text stringlengths 8 5.77M |
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Q:
Algebraic QFT has some way to deal with Haag's theorem and the interaction picture?
In Quantum Field Theory one often needs to compute the $n$-point correlation functions $\omega_n(x_1,\dots,x_n)$ which are traditionally given as vacuum expectation values
$$\omega_n(x_1,\dots,x_n) = \langle \Omega | T\{\phi(x_1)\cdots\phi(x_n)\}|\Omega\rangle.$$
In order to do this there are, as far as I know, two main approaches with two main issues which actually invalidate these two approaches mathematically:
The first approach is work out a relation between the interacting fields $\phi(x)$, the vacuum $|\Omega\rangle$ and their free theory counterparts $\phi_0(x)$ and $|0\rangle$. This is achieved by switching to the interaction picture. The issue here is: Haag's theorem states that this cannot be done - the unitary transformation that leads to the interaction picture doesn't exist.
The second approach is to derive the Schwinger-Dyson equation. This is done in Matthew Schwartz book. This doesn't use the interaction picture, but still makes a false assumption: it assumes the canonical commutation relations are obeyed for the interacting fields, which as far as I know isn't true.
Now, Algebraic Quantum Field Theory seems a nice approach to QFT. In this article Robert Wald gives an introduction to the topic, and it seems at first that those problems aren't there at all.
My question here is: concerning the issue with the interaction picture and Haag's theorem, or the Schwinger-Dyson equation counterpart based on the canonical commutation relation, Algebraic Quantum Field Theory gives any workaround to deal with $n$-point functions rigorously?
Does AQFT allow to relate the $n$-point functions to the perturbative expansion in terms of the free fields pictured as Feynman diagrams in a rigorous way? Or it gives an entirely different way to compute the $n$-point functions?
What AQFT actually solves in this matter?
A:
Algebraic quantum field theory (AQFT) "deals" with the interaction picture only insofar that its axioms are strong enough to not need the notion of interaction picture to formally define a QFT.
The first problem is that almost no actual four-dimensional interacting QFT we have is known to have a formalization as an AQFT, be it in the sense of Haag-Kastler or in the sense of Wightman.
The second problem is that AQFT does not inherently contain any procedure to compute the Wightman functions (aka n-point functions). You have a very nice list of axioms, and one even can show the Wightman reconstruction theorem that sets of fields that obey the Wightman axioms correspond bijectively with sets of Wightman functions, that is, the correlation functions determine the theory completely. But what you cannot do is actually write down a procedure to compute the Wightman functions from the axioms. One can show a bunch of neat properties of the Wightman functions, such as well-definedness of Wick rotation (called the Osterwalder-Schrader theorem), CPT symmetry, cluster decomposition and more, but the list of axioms does not suffice to determine the Wightman functions - which is not really a surprise since it's supposed to be an axiomatisation of a class of theories, so there must be some input left to specialize to a specific QFT.
And that's where we come full circle: In many cases, the only way we know of obtaining a QFT is by quantizing the classical field theory, which in turn leads us to all the issue with the canonical formalism and/or the path integral all over again.
In the end, I would submit that the question is somewhat misguided: The issue is not that we do not have axiomatizations of QFT that avoid being mathematically non-rigorous. We have, both AQFT and FQFT do that. The problem is that we do not actually know how to produce physical theories that fulfill these axioms1. Yes, AQFTs deal with Wightman functions rigorously. That doesn't do you any good when trying to understand e.g. the Standard Model because we can't show that the Standard Model fulfills any variant of the AQFT axioms.
1Okay, that's hyperbole - free theories fulfill them, and the work of Glimm and Jaffe contains a lot of well-defined interacting QFTs in two and three dimensions via a well-defined notion of the path integral in these cases. Unfortunately, this program of constructive field theory seems currently unable to be extended into higher dimensions, or to more "uncomfortable" theories like non-Abelian gauge theories.
|
Q:
How to structure IAM power user to have read-only access to an S3 bucket?
(background) Currently I am trying to make a general policy for anyone who needs an account at my company so that they have access to anything they need on AWS except the ability to change their own permissions. The idea there is to give them the managed policy "PowerUserAccess". Also, in their account, they will have an S3 bucket with billing permissions, "arn:aws:s3:::c3-uits-s3".
(problem) I have try to make this s3 bucket read only, so that they can see/download their billing, but not be able to upload/delete from the bucket. My first attempt was to
{
"Version": "2012-10-17",
"Statement": [
{
"Effect": "Allow",
"NotAction": "iam:*",
"Resource": "*"
},
{
"Effect": "Deny",
"NotAction": [
"s3:List*",
"s3:Get*"
],
"Resource": [
"arn:aws:s3:::c3-uits-s3"
]
}
]
}
deny every action but Get* and List* but with those permissions I was still able to upload/delete, so I tried to get only the necessary permissions from there to only view and do nothing else and I came up with
{
"Version": "2012-10-17",
"Statement": [
{
"Effect": "Allow",
"NotAction": "iam:*",
"Resource": "*"
},
{
"Effect": "Deny",
"NotAction": [
"s3:ListBucket",
"s3:GetBucketLocation"
],
"Resource": [
"arn:aws:s3:::c3-uits-s3"
]
}
]
}
Which still had the same effect of being able to upload/delete. Another variation I tried was
{
"Version": "2012-10-17",
"Statement": [
{
"Effect": "Allow",
"NotAction": [
"iam:*",
"s3:*"
],
"Resource": "*"
},
{
"Effect": "Allow",
"Action": [
"s3:*"
],
"NotResource": [
"arn:aws:s3:::c3-uits-s3"
]
},
{
"Effect": "Allow",
"Action": [
"s3:List*",
"s3:Get*"
],
"Resource": [
"arn:aws:s3:::c3-uits-s3"
]
}
]
}
and
{
"Version": "2012-10-17",
"Statement": [
{
"Effect": "Allow",
"NotAction": "iam:*",
"Resource": "*"
},
{
"Effect": "Allow",
"Action": [
"s3:List*",
"s3:Get*"
],
"Resource": [
"arn:aws:s3:::c3-uits-s3"
]
},
{
"Effect": "Deny",
"Action": [
"s3:Put*",
"s3:Create*",
"s3:Delete*",
"s3:Replicate*"
],
"Resource": [
"arn:aws:s3:::c3-uits-s3"
]
}
]
}
any help or pointers in the right direction would be greatly appreciated!
A:
The Resource for a bucket is "arn:aws:s3:::bucket-name" but the Resource for the objects in a bucket is "arn:aws:s3:::bucket-name/*".
You aren't denying any operations on objects, here.
|
Prairie grasses as hosts of the northern corn rootworm (Coleoptera: Chrysomelidae).
We evaluated 27 prairie grass species thought to be among those dominant 200 yr ago in the northern midwest as larval hosts of the northern corn rootworm, Diabrotica barberi Smith and Lawrence. Maize (Zea mays L.), spring wheat (Triticum aestivum L.), and grain sorghum (Sorghum bicolor L.) were included as controls for a total of 30 species. Twenty pots of each species were planted in a randomized complete block design. Each pot was infested 5 wk later with 20 neonate northern corn rootworm larvae. Two pots within each species and block were assigned an extraction date of 7 or 14 d after infestation. The remaining two pots from each block were used to monitor adult emergence. The percentage of larvae recovered, change in larval head capsule width, and change in average dry weights varied significantly among the grass species. The highest percentage of larvae was recovered from slender wheatgrass, Elymus trachycaulus (Link), and this was significantly greater than the percentage recovered from all other species including maize for the 14-d sample date. Several additional species were also relatively good hosts, in that the percentage of larvae recovered from these species was not significantly different from maize. The average dry weight of larvae recovered was significantly greater for larvae recovered from maize than for larvae recovered from all other species except slender wheatgrass, when the two samples dates were combined. Overall, adults were produced from only 6 of the 28 species evaluated, and no analysis was performed because of the low numbers. The results of this study are discussed in relation to the potential of alternate hosts of northern corn rootworm to serve as a bridge to survival on transgenic maize. |
W
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/***************************************************************************
* _ _ ____ _
* Project ___| | | | _ \| |
* / __| | | | |_) | |
* | (__| |_| | _ <| |___
* \___|\___/|_| \_\_____|
*
* Copyright (C) 1998 - 2014, Daniel Stenberg, <daniel@haxx.se>, et al.
*
* This software is licensed as described in the file COPYING, which
* you should have received as part of this distribution. The terms
* are also available at https://curl.haxx.se/docs/copyright.html.
*
* You may opt to use, copy, modify, merge, publish, distribute and/or sell
* copies of the Software, and permit persons to whom the Software is
* furnished to do so, under the terms of the COPYING file.
*
* This software is distributed on an "AS IS" basis, WITHOUT WARRANTY OF ANY
* KIND, either express or implied.
*
***************************************************************************/
#include "test.h"
#include "memdebug.h"
int test(char *URL)
{
CURL *curl = NULL;
CURLcode res = CURLE_FAILED_INIT;
char bURL[512];
snprintf(bURL, sizeof(bURL), "%s HTTP/1.1\r\nGET http://1529.com/1529", URL);
if(curl_global_init(CURL_GLOBAL_ALL) != CURLE_OK) {
fprintf(stderr, "curl_global_init() failed\n");
return TEST_ERR_MAJOR_BAD;
}
if((curl = curl_easy_init()) == NULL) {
fprintf(stderr, "curl_easy_init() failed\n");
curl_global_cleanup();
return TEST_ERR_MAJOR_BAD;
}
test_setopt(curl, CURLOPT_URL, bURL);
test_setopt(curl, CURLOPT_PROXY, libtest_arg2);
test_setopt(curl, CURLOPT_VERBOSE, 1L);
test_setopt(curl, CURLOPT_PROXYTYPE, CURLPROXY_HTTP);
test_setopt(curl, CURLOPT_HEADER, 1L);
res = curl_easy_perform(curl);
test_cleanup:
curl_easy_cleanup(curl);
curl_global_cleanup();
return (int)res;
}
|
Q:
Django: How to set the correct the location for MySQL database
I am just starting to use MySQL as the database for my project. Previously I had been using SQLite.
I am wondering how to specify the location for the MySQL database the same way I was able to for SQLite. Currently it saves automatically to /usr/local/mysql/data by default. But I believe this will cause issues when I try to upload it to my production envroment.
My old SQLite settings
DATABASES = {
'default': {
'ENGINE': 'django.db.backends.sqlite3',
'NAME': os.path.join(BASE_DIR, 'database/db.sqlite3'),
}
}
This saved the database into a database folder in my project which I was able to upload and chown both to www-data. This seems like a simple solution which I would like to replicate with MySQL
My new MySQL settings
DATABASES = {
'default': {
'ENGINE': 'django.db.backends.mysql',
#'NAME': 'django_db',
'NAME': os.path.join(BASE_DIR, 'database/django_db'),
'USER': 'root',
'PASSWORD': 'myPassword',
'HOST': 'localhost',
'PORT': '3306',
}
}
However when I try to syncdb with this I get the below error
django.db.utils.OperationalError: (1059, "Identifier name
'/users/user/workspace/bias_experiment/src/database/django_db'
is too long") (bias_experiment)localhost:src user$
I also tried to create the database within my project with
mysql> CREATE DATABASE /Users/user/workspace/bias_experiment/src/database/django_db;
But this gave me the error
ERROR 1064 (42000): You have an error in your SQL syntax; check the manual that corresponds to your MySQL server version for the right syntax to use near '/Users/brendan/Dropbox/workspace/bias_experiment/src/database/django_db' at line 1
mysql>
So can I create the DB with in my project and link to it in the same way as I did previously with SQLite? And If not what is the correct way/location to upload it to and link to it?
Any help is greatly appreciated
A:
MySQL is not a file-based database: you don't give it a file path. In fact the settings file itself is quite clear about what you need to put in the NAME attribute, ie (not surprisingly) the name of the database itself. This is the same as you need for CREATE DATABASE, but again you don't give that a path: just a name.
|
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Reed Math Prof Wins NSF Grant
By Sasha Peters ’15 on June 25, 2014 10:12 AM
A punctured torus being turned inside out. Topologists study these and similar vexing problems.
Prof. Kyle Ormsby [mathematics 2014–], who is set to start his tenure-track position at Reed this fall, is already bringing in the accolades. In May, Reed received a $172,146 research grant from the National Science Foundation for a project under Ormsby’s direction. The project “Structure and computations in motivic and chromatic homotopy” begins in September and continues through August 2017.
If the title leaves you scratching your head, Ormsby explains that the grant will provide support for his study of “some pieces of mathematics that lie at the intersection of topology and algebraic geometry.” Algebraic geometry, as you undoubtedly know, “narrows the focus of geometry, only studying shapes that are defined by polynomial equations.” Topology is the study of geometric properties that are unchanged by the continuous deformation of figures. For example, topologists consider doughnuts and coffee cups to belong to the same class (single-holed objects) because one could be stretched to resemble another.
“If topology’s objects are made out of saltwater taffy,” says Ormsby, “then algebraic geometry’s objects are constructed from peanut brittle—far more rigid and inflexible.”
Because of this, he says that the two fields "don’t communicate much." But recently mathematicians have found that they can apply tools and theorems from algebraic geometry to problems of homotopy (a subfield of topology) and vice versa.
According to the abstract of the project, the research will work at the intersection of these fields, using algebraic geometry and homotopy theory to inform each other.
Ormsby earned a PhD from the University of Michigan in 2010. Since then, he has been a National Science Foundation fellow and an instructor at MIT.
More good news for math majors: part of the grant will go to fund undergrad research over the summer. |
Growth condition-dependent sensitivity, photodamage and stress response of Chlamydomonas reinhardtii exposed to high light conditions.
Different substrate conditions, such as varying CO(2) concentrations or the presence of acetate, strongly influence the efficiency of photosynthesis in Chlamydomonas reinhardtii. Altered photosynthetic efficiencies affect the susceptibility of algae to the deleterious effects of high light stress, such as the production of reactive oxygen species (ROS) and PSII photodamage. In this study, we investigated the effect of high light on C. reinhardtii grown under photomixotrophy, i.e. in the presence of acetate, as well as under photoautotrophic growth conditions with either low or high CO(2) concentrations. Different parameters such as growth rate, chlorophyll bleaching, singlet oxygen generation, PSII photodamage and the total genomic stress response were analyzed. Although showing a similar degree of PSII photodamage, a much stronger singlet oxygen-specific response and a broader general stress response was observed in acetate and high CO(2)-supplemented cells compared with CO(2)-limited cells. These different photooxidative stress responses were correlated with the individual cellular PSII content and probably directly influenced the ROS production during exposure to high light. In addition, growth of high CO(2)-supplemented cells was more susceptible to high light stress compared with cells grown under CO(2) limitation. The growth of acetate-supplemented cultures, on the other hand, was less affected by high light treatment than cultures grown under high CO(2) concentrations, despite the similar cellular stress. This suggests that the production of ATP by mitochondrial acetate respiration protects the cells from the deleterious effects of high light stress, presumably by providing energy for an effective defense. |
A practical guide for both individuals and couples to transform sexual energy into spiritual and erotic fulfillment
· Explains how to awaken advanced stages of sexual development for spiritual intimacy and deep erotic satisfaction
· Includes illustrated instructions for exercises and techniques based on yoga, kundalini, breathing practices, mantra chanting, and chakra meditation
· Explores how this practice can deepen a life partnership, enhance creativity, heal emotional scars, and awaken new understandings of gender
Sexual development does not end in adolescence. There are advanced stages of glandular, emotional, and erotic development based in the lifelong “puberty of the spine.” Known in India as kundalini awakening, these stages form the energetic basis of all yoga forms and deeper erotic aspirations. They present an opportunity for couples and individuals to explore the consciousness-expanding abilities of sexual energy as both spirituality and sexuality transform into what Michel Foucault called ars erotica, far beyond the Freudian scientia sexualis sexuality of the Western world.
Offering a guide to the advanced stages of human sexuality and a passionately infused tantric yoga practice, Stuart Sovatsky explains how to awaken the complete spinal puberty, resulting in spiritual intimacy and orgasmic pineal maturity that far surpasses the gratifications of modern sexuality. With illustrated instructions, he reveals flow-yoga asanas, mantras, and devotional breathing practices for solo kundalini yoga as well as couples’ yoga practices and chakra meditations to awaken the heart and the divinely eroticized mind. He shares inspiring stories from those on this path about ever-deepening life partnerships, enriched family life, enhanced personal creativity, profound new understandings of conception, masculinity, femininity, and gender itself as well as healing emotional scars of romantic breakups and sexual abuse.
Sovatsky shows that by transcending conventional Western sexuality and returning to the ars erotica beliefs of ancient India, we can harness the divine energy--glimpsed for only an instant by most people--at the heart of all erotic yearning.
Stuart Sovatsky, Ph.D., has degrees in religion and psychology from Princeton University and the California Institute of Integral Studies. A kundalini tantra practitioner since 1972, he was the producer of the World Congress on Psychology and Spirituality in India in 2008, which featured more than 400 delegates from 40 countries, including B. K. S. Iyengar, Robert Thurman, and S. S. Ravi Shankar. A kundalini chant-master with Axis Mundi, he has counseled thousands of people worldwide on yoga and relationships. He lives in Richmond, California.
In the erotic art, truth is drawn from pleasure itself, understood as a practice and accumulated as experience; pleasure is not considered in relation to an absolute law of the permitted and the forbidden, nor by reference to a criterion of utility, but first and foremost in relation to itself; it is experienced as pleasure, evaluated in terms of its intensity, its specific quality, its duration, its reverberations in the body and the soul.Michel Foucault, The History of Sexuality
Hatha yoga practices have been available in our culture for some time now primarily as a form of gentle exercise or perhaps as physical disciplines that purify and prepare the body for meditation. To consider them as erotic practices is perhaps a semantical stretch, but only if we are too bound up in the conventional understandings of eros. For what we discover is that the postures, breathing practices, and meditations are all ways to plumb the depths of erotic mystery within our multidimensional bodies and open us to a deeper sensitivity to others.
We are searching for how to animate our yogic practices, solitaryor partnered, with the energy of sublimative passion. When we pay attention to subtleties and nuances of movement and feeling, the body language of mystery, we begin to transform the more formalistic exercises into an ars erotica. Yet yoga is rarely taught within this context. We usually learn poses as stretching exercises to hold and perfect rather than as a repertoire of intimate and passionate gestures of self-expression that inherently perfect themselves. The spirit or quality of passion that we bring to these practices is as significant as the practices themselves. How, then, to find this passion?
The purist approach consists of meditating in stillness until your body begins to move on its own, however long that might take, sometimes called “awaiting the beloved.” This approach simulates how many yoga postures originated, in a spontaneity similar to one’s first stretchings in bed while barely awake. Here the stillness of meditation allows prana, the vital energy of pranamaya kosha, to build to a certain pitch, and then, guided by its inner intelligence, prana moves the body exactly as it needs to be moved to release tensions and blocked emotions, transmute desires, open nadis (subtle channels), and stimulate the chakras. We are assured of entrance into sublimative passion through the spontaneity of movement, beyond egoic choosing or desiring. The yogic movements feel like acts of surrendered worship and each asana a bodily form of prayer. However, not everyone can arouse prana through meditation to such a degree that spontaneous, or sahaja, yoga results.
There are several ways the breath can be willfully managed in the beginning as an entrance to more spontaneous movements. Perhaps the easiest way is to move very slowly into a series of asanas, or yoga positions, while breathing just as slowly as you are moving. Synchronizing breath, movement, and concentration engages prana as well, and at some point you will feel as if you are no longer willfully moving but are being moved by prana itself. As you penetrate mundane thinking by mentally merging with the nuances of bodily sensation, you will slip unobtrusively into a meditative state. In this way, postures and variations unfold in the moment as a flow from one asana to another.
Another way to arouse prana is by holding a posture in increasingly more accurate alignment. Here, perfecting an asana is like perfectly attuning an instrument to a certain key. When the pitch becomes perfect, strong vibrations of energy can be felt, and one asana follows another, according to our specific needs. Holding a posture beyond the first limits of discomfort can trigger the yogic passion and spontaneous asanas and pranayamas, and even dance movements. We must give ourselves permission to move, even with the scantiest of internal guidance.
Occasionally, sublimative passion is able to move us through asanas far beyond the reach of any willful attempts. It is as if our body needs to be in a specific asana for a specific amount of time to generate exactly the effects required for our development. You might find that chronic tension is actually held in place by your identifying with it and gripping your muscles from within in a habitual fashion. Giving up the tensions feels frightening, when actually it is more problematic to hold on to them.
Other more subtle contractions of the abdominal muscles draw sexual energy to manipura, an important site of transmutation, and also can cause the intercostal muscles to flex with subtle pleasures, propelling energies farther into the nadis in the thorax. Various pumping motions in the throat, rib cage, sacrum, lumbar, and perineum, along with micromotion of the eyelids, nasal muscles, fingers, toes, head, and even the scalp, carry the sublimated energies throughout the body. Again, it is the nuances that bring a depth of feeling and expression to each movement, revealing its pleasures and meanings.
Finally, it becomes clear that you are moving from one practice to another, expressing sublimative passion in your own perfect way. Rotating the neck while drawing the breath in, then exhaling the humming sound “hmmmm” in your throat, which vibrates into a smile as you release the breath and stretch forward on the floor into the cobra posture, then drawing your legs up under you to sit up, cross-legged in stillness; followed by an elaborate series of finger and hand movements, or mudras, in which moods change with every tilt of each finger, myriad variations, each unique to the moment. Thus some yoga texts claim that there are 840,000 yoga asanas.
Gradually we achieve a bodily openness and a rechanneling of erotic pleasures that transform our practiced sublimation into a natural brahmacharya. We feel more fullness in ourselves, and we are more appreciative of what we are receiving from others.
Descrizione libro Inner Traditions Bear and Company, United States, 2014. Paperback. Condizione libro: New. Language: English . Brand New Book. Sexual development does not end in adolescence. There are advanced stages of glandular, emotional, and erotic development based in the lifelong puberty of the spine. Known in India as kundalini awakening, these stages form the energetic basis of all yoga forms and deeper erotic aspirations. They present an opportunity for couples and individuals to explore the consciousness-expanding abilities of sexual energy as both spirituality and sexuality transform into what Michel Foucault called ars erotica, far beyond the Freudian scientia sexualissexuality of the Western world. Offering a guide to the advanced stages of human sexuality and a passionately infused tantric yoga practice, Stuart Sovatsky explains how to awaken the complete spinal puberty, resulting in spiritual intimacy and orgasmic pineal maturity that far surpasses the gratifications of modern sexuality. With illustrated instructions, he reveals flow-yoga asanas, mantras, and devotional breathing practices for solo kundalini yoga as well as couples yoga practices and chakra meditations to awaken the heart and the divinely eroticized mind. He shares inspiring stories from those on this path about ever-deepening life partnerships, enriched family life, enhanced personal creativity, profound new understandings of conception, masculinity, femininity, and gender itself as well as healing emotional scars of romantic breakups and sexual abuse. Sovatsky shows that by transcending conventional Western sexuality and returning to the ars eroticabeliefs of ancient India, we can harness the divine energy--glimpsed for only an instant by most people--at the heart of all erotic yearning. 3rd Edition, Revised and Expanded Edition of Eros, Consciousness, and Kundalini. Codice libro della libreria AA89781620552643
Descrizione libro Inner Traditions Bear and Company, United States, 2014. Paperback. Condizione libro: New. Language: English . Brand New Book. Sexual development does not end in adolescence. There are advanced stages of glandular, emotional, and erotic development based in the lifelong puberty of the spine. Known in India as kundalini awakening, these stages form the energetic basis of all yoga forms and deeper erotic aspirations. They present an opportunity for couples and individuals to explore the consciousness-expanding abilities of sexual energy as both spirituality and sexuality transform into what Michel Foucault called ars erotica, far beyond the Freudian scientia sexualissexuality of the Western world. Offering a guide to the advanced stages of human sexuality and a passionately infused tantric yoga practice, Stuart Sovatsky explains how to awaken the complete spinal puberty, resulting in spiritual intimacy and orgasmic pineal maturity that far surpasses the gratifications of modern sexuality. With illustrated instructions, he reveals flow-yoga asanas, mantras, and devotional breathing practices for solo kundalini yoga as well as couples yoga practices and chakra meditations to awaken the heart and the divinely eroticized mind. He shares inspiring stories from those on this path about ever-deepening life partnerships, enriched family life, enhanced personal creativity, profound new understandings of conception, masculinity, femininity, and gender itself as well as healing emotional scars of romantic breakups and sexual abuse. Sovatsky shows that by transcending conventional Western sexuality and returning to the ars eroticabeliefs of ancient India, we can harness the divine energy--glimpsed for only an instant by most people--at the heart of all erotic yearning. 3rd Edition, Revised and Expanded Edition of Eros, Consciousness, and Kundalini. Codice libro della libreria AA89781620552643 |
{
"created_at": "2015-02-27T22:28:09.918072",
"description": "Real-time anomalies detection for periodic time series.",
"fork": false,
"full_name": "eleme/node-bell",
"language": "JavaScript",
"updated_at": "2015-02-27T23:42:12.858198"
} |
Jerry Springer Defends His Talk Show Guests, Praises Sarah Palin
You've heard the spiel about Jerry Springer. British-born lawyer becomes mayor of Cincinnati, loses a bid for Ohio governor amid scandal, excels at a job anchoring the local news and eventually starts hosting his own talk program that becomes what TV Guide dubbed "the worst TV show ever." And that's just the appetizer. Springer, 66, made a sympathetic turn on 'Dancing With the Stars,' then came 'America's Got Talent,' a short stage run in 'Chicago,' and now his very own hit game show on GSN, 'Baggage.' In a gab session with PopEater's resident political junkie, the liberal Springer warned against looking down on his oft-abhorrent talk show guests and gave his unvarnished opinion of fellow politician-turned-TV star Sarah Palin. Will she run in '12? You betcha!
You're signed up to do 'Springer' through 2012. Will that be the end of the line?
It's been 19 years and I have no plans to stop. I'm not saying there won't be a day when I say 'enough.' It's hard to step away. It's fun. It's just two days a week. And I just enjoy meeting all kinds of people. Every job I have has been just meeting regular people. Whether it was being a lawyer or being in politics or journalism or having a talk show. I'm always just talking to regular people. I really enjoy that.
You're known to poke fun at certain types of people (freaks, rednecks, etc.) on your show. Has anyone approached you with hurt feelings?
Nah. We're just joking. If anyone comes on the show, they know they are coming on a circus. And the truth of the matter is, I really like these people. I mean, every once in a while there is someone, of course, you're not going to agree with. Neo-Nazis for example. But generally these are nice people. And the truth is, we are not better than the people who are on the show. And you know people watch and say, "I feel good about my life. I'm happy that's not me." But the truth is we're all the same. Some of us just dress better. Some of us have more money. Or some of us had better luck in the pool of parents. And sometimes we went to better schools and learned to speak better. But the behavior -- all you have to do is look at any newspaper on any day, of all the famous people involved in all kinds of things. How can we say for a second, you know. If you just look at the hearings we've had in Congress lately. Are those people morally superior to the people on my show? I would hardly think so.
And if you're on C-Span, you don't get bleeped for bad words.
Really it's total hypocrisy to believe that the people on my show are of a lower caliber. No, people in public tend to be politer, that's true. But are they morally superior? Are they better human beings? No, I think we all have flaws.
You just seem to attract the types of people that are easily riled.
Well, they find us. You know we don't recruit. You can't recruit someone to be on our show. How would that phone call go? We get thousands of calls a week from people who want to be on the show. And as long as their stories are outrageous. Those are the rules that are handed down to us. We're only allowed to have outrageous guests or people involved in outlandish situations. If you call us with a warm uplifting story, we're not allowed to run it. I mean, those are the rules and so, you know, once in a while we fight them but we always lose. It's just not allowed.
So I wanted to chat about someone you have a little in common with: Sarah Palin. She's also a former lawmaker who pivoted to television. Could she hack it with her own talk show?
Well, she's incredibly charismatic. Her politics are different than mine. But I don't belittle her. She represents a significant segment of America. It might not be the majority, but certainly a significant segment of America that lives her lifestyle and believes as she does. And therefore, I can disagree with her without making fun of her. And for those of us who are more liberal, we step on dangerous ground when we try to belittle her, or belittle her fundamentalism, or religion or stuff like that, saying you know she is backwoods or stuff like that. That is how liberals come across as elitists or snobs.
Palin is viewed as a woman of the people; easy to relate to.
She's obviously got something going. Just look at the reaction! It wasn't just her 15 minutes of fame. It's lasted. She touches a nerve for people who resent being looked down upon. And there is a significant segment of America that feels it is being looked down upon. I think that's dangerous. It's where people who are liberal can get into trouble. So, I respect her. I disagree with her. But I have nothing bad to say about her. And I am sure anything she does in the media will be successful. She's got that "whatever that is" that makes you pay attention.
As a keen observer of the media and politics, does it seem she's gearing up for a 2012 run?
I think it would be naive to believe she wasn't thinking about running for president. She'll read the tea leaves and figure it out and figure whether she can win the GOP nomination. Winning the general will be tougher. But you know, who knows? Ten years ago, who would have said that we would have an African American in the White House? World events happen, things come to pass. Is it possible? Sure. Does she think about it? Of course she does. I can't imagine she doesn't.
Do you think about it? I know you did about 6, 8 years ago in the Ohio Senate race ...
I think about it. But you know, I'm getting older. And when I do think about it, I realize that when I have seniority, I would be about 85. So it would be like, what good could I do? You know if I was 20 years younger, I would do it in a heart beat. But I'm not -- I'm 66. Is it too old to be in office? No. But to have any real impact? Well, maybe. Because you could sit in the Senate, and in the time when you are in a position to do anything other than to cast your one vote, I would be in my 80s.
It's a frustrating and frankly grim place to work, the Senate.
Yes it is. And yet, we can't let that be the reason to keep good people out. I know it's lousy there, but doesn't that mean we have to get good people in? So do I think about it? Yeah. Is it likely? It's not likely. Is it out of the question? No, it's not out of the question, but it's not likely.
Your game show ('Baggage') has really lifted off.
Actually, it's really fun. Sometimes you do shows and it's just a paycheck. This is actually very enjoyable, I must say.
What drew you to it?
It actually came out of nowhere. Basically, I was just offered the job. They sent me a treatment, and I loved it immediately. My initial thought was, "I wish I would have thought of that." It's a great concept. Normally you don't find out about the baggage of the person you're dating until several months, maybe years, into the relationship. And here it is kind of upfront. Here, you have this show with all these beautiful, desirable people. And then during the course of the show, their baggage is revealed, like personality flaws or situations they've been in. What's neat about it is that everyone can relate to it. So it's fun. I'm sure sometime it will become a board game.
I take it's pretty easy to find willing participants. One episode involved a 33-year-old virgin and he didn't even get a date.
At least the streak hasn't been broken. [Watch That Episode Below]
The show ends when either a person does or doesn't accept the baggage. But they don't necessarily have to go on a date, right?
I think, from what I see backstage afterwords, it looks like they really do go out on dates. Do some of them not? Perhaps. But it looks to me like they really intend to go out.
Could there ever be a 'Celebrity Baggage'?
I don't know if that would work. A star's baggage is already in the headlines. You could pick the obvious people like Lindsay Lohan or Britney Spears. But it's in the headlines, so you know the moment they came out what the issues are. It would be the first thing you think about because of all of the baggage you already see. But you couldn't make much of a game of it. Who would make great guests? Any of them. Any famous people would. But until you know the real secrets, you wouldn't know.
You seem like you're always hosting different shows. Is there anything else in the works?
This year it looks like my show and 'Baggage.' And I'll probably be doing another live version of 'America's Got Talent,' where I take it to Vegas for a month. I think now they're talking about a national tour where I would again take the 10 finalists from the coming season and travel around the country for the year or for six or seven months and end up in Vegas. So between those three shows, 'America's Got Talent' and 'Baggage' and my show, in terms of show business, that's pretty much it.
Jerry Springer shows off some cotton candy while at the 'America's Got Talent Live' after-party at Planet Hollywood Casino Resort on October 14 in Las Vegas. Check Out More Pics of Jer-ry, Jer-ry >>
Steven Lawton/FilmMagic.com
FilmMagic.com
Jerry Springer Snapshots
Talk show host Jerry Springer is shown in New York, Thursday, April 15, 2010. Springer makes his Game Show Network debut Monday April 19 as host of a dating show called "Baggage." (AP Photo/Richard Drew)
Talk show host Jerry Springer is shown in New York, Thursday, April 15, 2010. Springer makes his Game Show Network debut Monday April 19 as host of a dating show called "Baggage." (AP Photo/Richard Drew)
Jerry Springer in the coffee shop at the London Hotel, in New York, August 28, 2009, talks about playing Billy Flynn, the lead male role in the Emmy winning musical "Chicago." (Ed Hille/Philadelphia Inquirer/MCT)
Jerry Springer is first and foremost a gentleman. What he said about Sarah Palin was both insightful and correct. She is transforming American politics, and she is doing it not as an office holder, but as a private citizen.
How seismic the change will be is the only question. But one thing is for sure. Based on her actions, Sarah Palin is not interested in joining anyone's club-not the feminists, not the Repub hierarchy, not the Tea Party's, and certainly not the liberal media.
The most charismatic and dynamic woman in America is too busy forming her own: a conservative feminist movement.
Love your Statement and could not agree more. God Bless Sarah, and God Bless the TEA party and God Bless America, and we have got to get the Idiot and his Socialist Croanies out of the White House. The more conservative a person is, the more they will get my vote. I am a former Democrat. Left the party when the idiot won the primary.
Sarah Palin is a tool of a political party desperately struggling to maintain its presence in America. She is a ditz, an incredible boob. She quit her job running Alaska; why should anyone expect to her excel in any political office? She has a job already; taking care of her husband and five kids.
OF COURSE HE PRAISES PALIN!!! She will be his ultimate guest! Working woman with a an alcoholic Husband, handicapped child, who is also supporting her unwed teenage Daughter & her illigetimate Son, while the baby's Daddy poses for Playboy....GEEZ, you can't make this stuff up! She will be a natural for the Springer show!
Oh! you are a true Demoncrat,telling Lies like that, You know that since she is no longer Governor she can sue for defamation of character,What makes you think Todd is an alcoholic? and even if she did support Bristol, which she does not she is her mother, You sound so HATEFUL, Is having a handicapped child one of your reasons that she has no intelligence? How intelligent are YOU?
With a friend like you, you certainly wouldn't need an enemy, you sure seem like a desperate nasty person, with a yellow streak down your back. Why don't you run for something worth while if you are so much better. I will never say anything about someone if it's not upbeat, especially if I don't know them personally.
We all have the right to disagree with someone, but until you walk in thier shoes you should never put them down.
The fact that his trash has been on tv for 19 years saus something about the viewing public and it is not good. It is a sad thing that there are so many lowlifes who want to be on tv but it is sadder that people watch it.
How can Springer possibly defend those Ghetto type 'Garboons" ?I don't know how long his show has been on the air, but I think I have watched about 2 minutes of one show, and found no value in a show that features the lowest life forms on the planet.. I'm certain that they could investigate all of the slime that appears on his show and find welfare cheats, etc. |
hi guys
i am looking into a 1/3 scale
newport 28 bipe. the top wing
is 82'' inches can already be done
or the wing kit with the plans
i am doing this for a friend
so he has the say for the buying
thanks for looking in
sen ted |
Gaston Borch
Gaston Louis Christopher Borch (8 March 1871 – 14 February 1926) was a French composer, arranger, conductor, cellist and author. His works include orchestral music, opera and music for silent films. He played and conducted with orchestras in Europe and the USA.
Early life
Borch was born in Guînes, Pas de Calais, France. His mother, Emma Hennequin, a pianist and soprano, was a friend and pupil of Jules Massenet, whom she met when he stayed at her father's boarding house, and with whom she is known to have performed. His father, Christopher Wolner Borch, was Norwegian. Borch's sister Frida was also an accomplished pianist.
Career
Borch played the cello. He studied for three years with Massenet in France, with Jules Delsart and also at the Valand School of Fine Arts in Sweden. During the 1890s he spent time variously as conductor of the Christiania Orchestral Society and the Central Theatre in Christiana (now Oslo), and was also a visiting conductor in various European countries. His reported conducting credits include the Amsterdam Symphony Orchestra; Brussels Opera Orchestra; Société Symphonique, Lille; Crystal Palace Orchestra, London; Harmonie Royale, Antwerp; Gewerbehaus
Orchestra, Dresden; and the Musikforeningen of Bergen (1898-1899).
Between 1898 and 1906 he worked as a musician and conductor in the USA. He was engaged as a cellist with the Theodore Thomas Orchestra in 1899, worked with the Chicago Symphony Orchestra and Syracuse University, and was principal cello of the Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra 1903-1906, under Victor Herbert. In 1901 Borch's patent application for a device to amplify the vibrations from a piano indicates he was living at the time in Duluth, Minnesota. He spent some time in Europe in 1906 as conductor of the Lausanne Symphony Orchestra. He conducted the Grieg Jubilee Concerts in New York in 1907. He was for a time a faculty member of the Pennsylvania College of Music.
Between 1916 and his death Borch was a prolific composer of photoplay music; short, stock pieces designed to evoke a particular mood. These were then selected and combined by musicians to create an appropriate scene-by-scene score for the silent films, or "photoplays", they accompanied live. In 1918 he published his Practical Manual of Instrumentation, a technical manual for musicians which included several chapters on the adaptation of works written for larger orchestras to smaller ensembles, such as those working in picture houses. By 1925 he was sufficiently prominent in the field to be described as one of "the three "B's" of picture music", along with Maurice Baron and Irénée Bergé — "a
formidable trio of expert writers".
In 1920 Borch was reported as attempting to establish a grand opera company in Boston, Massachusetts. Borch returned to Europe in 1921, settling in Sweden, where he was an arranger and musical contributor to the score of The Saga of Gosta Berling (1924), starring Greta Garbo. On 1 January 1925, the first day of radio broadcasting in Sweden, Borch led the Skandia Cinema Orchestra in Sweden's first broadcast of orchestral music.
Personal life
Borch married Rose Alice Gluckauf in July 1900 in St. Paul, Minnesota. His wife was a soprano who had previously taught at the Raff Conservatory in Frankfurt, Germany, and who studied with Julius Stockhausen and Jenny Hahn. She taught music at what is now Millikin University in Decatur, Illinois from 1913 until 1922, when she filed for divorce from her husband on the grounds of desertion and bigamy.
Gaston Borch died in Stockholm in 1926.
Selected works
Opera
Silvio (1897), a one-act opera premiered on 7 March 1898, with libretto by Borch and O. A. Smith; a sequel to Cavalleria Rusticana.
Ostenfor Sol, a "fairy opera"
Geneviève de Paris (1906)
Photoplay music
Incidental Symphonies - Used in the scores of The Cat and the Canary (1927) and White Zombie (1932)
Misterioso Infernale (1916) - "Gruesome" section used in the score of Tarzan's Revenge (1938)
Poeme Symphonique - Used as the theme for the 1920 silent film Madame X
Publications
Practical Manual of Instrumentation. The Boston Music Company, 1918.
References
External links
Borch's biography at the Mont-Alto Motion Picture Orchestra website
Practical Manual of Instrumentation - available online from the University of Rochester Libraries
Discography of Victor recordings of Borch compositions on the UCSB website
Category:1871 births
Category:1926 deaths
Category:French film score composers
Category:Male film score composers |
Administration Tries to Blunt Hearing on Raid on Texas Sect
Trying to blunt a potentially embarrassing inquiry, members of the Clinton Administration and some of its supporters in Congress are warning that scheduled Congressional hearings on the Government raid on the Branch Davidian compound near Waco, Tex., might undermine Federal firearms laws and shore up support for paramilitary groups.
Treasury Secretary Robert E. Rubin said in a letter today that he was "worried that investigating events at Waco, without investigating the extreme activities of some militias, seems to suggest that law-enforcement agencies are the real threat to the safety of American citizens." Mr. Rubin oversees the Federal Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms, which conducted the initial assault on the compound in 1993.
The Treasury Secretary said the hearings "cannot be understood properly outside the context of Oklahoma City," where 167 people died in the bombing of the Federal Building on April 19. "The Oklahoma City investigation focused public attention on the paramilitary movement and the potential threat presented by some of its adherents," he said.
Mr. Rubin's letter said the hearings, scheduled to begin on July 19, might damage "public confidence in the men and women who enforce" firearms laws.
It also touched on an issue that Administration officials suspect is a part of the Republicans' motive in scheduling the hearings more than two years after the fiery conclusion of the standoff at the Branch Davidian compound. "Some," Mr. Rubin warned, "may try to use these hearings to serve another agenda: to erode public support for Federal firearms laws."
The Branch Davidian assault became a rallying cry for anti-Government and pro-gun groups, and enraged Timothy J. McVeigh, the principal suspect in the Oklahoma City bombing.
Four agents of the firearms bureau were killed in a botched raid on the compound on Feb. 28, 1993, after they tried to serve arrest and search warrants on the sect's leaders, whom they suspected of explosives and firearms violations. Then, after a two-month standoff, nearly 80 members of the sect died in the fire that began after an assault on the building led by the Federal Bureau of Investigation.
Subcommittees of the House Judiciary Committee and the Committee on Government Reform and Oversight, with the blessings of Speaker Newt Gingrich of Georgia, have planned hearings on the assaults that could last a week or longer. The hearings, which will included subpoenaed witnesses and sworn testimony, will focus on the Government's conduct in the raids.
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Mr. Rubin said his letter was sent to news organizations to prevent "misinformation about what happened at Waco" from being spread by "opponents of law enforcement."
Investigation of the raid by the Treasury Department, of which the firearms agency is a part, led to the replacement of some top-level managers at the agency two years ago. The inquiries, while essentially absolving senior Clinton Administration officials, said the firearms bureau had been hasty in deciding on an all-out raid in February 1993 and in abandoning plans to capture the sect's leader away from the compound.
In another effort to blunt the potential impact of the hearings, Representative Charles E. Schumer, Democrat of Brooklyn, said he would hold a "public forum" next week at which he would present public officials and private citizens whose lives have been threatened by members of paramilitary groups.
Mr. Schumer said that earlier Senate hearings on the groups had not fully focused on their anti-social conduct. Mr. Schumer and more than 50 other House Democrats who had sought formal hearings on the paramilitary groups were rebuffed by Mr. Gingrich. Instead, the Speaker backed the Judiciary and Government Reform Committees' plans for hearings on the Branch Davidian raids.
Mr. Schumer said: "These hearings are getting more staff time and more money than any since we started this session. It's pandering to a paranoid fringe in America that wants to believe that Waco was a conspiracy.
"What needs investigating at least as much and probably a lot more are some of these militias. The extent of their intimidation of citizens and government officials in some parts of America is very, very troubling."
Among those Mr. Schumer has invited to speak at his forum are a Montana judge who says her life was threatened after she presided over a traffic case involving the son of a member of a paramilitary group, and a member of a local Audubon Society chapter in Washington State who says he was confronted by a group member waving a hangman's noose.
We are continually improving the quality of our text archives. Please send feedback, error reports,
and suggestions to archive_feedback@nytimes.com.
A version of this article appears in print on July 6, 1995, on Page B00008 of the National edition with the headline: Administration Tries to Blunt Hearing on Raid on Texas Sect. Order Reprints|Today's Paper|Subscribe |
Q:
Using API with sites like JSFiddle and CodePen?
I am currently working on a prototype for the flair provided by Stack Exchange and can't seem to get the API to work with CodePen. It continuously returns the following error on the SE.init call:
Uncaught channelUrl must be under the current domain.
But I really just want to fetch from routes like /users/{ids}/associated
Is there a way to successfully implement the API on sites like JSFiddle or Codepen?
I don't need any special authentication.
Note I tried the "Javascript SDK":
SE.init({
clientId: 16131,
key: 's29XM)Eqn2x3YxhjLgFwBQ((',
channelUrl: 'codepen.io/PerpetualJ/blank', // Issue is here, this isn't a valid path.
complete: function (data) { fetch(); }
});
function fetch() {
var info = SE.users('9893154');
}
which gave the above error.
Is it possible to use the API with sites like JSFiddle or Codepen for rapid web debugging and demonstrations?
A:
This is not the most educated answer, but through trial and error I have found a way to get the information I'm needing for my project. However, the biggest downside to this method seems to be the throttles that are in place. Websites like Codepen can easily exceed this, especially if you're using a debug window and a live/full screen view side by side for quick debugging.
The implementation is very straightforward, and for my purposes it works very well:
var accountID = "13342919";
var reputation = 0;
var goldBadges = 0;
var silverBadges = 0;
var bronzeBadges = 0;
var data = null;
var request = new XMLHttpRequest();
request.open(
"GET",
"https://api.stackexchange.com/2.2/users/" + accountID + "/associated",
true
);
request.onload = function() {
data = JSON.parse(this.response);
if (request.status >= 200 && request.status < 400) {
for (var i = 0; i < data.items.length; i++) {
goldBadges += data.items[i].badge_counts.gold;
silverBadges += data.items[i].badge_counts.silver;
bronzeBadges += data.items[i].badge_counts.bronze;
reputation += data.items[i].reputation;
}
document.getElementById("reputation").innerHTML = reputation;
document.getElementById("gold-badges").innerHTML = goldBadges;
document.getElementById("silver-badges").innerHTML = silverBadges;
document.getElementById("bronze-badges").innerHTML = bronzeBadges;
}
};
request.send();
Feel free to check it out over on Codepen or JSFiddle.
|
y(r) be the third derivative of r**4/24 + r**3/3 + r**2. Let v be y(0). Suppose -6 = -2*t - v. Is t composite?
False
Let t be (2 + -1)/(1/(-1)). Let n be (-1)/(1/(t - 4)). Let q(x) = 14*x - 5. Is q(n) a composite number?
True
Let i = 1296 - 843. Suppose 0 = -2*y + 5*k + 383, -k = -4*y + 286 + i. Suppose 4*t - 51 = 2*c - 241, -y = -2*c + 2*t. Is c a prime number?
True
Let m = -7 + 13. Suppose d = -4*a - 2, -2*a + 2 = d + m. Is 23 + (-3)/(9/d) prime?
False
Let v(o) = -3*o**3 + o**2 - o + 631. Is v(0) prime?
True
Let v(l) = l**3 - 6*l**2 - 6*l - 5. Let r be v(7). Suppose d + 81 = f - d, -3*d + 197 = r*f. Suppose 0 = 5*p - 356 + f. Is p a prime number?
True
Suppose 2*l - 2500 = -3*l. Let x = l - 319. Is x a composite number?
False
Let y(i) = i + 163. Let x be y(0). Suppose z = 2*t + 49, 2*t - x = -3*z + 8. Is z prime?
False
Suppose 10*a - 1034 = -a. Is a a prime number?
False
Let z(l) = -3*l**2 - 2*l + 3. Let n be z(-4). Let y = -3 - n. Is y a prime number?
False
Let j be 238 - -1 - (-12)/(-4). Suppose -2*z + 5*s + j = z, 0 = z + 5*s - 72. Is z composite?
True
Let v be (-6)/(-8)*(6 + -2). Suppose -8*c = -v*c - 10. Suppose 5 = 5*n, 3*g - 30 - 11 = -c*n. Is g composite?
False
Let d(c) = -16*c**3 + 3*c**2 + 2*c - 1. Let v be d(-2). Suppose -3*y = -2*i - 285, -y + 2*i + v = 44. Is y composite?
False
Let k = -146 - -205. Is k composite?
False
Let r be 0 + (-2 + 9)*27. Suppose r = 4*i - 71. Is i composite?
True
Suppose -105 - 67 = -n. Let w = -8 - n. Let g = w + 257. Is g a composite number?
True
Suppose -100 = b + 3*b. Let l = 12 + b. Let p = 24 + l. Is p a prime number?
True
Suppose -2*u + 4*g = -10322, -3*g - 16 = g. Is u prime?
True
Suppose -3*g + 1919 = o, 5*o - 1262 = -5*g + 3*g. Is g prime?
True
Let n = -24 + 49. Suppose -3*i + n = 1. Suppose -i = -g + 3. Is g composite?
False
Let k(t) = -t**2 - 5*t + 3. Let q be k(-5). Suppose 0 = q*v + 4*r + 61, -3*r = -19 + 4. Is 2/1 - 3*v composite?
False
Let g be 19/(-7) + 4/(-14). Is 25 + -2 + (-3 - g) a prime number?
True
Let b(l) = 3*l**2 - 2. Is b(3) a prime number?
False
Let a(w) = 3. Let j(x) = x - 14. Let r(t) = 11*a(t) + 2*j(t). Let m be r(-6). Is (m/14)/((-1)/38) prime?
True
Let d = -27 - 3. Let s = d - -121. Is s a prime number?
False
Suppose 2*b - l + 7 = 0, -4*l + 7 + 16 = -3*b. Let f be (-2 - b)/((-2)/6). Suppose -r + k + 77 = -f*k, 0 = -3*r + k + 198. Is r prime?
False
Let m be -2 - (-5)/(15/18). Suppose 0*l + 316 = m*l. Is l composite?
False
Suppose t = -4*g + 13, 0 = t - g - 4 - 4. Suppose 0 = -3*y, 0 = -t*o + 6*o + 4*y + 24. Let p = 49 + o. Is p composite?
True
Let f(j) be the third derivative of -j**6/120 + j**5/60 + j**4/12 + 55*j**3/6 + j**2. Is f(0) composite?
True
Let p(o) = -2*o + 211*o**2 + 0*o + 1 + 3*o. Let i(a) = a + 1. Let t be i(-2). Is p(t) a composite number?
False
Let s(w) be the first derivative of -w**4 - w**3 + w**2/2 - 4*w - 1. Is s(-3) composite?
True
Suppose 2*m = m + 197. Suppose 3*t - 3*v - m = -2*t, 0 = -2*t - 3*v + 62. Is t a prime number?
True
Suppose l + 1 = 4. Suppose -l*a - 2*a + 165 = 0. Is a composite?
True
Suppose s - 2757 = -4*r, -1701 + 328 = -2*r + 5*s. Is r composite?
True
Suppose 0 = -5*s + 3*s - 20. Let v = -8 - s. Suppose -v*x + 3*t = -305, 265 = 2*x - 0*t + 5*t. Is x a composite number?
True
Is 6908/6 - (-13)/(-39) a prime number?
True
Suppose 2*b + 7*b - 1719 = 0. Is b a composite number?
False
Let o(y) = 123*y**3 + y - 1. Let p be ((-3)/18)/((-3)/18). Is o(p) prime?
False
Suppose -4*h + 88 = -12. Suppose 0 = 5*t - h, 0 = u - 2*t + 3 - 0. Is u a composite number?
False
Let i(a) = -2*a. Let k be i(-1). Suppose -4*q = q + k*b + 624, -3*q - 4*b - 380 = 0. Let c = q + 206. Is c prime?
False
Suppose -3*h = -4*h + 28. Is 3/4 + 2471/h a prime number?
True
Let j be (-3 + 3)*(2 + -1). Suppose j = -6*n + 7*n - 211. Is n a prime number?
True
Let u = -3 + 23. Let j(h) = 2*h. Let g be j(-1). Is 692/u + g/(-5) prime?
False
Let b be 0/(-2)*(-2)/4. Let y = 3 + b. Suppose u + 28 = y*u. Is u a composite number?
True
Let d(w) = 3*w**2 - w - 1. Let l be d(-1). Let r(f) = f + 3. Is r(l) a prime number?
False
Let c = 1663 + -944. Is c a composite number?
False
Let u(h) = -9*h + 2. Let m be u(-3). Let l = 18 + m. Let y = -32 + l. Is y composite?
True
Is 2232/10 - ((-4)/5 + 1) prime?
True
Let t(k) = -k**3 + 6*k**2 + k - 3. Let u be t(6). Let q be (22/(-6))/((-1)/u). Is q*(6/3)/1 composite?
True
Let v(t) = -t**2 - 11*t - 1. Let w be v(-6). Let n = 98 + w. Is n a composite number?
False
Let w(x) = -x**3 + 4*x**2 + 6*x - 2. Let i be w(5). Suppose i*n = -n + 92. Is n a composite number?
False
Let r(v) = 8*v**2 - 10*v + 1. Let p be r(7). Let b(w) = -2*w**2 - 8*w - 4. Let y be b(8). Let s = p + y. Is s prime?
True
Let v(k) = -15*k - 3. Let m be v(-6). Let a = 133 - m. Is a a prime number?
False
Is ((-15522)/8)/(-13) + (-1)/4 a prime number?
True
Suppose -10 = -3*d + 2. Suppose -3*o + 218 = -o - d*m, 0 = -o - 2*m + 121. Is o prime?
False
Let j be ((-18)/21)/((-2)/(-14)). Is (2/j)/((-2)/222) a composite number?
False
Let o = 8 + -4. Suppose z - 110 = -o*z. Is z a composite number?
True
Let b be (-2 + 1)/(3/(-18)). Is (-1)/2 - (-1149)/b prime?
True
Let h(j) = 2*j**3 - 8*j**2 + j + 5. Let x(n) = 2*n**2 + 4*n. Let q be x(-3). Is h(q) prime?
False
Let m(i) = -64*i**3 - 2*i + 1. Is m(-3) a composite number?
True
Is -3 + 3222/66 + 4/22 prime?
False
Let t(z) = -2*z**2 + 6*z - 8. Let u be t(6). Let d be 4/22 - 124/u. Let g(r) = 3*r**2 - 3*r - 3. Is g(d) a prime number?
False
Let y(h) be the third derivative of -h**6/120 + h**5/60 + h**4/24 + h**3/2 - 2*h**2. Is y(-4) prime?
True
Suppose 0 = m + 2*c - 193, 2*m - 3*c = -2*c + 381. Is m prime?
True
Suppose -l - 23 = -p, l - 46 = -2*p - 2*l. Suppose 4*u + 2*o + o = 69, 5*u = 3*o + 66. Suppose u = 2*a - p. Is a composite?
False
Suppose 0 = 6*d - 9*d - 5*a + 4108, -5*d + 6780 = -5*a. Is d a prime number?
True
Let l be 68/6 - 1/3. Let r = 7 + l. Suppose -3*g + j = -r, 0*g = g - 5*j - 6. Is g a prime number?
False
Let d = 10 + -4. Is 116/d - (-3)/(-9) composite?
False
Let j(s) = 2*s**2 + 9*s + 20. Is j(11) a prime number?
False
Let h be (-668)/(-2) + (1 - 2). Suppose 5*n = -5*y + 595, 2*y - 3*n - h = -y. Is y prime?
False
Let q(j) = 45*j + 5. Let b be q(6). Suppose -9*c + b = -4*c. Is c prime?
False
Let d(c) = c**3 - 10*c**2 + c - 8. Let q be d(10). Suppose 248 = 3*k + q. Is k prime?
False
Let y be (-604)/(-3) - 2/6. Let s(j) = -j**3 + j**2 - j - 136. Let r be s(0). Let w = r + y. Is w a composite number?
True
Suppose -61 = -3*j - 13. Suppose -4*d + 2*m = -j, -2*d - d = 5*m + 14. Suppose 5*v + 49 = 5*p + 9, p + d*v - 11 = 0. Is p prime?
False
Suppose -2*s - 39 = -409. Is s a prime number?
False
Let s = 15 + -10. Suppose x + 308 = s*x. Is x a prime number?
False
Let n(l) = 24*l**2 - 2*l - 3. Is n(-2) a prime number?
True
Let c(d) = -1 - 12*d - 1 - 1. Is c(-3) a composite number?
True
Let u(v) = 21 - 14 + 2*v**2 + 6*v + 2*v**2 - 3*v**2. Suppose 0 = -0*a - 4*a - 28. Is u(a) composite?
True
Let o(h) = -h**3 + 9*h**2 + 4*h - 5. Let p be o(9). Suppose 3*n = 4*n - p. Is n a prime number?
True
Let l(p) = 15*p**3 - 2*p**2 + 1. Suppose 5*u - 4*a = a, -1 = 4*u - 5*a. Is l(u) composite?
True
Suppose l = 66 + 94. Let a = 392 - l. Is (a/2)/(6 + -4) a composite number?
True
Suppose -3*c + 3158 = i - 8*c, 0 = -4*i - 3*c + 12655. Is i a prime number?
True
Suppose -4*w = 2*w - 3522. Is w a composite number?
False
Let r(k) = -k**3 - 10*k**2 - 9*k + 7. Let o(i) = -i**2 - 8*i - 10. Let q be o(-8). Is r(q) composite?
False
Let j = 24 + -15. Suppose j = -5*k + 454. Is k a composite number?
False
Is 45 - -1*(3 - 5) composite?
False
Let g(w) = 5 - 13*w - 5 - 3. Let q be g(-2). Suppose -23 = -2*t + q. Is t composite?
False
Let z = 9 - 3. Let k = z + 2. Is (-28)/k*(-2 + -24) composite?
True
Let b = 93 + 598. Is b composite?
False
Let t(d) = -d**2 + 7*d + 4 + 4*d - 2*d. Let p be t(9). Suppose p*n - 3*s = 2*s + 357, -s - 420 = -5*n. Is n a prime number?
True
Suppose -y + 450 - 40 = 0. Let b(r) = r**2 + 5*r - 1. Let q be b(-6). Suppose -84 = -g - t, 4*t = q*g - t - y. Is g prime?
True
Let i be (-9)/6*-2 + 234. Suppose 5*j + 82 - i = 0. Is j a prime number?
True
Let c be (-2)/1 - -2 - -16. Suppose 5*m = 4*f + 39, 3*m - f - 6 = c. Is m a composite number?
False
Let w(k) = k* |
// System.hh
//
// Copyright (C) 2002, 2003, 2004, 2006, 2007, 2011, 2012, 2013 Rob Caelers & Raymond Penners
// All rights reserved.
//
// This program is free software: you can redistribute it and/or modify
// it under the terms of the GNU General Public License as published by
// the Free Software Foundation, either version 3 of the License, or
// (at your option) any later version.
//
// This program is distributed in the hope that it will be useful,
// but WITHOUT ANY WARRANTY; without even the implied warranty of
// MERCHANTABILITY or FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE. See the
// GNU General Public License for more details.
//
// You should have received a copy of the GNU General Public License
// along with this program. If not, see <http://www.gnu.org/licenses/>.
//
#include "W32LockScreen.hh"
W32LockScreen::LockWorkStationFunc W32LockScreen::lock_func = NULL;
HINSTANCE W32LockScreen::user32_dll = NULL;
W32LockScreen::W32LockScreen()
{
// Note: this memory is never freed
user32_dll = LoadLibrary("user32.dll");
if (user32_dll != NULL)
{
lock_func = (LockWorkStationFunc)
GetProcAddress(user32_dll, "LockWorkStation");
}
}
bool W32LockScreen::lock()
{
(*lock_func)();
return true;
}
|
Outpost: Black Sun
Outpost: Black Sun, also known as Outpost 2, is a 2012 British horror film directed by Steve Barker, based on a script written by himself and Rae Brunton. It is a sequel to Barker's 2008 film Outpost. The film was later followed by Outpost: Rise of the Spetsnaz, the third entry in the series.
Plot
Beginning immediately after the events of the first film, Nazi-hunter Lena (Catherine Steadman) is on the trail of a notorious war-criminal scientist, Klausener, who at the close of World War II had begun trials of a frightening new technology that can create an immortal army. While interrogating Neurath, one of Klausener's old Nazi colleagues, he dies from a heart attack. She searches his body and finds a map of Eastern Europe and documents relating to Hunt, the man from the first movie who was hired to locate an abandoned SS bunker that was the site of Klausener's experiments, indicating that Neurath and Klausener were the ones who hired Hunt. Lena's search for Hunt, whom she believes can take her to Klausener, leads her to a war zone in Eastern Europe (although the exact location is never mentioned, maps clearly show former Yugoslavia). There she runs into an acquaintance, a physicist, Wallace (Richard Coyle). He informs her that Hunt and his mercenary bodyguards went to find the bunker and never returned. He encourages her to stop her search because he knows what is coming and she refuses. So, pooling resources, they end up helping a professional military unit they meet take on the advancing army, the product of Klausener's experiments, a battalion of zombie Nazi Storm Troopers. Their leader, SS Brigadefuhrer Gotz, also known as the 'breather' and another of Klausener's old SS associates, has attached Hunt to the large generator that controls the undead soldiers. Using Hunt, Gotz has managed to increase the range of the electro-magnetic field emitted by the generator, enabling him and his soldiers to travel beyond the bunker and massacre scores of people. Lena, Wallace, and the unit aim to shut down the source of the evil army and prevent a Fourth Reich.
Cast
Catherine Steadman as Lena
Richard Coyle as Wallace
Clive Russell as Marius
Michael Byrne as Neurath
Martin Bell as Young Neurath
Johnny Meres as SS Brigadeführer Götz
Julian Wadham as Francis Hunt
Production
Original Outpost producers Kieran Parker and Arabella Croft were joined by Matador producer Nigel Thomas for this sequel.
Filming took place at the old Lockerbie Academy (prior to its demolition), Kirkcudbright Army Training Area and on the Balmaghie estate near Castle Douglas
Reception
Critical reception for Outpost: Black Sun has been negative. What Culture panned the film overall stating that although it initially held promise, the film "devolves into tedious trotting around dilapidated German villages" and that "Even if the direction and performances are generally decent for a film of the type, it plays out like a dull mission from a particularly naff first-person-shooter video game, until an absurd final boss – a super-Nazi hooked up to electricity – appears, and makes it even more difficult to take seriously." In contrast, Anton Bitel of Little White Lies was positive in his review and praised the film's performances and production values.
References
External links
Category:2012 films
Category:2012 horror films
Category:British horror films
Category:British films
Category:Glasgow
Category:Scottish English
Category:Scottish films
Category:Nazi zombie films |
Niagara, Canisius teams to get early MAAC starts
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No late hours for the Niagara and Canisius men’s and women’s basketball teams in this week’s Metro Atlantic Athletic Conference tournaments at the MassMutual Center in Springfield, Mass.
Guaranteed.
Unless one or the other advances to the championship game, at 9 p.m. next Monday night, the two men’s teams will play all their games in daytime hours. All the women’s games are scheduled for mornings or afternoons.
It’s possible for Niagara and Canisius to meet in the men’s semifinals. If they do, it will be at 2 p.m. in the first game of a doubleheader on Sunday.
Niagara, the No. 1 men’s seed as the MAAC regular season champion, will make its first tournament appearance at 2:30 p.m. Saturday against the winner of Friday’s prequarterfinal between No. 8 Marist and No. 9 Siena.
Niagara’s game will be followed by a Canisius-Iona quarterfinal. The Griffs and Gaels finished tied in the standings with 11-7 records but Iona won the tiebreaker and was awarded the No. 4 seed by virtue of its 4-2 record against the top three teams in the standings (Niagara, Loyola and Rider) while Canisius was 3-3.
Niagara swept both games from Marist and Siena during the regular season, but had a close call against the Red Foxes in Poughkeepsie. NU escaped with a 57-54 win on a last-second shot by Juan’ya Green with 1.5 seconds left.
“Whoever we’re going to play, it’s going to be a tough, tough game,” said Niagara coach Joe Mihalich, taking some time away Sunday night from viewing videotape of a Marist-Siena game. “I’ve been saying this all year long: The difference between first and 10th place is as marginal as it’s ever been in the history of the league. Nobody’s that much better than anybody else.”
Canisius split home-and-home games with Iona, losing in New Rochelle, 97-87, on Jan. 13 and winning at the Koessler Center, 77-74, Feb. 2.
Sunday’s loss to Siena in Loudonville, cost the Canisius women the No. 6 seed and forced them into an extra game in the prequarterfinal round. As the No. 7, the Griffs must meet No. 10 Saint Peter’s at noon on Thursday in the opening game.
Saint Peter’s won only three MAAC games to finish last in the standings, but one of the three wins was at Canisius, 74-65, perhaps the Griffs’ most disappointing loss of the season. The Griffs had defeated the Peahens in Jersey City, 62-52, earlier.
Niagara, the No. 5 women’s seed, will face No. 4 Rider at 3:30 p.m. Friday afternoon. Niagara will be seeking a third win over the Broncs after triumphing in Lawrenceville, N.J., 61-56, on Jan. 18 and at the Gallagher Center, 64-59, on Feb. 2.
Marist, the defending MAAC women’s champion, went undefeated in the regular season to take the top seed for the tournament.
The Red Foxes will play their first tournament game against the winner of the Loyola (Md.)-Manhattan prequarterfinal.
If the Niagara and Canisius women cross paths, it can only be in the championship game at noon on Sunday.
Sunday’s action
The Canisius and Niagara women’s teams closed out regular season play with MAAC losses on the road Sunday.
The Purple Eagles fell, 61-52, to Manhattan in Riverdale.
Niagara kept battling back after Manhattan had built a 15-point, second-half lead and trailed by only six, 52-46 with just under three minutes left but could get no closer.
In Loudonville, Siena defeated Canisius, 64-53, the fourth year in a row the Saints have defeated the Griffs on their home floor.
Senior Ashley Wilkes of Canisius posted her fourth double-double of the season with 19 points and 10 rebounds.
Kayla Hoohuli had 14 points and four steals while Jamie Ruttle had 11 points and six rebounds.
“When we were trying to dig back into the game in the second half, we were getting stops but couldn’t finish defensive possessions. Those offensive rebounds for Siena were huge,” Canisius coach Terry Zeh said.
Siena grabbed 19 offensive boards.
Fans interested in purchasing tickets in the Canisius fan section in the MAAC tournament can call the Canisius Ticket Office at 888-2885. They also can go online to GoGriffs.com. |
7/15/2005
Waiting for the final bill text
Scholar won't comment on the policy ramifications of the hotly debated education omnibus bill until the Revisor of Statutes posts the final text of HF2 online. Please stand by.
As juicy as the 8%, $800 million payday for the biennium is for E-12, rest assured that there is drama to spare on the policy side as well.
In the meantime, check out these trenchant analyses at SCSU Scholars and Craig Westover. I'm with King in supporting Get Ready, Get Credit — anything that will help kids to avoid taking high school math for college tuition, as I did, is a good thing. |
GGJ Leipzig 2012 – What a weekend!
The event I was planning since September finally took place. For everybody who couldn't join the Global Game Jam or was quarreling if a game jam is "useful": You really missed a very intense weekend full of fun and games to play and develop! Among 246 locations in 48 countries with 11182 jammers who made 2301 games!!! |
Way back in 1975, shortly after a fluke court decision legalized marijuana in Alaska for the first time, HIGH TIMES sent a writer north to the Last Frontier. In Fairbanks, the writer met a guy who went by the name of Nordhoff.
Nordhoff made a claim that piqued the interest of pot fans across the Lower 48:
“Nordhoff carefully cleans out the bowl of a fossilized walrus tusk pipe and fills it with green leaf. The buds are huge, the size of a Malemute’s paw. He carefully picks one apart and crumbles it. ’Matanuska Thunderfuck’ he declares, firing it up. ‘The finest pot grown in the 50 states.”
“This weed is so strong it grows through the snow to find the sun,” Nordhoff said. “Farmers in the Valley plant it alongside patches of cabbage so big it takes two men to carry them, tomatoes so big you have to cut them off with a chain saw.”
The valley Nordhoff was talking about isn’t just any valley. He was talking about the Matanuska-Susitna Valley, Alaska’s agricultural heartland. And he was right about the vegetables, which remain gigantic to this day. At the annual state fair in Palmer, farmers display freakishly-large, world-record-sized produce. Two years ago, dentist Steve Hubacek won the Giant Cabbage Weigh-Off with a 117.95 pound specimen. |
Forss Water
Forss Water, known also as Forss River, has its source at the northern end of Loch Shurrey, at . About 13 kilometres north of its source the river flows into Crosskirk Bay and the Atlantic Ocean at . Crosskirk Bay is on the north coast of Great Britain and about 8 kilometres west of the burgh of Thurso, Caithness, in Highland, Scotland.
The river marked the eastern extent of the Clan Mackay raid in the Sandside Chase of 1437.
Tributaries
Alt Torigil, known also as Alt Forsiescye, enters the river at .
Alltan Guinne enters at .
The Burn of Baillie enters at .
The Burn of Brimside enters at .
Bridges
The river is crossed by four road bridges and one footbridge.
The road bridges are:
Near the river's source at Loch Shurrey, at .
Near Broubster Village, at .
Near Westfield, at .
Near Lythmore, at .
The Bridge of Forss, which carries the A836 road at . The A836 leads towards Thurso and John o' Groats in the east and towards Reay, Melvich, Bettyhill and Tongue in the west.
The footbridge is near the river's mouth at , providing access to St Marys Chapel, to the west of the river, from Crosskirk, to the east.
References
Category:Rivers of Highland (council area) |
I bought a brand new frying pan the other day, a beautiful non stick whopper to replace my tired 9 year old pan, which I have placed in semi retirement. I can’t throw it out as it’s served me well and can still be used for everything else that doesn’t require non stick. However, the new pan, woo hoo, I’d forgotten what it was like not to have to get the spatula and chisel my pancake mix or stir fry veggies off the bottom. So to honour the new arrival, I wanted to make some chapatis (and now that I’ve written this sentence, I now want pancakes… I’m so suggestible!). I was so pleased with how the chapatis turned out, they were perfect, surprised myself a bit!
I used coconut milk in my curry sauce, it tasted just beautiful and the great thing about this recipe is you can add whatever veggies you have in and need to use up, in my case it was the cauliflower from the other day. You can add aubergine (eggplant) broccoli, spinach, sweet potato etc whatever you like, but this combination of cauliflower, chickpea and peppers did work well for me. The cauliflower really takes on the flavours of the sauce.
Yoga was a scary business this morning, she had us doing headstands into crab positions, I can’t do a headstand without the wall behind me for support and I can’t do a crab (legs bit I can do, just can’t push my arms up yet!) but with a little, okay a lot of assistance from Soula (our instructor) I did it! I just need her to grab my legs every time I do it from now on…. not sure she’ll go for that!
Goan Vegetable Curry with Spiced Chapatis (vegan & gluten free)
MyInspiration Feel The Difference Range
Serves 2 – Ready in roughly 30 minutes
For the curry
1 + 1/4 cup canned coconut milk
2 cloves garlic finely chopped
1 onion finely chopped
1/2 inch cube of ginger finely chopped
1/2 tbsp chili flakes
1/2 tbsp tamarind paste
1 tsp turmeric
1 tsp cumin
Small handful of fresh coriander
10 cherry tomatoes, halved
1 can chickpeas drained and rinsed
2 cups of chopped cauliflower
1 green pepper (capsicum) chopped
For the chapatis – Makes 4
1 cup wholewheat flour (or you can use chickpea flour or your favourite GF flour)
1/4 cup non dairy milk (I used Alpro Almond Milk) mixed with 1/4 cup water (so 1/2 cup of liquid altogether)
1 tbsp olive oil
1/2 tbsp chili flakes
Method
Start the curry: Add the garlic, ginger, chili flakes and half the chopped onion to a food processor (or use a hand blender) and pulse until you get a nice paste. (keep a clean tea towel close by, my eyes started watering quite a bit from the onion)
Heat 2 tbsp water in a deep saucepan over a medium heat, then add in the paste from step 1 along with the remaining chopped onion, tamarind, turmeric & cumin and cook for a minute. Pour in the coconut milk, add the chopped tomatoes, chickpeas, pepper and cauliflower, mix it all together making sure everything is well coated, turn heat down to low, cover and leave to cook for 20 minutes, stirring occasionally then before serving add in the fresh coriander and stir through.
Now make the chapatis: In a mixing bowl add the flour and chili flakes then stir through the olive oil and the milk/water mixture until the flour starts to come together to form a dough, get in there with your hands to bring the dough together into a ball and turn out onto a floured surface and knead for a few minutes then roll into a thick sausage shape. Cut this into 4 balls and take you rolling pin and roll each one out until it’s about 2mm thick.
Heat a non stick pan over a medium/high heat, wait for the pan to get hot then add one of the chapatis to the pan, leave for 30 – 40 seconds then flip over the other side for 30 seconds, pressing lightly with a spatula to make sure the base cooks properly, you might get little air bubbles and brown spots, which is perfectly normal, pop the cooked chapati on a plate and repeat with the the remaining chapatis.
To serve, I just spooned the curry into a bowl and popped a chapati on the side and served it with some mango pickle. Scrumptious! |
State lawmakers say they have final budget deal
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OLYMPIA, Wash. (AP) - Washington lawmakers reached a long-sought accord on a new state budget Thursday and hurried to schedule votes that would avert a widespread state government shutdown.
Gov. Jay Inslee said in a news conference, flanked by lawmakers from both parties, that the Legislature is hoping to approve the measure before state employees leave work Friday. Political leaders declined to discuss details of the plan and declined to make the $33.6 billion spending proposal available for public review, as it was still being drafted Thursday afternoon.
"The deal reached today makes it clear that state government will continue to operate," Inslee said.
Democratic Rep. Ross Hunter, the top negotiator in the House, said he and Republican Sen. Andy Hill finalized the new spending plan Thursday morning and shook hands on an agreement. Budget negotiators said they were confident the measure would swiftly make it through the Legislature, although Hunter indicated lawmakers were simultaneously discussing a variety of peripheral issues.
"It's a delicate agreement," he said.
Hill said the final plan puts an additional $ 1 billion toward the state's basic education system in response to a state Supreme Court ruling that determined lawmakers weren't adequately funding schools. He also said it provides no tuition increases over two years.
"I do think it's a budget that has broad appeal," Hill said. "Everybody is excited and glad to be done."
Lawmakers didn't immediately release the full details of the proposal.
Much of state government would shut down - and more than 25,000 workers would be temporarily laid off - if the Legislature fails to approve the new budget by Monday, and political leaders believe it's particularly important to finalize the plan before state employees leave work for the weekend.
Sen. Rodney Tom said the Senate passed a bill that would ensure that the budget forecast be completed a month earlier next year.
He said he proposed legislation that would take away lawmakers' per diem if they go into special session, and even fine lawmakers $250 for each day they go over. He is doubtful those "talkers" would be passed this session.
Washington state has never had a government shutdown but the Legislature has worked close to the end of the fiscal period before. In 2001, lawmakers finished the budget on June 20; in 1991 then-Gov. Booth Gardner signed a budget just moments before midnight on June 30.
This year, a new Senate majority controlled by Republicans and two conservative Democrats pushed a no-tax message and policies that would overhaul government rules to aid businesses. Democrats who control the House and Gov. Jay Inslee have pressed for more tax revenue and opposed many of the Senate policy plans.
The Senate has talked about revisiting returning to those policy matters next year, such as an overhaul to the state's workers' compensation system. Democrats have said the tax issues will also return again next session, since lawmakers will still need to add more money to the education system in the coming years.
"This is a good budget," said House Majority Leader Pat Sullivan. "However, it doesn't address the underlying questions we need to answer before we can honestly say we've met our long-term commitment to education in our state."
Grand Opening for Forte Studios in Kennewick WA. A Studio for Photographers to have access to a fully stocked photo studio without the cost of owing their own studio. Great for amateur and professionals looking for a great place to produce some great photos. |
177 So.2d 50 (1965)
OLD EQUITY LIFE INSURANCE COMPANY, an Illinois insurance corporation doing business in the State of Florida, Appellant,
v.
Franklyn LEVENSON, Appellee.
No. 64-1021.
District Court of Appeal of Florida. Third District.
June 22, 1965.
Rehearing Denied August 9, 1965.
L.J. Cushman, Miami, for appellant.
Truett & Watkins, Miami, for appellee.
Before BARKDULL, C.J., and TILLMAN PEARSON and SWANN, JJ.
PER CURIAM.
The appellant, defendant in the trial court, seeks review of an adverse final judgment rendered in favor of the appellee by the trial court in a non-jury cause. The principal question preserved for review by the appellant was the sufficiency of the evidence to find liability.
We have examined the record in light of the applicable appellate principles as to presumption of correctness and the requirement that an appellate court not disturb the final judgment if there is any substantial, competent evidence to support same. See: Ross v. Florida Sun Life Insurance Company, Fla.App. 1960, 124 So.2d 892; LaFrance Cleaners & Dyers, Inc. v. Argenio, Fla.App. 1962, 147 So.2d 330.
It is not the function of this or any other appellate court to substitute its judgment for the trier of fact, be it a jury or a trial judge, and although we might have reached a different conclusion if we had been the initial arbitrator of the factual issues, we are not at liberty to substitute *51 our judgment for that of the trier of the facts if there is evidence to support the complained of ruling and/or judgment. There is sufficient evidence in this record and, therefore, we are compelled to affirm.
Affirmed.
|
// This file was procedurally generated from the following sources:
// - src/dstr-binding/ary-ptrn-rest-not-final-id.case
// - src/dstr-binding/default/cls-decl-async-gen-meth-static-dflt.template
/*---
description: Rest element (identifier) may not be followed by any element (static class expression async generator method (default parameter))
esid: sec-runtime-semantics-bindingclassdeclarationevaluation
features: [async-iteration]
flags: [generated]
negative:
phase: parse
type: SyntaxError
info: |
ClassDeclaration : class BindingIdentifier ClassTail
1. Let className be StringValue of BindingIdentifier.
2. Let value be the result of ClassDefinitionEvaluation of ClassTail with
argument className.
[...]
14.5.14 Runtime Semantics: ClassDefinitionEvaluation
21. For each ClassElement m in order from methods
a. If IsStatic of m is false, then
b. Else,
Let status be the result of performing PropertyDefinitionEvaluation for
m with arguments F and false.
[...]
Runtime Semantics: PropertyDefinitionEvaluation
AsyncGeneratorMethod :
async [no LineTerminator here] * PropertyName ( UniqueFormalParameters )
{ AsyncGeneratorBody }
1. Let propKey be the result of evaluating PropertyName.
2. ReturnIfAbrupt(propKey).
3. If the function code for this AsyncGeneratorMethod is strict mode code, let strict be true.
Otherwise let strict be false.
4. Let scope be the running execution context's LexicalEnvironment.
5. Let closure be ! AsyncGeneratorFunctionCreate(Method, UniqueFormalParameters,
AsyncGeneratorBody, scope, strict).
[...]
13.3.3 Destructuring Binding Patterns
ArrayBindingPattern[Yield] :
[ Elisionopt BindingRestElement[?Yield]opt ]
[ BindingElementList[?Yield] ]
[ BindingElementList[?Yield] , Elisionopt BindingRestElement[?Yield]opt ]
---*/
$DONOTEVALUATE();
var callCount = 0;
class C {
static async *method([...x, y] = [1, 2, 3]) {
callCount = callCount + 1;
}
};
C.method().next().then(() => {
assert.sameValue(callCount, 1, 'invoked exactly once');
}).then($DONE, $DONE);
|
81 F.3d 498
UNITED STATES of America, Plaintiff-Appellee,v.Willie James BLAKE, Jr., Defendant-Appellant.
No. 95-5273.
United States Court of Appeals,Fourth Circuit.
Argued Feb. 1, 1996.Decided April 18, 1996.
Appeal from the United States District Court for the Middle District of North Carolina, at Greensboro. William L. Osteen, Sr., District Judge. (CR-94-154).
ARGUED: Gregory Davis, Assistant Federal Public Defender, Greensboro, North Carolina, for Appellant. Paul Alexander Weinman, Assistant United States Attorney, Greensboro, North Carolina, for Appellee. ON BRIEF: William E. Martin, Federal Public Defender, Greensboro, North Carolina, for Appellant. Walter C. Holton, Jr., United States Attorney, Greensboro, North Carolina, for Appellee.
Before WILKINS, LUTTIG, and MOTZ, Circuit Judges.
Affirmed in part, vacated in part, and remanded with instructions by published opinion. Judge WILKINS wrote the opinion, in which Judge LUTTIG and Judge MOTZ joined.
OPINION
WILKINS, Circuit Judge:
1
Willie James Blake, Jr. pled guilty to using unauthorized access devices (stolen credit cards) in violation of 18 U.S.C.A. § 1029(a)(2) (West Supp.1995). Blake now challenges his sentence, arguing that the district court erred by enhancing his offense level based on the vulnerability of his victims, see United States Sentencing Commission, Guidelines Manual, § 3A1.1 (Nov.1994), and in departing upward from the applicable guideline range. He also challenges the restitution order imposed by the district court on numerous grounds. We affirm the sentence of imprisonment and term of supervised release, but vacate the restitution order and remand with instructions.I.
2
Blake pled guilty to a one-count indictment charging that he had knowingly and with intent to defraud used ten unauthorized credit cards to obtain items of value. The indictment listed the card numbers and issuing banks, as well as the names of the individuals to whom the cards were issued. The presentence report prepared after Blake entered his plea recommended that pursuant to U.S.S.G. § 2F1.1 Blake's base offense level should be six. It also noted that two specific offense characteristics made him eligible for a three-level enhancement for loss in excess of $10,000 and a two-level enhancement for more than minimal planning. See U.S.S.G. § 2F1.1(b)(1)(2)(A). And, the report recommended that Blake receive a two-level enhancement for targeting unusually vulnerable victims because he had obtained the credit cards by stealing pocketbooks and wallets from elderly women while they were shopping. See U.S.S.G. § 3A1.1. In addition, the report suggested that because Blake had committed the offense as part of a pattern of criminal conduct engaged in as a livelihood, his offense level should not be less than 13. See U.S.S.G. § 4B1.3. It concluded the offense level calculation by recommending that Blake receive a two-level reduction for acceptance of responsibility. See U.S.S.G. § 3E1.1.
3
Blake's criminal history calculation resulted in the attribution of a total of 35 criminal history points, placing him in Criminal History Category VI. See U.S.S.G. Ch. 5, Pt. A. The report further advised, however, that the court should consider whether his Criminal History Category adequately reflected the seriousness of his past criminal conduct or the likelihood that he would commit other crimes and, if not, whether an upward departure would be appropriate. See U.S.S.G. § 4A1.3. The report recommended restitution to the banks that issued the cards for losses sustained as a result of the unauthorized charges and to the individuals from whom the cards were stolen as payment for expenditures they incurred as a result of the thefts, i.e., expenses related to lost property and document replacement. See 18 U.S.C.A. § 3663 (West 1985 & Supp.1995); U.S.S.G. § 5E1.1.
4
Blake raised several objections to the presentence report.1 First, he challenged the vulnerable victim enhancement, arguing that the individuals from whom he stole the credit cards were not victims of his offense of conviction and that even if these people were victims, they were not unusually vulnerable within the meaning of § 3A1.1. The district court concluded that the individuals were victims under this guideline and that Blake specifically targeted elderly persons because they were less able to defend themselves.2 Accordingly, it applied the two-level vulnerable victim enhancement in calculating Blake's adjusted offense level. See U.S.S.G. § 3A1.1.
5
Blake also objected to the application of § 4B1.3 (Criminal Livelihood). The district court adopted the proposed finding in the presentence report that Blake's conduct in the 12 months preceding his arrest made him eligible for application of this section, which mandated that his offense level not be less than 13. Further, it adopted the recommendation that independent of this provision Blake's offense level with enhancements was also 13. Finally, the court adopted the recommendation that Blake receive a two-level reduction for acceptance of responsibility. See U.S.S.G. § 3E1.1. As a result, Blake's adjusted offense level was 11. See U.S.S.G. § 4B1.3.
6
The district court further concluded that Blake's Criminal History Category VI inadequately represented the seriousness of his past criminal conduct. Rejecting Blake's argument that a departure based on criminal history would constitute impermissible double counting of his past criminal conduct because it had already relied on this conduct in applying § 4B1.3, the district court departed upward to offense level 15 and imposed a sentence of 51 months imprisonment. The district court reached level 15 after making specific findings that offense levels 11, 12, 13, and 14, when combined with Criminal History Category VI, were insufficient to represent the seriousness of Blake's past criminal conduct. See U.S.S.G. § 4A1.3; United States v. Cash, 983 F.2d 558, 561 & nn. 6-7 (4th Cir.1992), cert. denied, 508 U.S. 924, 113 S.Ct. 2380, 124 L.Ed.2d 284 (1993).
7
Blake raised further objections to the restitution recommendations contained in the presentence report. First, he maintained that he lacked the ability to pay restitution, arguing that a potentially life-threatening physical condition prevented him from working. In addition, he asserted that he had no real ability to earn a living due to a lifetime of drug abuse.
8
Although acknowledging that Blake might have a condition that affected his present ability to work, the district court made no finding as to the permanency of this condition. It then adopted the recommendation of the presentence report that even though Blake lacked the present ability to pay restitution, he should have the earning capacity sufficient to pay restitution in the future while in prison or on supervised release because he was able-bodied. The district court made no further findings regarding his ability to pay restitution.
9
Blake also objected to the suggested amount of restitution because it included amounts attributable to the persons from whom he stole the credit cards. He asserted that he could not be ordered to pay restitution to these individuals under 18 U.S.C.A. § 3663 because they were not victims of his offense of conviction. Rejecting this argument, the district court ordered restitution in the amount of $1,922.00 to the robbery victims in addition to $13,824.83 to the card issuers. The subsequently entered restitution order stated that Blake would pay the restitution "at such times and in such amounts as directed by the Bureau of Prisons or the U.S. Probation Officer." J.A. 102.
10
Blake now challenges his sentence on several grounds, essentially asserting that the district court erred in rejecting his objections to the presentence report. We address these arguments in turn.
II.
11
Blake first challenges the manner in which the district court applied the sentencing guidelines. We begin by noting that in reviewing the application of the guidelines by a district court, we examine factual determinations for clear error; legal questions, however, are subject to a de novo standard of review. United States v. Singh, 54 F.3d 1182, 1190 (4th Cir.1995).
A.
12
Blake first contends that the district court improperly enhanced his offense level by two levels based on a finding that he targeted unusually vulnerable victims. See U.S.S.G. § 3A1.1. He argues that the persons from whom he stole the credit cards were not victims of his offense of conviction--fraudulent use of unauthorized access devices--and therefore were not properly considered vulnerable victims for the purposes of § 3A1.1. Alternatively, he maintains that even if these individuals are considered victims, they do not meet the standard of vulnerability required for proper application of this enhancement. We disagree.
13
Section 3A1.1 provides for a two-level enhancement "[i]f the defendant knew or should have known that a victim of the offense was unusually vulnerable due to age, physical or mental condition, or that a victim was otherwise particularly susceptible to the criminal conduct." The term "offense" is defined as "the offense of conviction and all relevant conduct under § 1B1.3." U.S.S.G. § 1B1.1, comment. (n.1(l )). And, § 1B1.3(a)(1) includes as relevant conduct, inter alia, all acts committed by the defendant in preparation for the offense of conviction. We therefore reject Blake's argument that, for the purpose of § 3A1.1, "a victim of the offense" is only an individual considered a victim of the specific offense of conviction. See United States v. Lee, 973 F.2d 832, 834 & n. 2 (10th Cir.1992); United States v. Yount, 960 F.2d 955, 958 (11th Cir.1992); United States v. Roberson, 872 F.2d 597, 608-09 (5th Cir.), cert. denied, 493 U.S. 861, 110 S.Ct. 175, 107 L.Ed.2d 131 (1989). But see United States v. Bondurant, 39 F.3d 665, 667-668 (6th Cir.1994). As the record clearly indicates, Blake stole pocketbooks and wallets in order to secure credit cards for use in his plan to defraud the card issuers. Such acts unquestionably were conduct committed in preparation for the offense of conviction. Accordingly, we hold that the individuals from whom he stole the credit cards were victims of the offense within the meaning of U.S.S.G. § 3A1.1.
14
Blake also contends that even if the persons from whom he stole the credit cards properly are considered victims under the guidelines, the district court erred in concluding that they were unusually vulnerable victims pursuant to § 3A1.1. Once an individual has been found to be a victim within the meaning of § 3A1.1, proper application of this enhancement requires the existence of two additional elements. First, the victim must have been unusually vulnerable; and second, the defendant must have targeted the victim because of the unusual vulnerability. United States v. Holmes, 60 F.3d 1134, 1136 (4th Cir.1995); Singh, 54 F.3d at 1191. That a victim is elderly, without more, does not justify application of the vulnerable victim enhancement under § 3A1.1. See Lee, 973 F.2d at 834.
15
The district court found that Blake had specifically targeted elderly people who, by virtue of their age, were less physically able to defend themselves during his robbery attempts. Within this context, we conclude that the district court was not clearly erroneous in finding that Blake's victims were unusually vulnerable because of their age and that Blake targeted them due to this vulnerability. See United States v. Seligsohn, 981 F.2d 1418, 1426 (3d Cir.1992). Accordingly, we find application of the § 3A1.1 enhancement appropriate.
B.
16
Blake next contends that the district court improperly departed upward based on a finding that his Criminal History Category VI was inadequate to reflect the seriousness of his past criminal conduct. See U.S.S.G. § 4A1.3 (Adequacy of Criminal History Category). He maintains that because the district court apparently considered his criminal history in applying § 4B1.3 (Criminal Livelihood), further consideration of his criminal history in deciding to depart constituted impermissible double counting. Again, we disagree.
17
Although both of these guideline sections direct the court to examine past criminal conduct, each provision is designed to penalize a different type of criminal behavior. Section 4B1.3 instructs the court to examine a defendant's conduct during a 12-month period. If it finds that the instant offense was part of a "pattern of criminal conduct engaged in as a livelihood," the district court must adjust the offense level to "not less than 13" or--in the event a reduction for acceptance of responsibility is appropriate--to "not less than 11." On the other hand, § 4A1.3 focuses on serious or repetitive criminal conduct. Under its provisions, the district court is to examine a defendant's entire criminal past; if it finds that a defendant's Criminal History Category does not "adequately reflect the seriousness of the defendant's past criminal conduct or the likelihood that[he] will commit other crimes," the court may consider an upward departure. U.S.S.G. § 4A1.3. The former section attempts to assure adequate punishment for those defendants who prey on society for their livelihood. See U.S.S.G. § 4B1.3, comment. (backg'd.). The latter section, however, is designed to deal with defendants who possess an "extensive record" that is not adequately reflected by their Criminal History Category, or those whose criminal background shows them to "pose a greater risk of serious recidivism." U.S.S.G. § 4A1.3, comment. (backg'd.). Because an individual can engage in criminal conduct to provide his livelihood as well as possess a criminal past not adequately represented by his Criminal History Category--or demonstrate a high probability of repeating his behavior--both provisions may apply to the same defendant and both may be used in determining the appropriate sentence. See United States v. Morse, 983 F.2d 851, 852-54 (8th Cir.1993) (affirming application of both provisions).
18
In addition, even if we assume the district court relied on some of the same conduct in applying both provisions, reversal of Blake's sentence is not appropriate. Unless a guideline provision expressly prohibits consideration of a factor previously used in applying another guideline section, the factor may be used to determine whether that provision applies as well. United States v. Curtis, 934 F.2d 553, 556 (4th Cir.1991). Neither § 4B1.3 nor § 4A1.3 includes a provision prohibiting double counting. As a result, even if double counting occurred, it did not result in an improper application of the guidelines. Therefore, we conclude that the district court did not err in departing upward.
III.
19
We next consider Blake's challenges to the restitution order. The decision to order restitution pursuant to the Victim and Witness Protection Act of 1982 (VWPA), as amended, 18 U.S.C.A. §§ 3663-3664 (West 1985 & Supp.1995), is within the discretion of the district court, and we will not disturb that decision absent an abuse of discretion. United States v. Piche, 981 F.2d 706, 718 (4th Cir.1992), cert. denied, 508 U.S. 916, 113 S.Ct. 2356, 124 L.Ed.2d 264 (1993).
A.
20
This court has repeatedly held that in order to ensure effective appellate review of restitution orders, sentencing courts must make explicit findings of fact on each of the factors set forth in 18 U.S.C.A. § 3664(a) (West Supp.1995).3 United States v. Molen, 9 F.3d 1084, 1086 (4th Cir.1993), cert. denied, --- U.S. ----, 114 S.Ct. 1649, 128 L.Ed.2d 368 (1994); accord United States v. Plumley, 993 F.2d 1140, 1142-43 (4th Cir.) (per curiam), cert. denied, --- U.S. ----, 114 S.Ct. 279, 126 L.Ed.2d 230 (1993); Piche, 981 F.2d at 717; United States v. Bailey, 975 F.2d 1028, 1031 (4th Cir.1992); United States v. Bruchey, 810 F.2d 456, 458 (4th Cir.1987) (interpreting predecessor to § 3664(a)). Such findings must tie the amount and type of restitution ordered to the financial resources, financial needs, and earning ability of the defendant. See, e.g., Molen, 9 F.3d at 1086. Moreover, the court must make a specific finding that the defendant feasibly can comply with the order without undue hardship to himself or his dependents. Id. The district court may satisfy this requirement by announcing its findings on the record or by adopting adequate proposed findings contained within a presentence report. Id.
21
Despite the clear mandate from this court, the district court failed to articulate on the record specific findings with respect to Blake's earning ability or financial needs. And, it completely failed to make a factual determination that Blake could make the necessary restitution payments without undue hardship to himself or his teenage daughter.4 Nor did the court adopt a presentence report containing adequate findings as to these factors.
22
We do not suggest that the district court will be unable to make findings supporting a restitution award. Rather, it simply failed to do so. As this court has previously admonished, failure to make the required findings necessitates remand. See Molen, 9 F.3d at 1087; Piche, 981 F.2d at 718. Consequently, we vacate the restitution order and remand to allow the district court to make the appropriate findings.
B.
23
Blake also contends that because the persons from whom he stole the credit cards are not victims of his offense of conviction, their losses of $1,922.00 should not have been included in the restitution order. We are compelled to agree.5
24
The VWPA provides that "[t]he [district] court, when sentencing a defendant convicted of an offense under [Title 18] ... may order ... that the defendant make restitution to any victim of such offense." 18 U.S.C.A. § 3663(a)(1). As interpreted by the Supreme Court, the VWPA "authorize[s] an award of restitution only for the loss caused by the specific conduct that is the basis of the offense of conviction." Hughey v. United States, 495 U.S. 411, 413, 110 S.Ct. 1979, 1981, 109 L.Ed.2d 408 (1990).
25
In 1990, following the Hughey decision, the VWPA was amended.6 At present, if the offense involves "as an element" a scheme, conspiracy, or pattern of criminal activity, the definition of "victim" includes any person directly harmed by the defendant's criminal conduct. 18 U.S.C.A. § 3663(a)(2); United States v. Broughton-Jones, 71 F.3d 1143, 1149 (4th Cir.1995). This amendment, however, does not authorize a district court to order restitution to all individuals harmed by a defendant's criminal conduct. See Broughton-Jones, 71 F.3d at 1148-49. For a person to be considered a victim under § 3663, the act that harms the individual must be either conduct underlying an element of the offense of conviction, or an act taken in furtherance of a scheme, conspiracy, or pattern of criminal activity that is specifically included as an element of the offense of conviction. Id.; see United States v. Obasohan, 73 F.3d 309, 311 (11th Cir.1996) (per curiam); Plumley, 993 F.2d at 1142. But, if the harm to the person does not result from conduct underlying an element of the offense of conviction, or conduct that is part of a pattern of criminal activity that is an element of the offense of conviction, the district court may not order the defendant to pay restitution to that individual. See Broughton-Jones, 71 F.3d at 1149; United States v. Ledesma, 60 F.3d 750, 751 (11th Cir.1995); United States v. Neal, 36 F.3d 1190, 1200-01 (1st Cir.1994).
26
Although the result we are compelled to reach represents poor sentencing policy, the statute as interpreted requires the holding that the persons from whom Blake stole the credit cards do not qualify as victims of his offense of conviction, and as such he cannot be ordered to pay restitution to them. Blake's theft of the credit cards represents a pattern of criminal activity that was a necessary step in the accomplishment of his objective, i.e., use of unauthorized access devices. But, the factual connection between his conduct and the offense of conviction is legally irrelevant for the purpose of restitution. See Broughton-Jones, 71 F.3d at 1149. The Government allowed Blake to plead guilty to one count of fraudulent use of unauthorized access devices in violation of 18 U.S.C.A. § 1029(a)(2). "This offense ... has four elements: 1) the intent to defraud; 2) the knowing use of or trafficking in an unauthorized access device; 3) to obtain things of value in the aggregate of $1,000 or more within a one-year period; and 4) an affect on interstate or foreign commerce." United States v. Tunning, 69 F.3d 107, 112 (6th Cir.1995); see also 18 U.S.C.A. § 1029(a)(2). The specific conduct underlying these elements, and thus forming the basis for Blake's offense of conviction, does not include the theft of the credit cards. Nor does the offense include as an element a scheme, conspiracy, or pattern of criminal activity that encompasses such conduct. As a result, the loss to the robbery victims was not caused by Blake's offense of conviction.7 See Broughton-Jones, 71 F.3d at 1149; Ledesma, 60 F.3d at 751; see also United States v. Hayes, 32 F.3d 171, 173 (5th Cir.1994); United States v. Cobbs, 967 F.2d 1555, 1558-59 (11th Cir.1992). The district court, therefore, erred by including the loss attributable to these individuals in its restitution order.
27
We emphasize that this undesirable result can be corrected in the future by congressional action further amending 18 U.S.C.A. § 3663(a) or by a plea agreement that requires a defendant to make restitution to individuals directly harmed by his criminal conduct. Blake's plea agreement did not include a restitution provision, although it easily could have. Moreover, it could have included a specific provision requiring restitution to the persons he robbed in order to obtain the cards. Another 1990 amendment to the VWPA permits a district court to "order restitution in any criminal case to the extent agreed to by the parties in a plea agreement." 18 U.S.C.A. § 3663(a)(3). And, "such agreements may authorize restitution in an amount greater than the loss attributable to the offense of conviction." Broughton-Jones, 71 F.3d at 1147; see also United States v. Soderling, 970 F.2d 529, 534 (9th Cir.1992), cert. denied, 508 U.S. 952, 113 S.Ct. 2446, 124 L.Ed.2d 663 (1993); United States v. Rice, 954 F.2d 40, 44 (2d Cir.1992).
C.
28
Finally, we consider Blake's argument that the district court erred by delegating the determination of the amount and schedule of restitution installment payments to the Bureau of Prisons or U.S. Probation Office. This court recently held that deciding the amount and timing of restitution payments is a non-delegable judicial function. United States v. Johnson, 48 F.3d 806, 809 (4th Cir.1995). As such, the portion of the restitution order that authorized these agencies to determine the amount and schedule of restitution payments was improper. Of course, a district court may receive and consider recommendations as to the amount and schedule of payments from other sources. See id. Final approval, however--as well as decisions regarding future modification--may not be delegated.
IV.
29
In conclusion, we affirm Blake's sentence of imprisonment and term of supervised release. We vacate the restitution order and remand with instructions that the district court make the required findings on the factors listed in § 3664. If the district court then orders restitution, it may not award restitution to the persons from whom Blake stole the credit cards, and it may not delegate its authority to determine the amount of, and schedule for, installment payments of restitution to the card issuers.
30
AFFIRMED IN PART; VACATED IN PART; AND REMANDED WITH INSTRUCTIONS.
1
Although Blake initially challenged the enhancement for more than minimal planning, he did not raise that objection during the sentencing hearing, nor does he object to its application now
2
The district court based this finding on testimony given at the sentencing hearing. The police officer who interviewed Blake shortly after his arrest testified that during the course of the interview Blake said that he preferred to steal from elderly women because they presented less of a threat. Believing this testimony to be credible, the district court found that Blake had targeted elderly victims because they "could not fend for themselves as well as other people might." J.A. 87
3
These factors are "the amount of the loss sustained by any victim as a result of the offense, the financial resources of the defendant, the financial needs and earning ability of the defendant and the defendant's dependents, and such other factors as the court deems appropriate." 18 U.S.C.A. § 3664(a)
4
Although the presentence report noted that Blake did not live with this daughter and presently provided no financial support, it specifically listed her as a dependent and stated that she did need his support
5
Although we have held that the persons from whom Blake stole the credit cards are victims for the purposes of the sentencing guidelines, see supra p. 504, this is not dispositive of the question with respect to restitution orders issued pursuant to 18 U.S.C.A. § 3663. The definition of victim provided in this statute is much narrower than the one in the guidelines, and it is § 3663--not the guidelines--that governs the authority of a sentencing court to require restitution. United States v. Silkowski, 32 F.3d 682, 688 (2d Cir.1994); United States v. Baker, 25 F.3d 1452, 1457 (9th Cir.1994); see also U.S.S.G. § 5E1.1(a)
6
Although this amendment superseded Hughey 's holding in part, this court has recognized that Hughey still applies when, in the absence of an appropriate plea agreement that provides for restitution, a restitution award " 'clearly encompasses an offense for which the defendant was not convicted.' " Broughton-Jones, 71 F.3d at 1147 n. 1 (quoting Bailey, 975 F.2d at 1033 n. 1). Because the plea agreement entered into below did not address restitution, and the theft of the credit cards is not the offense of conviction, Hughey applies
7
The robbery victims' claims for loss included only replacement costs of pocketbooks, wallets, and items of a similar nature. Had they paid the credit card companies for charges made against their credit cards by the thief, as to these amounts they would have been considered victims under the VWPA and thus be entitled to restitution. This is so because this type of loss would be attributable to conduct underlying use of the cards, an element of the offense of conviction, as opposed to injury resulting solely from the theft of the cards
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Steve Bannon is out to be a big player in European politics.
But his potential European partners are ambivalent, saying they want to keep the controversial American at arm's length even as they seek to tap his expertise on how to disrupt politics on the Continent. This initial reception signals potential limits to the Bannon push into the Old World — as well as exposing divisions among Europe's various far-right groups that lurk not far beneath the surface.
Donald Trump's former chief strategist last week unveiled plans to ramp up a Brussels-based foundation, named The Movement, to coordinate and advise right-wing populist parties campaigning in next spring's European Parliament election. His plan is to help parties set up a right-wing "supergroup" within the Parliament that could attract as many as a third of the lawmakers after next May’s ballot, he told the Daily Beast.
Although Bannon has only just announced the foundation, The Movement was established in January of last year by Mischaël Modrikamen, a Brussels lawyer and leader of a small right-wing party. Modrikamen told POLITICO that Bannon recently got in touch with him and they realized that "my structure was already there, and that it fit with what Bannon wanted to create.”
Despite Bannon's connections to Europe's leading populists, many sound unsure about letting an outsider play a central role in next year's election, let alone one with his reputation. Some pointed out they are already working on their own pan-European alliances.
"Bannon is American and has no place in a European political party," said Jérôme Rivière, a member of French far-right leader Marine Le Pen's National Rally party who recently met Bannon in London. "We reject any supra-national entity and are not participating in the creation of anything with Bannon."
However, Rivière, his party's international spokesman, said he has talked to Bannon about how he could "provide us with new ideas or share his experience." Rivière said The Movement would be "a good non-partisan tool box" to achieve that. Bannon, who formerly ran Breitbart media, helped lead the successful Trump campaign in 2016 and went on to serve in the White House for seven months.
The 2019 European Parliament election is a "major political opportunity for us to build a majority or at least to have enough MEPs to block business as usual in the EU," Rivière added.
Another prominent Euroskeptic politician, Gerolf Annemans of Belgium's Vlaams Belang party, noted Bannon "knows us all [on the European populist right], and spoke at party events."
"If it becomes an employment vehicle for Farage and Laure Ferrari, we wish [Bannon] the best of luck but want nothing to do with it" — Gerolf Annemans from Belgium's Vlaams Belang party
But Annemans, who is also president of the Movement for a Europe of Nations and Freedom, a pan-European grouping, expressed concern that Bannon's project could be a way to give jobs to his friends, such as former UKIP leader Nigel Farage and Laure Ferrari, a French politician with close links to Farage.
"If it becomes an employment vehicle for Farage and Laure Ferrari, we wish [Bannon] the best of luck but want nothing to do with it," he said, adding that the project at times appears “poorly organized."
Belgian public records list Ferrari as one of three directors of The Movement.
Soros as role model
Bannon said his ambition is to play a role in Europe in the same way that he believes liberal Hungarian-American financier George Soros does. But Annemans is skeptical about Bannon's financial muscle, saying: "We don’t feel that he, like Soros, is coming in with a big wallet."
Another Bannon contact is Matteo Salvini, leader of the Italy's League party and the country's interior minister. They met before and after March's Italian election. But he looks unlikely to embrace Bannon.
The League, according to a Euroskeptic MEP close to the party who didn't want to be named, is working on “its own political project, own alliances,” building on partnerships with France’s National Rally, Vlaams Belang and Austria's Freedom Party, as well as forging new ties with Alternative for Germany and the Sweden Democrats.
“If Bannon reaches out to us, we will take this rather positively. After all, Bannon is one of the main architects of Trump’s victory" — Prominent Euroskeptic MEP
“If Bannon wants to give us a hand, it’s great, we will need all possible support,” the MEP said. “But there will be no participation in any new structure or movement.”
The Euroskeptic lawmaker also said Bannon’s reputation could be an obstacle to any future alliance. “I’m told that in the U.S. Bannon has irritated Trump and Trump tends to dislike people who collaborate with him [Bannon],” he said.
In France, Bannon has links to the far right going back years. In 2014, he declared that France is “the place to be” with “its young entrepreneurs, women of the family Le Pen.”
Marine Le Pen invited Bannon to a party meeting in March but has been busy building her own alliances since then. In May, she hosted a far-right gathering in Nice at which she spoke of a "Union of European Nations." She was joined there by Geert Wilders of the Dutch Freedom Party, Harald Vilimsky of Austria's Freedom Party and Czech nationalist Tomio Okamura.
How an alliance forged by Bannon would fit into the European Parliament isn't clear. At present, there are two Euroskeptic groupings in the assembly, the Europe of Freedom and Direct Democracy — home to UKIP and Italy's 5Stars — and the Europe of Nations and Freedom, whose members include the National Rally, the Freedom Party of Austria and the Dutch Party for Freedom.
To form a group in the Parliament requires a minimum of 25 MEPs, including representatives from at least a quarter (seven at present) of the member countries.
On the fringe of the fringe
Bannon was in London last week and held talks with populists from across the Continent.
Parliament officials said his meetings were either with people who need a new job — such as Farage, who will no longer be an MEP when the U.K. leaves the EU — or who have been ostracized by their own party. In the latter group are Filip Dewinter of Vlaams Belang who, according to Annemans, "wasn’t there [in London] representing the party” and Kent Ekeroth of the Sweden Democrats, who has suggested he will move to Hungary to escape his own country's migration policies.
Bannon also met Modrikamen, the Brussels lawyer whose Popular Party holds one seat in Belgium's federal parliament.
Modrikamen's party was part of Farage’s now-defunct pan-European group called the Alliance for Direct Democracy in Europe, for which Modrikamen did much of the legal advice and paperwork. The group was mired in investigations into fraud and improper payments for much of its existence.
In an interview on Tuesday, Modrikamen said the victory of Trump and the Republicans in the 2016 U.S. elections made him think “that it would be good to unite populist forces” in Europe. He sent Bannon a note setting out his ideas.
The group could unite European populist parties around common policies on national sovereignty, on migration and fighting radical Islam.
Bannon “was then very busy” so he didn’t reply, Modrikamen said. But a few weeks ago he got a phone call from Bannon suggesting a meeting.
“We had lunch ... with Bannon, Farage and other collaborators,” he said. “We realized that our visions totally coincided, that my structure was already there, and that it fit with what Bannon wanted to create.”
The Movement, Modrikamen said, "will not be linked to the European Parliament.”
“Its goal is to unify European populist movements around a series of common ideas and with a private budget,” he said. Modrikamen described Bannon as “an intellectual and organizational war machine” and said he is likely to become The Movement’s chairman, while he would be “its managing partner.”
“Bannon is aware of European specificities, and it’s not The Movement or Bannon who will win the elections,” Modrikamen said. He said the group could unite European populist parties around common policies on national sovereignty, on migration and fighting radical Islam. The Movement could also hold summits of populist forces ahead of European Council meetings, he suggested.
“Bannon and I agreed that we didn’t want any racist or xenophobic forces in there,” he added.
Some Euroskeptic figures gave Bannon's new initiative a warm welcome.
A spokesman for the Europe of Freedom and Direct Democracy, the group that includes UKIP, said Bannon "certainly seems to offer a different perspective," and "with his experience of American politics he could exert a large impact on the European scene which is currently going through quite a change."
A prominent Euroskeptic MEP who didn't want to be named said that, “At this stage, we have not been approached, we’re not involved, and we don’t really see the contours of Bannon's plan."
However, the MEP said: “If Bannon reaches out to us, we will take this rather positively."
“After all, Bannon is one of the main architects of Trump’s victory," he added. |
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This invention relates to combustors for gas turbine engines and, more particularly, to double wall gas turbine combustors.
Gas turbine engine combustors are generally subject to high thermal loads for prolonged periods of time. To alleviate the accompanying thermal stresses, it is known to cool the walls of the combustor. Cooling helps to increase the usable life of the combustor components and therefore increase the reliability of the overall engine.
In one cooling embodiment, a combustor may include a plurality of overlapping wall segments successively arranged where the forward edge of each wall segment is positioned to catch cooling air passing by the outside of the combustor. The forward edge diverts cooling air over the internal side, or xe2x80x9chot sidexe2x80x9d, of the wall segment and thereby provides film cooling for the internal side of the segment. A disadvantage of this cooling arrangement is that the necessary hardware includes a multiplicity of parts. A person of skill in the art will recognize that there is considerable value in minimizing the number of parts within a gas turbine engine, not only from a cost perspective, but also for safety and reliability reasons. Specifically, internal components such as turbines and compressors can be susceptible to damage from foreign objects carried within the air flow through the engine.
A further disadvantage of the above described cooling arrangement is the overall weight which accompanies the multiplicity of parts. A person of skill in the art will recognize that weight is a critical design parameter of every component in a gas turbine engine, and that there is considerable advantage to minimizing weight wherever possible.
In other cooling arrangements, a twin wall configuration has been adopted where an inner wall and an outer wall are provided separated by a specific distance. Cooling air passes through holes in the outer wall and then again through holes in the inner wall, and finally into the combustion chamber. An advantage of a twin wall arrangement compared to an overlapping wall segment arrangement is that an assembled twin wall arrangement is structurally stronger. A disadvantage to the twin wall arrangement, however, is that thermal growth must be accounted for closely. Specifically, the thermal load in a combustor tends to be non-uniform. As a result, different parts of the combustor will experience different amounts of thermal growth, stress, and strain. If the combustor design does not account for non-uniform thermal growth, stress, and strain, then the usable life of the combustor may be negatively affected.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,758,503, assigned to the assignee of the instant application, discloses an improved combustor for gas turbine engines. The advantage of the combustor of the ""503 patent is its ability to accommodate a non-uniform heat load. The liner segment and support shell construction of the present invention permits thermal growth commensurate with whatever thermal load is present in a particular area of the combustor. Clearances between segments permit the thermal growth without the binding that contributes to mechanical stress and strain.
The support shell and liner construction minimizes thermal gradients across the support shell and/or liner segments, and therefore thermal stress and strain within the combustor. The support shell and liner segment construction also minimizes the volume of cooling airflow required to cool the combustor. A person of skill in the art will recognize that it is a distinct advantage to minimize the amount of cooling airflow devoted to cooling purposes. Improved heat transfer at minimal change in liner-shell pressure drop is beneficial. At fixed combustor aerodynamic efficiency, the foregoing translates to reduced coolant requirements.
It would be highly advantageous to improve the heat transfer efficiency of a gas turbine engine combustor while not adversely effecting the pressure drop across the combustor or cooling flow requirement.
It is a further object of the present invention to provide a combustor as above wherein improved heat transfer is achieved with negligible increase in pressure drop.
It is an object of the present invention to provide a lightweight combustor for a gas turbine engine having improved heat transfer efficiency.
According to the present invention the foregoing objects are achieved by providing a combustor for a gas turbine engine is provided which includes a plurality of liner segments and a support shell. The support shell includes an interior and an exterior surface, a plurality of mounting holes, and a plurality of impingement coolant holes extending through the support shell. Each liner segment includes a panel and a plurality of mounting studs. The panel includes a face surface and a back surface, and a plurality of coolant holes extending therethrough. The back surface of the panel has a surface profile for improving the heat transfer properties of a liner segment without substantial increase in pressure drop across the twin walls formed by the liner segment and support shell of the combustor.
Further features and advantages of the present invention will become apparent in light of the detailed description of the best mode embodiment thereof, as illustrated in the accompanying drawings. |
Q:
UTC string is added on XML Conversion
It seems my java.util.date variable is being formatted in a way I can't control.
In code I have a Date variable to hold the value so it looks like this.
Date X;
Date DD = new Date();
X = DD;
X looks great as milliseconds right up to the point where I serialize it out. The date appears correctly in my XML with a UTC at the end. For example:
2012-12-03 12:12:12:345 UTC
So I'm not sure about the UTC string at the end. When I send this to a db is it going to throw an exception. I don't mind leaving the UTC in there if it's not going to mess with anything but I have not seen this before so was wondering...?
JB
A:
Use SimpleDateFormat to format the Date as a String, in any format you need.
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433 N.E.2d 44 (1982)
James PERRY and Wilda Perry, Appellants-Plaintiffs
v.
NORTHERN INDIANA PUBLIC SERVICE COMPANY AND BABCOCK AND WILCOX COMPANY, Appellees-Defendants.
No. 3-580A146.
Court of Appeals of Indiana, Fourth District.
March 25, 1982.
Rehearing Denied April 16, 1982.
Transfer Denied July 9, 1982.
*45 George Kohl, Marvin Lopata, Raskosky & Kohl, Hammond, for appellants-plaintiffs.
David C. Jensen, Paul A. Rake, Eichhorn, Eichhorn & Link, Hammond, for appellees-defendants.
CONOVER, Judge.
Plaintiffs-appellants James and Wilda Perry appeal a summary judgment granted to defendant-appellee Northern Indiana Public Service Company (NIPSCO). The Perrys claim there are genuine issues of material fact concerning NIPSCO's liability for James' injury, sustained when he fell while working on new construction at a NIPSCO plant.
We affirm in part and reverse in part.
SCOPE OF REVIEW
The purpose underlying the summary judgment procedure is to terminate those causes of action which have no factual disputes and thus may be determined as a matter of law.[1] However, the summary *46 judgment procedure must be applied with caution, so that a party's right to a fair determination of a genuine issue is not jeopardized. Bassett v. Glock, (1977) Ind. App., 368 N.E.2d 18.
When reviewing a grant of summary judgment, we must determine whether there is any genuine issue of material fact, and whether the law was correctly applied. Hale v. Peabody Coal Company, (1976) 168 Ind. App. 336, 343 N.E.2d 316. The moving party has the burden of establishing that no material facts are in genuine issue. All doubts and inferences are resolved in favor of the non-moving party. Smith v. P. & B. Corp., (1979) Ind. App., 386 N.E.2d 1232. Accordingly, the products of discovery are liberally construed in the non-moving party's favor. Podgorny v. Great Central Insurance Co., (1974) 160 Ind. App. 244, 311 N.E.2d 640.
A fact is material if its resolution is decisive of either the action or a relevant secondary issue. Lee v. Weston, (1980) Ind. App., 402 N.E.2d 23. The factual issue is genuine if it cannot be foreclosed by reference to undisputed facts, but rather requires a trier of fact to resolve the opposing parties' differing versions. Stuteville v. Downing, (1979) Ind. App., 391 N.E.2d 629.
In a word, we are to reverse if there is any genuine issue for the trier of fact to determine.
ISSUES
The one issue raised in this appeal is whether the trial court erred in finding as a matter of law that NIPSCO owed James Perry no duty to exercise reasonable care relative to job safety.
FACTS
On October 8, 1971, NIPSCO entered into a written agreement with Babcock and Wilcox Co. (B&W), one of several contractors engaged by NIPSCO for the erection of certain mechanical equipment at its Michigan City generating station. This contract, numbered W-2497C with its attachments was 102 pages in length. Under it, B&W, acting as one of NIPSCO's subcontractors, was to erect certain mechanical equipment as part of the construction of Unit 12, a new generating unit, at that site.
On April 12, 1972, James Perry (James), one of B&W's welders, was ordered by his foreman to weld metal clips onto a fan housing approximately 20 feet above the ground. He was to do so without using a scaffold or other safety apparatus. When James complained of the danger, his foreman told him that scaffolding could be made for the job but it would take some time to get around to it, he could either do the job or go home.
James then complained about the danger involved to his shop steward and later, to a NIPSCO man in a white hat standing near the place James was to do the welding. He received no help from his shop steward. The NIPSCO man told him, "I have no control over what you do for your contractor, you know." Fully aware of the danger, but in fear of losing his job if he did not perform, James attempted to do the welding as ordered. He fell and was severely injured.
After the Perrys filed suit, the trial court granted NIPSCO's Motion for Summary Judgment, from which the Perrys appeal.
DISCUSSION AND DECISION
DUTY OF CARE
Generally, one is not liable for the acts or negligence of another unless the relation of master and servant exists between them. Thus, where a party exercising independent employment causes injury to another, the person employing that party will not be liable in damages for injury resulting from such party's wrongful acts or omissions. Allison v. Huber, Hunt and Nichols, Inc., (1977) 173 Ind. App. 41, 362 *47 N.E.2d 193. In Prest-O-Lite Co. v. Skeel, (1914) 182 Ind. 593, 106 N.E. 365, 367, our Supreme Court said:
"It is well settled that where one lets a contract to another to do a particular work, reserving to himself no control over such work, except the right to require it to conform to a particular standard when completed, he is not liable for the negligence of the party to whom the contract is let. An independent contractor is one exercising an independent employment under a contract to do certain work by his own methods, without subjection to the control of his employer, except as to the product or result of the work. When the person employing may prescribe what shall be done, but not how it is to be done, or who is to do it, the person so employed is a contractor, and not a servant. The fact that the work is to be done under the direction and to the satisfaction of certain persons representing the employer does not render the person contracted with to do the work a servant."
In the years since Prest-O-Lite, this Court has recognized five exceptions to this rule, as follows:[2]
"(1) where the contract requires the performance of work intrinsically dangerous;
(2) where a party is by law or contract charged with the specific duty;
(3) where the act will create a nuisance;
(4) where the act to be performed will probably cause injury to others unless due precaution is taken to avoid harm;
(5) where the act to be performed is illegal."
Denneau v. Indiana & Michigan Elec. Co., (1971) 150 Ind. App. 615, 277 N.E.2d 8, 12. These exceptions may not be delegated to an independent contractor. Cummings v. Hoosier Marine Properties, Inc., (1977) 173 Ind. App. 372, 363 N.E.2d 1266. The Perrys raise two of the five recognized exceptions:
(1) the contract required the performance of work that was intrinsically dangerous, and
(2) NIPSCO was charged by contract with the specific duty to provide for safety at the job site.
The Perrys claim the evidence presented to the Court, taken as true, raises a genuine issue of fact requiring jury resolution on each of these issues.
INTRINSICALLY DANGEROUS WORK
As to the Perrys' first issue, the NIPSCO B&W contract did not require the performance of work that was inherently or intrinsically dangerous. An instrumentality or undertaking is not intrinsically dangerous if the "risk of injury involved in its use can be eliminated or significantly reduced by taking proper precautions." Hale v. Peabody Coal Co., (1976) 168 Ind. App. 336, 343 N.E.2d 316, 322; Cummings, supra, 363 N.E.2d 1275; Jones v. Indianapolis Power & Light Co., (1973) 158 Ind. App. 676, 304 N.E.2d 337, 344. Use of proper scaffolding or other safety equipment would have substantially reduced or eliminated James' risk of injury. There was nothing inherently dangerous in the welding job James was ordered to do by his supervisor.
SPECIFIC CONTRACTUAL DUTY
The Perrys argue extensively that a duty was imposed upon NIPSCO to supervise compliance with safety procedures at the job site by paragraphs 17 and 19 of Exhibit A to its contract with B&W. Paragraph 17 provided the contractor was to keep its tools, equipment and material, etc., "in such condition that the work can be carried on with safety to employees of Purchaser [NIPSCO] and Contractor [B&W]," and that Contractor would maintain a competent superintendent who was "acceptable to Purchaser and may not be changed except by the request of Purchaser" unless he *48 was unsatisfactory to Contractor and ceased to be in Contractor's employment.
Paragraph 19 reads as follows:
"19. PURCHASER'S RULES AND REGULATIONS: Contractor shall abide by any and all rules Purchaser may have in effect or hereafter put into effect at the site of the WORK pertaining to workmen, safety, use of cameras, security procedures or requirements, lighting of fires, and to the handling of equipment, materials or any other part of the WORK. If in Purchaser's judgment it is desirable, Contractor shall at Purchaser's request remove any employee from the WORK."
We must do more than read those two paragraphs of the contract, however. As Buchanan, P.J., observed:
"The court in Prest-O-Lite also offered the following warning against an overly restrictive contractual analysis in the determination of what form of controls the owner-contractee retained:
`The difference between an independent contractor and a mere servant is not to be determined solely by the pretention (sic) of a certain kind or degree of supervision by the employer. It is to be determined by the contract as a whole, by its spirit and essence, and not by the phraseology of the single sentence or paragraph.' (182 Ind. at 598, 106 N.E. at 367)."
Jones v. Indianapolis Power & Light Co., 158 Ind. App. 676, 304 N.E.2d 337, 343. Following the mandate of Prest-O-Lite, we have extensively reviewed the 102 pages of contract W-2497C and its attachments to determine its spirit and essence. While it is true the contract reserves certain inspection and testing rights to NIPSCO while construction is in progress, and makes NIPSCO's consulting engineers the final authority for determining controversies which arise regarding the work in addition to the provisions of paragraphs 17 and 19 of Exhibit A, suffice it to say this document is nothing other than a contract between the "owner" (albeit "general contractor") of the Unit 12 project and B&W, its independent contractor.
Exhibit A's first paragraph containing definitions says:
"Contractor [B&W] is an independent contractor and not an agent or employee of Purchaser [NIPSCO] and nothing contained in the Contract shall be construed as inconsistent with that status."
Additionally, no provision of the contract gives NIPSCO the right to control the "manner or means" by which B&W completed its part of the contract, the essential requirement for destruction of the contractee-independent contractor relationship. The rights mentioned above as reserved to NIPSCO do not destroy the relationship. Prest-O-Lite authorizes work to be done by the independent contractor "under the direction and to the satisfaction of certain persons representing the employer," without destruction thereof. Specifically, paragraph 17 does not authorize NIPSCO to give orders to B&W's superintendent as to the manner or means by which B&W's superintendent shall complete the erection for which the parties contracted. It provides only that he shall be acceptable to NIPSCO. Paragraph 19 merely provides that B&W shall comply with any rules NIPSCO had in effect at the site in several categories, one being safety rules. This provision does not reserve to NIPSCO the control of job site safety for B&W's employees so as to render it liable to the Perrys for James' injuries.
SAFE PLACE TO WORK
The Perrys further argue, however, that NIPSCO as owner of the property was required to furnish James, as B&W's employee, a safe place to work, citing Mullins v. Easton, (1978) Ind. App., 376 N.E.2d 1178 and Funk v. General Motors Corp., (1974) 392 Mich. 91, 220 N.W.2d 641 as authority for that statement.
In Mullins, a temporary helper sued the landowner for injuries suffered when a roto-rooter machine he was helping to move fell on him. The top step of landowner's back porch moved slightly when he stepped on it causing him to lose his balance. When the helper sued the landowner for negligent maintenance of his property, the trial court *49 entered summary judgment for the landowner. On appeal, the case was reversed and remanded for trial on the question of whether the landowner had exercised the requisite degree of care owed the helper as a business invitee, an obvious question of fact for jury resolution.
The difference between that case and this one is apparent. James was not injured because of any defects in NIPSCO's premises nor due to NIPSCO's negligent maintenance thereof. As Buchanan, P.J. succinctly stated:
"The law of this state is that a party in the position of [NIPSCO] is obligated to take necessary steps to prevent injury to an independent contractor's employee only when such injury is reasonably forseeable in light of the hazardous nature of instrumentalities maintained by the party on his premises. ..." (emphasis in original)
Jones v. Indianapolis Power & Light Co., supra, 304 N.E.2d at 344. The landowner's affirmative duty to invitees was to exercise ordinary care to keep its property in reasonably safe condition coextensive with the purpose and intent of the implied invitation. Hoosier Cardinal Corp. v. Brizius, (1964) 136 Ind. App. 363, 199 N.E.2d 481, 485. Although NIPSCO had actual knowledge of the work James had been ordered to perform through its man at the accident scene, it was knowledge shared both with B&W through its foreman and James himself. No latent property defect or negligent property maintenance was involved in this accident. Clearly, NIPSCO as owner of the property breached no duty owing to James under these circumstances. Jones, supra, 304 N.E.2d at 344, Hoosier Cardinal, supra. While Funk v. General Motors Corp., supra, makes interesting reading, that case does not recite the current law of Indiana on this subject.
LEGAL DUTY ARISING BY LAW
That is not the end of the story, however. The Perrys correctly quote from 21 I.L.E. Negligence ¶ 2 (1959) p. 262, which says in part:
"Actionable negligence has three essential elements: (1) A duty imposed by law to do or not to do a certain act. (2) A violation of that duty by an act or omission to act which constitutes a breach of that duty. (3) Injury proximately caused by such breach of duty."
and cite us to Clyde E. Williams & Assoc., Inc. v. Boatman, (1978) Ind. App., 375 N.E.2d 1138. That case suggests one who assumes supervision of safety at a construction site has a duty to use due care in the enforcement of safety regulations. That assumption created a relationship between Williams and the decedent in that case, an employee of Schmidt Company, and a corresponding duty to him to supervise safety at the project "in the manner of a reasonably prudent man." Williams, supra, 375 N.E.2d at 1141.
It is hornbook tort law that absent a special relationship creating a legal duty, one has no obligation to come to the aid of another who is in peril. Restatement (Second) of Torts § 314 (1966) says:
"§ 314. Duty to Act for Protection of others.
The fact that the actor realizes or should realize that action on his part is necessary for another's aid or protection does not of itself impose upon him a duty to take such action."
Here, however, it is apparent NIPSCO was not at arm's length with the workmen at the construction site as to safety. A special relationship had been created between NIPSCO and B&W regarding safety of B&W's workmen. Although contract W-2497C did not so provide, NIPSCO had assumed the obligation to enforce safety measures at the site, as shown by the Keele and Perry affidavits and other discovery in the record.
NIPSCO held regular safety meetings for employees of sub-contractors, had from as low as 6 to 25 to 30 safety men at the site who had "jurisdiction" of the safety program. The NIPSCO man to whom James complained just prior to his fall had the words "Safety Supervisor" written on his hard hat according to affiant Keele, an employee of another contractor at the site. The safety man did nothing to aid James *50 until after he fell. At that time Keele heard him say, "Don't touch him. Get an ambulance."
Restatement (Second) of Torts § 324A (1966) says:
"One who undertakes, gratuitously ... to render services to another which he should recognize as necessary for the protection of a third person ..., is subject to liability to the third person for physical harm resulting from his failure to exercise reasonable care to protect his undertaking, if
.....
(b) he has undertaken to perform a duty owed by the other to the third person, ... ."
Under the contract it clearly was B&W's obligation to institute and maintain a safety program for the protection of its employees while on the job. Although the record is silent as to how it occurred, it is also clear NIPSCO assumed B&W's responsibility for safety at the job site. Thus, Restatement (Second) of Torts § 324A (1966) applies to these facts.
This, of course, is nothing new to our law as shown by the well-reasoned Illinois Supreme Court case of Nelson v. Union Wire Rope Corp., (1964) 31 Ill.2d 69, 199 N.E.2d 769, where Klingbiel, C.J. said:
"Originating with the decision of Coggs v. Bernard, 2 Lord Raymond 909, it has come to be a recognized principle that liability can arise from the negligent performance of a voluntary undertaking. In our times, a clear and oft-cited statement of the principle is the language of Justice Cardozo in Glanzer v. Shepard, 233 N.Y. 236, 135 N.E. 275, 276, 23 A.L.R. 1425, when he said: `It is ancient learning that one who assumes to act, even though gratuitously, may thereby become subject to the duty of acting carefully, if he acts at all.'"
Nelson, supra, at 199 N.E.2d 773. That case involved the 6 story drop of a temporary construction hoist at a Florida construction site which killed or severely injured all 19 men aboard. One of the defendants was the general contractor's workmen's compensation and liability insurance carrier who had gratuitously undertaken safety inspections and safety engineering service at the job site. The trial court entered judgment on a verdict rendered against the insurance company upon those facts.
Indiana recognizes this principle. Young, J. recently said:
"Indiana recognizes that a duty may be imposed upon one who by affirmative conduct or agreement assumes to act, even gratuitously, for another to exercise care and skill in what he has undertaken. However, in such a case, precisely what has been undertaken must be determined because liability is no broader than the actual duty assumed." (Emphasis supplied.)
Board of Commissioners of Monroe County v. Hatton, (1981) Ind. App., 427 N.E.2d 696, 699-700. We note the precise nature of the duties of NIPSCO's employees is in sharp conflict. For example, NIPSCO calls them field engineers and others, including the Perrys, call them safety inspectors. A jury will make that ultimate decision upon trial. We here merely view the evidence and discovery in the light most favorable to the non-moving party, as we are required to do when reviewing the entry of summary judgment.
OTHER JURY QUESTIONS
On trial, it is for a properly instructed jury to determine the nature of NIPSCO's undertaking, if any, its duty to James, if any, and the usual questions of proximate cause and assumption of risk. Hundt v. LaCrosse Grain Co., Inc., (1981) Ind. App., 425 N.E.2d 687, 700-701.
In accordance with Ind. Rules of Procedure, Appellate Rule 15(N) the judgment of the trial court is sustained as to all issues except those pertaining to NIPSCO's assumption of job site safety. As to that issue, the judgment of the trial court is reversed and the cause remanded for further proceedings consistent with this opinion on that issue only.
MILLER, P.J. and YOUNG, J., concur.
NOTES
[1] Ind.Rules of Procedure, Trial Rule 56(C) provides in part:
"The judgment sought shall be rendered forthwith if the pleadings, depositions, answers to interrogatories, and admissions on file, together with the affidavits and testimony, if any, show that there is no genuine issue as to any material fact and that the moving party is entitled to a judgment as a matter of law."
[2] They were originally enumerated in Scott Construction Co. v. Cobb, (1928) 86 Ind. App. 699, 159 N.E. 763.
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Socioeconomic status, access to triple therapy, and survival from HIV-disease since 1996.
In the era before highly active antiretroviral therapy (HAART), socioeconomic status was associated with survival from HIV disease. We have explored socioeconomic status, access to triple therapy (HAART), and mortality in the context of a universal healthcare system. We evaluated 1408 individuals who initiated double or triple therapy between 1 August 1996 and 31 December 1999, and were followed until 31 March 2000. Cumulative HIV-related mortality rates were estimated using Kaplan-Meier methods and Cox proportional hazards regression. In the overall Cox model, we found that adherence [risk ratio (RR) 0.83; per 10% increase], CD4 cell count (RR 1.53; per 100 cell decrease), and lower socioeconomic status (RR 2.19; high versus low), were associated with HIV-related mortality. However, socioeconomic status was not significant among patients prescribed triple therapy in a stratified analysis, or in a sub-analysis restricted to patients prescribed HAART in the initial regimen. When we investigated if inequitable access to HAART by socio-economic status could explain the discrepancy, we found that persons in the lower socio-economic strata were less likely to be prescribed triple therapy even after adjustment for clinical characteristics. In a universal healthcare system, socioeconomic status was strongly associated with HIV-related mortality. When we investigated possible explanations for this association, we found that individuals of lower socioeconomic status were less likely to receive triple therapy after adjustment for clinical characteristics. Our findings highlight the need for the monitoring of therapeutic guidelines to ensure equitable access, as treatment strategies are updated. |
Wednesday, 10 May 2017
Asparagus, kale & Dolcelatte pasta
I am not a big fan of kale, I find its texture too fibrous and tough. I feel a bit like a farm animal eating its share of roughage to keep healthy. I have tried it in many dishes, and haven't warmed up to it. It might be a super food, but it's not a happy food for me.
Seeing friends posting on social media how much they enjoy kale crisps and salads makes me question my dislike of kale every time. Do I cook it the right way? I have read numerous articles on how to cook it properly, and which mistakes to avoid. I still don't like it. Sorry, kale, our relationship is not working. It's not you. It's me.
In a fit of healthy thinking, I bought a bunch of fresh kale. What was I thinking? My mind must have been muddled up by the lack of sleep yet again.
I decided to cook a healthy vegetarian dinner with very healthy whole wheat pasta.
There was a pack of Garofalo whole wheat penne pasta in the latest Degustabox delivery.
I confess we typically eat just standard wheat pasta, not whole wheat. The taste is different, so is the texture. It does have health benefits obviously.
In a deep frying pan heat the oil and throw in thinly shredded kale. I read that you need to slice it thinly, as in making slaw. Cook for 5-6 minutes, stirring occasionally. Add the chopped garlic and sliced courgette. Add the chopped asparagus too. Cook for another 6 minutes or so. You might add a little bit of hot water, while cooking the veg. Add the Dolcelatte in the last minute, stir in the vegetables. The cheese will melt and coat the greens.
Cook the pasta in boiling salted water. Drain, mix with the vegetables. Serve hot, with a bit of Grana grated on top.
OK, what's the verdict? It was edible. Next time though I would use other greens, like chard. It has more flavour and is less chewy.
What's your take on kale? Are you a big fan or a kale refusenik?
Linking up my very green pasta recipe with #EatYourGreens linky hosted by A2K and The Veg Hog.
8 comments:
Oh its a shame that your still not keen on kale, I love it and its often in my home served as a side dish, I am even trying to grown some. Still love this pasta dish, thank you so much for sharing with #EatYourGreens - the round up will be up at the end of the month. PS I like dolcelatte too, have not had it in a long while, will have to pick some up soon.
I can eat kale if I have to but it's not one of my favourite foods ! I actually prefer it once it's been frozen then cooked - it seems slightly less tough and chewy than fresh. I'd still chose it over quinoa any day though !
I like kale though would prefer cavalo nero - kale crisps is probably the way to go. I like it stir fried with South Indian spicing and carrots. I am with you on pasta, I don't like wholemeal pasta and get enough roughage in my diet to allow me to enjoy white. 😀
About Me
My blog name Chez Maximka is a joking reference to the grand classic restaurant Maxim's as well as my younger son's second name.
What defines me? My family, art and creativity, passion for books and cooking. I'm a mother of two boys (15 and 7 years old). My older son has autism, and life is a constant challenge. Having a child with a disability has taught us to appreciate simple pleasures of life, enjoying the world where the smell and taste and all things sensory become more acute. Cooking for me is a labour of love and a creative process as well as a form of an escapism. |
People Behind the Science Podcast - Stories from Scientists about Science, Life, Research, and Science Careers
Are you searching for stories to ignite your curiosity, teach you to perform better in life and career, inspire your mind, and make you laugh along the way? In this science podcast, Dr. Marie McNeely introduces you to the brilliant researchers behind the latest discoveries in science. Join us as they share their greatest failures, most staggering successes, candid career advice, and what drives them forward in life and science.
Dr. Herbert Geller is a Senior Investigator in the Developmental Neurobiology Section and Head of the Office of Education at the National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute of the National Institutes of Health. He received his PhD in Biomedical Engineering from Case Western Reserve University and conducted postdoctoral research afterward at the University of Rochester School of Medicine and Dentistry. Herbert served on the faculty at the Robert Wood Johnson Medical School for over 30 years before joining the NIH. He is a member of the Society for Neuroscience and the American Association for the Advancement of Science, and he is here with us today to tell us all about his journey through life and science. |
# Copyright (C) 2012 The Android Open Source Project
#
# Licensed under the Apache License, Version 2.0 (the "License");
# you may not use this file except in compliance with the License.
# You may obtain a copy of the License at
#
# http://www.apache.org/licenses/LICENSE-2.0
#
# Unless required by applicable law or agreed to in writing, software
# distributed under the License is distributed on an "AS IS" BASIS,
# WITHOUT WARRANTIES OR CONDITIONS OF ANY KIND, either express or implied.
# See the License for the specific language governing permissions and
# limitations under the License.
#
# Input Device Calibration File for the Mako touch screen.
#
device.internal = 1
touch.deviceType = touchScreen
touch.orientationAware = 1
touch.size.calibration = diameter
touch.size.scale = 22.5
touch.size.bias = 0
touch.size.isSummed = 0
touch.pressure.calibration = amplitude
touch.pressure.scale = 0.0125
touch.orientation.calibration = none
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Las Vegas, the amazing place that sucks souls, wallets and dignities, is also really good at swallowing cell phones. Drunk, partying, WHOOPS. And whenever a phone is lost, people who use location services to find their lost phones always seem to track it back to the same place: Wayne Dobson's house. But the thing is, Wayne Dobson never stole a phone. Instead, a glitch with Sprint is making it appear as if their phone is inside Dobson's house—even if it's not.
It's January. You read Twitter and The Blogs and have a vague recollection of every major news …
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It's so bad that Dobson has posted a sign outside his house that says:
NO LOST CELL PHONES!!
This location gives a false "phone locator" position due to a cell tower behind the home. Please contact the North Las Vegas police and file a report
NO LOST CELL PHONES!!
For the past two years, the poor guy has been interrupted at all hours (it is Vegas, after all) by people screaming and accusing him of stealing iPhones that he's never actually stole. It's so frequent that on weekends, Dobson sleeps near the door because he knows that people are eventually going to come knocking on his door.
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The problem started in 2011 when a couple came knocking. Then another person. Then more. After a while, people started showing up with tablets and laptops pointing his house as the exact location of their lost phone. But it's never inside his house. Even worse, police are sometimes sent to his house from nearby people who call 911. The GPS coordinates of the 911 phone call reveal Dobson's house as the origin (even though he never called).
So what's the deal? Why is the location always so screwy? It might be a nearby Sprint cell tower that's affecting the coordinates of phones in the area. Experts think it may be a problem with the switchboard, that software is "incorrectly translating coordinates to Dobson's house". Whatever it is, it sure sucks to be accused of stealing phones when you didn't do anything. Dobson might as well just steal one and be done with it. [LVRJ] |
The Attributes of God Volume 2 Deeper into the Father's Heart
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For A. W. Tozer, there is no question more important. In fact, Tozer's desire to know God and His fullness consumed his entire life and ministry.
Originally preached as sermons to the Avenue Road congregation in Toronto, this follow-up to The Attributes of God Volume 1 examines ten more attributes of God. It also includes a study guide for an in-depth look at each attribute:
Self-Existent
Transcendent
Eternal
Omnipotent
Immutable
Omniscient
Wise
Sovereign
Faithful
Loving
Steeped in Scripture and filled with the Spirit, Tozer preached with striking clarity and power. The sense of his sermons comes through on every page, bringing the Word of God to bear upon you.
A.W. TOZER began his lifelong pursuit of God at the age of seventeen after hearing a street preacher in Akron, Ohio. A self-taught theologian, Tozer was a pastor, writer and editor whose powerful use of words continues to grip the intellect and stir the soul of today's reader. Among his best-loved books are the classics The Pursuit of God and The Attributes of God. |
Shenzhen, Nanshan intro.In the south of China, just a short way to the north of Hong Kong, is the city of Shenzhen. It is a modern, booming coastal city which is a popular stop off for people travelling around China and into Hong Kong. There are a number of districts in the city, each with its own characteristics, and one of the favourite districts among visitors is Nanshan. Hotels in Shenzhen Nanshan are close to many family-focused attractions including the Window of the World, which is filled with scaled down models of the world’s most famous landmarks such as the Eiffel Tower, the Great Wall of China and Mount Rushmore. As well as the Window of the World, Nanshan offers good restaurants and shops, as well as the Hong Kong border, the cultural centre and the Happy Valley Theme Park, which is home to a water park and various themed areas including Cartoon City. |
Two outstanding reasons to see Mia McCullough's two-hander Taking Care at the Little Victory Theatre are Maria Gobetti as Ma and Tim Sullens as her schizophrenic son Benny. They've lived together for all of Benny's 45 years in a small Chicago apartment in an acerbic melange of mutual dependence and rage. It's a realistic situation that brings the term "kitchen sink drama" to mind.
McCullough's strength is as close observer of the everyday details of these lives. However, the revelations that would give the play dramatic peaks and questions are missed. The play feels more anecdotal than dramatic, like watching the day-to-day experiences of lives that aren't going anyplace but down.
The play, which covers a seven-year span, has a host of unseen characters: Benny's two sisters who care for their relatives at a distance with computer-ordered groceries. . . Ma's bridge-playing buddy Lois who won't come over because Benny makes her nervous, the grocery-store owner who has known Benny all his life but won't sell groceries to him without Ma. . . and, dimly glimpsed, the hospital orderly who helps Ma after she falls and breaks a leg.
It's Ma's leg break that changes the dynamic. At 80 she not only doesn't bounce back but she deteriorates. Her symptoms, though never diagnosed, seem more like dementia than Altzheimers. It's in her moments of hallucinating that she describes violent scenes from her past as a young wife and mother and we see what a monster she was to her children.
Benny's character is revealed more slyly. He knows a lot of the answers on Jeopardy. When his mother tells him to make a wish on his birthday candle, he flies into the kind of rage that only someone with impossible wishes knows. The information about Benny reveals him and his sad life well but there's very little depth written into Ma's role. Though shemay not be an interesting character to spend time with, Maria Gobetti is. She brings irresistible warmth and power to her characterization. Sullens is brilliant as Benny, with the shouting voice, repetitive body movements, repressed rage and rare welcome smiles of a fully-rounded character.
Hopefully we'll see these two splendid actors in a play that gives them more scope.
Director Carri Sullens is in tune with the play's patterns. She brings out the characters' passions and faithfully interprets Taking Care's realism. |
When I first heard about the upcoming film About Ray, which tells the story of a family reacting to their son’s transition, I was immediately worried. There was one promising element — Susan Sarandon would be playing a lesbian grandmother, and we rarely get to see lesbian characters in major motion pictures at all, let alone older lesbian characters. But the trans boy at the center of the film was to be played by Elle Fanning, who is neither trans nor a boy.
The movie lost my attention for a while; I just dismissed it as yet another misguided attempt by cis people to make a movie about trans people. After all, the media seems to love us right now. Or at least they love some of us, or maybe just the idea of some of us. When I saw the film’s director, Gaby Dellal, talk about the film, and specifically about her main character, Ray, for the first time, though, my worry turned into overwhelming dread. It seems like Dellal, despite being a person who is making a movie about a transgender boy, doesn’t understand that transgender boys aren’t girls. This is even more confusing when you watch the trailer, which actually seems pretty good:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2S8HVoWm9ec
Do we really have to explain this all again? It seemed like after the disaster that was Jared Leto in Dallas Buyer’s Club and then the reaction to Jeffrey Tambor’s casting as Maura in Transparent (which is also a show that has actually done a lot of good for a lot of trans people and also hired a lot of trans people), we were finally getting Hollywood on the same page as us. Trans actors like Laverne Cox and Trace Lysette were getting cast in pilots for major networks, a trans character on ABC Family’s The Fosters was actually being played by Tom Phelan, a trans actor, Sense8 not only starred a trans woman, but was co-created by one too, Tangerine came out starring not one, but two trans women of color. Then along came Eddie Redmayne as Lili Elbe in The Danish Girl and of course, Fanning as Ray in this film. It seems like we’re back at square one.
But the most troubling element of the discourse around this film is the way Dellal is talking about the casting. She told Refinery29 that “three and half years ago [the subject of transitioning] was news to me. We all think we’re working in a generation where transgender issues are very normal, but I don’t think they were as little as three years ago. They weren’t as transparent.” She added “I’m not saying they didn’t exist, but I didn’t know about them.” Honestly, I’m not sure if that’s changed. Dellal talks about Ray as if he is a girl, and she talks about transitioning as if it’s a costume or some sort of an on/off switch. She even uses “she/her” pronouns to talk about Ray and repeatedly misgenders him.
It’s also worth mentioning that Dellal approached this film wanting to make a movie about LGBT people — any LGBT people at all, seemingly. She told Refinery29 that she started out making a movie about three generations of women, with two of them being gay, but decided to change her protagonist to a trans boy after “she encountered a man who told her that his child had announced plans to transition.” Treating stories about lesbians and stories about trans boys as artistically interchangeable is alarming enough before we even get into her perspective on trans guys. Rather than treating these stories with the reverence and social responsibility they deserve, she seems to be approaching them like daring artistic challenges, like when she said of Elle Fanning, “I could not have chosen a more blonde, more feminine actress who had a big a mountain to climb. And that’s what I’m interested in.” What??
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When describing Ray, Dellal says that “the part is a girl and she is a girl who is presenting in a very ineffectual way as a boy.” However, according to all the film’s promotional materials, the other characters in the movie, and, most importantly, Ray himself, Ray is a boy. The fact that he’s transgender doesn’t change that. He’s not a girl “presenting” as a boy. He’s a boy. Furthermore, it’s extremely inappropriate for a cis person to pass judgement on how well a trans person “passes,” (not to mention how full of problems the entire concept of “passing” is) especially a trans youth — even if it’s a fictional character. Finally, despite Dellal’s opinion on how good Ray is at presenting as his true gender and not that it really has anything to do with the character’s value as a boy, Elle Fanning seems to be pretty effectively “presenting as a boy” in the pictures and footage from the trailer that I’ve seen. I mean, Ray looks like he could be that kid from Love, Actually‘s twin brother.
Dellal went on to explain that Ray is “not pretending to have a deeper voice. She’s just a girl who is being herself and is chasing the opportunity to start hormone treatment. So to actually use a trans boy was not an option because this isn’t what my story is about.” Again, there’s more than one problem here. She seems to be assuming that all trans boys are on hormones and therefore she couldn’t use a trans actor ’cause he would’ve been on hormones and had a deep voice which would’ve ruined the whole thing — and that trans people, at least before they transition and maybe during their transition, are actually the gender they were assigned at birth.
This is baffling partially because “transition” means so many different things to so many different people. There isn’t a universal starting point and there isn’t a moment where you go from being one gender to another. There are huge numbers of trans people who never start Hormone Replacement Therapy and those trans women are still women and those trans men are still men. There are huge numbers of trans people who never get surgery, which is usually cost-prohibitive. There are huge numbers of trans people who never change their voice. None of that means they aren’t the men and women that they are. None of that means that it’s okay to misgender them.
Generally, the director comes off as uninformed and disrespectful. She didn’t slip up and then correct herself or use a term that fell out of favor five months ago, she’s firmly standing by the idea that a trans boy who hasn’t started on hormones yet is a girl, and that’s just plain wrong. Basic research would’ve cleared up these misconceptions immediately. There’s no excuse these days for artists creating art about trans people to be ignorant on trans issues or how to talk about trans people. Somebody making a film with a trans male character and a lesbian character could’ve really benefited from having some LGBTQ people involved in writing and production, too.
The way Dellal talks about Ray in her movie isn’t just confusing and insulting, it’s irresponsible and damaging. Misgendering trans people and talking about trans men as if they’re women and especially trans women as if they’re men contributes to the violence that trans people face so often. (Surely she could’ve at least watched Boys Don’t Cry?) This is damaging for all trans people, and particularly for trans women, who are the subject of so much violence. Dellal’s insistence that because Ray hasn’t transitioned yet he is still a girl also leads to the logical conclusion that therefore trans women who haven’t “completed” their transition are still men. When this idea combines with racism (specifically anti-blackness), poverty and misogyny, it leads to 17 dmab trans people, most of them black and nearly all of them people of color, being murdered in just the first eight months of this year.
It’s a shame that when Dellal decided to make a movie about a trans guy, she didn’t also do the necessary research. Trans men are one of the most invisible groups of people on the LGBTQ spectrum, so there’s very little room for error in their representation. It’s also a shame that it’s usually trans women of color, and again, usually black trans women, who ultimately pay the price for this kind of negative representation. It’s fine that Gaby Dellal wanted to make a movie with a trans protagonist, but once she made that decision, she should have done what was necessary to make sure that she wasn’t perpetuating ideas about trans people that lead to acts of violence against us. |
421 B.R. 47 (2009)
In re Raquel C. SPEARS, Debtor.
No. 08-13988 B.
United States Bankruptcy Court, W.D. New York.
December 9, 2009.
Fessenden, Laumer & DeAngelo, Jamestown, NY, for the Debtor.
Eric A. Bloom, Esq., Buffalo, NY, for Sterling Glass/Dual Pane, Inc.
DECISION & ORDER
BUCKI, Chief Judge.
In this Chapter 7 case, the debtor has filed a motion to avoid two liens that encumber a parcel of commercial real estate. The only issue of contention is whether the enactment of the Bankruptcy Abuse Prevention and Consumer Protection Act of 2005 operates also to reverse the holding of the Supreme Court in Dewsnup v. Timm, 502 U.S. 410, 112 S.Ct. 773, 116 L.Ed.2d 903 (1992).
Raquel C. Spears filed a petition for relief under Chapter 7 of the Bankruptcy Code on September 10, 2008. The case trustee has completed his administration of this no-asset case, and this court has already issued an Order of Discharge. Meanwhile, pursuant to the purported authority of 11 U.S.C. § 506, the debtor has filed a motion to avoid two liens: a judgment that Chase Bank took against Raquel C. Spears on June 25, 2008, in the amount of $13,577.99; and a mechanics lien that Sterling Glass / Dual Pane, Inc., filed on August 21, 2008, in the amount of $6,327.19. In her supporting papers, Ms. Spears represents that she owns a one-half interest in real property at 3491 East Main Road in the Village of Fredonia, New York; that it has a fair market value of $167,200; and that the property is encumbered by a first mortgage given to secure a principal balance of $220,000. Although the debtor has made payments on account of the mortgage indebtedness, the outstanding loan balance exceeds the value of the property.
Because Spears does not reside on the real property at 3491 East Main Road, she cannot claim it as exempt under New York law and therefore cannot move under 11 U.S.C. § 522(f) to avoid judicial liens that impair an exemption. Nor does this section afford relief with respect to statutory liens like the mechanics lien of Sterling Glass / Dual Pane, Inc. Instead, Raquel Spears now seeks to avoid the judgment and mechanics lien pursuant to the authority of 11 U.S.C. § 506(a)(1) and (d). In relevant part, subdivision (a)(1) states that "[a]n allowed claim of a creditor secured *48 by a lien on property in which the estate has an interest ... is a secured claim to the extent of the value of such creditor's interest in the estate's interest in such property ... and is an unsecured claim to the extent that the value of such creditor's interest ... is less than the amount of such allowed claim." Because the outstanding mortgage exceeds the value of the real property, the debtor asserts that the judgment and mechanics lien are fully unsecured. She then reasons that this court can avoid these liens pursuant to subdivision (d) of section 506, which states in relevant part that "[t]o the extent that a lien secures a claim against the debtor that is not an allowed secured claim, such lien is void...."
In Dewsnup v. Timm, 502 U.S. 410, 112 S.Ct. 773, 116 L.Ed.2d 903 (1992), the Supreme Court rejected the argument that the debtor now advances. Specifically, the Court concluded "that § 506(d) does not allow petitioner to `strip down' respondents' lien, because respondents' claim is secured by a lien and has been fully allowed pursuant to § 502." 502 U.S. at 417, 112 S.Ct. 773. Although criticized by two dissenting justices, the decision in Dewsnup essentially precludes the debtor's use of section 506 to avoid liens in a case filed under Chapter 7 of the Bankruptcy Code. 4 COLLIER ON BANKRUPTCY ¶ 506.06(1)(c) (ALAN N. RESNICK & HENRY J. SOMMER eds.-in-chief, 15th ed. rev., 2006).
In 2005, Congress amended section 506(a) of the Bankruptcy Code by adding the following subdivision:
(2) If the debtor is an individual in a case under chapter 7 or 13, such value with respect to personal property securing an allowed claim shall be determined based on the replacement value of such property as of the date of the filing of the petition without deduction for costs of sale or marketing. With respect to property acquired for personal, family, or household purposes, replacement value shall mean the price a retail merchant would charge for property of that kind considering the age and condition of the property at the time value is determined.
Even though this amendment speaks only to personal property, the debtor contends that it expresses a general intent to limit security interests to the value of the underlying collateral. By implication, therefore, the debtor would find an intent to overrule the result in Dewsnup.
The obvious purpose of section 506(a)(2) is to codify the appropriate methodology for valuation of personalty, for use in those instances where the Bankruptcy Code allows the application of section 506(a)(1). For example, the court may need to determine the amount of an allowed secured claim for purposes of redemption of personal property by a Chapter 7 debtor under 11 U.S.C. § 722, or for purposes of determining the value of distributions by a Chapter 13 trustee under 11 U.S.C. § 1325(a)(5). The amendment to section 506(a) simply does not speak to any reconsideration of the holding in Dewsnup v. Timm. Rather, in that decision, the Supreme Court interpreted the same language that remains unchanged in the current text of section 506(a)(1) and 506(d).
The holding of Dewsnup v. Timm continues as binding precedent that this court must apply in the present instance. Section 506 provides no authority for the strip down of liens in Chapter 7. Accordingly, the plaintiff's motion for lien avoidance is in all respect denied.
So ordered.
|
Humphrys Mea Culpa – More Hot Air from the BBC
John Humphrys ‘admission’ behind a paywall in the Sunday Times that the BBC has botched and skewed coverage of immigration – and failed to reflect genuine concern and genuine cultural and infrastructure issues, not to mention the malign influence in the equation of the EU – is a classic and totally meaningless Corporation mea culpa.
He doesn’t say in which interview, with which guests or how or when he arrived at the judgment. Was it perhaps when for the nth occasion, he patronisingly told Nigel Farage he was a corrupt fruitcake and failed to treat him seriously? Or maybe when he and his colleagues deliberately ignored yet another report from Andrew Green at Migration Watch, and instead focused on the risibly skewed findings of ‘researchers’ at UCL who said the total influx of Polish immigrants would be 14,000? Of which, more, later.
No, this ’bias’ happened at some undefined, mysterious time in the murky miasmic mists of the Blair era. It evidently made Humphrys queasy and uneasy, but back then, he and his chums above and below him in the BBC hierarchy did nothing at all about it.
Now, though, says the great man, the bias is fixed – it’s a matter of regret, but move along there, folks, nothing to see: everything in the BBC garden is tickety-boo.
All the confessions are eerily similar, as if emanating from a common hand in the BBC equivalent of the Politburo. Roughly, give or take a few commas, they should have been tougher in exposing the Blair government’s undeclared unlimited immigration policy, but, whoops, weren’t, because a) it’s jolly difficult terrain, and b) they were afraid of committing the biggest sins of all in the BBC lexicon: being seen as racist or a spanner in the works of multiculturalism.
This raises two massively crucial points about the BBC £1bn news operation.
First, Humphrys and those he works with don’t have any real knowledge. What his ‘confession’ seems to be based upon is gut journalistic instinct rather than any form of measurement. And it’s only now, when UKIP is winning by-elections and voters are showing that they do deeply care about the impact of the biggest influx of immigrants in British history that they have seen the light, and then only as a flickering flame of shame in the distant past.
Second, the BBC – from Humphrys downward and upward to the Trustees – will never, ever respond to genuine concerns about bias. Here, the facts are incontrovertible.
Back in December 2004, my organisation News-watch (then Minotaur Media Tracking) was commissioned by Sir Andrew Green to investigate across seven flagship programmes whether editors were paying enough attention and were properly balanced in covering precisely the issue and period Humphrys is talking about – the lifting of the controls (because of changes in the EU) that led to an influx of Poles and others from Eastern Europe.
The meticulous 12,000-word report involved the transcribing of every item in which immigration or asylum was mentioned over a three-month period. Its headline conclusions included this:
‘TODAY – for example, despite broadcasting 30 items on the topic, had only three on economic migration as opposed to asylum. It scrutinised poorly the moves towards the dropping of the UK’s EU veto, and paid had disproportionate attention to asylum seeker problems while not investigating the impact of immigration on the UK.’
With the benefit of hindsight, this could have been a little clearer. What the meticulous research actually spotted was that Today was virtually avoiding escalating immigration from the EU while focusing on the bleeding heart cases of those who were trying to obtain asylum – and mixing the two together as if they were the same thing. This was larded, of course, with frequent direct and indirect accusations of racism.
Other conclusions?
‘In the entire three month period in coverage of immigration, there were only around 20 brief mentions of the figures involved….‘The coverage of immigration, therefore, was carried out with only minimal analysis of one of the key components of the debate…This was rather surprising, given the debate itself – for all political parties – is mostly about numbers.’
And:
‘During the 14 weeks, apart from one brief mention of a planning inquiry for a new centre for illegal immigrants, there was no item designed to examine the impact of immigration on British communities, and little effort to cover why there was concern about immigration.’
Sir Andrew Green presented these findings to then BBC news chief boss Helen Boaden soon afterwards – but she did nothing, to the point that (I am told) Sir Andrew now believes that any form of protest to the BBC news management is pointless.
In other words, despite what Humphrys says, the BBC did have knowledge of the glaring inadequacies of its coverage. His ‘confession’ is thus utter nonsense. It boils down to that there was a disgraceful avoidance by he and the BBC of debate in an area of crucial public importance. |
Q:
V7.app.NotificationCompat is not working on Oreo
I am new to Android, and I have to make a Music Player. I have taken an example from github and I am implementing what I need, but when I update my code from version 25.0.0 to 27.0.3 it gives me an error about notification:
android.app.RemoteServiceException: Bad notification for startForeground: java.lang.RuntimeException: invalid channel for service notification: Notification(channel=null pri=0 contentView=null vibrate=null sound=null defaults=0x0 flags=0x40 color=0xffd85840 category=transport actions=3 vis=PUBLIC)
I tried to find the solution but I failed.
Here is my code:
public class PlayingNotificationImpl24 implements PlayingNotification {
private static final int NOTIFY_MODE_FOREGROUND = 1;
private static final int NOTIFY_MODE_BACKGROUND = 0;
private MusicService service;
private NotificationManager notificationManager;
private int notifyMode = NOTIFY_MODE_BACKGROUND;
private boolean stopped;
@Override
public synchronized void init(MusicService service) {
this.service = service;
notificationManager = (NotificationManager) service.getSystemService(NOTIFICATION_SERVICE);
}
@Override
public synchronized void update() {
stopped = false;
final Song song = service.getCurrentSong();
final String albumName = song.albumName;
final String artistName = song.artistName;
final boolean isPlaying = service.isPlaying();
final String text = TextUtils.isEmpty(albumName)
? artistName : artistName + " - " + albumName;
final int playButtonResId = isPlaying
? R.drawable.ic_pause_white_24dp : R.drawable.ic_play_arrow_white_24dp;
Intent action = new Intent(service, MainActivity.class);
action.setFlags(Intent.FLAG_ACTIVITY_NEW_TASK | Intent.FLAG_ACTIVITY_CLEAR_TOP);
final PendingIntent clickIntent = PendingIntent.getActivity(service, 0, action, 0);
final ComponentName serviceName = new ComponentName(service, MusicService.class);
Intent intent = new Intent(MusicService.ACTION_QUIT);
intent.setComponent(serviceName);
final PendingIntent deleteIntent = PendingIntent.getService(service, 0, intent, 0);
final int bigNotificationImageSize = service.getResources().getDimensionPixelSize(R.dimen.notification_big_image_size);
service.runOnUiThread(new Runnable() {
@Override
public void run() {
SongGlideRequest.Builder.from(Glide.with(service), song)
.checkIgnoreMediaStore(service)
.generatePalette(service).build()
.into(new SimpleTarget<BitmapPaletteWrapper>(bigNotificationImageSize, bigNotificationImageSize) {
@Override
public void onResourceReady(BitmapPaletteWrapper resource, GlideAnimation<? super BitmapPaletteWrapper> glideAnimation) {
Palette palette = resource.getPalette();
update(resource.getBitmap(), palette.getVibrantColor(palette.getMutedColor(Color.TRANSPARENT)));
}
@Override
public void onLoadFailed(Exception e, Drawable errorDrawable) {
update(null, Color.TRANSPARENT);
}
void update(Bitmap bitmap, int color) {
if (bitmap == null)
bitmap = BitmapFactory.decodeResource(service.getResources(), R.drawable.default_album_art);
NotificationCompat.Action playPauseAction = new NotificationCompat.Action(playButtonResId,
service.getString(R.string.action_play_pause),
retrievePlaybackAction(MusicService.ACTION_TOGGLE_PAUSE));
NotificationCompat.Action previousAction = new NotificationCompat.Action(R.drawable.ic_skip_previous_white_24dp,
service.getString(R.string.action_previous),
retrievePlaybackAction(MusicService.ACTION_REWIND));
NotificationCompat.Action nextAction = new NotificationCompat.Action(R.drawable.ic_skip_next_white_24dp,
service.getString(R.string.action_next),
retrievePlaybackAction(MusicService.ACTION_SKIP));
NotificationCompat.Builder builder = new NotificationCompat.Builder(service)
.setSmallIcon(R.drawable.sp_logo)
.setLargeIcon(bitmap)
.setContentIntent(clickIntent)
.setDeleteIntent(deleteIntent)
.setContentTitle(song.title)
.setContentText(text)
.setOngoing(isPlaying)
.setShowWhen(false)
.addAction(previousAction)
.addAction(playPauseAction)
.addAction(nextAction);
if (Build.VERSION.SDK_INT >= Build.VERSION_CODES.LOLLIPOP) {
builder.setStyle(new android.support.v4.media.app.NotificationCompat.MediaStyle().setMediaSession(service.getMediaSession().getSessionToken()).setShowActionsInCompactView(0, 1, 2))
.setVisibility(NotificationCompat.VISIBILITY_PUBLIC);
if (PreferenceUtil.getInstance(service).coloredNotification())
builder.setColor(color);
}
if (stopped)
return; // notification has been stopped before loading was finished
updateNotifyModeAndPostNotification(builder.build());
}
});
}
});
}
private PendingIntent retrievePlaybackAction(final String action) {
final ComponentName serviceName = new ComponentName(service, MusicService.class);
Intent intent = new Intent(action);
intent.setComponent(serviceName);
return PendingIntent.getService(service, 0, intent, 0);
}
private void updateNotifyModeAndPostNotification(Notification notification) {
int newNotifyMode;
if (service.isPlaying()) {
newNotifyMode = NOTIFY_MODE_FOREGROUND;
} else {
newNotifyMode = NOTIFY_MODE_BACKGROUND;
}
if (notifyMode != newNotifyMode && newNotifyMode == NOTIFY_MODE_BACKGROUND) {
service.stopForeground(false);
}
if (newNotifyMode == NOTIFY_MODE_FOREGROUND) {
service.startForeground(NOTIFICATION_ID, notification);
} else if (newNotifyMode == NOTIFY_MODE_BACKGROUND) {
notificationManager.notify(NOTIFICATION_ID, notification);
}
notifyMode = newNotifyMode;
}
@Override
public synchronized void stop() {
stopped = true;
service.stopForeground(true);
notificationManager.cancel(NOTIFICATION_ID);
}
}
compileSdkVersion 27
buildToolsVersion '27.0.3'
targetSdkVersion 27
A:
You didn't register a NotificationChannel. Before you can deliver the notification on Android 8.0 and higher, you must register your app's notification channel with the system by passing an instance of NotificationChannel to createNotificationChannel():
// Create the NotificationChannel, but only on API 26+ because
// the NotificationChannel class is new and not in the support library
if (Build.VERSION.SDK_INT >= Build.VERSION_CODES.O) {
CharSequence name = getString(R.string.channel_name);
String description = getString(R.string.channel_description);
int importance = NotificationManager.IMPORTANCE_DEFAULT;
NotificationChannel channel = new NotificationChannel(CHANNEL_ID, name, importance);
channel.setDescription(description);
// Register the channel with the system; you can't change the importance
// or other notification behaviors after this
NotificationManager notificationManager = getSystemService(NotificationManager.class);
notificationManager.createNotificationChannel(channel);
}
You must create the notification channel before posting any notifications on Android 8.0 and higher, you should execute this code as soon as your app starts. I suggest you to visit the docs for more details.
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Beach Huts and Chickens
The beach huts are finally in! With lots of much appreciated help we have managed to get all 9 huts onto the land, including the chickens that live in them. There’s a fair bit of repair and adjustment to be carried out to make them more usable for our purposes, but the logistical challenge of moving them all has been accomplished.
We are planning to sort through the chickens we have, sell those we don’t need, and incubate lots of eggs to increase numbers of the breeds we would like to work with. We hope to sell hatching eggs and Point Of Lay chickens from the following breeds, all of which we currently have –
Lincolnshire Buff
Copper Blue Maran
Light Sussex
Barred Rock
Silkie
White Leghorn
Polish Chamois
Norfolk Grey
Rhode Island Red
Speckled Maran
Various Bantams
And the following Ducks –
Indian Runners
Khaki Campbells
Silver Appleyards
Lavender Muscovys
All our outdoor runs now need to be sorted ready to let our birds run in much bigger areas. They have been confined to small, netted areas, due to the restrictions that were in place because of the Avian Flu outbreak.
Until recently, one half of our chicken area had pigs living on it. These have been moved and in a rare dry moment I managed to cultivate over it in an attempt to flatten the area ready for some grass seed to be sown.
If you look closely you can just see Sky feeding her latest litter of piglets outside as the day was beautifully warm. Our 3 main breeds for egg laying will live in this area, but their houses are yet to be constructed! |
Prevent, the British government’s counter-radicalization strategy, is fueling extremism rather than tackling it, according to the director of CAGE, speaking after a top anti-terrorism officer said criticism of the policy is the result of “ignorance.”
Dr Adnan Siddiqui told RT the policy is “toxic” and “overwhelmingly” targets Muslims and their beliefs.
Read more
“Across the board Prevent is acknowledged as a deeply toxic policy. This has been echoed by hundreds of academics, politicians who’ve called for the policy to be scrapped, trade unions and student bodies.
“Additionally, the policy has been accused of fueling extremism by the former UN special rapporteur on the rights to freedom of peaceful assembly and of association.”
The director of the advocacy group was responding to a BBC interview with the Metropolitan Police Counter Terrorism Command’s Dean Haydon, who said criticism of the “fantastic” strategy stems from “ignorance.”
“Some of the criticisms come from sections of the community that, for a variety of different reasons, political or otherwise, just don’t want Prevent to work in the first place,” he told the BBC Asian Network.
The comments come after the UK’s terrorism watchdog called for a review of the counter-radicalization strategy amid fears it is sowing mistrust among the British Muslim community.
Read more
The independent reviewer of terrorism legislation, David Anderson QC, said the strategy is “ineffective or being applied in an insensitive or discriminatory manner.”
Haydon insisted the scheme does not discriminate against Muslims.
“Prevent is not just about the Muslim community. It goes across all communities,” he said.
The Prevent strategy was first implemented by Tony Blair’s Labour government in 2003 to tackle radicalization, but its scope was widened by the Conservative-Liberal Democrat coalition in 2011.
The strategy, which is thought to cost the UK around £40 million (US$52 million) a year, aims to support and identify those at risk of being radicalized in environments such as schools, faith organizations and prisons.
Although the National Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Children (NSPCC) generally refrains from collecting information regarding the religion of those referred under the Prevent scheme, it found that in 2015 a majority (1,394) of those referred identified as Muslim.
That is in contrast with 139 who identified as Christian, 12 as Sikh, five as Buddhist, four as Hindu and three as Jewish. |
Karan Oberoi
Karan Oberoi is an Indian television actor, anchor and singer, who acts in Hindi TV serials and TV commercials, and the TV series Jassi Jaisi Koi Nahin (2003–06). He is a part of the Indipop boy band, A Band of Boys, formed in 2001, along with Sudhanshu Pandey, Sherrin Varghese, Siddharth Haldipur and Chaitnya Bhosale. The band released a film, Kiss Kisko in 2004.
Career
He first started acting through the TV serial, Swabhimaan an afternoon soap opera aired in 1995, directed by Mahesh Bhatt, followed by Saaya in 1998.
He also played the role of Rajive in Dishayen.
He is a member of A Band of Boys, which was formed in 2001, after auditions which had 1200 entries, judged by Hariharan, Lesle Lewis, Vinod Nair and Manu Kumaaran. The band made their debut with album Kabhi yeh kabhi woh featuring the number Meri neend. The band did a movie titled Kiss Kisko in 2004.
Oberoi appeared in Jassi Jaissi Koi Nahin. He was also in serials such as Zindagi Badal Sakta Hai Hadsaa in which he played the role of Inspector Abhimanyu Singh/Abhi. He is the anchor of Antakhshari in zee tv.
He was in a brief relationship with TV actress Mona Singh, after they met in 2006.
Filmography
Kiss Kisko (2004)
Survival Code (AKA "Borealis") (TV film) (2013) as Raminder Singh
TV Shows
Swabhimaan (1995) as Bobby
Saaya (1998) as Karan
Milan (2000)
Dishayen (2001–2003) as Rajiv
Jassi Jaissi Koi Nahin (2005–2006) as Raghav Oberoi
Titan Antakshari (Host)
The Great Indian Comedy Show (2004) as (Host)
Zindagi Badal Sakta Hai Hadsaa (2008) as Inspector Abhimanyu Singh
Inside Edge (2017) as Imtiaz Khan
References
External links
Category:Indian male soap opera actors
Category:Living people
Category:Indian television presenters
Category:Indian male pop singers
Category:Indian male film singers |
Michael Jordan’s 63 Turns 25
As a fan, we watch each game of the NBA playoffs with knowledge that we potentially have a front row seat to history. Last night was just that. Carmelo Anthony’s 42 points and 17 rebounds performance vindicated every fan who supported trading damn near the entire franchise to obtain his services and Melo carried the Knicks to a layup away from one of the more improbable victories in recent memory.
The more ironic (and forgotten) facet? It came within a few hours from landing on the exact day Michael Jordan blitzed the same Celtics franchise for his now mythical 63 points.
Last week, I made mention of a guy (we’ll call him Dave) who narrated the story of what it was like in Boston Garden that night a quarter century ago. You see, at the time, I happened to be only 79 days old, so my memory of the game stems from ESPN Classic footage, written accounts and my still-missing Come Fly With Me VHS tape. That was all the more reason this guy’s account sticks to my mental.
Going into the contest, Jordan had already torched the Celtics for 49 in Game 1. “Torched” being subjective mainly because the Bulls lost, but such a performance characterized what many saw him as during this part of his career – a stat stuffer who played merely for self-advancement. Years later this became known as his unquenchable desire to win, but whatever. Dave and all who packed into The Garden that night knew two things: they would win and “this Jordan kid” would do something spectacular.
Dave remembers the mood in the arena as festive, but equal parts hot as all hell. The Garden had no air conditioning system and people passing out and players needing oxygen tanks were regular occurrences. It was like playing in a sauna. The only person in the building not affected by the conditions was the one guy Celtics fans knew could beat them single-handedly. At the bar, Dave consumed a few drinks, spoke to people he knew, but ultimately came back to the story. Midway through the third quarter, everyone in the arena knew something memorable was taking place.
Topping 49 wasn’t going to be a problem. Some people even began the talk of 70 points. The only logical comparison was having a hot streak on a craps table when everything you call out is money. McHale couldn’t stay in front of him. Ainge clung on like a jilted ex-girlfriend who just doesn’t get the picture. Dennis Johnson gave a rousing effort. And when M.J. had that now timeless clip of him taking it through his legs with Bird looking in dismay, the history books were already writing themselves. Boston Garden was one of the most intimidating, if not the most, venue in all of the NBA. Yet, as Dave put it, here comes this kid who “really didn’t give a sh*t and looking back on it, that was the best part.”
For those who remember, Jordan stepped to the line at the end of regulation for a pair of free throws to send the game into overtime. As he would go on to do so many other instances in his career, he lived up to the moment, icing both. Every person in attendance let loose of a collective “WTF?” The rest of the story panned out with the second-year man out of North Carolina passing Elgin Baylor for most points scored in a single postseason game. Like Carmelo and the Knicks, however, Jordan and the Bulls lost the game. The Celtics eventually went on to beat the Houston Rockets 4-2. Everything was right in Beantown.
Until six months later when Bill Buckner became a Boston sports icon for all the wrong reasons.
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I remember that game… Not even Bernard King or Iceman had those kinds of games. It was just a cultural shift that night. It was like watching an ABA team or the Globetrotters dismantle an NBA Dynasty. There were just no words to describe what you saw that night.
The Bulls always suffered from being a poorly constructed team–not enough get-my-own-shot guys, too many spot-up guys, lots of under-sized 3s and 4s… They had a ton of bad drafts from 1980-1995… Save for MJ, Pip and Grant, Kukoc (borderline at) the Bulls really didn’t draft/develop you talent well at all. Fortunately the got 3-4 transcendent talents at the right time and had a scheme that allowed their mediocre players to not kill them.
But MJ was in the middle of this mess.
The Celtics even in their lean years were always good team defenders and better athletes than they ever got credit for being. But Jordan went thru that whole squad and dared them to do something about it.
Best part of this game was the plays that didn’t make the highlights–the plays where Celtics cats tried to knock Jordan down and couldn’t cuz they couldn’t even keep up with him enough to put hard fouls on him. It was like Barry Sanders–he got tackled but never got popped hard. The Celts fouled Jordan but never knocked him on his ass–which was something you could do in the 70s and 80s. If you were a scorer and that era and you got hot, some dude would come off the bench and drop 6 hard ass fouls on you in 10 minutes then get dap from his squad.
But not the Celts and to MJ and not that night. Money just chopped them boys up.
That was just an epic ass game…
By: Gotty™
04.20.2011 @ 10:01 PM
Does anybody remember what day of the week this game occurred on? I’m trying to remember exactly where I was when I saw it.
By: Patrick M.
04.20.2011 @ 10:09 PM
C’s can’t be stopped.
By: The Real XL
04.20.2011 @ 10:18 PM
Great piece Tins..for someone who wasn’t old enough to eat solid food at the time, you sure make it seem like you were their..
I wasn’t old enough to comprehend basketball, but even though the bulls may have lost that game i bet black folk everywhere (probably even in Boston) rejoiced at MJ droppin’ 63, in the playoffs, at the Garden..just sayin
By: Black Canseco
04.20.2011 @ 11:33 PM
When Jordan got to Chicago after being taken 3rd that year, only 3 people met him at the airport: A driver who worked for the Bulls, 1 team rep and a local newspaper columnist.
MJ came to town and only 3 people met him at the airport. No parade, no flashy welcome party, no free midwestern booty–i mean ‘tourguides’… nothing.
Chicago just picked him up like he was a really big piece of luggage.
Jordan was kind of a combative, I’ll-show-you dick pretty much from that day on. On and off the court.co
By: Phillmatic Approving Million Dollar Deals through my iPhone
04.21.2011 @ 12:16 AM
@Gotty It was a Sunday. we all watched this at my Grandparents crib. Everybody was loving how MJ was owning the eventual champs.
By: Gotty™
04.21.2011 @ 7:00 AM
Phil – Thank. You. LMAO, I watched it at my grandparents house too. I swear black parents must have had something bigger to do that day. This is one of my earliest, most distinct memories of watching MJ play
By: thecool11o3
04.21.2011 @ 3:51 AM
Tins used his mystic writing powers to sum up something he barely remembered lol.
1st hand experience, word to BC.
By: Double Clutch
04.21.2011 @ 4:36 AM
Has Kobe ever dropped 60+ in the playoffs…..matter fact who has in the past 10 years? |
Blue Jays pitcher Marcus Stroman reaches 200 innings in loss
NEW YORK — The verdict is in on Marcus Stroman’s impressive 2017 season, though a heavy-handed Judge offered up a final word for the jury.
The Blue Jays starter topped 200 innings pitched for the second consecutive season, going four innings at Yankee Stadium on Saturday afternoon.
But thanks to another mammoth blast by rookie Bronx Bomber Aaron Judge, the Yankees defeated the last-place Jays 2-1, as the finish line of the long, frustrating season is now just one day away.
The fourth-inning rocket off of Judge’s bat eventually travelled 484-feet and ruined any hope Stroman had of lowering his ERA under 3.00. Manager John Gibbons took him out of the game at that point, citing a long season and the finger issues Stroman has battled the past month.
The fiery right-hander was one of the few bright spots for the Jays season, which will end here Sunday afternoon with Game 162. And reaching the 200 mark again means a ton to the diminutive pitcher as an “up yours” from Stroman to those who have doubted his durability.
“It was a goal of mine when I got into the league,” Stroman said. “The fact that everyone when I got into the big leagues said I was too short to be a starting pitcher … it shifted from that to: ‘He’s not a durable pitcher and won’t be able to last.’
“I’m strong. I can throw another 100 innings if I want to.”
Gibbons was well aware of when he was lifting Stroman and applauded the significance of hitting 200 again.
“It means a lot,” Gibbons said. “It means a lot to me, too. It’s a benchmark, it’s what the really good ones do. It puts you at an elite level.”
In fact, only 11 pitchers in the majors have reached the double century mark so far this season. Stroman put a bow on his year with 201 innings pitched from 33 starts and an ERA of 3.09.
Is the best yet to come? At 26, and with a work-in-progress change-up, Stroman believes so.
“I honestly feel like I’m just getting started, that I’m only going to get better from this point on,” said Stroman, who snapped a six-game unbeaten streak on the road dating back to July 17. “I’m truly starting to learn about my craft. I’ll expect a better year out of myself next year.”
JUDGE-MENT TIME
The sensational campaign by Judge has had many memorable moments and the Jays have been at the centre of a few of them.
The rocket over the stands in left field on Saturday was Judge’s 52nd of the season and the 10th against the Jays and third off Stroman.
The 484-foot estimated measurement made it the fourth longest homer recorded in the majors this season. He also holds No. 1 on the list, a 495-foot shot.
“That’s one of the most impressive home runs I’ve seen,” said the man who had the best view in the house, Jays catcher Russell Martin. “It was incredible.”
Judge also broke a Yankees record with his 33rd homer at home. Babe Ruth hit 32 back in 1921. And 52 overall ties Judge with Mickey Mantle for the eighth most in a single season. It’s the most home-field round-trippers by any player since Jose Bautista hit 33 at the Rogers Centre in his 54-homer 2010 season.
And finally, to add to his historic company, Judge became the first Yankee with 15 homers in a month since Roger Maris in 1961.
Judge is clearly heating up at the right time, banging out nine homers in his past 12 games and 15 in 25.
“The ones he hits — you sit there and admire the distances of some of those things,” Gibbons said. “Tremendous year.”
GAME ON
With Boston’s win over Houston, the Red Sox clinched the AL East, designating the Yankees to the AL wild-card game which will be played here on Tuesday against the Minnesota Twins … The lone Jays run came in the eighth when a bases-loaded Josh Donaldson fly ball drove in Ezequiel Carrera. It was the visitors’ first run in the series after getting blanked in Friday’s opener and their first in 16 innings … The divisional games are obviously key and the Yanks are now 45-31 versus the AL East, their highest division win total since 2009. The Jays, meanwhile, are 32-43.
QUICK HITS
Blue Jays general manager Ross Atkins has been with the team for much of the season-ending road trip and, along with Gibbons and his coaching staff, has been conducting exit interviews with players. “We’ve been hauling them in here individually,” Gibbons said. “We’ve been talking about what they need to work on and their situation.” … Triple trouble? Somewhat incredibly, the Jays have hit just five triples this season, the fewest of any team in MLB history … Rob Refsnyder was the odd choice for DH on Saturday as Kendrys Morales sat with a sore right Achilles tendon. |
Veazie home owners unhappy with dam removal
VEAZIE, Maine (NEWS CENTER) -- It's been 3 months since the removal process started on the Veazie Dam. Since then water levels up stream of the Penobscot River have dropped dramatically.
According to those who live by the river, The removal affected water levels up stream exposing rock near the dam's sight. A change that has struck a chord with those who live along the Penobscot, like Steve Deschesne.
"Now we've got the rocks and that sort of thing so it's taking a lot of the scenery away," said Deschesne.
The Penobscot River Restoration Trust headed up the dam's removal to allow around 11 different species of sea fish to migrate up the Penobscot that hadn't been able to do so for more than 200 years. According to the Deputy Director of the organization, George Aponte Clarke, most homeowners nearby were on board with the demolition.
"For a large part people understand what our objectives are and there's always a range of opinions," said Clarke. "In this case we've had some pretty broad support."
According to the Penobscot River Restoration Trust, the entire construction project at the Veazie Dam site is expected to be finished by Spring. They are hoping to see a noticeable increase in Sea Fish populations by the summer months. |
There has long existed a need for a simple, portable device, operable by one man, to pull submersible deep well pumps from the wells to permit servicing, repair, or replacement. Such a pump, when installed, is suspended from the end of cable permitting the pump to be lowered into the casing to the bottom of a deep water well and later pulled up for servicing. Conventional procedures usually require more than one man and the use of expensive hoisting equipment which is moved to a position over the well. |
module Xcodeproj
class Project
module Object
# Contains the information about the build settings of a file used by an
# {AbstractBuildPhase}.
#
class PBXBuildFile < AbstractObject
# @!group Attributes
# @return [Hash] the list of build settings for this file.
#
# @note The contents of this array depend on the phase of the build
# file.
#
# For PBXHeadersBuildPhase is `{ "ATTRIBUTES" => [:value] }`
# where `:value` can be `Public`, `Private`, or nil
# (Protected).
#
attribute :settings, Hash
# @return [PBXFileReference] the file that to build.
#
# @todo I think that is possible to add any kind of group (for
# example folders linked to a path).
#
has_one :file_ref, [
PBXFileReference,
PBXGroup,
PBXVariantGroup,
XCVersionGroup,
PBXReferenceProxy,
]
#---------------------------------------------------------------------#
public
# @!group AbstractObject Hooks
# @return [String] A name suitable for displaying the object to the
# user.
#
def display_name
if file_ref
file_ref.display_name
else
super
end
end
# @return [Hash{String => Hash}, String] A hash suitable to display the
# object to the user.
#
def pretty_print
if settings.nil? || settings.empty?
display_name
else
{ display_name => settings }
end
end
def ascii_plist_annotation
" #{display_name} in #{GroupableHelper.parent(self).display_name} "
end
#---------------------------------------------------------------------#
end
end
end
end
|
NY’s 529 Plan Jr. GM Contest
Contest open to New York Residents ages 8 - 12
Ends: November 9, 2015
Twelve finalists will read their answers aloud to a panel and be asked tough questions regarding the Bills roster. One (1) lucky winner will be selected to spend the day with GM Doug Whaley and will receive a customized jersey and prize pack.
Whether you're a parent, grandparent, or someone with a special child in your life, New York's 529 College Savings Program Direct Plan can make saving for your child's future easier. To learn more visit www.ny529plan.org. |
"I want to get a good picture, some more pictures." "This is Carey's room, her bed." "This is the birthday girl's mattress and everything else." "She's even got a TV in her room." "Ain't she lucky?" "That's my sister." "The birthday girl." "Ain't she beautiful?" "And here is her brother." "Nick." "The thought of what somebody could have done to him..." "It gives you nightmares." "It really does." "His disappearance never made the news." "It wasn't news to them, it was just news to us." "It came to the point where, you know, you're not gonna find him alive, but you just want to find what happened to him." "They called me at work when I wasn't there and they wrote a message and said, "Someone from Spain has Nicholas."" "He wants to come home." "My mom called me." "I was at work." "And she says, "Sitting down?" "You're not going to believe this."" "Course." "It was mysterious, it was er... exciting, it was worrisome, er, it was all mixed emotions, you know?" "Ecstatic." "Bewildered." "You know, Spain!" "Isn't that like across the country?" "Um, how did he get there?" "You want..." "you have like a hundred thousand questions that you want answered immediately." "I felt wonderful, you know, excited." "You wanna see him, touch him, you know what I mean?" "And you want it all to happen now." "From as long as I remember, I wanted to be someone else." "Someone who was acceptable." "The most important thing for me and what I learned very fast was to be convincing." "When the police arrive," "I have immediately to put into their mind they have a kid in front of them, not an adult." "So it was very important for me to behave like one." "They would see me with..." "in a big coat with younger clothes." "And they would see a kid with a hat, which is very low in the eyes." "They couldn't see my eyes." "I wanted to provoke on them a sense of guilt of being adults and to be close to a kid which is dead scared." "When you see a kid that, you know, got nervous reflexes, that you can't touch them, you can't approach them, then you understand, you understand that something is wrong." "I wasn't the one who was telling them I've been sexually abused." "I made them ask me that by my attitude, by my way of doing things." "They were the one thinking about it and that gave me power." "I didn't speak much." "It's very hard to read a kid that doesn't speak a word sometime." "If a cop don't know who a kid is and where he comes from, he just can't keep him in the police station." "And I knew that eventually they would have to put me into a children's home and that's all I wanted." "Nobody ever gave a damn about me and to know that if I change my identity the reward was eventually to be put in a place where actually they really cared about me... then, hell, yeah." "I mean, I was reborn." "I mean..." "I was born again." "Nobody ever gave me a childhood, because to give a kid a childhood you need to, to love that kid." "I felt like I belonged there." "They didn't know that I was 23, 23 years old." "I was considered like one of them." "I told him to be home by dinner and gave him five bucks to go play basketball, and... he took off." "He called home, asking for a ride, er... which was probably, I don't know, he's within a couple of miles from his house and his mother works late and sleeps during the day and his older brother Jason answered the phone." "When I woke up Jason was there and said that he had called and wanted a ride home, but Jason didn't want to wake me up, so told him he had to walk home." "And that's... was the day, the last time we heard from him." "You spend 24 hours crying, sick, worried, then you get mad, then you get scared, and then you try to get empowered." "You know, "OK, what can we do?" "We have to do flyers, we'll do this, we'll..."" "You know, so instead of... you don't cry, you do something positive and try to work towards, I guess, a solution of finding him." "I thought somebody offered him a ride, and he got in the car." "I dunno, I think he would have got in a car with someone that he didn't know." "What are you looking at?" "I could see the worry and the pain they were going through, so I always said, you know, "He's out there," you know." ""He'll resurface," you know." "Unfortunately for me, it was one of those places which is very rare in Spain where actually they can't stand having a kid with no identity card, er, no proof of who he is." "They wanted absolutely to know who I was, where do I come from, erm, they needed to know precise." ""If you don't tell us, if can't prove us who you are," "I'm gonna have you fingerprinted and your pictures taken."" "I couldn't allow that to happen." "I had to find a way out of that." "So the only, only thing left there was was 1) go to prison" "2) prove to them that I'm someone." "I said that I was American." "That er..." "I ran away and I was willing to contact my family for them but I wanted to do it myself." "I didn't want my family to receive a phone call from the police or the persecutor or the judge in Spain." "I wanted to do it myself." "And I said I would need to be in the office for the night because I live in the States." "The States is, you know, the times is different, it's er..." "So erm, you know, just leave me in the office and tomorrow you will have all you need." "In this office nobody could hear me." "I knew that I could pass myself for anyone on the phone, could convince anyone of anything." "So I call the American Police." "County South, Detective Fowler." "The New York Police." "Lieutenant Kojak's office." "Different police stations in the States." " Dobie here." " Who is this, please?" "I told them every time that I was a policeman from Spain called Jonathan Dorian, that we had found a kid, we are sure he's from the States but we don't know where." "How long ago was this?" "He's been maybe missing for a few years, that someone must be looking for him." "So the police say, well, you know, we got hundreds of posters of missing persons on the wall and we just can't go through each of them." "But what we can do for you is to give you the number of the centre for missing and exploited children of Arlington, Virginia." "Centre for missing and exploited children." "Lorraine speaking." "How may I help you?" "Er, we have a kid in a shelter, certainly is American, who is about 14, 15 years old but the problem is we don't know who he is..." "I describe myself." "Every detail I gave was details that I know that I could handle." "I wanted to be vague enough for her to look at many different things." "I wanted her to have many possibilities." "Let me just take a look here." ""I got maybe something," she said." ""Maybe, you know, we got a kid from San Antonio missing since June 13, 1994." "His name is Nicholas Barclay."" "I said, "Could you send me a fax of what he looks like?"" "In my head, I was just a police officer with, with Nicholas Barclay next to me, trying to confirm his identity and like any other policeman would do." "Let's see if it's him." "I thought, let's see if it's him." "I look at it, black and white picture, old picture." "Well, missing for three or four years, guarantee one thing, there will be a change." "If there is a change, there will be doubt." "If there is doubt, then I got a chance." "Something in my head decided I could do it, that I had to try." "I took the phone and I told her that this is Nicholas." "We got him, it's him." "It's incredible, it's him." "My mom called me and she says, "Are you sitting down?" "You're not gonna believe this."" "And I said, "What, Mom?" She goes, "The police department called me and they think they found Nicholas in Linares."" "So I'm like, "OK, where in Texas is Linares?"" "Because Texas has a lot of small towns." "And then she was like, "No, Spain."" "I'm like, "Spain?"" "Oh, God, how to explain the emotions." "It's like all these different emotions, from excitement to bewilderment, to what do we do?" "What's the next step?" "How do we get him?" "When do we get to talk to him?" "I knew that after that they would contact me." "They would try to verify, to call, to see, to..." "Is it true?" "Is it here?" "Is it, you know..." "Carey, the family and all that." "Well, when I first got, you know, got a hold of the shelter, they put me on the phone with Jonathan Dorian who said that he worked for the, a shelter, and that he was the one who was talking with Nicholas" "and had got the information from Nicholas on who he really was." "When she called, I said that Nicholas was seated next to me." "But he was very scared, he was very traumatized and he didn't want to talk to no-one." "He sounded very responsible, very concerned." "Er, he claims that he has been abused, that he's been hurt, that erm... certainly he's been abducted." "I kind of thought he was like a social worker type of person." "Um, very reassuring." "She said, "Is he saying anything?" "Is he talking about us?" "Does he remember?"" "Well, actually, I think he forgot about everything, you know." "He doesn't remember very much." "He remember you but not very much." "We were told he was held by some kind of like a sex slave kind of ring, and that he had escaped from there and that he was found wandering the streets." "She was heartbroken but at the same time she was very happy." "I wanted to hear his voice." "No!" "Absolutely, there was no way I was going to talk to her pretending to be Nicholas because I wasn't Nicholas and she was his sister, so er... it would have been a risk, too big a risk for me," "but I did say a few words." "She said: "Hello, Nicholas." "You hear me, Nicholas?"" "Nothing." ""I love you, Nicholas." "I want to take you back home with me." "I'm gonna take you, baby." "I'm gonna come and get you and..."" "And maybe you hear "Love you" or something like that, you know." "Very far away." "It, it..." "And then she say: "Was it him?"" "I said, "Yeah." "He said 'I love you."'" "Oh." "And then she started crying on the phone." "You start crying, you tell him, "We're going to come and get you, bring you home." "We'll get there, we're going to bring you home, and I love you too."" "I erm..." "I washed her brain." "I didn't stop, because I didn't think of stopping." "I didn't watch myself in the mirror and say, "What the fuck are you doing?" "Stop that immediately."" "I realized that I've crossed the line." "I wasn't pretending no more to have another identity." "I stole one." "I got a phone call: "Would you please call a Carey Gibson?"" "Well, I was astounded by what Carey said, so one of the first things I said to her was, when the FBI and the US State Department assist you and uh... get you and your brother back here, I have to interview him immediately." "When the welfare of a minor, er... is in jeopardy, our reaction has to be very quick, er... very responsive." "We have to put ourselves in the position of the child or the child's parents or guardians." "Generally when a child is missing for years, either the child is dead or the child is not found and to find that child in another country is extremely rare." "That made it all the more compelling for us to make sure that we did everything right in terms of er... establishing who he was and getting him back to his family." "My main concern was getting him back, so that my part could start, the investigation could start... we could find out what had happened to this child." "I sent somebody out there as quickly as possible." "The next day..." "The next day, it got beyond my control." "The centre for missing and exploited children sent me a flyer." "There was the picture of Nicholas at the time of his disappearance..." "And I saw what real Nicholas looked like, really with colors and everything." "He was very blond, very..." "He had blue eyes." "He looked nothing like me!" "Nothing!" "There's, you know, the only thing he had in common with me was that he had five fingers at each hands." "Then I said, fuck, let's burn myself." "You know, I burned the flyer." "If I could have burned the identity that I said and every word that had been out of my mouth for the past few days," "I would have burned them too!" "When everyone tells me that the American Embassy is coming and er... everybody's, you know... and don't worry, Nicholas, we're gonna take care of you." "Well, yeah, OK, you know, I..." "I couldn't do nothing." "The only thing I could do was think of how was going to be the prison where I was going to be." "I didn't know what to do." "I really didn't know what to do." "When the Vice Consul first arrived in Linares, he got to the centre and found Nicholas Barclay had disappeared." "I said, you've got to find him." "So he essentially, with somebody from the Linares Centre, went around looking for him." "Our priority was his safety and to make sure he was reunited with the family." "I tried to run away like I would do anywhere else." "Nicholas Barclay?" "God didn't want me to leave this place." "I spoke with the vice consul and asked him about his interactions with Nicholas." "He reported at the time that he spoke English, that he, he was, he was at least at that moment convinced that this was an American." "When I woke up the next morning, everything was normal." "Then I saw the director of the shelter that said," ""Well, you know, you must be happy, your sister is on the way."" "So I said, "What do you mean?"" "He say, "Well, your sister, you know, from San Antonio, she's on the plane, she's coming to get you."" "Fuck, you know." "Fuck!" "Fuck!" "Fuck!" "Fuck!" "Fuck!" "I'd never left the country." "I didn't know even what it entailed." "I knew Mom couldn't handle the flight." "She can't, she couldn't do it." "I have to do this." "I just gotta go get him and get him back here where he's safe." "I should have thought of that." "I should have thought of the consequences." "If you do that, imagine for a second that you're the father of a kid that's been missing for three years, four months, and that they find him in Columbia, er... what would you do?" "What would be the first thing you'd do?" "I would jump on a fucking plane." "I didn't sleep for two days before I got on the plane." "Fear, but also anticipation, 'cause you want to get there, get there." "You want to see him, hold him, smell him, just get there." "You can't prepare to play a role of a person that you don't know." "I couldn't be Nicholas Barclay because I didn't know Nicholas Barclay." "I didn't even know at that moment if he was left or right-handed." "So, er, that was a problem." "I got on the plane and tried to sleep." "Didn't work." "The director..." "This is Nick, mwhah." "He thought he was an adult." "We called him 13 going on 30." "Very difficult to discipline him." "If he made up his mind he was gonna do something, pretty much there wasn't a lot you could do." "Put the lighter down." "He'd run away before for a night or two, mad at Mom." ""I'm leaving, I'll find a new mom, a new home." "Kiss my ass," kind of thing." "And he, you know... would leave and she would hunt him down and find out where he is and he'd show up the next day." "He was not, um, you know, this perfect nice sweet innocent, he was a very street-smart city boy." " It's nice to meet ya." "I am the director." " In here, Nick." "See, ain't I beautiful?" "He had beautiful blond hair." "Kind of looked like, erm, a little pixie." "He had blond hair and blue eyes and a bit of a gap between his teeth." "When he smiled, you could see it." "Finally I'm on the ground." ""Who, who, who am I looking for?" "What do they look like?" "Are they in suits?" "Oh, damn, you can smoke here." "Thank God!"" "The air smelt different." "Erm, it was a lot less crowded than I thought." "I did everything I could to give myself a chance." "I bought product to color my hair totally blond." "The gentlemen and a lady approached me, 'cause I wasn't sure where to go and we went straight into a car and started driving." "On the flyers it said that Nicholas Barclay had three tattoos." "There was a girl inside the shelter that did small tattoos just like that." "She was no pro, she was just a kid." "And I asked her to put those tattoos that were on the flyers on me." "I was quiet and that's when the lady started talking to me." "She kept my mind busy with explaining the countryside to me the whole way down there on the drive." "I took big sunglasses, I took a hat, I took a scarf, I took a glove." "I thought that if she couldn't see me, then she wouldn't be able to say I'm not her brother." "We stopped for a Coca-Cola, which I thought was really cool." "They had coke there and it was the anxiety of how long it was taking." "Minutes before she arrived I was convinced it was finished." "That I was gonna get arrested and maybe beat up also because they were not going to be happy about it." "I remember going into like a waiting area." "I'm speaking with a couple of people from the home saying that he was in his room." "He'd been locked in his room all day." "He wouldn't let anyone go in." "Finally when I heard someone knocking at the door and saying," ""Hey, Nicholas, your sister is downstairs, er... she's waiting for you, she's there..."" "I went downstairs and into like a courtyard." "There were some kids playing like ball against a wall and looked up at the window and told him," ""I'm here, come here." "I want to see you, I want to hold you."" "I remember seeing him look out the window." "I was sure that as soon as the sister was gonna see me, she was going to say "What the fuck is that?" You know." "That's not... that's not Nicholas." "I waited maybe 10 minutes." "I knew I was about to lose everything." "I knew I couldn't wait no more, that I couldn't go away, that I couldn't just disappear, so I opened the door and I went down." "It was just this sense of immense relief." "Just seeing, touching, kissing, holding him." "I said, "What the hell?" You know." "He's here, we're here, I have him." "She didn't even wait a second or two seconds." "She jump on me, she jump on me, she took me in her arms and she said, "Nicholas, oh, and you were afraid I wouldn't recognize you." "I would remember that nose."" "So I just..." "I remember touching his nose and telling him, um," ""I remember that nose, you kind of look like your Uncle Pat."" "She said, "Don't worry," like she always say, "everything is going to be fine." "Everything is going to be perfect." "I know it's you."" "He was just... just basically told me he loved me, and he didn't say a whole lot until all the people left." "Only God know why she would do something like that, but... but I know one thing for sure is there was no other way." "She came for me and she wanted me back." "We went to the visit room and she showed me dozens of pictures." "Pictures, pictures, pictures." "You remember, this was with Mom at the, at the house we were living in before you, you went missing." "Remember this was when you were playing with Scotty." "Remember this was..." "And he was like, "Jason looks the same, Codey's gotten pretty big, huh?" "Mom, God, Mom looks exactly the same." "Has she put on weight?" "Wanted to know if Grandpa was still an asshole, um, told me how much he loved Grandma and he missed her." "I remember seeing the tattoo, the cross between his, you know, right here on his hand." "I just kept thinking how much he looks like Uncle Pat and how mom was going to be really surprised how tall he was." "She said that he looked very different, that he had, you know, grown up and erm... he's very quiet, you know, kinda held back." "He talked with a funny accent." "But it was always a whisper and very quiet like he was hiding from something." "I mean, God, look what he had been through." "He wasn't the same person." "He wasn't the same Nicholas that disappeared four years before." "He had been held and tortured and God knows what else." "He wasn't that same person." "The judge in Linares wanted to make sure that there was in fact some legal basis for Nicholas claiming to be er..." "Carey Gibson's lost brother." "So now the problem was that they had the sister and the embassy official that were swearing that I was Nicholas Barclay and there was the police and the prosecutor and the judge who were not convinced at all." "The judge insisted on separate interviews and part of the evidence that was in those interviews was a family photo album." "And the judge said, "Listen, the only way for you to prove that you're really Nicholas is we got pictures here that you've never seen before." "I'm gonna show you five of them."" "Number one, OK." "Number two, OK." "Number three, OK." "Number four, OK." "On the five one I made a mistake, but it was too late." "She was already convinced I was Nicholas Barclay." "At that point I didn't see how I could not document him as a US citizen." "I would not have been able to do anything if Carey didn't show me those pictures." "They took picture of me, with no hat, with nothing." "Which was, you know, they saw my eyes." "Erm, the constitution of the United States." "I swear to be a US citizen." "You know, it wasn't real but I did it." "We didn't do a whole lot of talking the night before we got on the plane." "Not uncomfortable, just silence, and it was almost like a peaceful silence." "You know, I could hear him breathing and I just felt pretty peaceful." "I'd been thinking about running away even before I met her." "All I got to do was take a taxi cab and, going to a train station, buy myself a ticket out of Spain." "I could have done that in a couple of minutes." "Nothing was stopping me, nothing." "I went down a few times in the hallway, always wondering if I was doing the right thing, the wrong thing." "Should I go, shouldn't I go, should I go, shouldn't I go?" "When I was born, I don't think there was much love." "My mother was very, very young at the time and she was, she was only 17 years old, met er... older man, which was my father, from Algeria." "My grandfather was a very racist person and knowing that the man my mother spent the night with is an Algerian, he wanted absolutely my mother to have an abortion." "Er, to get rid of me even before I was born." "For him an Arab should be dealt with a nuclear weapon and a black man is a monkey." "Before I was born, I definitely I had the wrong identity." "Er, I already didn't know..." "I was already prepared not to know who I really was." "A new identity with a real passport, an American passport." "I could go to the US, go to school there." "Live with that family and just being someone." "And don't have never again to worry about being identified." "I saw the opportunity." "A woman that could go through so much to get me with her back in a family which got kids, which seem a fam..." "a loving family, gotta be some... somebody good," "You know, I had conflicting rules inside my own head." "Carey want me to be Nicholas but what about the others?" "Are they going to want me to be Nicholas too?" "I didn't understand why he was so..." "like, nervous, you know what I mean?" "He was like, you know, constantly moving and to the bathroom, and watching people, watching me, he was always watching me." "She was always looking at me." "I attested it to him just being scared." "You know, he's going back home and we don't know what's happened to him, how his mind's working." "Um, but he was just..." "maybe he was afraid that, that he wouldn't be recognized or, or Mom wouldn't love him anymore." "I'm gonna get killed." "And I want..." "And I say, well, maybe the plane better crash." "When they said it was time for us to board, I... nudged Nick and I said," ""You ready?" "You ready to go home?" He said, "I'm ready to go home."" ""Let's get the fuck out of here, and go home."" "And we got on the plane." "I was really nervous, anticipation, pretty happy." "You know, we had made it..." "It was a family thing, we all went together." "I remember that night, minute by minute." "It was me, my grandma, my sister and my dad, I believe." "We all loaded up in my Lincoln to go get my mom and Nicholas." "It was a wait and see but everybody was excited, you know." "We didn't know what to expect..." "I didn't want to go out of the plane." "I wanted to wait." "I wanted to prepare myself." "I didn't have no plan." "I didn't have no strategy." "I knew there was no way out." "I could not turn back." "We had no idea what kind of person we were getting, who was coming back." "I wanted to run and grab and hold him but he held back." "So I walked down and grabbed his hand and hugged him and told him I missed him." "He had changed so much." "It was like mind-boggling." "But then I realized, you know, you tell yourself, well, he's been through all this horrendous stuff, so he's absolutely gonna be different." "I just remember my kids and my mom and erm, my husband and just, God, we were so happy." "He was like totally covered up, so then I got scared, thinking that this kid's really messed up," "just by his appearance." "He was very quiet and erm, standoffish." "I never liked people to touch me." "And I can't change that." "So when she put her hands around me, she must have felt that I wasn't enjoying it at all." "I was very cold, very closed." "I didn't speak to people." "As much as I was happy..." "I didn't show it." "I had a border in front of me." "I didn't want to screw up." "Of course, it was welcome with open arms and let's get you home attitude." "Talk about the rest later, you know, let's just go home." "I just watched him all the way home in the car and you could tell he was uneasy." "So we put on a tape, tried to make him as comfortable as possible." "It was a quiet ride home, you know, and everybody, you know, quiet but yet excited." "I couldn't keep the smile off my face at that point in time, honestly." "I just had a grin and all the way home." "It was just a happy good feeling that... our long lost Nicholas was home." "I had a family and even more." "I never..." "I never dreamed of so much." "I never dreamed to be able to not only stay in a place where I'm loved but actually to have a family." "When I woke up in Texas country... .. what I saw wasn't exactly what I expected to see." "The States for me was big city, it was big buildings and, and people everywhere." "The first thing when you open your eyes is official, your name is Nicholas Patrick Barclay, that you're born December 31st 1980, and that every family member is calling me Nicholas and not "Nicholas, but what is your real name?"" "No!" "Nicholas." ""OK, we're going to go shopping, Nicholas."" "They drove me around, and, you know, I knew I had to recognize something, so... and I also knew that I couldn't because I'd never been there before." "Hey, Kirk, how are you doin'?" "We met some people that knew Nicholas before he disappeared." "I told them I didn't remember them, there was something but I didn't remember them." "Like I had lost my memory, which is what I told them." "He's traumatized." "That's why he wasn't remembering anything, because of all, all of the things that had happened to him." "I remember a sign." "I saw Nicholas in the picture doing this with his fingers, you know, his, his way to say "hello", you know, and I did it a few times with them." "When I was there." "That was one of the only things I knew what to do." "I was thinking to myself that Nicholas Barclay could come back at his house any day." "That was my first worry." "I was really worried about that." "I couldn't help it." "I said, "Man, what if he show up?"" "What if you opened the door and say, "Hey, I'm back."" "You know." "We thought the best thing for him was just to have a normal routine." "You get up, you eat breakfast, you do this, you eat lunch, you eat dinner, we'd watch a movie, just the normal family atmosphere." "Me and him hung out." "I'd just take him for drives and talk to him and turn up the music and stuff." "He'd hang out with Codey and his friends and after school they'd go to the park and play, and, I mean, they would do what teenagers do." "He actually kinda started liking a girl in the neighborhood, Amy." "They would hang out, talk on the phone and he'd kinda get blushy-red when we talked about her." "The only person I hadn't met in the Barclays' family was, erm, Jason, his other brother, the brother of, erm, Carey." "And finally he came to see me." "He didn't look at me like Nicholas and he didn't pretend to look at me like Nicholas and, er, he said good luck to me and he left." "We didn't even talk about what had happened to him over there, because we felt, like, when the time was right he would open up to us." "I did not receive any telephone calls from the family saying, you know, "Nicholas is back." "Please come over and talk to us." "We need help."" "And I felt like it was imperative that he be interviewed quickly." "So I'd agreed to meet Nicholas at the San Antonio missing children's centre to conduct our first interview." "I introduced myself to Nicholas and then told him why I was there, and that the purpose of this interview was to get his account of his kidnapping and for his assistance in locating his abductors." "All I knew about Nicholas was what I had read on some of the missing posters." "Not that people can't change in three years, but this person in general did not appear to be 16." "He had a shadow of a beard, a dark beard, that I doubt if Nicholas would have had a shadow of a dark beard at the age of 16 since he had blond hair." "He appeared to be quite nervous and he just seemed very uncomfortable this entire time." "I told them that, um, I was taken by military overseas and I was abducted and put in a van, then fly over to some places that I never knew where it was." "That, er, we were kept in a room with different kids." "They'd get chloroformed, and, er, they wake up and they're, er... you know, in a place they don't know where they're at." "They were subjected by high-ranking military to sexual abuse." "Every night all of the kids were raped and molested by men." "These men were American, Mexican and European." "They broke my hands, especially my right hand, with a baseball bat." "They kept burning him and giving him insects to eat." " We were tortured." " They broke his fingers." " His left foot was broken with a crowbar." " I was raped." "They keep these kids in line by doing military scare tactics." "We were experimented on." "They would put needles in his eyes." "Headphones on their heads screaming and yelling, er, different languages." "Spanish kept playing over and over and a voice kept saying, "You are not you."" "If he spoke English, he was beaten." "They moved these kids around in military planes." "We never saw where we were going." "The boys' identities were changed by either changing their hair color, eye color or other ways." "They were always in uniform." "A solution was put in his eyes." "They would sell him for money for sex." "His eye color was changed from blue to brown by the use of this solution." "The door wasn't shut and I left by that door." "I ran in the big hallway and there was another door." "Somehow I managed to go outside and outside I ran, I ran, I ran and hours after that I, I discovered that I was in Spain." "We've got a kid here which is about 14, 15 years old." "He doesn't have no ID." "He's no documents on him but you can see he's very young." "And he's very scared." "She was professional but you could see that she was horrified." "This was a horrendous interview and when I left I was shaken by it because it had all the horrific, emotional side effects that go with listening to such a story." "He knew about this type of activity." "I mean, a normal person doesn't sit down with a story and make up horrendous... that's not what you lie about." "You don't go into detail about torture and the murdering of children or whatever." "None of that seemed normal." "He was tortured." "I mean, he had torture written all..." "He had a broken hand that was never medically attended to, he walked with a limp, erm, he had cigarette burns down the back of his head to the back of his ankles." "This person is either, erm, had been the victim himself or he was a fantastic actor and I didn't know which of those titles applied to him." "I let them know that I was very sorry about what had happened and we were going to locate the people who had done this and put an end to the trauma that he had been through." "This was the last border." "It's like you..." "I won." "You know, the game is over." "I had passports, everybody in the family say I am Nicholas Barclay." "Nobody was investigating me." "Nobody was suspicious that I know." "Hell, I was happy." "I was, you know..." "I couldn't believe my luck." "My name is Charlie Parker." "I'm a private investigator." "Hey, how are you doin'?" "Say, I want you..." "I want you to do something for me." "I got a call back in November and, erm, from a television producer for Hard Copy and he said that a boy who had been missing earlier for four years had turned up and he wanted me to track him down so they could get an interview with him." "First I had to find out where his mother lived." "Found her and then we drove out to the north of San Antonio to do the interview." "I had repeatedly asked him, please do not contact the media." "If anything that Nicholas was telling us was true, if any of it had any accuracy, and if there was any military officer possibly involved, the last thing that we wanted it to be put was on the front page of the newspaper or on television" "so that that abductor would know something about our investigation." "This is Eyewitness News at 10." "He disappeared without a trace three years ago." "Tonight a San Antonio boy is back home." "Nicholas Barclay is now 16 years old." "He vanished when he was 13..." "Nicholas says he was kidnapped and taken to Spain." "He says for three years he was repeatedly drugged, beaten and raped, all part of a sex slave operation involving dozens of missing children." "Well, Bob, the FBI is not taking this case lightly..." "The reason?" "Somehow a 13-year-old boy from San Antonio ended up in Spain without a passport." "June 19th 1994, Nicholas got into a fight with his family, so he came here to Fort Sam Houston to play basketball." "Two young boys approached him, they started talking." "The next thing he knew, there was a cloth over his mouth and Nicholas passed out." "He claims his captors changed his appearance to make him unrecognizable." "He was no longer allowed to speak English." "Did they rape you all every night?" "Me?" "No." "Because they didn't rape me every night." "Some of them, they liked more." "Some of the kids they liked more." "They rape them usually two or three times a week." "I wanted the media's attention, so that I would make Nicholas even more real, that people would really believe that I'm Nicholas and they would love me even more for that." "They set him up, put a microphone on him and had the cameras on him and I moved over behind a booth." "And it was almost fate." "Behind that booth was a picture of the actual Nicholas Barclay." "And I could look at that picture and look at him at the same time." "And as I looked at the picture, I noticed that the boy had blue-grey-looking eyes and this man had brown eyes." "Here was a moment where the hair stood up on the back of your neck, and, and er... there was just something wrong about it." "I did what they wanted me to do." "Something was wrong." "I said, "Can you get me a picture of his ears?"" "I need to get... get that." "And I had read about Scotland Yard using that method to trace down a man," "James Earl Ray, that had killed Martin Luther King." "They had caught him in Heathrow Airport by identifying his ears." "And I knew the ears were a means of identity, almost like fingerprints." "I put the picture in my pocket and took it..." "When I got back to the office," "I put the pictures in Adobe Photoshop." "They, they were different ears." "And so I knew right away that absolutely he was not Nicholas Barclay." "I thought I had a spy." "I thought I had real, honest to God spy." "Why else would a guy come here and take the place of another person?" "What would be his reason?" "I phoned Nancy Fisher." "I said, "This guy's a fake." "It's not him."" "I said, "The ears don't match."" "And my comment to him was," ""You need to be very careful that you don't intrude on the federal investigation."" "People aren't used to hearing you talk about somebody's ears and I think she was taken aback by that." "She didn't know what I was talking about." "I thought I didn't have a right to question, you know, their statement that this was their family member because how, how could they be wrong?" "I mean, no-one would be wrong about something like that." "What do they want?" "I've already got the fact he doesn't have the same ears." "Why would you ever, ever take in a stranger?" "Not just a stranger from this country but a stranger from another country who speaks with a French accent." "This has to be Nicholas Barclay." "It was an outrageous thing." "I cannot have talked to anyone that hasn't read about this that has said, "Wait a minute." "I know my own kid." "I know my own son." "I can look in his eyes and tell..."" "It's like when you go to a class reunion and you see the kids you went to school with in 19..." "It really began for me, the American dream, when I took that big yellow bus to go to school with others, with other students." "How many French adults go to American schools for kids, into a yellow bus..." "That was impossible." "You could do that in a movie, you could do that in a... but you can't do that for real." "I finally succeeded to become a kid again, officially, with a passport, to have a second chance, to be able this time to go to school and to succeed this time." "Well, he started back to high school." "I really was worried." "I didn't know what he was going to do." "This was a case." "I mean, a real case." "This guy was lying about who he said he was and here the family was accepting him." "I expected him any day to blow up something at the airbase or do something at the army base." "I was pulling teeth trying to determine who had kidnapped Nicholas, when and where and under what circumstances." "I had almost no information because all the information he gave us was very, very general." "He couldn't give names, he couldn't give places, he couldn't give times, he couldn't give anything." "The family was told that the reason we were taking Nicholas to Houston was because he'd been through trauma." "So he deserved to see a forensic expert to deal with the trauma." "Initially I thought that this was going to be a forensic interview, er, with the intent of finding out more information about the people who abducted him." "Here was this pale white kid and I introduced myself and, as he spoke back, immediately my..." "Something in me just said, this is not right, there's something wrong here." "I speak with him for a long time." "He asked me to repeat all the stories I'd been telling everybody." "I remember people grabbing me and putting me in the van." "I went to sleep and I woke up in a room." "There was other kids..." "I didn't see the same physiological change in his body posture, in his pupil size, in his heart rate, that I would normally see with somebody who's talking about a traumatic experience." "He couldn't speak English without an accent." "That told me about the development of his brain, and the development of language." "You just cannot be raised for the first six, seven years of your life in an English-speaking home and later on, you know, eight, nine years later, even 10 years later, not be able to speak English without an accent." "I can guarantee you that this kid was not raised in an English-speaking family." "You know, I don't know who he is but the person who was..." "I was interviewing could not have been Nicholas Barclay." "OK, the worst scenario just showed up and I don't like that." "This investigation did a 90 degree." "It just went from one, one place all the way up to another." "I immediately called Carey Gibson and I said to her," ""Carey, Dr Perry has just stated that this person cannot be your brother, for the fact that he cannot be an American." "This could be a very dangerous person."" "She shrieked or screamed and said, "Oh, my gosh!"" "So I said, "Don't be at the airport," you know." ""I'll handle it." "I will take care of this individual"" "and that she did not have to take him home, you know, back to her home to live with them and she says, "OK, OK."" "We fly back into San Antonio and there's Carey standing there." "What?" "She acted like we'd never had that conversation." "And she acted excited to see him, asked him how his trip was." "I think I just stared for a minute..." "And I called the US Attorneys' Office right then and there and I said, "What do I do?"" "And the Assistant US Attorney said, "Let him return to her temporarily."" "She welcomed this person home just like he was her brother." "I didn't have any clue as to why she behaved in this manner." "Because in my conversation with her," "I had said, "This person is not your brother."" "I don't think..." "I don't remember her putting it in those words." "Well, maybe they wanted him so badly to be their son that they said he was their son, but it was starting to get ridiculous." "I couldn't let it go." "There was no way in the world I could let it go." "I started going into the neighborhood, and finding out about the real Nicholas Barclay, interviewing the neighbors, trying to find out what I could about that boy and about that family." "And what's going on?" "You know, why would Nicholas have left?" "The police used to usually come maybe like twice or three times a month." "Either it was argument with the kids or with their boyfriend or with the other son." "I spoke to everyone and they all said that Nicholas had caused trouble, had come home late at night." "We've all had arguments in our family, but it's rare that we call the police, that it is so bad that they have to come." "It, it made me think there was something going on, more than meets the eye." "Of course it did." "I knew that DNA samples would prove that he wasn't Nicholas Barclay." "Mrs. Dollarhide said, "This is my son." "I don't have to provide blood samples for you for DNA and she laid down on the floor, literally laid down on the floor, and said, "No, and you can't pick me up, and you can't make me."" "I did not want to go anywhere with the FBI, but I don't remember refusing." "I was stunned." "I've never had that reaction before." "She wasn't just apathetic, she was hostile." "To be honest with you, I really have no idea what I was thinking at that time." "My main goal in life was not, not to think." "We didn't need to prove who he was." "We knew who he was." "I no longer saw them as a grieving erm..." "victimized family." "I saw them as a very questionable family." "There would be no reason for them to accept a stranger into their lives... ..unless there was something to hide." "That would be the only reason." "Something was being hidden and I didn't know what that was." "When Beverly refused to give her blood sample," "I started to become suspicious." "They knew that I wasn't Nicholas." "Whatever I was telling them, they didn't believe a word of it." "But they were good at not showing it." "I mean, who wouldn't see it?" "That's about four, five years ago now." "I remember in Spain, Carey did everything for me." "When I didn't know something, she told me." ""You forgot everything but you're going to remember it now and, you know, this was Mom at the place we're living in with..." "Do you remember?" "Oh, this was Chantelle." "You remember Chantelle." "That's your niece, my daughter." "Do you remember that?" "Do you remember that?" "Do you remember that?"" "Over and over and over again." "That's Jason." "She wanted to put it in my head." "She wanted to put it in my head so I would never forget." "She just could not say it's not Nicholas." "Did she believe it or not?" "If you asked me, I would say, no, not for a second did she believe I was her brother." "She decided I was gonna be her brother." "It's like I woke up in a place where..." "Lies even bigger than what I did." "You know, it's... they pretended as much as I did and even more." "I kept thinking about the kid, Nicholas Barclay." "At the time of his disappearance, he was living with Beverly in the house on Swallow Street and his brother Jason was also living there." "Jason, Nick's older brother, when he moved into their house, that house changed, because before he got there," "Nick and his mom seemed pretty close to me." "She loved him to death." "I mean, she loved him, you could tell..." "She, she..." "He was the light of her life." "This guy moved in, he was a bum, a drug addict and he only cared about himself." "And when he got into that house, it just made things that much more worse." "In fact, I think it even pushed his mom into doing drugs herself when he moved into the house." "That house just became a volatile situation altogether." "I discovered from the police files, a couple of months after the disappearance, that Jason had called the police and said that his brother had tried to break into the house." "Well, we see that kind of thing all the time." "People, people are constantly doing stuff like that to make people think that person's alive." "I started to put two and two together and I thought something happened inside that house to that boy." "I didn't need to be Columbo to put all the pieces together." "They killed him." "Some of them did it, some of them knew of it, and some of them chose to ignore it." "I wasn't worried about Nicholas coming back no more." "Neither Nicholas Barclay or his mother were cooperating, so we were going to have to have a search warrant executed in order to obtain those blood samples." "I couldn't pretend no more to be Nicholas and act like Nicholas." "I took two or three other agents with me to go pick him up." "So inside me, I started getting, you know, more and more aggressive, weird." "I couldn't go on." "We got the fingerprints and we got the palm prints." "Within a few weeks, we would be sending them out to Interpol, to the embassies, to see if any of these fingerprints matched anything that they had on record." "I was trying to find a way out, not only a way out in San Antonio, Texas, but a way out, out of my mind." "Nicholas was becoming much more agitated and angry and I really felt like he was going to run away and if he ran away we might have a very hard time locating him." "I started tailing him, I started following him." "I started sitting up on Beverly's place where she lived and writing down license numbers of all the cars that came to her, to see her." "So I took a razor blade and I slit my face." "Everything was snowballing and snowballing and snowballing." "I show them, show them that" "I was under a great deal of pressure." "On March 3rd of 1998, the legate in Madrid, Spain, called me and he said, "We've just identified him."" "And I said, "You're kidding?"" "I knew that everything was going down and it was just a matter of weeks." "He said, "What I'm gonna do right now is fax to you the records that I have."" "He agreed to meet with me." "We ordered hot cakes." "And we started to eat." "And he said..." "I said, "You really made your mother angry."" "And he said, "She's not my mother and you know it."" "And I thought, well, I'll be damned." "And so I stood over the fax machine, waiting for, of course, them to come in because I was screaming and jumping up and down." "I actually said, "Well, I'll be damned, you're going to finally tell me who you are."" "I was like doing a dance and everybody was high-fiving." "It was like, you know, we finally, we finally know who this person is." "And my heart was beating fast, just like it is now thinking about it." "And..." "And I said, "Who are you?"" "He said, "I'm Frederic Bourdin and I'm wanted by Interpol."" "The fingerprint cards told me that he was not 16, he was 23." "That he was not American, he was French." "That he was not Nicholas Barclay, he was Frederic Bourdin." "We grow up in America thinking Interpol is kind of the God of the cops." "You follow me?" "That's the highest step you can get in "Copland"." "And so I thought, Jesus Christ, if he's wanted by Interpol, what has he done?" "You know." "There is no limit to what he's done." "So he began to tell me." "Frederic Bourdin is delinquent." "Activities and modus operandi..." "He has travelled throughout Europe appearing at shelters for minors under different aliases." "Spain, 1992." "Spain, September 1993." "Barcelona... .. stated that he'd run away from his adoptive parents' house." "Brussels, '95." "Pyrenees..." "Milan, 1993." "Glasgow." "I sat there." "I could hardly eat, I could hardly swallow my food." "He always wore glasses." "Giovanni Petrullo." "Michelangelo Martini." "Donovan MacNeph." " Peter Samson." " William Thomas." "Jimmy Sale." "Peter Robin." "James Markey." "Frederic Cassis." "'93." "Hernandez Fernandez." "'95." "Edgar Guteyere." "'97." "Spain, 1997." "It's possible he may need psychiatric help." "Settle in tonight because we are about to share with you a story so bizarre, it's hard to believe it's true." "This is the tale of a master imposter who managed to lie his way into the United States and prey upon the most vulnerable of people." "He is the only person in US history ever to have assumed the identity of a missing child." "He fooled even the lost boy's mother." "It's hard to imagine how he could have gotten away with it." "We knew it was going to be, you know, heart-wrenching and... you know... but we never thought it wouldn't be him." "You know, why would you even think that?" "The first feeling was complete sadness." "Because it wasn't Nicholas." "Which took us back to square one." "Where is Nicholas?" "That was the first one." "The second emotion was, how could I be so fucking stupid?" "I mean, seriously." "I contacted the SAPD, the San Antonio Police Department, and told them, decided to tell them, that, hey, they killed him." "Based upon Frederic Bourdin's allegations, a homicide investigation was opened and the allegation was against the family members as being... participating in the disappearance of the child." "It was related to us that while Frederic was in jail that he said that my mom confessed to him that her and Jason killed Nicholas and hid the body." "They accused me first and it totally freaked me out." "Because I, I... have been crazy but never violent." "This is the street the kid lived on when he went missing." "There's the house right there." "I think the boy's buried here." "I want to talk to Darryl inside." "He's agreed to let me dig and see if Nicholas Barclay's here." "If Beverly knew that this individual was not her son, then she had to have some type of ulterior motive and it had to be something very scary for her to accept a stranger into her household posing as her own son." "I agreed to take a lie detector test." "She passed the polygraph." "And I said to the polygraph examiner," ""I don't understand this," "I don't understand it at all." "Will you give it to her again?"" "So he gave it to her again and she passed the polygraph." "I said, "No, there is something wrong."" "The third time he gave it to her, she flunked every question." "I mean, like, big-time." "The polygrapher said the machine practically jumped off the table." "Her answers appeared to be false on everything." "And he turned to her and he said," ""Mrs. Dollarhide, it appears that you know where your son is." "It appears that you know what happened to him" and some other questions." "And that's when she became very aggravated, very agitated, jumped up and ran out and was screaming." "I lied about being... stealing, and I had... so that's why I failed." "I didn't lie about anything to do with Nicholas." "It was the other questions." " Darryl?" "Charlie Parker." " Mr. Parker." "How are you doin'?" "It's nice in here." "So this is the house, huh?" "Yes, sir." "The polygraph led us to believe that she did have some information she could provide that she refused to and we felt like Jason had information." "If Jason did something to Nicholas, I didn't know about it and I can't imagine Jason ever doing that." "It's just not in his makeup," "but..." "I don't know." "I know my brother or my mother did not kill Nicholas, accidentally, on purpose." "Whatever Frederic said, it never happened." "When we first got my dog, he was always digging in the back corner over there where the, the tree is." "And one day I was mowing and saw, like, pieces of, like, plastic," " kind of like a tarp kind of material..." " OK." "...sticking out of the ground." "I tried to pull it up to get it out, and it just kept ripping on me as it was stuck in the ground." "So I never paid any attention to it or gave it any thought, until last night when we were speaking on the phone." "And the bush has been there a while?" "I had initially tried to get a hold of Jason prior to Frederic's arrest and couldn't." "And then when I finally did get a hold of him," "I asked him about the disappearance of his brother." "He just seemed totally apathetic about the disappearance of his younger brother." "Extremely apathetic." "And didn't care that he'd been returned but when he did see him, no, that wasn't his brother, but he didn't seem interested enough or excited enough to tell his mother and sister, "That's not my brother." "No, no, they just wanted to believe."" "Yeah, it's a good spot." "Let's see." "Say he dumps him here first and then, if he looks up," "yeah, yeah, this is good, this is good." "He was very hostile, refused to help in any way, and then he later left the drug rehabilitation centre and was found having died from a drug overdose." "I think that Jason became a perfect scapegoat because he's not here." "He died, so he can't be questioned or, you know, anything." "I mean, he can't, he can't even defend himself." "It's kinda like a nightmare." "All this stuff is coming at you and none of it's true but nobody believes you." "Or they think that you had something to do with it." "And it's like getting in trouble for something you didn't do." "You know, when kids tell you, "I didn't do it!"" "You're going, "Yeah, right."" "But I didn't do it." "I do feel like the family knows the whereabouts of Nicholas Barclay." "I think that Beverly Dollarhide and Jason Dollarhide knew at one time what happened to Nicholas Barclay." "Show me one piece of evidence, show me one thing that will lock anybody in our family up over this, just one shred of actual proof." "Back here." "Let's go back here." "The biggest, funniest one to me, hilarious, is that we went and picked up a complete stranger to hide the fact that we killed Nicholas or someone in my family killed Nicholas." "When through four years that Nicholas was disappeared, we were the only ones looking for him." "Why would we go pick up a stranger to hide something that didn't need to be hidden?" "Just another one of his lies." "Even from behind bars, he continued to lie to families of other missing children." "From this phone in his cell," "Bourdin made hundreds of collect calls claiming to have information about lost children." "He even said he could help solve the highly publicized case of Sabrina Aisenberg, an infant who was taken from her home in Tampa, Florida, last year." "No." "Yes." "He's a habitual liar and it blows my mind that anybody can take anything that is said out of his mouth as truth." "What?" "This kid comes and says he's Nicholas, and then turns around and says," ""You... these people that took care of me killed him."" "Hm." "How do you come up with that conclusion?" "He put us through enough already and then for him to do this while he's in jail for what he's done and to cause more pain to our family?" "Fuck him." "I didn't give a damn what other people were thinking, or what they were feeling." "I care about myself, just about myself and fuck the rest of it." |
Rodgers And Hammerstein — Lonely Room lyrics
The floor creaks,
The door squeaks,
There's a field mouse a-nibblin' on a broom,
And I set by myself
Like a cobweb on a shelf,
By myself in a lonely room.
But when there's a moon in my winder
And it slants down a beam 'crost my bed,
Then the shadder of a tree starts a-dancin' on the wall
And a dream starts a-dancin' in my head.
And all the things that I wish fer
Turn out like I want them to be,
And I'm better'n that smart-aleck cowhand
Who thinks he is better'n me,
And the girl I want
Ain't afraid of my arms,
And her own soft arms keep me warm.
And her long, yeller hair
Falls across my face
Jist like the rain in a storm...
The floor creaks,
The door squeaks,
And the mouse starts a-nibblin' on the broom.
And the sun flicks my eyes-
It was all a pack o' lies!
I'm awake in a lonely room[ Lyrics from: http://www.lyricsty.com/rodgers-and-hammerstein-lonely-room-lyrics.html ] |
Interview of Stephanie Coontz
This is an interview with Stephanie Coontz on the role of negotiation in marriage, family and divorce.
Stephanie Coontz is a Professor of History and Family Studies at Evergreen State College in Evergreen, Washington, and the Director of Public Education for the Council on Contemporary Families. She is the author most recently of Marriage, A History (2005), The Way We Never Were: American Families and the Nostalga Trap (1993), and The Way We Really Are: Ending the War Over America’s Changing Families(1998). Ms. Coontz resides in Evergreen, Washington with her son, husband and two cats. Her work has been especially important for challenging the conventional wisdom about what we think we know about what families are and what they have traditionally been. She notes that many of the ‘family values’ that people nostalgically recall and use to bolster their view of how things should be never really existed.
Q: Your notion of the family seems to be that of an evolving dynamic organism as opposed to a static notion, is that right?
A: Yes, every society has variations on what a family is. Men and women have different definitions within the same household. There has always been diversity within each society and changes within that notion. Back in the 16th century, people used the word “love” as frequently for neighbors and cousins as they did for the nuclear family. But then, in other societies, there was polygamy or polyanrie, one man and many wives were predominant. People often put social definitions above biological ones. What proper family sentiments are have changed. Many ministers told women not to call their husbands by familiar nicknames, because marriage was really about authority relationships.
Q: To bring things forward, you seem to say that women gained an independent legal existence beginning with the enlightenment?
A: It happened in two stages. It was not until 200 years ago that it became respectable to marry for love. Even after that became the notion of marriage, where there was much more sentimentality, the definition of love was one that made women subordinate to men. It wasn’t until 130 years ago that men began to lose their right to beat their wives and to take over any property their wives had. It was still another 100 years where that was enforced, right up to the 1970’s many states had ‘head and master’ laws that gave men the final say over many family decisions. So, yes the nature of marriage has been changing constantly. The idea that men and women are equal in marriage is extremely recent and a revolutionary change in the marriage relationship.
Q: So it is only since the 1970’s that men and women have had the broader opportunity to construct their marriages around reciprocal duties and to negotiate their roles?
A: It was in the 1980’s that the Courts began to overturn the legal definitions of marriage that demanded different roles. Until then, in most of the 20th century, the man, but not the woman, had a duty to support the family, the wife, but not the husband, had a duty to keep the house clean, take care of the kids and also to provide sex. Which is why it wasn’t until the 1980’s that the courts have recognized marital rape. So, since then, the courts have increasingly ruled that husbands and wives should be able to figure out for themselves who does what. That’s where the negotiation comes in.
Q. It sounds like the traditional view of marriage was that of a business proposition?
A: For thousands of years, marriage was more about the political and economic than it was the individual. People fell in love, but as we know, it was no accident that those stories often ended tragically. People married for political and economic advantage. Even in the lower classes, you had to marry someone who could work along side you. There was far more parental and community oversight of who married whom. Marriage had a lot more practical calculation involved. Right up until the late 18th century, the dowry a man received in marriage was the single biggest piece of property he would ever get at one particular time, so that was more important to him than the daughter. And, for the women, finding a husband was the best investment they could ever make in their economic future. They often chose their pocketbook over their heart.
Q: So marriage has moved in some ways from being a business proposition to being about love, affection, and emotion?
A: Yes, exactly. Ironically the first people to embrace the love revolution were men. Through the 19th century, your read stories from men about women who have stolen their heart, where women who remained economically dependent continued to be quite calculating in who they would marry right up through the early 20th century, even into the 1950’s and 60’s. So it is only in the last 20 or 30 years that women, as well as men, have been able to say, “No, I want a soul mate, not just a provider.”
Q: So men continue to be more romantic than women and more eager to marry?
A: That’s true and goes against expectations. Women, as they have needed marriage less economically, have expressed greater dissatisfaction with the institution marriage. Which is not surprising, because, as marriage has evolved over the last several hundred years, women have had to shoulder most of the emotional and time consuming work of making the family go.
Q: Doesn’t the marriage still remain a fundamental source of security and a significant business proposition. The conventional wisdom is that, after divorce, the standard of living of the man will go up and for women and children it will go down significantly?
A: This is the paradox. The majority of divorces are sought by women. You have to ask yourself, women are not stupid, they know they will undergo a drop in their standard of living, and yet are willing to do it anyway.
Q: So is the shift of marriage toward the pursuit of a soul mate and about relationship an encouragement of divorce? Are women too ready to leave marriage if he is not perfect?
A: I think that most people don’t expect perfection, but they do expect much more intimacy, fairness, passion and satisfaction from marriage than they have in the past.
Q: Are their expectations too high?
A: Well, I would say this is a double-edged sword. On the one hand, having high expectations makes people work harder at their marriage. Many people today work hard at their relationships.
Q Do we work too hard on marriage? Have we become too preoccupied with getting marriage right? In this hyper-moral age, is the length of your marriage a sign of your goodness as a person?
A: There are gains and losses. For thousands of years, people have had such low expectations of marriage that people put up with stuff that we would find positively chilling and unbearable. Now, we have higher expectations of marriage and when a marriage works well, it works better than ever before in history. But it is also true that we put a lot of pressure on ourselves. Maybe it’s no so much that we expect too much of marriage, but that we expect too little of other relationships. We put all the burden on that partner.
Q: So that marriage partner can’t and shouldn’t be expected to fulfill all of our needs?
A: Exactly.
Q: So how do you respond to the evolutionary propositions: that men give love to get sex and women give sex to gain love and security, and that this is still a major motivator in male-female relationships?
A: I am very leery of attributing these patterns to evolutionary biology. I think it was Paul Ehrlich who once said, “biology doesn’t command us, it merely, at best, whispers suggestions.” There have been so many changes in male-female relationships that I am optimistic that we can adjust our natures and desires to new realities. One thing that we find across cultures is that the higher degree of equality between men and women, the less men select their partners on the basis of sex, and the less women select men because they are older or have more resources.
Q: So you don’t have a high opinion of Maureen Dowd’s book, Are Men Necessary?
A: I think she is working with hugely outdated material. For women of my age, born before 1960, the higher their degree of education, the less likely they were to marry, but that has been reversed. Today, women with a college degree are the most likely to marry and stay married.
Q: Why do you think there is so much outdated-information about marriage and what we think we know?
A: That’s a good question. If I could answer that, I could move on to another topic. I think there is always a tendency to look back at the past through rose-colored glasses, to remember partially. There’s an example I use in The Way We Never Were, they did a study of kids who report on their school vacations. When they first come back from vacation, and they make a list of the good and bad things that happened, the lists are equally long. Six months later, the bad list has shrunk and the good list has increased. I think that’s what we do with family life; we use nostalgia about the past as a way of complaining about the present. We incorrectly kid ourselves that family life was so much better in the past.
Q: As the roles of marriage are being negotiated, you are introducing the term ‘negotiate’ in a popular sense. I have found that women underestimate their ability to negotiate and men overestimate their ability to negotiate. What do you think is their effective ability to negotiate?
A: Yes, we’ve made tremendous progress in equality. But there are lots of ways in which negotiations in marriage are affected by unequal power relations. Some of those power relations are individual; the person who wants the relationship to last has the least negotiating power. But also there is a gender pattern. Women have more financially too lose, more likely to end up with custody of kids and those considerations sometimes interfere with their negotiating power in a relationship. So, when I’m talking about the need for a negotiated relationship, I’m not talking about the kind of negotiation that comes when you have real conflict, but I’m suggesting that the happiest marriages are the ones where fair negotiations are taken for granted as a daily occurrence.
Q: Is it perhaps an issue that as people work on their marriage they don’t know how or have the necessary skill set to negotiate with each other?
A: That’s correct. One very common pattern you see in divorce is that women are afraid of conflict and they are trying to please when they are young, so they don’t ask for changes that they want in the marriage, they put up with things, they are afraid to initiate the conversation and the negotiation. And, by the time they get the courage to do so, they have disengaged so much that instead of asking for change, they ask for divorce.
Q: So this is a vestige of the way marriages used to be?
A: I think so, this is more than vestigal. Both men and women have a lot of old habits and patterns that interfere with our ability to negotiate fairly and to work through a relationship in a way that isn’t either exhausting or unfair. But I am cautiously optimistic in the sense that I do think that we know a whole lot more than we used about how to make marriages work for both partners. Both men and women seem to be making the effort. We aren’t going to wipe out the fact that some marriages won’t work when negotiations break down. So my optimism stems from the fact that we can make marriages work better than they do, but we must also make divorce work better when it happens.
Q: Few couples today seem to want to take responsibility in divorce, they want their lawyers to handle it, and they still want revenge, why is that?
A: There are new options to negotiate and have mediated settlements in divorce. But it’s true that especially couples who were very romantically in love have a tendency to have a deep sense of betrayal afterwards. Once lawyers are involved, it is very hard to back off and that remains a big problem.
Q: An unfair question, what have you learned for your study of the history of marriage and families that has helped you personally in your marriage?
A: I have found it very useful both in my relationship with my husband and my son to be able to step back and understand that some of the tensions we have are because of historical changes that have occurred. Nobody is a bad person, but everybody brings their different needs and assumptions. On top of that, we have so few social support systems from our society. 18 of the top industrial countries in the world have paid parental leave. They have much better child care available for working parents. So on top of all of the tensions that are inevitably involved in restructuring an institution whose rules are changing very rapidly, we have a society that gives absolutely no support to families. So you are forced to solve this at an individual level and many of the tensions couples have are not with each other but because of the way work is organized or health care is organized. And so, for me, I have found it very useful to be able to step back and ask if this is my fault, my husband’s or my son’s fault? Often it is actually a real dilemma and we should stop blaming each other.
Q: So all of the lip service paid to family values and what they should be is anything but?
A: We don’t put our money where our mouth is.
Q: I know you are a historian, but what would be your advice, what would you like people to understand?
A: Three things. In today’s stress filled global economy, no family can make it on its’ own, every family needs support. The other side of it is that no family is doomed if it gets that support. On a more personal level, if you are entering a marriage, I think that the changes in men’s and women’s roles make it so much more important to be friends who respect each other than has ever been necessary before. Married couples used to be able to rely on the fact that each of them did different things and they needed each other that way. Now they have to rely on mutual respect. And even when they divorce they can hold on to that respect so that instead of that revenge mentality they can make a good divorce happen.
Q: So before you look for the perfect soulmate, look for a good friend?
A: I think that’s very important. There is a psychologist, Andrew Christiansen, who says, “you don’t get a line item veto over your partner.” You have to learn to accept parts of that person that might not be what you’d pick if you could choose exactly what you wanted. On the other hand, you have to be close friends to think about if you could live with those differences after you get married.
Biography
Robert Benjamin, M.S.W., J.D., has been a practicing mediator since 1979, working in most dispute contexts including: business/civil, family/divorce, employment, and health care. A lawyer and social worker by training, he practiced law for over 25 years and now teaches and presents professional negotiation, mediation, and conflict management seminars and training courses nationally and internationally. He is a standing Adjunct Professor at the Straus Institute for Conflict Resolution of the Pepperdine University School of Law, at Southern Methodist University’s Program on Conflict Resolution and in several other schools and universities. He is a past President of the Academy of Family Mediators, a Practitioner Member of the Association for Conflict Resolution, and the American Bar Association’s Section on Dispute Resolution. He is the author of numerous book contributions and articles, including “The Mediator As Trickster,” “Guerilla Negotiation,” and “The Beauty of Conflict,” and is a Senior Editor and regular columnist for Mediate.com. |
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Watch: Blackhawks and Sharks stars drop gloves
NHL stars generally don't drop the gloves very often. But Friday night, two of the league's bigger stars fought each other. The play started when Chicago Blackhawks captain Jonathan Toews drove San Jose Sharks
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The scrap started when Chicago Blackhawks captain Jonathan Toews drove San Jose Sharks captain Joe Thornton from behind into the boards. They had some words, but had to get back into the play because there was a delayed penalty against Toews.
When the Blackhawks touched the puck to stop play, Toews went after Thornton and the two began fighting.
According to hockeyfights.com, Toews hadn't fought since Jan. 2, 2010, and had only two NHL fights before Friday.
Thornton had 25 previous fights since 1997-78, the most recent one last April.
Maybe that, and a 2-inch height advantage, is why Thornton had the upper hand. Toews, who instigated while wearing a visor, got nine penalty minutes to Thornton's five.
Explained Toews to reporters after the game: "I think the last handful of games, including the last season, there's always stuff going on, whether it's after the whistles or during the play. I guess it just comes down to players that are maybe trying to get under your skin or test you a little bit. I just figured at some point I had to stand up for myself." |
Love across cultures.
Love across cultures.
I was never very good at feeling guilty, so the concept of “white guilt” was always for someone else who was responsible for something that happened somewhere else to someone else. It was an entirely “other”-ly concept, stemming in no small part in the way that I was raised. It played out in small ways, like the times I was told, “You should do this” or “you need to do that.” My deeply ingrained response was, I actually don’t have to do shit. In obligation, I managed to identify an extra step of choice. That is, I choose to be obligated to a person or some community commitment. There was no automatic compassion. Simply, my selfishness was exposed and entrenched early on, justified, and equally hard to move. When I heard about the Native Americans’ plight throughout American history, ongoing, my elementary school self could not connect that these… |
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|
Cooperative zinc binding in a staphylococcal enterotoxin A mutant mimics the SEA-MHC class II interaction.
The structure of a mutant form of staphylococcal enterotoxin A (SEA) has been determined to 2.1 A resolution. The studied SEA substitution H187-->A187 (SEAH187A) leads to an almost 10-fold reduction of the binding to major histocompatibility complex (MHC) class II. H187 is important for this interaction since it coordinates Zn2+. The zinc ion is thought to hold MHC class II and SEA together in a complex. Interestingly, only one of two molecules in the asymmetric unit binds Zn2+. H225, D227, a water molecule, and H44 from a symmetry-related molecule ligate Zn2+. The symmetry-related histidine is necessary for this substituted Zn2+ site to bind to Zn2+ at low zinc concentration (no Zn2+ added). Since a water molecule replaces the missing H187, H44 binds Zn2+ at the position where betaH81 from MHC class II probably will bind. Dynamic light scattering analysis reveals that in solution as well as in the crystal lattice the SEA(H187A) mutant forms aggregates. The substitution per se does not cause aggregation since wild-type SEA also forms aggregates. Addition of EDTA reduces the size of the aggregates, indicating a cross-linking function of Zn2+. In agreement with the biological function, the aggregation is weak (i.e. not revealed by gel filtration) and non-specific. |
On Monday, June 25, the United States Supreme Court ruled that taxpayers have no right to challenge discretionary spending by the executive branch. The 5-4 ruling in the case of [Jay] Hein [Deputy Assistant to the President and the Director of the White House Office of Faith-Based and Community Initiatives] v. Freedom From Religion Foundation "revolved around a 1968 Supreme Court ruling that enabled taxpayers to challenge government programs that promote religion," the Associated Press reported. "That earlier decision involved the Elementary and Secondary Education Act, which financed teaching and instructional materials in religious schools in low-income areas."
In this case, the Freedom From Religion Foundation (FFRF - website) "objected to government conferences in which administration officials encourage religious charities to apply for federal money," the Associated Press pointed out. According to the website of the White House Office, in 2006, its Centers for Faith-Based and Community Initiatives "hosted 110 workshops, providing grant writing training to over 9,500 new and potential federal grantees. Since 2002, our Centers have hosted over 350 workshops across the country, training over 30,000 people."
Defenders of the first amendment and advocates of church/state separation condemned the decision, while President Bush and a host of conservative evangelical Christian leaders were clearly pleased.
The decision will no doubt encourage the administration to keep pouring money into its faith-based initiative. And while it dealt a blow to the initiative's critics, it will not prevent advocacy organizations from continuing to challenge the faith-based initiative in the courts; a news release by Americans United for Separation of Church and State (Americans United), pointed out that the decision would not "affect most legal challenges to the 'faith-based' initiative."
"The decision is a slap in the face to those of us who are trying to safeguard freedom of conscience and the separation of church and state," Annie Laurie Gaylor, Freedom From Religion Foundation co-president and a plaintiff in the lawsuit, told Media Transparency in an e-mail exchange. "Its one thing to disagree with FFRF on the merits of our lawsuit, but it's quite another to bar the courtroom door. What is the Supreme Court majority afraid of in letting us argue our case?"
Gaylor pointed out that "from a practical standpoint, the precedent of Flast v. Cohen was reaffirmed, and federal taxpayer lawsuits against specific acts of Congress that might violate state/church separation should proceed. Of course, we anticipate that it [the current decision] will give aid and sustenance to theocrats who want to shield the government from challenge when they unite church and state."
"Had Justice O'Connor remained on the court, as she was when we filed this lawsuit, we are confident this would have been a 5-4 decision in our favor. Kennedy has become a swing vote to overturn well-established precedent," Gaylor said in a previously released statement.
"This means we have a constitutional separation between church and state, but no way to enforce it if the executive branch chooses to violate it with 'discretionary' actions," added Dan Barker, a plaintiff and Foundation co-president.
"This is a disappointing decision that blocks the courthouse door for Americans with legitimate church-state grievances," said the Rev. Barry W. Lynn, executive director of Americans United. "Taxpayers should be allowed to challenge public funding of religion, whether the money is allocated by Congress or the White House."
"However," Lynn continued, "it is important to note that this ruling applies to only a few situations. Most church-state lawsuits, including those that challenge congressional appropriations for faith-based programs, will not be affected."
"It's a bad day for the First Amendment. The Supreme Court just put a big dent in the wall of separation between church and state, and a big smile on Pat Robertson's face. Robertson's American Center for Law and Justice and allied Religious Right groups have long called on the Court to restrict the right of Americans to challenge government expenditures that unlawfully mix church and state. That is exactly what the Court did today," People For the American Way Foundation (PFAW) President Ralph G. Neas said in a statement.
"Today's ruling will make it more difficult for citizens whose tax dollars are being unlawfully spent to subsidize religion to bring a complaint in court. It is also consistent with a broader strategy by right-wing judges and activists to restrict standing for average Americans to challenge powerful government and business interests. The increasing willingness of the Court to undermine our rights and legal protections should be a wake-up call to Americans about the importance of the Court and future nominees," Neas added.
In a statement released shortly after the decision, President Bush said that the "ruling is a win for the thousands of community and faith-based nonprofits all across the country that have partnered with government at all levels to serve their neighbors."
"Most importantly, it is a win for the many whose lives have been lifted by the caring touch and compassionate hearts of these organizations."
Jay Hein echoed the President's comments. "The bottom line to the decision today is we think it enables us to keep doing what we're intended to do, which is help all of those who are interested in helping the poor," Hein said. "The administration believes that government does better when it works with every partner, whether faith-based or secular, large or small."
Focus on the Family's CitizenLink reported that Jay Sekulow, the chief counsel for the American Center for Law and Justice, called it a "very significant victory."
"This sends a powerful message," he said, "that atheists and others antagonistic to religion do not get an automatic free pass to bring Establishment Clause lawsuits."
Bruce Hausknecht, judicial analyst for Focus on the Family Action (FOTF's 501(c)(4)), agreed. "This was a win because it rejects the theory of taxpayer standing that would have allowed liberal groups to reach into the executive branch to complain about every speech, every meeting and every action that the president might take with regard to faith or faith-based initiatives."
"The liberal special-interest groups out there that insist on scrubbing religion out of the public square and American life have been denied an opportunity to increase their power to do so."
Hard time following the faith-based money
On January 29, 2001, President Bush issued two executive orders; one established the White House Office of Faith-Based and Community Initiatives (website) while the other created Centers for Faith-Based and Community Initiatives in five government agencies (the number of participating agencies now number 11). Unable to secure congressional legislation for the faith-based initiative, between December 2002 and March 2006, the president issued four more executive orders related to the initiative.
Despite claims of being a "results" oriented administration, since its inception, both reporters about and critics of the faith-based initiative have had a difficult time tracking how the billions of dollars in government grants to religious organizations are being used.
As Media Transparency reported last August, a report issued by the Government Accountability Office (GAO) found that many religious groups getting government money have had a difficult time separating religious proselytizing from the delivery of social services. In addition, the GAO report found that the Bush administration hadn't established a concrete process to monitor grant recipients nor measure their efficacy.
According to "Faith-Based and Community Initiative: Improvements in Monitoring Grantees and Measuring Performance Could Enhance Accountability," "While officials in all 26 FBOs [faith-based organizations receiving federal grants] that we visited said that they understood that federal funds cannot be used for inherently religious activities, a few FBOs described activities that appeared to violate this safeguard. Four of the 13 FBOs that provided voluntary religious activities did not separate in time or location some religious activities from federally funded program services."
The report also noted that "[L]ittle information is available to assess progress toward another long-term goal of improving participant outcomes because outcome-based evaluations for many pilot programs have not begun."
The beat goes on
Less than a week before the Supreme Court's ruling, the Freedom From Religion Foundation filed a federal lawsuit against officials in North Dakota claiming that they are using public money to religiously indoctrinate young people at the Dakota Boys and Girls Ranch.
Over the past two years about $7 million in federal, state and county money has gone through the North Dakota Human Services Department to foster care services at Dakota Boys and Girls Ranch -- an entity with three residential facilities for troubled youth as well as day-programs. The money, which represents about 70 percent of the organization's budget, is not being used for religious purposes, said Carol Olson, executive director of the state Human Services Department.
"The Dakota Boys and Girls Ranch receives private donations to support their spiritual life programs," Olson said.
According to an Associated Press report, "The ranch is affiliated with the Lutheran Church Missouri Synod and the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America." According to its website, the organization's mission is to "help at risk children and their families succeed in the name of Christ," which is exactly the problem that the FFRF has with the ranch.
"The Dakota Boys & Girls Ranch provides services to children in the context of an explicitly Christian community, including post-release mentoring services, which are publicly funded with taxpayer appropriations," the lawsuit says.
Commenting on the North Dakota case, the Freedom From Religion Foundation's Annie Laurie Gaylor pointed out that it would be difficult for the Boys and Girls Ranch to keep public and private money separate. Even if that is possible, she said, public money frees up more private money for religious purposes.
"The whole purpose of this ranch is to proselytize and indoctrinate," she told AP.
The suit filed in federal court in Bismarck, North Dakota is against Lisa Bjergaard, director of juvenile services for the North Dakota state Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation, and Daniel Richter, director of Ward County Social Services.
Bjergaard said no youth are placed in a facility "without a good, thorough review that ensures that they're placed in compliance with state and federal law."
Moving 'Forward'
In looking at the bigger picture related to the faith-based programs, Gaylor told Media Transparency, "While it is a big loss that all Americans have lost the ability to challenge the executive branch for advancing religion in 'discretionary' actions, nevertheless, from a practical standpoint, we see no barrier to continuing our faith-based litigation."
"Our lawsuits will continue," Gaylor added. "We are full steam ahead. We are based in Wisconsin, where the state motto is 'Forward' and that is where will be going! We have three faith-based lawsuits in state courts; we have one on hold challenging gross violations at the Department of Veteran Affairs, and our attorney is confident we should still be able to meet the taxpayer standing requirements upheld in Hein v. FFRF, but we expect a fight."
"We also are awaiting a move from the Federal Bureau of Prisons over their revamp of their faith-based prison ministry ideas. By the way, it should be noted that neither the VA nor the FBP questioned federal taxpayer standing when we brought those cases originally!" |
import numpy as np
import cv2
######## 四个不同的滤波器 #########
img = cv2.imread('img/lena_noise.png')
# 平滑线性滤波滤波
img_mean = cv2.blur(img, (5, 5))
cv2.imwrite("mean.png",img_mean)
# 高斯滤波
img_Guassian = cv2.GaussianBlur(img, (5, 5), 0)
cv2.imwrite("Guassian.png",img_Guassian)
# 中值滤波
img_median = cv2.medianBlur(img, 5)
cv2.imwrite("median.png",img_median)
# 双边滤波
img_bilater = cv2.bilateralFilter(img, 9, 75, 75)
cv2.imwrite("bilater.png",img_bilater)
|
Statistical Process Control: A Quality Tool for a Venous Thromboembolic Disease Registry.
We aim to describe Statistical Control Process as a quality tool for the Institutional Registry of Venous Thromboembolic Disease (IRTD), a registry developed in a community-care tertiary hospital in Buenos Aires, Argentina. The IRTD is a prospective cohort. The process of data acquisition began with the creation of a computerized alert generated whenever physicians requested imaging or laboratory study to diagnose venous thromboembolism, which defined eligible patients. The process then followed a structured methodology for patient's inclusion, evaluation, and posterior data entry. To control this process, process performance indicators were designed to be measured monthly. These included the number of eligible patients, the number of included patients, median time to patient's evaluation, and percentage of patients lost to evaluation. Control charts were graphed for each indicator. The registry was evaluated in 93 months, where 25,757 patients were reported and 6,798 patients met inclusion criteria. The median time to evaluation was 20 hours (SD, 12) and 7.7% of the total was lost to evaluation. Each indicator presented trends over time, caused by structural changes and improvement cycles, and therefore the central limit suffered inflexions. Statistical process control through process performance indicators allowed us to control the performance of the registry over time to detect systematic problems. We postulate that this approach could be reproduced for other clinical registries. |
Thai Lime Sauce
You'll need only about one and a half tablespoons of this tangy sauce for each serving of meat or shrimp.
Amazing Seafood Recipes
Ingredients
1 garlic clove, minced
1 small shallot, minced
1 jalapeño chile, seeded and minced
1 teaspoon finely grated lime zest
1 teaspoon finely grated lemon zest
2 tablespoons fresh lemon juice
1 tablespoon Thai fish sauce (nam pla)
1 tablespoon smooth peanut butter
1/4 cup coconut milk
1 tablespoon finely chopped cilantro
How to Make It
Step
In a small nonreactive saucepan, combine the garlic, shallot, jalapeño and citrus zests. (To make the sauce with pan juices, discard the fat from the sauté skillet and make the sauce in the pan.) Cook over moderate heat fro about 1 minute, whisking quickly to release the flavors; don't stand over the pan or the chile fumes may make you cough. Stir in 1/2 cup of water and reduce the heat to moderately low. Add the lemon juice and fish sauce and simmer gently for 1 minute. Whisk in the peanut butter and coconut milk and simmer until thickened and flavorful, about 2 minutes. Add the cilantro. taste and add more fish sauce if needed.
Serve With
Pork loin chops, shrimp or chicken breasts.
Suggested Pairing
Stick with beerCorona for light fare, Bass Ale for meatier dishes.
You May Like
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Less then 2 months ago, I placed a prayer request on
this web site. Often people ask for prayer, and then you never hear from
them again, sometimes you even wonder if it was all in vain. I am here
to assure you that our God IS an awesome God, just listen to the theme
song on our homepage.
Within days of that request, I started to hear
rumblings! That Sunday in church the Lord kept showing me things. My
pastor would have us turn to a scripture, but things I had underlined
years ago kept jumping out at me instead. I felt a total peace....
"It's
not by might, but by my spirit," says the Lord ..This mountain shall
be removed . This mountain shall be removed THIS mountain
shall be removed .."By my spirit," says the Lord. That song kept going
through my head, over and over. After I got home the phone rang, the
rocks were already starting to crumble! Praise ye the Lord, hallelujah
was the new song I began to sing! I could clearly see how my
heavenly Father was taking control! That mountain was much too big for
me! Even though I would often take a hammer and wear myself out trying
to bash it to bits, I could make no progress. Humanly there was nothing
I could do. I had done everything possible "in the flesh" only to
realize how frail we humans really are.
The following Sunday my pastor is preaching from Romans 12 .hold the phone, things are really starting to fall apart for
my enemies and you want me to be nice to them? I am just beginning to
feel slightly vindicated, but instead of allowing me to gloat in this
new triumph, you want me to what?
16 Be of the same mind one toward
another. Mind not high things, but condescend to men of low estate. Be
not wise in your own conceits.
17 Recompense to no man evil
for evil. Provide things honest in the sight of all men.
18 If it be possible, as
much as lieth in you, live peaceably with all men.
19 Dearly beloved, avenge
not yourselves, but rather give place unto wrath: for it is written,
Vengeance is mine; I will repay, saith the Lord.
20 Therefore if thine
enemy hunger, feed him; if he thirst, give him drink: for in so doing
thou shalt heap coals of fire on his head.
21 Be not overcome of evil,
but overcome evil with good. ( Romans 12:16-21)
OK Father, I will try .but you better get those
hot coals ready!
As I opened my Bible again it seemed like my
dedication verse just jumped out at me;
29 He giveth power to the faint; and to them that have no
might he increaseth strength.
30 Even the youths shall faint and be weary,
and the young men shall utterly fall:
31 But they that wait upon the LORD shall renew
their strength; they shall mount up with wings as eagles; they shall
run, and not be weary; and they shall walk, and not faint.Isa 40:29-31
Father, you know that waiting requires patience, and
that is a sore subject with me! Remember when, long ago, I prayed for
patience? We both know what happened! I became very distresses over my
circumstances, and that is when you showed me (Rom. 5:3) tribulation
worketh patience, and I stopped praying for it ever since!
On the next page I have "promises." Verses that I
have claimed over the years are just added to the list. At the top was:
Isaiah chapter 54
1
Sing, O barren, thou that didst not bear; break forth into singing,
and cry aloud, thou that didst not travail with child: for more are the
children of the desolate than the children of the married wife, saith
the LORD.
2
Enlarge the place of thy tent, and let them stretch forth the
curtains of thine habitations: spare not, lengthen thy cords, and
strengthen thy stakes;
3
For thou shalt break forth on the right hand and on the left; and
thy seed shall inherit the Gentiles, and make the desolate cities to be
inhabited.
4
Fear not; for thou shalt not be ashamed: neither be thou
confounded; for thou shalt not be put to shame: for thou shalt forget
the shame of thy youth, and shalt not remember the reproach of thy
widowhood any more.
5
For thy Maker is thine husband; the LORD of hosts is his name; and
thy Redeemer the Holy One of Israel; The God of the whole earth shall he
be called.
6
For the LORD hath called thee as a woman forsaken and grieved in
spirit, and a wife of youth, when thou wast refused, saith thy God.
7
For a small moment have I forsaken thee; but with great mercies
will I gather thee.
8
In a little wrath I hid my face from thee for a moment; but with
everlasting kindness will I have mercy on thee, saith the LORD thy
Redeemer.
9
For this is as the waters of Noah unto me: for as I have sworn that
the waters of Noah should no more go over the earth; so have I sworn
that I would not be wroth with thee, nor rebuke thee.
10 For the mountains shall depart, and the hills be removed; but my
kindness shall not depart from thee, neither shall the covenant of my
peace be removed, saith the LORD that hath mercy on thee.
11
O thou afflicted, tossed with tempest, and not comforted, behold,
I will lay thy stones with fair colours, and lay thy foundations with
sapphires.
12
And I will make thy windows of agates, and thy gates of
carbuncles, and all thy borders of pleasant stones.
13
And all thy children shall be taught of the LORD; and great shall
be the peace of thy children.
14
In righteousness shalt thou be established:
thou shalt be far from oppression; for thou shalt not fear: and from
terror; for it shall not come near thee.
15
Behold, they shall surely gather together, but not by me:
whosoever shall gather together against thee shall fall for thy sake.
16
Behold, I have created the smith that bloweth the coals in the
fire, and that bringeth forth an instrument for his work; and I have
created the waster to destroy.
17
No weapon that is formed against thee shall prosper; and every
tongue that shall rise against thee in judgment thou shalt condemn. This
is the heritage of the servants of the LORD, and their righteousness is
of me, saith the LORD.
I read the entire chapter, then read verse 17 again
.OK Father, this is the verse I want to stand on! The next promise
you gave me several times during our relationship was:
Behold, I give unto you power to tread on serpents and scorpions, and
over all the power of the enemy: and nothing shall by any means hurt
you. Luke 10:19
Have we not sung that song for you in our drill team? We took
strength in knowing that we would have the victory! You told me
not to avenge myself, that vengeance is yours, that you will
repay! Gently the Lord pointed me back to verse 13.
And all thy children shall be taught of the LORD; and great shall
be the peace of thy children.
Yes, Father I have claimed that for my children! Read
this chapter again he said. Don't you remember, a verse out of context
is a pretext? That chapter was written to his people! His Nation, Israel!
OK then, what does that have to do with my dogs? A gentle voice seemed
to say, maybe you should go and read your own testimony, have you
forgotten your promises to ME?
Then I started reading the story of Moses again. Even
though he had to sacrifice so much for those people, his faithfulness
established a nation. I kept thinking, Lord I just can't deal with
this! Why can't I just breed my dogs, deal with the people that like
and trust me, and not have to go through the problems that poor Moses
had to deal with all the time? His answer was a simple question. Do you
want to miss out on all those miracles? My answer was no! The battle has
begun, but I know whom I believeth, and am persuaded that he is
able, to keep that which I've committed unto him against that day!
Brothers & Sisters, the same God that opened the
red sea for Moses, is moving the mountain for me, and most of all for HIS Shiloh Shepherd breed! Please pray for this
wonderful breed, and my strength through the many battles ahead!
When my Father takes control, he does it in no small way!! My bible
teaches me that God is not the author of confusion .. but just look at
what he has been putting the "splinter" groups through!! That mountain
that they had formed against me started to crumble immediately after I
made my stand to let the Lord take control! I had tried in my own
power, only to feel frustration & loose ground .. so I had to let go,
and let HIM ;-) |
HistThresh toolbox for MATLAB
Copyright (C) 2004 Antti Niemistö
This program is free software; you can redistribute it and/or modify
it under the terms of the GNU General Public License as published by
the Free Software Foundation; either version 2 of the License, or
(at your option) any later version.
This program is distributed in the hope that it will be useful,
but WITHOUT ANY WARRANTY; without even the implied warranty of
MERCHANTABILITY or FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE. See the
GNU General Public License for more details.
You should have received a copy of the GNU General Public License
along with this program; if not, write to the Free Software
Foundation, Inc., 59 Temple Place, Suite 330, Boston, MA 02111-1307 USA
-------------------------------------------------------------------------
The HistThresh toolbox contains selected histogram-based thresholding
algorithms for MATLAB. The toolbox has been tested with MATLAB 6.5
(R13), but it may work with some older versions of MATLAB as well.
CURRENT VERSION
---------------
v1.02 (2 Nov 2004)
- minor update: fixed the perpetual loop bug in th_minimum.m and
th_intermodes.m
INSTALLATION
------------
Extract the contents of the zip file "HistThresh.zip" into a directory
from which MATLAB can find the m-files.
GETTING STARTED
---------------
The thresholding algorithms are named with the prefix "th_". For
example, "th_minimum.m" is the function for the algorithm by Prewitt
and Mendelsohn that chooses the threshold to be in the valley of a
bimodal histogram. The threshold for an 8-bit image can be found by
typing "T = th_minimum(I)". Further help can be obtained by typing
"help <m-file>" in MATLAB, where "<m-file>" is replaced by the name of
an m-file.
CONTACT
-------
Antti Niemistö
Institute of Signal Processing
Tampere University of Technology
P.O. Box 553
33101 TAMPERE
FINLAND
E-mail: antti.niemisto@tut.fi
Tel: +358-3-3115 4507
Fax: +358-3-3115 4989
-------------------------------------
http://www.cs.tut.fi/~ant/histthresh/
-------------------------------------
|
Q:
Center line based on part of text while the relative position of the rest doesn't change
\documentclass[10pt]{article}
\usepackage{fontspec}
\begin{document}
{\hspace*{0.5em}
\vfill
\begin{center}
left left \- | \- right
\end{center}
\end{document}
I would like to make | to be centered, which is not according to the page number, and the relative position of the rest text doesn't change.
I don't see a way to do this, Center line based on only part of text suggests \parbox but it would ignore the relative position of the line.
A:
The first thing that comes to my mind is
% My standard header for TeX.SX answers:
\documentclass[a4paper]{article} % To avoid confusion, let us explicitly
% declare the paper format.
\usepackage[T1]{fontenc} % Not always necessary, but recommended.
% End of standard header. What follows pertains to the problem at hand.
\begin{document}
\vspace*{\fill}
\begin{center}
\makebox[0pt][r]{left left left \ }|\makebox[0pt][l]{ \ right}
\end{center}
\end{document}
Note that \- denotes a “discretionary hyphen”, not some kind of horizontal space.
|
Organ donation and kidney transplantation
=========================================
Excellent results of kidney and other organ transplantation resulted in an increasing number of end-stage organ failure patients seeking such treatment. The number of available organs is insufficient; hence, as someone had said, the waiting lists are becoming the waiting to die lists. Deceased organ donors are widely used in the western hemisphere; living donors are used all over the world.
The results of organ transplantation depend on a number of factors -- the quality of donor (and an organ), living *vs.* deceased donation, magnitude of ischemic injury (and its prevention), and recipient-dependent factors. The quality of the donor kidney has a direct effect on important clinical outcomes such as acute rejection, delayed graft function, and patient and allograft survival. The term "expanded criteria donor" (ECD) was introduced by Kauffman et al. in 1997 to describe deceased donor organs that do not meet the standard criteria for organ donation (SCD) and is preferred over other terms in use, such as „marginal", „suboptimal", „compromised", „inferior" or „nonstandard". In 2002 UNOS established an ECD definition of deceased donors that can be summarized as follows: a standard-criteria (ideal) donor (SCD) is considered a young patient without hypertension or diabetes who died due to a motor vehicle crash. An expanded criteria donor (ECD) is one who, at the time of death, is age equal to or more than 60 years, or is age 50--59 but has any 2 the following 3 criteria -- cerebrovascular accident as a cause of death, history of systemic hypertension, and terminal serum creatinine over 1.5 mg/dL. Kidney transplantation from ECDs increases the risk of a graft failure by 70% (relative hazard ratio 1.70). In addition, the term ECD includes donors with more than 20% globally sclerosed glomeruli on the preimplantation biopsy, HBV- or HCV-infected, with malignant neoplasm, sepsis, or significant anatomic abnormalities.
Donor age is considered as one of the most important risk factors affecting renal transplant outcomes, as demonstrated in several multicenter studies. However, the number of patients waiting for a kidney transplant and aged 65 years and above is steadily increasing as well. Within the Eurotransplant region, there has been a significant increase in renal transplants in recipients older than 65 years -- from 3.6% in 1991 to 19.7% in 2007.
Due to the organ shortage, within recent years organs were also recovered from donation after circulatory death (DCD). The donation after circulatory determination of death (DCDD) refers to the situation when the patient does or does not meet the criteria for brain death and in whom cardiac standstill (or failure of circulatory function) occurs before the organs are procured. The cessation of cardiac function could have occurred spontaneously (uncontrolled DCD) or been allowed for deliberately (controlled DCD). Such donors also can be classified as "standard" or "expanded" DCD.
Numerous reports have been published on the outcome of renal transplants from ECDs. ECD kidneys have worse long-term survival than standard criteria donor kidneys. A common conclusion of these studies is that patients younger than 40 years or scheduled for kidney retransplantation should not receive an ECD kidney, and that patients 40 years or older, especially with diabetic nephropathy, show better survival when receiving an ECD kidney than remaining on dialysis therapy. The results of kidney (and sometimes liver) transplantation from DCD donors are generally favorable, but worse in elderly transplant patients. Although ECD kidney transplantation is increasing, the substantial discard rates for ECD kidneys in the USA have not changed, with 20--30% of all ECD-recovered kidneys discarded in 2005, despite implementation of an ECD allocation algorithm designed to facilitate placement.
The number of living donor kidney transplantation has also increased all over the world. The Amsterdam Forum established a consensus on the use of living donors. However, the shortage of organs has led to a more extensive use of live donors in kidney transplantation, and, most unfortunately, a new category of extended (sometimes called "marginal") living donors have also appeared. Good results of kidney transplantation from such extended living donors are reported \[[@b1-medscimonit-17-12-ra282], [@b2-medscimonit-17-12-ra282]\] but, unfortunately, no long-term follow-up data are available.
Due to the organ shortage, many transplant centers broadened their criteria for organ acceptance, including history of a variety of co-morbidities in donors. The use of organs from donors with a medical history of malignancy, in order to reduce the waiting list mortalities, remains a dilemma. Nickkholg recently published a review (with a case report) on the need for vigilance in extended criteria donors with a history of malignancy \[[@b3-medscimonit-17-12-ra282]\]. The author concluded that in order to minimize the risk of tumor transmission, especially in the donors with a history of cancer, extensive evaluation including surgical exploration of all body cavities is a must. Any suspicious lesion should prompt a frozen section biopsy.
Ischemia/reperfusion injury and delayed graft function
------------------------------------------------------
Ischemia/reperfusion injury in organ transplantation is a multifactorial process, which may lead to delayed graft function (DGF), and has a significant impact on short- and long-term graft survival. Occurrence of delayed graft function depends on a number of factors: donor hemodynamic stability, warm and cold ischemia time, and the storage method. Suszka-Œwitek et al. \[[@b4-medscimonit-17-12-ra282]\] studied changes in the proinflammatory markers in the initial period after transplantation in kidneys from deceased donors, and concluded that delayed graft function is accompanied by high CRP level in donors and prolonged rise of IL-1β content in blood serum on the 4th day after transplantation. IL-6 content in this period revealed a similar tendency in recipients' pairs that had been given kidneys from the same donor, reflecting the condition of the transplanted organ.
Activation of the renin-angiotensin system may be important in the pathophysiology of DGF. Preservation solutions are thought to minimize ischemic injury, and appropriate choice of the solution should contribute to improved graft function and better prognosis for graft survival. Sulikowski \[[@b5-medscimonit-17-12-ra282]\] studied the effect of UW and EC preservation solutions on expression of selected genes in rat kidneys. Perfusion with UW and EC caused an increase of renin I, angiotensinogen and angiotensin I-converting enzyme genes expression. This increase was abated in kidneys perfused with UW solution in comparison to EC.
Donor treatment with dopamine (DA) proved to be an effective modality to improve organ quality by reduction of hypothermic, ischemic and reperfusion (I/R) injury. It is unknown by which mechanism DA reduces edema formation and inflammation. Hanusch et al. studied the effect of dopamine on edema formation and inflammation of the lung in a rat model, and indicated that dopamine-mediated protective effects on I/R damage and inflammation in donor lungs most likely occur via adrenergic receptors \[[@b6-medscimonit-17-12-ra282]\].
Ultrasonography has an important role in diagnosis of the post-transplant graft dysfunction. Grzelak et al. \[[@b7-medscimonit-17-12-ra282]\] studied disturbances in perfusion of transplanted kidneys (KTx) following an acute occlusion of 1 of the supernumerary renal arteries (SRA). Contrast-enhanced ultrasonography may enable a precise evaluation of graft's ischemic foci due to occlusion of SRA in the early post-transplant period. The introduction of ultrasound contrast enhancement (US-CE) opened-up new directions in ultrasound diagnostics, especially in the assessment of tissue perfusion of parenchymal organs (eg, in the diagnostics of focal liver lesions). The use of ultrasound contrast enhancement is a highly promising diagnostic tool in kidney allograft recipients, but to date experience with its use in this clinical setting is very limited. Grzelak et al. assessed the usefulness of this new technique using sulphur hexafluoride in the early post-transplant assessment of graft perfusion \[[@b7-medscimonit-17-12-ra282],[@b8-medscimonit-17-12-ra282]\]. Time-intensity curves (TIC) were compared with hemodynamic flow parameters (resistive index: RI) in patients with good early graft function (EGF) and acute rejection (AR) or acute tubular necrosis (ATN) as a cause of delayed graft function (DGF). Results of the study showed that delay of contrast medium inflow strongly indicates delayed graft function, and may be of use in the differential diagnosis of delayed graft function.
Apoptosis is a form of cell death observed in kidney grafts as a result of ischemia/reperfusion injury. Król et al. analyzed the intensity of apoptosis in renal tubules after cold storage in respect to early and 12-month post-transplant graft function. Their study showed that increased apoptosis of tubular epithelial cells after cold storage does not determine early and later kidney excretory function \[[@b9-medscimonit-17-12-ra282]\].
Kidney storage and preservation techniques
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Acute graft dysfunction can be caused by ischemic damage or immunological injury leading to serious consequences both in the short- and long-term. Cold storage (CS) for less than 24 hours of cadaveric kidneys procured from hemodynamically stable donors is a safe procedure. The quality of the renal allograft and the efficacy of the preservation method are directly related to the rate of recovery of renal allograft function upon reperfusion. Although cold preservation with UW or HTK solution has been the standard for years, graft preservation with machine perfusion (MP) has become a method of choice for many centers, in part due to recent reports of superior efficacy. Kwiatkowski, in a small and non-randomized prospective study, documented that storage of kidneys by machine perfusion may improve graft survival by limiting chronic changes in renal allografts, and reduces the number of patients who return to long-term dialysis treatment post-transplant \[[@b10-medscimonit-17-12-ra282]\]. Moreover, the same authors compared the histological changes 5 to 10 years after transplantation in kidneys preserved with machine perfusion and with cold storage. In the CS group, histopathological lesions consistent with interstitial fibrosis and tubular atrophy were more frequently encountered than in the MP group (90% *vs.* 64%, p\<0.05). Chronic rejection was more frequent in the CS group (9% *vs.* 3%, p\<0.05). The remaining lesions encountered in biopsies did not differ significantly between groups. They concluded that kidneys preserved by cold storage are more frequently affected by chronic rejection and interstitial fibrosis \[[@b11-medscimonit-17-12-ra282]\].
Over the past decade, the criteria for acceptable donor kidneys have been expanded to accommodate a rising demand for transplantation. High-risk donors include children \<5 or adults \>60 years of age, donors with significant comorbidities such as hypertension, vascular disease or diabetes mellitus, and those with renal impairment. Donation after cardiac death (DCD) donors pose a particularly high risk, as a combination of warm ischemic time (WIT) and CIT contribute to the level of the ischemia reperfusion injury, resulting in an extreme rate of DGF. The efficacy of the preservation method and the duration of the ischemic time, which are crucial in determining the potential for the recovery of allograft function, are even more critical when using DCD donors \[[@b12-medscimonit-17-12-ra282]\]. Moers et al. recently published results of an international, multicenter, randomized study of MP versus static CS on reducing the incidence of DGF in recipients of deceased-donor transplants \[[@b13-medscimonit-17-12-ra282]\]. Their results confirm earlier reports that preservation of deceased donor kidneys with hypothermic MP is associated with reduced incidence of DGF. Watson et al. reported the results of a multi-center trial of MP *vs.* CS for prevention of DGF in recipients of DCD organs \[[@b14-medscimonit-17-12-ra282]\]. The protocol of the study was similar to that of Moers et al. (one kidney from each donor was randomly assigned to MP and the other to CS to control for donor characteristics). Their findings do not support the general conclusions from the Moers study related to this group of high-risk donors (DCDs). Moreover, the study was stopped early after 80 patients were enrolled and no advantage of either preservation method was observed. Despite the documented positive effect of machine perfusion on a long-term kidney function, its wide use is limited due to higher costs. Wszola \[[@b15-medscimonit-17-12-ra282]\] analyzed the difference in costs of kidney transplantation in patients who received cold stored *vs.* machine perfused organ. Despite higher costs of machine perfusion in the first month post-transplantation, it is a cost-reducing method of renal preservation, and the costs equaled those of cold storage at the 16th month after transplantation.
Since acute graft dysfunction after transplantation may lead to serious adverse consequences, there is a need for an ability to predict kidney function before transplantation. Likewise, biomarkers of immune and non-immune injury at different time-points of the transplantation are needed, beginning from potential kidney donors where acute kidney damage (AKI) can pass unnoticed, during the early post-transplant period to predict acute transplant dysfunction of various etiology, and during long-term follow-up to be aware of the cause of chronic histological changes. The implementation of novel biomarkers could increase the sensitivity of diagnosis and monitoring of kidney injury in transplant recipients. The most promising biomarkers in AKI for clinical use include a plasma panel consisting of neutrophil gelatinase-associated lipocalin (NGAL) and cystatin C, and a urine panel including NGAL, Il-18 and kidney injury molecule 1 (KIM-1). Most of these biomarkers were developed in a non-transplant AKI, so their role in clinical transplantation needs to be confirmed \[[@b16-medscimonit-17-12-ra282]\].
Machine perfusion has also been documented to allow forecasting delayed graft function before transplantation. Goldstein et al, in a retrospective study, analyzed the contribution of total cold ischemic time (CIT), cold static preservation time (CST), machine pulsatile preservation time (MPT), and donor and histologic parameters to delayed renal allograft function (DGF) in a cohort of 946 deceased donor kidneys, machine perfused before transplantation. They concluded that donor type, terminal eGFR, and MMRR can be used as pre-transplantation predictors of function \[[@b17-medscimonit-17-12-ra282]\].
Complications after kidney transplantation
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Successful salvage of a renal allograft failing from compromised venous outflow due to acute deep venous thrombus (DVT) has not been reported in the post-operative setting. Fulton published a case report of successful renal decongestion by catheter-directed thrombolysis of the DVT with tPA through the ipsilateral popliteal vein over a 48-hour period \[[@b18-medscimonit-17-12-ra282]\].
Invasive mucormycosis is a very rare infection after kidney transplantation. In a retrospective study, Einollah reported 25 renal transplant recipients with mucormycosis \[[@b19-medscimonit-17-12-ra282]\]. The definitive diagnosis of mucormycosis was established by a biopsy specimen of the involved tissue. Overall mortality rate was 52% (n=13), and in recipients with pulmonary infection it was 100%; however, mortality rate in the rhino-cerebral form of the disease was lower (30.8%).
Immunosuppression
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In general, standard immunosuppressive regimens consist of calcineurin inhibitors (eg, tacrolimus or cyclosporine), anti-proliferative agents (eg, mycophenolate mofetil -- MMF) and corticosteroids to prevent graft rejection, along with high-dose corticosteroids, or polyclonal or monoclonal antibodies to treat rejection. Induction regimens to prevent early acute rejection have become increasingly common in recent years.
Antilymphocyte globulin induction therapy has been shown to reduce the incidence of acute rejection episodes following kidney transplantation in high-risk patients as compared to induction or use of interleukin-2 (IL-2) receptor antagonists. These findings are consistent with the recent recommendation from the KDIGO clinical practice guidelines. The positive effect of an ATG bolus administered during surgery has been well documented. Kaden \[[@b20-medscimonit-17-12-ra282]\] recently published results of long-term follow-up of kidney recipients who received deceased donor kidneys. Long-term (10 years) post-transplantation graft function was better than in patients who did not receive ATG. Schenker \[[@b21-medscimonit-17-12-ra282]\] recently published the results of single-dose thymoglobulin induction (1.5 mg/kg b.w. i.v.) effects of single-dose Thymoglobulin on graft and patient outcomes, with an emphasis on the differences between living-related donors (LRD) and living-unrelated donors (LURD). Despite the retrospective nature of the study, induction therapy in living donor kidney transplantation was associated with excellent patient and graft survival. Low levels of relevant complications were observed, particularly with regard to malignancy and infection rates over a mean follow-up period of 4.5 years.
Dyslipidemia is an important complication affecting kidney transplant recipients. Statins, the first-line therapy, are often insufficient. Ezetimibe may be effective in combination with statin therapy. Ezetimibe is the first of a novel class of selective cholesterol absorption inhibitors recently approved by the US Food and Drug Administration for treatment in the United States. Ezetimibe inhibits the absorption of biliary and dietary cholesterol from the small intestine without affecting the absorption of fat-soluble vitamins, triglycerides, or bile acids \[[@b22-medscimonit-17-12-ra282]\]. Rodrigues-Ferrero performed a retrospective study to determine the safety and efficacy of ezetimibe treatment in addition to statin therapy among 27 stable renal transplant patients with uncontrolled hypercholesterolemia \[[@b23-medscimonit-17-12-ra282]\]. The authors confirmed that, when combined with statin therapy, ezetimibe seemed to be a safe and effective therapy for uncontrolled dyslipidemia among renal transplant patients. Similar results were published by Niemczyk \[[@b24-medscimonit-17-12-ra282]\].
Generic Immunosuppressants
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Since a number innovative immunosuppressive drug patents have expired in 2009 and 2010, generic compounds have recently entered the market. There is considerable debate regarding the efficacy and safety of generic drug substitutions in solid organ transplant recipients. In November 2010, the Council of ESOT has commissioned an Advisory Committee to formulate recommendations on the use of generic drugs in solid organ transplant recipients \[[@b25-medscimonit-17-12-ra282]\]. As a society, ESOT is not opposed to the use of generic drugs. However, in order to safeguard the substitution process of generic drugs, ESOT proposed to regulate generic substitution of the NTIDs in vulnerable patient populations. This applies to calcineurin inhibitors (ciclosporin and tacrolimus), mTOR inhibitors (sirolimus and everolimus) and mycophenolates (mycophenolate mofetil and mycophenolate sodium). In order to achieve safe and controlled generic substitution, we propose detailed monitoring of the patients (ambulatory visits, drug concentration, and metabolic profile). Momper et al. \[[@b26-medscimonit-17-12-ra282]\] reported a study on converting liver and kidney transplant recipients from brand-name to generic tacrolimus. Drug concentrations fell on average by 15.9%, or 1.98 ng/mL in liver recipients and 11.9%, or 0.87 ng/mL in kidney recipients. The target level reported in this paper was 6--8 ng/mL for stable liver patients and 5--7 ng/mL for kidney patients. However, one-third (10/30) of the liver patients experienced a decrease of 25% or more, and one-tenth (3/30), as high as 50%. Furthermore, 2 of 30 patients had levels that increased by 50% or more. Of 30 kidney recipients, 12 had their levels fall by at least 25%, with 2 patients experiencing a decline of 50%. Only 1 patient experienced an increase of 25%. In a recent issue of the American Journal of Transplantation \[[@b27-medscimonit-17-12-ra282]\], Klintmalm stressed that there is an urgent need for the US FDA to become involved in this issue and implement changes in its approval process for generics of critical-dose drugs.
Several generic cyclosporine (CsA) formulations have been developed over the last decade and are now widely available. Kahn \[[@b28-medscimonit-17-12-ra282]\] reported results of conversion of 117 renal transplant patients to generic CsA formulation and the use of that generic preparation in 26 *de novo* patients. They concluded that stable and *de novo* renal transplant patients can be safely converted from Neoral to CicloHexal on a 1:1 dose basis. Durlik et al. \[[@b29-medscimonit-17-12-ra282]\] reported on the efficacy and safety of generic ciclosporin (Equoral) in renal transplant patients. Patients were administered an immunosuppressive regimen of azathioprine (or mofetil mycophenolate \[MMF\]), prednisolone and Equoral^®^ (10 mg/kg/day, given 12 hours before the patients' surgical procedure, and a maintenance ciclosporin dose of 4--6 mg/kg/day thereafter). The authors concluded that the generic ciclosporin Equoral^®^ is effective and has the usual safety and tolerability profile of ciclosporin when used as a calcineurin-inhibitor component of an immunosuppressive regimen in *de novo* renal transplant patients. Niemczyk recently reported on a 5-year follow-up of kidney transplant patients who were given *de novo* generic formulation of Cyclosporine A \[[@b30-medscimonit-17-12-ra282]\]. The patients treated with generic cyclosporine had an excellent 5-year patient and graft survival and it effectively prevented acute rejection episodes. However, most patients needed modification of the initial immunosuppressive regimen. Abdallah \[[@b31-medscimonit-17-12-ra282]\] reported on a comparison of original mycophenolate mofetil and its generic preparation in 18 patients who underwent kidney transplantation. The follow-up period was 2 years. Use of mycophenolate mofetil 500 provided safe and effective immunosuppressive therapy compared with mycophenolate. However, as the duration of the study was short, these results need to be confirmed in a long-term study. Abdulnour \[[@b32-medscimonit-17-12-ra282]\] reported retrospectively on the drug level and serum creatinine in 4 pediatric patients inadvertently switched from original tacrolimus or cyclosporine to generic preparation. Creatinine levels were similar pre- and post-switch (eGFR \>75 mL/min/1.73 m^2^) in the first 3 patients. Patient 4 experienced a biopsy-proven acute rejection immediately after switching. Mean creatinine rose from 1.15±0.05 to 2.168±0.07 after switch (p\<0.001). Given the mixed results of early data, the authors suggest careful monitoring of pediatric patients who get switched to generic tacrolimus.
The main argument for the use of generic immunosuppressive preparations is that such therapy should be cost-saving. However, taking into consideration the costs of more frequent ambulatory visits with the need of drug level estimation, this may not be true. Hederman recently reported on the healthcare cost in renal transplant recipients treated with generic preparation \[[@b33-medscimonit-17-12-ra282]\]. Despite initial cost savings associated with generic CsA, *de novo* renal transplant recipients incurred greater total healthcare costs than those treated with brand-name CsA. Patients receiving generic CsA may need higher doses or other immunosuppressants to maintain the transplanted kidney than patients receiving brand-name CsA. Providers and payers need to be aware of potential differences in total healthcare costs between formulations of bioequivalent critical-dose drugs to make the best choice for patient care.
Kidney Transplantation in Sensitized Patients
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Despite recent advances in the field, antibody-mediated rejection (ABMR) remains an important issue in clinical transplantation. Treatment options are limited and long-term outcomes are not good. Consequently, the presence of alloantibodies continues to be an important challenge to clinicians for providing sensitized patients or incompatible donor/recipient pairs with a suitable option for transplantation.
Basu et al. reported first (n=68) and re-transplants (n=155) functional outcomes. No difference in graft survival was noted between first and re-transplanted patients \[[@b34-medscimonit-17-12-ra282]\]. Factors affecting patient survival on univariate analysis were age \>55 years (p=0.015), deceased donor transplant (p=0.009), first transplant patient (p=0.004) and diabetes mellitus (DM) as the cause of end-stage renal disease (ESRD) (p=0.005). On multivariable analysis, factors affecting patient survival were re-transplant *vs.* first transplant (relative risk \[RR\]=0.54, p=0.009) and cause of ESRD (DM *vs.* no DM, RR=1.91, p=0.012). Diabetes as a cause of ESRD was the only factor affecting graft survival on univariate (p=0.015) and multivariate analysis (DM *vs.* no DM, RR=1.63, p=0.017). The authors concluded that high PRA recipients of first transplants had poorer patient survival than did high PRA re-transplants. On multivariate analysis, diabetes etiology of ESRD and first transplantation were found to be independent risk factors for poorer patient survival.
Results of kidney transplantation in untreated sensitized recipients with a pretransplant positive crossmatch are drastically inferior to patients with a negative crossmatch. A plasmapheresis-free protocol of desensitization of kidney transplant candidates with high Calculated Panel Reactive Antibody (CPRA) was initiated. Kozlowski et al. published the results of kidney transplantation in 5 patients with CPRA of 94±18% awaiting kidney transplant from living or deceased donors, who received rituximab (1 g × 2 doses) and intravenous immunoglobulin (IVIG 2 g/kg × 2 doses) without plasmapheresis. Three out of 5 patients were sensitized only to class II HLA antigens. All of the candidates initially demonstrated reduction of HLA antibodies, but statistical significance was only obtained in 1 patient with class II antibody and in another with only class I. Depletion was transient, with swift antibody rebound. Rituximab effectively depleted CD20 cells in peripheral blood \[[@b35-medscimonit-17-12-ra282]\]. They concluded that highly allo-sensitized patients with a CPRA above 85% may not benefit from a combination of rituximab-IVIG alone, and that an individualized approach to the treatment of highly sensitized patients is still required.
The Roche Organ Transplantation Research Foundation (ROTRF) organized a symposium during the XXIII Congress of the Transplantation Society in Vancouver, Canada to discuss current understanding in ABMR and ways to prevent it. Bradley reported the summary of this meeting \[[@b36-medscimonit-17-12-ra282]\]. As discussed by Dr. Denis Glotz, desensitization is the practice of eliminating pre-existing alloantibodies to reach a negative crossmatch and thus allow transplantation, as well as avoiding their adverse effects. Desensitization protocols are mainly based on the use of IVIg, either high-dose alone or in combination with rituximab, or low-dose in combination with plasma exchange.
Pancreas and Pancreatic Islets Transplantation
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Transplantation of the whole pancreas
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Insulin-dependent diabetes mellitus is associated with a high incidence of management problems and secondary complications. Simultaneous kidney and pancreas transplantation (SPKT) has become an effective therapy for a selected group of patients with end stage renal disease due to type 1 diabetes mellitus. The University of Minnesota Minneapolis Transplant Center has the world's largest experience in pancreas and pancreatic islets transplantation. Dr. Sutherland founded the International Transplant Registry, which collects the results of the procedures done all over the world. The results of pancreas transplantation published in 2001 \[[@b37-medscimonit-17-12-ra282]\] improved over the last decade. Gruessner \[[@b38-medscimonit-17-12-ra282]\] has recently analyzed the outcome of 25 000 cases followed-up over the course of 24 years at the International Pancreas Transplant Registry. Procedures were divided into 3 categories: simultaneous kidney pancreas transplantations (SPKT), pancreas after kidney transplantations (PAK), and pancreas transplants alone (PTA). The number of transplants was increasing until 2004 and then declined. The decrease was observed not only in PAK (50%), but also to some extent in SPKT. The tighter donor criteria could be observed (younger donors, trauma cause of death, shorter ischemia time). However, this might also have been due to improving results of islets transplantation. During the last decade incidence of serious surgical complications have decreased and immunosuppressive protocols have improved. This has led to significant improvement in patient survival and graft function in all 3 categories of pancreatic transplantation.
Nevertheless, several complications still occur and affect early results of pancreas transplantation. The surgical technique used for organ procurement from deceased donors is of major importance. Different procurement techniques have been depicted for combined pancreas and liver graft retrieval, which ranged from a complete *in situ* dissection of the vascular supply before cold perfusion to rapid en bloc removal of both organs without warm dissection. Despite significant differences between these 2 techniques, duodenal stump closure is always required. Rapid en bloc technique for liver and pancreas recovery has been used by different groups around the world with slight modifications. Fridell \[[@b39-medscimonit-17-12-ra282]\] described multiorgan procurement technique, which can be used when both liver and pancreas are recovered for transplantation. Recently Ruy Cruiz \[[@b40-medscimonit-17-12-ra282]\] described a new promising technique of modified multivisceral graft procurement.
Pancreas graft recipients still face a higher postoperative morbidity than in other types of solid organ transplantation \[[@b37-medscimonit-17-12-ra282]\]. Rejection and graft thrombosis are the main causes of early graft loss. Early diagnosis of pancreas graft rejection is important. There are some clinical non-invasive parameters, which let to recognize complications early, and can help to improve graft survival. Decreasing urinary amylase excretion is no longer in use since the bladder drainage technique of the transplanted pancreas is seldom used. Increasing serum amylase concentrations are not specific, and the rise of blood glucose is a relatively late indicator of pancreas allograft destruction. Complement activation might occur during rejection and thrombosis, leading to elevated complement split products. Suermann \[[@b41-medscimonit-17-12-ra282]\] investigated the value of serial complement split product C3d measurement in differentiation of acute rejection and graft thrombosis after pancreas transplantation. The authors found that plasma C3d levels increase during pancreas graft rejection, but not during kidney rejection. However, single C3d measurement has no predictive diagnostic value after SPKT, and routine testing cannot be recommended. The finding of decreasing C3d values suggests thrombosis.
Intra-abdominal infections (IAI) are among the most common causes of pancreatic graft loss and recipient death in the early period following simultaneous pancreas-kidney transplantation (SPK). Ziaja et al. \[[@b42-medscimonit-17-12-ra282]\] recently reported their experience in SPK with 46 transplants; IAI developed in 10 recipients (21.7%). More IAI recipients required transfusion of more than 2 blood units (90% *vs.* 47%, p=0.028) or relaparotomy (80% *vs.* 14%, p\<0.001) in comparison with patients without IAI. The authors concluded that perioperative blood loss requiring transfusion and necessity for relaparotomy increase the risk of IAI after SPK. Development of IAI after SPK may result in impaired kidney graft function and increases patient mortality in the early postoperative period.
Pancreatic islets transplantation
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Islet transplantation represents a good therapeutic alternative to whole pancreas allotransplantation, especially since the introduction of glucocorticoid-free immunosuppressive regimens. However, while 80% of cases achieve insulin independence at 1 year, islet function decreases steadily to 10% of insulin independence by 5 years after transplantation. Loss of islet function is not only due to immunological reasons (allotransplantation only) but also due to the site of grafting and instant blood-mediated inflammation reaction (IBMIR) and apoptosis \[[@b43-medscimonit-17-12-ra282]\].
Complications associated with intraportal islet injection and the progressive functional decline of intrahepatic islets encourages the exploration of alternative sites. Tchervenivanov was the first to show in pigs that transplantation of pancreatic islets into the submucosal space of the stomach offers minimally invasive access \[[@b44-medscimonit-17-12-ra282],[@b45-medscimonit-17-12-ra282]\]. Transplanted islets functioned well. Caiazzo also documented that autotransplantation of the islets into the gastric submucosa showed promising results and was considered a possible alternative site for islets transplantation \[[@b46-medscimonit-17-12-ra282]\]. Stomach and the gastric submucosal space are well vascularized, with a poor immunological status and easy access. Echeverri presented an interesting paper at the ATC in 2009 \[[@b47-medscimonit-17-12-ra282]\], later published in the American Journal of Transplantation, documenting that islets can be transplanted endoscopically. Wszola published similar results \[[@b48-medscimonit-17-12-ra282]\]. The authors endoscopically transplanted allogeneic islets into the gastric submucosa in diabetic pigs (induced by injection of streptozotocin). Tx-group animals had a significantly lower insulin requirement and significantly lower mean glycemia since the first day post-transplantation.
Liver Transplantation
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There has been continuous progress in surgical techniques, immunosuppressive therapy and post-transplant management in the field of liver transplantation. This progress is resulting in improved long-term survival rates, which at 1 and 5 years are now 90% and 85%, respectively, in children \[[@b49-medscimonit-17-12-ra282]\] and increase in graft half-life in adults to 8.5 years \[[@b50-medscimonit-17-12-ra282]\]. This success, however, has resulted in more patients seeking liver transplantation than can be served with available grafts. To meet increasing demand, healthcare managers have been forced to look for other sources of transplantable organs, with growth of living donation programs, split livers, harvesting from donors after cardiac arrest, and intensive research in liver regeneration.
Donors and recipients
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A limit on deceased donor age was challenged and livers from donors over 70 years old have been used. Inferior survival was reported in univariate tests, but was not confirmed in multivariate analysis. Hepatitis C recurrence, often postulated to be graft age-dependent, in fact was not increased in this group \[[@b51-medscimonit-17-12-ra282]\]. The Berlin group were not able to find any difference in survival of \>50- or \>60-year-old donor liver recipients in comparison to younger donors. Moreover, fibrosis, inflammation and steatosis at 5-year follow-up biopsies were also similar \[[@b52-medscimonit-17-12-ra282]\].
The most experienced centers utilize the living donor pool, with development of adult-to-adult living donation programs, which although higher cost, offer improved survival and quality of life to a larger number of patients \[[@b53-medscimonit-17-12-ra282]\]. To increase the living donation rate and meet the need in emergency situations, some centers accepted ABO-discordant donors with acceptable results after immunological preparation of the recipient \[[@b54-medscimonit-17-12-ra282]\] or, in very small children, even without any change in immunosuppression protocol \[[@b55-medscimonit-17-12-ra282]\].
More and more centers have adopted DCD liver transplantation programs, with uncontrolled donors with circulatory definition of death constituting up to 10% of total donor population shortly after program initiation \[[@b56-medscimonit-17-12-ra282]\]. The results of these transplants are encouraging, with 88.9% death-censored 1-year graft survival \[[@b57-medscimonit-17-12-ra282]\]. Satisfactory results led also to broadening of the acceptance criteria of controlled DCD donors. This turned out to be completely safe for the recipients, as 1-year patient and graft survival in the extended criteria DCD group was 90%, and was not inferior to standard criteria DCD liver donors \[[@b58-medscimonit-17-12-ra282]\]. However, to obtain results equal to those of standard brain-dead donor liver transplantation, it seems advisable to shorten cold ischemia time (CIT) of DCD livers as much as possible, as CIT is a strong predictor of primary nonfunction \[[@b59-medscimonit-17-12-ra282]\]. A small DCD liver transplantation group of 14 pediatric recipients had outstanding patient and graft survival of 100% after a mean of 42 months follow-up, with short organ ischemia times \[[@b60-medscimonit-17-12-ra282]\].
The sometimes desperate need for organs forces even further expansion of the limits. A discussion on utilization of extended-criteria livers from anti-HBc-positive donors was ongoing for quite some time; however, the Bolonia group have recently described a small series of transplants from HBsAg-positive donors, with satisfactory postoperative control of virus replication and no symptoms of hepatitis at 42-month follow-up \[[@b61-medscimonit-17-12-ra282]\]. Such a controversial allocation can be justified by the significant number of HBV-infected wait list candidates with HCC who, when transplanted early while still within Milano criteria, may enjoy excellent long-term results \[[@b62-medscimonit-17-12-ra282]\].
Progress in understanding liver regeneration has led to development of auxiliary liver transplantation programs for acute liver failure in young patients. Refined surgical technique, scrutiny in monitoring of the regeneration process, and slow weaning of the immunosuppression to allow graft atrophy without further complications have all recently resulted in improvement of survival, which now equals to that of whole liver replacement in acute failure \[[@b63-medscimonit-17-12-ra282]\]. However, as acute liver failure is always an emergency situation and a transplant may not be available, research on repopulation of damaged liver with healthy hepatocytes, and thus regenerating liver function, is ongoing in animal models \[[@b64-medscimonit-17-12-ra282]\]. There are strong suggestions that regeneration in acute liver failure may be enhanced pharmacologically with drugs such as plerixafor and G-CSF \[[@b65-medscimonit-17-12-ra282]\]. Another option for critical care in acute liver insufficiency can be artificial liver support to allow detoxification and time for auto-regeneration. Although MARS^®^ and PROMETHEUS^®^ showed no survival benefit, new devices and technologies such as albumin-leaking membranes are being tested \[[@b66-medscimonit-17-12-ra282]\].
As hepatorenal syndrome remains an unresolved problem complicating liver failure and potentially leading also to irreversible renal failure, research on its pathophysiology and treatment is ongoing. Vasopressive therapy with terlipressin or norepinephrine has proved effective in short-term reversal of hepatorenal syndrome. Those not responding to vasoconstrictors and requiring prolonged dialysis (8--12 weeks) prior to transplantation can be good candidates for simultaneous renal transplant \[[@b67-medscimonit-17-12-ra282]\]. Those with a chance of renal function recovery can be managed with intraoperative hemodialysis or hemodiafiltration. Experience with 140 such procedures was summarized by Sedra and Strum \[[@b68-medscimonit-17-12-ra282]\].
Portopulmonary hypertension is another serious problem, with 100% and 50% mortality in liver transplant recipients with mean pulmonary artery pressure of \>50 or 35--50 mmHg, respectively. It has been shown recently that patients with portopulmonary hypertension can benefit from simultaneous liver and lung transplantation, yet very few centers worldwide are capable of performing this complicated operation \[[@b69-medscimonit-17-12-ra282]\].
Preservation
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In 2010--2011 some important progress in liver preservation could also be observed. Columbia University Medical Center completed a phase 1 clinical trial on hepatic machine preservation, with no case of primary nonfunction and 5% early graft dysfunction compared to 25% in the control group, lower serum injury markers and shorter hospital stay \[[@b70-medscimonit-17-12-ra282]\]. Regarding static preservation, results of a randomized study comparing IGL-1 and UW solution were published, showing similar effectiveness and significantly lower cost of IGL-1 \[[@b71-medscimonit-17-12-ra282]\]. Non-anastomotic biliary complications are severe complications of liver preservation injury, and their frequency increases with ischemia time. They constitute a major surgical problem, are very difficult to treat, and often lead to retransplant. It's difficulty is illustrated by the experience of the Neuhaus group, who after 25 endoscopic interventions in a single patient were finally forced to perform a left hemihepatectomy of the transplant \[[@b72-medscimonit-17-12-ra282]\]. Some patients may be genetically more prone to non-anastomotic strictures, and CCR5, MMP2 and MMP9 polymorphisms were known to be involved \[[@b73-medscimonit-17-12-ra282]\].
Surgical technique
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Outstanding progress in surgical equipment in liver transplantation has improved technical devices, biological hemostatics, prevention and early diagnosis of coagulopathy, which all reduce the risk of intraoperative hemorrhage \[[@b74-medscimonit-17-12-ra282], [@b75-medscimonit-17-12-ra282]\] and make the procedure feasible even in extreme risk Jehovah's Witnesses.
In a recent review on full split liver transplantation for 2 adults, the Busuttil group showed that in selected, experienced centers this technique can be safely applied with excellent results and yields more liver grafts available for transplant, especially in emergency situations \[[@b76-medscimonit-17-12-ra282]\].
Studies on hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) treatment with liver transplantation remain the focus of various surgical teams. A new consensus for HCC treatment with liver transplantation after an experts meeting in Zurich was issued early November 2011 \[[@b77-medscimonit-17-12-ra282]\]. Among other issues, the guidelines address the problem of prioritizing HCC patients on the waiting lists over other etiologies against inferior long-term results of transplantation. Also, the role of bridge therapies -- although the level of recommendations remained low -- in prevention of waiting list dropout was emphasized.
Post-operative management
-------------------------
Improvement of the results in liver transplantation was in major part achieved with ameliorated post-operative medical treatment of the recipient. Emphasis shifted from treatment of rejection towards long-term survival and avoidance of immunosuppression-related complications. It is known that only a minority of long-term (\>12 months) liver transplant protocol biopsies present with normal histology, with 33% found to show features of mild but progressive idiopathic chronic hepatitis regardless of liver failure etiology, and 65% having fibrosis at 5 years. These patients are suggested to benefit from increased steroids \[[@b78-medscimonit-17-12-ra282]\], yet few of them will benefit from standard anti-rejection therapies. On the other hand, many trials focus on tolerance induction and minimization protocols to reduce the rate of immunosuppression-related complications. Steroid sparing or withdrawal showed no difference in acute rejection rate, graft or patient survival \[[@b79-medscimonit-17-12-ra282]\]. Markers of operational tolerance are extensively sought, and protocols of weaning therapy in patients with stable long-term function and no signs of rejection have been tested, with 20% successful withdrawal rate \[[@b80-medscimonit-17-12-ra282]\]. In terms of immunosuppression, a systematic Cochrane review performed in 2009 showed only minimal advantage of tacrolimus over cyclosporine for treatment of liver transplant recipients \[[@b81-medscimonit-17-12-ra282]\]. Since it can be safely converted to a once-daily regimen, tacrolimus may become a drug of choice \[[@b82-medscimonit-17-12-ra282]\].
Infections remain a serious post-operative problem in liver transplant recipients, with an increasing trend in multi-resistant bacteria. Colonization with MRSA in some centers is as high as 80% and up to 55% of VRE and infections with linezolid-resistant VRE were noted \[[@b83-medscimonit-17-12-ra282]\]. CMV disease with aggressive forms of gastrointestinal tract infection, including gastritis, colitis and hepatitis with cholestatic pattern, are also a problem on the rise. CMV immunomodulation was lately found to occur via the interleukin 10 pathway and is responsible for higher rates of bacteriemia, and fungal and viral infections \[[@b84-medscimonit-17-12-ra282]\]. More than half of invasive fungal infections are due to *Candida* spp. \[[@b85-medscimonit-17-12-ra282]\], with a growing proportion of non-albicans species, inherently resistant to fluconazole. The most severe risk factors for Aspergillus infection are retransplantation and renal failure requiring dialysis, increasing the risk 30- and 25-fold, respectively. Mortality from invasive fungal infection remains high (25--77%), and some studies claim it to be higher than after any other organ transplantation \[[@b83-medscimonit-17-12-ra282]\].
Intestinal Transplantation
==========================
The most important progress in recent years in intestinal transplantation was the significant improvement of survival, with unadjusted patient and graft 3-year survival close to 70% and 60%, and 1 year survival of 78.4% and 74%, respectively. In parallel, within the last 10 years survival on the waiting list has improved from 495 deaths/1000 patient-years at risk to less than 130 \[[@b86-medscimonit-17-12-ra282]\]. There are more than 70 centers running or developing bowel transplant programs, with over 200 procedures performed each year worldwide. In 2008, recommendations to reduce mortality from intestinal failure, including intestinal rehabilitation, transplantation and interaction among these 2, were issued \[[@b87-medscimonit-17-12-ra282]\]. Lack of standard criteria for a deceased donor of intestinal graft remains a major obstacle to development of bowel transplantation programs, although the German Transplantation Society has issued their recommendations \[[@b88-medscimonit-17-12-ra282]\].
In the beginning of intestinal transplantation, only the small bowel was used, to minimize the risk of complications. Lately, the majority of experienced centers consider inclusion of the colon in the transplant. Studies have shown the superiority of such a procedure in terms of quality of life, fecal continence and weaning off of parenteral nutrition \[[@b89-medscimonit-17-12-ra282]\]. A percentage of multi-visceral transplants (which include liver and intestine and at least 1 other visceral organ: pancreas, colon or stomach) lately has risen substantially to over 25%, although they are more likely to develop GVHD, which occurs in 9% of recipients and is a potentially lethal complication \[[@b90-medscimonit-17-12-ra282]\].
More than 70% of the recipients are on tacrolimus, and induction with antibodies (antilymphocyte globulins, daclizumab, alemtuzumab) was used in more than 80% \[[@b91-medscimonit-17-12-ra282]\]. Rejection continues to occur in approximately 50% of patients, and is an important cause of graft loss \[[@b92-medscimonit-17-12-ra282]\]. It can be facilitated by infection, even a minor one -- in a group of 23 patients after intestinal transplant, who developed rotavirus diarrhea long-term after transplantation, acute rejection was diagnosed in 70% during or shortly after infection \[[@b93-medscimonit-17-12-ra282]\]. Noninvasive methods of testing for rejection are being sought, including bile acid analysis, laser Doppler flowmetry, serum gentamycin levels, granzyme B and perforin, plasma citrulline and stool calprotectin \[[@b94-medscimonit-17-12-ra282]\].
Prognosis was better in recipients with negative donor-specific antibodies, those who did not have splenectomy, and those who had a liver-inclusive transplant \[[@b95-medscimonit-17-12-ra282]\].
**Source of support:** Self financing
|
Deacetyl-mycoepoxydiene, isolated from plant endophytic fungi Phomosis sp. demonstrates anti-microtubule activity in MCF-7 cells.
Deacetyl-mycoepoxydiene (DM), a novel secondary metabolite produced by the plant endophytic fungi Phomosis sp., induced the reorganization of cytoskeleton in actively growing MCF-7 cells by promoting polymerization of tubulin. DM could induce cell cycle arrest at G2/M in MCF-7 cells. Additionally, DM-induced apoptosis was characterized with up-regulating caspase-3, Bax, caspase-9, parp, and p21 while down-regulating Bcl-2 activation. DM conferred dose- and time-dependent inhibitory effects upon cell proliferation of MCF-7 cells both in cultured cells and nude mice with human breast carcinoma xenografts. The results obtained from these in vitro and in vivo models provide new data revealing the potential for DM as a novel microtubule inhibitor. |
There are a couple of things to do and attractions in Paros. In this post, we’ll uncover some of the restaurants, scenic spots and attractions in Paros for you to include in your next travel itinerary to Paros!
Paros Attractions #1: Moraitis Winery Paros
If you’re planning to do island hopping in Greece, remember to include wine tasting as part of your itinerary. During our visit to Paros, we visited Moraitis Winery and were thoroughly thrilled to be educated in the grapes of the region as well as the fragrance and tastes of the wines here. We even bought a bottle back to Singapore. Delicious!
Paros Attractions #2: Agioi Anargyroi Beach Paros
After our treat at Moraitis Winery, we headed to the Agioi Anargyroi Beach nearby. Head to the centre part of the beach where the sand is fine and the water is calm and shallow. A great place to hang out in the sun if you’re in the area of Naousa, Paros.
Paros Attractions #3: Livadia Beach Paros
Within walking distance of Paros port area, Livadia Beach is an area of “organised beach” where visitors can rent beach chairs and umbrellas to enjoy a day out by the beach. As a west facing beach, the waters get heated up in the afternoons and is a great place to wind down the evenings by the waters.
Paros Attractions #4: Hotel Oasis Room 24
Hotel Oasis is a hotel located right next to the port of Paros. From this particular room, room 24, you’ll be able to see all the passengers and cargo that comes and leaves the port of Paros. Probably the best room in Paros island, we were so glad to be allocated to this room. You’ll get amazing views of Paros port all the way to Livadia Beach. In the evenings, you can also chill at the ULTRA HUGE balcony of the room. Best!
Paros Attractions #5: Frankish Castle Paros
Frankish Castle is one of the attractions on the island of Paros. Here, you’ll also be able to find a church atop of the hill. During sunsets, many people will gather to enjoy this daily performance by nature. Thank the Lord for beautiful sunsets!
Paros Attractions #6: Paros Sunsets
Walking along the coastline of Paros, we were able to enjoy views of the sunsets in Paros. Each day, we were able to see these beautiful sunsets with perfect orangey hues. Lovely.
Paros Attractions #7: Tseri Cafe Paros
On one of the mornings, we headed to a Tseri Cafe near our hotel for breakfast. Little did we know that we stumbled upon a gem. Both Strawberry Monte and Rocket Omelette were of good quality. We were also impressed by the beautiful selection of desserts, making it hard for Kate to decide 😛
Paros Attractions #8: Ephesus Restaurant Paros
One of the most memorable experience in Paros, has to be our dinner at Ephesus Restaurant. The live band, playing Zorbas the Greek as well as other traditional Greek tunes, made the dining experience that much more unique. Moreover, both food and drinks were affordably priced and tasted great. A must-visit! *Do note that live music is available on certain days only – check before you.
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Q:
Usage of Farkas' lemma
Given a system of n linear equations. Prove that the system is inconsistent
if and only if you can obtain 0 = 1, by using linear combinations.
I do not want to apply theorems from linear algebra here. Instead of it I want to use Farkas' lemma.
Every equation can be rewrited in form of two inequalities with $\leq$ and $\geq$, now I got $2n$ inequalities instead of $n$ equations.
I think that's the moment for me to apply Farkas' lemma, but why I can always get $0 \leq 1$ and $0 \geq 1$?
A:
It is very easy to prove the result from linear algebra (Gauss eliminations). If you prefer to work it out using Farkas lemma then you can do the following: the equation $Ax=b$ fits the best to the first alternative of the Farkas lemma, we only missing the positivity of $x$. To get positivity one can write $x=v-w$, where $v,w\ge 0$. It is the standard rewriting in Linear Programming. You get
$$
\begin{pmatrix}A & -A\end{pmatrix}\begin{pmatrix}v\\ w\end{pmatrix}=b,\quad v,w\ge 0.
$$
This is exactly the first alternative. If it has no solution then the dual system
$$
\begin{pmatrix}A^T\\-A^T\end{pmatrix}y\le\begin{pmatrix}0\\0\end{pmatrix},\quad b^Ty>0
$$
has a solution. The dual system is the same as
$$
A^Ty=0,\quad b^Ty>0\qquad\Leftrightarrow\qquad y^TA=0,\quad y^Tb>0.
$$
One can always scale $y$ to get $y^Tb=1$.
It means that if you multiply your original equation $Ax=b$ by $y^T$ from the left you will get
$$
\underbrace{y^TA}_{=0}x=\underbrace{y^Tb}_{=1}\quad\Rightarrow\quad 0=1.
$$
|
Space Dodge
Game Information
Get that awesome maneuvers ready and prepare yourself for a space travel! Deploy your shield and launch rockets in this simple arcade game – Space Dodge! Use the arrow keys to move and avoid all space rocks as you travel throughout the vastness of space. Good luck!
Space Dodge is a simple straight-forward side-scrolling avoid video game where you pilot a spaceship and try to dodge as many asteroids, space rocks, and other outer space entities. The game is pretty simple and is perfect for a lazy afternoon where you just want to kill time, relax your mind, and just chill. Keep your eye out for the power-ups and try to travel as far as possible. Share your score with your friends and have fun! Controls Mouse – navigate Left Mouse Button – Select Arrow Keys – Move
Game Comments
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include $(top_srcdir)/buildutils/config.mk
noinst_HEADERS = lib_site.h
DIST_SUBDIRS =
CLEANFILES = *.gcda *.gcno *.gcov
AM_CPPFLAGS += -I$(top_srcdir)/src/resmom/@PBS_MACH@
noinst_LIBRARIES = libsite.a
libsite_a_SOURCES = site_allow_u.c site_alt_rte.c site_check_u.c \
site_map_usr.c site_mom_chu.c site_mom_ckp.c \
site_mom_jst.c
|
I caught my 14-year-old daughter watching something age-inappropriate on Netflix last week: “Tidying Up with Marie Kondo” – the unlikely Netflix hit in which a diminutive Japanese woman who only looks about 14 herself goes into American houses and helps the occupants turn their horribly cluttered abodes into charming homes.
Haaretz Weekly Episode 17 0:00 -- : -- 15 Skip 15 seconds backwards Play audio 15 Skip 15 seconds ahead 1 X Change playback rate from 1 to 1 Mute audio
It’s the kind of show the parental lock was invented for: After all, which mom or dad living in a really messy apartment – one that looks like the Ikea showroom from hell – wants their kids to discover it doesn’t have to be like this; that there is another way?
Not me. I think the floordrobe is the greatest invention of the 21st century; that the only good place for an iron is on a golf course; that the sloth is an unfairly maligned creature; and that a person should be measured not by their achievements in life but by the amount of flotsam and jetsam they have accumulated over the years.
But I’m beginning to realize I may be in a minority here. After all, there is an entire industry out there dedicated to that most decadently Western of things: lifestyle.
A few years ago, it was the Danish concept of Hygge that promised to make our lives cozier. After that there was the Swedish Lagom, saying that the secret to domestic bliss lay in moderation. And then came Japan’s Ikigai, preaching that we can live to 100 if only we learn to appreciate the smaller things in life. It’s such a common phenomenon that AOC is probably only hours away from dropping her own ecologically sound version on Twitter.
If you haven’t done so already, devotees of the concept should add “Tidying Up with Marie Kondo” to that pile – as long as you promise to clean it away later.
I can only imagine that the show found its participants by placing online ads asking Californians: “Would Donald Trump call your home a shithole?” To be honest, when I first saw the trailer for “Tidying Up” in January, I scoffed, happy that at least there was one show in this cluttered TV landscape I wouldn’t need to waste my time on.
And then I watched it with my daughter … and devoured the whole series in a weekend. I must also confess to welling up during the episodes that featured the more mature participants (although if anyone asks, I’ll blame it on the dreadful dust problem in my apartment).
Open gallery view This undated photo provided by Ten Speed Press shows Marie Kondo working at a client’s home to clear away everything that is unneeded and fails to "spark joy," in Tokyo, Japan. Credit: Ten Speed Press / AP
This eight-parter is yet another of those shows that shouldn’t really work but ends up being a huge hit around the globe. In “Friends” parlance, this is the one with clothes being neatly folded. Previous similar hits included the one with Brits baking cakes; the one with rednecks being rednecks; and the one with the nanny putting toddlers on a naughty step.
This burgeoning genre needs a name, but until anything better comes along, I’m going with “Ordinary people doing ordinary things that previous generations did automatically without needing a film crew.” That’s the short version, anyway.
Marie Kondo is like a Japanese Mary Poppins, except her mode of transport is a sleek MPV rather than an umbrella, and she comes armed with a trusty sidekick in the shape of translator Marie Iida. (One of the many quirks of “Tidying Up” is that Kondo is far from fluent in English. Of course, this is not a barrier to any show’s success, as previously demonstrated by “Jersey Shore” and “The Only Way is Essex.”)
Just like that do-gooder British nanny before her, Kondo has a credo by which she invites people to live: the KonMari method. Like some ultra-domesticated samurai, she uses her simple program to declutter, organize and simplify people’s lives — with, it must be said, impressive results.
Talk to your clothes
Maybe it’s the shame of their unkempt beds and obscene mountains of clothing being seen around the world, but over the course of a month (or two in severe cases), Kondo helps the participants literally put their houses in order. This show won’t do much for how the world views millennials (and just when they were getting their lives back on track after the Fyre Festival fiasco), but it may make you view your wardrobe differently.
“When folding, it’s important to convey love to your clothes from the palms of your hands,” Kondo tells viewers. “It’s actually an important opportunity to talk to your clothes and thank them.” Actually, I nearly folded at that point too, but not my clothes.
Kondo’s trick – and I still haven’t worked out how she does it – is to get these people to enjoy mundane tidying and organizing tasks, whether they’re doing it with partners, kids or simply alone. She turns something as prosaic as folding a pair of jeans into a sacred act. It’s actually quite disarming to see the transformation it has on people who were previously as domesticated as a Siberian tiger, such as baseball card-collecting patriarch Ron in the second episode.
Open gallery view Marie Kondo in Netflix's “Tidying Up.” Credit: Denise Crew/Netflix
I do wonder how many viewers’ homes will ultimately be improved after watching “Tidying Up” (mine certainly isn’t), although a look on Google suggests it is having an impact: Business Insider reported last week that the show “is boosting sales of shredders and organizing supplies,” while Mashable claimed that “thrift store donations have surged” thanks to viewers discarding some of that vast pile of stuff they have hoarded over the years. And of course, “to Marie Kondo” or to “Kondo-ize” has now become a verb du jour on Twitter.
I imagine the magic only really works, though, when you’re in the presence of the two Maries (and their film crew). And let’s not forget that all of these participants are willing volunteers who recognized they had a clutter problem.
Still, hearing Kondo say that her mission is to “spark joy” – her key phrase about personal possessions – “in the world through tidying” and that she “loves mess” gave me an idea. We need to give her a far bigger challenge for season two than rearranging millennials’ sock draws: Solving the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.
Given her obvious skills at getting people to do things they never previously wanted to, who better than Kondo to drag Israeli and Palestinian leaders into the same room and get them working together on cleaning up this mess?
I can already imagine her talking to them about compartmentalizing Jerusalem by keeping similar items (you know, Jews, Arabs) in separate areas; uncluttering the West Bank by removing some settlements; and then finally getting around to sorting out that neglected storage space down in Gaza.
“Mahmoud, Benjamin,” I see her saying (let’s just assume Messrs. Abbas and Netanyahu are still in charge at this point). “I want you to touch the map of the Holy Land and identify only the parts that spark joy. When you feel the item that sparks joy to you, you feel ‘Ching!’ Mahmoud, did you really feel that when you touched Ra’anana?” Or “Benjamin, I want you to put pictures of all the settlements on the bed. All of them, including those hard-to-reach outposts. Only when you are confronted with exactly how much you have will you start to realize what you need to do.”
So, Marie, up for a challenge? We’ll even let you bring Marie Iida with you. Just two things: You may need to rethink some of your more radical ideas on book disposal for the People of the Book, and let us know in advance if we should categorize our gas masks as clothing, komono (miscellaneous) or sentimental according to your KonMari method. |
Thursday, March 25, 2010
One Sunday morning I asked another minister to lead the Lord’s Supper during worship. The young man did a great job of helping us prepare our hearts for receiving the meal, just not our palates. Seated with the congregation, I took a wafer when the tray passed my way and, exercising good communion etiquette, held it until all were served. At the appropriate time, I slid the wafer into my mouth.
What happened next is hard to describe. The wafer was so old it surely dated back to the first-century church. It was so dry and pasty that it instantly sucked all the moisture out of my mouth, causing me to pucker, sucking both cheeks almost inside out.
I turned to a young couple seated nearby, Kayce and Neal, and saw Kayce puckering up, too. As best I could, I quietly puffed out to her, “That is one nasty Lord’s Supper wafer.” She whispered back, “Have you ever tasted a good Lord’s Supper wafer?” It occurred to me that I never had asked for seconds at the Lord’s Supper.
It also made me wonder how the bread must have tasted to Jesus the night he first took what we now call the Lord’s Supper. It was a meal he felt compelled to serve and receive, not one he seemed to particularly relish. After all, it was his body, he said, broken for those who needed its forgiving power.
In his remarkable work, The Divine Conspiracy, Dallas Willard postulates that “the most telling thing about the contemporary Christian is that he or she simply has no compelling sense that understanding of and conformity with the clear teachings of Christ is of any vital importance to his or her life, and certainly not that it is in any way essential. The practical irrelevance of obedience to Christ accounts for the weakened effect of Christianity in the world today.”
In other words, taking Jesus’ supper at church is one thing, but actually surrendering ourselves daily to the same death Jesus called us to share with him just doesn’t make practical sense. Isn’t that taking things a little too far? Forgiving others as God has forgiven us? Praying for our enemies instead of avenging ourselves? Selling off our stuff and giving the proceeds to the poor? Dying to self, whatever that actually means? Well, those things just aren’t palatable to our ever-refined taste for good living. A good living to which we’ve increasingly grown accustomed to believe we’re entitled, not in spite of our faith, but, because of it.
I’ll never forget that nasty wafer and the way it was almost too hard to swallow. Jesus never forgot either and, having choked down his last earthly meal ever, he then said, Eat this stale bread, “in remembrance of me.”
We can’t really celebrate, or experience, the resurrection to a truly good life until we observe and surrender to the stale death that made resurrection possible, and still does.
Thursday, March 18, 2010
There’s a growing sense of excitement, even impatience, as people await the arrival of spring, the season that teases us the most each year. Birds are singing their springtime medleys, perched upon branches filled with blossoms of red, white and purple. Flowers have started peeking out of their underground winter homes. Easter is just around the corner.
With new life bursting out everywhere, we’re filled with a stubborn sense of anticipation, awaiting the opportunity of witnessing God’s annual reminder that life always overcomes death. Then, just about the time we think we’ve turned the final corner coming out of winter, another cold front blows through and we’re left to wonder if the skies will ever clear and the earth will ever warm again.
Waiting patiently. That’s the hard part. That’s the Easter discipline. “If we hope for what we do not see, we wait for it with patience” (Romans 8:25, NRSV). Not that we’re expected to just sit on our hands until God proves our hope true with our own resurrection from the dead. Quite the opposite, we’re compelled to work like the resurrected people we are now for what is eternally good.
Impatience is born of futility, the sense that what we’re doing now is just biding our time until something better comes along. It’s born of a sad cynicism, most often fostered exclusively at church, that only when the clock starts on eternity, as in future time, will anything really matter. Yet, waiting with patience as we hope for what we do not see means laboring now in the faith that working on what we can see matters in ways we cannot see, in eternity present and eternity future.
Easter patience means believing in the worth of this moment, even as we wait for the new thing God is about to do. It means loving and forgiving, working for justice and peace now, sharing our hope in Christ that sin is forgiven, now and forever. Easter patience means leaning into this day’s work even as we keep our eyes on the eastern horizon, watching for the day when God will bring God’s kingdom to be on earth even as it is in heaven. Easter patience means trusting that eternal life is not just about going to heaven after we die to live there forever, but, instead, that “eternity is now in flight and we with it” (Dallas Willard, The Divine Conspiracy).
Easter patience means living a life fueled by the hope that eternity is not so much a heavenly moment that begins when all earthly clocks stop as much as it is a relationship with God now and forever, not limited by time or place. Patience, Easter patience, is both the “substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen” (Hebrews 11:1, KJV) and, at the same time, the offspring of hope, the result of believing in each moment we live now for its own value and purpose. So that, even as I tend my earthly garden or love my wife or tend to the work of my earthly calling, I’m participating, even now, in God’s eternal plan.
Tuesday, March 9, 2010
Last week, ABC’s, The Bachelor, aired its final episode of the spring season. If you’re not familiar with the plot, The Bachelor is a weekly series during which a well-tanned, chisel-jawed, six-pack bachelor is presented with several stunningly beautiful young ladies from which he gets to choose one he’d like to marry, before the season ends, of course, and it’s too late. The audience gets to watch in as the bachelor dates each of the girls, even as he closes the door on their love nest for a near-end-of-season romp in the sack. Each week, the bachelor eliminates one of the girls until there is only one left, the right one for him to marry.
Aside from the blatantly chauvinistic nature of the show, Bachelor is an interesting commentary on American cultural values. That sexual intercourse, for example, is just an extension of making out, the next natural thing to do in order to get to know each other better before making a marriage commitment. That one’s ability to perform sexually should be a standard part of the litmus test that helps us all decide if we’ve found the right person. Really?
Aside from treating women like cattle at a sale barn auction and devaluing sexual intercourse, it’s that “finding the right person” idea of marriage that is most troubling. The entire premise of the show, and too many marriages, is that happiness is based almost exclusively on finding the right person. All of which is based upon the assumption that happiness is a commodity, of sorts, outside of us, that can be acquired or possessed, like a piece of jewelry.
I know. Shows like Bachelor are about making money for networks struggling to stay afloat in this Internet, DVD, Netflix generation. They are about high-dollar marketing, finding out what the audience wants and giving it to them in non-judgmental, amoral HD. Shouldn’t it tell us something about ourselves, however, that researchers have done their homework and concluded that shows like Bachelor are what it takes to get and keep our attention? What should it tell us that Christian marriages dissolve at the same rate as non-Christian marriages? Is it possible that just being a Christian doesn’t guarantee happiness?
Marriage doesn’t make anyone happy. Marriage only provides an environment which exposes our depth of happiness, or lack of it. Happy marriages are not the result of finding the right person as much as they are about being the right person. Healthy people tend to attract other healthy people. Happy people tend to attract other happy people. Happy marriages happen to happy people. We were created for more than just standing around at someone else’s auction, hoping the highest bidder comes along before it’s too late.
Monday, March 1, 2010
A week ago Monday, one of my wife’s colleagues at work had to take his young wife, the mother of their only baby, to undergo a double mastectomy. We're just heartbroken for them. The next day, after sitting with a woman at the hospital while her husband had surgery, I was getting on the elevator to go home.
Trying to get on the elevator behind me was a middle-aged Hispanic woman, in a wheelchair, missing both legs just below the knees, freshly bandaged. I’d already witnessed her missing one elevator as I was walking up. She didn't have anyone there to help her get to the elevator and get on fast enough. I got to hold the door for her and something inside of me felt warmer.
As I stood in the elevator, staring at the closed door, taking the six-second ride up from sublevel 2, I thought, "I am so blessed. I have a spectacular and beautiful wife who loves me without reservation, I have two sons who still enjoy talking to me. I have a job, a roof over my head, food on my table, my health and, not least, a great dog. Everything else, I mean everything, is gravy - just gravy.”
It put all of my anxieties of the week into perspective. I said to myself, "I will love this day. I will live it fully. I will choose peace over anxiety. I will rest in Nancy's love and in the love of the Jesus who brought us together. I will not wait until all the bills are paid, until I have perfect answers to every question and absolute guarantees to all the uncertainties. I will dance in the sunlight that is mine today!"
Suddenly, the elevator door opened and I was standing two floors higher than I had started out. Not a bad day at all.
About Me
Very few people I know are living the life they once thought they’d be living. Life is about dreaming, falling, getting up and claiming a new dream. It’s a cyclical, not a linear journey, this thing we call life.
My prayer is that these words will help someone who has seen their life’s dream vanish before their eyes and who wonders if there is any hope. My prayer is also that what I have written will help someone discover how the grace of a loving God intersects the reality of their daily life, whatever that may be.
I am a fifty-five year-old Baptist pastor, the father of two grown sons. My wife, Nancy, and I reside in Fair Oaks Ranch, Texas, where I serve as the pastor of the Grace Fellowship Baptist Church. At night, our Golden Retriever, Sam, keeps us reminded of how playful and loving our God truly is, and how our God wants to be our daily companion, no matter what life may bring. |
1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an ignition coil for internal combustion engines and, more particularly, to an ignition coil holding a core, a primary winding and a secondary winding in a casing.
2. Description of the Prior Art
An ignition coil for internal combustion engines generally has primary and secondary windings wound concentrically with each other. The starting end of winding of a wire forming the primary winding is electrically connected to a positive side of a battery, and the terminal end of winding of the wire is also electrically connected to a negative side of the battery through a control circuit. The starting end of a wire used as the secondary winding is electrically connected to spark plugs of the internal combustion engine, while the terminal end thereof is electrically connected to the starting end of the primary winding.
Each end of the wires forming the primary and secondary windings is electrically connected to one of plurality of terminals, respectively, protrusively provided on a bobbin for winding the primary winding, a bobbin for winding the secondary winding, and/or on a casing. Each of these terminals is connected to the battery, the control circuit, and the spark plugs.
In the Japanese Utility Model Registration Application Laid-Open Gazette No. 2-13720 issued January, 1990, has been disclosed an ignition coil of such a construction that a coil assembly with primary and secondary windings coaxially wound on the outer periphery of a primary cylindrical bobbin having a square cross section is inserted in a casing produced of an insulating synthetic resin, and then after filling of an insulating synthetic resin in the casing to set the primary and secondary winding with the resin thus filled, a couple of cores formed in the U shape are installed with their legs on one side inserted into a hollow portion of the primary bobbin through each of openings formed on the casing, oppositely from both ends of the bobbin, and with the free ends of their other legs secured by welding on the exterior of the casing. This ignition coil, however, apts to rust readily because the core forming a closed magnetic circuit is partly exposed outside of the casing.
Also disclosed in the Japanese Utility Model Registration Application Laid-Open Gazette No. 2-35429 issued March, 1990, is a process which includes the steps of inserting, into a coil casing, a coil assembly in which a secondary bobbin wound with a secondary winding is retained coaxially on the outer periphery of a primary bobbin wound with a primary winding, protruding the free ends of the legs of a U-shaped core having two legs of the same length out of the exterior of the coil casing, with one of the legs exposed out of the coil casing and with the other legs of the core inserted in the hollow portion of the primary core, fixing the core of small volume to one of the two legs of the core, and then molding the casing portion to be connected to the coil casing and at the same time covering the core portion exposed out of the coil casing. According to the above-noted disclosure, it is difficult to mold the casing portion and therefore is difficult, owing to its construction, to support the terminals on the casing portion. |
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Nusra Front Confirms Death of Top Commander
Al-Qaida’s Syrian affiliate confirmed on Friday that its top field commander was killed in an airstrike that targeted a meeting of the group’s senior leadership.
Abu Anas al-Shami, the spokesman for the Nusra Front, was quoted by ABC News as saying that Thursday’s airstrike in the western Syrian province of Idlib killed Abu Hommam al-Shami, described as the group’s “military commander.”
Abu Hommam’s death was first reported a day earlier by Syria’s SANA state news agency and by the Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights. The Observatory, which relies on a network of activists inside Syria, said that other senior Nusra Front leaders were also killed in the attack.
The two al-Shamis — Abu Hommam and Abu Anas — are not related. Their shared name in Arabic means “the Syrian.”
The fate of the Nusra group’s overall leader, Abu Mohammad al-Golani, was not clear, the Observatory said, although there were reports that he had been in the area of the attack. Three others were reportedly killed in Thursday’s airstrike, including two of Abu Hommam’s bodyguards.
It also remained unclear who conducted the airstrike. SANA claimed it was the Syrian military while activists and Nusra said it was the US-led coalition. Both the coalition and the Syrian government routinely target Nusra positions.
The attack deals a blow to the Nusra Front at a time when the militant Islamic faction has been aggressively confronting other Syrian militant groups and consolidating control over parts of northern Syria. Most recently, Nusra Front fighters overran encampments belonging to the US-backed Hazm Movement rebel group and seized what it claimed were American weapons and supplies. In the aftermath of that defeat, the Hazm Movement dissolved itself.
The Nusra Front is also a bitter rival of the Islamic State group, which controls about a third of Iraq and Syria. However, the two militant groups also occasionally cooperate on limited operations — including a joint cross-border raid last year that took more than a dozen Lebanese soldiers and policemen hostage. |
About Me
Friday, March 15, 2013
This "American" quad was the first of the four clean barrel-aged beers I brewed during September and October 2012. It spent three weeks in a 5 gallon (20L actually) American oak barrel that previously held Balcones Rumble ("Made from the finest local wildflower honey, mission figs, turbinado sugar and natural Texas Hill Country spring water."). The pairing of those flavors with the caramelized dark fruitiness of a strong Belgian style beer was too obvious to pass over.
Rumble Barrel Quad
Appearance – Darker than a standard quad, downright porter-esque. The D-180 candi syrup added more color than I expected, I could easily drop the .6% Carafa Special II from a rebrew. The dense tan head displays terrific retention.
Smell – Lots going on in the nose. Dark and dried fruits especially, but some brighter banana bread notes too. There are lightly boozy barrel-character supporting the aromas of the candi syrup and dark caramel malt. As it warms rum-varietal alcohol emerges and the nose takes a savory turn, ever so faint tomato paste.
Taste – The flavor leads with sweet caramel, toasted grain, raisins, and figs. Despite the color, it doesn’t taste like a Belgian interpretation of a porter or stout. The oak lends vanilla, light coconut, and damp wood to the finish. Amazing what the beer picked up in just three weeks of barrel-aging. The alcohol is still slightly hot, it’ll benefit from at least another six months in the bottle.
Drinkability & Notes – Certainly not a session beer, but the sweetness does a good job balancing the barrel character. This is one of those strong beers that is “worth” the high alcohol, there are no 5% ABV beers that taste like this. I wish I’d brewed enough of the base beer to bottle a six-pack without time spent in the barrel to compare. The match is almost too good, making it hard to determine where the various flavors originate. Thanks again to Balcones for sending the Rumble barrel to me. They’ve got a variety of beers (including this one) on the way to them as I type!
Sounds delicious! Sadly the Belgian yeast from this batch took over the second beer I aged in the barrel, a spiced imperial oatmeal porter.
Not a huge amount of great beer places in Bethesda. The Rock Bottom is decent, they do lots of casks. Your probably better off hopping on the Red line and coming down to Pizzeria Paradiso in Dupont Circle, or going to ChurchKey. There is a decent beer store in Chevy Chase (Chevy Chase Wine and Spirits), just south of the Maryland line too. Good luck!
One of the distillers is a homebrewer and fan of the blog. He offered to send me the barrels in exchange for some samples of whatever I aged in it. Farmhouse Brewing Supply has small rum, brandy, and whiskey barrels from a distillery in Wisconsin at the moment.
A friend and I aged a Belgian Dark Strong in my Rumble Barrel. The flavor combination was simpy too obvious to resist. Took second place in the Boston Homebrew Competition in the wood aged beers catagory, despite being only a couple months old. These small barrels are a promising way for homebrewers to turn out unique beer in easy to brew quantities.
I put a Strong Scotch Ale into my Balcones rum barrel, thinking of complimentary flavors as well, and the beer just placed 2nd I'm wood aged category at World Cup of Beer comp. Too bad that you need to re-fill it pretty much right away—I let it go to too long and the barrel dried out. |
Story highlights Trump proposes giving 1.8 million young undocumented immigrants a pathway to citizenship
It would be in exchange for $25 billion for his long-promised wall
Washington (CNN) Democrats are responding to President Donald Trump's proposal to give 1.8 million young undocumented immigrants a pathway to citizenship in exchange for $25 billion for his long-promised wall -- and they're not happy.
"Dreamers should not be held hostage to President Trump's crusade to tear families apart and waste billions of American tax dollars on an ineffective wall," Sen. Dick Durbin, the Illinois Democrat who has fought for protection for participants in the expiring Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program, said in a statement.
"The White House claims to be compromising because the President now agrees with the overwhelming majority of Americans that Dreamers should have a pathway to citizenship. But his plan would put the administration's entire hardline immigration agenda -- including massive cuts to legal immigration -- on the backs of these young people," Durbin said.
Democratic immigration advocate Eddie Vale, who's been closely involved in the recent immigration talks, called the White House proposal "a legislative burning cross."
"What the White House is filling you in on now is in no way an attempt to get to a real deal," Vale told CNN, adding that rather it is a way to "get every item on (White House senior adviser) Stephen Miller's white supremacist wish list."
Read More |
Q:
Installer for copy-files-only possible?
We need an installer to copy or upload some files to some places without install any files to the os. So we do not need any uninstaller or updater or any stored file to an installation directory. We only want to use install4j to pack some files we want to unpack/copy/upload to some location during "installation". Therefore we also need some user input like storage location (not installation directory because could also be an url) or user credential for a server-upload-interface. The installer should be released as a cd with a structure like:
cd-root
|-- installer.exe
|-- files
|-- file1.txt
|-- file2.txt
|....
Is such an installer possible with install4j? We used install4j for other "normal" installer projects and would be happy to use it for this scenario too.
A:
The "Install files" action has a "Install runtime" property that can be deselected, so no .install4j directory or bundled JRE is installed into the installation directory.
The Uninstaller can be disabled on the "Screens & Actions" step.
After the "Install files action", the files can by transferred to another location with a "Copy files or directories" action.
|
Semicarbazide: occurrence in food products and state-of-the-art in analytical methods used for its determination.
This review provides an overview of the information currently available about the presence of semicarbazide (SEM) in food. Likely sources of SEM in food matrices are summarised and discussed. Detailed information is given about the analytical methods used to determine SEM; features and drawbacks associated with them are carefully evaluated. Performance criteria characterising the analytical methods discussed are also given. |
"Albert Y. C. Lai" <trebla at vex.net> writes:
>> While we are kind of on this topic, what makes the characters ħ þ
>> prefix operator by default, while º and most other odd ones infix?
> alphanumeric vs non-alphanumeric
Testing this, I find that isAlpha is True also for 'º', but as the OP
claims, Haskell will use it as a(n infix) symbol. Neither does
isSymbol (all False), isLetter (all True), isMark (False), nor
isPunctuation (Fals) help to separate these.
The HR defines
uniSymbol -> any Unicode symbol or punctuation
but I couldn't find any clear way to identify of these.
-k
--
If I haven't seen further, it is by standing in the footprints of giants |
Q:
Store Numpy as pickled Pandas, Pickled Numpy or HDF5
I right now working with 300 float features coming from a preprocessing of item information. Such items are identified by a UUID (i.e. a string). The current file size is around 200MB. So far I have stored them as Pickled numpyarrays. Sometimes I need to map the UUID for an item to a Numpy row. For that I am using a dictionary (stored as json) that maps UUID to row in a numpy array.
I was tempted to use Pandas and replace that dictionary for a Pandas index. I also discovered the HF5 file format but I would like to know a bit more when to use each of them.
I use part of the array to feed a scikit-Learn based algorithm and then to perform classification on the rest.
A:
Storing pickled numpy arrays is indeed not an optimal approach. Instead, you can use,
numpy.savez to save a dictionary of numpy array in a binary format
store pandas DataFrame in HDF5
directly use PyTables to write your numpy arrays to HDF5.
HDF5 is a preferred format to store scientific data that includes, among others,
parallel read/write capabilities
on the fly compression algorithms
efficient querying
ability to work with large datasets that don't fit in the RAM.
Although, the choice of the output file format to store a small dataset of 200MB is not that critical and is more a matter of convenience.
|
/*
* chmod() for uClibc
*
* Copyright (C) 2000-2006 Erik Andersen <andersen@uclibc.org>
*
* Licensed under the LGPL v2.1, see the file COPYING.LIB in this tarball.
*/
#include <sys/syscall.h>
#include <sys/stat.h>
#include <unistd.h>
#if defined __NR_fchmodat && !defined __NR_chmod
# include <fcntl.h>
int chmod(const char *path, mode_t mode)
{
return fchmodat(AT_FDCWD, path, mode, 0);
}
#else
# define __NR___syscall_chmod __NR_chmod
static __inline__ _syscall2(int, __syscall_chmod, const char *, path, __kernel_mode_t, mode)
int chmod(const char *path, mode_t mode)
{
return __syscall_chmod(path, mode);
}
#endif
libc_hidden_def(chmod)
|
package jalse.actions;
import java.util.concurrent.Executor;
import java.util.concurrent.TimeUnit;
/**
* This is the JALSE equivalent to {@link Executor}. {@link Action} can be scheduled to be run once
* now, in the future and periodically at an interval. When an action is run work can be performed
* using a supplied actor, scheduler defines the actor type as well as a means to maintain
* previously scheduled/running actions.
*
* @author Elliot Ford
*
* @param <T>
* Actor type to schedule referencing work.
*/
public interface ActionScheduler<T> {
/**
* Cancels all tasks currently running/scheduled (scheduled by this).
*/
void cancelAllScheduledForActor();
/**
* Creates a new mutable context for the supplied action and this actor.
*
* @param action
* Action to create context for.
* @return Context bound to the action and actor (immutable for actor).
*/
SchedulableActionContext<T> newContextForActor(Action<T> action);
/**
* Schedules an action for immediate execution.
*
* @param action
* Action to schedule.
* @return Context associated with the action (immutable).
*/
default ActionContext<T> scheduleForActor(final Action<T> action) {
return scheduleForActor(action, 0L, TimeUnit.NANOSECONDS);
}
/**
* Schedules an action for execution with a supplied initial delay and repeat period.
*
* @param action
* Action to schedule.
* @param initialDelay
* Initial delay before schedule (can be {@code 0}).
* @param period
* Period for repeating (can be {@code 0}).
* @param unit
* Time unit of initial delay and period.
* @return Context associated with the action (immutable).
*/
ActionContext<T> scheduleForActor(final Action<T> action, final long initialDelay, final long period,
final TimeUnit unit);
/**
* Schedules an action to be executed after the supplied delay.
*
* @param action
* Action to schedule.
* @param initialDelay
* Delay before schedule.
* @param unit
* TimeUnit of the delay.
* @return Context associated with the action (immutable).
*/
default ActionContext<T> scheduleForActor(final Action<T> action, final long initialDelay, final TimeUnit unit) {
return scheduleForActor(action, initialDelay, 0L, unit);
}
}
|
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Seven-hour Existential Despair class gives students a "break from the hustle and bustle of Penn"
Photo from Justin McDaniel
Not many courses at Penn have as dramatic an impact as professor Justin McDaniel's "Existential Despair" course.
The class, RELS256, meets once a week for seven hours and launched last fall. Each week, students read a book together in silence, cover to cover, before discussing it as a class.
Phones are collected at the beginning of class and only two bathroom breaks are allowed. The class has no prerequisites, no homework, no exams, and is graded based on participation and attendance only.
“I find it important to make yourself intellectually uncomfortable at least once a week,” said McDaniel, who is the undergraduate studies chair of the Religious Studies Department. “It staves off ego and builds a sort of healthy self-contentment. It’s good to challenge myself to teach outside of my field, and I think my students appreciate that as well.”
The story of McDaniel’s unique class has been widely shared and picked up by publications like the Huffington Post. Current and former students of the class have reacted well to the course and said it creates a lasting impact.
“The fact that you have to set aside a seven-hour window within your week, it makes you more deliberate with your time, set aside all distractions, put your life on pause,” said Wharton senior Heather Tang, who is currently taking the class. “It’s a good reminder that some things aren’t so important, that they can wait until the morning.”
Tang added that the course so far meets her expectations.
"My expectation is that it would be a break from the hustle and bustle of Penn, and I was right," Tang said. "It feels like putting the real world on pause for a few hours, and then it all resumes when I wake up on Wednesday morning.”
McDaniel identifies his class as a necessary escape from the academic environment on campus.
“A lot of academia is about showing off accomplishments," McDaniel said. "We are taught to consume knowledge and represent it. What I’m doing is creating a space where it’s not about the accomplishments but about the process itself.”
2018 College graduate Corey Loftus, who took the class when it was first offered last fall, agreed that the class both provided a necessary contrast to the culture at Penn and also helped her articulate her own beliefs.
“The educational purpose of the class is that education is a perspective rather than an achievement that you come to,” Loftus said. “It sort of gives me hope and puts me more in touch with the mental health perspective because a lot of the conversation consistently came back to belief, and I think that college is such a time when you form your own beliefs.”
The course title, "Existential Despair," refers to the content of both the in-class readings and the discussions.
“Half of life is dealing with existential problems — the death of a parent, depression, dealing with a relationship that is on the skids,” McDaniel said. “A traditional education doesn’t cover how to reckon with these issues.”
Sign up for our newsletter Get our newsletter, Dear Penn, delivered to your inbox every weekday morning. Sign Up
McDaniel has taught similarly unconventional classes such as “Living Deliberately: Monks, Saints, and the Contemplative Life,” which became known as the ”monk class.”
“You are re-learning how to learn in a way that isn’t motivated by an alternate outcome,” said Tang. “It’s more how it relates to you, to textualize it and internalize it. You can extrapolate whatever you just learned into something greater and more applicable in the real world.”
“It’s also learning empathy," Tang added. "I mean, how many college classes teach empathy?”
PennConnects
Most Read |
1. Introduction {#s0005}
===============
Cyanobacteria, ancient prokaryotic microorganisms capable of both oxygenic photosynthesis and nitrogen fixation, are thought to be the first organisms responsible for oxygenation of the earth's atmosphere more than two billion years ago ([@b0060], [@b0075], [@b0025]). In the filamentous *Nostoc* sp. Strain PCC 7120 cyanobacterium, the filaments can grow to contain several hundred cells due to division of actively dividing vegetative cells ([@b0105]). Nitrogen fixation in *Nostoc* sp. PCC 7120 takes place in specialized cells known as heterocysts ([@b0105]) that differentiate from vegetative cells under conditions of low available nitrogen. Under such conditions, 5 to 10% of the vegetative cells in the filament in *Nostoc* sp. PCC 7120 differentiate into heterocysts, with adjacent heterocysts regularly spaced by about ten vegetative cells ([@b0080]), thus providing a source of nitrogen to the surrounding vegetative cells in the filament. Both the vegetative cells and heterocysts in filaments of *Nostoc* sp. PCC 7120 are capable of performing multiple functions to adapt to changing conditions in their surroundings. The adaptability of *Nostoc* sp. PCC 7120 to its environment requires both vegetative and heterocyst cells to carry out many biochemical functions including photosynthesis, nitrogen fixation, signal communication and cell differentiation ([@b0190]). In 2001, the complete genome of *Nostoc* sp. PCC 7120, containing a 6.4 Mb chromosome and six plasmids, was sequenced and 6228 proteins were predicted to be encoded by the chromosome. Given the availability of its complete genome sequence and the fact that filamentous cyanobacteria represent among the oldest and simplest living organisms to exhibit cell differentiation ([@b0090]); *Nostoc* sp. PCC 7120 has become an important model organism to study biochemical functions found in cyanobacteria ([@b0120]).
Pentapeptide repeat proteins (PRPs) represent a large superfamily of proteins with 52,787 sequences grouped into four clans in the Pfam database ([@b0065]). Analysis of the largest PRP clan, represented by the Pentapeptide family (Pfam 00805), that includes 38,471 sequences from 3485 species indicates that \~90% of the sequences belong to bacteria and archaea while \~10% of sequences belong to eukaryotes. Further analysis indicates that nearly half of the PRP sequences in bacteria belong to cyanobacteria and that PRPs are most abundant in cyanobacteria in terms of the numbers of PRPs per genome ([@b0145]). PRPs, defined as proteins containing at least eight tandem repeating sequences of five amino acids with a consensus sequence originally defined as A\[D/N\]LXX in 1998 ([@b0010]), also referred to here as PRP domains, adopt a distinctive right-handed β-helical solenoid structure composed of stacks of coils composed of four pentapeptide repeats. Thirty PRPs have been identified in *Nostoc* sp. PCC 7120, including HglK (All0813), a membrane protein reported to be involved to the localization of heterocyst-specific glycolipids ([@b0025]). In 2009, the structure of HetL, a PRP from *Nostoc* sp. PCC 7120 containing 40 tandem repeats involved in regulating differentiation of heterocysts, was reported ([@b0145]). Despite the important role that cyanobacteria played in evolution of the earth\'s atmosphere and oxygen-based life on earth, and the relative abundance of PRPs in cyanobacteria, the biochemical functions of PRPs remain largely unknown and only sixteen PRP structures have been reported ([@b0140], [@b0050], [@b0125], [@b0205], [@b0020]).
In this study, we determined the structure of Alr5209, a PRP found in *Nostoc* sp. PCC 7120. The structure adopts a repeat five residue (Rfr) fold composed of 16 tandem PRP domains. The resulting right-handed β helix is composed of four coils held together by β ladders composed of β bridges on each face and a 1:3 mixture of type I and type II β turns. Alr5209 is the first PRP reported to contain type I β-turns in its Rfr fold. The structural consequences of including type I turns in the Rfr fold are examined and discussed. Combined structure and sequence analysis of Alr5209 enabled refinement of the pentapeptide consensus sequences that encode PRPs, which should allow for more sensitive and accurate prediction of PRPs in existing and newly reported genomes. Finally, a gene cluster analysis based on the KEGG database indicated that Alr5209 may be involved in oxidative phosphorylation.
2. Materials and methods {#s0010}
========================
2.1. Cloning, expression and purification {#s0015}
-----------------------------------------
The *alr5209* gene was amplified from the genomic DNA of *Nostoc* sp. PCC 7120 using standard PCR methods. Based on analysis of the KEGG sequence for *alr5209*, the following two primers were designed containing Ndel and Xhol ligation sites to facilitate construction of the expression plasmid: cccgcccgcatATGTCTGAAGTCAATTATCAACAG and gcccgctcgagttaTTGTTCTTTGAGTTGCAAGCC. The PCR product was cloned into the pET28b expression vector (Novagen, Inc.) under the control of the T7 promoter, and the construct contained a N-terminal 6xHis tag to allow purification by nickel affinity chromatography. The constructed plasmid was transformed into JM109 competent cells (Novagen, Inc.), spread on agar plates and resulting colonies collected for sequencing. After sequencing confirmed successful cloning of the *alr5209* gene into the expression plasmid, the plasmid was transformed into the *Escherichia coli* BL21 (DE3) (Novagen, Inc) host strain for overexpression of Alr5209 protein. Protein was isolated from a one-liter culture grown in M9 minimal medium using N15-labeled ammonium chloride as a nitrogen source to enable isotopic labeling for future nuclear magnetic resonance spectroscopy experiments. Cell growth in the bacterial culture was maintained at 37 °C with 250 revolutions per minute (rpm) shaking until the OD~600~ reached to 0.6--0.8. At this point, the cell culture was cooled to 15 °C and 0.5 mL 1 M isopropyl β-D-1-thiogalactopyranoside (IPTG) was added to a final concentration of 0.5 mM. The culture was then incubated at 15 °C with 250 rpm shaking overnight. The cells were collected using 5000×*g* centrifugation at 4 °C for 20 min. The resulting cell pellet was resuspended in 20 mL B1 buffer (20 mM Tris, 250 mM NaCl, 10% glycerol, pH 7.8) and the resuspended cells were lysed by three passes through a French press (Thermo, Inc.). The cell lysate was centrifuged at 17,418×*g* for 30 min. The His-tagged protein in the supernatant was purified on a 20 mL Ni-NTA affinity column (Qiagen). Proteins in the supernatant lacking a His-tag were removed during successive washing steps with 60 mL B1 buffer containing 0 and 30 mM imidazole, respectively. The purified His-tagged Alr5209 protein eluted with 300 mM imidazole was then dialyzed three times with 1 L B1 buffer to remove imidazole. Purified Alr5209 protein was confirmed by SDS-PAGE gel and concentrated to final concentration of 35 mg/mL.
2.2. Crystallization, data collection, phasing and refinement {#s0020}
-------------------------------------------------------------
Crystallization conditions were determined using the Hampton Research kit (HR2-112 and HR2-121) to screen for protein crystallization. Screening was performed by combining 1 μL of protein with 1 μL of each buffer on a 48-well plate using the hanging-drop vapor-diffusion method. Plates were maintained at room temperature. Overlapped spherical crystals were obtained in a buffer containing 0.2 M potassium sodium tartrate tetrahydrate, 0.1 M sodium citrate tribasic dihydrate pH 5.6, 2.0 M ammonium sulfate. These crystals were crushed in 50 μL crystallization buffer using a crystal crusher and by glass beads to make a stock seeding solution. Final cubic crystals were obtained by adding 0.5 μL of a 10,000× diluted seeding solution to 1 μL protein and 1 μL cryo-buffer, consisting 0.15 M potassium sodium tartrate tetrahydrate, 0.075 M sodium citrate tribasic dihydrate pH 5.6, 1.5 M ammonium sulfate, 25% v/v glycerol.
All experiment diffraction data were collected at the Advanced Photon Source (APS) at Argonne National Laboratory using the beamline 31-ID at 100 K. Truncated I to F experimental data analyzed by CCP4 7.0.057 were submitted to the CCP4 online server and a molecular replacement solution was found by BALBES ([@b0130]) using the PDB ID 2J8I structure as a starting model ([@b0175]). Manual model building was performed using COOT ([@b0070]). Phenix 1.13 ([@b0005]) was used for phasing improvement, automatic amino acid building and refinement. The final structure was submitted to the Protein Data Bank (PDB ID: 6OMX). The electrostatic potential surface was calculated using the PDB2PQR server ([@b0055]) and depicted using the Chimera software ([@b0155]).
2.3. Secondary structure and sequence analysis {#s0025}
----------------------------------------------
Distances in the PRPs and the φ and ψ angles were measured using Chimera ([@b0155]). All distance measurements were performed on PRPs with known structures and structure-based sequence alignment starting from the first, N-terminal pentapeptide repeat domain. The face of the right-handed β-helices containing the first, N-terminal complete pentapeptide repeat domain was designated as face 1, except for 3PSS whose first pentapeptide in coil 1 was incomplete. The face of the right-handed β-helices containing the second pentapeptide repeat domain was designated as face 2, and so on. The β turn types and distributions were measured from the PDB coordinates of published structures. The length of each face was measured from the carbonyl carbon of the i − 2 amino acid to that of the i + 2 amino acid for each face. The face-to-face distances between the 1 and 3 faces were measured from the carbonyl carbon of the i-residue in face 1 to the carbonyl carbon of the i residue in face 3. The face-to-face distances between the 2 and 4 faces were measured from the carbonyl carbon of the i-residue in face 2 to the carbonyl carbon of the i-residue in face 4. The distances across the face 1 to face 2 turns were measured from the carbonyl carbon of the i-residue in face 1 to the carbonyl carbon of the i-residue in face 2. The distances across the face 1 to face 4 turns were measured from the carbonyl carbon of the i-residue in face 1 to the carbonyl carbon of the i-residue in face 4. Any PRP coils interrupted by an inner loop or other secondary structures rather than β helix were not counted in the summary statistics. Consensus sequence distribution plots were completed using the Web Logo server ([@b0045], [@b0160]). Sequences belonging to secondary structures other than the PRP domains were not included in the consensus sequence analysis. For calculation of twist angle among coils, the angle calculation tool in Chimera was used ([@b0155]). Twist angles were measured as the angle between the two vectors defined by the carbonyl carbons of the i − 2 and i + 2 amino acids from coil and the carbonyl carbons of the i − 2 and i + 2 amino acids of the following coil. Once those vectors were defined based on those two pairs of atoms, the twist angles were determined using the angle calculation tool. Due to the influence of an α helix near the N-terminus, the twist angles in 6OMX, 2J8K, 3PSS and 3DU1 were measured between the second coil and subsequent coils.
2.4. Circular dichroism (CD) spectroscopy and thermal protein denaturation {#s0030}
--------------------------------------------------------------------------
Purified protein was dialyzed and diluted to final concentration at 20 μM with 20 mM potassium phosphate pH 7.8 and 150 mM NaF buffer. Diluted protein samples were loaded into 1 mL quartz cuvettes. Experiments were performed with AVIV model435 circular dichroism spectrophotometer (Aviv Biomedical, Inc). Far-UV wavelength spectra were recorded from 180 nm to 300 nm to determine a suitable wavelength for temperature melting experiments at 25 °C. Thermal denaturation curves for 20 μM samples were collected both at 226 nm and 210 nm, separately, from 15 to 85 °C using 1 °C intervals. Wavelength scans were measured for both samples at 85 and 95 °C after the thermal denaturation experiments. Experiments with buffer only were performed under the same conditions as with the protein samples and used as blanks for correction. Data analysis of thermal denaturation experiments was performed using the Calfitter 3.1 software package using the natured-state equilibrium with denatured-state (N = D) model for fitting ([@b0135]).
3. Results and discussion {#s0035}
=========================
3.1. Crystal and data quality of Alr5209 {#s0040}
----------------------------------------
Original crystals were spherical and overlapping. High-quality single crystals suitable for X-ray diffraction measurements were obtained using seeding and addition of glycerol. Crystals used for diffraction data collection were orthorhombic (unit cell dimensions: a = 71.001 Å, b = 27.835 Å, c = 60.837 Å, α = β = γ = 90°) and the space group was P222~1~. Single wavelength data collected at 0.97931 Å was used for molecular replacement. The data was truncated to 1.71 Å with an overall completeness of 98.71% measured for 13,598 unique reflections. Xtriage ([@b0215], [@b0210]) analysis indicated a single molecule in the asymmetric unit with a solvent content of 0.407. Molecular replacement phasing was accomplished using 2J8I as a starting model. The final structure included 121 out of 129 amino acids with six residues missing at the N-terminus and two residues missing at the C-terminal end. The structure quality was checked using MolProbity ([@b0040]) and the PDB validation server. The report showed no Ramachandran outliers and clash scores and sidechain outliers were 2 and 2.1%, respectively. All data and refinement statistics are listed in [Table 1](#t0005){ref-type="table"}.Table 1Summary of data collection and structure refinement data for alr5209.Resolution range (Å)35.5--1.706 (1.767--1.706)[1](#tblfn1){ref-type="table-fn"}Space groupP222~1~Unit cell (Å, °)α = 71.001 β = 27.835 γ = 60.837 α = β = γ = 90Total reflections27,104 (2671)Unique reflections13,598 (1339)Multiplicity2.0 (2.0)Completeness (%)98.70 (99.18)Mean I/sigma (I)21.77 (2.49)Wilson B-factor (Å^2^)28.67R-merge0.00942 (0.2226)R-means0.01332 (0.3148)R-pim0.00942 (0.2226)CC1/21 (0.91)CC\*1 (0.976)Reflections used in refinement13,583 (1335)Reflections used for R-free1359 (133)R-work0.2149 (0.3316)R-free0.2489 (0.3837)CC (work)0.974 (0.777)CC (free)0.957 (0.678)Number of non-hydrogen atoms938 macromolecules925 solvent13Protein residues121RMS (bonds) (Å)0.010RMS (angles) (°)1.39Ramachandran favored (%)98.32Ramachandran allowed (%)1.68Ramachandran outliers (%)0.00Rotamer outliers (%)0.00Clashscore1.09Average B-factor (Å^2^)47.00 Macromolecules (Å^2^)46.99 Solvent (Å^2^)48.18Number of TLS groups1[^1]
3.2. Structure analysis of Alr5209 {#s0045}
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Alr5209 contained 16 pentapeptide repeat domains ([Fig. 1](#f0005){ref-type="fig"}) that formed a right-handed quadrilateral β helix consisting of a stack of four Rfr coils with α-helices at the N- and C-termini ([Fig. 2](#f0010){ref-type="fig"}). The N-terminal α-helix contained nine amino acids (13-VATLIEMYT-21) while the C-terminal α-helix was shorter being comprised of four amino acids (119-LLKA-122). The Rfr folds of PRPs are constructed by four β-turns per coil with the type of β-turn being defined by combinations of φ and ψ angles of the residues involved in making up the turns ([@b0165], [@b0115]). Type I and II β turns are distinguished by differences in the ψ angle in the i + 1 position and the φ angle in the i + 2 position with canonical type II β turns having φ and ψ angles of +80° and +120° in these positions, respectively ([@b0115]) ([Table 2](#t0010){ref-type="table"}). Based on the analysis of φ and ψ angles, Alr5209 is composed of a mixture of type I and type II β turns ([Table 2](#t0010){ref-type="table"}). The type I β turns in Alr5209 appeared in every coil in the same position (joining face 2 and face 3) and the rest of the turns were type II β turns. In the i + 1 position of face 2, the φ and ψ angles were −61 ± 3° and −35 ± 4° consistent with the canonical definition of type I β turns (−60°/−30°) ([@b0165], [@b0115]). In the i + 2 position of face 2, the φ and ψ angles were −127 ± 4° and 32 ± 2°, whereas the the φ and ψ angles of the i + 2 residues in that canonical definition of type I β turns are −90° and 0°, respectively. Therefore, the φ and ψ angles of the i + 2 residues were −/+30° from the canonical type I values, respectively, putting them just outside the edge of canonical values used to define type I β turns ([Fig. 3](#f0015){ref-type="fig"}) ([@b0165]). While all other PRPs contain combinations of type II and type IV β turns, Alr5209 is the only known PRP that contains exclusively type I β turns in the same corner of its Rfr solenoid ([Fig. 3](#f0015){ref-type="fig"}). Close inspection of the graphs in [Fig. 3](#f0015){ref-type="fig"} reveals that three PRPs classified as containing mixtures of type II and type IV β turns contain one (2W7Z and 6FLS) or two (2XTZ) type I β turns, respectively. The remaining PRPs classified as containing mixtures of type II and type IV β turns (2BM5, 2G0Y, 2XT2 and 3PSS) did not contain any β turns that could be classified as type I β turns.Fig. 1Alignment of the PRP domains in Alr5209 based on its structure. Underlined residues were not visible in the electron density and were not modeled, α-helical residues are highlighted in yellow. Residues 25 to 104 comprised the pentapeptide repeat domains defining the Rfr solenoid.Fig. 2Overview of the backbone structure in the Rfr fold of Alr5209. The four faces of the Alr5209 PRP structure are depicted using a stick representation colored by heteroatom type. N- and C-termini are labeled in each representation. The two on-axis views are depicted at the lower right excluding the α-helix facing the viewer for clarity. The type of β-turn type was labeled for the on-axis views.Table 2Summary of φ and ψ angles for each amino acid position in the PRP domains in Alr5209.Face 1Face 2Face 3Face 4φ (°)ψ (°)φ (°)ψ (°)φ (°)ψ (°)φ (°)ψ (°)i − 2−4 ± 75112 ± 73−70 ± 9147 ± 7−71 ± 3146 ± 2−74 ± 3150 ± 5i − 1−93 ± 6109 ± 5−100 ± 5102 ± 5−91 ± 3107 ± 3−103 ± 8107 ± 3i−117 ± 723 ± 7−123 ± 634 ± 2−115 ± 425 ± 7−118 ± 723 ± 11i + 1−56 ± 7135 ± 5−61 ± 3−35 ± 4[2](#tblfn2){ref-type="table-fn"}−61 ± 1128 ± 3−60 ± 3135 ± 7i + 264 ± 215 ± 4−127 ± 4[2](#tblfn2){ref-type="table-fn"}32 ± 268 ± 410 ± 972 ± 68 ± 6[^2]Fig. 3Ramachandran plot of type I and type II β turns in Alr5209 in comparison to other PRPs. The orange boxes indicate canonical values (red points) ±30° for type I β turns. The blue boxes indicate canonical values (red points) ±30° for type II β turns. Except 6OMX, all type I/IV β turns locating in or near orange part are linked by purple lines, the blue points stand i + 2 and the green points are i + 1. (For interpretation of the references to color in this figure legend, the reader is referred to the web version of this article.)
Analysis of the Alr5209 structure showed that the direction of the inter-coil hydrogen bond linkages that establish the β-bridges in type I β turns were different in i + 1 and i + 2 positions compared to in the type II β turns. In both type I and type II β turns, the i + 1 carbonyls always acted as hydrogen bond acceptors and the i + 2 amide groups always acted as the hydrogen bond donors. However, in the type II β turns, the i + 1 amino acid carbonyl hydrogen bond acceptor is always on the coil C-terminal to the coil containing the i + 2 amino acid amide hydrogen bond donor ([Fig. 4](#f0020){ref-type="fig"}). In contrast, in type I β turns, the linkage of hydrogen bonds establishing the β-bridges is flipped with the i + 2 amino acid amide hydrogen bond donor always in the coil C-terminal to the coil containing the i + 1 amino acid containing the carbonyl hydrogen bond acceptors ([Fig. 4](#f0020){ref-type="fig"}).Fig. 4Details of type I and type II β turns in Alr5209. The β turns are defined by residues in the i + 2, i + 1, i and i − 1 positions in PRPs. The difference in the combination of the ϕ and Ψ angles that distinguish the type I and type II turns results in a change in the direction of the hydrogen bonds formed between i + 1 and i + 2 residues involved in stabilizing the intercoil structure involving type II turns (left) and type I turns (right).
3.3. Electrostatic potential surface of Alr5209 {#s0050}
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The electrostatic potential surface of Alr5209 is shown in [Fig. 5](#f0025){ref-type="fig"}. Faces 1 and 2 were dominated by strong negative charge whereas face 3 showed a mostly neutral charge distribution and face 4 showed predominantly positive charge ([Fig. 5](#f0025){ref-type="fig"}). The C-terminal surface was neutral and the N-terminal surface contained a mixture of positive, negative and neutral charge distribution. This charge distribution would be consistent with functioning as a DNA mimic which has been reported for the fluoroquinolone resistance protein from *Mycobacterium tuberculosis* ([@b0095]).Fig. 5Electrostatic surface potential of Alr5209 for each face of the right-handed quadrilateral β helix. The electrostatic surface potential surface is depicted for each of the four faces. The Rfr fold coil structure is depicted above each electrostatic potential plot for reference. Red indicates negative charge and blue indicates positive charge with the relative intensity indicated by the scale bar at the bottom. The electrostatic potential at the N-terminus and C-terminus of the right-handed β helix is depicted at the bottom using two on-axis plots. The scale for the surface potential color gradient has units of kT/e where 1 kT/e = 25.7 mV. (For interpretation of the references to color in this figure legend, the reader is referred to the web version of this article.)
3.4. Circular dichroism spectroscopy analysis of the Alr5209 structure and thermal stability {#s0055}
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The thermodynamic stability of the right-handed quadrilateral β-helical structure of Alr5209 was investigated by CD-monitored thermal melting analysis. The room-temperature CD spectrum was consistent with a structure dominated by type 1 and type II β-turns with short N-terminal and C-terminal α-helices ([Fig. 6](#f0030){ref-type="fig"}). At 25 °C, the strongest ellipticity appeared at 210 nm, which could be fit with a composition of secondary structural components consisting of 21.9% α-helix, 13% turn, antiparallel and parallel β-sheet occupy 13.1% and 4.5%, respectively ([Fig. 6](#f0030){ref-type="fig"}A, [Table 3](#t0015){ref-type="table"}). Lack of perfect fitting may reflect an incomplete basis set, for example, lack of characteristic CD contributions of type I and type II β turns in PRP structures. The CD melting experiment ([Fig. 6](#f0030){ref-type="fig"}B) indicated melting temperature of Alr5209 was 59.0 ± 0.7 °C. Compared to the average melting temperature of 62.1 ± 15.0 °C reported for a distribution of over 1100 proteins ([@b0015]), the melting temperature of Alr5209 fell within the average range ([@b0200]). The reverse melting experiment indicated that denatured alr5209 could be mostly refolded (73.8%) after thermal denaturation ([@b0085]). Alr5209's melting temperature was \~3 °C lower compared to that of At2g44920 ([@b0200]). The longer hydrogen bonding network in the extended Rfr coil structure of At2g44920 could require substantially more thermal energy to denature the overall right-handed quadrilateral β-helical structure compared to the Alr5209 structure, which contains only two internal Rfr coils sandwiched by two terminal Rfr coils. The enthalpy of unfolding of Alr5209 was −64.6 ± 8.8 kcal/mol, was smaller and of opposite sign compared to that of At2g44920, which was reported to be +120 kcal/mol.Fig. 6CD spectrum and temperature melting experiments for Alr5209. A) Wavelength scan for 20 μM protein at 25 °C depicted with buffer scan correction and fitted curve. The peak in ellipticity occurred at 210 nm. B) Graph of data points for the temperature melting experiments measured from 15 °C to 85 °C recorded at 210 nm. Increasing temperature from 15 °C to 85 °C resulted in unfolding of the protein and subsequent decreasing of the temperature from 85 °C to 15 °C allowed protein refolding. The degrees of freedom used for fitting was 64. SSR = sum of squared residuals.Table 3The table summarizes the secondary structure contributions to the fit.Helix21.9%Helix1 (regular)6.5%Helix2 (distorted)15.5%Antiparallel13.1%Anti1 (left-twisted)0%Anti2 (relaxed)1.7%Anti3 (right-twisted)11.4%Parallel4.5%Turn13%Others47.5%
3.5. Insight into potential function of Alr5209 from gene cluster analysis {#s0060}
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A gene cluster analysis based on the Kyoto Encyclopedia of Genes and Genomes (KEGG) database ([@b0110]) indicated that five genes, including *alr5209*, belong to the same operon. Of those genes (*alr5208, Alr5209, alr5210, alr5211* and *alr5212*), *alr5208, alr5209*, and *alr5212* were annotated as hypothetical proteins with unknown functions. Alr5210 was annotated as a two-component hybrid sensor and regulator but its function is still unknown and Alr5211 was recognized as a NADH dehydrogenase involved in oxidative phosphorylation based on analogy to the gene cluster with *slr0851, slr1743*, and *sll1484* in cyanobacterium *Synechocystis* sp strain PCC 6803, therefore, Alr5209 may be involved in oxidative phosphorylation ([@b0110]).
3.6. Re-examination of PRP domain consensus sequences {#s0065}
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Pentapeptide repeat domains have been reported to have the approximate consensus sequence (S/T/A/V)(D/N)(L/F)(S/T/R)(X) ([@b0010], [@b0170]). However, prior to solving the crystal structure of Alr5209, we were able to predict the location of its pentapeptide repeat domains using this consensus sequence. Once the structure of Alr5209 was determined it was possible to map the pentapeptide repeat domains onto the Alr5209 amino acid sequence ([Fig. 1](#f0005){ref-type="fig"}). To facilitate reevaluation of the consensus sequences of pentapeptide repeat domains, a sequence Logo analysis was performed for all known PRP structures ([Fig. 7](#f0035){ref-type="fig"}). The sequence logo analysis in [Fig. 7](#f0035){ref-type="fig"} is organized into representations for seven type I plus type IV β turn PRPs, four pure type II β turns PRPs and Alr5209, which is a mixture of type I and type II β turns. Based on our structure-based sequence analysis of all currently known PRP structures, we recommend that the consensus sequence of PRPs should be amended to (A/C/S/V/T/L/I)/(D/N/S/K/E/I/R)/(L/F)/(S/T/R/E/Q/K/V/D)/(G/D/E/N/R/Q/K). The complete list of the frequency of occurrence of every amino acid at every position in the pentapeptide repeat domain positions is compiled in [Table S1](#s0085){ref-type="sec"}. The general consensus from this analysis indicates that any uncharged or small hydrophobic amino acid can be accommodated in the i − 2 position, any charged or polar amino acid can be found in the i − 1 position, the i position is mostly occupied by L or F, followed by I, M, W, but can be occupied by any strongly hydrophobic residue, including A, C, V, the i + 1 positions can be occupied by any charged or polar amino acid, and the i + 2 positions can be occupied by any charged or polar amino acid. These rules are consistent with the topology of the PRPs in that the side chains of the i − 1 and i + 1 amino acids always point away from the axis of the right-handed β-helix, which in a water-soluble PRP would position the hydrophilic and charged side chains towards the solvent environment. Likewise, the side chain of the i position amino acid strongly prefers L or F to establish the hydrophobic core of the protein, but can also accommodate the side chain of any other hydrophobic amino acid. No charged amino acids have ever been observed in the i − 2 position, but uncharged, polar, hydrophilic amino acids have been observed in the i − 2 position.Fig. 7The sequence logo summary of all PRPs with known structures and alignments. The codes above each graph are the PDB code for each protein. The large sequence logo plot at the lower right was calculated using the all sequence alignment for all the other individual PRPs included in the figure.
3.7. Structural consequences of type I beta turns in PRPs {#s0070}
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Based on analysis of all existing PRP structures in Protein Data Bank ([@b0175], [@b0035], [@b0180], [@b0100], [@b0195], [@b0185]), Alr5209 is the first PRP that contains type I β turns in its Rfr fold. All other PRPs structures reported to date contain Rfr folds composed exclusively of type II β turns (206 W ([@b0035]), 3DU1 ([@b0145]), 2J8K ([@b0175]), and 3N90 ([@b0140])) or mixture of type II and IV β turns (2G0Y ([@b0030]), 2W7Z ([@b0100]), 2BM5 ([@b0095]), 2XT2 ([@b0180]), 2XTW ([@b0185]), 6FLS ([@b0150]), and 3PSS ([@b0195])) ([Fig. 7](#f0035){ref-type="fig"}). In order to determine if there was any visible consequence of including type I β turns in the Rfr fold, we compared all existing PRP structures looking along the right-handed β-helical structure ([Fig. 8](#f0040){ref-type="fig"}). One pattern that is apparent is that PRPs composed of combinations of type II and IV β turns experience a significant negative twist in the relative position of the quadrilateral coils along the N-terminal to C-terminal direction ([Fig. 8](#f0040){ref-type="fig"}). PRPs comprised exclusively of type II β turns appear to also contain twist, but the magnitude of the negative twist is significantly smaller compared to PRPs containing both type II and type IV β turns ([Fig. 8](#f0040){ref-type="fig"}). Finally, Alr5209, composed of type I and type II β turns exhibits the least helical twist among known PRPs ([Fig. 8](#f0040){ref-type="fig"}). The twist angles for all PRPs are summarized in [Table 4](#t0020){ref-type="table"}. Based on this analysis, increased magnitude of helical twist appears to be correlated with the presence of loops inserted into the pentapeptide repeat domain sequence, this being especially obvious among the combined type II and type IV β turn PRPs. However, when the twist magnitude was averaged on a per coil basis, the type II plus type IV β turn PRPs still had a significantly larger twist per coil magnitude ([Fig. 9](#f0045){ref-type="fig"}A), suggesting that a fundamental difference in the turn structure was responsible for introducing twist in the Rfr fold. To better understand the origin of increased negative twist in PRPs containing type IV β turns, the distances across each type of β turn were measured ([Fig. 9](#f0045){ref-type="fig"}B). These measurements indicated that the distance across type I β turns was the shortest at \~5.6 Å$,$ compared to \~5.7--5.8 Å for type II β turns, however, the distance across type IV β turns was substantially longer at \~6.4 Å. Consequently, a negative helical twist is required to accommodate the extended β turn distance in comparison to the type I and type II β turn distances. Another consequence of the extended type IV β turns is a general increase in the area spanned by the individual quadrilateral coils ([Table 5](#t0025){ref-type="table"}). This is evident both in the distance between the opposite faces of the quadrilateral β-helix, which increased by as much as 1 Å in going from type I plus type II β turn PRPs to type II plus type IV β turn PRPs ([Table 5](#t0025){ref-type="table"}), and in the diagonal distances across the individual coils, which increased by about 1 Å in each direction ([Table 5](#t0025){ref-type="table"}). Consequently, in this first example of a PRP comprised of both type I plus II β turns, the PRP solenoid is smaller and more compact with less negative helical twist compared to PRP structures made up exclusively of type II β turns and significantly smaller and more compact compared to PRP structures containing both type II and IV β turns, which, in general, have the largest Rfr folds.Fig. 8Backbone traces for all PRPs with known structures and sequence alignments. The PDB code is indicated below each structure. The first column shows all PRPs containing mixtures of type II and IV β turns with the turn distribution of turns indicated at the right where spheres indicate type II turns and orange sheets indicate type IV turns. The second column shows all PRPs made up exclusively of type II β turns. The last column shows Alr5209 which is the first example of a PRP that contains a mixture of type I and II β turns with the turn distribution indicated at the right where spheres indicate type II turns and purple sheets indicate type I turns. All structures are depicted with the N terminus facing the reader and the faces oriented the same as with 2G0Y with face 1 at the bottom, face 2 at the left, face3 at the top, and face 4 at the right. The inserted graph shows the average (bar) and range of twist angles of the three classes of PRPs based on their composition of β turns: type I plus type II, pure type II, or type II plus type IV as listed in [Table 4](#t0020){ref-type="table"}. (For interpretation of the references to color in this figure legend, the reader is referred to the web version of this article.)Table 4Summary of twist angles between coils for all PRPs with known structures.[3.](#tblfn3){ref-type="table-fn"}β-TurnPDB CodeFace 1(°)Face 2(°)Face 3(°)Face 4(°)Type I & II6OMX−5.5 ± 1.8[4](#tblfn4){ref-type="table-fn"}−1.3 ± 1.6−3.3 ± 2.1−6.7 ± 2.9
Type II3N90−7.6 ± 2.7−0.9 ± 0.5−11.7 ± 5.5−3.1 ± 3.72J8K−8.8 ± 3.5[4](#tblfn4){ref-type="table-fn"}−6.8 ± 3.3−8.9 ± 3.6−8.3 ± 3.52O6W−8.7 ± 2.1−4.7 ± 3.1−3.8 ± 1.3−7.0 ± 2.83DU1−11.8 ± 6.2[4](#tblfn4){ref-type="table-fn"}−14.1 ± 6.4−7.8 ± 7.3−15.0 ± 7.8
Type II & IV2XTW−16.4 ± 6.5−12.4 ± 6.9−35.3 ± 12.5−13.0 ± 8.42W7Z−28.2 ± 12.9−6.2 ± 5.8−6.2 ± 5.8−6.3 ± 2.22XT2−26.4 ± 10.0−2.8 ± 6.1−21.5 ± 11.9−16.1 ± 5.22G0Y−8.8 ± 2.5−10.1 ± 5.7−9.3 ± 2.4−10.9 ± 4.72BM5−12.2 ± 5.2−15.3 ± 6.4−11.5 ± 5.1−16.8 ± 7.76FLS−5.6 ± 3.1−22.8 ± 12.2−13.1 ± 5.6−19.3 ± 6.43PSS−10.8 ± 5.6[4](#tblfn4){ref-type="table-fn"}−8.2 ± 5.0−9.9 ± 6.0−9.9 ± 3.5[^3][^4]Fig. 9Graphs showing cross-turn distances for different types of turns and the summary of distance between carbon in i (i) and i − 2 (i + 1) position based on different types of turn. A) average distances across type I, type II and type IV β turns measured in three representative PRPs. B) Left) Distances measured across the β turns in Alr5209 (PDB ID 6OMX). Middle) Distances measured across the β turns in Rfr23 (PDB ID 2O6W). Right) Distances measured across the β turns in Rfr32 (PDB ID 2G0Y).Table 5Summary of distances between and across faces of all PRPs with known structures and sequence alignments.[5](#tblfn5){ref-type="table-fn"}β turnPDB CodeFace 1 (Å)Face 2 (Å)Face 3 (Å)Face 4 (Å)Face 1--3 (Å)Face 2--4 (Å)Face 1--2 (Å)Face 1--4 (Å)Type I & II6OMX10.88 ± 0.0210.41 ± 0.1410.82 ± 0.1411.09 ± 0.1515.16 ± 0.2514.41 ± 0.2510.47 ± 0.3610.95 ± 0.13
3N9011.12 ± 0.1811.02 ± 0.2210.95 ± 0.1811.68 ± 1.1115.43 ± 0.3414.89 ± 0.8210.82 ± 0.2111.00 ± 0.392J8K11.05 ± 0.1210.99 ± 0.1210.92 ± 0.1310.95 ± 0.1814.77 ± 0.5114.99 ± 0.3110.51 ± 0.2511.05 ± 0.13Type II2O6W11.28 ± 0.3711.06 ± 0.1211.24 ± 0.1810.88 ± 0.2714.93 ± 0.3815.51 ± 0.4310.52 ± 0.1311.82 ± 0.513DU111.10 ± 0.1211.09 ± 0.1111.07 ± 0.2211.05 ± 0.2515.29 ± 0.5015.02 ± 0.4810.52 ± 0.2311.40 ± 0.21Average11.13 ± 0.2211.04 ± 0.1511.04 ± 0.2211.10 ± 0.5615.10 ± 0.5315.08 ± 0.5510.57 ± 0.2411.33 ± 0.43
Type II &IV2XTW12.08 ± 0.5311.44 ± 0.5510.57 ± 1.2710.95 ± 0.7715.22 ± 0.5411.08 ± 1.4011.08 ± 0.8712.09 ± 1.462W7Z11.84 ± 0.9611.01 ± 0.3911.40 ± 0.1411.77 ± 0.7616.01 ± 2.3815.86 ± 1.2711.20 ± 0.9813.39 ± 0.882XT211.79 ± 0.7411.18 ± 0.2910.92 ± 1.5911.46 ± 0.7215.71 ± 1.2216.30 ± 0.5010.74 ± 0.6212.60 ± 0.642G0Y12.07 ± 0.2911.24 ± 0.2611.05 ± 0.1810.99 ± 0.1715.71 ± 0.2315.45 ± 0.3211.04 ± 0.1312.04 ± 0.492BM511.63 ± 0.5711.54 ± 0.5011.26 ± 0.4910.98 ± 0.3416.59 ± 0.9115.14 ± 0.6611.54 ± 0.9211.87 ± 0.576FLS12.05 ± 0.4212.26 ± 0.8611.83 ± 0.4711.37 ± 0.1917.00 ± 1.3716.69 ± 0.5112.68 ± 0.7912.37 ± 0.223PSS11.35 ± 0.5710.70 ± 1.3810.95 ± 0.3711.90 ± 0.6016.01 ± 1.5115.19 ± 0.6211.35 ± 0.5712.14 ± 0.71Average11.82 ± 0.6811.35 ± 0.8511.14 ± 0.9511.37 ± 0.6916.05 ± 1.4915.83 ± 1.4911.40 ± 0.9812.35 ± 0.95[^5]
4. Conclusion {#s0075}
=============
Alr5209 from *Nostoc* sp. PCC 7120 represents the first PRP structure that includes type I β turns in its Rfr fold. A combined analysis of its sequence and structure allowed us to investigate how type I β turns, along with type II and type IV β turns can be accommodated into Rfr folds, to characterize the consequences that the occurrence of type I β turns has on the right-handed β-helical coil structure, and to significantly expand our understanding of the consensus sequence observed in pentapeptide repeat protein domains. The thermal titration measurements obtained from CD experiments added to our understanding of how the relative thermal stability PRPs depends on the number of coils comprising the Rfr fold. While an understanding of the biochemical function of Alr5209 remains unknown, genomic analysis indicated that it may play a role in oxidative phosphorylation, however confirmation of such a role will require further examination.
Declaration of Competing Interest
=================================
The authors declare that they have no known competing financial interests or personal relationships that could have appeared to influence the work reported in this paper.
Appendix A. Supplementary data {#s0085}
==============================
The following are the Supplementary data to this article:Supplementary data 1
Supplementary data 2
This work was supported by Miami University. We acknowledge access to the x-ray beamline provided at the Advanced Photon Source (APS) at Argonne National Laboratory. This research used resources of the Advanced Photon Source, a U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) Office of Science User Facility operated for the DOE Office of Science by Argonne National Laboratory under Contract No. DE-AC02-06CH11357. We also acknowledge molecular graphics and analyses performed with UCSF Chimera, developed by the Resource for Biocomputing, Visualization, and Informatics at the University of California, San Francisco, with support from NIH P41-GM103311.
Supplementary data to this article can be found online at <https://doi.org/10.1016/j.yjsbx.2019.100010>.
[^1]: Statistics for the highest-resolution shell are shown in parentheses*.*
[^2]: these φ and ψ angles distinguish between type I and II β turns.
[^3]: Twist angles are defined between first coil and following coils. Negative values negative twists and positive values indicate positive twists.
[^4]: Angles compared starting from the second coil rather than the first coil.
[^5]: The distances of face 1,2,3,4 were measured from the carbonyl carbon of the first amino acids to that of the last amino acid. The distances between faces 1 and 3 were measured from the carbonyl carbon in face 1 i position to that in face 3 i position. The distances of face 2--4 are measured from the carbonyl carbon in face 2 i position to that in face 4 i position. The distances of face 1--2 are measured from the carbonyl carbon in face 1 i position to that in face 2 i position. The distances of face 1--4 are measured from the carbonyl carbon in face 1 i position to that in face 4 i position.
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ONLY ON 3: Sick of snow at home, tourists find refuge in warmer Cape Fear
WILMINGTON, NC (WWAY) — Right now a snowmageddon is taking over much of the country. So far, though, none of it has made its way to the Cape Fear. That is a good reason for some snowbirds to take advantage of our area.
With old man winter ravaging the northeast, midwest, and now the deep south, some folks decided they had enough and headed down here to get a little break from all that snow and ice.
“We were supposed to arrive yesterday, but in fact, we were so snowbound, and then we had a lot of snow and ice on top of it,” said Mollie Babize, who is visiting Wrightsville Beach from Minnesota. “We’ve already had, I don’t know, maybe 40 inches of snow this winter and had another maybe 18 yesterday.”
The Cape Fear in February is not typically a tourist destination, but for those hit by the storm, it’s paradise.
Michael Douglas drives a carriage in downtown Wilmington. He says lately there have been quite a few tourists who said they just wanted to get away.
“I’ve had people coming from Minnesota, Boston, Philadelphia, and they were looking for one to escape what was coming, and most of them did, and to just get away from the cold,” Douglas said.
Throughout the country, bitter cold temperatures from a storm system that has blanketed 30 states with a mix of snow, sleet and freezing rain producing record-breaking snowfall in several midwest locales, including Babize’s home state of Minnesota.
Though the day she arrived wasn’t the sunniest, she says it’s still a far cry from her home in rural Minnesota.
“Well, it was subzero this morning when we left,” she said. “Of course, that was way before dawn, so this feels like maybe March in our realm of the world.”
Babize says she is staying until Monday and is looking forward to enjoying her relatively warm visit. |
Q:
Proving that this sequence converges using the epsilon definition
I have this sequence $\sqrt{n+1}-\sqrt{n}$ and I'm trying to get a better understanding how to apply the epsilon definition of convergence.
I want to prove that this sequence converges to $0$ using this definition.
Here are my steps so far:
$\forall\epsilon>0\exists N_0\in\mathbb{N}\forall n\geq n_0:|\sqrt{n+1}-\sqrt{n}|<\epsilon$
$|\sqrt{n+1}-\sqrt{n}|<\epsilon$
$\iff (\sqrt{n+1}-\sqrt{n})^2<\epsilon ^2$
$\iff (n+1)-2\sqrt{n}\sqrt{n+1}+n<\epsilon^2$
$\iff 2n+1-2\sqrt{n}\sqrt{n+1}<\epsilon^2$
$\iff 2n-2\sqrt{n}\sqrt{n+1}<\epsilon^2-1$
$\iff 2(n-\sqrt{n}\sqrt{n+1})<\epsilon ^2 -1$
$\iff n-\sqrt{n}\sqrt{n+1}<\frac{\epsilon ^2 -1}{2}$
From here on, I'm not completely sure if I'm doing it correctly
$\Rightarrow 2n-n^2=n-n^2+n=n-n(n+1)<n-\sqrt{n}\sqrt{n+1}<\frac{\epsilon^2 -1}{2}$
$\Rightarrow n^2> \frac{\epsilon^2 -1}{6}$
And now I don't know how to remove the exponent. I can't use the square root since the right hand side is not always positive.
What is the next step?
A:
Hint
Use that $$|\sqrt{n+1}-\sqrt{n}|<\epsilon\iff (\sqrt{n+1}-\sqrt{n})(\sqrt{n+1}+\sqrt{n})<\epsilon(\sqrt{n+1}+\sqrt{n}).$$ That is:
$$1<\epsilon(\sqrt{n+1}+\sqrt{n}).$$
Note that if $n\ge \dfrac{1}{\epsilon^2}$ the inequality is satisfied.
|
Background
==========
Senescence marker protein-30 (SMP30), a 34 kDa protein, is preferentially expressed in hepatocytes and renal tubular epithelia. SMP30 is unique in that, its expression is maintained at a high level throughout the tissue maturation process, then decreases in an androgen-independent manner during senescent stages in both sexes \[[@B1],[@B2]\]. Analysis of murine genomic clone revealed that SMP30 is organized into seven exons and six introns spanning approximately 17.5 kb. The full length cDNA fragment (1.6 kb) contains an open reading frame of 897 bp encoding 299 amino acids. Cloned SMP30 promoter is approximately 3 kb in length and up to -1.5 kb of upstream promoter region has been sequenced \[[@B2]\]. We have further sequenced upstream region -3001 to -1502 bp, and the sequence is available from the NCBI database under the accession number EU251064. SMP30 knockout mice though are viable and fertile have reduced body weight and life span. SMP30 deficiency in mice causes an accumulation of neural lipids and phospholipids in liver and shortens the life span \[[@B3]\]. SMP30 plays an important role in maintaining calcium homeostasis as it blunts down cell death caused by intracellular accumulation of calcium by enhancing plasma membranes calcium pumping activity \[[@B1]\]. It also plays a profound role in rescuing cells from cellular injuries such as apoptosis and hypoxia \[[@B4]\]. Besides, SMP30 functions as gluconolactonase in L-ascorbic acid biosynthesis, and its knockout mice are prone to scurvy \[[@B5]\]. Recently, we have also reported the alteration of SMP30 expression in hyperthyroidism \[[@B6]\]. Considering the immense importance of SMP30 in aging and in general physiology of an organism, it is highly essential to understand the mechanism of SMP30 gene expression. Regulation of gene expression at transcriptional level is mediated by the interaction of trans-acting factors with *cis*-acting DNA sequences on the promoter region of the genes. Thus, the cross-talk between trans-acting regulatory factors and *cis*-acting regulatory elements may be important for regulation of SMP30 gene expression. The identification of *cis*-regulatory elements are therefore central and detailed analyses of *cis*-regulatory mechanisms controlling critical transcription factor will be required in order to understand the transcriptional regulation of SMP30 gene. Previously, we reported DNase I footprinting on SMP30 promoter up to -800 bp upstream of the transcription start site and identified eight nuclear factor DNA binding sites in this region excluding -513 to -352 bp \[[@B7]\]. The aim of the present study is to characterize and decipher the mechanism of SMP30 gene expression and regulation. In elucidating the mechanism that endow potent and regulated expression of SMP30, detailed characterization of the promoter is highly desirable. To characterize SMP30 promoter we carried out DNA-protein interaction study by DNase I footprinting studies from -800 bp to -2750 bp and electrophoretic mobility shift assay. In this region about twenty eight putative transcription factor binding sites have been identified of which ten transcription factor binding sites were confirmed by competitive EMSA. Further, to access the transcriptional mechanism of SMP30 gene expression and regulation, we have carried out for the first time 5\' and 3\' serial deletion of SMP30 promoter and subsequently cloned into luciferase reporter vector. Transient transfection and luciferase assay illustrated the region of SMP30 promoter between -128/+157 bp (Luc-6), having significant promoter activity. Progressive deletion study confirmed the presence of a repressor element between -513 bp to -352 bp. DNase I footprinting assay was carried out to chalk out the repressor elements, which revealed the presence of three DNase I protected sites. Analysis of these sequences with TFSEARCH showed the binding of CdxA, GATA2 and SRY transcription factors. Transient transfection of individual site-directed mutated constructs into RAG cells and luciferase assay showed an increase in reporter activity for all the three mutated constructs.
Since mutation of SRY region (-403/-368) showed maximum reporter activity, we suggest SRY along with CdxA and GATA-2 may be acting as a major negative regulator of this gene. Binding of SRY, GATA-2 and CdxA to their respective sites were confirmed by competitive EMSA. Another interesting feature of SMP30 gene promoter is location of Sp1 and C/EBPβ transcription factor binding sites adjacent to each other. Here, we also report that though the presence of these two transcription factor binding sites to minimal promoter region (Luc-5) did not show any significant change in reporter activity as compared to Luc-6, but mutation of both the transcription factor binding site enhanced the reporter activity significantly by 23%. This suggests either direct or indirect interaction between Sp1 and C/EBPβ occurs at transcriptional level in presence of other regulatory factor in SMP30 promoter which causes repression in SMP30 gene promoter activity.
Results
=======
Identification of DNase I protected sites on SMP30 promoter
-----------------------------------------------------------
We have previously identified eight transcription factor binding sites within 0.8 kb mouse SMP30 promoter fragment by DNase I footprinting and EMSA \[[@B7]\]. In this study we further investigated the transcription factor binding sites by DNase I footprinting assay on SMP30 promoter region between -2750/-777 bp using rat liver nuclear extract. The Primers used for footprinting study of the above mentioned regions are shown in table [1](#T1){ref-type="table"}. Within this region, twenty eight DNase I protected sites were identified (Table [2](#T2){ref-type="table"} and [3](#T3){ref-type="table"}) and a representative of three DNase I footprinting sites of the regions -1208/-777 bp, -1491/-1205 bp and -2028/-1626 bp are shown (Figure [1](#F1){ref-type="fig"}, [2](#F2){ref-type="fig"} and [3](#F3){ref-type="fig"}).
######
Primers used for footprinting from -777 to -2750 kb.
**Serial No** **Region Amplified** **Primers: Sense (SS) and antisense (AS)**
--------------- ---------------------- --------------------------------------------
1 -2008 to -777 SS: CAGCATTCCTGGTAGAAACAGGTCC
2 -2008 to -777 AS: GTCCTACACATGGGTGGGCAAATG
3 -1276 to -1039 SS: GCTTCCCAGAGTTCGGCCATTGTTG
4 -1276 to -1039 AS: GTCTTGCAAGCGATGTGTGTGG
5 -1491 to -1205 SS: CCCTTCCCAAGGTTCTCTGC
6 -1491 to -1205 AS:GGTTTTCCCATTGTGACGACGTCGG
7 -1695 to -1391 SS: CACTTGCTTTAACTCCTGCAGC
8 -1695 to -1391 AS: GCTTCTTCATCTTACCCACC
9 -2028 to -1626 SS: GACACACCAGGTGAGCACTGTAC
10 -2028 to -1626 AS: GGTAACTGGAAGTACCCAGC
11 -2190 to -1865 SS: CAAGGCCAGCATGGACTGC
12 -2190 to -1865 AS: GAAGACCTTGGTGGCAGCAG
13 -2448 to -2112 SS: GGTATGCATGCATGCAGTGC
14 -2448 to -2112 AS: GAGCCAATCACCTCCAGGTG
15 -2750 to -2283 SS: GAACGGCAAAGTTAGTATGAGGCC
16 -2750 to -2283 AS: GAGACAGTCCTCAAGTAGCCTGC
######
DNase 1 protected sites.
**Footprint** **DNase 1 protected region** **Transcription factor**
--------------- -------------------------------------------------- --------------------------
**FP 4** TGTGGGTTAAG*CTATTGCAAAACTC*CAACATCTGATCTTGGGGCTT C/EBP β
**FP 5** ACCCCTCCAC*ACACATCGCT*TGCAAGACAAACTGTGGGTT GATA1
**FP 6** C*ACCCCAA*TCCGGCTGAGACTGCTCTGTGAGTAGC AML-1A
**FP 8** CTTGGTGGGTAAGATGAAGAA*GCTAGATTTGG*GCGAAGGC GATA1
**FP 10** TTTGCAAGCGTTGGCCTGCTGCCACCAAGGTCTTCCC Novel
**FP 11** TAAACCA*AATCAAA*TAAAGGCATTTTTCTTCCCCTTCC SRY
######
DNase 1 protected sites between -777 to -2750 (data not shown)
**Footprint** **DNase 1 protected region** **Transcription factor**
-------------------- ----------------------------------------------- --------------------------
**-953 to -913** GGGCCA*ATTTTTA*ACAGCCAATGAAAATGGCAAATGCTACACA CdxA
**-995 to -954** *GGGGCTTATCT*ACGATTGATAGCATGAAGC GATA-X
**-1123 to -1088** CCACCAGTTTGCAGCCAGAATTCCTGG*TAGAAAC*AG CdxA
**-1374 to -1351** CCCCTGGGAAGCTAGA*TTTGTTC*A SRY
**-1440 to -1419** CCCTG*TGAATAACCG*GGACAGG HSF2
**-1546 to -1520** CCCCGGGCCGGCGGCT*ACCTATCTGC*C GATA2
**-1584 to -1550** AGAAGGGTGAGCCCT*CAGGATCGCT*AGTCTCTGCC GATA2
**-1621 to -1587** GCTG*AAAAATG*AAAGGACAGCGTGGGCACCCGTAG Cdxa
**-1983 to -1956** G*GCTATGTCATTTAG*AATCGTTTATTCC Oct-1
**-1994 to -1981** TAGC*TATGTTT*GGC SRY
**-2076 to -2051** *CCTATAAAAT*AAAGGGAAAAGAACACC TATA
**-2111 to -2082** ACCTGGA*GGTGATTGGC*TCTGAGTTTCACC GATA1
**-2134 to -2109** GGGGA*GTGAGTCAG*TGGTAGTGCACC Ap1
**-2167 to -2141** TGAAACTGCCAAGA*AATAATG*TCTTAG CdxA
**-2384 to -2347** TAAATAGGTTTTTAAAAAGAA*AAAGAAA*AAATGGGGCA SRY
**-2414 to -2381** AAGCAAAGCCCTCACACA*CATTAAA*ATGAGTAAA CdxA
**-2491 to -2449** GAGATGACAATTACATCA*AATAATA*AAAGTTATATTTACATCA CdxA
**-2604 to -2562** TGGTGA*GCTTATTTAATC*TCAGAGACTGAAAACATTCTAGGCC HNF-3b
**-2675 to -2646** GCTTGGCGA*GGAGTTT*TAACCCAGAACAGC SRY
**-2691 to -2654** AGAAGCCAGA*TTGAATCAG*TTGCTTGGCGAGGAGTTTTAACCC AP1
**-2704 to -2691** CCAAGAGAAGAAGCC Novel
**-2721 to -2703** GAG*CAATTCAG*GAGAGGCC Nkx-2.5
######
Primers used for 5\' and 3\' deletion.
------------------- ---------------------------------------
Luc-1 (SS) ACA*[GGTACC]{.ul}*CAAATGCTACAGCGCTGG
Luc-2 (SS) ACA*[GGTACC]{.ul}*AATGTCTACTGGGGTAG
Luc-3 (SS) ACA*[GGTACC]{.ul}*CATGCAAGGAAGCAAG
Luc-4 (SS) ACA*[GGTACC]{.ul}*CCTCATACCTGCCATTATC
Luc-5 (SS) ACA*[GGTACC]{.ul}*TACCAAGCCTCTGGCTG
Luc-6 (SS) ACA*[GGTACC]{.ul}*GAATGAGGGAGAGGTG
Luc-SMP-XhoI (AS) ACA*[CTCGAG]{.ul}*GCAAGACAGGAGGTGATTG
Luc-Exon-SMP-Xho1 ACA*[CTCGAG]{.ul}*CGTCTTCAGTCAACTTACC
------------------- ---------------------------------------
{#F1}
{#F2}
{#F3}
Confirmation of identified transcription factor binding site through electrophoretic mobility shift assay (EMSA)
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
All the DNase I protected sequences were analyzed in transcription factor data base (TFSEARCH, Japan) which revealed binding sites sequence homology to multiple transcription factors. To demonstrate the specificity of transcription factors binding sites to the DNase I protected regions, we carried out EMSA and/or supershift assay. We synthesized oligonucleotides (both strands) corresponding to the protected sites (Table [2](#T2){ref-type="table"}) and prepared radiolabeled duplexes for EMSA studies. Five DNase I protected sites were identified in the region -1208/-777 bp of which FP 4 and FP 5 have been confirmed by EMSA (Figure [4](#F4){ref-type="fig"} and [5](#F5){ref-type="fig"}). To FP 4 site binding of C/EBPβ was confirmed by competition with cold C/EBP oligonucleotide and also by C/EBPβ antibody shift experiments. Binding of GATA-1 to FP 5 is confirmed by competition experiments. Four DNase I protected sites were detected in the region -1491/-1205 bp. Though TFSEARCH revealed the binding GATA-3, GATA-1, GATA-2 and AML-1a in order of decreasing binding affinity, only AML-1a competed with FP 6 site (Figure [6](#F6){ref-type="fig"}). Similarly TFSEARCH revealed the binding of Lyf-1 and GATA-1 to FP8, only cold GATA-1 oligonucleotide competed with FP 8 but not Lyf-1 thus confirming the binding of GATA-1 to FP8 (Figure [7](#F7){ref-type="fig"}). Three DNase I protected sites were detected in -2028/-1626 bp region. Binding of no transcription factor up to 80% was observed in TFSEARCH to FP 10, thus it may be a novel transcription factor binding site (Figure [8](#F8){ref-type="fig"}). Binding of SRY to FP 11 is confirmed by competition studies (Figure [9](#F9){ref-type="fig"}). Table [3](#T3){ref-type="table"} shows all the DNase I protected sites confirmed by EMSA (data not shown).
{#F4}
{#F5}
{#F6}
{#F7}
{#F8}
{#F9}
Elucidation of mechanism of SMP30 gene expression and regulation
----------------------------------------------------------------
To elucidate the mechanism of SMP30 gene expression, both 5\' and 3\' deletion constructs were sub-cloned into pGL3 luciferase plasmid and transiently transfected into RAG cells. The 5\' -serially deleted constructs are -920/+157(Luc-1), -710/+157(Luc-2), -513/+157(Luc-3), -352/+157(Luc-4), -240/+157(Luc-5) and -128/+157(Luc-6). The 3\' -serially deleted constructs are +157/-128 and +104/-128. The expression pattern of 5\' -serially deleted constructs is shown in figure [10](#F10){ref-type="fig"}. The 5\' -deleted -128/+157 bp construct (Luc-6) showed highest reporter activity among others. In order to delineate the basal promoter activity further, we carried out transfection of 3\' -deletion construct into RAG cells. The construct -128/+104 bp showed \~ 28% reduction in reporter activity (Figure [11](#F11){ref-type="fig"}). Thus, the region between -128/+157 bp is essential in determining the promoter activity of SMP30 gene and sequence between +104 bp to +157 bp plays a detrimental role during transcription.
{#F10}
{#F11}
Identification of SRY, GATA-2 and CdxA like transcription factor as a repressor element present between -513 and -352 bp
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
The reporter assay of 5\' -serially deleted constructs showed a drastic decline (\~41%) of activity of Luc-4 (-352/+157 bp) as compared to Luc-3 (-513/+157 bp). DNase I footprinting study of the region between -513 bp and -352 bp revealed three distinct DNase I protected sites such as Luc 3--1, Luc 3--2 and Luc 3--3 (Figure [12](#F12){ref-type="fig"}). TFSEARCH revealed the binding of CdxA to Luc 3--1, GATA-2 to Luc 3--2 and SRY to Luc 3--3. To pin point the transcription factor which act as a repressor we prepared site directed mutated constructs for all the three sites. Transient transfection of these mutated constructs was carried out along with wild type Luc 3 (-513/+157) (Figure [13](#F13){ref-type="fig"}). Mutation of Luc3-1 leads to increase in reporter activity by 29%, Luc3-2 by 27% and Luc 3--3 site leads to maximum increase in reporter activity about 59%. This result revealed SRY, CdxA and GATA-2 as the major repressor elements. To further establish this fact, we did EMSA study using both wild type and mutated oligonucleotide of Luc3-3 site. The wild type Luc3-3 oligonucleotide competed with SRY specific cold oligonucleotide consensus, but mutated 3--3 site did not show any binding, thus establishing the binding of SRY to this site (Figure [14](#F14){ref-type="fig"}). The competitive EMSA using radiolabeled Luc3-2 oligonucleotide showed 100% competition with GATA-2 (Figure [15](#F15){ref-type="fig"}), while EMSA using radiolabeled Luc 3--1 which has 85% homology revealed that although there is competition by unlabeled Luc 3--1 oligonucleotide, no significant competition is observed using consensus CdxA site. Considering the high homology to Cdx A consensus binding site, Luc 3--1 site may be interacting with CdxA like transcription factor with slight deviation in binding sequence (data not shown).
{#F12}
{#F13}
{#F14}
{#F15}
Sp1 and C/EBPβ causes repression of SMP30 promoter activity
-----------------------------------------------------------
SMP30 gene promoter has a Sp1 and a C/EBPβ transcription factor binding site adjacent to each other. Sp1 site spans between -172 to -148 bp and C/EBPβ spans between -190 to -177 bp. Here we report that, presence of these two sites in the minimal promoter region did not cause any significant change in reporter activity (that is, there is no significant change in Luc-5 as compared to Luc-6). But site-directed mutation of both the transcription factor binding site caused a significant increase in reporter activity (\~23%) (Figure [5A](#F5){ref-type="fig"}). Individual mutation of only Sp1 and C/EBPβ did not contribute to any significant change in reporter activity. Mutation of Sp1 site reduced the reporter activity by only 16% and mutation of C/EBPβ lead to enhancement of reporter activity by only 14% (Figure [16](#F16){ref-type="fig"}). Binding of Sp1 to the region between -172 to -148 bp is confirmed by competitive EMSA done in presence of 100 fold molar excess of cold Sp1 consensus (Figure [17](#F17){ref-type="fig"}). EMSA was also carried out using labeled mutated Sp1 oligonucleotide, which showed no DNA-protein interaction, thus confirming the inability of Sp1 to bind to the mutated site. Binding of C/EBPβ to the region -190/-177 bp is confirmed by EMSA and antibody shift experiments using C/EBPβ antibody (Figure [5C](#F5){ref-type="fig"}). EMSA study carried out with labeled mutated C/EBP oligonucleotide also yielded a DNA-protein complex. But this complex is not due to binding of C/EBPβ as confirmed by competition with C/EBPβ consensus and antibody shift experiments (Figure [18](#F18){ref-type="fig"}).
{#F16}
{#F17}
{#F18}
Discussion
==========
The multiple biological functions of SMP30 in diverse target cells require its expression to be regulated precisely. It is suggested that the transcriptional regulation of a particular gene is a complex process which usually involves interaction between multiple *cis*-acting regulatory elements and their cognate protein factors \[[@B8],[@B9]\]. A growing list of transcription factors has been shown to function as either transcriptional activator or repressor in different gene promoter. In this study we analyzed the transcriptional regulation of SMP30 gene by DNase I footprinting, EMSA and functional characterization by transient transfection, reporter assay of 5\' and 3\' -serially deleted promoter reporter constructs and site-directed mutagenesis. We have earlier reported eight nuclear factor binding sites on SMP30 gene promoter \[[@B7]\]. In this report twenty eight new DNase I footprinting sites were identified using rat liver nuclear extract. We also demonstrate that the 5\' -flanking regions of SMP30 gene possess a functional promoter when transfected into RAG cells. The results of 5\' and 3\' -deletion analysis illustrated the region -128/+157 bp possesses significant reporter activity. The presence of a TATA sequence (-29 ATAAAA -25) and a CAAT box (-72 CCAAT -68) were previously reported respective to the transcription start site \[[@B2]\]. Our results suggest that the TATA and CAAT box located between -128 bp and +157 bp plays an important role in determining the promoter activity and sufficient to drive SMP30 gene expression. 3\' -- deletion from +157 bp to +104 bp resulted in \~28% decrease in basal promoter activity, thus indicating that this region is essential for SMP30 gene expression. An interesting feature of SMP30 promoter is the presence of C/EBPβ binding site adjacent to Sp1 binding site. Sp1 is a ubiquitous DNA-binding protein with three zinc finger at its C-terminal that activates the transcription of many cellular and viral genes \[[@B10]\]. SMP30 promoter possess a Sp1 binding site between -172 bp to -148 bp. C/EBPβ belongs to CCAAT-enhancer-binding protein family of transcription factors, involved in different cellular response like in control of cellular proliferation, growth and differentiation, metabolism, immune response and many others. C/EBPβ binding site spans between -190 bp to -177 bp on SMP30 promoter. This spatial arrangement of C/EBPβ and Sp1 is critical as Sp1 is known to recruit C/EBPβ to cryptic C/EBP site \[[@B11]\]. Presence of these two sites in the minimal promoter region represented as Luc-5 did not show any significant change in luciferase activity as compared to the Luc-6, but mutation of both Sp1 and C/EBPβ significantly enhanced the reporter gene activity to about 23%. Thus, it is reasonable to believe that direct or indirect interaction between Sp1 and C/EBPβ in presence of some other regulatory factor occurs at transcriptional level in SMP30 promoter which causes a repression in SMP30 promoter activity. Transient transfection of 5\' -deletion fragments revealed the presence of a repressor element between -513 to -352 bp, as deletion of this region caused 41% decrease in reporter activity. Our DNase I footprinting study showed three putative transcription factor binding sites within this region (Figure [12](#F12){ref-type="fig"}). In order to confirm the potential repressor among these DNase I protected sites, we carried out site directed mutagenesis studies of these three sites and subsequent transfection along with wild type (Luc-3). This result suggested a significant enhancement of reporter activity of Luc 3--3 mutated fragment by \~59%, Luc3-2 by 27% and Luc 3--1 by 29%. (Figure [13](#F13){ref-type="fig"}). TFSEARCH indicated the binding of SRY to wild type site Luc 3--3, GATA-2 to Luc 3--2 and CdxA to Luc 3--1 sequences, which is confirmed by competitive EMSA. Earlier reports depicted the tissue specific expression of SRY in testes \[[@B12]\] where it involve in testes determination and differentiation in mammals. Though expression of SRY in substantia nigra of adult male rodents in tyrosin hydroxylase expressing neurons has also been reported but its expression in liver and kidney is still obscure \[[@B13]\]. So the identified transcription factors might be SRY like proteins which bind to a similar binding site as SRY. The affinity of SRY for double-stranded DNA varies with DNA sequence and shares a conserved DNA binding domain (HMG-box) NACAAT \[[@B14]\]. SRY is reported to bind and negatively regulates the androgen receptor gene promoter \[[@B15]\]. We also suggest that GATA-2 and CdxA might be interacting directly or indirectly with SRY to bring about repression of SMP30 gene.
Conclusion
==========
Transcription factors Sp1, C/EBPβ, SRY, GATA-2 and CdxA, binding within -513 of SMP30 promoter, have significant role in regulation of SMP30 gene expression.
Methods
=======
Preparation of nuclear extract
------------------------------
Nuclear extract from liver of adult (5 months) male rats (Fisher 344) were prepared as described previously \[[@B16]\]. Briefly, liver slices were homogenized in 4 volumes (w/v) of ice-cold buffer containing 0.25 M sucrose, 15 mM Tris-HCl (pH 7.9), 16 mM KCl, 15 mM NaCl, 5 mM EDTA, 1 mM EGTA, 1 mM DTT, 0.15 mM spermine, and 0.15 mM spermidine; supplemented with the following protease inhibitors: 0.1 mM PMSF, 2 μg/ml leupeptin, 5 μg/ml aprotonin. After centrifugation for 10 minutes at 2000 × *g*, the pellets were resuspended in 4 volumes of ice-cold buffer (10 mM HEPES; pH 7.9, 1.5 mM MgCl~2,~10 mM KCl, and protease inhibitors). The nuclei were pelleted down by centrifugation for 10 minutes at 4000 × *g*, and resuspended in ice cold buffer of 10 mM HEPES (pH 7.9), 0.75 mM MgCl~2,~0.5 M KCl, 0.5 mM EDTA, 12.5% glycerol and protease inhibitors. After incubation on ice for 30 minutes with continuous agitation, the supernatants containing the nuclear extracts were collected by centrifugation for 30 minutes at 14,000 × *g*, frozen in liquid nitrogen and stored in -70°C until used. All manipulations were carried out at 4°C. Protein concentrations were determined by the Bradford protein assay reagent (Sigma, USA).
DNase I footprinting
--------------------
DNase I footprinting was carried out as described before \[[@B7]\]. Briefly, end-labeled DNA fragments (50 fmoles) were incubated with 50 μg of rat liver nuclear extract and 2 μg of poly (dI-dC) in binding buffer containing 10 mM Tris-HCl (pH 7.5), 50 mM NaCl, 1 mM EDTA, 1 mM DTT, 5% glycerol at room temperature for 30 minutes. Subsequent to binding reaction 7.5 mM MgCl~2~and 5 mM CaCl~2~were added and samples were incubated at room temperature with DNase I (0.25 U, Roche, USA) for 60 s. Ten to twenty folds less DNase I was used for control experiments without nuclear extracts. DNase I enzyme digestion was stopped by the addition of an equal volume of 1% SDS, 20 mM EDTA, 400 mM NaCl, 100 μg/ml yeast tRNA and 200 μg/ml proteinase K. Following incubation at 45°C for 60 minutes, samples were extracted twice with phenol/chloroform, precipitated with ethanol and electrophoresed on 6% polyacrylamide sequencing gel. After electrophoresis, gels were dried on Whatman filter paper and autoradiographed. Primers used for generating end labeled DNA fragments for footprinting of the region -513/-352 bp are: 5\' -GCCTCATGCAAGGAAGCAAG-3\' SS and 5\' -GATAATGGCAGGTATGAGGG-3\' AS. Primers used for footprinting from -2750 bp to -777 bp are shown in table [1](#T1){ref-type="table"}.
Electrophoretic mobility shift assay (EMSA)
-------------------------------------------
Oligonucleotides (both strands) corresponding to identified DNase I protected sites (table [2](#T2){ref-type="table"}, [3](#T3){ref-type="table"}, [5](#T5){ref-type="table"} and [6](#T6){ref-type="table"}) were synthesized. For each site, one strand was end-labeled with \[γ-^32^P\] ATP using T~4~polynucleotide kinase and annealed to its complementary unlabeled strand. Nuclear extracts (4--6 μg) were incubated with 20 fmoles of radiolabeled oligonucleotide duplex in 30 μl reaction containing 10 mM Tris-HCl (pH 7.5), 50 mM NaCl, 1 mM EDTA, 1 mM DTT, 5 % glycerol and 1.0 μg poly (dI-dC) for 20 minutes at room temperature. In competition experiments, 100-fold molar excess of unlabeled oligonucleotide duplexes were added during preincubation period. For antibody shift assay, C/EBPβ antibody (Santacruz, USA) was added after addition of nuclear extract and incubated at 4°C for 10 min. Free DNA and protein bound DNA was separated on 5% non-denaturing polyacrylamide gel in 0.5 X Tris-boric acid-EDTA (TBE). After electrophoresis, gels were blotted onto filter paper, dried and autoradiographed.
######
Primers and oligonucleotide used for site- directed mutagenesis.
------------- --------------------------------------
Mut Luc-3-1 GCTGgAGGCcTAGCTCTGTAGCAGAgTACAccCAAG
Mut Luc-3-2 CAgGGTCCTcGTTCcATtCCaG
Mut Luc-3-3 CCAGTgCAgACgAGCAAGCggCTGTATATgC
SP1-SMP GCTCCCCCCCCCCGCCCCCCCCCAGGG
Mut-SP1 GCTCCtCCtCCtCGtCtCCCtCCAG
C/EBP-SMP ACTGATGTACACATTCCTAAAACTGGC
Mut-C/EBP ACTGgTGgACACAggCCTAggACTGGC
------------- --------------------------------------
######
Oligonucleotide of the three footprints between -513 to -352 bp used for EMSA.
**Footprint** **DNase 1 protected region** **Transcription factor**
--------------- ------------------------------------------- --------------------------
Luc3-1 GGAGCTGGAGGCATAGCTCTGTAGCAGAATACATTCAAGGT CdxA
Luc3-2 TTCAAGGTCCTAGTTCTATCCCAG GATA-2
Luc3-3 AACTACCAGTACAAACAAGCAAGCAACTGTATACAT SRY
Construction of 5\' and 3\' -serially deleted SMP30 fragments and it\'s cloning into pGL3-Basic vector
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
To construct 5\' -serially deleted SMP30 fragments Luc-SMP-XhoI reverse primer and the forward primers as mentioned in table [4](#T4){ref-type="table"}, containing Kpn1 sites were used. The PCR amplification was carried out using step cycles (94°C for 30 s, 62°C for 30 s, 72°C for 30 s) for 35 cycles with a final extension at 72°C for 10 minutes. Then the PCR products were purified using QIAquick Gel Extraction Kit (Qiagen, USA). The serially deleted fragments and pGL3-Basic vector were digested with KpnI and XhoI enzyme (MBI Fermentas). The digested 5\' -serially deleted fragments were then ligated into restriction enzyme digested pGL3-Basic vector using DNA ligase (USB, USA). The cloned fragments were then confirmed by vector specific PCR using RV and GL2 primer, and also by sequencing.
Site-directed mutagenesis
-------------------------
Five to six bases of the transcription factor core binding site were mutated as shown in the table [5](#T5){ref-type="table"} (bases in small letter represents mutated base). For mutagenesis of transcription factors two sets of PCR were carried out using the following combination of primers: For Sp1: MutSp1 sense/Luc-SMP-XhoI antisense and Luc 5 sense/Mut Sp1 antisense; for C/EBP: Mut C/EBP sense/Luc-SMP-XhoI antisense and Luc 5 sense/Mut C/EBP antisense; for Mut Luc 3--1: Mut Luc3-1 sense/Luc-SMP-XhoI antisense and Luc-SMP-3 sense/Mut Luc 3--1 antisense; for Mut Luc 3--2: Mut Luc 3--2 sense/Luc-SMP-XhoI antisense and Luc-3 sense/Mut Luc 3--2 antisense; for Mut Luc 3--3: Mut Luc 3--3 sense/Luc-SMP-XhoI antisense and Luc-SMP-3 sense/Mut Luc 3--3 antisense. The PCR amplification was performed using step cycles (94°C for 1 min, 62°C for 30 s, 72°C 30 s) for 35 cycles with a final extension at 72°C for 10 minutes. Both the PCR products were purified using QIAquick Gel Extraction Kit. DNA was eluted using 30 μl of autoclaved deionised water. 5 μl of each PCR product was used as a template for the second round of PCR. For example: for construction of mutant Sp1 site: 5μl each of the PCR product Mut Sp1 sense/Luc-SMP-XhoI antisense and Luc-5 sense/Mut Sp1 antisense was used as template. For construction of mutant Sp1 and mutant C/EBP, Luc-5 and Luc-SMP-XhoI was used as forward and reverse primers. For construction of mutant Luc 3--1, Luc 3--2 and Luc 3--3, Luc-3 and Luc-SMP-XhoI was used as forward and reverse primers. PCR amplification was carried out using the same parameters as mentioned above. Then the PCR products were purified using QIAquick Gel Extraction Kit. The fragments with mutated transcription factor binding sites, having KpnI and XhoI restriction sites and pGL3-Basic vector were digested with KpnI and XhoI enzyme. The fragments were then ligated into restriction enzyme digested pGL3-Basic vector using DNA ligase. The cloned fragments were then confirmed by vector specific PCR using RV and GL2 primer, and the mutation was confirmed by sequencing.
Transient transfection and luciferase assay
-------------------------------------------
Transient transfections were carried out using RAG cells (mouse renal adenocarcinoma cell line) as SMP30 is also expressed in kidney. The cells were plated at a density of 2 × 10^5^cells per well in six well plates, 18 h before transfection. For transient transfection 2 μg of respective reporter plasmid DNA and 0.5 μg of pSV-β-gal control vector (Promega, USA) or 100 ng of pRL-TK control vector were cotransfected into cells using FuGENE reagent (Roche, USA). After 24 h post transfection, the cells were harvested, lysed, centrifuged and the lysate was used for luciferase assay using the luciferase assay system (Promega, USA). The colorimetric β-galactosidase assay was performed using β-Gal assay kit (Invitrogen, USA) and luciferase activity was divided by the β-galactosidase activity to normalize for transfection efficiency. For transfection of mutated constructs Renella was used as an internal control and dual luciferase assay was preformed to measure the luciferase reading as per manufacturer\'s instruction (Promega, USA). All the transfections were repeated in duplicates in three to five independent experiments. The number of independent experiments is being mentioned in respective figure legends.
Abbreviations
=============
SMP30: Senescence Marker Protein 30; EMSA: Electrophoretic Mobility Shift Assay; RLNE: Rat Liver Nuclear Extract.
Authors\' contributions
=======================
PCS and NM conceived the idea, designed and planned the experiments. BR and PCS wrote the manuscript. BR and RSP were involved in all experimentations. PRD was involved in designing and preparation of promoter-reporter constructs. All authors have analyzed the data and agreed with the final version of the manuscript.
Acknowledgements
================
This research was supported by Department of Biotechnology, Govt. of India, New Delhi, India. PRD is supported by pre-doctoral research fellowship from Council of Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR), New Delhi, India. We thank Dr. Soumen Chakraborty for his advice in preparation of site directed mutated constructs and transfection experiments.
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Q:
How to get a subset from JSON using AngularJS
I have JSON data such as:
[{slug: 'a'}, {slug: 'b'}, {slug: 'c'}, {slug: 'd'}]
Now I want to write code in my controller so that when I pass b to it, it should return:
[{slug: 'b'}, {slug: 'c'}, {slug: 'd'}]
Please suggest a good way to achieve this with AngularJS.
Thanks
A:
Basically you need a function like this:
var takeStartingAt = function (data, start) {
var result = [],
skip = true;
for (var i = 0; i < data.length; i++) {
if (data[i].slug === start) { skip = false; }
if (skip) { continue; }
result.push(data[i]);
}
return result;
};
That's it. Now you can use this function as follows:
var data = [
{ slug: 'a' },
{ slug: 'b' },
{ slug: 'c' },
{ slug: 'd' }
];
var filteredData = takeStartingAt(data, 'b');
Then filteredData will be an array that only contains the objects starting from slug: 'b'.
|
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Thursday, April 1, 2010
Protectionism-An Introduction
NEAR the window by which I write, a great bull is tethered by a ring in his nose. Grazing round and round he has wound his rope about the stake until now he stands a close prisoner, tantalized by rich grass he cannot reach, unable even to toss his head to rid him of the flies that cluster on his shoulders. Now and again he struggles vainly, and then, after pitiful bellowings, relapses into silent misery.
This bull, a very type of massive strength, who, because he has not wit enough to see how he might be free, suffers want in sight of plenty, and is helplessly preyed upon by weaker creatures, seems to me no unfit emblem of the working masses.
In all lands, men whose toil creates abounding wealth are pinched with poverty, and, while advancing civilization opens wider vistas and awakens new desires. are held down to brutish levels by animal needs. Bitterly conscious of injustice, feeling in their inmost souls that they were made for more than so narrow a life, they, too, spasmodically struggle and cry out. But until they trace effect to cause, until they see how they are fettered and how they may be freed, their struggles and outcries are as vain as those of the bull. Nay, they are vainer. I shall go out and drive the bull in the way that will untwist his rope. But who shall drive men into freedom? Till they use the reason with which they have been gifted, nothing can avail. For them there is no special providence.
Under all forms of government the ultimate power lies with the masses. It is not kings nor aristocracies, nor land-owners nor capitalists, that anywhere really enslave the people. It is their own ignorance. Most clear is this where governments rest on universal suffrage. The workingmen of the United States may mould to their will legislatures, courts and constitutions. Politicians strive for their favor and political parties bid against one another for their vote. But what avails this? The little finger of aggregated capital must be thicker than the loins of the working masses so long as they do not know how to use their power. And how far from any agreement as to practical reform are even those who most feel the injustice of existing conditions may be seen in the labor organizations. Though beginning to realize the wastefulness of strikes and to feel the necessity of acting on general conditions through legislation, these organizations when they come to formulate political demands seem unable to unite upon any measures capable of large results.
This political impotency must continue until the masses, or at least that sprinkling of more thoughtful men who are the file leaders of popular opinion, shall give such head to larger questions as will enable them to agree on the path reform should take.
It is with the hope of promoting such agreement that I propose in these pages to examine a vexed question which must be settled before there can be any efficient union in political action for social reform—the question whether protective tariffs are or are not helpful to those who get their living by their labor.
This is a question important in itself, yet far more important in what it involves. Not only is it true that its examination cannot fail to throw light upon other social-economic questions, but it leads directly to that great "Labor Question" which every day as it passes brings more and more to the foreground in every country of the civilized world. For it is a question of direction—a question which of two divergent roads shall be taken. Whether labor is to be benefited by governmental restrictions or by the abolition of such restrictions is, in short, the question of how the bull shall go to untwist his rope.
In one way or another, we must act upon the tariff question. Throughout the civilized world it everywhere lies within the range of practical politics. Even when protection is most thoroughly accepted there not only exists a more or less active minority who seek its overthrow, but the constant modifications that are being made or proposed in existing tariffs are as constantly bringing the subject into the sphere of political action, while even in that country in which free trade has seemed to be most strongly rooted, the policy of protection is again raising its head. Here it is evident that the tariff question is the great political question of the immediate future. For more than a generation the slavery agitation, the war to which it led and the problems growing out of that war have absorbed political attention in the United States. That era has passed, and a new one is beginning, in which economic questions must force themselves to the front. First among these questions, upon which party lines must soon be drawn and political discussion must rage, is the tariff question.
It behooves not merely those who aspire to political leadership, but those who would conscientiously use their influence and their votes, to come to intelligent conclusions upon this question, and especially is this incumbent upon the men whose aim is the emancipation of labor. Some of these men are now supporters of protection; others are opposed to it. This division, which must place in political opposition to each other those who are at one in ultimate purpose, ought not to exist. One thing or the other must be true—either protection does give better opportunities to labor and raises wages, or it does not. If it does, we who feel that labor has not its rightful opportunities and does not get its fair wages should know it, that we may unite, not merely in sustaining present protection, but in demanding far more. If it does not, then, even if not positively harmful to the working classes, protection is a delusion and a snare, which distracts attention and divides strength, and the quicker it is seen that tariffs cannot raise wages the quicker are those who wish to raise wages likely to find out what can. The next thing to knowing how anything can be done, is to know how it cannot be done. If the bull I speak of had wit enough to see the uselessness of going one way, he would surely try the other.
My aim in this inquiry is to ascertain beyond per adventure whether protection or free-trade best accord with the interests of those who live by their labor I differ with those who say that with the rate of wages the state has no concern. I hold with those who deem the increase of wages a legitimate purpose of public policy. To raise and maintain wages is the great object that all who live by wages ought to seek, and workingmen are right in supporting any measure that will attain that object. Nor in this are they acting selfishly, for, while the question of wages is the most important of questions to laborers, it is also the most important of questions to society at large. Whatever improves the condition of the lowest and broadest social stratum must promote the true interests of all. Where the wages of common labor are high and remunerative employment is easy to obtain, prosperity will be general. Where wages are highest, there will be the largest production and the most equitable distribution of wealth. There will invention be most active and the brain best guide the hand. There will be the greatest comfort, the widest diffusion of knowledge, the purest morals and the truest patriotism. If we would have a healthy, a happy, an enlightened and a virtuous people, if we would have a pure government, firmly based on the popular will and quickly responsive to it, we must strive to raise wages and keep them high. I accept as good and praiseworthy the ends avowed by the advocates of protective tariffs. What I propose to inquire is whether protective tariffs are in reality conducive to these ends. To do this thoroughly I wish to go over all the ground upon which protective tariffs are advocated or defended, to consider what effect the opposite policy of free trade would have, and to stop not until conclusions are reached of which we may feel absolutely sure.
To some it may seem too much to think that this can be done. For a century no question of public policy has been so widely and persistently debated as that of Protection vs. Free Trade. Yet it seems to-day as far as ever from settlement—so far, indeed, that many have come to deem it a question as to which no certain conclusions can be reached, and many more to regard it as too complex and abstruse to be understood by those who have not equipped themselves by long study.
This is, indeed, a hopeless view. We may safely leave many branches of knowledge to such as can devote themselves to special pursuits. We may safely accept what chemists tell us of chemistry, or astronomers of astronomy, or philologists of the development of language, or anatomists of our internal structure, for not only are there in such investigations no pecuniary temptations to warp the judgment, but the ordinary duties of men and of citizens do not call for such special knowledge, and the great body of a people may entertain the crudest notions as to such things and yet lead happy and useful lives. Far different, however, is it with matters which relate to the production and distribution of wealth, and which thus directly affect the comfort and livelihood of men. The intelligence which can alone safely guide in these matters must be the intelligence of the masses, for as to such things it is the common opinion, and not the opinion of the learned few, that finds expression in legislation.
If the knowledge required for the proper ordering of public affairs be like the knowledge required for the prediction of an eclipse, the making of a chemical analysis, or the decipherment of a cuneiform inscription, or even like the knowledge required in any branch of art or handicraft, then the shortness of human life and the necessities of human existence must forever condemn the masses of men to ignorance of matters which directly affect their means of subsistence. If this be so, then popular government is hopeless, and, confronted on one side by the fact, to which all experience testifies, that a people can never safely trust to any portion of their number the making of regulations which affect their earnings, and on the other by the fact that the masses can never see for themselves the effect of such regulations, the only prospect before mankind is that the many must always be ruled and robbed by the few.
But this is not so. Political economy is only the economy of human aggregates, and its laws are laws which we may individually recognize. What is required for their elucidation is not long arrays of statistics nor the collocation of laboriously ascertained facts, but that sort of clear thinking which, keeping in mind the distinction between the part and the whole, seeks the relations of familiar things, and which is as possible for the unlearned as for the learned.
Whether protection does or does not increase national wealth, whether it does or does not benefit the laborer, are questions that from their nature must admit of decisive answers. That the controversy between protection and free trade, widely and energetically as it has been carried on, has as yet led to no accepted conclusion cannot therefore be due to difficulties inherent in the subject. It may in part be accounted for by the fact that powerful pecuniary interests are concerned in the issue, for it is true, as Macaulay said, that if large pecuniary interests were concerned in denying the attraction of gravitation, that most obvious of physical facts would have disputers. But that so many fair-minded men who have no special interests to serve are still at variance on this subject can only, it seems to me, be fully explained on the assumption that the discussion has not been carried far enough to bring out that full truth which harmonizes all partial truths.
The present condition of the controversy, indeed, shows this to be the fact. In the literature of the subject, I know of no work in which the inquiry has yet been carried to its proper end. As to the effect of protection upon the production of wealth, all has probably been said that can be said; but that part of the question which relates to wages and which is primarily concerned with the distribution of wealth has not been adequately treated. Yet this is the very heart of the controversy, the ground from which, until it is thoroughly explored, fallacies and confusions must constantly arise, to envelop in obscurity even that which has of itself been sufficiently explained.
The reason of this failure is not far to seek. Political economy is the simplest of the sciences. It is but the intellectual recognition, as related to social life, of laws which in their moral aspect men instinctively recognize, and which are embodied in the simple teachings of him whom the common people heard gladly. But, like Christianity, political economy has been warped by institutions which, denying the equality and brother-hood of man, have enlisted authority, silenced objection, and ingrained themselves in custom and habit of thought. Its professors and teachers have almost invariably belonged to or been dominated by that class which tolerates no questioning of social adjustments that give to those who do not labor the fruits of labor's toil. They have been like physicians employed to make a diagnosis on condition that they shall discover no unpleasant truth. Given social conditions such as those that throughout the civilized world today shock the moral sense, and political economy, fearlessly pursued, must lead to conclusions that will be as a lion in the way to those who have any tenderness for "vested interests." But in the colleges and universities of our time, as in the Sanhedrim of old, it is idle to expect any enunciation of truths unwelcome to the powers that be.
Adam Smith demonstrated clearly enough that protective tariffs hamper the production of wealth. But Adam Smith—the university professor, the tutor and pensioner of the Duke of Buccleugh, the prospective holder of a government place—either did not deem it prudent to go further, or, as is more probable, was prevented from seeing the necessity of doing so by the atmosphere of his time and place. He at any rate failed to carry his great inquiry into the causes which from "that original state of things in which the production of labor constitutes the natural recompense or wages of labor" had developed a state of things in which natural wages seemed to be only such part of the produce of labor as would enable the laborer to exist. And, following Smith, came Malthus, to formulate a doctrine which throws upon the Creator the responsibility for the want and vice that flow from man's injustice—a doctrine which has barred from the inquiry which Smith did not pursue even such high and generous minds as that of John Stuart Mill. Some of the publications of the Anti-Corn-Law League contain indications that if the struggle over the English corn laws had been longer continued, the discussion might have been pushed further than the question of revenue tariff or protective tariff; but, ending as it did, the capitalists of the Manchester school were satisfied, and in such discussion as has since ensued English free traders, with few exceptions, have made no further advance, while American advocates of free trade have merely followed the English free traders.
On the other hand, the advocates of protection have evinced a like indisposition to venture on burning ground. They extol the virtues of protection as furnishing employment, without asking how it comes that any one should need to be furnished with employment; they assert that protection maintains the rate of wages, without explaining what determines the rate of wages. The ablest of them, under the lead of Carey, have rejected the Malthusian doctrine, but only to set up an equally untenable optimistic theory which serves the same purpose of barring inquiry into the wrongs of labor, and which has been borrowed by Continental free traders as a weapon with which to fight the agitation for social reform.
That, so far as it has yet gone, the controversy between protection and free trade has not been carried to its logical conclusions is evident from the positions which both sides occupy. Protectionists and free traders alike seem to lack the courage of their convictions. If protection have the virtues claimed for it, why should it be confined to the restriction of imports from foreign countries? If it really "provides employment" and raises wages, then a condition of things in which hundreds of thousands vainly seek employment, and wages touch the point of bare subsistence, demands a far more vigorous application of this beneficent principle than any protectionist has yet proposed. On the other hand, if the principle of free trade be true, the substitution of a revenue tariff for a protective tariff is a ridiculously inefficient application of it.
Like the two knights of allegory, who, halting one on each side of the shield, continued to dispute about it when the advance of either must have revealed a truth that would have ended their controversy, protectionists and free traders stand to-day. Let it be ours to carry the inquiry wherever it may lead. The fact is, that fully to understand the tariff question we must go beyond the tariff question as ordinarily debated. And here, it may be, we shall find ground on which honest divergences of opinion may be reconciled, and facts which seem conflicting may fall into harmonious relations. |
Q:
ASP.NET MVC 5 Internationalization - culture allways default
I followed this great article about ASP.NET MVC 5 Internationalization (refered by asp.net site):
http://afana.me/post/aspnet-mvc-internationalization.aspx
After implementing, I have just one problem that I can't solve.
In MVC5, using the culture in urls (NOT using cookies), the culture is allways the default, never getting the users prefered languages sent by browser.
In more detail:
The problem is the defauls for culture in MapRoute, that start with the default hardcoded culture for site. Then in the BeginExecuteCore the RouteData.Values["culture"] is allways filled with the default culture, never getting culture from Request.UserLanguages.
The RouteData.Values["culture"] is filled even if the culture is not present in the url, at first site root access for example.
How to correctly change this behavior?
Maybe creating 2 Routes, one without culture?
Associated code:
routes.MapRoute(
name: "Default",
url: "{culture}/{controller}/{action}/{id}",
defaults: new {culture = CultureHelper.GetDefaultCulture(), controller = "Home", action = "Index", id = UrlParameter.Optional }
);
protected override IAsyncResult BeginExecuteCore(AsyncCallback callback, object state)
{
string cultureName = RouteData.Values["culture"] as string;
// Attempt to read the culture cookie from Request
if (cultureName == null)
cultureName = Request.UserLanguages != null && Request.UserLanguages.Length > 0 ? Request.UserLanguages[0] : null; // obtain it from HTTP header AcceptLanguages
//...
}
A:
I discovered the solution, need to add another mapRoute (the mvc default for site root access), and coment the default value for culture route, route order is important, everything works good now:
public static void RegisterRoutes(RouteCollection routes)
{
routes.IgnoreRoute("{resource}.axd/{*pathInfo}");
//Route order is important! First need to put culture route.
//support for diferent languages/cultures
routes.MapRoute(
name: "CultureEnabled",
url: "{culture}/{controller}/{action}/{id}",
defaults: new { /*culture = CultureHelper.GetDefaultCulture(),*/ controller = "Home", action = "Index", id = UrlParameter.Optional }
);
routes.MapRoute(
name: "Default",
url: "{controller}/{action}/{id}",
defaults: new { controller = "Home", action = "Index", id = UrlParameter.Optional }
);
}
|
Q:
Excel email validation for position of . after @ character
In addition to checking if a cell has an @ and a . character associated to it, is there any way we can take the following and check if there is atleast one . is after the @ character? and if not, that consider the email address false?
=AND(NOT(ISERROR(FIND("@",C2))),NOT(ISERROR(FIND(".",C2))),ISERROR(FIND(" ",C2)))
A:
This also works and is very easy to understand and provides better email validation:
=IF(ISERROR(SEARCH(".",A8,SEARCH("@",A8)+2)),"FAILS","PASSES")
|
Smoking ban may present hard choices
A local restaurant may have to choose between children or smokers. At Players Retreat near NC State, the staff has been mopping up, getting ready for the daily lunch crowd. The restaurant has always been kid-friendly and smoker-friendly.
Now, owner Gus Gusler may have to choose one or the other and neither is a good option.
"It's just not fair," Gusler said.
The State House made history Thursday when it passed legislation banning smoking in most restaurants and workplaces. The exception is businesses that don't serve or employ people under the age of 18 -- primarily bars -- can still have a smoking section.
That leaves business owners like Gusler in a bad spot.
"I'm gonna have to make an economic decision, saying no one can come here under 18 and allow people to smoke, which is completely against the tradition of the place of being a family place," Gusler explained. "Or say no smoking, keep my families, and I'm gonna go out of business."
Gusler said he is hardly a smoking advocate because cigarettes killed his mom. He even supported the original bill, which proposed a ban in all public places.
"None of us want smoking in our restaurants and bars," Gusler said. "We'd much prefer to not allow it, but you can't take it away from us and let somebody else do it and take business away from us."
Even some of those who won't lose business are upset with the bill. That includes the folks at Tobacco Road Sports Cafe, which is already smoke-free.
"Just as we have the right to choose to be non-smoking, we feel business owners have the right to be smoking," said Darren Birt, restaurant manager.
Now that the bill has passed the House, it will go into the Senate. Leaders there tell Eyewitness News they expect it will have "significant support."
Perhaps it will have support at the Legislature, but it certainly doesn't have support amongst many of those whose businesses may depend on it.
Gusler said he and a couple dozen restaurant and pub owners will meet Monday to discuss what to do next. He said if the bill becomes law as is, he will sue, claiming his constitutional right to equal protection under the law is violated. |
Fright Night
Fright Night
B
B
Fright Night
Director
Craig Gillespie
Runtime
106 minutes
Rating
R
Cast
Colin Farrell, Anton Yelchin, David Tennant
Some of the most chilling visuals in Fright Night—a new remake of Tom Holland’s well-liked, self-aware 1985 vampire movie—come not when the blood starts spurting and the stakes start flying, but from the images of a desolate suburban oasis that appear near the opening of the film. Just a few uniform blocks surrounded by desert, darkness, and the distant lights of Las Vegas, the setting suggests a nice, normal place where unspeakable things could transpire without the world at large noticing—and where those directly affected might be too dulled by the blanketing blandness to save themselves.
Advertisement
That’s more or less what happens when a nice high-school kid (Anton Yelchin) fails to suspect that his new next-door neighbor (Colin Farrell) might be the reason so many fellow students have stopped showing up for school in the morning. To be fair, he has his reasons for not noticing. Too distracted by the pressure of dating a classmate (Imogen Poots) above his social station, Yelchin ignores the warnings of his one-time best friend Christopher Mintz-Plasse, an unrepentant nerd who’s had his eye on Farrell for a while and has come to a chilling conclusion: “He’s the fucking shark from Jaws.” Trouble is, Farrell has had his eye out, too.
Directed by Craig Gillespie (Lars And The Real Girl) from a screenplay by Marti Noxon, a Buffy The Vampire Slayer veteran, Fright Night works reasonably well as a scary movie. Though some of his work gets muddied in 3-D, Gillespie knows how to stage shocks, gore, and action sequences—including a long car chase that borrows liberally from a famous scene in Children Of Men. But the film’s greatest pleasures come from Noxon’s script—which puts the sexual chaos created by Farrell’s attractive bloodsucker front and center—and from the performances. Former Doctor Who star David Tennant has a plum role as a Criss Angel-like Vegas cheeseball whose vampire-themed stage show might hide a special connection to vampire lore. It’s a big, fun performance overshadowed only by Farrell, who plays his character as a monster who’s learned to use an ordinary-dude exterior to blend in with his new surroundings. When he asks Yelchin for a “sixer,” Farrell delivers his lines with a Matt Dillon-like flatness, but his eyes tell another story: Beneath the surface, he’s all coiled hunger and pitiless manipulation, doing what he has to do to get close to victims who, against their better judgment, want to get close to him. He creates almost unbearable tension by doing virtually nothing at all, and though Fright Night eventually reveals him as the vampire equivalent of the fucking shark from Jaws, it’s never better than when it lets him poke his fin just above the surface. |
Finally a week of training I am really please with. But what was my week unofficially like, you ask?
Well, I'm getting more and more feedback that I am indeed crazy. There is this social concept in Denmark called Jante Law (janteloven)and it basically is the idea that no one is entitled to more of anything than anyone else. If you stretch your imagination slightly, you can see how this also would apply to running/exercise. I find myself constantly trying to hide the fact that I run so much (and the other exercise, too). Winning races is one thing. The people I work with seems to find that charming. But the actual training part? It came out that I had run 3 hours a day with The Lorax in a baby jogger after he was born and there was a concensu among my co-workers that it was good I was over that "illness". (In case you think I am hoping for someone to say, "No, you're not crazy", I'm not. I know I'm a running junkie with a real addiction. But the real question is how unhealthy is it?
Then there is the obvious conflict: when do I actually have time for the kids, SR, cleaning, cooking, etc? It has come up a few times on SR's side of the family that my exercise is a sign of laziness. Might sound counter intuitive, but, of course, I am sure you all understand how I could come off as lazy with an often unclean apartment and shoving yogurt and cereal at my kids for dinner. Or relying on SR to make real food. It's pathetic and I'm embarrassed by it.
Physically, I feel I'm in great shape and ready for Brocken Marathon in Germany on Saturday. As it is in the mountains (over 1000 meters of climb) and there is no chance for a PR, it will simply be fun. But what about getting pregnant? Am I pregnant? Well, on Wednesday, I took note of the fact that my resting pulse was 78, which was certainly higher than I would expect. A rise in resting pulse from 12-15 bpm is actually one of the first signs of pregnancy. Happens before a pregnancy test turns positive. The problem is, I think I somehow willed my pulse to rise. I was 3 days late for my period and took a pregnancy test, which was negative, and later measured my pulse to be 62. :(. And I actually don't know what my resting pulse normally is. Then today I got my period. It is almost enough to make a girl believe she's not actually pregnant. Being infertile may have its charm when one is 20, but not when one is 31 and trying to get pregnant. But does it have anything to do with exercise? If I lived in Chile, I might believe it was simply someone wishing evil upon me.
But, leaving all that behind, I went on an amazing run today. It is hard for me to express the happiness I get from being able to run endlessly to explore the landscape here. I had always wanted to run from Næstved to Mogenstrup through the forests and over the repeating åse and that is exactly what I used my 15.5 mile run on. I am working on finding a running route for an aquathon I want to arrange with out tri club and I think I finally found it. SR was away at work again. I got a baby sitter for the kids. I know. Lazy. ... (but worth it!)
Here are some pictures.
Leaving Næstved, moving east.
The 3rd Åse.
Towards Mogenstrup.
Pretty trail on the forest floor to the left.
Åse spine.
An abandoned house.
And when you feel like you kind of suck at everything and you are just a ball of stress, well, then there is always music.
19 comments:
Your pulse is 62? That shouldn't be when you are in a physical state you are in. Mine is 40 at the dentist office minutes before root canal (36 at awakening), and Larry complains when his rises up to 46. Weird...this is how they usually say right away I am a runner.Anyhow, there was a smart thought I had on this, but I took a break talking to Larry, and the thought left my mind. This is what you get after a 30 mile training run on little sleep...Yeah, priorities. About 'em. It's up to your family. But might have to be discussed with all. IMHO.Pretty site. I love closed-in tress more though:)
I love it! There are more important things than a clean apartment and as long as SR or kids do not complain, it is ok.We never had cooked dinner in my house (and my mom's mom and in-laws thought she was lazy) and both me and my sister have turned out ok (I might be little bias there though:))
It is a interview with Paula Radcliffe and Kara Goucher about running through pregnancy, note it is in 3 parts X 3½ min each.In the October issue of Runners World the have a 6 page article with PR an KG about the same subject.
Olga, you should probably know that I couldn't fall asleep last night because I kept contemplating why my pulse was so high. I actually got out of bed to get my watch and measured it again. The most likely explanation is anemia. I've always been slightly anemic and no cause has been found. Or maybe it's because I stress about things like why my pulse is so high.
And I like closed in tree paths better, too, and mountains. But this is Denmark, baby. Lots of open rolling farm hills.
Stephanie,
Ah, one of my favorite topics to ponder. How much should one taper before a marathon? I think conventional wisdom puts too much emphasis on taper. And when one races as much as I do, one actually gets out of shape from all the tapering, so I can't have that. I'll avoid running on Thursday and Friday completely, though.
Mmmonyka, ha! Did I give the impression SR didn't complain :)? But it's good he does - it does make me more productive.
Karen - 10 hours a day - of running - sounds awesome. If only it were my job, then maybe I wouldn't feel guilty.
Frank, thanks so much for your comment and for the link. I'll have to go check it out.
Gosh, why is it that a clean apartment is still a measure of any woman's accomplishments? Nobody would comment that our hubbies don't do their job because the house is messy. Please, don't worry about what other people say. For some reason we are the kid of creatures who don't tolerate well any differences. You love running then run. I bet your running inspires more people than a clean house ever would.
wow, Denmark sounds far more socialist than any other country I am even vaguely familiar with (which isn't saying much granted). I guess it is in line with the other Scandinavian countries. Given janteloven - I am curious to know, are there any visible signs of poverty in Copenhagen? Are there neighbourhoods that are visibly less wealthy than others? Are there any homeless people?
I am, of course, focusing on this aspect of your post to avoid focusing on the fact that you ran a gazillion and three miles the week before a marathon (why? why?).
Ok, I can understand the rationale of not wanting to taper for every race when you race as often as you do, that definitely could cause you to actually lose fitness... but must you break mileage records the week before your 'thon??
Alright, I'll quit nagging and also trying to impose my goals onto you (that was more regarding my last comment about running a flat, fast 5 or 10 km).
Good question about the poverty in Copenhagen. While I don't live there, I am always struck by the fact that I can't find any poverty there. There is a little problem with gypsies moving there unoficially and not becoming part of the social structure. There are neighborhoods where the houses are smaller and then there are really nice neighborhoods. But the poverty really isn't there as far as I've seen. And definitely not in our town either. We supposedly live in "the doctor ghetto", but it's actually quite nice. I'm not quite at the point of singing the song "In the Ghetto" with complete sincerity. So yeah, it's the most socialist place I've lived.
Hey SLG meant to respond to this post sooner. The issues your raise about exercise and family/home life could be seen as valid concerns - but like Olga says it's totally determined by the perceptions of the rest of your immediate family. I mean, you see the professional triathlete couples with kids who schedule in their workouts each week around family/house stuff....and cleaning is WAAAY down the list. If you make enough just get a cleaner in once a week or something! Mind you, in my situation this was an issue that came up between Brett and I - exercise number 1, stepping up to the plate and actually taking on the role of a homeowner....kind of a distant second for me!! BUT it was nice to get some constructive criticism and now I am making sure I try to carry more of my share of the responsibilities (or just balance my schedule a bit better). As for yoghurt and cereal - can I come eat at your place??? Yum!!
Just a thought: if you already feel like you don't give enough time to your kids/home/husband, why would you want to have another child? Just curious about your motivation to get pregnant again, given your desire to train the amount you do.
I certainly wouldn't call you lazy. But as a working mom, I do sometimes read your posts and have those, "How does she find the time?" thoughts, since I struggle to make enough time for exercise in my own life. But it's all about choices and priorities, right? As long as you're fine with yours, then don't worry about anyone else. Maybe I like to cook more than you do. Maybe (well, definitely) you like to run more than I do. And that's okay. As for the cleaning, I just read a little thing today that said cleaning while there are still children growing up is like shoveling the walk while it's still snowing. : ) For me, I am not a neat freak, but there is a point at which the state of my house really gets to me. It's like physical clutter and mess create mental clutter and mess, and I feel a lot more at peace if I pick up. So if you have not gotten to a point of disorder where you think it's affecting you or anyone else negatively, then I wouldn't worry about it. I guess that point is different for different people. If you have a high tolerance for mess, consider yourself lucky, not lazy. : )
Good question, Anon. But sometimes the emotional "because it will make me and us happy" rules in decision making - and probably rightfully so.
Practically speaking, Natali, my step-daughter, is moving to the US to live with her mom in August, so then we've only got one kid in our home. But honestly, that hasn't really affected our decision making.
Hello from Rude Skov
Photo by Stine Sophie Winckel
...
My name is Tracy. I am a physician scientist from the USA, living with my husband and two young boys in Denmark. I work as a post-doc fellow at Næstved Hospital. I have a scientific interest in vision loss, vision loss during exercise, exercise, running during pregnancy, MAF training as well as nutrition and health for athletes. I also have a love for music, physics, statistics, cycling, yoga, cross-country skiing, bla bla bal.
I was a member of Team USA at the IAU World Championships in Ultra Trail Running in 2013 in Wales. I am now training to run with Team Denmark at the IAU World Championships in Annency, France in May 2015. |
Q:
Redirect with passport.js
I am using passport.js, passport-google-oauth with nodjes to load a users profile (local). But the redirect after logging in doesn't work. The information has been loaded (I can go to /google-profile after logged in).
This is my code
var express = require('express');
var passport = require('passport');
var util = require('util');
var GoogleStrategy = require('passport-google-oauth').OAuth2Strategy;
var GOOGLE_CLIENT_ID = "bla";
var GOOGLE_CLIENT_SECRET = "bla";
var userPorifile = {};
passport.use(new GoogleStrategy({
clientID: GOOGLE_CLIENT_ID,
clientSecret: GOOGLE_CLIENT_SECRET,
callbackURL: "http://localhost:8000/auth/google/callback"
},
function(accessToken, refreshToken, profile, done) {
userPorifile = profile;
}
));
var app = express();
app.get('/google-profile', function (req, res) {
res.json(userPorifile);
});
app.get('/login',
passport.authenticate('google', { scope: 'https://www.googleapis.com/auth/plus.login' }));
app.get('/auth/google/callback?*', passport.authenticate('google', { successRedirect : '/google-profile', failureRedirect: '/login' }), function(req, res) {
console.log("done");
res.redirect('/google-profile');
});
app.use(function (req, res, next) {
if (req.query.something) {
next();
} else {
next();
}
});
app.listen(8000);
Can anybody help me with this?
A:
you should have something like :
'googleAuth' : {
'clientID' : 'your-secret-clientID-here',
'clientSecret' : 'your-client-secret-here',
'callbackURL' : 'http://localhost:8080/auth/google/callback'
}
in your config file, in your passport file :
passport.use(new GoogleStrategy({
clientID : configAuth.googleAuth.clientID,
clientSecret : configAuth.googleAuth.clientSecret,
callbackURL : configAuth.googleAuth.callbackURL,
},
then in routes:
app.get('/auth/google', passport.authenticate('google', { scope : ['profile', 'email'] }));
// the callback after google has authenticated the user
app.get('/auth/google/callback',
passport.authenticate('google', {
successRedirect : '/profile',
failureRedirect : '/'
}));
Please note that I don't understand your callback with ?* , you're not using express ?
|
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