerate the other pole. The relation is neither subjective, nor objective -- that means that we have to recognise the existence of both, and the new challenges toward an understanding of communication should start, in my opinion, from this basic assumption.
Apart from these remarks, and the challenges they make, _Cultures of Vision_ stands as a very good book. It isn't easy to find a book that tries to go beyond widely shared conventions and ideas. That testifies to the intellectual honesty and strong tension which characterises this work. Instead of accepting theories and models that do not convince him, both on the theoretical and practical sides, Burnett prefers to enlarge the traditional conceptual borders of the subjects he deals with, trying to furnish us of new interpretative keys. The work of the pioneer is a hard one, but sometimes it can give a full satisfaction.
1. Which is one of the most shared views in regard of the image, in its widest sense. See for example my analysis of this question within Wittgenstein's thinking: 'Signification and Knowledge: A Semiotical Philosophical Analysis of Wittgenstein's Work', published in _Sincronia_, Journal of Cultural Studies for Latin America published by the Social Sciences and Humanities Center at the University of Guadalajara.
2. It is my opinion that this is the worst outcome of any *objectivistic* attempt to ground signification as *what stands for* a reality, i.e. to flatten signification to the mere referring to concrete *real* objects and/or state-of-affairs. In doing so, such theories close the space of *creation* in favour of *reproduction*; interpretation and perception are then conceived of as unproblematic processes, as mere recording ones.
3. In order to evaluate the usefulness of Winnicott's theory in the field of the visual, I recommend the good book of Roger Silverstone, _Television and Everyday Life_.
4. The assumptions of the Russian school differ in many points from the traditional setting of semiotics, suggesting a semiotic modelling that escapes from the stiff categories of the semiotic models criticised by Burnett by taking into account the social and cultural dynamics of signification. See in this regard my forthcoming book (in Italian), _Introduction to Semiotics and Communication Theory_.
Barthes, R., _Camera Lucida_ , New York, Noonday Press, 1981.
Carroll, J., _Toward a Structural Psychology of Cinema_ , The Hague - Paris - New York, Mouton, 1980.
Kostelanetz, R., ed., _Moholy-Nagy_ , New York, Praeger, 1970.
Metz, C., _Essais sur la signification au cinema, Editions Klincksieck, 1968.
--- _Langage et cinema_, Larousse, 1971.
Silverstone, R., _Television and Everyday Life_, Routledge, London, 1994.
Teobaldelli, P., 'Signification and Knowledge: A Semiotical Philosophical Analysis of Wittgenstein's Work', _Sincronia_, Spring 1998 <http://fuentes.csh.udg.mx/CUCSH/Sincronia/wittgens.html>.
--- _Introduction to Semiotics and Communication Theory_, Baskerville, Bologna, forthcoming 1998.
Winnicott, D. W., _Playing and Reality_, Tavistock, London, 1971.
Helma Sanders-Brahms, _Germany, Pale Mother_ (orig. _Deutschland, bleiche Mutter_), West Germany, 1980.
Michael Snow, _Wavelength_, Canada, 1967.
Woody Allen, _The Purple Rose of Cairo_, USA, 1985.
'Seeing and Thinking: For an Understanding of Visual Culture'
_Film-Philosophy_, vol. 2 no. 15, June 1998
Copyright © _Film-Philosophy_ 1998
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Horn combs are made of keratin, the same material as human hair, which does not generate static electricity and helps control unruly hair. Using a natural horn comb allows your hair to keep its natural oils for richer, shiner hair. Made from natural materials, each comb is unique in color, beauty, and size. Some are lighter, some darker and others are marbled. Natural horn is so durable it will last a lifetime if properly used and cared for.
- Hand-wash in cold water using a mild soap and allow to air-dry
- Limit exposure to sun.
- Dont soak in water.
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Psoriasis: Finding Treatments That Work
Putting together a successful psoriasis treatment plan with your doctor will depend on many factors.
If you've been coping with psoriasis for a long time, you know that it is an unpredictable condition. Options that work for others may not work for you. And treatments that do work may lose their effectiveness over time. Keeping this in mind can help you maintain the positive attitude you'll need to meet the challenges you'll face.
Doctors typically treat psoriasis in steps, based on how severe it is, the areas involved, its form, and your past responses. Treatments include topical (applied to the skin) drugs, body-wide medications and phototherapy.
Mild to moderate cases of psoriasis often respond to topical treatments, including medicated lotions, ointments, creams, gels or shampoos. Some are available over the counter, but most require a prescription. These are commonly recommended medications.
If your psoriasis is moderate or severe, or has resisted other types of treatment, your doctor may suggest medications that treat your entire system. Taken orally, by injection or by IV infusion, these medications fall into two broad categories:
- Systemics. These drugs work with the immune system to control skin cell production. They can have serious side effects, so your doctor will monitor you carefully during therapy.
- Biologics. Derived from proteins, these drugs treat moderate to severe psoriasis by blocking interactions between immune cells. Because biologics have only recently been developed, their long-term side effects aren't yet known.
This approach uses ultraviolet (UV) light to treat moderate to severe psoriasis. It's often helpful when topical treatments don't work and can be used in combination with medications. There are three basic types of phototherapy:
- Ultraviolet B (UVB). Here, your skin is exposed to UVB rays generated from a special lamp or laser. The exposure causes reactions in skin cells that decrease their overproduction and help clear up plaques. Broadband UVB is effective for everything from a few small lesions to widespread psoriasis, but requires frequent treatments at a doctor's office. (Some patients use UVB light boxes at home, following their doctors' instructions.) Not as widely available, narrowband UVB emits a more specific range of UV wavelengths and may clear psoriasis more quickly.
- Psoralen and ultraviolet A (PUVA). You'll first either ingest, apply topically or bathe in a drug called psoralen, then undergo UVA exposure. Psoralen makes the skin more sensitive to UVA light, which penetrates deeper into the skin than UVB. The combination slows skin cell growth and kills T cells in both plaque and guttate types of psoriasis. It's often used for psoriasis on the palms of the hands or soles of the feet.
- Excimer laser. A controlled beam of UVB light targets only affected areas, reducing inflammation and fast-growing skin cells. Excimer laser therapy requires fewer sessions, but is only practical for people with very mild, localized disease.
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It is amazing how your emotions can affect the way the world looks to you. If you wake up one morning happy, then even a small dose of bad news may be felt as an opportunity rather than a failure. When you’re sad, that same bit of bad news can lead you to feel as though the world is coming to an end.
What about anger? What does that do?
An interesting paper by Jolie Baumann and David DeSteno in the October, 2010 issue of the Journal of Personality and Social Psychology suggests that anger may increase your perception that the world is threatening.
The design of the studies in this paper is straightforward. In the basic task, you see a picture of a man flashed quickly (for about 3/4 of a second). The man is either holding a gun that is pointed at you or some non-threatening object (like a wallet of flashlight). Your job is to press one button if you think he is holding a gun and a second button if you think he is holding some other object.
Before doing this procedure, people either wrote a brief essay about their daily routine (which did not affect their emotion much), about an event that made them happy (which made them happy), or an event that made them angry (which made them angry).
The main finding from this study was that when people were angry, they were much more likely to say that a person was carrying a gun when they weren’t than either the happy people or the group that wrote about their routine. Using a mathematical technique called signal detection analysis, the researchers showed that anger affected the way people made the decision to say that something was a gun. Basically, angry people needed less evidence that something might be a gun to say that they saw a gun than the people in the other groups. A second study showed that this effect was specific to anger, and did not occur for people who were made to feel disgusted or sad.
Why does this happen?
The researchers suggested that anger may influence your belief about how likely it is that things in the world are threatening. The idea is that if you think the world is more threatening, you might see more threats in your environment than there really are.
They tested this explanation with a clever study. Again, they had one group who wrote about their daily routine while a second group wrote about something that made them angry. Then, they told people that they would see a picture flashed really briefly on the screen. They were told that, even though the image was flashed too quickly to know for sure what they saw, they should say whether they saw a gun or some other object. In reality, the pixels in the area around the person’s hand were modified so that there was no clear object shown when the picture was flashed. As a result, this test becomes a measure of how likely it is that people think there is a gun in the pictures. The people who were angry responded that they saw a gun on more trials of the study than the people who were not angry.
That is, the angry people thought the world was a more threatening place.
Finally, the last study in this paper suggests that the effect of anger is mostly on people’s snap judgments. In a final study, people did the same gun detection task. After they made their first response about whether they saw a gun or an object, they were encouraged to think about it more and to change their mind if they thought their first judgment had been a mistake. These second guesses were very accurate.
Putting all of this together, anger seems to affect people’s snap judgments by making them feel that the world is more threatening. Slower and more deliberate judgments are not as strongly affected by being angry.
Unfortunately, when you are angry, you often act on the basis of your initial judgments. If you are in a situation that is potentially dangerous, then you have no choice but to act on your initial impression. But if the situation is not a matter of life or death, then these results suggest that you should really slow down and think when you’re angry.
Many of us have experienced the situation where we are already angry and then a comment by a partner, family member, friend, or coworker sets us off. We respond more angrily or harshly to this person than we should. Part of what is happening is that this initial judgment has made the person’s remark feel more threatening than it really was. In these cases, it is better to slow down and think before responding.
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There has been a huge buzz around the new series Tidying up with Marie Kondo since it’s arrival on Netflix at the beginning of the year. Following the success of her book The life-changing magic of tidying up crowned the #1 New York Times Best Seller and sold in millions of copies, the Japanese expert reveals her infallible method to organize our living space permanently. The key to successful storage? Starting in the right order and keeping what is most important to you.
The basics of Marie Kondo’s method are first to throw away all that is superfluous, taking care to bring those objects to a charity and then storing what we want to keep. It must be done at once and as quickly as possible. The expert strongly recommends to follow a precise order: first the clothes, then the books, followed by the paperwork, then the ‘komono’ (a Japanese word which means ‘various objects’), to finish with the sentimental objects. To make sorting easier, she suggests holding each item in our hands, then wondering if it gives us a ‘spark of joy’. If so, keep it if not get rid of it.
Discover our inspiration board for Japandi on our Pinterest here, where our collections make perfect sense. Share your decor with us on Instagram using #mynexera
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The volume and distribution of water below the Earth’s surface is globally quantified in a paper published online in Nature Geoscience this week. The study shows that modern groundwater, that which has been replenished in the past 50 years and has an important role in the hydrologic cycle, accounts for less than one-tenth of all groundwater.
Despite the reliance of human populations and ecosystems on groundwater, the amount and distribution of this resource has not been well defined at the global scale. In particular, a global estimate of modern groundwater has been lacking. This is an issue as modern groundwater is more renewable and more vulnerable to global change than older groundwater stores that can be millions of years old.
Tom Gleeson and colleagues combine various datasets, including measurements of the radioactive tritium introduced to groundwater about a half-century ago due to thermonuclear testing, with groundwater modelling to estimate the volume and distribution of groundwater stored in the upper continental crust. They estimate that the total volume of groundwater of any age is about 23 million cubic kilometres, which is enough to cover the global land surface in a layer 180 metres deep. However, they find that modern groundwater represents no more than 6% of global groundwater. Yet, modern groundwater still represents the largest component of the active hydrological cycle: there is three times more modern groundwater hidden below the ground than surface water atop it, and enough to cover the global land surface three metres deep.
Additionally, the authors find that modern groundwater is spread unevenly, with its distribution depending on geographic and environmental conditions (for example, there is very little beneath arid regions). They conclude that identifying groundwater stores that have been recently replenished will help find areas that are particularly vulnerable to contamination and land use changes.
In an accompanying News & Views article, Ying Fan writes that “this global view of groundwater will, hopefully, raise awareness that our youngest groundwater resources-those that are the most sensitive to anthropogenic and natural environmental changes-are finite.”
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Hang your jersey along side the star players of Oakland Athletics on this personalized Locker Room Print from Name in the Frame. These individualized baseball prints let you enter your first name, last name, or nickname on the back of an Oakland Athletics jersey. Each of these prints measures 11” x 14” unframed, and 13” x 16” in its black composite frame.
Here are the steps to customize:
1. In the Personalization box, enter the nickname, last name, or first name you want on YOUR jersey (up to 12 characters, including spaces).
2. In the Personalization box, type the number you would like on YOUR jersey (select from 0 to 99). You CANNOT take the number of an Oakland player in the print. Your number will be 1, unless you choose a different number.
3. You may replace the players shown in the example print with different MLB players. To do this, type the names and numbers of three players on the Oakland Athletics’ CURRENT ROSTER into the “Comments” box at checkout, and the jerseys will be swapped. Please carefully review your SPELLING. The Oakland players in your print will be Duchscherer, Suzuki, and Crisp if you leave the “Comments” box blank.
Please check your spelling carefully, as we can not refund orders that are misspelled by customers.
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If anyone has one, a mind of winter, it’s Tomas Tranströmer.
I’ve been thinking about his poems lately, how each seems to place the reader in a crystalline picture frame full of snow. His ardent admirers now have even more richly deserved company thanks to his recent Nobel prize:
Interestingly, there’s nothing merely cold about these poems, however much ice accumulates in his Swedish landscapes.There is, instead, a consolation whose source is difficult to identify, even in the strange environment of “Below Zero.” It begins, “We are at a party that doesn’t love us.” Later in the poem, after a series of tortured if inexplicable complications, the speaker leaves the miserable party and its “cold colossi” and heads to another town where “Children are standing in a silent cluster waiting for the school bus, children no one prays for.” But then there’s the final image: “The light is growing as slowly as our hair.” Not an image of hope, but a sense that, slowly and inexorably, there is change and therefore also the gradual return of light to the wintry night.
But I have been thinking about how Tranströmer moves across media since I read and was captivated by “Schubertiana.” I’ll come back to his poems about music in a future post. For now, I’d like to notice the ways these poems seem to create around the viewer a kind a still life.Is this also a form of ekphrasis–not merely description or commentary but a way of entering the world of the poem to engage with it that includes the risk of becoming trapped on the other side?
Moments are hauntingly imagistic, like the wonderful “Six Winters” from For the Living and the Dead. Tavern Books has created a broadside of the first section: “In the black hotel a child is asleep. / And outside: the winter night / where the wide-eyed dice roll.”
The world seems to contract in these miniature scenes. In the first, the sleeping child in the “black hotel” (is it supposed to be ominous or merely dark?) is unaware of the way turns the living into creatures of change and risk, their eyes rolling like dice. The third section is similarly stirring: “One wartime winter when I lay sick / a huge icicle grew outside the window. / Neighbor and harpoon, unexplained memory.”
Around the reader, the frame is sealed shut. Tranströmer wonders if this isn’t the fate of both the viewers of paintings and the objects of an artist’s gaze, especially in “Female Portrait, 19th Century”:
Her voice is stifled in the clothing. Her eyes
follow the gladiator. Then she herself is
in the arena. Is she free? A gilt frame
strangles the picture.
The mystery of ekphrasis. Is this a painting I should know? Did he invent it? And what’s going on inside this strangling frame? Is the woman in the painting with the gladiator or is she a viewer captured in the act gazing? I’d guess the former. But even if she’s in the painting, her eyes, following the gladiator, transport her in the way a viewer is transported.
The danger of looking at a painting is the danger of being caught in the frame. For a poet, such transport is perilous.
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This cool space warfare game takes space games to a new dimension. Create turrets then protect them. How many levels can you move through? You can customize your background and will encounter thirty unique enemies along the way. Additionally, game-changing upgrades make every game different! Use your arrows or W, A, S and D to navigate, mouse to select. Have a delightful time playing Ether Space Defense!
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The Department of Computer Sciences prepares students for specialization 122”CS” in the field of IT. It was created in 2017 due to introduction of this specialization in ONAT in 2016.
“CS” gives the opportunity to get the complex set of fundamental knowledge in modern IT and to find a decent job in Ukrainian or International IT companies, including those with flexible schedule.
Students specialize in design and development of Web-oriented corporate and informational searching systems, software products for automation of logistics, CRM and ERP systems, Data Mining, AI systems, expert systems and development software for computer modelling and computer graphics.
Head of the department – Sergey Voronoi is the candidate of technical sciences, awarded by the Breast badge of MES of Ukraine “the Excellent worker of formation”.
The scientific interests of the teachers of the department are focused on such important problems as the development of theoretical bases and algorithms for the operation of multiprocessor computers for intelligent systems and technologies, the study of algorithmic support for intelligent systems for processing natural language information, the development of multi-agent systems with the ability to form distributed ontological knowledge bases from heterogeneous sources of information, the use of convolutional neural networks in tasks image recognition, methods of fuzzy search for character sequences in control systems of unauthorized content, neural network analysis methods of Big Data.
The staff of “CS” department provides high level of theoretical and practical disciplines for the students of 122 “CS”. Introduction of the newest methods and methodologies of teaching using modern information technologies is brought into teaching practice due to the active participation of faculty members in internship programs and cooperation with well-known IT companies.
Main disciplines that are taught in “CS”:
· Algorithmization and programming
· Computer graphics
· Computer schematics and architecture
· AI methods and systems
· Computer networks
· Intellectual data analysis
· Web development
· UI/UX Design
· Network software
· Technologies of distributed systems and parallel computing
Employees of the department take part in the educational work of the students of the initial courses of the specialty 122 “Computer Science”. There are meetings between curators and their groups.
The main objectives of the educational work of the department are: creation of comfortable socio-psychological conditions conducive to the formation of general cultural and professional competencies of students; the education of students of high spiritual and moral qualities and norms of behavior; participation in the adaptation of first-year students to university life.
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According to the World Health Organization, cataracts are responsible for 51% of cases of blindness worldwide - although this blindness is preventable with treatment. In fact, research shows that in industrialized countries about 50% of individuals over the age of 70 have had a cataract in at least one eye. This is partially because cataracts are a natural part of the aging process of the eye, so as people in general live longer, the incidence of cataracts continue to increase.
What are Cataracts?
Cataracts occur when the natural lens in the eye begins to cloud, causing blurred vision that progressively gets worse. In addition to age, cataracts can be caused or accelerated by a number of factors including physical trauma or injury to the eye, poor nutrition, smoking, diabetes, certain medications (such as corticosteroids), long-term exposure to radiation and certain eye conditions such as uveitis. Cataracts can also be congenital (present at birth).
The eye’s lens is responsible for the passage of light into the eye and focusing that light onto the retina. It is responsible for the eye’s ability to focus and see clearly. That’s why when the lens is not working effectively, the eye loses it’s clear focus and objects appear blurred. In addition to increasingly blurred vision, symptoms of cataracts include:
“Washed Out” Vision or Double Vision:
People and objects appear hazy, blurred or “washed out” with less definition, depth and colour. Many describe this as being similar to looking out of a dirty window. This makes many activities of daily living a challenge including reading, watching television, driving or doing basic chores.
Increased Glare Sensitivity:
This can happen both from outdoor sunlight or light reflected off of shiny objects indoors. Glare sensitivity causes problems with driving, particularly at night and generally seeing our surroundings clearly and comfortably.
Often colours won’t appear as vibrant as they once did, often having a brown undertone. Colour distinction may become difficult as well.
Compromised Contrast and Depth Perception:
These eye skills are greatly affected by the damage to the lens.
Often individuals with cataracts find that they require more light than they used to, to be able to see clearly and perform basic activities.
Early stage cataracts may be able to be treated with glasses or lifestyle changes, such as using brighter lights, but if they are hindering the ability to function in daily life, it might mean it is time for cataract surgery.
Cataract surgery is one of the most common surgeries performed today and it involves removing the natural lens and replacing it with an artificial lens, called an implant or an intraocular lens. Typically the standard implants correct the patient’s distance vision but reading glasses are still needed. However as technology has gotten more sophisticated you can now get multifocal implants that can reduce or eliminate the need for glasses altogether. Usually the procedure is an outpatient procedure (you will go home the same day) and 95% of patients experience improved vision almost immediately.
While doctors still don’t know exactly how much each risk factor leads to cataracts there are a few ways you can keep your eyes healthy and reduce your risks:
- Refrain from smoking and high alcohol consumption
- Exercise and eat well, including lots of fruits and vegetables that contain antioxidants
- Protect your eyes from UV radiation like from sunlight
- Control diabetes and hypertension
Most importantly, see your eye doctor regularly for a comprehensive eye exam. If you are over 40 or at risk, make sure to schedule a yearly eye exam.
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It's often said that there are two types of managers: those who manage things and those who manage people. And a great divide of misunderstanding lies between them, rarely to be crossed or reconciled.
The managers of things are those who see the world through the lens of stuff. They focus their attention on production, processes, projects, materials, milestones, methods, deliverables and details. They share an orientation with engineers who tend to focus on the what and how of life more than on the who.
On the other hand, the managers of people see things though the lens of relationships. Where managers of things see matter, managers of people see humans who happen to be working with matter. They focus their attention on culture, politics, leadership, teamwork and organizational designs.
In this conception, the people orientation is usually represented by senior executives, and everyone below them falls into the category of managers of things. The divide is often cited as one of the key reasons for difficulty with business/IT alignment. CIOs and CEOs talk past each other; they view the same world through different lenses, and each is unable to understand the other's perspective.
So which kind of manager are you? Be honest. You might pay attention to both perspectives, but most people have a primary and secondary orientation. We seem to come prewired with a bias toward one or the other.
If you honestly can't answer this question, you may fall into a third category. Over the past decade, we in IT have created jobs that call for an orientation distinct from either things or people. I call the people who naturally fit into these jobs the managers of abstractions.
Managers of abstractions see things through the lens of theory. Where most of us see projects and people, they see examples of theories almost as expressions of pure Platonic forms. (The Greek philosopher Plato believed that physical things drew their characteristics from abstract categories or forms in which they participated. So, for example, a horse was a physical thing that participated in the form of horseness and expressed the features of the form.) These managers are most comfortable with the world of the conceptual, with ideas disassociated from specifics.
They have titles like "director of project management," "chief security officer," "czar of quality" or "overlord of strategy." Where most managers are focused on ends, these managers are responsible for particular features of the means to those ends. Their jobs are to oversee the adjectives and adverbs, rather than the nouns and verbs of IT. While most managers are responsible for delivering products and services, abstraction managers work to ensure that other managers deliver efficiently, effectively, securely, consistently and appropriately.
Abstraction managers have hard jobs. They're responsible for developing and interpreting theory and applying policy to projects. They are always in danger of being viewed and -- perhaps more dangerously, of viewing themselves -- as a priesthood, as mediators between the temporal and spiritual realms. Their relationships with both the managers of people and the managers of things are frequently strained. Without the power to produce, they're frequently viewed as having only the power to obstruct on ideological grounds. That's why many project management offices are viewed as the process police and not considered the midwives of progress and productivity.
Can you find yourself now in this tripartite taxonomy of managerial orientation? Is your natural interest in people, things or theory? There is no right or wrong answer, but there may be better or worse assignments for individuals of each perspective.
As IT has become pervasive in business organizations, it has become increasingly important that technical managers appreciate the different outlooks. Working effectively with stakeholders of IT at all levels requires the following skills:
- Knowledge of your own natural perspective.
- Awareness of other managers' perspectives.
- The flexibility to view reality through all three lenses.
- The wisdom to reconcile the issues and options that differ between them.
If you develop the ability to recognize and reconcile all three perspectives, everyone will know exactly what kind of manager you are -- a good one.
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Ever tried to set custom properties for the terms in your site navigation. Recently i tried the same but ended up searching for a while, after a lot of playing around , found a way to set custom properties. Following snippet will create a new term, set the target url , catalog target url and also set a custom shared property.
NavigationTerm term1 = navTermSet.CreateTerm("Home", NavigationLinkType.FriendlyUrl, Guid.NewGuid());
term1.TargetUrl.Value = "~sitecollection/Pages/Home.aspx";
term1.CatalogTargetUrl.Value = "~sitecollection/Pages/Home.aspx";
term1.ExcludeFromCurrentNavigation = true;
As you can see NavigationTerm has a method to get the underlying term and then from there it’s straight forward.
Hope this helps.
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We have learned a lot recently about how the Universe evolved in 13.7 billion years since the Big Bang. More than 80% of matter in the Universe is mysterious Dark Matter, which made stars and galaxies to form. The newly discovered Higgs-boson became frozen into the Universe a trillionth of a second after the Big Bang and brought order to the Universe. Yet we still do not know how ordinary matter (atoms) survived against total annihilation by Anti-Matter. The expansion of the Universe started acceleration about 7 billion years ago and the Universe is being ripped apart. The culprit is Dark Energy, a mysterious energy multiplying in vacuum. I will present evidence behind these startling discoveries and discuss what we may learn in the near future.
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The Periodic schedule is an optional schedule that defines a recurring period of time when a machine will perform batch processing. You can create a Periodic schedule by specifying a day of the week (Monday, Tuesday, etc.) and the machine will perform batch processing on the specified days for every week.
A Periodic schedule lists batch processing jobs for which you must define a start and end date, and time. Each job has its own set of batch processing parameters that are independent of the other jobs in the schedule.
For example, you can create a Periodic schedule for a machine so that it performs batch processing every night from 20:00 that evening to 08:00 the following morning. Therefore, the machine would not perform batch processing work during the day when the users would be present.
In terms of priority, the Periodic schedule is between the Default and Supervisory schedules. If there are no Supervisory schedules for a machine, or the Supervisory schedule does not define the work to be done for a particular period of time, the machine uses the Periodic schedule.
However, if you have an active Supervisory schedule , the machine follows this schedule before it follows either the Periodic or Default schedules.
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World Teachers’ Day, WTD
World Teachers’ Day, WTD (October 5th)
Over 100 countries express their teacher appreciation by observing World Teachers' Day (WTD). The efforts of many parents and teachers’ organizations have contributed to this widespread recognition. Every year, public awareness campaigns are launched to highlight the contributions of the teaching profession. On 5 October, teachers’
organizations worldwide mobilise to ensure that the needs of future generations are taken into consideration in this increasingly complex, multicultural and technological world.
UNESCO inaugurated the 5th of October as World Teachers’ Day in 1994 to commemorate the signing of the UNESCO/ILO Recommendation concerning the Status of Teachers on the 5th of October, 1966. World Teachers’ Day also highlights the Recommendation Concerning the Status of Higher Education Teaching Personnel adopted in 1997.
According to UNESCO, World Teachers' Day represents a significant token of the awareness, understanding and teacher appreciation
displayed for the vital contribution that these professionals make to education and development. Teachers' Day should be internationally recognized, and teacher appreciation should be celebrated around the world. The principles of the 1966 and 1997 Recommendations should be considered for implementation in all nations.
World Teachers' Day provides the opportunity to draw public attention to the role of teachers worldwide as well as to the crucial importance of the role they play in society. On the 5th of October, 1966, the world's teachers made a giant step forward. A Special Intergovernmental Conference adopted the UNESCO/ILO Recommendation concerning the Status of Teachers, which, for the first time ever, gave teachers throughout the world an instrument that defines their responsibilities and asserts their rights. In adopting this Recommendation, governments unanimously recognized the importance for every society of having competent, qualified and motivated teachers. The international community thus recognizes that showing teacher appreciation is a positive and necessary yearly action.
How different countries celebrate teacher appreciation
A sad teacher appreciation story: Sakina Daudi
United Nations’ agencies teacher appreciation message on WTD
Back to Home: Teacher Appreciation
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Hack or Reveal The Hidden Password Easily
There is a way to reveal the hidden password under the asterisk symbol. The web-browsers like Firefox, Google Chrome and other browsers hide the passwords behind the asterisk symbol and we can easily view the saved passwords by using the built-in developer tools.
The Gmail login page on the web browser has auto-filled the username and passwords fields for the user. This is more convenient, since the user can login their account with a single click. All web browsers hide the password field under a symbol for the security reasons but there is an easy workaround that lets to convert those asterisks or symbols to the actual passwords and we don’t need any bookmarkelets or external utilities for this. This is same for all the pages like Gmail and other mails, social networking sites.
Follow the steps given below to reveal the hidden passwords under Asterisks:
Select the password under the asterisk symbol.
Right click on the selected passwords. Then select the “Inspect Element” under the options and click on it.
When we click the Inspect Element, a document inspector window will open. Now right click the word “password” to edit it. Then select “Edit Attribute”, now replace the word “password” with the word “text”.
After typing the word “text”, press enter. Now the user can see the password under the Asterisk symbol in words.
This method is suitable for all web browsers including Internet Explorer, Firefox, Safari.
While using Internet Explorer, press the F12 key. It will open the Developer Tools window. Then to activate the element selection mode, press Ctrl+B.
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Purpose: Although manufacturers recommend cleaning ophthalmic lenses with detergent and water and then with a specific disinfectant, disinfectants are rarely used in ophthalmic practices. The aim of this pilot study was to evaluate the efficacy of detergent and water versus that of bleach, a recommended disinfectant, to eliminate common ocular bacteria and viruses from ophthalmic lenses.
Methods: Three bacterial strains (Staphylococcus epidermidis, Corynebacterium straitum, and methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus and 2 viral strains (adenovirus and herpes simplex virus [HSV] type-1) were individually inoculated onto 20 gonioscopy and laser lenses. The lenses were washed with detergent and water and then disinfected with 10% bleach. All the lenses were cultured after inoculation, after washing with detergent and water, and after disinfecting with the bleach. Bacterial cultures in thioglycollate broth were observed for 3 weeks, and viral cultures were observed for 2 weeks. The presence of viruses was also detected by multiplex polymerase chain reaction (PCR).
Results: All 20 lenses inoculated with S. epidermidis, C. straitum, adenovirus, and HSV-1 showed growth after inoculation but no growth after washing with detergent/water and after disinfecting with the bleach. All lenses showed positive HSV and adenovirus PCR results after inoculation and negative PCR results after washing with detergent/water and after disinfecting with bleach. All methicillin-resistant S. aureus-contaminated lenses showed growth after inoculation and no growth after washing with detergent and water. However, 1 lens showed positive growth after disinfecting with bleach.
Conclusions: Cleaning with detergent and water seemed to effectively eliminate bacteria and viruses from the surface of contaminated ophthalmic lenses. Further studies are warranted to design practical disinfection protocols that minimize lens damage.
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PhD Admission Requirements
The following are admission requirements to the Doctor of Philosophy program in the Department of Electrical Engineering. The candidate should:
- Hold a baccalaureate degree in engineering, mathematics or the physical sciences conferred by a regionally accredited institution.
- Have a 2.75 Grade Point Average (GPA) on a four-point scale on all completed undergraduate course work.
- Hold a Masters of Science degree in Electrical Engineering or one of the related disciplines, conferred by an accredited institution.
- Have a 3.2 GPA on all completed graduate work.
- Produce original transcripts for all academic work completed at the undergraduate and graduate levels.
- Have GRE verbal and quantitative scores in the higher percentiles.
- Submit three letters of recommendation. These should preferably come from faculty sufficiently acquainted with the student to comment on the student’s potential to successfully complete the doctoral program.
- Submit a personal statement describing the applicant’s academic or professional accomplishments, research interest and professional goals.
- International students, when deemed appropriate are required to take the Test of English as a Foreign Language (TOEFL); a score of 550, or higher, is required
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Wong, Luis L. Unpublished Masteral Thesis, University of Nueva Caceres , City of Naga , 2001.
Keywords: Performance along operation and Maintenance of Naga converter Station
This study evaluated the performance of Naga converter station for the year 1999. Specially, this study sought to answer the following questions: 1) What are the work practices of Naga Converter Station personnel along operation and maintenance? 2) What is the level of efficiency of Naga Converter Station along operation and maintenance? 3) What factors affect the performance of Naga Converter Station? 4) What strategies were adopted to enhance the performance of Naga Converter Station?
This study was conducted in Naga Converter Station at Del rosary, Naga City and deals with its present organizational structure. Hence, this study focused on the performance of the operation. The respondents of this study consisted of all the operation and maintenance personnel of Naga Converter Station with a total number of 28 employees further subdivided into four categories: The executive (1 personnel), Operation (18 personnel) , Maintenance (7 personnel) and Administrative (2 personnel). The total or universal number of executives, operations and maintenance personnel were all used as respondents. The method used was the descriptive survey method and the tool-gathering data used by the researcher was the questionnaire supplemented by the unstructured interview. Results were statistically treated employing the percentage technique and the weighted mean.
Among the major findings of the study were the following: 1) The organizational structure of Naga Converter Station is well defined in terms of its organization and the duties and responsibilities of each personnel output and the technical capability including personal profile and work practices are the factors that define personnel profile is shaped by educational attainment, work experiences, seminars and related training, and work practices defined by work ethics, sense of responsibility and the will to give their best. 3) The maintenance group experiences difficulty as the attainment of maximum system reliability which has always been the primary concern of the electric utility industry bringing about work pressure, endless criticism for breakdowns, lack of manpower, low organizational status, and lack of spare parts among other factors that affect performance and maintenance. 4) To ensure the operational capability and reliability of an equipment or system, the degree of practice of all operation and maintenance personnel is considered a great factor.
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The Associate Editor handling a manuscript can decide to accept the manuscript provided it is:
- VALID as defined in the acceptance criteria
- Has the minimum number of independent reviewers assigned for the article type
- Is endorsed by a majority of the assigned, non-withdrawn reviewers
Acceptance of a manuscript can be decided by the handling Editor and does not require the approval of the Specialty Chief Editor.
Acceptance by the handling Editor moves the article into the Final Validation phase, during which Frontiers’ in-house Peer Review Team performs final technical and quality checks, including whether the review was performed adequately. Should the manuscript fail the final checks, it can either be put back into review to address the identified issue(s) or else the provisional acceptance decision can be overridden and the manuscript will be rejected at this stage without publication.
If the minimum required number of reviewers to endorse the manuscript is not met (usually two, and must be a majority), then the handling Editor must recommend to the Specialty Chief Editor that the manuscript be rejected for publication. The final rejection decision is usually made by the Specialty Chief Editor but can also be made by the Frontiers Research Integrity Team based on the rejection criteria.
See full Review Guidelines.
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In English, nouns can be categorized as countable or uncountable. Countable nouns are things we can count, such as "book", "apple" or "dog". We can make them plural. Uncountable nouns, also known as mass nouns, are things we cannot count, such as "water, "happiness" or "information". They have no plural. Here are some more uncountable nouns:
- milk, juice, flour, rice
- air, wood, plastic, steel
- love, anger, advice, wisdom
- money, news, music, luggage
Firstly, it is important to understand that uncountable nouns are always singular. They take a singular verb.
- The weather is nice today.
- The news travels fast in this small town.
Uncountable nouns do not have a plural form. This means that we cannot add "-s" at the end of a noun to show that there is more than one of it. For example, we cannot say "waters" or "moneys"
Uncountable nouns cannon be used with the indefinite articles a/an, which are used with singular countable nouns. For example, we cannot say "a information" or "a music". But, we can use partitive expressions to count or quantify many uncountable nouns.
- a piece of news
- a bit of advice
- a slice of bread
- a grain of rice
- There's some sugar left in the bowl.
- Do you have any flour left for the recipe?
- Much money doesn't guarantee happiness.
- I prefer my coffee with a little milk and sugar
- I don't have much hair. (uncountable)
- I found two hairs on my plate. (countable)
Post a Comment
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Sheehan Law Firm emphasizes in its practice consumer litigation and particularly claims under the Federal Fair Debt Collection Practices Act. The links on the "Attorneys" tab, above will lead you to information about our attorneys or to information about each of the areas which we handle. We have attempted to provide answers to frequently asked questions in each of these areas and links to other sites which can provide information about consumer protection laws, bankruptcy and social security. However, if you have a question that is not answered, please feel free to contact us by phone, mail or our message center. Before reviewing the information contained herein or using our message center, please read the disclaimer concerning information on this site and email transmissions.
This page answers commonly asked questions about your rights under the Fair Debt Collection Practices Act ( "FDCPA") given by the Federal Trade Commission.
If you use credit cards, owe money on a personal loan, or are paying on a home mortgage, you are a "debtor." If you fall behind in repaying your creditors, or an error is made on your accounts, you may be contacted by a "debt collector."
You should know that in either situation, the Fair Debt Collection Practices Act requires that debt collectors treat you fairly and prohibits certain methods of debt collection. Of course, the law does not erase any legitimate debt you owe..
- What debts are covered?
- Who is a debt collector?
- How may a debt collector contact you?
- Can you stop a debt collector from contacting you?
- May a debt collector contact anyone else about your debt?
- What must the debt collector tell you about the debt?
- May a debt collector continue to contact you if you believe you do not owe money?
- What types of debt collection practices are prohibited?
- What control do you have over payment of debts?
- What can you do if you believe a debt collector violated the law?
- Where can you report a debt collector for an alleged violation?
1. What debts are covered?
The FDCPA covers consumer debts. Consumer debts are personal, family, and household debts; and are covered under the FDCPA, if they are sought to be collected by a third party "debt collector". This includes money owed for the purchase of an automobile, for medical care, or for charge accounts.
2. Who is a debt collector?
A debt collector is any person who regularly collects debts owed to others. This includes attorneys who collect debts on a regular basis. One who collects a debt that is originally owed to him is not a Debt Collector under FDCPA. For example, if you borrow money from a bank for home improvements, the lending bank is not a debt collector under FDCPA, but if someone other than the bank, attempts to collect, that someone, with some exceptions, is a debt collector under FDCPA.
3. How may a debt collector contact you?
A debt collector may contact you in person, by mail, telephone, telegram, or fax. However, a debt collector may not contact you at inconvenient times or places, such as before 8 a.m. or after 9 p.m., unless you agree. A debt collector also may not contact you at work if the collector knows that your employer disapproves of such contacts.
4. Can you stop a debt collector from contacting you?
You can stop a debt collector from contacting you by writing a letter to the collector telling them to stop. Once the collector receives your letter, they may not contact you again except to say there will be no further contact or to notify you that the debt collector or the creditor intends to take some specific action. Please note, however, that sending such a letter to a collector does not make the debt go away if you actually owe it. You could still be sued by the debt collector or your original creditor.
5. May a debt collector contact anyone else about your debt?
If you have an attorney and the debt collector knows it, the debt collector must contact the attorney, rather than you. If you do not have an attorney, a collector may contact other people, but only to find out where you live, what your phone number is, and where you work. Collectors usually are prohibited from contacting such third parties more than once. In most cases, the collector may not tell anyone other than you and your attorney that you owe money.
6. What must the debt collector tell you about the debt?
Within five days after you are first contacted, the collector must send you a written notice telling you the amount of money you owe; the name of the creditor to whom you owe the money; and what action to take if you believe you do not owe the money.
7. May a debt collector continue to contact you if you believe you do not owe money?
A collector may not contact you if, within 30 days after you receive the written notice, you send the collection agency a letter stating you do not owe money. However, a collector can renew collection activities if you are sent proof of the debt, such as a copy of a bill for the amount owed.
8. What types of debt collection practices are prohibited?
- Harassment. Debt collectors may not harass, oppress, or abuse you or any third parties they contact.
For example, debt collectors may not:
- use threats of violence or harm;
- publish a list of consumers who refuse to pay their debts (except to a credit bureau);
- use obscene or profane language; or repeatedly use the telephone to annoy someone.
- False statements. Debt collectors may not use any false or misleading statements when collecting a debt. For example, debt collectors may not:
- falsely imply that they are attorneys or government representatives;
- falsely imply that you have committed a crime;
- falsely represent that they operate or work for a credit bureau;
- misrepresent the amount of your debt;
- indicate that papers being sent to you are legal forms when they are not; or
- indicate that papers being sent to you are not legal forms when they are.
- Debt collectors also may not state that:
- you will be arrested if you do not pay your debt;
- they will seize, garnish, attach, or sell your property or wages, unless the collection agency or creditor intends to do so, and it is legal to do so; or
- actions, such as a lawsuit, will be taken against you, when such action legally may not be taken, or when they do not intend to take such action.
- They will take any actions that they are not legally allowed to take.
- Debt collectors may not:
- give false credit information about you to anyone, including a credit bureau;
- send you anything that looks like an official document from a court or government agency when it is not; or
- use a false name.
- Unfair practices. Debt collectors may not engage in unfair practices when they try to collect a debt. For example, collectors may not:
- collect any amount greater than your debt, unless your state law permits such a charge;
- deposit a post-dated check prematurely;
- use deception to make you accept collect calls or pay for telegrams;
- take or threaten to take your property unless this can be done through legal process; or
- contact you by postcard.
9. What control do you have over payment of debts?
If you owe more than one debt, any payment you make must be applied to the debt you indicate. A debt collector may not apply a payment to any debt you believe you do not owe.
10. What can you do if you believe a debt collector violated the law?
You have the right to sue a collector in a state or federal court within one year from the date the law was violated. If you win, you may recover money for the damages you suffered plus an additional amount up to $1,000 for each violation. Court costs and attorney's fees also can be recovered. A group of people also may sue a debt collector in a class action and recover money for damages up to $500,000, or one percent of the collector's net worth, whichever is less.
11. Where can you report a debt collector for an alleged violation?
Report any problems you have with a debt collector to your state Attorney General's office and the Federal Trade Commission. Many states have their own debt collection laws, and your Attorney General's office can help you determine your rights.
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Stock Photo - Moon with deep space background
Moon with deep space background
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Find similar stock images by selecting any combination of the following keywords. Click on any keyword to search on a single keyword.
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Abstract: Early life adversity (e.g., maltreatment, neglect, divorce, poverty, chronic illness, etc), whether in rodents, non-human primates, or humans, frequently impacts development and function of multiple systems across the life span. The severity and direction (i.e., negative or positive) of these effects is sensitive to numerous factors encompassing gender, developmental age, sensitive periods, gene polymorphisms, level of social support, and social context. Responding to these insults activates allostatic processes by which the organism actively attempts to reregulate key physiological systems to maintain stable functioning within a biologically appropriate dynamic range. In humans, early life adversity initiates the following cascade: (1) increases the physiological reaction to stress; (2) increases the degree to which one perceives events as stressful in ambiguous situations; (3) poorer stress coping skills due to reduced emotional control and worse social skills. The cumulative cost, or allostatic load, of this process may lead to serious pathophysiology. Depending upon environmental and other factors, the end result can extend from changes in regional gene methylation, structural changes in the brain, increased vulnerability to sympathetic nervous system and hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal axis (HPA) hyper-reactivity, immune system dysfunction, metabolic and cardiovascular diseases, learning and memory deficits, to psychiatric disease. Alternatively, in the presence of certain gene polymorphisms that increase sensitivity to the environment and solid social support, early life adversity gives rise to an apparent resilience. While researchers have yet to establish why and how early adversity has such profound and long-lasting effects, any model attempting to predict and explain these observations must encompass molecular, biological, and social-cultural factors.
Bio: Paul M. Plotsky is Director of the Stress Neurobiology Laboratory and is the GSK Professor of Psychiatry. His research is focused on the interaction between genes and the perinatal environment in shaping the developing nervous system. Using rodent and nonhuman primate models in collaboration with clinical researchers, he has developed animal models of vulnerability to a variety of psychiatric and medical diseases. Extensive characterization of these models ranging from behavioral assessments to gene expression and epigenetic profiling, as well as neuromorphology have revealed fundamental changes in neurocircuits underlying perception and processing of environmental stimuli as well as the responsiveness to these events. These models permit a detailed analysis of behavioral, neuroendocrine, cognitive, structural, neurochemical, and molecular changes associated with these vulnerable states and provide avenues for development of new therapeutic interventions. Dr. Plotsky holds adjunct appointments in the Dept. of Psychology and at the Yerkes National Primate Research Center. He is also on the faculty of the Graduate Program in Neuroscience and the undergraduate Neurobiology and Behavior Program.
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OAK RIDGE, Tenn. – Oak Ridge Office of Environmental Management cleanup contractor URS | CH2M Oak Ridge is accepting proposals from area schools for grants to fund instructional science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) projects.
For the seventh consecutive year, schools in nearby counties are eligible to submit applications for the grants, which are valued at $500 for a single classroom, $750 for a grade or several classes, and $1,000 for an entire school.
The grants equip schools that may otherwise miss educational opportunities. Last year, an elementary school in Philadelphia, Tennessee — a town of approximately 700 people — used a $1,000 grant to purchase a 3-D printer for its STEM class. The students learned that patience, time, creativity, and persistence are needed when designing and creating materials with the printer.
“It takes time, work, and dedication to create the perfect product,” said Angela Bright White, school administrator. “Actually seeing their work become a tangible object allows students to have a bigger stake in their educational process.”
The 3-D printing system allows teachers and students to move the creative process from “popsicle sticks to awesome prototypes” that actually work, White added.
At Dyliss Springs Elementary School in Roane County, principal Jennifer Spakes received a $1,000 grant to help create a STEM materials closet to enable teachers in grades pre-kindergarten to fifth grade transform the classroom into a science lab.
“The STEM program requires basic science, math, and technology materials that we are unable to provide to our students,” Spakes wrote in her grant proposal. “Our goal is for our students to be able to answer complex questions, investigate global issues, and develop solutions for challenges and real world problems while applying the rigor of science, technology, engineering, and mathematics content in a seamless fashion.”
Leah Watkins, Roane County director of schools, said the grants encourage an “expansion of opportunities for students and create a great community partnership.”
To receive the latest news and updates about the Office of Environmental Management, submit your e-mail address below.
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I have an excel file with the structure as the below. I want to read data from this file. There are 2 ways to do that: - Using OLEDB to load to DB. But in this case, it seemly can not do that.
String sConnectionString = "Provider=Microsoft.Jet.OLEDB.4.0;" + "Data Source=" + ExcelFileName + ";" + "Extended Properties=Excel 8.0;"; OleDbConnection objConn = new OleDbConnection(sConnectionString); objConn.Open(); OleDbCommand objCmdSelect = new OleDbCommand("SELECT * FROM [Sheet1$]", objConn); OleDbDataAdapter objAdapter1 = new OleDbDataAdapter(); objAdapter1.SelectCommand = objCmdSelect; DataSet objDataset1 = new DataSet(); objAdapter1.Fill(objDataset1);
- Using Excel object. In this case, how can i know what last cell which has data?
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Measuring temperature is easy – and millions of temperature measurements are made every day. These measurements help people make sense of the world and help them make things in a reproducible way. And yet there is a fundamental problem with temperature measurement:
How do we relate the readings of thermometers in degrees Celsius or kelvin, to the fundamental concept of temperature in terms of the energy of molecular motion?
Together with my colleagues at NPL, I have recently carried out the most accurate measurements of temperature ever. The purpose of the measurements is to help with a future redefinition of the kelvin directly in terms of energy. In this talk I will bring along the ugly brother of the world’s most accurate thermometer, and tell you how we did it.
18:30 Refreshments, 19:00 lectures start
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Temple Master is a large adventure map that features many many traps and smart puzzles that are completely resetable, so no having to reset the world if you mess up!
- No client mods
- Many Redstone Puzzles
- Many Traps and parkour levels.
- Auto Resetable traps and puzzles, so no risk of damaging map if played properly!
- Checkpoints, even if you die!
- 5 Large dungeon like Temples to explore!
- All this in one easy to run package.
How to install Temple Master Map for Minecraft:
- 1. Download Temple Master Map
- 2. Extract and open the extracted files
- 3. Inside Temple Master Map folder simply click on Run Temple Master 1.6.2.bat
- 4. Open Minecraft and go to multiplayer.
- 5. Click on Direct Connect and type in the IP: localhost:5565
Macintosh and Linux users
- Follow windows steps up to step 2 and then open the Server folder inside the Temple0.3.0 folder.
- Once that is done, click OSX_Launcher.command or LINUX_Launcher.sh
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People have lived at Dinefwr for more than 2,000 years. Buried under the parkland are an Iron Age farm, two Roman forts and an 'English' town created by Edward I about 700 years ago. Still standing is the castle, created by the Lord Rhys and rebuilt over the centuries to leave the great building we see today.
- There have been White Park cattle at Dinefwr for at least 1,000 years
- They're mentioned in the Laws of Court of Hywel Dda, an early ruler.
- The king could be paid compensation in white cows for wrongs done
- Emblem of the Rare Breeds Survival Trust these beasts really are rare
- The word sirloin derives from these cows
- The number of cows, head to tail, would stretch for three miles
The family changed their name to Rice and began buying back the family’s lost land. By 1659 Dinefwr was back in the family and Edward Rice started to build himself a new house. Old paintings of Dinefwr show the castle standing in mature trees, looking down over spindly rows of young plants and the newly painted house.
By the 18th century these early formal gardens were gone. You can just see the remains of avenues of lime and chestnut trees among the informal clumps which were added by George Rice and his wealthy wife Cecil. They spent much of their time in London and were influenced by new ideas of philosophy and culture, especially the view that nature could be art.
Later in the 18th century, people of fashion adopted a more rugged approach to landscape design known as the Picturesque. The south and west of Dinefwr Park, with its mature trees and ruined castle looming on the skyline, provided a ready-made Picturesque landscape. It became one of the most significant parks in Britain, frequently painted, sketched and written about.
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Intelligence analysts often rely on facial images to assist in establishing the identity of an individual, but too often, just examining the sheer volume of possibly relevant images and videos can be daunting. While biometric tools like automated face recognition could assist analysts in this task, current tools perform best on the well-posed, frontal facial photos taken for identification purposes. IARPA’s Janus program aims to dramatically improve the current performance of face recognition tools by fusing the rich spatial, temporal, and contextual information available from the multiple views captured by today’s “media in the wild”. The program will move beyond largely two-dimensional image matching methods used currently into more model-based matching that fuses all views from whatever video and stills are available. Data volume now becomes an integral part of the solution instead of an oppressive burden.
The program is seeking to fund rigorous, high-quality research which uses innovative and promising approaches drawn from a variety of fields to develop novel representational models capable of encoding the shape, texture, and dynamics of a face. Instead of relying on a “single best frame approach,” these representations must address the challenges of Aging, Pose, Illumination, and Expression (A-PIE) by exploiting all available imagery. Technologies must support analysts working with partial information by addressing the uncertainties which arise when working with possibly incomplete, erroneous, and ambiguous data. The goal of the program is to test and validate techniques which have the potential to significantly improve the performance of biometric recognition in unconstrained imagery, to that end, the program will involve empirical testing of recognition performance across unconstrained videos, camera stills, and scanned photos exhibiting a broad range of real-world imaging conditions.
It is anticipated that successful teams will transcend conventional approaches to biometric recognition by drawing on the multidisciplinary expertise of researchers from the fields of pattern recognition and machine learning; computer vision and image processing; computer graphics and animation; mathematical statistics and modeling; and data visualization and analytics.
Performers (Prime Contractors)
SRI International; Systems & Technology Research; University of Maryland; University of Southern California
- Computer vision
- Image processing
- Pattern recognition
- Facial recognition
- Identity intelligence
- Computer graphics
Related Publications and Websites
The IARPA Janus Benchmark A (IJB-A) is part of the National Institute of Standards and Technology Face Challenges, an ongoing evaluation activity to support the face recognition research community. The IJB-A dataset and performance leaderboard is available here.
To access Janus program-related publications, please visit Google Scholar:R&D Authors
- Facial recognition improving at breakneck speeds'
- IARPA-Funded Project Advances Biometrics Intelligence
- Wild Gadgets Fit for a Real-Life James Bond
- Intelligence agency seeks facial recognition upgrade
- 'Soft' biometrics is the new way to monitor people
- Washington frets over 'Minority Report'-style facial recognition technology
- US Intelligence Agency seeks dramatic face recognition improvement
- US intelligence wants to radically advance facial recognition software
- Intelligence researchers seek to make big improvements in biometric facial recognition
- Intel Research Arm Wants to Tap ‘Media in the Wild’ for Facial Recognition
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We report on the investigation of four-wave mixing (FWM) in a long (1.3 mm) dispersion-engineered Gallium Indium Phosphide (GaInP) photonic crystal (PhC) waveguide. A comparison with a non-engineered design is made with respect to measured FWM efficiency maps. A striking different response is observed, in terms of dependence on the pump wavelength and the spectral detuning. The benefits and the limitations of both structures are discussed, in particular the trade-off between slow-light enhancement of the FWM efficiency and the conversion bandwidth. The time-resolved parametric conversion of short pulses at 10 GHz is also shown. Finally, the transmission capability of a 40 Gbit/s RZ signal is assessed through bit-error rate measurements, revealing error-free operation with only 1dB penalty.
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How to learn to sing on pitch
As mentioned in my post ‘Do I need talent to sing’ I finally found the time to write about learning to sing on pitch.
Some people believe that singing on pitch is something you cannot learn, you can either do it or you can’t. This is, however, incorrect. In fact, anyone (unless you are tone deaf) can learn to sing on pitch. It is just like any other skill, if you have the right teacher you can learn it and it actually doesn’t take that long. Below, I will explain how to learnt to sing on pitch in 5 steps.
- Experience your larynx
First things first, how do we actually change our pitch when we sing? If you imagine that your true vocal folds (true vocal cords) are your musical strings, like the strings on a guitar. The thinner the string the higher pitch, the thicker the string the lower the pitch. This principle applies to the voice as well. With higher pitch the larynx raises and it lowers with lower pitches. Finally, the true vocal folds vibration change with pitch. The true vocal folds vibrate very fast – from 100 to 1000 times per second, depending on the pitch. The higher the pitch the faster the true vocal folds vibrate. So, there are a few things that change with pitch: Larynx height, length of the true vocal folds and vibrations per second of the true vocal folds.
To experience your larynx, please put your fingers softly on your Adam’s apple (it is the first bump down from your chin), and yes, it is the Adam’s apple for both men and women. If you swallow, you will feel your larynx going up and coming back into its initial position – the resting position. If you yawn, your larynx will drop and come back up into its initial position.
If you now keep your finger on your larynx and siren up and down your range on ng as in ‘sing’ (just like a siren), you will feel your larynx move up and down with pitch.
Experiencing their larynx, is a first and very important step for students in understanding voice production and pitch control.
2. Don’t practise with an instrument
One of the biggest mistakes is to practice or teach pitch with a piano or other musical instrument. The piano has many overtones and unlike a musically trained ear, a beginner will hear all other frequencies the piano produces equally loud as the fundamental frequency. That is why they will not be able to reproduce the same pitch as the key you are pressing – they hear all other overtones as well and cannot judge which one they will need to sing. Also, they don’t know the feeling of when they are singing the ‘right’ pitch yet which I will get to. So instead of tuning in with a piano or other instruments it is easiest to practise with a human voice, ideally a female voice practises with a female teacher and a male voice with male teacher. Instead of singing a note and getting the student to match it, I usually start the other way around and ask the student to sing any pitch, usually in their speaking range. I will then match that pitch. Then, I will ask them to go up in pitch and I will follow them. Then I will ask them to go down in pitch and I will follow them. We do that for some time. They will get an initial feeling on changing pitch first of all and signing the same pitch as I do.
3. Employ solfege
As a next step, I usually work with solfege like do-re-mi. I will then sing a major scale while I am also using my hands to signal the pitch I am producing. I ask the student to join me on this. I have found great success in employing this with students and I usually start playing along with the piano too, but I am still singing with the student. With beginners, you will need to keep singing along with them. You cannot expect them to be able to just sing by themselves. It takes a few lessons until you can let them sing the scales by themselves. Research has proven that employing hand signals accelerates the learning process as the brain finds it easier to make a connection.
Like with anything, practise makes perfect. I usually ask my students who have never learned to sing to also train their aural skills. There are great apps out there that are for free. Although hearing pitch or recognising pitch is not the same as singing it, it is the first step in singing the right pitch. The better aurally trained the easier it will be to sing on pitch as well. Some apps will also allow you to sing intervals for example and it will tell you if the note produced was correct. This is something I will ask my students to do who have more or less mastered singing on pitch. Since it is a computer judging the pitch, the pitch needs to be spot on to actually pass so it will be difficult for beginners.
5. Pitch matching
Most beginners will not be able to tell you if they are singing too high or low in pitch if you tell them they are off pitch. This is where pitch matching comes in handy. How it works: I will ask the student to sing a random note, I will then either match it, sing a harmony or sing a note that does not harmonise with theirs. I then ask them if they think I am singing the same note. I will do that a few times and then we talk about how it feels when we sing the same note, when I sing a harmony and when I sing a note that doesn’t harmonise with their note. I then do the same with the piano, so they learn to hear and feel when their voice matches the piano and when it doesn’t.
These 5 easy steps above have not failed me yet in teaching someone to sing on pitch. If you want to teach beginners you will need to be patient and you will need to be prepared to sing a lot yourself. If you are, it will not take you long to teach them pitch. The reward for doing so is amazing!!
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- This lesson focuses on calculating the areas of rectangles. It is designed to enable adult students to successfully master basic geometry knowledge in order to achieve their High School Equivalency Diploma (HSED). Areas to be covered include types of polygons, quadrilaterals, rectangles; calculating areas of rectangles and calculating costs. Students can apply this knowledge to practical areas of their lives such as calculating the cost of purchasing carpet or painting walls.
- Remix of:
- Calculating the Areas of Rectangles
- Adult Education
- Material Type:
- Interactive, Lesson Plan
- Sandra James
- Date Added:
- Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International
- Media Format:
- Graphics/Photos, Text/HTML, Video
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A terahertz time-domain spectroscopy-based network analyzer
We present a terahertz time-domain spectroscopy-based setup based on photoconductive antennas and a femtosecond fiber laser for measuring the transmission S parameters of electronic devices. To this end, radiation is focused into horn antennas attached to the waveguide-coupled devices under test and coupled out of the device using a similar setup. The terahertz emitter is fiber-coupled in order to allow for flexible selection the measurement geometry. As test cases, the S-21 parameters of several H band (220-330 GHz) amplifiers are measured and show promising results. Also, the response of a W band amplifier is measured, marking the lower frequency boundary for this setup. In both cases, the measurements are compared to measurements retrieved using a commercially available vector network analyzer with frequency extenders, showing rather good agreement. Transmission measurements of "thru" waveguides used as a reference imply our system's ability to measure up to at least 2.5 THz, widely exceeding the bandwidth of currently available network analyzers.
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Galaxies started out low-mass and tiny, busy forming stars. At least, that’s what we thought until astronomers spotted an inactive galaxy dubbed ZF-COSMOS-20115, according to Futurism.
Just 1.7 billion years after the universe formed, ZF-COSMOS-20115 was already a quiescent, or “red and dead,” galaxy. It was five times bigger than the Milky Way is currently with all that mass condensed into an area that’s 12 times smaller than our galaxy’s current size. It had long finished its peak star formation, and no one can explain how that could possibly be.
“This huge galaxy formed like a firecracker in less than 100 million years, right at the start of cosmic history,” lead researcher Karl Glazebrook from Swinburne University of Technology in Australia said in a university news release. “It quickly made a monstrous object, then just as suddenly it quenched and turned itself off. As to how it did this we can only speculate. This fast life and death so early in the Universe is not predicted by our modern galaxy formation theories.”
The team discovered the galaxy using the giant W M Keck telescopes located in Hawaii, and their research is published in Nature.
Based on existing models, we assume our own galaxy, the Milky Way, was a “messy little dwarf galaxy with just 1/50th of its mass today” 1.7 billion years after the Big Bang, but the discovery of ZF-COSMOS-20115 challenges our long-held galaxy evolution models. Granted, the galaxy’s discovery has to be verified by other scientific teams, but if it is, we might be forced to completely rethink our understanding of how galaxies form.
“This discovery sets a new record for the earliest massive red galaxy,” explained Glazebrook. “It is an incredibly rare find that poses a new challenge to galaxy evolution models to accommodate the existence of such galaxies much earlier in the Universe.”
The next step is to follow up on these new observations with a sub-millimeter wave telescope. “Sub-millimetre waves are emitted by the hot dust which blocks other light and will tell us when these firecrackers exploded and how big a role they played in developing the primordial universe,” explained team member Corentin Schreiber from Leiden University. The James Webb Space Telescope, which is due to launch in 2018, should be up to the task.
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“Kids will be kids.” Many parents utter those words as their darling children turn on each other, pulling hair, pinching, and even punching. Is it alright to let kids fight it out?
Corinna Jenkins Tucker, Ph.D. conducted research to answer that question. Dr. Jenkins and colleagues from the University of New Hampshire studied 3599 children with a sibling younger than 18 years old, and asked them questions about sibling aggression and their own mental health.
Sibling Aggression Study
The researchers conducted telephone interviews with children, or with the parents of very young children. They made attempts to include children of all racial, ethnic and socio-economic backgrounds, and asked children about exposure to aggression from siblings. The researchers also tracked experiences of sibling assault with or without a weapon, whether the attack led to injury or not.
The researchers also rated the children on the Trauma Symptom Checklist. According to Dr. Tucker in an exclusive interview with Decoded Science, “[t]his check list asks about depression, anger, and anxiety. Items assess trouble sleeping, having anxiety attacks, uncontrollable crying, trouble controlling temper.” The research paper states that they measured for anxiety, depression and anger and totaled the results to provide a “total mental health distress score”
To avoid confounding factors, the researchers statistically controlled for exposure to other violence and “for parent education level, ethnicity, language of the interview, and child gender.”
Family Aggression Study Limitations
The gold standard of social research is to follow the same group of people over time; this longitudinal approach can better trace reactions to specific events on specific individuals at different times. This study of sibling aggression is better described as a snapshot of children who are different ages. Dr. Tucker states that “[c]ontinued exploration of sibling aggression over the long-term for mental health would be great”
The Results and Implications
Unfortunately, children who experience aggression from their siblings fare no better than those who suffer at the hands of children outside the family. Children who had a high total mental health distress score tended to be those who reported victimization at the hands of their brothers or sisters.
According to the researchers, there “are many programs to stop and prevent aggression and programs on parenting- rarely do they include a focus on sibling aggression. We think it should be included.” Parents must ask themselves why behavior is tolerated in the home that would be considered bullying if perpetrated by a non-family member. Bullying hurts kids, no matter who is involved.
Tucker, C. J. et al. Association of Sibling Aggression With Child and Adolescent Mental Health. (2013). Pediatrics. Vol 132, No, 1. Accessed June 21, 2013.
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Literary Analysis of Bless Me, Ultima
The topic of this book report will revolve around your understanding of your chosen novel (“Literary Analysis of Bless Me, Ultima” by Rudolfo Anaya ) and your own analysis of the events, people, and circumstances in the story. Regardless of what aspect of the novel you would like to explore, research, and write about, your paper must have a PURPOSE. HINT: when you begin your research, and definitely before you begin writing your paper, think of a these or focus that you would like to prove. Consider: what is the significance of the topic I have chosen? What will I try to share with my audience readers? What will I prove? What Idea interests me that I would like to pursue? There will be four parts to your research paper which are:
CONTENT OF PAPER:
I. Introduction (1 page; no sources required, but recommended)
A. Grabber focus of your paper
B. Questions posed-questions that you intend to find answers to
C. what your research seeks to prove; your intentions
D. Thesis statement
II. Background Information (2 pages; 4-6 sources-minimum of 2 print sources)
A. Historical aspect of the time period your novel was written
B. Historical aspect of the time period in which the setting of your novel takes place
C. How do these major events affect the way you read the novel?
D. How do these historical events relate to the novel?
E. What does the novel say about both time periods?
F. Authors biography & relation to these historical events
III. Literary analysis and persuasion (2 pages; 4-6 sources-minimum 2 print sources)
A. This is the part where you refer back to Part I and prove your thesis; you get to argue why your topic is significant and why the reader should feel the same way you do about your topic; you write this section as if it were the body of an essay
B. Be logical, reasonable, and persuasive in your argument using the research that you have gathered as well as your own interpretation and meaning
C. I really want to hear YOUR voice and opinion- however backed up by your research and findings
D. What do critics and historians have to say about your topic? Do you agree with the critics, or do you disagree? why?
A. What have you learned from your research?
B. Were there things you found that you had not anticipated?
C. how do your findings or your topic relate to the real/modern world- the world we live in now? Provide some examples & provide possible solutions to the problem
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DataSheet1_Tengdan Capsule Prevents Hypertensive Kidney Damage in SHR by Inhibiting Periostin-Mediated Renal Fibrosis.pdf
BACKGROUND: Hypertension-induced renal damage is a serious and complex condition that has not been effectively treated by conventional blood pressure-lowering drugs. Tengdan capsule (TDC) is a China FDA-approved compound herbal medicine for treating hypertension; however, its chemical basis and pharmacological efficacy have not been fully investigated in a preclinical setting.
METHODS: High-performance liquid chromatography (HPLC) was used to identify and quantify the major chemical components of TDC extracted from ultrapure water. Adult spontaneously hypertensive rats (SHR) and age/sex-matched Wistar Kyoto normotensive rats (WKY) were both treated with TDC, losartan, or saline for one month, and their blood pressure (BP) was monitored at the same time by tail-cuff BP system. Biochemical indexes such as urine creatinine (CRE) and blood urea nitrogen (BUN) were determined. Kidney tissue sections were examined with (H&E), and Masson staining to evaluate the pathological effect of TDC on SHR’s kidneys. After TDC treatment, the differentially expressed proteins in the kidneys of SHR were identified by the TMT-based quantitative proteomics analysis, which may provide the targets and possible mechanisms of TDC action. In addition, Western blot analysis, RT-qPCR, and ELISA assays were carried out to further verify the proteomics findings. Finally, two different models involving in vitro renal injuries were established using human kidney HEK293 cells; and the molecular mechanism of TDC kidney protection was demonstrated.
RESULTS: Seven chemical compounds, namely Notoginsenoside R1, Ginsenoside RG1, Ginsenoside Re, Ginsenoside Rb1, Sodium Danshensu, Protocatechualdehyde, and Salvianolic acid B, were identified and quantified from the water-soluble extracts of TDC by HPLC. In vivo study using rats showed that TDC effectively reduced BP, BUN, and CRE levels and attenuated renal fibrosis in SHR, and ameliorated damage to the kidneys. Proteomics and subsequent bioinformatics analyses indicated that periostin-mediated inflammatory response and TGFβ/Smad signaling pathway proteins were closely related to the therapeutic effect of TDC in rat kidneys. Western blot analysis and RT-qPCR showed that TDC markedly downregulated the mRNA and protein expression of periostin in renal tissues compared to the untreated SHR. In addition, TGF-β and COL1A1 mRNA levels also decreased in SHR renal tissues following TDC treatment. In vitro studies showed that low to medium doses of TDC down-regulated the expression of periostin in the injury model of HEK293 cell. In addition, medium to high doses of TDC significantly inhibited collagen deposition in TGFβ1-induced HEK293 cell fibrosis.
CONCLUSIONS: Major components from the compound herbal medicine Tengdan Capsule are identified and quantified. TDC effectively lowers blood pressure and protects against renal damage caused by hypertension in SHR. Mechanistically, TDC blocks periostin by regulating the TGF-β/Smad signaling pathway in the kidney, both in vivo and in vitro. Preventing periostin-mediated renal fibrosis and inflammation might be a promising strategy for treating a hypertensive renal injury.
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Minocha, Shailey and Reeves, Ahmad
Realism or non-realism: Design of learning spaces in Second Life.
In: Virtual Worlds - Best Practices in Education (VWBPE), 2nd Annual Conference, 27-29 March 2009, Second Life.
Full text available as:
The designs of learning spaces in 3D virtual worlds such as Second Life can have widely different degrees of visual realism. For example, it could be a replica of a university’s real-life campus or a fantasy space with undersea areas and airships. At the Open University in the UK, we are investigating the relationship between the visual realism of the learning space design, design of pedagogical activities, and learner engagement. In this presentation, based on our empirical research involving educators, designers and students, we will present key guiding principles for designing learning spaces in 3D virtual worlds and specifically the issues of realism and fantasy that need to be considered. We hope that the guidance and recommendations from our research will support educators and designers to design learning spaces that foster students’ socialisation, informal learning, collaboration, and creativity.
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Strength in Numbers: Nigeria & CDC Work to End Polio
The question seems so simple: How do you finish the job when success seems so close?
It’s being asked right now by public health officials in Nigeria, along with partners from CDC, as they endeavor to eliminate the last remaining cases of polio in one of the few places on earth where the disease still exists.
The question may be easy to ask. Answering the question is not. And that is the reason behind a new initiative called N-STOP. That’s short-hand for National Stop Transmission of Polio Program and it’s a key element in Nigeria’s effort to rid the country of a crippling disease.
N-STOP is a refined and specialized offspring of two larger programs that train disease detectives: the (international) STOP program and the Nigeria Field Epidemiology and Laboratory Training Program [PDF - 535KB] (N-FELTP). With help from CDC, participants in these programs learn critical public health skills such as how to conduct surveys to help answer important policy questions, how to detect and monitor trends in disease and how to interview people in the community to get a deeper and faster understanding of where disease is, how it is spreading, and how to stop it.
Those skills are now supporting the final push against polio. N-STOP officers receive additional training so they can plan vaccination campaigns that are critical to stopping polio. Just as critically, they also are trained to monitor for acute flaccid paralysis, a debilitating symptom that signals the presence of polio.
They also investigate polio outbreaks to better understand their root causes and to determine how to better respond in the future. Additionally, they reach out to populations outside of the public health system, including people in remote and nomadic settlements. Through these activities, N-STOP officers are part of the frontline force to detect and interrupt poliovirus transmission and strengthen immunization systems in Nigeria.
The reason for the effort is clear cut. Polio, a crippling disease that once affected thousands of children every year, is on the verge of being eradicated globally, an achievement that once realized will rank among the greatest public health victories in history.
But eradication means stopping every last case. It’s tantalizingly close. Only three countries remain where transmission of polio has never been stopped. Nigeria is one, along with Afghanistan and Pakistan.
This is why CDC along with Nigeria’s National Primary Health Care Development Agency (NPHCDA), the Federal Ministry of Health and Social Services, and the Nigeria Center for Disease Control created the N-STOP program in order to rid Nigeria of polio and improve the country’s immunization system.
CDC Contributes to a Novel Approach
A hallmark feature of the N-STOP program is its collaborative approach – CDC and other partners offer their expertise while recognizing that Nigerian health workers and officials are highly knowledgeable about their health system and the population it serves. A Nigerian health official shared that the program and the attitude surrounding it is appreciated. “Usually people [from international agencies] come to Nigeria to find fault, but with this initiative, you come with solutions and want to work together.”
Dr. Chima Ohuabunwo, the N-STOP program coordinator, states that with N-STOP, “We are boosting the public health workforce capacity in Nigeria in a way that is sustainable, and it is a good model that can be replicated for other health programs.” Dr. Ohuabunwo’s statement underscores an overarching goal of the N-STOP program: to create a sustainable, deployable, highly skilled public health workforce in Nigeria. Being one of the remaining countries where the spread of polio has never been stopped, it is critical that Nigeria be equipped to carry out the routine work involved in polio eradication as well as respond quickly to other public health emergencies.
CDC plays an integral role in building this workforce. One way is through our innovative training process. Trainees learn in a supportive environment, receiving a great deal of contact and supervision. Additionally, state primary healthcare teams and N-STOP officers train together, creating a sense of unity and camaraderie.
Dr. Hashim Elmousaad, a CDC contractor and internationally recognized immunization expert, believes that the applied training N-STOP officers receive is a particular strength of this program. Along with CDC’s Dr. Stacie Dunkle, he developed the training curriculum.
It’s comprehensive, including topics such as: routine immunization, immunization campaign management, and vaccine temperature management, a crucial and often under-appreciated element of a successful campaign.
Routine immunization at well-baby visits is the backbone of efforts to stop vaccine-preventable diseases, ensuring that all infants have access to life-saving vaccines. Immunization campaigns are conducted either to deliver routine vaccinations, or to offer a chance to “catch up” with missed doses. Management of these campaigns is a skill that must be learned. Finally, vaccines must be kept cold in order to maintain their efficacy and N-STOP trainees learn about optimal vaccine conditions and how to maintain these.
At each module’s training session, participants are given a six week field assignment to complete. At the following training session, participants and trainers review their field assignments, making for a highly valuable experience.
CDC is also contributing to the N-STOP program through our efforts to support the second objective of the Polio Eradication and Endgame Strategic Plan – strengthening immunization systems. However, in order to improve vaccination services, there must be data available. Crucial information must be gathered: How many children are not reached by immunization services? Where do these children reside? In order to answer these questions and more, Dr. Elmousaad is creating descriptive profiles of local government areas (LGAs), which are analogous to counties in the United States. In the spirit of building capacity among the Nigerian public health workforce, after completing several template profiles, he will transfer the task to LGA health workers so that they can foster ownership of the project and learn how the process works. Information from these profiles will lead to more children receiving all of their vaccines and receiving them on time, protecting them for life.
N-STOP Officers Making Progress
N-STOP initially started its work at the state level in 2012, when NSTOP officers were deployed to states that were either currently experiencing polio transmission or where the risk of an outbreak was high. Due to the popularity if the program, in 2013, additional N-STOP officers were hired to work in the 100 highest risk LGAs. Although the N-STOP program is relatively new, there have been several accomplishments already. In particular, there has been considerable progress in reaching out to underserved communities and learning where service gaps exist. Between August 2012 and July 2013, N-STOP officers conducted an on-foot census of LGAs and recorded over 5,100 remote settlements that had never been visited by vaccination teams. From this census information, they also documented over 1 million children amongst whom 63,000 had never been previously immunized against polio and they discovered evidence of prior polio transmission through the detection of 216 cases of acute flaccid paralysis (a surveillance indicator used to determine where polio has spread). Using the information gathered from their census efforts, in 2013 N-STOP officers provided vaccination services to remote settlements that are chronically missed during immunization drives. These accomplishments are in line with the second objective of the Polio Eradication and Endgame Strategic Plan: Detect and interrupt all poliovirus transmission.
N-STOP participants have also made significant inroads among diverse communities. They have conducted meetings with local leaders ahead of immunization campaigns in order to begin to build trusting relationships with community members. A testament to their progress is the huge demand for the program from states and LGAs that do not currently have N-STOP teams. Dr. Ohuabunwo describes N-STOP officers as “agents of change in their LGAs”, who are seen as “directly strengthening the existing health system with culturally appropriate technical teams.”
Another accomplishment of the N-STOP program is its use of data and research to drive policy. In 2013, NSTOP officers conducted operational research projects, including surveys of reasons why some families refuse or miss polio vaccine, evaluations of the new vaccinator training package and research into how to effectively reach out to nomads. The results of these research projects improve the effectiveness of the polio program.
Looking Toward the Future
Successful programs do not remain content with the status quo, and N-STOP is no different. There have certainly been achievements to celebrate, but CDC, the N-STOP team and Dr. Ohuabunwo would like to continue to build upon them. Future goals for the program include scaling up routine immunization support in LGAs that are still lacking access to regular immunization services, and expanding outreach to other states at high risk for polio circulation. Likewise, Dr. Elmousaad wishes to maintain the achievements made with routine immunization in 2013 as well as expand outreach activities and conduct research focusing on how to work with communities to encourage them not only to accept vaccines but to view them as an indispensable health service for their infants and children.
Ultimately, programs such as N-STOP are tackling the complexities of polio eradication efforts head-on. Through collaboration with Nigerian and other key partners CDC is helping to create a public health workforce in Nigeria capable of combatting polio and other vaccine preventable diseases so that children in Nigeria and beyond get the protection they deserve.
- Page last reviewed: March 4, 2014
- Page last updated: March 4, 2014
- Content source:
Notice: Linking to a non-federal site does not constitute an endorsement by HHS, CDC or any of its employees of the sponsors or the information and products presented on the site.
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Alliance Pickens is a public/private economic development organization whose primary mission is to attract, retain and increase the number of jobs and increase the tax base in Pickens County.
Founded in 1995, Alliance Pickens has a board of 17 members who oversee its program of work and help lead the professional staff in recruiting new industry and maintaining existing industry in the county. The following are highlights of its current work program:
- Automotive component manufacturing
- Advanced metalworking
- Plastics and Composites
- Advanced manufacturing
- Specialty device manufacturing (including medical devices)
- Small, Privately held firms
If you would like more information, please contact our office.
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A compound sentence consists of two or more simple sentences, grammatically independent of one another and generally united by a coördinating conjunction. Thus,
τῇ δὲ ὑστεραίᾳ ἐπορεύοντο διὰ τοῦ πεδίου καὶ Τισσαφέρνης εἵπετο
a. Abbreviated compound sentences, i.e. sentences containing a compound subject with a single verbal predicate or a single subject with a compound verbal predicate, are treated in this book as expanded simple sentences ( cross923, cross924).2163
Greek has, among others, the following coördinating conjunctions, the uses of which in connecting sentences, clauses, phrases, and single words are described under Particles.
A. Copulative conjunctions: τέ (enclitic), καί
καί, καὶ . . . καί
B. Adversative conjunctions: ἀλλά
C. Disjunctive conjunctions: ἤ
D. Inferential conjunctions: ἄρα
E. Causal conjunction: γάρ
Compound sentences are divided into Copulative, Adversative, Disjunctive, Inferential, and Causal sentences.
Herbert Weir Smyth [n.d.], A Greek Grammar for Colleges; Machine readable text [info] [word count] [Smyth].
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Walking down the food aisle in a pet store can be overwhelming. There are literally dozens of different dog foods available to you, each spouting specific health benefits. Which food should you choose? There are a few things to consider when looking at which dog food is best for your canine pal.
1. Understand the terminology
There are specific guidelines to what pet food must contain, according to the wording on the package. Understanding what these words mean will help you decide on the best food option. If the package says it is made with one ingredient, such as chicken, then that ingredient must make up 95% of the actual food. Likewise, if a combination of foods is prominent, such as chicken and beef, that combination must make up 95% of the food.
If you see words such as dinner, entrée or platter, the main ingredient on the front of the package must form at least 25% of the food. Where the label says “with” an ingredient, there only has to be 3% of that specific ingredient. For example, if the label says Dog Food with Liver, the mixture probably contains just 3% liver. Flavors mean there is probably very little of the actual food in the container.
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Founding member of V3iT, focusing on IT-related to SAP’s, Microsoft’s and Oracle’s suite of products using IT as a utility service model.
In the tech space, we have been fascinated by cloud, Internet of Things (IoT), artificial intelligence (AI), machine learning (ML) and blockchain technologies for some time, but a lot happened while the world battled the pandemic over the last eighteen-plus months. The adoption of these technologies happened quicker than we could have possibly anticipated, as they helped us counter the challenges of the crisis.
I was excited to see this accelerated transformation as someone who has worked with enterprise software for more than 25 years in over 100 global implementations from everywhere from Fortune 500 companies to the state, local and federal governments. Now, as we begin to buzz about the technologies of the future — the Metaverse, NFTs, Web 3.0, Quantum Computing, 6G — it will be fascinating to find out if they can reach the large-scale adoption of these current technologies.
The Metaverse And Web 3.0
The “metaverse” was first coined in the science fiction novel Snow Crash by Neal Stephenson. The idea is to create a virtual space to bridge the real and digital worlds to enhance the experience of both. Already, technologists are teasing how the metaverse could change everything we do from playing games to shopping to attending concerts to performing surgery.
One of the most compelling examples of the metaverse is known as Web 3.0, or the 3-D Web. Along with the advances in extended reality (XR) — which blends augmented reality, virtual reality, mixed reality to create a host of digital and physical experiences — this innovation enables the creation of digital twins, for example, to create spatial views of cities, buildings, convention centers, homes, etc., for efficient planning and better design execution.
A lot of this is already somewhat in use. Real estate and architecture firms offered virtual views during the pandemic with surging sales in that market, thanks to metaverse firms like Matterport and VPIX360. The government and technology sector has also converged in interesting ways to “make Smart Cities even smarter.”
With these kinds of Web 3.0 technologies, the metaverse could change how people return to work from the pandemic. Some will continue their professional journeys online. Some will be returning to work on-site. The metaverse could combine these journeys for a fully immersive experience. Imagine visiting Toon Town from Who Framed Roger Rabbit or having a real-life experience like Michael Jordan’s in Space Jam. With the metaverse, that could be a reality.
How To Join Web 3.0
Tech companies looking to get started with a Web 3.0 journey need to become fully educated on several technology topics. It’s a complex subject that has recently been tying in with several other technologies, so it’s important to have a strong understanding of these three areas, among others:
There are several other examples of the deployment of Web 3.0. Non-fungible tokens (NFTs), for example, represent real-life objects such as art, music, collectibles, videos and much more. They can neither be replaced nor interchanged because of their unique properties, similarly to cryptocurrencies, but NFTs cannot be exchanged like cryptocurrencies. Because of their immutability, NFTs could help eliminate privacy concerns on the web.
Quantum computing is in its infancy but could help accelerate Web 3.0 and the metaverse as a whole.
Present-day computers outsmart humans on a logical, “left-brain” level, but they lack “right-brain” functionality such as sensory input, emotion, empathy, intuition and other “pseudo-scientific” abilities humans may have. Quantum computing helps computers adopt those skills.
To understand quantum computing’s importance for Web 3.0, a simple example is the merge function when driving. Have you seen how a self-driving car of today struggles with merging? The reason is it can’t anticipate other cars’ intentions when merging. The digital representations made possible by Web 3.0 could remove that uncomfortable bump and smooth the travel to make it possible for self-driving cars to behave more similarly to humans.
Business leaders today already use cloud computing to the fullest use. Most public clouds provide cloud computing rentals for quantum computing in some form or another. Start putting those to use and lead; otherwise, you’ll be falling behind and waiting for the disruption to lead you into obsolescence.
The convergence of these technologies could soon be known as the Industrial Revolution 5.0. It could redefine our culture, society and economy. We are about to enter an era where individuals will regain control, disrupt the control that Big Tech and the government have over information, and, perhaps, give us the truest sense of freedom.
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Author(s): Hausken K, Hirshleifer J, Hausken K, Hirshleifer J
Abstract Share this page
Abstract The article shows that heritable quality differentials are consistent with the Zahavi Handicap Principle (the Truthful Signalling Hypothesis (TSH)). Earlier analyses have assumed non-heritable quality. The crucial innovation is the Malthusian equi-marginal principle: under selection pressures the relative numbers of higher- and lower-quality organisms will change until, in equilibrium, not the average but the marginal levels of quality will be equalized. Assuming kin selection, each male maximizes his own reproductive success and signals until the marginal value of more signalling is zero. We further require evolutionary stability; displacements to higher or lower population sizes must be restored to equilibrium. The article proposes an alternative to Fisher's [1958. The Genetical Theory of Natural Selection. Dover Publications, Inc., New York [Original publication 1929]] and Hamilton and Zuk's [1982. Heritable true fitness and bright birds: a role for parasites? Science 218, 384-387] suggestions. The model is solvable for ranges of parameters that constitute the stable region. We particularly consider the unit signalling costs of the high- and low-quality males, where it has been widely believed that for a TSH equilibrium the former must be lower than the latter. This article confirms our earlier result that this is not a necessary condition for a truthful signalling equilibrium, though the unit signalling costs of the high-quality males cannot be too much larger.
This article was published in Theor Popul Biol
and referenced in Immunogenetics: Open Access
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Here at Gaskell Avenue Dental Practice in Knutsford we know that the secret to a lifetime of great oral health is encouraging excellent habits during our patients’ youngest years.
At Gaskell Avenue Dental, we advocate patient education because we believe that knowledge is power. This is why we always explain everything that we do during our appointments and provide our younger patients and their parents with useful tips, tricks, and techniques that they can implement at home to ensure optimum oral health care.
Even though the milk teeth will fall out adult teeth can come through as young as 4 years old so it is important to look after all teeth as soon as they appear. Instilling excellent tooth care from the outset can help to ensure a lifetime of healthy, happy smiles.
Our top tips for children’s teeth
- Bring children to the practice from a young age so that they can get used to the sights, sounds, and smells of a dental practice. This will help to prevent any fear or anxiety about dental appointments in the future.
- Brushing twice a day with fluoride toothpaste to ensure that the tooth enamel can benefit from the strengthening properties fluoride can provide.
- Beware of the sugar and acid content of food and drinks especially those consumed between meals and before bedtime
If you are looking for a family-friendly dentist where your children can benefit from dental care we can give the team at Gaskell Avenue please call on 01565 633034.
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|Вестник самарского государственного экономического университета
Vestnik of Samara State University of Economics
|2022 №2 (208)
|Asanova S.S., Khilov D.V., Nekrasov V.V.|
|Exporter`s navigator as a tool for promoting a manufacturer to world markets|
|Abstract. The world market, being a combination of many national markets, is characterized by acute competition where there is a need for the formation or adaptation of effective tools to promote their goods. Entering foreign markets involves significant risks (political, financial, informational, business), and many of them can be removed already at the initial stage of assessing a potential foreign market, if the potential exporter has possibly complete and capacious information. In this regard, the relevance of scientific and methodological support of information support for the exporter is increasing. In the article, based on a comparative analysis of the best domestic practices of information and analytical support for exporters, the authors offer their vision of an analytical handbook that allows them to answer all information requests from manufacturers who have decided to enter foreign markets. The authors have developed criteria and requirements that meet the information needs of manufacturers who have decided to enter foreign markets. The proposed structure and requirements for the content of the exporter`s information and analytical handbook are based on the unity of approaches to obtaining information support from Russian manufacturers when entering foreign markets, they are universal in nature and can be used for various countries.
Keywords: concept, export, import, world economy, promotion of goods and services, support for exporters, export support tools
♦ the authors have proposed an analytical reference book focused on the search for effective tools that promote and distribute products on world markets;
♦ the author`s development of the "Exporter`s navigator" is the main link in the concept of information and analytical support for information support of domestic producers when entering foreign markets;
♦ the criteria and requirements that meet the information needs of manufacturers who have decided to enter foreign markets are structured, described and analyzed.
|Email:|| [email protected]; [email protected]|
|Сведения:||Svetlana S. Asanova, Dmitry V. Khilov, Vadim V. Nekrasov - Samara State University of Economics, Samara, Russia||9|
|Forward and reverse integration of leading countries of the world in global value chains and Industry 4.0|
|Abstract. The research subject is determined by the reconfiguration of global value chains in the form of changes in direct and reverse integration of the world leading countries under the influence of the processes of neo-industrial modernization of their economic systems. Using the techniques of economic and statistical analysis within the framework of evolutionary genetic and systemic approaches, the dynamics of indicators of direct and reverse integration of the leading countries of the world in the context of manufacturing industries for two periods of time, covering the twentieth anniversary of the current century, has been studied. The obtained results are substantiated by the influence of factors of participation of countries and industries in global value chains.
Keywords: global value chains (GVC), integration of countries and industries into GVC, forward integration, reverse integration, Industry 4.0, manufacturing, high-tech industries, reindustrialization
♦ the factors are identified and characterized that determine the participation of countries and industries in global value chains;
♦ the analysis of direct and reverse integration of the leading countries of the world in the sector of the manufacturing industry in the GVC was carried out;
♦ identified and substantiated dynamic trends in the development of direct and reverse integration of the economies of the world`s leading countries into GVCs under the growing influence of Industry 4.0 factors.
|Сведения:||Valery N. Minat - Ryazan State Agrotechnological University named after P.A. Kostychev, Ryazan, Russia||19|
|Assessment of the Internet attractiveness of the territory (on the example of the Samara region)|
|Abstract. The article considers the concept of the attractiveness of the territory and describes its types. The need to increase the attractiveness of the territory in the media space is due to the competitive struggle of territories for resources. And in crisis conditions, this method of promoting territories is the most optimal because of the possibility of wide coverage combined with moderate costs. The paper proposes a methodology for assessing the attractiveness of a territory based on its presentation on the Internet for potential users as a source of first impressions about the territory. A rating scale has been developed with an indication of the amount of points in each direction: website, social networks, specialized Internet resources. From the point of view of the attractiveness that the territory forms, such most popular destinations as tourism, investment and residential were identified. The author is testing the proposed methodology in the municipalities of the Samara region.
Keywords: attractiveness, competitiveness, creative economy, territory, municipality, territory development, marketing tools, media space, authorities, territory marketing
♦ a methodology is developed and tested for assessing the Internet attractiveness of the territory on the example of municipalities of the Samara region;
♦ the necessity of increasing the Internet attractiveness of territories as a factor of increasing their competitiveness is substantiated;
♦ the main types of attractiveness of the territory are identified and characterized.
|Сведения:||Olga V. Kuznetsova - Samara State University of Economics, Samara, Russia||28|
|Chebykin I.A., Palkina M.V.|
|Innovative potential of the company`s management personnel in modern economic conditions|
|Abstract. Modern processes taking place intensively in the world economy require national economies to constantly increase their competitiveness. The solution to this problem is impossible without innovations. However, despite a fairly active state policy in the field of innovations, the innovative activity of Russian enterprises remains at an unsatisfactory level. A study of the domestic scientific literature shows that a lot of attention has been paid to the problem of assessing the innovative potential of personnel recently. At the same time, the issues of assessing the innovative potential of managerial personnel have not been studied enough and require further study. This determined the subject and focus of this study. The informational, methodological and theoretical basis of the research consists of works by domestic and foreign specialists in the field of assessing the innovative potential of the company`s personnel. In the course of this research, various methods of scientific cognition were used. The article presents a comparative analysis of the approaches of Russian scientists and specialists to the interpretation of the concept of the innovative potential of the personnel of the enterprise in general and management personnel in particular. The purpose of creation and development of innovative potential of managerial personnel at the enterprise is established. The main structural elements of the innovative potential of managerial personnel are determined. A graphical model of the innovative potential of the management personnel of the enterprise in the form of a three-dimensional figure - cube is proposed. The intersection of the considered elements in this model gives an idea of: the state of the innovative potential of management personnel at each stage of the innovation process; the level of potential provision for each stage of the innovation process; an in-depth detailed description of all elements of the innovative potential of the analyzed enterprise. The present study develops the theoretical basis of the process of formation and development of the potential of managerial personnel of enterprises due to its innovative component. The conclusions and recommendations that have been received can be used to solve the problems of increasing the efficiency of using the potential of the personnel of the enterprise.
Keywords: innovative potential, enterprise management personnel, innovative potential of enterprise personnel, innovative potential of enterprise management personnel
♦ the absence of a single view on the essence of the economic category "innovative potential of the management personnel of the enterprise" has been established;
♦ the author`s interpretation of the essence of the economic category "innovative potential of management personnel of the enterprise" is proposed;
♦ a model of the innovative potential of the management personnel of the enterprise is proposed.
|Сведения:||Ilya A. Chebykin, Marina V. Palkina - Vyatka State University, Kirov, Russia||37|
|ECONOMICS, ORGANIZATION AND MANAGEMENT ORGANIZATIONS, BRANCHES, COMPLEXES|
|An alternative model for the development of organic agriculture: contract production|
|Abstract. The study is devoted to the search for an alternative model for the transition to the dynamic development of the production of organic agricultural products. Problem under consideration is a predominantly inertial and spatially heterogeneous development of organic agriculture in Russia. In this regard, there is a need to search for an alternative model for the development of the sector taking into account the balance of interests of participants in the value chains. The purpose of the study is the search for forms of management and ways of their interaction allowing to move to the dynamic development of organic agriculture. To achieve the goal, we analyzed (1) the experience of state support for organic agriculture in the developed and developing countries, (2) the data set of the Research Institute of Organic Agriculture (FiBL), the union of organic farming. The study is based on a synthesis of knowledge about the support of organic agriculture and the most popular models of export-oriented agricultural development. Scientific abstraction is applied in determining the main elements of the organic production development model. The results of the study showed that contract farming is an acceptable form of integration of an agricultural holding with small forms of farming, which should be united in communities. Such communities contribute to strengthening negotiating positions and defending their own interests within the framework of the proposed model. A sufficient condition for the implementation of the model at the initial stage is a favorable institutional environment that can be created by government bodies. At the same time, state support measures can be aimed at stimulating the interaction of economic entities by reducing export barriers to organic food and protecting the interests of small businesses.
Keywords: agro-industrial holding, state, integration, organic agriculture, contract, export Highlights:
♦ possible advantages and disadvantages of the development of organic agriculture based on the contract production are identified;
♦ an alternative model for the development of organic agriculture is presented uniting business entities;
♦ recommendations were given on the development of contract production of organic products, which could be used by government bodies.
|Сведения:||Denis G. Galkin - Altai State Agricultural University, Barnaul, Russia||48|
|Frantasov D.N., Balanovskaya A.V.|
|Digital maturity as the basis for strategic development and digital transformation of educational organizations|
|Abstract. Prerequisites and necessary conditions of digital transformation of educational organizations are considered. The role of the digital maturity of the organization is being studied, the level of the achieved digital maturity is being assessed. Based on the analysis, recommendations are made to increase the level of digital maturity of the educational organization. Directions are proposed to improve the strategy of the educational organization in the context of digital transformation to ensure sustainable development. It is concluded that educational organizations need to introduce a set of client services that ensure the success of student`s education based on the use of digital transformation opportunities. The strategic goal of the development of educational organizations is to implement the concept of a client-centric approach to provide a barrier-free environment for higher, secondary and additional education based on digital client services and a transition to management based on the university`s digital twin model and management decisions based on predictive analytics.
Keywords: educational organization, digital maturity, digital transformation, digital services, digital technologies, business processes, management decision support systems
♦ the achievement of digital maturity of educational organizations is a necessary condition for the implementation of digital transformation which in turn will ensure a qualitative change in the field of science and education;
♦ the processes of digital transformation impose new requirements to the solution of strategic tasks of the development of educational organizations, the priority is the implementation of the concept of a client-centered approach to ensure a barrier-free environment for obtaining higher, secondary and additional education using digital client services and the transition to management based on the model of a digital twin of the university;
♦ the tool for achieving the strategic objectives of an educational organization is an integrated service for providing a full cycle of training using a single platform approach with the possibility of automating any business processes of educational organizations.
|Сведения:||Dmitry N. Frantasov, Anna V. Balanovskaya - Samara State University of Economics, Samara, Russia||57|
|Modern practice of development of the sphere of physical culture and sports in Russia on the basis of public-private partnership|
|Abstract. The article is devoted to the study of the modern practice of the development of the sphere of physical culture and sports (hereinafter referred to as the sports sphere) in Russia on the basis of public-private partnership (hereinafter referred to as PPP). The paper concludes that there are financial, economic, legal and other problems in ensuring the availability of mass sports in our country, which do not allow to achieve the set indicators of the sports sphere and, accordingly, necessitate the use of PPP in this area. The conclusion on the expediency of involving the partnership in the development of the sports sphere of Russia is supported by a number of objective reasons of a financial, managerial, social and other nature. Separately, emphasis is placed on areas in the sports field, where PPP has a high potential for use, and the importance of implementing complex PPP projects. The analysis of the indicators of PPP in the sports sphere and its state support allowed us to identify the limiting factors constraining the disclosure of the potential of PPP in this area (imperfection of current legislation and law enforcement practice, the lack of uniform standards for the implementation of PPP projects, limited access to financial resources, etc.). Guided by limiting factors, measures have been developed aimed at minimizing / eliminating the negative impact of these factors, in particular, improving the regulatory, methodological, financial, economic and other support for PPP in the sports field based on the analysis of established Russian practice and best foreign experience. A systematic approach has been applied; statistical, historical, logical and other methods. The practical applicability of the work lies in the possibility of their use in making decisions to ensure the progressive development of the sports sphere of Russia with the help of PPP.
Keywords: sports sphere, PPP, state, private investor, project, investment, state support, concession agreement
♦ a study of the level of accessibility and funding of the sports sector at the present stage of Russia`s development has been conducted;
♦ the expediency of organizing and developing cooperation in the development of the sports sphere of our country through the implementation of PPP projects is substantiated;
♦ the necessity of implementing complex PPP projects in the sports field is argued taking into account the requirements for the distribution of risks and responsibilities, contributing to achieving a balance of interests of these parties;
♦ an assessment of the current state of PPP in the sports sector is given which made it possible to identify the limiting factors that restrain the disclosure of its potential;
♦ taking into account the limiting factors that restrain the disclosure of the potential of PPP in the sports field, measures are presented aimed at minimizing / eliminating the negative impact of these factors, as well as requirements for the organization of PPP in the sports field, contributing to the implementation of the principles of client-centricity and human-centricity of PPP projects in the sports field.
|Сведения:||Inna M. Shor - Volgograd State University, Volgograd, Russia||65|
|FINANCE, MONETARY CIRCULATION AND CREDIT|
|State digital financial control in modern conditions|
|Abstract. Recently, Russian scientists and experts in the field of practice have devoted their numerous works and speeches to the genesis of the digitalization process in financial and credit organizations. The corresponding regulatory and legislative framework and conceptual apparatus are being formed. In this regard, the purpose of the study is to substantiate the introduction of the category "state digital financial control" into scientific circulation. The work reveals its essence, its distinctive features. The article describes the main problems associated with the implementation of digital financial control in the context of the transition to modern information technologies.
Keywords: digital economy, digital ruble, digital control, tax control, treasury control, state digital financial control, Federal Treasury, Unified Information System in the field of public procurement
♦ approaches to the definition of categories of state control and financial control are studied, on the basis of this, the definition of state digital financial control is formulated;
♦ the main problems and directions of development of tax and treasury control in the conditions of digi-talization are defined;
♦ types of violations in the sphere of state digital financial control are revealed.
|Сведения:||Artem K. Zubkov - Samara State University of Economics, Samara, Russia||75|
|Самарский государственный экономический университет © 2007-2021|
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Teen Sexting Pt. 1: The Epidemic
Racy texts, suggestive posing, and naked photos are all a part of the sexting hierarchy. But, when underage kids start snapping and sending salacious images of themselves, the seemingly harmless activity can set off a chain reaction that’s beyond a teenager’s control. In part one of this three-part docu-series we explore the sexting epidemic that’s hitting schools and the serious repercussions it can have.
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“Alchemy” is a beautiful short film that tracks a year of seasonal changes in the American West through stunning 4K time-lapses of natural vistas. The film was shot over the course of a year by Henry Jun Wah Lee.
In nature, everything is constantly changing: the earth, the sky, the stars, and all living things. Spring is followed by summer, fall and winter. Water turns into clouds, rain and ice. Over time, rivers are created, canyons carved, and mountains formed. All of these elements, mixed together, create the magic of nature’s alchemy.
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While in deep dreamless sleep, our hippocampus sends messages to our cortex and changes its plasticity, possibly transferring recently acquired knowledge to long-term memory.
But how exactly is this done? Scientists from the Max Planck Institute for Biological Cybernetics have now developed a novel multimodal methodology called “neural event-triggered functional magnetic resonance imaging” (NET-fMRI) and presented the very first results obtained using it in experiments with both anesthetized and awake, behaving monkeys. The new methodology uses multiple-contact electrodes in combination with functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) of the entire brain to map widespread networks of neurons that are activated by local, structure-specific neural events.
Many invasive studies in nonhuman primates and clinical investigations in human patients have demonstrated that the hippocampus, one of the oldest, most primitive brain structures, is largely responsible for the long term retention of information regarding places, specific events, and their contexts, that is, for the retention of so-called declarative memories. Without the hippocampus a person may be able to learn a manual task over a period of days, say, playing a simple instrument, but – remarkably – such a skill is acquired in the absence of any memory of having practiced the task before.
The consolidation of declarative memory is thought to occur in two subsequent steps. During the first step, the encoding phase, hippocampus rapidly binds neocortical representations to local memory traces, while during subsequent “off-line” periods of calmness or sleep the new traces are concurrently reactivated in both hippocampus and cortex to strengthen the cortico-cortical connections underlying learned representations. But what is the neural basis of this hippocampal-cortical dialog, and how does hippocampus communicate with the rest of the brain?
For the very first time, Nikos Logothetis, director of the Department for Physiology of Cognitive Processes at the Max Planck Institute for Biological Cybernetics and his team used so-called neural event triggered functional magnetic resonance imaging (NET-fMRI) in both anesthetized and awake, behaving monkeys to characterize the brain areas that consistently increased or decreased their activity in relationship to a certain type of fast hippocampal oscillations known as ripples. Ripples occur primarily during deep sleep and can be measured with electrophysiological methods. Using intracranial recordings of field potentials, the scientists demonstrated that the short periods of aperiodic, recurrent ripples are closely associated with reproducible cortical activations that occur concurrently with extensive activity suppression in other brain structures.
Interestingly, structures were suppressed whose activities could, in principle, interfere with the hippocampal-cortical dialog. The suppression of activity in the thalamus, for instance, reduces signals related to sensory processing, while the suppression of the basal ganglia, the pontine region and the cerebellar cortex may reduce signals related to other memory systems, such as that underlying procedural learning, for example riding a bicycle.
The aforementioned findings offer revealing insights into the large-scale organization of memory, a cognitive capacity emerging from the activation of widespread neural networks which were impossible to study in depth before now using either functional imaging alone or traditional single neuron recordings. Capacities such as perception, attention, learning and memory are actually best investigated using multimodal methodologies such as the NET-fMRI method employed in the MPI study. It is difficult to overstate the importance of the study of the neural mechanisms underlying such capacities, as the vast majority of neurological failures actually reflect dysfunctions of large-scale networks, including cortical and subcortical structures.
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Strong economic growth in urban areas has not led to rapid urbanization in Ethiopia, possibly as a result of prevailing land tenure policies. We examine the economic implications of accelerated urbanization using a rural–urban economywide model that explicitly captures internal migration and agglomeration effects. Simulation results indicate that accelerated urbanization would strengthen economic growth, improve rural welfare, and reduce the rural–urban divide. However, without supporting investments in urban areas, the welfare gains for poorer households remain small and urban inequality worsens. At the same time, while allocating more public resources to urban areas encourages economic growth, it is less likely to benefit poor households’ welfare. Indeed, even though an agriculture-oriented investment plan slows economic growth, it is more effective at improving welfare for poorer households in both rural and urban areas. We conclude that combining reforms to overcome the constraints to internal migration together with increased investment in rural areas (even at the cost of urban investment) produces outcomes most conducive to future economic development and structural transformation in Ethiopia.
A CGE analysis for Ethiopia
International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI) and Ethiopian Development Research Institute (EDRI)
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There’s a special bond between kids and bikes that can never be broken. Riding a bike is a rite of passage, a passport to worlds beyond the front lawn. Bikes represent fun, freedom, and fresh air — everything that’s good about being a kid. Moreover, biking is a healthy pastime that kids will never outgrow. Here are some of the other benefits of cycling:
- Developing strength, balance, and overall fitness
- Burning up calories
- Strengthening the heart, lungs, and lower-body muscles and bones
- Developing and strengthening the muscles surrounding the knees without impac
But biking boasts other benefits as well. Children of all shapes, sizes, and abilities can ride a bike. Most important, bicycling is a healthy outdoor activity that the entire family can enjoy together.
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[xsd-users] xsd inheretance at generated code
uri at hyperroll.com
Sun Jun 10 01:36:00 EDT 2007
please review the following case:
1. xsd abstract type "shape".
2. both xsd type "triangle" and type "square" are an extension of "shape".
at the generated code will get:
1. class shape
2. classes triangle and square, both inherited shape.
in case i have a container which holds "shape" class descendant objects. what would be the best way to get random element's type.
note: both "triangle" and "square" does not have and attribute (i.e., class member) which holds object type.
More information about the xsd-users
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Plays a key role in the sexual differentiation of germ cells by promoting the male fate but suppressing the female fate. Represses the female fate pathways by suppressing meiosis, which in turn results in the promotion of the male fate. Maintains the suppression of meiosis by preventing STRA8 expression, which is required for premeiotic DNA replication, after CYP26B1 is decreased. Regulates the localization of the CCR4-NOT deadenylation complex to P-bodies and plays a role in recruiting the complex to trigger the degradation of mRNAs involved in meiosis. Required for the maintenance of the spermatogonial stem cell population. Not essential for the assembly of P-bodies but is required for the maintenance of their normal state (By similarity).
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