text stringlengths 8 5.77M |
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Relationship between single nucleotide polymorphisms in CYP1A1 and CYP1B1 genes and the bone mineral density and serum lipid profiles in postmenopausal Japanese women taking hormone therapy.
The genetic variations of the genes encoding cytochrome P-450 enzymes are considered to play an important role in the metabolism of estradiol. The objective of this study was to evaluate the relationships among single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) of cytochrome P-450 genes, lumbar bone mineral density (BMD), and serum lipids and to determine the effects of hormone therapy (HT). The participants were 124 Japanese women who had been diagnosed with osteopenia or osteoporosis and were taking HT for 12 months. Seven single nucleotide polymorphisms in the CYP1A1 and CYP1B1 genes were characterized. Lumbar BMD and the levels of serum lipids were measured before and after HT. A single nucleotide polymorphism in exon 3 of CYP1B1 was found to be significantly associated with the effect of HT on BMD and low-density lipoprotein cholesterol both in univariate and multivariate analyses. In the women with the GG genotype of L432V, the responses to HT of BMD and low-density lipoprotein cholesterol markedly decreased. The serum follicle-stimulating hormone level after HT was significantly higher in the women with the GG genotype of L432V. These results suggest that the L432V polymorphism in the CYP1B1 gene could therefore be used to predict the effect of HT on lumbar BMD and low-density lipoprotein cholesterol in Japanese women. |
# This file is part of the Sylius package.
# (c) Paweł Jędrzejewski
sylius:
resource:
not_enabled: "La ressource spécifiée est désactivée"
not_disabled: "La ressource spécifiée est activée"
|
Anton Kutateli
Anton Sagirisdze or Anton Kutateli () was a 12th century Georgian archbishop of Kutaisi.
After the death of George III, the archbishop of Kutaisi, the worthy and blessed monk Anton Sagirisdze was invited, and asked him to take the crown in his hands, because according to church rankings, Imereti, was charged with the task of crowning the sovereign at the coronation ceremony. Encouraged by the confidence of the Queen Tamar and her supporters, Anton Kutateli, who directed the synod with the latter, wanted to prevent Michael IV from attending the synod, However the synod failed to prove that Michael was holding his office illegitimately and was unable to remove him. During the revolt of Queen Tamar's disgraced husband, George the Rus', around 1191, Anton Kutateli and other Church and secular dignitaries were sent to talk to the rebels to find out the reason for this rebellion. but their mission failed.
References
Category:Politicians from Georgia (country)
Category:12th-century people from Georgia (country) |
TractorSupplyPersonal.AccountOnline.com is operated by Citigroup Inc. Any questions in regards to a Tractor Supply card account can be directed to an award winner customer service agent at 1-800-263-0691 between the hours of 9 a.m. – 8 p.m. ET Monday to Friday. Customers can also reach out to Technical Assistance team by calling 1-866-668-3706 option 2. Old people with trouble hearing will have to dial the Hearing Impaired hotline at 1-888-944-2227. Tractor Supply credit card customers who are living life outside the United States 1-423-477-6511.
Customers looking to make a payment by mail can write to: Tractor Supply Credit Card Payments, PO Box 9001006, Louisville, KY 40290-1006. Please include a check with the payment earmarked to Tractor Supply credit card account. When making a payment via mail please do not send cash or credit card information. |
Q:
How do I group Accounts/Contacts by $ amount of all won opportunities this year?
My company wants to automatically group Accounts/Contacts by ranges of money spent this year.
For example:
Top Buyer (won opportunities totaling >$25k)
Medium Buyer (won opportunities totaling $10k-25k)
Low Buyer (won opportunities totaling
There's already a field for "Total Purchases This Year ($)". How do I get that field to then automatically update another picklist field with the Top, Medium, Low options? Is there a way to then remove the field data after no won opportunities in the past year?
For example, if someone makes a $1000 purchase, I would like a way for that contact to automatically be designated as a "Low Buyer", but to be designated null after one year of no action.
A:
You can create a Roll-Up Summary field on Account to calculate SUM of Amounts, and set a Filter Criteria for CloseDate (you can't use Relative Date Values here, so would have to setup greater than and less than of actual year start and end dates), and also for Closed Won Status.
After this you have to create a formula field like:
IF( MyYearRollUp__c > 25000,
'Top Buyer',
IF( MyYearRollUp__c > 10000,
'Medium Buyer',
'Low Buyer'
)
)
One downside is that you have to update year start/end dates once a year, but this is not that much of work at all.
|
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1st International Conference on Clinical Homeopathy
Boiron proudly sponsors the 1st International Conference on Clinical Homeopathy (ICCH), hosted by the Center for Education and Development of Homeopathy (CEDH).
Join this conference and learn how homeopathy can help physicians in specific pathologies where individualized care is essential.
Program Chair Ronald P. Boyer, MD
President CEDH USA, Edgemont, PA
1. Dementia
How can homeopathy help patients with symptoms of dementia and bring some support to family members who are often overwhelmed by their changed loved one. Jacques Touchon, MD, PhD
Chief of the Neurology Department, Montpellier University Hospital - Montpellier, France
2. ADD – ADHD
Pediatricians working with children with ADD will discuss their clinical experiences using homeopathic medicines. Larry Baskind, MD
Clinical associate professor at New York Medical College, New York City, NY and attending physician at Hudson Valley Hospital Center
3. Pain Management
A multidisciplinary approach that addresses not only the physical
component, but also the mental and emotional components. Marcel Fraix, DO
Assistant Professor at Western University of Health Sciences - Pomona, CA
4. Best supportive care in Oncology
Quality of life patients must be our first priority and therefore has to be the common medical denominator. Jean-Claude Karp, MD
Visiting physician, oncology and radiotherapy departement, Troyes University Hospital-Troyes, France
5. Clinical Research and Homeopathy
Peter Fisher, MD
Clinical Director and Director of Research at the Royal London Hospital for Integrated Medicine (RLHIM), London, UK
6. How To Integrate Homeopathy Into Your Daily Practice
Create a deeper, safer, and more individualized therapeutic relationship with your patients. John Golden, MD
Medical director of the Genesis Integrative Wellness Center - Moline, IL
Book your hotel room at the conference venue!
The Beverly Hilton
9876 Wilshire Boulevard,
Beverly Hills, CA 90210
ACCME Credit Designation Statement
This activity has been planned and implemented in accordance with the Essential Areas and Policies of the Accreditation Council for Continuing Medical Education through the joint sponsorship of the Minnesota Medical Association and CEDH. The Minnesota Medical Association (MMA) is accredited by the Accreditation Council for Continuing Medical Education to provide continuing medical education for physicians. |
/*
* JBoss, Home of Professional Open Source
* Copyright 2012, Red Hat Middleware LLC, and individual contributors
* by the @authors tag. See the copyright.txt in the distribution for a
* full listing of individual contributors.
*
* 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.
*/
package org.jboss.shrinkwrap.resolver.impl.maven;
import java.io.Closeable;
import java.io.File;
import java.io.FileInputStream;
import java.io.FileOutputStream;
import java.io.IOException;
import java.io.InputStream;
import java.util.ArrayList;
import java.util.Arrays;
import java.util.List;
import java.util.logging.Level;
import java.util.logging.Logger;
import java.util.zip.ZipEntry;
import java.util.zip.ZipOutputStream;
import org.eclipse.aether.artifact.Artifact;
import org.eclipse.aether.artifact.ArtifactProperties;
import org.eclipse.aether.graph.DependencyNode;
import org.eclipse.aether.resolution.ArtifactResult;
import org.jboss.shrinkwrap.resolver.api.maven.MavenArtifactInfo;
import org.jboss.shrinkwrap.resolver.api.maven.MavenResolvedArtifact;
import org.jboss.shrinkwrap.resolver.api.maven.ScopeType;
import org.jboss.shrinkwrap.resolver.api.maven.coordinate.MavenCoordinate;
import org.jboss.shrinkwrap.resolver.impl.maven.util.IOUtil;
import org.jboss.shrinkwrap.resolver.impl.maven.util.Validate;
import org.jboss.shrinkwrap.resolver.spi.format.FormatProcessor;
import org.jboss.shrinkwrap.resolver.spi.format.FormatProcessors;
/**
* Immutable implementation of {@link MavenResolvedArtifact}.
*
* @author <a href="mailto:mmatloka@gmail.com">Michal Matloka</a>
* @author <a href="mailto:kpiwko@redhat.com">Karel Piwko</a>
*/
public class MavenResolvedArtifactImpl extends MavenArtifactInfoImpl implements MavenResolvedArtifact {
private static final Logger log = Logger.getLogger(MavenResolvedArtifactImpl.class.getName());
private final File file;
private MavenResolvedArtifactImpl(MavenCoordinate mavenCoordinate, String resolvedVersion, boolean snapshotVersion,
String extension, File file, ScopeType scopeType, MavenArtifactInfo[] dependencies) {
super(mavenCoordinate, resolvedVersion, snapshotVersion, extension, scopeType, dependencies, false);
this.file = file;
}
private MavenResolvedArtifactImpl(final Artifact artifact, final ScopeType scopeType,
final List<DependencyNode> children, boolean optional) {
super(artifact, scopeType, children, optional);
this.file = artifactToFile(artifact);
}
/**
* Creates MavenResolvedArtifact based on ArtifactResult.
*
* @param artifactResult
* @return
*/
static MavenResolvedArtifact fromArtifactResult(final ArtifactResult artifactResult) {
final Artifact artifact = artifactResult.getArtifact();
final DependencyNode root = artifactResult.getRequest().getDependencyNode();
// SHRINKRES-143 lets ignore invalid scope
ScopeType scopeType = ScopeType.RUNTIME;
try {
scopeType = ScopeType.fromScopeType(root.getDependency().getScope());
} catch (IllegalArgumentException e) {
// let scope be RUNTIME
log.log(Level.WARNING, "Invalid scope {0} of retrieved dependency {1} will be replaced by <scope>runtime</scope>",
new Object[] { root.getDependency().getScope(), root.getDependency().getArtifact() });
}
final List<DependencyNode> children = root.getChildren();
final boolean optional = root.getDependency().isOptional();
return new MavenResolvedArtifactImpl(artifact, scopeType, children, optional);
}
@Override
public <RETURNTYPE> RETURNTYPE as(Class<RETURNTYPE> returnType) {
if (returnType == null) {
throw new IllegalArgumentException("Type must be specified.");
}
final FormatProcessor<? super MavenResolvedArtifact, RETURNTYPE> processor = FormatProcessors.find(
MavenResolvedArtifact.class, returnType);
return processor.process(this, returnType);
}
@Override
public File asFile() {
return file;
}
@Override
public InputStream asInputStream() {
return as(InputStream.class);
}
@Override
public MavenResolvedArtifact asResolvedArtifact() {
return as(MavenResolvedArtifact.class);
}
@Override
public String toString() {
return "MavenResolvedArtifactImpl [mavenCoordinate=" + mavenCoordinate + ", resolvedVersion=" + resolvedVersion
+ ", snapshotVersion=" + snapshotVersion + ", extension=" + extension + ", dependencies="
+ Arrays.toString(dependencies) + "]";
}
/**
* Maps an artifact to a file. This allows ShrinkWrap Maven resolver to package reactor related dependencies.
*/
private static File artifactToFile(final Artifact artifact) throws IllegalArgumentException {
if (artifact == null) {
throw new IllegalArgumentException("ArtifactResult must not be null");
}
// FIXME: this is not a safe assumption, file can have a different name
if ("pom.xml".equals(artifact.getFile().getName())) {
String artifactId = artifact.getArtifactId();
String extension = artifact.getExtension();
String classifier = artifact.getClassifier();
File root = new File(artifact.getFile().getParentFile(), "target/classes");
if (!Validate.isNullOrEmpty(classifier) && "tests".equals(classifier)) {
// SHRINKRES-102, allow test classes to be packaged as well
root = new File(artifact.getFile().getParentFile(), "target/test-classes");
} else if ("war".equals(artifact.getProperty(ArtifactProperties.TYPE, null))) {
// SHRINKRES-263, allow .war files to be packaged as well
root = new File(artifact.getFile().getParentFile(), "target/" + artifactId + "-" + artifact.getVersion());
}
try {
File archive = File.createTempFile(artifactId + "-", "." + extension);
archive.deleteOnExit();
PackageDirHelper.packageDirectories(archive, root);
return archive;
} catch (IOException e) {
throw new IllegalArgumentException("Unable to get artifact " + artifactId + " from the classpath", e);
}
} else {
return artifact.getFile();
}
}
/**
* I/O Utilities needed by the enclosing class
*
* @author <a href="mailto:alr@jboss.org">Andrew Lee Rubinger</a>
*/
static class PackageDirHelper {
private PackageDirHelper() {
throw new UnsupportedOperationException("No instances should be created; stateless class");
}
private static void safelyClose(final Closeable closeable) {
if (closeable != null) {
try {
closeable.close();
} catch (final IOException ignore) {
if (log.isLoggable(Level.FINER)) {
log.finer("Could not close stream due to: " + ignore.getMessage() + "; ignoring");
}
}
}
}
static void packageDirectories(final File outputFile, final File... directories) throws IOException {
Validate.notNullAndNoNullValues(directories, "Directories to be packaged must be specified");
final ZipOutputStream zipFile = new ZipOutputStream(new FileOutputStream(outputFile));
for (File directory : directories) {
for (String entry : fileListing(directory)) {
FileInputStream fis = null;
try {
File fileEntry = new File(directory, entry);
//Do not add zip entries for directories
if (fileEntry.isFile()) {
fis = new FileInputStream(fileEntry);
zipFile.putNextEntry(new ZipEntry(entry));
IOUtil.copy(fis, zipFile);
}
} finally {
safelyClose(fis);
}
}
}
safelyClose(zipFile);
}
private static List<String> fileListing(final File directory) {
final List<String> list = new ArrayList<String>();
generateFileList(list, directory, directory);
return list;
}
private static void generateFileList(final List<String> list, final File root, final File file) {
if (file.isFile()) {
// SHRINKRES-94 replacing all OS dependent separators with jar independent separator
list.add(getEntryPath(root, file));
} else if (file.isDirectory()) {
if (!file.equals(root)) {
list.add(getEntryPath(root, file) + File.separatorChar);
}
for (File next : file.listFiles()) {
generateFileList(list, root, next);
}
}
}
private static String getEntryPath(final File root, final File file) {
return file.getAbsolutePath().substring(root.getAbsolutePath().length() + 1)
.replace(File.separatorChar, '/');
}
}
}
|
Slashdot videos: Now with more Slashdot!
View
Discuss
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We've improved Slashdot's video section; now you can view our video interviews, product close-ups and site visits with all the usual Slashdot options to comment, share, etc. No more walled garden! It's a work in progress -- we hope you'll check it out (Learn more about the recent updates).
I'd mark you funny, but only the E, F, & G* versions of the F/A-18 are the Super Hornets. the A-D version are just the Hornet.*The EF-18G is the Electronic Warfare version of the Super Hornet, but it can carry anti-radiation missiles** so it can kill people.** Missiles that target radiating sources such as Radars.
It's convertible to a STOVL carrier, so it could operate things like Harriers and F-35Bs, which are marginally less capable than the STOBAR (Short Take Off, BArrier Recovery) ship the PLAN has and dramatically less than the conventional CATOBAR (CAtapult Take Off, BArrier Recovery) ships the USN, Marine Nationale, and the Brazilian Navy has.
The solution on the Chromebook end is to install Linux - and as of now they still have a switch on the laptop (under the battery in my Cr-48) that turns off verified boot, allowing users to install any OS they want (that will run on the hardware - Win7, Chrubuntu, and OSX have been shown working in the wild).
Our military expenditures aren't just huge, they are to the point of being borderline insane. We have enough nukes to kill every human on earth 100 times over, there's no possibility of any country invading us for at least the next several hundred years
I'm all for gutting the Army and the marines but the US, as a trading nation, needs to keeps the sea lanes of communication open. That means a large navy, which we are getting away from. And the US does not have the nuclear arsenal to kill everyone on Earth a hundred times over unless everyone stood in nice neat groups, which they don't.
Primary is FHD, secondary is SXGA. When combined with the existence of the windows task bar, it's about the same as a 3200*1024 screen. I'd love to move to something with higher vertical resolution, but it's not in the cards (credit or video) at the moment.
Great. Now for homework try your Google-fu to see all the alternatives to the LabVIEW approach. I've used both, and LabVIEW is far inferior to what can be done with a Linux system.
Go ahead and try to name an actual application that "is supported on Windows but has less support, or lower performance, or doesn't work at all, on the other operating systems ", then I'll tell you the better alternative in the Open Source domain. ( I do agree that if you are in the desktop publishing business GIMP may not be a suitable substitute for Photoshop, though for 99% of people who need to do graphics design and editing GIMP indeed serves as a fine replacement.)
I'm waiting for you to provide 'the better alternative' like you said you would.
I've mentioned this before, but when you have entire ecosystems built on Windows/Office it can be exceptionally difficult to migrate to open source. You have to make sure everything works or you will have people who will block the migration. |
/*---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
* Copyright (c) Microsoft Corporation. All rights reserved.
* Licensed under the MIT License. See License.txt in the project root for license information.
*--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------*/
'use strict';
export var conf = {
comments: {
lineComment: '\'',
},
brackets: [
['(', ')'], ['[', ']'],
['If', 'EndIf'],
['While', 'EndWhile'],
['For', 'EndFor'],
['Sub', 'EndSub']
],
autoClosingPairs: [
{ open: '"', close: '"', notIn: ['string', 'comment'] },
{ open: '(', close: ')', notIn: ['string', 'comment'] },
{ open: '[', close: ']', notIn: ['string', 'comment'] },
]
};
export var language = {
defaultToken: '',
tokenPostfix: '.sb',
ignoreCase: true,
brackets: [
{ token: 'delimiter.array', open: '[', close: ']' },
{ token: 'delimiter.parenthesis', open: '(', close: ')' },
// Special bracket statement pairs
{ token: 'keyword.tag-if', open: 'If', close: 'EndIf' },
{ token: 'keyword.tag-while', open: 'While', close: 'EndWhile' },
{ token: 'keyword.tag-for', open: 'For', close: 'EndFor' },
{ token: 'keyword.tag-sub', open: 'Sub', close: 'EndSub' },
],
keywords: [
'Else', 'ElseIf', 'EndFor', 'EndIf', 'EndSub', 'EndWhile',
'For', 'Goto', 'If', 'Step', 'Sub', 'Then', 'To', 'While'
],
tagwords: [
'If', 'Sub', 'While', 'For'
],
operators: ['>', '<', '<>', '<=', '>=', 'And', 'Or', '+', '-', '*', '/', '='],
// we include these common regular expressions
identifier: /[a-zA-Z_][\w]*/,
symbols: /[=><:+\-*\/%\.,]+/,
escapes: /\\(?:[abfnrtv\\"']|x[0-9A-Fa-f]{1,4}|u[0-9A-Fa-f]{4}|U[0-9A-Fa-f]{8})/,
// The main tokenizer for our languages
tokenizer: {
root: [
// whitespace
{ include: '@whitespace' },
// classes
[/(@identifier)(?=[.])/, 'type'],
// identifiers, tagwords, and keywords
[/@identifier/, {
cases: {
'@keywords': { token: 'keyword.$0' },
'@operators': 'operator',
'@default': 'variable.name'
}
}],
// methods, properties, and events
[/([.])(@identifier)/, {
cases: {
'$2': ['delimiter', 'type.member'],
'@default': ''
}
}],
// numbers
[/\d*\.\d+/, 'number.float'],
[/\d+/, 'number'],
// delimiters and operators
[/[()\[\]]/, '@brackets'],
[/@symbols/, {
cases: {
'@operators': 'operator',
'@default': 'delimiter'
}
}],
// strings
[/"([^"\\]|\\.)*$/, 'string.invalid'],
[/"/, 'string', '@string'],
],
whitespace: [
[/[ \t\r\n]+/, ''],
[/(\').*$/, 'comment']
],
string: [
[/[^\\"]+/, 'string'],
[/@escapes/, 'string.escape'],
[/\\./, 'string.escape.invalid'],
[/"C?/, 'string', '@pop']
],
},
};
|
“Melton” Hearts with Charles Melton of ‘The Sun is Also a Star’
What two things do the sun and Charles Melton have in common? They both melt things (the sun melts ice cream, Melton melts teenage hearts), and they’re both stars, since according to this film, The Sun is Also a Star!
The film, based on the best selling book by Nicola Yoon, chronicles a single day between a top-student Korean American poet, named Daniel Bae (Melton), and a spirited African American social justice warrior Natasha Kingsley (Yara Shadidi of Black-ish and Grown-ish fame), who cross paths just one day before Natasha’s family is scheduled to be deported to Jamaica.
Corny dad jokes aside, recently The Nerds of Color had the fortunate opportunity to speak with Melton about The Sun is Also a Star, the chemistry between him and his co-star Shahidi, and even got a mini-scoop about his role in Bad Boys For Life. Here’s what he had to say:
NOC: It’s difficult for people of different descent to get leading roles in films today when it comes to your typical comedies, action movies, and romances. And you and Yara broke through that ceiling, leading a teen romance for our ages. We don’t see that happen a lot in this industry. So how do you feel about that? And how do you feel about the barrier potentially breaking for people of color getting these critical mainstream roles in Hollywood?Melton: I feel proud. Want to hear a story? I was wrapping up Bad Boys III in Atlanta, and I was going through TSA security. And this guy, who’s about my dad’s age taps me on the shoulder and goes “Riverdale?” and I go “Yeah.” And he goes “Can I get a photo?” And I say “Sure.” And usually when a guy his age asks me for a photo he tends to say the photo is for his daughter or his wife or his wife’s sister’s accountant’s babysitter. But this guy, no shame, asked for a photo. And after we go through security, I see he’s with his wife and his son, Justice, who’s 9-years old. And he introduces me to his wife, who was a Filipino woman — full Asian. And as he’s introducing me to his son, his wife goes down to his son, Justice, and goes, “You see? He looks like you. You look like him.” And that was emotional for me. When it comes to films and Hollywood, we have a long way to go. But just to be a part of this process and this change, I don’t take it lightly. I feel honored to be in this position.
I’m really glad to hear that, and we’re lucky to have you representing Asians on-screen.Thank you.
I wanted to ask, you and Yara have excellent chemistry in the film. It really gave me those sort of Before Sunrise/Before Sunset vibes.Oh my god! You just made my day. I LOVE those movies!
Right? That’s what you guys did. And I thought that it was brilliant that we’re getting to see a Korean-American and an African-American lead really pull of those Ethan Hawke and Julie Delpy vibes. So what was it like working with Yara, and how do you feel about that chemistry between you guys?The chemistry was pretty organic and seamless. And when it came down to portraying these characters that we both believed in on various personal levels we came to work. And when we came to work, our genius of a director, Ry Russo-Young definitely set the tone, and laid the landscape of opportunity to collaborate and be creative within these scenes, along with our DP, Autumn [Durald], who is also Asian. There were very powerful women in important roles when it came to making this film happen, and I think that also played a factor with the atmosphere of the set. For me personally, when you find a role like this and a project like this that you’re really passionate about, you really put your heart and soul into it and it becomes very real. And that’s what it was like for me.
There’s a memorable scene in the movie where you’re in a karaoke studio, and you sing “Crimson and Clover.” And I have to say, man, you got some pipes! Did you practice to prepare for this role, or sing at an early age?(Laughing): If you were to tell my mom what you told me, she would ask you what you were smoking! It’s so funny! Every time I would sing, my mom would say, “Charles! Put a bucket over your head so you can hear yourself!” And that was kind of her way of saying I was terrible! But when it came to the song, I really loved the song, so I was really nervous in singing it. But you just gotta let go of that fear and sing. In our rehearsals with Ry and Yara I would sing the song, and there was a beautiful trust between Ry, myself, and Yara that really allowed us to do scenes like singing (in my case) without any fear of judgement. And that’s beautiful when you have that as an actor, when you come on a set and you’re doing something, you never want to feel insecure about what you’re about to do. And thank you man! I never considered myself to be a good singer, but thanks!
Daniel is this awesome romantic — a poet, artist, and a true believer in love. Did you feel you related to him at all when you were filming this or when you were reading the script?I feel like I truly embodied him when it came to filming. It’s great when you read the script, let alone have a book, to help you do research on to help you find clues for your character — to understand your character on a whole new level. There’s a lot of similarities. He’s not jaded by the possibility of love or possibly getting hurt. He’s just such a hopeless romantic and he’s got this masculine vulnerability. My father would tell me things like “Son guard your heart” And Daniel Bae is someone who doesn’t guard his heart, because why would you want to guard something that you want to give? And he gives his heart into everything… He’s not so much finding reasons as to why he’s going to love, he just loves. And that’s a very inspirational love story.
You mentioned it at the top of the call. I wanted to ask about it ever since I heard I would be able to interview you but — Bad Boys III! How is that going? What’s it like working with Will Smith and Martin Lawrence, and what can we look forward to?I’ll keep it short and sweet. Will Smith is one of my idols! Amazing to work alongside with him and Martin Lawrence. We filmed for two months in Atlanta — that was fantastic. I play Rafe, a former DEA agents who’s part of the AML unit. And I can’t wait for it to come out January 17!
Though we may have to wait a bit longer to see Melton as one of the Bad Boys, we won’t have to wait long to swoon over him and Yara Shahidi when The Sun is Also a Star hits theaters this Friday, May 17!
There was actually a moment during the interview where we talked about the dol scene and how that lead to all the expectations Daniel has to bear. However, I left it out of the transcript so as to prevent spoilers. |
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ECLECTICA Apps
Es un club de fútbol de la ciudad de Belén, en la provincia deHeredia en Costa Rica. Belén Fútbol Club milita en la PrimeraDivisión costarricense.Sus principales logros han sido en laSegunda División de Costa Rica. Su logro más reciente se alcanzó enla temporada 2010-2011. Belén Fútbol Club se caracteriza por ser lacuna de grandes jugadores costarricenses.It is a football club fromthe city of Bethlehem, in the province of Heredia in CostaRica.Bethlehem Football Club plays in the Costa Rican FirstDivision.Its main achievements were in the Second Division of CostaRica. His most recent achievement was reached in the 2010-2011season. Bethlehem Football Club is known for being thebirthplace of great Costa Rican players.
Aplicación oficial de San Francisco Fútbol Club! El San FranciscoFútbol Club es un club de fútbol de Panamá, con sede en LaChorrera, ciudad de Panamá. San Francisco Fútbol Club juega en laLiga Panameña de Fútbol. San Francisco official applicationFootball Club! San Francisco Football Club is a football club ofPanama, based in La Chorrera, Panama City. San Francisco FootballClub plays in the Panamanian Football League.
As Chael has said before, "I do the thinking so you don't have to.Listen, learn, and then follow me blindly as I show you the worldas it ought to be." Join the podcast savant, UFC Superstar, andsoon to be best selling author on a journey to choke out themeaning of life one show at a time. Listen up as UFC SuperstarChael Sonnen speaks his mind and interviews MMA's top studs andlegends. |
Pirelli’s new ultra soft tyre will be used for the first time in the Monaco Grand Prix, F1’s official tyre manufacturer has confirmed after announcing its compound choices for the Canadian Grand Prix.
The ultra soft tyre will be the mandatory Q3 tyre for the race at the Circuit Gilles Villeneuve. The super-soft and soft compounds will also be available for drivers to select.
Two sets of soft tyres will be mandatory for the race, meaning each driver must have two sets available and use at least one of them.
As teams’ tyre choices for non-European races must be announced 14 weeks in advance compared to eight weeks for European rounds, the Canadian Grand Prix tyre choices have been announced before the Spanish and Monaco Grand Prix selections.
Update: Pirelli’s original press release and social media communications stated the ultra-soft tyre would ‘make its debut in Montreal’. They have since indicated it will in fact be used for the first time in Monaco. The article has been updated to reflect that.
2016 F1 season |
Stephen Farish
Stephen Edward Farish (born 1970) is an English international bowls player.
In 2002 he won a silver medal with Dean Morgan in the pairs at the 2002 Commonwealth Games in Manchester.
In 2008 he won a bronze medal with Mark Bantock, Robert Newman and Graham Shadwell in the fours at the 2008 World Outdoor Bowls Championship in Christchurch.
He has won three National Championship titles in 1992, 1997 and 2000.
References
Category:English male bowls players
Category:Bowls players at the 2002 Commonwealth Games
Category:Bowls players at the 2006 Commonwealth Games
Category:Commonwealth Games medallists in lawn bowls
Category:Living people
Category:1970 births
Category:Commonwealth Games silver medallists for England |
Could we have a low-cost version of UW?
Tuition inflation has always been a subject that has fascinated me. How can our political system stand idly by as our public universities increase tuition at double the rate of inflation? How could a trend that is so harmful to the middle-class (I'm not even talking working class nobody cares about them) stand stronger against the will of the people than even the most powerful Wall Street banks?
What is more fascinating is that nobody seems to have a definitive explanation for why students have to pay more and more every year. Liberals blame declining state support, while conservatives tend to place the blame on wasteful administration and high professor salaries.
All of these points inevitably show up in every discussion of the issue, in addition to an unavoidable observation about campus life these days: made it impossible for public universities to stay out of the rat-race to attract out-of-state students. In order to impress donors and prospective students, universities feel the need to constantly build big, expensive facilities and offer amenities that students should by no means expect.
I could say that we need more state funding to lower tuition, but somehow that ends up getting absorbed into the ongoing competition with other elite schools. The best thing for state governments to do is implement tuition freezes and force universities to evaluate their priorities. |
# This is the basic transformer training setting with speaker embedding.
# This configuration reuqires 1 gpus in the case of each gpu memory = 12GB, and it takes 2~3 days.
# network architecture related
model-module: espnet.nets.pytorch_backend.e2e_tts_transformer:Transformer
embed-dim: 0
eprenet-conv-layers: 0 # one more linear layer w/o non-linear will be added for 0-centor
eprenet-conv-filts: 0
eprenet-conv-chans: 0
dprenet-layers: 2 # one more linear layer w/o non-linear will be added for 0-centor
dprenet-units: 256
adim: 384
aheads: 4
elayers: 6
eunits: 1536
dlayers: 6
dunits: 1536
postnet-layers: 5
postnet-filts: 5
postnet-chans: 256
use-masking: True
bce-pos-weight: 5.0
use-batch-norm: True
use-scaled-pos-enc: True
encoder-normalize-before: False
decoder-normalize-before: False
encoder-concat-after: False
decoder-concat-after: False
reduction-factor: 2
use-speaker-embedding: true
spk-embed-integration-type: add
# minibatch related
batch-sort-key: output # shuffle or input or output
batch-bins: 3000000 # batch-size * (max_out * dim_out + max_in * dim_in)
# 5203 batches containing from 5 to 354 samples (avg 28 samples).
# training related
transformer-init: pytorch
transformer-warmup-steps: 10000
transformer-lr: 1.0
initial-encoder-alpha: 1.0
initial-decoder-alpha: 1.0
eprenet-dropout-rate: 0.0
dprenet-dropout-rate: 0.5
postnet-dropout-rate: 0.5
transformer-enc-dropout-rate: 0.1
transformer-enc-positional-dropout-rate: 0.1
transformer-enc-attn-dropout-rate: 0.1
transformer-dec-dropout-rate: 0.1
transformer-dec-positional-dropout-rate: 0.1
transformer-dec-attn-dropout-rate: 0.1
transformer-enc-dec-attn-dropout-rate: 0.1
use-guided-attn-loss: false
bce-pos-weight: 10.0
# optimization related
opt: noam
accum-grad: 2
grad-clip: 1.0
weight-decay: 0.0
patience: 0
epochs: 100 # 100 * 5,203 / 4 = 130,075 iters
# other
save-interval-epoch: 5
|
You may have noticed that things are quieter around here lately. We have shifted our focus over to SimplePlanes so we can finish the 1.8 update. We hope to finish it next month and then we'll return our focus to SR2 development.
Before jumping over to SimplePlanes, Kevin and I made a lot of progress on the new procedural rocket engines. I'm really excited about them and I can't wait to start working on them again. We're trying to make them as flexible as possible to accommodate as much player feedback as we can. Here are some of the options we currently have:
Engine Type : Liquid, Solid, Nuclear (thermal), Ion
: Liquid, Solid, Nuclear (thermal), Ion Power Cycles (Liquid only): Gas Generator, Staged, Pressure-Fed, Electric
(Liquid only): Gas Generator, Staged, Pressure-Fed, Electric Fuel Types: Kerolox, Hydrolox, Methalox, Solid, Liquid Hydrogen (nuclear thermal engine), Xenon (ion engine)
There are also several nozzle options available. Most of them are fixed geometry, but there is a procedural cone style and a procedural bell style you can adjust to get the exact nozzle area ratio you want. This will allow you to optimize your engine for sea level, vacuum, or anywhere in between. We will also include an altitude-compensating toroidal aerospike nozzle.
Also, Philip did a lot of work to improve support for building airplanes in SR2, including a new option to specify if you are building a rocket or an airplane. Parts will adjust to a more convenient orientation when added and you can also adjust the direction of travel using this new handy gizmo:
In the same aim of improving support for building airplanes, William has been working on adding resizable landing gear. They are still in the early stages of development, but they already show a lot of potential.
We're hoping to get most of this out next month as well, but that will be a tall order! We will do our best! |
Intravenous nonopioid analgesic drugs in chronic low back pain patients on chronic opioid treatment: a crossover, randomised, double-blinded, placebo-controlled study.
Addition of nonopioid analgesic drugs reduces pain and opioid requirements in acute low back pain. In noncancer chronic low back pain (CLBP), the efficacy of a combined regimen to reduce breakthrough pain has not been proven so far. Evaluation of the effects of intravenous (i.v.) nonopioid analgesic drugs on pain intensity and lumbar mobility in CLBP patients on chronic opioid therapy. Randomised, placebo-controlled, double blinded, crossover study. Vienna General Hospital, Austria, from December 2002 to May 2004. Thirty-six adults with CLBP on chronic opioid therapy. Inclusion criteria are as follows: American Society of Anesthesiologists' physical status less than 3, visual analogue scale (VAS) more than 4 and no known allergy to any of the used drugs. After written informed consent and VAS assessment, any oral nonopioid analgesic drug (NSAIDs, metamizol, paracetamol) was replaced by placebo 10 days before the first test infusion as a washout period. Coanalgesics (anticonvulsants, antidepressants) were maintained. Each patient received randomly four i.v. test infusions of diclofenac 75 mg (and orphenadrine 30 mg), parecoxib 40 mg, paracetamol 1 g and isotonic saline. A washout time of 72 h was allowed between each infusion. Primary outcome was as follows: VAS pain intensity (0 to 100 mm) at inclusion, before and within 30 min after infusion. Secondary outcomes were as follows: Roland-Morris questionnaire, McGill pain questionnaire and a test panel of physical functioning for spinal mobility, muscular endurance, balance and coordination. The differences in means of the above assessments among the groups were analysed. We found an improvement in VAS from the day of inclusion to the day of each appointment. We observed no improvement in pain intensity (VAS) or in any of the physical functioning tests immediately before versus after administration of the four i.v. drugs. Reductions in sensory, affective and cognitive dimensions of the McGill pain questionnaire were statistically significant in the diclofenac group. A trend of McGill pain questionnaire improvement existed in the other groups. The present data show that the anticipation of an i.v. infusion of nonopioid analgesic drug improves VAS significantly, probably through expectation-related mechanisms. However, single dose i.v. infusions of nonopioid analgesic drugs fail to improve pain intensity and spinal mobility in CLBP patients on chronic opioid treatment, even immediately after the infusion. |
Author Vernor Vinge Predicted Google Glasses
In his 2006 thriller, Rainbow's End, author Vernor Vinge imagined a near future when people use high-tech contact lenses to interface with computers in their clothes. Google plans to make at least some of it a reality later in 2012 with the launch of what are known as augmented reality glasses. |
HTC is poised to make apps for all Android phones, not just its own
One of the homegrown HTC apps included on the One M8, Zoe, is a decent video remixing app with a few social features. HTC now seems poised to introduce the app to other Android(s goog) devices, even if they’re not made by HTC, which means the beleaguered hardware maker is now yet another company in a crowded apps marketplace.
According to Re/code, Zoe was developed in HTC’s Creative Labs, a San Francisco–based office that has taken the lead in the past on design and features for HTC’s high-end handsets. Zoe has been available on Google Play since earlier this year, but it could only be installed on HTC devices. Soon, though, users will be able to install Zoe on most devices running Android 4.4, the latest version of the OS.
It’s hard to see how Zoe, which is another way to remix video and photos and share them across social networks, is the key to halting HTC’s decline. But HTC is in a position to experiment. Its previous strategy of making high-quality devices hasn’t worked; although the HTC One M8 is a lovely piece of hardware, its sales seem to have slowed during the summer, and the Windows Phone version that is expected this fall might not provide the sales boost that HTC needs.
HTC has even started to outsource its lower-end phones to other manufacturers. That puts it in competition with Chinese white-label handset makers, a low-margin business. In light of HTC’s unattractive alternatives, I can see why the company decided to make software and I expect Zoe to be the first of several apps — perhaps Blinkfeed is next — coming out of the one-time hardware company. |
To those who do, here's some questions, feel free to describe your own creations!
What inspires your costumes? Do you base them on a series or fandom, or are they completely your own creation?
Do you give your characters a backstory, or come up with "in-character" explanations for parts of the costume?
Overall, why do you do it? Do you like the freedom of original characters/designs? Do you like the challenge of coming up with a design from scratch, or do you find it more personal than strict recreation?
I'll start this off with my own answers:
1- Inspiration.
Lately a lot of my planned cosplays are personifications of some of NYC's skyscrapers which I am a fan of. I've been a huge skyscraper fan ever since I was a kid, drawing them in personified/avatar form for about as long as I can remember. When it comes to designing clothing for these skyscraper-folk to wear, I draw inspiration from lots of real-world sources. Sometimes I feel a bit like the costume designers from Star Wars, who used a ton of real world historical and ethnic influences, blending them together to create amazing looks for their characters, a whole visual language of sorts. Bet you didn't know that Amidala's episode 1 Senate Gown was based very much on a Mongolian women's outfit (even that hairdo!), or that Anakin's civilian disguise in episode two used real African mudcloth for its vest!
For my Skyscraper-folk, the actual buildings they're based on give me lots to work with too. Whether it's the bold vertical and horizontal elements of 55 Water St's facade, or the countless art deco details large and small of the Empire State or Chrysler, it's fun figuring out ways to weave those into an outfit that looks like something a living being would wear as either everyday, ceremonial, or battle dress.
2- backstory
Heck yes, I give my characters a backstory! Not just how the heck a skyscraper gains an Avatar in the first place, or the culture that these beings might create for themselves, but the history of an individual building figures in there as well. For example,One New York Plaza is a survivor of multiple fires, so she wears phoenix heraldry. One Penn Plaza may be a modernist skyscraper, but he wears some art deco elements, as a tribute to his elders.
3- why?
Short answer- it's fun! I get to combine two of my passions, cosplay and architecture. And in doing so, maybe causing people to look at something familiar, and see it in a new way. Recently, somebody online looked at the character drawings in my deviantart gallery and said (after googling buildings they were not familiar with) how well I had captured said building's nuances.
I love taking the ideas that have been in my head for years and bringing them to life though art, writing, and yes, cosplay!
I do! I'll have to edit this with more detail later on, but a lot of my inspiration comes from small tings I happen to come across. For example, I got an idea for a Medusa costume from the watch/bracelet my mom got me for Christmas. I figured, 'hey, why not do a snake lady costume? Medusa! I can make her dress like this to represent this and have her hair like this with this sewn in and raaawwwwrrrr!!!'
Inspiration:
I usually come up with my OC concepts through roleplay. I play a lot of D&D and I also LARP, so I am constantly creating new characters and some of them I just love so much! With LARP I usually end up putting costumes together for them anyway because that is part of the experience, so I may as well show them off!
Backstory:
Because my characters usually come from roleplay, they usually have extensive backstory. I spend a lot of time during character creation coming up with a history for my characters, and I usually have even the smallest details figured out. I have an entire folder on my computer for word docs containing the histories of my characters xD I think it's super important to have history for your character, because it gives you more insight into how they act, think, talk, etc.
Why?
Why not? I don't often wear my OC cosplays to conventions, but I do love doing photoshoots and meetups with them. Being a fictional character is fun on its own, but being a character I created is awesome because I know that character's personality so well and can easily be IN character. Long story short, it's just plain fun. It's like playing pretend. lol
Oooooh yes. The only one I've been putting effort into fleshing out is Candie Keane the Zombie Chick.. I have a million charaters, but she's the only one I came up with specifically for cosplay.
-Inspiration- To be completely honest, I wanted an interesting costume for the bar we didn't go to on Halloween this year that people would recognize as a "traditional" Halloween costume. I knew I wanted to wear a specific dress, I knew I wanted to do makeup and I new I wanted to wear Snow's curly pink wig. I ran from there. I usually take a general idea and go on a dollmaker site and use ALL the makers and see what I can come up with, what is new and what works better. She started out entirely fluorescent green, with curly cotton candy pink hair in pigtails with a giant lolipop and a black strapless dress. She's evolved into a more realistic zombie color, with actual stitches in realistic places and she wears a raspberry pink wig instead of having magic milkshake pink hair. She still wears the black dress, but she's also a lounge singer, so why the hell not?
-Backstory- After we didn't go to the bar that night, I decided she needed a place to live and friends to play with and a complete and total overhaul. Then I decided I was going to make a comic, "Finn's Comic; starring Candie Keane and Friends." I get really way too into giving characters backstories. My favorite is "this is this way because of why?" I'm still working on a plausible reason for why she's not mindless.. I may have to jam her into the Ugly Americans fandom to solve that issue and I really would rather not do that.
-Why- Characters just kind of pop into my brain and go "HERE I AM. HERE'S MY FACE, NOW DO SOMETHING WITH ME." And I pick them up, take them in and give them homes. If I don't put them on paper, they sit in my head and scream until I do. ....and that's all I have to say about that.
1: they start out based on another series/fandom, or even just things I see in real life or on TV, but slowly start changing and becoming more and more original that you can no longer tell.
2: well, my first OC started to get a little 'lonely' so I started making a backstory then making more characters and now there's a whole story around them that hopefully one day I will be able to finally make the comic ;A;
3: the freedom, I just love making things the way I want them to be. they all come out exactly how I want them, not how anybody else does. They're mine to call my own and say, "hey! I made this character up myself."
I love doing original character cosplay. The first group of cosplay I ever made to attend A-kon in 2004 was all original characters for the six of us. They had stories because they were from a book my friend and I were working on at the time.
As for answers to your questions:
Inspiration: I get inspired by so many things. Right now I'm working on a steampunk wind-up doll inspired by Abney Park's song "Herr Drosselmeyer's Doll" and a yuki-onna inspired by Japanese Folklore to fit with A-kon's theme for this year (we will have a whole group of yokai for the theme, each will be designed and made by me, mixing traditional Japanese looks with my own twists to them). I sometimes see a piece of fabric or jewelry and start thinking about what I can create with them. Other times I see a type of character or thing and want to make a costume for it. I've started working on costumes for the four seasons, Fall being complete, and have often thought of doing costumes based on flowers (even though I'm so far from girlie most of the time) because you can do something beautiful with them. You just never know where inspiration can come from.
Back-story: Yes, some characters do have deep backstories. Others have just little bits and pieces here and there. Again, for my wind-up doll, I already have explanations for why she will have certain things or why stuff is going on with the outfit. It's just how my mind has developed the costume. Others might not get a lot of explanation, but they don't go without reason for things.
Why: Like others have said, why not? But I love the creative process. And as much as I love to make things based on already established series or art, I love to create my own things. I've been designing clothing for the last fifteen years and always like to bring my own designs to life along with the ones I do based on anime/manga/video games/movies...whatever. It's the thought of being able to find what I want to use and use it without anyone second guessing my choice. Creative, artist license. That's what I love about originals.
1)I love getting inspired by fairy tales and other stories that are often re-envisioned...Though to be honest your inspiration has me wanting to do a cosplay based around the Russian Orthodox Church <3
The only one I have done so far is the March Hare.
2)For my March Hare I have watched a ton of movies and read many different versions of this character but most the time it is still vague. So I decided to add the character influences around the March Hare along with the scenery. I basically take the same ideas for my other OCs that I shall cosplay eventually~
3)I like the freedom of finding something I like and going, yeah this character would totally have this with out having to look up references. Also it kind of cracks me up when people try to name the series you are from and you just have to keep telling them no XD
1.) I've spent a lot of time around costumers who never do "cosplay" (as in dressing up as existing characters). That's the sort of creativity that got me into going to cons in the first place even though I currently do a lot of what they call "re-creations".
History is my biggest inspiration. I'm a bit of a research nut. Honestly, I don't think I'm terribly creative at costume design, though. A lot of my projects revolve around an existing character or idea with an historical bent (like DDR Kabuki).
2.) Not really. Sure, I've done some costumes that are based on another creation of mine (the Red Rebel, which isn't in my gallery at all, for example, is from a comic I drew when I was in high school... and was made in high school). Sure, I've done some like the OP did where you take an idea (aka a DDR game) and turn it into a costume. But do I go and create characters with backstories specifically to cosplay? Not often. The only one I can think of that's not from a fanfic or comic I wrote is the Twelfth Doctor, and that's already based on an existing universe. I didn't plan to create a "backstory", per se, but as I was designing the costume, I thought, What is her personality like? What traits did she pull from past regenerations? which became, How did she regenerate from Smith's Doctor in the first place? Why did she end up female? Who was her companion(s) at the time? And it grew into a story in my head.
3.) Because why not? Costuming hasn't always been about recreating characters. That's relatively new. Costumes are an art form and can be whatever we want them to be. I love love love love love being characters, but sometimes I want to design something new to wear.
Inspiration -- well, I don't do a lot of original characters, but I do a lot of original designs--like, a character from a book, where there's maybe a description of the character but not an illustration. So I guess the books that I do costumes from would be my inspiration. Sometimes, like with my recent Mara Jade costume, I'll start with a cover illustration as inspiration but then turn it into something original (since authors almost never have any say in cover illustrations, I don't take those as canon depictions of characters). I usually try to adhere to the book's description but sometimes I'll ignore pieces if I think something else would work better, same as someone might do if they were making a movie of the book.
Backstory -- well, with book characters, they have plenty of backstory.
Why? I read a lot, probably more than I watch tv or movies or read comics, and I find myself attached to the characters, same as I would in a visual medium. Plus well, I like the challenge of trying to create something where anyone who's read the book would recognize me, even if their own mental image of the character had been totally different. I think doing my own designs is more fun that doing a strict reproduction of something, and doing cosplays from books lets me design stuff while at the same time enjoying the experience of dressing up as a character I love.
My love for fashion design and anime inspires my creations and I'm hoping to cosplay my 1st Oc for the 1st time either at Anime USA or Halloween. I based most of them off my orignial stories, but the one I'm cosplaying soon is going to be from Young Justice/ DC comics
Everyone of them have backstories, some more in depth than others. I create OC's for the freedom and flexibility. I feel proud and accomplished when I see the finished creation.
I'm planning my fist cosplay of an OC. I am very excited to be able to do this, though I'm not sure how to do a lot of it, so it may be a while before it's started.
1- Inspiration.
My OCs spawn from RPGs more often than not. The character I'm going to cosplay is an OC from a Pokemon RPg I was a part of for a long time. She's a Torchic Pokemorph (see: Gijinka) and her hair will be incredibly complicated, but I'm still very excited.
I had several characters on the RPG, with 3 that I used very often. They are very close to my heart. <3 All of my OCs that I give backstories and developed prsonalities have a special place in my heart. XD
2- Backstory
Yes. Every character I imagine has a very detailed backstory. Some are more intricate than others, but they all have a story. My most complicated character is probably... any character in the "Sato" family. They are a family of characters I thought u a few years ago. It's hard to explain so I won't go into detail, but to make all of their backstories intertwine and make sense, I spent months writing up timelines, giving specific dates for certain events in their life so everything has a chronological order, and so on. Lots of detail. XD
3- Why?
Because it's fun. I don't "have" to do any of this by any stretch of the word. I do it because it brings me a special kind of joy to see my characters come to life with all the detail I get them. I want to cosplay more of my OCs as I get more money to fundmy cosplaying habits.
Inspiration- all of my OCs (only one of which is listed on this site) are characters from various tidbits or stories that I have been or am writing at this time. I set up their costumes so I could get an idea of how they'd look in real life (strange, I know, but it helps me get my thoughts together).
Backstory- they're characters from stories/books, so of course they have backstories... and extensive ones, at that. Not a single character of any of my books goes through the creative process without having an extensive backstory.
Why- I honestly don't know, but I love it.
__________________"Let's put a cookie on a plate and see what happens to the poor bastard who tries to steal it!"
-Sword Dude to Kari during a pointless argument
I've done an original character based on an existing design and universe, for entirely practical reasons. I knew that if I dressed as Neytiri or Grace from Avatar I would drive myself crazy trying to recreate their exact stripe patterns. That didn't sound like fun, so instead I invented another AVTR driver scientist and yes, gave her a name and a bit of backstory. I still call it a recreation costume, though.
I've got nothing but respect for people who design original costumes from scratch. My brain just doesn't do that.
What inspires your costumes? Do you base them on a series or fandom, or are they completely your own creation?
I've always liked personifying things - places, structures, landforms, holidays, etc. I've drawn and written characters like this for years. I think there's a lot of "character" in things and concepts we interact with daily, and it's fun to make an actual character out of that. As an extension, it's fun to costume that character, because it's another way to realize the design, it's fun to explain it to people and get them to think about the character of things, and it's fun to think about how to roleplay something that's not entirely human.
Do you give your characters a backstory, or come up with "in-character" explanations for parts of the costume?
Because my characters are based on real things, they come with a backstory rooted in actual history. That's a particularly concrete aspect for things that exist on a human timescale (structures, days, etc), but more abstract and interpretable for things like geologic features.
As for explaining features of the costume, I base them heavily on features of the thing I'm personifying. It has to be recognizable, after all! If the thing is architectural, there's a lot to go off of, design-wise. If it's geological, I tend to base a lot of things on rock types. If it's more conceptual, then yes, all the aspects tend to be related to the history.
(And yes, I've cosplayed as a day of the year, a structure, and an earthquake fault in the past.)
Overall, why do you do it? Do you like the freedom of original characters/designs? Do you like the challenge of coming up with a design from scratch, or do you find it more personal than strict recreation?
It's just fun? I like coming up with the characters, and writing them and drawing them, so why not cosplaying them?
Also, in the case of the San Francisco landmarks I've been cosplaying lately, it's a bit of a way to feel closer to the city even though I can't live there yet.
What inspires your costumes? Do you base them on a series or fandom, or are they completely your own creation?
I generally look to my favorite characters from other fandoms to take cues and ideas from when I am in the design process . I also look to my own wardrobe when it comes to designing clothes.
Do you give your characters a backstory, or come up with "in-character" explanations for parts of the costume?
Um. Yes. Character backstory should be one of the first things to get done!
Overall, why do you do it? Do you like the freedom of original characters/designs? Do you like the challenge of coming up with a design from scratch, or do you find it more personal than strict recreation?
It's definitely more personal for me. This is a character I've had for over 2 years and she's also my most beloved and well known. I want her to get more recognition! Raine-chan loves attention. |
1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates to a multi-party, multi-purpose and collapsible fitness machine geared towards usage by three or more persons simultaneously performing various types of muscle building and toning as well as cardiovascular exercises.
2. Discussion of Prior Art
It is a well documented fact that there exist multitudes of exercise apparatus which in unison or individually can be used to perform various types of muscle building and toning as well as cardiovascular exercises. However, acquiring a selection of a multitude of individual exercise apparatus to perform all types of exercises requires a lot of floor space and a lot of money. This is beyond the means of most users of exercise machines. The multi-party, multi-purpose fitness machine is designed with this in mind and is geared towards the family unit where members of a family can work out together simultaneously on one simple efficient machine offering a wide range of exercises for building and toning various muscles of the body as well as for performing cardiovascular exercises to condition the heart. This invention advocates that a family that works out together stays fit and united forever.
If one were to examine many of the brochures and infomercials for fitness machines and if one were to visit sporting equipment outlets as well as most gyms, one would find that most multi-station exercise apparatus available on the market today are complicated as they all invariably use a set of complex cable and pulley systems for generating forces and securing variable weights to provide resistance. This complexity makes such fitness machines difficult to manufacture, set up and maintain and quite expensive as a result. In the present invention, the design bypasses this approach thereby completely eliminating the need for cables and pulleys. This in turn translates into reduced cost for manufacturing, set up and maintenance thus making the present invention much more affordable.
Most multi-station fitness machines require large floor areas and bigger headroom as a result of their complex makeup. This limits their acceptance by many users who cannot spare prime floor areas for such machines as gym space utilization efficiency (GSUE) of such machines gets excessively high. Gym space utilization efficiency or GSUE as it applies to multi-station fitness machines having capabilities for a variety of exercises is the ratio of the projected floor area occupied by such fitness machine divided by the maximum number of simultaneous users. For instance, if a multi-station fitness equipment occupies a projected floor area of 7 feet by 8 feet (56 sq. ft.) and a maximum of two people can use the equipment simultaneously, the GSUE then becomes 28 sq. ft. per user. If on the other hand, the multi-station fitness equipment can only be used by one person at any given time, the GSUE becomes 56 sq. ft. per person which basically limits the cost effectiveness of such multi-station fitness machine. My present invention occupies a projected floor area of approximately 6 ft. by 9 ft (54 sq. ft.) under maximum usage. It has capability for over thirty different exercises. It is designed to accommodate three or more users working on it simultaneously. A maximum of five users can work on it at the same time which gives it a GSUE of 11 sq. ft. per user thus ranking it among the top cost effective fitness machines to own.
Most multi-station exercise machines are not built for simultaneous use by multiple users. The fact that a fitness machine is multi-station does not necessarily translate into multi-usage where three or more people can simultaneously work on it. The multi-station capability is only for the variety of exercises that one individual can perform on the machine at any given time by changing the type of exercise to develop a specific set of muscles. Most do not have the capability for three or more people to simultaneously work out on the same machine. As explained above, the present invention is specifically designed to accommodate three or more users and as many as five users working on it simultaneously.
Most multi-station exercise machines are geared towards building and toning the different superficial muscles of the body with no accommodation for cardiovascular exercises to benefit the heart. This invention combines a stepper mechanism to simulate stair climbing for purposes of cardiovascular workout.
Most multi-station fitness machines are not built to be collapsible in some form to reduce the projected floor area they occupy when they are not being used. The present invention is designed to be collapsible. This gives the present invention the capability to be placed in a small room where it can interchangeably share floor space with other small furniture. During exercise session, the small furniture can be moved out of the way temporarily allowing the fitness machine to be unfolded and/or extended into the freed space. When the exercise session is over, the machine is retracted and/or folded back for stowage thus freeing up needed space for the furniture.
Most multi-station fitness machines have limited capability for the user to change the positions of the levers to suit his/her physical stature to comfortably perform the various exercises. The present invention has flexibility built into it whereby adjustments in the force application levers and resistance mechanisms can be made with minimal effort to suit the specific needs and physical stature of the user. Short, tall, small or big people can use the machine without being encumbered. |
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Adjust text under 'clojure-contrib'
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After the 1.2.0 release, clojure-contrib was split into multiple sub-modules. This proved to be ever even more cumbersome to work with than the monolithic clojure-contrib, and is being phased out. There is no plan to release clojure-contrib in its post-1.2.0 in either monolithic or modularized forms.
Instead, new development of "contrib" libraries is occurring in independent Git repositories, one per library. Each library can have its own version and release cyclecompletely , independent of Clojure. Snapshots and releases of these "new contribs" are uploaded to the public repository at oss.sonatype.org and sync'd to Maven central just like Clojure itself. |
1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to well cementing methods and compositions for use in cold subterranean environments, and more particularly, but not by way of limitation, to methods and compositions for cementing conductor strings in deep water offshore wells.
2. Description of the Prior Art
In carrying out completion operations in oil, gas and water wells, hydraulic cement compositions are commonly utilized. For example, hydraulic cement compositions are used in primary cementing operations whereby pipe such as casing is cemented in the well bore. That is, a hydraulic cement composition is pumped into the annular space between the walls of the well bore and the exterior of a pipe disposed therein. The cement composition is permitted to set in the annular space thereby forming an annular sheath of hardened impermeable cement therein. The objective of the cement sheath is to physically support and position the pipe in the well bore and bond the pipe to the walls of the well bore whereby the undesirable migration of fluids between zones or formations penetrated by the well bore is prevented.
Completion and remedial cementing operations carried out in wells at low temperatures, e.g., temperatures as low as about 40.degree. F., are particularly difficult as a result of the delay in the setting of the cement. That is, the lower the temperature to which a cement composition is subjected, the longer it takes for the cement composition to set. In order to allow a well cement composition time to be mixed on the surface and then pumped into a subterranean zone in a well before the cement composition develops gel strength and sets, a set retarding additive is commonly included in the cement composition. At low temperatures, the set retarding additives often delay the setting of cement compositions for times which are too long, even when only very small quantities of the set retarding additives are utilized, making the cost of the completion or remedial procedure prohibitive.
Another problem which occurs when a cement composition used in primary cementing is slow to set is the occurrence of pressurized formation fluid flow into and through the annulus before and after the cement composition sets. Such an occurrence is attributable to the inability of the cement composition to transmit hydrostatic pressure during the transition of the cement composition from a true fluid to a hard set mass. During the transition phase, initial hydration of the cement composition has begun and the slurry starts to develop static gel strength. While the cement composition has little or no compressive strength, it becomes partially self-supporting which lowers the hydrostatic pressure exerted by the composition on pressurized fluid containing formations penetrated by the well bore. That is, when a cement composition becomes partially self-supporting due to the development of gel strength prior to setting, volume reductions in the cement composition (caused by hydration and fluid loss) result in rapid decreases in the hydrostatic pressure exerted by the cement composition. When the pressure exerted by the cement composition falls below the pressure of formation fluids, the formation fluids enter the annulus and flow through the cement composition forming flow passages which remain after the cement composition sets and/or diluting the cement composition with water which prevents its ability to subsequently develop sufficient compressive strength and provide a competent seal.
The foregoing problems are aggravated in offshore wells which are completed in deep cold water. Such wells include conductor pipes which are cemented from the seafloor or mud line to a depth generally under about 2000 feet below the mud line. The formations between the mud line and about 2000 feet are usually relatively young geologically and are not well consolidated. The formations are largely a product of erosion from the continental shelf, and consequently, the formations readily fracture and often have abnormally high artesian water sand flow.
When cementing conductor string casing in the subterranean formation adjacent to the seafloor, the cold temperature of the cement composition after being pumped through the seawater causes the cement composition hydration to be slowed and the transition time to be extended, and as a result, the cement composition often allows the influx of water and other fluids into the annulus. These conditions can lead to cementing job failure, costly remedial work, and increased expense and rig time.
While cementing processes have been developed which improve the success rate of cementing conductor pipe casing in deep water offshore wells and in other low temperature applications, there is still a need for improved well cementing methods and compositions for use in such cold environments. |
A foulmouthed special-ed teacher, a medical-sales-repping Southern belle, an indecisive career consultant from Hollywood, a sneaky bridal shop owner and a high school teacher from Brooklyn: These are the women competing for the million-dollar prize on Sunday night's (May 13) "Survivor: One World" season finale.
In a season dominated by just one contestant — 29-year-old Kim Spradlin, who has won numerous immunity challenges and forged multiple alliances to get to the endgame — predicting the "One World" winner isn't quite as challenging as it's been in "Survivor" seasons of yore. But this is "Survivor" we're talking about, and twists are the name of the game. There's no shortage of curveballs that could be thrown at the final five contestants in tonight's race for the Sole Survivor title.
As we've done all season long, MTV News joined forces with two-time "Survivor" contestant and regular commentator Rob Cesternino once again for his final "One World" predictions.
Most Likely to Win: Kim Spradlin
"Since the departure of Colton, 'Survivor: One World' has been the season of Kim," Cesternino said. "She's been in control of every single thing that's happened the whole way. She's had her finger on the pulse of the game. She played an amazing game and I think it would be almost criminal if she did not win — barring a total collapse during the finale."
Least Likely to Win: Christina Cha
"Christina at no point in the game has been in a favorable position," Rob reasoned. "It seems unlikely to think that she'll run off with two consecutive immunity challenges here at the end, when she's never even been in the mix to win one immunity challenge. She doesn't have the respect of the jury, considering some of those people were terrified by the possibility of going home before Christina. She hasn't done anything to get there."
Dark-Horse Pick: Sabrina Thompson
"I think she is very savvy," the former player said. "I also think she's well-liked by the jury. I think she could be an alternative to Kim in the finals, where she's able to sit there and say, 'Look, I didn't lie to you, and I didn't backstab you. That was all Kim. All of that bad stuff? Kim. I was here the whole way, and I was tough.' Sabrina is someone who could at least get a couple of votes in the finals. Maybe, if the jury goes anti-Kim, she could potentially squeak out a victory."
Worst-Case Scenario: Bitter Jury Syndrome
"I think it would be a shame if Kim makes it all the way to the finals and ends up losing the jury vote just as a way of getting back at her for voting out all of the men in the game," Rob said. "It's happened before on 'Survivor,' where the jury is bitter. I don't think Kim's social game has been lacking. It would be good to see someone who plays the best game get rewarded by the jury. Otherwise, as Russell Hantz has said before, the game would be flawed."
Biggest Possible Surprise: Kim Goes at Four
"The most surprising thing that could happen at the end of the season, for me, would be that one of these players smartens up and realizes that Kim has had the immunity idol and can't play it once she hits the final four. If she doesn't win that immunity challenge, the smartest thing that any of them can do is to take her out," Cesternino said. "If I'm Chelsea, and if I'm Sabrina, I don't know how I've gone this far without ever trying to take out Kim. It kills me to see these players roll over and die and give this game to Kim as they've done all season. If they turned on her at the final four, I would be very surprised." |
Home
WELCOME TO CROSS ROADS
OBSTETRICS AND GYNAECOLOGY!
Cross Roads Obstetrics and Gynaecology is a state-of-the-art facility located in the Cross Roads office tower and complex at the corner of West Broadway Avenue and Cambie Street. Since April 1, 2009, it has been the home base for the OB/GYN practices of Dr. Henry Woo, Dr. Ellen Giesbrecht, Dr. Michelle Belanger, and Dr. Julie van Schalkwyk. Dr. Salim Lalani joined us in 2010, and Dr. Darren Lazare, a sub-specialist in Urogynaecology, started his practice here in 2012. We then welcomed Dr. Flora Teng and Dr. Nadia Branco in 2014.
Our aim at Cross Roads Obstetrics and Gynaecology is to provide comprehensive maternity services and gynaecologic care to women at all stages of their lives. Through our services, and those of our associates, we are committed to offering our patients access to a wide array of women’s healthcare services, all in one convenient and easily-accessible location.
Our in-clinic associates include the Pacific Centre for Reproductive Medicine (PCRM), the Cross Roads Bladder Health, Female Incontinence and Prolapse Clinic, as well four other Gynaecologists. Dr. Yamuna (Mona) Kalyanpur, Dr. Lynn Simpson, and Dr. Chui Kin Yuen have office-based practices and Dr. Yuen has a special interest in menopause. |
January 2, 2016
University College of Engineering (Autonomous), Osmania University, Hyderabad (Telangana) has announced notification inviting applications for Ph.D programme under Visveswaraya Ph.D Scheme, Government of India.
The scheme is being implemented in the departments of ECE and CSE only. The candidates should have passed in ME / M.Tech degree through GATE score or qualification in Ph.D Entrance Test conducted by Osmania University in January 2015 in ECE and CSE subjects.
Filled in application forms along with other enclosures should reach the Principal office on or before 20th January 2016. For more details, see the website www.uceou.edu OR www.osmania.ac.in . |
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Introduction
============
Cervical cancer is the fourth most common cancer diagnosed among women, with \~520,000 novel cases each year worldwide. It has been predicted that there will be 13,000 novel cases of cervical cancer diagnosed each year in the United States, with 5,000 more mortalities due to disease progression ([@b1-mmr-18-01-0841]). Metastasis to pelvic and aortic lymph nodes is a common characteristic of cervical cancer ([@b2-mmr-18-01-0841]). Therefore, inhibition of metastasis is essential to improve prognosis and to design effective therapeutic methods. Recently, a variety of molecular and biochemical factors have been identified to influence metastasis and the outcome of cervical cancer ([@b3-mmr-18-01-0841]). Site-specific therapy provides a novel approach for tumor treatment; however, the associated side effects cause injury in the adjacent tissues, and limit the effectiveness and safety of this treatment method ([@b4-mmr-18-01-0841]). Currently, more effective therapies with fewer side effects are required. Gene therapy is one approach used to treat cervical cancer, which inhibits tumor cell proliferation and also sensitizes tumor cells to chemotherapy ([@b5-mmr-18-01-0841]).
Survivin (molecular weight, 16.5 kDa), the smallest member of the inhibitory apoptotic protein family, has demonstrated a dual role in the control of apoptosis and regulation of cell division ([@b6-mmr-18-01-0841]). As an antiapoptotic protein, survivin is expressed in a number of human neoplasm tissues; however, it is undetectable in terminally differentiated normal tissues with the exception of the thymus, basal colonic epithelium and endothelial cells during angiogenesis ([@b7-mmr-18-01-0841]--[@b9-mmr-18-01-0841]). Survivin expression is associated with apoptosis, tumor aggression and recurrence, poor survival and drug resistance ([@b10-mmr-18-01-0841],[@b11-mmr-18-01-0841]). The distinct expression and functional profiles of survivin in tumor tissues compared with normal tissues make it a potential target for cervical cancer treatment ([@b12-mmr-18-01-0841]). Inhibition of survivin has been extensively investigated using different approaches, including antisense oligonucleotide, dominant negative mutants, RNA interference and cancer vaccines ([@b13-mmr-18-01-0841]--[@b15-mmr-18-01-0841]). Downregulation of survivin effectively prevents tumor growth and increases the susceptibility to chemotherapy ([@b16-mmr-18-01-0841],[@b17-mmr-18-01-0841]). Survivin expression is thought to be a standard method to evaluate therapeutic efficacy ([@b18-mmr-18-01-0841]). However, whether liposome-plasmid DNA encoding mutant survivin-T34A could prevent cervical cancer growth remains to be elucidated. In the present study, a plasmid with mutant survivin-T34A was synthesized and a liposome was constructed using 1,2-dioleoyl-3-trimethylammonium-propane (DOTAP). The present study aimed to evaluate the anti-cancer activity of a liposome-plasmid complex in cervical cancer *in vivo*.
Materials and methods
=====================
### Preparation of plasmids with survivin-T34A
A pVITRO2 plasmid (Invitrogen; Thermo Fisher Scientific, Inc., Waltham, MA, USA) expressing mutant survivin-T34A was synthesized. Briefly, cDNA clone encoding mutant survivin-T34A was a gift from Li Pan (West China Medical School, Sichuan University) and amplified by polymerase chain reaction (PCR) (DNA polymerase: cat. no. D7220; Beyotime Institute of Biotechnology, Haimen, China) with the following primers: Forward, 5′-GATCACGCGTCACCATGGGAGC-3′ and reverse, 5′-GGCGGTCGACAGCATTAGGCAG-3′. The PCR protocol was as follows: 95°C initial denaturation 5 min, 95°C denaturation 30 sec, 58°C annealing 16 sec, 72°C extension 30 sec for 36 cycles. Subsequently, the clone was digested with *SalI/MluI* and then inserted into the pVITRO2 plasmid. In a previous study, Pan *et al* ([@b18-mmr-18-01-0841]) demonstrated that DOTAP-chol liposome encoding survivin-T34A could down-regulate survivin expression and pVITRO2 plasmid without mutant T34A (pVITRO2-null) did not affect survivin expression. Colonies of *E. coli* were cultured in Luria-Bertani broth (BW30620044; Bioworld Technology, Inc., St. Louis Park, MN, USA) containing 100 µg/ml ampicillin. Large-scale plasmid survivin-T34A was purified using a Qiagen EndoFree Plasmid Giga kit (cat. no. 12391; Qiagen, Inc., Valencia, CA, USA) according to the manufacturer\'s protocol. The purity (optical density 260/280) values for the prepared plasmid DNA were equal to 1.8--2.0. Plasmids were stored at −20°C for subsequent experimentation.
### Preparation of liposome DOTAP
Liposome was prepared according to the procedure described previously ([@b19-mmr-18-01-0841]). DOTAP and cholesterol (1:1; both Avanti Polar Lipids, Inc., Alabaster, AL, USA) were dissolved in chloroform in a 100 ml-round-bottomed flask and rotated to obtain a thin lipid layer. Subsequently, the mixture was dried and treated with a vacuum for 2 h at 4°C in order to remove the organic solvent. The lipid layer was rehydrated using 5% dextrose (Sigma-Aldrich; Merck KGaA, Darmstadt, Germany) in water to obtain a final concentration of 10 mg/ml and eddied for 30 min at 60°C. Finally, the film was extruded through a 100-nm polycarbonate filter using a Mini-Extruder (Avanti Polar Lipids, Inc.). Liposomes were stored at 4°C until further use. Prior to use, the liposome-plasmid complex was freshly prepared at a ratio of 10:1 (liposome:plasmid) and incubated for 20 min at room temperature prior to injection.
### Cell culture
The human cervical cancer cell line (HeLa) was purchased from the Cell Center, Institute of Basic Medical Sciences, Xiehe Medical University (Beijing, China). Cells were cultured at 37°C, in an atmosphere of 5% CO~2~ in Dulbecco\'s modified Eagle\'s medium (Gibco; Thermo Fisher Scientific, Inc.) supplemented with 10% fetal calf serum (Hyclone; GE Healthcare, Chicago, IL, USA), 100 U/ml penicillin and 100 mg/ml streptomycin.
### Animal model
A total of 40 female BALB/c nude mice (16±1 g; 5--6-weeks old) were purchased from Vital River Laboratories Co., Ltd. (Beijing, China). Mice were housed and maintained in specific pathogen-free conditions at a temperature of 23±2°C, a relative humidity of 45--65%, and a controlled 12/12 h light/dark cycle. Animals had *ad libitum* access to food and water. All protocols were approved and supervised by the State Key Laboratory of Biotherapy Animal Care and Use Committee of Sichuan University (Chengdu, China). HeLa cells (1×10^7^) were diluted in 0.2 ml PBS and administered to BALB/c nude mice by intraperitoneal injection (i.p.) on day 0. Three days following inoculation, the 40 mice were randomly divided into four groups (n=10/group): i) The normal saline group (NS; 100 µl sterile saline once/3 days for 15 days); ii) the DOTAP control group (100 µg DOTAP once/3 days for 15 days); iii) the plasmid encoding mutant survivin-T34A (PST34A) group (10 µg PST34A once/3 days for 15 days); and iv) the PST34A+DOTAP group (10 µg PST34A+100 µg DOTAP once/3 days for 15 days). The treatment was administered via i.p. injection once every three days in 100 µl volume saline; four injections were administered in total over 15 days. The general health of the mice was monitored daily. On day 15, all mice were sacrificed by dislocation of the neck and metastasis was evaluated. At the time of sacrifice, tumor tissue, ascitic fluid and the vital organs of the mice were harvested, and body weight, ascitic fluid volume, tumor weight and the number of tumor nodules were counted. Ascitic fluid, and tumor and normal tissues were used for further study. Tumor specimen were fixed by paraformaldehyde (4%, pH 7.4) at 4°C overnight and embedded in paraffin for tissue sectioning (4 µm) vital organs (spleen, liver, kidneys, heart and lungs) were also harvested and stored at −80°C for later assessment of tissue toxicity.
### Flow cytometry
Ascitic fluid from the NS, DOTAP, PST34A and PST34A+DOTAP treatment groups was collected. A total of 5 ml normal saline solution was injected into abdomen cavity and withdrawn from mice with ascitic fluid. All specimens were washed with PBS, resuspended in propidium iodide/RNase A solution (5 ml; Beyotime Institute of Biotechnology) and incubated in the dark at 4°C for 15 min. Samples were analyzed by flow cytometry using the NovoCyte^®^ Flow Cytometer System which included the analysis software (ACEA Biosciences, San Diego, CA, USA).
### Hematoxylin and eosin (H&E) and immunohistochemical staining
Immunohistochemical analyses of proliferation marker protein Ki-67 (Ki67) and microvessel density (MVD) were determined using rabbit anti-human Ki67 (cat. no. NB500; Novus Biologicals, LLC, Littleton, CO, USA) and rabbit anti-mouse CD34 (cat. no. ab81289; Abcam, Cambridge, MA, USA) antibodies using the labeled streptavidin-biotin method. Briefly, sections (4 µm) were sliced from paraffin-embedded tumor tissue and deparaffinized by sequential washing with xylene, and 100, 95, 85 and 75% ethanol. Endogenous peroxide activity was blocked by 3% H~2~O~2~ for 10 min at room temperature. The sections were stained with H&E for 20--30 sec at room temperature. Representative images were captured under a light microscope (magnification, ×400) in at least 5 random selected fields.
For immunohistochemical staining, antigen retrieval was conducted by heating the slices in a steam cooker (100°C) in 10 mM sodium citrate buffer (pH 6.0). The sections were blocked in 5% goat serum (Hyclone; GE Healthcare) for 2 h at room temperature. Following washing with PBS, slices were incubated with the primary antibodies (both antibodies in 1:300) overnight at 4°C. Following washing with PBS for three times, peroxidase conjugated goat anti-mouse IgG (1:100; cat. no. TA130004; OriGene Technologies, Inc., Beijing, China) was added and incubated for 2 h at room temperature. This was followed by staining using a 3,3′-Diaminobenzidine substrate kit (Fuzhou Maixin Biotech Co., Ltd., Fuzhou, China) for 30--45 sec at room temperature. Cells were counterstained with H&E for 20--30 sec at room temperature. Control slices were exposed to the secondary antibody alone and did not demonstrate specific staining (data not shown). Representative images were captured under a light microscope (magnification, ×400) in at least 5 randomly selected fields.
All slices were observed and counted by two pathologists (Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology, West China Second University Hospital, Sichuan, China) in a blind manner. CD34 is as a cell surface antigen selectively expressed on hematopoietic progenitor cells and vascular endothelial cells. Weidner\'s method was used to determine the density of the tumor-associated microvasculature ([@b19-mmr-18-01-0841]). Microvessel density within tumors was calculated under a light microscope in 10 randomly selected fields. Ki67-positive cells were counted.
### Statistical analysis
All data are presented as the mean ± standard deviation with 10 repeats. Statistical analysis was performed by SPSS version 19.0 (IBM Corp., Armonk, NY, USA) using one-way analysis of variance followed by Bonferroni correction. P\<0.05 was considered to indicate a statistically significant difference.
Results
=======
### General observation of anti-tumor activity of liposome-PST34A in vivo
Mice in all groups survived the experimental period, although mice with tumors are not in healthy condition (ascites, reduced activity, no eating). Following sacrifice, tumor tissues, ascitic fluid and vital organs of mice were harvested. Administration of DOTAP+PST34A significantly inhibited tumor growth when compared with the other groups (NS, DOTAP alone and PST34A alone; all P\<0.05; [Fig. 1](#f1-mmr-18-01-0841){ref-type="fig"}). There were no statistical differences in body weight among the different groups (NS, 18.03±1.37 g; DOTAP, 17.89±2.04 g; PST34A, 19.02±2.72 g; DOTAP+PST34A, 16.98±1.55 g). Liposome-plasmid complex significantly decreased the number of tumor nodules to 5.33±3.80 compared with the other groups (NS, 50.19±25.78; DOTAP, 56.89±20.13; PST34A, 80.92±30.12; all P\<0.05; [Fig. 1B](#f1-mmr-18-01-0841){ref-type="fig"}). The mean volume of ascitic fluid collected from mice in the DOTAP+PST34A group (0.21±0.09 ml) significantly decreased compared with the other groups (NS, 1.31±0.03 ml; DOTAP, 1.29±0.79 ml; PST34A, 2.03±1.21 ml; all P\<0.05; [Fig. 1C](#f1-mmr-18-01-0841){ref-type="fig"}). Furthermore, a decrease in abdomen circumference and tumor weight were observed in the DOTAP+PST34A group compared with all other groups \[(NS, 7.03±0.49 cm; DOTAP, 6.22±0.98 cm; PST34A, 7.38±0.74 cm; DOTAP+PST34A, 5.64±0.13 cm; all P\<0.05; [Fig. 1D](#f1-mmr-18-01-0841){ref-type="fig"}) and (NS, 1.60±0.69 g; DOTAP, 1.19±0.89 g; PST34A, 2.10±0.64 g; DOTAP+PST34A, 0.05±0.02 g; all P\<0.05; [Fig. 1E](#f1-mmr-18-01-0841){ref-type="fig"}), respectively\].
### Evaluation of apoptosis in the ascitic fluid
Flow cytometry was performed to detect the rates of apoptosis in ascitic fluid following the administration of the liposome-plasmid complex. DOTAP+PST34A significantly increased the number of cells in the sub-G1 phase (apoptotic cells; 10.21±3.43%) compared with all other treatments (NS, 5.83±1.51%; DOTAP, 4.96±0.98%; PST34A, 6.78±1.39%; all P\<0.05; [Fig. 2](#f2-mmr-18-01-0841){ref-type="fig"}).
### Results of H&E and immunohistochemical staining
Morphology of tumor tissue was observed in the present study. Characteristic morphological alterations, including cell shrinkage, chromatin condensation and nuclear fragmentation were observed in the DOTAP+PST34A group compared with other groups ([Fig. 3](#f3-mmr-18-01-0841){ref-type="fig"}). Apoptotic cell and certain lymphatic cell infiltrations were observed in the DOTAP+PST34A group. By contrast, there were more tumor cells with apparently enlarged atypical nuclei in the NS group. There were no significant pathological alterations in the heart, liver, spleen, lung and kidney samples following treatments (data not shown).
In the present study there were significantly fewer (59±6) CD34-positive cells in the DOTAP+PST34A treated group, compared with the 89±31 CD34-positive cells in the NS, 110±42 in the DOTAP and 101±39 in the PST34A groups (all P\<0.05; [Fig. 4](#f4-mmr-18-01-0841){ref-type="fig"}). Treatment with DOTAP+PST34A resulted in significant inhibition of angiogenesis, compared with the control group (all P\<0.05). The effects of DOTAP+PST34A treatment on cervical tumor cell proliferation were determined by Ki67 staining. The positive/negative expression rate of Ki67 in the DOTAP+ST34A group was 23±9%, which was significantly lower compared with the other treatments (NS, 70±17%; DOTAP, 45±13%; PST34A, 68±14%; all P\<0.05; [Fig. 5](#f5-mmr-18-01-0841){ref-type="fig"}).
Discussion
==========
Survivin expression is associated with inhibition of apoptosis, increased tumor aggressiveness and poor survival ([@b20-mmr-18-01-0841]). Survivin gene repression can induce tumor cell apoptosis and increase sensitivity to radiotherapy and chemotherapy in human cervical cancer lines ([@b21-mmr-18-01-0841]). In the present study, liposome-plasmid DNA encoding mutant survivin-T34A was constructed and revealed that DOTAP+PST34A exhibited antitumor abilities in cervical cancer cells. CD34 staining also revealed that DOTAP+PST34A treatment markedly decreased MVD, which indicated that the plasmid together with the liposome could result in inhibition of tumor growth by preventing the formation of novel vessels. Furthermore, decreased level of Ki67 staining following treatment with the plasmid-liposome complex, demonstrated that the plasmid-liposome complex could inhibit the proliferation of tumor cells.
Survivin is an inhibitor of apoptosis that regulates cell proliferation. To exert its function, its threonine 34 (Thr34) residue is phosphorylated by the cyclin-dependent kinase p34-cyclin B1 protein complex ([@b22-mmr-18-01-0841]). Loss of Thr34 phosphorylation results in dissociation of the caspase-9-survivin protein complex, leading to caspase-dependent apoptosis ([@b21-mmr-18-01-0841]). Adenoviruses encoding mutant survivin-T34A can promote spontaneous apoptosis in breast carcinoma ([@b23-mmr-18-01-0841]). Furthermore, liposome-plasmid DNA PST34A can sensitize Lewis lung carcinoma cells to cisplatin-based chemotherapy and to radiation ([@b24-mmr-18-01-0841],[@b25-mmr-18-01-0841]). The present study demonstrated that i.p. injection with liposome-plasmid DNA PST34A could inhibit the tumor growth of cervical cancer *in vivo*. By contrast, PST34A did not affect the viability of normal human cells, including fibroblasts, endothelium and smooth muscle cells ([@b21-mmr-18-01-0841]). The above observations together implicate that liposome-plasmid DNA PST34A is a potential candidate for cancer therapy. Phosphorylated Thr34 and p34 kinase have not been previously detected in normal tissues, though they were upregulated in the advanced stage cancer tissues ([@b26-mmr-18-01-0841]). Survivin-dependent apoptosis could improve the efficacy of a number of agents used to treat cancer. The above results supported the previously reported apoptosis-inducing ability of PST34A ([@b27-mmr-18-01-0841]). The present study also demonstrated that inhibition of tumor growth was associated with suppression of angiogenesis as previously demonstrated ([@b28-mmr-18-01-0841],[@b29-mmr-18-01-0841]).
Similar to other targeted therapies used in recent years, there remain several limitations for gene therapies. The relatively low efficiency of integration is a disadvantage. In order to improve the efficiency, cationic liposome delivery system was used in the present study, which represents the most common tool in gene therapy ([@b30-mmr-18-01-0841]). The other limitation may result from a diversity of mutations in tumor cells and a variety of histological types of tumors. Additionally, an empty vector control was not used in the present study and this is a limitation of the study, as the background effects of the pVITRO2 plasmid could not be ascertained. In the future study, a pVITRO2 plasmid should be included in the study to confirm the specific function of PST34A delivered by DOTAP.
In conclusion, the present study demonstrated that the liposome-plasmid complex PST34A can efficiently inhibit the growth of cervical cancer *in vivo*. The mechanism potentially involves two aspects: Induction of apoptosis of tumor cells and inhibition of tumor-associated angiogenesis. In the present study, the targeted strategy using survivin dominant negative mutant mediated by liposome represents an alternative approach to survivin gene therapeutic strategies.
The authors of the present study would like to thank Dr Huilan Liu (School of Statistics, Guizhou University) for performing the statistical analysis and Dr Yu Meng (Guiyang University) for translation support.
{#f1-mmr-18-01-0841}
{#f2-mmr-18-01-0841}
{#f3-mmr-18-01-0841}
{#f4-mmr-18-01-0841}
{#f5-mmr-18-01-0841}
|
When Connor Barwin fractured his arm in Week 12’s win over the New Orleans Saints, his season might have ended. The veteran outside linebacker, who signed for the LA Rams on a one-year deal in March, was not finished, however. Having not missed a game since an ankle injury in 2010, a fractured arm didn’t deter him. The injury kept Barwin out of the games against the Arizona Cardinals and the Philadelphia Eagles. He had hoped to be back earlier but having more time to recover has helped.
Teething Problems
Adjusting to a new team and a new defensive strategy is difficult. It has taken the Rams a number of games to get everything just right.
Prior to Sunday’s match, Barwin had recorded just four sacks and made 25 tackles. It’s fair to say that the jury is out as far as Rams fans are concerned. His early season production was not up to the standard he had set in Philadelphia. Playing for the Eagles, he averaged 3.3 tackles and 0.86 sacks per game. In LA, his average dropped to 2.3 tackles and 0.36 sacks per game. At 31, the speed and strength are not the same as they used to be.
Return
With the fractured arm healed, Barwin returned and performed well in the rout against the Seahawks. He led the team with five tackles (four solo) and added a sack on Russell Wilson for good measure. It was his best performance of the season since he recorded seven tackles and one sack at Jacksonville.
Latest From FPC on SportsCastr
The entire defense delivered a masterclass on how to pressure the quarterback with three of Barwin’s tackles coming on Wilson. The Rams sacked Wilson seven times, and Barwin credited the success to the transition from a 4-3 to a 3-4 defensive scheme.
“It was just a good combination of good coverage on the back end and then a good plan up front,” he said speaking to the LA Times. “At times, there were guys who were able to disrupt him and at the same time we always had guys on him when he tried to get out and run.”
Outlook
Barwin remains the starter for the Rams, but with rookie Samson Ebukam breathing down his neck, he needs to improve. He will be a relatively cheap acquisition for 2018 and his durability gives him something extra. While his time is drawing to a close, he brings a wealth of experience to the team that can only benefit the younger players.
– Martin Smith is a Staff Writer for Full Press Coverage Rams. He covers the Los Angeles Rams. Like and follow on Follow @TyroneBHoy Follow @FPC_Rams and Facebook. |
Adaptive control of pursuit, vergence and eye torsion in humans: basic and clinical implications.
Recent research from our laboratory has been directed at understanding the range of capabilities for adaptive control of eye movements in normal human subjects. For smooth pursuit, different motor responses to the same sensory stimulus (horizontal target motion) can be learned, stored and gated in or out, according to context (vertical eye position). The dynamic properties of the 'open-loop' portion of horizontal, disparity-driven vergence eye movements are under adaptive control. Eye torsion is also subject to adaptive control, including torsional 'phoria adaptation' and cross-coupling of torsion into the horizontal vestibulo-ocular reflex (VOR). Finally, lesions of the oculomotor vermis in monkeys produce disordered binocular ocular motor function: 'esodeviations' in the absence of disparity cues, and decreased adaptation of the horizontal phoria to a sustained disparity induced by wearing a horizontal prism in front of one eye. |
Q:
react native change webview source on button click
I merely want to change the source of a webview component to a different url once a button outside of the webview is clicked. I'm blown away there is not an easier way to do this. I've been told to use 'refs' but I'm not even sure that will work considering my unique situation.
To convey what I'm looking to to I'm mixing in some web js.
doAppNotification() {
// some objc code is run
// receiveAppNotification is called
}
receiveAppNotification() {
let wv = document.getElementById("webview"); // !! how can I do something like this in react native??
wv.source="http://some.other.site";
}
...
<Webview
id="webview"
source={{uri: "https://www.google.com"}}
/>
<Button
onClick={doAppNotification}
/>
A:
You can easily use component state to achieve desired behavior. Changing state will fire a component re-render and will open up the new uri you set.
export default MyComponent extends Component {
constructor(props) {
super(props);
this.state = {
url: 'https://defaulturl'
}
}
someEvent = (e) => {
this.setState({ url: 'https://toanewurl' });
}
render(){
const { url } = this.state;
return(
<React.Fragment>
<WebView source={{uri: url}} />
<Button onClick={this.someEvent} />
</React.Fragment>
)
}
}
|
Gemini
If you want to attain the highest levels of professionalism and success, it's necessary for you to be vulnerable in ways not usually associated with a career. Emotional investment, cultivation of your talent, and the willingness to serve rather than to be seen are all involved. Your work cannot be separate from who you are, which is to say, in whatever you do. You're an artist, and that calls for total investment, and taking a hint from your Gemini cousin Bob Dylan that a poet alone can tell the truth. It's possible that in recent months you've become wary or weary of the drive for superficial accomplishment. Your chart is cautioning against falling for appearances and popularity, to the point where you may be openly rebelling against these things. Rather than rebel, draw yourself closer to the very thing that distinguishes you. Be not afraid to stand out, that is; or to be authentically different in a way that challenges you. The thing that you may be concerned is your fatal flaw is the thing to work with. For you that may feel like a longing to hear the true message of the universe, or the drive to connect with others in a common language you feel you might never attain or master. If you pursue the impossible, or even the improbable, you're heading in the right direction. |
/*
* vsp1_hsit.c -- R-Car VSP1 Hue Saturation value (Inverse) Transform
*
* Copyright (C) 2013 Renesas Corporation
*
* Contact: Laurent Pinchart (laurent.pinchart@ideasonboard.com)
*
* 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.
*/
#include <linux/device.h>
#include <linux/gfp.h>
#include <media/v4l2-subdev.h>
#include "vsp1.h"
#include "vsp1_dl.h"
#include "vsp1_hsit.h"
#define HSIT_MIN_SIZE 4U
#define HSIT_MAX_SIZE 8190U
/* -----------------------------------------------------------------------------
* Device Access
*/
static inline void vsp1_hsit_write(struct vsp1_hsit *hsit,
struct vsp1_dl_list *dl, u32 reg, u32 data)
{
vsp1_dl_list_write(dl, reg, data);
}
/* -----------------------------------------------------------------------------
* V4L2 Subdevice Operations
*/
static int hsit_enum_mbus_code(struct v4l2_subdev *subdev,
struct v4l2_subdev_pad_config *cfg,
struct v4l2_subdev_mbus_code_enum *code)
{
struct vsp1_hsit *hsit = to_hsit(subdev);
if (code->index > 0)
return -EINVAL;
if ((code->pad == HSIT_PAD_SINK && !hsit->inverse) |
(code->pad == HSIT_PAD_SOURCE && hsit->inverse))
code->code = MEDIA_BUS_FMT_ARGB8888_1X32;
else
code->code = MEDIA_BUS_FMT_AHSV8888_1X32;
return 0;
}
static int hsit_enum_frame_size(struct v4l2_subdev *subdev,
struct v4l2_subdev_pad_config *cfg,
struct v4l2_subdev_frame_size_enum *fse)
{
return vsp1_subdev_enum_frame_size(subdev, cfg, fse, HSIT_MIN_SIZE,
HSIT_MIN_SIZE, HSIT_MAX_SIZE,
HSIT_MAX_SIZE);
}
static int hsit_set_format(struct v4l2_subdev *subdev,
struct v4l2_subdev_pad_config *cfg,
struct v4l2_subdev_format *fmt)
{
struct vsp1_hsit *hsit = to_hsit(subdev);
struct v4l2_subdev_pad_config *config;
struct v4l2_mbus_framefmt *format;
int ret = 0;
mutex_lock(&hsit->entity.lock);
config = vsp1_entity_get_pad_config(&hsit->entity, cfg, fmt->which);
if (!config) {
ret = -EINVAL;
goto done;
}
format = vsp1_entity_get_pad_format(&hsit->entity, config, fmt->pad);
if (fmt->pad == HSIT_PAD_SOURCE) {
/*
* The HST and HSI output format code and resolution can't be
* modified.
*/
fmt->format = *format;
goto done;
}
format->code = hsit->inverse ? MEDIA_BUS_FMT_AHSV8888_1X32
: MEDIA_BUS_FMT_ARGB8888_1X32;
format->width = clamp_t(unsigned int, fmt->format.width,
HSIT_MIN_SIZE, HSIT_MAX_SIZE);
format->height = clamp_t(unsigned int, fmt->format.height,
HSIT_MIN_SIZE, HSIT_MAX_SIZE);
format->field = V4L2_FIELD_NONE;
format->colorspace = V4L2_COLORSPACE_SRGB;
fmt->format = *format;
/* Propagate the format to the source pad. */
format = vsp1_entity_get_pad_format(&hsit->entity, config,
HSIT_PAD_SOURCE);
*format = fmt->format;
format->code = hsit->inverse ? MEDIA_BUS_FMT_ARGB8888_1X32
: MEDIA_BUS_FMT_AHSV8888_1X32;
done:
mutex_unlock(&hsit->entity.lock);
return ret;
}
static const struct v4l2_subdev_pad_ops hsit_pad_ops = {
.init_cfg = vsp1_entity_init_cfg,
.enum_mbus_code = hsit_enum_mbus_code,
.enum_frame_size = hsit_enum_frame_size,
.get_fmt = vsp1_subdev_get_pad_format,
.set_fmt = hsit_set_format,
};
static const struct v4l2_subdev_ops hsit_ops = {
.pad = &hsit_pad_ops,
};
/* -----------------------------------------------------------------------------
* VSP1 Entity Operations
*/
static void hsit_configure(struct vsp1_entity *entity,
struct vsp1_pipeline *pipe,
struct vsp1_dl_list *dl,
enum vsp1_entity_params params)
{
struct vsp1_hsit *hsit = to_hsit(&entity->subdev);
if (params != VSP1_ENTITY_PARAMS_INIT)
return;
if (hsit->inverse)
vsp1_hsit_write(hsit, dl, VI6_HSI_CTRL, VI6_HSI_CTRL_EN);
else
vsp1_hsit_write(hsit, dl, VI6_HST_CTRL, VI6_HST_CTRL_EN);
}
static const struct vsp1_entity_operations hsit_entity_ops = {
.configure = hsit_configure,
};
/* -----------------------------------------------------------------------------
* Initialization and Cleanup
*/
struct vsp1_hsit *vsp1_hsit_create(struct vsp1_device *vsp1, bool inverse)
{
struct vsp1_hsit *hsit;
int ret;
hsit = devm_kzalloc(vsp1->dev, sizeof(*hsit), GFP_KERNEL);
if (hsit == NULL)
return ERR_PTR(-ENOMEM);
hsit->inverse = inverse;
hsit->entity.ops = &hsit_entity_ops;
if (inverse)
hsit->entity.type = VSP1_ENTITY_HSI;
else
hsit->entity.type = VSP1_ENTITY_HST;
ret = vsp1_entity_init(vsp1, &hsit->entity, inverse ? "hsi" : "hst",
2, &hsit_ops,
MEDIA_ENT_F_PROC_VIDEO_PIXEL_ENC_CONV);
if (ret < 0)
return ERR_PTR(ret);
return hsit;
}
|
Business Ideas Take Wing
The moment had arrived. After two weeks of preparation—the all-day coaching workshops and countless hours of practice—the eight finalists in the Saint Mary’s College Business Idea Competition were ready to present. Soon judges from the Keiretsu Forum, a global angel investor network, would decide which of them was most worthy. The room was packed with entrepreneurs, potential investors, faculty, and fellow students. It would all come down to a two-minute pitch, plus four additional minutes for questions and answers.
“You need an idea that’s viable. Usually, these are high-growth opportunities with a clear exit plan. It’s also a matter of how convincing you are as a presenter and as a cheerleader for the idea. Do you have the background or just the passion?” explained School of Economics and Business Administration (SEBA) Associate Professor Berna Aksu, who launched the competition to promote entrepreneurial thinking on campus.
And behind every idea lies a wide range of ideas and inspirations. Many are drawn from personal or professional experience. Others emerge from unexpected places. Still more are driven by a desire to provide a social or environmental benefit.
Molly O’Kane E.M.B.A. ’12 found a business idea in her young son’s closetful of outgrown clothing. She discovered other mothers also had barely worn items that no longer fit. O’Kane had a solution: an online marketplace where parents could sell this clothing and donate a portion of the proceeds to a local school or charity.
“A lot of moms had this idea in the past but never executed on it,” said the San Francisco resident who previously worked in nutrition and program management. “I thought the competition would motivate me to sit down and think about this idea churning in my head, and give me a deadline.”
Hamsa Buvaraghan’s idea grew out of a years-long quest for health and wellness. Searching for natural ways to address fatigue after an allergic reaction to a medication landed her in a hospital intensive care unit, she struggled to find a practitioner who met her needs. Another time, suffering chronic pain, she went from doctor to doctor, diagnosis to diagnosis, without resolution or relief.
“I come from an engineering and computer science background. I’m very analytical. It puzzled me that no one could figure out what was wrong,” said Buvaraghan E.M.B.A. ’14.
She suspected others faced similar frustrations. Buvaraghan also had an idea to help: an online platform connecting patients with the right healthcare practitioners.
A business idea came to Gerald Cabrera E.M.B.A. ’14 when a colleague mused about putting solar panels on streetlights. A mechanical engineer who had run his family’s Concord, Calif., engineering company and designed large-scale solar energy systems, Cabrera thought, “Why not take it a step further? How do you make light poles do more?”
Placing a solar sleeve on light poles could provide energy and reduce costs for communities. But Cabrera saw the opportunity to offer additional services, such as Wi-Fi and security cameras, as well as an innovative revenue-sharing business model. He explained, “That way, everyone wins. Thinking globally, this is a simple way to improve the infrastructure and safety of any city or town or village.”
O’Kane’s idea earned top honors in the first competition, in 2012. Cabrera won in 2014, with Buvaraghan as his runner-up. Each first-place finisher received a cash prize, legal advice, and access to the Keiretsu Forum’s Angel Capital Expo.
“It puts them on a path to being better able to satisfy their career needs,” said Aksu. “All of the winners have pursued their ideas. Some nonwinners, too. Even if they take that step and fail, as long as they’re open to learning from that failure, it makes them better the next time.”
For O’Kane, winning validated her idea. She recalled, “I was surprised but happy because I was passionate about the need for my idea in the universe. Then it began to develop fast.”
O’Kane decided to launch her used clothing business with a friend rather than pursuing investors. She spent more than a year building the marketplace she named Sweet Sprouts while also consulting part-time. She did extensive market research and worked on a loyalty program to increase sales. Then, facing a serious health issue, O’Kane shuttered the site in December 2014.
“It was a good learning experience,” O’Kane said. “I came from a nontechnical background and created an online site from scratch. I learned a lot about startups in general.”
With her health improving, O’Kane is now a volunteer consultant at San Francisco’s Renaissance Entrepreneurship Center and thinking about her next venture. She said, “I have other ideas percolating. Having done that first one, I know how to approach it. I’m burnt out on kids’ clothes right now, although I left myself the option to go back if I choose.”
When Buvaraghan competed, she was already building the company called Inoviva. She had first proposed her idea as a class project while studying entrepreneurship at Stanford University in 2012 and later taken it to the Founder Institute, a Silicon Valley startup bootcamp for talented entrepreneurs.
“For me, the competition was most important for the connections I could make. It wasn’t about pitching my idea but about getting feedback,” said Buvaraghan, who has extensive product management experience in startup companies. “All of the mentors were great. One ended up being one of my company’s advisers.”
Inoviva continued to evolve. Market research by students in Professor Saroja Subrahmanyan’s class gave Buvaraghan information about consumer interest in integrative medicine. She also explored working with traditional medical practices and licensing Inoviva’s platform to hospitals and healthcare plans.
“We wanted to take it to the next level of patient engagement,” Buvaraghan explained. “We also had two patents pending for our recommendation engine, which is another differentiator.”
Then some promising partnerships with healthcare organizations stalled. Buvaraghan, who acted as CEO and personally funded Inoviva, said, “When that happened, we decided to put it on hold. Even if you’re passionate about an idea, you have to be realistic.”
Though still an Inoviva board member, she now works full-time as a product manager for SAP Labs, the Silicon Valley software product research and development arm of the multinational company SAP SE. But Buvaraghan continues to apply what she learned through her experience with Inoviva. She explained, “I take an entrepreneurial approach, whether I’m working for someone else or myself. That’s something that can’t change.”
Like Buvaraghan, Cabrera entered the competition with a long-standing idea. He originally formed Advanced Energy Solutions with a partner in 2009 but put it aside for a position with PG&E as the economy soured. Only when Cabrera submitted a last-minute application to the competition five years later did his idea reemerge—this time to considerable success.
“It took off like wildfire. Some of the investors and faculty pulled me aside and said, ‘You’ve really got something here.’ It was a wonderful response to my raw presentation,” Cabrera recalled. “The competition is a networking opportunity. People are more than willing to talk to you, assuming you have a good idea.”
Cabrera left PG&E in May 2014 to restart his company, now named SolarFi. His biggest hurdle remains locating a manufacturer for the solar sleeve he designed. Cabrera explained, “We have all the components, but finding someone with the technical capacity to build it has been difficult. It’s going to come one day.”
When that happens, Cabrera knows he can return to the Keiretsu Forum for support. He explained, “They’ve said ‘Come back to us. You’re well-known in our community.’ After the competition, people were trying to give me $10 million to do this, but I needed to do my due diligence first. I did get picked up by an investor who gave me a good amount of money to do research and work on other products. I’ve filed four patents already. Some things are easier to prototype than others.”
Cabrera sees his soon-to-be-released product—a suitcase with a built-in battery charger—as a trial run for SolarFi. He said, “I no longer engineer anything. I’m using my skill set to do business development, to exercise what I know and what I’ve learned. Several things keep my time moving when development gets slow.”
He has spent some of his time encouraging other potential SMC entrepreneurs, whom Aksu hopes will emerge from a variety of programs now that she’s opening the competition to students outside SEBA. Cabrera spoke in one of Aksu’s entrepreneurship classes and recalled, “Some students came to me afterward and said I was one of the reasons they put their ideas into the competition. That was one of the most rewarding things about winning.” |
Parking Prices Add to Pain of Bay Area Living
According to SpotAngels, in 2017 San Francisco had the country’s highest average parking ticket cost – $97.40 – ahead of New York City, with an average price of $71.40. That same year, parking ticket revenues generated South-of-Market produced $11,383,000, the most in the City, with Downtown having the greatest number of tickets levied per available parking space; 10 to 11 citations for every single parking spot.
The City and County of San Francisco issues more than 60 different kinds of parking citations, ranging in price from $66 to $600, excluding fees due if a vehicle is towed.If a car is hauled to one of the City’s two Impound lots, at 450 Seventh Street or in Daly City, retrieval charges include a $283.75 administrative fee, $229 tow charge, and, after the first 24 hours of “storage,” a $50 to $60 a day parking fee.
If a vehicle collects five or more delinquent citations, a yellow boot is attached to its wheel, rendering it undriveable. It costs $505 to have the boot removed; if payment isn’t made within three days the car is impounded.
For vehicles that have never been previously towed the administrative fee is reduced to $200.75. Drivers can have the entire fee waived if they have an annual income at or below 200 percent of the Federal Poverty Level based on household size. A one-person household would need to have a yearly income of less than $24,280 to qualify, with a two-person household required to earn less than $32,920. Each additional household member adds $8,640 to be low-income-eligible.
Under the San Francisco Municipal Transportation Agency’s Community Service Program drivers can perform a public service to pay down their parking citation, working for the equivalent of $15 an hour, up to $1,000 a year. The length of time allowed to complete community service, and minimum ticket payments, varies depending on the amount owned.For instance, for citations of $150 or less service must be completed within six weeks of the ticket, with a $25 minimum payment; $151 to $300 tickets have to be finished within 10 weeks, with at least $50 paid; $301 to $600 citations have a 12-week completion time and a $75 minimum fee. Low income drivers can have one enrollment charge waived each calendar year.
According to SFMTA, between program launch in 1976 and 2016, 524 drivers provided 8,000 hours of community service, with half of these hours related to performing neighborhood clean-up under the auspices of San Francisco Public Works and the remaining time associated with 45 different organizations, including the San Francisco-Marin Food Bank.
SFMTA offers a monthly payment plan regardless of income.Applications must be submitted within 60 days of a citation, with an initial $25 fee – $5 for low-income households – and minimum monthly payments of between $25 and $50.
Various Apps have emerged to help drivers dodge citation charges. After appearing on the television show, “Shark Tank,” in 2013 “Fixed” was launched to enable drivers to photograph a ticket and send it to a lawyer, who could then identify common errors and draft a customized letter protesting it, reducing most of the legwork and time people had to spend fighting a ticket. The App was blocked in San Francisco, among other large cities, just two years later.It has since been acquired by the law firm Lawgix.
“Xstreet” offers information on street cleaning schedules and other parking rules to help users understand limitations in particular areas. It sends cellphones alerts noting street sweeping days and when to move parked vehicles.Launched in 2016, the service relies on community members and public data to keep drivers abreast of parking regulations and spaces and avoid infractions.
Crowdfunded in 2014, SpotAngels deploys a Bluetooth feature to remind drivers when to move their vehicles to avoid a ticket. Headquartered in San Francisco, the company allows users to check for parking spots real-time, helping to find free and cheap parking. The App can also be used to determine in which areas parked vehicles are most at risk of being cited.
According to San Francisco Open-Data, the City generates $124 million annually from parking tickets. These funds help support parking enforcement assets: “parking control officers,” deployed on the ubiquitous three-wheeled SFMTA vehicles with blinking lights; and administrative overhead. In 2018, SFMTA’s board of directors approved a $1.2 billion operating budget for fiscal year 2019. |
Background {#Sec1}
==========
A lack of physical activity, tobacco smoking and an unhealthy diet contribute to almost 80% of the world's risk of cardiovascular disease and type 2 diabetes \[[@CR1]\]. Positioned as the leading cause of premature death globally \[[@CR2]\], cardiovascular disease is an epidemic driven by type 2 diabetes and the metabolic syndrome \[[@CR3]\]. Empirical evidence suggests that the co-occurrence of behavioral risk factors yield greater risks for chronic diseases than the sum of their individual independent effects \[[@CR4], [@CR5]\]. For instance, individuals who are diagnosed with metabolic syndrome show a 50-60% higher risk of having a cardiovascular disease than those without metabolic syndrome \[[@CR6]\]. With an estimated 20-25% of the world's adult population presenting metabolic syndrome \[[@CR3]\], multiple disease risk factors are increasingly common in adults \[[@CR7]\].
Major risk factors of cardiovascular disease and metabolic syndrome are physical inactivity and poor diet \[[@CR8]\] with physical inactivity positioned as the primary cause of most chronic diseases \[[@CR9]\]. Although compelling evidence exists for the efficacy of improving physical activity and diet \[[@CR10]\] in treating individuals with multiple risk factors \[[@CR11]\], usual care relies on pharmacotherapies which merely address disease symptoms \[[@CR12]\].
Cardiovascular disease is the number one single cause of death in New Zealand, accounting for 33% per annum \[[@CR13]\]. In 1998, New Zealand actively addressed this concern by initiating a primary-care intervention strategy called Green Prescription, whereby general practitioners and practice nurses refer or prescribe eligible patients to trained personnel \[[@CR14]\]. Nearly 40,000 Green Prescription referrals were written by clinicians in New Zealand from 2013 to 2014 \[[@CR15]\]. Green Prescription patients might receive an exercise prescription for any combination of cardiorespiratory, metabolic, physiological or psychological reasons. Once enroled, patients meet with physical activity specialists who customise a physical activity routine which is catered to the patients' needs and lifestyles while addressing barriers such as asthma, injury, back pain, etc.
The Green Prescription Programme is akin to a globally adopted health initiative called Exercise is Medicine. Since both programmes focus on increasing physical activity a as means of chronic disease prevention, there is little scope to focus on the nutritional component of the energy balance equation. Nevertheless, 68% of survey respondents reported they have received information on healthy eating through Green Prescription. Additionally, 55% of patients in the subsamples analysed in this study reported changing diet as well as physical activity. From a physiological perspective, the energy balance behaviors of increasing physical activity and changing diet are major preventive therapies, particularly for weight loss, \[[@CR10], [@CR16]\] but also for metabolic syndrome \[[@CR11]\] and cardiovascular disease \[[@CR17]\]. Evidence suggests an increased likelihood of weight loss when multiple health behavior changes are implemented compared to one \[[@CR10], [@CR16], [@CR18]\]. From a behavioral and motivational self-regulation standpoint, the synergistic effects of improving diet and physical activity have been investigated. A study from Mata et al. \[[@CR19]\] showed that physical activity self-determination predicted eating self-regulation and fully mediated the relationship between physical activity and eating self-regulation during a lifestyle weight-management programme \[[@CR19]\]. This suggests that psychological mechanisms involved in motivation may help explain the association between physical activity and eating behaviors. Nevertheless, there is a dearth of knowledge regarding the effects of multiple health behavior changes by exercise prescription patients to improve metabolic, physiological and psychological outcomes. This study aimed to analyse the impact of changing diet and increasing exercise on health improvements among exercise prescription patients.
Methods {#Sec2}
=======
The ethics application for this study was considered and subsequently waived by the Health and Disability Ethics Committees in New Zealand due to the research being an evaluation of an existing programme. Responses were collected on an informed consent basis as part of the 17th annual Green Prescription patient survey. The survey was administered by Research New Zealand as contracted by the NZ Ministry of Health to measure the performance of Green Prescription.
This mixed-method online, telephone and paper-based survey was conducted from March-May 2016 using a stratified random sample. Green Prescription patients who had contact with one of the 17 Green Prescription contract holders in all District Health Boards over 6 months from July-December 2015 were eligible for sampling.
Sample {#Sec3}
------
Contract holders throughout New Zealand, who are responsible for delivering the national Green Prescription Programme, submitted their patient list to Research New Zealand, totaling 18,849 Green Prescription patients throughout the country. Historically, there have been lower survey response rates among minority groups enroled in Green Prescription, namely, Māori and Pacific. Assuming a low response rate, an oversampling of these groups was executed to help ensure a more ethnically-representative sample of patients. In the total sample, European New Zealander respondents comprised 59%, Māori 28% and Pacific 13%. The first step in the data collection process entailed separating larger contract holders (with \> 700 patients) from smaller contract holders. A sample of *n* = 2440 Māori and Pacific patients was randomly selected from the combined lists of the larger contract holders, proportional to the total number of Māori and Pacific patients on these lists. All patients with known contact details on the lists of smaller contract holders (*n* = 4560) were also selected. Finally, a random sample (*n* = 3000) was selected from the remaining lists of the larger contract holders in proportion with the total number of non-Māori/Pacific patients.
On 7th March 2016, selected patients were sent a letter from Research New Zealand inviting them to participate, along with a paper copy of the survey, and a reply-paid envelope with three \$250 gift vouchers used as incentive. The letter introduced the survey and its purpose and gave instructions for completing the survey on paper or online. On 30 March 2016, 4657 patients who had not yet responded were sent a reminder letter and 1052 were sent a reminder email. Commencing 30 April 2015, a reminder call was made to all non-responding Māori and Pacific patients (*n* = 1973), and non-Māori and Pacific patients (*n* = 960). Of these, 1478 were contacted during the reminder call period (each was called a maximum of five times). The main surveying period ended on 15 May 2016.
To account for the varying sampling criteria applied to large and small contract holders and the different participation rates, the results were weighted to be representative of the proportion of patients from each contract holder. The weighted results for the total sample have a maximum margin of error of plus or minus 1.8%, at the 95% confidence level (p. 15) \[[@CR20]\].
Participation rate {#Sec4}
------------------
A representative sample of 10,000 patients were invited to complete the survey. A total of *n* = 2843 valid, completed responses were received during the survey period (*n* = 2045 paper, *n* = 496 online, and *n* = 302 telephone), representing a participation rate of 28% \[[@CR20]\]. Data was screened according to the flow diagram in Fig. [1](#Fig1){ref-type="fig"}. Patients reporting they were temporarily off of (*n* = 448) or were no longer following Green Prescription physical activities (*n* = 423) and those who didn't respond to this item (*n* = 134) were excluded from analysis. Those included in analysis were either still following Green Prescription physical activities (*n* = 1160) or they were engaging in a physical activity different from their Green Prescription recommendations (*n* = 678). Patients who reported receiving a Green Prescription for "heart problems" (*n* = 202), "injury/surgery recovery" (n = 202) and/or "other" (*n* = 258) were excluded from analysis. These reasons could have prevented or hindered patients' ability to engage in physical activity. In total, "1488 surveys were analysed, comprising 17% of participants being first prescribed a Green Prescription less than 4 months ago, 28% 4-6 months ago, 22% 6-8 months ago and 33% more than 8 months ago." Table [1](#Tab1){ref-type="table"} displays the sex, age and ethnicity of all patients used for analysis after the data screening.Fig. 1Flow diagram showing patient inclusion (box) and exclusion (dotted box) criteria for assessmentTable 1Frequencies and percentages of sex, age and ethnicityNumberPercentSex Male42829 Female104971Age Under 18110.7 18-24453.0 25-59513.4 30-34543.6 35-39674.5 40-441047.0 45-491369.2 50-5415610.5 55-5918112.2 60-6415110.2 65-6920814.0 70-7415910.7 75-79996.7 80 or older604.0Ethnicity New Zealand European60340.5 Māori37124.9 Samoan432.9 Cook Island Māori211.4 Tongan322.2 Niuean110.7 Chinese140.9 Indian322.2 Other Asian (e.g. Korean, Filipino)90.6 Other Pacific (e.g. Tokelauan, Fijian)161.1 British/European724.8 Other875.8*N* = 1488
Health problem subsamples {#Sec5}
-------------------------
The survey instrument contained two key variables used for analysis; health problems and health improvements. As the independent variables, the health problems were identified in an item asking participants to choose one or more reasons they were written a Green Prescription. Patients who only selected "heart problems", "injury/surgery recovery", and/or "other", were excluded from analysis since these problems were not clearly linked to the health improvement response options. The remaining 14 health problems were then categorised into one of seven subsamples; metabolic, physiological, psychological, sleep problems, asthma/breathing problems, fall prevention, or smoking. The top of Table [2](#Tab2){ref-type="table"} lists the frequencies of all health problems. The bottom of Table [2](#Tab2){ref-type="table"} indicates the number of health problems reported within the metabolic, physiological, and psychological subsamples containing five, three and two health problems, respectively. Health problems within these three subsamples were co-dependent or associated with others in the same subsample. For example, a participant reporting high blood pressure, risk of diabetes and high cholesterol would be considered in the metabolic subsample analysis to determine his/her likelihood of achieving any of the metabolic-related health improvements listed on Table [5](#Tab5){ref-type="table"}. A patient reporting health problems of depression and high blood pressure was analysed in both the metabolic and the psychological subsamples to determine the likelihood of achieving the associated health improvements (i.e. lower blood pressure, feeling less depressed/anxious). Combining health problems into subsamples made for a more robust analysis.Table 2Frequencies and percentages of individual health problems and frequency of health problems within subsamples containing more than one health problemHealth problemsNumberPercentWeight problems^a^88659.5High blood pressure/risk of stroke^a^42428.5Arthritis^b^39726.7Back pain or problems^b^38225.7Stress^c^34523.2High cholesterol^a^31120.9Depression/anxiety^c^28719.3Diagnosed type 2 diabetes^a^27118.2Sleep problems25317.0Asthma/breathing problems24316.3Pre-diabetes/risk of diabetes^a^22915.4Fall prevention1047.0Osteoporosis^b^785.2Smoking674.5Subsamples containing \> 1 health problem1 Metabolic health problem60540.72 Metabolic health problems33222.33 Metabolic health problems17411.74 Metabolic health problems755.05 Metabolic health problems60.4 Total metabolic health problems119280.11 Physiological health problem42728.72 Physiological health problems17011.43 Physiological health problems302.0 Total physiological health problems62742.11 Psychological health problem26217.62 Psychological health problems18512.4 Total psychological health problems44730.0^a^Metabolic health problem^b^Physiological health problem^c^Psychological health problem
Measures {#Sec6}
--------
### Health behaviour {#Sec7}
The health behavior predictor variable was used to create four behaviour change groups for comparison; 1. increased physical activity, 2. changed diet (diet), 3. increased physical activity and changed diet (physical activity and diet), or 4. no changes to physical activity and diet (control group). Groupings were created by using responses from two items regarding behavior changes to physical activity and diet. The physical activity item was, "Compared with the time before you were first given a Green Prescription, are you now spending more time being active, about the same amount of time being active or less time being active?" Patients choosing the latter two options were combined into the group "no increase in physical activity." The diet item was, "Have you made any changes to your food and/or drink intake since being given your Green Prescription?" and contained "yes" and "no" response options. Table [3](#Tab3){ref-type="table"} indicates the frequencies of health problems for all four behaviour change groups.Table 3Frequency of health problems by behavior change groups and control group (neither PA nor diet)Increased PAChanged DietPA + DietNeither PA nor DietTotaln%n%n%n%N%Entire sample25817.326818.082555.41379.21488 Metabolic problems16013.421918.472360.7907.6119279.5 Physiological problems12119.312720.330248.27712.362742.1 Psychological problems7817.48118.125356.6357.844730.0 Sleep problems4517.84417.414557.3197.525317.0 Asthma/breathing4719.35321.813053.5135.324316.8 Fall prevention2120.21918.34644.21817.31047.2 Smoking1319.41420.93349.3710.4674.6*N* = 1488. *PA* physical activity
### Health improvements {#Sec8}
There were 15 health improvements analysed as dependent variables. Patients who reported "yes" to noticing positive changes since first being issued a Green Prescription were then prompted to answer the follow-up item, "If yes, what positive changes have you noticed?" There were originally 19 response options, but the options "feel stronger/fitter", "generally feel better", "more energy", and/or "other" were excluded from analysis as these options do not directly associate with any one particular health problem. Descriptive statistics of the 15 health improvements are listed in Table [4](#Tab4){ref-type="table"}.Table 4Frequencies and percentages of health improvements noticed by Green Prescription patientsHealth improvementsNumberPercentLost weight61845.9Breathing easier43031.9Less stressed41931.1Sleeping better34725.8Increased mobility34525.6Less joint pain/discomfort32324.0Less back pain26819.9Feel less depressed/anxious24017.8Lower blood pressure24017.8Improved blood sugar levels20515.2Lower cholesterol17713.1Better balance/fewer falls16212.0Fewer illnesses1289.5Less medication1249.2Smoking less634.7*N* = 1488
Analysis {#Sec9}
--------
A predictive analysis was conducted through multinomial regression to interpret odds ratios (OR). A linear regression was calculated to test the assumption of multicollinearity. The minimum cut off for tolerance was set at 0.2 and the maximum cut off for the variance inflation factor (VIF) was 5. All independent variables met these assumptions, with tolerances ranging between .699 and .956 and VIF ranging between 1.430 and 1.046. All other assumptions for multinomial regression were met. Multinomial regressions were conducted using the health behavior groups as the predictors (physical activity, diet and physical activity and diet) each compared to the control group (neither physical activity nor diet). Then, odds ratios (OR) were calculated with 95% confidence intervals. All multinomial regressions controlled for sex and age groups (under 60, over 59).
Results {#Sec10}
=======
Overall, weight problems were the most commonly reported health problems (*n* = 886, 60%), followed by high blood pressure/risk of stroke (*n* = 424, 29%), arthritis (*n* = 397, 27%), and back pain/problems (*n* = 382, 26%) (Table [2](#Tab2){ref-type="table"}). The most commonly reported health improvements were weight loss (*n* = 618, 46%), breathing easier (*n* = 430, 32%), and less stress (*n* = 419, 31%) (Table [4](#Tab4){ref-type="table"}). After controlling for sex and age, patients in the diet group were more likely to improve 3 of the 15 possible health problems listed, and the physical activity group improved 6 of 15, but the physical activity and diet group was more likely to improve 11 of 15 health problems compared to the control group (Table [5](#Tab5){ref-type="table"}).Table 5Odds ratios and confidence intervals for health improvements experienced in subsamples by behavior change group compared to controls (no changes in diet or physical activity) controlled for sex and ageSubsamples analysed with associated health improvementsIncreased PA\
versus no changesChanged diet\
versus no changesIncreased PA +\
changed diet\
versus no changesOR95% CIOR95% CIOR95% CILowerUpperLowerUpperLowerUpperMetabolic subsample (*n* = 1192) Lost weight5.22\*\*\*2.1012.947.22\*\*\*2.9617.5917.47\*\*\*7.4341.05 Lower blood pressure1.710.694.262.44\*1.025.873.19\*\*1.417.18 Lower cholesterol1.350.414.413.50\*1.1810.383.50\*1.249.87 Improved blood sugar1.990.715.612.020.735.603.79\*\*1.489.67 Less medications1.450.297.403.280.7314.764.17\*1.0017.50 Fewer illnesses2.200.4610.482.710.6012.314.91\*1.1820.51Physiological subsample (*n* = 627) Less back pain2.25\*1.044.891.250.562.812.36\*1.164.80 Less joint pain/discomfort2.63\*1.235.621.050.462.383.16\*\*\*1.576.36 Increased mobility6.23\*\*\*2.3016.842.760.987.776.61\*\*\*2.5517.08Psychological subsample (*n* = 447) Less stressed2.350.926.001.840.724.713.24\*\*1.387.60 Feel less depressed/anxious1.160.462.930.840.332.141.330.583.06Sleep subsample (*n* = 253) Sleeping better5.53\*1.3123.283.700.8915.423.500.9413.03Asthma/breathing subsample (*n* = 243) Breathing easier9.34\*\*1.7649.604.590.8724.3714.64\*\*\*2.9472.78Fall prevention subsample (*n* = 104) Better balance/fewer falls1.520.366.481.590.337.661.270.344.71Smoking subsample (*n* = 67) Smoking less4.230.2668.814.180.2668.293.090.2243.84\**p* ≤ .05, \*\**p* ≤ .01, \*\*\**p* \< .001, *PA* physical activity
Sex {#Sec11}
---
After controlling for differences in age and health behavior, males who reported one or more metabolic health problems were 2.0 times more likely to lower blood pressure (95% CI = 1.4 to 2.7), 1.8 times more likely to lower cholesterol (95%CI = 1.3 to 2.6), 2.0 times more likely to improve blood sugar levels (95% CI = 1.4 to 2.8), and 1.6 times more likely to reduce medication (95%CI = 1.0 to 2.5) than their female counterparts. Males reporting sleep problems were 1.8 times more likely to improve their sleep (95%CI = 1.0 to 3.2) than their female counterparts. Males enrolled in Green Prescription for fall prevention were 2.5 times more likely to improve balance/reduce falls (95% CI = 1.0 to 6.4) than females. Odds ratios and confidence intervals for positive changes experienced in subsample by sex and age are on Table [6](#Tab6){ref-type="table"}.Table 6Odds ratios and confidence intervals for positive changes experienced in subsample by sex and age (\< 60 vs \> 59)Subsample analysed with associated health improvementsSexAgeOR95% CIOR95% CILowerUpperLowerUpperMetabolic subsample (*n* = 1192) Lost weight1.170.881.561.43\*\*1.101.86 Lower blood pressure1.96\*\*\*1.432.690.710.520.97 Lower cholesterol1.84\*\*\*1.302.621.180.831.68 Improved blood sugar2.01\*\*\*1.442.791.020.741.42 Less medications1.61\*1.042.491.230.791.89 Fewer illnesses1.370.902.071.370.902.07Physiological subsample (*n* = 627) Less back pain1.470.982.191.92\*\*\*1.312.79 Less joint pain/discomfort0.800.531.201.040.721.51 Increased mobility1.170.781.751.210.831.77Psychological subsample (*n* = 447) Less stressed1.270.801.100.850.551.32 Feel less depressed/anxious1.000.641.580.900.591.40Sleep subsample (*n* = 253) Sleeping better1.81\*1.023.241.600.912.81Asthma/breathing subsample (*n* = 243) Breathing easier1.560.783.130.970.531.80Fall prevention subsample (*n* = 104) Better balance/fewer falls2.54\*1.016.390.820.242.86Smoking subsample (*n* = 67) Smoking less0.700.242.140.380.101.55\**p* ≤ .05, \*\**p* ≤ .01, \*\*\**p* \< .001
Age {#Sec12}
---
After controlling for differences in sex and health behaviors, patients under 60 years old who reported one or more metabolic health problems were 1.4 times more likely to lower blood pressure (95%CI = 1.1 to 1.9) than 60+ year olds. Patients under 60 years old who reported physiological health problems were 1.9 times more likely to reduce back pain (95%CI = 1.3 to 2.8) than patients 60+ years old.
Metabolic subsample {#Sec13}
-------------------
There were 20 significant ORs for the 15 health improvements analysed after controlling for sex and age (Table [6](#Tab6){ref-type="table"}). Comprising the largest subsample in the study, there were 1192 patients reporting one or more metabolic health problems. Only 20% of patients received a Green Prescription for reasons unrelated to metabolic health problems (*n* = 296). Physical activity group patients who reported one or more metabolic health problems were 5.2 times more likely to lose weight compared to controls (95%CI = 2.1 to 12.9).
Patients in the diet group of the metabolic subsample were 7.2 times more likely to lose weight (95% CI = 3.0 to 17.6), 2.4 times more likely to lower blood pressure (95% CI = 1.0 to 5.9), and 3.5 times more likely to lower cholesterol than controls (95% CI = 1.2 to 10.4).
Patients in the physical activity and diet group of the metabolic subsample were 17.5 times more likely to lose weight (95% CI = 7.4 to 41.1), 3.2 times more likely to lower blood pressure (95%CI = 1.4 to 7.2), 3.5 times more likely to lower cholesterol (95% CI = 1.2 to 9.9), 3.8 times more likely to improve blood sugar levels (95% CI = 1.5 to 9.8), 4.2 times more likely to reduce medication (95%CI = 1.0 to 17.5), and 4.9 times more likely to experience fewer illnesses than controls (95% CI = 1.18 to 20.5).
The increased physical activity group was no more likely to lower blood pressure and cholesterol than the control group (OR = 1.7, 1.4 respectively). Physical activity and diet patients were more likely to lower blood pressure and cholesterol (OR = 3.2, 3.5 respectively), and the differences were equal to or stronger than the odds resulting from diet alone (OR = 2.4, 3.5 respectively). All results are listed on Table [5](#Tab5){ref-type="table"}.
Physiological subsample {#Sec14}
-----------------------
Patients reporting one or more of arthritis, osteoporosis, or back pain/problems were included in the physiological subsample. In this subsample, physical activity group patients were 2.3 times more likely to reduce back pain (95% CI = 1.0 to 4.9), 2.6 times more likely to reduce joint pain/discomfort (95% CI = 1.2 to 5.6), and 6.2 times more likely to increase mobility (95% CI = 2.3 to 16.8) than controls. Patients in the diet group showed no improvements compared to controls, but patients in the physical activity and diet group were 2.4 times more likely to reduce back pain (95%CI = 1.2 to 4.8), 3.2 times more likely to reduce joint pain/discomfort (95% CI = 1.6 to 6.4), and 6.6 times more likely to increase mobility than controls (95% CI = 2.6 to 17.1) (Table [5](#Tab5){ref-type="table"}).
Changing diet did not change the odds of physiological improvements to back, joints and mobility as was observed in the physical activity group (OR = 2.4, 2.6, 6.2, respectively), and the likelihood was further increased in the physical activity and diet group (OR = 2.4, 3.2, 6.6 respectively).
Other subsamples {#Sec15}
----------------
Patients reporting stress or depression/anxiety were 3.2 times more likely to reduce stress than controls (95% CI = 1.4 to 7.6) if they were in the physical activity and diet group. Regarding sleep, patients in the physical activity group who reported sleep problems were 5.5 times more likely to improve sleep than controls (95% CI = 1.3 to 23.3). Among patients reporting asthma/breathing problems, the physical activity group was 9.3 times more likely to improve breathing than controls (95% CI = 1.8 to 49.6) while patients in the physical activity and diet group were 14.6 times more likely to improve breathing than controls (95% CI = 2.9 to 72.8). Increasing physical activity and/or changing diet did not change the odds of improving balance/having fewer falls or smoking less.
Subsample comparisons {#Sec16}
---------------------
The results within the subsamples indicated that 80% of patients reported more than one metabolic health problem while 42% and 30% reported physiological and psychological health problems, respectively (Table [3](#Tab3){ref-type="table"}). Of the five health problems in the metabolic subsample, changing diet alone significantly increased the odds of weight loss (OR 7.2), lower blood pressure (OR 2.4) and lower cholesterol (OR 3.5), whereas increasing physical activity alone led to weight loss (OR 5.2). The odds for weight loss were greatly increased in the physical activity and diet group (OR = 17.5).
Discussion {#Sec17}
==========
The results of this study within a representative sample of the New Zealand exercise prescription patients are in accord with Clark's study on overfat adults, \[[@CR21]\] suggesting the necessity to include physical activity in combination with diet to elicit the highest likelihood of experiencing improvements in metabolic health problems. This study supports previous findings that reducing energy intake by changing diet while increasing energy expenditure through increased physical activity addresses both components of the energy balance equation and leads to considerably higher odds of losing weight \[[@CR22]\]. Additionally, this study suggests that exercise prescription patients who increase physical activity without changing diet were successful in dealing with physiological problems, poor sleep, asthma, and weight loss compared to controls. Surprisingly, 18% of patients following a Green Prescription changed their diet without increasing physical activity and they revealed higher odds of weight loss, and lowering blood pressure and cholesterol. Nevertheless, the majority of exercise prescriptions patients analysed in this study (55%) reported increased physical activity levels while changing diet. Although nutrition is not formally delivered as part of the Green Prescription programme, findings from this study suggest most exercise prescription patients also change their dietary behaviours as well.
These results provide support that exercise prescription patients who change multiple energy balance behaviors can improve multi-factor health problems like metabolic syndrome and cardiovascular disease. Support for this exists in extant literature among adults \[[@CR7]--[@CR12]\] and youth \[[@CR4]\]. Baker and Brownell \[[@CR23]\] suggest that exercise influences both physiological processes such as energy metabolism and appetite as well as psychological aspects like self-efficacy, body image, or mood, improving the likelihood of long-term weight management. Moreover, they surmise that the latter mechanisms could lead to stronger motivation and confidence, which could improve eating self-regulation, dietary compliance and long-term exercise adherence \[[@CR23]\]. Besides physiological effects of exercise, which may affect appetite regulation, motivational mechanisms may also explain the association between physical activity and eating behaviours. Future research should investigate whether physical activity can serve as a gateway behaviour for motivational changes in eating regulation among exercise prescription patients.
The findings could be interpreted in several ways. First, in order to amplify metabolic health improvements, exercise prescription patients might consider complementing their physical activity with changes to their diet. Second, an exercise prescription programme, designed to increase physical activity, also resulted in changes to diet. Third, the combined effects of diet and physical activity was associated with more health improvements than either behaviour change alone. These findings could be of major importance for health care systems, allowing savings of health care resources. The notion that physical activity could have synergistic effects in changing eating behaviors is a very powerful one, given the combined benefits found for several metabolic health indicators and the high incidence of those indicators in today's society.
Although Green Prescription currently offers healthy eating information and tips to patients, some contract holders might offer a more specialised service with registered dieticians. Green Prescription, and possibly other exercise prescription programmes, might consider provisions for a nutritional component such as consultations with a registered dietitian. Understanding healthy eating and improving one's diet would be well-suited for patients with metabolic health problems. Considering the evidence in this research and given that the majority of patients who follow the Green Prescription programme in this study (80%) were prescribed exercise for at least one metabolic health problem, Green Prescription funders should consider strengthening the dietary component of the programme, especially considering the strong association between diet and metabolism.
Limitations {#Sec18}
-----------
There were several limitations in this study. First, creating subsamples with four behavior groups each made for smaller group comparisons with less power. For example, no health behavior changes improved the odds of reporting better balance or less smoking compared to controls. This result could be due reduced numbers in each health behavior group or due to irrelevant associations from physical activity and/or diet for such health improvements. The subsamples were created to address the smaller group sizes. Second, self-report surveys are subject to misreporting and are not objective measures. Moreover, the item with the lost weight response option did not account for body composition. Third, the types of physical activity and dietary changes were not specified in the survey, i.e. endurance versus resistance training. Fourth, only 28% of the invited participants completed the survey. It is possible that these respondents were the most motivated and successful ones, potentially explaining the high rates of patients reporting changes to physical activity and diet. Fifth, a social desirability bias could have been present due to nature of the data collection and this could have been amplified by the fact that people received financial incentives to participate (\$250 gift vouchers). Sixth, the vague nature of the questions used to assess physical activity and diet changes ("*are you now spending more time being active?"* and *"Have you made any changes to your food and/or drink intake?")* impose the assumption that respondents have the same notion of what "more active" means and it is possible that respondents' food and drink intake changed to became less healthy. Future Green Prescription surveys should improve these questions to quantify the responses in a clearer and more subjective manner. Finally, although the analyses controlled for the covariates sex and age, one cannot ignore the existence of other residual confounders.
Conclusion {#Sec19}
==========
Exercise prescription patients who made behavior changes to diet and physical activity gained greater health improvements than those who changed only one behaviour. This suggests that undertaking two energy balance behavior changes within an exercise prescription programme can improve the likelihood of achieving health improvements. This study supports existing evidence \[[@CR16]\] that changing one's health status requires a manipulation of an elaborate network of interacting, complimenting, and confounding factors. Adding a nutrition component to physical activity prescription programmes may increase the potential for patients to experience improvements in metabolic, physical and psychological health, potentially enabling them to reverse the deleterious co-morbidities they are at risk of experiencing otherwise. Exercise prescription programmes would become more robust and can be further personalised in their delivery approach if dietary counselling is included as part of usual care. Further studies are needed to determine the impact and economic viability of incorporating a nutritional component to exercise prescription programmes \[[@CR16]\].
The authors would like to acknowledge Verena Hammes for her technical help, writing assistance and general support. The authors would also like to acknowledge New Zealand Ministry of Health and Research New Zealand for their generosity in providing the data for this study.
Funding {#FPar1}
=======
The authors declare that they received no funding in the design of the study and collection, analysis, and interpretation of data and in writing the manuscript.
Availability of data and materials {#FPar2}
==================================
The data that support the findings of this study are available from the New Zealand Ministry of Health but restrictions apply to the availability of these data, which were used under license for the current study, and so are not publicly available. Data are however available from Research New Zealand upon reasonable request and with permission of New Zealand Ministry of Health.
CE has made substantial contributions to conception and design, acquisition of data, and data analysis, drafting of the manuscript and critical revision for intellectual content.
MH has made substantial contributions to conception and design, data analysis, drafting of the manuscript and critical revision for intellectual content. Both authors read and approved the final manuscript.
Ethics approval and consent to participate {#FPar3}
==========================================
Our analysis did not report on primary research, rather, it retrospectively analysed outcomes from a sample of those enrolled in Green Prescription. The need for ethical approval was waived by the Health and Disability Ethics Committees in New Zealand as it was considered out of scope.
Consent for publication {#FPar4}
=======================
Not applicable.
Competing interests {#FPar5}
===================
The authors declare that they have no competing interests in the manuscript.
Publisher's Note {#FPar6}
================
Springer Nature remains neutral with regard to jurisdictional claims in published maps and institutional affiliations.
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Q:
Prestashop, custom module, Get SQL value for the configuration form with $helper->fields_value
I'm currently creating my first Prestashop module, and I use the native function $helper to generate my configuration forms.
I'm ok when using the basic fonction "Configuration::get" but because the limited size of the table ps_configuration, I use a new sql table, and I wish to load the data of this table in my form.
Actually my module contain that code when querying the ps_configuration table :
$helper->fields_value['ZC_PREFOOTERBAND_DATA'] = $ZC_PREFOOTERBAND_DATA;
And I tried to query my customtable like this :
$query='SELECT `data`
FROM `'._DB_PREFIX_.'customtable`
WHERE `option` = \'ZC_PREFOOTERBAND_DATA\';';
$sql = Db::getInstance()->ExecuteS($query);
But my form still blank, I can't get my sql data.
Any idea ?
Thanks
A:
I found the solution :)
I did a misstake with my variables ...
To many variables, that's don't help ^^'
So the right solution to get the sql value is that one :
$query='SELECT `data`
FROM `'._DB_PREFIX_.'customtable`
WHERE `option` = \'ZC_HEALTHBAND_DATA\';';
$ZC_HEALTHBAND_DATA = Db::getInstance()->getValue($query);
$helper->fields_value['ZC_HEALTHBAND_DATA'] = $ZC_HEALTHBAND_DATA;
|
Q:
How do I mathematically express this?
Probability of getting selected from a pool of 5 applicants but the available slots are 10 (more than the applicants).
I know that it should not go beyond 100%, how do I do this?
Im just coming from the fact that let's say 2 applicants and 6 slots, therefore 33% of getting "chosen."
A:
If I understand correctly, you ask what is the probability that a candidate out of 5 is chosen when you choose all 5, since you have plenty of available slots.
An intuitive way of defining the probability of an event is the ratio between the number of favourable cases and the number of possible cases. For instance, if you had 3 applicants and 1 slot, then you would have 1 favourable case and three possible ones, and the probability would be $\frac{1}{3}$.
In your situation, all the possible cases are favourable, therefore the probability of getting selected is $1$.
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Cephalosporin antibiotics having various heterocyclic thiomethyl substituents in the 3-position are known. For example, Takano et al., U.S. Pat. No. 3,516,997, describe tetrazolthiol and thiadiazolthiol substituted cephalosporins having a heterocyclic acylamino group in the 7-position; Ryan, U.S. Pat. No. 3,641,021 describes tetrazolthiol and thiadiazolthiol substituted cephalosporins having a mandeloyl or phenylglycyl substituent in the 7-position; Breuer, et al., U.S. Pat. No. 4,110,535, describe certain cephalosporin compounds having a 3-oxopyridazinylthiomethyl substituent in the 3-position; Berges, U.S. Pat. No. 4,107,173, describes cephalosporin compounds having as the 3' substituent a 3-sulfomethyl-1,2,4-triazol-5-ylthiomethyl substituent; Toshiyasu, et al., U.S. Pat. No. 4,103,008, describe cephalosporin compounds substituted in the 7-position by a dioxopiperazine-1-yl-carbonylamino substituent and in the 3-position by a substituted or unsubstituted 1,3,4-thiadiazol-2-ylthiomethyl substituent; Berges, U.S. Pat. No. 4,101,656, describes 7-acylamino substituted cephalosporins having a tetrazolthiomethyl substituent in the 3-position which is substituted with an alkylsulfonamidoalkyl group; Gottstein, et al., U.S. Pat. No. 4,100,346, describe certain o-aminophenylacetamido substituted cephalosporins having a tetrazolthiomethyl substituent in the 3-position which is substituted with a carboxyethyl or carboxypropyl substituent; Numata, et al., U.S. Pat. No. 4,080,498, disclose a 2-aminothiazolacetamido cephalosporin substituted in the 3-position with a heterocyclic thiomethyl group; Dunn, et al., U.S. Pat. No. 3,968,226, describe numerous 3-heterocyclicthiomethyl substituted cephalosporins; Naito, et al., U.S. Pat. No. 4,082,912, disclose 7-acylamidocephalosporins having the fused heterocyclic, (2-carboxyalkyl)-2,3-dihydro-S-triazolo[4,3-b]pyridazin-3-one-6-ylmethyl group in the 3-position; British patent specification No. 1,525,626 describes certain cephalosporin compounds having a 1-carboxymethyl-1H-tetrazol-5-thiomethyl substituent in the 3-position; Dunn, et al., U.S. Pat. No. 3,985,739, describe 7-phenylglycyl or 7-mandeloyl substituted cephalosporins having in the 3-position a 1,3,4- or a 1,2,3-triazolthiomethyl substituent; Naito, et al., U.S. Pat. No. 3,985,738, describe 7-mandelamidocephalosporins having in the 3-position a tetrazolo[4,5-b]pyridazin-6-ylthiomethyl substituent; and Barth, U.S. Pat. No. 3,966,719, discloses cephalosporin compounds wherein the 4-carboxy group is replaced with a tetrazol-5-yl group.
3-Heterocyclicthiol substituted methyl cephalosporins are generally prepared by the displacement of the acetoxy group of a 3-acetoxymethyl-3-cephem, or the halogen of a 3-halomethyl-3-cephem compound, with the desired heterocyclic thiol. Hatfield, U.S. Pat. No. 4,144,391, describes a non-aqueous displacement method for the preparation of 3-heterocyclicthiomethyl substituted cephalosporins.
This invention is concerned with broad spectrum cephalosporin antibiotics which differ structurally from the known cephalosporins. In particular, this invention relates to 7-amino and 7-acylamino cephalosporin compounds substituted in the 3-position of the dihydrothiazine ring with a bis-tetrazolylmethyl group. In particular, the bis-tetrazolylmethyl substituents are the 1-(1H-tetrazol-5-ylmethyl)-1H-tetrazol-5-ylthio group and the isomeric 2-(1H-tetrazol-5-ylmethyl)-2H-tetrazol-5-ylthio group. |
Q:
How to define a destructor of a class B if B uses class A (c++)?
I have a class A.
A has its own destructor.
I use A to define B as follows.
class A{
protected:
int* array;
public:
A(int size){array = new int[size];}
~A() { delete [] array;}
}
class B{
public:
A x;
}
How should I define the destructor for B?
Thanks in advance.
A:
You don't have to do anything special with class B. The compiler generated destructor will do the right thing in this case.
class A on the other hand is either missing an assignment operator and a copy constructor, or you have to disable these by making them private. The compiler generated ones will cause problems if you copy or assign an A instance (and hence, a B instance too. See the rule of three.
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Chemical drums of the type that may have been used by Trafigura when they allegedly sprayed loads of Africans with horrible toxic loathsomeness
The alleged toxic-waste dumping trading company Trafigura has been in the news recently, along with the alleged press-freedom hating, injunction-loving writmeisters Carter-Ruck & Partners.
You probably know the background. Carter-Ruck had obtained a ‘super injunction’ preventing The Guardian from reporting any details of a parliamentary question about its client (who turned out to be Trafigura), tabled by an MP (who turned out to be the Labour MP Paul Farrelly).
As the newspaper said: “The Guardian is prevented from identifying the MP who has asked the question, what the question is, which minister might answer it, or where the question is to be found.”
The paper was also forbidden from telling its readers why. Just that there were “legal obstacles, which cannot be identified, involving proceedings, which cannot be mentioned, on behalf of a client who must remain secret”.
Pretty comprehensive stuff. But Carter-Ruck’s injunction could have gone further, preventing the Guardian from disclosing the fact that it had been served with an injunction in the first place.
I know this, because a ‘supergag’ like this was once clamped around me. And not in an exciting alt.sex way.
Just what we all need. Another credit card
I’d picked up some freelance from a big American finance company who had recently set up operations here in the UK. My job was to write the copy for a direct mail pack that was to launch a new credit card. Yes, I know we all hate credit card mailings and that this makes me worse than Radovan Karadzic, but it was the recession, OK? (The previous recession, not this one. How I miss the previous recession.)
Anyway, this company had the bright idea of offering credit cards to all the people who previously had been refused a credit card. The client had bought mailing lists bulging with such unfortunates. Now I know what you’re thinking. You’re thinking that these people might have been refused a credit card for a very good reason. Perhaps for one of the following:
They were profligate fools who had run up enormous debts then tried to hide or run away
They were convicted felons or permanent residents of mental institutions
They had no money. Literally, no money at all. Really, really bad risks
They were bankrupts or had county court judgments against them
They were all of the above, and what’s more they share more neurological characteristics with molluscs than with sentient humans
That’s what I thought too. Still, I wasn’t going to suggest anything like that to the client. “You want to offer a credit card to people who you know for a fact are amongst the worst credit risks in history? Are you fucking mad?” I wish I’d said that. Or even “OK, but you do realise that a strategy like this is financially unsustainable and, around 15 years from now, will help bring down the entire global economy? Just thought I’d mention that before we talk about whether you want a 4-page leaflet or a 6-page roll-fold.”
Instead I wrote the mailpack and, in my own small way, contributed to the inception of the great steaming pile of shit we currently find ourselves wading through.
Reader’s voice: Can we get to the bit about the gag now?
Of course. So, as part of my contract with the client I had to sign a Non-Disclosure Agreement, or NDA. A fairly standard document, signing it would merely confirm my undertaking to the client that I won’t tell the world what I’m working on or HOW UTTERLY STUPID IT IS.
But this NDA was a bit different. Because amongst all the clauses and subclauses was the injunction that I refrain from telling anyone that I
An example of an NDA. Hang on... curse my piss-poor typing!
had signed the NDA. What did that mean? It meant that I couldn’t tell anyone what I was working on, and that I couldn’t tell them that I couldn’t tell them what I was working on.
So if, as would quite often happen, another freelancer were to ask what I was up to, the only permissible response would have been to stand there in total silence. It was gag-enforced rudeness.
Unless, of course, this client’s all-embracing NDAs were well known in the freelance community. In which case, a reaction of total silence would immediately signal to the questioner who you were working for, and they’d nod sympathetically. Learning about this, the company concerned might then have introduced another clause into the NDA:
6.3.0 (c) The Contractor shall not respond to enquiries about his/her current employment status with a period of sustained silence. Should the Contractor be quizzed to this effect, he/she should first deprive the questioner’s brain of oxygen until such time as the questioner does become dead before terminating his/her own life using any of the prescribed methods set out in Addendum 3.9, page xxiv.
You laugh but it could happen, according to a mentally unhinged conspiracy theorist I’ve just imagined.
In fact, the funniest thing about this whole episode occurred a few months later. I called the company to try and get a sample of my work and they said they couldn’t send me one. Why ever not, I asked. Apparently it was company policy not to supply ‘contractors’ with samples of their work. Er yes, but see my previous question: Why ever not? Confidentiality, they replied.
“Hang on,” I said, “you can’t send me samples of my own work because it’s confidential?”
Great writing as always. I’m so glad I’ve never had to work on credit mailings. Oh, Perhaps I have. I’ve never read those confidentiality forms though, just signed them, took the job and invoiced. As for you wanting a sample; why? Were you going through a phase of showing off work you were uncomfortable with?
Mind you, we wouldn’t have been treated to your story if you hadn’t. Method in your madness.
It’s useful to have samples of all sorts of work. You never know when someone just wants to see evidence that you can write, say, shouty copy, or can come up with concepts distinguished by a singular lack of originality. Luckily, I’ve got plenty of both. |
Q:
How can I set the form action through JavaScript?
I have an HTML form whose action should be set dynamically through JavaScript. How do I do it?
Here is what I am trying to achieve:
<script type="text/javascript">
function get_action() { // Inside script tags
return form_action;
}
</script>
<form action=get_action()>
...
</form>
A:
You cannot invoke JavaScript functions in standard HTML attributes other than onXXX. Just assign it during window onload.
<script type="text/javascript">
window.onload = function() {
document.myform.action = get_action();
}
function get_action() {
return form_action;
}
</script>
<form name="myform">
...
</form>
You see that I've given the form a name, so that it's easily accessible in document.
Alternatively, you can also do it during submit event:
<script type="text/javascript">
function get_action(form) {
form.action = form_action;
}
</script>
<form onsubmit="get_action(this);">
...
</form>
A:
Plain JavaScript:
document.getElementById('form_id').action; //Will retrieve it
document.getElementById('form_id').action = "script.php"; //Will set it
Using jQuery...
$("#form_id").attr("action"); //Will retrieve it
$("#form_id").attr("action", "/script.php"); //Will set it
A:
Very easy solution with jQuery:
$('#myFormId').attr('action', 'myNewActionTarget.html');
Your form:
<form action=get_action() id="myFormId">
...
</form>
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Toxicities and outcomes associated with nefazodone poisoning: an analysis of 1,338 exposures.
Toxicities and medical outcomes associated with nefazodone poisoning were characterized using national poisoning data from the American Association of Poison Control Centers and through prospective collection of additional data elements. Nefazodone exposures involving concomitant agents were excluded. There were 1,338 human exposures included in the final data analysis. Seventy-five percent of exposures were acute and 20% involved children < 13 years. Twenty-five percent of patients remained asymptomatic. There were no deaths. No dose response relationship was evident in the 45 cases where estimated doses were available. The most common manifestations were drowsiness (17.3% of all patients), nausea (9.7%), and dizziness (9.5%). The most common serious clinical effect was hypotension (1.6%). The median onset time for symptoms was 1.75 hours. Manifestations resolved within 8 to 24 hours. Most patients were treated with only gastrointestinal decontamination. No patients required intubation, mechanical ventilation, or vasopressors. Nefazodone appears to be of low toxicity during poisonings. |
Drunken Squirrel’s Cake.
Yes, Drunken Squirrel’s Cake. Named for two of its distinguishing ingredients, walnuts and Kahlua, this flourless cake is gooey and delicious with a hot cup of tea on a chilly afternoon. Inspired by a cake from Laura Calder, it bakes up brown and beautiful and has a super-tender soft texture thanks to its nutty flourless batter. If you can, use a more petite cake pan, as this little guy is meant to be smaller and taller rather than wide and flat. The air that we’ll beat into the eggs makes everything puff up while baking and then fall down while cooling, which makes for a cake that’s both dense and airy at the same time. Squirrels and people everywhere, rejoice!
Heat a pan over medium and add the walnuts. Toast them until they’re nutty and fragrant, careful not to burn them. Then blitz the walnuts and breadcrumbs in a food processor until powdery.
Separate eggs into two bowls. Don’t use a plastic bowl for the yolks, as you’ll need to whisk them over heat. Add the sugar to the yolks and place it over a saucepan of simmering water. Don’t let the bottom of the bowl touch the water in the pan. Whisk over heat until the yolk mixture has tripled in size and is “thick, pale, and ribbony.” Remove from heat.
Now whisk egg whites until they form stiff peaks. This takes some elbow grease, but don’t lose heart–you’ll get there.
Add a spoonful of whites to the yolk mixture and gently combine, to loosen the yolk batter. Then fold in the rest of the whites. Pour into a well-greased cake pan.
Bake for 30-35 minutes, until a toothpick inserted in the middle comes out clean. Cool completely in the pan; because we beat so much air into the eggs, the cake will fall a bit, so don’t worry if you see it starting to sink.
Remove the cooled cake from the pan. Sprinkle with powdered sugar and garnish with another walnut or two. Lovely!
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About Me
Kelly in the Kitchen
I’m Kelly, Chicago-based home cook & amateur recipe developer. I cook & bake like it’s my job (it’s not), and I collect all my best recipes here on Kelly in the Kitchen. I believe in the age-old eating philosophy of “everything in moderation, including moderation,” so I cook a bit of everything: lower-sugar & lower-carbohydrate stuff, gluten-free, paleo, vegan or vegetarian dishes, guilty pleasures and sweet indulgences. |
"HISTORIA DE VIDA DE JUANITO RIOS - PINPON-" "HISTORIAS DE VIDA 2019" "HISTORIAS DE VIDA 2019" "GRAN FINAL VARONIL MÉXICO VS CHILE 2019" GRAN FINAL FEMENIL MÉXICO VS PERÚ 2019 MÉXICO VS PORTUGAL SEMIFINALES 2019 MÉXICO VS CHILE SEMIFINAL 2019
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This sermon was first preached at the UU Fellowship in Huntington on Dec 8th, 2013. It reflects on the intersections of the B-52s, T.S. Eliot and Nelson Mandela.
A few weeks ago Brian and I went to see the B-52’s in concert in Williamsburg, Brooklyn. Twenty-five years after their hey-day, they were still a raucous party on stage. We had a lot of fun. I want to focus in on though what happened before the show. It was an experiment in human psychology and self-awareness. The show was in a massive urban bowling alley, of all places, that had a standing area with a stage that easily fit 1000 people. We got there early for dinner – yes they had a fancy-ish restaurant in the mega-bowling alley. After dinner we bee-lined for the stage to get as close as possible since it wasn’t a designated seating area. We were lucky enough to be be in the second row of people from the stage. There was only one person between us and the band at any point of the show.
As time went on, we began talking with the people around us. It was all innocuous chit-chat – none of which could I recall today. After a bit, the fellow in front of us walked away. After about 10 minutes of the spot being empty, I moved forward to lean my back on the stage. I was getting stiff from the hour plus standing still. After a bit, that same fellow came back – walked up right next to me and began poking me in the side saying “that’s my spot.” “I was standing there.” (poke, poke, poke.) I told him I was just leaning back, and moved (the two feet) back to where Brian was standing.
Some time went by, and the fellow disappeared again for a while. Not wanting to get poked again, I left the space empty. After about 10 minutes, a woman came up and snuck into the empty spot. I began eating my proverbial popcorn and waited for the movie to unfold. In short order, the guy came back and did the same poke, poke, poke – “Move, this was my spot. I was standing here.” In a moment of luck, he found a second New Yorker that was willing to move away and just let it be without any drama.
Some time went by, and the fellow walked away – again. Like a comic routine, the same story unfolded for a third and final time. Three strangers in a row, he sidled up next to and poked them in the side saying, “this is my space.”
I’m pretty forgiving of many things, and I’m rather Zen about the big problems in life. But walking in front of me and stopping, blocking a subway or train door, and randomly poking my side are each ways to really work me up. I let it go, this time, but I wasn’t social with this guy for the rest of the night.
The next day we’re scheduled to meet a friend at Cinema Arts here in Huntington. We were going to see the opening of the LGBT film festival, and our friend was hoping to introduce us to area folks he knew. I turned to Brian and said, wouldn’t it be funny if one of the friends he introduces us to was that space-saver from the concert last night. No way. Well, as it turns out the next night we wind up meeting this same guy from the concert in Brooklyn, here in Huntington, and he’s friends with a friend of ours.
Priceless as this is, it’s not enough for my fiance. At the event he strikes up a conversation with this fellow about how concert-goers can sometimes be really difficult. The guy agrees whole-heartedly and begins to tell us stories of past concerts where some attendees would be really obnoxious about space – about where they were standing and who gets to stand there. (I swear, I’m not making this up.) For bonus points, and a last ditch effort to get me to smile, Brian asks the guy, “Do you think those obnoxious people even realize that they’re being rude or dramatic?” …And the guy says,… “No, I don’t think they even know they’re doing it.” It’s at this point that I have to stop looking at Brian, or I’m going to burst out laughing at the banality of it all.
It all makes you wonder how often we’re guilty of the things we complain about. It’s an absurd story, but a good reminder that whoever we interact with today, we very well may interact with tomorrow. But maybe, most importantly, this concert-driven story tells me how we can carry around for a long time the really small stuff and make it really big. We can flip the story of being bumped two feet into a great wrong that requires us to poke and poke and poke – even if we don’t learn our lesson the first three times.
Moments like this, grievances like this, can overwhelm us. Who here has ever succumbed to vivid moments of annoyance over banal pettiness? Walk with me now through what I see as a primer for moving through the mundane and into the sublime. T.S. Eliot’s poetry does this for me. His body of work seems to address our insecurities and our foibles while pointing toward that which transcends it all. Eliot was actually raised a Unitarian, but left us as an adult to experiment with various religions and ended up with traditional Christianity in his elder years.
There’s a line from his poem “The Love-song of J. Alfred Prufrock” that reminds me of the banality we sometimes succumb to. “For I have known them all already, known them all: – Have known the evenings, mornings, afternoons, I have measured out my life with coffee spoons; I know the voices dying with a dying fall, Beneath the music from a farther room. So how should I presume.” The larger poem is a metaphor for a man unable to interact or flirt with a group of women. It touches upon feelings of inadequacy many of us feel in our lives. But this particular line has never left me. We know each minute that we can count. We’re creatures that in some ways live meaninglessly to a clock; or terrified through conversations we’re too scared to engage genuinely with; or base our lives around the same every day habits. I’ll be at Starbucks every morning, waiting in line with all the rest. Is my life about the next stir of the coffee spoon, or is it about something more? All of this leads to the poet’s question, “So how should I presume.” Presume to break free of the tick tock of whatever clocks we live by? To presume to talk with those we don’t feel worthy to speak with? Presume to not live our lives as though we were in a dying fall, or our music was less than another’s? (A dying fall is a musical reference to the gradual decrease in volume in a piece.) Measuring our lives in this way, through coffee spoons, is to deface what is timeless about us. It subverts what is eternal about the depth of life and gives us the greatest lie ‘that which is mundane is most significant.’
It doesn’t put us at ease, or find meaning in our days. In fact, making the mundane our focus in our lives, actually creates a sense of discord. It creates an emptiness and lack of peace that isn’t natural for humans – even if it is regretfully all to common. When we live for our habits, or live for that exact space in front of the stage at a B-52’s concert, or wallow in our presumptions – we miss out on life. Or as Eliot puts it in his later poem “The Hollow Men”, “We are the hollow men, We are the stuffed men, leaning together, headpiece filled with straw. Alas! Our dried voices, when we whisper together, are quiet and meaningless as wind in dry grass or rats’ feet over broken glass in our dry cellar. Shape without form, shade without colour, paralyzed force, gesture without motion; Those who have crossed with direct eyes, to death’s other Kingdom remember us – if at all – not as lost violent souls, but only as the hollow men, the stuffed men.” Eliot has a way with the dramatic turn of phrase, but he often critiques us for not living fully; for not taking steps when it’s time to do so; or for not richly keeping the gifts we were given in this precious life. Succumbing to the trivial, we trade our living birthright with a hollow shell. There’s a way to live life with color and not solely shades of grey, but it requires a directness to it and an attentiveness. The trap of emptiness or meaninglessness only closes when we live our lives in tepid, unreflected ways.
An excerpt here from his poem, The Dry Salvages (rhyming with assuages), (the part we heard earlier as one of our readings)
“To explore the womb, or tomb, or dreams; all these are usual past times and drugs, and features of the press: and always will be, some of them especially, when there is distress of nations or perplexity, whether on the shores of Asia, or in the Edgeware Road. Men’s curiosity searches past and future and clings to that dimension. But to apprehend the point of intersection of the timeless with time, is an occupation for the saint – no occupation either, but something given and taken, in a lifetime’s death in love, ardour and selflessness and self-surrender. For most of us, there is only the unattended moment, the moment in and out of time, the distraction fit, lost in a shaft of sunlight, the wild thyme unseen, or the winter lightening or the waterfall, or music heard so deeply that it is not heard at all, but you are the music while the music lasts. These are only hints and guesses, hints followed by guesses; and the rest is prayer, observance, discipline, thought and action. The hint half guessed, the gift half understood, is Incarnation. Here the impossible union.”
For me, this T.S. Eliot’s most spiritual poem. If we live hollow lives due to our quiet muttering or our dry cellars – as he puts it – this poem is a response to that malaise. The spiritual practice is in the attended moment. It’s finding the moments of beauty and peace, and delicately placing them upon the altars of our consciousness, and simply bearing witness. Whether they be shafts of sunlight, or winter lightning, or times of celebrated joy or relief, it is in these moments that we apprehend the intersection of the timeless with time. It’s in these actions that we put down our coffee spoons, and stir our lives to another thrum. Nothing neat. Nothing measurable. Intimations… Attention… Hints directing to something more than the measure of minutes and seconds…. It’s in these moments that we incarnate – fully human – fully holy.
These moments though, aren’t always based in the peace of nature. Sometimes they shine through in our messy human interactions – filling our hearts, reminding us that we are part of a greater story that began before us, and will continue on when our part is finished… On Thursday, Nelson Mandela died at home after a three month battle with a lung infection. He lived a life that we should celebrate, even through all the pain and loss. Going from serving 27 years of a life sentence for speaking out against a racist, genocidal regime to serving as that country’s president – is a story that will be a bastion for human perseverance for the ages.
In my life, one of my moments between the moments involved President Mandela. It was a few years after he was elected President. I was an undergraduate studying abroad at Oxford University, and he was speaking at the University about peaceful struggles, about apartheid, about reconciliation. I didn’t get to hear him talk. I just got to wait in the streets as he passed by triumphantly. He was coming to talk at one of our world’s greatest institutions for learning, and he was received by streets packed with people as if it were the Thanksgiving Day parade in NYC.
People wanted to witness his presence. We knew that the world was a different place because of this soul. We knew that peace was just that much more possible because of Mr. Mandela. I think deep down in our souls, we also knew, that this human saw extreme suffering and saw extreme joy. And he brought extreme joy, and extreme relief, to so many people living in bondage. Whether it be the bondage of the oppressed, or the bondage of the oppressor. He showed us a way forward, that involved peace and reconciliation.
His methods involved truth-telling. Stories of those abused, and stories of those who did the abusing. His Truth and Reconciliation Commission involved brave moments of authenticity – and those brave moments allowed a nation to move through the pain through extreme acts of attentiveness. And at some small corner of a street, in a country that was a world away from South Africa, all of us were there celebrating our moment between the moments. We’re human. There is something more to this life than empty stirrings. We’re witnessing a life that reminds us how to live. All I can say that happened was that he smiled, and waved. But that would be painting the most surface of pictures. It’s in moments like this that we remember our connections, our actions, and our strivings – have impact, have meaning, and have relevance – to the people around us, to the generations that follow us – and sometimes to the world beyond our quiet streets.
Not to romanticize our public honoring of President Mandela, our own nation was not always a supporter of him. Though no evidence ever directly tied violence to his actions, the NY Times does write that, “in 1961, with the patience of the liberation movement stretched to the snapping point by the police killing of 69 peaceful demonstrators in Sharpeville township the previous year, Mr. Mandela led the African National Congress onto a new road of armed insurrection.” We can decry acts of violence, but as a nation it’s hard to critique another country’s revolutionaries when our own patriotism is rooted in similar actions. Mr. Mandela served a life sentence though for something else. What began with being “charged with inciting a strike and leaving the country without a passport” according to the NY Times, ended with “sabotage and conspiracy to overthrow the state.” Mr. Mandela’s appeal to this was “I have fought against white domination, and I have fought against black domination,” he told the court. “I have cherished the ideal of a democratic and free society in which all persons will live together in harmony and with equal opportunities. It is an ideal for which I hope to live for and to see realized. But my lord, if it needs be, it is an ideal for which I am prepared to die.”
His life was as far from T.S. Eliot’s pastiche of the Hollow Men that I can imagine. No quiet whisperings, no empty mutterings, but a life of substance and dream, hope and rigor. Or in Mr. Mandela’s own words, “There is no passion to be found playing small in settling for a life that is less than the one you are capable of living.” And a life that our own nation had extreme conflict and varied responses to. Although our President Carter put pressure on the South African government to release Mr. Mandela, the next presidency reversed that policy. In 1986, President Reagan said, “In defending their society and people, the South African government has a right and a responsibility to maintain order in the face of terrorists.” Far from a terrorist, Mr. Mandela would go on to win the Nobel Peace Prize.
I mention Mr. Mandela today, because he lived a life that was worthy of remembering. I also feel that lives such as his, are the direction this morning’s poet was pointing toward. The poems I’ve read from by T.S. Eliot today spanned in time from World War 1, through World War 2. They were not ignorant of the great tragedies, challenges and hopes of their day. And they ultimately sketch out the impressions of an ethic for an era that continues to hold vibrancy today. And Eliot makes those sketches rooted in a theological mindset.
I’ll close with the other poem we read earlier from – the excerpt from Burnt Norton: “ At the still point of the turning world. Neither flesh nor fleshless; neither from nor towards; at the still point, there the dance is, but neither arrest nor movement. And do not call it fixity, Where past and future are gathered. Neither movement from nor towards, Neither ascent nor decline. Except for the point, the still point, there would be no dance, and there is only the dance, I can only say there we have been: but I cannot say where. And I cannot say, how long, for that is to place it in time.”
This is the theology that grounds the poetry that implies the ethic. We find sustenance in the moments between the moments. Not the practice, not the doing, not the striving, but the being present to the world around us. When time unfolds between our breathes and life inhales our patience. Those timeless glimpses can nurture and sustain us. The path of the infinite pressed down upon us and we know we are more than we are not. It validates all the rest; all the effort, all the striving, all the doing. Knowing that we are not merely the sum of our actions – although our actions do matter – but rather we are the witnesses to the eternal scope of life, albeit for but a moment. A moment may be long enough to sustain us.
This sermon was first preached at the UU Fellowship in Huntington, NY on 12/1/13 celebrating Hanukkah. It reflects on the liberating roots of the holiday.
Earlier this week, Pope Francis made a statement that the media found incredibly shocking. The Pope called “unfettered capitalism ‘tyranny’.” In his statement, he went further than previous comments criticising the global economic system, attacking the “idolatry of money” and beseeching politicians to guarantee all citizens “dignified work, education and healthcare”. Possibly, most notably he asked, “How can it be that it is not a news item when an elderly homeless person dies of exposure, but it is news when the stock market loses two points?”
At casual glance, following only the media’s portrayal of the statement, one might think this was a radically new position for the Catholic Church. However, Pope Francis also said he was merely continuing the thinking of Pope Benedict who had planned to say as much prior to his sudden retirement. And the ethical teachings of Jesus have long and clearly been understood to support the poor and struggling in the world, over those with means – who remain hard of heart.
Quoting the Catholic Church is an odd choice to begin a celebration of Hanukkah. But the two are very connected. The current Pope was formed in Latin American Christianity – which over the past 40 years or so has strongly been influenced by Liberation Theology. This branch of Christian thinking grounds itself in the biblical moments of Liberation. Think Passover where the Jews are freed from slavery. Or Hanukkah, where a people rise up to overthrow foreign ways. In these stories, and more, we see a religion that teaches that God sides with the poor of the world. That the oppressed will be set free from their oppressors.
This thinking says that our faith can’t be in money, or the stock market, or any of the thousand things our commercials tell us we need – to be whole. Liberation doesn’t mean freedom to do what we will; rather it means freedom to be whole; to be a meaningful participant in community. That there is hope in the world. That worldly powers do not always win out. That another way is possible. That we can be authentic. That we matter.
As our reading said today, “I am a millions-of-year-old wonder…. that I saw a bluebird with my millions-of-year-old eyes and heard it sing with my highly advanced evolutionary ears… Daily newspaper headlines could say, ‘Mary Feagan Exists Again Today!”. That’s the religious message. The Pope’s observation is sad truth – the newspaper headlines all to often read instead “the stock-market dropped two points” rather than cover the great moments of tragedy or success in our personal and communal lives.
Hanukkah is called the Festival of Lights because of the miracle of lights. In the story, it is said that although the Jews only had enough oil to keep the sacred fires lit for one night, the oil miraculously kept the fires burning for 8 days and 8 eight nights. It reminds us that somewhere deep within us, is a real strength. When we feel empty, or alone, or defeated – there is still room for a miracle. Human perseverance is the real story in this and every age. Every age believes itself to be exhausted, or worn out. Every age laments what has passed away, and believes its trials are the worst we could ever face. As horrifying as history has been at times, no matter that we may feel like we’re running on empty with no where to go, Hanukkah reminds us that we have all the stores we need for the story ahead of us – so long as we ground ourselves in community.
The revolution of this spiritual people did not happen as individuals. It birthed in families, and houses of worship; it was grounded in the community that it sought to save. That is the crux of Pope Francis’ critique of unfettered Capitalism. It becomes a tyranny of the few over the work of the many. The community is secondary to the success of the individual with a myth that the individual’s success neatly and evenly distributes out to all who are blessed to witness their magnificence.
To go a little deeper into the example I mentioned in passing for last Sunday’s sermon – Walmart. Having employees work on Thanksgiving Day is in itself not a moral failure. Some people are just scraping by and need the work. Having been raised in a working class family, with a mom who worked retail, and a dad who often worked opposite hours so that I was never alone – I appreciate the reality of working holidays. Or as a minister, Holidays are usually the time when my work is the busiest – seeing family who live out of state is almost impossible. It’s the nature of my vocation. The moral failure is a system that makes it so that people must work on holidays in order to survive. To compare to one of its competitors, Costco pays its Cashiers an average of $15.06/hour vs Walmart’s $8.51/hour. That’s about $31,000 per year vs. just under $18,000 per year. Both companies are doing exceedingly well for annual profits. Both are clearly Capitalistic. But Costco functions in a model where the Executives don’t need to make eight hundred times the salary of their cashiers, only a fifty times. According to CNN Money, Walmart CEO, Michael Duke’s, compensation is the same as what 796 of his employers make in a year. Costco CEO, James Sinegal’s, compensation is the same as what 48 of his employees make in a year. I can’t think of a clearer articulation of the differences between unfettered Capitalism and one with regulation or moral regard for its impact on communities and families. We can choose a Capitalism that serves all of us, or we can celebrate a Tyranny this holiday season. And we all have shopping choices to make when we do so.
The Hanukkah story we told this morning was less about money and more about religious authenticity. According to Michael Lerner, a PhD, a founder and editor of Tikkun magazine, there’s another angle to the story that does closely relate to all of this.
“…Jewish Hellenizers saw no point in resisting Greek rule. Their goal was to live in harmony with the powers that ran the world. They could benefit from the connection to the expanding trade of the Hellenistic world (the Greek-inspired cultural world). On the other hand, the vast majority of the Jewish people were small, independent farmers who lived on the land and brought its produce to Jerusalem three times each year to celebrate their hard-won freedom from slavery. It was they who bore the brunt of the taxes imposed first by the Greeks… These Jews resented foreign rule and detested the city-dwelling elites who seemed to be earning favor with the Hellenistic conquerors, imitating their ways, abandoning the religion of the past and becoming worshipers at the shrine of political and cultural “reality.” From: “Jewish Renewal: A Path To Healing and Transformation”, Lerner, Michael; 1994, p. 272-3.
In other words, some were comfortable with the new world and its expanding trade, and some had their work taxed more than others. The Hanukkah story was about foreign power, religious authenticity, and the differing responses from those that have and those that had not.
Our theme this month focuses on Peace. Hanukkah has a complex relationship to this. Although I tend toward pacifism, the reality is that both this story and the story of our own nation, are rooted in Revolutions in the physical sense. It’s easy to critique stories of violence in the Christian and Jewish Scriptures. The idea that God condones violence by one people over another is an easy thing to try to stand above and look down upon with derision. It’s particularly common in countries like ours where there have only been a few moments in our history where our own people’s safety was at risk on our own soil. It’s easy to judge when this nation has never been an occupied people by a foreign power. When one’s nation is no longer its own, these stories of liberation are real in a whole new way – a way that some of us can relate to, and most of us might not be able to. When liberation is a metaphor for feelings of dryness, or being trapped in bad patterns, stories of God-sanctioned violence seem overblown. When liberation is a desperate need – whether from a foreign power, or slavery, or genocide – nothing short of power may seem enough. We have to hold these stories in this tension – remembering that whatever privilege we may hold in our lives may make them harder to empathize with – but not any less true. And for some of us, we can easily empathize with the liberating message.
Nonetheless, the miracle of the Hanukkah story is two-fold. First the more magical side where one day’s amount of oil is enough to last till our reserves are filled in other ways. I mentioned that already. The other is the historic reality that a rag-tag group of farmers were able to overturn rule by the world’s most powerful ruler. It didn’t last forever, but its moment came. When we’re struggling in this world to defeat oppression, or counter the ills of a world ruled by the very, very few – we can remember this story and know that other ways are in fact possible. The success of the revolution was historic fact. We can whittle away at so many success stories, or religious texts, but this one had a concrete reality we can learn from.
If the Hanukkah story has many angles – the quest for religious authenticity, the desire for self-rule, hope in the face of adversity, and a turning away from valuing world-spanning commerce over local community – which thread will you pick up in your own life? How does it move beyond the history and speak to the present? …
In the book by Michael Lerner that I quoted from earlier, he goes on to suggest a reflective practice where we ask ourselves questions for each candle we light. I’ll focus on a few of them now, but if your interest is piqued you can grab “Jewish Renewal: A Path To Healing and Transformation” to read more. The first night’s question is “Imagine your life freed of the need to accommodate to people with more power than you. How would your life be different?” There are many ways we can answer this as individuals, but I’d like to focus on the nature of our month’s theme – peace. This question feels like one rooted in two of our principles: Where we covenant to affirm and promote the inherent worth and dignity of each person, and where we affirm the interdependent web of life of which we are a part. The spiritual practice of reflecting on how those with more power influences our lives, can inform how we treat others. It informs how we can build peace in our lives. Sometimes we will not be able to change the oppressions that harm our lives. Sometimes we won’t be able to wave away the abuse of power a boss, or a friend, or a teacher holds over us. But we can learn to not replicate those ills with the people around us – or the people we hold some sway over. This is the foundation for peace in our world. Break those chains – in both directions. If we can’t break the ones that bind us to those with more power, we can break the chains we may hold on those with less power. We need to take the time though to reflect on where we hold them, and who we hold them over. Sometimes we’re harmed. And sometimes we’re the ones causing the harm; sometimes we’re holding the chains – and they bind us just as strongly.
The question for tonight, the fifth night will be: “Imagine what your neighborhood would be like if people really connected with one another as caring neighbors. Now imagine what you’d have to do to get others in your neighborhood to talk about what they’d want, and how they’d go about getting it, so that everyone would live in a friendlier and less alienated neighborhood.” To begin this month of reflecting on peace, this is your homework. How could we connect more with one another? What would others have to do to make that so? What would you have to change in your own life to accomplish that? Would our priorities have to change? Would our schedules need to lessen or be redirected? Is a less alienated, and less alienating world, worth your effort? Because it would take nothing short of all of us to accomplish that, right? If you come up with an idea you want to bring to the Fellowship, please reach out to our Hospitality Team made up in part by Cathi Zilliman and Jackie Agdern. I know they’d love the help!
This is the revolution of the spirit that Hanukkah calls for. To assess when power brokers of the world are running our lives in our kitchens or our living rooms. To determine when our farmers have lost real connections with our urban workers. To acknowledge when we’re following the gods, or the goals, of another people, and let go of our own values and ways. And armed with all that self-awareness, to free ourselves from the many yokes that oppress us – or that serve to gather our strength to oppress another. The revolution of the spirit is in living more authentically, and covenanting to affirm and promote the authentic living of our neighbors – both local and foreign – knowing that however far apart we may live, the Spirit of Peace calls us to see the stranger as our neighbor. In returning to our spiritual roots of this holiday, we return again to our authentic selves. We return our souls to the discipline of authenticity. We devote our minds to the practice of peace. |
A phreatic eruption is a steam-driven explosion that occurs when water beneath the ground or at the surface is hated by lava or volcanic rock.
The intense heat of this material hitting the water causes the water to boil, which in turn creates an explosion of steam, water, ash, rock, and lava bombs.
Mount Kilauea has not had a full-blown phreatic eruption yet, but the USGS has warned that one could happen at any moment, as lava from Kilauea’s lava lake continues to drop into the earth.
Scientists have said a phreatic eruption could send ash plumes as far as 12 miles into the air from the summit crater.
The USGS changed the volcano’s warning level to red alert on Tuesday, indicating that a major eruption is imminent and that ash could pose a threat on land as well as in the air for aviation.
A shift in winds is expected to send the ash fall cloud from Kilauea into the southwest region of the erupting volcano summit, including the neighbourhoods of Wood Valley, Pahala, Punaluu, Naalehu, and Hawaiian Oceanview Estates.
An “unhealthy air” advisory has been issued for the community of Pahala, as far as 18 miles from the volcano.
The ash itself is not poisonous, but can cause irritation to airways, particularly for those with pre-existing conditions, and can cause “choking and inability to breath” according to the Hawaiian Volcano Observatory.
However, volcanic smog, or ‘vog’ can be dangerous, with sulphur dioxide emitted by the vents potentially fatal if exposure is excessive.
These latest threats add to the long list of hazards the residents of Big Island have already been met with.
Massive swathes of land have been devoured, 37 structures – most of them homes – have been destroyed, and around 2,000 people have had to flee their homes.
Kilauea has also taken its toll on the areas booming tourism industry, which sees thousands pouring into the area every month to visit the island’s volcano park.
There is also damage to main roads, threatening to create lasting damage in the area.
Lava has burst from the ground in the neighbourhoods of Pahoa, tearing through houses and farmland, threatening state Highway 132, one of the last exit routes from coastal areas.
Road crews have put metal plates over steaming cracks on nearby Highway 130 and reopened it to provide residents an escape route from the neighbourhoods bearing the brunt of this disaster.
There have been no major injuries or deaths reported from the eruption.
DISCLAIMER
All the Graphics on this blog are not our property nor any Image is under our Copyrights. All the graphics have been taken from different sources. If any Graphic/Image is offensive or under your Copyrights please E-mail us to get it removed within 24 hours. |
The Barrio Youth Mental Health Project (MH26910) was designed to assess the efficacy of an enriched school related program for improving the school performance and self esteem, and decrease reported discliplinary problems for junior high school students in an urban barrio neighborhood. In this, the 3rd project year we will work with 7th, 8th, and 9th grade students. The 8th and 9th grade students have been in the project for one or more years previously. The 7th grade group is new in this 3rd project year. The project is housed in Belvedere Junior High School in East Los Angeles, an urban barrio with a population more than 90% Mexican-American, Mexican national, or other Latino. The original research design was focused on the impact of project activities on three target groups: students, the parents of the students and teachers. Because of inadequate availability, the teacher target group will be deleted in the 3rd project year. The natural control group which was originally discussed was to be those students not randomly selected into the sample population. Concomitant enrollment of the student's family in the comprehensive health clinic was originally seen as a criteria for participation in the program. Because of lower than expected enrollment in the clinic, however, we altered the design to serve four different student population groups: those enrolled in both the school program and the clinic program and those in neither. Three sets of student variables are looked at in the study: students attitudes, school performance and with the attitudinal data it will be possible to look only at project subjects per se. (Confidentiality guidelines and school restrictions on testing makes attidue surveys of the control group impossible). |
Q:
D3 chart: how to obtain x, y values on double click event
I am creating a simple line chart with D3.js. I want to be able to extract the date and value, when a user double clicks on the line chart. For now, I merely want to pop up an alert that displays the Date and the Value of the line chart at that date.
There is an element of precision required - in that, I want the double click event to be ignored if the the double click does not occur on the line chart.
Here is the code for the simple line graph:
<!DOCTYPE html>
<html>
<head>
<script src="https://d3js.org/d3.v4.min.js"></script>
</head>
<body>
<svg width="960" height="500"></svg>
<script>
var svg = d3.select("svg"),
margin = {top: 20, right: 20, bottom: 30, left: 50},
width = +svg.attr("width") - margin.left - margin.right,
height = +svg.attr("height") - margin.top - margin.bottom,
g = svg.append("g").attr("transform", "translate(" + margin.left + "," + margin.top + ")");
var parseTime = d3.timeParse("%d-%b-%y");
var x = d3.scaleTime()
.rangeRound([0, width]);
var y = d3.scaleLinear()
.rangeRound([height, 0]);
var line = d3.line()
.x(function(d) { return x(d.date); })
.y(function(d) { return y(d.close); });
d3.tsv("data.tsv", function(d) {
d.date = parseTime(d.date);
d.close = +d.close;
return d;
}, function(error, data) {
if (error) throw error;
x.domain(d3.extent(data, function(d) { return d.date; }));
y.domain(d3.extent(data, function(d) { return d.close; }));
g.append("g")
.attr("transform", "translate(0," + height + ")")
.call(d3.axisBottom(x));
g.append("g")
.call(d3.axisLeft(y))
g.append("path")
.datum(data)
.attr("fill", "none")
.attr("stroke", "steelblue")
.attr("stroke-linejoin", "round")
.attr("stroke-linecap", "round")
.attr("stroke-width", 1.5)
.attr("d", line);
});
</script>
</body>
</html>
Here are the contents for data.tsv:
date close
24-Apr-07 93.24
25-Apr-07 95.35
26-Apr-07 98.84
27-Apr-07 99.92
30-Apr-07 99.80
1-May-07 99.47
2-May-07 100.39
3-May-07 100.40
4-May-07 100.81
7-May-07 103.92
8-May-07 105.06
9-May-07 106.88
10-May-07 107.34
11-May-07 108.74
14-May-07 109.36
15-May-07 107.52
16-May-07 107.34
17-May-07 109.44
18-May-07 110.02
21-May-07 111.98
22-May-07 113.54
23-May-07 112.89
24-May-07 110.69
25-May-07 113.62
29-May-07 114.35
30-May-07 118.77
31-May-07 121.19
1-Jun-07 118.40
4-Jun-07 121.33
5-Jun-07 122.67
6-Jun-07 123.64
7-Jun-07 124.07
8-Jun-07 124.49
11-Jun-07 120.19
12-Jun-07 120.38
13-Jun-07 117.50
14-Jun-07 118.75
15-Jun-07 120.50
18-Jun-07 125.09
19-Jun-07 123.66
20-Jun-07 121.55
21-Jun-07 123.90
22-Jun-07 123.00
25-Jun-07 122.34
26-Jun-07 119.65
27-Jun-07 121.89
28-Jun-07 120.56
29-Jun-07 122.04
2-Jul-07 121.26
3-Jul-07 127.17
5-Jul-07 132.75
6-Jul-07 132.30
9-Jul-07 130.33
10-Jul-07 132.35
11-Jul-07 132.39
12-Jul-07 134.07
13-Jul-07 137.73
16-Jul-07 138.10
17-Jul-07 138.91
18-Jul-07 138.12
19-Jul-07 140.00
20-Jul-07 143.75
23-Jul-07 143.70
24-Jul-07 134.89
25-Jul-07 137.26
26-Jul-07 146.00
27-Jul-07 143.85
30-Jul-07 141.43
31-Jul-07 131.76
1-Aug-07 135.00
2-Aug-07 136.49
3-Aug-07 131.85
6-Aug-07 135.25
7-Aug-07 135.03
8-Aug-07 134.01
9-Aug-07 126.39
10-Aug-07 125.00
13-Aug-07 127.79
14-Aug-07 124.03
15-Aug-07 119.90
16-Aug-07 117.05
17-Aug-07 122.06
20-Aug-07 122.22
21-Aug-07 127.57
22-Aug-07 132.51
23-Aug-07 131.07
24-Aug-07 135.30
27-Aug-07 132.25
28-Aug-07 126.82
29-Aug-07 134.08
30-Aug-07 136.25
31-Aug-07 138.48
4-Sep-07 144.16
5-Sep-07 136.76
6-Sep-07 135.01
7-Sep-07 131.77
10-Sep-07 136.71
11-Sep-07 135.49
12-Sep-07 136.85
13-Sep-07 137.20
14-Sep-07 138.81
17-Sep-07 138.41
18-Sep-07 140.92
19-Sep-07 140.77
20-Sep-07 140.31
21-Sep-07 144.15
24-Sep-07 148.28
25-Sep-07 153.18
26-Sep-07 152.77
27-Sep-07 154.50
28-Sep-07 153.47
1-Oct-07 156.34
2-Oct-07 158.45
3-Oct-07 157.92
4-Oct-07 156.24
5-Oct-07 161.45
8-Oct-07 167.91
9-Oct-07 167.86
10-Oct-07 166.79
11-Oct-07 162.23
12-Oct-07 167.25
15-Oct-07 166.98
16-Oct-07 169.58
17-Oct-07 172.75
18-Oct-07 173.50
19-Oct-07 170.42
22-Oct-07 174.36
23-Oct-07 186.16
24-Oct-07 185.93
25-Oct-07 182.78
26-Oct-07 184.70
29-Oct-07 185.09
30-Oct-07 187.00
31-Oct-07 189.95
1-Nov-07 187.44
2-Nov-07 187.87
5-Nov-07 186.18
6-Nov-07 191.79
7-Nov-07 186.30
8-Nov-07 175.47
9-Nov-07 165.37
12-Nov-07 153.76
13-Nov-07 169.96
14-Nov-07 166.11
15-Nov-07 164.30
16-Nov-07 166.39
19-Nov-07 163.95
20-Nov-07 168.85
21-Nov-07 168.46
23-Nov-07 171.54
26-Nov-07 172.54
27-Nov-07 174.81
28-Nov-07 180.22
29-Nov-07 184.29
30-Nov-07 182.22
3-Dec-07 178.86
4-Dec-07 179.81
5-Dec-07 185.50
6-Dec-07 189.95
7-Dec-07 194.30
10-Dec-07 194.21
11-Dec-07 188.54
12-Dec-07 190.86
13-Dec-07 191.83
14-Dec-07 190.39
17-Dec-07 184.40
18-Dec-07 182.98
19-Dec-07 183.12
20-Dec-07 187.21
21-Dec-07 193.91
24-Dec-07 198.80
26-Dec-07 198.95
27-Dec-07 198.57
28-Dec-07 199.83
31-Dec-07 198.08
2-Jan-08 194.84
3-Jan-08 194.93
4-Jan-08 180.05
7-Jan-08 177.64
8-Jan-08 171.25
9-Jan-08 179.40
10-Jan-08 178.02
11-Jan-08 172.69
14-Jan-08 178.78
15-Jan-08 169.04
16-Jan-08 159.64
17-Jan-08 160.89
18-Jan-08 161.36
22-Jan-08 155.64
23-Jan-08 139.07
24-Jan-08 135.60
25-Jan-08 130.01
28-Jan-08 130.01
29-Jan-08 131.54
30-Jan-08 132.18
31-Jan-08 135.36
1-Feb-08 133.75
4-Feb-08 131.65
5-Feb-08 129.36
6-Feb-08 122.00
7-Feb-08 121.24
8-Feb-08 125.48
11-Feb-08 129.45
12-Feb-08 124.86
13-Feb-08 129.40
14-Feb-08 127.46
15-Feb-08 124.63
19-Feb-08 122.18
20-Feb-08 123.82
21-Feb-08 121.54
22-Feb-08 119.46
25-Feb-08 119.74
26-Feb-08 119.15
27-Feb-08 122.96
28-Feb-08 129.91
29-Feb-08 125.02
3-Mar-08 121.73
4-Mar-08 124.62
5-Mar-08 124.49
6-Mar-08 120.93
7-Mar-08 122.25
10-Mar-08 119.69
11-Mar-08 127.35
12-Mar-08 126.03
13-Mar-08 127.94
14-Mar-08 126.61
17-Mar-08 126.73
18-Mar-08 132.82
19-Mar-08 129.67
20-Mar-08 133.27
24-Mar-08 139.53
25-Mar-08 140.98
26-Mar-08 145.06
27-Mar-08 140.25
28-Mar-08 143.01
31-Mar-08 143.50
1-Apr-08 149.53
2-Apr-08 147.49
3-Apr-08 151.61
4-Apr-08 153.08
7-Apr-08 155.89
8-Apr-08 152.84
9-Apr-08 151.44
10-Apr-08 154.55
11-Apr-08 147.14
14-Apr-08 147.78
15-Apr-08 148.38
16-Apr-08 153.70
17-Apr-08 154.49
18-Apr-08 161.04
21-Apr-08 168.16
22-Apr-08 160.20
23-Apr-08 162.89
24-Apr-08 168.94
25-Apr-08 169.73
28-Apr-08 172.24
29-Apr-08 175.05
30-Apr-08 173.95
1-May-08 180.00
2-May-08 180.94
5-May-08 184.73
6-May-08 186.66
7-May-08 182.59
8-May-08 185.06
9-May-08 183.45
12-May-08 188.16
13-May-08 189.96
14-May-08 186.26
15-May-08 189.73
16-May-08 187.62
19-May-08 183.60
20-May-08 185.90
21-May-08 178.19
22-May-08 177.05
23-May-08 181.17
27-May-08 186.43
28-May-08 187.01
29-May-08 186.69
30-May-08 188.75
2-Jun-08 186.10
3-Jun-08 185.37
4-Jun-08 185.19
5-Jun-08 189.43
6-Jun-08 185.64
9-Jun-08 181.61
10-Jun-08 185.64
11-Jun-08 180.81
12-Jun-08 173.26
13-Jun-08 172.37
16-Jun-08 176.84
17-Jun-08 181.43
18-Jun-08 178.75
19-Jun-08 180.90
20-Jun-08 175.27
23-Jun-08 173.16
24-Jun-08 173.25
25-Jun-08 177.39
26-Jun-08 168.26
27-Jun-08 170.09
30-Jun-08 167.44
1-Jul-08 174.68
2-Jul-08 168.18
3-Jul-08 170.12
7-Jul-08 175.16
8-Jul-08 179.55
9-Jul-08 174.25
10-Jul-08 176.63
11-Jul-08 172.58
14-Jul-08 173.88
15-Jul-08 169.64
16-Jul-08 172.81
17-Jul-08 171.81
18-Jul-08 165.15
21-Jul-08 166.29
22-Jul-08 162.02
23-Jul-08 166.26
24-Jul-08 159.03
25-Jul-08 162.12
28-Jul-08 154.40
29-Jul-08 157.08
30-Jul-08 159.88
31-Jul-08 158.95
1-Aug-08 156.66
4-Aug-08 153.23
5-Aug-08 160.64
6-Aug-08 164.19
7-Aug-08 163.57
8-Aug-08 169.55
11-Aug-08 173.56
12-Aug-08 176.73
13-Aug-08 179.30
14-Aug-08 179.32
15-Aug-08 175.74
18-Aug-08 175.39
19-Aug-08 173.53
20-Aug-08 175.84
21-Aug-08 174.29
22-Aug-08 176.79
25-Aug-08 172.55
26-Aug-08 173.64
27-Aug-08 174.67
28-Aug-08 173.74
29-Aug-08 169.53
2-Sep-08 166.19
3-Sep-08 166.96
4-Sep-08 161.22
5-Sep-08 160.18
8-Sep-08 157.92
9-Sep-08 151.68
10-Sep-08 151.61
11-Sep-08 152.65
12-Sep-08 148.94
15-Sep-08 140.36
16-Sep-08 139.88
17-Sep-08 127.83
18-Sep-08 134.09
19-Sep-08 140.91
22-Sep-08 131.05
23-Sep-08 126.84
24-Sep-08 128.71
25-Sep-08 131.93
26-Sep-08 128.24
29-Sep-08 105.26
30-Sep-08 113.66
1-Oct-08 109.12
2-Oct-08 100.10
3-Oct-08 97.07
6-Oct-08 98.14
7-Oct-08 89.16
8-Oct-08 89.79
9-Oct-08 88.74
10-Oct-08 96.80
13-Oct-08 110.26
14-Oct-08 104.08
15-Oct-08 97.95
16-Oct-08 101.89
17-Oct-08 97.40
20-Oct-08 98.44
21-Oct-08 91.49
22-Oct-08 96.87
23-Oct-08 98.23
24-Oct-08 96.38
27-Oct-08 92.09
28-Oct-08 99.91
29-Oct-08 104.55
30-Oct-08 111.04
31-Oct-08 107.59
3-Nov-08 106.96
4-Nov-08 110.99
5-Nov-08 103.30
6-Nov-08 99.10
7-Nov-08 98.24
10-Nov-08 95.88
11-Nov-08 94.77
12-Nov-08 90.12
13-Nov-08 96.44
14-Nov-08 90.24
17-Nov-08 88.14
18-Nov-08 89.91
19-Nov-08 86.29
20-Nov-08 80.49
21-Nov-08 82.58
24-Nov-08 92.95
25-Nov-08 90.80
26-Nov-08 95.00
27-Nov-08 95.00
28-Nov-08 92.67
1-Dec-08 88.93
2-Dec-08 92.47
3-Dec-08 95.90
4-Dec-08 91.41
5-Dec-08 94.00
8-Dec-08 99.72
9-Dec-08 100.06
10-Dec-08 98.21
11-Dec-08 95.00
12-Dec-08 98.27
15-Dec-08 94.75
16-Dec-08 95.43
17-Dec-08 89.16
18-Dec-08 89.43
19-Dec-08 90.00
22-Dec-08 85.74
23-Dec-08 86.38
24-Dec-08 85.04
25-Dec-08 85.04
26-Dec-08 85.81
29-Dec-08 86.61
30-Dec-08 86.29
31-Dec-08 85.35
1-Jan-09 85.35
2-Jan-09 90.75
5-Jan-09 94.58
6-Jan-09 93.02
7-Jan-09 91.01
8-Jan-09 92.70
9-Jan-09 90.58
12-Jan-09 88.66
13-Jan-09 87.71
14-Jan-09 85.33
15-Jan-09 83.38
16-Jan-09 82.33
20-Jan-09 78.20
21-Jan-09 82.83
22-Jan-09 88.36
23-Jan-09 88.36
26-Jan-09 89.64
27-Jan-09 90.73
28-Jan-09 94.20
29-Jan-09 93.00
30-Jan-09 90.13
2-Feb-09 91.51
3-Feb-09 92.98
4-Feb-09 93.55
5-Feb-09 96.46
6-Feb-09 99.72
9-Feb-09 102.51
10-Feb-09 97.83
11-Feb-09 96.82
12-Feb-09 99.27
13-Feb-09 99.16
17-Feb-09 94.53
18-Feb-09 94.37
19-Feb-09 90.64
20-Feb-09 91.20
23-Feb-09 86.95
24-Feb-09 90.25
25-Feb-09 91.16
26-Feb-09 89.19
27-Feb-09 89.31
2-Mar-09 87.94
3-Mar-09 88.37
4-Mar-09 91.17
5-Mar-09 88.84
6-Mar-09 85.30
9-Mar-09 83.11
10-Mar-09 88.63
11-Mar-09 92.68
12-Mar-09 96.35
13-Mar-09 95.93
16-Mar-09 95.42
17-Mar-09 99.66
18-Mar-09 101.52
19-Mar-09 101.62
20-Mar-09 101.59
23-Mar-09 107.66
24-Mar-09 106.50
25-Mar-09 106.49
26-Mar-09 109.87
27-Mar-09 106.85
30-Mar-09 104.49
31-Mar-09 105.12
1-Apr-09 108.69
2-Apr-09 112.71
3-Apr-09 115.99
6-Apr-09 118.45
7-Apr-09 115.00
8-Apr-09 116.32
9-Apr-09 119.57
10-Apr-09 119.57
13-Apr-09 120.22
14-Apr-09 118.31
15-Apr-09 117.64
16-Apr-09 121.45
17-Apr-09 123.42
20-Apr-09 120.50
21-Apr-09 121.76
22-Apr-09 121.51
23-Apr-09 125.40
24-Apr-09 123.90
27-Apr-09 124.73
28-Apr-09 123.90
29-Apr-09 125.14
30-Apr-09 125.83
1-May-09 127.24
4-May-09 132.07
5-May-09 132.71
6-May-09 132.50
7-May-09 129.06
8-May-09 129.19
11-May-09 129.57
12-May-09 124.42
13-May-09 119.49
14-May-09 122.95
15-May-09 122.42
18-May-09 126.65
19-May-09 127.45
20-May-09 125.87
21-May-09 124.18
22-May-09 122.50
26-May-09 130.78
27-May-09 133.05
28-May-09 135.07
29-May-09 135.81
1-Jun-09 139.35
2-Jun-09 139.49
3-Jun-09 140.95
4-Jun-09 143.74
5-Jun-09 144.67
8-Jun-09 143.85
9-Jun-09 142.72
10-Jun-09 140.25
11-Jun-09 139.95
12-Jun-09 136.97
15-Jun-09 136.09
16-Jun-09 136.35
17-Jun-09 135.58
18-Jun-09 135.88
19-Jun-09 139.48
22-Jun-09 137.37
23-Jun-09 134.01
24-Jun-09 136.22
25-Jun-09 139.86
26-Jun-09 142.44
29-Jun-09 141.97
30-Jun-09 142.43
1-Jul-09 142.83
2-Jul-09 140.02
3-Jul-09 140.02
6-Jul-09 138.61
7-Jul-09 135.40
8-Jul-09 137.22
9-Jul-09 136.36
10-Jul-09 138.52
13-Jul-09 142.34
14-Jul-09 142.27
15-Jul-09 146.88
16-Jul-09 147.52
17-Jul-09 151.75
20-Jul-09 152.91
21-Jul-09 151.51
22-Jul-09 156.74
23-Jul-09 157.82
24-Jul-09 159.99
27-Jul-09 160.10
28-Jul-09 160.00
29-Jul-09 160.03
30-Jul-09 162.79
31-Jul-09 163.39
3-Aug-09 166.43
4-Aug-09 165.55
5-Aug-09 165.11
6-Aug-09 163.91
7-Aug-09 165.51
10-Aug-09 164.72
12-Aug-09 165.31
13-Aug-09 168.42
14-Aug-09 166.78
17-Aug-09 159.59
18-Aug-09 164.00
19-Aug-09 164.60
20-Aug-09 166.33
21-Aug-09 169.22
24-Aug-09 169.06
25-Aug-09 169.40
26-Aug-09 167.41
27-Aug-09 169.45
28-Aug-09 170.05
31-Aug-09 168.21
1-Sep-09 165.30
2-Sep-09 165.18
3-Sep-09 166.55
4-Sep-09 170.31
8-Sep-09 172.93
9-Sep-09 171.14
10-Sep-09 172.56
11-Sep-09 172.16
14-Sep-09 173.72
15-Sep-09 175.16
16-Sep-09 181.87
17-Sep-09 184.55
18-Sep-09 185.02
21-Sep-09 184.02
22-Sep-09 184.48
23-Sep-09 185.50
24-Sep-09 183.82
25-Sep-09 182.37
28-Sep-09 186.15
29-Sep-09 185.38
30-Sep-09 185.35
1-Oct-09 180.86
2-Oct-09 184.90
5-Oct-09 186.02
6-Oct-09 190.01
7-Oct-09 190.25
8-Oct-09 189.27
9-Oct-09 190.47
12-Oct-09 190.81
13-Oct-09 190.02
14-Oct-09 191.29
15-Oct-09 190.56
16-Oct-09 188.05
19-Oct-09 189.86
20-Oct-09 198.76
21-Oct-09 204.92
22-Oct-09 205.20
23-Oct-09 203.94
26-Oct-09 202.48
27-Oct-09 197.37
28-Oct-09 192.40
29-Oct-09 196.35
30-Oct-09 188.50
2-Nov-09 189.31
3-Nov-09 188.75
4-Nov-09 190.81
5-Nov-09 194.03
6-Nov-09 194.34
9-Nov-09 201.46
10-Nov-09 202.98
11-Nov-09 203.25
12-Nov-09 201.99
13-Nov-09 204.45
16-Nov-09 206.63
17-Nov-09 207.00
18-Nov-09 205.96
19-Nov-09 200.51
20-Nov-09 199.92
23-Nov-09 205.88
24-Nov-09 204.44
25-Nov-09 204.19
26-Nov-09 204.19
27-Nov-09 200.59
30-Nov-09 199.91
1-Dec-09 196.97
2-Dec-09 196.23
3-Dec-09 196.48
4-Dec-09 193.32
7-Dec-09 188.95
8-Dec-09 189.87
9-Dec-09 197.80
10-Dec-09 196.43
11-Dec-09 194.67
14-Dec-09 196.98
15-Dec-09 194.17
16-Dec-09 195.03
17-Dec-09 191.86
18-Dec-09 195.43
21-Dec-09 198.23
22-Dec-09 200.36
23-Dec-09 202.10
24-Dec-09 209.04
25-Dec-09 209.04
28-Dec-09 211.61
29-Dec-09 209.10
30-Dec-09 211.64
31-Dec-09 210.73
1-Jan-10 210.73
4-Jan-10 214.01
5-Jan-10 214.38
6-Jan-10 210.97
7-Jan-10 210.58
8-Jan-10 211.98
11-Jan-10 210.11
12-Jan-10 207.72
13-Jan-10 210.65
14-Jan-10 209.43
15-Jan-10 205.93
18-Jan-10 205.93
19-Jan-10 215.04
20-Jan-10 211.72
21-Jan-10 208.07
22-Jan-10 197.75
25-Jan-10 203.08
26-Jan-10 205.94
27-Jan-10 207.88
28-Jan-10 199.29
29-Jan-10 192.06
1-Feb-10 194.73
2-Feb-10 195.86
3-Feb-10 199.23
4-Feb-10 192.05
5-Feb-10 195.46
8-Feb-10 194.12
9-Feb-10 196.19
10-Feb-10 195.12
11-Feb-10 198.67
12-Feb-10 200.38
15-Feb-10 200.38
16-Feb-10 203.40
17-Feb-10 202.55
18-Feb-10 202.93
19-Feb-10 201.67
22-Feb-10 200.42
23-Feb-10 197.06
24-Feb-10 200.66
25-Feb-10 202.00
26-Feb-10 204.62
1-Mar-10 208.99
2-Mar-10 208.85
3-Mar-10 209.33
4-Mar-10 210.71
5-Mar-10 218.95
8-Mar-10 219.08
9-Mar-10 223.02
10-Mar-10 224.84
11-Mar-10 225.50
12-Mar-10 226.60
15-Mar-10 223.84
16-Mar-10 224.45
17-Mar-10 224.12
18-Mar-10 224.65
19-Mar-10 222.25
22-Mar-10 224.75
23-Mar-10 228.36
24-Mar-10 229.37
25-Mar-10 226.65
26-Mar-10 230.90
29-Mar-10 232.39
30-Mar-10 235.84
31-Mar-10 235.00
1-Apr-10 235.97
2-Apr-10 235.97
5-Apr-10 238.49
6-Apr-10 239.54
7-Apr-10 240.60
8-Apr-10 239.95
9-Apr-10 241.79
12-Apr-10 242.29
13-Apr-10 242.43
14-Apr-10 245.69
15-Apr-10 248.92
16-Apr-10 247.40
19-Apr-10 247.07
20-Apr-10 244.59
21-Apr-10 259.22
22-Apr-10 266.47
23-Apr-10 270.83
26-Apr-10 269.50
27-Apr-10 262.04
28-Apr-10 261.60
29-Apr-10 268.64
30-Apr-10 261.09
3-May-10 266.35
4-May-10 258.68
5-May-10 255.98
6-May-10 246.25
7-May-10 235.86
10-May-10 253.99
11-May-10 256.52
12-May-10 262.09
13-May-10 258.36
14-May-10 253.82
17-May-10 254.22
18-May-10 252.36
19-May-10 248.34
20-May-10 237.76
21-May-10 242.32
24-May-10 246.76
25-May-10 245.22
26-May-10 244.11
27-May-10 253.35
28-May-10 256.88
31-May-10 256.88
1-Jun-10 260.83
2-Jun-10 263.95
3-Jun-10 263.12
4-Jun-10 255.96
7-Jun-10 250.94
8-Jun-10 249.33
9-Jun-10 243.20
10-Jun-10 250.51
11-Jun-10 253.51
14-Jun-10 254.28
15-Jun-10 259.69
16-Jun-10 267.25
17-Jun-10 271.87
18-Jun-10 274.07
21-Jun-10 270.17
22-Jun-10 273.85
23-Jun-10 270.97
24-Jun-10 269.00
25-Jun-10 266.70
28-Jun-10 268.30
29-Jun-10 256.17
30-Jun-10 251.53
1-Jul-10 248.48
2-Jul-10 246.94
5-Jul-10 246.94
6-Jul-10 248.63
7-Jul-10 258.66
8-Jul-10 258.09
9-Jul-10 259.62
12-Jul-10 257.28
13-Jul-10 251.80
14-Jul-10 252.73
15-Jul-10 251.45
16-Jul-10 249.90
19-Jul-10 245.58
20-Jul-10 251.89
21-Jul-10 254.24
22-Jul-10 259.02
23-Jul-10 259.94
26-Jul-10 259.28
27-Jul-10 264.08
28-Jul-10 260.96
29-Jul-10 258.11
30-Jul-10 257.25
2-Aug-10 261.85
3-Aug-10 261.93
4-Aug-10 262.98
5-Aug-10 261.70
6-Aug-10 260.09
9-Aug-10 261.75
10-Aug-10 259.41
11-Aug-10 250.19
12-Aug-10 251.79
13-Aug-10 249.10
16-Aug-10 247.64
17-Aug-10 251.97
18-Aug-10 253.07
19-Aug-10 249.88
20-Aug-10 249.64
23-Aug-10 245.80
24-Aug-10 239.93
25-Aug-10 242.89
26-Aug-10 240.28
27-Aug-10 241.62
30-Aug-10 242.50
31-Aug-10 243.10
1-Sep-10 250.33
2-Sep-10 252.17
3-Sep-10 258.77
6-Sep-10 258.77
7-Sep-10 257.81
8-Sep-10 262.92
9-Sep-10 263.07
10-Sep-10 263.41
13-Sep-10 267.04
14-Sep-10 268.06
15-Sep-10 270.22
16-Sep-10 276.57
17-Sep-10 275.37
20-Sep-10 283.23
21-Sep-10 283.77
22-Sep-10 287.75
23-Sep-10 288.92
24-Sep-10 292.32
27-Sep-10 291.16
28-Sep-10 286.86
29-Sep-10 287.37
30-Sep-10 283.75
1-Oct-10 282.52
4-Oct-10 278.64
5-Oct-10 288.94
6-Oct-10 289.19
7-Oct-10 289.22
8-Oct-10 294.07
11-Oct-10 295.36
12-Oct-10 298.54
13-Oct-10 300.14
14-Oct-10 302.31
15-Oct-10 314.74
18-Oct-10 318.00
19-Oct-10 309.49
20-Oct-10 310.53
21-Oct-10 309.52
22-Oct-10 307.47
25-Oct-10 308.84
26-Oct-10 308.05
27-Oct-10 307.83
28-Oct-10 305.24
29-Oct-10 300.98
1-Nov-10 304.18
2-Nov-10 309.36
3-Nov-10 312.80
4-Nov-10 318.27
5-Nov-10 317.13
8-Nov-10 318.62
9-Nov-10 316.08
10-Nov-10 318.03
11-Nov-10 316.66
12-Nov-10 308.03
15-Nov-10 307.04
16-Nov-10 301.59
17-Nov-10 300.50
18-Nov-10 308.43
19-Nov-10 306.73
22-Nov-10 313.36
23-Nov-10 308.73
24-Nov-10 314.80
26-Nov-10 315.00
29-Nov-10 316.87
30-Nov-10 311.15
1-Dec-10 316.40
2-Dec-10 318.15
3-Dec-10 317.44
6-Dec-10 320.15
7-Dec-10 318.21
8-Dec-10 321.01
9-Dec-10 319.76
10-Dec-10 320.56
13-Dec-10 321.67
14-Dec-10 320.29
15-Dec-10 320.36
16-Dec-10 321.25
17-Dec-10 320.61
20-Dec-10 322.21
21-Dec-10 324.20
22-Dec-10 325.16
23-Dec-10 323.60
27-Dec-10 324.68
28-Dec-10 325.47
29-Dec-10 325.29
30-Dec-10 323.66
31-Dec-10 322.56
3-Jan-11 329.57
4-Jan-11 331.29
5-Jan-11 334.00
6-Jan-11 333.73
7-Jan-11 336.12
10-Jan-11 342.46
11-Jan-11 341.64
12-Jan-11 344.42
13-Jan-11 345.68
14-Jan-11 348.48
18-Jan-11 340.65
19-Jan-11 338.84
20-Jan-11 332.68
21-Jan-11 326.72
24-Jan-11 337.45
25-Jan-11 341.40
26-Jan-11 343.85
27-Jan-11 343.21
28-Jan-11 336.10
31-Jan-11 339.32
1-Feb-11 345.03
2-Feb-11 344.32
3-Feb-11 343.44
4-Feb-11 346.50
7-Feb-11 351.88
8-Feb-11 355.20
9-Feb-11 358.16
10-Feb-11 354.54
11-Feb-11 356.85
14-Feb-11 359.18
15-Feb-11 359.90
16-Feb-11 363.13
17-Feb-11 358.30
18-Feb-11 350.56
22-Feb-11 338.61
23-Feb-11 342.62
24-Feb-11 342.88
25-Feb-11 348.16
28-Feb-11 353.21
1-Mar-11 349.31
2-Mar-11 352.12
3-Mar-11 359.56
4-Mar-11 360.00
7-Mar-11 355.36
8-Mar-11 355.76
9-Mar-11 352.47
10-Mar-11 346.67
11-Mar-11 351.99
14-Mar-11 353.56
15-Mar-11 345.43
16-Mar-11 330.01
17-Mar-11 334.64
18-Mar-11 330.67
21-Mar-11 339.30
22-Mar-11 341.20
23-Mar-11 339.19
24-Mar-11 344.97
25-Mar-11 351.54
28-Mar-11 350.44
29-Mar-11 350.96
30-Mar-11 348.63
31-Mar-11 348.51
1-Apr-11 344.56
4-Apr-11 341.19
5-Apr-11 338.89
6-Apr-11 338.04
7-Apr-11 338.08
8-Apr-11 335.06
11-Apr-11 330.80
12-Apr-11 332.40
13-Apr-11 336.13
14-Apr-11 332.42
15-Apr-11 327.46
18-Apr-11 331.85
19-Apr-11 337.86
20-Apr-11 342.41
21-Apr-11 350.70
25-Apr-11 353.01
26-Apr-11 350.42
27-Apr-11 350.15
28-Apr-11 346.75
29-Apr-11 350.13
2-May-11 346.28
3-May-11 348.20
4-May-11 349.57
5-May-11 346.75
6-May-11 346.66
9-May-11 347.60
10-May-11 349.45
11-May-11 347.23
12-May-11 346.57
13-May-11 340.50
16-May-11 333.30
17-May-11 336.14
18-May-11 339.87
19-May-11 340.53
20-May-11 335.22
23-May-11 334.40
24-May-11 332.19
25-May-11 336.78
26-May-11 335.00
27-May-11 337.41
31-May-11 347.83
1-Jun-11 345.51
2-Jun-11 346.10
3-Jun-11 343.44
6-Jun-11 338.04
7-Jun-11 332.04
8-Jun-11 332.24
9-Jun-11 331.49
10-Jun-11 325.90
13-Jun-11 326.60
14-Jun-11 332.44
15-Jun-11 326.75
16-Jun-11 325.16
17-Jun-11 320.26
20-Jun-11 315.32
21-Jun-11 325.30
22-Jun-11 322.61
23-Jun-11 331.23
24-Jun-11 326.35
27-Jun-11 332.04
28-Jun-11 335.26
29-Jun-11 334.04
30-Jun-11 335.67
1-Jul-11 343.26
5-Jul-11 349.43
6-Jul-11 351.76
7-Jul-11 357.20
8-Jul-11 359.71
11-Jul-11 354.00
12-Jul-11 353.75
13-Jul-11 358.02
14-Jul-11 357.77
15-Jul-11 364.92
18-Jul-11 373.80
19-Jul-11 376.85
20-Jul-11 386.90
21-Jul-11 387.29
22-Jul-11 393.30
25-Jul-11 398.50
26-Jul-11 403.41
27-Jul-11 392.59
28-Jul-11 391.82
29-Jul-11 390.48
1-Aug-11 396.75
2-Aug-11 388.91
3-Aug-11 392.57
4-Aug-11 377.37
5-Aug-11 373.62
8-Aug-11 353.21
9-Aug-11 374.01
10-Aug-11 363.69
11-Aug-11 373.70
12-Aug-11 376.99
15-Aug-11 383.41
16-Aug-11 380.48
17-Aug-11 380.44
18-Aug-11 366.05
19-Aug-11 356.03
22-Aug-11 356.44
23-Aug-11 373.60
24-Aug-11 376.18
25-Aug-11 373.72
26-Aug-11 383.58
29-Aug-11 389.97
30-Aug-11 389.99
31-Aug-11 384.83
1-Sep-11 381.03
2-Sep-11 374.05
6-Sep-11 379.74
7-Sep-11 383.93
8-Sep-11 384.14
9-Sep-11 377.48
12-Sep-11 379.94
13-Sep-11 384.62
14-Sep-11 389.30
15-Sep-11 392.96
16-Sep-11 400.50
19-Sep-11 411.63
20-Sep-11 413.45
21-Sep-11 412.14
22-Sep-11 401.82
23-Sep-11 404.30
26-Sep-11 403.17
27-Sep-11 399.26
28-Sep-11 397.01
29-Sep-11 390.57
30-Sep-11 381.32
3-Oct-11 374.60
4-Oct-11 372.50
5-Oct-11 378.25
6-Oct-11 377.37
7-Oct-11 369.80
10-Oct-11 388.81
11-Oct-11 400.29
12-Oct-11 402.19
13-Oct-11 408.43
14-Oct-11 422.00
17-Oct-11 419.99
18-Oct-11 422.24
19-Oct-11 398.62
20-Oct-11 395.31
21-Oct-11 392.87
24-Oct-11 405.77
25-Oct-11 397.77
26-Oct-11 400.60
27-Oct-11 404.69
28-Oct-11 404.95
31-Oct-11 404.78
1-Nov-11 396.51
2-Nov-11 397.41
3-Nov-11 403.07
4-Nov-11 400.24
7-Nov-11 399.73
8-Nov-11 406.23
9-Nov-11 395.28
10-Nov-11 385.22
11-Nov-11 384.62
14-Nov-11 379.26
15-Nov-11 388.83
16-Nov-11 384.77
17-Nov-11 377.41
18-Nov-11 374.94
21-Nov-11 369.01
22-Nov-11 376.51
23-Nov-11 366.99
25-Nov-11 363.57
28-Nov-11 376.12
29-Nov-11 373.20
30-Nov-11 382.20
1-Dec-11 387.93
2-Dec-11 389.70
5-Dec-11 393.01
6-Dec-11 390.95
7-Dec-11 389.09
8-Dec-11 390.66
9-Dec-11 393.62
12-Dec-11 391.84
13-Dec-11 388.81
14-Dec-11 380.19
15-Dec-11 378.94
16-Dec-11 381.02
19-Dec-11 382.21
20-Dec-11 395.95
21-Dec-11 396.44
22-Dec-11 398.55
23-Dec-11 403.43
27-Dec-11 406.53
28-Dec-11 402.64
29-Dec-11 405.12
30-Dec-11 405.00
How I can handle the double click event, and extract the Date and Value of the line graph on that date - when the line is double clicked?
A:
You could add code like this to the end of the d3.tsv callback (after the line .attr("d", line);):
// Build a function to return the index where a given date would be inserted
// into the sorted data array.
var bisectDate = d3.bisector(function(d) { return d.date; }).left;
// Build a function to scale the mouse x position into the width of the chart.
var scaleMouse = d3.scaleLinear().range([0, width]).domain([margin.left, margin.left + width]);
// Add a double click event listener to the svg element.
svg.on("dblclick", function() {
// Get the mouse position relative to the svg element. The return is of the
// form [x, y].
var mouse = d3.mouse(this);
// If the mouse is outside of the chart area then return.
if (mouse[0] < margin.left || mouse[0] > margin.left + width || mouse[1] < margin.top || mouse[1] > margin.top + height) return;
// x.invert is the inverse of the x function defined above. It is a function
// that takes an x coordinate and returns a date. Here we scale the mouse
// position into the chart and then do the inversion.
var x0 = x.invert(scaleMouse(mouse[0])),
// Use the date from x.invert and the bisectData fn built above to get an
// index into the data array.
i = bisectDate(data, x0, 1),
// Now get the actual data points around the index.
d0 = data[i - 1],
d1 = data[i],
// And choose the one nearer to the date associated with where the mouse is.
d = d1 != null && x0 - d0.date > d1.date - x0 ? d1 : d0;
// Show the result.
alert(d.date + "," + d.close);
});
This code catches double click events on the svg element but ignores any that fall outside the bounding box of the chart area. It then uses the mouse's x position to find the nearest data point and displays the result in an alert popup.
|
Many cosmetic clinics offer a 'free', 'no obligation' consultation. At worst, this
will be with a sales person, it may be with a nurse or possibly with a cosmetic doctor.
Specialists generally do not offer free consultations as they are able to fill their
schedule with patients/clients happy to pay for an expert opinion. Practitioners
with successful clinics are unlikely to offer their time for free. Practitioners/clinics
that offer free consultations are under pressure to make a sale and we believe that
this affects their ability to offer honest advice.
Prices
Consultations carried out purely to assess suitability for IPL hair removal treatments
are carried out by Gail Black , Maxine Wright and Emma Norbury. The fee for a hair
removal consultation is £50 and this includes the test patch(s) where appropriate.Mole
scanning and mapping prices are outlined in that section. All other patients/clients
of Shropshire Skin Clinic see Dr Murdoch for an initial consultation which generally
lasts for about 20-30 minutes. The fee for this consultation is £180. This fee includes
test patches of intense pulsed light or laser therapy where appropriate.
Clients who have been assessed and received a treatment such as BOTOX at Shropshire
Skin Clinic in the past and are returning simply for a repeat treatment pay just
for the treatment.
We do not feel that an extensive list of treatments and the costs of each is very
helpful. Clients will not usually be aware of just what will be required to achieve
the results that they are looking for. A consultation is the best way to achieve
this. However, for those clients who have quite a clear idea of what treatment is
required, we are happy to give some guidance on costs on the telephone or by email
before a consultation. (See Office Hours Page). We believe that the cost of treatments
at Shropshire Skin Clinic is at least comparable and in many cases less than at other
clinics. Our focus at the Shropshire Skin Clinic is on quality treatment in a quality
environment. We do not wish to adopt the 'conveyer belt' approach of some of the
commercially orientated clinics springing up in many city centres. Clients of Shropshire
Skin clinic are reassured by having treatments performed or supervised by a medically
qualified doctor with specialist training and accreditation.
Payment is due on the day of consultation or treatment. We accept Switch, Visa and
Mastercard.
We do not accept American Express.
For clients with dermatological conditions covered by their Health Insurance policy
we require details of the policy on the day of consultation.
We have a new website!
Please visit our new website to ensure that the information you find is up-to-date.
This old website is no longer maintained, and as such, the content may no longer be accurate. |
Like jackals circling their prey, the British far-right could barely wait to take advantage of yesterday’s Westminster terror attack. This was a chance to say “we told you so” after Donald Trump’s election and criticism of his approach to security; they wasted no time in pressing their point.
Just a few days ago the former BNP member Jack Buckby, who ran as a candidate in Jo Cox’s seat after her murder, wrote: “Exit polls suggest a left wing coalition in Netherlands. Horrible thing to think, but only terror attacks can save Netherlands now. Wake up.”
Buckby stated, out loud and in public, what the far right had been thinking since Trump’s inauguration in January: an Isis-inspired terror attack is just what they need to shore up their popularity. The former leader of the EDL, Tommy Robinson, was so desperate to drum up publicity that he rushed to reporters in Westminster within minutes of the atrocity. Not to be outdone, Britain First called for a demonstration on 1 April (a date, in my view, quite suited to their band of thugs).
The far-right is emboldened because it knows it has an ally in the White House to help its narrative. In January, John Cardillo, a commentator on Fox and NRA News tweeted: “When it’s revealed that the #QuebecShooting terrorists are Muslims, #Trump will have a tremendous spike in political capital.”
Westminster falls silent in memory of terror attack victims
Except the Quebec shooter wasn’t a Muslim. That tweet was nevertheless “liked” by Donald Trump Jr.
For them, this isn’t just a war against terrorists – it is a war against everyone they think are allies of Isis: Muslims, immigrants, liberals and the left.
They hate the very idea of cosmopolitan communities. Just hours after London was attacked yesterday, right-wing columnist Katie Hopkins called our capital city “an entire city of monkeys”.
The last terrorist attack on British democracy was the murder of Labour MP Jo Cox by Thomas Mair, a far-right fanatic. Did the right, at that point, call for better surveillance or “vetting” of white nationalists groups? Obviously not.
What about when a London knife-attacker shouted, “Death to Muslims, go back to Syria” in December? There was a remarkable unwillingness to ask public questions about the causes of “white radicalisation” then too.
That isn’t to say Isis-inspired extremism is not a problem; it absolutely is, as yesterday’s appalling events reminded us. We need to examine and tackle all forms of extremism. Isis is not simply a reaction to western foreign policy but its own form of murderous imperialism. And it has its roots in earlier ideological terror groups such as the Taliban and Hizb ut-Tahrir.
But it’s no exaggeration to say that white nationalism, as expressed in the immediate response to the Westminster terror attack yesterday, is merely the ideological mirror-image to Islamist extremism.
Such groups may not be responsible for large scale terror attacks in the Middle East, but nevertheless pose a significant threat in the West. A study in 2015 found white extremists had killed more Americans in the US than jihadists since 9/11. Yesterday, while focus was on London, another white nationalist in NYC admitted to murdering a black man because of his race.
Far-right extremists are now a majority of referrals to the anti-terrorism programme in some parts of UK.
Terror attacks such as that in Westminster illustrate the growing symbiotic relationship between the far-right and Islamist extremism. Both sides need each other to spread panic and terror; to create tension and paranoia; to further the “clash of civilisations” they are itching for. The aim of white nationalism and Isis-inspired extremism is the same: to radicalise their own side, to undermine and destroy moderates and to create conflict.
Londoners have survived worse than this. The city epitomises the spirit of the “Keep Calm and Carry On” motto popularised during World War Two. Earlier generations weathered the German bombing of the Blitz, and Londoners survived the terrorist attacks of 7 July 2005. |
Tag Archives: Boots
Sorry! This giveaway is now closed! We would like to congratulate Commenter #106 (Kelly) on winning this prize pack. Thanks so much for your entries and happy holidays!
This is one giveaway that I know you will not want to miss! I can think of nothing that should be wrapped under your Christmas tree more than these beautiful Hoonah Boots by Sorel. It is the ultimate indulgence for a busy mom and would keep your feet toasty warm as you are out running all of those holiday errands.
Crafted for the woman who refuses to compromise between fashion and function, the equestrian-inspired Hoonah offers a higher standard of both.Expand Full details»
With its tall cut and finely tuned details, the confident style of the Hoonah is equally at home on urban streets and country lanes, inside and outdoors. Complimenting its versatile design is a cold-weather construction that combines waterproof leather, 100g Thinsulate insulation and a soft knit wool lining that keeps you warm from knees to toes. The easy-on/easy-off closures, removable and molded footbed and midsole, and traction outsole all contribute to a finely crafted boot that’s sure to become your go-to winter favorite.
FEATURES:
Waterproof full-grain leather uppers
Easy on and off medial zip closure
100g Thinsulate™ Insulation
Rock Pile fleece lining
Removable molded EVA comfort footbed
Traction enhancing multi-directional rubber lug outsole
Imported
To enter to win, head over to our review and read more about our thoughts on the Hoonah Boots. Then just come back HERE to enter and tell me why you deserve these boots as a special holiday treat. Entries will be taken through Tuesday (11/24) at 8PM EST. Our winner will be drawn at random. Good luck, everyone!
I was not acquainted with the Sorel company before, but received an email that they would love to have us review their footwear for their launch of their new online presence at Sorel.com. Not only do we get the opportunity to share our thoughts on their products, but we will be offering a giveaway of the same pair of boots to one lucky reader on our website this month!
The Sorel website has great functionality for someone who is in the market for a new pair of shoes. Instead of the traditional drop down screens, you can adjust from smallest price to highest, sizing from smallest to largest, and even adjust to the type of temperature control you want in a boot using a gauge function on their site. It also includes three easy pictures to choose from and pick the shoe style that you are in the market for. I plugged in exactly what I was looking for using these site features and found the perfect boot for me- the Hoonah boot. I will admit though, it was a tough decision with so many cute styles to choose from. I knew though for my Indiana winters that these would be the perfect boots for me.
These boots are amazingly built and are, in fact, the finest pair of footwear that I have ever owned. The stitching on them is beautifully done, the zipper glides up and down without sticking, and they are buttery leather with elegant detailing like buckles and seaming that you just can’t match at a superstore. For keeping my feet toasty warm, they offer a 100 gram Thinsulate shell that gives you the warmth you need without the sweaty foot syndrome that you can get in other furry boot styles. Traction enhancing multi-directional rubber lug outsole make these boots also safe which is a huge bonus for someone who is entirely too klutzy and needs all the help she can get.
Now that you know that they are built beautifully, let’s talk about if they feel good. The answer is… absolutely! I have never had a more comfortable boot in my life. The two things that I love about these are that these boots actually offer a lot of foot support built into the boot. The boots are made with a removable molded EVA comfort foot bed so the support is built right in the boot, if you need it.
The second thing that I love about them is that they are easy to pull on and off and this is a big one for me as a busy mom. I just don’t have time to wrestle with trying to get my shoes on and off. How refreshing to not be blocking doorways at my friends house, sweating to remove a pair of boots just because I want to look good. Now I can look my very best and not have to engage in a tug-of-war battle in our doorway each day.
The boots also said that they were waterproof, but I wanted to double check since my shoes will be sloshing in a lot of mud and snow this winter. The day I received them, I called the customer service line and was answered by a real person (I know, I know!) who answered on the first ring (I know, I know) and reassured me that my boots were perfectly ready to brave those Indiana winter. They were polite, helpful, and real people- I LOVE THAT!
As for cons, the only thing that I can say that would shy me away from the company would be the price on these boots. They are definitely an investment, but an investment that would last you many, many years. You know that they are intended to last a long time if they offer replacement boot liners for sale which speaks a lot to the quality of product that they are putting out. I know many of our readers would not be able to afford these and that is why I am thrilled that the company is generously offering a pair to our readers!
One thing to be aware of, at least with this particular style of shoe, the sizing runs more generously. If you are on the fence if you should go up a size or go down a size on your boot, I would err on the smaller sizing.
If you are thinking of placing an order, be sure to look at the tab on the left-hand side of the screen that says, “More From Sorel.” Currently, if you sign up for their email newsletter, they are offering free shipping on their boots for a limited time.
This product was received as a review sample. The thoughts and opinions expressed will always be honest and heartfelt and no reflection on receiving a sample copy. We promise to always do our best to also give away each of these products to our readers because it is always better to give than to receive! Want to know more about how things are handled here at MomAdvice? Be sure to read our Disclaimer which clearly states how things work and know that we will always offer only the best reviews to our readers. |
Contents
Description
The Night Serpent's slit-pupil eyes are the sickly yellow-black of rotten eggs. Her forked tongue flickers incessantly over her smooth lips. Her monstrous fangs are always coated with the viscous essence of lost dreams. She speaks with a sibilant, malignant voice that drips with ancient horrors. Midnight-black scales cover her colossal hide and serve as the physical embodiment of the most terrifying nightmares she has swallowed.
History/Lore
Dendar the Night Serpent came into existence shortly after the first being slept and had a nightmare. She has an uncountable horde of horrible dreams and foul visions in her gullet that she has been devouring since the dawn of time. She relishes the taste of particularly choice nightmares and savors the dreams of kings and deities alike. More horrifying, if she did not feed her insatiable appetite, every being, mortal or deity, would remember every nightmare he or she has ever dreamed in excruciating detail. Supposedly, she will be the harbinger of the end of the world and even the gods themselves.
Although she can slither across the Barrens of Doom and Despair or any of the lower planes at will, the Night Serpent is almost always found in her lair. Dendar lives in a vast cave near the oozing river that surrounds much of the Fugue Plane. The hiss of the Night Serpent's breathing echoes through the plane as she sleeps, contentedly gorged on the world's unremembered nightmares. Anyone who approaches her cave finds her awake and awaiting them with anticipatory delight as she savors and relives their worst unremembered nightmares. Her cavernous maw is large enough to swallow a giant, and her tongue can knock an armored man to the ground with a single flick. Beneath her tongue is a foul mire of greasy spittle and half-devoured bones—the corporeal manifestations of her dream diet's remnants.
Other Names
To the ancient Rus, Dendar was known as Nidhogg, the serpent who gnaws at the roots of the world tree that connects all things (Yggdrasil). In Calimport, she is known (incorrectly) as the Mother of the Night Parade. In the Jungles of Chult, Dendar is known as the Eater of the World. Legends tell of how Ubtao, Creator of Chult, will battle the Night Serpent when she emerges through a gigantic iron door located beneath one of the Peaks of Flame and attempts to eat the sun. If Ubtao fails in his duty, the stories say Dendar will readily devour the sun and the doom of the world will finally arrive. |
Prezzo and Itsu restaurants plus pub chain Wetherspoons came bottom in a survey of sustainable seafood on offer at High Street eateries.
A lack of information about the sources of seafood is one of the biggest barriers for diners trying to eat seafood sustainably, according to the analysis.
Eleven High Street restaurant chains and pubs were assessed, totalling more than 2,000 branches nationwide, on the sustainability of the seafood that features on their menus.
Cafe Rouge and Bella Italia came out top, followed by Harry Ramsden’s, Beefeater, Côte Brasserie and Carluccio’s.
But Prezzo, Wetherspoons and Itsu were at the bottom.
Researchers from the Marine Conservation Society (MCS) and online restaurant guide Fish2fork found that, even when pubs and eateries buy seafood that is caught or produced responsibly, it can be difficult for the diner to tell which have made the effort to seek out sustainable supplies.
Transparency over the sources of king prawns and sea bass were the types of seafood used by chain restaurants giving the biggest causes of concern.
Wetherspoons and Prezzo both failed to make it clear on their menus where their king prawns derived. Itsu has prawns on its menus but fails even to say what type are used. Similarly, Prezzo served sea bass but failed to make clear if it was farmed or wild.
But Fish2fork and the MCS were pleased that chain pubs and restaurants are increasingly willing to switch to sustainable seafood.
Of the 11 chain restaurants and pubs assessed, just three failed to meet minimum standards of sustainability in the Fish2fork assessment criteria, which include the need to be transparent about sourcing.
During the ratings process six of the 11 restaurants changed their sourcing practices to be more sustainable.
These included Cafe Rouge and Bella Italia which have improved their Fish2fork rating over the last year. Cafe Rouge now gets a 3.5 blue fish rating and Bella Italia 3 blue fish, making them highly sustainable restaurants.
Tim Glover, managing director of Fish2fork, said: “It is fantastic that some of the UK’s most popular restaurants really are making an effort to seek out sustainable sources of seafood.
“But we are troubled that it is so often difficult for diners to know how sustainable a restaurant’s seafood is.
“We would urge restaurants to make a greater effort to make it clear on their menus where their seafood comes from, though we recognise that it can be difficult for them to get detailed information from suppliers.
“Sustainability is a vital ingredient in any dish, but diners shouldn’t be left to guess whether it’s there or not.”
Samuel Stone, of the MCS, added: “It’s brilliant to see so many high street restaurants now seeking more sustainable seafood, yet they need to bolster traceability and do more to tell their diners about the seafood they are serving.
“When eating out on the high street, diners need to know they aren’t going to be consuming seafood that is red rated or listed as Endangered.
“Telling diners where and how seafood has been produced and using the various seafood ecolabels available is key to this.”
Tim Doubleday, chief financial officer at Casual Dining Group which includes Cafe Rouge and Bella Italia, said: “We recognise the profound responsibility all restaurant businesses have in sourcing fish ethically and sustainably, and as such taking it extremely seriously, striving to be recognised as a leader in this area. |
was born in 1973 and registered to vote on 26 October 1999, giving the address 32 2ND AVE, OVERLOOK COLONY, CLAYMONT, New Castle County, Delaware, U.S.A. DOLLARD is registered to vote in the Democratic Party.
Voter ID number: 100545171
This is a privately owned genealogy website using a purchased copy of the Delaware voter list,
as of 5 November 2015, which is unrestricted, public information. Use this website at your own risk. There is no warranty. |
975 F.2d 1175
UNITED STATES of America, Plaintiff-Appellee,v.John Anthony MARGETIS, Defendant-Appellant.
No. 92-1114Summary Calendar.
United States Court of Appeals,Fifth Circuit.
Oct. 28, 1992.
John A. Margetis, pro se.
Rose L. Romero, Asst. U.S. Atty., Marvis Collins, U.S. Atty., Dallas, Tex., for plaintiff-appellee.
Appeal from the United States District Court for the Northern District of Texas.
Before POLITZ, Chief Judge, DAVIS and JONES, Circuit Judges.
POLITZ, Chief Judge:
1
John A. Margetis appeals the rejection of his 28 U.S.C. § 2255 motion to set aside his arson-related convictions, complaining that the court reporter failed to provide this court with a complete and accurate transcript on his direct appeal of the convictions. Concluding that the omission of a portion of the record on direct appeal does not warrant section 2255 relief, we affirm.
Background
2
Margetis was convicted of conspiring to maliciously destroy a building used in or affecting interstate commerce, aiding and abetting the actual destruction of the building, and mail fraud. Represented by new counsel he appealed, contending that: (1) the evidence was insufficient to support his convictions; (2) the government failed to prove the interstate commerce involvement required by 18 U.S.C. § 844(i); and (3) the prosecutor improperly bolstered the testimony of a witness. We rejected all assignments of error and affirmed.
3
Invoking 28 U.S.C. § 2255, Margetis sought relief from his convictions based on the dual proposition that he was not represented on appeal by his trial attorney and the transcript furnished this court was incomplete. It now appears that the transcript did not contain the cross-examination of Kenneth Foster, a government witness. At an evidentiary hearing before the magistrate judge to whom the matter was referred, the court reporter testified that the computer diskette containing Foster's testimony was defective and she resorted to her backup shorthand notes and audio recording. One pad of her notes was missing and her audio record did not include Foster's cross-examination because it was prematurely turned off. During the course of the instant proceeding, another court reporter assisted her in retrieving Foster's cross-examination from the defective diskette and Pollard transcribed and filed same.
4
The magistrate judge reviewed the record, including the proffered supplement to the trial transcript, and concluded that the supplement contained an accurate account of the missing part of the record. After reviewing the supplemented record, the court a quo found no prejudice caused by the missing partial record and denied section 2255 relief. Margetis timely appealed.
Analysis
5
A complete and accurate record of trial court proceedings is essential to the appellate process. When a defendant is represented by an appellate lawyer different from the trial lawyer, a complete and accurate transcript is an imperative. In such a situation a criminal defendant typically need not show specific prejudice in order to obtain relief. In United States v. Selva,1 we so held. In Selva the court reporter became ill and failed to transcribe the closing argument of the prosecutor. The trial court declined to grant a new trial. We held that a showing of prejudice was not necessary because Selva was represented on appeal by new counsel. Our reasoning was straightforward. It guides today's resolution.
6
When, as here, a criminal defendant is represented on appeal by counsel other than the attorney at trial, the absence of a substantial and significant portion of the record, even absent any showing of specific prejudice or error, is sufficient to mandate reversal ... [w]hen a defendant is represented on appeal by counsel not involved at trial, counsel cannot reasonably be expected to show specific prejudice. To be sure, there may be instances where it can readily be determined from the balance of the record whether an error has been made during the untranscribed portion of the proceedings. Often, however, even the most careful consideration of the available transcript will not permit us to discern whether reversible error occurred while the proceedings were not being recorded.2
7
We have eschewed a mechanistic approach requiring an automatic reversal, however, preferring, as we perceive Selva to authorize, a case-by-case review which requires reversal only when a substantial and significant portion of the transcript is missing.3 In a collateral proceeding under 28 U.S.C. § 2255 the petitioner must demonstrate "a fundamental defect which inherently results in a miscarriage of justice or an omission inconsistent with the rudimentary grounds of fair procedure."4 Selva teaches that omissions from the transcript can jeopardize the defendant's right to a meaningful appeal, particularly where he is represented by new counsel. The reviewing court, therefore, must consider whether the missing portion of the transcript prejudiced the defendant by denying him "effective appellate review."5
8
We do not here consider a case in which the entire transcript or a major portion thereof was not provided for the direct appeal. The missing portion at bar dealt only with the cross-examination of one witness, Kenneth Foster. We now have before us what has been accepted by the trial court as an accurate transcript of the cross-examination of Foster. We accept that designation by the trial court. It is for the district courts to determine the contents of appellate records.6 We have long held that "that determination, absent a showing of intentional falsification or plain unreasonableness, is conclusive."7 Margetis contends that the court reporter's testimony lacked credibility. The trial judge did not think so and we are not wont to reject his credibility assessment.8
9
Whether Margetis is entitled to relief from his conviction under section 2255 turns on the materiality and relevancy of the cross-examination testimony of Foster and its likely impact on the trial's result. A close reading of Foster's testimony, in light of the entire record, fully persuades that the testimony of Foster on cross-examination had no relevance to any issue raised on appeal. The very short cross-examination consisted of an attempt to challenge Foster's familiarity with Margetis' financial condition at the time of trial. This cross-examination was brief and not conclusive of any point relevant to the trial of the several criminal charges. We are convinced beyond peradventure that the panel of this court which affirmed the convictions would have reached the same result when it reviewed the entire record of the trial, had it then before it this brief omitted portion of the transcript. The portion omitted was neither substantial nor significant. Margetis was not denied effective appellate review. His section 2255 motion properly was denied.
10
AFFIRMED.
1
559 F.2d 1303 (5th Cir.1977)
2
559 F.2d at 1306 (footnote and citations omitted)
3
The Ninth Circuit recently rejected this approach in favor of remanding all cases to the district court for a determination with respect to any prejudice produced. United States v. Antoine, 906 F.2d 1379, 1381 (9th Cir.1990). In light of the result we reach today, we need not address this conflict
4
Hill v. United States, 368 U.S. 424, 428, 82 S.Ct. 468, 471, 7 L.Ed.2d 417 (1962)
5
See Harris v. Estelle, 583 F.2d 775 (5th Cir.1978); Morgan v. Massey, 526 F.2d 347 (5th Cir.), cert. denied, 429 U.S. 1002, 97 S.Ct. 533, 50 L.Ed.2d 613 (1976)
6
Fed.R.App.P. 10(e)
7
United States v. Mori, 444 F.2d 240 (5th Cir.), cert. denied, 404 U.S. 913, 92 S.Ct. 238, 30 L.Ed.2d 187 (1971)
8
United States v. Hoskins, 910 F.2d 309, 311 (5th Cir.1990)
|
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KNITTING & CROCHET BOOKS & MAGAZINES
Comprar gran variedad de BOOKS & MAGAZINES online
At our online store you will find a wide range of books and magazines about knitting and crochet. You can buy Katia magazines, books by renowned designers, crochet magazines and magazines with knitting patterns for babies and adults.
At Miss Kits you will find books about techniques, new concepts and ideas, tips and styles, books to discover, le...
At our online store you will find a wide range of books and magazines about knitting and crochet. You can buy Katia magazines, books by renowned designers, crochet magazines and magazines with knitting patterns for babies and adults.
At Miss Kits you will find books about techniques, new concepts and ideas, tips and styles, books to discover, learn and keep enjoying the world of wool, yarn, knitting and crochet. |
Rangewear By Scully Men's Rangewear Frontier Canvas Vest Brown Large
Look your cowboy finest in this frontier-inspired canvas vest from Rangewear by Scully apparel Rangewear is a part of the Old West Collection by Scully. Vest sports an adjustable back tie. Imported. Sizes: S(38), M(40), L(42-44), XL(46-48), 2XL(50).
Look your cowboy finest in this frontier-inspired canvas vest from Rangewear by Scully apparel Rangewear is a part of the Old West Collection by Scully. Vest sports an adjustable back tie. Imported. Sizes: S(38), M(40), L(42-44), XL(46-48), 2XL(50).
Rangewear By Scully Men's Rangewear Frontier Canvas Vest Black Medium
Look your cowboy finest in this frontier-inspired canvas vest from Rangewear by Scully apparel Rangewear is a part of the Old West Collection by Scully. Vest sports an adjustable back tie. Imported. Sizes: S(38), M(40), L(42-44), XL(46-48), 2XL(50).
Mens Vest Waistcoat Gothic Steampunk Victorian (M, Black)
Brand: DarcChic
Color: Black
The standard shipping time is about 10 business days for US, Europe and Asia, instead of 17 - 28 business days on Amazon fixed shipping template. Item: Mens Vest Waistcoat Gothic Steampunk Victorian Fabric: 65% Cotton 35% Polyester Gothic vest features button accents and belt detail back S: Chest- 38". M: Chest- 40". L: Chest- 42". XL: Chest- 44". XXL: Chest- 46". This vest has been tagged so that it cannot be worn without the tag showing.This is to prevent people from wearing the coat for a night out and then returning it.The tag will be easily removable if you decide to keep the coat. All returns must be within 5 days of when the shipment was dropped off from the carrier. |
Many people dismiss chiropractic as being something only for back pain, but chiropractic treatment can be used to treat a wide variety of physical issues, such as migraines and headaches, chronic pain, carpal tunnel, pain due to injury or muscle strain, and much more.
Get Your Lifestyle Back!We address the cause of your pain, not just the symptom. We believe that education is a big part of your success.
Chiropractor Jacksonville FL
Welcome to Intracoastal Chiropractic Clinic located in Jacksonville, Fl. Intracoastal Chiropractic is here to treat every patient as an individual with specific treatments and try to give the most compassionate and state of the art chiropractic care. Our Jacksonville Chiropractors will work with you to answer all your questions. If they feel you can be helped, it is their mission to correct your condition in the quickest amount of time and with the most affordable way possible. Robert DeVincentis has been a chiropractor in Jacksonville for over 20 years now and can assure you that he will see you personally with each and every visit. Dr. DeVincentis, commonly know as “Dr. D.” has won awards for Best Chiropractor in Jacksonville several times through the years. His knowledge of sports injuries and compassion for healing patients are what keeps his patients happy and healthy.
Welcome to Intracoastal Chiropractic Clinic
DeVincentis is located at the intersection of Beach Blvd and San Pablo road in Jacksonville. His office is next door to “the Gym” fitness center and close to Mayo Clinic.
If you are thinking about seeing Dr. DeVincentis for treatment or a diagnosis of your condition Dr.D will do the initial private consultation and no charge. After this meeting he will discuss your options and you will be provided the cost for additional treatment. This is a $75 value that will hopefully provide answers to what is the best options for treatment.
About Doctor DeVincentis
In high school Dr. DeVincentis suffered a significant neck injury while playing football. After several weeks of conventional medical treatment Dr. D sought treatment from a chiropractor. D was amazed at how quickly he was fixed by the chiropractic treatment he got. And this was done without any drugs or surgery. Dr. D then went on to play college football and studied to become a chiropractor himself. Dr. DeVincentis then became a bodybuilder and won Mr. Natural Georgia and Mr. Atlanta while he studied. Throughout his bodybuilding career Dr. D received chiropractic care on a consistent basis.
After graduating chiropractic school in 1997, Dr. DeVincentis then decided to open his own practice in Jacksonville, FL. In Jacksonville, Dr. D opened 3 fitness centers and owned them for 13 years. He was able to treat numerous sports injuries in Jacksonville because he was owner of these gyms. Dr. DeVincentis also has treated and still treats many NFL athletes and professional bodybuilders. Dr. DeVincentis and his family call Jacksonville home.
Working with Intracoastal Chiropractic Clinicwill make a difference in your health.
Common Conditions Helped
Intracoastal Chiropractic considers sports injuries to be their focus. However, Dr. DeVincentis treats every patient as they too are a professional athlete. With Dr. D’s past experience as an athlete and his many years of treating professional athletes, he is focused on the treatment and prevention of sports injuries. DeVincentis provides personal hands on treatments and includes massage therapy with most of his patients.
Intracoastal Chiropractic also prides themselves on being ethical and honest in providing the most effective treatments in a clear, concise manner with the utmost respect for their patient’s time. Dr. DeVincentis will thoroughly examine each patient and clearly communicate his treatment plan. Dr. D. will attempt to correct every patient’s condition in the least amount of visits and quickest amount of time and also in the most affordable manner possible.
Common Misconceptions
Many potential patients in Jacksonville believe that chiropractic does not provide a fix and when you go once you always have to go back. In Dr. D’s office, this is simply not true. DeVincentis will first tell you if he can help you or if he cannot. If Dr. DeVincentis cannot help you he will refer you to the best healthcare provider in Jacksonville. If Dr. D feels he can help you he will fix you in the least amount of visits and quickest amount of time. He will then release you from care and give you the option to continue with maintenance care.
Another big misconception amongst potential patients is the issue of affordability. Patients who don’t have insurance coverage or who do have coverage but not in this office need not to worry. Dr. DeVincentis has affordable plans that are actually lower than what most copays are now! People who do have insurance coverage in Dr.D’s office many times will elect to pay self pay because it is actually cheaper! |
Warfarin--indications, risks and drug interactions.
Warfarin is a commonly used medication for the prevention and treatment of venous thromboembolism. It can be challenging for both the patient and the prescriber to manage at times. To describe the mechanism of action of warfarin, and to discuss the indications for warfarinisation, the risks associated with warfarin use, and some of its drug interactions. The common indications for warfarinisation are atrial fibrillation, venous thromboembolism and prosthetic heart valves. Contraindications include absolute and relative contraindications, and an individualised risk-benefit analyses is required for each patient. There are many interactions with warfarin, including pharmacokinetic and pharmacodynamic. Pharmacokinetic interactions can be monitored by using International Normalised Ratio levels. Pharmacodynamic interactions require knowledge by the prescriber to predict any interactions with warfarin, and International Normalised Ratio monitoring assists. |
Purification of terminal riboadenylate transferase from calf thymus gland.
A poly(A) polymerase has been purified from the soluble protein fraction of calf thymus gland. The activity is cytoplasmic and nonparticulate. Mn-2+ATP is the preferred substrate. On the basis of disc gel electrophoresis in sodium dodecyl sulfate-acrylamide gels, gel filtration, and sedimentation velocity in sucrose gradients, the enzyme has a molecular weight of 62,000 and appears to consist of one polypeptide chain. The enzyme preparation is shown to be nearly homogeneous by disc gel electrophoresis and isoelectric-focusing. The activity has a pI of about 7.4. The specific activity of the enzyme is about 1700 mumol per hour per mg of protein, giving a turnover number of about 1800 mol of substrate per mol of enzyme min- minus 1. The activity is highly specific for ATP and is inhibited by other ribonucleoside triphosphates. It is sensitive to high levels of RNA-polymerase inhibitors. Km for oligoadenylate is 50 muM in the presence of Mn-2+ and 200 muM in Mg-2+ and equivalent Vmax is achieved with either metal ion. The initiator function may be filled by a variety of oligoribonucleotides having a free 3'-OH. |
880 F.2d 1108
58 USLW 2113, 1989-2 Trade Cases 68,683
Simon J. PINHAS, Plaintiff-Appellant,v.SUMMIT HEALTH, LTD.; Midway Hospital Medical Center; theMedical Staff of Midway Hospital Medical Center;Mitchell Feldman, et al., Defendants-Appellees.
No. 87-6530.
United States Court of Appeals,Ninth Circuit.
Argued and Submitted Feb. 7, 1989.Decided July 26, 1989.
Lawrence Silver, Steven L. Rayman, Blecher & Collins and Maxwell Blecher, Beverly Hills, Cal., for plaintiff-appellant.
J. Mark Waxman, Weissburg and Aronson, Inc., Los Angeles, Cal., for defendants-appellees.
Appeal from the United States District Court for the Central District of California.
Before CANBY, WIGGINS and O'SCANNLAIN, Circuit Judges.
WIGGINS, Circuit Judge:
1
Appellant Dr. Simon J. Pinhas appeals the dismissal of his action challenging the removal of his staff privileges at Midway Hospital Medical Center (Midway) in Los Angeles. Pinhas alleges claims under section 1 of the Sherman Antitrust Act, 15 U.S.C. Sec. 1 (1982) and 42 U.S.C. Secs. 1983, 1985(3) (1982). Pinhas also seeks a declaratory judgment that Cal.Bus. & Prof.Code Secs. 805, 805.5 (West Supp.1989), and the Health Care Quality Improvement Act of 1986, 42 U.S.C. Sec. 11101-11152 (Supp. IV 1986), are unconstitutional under the fourteenth amendment. The district court granted appellees' motion to dismiss all four claims. We reverse the dismissal of the antitrust claim, and affirm the dismissal of the section 1983 claim and request for declaratory judgment.1
2
* BACKGROUND
3
Dr. Pinhas is an eye physician and ophthalmological surgeon. He became a member of the medical staff at Midway in October 1981. Reimbursement under Medicare for the charges of an assistant surgeon in the performance of eye surgery became unavailable in February 1986. Pinhas alleges that most hospitals in Los Angeles subsequently eliminated their requirement that assistant surgeons be utilized during eye surgeries. Pinhas, together with several other ophthalmic surgeons at Midway, petitioned the medical staff at Midway to eliminate its assistant surgeon requirement. The medical staff refused to do so. Pinhas advised the hospital administration that the medical staff's refusal to eliminate the assistant surgeon requirement would cost him approximately $60,000 per year. Pinhas allegedly told the hospital that although he wished to keep the majority of his practice at Midway, he would nevertheless move his practice if the assistant surgeon requirement was not abolished. Pinhas alleges that rather than abolish the assistant surgeon requirement, Midway offered him what he characterizes as a "sham" contract in which he was to be paid the sum of $36,000 per year (later raised to $60,000 per year) for consulting services he contends he would not have been expected to perform. Pinhas refused to sign the contract. Despite repeated requests by appellees Dr. Lurvey, the Chief of Staff at Midway, and Mitchell Feldman, regional vice-president of Summit Health Ltd. (Summit), the parent corporation of Midway, Pinhas refused to return the contract.
4
Pinhas contends that as a result of his refusal to return the contract, Lurvey and Feldman conspired to initiate disciplinary proceedings against him. By letter dated April 13, 1987, Pinhas was advised by Summit Health and Midway, through Lurvey and Feldman, that he was summarily suspended as of that date. The letter stated that he was being suspended based on a "medical staff review of Dr. Pinhas's medical records, with consideration as to the questions raised regarding: indications for surgery; appropriateness of surgical procedures in light of patient's medical condition; adequacy of documentation in medical records; and ongoing pattern of identified problems." The letter also indicated that the Midway Executive Committee (MEC) would convene within ten days to review and consider the action. The MEC met on April 20, 1987, and permitted Pinhas to make a statement. The MEC upheld the summary suspension with the recommendation to terminate his staff privileges at Midway. Midway's board of directors concurred with the MEC's recommendation.
5
In accordance with the medical staff bylaws, Pinhas requested a hearing by the Midway Judicial Review Committee (JRC). He was granted the hearing and received notice of seven charges against him. In accordance with the bylaws, Lurvey appointed seven members of the medical staff to serve on the JRC. Attorney Richard Posell was selected by Midway's attorney Mark Kadzielski of Weissburg & Aronson to serve as the hearing officer. The peer-review hearings began on May 26 and proceeded for six hearing sessions, concluding on June 12, 1987. Both parties were permitted to call witnesses and introduce evidence. Pinhas was not permitted representation by legal counsel prior to or during the proceedings. The JRC issued its report on June 12, 1987, upholding only one of the seven charges against Pinhas. It recommended that Pinhas be reinstated subject to Pinhas's agreement to several special conditions relating to the conduct of his operations and to be placed on a six-month probationary period.
6
The MEC and Pinhas both appealed the JRC's decision to the Governing Board of the hospital in July 1987. On February 2, 1988, the Governing Board affirmed the decision of the JRC, but imposed more stringent conditions upon Pinhas's six-month probationary period. Finally, sometime in October 1988, Pinhas filed a petition for writ of mandate pursuant to Cal.Civ.Proc.Code Sec. 1094.5 (West Supp.1989). No decision has yet been reached in that matter.
7
On May 21, 1987, following his suspension, but before the hearing before the JRC, Pinhas filed this suit in federal court. Named as defendants are Summit Health; Midway; the Midway medical staff; Dr. Lurvey; Feldman; Drs. Reader, Macy, Salz, and Perlman, each of whom are ophthalmologists and competitors of Pinhas; Peggy Farber, an employee in the risk management section with Summit Health/Midway; Kadzielski; Weissburg & Aronson; and Posell (collectively "appellees").2 Pinhas alleges in his complaint that as a result of his refusal to sign the "sham" contract, appellees entered into a conspiracy to preclude him from practicing at Midway or any other hospital in California or the rest of the United States in violation of section one of the Sherman Act, 15 U.S.C. Sec. 1 (1982). The thrust of Pinhas's antitrust claim is that appellees conspired summarily to suspend and terminate his medical staff privileges at Midway, and to have the report of his termination disseminated to hospitals in California pursuant to Cal.Bus. & Prof.Code Secs. 805, 805.1 (West Supp.1989), and to hospitals throughout the entire country pursuant to 42 U.S.C. Secs. 11133, 11135 (Supp. IV 1986) in order to preclude him from practicing elsewhere. Section 805 of the California Business and Professions Code requires a health care facility to report actions adversely affecting a doctor's clinical privileges to the California Board of Medical Quality Assurance (BMQA). Before granting or renewing a staff privilege for a physician or surgeon, a health care facility is also required under section 805.5 to request a report from BMQA to determine whether the applying doctor has been denied staff privileges by another hospital.3 Similar reporting requirements are mandated by federal law under 42 U.S.C. Secs. 11133, 11135. Pinhas contends that as a result of his termination and the dissemination of the reports, appellees have effectively boycotted his practice and precluded him from continued competition in the marketplace.
8
Pinhas also alleges under sections 1983 and 1985(3) that the peer-review proceedings did not comport with the due process guarantee of the fourteenth amendment. In support of his due process claim, Pinhas contends he did not receive adequate notice of the charges against him, he was not permitted legal counsel at the hearing, the hearing officer Posell was biased, he was not permitted to cross-examine the MEC's witnesses and was precluded from calling several of his own. In addition to his antitrust and civil rights claims, Pinhas requests a declaratory judgment that Cal.Bus. & Prof.Code Secs. 805, 805.1 and 42 U.S.C. Secs. 11133, 11135 violate the equal protection and due process clauses of the fourteenth amendment.
9
Appellees filed a motion to dismiss on August 4, 1987, and the court dismissed the case on September 21, 1987. The district court concluded that the appellees were protected from antitrust liability under the state action doctrine pursuant to Patrick v. Burget, 800 F.2d 1498 (9th Cir.1986), rev'd, 486 U.S. 94, 108 S.Ct. 1658, 100 L.Ed.2d 83 (1988). The court dismissed the civil rights claims because of a lack of state action under the fourteenth amendment. It dismissed the claim for declaratory relief as not ripe, and also because the appellees were not the right parties to defend either the state or federal statute. Pinhas's request for reconsideration by the court based on the filing of certiorari with the Supreme Court in Patrick was denied. Pinhas appeals dismissal of his antitrust and section 1983 claims, as well as his request for declaratory relief. He does not appeal the dismissal of his section 1985(3) claim. We have jurisdiction under 28 U.S.C. Sec. 1291 (1982).
II
STANDARD OF REVIEW
10
A dismissal for failure to state a claim pursuant to Fed.R.Civ.P. 12(b)(6) is a ruling on a question of law that we review de novo. See Fort Vancouver Plywood Co. v. United States, 747 F.2d 547, 552 (9th Cir.1984). Review is limited to the contents of the complaint, see id., and the complaint should not be dismissed under the rule "unless it appears beyond doubt that the plaintiff can prove no set of facts in support of his claim which would entitle him to relief," Conley v. Gibson, 355 U.S. 41, 45-46, 78 S.Ct. 99, 102, 2 L.Ed.2d 80 (1957); see also Gibson v. United States, 781 F.2d 1334, 1337 (9th Cir.1986), cert. denied, 479 U.S. 1054, 107 S.Ct. 928, 93 L.Ed.2d 979 (1987).
11
"The customary deference for the district court is not applicable to its determination to grant a declaratory judgment. The court of appeals must exercise its own sound discretion to determine the propriety of the district court's grant or denial of declaratory relief." United States v. Washington, 759 F.2d 1353, 1356-57 (9th Cir.) (en banc) (citations omitted), cert. denied, 474 U.S. 994, 106 S.Ct. 407, 88 L.Ed.2d 358 (1985); accord Guerra v. Sutton, 783 F.2d 1371, 1376 (9th Cir.1986) (the court reviews the denial of declaratory relief de novo).
III
ANALYSIS
A. Antitrust Claim
12
Pinhas contends on appeal that the district court's dismissal of his antitrust claim based on the state action doctrine must be reversed in light of the Supreme Court's recent decision reversing our decision in Patrick. Patrick v. Burget, 486 U.S. 94, 108 S.Ct. 1658, 100 L.Ed.2d 83 (1988). Appellees contend that the Supreme Court's decision in Patrick does not alter the district court's holding, but that even if the state action doctrine does not apply, Pinhas's amended complaint does not state a viable antitrust claim because Pinhas's claim was not ripe for determination and the complaint fails to demonstrate the required nexus with interstate commerce, plead sufficient facts to establish injury to competition, and adequately plead an antitrust conspiracy.
1. State Action
13
a. Patrick
14
In Patrick we considered whether the state action doctrine protected physicians in Oregon from federal antitrust liability for their involvement with hospital peer-review proceedings. The facts in Patrick are similar to those of this case. The plaintiff, a general and vascular surgeon, was subjected to a review of his staff privileges at a hospital in Astoria, Oregon, whereupon it was recommended that his privileges be terminated. 800 F.2d at 1502. The doctor brought suit in federal court while the hospital's peer-review proceedings were still being conducted, alleging claims under sections 1 and 2 of the Sherman Act. Id. at 1504. He alleged that the members of his former clinic initiated the hospital peer-review proceedings to preclude him from competing against them. Id. at 1502-04. We held that the doctors' conduct in the peer-review proceedings was immune from antitrust scrutiny under the state action doctrine because Oregon had articulated a policy in favor of peer review and actively supervised the peer-review process. 800 F.2d at 1505-07. The Supreme Court reversed our decision, holding that the state action doctrine did not shield the hospital peer-review proceedings from an antitrust challenge. 108 S.Ct. at 1665-66.
15
In considering the state action doctrine, the Court applied the rigorous two-prong test first devised in California Retail Liquor Dealers Ass'n v. Midcal Aluminum, Inc., 445 U.S. 97, 100 S.Ct. 937, 63 L.Ed.2d 233 (1980). Patrick, 108 S.Ct. at 1662-63. Under the Midcal test, " 'the challenged restraint must be "one clearly articulated and affirmatively expressed as state policy," ' " and "the anticompetitive conduct 'must be "actively supervised" by the State itself.' " Id. at 1663 (quoting Midcal, 445 U.S. at 105, 100 S.Ct. at 943). The Court found it unnecessary to consider the "clear articulation" prong of the Midcal test, finding that the second prong was not satisfied. Id.
16
The Court stated that the "active supervision" or second requirement, "mandates that the State exercise ultimate control over the challenged anticompetitive conduct," and "requires that state officials have and exercise power to review particular anticompetitive acts of private parties and disapprove those that fail to accord with state policy." Id. The defendants argued that the state of Oregon actively supervised the peer-review process through (1) the state Health Division; (2) the Board of Medical Examiners (BOME); (3) and the state judicial system. Id. The Court had little difficulty in concluding that neither the Health Division nor the BOME actively supervised the peer-review decisions. Id. at 1663-64. The Health Division had general supervisory powers over such matters as licensing hospitals and the endorsement of health laws. Although the statute authorizes the Health Division to compel a hospital to meet its obligation to establish and review peer-review procedures, the Court concluded that this authority was insufficient because the Health Division had no power to review actual peer-review decisions and overturn a decision that failed to accord with state policy. Id. at 1664. Similarly, the BOME, whose principal function was to regulate the licensing of physicians, also lacked the authority to disapprove individual peer-review decisions. Id.
17
With respect to the state judiciary, the Court declined to decide whether judicial review of private conduct can ever satisfy the active supervision requirement. "This case, however, does not require us to decide the broad question whether judicial review of private conduct ever can constitute active supervision, because judicial review of privilege-termination decisions in Oregon, if such review exists at all, falls far short of satisfying the active supervision requirement." Id. at 1664-65. The Court noted that there was no statute in Oregon, or any holding by a state court, which provided a physician whose privilege had been revoked by a hospital a means of judicial review of private peer-review decisions. Id. at 1665. The Court emphasized that any judicial review that did exist was insufficient to constitute "active supervision," because the review would not involve a review of the merits of a privilege termination decision. Id. (citing Straube v. Emanuel Lutheran Charity Bd., 287 Or. 375, 384, 600 P.2d 381, 386 (1979), cert. denied, 445 U.S. 966, 100 S.Ct. 1657, 64 L.Ed.2d 242 (1980)). The Court thus concluded that no state actor in Oregon actively supervised hospital peer-review decisions and that the state action doctrine was inapplicable. Id.
18
b. Application of Patrick
19
Pinhas does not dispute that the first prong of the Midcal test is satisfied. We therefore limit our analysis to the second prong. Appellees' arguments in support of their contention that California actively supervises the peer-review process mirror those made in Patrick. Appellees contend that the State Department of Health Services (SDHS), California Board of Medical Quality Assurance (BMQA), and the state judiciary all actively supervise the peer-review system.
20
The SDHS has substantively the same role in California as the Oregon State Health Division has in Oregon: the licensure and review of hospital procedures, including procedures for the review of staff decisions.4 Also like the Oregon State Health Division, it has no authority to review privilege decisions and therefore does not actively supervise these procedures.
21
Similarly, the BMQA serves relatively the same role in California as the BOME in Oregon. Its primary function is the regulation and disciplining of physicians. See Cal.Bus. & Prof.Code Secs. 2001-2006 (West Supp.1989). And, as in Oregon, any adverse action taken by a hospital agreement against a member physician must be reported to the BMQA. See Cal.Bus. & Prof.Code Sec. 805 (West Supp.1989). Also like the BOME, the BMQA has no authority to review the outcome of a peer-review proceeding. Although it may not disseminate a report it finds to be without merit, this restriction does not constitute the type of active supervision necessary under Patrick.
22
We join the Supreme Court in avoiding the broad question whether state courts, acting in their judicial capacity, ever can adequately supervise private conduct for purposes of the state action doctrine. See Patrick, 108 S.Ct. at 1664-65. The judicial review that does exist in California does not satisfy the active supervision requirement.
23
Unlike Oregon, California is actively engaged in reviewing peer-review decisions. Such review is created by statute under Cal.Civil Proc.Code Sec. 1094.5 (West Supp.1989) (reviewing quasi-judicial decisions) and Cal.Civ.Proc.Code Sec. 1085 (West 1980) (reviewing quasi-legislative administrative proceedings).5 The plethora of cases cited by appellees demonstrate the willingness of California courts to entertain challenges to the peer-review process. The function of the trial and appellate courts, however, is limited under both types of proceedings.
24
[Under Section 1094.5,] if the decision was substantively rational, lawful, not contrary to established public policy and the proceedings were fair, a court may not substitute a judgment for that of the governing board even if it disagrees with the board's decision. The scope of review in traditional mandamus proceedings [under section 1085] is limited to an examination of the record of the hospital proceedings to determine whether the action taken was substantively irrational, unlawful or contrary to established public policy or procedurally unfair.
25
Hay v. Scripps Memorial Hosp.-La Jolla, 183 Cal.App.3d 753, 758, 228 Cal.Rptr. 413, 417 (1986) (citations omitted). This limited form of review is similar to the standards applied by the Oregon courts that the Supreme Court found insufficient to constitute active supervision. Patrick, 108 S.Ct. at 1665. "Such constricted review does not convert the action of a private party in terminating a physician's privileges into the action of the State for purposes of the state action doctrine." Id.
26
We therefore find that the California judiciary does not actively supervise the peer-review process. Accordingly, the state action doctrine does not protect peer-review proceedings in California from application of the antitrust laws.
2. Reviewability
27
Appellees raise several arguments in support of the contention that we should decline to review the case at this time. The argument that the case is not ripe is frivolous because Pinhas has already been removed from Midway and an "805 Report" has been filed against him. Regardless of the outcome of the writ of mandamus action, Pinhas still has a viable antitrust claim. As is clear from the Supreme Court's decision in Patrick, that the peer-review proceedings were not yet complete when this suit was filed does not bar review of Pinhas's action. See id. 108 S.Ct. at 1661 (stating that case was filed during course of peer-review proceedings).
28
Appellees also appear to contend that Pinhas failed to exhaust his available administrative remedies. Initially, we are not convinced that the requirement of exhaustion of administrative remedies is applicable in this case because an administrative agency is not involved. The peer-review process is conducted by a private entity and is judicially reviewable in the California state courts. The reasons for giving deference to an agency, see e.g., Morrison-Knudsen Co. v. CHG Int'l, Inc., 811 F.2d 1209, 1223 (9th Cir.1987), simply are not applicable here. In any event, where, as here, there is no statutory requirement of exhaustion of administrative remedies, application of the exhaustion doctrine lies within the discretion of the trial court. See id. The district court did not abuse its discretion by entertaining Pinhas's suit.
29
Appellees next argue that the doctrine of primary jurisdiction precludes review of Pinhas's suit while the peer-review proceedings remain ongoing. The primary jurisdiction doctrine "is applicable whenever the enforcement of a claim subject to a specific regulatory scheme requires resolution of issues that are 'within the special competence of an administrative body.' " Farley Transp. Co. v. Santa Fe Trail Transp. Co., 778 F.2d 1365, 1370 (9th Cir.1985) (quoting United States v. Western Pacific R.R., 352 U.S. 59, 64, 77 S.Ct. 161, 165, 1 L.Ed.2d 126 (1956)). Again, we doubt the application of this argument where no agency action is directly involved. Nevertheless, the doctrine does not apply here because the proceedings at the state level, designed to determine whether Pinhas received a fair hearing, will not help clarify and narrow Pinhas's antitrust claims. See 6 J. Von Kalinowski, Antitrust Laws & Trade Regulation Sec. 44A.01[b], at 44A-14 (1989) ("The doctrine of primary jurisdiction will not be invoked if it is clear that the agency's decision will have no bearing on the antitrust issues.").
30
Abstention under Burford v. Sun Oil Co., 319 U.S. 315, 63 S.Ct. 1098, 87 L.Ed. 1424 (1943), is also inappropriate. Burford abstention is appropriate when a federal court is presented with "difficult questions of state law bearing on policy problems of substantial public import 'whose importance transcends the result in the case then at bar.' " Newberry v. Pacific Racing Ass'n, 854 F.2d 1142, 1151 (9th Cir.1988) (quoting Colorado River Water Conserv. Dist. v. United States, 424 U.S. 800, 814, 96 S.Ct. 1236, 1244, 47 L.Ed.2d 483 (1976)). Application of the Sherman Act, in this case, does not involve difficult questions of state law.
31
Finally, appellees rely on Mir v. Little Co., 844 F.2d 646 (9th Cir.1988), for the proposition that the court should abstain under principles of federalism and comity. In Mir, however, we concluded that a doctor's common-law claims against a hospital were precluded under California state law because the doctor had failed to succeed in his action against the hospital for a writ of mandate. Id. at 650-51. The holding in Mir is thus inapposite to Pinhas's claim under the Sherman Act.
3. Nexus with Interstate Commerce
32
Appellees contend that Pinhas's amended complaint fails to establish jurisdiction under the Sherman Act because it does not sufficiently allege "a required nexus with interstate commerce." Appellees' primary contention is that interstate commerce will not be affected by the removal of Pinhas from the hospital staff.6
33
In order to establish jurisdiction under the Sherman Act, a plaintiff must "identify a relevant aspect of interstate commerce and then show 'as a matter of practical economics' that the Hospital's activities have a 'not insubstantial effect on the interstate commerce involved.' " Mitchell v. Frank R. Howard Memorial Hosp., 853 F.2d 762, 764 (9th Cir.1988) (summarizing this circuit's interpretation of McLain v. Real Estate Bd., 444 U.S. 232, 100 S.Ct. 502, 62 L.Ed.2d 441 (1980); quoting Palmer v. Roosevelt Lake Log Owners Ass'n, 651 F.2d 1289, 1291 (9th Cir.1981), cert. denied, --- U.S. ----, 109 S.Ct. 1123, 103 L.Ed.2d 186 (1989)).
34
Appellees do not contest the first consideration--they concede that the hospital is engaged in interstate commerce based on the out-of-state patients served and revenues received by the hospital. See supra note 6. Their argument is directed at the second consideration, the effect on the relevant interstate commerce. Under the second requirement, Pinhas must show that "as a matter of practical economics" the activities of the appellees--the peer review process in general--have a "not insubstantial effect on the interstate commerce involved." McLain, 444 U.S. at 246, 100 S.Ct. at 511. Pinhas need not, as appellees apparently believe, make the more particularized showing of the effect on interstate commerce caused by the alleged conspiracy to keep him from working. Id. at 242-43, 100 S.Ct. at 509-10. He need only prove that peer-review proceedings have an effect on interstate commerce, a fact that can hardly be disputed. The proceedings affect the entire staff at Midway and thus affect the hospital's interstate commerce. Appellees' contention that Pinhas failed to allege a nexus with interstate commerce because the absence of Pinhas's services will not drastically affect the interstate commerce of Midway therefore misses the mark and must be rejected.
4. Injury to Competition
35
Appellees argue that Pinhas's complaint was properly dismissed because it fails to allege an adverse effect on competition; appellees contend that the entire thrust of Pinhas's allegation of antitrust damages in his complaint is that his own private medical practice was injured and that unfair procedures in the administrative hearings will restrict his ability to gain income from a hospital-based practice at Midway.
36
To maintain a successful antitrust action, Pinhas must show that the alleged conspiracy among the appellees did more than injure him; he must prove an injury to the competition in the relevant market. See Brunswick Corp. v. Pueblo Bowl-O-Mat, Inc., 429 U.S. 477, 488, 97 S.Ct. 690, 697, 50 L.Ed.2d 701 (1977); Christofferson Dairy, Inc. v. MMM Sales, Inc., 849 F.2d 1168, 1172 (9th Cir.1988). Although the emphasis in determining whether an injury has occurred is properly on the injury to competition and not to the competitor, see Ralph C. Wilson Indus. v. Chronicle Broadcasting Co., 794 F.2d 1359, 1363 (9th Cir.1986) (quoting Brown Shoe Co. v. United States, 370 U.S. 294, 82 S.Ct. 1502, 8 L.Ed.2d 510 (1962)), "injury to competitors may be probative of harm to competition," Hasbrouck v. Texaco, Inc., 842 F.2d 1034, 1040 (9th Cir.1988) cert. granted, --- U.S. ----, 109 S.Ct. 3154, 104 L.Ed.2d 1018 (1989); accord USA Petroleum Co. v. Atlantic Richfield Co., 859 F.2d 687, 696 (9th Cir.1988) (quoting Hasbrouck ), cert. granted, --- U.S. ----, 109 S.Ct. 2446, 104 L.Ed.2d 1001 (1989).
37
Pinhas alleges in his complaint that the conspiracy was intended to boycott his attempts at providing patients with lower prices as a result of his ability to perform operations at a rate quicker than that of his competitors. Assuming Pinhas's allegation that he provides his services at a rate cheaper than that of his competitors to be true, the preclusion of Pinhas from practicing could conceivably injure competition by allowing other similar doctors to charge higher prices for their services. Or Pinhas may show that his preclusion otherwise substantially reduced total competition in the market. We therefore conclude that Pinhas has adequately pleaded injury to competition.
5. Conspiracy
38
Finally, appellees contend that the amended complaint fails adequately to plead an antitrust conspiracy. Section 1 of the Sherman Act is directed at prohibiting unreasonable restraint of trade effected by a "contract, combination ... or conspiracy" among separate entities. See Copperweld Corp. v. Independence Tube Corp., 467 U.S. 752, 768, 104 S.Ct. 2731, 2740, 81 L.Ed.2d 628 (1984). "The phrase 'contract, combination, or conspiracy' limits application of the Sherman Act to concerted conduct by more than one person or single entity." Oltz v. St. Peter's Community Hosp., 861 F.2d 1440, 1449 (9th Cir.1988).
39
Appellees contend that the dismissal of Weissburg & Aronson, and its principal, Mr. Kadzielski, should be affirmed because they were only acting as agents of Summit Health. An attorney is not immune from antitrust liability if he becomes an active participant in formulating policy decisions with his client to restrain competition. See Tillamook Cheese and Dairy Ass'n v. Tillamook County Creamery Ass'n, 358 F.2d 115, 118 (9th Cir.1966); Brown v. Donco Enter., Inc., 783 F.2d 644, 647 (6th Cir.1986) (per curiam). Pinhas sufficiently alleges in his complaint that Kadzielski, Weissburg & Aronson, and Posell exerted their influence over Summit Health and Midway so as to direct them to engage in the complained of acts for an anticompetitive purpose.
40
Drs. Lurvey, Reader, Macy, Salz and Perlman are members of the medical staff at Midway. Any action taken by a medical staff satisfies the "contract, combination or conspiracy" requirement. Weiss v. York Hosp., 745 F.2d 786, 814-17 (3rd Cir.1984), cert. denied, 470 U.S. 1060, 105 S.Ct. 1777, 84 L.Ed.2d 836 (1985).
41
Appellees apparently argue that Summit Health, as a parent of Midway, cannot "conspire" with Midway, and that Midway cannot "conspire" with the medical staff. See Oltz, 861 F.2d at 1449-50 (recognizing that a hospital and member of its medical staff may under certain circumstances constitute separate entities for purposes of adequately pleading a section 1 conspiracy); but see Weiss, 745 F.2d at 814-815. Pinhas alleges, however, that both entities conspired with Kadzielski, Weissburg & Aronson, and Posell, all outside agents of both Midway and Summit Health. Accordingly, Midway and Summit Health are not properly dismissed.
42
Finally, Feldman and Farber, as employees of Midway and/or Summit Health, cannot "conspire" with their employer corporations. Id. at 1450 (quoting Copperweld, 467 U.S. at 769, 104 S.Ct. at 2740). Again, however, Pinhas's complaint, read in the light most favorable to him, alleges that Feldman and Farber entered into an agreement with the other appellees. We therefore find the "conspiracy" requirement of section 1 of the Sherman Act satisfied as to each of the defendants. For the foregoing reasons, we reverse the dismissal of Pinhas's antitrust claim.
B. Procedural Due Process Claim
43
Pinhas alleges that the peer-review proceedings before the JRC violated his right to due process under the fourteenth amendment. The district court dismissed Pinhas's due process claim concluding that it did not meet the "state action" requirement.
44
The central inquiry in determining whether a private party's actions constitute "state action" under the fourteenth amendment is whether the party's actions may be "fairly attributable to the State". Lugar v. Edmondson Oil Co., 457 U.S. 922, 937, 102 S.Ct. 2744, 2753, 73 L.Ed.2d 482 (1982). To this end, the Court has followed a two-part analysis: "First, the deprivation must be caused by the exercise of some right or privilege created by the State or by a rule of conduct imposed by the State or by a person for whom the State is responsible.... Second, the party charged with the deprivation must be a person who may fairly be said to be a state actor." Id.
45
There is little doubt that the first prong under Lugar has been satisfied. Midway is required under California state law to include in its bylaws a mechanism by which a physician may appeal a hospital's decision to remove him from its staff. See Cal.Admin.Code tit. 22, Sec. 70703(b). Additionally, the SDHS, in reviewing hospitals during the licensing process, looks to determine whether a functional, operating peer-review process is in place. The peer-review process is thus a rule of conduct imposed by the state of California within the meaning of Lugar.
46
Under the second prong in Lugar, Pinhas argues that the actions of those involved in the peer-review process should be construed as that of the state because of the statutorily created system of peer-review, which Pinhas argues, actively seeks to integrate private and public systems of review. State regulation of a private entity, however, is not enough to support a finding of state action. See Jackson v. Metropolitan Edison Co., 419 U.S. 345, 350, 95 S.Ct. 449, 453, 42 L.Ed.2d 477 (1974); Blum v. Yaretsky, 457 U.S. 991, 1004, 102 S.Ct. 2777, 2786, 73 L.Ed.2d 534 (1982). Pinhas must show that "there is a sufficiently close nexus between the State and the challenged action of the regulated entity so that the action of the latter may be fairly treated as that of the State itself." Jackson, 419 U.S. at 351, 95 S.Ct. at 453; see also Blum, 457 U.S. at 1004, 102 S.Ct. at 2786. Additionally, a state may be held responsible for the action of a private party only when it "has exercised coercive power or has provided such significant encouragement, either overt or covert, that the choice must in law be deemed to be that of the State." Id.
47
The challenged action here, the removal of Pinhas's staff privileges at Midway, cannot be attributed to the state of California. Only private actors were responsible for the decision to remove Pinhas. That the decision was made pursuant to a review process that has been approved by the state is of no consequence: the decision ultimately turned on the "judgments made by private parties according to professional standards that are not established by the State." Blum, 457 U.S. at 1008, 102 S.Ct. at 2788. Additionally, the fact that a hospital must forward to the BMQA an "805 report" whenever any adverse action is taken against a doctor is irrelevant in determining whether the state took an active role in removing Pinhas's privileges. See id. at 1009-10, 102 S.Ct. at 2788-89 (penalties imposed for violating regulation requiring nursing home officials to conduct periodic review of type of care necessary for each resident adds nothing to claim of state action). In short, Pinhas has failed to demonstrate that the state exercised coercive power or encouraged his removal in any way.
48
Pinhas also attempts to characterize the appellees as state actors by arguing that the "integration of public and private systems of peer review" meets the "symbiotic relationship" test set forth in Burton v. Wilmington Parking Auth., 365 U.S. 715, 81 S.Ct. 856, 6 L.Ed.2d 45 (1961). Pinhas appears to argue that the state of California acts with those involved in the review proceedings as a "joint participant" in deciding whether a physician has been properly removed.
49
The relationship which exists between the state of California and those involved in the peer-review proceedings is far different than that which existed between the city of Wilmington and the lessee of the restaurant in the public parking garage in Burton. There is no financial relationship between the two, nor is any real property involved. This difference is sufficient to place this case out of the ambit of Burton. See Jackson, 419 U.S. at 357-58, 95 S.Ct. at 456-57 (limiting reach of Burton ); Blum, 457 U.S. at 1010-11, 102 S.Ct. at 2788-89(same).
50
Finally, we note that the Sixth and Seventh Circuits have also determined that a decision by a hospital to terminate or restrict the staff privileges of one of its physicians may not be attributed to the state for purpose of establishing state action under the fourteenth amendment. See Ezpeleta v. Sisters of Mercy Health Corp., 800 F.2d 119, 122-23 (7th Cir.1986); Crowder v. Conlan, 740 F.2d 447, 451 (6th Cir.1984). Because Pinhas's removal was instrumented solely by private parties, state action is absent and his due process claim was properly dismissed.
C. Declaratory Judgment
51
The district court dismissed Pinhas's claim for a declaratory judgment because it was not ripe and the appellees had no interest in the enforcement of either the state or federal regulation and therefore were not the proper parties to defend the statutes.
52
We agree with the district court that the appellees are not the appropriate parties to defend a constitutional challenge to the relevant state and federal statutes. See Jacobson v. Tahoe Regional Planning Agency, 566 F.2d 1353, 1361 (9th Cir.1977) (dismissing claim for declaratory judgment against counties because counties' interest in the ordinance challenged was purely ministerial),7 affirmed in part, reversed in part, 440 U.S. 391, 99 S.Ct. 1171, 59 L.Ed.2d 401 (1979).
IV
CONCLUSION
53
We reverse the dismissal of the antitrust claim and affirm the dismissal of the section 1983 claim and request for declaratory judgment. Each party shall bear its own costs on appeal.
54
AFFIRMED in part, REVERSED in part, and REMANDED.
1
Pinhas does not challenge the dismissal of the section 1985(3) claim on appeal
2
Also named as a defendant was the California Board of Medical Quality Assurance (BMQA). BMQA, however, was dismissed by stipulation
3
Failure to file a report under section 805, or to request one under section 805.1, constitutes a misdemeanor. Cal.Bus. & Prof.Code Secs. 805(e), 805.5(c)
4
Pursuant to its rule-making authority under Cal. Health & Safety Code Sec. 1275, the SDHS has promulgated extensive regulations governing the operation of an acute care facility. See Cal.Admin.Code tit. 22, Sec. 70701 et seq. (1982)
5
California law recognizes two types of mandamus review of the decisions made by hospitals with regard to physician medical staff privileges. Where a physician's medical staff privileges have been denied, suspended or terminated on the ground the physician has not demonstrated an ability to comply with established standards, that administrative decision is classified as "quasi-judicial" and review is by administrative mandamus. However, where the physician has had privileges denied or curtailed because of the implementation of a "policy" of the hospital, the administrative action is classified as "quasi-legislative" and reviewable by traditional mandamus
Hay v. Scripps Memorial Hosp.-La Jolla, 183 Cal.App.3d 753, 758, 228 Cal.Rptr. 413, 417 (1986) (citations omitted).
6
They argue that any medical payments received by the hospital will not be materially affected by Pinhas's removal from the staff at Midway. Appellees contend that "[a]t most, the extent of interstate commerce affected by such a removal, would be the number of out-of-state patients currently served and/or the amount of out-of-state revenues currently received by appellee for services specifically related to eye care and ophthalmic surgery." Appellant's Brief at 25
7
In Jacobson, the plaintiffs requested a declaratory judgment to preclude the enforcement of a land use ordinance enacted by the Tahoe Regional Planning Authority (TRPA). The court dismissed the claim for declaratory judgment against several counties in the Lake Tahoe Basin:
[T]he action against the counties was properly dismissed because the alleged infringement of constitutional rights arises from the action of the TRPA. The Compact limits the involvement of the counties to a sharing of the enforcement power with the cities, the states and the TRPA. Their involvement is purely ministerial, and thus peripheral to the allegations underlying this suit.
Jacobson, 566 F.2d at 1361.
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Beyond Siri: Researchers are bridging human-computer interaction
For most people, using a computer is limited to clicking, typing, searching, and, thanks to Siri and similar software, verbal commands.
Compare that with how humans interact with each other, face to face – smiling, frowning, pointing, tone of voice all lend richness to communication.
With the goal of revolutionizing everyday interactions between humans and computers, Colorado State University researchers are developing new technologies for making computers recognize not just traditional commands, but also non-verbal ones – gestures, body language and facial expressions.
Communicating through gestures
Their project, titled “Communication Through Gestures, Expression and Shared Perception,” is led by Professor of Computer Science Bruce Draper, and is bolstered by a recent $2.1 million grant from the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) under its “Communicating with Computers” funding program.
“Current human-computer interfaces are still severely limited,” said Draper, who is joined on the project by CSU researchers from the computer science and mathematics departments. “First, they provide essentially one-way communication: users tell the computer what to do. This was fine when computers were crude tools, but more and more, computers are becoming our partners and assistants in complex tasks. Communication with computers needs to become a two-way dialogue.”
Packets of gesture info
The team has proposed creating a library of what are called Elementary Composable Ideas (ECIs). Like little packets of information recognizable to computers, each ECI contains information about a gesture or facial expression, derived from human users, as well as a syntactical element that constrains how the information can be read.
To achieve this, the researchers have set up a Microsoft Kinect interface. A human subject sits down at a table with blocks, pictures and other stimuli. The researchers try to communicate with and record the person’s natural gestures for concepts like “stop,” or, “huh?”
“We don’t want to say what gestures you should use,” Draper explained. “We want people to come in and tell us what gestures are natural. Then, we take those gestures and say, ‘OK, if that’s a natural gesture, how do we recognize it in real time, and what are its semantics? What roles does it play in the conversation? When do you use it? When do you not use it?’”
Their goal: making computers smart enough to reliably recognize non-verbal cues from humans in the most natural, intuitive way possible. According to the project proposal, the work could someday allow people to communicate more easily with computers in noisy settings, or when a person is deaf or hard of hearing, or speaks another language.
DARPA basic research
The project, which falls broadly under DARPA’s basic research arm, is focused on enabling people to talk to computers through gestures and expressions in addition to words, not in place of them, the researchers say. |
Q:
Is sexual education in school haram during Ramadan?
Is it haram to watch sex dolls during Ramadan? Is sex ed haram during fasting? In school they teach you about sex ed and this year in year 12 I was fasting but they did a sex education lecture
A:
First of all, if your act is for learning like you are studying some topic or it is necessary for you to study this like you are in college or university where it is going to be taught then it is not invalid.
And if you go to follow the islamic rule in a strict manner then its depend on your strong belief. If your strong belief is that it is invalid action then that is invalid. Never go for that.
Strong belief is a term in islam that means what your inner self says about some thing.
The inner self is believed to tell you the right way always.
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Q:
How to rotate bits to the left and add rotated bits to the right
I'm trying to get my program to work, where I shift bits to the left and add the shifted bits to the right. For example 00111000, if you shift it 4 positions to the left, the outcome should be 10000011. How can I make this work, I know that I need to use the bitwise OR. I have added the main function below.
#include <stdio.h>
#include <stdlib.h>
void printbits(int b){
int i;
int s = 8 * (sizeof b) - 1; /* 31 if int is 32 bits */
for(i=s;i>=0;i--)
putchar( b & 1<<i ? '1' : '0');
}
int main(){
char dir; /* L=left R=right */
int val, n, i;
scanf("%d %d %c",&val, &n, &dir);
printbits(val);putchar('\n');
for (i=0; i<10; i++){
if (dir=='L' || dir =='l')
rotateLeft(&val, n);
else
rotateRight(&val,n);
printbits(val); putchar('\n');
}
return;
}
This is the rotateLeft en rotateRight function.
#include <stdio.h>
#include <stdlib.h>
void rotateLeft(int *val, int N){
int num = val[0];
int pos = N;
int result = num << pos;
}
void rotateRight(int *val, int N){
int num = val[0];
int pos = N;
int result = num >> pos;
}
A:
Here is a tested and non-optimized solution to complete your source code:
void rotateLeft(int *val, int N){
unsigned int num = val[0];
int pos = N;
unsigned int part1 = num << pos;
unsigned int part2 = (num >> ((sizeof(val[0])*CHAR_BIT)-pos));
if (N != 0) {
val[0] = part1 | part2;
}
}
void rotateRight(int *val, int N){
unsigned int num = val[0];
int pos = N;
unsigned int part1 = num >> pos;
unsigned int part2 = (num << ((sizeof(val[0])*CHAR_BIT)-pos));
if (N != 0) {
val[0] = part1 | part2;
}
}
To prevent automatic carry during the shift right, you have to
consider value as unsigned int.
To prevent N = 0 interference, assign the result to the entry only when (N != 0). (See remark on post ROL / ROR on variable using inline assembly in Objective-C)
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4) McCain is now saying some things that are truly frightening. For example, he has said that he will freeze all budgets so that they can be reviewed. At first blush that may sound reasonable, to prevent wild and reckless spending. However, many organizations need an increase in money every year just to stay even, so freezing their budgets will severely impact their ability to work.
Opening up the health insurance market to more vigorous nationwide competition, as we have done over the last decade in banking, would provide more choices of innovative products less burdened by the worst excesses of state-based regulation.
Yes, because that worked so well for the banking industry! Just ask anyone at Fannie Mae, Freddi Mac, or the Lehman Brothers.
Wow.
This part was out of context, as pointed out in the comments below (thanks, Ryan!). I got the original quotation from Paul Klugman of the Washington Post, who is usually good about such things, and missed it myself when reading McCain’s original article. My apologies. Still, the analogy is a funny one.
Insanity: doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results.
Albert Einstein
If A equals success, then the formula is _ A = _ X + _ Y + _ Z. _ X is work. _ Y is play. _ Z is keep your mouth shut. — Albert Einstein
Meh, we’ve been under a continuing resolution for years. And we’ve made great strides! We’re close to being unable to do any science, but we have a great idea for using the building network for a huge WoW melee!
I could deal with #4 if there were a corresponding freeze in tax withholding. But whatcha wanna bet there won’t be?
As far as Fannie and Freddie are concerned, the best thing to do would be to bite the bullet, let them fail, and make the market learn from its own stupid mistakes. Bailing them out is like enabling an addict.
The best thing they could do to health care is open up medical savings accounts. Remove the restrictions for interest, keeping money in, etc. and let people use them for paying insurance premiums in addition to medical costs. That way, businesses could pay into these accounts instead of buying insurance and then people could economize or customize, and wouldn’t have to worry about switching jobs.
“Yes, because that worked so well for the banking industry! Just ask anyone at Fannie Mae, Freddi Mac, or the Lehman Brothers.”
Anyone who thinks that’s open competition is smoking something. You have a government corporation staffed with political idiots and backed up by taxpayers with no oversight. In other words, it’s exactly like the current healthcare sector (currently over half-socialized).
“Anyone who thinks that’s open competition is smoking something. You have a government corporation staffed with political idiots and backed up by taxpayers with no oversight. In other words, it’s exactly like the current healthcare sector (currently over half-socialized).”
Not to mention that FM&FM were created by the government to be a half-nationalized system so that you wouldn’t have the “problems” that the market causes. Then, when they fail, they blame market causes.
You know those Family Circus comics with the ghostly character Not Me who always breaks the lamp? Well, I think there’s one like that for government, only it’s called The Market.
Wow–Ms. Lafsky is even snarkier than the BA! Not much support for her “analysis” in the comments either.
Also, McCain was referring to allowing individuals to be able to purchase health insurance across state lines, in the same way that you can use your ATM card in different states. This kind of de-regulation had nothing to do with the current Wall Street troubles.
the only ones who get to economize and customize are people who will likely never need health insurance. the rest of the populate would BE economized and customized. and then either the state would get stuck with the “uninsurables” again, or we’d just let those people die. i’m thinking the 2nd sounds more capitalist. let’s go with that, shall we?
Also, Fannie Mae wasn’t created to be a business, it was created to be a safety-net. it was then semi-privatized, and Freddie Mac created to prevent screams of “Monopoly!!!”. health care is the same. it’s semi-privatized, where the private insurers get the cream of the crop, and the risky cases are left to the state. that’s the absolutely wrong way to do it. businesses should be all private (both risks and profits), systemic social services on the other should be completely non-profit. it’s this silly mish-mash that creates problems.
Actually, Fannie & Freddy are perfect examples of stifling competition via government inteference. They are government-backed institutions with political cronies (of both parties) getting huge bonuses for sinking the ship.
Their problem was allowing them profit, but nationalizing loss. There was no risk in taking on bad securities, and the mortgage industry was pressured by the feds to make more risky loans.
Knowing nothing about the context of the quote the implication I read from it is that manned space exploration is something that should be left to governments and exploitation of space something private enterprise can do.
“Fannie Mae, the nation’s biggest underwriter of home mortgages, has been under increasing pressure from the Clinton Administration to expand mortgage loans among low and moderate income people….
Fannie Mae is taking on significantly more risk, which may not pose any difficulties during flush economic times. But the government-subsidized corporation may run into trouble in an economic downturn, prompting a government rescue similar to that of the savings and loan industry in the 1980’s.”
The U.S. isn’t exactly in a financial downturn (3.3% annualized growth last quarter, just about exactly the average since the Great Depression), but neither is the economy growing as fast as it was in the late 1990s. This isn’t to say the Clinton administration is solely to blame. It’s politically beneficial to support getting folks in new homes, even those can’t really afford the houses. The Bush administration didn’t do a whole lot to discourage banks from giving out bad loans – which they could have, not by regulation, but by reducing the number of loans purchased by Fannie/Freddie. By subsidizing risk, government agencies are partially responsible for the mess we’re in. Investment banks and individual home buyers are also to blame.
If investors and home buyers had to assume all the risk of purchasing new, expensive homes, then perhaps we wouldn’t be in this mess. Most importantly, de-regulation isn’t to blame for this crisis.
Hmm, I actually liked McCain’s quote in item number 5. Less regulation thereby letting health care compete in a free market. This is called capitalism and it is our system.
Hmm, capitalism would seem to be failing millions of people when it comes to healthcare. The American healthcare system is up to four times more expensive than systems with a variety of single-payer systems, and that massive premium has bought us nothing. From life expectancy to infant mortality, the USA is no better than most other countries and is often worse off.
Taiwan decided that to compete with the rest of the modern world they had to implement such a system, and they did. The Swiss were one of the hold-outs against such a system until they created one over massive protest from conservatives that it would be a disaster for the Swiss economy. Today? Conservatives are in full support of their healthcare system.
In America, hundreds of thousands of people declare bankruptcy each year at least in part because they cannot afford to pay their medical bills. That means that millions of people and their families — wives, husbands, children — are bearing the additional strain of wondering how they are going to pay the next medical bill over and above worries about getting the treatment they need. The collateral damage is immense.
There is no one perfect system, sure, and there is still a lot to complain about with the British healthcare system I grew up with (though most of the scare stories I read in comments about the NHS were either never true–like Rudy “9/11” Giuliani’s remarks about prostate cancer treatment–or haven’t been true for a long while–like millions waiting years for treatment.) But nobody *ever* has to worry about going bankrupt while paying for their life-saving treatment at a time when they may be in fear for their lives, unless they decide to go private themselves, which is always an option. That alone, is a powerful arguement for a better, more affordable system — one that capitalism alone is failing to deliver.
Out of context? Seems to me you’re all missing the bigger context: opening the health insurance market to providers from other states means exactly what Krugramn says, that is completely obliterating a state’s authority to impose obligations on insurance providers. That’s what they did for the credit card business. Delaware and South Dakota have eliminated any limitations on what the credit card companies can do; that means that your state legislature can’t provide you with any protection, since the companeis will incorporate and sue you in those states.
Same for health insurance, the companies will incorporate in the states that have no mandates, will be able to pick up the least risky and most profitable clients, and the companies left in your state will be left with the least profitable clients.
That is the context. There is no trick on Krugman’s part. That’s exactly the problem.
Hmm, capitalism would seem to be failing millions of people when it comes to healthcare. The American healthcare system is up to four times more expensive than systems with a variety of single-payer systems, and that massive premium has bought us nothing. From life expectancy to infant mortality, the USA is no better than most other countries and is often worse off.
But we do not have a capitalist healthcare system. Where do you get that idea? Each state is its own insurance market, which limits competition among insurance companies. Each state has its own mandatory minimum coverage levels, which is why NY and NJ have the most expensive care in the nation – they have huge levels of minimum coverage. The insurance companies love this, and contribute to politicians to keep it that way.
Lawyers bilk the system out of millions (e.g. John Edwards). They love this, and contribute to politicians to keep things this way. The cost is spread to the rest of us with insurance.
Illegal immigrants and other uninsured use emergency rooms for their primary care, which they can’t pay for. The cost is spread to the rest of us with insurance.
Medicare and Medicaid don’t cover the full cost of most of their procedures. But they are so huge, most providers have to deal. The extra cost is spread to the rest of us with insurance.
Health care is entirely too expensive, but we should try actually freeing the market before we go to a nationalized system.
JohnW, I assume from your post that you favour a fully capitalist health insurance system (correct me if I’m wrong). How would that work? It would seem to me that it would leave many people uninsured who are in a high-risk category, or have known medical conditions, because no insurance company would want to touch them. Without any state or federal regulation, these people are completely hung out to dry.
2) Incidentally, you can now vote on what grades the answers from both candidates should get.
Yeesh, Internet grading? That has to be as useless as Internet polling, which is well absolutely useless (what I like about PZ Myers, his crashing of such polls to show how utterly useless and pointless they are).
“Yes, because that worked so well for the banking industry! Just ask anyone at Fannie Mae, Freddi Mac, or the Lehman Brothers.”
Honestly Phil, will you cut this tired crap out? Is your only ability here to give Argument by Analogy? Government is just as inept as its private-market counterparts. Sometimes even more so. How big is that national debt again? And how’s social security faring? Christ, just look at the government’s completely inept response to our current situation. _Both_ sides are filled with self-serving incompetent boobs.
It’s trivial to point out cases where more government had (or is going to have) a catastrophic outcome. Or less government had the same. Mind actually posting a real argument for once?
RE: remarks about health care, current shortfalls such as entire groups that are excluded from medical insurance coverage, etc.
COMMENT: Yes that’s a problem….but changing to something else involves a different set of trade-offs that do not necessarily better in a “better” result (and what constitutes “better” is very subjective, based on one’s individual values). One familiar example of the result of government intervention is Canada’s system — which is so good that it has spawned a unique profession: Medical Brokers that help those in urgent need get the care “sooner” from other countries. An insidious outcome from the “compassionate” “free” “single-payer [government]” system is that those needing urgent (but not necessarily immediate) health care are left to wait long enough to, literally, die…unless they resort to Medical Brokers. For an example see: http://www.freemarketcure.com/brainsurgery.php
No government has proven to be qualified to meet a spectrum of its citizen’s basic needs EVER when evaluated over a sustained long-term perspective. Why anyone thinks a current politician’s promises will result in anything different, this time, is another example of ‘doing the same thing over & over & expecting a different result’ — insanity.
PHIL — the link to “Ken” (another Ken) to his suggestion to stick to what you know, astronomy, instead of political blogging leads to a JREF challenge to someone on a topic unrelated to the subject here (it seems) — perhaps that link needs some adjustment? Presumably it was to lead to some early input that essentially says this was your blog & you’d write about whatever you want, and negotiated similar flexible terms with Discover??
@Mark P says:Actually, Fannie & Freddy are perfect examples of stifling competition via government inteference. They are government-backed institutions with political cronies (of both parties) getting huge bonuses for sinking the ship.
Their problem was allowing them profit, but nationalizing loss. There was no risk in taking on bad securities, and the mortgage industry was pressured by the feds to make more risky loans.
Too much government spoiled the sauce.
Yeah, aren’t you glad we will be shelling out big dollars for their golden parachutes? The government should just let them fall and sell off any assets, there is no good reason to prop up bad businesses.
JohnW, I assume from your post that you favour a fully capitalist health insurance system (correct me if I’m wrong). How would that work? It would seem to me that it would leave many people uninsured who are in a high-risk category, or have known medical conditions, because no insurance company would want to touch them. Without any state or federal regulation, these people are completely hung out to dry.
Not fully capitalist, just much more free market than it currently is. My hope is that the increased competition, a cap on malpractice awards, and reducing illegal immigration would bring the cost down significantly, making it more affordable for your average Joe.
As for people with prior conditions, you are right. I’m not sure how to handle that sticky wicket!
Stephen: First, chill out. I do not take kindly to your tone here. Read my comments policy, linked in the blogroll on the right.
Second, your argument itself is wrong. Social Security is doing fine. It’ll be decades before we have any real problem with it, if at all, and all this nonsense about privatizing it is a solution inn search of a problem… and a bad solution at that.
Of course the gov’t screw things up, but it also gets things right. We have seen over and again that the market as it stands is not a free one. The “Invisible Hand” is being guided by a few interests, and is not free ot do whatever is best for the consumer. Adam Smith was naive that way. We need some regulation of corporations, else we get disasters like Enron. This isn’t argument by analogy, it’s argument by example. We have evidence that this is true.
Re: Free market health care. One of the feelings I get from people who dismiss a “free market” health care system is that they have never, ever even bothered to look up the ideas, or they see the article is on a site opposing their precious, precious ideological p*ssing ground, and don’t even consider the ideas. It’s like the anti-nuclear power folks who trot out arguments that are 30 to 50 years out of date.
You hear things like “well, I assume such a system would [INSERT WORST CASE SCENARIO HERE]”
Read up on stuff, folks. Don’t just assume ideas across your ideological boundaries are all nonsense.
I also recommend the classic book “The Road to Serfdom” by F. A. Hayek
Also, read some history. Humanity’s past is a sad mess of aristocracy and serfs, of zero social mobility, of religious hegemony, of bowing and scraping to bloodlines. It was the emergence of the proto-free market ideas during the early Modern era that began to change all that until now, when two university students can turn a research project into a multibillion dollar company (Google) that pays lots of taxes.
I also think some people either forget, or truly do not understand where taxes come from.
QD, that whole ideology thing is getting old. And apart from some trolls, nobody here questions the merits of relatively unimpeded trade, so you can stop that too. Instead, why don’t you neatly summarize the argument, rather than linking to large documents and books.
The last I heard, Social Security is not fine. Obama wants to raise payroll taxes to keep it solvent. People in congress have talked about raising the minimum age again. The only privatization I have heard of is giving people the option to have a portion of their entitlement invested in the market – if they want to. Maybe I missed something else.
On another topic, Phil makes a point of McCains camp not answering Wireds question about who their campaign advisors are. Am I susposed to think something underhanded is going on? After reading the Wired article and then looking at the older links on their page, I’d ignore Wired magazine, too, because of the untrue, smear stories on their site.
Blog posts like this one do seem to lack real critical thinking. Things are just accepted (like news stories from papers that have recently demonstrated their lack of reporting skills) and lampooning/innuendo is chosen over real analysis.
I’m too lazy to read up and formalize my own opinion. Can’t you tell me what to think? 😉
Actually, here’s my opinion: Be responsible. Health care is your own personal responsibility. If you can afford a cellphone, cable, internet and a car, you can afford health insurance. I’d say that 90% of the population will not need major healthcare until we are well into retirement, and by then we should have had plenty of time to prepare for the medical costs.
It is illogical to think that if we nationalize health care then we would be able to treat every person for every illness. It is not economically possible. Cancer, heart disease and strokes are still the leading causes of death in the US. Accidents are #5, after lower respiratory diseases, according to the National Center for Health Statistics. Treatments for the these are super expensive, but the fact is eventually everyone will suffer from some form of life-threatening or life-taking illness. It is not physically or financially possible to save everyone from every illness.
If there is a 7% chance I will someday get some form of cancer, then there is a 93% chance I won’t. Why should I expect you to pay for my major medical expenses, and why should I pay for yours? That is why I have insurance, and lead a (relatively) safe life.
Phil Plait: “Of course the gov’t screw things up, but it also gets things right. We have seen over and again that the market as it stands is not a free one. The “Invisible Hand” is being guided by a few interests, and is not free ot do whatever is best for the consumer. Adam Smith was naive that way. We need some regulation of corporations, else we get disasters like Enron. This isn’t argument by analogy, it’s argument by example. We have evidence that this is true.”
Those few interests are in government in many cases and you seem to think more of those few interests should be. How can you assume that politicians and unelected bureaucrats have the interest of the consumers in mind? There are already plenty of laws against things like cheating and stealing.
I wish more people would realize that corporatism is a government policy, and wouldn’t exist without government intervention. People need to read up about the corporatism that led to the Enron scandal and stop blaming the free market for something that was caused by government intervention. |
NewYork-Presbyterian Hudson Valley Hospital is a fully accredited general, voluntary, not-for-profit 128-bed Hospital serving the community with high quality health care through our team of more than 450 physicians and 1,300 employees. |
Une histoire de jalousie. C’est ce qui aurait conduit à un véritable drame ce jeudi 7 mars, à Saint-Saëns en Seine-Maritime. Un policier d’une quarantaine d’années s’en serait pris à sa compagne en lui jetant de l’acide au visage, rapporte Paris Normandie. L’homme se serait ensuite donné la mort, en se tirant une balle dans la tête avec son arme de service. La femme, âgée de 45 ans, aurait été héliportée au service de grands brûlés à Percy (région parisienne), précise France Bleu.
Au moment du drame, les deux enfants du couple, âgés de 12 et 15, ans étaient à l’école. Une enquête a été ouverte.
Une affaire qui intervient la veille de la journée des droits des femmes et quelques jours après le meurtre d’une mère de deux garçons de 8 et 10 ans, en Corse, par son ex-compagnon. Pourtant, la Corse de 34 ans, avait plusieurs fois porté plainte contre son ex-compagnon pour « menaces de mort ». |
Q:
Distribution of Integral involving wiener process
Given $W(t)$ as a standard Wiener process, i.e. $W(t) \sim \mathcal{N}(0,t)$.
Prove the following statement:
$$\int_{0}^{1}tW(t)dt \sim \mathcal{N}(0,\frac{2}{15})$$
A:
The following proof is very unelegant/non-clever/direct/bruteforce, but it works nonetheless:
Define $X:= \int_0^1 tW_t dt$. For each $n \in \mathbb{N}$, define $$X_n=\frac{1}{n} \sum_{k=1}^n \frac{k}{n}\; W_{\frac{k}{n}}$$ Notice that $X_n$ is just the Riemann sum for $\int_0^1 tW_t dt$ with respect to the partition $(\frac{0}{n},\frac{1}{n}, \frac{2}{n},...,\frac{n}{n})$. Since $(W_t)$ is a.s. continuous, we know that $X_n \to X$ a.s.
Now, there is a theorem which states that if $X_n$ is a collection of normally distributed random variables with mean $\mu_n$ and variance $\sigma_n^2$, and if $\mu_n \to \mu$ and $\sigma_n^2 \to \sigma^2$, and $X_n \to X$ a.s, then $X$ is normally distributed with mean $\mu$ and variance $\sigma^2$.
Now, it is clear that the $X_n$ are normally distributed with mean $0$, so all we need to do is to prove that their variances converge to $\frac{2}{15}$. For this, notice that
$var(X_n) = var \bigg(\frac{1}{n} \sum_{k=1}^n \frac{k}{n}\; W_{\frac{k}{n}}\bigg)$
$=\frac{1}{n^4}var\bigg(\sum_{k=1}^n k\; W_{\frac{k}{n}}\bigg)$
$=\frac{1}{n^4} \bigg(\sum_{k=1}^nvar\big(k\;W_{\frac{k}{n}}\big)+2\sum_{ i<j} cov\big(i\;W_{\frac{i}{n}},j\;W_{\frac{j}{n}}\big)\bigg)$
$=\frac{1}{n^4} \bigg(\sum_{k=1}^n\frac{k^3}{n}+2\sum_{ i<j} \frac{i^2j}{n}\bigg)$
$=\frac{1}{n^5} \bigg(\sum_{k=1}^nk^3+2\sum_{ j=2}^n \sum_{i=1}^{j-1} i^2j\bigg)$
$=\frac{1}{n^5} \bigg(\frac{1}{4}n^2(n+1)^2+\frac{1}{60}n(n^2-1)(8n^2+5n-2)\bigg)$
Now, as $n$ gets large, this last expression approaches $\frac{1}{60}\cdot 8=\frac{2}{15}$, which completes the proof.
(Note: Another, less direct way to compute those complicated summations is to associate them to Riemann sums of functions we know about.)
|
Ethnic differences in relative risk of idiopathic calcium nephrolithiasis in North America.
Data on susceptibility to kidney stone disease are sparse in individuals of nonEuropean ancestry residing in North America. We determined the relative risk of calcium nephrolithiasis among people of different ethnic backgrounds living in the same geographic region. Using a cross-sectional design 1,128 consecutive patients with idiopathic calcium nephrolithiasis 18 to 50 years old were recruited from a population based Kidney Stone Center in Toronto. Age and gender adjusted odds ratios and 95% confidence intervals were calculated by logistic regression using the 2001 Canada Census population data. Compared to Europeans the relative risk of calcium nephrolithiasis was significantly higher in individuals of Arabic (OR 3.8, 2.7-5.2), West Indian (OR 2.5, 1.8-3.4), West Asian (OR 2.4, 1.7-3.4) and Latin American (OR 1.7, 1.2-2.4) origin, and significantly lower in those of East Asian (OR 0.4, 0.3-0.5) and African (OR 0.7, 0.5-0.9) background. Several ethnic groups had kidney stone risk factors that were significantly different from those of the European group including higher urinary uric acid, urea excretion and estimated protein intake, and lower urinary citrate, potassium, magnesium and phosphate excretion. However, none was consistent with the variation in relative risk of stone disease overall. The propensity for the development of calcium nephrolithiasis differed markedly among ethnic groups in North America. While environmental factors could not be completely ruled out, this variability may reflect the influence of genetic susceptibility because there was no dominant environmental factor to account for the differences in relative risk of stone disease. |
Switched mode power supplies can be used to create a direct current (DC) voltage from an alternating current (AC) voltage by switching current through an energy storage element such as a transformer. The duty cycle of the switching is controlled to regulate the output voltage to a desired level. Switched mode power supplies are generally efficient at heavier loads but less efficient at lighter loads. Two popular types of isolated switched mode power supplies are forward mode and flyback mode converters.
Flyback converters are common in AC voltage to DC voltage applications. A flyback converter is based on a flyback transformer that alternately builds up flux in the magnetic core and transfers energy to the output. When current is switched through the primary winding, the primary current in the transformer increases, storing energy within the transformer. When the switch is opened, the primary current in the transformer drops, inducing a voltage on the secondary winding. The secondary winding supplies current into the load. A controller varies the on- and off-times of a primary switch in series with the primary winding to regulate the output voltage to a desired level.
Flyback converters can be configured to switch additional reactive elements in parallel to the primary winding using a topology known as active clamp flyback (ACF). ACF converters can reduce electric stress on components and improve efficiency by achieving close to zero volt switching (ZVS) of the primary switch and to produce clean drain waveforms without any ringing. They also allow soft increase in secondary current. However while ACF converters have high efficiency at medium and heavy loads, their efficiency decreases at lighter loads due to continuous conduction losses from magnetizing current that continuously circulates on the primary side of the transformer due to the additional reactive elements. Moreover, ACF converters are not suitable for other techniques that improve efficiency at light loads such as cycle skipping and frequency foldback.
In flyback converters, it may be advantageous in certain applications to increase the frequency of operation to 1 megahertz (MHz) and beyond. When the frequency of operation is increased, the primary magnetizing inductance and the output capacitance may be reduced. However there is a tradeoff between size reduction and increased frequency on the one hand and low standby power on the other. Converters consume less standby power if switching losses are reduced when operating at light loads or no load. Recently, certain regulatory agencies have set strict standards for efficiency and have encouraged the development of power supply controllers that are capable of both high frequency and low frequency operation to operate at low frequencies at light loads and no load. Thus the frequency change from no load to full load may vary widely based on the chosen frequency of operation. In addition, users may want to start or stop the frequency foldback under various load conditions in different applications. Known converters, however, are dedicated to certain operating conditions and are unable to satisfy these requirements at the same time.
The use of the same reference symbols in different drawings indicates similar or identical items. Unless otherwise noted, the word “coupled” and its associated verb forms include both direct connection and indirect electrical connection by means known in the art, and unless otherwise noted any description of direct connection implies alternate embodiments using suitable forms of indirect electrical connection as well. |
Alpinetin Inhibits Oral Squamous Cell Carcinoma Proliferation via miR-211-5p Upregulation and Notch Pathway Deactivation.
Background: The effect of alpinetin (ALP) on miR-211-5p level and function in oral squamous cell carcinoma (OSCC) remains unclear. Materials and methods: Human OSCC cell lines (CAL-27 and TCA-8113) and a mouse xenograft model with subcutaneously injected TCA-8113 cells were used. Effect of ALP treatment on cell viability, cell cycle distributions, and p-p53, p21, c-PARP, cyclin D1, NICD, HES1, and miR-211-5p expression levels was analyzed. Influence of ALP on tumor volume and weight was determined. Results: ALP treatment (at doses 400 and 500 µM) significantly decreased the viability of CAL-27 and TCA-8113 cells (P < 0.05). It upregulated the number of cells in G1 phase and miR-211-5p expression, increased p-p53, p21, and c-PARP levels, and decreased cyclin D1 levels. Furthermore, miR-211-5p mimic treatment increased the number of cells in G1 phase, and p53, p21, and c-PARP levels, and decreased cyclin D1 levels. Contrasting effects were observed under anti-miR-211-5p treatment. ALP downregulated NICD and HES1, whereas anti-miR-211-5p increased NICD and HES1 expression. ALP effects were alleviated in both cell lines under Jagged-1 overexpression plasmid treatment. Finally, ALP inhibited tumor growth and increased miR-211-5p expression in vivo. Conclusion: ALP-induced miR-211-5p upregulation and Notch pathway deactivation may be involved in its anti-proliferative effects in OSCC. |
We now offer to fly to Carstensz Pyramid BC by helicopter!
Carstensz Pyramid (sometimes called Puncak Jaya) is a mountain in the Sudirman Range, the western part of the central highlands of Papua province, Indonesia. With an of altitude 4,884 metres above sea level, Carstensz Pyramid is the highest mountain in Indonesia, the highest on the island of New Guinea, the highest of Oceania (Australia).
Carstens Pyramid is probably technically the most difficult climb of all "7 Summits”. However, it is perfectly doable for real mountain climbers with at least basic rock climbing skills. The standard route is nearly straight up through the north face and then continues along the summit ridge, which is all hard rock surface.
The sharp limestone rocks offer pleasant climbing at nearly 4900m/16k feet altitude near the equator! The most difficult places are equipped with fixed ropes and the largest 'gap' in the summit ridge is crossed using the famous Tyrolean Traverse.
Despite the nearby large goldmine, the area is highly inaccessible to climbers and the general public, requiring a helicopter flight to Basecamp or alternatively (when it is safe) a 100-km hike, which usually takes about four or five days each way.
The island also offers a rare opportunity to visit the Stone Age, as the traditional way of life for most inhabitants of the island hasn't changed much over the past millennia.
Good advice
If you want to take part in one of our Carstensz Pyramid expeditions, please send us an e-mail with:
Your brief mountaineering resume covering the last 10-20 years
A digital photo.
Any questions you might have.
If you are sure you want to join a climb, please send us the following information:
a confirmation by email or phone
date of birth
Citizenship
passport number, its date of issue and expiration
phone number
advance or full payment (your spot and price are not fixed until we receive at least the advance payment)
Due to special permit rules, we need a passport photo (digital) with a RED-coloured background. If this is not possible, you can send us any other passport photo with a grey or white background and we will photoshop it red for you. |
Depression is a syndrome characterized by significant and lasting low mood, which mainly manifests as affective disorder. The symptoms include low mood, less speech, slow mentality and motion, and even suicide attempt. Depression, as a chronic mental disease, has become a fiendish problem which bothers the medical health service in China, due to long treatment course, slow effect onset and higher rate of relapse, disability and suicide. According to “World Health Reports” announced by World Health Organization (WHO), depression has become the fourth largest disease in the world, and depression might become the second largest illness after heart disease in 2020, and thus become a serious problem to human health.
So far, the action mechanism of antidepressant has not been clearly demonstrated. Drugs having definite effect substantially act on synapses of the nerve ending, and exert their curative effects by adjusting the level of neurotransmitters in synaptic cleft. The biochemistry study on etiology indicated that depression relates mainly to five types of neurotransmitters, i.e., central 5-hydroxytryptamine (5-HT), noradrenaline (NA), dopamine (DA), acetylcholine (Ach), and γ-aminobutyric acid (GABA).
Antidepressant can be divided into two categories: early non-selective antidepressants and novel selective reuptake inhibitors. Non-selective antidepressants mainly include monoamine oxidase inhibitors (MAOIs) and tricyclic antidepressants (TCAs); selective reuptake inhibitors mainly comprise selective 5-hydroxytryptamine (5-HT) reuptake inhibitors (SSRIs), noradrenaline (NA) reuptake inhibitors (NRIs), noradrenergic and specific 5-HT reuptake inhibitors (NDRIs), 5-HT and NA dual reuptake inhibitors (SNRIs), 5-HT re-absorption enhancers, and the like.
Early monoamine oxidase inhibitors and tricyclic antidepressants have serious adverse reactions; as for the subsequent selective NA reuptake inhibitors and selective 5-HT reuptake inhibitors, although they have less adverse reactions, disadvantages such as slow onset, indefinite efficacy and the like, still exist. Therefore, the effects of all kinds of drugs above in treating depression are not satisfactory. So far, the existing antidepressants still can not meet the demand of clinical treatment.
Venlafaxine, the first 5-HT and NA dual reuptake inhibitor marketed in American in 1997, and dutoxetine marketed in 2004 have advantages of rapid onset of action, compared with selective 5-hydroxytryptamine reuptake inhibitors such as fluoxetine, and noradrenaline reuptake inhibitors such as reboxetine, and have significant effects on both serious depression and refractory depression. From venlafaxine on, development on the novel antidepressants that have 5-HT and NA dual action routes, faster onset, fewer side effects and stronger effect, becomes the research emphasis and an important development direction.
At present, many studies indicate that the addition of DA reuptake inhibitors in dual reuptake inhibitors can obtain better antidepression effect. 5-HT, NA and DA triple selective reuptake inhibitors (also known as “broad-spectrum” antidepressants), developed based on dual reuptake inhibitors, are now still in clinical research phase. For example, triple selective reuptake inhibitor DOV-216303 developed by DOV Pharmaceutical Inc. is in phase III clinical trial; NS-2359 developed jointly by GlaxoSmithKline and NeuroSearch Inc. is now in phase II clinical trial of antidepressant. These monoamine transmitter triple selective reuptake inhibitors possess advantages of high effectiveness and fast onset and are becoming hot points in the antidepressants development.
The applicant has disclosed aryl alkanol piperazine derivatives and their use in preparation of antidepressants in Chinese patent ZL02111934.1. A preferred compound therein, N1-benzyl-N4-[1-methyl-2-(5′-chloro-6′-methoxyl-2′-naphthyl) hydroxyethyl]piperazine (IV-19, SIPIyy24, see formula A below), has a dual inhibition effect on the reuptake of 5-HT and NA, and has a strong antidepression biologic activity on animals. But a further research finds that the antidepression effect thereof is still not so satisfactory and adverse reaction thereof is obvious.
Subsequently, the applicant disclosed the optical isomers of compound SIPIyy24 and the use thereof in Chinese patent ZL 200510030354.1. Study shows that the (1S,2R) optical isomer of SIPIyy24 (code SIPI5286) has an inhibition effect on the reuptake of the three kinds of monamine transmitters, i.e. 5-HT, NA and DA. It is a novel triple reuptake inhibitor, and has better antidepression activity and safety than that of the racemate, and is worthy of being a novel antidepressant. However, it is found through further studies that, the half life of SIPI5286 is too short, and thus not suitable to be formulated into a medicament. |
[Unit]
Description=Kubernetes Scheduler Plugin
Documentation=https://github.com/kubernetes/kubernetes
After=kube-apiserver.service
Requires=kube-apiserver.service
[Service]
EnvironmentFile=-/etc/kubernetes/kube-scheduler.conf
User=kube
ExecStart=/usr/bin/kube-scheduler $KUBE_SCHEDULER_ARGS
Restart=on-failure
LimitNOFILE=65536
[Install]
WantedBy=multi-user.target |
Q:
QT's fromTime_t from QDateTime doesn't work
I tried using QDateTime's fromTime_t as follows:
QDateTime t;
time_t elapsedTime;
t.fromTime_t(elapsedTime);
The result is that nothing is assigned to the QDateTime object.
However, using the function setTime_t does work (this one isn't static).
Is something going on here I'm missing?
A:
fromTime_t is static and returns a QDateTime, so you have to use it like this:
time_t elapsedTime;
QDateTime t(QDateTime::fromTime_t(elapsedTime));
or you can do
time_t elapsedTime;
QDateTime t;
t.setTime_t(elapsedTime);
|
Tag Archives: blue bay mauritius hotels
Villa Sarabel is a large and spacious villa located a five minute walk from the blue lagoon of the Blue Bay intMarine Park. The villa itself is over six thousand square feet, contains four bedrooms, three bathrooms, three living rooms, a large kitchen, a party room, and a conference room. Villa Sarabel comes with many amenities such as a four car garage, a private swimming pool, colonial style veranda, several private air conditioning units, nice balconies, and breathtaking views of the wide open fields and gorgeous mountains such as Lion Mountain.
Villa Sarabel have recently realized that their unique home of Blue Bay is very unknown to most people. Since the villa is located only a few minutes away from this natural beauty, the Villa has decided to promote the beach so that people from around the world can begin to enjoy this unique place on the island of Mauritius.
Blue Bay is currently the only marine park on the island and is currently a natural reserve due to it’s high levels of unique marine life. Blue Bay is not heavily polluted by development, unlike most of Mauritius. The beaches have a peaceful atmosphere on most days, with no crowds, relaxed waves, and virtually no dangers. The beach also boasts a large natural coral reef and the famous island of Ile aux Deux Cocos. Blue Bay is the ideal place for diving, swimming, and relaxing.
In 203 Villa Sarabel created a Facebook page for Blue Bay Mauritius and since then, the page has received over 13,000 likes and maintains a 4.6 star rating. The page encourages people to show and share their love of Blue Bay beach with one another. Villa Sarabel is now encouraging small business and individuals to join them in promoting Blue Bay to the world. They believe that Blue Bay deserves international attention specially due to its clam waters and are confident that people will enjoy all that the area has to offer.
For more information about Villa Sarabel, visit their website directly here and check the page Blue Bay, Mauritius by visiting and liking the Facebook page.
Villa Sarabel has enough space to accommodate a party of at least 50 people. The villa is equipped with a 4 cars garage, a huge 2 huge living rooms and 4 bedrooms and one big sun room. Just come and check our awesome villa. |
Comparison of humerus length with femur length in fetuses with Down syndrome.
A recent report by FitzSimmons et al. demonstrated a greater frequency of upper- versus lower-extremity shortening in autopsies of second-trimester fetuses with trisomy 21. We undertook this study to determine whether this upper-limb shortening could be detected by prenatal ultrasonography in the second trimester and therefore identify fetuses at risk for trisomy 21. A retrospective review of all prenatal sonograms preceding genetic amniocentesis was conducted. Between 1987 and 1990 11 consecutive fetuses between 15 and 22 weeks' gestation with trisomy 21 were identified by genetic amniocentesis. Femur and humerus lengths were plotted on growth curves created from 1470 normal patients between 12 and 26 weeks. Gestational age was confirmed by last menstrual period and biparietal diameter. In fetuses with trisomy 21, seven of 11 humeri were less than 5th percentile, for a sensitivity of 64%, whereas only two of 11 femurs were less than 5th percentile, for a sensitivity of 18%. Biparietal diameter/femur length and biparietal diameter/humerus length ratios were also tested to predict Down syndrome. In only 2 of 11 cases was the biparietal diameter/femur length ratio greater than 95th percentile, whereas the biparietal diameter/humerus length ratio was greater than 95th percentile in 7 of 11. Since all seven were identified by shortened humerus alone, we conclude that humerus length versus gestational age is the simplest and most effective screen. The positive predictive value of an abnormally short humerus length in detecting Down syndrome was 6.8% in our population where the prevalence of Down syndrome was 1 of 173. The present study supports the observations of FitzSimmons et al. that shortened humerus length has a greater sensitivity than femur length in cases of trisomy 21. We conclude that in fetuses at risk for trisomy 21 humerus length should be determined, because it may, if shortened, aid in the prenatal diagnosis. |
Duke has picked up three commitments from the Class of 2013 in short order and this weekend the Blue Devils will play host to a prospect that was in Durham earlier this year. Is there a chance another commitment could be coming?
Devils Illustrated briefly spoke with Jake Kite, a 6-foot-1, 180-pound safety from Roanoke (Va.) Hidden Valley, and it turns out that he will be visiting Duke this weekend. |
Q:
How to log multiline entries with monolog like a formatted array?
I am trying to log an array with monolog in symfony.
$logger = $this->get('logger');
$logger->info(=print_R($user,true));
the output i get is not formatted as a print_r would be expected. It logs it all on one line.
I do not have any monolog settings in my config.yml and suspect this may be the issue.
How can I log a print_r(array) using monolog so it displays formatted in a tail -f?
A:
Monolog uses Monolog\Formatter\LineFormatter by default without any arguments. Formatter is basically object that is responsible for final output in your logs. Look at constructor definition:
public function __construct($format = null, $dateFormat = null, $allowInlineLineBreaks = false, $ignoreEmptyContextAndExtra = false)
As you can see LineFormatter creates one line from your print_r output because of third argument. You need to define new service with custom arguments for LineFormatter.
# app/config/services.yml - for example
services:
monolog.my_line_formatter: # Your name
class: Monolog\Formatter\LineFormatter
arguments: [~, ~, true]
Now find your monolog definition and use formatter for what you need.
# Example from default config_dev.yml
monolog:
handlers:
main:
type: stream
path: "%kernel.logs_dir%/%kernel.environment%.log"
level: debug
formatter: monolog.my_line_formatter
|
Charles Darwin (left) rushed to publish On the Origin of Species after receiving a manuscript detailing similar ideas by Alfred Russel Wallace (right).Credit: Bettmann/Getty (LEFT) and London Stereoscopic Company/Getty (RIGHT)
Being scooped to a discovery is a scientist’s worst nightmare. But the penalties for coming second aren’t as harsh as some might think.
Scooped papers receive only about one-quarter fewer citations than do papers that were the first to report the same discovery, according to an analysis of more than 1,600 ‘races’ to determine the detailed 3D shape, or structure, of proteins and other biomolecules.
Close but no Nobel: the scientists who never won
“You get a meaningful advantage for being first, but being scooped may not be as devastating as people seem to fear,” says Carolyn Stein, an economist at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) in Cambridge who conducted the study with her MIT colleague Ryan Hill, also an economist. Their results are described in a working paper posted to the MIT website last month.
Social scientists say that the research breaks new ground because it is able to identify and track scooped studies, including some that were never published — although they caution that the findings might not be generalizable to other fields. “This is the first study I’m aware of that has been able to observe unpublished papers,” says Michaël Bikard, an innovations researcher at the French campus of global business school INSEAD in Fontainebleau. “This is important stuff. It really helps push the field forward.”
The history of science is rife with competition. Charles Darwin rushed out his On the Origin of Species after receiving a manuscript detailing similar ideas from Alfred Russel Wallace; Isaac Newton, Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz and their supporters feuded over who invented calculus; and patent attorneys representing the University of California, Berkeley, and the Broad Institute in Cambridge, Massachusetts, are still fighting over who deserves the credit — and the financial rewards — for developing the gene-editing tool CRISPR.
Despite the prominence of such rivalries, scholars of science know little about how credit is actually apportioned for competing discoveries. Theoretical models analysing patent races, for instance, have often assumed that, to the victor go all the spoils. In the real world, though, credit for scientific discoveries is unlikely to be winner-takes-all, say researchers.
Protein probe
One problem with studying scooped projects is that some scientists abandon a research effort after someone else has beaten them to it, says Hill, a PhD student who was partly inspired to do the study after being scooped to a project in the early years of his graduate work. Alternatively, researchers modify the project in such a way that it is impossible to compare its eventual results with those of the paper that scooped it.
Bibliometrics: Is your most cited work your best?
In search of an ‘apples-with-apples’ comparison of competing projects, Hill and Stein used the Protein Data Bank (PDB), a repository of more than 150,000 structures of proteins and other biomolecules. These structures are key to understanding how proteins work, as well as how their function might be altered by drugs. Crucially for the study, scientists tend to submit structures to the PDB — under embargo — months before a paper describing the work is published in a journal (and the embargo on the PDB structure is lifted). This approach allowed the researchers to follow 1,630 ‘races’ in which competing teams submitted to the PDB structures of the same, or closely similar, molecules between 1999 and 2017.
The cost of being scooped was moderate. Structures released second were only 2.5% less likely ever to be published, although they tended to appear in less prestigious journals (as measured by impact factor), than structures published first. Hill and Stein estimate that, as a share of 100 citations, the first paper would receive 58 and the second paper 42.
But when questioned about the effects of being scooped, scientists were much more pessimistic than those data show, according to Hill and Stein’s survey of 915 structural biologists. The scientists vastly overestimated the odds of being beaten to a discovery, and predicted that, out of 100 citations, a scooped paper would receive just 29.
The top 100 papers
But not all scientists were penalized equally for coming second, the study found. When research teams at leading universities and departments — as measured by a universities ranking table — were beaten by a team at a lower-profile institution, the second-place team got slightly more citations. And the teams at top institutions accrued an even larger share of citations when they did the scooping.
“I was blown away by this result — the fact that ‘low status’ people still get less credit than the ‘high status’ people they scoop,” says Bikard.
The study raises questions about other such factors that influence the credit that scooped papers get, Bikard adds. He expects that, the closer in time two papers are published, the more equally credit is divided. He also notes that the paper doesn’t take into account projects that are abandoned and no structure deposited in the PDB, as a result of being scooped.
Race for recognition
Paula Stephan, an economist at Georgia State University in Atlanta, says the study is the first she knows of that actually measured the penalty for being scooped. “We have known for many years that science is not a winner-takes-all ‘game’. This piece of research confirms this.” But she cautions against generalizing the study to other fields. Only well-funded laboratories usually have the resources to produce protein structures. “This restricts who can enter the contests,” she says.
Structural biologists say the study rings true in some ways, but also misses nuances of their field. Helen Berman, a structural biologist at the University of Rutgers in Piscataway, New Jersey, who helped found the PDB in the 1970s, says that not all of the races identified in the study may have been viewed as such by those in the field. Hill and Stein deemed protein structures to be competing if their constituent amino-acid sequences were similar across 50% or more of the length of the protein, but Berman wonders whether this threshold was too low.
The science that’s never been cited
Timing alone is also unlikely to explain citation differences in structural-biology papers, says Randy Read, a structural biologist at the University of Cambridge, UK. High-profile publications in the field increasingly present extra experiments to explain the underlying biology, alongside a protein structure, and labs that get scooped often differentiate their work by publishing such data, Read says.
And the study doesn’t capture the psychological effects of being scooped, says Venki Ramakrishnan, a structural biologist at the Laboratory of Molecular Biology in Cambridge. In the late 1990s and early 2000s, his group raced several teams to determine the structure of the ribosome, a cellular machine that makes proteins. In early September 2000, a team led by Ada Yonath at the Weizmann Institute in Rehovot, Israel, published the structure of a ribosome subunit in Cell1 that Ramakrishnan’s team had also characterized. Ramakrishnan’s study came out weeks later in Nature2.
“For that month, I and my lab were pretty miserable,” he says. The researchers worried that they wouldn’t receive proper recognition for their work. That didn’t turn out to be the case. Both Ramakrishnan’s and Yonath’s teams are credited with elucidating the ribosome-subunit structure — and the scientists each received a one-third share of the 2009 Nobel Prize in Chemistry. Ramakrishnan’s team’s paper has racked up roughly twice as many citations as the one that scooped it. “In the long run, it didn’t matter,” Ramakrishnan says. |
Q:
Server name on SQL Server 2016
I installed Microsoft SQL Server 2016 Management Studio on my PC, and when I try to connect to a server, it shows this error:
A network-related or instance-specific error occurred while establishing a connection to SQL Server. The server was not found or was not accessible. Verify that the instance name is correct and that SQL Server is configured to allow remote connections. (provider: Named Pipes Provider, error: 40 - Could not open a connection to SQL Server) (Microsoft SQL Server, Error: 53)
I don't know what should be the server name. How can I connect to a server?
A:
enable protocals
test TCP/ip Connectivity
refer following link
https://social.technet.microsoft.com/wiki/contents/articles/2102.how-to-troubleshoot-connecting-to-the-sql-server-database-engine.aspx
|
Q:
Angular TypeError: Cannot create property on string ''
Trying to clear the input box after Add is clicked, like the guy is doing in this tutorial.
I have recreated the error without using the API, with this short code.
You can also check out the Plunker.
HTML
<input ng-model="contact.name" type="text">
<button ng-click="Add()">Add</button>
<ul ng-repeat="contact in contactList">
<li>{{ contact.name }}</li>
</ul>
JS
$scope.contactList = [
{name: 'cris'}, {name: 'vlad'}
;]
$scope.Add = function() {
$scope.contactList.push($scope.contact)
$scope.contact = ""
}
It seems that i can add 1 item, but on the second i get this Error:
A:
You didn't clean your contact object the right way. In the Add() function, change:
$scope.contact = ""
To:
$scope.contact = {};
Forked Plunker
|
Tiger King: Murder, Mayhem and Madness, Netflix’s latest true crime docuseries, dives into the wild world of big cat owners and enthusiasts in an exploration of one man’s path from attention-seeking zoo owner to convicted criminal.
Joseph Maldonado-Passage, better known as “Joe Exotic,” is the tiger breeder at the center of the series. A “gay, gun-toting cowboy with a mullet,” as he called himself, Joe Exotic operated a big cat zoo in Oklahoma for several years before he was sentenced to prison earlier this year for cooking up a murder-for-hire plot against his nemesis, Carole Baskin, who runs the Big Cat Rescue in Florida.
Over seven episodes, co-directors Eric Goode and Rebecca Chaiklin chart the course of Joe Exotic’s eccentric life and introduce viewers to other figures in the big cat world—in a story that involves polygamy, mysterious disappearances, heavy drug use, cult-like leaders and the exploitation of both humans and animals. Here’s the true story behind Tiger King.
Who is Joe Exotic?
Born Joseph Schreibvogel in 1963, Joe Exotic purchased a pet store in Texas in 1989 with his brother, Garold Wayne, inspired by their shared love of animals. After Garold died from injuries sustained in a car crash in 1997, Joe Exotic used the money from a settlement won by his family to buy a ranch in Wynnewood, Okla., and turn it into a zoo dedicated to his brother’s memory.
The Garold Wayne Exotic Animal Memorial Park, known as the G.W. Zoo, became populated by a growing number of exotic animals as Joe Exotic acquired tigers, lions, ligers and more. As the G.W. Zoo grew in popularity in the early 2000s, Joe Exotic became something of a local celebrity. To keep the zoo running, he continued to breed animals to keep up a constant supply of tiger cubs, and he took his exotic pets on tours, charging people for photo ops.
Because he bred tigers, Joe Exotic also became a target of animal rights activists, who accused him of animal abuse, among other concerns. His detractors included Carole Baskin, the owner of the Big Cat Rescue in Florida, who soon became the biggest thorn in Joe Exotic’s side. Although Baskin at first comes across in the series as a woman who simply loves animals and wants to do right by big cats, Tiger King reveals that there’s more in going on beneath the surface. The fight between the two eventually escalates and comes to take over both of their lives—up to and including a murder plot.
Who is Carole Baskin?
The founder and CEO of Big Cat Rescue, a non-profit sanctuary for exotic cats in Tampa, Baskin says in the series that her fascination with cats dates back to childhood. Her love for cats extends beyond caring for them in the sanctuary—in the episodes she appears in, Baskin frequently wears tiger or cheetah print clothes, and her home is completely decorated with figurines of exotic cats.
Baskin, who now runs the sanctuary alongside her doting husband, Howard, has a difficult past. She opened the facility in the 1990s with her then-husband Don Lewis, a millionaire who mysteriously disappeared in 1997. Lewis’ daughters from a previous marriage, who appear in the series along with his first wife, have suggested Baskin killed their father and fed him to her tigers. Baskin, who has consistently denied the accusation, asserts that Lewis simply disappeared without explanation.
Unlike Joe Exotic and other big cat owners, Baskin does not breed exotic cats. Her mission for the Big Cat Rescue is to give the animals have a place to live out the rest of their lives in peace. Baskin, who takes up an anti-animal-breeding stance and begins considering it abuse, criticizes Joe Exotic, sparking years of animosity that eventually bankrupts him and lands him in prison.
What was the basis of Joe Exotic and Carole Baskin’s mutual hatred?
The feud between Joe Exotic and Baskin came down to a couple of elements: Baskin wanted the G.W. Zoo to stop breeding exotic cats, and she went to great lengths in an attempt to put Joe Exotic out of business, including asking her broad online fanbase to send mass emails to venues where he took his animal tours, asking them to stop hosting his shows.
Joe Exotic, who viewed Baskin as a hypocrite for also making money off of exotic animals through her sanctuary, retaliated in pretty extreme ways. He started filming videos in which he read aloud copies of Baskin’s diary, which he’d acquired after one of her former employees stole it, and posted them online. He suggested that Baskin’s diary entries showed that she’d killed her former husband, and began a campaign to get her arrested for his death.
As he continued to post videos in which he harassed Baskin, Joe Exotic also changed the name of his zoo to the name of Baskin’s company in an effort to fool her fans. In 2011, Baskin sued Joe for trademark infringement in a $1 million lawsuit.
After this, Joe Exotic declared bankruptcy and turned over the ownership of G.W. Zoo to another big cat lover, Jeff Lowe, who also had a criminal background, including accusations of domestic violence. Although he no longer owned the zoo, Joe Exotic remained on the property and tried to spin his small amount of fame into political capital, running unsuccessful campaigns for president in 2015 and governor of Oklahoma in 2018.
What happened to Joe Exotic?
Joe Exotic’s life began to fall apart after 2015. His husband, Travis Maldonado, fatally shot himself in 2017. As he dealt with grief and financial woes, Joe Exotic remained consumed by his hatred for Baskin. In 2017, he unsuccessfully attempted to have Baskin killed by paying an employee to complete the task; that employee ran off with the money. By this point, the FBI was looking into Joe Exotic for allegedly abusing animals at the zoo. Once federal agents found out he’d tried to have Baskin killed, they sent an undercover agent whom Joe Exotic tried to hire to carry out a second attempt on Baskin’s life.
Joe Exotic was found guilty on 21 counts in 2019, including for plotting to kill Baskin and for killing multiple tigers. In January 2020, he was sentenced to 22 years in prison and is currently being held at Grady County Jail in Oklahoma. He appears to believe Tiger King will vindicate him in some way, according to recent Facebook posts. On Friday, a post from his account read: “Now that the Netflix series is out, I can not watch it, but if you see … the people who set me up … please share this with a law firm that may help me get out of here.”
Baskin, who is still alive, continues to run the big cat sanctuary. In a statement posted to Big Cat Rescue’s website on March 22, Baskin slammed the series as “salacious and sensational” and disputed accusations about her involvement in Don Lewis’s disappearance.
“When the directors of the Netflix documentary Tiger King came to us five years ago they said they wanted to make the big cat version of Blackfish (the documentary that exposed abuse at SeaWorld) that would expose the misery caused by the rampant breeding of big cat cubs for cub petting exploitation and the awful life the cats lead in roadside zoos and back yards if they survive,” Baskin wrote.
The series did none of that, according to Baskin, and instead focused on the suggestion that she had a role in Lewis’s disappearance.
“The series presents this without any regard for the truth or in most cases even giving me an opportunity before publication to rebut the absurd claims,” she wrote. “They did not care about truth. The unsavory lies are better for getting viewers.”
Is it legal to own big cats in the U.S.?
The legality around the ownership of big cats is murky. While the Endangered Species Act bans the possession and purchase of any endangered species of wildlife, human involvement with captive-bred wildlife is not as well-regulated. At least six states, including Oklahoma, allow people to keep big cats as pets. And although 35 states ban having big cats as pets, each one has different exemptions and varying levels of regulation and enforcement. Roadside zoos, like the G.W. Zoo, are relatively common in the U.S., with at least a few hundred set up throughout the country. As Tiger King shows, once a person gets into the universe of big cat ownership, it becomes fairly easy to continue to buy, sell and breed them without catching the attention of law enforcement.
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Write to Mahita Gajanan at mahita.gajanan@time.com. |
Upcoming Events
Friday, June 28, 2013 - 5:00pm - 6:30pm
Bring your friends to the Library! It's time to kick off our Teen Summer Reading Program. Find out how to earn points for prizes this summer, learn about the Battle of the Books, and sign up for volunteer opportunities while making fun fantasy- and steampunk-inspired crafts! Pizza and refreshments will be served.
Monday, July 1, 2013 - 1:00pm - 3:30pm
(2012) Starring Tom Hanks, Halle Berry and Hugo Weaving. An exploration of how the actions of individual lives impact one another in the past, present, and future, as one soul is shaped from a killer into a hero, and an act of kindness ripples across centuries to inspire a revolution. Rated R; 172 min. |
Neighborhood Bars in Denver
Denver neighborhood bars are the quintessential watering hole for locals, many of whom spend as much time there as they do at home or in the office. Depending upon what type of “scene” patrons are into, they can find the bar that best attracts the kind of people they want to share a drink and hang out with. Most of these bars feature live musical performances and have special nights where locals can meet to support their favorite cause or community event. |
1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a semiconductor device containing an interconnection structure comprising conductive wiring on a substrate, and more particularly to a dual damascene process for forming an interconnection structure.
2. Description of the Prior Art
Normally traditional methods for forming interconnection structures conclude the use of subtractive etching or etch back step as the primary metal-patterning techniques. It was also developed as dual damascene process for a practical technique.
One such traditional technique is illustrated in part in FIGS. 1A to 1I, wherein inter-layer dielectrics layer as an oxide layer 112, such as FIG. 1A is formed on semiconductor substrate 111 that is as mono-crystalline silicon. With conductive contacts/vias 113 formed in inter-layer dielectrics layer 112 such as FIG. 1B. FIG. 1B also illustrated inter-layer dielectrics layer 114 is deposited on etching stop layer 113, such as Silicon Nitride. The interconnection structure comprises conductive contacts/vias 113 and conductive wiring 114. Then a photoresist mask 115 formed on inter-layer dielectrics layer 114 corresponding to the wiring pattern as shown FIG. 1C. After etching, as FIG. 1D, wiring line pattern is formed using lithography progress. The following step, again a photoresist layer 116 is applied to the resulting wiring pattern shown as FIG. 1E, and then the wiring pattern formed as FIG. 1F. Consequently photoresist mask is removed soon shown as FIG. 1G. Finally metal is not only deposited onto the surface of above semiconductor device but also filled up the opening as FIG. 1H. FIG. 1I shows the excess metal is removed using typically chemical mechanical polishing process.
Commonly the photoresist layer should be formed thicker for using and owning a long depth of focus in order to expose the entire thickness of the photoresist mask. However, for use of steppers that need high solution, it is difficult in forming quite deep focus in the process. Also it makes thick critical dimension happening and reduces reliability of production.
Moreover, as forming semiconductor integrated circuits devices, a first level interconnect might be formed in contact with a doped region within the substrate of an integrated circuit device. More interconnections are typically formed between the first level wiring line or interconnect and other portions of the integrated circuit device or to structures external to the integrated circuit device. |
Fireborn: FATE
The Fading Ember
A small bell rang and Kensington-Smythe began his speech to the guests – it was the normal self-indulgent tosh that rich people spout at dinner parties, and then the guests were allowed to mingle, with those team members pretending to be staff drifting amongst them.
Below stairs, T-Bone heard the faint noises of the party above him and attempted to free himself from his restraints, successfully this time. He heard people come down the stairs and the neighbouring cell door open, and then the sound of a struggling and screaming Ember being dragged clear. He hammered on his cell door shouting at the guards to leave her alone. They ignored him, and T-Bone slumped, impotent.
Ronnie noticed that several people were taking pains to be noticed, but over time they all appeared to filter out of the; most of the politicians had disappeared into the private room, as had several other people in expensive suits. Ronnie hadn’t quite pinpointed where they’d gone however…
T-Bone knew where they were going; they were walking past his cell, and following the route that Ember had been dragged… He focussed his mind and pushed out using his dragon power, and although blown clean off his feet by his power rebounding, the door was buckled and small gaps appeared around the frame. Suddenly he could hear faint voices in his head again. He bellowed for help.
Aiden’s new boss, Cheri, hustled over to her and told her to get into the private room to oversee events there, and she hurried in the direction indicated. Ronnie moved towards her, and as T-Bone’s voice faintly broke through they came to a guarded door. Aiden quickly brushed the guard aside, and he let them through the door into a room that seemed to be decorated with images of dragons being slain. Darius quickly identified one large picture of St George killing a dragon as a door, and the three of them hurried through, and down the stairs behind. They felt an unpleasant greasy wave wash over them, and then could clearly hear T-Bone calling out to them. He quickly filled them in with regards to what he’d seen.
They stepped into a small hallway with three doorways, one of which was bent out of shape. Ronnie stepped forwards, and began to attempt to pull the damaged door open, and with the aid of T-Bone, Darius and some supernatural power, managed to open the cell. Suddenly the door at the top of the stairs opened and Kensington-Smythe rushed down, a flunky in tow.
He was talking in excitement; “I don’t care about the public, there’s no way I’m missing this…!”
As he disappeared through another door his voice faded, and the door began to close, but Ronnie and T-Bone quickly stepped forward and kept it open. They carefully followed the stairs down, and found themselves in another small room, with a statue in the centre of the far wall, and a pair of sentry boxes to either side of a huge door in one wall. The door was semi-open, but swinging closed, and appeared to lead into a chapel. T-Bone and Ronnie edged forwards, slipping quietly into the room beyond.
The room looked like a classic church, very old, and very sturdy. A couple of dozen people were sitting in pews, and near the head of the chapel was a man in a robe kneeling in front of an alter; armed with a knife. Between the alter and the body of the chapel flowed a stream in a low culvert, and tied to the alter was a struggling Ember, blood pouring from cuts in her arms. Angered by what he’d seen, and unable to shrug off the bad feeling the chapel radiated Ronnie launched himself from the back of the chapel and taking the occupants by surprise, he ran down the centre towards the alter, leapt over the stream flipping midair, and having retrieved his concealed knife stabbed down, through the collar bone of the priest. As he landed, he turned and kicked the dead man backwards into the stream.
Alerted over dragon net, the others burst through the doors, and into the now chaotic chapel. Some of the guests attempted to get clear into side rooms, whilst others stepped up to fight the intruders. T-Bone grabbed a large silvered candlestick holder and waded into the enemy with it, causing carnage, while Darius disarmed one the now familiar bodyguards, and fired a couple of rounds into the now ex-bodyguards chest. He turned his attention elsewhere. Aiden grabbed the second of the pair of candlesticks, matching the one the T-Bone was using and joined him in a his and hers smiting session…
Two fanatics leapt over the stream at Ronnie, and he blocked them mid leap, knocking both back into the water, one was swept from view, while the other tried to scramble back out on the far bank. Two more stepped back, and drew pistols aiming at T-Bone and the others, he quickly raised a glowing shield and deflected the rounds with ease, while half a dozen closed to close combat on the three members of the team near the doorway. Several blows from the fanatics got through their defences, and Ronnie found himself face to face with another pair of fanatics.
T-Bone and Aiden found their silver whirlwind of candlestick death very effective and two more of the fanatics fell to the floor. Darius dodged out of that fight and started towards those attacking Ronnie, attempting to fire the pistol on the run, but it misfired. Ronnie continued to struggle with another two fanatics who’d made it over the stream intact. T-Bone and Aiden found their finding styles synchronising almost perfectly meaning they remained untouched for a few seconds – at least until the next group of fanatics closed and attacked, however these didn’t remain standing for long as they were dropped by judicious candlestick swings. Ronnie fended his attackers away with a flurry of defensive blows, and Darius took the attention of the remaining fanatics that had been focussed on Ronnie.
T-Bone challenged Aiden to a competition of sorts, leaping up and hurling his candlestick at one of the gunmen, she followed suit, and both hit and dropped their targets! They turned and smiled a triumphant smile at each other. Darius launched a remorseless flurry of blows at the fanatics knocking them into the stream, and Ronnie finally dispatched the last pair of fanatics, and turned to try to help Ember, to stem the bleeding and free her from her chains. Aiden reached over to try to dress her wounds but was flung the length of the room by the suddenly twitchy Ember. Ronnie attempted to knock her unconscious, but Ember blocked and threw Ronnie too. He tried to reach out with his mind, and suddenly found that whatever was in Embers’ head wasn’t Ember. He shouted the warning over the dragon net and Darius used his power to try to force the possessing creature of the dark out of Ember. He failed, but slowed her down.
What had been Ember stepped forward, raised her bloody arms, dripped her last drops into the river which raised up and smashed out at Darius knocking him from his feet. As the water washed over him, he thought he could hear a distant rushing. Ronnie reached out over the dragon net, shouting “Combine our power”, and then heard footsteps coming down the stairs. He turned to Aiden, telling her to aid Darius and T-Bone, while he blocked and held the door.
Aiden stepped forward and channelled the power of the group, focussing the energy around the emptied out husk of Ember, holding it in place in the river. It looked at the group and laughed, and then spoke; “We were all so worried that it was some covert plot by you little lizards to overthrow us! But it wasn’t, was it? You remember nothing, and we remember all of you! I have so many friends dying to meet you all…”
It pushed its upper body through the bubble of power, and leaned towards T-Bone. “We’ll have so much fun with you!”
T-Bone snorted, and replied. “You made three mistakes. One; you picked a dragon, two; you picked our friend, and three; you’re standing in the water”
The thing looked down, puzzled, and then Old Man Thames hit, smashing what had been Ember into the wall. Another group of fanatics burst through the blocked door, and Ronnie backed off, spitting challenges, and stopped the group short. He turned and the group ran as one to the stream, and were swept out of the Chapel, Ronnie’s eyes locked with the Dark-one-Ember-demon as it howled in anger.
They were swept out into the river, and saw Elizabeth floating on the river surface. “We’re even now” she said, and then sank into the water.
A grim look on his face, Ronnie tuned to the others; “This isn’t over…” and the group felt the last spark of Ember flicker out from the group consciousness.
One T-Bone, Two Guards
T-Bone was asleep, and he was also golden dragon, and he was floating in the dark, alone, except he had the feeling something was circling him. He attempted to match the floating circuit, and then someone cleared its throat, and he felt a gaze turned on him. He felt as though a speeding train was heading towards him, then out of the darkness a dragon came bursting towards him, then suddenly the shadows reached out and enveloped the dragon, dragging it back into the darkness. T-Bone recognised Ember in dragon form, desperately trying to escape and failing. He tried to fight to free her from the darkness, between the two of them, they broke free, and suddenly, entwined they were back in human form.
T-Bone could feel the panic rolling from Ember, she was pleading with him to let her run, shouting that they would find her again. T-Bone tried to calm her, and then put out a call on the dragon net, pulling everyone into the vision. Ember babbled a description of what had happened to her and tried to describe where she was, talking of a dark greasy place, with a picture of dragons. T-Bone attempted to persuade her to go further to glean more information regarding her location, and she managed to calm her panic. She looked at T-Bone, and said “Stone”, and was torn from T-Bones’ grasp, and everyone was jolted back to reality.
Back in the cafe, the human dragons looked at each other, surprised, and Sebastian’s senses were tingling, as he realised something unusual had happened. People were concerned that T-Bone hadn’t joined the group.
T-Bone, still in his vantage point, overlooking Kensington-Smythe’s house. He looked up and down the street and noticed an increasing number of black SUV’s outside the house. T-Bone began to make his way over the roof-tops.
Back in the cafe Ronnie carefully attempted to contact T-Bone via the dragon net, and after a brief conversation the group decided to join T-Bone. They quickly managed to pick out the security personnel who seemed to fill the street, and realised that the sort of precautions being taken were only usually in place when rich and powerful people were likely to visit.
Aiden went into “work” and found the guest list, which did include some very important people. Even the security people required and invitation. She managed to work most of the group onto the staff list; however, she drew the line at T-Bone who remained on the opposite roofs, attempting to evade security who were in the middle of a sweep for undesirables. Struck with a sudden plan, T-Bone attempted to get himself captured and taken into the target house, but choose not to go quietly. He used his powers and managed to freak out the security men, before allowing himself to be captured. He was handcuffed and hooded, and taken into the target house, and he felt the same greasy feeling he felt in his vision where he saw Ember, and managed to broadcast all that was happening to the others via the dragon net. He was flung into a room, and the door behind him locked, and when he managed to throw his hood off, he saw he was in a cell. He then heard a cat being killed and something being scratched on the door in the blood; as this happened the dragon net was cut off. In the sudden silence T-Bone could hear crying from the adjacent cell.
The remaining members of the group headed to Aiden’s house for a crash course in the Savoy style of serving, and then made final preparations to go into Kensington-Smythe’s house. As Ronnie retrieved his specialist knives Elizabeth stopped him, and asked him where he was going, because last time he didn’t tell her, and no-one came back. Ronnie, paused obviously pondering this new information, and explained everything that was happening, Elizabeth thanked him, and made him promise to be careful.
Later that evening they all arrived at the target house, and Ronnie and Darius were given their waiters garb and released into the wild carrying trays of canapés. As they mingled with the great and the good Darius recognised two familiar individuals protecting Gareth Thomas MP, they were the same two who had visited him in the Police Station. He quickly warned the group over the dragon net, suggesting that Thomas would be a man to watch.
In the cells beneath the house, T-Bone finally managed to speak to Ember who seemed relieved that her “family” were here to help…
The Odd Couple
Ronnie questioned his “guest”, and after an hour or so the man broke down, and after blubbing decided to tell the truth of his recruitment, the nature of his work, and a list of four people he had been told to watch and then to wipe the information of those people. Ronnie called Darius back into the room and asked him to check on the listed people. They were all neighbourhood watch types, however, one of them, was markedly different; Sebastian Anderson, the owner of a magic shop in London, who had passed the group cryptic information a few days earlier.
Once Ronnie had garnered all the information he required he told his “guest” that he was going to release him, and the man was going to go back to doing what the other people had asked him do. The only difference was that this time, whenever they contacted him he would let Ronnie know. Ronnie told him he’d been marked with a molecular tracker, so it would be known where he was at all times. Ronnie then persuaded Darius to return the man’s laptop, and he was blindfolded and smuggled back onto the street, and dropped off near the newspaper office.
Aiden received a phone call from the caterers who were looking for her to answer some difficult questions regarding the party at they were planning. She was also able to glean that there was a separate meeting going on within the party itself.
T-Bone was exhausted after being awake for so long, and went home attempting to avoid his Aunt Patty. He failed and was berated by her for some time.
Across London, Sebastian received another garbled message from the spirit world; he realised that is was for that policeman, Darius, again. As much as he disliked associating with the law he cleaned himself up and made his way to the police station again. After procuring someone else’s ID, he spoke to the desk Sergeant and asked that he be put in contact with Darius, but was told that he was not in the office. After speaking to Starflower he resorted to more occult methods in an attempt to track Darius, and narrowed his location to somewhere near Tower Bridge. Via his arcane senses, he was able to discern that something big and magical had happened in the water under the bridge, and it had involved the Policeman. Although he knew something had happened, he couldn’t work out what it was, so he paced around looking to see if there was anything that would guide him in the right direction.
He was able to track some muddy footsteps to the road, but they stopped there. However, as he stood there puzzled, a young woman got out of a car up the road. She walked to the river and looked puzzled and pensive, then spotted Sebastian and headed directly towards him. His own arcane senses were tingling as she felt “weird” to him; she spoke to him, introducing herself as Elizabeth Jones, and said that her employer had noticed him investigating around the bank, and she offered to help him investigate what he was looking for. They shook hands, and Sebastian’s arcane senses erupted! She felt unreal, but was clearly there. He backed off, and asked who employed her, and was confused by her response of “The River”. After a brief discussion Sebastian was able to persuade Elizabeth that he had a message for Darius, and she admitted that she could put Sebastian in contact with Darius. They arranged a meet in a cafe on the other side of Tower Bridge in an hour, and Elizabeth left.
Darius headed off to the rendezvous point and met Sebastian; after an awkward greeting Sebastian went on to describe a vision he’d had which featured Darius. Sebastian described Darius standing in the dark, with light pouring out of him, and he was screaming. After some time he saw an empty eyed husk that was all that was left of Darius, yet there was writing on the ground, the words were; “cavete ténebris” Latin for “beware the dark”. Somewhat shaken, the policeman thanked Sebastian for the information.
Darius changed the subject, asking Sebastian what he thought of Elizabeth, before explaining who, and what she was. Sebastian seemed relieved that the weird energy he had felt had been explained, and then asked whether Darius needed any help. Darius paused, and said that he had several friends that he felt Sebastian should meet. He cautiously agreed.
Darius contacted Ronnie over the Dragon Net, and explained what had happened, and suggested that the group meet Sebastian. Ronnie agreed, and they all joined the odd couple at the cafe. Sebastian was able to detect a strange energy that seemed to link the people he had just met, but also that there was a void as though someone was missing.
My Little T-Bone
The group went for a second breakfast and discussed what to do next; T-Bone suggested that a rich man like Kensington-Smythe would probably have others to do his dirty work. He suddenly realised that he was starting to think of Ember in the past tense, even though he knew she wasn’t dead… He decided to go and investigate Kensington-Smythe’s house, while Darius attempted to run a forensic accountancy investigation on the man’s money.
Darius found that Kensington-Smythe’s finances seemed above board, however were suspiciously lacking in any form of investigation. He dug deeper and found that some of the senior execs and shareholders had had some tax issues, but they’d all been dealt with. When he gained access to the details of Kensington-Smythe’s accounts, they were very similar to his company’s; above board, but still somewhat suspicious. He was also a major donor to the Labour party.
T-Bone went to Pimlico via an Oxfam having bought some clothes, and then persuaded one of the local homeless to swap clothes so he could get an “authentic” homeless look and smell. He settled down in nearby parkland and watched Kensington-Smythe’s house. He saw the usual callers at the house; the postman, parcel deliveries, a grocery van. It soon became clear that the vans were directed to a different entrance. T-Bone staggered to his feet, and moved in a gentle circuit around the house to try to get a view of this additional entry point. He noticed a man, just inside the open door of the house watching everything carefully. T-Bone decided he needed a better vantage point, and looked at the row of houses behind, quickly finding a likely looking drain pipe before shimmying up it to the roof of the building, stopping briefly to have an awkward conversation with a little girl who asked a lot of annoying questions and was leaning out of a window. He told her he was looking for his pony on the roof. Once she agreed to let him continue his journey, he made his way to the roof and along the adjoining buildings to get a better angle on the target house, spotting that a large amount of food was being delivered; clearly some sort of social gathering would be taking place soon.
Ronnie decided to backtrack Ember’s path and called her Newspaper (the West and Central Standard), and after some gentle persuasion was connected her Editor, Andrew Paisley. He was somewhat shocked by Ember’s disappearance, and readily agreed to meet Ronnie later that day. Ronnie spent a few minutes altering his appearance, before heading to the newspaper offices. The editor was clearly flustered, and worried about the implications of a missing member of staff, and called the “IT engineer”, Carl, into his office. Ronnie suggested that Aiden check the documentation that Ember had left in the office, with the help of Mr Paisley, and then followed him to the cupboard that served as the computer room. After a brief conversation Ronnie, instructed by Darius over the dragon net, set up the server to accept remote connections. Darius connected and searched the server and found some interesting documentation, including a file listing four dates, all Saturday nights, four weeks apart; three had passed, and the fourth was tomorrow. Interestingly, the file was only a week old.
Aiden checked through the paperwork, and after she’d come to terms with Ember’s scatterbrained working methodology recognised certain patterns and having delved a bit deeper discovered a clipping from a social page from a rival newspaper reviewing a personal party held for, and by London’s social elite. Interestingly the date of the party matched the first date in the file that Darius had found. It quickly emerged that Kensington-Smythe held these parties on a monthly basis, and this jogged a memory with Darius, and he remembered that Ember’s assignment had been as a waitress.
Ronnie got talking to Carl, trying to find whether anything unusual at the office had happened recently, but other than a new cleaner he couldn’t think of anything. Ronnie asked Darius to check employee records and payroll thinking that the new cleaner may have links with one of Kensington’s companies, but it seemed that she was exactly as she seemed. Darius did find from the security footage and logs that another person was using the time when the cleaner was in the office and the alarms were off, to gain entry. As he was searching, Darius also spotted a tripwire in the computer system, set to be triggered in case someone began to search the system. It was clear that someone was watching the newspaper.
Sitting on the rooftop watching the target house, T-Bone found his exertions of the previous thirty-six hours catching up with him, and despite fighting the fatigue, fell asleep.
Ronnie decided to stay at the newspaper offices at the time when the cleaner was in, but as he had a couple of hours to kill, took the opportunity for a few minutes sleep, Darius moved from his office, and set himself up outside the office in case the unknown intruder attempted to run. Aiden left, and tracked down the exclusive caterers that catered for Kensington-Smythe’s parties; once she’d fended off the attempts to persuade her to throw a graduation party for herself she got to business. She attempted to persuade the owner of the company that she wanted to see how her business worked as she was so impressed by previous parties that they had catered, and asked if she could work for her for a while; the woman agreed to give her a trial, and if it went well, Aiden could accompany her to the function the next night. Suddenly, Aiden found herself having to work!
Ronnie woke, prior to the cleaner arriving, and set himself up watching the security screens. Darius saw the strange man arriving, snapped a couple of photos and warned Ronnie over the dragon net. The stranger connected to the server, and Darius was able to track what he was doing, and saw that the man was searching through Ember’s files. Darius was also able to search the stranger’s computer, and found it completely impersonal; nothing on the machine suggested that it was used for anything other than for hacking. He did, however decide that he wanted the computer!
As Ronnie made his way from his hiding place Darius was able to detect that the stranger was deleting files from the server. Ronnie walked silently behind him and challenged the man. He froze in shock, and then attempted to run. Ronnie restrained him, and then guided him out of the office. The man, confronted by both Ronnie, and the waiting Darius noticeably deflated, and then protested that he’d done everything that had been asked of him. Ronnie suggested that once they got back to the “interview room” they would see whether that was enough.
T-Bone woke, to see the little girl who had spoken to him on the way up the drain pipe standing over him. Suddenly T-Bone regretted telling her earlier that he was searching for his pony on the roof, as she looked at him accusingly telling him she couldn’t find it. He managed to steer the conversation towards the party that was going to be held at Kensington-Smythe’s house; she was excited by the pretty dresses, but still disappointed that there was no pony. Exasperated, T-Bone looked at the small toy unicorn she was holding, and drew on the power of the dragon within him and created a ball of energy that surround her toy; it glowed and the unicorn floated into the air in front of her. She got very excited, but eventually agreed to return to her room, but only with T-Bone’s help. He guided her to the fire escape of her house, and ushered her safely inside, before extracting himself from the roof, and moving off to join the group at Ronnie’s safe house.
Darius sat at a table and searched through the laptop, the stranger was sitting on a chair, looking very nervous as tramp like T-Bone arrived, watching my little pony on You Tube on his mobile phone. Aiden, who had taken herself off to a quiet corner and was having a discussion over the phone with the party planners. Ronnie was sitting on another chair staring at the stranger, and not helping him maintain his equilibrium. The stranger nervously spoke;
A Tale of Two Butties
The group were shocked by the sudden end to the scream, and it felt as though part of the group consciousness had been removed. Ronnie recognised the scream as one of fear, but the end of it felt more cut off rather than terminal. Ronnie attempted to contact Ember’s bosses at the newspaper, but as it was 3am did not get an answer, so Darius headed to the Police station to see what he could find out.
T-Bone and Aiden left together to “search Ember’s flat”, and Ronnie asked Elizabeth to speak to Old Man Thames to see if he was aware of any strange goings on along the river; he sat on a bench to await her return. At the Police station Darius was able to track Ember’s mobile phone to a car park on the river bank near Greenwich Pier and the O2 Arena; he sent the message over the dragon net, and headed out again.
At Ember’s flat, an upstairs flat in a converted house in a typical suburban street, T-Bone attempted to effect entry, but the lock on the front door defeated him. He muttered something about 5 barrel locks, and looked for alternative point of entry, and spotted a small window on a latch that looked like it led into the bathroom. He turned to Aiden, and giving her no option attempted to boost her into the flat. Unfortunately, as Aiden got part way in the drainpipe that was giving her purchase cracked, and fell away, leaving her stuck part way through the window. Eventually, she managed to wriggle through the gap, but not before T-Bone had snapped a photo on his camera phone.
In the flat, Aiden moved quietly around and quickly found the office area, finding a synopsis for her current story, investigating the working conditions of the staff and crew of the river boats, checking on the legality of it all. T-Bone was left outside, and quickly realised he was looking a little shifty so he did his best to hide; he stepped into the shadows, avoiding the gaze of a nosey neighbour. Aiden demanded that T-Bone delete the photograph he took from his phone before she would let T-Bone in. He agreed, and deleted the photograph (ignoring the fact he’d already uploaded a copy to flickr), and stepped over the threshold to help Aiden with her search. Between them they identified the boats Ember was investigating, and the fact that all of them were owned by three specific companies. T-Bone also found some tube tickets for one way journeys to Pimlico. They found little else of interest, so slipped out of the flat and headed to the O2 car park to meet the others.
Elizabeth returned to the waiting Ronnie, and told him that Old Man Thames confirmed that there were “no mortals within his embrace”, so Ronnie thanked her for asking and guided her back to the safe house, telling her to make herself at home and gave her a spare key, before heading out to join the group at the O2 car parks.
Knowing that it’d be difficult to find a small mobile phone, Ronnie cast his mind back and attempted to remember what it was like to hunt as a dragon. His consciousness blurred with the current reality, and Ronnie felt himself soaring over the O2, and homed in on the glint of something that could be a mobile phone on the ground. He called his consciousness back to his body, and stumbled slightly. He did not know himself, but the others had seen him floating, roughly three inches above the surface of the floor. He looked at the group, puzzled by the looks they were giving him, and led them to the pier where he thought he had seen the phone, and they found a broken handset.
Ronnie suggested they attempted to cross check the names of the boats that used the pier with the names of the boats in Embers notes. He sneaked onto the pier and removed a mooring list, and the group headed towards the markets to find a cafe to have breakfast and check the information. Darius, with a practiced eye, was quickly able to tie in several boats to three specific companies that seemed to match the companies Ember had been investigating. The three companies were River Cruise UK, Party Boatz, and the Grey Meres Dining Experience. It seemed that there were a large number of illegal immigrants were employed on these company’s boats. Aiden noticed a small note on one page of Embers notebook. Darius quickly identified a post code which referred to a poorer area of London with a high proportion of Bed and Breakfast accommodation.
Darius left the group to go to use a McDonalds to take advantage of the free wi-fi and connected to the work computers to investigate the three companies. The others headed to the postcode and settled down to keep watch. At around 0630 a minibus pulled up to number 52, and around a dozen people were ushered into the vehicle which drove off. Ten minutes later the process was repeated at number 54.
T-Bone moved round to the back door, and Ronnie and Aiden knocked on the front door. A middle-eastern man answered the door and after Ronnie and Aiden talked their way in, and let T-Bone through the back door, and the three were guided around the house by their host. Although he was reluctant to show them round, he didn’t hide anything, and there was no sign of Ember. Ronnie asked him to introduce the group to the man who looked after number 54. When Aiden questioned him regarding some empty permits he panicked and ushered them next door.
The host from 52 introduced the group to his equivalent at 54, and had a frantic conversation in Farsi, which Aiden understood, and translated via the dragon net; the two men were frightened of “them”, and worried that they would be killed…
In number 54 the situation was much the same as in 52, however there was one empty bed, and the two hosts ushered Ronnie and Aiden around. Forgotten, T-Bone searched through number 52, and bumped into a man in the kitchen. He shared his bacon buttie with T-Bone, and as the two talked it soon became clear that the worker were effectively slaves, being forced to work to clear their debts and gain papers. Troublemakers, it seemed disappeared. T-Bone tentatively asked the man about the English woman asking questions, and the man quickly clammed up, before telling T-Bone that is was bad to “ask questions such as that.” He did however, let slip that some English people were employed alongside the indentured workers, and some tried to help. T-Bone made his excuses and left, to be quickly joined by Ronnie and Aiden who had completed their inspection of number 54. The group then left the street and moved to join Darius.
Darius’s research went very well, and he discovered that two of the companies were owned by the same company and had a labyrinthine relationship with another company that owned the third boat company, several small hotels and properties including numbers 52 and 54, and a mini-bus company. Overall, these were owned by Kensington Investments Plc, the majority shareholder of which was William Kensington–Smythe, who owned four houses in Pimlico, which were being converted into a single mansion. The mini-buses had been leased to a small unnamed temping agency, and Darius was able to get the address, which was fake, but Darius recognised that and was able to uncover the real address.
McFiggerty of the Ministry
Ronnie waited for a few hours, and arrived at dusk at St Catherines Pier near Tower Bridge, with wetsuits for everyone and scuba gear for himself. The group looked towards Elizabeth for direction, and she indicated where they needed to be, and then shocked everyone by stepping into the river. Ronnie quickly followed her as did T-Bone and Aiden. She seemed a little flung around by the currents, but Ronnie closed up and steadied her; he noticed she didn’t need to breathe. Suddenly he noticed some struggling behind him, and saw Aiden beginning to take in water, T-Bone tried to help, but she was beginning to drown. Ronnie quickly checked that Elizabeth was OK, and when she nodded, he kicked back and offered the scuba mouthpiece into Aiden’s mouth.
As Aiden gasped down the oxygen there seemed to be a burst of light in the water beneath them and the group found themselves in a hemispherical bubble, about ten metres in diameter. The face of Old Man Thames was visible and he spoke to the group. He was unhappy that his flow was restrained by the effects of humanity. Ronnie spoke for the group and Old Man Thames indicated that he spoke for his brothers and sisters. They finally agreed that Old Man Thames would give the group a chance to prove good faith by allowing contact with the sea, promising that he would protect the city if the group managed to open the Thames barrier. There was some watery laughter, and then the bubble collapsed, and the group were ejected from the river onto the bank.
Ronnie arranged for some fake documentation that would allow him a certain level of authority over the staff at the Thames barrier, and the group headed over to the barrier and gained access to the administration building. After a brief conversation with a startled receptionist the Duty Operations Manager, Mr Bennett, came to meet them in reception and took them to his office. After some ridiculous tall tale telling Ronnie, acting as Arturos McFiggerty, Head Special Projects of the Environment Agency, managed to convince Mr Bennett that the barrier needed to stay open.
High tide, came and went, and even though the waters should have been a metre over the banks the river did not flood London; Old Man Thames had kept his word. The group left leaving the barrier staff completely bemused by the situation, and returned to visit Old Man Thames; they were greeted by Elizabeth who leapt on Ronnie, really pleased that the team had succeeded, and that Old Man Thames was happy. He was willing to give them several decades, possibly even a century to put things right, and Elizabeth said that she thought that he would be willing to compromise, and perhaps even help control the tidal flow himself.
Elizabeth then asked a question about rent and staying somewhere, as although Old Man Thames was a good employer who helped her stay focussed as herself, he could not really conceive of human needs so hadn’t put much consideration into that, sp an embarrassed Ronnie offered his flat, which she accepted.
As the group travelled away from the Thames, and piercing shriek, followed by sudden silence, was heard over the dragon net; it was clear that Ember was in trouble.
180 Days Later
Six months had passed since magic had returned, and although T-Bone had forgotten to return the glaive, so far nothing had been said about its disappearance due to the damage to the White Tower. The world had seemed to settle into the old routines, although religion had seen something of a resurgence as a result of the unexplained “London Aurora”.
T-Bone had returned to his neighbourhood, and organised his posse into a more effective “Neighbourhood Watch”. His Aunt Patty had become more involved with a new preacher at the civic centre, who claimed to be able to channel the Holy Spirit. T-Bone was somewhat suspicious of the man, and resolved to keep a wary eye on the man.
His crew, in turn kept an eye on the local dealers, and managed to obtain a sample of a new drug, the Gray Stuff, a mix of the Black Stuff and cocaine. T-Bone was unhappy that the Black Stuff, effectively cremated dragon meat, was still available, and those that sold it received his regular scrutiny.
Ronnie disappeared from view for a while, and although he occasionally dropped in on T-Bone, he spent most of his time in the shadows keeping an eye on the team. Ember was able to let him know that she was going off the grid to follow a story. They arranged a trigger word to be broadcast over the Dragon Net in case she got into difficulty. Unfortunately, he was caught on camera while “working” in London. It took him several weeks to track the film down and ensure that there was no record of him in the area, just in case.
Aiden’s father was having a few money troubles, and she spent most of her time talking things over with her family, she also decided that her boyfriend no longer understood her, and dumped him.
Darius had been permanently transferred into Rockford’s unit, the Special Investigations Unit. He closed a number of strange cases, but also spotted the two men who’d tried to shut him up during the events of the previous year, identified as bodyguards to Gareth Thomas, Labour MP for Harrow West. Darius made careful notes of them and their movements; however, his attention was soon taken away from them by a series of cases passed to the SIU.
An unusual number of incidents, and deaths, were occurring along the riverside in the Pool of London area. Of the survivors, Darius was able to track one person to a hospital ward, awaiting a psychiatric evaluation. As he arrived at the hospital, Starflower jumped out, declaring that he had a message from his friend, who’s waiting at Starflower’s house to deliver it. Darius shook his head slowly, and told Starflower he’d see him later and continued into the hospital.
Doctor Rojen, the patient’s Doctor was paged by the receptionist, but did not show, so Darius, impatient went to the Doctors office to see what he could find there. As he arrived, the door opened, and a very harassed looking Doctor exited. It was Rojen. After a rushed conversation, Darius was able to discover some background to the patient. The woman, had suffered from mental stress, and was described as “the crazy one” by Rojen who handed a patient file to Darius. It was also revealed that she had been discharged that morning and left to make her own way home as she needed to tell people about the river, and how it was talking to her. Darius got her home address and details. She was called Elizabeth Jones, and after a brief pause Darius recognised the name as the same one as Ronnie’s ghostly friend, and the address she had given hadn’t existed since 1942. Darius contacted Ronnie to let him know, and then went to the security office to look at the CCTV footage to see if the woman was indeed the Elizabeth Jones they’d previously encountered. He also saw someone bump into her – she was solid!
T-Bone got his posse involved in the search for Miss Jones, and the word went out to keep an eye open for her as her old home had been in his neighbourhood, while Ronnie visited the area where she’d ended up in the river, and then moved on to the areas where he’d previously encountered her. It took him an hour of searching, but as he looped around near St Pauls, he got the feeling that he was being followed, and after some careful manoeuvring spotted that Miss Jones was following him. He hid himself in a small alleyway, and waited for her to follow him. She did so, and when Ronnie spoke, she complained of being hungry, and then fainted. Ronnie caught her before she hit the floor, and put a call out on the dragon net. Aiden came to collect the two of them, and drove them back to her flat, where the others joined her.
After parking in the underground car park, Ronnie carried Miss Jones upstairs, and put her in Aiden’s bed. He checked her for injuries, and found a healed burn that may have come from lightning. More worryingly, her pulse was fluttering in a weird manner; it was as though she was in a state somewhere between life and death. Ronnie made something to eat, and left it with a drink at the side of the bed and settled back in a chair and waited for her wake up.
Darius received a phone call from Rockford; Starflower was waiting at the police station for him, still waiting to deliver the message, and annoying Rockford intensely. Darius apologised and arranged to collect Starflower from the station and take him home. Unfortunately when they got there, it appeared that the man with the message, Sebastian, also had a penchant for herbal cigarettes. He managed to pull himself together enough to pass on the message, something he’d scribbled on a piece of paper;
“He will only treat with those announced by his chosen servant.”
There were a number of geometric symbols, swirling shapes, and runes evident on the piece of paper too. Darius studied the paper, and the shapes and symbols began to look familiar. They were occult symbols that matched some of the symbols that were being worn by Sebastian, and Darius had seen elsewhere. Overall, even though Darius felt he was on the edge of understanding something, the message was still too cryptic for him to properly decipher… Sebastian passed on a card with a shop specialising in the occult to Darius, “Practical Magick”.
Back at Aiden’s flat, Aiden had had to leave to delay the builders that were refurbishing sections of the building and Miss Jones was still sleeping. T-Bone spent the time searching the house as a way of filling time. He found a number of interesting objects, including some past due bills. Eventually he wondered into the bedroom, and as Miss Jones moved, he noticed that as she moved it seemed that she almost seemed to sink into the bed before bouncing back. There was an energy around her, that seemed to change as she sank, and then reappear as she bounced back. Suddenly, the pair of them remembered that ghosts feed off magic, not food.
T-Bone began to channel power, and Ronnie aided, focussing the magic on Miss Jones. They shared a flash back to a similar memory where the pair of them, in dragon form, protected a city. As the seconds passed Miss Jones, began to wake, and suddenly sat bolt upright gasping, as if for air. She seemed confused, and then calmed as Ronnie spoke to her.
Initially she was reluctant to speak of the events that had led her to the hospital and then to her flat, but as the conversation wore on Ronnie gained her trust, and it seemed that Miss Jones had become the “chosen servant” of Old Man Thames who was angry at being chained. She agreed to announce the group to Old Man Thames, but to do that they would need to enter the water to commune with him…
The Tower (Part 4)
The team used the metal ring to pull a block of rock from the wall, and revealed a dark tunnel. Ronnie headed back to the equipment cache to collect some light sources, while Darius shone his maglite into the hole backed up by T-Bone using a flashlight app on his mobile phone.
Ronnie, arrived at the equipment cache, but just prior to getting there saw a suited man, flanked by two other men who were obviously bodyguards. He recognised one of the bodyguards from the security footage he’d seen earlier that night, and the suited man was arguing with the gift shop man regarding the speed and covertness of the dig, saying that they needed to move more quickly. They agreed to proceed with greater speed and investigate an “accidental collapse” of the area around the dig.
He headed back towards the team, but diverted to the room with the glaive, looking to see if he could remove it from the display, but was unable to find a way into the case. Suddenly, his ghostly friend, Elizabeth, appeared telling him he needed the weapon for when they went below. She seemed stuck in a loop, so Ronnie gently touched her face, allowing her to absorb some of his energy. She again told him he needed the weapon, but Ronnie explained he couldn’t work out how to retrieve it, so she disappeared from sight, and returned as Ronnie called the team to him. She had the two Princes with her, who agreed to retrieve the glaive, as long as the team promised to protect “the house from the men who were coming to harm it”, and to return the weapon before dawn. The team agreed.
Aiden picked the glaive up, and had a flashback to its’ forging; it was created from part of a dragon, and then the team headed back to the tunnel. The squeezed in and found that it opened into a spiral staircase, which they followed down. They found their way blocked by a rusted gate. Aiden handed the glaive to Ronnie, who shrugged, and attempted to lever the gate with the weapon, but unused to handling such a weapon couldn’t really use it properly. He handed it to T-Bone, asking “Why don’t you give it a go?”
T-Bone handled the glaive like he was born to it, and with a deft flick of the wrist cut through the old metal like a hot knife through butter. T-Bone smiled, and the group continued down the staircase, which opened into a small room, which had two exits. They picked one, and followed a passage into another small room, at one end of which was a spoil pile which was obviously the other end of the cave in which the archaeologists were digging in. The rooms opened into further chambers, and it soon became clear that they were ancient; Aiden was able to identify the archways were in a Roman style, which meant that these structures pre-dated the tower. There were images and pictograms of people and creatures on the walls that seemed to tell a story. The story was one of people, dragons, and mystical creatures at war with another people coloured black; they looked like the oil covered men that the group had been in conflict with.
Some of the pictograms showed the earth being ravaged by the Oil People, or Dark Ones, and people and creatures being dragged away by them, but then as the story progressed it seemed that they had been defeated and a few people were shown emerging onto the earths’ surface again. Further images showed a repopulated earth, but there were also scenes of the Dark Ones killing dragons, and mystical creatures falling from a dark whirl pool in the sky. The team knew that this was a history of the war with the Dark Ones, even though they didn’t know that history at all.
The over arching message seemed to be that when the entire world is riven through with black corruption, and dragons are destroyed then the hooded Oil People will take control of the world.
As Aiden studied the images closely, with an academic interest, but Darius and T-Bone spotted gaps in the carvings that would allow a person to pass through, but Ronnie, looking closely at the scene spotted that the statues and pictograms all had the same symbol; it appeared to be a barb or spike thrust through a knotted cord or rope, and he knew that it was the symbol of the Dark Ones.
The team squeezed through the gaps in the carvings, and found another chamber with a block of stone with an iron ring embedded in it. Working as a team they moved the stone, and dropped down into a circular chamber, identical to the one they found under St Pauls Cathederal.
The huge chamber gave a huge feeling of wellbeing to T-Bone and Darius, while Aiden seemed a little panicked by it, Ronnie was completely unaffected and attempted to comfort Aiden, who paid no attention but took a deep breath and pulled herself together.
As they moved through the chamber they became aware of a massive dark shape in the centre of the cavern. Ronnie recognised the shape as the same dragon he’d seen in his vision of the hills of London, however, it had clearly been there for longer, and was severely damaged. It was chained to the floor, covered in open wounds, bones showing through its skin. The energies in the room seemed to be bouncing from great hope to despair, with each beat of the dragon’s heart.
Looking at the chained dragon, T-Bone felt a sense of déjà-vu, and the group approached the dragon. They detected the quickening of the heartbeat, and a shiver shook through the length of the ancient beast, and the great eyelids opened, revealing one ruined socket, the other housed a cataract covered eye. It gazed at the group, seemingly focussed on T-Bone, and whispered “Friend! Again… Endings, make beginnings…” The pain evident in the whispered words.
T-Bone swore and flashed back to his dragon form, and shared a vision with the group; he was euthanizing an old friend, and old dragon named Exedore, to restore power to the world. This dragon was the closest friend outside of his brood that Dragon T-Bone had.
Back in the present day, T-Bone knew he was going to have to kill his old friend against, but clearly reluctant, attempted to talk to the ruined dragon, persuading him that the group could help him. Exedore, very little strength remaining to him seemed to deny that this was possible, so T-Bone tried to transfer energy to the dragon, but Exedore passed another message; “We will see each other again, old friend, but you must release me once again, and restore the world.”
T-Bone looked at the group desperate for help, and Ronnie approached him, “Do not force your friend to live as a shadow of himself, that would be cruel. We have all had to offer the release to friends before, it is never easy, but is necessary.”
Desperate to do otherwise, but feeling the gratitude of Exedore, with a graceful sweep of the glaive, T-Bone released his friend. The body of the dragon glowed, and as the heartbeat stopped an image of Exedore in his prime could be seen, and then the light faded away. A rumble filled the chamber, and slabs began to fall from the ceiling.
“Time to leave” Ronnie shouted, but even with Darius attempting to drag him clear, T-Bone stood still. Ronnie tried to persuade him to get clear, promising to help T-Bone make those responsible for Exedore’s captivity pay, but T-Bone just told him to “Get the others out”.
Ronnie paused, and met T-Bones cold gaze; “Do not reduce the sacrifice of your friend. I will get them out, but do not waste your life here.”
This seemed to shake T-Bone clear of his despair, and the group ran clear of the buildings, reaching the open air, bloodied and bruised, but otherwise unharmed. As they got outside they could see the light show in the sky, like aurora borealis but hundreds of times more intense. Lightning flashed and struck the ground around the tower repeatedly, and with a resounding crack, one side of the White Tower slid as the foundations slipped as the cavern below collapsed. Then the group saw the ghosts scattering out of the buildings. Ronnie’s ghostly friend, Elizabeth, shouted warnings that everyone had to get clear, before being blasted by lightening. The group began to usher the humans clear of the tower, when suddenly there was silence, and the sky was clear, the ghosts gone, but the group could feel the difference.
The Tower (Part 3)
Darius managed to persuade the Tower authorities that they needed to stay into the night to get more footage for their film. They spent the rest of the day pretending to their “jobs” killing time until the Tower closed to the public.
As Ronnie walked around the tower, he was approached by his ghostly friend, Elizabeth, who told him that although the staircase that the archaeologists were working on did indeed go to lower levels, there had been a collapse effectively blocking the way. Strangely, Elizabeth said she was not able to force herself through the floor; it felt too real. Ronnie was minded of the flashback conversation in the Library of Atlantis where it was posited that the more power pooled in area the more real the supernatural became.
As night fell, the Princes appeared and the game began. It was one of riddles; the Princes posed a riddle, and the team had to answer it, identifying the location of the subject of the riddle, and then race the Princes to that location.
The team worked together and won the first four riddles, combining the brain power of those more academic with the physical abilities of the more athletic. After these first four wins, the Princes changed the rules, sulking slightly because they were losing, and decided that they could be invisible while they ran to answer the riddles, and unsurprisingly they won the next riddle, and took their rewards, draining life energy from the team; T-Bone allowing himself to take the hit on Aidens’ behalf.
Ronnie pushed himself, winning the next race, and then the Princes announced that the next riddle would be the last; suddenly however, their demeanour changed from that of children, to something of creatures that had lived 6 centuries. It was clear that the destination was the White Tower. Ronnie summoned his last reserves of energy, and Aiden turned and sprinted, while Darius followed and T-Bone summoned the power again in an attempt to distract the Princes. The two Princes, unable to help themselves, seemed drawn towards T-Bone like moths to a flame.
Taking advantage of the distracted Princes, Aiden sprinted into the tower, and Ronnie followed by Darius, turned back towards T-Bone; suddenly the team noticed many more ghosts and shades appearing from the fabric of the Tower, all fixated on T-Bone. In a strange voice he demanded that the sprits honour their bargain, and suddenly the power he’d fashioned into a shield expanded in a sphere and flung the spirits away. The same energy wave washed over Ronnie, knocking him off his feet, and smashed Darius in the face. Ronnie staggered to his feet to check on Darius, and T-Bone advanced on the two Princes demanding they honour their part of the bargain. They backed off and tried to slip through the walls, but to their shock, couldn’t. They attempted to persuade T-Bone that he would need to reduce the power to let them through the wall. T-Bone declined, telling them they could follow the human path. As they led T-Bone, Ronnie saw the ghostly Elizabeth following T-Bone; Ronnie was surprised to see her leaving physical traces of her passing. She seemed in a daze, being drawn towards T-Bone. Ronnie swept her legs from underneath her, warning her that she shouldn’t go closer, and she was shocked by the physical contact, and then began taking advantage of her sudden solidity, touching the grass, the flagstones, and anything else.
The Princes led T-Bone to the hidden entrance, concealed near the gift shop, and then he dismissed them, and released the power before collapsing, to be caught and held in Aiden’s arms. This was the sight that greeted Ronnie and Darius as they entered the archway near the shop. Quickly, their attention was taken by the iron ring embedded in the wall, which was almost identical to that they’d seen in St Paul’s Cathedral, a few days previously.
The Tower (Part 2)
With T-Bone calmer, although still focussed on the Glaive, Ronnie spent a little time checking the security around the White Tower, and was able to identify the locations of guards and cameras. The group, with exception of Ronnie, suddenly felt a shuddering chill run up and down their spines, some catching movement out of the corner of their eyes. T-Bone, however, focussed in on a ghostly reflection, and suddenly found himself viewing things as though from his dragon self.
He was in the mighty library of Atlantis, and could feel similar spirits passing around him even there. The dragon was in the Library to listen to the mighty intellect that is Professor Lin – the ghost that resided within the Library. He was speaking disparagingly of the possibility that magic was fading from the world, suggesting that should magic be repressed, then the world itself would change irrevocably. T-Bone pressed the discussion and discovered that should magic fade from the world, it may find itself pooling, and occasionally bursting free in response to a trigger, rather than flowing through all things as it currently did. However, as long as there was life magic would exist. The trigger to release a burst a magic would need to be a powerful entity – such as a dragon…
As T-Bone returned to his human reality, he noticed two boys, dressed in period costume, looking at him intently, and was immediately reminded of the warning that Ronnie’s ghost friend had offered, of the two Princes with “fast hands”. Aiden and T-Bone spent some time investigating the history of the two Princes, and were aware of the two ghost boys being present as they researched their story.
Aiden suddenly decided to attract their attention, and called the names of the Princes out loud, much to the consternation of passing tourists who had no idea what was going on; T-Bone realising what she was doing attempted to aid by pushing out positive energies. One of the boys approached T-Bone, and Aiden saw T-Bone glowing; the boy said “I’ve never seen anyone sparkly before”, and reached out to stroke his arm. Suddenly remembering the warning to beware of the fast hands, T-Bone leapt back, much to the annoyance of the boy, who complained that T-Bone shouldn’t “offer some and then take it away”. Aiden attempted to calm the boy telling him to “play nice”. Other tourists began to look confused by the events going on around them, but as Aiden, T-Bone and the Prince were in the shadows, they could see the ghost Prince.
T-Bone began to manipulate the energy around him, and attempt to use it as a shield to protect himself from the ghost Prince who began to cry for his brother. Aiden began to comfort him, as the crowd of tourists gathered and began to take photos, believing it to be some strange street theatre. T-Bone got involved, drawing the young ghost Prince into playing a different game – retrieving the glaive from the display case, along with his brother. The young Prince said that his brother had told him that the glaive was sleeping and wouldn’t wake up. Even if they poked it. T-Bone asked to speak to his brother, and was able to taunt the other Prince into revealing himself from the shadows. The older Prince chided his younger brother for playing with “people”, and T-Bone let some of his dragon-ness show, which put the Princes on their back foot. The tourists applauded the “good effects”.
Aiden ushered the tourists away, as the Princes began whispering about wizards. The older Prince offered to help, but only if T-Bone played, and won, a game. However, if he lost, he would have to share his “glowy magic”. It could only be played after dark, however. The Princes said that they knew that T-Bone and Aiden were looking for things; they would also tell them about the other people who were also looking for things.
Darius attempted to find a route into some of the staff only areas, in an attempt to get below the tower, but was quickly moved on by the security guards, but as Ember was being ultra-professional, she quickly drew onlookers’ interest onto herself so the guards didn’t pay much attention to Darius. She then took a look at the time delay camera that had been setup earlier, and was able to see the gift shop man give coupons to the archaeologists who headed to the coffee shop. As soon as they left, two men in suits arrived, and the three men animatedly discussed the dig, the suited men left prior to the return of the Archaeologists. |
Homeschooling has been legal throughout the United States for about 25 years, but regulations vary dramatically by state. Only two states require background checks for parents who choose to homeschool, and just ten require parents to have a high school degree. Fewer than half require any kind of evaluation or testing of homeschooled children. Use the map below to compare how these regulations vary by state.
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using System.Drawing;
using GMap.NET.WindowsForms;
namespace CloudsDemo
{
public class GMapImage : GMapMarker
{
private Image image;
public Image Image
{
get
{
return image;
}
set
{
image = value;
if (image != null)
{
Size = new Size(image.Width, image.Height);
}
}
}
public GMapImage(GMap.NET.PointLatLng p)
: base(p)
{
DisableRegionCheck = true;
IsHitTestVisible = false;
}
public override void OnRender(Graphics g)
{
if (image == null)
return;
g.DrawImage(image, LocalPosition.X, LocalPosition.Y, Size.Width, Size.Height);
}
}
}
|
Q:
Validate paypal pay id passed by Android in site
we are doing andriod app for our site. in site we configured paypal successfully.
in app, customer will do payments, than using paypal sdk we are getting transaction id in app. than andriod team will pass the transaction id to magento & in magento we need to validate payment.
our andriod team want an API from magento side.
by default, is there any API is there for this?
how to achieve this ?
Edit
please visit github link & search for "server for verification" using CTRL +F ,
there they mentioned we have to verify with server, i want to know how to verify with server after payment is done through app?
i saw this , what i understood is we need to create an API for validating payments done through app. how to do this ?
Edit 2
paypal team sent Request Sample as below :
$apiContext = new ApiContext(new OAuthTokenCredential(
"<CLIENT_ID>", "<CLIENT_SECRET>"));
$payment = Payment::get('PAY-5YK922393D847794YKER7MUI', $apiContext);
they telling we have to request to PayPal using above sample code.
once we pass pay id, then PayPal will respond with full payment details.
Edit 3
paypal team gave this git hub code & they are telling i have to use whole SDK for getting payment details. i want to know how i have to use it in magento ?
Reply from Paypal team
The following explanations are based on the use case that, you've PayPal (either Express Checkout or Payment Pro) enabled in your Magento Web store, yet additionally integrating Mobile Native SDK in your client APP (rather than using the exsing Magento PayPal flow, embedded into a webview in your APP).
Verifying the payment (after your Client APP got the payment-id in the response) is important for fraud prevention. Mobile APP interacts with PayPal servers independently, and you would not want to deliver the goods/service upon a mobile API response (which is easy to replicate) without server (your Magento server) verification against the actual payment contents.
Apparently Magento doesn't come with this part of codes in the PayPal module and you need to implement your own, but yet you won't necessarily have to import the whole RESTful SDK just for a single payment look-up API call.
Everything is based on JSON requests & JSON parsing, it works as long as you follow the PayPal RESTful payload scheme HERE, and initiate the request with curl statements.
Checklist on a payment after your server obtains the details can be also found HERE.
Additional best practice for server-end implementation:
Store the payment-id e.g. id": "PAY-564191241M8701234KL57LXI" in your database along with the order data entry;
Store the debug-id in the error object (if there's an error response) from the verification (payment lookup) API response into your database for further trouble shooting purpose with PayPal support.
Sample API tests by curl commands would be like:
Step#1 - Getting access token for authentication
curl -v https://api.sandbox.paypal.com/v1/oauth2/token \
-H "Accept: application/json" \
-H "Accept-Language: en_US" \
-u "<your sandbox APP client>:<your sandbox APP secret>" \
-d "grant_type=client_credentials"
Parse the sample response and obtain the access token:
{
"scope": "https://api.paypal.com/v1/payments/.* https://api.paypal.com/v1/vault/credit-card https://api.paypal.com/v1/vault/credit-card/.*",
"access_token": "<Your-Access-Token-for-further-calls>",
"token_type": "Bearer",
"app_id": "APP-6XR95014SS315863X",
"expires_in": 28800
}
Step#2 - Making the look-up call with the access-token and payment ID (returned by you APP, e.g. PAY-123456789)
curl https://api.sandbox.paypal.com/v1/payments/payment/PAY-123456789 \
-H "Content-Type: application/json" \
-H "Authorization: Bearer <the access token from Step#1>"
And you'll get the response similar with this, which contains the payment details you would compare & verify with your order information in the database
{
"proof_of_payment": {
"adaptive_payment": {
"pay_key": "AP-70M68096ML426802W",
"payment_exec_status": "COMPLETED",
"timestamp": "2013-02-20T00:26:25Z",
"app_id": "APP-91B933855X481767M"
}
},
"payment": {
"short_description": "Hipster t-shirt",
"amount": "9.95",
"currency_code": "USD"
},
"client": {
"platform": "iOS",
"paypal_sdk_version": "1.0.0",
"environment": "live",
"product_name": "PayPal iOS SDK"
}
}
Replay from paypal team end
when i tried above step as above , i created payment successfully.
than we need to complete payment resource with payment id using link how to do this ?
A:
If payment method doesn't support online capturing (like Paypal Standard) there is no way to get a full order creation flow like on Checkout via Magento API interface. It is impossible to change the order state and process payments. As a workaround try the following:
create
an order with "pending" status
then get order info using
sales_order.info API method
use order info to validate all the necessary data as described here. It should be done on the Mobile App side.
if it passed the validation step then create an invoice and capture it
UPD
Some Payment methods support online capturing (i.e. Authorize or Paypal Payments Pro). In theory it means that, you can create a cart via API, add payment method data to it (i.e. CC details), create an order and capture it online. So all the order processing steps (including payment validation) will be on Magento side.
|
Prison chat rooms
23.12.2017
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California's Prison Isolation Units: Necessary or Inhumane?
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Intra-habenular injection of 6-hydroxydopamine produces impaired acquisition of DRL operant behavior.
The anatomical connections of the habenula complex indicate it provides a relay between limbic forebrain and midbrain. Somewhat paradoxically, consequences of nonspecific lesion of the habenula are ambiguous with little change in basic response evident within simple behavioral paradigms. However, the potential functional importance for this relay has more recently been indicated by the demonstration of deficits in the ability of lesioned animals to alter behavior appropriate to both internal and external stimuli in more demanding behavioral tasks. Doubts concerning the importance of the habenula remain because of the large number of descending fibers of passage through the habenula. To provide more substantive evidence, 6-hydroxydopamine was injected into the habenula of rats to provide more limited lesion of catecholaminergic terminals. Animals were subsequently trained on an operant DRL 20-s schedule for which deficits have been reported following nonspecific lesion of the habenula. Lesioned animals showed a tendency to overrespond and were significantly less efficient on the schedule with decreased number of reinforcements received relative to controls. While the neurotoxic lesion procedure used does not differentiate noradrenergic and dopaminergic damage, the importance of intact catecholaminergic systems within the habenula for effective DRL acquisition is consistent with the suggested importance of the habenula for feedback regulation of dopamine within the ventral tegmental area through ascending dopamine fibers to the habenula. |
[Inappropriate drug use in palliative care: SPANISH version of the STOPP-Frail criteria (STOPP-Pal)].
Multiple medication and inappropriate drug prescription are prevalent and challenging problems in older patients in end-of-life situations, and increases both preventable adverse events and health care costs. Recent literature recommends de-prescribing some drugs in patients with short life expectancy, when the aim of drug treatments is not prevention or cure, but symptom control. Recently, a list of explicit criteria (STOPP-Frail) intended to guide prescribing physicians in decision making on the use of drugs in older patients with terminal conditions. This article presents a Spanish version of such criteria, which have been named STOPP-Pal to avoid confusion with the current concept of frailty. |
^Yep, I’m honestly surprised with how well he’s taken to that position, it suits him so well and shores up that defence competently enough by Arsenal’s own standards. His touch and footwork are oddly a lot different than what we’ve seen of him at CB, where sometimes he may get caught out and lunge to cover, alas, maybe there is more room for error at RB now as opposed to being nigh on infront of goal.
To be fair, full back isn’t the hardest position in the world. Just make sure your goal side of your winger, and support the team when attacking. It’s also a position where you probably get the most time on the ball. Fair play to Gabriel though, he’s done a job. |
Bola Kuforiji-Olubi
Oloye Bola Kuforiji-Olubi (September 28, 1936 – December 3, 2016) was a Nigerian noblewoman, banker and federal minister of commerce.
She graduated from the University of London in 1963 with B. Sc honours in Economics. She was a fellow of Institute of Charted Accountants, England and Wales 1977, ICAN Nigeria 1976, British Chartered institutes of company Secretaries (ACIS 1964). Nigerian Institute of management (FMIN) 1985 and the British Institute of Directors.
She was a recipient of the following honours and awards: Doctor of Business administration from Enugu State University of Science and Technology, 1997, Doctor of Laws, LLD honoris causa (Latin: "for the sake of the honor"). Bayero University, Kano, 2004 and Doctor of letters (Honoris Causa), Olabisi Onabanjo University, Ago Iwoye Ogun State 2006.
Kuforiji-Olubis's other honours and awards included from Federal government of Nigeria the National award of member of the Order of the Niger in 1979, for her contributions to management education and socio- economic
Advancement of Nigeria. She was conferred with the award of Order of the Niger (OON) in 2002, award of certificate of Merit by the United Nations Decade for Women, 1980, award for Excellence from the University of Benn's Skonit Club in 1988, honorary Grammarian of CMS 1988 by CMS grammar school, award of Excellence by Brigade of Nigeria, 1992, International award of Excellence for outstanding entrepreneurial achievements, MIT, Cambridge, MA, United States. !992, a recipient of 2002 conferment award for Woman of achievements under the auspices of the Woman development centre, Abuja, 2005. In addition to being an Otunba of the Ijebu clan of Yorubaland, Oloye (Dr) Kuforiji-Olubi held many chieftaincy titles from across Nigeria.
Her Highness The Oloye Bola Kuforiji-Olubi, Otunba Ayora of Ijebu, served in various capacities both locally and internationally. She was the 25th president of the Institute of Chartered Accountants of Nigeria, the first female to become president of the Institute; while she was in office she launched an Accounting Technicians Course 1989–1990.
Kufuriji-Olubi was the first Nigerian woman to become the CEO of a multinational company (VYB Industries Limited, with British affiliates (Inchcape plc) and the first female Chairperson of a public listed company (Bewac Plc).
Kufuriji-Olubi either chaired or otherwise served on the boards of many other companies. She was the first Chairperson of Ogun, Osun River basin development (1976–1980) and a member of the governing council of the Nigerian Institute of Social and Economic research (NISER) from 1981–1983. She was appointed chairman of a leading financial institution, United Bank for Africa Plc in 1984 and served until 1990 a first for women in Africa south of the Sahara, Vice chairman of the National conference on Nigerian foreign policy until the year 2000, member of the National Sport commission from 1986–1989. She was a foundation member and chairman, Lagos State Education endowment fund (1988–1999). She was appointed as honorable Secretary (Minister) for commerce and tourism in the interim National government of Nigeria in 1983.
The Otunba Ayora was a deputy chairman and Hon. Federal commissioner for Ogun state at the revenue mobilization.
Kuforiji-Olubi's publications include; the Female Entrepreneur and Financial Management for Survival 1987, Civil service reform in a developing Economy 1988, The Corporate Woman, a marginalised group, problem and Strategies for success, via public enlightenment programmes of the institute of Directors 1989, Technical education as a catalyst for technical cooperation and Economic growth in developing Countries 1992 and, as a co-author, Changing Course. The Otunba Ayora was a chairman of many companies, including SPHINX GROUP, PHOENIX TIDE offshore Nigeria Limited and Phoenix Ocean Line Limited.
References
External links
https://web.archive.org/web/20130702135607/http://igclm.org/Board%20member2.html
Category:1936 births
Category:2016 deaths
Category:Alumni of the University of London
Category:Nigerian accountants
Category:Nigerian bankers
Category:Nigerian royalty
Category:Nigerian women's history
Category:Officers of the Order of the Niger
Category:Yoruba bankers
Category:Yoruba women in business |
Q:
Need assistance with Dockerfile and Kubernetes for .AspNetCore service
My docker build is failing due to the following error:
COPY failed: CreateFile \?\C:\ProgramData\Docker\tmp\docker-builder117584470\Aeros.Services.Kubernetes\Aeros.Services.Kubernetes.csproj: The system cannot find the path specified.
I am fairly new to docker and have went with the basic project template that is set up when you create a Kubernetes container project template, so I'd figure it would work out of the box, but I'm mistaken.
I'm having problems trying to figure out what it's attempting to due in the temp directory structure and the reason it is failing. Can anyone offer some assistance? I've done some searching and others have said the default docker template was incorrect in Visual Studio, but I'm not seeing any of the files being copied over to the temp directory to begin with, so figuring out what is going on is being rather problematic at the time.
Here is the docker file, the only thing I've added is a publishingProfile arg so I can tell it which profile to use in the Build and Publish steps :
ARG publishingProfile
FROM microsoft/dotnet:2.1-aspnetcore-runtime AS base
WORKDIR /app
EXPOSE 80
FROM microsoft/dotnet:2.1-sdk AS build
WORKDIR /src
COPY ["Aeros.Services.Kubernetes/Aeros.Services.Kubernetes.csproj", "Aeros.Services.Kubernetes/"]
RUN dotnet restore "Aeros.Services.Kubernetes/Aeros.Services.Kubernetes.csproj"
COPY . ./
WORKDIR "/src/Aeros.Services.Kubernetes"
RUN dotnet build "Aeros.Services.Kubernetes.csproj" -c $publishingProfile -o /app
FROM build AS publish
RUN dotnet publish "Aeros.Services.Kubernetes.csproj" -c $publishingProfile -o /app
FROM base AS final
WORKDIR /app
COPY --from=publish /app .
ENTRYPOINT ["dotnet", "Aeros.Services.Kubernetes.dll"]
I haven't touched the yaml file, but if you need that I can provide it as well. Again, all I've done with this is add a few NuGet packages to the project reference. Build in VisualStudio runs fine, but the docker command:
docker build . --build-arg publishingProfile=Release
is failing with the error mentioned above.
Can someone be so kind as to offer some enlightenment? Thanks!
Edit 1:
I am executing this from the project's folder via a PowerShell command line.
A:
Leandro's comments helped come across the solution.
So first a rundown of that COPY command, it takes two parameters, source and destination.
Within the template for the Dockerfile for Visual Studio, it includes the folder location of the .csproj file it is attempting to copy. In my case, the command read as follows:
COPY ["Aeros.Services.Kubernetes/Aeros.Services.Kubernetes.csproj", "Aeros.Services.Kubernetes/"]
So it is looking for my Aeros.Services.Kubernetes.csproj file in the Aeros.Services.Kubernetes project folder and copying it to the Aeros.Services.Kubernetes folder in the src folder of Docker.
The problem with this is that if you use the default setup, your dockerfile is included inside the project folder. If you are executing the docker build from within the project folder, the syntax for the COPY command is actually looking in the wrong file location. For instance, if your project is TestApp.csproj located in the TestApp project folder, and you are executing the Docker build command for the dockerfile within the same folder, the syntax for that COPY command:
COPY ["TestApp/TestApp.csproj", "TestApp/"]
is actually looking for: TestApp/TestApp/TestApp.csproj.
The correct syntax for the COPY command in this situation should be:
COPY ["TestApp.csproj", "TestApp/"]
since you are already within the TestApp project folder.
Another problem with the default template that may trouble some is that it doesn't copy the web files for the project either, so once you get past the COPY and dotnet restore steps, you will fail during the BUILD with a:
CSC : error CS5001: Program does not contain a static 'Main' method
suitable for an entry point
This is resolved by adding:
COPY . ./
following your RUN dotnet restore command to copy your files.
Once these pieces have been addressed in the default template provided, everything should be functioning as expected.
Thanks for the help!
|
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