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De Jure Rigidity Nicolien Janssens* nicolien.j@gmail.com Abstract The rigid designation of proper names and natural kind terms is the most well-known doctrine of Kripke's Naming and Necessity (1981). On the basis of rigidity, Kripke has shown that proper names and natural kind terms do not refer via a description as argued by descriptivists. In response to Kripke several people have argued that all general terms could be interpreted rigidly, which would make the notion of rigidity trivial. This leads to the 'rigidity problem': the notion of rigidity cannot be used to argue against descriptivism anymore. I will show that the rigidity problem appears on a larger scale: firstly, because it appears independently of the trivialisation problem, secondly, because it appears for descriptions acting like singular terms as well. I will argue, however, that proper names and natural kind terms differ in an important manner from rigid descriptions. While the first are de jure rigid, the latter are de facto rigid. I will show that the rigidity problem indeed appears for de facto rigidity, but not for de jure rigidity, with the result that Kripke's argument against descriptivism can withstand. 1 Introduction In Naming and Necessity (1981), Kripke introduces his well-known notion of rigid designation. Kripke defines a rigid designator as a designator that designates the same object in every possible world in which the object exists (1981, 48). In other words, a rigid designator is a referential expression that in every possible situation refers to the same object. According to Kripke, a specific kind of singular term, namely proper names (1981, 48), and a specific kind of general term, namely natural kind terms (1981, 134), are rigid designators. Kripke uses the notion of rigidity mainly to argue against descriptivism, which holds that the meaning of a term is determined by a description (1981, 6–15). The notion of rigidity, however, has only been defined by Kripke for singular terms, which designate a single individual. General terms, on the other hand, designate more individuals *Nicolien Janssens is a second year undergraduate philosophy student at the University of Amsterdam. Currently, she is particularly interested in philosophy of language, metaphysics and logic. However, her interests are broad and therefore she hopes in the future to be able to combine philosophy with other disciplines. 10 APORIA Vol. 18 No. 1 at the same time. While Kripke says that natural kind terms are rigid designators, he does not define what they rigidly designate. Several philosophers have suggested that a rigid general term designates the same property or kind in every possible world (LaPorte 2000; Salmon 2005; Orlando 2014). I will call this theory henceforth the 'kind-theory'. Some pointed out that the kind-theory would make all general terms rigid and thus would make the notion of rigidity trivial (Macbeth 1995; Schwartz 2002). For every description that acts like a general term, it would be possible to argue that it designates a certain abstract property or kind in every possible world1. Hence, they argue, the concept of rigidity could be extended to all general terms, and thus would cease to be a useful concept to describe the different semantic behaviour of different kinds of terms. As a result, we encounter what I will call the 'rigidity problem': since it turned out that, apart from natural kind terms, every general term could be interpreted rigidly, rigidity cannot be used to argue against descriptivism anymore, as the other general terms do refer via a description. Some hold that the trivialisation problem simply cannot be solved (Schwartz 2002; Soames 2002; Haraldsen 2017). Therefore, they argue that the notion of rigidity should not be applied to general terms at all. The result of this is that we cannot argue by means of the notion of rigidity that natural kind terms do not refer via a description. Others wanted to defend the claim that natural kind terms are rigid designators. They therefore tried to overcome the trivialisation problem either by showing that not all general terms are rigid (LaPorte 2000; Salmon 2005; Orlando 2014), or by trying to give another theory of what a general term designates (Devitt 2005). Solving the trivialisation problem, however, will not suffice, since the rigidity problem appears on a larger scale. Firstly, because there are general terms that turn out to be rigid independently of the kind-theory. Secondly, because there are singular terms that turn out to be rigid as well (Kaplan 1978). The description 'that woman-the one that has won the Nobel prize-is brilliant', for example rigidly designates the winner of the Nobel prize. The rigidity of this singular term does not refute descriptivism either. As a result, the rigidity problem has been enlarged: the problem not only arises for general terms, but for the notion of rigidity in general. To solve the rigidity problem, it is thus needed to show that the notion of rigidity can still be used to refute descriptivism for certain terms. It is my aim in this paper to show that this is possible and thus that the rigidity problem can be solved. In order to do this, I will show in §2 that Kripke's reason to draw attention to the notion of rigidity is that it is required in his argument against descriptivism. In §3, I will show that the rigidity problem consists in the fact that the critique of descriptivism is undermined. In §4, I propose my own solution for the rigidity problem which is to make a distinction between de jure rigidity and de facto rigidity. I 1. Apart from descriptions acting like general terms, it is sometimes argued that all artificial kind terms can be interpreted rigidly according to the kind-theory. Meanwhile, there are several philosophers who hold that artificial kind terms cannot be interpreted rigidly due to the kind-theory (Orlando 2014). The rigidity of artificial kind terms is a matter of dispute that is too big to discuss here. However, it will not affect my main point (see footnote 5). DE JURE RIGIDITY 11 will show that de jure rigidity can be used to argue against descriptivism, with the result that Kripke's argument against descriptivism can withstand. 2 Rigidity to argue against descriptivism In Naming and Necessity (1981) Kripke argues against descriptivism of names as advocated by Russell and Frege. Kripke offers different objections to descriptivism, which we can roughly divide into three categories: modal arguments, semantic arguments and epistemic arguments. In this section, I will present Kripke's modal argument, since this argument is interconnected with the notion of rigidity, as I will show. Descriptivism holds that a name has an associated description or cluster of descriptions that gives the meaning of the name (Kripke 1981, 27)2. Assume that we associate the description 'the last great philosopher of antiquity' with the name 'Aristotle'. We should then analyse sentence (1), according to descriptivism, as sentence (2) (Kripke 1981, 6–7): (1) Aristotle was fond of dogs. (2) The last great philosopher of antiquity was fond of dogs. That descriptivism is erroneous becomes apparent when we compare the truth-values of sentences (1) and (2) in different possible worlds. We will see that sentence (1) is true in other worlds than sentence (2), from which follows that sentence (1) and (2) have different modal profiles. Sentence (2) is true in the actual world if Aristotle was actually fond of dogs, since in the actual world Aristotle satisfies the description 'the last great philosopher of antiquity'. That Aristotle was the last great philosopher of antiquity, is however not a necessary property of Aristotle. It might have been the case that someone else was the last great philosopher of antiquity. In such a situation, sentence (2) will be true if that other person, not Aristotle, was fond of dogs. In contrast to sentence (2), sentence (1) will always be true only if Aristotle, and not some other person, was fond of dogs. In this way, Kripke has shown that, contrary to what descriptivists argue, sentences (1) and (2) have different modal profiles and hence different meanings. To clarify the different modal behaviour of the name 'Aristotle' and the description 'the last great philosopher of antiquity', Kripke introduces the notion of a rigid designator. A rigid designator designates the same object in every possible world in which the object exists (1981, 48). Kripke argues that all proper names are rigid designators (1981, 49). Although Aristotle might not have been the last great philosopher of antiquity, it is not the case that Aristotle might not have been Aristotle. Thus in every possible world the proper name 'Aristotle' designates the same person. The description 'the last great philosopher of antiquity' is on the other hand not a rigid designator. If we think of a situation in which the last great philosopher was a woman, we are not thereby thinking of a situation in which Aristotle was a woman. More generally, when we use a description to describe another possible world, we refer to whom-or whatever satisfies 2. There are also description theories that hold that a description only determines the reference of a name. I will not discuss this kind of descriptivism here, since Kripke's argument only refutes description theories of meaning (Kripke 1981, 5). 12 APORIA Vol. 18 No. 1 that description in that other world, independently of whom or what satisfies the description in the actual world. Thus a description does not designate the same object in every possible world, which makes it a non-rigid designator. Since proper names are rigid designators and definite descriptions are non-rigid designators, it follows that names cannot be equivalent to descriptions as descriptivists argue. In this way, Kripke has shown that we have a direct intuition of the rigidity of proper names, which is exhibited in our understanding of the truth conditions of particular sentences (1981, 14). Kripke argues that we have the same intuition for natural kind terms, hereby showing equally that these terms are not synonymous with a description (1981: 134–35). We can demonstrate this by means of the following example: (3) Water is used to make tea. (4) A transparent liquid is used to make tea. That descriptivism is erroneous for natural kind terms, becomes again clear when we compare the truth-values of sentences (3) and (4) across possible worlds. We will see, as in the case of sentence (1) and (2), that sentence (3) and (4) are true in different possible worlds. Sentence (3) is true if and only if water, and not any other substance, is used to make tea. Sentence (4), on the other hand, is true if a transparent liquid, which might be another substance than water, is used to make tea. Consider a situation in which vodka is used to make tea. In such a situation, sentence (3) is false, but sentence (4) is true. If 'water' means 'a transparent liquid', then sentence (3) and (4) could not differ in truth-value in any counterfactual situation. We see, however, that sentence (3) and (4) have different modal profiles and hence different meanings. Kripke has shown in this way that we do not refer to natural kinds by means of a description. In conclusion, the reason that Kripke draws attention to the notion of rigidity is that it is needed to argue against descriptivism. 3 The rigidity problem In what follows, I will show how the trivialisation problem emerged from the kind-theory. Due to this theory, every description that acts like a general term can be interpreted rigidly, which makes the notion of rigidity trivial. The consequence of this is the rigidity problem: rigidity cannot be used to argue against descriptivism anymore. I will show, however, that not only the trivialisation problem undermines Kripke's critique of descriptivism. Firstly, because there are descriptions acting like general terms that turn out to be rigid independently of the kind-theory. Secondly, because there are descriptions acting like singular terms that turn out to be rigid as well. The consequence of this is that Kripke's argument against descriptivism is not only at stake for general terms, but for the notion of rigidity in general. The rigidity problem thus appears on a larger scale. As pointed out earlier, the definition of a rigid designator only applies to singular terms, not to general terms. Therefore some have developed the kind-theory, according to which a DE JURE RIGIDITY 13 rigid general term designates the same property or kind in every possible world (LaPorte 2000; Salmon 2005; Orlando 2014). In response to this, others pointed out that as a result, every description acting like a general term could be interpreted rigidly (Martí and Martínez-Fernández 2011). For example, the description 'the colour of the sky' in a sentence like 'My true love's eyes are the colour of the sky', can be interpreted in two ways. Firstly, it can be interpreted as designating the colour that is the colour of the sky, which in our world is blue, but which in other worlds might be another colour. In this case, 'the colour of the sky' is a non-rigid general term. It is non-rigid, because it designates different colours in different worlds. It is a general term, because a colour can apply to more individuals at the same time. Secondly, 'the colour of the sky' could also designate the 'property of being the colour of the sky'. This is a description that acts like a general term, since a property can apply to more individuals at the same time. In this case, 'the colour of the sky' is a rigid designator, since it designates the same property in every possible world. In this way, it turned out that due to the kind-theory all general terms can be interpreted rigidly, which makes the notion of rigidity trivial. The consequence of the trivialisation problem is that Kripke's argument against descriptivism is undermined. Kripke's argument showed that rigid terms do not refer via a description. Due to the trivialisation problem, however, it turned out that there are rigid terms that do refer via a description, since they simply are descriptions. 'The property of being the colour of the sky' refers to that property, via the description 'the property of being the colour of the sky'. So it is not the case here that the notion of rigidity demonstrates that descriptivism is not adequate for these terms. For this reason, the notion of rigidity cannot be used to argue against descriptivism anymore. This is the rigidity problem. The rigidity problem can only be solved by showing that the notion of rigidity can still be used to argue against descriptivism. To solve the problem, it is therefore not right just to show that not all general terms are rigid, as some have tried (LaPorte 2000; Salmon 2005; Orlando 2014). We need to show that those and only those terms that do not refer via a description are rigid. The other given solution to formulate another theory of what a rigid general term designates (Devitt 2005), will not solve the rigidity problem either. There are descriptions acting like general terms that are rigid, independently of the kind-theory. Firstly, this is the case with essentialist descriptions (Kaplan 1978). Essentialist descriptions are descriptions that pick out their object by properties that the object necessarily satisfies uniquely. An example of an essentialist description is 'the substance with molecular formula H2O'. Secondly, there are rigidifying operators that make descriptions rigid. Kaplan has argued that this is the case with demonstratives (1978). For example, in the sentence 'that liquid-the one with the molecular structure H2O-is transparent', the demonstrative 'that' rigidly designates water. Apart from demonstratives, the word 'actual' is a rigidifying operator. In every possible world the word 'actual' causes the description to refer to the actual world, so that in every possible world the description will refer to the same object. For example, 'the actual liquid that is filling the seas' will in every possible world refer to the liquid that is actually filling the seas. So it will refer in every possible world to water. Essentialist descriptions not only make descriptions acting like general terms rigid, but also 14 APORIA Vol. 18 No. 1 descriptions acting like singular terms. This is for example the case with the description 'the smallest prime number'. This description necessarily picks out the number two, since it is the only number that has the property of being the smallest prime number. Also rigidifying operators make descriptions that act like singular terms rigid. For example in the sentence 'that woman-the one that has won the Nobel prize––is brilliant', the demonstrative 'that' rigidly designates the winner of the Nobel prize. The same holds for the rigidifying operator 'actual': 'the actual prime minister of the Netherlands' will in every possible world refer to the person who is the prime minister of the Netherlands in the actual world. So apart from general terms, there are singular terms that turn out to be rigid. For these singular terms, rigidity cannot be used to argue against descriptivism either. The rigidity problem is thus a problem just as much for singular terms as for general terms. In sum, it turned out that some descriptions that act like singular terms and some descriptions that act like general terms are rigid. The rigidity of these descriptions did not show us that these terms do not refer via a description, as it did for proper names and natural kind terms. In this way, the rigidity problem arose: rigidity cannot be used to argue against descriptivism anymore. 4 De jure and de facto rigidity Kripke is aware that some philosophers argue that there is a rigid sense of definite descriptions (1981, 6n8). He says, however, that he is not convinced of this, 'but if these philosophers are right, my principal thesis is not affected' (1981, 6n8). I have just shown that these philosophers are right. In what follows, I will argue that Kripke is right to claim that his principal thesis, that proper names and natural kind terms do not refer via a description, is nonetheless not affected. This becomes clear if we acknowledge that there is an important distinction between proper names and natural kind terms on the one hand, and rigid descriptions on the other hand. While the first are de jure rigid, the latter are de facto rigid. I will show that de jure rigidity refutes descriptivism for certain terms, while de facto rigidity cannot be used to argue against descriptivism. A rigid designator can designate the same object in every possible world in two different ways, which leads to a distinction between two different kinds of rigid designators. The first kind is a de jure rigid designator: a de jure rigid designator designates the same object in every possible world purely in virtue of its semantic kind. In this case, the semantical rules of the language directly link the term to the object. These semantical rules come about by means of stipulation. The second kind is a de facto rigid designator: a de facto rigid designator designates the same object in every possible world in virtue of expressing a description that happens to designate the same object in every possible world. Hence, de facto rigid designators are rigid not because of semantical rules, but because of non-linguistic facts3. 3. Kripke admits that he has ignored the distinction between de jure and de facto rigid designators, but he does give a rough sketch of what the distinction is (1981, 21n21). According to Kripke, in the case of a de jure rigid DE JURE RIGIDITY 15 The term 'two' for example is a de jure rigid designator of the number two. The term 'two' is a proper name with which we associate particular semantical rules. These semantical rules determine that the term 'two' will designate the number two in all possible worlds. So the term 'two' is rigidly linked to the number two because of semantical rules, which makes it a de jure rigid designator. 'The smallest prime', on the other hand, is a de facto rigid designator of the number two (Kripke 1981, 21n21). It is not possible that another number would be the smallest prime. This follows not from semantical rules, but from the metaphysical fact that mathematical facts are true in all possible worlds. 'The smallest prime' is thus via a non-linguistic fact rigidly linked to the number two, which makes it a de facto rigid designator. Proper names and natural kind terms are de jure rigid. When we give someone a name x, we stipulate that from now on when using that name x, we refer to that person4. The same holds for natural kind terms. When introducing a natural kind term, we equally stipulate that it will refer to that kind of thing. We may use a description to determine the reference of a natural kind term, but this description will never be the meaning of the natural kind term. As an example, Kripke points out that we may determine the reference of the term 'light' by the fact that it affects our eyes in a certain way (1981, 130). However, it might have been the case that all people were blind and that light would not affect our eyes. In such a situation, we would not say that light did not exist. Rather, we would say that light existed in that case, although our associated description with light would not be adequate. In this way, Kripke shows that 'light' does not mean the same as 'that which affects our eyes in a certain way'. From this it follows that natural kind terms cannot be de facto rigid designators. If they were de facto rigid designators, then light had to mean the same as its description, which on its turn would happen to be rigid because of non-linguistic facts. Since light is not equivalent to some description, it must be the case that the term 'light' is directly linked to the natural phenomenon of light, due to the semantical rules which arose from stipulation. So both proper names and natural kind terms refer rigidly because of semantical rules that arose from stipulation. This makes them de jure rigid designators5. Definite descriptions are, if rigid, de facto rigid. Descriptions designate objects by means designator 'the reference of a designator is stipulated to be a single object', while in the case of a de facto rigid designator 'a description "the x such that Fx" happens to use a predicate "F " that in each possible world is true of one and the same unique object' (1981, 21n21). I think my elaboration of the distinction coincides with this rough sketch. 4. Bostock (1988) and Evans (1979) have pointed out that some proper names refer via a description. Kripke admits that this might be true (1981, 79–80), but I cannot discuss the matter here. If true, however, my argument should be adjusted slightly: not all proper names are de jure rigid. My main point could withstand: de jure rigid designators could still be used to argue against descriptivism, although there might not be a specific group of terms that is de jure rigid. 5. As I pointed out in footnote 1, some hold that artificial kind terms are rigid designators in the sense that they refer to the same kind in every possible world due to semantical rules. This would make artificial kind terms belong to the de jure rigid designators. I also pointed out that others hold that artificial kind terms are not rigid. In either case, my main point, that de jure rigid designators do not refer via mediation of a description, will not be affected. The only doubt here is whether we should count artificial kind terms as de jure rigid designators or as non-rigid designators. 16 APORIA Vol. 18 No. 1 of a description as we saw earlier. If then descriptions are rigid, they have constant reference via mediation of some description that happens to designate the same object in every possible world. I illustrated this above by means of the description 'the smallest prime'. Descriptions refer thus, if rigid, always via a description, which make them de facto rigid designators. It is a more controversial issue whether a description that contains a demonstrative refers via a description. Earlier we saw the sentence: 'that woman-the one that has won the Nobel prize-is brilliant'. Here it seems we are stipulating at this very moment that 'that woman' will always refer to the woman that has won the Nobel prize and thus that it is a de jure rigid designator. Kaplan (1978) for example holds this. However, what a demonstrative designates is always a matter of context. That 'that woman' refers rigidly to the winner of the Nobel prize is determined by the context of utterance, or in other words by the way that 'that woman' is described. Without a context of utterance 'that woman' refers to nothing. I cannot see therefore, how a demonstrative could designate an object purely in virtue of its semantic kind, since a context of utterance is always needed to determine the referent. Hence, I hold that definite descriptions containing demonstratives are de facto rigid as well6. I have shown that the reason that Kripke draws attention to the notion of rigidity is that it is needed to argue against descriptivism. We can now say that de jure rigidity is the notion that is needed to argue against descriptivism. In the case of de facto rigidity, however, the reference of a term is determined by means of a description. From this it follows that de facto rigidity cannot be used to argue against descriptivism. Due to the de jure–de facto distinction, we have killed two birds with one stone. Firstly, we have justified Kripke's claim that descriptivism is not adequate for proper names and natural kind terms, even though more terms turned out be rigid. Secondly, we have solved the trivialisation problem with regard to de jure rigid terms. It might be the case that all terms can be interpreted as de facto rigid, but at least I have shown that not all terms can be interpreted as de jure rigid. Hence, de jure rigidity is an important, non-trivial notion which we can use to argue against descriptivism for certain terms, as Kripke justly has pointed out. Devitt also holds that the notion of rigidity must refute descriptivism for proper names and natural kind terms (2005, 144)7. Devitt introduces the notion of 'rigid application' for general terms: 'a general term "F " is a rigid applier iff it is such that if it applies to an object in any possible world, then it applies to that object in every possible world in which the object exists' (2005, 146). According to Devitt, this notion refutes most, but not all description theories for names and natural kind terms, since there are descriptions acting like singular terms (2005, 145) and descriptions acting like general terms (2005, 147) that are rigid. He gives the following 6. As in the cases pointed out in footnote 4 and 5, even if demonstratives would turn out to be de jure rigid, my main point would not be affected. 7. Schwartz (2002) also thinks that rigidity should have a theoretical work if it is not to be trivial. Schwartz, however, has another, and in my opinion wrong, conception of what the theoretical work is that the notion of rigidity should have. He namely thinks that rigidity is supposed to distinguish natural kind terms from artificial ones (2002, 273). According to Schwartz, general term rigidity fails to do this and therefore the notion of rigidity should only be applied to singular terms (2002, 275–76). As I showed in section 2, however, this is not the reason that Kripke draws attention to the notion of rigidity. DE JURE RIGIDITY 17 example of a singular term rigid applier that refers via a description: 'the person who was actually the last great philosopher of antiquity' (2005, 145). Equally, he gives the example 'stuff with atomic number 79' and points out that this is a general term rigid applier, although it does refer via a description (2005, 147). Because on Devitt's solution rigidity most, but not all, of the times refutes descriptivism, the solution does not seem convincing. In claiming that rigidity should be able to be used to argue against descriptivism, the notion should be able to refute descriptivism consistently. Moreover, Devitt only provides a solution for general terms, while my solution applies to singular terms as well as general terms. The solution I propose is therefore favourable over the one from Devitt, since in my solution de jure rigidity always can be used to refute descriptivism for certain terms. 5 Conclusion In this paper, I have shown that a term can be rigid in two ways. A de jure rigid designator designates the same object in every possible world in virtue of its semantic kind. A de facto rigid designator designates the same object in every possible world in virtue of expressing a description which happens to designate the same object in every possible world. Due to the de jure–de facto distinction, rigid terms that do not refer via a description, namely proper names and natural kind terms, are clearly separated from rigid terms that do refer via a description, namely rigid descriptions. Consequently, the notion of rigidity, understood as de jure rigidity, can be used to refute descriptivism for certain terms. In this way, I have shown how the rigidity problem could be overcome in a way that is compatible with Kripke's claim that rigid terms, understood as de jure rigid, do not refer via a description. There is some secondary work that the notion of rigidity fulfils that I have not discussed in this paper. For instance, Kripke has argued that an identity statement in which both designators are rigid must be, if true, necessarily true, even if the statement is a posteriori. I think my distinction between de jure and de facto rigidity coincides with this secondary work in the following way: an identity statement containing two de jure rigid designators is necessarily true, while an identity statement containing two de facto rigid designators is not always necessarily true. I am afraid, however, that future research should decide whether I am right about this. Besides that, it is still not clear whether the kind-theory applies to rigid general terms. I have shown that the kind-theory could apply to general terms, because my proposal to make a distinction between de jure and de facto rigidity shows that the trivialisation problem does not apply to de jure rigid general terms. But there might be other reasons to adhere or reject the kind-theory, which I cannot discuss here. What I wanted to point out in this paper is that rigidity, understood as rigidity de jure, is not a trivial notion, but an important and indispensable one to argue against descriptivism. 18 APORIA Vol. 18 No. 1 References Bostock, David. 1988. "Necessary Truth and A Priori Truth." Mind 97 (387): 343–79. Devitt, Michael. 2005. "Rigid Application." Philosophical Studies 125 (2): 139–65. doi:10.100 7/s11098-005-8221-y. Evans, Gareth. 1979. "Reference and Contingency." The Monist 62 (2): 161–89. Haraldsen, Fredrik. 2017. "Kind Term Rigidity and Property Identities." Philosophia 45 (3): 1179–93. doi:10.1007/s11406-017-9822-3. Kaplan, David. 1978. "Dthat." In Syntax and Semantics, edited by Peter Cole, 221–43. Academic Press. . 1989. "Demonstratives." In Themes From Kaplan, edited by Joseph Almog, John Perry, and Howard Wettstein, 481–563. Oxford University Press. Kripke, Saul. 1977. "Speaker's Reference and Semantic Reference." In Studies in the Philosophy of Language, edited by Peter A. French, Theodore E. Uehling Jr, and Howard K. Wettstein, 255–296. University of Minnesota Press. . 1981. Naming and Necessity. Oxford: Wiley-Blackwell. LaPorte, Joseph. 2000. "Rigidity and Kind." Philosophical Studies: An International Journal for Philosophy in the Analytic Tradition 97 (3): 293–316. Macbeth, Danielle. 1995. "Names, Natural Kind Terms, and Rigid Designation." Philosophical Studies: An International Journal for Philosophy in the Analytic Tradition 79 (3): 259–81. Martí, Genoveva, and José Martínez-Fernández. 2011. "General Terms, Rigidity and the Trivialization Problem." Synthese 181 (2): 277–93. doi:10.1007/s11229-010-9802-7. Orlando, Eleonora. 2014. "General Terms and Rigidity: Another Solution to the Trivialization Problem." Manuscrito 37 ( June): 49–80. doi:10.1590/S0100-60452014000100002. Putnam, Hilary. 1975. Mind, Language, and Reality. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. Salmon, Nathan. 2005. "Are General Terms Rigid?" Linguistics and Philosophy 28 (1): 117–34. Schwartz, Stephen P. 2002. "Kinds, General Terms, and Rigidity: A Reply to LaPorte." Philosophical Studies: An International Journal for Philosophy in the Analytic Tradition 109 (3): 265–77. Soames, Scott. 2002. Beyond Rigidity: The Unfinished Semantic Agenda of Naming and Necessity. Oxford: Oxford University Press. doi:10.1093/0195145283.001.0001. |
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Road Argument Ends In Spray Of Bullets
A young Fresno motorist is in fair condition after he was shot twice in a dispute with people in another car. Marco Licona’s Volkswagen Jetta was hit by 18 bullets yesterday in northeast Fresno.
Police say the only witness was a passenger in Licona’s car – but appeared to be intoxicated during initial interviews and was not very helpful.
Police say a grey vehicle pulled up alongside the Jetta and an argument ensued. The verbal battle continued as the two cars drove down the road – until the passenger in the other car leaned out and started shooting.
Licona was hit twice in the upper body. The passenger ran to a nearby house to call 911. |
China to Build World's Largest Steerable Radio Telescope
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The Chinese government has approved a plan to build a giant radio telescope in Qitai County, in the far western region of Xinjiang.
Chinese scientists claim that the device, named the QTT, will be the world's largest steerable radio telescope after its construction is completed.
According to the plan, the QTT will have a steerable 110-meter wide circular dish. The two largest steerable radio telescopes currently in use, with 100-meter wide dishes, are located in the U.S. and Germany.
Radio telescopes perform their observational tasks by receiving radio waves from space. The QTT is expected to be used to study phenomena such as black holes and stellar nurseries in the farthest reaches of the Universe.
The Chinese Academy of Sciences has been leading the design of the telescope since research related to the QTT program started about a decade ago.
Chinese scientists considered nearly 50 locations across Xinjiang before deciding to locate the QTT at a site in the foothills of the massive Tian Shan mountain range. Scientists believe the mountains surrounding the site can protect the telescope from interference by stray radio frequencies.
China is already the home of the world's largest radio telescope. The FAST, located in the southwestern Chinese province of Guizhou, is a 500-meter wide telescope. It started operation in 2016 more than 20 years after it was first proposed by Chinese scientists. However, unlike the dish of the QTT, the FAST uses a fixed position dish. (Xinhua)
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Chinese astronomers are applying for government funding to begin construction of a radio telescope in Antarctica that could help solve the mysteries behind stars and galaxies. The proposed facility, to be built on a giant ice cap known as Dome A, has been designed to obse...
Technicians have begun assembling the world's largest radio telescope, with a dish the size of 30 football grounds, deep in the mountains of southwest China's Guizhou Province. Yesterday afternoon, they began to assemble the telescope's reflector, which is 500 meters in d...
The Five-hundred-meter Aperture Spherical Telescope (FAST), the world's largest radio telescope, was completed on September 25 in southwestern China’s Guizhou Province and will now begin its debugging and testing stage, announced the Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS).
The world's largest radio telescope will be completed and in use in late September, accompanied by regulations to protect the facility. The construction of the Five-hundred-meter Aperture Spherical Telescope, or FAST, has entered its final phase in Pingtang County in the ...
Chinese astronomers are applying for government funding to begin construction of a radio telescope in Antarctica that could help solve the mysteries behind stars and galaxies. The proposed facility, to be built on a giant ice cap known as Dome A, has b...
Technicians have begun assembling the world's largest radio telescope, with a dish the size of 30 football grounds, deep in the mountains of southwest China's Guizhou Province. Yesterday afternoon, they began to assemble the telescope's reflector, whic... |
Surviving the Ride
Surviving the Ride
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Christine Blackburn (Story Worthy Podcast, Story Smash the Storytelling Gameshow) has played many roles in her life but here she is 100% herself! Christine tells hilariously and heartfelt woven stories about growing up with no rules, becoming a flight attendant and the ups and downs of the airline industry, her journey to and thru the Peace Corps, and facing death head on. Join us for Surviving The Ride! |
Introduction {#Sec1}
============
Preterm infants with respiratory distress syndrome (RDS), a common disease of prematurity, often require respiratory support. Although evidence supports the utility of continuous positive airway pressure (CPAP) for RDS,^[@CR1]^ there is less evidence regarding optimal timing of CPAP discontinuation.^[@CR2]^ CPAP enables areas of the lung that participate in gas exchange to remain inflated. However, CPAP may also be associated with impaired blood return to the heart,^[@CR3]^ pneumothoraces,^[@CR4]^ and nasal septum injury.^[@CR5]^ Therefore, discontinuing CPAP upon resolution or improvement of respiratory distress may minimize risks. In randomized controlled trials on approaches to CPAP discontinuation in preterm infants, up to 65% of infants fail their initial wean from CPAP.^[@CR2]^ This high failure rate provides further confirmation that better criteria are needed to identify infants ready to wean from CPAP as periods of atelectasis that may occur with failed weaning attempts could potentially cause further lung injury.^[@CR6]^
Oxygen saturation histograms provide a graphic depiction of the distribution of oxygen saturation in different ranges and are available on many bedside monitors in the neonatal intensive care unit (NICU). The use of histograms to follow oxygen saturations in preterm infants may improve outcomes in preterm infants^[@CR7]^ and provide a clinical tool to identify infants ready to wean from CPAP.^[@CR8]^ However, baseline clinical variables have differed in prior investigations between infants that fail to wean from support and those that succeed in transitioning off support. The aim of this study was to use a case--control study design to compare achieved oxygen saturation in preterm infants who successfully transition off of CPAP to those that need prolonged CPAP support. We hypothesized that infants that successfully transition off CPAP would achieve oxygen saturations \>95% for a larger proportion of time compared to those infants that fail to wean from CPAP.
Methods {#Sec2}
=======
Study design {#Sec3}
------------
Institutional Review Board approval at the University of Alabama at Birmingham was obtained prior to study initiation. This was a prospective observational case--control study in preterm infants born at ≤30 weeks' gestation or \<1250 g at birth. Included infants were born between October 2017 and August 2018. Infants were included if they were managed on CPAP for ≥24 h, were weaned off of CPAP within the first 7 postnatal days, were on \<0.30 FiO~2~ at the time of weaning, and had 24-hour oxygen saturation histogram data available prior to weaning from CPAP. Twenty-four hour histograms were collected from bedside monitors (Philips IntelliVue MP70) prior to CPAP discontinuation. Infants were excluded if they were never exposed to CPAP, remained on CPAP and/or mechanical ventilation throughout the first postnatal week, had a major congenital anomaly, or did not have histogram data available.
Histograms were available to clinicians from bedside monitors at the time infants were weaned off CPAP; however, specific histogram criteria were not routinely used to determine CPAP-weaning readiness. Goal saturations for this cohort were 90--95%. Respiratory therapists routinely monitored histograms every 6 h on infants requiring respiratory support in our NICU to improve infants' achievement of goal saturations of 90--95%.^[@CR7]^ Within the NICU, there was no official guideline as to when to wean infants from CPAP in the first postnatal week, however, the practice occurred in this cohort once infants were on low FiO~2~ (a median of 0.21 in the cases and 0.22 in cases), with infrequent apneic events (1--2 events/day requiring stimulation), and a CPAP of 4--5 mm H~2~O. Infants were not incrementally weaned (e.g., not cycled between CPAP and room air). Infants were weaned to either room air or oxygen environment (servo-controlled supplemental oxygen within the incubator). Infants were typically restarted on CPAP if after weaning they have an increase in apneic frequency, an increase in FiO~2~ requirement \>0.30, or increased work of breathing.
Cases were infants weaned off CPAP but subsequently placed back on CPAP within 7 consecutive days of discontinuation. Controls were infants weaned off CPAP who remained off CPAP for the following 7 consecutive days. Seven days was chosen as the duration of observation following CPAP discontinuation to reduce potential underestimation of the number of infants subsequently restarted on CPAP. Infants were matched based on gestational age at birth (±10 days). Baseline characteristics (i.e., gestational age at birth, birth weight, race, sex), major morbidities (i.e., RDS), as well as variables of respiratory support (i.e., amount of oxygen required, number of apneic episodes) were compared between cases and controls. To ensure that results could be subsequently applied clinically, achieved saturations in the 24 h prior to CPAP discontinuation were compared between cases and controls at six default distribution ranges from the Philips monitor (85--87, 87--90, 90--92, 92--95, 95--97, and 97--100%). Histograms were also compared between infants on supplemental oxygen and infants not on supplemental oxygen prior to weaning from CPAP.
Statistical analysis {#Sec4}
--------------------
The hypothesis of this study was that in preterm infants with RDS, infants who successfully wean off CPAP (controls) would achieve oxygen saturations \>95% for a greater percentage of time compared to infants who failed weaning from CPAP (cases). Sample size calculations were based on pilot data (*N* = 15), wherein controls achieved oxygen saturations \>95% for a median of 52% of the time prior to weaning from CPAP compared to cases achieving oxygen saturations \>95% for 21% of the time. Using this absolute difference of 31%, a power of 80%, and a confidence level of 95%, we calculated that a total of 34 infants would be required.
Baseline differences between cases and controls were compared using a *t* test or Mann--Whitney tests for continuous variables and the Fisher test for categorical variables. Achieved oxygen saturation distributions were compared between cases and controls using two-way analysis of variance. Forward stepwise multivariate logistic regression was used to determine variables that predicted CPAP-weaning success. The predictive performance of the percentage of time infants achieved oxygen saturations \> 95% to differentiate cases and controls was analyzed using area under the receiver operating characteristic curve (AUC). Sensitivity and specificity calculations determined the optimal duration of time \>95% to predict CPAP-weaning success using the Youden index. Statistical analyses were performed using SPSS version 25.
Results {#Sec5}
=======
During the study period, 159 patients were assessed for eligibility during the first postnatal week of whom 48 were weaned off CPAP during the first week after birth (Fig. [1](#Fig1){ref-type="fig"}). Of the 48 eligible infants, 12 did not have histogram data available for the 24 h period prior to CPAP discontinuation. Following CPAP discontinuation in the remaining infants, 12 infants were placed back on CPAP (cases) and 24 remained off CPAP (controls). Given the number of cases and controls, matching was performed with a case:control ratio of 1:2.Fig. 1Flow diagram for included and excluded infants.
Baseline characteristics including antenatal corticosteroid exposure, gestational age, and birth weight as well as morbidities including bronchopulmonary dysplasia, grade 3--4 intracranial hemorrhage, necrotizing enterocolitis, and culture proven sepsis did not differ between cases and controls (Table [1](#Tab1){ref-type="table"}). The median difference in gestational age between cases and controls was 2 days. Respiratory characteristics prior to and after CPAP discontinuation were similar between cases and controls, including the postnatal day when weaned, the number of apneic events requiring intervention, and FiO~2~ (Table [2](#Tab2){ref-type="table"}). Achieved oxygen saturations differed between cases and control infants (*p* \< 0.0001; Fig. [2](#Fig2){ref-type="fig"}). Control infants achieved oxygen saturations for a greater percentage of time between 95 and 97% (32% vs. 19%) and 97--100% (21 vs. 6%) compared with cases (*p* \< 0.0001 by Sidak's multiple comparison test). Cases spent more time (66% vs 45%) between goal saturations of 90--95% compared to controls (*p* \< 0.0002), although this was secondary to controls achieving higher saturations (Fig. [2](#Fig2){ref-type="fig"}). In addition, infants not on supplemental oxygen achieved oxygen saturations of 95--97% (35% vs. 21%) and 97--100% (25% vs. 6%) for more time than infants requiring supplemental oxygen (Supplemental Fig. [1](#MOESM2){ref-type="media"}).Table 1Characteristics in cases and controls.Control (*n* = 24)Cases (*n* = 12)*P*Gestational age, weeks mean ± SD28.2 ± 127.8 ± 10.44Birth weight, grams mean ± SD895 ± 2201019 ± 1990.18Male sex *n* (%)8 (33.3)5 (41.7)0.72Race *n* (%)\> 0.99 White9 (37.5)4 (33.3) Black15 (62.5)6 (50.0) Other02 (16.7)Antenatal corticosteroids *n* (%)19 (79)9 (75)\> 0.99Mechanically ventilated *n* (%)9 (38)4 (33)\> 0.99Surfactant *n* (%)9 (38)4 (33)\> 0.99Death *n* (%)1 (4.2)1 (8.3)\> 0.99Bronchopulmonary dysplasia *n* (%)5 (20.8)4 (33.3)0.44Retinopathy of prematurity *n* (%)7 (29.2)4 (33.3)\> 0.99Grade 3--4 intracranial hemorrhage *n* (%)01 (8.3)0.33Necrotizing enterocolitis stage ≥ 2*n* (%)2 (8.3)2 (16.7)0.56Culture proven sepsis *n* (%)3 (12.5)1 (8.3)\> 0.99*n* number, *SD* standard deviation.Table 2Respiratory characteristics in cases and controls.Control (*n* = 24)Cases (*n* = 12)*P*Postnatal day of CPAP wean, days mean ± SD4 ± 1.44 ± 1.80.88Apneic events with intervention\* prior to wean median (IQR)0 (0--1)0 (0--1)\> 0.99Caffeine dose prior to wean, mg/kg mean ± SD14 ± 513.4 ± 40.85Carbon dioxide prior to wean (mmHg) median (IQR)38 (35--42)42 (38--43)0.18FiO~2~ prior to wean median (IQR)21 (21--23)22 (21--25)0.26Respiratory support prior to wean *n* (%)0.70 CPAP of 4 mm H~2~O18 (75)8 (66.7) CPAP of 5 mm H~2~O6 (25)4 (33.3)Apneic events with intervention\* after wean median (IQR)0 (0--2)1 (0--4)0.23Carbon dioxide following wean (mmHg) median (IQR)40 (38--43)42 (38--43)0.89FiO~2~ following wean median (IQR)21 (21--24)21 (21--25)0.37Respiratory support after wean *n* (%)0.50 Room air9 (37.5)6 (50) Oxygen environment15 (62.5)6 (50)*n* number, *SD* standard deviation, *IQR* interquartile range, *CPAP* continuous positive airway pressure, *FiO*~*2*~ fractional inspired oxygen concentration.\*Apneic events defined as bradycardic episodes \<80 bpm with oxygen desaturation \<80% of any duration receiving intervention (e.g., stimulation, increased oxygen).Fig. 2Achieved oxygen saturations in cases and controls in the 24 h prior to CPAP discontinuation.Controls infants achieved saturations 95--97 and 97--100% for a greater percentage of time than cases. Data represent mean ± standard error of mean. Analysis performed using two-way ANOVA with Sidak's multiple comparisons test.
By multivariable forward stepwise logistic regression, the percentage of time infants achieved oxygen saturations \>95% predicted CPAP-weaning success (OR 1.046; 95% CI 1.006--1.087). No other baseline, clinical, or respiratory variable met inclusion for the equation. The AUC for oxygen saturation achievement \>95% was 0.79 (95% CI, 0.63--0.94) (Fig. [3](#Fig3){ref-type="fig"}). The optimal value of oxygen saturation achievement \>95% to predict CPAP-weaning success by Youden index was 31.6% with a sensitivity of 75% and specificity of 75%.Fig. 3The area under the curve for oxygen saturation achievement \>95% was 0.79 (95% CI, 0.63--0.94).Using a value of 31.6%, the sensitivity and specificity for predicting CPAP-weaning success were 75% and 75%, respectively.
Discussion {#Sec6}
==========
In this case--control study of CPAP weaning in preterm infants, achieved oxygen saturations prior to CPAP discontinuation predicted CPAP-weaning success. In contrast, other baseline characteristics including gestational age, birth weight, and need for mechanical ventilation and respiratory variables including FiO~2~ requirement and apneic events prior to CPAP discontinuation did not predict CPAP-weaning success.
Previous studies suggest that baseline characteristics such as gestational age and birth weight differ between infants that successfully wean off of CPAP and infants restarted on CPAP. In a randomized controlled trial in preterm infants comparing cycling on and off CPAP for prespecified periods of time weaning to nasal cannula or weaning to room air, infants born at \<28 weeks' gestation took a median of three attempts to wean off CPAP compared with two attempts in infants born at 28--29 weeks' gestation.^[@CR9]^ In another trial that randomized preterm infants on CPAP to either nasal cannula or room air, infants failing to successfully wean from CPAP had a lower gestational age (27 vs 29 weeks' gestation) and lower birth weight (920 g vs 1230 g).^[@CR10]^ A retrospective observational study in infants born at ≤32 weeks' gestation analyzed factors associated with the timing of CPAP discontinuation. Infants were weaned off CPAP at a mean PMA of 33 weeks' gestation and birth weight was inversely related to the PMA at which CPAP was discontinued.^[@CR11]^ In the present study, infants were an average of \~28 weeks' gestation in both cases and controls and had a mean birth weight of 895 g in controls and 1019 g in cases. As these variates did not differ between cases and controls, other respiratory variables could be used to predict CPAP-weaning success.
Determination of infants' readiness for weaning off CPAP presents a challenge as demonstrated by CPAP-weaning failure rates in randomized controlled trials. RCTs comparing methods of CPAP weaning in preterm infants have used different "stability criteria" prior to randomization. These criteria have included indicators of work of breathing, parameters of respiratory support, and frequency of apneic events. The oxygen requirement in these trials has ranged from 0.21 FiO~2~^[@CR10],[@CR12]^ to \<0.25--30 FiO~2~.^[@CR9],[@CR13],[@CR14]^ Despite the use of these criteria, multiple trials have reported CPAP-weaning failure rates exceeding 50%.^[@CR9],[@CR12],[@CR15]^ These failures to successfully wean infants from CPAP suggest that currently used criteria to identify infants ready to wean from CPAP are insufficient. However, weaning success may not only result from the stability criteria used to wean infants but also the failure criteria used to restart CPAP. In these trials, failure criteria ranged from any oxygen requirement^[@CR10],[@CR12]^ to \>0.60 FiO~2~.^[@CR13]^ In the RCT with the failure criteria of \>0.60 FiO~2~, the CPAP-weaning failure rate was the lowest at \~20%. The present study provides additional evidence for the inadequacy of currently used stability criteria. The FiO~2~ requirement and apneic event frequency neither differed between cases and controls nor were included in the forward stepwise logistic regression analysis.
Given that additional or refined stability criteria for CPAP-weaning readiness are needed, the present study evaluated oxygen saturation histograms as a potential predictor for CPAP-weaning success. Despite respiratory support and baseline characteristics including FiO~2~ and respiratory support that did not differ between cases and controls, control infants achieved oxygen saturations \>95% for more time compared with cases. This may suggest improved gas exchange in control infants compared with cases as infants in this study were weaned from CPAP at a median of 4 days after birth, which roughly corresponds to when RDS symptoms and signs typically resolve. Furthermore, in infants with transient to no oxygen requirement, achievement of higher saturations (95--100%) compared with saturations within the limits (90--95%) may not be systematically monitored. Conversely, both control and case infants achieved target saturations for \>85% of the time and case infants were not hypoxemic for more time compared with controls as would be expected in infants with little to no oxygen requirement. Analyzing achieved oxygen saturations may therefore provide additional, more predictive sensitivity for CPAP-weaning readiness in preterm infants compared with using other respiratory support parameters (e.g., low FiO~2~ requirement).
Previous studies have reported the utility of oxygen saturation histogram use in preterm infants. In a previous study comparing oxygen saturation distributions prior to weaning from high flow nasal cannula or CPAP in preterm infants, infants requiring an increase in respiratory support after weaning had oxygen saturations \<86% for a longer period of time compared with infants successfully weaned from positive pressure. However, gestational age significantly differed between groups.^[@CR8]^ A study developing a histogram classification system monitored oxygen saturation stability over the course of hospitalization in preterm infants with FiO~2~ \>21% and identified five histogram subtypes. Infants with progressively unstable histograms required more respiratory support at term corrected gestation and needed prolonged ventilator support compared with infants achieving higher oxygen saturations with stable oxygenation patterns.^[@CR16]^ These histogram subtypes cannot be applied to infants in the present study as many infants were on 21% FiO~2~ prior to weaning from CPAP. We have also previously reported that systematically monitoring oxygen saturation histogram patterns in preterm infants may reduce death or severe retinopathy of prematurity.^[@CR7]^
It is unclear whether prolonged CPAP support is lung protective. A trial in preterm infants born at ≤32 weeks' PMA meeting criteria to wean from CPAP were randomized to either 2 weeks of prolonged CPAP or CPAP discontinuation. Infants exposed to prolonged CPAP had improved pulmonary mechanics compared with those infants in which CPAP was discontinued.^[@CR17]^ In a multicenter randomized trial in infants born at \<30 weeks' gestation (*N* = 177), infants were weaned off CPAP using three different strategies: sudden wean to room air, cycled between CPAP and room air with incremental increases in time in room air, and cycling on and off CPAP to nasal cannula. Infants weaned from CPAP to room air were exposed to fewer days on CPAP compared with other groups and had a lower rate of BPD (12.5%) when compared with infants cycled from CPAP to room air (42%) and cycled from CPAP to nasal cannula (19%). Infants cycled off CPAP also had a longer length of stay compared with infants weaned to room air.^[@CR9]^ Although not powered to address this question, infants in the present study were weaned from CPAP on postnatal day 4 and there were no differences in BPD between infants that remained off CPAP compared with those infants exposed to additional CPAP.
The strengths of this study include prospective data collection, case--control design to compare infants successfully weaned from CPAP to infants exposed to prolonged CPAP, similar background characteristics between cases and controls, and adequate power to compare achieved oxygen saturation patterns between cases and controls. In addition, histograms are an available tool on bedside monitors and may be readily used to make CPAP-weaning readiness assessments. A limitation of this study is that standardized criteria were not used to identify infants ready to wean from CPAP. In addition, failure criteria were not used systematically to identify infants that would be restarted on CPAP.
In this case--control study of preterm infants on CPAP, oxygen saturation distributions assessed by bedside histograms differed between infants that successfully weaned from CPAP compared with infants subsequently re-exposed to CPAP. As CPAP-weaning failure rates in RCTs of CPAP discontinuation suggest current criteria for CPAP-weaning readiness may be insufficient, oxygen saturation histograms may help predict infants ready to wean from CPAP support. Future studies using achieved oxygen saturations as a criterion for CPAP-weaning readiness may further support the use of histograms as a tool for this clinical context.
Supplementary information
=========================
{#Sec7}
Supplementary Figure 1 legends Supplementary Figure 1
**Publisher's note** Springer Nature remains neutral with regard to jurisdictional claims in published maps and institutional affiliations.
Supplementary information
=========================
The online version of this article (10.1038/s41390-020-0772-2) contains supplementary material, which is available to authorized users.
Samuel J. Gentle, MD Dr. Gentle made substantial contributions to the concept and design, analysis, and interpretation of data. Dr. Gentle lead drafting of the manuscript and manuscript revision critically important to intellectual content. Dr. Gentle provided final approval of the version of the manuscript being submitted. Namasivayam Ambalavanan, MD Dr. Ambalavanan made substantial contributions to the concept and design, analysis, and interpretation of data. Dr. Ambalavanan contributed to drafting of the manuscript and manuscript revision critically important to intellectual content. Dr. Ambalavanan provided final approval of the version of the manuscript being submitted. Waldemar A Carlo, MD Dr. Carlo made substantial contributions to the concept and design, analysis, and interpretation of data. Dr. Carlo contributed to drafting of the manuscript and manuscript revision critically important to intellectual content. Dr. Carlo provided final approval of the version of the manuscript being submitted.
The authors declare no competing interests.
|
Abstract
Background and Purpose—Atherosclerotic plaque rupture is considered the most important mechanism that underlies the onset of stroke, myocardial infarction, and sudden death. Several evidences demonstrated the pivotal role of inflammatory processes in plaque destabilization. MicroRNAs (miRNAs) are small endogenous RNAs and represent a new important class of gene regulators. Nevertheless, no data exist about the expression profile of miRNAs in atherosclerotic plaques. Thus, the aim of this study was to investigate the expression level of miRNAs in human plaques and to correlate it with clinical features of plaque destabilization.
Methods—Two separate groups of plaques were collected from patients who underwent carotid endarterectomy in Chieti (n=15) and Ancona (n=38) Hospitals. All the plaques were subdivided in symptomatic (n=22) and asymptomatic (n=31) according to the presence/absence of stroke.
Results—First, on the plaques collected at Chieti Hospital, we performed large-scale analysis of miRNA expression. Between the 41 miRNAs examined, we discovered profound differences in the expression of 5 miRNAs (miRNA-100, miRNA-127, miRNA-145, miRNA-133a, and miRNA-133b) in symptomatic versus asymptomatic plaques. Remarkably, when we repeated the analysis on the Ancona plaque subset, all these 5 miRNAs confirmed to be significantly more expressed in the symptomatic plaques. Finally, in vitro experiments on endothelial cells transfected with miRNA-145 and miRNA-133a confirmed the importance of these miRNAs in the modulation of stroke-related proteins.
Conclusions—These results are the first to report alterations in the expression of specific miRNAs in human atherosclerotic plaques and suggest that miRNAs may have an important role in regulating the evolution of atherosclerotic plaque toward instability and rupture. Furthermore, by identifying the specific miRNA signature for stroke now, we are able to use computer algorithms to identify previously unrecognized molecular targets. |
Don't lend your hand to raise no flag atop no ship of fools
Stocks dipped a little today, and gold and gold stocks were worse, on Fed minutes indicating no imminent QE3.
Sure, we could get a brutal correction this year in stocks, gold, or both. You could argue Bernanke needs a bad correction politically before he can fire up the printing presses again.
But keep your eye on the horizon. Long term, there's no way the $15 trillion (and counting) in debt can ever be paid back in sound money. Nobody can afford sound money -- not homedebtors, not the banks, and certainly not the federal government which wouldn't be able to make interest payments without slashing Social Security and Medicare.
Which group has more power, creditors or debtors? Creditors expect the value of the credit they have extended to retain its value. Debtors would like to see their speculative asset purchases retain, or even increase, in value.
Propaganda to the contrary, only one of these groups is going to come out (mostly) whole. Hot tip: it ain't the debtors. |
Involvement of caspase-3, lipid peroxidation and TNF-alpha in causing apoptosis of macrophages by coordinately expressed Salmonella phenotype under stress conditions.
Invasive Salmonella has been reported to induce apoptosis of macrophages as a part of its infection process, which may allow it to avoid detection by the innate immune system. However, the bacterial components capable of inducing apoptosis, particularly under the environments offered by the host have not been fully identified. Therefore, in the present study, attempts were made to evaluate the apoptotic potential of Salmonella enterica serovar Typhi (S. typhi) outer membrane protein expressed under stress conditions like iron, oxidative and anaerobic simulating the in vivo situations encountered by the pathogen. Analysis of data revealed that a coordinately expressed 69kDa outer membrane protein (OMP) expressed with enhanced intensity under iron, oxidative and anaerobic stress conditions caused apoptotic cell death in 51% of macrophages, whereas OMPs of S. typhi extracted under normal conditions accounted for apoptotic cell death in only 31% of macrophages. A significantly enhanced activity of caspase-3 was observed during macrophage-apoptosis induced by this protein. A significant increase in the extent of lipid peroxidation (levels of oxidant) and decrease in the activities of antioxidants was also observed which correlated with the increased generation of tumor necrosis factor-alpha, interleukine-1alpha and interleukine-6. These results suggest that caspase-3 and tumor necrosis factor-alpha in conjunction with other cytokines may induce apoptotic cell death through the up-regulation of oxidants and down-regulation of antioxidants. These findings may be relevant for the better understanding of the disease pathophysiology and for the future developments of diagnostic and preventive strategies during the host-pathogen interactions. |
Anesthetic protocols for common emergencies.
Anesthesia, sedation, and pain management should be taken seriously in the emergency patient. Proper knowledge of the drugs available and their pharmacokinetics and pharmacodynamics are necessary to administer anesthesia safely to critical patients. A proactive approach regarding monitoring, titration of anesthetic drugs, and anticipation of life-threatening complications helps in achieving successful anesthetic outcomes. |
Molecular characterisation and phylogenetic analysis of dengue outbreak in Pasighat, Arunachal Pradesh, Northeast India.
Dengue is one of the most prevalent arboviral diseases in the world with 390 million dengue infections per year. In this study, we report the molecular characterisation of dengue outbreak in Pasighat, Arunachal Pradesh, Northeast India during 2015. : A total of 613 dengue-suspected cases were screened for dengue virus by dengue NS1 Ag and anti-dengue IgM antibody depending on the duration of sample collection and onset of symptom. Further, molecular characterisation was done by amplifying the C-PrM region by real-time polymerase chain reaction followed by phylogenetic analysis. Molecular characterisation revealed that the dengue outbreak was predominantly due to dengue virus serotype-1 (DENV-1) (90.9%) while DENV-2 was detected in 7.5% of samples. Co-infection of DENV-1 and DENV-2 was detected in one case. Phylogenetic analysis of the DENV-1 strains with the prototype revealed that the DENV-1 strains were grouped within genotype III. Similarly, DENV-2 strains were clustered within genotype IV. The study revealed a change in the predominant serotype in recent years with DENV-3 in 2012 to DENV-1, 2, 3 and 4 in 2014 to DENV-1 in 2015 in the study region. A unique L24M mutation was observed in the DENV-1 strains of Arunachal Pradesh which was absent in all the circulating strains in India except one strain from the state of Kerala in South India. Marked variation within the DENV-2 strains was observed at A102V and I163V in one strain similar to earlier circulating isolates in India. The present study reveals a shift in the serotype dominance in the study region. As serotype shifts and secondary infection with a heterologous DENV serotype are frequently associated with disease severity, there is an urgent need for sustained monitoring of the circulating serotypes and enhanced surveillance operations, especially in the monsoon and post-monsoon periods to prevent large-scale, severe dengue outbreaks in this region. |
/*
* (C) Copyright 2003
* Wolfgang Denk, DENX Software Engineering, wd@denx.de.
* (C) Copyright 2009
* Infineon Technologies AG, http://www.infineon.com
*
* See file CREDITS for list of people who contributed to this
* project.
*
* This program is free software; you can redistribute it and/or
* modify it under the terms of the GNU General Public License as
* published by the Free Software Foundation; either version 2 of
* the License, or (at your option) any later version.
*
* This program is distributed in the hope that it will be useful,
* but WITHOUT ANY WARRANTY; without even the implied warranty of
* MERCHANTABILITY or FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE. See the
* GNU General Public License for more details.
*
* You should have received a copy of the GNU General Public License
* along with this program; if not, write to the Free Software
* Foundation, Inc., 59 Temple Place, Suite 330, Boston,
* MA 02111-1307 USA
*/
#include <config.h>
#include <common.h>
#include <asm/io.h>
#include <asm/addrspace.h>
#include "ifx_asc.h"
#define SET_BIT(reg, mask) asc_writel(reg, asc_readl(reg) | (mask))
#define CLEAR_BIT(reg, mask) asc_writel(reg, asc_readl(reg) & (~mask))
#define SET_BITFIELD(reg, mask, off, val) asc_writel(reg, (asc_readl(reg) & (~mask)) | (val << off) )
#undef DEBUG_ASC_RAW
#ifdef DEBUG_ASC_RAW
#define DEBUG_ASC_RAW_RX_BUF 0xA0800000
#define DEBUG_ASC_RAW_TX_BUF 0xA0900000
#endif
DECLARE_GLOBAL_DATA_PTR;
static IfxAsc_t *pAsc = (IfxAsc_t *)CKSEG1ADDR(CONFIG_SYS_IFX_ASC_BASE);
/*
* FDV fASC
* BaudRate = ----- * --------------------
* 512 16 * (ReloadValue+1)
*/
/*
* FDV fASC
* ReloadValue = ( ----- * --------------- ) - 1
* 512 16 * BaudRate
*/
static void serial_divs(u32 baudrate, u32 fasc, u32 *pfdv, u32 *preload)
{
u32 clock = fasc / 16;
u32 fdv; /* best fdv */
u32 reload = 0; /* best reload */
u32 diff; /* smallest diff */
u32 idiff; /* current diff */
u32 ireload; /* current reload */
u32 i; /* current fdv */
u32 result; /* current resulting baudrate */
if (clock > 0x7FFFFF)
clock /= 512;
else
baudrate *= 512;
fdv = 512; /* start with 1:1 fraction */
diff = baudrate; /* highest possible */
/* i is the test fdv value -- start with the largest possible */
for (i = 512; i > 0; i--)
{
ireload = (clock * i) / baudrate;
if (ireload < 1)
break; /* already invalid */
result = (clock * i) / ireload;
idiff = (result > baudrate) ? (result - baudrate) : (baudrate - result);
if (idiff == 0)
{
fdv = i;
reload = ireload;
break; /* can't do better */
}
else if (idiff < diff)
{
fdv = i; /* best so far */
reload = ireload;
diff = idiff; /* update lowest diff*/
}
}
*pfdv = (fdv == 512) ? 0 : fdv;
*preload = reload - 1;
}
void serial_setbrg (void)
{
u32 ReloadValue, fdv;
serial_divs(gd->baudrate, get_bus_freq(0), &fdv, &ReloadValue);
/* Disable Baud Rate Generator; BG should only be written when R=0 */
CLEAR_BIT(asc_con, ASCCON_R);
/* Enable Fractional Divider */
SET_BIT(asc_con, ASCCON_FDE); /* FDE = 1 */
/* Set fractional divider value */
asc_writel(asc_fdv, fdv & ASCFDV_VALUE_MASK);
/* Set reload value in BG */
asc_writel(asc_bg, ReloadValue);
/* Enable Baud Rate Generator */
SET_BIT(asc_con, ASCCON_R); /* R = 1 */
}
int serial_init (void)
{
/* and we have to set CLC register*/
CLEAR_BIT(asc_clc, ASCCLC_DISS);
SET_BITFIELD(asc_clc, ASCCLC_RMCMASK, ASCCLC_RMCOFFSET, 0x0001);
/* initialy we are in async mode */
asc_writel(asc_con, ASCCON_M_8ASYNC);
/* select input port */
asc_writel(asc_pisel, CONSOLE_TTY & 0x1);
/* TXFIFO's filling level */
SET_BITFIELD(asc_txfcon, ASCTXFCON_TXFITLMASK,
ASCTXFCON_TXFITLOFF, ASC_TXFIFO_FL);
/* enable TXFIFO */
SET_BIT(asc_txfcon, ASCTXFCON_TXFEN);
/* RXFIFO's filling level */
SET_BITFIELD(asc_txfcon, ASCRXFCON_RXFITLMASK,
ASCRXFCON_RXFITLOFF, ASC_RXFIFO_FL);
/* enable RXFIFO */
SET_BIT(asc_rxfcon, ASCRXFCON_RXFEN);
/* set baud rate */
serial_setbrg();
/* enable error signals & Receiver enable */
SET_BIT(asc_whbstate, ASCWHBSTATE_SETREN|ASCCON_FEN|ASCCON_TOEN|ASCCON_ROEN);
return 0;
}
void serial_putc (const char c)
{
u32 txFl = 0;
#ifdef DEBUG_ASC_RAW
static u8 * debug = (u8 *) DEBUG_ASC_RAW_TX_BUF;
*debug++=c;
#endif
if (c == '\n')
serial_putc ('\r');
/* check do we have a free space in the TX FIFO */
/* get current filling level */
do {
txFl = ( asc_readl(asc_fstat) & ASCFSTAT_TXFFLMASK ) >> ASCFSTAT_TXFFLOFF;
}
while ( txFl == ASC_TXFIFO_FULL );
asc_writel(asc_tbuf, c); /* write char to Transmit Buffer Register */
/* check for errors */
if ( asc_readl(asc_state) & ASCSTATE_TOE ) {
SET_BIT(asc_whbstate, ASCWHBSTATE_CLRTOE);
return;
}
}
void serial_puts (const char *s)
{
while (*s) {
serial_putc (*s++);
}
}
int serial_getc (void)
{
char c;
while ((asc_readl(asc_fstat) & ASCFSTAT_RXFFLMASK) == 0 );
c = (char)(asc_readl(asc_rbuf) & 0xff);
#ifdef DEBUG_ASC_RAW
static u8* debug=(u8*)(DEBUG_ASC_RAW_RX_BUF);
*debug++=c;
#endif
return c;
}
int serial_tstc (void)
{
int res = 1;
if ( (asc_readl(asc_fstat) & ASCFSTAT_RXFFLMASK) == 0 ) {
res = 0;
}
return res;
}
|
Orange County Issues Public Safety Message
1.Stay at home if at all possible. The severity of the weather has lessened but the
hazards and danger hasn’t. Many traffic lights are out making driving through intersections and on roads dangerous.
2.Downed power lines are to be considered LIVE POWER LINES. If you see power lines
on the ground. STAY AWAY and DO NOT TOUCH! Electricity WILL travel through the wet ground and through tree branches.
3.I bought a generator - KEEP CHILDREN AWAY
·Do
not connect a portable electric generator to your household wiring,
this can be DEADLY! “Electric can back feed” onto the power lines
connected to your home.
·ONLY operate a generator outdoors in a well-ventilated, dry area, away from air intakes to the home. NEVER use a generator indoors or in an attached
garage. Internal combustion engines emit carbon monoxide (odorless, tasteless, and colorless gas that can kill you).
·Do not store fuel indoors and do not refuel a generator while it is running or the when the engine is hot.
·Tidal
surge or flooding can contaminate the public water supply. Drinking
contaminated water may cause illness. Individuals cannot assume that the
water in the storm-affected
area is safe to drink.
·Flood
waters contain disease causing microorganisms. If water treatment
plants are affected by flood waters, residents should heed instructions
from local authorities to boil
their water before drinking it and for use in preparing meals.
·Water
boiling guidelines; bring water to a boil for no less than 2 minutes or
use bottled water for drinking and preparing meals.
Copyright 2006-2014 The Hudson Valley Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. |
This invention relates to a force detector and an acceleration detector to which the force detector is applied, and more particularly to a detector suitable for detection of multidimensional force or acceleration components. Further, this invention provides a method suitable for mass producing such detectors.
In the automobile industry or the machinery industry, there has been increased demand for detectors capable of precisely detecting a physical quantity such as force, acceleration or magnetism. Particularly, it is required to realize small detectors capable of detecting physical quantities every respective two-dimensional or three-dimensional components.
To meet such a demand, there has been proposed a force detector in which gauge resistors are formed on a semiconductor substrate such as silicon, etc. to transform a mechanical distortion produced in the substrate on the basis of a force applied from the external to an electric signal by making use of the piezo resistive effect. When a weight body is attached to the detecting unit of the force detector, an acceleration detector for detecting, as a force, an acceleration applied to the weight body can be realized. Further, when a magnetic body is attached to the detecting unit of the force detector, a magnetic detector for detecting, as a force, a magnetism exerted on the magnetic body can be realized.
For example, in U.S. Pat. Nos. 4,905,523, 4,967,605, 4,969,366, U.S. patent application Ser. Nos. 07/362,399, 07/470,102, and 07/559,381, force detectors using gauge resistor, acceleration detectors, and magnetic detectors are disclosed. Further, in U.S. patent application Ser. No. 07/526,837, a manufacturing method suitable for these detectors is disclosed.
Since there generally exists temperature dependency in the gauge resistance or the piezo resistive coefficient, in the case of the above described detectors, if there occurs any change in the temperature of the environment where those detectors are used, a detected value would include an error. Accordingly, it is required for carrying out a precise measurement to conduct temperature compensation. Particularly, in the case where such detectors are used in the field of automotive vehicle, etc., temperature compensation is required over the considerably broad operating temperature range of -40.degree. to +12.degree. C.
In addition, in order to manufacture the above described detectors, a high level process for processing the semiconductor substrate is required, and a high cost apparatus such as an ion implanter is also required. For this reason, there is the problem that the manufacturing cost becomes high. |
---
abstract: |
We use the structure theory of minimal dynamical systems to show that, for a general group ${\Gamma}$, a tame, metric, minimal dynamical system $(X, {\Gamma})$ has the following structure: $$\xymatrix
{
& \tilde{X} \ar[dd]_\pi \ar[dl]_\eta & X^* \ar[l]_-{{\theta}^*} \ar[d]^{\iota} \ar@/^2pc/@{>}^{\pi^*}[dd]\\
X & & Z \ar[d]^{\sigma}\\
& Y & Y^* \ar[l]^{\theta}}$$ Here (i) $\tilde{X}$ is a metric minimal and tame system (ii) $\eta$ is a strongly proximal extension, (iii) $Y$ is a strongly proximal system, (iv) $\pi$ is a point distal and RIM extension with unique section, (v) ${\theta}$, ${\theta}^*$ and $\iota$ are almost one-to-one extensions, and (vi) ${\sigma}$ is an isometric extension. When the map $\pi$ is also open this diagram reduces to $$\xymatrix
{
& \tilde{X} \ar[dl]_\eta \ar[d]^{\iota} \ar@/^2pc/@{>}^\pi[dd]\\
X & Z \ar[d]^{\sigma}\\
& Y
}$$ In general the presence of the strongly proximal extension $\eta$ is unavoidable. If the system $(X, {\Gamma})$ admits an invariant measure $\mu$ then $Y$ is trivial and $X = \tilde{X}$ is an almost automorphic system; i.e. $X \overset{\iota}{\to} Z$, where $\iota$ is an almost one-to-one extension and $Z$ is equicontinuous. Moreover, $\mu$ is unique and $\iota$ is a measure theoretical isomorphism $\iota : (X,\mu, {\Gamma}) \to (Z, {\lambda}, {\Gamma})$, with ${\lambda}$ the Haar measure on $Z$. Thus, this is always the case when ${\Gamma}$ is amenable.
address: 'Department of Mathematics, Tel-Aviv University, Tel Aviv, Israel'
author:
- Eli Glasner
date: 'June, 2016'
title: The structure of tame minimal dynamical systems for general groups
---
[^1]
[^2]
Introduction {#introduction .unnumbered}
============
In this work we prove a structure theorem for tame, metric, minimal dynamical systems for an arbitrary acting group, Theorem \[main\] and Corollary \[cor\]. This generalizes an older result which delt with the case of abelian acting group ([@H], [@KL] and [@Gmt]). It turns out that the key property needed for the simple form of the structure theorem is amenability, rather than commutativity. In particular Corollary \[cor\] asserts that, when the acting group is amenable, every metric minimal tame system is almost automorphic. When the group is not amenable the structure of a minimal tame system is more complicated and may involve a nontrivial strongly proximal factor.
The method of proof we use is basically the same one we applied in [@Gmt] and consists mainly in applying various structure theorems for general minimal systems. After some efforts to write our proof as a commentary on [@Gmt] with indications where new ideas and results appear, we found that the best way (for the reader as well as for the author) to present the new results is to start anew, although for some minor points we nevertheless refer to the older work. For completeness’ sake and in order to provide the reader with the appropriate background I also reproduce the review section, with the necessary changes.
A dynamical system is a pair $(X,{\Gamma})$, where $X$ is a compact Hausdorff space and ${\Gamma}$ an infinite abstract group acting as a group of homeomorphisms of the space $X$. That is, we are given a homomorphism (not necessarily an isomorphism) of ${\Gamma}$ into ${\rm{Homeo\,}}(X)$. For ${\gamma}\in {\Gamma}$ and $x\in X$ we write ${\gamma}x$ for the image of $x$ under the homeomorphism which corresponds to ${\gamma}$. We will often abuse this notation and consider ${\gamma}$ as a homeomorphism of $X$.
The [*enveloping semigroup*]{} $E(X,{\Gamma})$ of the dynamical system [$(X,{\Gamma})\ $]{}is defined as the closure of image of ${\Gamma}$ in the product space $X^X$. It is not hard to check that, under composition of maps, $E(X,{\Gamma})$ is a compact [*right topological semigroup*]{} , i.e. for each $q\in E(X,{\Gamma})$ the map $R_q:p \mapsto pq$ is continuous. In fact the canonical homomorphism of ${\Gamma}$ into $E(X,{\Gamma})$ is a [*right topological semigroup compactification*]{} of ${\Gamma}$; i.e. it has a dense range and for each ${\gamma}\in {\Gamma}$ multiplication on the left $L_{\gamma}: p \mapsto {\gamma}p$ is continuous on $E(X,{\Gamma})$. This left multiplication by elements of ${\Gamma}$ makes $(E(X,{\Gamma}),{\Gamma})$ a dynamical system.
The enveloping semigroup was introduced by Robert Ellis in 1960 and became an indispensable tool in abstract topological dynamics. However explicit computations of enveloping semigroups are quite rare. One reason for this is that often $E(X,\Gamma)$ is non-metrizable.
Following a pioneering work of A. Köller, [@Ko], Glasner and Megrelishvily proved the following dynamical version of the Bourgain-Fremlin-Talagrand dichotomy theorem, [@G], [@GM].
Let $(X,\Gamma)$ be a metric dynamical system and let $E(X, \Gamma)$ be its enveloping semigroup. We have the following dichotomy. Either
1. $E(X, \Gamma)$ is a separable Fréchet compact space, hence with cardinality ${{\rm{card\,}}}\ {E(X, \Gamma)} \leq 2^{\aleph_0}$; or
2. the compact space $E$ contains a homeomorphic copy of $\beta\mathbb{N}$, hence ${{\rm{card\,}}}\ {E(X, \Gamma)} = 2^{2^{\aleph_0}}$.
A dynamical system is called [*tame*]{} if the first alternative occurs, i.e. $E(X, \Gamma)$ is Fréchet. A dynamical characterization of tame metrizable dynamical systems follows, [@GM] and [@GMU]:
A compact metric dynamical system $(X, \Gamma)$ is tame if and only if every element of $E(X, \Gamma)$ is a Baire class 1 function from $X$ to itself.
For the definitions of HAE (hereditarily almost equicontinuous) systems and other undefined notions which appear in the following theorem, as well as for some further motivation and examples we refer the reader to the papers [@GM], [@G] and [@GMU].
\[th:main\] Let $X$ be a compact metric $G$-space. The following conditions are equivalent:
1. the dynamical system $(X, \Gamma)$ is hereditarily almost equicontinuous (HAE);
2. the dynamical system $(X, \Gamma)$ is RN, that is, it admits a proper representation on a Radon–Nikodým Banach space;
3. the enveloping semigroup $E(X, \Gamma)$ is metrizable.
It thus follows that every metric HAE system is tame.
I would like to thank the two anonymous referees for their corrections and helpful suggestions.
A brief survey of abstract topological dynamics {#sur-sec}
===============================================
This section is a brief review of the structure theory of minimal dynamical systems. We will emphasize some aspects which will be relevant in the present work. For full details the reader is referred to the books [@E2], [@Gl1], [@Au] and [@Vr] and the review articles [@V] and [@G-lu].
If $X$ is a topological space and $A \subset X$ then we use ${\overline}{A} = {\rm{cls\,}}A$, $A^\circ$, $\partial A$ and $A^c = X \setminus A$ for the closure, interior, boundary and complementation operations on $A$, respectively.
A [*topological dynamical system*]{} or briefly a system is a pair $(X,{\Gamma})$, where $X$ is a compact Hausdorff space and ${\Gamma}$ an abstract infinite group which acts on $X$ as a group of homeomorphisms. When there is no room for confusion we write $X$ for the system $(X,{\Gamma})$. A [*sub-system*]{} of [$(X,{\Gamma})\ $]{}is a closed invariant subset $Y\subset X$ with the restricted action. For a point $x\in X$, we let ${\mathcal{O}_{{\Gamma}}}(x)=\{{\gamma}x:{\gamma}\in {\Gamma}\}$, and ${ {{\overline}{\mathcal{O}}}_{{\Gamma}} }(x)={{\rm{cls\,}}} \{{\gamma}x:{\gamma}\in {\Gamma}\}$. These subsets of $X$ are called the [*orbit*]{} and [*orbit closure*]{} of $x$ respectively. We say that $(X,{\Gamma})$ is [*point transitive*]{} if there exists a point $x\in X$ with a dense orbit. In that case $x$ is called a [*transitive point*]{}. If every point is transitive we say that $(X,{\Gamma})$ is a [*minimal system*]{}. We say that $x\in X$ is an [*almost periodic*]{} or a [*minimal*]{} point if ${ {{\overline}{\mathcal{O}}}_{{\Gamma}} }(x)$ is a minimal system.
The dynamical system [$(X,{\Gamma})\ $]{}is [*topologically transitive*]{} if for any two nonempty open subsets $U$ and $V$ of $X$ there exists some ${\gamma}\in {\Gamma}$ with ${\gamma}U\cap V\ne\emptyset$. Clearly a point transitive system is topologically transitive and when $X$ is metrizable the converse holds as well: in a metrizable topologically transitive system the set of transitive points is a dense $G_\delta$ subset of $X$.
The system [$(X,{\Gamma})\ $]{}is [*weakly mixing*]{} if the product system $(X\times X, {\Gamma})$ (where ${\gamma}(x,x')=({\gamma}x,{\gamma}x'),
\ x,x'\in X,\ {\gamma}\in {\Gamma}$) is topologically transitive.
If $(Y,{\Gamma})$ is another system then a continuous onto map $\pi:X\to Y$ satisfying ${\gamma}\circ \pi=\pi\circ {\gamma}$ for every ${\gamma}\in {\Gamma}$ is called a [*homomorphism*]{} of dynamical systems. In this case we say that $(Y,{\Gamma})$ is a [*factor*]{} of $(X,{\Gamma})$ and also that $(X,{\Gamma})$ is an [*extension*]{} of $(Y,{\Gamma})$. With the system [$(X,{\Gamma})\ $]{}we associate the induced action (the [*hyper system*]{} associated with [$(X,{\Gamma})\ $]{}) on the compact space $2^X$ of closed subsets of $X$ equipped with the Vietoris topology. A subsystem $Y$ of $(2^X,{\Gamma})$ is a [*quasifactor*]{} of [$(X,{\Gamma})\ $]{}if $\bigcup \{A: A\in Y\}=X$.
The system [$(X,{\Gamma})\ $]{}can always be considered as a quasifactor of [$(X,{\Gamma})\ $]{}by identifying $x$ with $\{x\}$. Recall that if [$(X,{\Gamma})\overset\pi\to(Y,{\Gamma})$ ]{}is a homomorphism then in general $\pi^{-1}:Y\to 2^X$ is an upper-semi-continuous map and that $\pi:X\to Y$ is open iff $\pi^{-1}:Y\to 2^X$ is continuous.
We assume for simplicity that our acting group ${\Gamma}$ is a discrete group. $\beta {\Gamma}$ will denote the Stone-Čech compactification of ${\Gamma}$. The universal properties of $\beta {\Gamma}$ make it
- a compact semigroup with right continuous multiplication (for a fixed $p\in \beta {\Gamma}$ the map $q\mapsto qp,\ q\in \beta {\Gamma}$ is continuous), and left continuous multiplication by elements of ${\Gamma}$, considered as elements of $\beta {\Gamma}$ (for a fixed ${\gamma}\in {\Gamma}$ the map $q\mapsto {\gamma}q,\ q\in \beta {\Gamma}$ is continuous).
- a dynamical system $(\beta {\Gamma}, {\Gamma})$ under left multiplication by elements of ${\Gamma}$.
The system $(\beta {\Gamma}, {\Gamma})$ is the universal point transitive ${\Gamma}$-system; i.e. for every point transitive system [$(X,{\Gamma})\ $]{}and a point $x\in X$ with dense orbit, there exists a homomorphism of systems $(\beta {\Gamma}, {\Gamma})\to (X,{\Gamma})$ which sends $e$, the identity element of ${\Gamma}$, onto $x$. For $p\in \beta {\Gamma}$ we let $px$ denote the image of $p$ under this homomorphism. This defines an “action" of the semigroup $\beta {\Gamma}$ on every dynamical system. In fact, by universality there exists a unique homomorphism $(\beta {\Gamma}, {\Gamma})\to (E(X,{\Gamma}),{\Gamma})$ onto the enveloping semigroup $E(X,{\Gamma})$ which is also a semigroup homomorphism and we can interpret, and often do, the $\beta {\Gamma}$ action on $X$ via this homomorphism.
When dealing with the hyper system $(2^X,{\Gamma})$ we write $p\circ A$ for the image of the closed subset $A\subset X$ under $p\in \beta {\Gamma}$ to distinguish it from the (usually non-closed) subset $pA=\{px:x\in A\}$. If $p$ is the limit of a net ${\gamma}_i$ in ${\Gamma}$ then $$p \circ A =\{x\in X:
\text{there are a subnet ${\gamma}_{i_j}$ and a net $x_j \in A$
with $x=\lim_j {\gamma}_{i_j} x_j$}\}.$$ We always have $pA\subset p\circ A$.
The compact semigroup $\beta {\Gamma}$ has a rich algebraic structure. For instance for countable ${\Gamma}$ there are $2^c$ minimal left (necessarily closed) ideals in $\beta {\Gamma}$ all isomorphic as systems and each serving as a universal minimal system. Each such minimal ideal, say $M$, has a subset $J$ of $2^c$ idempotents such that $\{vM:v\in J\}$ is a partition of $M$ into disjoint isomorphic (non-closed) subgroups. An idempotent in $\beta{\Gamma}$ is called [*minimal*]{} if it belongs to some minimal ideal. A point $x$ in a dynamical system [$(X,{\Gamma})\ $]{}is a minimal point iff there is some minimal idempotent $v$ in $\beta{\Gamma}$ with $vx=x$, iff there exists some $v \in J$ with $vx=x$.
The group of dynamical system automorphisms of $(M,{\Gamma})$,$G={{\rm{Aut\,}}}(M,{\Gamma})$ can be identified with any one of the groups $vM$ as follows: with ${\alpha}\in vM$ we associate the automorphism $\hat{\alpha}:(M,{\Gamma})\to (M,{\Gamma})$ given by right multiplication $\hat{\alpha}(p)=p{\alpha},\ p\in M$. The group $G$ plays a central role in the algebraic theory. It carries a natural $T_1$ compact topology, called by Ellis the $\tau$-[*topology*]{}, which is weaker than the relative topology induced on $G=uM$ as a subset of $M$. The $\tau$-closure of a subset $A$ of $G$ consists of those $\beta\in G$ for which the set ${{\rm{graph\,}}}(\beta)=\{(p,p\beta):p\in M\}$ is a subset of the closure in $M\times M$ of the set $\bigcup\{{{\rm{graph\,}}}(\alpha):\alpha\in A\}$. Both right and left multiplication on $G$ are $\tau$ continuous and so is inversion.
It is convenient to fix a minimal left ideal $M$ in $\beta {\Gamma}$ and an idempotent $u\in M$. As explained above we identify $G$ with $uM$ and it follows that for any subset $A\subset G$, $${{\rm{cls\,}}}_\tau A = u(u\circ A) = G \cap (u\circ A).$$ Also in this way we can consider the “action" of $G$ on every system [$(X,{\Gamma})\ $]{}via the action of $\beta {\Gamma}$ on $X$. With every minimal system [$(X,{\Gamma})\ $]{}and a point $x_0\in uX=\{x\in X: ux=x\}$ we associate a $\tau$-closed subgroup $$\mathfrak{G}(X,x_0)=\{\alpha\in G:\alpha x_0=x_0\},$$ the [*Ellis group*]{} of the pointed system $(X,x_0)$. The quotient space $G/\mathfrak{G}(X,x_0)$ can be identified with the subset $uX \subset X$ via the map ${\alpha}\mapsto {\alpha}x_0$ and the induced quotient $\tau$-topology is called the [*$\tau$-topology*]{} on $uX$. Again the $\tau$-topology is weaker than the relative topology induced on $uX$ as a subset of $X$, it is $T_1$ and compact, and the closure operation is given by $${{\rm{cls\,}}}_\tau A = u(u\circ A) = uX \cap (u\circ A),
\qquad A \subset uX.$$
For a homomorphism $\pi: X \to Y$ with $\pi(x_0)=y_0$ we have $$\mathfrak{G}(X,x_0)\subset \mathfrak{G}(Y,y_0).$$
For a $\tau$-closed subgroup $F$ of $G$ the [*derived group*]{} $F'$ is given by: $$\label{prime}
F':=\bigcap\{{{\rm{cls\,}}}_\tau O : O\
\text{a $\tau$-open neighborhood of\ } u\ \text{in} \ F\}.$$ $F'$ is a $\tau$-closed normal (in fact characteristic) subgroup of $F$ and it is characterized as the smallest $\tau$-closed subgroup $H$ of $F$ such that $F/H$ is a compact Hausdorff topological group. In particular, for an abelian ${\Gamma}$, the topological group $G/G'$ is the Bohr compactification of ${\Gamma}$.
A pair of points $(x,x')\in X\times X$ for a system [$(X,{\Gamma})\ $]{}is called [*proximal*]{} if there exists a net ${\gamma}_i\in {\Gamma}$ and a point $z\in X$ such that $\lim \gamma_ix=\lim \gamma_ix'=z$ (iff there exists $p\in\beta {\Gamma}$ with $px=px'$). We denote by $P$ the set of proximal pairs in $X\times X$. We have $$P=\bigcap\ \{{\Gamma}V:V\
{\text{\rm a neighborhood of the diagonal in}}\ X\times X\}.$$ We write $P[x] := \{x' \in X : (x,x') \in P\}$. A system [$(X,{\Gamma})\ $]{}is called [*proximal*]{} when $P=X\times X$ and [*distal*]{} when $P=\Delta$, the diagonal in $X\times X$. It is called [*strongly proximal*]{} when the following much stronger condition holds: the dynamical system $({\mathfrak{M}}(X),{\Gamma})$, induced on the compact space ${\mathfrak{M}}(X)$ of Borel probability measures on $X$, is proximal. A minimal system [$(X,{\Gamma})\ $]{}is called [*point distal*]{} if there exists a point $x\in X$ such that if $x,x'$ is a proximal pair then $x=x'$.
The [*regionally proximal relation*]{} on $X$ is defined by $$Q=\bigcap\ \{{\overline}{{\Gamma}V}:V\
{\text{\rm a neighborhood of $\Delta$ in}}\ X\times X\}.$$ It is easy to verify that $Q$ is trivial — i.e. equals $\Delta$ — iff the system is equicontinuous.
An extension [$(X,{\Gamma})\overset\pi\to(Y,{\Gamma})$ ]{}of minimal systems is called a [*proximal extension*]{} if the relation $R_\pi=\{(x,x'):\pi(x)=\pi(x')\}$ satisfies $R_\pi\subset P$, and a [*distal extension*]{} when $R_\pi\cap P={\Delta}$. One can show that every distal extension is open. $\pi$ is a [*highly proximal (HP) extension*]{} if for every closed subset $A$ of $X$ with $\pi(A)=Y$, necessarily $A=X$. It is easy to see that a HP extension is proximal. In the metric case an extension [$(X,{\Gamma})\overset\pi\to(Y,{\Gamma})$ ]{}of minimal systems is HP iff it is an [*almost 1-1 extension*]{}, that is the set $\{x\in X: \pi^{-1}(\pi(x)) =\{x\}\}$ is a dense $G_{\delta}$ subset of $X$.
The map $\pi$ is [*strongly proximal*]{} if for every $y\in Y$ and every probability measure $\nu$ with ${{\rm{supp\,}}}\nu \subset \pi^{-1}(y)$, there exists a net ${\gamma}_i\in {\Gamma}$ and a point $x\in X$ such that $\lim_i {\gamma}_i \nu =\delta_x$ in the weak$^*$ topology on the space ${\mathfrak{M}}(X)$ of probability measures on $X$.
The extension $\pi$ is called an [*equicontinuous extension*]{} if for every ${\epsilon}$, a neighborhood of the diagonal $\Delta = \{(x,x): x\in X\} \subset X\times X$, there exists a neighborhood of the diagonal ${\delta}$ such that ${\gamma}({\delta}\cap R_\pi) \subset {\epsilon}$ for every ${\gamma}\in {\Gamma}$. In the metric case an equicontinuous extension is also called an [*isometric extension*]{}.
A minimal dynamical system $(X, {\Gamma})$ is called [*almost automorphic*]{} if it has the form $X \overset{{\theta}}{\to} Z$, where $Z$ is equicontinuous and ${\theta}$ is almost one-to-one. More generally, an extension of minimal systems $\pi : X \to Y$ is called an [*almost automorphic extension*]{} if it has the form $X \overset{{\theta}}{\to} Z \overset{{\sigma}}{\to} Y$, where ${\theta}$ is an almost one-to-one extension, ${\sigma}$ is an isometric extension and $\pi = {\sigma}\circ {\theta}$.
The extension $\pi$ is a [*weakly mixing extension*]{} when $R_\pi$ as a subsystem of the product system $(X\times X,{\Gamma})$ is topologically transitive.
The algebraic language is particularly suitable for dealing with such notions. For example an extension [$(X,{\Gamma})\overset\pi\to(Y,{\Gamma})$ ]{}of minimal systems is a proximal extension iff the Ellis groups $\mathfrak{G} (X,x_0)=A$ and $\mathfrak{G} (Y,y_0)=F$ coincide. It is distal iff for every $y\in Y$, and $x\in \pi^{-1}(y),\
\pi^{-1}(y)=\mathfrak{G}(Y,y)x$;iff:
> for every $y=py_0\in Y$, $p$ an element of $M$, $\pi^{-1}(y)=p\pi^{-1}(y_0)=
> pFx_0$, where $F=\mathfrak{G}(Y,y_0)$.
In particular $(X,{\Gamma})$ is distal iff $Gx=X$ for some (hence every) $x\in X$. The extension $\pi$ is an equicontinuous extension iff it is a distal extension and, denoting $\mathfrak{G} (X,x_0)=A$ and $\mathfrak{G} (Y,y_0)=F$, $$F'\subset A.$$ In this case, setting $A_0=\bigcap_{g\in F} gAg^{-1}$, the group $F/A_0$ is the group of the [*group extension*]{} $\tilde \pi$ associated with the equicontinuous extension $\pi$. More precisely, there exists a minimal dynamical system $(\tilde X,{\Gamma})$, with ${\mathfrak{G}}(\tilde{X},\tilde{x}_0)=A_0$, on which the compact Hausdorff topological group $K=F/A_0$ acts as a group of automorphisms and we have the following commutative diagram $$\label{g-ext}
\xymatrix
{
\tilde{X} \ar[dd]_{\tilde{\pi}}\ar[dr]^{\phi} & \\
& X\ar[dl]^{\pi}\\
Y &
}$$ where $\tilde\pi: \tilde X \to Y\cong \tilde X/ K$ is a group extension and so is the extension $\phi: \tilde X \to X\cong \tilde X/L$ with $L=A/A_0 \subset F/A_0 = K$. ($\tilde X =X$ iff $A$ is a normal subgroup of $F$.)
A minimal system [$(X,{\Gamma})\ $]{}is called [*incontractible*]{} if the union of minimal subsets is dense in every product system $(X^n, {\Gamma})$. This is the case iff $p\circ Gx=X$ for some (hence every) $x\in X$ and $p\in M$. When ${\Gamma}$ is abelian $Gx$ is always dense in $X$ so that every minimal system is incontractible. However the following relative notion is an important tool even when ${\Gamma}$ is abelian.
We say that [$(X,{\Gamma})\overset\pi\to(Y,{\Gamma})$ ]{}is a RIC ([*relatively incontractible*]{}) [*extension*]{} if:
> for every $y=py_0\in Y$, $p$ an element of $M$, $\pi^{-1}(y)=p\circ u\pi^{-1}(y_0)=
> p\circ Fx_0$, where $F=\mathfrak{G}(Y,y_0)$.
One can show that every RIC extension is open and that every distal extension is RIC. It then follows that every distal extension is open.
We have the following theorem from [@EGS] about the interpolation of equicontinuous extensions. For a proof see [@Gl1], Theorem X.2.1.
\[eq-ext\] Let $\pi: X \to Y$ be a RIC extension of minimal systems. Fix a point $x_0\in X$ with $ux_0=x_0$ and let $y_0=\pi(x_0)$. Let $A=\mathfrak{G}(X,x_0)$ and $F=\mathfrak{G}(Y, y_0)$. Then there exists a commutative diagram of pointed systems $$\label{eq-ext-d}
\xymatrix
{
(X,x_0) \ar[dd]_{\pi}\ar[dr]^{{\sigma}} & \\
& (Z,z_0)\ar[dl]^{\rho}\\
(Y,y_0) &
}$$ such that $\rho$ is the largest intermediate equicontinuous extension. Its Ellis group satisfies $\mathfrak{G}(Z,z_0)=AF'$. The extension $\rho$ is an isomorphism iff $AF'=F$.
Given a homomorphism $\pi:(X,{\Gamma}) \to (Y,{\Gamma})$ of minimal metric systems, there are several standard constructions of associated “shadow diagrams". In the [*O-shadow diagram*]{} $$\label{O}
\xymatrix
{
X \ar[d]_{\pi} & X^* =X \vee Y^*\ar[l]_-{{\theta}^*} \ar[d]^{\pi^*} \\
Y & Y^*\ar[l]^{{\theta}}
}$$ the map $\pi^*$ is open and the maps $\theta$ and $\theta^*$ are almost 1-1. The explicit constructions is as follows. The set valued map $\pi^{-1}: Y \to 2^X$ (where the latter is the compact space of closed subsets of $X$, equipped with the Hausdorff, or Vietoris, topology) is upper-semicontinuous and we let $Y_0\subset Y$ be the set of continuity points of this map. Set $Y^*={{\rm{cls\,}}}\{\pi^{-1}(y): y\in Y_0\}\subset 2^X$, and $X^*=X\vee Y^* = {{\rm{cls\,}}}\{(x,\pi^{-1}(y)): y\in Y_0,\ \pi(x)=y\}
\subset X\times Y^*$. By the upper-semicontinuity of $\pi^{-1}$ every $y^*\in Y^*$ is contained in a fiber $\pi^{-1}(y)$ for some $y\in Y$ and we let ${\theta}(y^*)=y$. The maps $\pi^*$ and ${\theta}^*$ are the restriction to $X^*$ of the coordinate projections on $X$ and $Y^*$ respectively. One then shows that $X^*=\{(x,y^*): x \in y^*\in Y^*\}$ and that indeed, $\pi^*$ is open and the maps $\theta$ and $\theta^*$ are highly proximal. The O-shadow diagram collapses, i.e. $Y=Y^*$, $X=X^*$ and $\pi=\pi^*$ iff $\pi: X\to Y$ is an open map; iff the map $\pi^{-1}: Y \to 2^X$ is continuous.
In the [*RIC-shadow diagram*]{} $$\xymatrix
{
X \ar[d]_{\pi} & X^*=X\vee Y^* \ar[l]_-{{\theta}^*} \ar[d]^{\pi^*} \\
Y & Y^*\ar[l]^{{\theta}}
}$$ $ \pi^*$ is RIC and $\theta, \theta^*$ are proximal (thus we still have $A={\mathfrak{G}}(X,x_0)={\mathfrak{G}}( X^*, x^*_0)$ and $F={\mathfrak{G}}(Y,y_0)= {\mathfrak{G}}(Y^*, y^*_0)$). The concrete description of these objects uses quasifactors and the circle operation: $$Y^*= \{p\circ Fx_0:p\in M\}\subset 2^X,\qquad
X^*= \{(x, y^*):x\in y^*\in Y^*\}
\subset X\times Y^*$$ and $$\theta(p\circ Fx_0)=py_0, \quad
\theta^*(x, y^*)=x,\quad
\pi^*(x, y^*)= y^*,\quad (p\in M),$$ where $F={\mathfrak{G}}(Y,y_0)$. The map $\theta$ is an isomorphisms (hence $\pi=\pi^*$) when and only when $\pi$ is already RIC.
We say that $\pi:(X,{\Gamma}) \to (Y,{\Gamma})$ has a [*relatively invariant measure*]{} (or that is a RIM extension), if there exists a projection $P:C(X) \to C(Y)$ such that
1. $P(f) \ge 0$ for $f\ge 0$ in $C(X)$.
2. $P({\mathbf{1}})=1.$
3. $P(h \circ \pi)= h$ for every $h \in C(Y)$.
4. $P(f\circ {\gamma}) = P(f) \circ {\gamma}$ for every $f\in C(X)$ and ${\gamma}\in {\Gamma}$.
This property is equivalent to the existence of a continuous [*section*]{}, i.e. a continuous ${\Gamma}$ equivariant map $y \mapsto {\lambda}_y$ from $Y$ into ${\mathfrak{M}}(X)$ such that $\pi({\lambda}_y)={\delta}_y$ for every $y\in Y$. Here and in the sequel we use the same letter $\pi$ to denote the induced map $\pi: {\mathfrak{M}}(X) \to {\mathfrak{M}}(Y)$ on the spaces of probability measures. Sometimes though we will write $\pi_*$ for the induced map.
In the sequel we will need the following lemmas.
\[RIM-fs\] Let $\pi:(X,{\Gamma}) \to (Y,{\Gamma})$ be a RIM homomorphism of minimal metric systems with section $y \mapsto {\lambda}_y$. Then there exists a dense $G_{\delta}$ subset $Y_{fs} \subset Y$ with the property that ${{\rm{supp\,}}}({\lambda}_y) = \pi^{-1}(y)$ for every $y \in Y_{fs}$.
It is easy to see that, in general, the map $y \mapsto {{\rm{supp\,}}}({\lambda}_y)$ from $Y$ into $2^X$ is lower-semicontinuous; i.e. whenever $y_i \to y$ in $Y$ then $\liminf {{\rm{supp\,}}}({\lambda}_{y_i}) \supset {{\rm{supp\,}}}({\lambda}_y)$. Such a map admits a dense $G_{\delta}$ set of continuity points which we denote by $Y_{fs}$. We claim that for each $y \in Y_{fs}$ the measure ${\lambda}_y$ has [*full support*]{}, i.e. ${{\rm{supp\,}}}({\lambda}_y) = \pi^{-1}(y)$. To see this observe first that, by minimality, ${{\rm{cls\,}}} (\cup\{{{\rm{supp\,}}}({\lambda}_y) : y \in Y\})=X$. Now if $y \in Y_{fs}$ and $x \in \pi^{-1}(y)$ then there is a sequence $x_i \to x$ with $x_i \in {{\rm{supp\,}}}({\lambda}_{y_i})$, for some sequence $y_i \in Y$. Necessarily $\pi(x_i) = y_i \to y$ and, as $y \in Y_{fs}$, we have $\lim {{\rm{supp\,}}}({\lambda}_{y_i}) = {{\rm{supp\,}}}({\lambda}_y)$. Now $$x \in \liminf {{\rm{supp\,}}}({\lambda}_{y_i}) = \lim {{\rm{supp\,}}}({\lambda}_{y_i}) = {{\rm{supp\,}}}({\lambda}_y).$$
\[ORIM\] Let $\pi:(X,{\Gamma}) \to (Y,{\Gamma})$ be a RIM homomorphism of minimal metric systems with section $y \mapsto {\lambda}_y$. Let (\[O\]) be the associated O-shadow diagram. Then the open homomorphism $\pi^*$ is RIM as well.
We use the notations following the definition of the O-shadow diagram (\[O\]). Let $Y_0 \ni y_i \to y \in Y \setminus Y_0$ and let $Y^* \ni y^* = \lim \pi^{-1}(y_i)$. By the lower-semicontinuity of the map ${\lambda}_y \mapsto {{\rm{supp\,}}}({\lambda}_y)$ we see that ${{\rm{supp\,}}}({\lambda}_y) \subset y^*$. Thus for every such $y$ ${{\rm{supp\,}}}({\lambda}_y) \subset \bigcap \{y^* \in Y^*: y^* \subset \pi^{-1}(y)\}$. It is now easy to check that the map $y^* \mapsto {\lambda}_{{\theta}(y^*)} \times {\delta}_{y^*}$ is a section for $\pi^*$.
Given a homomorphism $\pi:(X,{\Gamma}) \to (Y,{\Gamma})$ of minimal metric systems there is an associated [*RIM shadow diagram*]{} $$\label{RIM}
\xymatrix
{
X \ar[d]_{\pi} & \tilde{X}=X \vee \tilde{Y}
\ar[l]_-{\tilde{{\theta}}} \ar[d]^{\tilde{\pi}} \\
Y & \tilde{Y}\ar[l]^{{\theta}}
}$$ the map $\tilde \pi$ has a RIM and the maps $\theta$ and $\tilde\theta$ are strongly proximal. It can be shown that every isometric extension has a RIM and is open. See [@G0] for more details, also a treatment of SPI systems can be found in [@G1].
We say that a minimal system [$(X,{\Gamma})\ $]{}is a [*strictly PI system*]{} if there is an ordinal $\eta$ (which is countable when $X$ is metrizable) and a family of systems $\{(W_\iota,w_\iota)\}_{\iota\le\eta}$ such that (i) $W_0$ is the trivial system, (ii) for every $\iota<\eta$ there exists a homomorphism $\phi_\iota:W_{\iota+1}\to W_\iota$ which is either proximal or equicontinuous (isometric when $X$ is metrizable), (iii) for a limit ordinal $\nu\le\eta$ the system $W_\nu$ is the inverse limit of the systems $\{W_\iota\}_{\iota<\nu}$, and (iv) $W_\eta=X$. We say that [$(X,{\Gamma})\ $]{}is a [*PI-system*]{} if there exists a strictly PI system $\tilde X$ and a proximal homomorphism $\theta:\tilde X\to X$.
If in the definition of (strictly) PI-systems we replace proximal extensions by HP extensions (almost 1-1 extensions in the metric case) we get the notion of (strictly) [*HPI*]{} ([*AI-systems*]{} in the metric case). If we replace the proximal extensions by trivial extensions (i.e. we do not allow proximal extensions at all) we have [*I-systems*]{}. In this terminology the structure theorem for distal systems (Furstenberg [@F], 1963) can be stated as follows:
\[FST\] A metric minimal system is distal iff it is an I-system.
And, the Veech-Ellis structure theorem for point distal systems (Veech [@V], 1970 and Ellis [@E1], 1973):
A metric minimal dynamical system is point distal iff it is an AI-system.
The structure theorem for the general minimal system is proved in [@EGS] and [@McM] (see also [@V]) and asserts that every minimal system admits a canonically defined proximal extension which is a weakly mixing RIC extension of a strictly PI system. Both the Furstenberg and the Veech-Ellis structure theorems are corollaries of this general structure theorem.
\[structure\] Given a minimal system $(X,{\Gamma})$, there exists an ordinal $\eta$ (countable when $X$ is metrizable) and a canonically defined commutative diagram (the canonical PI-Tower) $$\xymatrix
{X \ar[d]_{\pi} &
X_0 \ar[l]_{{\theta}^*_0}
\ar[d]_{\pi_0}
\ar[dr]^{\sigma_1} & &
X_1 \ar[ll]_{{\theta}^*_1}
\ar[d]_{\pi_1}
\ar@{}[r]|{\cdots} &
X_{\nu}
\ar[d]_{\pi_{\nu}}
\ar[dr]^{\sigma_{\nu+1}} & &
X_{\nu+1}
\ar[d]_{\pi_{\nu+1}}
\ar[ll]_{{\theta}^*_{\nu+1}}
\ar@{}[r]|{\cdots} &
X_{\eta}=X_{\infty}
\ar[d]_{\pi_{\infty}} \\
pt &
Y_0 \ar[l]^{\theta_0} &
Z_1 \ar[l]^{\rho_1} &
Y_1 \ar[l]^{\theta_1}
\ar@{}[r]|{\cdots} &
Y_{\nu} &
Z_{\nu+1}
\ar[l]^{\rho_{\nu+1}} &
Y_{\nu+1}
\ar[l]^{\theta_{\nu+1}}
\ar@{}[r]|{\cdots} &
Y_{\eta}=Y_{\infty}
}$$ where for each $\nu\le\eta, \pi_{\nu}$ is RIC, $\rho_{\nu}$ is isometric, $\theta_{\nu},
{\theta}^*_{\nu}$ are proximal and $\pi_{\infty}$ is RIC and weakly mixing. For a limit ordinal $\nu ,\ X_{\nu}, Y_{\nu}, \pi_{\nu}$ etc. are the inverse limits (or joins) of $ X_{\iota}, Y_{\iota}, \pi_{\iota}$ etc. for $\iota
< \nu$. Thus $X_\infty$ is a proximal extension of $X$ and a RIC weakly mixing extension of the strictly PI-system $Y_\infty$. The homomorphism $\pi_\infty$ is an isomorphism (so that $X_\infty=Y_\infty$) iff $X$ is a PI-system.
Two useful criteria on minimal systems for being PI and HPI are given in theorems of Bronstein [@Bro] and van der Woude [@vdW], respectively.
In the sequel we will mostly deal with metrizable systems. So from now on, unless we explicitly say otherwise [**all the dynamical systems will be assumed to be metrizable.**]{}
All of the above mentioned theorems have their relative versions. One starts with a homomorphism $\pi : (X, {\Gamma}) \to (Y, {\Gamma})$ between minimal systems and then all the various notions defined above, equicontinuity, distality, point-distality etc. have natural relative analogues.
We will use two such relative theorems which I now proceed to describe.
\[Y-pd-def\] Let $\pi : X \to Y$ be a homomorphism of minimal systems. Then $\pi$ is a [*point distal extension*]{} if there is a point $x_0 \in X$ such that $P[x_0] \cap \pi^{-1}(y_0) =\{x_0\}$, where $y_0 = \pi(x_0)$. A point such as $x_0$ is called a [*$Y$-distal point*]{}.
\[PD-rel\] Let $\pi : X \to Y$ be a homomorphism of metric minimal systems. Then $\pi$ is point distal iff $\pi$ is an AI extension and the set of $Y$-distal points is a dense $G_{\delta}$ subset of $X$. If $\pi$ is open then it is point distal iff it is strictly AI.
A homomorphism $\pi : (X,{\Gamma}) \to (Y,{\Gamma})$ is called [*semiopen*]{} if the interior of $\pi(U)$ is nonempty for every nonempty open subset $U$ of $X$. When $X$ is minimal every $\pi : (X,{\Gamma}) \to (Y,{\Gamma})$ is semiopen (see Lemma \[so-min\] below). We will say that a subset $W \subset X\times X$ is a [*S-set*]{} if it is closed, invariant, topologically transitive, and the restriction to $W$ of the projection maps are semiopen.
\[vdw-rel\] A homomorphism $\pi : X \to Y$ between metric minimal systems $(X,{\Gamma})$ and $(Y,{\Gamma})$ is a point distal extension iff every S-set of $R_\pi = \{(x, x') \in X \times X : \pi(x) = \pi(x')\}$ is minimal.
On semiopen maps {#so-sec}
================
\[so-lem\] Let $\pi: X\to Y$ be a continuous surjection between compact Hausdorff spaces. The conditions [1]{} and [2]{} below are equivalent. If $X$ is metrizable then the three conditions are equivalent:
1. $\pi$ is semiopen.
2. The preimage of every dense subset in $Y$ is dense in $X$.
3. The set $$X_0 = \{x\in X: \text{ the set valued map $\pi^{-1}: Y \to 2^X$
is continuous at $\pi(x)$}\}
$$ is dense in $X$.
The equivalence of 1 and 2 is straightforward. For any continuous surjection $\pi: X\to Y$ the corresponding set map $\pi^{-1}: Y \to 2^X$ is upper-semicontinuous and, when $X$ is metrizable, this implies that it has a dense $G_{\delta}$ subset $Y_0\subset Y$ of continuity points. Assuming 2 we conclude that $X_0=\pi^{-1}(Y_0)$ is a dense $G_{\delta}$ subset of $X$. Conversely if 3 is valid and $U\subset X$ is open and nonempty, then $U \cap X_0 \not=\emptyset$ and if $x_0$ is any point in this intersection then $\pi$ is open at $x_0$, so that $\pi(U)$ is a neighborhood of $\pi(x_0)$ and we conclude that $\pi(U)^\circ \not=\emptyset$.
\[so-res-lem\] Let $X \overset{{\alpha}}{\to} Z \overset{\beta}{\to} Y$, where $X$, $Y$ and $Z$ are compact metric spaces, ${\alpha}$ and $\beta$ are continuous surjections, and ${\alpha}$ is semiopen. For $y \in Y$ set $Z_y = \beta^{-1}(y)$ and $X_y = (\beta \circ {\alpha})^{-1}(y) = {\alpha}^{-1}(Z_y)$. Then there is a dense $G_{\delta}$ subset $Y_0 \subset Y$ such that for every $y \in Y_0$ the restriction ${\alpha}: X_y \to Z_y$ is semiopen.
Let $V \subset X$ be a nonempty open subset. Set $$Y_V = \{y \in Y : {\alpha}(V)^\circ \cap Z_y \not = \emptyset\}\
\cup \ \{y \in Y : {\overline}{V} \cap X_y = \emptyset\} : =
Y_{V,1} \cup Y_{V,2}.$$ We will show that $V_Y$ is open and dense.
Suppose $y_n \to y$ is a convergent sequence with $y_n \not\in Y_V$. Then, as $Y_V^c = Y_{V,1}^c \cap Y_{V,2}^c$, we have
- For all $n$ $$\begin{gathered}
y_n \in Y_{V,1}^c \ {\ \Rightarrow\ }\ {\alpha}(V)^\circ \cap Z_{y_n} = \emptyset
\ {\ \Rightarrow\ }\ Z_{y_n} \subset ({\alpha}(V)^\circ)^c \ {\ \Rightarrow\ }\ \\
Z_y \subset ({\alpha}(V)^\circ)^c \ {\ \Rightarrow\ }\
{\alpha}(V)^\circ \cap Z_y = \emptyset
\ {\ \Rightarrow\ }\
y \in Y_{V,1}^c.\end{gathered}$$
- And, for all $n$ $$\begin{gathered}
y_n \in Y_{V,2}^c \ {\ \Rightarrow\ }\ {\overline}{V} \cap X_{y_n} \not = \emptyset
\ {\ \Rightarrow\ }\ {\overline}{V} \cap \limsup X_{y_n} \not= \emptyset \ {\ \Rightarrow\ }\ \\
{\overline}{V} \cap X_y \not= \emptyset \ {\ \Rightarrow\ }\
y \in Y_{V,2}^c.\end{gathered}$$
This shows that $Y_V$ is open.
Next let $O \subset Y$ be a nonempty open set. We will show that $O \cap Y_V \not = \emptyset$.
- Case1 : Suppose $\beta^{-1}(O) \cap {\overline}{{\alpha}(V)} \not=\emptyset$.
Then $\beta^{-1}(O) \cap ({\alpha}(V)^\circ \cup \partial({\alpha}(V)) \not=\emptyset$. As ${\alpha}$ is a semiopen map, the set $\partial({\alpha}(V))$ has an empty interior and it follows that $\beta^{-1}(O) \cap {\alpha}(V)^\circ \not=\emptyset$. Let $z$ be a point in this intersection and set $y = \beta(z)$. Then $y \in O$ and $z \in {\alpha}(V)^\circ \cap Z_y$ imply that $O \cap Y_{V,1} \not=\emptyset$.
- Case 2 : Suppose $\beta^{-1}(O) \cap {\overline}{{\alpha}(V)} =\emptyset$.
It then follows that for every $y \in O$ we have ${\overline}{V} \cap X_y = \emptyset$, whence $y \in O \cap Y_{V,2}$.
Let now $\{V_i\}_{ \in {\mathbb{N}}}$ be an enumeration of a basis for open sets on $X$. Set $Y_i = Y_{V_i}$ and let $Y_0 = \cap_{i \in {\mathbb{N}}} Y_i$.
We now check that the set $Y_0 \subset Y$ satisfies the requirement of the lemma. In fact, suppose $y \in Y_0$. We want to show that ${\alpha}: X_y \to Z_y$ is semiopen. Let then $U \subset X_y$ be a nonempty open subset. With no loss of generality we assume that $U = V \cap X_y$ for some $V$ in our basis $\{V_i\}_{i \in {\mathbb{N}}}$. In particular then $V \cap X_y \not=\emptyset$, whence $y \not \in Y_{V,2}$. But $y \in Y_0 \subset Y_V$, hence $y \in Y_{V,1}$, i.e. ${\alpha}(V)^\circ \cap Z_y \not=\emptyset$. If $z$ is a point in this intersection then $z = {\alpha}(x)$ for some $x \in V \cap X_y = U$. Thus ${\alpha}(U)^\circ \not=\emptyset$ and our proof is complete.
\[so-res\] Let $\pi: X \to Y$ be a continuous semiopen surjection between compact metric spaces. Let $R_\pi = \{(x,x') \in X \times X : \pi(x) = \pi(x')\}$. Suppose $W \subset R_\pi$ is a closed subset such that $(\pi \times \pi)(W) = {\Delta}_Y
= \{(y, y) : y \in Y\}$. Suppose further that the restrictions of the projection maps ${\bf{p}}_i : X \times X \to X \ (i=1,2)$ to $W$ are semiopen. Then there is a dense $G_{\delta}$ subset $Y_{so} \subset Y$ such that for each $y \in Y_{so}$ the maps ${\bf{p}}_i : W \cap (\pi^{-1}(y) \times \pi^{-1}(y)) \to \pi^{-1}(y)$ are semiopen.
Apply Lemma \[so-res-lem\] to $W \overset{{\bf{p}}_i}{\to} X \overset{\pi}{\to} Y$ with $i=1, 2$ and then take let $Y_{so}$ be the intersection of the two corresponding dense $G_{\delta}$ sets of $Y$.
A result of Ditor and Eifler from 1972, [@DE] asserts that a continuous surjection $\pi: X\to Y$ between compact Hausdorff spaces $X$ and $Y$ is open iff the induced map $\pi_*:
{\mathfrak{M}}(X) \to {\mathfrak{M}}(Y)$ is an open surjection. In the course of the proof of our main theorem (Theorem \[main\]) we will need the following analogous result (in the metric case) for semiopen maps. For the proof we refer to [@Gmt Theorem 2.3].
\[so-thm\] Let $\pi: X \to Y$ be a continuous surjection between compact metric spaces which is semiopen. Then the induced map $\pi_*:
{\mathfrak{M}}(X) \to {\mathfrak{M}}(Y)$ is a semiopen surjection.
Recall the following well known result; for completeness we include a proof.
\[so-min\] Let $\pi: (X,{\Gamma}) \to (Y,{\Gamma})$ be a homomorphism between minimal systems. Then $\pi$ is semiopen.
Let $W\subset X$ be a closed set with nonempty interior. By minimality of [$(X,{\Gamma})\ $]{}there is a finite set $\{{\gamma}_1,\dots,{\gamma}_n\}
\subset {\Gamma}$ with $X = \bigcup_{i=1}^n {\gamma}_i W$. Therefore $Y = \bigcup_{i=1}^n \pi({\gamma}_i W)$ and it follows that for some $i$ the interior of the closed set $\pi({\gamma}_i W) = {\gamma}_i\pi(W)$ is nonempty. Thus, as required, also $\pi(W)^\circ \not=\emptyset$.
A key proposition on diffused measures {#diff-sec}
======================================
As explained above we fix a minimal ideal $M$ in $\beta {\Gamma}$ and let $u$ be an idempotent in $M$. We denote the subgroup $uM$ of $M$ by $G$ and identify it with the group of automorphisms of the universal ${\Gamma}$-minimal system $(M,{\Gamma})$, where for ${\alpha}\in G$ the corresponding automorphism $R_{\alpha}: M \to M$ is given by right multiplication $p \mapsto p {\alpha}$. For an abelian ${\Gamma}$ each subgroup $vM\subset M$, where $v$ is an idempotent in $M$, is dense in $M$ and it follows that the $G$-dynamical system $(M,G)$ (where $G$ acts by right multiplication) is minimal. In the general case the compact dynamical system $(M, G)$ admits a minimal subset and it follows that there is a minimal idempotent $v$ such that ${{\rm{cls\,}}}(vG)$ is minimal under the right $G$ action. In the sequel we will need the following slightly stronger statement.
\[G-min-id\] If $(Y, {\Gamma})$ is a minimal proximal system then
1. For every minimal idempotent $v \in M$ there is a unique point $y_0 \in Y$ with $vy_0 = y_0$ and moreover, $vy=y_0$ for every $y \in Y$.
2. For every $y \in Y$ there is a minimal idempotent $v \in M$ such that $vy = y$ and the $G$-system $({{\rm{cls\,}}}(vG), G)$ is minimal.
The first assertion is clear. For the second observe that the closed set $\{p \in M : py =y\}$ is $G$-invariant (under the right action of $G$) and hence contains a $G$-minimal set. Clearly this set contains an idempotent, and any such idempotent $v$ satisfies the required property.
As our choice of $u$ was arbitrary we can, and will from now on, assume that ${{\rm{cls\,}}}(uG) = {{\rm{cls\,}}}(Gu) = {{\rm{cls\,}}}(G)$ is $G$-minimal.
\[sat\] Let $(Z^*, {\Gamma})$ be a minimal metric system and let $\phi : (Z^*, {\Gamma}) \to (Y, {\Gamma})$ be its maximal proximal factor. Suppose further that we have the following diagram $$Z^* \overset{{\theta}}{\to} Z \overset{{\sigma}}{\to} Y,$$ where ${\sigma}$ is a maximal isometric (i.e. equicontinuous) extension, ${\theta}$ is an almost 1-1 extension, and $\phi = {\theta}\circ {\sigma}$ (i.e. $\phi$ is an almost automorphic extension). Let $O$ be a nonempty open subset of $Z^*$.
1. There is a nonempty open subset $V\subset O$ such that ${\theta}^{-1}({\theta}(V))\subset O$.
2. There is a nonempty open subset $W\subset O$ such that ${{\rm{cls\,}}}_\tau(W \cap uZ^*) \subset O$.
1.Suppose $O \subset Z^*$ is a nonempty open set for which the statement of the lemma fails. Choose a point $z^* \in O$ such that ${\theta}^{-1}({\theta}(z^*))=\{z^*\}$ and let $V_n\subset O$ be a sequence of open balls centered at $z^*$ with ${{\rm{diam\,}}}(V_n) \searrow 0$. By assumption there are pairs of points $z_n \in V_n$ and $z'_n\not\in O$ with ${\theta}(z_n)={\theta}(z'_n)$. However, as $\lim_{n\to\infty} {\theta}^{-1}({\theta}(z_n)) = \{z^*\}$, we have $z'_n \to z^*$ in contradiction of the fact that $O$ is a neighborhood of $z^*$.
2.Since $Z$ is an isometric extension of the proximal system $Y$, $uZ$ is a closed subset of $Z$ and the $\tau$-topology on $uZ$ coincides with its compact Hausdorff group topology. Since ${\theta}$ is an almost one-to-one map, the restriction ${\theta}{\upharpoonright}uZ^* : uZ^* \to uZ$ is a homeomorphism of $uZ^*$, equipped with the $\tau$ topology, onto $uZ$. Let $O \subset Z^*$ be a nonempty open set. Let $V \subset O$ be as in part 1, and let $W$ be a nonempty open subset such that ${\overline}{W} \subset V$. Now $$\begin{aligned}
{{\rm{cls\,}}}_\tau (W \cap uZ^*)
& = {\theta}^{-1}({{\rm{cls\,}}}_\tau({\theta}(W \cap uZ)) \cap uZ^*\\
& = {\theta}^{-1}({\overline}{{\theta}(W \cap uZ)}) \cap uZ^*\\
& \subset {\theta}^{-1}({\overline}{{\theta}(W)})
= {\theta}^{-1}({\theta}({\overline}{W}))\\
& \subset {\theta}^{-1}({\theta}(V)) \subset O.\end{aligned}$$
\[tau\] Let $(X, {\Gamma})$ be a minimal metric system and let $\phi : (X,{\Gamma}) \to (Y,{\Gamma})$ be its maximal proximal factor. Suppose further that we have the following diagram $$X \overset{\rho}{\to} Z^* \overset{{\theta}}{\to} Z \overset{{\sigma}}{\to} Y,$$ where $\rho$ and ${\sigma}$ are maximal isometric extensions, ${\theta}$ is an almost 1-1 extension, and $\phi = {\sigma}\circ {\theta}\circ \rho$. Fix a minimal ideal $M \subset \beta{\Gamma}$ and an idempotent $u\in M$ as above. Let $U$ be an open subset of $X$ such that $U \cap uX \not= \emptyset$. Then $${{\rm{cls\,}}}_\tau (U\cap uX) \supset \rho^{-1}(\rho(U)) \cap uX.$$
Fix a point $x_0 \in X$ with $ux_0=x_0$ and let $z^*_0$, $z_0$ and $y_0$ be its images in $Z^*$, $Z$ and $Y$ respectively. Let $$\begin{gathered}
A=\mathfrak{G}(X,x_0)=\{\alpha\in G:\alpha x_0=x_0\}, \ \text{and}\ \\
F = \mathfrak{G}(Z,z_0)=
\mathfrak{G}(Z^*,z^*_0) = \{\alpha\in G:\alpha z_0=z_0\} =
\{\alpha\in G:\alpha z^*_0=z^*_0\}.\end{gathered}$$ Note that, as $Y$ is a proximal system, we have $\mathfrak{G}(Y, y_0) = G$. The assumption that $\rho$ is an isometric extension implies that $B = F/A$ is a homogeneous space of the Hausdorff compact topological group $F/\cap\{f A f^{-1} : f \in F\}$ (with respect to its $\tau$-topology). The fact that $(Z,{\Gamma})$ is the maximal equicontinuous extension of $(Y, {\Gamma})$ (within $X$) implies that $F \supset G'$ and that $G'A=AG'=F$. Let $h: M \to X$ denote the evaluation map $p \mapsto px_0$.
Let $U$ be a nonempty open subset of $X$ such that $U \cap uX \not= \emptyset$. Set $\tilde{U}=h^{-1}(U)=
\{p\in M: px_0 \in U\}$. Then $\tilde{U}$ is an open subset of $M$ with $\tilde{U} \cap G \not=\emptyset$ and, by minimality of the $G$-system $({{\rm{cls\,}}} {(G)},G)$, the collection $\{\tilde{U}{\alpha}: {\alpha}\in G\}$ is an open cover of ${{\rm{cls\,}}}{G}$. Choose a finite subcover, say $\{\tilde{U}{\alpha}_i: i=1,2,\dots,n\}$. Now $$\bigcup_{i=1}^n {{\rm{cls\,}}}_\tau(\tilde{U}{\alpha}_i \cap G)
= \bigcup_{i=1}^n {{\rm{cls\,}}}_\tau(\tilde{U} \cap G){\alpha}_i = G;$$ hence ${{\rm{cls\,}}}_\tau(\tilde{U}\cap G)$ has a nonempty $\tau$-interior. Since ${{\rm{cls\,}}}_\tau(\tilde{U} \cap G)$ is also $\tau$-closed, it must contain a left translate of $G'$, say $\beta G'$ for some $\beta \in G$ (this follows from the definition of $G'$, see equation (\[prime\])). Projecting back to $X$ via $h$ we get $$\begin{aligned}
{{\rm{cls\,}}}_\tau (U \cap uX ) & =
h({{\rm{cls\,}}}_\tau (\tilde{U}\cap G)) \\
&\supset
\beta G' x_0 = \beta G' A x_0 =
\beta Fx_0 \\
& = (\beta F \beta^{-1})\beta x_0 = \rho^{-1}(\rho(\beta x_0)).\end{aligned}$$ Let $O=\rho(U)$, then $O$ is a nonempty open subset of $Z^*$ and by Lemma \[sat\] there is a nonempty open subset $W\subset O$ such that ${{\rm{cls\,}}}_\tau(W \cap uZ^*) \subset O$. Set $U_1=\rho^{-1}(W)
\cap U$. Then $U_1$ is a nonempty open subset of $X$ and by the above argument there exists $\beta_1\in G$ with $\rho^{-1}(\rho(\beta_1 x_0))
\subset {{\rm{cls\,}}}_\tau (U_1 \cap uX )\subset {{\rm{cls\,}}}_\tau (U \cap uX )$. Now $$\begin{aligned}
\rho(\beta_1 x_0) &
\in \rho({{\rm{cls\,}}}_\tau (U_1 \cap uX ))\\
& = {{\rm{cls\,}}}_\tau (\rho(U_1) \cap uZ^*)\\
& \subset {{\rm{cls\,}}}_\tau (W \cap uZ^* ) \subset O = \rho(U).\end{aligned}$$
Thus we have shown that for every nonempty open subset $U\subset X$ which meets $uX$, the set ${{\rm{cls\,}}}_\tau (U \cap uX )$ contains a full fiber $\rho^{-1}(z^*)$ for some $z^*\in \rho(U)$. Since $\rho$ is an open map we conclude that $${{\rm{cls\,}}}_\tau (U\cap uX) \supset \rho^{-1}(\rho(U)) \cap uX$$ as required.
This lemma has the following surprizing corollary.
\[finite\] In the situation described in Lemma \[tau\], if ${\sigma}: Z \to Y$ is a finite to one isometric extension then $\rho : X \to Z^*$ is an isomorphism, i.e. $\phi : X \to Y$ (with $\phi = {\sigma}\circ {\theta}\circ \rho$) is an almost automorphic extension. In particular if, in addition, $Y$ is the trivial one point system, then $X = Z$ is a finite system.
Let $z_0 \in Z$ be a point with ${\theta}^{-1}(z_0) = \{z_0^*\}$ a singleton. With no loss of generality we can assume that $uz_0 =z_0$ (see Lemma \[G-min-id\]). Note that then also $uz_0^* = z_0^*$ and $\rho^{-1}(z_0^*)
\subset uX$. Let $y_0 =uy_0 = {\sigma}(z_0) \in Y$ and let $X_0 = \phi^{-1}(y_0)$, $Z^*_0= \rho(X_0)$ and $Z_0 = {\sigma}^{-1}(y_0) = uZ$. By our assumptions $Z_0$ is a finite set and therefore $\{z^*_0\}$ is a relatively open subset of u$Z^*_0$. Then $\rho^{-1}(z^*_0)$ is a relatively open subset of $X_0$. We claim that $\rho^{-1}(z^*_0)$ is a singleton. If this is not the case, then there is an open subset $U \subset X$ with $\emptyset
\not = {\overline}{U} \cap \rho^{-1}(z^*_0) \subsetneq \rho^{-1}(z^*_0)$. By Lemma \[tau\] we have $${{\rm{cls\,}}}_\tau (U \cap uX) \supset \rho^{-1}(\rho(U)) \cap uX.$$ But ${{\rm{cls\,}}}_\tau (U \cap uX) \subset {\overline}{U}$ (because $\rho$ is an isometric extension) and $z^*_0 \in \rho(U) $, whence $\rho^{-1}(\rho(U)) \cap uX \supset \rho^{-1}(z^*_0)$. It follows that the set ${\overline}{U}$ contains the whole fiber $\rho^{-1}(z^*_0)$, a contradiction. Thus $\rho^{-1}(z^*_0)$ is indeed a singleton and it follows that $\rho$ is one-to-one as claimed.
\[diff\] Let [$(X,{\Gamma})\ $]{}be a minimal metric system and let $\phi : (X,{\Gamma}) \to (Y,{\Gamma})$ be its maximal proximal factor. Suppose further that we have the following diagram $$X \overset{\rho}{\to} Z^* \overset{{\theta}}{\to} Z \overset{{\sigma}}{\to} Y,$$ where $\rho$ and ${\sigma}$ are maximal isometric extensions, ${\theta}$ is an almost 1-1 extension, and $\phi = {\sigma}\circ {\theta}\circ \rho$.
1. For every $z^*\in Z^*$ the fiber $\rho^{-1}(z^*)$ has the structure of a homogeneous space of a compact Hausdorff topological group and we let ${\lambda}_{z^*}$ be the corresponding Haar measure on this fiber. In particular $\rho$ is a RIM and open extension and $z^*\mapsto {\lambda}_{z^*}$, $Z^* \to {\mathfrak{M}}(X)$, is the corresponding section. Let ${\Lambda}: {\mathfrak{M}}(Z^*) \to {\mathfrak{M}}(X)$, defined by $${\Lambda}(\nu) =\int_{Z^*} {\lambda}_{z^*}\, d\nu(z^*),$$ be the associated affine injection.
2. Let $y_0 \in Y$ be the unique point with $uy_0=y_0$. Denote $Z_0 = {\sigma}^{-1}(y_0)$, $X_0 = \phi^{-1}(y_0)$ and $Z_0^* = ({\sigma}\circ {\theta})^{-1}(y_0) = \rho(X_0)$. Set ${\mathfrak{M}}_m(X_0)=\{{\Lambda}(\nu): \nu \in {\mathfrak{M}}(Z_0^*)\}$. Then the set $$R=\{\nu \in {\mathfrak{M}}(X_0): \text{the orbit closure of $\nu$ meets ${\mathfrak{M}}_m(X_0)$}\}$$ is a dense $G_{\delta}$ subset of ${\mathfrak{M}}(X_0)$.
Part 1 is well known; see e.g. Corollary 3.7 in [@G0].
2. Fix a compatible metric $d$ on ${\mathfrak{M}}(X)$. Let $\kappa \in {\mathfrak{M}}(X_0)$ and ${\epsilon}, \eta >0$ be given. Find an atomic measure ${\lambda}=\frac{1}{n}\sum_{i=1}^n {\delta}_{x_i},\ x_i \in X_0$ such that $d({\kappa},{\lambda}) < {\epsilon}/2$. Choose open disjoint neighborhoods $U_i$ of $x_i$, so small that every measure of the form $\mu=\frac{1}{n}\sum_{i=1}^n \mu_i,\ \mu_i \in {\mathfrak{M}}(X_0)$ with ${{\rm{supp\,}}}\mu_i \subset U_i$, will satisfy $d(\mu,{\lambda}) < {\epsilon}/2$, and hence also $d(\mu,{\kappa}) < {\epsilon}$.
Set $\nu=\frac{1}{n}\sum_{i=1}^n {\lambda}_{z^*_i}$ with $z^*_i=\rho(x_i)$ (an element of ${\mathfrak{M}}_m(X_0)$). For each $z^*_i$ choose points $\{x'_{i,j}\}_{j=1}^k
\in \rho^{-1}(z^*_i)$ so that $d(\mu',\nu) < \eta/2$, where $$\mu'=\frac{1}{nk}\sum_{i=1}^n \sum_{j=1}^k {\delta}_{x'_{i,j}}.$$
By Lemma \[tau\] $$\begin{gathered}
uX \cap u \circ \left(uX \cap \bigcup_{i=1}^n U_i\right)
= {{\rm{cls\,}}}_\tau \left(uX \cap \bigcup_{i=1}^n U_i\right)\\
\supset uX \cap \left(\bigcup_{i=1}^n \rho^{-1}(\rho(U_i))\right).\end{gathered}$$
Therefore there exist an element ${\gamma}\in {\Gamma}$ and for each $i$ a set $\{x_{i,j}\}_{j=1}^k \subset uX \cap U_i$, such that $d({\gamma}x_{i,j},x'_{i,j})$ is so small that the inequality $d({\gamma}\mu, \mu')< \eta/2$ is satisfied, with $$\mu=\frac{1}{nk}\sum_{i=1}^n \sum_{j=1}^k {\delta}_{x_{i,j}}.$$ Thus $d({\gamma}\mu,\nu)< \eta$. By the choice of the small sets $U_i$ we also have $d(\mu,{\kappa})< {\epsilon}$ and, as ${\epsilon}>0$ is arbitrary, we have shown that the open set $$R_\eta=
\{\mu\in {\mathfrak{M}}(X_0): \ {\text{there exists}}\ {\gamma}\in {\Gamma}\ {\text{ with}}\
d({\gamma}\mu, {\mathfrak{M}}_m(X_0)) < \eta\}$$ is dense in ${\mathfrak{M}}(X_0)$. Clearly $R=\bigcap\{R_\eta: \eta > 0\}$ is the required dense $G_{\delta}$ subset of ${\mathfrak{M}}(X_0)$.
Some properties of tame minimal systems {#tame-sec}
=======================================
\[tame-inj\]([@G]) Let [$(X,{\Gamma})\ $]{}be a metric tame dynamical system. Let ${\mathfrak{M}}(X)$ denote the compact convex set of probability measures on $X$ (with the weak$^*$ topology). Then each element $p\in E(X,{\Gamma})$ defines an element $p_*\in E({\mathfrak{M}}(X),{\Gamma})$ and the map $p \mapsto p_*$ is both a dynamical system and a semigroup isomorphism of $E(X,{\Gamma})$ onto $E({\mathfrak{M}}(X),{\Gamma})$.
Since $E(X,{\Gamma})$ is Fréchet we have for every $p\in E$ a sequence ${\gamma}_i\to p$ of elements of ${\Gamma}$ converging to $p$. Now for every $f\in C(X)$ and every probability measure $\nu\in {\mathfrak{M}}(X)$ we get, by the Riesz representation theorem and Lebesgue’s dominated convergence theorem, $${\gamma}_i\nu(f)=\nu(f\circ {\gamma}_i)\to \nu(f\circ p):=p_*\nu(f).$$ Since the Baire class 1 function $f\circ p$ is well defined and does not depend upon the choice of the convergent sequence ${\gamma}_i\to p$, this defines the map $p \mapsto p_*$ uniquely. It is easy to see that this map is an isomorphism of dynamical systems, whence also a semigroup isomorphism. Finally as ${\Gamma}$ is dense in both enveloping semigroups, it follows that this isomorphism is onto.
As we have seen, when [$(X,{\Gamma})\ $]{}is a metrizable tame system, the enveloping semigroup $E(X,{\Gamma})$ is a separable Fréchet space. Therefore, each element $p\in E$ is a limit of a sequence of elements of ${\Gamma}$, $p=\lim_{n\to \infty} {\gamma}_n$. It follows that the subset $C(p)$ of continuity points of each $p\in E$ is a dense $G_{\delta}$ subset of $X$. More generally, if $A\subset X$ is any closed subset then the set $C_A(p)$ of continuity points of the map $p{\upharpoonright}A : A \to X$ is a dense $G_{\delta}$ subset of $A$. For an idempotent $v=v^2\in E$ we write $C_v$ for $C_{{\overline}{vX}}(v)$. For a special case of the next lemma see [@GM14 Theorem 9.2]
\[Cp-rel\] Let $(X,{\Gamma})$ be a metrizable tame dynamical system and $\pi : X \to Y$ a RIM extension, with section $y \mapsto \nu_y$, such that $(Y, {\Gamma})$ is a proximal system.
1. $p \nu_y =\nu_{py}$ for every $p \in E(X,{\Gamma})$ and every $y \in Y$. In particular, we have $\nu_{py}(pX) =1$.
2. For every minimal idempotent $v \in E(X,{\Gamma})$ there is a unique $y \in Y$ such that $vy=y$. For such $v$ we have $vX \subset \pi^{-1}(y)$, so that $\nu_y(vX)=1$ and ${{\rm{supp\,}}}(\nu_y) \subset vX \cap \pi^{-1}(y) = v\pi^{-1}(y)$.
3. For an idempotent $v$ in $E(X,{\Gamma})$ we have $C_v \subset vX$.
4. If $X$ is minimal then for every point $y$ of the dense $G_{\delta}$ subset $Y_{fs} \subset Y$ (see Lemma \[RIM-fs\]) and $v$ a minimal idempotent in $E(X,{\Gamma})$ with $vy=y$, $C_v$ is a dense $G_{\delta}$ subset of $\pi^{-1}(y)$, and $vX$ is a residual subset of $\pi^{-1}(y)$.
1.As $p : X \to X$ is a Baire 1 function, the measure $p\nu_x$ is well defined and the equality follows from the continuity of the section.
2. Clear.
3.Given $x \in C_v$ choose a sequence $x_n \in vX$ with $\lim_{n\to\infty} x_n =x$. We then have $vx=\lim_{n\to\infty} vx_n = \lim_{n\to\infty} x_n =x$, hence $C_v \subset vX$.
4.For $vy = y \in Y_{fs}$ we have ${{\rm{supp\,}}}(\nu_y) = \pi^{-1}(y)$. By part 2 we have $\nu_y(vX) =1$, whence $vX$ is dense in $\pi^{-1}(y)$. Now $C_v = C_{{\overline}{vX}}(v) = C_{\pi^{-1}(y)}(v)$ and it follows that $C_v$ is a dense $G_{\delta}$ subset of $\pi^{-1}(y)$. By part 3 $C_v \subset vX$ and it follows that $vX$ is residual in $\pi^{-1}(y)$.
Let $(X,{\Gamma})$ be a metrizable tame dynamical system admitting a ${\Gamma}$ invariant probability measure, and let $v$ be a minimal idempotent in $E(X,{\Gamma})$. Then $C(v) \subset vX$, $C(v)$ is a dense $G_{\delta}$ subset of $X$, and $vX$ is residual in $X$.
\[PD\] Let $(X,{\Gamma})$ be a metrizable tame dynamical system and $\pi : X \to Y$ a RIM extension, with section $y \mapsto \nu_y$, such that $(Y,{\Gamma})$ is a proximal system. Then the extension $\pi$ is point distal. In particular, a metric tame minimal system admitting an invariant probability measure is point distal.
We will prove that the condition in Theorem \[vdw-rel\] holds; i.e. that every $S$-set in $R_\pi$ is minimal. So let $W\subset R_\pi$ be an $S$-set. For $y \in Y$ we write $W_y = W \cap (\pi^{-1}(y) \times \pi^{-1}(y))$.
By Corollary \[so-res\] there is a dense $G_{\delta}$ subset $Y_{so}
\subset Y$ such that for each $y \in Y_{so}$ the projection maps ${\bf{p}}_i : W_y \to \pi^{-1}(y)\ (i=1,2)$ are semiopen. Next recall that the set $W_{tr}$ of transitive points of $W$ forms a dense $G_{\delta}$ subset of $W$. By the Ulam theorem there is a dense $G_{\delta}$ subset $Y_{tr} \subset Y$ such that for each $y \in Y_{tr}$, $W_{tr} \cap (\pi^{-1}(y) \times \pi^{-1}(y))$ is a dense $G_{\delta}$ subset of $W_y$. Thus, the set $Y_{so} \cap Y_{tr} \cap Y_{fs}$ is also a dense $G_{\delta}$ subset of $Y$ (see Lemma \[RIM-fs\].4 for the definition of $Y_{fs}$). Pick a point $y$ in this intersection.
Let $v$ be a minimal idempotent in $E(X,{\Gamma})$ such that $vy =y$. By Lemma \[Cp-rel\].4 $vX \subset\pi^{-1}(y)$ is a residual subset of $\pi^{-1}(y)$. As $y \in Y_{so}$ we conclude that the sets $W \cap {\bf{p}_i}^{-1}(vX)\ (i=1,2)$ are residual subsets of $W_y$ (see Lemma \[so-lem\]). Now pick a point $(x,x')$ in the set $$W_{tr} \cap ({\bf{p}_1}^{-1}(vX) \cap {\bf{p}_2}^{-1}(vX))$$ (which is residual in $W_y$). We then have $v(x, x') = (vx, vx') = (x, x')$, so that ${\overline}{G(x,x')}$ is a minimal set. On the other hand, being a point in $W_{tr}$, we have ${\overline}{G(x,x')} =W$ and our proof is complete. For the last assertion, take $Y$ to be the trivial one point system.
The structure of tame metric minimal dynamical systems {#main-sec}
======================================================
Let us call a minimal dynamical system $(X,{\Gamma})$ [*standard*]{} if it has the following structure: $$X \overset{\pi}\to Y,$$ where $(Y, {\Gamma})$ is a strongly proximal system and $\pi$ is a RIM extension.
The next theorem, from [@G0], is just a description of the RIM shadow diagram (\[RIM\]), associated to the map $X \to \{*\}$, the trivial one point system. The fact that, when $X$ is tame so is $\tilde{X}$, follows from Theorem \[tame-inj\].
\[RIM-shadow\] Every minimal system $(X,{\Gamma})$ has a standard extension $\tilde{X} \overset{\eta}{\to} X$: $$\label{standard}
\xymatrix
{
& \tilde{X} \ar[dr]^\pi \ar[dl]_\eta &\\
X & & Y,
}$$ where $(Y, {\Gamma})$ is a strongly proximal system, $\eta$ is a strongly proximal extension, and $\pi$ a RIM extension. If $(X,{\Gamma})$ is tame then so is $(\tilde{X},{\Gamma})$.
We can now state and prove our main result.
\[main\] Let ${\Gamma}$ be any group and [$(X,{\Gamma})\ $]{}a metric tame minimal system. Then there exists a commutative diagram
$$\label{red}
\xymatrix
{
& \tilde{X} \ar[dd]_\pi \ar[dl]_\eta & X^* \ar[l]_-{{\theta}^*} \ar[d]^{\iota}\\
X & & Z \ar[d]^{\sigma}\\
& Y & Y^* \ar[l]^{\theta}}$$
where
1. $\tilde{X}$ is metric minimal and tame.
2. $\eta$ is a strongly proximal extension.
3. $\pi$ is a RIM and point distal extension, with unique section $y \mapsto \nu_y$.
4. $(Y, \Gamma)$ is a strongly proximal system.
5. The maps ${\theta}$, ${\theta}^*$ and $\iota$ are almost one-to-one extensions.
6. ${\sigma}$ is an isometric extension.
Moreover, the extension $\pi^* = {\sigma}\circ \iota$ is a RIM extension with a unique section $y^* \mapsto \nu^*_{y^*}$. For each $y^* \in Y^*$, ${\theta}^*(\nu^*_{y^*}) = \nu_{{\theta}(y^*)}$ and the measure $\iota(\nu^*_{y^*})$ is the Haar measure ${\lambda}_{y^*}$ on the fiber ${\sigma}^{-1}(y^*)$. The restriction $\iota : ((\pi^*)^{-1}(y^*), \nu^*_{y^*}) \to
({\sigma}^{-1}(y^*), {\lambda}_{y^*})$ is a measure theoretical isomorphism.
1.By Theorem \[RIM-shadow\] we have the RIM shadow diagram (\[standard\]) with tame $\tilde{X}$. By Theorem \[PD\] the RIM extension $\pi$ is point distal.
2.Next apply the structure theorem of point distal extensions, Theorem \[PD-rel\], and consider the first two stages of the corresponding AI tower $$\label{two-steps}
\xymatrix
{
& \tilde{X}\ar[dl]_{\eta} \ar[dd]_{\pi} & X^* \ar[l]_-{{\theta}^*} \ar[dd]_{\pi^*} \ar[ddr]^\iota &
& X^{**}\ar[ll]_-{{\theta}_1^*} \ar[dd]_{\pi^{**}} \ar[ddr]^{\psi} &\\
X & & & & & \\
& Y & Y^* \ar[l]^{{\theta}} & Z \ar[l]^{\sigma}& Z^*\ar[l]^{{\theta}_1} & \hat{X} \ar[l]^\rho}$$ Thus
- the diagram $$\xymatrix
{
\tilde{X} \ar[d]_{\pi} & X^*\ar[l]_-{{\theta}^*} \ar[d]^{\pi^*}\\
Y & Y^*\ar[l]^{{\theta}}
}$$ is the O-shadow diagram associated to $\pi$ (note that we no longer know that the system $X^*$ is tame),
- ${\sigma}$ is the largest intermediate isometric extension for $\pi^*$,
- the diagram $$\xymatrix
{
X^* \ar[d]_\iota & X^{**}\ar[l]_{{\theta}_1^*} \ar[d]^{\pi^{**}} \\
Z & Z^*\ar[l]^{{\theta}_1}
}$$ is the O-shadow diagram associated to $\iota$,
- and finally, $\rho :\hat{X} \to Z^*$ is the largest intermediate isometric extension for $\pi^{**}$.
Note that if the map $\rho$ is an isomorphism; i.e. the largest isometric extension corresponding to $\pi^{**}$ is trivial, then the AI tower for $\pi$ collapses to the diagram (\[red\]) which is exactly what we are after. Thus our goal is to show that indeed $\rho$ is necessarily an isomorphism.
3. In order to arrive at a contradiction, we now assume that $\rho$ is a nontrivial isometric extension. The map $\rho$, being isometric, is open RIM extension with unique section $z^* \mapsto {\lambda}_{z^*}$ (where ${\lambda}_{z^*}$ is the Haar measure on the homogeneous space of the associated compact group, see the diagram (\[g-ext\])).
Consider the subdiagram of (\[two-steps\]) $$\hat{X} \overset{\rho}{\to} Z^* \overset{{\theta}_1}{\to} Z \overset{{\sigma}}{\to} Y^*.$$ We apply Proposition \[diff\] (with $\hat{X}$ in the role of $X$, $Y^*$ in the role of $Y$, ${\theta}_1$ replacing ${\theta}$, and $\phi = {\sigma}\circ {\theta}_1 \circ \rho : \hat{X} \to Y^*$). Let $y^*_0 \in Y^*$ be the unique point with $uy^*_0=y^*_0$. Denote $\hat{X}_0 = \phi^{-1}(y^*_0)$ and $X_0^{**} = \psi^{-1}(\hat{X}_0)
= (\pi^{*} \circ {\theta}_1^*)^{-1}(y_0^*) $. Set ${\mathfrak{M}}_m(\hat{X}_0)=\{{\Lambda}(\nu): \nu \in {\mathfrak{M}}(Z_0^*)\}$. By Proposition \[diff\], the set $$\hat{R} = \{\nu \in {\mathfrak{M}}(\hat{X}_0): \text{the orbit closure of $\nu$ meets ${\mathfrak{M}}_m(\hat{X}_0)$}\}$$ is a dense $G_{\delta}$ subset of ${\mathfrak{M}}(\hat{X}_0)$.
Set $\tilde{X}_0 = ({\theta}^* \circ {\theta}_1^*)(X_0^{**})$. Also, set $$\begin{gathered}
{\mathfrak{M}}_m(X_0^{**}) := \psi^{-1}({\mathfrak{M}}_m(\hat X_0))
\ {\text{and}}\ \\
{\mathfrak{M}}_m(\tilde{X}_0) :=({\theta}^* \circ {\theta}_1^*)( {\mathfrak{M}}_m(X_0^{**}))=({\theta}^* \circ {\theta}_1^*)(\psi^{-1}({\mathfrak{M}}_m(\hat X_0))).\end{gathered}$$ Let $$\label{R*}
R^{**} :=\psi^{-1}(\hat R) =
\{\xi \in {\mathfrak{M}}(X_0^{**}): \text{the orbit closure of $\xi$ meets
${\mathfrak{M}}_m(X_0^{**})$}\}$$ and $$R' := ({\theta}^* \circ {\theta}_1^*)(R^{**}) \subset R,$$ where $$\label{R}
R =
\{\xi \in {\mathfrak{M}}(\tilde{X}_0): \text{the orbit closure of $\xi$ meets
${\mathfrak{M}}_m(\tilde{X}_0)$}\}.$$ By Lemma \[so-min\] the map $\psi: X^{**} \to \hat{X}$ is semiopen and by Lemma \[so-res-lem\] there is a dense $G_{\delta}$ subset $Y^*_0 \subset Y^*$ such that $\psi : (\pi^{*} \circ {\theta}_1^*)^{-1}(y^*) \to \phi^{-1}(y^*)$ is semiopen for every $y^* \in Y^*_0$. By Lemma \[G-min-id\].2 we may and will assume that $y^*_0 \in Y^*_0$, so that $\psi : X^{**}_0 \to \hat{X}_0$ is semiopen. Theorem \[so-thm\] implies that $\psi: {\mathfrak{M}}(X^{**}) \to {\mathfrak{M}}(\hat{X}_0)$ is semiopen as well.
Now $\hat R$ is a dense subset of ${\mathfrak{M}}(\hat{X}_0)$ and Lemma \[so-lem\] implies that $R^{**}$ is a dense subset of ${\mathfrak{M}}(X_0^{**})$. Therefore $R'$ is a dense subset of ${\mathfrak{M}}(\tilde{X}_0)$. From the definition of $R$ (\[R\]) it is easy to deduce that it is a $G_{\delta}$ set and because it contains $R'$, it is in fact a dense $G_{\delta}$ subset of ${\mathfrak{M}}(\tilde{X}_0)$.
4.Recall that the system $(\tilde{X},{\Gamma})$ is tame and, by Theorem \[tame-inj\] so is $({\mathfrak{M}}(\tilde{X}),{\Gamma})$. Moreover we have $E(\tilde{X},{\Gamma})=E(\mathfrak{M}(\tilde{X}),{\Gamma})$. In particular $u\in E(\mathfrak{M}(\tilde{X}),{\Gamma})$, as a Baire 1 function, has a dense $G_{\delta}$ set of continuity points. Moreover, $C_u = C_{{\overline}{u{\mathfrak{M}(\tilde{X})}}}(u)$, the set of continuity points of $u$ restricted to the set ${\overline}{u{\mathfrak{M}(\tilde{X})}}$, is a dense $G_{\delta}$ subset of ${\overline}{u{\mathfrak{M}(\tilde{X})}}$ and, by Lemma \[Cp-rel\].3, $$C_u \subset
u\mathfrak{M}(\tilde{X}).$$ As $\rho$ and ${\sigma}$ are isometric extensions and ${\theta}_1$ is an almost one-to-one extension, it is easy to see that ${\overline}{u\hat{X}} = \hat{X}_0$. As $\psi$ is semiopen and a point distal extension, it follows that ${\overline}{uX^{**}} = X_0^{**}$ and therefore also that ${\overline}{u\tilde{X}} =\tilde{X}_0$. It follows that the collection of finite convex combinations of point masses picked from $u\tilde{X}$ forms a dense subset of ${\mathfrak{M}}(\tilde{X}_0)$. In turn, this implies that ${\overline}{u{\mathfrak{M}}(\tilde{X})} = {\mathfrak{M}}(\tilde{X}_0)$ and we conclude that $S:=C_u \cap R \subset u\mathfrak{M}(\tilde{X})$ is a dense $G_{\delta}$ subset of ${\mathfrak{M}}(\tilde{X}_0)$.
Now if $\nu \in S$ then $u\nu =\nu$ and, $u$ being a minimal idempotent, the closure of the ${\Gamma}$ orbit of $\nu$ in $\mathfrak{M}(\tilde{X})$ is a minimal set. On the other hand, $\nu$ being also an element of $R$, this orbit closure meets ${\mathfrak{M}}_m(\tilde{X}_0)$. We conclude that ${\overline}{{\Gamma}\nu}$ is contained in ${\mathfrak{M}}_m(\tilde{X})$. In particular $\nu \in {\mathfrak{M}}_m(\tilde{X}) \cap {\mathfrak{M}}(\tilde{X}_0) = {\mathfrak{M}}_m(\tilde{X}_0)$ and we conclude that $S \subset {\mathfrak{M}}_m(\tilde{X}_0)$, whence the equality $$\label{equ}
{\mathfrak{M}}_m(\tilde{X}_0)={\mathfrak{M}}(\tilde{X}_0).$$
5.Given a point $\tilde{x} \in \tilde{X}_0$, the corresponding point mass ${\delta}_{\tilde{x}}\in {\mathfrak{M}}(\tilde{X}_0)$ must have, by (\[equ\]), a preimage in ${\mathfrak{M}}_m(X^{**}_0)$, say $({\theta}^* \circ {\theta}_1^*)(\xi)={\delta}_{\tilde{x}}$ with $\xi \in {\mathfrak{M}}_m(X^{**}_0)$. For $\tilde{x}$ with ${({\theta}^* \circ {\theta}_1^*)}^{-1}(\tilde{x})=\{x^{**}\}$ a singleton, we must have $\xi={\delta}_{x^{**}} \in {\mathfrak{M}}_m(X^{**}_0)$ and therefore $\psi_*({\delta}_{x^{**}})=
{\delta}_{\hat x}\in {\mathfrak{M}}_m(\hat X_0)$ with $\hat x = \psi(x^{**})$. By the definition of ${\mathfrak{M}}_m(\hat X_0)$ there exists a measure $\zeta
\in {\mathfrak{M}}(Z_0^*)$ with $${\delta}_{\hat x} = {\Lambda}(\zeta) =\int_{Z^*} {\lambda}_{z^*}\, d\zeta(z^*).$$ This clearly implies that the measure $\zeta$ is a point mass, say $\zeta={\delta}_{z^*}$ and that the measure ${\lambda}_{z^*}$ — which is the Haar measure on the homogeneous space which forms the fiber $\rho^{-1}(z^*) \subset \hat X$ — is also a degenerate point mass. That is, the isometric extension $\rho$ is in fact an isomorphism. As we observed above, the collapse of $\rho$ implies the collapse of the entire AI tower for $\pi$, and the diagram (\[red\]) is obtained.
6.By Lemma \[ORIM\] the section for $\pi^*$ has the form $y^* \mapsto \nu^*_{y^*} = \nu_{{\theta}(y^*)} \times {\delta}_{{\theta}(y^*)}$, whence ${\theta}^*(\nu^*_{y^*}) = \nu_{{\theta}(y^*)}$. Now the extension ${\sigma}: Z \to Y^*$, being isometric, admits a unique section $y^* \mapsto {\lambda}_{y^*}$, where ${\lambda}_{y^*}$ is the Haar measure on the homogeneous space ${\sigma}^{-1}(y^*)$. It follows that $\iota(\nu^*_{y^*})$ is the Haar measure ${\lambda}_{y^*}$ on the fiber ${\sigma}^{-1}(y^*)$.
From the construction of the O-shadow diagram it follows that the map $${\theta}^* : (\pi^*)^{-1}(y^*) \to \pi^{-1}(y)$$ (with $y = {\theta}(y^*)$) is a homeomorphism. Therefore we can study the nature of the map $\iota : ((\pi^*)^{-1}(y^*), \nu_{y^*}) \to ({\sigma}^{-1}(y^*), {\lambda}_{y^*})$ via its pushforward $$\iota \circ ({\theta}^*)^{-1} : (\pi^{-1}(y), \nu_{y}) \to ({\sigma}^{-1}(y^*), {\lambda}_{y^*}).$$ Let $vy^*=y^*$ for a minimal idempotent $v$. Then also $vy=y$ and, $\tilde{X}$ being tame, we have $\nu_y(v\tilde{X}) =1$ by Lemma \[Cp-rel\].2. We disintegrate $\nu^*_{y^*}$ over ${\lambda}_{y*}$ $$\nu^*_{y^*} = \int_{{\sigma}^{-1}(y^*)} \xi_z d\, {\lambda}_{y*}(z),$$ and correspondingly $\nu_y$ over ${\lambda}_y$, say $$\nu_y = \int \xi_{\omega}d\, {\lambda}_y({\omega}).$$ Now in the first disintegration, for ${\lambda}_{y^*}$ almost every $z$, the measure $\xi_z$ is concentrated on $\iota^{-1}(z)$, which consists of pairwise proximal points ($\iota$ being a proximal extension). On the other hand, any two points in $v\tilde{X}$ are distal. We therefore conclude that for ${\lambda}_{y^*}$ almost every $z$, the measure $\xi_{\omega}$, and therefore also $\xi_z$, is a point mass. This means that indeed $\iota : ((\pi^*)^{-1}(y^*), \nu_{y^*}) \to ({\sigma}^{-1}(y^*), {\lambda}_{y^*})$ is a measure theoretical isomorphism. Since the Haar measures section is unique we conclude that the section $y^* \mapsto \nu^*_{y^*}$ is unique. Finally, by Lemma \[ORIM\], also $y \mapsto \nu_y$ is unique.
\[cor\] With notations as in Theorem \[main\]
1. If the RIM extension $\pi$ happens to be open then the diagram (\[red\]) reduces to the simplified form $$\label{cor-diag}
\xymatrix
{
& \tilde{X} \ar[dl]_\eta \ar[d]^{\iota}\\
X & Z \ar[d]^{\sigma}\\
& Y
}$$ with $\pi = {\sigma}\circ \iota$.
2. If the system $(X, {\Gamma})$ admits an invariant probability measure $\mu$ then $X$ is almost automorphic, i.e. it has the form $X \overset{\iota}{\to} Z$, where $Z$ is equicontinuous and $\iota$ is almost one-to-one. Moreover, $\mu$ is unique and the map $\iota$ is a measure theoretical isomorphism $\iota : (X, \mu, {\Gamma}) \to (Z, {\lambda}, {\Gamma})$, where ${\lambda}$ is the Haar measure on the homogeneous space $Z$.
3. Thus, when ${\Gamma}$ is amenable this latter situation is the rule.
Concerning the first assertion in Corollary \[cor\] we pose the following.
Is a RIM homomorphism $\pi : X \to Y$ of minimal metric systems necessarily open ? Is this true when, in addition, we assume that $X$ is tame ?
In the situation described in Corollary \[cor\].2, the set $X_0= \{x\in X: \iota^{-1}(\iota(x)) = \{x\}\}$ is a dense $G_{\delta}$ and ${\Gamma}$-invariant subset of $X$ and thus has $\mu$ measure either zero or one. In [@KL Section 11] Kerr and Li construct a minimal Toeplitz cascade (i.e. a ${\mathbb{Z}}$-system) which is tame and not null. In [@Gmt Remark 5.2] I claimed that this example can be made not regular in the sense that the densities of the periodic parts converge to $d < 1$. As for such non-regular systems $\mu(X_0)=0$, this would show that the unique invariant measure of a minimal tame system need not be supported by the set $X_0$ where $\pi$ is 1-1. Unfortunately the argument I had in mind when claiming that the Kerr-Li example can be made nonregular was flawed. Thus the following basic question is still open.
Let $(X, {\Gamma})$ be a metric minimal tame system. Suppose that $(X, {\Gamma})$ admits a (necessarily unique) invariant probability measure $\mu$. Let $X \overset{\iota}{\to} Z$ be its maximal equicontinuous factor (so that $\iota$ is an almost one-to-one extension). Let $X_0 \subset X$ be the dense $G_{\delta}$ subset of $X$ defined by $X_0= \{x\in X: \iota^{-1}(\iota(x)) = \{x\}\}$. Is it necessarily the case that $\mu(X_0)=1$ ?
On the other hand, one may ask whether every metric minimal almost automorphic system $(X, {\Gamma})$, with $X \overset{\iota}{\to} Z$ being its maximal equicontinuous factor (so that $\iota$ is an almost one-to-one extension), which admits a unique invariant measure $\mu$ such that $\mu(X_0)=1$, is necessarily tame ? The answer here is no. We can construct a minimal subshift $X
\subset \{0, 1\}^{\mathbb{Z}}$ as above, with $Z$ being an irrational rotation of the circle, yet $(X,{\sigma})$ (${\sigma}$ denoting the shift) is not tame. We omit the details which will be published elsewhere.
The following corollary of Theorem \[main\] was suggested by the referee. The notion of mean equicontinuity was studied in [@LTY] and [@DG]. (A ${\mathbb{Z}}$-system is [*mean equicontinuous*]{} if for every ${\epsilon}>0$ there is ${\delta}> 0$ such that if $d(x,y) < {\delta}$ then $d(T^ix,T^iy) < {\epsilon}$ for all $i$ except for a set of density $< {\epsilon}$.) Combining Theorem 2.1 of [@DG] and Theorem \[main\] we deduce the following:
A minimal tame ${\mathbb{Z}}$-system is mean equicontinuous.
Examples
========
We illustrate our main theorem, Theorem \[main\], with some basic examples.
- The classical Sturmian ${\mathbb{Z}}$ dynamical system $(X,T)$ (where $T : X \to X$ is the homeomorphism which generate the ${\mathbb{Z}}$ action) is minimal and tame. This is an almost automorphic system with ${\theta}: X \to Z$, an almost one-to-one factor, the projection of $X$ onto its largest equicontinuous factor $Z$, the dyadic adding machine. See [@GM].
- Every [**null**]{} dynamical system is tame; see [@HLSY] and [@KL]. (A system is null if it has zero sequence topological entropy with respect to every subsequence $n_i \nearrow \infty$.)
- The action of $G=GL(d,{\mathbb{R}})$ (and hence of any subsgroup ${\Gamma}< G$) on the projective space $\mathbb{P}^{d-1}$, comprising the lines through the origin in ${\mathbb{R}}^n$, is tame (see the appendix below). The same is true for the action of $G$ on $S^{d-1}$, identified with the space of rays emanating from the origin. We have a natural two-to-one map ${\sigma}: S^{d-1} \to \mathbb{P}^{d-1}$. This factor map corresponds to the diagram (\[cor-diag\]) with $X = \tilde{X} = Z = S^d$ and $Y = \mathbb{P}^{d-1}$. See [@F-B], [@Ellis93] and [@Ak-98].
- The action of the group $G = {\rm{Homeo\,}}(S^1)$ (and hence of any subsgroup ${\Gamma}< G$) on the circle $S^1$ is tame. See [@GM16].
- Our next example will demonstrate the necessity for the presence of the extension $\eta$ in the diagram (\[cor-diag\]). It is an elaboration of an example of Furstenberg and Glasner, see [@G00]. Let $G$ be the closed subgroup of the Lie group $GL(4,{\mathbb{R}})$ consisting of all $4 \times 4$ matrices of the form $$\begin{pmatrix}
A & 0 \\
0 & B
\endpmatrix
\qquad\text{and} \qquad
\pmatrix
0 & A \\
B & 0,
\end{pmatrix}$$ with $A,B\in GL(2,{\mathbb{R}})$. We let $G$ act on the subspace $X$ of the projective space $\mathbb{P}^3$ consisting of the disjoint union of the two one dimensional projective spaces $\mathbb{P}^1$, which are naturally embedded in $\mathbb{P}^3$, the quotient space of ${\mathbb{R}}^4={\mathbb{R}}^2\times {\mathbb{R}}^2$. Call these two copies $X_1$ and $X_2$ respectively. By [@Ak-98] this action is tame.
There is a natural projection from $(X,G)$ onto the two points $G$-system $(\{X_1,X_2\},G)$. It is now easy to establish the remaining assertions of the following:
[**Claim 1**]{}: The $G$-system $(X,G)$ is minimal and tame. It admits the isometric factor which is the “flip" on two points and the map from $X$ onto $(\{X_1,X_2\},G)$ is a strongly proximal extension. However, the system $(X,G)$ admits no nontrivial proximal factor.
Let $Y$ be the “quasifactor" of $(X,G)$ defined by: $$Y=\{\frac12({\delta}_{x_1}+ {\delta}_{x_2}) : x_i \in X_i, \ i=1,2\} \subset {\mathfrak{M}}(X).$$ Again it is easy to check that the system $(Y,G)$ is minimal and strongly proximal $G$-system.
Next let $$\tilde{X} = \{ (x_i,\frac12({\delta}_{x_1}+ {\delta}_{x_2})) : x_i \in X_i,\ i=1,2\}
\subset X \times {\mathfrak{M}}(X).$$
[**Claim 2:**]{} $\tilde{X}$ is minimal and tame. Let $\eta : \tilde{X} \to X$ and ${\sigma}: \tilde{X} \to Y$ denote the projections from $\hat{X}$ onto its two components. Then the diagram (\[cor-diag\]) (with $Z = \tilde{X}$ and $\iota$ the identity map) is the canonical standard extension describing the structure of the minimal tame system $X$.
Appendix: Borel’s density theorem
=================================
In this short section we will rewrite Furstenberg’s proof of Borel’s density theorem [@F-B], in terms of tame systems and enveloping semigroups.
As we will show next the action of $G=SL_d({\mathbb{R}})$ on the projective space $\mathbb{P}^{d-1}$ ($d \ge 2$) is tame. This is also true for the $G$ action on $S^{d-1}$. In both cases the enveloping semigroup is a Rosenthal compactum but not metrizable. In the case of the projective space it is not even first countable (see [@Ak-98]). Thus, these systems are tame but not HAE.
For a non-zero vector $v \in {\mathbb{R}}^d$ we let $\overline{v}$ denote its image in $\mathbb{P}^{d-1}$. Similarly, for $g \in G$ we let $\overline{g}$ denote its image in $E(\mathbb{P}^{d-1},SL_d({\mathbb{R}}))$.
\[Flem\] The action of $GL_d({\mathbb{R}})$ on $\mathbb{P}^{d-1}$ is tame.
Let $g_n$ be a sequence of matrices in $GL_d({\mathbb{R}})$. Given any subspace $W \subset {\mathbb{R}}^d$, by passing to a subsequence and by choosing appropriate scalars ${\lambda}_n$, we can assume that ${\lambda}_n g_n \to h_W$, a non-zero linear map from $W$ into ${\mathbb{R}}^d$. For $v \not\in \ker(h_W)$ we have ${\overline}{{\lambda}_ng_n(v)} \to {\overline}{h_W(v)}$.
Now define $W_0 ={\mathbb{R}}^d$, $W_1 = \ker(h_{W_0})$, and repeat this procedure with $W_1$ to obtain $h_{W_1}$ which maps $W_1$ onto a subspace of ${\mathbb{R}}^d$. Proceeding by induction (till we have a trivial kernel) we finally obtain a subsequence such that ${\overline}{g_{n_i} }\to p \in E(\mathbb{P}^{d-1},SL_d({\mathbb{R}}))$. This shows that $(\mathbb{P}^{d-1}, G)$ is tame.
Note that for $W ={\mathbb{R}}^d$ the assumptions $g_n \in SL_d({\mathbb{R}})$ and $\|g_n\| \to \infty$, imply that $\dim \ker h_W \ge 1$. Thus, in this case the image of $p$ is a finite union of projective sub-verieties of dimension $< d-1$ ([*a quasi-sub-veriety*]{}).
A pair of groups $(G, H)$ is called a [*Borel pair*]{} if $G$ is a minimally almost periodic (m.a.p.) group and $H$ is a closed subgroup of $G$ such that the quotient space $G/H$ supports a finite $G$-invariant measure.
Let $(G, H)$ be a Borel pair and $\pi$ a finite-dimensional representation of $G$ on a space $V$. If $W$ is a $\pi(H)$-invariant subspace, it is also $\pi(G)$-invariant.
Suppose first that $\dim(W)=1$, say $W = {\mathbb{R}}v$, so that $x_0 = {\overline}{v} \in \mathbb{P}(V)$. Then, the map $g \mapsto {\overline}{gv}= gx_0$, from $G/H$ into $\mathbb{P}(V)$, sends the invariant measure on $G/H$ to an invariant measure, say $\mu$, on $\mathbb{P}(V)$. Let $Y$ be the support of $\mu$. Clearly $x_0 \in Y$ and $Y$ is a closed $G$-invariant subset. Let $u \in E(\mathbb{P}(V), G)$ be a minimal idempotent. Then (by tameness; see Theorem \[tame-inj\]) $u_*\mu = \mu$ and it follows that $\mu(u\mathbb{P}(V))=1$. By tameness there is a sequence $g_n \in G$ with ${\overline}{g_n} \to u$. The range of $u$ can not be all of $\mathbb{P}(V)$ since this would mean that the enveloping semigroup is actually a group and therefore, that the action is distal; however, this possibility is ruled out by the m.a.p. property of $G$. Thus, the set $u\mathbb{P}(V)$ is a quasi-sub-veriety (finite union of proper sub-varieties). In particular it is closed, whence $Y \subset u\mathbb{P}(V)$.
Let $L = \bigcup L_i$ be a minimal projective quasi-sub-variety containing $Y$. Then $L$ is closed and $G$-invariant and $G$ must permute its components. By m.a.p. the permutations are all the identity permutations. Thus each $L_i$ is $G$-invariant.
If the $G$-action on $L_i$ is not trivial then, again we conclude that $uL_i \subsetneq L_i$, which contradicts the minimality of $L$. Thus $G$ acts on $L$ as the identity and, in particular, $x_0 \in Y \subset L$ is a $G$-fixed point.
The general case is reduced to the $1$-dimensional one using exterior products.
We refer the reader to [@Bo] and [@F-B] where it is shown how from this theorem one easily deduces the remaining results of [@Bo].
[BFT]{}
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|
A BlockTogether list for election propaganda bots on Twitter - kitskid
https://americapossible.com/2019/01/27/cleanup-twitter-for-the-2020-elections/
======
Mirioron
I'm a bit skeptical of this. It could be used for some rather nefarious means.
However, I found this comment from one of the authors of it troubling:
> _Twitter users should be able to engage in healthy online discourse without
> foreign countries and organized groups manipulating the conversation._
This rhetoric makes it sound like only Americans should engage on Twitter.
~~~
jchw
I believe they mean foreign governments, from interfering with domestic
elections. This would actually be useful outside of the U.S. as the U.S. is
far from the only country this kind of manipulation has occurred in, in fact
it is probably even more prevalent elsewhere.
~~~
iamdave
That in mind, in the interest of specificity I wonder if the phrase '[foreign]
state actors' would be better used?
~~~
burfog
Yes, if it were justified.
It isn't justified. There is zero reason to believe that these accounts are
foreign or bots. I checked a bunch of them. Every account looked like a normal
human American on one side of the political spectrum.
It would be nice if the list were clear on that, but "block foreign bots" is
more marketable than "filter bubble me harder".
------
greymeister
I find the methods listed on
[https://botsentinel.com/faq](https://botsentinel.com/faq) a bit confusing:
"Q: How do you determine which accounts are classified as fake news?
Classifying fake news accounts is a manual process. We review hundreds of
tweets and retweets during the review process. If an account has a large
number of followers and a high percentage of misleading and/or factually
incorrect tweets, that account could be classified as Fake News."
"Q: Why is my account rated problematic or alarming?
Our machine learning model was developed to identify accounts that exhibit
irregular tweet activity related to politics. The more you exhibit irregular
tweet activity, the higher your trollbot score will be."
So how much is manual and how much is their model? By what criteria do the
manual reviews judge tweets?
It all seems way too opaque without more information.
~~~
mc32
Totally. Are they sure thd training data aren’t biased? Are they considering
the full spectrum of politics? Are they neutral to results?
~~~
beaconstudios
if you review the list of users on the list, it clearly is biased - I've only
checked 10 random accounts but at least half of them appeared to be real,
regular Republicans. I mean, the fact that botsentinel rate accounts as
"problematic" is pretty amusing given that it's language associated with a
particular political orientation.
------
smileysteve
This is interesting given that Twitter could be doing this on their own to
promote a better platform.
But instead requires trusting a 3rd party. Which, from an open source
standpoint could be better with verification and such that seems to be
present.
~~~
prezjordan
I'm under the impression that the number of times an account is blocked
_could_ provide some signal to twitter that, hey, maybe this person/bot/thing
shouldn't be on here - so I went ahead and clicked the go button for this huge
list.
------
aphextron
I vigorously curate and purge my Twitter of anything (or anyone) remotely
political, and it makes it a great place to see what people in the industry
are up to. Otherwise it's a complete dumpster fire. I'm completely convinced
that >90% of all accounts are not a human being.
------
nategri
Maybe a step in the right direction but I would much rather have the content
from these entities still be visible, but flagged, so I could warn others.
Probably not possible without a custom twitter client, though.
~~~
kitskid
If you follow @botsentinel, it does this.
|
The BIOS password is used to protect BIOS settings from unwanted changes.
To erase the BIOS password follow these steps:
Turn OFF the computer. Move the jumper from pins 2-4 (default) to pins 4-6, then move the jumper back to the default position. Turn ON the computer.
Last |
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hibernate.show_sql=false
hibernate.format_sql=true |
The Washington Examiner said it was hacked in a tweet that went out Monday morning.
A tweet posted by the hacker to the conservative news outlet's account said that President Trump Donald John TrumpOmar fires back at Trump over rally remarks: 'This is my country' Pelosi: Trump hurrying to fill SCOTUS seat so he can repeal ObamaCare Trump mocks Biden appearance, mask use ahead of first debate MORE "is going to hell" and that it "is garbage."
"Trump is going to hell," the tweet to the Examiner's 140,000 followers begins. "Anyone who ever read the bible can tell you where it stands on rich adulterers.
"The key to God's forgiveness is repentance. Trump's entire political career has been about the exact opposite of that," it continues before adding, "Also this paper is garbage for promoting 'Trump and God.'"
The tweet was sent at 5:13 a.m. ET. Other standard, unprovocative tweets were later posted by the conservative publication.
ADVERTISEMENT
The tweet from the hacker was taken down at approximately 7 a.m.
The Examiner later tweeted that it had been hacked and it would issue a "further statement if necessary."
The Washington Examiner’s Twitter feed was hacked and a tweet was posted that did not come from our staff. We are taking appropriate action and will issue a further statement if necessary. — Washington Examiner (@dcexaminer) November 5, 2018
Several media members noted the tweet while speculating who might be behind it Monday morning.
Happy Monday morning to the editors at the Washington Examiner! pic.twitter.com/AzVLIgI7nL — Aaron Blake (@AaronBlake) November 5, 2018
Tweets from the Washington Examiner typically get a couple of dozen RTs. This one is doing well, though. https://t.co/42TJKXG619 — Dave Clark (@DaveClark_AFP) November 5, 2018
Somebody at the Washington Examiner woke up ... with a Twitter password. pic.twitter.com/1GlKfBlBnM — David Catanese (@davecatanese) November 5, 2018
I suspect this remarkable @dcexaminer tweet won't last long pic.twitter.com/CJV2gCmIT1 — Lynton Grace (@LyntonGrace) November 5, 2018
How’s @hrtbps’s first day as social media manager for the Washington Examiner going? Looks pretty smoo— uh pic.twitter.com/bD8A3xWtEi — Charles Arthur (@charlesarthur) November 5, 2018
The Examiner was founded in 2005 and ceased daily print publication in 2013, opting to go digital outside of its printed weekly magazine.
The Hill has reached out to the Examiner for comment.
--Updated at 10:09 a.m. |
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|
Q:
paste image on between border and background in html?
I will create page follow image but I can't.
this image is page that I created.
I coding .css file follow this code for orange border.
> p {background-color: #ff6138;
width: 1535px;
height: 200px
}
How to make user image display half between orange border and white background?
A:
Try to use negative margin-top for avatar img tag, something like
img#avatar {
margin-top: -50px;
}
(50px value is just ballpark and you need to adjust it)
|
Environmental Impact of Hemp
The Cannabis College attempts to inform the public on all aspects of Cannabis and hemp, especially those with which you may not be familiar. One of the most important applications of the hemp plant is in the realm of environmental protection, such as its ability to leach radioactivity from the soil, prevent erosion and mudslides, and grow with little or no pesticides. Hemp plants are hardy, adapting to and thriving in almost any climate on the planet. Unlike most crops, rather than depleting the earth, hemp actually helps to prepare the soil for the following year’s harvest (crop rotation). Hemp building materials and plastic products are environmentally-friendly and for the most part recyclable, and are also known to be mould-resistant.
Hemp can, for the most part, reduce the need for many other mass-produced modern raw materials. The fuel industry and other petrochemical products create large amounts of toxins and waste. Compared to common resources (such as cotton), the hemp industry not only results in eco-friendly fibres, fuels, cosmetics, medicines, and so on, it also protects the earth and makes the land more viable for other crops. The cotton manufacturing process is responsible for the utilisation of over 20% of the world’s chemical pesticides and processing chemicals; hemp can be grown and processed with minimal or no chemical use. There are very few by-products from hemp processing, and the small amounts of vegetable matter that are not used are easy to either re-use or dispose of.
With regards to the eco industry, it appears that even modern approaches in environmental protection sometimes accidentally lead to the over-consumption of resources, often non-renewable. Hemp plants help to produce oxygen, prevent deforestation and process greenhouse gases while offering materials for food, fuel, cosmetics, plastic, building materials, medicine, textiles and more. Many large companies producing the aforementioned goods are now considering, or have already implemented, the switch to hemp due to the current worldwide concern towards global warming, climate change and CO2 emissions.
Relevant information
The use of Cannabis as an industrial crop by humans is as old as the practice of agriculture itself, dating back almost 10,000 years. Originally it was culitivated for the fibres of the stalk in order to make fabrics for clothing or nets for hunting and fishing.
Today the Cannabis plant family can be separated into three main groups: Cannabis Sativa, Cannabis Indica, and Cannabis Ruderalis, although disputes exist regarding the exact distinctions of these groups. |
Q:
What causes current to move to the surface in superconductors?
I’m really trying to understand superconductors in an intuitive way here, although many say you cannot, anyway Im unable to find anywhere that explains to me why the current is on or near the surface of a superconductor. I understand cooper pairing, and I understand the meissner effect which seems to be a result of this surface current, but there is no explanation as to why the current is at the surface.
A:
The simplest picture is from energy. If we use the Landau-Ginzburg formalism we can define a current
$$
\rho {\bf v}= \frac{1}{2m^*}\left( \psi^*\nabla\psi-(\nabla \psi^*)\psi\right)\\
= \rho(\nabla\phi -2e{\bf A})/(2m_e)
$$
where $\rho= \psi^*\psi$ and $\psi=\sqrt{\rho} e^{i\phi}$ and $m^*=2m_e$.
Then the vorticity of the superconducting electron fluid
$$
\omega\equiv \nabla\times {\bf v}
$$
obeys the Meissner constriant
$$
m_e\omega+ e{\bf B}=0.
$$
There is crucial difference here between a superconductor and a "perfect" conductor. In a perfect conductor a changing ${\bf B}$ field gives rise to an electric field via ${\rm curl\,} {\bf E}= - \partial{\bf B}/{\partial t}$ and this electric field gives rise to a ${\rm curl\,}{\bf v}$ so that $m_e\omega+ e{\bf B}$ is constant, but this constant does not have to be zero. As a result, in a perfect conductor, the magnetic field is frozen into the fluid. This what happens in a highly conductive plasma, and is the source of Alfven waves.
In the superconductor, however, the constant must be exactly zero.
In other words, in a superconductor, where there is a magnetic field the fluid is forced to have vorticity. Now vorticity costs kinetic energy, so having a magnetic field inside the superconductor is energetically costly. The lowest energy configuration puts a minimal $\rho {\bf v}$ screening current on surface that is just sufficient to keep the field out. The field has therefore been expelled from the interior of the superconductor. This is the Messner effect.
Now there is another way to reduce that the $\rho |{\bf v}|^2/2$ kinetic energy that has not been included yet. This is to reduce $\rho$ rather than $|{\bf v}|$. Such a reduction costs energy from the $V(|\psi|)= $ interaction term in the Landau-Ginzburg free energy. If the external field is large enough the system will reduce the
$$
\int d^3x \frac{1}{2\mu_0} |{\bf B}|^2
$$
field energy at the expense of paying energy to reduce $|\psi|$. The field will then penetrate the superconductor either in the form of vortices or, in a type I superconductor, completely.
|
The MiniMag II is an intelligent, programmable MagStripe reader providing a wide range of functionality and value in a convenient package size. The entire unit is just 90 mm long, about the length of a credit card. It reads up to three tracks (varies by model) of information with a single swipe in either direction. It has a beeper and three-color LED indicator to signal a successful read. The reader is programmable so that the data format and intelligent interface output can be programmed & configured to match application and communication requirements. Programming is easy using ID TECH??s Magswipe PC software. |
I am interested, but in USA. Also does it already have retro pi and roms or is that needing to be added?
No one here would sell a console with ROMs on it because that would be illegal. If the build does not come with the SD card with the RetroPie image you can download a configured image for the Gaboze on 32teeth's github page. Once again, it does not come with any games. |
1. Field of the Invention Deferent
The present invention relates to seat reclining mechanisms for adjusting a tilt angle of a seat back of a seat (e.g., a vehicle seat).
2. Description of the Related Art
Typically, a vehicle seat comprises a seat back and a seat cushion. The seat back and the seat cushion are rotatably interconnected via a seat reclining mechanism for adjusting a tilt angle of the seat back. Such a seat reclining mechanism is taught, for example, by Japanese Laid-Open Patent Publication Number 2002-10851. Such a seat reclining mechanism is known as a “round type” seat reclining mechanism.
As shown in FIG. 11, the known seat reclining mechanism includes a pair of opposing disk-like housings, i.e., a first or stationary housing 11 and a second or rotational housing 12. The first housing 11 is affixed to the vehicle seat cushion (not shown). The second housing 12 is affixed to the vehicle seat back (not shown). The first and second housings 11 and 12 are circumferentially connected by an annular fastener or clip ring 2 along peripheral edges 11a and 12a thereof, so that the second housing 12 can move or rotate relative to the first housing 11 around a rotational shaft (not shown).
The clip ring 2 comprises an annular guide portion 2a that slidably support the peripheral edge 12a of the second housing 12 and an annular fixture portion 2b that is fixed to the peripheral edge 11a of the first housing 11. The guide portion 2a is circumferentially formed with a plurality of projections or slide portions 2a-1, so that a sliding clearance between the second housing peripheral edge 12a and the clip ring guide portion 2a can be easily controlled. As shown in FIG. 10, the slide portions 2a-1 are spaced at equal intervals. The first and second housing 11 and 12 thus assembled are respectively fixed to the seat cushion and the seat back.
The seat reclining mechanism further includes a locking means (not shown) that can prevent the second housing 12 from rotating relative to the first housing 11, so as to lock the seat reclining mechanism. The locking means essentially consists of a cam member and a pair of pawls (not shown) that are received within the housings 11 and 12. The cam member is secured to or integrally formed with the rotational shaft, so as to rotate with the rotational shaft. Each of the pawls is provided with a convex toothed portion and is radially movably positioned on the first housing 11.
When the rotational shaft is rotated to a locking position, the pawls are radially moved outward by the cam member, so that the respective convex toothed portions of the pawls engage a concave toothed portion (not shown) that is circumferentially formed over an inner circular surface of the second housing peripheral edge 12a. In this state, the second housing 12 is prevented from rotating relative to the first housing 11, so that the seat reclining mechanism is locked. As a result, the seat back is locked in position relative to the seat cushion.
Often times, a large force can be unexpectedly applied to the seat reclining mechanism in a direction to separate the housings 11 and 12 from each other. Such a large force may concentrate to the slide portions 2a-1 of the clip ring guide portion 2a. As a result, the guide portion 2a may be deformed outwardly or spread out, as shown by a broken line in FIG. 11. Such a deformation of the guide portion 2a may reduce a locking performance of the seat reclining mechanism. |
Its the society we leave in that is the problem.The irony of the whole thing is that some times its even the girls that had not misbehave before marriage that use to have problems if they did not marry early.That been said couples can stay as long as possible before children since its for better for worse.It is not easy in our society to stay too long after marriage before having children.I got married some seven years ago and no issue for about two years,but that too years was like twenty years ,not because ot the two of us involve but because of people.Despite that however every thing has its advantage,for those two years we grew so close to each other without the stress of children that we became like brothers and sisters,and i tell you even when they finally came we became so united.there is nothing wrong however in consultations with medical pract.on these too,prayer also help when you ve done your part.
greatgod2012: Firstly, i dont think its right to get married mainly because of children, love, i think, should be d driving cause in marriage, but, this is Africa, where d wife is tagged different disgusting names because of her inability to conceive after a year of marriage, so, for anybody that find herself in that type of a marriage, its not going to be easy at all.However, i have goodnews for those who are experiencing delay........... All covenant children in d bible are all born by delayed mothers, so, keep d hope alive, this new year is your year, you shall have cause to thank God, your miracle is on d way.
@ post, no waiting is too long for couples who truly loves each other.
What type of hope are your parents still clinging unto? If you say they have been married for 29 years, then at the very least, your mum should be in her mid or late 40s, if not even 50s and at such age, it is medically near-impossible to conceive.
The mantle now falls unto you to procreate and fill that void, if at all there is any. Clinton has one girl, bush one girl, it's no big deal.
safeLove: Yep. Its hard. I will be 3years in marriage by may next year.I won't say its been all rosy,but I try not put myself under any kind of pressure. The only pressure I get (though mild) is from my friends who have kids already.
But having checked and comfirmed myself ok,medically,I have total and complete faith in the Most high.
safeLove: Yep. Its hard. I will be 3years in marriage by may next year.I won't say its been all rosy,but I try not put myself under any kind of pressure. The only pressure I get (though mild) is from my friends who have kids already.
But having checked and comfirmed myself ok,medically,I have total and complete faith in the Most high.
Meanwhile,my hubby is my baby for now. Lolss.
I and my wife ve' been there dear, i pray this year is your year. talk to ur doc. on using Megafol-5 Folic Acid supplement, it worked like magic for me and my wife, she is 6mth preg now. God is great.
How do you resolve this issue running for 14years. The wife refuses adoption, saying her God must answer her first. She has a reputation of been highly self centered and unfriendly. She has not been under any pressure from inlaws save for the adoption suggestion. The in laws are worried, confused and sad that she would be uncooperative on adoption. She has the medical challenges, and the husband has ever been supportive (he has the means and makes her very comfortable), and has practically done all that medicine offers including ivf trials. The husband is a gentleman and wouldn't want family complications, and he often feels the wife is taking advantage of his nature. This somehow sounds untrue but it is a summary of a real life situation.
God is not mocked, for whatever a man (or woman) sows, that they will reap.
. REVELATION 22:11.
11. "He that is UNJUST, let him be Unjust still:and he which is FILTHY, let him be Filthy still: and he that is RIGHTEOUS, let him be Righteous still: and he that is HOLY, let him be Holy still."
People have four options in how they live their lives.They can be "Unjust," "Filthy," "Righteous," or "Holy."Their default level of Spiritual Power is determined by the mean of their Parents'active Power Levels when they conceived them.
Therefore, there are four types of people:
. MATTHEW 13:19-23.
19. "When any one heareth The Word of The Kingdom, and Understandeth it not, then cometh The Wicked One,and catcheth away that which was sown in his heart.This is he which received seed by the Way Side.20. "But he that received the seed into stony places, the same is he that heareth The Word, and anon with joy receiveth it;21. "Yet hath he not root in himself, but dureth for a while: for when tribulation or persecution ariseth because of The Word, by and by he is offended.22. "He also that received seed among the thorns is he that heareth The Word; and the care of this world, and the deceitfulness of riches, choke The Word, and he becometh unfruitful.23. "But he that received seed into the good ground is he that heareth The Word, and Understandeth It; which also beareth Fruit, and bringeth forth, some an hundredfold, some sixty, some thirty."
It should not require extraordinary intelligence to understand that those who are "Unjust"correspond to "those by the Way side," and those who are "Filthy" correspond to those"upon the Rock," while those who are "Righteous," correspond to those "Among Thorns,"while those who are "Holy," correspond those termed "The Good Ground."
The quality of our lives before God and to ourselves should therefore depend on how muchSpiritual Power we have, or do not have. Western Science is based on the denial of the existenceof God and the Spiritual. That is why they have spent Millions of Millions of Dollarstrying to prove that nothing Spiritual created Living Organisms, and met with dismal failure.
That is why Western Medicine is rubbish, when it comes to fundamental problems, such as Birth Defects and Infertility.
Age cannot be a factor, because Abraham and Sarah conceived Isaac when they were 99 and 90 years respectively.(My paternal grandfather was over 100 when he conceived my father, so this is no stretch for me to believe.)
God Commanded His Worshippers to attain Holiness.
. EXODUS 22:31.
31. "And ye shall be holy men unto me:neither shall ye eat any flesh that is torn of beasts in the field;ye shall cast it to the dogs."
. LEVITICUS 11:44-47.
44. "For I am the LORD your God:ye shall therefore sanctify yourselves, and ye shall be holy; for I am holy:neither shall ye defile yourselves with any manner of creepingthing that creepeth upon the Earth.45. "For I am the LORD that bringeth you up out of the Land of Egypt, to be your God: ye shall therefore be holy, for I am holy.46. "This is the Law of the Beasts, and of the fowl,and of every living creature that moveth in the waters,and of every creature that creepeth upon the Earth:47. "To make a difference between the unclean and the clean,and between the beast that may be eaten and the beast that may not be eaten."
. LEVITICUS 19:1-2.
AND The LORD spake unto Moses, saying,2. "Speak unto all The Congregation of The Children of Israel, and say unto them, 'Ye shall be holy: for I the LORD your God am holy.' "
The person who is Unjust/By the Way Side is barely alive.They do not even have the Power to Agree with God.
. AMOS 3:3.
3. "Can two walk together,except they be agreed?"
. ISAIAH 54:13.
13. And all thy children shall be taught of The LORD;and great shall be the Peace of thy Children.
. JOHN 6:41-45.
41. The Jews then murmured at him, because he said," I am the bread which came down from Heaven."42. And they said,"Is not this Jesus, the son of Joseph, whose father and mother we know?how is it then that he saith,'I came down from Heaven?' "43. Jesus therefore answered and said unto them,"Murmur not among yourselves.44. "No man can come to me,except the Father which hath sent me draw him:and I will raise him up at the Last Day.45. "It is written in the Prophets,'And they shall be all taught of God.'Every man therefore that hath heard,and hath learned of the Father,cometh unto me."
That means that they cannot learn from God to come to Jesus, and know The Truth that makes free.
. JOHN 8:31-32.
31. Then said Jesus to those Jews which believed on him,"If ye continue in my word, then are ye my Disciples indeed;32. "And ye shall know The Truth,and The Truth shall make you free."
The Biological Implication is that our DNA will find cause to deviate from The Commandmentsprogrammed into it, "hardwired," if you please, by God.
Therefore Testicles and Ovaries will malfunction if a person is descended from Unjust and Filthy Parents.Their DNA is barely a living thing, and behaves more like just another chemical, reflecting their behavior,following the instincts of their hormones, rather than The Commandments of God.
A person conceived into a Low Power Level can, by hard work, that is, personal discipline, attain High Spiritual Power.When a person is merely Righteous, the Fruits of Agreement with God come hard, but they come.When a person is Filthy, they can be coming, but lost or destroyed before fruition.An Unjust person has no chance of attaining Fruition by their own effort.
A Holy person can bear any Fruit more or less without effort.
. MATTHEW 25:24-30.
24. "Then he which had received the one Talent came and said,'Lord, I knew thee that thou art an hard man, reaping where thou hast not sown, and gathering where thou hast not strawed:25. 'And I was afraid, and went and hid thy Talent in the earth:lo, there thou hast that is thine.'26. "His lord answered and said unto him,'Thou Wicked and Slothful Servant, thou knewest that I reap where I sowed not, and gather where I have not strawed:27. 'Thou oughtest therefore to have put my moneyto the Exchangers, and then at my coming I should have received mine own with usury.' 28. 'Take therefore the talent from him, and give it unto him which hath ten Talents.29. 'For unto every one that hath shall be given, and he shall have abundance: but from him that hath not shall be taken away even that which he hath.30. 'And cast ye the Unprofitable Servant into Outer Darkness: there shall be weeping and gnashing of teeth.' "
A person who requires the Fruits of Holiness has the option of contributing to the creationof Holy persons, when they know that it is not in them to attain Holiness.If ten people gave their Tithes to one person, who therefore would be releasedfrom the burden of Among-Thorns working-for-a-living, that person could attain Holiness,and receive the Power to break any Evil Yoke Satan may have imposed upon those who sponsor them,in particular, and their entire state in general. As Jesus gave example.
. ACTS 10:36-38.
36. "The Word which God sent unto the Children of Israel, preaching Peace by Jesus Christ: (he is Lord of all37. "That word, I say, ye know, which was published throughout all Judaea, and began from Galilee, after the baptism which John preached;38. "How God anointed Jesus of Nazareth with the Holy Ghost and with Power:who went about doing good, and healing all that were oppressed of The Devil; for God was with him."
Ten People who sponsor a Holy man with their Tithes constitute a MINYAN.In Jewish Tradition, a Synagogue cannot be held, except a MINYAN were present.The TORAH cannot be opened, except a MINYAN were present. Only men constituted a MINYAN.
Birth Defects and Barrenness are caused by serial generational accursedness of family lines,who not only never produced a single Holy Man, but they never met nor patronized one, either.
This therefore is the solution to barrenness:
Let all the barren form MINYANS.
Let them contribute toward the creation of Holy Men to heal their DNA-damage problems.
It would also be useful, if people stopped giving their Tithes to Unholy, and Unworthy recipients,which form big-for-nothing Churches of thousands of denizens- without a single Righteous-class personin the lot of them. These are like this big mound of walking, talking, useless garbage.
When people even willingly go to such Churches, how can they not have barrenness and such problems?It is a reflection of the spiritual condition of their associations.
I guarantee you, that they go to church with people who condemn Righteousness and Holiness.Where they are welcome, only because they are in agreement with the leaders and laymen of that so-called church!
Their are no time that is too long for couple to waite unto God for the fruit of the womb. Though it may tarry but it will surely come to pass. My sister waited for good eight years, she finally welcome her son dis year. And I'm using her as a point of contact to as many that are trusting God for the friut of the womb that in dis new year 2013 u will all be carrying ur child IJN. Amen.
They can cope and love each other more if they understand the fact that family are meant forever and also that any abnormally now will be perfected when Jesus Christ comes. So nothing is lost actually.
@ O.T.I.S,God bless u for d info and @safelove,keep on loving ur ist son,children comes into happy homes,Infertility problems is nt a childs play,couples should endervour to meet a gynaecologist together,african mentality has done alot to most of our men dat they refuse going for check up,men r 60% responsible for infertility in marriages.
safeLove: Yep. Its hard. I will be 3years in marriage by may next year.I won't say its been all rosy,but I try not put myself under any kind of pressure. The only pressure I get (though mild) is from my friends who have kids already.
But having checked and comfirmed myself ok,medically,I have total and complete faith in the Most high.
karlakassy: @ O.T.I.S,God bless u for d info and @safelove,keep on loving ur ist son,children comes into happy homes,Infertility problems is nt a childs play,couples should endervour to meet a gynaecologist together,african mentality has done alot to most of our men dat they refuse going for check up,men r 60% responsible for infertility in marriages.
.
Nne/Sista mi,
Do you have statistical data to back up your assertion that subfertility (a more appropriate word) is 60% due to male factor? Is it worldwide, in Africa or just in Naija? I am really interested in it for scientific reasons.
What we believe from available data now is that roughly male/female factor is 30%/30% and the rest idiopathic (unexplained).
While patience is good, time is not really on the woman's side biologically : egg quality declines with age (from 35 years old) and I have seen some cases of ladies reaching menopause under 35 years old. Of course sperm quality declines too but if the man is ok, he can still sire kids at 80! A woman cannot. Sarah/Abraham story is interesting but that happened in the bible and some 4000 years ago.
A man may not worry now but what of 2, 3 years time?
I think ladies in this situation should get their men to check themselves sooner than later.Good luck.
kayode2: Couples waiting for the fruit of the womb should refer to the scripture to choose an option they can marry a second wife like Abraham did,and God may open the womb of the barren wife provided he keeps faith with God. Every human being want to have offsprings of his own but when the waiting is getting too long the person can adopt,artificial insemination or any other medical option the couple can afford.My advice is that the waiting should not be too long possibily five years maximum . if the problem is with d woman the wife should allow the husband to marry a second wife while the wife adopts shikena. |
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Billy Graham's New Book Offers Compelling Perspective on Elderly Care
Renowned spiritual leader Billy Graham spent his life career inspiring people to live lives of grace, faith and charity. Now, at the age of 93, Rev. Graham is inspiring us in the final stages of life. His new book, "Nearing Home: Life, Faith, and Finishing Well" addresses the process of growing old and approaching the end of life and doing so gracefully and with an eye toward God.
In a recent article in USA Today, Graham discussed why he chose to write this book at this stage in his life.
"No one prepares you for loneliness, for pain, for the grief of losing your soul mate, he now writes. When his wife, Ruth, died in June 2007, he was stunned that she died before he did. He had never envisioned his life without her.
Graham has Parkinson's disease and is confined to a walker or wheelchair. He also has macular degeneration and can no longer read. He dictated "Nearing Home" to staff members. Yet he continues to live out his life to the fullest, still taking advantage of opportunities to minister to his global congregation. This time, Graham's words encourage seniors to turn to scripture for wisdom in how to proceed in the twilight of their lives.
While many people have written books before about dying and growing old, few have the same clout with generations of people across the country, across imaginary boundaries of income or race as the Rev. Graham.
Through Graham's experiences and his decades of devotion to people's spiritual well-being, "Nearing Home" can bring comfort and hope to anyone facing their own end of life or those who care for the elderly. We can all take away several lessons in patience, compassion and grace from Graham's work.
Ankota provides software to improve the delivery of care outside the hospital. Today Ankota services home health, private duty care, DME Delivery, RT, Physical Therapy and Home Infusion organizations, and is interested in helping to efficiently manage other forms of care. To learn more, please visit www.ankota.com or contact Ankota |
Ligands of the translocator protein, TSPO, are sensitive and specific biomarkers and powerful imaging agents of neurological damage. But in spite of more than 30 years of study, the function of this ancient conserved protein that is ubiquitously expressed in all kingdoms of life, remains unclear. A common theme in many different organisms is upregulation of TSPO in response to stress. In this context, we are proposing a new role for TSPO as a promoter of neuroprotection via activation of M2 microglia cells, which play a major role in neuroinflammatory diseases such as Alzheimer?s and Parkinson?s. Our goal is to characterize the activation and stress responses of microglia cells from human and mouse and to explore the role of TSPO and its ligands in this response. We will use RNAseq to determine a common expression signature and CRISPER Cas9 to test the effects of TSPO deletion and mutation on that signature (Aim1). An important tool for guiding and empowering this effort is the availability of high resolution crystal structures of the bacterial homolog of human TSPO from Rhodobacter sphaeroides, whose structure we have solved in a lipidic environment in native and mutant forms. This protein is well conserved and accessible for mutagenesis, purification, crystallization and biochemical analysis. Further, a functional assay has been developed based on Rhodobacter?s TSPO-dependent resistance to metal toxicity, which will allow us to screen mutant forms as well as various ligands to guide our intervention in the microglial system (Aim 2). Although first recognized in mitochondria as an outer membrane protein that bound benzodiazepine drugs, mounting evidence suggests TSPO involvement in a number of complex cellular processes, including cholesterol transport, porphyrin transport, tumor progression, neuroinflammation and Alzheimer?s disease. The strength of the proposal is the structure-guided comparative analysis of several systems in which TSPO is highly induced in association with inflammation and stress. This common theme among different organisms holds the potential for revealing unique insights into mechanism. A clear mechanistic relationship between TSPO structure and function will provide the basis for developing novel structure-based ligands for detection and treatment of neurological disease. |
"New Haroula" is located in the capital of Santorini, Fira. In a peaceful side just 150 m from the center. It is the ideal choice for your vacation .. because it combines both the peaceful country side and the reach full nightlife of Fira, according to your mood. Give yourself the chance to enjoy your coffee next to the magnificent gardens of our hotel, where the colorful flowers reveal New Haroula beautiful Aegean characteristics.
Furthermore, we invite you to visit the unique beaches of Santorini and it's traditional villages. Your comfortable transportation is guaranteed, because New Haroula is just 150 m away from the bus station.
The capital of the island, Fira is 6 km far from the airport and 12 km far from "Athinios" port.
”Enjoy the sun in Santorini”
You can swim in the hotel's swimming pool and enjoy the sun or you can chill out with a refreshing drink or coffee in the beautiful garden or in your room's balcony. From New Haroula you can easily access the island's beaches and sights. |
Role of NLRC5 in progression and reversal of hepatic fibrosis.
NLRC5, as the largest member of NLRs family, has recently been identified as a critical regulator of immune responses through negatively regulating NF-κB which is associated with the development of hepatic fibrosis. However, the expression and potential roles of NLRC5 in hepatic fibrosis and its reversal are still to be defined. C57BL/6 mice were treatment with carbon tetrachloride (CCl4) induce hepatic fibrosis and its reversal. In vitro, models of hepatic fibrosis and its reversal are established by the treatment with TGF-β and MDI. The expression of NLRC5 was determined by RT-PCR, Western blot and immunohistochemistry. Consequently, NLRC5 was overexpressed or knockdown by transfecting PEGFP-C2-NLRC5 or NLRC5-siRNA respectively in the reversal of hepatic fibrosis, and the expression of fibrogenic genes such as α-SMA and Col1α1 was quantified. The NF-κB activity was detected as well. Immunohistochemistry, RT-PCR and Western blot analysis with liver tissues and primary HSCs showed that NLRC5 was highly expressed in hepatic fibrosis and correspondingly decreased in the reversal stage. The differential expression of NLRC5 was confirmed in vitro. Enforced NLRC5 expression increased the expression of α-SMA and Col1α1, and blockade of NLRC5 reduced the fibrotic response. While the opposite expression of phosphorylated NF-кB p65 and phospho-IκBα was found. NLRC5 is differentially expressed in hepatic tissues and hepatic stellate cells during hepatic fibrosis and its reversal. All the data indicated that NLRC5 may play a crucial role in regulating the reversal of hepatic fibrosis through NF-κB signaling pathway. |
Placing numerous models inside of a solitary Room is likewise wasteful. The best method is one detector For each and every amount or flooring including the bedroom or basement. Usually, a detector is mounted in a ten-foot Room between the doorways.
A detector with out a electronic Screen will likely not beep until finally the specific situation is surely an crisis demanding speedy evacuation.
Steel oxide semiconductor: In the event the silica chip's circuitry detects carbon monoxide, it lowers the electrical resistance, and this modification triggers the alarm.
Blend – A mixture unit is one which has equally a smoke detector plus a carbon monoxide detector in a single. They are more expensive than standalone detectors but are generally more affordable to receive combination units instead of buy a person of each and every for your property. Below is a crucial detail to consider.
The entire CO alarms During this report fulfill Underwriters Laboratory standards (UL2034) meant to alert folks properly just before CO exposure will become lifetime threatening, and also to circumvent nuisance alarms (brought on by matters such as normal air pollution or ordinary limited-term emissions from properly running appliances) that can cause homeowners to tune out CO alarms, tremendously cutting down a detector's efficiency.
In accordance with the Journal of your American Clinical Affiliation, carbon monoxide poisoning is definitely the main explanation for accidental poisoning deaths from the U.
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Even if you experienced a Phony alarm, it is important to check your detectors frequently. For detectors that are plugged into an outlet, you must take a look at them at the time per month. If your carbon monoxide detectors are battery operated, alter the batteries not less than annually.
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Just about all carbon monoxide detectors beep four or 5 times inside a row about each 4 seconds. Never misinterpret the dangerous degree of poisonous fuel for the carbon monoxide detector with reduced battery alerts. Regardless of whether there’s no one while in the residence is experiencing signs and symptoms, if there is a chance your detector signals significant level of carbon monoxide, get everybody outside the house to acquire some fresh new air.
Past that, we seemed into the suggestions from proprietors putting up at sites including Amazon, Property Depot, Lowe's and elsewhere. That comments is extremely beneficial in examining matters including simplicity of installation and trustworthiness -- which includes independence from excessive Wrong alarms. |
Q:
What prevents a race condition when checking a semaphore value?
I'm studying multithreading and trying to understand the concept of semaphores and mutual exclusion. Most of the examples I find online use some sort of library (e.g. pthread) to implement the semaphore or mutex, but I'm more interested in the implementation of a simple semaphore that establishes a critical section -- no more than one thread accessing a particular region of memory.
For this task, I believe I would need a mutex (a.k.a. a binary semaphore if I understand the terminology correctly). I can see how the semaphore would prevent a race condition by "locking" the section of code to a single thread, but what prevents a race condition from occurring at the semaphore itself?
I imagine a binary semaphore to hold an int value to keep track of the lock:
Semaphore
---------
int lock = 1;
unsigned P(void){
if(lock > 0){
lock--;
return 0; /* success */
}
return 1; /* fail */
}
void V(void){
lock++;
}
Suppose two threads call the P function at the same time, they both reach the if(lock > 0) check at the same time and evaluate the condition as true -- this creates a race condition where both threads are granted access to the same region of memory at the same time.
So what prevents this race condition from occurring in real world implementations of semaphores?
A:
Locking and relasing semaphores and/or mutexes happen as atomic operations, this means the CPU cannot be withdrawn from the current process. This ensures, that as soon as a mutex-lock is started (it consists of either a single or a few CPU-instruction (microcode)), the process keeps the CPU until the locking/releasing is done.
There are also different ways to implement threading, which can either be a direct support by CPU (kernel-space) or through a library (such as pthreads) in user-space.
From OSDev.org
An atomic operation is an operation that will always be executed without any other process being able to read or change state that is read or changed during the operation. It is effectively executed as a single step, and is an important quality in a number of algorithms that deal with multiple indepent processes, both in synchronization and algorithms that update shared data without requiring synchronization.
Here is a nice article on atomicity, too (although in Delphi).
A:
The most common (although definitely not the only) way to implement most locking primitives are compare-and-set instructions. An normal move instruction would just set the value of a memory location to whatever value you ask it to while a compare-and-set instruction does "atomically set this memory location to value X only if the value of the memory location is Y, then set some flag if the operation succeeded or not". The keyword "atomic" is that the CPU can in hardware make sure that nothing else can interfere with that operation.
Using a compare-and-swap instruction your example P could be implemented as:
int oldlock;
retry:
oldlock = lock;
if (oldlock > 0) {
if (compare_and_swap(&lock, oldlock, oldlock - 1))
goto retry;
return 0;
}
return 1;
Of course reality is much more complex than that, but compare-and-set is easy to understand and explain and has the nice property that it can implement (almost?) all other locking primitives.
Here's a wikipedia article.
|
Inside the New York Yankees clubhouse with MLB.com beat writer Bryan Hoch.
Hal Steinbrenner: “Jobs are not riding on this”
As the Yankees battle for playoff position in the season’s final three games, Hal Steinbrenner said that no positions are on the line, regardless of what happens in the tight American League East race with the Orioles.
“Are jobs riding on this? Not that I know of,” Steinbrenner said. “Jobs are not riding on this. But that’s not something I’m concerned about right now. We look at everything in the offseason, as we always do.”
That sounds like good news for general manager Brian Cashman and manager Joe Girardi, not that either was expected to be in any danger.
Steinbrenner is buckling up for what promises to be a wild finish to the division race, as his Yankees hope to hold off Buck Showalter’s Orioles and achieve their goal of winning the American League East title. New York held a 10-game lead in the division on July 18.
“Look, it’s tense. It’s tense,” Steinbrenner said on Monday outside the Yankees clubhouse. “There’s a lot we expect of them and there’s a lot riding on this and a lot riding on doing well. We all feel obligated to our fans and succeeding on their behalf. It’s at times stressful.”
Steinbrenner again lauded the Yankees’ crop of young pitching, including David Phelps, who will start Tuesday against the Red Sox. Steinbrenner has said that developing pitching is integral to the Yankees’ plan of reducing payroll below $189 million for the 2014 season.
“I’ve made it clear that it’s very important to me for several reasons,” Steinbrenner said. “Again, you’re talking about a 10 percent reduction in payroll. I don’t see that as an outrageous concept. I never have.”
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At Good Samaritan Hospital, neuroscience specialists use their experience and advanced latest technology to offer patients comprehensive, compassionate care for diseases and conditions of the nervous system, including the brain and spine.
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Study: Organic Often Cheaper Away from Grocery Aisles
A recently released study highlights the accessibility of organic food in the Southeastern portion of the United States, where investigations found price points lower, on average, at farmers’ markets than in chain stores. SCALE, Inc.’s Is Local Food Affordable for Ordinary Folks? report noted that organic was 16% less expensive at farmers markets in 88% of the studied communities in Virginia, Tennessee, West Virginia, Kentucky, North Carolina and South Carolina.
Anthony Flaccavento, president of SCALE, Inc. and study author, says that it is difficult to examine this price relationship throughout the rest of the country without further research. His guess, based on anecdotal evidence, is that farmers’ market prices in general are higher in large urban and affluent areas of the country. He would credit this to higher land taxes and to the ability of consumers in these areas to pay higher prices. “I suspect that organic prices are actually more competitive with grocery store prices in these other places than conventional produce is, as I’ve found that the difference between organic and conventional pricing at farmers markets tends to be smaller than the difference at supermarkets,” Flaccavento says.
The prices at the two supermarkets used to track organic in the study, Whole Foods Market and Earth Fare, were culled from the lowest priced option available, perhaps biasing the averages in favor of the supermarkets. Still, farmers’ market prices came out ahead in most cases. These results may point to the reality that supermarkets will be competing heavily for organic shopper dollars with local food vendors in the future. As Flaccavento attests based upon his experience as an organic vendor, many local food shoppers also demand organic standards from their produce. “A significant proportion of people seek our produce, or that of the other organic vendors, primarily because we are organic,” he says.
Within the range of local produce options, many shoppers turn to conventional vendors only if a particular item is unavailable from an organic source, according to Flaccavento. Referring to the broad customer base that his organic business has cultivated, from senior citizens on fixed incomes to low-income people, he says, “Some of these folks have been won over by organic and now prefer it, while others simply think that the superior quality merits the slightly higher prices we generally charge.” However, though the share of the organic food “pie” enjoyed by local food vendors is growing, Flaccavento notes that there are still obstacles. In particular, a media-promoted “either/or” dichotomy between “local” and “organic” sends the wrong message, “when in fact a far higher percentage of farmers who sell locally use organic practices, at least to a substantial degree,” he says. |
Q:
Export all AD attributes and default "Range Upper" size for the User class?
I need to write approximately 1000 - 5000 characters into a user property, but I'd prefer not to edit the schema rangeUpper attribute, or create one just for my purposes.
How should I research what user attributes I could repurpose for this? In other words, how can I export all properties available to an AD user and the corresponding rangeUpper value?
A:
The following PowerShell will look at the schema's user class, grab its allowedAttributes attribute, then look up the definition of each attribute and return its rangeUpper value.
# Need the Microsoft AD PS module
Import-Module ActiveDirectory
# Get the user class definition, include "allowedAttributes"
$userClass = Get-ADObject -SearchBase ((Get-ADRootDSE).schemaNamingContext) -Filter { Name -eq "User" } -Properties allowedAttributes
# Walk the allowedAttributes array and sort into a table with "name" and "rangeUpper"
$userClass.allowedAttributes |
ForEach-Object { Get-ADObject -SearchBase ((Get-ADRootDSE).schemaNamingContext) -Filter { LDAPDisplayName -eq $_ } -Property rangeUpper } |
Sort-Object Name |
Format-Table -Property Name, rangeUpper
# If you want to only see defined "rangeUpper" values
$userClass.allowedAttributes |
ForEach-Object { Get-ADObject -SearchBase ((Get-ADRootDSE).schemaNamingContext) -Filter { LDAPDisplayName -eq $_ } -Property rangeUpper } |
Where-Object { $_.rangeUpper } |
Sort-Object Name |
Format-Table -Property Name, rangeUpper
|
Hello everyone! I’m making great strides in the garden but not so much in the house. Gardening is a good excuse for me to NOT attempt to do the things that I find scary or hard. I’ve got hydroponic Rutgers tomatoes that I grew from seed, now they are in ½ gallon jars with roots 18” long! But they’re starting to fade. I’ve changed their nutrient water and am hoping for the best. They have blossoms! The hydroponic ones are huge compared to the ones in little pots of dirt so I hope they live.
Lots of roots!
These two plants are the same age!
I’ve also got several organic bell pepper plants in pots and 5 gallon buckets and have planted organic green beans and some cosmos, marigold and vinca flower seeds. Pots everywhere! I hope being in fairly large/tall pots mean the mice, rabbits & packrats won’t be able to get them. I planted some pretty petunias in one small garden with snapdragons and the petunias got eaten right down to the ground. My other garden with zinnias in it has not been touched. There are some clusters of really cute tiny white daisy-type flowers growing wild so I dug some up, thinking they obviously were not attractive to mice. They had a taproots and are not very happy today (the day after transplanting). I hope they revive, as they’d be nice perennials, assuming they don’t take over the whole garden!
Container garden
Before the petunias disappeared
Here’s my little bitty bicycle planter, isn’t it the cutest?! I bought it for $4 at a thrift shop two years ago and have been storing it ever since. I love that it’s still got the training wheels, handlebar streamers and a bell! It’s got petunias that are doing fine, I guess because the critters can’t climb up there. It sure is heartbreaking when stuff gets decimated like that, especially since I really HATE getting my hands dirty. That dirt under my fingernails, ugh!!
The Face Flies are back. I’m sure they have a REAL name but that’s what I call them. They get right up in my eyes & nose in a cloud, trying to suck the moisture. UGH! They don’t bite but they sure are annoying, especially when they get between my eyes and my glasses.
And my big Snaky is back too. We both scared the crap out of each other last week when I was heading to the camper and he was slithering out from underneath it! He’s about 5′ long. He’s marked like a rattler but is harmless.
I’ve made a startling discovery. I’m COLD! I never used to be cold. It had to be below 65 degrees in order for me to sleep, and when everyone else was wearing sweatshirts and jackets, I was comfortable in a tee shirt. And I suffered horribly in summertime temperatures. Well all that’s changed! The other night I was FREEZING with two blankets on the bed, so I got up and turned on the heater. When I climbed back up into bed I looked at the thermometer and it was 72 degrees! I guess that’s the price for losing all that nice insulating body fat. I hope this means I won’t be as sensitive to the summer’s heat. NOTE: Two days later it’s 90 degrees and I’m plenty hot, so I guess it doesn’t work that way.
90# lost as of today. I’m 137#!! I’m thinking about just keeping on and get down to 127#, that would be 100 pounds lost! Amazing. But I think it’ll be way too skinny for me. I guess that would be about a size 6. And I’m tired of buying new (thrift store) clothes all the time. Plus it would probably mean a zillion more wrinkles in my face. It’s really awful, all the loose skin and wrinkles. I even have wrinkles on my ankles!!
I had some visitors from Phoenix last week, my old camping buddies Jeanne & Joanne, and Joanne’s two adult Grands! They camped in a beautiful dispersed site in the national forest only about 5 miles from Show Low. I wish I’d known about those campsites when I was here looking for land. They got here on Monday and on Tuesday we went for a two mile hike!! That’s farther than I’ve hiked since 2001. And nothing hurt! We used hiking poles, I guess that makes a difference though it doesn’t FEEL like it does. I am so ready to go camping myself, but the camper isn’t. It needs new tires. I thought I’d get tires with the Stimulus money but that was the fastest spending spree ever! I had a long list of “wants” so of course it didn’t stretch far enough. I did get a new (refurbished) propane stovetop though, it’s only 12” wide compared to my present stove’s 25”. (Has front & back burners) When you only have less than 6’ of countertop space, that extra 13” will make a huge difference. I’ll keep the present stove/oven in the cabinet underneath the counter and just bring it out when I need to use the oven.
R to L: Jeanne, me, Joanne
I’m hoping to go on a mini road trip in the Fall, maybe late October or early November, to visit Deb in Pahrump, NV and go to Valley of Fire State Park & Death Valley. Since I don’t have thermostatic heat in the house, I’ll have to go before the freezing temperatures hit so everything in the house doesn’t freeze. Keeping my fingers crossed that gas prices will stay low and I can save up some gas money.
I’ve figured out how to “fix” the refrigerator being up too high, without spending any money. I just need to remove the piece of siding that’s got the present vents in it, cut about 10” off the bottom, reinstall the siding lower and put the cut-off piece on top! Easy-Peasy, only it isn’t. I started to remove the screws holding the siding on the other day and it’s difficult where I’ve used silicone caulk to cover the holes where the screws went in (prep for painting, which I never got done in back). It’s really hard to get that caulk out of the screw heads. But I still think it’s possible. That’s one of the jobs I’m avoiding. I’ll have to get help lifting down the siding panel, but I could have most of the screws out in advance…….
I’ve been very upset this week, because I lost two pairs of shorts. There’s just not that many places to put things around here, so it was really puzzling and quite scary. I looked everywhere about ten times! I even looked in the unused refrigerator and the pressure cooker, just in case my brain tumor was getting frisky or I was starting to get demented. Thank GOD I didn’t find them there!! After three days of stressing over these lost shorts, I woke up in the middle of the night and remembered a place I hadn’t looked yet…..a box under the camper bed for out of season clothes. Voila!! Boy was I relieved; I’m NOT CRAZY! (Well I guess it was kinda crazy to put them there, but hey, at least they were in a reasonable place, not in the refrigerator or pressure cooker)
I found some real goodies in 3 boxes that Jeanne and Patricia had stored for me for 5 years! It was like Christmas, opening those boxes. One is my cute fairy door that friend Tam gave me. I love it!
Also in one of those boxes was this fabric, which I also really love. I can’t figure out what to do with it though, it’s only one yard. I wish I had enough for curtains. Funny to think that I must have had this color scheme in my mind as long as 5 years ago!
Someone requested photos of my land and views, so here they are. Except for looking over the valley, everywhere else looks about the same. Lots of cedar trees, small and large. And lots of rocks in about 2/3 of the acreage. (1.05 acres, 150′ x 600′)
Hello again everyone. I hope you’re all surviving the Social Distancing thing, and staying healthy. Don’t you hate how you can’t tell if anyone is smiling when they’re wearing a mask? Oh yeah, you can tell if their eyes are crinkly but that’s no good. My cousin made a darling smiley mask and I wanted one, so I made a no-sew one. My mouth is a little bit crooked but I like it, even though it’s not as good as hers. I’ve been staying home as much as possible, though we are having a heat wave with temps in the 80’s, so I need to go buy ice every 3 days again. I had hoped to have the refrigerator up and running by the time it got hot. The average temps for right now are only supposed to be in the low 70’s! And I was also caught on the hop without ANY summer clothes! Well I do have a couple pairs of shorts but they’re “for good”, not for schlepping around the house. I found one tank top in size XXL which keeps trying to fall off me, and I broke down and paid full retail price for a pair of $4 shorts at Family Dollar. So now I have exactly one piece of clothing that didn’t come from a thrift shop! I’m hoping I can hold out til my favorite thrift shop opens back up; on Wednesdays you can fill a kitchen-size trash bag full of clothes for $1.50! On the other days it’s $3.00. I think I’m going to have to undo what I’ve done with the refrigerator. It’s just way too high up off the floor. I don’t think I can live with it. I can pay another $37 and get an additional wall vent to go under the existing one, and move the fridge down about 16” lower. That’s a lot lower than I’d like, but I think it’d be more acceptable than having the darn thing too high. That would still leave me with space for a 12” high drawer underneath it. I’m thinking if I could find someone with a bottle jack, I could support the fridge where it is while I reposition the supports, then lower it down without having to remove the closet wall and lift the refrigerator down, then back up onto the new base. It SOUNDS like it should work, anyway. I’ve been babying my hydroponic lettuce and celery but at the first sign of 80 degree temps, they pretty much all bit the dust. I think I would have gotten an edible crop if only the weather hadn’t ramped up so quickly. Somehow we skipped the 70’s and zoomed straight to the 80’s, and it looks like they’re here to stay. It’s supposed to be 88 by Wednesday! The spinach is struggling, I keep it in the back of the house where it’s shady almost all day long. I do have some promising Rutgers tomato plants that I started from seed, two in half gallon hydroponic jars and three more in dirt. I have some organic San Marzano tomato seedlings coming along, and some bell peppers. I’m going to try planting them in a huge tub I found along the side of the road after one of our big windy days, and some 5 gallon buckets. I’m hoping the sides will be too high for the rodents to climb. I planted a bunch of mini carrot seeds in a large planter but only one came up. So I guess my carrot garden will be exactly that….one carrot! I took a pickaxe and loosened up the soil for a flower garden, and hauled the top 3” of dirt out and dug in some Home Depot garden soil. The yucca plants in he middle were growing wild there. I lined the outside with Good Rocks that I collected the whole 3 years I was on the road. I carried over 100# of pounds of rocks in my car for all that time! And I couldn’t believe it, there weren’t enough Good Rocks to go all the way around! I had to fill in with the ugly gray cinder rocks that are laying all over the place here. I may not be able to keep that garden going though, unless we have a pretty good monsoon season, it’ll probably take too much of my water supply to keep them happy. With it being so dry here, the plants dry out horribly fast. In another spot up against the house I dug up a small bed and will scatter some Nasturtium seeds. I read that they thrive on poor soil and abuse! They sound perfect. I lined the outside of the flower spot with all the Good Rocks I picked up in my travels and hauled around in my car for 3+ years, and I couldn’t believe it, there weren’t enough of them!I had to fill in with the ugly gray cinder rocks from the property. A friend I’ve never met but I feel close to, sent me a lovely geranium from Amazon! I did not know Amazon sold live plants, did you? It got delayed in transit so the flower was dead but the plant looks amazingly OK and has lots of other buds on it. I needed some color in my life! Update… it’s losing a couple leaves every day so may not make it.I’ve been pretty happy with how the house is handling the heat. Even though the gable ends don’t have any insulation yet, the house is staying comfortably cool. I kinda missed the boat on doing that insulation; I intended to get it done before hot weather hit, but I forgot about the windy season. There’s no way I can work with 4×8 sheets of foam in 30 mph winds! Duhhh. I finally had my cardiology appointment after several delays. Just as I thought, it was all a storm in a teacup. I have some slight valve leakage that’s pretty common for my age, but the heart function is good. He said I don’t need to go back. Yay, I think that’s IT for the specialists!! I am having more trouble with my speech; the slurring comes and goes pretty often but sometimes only lasts for 5-10 minutes. It is what it is, there’s nothing that can be done about it at this point. It would have to get a whole lot worse before I’d ever think about having brain surgery.I’m still wrestling with the last few pounds I want to take off. It’s been over three months now that I’m bouncing 4 pounds up & down, over and over. I guess I’m OK with it but I’d like to quit doing this super-strict diet and relax a bit once in a while, and I just can’t understand why I’m struggling so much with the final few pounds when I haven’t changed my diet at all. I’m ready for some toast, or a baked potato, or popcorn! Well I apologize if no photos show up. I’ve been fighting with this issue for 4 days…tried both with the laptop and the phone app. I give up.
I feel like I should have blogged sooner…sorry. I’ve had super limited internet for the past 6 weeks; due to a series of stupid problems. I’ve been using mostly the TracFone data which costs $10 a gb! I’ve also tried the library, but since it’s closed, the signal is really weak and slow when I’m sitting in the car trying to use it. I finally had to purchase a new phone and new internet plan.
In the midst of Social Distancing, I find it amusing that my life hasn’t changed much at all. As an introvert, I pretty much live Socially Distant all the time! Still I feel bored right now, and wishing I had TV to watch. I guess it’s because I CAN’T go anywhere instead of just not wanting to. Am I the only one whose house is spotless these days?! This is a long post but maybe y’all are so bored, it’ll be entertaining.
Here’s the view from my front door. Pretty nice, eh? Well except for the junk. It’s the LONG-RANGE view I was referring to, LOL!
I was very worried for the first couple weeks of virus hysteria, as I was out of money and couldn’t join in the buying frenzy. I finally made it to Walmart’s Senior hour (6 a.m.) on Tuesday and even though there wasn’t much to buy, I feel better about having something on hand. I haven’t eaten processed food for over a year so I didn’t have any non-perishable foods! I managed to spend $80 on what I consider to be “crap” food that I hope I won’t have to eat. My biggest worry now is that too many truckers will get sick and the supply chain will fail, and I’ll run out of food. I think I’ve got about a month’s worth right now, though I’d be real short on protein and would have to eat rice and beans; yuck. I have about 120 gallons of water and 100# of propane.
I’ve been nurturing a new sourdough starter for about three months and have just started to make bread again! What a joy! I love to make bread and I love to feed people. I’ve been giving it away but now I wonder if anyone will want bread that someone else has touched, even though I made sure to wash my hands thoroughly every time I handled the dough or bread. I still don’t eat bread at present but I bought some more flour in case I’m forced to go back to eating bread. I miss it and won’t mind too much if that happens, though if I start gaining weight I’ll be REALLY mad. (85# lost so far and still going) I finally passed the top end of the “normal” range. I was within a couple pounds of it for two months, always thinking it was gonna happen any day.
I’ve also started my hydroponic lettuce again, I have two plantings of seedlings, one week apart. Romaine and some kind of leaf lettuce, plus I’ve started some bell pepper and tomato seeds. I’d really rather get pepper and tomato starts but in case I don’t get out to get any, maybe I can grow some from seeds. I’ve not had any luck getting pepper seeds to germinate, so we’ll see. The lettuces are happy little things that sprout right up in only about two days, and right away start turning their little faces towards the sun. So cute! Because it’s the windy season, I’ve had to rig up a clear plastic windbreak so they can be outside on my patio table. I’m hoping the nasty lettuce-eating critters won’t be able to climb up the metal legs of the table and murder my babies like last year, when they were just placed out on the ground. I cut the ends off some organic celery and romaine and put them in water too (changing the water daily) and they are already pushing up new growth. Here’s the windbreak and plants:
I’ve been doing some projects that I already have materials for. I’ve had a small bookcase from Wal-Mart for awhile and was reluctant to assemble it because I thought it would be a huge hassle but I finally did it, and it was easy and it fits the area next to the door perfectly! Now I can have undies & socks in little bins and don’t have to shuffle boxes around to get to them.
A couple weeks ago I got a friend to help me move the refrigerator into place! I made a huge mistake on the outside vent placement though and the fridge is up too high off the floor. When the freezer door is open, I have to stand on a footstool to see what’s in it! And it looks stupid, that’s the worst thing. But it’s not fixable; the bottom of the fridge needs to line up with the bottom of that vent in order to service and get at the fridge controls from the back. Sigh. My first real major blooper. I’m sure it won’t be the last. I really hate that RV refrigerators aren’t magnetic. How the heck are you supposed to plaster the front with magnets?? Here’s my first refrigerator art, entitled “Out on a limb”.
I’d been using the fridge as an ice chest but when the order came for staying home, I moved everything to an ice chest on the back-side of the house., where it’s always shady. Out there, a block of ice will last 5-6 days but the fridge in the house, only 2-3 days. One of these days I’ll get batteries and be able to get the fridge hooked up to propane! Boy that’ll be great, to not have to use ice and deal with melted icewater all the time. And have a freezer!! That would really be helpful right now, when I can’t just go get more meat & perishables every 4-5 days. That’s one of the first things I’ll do if I get the stimulus money, IF the RV parts store and the gulf cart store are open. Somehow I doubt I’ll be able to get the batteries.
Because the fridge is now in place, I also have…..a CLOSET!!! Wow. I need to put something up as a closet rod, then I could have most of my clothes in one building.
I put up a crude little shelf in front of one of the windows so the lettuces can see out.
Eventually I’ll have shelves lining the inside of both sides of the closet, between the studs. Today I made one shelf with a backer bar (since I don’t have a wall on that side of the closet yet) for my bedside table stuff…glasses holder, flashlight, thermometer, water bottle. On the other closet wall I’ve done two shelves for canned goods.
I was given a little round handicap shower chair that I’m not using since my shower isn’t operative yet. I’ve extended the legs to their full height and it’s a perfect little table for one! Eventually I’ll have a drop-down table between the living room chairs but first I have to do the wall finish. So……possibly never!
I really love my bedroom/living room setup. During the day, the bed is folded up against the wall, a homemade Murphy bed. That reveals two comfy chairs and a storage hassock that acts as a table & footstool. At night, the bed gets lowered down over the top of the chairs and it’s just a short two steps up to the bed! It’s working out really great. And it’s not dangerously high; if I sit on the edge of the bed and put my feet down, they are not much more than a foot from the floor. So I can easily just step onto the bottom step of the little stepladder.
I put together these really cute solar mason jar lights and I love them! They cast an amazing amount of light onto the walkway at night! It was a cheap kit from Amazon containing 6 jar lids with solar panels on the top, connected to a small amount of fairy lights. I got 6 shepherd’s crooks at Dollar Tree and they’re perfect! Love love love them. And they actually cast enough light to see where to walk! I had a photo of them lit up at night but it’s on the old phone and I don’t have any way of retrieving it anymore. One of these days I’ll have a real walkway instead of old pieces of plywood.
A couple weeks ago I noticed that one of those sheets of plywood walkway was sticking up on both ends so I cleverly just flipped it over. Voila, all fixed! Then I walked on it and found out why it had been placed that way…….took two steps, got a nail in each foot! That plywood is full of small ringed flooring nails!! They barely penetrated but I thought I’d better go get a tetanus shot. Good thing I’m so much lighter now, if I’d been at my former weight I’d probably still be stuck standing on that plywood!
I’m hungry for some flowers. If not for the new travel rules, I’d have gone to Lowes and gotten me something pretty. Now I have to be content to watch my cute baby lettuces grow.
A camping friend, Patricia Parker, sent me this amazing painting of my house!! Isn’t it the cutest? I treasure it!
I went over and met my new neighbor last week. I’ve been hearing the tap tap tap of his hammer for several days. He was up on his roof so we kept a good distance. He’s an older gent from Wisconsin who’s building an 8×8 shack to live in. Seems nice but doesn’t appear to have any knowledge of building. It’s foundation is several stacks of small 2×4 pieces! It’s all 2×4’s….walls, roof and floor. I’m thinking a 2×4 doesn’t actually have a span of 8’ as a floor joist but I’m not sure. He’s going to have a leaky roof for sure but I didn’t tell him that. I’ll be really surprised if our high winds don’t blow it off the “foundation” soon too. Oh well, at least it’s small and will be easy to fix. UPDATE: I went past there yesterday and the entire structure is gone! Apparently he has dismantled it and hauled everything away, or else it blew away. Huh!
Another mystery is the mouse situation here. I have a 5 gallon bucket partially filled with water pretty close to the outside house wall, and in the past week, 22 mice have committed suicide by drowning! I wish I had a critter-cam to see how the heck they’re getting in there. Swan diving off the roof? Somehow climbing up the house wall and jumping?? And WHY?! There must be zillions of the darn things around here. Every morning there are 1-4 dead mice in the bucket. Last night when I walked Roxie, there was one dead and one still alive. There was only a couple inches of water in the bucket and the poor thing was standing up on his hind legs to keep his cute little face out of the water. So of course I had to get him out of there. I thought about doing some teeny-tiny artificial respiration but decided not. He didn’t make it. And now you know why I had to stop going fishing. Too much empathy for the suffering of other creatures. And yes, fish DO feel pain!! They put an irritant on their lips and the fish kept rubbing their lips on the sand in the bottom of the tank. But I’m still going to keep the bucket there; I put more water in it so they won’t have to suffer for so long.
I hope everyone is being good and staying home as much as possible! Stay healthy, y’all!
Lately a lot of friends have been asking if I’m OK so I guess that must mean I’m way overdue for a new blog post! I don’t really have much to report; I’ve been terribly lazy lately. I’m just enjoying my life in a real house!
I did recently do some clearing in the front yard. I had two small, very scraggly trees near the house and they weren’t actually throwing shade on anything, so I cut them down. I carefully saved the cute plants that were growing at the base of the larger one. I’m not sure what they are, some kind of century plant or aloe.
Original Yard
That opened up the front yard and made it a LOT bigger, and made this interesting tree more of a focal point I guess. I like how the branches go out horizontally, though parts of it are dead and need trimming. Maybe some day I’ll feel brave enough to get up on a ladder wielding the sawz-all. Every time I go out the door now and see the new yard I go “WHOA”! I like it.
New expanded yard
I’m really looking forward to planting some flowers this spring but I really need to build the porch first, so I know where to put the beds. I’m going to try and work on that as soon as the ground quits freezing at night. I have to dig two 3’ deep post holes and I’m not sure I can do that, but I’ll try. It’s awfully rocky here so I’m skeptical about being able to actually dig a hole exactly where I need it. If that doesn’t work I’ll have to use those pre-formed cement pier things, but I wanted to get the porch posts into the ground to be more resistant to our 60-80 mph winds. I think I have all the materials I need to build the porch and I think it’ll really make the house lots cuter, if that’s even possible. (I sure do love my little bitty house!)
So…..as of this morning, I’m only about 1 pound away from a Normal weight (145) for my height!! I’m not counting any chickens as yet, because a couple weeks ago for no reason at all, I started gaining weight and I gained 9# in 12 days, without changing my diet one bit!! I was freaking out and I still don’t know what the deal was, but I was able to turn it around, thank goodness. When that happened, I was only 1# from normal weight. I’m thinking to try and go down an additional 10# or so, because surely as soon as I eat one mouthful of carby carbs, I’ll gain some back. I don’t know what I’ll transition to from Keto, or if I can maybe still do Keto with occasional forays into the land of carbs. It’s been 13 months since I’ve had anything with sugar or any kind of sweetener at all (besides monk fruit extract, which has zero carbs and doesn’t affect glucose levels). I’m jonesing for some ice cream, I think even the Keto ice cream would be great! And popcorn, a baked potato…..ooooh, a piece of toast!! Yeah. I’m definitely ready for some cheating, but not until I’ve lost all the weight plus a little extra. Hopefully I won’t go hawg-wild and run amok.
Here’s a photo of the Fat Me, and I probably weighed 10# more than this when I started the diet. And Skinny Me, taken a few days ago. I went from size 22-24 to size 8-10! I won’t lie, it was very hard work. There’s no Magic Bullet. I didn’t cheat a single time; I didn’t eat any of those processed Keto-friendly snacks like disgusting pork rinds, or even anything that had fake sweeteners in it. The only processed foods I eat are salad dressings (I tried to make my own but didn’t like them.) I can take weight off, but the hard part for me is keeping it off. I always say “never again” but so far I’ve always failed at that.
I know a lot of people think Keto is terrible for cholesterol because it’s high fat, but actually it’s not, and it doesn’t have to be high fat, or “bad” fats. I usually eat lean meats but add good fats like olive oil on salads, and I cook with avocado oil or organic ghee (clarified butter). The fat is for satiety. If you’re not hungry between meals, you don’t need to eat a lot of fat. I just had a cholesterol test and my total cholesterol stayed about the same; right at 200 but HDL went from 79 to a whopping 103! Triglycerides went down from 103 to 52; LDL stayed the same, 93. The ratio of HDL to Total Cholesterol is supposed to be under 4.5 and mine is 2.0. So no worries!
I’ve been wearing a heart monitor for 28 days; got 2 more to go and I can’t WAIT to get rid of the thing! The sensor is stuck to my chest with super-glue; I swear. I have to peel it off and recharge it every 5 days and it seems like it takes 3 or 4 layers of skin with it every time. Then when I apply a new patch, I first have to scrub the skin with one of those rough scrubbies like you do dishes with!! More skin gone, and it always goes back on the same spot. It’s getting pretty irritated under those patches. But hey, it could be worse; it could have been summertime and I’d have a weird oval-shaped white patch in my tan. I also had an echocardiogram and haven’t gotten the results back from that yet. I’m not too worried about either heart test; I really feel like there’s nothing wrong there. I really think these tests are sort of a “CYA” thing for my doc. I feel perfectly fine, honest!
My tailbone has been really hurting a lot lately though. I think I broke it as a kid while ice skating on Gillett’s pond and I figured it had developed arthritis. I got it x-rayed and they said there wasn’t anything wrong with it, but that there was “moderate” deterioration in my lumbar region. I knew about that; that only hurts if I’m doing something that requires much bending. Building the house foundation and subfloor was really hard; I could only work on it for 10-15 minutes, then had to go lay flat for 30 minutes to recuperate. So…there’s nothing wrong with my butt. Does that mean it’s all in my head? And does that make me a hypochondriac butt-head??? (Asking for a friend)
I had to back out of a camping trip for the end of this month that I was really looking forward to, but I just couldn’t justify paying $110 for new camper tires and $60 in extra gas when I have so much other debt. You know the good and bad angels that sit on your shoulders? The Good Angel won out in the end. She’d been yelling at me the whole time, saying “Are you NUTS?! You can’t afford this!” She yelled a bit louder than the Bad Angel who kept saying “But we really wanna go!!” Oh well. I still plan to meet up with friends at Mesa Verde at the end of May, no matter what else happens.
Here’s the view out my front door…it’s hard to see in this small photo but I have some great long-range views out over the little valley.
So that’s about it for me lately…..nothing very exciting, but I sure am loving my little house. It’s been super easy to heat with the 4,000 BTU Buddy heater; in fact unless it’s under 30 degrees at night it’s TOO easy! I have to keep getting up and turning it off, then getting up and turning it back on a few hours later. If it’s a sunny day (and it usually is), I can open the drapes and turn the heat off by about 10 a.m., even on cold days.
I’m in love with my new house!! I moved in on Dec. 29 and I’m loving it. It’s so cozy and warm, and I know people will think I’m crazy, but it feels so spacious! Compared to the 58 sq. ft. camper, that is. I have a full 6′ x 6′ of open floor space!! That means I could actually fall down and not do a face-plant into the heater, which is something I always worried about before.
As you know I only half-insulated most of the house. The bedroom/living/dining space is fully insulated but the rest, just 1 1/2″ of foam insulation. It needs another 2″ of foam which should be done before the summer heat hits. There’s zero insulation in the gable ends! In spite of that, I’m having trouble with being too warm at night. Unless the temps are down around 20 at night, I’m too hot and have to get up and turn the heater off for awhile, then get back up and turn it back on in a couple hours. That’s OK. I really thought I’d have to make a false ceiling at the 8′ level in order to keep warm but I’m sure glad I didn’t do that; I’d be sweltering! I’m using a Mr. Heater Buddy for heat; the small one that goes from 4,000 to 9,000 BTU’s. On sunny days I get enough heat from the sun through the windows that I can turn the heater off by about 10 a.m.
My door has huge gaps on both sides but I’ve decided not to seal them up, as I do need some fresh oxygen. This way I don’t need to remember to open a window when I turn on the heater. And the place still stays quite warm enough!
The only thing I really hate is the floor. I used OSB for subfloor and it sat out in the weather for months, so it’s kinda flaky. I kept getting splinters in my feet until I laid down every little rug and towel I could find! The other day I was able to buy two really nice 2×3′ rugs for $3 each at a thrift shop! Now it’s very comfy and cushy with two layers of rugs. I’m sure I’ll soon be wishing I had a vacuum cleaner though.
I am completely off-grid right now, I’m not able to set up the solar because I don’t have a battery for the house. And too, the space for the battery is not available right now; the refrigerator is sitting there. It’s one of those Catch-22 situations; I need to frame in the space for the fridge but it’s in the way, and it’s too heavy for me to move. Anyway, I’m still able to recharge my Kindles, wifi, phone & laptop over in the camper. The biggest problem is lighting at night. I’m using those free lights that Harbor Freight gives away and one solar Luci Light (which is GREAT!) but it’s really hard to get good light for cooking. I try to get all my cooking done before it gets done, because the place really is filled with light during the day. I worried a bit about it being too dark because the windows are so small, but it’s fine.
I moved in well before I was truly ready but I was so tired of being too cold in the camper! So all the walls are just the foam insulation board, there was no shelving, no place for clothes or kitchen storage or worktop. I had bought three 16″ wide melamine boards at ReStore awhile back so I used one of them to support the cool Camp Chef outdoor stove & oven, and another to be the countertop. I’m already jonesing for a wider countertop…..16″ is definitely not deep enough! But for now it’ll do.
Here’s the kitchen when I started out, and after I set up the base support & countertop:
And here’s how it looks now. I saw this $10 fabric shower curtain and thought that kind of thing would make a cool wall. Then I decided, why wait! So for $10 I got my wall. I ripped the last 16″ melamine board into a 10″ and a 6″ wide piece and made shelves, and added an Ikea rail system. I like how it turned out, though I wish I had figured out a way to get the creases out of the shower curtain before I nailed it up there!
And as you can see, I’ve put the heater up on a small table so Roxie can’t get too close and burst into flames.
Here’s the “open-air” bathroom!
And here’s my bed. It’s about 40″ high and I can easily get in and out of it using the little stepladder. It’s super-comfortable with a 3″ inflatable pad under a 3″ foam mattress and 2″ memory foam.
One of the things that makes the house feel larger is the nice high peaked roof. The way I insulated it is called “Poor man’s blown-in foam”. It is 4″ slabs of foam that are sealed all the way around with Great Stuff. (The orange squiggly lines) The foam I bought was used, plus it sat around for a year here, so that’s why it looks grubby. I decided not to seal the sidewalls because I was going to be heating with propane. It produces a LOT of condensation, so a really tight tiny house would be weeping rain inside, the whole time the heater was running.
Well that’s about it for Show and Tell today. It’s been horribly windy and cold here so I haven’t been getting a whole lot accomplished, and I don’t care! I’m just enjoying the heck out of my new house!
Yes! Janis and Roxie are Home at last!! We moved in on Dec. 29 after a very cold night in the camper. The low was 9° and even with the heater and stove burner running all night, it was still quite cold in the camper. I think the heater is not putting out as much heat as it’s supposed to. Anyway, that very day we moved over to the house, as it was going to be 9° again the following night. I have a Buddy heater in the house and it’s doing a great job! I was nice and toasty; even a little too hot at times. I had to keep it on Low. I’m surprised that with these 11.5′ high ceilings, it’s so easy to heat. I thought I’d have to rig up a lower ceiling with canvas drop cloths or something.
Here it is on our very first night. What a joy to finally see it occupied and the lights on! Please excuse the “rope” coming down; it’s the Christmas garland that got blown off. I need a ladder to get it down and right now they are snowbound.
Our Christmas was very low key as usual. Stayed home and had leftovers for dinner…just another day in Paradise. Really! The name of our subdivision is “Show Low Paradise”!
I got Roxie a new dog bed for Christmas, bigger than her normal size and quite cushy. It was on sale for just $8. Well she HATED it. She never used it and insisted on sleeping on the icy cold floor, so I finally brought her old grubby bed back in and she climbed right in immediately and acted like “Ahhh…at last I can sleep again!!” Oh well, I tried.
In November I applied for energy assistance from NACOG (Northern Arizona Council of Governments). Based on my income (or lack thereof) I got an $800 propane credit! I must go to one certain propane seller in Show Low to refill, and they just take it off my account. Wow, that sure helps! I’m pretty sure I won’t use that much but it’s good to have it. I bought a used 30# propane tank from them too, and that came out of the $800 credit.
My friend Jeff has a propane heater about the same BTU’s as mine and he uses a 30# tank every 6 days. He’s heating a smaller space with less insulation so I’m thinking my usage will be about the same. That’s going to be a pain since I only have one 30# tank and one spare 20# tank, as it’s 25 miles to town to refill them. I’m hoping to find another used 30# tank soon
I’ve had the heater sitting on the floor but yesterday we had a near-calamity; I was working at the kitchen counter and Roxie was standing next to me fussing about something-or-other. I didn’t pay much attention until I smelled the horrible burning hair stench. Roxie was standing right in front of the heater and almost became a fireball! As it is she just scorched some chest hair but it was pretty scary. I’ve put the heater up on a small table now so she’s not in danger. It makes the floors a little colder but that’s OK. I wish I had a place where I could mount it on the wall but I can’t find anywhere.
I have only moved a few things over but still am already out of storage space. I need lots of shelves! Yesterday I used some 16′ wide boards I got at ReStore for $2 to make a kitchen counter. I think I made it too tall. The camper’s countertops are way low and I couldn’t remember the proper height so I made it 36″ high and it seems high. Oh well, it’ll be fine. Supposedly it won’t be permanent (famous last words). Here is the kitchen Before and After. Those white boards are what I used.
Kitchen Before. Stove it sitting on an ice chest.
Kitchen After
Here’s my bed when folded down from the wall. I have not yet brought the good mattress over from the camper; this is the old camper mattress with two 1″ memory foam pads on top and a 3″ thick inflatable camping pad underneath. It’s really comfy but that 3″ pad is too thick; it won’t allow me to fold the bed back up to the wall. The camper has a 1″ inflatable pad and I guess I’ll have to use that. I hope that will solve the problem! I use a little stepladder to get up there and it’s pretty easy. It’s 42″ high.
Here’s the space with the bed folded up against the wall. The underside of the bed will eventually have nice horizontal pine paneling on it & so will the wall, so it should all blend together and look more built-in..
And here’s the bathroom, still with peekaboo walls!
Today I hope to get some shelving up on the kitchen and bathroom walls both. I also have an Ikea hanging rail system to install. But I MUST go to town first! I haven’t gone grocery shopping since Dec. 18! First I didn’t have any money and then since I got more money, we’ve had snow and yucky roads. Even the people with 4 wheel drive haven’t been going out! The paved roads are fine but our subdivision roads have packed ice and are really slick. I’m hoping today the “bad” hill will have melted enough for me to get out and back in safely. Otherwise I’ll be eating 3 meals a day of tuna fish and green beans.
My birthday was great this year! Almost as good as last year, when a group of friends were camping in SC on my birthday and they had a long-distance party for me! They had a decorated birthday cake, went out for ice cream and dinner, and throughout the whole day they’d send me photos and a video of them singing to me. Weird, I know, but it made it a good day.
This year I had a doctor appointment that morning,and the day before I’d made a batch of knockoff See’s Butterscotch Squares. If you’re from California you know how good these are! It’s like brown sugar fudge, covered with chocolate. I used to make 1/2 batch a lot in Ecuador because friends really liked them, but I never covered them in chocolate there, I just left them as fudge. This time I covered half in chocolate and left some plain. I boxed them ALL up (Yep, I didn’t even taste a single one!) and took them with me to my appointment. I figured SOMEONE should be getting a birthday gift! I got a huge surprise when I arrived; the receptionist said “Happy Birthday, Janis” and handed me a card signed by everyone and a cute little glass jar of bath salts! Cris said that Dr. Matt shopped for them himself! Then the whole staff came out into the waiting room and sang “Happy Birthday” to me! I love those guys! To them it was probably a small thing but it totally made my day. I hope they liked the candy. Here’s the recipe: Homemade Butterscotch Squares
Thanksgiving I just had leftovers from my roast beef birthday dinner (which was tough as nails even after being cooked in the pressure-cooker for 35 minutes). We were expecting a ton of snow so I was all prepared to be stuck here for a week or so, with plenty of propane, water, toilet paper, food, DVD’s and Kindle books to read. When there are big snowfalls, the snowplow doesn’t make it out here for 3-4 days, and I don’t have 4 wheel drive so I just sit tight.
The snow didn’t actually start til Friday morning but it came with a vengeance; we got 2″ of snow in the first half-hour! With 40 mph winds, oh what fun. Then it settled down to a steady light snow all day and into the next. We ended up with a foot of it. Ugh. I shoveled a path from here to the house (because all my food is over there) and I’d just hook Roxie up to her long leash and shove her out the door while I stayed inside with the door open a crack, just enough to let the leash extend out and in. She didn’t spend any extra time outdoors either!
This was my view out the door on Friday. Usually these branches are well up out of my way but that day, they were waiting to dump snow down my neck as soon as I went out the door!
Friday was sunny but very cold, a high of 34 I think. The floors in this camper are not insulated at all so I can go get a whole day’s worth of food and keep it next to the door on the floor, throw a towel over it and it stays nice and cold! I just measured it with my instant thermometer, at 10:30 a.m. it is still 38 degrees on the floor near the door! Perfect refrigerator temp. My poor feet FREEZE in here, and I feel really sorry for Roxie sleeping on the floor but she doesn’t seem to mind. She doesn’t even use her cushy dog bed except at night!
I got some birthday money so I spent some time on line and took advantage of some of the Black Friday sales; nothing fun, just vitamins, some food items from Thrive Market and a few parts needed for the propane hookup of a heater for the house, but I did order some new eyeglasses from Zenni Optical’s sale; only $45 with progressive bifocal lenses,including clip-on sunglasses! I don’t know what terrible thing I did to my current glasses but they are so scratched I can hardly see through them. I always vow to take better care of my glasses but somehow I never do.
That darn snow seems to be really hanging on. Even though it was sunny all day yesterday, the car is still covered with snow and it’s still hanging on all the trees. I admit it is pretty, but I just want it to all go away now.
Last week we had 3 days of rain and this week the snow….I did not get all the insulation done so I could move into the house. I should know better than to set deadlines! I have to be able to cut the foam sheets outside. And now they are covered with a foot of snow but I’m hoping by the weekend I’ll be able to get back at it. I also have a huge issue with my door. Every time it rains, almost the entire floor gets flooded. Thank you Tyler, for setting the door in the wrong place! I’m going to have to try and remove the threshold and move it into the room more and I’m not sure I can get it up without a lot of hassle. But I can’t move in and then be constantly flooded with water. Last night it got down to 17 degrees and it was like an indoor skating rink!
Last week I had some excellent helpers come to visit! Tom Warfield and Donna Morey are both fellow members of the AZ A-Frame Campers group (same kind of camper I have). Boy, did we get a lot done! Tom can do ANYTHING, and he does it well, which was a nice surprise after Tyler’s work.
Donna arrived on Wednesday and right away there was a problem with her battery system. That’s bad when you’re boondocking! I loaned her my Buddy heater and a couple 1# propane cylinders for the night. I’m glad I picked it and a smaller Coleman SportCat heater up from the storage unit! Then around 9 pm that first night, I ran out of propane and went out to change the tank. I got it all hooked up and SSSSSSSS! The hose had developed a bad leak. So I went without heat that night. I could have gone and gotten one of the propane cylinders from Donna but then her heater would have run out and she’d be cold. I figured I’m probably more used to the cold than her, so I toughed it out. It wasn’t too bad; I think it was 43 inside the camper in the morning. I had gotten a spare comforter out of the car and I just kept under the covers and I actually slept better than I usually do! Good to know, but I really don’t think I care to trade good sleep for warmth. The next night I used the little SportCat heater. It only puts out 1500 btu’s but kept the camper at 54 degrees, not too bad. Friday my friend Jeff Cox went to town and he brought me back a new propane pigtail.
Tom arrived on Thursday and right away went to work diagnosing Donna’s battery problem (a bad converter). He bypassed something-or-other and made it so Donna would have power for heat at night, and each day he charged her battery with his generator. He also repaired my camper door that kept trying to fall off! It was coming out of the C-channel frame so he used pop rivets and a metal plate to hold it all together. When the new propane pigtail arrived, Tom installed that too. What a handy guy!
Donna and I worked on insulating the bedroom/dining/living room area. That was probably the hardest place in the house to do, as by the time I got to that studwall I was nearly out of 2×4’s, so I used some that were really badly bowed and/or twisted. So cutting rigid foam insulation to fit the bowed studs was a real adventure. And we needed 3 layers in there to fill the cavities: two 1.5″ and one .5″ thicknesses. Tom set about with the Great Stuff Pro gun and ran a bead of foam along every rafter and filling all the gaps. They call that “poor man’s blown in foam” because it makes an airtight seal. Boy the Great Stuff Pro gun works SO much better than those nasty aerosol cans! You have way more control over the size of the stream, and when you let up on the trigger, it stops coming out, unlike the aerosols that keep drooling out foam for 5 minutes afterward.
I have NO idea why Tom looks like a giant and I look like a dwarf in this photo! He’s not THAT tall, and I’m not THAT short!!
Here I am, working hard! Rasping off a piece of styrofoam to fit the wall cavity better.
It’s hard to tell but I am completely covered with white foam dust!
The next day Tom installed the two vents in the back of the house for the refrigerator. That’s something I’d have been scared to do; cut into the house wall! He drilled holes for the wiring and also pulled all the rough wiring. Got my wall bed built with his engineering brain figuring out how to accomplish what I wanted, and finished installing the deadbolt lock on the door. We built the drop ceiling for the bedroom area, and he wired a new 7-way camper plug on my car! The cover on the old one had broken, it was falling off and the plug receptacle part was so full of mud, it never would have worked again! I think that might be all. ALL! I was thrilled with how much got accomplished in one week!
Wiring! In this one you can also see where the orange foam has been applied to the roof seams, and also where the fridge vents cut-outs are. We covered them back up so it’s not so cold inside, since I’m not ready to install the fridge yet.
And insulation! We faced the foil towards the outside on the first layer (to reflect back the sun’s heat in summer) and faced it towards the room on the last layer (to reflect back the heat in winter) Well that’s the idea anyway. Hopefully it’ll work that way.
So here’s the living room setup. Notice the wall bed. It will be disguised with nice pine paneling later.
The bed base extends 7.5″ out from the wall (because my mattress is 7″ thick) and there will be a shallow bookcase under that behind the chairs, against the back wall. It will have a small drop-down dining/game table that will go between the chairs. When the bed is lowered, it just clears the top of the chair backs. With the mattress on, it is 40″ from the floor, so I can easily climb up on my little 2-step ladder, though I will be making (hopefully) a clever end table that converts into steps at night. The wood on the wall is what I’ll use to finish all the walls in that room. The TV will be mounted on the wall above the bed.
I have discovered something wonderful! Keto Pizza! It’s not as good as pizza with a real crust, but to someone whose lips haven’t touched pizza for 9 months, it’s fantastic! No, not one of those nasty cauliflower crusts, either. I don’t eat things that look like cancer. The crust is made of mozzarella cheese! You let that melt together, then add the pizza sauce and whatever else you like (for me, it’s bell peppers and pepperoni) and more cheese on top. I like to use whole milk mozzarella but I found out that was a big mistake. It’s way too wet. I was blotting and blotting the liquid that oozed out! It’s better to use part skim mozz or provolone for the crust at least. I make it in my tiny 4″ egg frypan and it’s the perfect size. I’ve been eating a lot of it lately…..I’ve gotten into a rut and tend to eat the same things over and over, so this is a wonderful change, and when I do a finger-stick 2 hours afterward, my glucose is never over 100 after eating this and a salad. Tonight it was 79! Intermittent Fasting has actually cured my Insulin Resistance, but that’s a story for another time.
I’m down 72 pounds! Very nearly two full 20# propane tanks’ worth of weight….a full tank weighs 37#. Can you imagine toting around two of those suckers 24/7?!! Wow. That’s a lot. People are starting to bug me about being “thin enough” but I think they’re just not used to seeing me at a normal weight. I still have another 9# to go before I get to a normal BMI, or to hit even the top of the Ideal Weight charts! I’d like to go maybe 10# beyond that point, because I’m sure when I ease up on the diet, I’ll gain some back. I’m great at losing weight, but I’ve always been bad at keeping it off. I hope to do better this time. (I say that every time). I sure hate all this excess skin though. My face is so wrinkled, I look at least ten years older than my age. Sigh. My fault entirely; if I hadn’t stretched it all out so badly and waited so long to lose the weight, I wouldn’t be dealing with this now.
We are expecting nasty weather for the next three days & nights. Windy with rain and snow showers; perhaps a little bit of accumulation. I won’t be able to cut the foam insulation because it has to be done outside. So an enforced vacation. I don’t mind taking a few days to read, but I really REALLY wanted to move in before my birthday next week, which means I’ll have to work my butt off Saturday-Tuesday to get it done. In most of the rest of the house, it’ll just be one layer of 1.5″ foam because that’s all I could afford to buy. It should be fine for the winter, but I’ll need to finish insulating before the hot weather hits. I can’t WAIT to move in! Every time I go over there I’m struck with how spacious it seems! I know that’ll sound crazy to you folks who have adult-sized homes, but the tiny house is 1 1/2 times as big a space as I’ve been living in for the past 4 1/2 years! 85 square ft. vs 58.5 sq. ft. I’m also often hit with the realization that it turned out to look almost exactly the way I pictured it in my head for all that time when it was only an idea on paper. That, to me, is a miracle!
First I want to send a big THANK YOU to the folks who donated money to the “cause”!! I love you guys! I was able to buy about half of the insulation I need for the walls, and I bought a used 245 watt solar panel for only $95, and I paid Tyler to come and help me install the roof insulation. Yeah, I know; why do I keep inviting him back and then complain about the work he does? Well, because he’s the only person I know to call. He brought a new helper this time, a guy who was actually a really good worker! And he had all his front teeth so maybe he wasn’t a meth-head like Tyler and his other helpers. It took most of the day to cut and fit the foam between the roof rafters. What a nasty job! The 4″ styrofoam had a layer of fiberglass cloth stuff on the outside. Some had it on one side only and some had it on both. We found that the best way to cut the 4×8 sheets was to use the sawz-all, which kicked up a lot of fine fiberglass and foam dust that stuck to our clothes and skin. With the low humidity here, we are all just giant static cling machines. UGH!! Nothing worked to brush that stuff off us. That was one day I really wished I had an indoor shower! It was much too cold to shower outside. I washed off with a washcloth but it wasn’t nearly as good as a cascade of water. Anyway it’s done, with a bunch of gaps and cracks that I now need to fill in with Great Stuff foam. I got some Great Stuff Pro foam and gun which is supposed to be much easier than using it out of the aerosol cans. With the gun you have much better control plus when you stop pressing the trigger, the foam stops coming out immediately. With the aerosol cans, it just keeps drooling out for several minutes after you want it to stop!
But first my neck has to recover a bit; I’ve had neck pain for more than a year and looking up at the roof all day really aggravated it.
Here’s the insulated roof! Yeah it looks crummy because it was used stuff and then it sat out in the weather for 6 months.
Oh yeah…my brain tumor! Well the neurologist said it’s nothing dire; we’re just going to wait and watch it for now. He said it did not cause the speech problems; he said those were just because I’m OLD! (At least he didn’t call me Elderly) I’m puzzled by that; I know lots of old people and none of them have intermittent speech defects without any underlying cause like a stroke. I might get a second opinion if the speech problems crop up again, but really, I’ve about had it with driving 4 hours each way to Phoenix to see specialists.
Yesterday Tyler came back and after much discussion we figured out the best way to install my shower pan. I did not want to cut holes in the floor, as that would involve messing around with the continuous mouse-proofing hardware cloth that’s stretched over the bottom of all the floor joists. So we made a fake floor riser just high enough for the drain assembly to be installed; ran the drain hose to an outside connector with a garden hose connection. I’ll be able to drain the shower water into a bucket, portable RV waste tank or just run it into a hose to water the trees. Next I need to build the stud walls around the shower, and build a flat ceiling in the bed/dining/living room area.
Here’s a photo of the shower pan. Note that the shower pan IS the whole bathroom floor! I’ll step up into the shower for all bathroom activities. It is 24×40″ and it actually is larger than a friend’s camper bathroom, so I guess it’s workable. Heh heh…good thing I lost all that weight! The old Me probably would not have fit in there at all. I never wanted a “wet bath” but I just didn’t have space for a separate shower. My bucket toilet is going to take up half of the bathroom! I can remove it when I want to take a shower. One of these days I’ll build a “dry” toilet that’s smaller than a 5 gallon bucket. I ended up with a 9″ step up from the main floor, over the lip of the shower pan and then a 5″ drop down into the pan, which is a bit much but I think it’s do-able. Maybe I’ll put a grab bar at the doorway to help the ELDERLY. I was afraid it was going to end up even higher, and it would be like trying to step into a bathtub every time I need to pee! So this is better. Really!
Two friends are coming this weekend to help install the foam insulation in the walls! It will take 3 layers to fill the 2×4 cavities…two 1 1/2″ layers plus a 1/2″ layer. Triple the work! I bought enough to fully insulate the little bed/living/dining section and enough for 1 1/2″ in all the other walls. That should be enough to make it through the winter; I’ll need to finish it up before the summer heat hits though.
The other night Jack Frost was really hard at work! Am I the only who sees a beer bottle in the upper right corner? What is Jack trying to tell me?? (It’s actually where the frost started to melt)
My hydroponic veggies are doing well. I mean they’re still alive. The bok choy has started to really take off but the lettuces are very slow. I am still holding out hope for them though.
I guess this is Apache County’s version of repaving the roads. We’re poor, you know! The road has lots of cracks in it so they went along and sprayed hot tar on the cracks. I guess that will keep the moisture out of the cracks so the frost doesn’t get in there and expand them, but I’ve never seen that done before!
I’m so glad to see the hot weather retreat, but I’m not sure I’m ready for Fall, either. Or maybe we skipped straight to winter? Tomorrow’s low is supposed to be 22 degrees! Yikes! Daytime highs are still in the 60’s and 70’s though. I’m trying to figure out what to do with several plants that I’m sure can’t take those kinds of temperatures. The house is the obvious place, but since I have continuous soffit and ridge vents, it’s no warmer in there than it is outside. I guess my boxwoods, geranium and succulents will have to go in the car and hope it stays warm enough. This time last year we’d already had snow! This year the snow has been replaced by wind. Lots of wind!
I have kinda-sorta set up my living room! Sometimes I take my Kindle and go sit out there and read, though neither of the chairs are as comfortable as I had hoped. They’re fine for a short while but not for long term.
I have come to realize that I’m just not going to be able to move into the house before Winter. Probably not before Spring either. My medical bills have not been astronomical like a lot of unfortunate people. but they are pretty overwhelming for someone of my limited income. They sure don’t allow for any extras. So far I’ve had a CT scan, MRA (Angiogram) and MRI with and without contrast of my brain. Even with the Medicare co-pays, they are not cheap, and every time I go to a specialist I have to pay $45 per visit. These co-pays have to be paid up front, you can’t pay over time. I also had to repay my old Medicare Savings Account plan back $785 for excessive utilization, since I quit the plan on July 31 and went to a different Medicare Advantage Plan on August 1. Ouch! Last month a few days before I got my Social Security money I was down to less than $3 in checking and saving accounts combined; this month is even worse and next month looks no better. But it looks like by March I may be able to start saving up money again for the $600 worth of foam insulation. That sure sounds like an awful lot of money for such a tiny house, but I need the best insulation possible for the hot summer temperatures. I could probably get through the winter with half of it, since it’s sheet foam, I have to do it in three layers anyway; a 2″, a 1″ and 1/2″. Three times the labor! But no one around here sells 3 1/2″ foam. Well that $300 or $600 may as well be a million, as neither one is do-able.
The health care in my area turns out to be not that great. We do have a hospital but it’s only a Level 2 (Out of a possible 4) Trauma Center, and there are not a lot of specialists. They don’t even do joint replacements there! (Not that I want one) I’ve been having to go to Phoenix for interventional cardiologist and neurologist appointments, and it costs $60 in gas and 8 hours drive time just to drive there and back! Plus $45 for each doctor visit. I hated the cardiologist so I am going to try to transfer over to the cardiologist here. He is booked up til December and my Dr. Matt wanted me to see someone before then, but now I think I can wait for the local guy.
So here’s the bad news. Could be worse. I have a brain tumor! I have thought so all along. If any of you know what Kinesiology (muscle testing) is, I’ve been doing that and it consistently said that I had a brain tumor, not fatal, and that no surgery would be needed. I bet I did it 50 times and always the same answer. It was very puzzling then when neither the CT scan nor the Angiogram showed it. I was beginning to doubt!
It is a small meningioma, which is usually slow-growing and benign. Let’s hope mine will be also. It’s great to finally get a reason for the speech problems I had back in July! I don’t know why it didn’t show up on the CT or Angiograms The CT scan showed a slight stroke at some point in the past. Must have been very slight and happened while I was asleep because I’ve never had any symptoms. Then the Angiogram showed two blocked cervical arteries but both the cardio and the neuro said were OK, there’s plenty of other blood flow to the brain and it would be more dangerous to do something about them than to just leave them be. I hope I don’t have any more speech problems but for now there are no plans to do anything about the brain tumor. I go back to the neurologist on Oct. 23 and I guess I’ll learn more then. Looking at the bright side, I can get a lot of mileage out of this….now I have a good excuse for every stupid thing I do or say in the future!!
I think I need to just quit going to my doctor; all he does is order expensive tests, then give me bad news. “You’ve had a stroke”. You have two blocked arteries”. “You have a brain tumor”. Geez, the news gets worse every time I go see him! But……I love him, so I guess I’ll keep going.
I have started some hydroponic greens! I hope to have “free” salad fixin’s in a month or two. I now spend around $8 a week for organic romaine, celery and spinach so it would help a lot if I can grow some of it myself. I’m using a technique I learned from a You Tube video. How did we ever know how to do ANYTHING without You Tube? I am using mason jars and 1/2 gallon pickle jars. A lot of people use plastic bins but I prefer not to grow or store my food in plastic. I have covered the jars with foil to keep out the light, so the nutrient liquid doesn’t grow algae. It’s not very expensive to get started. Just watch the short video by FrugalGreenGirl, it’s very simple. Hydroponic Gardening in Mason Jars If you use jars besides the standard wide-mouth mason jars, you may have to either get different size net pots, or be creative. For my 1/2 gallon pickle jar, the opening was bigger than the mason jars but I found that an inverted mason jar lid fit the opening perfectly, and then the 3″ net pot also fit perfectly inside that! I also planted spinach seeds but none of them sprouted! I have to replant and try again.
Bok Choy in 3″ net cups
Romaine, leaf lettuce and Bok Choy
One more thing….my diet. Here’s a photo of the New Me, so far. Oh I’ll see if I can find a Fat Photo for comparison,. I started in late January with the typical reduced calorie diet but by May I was in a terrible plateau and didn’t lose a thing for 6 weeks! I am also diabetic so I started tweaking the diet to help with my glucose readings and before long I realized….I was doing the Keto diet! So I learned more about it and I’ve been following that for about 3 months, and losing a pretty steady 2# per week. I am also doing Intermittent Fasting every other day. That’s when you eat all your food for the day within a certain window of time, such as between 10 a.m. and 6 p.m. You don’t snack or eat anything outside of that time frame except plain coffee, tea or water. So you go from dinner to 10 a.m. without eating….not that hard! And the benefits are amazing, especially for diabetics. I started out with an A1C of 7.3 and I go tomorrow for another A1C test. I expect it to come back as a 5.6, which is NOT DIABETIC AT ALL! Not even pre-diabetic.
I am really strict about it though, I have not cheated a single time since January. I’ve cut all sugar, dairy except a small amount of cheddar cheese, grains and gluten, beans, and everything white. Interestingly, I just had a hair analysis that measures sensitivities to over 650 things and it showed I was very sensitive to grains, gluten and dairy! I wonder if my glucose response to those items is somehow connected to inflammatory response. I couldn’t even eat 1/2 slice of high fiber bread without a huge spike in my glucose.
Fat Janis in Oatman, AZ. The burro was after some carrots I had in my hand, he was NOT trying to bit me in the boob, honest!
(Relatively) Skinny Janis with friend Jeanne. (I’m the tall one) Down 67#! I still have about 25# more to go. But that’s OK because frankly, I’m afraid to quit! I just found out yesterday that I have shrunk 2″! So now that I’m only 5′ 4″, I have even more to lose than I thought to get to a normal weight.
Hope everyone has a GREAT fall! Drink some apple cider and eat some warm apple cider doughnuts for me!
Exterior – done!! Except for some trim and paint, the house is 100% closed in! I’m so glad; I was really getting burned out with this project. I feel like I need to get out there 7 days a week, since I can only work on it for a couple hours in the mornings before it gets hot. But I told myself to take Labor Day off. So I did. And then I also took the next 3 days off…oops! But now I’m back on duty. I think I will take the occasional day off though.
Next comes the roof insulation which I am dreading like crazy. I got a STEAL on 4″ thick 4×8 rigid foam panels, only $12 each! They’d be around $40 each new. But I’ve discovered that they are not 4″ thick as advertised; they are sandwiched between some strange wallboard/fiberglass surface, so they actually are 4 1/2″ thick. That’s bad, very bad. I have continuous soffit & roof vents for hot air to escape, and it needs a 1 1/2″ clear air space . 4″ foam would have been perfect but now I will need to tack on a 1×2 strip on the bottom of each rafter, to give more air space. It’s not terrible, but just a little more money and a little more labor. (It’s always something, isn’t it?) I’ve read that when you cut this sandwiched foam stuff, little fiberglass particles go everywhere. Oh how fun. One of the reasons I’m using foam insulation is because I can’t stand working with fiberglass!
I have rigged up an outdoor shower though, so at least now I’ll be able to wash the fiberglass bits off. It’s wonderful! It’s a 3 gallon solar shower bag suspended high up in a tree next to the water tank. It’s so warm outside, I don’t need to lay the bag in the sun; it warms up nicely just hanging there. I strung a couple wires and have four $1 shower curtains enclosing the space. I have hung some towel hooks and a shower organizer thingie from bars around the water tank. I stand in a shallow tub that’s meant for cement mixing. I’ve taken more showers in the past two weeks than I took in the previous four years combined, LOL! It really feels luxurious to cool down and get clean.
I brought a couple of thrift store chairs over from storage and set up my living room. I’ve been doing some reading there, as it’s usually a little cooler in the house than the camper. Unfortunately, neither of those chairs is very comfortable for long-term sitting. I’ve got to find something really small, really cheap and really comfy! The bed will be hung from the wall at the 36″ high level, and will drop down over the top of the chairs so nothing will need to be moved to convert from living room to bedroom. I’ll just need a little step up in order to get into the bed. Oh and there’ll be a small dining/game table that will be hinged against the wall under the bed, ready to be pulled up for use. Living room, dining room and bedroom in 21 sq. feet! I just bought that tall door mirror on sale at Walmart for $6. It’s the first time I’ve had larger than a 6″ mirror in four years!
Here’s a very unhappy Roxie in the house. She’s not at all comfortable in there yet. She has always believed that she can’t go up and down stairs, so this 2″ level across the doorway is enough to make her think she can’t get out.
It’s been very hot, in the 90’s. I bought myself a kiddie swimming pool marked down to $2.75 and was all excited about sitting in that to escape the heat. I brought it home and put a few inches of water in it and left it for a few hours to warm up, and then was ready for my “swim”. But in my excitement I forgot that even though my knees don’t hurt any more, they still don’t work quite right. There’s no way I can get down and sit at ground level, not to mention what gyrations I’d have to go through to get back up on my feet afterward! So that idea was a bust. Maybe I can use the pool as a planter or something. I’m glad I only paid $2.75 for it!
In early spring I had purchased two hummingbird feeders but I never put them out. Lately I’ve been feeling really sorry for the hummers who kept coming up and checking out every fake flower in my little hanging basket, as though they couldn’t believe there could possibly be so many flowers with nothing good in them! So I got out one of the feeders and made up some nectar. It was only out there for about 10 minutes before it was discovered! It’s been 4 days and now I have a regular parade of visitors. I hung it right outside the camper door, where I can see it easily. I can’t get photos of the birdies though because my camera won’t focus through the window screen.
I have a new neighbor, a small Praying Mantis. He’s constantly hanging around my door. Every time I go outside he gets startled and waves his little arms around but he doesn’t move away; he’s always somewhere close by. Do you see him? I’ve named him Manny, not to be confused with Jeff’s dog Manny. Jeff and Manny left a week ago; moved over to a new property that our friend Pat purchased nearby. I miss him. I was surprised at how comforting it was just to know someone was within shouting distance, in case of accident. Poor Jeff, I’m sure he was very sorry he was within hearing distance when I’d get frustrated at my house projects and start yelling!
On the health front, everything has been fine for the past few weeks but can you believe it…I STILL don’t have the pre-authorization from Humana for the MRI/Angiogram of my brain! The first order got thrown out after 13 days of waiting, because they called a really old phone number for my doctor (even though I had given them the corrected number!) and since they couldn’t get him, they just deleted the order without giving me a chance to straighten it out. Then my Dr’s office put in another order which miraculously got approved within a few hours! But she’d designated the wrong provider. I don’t understand why the provider would make a difference, but she tried again and we waited another 10 days, only to learn that Humana had no record of it, even though Cris had a confirmation number for the conversation. Note that every time they call Humana, it takes about an hour of their time and they often get disconnected and have to start all over again. Cris tried again and managed to get another authorization for Summit Healthcare, yay, at last! She faxed it to the hospital and I called to make my appointment. Well not so fast. I was told it was no good; I needed yet another pre-authorization!!! My order said “MRI with angiography of brain with and without contrast”, and the hospital here does not do angiograms with and without contrast. So I need authorization that says just MRI with angiography. Can you believe I have been waiting for this pre-authorization for FIVE WEEKS!! Good thing I’m not dying. Hopefully it’s not imminent.
Huge THANKS to everyone who contributed to my PayPal last month! It really helps!
I have this very awkward little corner where the bed/living/dining room bump-out wall meets up with the main part of the house roof. I’ve worried over this darn thing for months. It was supposed to be part of Tyler’s job but now I’m really glad he left it for last, because I don’t think he’d have had a clue how to do it. It needs flashing where the house wall meets up with the main roof, and it needs something called “kickout flashing” to keep the water from pouring down that bit of roof right onto the window, and to direct water into the gutter instead of just running down behind the siding.
I tried buying kickout flashing everywhere and nobody in town carries it. Most workers at the lumberyards and Lowes/Home Depot have never even heard of it. I could have ordered one on Amazon for about $17 and definitely would have if I’d known, but now I don’t have the money to spare. So I made my own, with the help of several You Tube videos. How DID we get anything done before You Tube? I’d watch a video and think “Yeah, OK, that’s what I’ll do”. Then go outside and pick up my flashing and go “Wait…what?” And back inside to watch it again. And again. Finally I just brought my tools & the piece of flashing inside and did it while pausing the video.
This is the kind you can buy on Amazon. See, it goes at the bottom of the roofline and directs water away from the side of the house, and into the gutter. Nice! Mine is much more crude (and much cheaper) but it should serve the purpose.
I’ve cut and attached the tarpaper, made the kickout flashing, cut step flashing and have started cutting the shingles that I’ll need for that little space. Step flashing is another thing that I couldn’t find anywhere in town, and it’s the ONLY long-term solution for water running down that side wall onto the roof!
That’s about where I’m at now. I’ve got the weird-shaped piece of siding cut and I painted it this morning. Needs another coat then it can be installed, though the flashing goes first. I’ve stuck that ultra-sticky foil flashing tape everywhere I think it might come in handy.
Remember the pretty purple flowers I had near the camper? Well they died but then sprang back to life, and there are whole meadows of them EVERYWHERE all along the road! It’s so pretty!
The big nylon tarp I had strung up over my camper for shade and rain protection bit the dust. It got absolutely shredded in a big storm. Now I have a smaller tarp just over the front skylight, which leaks badly.
This morning I almost stepped on this giant 5′ long snake!! I think it’s a Sonoran Gopher Snake or King Snake; very feisty but pretty harmless unless you’re a gopher, rat or small rabbit. Still, a pretty startling sight early in the morning when your eyes are barely open. I read that they can climb trees. Oh joy…now I’ll never get any work done because I’ll be constantly looking down at the ground and up in the trees for giant snakes!!
On the health front, (or should I say ILL health?) I’m waiting for Dr. Matt to get pre-authorization from Humana for an MRI and Angiogram of my brain. My blood pressure has been going nuts lately, ranging from 170/110 to 90/95, and my heartbeat also, going from 66 to 174 beats per minute. I don’t know WHAT’S wrong with me. All these things are pretty much unrelated! My speech has deteriorated a little in the past day or so too. I can tell because I can’t say “lisp”. That’s the hardest word to say when you have a lisp! I also have trouble with the “CH” sound, it comes out like “SH”. Why does all this weird stuff happen on the weekends?? I didn’t feel like I should be working on the house with the super high blood pressure OR the fast heartbeat, and I know I’ll be losing between 3-14 days of work after the angiogram. Grrrrr!
I’ve been working pretty steadily, though I usually only work from 5:30 til about 8 a.m. (Assuming I can drag out of bed at 5:30) After that it’s just too hot for me, and I spend the rest of the day lounging around reading. Here’s the house as it is now. Not much different, but I did get the molding around the door and I added the pink gingerbread gingerbread trim. I made that gingerbread myself! The corbels I bought to use there & on the future porch are at a 90° angle which would have been perfect for the 12/12 pitch roof I’d planned, but I changed the pitch to 10/12 so it didn’t fit at all. I tried shimming it out and it looked terrible, so I just tried to duplicate the others but at the correct angle. It’s pretty crude but since it’s up high, I think it’s OK.
My doctor gave me some base molding that he had left over from a mother-in-law apartment that he built! I figured it up and the amount I need to do the base molding for the whole interior is….13 feet!! Hahaha! One whole wall is kitchen cabinets so I don’t need any there, another whole wall will be a storage shelving unit, so none there, there won’t be any in front of the exterior door, or closet and bathroom doors. So there was plenty of it left for me to use as door molding. It’s not exactly the right thing but it’ll do. The molding I was using for the windows was too narrow to cover the big gap on the one side of the door…..instead of centering the door in the opening, Tyler set the hinge side snug against the studs which left a giant gap on the other side. (I’m finding lots of things that Tyler didn’t do Quite Right.) Oh yeah, I kinda fired him. I was nice about it but the week he wanted off to take care of his kids had stretched out to a month!
I’ve been dealing with some health issues, and I couldn’t even begin to tell you if it’s serious or not. I just don’t know yet. I had to get a CT scan of my brain and now I have to get an MRI for further clarity. Poor little brain! I think it’s just overworked. I have been having speech difficulties; lisping and slurring and sounding like a drunk. (It’s much better already) The CT scan didn’t show any reason for it so for now my doctor is calling it an unknown brain inflammation, and I’m on a 6 day course of Prednisone which is supposed to take care of that. Oh how I hate that stuff!! It’s already raising my glucose readings into the stratosphere, after I worked SO hard to bring them down! I just started it today. I sure hope it doesn’t cause me to be even MORE irritable than I already am. Nobody likes a cranky-pants. The only good thing is that now I can use “brain damage” as an excuse for forgetting and doing dumb things!
Getting the CT scan was a bit of adventure; I couldn’t afford to have it done at the local hospital because it costs around $3000-4000. I decided to drive to Phoenix and get it done for $124 at an imaging center. My car’s air conditioner is broken and it was going to be 106-108° in Phoenix so I reserved a rental car. Well they called me at 7:15 that morning and said they wouldn’t have a car for me until 3 pm. My appointment was at 4:15 so obviously that wouldn’t work! I had to drive my own car. I left within minutes of getting that call in order to try and beat the worst of the heat. I got there around noon and went to a friend’s house; she drove me to the appointment in her nice air-conditioned car. I left at 5:15 a.m. the next morning so I could get outta there while it was still “cool”, though it was 85 degrees there!
I stayed overnight with the sister of one of my best camping buddies and got to visit with her and her sis; she happened to be there visiting! It was really great to spend an afternoon and evening with them.
The bed I slept in was sooo comfy! It really brought home to me how truly horrible my bed is. It’s just a very soft piece of cheap 3″ foam with 2″ memory foam on top, and an inflatable camping pad underneath it all. That pad won’t stay inflated, so I’m basically sleeping directly on plywood. So I came home and ordered a piece of 4″ firm foam. I hated to spend the money but I really need a good night’s sleep. On this bed I wake up many times in the night. In the bed at Joanne’s, I only woke up once!! I can’t wait to get it. The bed in the house will be the same size, so it’ll work in both places.
I will be able to get the MRI done locally though, as I just switched my Medicare Advantage plan to one that costs $140 a month but covers a lot more. For instance, the co-pay for the MRI is $264. I’m going to have to repay my old Medicare plan $785 though, as they pro-rate the amount of money available to spend and I was only in the plan for 7 months but spent most of the money. It’s confusing, I know. My old plan was something new; a Medicare Savings Account. They give you $2520 in a special account with a debit card at the beginning of the year and I had to pay all my own medical expenses out of that fund. Once that money runs out, I’d have to pay all my expenses up to $8700 out of my own pocket. Yikes! If you don’t use all the money, the balance rolls over into the next year. I thought it was a great idea back when I chose it, and I only went to the doctor once a year!!
I have been chipping away at the jobs Tyler was responsible for. We still have two strangely shaped triangle pieces of siding to go up at the top of the bump-out section, and the one in front is tricky because it meets up with part of the gable roof. It needs flashing between the two, then there’s a little tiny bit of roofing that’s not done where the two meet. I tried a pretty bizarre way to make a template to use when cutting the siding, and it worked! I pulled off about 12′ of heavy duty aluminum foil and folded it in thirds. I pressed that into that strange triangle opening and voila! I had the impression! I just traced it onto a piece of cardboard and cut it out, did a little fine-tuning and here’s my template! Oh it’s upside-down and backwards in this photo. Naturally the back side of the house is not quite the same so I’ll have to make a new template but that sure was an easy way. Sometimes it’s good that my brain thinks differently from most people. When I told Tyler about trying that, he thought I was nuts.
I installed the deadbolt lock on the door the other day. It took forever but I got it done! I’m not very good at following written directions. I need lots of pictures. I haven’t cut the hole in the door frame where the bolt goes in just yet. Yesterday I installed the door threshold and I’m happy to report that after today’s torrential rain, the house floor is DRY! Yay!
I seem to have lots of unfinished projects. I haven’t finished painting yet because I’ve run out of paint and don’t have money to buy more this month. I have some stuff to do on the back of the house but my nifty ladder is so heavy, I haven’t felt like dragging it around to the back.
After today’s rain there was a beautiful double rainbow. It’s faded here, but look closely, it ends right on top of my tiny house!! And I really did get a pot of gold! Some of my friends from my dog show days went in together and donated some money to help with the medical expenses! What an amazing generous group of people….and I haven’t shown dogs for around 20 years. English Cocker people are the best!
I truly HATE asking for money. But it looks like I might be facing way more medical bills that I ever imagined, and that means house construction will come to a screeching halt. If you enjoy the blog and have ever thought about giving a little bit to show appreciation, now’s the time! There is a link at the top right that goes to Paypal. $1, $2, $5, every bit would be greatly appreciated!!
Ta-Da! THIS IS IT, my baby house! Isn’t it just the cutest tiny house ever??? Well I think so. I was afraid this day would NEVER get here! I was hoping to have it a little farther along but it’s going to take more time than I thought, so here’s what it looks like right now.
There will be a little covered front porch, just 30″ deep. And hopefully some gingerbread trim at the roof peak, but I’m having some trouble with that.
I posted the picture to Facebook and it got more comments than any other post of mine! Everyone was very complimentary. I think a lot of them seemed surprised; they probably thought I was building some boring little box. Hah! I asked for name suggestions and got some good ones, but decided to go with one I’ve had in the back of my mind for a couple years: The Snuggery. It means a snug, cozy, comfortable place.
I thought it a good time to show the costs of the completed shell. Naturally it came to more than I thought it would, because I had to hire more labor than I ever imagined. I thought it would cost about $2000 in materials, but that was actually $500 too high!I am pretty sure this is accurate, because I recorded every box of nails, every paintbrush, etc. I did not include the costs of tools purchased.
Locally you can buy an 8×12 storage shed with the same number windows and a house-type door for about the same price but it would have a very shallow roof angle, no roof & soffit ventilation, and it would be just a plain square box, it would have no interesting architectural details like mine does. Who wants to live in a plain box?! Not me. So. Let us hear no more helpful suggestions about “Gee maybe you should have kept the purple shed”. Look at this house, and go back and look at the purple shed below. (Jan. 2018 post) Yeah, it’s kinda cute, but there’s just NO COMPARISON!! Let us hear no more about the purple shed.
It took a terribly long time to get the siding done; a job that should have taken maybe 3 days. The guys I hired have zero work ethic, and no communication skills. They’d say they were coming the next day, then never show up and not call or text, either. I really think there’s some substance abuse problem going on there. When they did show up, it would be usually 10:30-11:00 and they’d only work til 2:30. Then Tyler got a piece of wood in his eye and lost a few days, then the 35-40 mph winds returned, blah blah blah. So the siding job dragged out for more than two weeks. I was SO anxious to get it done and painted so I could show it off, I nearly lost my mind. It’s close to being done on the outside, but there’s still more work to do and I worry that Tyler will never show up again, because the two trickiest places to fit are still not done.
I guess the question that’s on everyone’s mind now is “when will I move in?” Well, I’ll move in as soon as it’s more comfortable than living in the camper. Technically I guess that would be once it’s insulated. But before it’s insulated I have to run the 12V wiring and the plumbing drain lines. I’m thinking about taking a shortcut though. I plan to use foam insulation, and I need to get 2″ and 1.5″ sheets in order to fill the cavities between the 2×4 wall studs. That’ll cost around $500 and I don’t have that, so in order to speed things up, I’m thinking I could buy the 1.5″ thick sheets ($220) and install them. That would leave space for the wiring and plumbing lines plus the 2″ thick sheets later on, and maybe it would be enough insulation to make the house comfortable enough to move into! So far the house is very energy-efficient. Since we got the door on, I’ve been checking and the temp inside the camper has been 88-89 but inside the house, only 80. I want to move in NOW! (I hate heat)
I’d have to jerry-rig a kitchen counter and build some kind of temporary bed but that’s OK. I have a portable 2-burner propane cooktop with oven, a dorm-size 1.9 cu. ft. propane fridge, and a nice Kohler cast iron kitchen sink. I’m not sure how complicated it is to hook up a propane fridge, but I do know that the RV place charges around $200 to do it (including the cost of coming out here). So I guess I’d have to continue using the ice chest for awhile longer, but it could be INSIDE the house! Wow, now THAT would be real luxury, not to have to go outside to get food! I’m sure ice would last much longer if it was in the house too, not sitting out in the heat. And I could have my comfortable chair, and even the TV, for watching DVD’s! Wow. I’m getting all googly-eyed.
I admit that the weather here is really crappy. If it’s not too hot or too cold, it’s too windy or snowy. Oh and did I mention we had quarter-sized hail the other day? I can’t comment on the monsoon weather because I haven’t experienced it yet, but just the word “monsoon” doesn’t bring pleasant images to mind. BUT to make up for it, we don’t have mosquitoes, ticks, or other biting insects; no rattlesnakes, tarantulas or scorpions. I have just discovered there is a very annoying insect though. I guess last year I left for the higher elevations before they emerged…..Face Flies! They are about half the size of a house fly and at first I thought they were baby house flies that were too stupid to know where to go. They don’t bite but they want to suck the moisture from eyes and noses. So they get right in your face and just won’t quit. Aarrrgh!! They live around cattle, and this is free range territory. You can’t eradicate them because they lay their eggs in cow manure in pastures. And I’ve not found any repellents that work against flies. I really hate them!
Good news from the doctor’s office Thursday though! Remember three months ago I finished up the Supartz injections of artificial joint fluid, and then the following week I had PRP (Platelet-Rich Plasma) injections in both knees. Well yesterday he had me swing my legs back and forth slowly while he held my kneecap, and…..hardly any grinding and crunching!! (It’s officially called crepitus) So one or both of the procedures worked! My knees never hurt any more but I’m still wearing the braces any time I’m going to be on my feet for very long, and they also help a lot. But….sweet success! And I’m up to 41# of weight lost. Yay. Every pound of excess weight is about 4# of pressure on the knees, so that’s a whopping 164# of pressure relief! If you are wondering what diet I’m on, I’m not really on any specific one. I’m not just trying to lose weight, at the same time I’m trying to reverse my diabetes, so I have to take that into consideration. I’ve greatly reduced my carbs. My diet is simple…..if it tastes good, spit it out.
Yahoo! It’s looking more and more like a house! I can’t tell you how excited I am about Move In Day, which realistically is still quite a ways off. Once it’s sided, I still have to block in the eaves and install the vents in the eaves; Do all the 12 volt wiring (and a tiny bit of 110V wiring from the inverter to the kitchen, for a crock put and a few other plug-ins), plumb the drains for kitchen sink and shower, and insulate. THEN I could move in. But there’s definitely a light at the end of the tunnel now. Yesterday Tyler met me at Lowes and we got the siding, door and a bunch of odds & ends like z-flashing, drip edge, paint and some materials for my front porch foundation. Cost—a little over $500! Just the material for the trim was $120!! Yikes. I hadn’t really budgeted for all those little side expenses. The loan I just got was supposed to cover siding materials, insulation and Tyler’s labor. I hope I have enough left over to be able to buy the insulation later.
Yesterday I worked on framing for the octagonal window that goes in the back gable end. An octagonal window, what a dumb idea! I never thought about having to make a 2×4 frame for it. But I’ve finally got the angles all figured out, just struggling with my saw to cut the pieces. My circular saw has lost a bolt that keeps the saw at right angles to the base plate and it’s really infuriating. I can order a new bolt from Dewalt for $10…..a $10 bolt for a saw I paid $30 for on ebay! I wonder if I could find something that would work at Lowes or Home Depot. Right now I’ve got Gorilla tape holding it together.
This is the back of the house.
It’s heating up here; up into the high 80’s and even low 90’s. I just don’t do well at all when the temps are over 80. But it’s heavenly around 6 pm when it starts to cool off, and we have the BEST evenings and nights! It always cools down to around 60 at night, no matter how hot it was during the day. In fact I just quit using nighttime heat 3 days ago! The lows have been around 50, so I had been getting up in the wee hours and turning on the heat to take the chill off. It warms fairly quickly once the sun comes up, which is VERY early here. Since we don’t do Daylight Savings Time and I’m on the extreme Eastern side of the time zone, it’s light by 4:30 a.m. Too bad I’m not able to roust myself out of bed then and get to work while it’s still cool. But no, I just roll over and go back to sleep for another hour.
Yesterday afternoon was had an amazing storm….lightning, thunder, heavy rain, wind and quarter-sized hail! It sounded like rifle shots on the camper roof, and Princess Roxie was VERY unhappy. She hates thunder. So I brought her up on the bed and put down some tee shirts that she could burrow into. That’s the ONLY time she will consent to be on the bed; when she’s terrified. I was kinda hoping my car would get hail damage and I could get an insurance payout, but I checked and it’s fine. Darn!
Tyler brought me a quart of goat’s milk so I made yogurt yesterday, but I’m afraid to try it. I didn’t like how it smelled…..not like it wasn’t fresh, but just…..weird. I really wanted to make Greek yogurt but I found out that goat’s milk makes really thin yogurt, more like drinkable rather than spoonable. I’m afraid if I try to strain it, it will all go right through the cheesecloth.
Something odd has happened that I hadn’t even thought of. Sure, losing weight is all fun and games until somebody outgrows their knee braces. Yes, mine are too big! I’m going to have to shell out another $80 to get smaller ones. Not happy. Also, I thought I could wear my too-big shorts for working around the place but I’ve discovered that if I put my phone or a tape measure in my pocket, it drags them down and I look like a very large version of those baggy-pantsed boys whose pants are always about to fall down. And I don’t have any interesting boxer shorts under them to show off, either. Just ol’ granny panties, and for sure nobody wants to see those.
My roof is now 99% complete! It just lacks a bit of shingle trimming, and I told Tyler to hold off on doing that until it’s less windy. He is afraid of heights and the house sways a LOT in the nearly 40 mph winds we’ve been having. Adding the siding should stop the sway, so it will be much easier for him to trim the shingles once that is done. He did a great job on the roof framing but I am not happy with the shingling job at all. I’m trying to just “let it go”. Thankfully you can only see the roof from a small area of the road and a small area of the driveway. Basically they installed them wrong. I thought it sounded wrong but I’ve never worked with architectural shingles before, and he sounded SO sure about what he was doing! In addition to overlapping the shingle rows, which of course you’re supposed to do, he also overlapped the sides of the shingles, which you are definitely not supposed to do. It resulted in a lumpy-looking roof with the shingle pattern all messed up. I did make him add some roofing tar under the shingles that were sticking up, so hopefully our high winds won’t catch and rip them.
I have asked Tyler to help me with the siding too, so I have been studying exactly how to do it, so we won’t screw that up. We are going to Lowes to pick up the siding soon. We were all ready to go on Tuesday morning but in the middle of the night Monday, his friend and business partner (also named Tyler) and his dad were involved in a domestic dispute, were both shot by their brother/son and airlifted to Phoenix, so my Tyler had to take a couple days off to help the family. Here’s the news story, if you’re interested: http://www.fox10phoenix.com/news/arizona-news/show-low-police-searching-for-armed-shooting-suspect
I’m hoping to hear from Tyler soon on when we can start back on construction. Frankly I was more than ready to take a little break; 70 year old me trying to keep up with a wiry 30 year old carpenter was taking its toll on me! I didn’t cook or do dishes for 4 straight days; I’d just come in and collapse on the bed, usually ready for sleep by 8 pm. Obviously, he works at a MUCH faster pace than I. I was the go-fer, bringing shingles, nails and other supplies to them up on the roof; picking up trash, etc. while also measuring and cutting the short studs that fill in the gable ends. Every time I’d take shingles up on the ladder to them, when they would take the shingles from me, a bunch of those little shingle granules would fall in my hair. Nice. I’ve washed my hair twice since then and I’m still finding those little granules in my hair!
Here’s one of the gable end studs:
The short studs that go in the gable ends are tricky little monsters; they need to be angled to meet the roof pitch plus have a notch cut out to fit behind the 2×6’s that form the gable roof, so I’ll have something to nail to on the outside and the inside. And following the roof rise, every one needs to be a different length. Finicky work, not my favorite. I’d be working more on that right now except that Tyler folded up the big ladder. When I thought I was going to have to build the roof myself, I bought one of those big multi-position ladders that makes a 20′ extension ladder, 9.5′ stepladder or a 3′ high scaffold. It never occurred to me that it might be too heavy for me to lift! It weighs 40#!! I guess that wouldn’t be so bad, but it’s big and awkward to boot. It sure has come in handy though, all I have besides that is an 8′ extension ladder and 6′ stepladder. They never would have been able to build the roof using those.
Hey did you know that if you fall down while wearing two knee braces, you can’t get back up? Huh, neither did I, until the other day. I was getting some groceries out of the car and stepped on a rock and fell backwards onto my back. Every time I tried putting my hand down to push myself up, it landed on pickers. Ow. It seems the braces don’t let me bend my knees enough to be able to get up on my knees. I really did need a Life-Alert!! I felt like a turtle unable to right itself. Finally I gave up and hollered for Jeff, and he came and hoisted me back up. Sheesh.
The weather’s heating up!! Temps are now in the mid to upper 80’s. Ugh…time to get this house enclosed!!! |
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abstract: 'We present a new reconstruction of the mass density and the peculiar velocity fields in the nearby universe using recent measurements of Tully-Fisher distances for a sample of late spirals. We find significant differences between our reconstructed fields and those obtained in earlier work: overdensities tend to be more compact while underdense regions, consisting of individual voids, are more abundant. Our results suggest that voids observed in redshift surveys of galaxies represent real voids in the underlying matter distribution. While we detect a bulk velocity of $\sim$ 300 , within a top-hat window 6000 in radius, the flow is less coherent than previously claimed, exhibiting a bifurcation towards the Perseus-Pisces and the Great Attractor complexes. This is the first time that this feature is seen from peculiar velocity measurements. The observed velocity field resembles, more closely than any previous reconstruction, the velocity field predicted from self-consistent reconstructions based on all-sky redshift surveys. This better match is likely to affect estimates of the parameter $\beta = \Omega^{0.6}/b$ and its uncertainty based on velocity-velocity comparisons.'
author:
- 'Luiz N. da Costa'
- Wolfram Freudling
- Gary Wegner
- 'Riccardo Giovanelli, Martha P. Haynes'
- 'John J. Salzer'
title: The Mass Distribution in the Nearby Universe
---
50[W$_{50}$ ]{} \#1
Introduction
============
Fluctuations in the mass distribution on intermediate scales can be probed by peculiar velocity measurements, by measurements of anisotropies in the cosmic background radiation at the 1scale and by distortions of galaxy images induced by weak field lensing. Despite several pitfalls, the peculiar motion approach still remains the most direct and the easiest to interpret, provided that large–scale structures grow gravitationally and fluctuations in the mass distribution induce the observed peculiar velocities of galaxies. Mapping the peculiar velocity field can thus provide information useful to constrain the mass power–spectrum, the relation between the galaxy and matter distributions, and the value of the cosmological density parameter $\Omega$ on large scales.
In recent years, considerable effort has been made to understand the nature of the peculiar velocity field and the determination of the parameter $\beta = \Omega^{0.6} /b $, where $b$ is the linear biasing parameter. Measurements of $\beta$ have been attempted either from the comparison of the observed fluctuations in the galaxy distribution with those obtained from dynamical studies or from the direct comparison of the measured peculiar velocity field to that predicted from dynamically self-consistent reconstruction of the density field from all–sky redshift surveys (for a review see Dekel 1994). These estimates based on peculiar velocity measurements have generally led to higher values than those obtained on small scales by other methods (Strauss & Willick 1995). The reason for this inconsistency remains an open question.
Until recently, most of the work was based on compilations of distance measurements by different authors which were sparse, inhomogeneous and probed a shallow volume in a non-uniform way (Bertschinger 1990, Dekel 1994). Although several new peculiar velocity surveys have been carried out (Willick 1990, Courteau 1993, Mathewson, Ford & Buchhorn 1992b, Wegner 1996), none covers the whole sky uniformly. Efforts to homogenize the existing datasets are currently underway (Willick 1996) but error estimates for the distances of individual galaxies are likely to continue to be uncertain. This directly affects the estimation of the bias which might, in the case of the inhomogeneous Malmquist bias correction, lead to spurious detection of density fluctuations.
The need for a sample with uniform sky coverage and homogeneous measurements has prompted us to carry out an independent redshift-distance survey of Sbc-Sc galaxies, based on I-band Tully-Fisher (TF) distances, covering essentially the whole sky (dec $\ge$ -45and $|b| \ge$ 10). The sample has well-defined selection criteria and new measurements were carried out in order to assure the homogeneity of the data. This data set was complemented with galaxies drawn from Mathewson, Ford & Buchhorn (1992b, MFB), appropriately converted to our magnitude and width scale, yielding a combined sample of about 1300 field galaxies (hereafter SFI sample) and 500 galaxies in clusters. Details on sample selection and the procedure adopted to combine the two datasets can be found in Giovanelli (1994, 1995a,b). Here, we present a summary of the results of a reconstruction of the three-dimensional velocity and density fields obtained from the SFI sample. We use the 3D reconstruction method primarily to illustrate the nature of the sample as compared to those currently available. A more quantitative analysis will be the subject of future papers. In section 2, we briefly describe the reconstruction method and discuss the approach used to correct for the various biases that affect the distance estimates. Our main results are presented in section 3, while in section 4 we summarize our conclusions.
Analysis of the SFI Sample
==========================
Distances of galaxies were estimated using the direct I-band TF relation derived from the combination of data for 24 clusters (Giovanelli 1996 a,b). However, errors in the distance measurements lead to biases which directly affect the peculiar velocity field and thus the derived density field. The biases result from the coupling of uncertainties in the distance estimate with inhomogeneities in the galaxy distribution, and the selection of the sample. The latter is particularly important for the Sc sample because the adopted redshift-dependent selection criteria (Giovanelli 1994) implies that near each redshift limit outflowing galaxies are preferentially excluded from the sample. This effect becomes dominant at large distances leading to a spurious systematic infall of galaxies at the outer edge of the surveyed volume. In order to deal with this problem we have resorted to a numerical approach to estimate the bias field at each point in estimated distance space (Freudling 1995). The method, which is based on mock catalogs with characteristics similar to the data, allows for the simultaneous correction of the homogeneous and inhomogeneous Malmquist bias, and biases introduced by selection effects. The mock catalogs are generated from the distribution of optically-selected galaxies in real space. This distribution was obtained using an iterative method of reconstructing a dynamically self-consistent distribution of galaxies from all-sky redshift surveys (sample) using a quasi-linear theory (Freudling, da Costa & Pellegrini 1994).
The bias correction is sensitive to the value adopted for the scatter in distance estimates. Attempts to use the scatter as determined for the TF relation of galaxies in clusters led to an overcorrection of the velocity field. In order to overcome this problem we have also used the mock catalogs to determine the scatter in the distance estimates of field galaxies, taking advantage of the homogeneity of the sample. This was done by comparing the observed radial peculiar velocities at large distances with those of mock catalogs, since these velocities are primarily produced by biases which depend on the assumed scatter. The scatter of the mock samples was adjusted so that the radial variation of the peculiar velocities at large distances in the mock catalog match the observations. The derived scatter of $\lsim 0.4$ mag depends on the HI line-width, and is in any case smaller than that obtained for galaxies in clusters (Giovanelli 1996a). A more extensive discussion of the motivation and the details for the adopted procedure will be presented in da Costa (1996).
Distances were calculated from the TF relation and the radial component of the peculiar velocity $u = cz_{CMB} -d_c$, where $d_c$ is the “fully” corrected distance estimate. Galaxies in clusters were assigned to a single object. A small fraction of galaxies ($\sim$ 6%) with small line widths ($\log w <2.25$) were discarded because of the large fractional errors in the measurement of their widths. The final input sample used in the reconstruction of the density field consists of 1234 independent points.
The computed distances and peculiar velocities are the input data to reconstruct the density and three-dimensional peculiar velocity fields. For the reconstruction, we use the standard assumption of irrotational flow which allows calculation of the scalar velocity potential field from the integral along radial paths of the line-of-sight component of the peculiar velocity. Our algorithm is similar to that discussed by Dekel, Bertschinger & Faber (1990). We adopt a grid in spherical coordinates of 20 equal shells out to a maximum radius of 7500 and 64 latitude and longitude circles. The measured radial peculiar velocities were smoothed using a Gaussian tensor window with a fixed smoothing scale of $R_w$ = 900 . Our methodology was extensively tested using mock catalogs with the same number of objects and selection criteria as the data, which were also used to determine the uncertainties in the reconstruction (da Costa 1996).
Results
=======
The reconstructed density fluctuation field $\delta$ along the Supergalactic plane on a cubic grid of spacing 500 for a fully corrected model is displayed in figure 1, where we show in the top plane density contours in $\delta= 0.2$ intervals, in the middle plane surface density maps with the contour level proportional to the density contrast $\delta$ and in the bottom plane density contrast maps. We use a Cartesian supergalactic coordinate system with SGX-axis pointing to $L=0$and the SGY-axis pointing nearly to the North Galactic Pole.
>From a visual inspection of the map one can recognize some well-known structures in the nearby volume such as the Great Attractor (GA, SGX $\sim$ -2000 , SGY $\sim$ -500 ), the Perseus-Pisces (PP) complex (SGX $\sim$ 6000 , SGY $\sim$ -1000 ) and the large void (SGX $\sim$ 2500 , SGY $\sim$ 0 ) between the GA and the PP. We can also see traces of the Coma/A1367 supercluster along SGY $\sim$ 7000 , and the Cetus region (SGX $\sim$ 500 , SGY $\sim$ -6000 ). These structures are located roughly at the same position as in the reconstructed density field (Strauss & Willick 1995)
In comparison to earlier work (Dekel 1994), better sampling of the northern hemisphere apparently leads to significant differences in the density field especially in the region not covered by MFB. Some important differences can be seen: 1) in the foreground of the Coma/A1367 supercluster, where now a large void is detected; 2) in the PP region, which appears as a compact high density peak; and 3) in the Great Attractor region, which looks less prominent. Examination of the reconstructed density field in three-dimensions also suggests that the GA consists of different sub-structures, much in the way seen in redshift surveys (Willmer 1995).
A striking feature of our reconstructed density field is the existence of several voids surrounded by tenuous structures. Among them is the nearby void separated from the voids in the foreground of the Coma/A1367 supercluster by a small amplitude coherent structure, which we identify as the Local Supercluster. It is, as expected, much less prominent than other structures within the volume. Other prominent voids are the void behind the GA (SGX $\sim$ -6500 , SGY $\sim$ 1500 ) and the Sculptor void (SGX $\sim$ -2000 , SGY $\sim$ -6000 ). Both voids have been detected in galaxy redshift maps (da Costa 1988, Geller & Huchra 1989) but are now seen in the mass distribution with density contrasts reaching $\delta \lsim -0.6$, as indicated by the contours in the top plane.
Several other positive and negative fluctuations are seen near the outer edge of our survey volume. Comparison with the and [*IRAS*]{} density fields indicate that most are likely to be real structures. However, it is important to emphasize that the error in the density field derived from mock catalogs, which is smaller than 0.2 within 5000 , grows rapidly with radius. At 6000 the error is estimated to be about 0.4, corresponding to two contour levels. Therefore, the amplitude and location of structures beyond 5000 are very poorly determined. This is also true for the Coma/A1367 and PP superclusters. However, although PP itself is poorly mapped, its influence in the velocity field extends over a large volume and into the region where the errors are small and the results insensitive to the details of the inhomogeneous bias correction.
The density field reconstructed with the SFI sample is characterized by overdensities which are compact and underdensities which are large, have regular shape and have a high density contrast. This is in marked contrast to earlier reconstructions. Our results suggest the existence of real voids in the matter distribution, qualitatively similar to those observed in galaxy redshift surveys (da Costa 1994). This supports the contention that galaxies delineate real voids in the underlying matter distribution which may impose severe constraints in the amplitude of the mass power-spectrum (Piran 1993).
In Figure 2, we show the velocity field along the Supergalactic plane superimposed to the density field shown in figure 1. This figure should be compared to a similar map presented by Dekel (1994). In contrast to Dekel’s result our velocity field is qualitatively similar to the predicted velocity field (Yahil 1988) showing a region where the flow bifurcates towards the GA and towards the PP complex. If true, this resolves a longstanding discrepancy between predicted and measured velocity fields. Moreover, an infall into PP is clearly observed while none is seen in Dekel’s (1994) reconstruction. This contrasts with the interpretation of Willick (1990) who claims that ‘the principle feature of the velocity field in the PP region is a coherent streaming towards the Local Group’. Willick’s smaller sky coverage of the PP region could well be the cause of this difference.
On the opposite side of the figure, we find that the GA is less important than originally believed. Instead of being responsible for most of the motion in the nearby volume, there is strong evidence that it is smaller and less massive than originally estimated by Lynden-Bell (1988). This is probably due to the larger surveyed volume and better sampling of the PP region. Note, in particular, that the amplitude of the backflow into the GA is small. Instead, the flow field in the upper left hand side of Figure 2 could be explained by a mass concentration beyond the survey volume pulling the GA. This would explain the lack of an unambiguous signature for backside infall in the survey of Burstein, Faber & Dressler (1990). Finally, the volume-weighted bulk velocity as measured within a top-hat window 6000 in radius is about 300 in the direction $L \sim$ 160 and $B
\sim $ -20, where $L$ and $B$ are the supergalactic coordinates. These values are very close to those reported by Dekel (1994). However, the flow shows an overall shear unlike the coherence suggested by Mathewson, Ford and Buchhorn (1992a) and Courteau (1993).
There are several possible explanations for the observed differences between the results of our reconstruction and those of earlier work (Dekel 1994). The uniform sampling over the sky and depth is certainly a major factor, as pointed out above. Differences in the assumed scatter properties and methods for inhomogeneous Malmquist bias correction could also contribute to the position-dependent differences observed. Differences in the relative zero-points between different data sets in the sample used by Dekel (1994) could be another reason for the observed discrepancies. A detailed comparison of the two datasets will be required to better understand the reason for the discrepancies.
Conclusions
===========
The picture that emerges from our reconstruction brings together the somewhat fragmentary view previously held. The main results may be summarized as follows:
1- The positive fluctuations of the matter density field tend to be more compact while well-defined voids are more abundant than those obtained in previous reconstructions.
2- Comparison with redshift maps suggests that galaxies delineate real voids in the mass distribution. These voids tend to be separated by relative low-density structures which correspond to the filamentary and wall–like structures observed in the galaxy distribution.
3- The GA is significantly less prominent than previously claimed. There is also some indication for sub–structures.
4- An outside mass concentration may be pulling the GA. This induced motion overshadows the backflow and explains the lack of convincing evidence of such a flow.
5- The PP supercluster makes a significant contribution to the flow in its neighborhood leading to an infall into the supercluster seen for the first time from peculiar velocity measurements.
6- The measured mean bulk velocity within a top-hat window of 6000 is about 300 . The flow shows an overall shear which may be consistent with the existence of a mass concentration outside the observed volume.
Our results should affect conclusions drawn earlier regarding the value of $\beta$, or at least the accuracy with which it can be determined, because of the better agreement between the velocity fields reconstructed from peculiar velocity measurements and from the galaxy distribution. The results may also affect the conclusions regarding the biasing of galaxies relative to the mass and the mass power-spectrum. These topics will be pursued in more detail in future papers.
We would like to thank A. Dekel for many useful discussions and to the anonymous referee for his constructive comments. LNdC would like to thank the hospitality of the Institute d’Astrophysique and the Hebrew University where part of this work was carried out. GW thanks for the hospitality of the European Southern Observatory, NSF Grant AST93-47714 and the Alexander von Humboldt foundation for partial support. We acknowledge the financial support from U.S. National Science Foundation grants AST94–20505 to RG, AST92–18038 and AST90–23450 to MPH and from the Research Corporation to JJS. The results presented in this paper are based on observations carried out at the European Southern Observatory (ESO), the National Astronomy and Ionosphere Center (NAIC), the National Radio Astronomy Observatory (NRAO), the Kitt Peak National Observatory (KPNO), the Cerro Tololo Interamerican Observatory (CTIO), the Observatory of Paris at Nançay and the Michigan–Dartmouth–MIT Observatory (MDM). NAIC, NRAO, KPNO and CTIO are respectively operated by Cornell University, Associated Universities, inc., and Associated Universities for Research in Astronomy, all under cooperative agreements with the National Science Foundation.
Bertschinger, E., Dekel, A., Faber, S. M., Dressler. A. & Burstein, D. 1990, 364, 370. Courteau, S., Faber, S.M., Dressler, A. and Willick, J.A. 1993, 412 L51. Burstein, D., Faber, S. M. & Dressler, A. 354, 18 da Costa, L.N., Pellegrini, P.S., Sargent,W.L.W., Tonry, J., Davis, M., Meiksin, A., Latham, L., Menzies, J. & Coulson, I., 1988, ApJ 327, 544 da Costa, L.N., Geller, M.J., Pellegrini, P.S., Latham, D.W., Fairall, A.P., Marzke, R.O., Willmer, C.N.A., Huchra, J.P., Calderon, J.H., Ramella, M., & Kurtz, J. 1994, ApJ 424, L1 da Costa 1996, in preparation Dekel, A., Bertschinger, E. & Faber, S. M. 1990, 364, 349 Dekel, A. 1994, 32, 371 in the Universe, ed. V. Rubin & G. V. Coyne (Princeton: Princeton Univ. Press), 116 Freudling, W., da Costa, L. N. & Pellegrini, P. S. 1994, 268, 943 Freudling, W., da Costa, L. N., Wegner, G., Giovanelli, R, Haynes, M. P. & Salzer, J.J. 1995, 110, 920 Geller, M.G. & Huchra, J.P. 1989, Science 246, 897 Giovanelli, R., Haynes, M.P., Salzer, J.J., Wegner, G., da Costa, L.N. & Freudling, W. 1994, 107, 2036 Giovanelli, R., Haynes, M.P., Salzer, J.J., Wegner, G., da Costa, L.N. & Freudling, W. 1995a, 110, 1059 Giovanelli, R., Haynes, M.P., Chamaraux, P., da Costa, L.N., Freudling, W., Salzer, J.J. & Wegner, G. 1995b, in [*Examining the Big Bang and Diffuse Background Radiations*]{}, proc. of IAU Symp. nr. 168, ed. by M. Kafatos, p. 183 Giovanelli 1996a, in preparation Giovanelli 1996b, in preparation Lynden-Bell, D. Faber, S.M., Burstein, D., Davies, R.L., Dressler, A. Terlevick, R.J. & Wegner, G. 1988, 326, 19 Mathewson, D.S., Ford, V.L. & Buchhorn, M. 1992a 389, L5 Mathewson, D.S., Ford, V.L. & Buchhorn, M. 1992b 81, 413 Piran, T., Lecar, M., Goldwirth, D., da Costa, L. & Blumenthal, G. 1993, MNRAS 265, 681 Strauss, M. & Willick, J. A. 1995, Physics Report 261, 271 Wegner, G., Colless, M., Baggley, G., Davies, R.L., Bertschinger, E., Burstein, D., McMahan Jr., R.K. & Saglia, R.P. 1996, preprint. Willick, J. A. 1990, 351, L5 Willick, J., Courteau, S., Faber, S. M., Burstein, D., Dekel, A. & Kollat, T. 1996, ApJ, 457, 460 Willmer, C.N.A., da Costa, L.N., Pellegrini, P.S., Fairall, A. & Latham, D. 1995, 109, 61 Yahil, A. 1988, in Large-Scale Sructuture of the Universe,ed. V.C. Rubin G.V. Coyne (Princeton: Princeton University Press) p. 219
[**Figure Captions**]{}
|
Don't Starve: Giant Edition - Xbox Enthusiast
Don't Starve: Giant Edition is available now on Xbox One. Luke Lohr over at Xbox Enthusiast praises the art style and level design, but is concerned over the difficulty. The Don't Starve: Giant Edition review is live on Xbox Enthusiast. |
Two men found dead in Mulga may have been killed as they tried to escape while being taken to a vacant house, Jefferson County Sheriff's Chief Deputy Randy Christian said.
The men were found today in the 300 block of First Avenue in Mulga. They appeared to suffer gunshot wounds, Christian said.
The victims had no identification on them, he said, and their deaths are being investigated as a double homicide.
A motive is unknown, Christian said.
One body was found next to a house and one was found in a road near a house, according to Christian. Anyone with information has been asked to call the sheriffs office at 325-1450 or Crimestoppers at 254-7777. |
Q:
How to make in CSS an overlay over an image?
I am trying to achieve something like this:
When I hover over an image, I would like to put on that image this dark color with some text and the icon.
I am stuck here. I found some tutorials but they didn't work out for this case.
Also, another issue -- every image has a different height. The width is always the same.
How can this effect be achieved?
A:
You can achieve this with this simple CSS/HTML:
.image-container {
position: relative;
width: 200px;
height: 300px;
}
.image-container .after {
position: absolute;
top: 0;
left: 0;
width: 100%;
height: 100%;
display: none;
color: #FFF;
}
.image-container:hover .after {
display: block;
background: rgba(0, 0, 0, .6);
}
HTML
<div class="image-container">
<img src="http://lorempixel.com/300/200" />
<div class="after">This is some content</div>
</div>
Demo: http://jsfiddle.net/6Mt3Q/
UPD: Here is one nice final demo with some extra stylings.
.image-container {
position: relative;
display: inline-block;
}
.image-container img {display: block;}
.image-container .after {
position: absolute;
top: 0;
left: 0;
width: 100%;
height: 100%;
display: none;
color: #FFF;
}
.image-container:hover .after {
display: block;
background: rgba(0, 0, 0, .6);
}
.image-container .after .content {
position: absolute;
bottom: 0;
font-family: Arial;
text-align: center;
width: 100%;
box-sizing: border-box;
padding: 5px;
}
.image-container .after .zoom {
color: #DDD;
font-size: 48px;
position: absolute;
top: 50%;
left: 50%;
margin: -30px 0 0 -19px;
height: 50px;
width: 45px;
cursor: pointer;
}
.image-container .after .zoom:hover {
color: #FFF;
}
<link href="//netdna.bootstrapcdn.com/font-awesome/4.0.3/css/font-awesome.min.css" rel="stylesheet"/>
<div class="image-container">
<img src="http://lorempixel.com/300/180" />
<div class="after">
<span class="content">This is some content. It can be long and span several lines.</span>
<span class="zoom">
<i class="fa fa-search"></i>
</span>
</div>
</div>
A:
You could use a pseudo element for this, and have your image on a hover:
.image {
position: relative;
height: 300px;
width: 300px;
background: url(http://lorempixel.com/300/300);
}
.image:before {
content: "";
position: absolute;
top: 0;
left: 0;
height: 100%;
width: 100%;
transition: all 0.8s;
opacity: 0;
background: url(http://lorempixel.com/300/200);
background-size: 100% 100%;
}
.image:hover:before {
opacity: 0.8;
}
<div class="image"></div>
A:
A bit late for this, but this thread comes up in Google as a top result when searching for an overlay method.
You could simply use a background-blend-mode
.foo {
background-image: url(images/image1.png), url(images/image2.png);
background-color: violet;
background-blend-mode: screen multiply;
}
What this does is it takes the second image, and it blends it with the background colour by using the multiply blend mode, and then it blends the first image with the second image and the background colour by using the screen blend mode. There are 16 different blend modes that you could use to achieve any overlay.
multiply, screen, overlay, darken, lighten, color-dodge, color-burn, hard-light, soft-light, difference, exclusion, hue, saturation, color and luminosity.
|
Child Research Net (CRN) is a non-profit, Internet-based child research institute. We have designed CRN's English site to bring together people concerned about children and to offer a forum for innovative interdisciplinary discussion. Our vast network of professionals, researchers and educators around the world will bring you articles, reliable data and the latest research in English, mainly on Japanese children and youth that are not otherwise available.
Brief Report on a Survey of "First Time Parenting"
Japan is currently experiencing a declining birthrate. In 2005, total fertility rate fell to 1.26. The trend toward nuclear families is particularly strong in urban areas. The number of families made up of only couples and their children is increasing. Many husbands in their thirties, however, cannot share childrearing responsibilities because they are busy with work. For instance, a survey shows that 27% of men in their thirties average more than 60 hours of work a week1).
Benesse Corporation Inc. and Benesse Institute on Child Sciences, Parenting, and Aging (BICSPA) conducted a research survey with the specialists including Dr. Noboru Kobayashi, Director of Benesse Institute for the Child Sciences, Director of Child Research Net, Parenting, and Aging Inc., Professor Emeritus of the University of Tokyo, Dr. M. Sugawara, a psychologist at Ochanomizu University in November 2006. We sent questionnaires to 8,000 couples expecting their first child, or parents whose first child was 0 to 2 years old, and received 4,479 responses. The main research questions asked about the process of being parents-how husbands and wives become parents through their experiences of conception, birth of the first child, and childrearing. Based on this study, we would like to make some meaningful suggestions for the happy parenting and have selected some interesting data as follows. How is the childrearing environment in your society? We welcome your comments.
1. Process of the pregnancy
More than half of the 2,588 couples answered that conception occurred naturally without the use of family planning. 24.1% had planned the birth of their first child. 13.7% conceived as a result of the fertility treatment. The rate of conception by fertility treatment increases with the age of the women surveyed. For instance, one out of four women who were older than 35 years of age upon having their child conceived through fertility treatment.
The average marriage age is now increasing in Japan. It tends to become more difficult for women to conceive with increasing age and they give birth to fewer children. Due to the high cost of fertility treatment in Japan and insufficient public subsidies, couples who cannot afford the treatment must forego it. As a measure against the declining birthrate, I suggest it is necessary to pay more attention to the issues and conditions that affect couples before giving birth.
2. Work Life Balance of the families
Working mothers (424) and fathers (1,300) responded to 17 items regarding their work or workplace experience during the past month. The highest percentage of mothers (24.5%) and fathers (43.9%) answered that they are too busy to spend time with their children. The second highest concern of mothers was poor health due to overwork and childrearing. Although the survey asked about parenting as well as career and human relationships, both mothers and fathers feel the most distressed when they are unable to spend time with their children because of work. The result suggests that working parents today desire to have more time with their children. As I noted above, men in their thirties work long hours in Japan. Finding a balance between work and family life is important.
Under the Child-care Leave Law in Japan, both fathers and mothers with a child under the age of one can take child-care leave. According to the results of the survey, 81% of pregnant working women wanted to take the leave, and 34.6% of the fathers-to-be wanted to take the leave themselves.
However, only 1.0% of the fathers actually took the child-care leave. As for working mothers, 50.5% took the leave. Though the samples were different, there is a gap between needs and reality. In reality, 43.9% of the fathers answered that they did not take the child-care leave although their companies offered a system of child-care leave.
The survey focused on a variety of subjects regarding parenting and childrearing such as parental stress, marital relationships, etc. The data is now being analyzed, and a report will be published in this coming autumn 2007 from BICSPA. I would like to report the details on the CRN website again in autumn. Please feel free to send comments or questions. |
Q:
Сопоставление трёх списков
Имеется 3 списка:
a = [12, 12, 12, 12, 1, 1, 1]
b = [20, 21, 22, 23, 200, 201, 202]
c = ['04-04', '05-05', '06-06', '07-07', '008-008', '009-009', '100-100']
Требуется для уникального значения из a вывести сопоставление из b, c равное количеству повторений значений a, т.е.:
uid=12
20 04-04
21 05-05
22 06-06
23 07-07
uid=1
200 008-008
201 009-009
202 100-100
вывод уникальных значений из a:
for i in range(0, len(list(set(a)))):
print('uid=' + str(sorted(set(a), key=a.index)[i]))
>>> uid=12
>>> uid=1
количество повторяющихся элементов в a:
for i in range(0, len(list(set(a)))):
print(a.count(sorted(set(a), key=a.index)[i]))
>>> 4
>>> 1
сопоставление b и c:
x = []
for j, o in zip(b, c):
x.append(str(j) + ':' + o)
print(x)
>>> ['20:04-04', '21:05-05', '22:06-06', '23:07-07', '200:008-008', '201:009-009', '202:100-100']
Дальше ступор, как сопоставить ума не приложу
A:
При условии, что повторяющиеся элементы идут подряд и больше не встречаются:
from collections import Counter
a = [12, 12, 12, 12, 1, 1, 1]
b = [20, 21, 22, 23, 200, 201, 202]
c = ['04-04', '05-05', '06-06', '07-07', '008-008', '009-009', '100-100']
result = {}
start = 0
stop = 0
for key, value in Counter(a).items():
start = stop
stop = start + value
result[key] = list(zip(b[start:stop], c[start:stop]))
print(result)
A:
In [1]: a = [12, 12, 12, 12, 1, 1, 1]
...: b = [20, 21, 22, 23, 200, 201, 202]
...: c = ['04-04', '05-05', '06-06', '07-07', '008-008', '009-009', '100-100']
In [2]: result = {}
In [3]: for x, y, z in zip(a, b, c):
...: result.setdefault(x, []).append((y, z)) # Группируем
...:
In [4]: for key, values in result.items(): # Выводим
...: print(f"uid={key}")
...: for y, z in values:
...: print(f" - {y} {z}")
...:
Вывод:
uid=12
- 20 04-04
- 21 05-05
- 22 06-06
- 23 07-07
uid=1
- 200 008-008
- 201 009-009
- 202 100-100
|
1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a cooling system for an ocular infusion solution and, more particularly, to a cooling system including a detachable, reusable chilling cassette which receives, cools, and dispenses ocular infusion solution to a destination site.
2. Description of Related Art
The art of transporting an ocular infusion solution to the human eye is generally cognizant of pumps and heat exchangers which may be used together for anterior chamber perfusion. Representative prior art in the field of transporting an ocular infusion solution is included below.
A 1983 British Journal of Ophthalmology article, "Ocular Hypothermia: Anterior Chamber Perfusion" by May et al., discloses the application of a saline solution to a rabbit eye wherein a heat pump and a temperature controller are utilized.
U.S. Pat. No. 2,124,293 teaches the broad concept of using a temperature controller to regulate the temperature of an infused fluid. Similarly, U.S. Pat. No. 4,249,923 discloses a refrigeration and delivery system for chilling a cardioplegic fluid to a predetermined temperature. U.S. Pat. No. 4,929,134 discloses a thermoelectric chiller in a cardiac application. Lastly, U.S. Pat. No. 4,734,091 teaches a filtered manifold apparatus and method of ophthalmic irrigation.
The need for an improved cooling system for ocular infusion solutions still exists, particularly in view of new surgical techniques which may probe deeper into the eye and require several hours of operating time. Surgical advances now permit surgery in the vitreous (posterior) chamber to remove opacified vitreous humor or to repair retinal detachment. Such operations require significant time, e.g., one to three hours, and large volumes of irrigating solution, e.g., 100-1000 ml.
During eye surgery and, particularly, during surgery which requires extended periods of time, proper electrolytic balance alone is insufficient to retain normal corneal thickness. To maintain proper corneal thickness and prevent cell damage, an irrigating solution, in addition to electrolytic balance, must provide metabolic support.
Although several cooling systems for infusion solutions exist, the art is still without an inexpensive cooling system that is simple to operate, features the added convenience of a detachable, reusable heat exchanger element (i.e., chilling cassette), permits the evacuation of air bubbles from the ocular infusion solution as the solution is being cooled, and delivers the infusion solution to the irrigation site at a controlled and predetermined temperature. |
There has been proposed a case with a cover, for containing cosmetics or the like therein, in which a torsion bar is disposed at a hinge in an opening/closing mechanism, a resilient force is reserved by a twist applied to the torsion bar by a cover closing operation, and the cover is automatically opened by utilizing the release of the resilient force (see Patent Literature 1).
The case of this type adopts a structure in which grease is kept to be charged around the torsion bar, and therefore, since the grease charged around the torsion bar resists against (or interferes with) the release of the twist of the torsion bar when the cover is opened, the cover is slowly opened.
Besides the torsion bar, there has been known a case with a cover that is of the type opened by urging force of an urging member (see Patent Literature 2).
In such a case, a fixed side member and a turn side member are disposed at a case body and the cover, respectively. Blades are disposed at a tip of the fixed side member: in the meantime, gel is charged with the turn side member. Thus, the fixed side member is configured in such a manner as to be inserted into the turn side member. As a consequence, the blades agitate the gel to resist against (or interfere with) the gel when the cover is opened, so that the cover is slowly opened in the same manner. Patent Literature 1: Japanese Laid-Open Patent Publication No. H5-84115 Patent Literature 2: Japanese Laid-Open Patent Publication No. H6-48517 |
Q:
linux - disable all video output
I have a server I would like to disable the video output entirely on to save any memory unless I have a severe issue I need to be physically in front of it. The server does not have a graphical environment installed, but it does have 7 virtual terminals or consoles.
I have disabled them in /etc/inittab, but I still get whatever video output was generated from boot and log messages. Can I simply unload a video output somewhere, if so, how?
A:
Actually, the answer I was looking for was to modularize the framebuffer support. Once that is a module, you can enable/disable it and then you no longer have any video.
I already use the console setting above, but I was looking to completely disable the video.
|
Inhibitory effects of gossypol on corticosteroid 11-beta-hydroxysteroid dehydrogenase from guinea pig kidney: a possible mechanism for causing hypokalemia.
Inhibition of 11-beta-hydroxysteroid dehydrogenase (11-beta-OHSD) in the kidney can cause excess mineralocorticoid effect and hypokalemia. To find out if gossypol, a potential oral contraceptive for men that has been associated with cases of hypokalemia, inhibits this enzyme, its effect on guinea pig kidney was studied. Working with microsomes from the kidney cortex, and using corticosterone as the substrate, racemic gossypol was found to be a competitive inhibitor of 11-beta-OHSD with a Ki of 67 +/- 5 microM. The (+) enantiomer was a little more potent than the (-) enantiomer. Microsomes from the kidneys of animals given gossypol for 2 weeks had lower enzyme activities than saline-treated animals. Microsomes from a strain of hairless guinea pigs had lower intrinsic enzyme activity than the normal animals. We conclude that there is genetic variation in the activity of this enzyme and that it can be inhibited by gossypol. |
Schenectady
It was a quick snap of his fingers by a movie patron who hoped to get a group of unruly youngsters to calm down so he and his daughters and a friend could enjoy the action flick "White House Down."
But that gesture by a Glenville man on June 29 at the Bow Tie cinemas resulted in him getting and jumped and beaten by at least eight people. Some of them now face felony charges.
The 46-year-old victim, whose identity was not released by the district attorney's office, suffered a concussion, a broken nose and an eye injury that is causing vision problems.
"The concussion has caused him headaches, memory loss, and difficulty in his day-to-day work," Assistant District Attorney William Sanderson said Monday.
(Editor's note: Discuss this story in Crime Confidential.)
He said the man snapped his finger once, "to kind of indicate 'knock it off'" but didn't say anything to the group of mostly males, ages 16 to 20, who ran up and down the aisle yelling and banging a plastic garbage can near the entrance to the theater.
As the credits rolled at the end of the movie, one of the young men accosted the victim from behind, punching him in the head, Sanderson said. A second male did the same thing, he said.
After the second punch, the man stood and blocked the third punch before the whole group attacked him, the prosecutor said.
They knocked the man to the ground, repeatedly punched and kicked him and dragged him on his knees, Sanderson said. When one of the victim's 15-year-old twin daughters tried to help her father, she also was hit. One of the assailants ran off with her cellphone.
It's unclear how long the assault lasted, but no one inside the theater tried to help the victim, Sanderson said.
Within minutes, police responded and nabbed Dashawn Harrison, 17, of Schenectady, at the scene and stopped others who matched the description provided by eyewitnesses. The man's daughters recognized some of the assailants from school, Sanderson said.
Harrison is scheduled to be arraigned Wednesday on assault and gang assault charges, the prosecutor said.
More Information See More Collapse
On Friday, an indictment was unsealed against Tyrell Bell, 18, of Schenectady, and Jonas Jeannot, 16, of Niskayuna, charging them with the same offenses as Harrison. Jeannot also is charged with third-degree assault for allegedly punching the victim's teenage daughter.
There is no indication that any of the assailants were drunk or are affiliated with any gang, Sanderson said. They have not been arrested previously, but face up to 25 years if convicted of the assault charges.
Sanderson said he is not aware of any security at the theater except for employees who periodically check for any problems.
Officials at Bow Tie Cinemas could not immediately be reached for comment, but Sanderson said the theater is normally a safe place.
"I haven't heard or seen anything unusual there," Sanderson said. "It was young men out of control and something that escalated way beyond anything remotely reasonable."
On Monday, the victim declined comment through the district attorney's office.
Sanderson credited outstanding police work by Schenectady Detective Derek Sherman of the department's Youth Aid Bureau with tracking down the other assault suspects.
The prosecutor said some of the cases against the minors are being handled in Family Court and that more arrests are expected in the ongoing probe.
pnelson@timesunion.com • 518-454-5347 • @apaulnelson |
Prevalence of use of performance enhancing drugs by fitness centre members.
Studies on the use of performance enhancing drugs (PED) in fitness centres rely predominately on conventional survey methods using direct questioning. However, research indicates that direct questioning of sensitive information is characterized by under-reporting. The aim of the present study was to contrast direct questioning of different types of PED use by Dutch fitness centre members with results obtained with the Randomized Response Technique (RRT). Questionnaires were conducted among members of fitness centres. PED were classified into the following categories: anabolic steroids, prohormones, substances to counteract side-effects, growth hormone and/or insulin, stimulants (to reduce weight), and miscellaneous substances. A total of 718 athletes from 92 fitness centres completed the questionnaire. The conventional method resulted in prevalences varying between 0% and 0.4% for the different types of PED with an overall prevalence of 0.4%. RRT resulted in prevalences varying between 0.8% and 4.8% for the different types of PED with an overall prevalence of 8.2%. The overall prevalence of the two survey methods differed significantly. The current study showed that the conventional survey method using direct questioning led to an underestimation of the prevalence. Based on the RRT results, the percentage of users of PED among members of fitness centres is approximately 8.2%. Stimulants to lose weight had the highest prevalence, even higher than anabolic steroids. The key task for future preventive health work is to not only focus on anabolic steroid use, but also include interventions focusing on the use of stimulants to lose weight. |
Introduction {#sec1-1}
============
An apicoaortic conduit (AAC) is a surgical procedure that is performed to alleviate symptoms caused by severe aortic stenosis and other types of left ventricular outflow tract obstruction (LVOTO). This is accomplished by adding a bypass to the aortic valve by placing a left ventricle connector to the apex of the heart and a conduit containing a bioprosthetic valve anastomosed to the descending thoracic aorta.\[[@ref1]\] Cerebral blood supply continues through the native valve and the ascending aorta.\[[@ref2]\] One of the complications of this procedure is the formation of a pseudoaneurysm, which has previously been described in a patient with uncontrolled hypertension.\[[@ref3]\]
Case Report {#sec1-2}
===========
A 77-year-old woman with a medical history of severe aortic stenosis status post AAC and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease presented to the hospital for chest pain and shortness of breath. Her vital signs, including blood pressure and heart rate, were within normal limits during her hospital stay. The laboratory tests, including routine blood tests and cardiac enzymes, were nonsignificant. Computed tomography (CT) angiography of her chest confirmed the AAC placement and ruled out acute pulmonary embolism \[[Figure 1](#F1){ref-type="fig"}\]. To evaluate cardiac function and to assess the probable occlusion of the AAC, a multiple-gated acquisition (MUGA) scan was performed that showed blood flow to the ascending aorta and the aortic arch, the AAC to the descending aorta \[[Figure 2](#F2){ref-type="fig"}, black arrow\], and an incidental finding of a pseudoaneurysm \[[Figure 2](#F2){ref-type="fig"}, white arrow\]. The phase analysis \[[Figure 3](#F3){ref-type="fig"}\] showed only two peaks, likely due to synchronous conduction of the atria and the pseudoaneurysm (first peak). The patient, subsequently, underwent aneurysmectomy and was discharged home. A follow-up MUGA scan after aneurysmectomy was performed, which showed blood flow to the aortic arch and the AAC \[[Figure 4](#F4){ref-type="fig"}, black arrow\]; the pseudoaneurysm was no longer seen, and the patient was noted to be asymptomatic at that time. The phase analysis performed after aneurysmectomy showed an expected two distinct peaks corresponding to the ventricular conduction and atrial conduction, respectively, \[[Figure 5](#F5){ref-type="fig"}\].
{#F1}
{#F2}
{#F3}
{#F4}
{#F5}
Discussion {#sec1-3}
==========
Historically, AAC has been performed on those patients who are considered to be at a high risk or those ineligible for conventional aortic valve replacement. The use of this technique is rare but has been increasing among the elderly population, given the prevalence of comorbidities that preclude aortic valve replacement, the most common of which are a severely calcified "porcelain" aorta and previous coronary artery bypass grafts preventing aortic root manipulation.\[[@ref4]\] Successful performance of this procedure has also been described in other types of LVOTO such as hypertrophic obstructive cardiomyopathy,\[[@ref5][@ref6]\] tunnel subaortic stenosis, aortic annular hypoplasia, and tubular supravalvular aortic hypoplasia.\[[@ref7]\] One of the complications that can arise after this procedure is the formation of a pseudoaneurysm, which has been described in a patient with uncontrolled hypertension that resulted in tearing of the myocardium and dehiscence of the left ventricle connector, and which was successfully repaired by surgery.\[[@ref3]\] Another complication is stenosis or occlusion of the AAC,\[[@ref6]\] which we assessed in our patient. Previous imaging investigations, such as with cardiac magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) and multidetector CT, have shown predictable blood flow patterns between the native valve and the conduit,\[[@ref8][@ref9]\] which is associated with normal ventricular volumes and function, and good blood flow through the conduit. To the best of our knowledge, this is the first time an AAC has been imaged with a MUGA scan. This scan incidentally revealed a pseudoaneurysm and was repeated after aneurysmectomy. We believe that the MUGA scan is an excellent cardiac imaging technique and should be considered in patients with AACs to reliably and accurately assess their cardiac structure and function and the patency of the conduit, especially in those with conditions that place them at a high risk or preclude them from undergoing MRI or CT studies (e.g. pacemakers, borderline renal function, and severe iodinated contrast allergy).
**Source of Support:** Nil
**Conflict of Interest:** The authors have no conflicts of interest to disclose.
|
Q:
Please explain this algorithm to get all permutations of a String
The following code generates all the permutations for a string:
def permutations(word):
if len(word)<=1:
return [word]
#get all permutations of length N-1
perms=permutations(word[1:])
char=word[0]
result=[]
#iterate over all permutations of length N-1
for perm in perms:
#insert the character into every possible location
for i in range(len(perm)+1):
result.append(perm[:i] + char + perm[i:])
return result
Can you explain how it works? I don't understand the recursion.
A:
The algorithm is:
Remove the first letter
Find all the permutations of the remaining letters (recursive step)
Reinsert the letter that was removed in every possible location.
The base case for the recursion is a single letter. There is only one way to permute a single letter.
Worked example
Imagine the start word is bar.
First remove the b.
Find the permuatations of ar. This gives ar and ra.
For each of those words, put the b in every location:
ar -> bar, abr, arb
ra -> bra, rba, rab
A:
I've written the steps out for a string of length 2 and a string of length 3 below.
permutations('ab')
len('ab') is not <= 1
perms = permutations of 'b'
len('b') <= 1 so return 'b' in a list
perms = ['b']
char = 'a'
result = []
for 'b' in ['b']:
for 0 in [0,1]:
result.append('' + 'a' + 'b')
for 1 in [0,1]:
result.append('b' + 'a' + '')
result = ['ab', 'ba']
permutations('abc')
len('abc') is not <= 1
perms = permutations('bc')
perms = ['bc','cb']
char = 'a'
result =[]
for 'bc' in ['bc','cb']:
for 0 in [0,1,2]:
result.append('' + 'a' + 'bc')
for 1 in [0,1,2]:
result.append('b' + 'a' + 'c')
for 2 in [0,1,2]:
result.append('bc' + 'a' + '')
for 'cb' in ['bc','cb']:
for 0 in [0,1,2]:
result.append('' + 'a' + 'cb')
for 1 in [0,1,2]:
result.append('c' + 'a' + 'b')
for 2 in [0,1,2]:
result.append('cb' + 'a' + '')
result = ['abc', 'bac', 'bca', 'acb', 'cab', 'cba']
|
Increased poly(ADP-ribose) polymerase (PARP)-1 expression and activity are associated with inflammation but not goblet cell metaplasia in murine models of allergen-induced airway inflammation.
Inflammation plays a key role in lung injury and in the pathogenesis of asthma. Two murine models of allergic airway inflammation-sensitization and challenge to ovalbumin (OVA) and intratracheal exposure to interleukin-13 (IL13)-were used to evaluate the expression of poly(ADP-ribose) polymerase-1 (PARP-1) in allergic airway inflammation. Inflammation is prominent in OVA-induced allergic asthma, but this inflammation is greatly reduced by a PARP-1 inhibitor and almost eliminated when PARP-1 knockout mice are subjected to the OVA model. The present study temporally evaluated PARP-1 protein expression, localization, and activity, as well as inflammation and goblet cell metaplasia (GCM), in murine lungs following a single OVA challenge or IL13 exposure. Following OVA challenge PARP-1 protein expression and activity were greatly increased, being maximal at 3 to 5 days following OVA exposure and beginning to decrease by day 8. These changes correlated with the timing and degree of inflammation and GCM. In contrast, PARP-1 protein or activity did not change following single IL13 exposure, though GCM was manifested without inflammation. This study demonstrates that both PARP-1 protein and activity are increased by allergen-activated inflammatory mediators, excluding IL13, and that PARP-1 increase does not appear necessary for GCM, one of the characteristic markers of allergic airway inflammation in murine models. |
At a time when many advocates of education reform are promoting greater local involvement in schools, Hawaii appears to be moving in the opposite direction.
The Aloha State is already unusual in the way it manages education. Generally throughout the country, state education departments supplement local property taxes in order to fund local schools. That means local school boards have a great deal of influence in school policy.
In Hawaii, however, power and money are centralized at the state level. Money for the school system is disbursed through the Legislature, and the state Department of Education calls the shots regarding school policy in Hawaii.
Of course, there are pros and cons to Hawaii’s system. Critics of the local-control model point out that funding schools through local property taxes can lead to significant disparities between schools in rich and poor areas. On the other hand, local control means more parental influence and community involvement in schools. It also can give educators more flexibility to innovate and improve performance in their districts.
The ideal may be a balance of local control and state influence, but a bill before the Hawaii legislature threatens to make such reform more difficult. The measure, SB2922, proposes an amendment to the Hawaii Constitution that would allow a surcharge on investment real property to fund education.
There are a number of issues with the bill, from the problematic nature of adding a special interest tax in the Constitution to the way it infringes on a power that previously belonged to the counties.
There’s also a strong likelihood that the surcharge will increase over time. As well, it’s likely it will affect the real estate market and drive up rents.
These issues have all been raised in testimony opposing the bill.
But few critics have looked at how it might hurt the cause of education reform. The proposed amendment gives the Legislature total authority over funding public education, creating a substantial bureaucratic and political barrier to reform.
Any effort to create more local control and funnel local taxes into district schools would require another constitutional amendment. In essence, this amendment would lock in the current system of education funding and strengthen centralized control of Hawaii’s schools. Those on the Big Island, Maui or Kauai who want a larger voice in education policy would continue to find themselves up against bureaucrats in Honolulu.
This isn’t an argument against improving schools, paying teachers well or providing better resources for students. Whether Hawaii needs more money for education and whether this is the right way to go about it are two different discussions. Responsible policymaking means asking ourselves what the unintended consequences of this amendment will be.
It’s a simple truth that in government policy, as with so many other things, influence follows the money. If Hawaii wants to reform education and pass more control to local educators and parents, then a measure that promotes centralized control is not the answer. |
derivative of 2*m**3 + 10*m**2 - 6*m + 46. Let v be l(-4). Let a be (-2602)/4 + 5/v. Round a to the nearest one hundred.
-700
Let h = -0.08182 + 3595.08182. Let g = 3595.00002379 - h. What is g rounded to six decimal places?
0.000024
Let b = -0.84 - 3.86. Let y = 3.9756 - -0.73. Let i = y + b. What is i rounded to three decimal places?
0.006
Suppose 34*a + 87021 = 1332492 + 999719. What is a rounded to the nearest 10000?
70000
Let h be (2720/(-24))/(7/(-97020)*-7). What is h rounded to the nearest one hundred thousand?
-200000
Let g = 1121521 + -2130721. Round g to the nearest 10000.
-1010000
Let k = -871.503494984 + 20.503434084. Let n = k + 851. What is n rounded to five decimal places?
-0.00006
Let v be 1/(-1) + 230/10 - -4. Let f(m) = -13*m**2 - 86*m - 26. Let z be f(v). What is z rounded to the nearest one thousand?
-11000
Suppose k - 102293994 = 2*u, -7*u + 6*u - 51146988 = -2*k. What is u rounded to the nearest one hundred thousand?
-51100000
Let r = 35.89143 - 0.15943. Round r to the nearest ten.
40
Let q = -9.722 + 9.724. Let n = -3.8753 + 3.85. Let s = q - n. What is s rounded to three dps?
0.027
Let h = 36251.507 + -36268. What is h rounded to the nearest ten?
-20
Let r = 151.128 - 153. Let x = 1.98 + r. Round x to 1 dp.
0.1
Suppose -11*w + 108 = -13*w. Let s = -72 - w. Let k be (-80)/((s/(-4))/(-9)). Round k to the nearest ten.
160
Suppose 4*m = x - 31659994, 7*x = 3*x - 24. Round m to the nearest one hundred thousand.
-7900000
Let d = 56 - 56.11. Let r = 31 + -30.848. Let o = r + d. Round o to 2 decimal places.
0.04
Let t = -70 - 22. Let z = 149 + t. Let j = z - 56.99996. Round j to five decimal places.
0.00004
Let q(p) = 3893*p**2 - 19*p + 58. Let y be q(4). Round y to the nearest 1000.
62000
Let r = -15.64 - -15. Let k = 0.09 + r. Let l = k - -0.549997. What is l rounded to 5 dps?
0
Let i be (12474314/10 + 5)*5. Let l(q) = 3069*q**3 + q**2 - 23*q + 7. Let x be l(9). Let t = x - i. Round t to the nearest 100000.
-4000000
Suppose 8*q + 232 + 24 = 0. Let i be (-5180)/6*(q - -29). Round i to the nearest 1000.
3000
Let x = 200 + -198.808. Let v = -15 + 14.972. Let b = x - v. What is b rounded to 1 decimal place?
1.2
Let r = -31 + 35. Suppose -74206 = -2*z - r*y, -y = z + 4*z - 185542. Let g = 84109 - z. What is g rounded to the nearest ten thousand?
50000
Let t = 3846.2859 + -3841. What is t rounded to 1 dp?
5.3
Let y(z) = -149534*z - 274. Let s be y(-11). What is s rounded to the nearest 10000?
1640000
Let y(f) = -4626*f - 2509. Let m be y(15). Round m to the nearest 1000.
-72000
Let p = 154.15 + -154.14992631. What is p rounded to six dps?
0.000074
Let n = -11744.78 + 12212. What is n rounded to the nearest 10?
470
Let r = -14266 - -14265.86247. Round r to 2 dps.
-0.14
Let x = 3876.6 - 3876.634138. Round x to 4 decimal places.
-0.0341
Let p = 7.268479 - -0.133571. Let m = 7.4 - p. Round m to 2 dps.
0
Let z = -127144314540366372.33000823 - -127144317833668647. Let x = -3293302260 + z. Let l = x + -14.67. What is l rounded to six dps?
-0.000008
Let l(q) = -32318*q**2 - 9*q + 4. Let s(z) = -32317*z**2 - 8*z + 4. Let w(h) = 3*l(h) - 4*s(h). Let f be w(-4). What is f rounded to the nearest 10000?
520000
Let s = -261 + 120. Let q = 67 - s. Let u = q - 210.51. Round u to one decimal place.
-2.5
Let l(r) = -230902*r - 78. Suppose 12*n - 183 = -51. Let q be l(n). What is q rounded to the nearest one hundred thousand?
-2500000
Let g = 66128 - 120130. Let m be g/3 + (-52)/(-78). Round m to the nearest 10000.
-20000
Let h = -17905440 + 17905452.7999704. Let i = h - 12.8. Round i to six dps.
-0.00003
Suppose 14*y = 13*y - 14. Let l = -10 - y. Suppose 4*c + c - 5*p = -3525, -l*p = 2*c + 1440. What is c rounded to the nearest 100?
-700
Let d(g) = 5*g**2 + 6*g - 41. Let j be d(-19). Let p be (-4)/14 + (-24)/(-84). Suppose -2*w - 3*w - f - 2750 = 0, p = 3*w - 5*f + j. Round w to the nearest 100.
-600
Let q = 113.9490341 - 113.95. Round q to four decimal places.
-0.001
Let o(r) = r**2 - r + 27206795. Let k(c) = -c**3 + 5*c**2 - 5*c + 4. Let l be k(4). Let u be o(l). Let j = u + -41306795. Round j to the nearest one million.
-14000000
Let w = 973 - 556. Let f = 416.998828 - w. Round f to five decimal places.
-0.00117
Let o = -94 + -169. Let v = 262.01 + o. Round v to 0 dps.
-1
Let t = 436701.06434 - 437163.06. Let v = t + 462. What is v rounded to three decimal places?
0.004
Let x = 0.0665 + -8.5565. Let p = x + 8.488556. What is p rounded to four dps?
-0.0014
Suppose 55*p - 190637748 = 37*p. Suppose -2*v + 2*x - 4*x = 33381964, 0 = -5*v + x - 83454934. Let h = p + v. Round h to the nearest 1000000.
-6000000
Let x = 1910671 - 3946171. Round x to the nearest 10000.
-2040000
Let i = -946.39995869 - -946.4. Round i to 5 dps.
0.00004
Let t be 690*(12/(-84) - (-579)/(-63)). Round t to the nearest 1000.
-6000
Let v = 196.71 - 196.727533. Round v to four dps.
-0.0175
Let d = 0.0945 + -0.093937. Round d to 5 dps.
0.00056
Let z = 1088 + 1898. Suppose -5*u = -g - z - 1141, -3*g + 1644 = 2*u. Suppose -5*m = -s - u, -3*s + m - 4*m = 2457. Round s to the nearest one hundred.
-800
Suppose -n + 4 = -5*p, -21 = 4*p - 4*n - 5. Suppose -8*f + 35952 = -p*f. Let y be ((-50)/(-6))/(7/f). What is y rounded to the nearest one hundred?
5400
Let x = -22 + 11. Let s be 2*1 - x/11. Suppose 5*a + 4*u = 11016, -a + s*u + 1302 = -886. Round a to the nearest 1000.
2000
Let b = -492.9947 + 493. Let q = 0.02 + b. Round q to 2 decimal places.
0.03
Let f = -121244108 + 121244107.908199859. Let j = 0.0918 + f. What is j rounded to 7 decimal places?
-0.0000001
Let s = 35.19 + -35. Let w = -43 - -43.29. Let v = w - s. What is v rounded to 1 dp?
0.1
Let v = 971 + -975.1. Let c = -48878.3569989 + 48882.457. Let r = v + c. Round r to 7 dps.
0.0000011
Let q = -250 + 191.6. Let i = -58.39637 - q. Round i to three dps.
0.004
Suppose 64 + 216 = -7*q. Let l(s) = -2*s**3 - 52*s**2 - 9*s + 40. Let b be l(q). What is b rounded to the nearest one thousand?
45000
Let c = -0.656954148 + 0.6569. Round c to seven decimal places.
-0.0000541
Let a = 1230.1 - 2519.13. Let i = a - -1297. What is i rounded to 1 dp?
8
Let r be 62/(-93) - 1/(-3)*-4. Let v be ((-1)/(-2))/(5*r/(-100)). Suppose 6*t = v*t + 60. What is t rounded to the nearest ten?
60
Let o(j) = -320*j**3 + 104*j**2 - 94*j + 70. Let a be o(-39). Round a to the nearest one hundred thousand.
19100000
Let z = -522.76 - -520. Let y = 2.28 + z. Round y to 2 dps.
-0.48
Let a = 516592773 - 516590543.5278348. Let j = a + -2202.4722. Let y = -27 + j. What is y rounded to 6 dps?
-0.000035
Let z = 54.027 - 0.027. Let y = -97.2748 - -43.2751. Let c = z + y. What is c rounded to 2 dps?
0
Let r = 367.29591785 - -6.70405065. Let b = -374 + r. Round b to six decimal places.
-0.000032
Let v = 168.9 + -168.90005875. What is v rounded to five decimal places?
-0.00006
Let n = 4942.13195 - 4942. Let p = n + -0.133. What is p rounded to four dps?
-0.0011
Let y = -0.0204 - -6.3004. Let k = y + -8.97. What is k rounded to 0 dps?
-3
Let w = 21.3266 + -18.314. Round w to 2 decimal places.
3.01
Let l = -0.19072 - -0.190745219. What is l rounded to six decimal places?
0.000025
Let t = 31945532 - 31947087.1869. Let p = t + 1555. What is p rounded to two dps?
-0.19
Let h = 6822.000019973 - 6822. Round h to 7 dps.
0.00002
Let t = -47444.11 + 47234. Let g = t + 212. Let k = g - 41.09. Round k to the nearest ten.
-40
Suppose 11 = 4*t - 21. Suppose 7*i + 4 = t*i. Suppose -s - 239995 = -5*p, -2*p - i*s = -51301 - 44719. What is p rounded to the nearest ten thousand?
50000
Let o = -0.03707 - 8000.96293. Let g = o - -7999.7017. Let u = 1.3 + g. Round u to 3 dps.
0.002
Let t = 0.27623 - -16.78977. Round t to the nearest integer.
17
Let b = 181 - 876. Let c = 694.99995972 + b. Round c to six dps.
-0.00004
Let f = 0.14 + -2.34. Let x = f - -21.2. Let i = x - 18.71. Round i to one dp.
0.3
Let l = 5456 - 5455.836. Let a = 1791006 + -1791006.1639854. Let z = l + a. Round z to 6 dps.
0.000015
Let t = 58.867526 - -0.058474. Round t to the nearest integer.
59
Let v = 33.7158 + -34.223. What is v rounded to zero dps?
-1
Let j = 9227.9985645 + -9228. What is j rounded to four dps?
-0.0014
Let r = -10 - 3. Let w = r - -14.9. Let h = -0.4 + w. Round h to 1 decimal place.
1.5
Let q = -0.00698 |
Author: Mordechai Kedar
Those claiming the “occupation” of ’67 is immoral cannot argue that the “occupation” of ’48 is moral. The time has come to stop with the double standard and declare – the existence of the state of Israel is moral |
Management of patients aged >60 years with malignant glioma: good clinical status and radiotherapy determine outcome.
Many clinical trials have shown that the most important prognostic variable in patients with malignant glioma is advanced age. However, can some patients aged >60 years still have relatively good outcomes with conventional surgical and radiotherapeutic treatment? A previous audit of practice (1983-89) suggested that functional status was an important prognostic variable in the elderly. We have reviewed a further cohort (1989-96) to evaluate changes in practice and outcomes given advances in neuroimaging, neurosurgery and radiotherapy. The major findings in this series of 80 patients aged over 60 years with a histological diagnosis of supratentorial malignant glioma were: (i) There was a relationship between management undertaken and clinical status of the patients (p < 0.01), i.e. patients in good grade generally had tumour debulking and radiotherapy, whilst those in poor grade generally had only biopsy. (ii) There was a significant increase in survival of patients in the second period who received surgical debulking and post-operative radiotherapy (from a median of 23 to 41 weeks (p < 0.05). (iii) It is likely that case selection accounted for much of this improvement since there was a direct relationship between median survival time and good clinical grade using the WHO performance scale. (iv) A shorter radiotherapy course (30 Gy in six fractions) was as efficacious as a conventional course (60 Gy in 30 fractions), and those patients having radiotherapy survived significantly longer than those not having this treatment (p = 0.001). This study has again demonstrated the importance of preoperative clinical grade and radiotherapy treatment in determining outcomes in patients >60 years. To put these data in a societal context a recent prospective multicentre audit of patients with malignant glioma in Scotland, and another audit from our unit, showed that between 24 and 65% of patients aged >60 years, with a CT diagnosis of malignant glioma do not undergo either surgery or radiotherapy. Advanced age per se should not be a bar to interventional treatment in patients aged >60 years with suspected malignant glioma. |
Q:
special characters in id of html tags
In html code I am using code
<input type = "text" id = "abc@def.com"> to get text
now it need to get its value which is entered in text field. I am using jquery to do that:
$( document ).ready( function() {
$( ".bid" ).click( function() {
idVal = this.id
bidID = "#" + idVal + "bid"
spanID = "#" + idVal + "cbid"
bidValue = $(bidID).val();
alert(idVal)
alert(bidID)
alert(bidValue) //this alert says undefined
$( spanID ).html( ' ' ).load( '{% url online_machines %}?id=' + idVal + '&bidvalue=' + bidValue);
});
});
By doing this i get the value error undefined.
I tried to remove special characters from the id to get its value. But I need the id with special characters. How can
I get its value using jquery ?
A:
Instead of trying for ID using #, try this to match attribute like this,
$('[id=ID]')
or
$('[id='+ID+']')
so instead of
bidID = "#" + idVal + "bid"
you can try
bidID = "[id=" + idVal + "bid]"
A:
Try escaping it:
$('#abc\\@def.com').val();
First paragraph of http://api.jquery.com/category/selectors/
A:
It looks like JQuery has a useful method for this as of version 3 called escapeSelector.
$('#' + $.escapeSelector(my_id_with_special_chars));
https://api.jquery.com/jQuery.escapeSelector/
|
Chevy, GMC Block & U-Bolt Kits
We offer a selection of rear block and U-bolt kits for just about any Chevy or GMC truck, SUV or SUT with rear leaf springs. Take a look and see if we have the combination of block height and u-bolt length you need as a set. Custom applications of block height and u-bolt size can also be ordered separately if necessary. |
// Copyright (c) Tunnel Vision Laboratories, LLC. All Rights Reserved.
// Licensed under the MIT License. See LICENSE in the project root for license information.
namespace StyleCop.Analyzers.Test.MaintainabilityRules
{
public enum SA1402SettingsConfiguration
{
/// <summary>
/// Provide no custom settings.
/// </summary>
KeepDefaultConfiguration,
/// <summary>
/// Provide custom settings that configure the tested type as being a top-level type.
/// </summary>
ConfigureAsTopLevelType,
/// <summary>
/// Provide custom settings that configure the tested type as not being a top-level type.
/// </summary>
ConfigureAsNonTopLevelType,
}
}
|
#ifndef __WEXT_COMPAT
#define __WEXT_COMPAT
#include <net/iw_handler.h>
#include <linux/wireless.h>
int cfg80211_ibss_wext_siwfreq(struct net_device *dev,
struct iw_request_info *info,
struct iw_freq *freq, char *extra);
int cfg80211_ibss_wext_giwfreq(struct net_device *dev,
struct iw_request_info *info,
struct iw_freq *freq, char *extra);
int cfg80211_ibss_wext_siwap(struct net_device *dev,
struct iw_request_info *info,
struct sockaddr *ap_addr, char *extra);
int cfg80211_ibss_wext_giwap(struct net_device *dev,
struct iw_request_info *info,
struct sockaddr *ap_addr, char *extra);
int cfg80211_ibss_wext_siwessid(struct net_device *dev,
struct iw_request_info *info,
struct iw_point *data, char *ssid);
int cfg80211_ibss_wext_giwessid(struct net_device *dev,
struct iw_request_info *info,
struct iw_point *data, char *ssid);
int cfg80211_mgd_wext_siwfreq(struct net_device *dev,
struct iw_request_info *info,
struct iw_freq *freq, char *extra);
int cfg80211_mgd_wext_giwfreq(struct net_device *dev,
struct iw_request_info *info,
struct iw_freq *freq, char *extra);
int cfg80211_mgd_wext_siwap(struct net_device *dev,
struct iw_request_info *info,
struct sockaddr *ap_addr, char *extra);
int cfg80211_mgd_wext_giwap(struct net_device *dev,
struct iw_request_info *info,
struct sockaddr *ap_addr, char *extra);
int cfg80211_mgd_wext_siwessid(struct net_device *dev,
struct iw_request_info *info,
struct iw_point *data, char *ssid);
int cfg80211_mgd_wext_giwessid(struct net_device *dev,
struct iw_request_info *info,
struct iw_point *data, char *ssid);
int cfg80211_wext_siwmlme(struct net_device *dev,
struct iw_request_info *info,
struct iw_point *data, char *extra);
int cfg80211_wext_siwgenie(struct net_device *dev,
struct iw_request_info *info,
struct iw_point *data, char *extra);
int cfg80211_wext_freq(struct wiphy *wiphy, struct iw_freq *freq);
extern const struct iw_handler_def cfg80211_wext_handler;
#endif /* __WEXT_COMPAT */
|
Donald Trump didn’t invent racism, although he would probably take credit for it if given the opportunity. He does deserve credit for realizing, perhaps better than any other modern major-party political candidate, how effective plainspoken, uncloaked racism could be as a policy platform. Betting on naked, unashamed hatred (who has time for dog whistles?) has made Trump a demigod among his base, and the GOP’s presidential candidate. It has also transformed him into one of the most talked about people in the world right now.
As a result, lots of celebrities—including some who haven’t previously been particularly outspoken about politics—have publicly registered their objections to Trump. Some have signed their names to campaigns dedicated to keeping the candidate out of the Oval Office, such as #UnitedAgainstHate or #StopHateDumpTrump. A number of others have taken the time to make on-the-record public statements decrying the (maybe) billionaire.
Below is a list of 35 celebs—actors, authors, musicians and more—who have spoken out against Trump.
1. Cher
A long-revered master of the tweet game (the New York Times did a whole piece on her Twitter earlier this year), Cher’s entire social media presence has become almost exclusively dedicated to dissing Trump. In various 140 character messages she’s called him “horrible,” “disgusting,” “racist,” “classless,” a "monster,” an “idiot,” a “tool,” and a “con man”—and that’s just the tiniest sample from what has become a daily exercise in insulting the billionaire. Cher has become so well known for her Trump bashing that visual artist Anna Niess created the #ImWithCher hashtag. Niess preserves the delicate perfection of Cher’s tweets about Trump (whom she recently started referring to not by name but with a toilet emoji) by rendering them in the colorful layout they deserve.
[[{“type”:”media”,”view_mode”:”media_large”,”fid”:”615010″,”attributes”:{“alt”:””,”class”:”media-image”,”height”:”314″,”typeof”:”foaf:Image”,”width”:”480″}}]]
2. George Clooney
Though he initially suggested Trump was just a dude “who says intolerant words [who] should be laughed at,” Clooney’s rhetoric got less lighthearted as Trump’s numbers made the situation increasingly less funny. By March of this year, Clooney was calling the GOP nominee “an opportunist” and “a fascist; a xenophobic fascist.” He also later said, “There is not gonna be a President Donald Trump. It’s not gonna happen. Fear is not going to be something that drives our country.” The actor went on to pillory the press for its role in Trump’s success, saying, “Trump is actually a result in many ways of the fact that much of the news programs didn’t follow up and ask tough questions. That’s the truth. It’s really easy because your numbers go up.”
3. Will Smith
In an interview with an Australian media outlet, Smith went after Trump for his misogyny and indicted him as part of a “separatist, non-inclusive, xenophobic, racist wave that is sweeping the globe.”
“For a man to be able to publicly refer to a woman as a fat pig, that makes me teary. And for people to applaud, that is absolutely fucking insanity to me,” said Smith. “My grandmother would have smacked my teeth out of my head if I had referred to a woman as a fat pig. And I cannot understand how people can clap for that. It’s absolutely collective insanity. If one of my sons—I am getting furious just thinking about it—if one of my sons said that in a public place, they couldn’t even live in my house anymore.” He went on to condemn Trump for using fear to garner votes, and stated that “America won’t and we can’t [elect Trump].”
4. Jennifer Lawrence
A native Kentuckian, Lawrence says she “was raised a Republican,” but has problems with the party’s policies toward women, like telling them to stop enjoying non-procreative sex so much and to pipe down about sexual harassment. In an interview with Vogue late last year, the actress said, “My view on the election is pretty cut and dried: If Donald Trump is president of the United States, it will be the end of the world. And he’s also the best thing to happen to the Democrats ever.” (Let’s avoid overconfidence, shall we?)
5. Johnny Depp
The fact that Depp really upped the asshole ante when he starred as Trump in Funny or Die’s fake made-for-TV-movie The Art of the Deal is a tacit statement of the actor’s feelings. (You can watch the full-length version of the film on Netflix.) Depp explained a bit further during a talk at ASU where he discussed the “absurdity” of the candidate. “It's not just about being a rich kid or anything like that,” said Depp. “There's a pretense. There's something created about him in the sense of bullydom. But what he is, I believe, is a brat."
6. Kerry Washington
While accepting the Woman of the Year Award from Harvard University’s Hasty Pudding Theatricals society, Washington reportedly took part in a comedic staging that involved her “throwing wine and smashing a pie” in the face of a student doing a Trump impersonation. She also discussed a “Trump-like” character on her popular show "Scandal," and how the figure pales in comparison to his real-life inspiration. “There have been times where we all thought, Oh, we can’t say that. It’s too outrageous even for our show, which is called 'Scandal'—so not much is outrageous. The reality of what is going on in the world is far, far scarier than anything we could begin to put on our show.” Washington has signed onto and tweeted her support for #StopHateDumpTrump.
7. Louis CK
In an email to fans earlier this year, CK offered a lengthy list of reasons they shouldn’t vote for Trump, including that “the guy is Hitler.” He went on from there. “Trump has nothing to do with politics or ideology. He has to do with himself. And really I don't mean to insult anyone. Except Trump. I mean to insult him very much. And really I'm not saying he's evil or a monster. In fact I don't think Hitler was. The problem with saying that guys like that are monsters is that we don't see them coming when they turn out to be human, which they all are. Everyone is. Trump is a messed-up guy with a hole in his heart that he tries to fill with money and attention. He can never, ever have enough of either and he'll never stop trying. He's sick. Which makes him really, really interesting. And he pulls you towards him which somehow feels good or fascinatingly bad. He's not a monster. He's a sad man. But all this makes him horribly dangerous if he becomes president. Give him another TV show. Let him pay to put his name on buildings. But please stop voting for him.”
8. John Legend
Back in March, Legend got into a Twitter battle with Trump’s son, Donald Jr. At the time, the scion of all that is gold-plated tweeted, “Ha 5 students when asked why they were protesting couldn't even answer. The participation medal/micro aggression generation is pretty sad!" Legend wrote back, “I think they were protesting your racist father. This isn't complicated." (When a Trump fan tried to get in on the action by accusing Legend of having “no education”—racists like to throw that one around—the singer/songwriter pointed out he’d graduated from the same college as “The Donalds,” the University of Pennsylvania.) Legend has also said Trump is “being very racist and divisive. I feel the need to call that out all the time because I don’t want us to feel like it’s impossible for our nation to go back to another dark place.”
9. Jack Black
Appearing on Australia’s version of the Today show a few months back, Black called the prospect of a Trump presidency “a scary prospect” and said, “He’s like a child. You’re not going to vote for a child to run the show.” He went on to call Trump a “hothead” who as president would be “looking out for number one, as he always has.” Black added that he would “take Kanye over Trump—anyone but Trump!”
10. Lena Dunham
The "Girls" creator and star has claimed she will move to Canada—“a lovely place in Vancouver”—if Trump is elected, and doubled down by stating, “I know a lot of people have been threatening to do this, but I really will." A year ago, Dunham tweeted that “Donald Trump's condescending misogyny is now a more trademark feature than” his hairdo. She also co-wrote an essay that called out Trump on his sexism, and the “divide between the woman you raised and the women you want to lead.” Speaking at the DNC with America Ferrera, she also smirkingly rejected Trump’s reduction of women to their looks by joking, “According to Donald Trump, my body is probably, like, a 2.”
11. Russell Simmons
Late last year, the hip-hop mogul penned an open letter to Trump—whom he wrote had been “an amazing friend” for “30 plus years”—in which he told the candidate to “stop the bullshit. Stop fueling fires of hate. Don’t feed into the rhetoric created by small-minded people. You’re smarter and certainly more loving then you let on.” We all know how well that worked! Perhaps annoyed that his ol’ buddy turned out to be a fascist (don’t you hate when that happens?), Simmons recently told CNN he’d “rather Kim Kardashian be president,” called Trump a “contradiction to the American Dream,” said Trump promotes “sexism and racism and Islamophobia and antisemitism,” and added that he’ll do “everything [he] can to make sure Donald Trump is not the president.”
12. Susan Sarandon
Make no mistake, Susan Sarandon has said some astonishingly dumb, privilege-saturated stuff in recent months, but she at least made a Trump zinger in the meantime. “He reminds me of, like, your drunk uncle at a wedding, who gets up and starts talking and just loves the crowd,” said Sarandon. “I mean, he doesn’t even have a consistency or any kind of rational anything…What concerns me is that he has made hatred and racism normal. He’s normalized it. He’s taking this, you know, undercurrent of discontent that’s looking to blame somebody and he’s legitimized those feelings and that, I think, is a very dangerous thing.”
13. Stephen King
In addition to signing onto an open letter rejecting Trump, King did what he does best in pointing out what a garbageperson Trump is: He tweeted about it. The author has been sending out tons of great anti-Trump messages since last year, from a suggestion that the campaign’s slogan be “IF YOU'RE WHITE, YOU'RE ALL RIGHT! ANY OTHER HUE, I DON'T TRUST YOU,” to the gem, “Say, here's an idea! Let's turn America's nukes over to a bad-tempered asshole with no knowledge of foreign policy. What could go wrong?” to the crown jewel: “Hey, Repubs: It's like they say in the antiques stores—you broke it, you own it.”
He added, in an interview with Rolling Stone, “I think that he's sort of the last stand of a sort of American male who feels like women have gotten out of their place and they're letting in all these people that have the wrong skin colors. He speaks to those people. Trump is extremely popular because people would like to have a world where you just didn't question that the white American was at the top of the pecking order.”
14. Rosie O’Donnell
Trump and O’Donnell have a feud that stretches back to 2006, when thin-skinned Trump reacted to criticisms by the then-View co-host with a series of unhinged rants and insults. (When GOP debate moderator/Fox News host/future Trump target Megyn Kelly brought up the litany of negative things Trump has called numerous women, he smugly countered they’d been directed to, “Only Rosie O’Donnell.”) More recently, O’Donnell has referred to Trump as many, many gross things, and narrated the Daily Show’s parody Trump biopic, The Very, Very Incredible Deal.
15. America Ferrera
In response to Trump’s Mexican-bashing speech announcing his candidacy, Ferrera wrote an open letter that thanked him for putting his hatred on full display where Latinos could see it and respond at the ballot box. “Thank you for reminding us that there remains an antiquated and endangered species of bigots in this country that we must continue to combat,” the letter states. “Remarks like yours will serve brilliantly to energize Latino voters and increase turnout on election day against you and any other candidate who runs on a platform of hateful rhetoric.”
The actress, whose parents are Honduran immigrants, also spoke out against Trump at the DNC.
16. Zachary Quinto
In an interview with U.K. men’s magazine ShortList a few months ago, the Star Trek: Beyond star was anything but cagey about his complete and utter disdain for the candidate. “Donald Trump is a buffoon,” said Quinto, just getting started. “He is a dangerously egomaniacal horrible person. It’s unsettling how unethical he is. I loathe him; I actually loathe him. But there are a lot of people in our country who are somehow blind to what, to me, seems so transparent. I guess anything’s possible, but I would certainly hope that we avoid [Trump becoming president]. It’s an embarrassment to our country to consider how you must all look at us.”
17. The Dixie Chicks
Country stars tend to back conservative candidates, as do many of their fans, which is why Dixie Chicks faced so much backlash when they made disparaging remarks about President George Bush back in 2003. But the band members, particularly lead singer Natalie Maines, haven't censored themselves where their feelings about Trump are concerned. On their most recent international tour, the band unfurled a gigantic image depicting Trump with horns and a devilish goatee while they played the song “Goodbye Earl,” about a woman who finally kills her abusive husband. Maines has also sarcastically tweeted, “As long as Donald Trump's decisions for America are as solid as his decision about his hair, we're in good shape.”
18. Jane Fonda
The right’s public enemy number one since the Vietnam era, Fonda said in an interview during primary season, “As an American, I am ashamed” that Trump had a real shot at being the Republican presidential nominee. Earlier this year, speaking at an event held by the Fund for Women's Equality/ERA Coalition, Fonda called Bernie Sanders “great.” She had less glowing words for Trump, whom she called “terrible and dangerous,” and said he is “fanning the flames of people’s anxieties and racism.”
19. Harry Belafonte
A civil rights icon, Belafonte is among the actors who signed onto #StopHateDumpTrump, which holds that “Trump is a grave threat to democracy, freedom, human rights, equality, and the welfare of our country and all our people.”
20. Miley Cyrus
It should be no surprise that Cyrus’s anti-Trump tweets came via social media. The singer took to Instagram, where she posted a photo of the billionaire with the caption “Donald Trump is a fucking nightmare!” She followed that up with a post declaring she would leave the country (a perennial favorite), another accusing Trump of saying “stupid ass sexist shit,” and a message declaring, “YOU [Donald Trump] ARE NOT GOD NO MATTER HOW MUCH YOU THINK YOU ARE!!! (& if he doesn't think he is 'God' he thinks he is the fucking chosen one or some shit! We're all just fucking jam between his rich ass toes!”
21. Richard Gere
Speaking to the U.K.’s Evening Standard, Richard Gere really went off on Trump, saying he’s “obviously Mussolini,” and identifying him as “America’s Id.”
“How is it possible that people would be supporting this guy? You can try to find reasons,” Gere said. “It’s about how disillusioned they are, how afraid, how confused. [Trump] is a demagogue, a clown—but people like clarity. Here’s this guy who says, ‘I’m going to fix this problem for you. It doesn’t matter how, I’ll just take care of it.' He’s finding villains everywhere and then telling people he’ll get rid of them. We’ll get rid of the Jews, the blacks. Anyone that we perceive as a problem, we’ll get rid of. This is how it starts. Intelligent people aren’t seeing this — don’t make the mistake of thinking it’s just idiots who are backing Trump — this kind of thinking is a slippery slope.”
22. R.E.M./Michael Stipe
A lot of musicians have told Trump to stop using their music. (Only Neil Young has pulled a 180 and decided it’s totes cool if his songs are played at the hatefests Trump supporters call political rallies.) While most issued simple cease and desists, members of R.E.M. took it a step further. Reacting to Trump’s use of the song “It's the End of the World as We Know It (And I Feel Fine),” bassist Mike Mills tweeted “Personally, I think the Orange Clown will do anything for attention. I hate giving it to him.” Mills also passed along a message from lead singer Michael Stipe which read, “Go fuck yourselves, the lot of you, you sad, attention-grabbing, power-hungry little men. Do not use our music or my voice for your moronic charade of a campaign."
23. Bette Midler
Trump has gone after Midler in his typical cheap, sexist style in the past. But Midler landed a much more effective blow by tweeting an selection from the book Slaughterhouse 90210, which pairs Trump’s photo with this excerpt from Joseph Heller’s Catch-22: “It was miraculous. It was almost no trick at all, he saw, to turn vice into virtue and slander into truth, impotence into abstinence, arrogance into humility, plunder into philanthropy, thievery into honor, blasphemy into wisdom, brutality into patriotism, and sadism into justice. Anybody could do it; it required no brains at all. It merely required no character.”
She also questioned why Twitter, which banned rapper Azealia Banks for inflammatory remarks, hadn’t done the same with Trump. “Twitter deactivated Azealia Banks’ account for homophobia & racism?” Midler asked in a tweeted message. “So why is Donald Trump still here?”
24. Shakira
In a series of tweets after Trump announced his presidential run and said the kind of anti-Mexican stuff that makes his followers love him, Shakira wrote, “This is a hateful and racist speech that attempts to divide a country that for years has promoted diversity and democracy! No one living in this century should stand behind so much ignorance.” Later on in 2015, along with Pitbull, Wyclef Jean, Carlos Santana, Rita Moreno, Perez Hilton, Whoopi Goldberg, Gloria Estefan and a bunch of others, Shakira participated in recording the anti-Trump protest song “We’re All Mexican.”
25. T.I.
The Atlanta rapper, who was a big fan of Bernie Sanders and expressed reservations about Clinton, is fully opposed to Trump as president. In an interview with Time, T.I. said, “I’m completely in opposition to everything Trump says…I think what he stands for, it supports and inspires hatred. When he says, ‘Make America great again,’ I wonder, when was America great? When we were slaves? When we were oppressed? When we were segregated? What time are you trying to go back to? Because I can remember what my people were going through at that time. It was great for you. It wasn’t great for us.”
He added: “If I were to do the things Trump’s doing, I would be called a common thug. If I was to say, ‘If somebody who doesn’t look like us or agree with us shows up at my concert, and you beat him up and get locked up, I’ll pay for your legal fees,’ that’d be like a mob boss, you know?”
26. Chrissy Teigen
The supermodel, like her husband, is not here for Trump’s horribleness. On his 70th birthday, Teigen posted a photo of Trump to her Instagram with the caption, “Happy birthday, you monumental asshole.” This came after months of Teigen being fully forthcoming about her thoughts on the Donald via social media. When Trump tweeted about a meeting with African-American pastors, but noted it wasn’t a press event, Teigen responded, “so don't tweet about it you twat.” When a Trump fan jumped in, insulting Teigen and claiming Melania Trump was more refined, Teigen fired off two bombs. “lol poor melania doesn't need to be dragged into this. She goes through enough already,” Teigen wrote in the first. She added, “ok trumpers let's get one thing straight, we both married well and pose half naked, I'm not alone in this.”
Happy birthday, you monumental asshole A photo posted by chrissy teigen (@chrissyteigen) on Jun 14, 2016 at 9:23pm PDT
27. Eva Longoria
Noting that he uses words that create “emotional poison,” the actress compared Trump to Hitler, whom she said also “moved a nation with words, just words." The actress also spoke at the DNC, saying: “I’m from a small town in South Texas and if you know your history, Texas used to be part of Mexico. Now, I’m ninth generation American. My family never crossed a border, the border crossed us. So when Donald Trump calls us criminals and rapists, he’s insulting American families. My father is not a criminal or rapist, in fact, he’s a United States veteran. When Trump cruelly mocked a disabled reporter, he was also mocking my special-needs sister Lisa and many like her. When he said that a wife who works is a very dangerous thing, he not only insulted me, he insulted my mother who worked as a special-education teacher for 40 years and raised four children while being a wife.”
28. Wyclef Jean
The friendship between Jean and Trump seems to have fizzled since the time the musician made a cameo on “The Apprentice.” At a California concert last year, Jean took a momentary break from performing to make an announcement. “Fuck Donald Trump. He don’t like the Mexicans,” Jean said in a video of the show. Talking about the election more recently with Billboard magazine, Jean said of the incident, “I was just making my political voice heard. I could never be in a position to support someone who thinks a minority group of people are all a certain way, because once you do that, you're targeting me, you're targeting Mexicans, you're targeting all of us. The reason the United States of America, the land of immigrants, is so special is because it takes all of us together and we become America. Everyone can see at this point that Trump is just an egomaniac.”
29. Sarah Silverman
Trump gets compared to Hitler a lot. Silverman decided earlier this year to go on Conan, assuming the dress and persona of Hitler, mostly to complain about being compared to Trump. “All these comparisons to Trump, it’s like, it bums me out. You know what I mean?” said Silverman/Hitler. “Sometimes I watch him and I’m like, Is that how people see me? And I have to be honest, Trump, he’s starting to make me rethink some of the things I’ve done.”
“Don’t get me wrong, Conan. I agree with a lot of what he says. A lot. Like 90 percent of what he says, I’m like, This guy gets it. But it’s just, I don’t like the way he says it. It’s crass, you know?”
Perhaps another measure of Silverman’s Trump loathing was her insistence at the DNC that supporters of Bernie Sanders (who Silverman also supported in the primary) get behind Trump’s opponent. “Can I just say, to the Bernie or Bust people, you’re being ridiculous.”
30. Elizabeth Banks
In perfect mockery of Trump’s RNC appearance, Banks made her entrance to the DNC as a silhouetted, smoke-engulfed figure while “We Are The Champions” blared. Then she launched into a little Trump-based comedy. “Some of you know me from The Hunger Games, in which I play Effie Trinket—a cruel, out-of-touch reality TV star who wears insane wigs while delivering long-winded speeches to a violent dystopia,” Banks said. “So when I tuned in to Cleveland last week, I was like, Uh, hey! That’s my act!"
31. Chelsea Handler
Never one for subtlety, comedian Handler posted a nearly nude photo of herself to Instagram with a single sentence painted on her body: “Trump is a butthole.” In a segment for her eponymously named Netflix show, she also took a trip to Aguascalientes, Mexico, where she spoke to some locals about Trump’s plans to build a wall. (They were rightly insulted by the idea.) Then she bought a pinata in Trump’s likeness and invited any takers to take a whack at the thing.
32. Ricky Martin
In a Univision op-ed piece headlined “No More Attacks on Latinos,” the Puerto Rican singer let Trump have it after the billionaire had Jorge Ramos tossed from one of his press events. “The fact that a person like Donald Trump…has the gall to continue to freely harass the Latino community day after day makes my blood boil,” Martin wrote. He called for Latinos to form a united front against Trump, stating, “We have to stop the power that Trump feels he has over Latinos, and the xenophobic speech that he and his campaign team seem to be convinced will be successful.”
33. Demi Lovato
The singer performed at the DNC, but spoke more directly to the Trump stakes in a series of tweets a couple months prior. “We live in a world obsessed with ‘celebrity’. Please don't elect one for President,” Lovato wrote. Then, perhaps rethinking her words, posted: “If we're gonna get technical, all the US Presidential candidates are now ‘celebrities’. All I'm saying is, the others all have experience being politicians….”
34. Common
The rapper pounced on the media for its role in helping promote Trump by giving him an estimated $3 billion in free advertising. During an interview with the Huffington Post, Common said, “I feel like the integrity of the media is gone in many areas because when you choose to be like, ‘We’re going to show Donald Trump because we know it’s about numbers,’ it’s like, where is the integrity of the journalists who know and will challenge these thoughts so that the American people can see truth and really have a good opportunity…to get behind someone who’s going to matter, who’s going to really be about affecting change and improving this country?”
He added, “[D]on’t just dwell on the spotlight and keep exploiting the popularity of him just for numbers, because eventually that’s going to just mess up the situation in the country if we do. It’s feeding into the big monster. So I think the media definitely has a responsibility.”
35. Selma Hayek
During a visit to James Corden’s “Late Late Show,” the Mexican-born actress said she read Trump’s book, in which he boasts about punching his first grade music teacher because he didn’t know enough about music. Hayek noted that Trump maintains that he’s “still exactly the same as that kid in first grade—that he hasn’t changed. I agree with him that we have a first-grade bully running for the president of the United States.”
She also held up a copy of U.S. History for Dummies and suggested, “Mr. Trump, I recommend to you to read this book. I will gladly lend you my copy.” |
Junior Karen Freeburg recorded her team-leading fifth double-double of the season, with season highs in kills (16) and digs (26) in Friday's win over UNCG.
Friday, October 10, 2003
Greensboro, N.C. (October 10, 2003) -- In a thrilling five-game match, the East Tennessee State volleyball team edged UNC Greensboro, 3-2, Friday night in Fleming Gym. With the loss, UNCG moves to 6-12 overall and 2-4 in the SoCon, while ETSU improves to 4-14 on the season, 2-4 in conference play.
UNCG opened the match strong with a 4-0 lead which they then extended to 10-4 on an assisted block by LaJean Morrow and Abbi Meyer. ETSU slowly creeped back into the game, eventually taking the lead at 13-12 after a kill from freshman Jennifer Sartor (Toronto, Ontario). Lauren Richards then put the Spartans back in front, 17-16, on back-to-back aces. The Buccaneers would rally, however, to regain the lead, 24-23 en route to the 30-28 game one victory.
The Spartans rallied to take game two, 30-24. UNCG jumped out to an early lead, 9-5, following consecutive aces from Morrow. A kill by ETSU's Kelsey Sherich (Ogallala, Neb.) closed the gap to 13-9, but UNCG responded with kills from Hilary Overby and Kim Dayton to push the lead to 15-9. An ace by Lauren Richards gave the Spartans game point and a kill from Dayton finished off the Buccaneers.
After dropping game three, 30-25, UNCG took game four, 30-27, forcing the deciding fifth game. In game four, ETSU was the team to jump out to an early 7-5 lead following a kill from Lissa Allen (Palm Bay, Fla.). The Spartans then rallied to take the advantage, 13-12, after a Richards kill before pushing the lead to 20-17 on an Overby smash. Overby maintained the hot-hand for UNCG closing game four with a thunderous kill.
In the deciding fifth game, the two teams traded points with ETSU taking an early 5-4 lead. UNCG knotted the score at 7-7, but the Buccaneers regained the advantage at 8-7 following a Andrea Piercy (Saskatoon, Saskatchewan) kill. From that point, the Buccaneers managed to hang on to take the game, 15-10, and the match, 3-2.
Overby led UNCG with a career-high 21 kills. Morrow and Dayton chipped in with 13 and 10 kills, respectively, while Richards registered nine kills and 11 total blocks. Adrian Hicks paced the Spartan attack with 53 assists.
Karen Freeburg (New Castle, Ind.) led the Buccaneers with 16 kills and 26 digs. Piercy added 14 kills, while Kristi Robinson (Knoxville, Tenn.) tallied 65 assists.
ETSU will now travel to Elon for a 2 p.m. match on Saturday. The Buccaneers will return home to face Furman on Wednesday, Oct. 15. The match will start at 7 p.m. in Brooks Gym. |
Sep, 2016
Recently, a participant in one of my workshops demonstrated “good energy,” as one of my mentors would say. I noticed that she made supportive comments regarding the contributions of others, offered to serve as a scribe during the exercises and generally worked to support the group’s learning as well as her own.
After the workshop ended, she asked me for my business card, and I asked her if I could give her feedback. I told her how much I appreciated what I called her “inclusive behaviors.” It was a short interaction, and I’d mostly forgotten about it until I checked my email. She’d sent an email to her boss and cc’d me. She thanked her boss and the organization for the learning opportunity, and thanked me as well.
Do I even need to tell you how that “small act of inclusion” impacted me? I forwarded a copy to my immediate manager and saved a copy for myself. Motivated by her gesture, I emailed a few “small acts of inclusion” to colleagues to recognize the support I felt from them. I sailed on that great feeling for at least two weeks!
This was a perfect example of what MIT’s Mary Rowe might have called a “micro affirmation”—subtle or seemingly small acknowledgements of a person’s value and accomplishments, displayed either publically or privately.
• Connect on a Personal Level: Take a few minutes to engage in a non-business conversation with a colleague.
• Ask Questions: When you have a negative reaction to a colleague’s statement or suggestion, lead your response with a question, not a statement.
• Attribute/Credit Ideas: Acknowledge, by name, the “owner” of an idea during meetings.
• Monitor Facial Expressions: Be conscious of your facial expressions and center on the speaker.
I think of micro affirmations as the antidote to micro inequities. In her 2008 work “Micro-Affirmations & Micro-Inequities,” Rowe shared three benefits to embedding micro affirmations into your leadership practice.
“The first effect is obvious—appropriately affirming the work of another person is likely both to help that person do well, and to help him or her to enjoy doing well.”
“The second effect is that consistent, appropriate affirmation of others can spread from one person to another—potentially raising morale and productivity.”
“The third effect is subtle, and deals with the point that it may be hard for a person to “catch” himself or herself unconsciously behaving inequitably. I may not always be able to “catch myself” behaving in a way that I do not wish to behave. But if I try always to affirm others in an appropriate and consistent way, I have a good chance of blocking behavior of mine that I want to prevent. Many micro-inequities are not conscious—but affirming others can become a conscious as well as unconscious practice that prevents unconscious slights.”
How do you impact people with micro affirmations in your daily leadership practice? Choose one or two to focus on for a week!
The small stuff won’t kill you, but death by a thousand cuts is no way to live.
As a facilitator of adult learning, I regularly conduct workshops. Recently, I overheard a female participant push back on her otherwise all male small group. The exercise invited them to capture their ideas on chart paper and to be prepared to share with the larger group.
“You guys always make me do the writing and presenting!” she said. As I approached the group, a couple of her male colleagues replied, “We do not!” To which another woman across the room with another group that worked regularly with them said, “Yes they do!” It was a perfect learning moment for our topic of unconscious bias.
Our beliefs and biases drive our behavior. Some of those behaviors we’re aware of and some we’re not. This woman, and at least one of her female colleagues, were well aware of the bias and the resulting behavior it created. Her other male colleagues were blind to it, and, until that moment, were blind to their blindness.
The behavior, expecting women to automatically handle group processes or “organizational housekeeping,” is a micro inequity.
What is a Micro Inequity?
Mary Rowe of MIT is often credited with creating the term “micro inequities,” building on the work of Chester Pierce on “micro aggressions.” Rowe defines micro inequities as “small events which are often ephemeral and hard-to-prove, events which are covert, often unintentional, frequently unrecognized by the perpetrator, which occur wherever people are perceived to be ‘different’.” Some key words here are “small” and “ephemeral” – meaning these behaviors are so subtle and fleeting that they can be difficult to recognize, particularly by the person exhibiting them.
Perhaps that’s why, when a micro inequity is pointed out, the response you get sounds like, “I didn’t mean it like that.” Or, “That’s not what I intended.”
Examples of Micro Inequities include:
Introducing one colleague with glowing accolades, the other with just a name
Pecking away at a smartphone while someone is trying to have an important conversation
Leaving someone out of social gatherings
Feeling like your opinion isn’t as valued and you have to push to get heard
Cutting off someone in mid-sentence
Phrases like: “What she’s really trying to say is,” or “No, where are you really from?”
Expecting others to accommodate your time zone
Calling you by a nickname that you didn’t share and others created
Facial expressions like sighing heavily or rolling eyes
Omitting someone from an important communication
Using acronyms others don’t understand
Being impatient because of an accent, or speaking fast or not enunciating with someone in a language that is not their primary language
Micro Inequities Impede Productivity
If these inequities are so small, why can’t the people on the receiving end simply “get over it”? Shouldn’t they “toughen up” and stop being “so sensitive?”
Don’t think of it as sensitivity; it’s about productivity. If we believe inclusive workplaces are key to productive workplaces, it’s important to look for ways to continuously improve, not only in the results we deliver, but also in how we engage and interact as we produce those results.
I think it’s helpful to think of micro inequities as causing a series of “tiny cuts” – each requiring a Band-Aid. Now imagine if during your work day, you saw colleagues with Band-Aids on them from time to time. And what if you started to see a pattern around who had them and who didn’t. Some people have to endure these tiny cuts, while some people get away without a scratch.
Wouldn’t you want to do something about it? I would.
Some tips to keep in mind:
If you are the receiver of a micro inequity, ask the person if you can give them some feedback, and if they say no, ask them when might be a better time. Also think about where you give the feedback – often sharing micro inequities is better done in private. Ask yourself, if I did something that negatively impacted someone I was working with, how would I like to receive that information?
Assume positive intent, or at least, do not assume negative intent. Although it can be challenging to be on the receiving end of these behaviors, remember Mary Rowe’s findings that many are unintentional. I tend to start by saying something like, “You may not have noticed …” or, “You probably didn’t mean it …” before I describe what I experienced.
Describe the behavior using non-judgmental, non-evaluative, behavior-based language. For example, it’s much more helpful to say, “I noticed when I began speaking you let out a big sigh and rolled your eyes,” than it is to say something like, “I noticed when I began speaking that you completely dismissed me.” The former describes the behavior while the later describes the impact of that behavior on you. It is important to separate the behavior from its impact.
After you describe the behavior, share how the behavior impacted you. Often the conversation ends here – especially if the other person didn’t intend to have a negative impact.
Ask them to interpret their own behavior, preferably by asking questions such as, “Did you notice it?”; “Is that what you meant?”; “Can you share what was going on for you in that moment?”
When both of you feel heard, talk about how you can work together going forward. If you have a suggestion for addressing the behavior, offer it. Like the woman in my workshop – she ultimately suggested the group rotate group writing and presenting responsibilities.
It might also be helpful to thank the person for listening to your feedback and being open to change.
Think of micro inequities as an opportunity to practice assertive communication. I hope you don’t have to endure a bigger inequity, but if you do, perhaps you’ll have a more solid foundation from which to advocate for yourself. |
Q:
Strange parsing issue
I'm trying to send some data to a servlet and then to get back a .xls file from it. In order to do this, I'm using jquery, but I'm facing some strange issues. Let me explain.
Here is how I'm sending the data to the servlet and how I'm supposed to get the generated file back:
jQuery.download = function(url, data, method){
//url and data options required
if( url && data ){
//data can be string of parameters or array/object
data = typeof data == 'string' ? data : jQuery.param(data);
//split params into form inputs
var inputs = '';
jQuery.each(data.split('&'), function(){
var pair = this.split('=');
inputs+='<input type="hidden" name="'+ pair[0] +'" value="'+ pair[1] +'" />';
});
//send request
jQuery('<form action="'+ url +'" method="'+ (method||'post') +'">'+inputs+'</form>')
.appendTo('body').submit().remove();
};
};
download = function () {
var a = this.mainData();
var b = JSON.stringify(a);
console.log(b);
what = "test",
obj = $.extend({WrJOB: "xlsExport", mainData: b}, tJS.getCommonPostData());
var data = $.param(obj); //.replace(/\+/g, '%20'); its just a test
$.download('/myapp/AppProxy', data);
},
A button in my html is calling the download function wich is sending some JSON data to the servlet. In my case it is var b.
I'm pretty sure that there is an encoding issue, but I have no idea how to fix it.
Please, help me with this strange problem, I'm already working many hours on it and I can not find a solution.
A:
You should unescape your output at some point. I would advise to do it on servlet side.
|
84 Md. App. 192 (1990)
578 A.2d 791
DARONE ANTONIO DERRICOTT
v.
STATE OF MARYLAND.
No. 1606, September Term, 1989.
Court of Special Appeals of Maryland.
September 4, 1990.
Certiorari Granted January 9, 1991.
Philip H. Armstrong (Heeney, Armstrong & Heeney, on the brief), Rockville, for appellant.
Mary Ellen Barbera, Asst. Atty. Gen. (J. Joseph Curran, Jr., Atty. Gen., Baltimore, and Andrew L. Sonner, State's Atty. for Montgomery County, Rockville, on the brief), for appellee.
Argued before MOYLAN and KARWACKI, JJ., and JAMES S. GETTY (retired), Specially Assigned, J.
MOYLAN, Judge.
The appellant, Darone Antonio Derricott, was convicted in the Circuit Court for Montgomery County by Judge J. James McKenna, sitting without a jury, of the unlawful possession of cocaine with intent to distribute. There are no appellate issues arising out of the trial itself. The case proceeded on an agreed statement of facts. The undisputed facts established that when the appellant was stopped for speeding at 6:53 P.M. on June 3, 1988, the 1985 Nissan 300ZX which he was operating contained a cellophane bag, situated between the driver's seat and the center console, containing 43 "hits" of crack cocaine in individual glassine bags. The appellant was the only occupant of the automobile. Other paraphernalia typically employed by narcotics pushers, including a beeper, were also found on the center console and the right front seat. The appellant does not contest the legitimacy of the guilty verdict.
The appellant does contest, most strenuously, the denial of his Motion to Suppress the glassine bags of crack cocaine on the ground that the search of his automobile that produced the cocaine was unreasonable under the Fourth Amendment.[1]
FACTUAL SUMMARY
Although certain facts will be developed and discussed more fully as they bear upon specific sub-issues in the case, a brief summary may help to provide background. The appellant was stopped for speeding. The traffic officer approached the appellant's vehicle as the appellant remained seated behind the wheel. The appellant turned over his driver's license and registration card uneventfully. The officer, during that brief initial encounter, did make certain observations about the appellant and about the automobile that took on subsequent significance. In the course of the initial stop, however, the officer did not notice anything that suggested the presence of either contraband or a weapon of any sort.
The officer returned to his police cruiser for the purpose of writing a traffic citation. He made a routine radio check with respect to the appellant's operator's license and registration card. The check revealed nothing out of the ordinary. The officer wrote out the citation for speeding but did not proceed immediately to reapproach the appellant's vehicle to issue the citation. The curbside detention was to some extent protracted beyond the time ordinarily required to issue a speeding ticket, as a second purpose emerged in the officer's mind. Because certain characteristics of the appellant and his vehicle matched the local drug courier profile for the Washington metropolitan area, the officer called for a drug-sniffing canine. He called, in addition, for police "backup." He awaited the arrival of that reinforcement before reapproaching the appellant because he now suspected that the appellant might be armed. He estimated that approximately seven minutes transpired between spotting the appellant's car on the radar screen and reapproaching the appellant for the second time with the traffic citation in hand.
Although the traffic ticket had been written, it was not then handed to the appellant. The appellant was instead requested to step out of his automobile. He was then frisked. No weapons were found on his person. As part of an extended frisk, the officer approached the automobile, the door of which was open. The officer leaned the upper part of his body into the automobile for the express purpose of looking for weapons. As he did so, he was looking down at a center console between the two bucket seats. Between the driver's seat and the console, he observed approximately 20 per cent of a cellophane bag he suspected to contain narcotics. He seized the bag and found therein the contraband that formed the basis for the appellant's prosecution.
THE IMMATERIALITY OF PROBABLE CAUSE
As we undertake our consideration of Fourth Amendment issues, we can narrow the focus significantly at the outset. Fully half of the appellant's brief was dedicated to discussing and analyzing the alleged absence of probable cause to support any of the police actions in this case. The appellant in that regard may well be right. Even if that be so, however, it is utterly immaterial.
The State's theory of the case, and the one obviously suggested by the evidence, is that 1) a routine stop for a speeding violation led to 2) the accumulation of articulable suspicion for a Terry[*] stop for a narcotics violation which was, in turn, attended by 3) a Terry frisk for weapons. The necessary predicate for both a Terry stop and a Terry frisk is articulable suspicion, not probable cause.
On the continuum of escalating likelihood of guilt, the articulable suspicion level is well down the scale from the probable cause level. The settled law that it is a significantly lesser measure of likely guilt was recently rearticulated by Chief Justice Rehnquist in United States v. Sokolow, 490 U.S. 1, ___, 109 S.Ct. 1581, 1585, 104 L.Ed.2d 1, 10 (1989):
"The officer, of course, must be able to articulate something more than an `inchoate and unparticularized suspicion or "hunch."' ... The Fourth Amendment requires `some minimal level of objective justification' for making the stop.... That level of suspicion is considerably less than proof of wrongdoing by a preponderance of the evidence. We have held that probable cause means `a fair probability that contraband or evidence of a crime will be found,' ... and the level of suspicion required for a Terry stop is obviously less demanding than that for probable cause." (Citations omitted). (Emphasis supplied).
And see Quince v. State, 319 Md. 430, 433-434, 572 A.2d 1086 (1990).
THE TRAFFIC STOP
As we "bracket the target" of issue or issues to be resolved, we can move in a step or two closer. With respect to the traffic stop that set this episode in motion, there is no hint of subterfuge. This is not one of those cases where a narcotics officer, for instance, seizes the occasion, opportunistically, to observe a traffic violation on the part of a narcotics suspect.
Corporal Michael W. Thomas of the Maryland State Police was routinely performing stationary radar observations from the median strip of Interstate 270 at a point just northwest of the Capital Beltway. At 6:53 P.M. on June 3, 1988, he observed the appellant's vehicle travelling northbound at a speed of 89 miles per hour in a 55 miles-per-hour zone. He pursued the vehicle and directed it to the side of the road. The appellant produced his driver's license and his registration card and was ultimately issued a traffic citation for speeding. The appellant does not contest the legitimacy of the traffic stop.
PENNSYLVANIA v. MIMMS
We can also eliminate another distinct component of the police conduct as noncontroversial. After the appellant had been initially approached by Corporal Thomas but just before the officer reapproached him for the second time, Corporal Thomas ordered the appellant out of his car.
Pennsylvania v. Mimms, 434 U.S. 106, 98 S.Ct. 330, 54 L.Ed.2d 331 (1977), established unequivocally that when the police have legitimately stopped an automobile, for a traffic offense or for any other reason, they are automatically entitled to order the driver and/or any of the passengers to alight from the vehicle. No particularized justification is required. The rationale behind this blanket police prerogative is general concern for police safety under such potentially dangerous circumstances. The need having been established as a general rule, nothing by way of further justification is required on an individual occasion of its being invoked. In the Mimms case itself, there was no individualized justification:
"The State freely concedes the officer had no reason to suspect foul play from the particular driver at the time of the stop, there having been nothing unusual or suspicious about his behavior. It was apparently his practice to order all drivers out of their vehicles as a matter of course whenever they had been stopped for a traffic violation."
434 U.S. at 109-110, 98 S.Ct. at 332. The constitutional imprimatur on this police tactic is unequivocal, the Supreme Court saying, 434 U.S. at 111, 98 S.Ct. at 333:
"We think this additional intrusion can only be described as de minimis. The driver is being asked to expose to view very little more of his person than is already exposed. The police have already lawfully decided that the driver shall be briefly detained; the only question is whether he shall spend that period sitting in the driver's seat of his car or standing alongside it. Not only is the insistence of the police on the latter choice not a `serious intrusion upon the sanctity of the person,' but it hardly rises to the level of a `"petty indignity."' .. . What is at most a mere inconvenience cannot prevail when balanced against legitimate concerns for the officer's safety." (Citation and footnote omitted).
Indeed, the appellant raises no issue with respect to his having been ordered to alight from his vehicle during the course of the encounter.
THE FOCUS BECOMES BLURRED
At this point, it would appear that we have settled upon three key issues for ultimate resolution: 1) the legitimacy of the superseding Terry stop based upon articulable suspicion that the appellant was a drug courier, 2) the legitimacy of the attendant Terry-frisk based upon articulable suspicion that the appellant might be armed, and 3) the permitted geographic scope of that frisk. The appellant has come perilously close to conceding himself out of court, as he arguably concedes the propriety of both 1) the Terry stop and 2) the attendant frisk or pat-down of his person:
"Both the State and Appellant agree that the initial detention of the Appellant following the traffic violation was lawful. Appellant does not dispute the propriety of the initial patdown search, for that search produced no evidence of any criminal wrongdoing. The dispute surrounds the use of the local drug courier profile as the sole predicate for the belief that the Appellant was dangerous and able to gain immediate control of a weapon from the vehicle, thereby justifying a warrantless search of the passenger compartment and/or Appellant." (Emphasis supplied).
If articulable suspicion for a Terry stop for narcotics trafficking were, indeed, conceded, that would go 95 per cent of the way (or more) toward establishing articulable suspicion for a Terry-frisk, with the right to frisk following virtually automatically from the very nature of the crime suspected. If the legitimacy of the frisk or pat-down of his person, moreover, were also conceded, the extension of the frisk into the passenger compartment of the automobile would then involve nothing more than a question of the geographic scope of the frisk and would bypass totally any challenge to its initial justification. We cannot believe that the appellant intended to concede so much.
It seems that the appellant's failure to challenge specifically the detention of his person arises from his mistaken belief that the detention for the speeding violation was the only detention involved in this case. It is rather the fact that the initial stop for speeding gave way to a superseding stop based upon subsequently accruing articulable suspicion that the appellant was a drug courier.
Indeed, if that were not the case, the State might be facing a serious problem of a scope violation with respect to the length of the appellant's detention for the traffic offense. Once Corporal Thomas concluded that the appellant might be a drug courier, he requested both backup officers and a drug-sniffing dog. The backup, human and canine, arrived about five minutes later. A brief wait for the arrival of a drug-sniffing dog is a reasonable incident of a narcotics-related detention. United States v. Place, 462 U.S. 696, 706-707, 103 S.Ct. 2637, 2644-2645, 77 L.Ed.2d 110, 120-121 (1983). It is hardly necessary, on the other hand, to wait for a drug-sniffing dog to consummate the issuance of a speeding ticket. We will consider a challenge to the superseding, drug-related Terry stop properly to have been lodged.
Similarly, we will treat the apparent concession as to "the initial pat-down search" of his person as no more than an acknowledgment that the pat-down itself yielded no inculpatory fruits, rather than as a concession that it was constitutionally justified. The three issues, therefore, remain before us for consideration.
ARTICULABLE SUSPICION OF NARCOTICS TRAFFICKING
In the course of stopping the appellant for the speeding violation, Corporal Thomas made the following observations. He noted that the appellant was a young, black male (he was 20 years of age at the time), driving an expensive sports car, a Nissan 300ZX (a two-seater sports car of a very expensive type). The appellant was wearing a blue sweatsuit, gold chains, and a thick, monogrammed gold ring.[2] As Corporal Thomas stood outside the driver's window and looked inside, he saw a beeper lying on the center console.[3] He also noted on the passenger seat next to the appellant various papers containing phone numbers. His subsequent radio check on the vehicle's registration revealed that it was registered jointly to the appellant and another.
Through both in-service training and bulletins furnished by the Narcotics Section, Corporal Thomas was familiar with the "local drug courier profile" compiled by the Narcotics Section of the Maryland State Police. The profile listed the following characteristics of local drug couriers, which characteristics matched the appellant in this case:
1. Young, black males wearing expensive jewelry,
2. Driving expensive cars, usually sports cars,
3. Carrying beepers, and
4. In possession of telephone numbers.
On the basis of those observations, enhanced by his knowledge of their significance, Corporal Thomas reasonably suspected that the appellant might be a drug courier and concluded that he should be detained briefly for questioning and for the arrival of the drug-sniffing canine.
A PROFILE OF THE PROFILE
The notion of a "drug courier profile" first surfaced in the plurality opinion of Justice Powell, joined by Chief Justice Burger and Justice Blackmun, in United States v. Mendenhall, 446 U.S. 544, 560-566, 100 S.Ct. 1870, 1880-1883, 64 L.Ed.2d 497, 513-517 (1980). Although the investigative phenomenon reappeared on five subsequent occasions, Reid v. Georgia, 448 U.S. 438, 100 S.Ct. 2752, 65 L.Ed.2d 890 (1980); Florida v. Royer, 460 U.S. 491, 103 S.Ct. 1319, 75 L.Ed.2d 229 (1983); United States v. Place, 462 U.S. 696, 103 S.Ct. 2637, 77 L.Ed.2d 110 (1983); Florida v. Rodriguez, 469 U.S. 1, 105 S.Ct. 308, 83 L.Ed.2d 165 (1984); and United States v. Sokolow, 490 U.S. 1, 109 S.Ct. 1581, 104 L.Ed.2d 1 (1989), the Supreme Court has made it clear that the undergirding legal and constitutional issue involved is simply the presence of articulable suspicion for a stop and/or frisk. The so-called profile is something that may have investigative and factual significance but no legal significance per se. It is but one of the ways in which an officer accumulates articulable suspicion.
Since a stop and frisk based upon a profile is but an instance of the broader phenomenon of stop and frisk generally, it would never suffice for an officer to make the blanket and conclusory statement that the suspect "fit the profile." It would be required, as it always is when an officer must articulate his articulable suspicion, that the officer recite the observed characteristics. Reference to the profile might then explain why he, on the basis of his own or the collective experience of the police team, could attach significance to the observed characteristics that an ordinary layman could not.
Indeed, the use of a profile is simply a means by which the law enforcement team communicates its collective expertise and empirical experience to the officer in the field and by which the officer, in turn, explains the special significance of his observations to the court. The value of that expertise was commented upon in the concurring opinion in Mendenhall, 446 U.S. at 563, 100 S.Ct. at 1882:
"In reviewing the factors that led the agents to stop and question the respondent, it is important to recall that a trained law enforcement agent may be `able to perceive and articulate meaning in given conduct which would be wholly innocent to the untrained observer.' ... Among the circumstances that can give rise to reasonable suspicion are the agent's knowledge of the methods used in recent criminal activity and the characteristics of persons engaged in such illegal practices." (Citation omitted).
That the source of the expertise could be collective experience rather than requiring each officer in the field "to reinvent the wheel" for himself is the special investigative virtue of the profile:
"Federal agents have developed `drug courier profiles,' that describe the characteristics generally associated with narcotics traffickers."
Id. at 562, 100 S.Ct. at 1881. In this regard, we ourselves observed in Grant v. State, 55 Md. App. 1, 7, 461 A.2d 524 (1983):
"The only legal significance to this umbrella term called `the profile' is that the expertise of the police will be legitimately taken into consideration when we assess the significance of observations that might to the untrained layman seem completely ambiguous. The establishment of the profile by the Drug Enforcement Agency simply gives us the benefit of the collective expertise of many investigators working nationwide in this sensitive area of law enforcement. The special significance that a given observation might have to a trained and experienced policeman could always be established on a case-by-case basis, even if the `profile' did not exist."
A profile, any profile, is simply an investigative tool. It is an investigative tool, moreover, that the officer who uses it may describe to the court as he explains the special significance that otherwise innocuous observations may have for him. Although in recent years special attention has been lavished upon the drug courier profile in the special setting of airports, it is by no means the only profile utilized. There are pickpocket profiles, especially valuable for use at race tracks and other crowded areas. There are airplane highjacker profiles and terrorist profiles. Customs officers regularly select individuals for personal attention by using smuggler profiles. In the special world of drug smuggling, there is even a "balloon swallower" profile. United States v. Montoya de Hernandez, 473 U.S. 531, 105 S.Ct. 3304, 87 L.Ed.2d 381 (1985). There are also, as this case illustrates, drug courier profiles for highways and streets as well as for airports. United States v. Sharpe, 470 U.S. 675, 105 S.Ct. 1568, 84 L.Ed.2d 605 (1985), was a case where the Supreme Court affirmed the finding of articulable suspicion to stop a motorist essentially on the basis that a congeries of apparently innocuous driving characteristics were tell-tale indicia of couriers carrying drugs north and south along the Atlantic coastal highway.
It is important to remember that a profile is, in essence, a fact and not a legal principle. As a fact, it is as susceptible to change as the seasons. Tell-tale characteristics in one region or milieu may be very different from those in others. As counter-measures are constantly devised to meet the tactics of the opposition, the tell-tale characteristics of last year may not be the tell-tale characteristics of next year. Because of this inherent fluidity, it is particularly unfit for being frozen into a legal principle.
Because of the variable nature of the very concept of a profile, the indispensable rule for handling the concept is, "Think plural." It was with this in mind that we observed in Grant v. State, supra, at 55 Md. App. 6, 461 A.2d 524:
"An additional preliminary word is also in order about the so-called `drug courier profile.' It is a convenient descriptive term without a great deal of legal significance. Some lament the fact that the Supreme Court has not yet told us whether meeting the so-called `drug courier profile' is an adequate predicate to establish either articulable suspicion for a stop or probable cause for an arrest or search. Of course, the Supreme Court has not told us that and they never will. Indeed, they cannot, for there is no such thing as a single drug courier profile; there are infinite drug courier profiles. The very notion is protean, not monolithic."
In the last analysis, it is never a profile per se that is the object of appellate review. The data to be scrutinized by the suppression hearing judge and appellate judge alike are the factual observations of the policeman. They may, to be sure, be interpreted through the collective police experience reflected in a profile. The ultimate issue, however, is whether the factual observations in combination, refracted through the trained eye of the policeman, yield articulable suspicion. Except as a guide to interpretation, the existence of a profile neither adds to nor subtracts from that computation. As Chief Justice Rehnquist explained in United States v. Sokolow, 490 U.S. at ___, 109 S.Ct. at 1587, 104 L.Ed.2d at 12:
"We do not agree with respondent that our analysis is somehow changed by the agents' belief that his behavior was consistent with one of the DEA's `drug courier profiles.' A court sitting to determine the existence of reasonable suspicion must require the agent to articulate the factors leading to that conclusion, but the fact that these factors may be set forth in a `profile' does not somehow detract from their evidentiary significance as seen by a trained agent." (Footnote omitted).
A POLICEMAN IS NOT A JUDGE
The appellant complains vigorously that Corporal Thomas, even granting that his initial suspicion was reasonable, made no effort to verify or dispel that suspicion by asking the appellant to explain the luxurious car, the beeper, the phone numbers, etc. The appellant compiles a significant checklist of steps he thinks a "reasonable" officer should have taken:
"During the course of the encounter, Corporal Thomas did not make reasonable inquiries of the Appellant which could have disaffirmed Appellant's match [of] the local drug courier profile. Corporal Thomas did not ask Appellant how he came into possession of his jewelry, beeper, or phone numbers. No inquiry was made as to how or why the Appellant was driving an expensive vehicle. Although aware that the vehicle was registered in the name of Appellant and a relative, Corporal Thomas did not ask Appellant whether the vehicle belonged to his mother, or whether it was bought for him."
There is no merit to the complaint. Its basic thrust is that the policeman acted liked a reasonable policeman and not like a judge.[4] In the after-the-fact tranquility of the courtroom, the judge is enjoined to hear all possible explanations for suspicious behavior before making dispassionate judgment as to what was the historic reality.
The role of the policeman, by contrast, is, generally speaking, to assemble his best case. In the context of stop and frisk situations particularly, the circumstances are such that "in dealing with the rapidly unfolding and often dangerous situations on city streets the police are in need of an escalating set of flexible responses." Terry v. Ohio, supra, at 392 U.S. 10, at 88 S.Ct. 1874. What is required is not the thorough probing and counter-probing of the courtroom but "necessarily swift action predicated upon the on-the-spot observations of the officer on the beat." Id. at 20, 88 S.Ct. at 1879.
In one sense, the appellant's suggestion is disingenuous. He argues that the officer should ask the suspect to explain suspicious circumstances but gives no reason why the officer, trained to be skeptical, should believe the explanations. The officer could hardly be required to go further afield by way of verifying the explanations for himself. In the first place, this would be the very antithesis of the "necessarily swift action" contemplated by Terry v. Ohio and its progeny. In the second place, it would involve the paradox of detaining the suspect even while deciding whether there was good cause to detain him. If there were enough reason to hold the suspect while the verification was in progress, the verification would be redundant. If there were not, the suspect would have to be released before the verification could even take place.
The phenomenon of verifying or dispelling the initial suspicion is not a precondition for a Terry stop but rather the very object of an already consummated Terry stop. If the initial suspicion is dispelled, the Terry stop comes to an end and the suspect is free to leave. If, on the other hand, the initial suspicion is sufficiently verified, the stop ripens into an arrest.
In this case, moreover, Corporal Thomas did take an appropriate step to verify or dispel his initial suspicion. He summoned a trained drug-sniffing dog to the scene. The dog, with neither motive nor capacity to fabricate, would not suffer the same credibility gap as would the appellant's explanations. Had no other event intervened, the dog, within five minutes, would, quickly and fairly, have verified or dispelled the initial suspicion.
The defendant in United States v. Sokolow, supra, made the same argument as does the appellant here that a reasonable inquiry should be a necessary preliminary to a Terry detention. It was Sokolow's position that, "the agents should have simply approached and spoken with him, rather than forcibly detaining him." 490 U.S. at ___, 109 S.Ct. at 1587, 104 L.Ed.2d at 12. Although that might have been less intrusive, the Supreme Court was clear that the reasonableness of a Terry stop does not turn upon the availability of less intrusive means:
"The reasonableness of the officer's decision to stop a suspect does not turn on the availability of less intrusive investigatory techniques. Such a rule would unduly hamper the police's ability to make swift on-the-spot decisions here, respondent was about to get into a taxicab and it would require courts to `indulge in "unrealistic second-guessing."'"
Id.
ARTICULABLE SUSPICION FOR THE SUPERSEDING TERRY STOP
We hold that there was sufficient articulable suspicion that the appellant was a drug courier to justify the Terry stop that superseded the traffic stop. In measuring articulable suspicion, of course, we are actually making and then comparing two measures. Judging Fourth Amendment reasonableness is a balancing process and balancing, by definition, is an exercise in relativity. A minimal justification can outweigh a minimal intrusion just as surely as a weightier justification can outweigh a weightier intrusion. Our concern is not with absolute weight but with relative weight.
On one side of the scale is both the public interest in curbing crime and police expertise in evaluating evidence. The concurring opinion of Justice Powell in United States v. Mendenhall, 446 U.S. 544, 565-566, 100 S.Ct. 1870, 1883, 64 L.Ed.2d 497, 517 (1980), spoke of the significance of both of these factors:
"The jurisprudence of the Fourth Amendment demands consideration of the public's interest in effective law enforcement as well as each person's constitutionally secured right to be free from unreasonable searches and seizures. In applying a test of `reasonableness,' courts need not ignore the considerable expertise that law enforcement officials have gained from their special training and experience."
United States v. Montoya de Hernandez, 473 U.S. 531, 537, 105 S.Ct. 3304, 3308, 87 L.Ed.2d 381, 388 (1985), also spoke of the competing interests that vie for dominance:
"What is reasonable depends upon all of the circumstances surrounding the search or seizure and the nature of the search or seizure itself.... The permissibility of a particular law enforcement practice is judged by `balancing its intrusion on the individual's Fourth Amendment interests against its promotion of legitimate governmental interests.'" (Citation omitted).
That same opinion went on to point out that trafficking in narcotics particularly is no ordinary crime problem but one that has assumed the dimensions of a national crisis:
"This concern is, if anything, heightened by the veritable national crisis in law enforcement caused by smuggling of illicit narcotics."
473 U.S. at 538, 105 S.Ct. at 3309. In dealing with airport stops, the Supreme Court in United States v. Place, 462 U.S. 696, 704, 103 S.Ct. 2637, 2643, 77 L.Ed.2d 110, 119 (1983), also alluded to the strong governmental interest in stemming the flow of narcotics:
"Because of the inherently transient nature of drug courier activity ..., allowing police to make brief investigative stops of persons ... on reasonable suspicion of drug-trafficking substantially enhances the likelihood that police will be able to prevent the flow of narcotics into distribution channels." (Footnote omitted).
And see Florida v. Royer, 460 U.S. 491, 498-499, 103 S.Ct. 1319, 1324, 75 L.Ed.2d 229, 237 (1983).
Counsel for the appellant observed at oral argument that the Supreme Court seems to be creating a diluted Fourth Amendment for drug prosecutions while preserving a more substantial Fourth Amendment for other types of crime. Although the comment as offered was wry, it may actually have been not far off the mark. It is, of course, not the case that the Supreme Court is creating one Fourth Amendment for drug prosecutions and another for other types of crime. It is rather the case that when the currently prevailing general reasonableness approach to the Fourth Amendment applies, as it does here, that reasonableness is determined by balancing the "intrusion on the individual's Fourth Amendment interests" against the "promotion of legitimate governmental interests."
By the very nature of the balancing process, it follows that the individual's Fourth Amendment interest does not enjoy a fixed position, as if in a vacuum chamber, but rises or falls in relationship to the countervailing interest being weighed against it. When a scourge such as narcotics assumes plague-like proportions, therefore, the governmental interest in combatting it is correspondingly weighty. The very phenomenon of balancing necessarily implies that the gravity of the governmental interest on one side of the scale will inevitably influence what happens on the other side of the scale.
The investigation of narcotics cases is not the only instance where the Supreme Court has recognized the gravity of a social problem as a factor in the weighing process. South Dakota v. Neville, 459 U.S. 553, 558-559, 103 S.Ct. 916, 919-920, 74 L.Ed.2d 748, 755-756 (1983) (drunken driving); Welsh v. Wisconsin, 466 U.S. 740, 755-756, 104 S.Ct. 2091, 2100-2101, 80 L.Ed.2d 732, 746-747 (1984) (concurring opinion by Blackmun, J.) (drunken driving); Michigan Police v. Sitz, 496 U.S. ___, 110 S.Ct. 2481, 110 L.Ed.2d 412 (1990) (drunken driving); New York v. Class, 475 U.S. 106, 111-112, 106 S.Ct. 960, 964-965, 89 L.Ed.2d 81, 88-89 (1986) (automobile larceny); Delaware v. Prouse, 440 U.S. 648, 659-661, 99 S.Ct. 1391, 1399-1400, 59 L.Ed.2d 660, 671-672 (1979) (highway safety). The balancing of the governmental interest in solving a social problem against the constitutional intrusion has also taken place with respect to the Fifth Amendment privilege against compelled self-incrimination. California v. Byers, 402 U.S. 424, 448, 91 S.Ct. 1535, 1547, 29 L.Ed.2d 9, 29 (1971) (concurring opinion by Harlan, J.) (hit-and-run drivers).
On the other side of the balance scale, the constraint on liberty imposed by a Terry stop is relatively minimal. It is limited in space in the sense that it does not involve removing the suspect from the place where he is initially stopped to some more remote location. It is limited in time in that its duration must be brief. Nothing more severe by way of constraint will happen to the suspect unless, during the course of the brief restraint, some supervening justification should develop. Because the impact on personal liberty of the Terry detention itself (as opposed to its possible consequences) is minimal, the required justification is significantly less than probable cause. As was discussed in Florida v. Rodriguez, 469 U.S. 1, 5, 105 S.Ct. 308, 310, 83 L.Ed.2d 165, 170 (1984):
"Certain constraints on personal liberty that constitute `seizures' for purposes of the Fourth Amendment may nonetheless be justified even though there is no showing of `probable cause' if `there is articulable suspicion that a person has committed or is about to commit a crime.' ... Such a temporary detention for questioning in the case of an airport search is reviewed under the lesser standard enunciated in Terry v. Ohio, ... and is permissible because of the `public interest involved in the suppression of illegal transactions in drugs or of any other serious crime.'" (Citations omitted) (Emphasis supplied).
The most recent (June 11, 1990) decision of the Supreme Court dealing with stop and frisk law illustrates tellingly how little is required by way of justification for a stop or a frisk. Alabama v. White, 496 U.S. ___, 110 S.Ct. 2412, 110 L.Ed.2d 301 (1990), dealt with a stop precipitated by an anonymous telephone tip and corroborated only by police observation of several relatively innocuous details. In upholding the Fourth Amendment legitimacy of the stop, the Supreme Court observed:
"Reasonable suspicion is a less demanding standard than probable cause not only in the sense that reasonable suspicion can be established with information that is different in quantity or content than that required to establish probable cause, but also in the sense that reasonable suspicion can arise from information that is less reliable than that required to show probable cause."
In our case, both the appellant's age[5] and his sex were compatible with the statistically-based profile of a drug courier in the Washington metropolitan area. These factors, standing alone, would be so de minimis as to be meaningless. Even in combination with other pieces of circumstantial evidence, they are of minimal weight. They are nonetheless of some slight weight and are, therefore, entitled to enter into the larger totality of circumstances.[6] Both the dress of the appellant and the gold chains and gold rings worn by the appellant are data in the same category. They are virtually meaningless standing alone because thousands of innocent persons are so dressed and so adorned. They are also compatible, however, with the characteristic dress and adornment of the drug dealer, as reflected in the profile.
Any single item in this category is not purported to be self-sufficient proof of guilt or even self-sufficient evidence of either probable cause or articulable suspicion. It is simply a clue. Clues, however, are the life blood of good detective work. Clues alert the police as to where to look and when to look more closely. When clues begin to accumulate and to point in the same direction, moreover, that accumulation becomes the stuff of which articulable suspicion (and even, further along the continuum, probable cause and proof of guilt) may be made. A mosaic begins to emerge from the individually insignificant little pieces of stone. The combination of gold chains and gold rings on a young man, for instance, may have a different investigative value than the combination of the same gold jewelry on an older woman, or even a younger woman.
A more significant clue was the expensive sports car. For a young man of an age suggesting that he would be still in school or newly entered into the work force to be provided with a sports car the cost of which is measured in units of tens of thousands of dollars is a clue that the police would have been derelict to overlook.[7] There, of course, could be innocent explanations, such as the young man's using of the family car. The document check showing the sports car to have been registered to the appellant himself and another of a different surname, however, at least tilted against such innocent explanation. In contemplating the range of explanations for a phenomenon worthy of their interest, the police could not ignore the more sinister possibility that the source of the appellant's precocious affluence was the narcotics traffic. It is in the weighing of that possibility that the appellant's characteristics compatible with those of a narcotics trafficker took on a significance they might not otherwise have possessed.
The clincher, especially when considered in combination with all of the other observed characteristics, was the appellant's use of the beeper. As Corporal Thomas initially looked through the driver's window, he saw a beeper lying on the center console. He observed on the passenger seat, immediately next to the appellant, various papers strewn about containing apparent telephone numbers. It is not uncommon, of course, for a doctor or a lawyer to use a beeper. The appellant's age, not to mention his dress and adornment, tended to negate his membership in either of those professions. Movement in a car with both beeper and telephone numbers readily at hand is also, however, behavior consistent with the modus operandi of a drug dealer. In United States v. Ceballos, 719 F. Supp. 119, 124 (E.D.N.Y. 1989), the court recognized the strong link between the use of a beeper and the narcotics traffic:
"As Agent Whipple testified, narcotics traffickers are known to utilize pay phones and beepers in order to avoid detection by law enforcement officers. Advances in technology now enable traffickers to communicate times, dates, locations, prices, and quantities for narcotics transactions via codes to other beepers.
Courts have recently come to recognize `beeper calls' as one indication that drug trafficking `may be afoot.' ... In Hoyos the Ninth Circuit recognized that `[n]arcotics dealers in Los Angeles County use beepers and public telephones in plying this illicit trade.' ... This court has now heard ample testimony and received in evidence a sufficient number of beepers in many cases to confirm that Eastern District of New York narcotics dealers use much the same beeper techniques as their West Coast colleagues. Of this fact of life in the world of narcotics, we take judicial notice." (Citations omitted).
The West Coast case referred to by United States v. Ceballos, was United States v. Hoyos, 868 F.2d 1131 (9th Cir.1989). In Hoyos, the Ninth Circuit held that certain evidence was legally sufficient to prove that Hoyos was a knowing participant in a conspiracy to distribute narcotics. A significant factor was Hoyos' placing of "beeper" telephone calls, as the court observed, at 1136:
"In addition, Hoyos made `beeper' telephone calls from public telephone booths. Narcotics dealers in Los Angeles County use beepers and public telephones in plying their illicit trade.
The officers involved in this matter had many years of experience investigating illegal narcotics transactions. Hoyos' conduct had special significance in their eyes. `Conduct which appears innocent to a lay person may have an entirely different significance to an experienced narcotics officer.'"
See also United States v. Ginsberg, 758 F.2d 823, 829 (2d Cir.1985) (In affirming a conviction for the possession of narcotics with intent to distribute, the court gave significant evidentiary weight to the defendant's possession of a telephone beeper, telephone numbers and a business card containing the access number of a co-conspirator's beeper); United States v. Cruz, 834 F.2d 47, 48 (2d Cir.1987) (In affirming a conviction for conspiracy to distribute cocaine, the court gave weight to an agent's testimony "that in his experience, calling beepers is a very common practice among narcotics dealers").
In resolving any doubt between whether the beeper in this case was being used by a doctor or a lawyer for instance, on the one hand, or by a narcotics dealer, on the other hand, the cumulative impact of the appellant's age, the appellant's sex, the appellant's dress, the appellant's gold chains and gold rings, the appellant's possession of an expensive sports car unusual for one of his age, and the loose papers on the passenger seat bearing telephone numbers assumed a meaningful significance. To suggest that all of this did not establish the minimal articulable suspicion needed to justify a brief detention for further inquiry is untenable.
The tell-tale combination of individually innocuous factors will frequently have special significance for law enforcement officers. As was observed in United States v. Cortez, 449 U.S. 411, 418, 101 S.Ct. 690, 695, 66 L.Ed.2d 621, 629 (1981):
"The analysis proceeds with various objective observations, information from police reports, if such are available, and consideration of the modes or patterns of operation of certain kinds of lawbreakers. From these data, a trained officer draws inferences and makes deductions inferences and deductions that might well elude an untrained person.
The process does not deal with hard certainties, but with probabilities. Long before the law of probabilities was articulated as such, practical people formulated certain common-sense conclusions about human behavior; jurors as factfinders are permitted to do the same and so are law enforcement officers. Finally, the evidence thus collected must be seen and weighed not in terms of library analysis by scholars, but as understood by those versed in the field of law enforcement."
In United States v. Sokolow, supra, the Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit had deemed unreasonable the finding of articulable suspicion from a combination of probabilistic factors such as those in this case, holding that each one alone was compatible with innocence and that it is required that there be at least one factor indicating then-ongoing criminal activity. The Supreme Court reversed the Ninth Circuit and reinstated the legitimacy of the finding of articulable suspicion on the basis of probabilistic factors alone, holding 490 U.S. at ___, 109 S.Ct. at 1587, 104 L.Ed.2d at 12:
"`[I]nnocent behavior will frequently provide the basis for a showing of probable cause,' and ... `[i]n making a determination of probable cause the relevant inquiry is not whether particular conduct is "innocent" or "guilty," but the degree of suspicion that attaches to particular types of noncriminal acts.' That principle applies equally well to the reasonable suspicion inquiry." (Emphasis supplied).
Articulable suspicion was established for the superseding Terry stop here.
THE PURPOSE OF THE STOP WAS LEGITIMATE
In broadest terms, the purpose of the stop, of course, was to verify or to dispel the initial suspicion that the appellant was trafficking in narcotics. A garden-variety way of verifying or dispelling suspicion is to question the suspect and, perhaps, to examine his identification. In this case, Corporal Thomas requested a drug-sniffing dog to assist in the verifying or dispelling process. That that is a legitimate modality for conducting a Terry stop was established by United States v. Place, 462 U.S. 696, 707, 103 S.Ct. 2637, 2644-2645, 77 L.Ed.2d 110, 121 (1983):
"[T]he canine sniff is sui generis. We are aware of no other investigative procedure that is so limited both in the manner in which the information is obtained and in the content of the information revealed by the procedure. Therefore, we conclude that the particular course of investigation that the agents intended to pursue here exposure of respondent's luggage, which was located in a public place, to a trained canine did not constitute a `search' within the meaning of the Fourth Amendment."
In Place, the use of the canine was the central feature of the Terry stop and the Supreme Court squarely placed its seal of approval upon the technique.
What we do not know, of course, because supervening events took over before the dog arrived, was whether the dog was supposed to sniff the appellant, to sniff the exterior of the appellant's automobile,[8] or to sniff both. If the intended purpose of the stop, in whole or in part, were to have the dog sniff the appellant's automobile, one question naturally arises. The cases are legion, of course, holding that a suspect himself may be detained for a brief period of time for purposes of verifying or dispelling the initial suspicion. What is not so well-settled is whether the personal property of the suspect may similarly be detained for such a purpose.
Once again, the answer has been supplied by United States v. Place, supra. That case broke new ground in holding that a suspect's suitcase, as opposed to the suspect himself, could be briefly detained under the authority of Terry v. Ohio. It held, 462 U.S. at 702, 103 S.Ct. at 2642:
"In this case, the Government asks us to recognize the reasonableness under the Fourth Amendment of warrantless seizures of personal luggage from the custody of the owner on the basis of less than probable cause, for the purpose of pursuing a limited course of investigation, short of opening the luggage, that would quickly confirm or dispel the authorities' suspicion. Specifically, we are asked to apply the principles of Terry v. Ohio ... to permit such seizures on the basis of reasonable, articulable suspicion, premised on objective facts, that the luggage contains contraband or evidence of a crime. In our view, such application is appropriate."
The present case, of course, involves an automobile rather than a suitcase, but we see no principled distinction between the two. As United States v. Place broke new ground, it abrogated any distinction between the seizure of a person and the seizure of personalty. We do not see any subcategorization within the species "personalty" that would call for any differences in treatment. What the Supreme Court said with respect to luggage, at 462 U.S. 703, therefore, would apply with equal logic to an automobile:
"The Government contends that, where the authorities possess specific and articulable facts warranting a reasonable belief that a traveler's luggage contains narcotics, the governmental interest in seizing the luggage briefly to pursue further investigation is substantial. We agree. As observed in United States v. Mendenhall, ... `[t]he public has a compelling interest in detecting those who would traffic in deadly drugs for personal profit.'" (Citation omitted) (Emphasis supplied).
ARTICULABLE SUSPICION FOR THE FRISK OF THE APPELLANT
Once it is established that there is articulable suspicion for a stop, consideration turns to whether there is also articulable suspicion for an attendant frisk. Terry v. Ohio, 392 U.S. 1, 27, 88 S.Ct. 1868, 1883, 20 L.Ed.2d 889, 909 (1968), explained both the compelling purpose and the minimal justification required to take this important step to protect the life and limb of the stopping officer:
"[T]here must be a narrowly drawn authority to permit a reasonable search for weapons for the protection of the police officer, where he has reason to believe that he is dealing with an armed and dangerous individual, regardless of whether he has probable cause to arrest the individual for a crime. The officer need not be absolutely certain that the individual is armed; the issue is whether a reasonably prudent man in the circumstances would be warranted in the belief that his safety or that of others was in danger." (Emphasis supplied).
We hold that "a reasonably prudent man" in the circumstances of this case, a one-on-one confrontation with a suspected drug dealer on a rural highway, "would be warranted in the belief that his safety ... was in danger." Corporal Thomas, indeed, articulated just such a belief. When the backup trooper arrived, Corporal Thomas indicated to him his belief that the appellant might be armed and his intention to conduct a pat-down search. Corporal Thomas testified that that belief was based, in part, upon the local drug courier profile, which warned that persons fitting the profile will frequently be in possession of weapons.
The appellant doggedly insists that the combination of a young male driving an expensive sports car, wearing gold jewelry, and possessing both a beeper and telephone numbers, etc., does not yield articulable suspicion that such an individual is armed. The appellant, however, asks the wrong question, as he ignores an important intermediate step. We have passed the stage where we assess those characteristics as if for the first time. It has already been established that Corporal Thomas had good cause to believe that the appellant was a drug dealer. The pertinent and significantly different question then becomes, "Was there articulable suspicion to believe that a suspected drug dealer might be armed?" That question proceeds from a higher plateau.
The case law holds that sometimes the suspected crime itself can, ipso facto, afford articulable suspicion that the suspected criminal may be armed. In dealing with the stop of a suspected armed robber in Terry itself, Justice Harlan, in his concurring opinion, concluded that the suspected armed robbery automatically supplied the justification for the attendant frisk. He reasoned, 392 U.S. at 33, 88 S.Ct. at 1886:
"Where such a stop is reasonable, however, the right to frisk must be immediate and automatic if the reason for the stop is, as here, an articulable suspicion of a crime of violence.
.....
Officer McFadden had no probable cause to arrest Terry for anything, but he had observed circumstances that would reasonably lead an experienced, prudent policeman to suspect that Terry was about to engage in burglary or robbery.... When he did, he had no reason whatever to suppose that Terry might be armed, apart from the fact that he suspected him of planning a violent crime."
See also United States v. Castillo, 866 F.2d 1071, 1080-1081 (9th Cir.1988) (police could rely on their knowledge from experience that drug dealers carry guns and resort to violence).
Judge Rodowsky, in Simpler v. State, 318 Md. 311, 318, 568 A.2d 22 (1990), recently made the same analysis and reached the same conclusion:
"The suspected criminal activity itself can furnish the dangerousness justifying a frisk following a Terry stop. Professor La Fave puts it this way:
`It is undoubtedly true, however, that in some cases the right to conduct a protective search must follow directly from the right to stop the suspect. The Court seems to take this view in Terry, although Justice Harlan's concurring opinion proceeds to "make explicit what I think is implicit" in the majority opinion, namely, that "the right to frisk must be immediate and automatic if the reason for the stop is, as here, an articulable suspicion of a crime of violence." Lower courts have been inclined to view the right to frisk as being "automatic" whenever the suspect has been stopped upon the suspicion that he has committed, was committing, or was about to commit a type of crime for which the offender would likely be armed, whether the weapon would be used to actually commit the crime, to escape if the scheme went awry, or for protection against the victim or others involved. This includes such suspected offenses as robbery, burglary, rape, assault with weapons, homicide, and dealing in large quantities of narcotics.'
3 La Fave, Search and Seizure: A Treatise on the Fourth Amendment § 9.4(a), at 505-06 (1987)." (Emphasis supplied).
Here, the suspected offense involved "dealing in large quantities of narcotics." The articulable suspicion for the frisk followed from the very nature of the suspected crime.
THE GEOGRAPHIC SCOPE OF THE FRISK
Once again, to get the right answer, it is necessary to ask the right question. The appellant asks whether there was articulable suspicion to believe that the car might be armed. The pertinent question, however, already answered in the affirmative, was whether there was articulable suspicion to believe that the appellant might be armed. The entry into the car was simply the coincidental by-product of the frisk of the appellant.
In a doctrinal sense, there was no car search as such in this case, except in the most coincidental way. Every search that intrudes into a car is not necessarily a car search. In terms of constitutional algebra, what happened was that some of the cubic footage of air space within the appellant's automobile happened to fall within the appellant's "Chimel perimeter" his wingspread or wingspan the danger zone within which he might be able physically to reach, lunge, or grasp for a weapon. The epicenter from which we measure is the appellant, not his car.
The issue now before us is not, therefore, whether there was justification for a search, even a limited frisk, of the appellant's car. The justification for the frisk of the appellant having already been established, the pertinent issue before us rather is the permitted geographic scope the range in space of that frisk.
Involved in the analysis are two parallels, one of the first and the other of the second generation. Supporting the parallels are 1) secondarily, the case law and 2) primarily, the overarching logic of the parallels themselves. The first parallel is between the respective scopes of a search incident to lawful arrest and a frisk. The permitted scope of any search, of course, is whatever is necessary to serve the purpose of that search, but not one bit more. The search incident serves two purposes: 1) to prevent the destruction by the arrestee of accessible evidence and 2) to prevent the arrestee from harming the arresting officer with an available weapon. The single purpose of the frisk is precisely the same, in all pertinent respects, as that second purpose of the search incident. It is to prevent the stoppee from harming the stopping officer with an available weapon.
Because the search incident possesses one purpose the prevention of the destruction of evidence not shared by the frisk, it may be more intensive in scope. It may probe into wallets and pockets and other places where a lottery slip or a glassine bag could easily be concealed. The frisk, on the other hand, is restricted in intensity to a pat-down of the exterior of the clothing surface. That is enough to detect the presence of a weapon and that, therefore, is all that is permitted in terms of the intensity of the search.
When it comes to the very different scope problem of how extensive a search may be, however, the search incident and the frisk require coterminous search perimeters. The ability of a suspect to reach, lunge, or grasp for a weapon is a constant, whether his status is that of an arrestee or a stoppee. The vulnerability of the officer to the weapon is a constant, whether his function of the moment is that of an arresting officer or that of a stopping officer. When the danger zones are coterminous, the prerogatives of the officer to take preventive or preemptive measures must be similarly coterminous. In Williams v. State, 19 Md. App. 204, 213-214, 310 A.2d 593 (1973), we analyzed at some length the indistinguishable scope issues, in terms of how extensive they needed to be:
"The second purpose of the `search incident,' however, is shared by the `frisk.' That purpose is to protect the officer by neutralizing all potentially available weapons. Closson v. Morrison, 47 N.H. 482 (1867). It follows ineluctably from that common purpose that the range in space of preventive police activity is coextensive in the `search incident' situations and in the `frisk' situations. To serve the purpose giving birth to the exception in the first place, it is as necessary to the `frisk' as to the `search incident' to define the perimeter of permitted police activity as that area within `the lunge,' `the grasp,' `the reach' of the suspect that area `which may fairly be deemed to be an extension of his person.' United States v. Rabinowitz, 339 U.S. 56, 70 S.Ct. 430, 94 L.Ed. 653 (1950) (dissenting opinion by Frankfurter, J.); Chimel v. California, supra [395 U.S. 752, 89 S.Ct. 2034, 23 L.Ed.2d 685 (1969)]; Brown v. State, supra [15 Md. App. 584, 292 A.2d 762 (1972)]. Whether the police are arresting a suspect or are temporarily detaining him for questioning, the potential ability of the suspect to grab for a weapon is a constant factor. Although the `search incident' may be more intensive than the `frisk,' the two will be, perforce, equally extensive.
Applying that standard, we hold that the bag on the floor of the automobile, which seconds before had been seen between the feet of this suspected holdup man and which still was within a few feet of him as he stood immediately outside the opened car door, fell within that perimeter of a reasonable `frisk.' The `frisk' needs to be as ranging in extent as the danger it was designed to prevent. The reason which gives birth to the exception defines its extent."
The second generation parallel is between the treatments of these respective perimeters of permitted police activity when they arguably embrace part or all of an automobile which the suspect, be he arrestee or stoppee, is then occupying or standing just outside. In both instances, the Supreme Court has decided to forego any attempt to measure the actual reach, lunge, or grasp into some or all of the automobile's interior on a case-by-case basis. In both instances, the Supreme Court has opted instead for a bright-line formula treating the entire passenger compartment as falling within the danger zone, without requiring any demonstration that it necessarily does so in the case at hand.
The Supreme Court first addressed the problem in the context of search incident law. New York v. Belton, 453 U.S. 454, 101 S.Ct. 2860, 69 L.Ed.2d 768 (1981), although involving a physical intrusion into an automobile, was exclusively a search incident case:
"When the occupant of an automobile is subjected to a lawful custodial arrest, does the constitutionally permissible scope of a search incident to his arrest include the passenger compartment of the automobile in which he was riding?"
453 U.S. at 455, 101 S.Ct. at 2861. The Supreme Court pointed out, 453 U.S. at 460, 101 S.Ct. at 2864, the extreme difficulty of measuring the Chimel search incident perimeter when it arguably includes part or all of an automobile:
"While the Chimel case established that a search incident to an arrest may not stray beyond the area within the immediate control of the arrestee, courts have found no workable definition of `the area within the immediate control of the arrestee' when that area arguably includes the interior of an automobile and the arrestee is its recent occupant. Our reading of the cases suggests the generalization that articles inside the relatively narrow compass of the passenger compartment of an automobile are in fact generally, even if not inevitably, within `the area into which an arrestee might reach in order to grab a weapon or evidentiary ite[m].' ... In order to establish the workable rule this category of cases requires, we read Chimel's definition of the limits of the area that may be searched in light of that generalization. Accordingly, we hold that when a policeman has made a lawful custodial arrest of the occupant of an automobile, he may, as a contemporaneous incident of that arrest, search the passenger compartment of that automobile." (Citation and footnotes omitted).
New York v. Belton did not create any special rule or any new search incident law. It simply handled the problem of measuring the Chimel perimeter when it arguably intrudes into an automobile by using a standardized approach. It is nothing more than a tool for measuring the boundaries of the reach, lunge, or grasp perimeter in this special setting:
"Our holding today does no more than determine the meaning of Chimel's principles in this particular and problematic context. It in no way alters the fundamental principles established in the Chimel case regarding the basic scope of searches incident to lawful custodial arrests."
453 U.S. at 460 n. 3, 101 S.Ct. at 2864 n. 3.
Michigan v. Long, 463 U.S. 1032, 103 S.Ct. 3469, 77 L.Ed.2d 1201 (1983), addressed precisely the same question of measuring the boundary of the frisk perimeter when it overlapped some or all of an automobile:
"We granted certiorari in this case to consider the important question of the authority of a police officer to protect himself by conducting a Terry-type search of the passenger compartment of a motor vehicle during the lawful investigatory stop of the occupant of the vehicle."
463 U.S. at 1037, 103 S.Ct. at 3474. By parity of reasoning and by express reference to Belton, the Supreme Court handled the problem precisely the same way. It pointed out that there is no reason to take less by way of preventive action with a stoppee than with an arrestee, noting 463 U.S. at 1050, 103 S.Ct. at 3481:
"If a suspect is `dangerous,' he is no less dangerous simply because he is not arrested."
It first had to bring the scope analysis of a frisk up to date with the scope analysis of a search incident. It acknowledged that in Terry v. Ohio, "We did not, however, expressly address whether such a protective search for weapons could extend to an area beyond the person in the absence of probable cause to arrest." 463 U.S. at 1034, 103 S.Ct. at 3473. The defendant in Long argued, as the appellant here seems to argue, that a frisk is confined to the body of a suspect and does not embrace the surrounding area:
"The court below held, and respondent Long contends, that Deputy Howell's entry into the vehicle cannot be justified under the principles set forth in Terry because `Terry authorized only a limited pat-down search of a person suspected of criminal activity' rather than a search of an area." (Emphasis in original).
463 U.S. at 1045, 103 S.Ct. at 3479. The Supreme Court, 463 U.S. at 1047, 103 S.Ct. at 3480, squarely rejected such a limitation on the geographic scope of the frisk:
"Contrary to Long's view, Terry need not be read as restricting the preventative search to the person of the detained suspect." (Footnote omitted).
The danger that the stoppee poses to the stopping officer may be from access to weapons nearby even though not carried on his person:
"[W]e have also expressly recognized that suspects may injure police officers and others by virtue of their access to weapons, even though they may not themselves be armed."
463 U.S. at 1048, 103 S.Ct. at 3480. The Supreme Court discerned no difference in danger from a weapon on the stoppee's person and a weapon in his nearby automobile:
"Just as a Terry suspect on the street may, despite being under the brief control of a police officer, reach into his clothing and retrieve a weapon, so might a Terry suspect in Long's position break away from police control and retrieve a weapon from his automobile."
463 U.S. at 1051, 103 S.Ct. at 3482.
The Supreme Court then formulated the Terry-Long analogue to the Chimel-Belton combination. It pointed out that Chimel had relied on Terry and how Belton was the logical result of applying Chimel to the automobile setting:
"Relying explicitly on Terry, we held that when an arrest is made, it is reasonable for the arresting officer to search `the arrestee's person and the area "within his immediate control" construing that phrase to mean the area from within which he might gain possession of a weapon or destructible evidence.' ... In New York v. Belton, ... we determined that the lower courts `have found no workable definition of "the area within the immediate control of the arrestee" when that area arguably includes the interior of an automobile and the arrestee is its recent occupant.' ... In order to provide a `workable rule,' ... we held that `articles inside the relatively narrow compass of the passenger compartment of an automobile are in fact generally, even if not inevitably, within "the area into which an arrestee might reach in order to grab a weapon."'" (Citations omitted).
463 U.S. at 1048-1049, 103 S.Ct. at 3480.
The marriage between Chimel-Belton and Terry-Long was then consummated, 463 U.S. at 1049, 103 S.Ct. at 3481:
"These principles compel our conclusion that the search of the passenger compartment of an automobile, limited to those areas in which a weapon may be placed or hidden, is permissible if the police officer possesses a reasonable belief based on `specific and articulable facts which, taken together with the rational inferences from those facts, reasonably warrant' the officer in believing that the suspect is dangerous and the suspect may gain immediate control of weapons." (Footnote omitted).
The appellant makes too much of the fact that the officers in Michigan v. Long spotted a large hunting knife on the floor of Long's automobile before engaging in the frisk. The spotting of the hunting knife was not some incremental justification required to move a frisk from the person of the suspect to the more far-flung reaches of the suspect's wingspan, including the passenger compartment of his automobile. The spotting of the hunting knife in Long was the only articulable suspicion the police had for any frisk at all, person and automobile interior alike. The frisk is a single phenomenon requiring a single justification. There is no additional justification required to move from the heartland of a frisk to its hinterland.
That Terry-Long is the analogue of Chimel-Belton was expressly acknowledged by the Court, 463 U.S. at 1049 n. 14, 103 S.Ct. at 3481 n. 14:
"What we borrow now from Chimel v. California, . .. and Belton is merely the recognition that part of the reason to allow area searches incident to an arrest is that the arrestee, who may not himself be armed, may be able to gain access to weapons to injure officers or others nearby, or otherwise to hinder legitimate police activity. This recognition applies as well in the Terry context." (Citation omitted).
The Supreme Court reasoned that Michigan v. Long was simply the logical extension of Terry, Chimel, and Belton:
"[T]he reasoning of Terry, Chimel, and Belton points clearly to the direction that we have taken today. Although Chimel involved a full custodial arrest, the rationale for Chimel rested on the recognition in Terry that it is unreasonable to prevent the police from taking reasonable steps to protect their safety."
463 U.S. at 1052 n. 16, 103 S.Ct. at 3482-83 n. 16.
The frisk in this case did not exceed its permitted bounds.
A PLAIN VIEW DOCTRINE SEIZURE
The only base that remains to be touched is home plate. Even as the frisk of the passenger compartment was getting underway, a superseding Fourth Amendment doctrine came into play. While the appellant was standing a few feet away from his automobile in response to Corporal Thomas' order that he alight, the driver's door remained open at all times. After patting down the appellant, Corporal Thomas turned to look into the vehicle.[9] As he leaned the upper part of his body through the already opened door, he was looking directly down at the driver's seat and at the console that separated the two front bucket seats from each other. Resting between the driver's seat and the console was the transparent cellophane bag and its visible contents of numerous smaller glassine bags, each containing white powder.
Corporal Thomas then seized them warrantlessly under the authority of the Plain View Doctrine. Coolidge v. New Hampshire, 403 U.S. 443, 91 S.Ct. 2022, 29 L.Ed.2d 564 (1971); Arizona v. Hicks, 480 U.S. 321, 107 S.Ct. 1149, 94 L.Ed.2d 347 (1987); Horton v. California, 495 U.S. ___, 110 S.Ct. 2301, 110 L.Ed.2d 112 (1990). All of the necessary conditions were in place. The entry into the automobile for the purpose of the extended frisk was a prior valid intrusion. Michigan v. Long, supra. Following that valid intrusion, the contraband was spotted in plain view. The glassine bags full of white powder themselves then provided the probable cause to believe that they were contraband.[10]A fortiori, they did so in conjunction with the beeper, the telephone numbers, and the other tell-tale characteristics of the local drug courier profile. The warrantless seizure was, therefore, constitutional.
JUDGMENT AFFIRMED; COSTS TO BE PAID BY APPELLANT.
NOTES
[1] Initially, the appellant's Motion to Suppress was submitted to Judge Paul H. Weinstein. By agreement, no live testimony was taken at that hearing. The motion was decided on the basis of the State's proffer of a set of facts underlying the search and seizure. Judge Weinstein denied the motion. The appellant requested a rehearing and an opportunity to create a fuller record through live witnesses. Pursuant to Maryland Rule 4-252, the appellant was granted a de novo rehearing on the Motion to Suppress before Judge McKenna. The motion was again denied.
It is only the ruling of Judge McKenna at the conclusion of the de novo hearing that is before us, of course, and our review will, therefore, be limited to the testimony produced at that hearing. Bartram v. State, 33 Md. App. 115, 140, 364 A.2d 1119 (1976), aff'd, 280 Md. 616, 374 A.2d 1144 (1977).
[*] Terry v. Ohio, 392 U.S. 1, 88 S.Ct. 1868, 20 L.Ed.2d 889 (1968).
[2] In commenting upon the articulable suspicion in United States v. Sokolow, supra, the Supreme Court noted not only Sokolow's relative youth (he was 25 years old) and his affluent living standard (paying $2,100 in cash for airline tickets) but also noted that "he was dressed in a black jumpsuit and wore gold jewelry." 490 U.S. at ___, 109 S.Ct. at 1583, 104 L.Ed.2d at 8.
[3] In Best v. State, 79 Md. App. 241, 259-260, 556 A.2d 701 (1989), we discussed at length the logical relevance of the possession of a car phone on the issue that its possessor was a trafficker in narcotics. That was in the adversarial setting of a trial upon the merits, with formal rules of evidence prevailing and with a high burden of persuasion. A fortiori, it would be admissible and relevant in the ex parte setting of a probable cause determination, without formal rules of evidence and with a much lower burden of persuasion. We now observe that the probative force would be at least as great, if not greater, with respect to a beeper as opposed to a car phone and with the even lesser burden of persuasion of articulable suspicion.
[4] Ironically, although the appellant is much chagrined at Corporal Thomas for failing to seek an innocuous explanation at the roadside, the appellant failed to offer any innocuous explanation himself when the opportunity was presented at the suppression hearing. Had one been available, it is hard to imagine that it would not somehow have found its way into the case.
[5] With respect to age, Corporal Thomas responded:
"Q: Let's assume he had been 30 years old. Would that have made you more suspicious or less suspicious?
A: It would have made me a little less suspicious."
[6] We are not called upon to consider the logical relevance of race as a factor in the "articulable suspicion" equation, because Corporal Thomas explicitly disclaimed any reliance upon such a factor. In response to an inquiry from the court, he explained at one point:
"If, if he were a white male driving northbound on 270 wearing the same thing that he had had that day, driving the same type of vehicle with Florida rental plates, I and the conditions were the same, there was there were numerous papers, I didn't see a beeper, I would still conduct myself the same way."
Following yet another inquiry from the court, he responded:
"The Court: All right. I am going to let you go in a minute I promise, Officer, but so the record is clear, you are indicating that had it been a guy, Joe Blow, in a business suit without the other paraphernalia, black guy, white guy, yellow guy, whatever, would you have taken him out of the car at all or would you have just given him a couple of tickets, one for speeding and one for
The Witness: I would have issued a citation.
The Court: And never called for the backup?
The Witness: No. I would have run the checks, but I wouldn't have ."
[7] As Corporal Thomas explained:
"It's kind of hard to explain, but you wouldn't normally find a young person driving a Mercedes unless it's their parents', parents' car, but for it to be registered to them, it's very unusual."
[8] As already discussed, there would be no problem with the sniffing by a trained dog of the exterior of an automobile or of the exterior of any other item of personal property. Since the sniffing never took place, we are not called upon to address the scope problem that might arise if a drug-sniffing dog were used to sniff the interior of an automobile that had been opened for that purpose. We intimate nothing in this regard.
[9] Corporal Thomas explained that he was looking for weapons:
"As I looked straight down, for instance, using this as his seat, I looked along this area to check to see if there were any if I could see any handles of any type of weapons or knives or what have you before I allowed him to sit back in his [car]."
[10] Corporal Thomas testified:
"[B]etween the driver's seat and the center console I observed what appeared to be a cellophane bag that had what looked like individual cellophane bags of narcotic substance."
|
Gird your Loins, and Hide the Remote: Glenn Beck is Back on the Boob-Tube, Striking a Deal with Dish Networks.
Yes it is true, Glenn Beck’s fact-defying chalkboard may be returning to a TV near you.
It has been one year since Beck ran out of advertisers and viewers on Fox, and headed for the nether reaches of the Internet where he said he’d find the “freedom to try new things” and the flexibility to “do whatever show I wanted when I wanted.” But now in a flip-flop, he’s heading back to the world of television--adding the Dish Network as a distribution channel.
After his fall from cable television grace, the colorful and controversial conservative commentator was able to find 300,000 paying subscribers for his Internet television network which he originally and narcissisticly called Glenn Beck Television (GBTV)--a name eventually toned-down to be called TheBlaze TV. Those audience numbers are a mere tenth of the viewers he once had on the boob-tube—a reported 3 million viewers at his peak.
“Our success over the past year has given us the ability to go on traditional television while maintaining complete creative control and freedom and remaining at the center of the Internet revolution,” Beck is quoted as saying in The New York Times. The Internet-only network charged subscribers $99.95 a year or $9.95 a month. Ah, the price of freedom!
And apparently the Dish Network is only the first stop on the Glenn Beck’s back-on-television tour. The New York Times reports that TheBlaze TV may be seeking to strike other distribution deals. “We are in active discussions with other operators,” according to Chris Balfe, the president of Mr. Beck’s media company, Mercury Radio Arts. |
The Environmental Protection Agency said on Thursday that it would overhaul enforcement of the Clean Water Act, as lawmakers sharply criticized the agency’s decade-long lapses in punishing polluters.
At a daylong hearing before the House Committee on Transportation and Infrastructure, the E.P.A. administrator, Lisa P. Jackson, said that agency officials “are falling short of this administration’s expectations for the effectiveness of our clean water enforcement programs.”
“The time is long overdue for E.P.A. to re-examine its approach to Clean Water Act enforcement,” said Ms. Jackson, who was confirmed to her position in January. She added that the agency would set strict benchmarks for state regulators, eventually compel companies to submit electronic pollution records so violations could be detected and punished more easily, and “develop more innovative approaches to target enforcement to the most serious violations and the most significant sources.”
One approach will probably include a series of enforcement actions against companies and municipalities that have violated the Clean Water Act, according to people with knowledge of the E.P.A.’s plans who were not authorized to speak publicly. |
Q:
Right way of splitting actions between controllers in ASP.NET MVC 2
this question is not about code, at least not about code that gives errors. I am asking this question to know the right way of implementing a pattern in ASP.NET MVC2.
Suppose that I have A Contact object that holds a collection of EmailAddress object. In My ContactController I have regularly actions that do create/edit/delete contacts from the underlying store. Inside my Index View (that render all the contacts) I have a link that says "Add Email" when a Contact is selected in the list.
Now I have at least two ways to implement this Action:
Inside the ContactController add a AddEmailAddress action that pre-populate the EmailAddress Model object with the ContactID property and render a view
As in the step 1 but instead of rendering a view delegate this job to a EmailAddressController class
Which is the correct way to handle patterns like this one?
Thanks in advance!
A:
I like #1 better. Unless there is a big need for working with Emails separately outside the context of the Contact they go with, I think that's the way to go.
But if you're going to have List Emails, Delete an Email, Create an Email, Edit an Email, etc. screens, then having it's own controller would make more sense. In that case, I would have the hyperlink browse to the email controller and the create action with the contact id as an argument in the URL.
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The Use of Reason is a blog that takes a common sense view of society and its problems. I try to look at things not from the standpoint of whether the issue has an R or a D next to it, but instead from the perspective of a rational human being trying to solve problems. Oddly enough, the common sense, practical perspective usually ends up being the conservative one. If you'd like a sane, average-Joe's point of view, check out the blog.
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Monday, January 26, 2009
Recently, you said that you're willing to consider any idea that has a chance of improving the country and fixing the economy. Wonderful! I'm taking you at your word.Let me list a few easy steps to take to fix this country. They are the only steps that would have a long-term shot at success. They're things we've long needed to do, but simply haven't gotten around to implementing.
The Economy:1. Pass a Fair Trade Bill. This bill would set up a committee to determine the tariffs that our trading partners impose on our goods, and match them. We would impose no tariff on any country's goods unless it was one they imposed on us. Considering just the tariffs imposed by China and Japan, we could pay off the foreign-owned portion of the national debt within a month or two. Another year or two and we'd have the whole thing paid off. Every year the committee would submit a new report to Congress, and Congress would then have to vote to change the tariffs. (There would be no "let it lapse" clause.) As nations reduced their tariffs on our goods, we would do the same. This would level the playing field for our companies, who currently must fight against a raging tide of international protectionism. Some of our trading partners have warned against such an action; this would have a lot more weight if they were not already laying burdensome duties against our products. We would be fools not to reciprocate. Correction: We are fools for not having done so already. A comprehensive tariff policy would tariff the value of goods originating outside of the United States, regardless of whether the company in question was American or foreign. This would discourage outsourcing, and keep more jobs at home.
2. Enforce immigration laws. I used to work as a medical courier in a warehouse. I was paid eight dollars an hour with medical benefits. Most of my coworkers were Mexican immigrants, which was the norm for California. I thought nothing of this situation until, returning to work on a Monday, I noticed that half of the staff at work was gone. I asked my supervisor what happened, and she informed me that we had been raided by the INS, which had discovered that a large number of my coworkers did not have work visas. I was also informed that I would be receiving a raise of one dollar an hour because we'd have to hire legally from now on. This event taught me a valuable lesson about labor. Immigration really does affect salary. This should be obvious to anyone with even the most minimal education in economics. Labor is an asset. The more scarce an asset, the more people will pay for it. The reverse is also true. In times like these, when unemployment is so high, we can't afford to let foreigners steal jobs from hard-working Americans. Enforcing immigration laws would have a huge effect on the economy. It would raise wages, increase benefits, and reduce unemployment. It would help the poor more than the rich since the jobs most illegals take are of the low-end variety. We must ask ourselves to whom we owe the most loyalty: Ought we to be more loyal to our own citizens than to citizens of other nations? I say yes.
Foreign Policy:1. Make the Border Patrol a military branch. The Border Patrol needs the authority to return fire, and the autonomy to do so without being thrown in jail. Ramos and Campeon are in jail for doing their job, after all. A drug dealer turns and fires at them while fleeing. They return fire, hitting him in the side of the buttocks, at an angle which would be demonstrably impossible had he not been turned toward them. Somehow, this drug dealer is given standing in our courts to sue for damages, and is awarded millions. We have a problem! The Border Patrol needs more authority. Why can we go into Pakistan looking for terrorists, but we can't go into Mexico when we know exactly where the criminals are? This is a ridiculous situation, and must be remedied. We should promote the Border Patrol to a branch of the military, making any attack on them an act of war. Then, we should use the next attack from a drug cartel in Mexico as justification to use our military, including units from any and all branches, to take them all out.
2. Build a wall. Congress has already approved the money for this project, so why isn't it done? In truth, an executive order would be all the approval necessary. After all, it would be a step toward making immigration laws enforceable, which falls within the domain of the executive branch. We need a real concrete wall, at least twelve feet high, running the length of the Mexican border. If we can put up hundreds of miles of such walls along our freeways just to block the noise of our cars, we can do the same on our borders. It can even be attractive, if designed properly. Private contractors could be hired, thus stimulating the economy. As someone from a border state, I have first-hand knowledge that this would be the only way to establish lasting control over immigration. Unless we can control who comes into our country and who does not, we have no sovereignty.
President Obama, please consider these ideas. We all know they would work, and that they'd be the only real way to fix the problems they address. Be man enough to ignore the screeching voices of the idiots among us and do the right thing! We need that kind of president now. Be that man.
Tuesday, January 13, 2009
I have a theory about politicians. It may sound a tad naive, but it keeps me sane in these days of rampant socialism and government overspending. My theory is that everyone who gets into the political arena does so for altruistic reasons. People may have different ideas of what that altruism may entail, but they all want to help make the world a better place.
If I'm right about this, it means that I've engaged in quite a bit of hyperbole as a blogger. After all, I use the odd bit of ad hominem now and again. I'm a traditionalist, so I see any attack of the Judeo-Christian moral code as an act of evil. Indeed, deviance from traditional ethics has done incredible damage to countless people, ruining and even taking many lives. Still, those who preach acceptance of amoral lifestyle choices don't do so to harm people. They truly think that doing as they plead will help, not harm, society. It just so happens that they're wrong. A 46% illegitimacy rate and a skyrocketing HIV infection rate make that perfectly clear to anyone with eyes to see.
I don't believe that Barack Obama is out to destroy America. He wants to help. I just disagree with his plans for doing so. I am really very curious about how much the intimate details a president receives about things like terrorism, the economy, and foreign relations will affect his policy positions. I notice he's already toning down some of his campaign promises. It's amazing how quickly reality bites politicians in the backside after an election is won. When I hear him speak, I can't help but believe that he's sincere. I hope he really is willing to consider all sides, even the conservative one. Who knows? Maybe he'll grow enough in office to become a true moderate. Maybe his daily briefings will convince him that socialism is not the answer to a depressed economy. I hope, for all our sakes, that we were wrong about him, myself and all of the other conservative voices in the crowd.
He's our president, for better or for worse. I always wish the best for America, no matter who's at the helm.
Thursday, January 8, 2009
I really, really hate being right. Especially when I'm being a pessimist. I predicted an Obama victory, actually endorsing him as a surefire means of bringing the right wing right again. He won. Republicans are talking about things like fiscal discipline, the right to life, and are actually trying to stand in the way of liberal bills. So why am I so miserable?
Oh, wait. Maybe it's the trillion dollar spending plan he's pushing. Maybe it's the retards he's putting in high places, like Leon Panetta as CIA chief. Perhaps it's the fact that he's already equating the "president" of Hamas to the Israeli Prime Minister. Ah, yes, that's showing the terrorists! Fire missiles at Israel and you get a free chitchat with the U.S. president. Obama now declares that government is the only thing that will get us out of this recession. Didn't government get us here in the first place? Wasn't it the liberal loan policies pushed by Democrats onto the finance companies that caused them to give huge loans to people who couldn't afford them? Weren't two quasi-private corporations, formed by the government, behind the entire credit collapse? Aren't government-required fuel standards, the prohibition of drilling our own oil, and the failure to tariff our competitors the way they've been doing to us the real cause of the auto manufacturers' crisis?
Yes, President-elect Government has the solution: let the government control even more of the economy. Every dollar seized by government is one less dollar in the business cycle. I know! Let's take a trillion dollars out of the economy! That will fix everything!
Sigh... I know, I know. He hasn't even started yet, and I'm already ripping him apart. I feel like a liberal after Bush was elected. After all, it's not as if there isn't a precedent for this sort of behavior.
Maybe the only way to beat liberals is to use their tactics against them. Desperate times call for desperate measures. |
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"name": "react-on-the-way",
"version": "1.0.0",
"description": "build your own React",
"main": "demo/init",
"scripts": {
"start": "webpack-dev-server"
},
"repository": {
"type": "git",
"url": "git+https://github.com/BetaSu/react-on-the-way.git"
},
"keywords": [],
"author": "",
"license": "ISC",
"bugs": {
"url": "https://github.com/BetaSu/react-on-the-way/issues"
},
"homepage": "https://github.com/BetaSu/react-on-the-way#readme",
"devDependencies": {
"@babel/cli": "^7.7.7",
"@babel/core": "^7.7.7",
"@babel/plugin-transform-react-jsx": "^7.7.7",
"@babel/preset-env": "^7.7.7",
"babel-loader": "^8.0.6",
"html-webpack-plugin": "^3.2.0",
"webpack": "^4.41.5",
"webpack-cli": "^3.3.10",
"webpack-dev-server": "^3.10.1"
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|
Interlayer Excitons and Band Alignment in MoS2/hBN/WSe2 van der Waals Heterostructures.
van der Waals heterostructures (vdWH) are ideal systems for exploring light-matter interactions at the atomic scale. In particular, structures with a type-II band alignment can yield detailed insight into carrier-photon conversion processes, which are central to, for example, solar cells and light-emitting diodes. An important first step in describing such processes is to obtain the energies of the interlayer exciton states existing at the interface. Here we present a general first-principles method to compute the electronic quasi-particle (QP) band structure and excitonic binding energies of incommensurate vdWHs. The method combines our quantum electrostatic heterostructure (QEH) model for obtaining the dielectric function with the many-body GW approximation and a generalized 2D Mott-Wannier exciton model. We calculate the level alignment together with intra- and interlayer exciton binding energies of bilayer MoS2/WSe2 with and without intercalated hBN layers, finding excellent agreement with experimental photoluminescence spectra. A comparison to density functional theory calculations demonstrates the crucial role of self-energy and electron-hole interaction effects. |
695 N.W.2d 412 (2005)
269 Neb. 675
Amanda MADLOCK, appellant,
v.
SQUARE D COMPANY, appellee.
No. S-04-758.
Supreme Court of Nebraska.
April 22, 2005.
*413 Timothy S. Dowd, of Dowd, Dowd & Howard, Omaha, for appellant.
Brenda S. Spilker and Tracy L. Stoehr, of Baylor, Evnen, Curtiss, Grimit & Witt, L.L.P., Lincoln, for appellee.
HENDRY, C.J., WRIGHT, CONNOLLY, GERRARD, STEPHAN, and MILLER-LERMAN, JJ.
WRIGHT, J.
NATURE OF CASE
Amanda Madlock appeals from the judgment of a Workers' Compensation Court review panel that reversed, in part, an award entered by the trial court. The review panel found that because Madlock's foot injury (a scheduled member injury) was taken into consideration in determining her loss of earning capacity, the trial court's award of separate benefits for the member injury constituted an impermissible double recovery of benefits.
SCOPE OF REVIEW
With respect to questions of law in workers' compensation cases, an appellate court is obligated to make its own determination. Hobza v. Seedorff Masonry, Inc., 259 Neb. 671, 611 N.W.2d 828 (2000).
FACTS
On September 7, 1999, while employed by the Square D Company (Square D), Madlock was carrying a 60- to 70-pound box of circuit breakers, when the handles on the box broke and the box landed on her right foot. The parties stipulated that Madlock's injury resulted from an accident arising out of and in the course of her employment; that she suffered an injury to her right foot resulting in a permanent partial impairment of 22 percent; that she was earning an average weekly wage of $694.08 at the time of the accident; and that all benefits owed to her as a result of the foot injury, including disability and medical benefits, had been paid by Square D. The parties disagreed concerning whether back problems Madlock experienced were causally related to the accident. Madlock claimed that her gait was altered because of the foot injury, resulting in a low-back condition.
Dr. John McClellan of the Nebraska Spine Center opined that Madlock had persistent lumbar back pain caused by the residual effects of the injury to her right foot. Dr. Denise Vosik stated that the residual effects of the foot injury resulted in an injury to the body as a whole and that the chronic and recurrent sacroiliac dysfunction experienced by Madlock was caused, or at least significantly aggravated, by the work accident.
*414 Square D offered the report of Dr. Christopher Anderson, which report stated that it was "medically possible that [Madlock's] right foot injury may have caused some secondary gait deviations, which altered the ... biomechanics through her back, yet not to a severe degree that would cause multilevel lumbar degenerative disc disease and annular tears." Anderson opined that those conditions were "more than likely" preexistent to the foot injury, noting that Madlock was hospitalized in April 1986 for similar low-back pain.
In determining Madlock's loss of earning capacity, the trial court considered the impact of the member injury and concluded that a fair and accurate assessment of Madlock's loss of earning capacity could not be made absent the inclusion of the limitations flowing from the member injury. The trial court noted: "The impact and adverse effect of the scheduled injury upon the plaintiff's whole body injury is evident as one considers the fact that even the medical experts could not segregate the two."
The trial court found that the medical evidence documented the existence of an altered gait due to the right foot injury, that Madlock had met and carried her burden of proof on the issue of causation, and that Madlock had suffered a 10- percent loss of earning capacity. The trial court awarded her $46.26 per week for each week from and after the date of the accident for the statutorily mandated period of entitlement less those weeks during which she received or was entitled to temporary total and temporary partial disability benefits.
The trial court next addressed whether a separate award or recovery for the member injury was permitted and whether Square D was entitled to a credit or offset against the loss of earning capacity award for the moneys already paid for the member injury. The trial court reasoned that
[w]hile it would be unjust to permit a claimant a "double recovery," there are always exceptions that must be accommodated. Such is the circumstance presented in this case. The plaintiff has two distinct injuries (foot and low back). While one resulted from the other, they are, nonetheless, distinct to the extent that they present an impairment to plaintiff not only in combination but individually.
The trial court found that the member injury continued to operate as an independent source of restriction and limitation, noting that "`[w]hile sitting to do her work, [Madlock] noticed that the swelling would become worse and as a result,'" she would have to elevate her leg. The trial court stated:
The apparent tendency of the plaintiff's foot to swell and become painful and thus interfere with ambulation clearly is a condition unrelated to the subsequent back injury and exists solely because of the member injury itself. To totally blend or integrate that member loss into the body as a whole injury is to ignore the reality of plaintiff's full loss.
... The court is sufficiently satisfied that plaintiff's foot impairment is significant enough to not only add to plaintiff's overall loss of earning capacity but to create impairment for plaintiff independently and in addition to that loss.
The award entered by the trial court included $462.72 per week for 24 1/7 weeks for temporary total disability due to the member injury; $4,248.65 for varying periods of temporary partial disability; $462.72 for 47.3 weeks for a 22-percent permanent impairment to Madlock's right foot; $462.72 per week for 8 weeks for temporary total disability due to the low-back injury; and $46.27 per week for a 10-percent *415 loss of earning capacity for a period of 238 5/7 weeks.
Square D sought review by a three-judge panel, asserting that the trial court erred in awarding benefits for a 22-percent permanent partial impairment of the right foot in addition to awarding benefits for a 10-percent loss of earning capacity, because the impact of the member injury was already considered in calculating the loss of earning capacity award.
The review panel affirmed the trial court's order except that it reversed the finding that Madlock was entitled to benefits for a member injury in addition to benefits for a loss of earning capacity when the member impairment was considered in assessing the loss of earning capacity. The review panel concluded that Madlock had sustained a member injury which ultimately led to a back injury and that the back injury was an extraordinary or unusual result which entitled her to an award for loss of earning capacity. The review panel determined that the trial court had properly considered the impact of the member injury in awarding loss of earning capacity, but that it was error to award weekly benefits for a 22-percent member impairment. It concluded that this award resulted in a double recovery for the member injury, in that Madlock would receive both scheduled member benefits and an increase in loss of earning capacity. The review panel reversed that portion of the award providing Madlock with benefits for a member injury in addition to a loss of earning capacity. Madlock appeals.
ASSIGNMENT OF ERROR
Madlock asserts that the three-judge review panel erred in reversing that portion of the trial court's award of benefits for a 22-percent permanent partial impairment of the right foot.
ANALYSIS
The issue is whether a worker may recover benefits for both a scheduled member injury and a whole body injury resulting in loss of earning capacity when the member injury was taken into consideration in determining the loss of earning capacity. The issue presents a question of law rather than one of fact. With respect to questions of law in workers' compensation cases, an appellate court is obligated to make its own determination. Hobza v. Seedorff Masonry, Inc., 259 Neb. 671, 611 N.W.2d 828 (2000).
In this case, the review panel stated:
We believe [the trial court's] award of scheduled member benefits after specifically including the limitations imposed upon the plaintiff by her member injury in assessing loss of earning capacity to be in error.... In this instance, the plaintiff sustained a member injury which ultimately lead [sic] to a back injury, an extraordinary or unusual result, entitling her to an award for loss of earning capacity. We believe that [the trial court] properly considered the impact of the member injury in making his award of loss of earning capacity, but find that it was error for him to award in addition the weekly indemnity benefits for a 22 percent member impairment. Such result leads to a double recovery of benefits for the member injury. Not only does the plaintiff receive an increase in loss of earning capacity but then also receives the scheduled member benefits as well.
The panel reversed that portion of the award which provided Madlock $462.72 per week for 47.3 weeks for a 22-percent permanent impairment to her right foot.
Neb.Rev.Stat. § 48-121 (Reissue 2004) provides for compensation for three categories *416 of job-related disabilities: (1) total disability, (2) partial disability, and (3) "schedule" injuries to specific parts of the body. See Zavala v. ConAgra Beef Co., 265 Neb. 188, 655 N.W.2d 692 (2003), citing Jeffers v. Pappas Trucking, Inc., 198 Neb. 379, 253 N.W.2d 30 (1977). In Zavala, we discussed whether a scheduled member injury should be considered in addition to a whole body injury in calculating loss of earning capacity when both injuries resulted from the same accident. We noted that § 48-121 does not specify how compensation is to be established when a worker suffers both a scheduled member injury and a whole body injury as a result of a single accident.
We stated:
[W]hen a worker sustains a scheduled member injury and a whole body injury in the same accident, the [Nebraska Workers' Compensation] Act does not prohibit the court from considering the impact of both injuries in assessing the loss of earning capacity. In making such an assessment, the court must determine whether the scheduled member injury adversely affects the worker such that loss of earning capacity cannot be fairly and accurately assessed without considering the impact of the scheduled member injury upon the worker's employability. If the loss of earning capacity cannot be fairly and accurately assessed without such consideration, then the court is permitted to do so.
Zavala, 265 Neb. at 199, 655 N.W.2d at 702.
In Jeffers, 198 Neb. at 384, 253 N.W.2d at 33, we noted the three categories of job-related disabilities identified in § 48-121 and stated: "[L]osses in bodily function, so far as subdivisions (1) and (2) are concerned, are important only insofar as they relate to earning capacity and employability." For claims which fall under subdivision (3), loss of earning capacity is not material. Jeffers, supra. The Legislature intended to establish the amount of benefits for loss of specific members under subdivision (3) without regard to the extent of any subsequent disability. Id. However, the Legislature has never indicated whether a worker may receive compensation for both a scheduled member injury and a whole body injury when the member injury was considered in assessing the whole body injury and subsequent loss of earning capacity.
It is not disputed that Madlock's back injury was an unusual or extraordinary condition that developed following the scheduled member injury. However, Square D claims that Madlock should be entitled to compensation for lost earning capacity based on the whole body injury only and not given an additional award based on permanent partial impairment of the right foot.
The issue presented in the case at bar has been considered in other jurisdictions. Obviously, the result in each case depended upon the workers' compensation law involved and the particular facts and circumstances of the case. In Providence Washington Ins. Co. v. Grant, 693 P.2d 872 (Alaska 1985), the employee fell from a ladder, injuring his back, knee, ankle, and ribs. Following an award of $74.79 per week, the employee petitioned for a redetermination, arguing that he was entitled to separate awards for his back, knee, and foot injuries. The workers' compensation board agreed. On appeal to the Alaska Supreme Court, the employer argued that the approach taken by the board constituted a double recovery because the employee was awarded compensation for the scheduled disabilities of his knee and foot separately and his loss of earning capacity resulting from the scheduled injuries was incorporated into the award for his back *417 injury. The employer argued that the employee should not receive both awards under such circumstances.
The court stated:
We recognize that this approach could result in a double recovery if the loss of earning capacity resulting from the scheduled injuries were used to determine the employee's compensation for an unscheduled disability. To avoid this, when awarding the claimant for an unscheduled injury, the board must attempt to separate the loss of earning capacity resulting from scheduled disabilities from the loss of earning capacity resulting from the unscheduled injury.
Id. at 876.
The court determined that the board could compensate for the back injury based upon the total loss of earning capacity only if the loss of earning capacity resulting from the foot and knee injuries could not be severed from the loss of earning capacity resulting from the back injury. In such a situation, the employee would be entitled to an award based on his total loss of earning capacity resulting from the fall plus an award for his scheduled injuries.
In Farrens Tree Surgeons v. Winkles, 334 So.2d 569, 572 (Fla.1976), the court noted the rule of law enunciated by the then Florida Industrial Relations Commission in Grao v. Fountainebleau Hotel, I.R.C. Order 2-2543 (Mar. 11, 1974), cert. denied 300 So.2d 900 (Fla.1974):
"`When there are two distinct injuries, one to a scheduled member and one to the body as a whole, even if both are incurred during the same accident, they may both be compensated for separately as long as the injury to the body as a whole is not the result of the injury to the scheduled member. ... [I]n determining the loss of wage earning capacity, all injuries, including scheduled injuries, must be considered....'"
(Emphasis in original.)
The Judge of Industrial Claims was directed to determine three amounts: the "scheduled recovery," the separate anatomical injury to the body as a whole, and loss of wage earning capacity. The award was to be the greater of the total of the scheduled injury plus the anatomical whole body injury not resulting from the scheduled injury, or the loss of wage earning capacity taking into consideration all of the injuries. Farrens Tree Surgeons, supra.
In Miller v. Lauridsen Foods, Inc., 525 N.W.2d 417, 420 (Iowa 1994), the court held: "If an employee suffers both an injury to a scheduled member and also to part of the body not included in the schedule, then the resulting injury is compensated on the basis of an unscheduled injury." See, also, Honeywell v. Allen Drilling Co., 506 N.W.2d 434 (Iowa 1993); Mortimer v. Fruehauf Corp., 502 N.W.2d 12 (Iowa 1993).
The court in Kellerman v. Food Lion, Inc., 929 S.W.2d 333, 336 (Tenn.1996), stated: "It is the rule in Tennessee that where an injury is to more than one member, one of which is scheduled and the other of which is not scheduled, benefits are allowable on the basis of percentage of the body as a whole." See, also, Continental Ins. Companies v. Pruitt, 541 S.W.2d 594 (Tenn.1976).
In the case at bar, the whole body injury cannot be separated from the scheduled member injury. Both arose from the same accident. If Madlock had not injured her foot, she would not have sustained a back injury that was compensable under Nebraska's workers' compensation statutes. Under these circumstances, the trial court was required to, and did, consider *418 the scheduled member injury in awarding benefits because Madlock's loss of earning capacity could not be fairly and accurately assessed without such consideration.
Madlock's scheduled member injury was an essential factor in determination of the award for loss of earning capacity. By also awarding separate benefits for the member injury, the trial court allowed Madlock a greater recovery than that to which she was entitled. Thus, the review panel correctly determined that the trial court had erred in awarding Madlock additional benefits for the scheduled member injury.
We therefore hold that when a whole body injury is the result of a scheduled member injury, the member injury should be considered in the assessment of whole body impairment. Under such circumstances, the trial court should not enter a separate award for the member injury in addition to the award for loss of earning capacity. To allow both awards creates an impermissible double recovery.
CONCLUSION
The judgment of the review panel is affirmed.
AFFIRMED.
McCORMACK, J., not participating.
|
Aerial Photos
Property DescriptionDescription
Cascade Station
9721 NE Cascades Parkway
Portland
,
OR
,
97220
Cascade Station, the highly publicized and vibrant mixed-use development at the “gateway” to Portland International Airport (PDX), and initiated seven years ago has brought the $125 million Airport MAX light rail line to PDX along with $25 million of infrastructure improvements. The 120 acre site yields 800,000 square feet of retail space, 1.2 million square feet of office space and 250 hotel rooms.
At completion, over 7,000 new jobs and $2.4 million in property taxes were offered to the City of Portland through this stunning partnership between the Portland Development Commission (PDC), the City of Portland and Tri-Met, Cascade Station Development Company (Trammell Crow Company, Bechtel and CenterCal Properties) and is now one of Portland’s premier destinations – drawing from all of Oregon and SW Washington.
Providing the retail component of this large scale development, Cascade Station Shopping Center is shadow anchored by IKEA and anchored by Best Buy, Petsmart, Ross Dress For Less and a dozen specialty eateries and restaurants including, Red Robin Gourmet Burgers and Starbucks.
In addition to drawing from the majority of Oregon due to the one and only IKEA in the state, Cascade Station Shopping Center also draws from the largest counties in neighboring Washington State, offering retail productivity leadership to all its retail establishments.
Are you a local or national business who would like to promote your concept or brand within a shopping environment without the risk and expense of a long-term commitment? If you are looking for unique ways to activate your business by reaching out and influencing millions in an enticing retail setting, then take a look at our exclusive programs. |
Venus Express: ready for lift-off
After completion of Soyuz launcher fuelling, concluded as planned at 03:00 CET, Venus Express is almost ready for lift-off.
The only outstanding task to be performed is the switch to the spacecraft's on-board power, which is planned to be completed at 04:23 CET, just ten minutes before launch.
The Venus Express countdown team is now continuing to monitor all critical spacecraft telemetry until the drop-off of the launcher umbilical connector, to occur at two minutes 30 seconds before launch.
Once the umbilical connector is detached, Venus Express will be ‘silent’ for the countdown team. Spacecraft telemetry will be disconnected until after spacecraft separation from the launcher and acquisition of the spacecraft signal via one of ESOC’s ground stations approximately two and a half hours after lift-off. This is when the ESOC flight control team will make first contact with the spacecraft while it is in space. |
Turn off Fox News and read Wikipedia, yeah because when the entire world can edit the info there it HAS to be 100% accurate, NOT.
Originally Posted by Christophxr
No, you silly, uneducated Conservative, they're not trying to jab at Capitalism for this. What the hell? How would labor unions have anything to do with Apple's success anyway? And how would Apple's decline have anything to do with Capitalism not working? Do you even know what Capitalism is? Or what labor unions are? Turn off the Fox News and at least Wikipedia the words you hear, for those words aren't as empty as your understanding of them.
Please.
I was about to make a joke and say, "They can't wait for the iWatch either, so they publish articles like these to try to light the fire under Apple's feet? Silly humans." But your comment was so stupid it just whisked away any comedic effect.
What they're doing is the same thing everyone else is doing—they're saying something that is both controversial and (has already been) repeated into tedium so that they can sell magazines. The truth is never so banal because it's rarely ever sold.
Apple doesnt even have to innovate that much, they just have to keep us up to date on the newest tech, I mean sure some innovation but nothing mind blowing, and I would still buy their products as would most people. Some people think it's because were sheep but it's because the Iphone is a universal device now. Everyone has easy accessibility to apps/music/movies etc. and knows its interface. The tech is good and fast. Itunes is very universal as well, honestly I think itunes is the reason apple had so much success, Android still doesnt have a good computer - android tech that connects all of the devices.
I agree. My iPhone 4 after two years began running slow. My iPhone 5 will be two this fall and it's still as fast as the day I bought it, even with the latest software.
Apple TV completely changed the way I watch TV, play music, or roughly any way I entertain myself in my house. ONLY iPhone connects to everything in my house, door locks, thermostat, lights, stereos in two rooms and home theatre, even my alarm clock... And it all works seamlessly. I still haven't seen any android or windows system that will do that.
If it ain't broke, don't fix it. And nothing apple currently makes, in my opinion, is broke.
It isn't neccesarily about the "iWatch" or whatever they may/may not call it. It's about the fact that they haven't released anything spectacular in a while, and that is what made Apple what Apple is today. I use a myriad of Apple products, but I have to agree with him.
Apple has never released anything "spectacular" and certainly nothing innovative either. They've simply released products that have already existed in the market but better, simpler, higher-quality and with the mind of making it something that everyone can use.
I'm a huge Apple fan—I really am—but people are attributing a false narrative to it. Steve Jobs wasn't an innovator—devices similar to smartphones (palm pilots for one) existed long before the iPhone. MP3 players existed long before the iPod. Laptops existed long before the Macbook.
Apple doesn't need to release ANYTHING that's "innovative," they just need to release the best products in categories that already exist. That's what they've always done.
Originally Posted by exNavy
Sounds like the same pack of whiners who ***** about jailbreaks taking too long.
This.
Thank you.
Originally Posted by wb4whd
Turn off Fox News and read Wikipedia, yeah because when the entire world can edit the info there it HAS to be 100% accurate, NOT.
*Facepalm*
You realize anybody can write any article anywhere, right? And that Wikipedia cites its sources? And that for political philosophies or the definitions/histories of, say, labor unions, it pretty much gets it right? And that you, as a consumer of it, can't get it wrong if you have half a brain?
I know your straw man argument sounded really smart to you and all but, well, it made me facepalm.
Someone explain this to me: Who else is "innovating" - per the definition of the word - these days, in the smartphone/tablet/pc markets? Since Apple is so stagnant and all these other companies are supposedly surpassing them, list some of their "innovations".
Google Glass is about all I can think of, and it's probably doomed to social pariah-dom.
"Larger screens" are not innovative.
Multi-tasking on a tablet is a decent feature - not innovation.
Knight Rider watches aren't, either.
Apple's the one player - maybe Google too - big enough globally to fundamentally change the TV/cable content landscape. It'll be a fight, but I'm betting that's their next "innovation" and game-changer.
Originally Posted by Christophxr
Apple has never released anything "spectacular" and certainly nothing innovative either. They've simply released products that have already existed in the market but better, simpler, higher-quality and with the mind of making it something that everyone can use.
I think this is over-simplifying it. Take the iPad. Apple didn't "invent" the tablet - those had been around for years. But they did "innovate" the tablet into what it has become ubiquitously known. That market was dead. Now, every - EVERY - tablet in use today owes its DNA to that "big iPod Touch". Same thing happened with the iPhone, and the coupling with the AppStore is what really set that off on its trajectory.
"Innovation" changes the landscape, and Apple has done that their entire existence. Personal computers, all-in-ones, smartphones, tablets, music players... all of those markets fundamentally changed because of Apple's innovation.
Apple's main concern now is that many of these younger startups are filled with people who grew up WITH Apple, and inspired by them... so now there will be a landscape of forward-thinking, paradigm-shattering companies. Hopefully, anyway. This article proclaiming Apple's death if they don't release a damn calculator watch is asinine.
Chicago, u nailed it. The problem is Apple is held to a different standard. Nobody cares if Samsung isn't innovating when they are making knock off iPads that my kids won't even use. Other than Google, most of these other companies are just doing tweaks and not game changers. And even Google realizes it's about creating an integrated ecosystem (software, hardware, cloud) more than just innovating.
Think about how much innovation our cars have had in the last dozen years - not that much comparatively.
The irony of Time calling someone irrelevant is too much. Apple could buy them and close them down without batting an eye.
Hi! I'm new here, and I've been having trouble figuring out the moderator approval and all that (so double posted into the ether). Hopefully this gets through.
Neither TIME nor its tech writer Harry McCracken (who is admittedly a good friend of mine) called Apple irrelevant or said it was doomed (the clock is intended as a joke). The first post in this thread is mistaken, based on a misreading of the article, incorrectly describes or attributes attitudes, *and* the link below to "Source: Time" is actually to CNBC (an article from Thursday with the actual "Apple is doomed in 60 days" prediction by Global Equities Research director Trip Chowhdry, who has a tendency to make odd Apple-related predictions or misstatements, but was taken at face value by CNBC).
The TIME piece was a response to that, critiquing Chowhdry in a humorous manner. It's clear from the first sentence to anyone reading closely that McCracken does *not* support, endorse, or agree with Chowhdry's claim: "I’m used to rolling my eyes when analysts issue proclamations about Apple, but I can’t remember ever sputtering in disbelief — until now."
The initial post also misread and takes out of context another part of the article: "By McCracken's admission, saying that Apple could be doomed if it doesn't dazzle us with an iWatch (or something new and exciting) within the next 60 days isn't just "another wacky over-the-top Apple prediction."
No, this is what was written: "But saying that Apple will (not “might”) disappear (not “suffer a setback”) if it doesn’t produce an iWatch in 60 days (not “reasonably soon”)? That’s not another wacky over-the-top Apple prediction. The prognosticator who Chowdry reminds me of most is the late evangelist Harold Camping...." He then explains that Camping was the man who predicted the world would end on October 21, 2011. So the comparison hardly suggests a great deal of confidence in the "gone in 60 days" claim.
He also clarifies *why* he thinks the claim is ridiculous, largely for the same reasons people have mentioned here, assuming that a need for a wearable or "iWatch" or whatever is that important to start with: "With Chowdhry’s quote, though, there’s no mitigating factor. It’s the most ridiculous thing I’ve ever seen an alleged expert say about Apple. Especially given that the company entered the MP3 player, smartphone and tablet markets years after numerous other companies — part of the secret of its success is swooping into markets awfully late in the game."
Then, as a joke, he says "there’s some chance that I’m the dummy. Just in case, I’ve created the above Apple Doomsday Clock, which is counting down even as we speak. It’s set to conclude 60 days after the publication of Thompson’s story."
One can of course disagree with the tone, whether it's too frivolous, and so on, but I just felt it only fair to clarify what TIME and the author actually said, especially since nothing here linked to the real article. Thanks, and I hope this got through this time.
I bet the guys at Apple have started looking for new jobs now that time dropped this bombshell... "APPLE CLOSING DOORS BY JUNE!"
That guy Phil used to hang around with Pat McGroin over at Paddys Pub right?
Consider...the facts ...apple has always wowed people...every year...there was a flagship feature ....a must have...up to the iphone 4s it was like that for me .... I paid 400$ for my 3gs when it came out....5 years later still works...the phone is still exciting to use...the iphone 5s or 5c or 5 have nothing that i like about them...xcept for syncing and jailbreaking...samsung has been innovating beautifully guess what their next phone will take yer heartbeat...lol ill pay 600$ for that cuz its awesome...i wont pay 600$ for the same iphone just a bit faster nothing new...steve is missed ...remember the 7.1 freezing the iphone...its a 800 $ device with a 64 bit processor that freezes on a update come on people...leave the fan boyness aside and recognize...we want the iphone to take our heartbeat rate too ...cuz the iphone 5s is a 4s but a lil better n that sux
I have used Apple products exclusively since 1982. They did not come out with fancy gadgets every year back then. They did however produce an excellent computer that has wowed me ever since. People just need to get over the "we need a new thing" every 6 months dream.
Someone remind me... When was the last time the Android front did anything "spectacular"? I have yet to see anything other than phones so obscenely large they are damn near unusable. Apple has been the first to bring something to the table, only to have Android manufacturers (Samsung) follow suit shortly after, then they are quickly labeled as "boring" and "unintuitive" while Android manufacturers (Samsung) are just waiting for Apple to release something for them to copy. But they don't get near as much hate for that.
Consider...the facts ...apple has always wowed people...every year...there was a flagship feature ....a must have...up to the iphone 4s it was like that for me .... I paid 400$ for my 3gs when it came out....5 years later still works...the phone is still exciting to use...the iphone 5s or 5c or 5 have nothing that i like about them...xcept for syncing and jailbreaking...samsung has been innovating beautifully guess what their next phone will take yer heartbeat...lol ill pay 600$ for that cuz its awesome...i wont pay 600$ for the same iphone just a bit faster nothing new...steve is missed ...remember the 7.1 freezing the iphone...its a 800 $ device with a 64 bit processor that freezes on a update come on people...leave the fan boyness aside and recognize...we want the iphone to take our heartbeat rate too ...cuz the iphone 5s is a 4s but a lil better n that sux
Apple have failed to wow me since iPhone 1...
That is what this article is about, Apple failed to wow people = lack of innovation.
Since iPhone 4 there is no more drive for me and many people I know to buy next Apple product. |
Gross profit was $11.5 million, or 38.0% of total revenue, compared to $12.8 million, or 37.7% of total revenue;
Gross profit margin related to service revenue was 38.2% compared to 39.5%;
Utilization was 73.7% compared to 75.6%;
Net loss was $(860,000), or $(0.06) per diluted share, compared to net income of $1.3 million, or $0.09 per diluted share. Net loss during the second quarter of 2017, was largely attributable to a $1.1 million payment in connection with the termination of an investment banker services agreement and a $1.1 million increase in the valuation allowance provided against the gross carrying value of certain deferred tax attributes;
Cash flow used in operating activities was $(1.4) million compared to cash provided by operating activities of $4.2 million. Second quarter 2017 operating cash flow was impacted by $2.9 million in acquisition-related contingent earnout consideration payments, $1.7 million in connection with severance payments made to former executive officers of the Company and a $1.1 million payment as a result of the termination of an investment banking agreement; and
Adjusted EBITDA (a non-GAAP financial measure) was $2.7 million, or 8.9% of total revenue (see "Non-GAAP Financial Measures" below for further discussion of this non-GAAP term), compared to Adjusted EBITDA of $3.4 million, or 10.1% of total revenue.
First Half of 2017 Financial Results vs. Same Year-Ago Period
Total revenue was $59.4 million compared to $65.9 million;
Service revenue was $49.6 million compared to $56.8 million;
Gross profit was $21.5 million, or 36.2% of total revenue, compared to $23.6 million, or 35.7% of total revenue;
Gross profit margin related to service revenue was 36.7% compared to 37.4%;
Utilization was 74.0% compared to 74.2%;
Net loss was $(3.5) million, or $(0.27) per diluted share, compared to net income of $550,000, or $0.04 per diluted share. Net loss in 2017 is impacted by $3.4 million in severance-related charges associated with the termination of former executive officers of the Company, $1.1 million in connection with the termination of an investment banking services agreement, a $1.1 million increase in the valuation allowance provided against the gross carrying value of certain deferred tax attributes and $666,000 in consent solicitation expenses;
Cash flow used in operating activities was $(5.2) million compared to $(934,000). First Half 2017 cash flow was impacted by $2.9 million in acquisition-related contingent earnout consideration payments, $1.7 million in connection with severance payments made to former executive officers of the Company and a $1.1 million payment as a result of the termination of an investment banking agreement; and
Adjusted EBITDA was $3.0 million, or 5.1% of total revenue, compared to Adjusted EBITDA of $4.8 million, or 7.3% of total revenue.
Management Commentary
"We have observed several positive indicators during the second quarter of 2017," commented Jeffrey Rutherford, Edgewater's chairman, interim president and interim CEO. "We have taken steps, including incremental investments in sales and marketing, to reset individual business units and have identified positive forward looking trends.
"As we enter the third quarter of 2017, we focused the business unit leadership to position the Company to maximize shareholder value, through future revenue and profitability growth. Our Oracle-based service offerings have steadied and have been positioned to capitalize on the accelerated adoption of Oracle's cloud-based service offerings. Additionally, our Microsoft-based service offerings, from a product bookings perspective, had a solid quarter, which sets up nicely for the second half of 2017.
"We look forward to the third quarter of 2017 and we anticipate that our quarterly service revenue will be in the range of $24.5 million to $25.5 million, essentially flat compared to the second quarter of 2017 and down on a year-over-year basis."
Conference Call and Webcast Information
Edgewater has scheduled a conference call today (Wednesday, August 2, 2017) at 10:00 a.m. Eastern time to discuss its second quarter 2017 results.
Please call the conference telephone number 5-10 minutes prior to the start time. An operator will register your name and organization.
A replay of the conference call can be accessed via Edgewater's investor relations web site at http://ir.edgewater.com/ or by dialing 1-404-537-3406 (Conference ID#: 57210515) after 1:00 p.m. Eastern time on the same day through Wednesday, August 16, 2017.
About Edgewater
Edgewater (NASDAQ:EDGW) helps business leaders drive transformational change through its unique selection of business and technology services and specialized product-based solutions.
Classic consulting disciplines (such as business advisory, process improvement, organizational change management, M&A due diligence, and domain expertise) are blended with technical services (such as digital transformation, technical roadmaps, data and analytics services, custom development, and system integration) to help organizations get the most out of their existing IT assets while creating new digital business models.
Delivering both on premise and in the cloud, Edgewater partners with Oracle and Microsoft to offer Business Analytics, BI, ERP, and CRM solutions. Edgewater Ranzal, an Oracle Platinum Consulting Partner, provides Business Analytics solutions leveraging Oracle EPM, BI, and Big Data technologies. As an award-winning Microsoft partner, Edgewater Fullscope delivers Dynamics AX ERP, Business Intelligence, and CRM solutions, with a specialty in manufacturing.
Forward-Looking Statements
This Press Release contains certain forward-looking statements within the meaning of Section 27A of the Securities Act of 1933, as amended, and Section 21E of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934, as amended, including statements concerning our expected third quarter 2017 service revenue, the continuation of positive improvements in our business and our ability to generate revenue growth and improvements in operating profitability, future stability in the Oracle service offering channel and the associated acceleration of customer adoption of Oracle's cloud-based service offerings, intrinsic value of the Company and its operating units, the value creation potential of each of the Company's three service offerings, our ability to drive shareholder value and our ability to successfully execute a plan for the enhancement of shareholder value . Forward-looking statements inherently involve certain risks and uncertainties, although they are based on our current plans or assessments which are believed to be reasonable as of the date of this Press Release. Factors that may cause actual results, goals, targets or objectives to differ materially from those contemplated, projected, forecasted, estimated, anticipated, planned or budgeted in such forward-looking statements include, among others, the following possibilities: (1) failure to obtain new customers or retain significant existing customers; (2) the loss of one or more key executives and/or employees; (3) changes in industry trends, such as a decline in the demand for Enterprise Resource Planning and Enterprise Performance Management solutions, custom development and system integration services and/or declines in industry-wide information technology spending, whether on a temporary or permanent basis and/or delays by customers in initiating new projects or existing project milestones; (4) inability to execute upon growth objectives; (5) adverse developments and volatility involving geopolitical or technology market conditions; (6) unanticipated events or the occurrence of fluctuations or variability in the matters identified under "Critical Accounting Policies" in our 2016 Annual Report on Form 10-K; (7) delays in, or the failure of, our sales pipeline being converted to billable work and recorded as revenue; (8) termination by clients of their contracts with the Company or inability or unwillingness of clients to pay for the Company's services, which may impact the Company's accounting assumptions; (9) inability to recruit and retain professionals with the high level of information technology skills and experience needed to provide the Company's services; (10) failure to expand outsourcing services to generate additional revenue; (11) any changes in ownership of the Company or otherwise that would result in a limitation of the net operating loss carry forward under applicable tax laws; (12) the possibility that activist stockholders may wage proxy contests or gain representation on or control of the Board of Directors, causing disruption and/or uncertainty to the Company's business, customer relationships and employee retention; (13) the failure of the marketplace to embrace advisory and product-based consulting services; (14) difficulties and costs associated with transitioning to the cloud; (15) the inability to achieve the expected synergies from our 2015 acquisitions; and/or (16) changes in the Company's utilization levels. In evaluating these statements, you should specifically consider various factors described above as well as the risks outlined under "Part I - Item IA. Risk Factors" in our 2016 Annual Report on Form 10-K filed with the SEC on March 15, 2017. These factors may cause our actual results to differ materially from those contemplated, projected, anticipated, planned or budgeted in any such forward-looking statements.
Although the Company believes that the expectations in the forward-looking statements are reasonable, it cannot guarantee future results, levels of activity, performance, growth, earnings per share or achievements. However, neither the Company nor any other person assumes responsibility for the accuracy and completeness of such statements. Except as required by law, the Company undertakes no obligation to update any of the forward-looking statements after the date of this Press Release to conform such statements to actual results.
The Company maintains three reportable segments: Oracle (Enterprise Performance Management ("EPM")), Microsoft (Enterprise Resource Planning ("ERP")) and Classic Consulting. The EPM segment provides Business Analytics solutions leveraging Oracle EPM, BI and Big Data technologies. The ERP segment delivers Dynamics AX ERP, Business Intelligence and CRM solutions, primarily in the manufacturing space. The Classic Consulting segment provides business advisory services that are blended with technical services to help organizations leverage investments in legacy IT assets to create new digital business models.
Segment information for the three-month periods ended June 30, 2017 and 2016 were as follows:
EPM
ERP
ClassicConsulting
Corporate
Consolidated
(In Thousands)
June 30, 2017
Total revenue
$
12,691
$
14,604
$
3,010
$
-
$
30,305
Operating income (loss)
$
624
$
2,608
$
90
$
(2,705
)
$
617
Depreciation and amortization expense
$
561
$
199
$
-
$
29
$
789
June 30, 2016
Total revenue
$
16,527
$
13,005
$
4,492
$
-
$
34,024
Operating income (loss)
$
2,212
$
1,681
$
821
$
(1,759
)
$
2,955
Depreciation and amortization expense
$
717
$
244
$
44
$
48
$
1,053
Segment information for the six-month periods ended June 30, 2017 and 2016 were as follows:
EPM
ERP
ClassicConsulting
Corporate
Consolidated
(In Thousands)
June 30, 2017
Total revenue
$
26,999
$
25,954
$
6,482
$
-
$
59,435
Operating income (loss)
$
1,522
$
3,537
$
68
$
(9,909
)
$
(4,782
)
Depreciation and amortization expense
$
1,123
$
398
$
-
$
79
$
1,600
June 30, 2016
Total revenue
$
33,033
$
23,841
$
9,048
$
-
$
65,922
Operating income (loss)
$
3,851
$
1,965
$
1,799
$
(5,288
)
$
2,327
Depreciation and amortization expense
$
1,437
$
481
$
89
$
95
$
2,102
Non-GAAP Financial Measures
Edgewater reports its financial results in accordance with generally accepted accounting principles ("GAAP"). Management believes, however, that certain non-GAAP financial measures used in managing the Company's business may provide users of this financial information with additional meaningful comparisons between current results and prior reported results. Certain of the information set forth herein and certain of the information presented by the Company from time to time may constitute non-GAAP financial measures within the meaning of Regulation G adopted by the Securities and Exchange Commission. We have presented herein a reconciliation of these measures to the most directly comparable GAAP financial measure. The non-GAAP measures presented herein may not be comparable to similarly titled measures presented by other companies. As noted below, the foregoing measures have limitations and do not serve as a substitute and should not be construed as a substitute for GAAP performance, but provide supplemental information concerning our performance that our investors and we find useful.
Edgewater views Adjusted EBITDA and Adjusted EBITDA as a Percentage of Total Revenue as important indicators of performance, consistent with the manner in which management measures and forecasts the Company's performance. We believe Adjusted EBITDA measures are important performance metrics because they facilitate the analysis of our results, exclusive of certain non-cash items, including items which do not directly correlate to our business operations.
The non-GAAP adjustments, and the basis for excluding them, are outlined below:
Income tax provision. The exit of our former significant unrelated operations in 2000 and 2001 created significant net operating loss carry-forwards and deferred tax assets, and the tax provisions that we take under GAAP, for which there is no corresponding federal tax payment obligation for us, and the adjustments that we make to our deferred tax asset, based on the prospects and anticipated future profitability of our ongoing operations, can be significant and can obscure, either significantly, or in part, period-to-period changes in our core operating results.
Depreciation and amortization. We incur expense associated with the amortization of intangible assets that is primarily related to the various acquisitions we have completed. We believe that eliminating this expense from our non-GAAP financial measures is useful to investors because the amortization of intangible assets can be inconsistent in amount and frequency, and is significantly impacted by the timing and magnitude of the individual acquisition transactions, which also vary substantially in frequency from period-to-period.
Stock-based compensation expense. We incur stock-based compensation expense under Financial Accounting Standards Board Accounting Standards Codification Topic 718, "Compensation — Stock Compensation." We exclude this non-cash expense as we do not believe it is reflective of business performance. The nature of stock-based compensation expense also makes it very difficult to estimate prospectively, since the expense will vary with changes in the stock price and market conditions at the time of new grants, varying valuation methodologies, subjective assumptions and different award types, making the comparison of current results with forward-looking guidance potentially difficult for investors to interpret. Edgewater believes that non-GAAP financial measures of profitability, which exclude stock-based compensation, are widely used by analysts and investors.
Adjustments to contingent consideration earned, at fair value. We are required to remeasure the fair value of our contingent consideration liability related to acquisitions each reporting period until the contingency is settled. Any changes in fair value are recognized as a current period operating expense. The Company believes that excluding these adjustments from its non-GAAP financial measures is useful to investors because they are related to acquisition events and make it difficult to evaluate core operating results.
Direct acquisition costs. We incur direct transaction costs related to acquisitions which are expensed in our GAAP financial statements. Our non-GAAP financial measures exclude the effects of direct acquisition-related costs as we believe these transaction-specific expenses are inconsistent in amount and frequency and make it difficult to make period-to-period comparisons of our core operating results.
Consent solicitation expenses. Consent solicitation expenses are expenses incurred to respond to activities and inquiries of Lone Star Value Management, including its consent solicitation and subsequent settlement agreement. The Company has not incurred significant expenses in connection with such matters in historical periods, and these costs are not considered core operating activities. Management believes that it is appropriate to exclude these costs in order to provide investors with the ability to compare our period-over-period operating results from continuing operations.
Other expense, net. We record periodic interest and other (income) and expense amounts in connection with our cash and cash equivalents, capital lease obligations, (gains) and losses on foreign currency transactions and the recognition of the recorded discount on accrued contingent earnout consideration. Our non-GAAP financial measures exclude (income) expense associated with these items as we believe such (income) expense is inconsistent in amount and frequency and makes it difficult to make period-to-period comparisons of our core operating results.
Termination of Investment Banking Agreement. During the second quarter of 2017, we incurred expense related to the termination of an investment banking services agreement. The expense in included in our GAAP financial statements. Our non-GAAP financial measures exclude the effects of the termination expense as we believe this expense is inconsistent in amount and frequency and make it difficult to make period-to-period comparisons of our core operating results.
We believe that Adjusted EBITDA metrics provide qualitative insight into our current performance; we use these measures to evaluate our results, the performance of our management team and our management's entitlement to incentive compensation; and we believe that making this information available to investors enables them to view our performance the way that we view our performance and thereby gain a meaningful understanding of our core operating results, in general, and from period to period.
Adjusted EBITDA and Adjusted EBITDA as a Percentage of Total Revenue are Non-GAAP performance measures and are not intended to be performance measures that should be regarded as an alternative to, or more meaningful than, GAAP Net Income (Loss). Adjusted EBITDA measures presented may not be comparable to similarly titled measures presented by other companies. Adjusted EBITDA is defined as net income (loss) less other expense, net, plus income tax provision (benefit), depreciation and amortization, stock-based compensation expense, adjustments to contingent consideration earned, goodwill and intangible asset impairment charges, direct acquisition costs, consent solicitation expenses, executive officer severance and expense associated with the termination of an investment banking services agreement. Adjusted EBITDA as a % of Total Revenue is defined as Adjusted EBITDA divided by Total Revenue.
Executive officer severance excludes stock-based compensation expense associated with the acceleration of vesting provisions on certain equity awards as this expense is reported as a part of stock-based compensation expense. |
Using Bower with Phoenix
04 Jul 2015
I was looking for a way to use Bower
to manage my front-end dependencies
in a Phoenix app,
and I found out
that bower already works seamlessly
with brunch,
which is the build tool for assets
that ships with Phoenix.
All you need to do is
add a bower.json file
to the root of your project
and brunch takes care of
installing the dependencies.
For instance,
here’s how you would add
jquery to your project:
Make sure bower is installed
using bower --version.
If it isn’t installed alerady,
install it using:
npm install -g bower
Now add a barebones bower.json file:
{"name":"MyPhoenixProject","dependencies":{"jquery":"~ 2.1"}}
And that’s literally it!
If you run mix phoenix.server,
you will see the message,
“info: Installing bower packages…”.
It even watches the bower file for changes
and installs dependencies
if the server is already running.
When you check the app.js file
from the browser,
you will see that jquery
has been concatenated
to the top of the file.
Hi, I’m Nithin Bekal.
I work at Shopify in Ottawa, Canada.
Previously, co-founder of
CrowdStudio.in and
WowMakers.
Ruby is my preferred programming language,
and the topic of most of my articles here,
but I'm also a big fan of Elixir.
Tweet to me at @nithinbekal. |
It's a restless world, uncertain timesYou said hope was getting hard to findBut time rolls on, days roll byWhat about the broken ones?What about the lonely ones?Oh honey I'm having trouble letting you goIt's off in the distance somewhere up the roadThere's some easy answer for the tears you've criedAnd it makes me unhappy, makes me feel differentDo you get scared when you close your eyes? |
package org.nzbhydra.tests.pageobjects;
import org.popper.fw.webdriver.elements.impl.DefaultLink;
import org.popper.fw.webdriver.elements.impl.WebElementReference;
public class Link extends DefaultLink implements ILink {
public Link(WebElementReference reference) {
super(reference);
}
}
|
Q:
Scheduled Toast Notification UWP
I would like to make a periodic toastnotification.
The code:
public sealed partial class MainPage : Page
{
const string TOAST = @"
<toast>
<visual>
<binding template=""ToastTest"">
<text>Hello Toast</text>
</binding>
</visual>
<audio src =""ms-winsoundevent:Notification.Mail"" loop=""true""/>
</toast>";
public MainPage()
{
this.InitializeComponent();
}
private void btnNotification_Click(object sender, RoutedEventArgs e)
{
var when = DateTime.Now.AddSeconds(6);
var offset = new DateTimeOffset(when);
Windows.Data.Xml.Dom.XmlDocument xml = new Windows.Data.Xml.Dom.XmlDocument();
xml.LoadXml(TOAST);
ScheduledToastNotification toast = new ScheduledToastNotification(xml, offset, TimeSpan.FromSeconds(5), 5);
toast.Id = "IdTostone";
toast.Tag = "NotificationOne";
ToastNotificationManager.CreateToastNotifier().AddToSchedule(toast);
}
}
An error occurred with the script: incorrect parameter. .
Where is the mistake?
Thanks in advance!
A:
The parameter snoozeInterval of ScheduledToastNotification constructor should have a value in range from 1 minute to 1 hour.
So, simply change the line of code you get exception in into something like this:
ScheduledToastNotification toast = new ScheduledToastNotification(xml, offset, TimeSpan.FromMinutes(1), 5);
|
Musings of Jason Jones
Tag Archives: Always On Availability Groups
First off, can I say how stoked I was with some of the new features of SQL 2012? I don’t usually geek out this much over software stuff, but I have to say there were several WOW factors on the launch yesterday.
The bad to outweigh the good is that the Launch Event itself was completely terrible. I and a thousand others on twitter spend a good 30 minutes just waiting for the login screen to come up. When it finally did, it still wouldn’t let you login. Finally, about an hour after the scheduled start time, everything was up and running. Epic fail on Microsoft’s part.
The other bad was that there was nothing live. It was all pre-recorded videos on various SQL topics. They were good videos, but nothing is better than a real launch event where you see it all on the big screen and get a big grab-bag full of goodies. I attended the Windows 7 launch a few years back at the Denver Convention Center and it was pretty awesome.
So here’s a link to the launch event. The videos themselves are supposed to be available for 90 days and it’s free to register, so give them a whirl:
Have multiple customer databases on your SQL server and want to meter them? The resource pools allow you to set minimum and maximum CPU and memory limits. You can allow bursts and if you bill customers via CPU then with the maximum so they don’t get charged extra.
Also, much better billing options. Your stats on the server now match exactly what your billing your customers and it really is what they’ve used. How many times do you go to pull CPU/memory stats and have them be completely indecipherable with actual customer usage?
AlwaysOn Availability Groups
I’m a Windows Clustering guy, but I’m also a fan of SQL Replication/Mirroring and the options that gives you. AOA Groups take this to a whole new level.
The demo I saw still had the base Windows servers in a cluster (a couple local, 1 as a standby, then another at a different site), and with the AlwaysOn you can specify for each database which server was primary for it, which was an automatic failover server, which was a manual failover server, and if you wanted the data to be copied synchronously or asynchronously. I immediately saw HUGE benefits for this for a job at a prior company where we had geo-clusters spread across different locations.
The big caveat with AOA Groups is that your end-user application still has to be aware of the nodes and it’s DSN has to be cognizant of all the options.
One other option they mentioned but didn’t go into was that you can add a Listener to the configuration and it’s basically the same as the old Virtual IP/Network Name and the end-user application doesn’t necessarily need to be aware of everything that’s going on.
You can also specify any of your secondaries as a read-only copy of the data, and can use it as a backup point or for reports or anything like that. This is a brand-new feature as previously you couldn’t touch the copies of Mirrored databases.
You also have what they call a “flexible failover policy” where you can specify what parameters can initiate an automatic failover. Again, I see huge benefits for builds I’ve done at prior clients where sometimes the network would hiccup and the DB would failover and no one knew until it was slow.
That’s really only 2 major changes to SQL 2012, but it’s enough to make me download it and start playing! |
Over the past year or so, I have befriended a retired man. This is HIS story.
He had a long career as a Scientist, and made pretty good cash along the way. I don’t know any of the details, but he made enough to support a Wife, couple kids, and retire at around the 60 year mark with enough assets he had planned to last for decades. His beloved lil Cupcake was good at continuing her education over the years and receiving various degrees, but NEVER actually working. Does this sound familiar ??
Him being a scientist, He methodically plotted out “their” retirement, and how they were going to make their CASH last the both of them the rest of their lives. He told me that part of THEIR plan, which She AGREED to, was that HIS WIFE was supposed to put some of her degrees to WORK, that HE had PAID for, and GET A FULL TIME JOB.
In other words, since he PAID for EVERYTHING for a LIFETIME, it was NOW HER turn to PARTICIPATE in the work force and GET A JOB so THEIR retirement savings, that HE MADE, INVESTED, AND SAVED would last the REST of THEIR LIVES.
Guess what, HIS resident lil sweetie is NOT gainfully employed, and it appears that she is in NO rush to JUMP into the wonderful world of work, and it’s been more then a couple/few years since HE retired. BIG F~~~IN SURPRISES HERE !!!
He was CRYING on My SHOULDER that they are SPENDING MORE MONEY then they are supposed to be, and at this rate it will be GONE MUCH SOONER then HE HAD PLANNED.
AGAIN, BIG F~~~IN SURPRISE HERE !!!
Like so many MEN, his retirement future is becoming SERIOUSLY f~~~ed, and he has to sweat money ISSUES because HE MADE A COMMON BLUE PILL MISTAKE; HE TRUSTED THAT A WOMEN WOULD KEEP HER WORD, GET A JOB, AND CONTRIBUTE BACK JUST A PERCENTAGE OF HOW MUCH HE FINANCIALLY “INVESTED” OVER A LIFE TIME.
HE FOOLISHLY TRUSTED A WOMEN. HE HAD TO LEARN THE HARD WAY: ALL WOMEN LIE, AND MOST ARE INCREDIBLY LAZY !!!
If HE had divorced this PARASITE after the youngest kid was 18, about 10 +/- years ago, yes, he would have to give her 50% of the assets, and either alimony or a large one time payment, but HE would be so much better off financially FOR THE REST OF HIS LIFE.
HE wouldn’t of HAD to BUY a retirement house for Him and His beloved which has been a LARGE additional financial drain. From what he has told me, He would have been happy buying and living in a multi-family, and HE would no longer be required to PAY for ALL of her SPENDING habits while she CONTRIBUTES ZERO, BUT SUCKS OUT MUCH.
He is a low key “average” Man, and between his low personal expenses, lower living expenses of a multi-family, rental income, and what was left of his retirement investments, after paying her off, Money Wouldn’t be a CONCERN TODAY, TOMORROW, or EVER !! |
Akureyri, Falls & Farmland (4hrs)
Leaving Akureyri, cross the waters of the fjord and travel with private vehicle along the slopes of Vadlaheidi Mountain, via the Fnjóskadalur Valley to Vaglaskogur Forest—one of Iceland’s rare woodlands—which is part of an extensive soil and vegetation reclamation project. From Fnjóskadalur, you’ll travel to historic Godafoss—waterfall of the heathen gods—which figures prominently in Iceland’s 12th-century Book of Settlement. From Godafoss, continue to Laufás, a 19th-century stone and turf farmhouse built in traditional Icelandic style—now one of the last few turf farms in the country. This interesting regional museum has the original implements and equipment so essential to life in former centuries, and a beautiful country church (1865). Entrance fee to Laufas is included. Return to Akureyri for a short panoramic sightseeing tour of the city, including an outside view of the modern church and a stop at the Botanic Gardens. Return to pier. |
<!DOCTYPE html>
<html lang="en">
<meta http-equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html; charset=utf-8"/>
<title>CSS Test: font-size: xxx-large; size equivalence</title>
<link rel="author" title="Joel Olsson" href="joel_1st@hotmail.com">
<link rel="help" href="https://www.w3.org/TR/css-fonts-4/#font-size-prop">
<link rel="help" href="https://www.w3.org/TR/css-fonts-4/#absolute-size-mapping">
<link rel="match" href="font-weight-xxx-large-ref.html">
<body>
<p>Test passes if the line below is identical, with matching font size.</p>
<span style="font-size: xxx-large">Foo</span>
|
Manager Frank de Boer, speaking after Tuesday's 3-2 win over Columbus in the U.S. Open Cup, said the midfielder has returned to Atlanta after taking care of some personal business in Argentina during the International break.
Villalba sustained a ligament injury in his knee in a 1-0 loss at New York Red Bulls on May 19. He didn’t play in the next three league games or in the two games in the Open Cup. |
Tuesday, September 8, 2009
Hey there. It's time of year again, FOOTBALL SEASON!!! Whoo hoo! About time. I can't stand this down time of sports (I'm not a huge baseball fan). Now that we have some meaningful football slated for Thursday, it's time to roll out this week's Heavy Metal Rankings. I was a little green in this field last year. I went ahead and ranked every team from 1 to 32, but I can't do that. Too much analysis and too much time to be able to continue that kind of ranking system. So, I am going to change it up this year and provide a top 9. So here we go, Week 1 rankings are as follows:
1. New England Patriots
C'mon now. This should not be a surprise to football fans everywhere. New England was scary last year with Tom Brady out for all but half a game and the Pats were still feared across the NFL. Now that Brady is back, and looking pretty damn good, there's no reason why the Pats will not be better than they were last year.2. Pittsburgh Steelers
The transition from coach Cower to coach Tomlin has not hurt this team at all. They are always in the mist of things come January. Big Ben is showing no signs of a decline and with a defense like that, how can they not be a force to be reckoned with.
3. Tennessee Titans
People will be surprised that the Titans are so high in my rankings but the Titans looked sharped in all of their preseason games. Kerry Collins is doing more than just managing the game, the offensive line is one of the best in the NFL. That, coupled with an improved Lendale White, the Titans will have a strong running game to match a very capable passing attack.
4. Atlanta Falcons
Tony Gonzalez has single handedly increased Atlanta's stock. Matt Ryan did OK last year in the passing game. Now that he has an experienced and strong TE in Gonzalez, look for the passing game to overshadow the strong rushing attack from Michael Turner.
5. Indianapolis Colts
The team is in a semi-transitional phase. Coach Tony Dungy is out and coach Caldwell is in. Future Hall of Famer Marvin Harrison is out, but that doesn't mean that Peyton does not have go to receivers. Dallas Clark, Anthony Gonzalez, and Reggie Wayne are more than capable of being on the receiving end of Manning passes. As long Peyton Manning is at the helm, the Colts cannot be overlooked.
6. Arizona Cardinals
I am a little reluctant to place this team so high. The team is run by Kurt Warner's emotions. He lead the team to the Super Bowl last year and it will be difficult to match that intensity for a second straight year. If Warner starts to slip, we may very see Matt Leinart taking the reigns.
7. San Diego Chargers
The Bolts are always in the mist of things but they can never get over the hump. LaDanian Tomlinson is healthy this year and the passing game should be top notch. The X factor for the Bolts is Shawne Merriman. He gives the defense the boost it needs to be a Super Bowl champion caliber defense but his off the field antics can derail the team just as easily.
8. Philadelphia Eagles
Here is a team that may make it all the way this year. The Eagles had one of the top defenses last year but lacked the offensive firepower to put them over the top. Now that their wide receivers are coming of age and Micheal Vick is in the line up, the Eagles can very well catapult themselves into the upper echelon of the NFL.
9. New York Giants
Eli Manning is coming back to prove that he is worth every penny that the Giants paid him in the offseason. That may prove difficult since he's lacking wide receivers. Especially now that Plaxico Burress is going to jail and David Tyree is no longer with the team.
My Oakland Raiders. Dead last in the NFL. The Raiders looked good in the first 2 preseason games and then quickly regressed into the horrid team that was under Lane Kiffin in the beginning of last year. Flashes of greatness was shown by both JaMarcus Russell and Darren McFadden. The trouble continues to lie in the defense but the Raiders have shown that commitment to excellence by signing pro bowler DE Richard Seymour. Until I see results on the field, I'll be the first to say that the Oakland Raiders are still stuck in the bottom of the barrel. |
corporate art solutions
The Fine Art of Picture Framing
“The most important thing in art is The Frame. For painting: literally; for other arts: figuratively— because, without this humble appliance, you can’t know where The Art stops and The Real World begins. You have to put a ‘box’ around it because otherwise, what is that %$@# on the wall?”
-Frank Zappa
On top of being Corporate Art Consultants, we are also experienced picture framers. We frame all our projects in house and we understand the relationship between art and frame, which is an intricate part of the presentation and preservation of fine art.
At The Studio we offer only the best in frame selection, expertise and museum quality conservation skills and materials to better preserve any items you wish to have framed.
We offer a wide variety of frame sizes and styles. The frame may be made of metal or wood.
Proper framing of your art is extremely important so here are some tips to consider when framing any artwork:
1. Choosing the Frame The frame should match the style of the image and the style of the space it will be presented in.
2. Choosing a Mat The purpose of matting is to separate the art from the glass. The importance of this is to allow air flow between the two so that they do not stick together. It’s also used to give visual space to your artwork and create a transition from the art to the wall.
3. Choosing the Glass Light and moisture are artworks’ worst known enemies so when choosing glass for your piece there are a number of things to consider depending on how concerned you are about being archival. Make sure to always ask what your options are: they can range from plexi-glass to high quality museum glass.
Following these three simple steps can help you achieve the best results for framing your artwork. Visit The Studio on the web to see more about us and the services we provide. |
Tavis Smiley’s shows suspended after sexual misconduct allegations
Tavis Smiley’s Richmond stage presentation, “Death of a King: A Live Theatrical Experience,” and his nightly PBS talk show have been suspended after an independent investigation launched by PBS uncovered “multiple, credible allegations” of misconduct by Mr. Smiley.
Mr. Smiley has denied the allegations and vowed to fight back after PBS officials announced Dec. 13 that it was suspending distribution of his program that is produced by Mr. Smiley’s company and has aired on PBS since 2004.
According to Variety, a national entertainment industry news magazine, the investigation conducted by an outside law firm found that Mr. Smiley had engaged in sexual relationships with multiple subordinates, creating an “abusive and threatening environment.”
The allegations have halted Mr. Smiley’s plans for a 40-city tour next year of his stage presentation about the final year of the life of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. to coincide with the 50th anniversary of Dr. King’s assassination. The show was scheduled to come to Richmond on March 22.
Jam Theatricals/Broadway in Richmond, purchased the show from Mills Entertainment, to present in Richmond. Last Friday, Mills Entertainment released a statement noting, “In light of the recent allegations concerning Tavis Smiley, Mills Entertainment will not be moving forward with ‘The Death of a King’ project at this time. We deeply believe in the message of this production and the importance in commemorating Dr. King in this crucial moment. However, we take seriously the allegations and will be suspending our relationship with Tavis Smiley and T.S. Productions.”
Walmart, one of the sponsors of the stage production and Mr. Smiley’s television program, and Hay House, a self-help publisher that distributes the Smiley Books imprint, announced they also have suspended their relationships with the talk show host.
Mr. Smiley planned to release his new book, “Leading by Listening: Connecting Through Conversation to Transform Your Relationships and Your Business,” but all Smiley projects are now “on hold” pending an internal review, the book distributor announced.
Mr. Smiley denied the allegations, using social media last week to claim PBS “overreacted” and calling it “a rush to judgment.”
“I have the utmost respect for all women,” he said in a statement on Facebook and Twitter, “and I certainly celebrate the courage of those women who have come forth of late to share their own truth. But let me also assure you that I have never groped, inappropriately exposed myself or coerced any colleague ever in my 30-year career,” he said.
He claimed one relationship the network uncovered was consensual.
“If having a consensual relationship with a colleague years ago is the stuff that leads to this kind of public humiliation and personal destruction, heaven help us,” he said. “This has gone too far. And, I, for one, intend to fight back.”
In an appearance Monday on “Good Morning America,” he said PBS was making “a huge mistake.” He also faulted PBS for not sharing the identities of his accusers.
The company shot back Monday, stating that Mr. Smiley, “needs to get his story straight.”
“Witnesses who have bravely come forward to speak with the independent investigators retained by PBS report a fear of retribution for speaking out. PBS stands by its decision to respect the anonymity of those who are afraid to come forward publicly. Additional allegations are continuing to come to light since last week’s announcement,” the network spokesperson said. The decision to suspend Mr. Smiley’s program comes just weeks after PBS cut ties with anchor and talk show host Charlie Rose, citing his “extremely disturbing and intolerable behavior” toward women connected with the show. |
Kovar signs new contract with United
Manchester United's Under-23s keeper Matej Kovar has signed a new contract with the club.
The 19-year-old has been rewarded for his consistent performances in both Premier League 2 and the Leasing.com Trophy with fresh terms, and finalised the deal before linking up with the Czech Republic Under-21 squad.
He saved a late penalty to earn three points against Fulham's Under-23s last month and produced a Man-of-the-Match performance in the Leasing.Com Trophy win at Lincoln City.
Kovar joined the club during the winter transfer window in 2018 from FC Slovacko.
He will look to maintain his development in Neil Wood's side and continue to hone his talents behind the scenes.
Fellow goalkeeper, Alex Fojticek, also signed a new contract in July ahead of his loan move to Stalybridge Celtic.
Fojticek has furthered his experience whilst on loan at the Northern Premier League club and will return to United in January.
Alex Fojticek is picking up experience at Stalybridge Celtic.
“Both Matej and Alex deserve these contracts; they’ve come from the Czech Republic and Slovakia and settled really well in Manchester,” explained Head of Academy Nick Cox. “Signing their contracts will enable both goalkeepers to continue their development under our excellent coaches.
“This is a great time for our Academy goalkeepers with both Dean Henderson [England] and Kieran O’Hara [Republic of Ireland] receiving senior international call-ups, and we are looking forward to seeing all of our young keepers fulfil their potential.”
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= 23.8cm = 15.8cm = -1.0cm = -2.2cm
**Mirror dark matter interpretations**
0.5cm
**of the DAMA, CoGeNT and CRESST-II data**
2.2cm
R. Foot[^1]
0.7cm
*ARC Centre of Excellence for Particle Physics at the Terascale,*
*School of Physics, University of Melbourne,*
*Victoria 3010 Australia*
The CRESST-II collaboration have announced evidence for the direct detection of dark matter in $730$ kg-days exposure of a CaWO$_4$ target. We examine these new results, along with DAMA and CoGeNT data, in the context of the mirror dark matter framework. We show that all three experiments can be simultaneously explained via kinetic mixing induced elastic scattering of a mirror metal component off target nuclei. This metal component can be as heavy as Fe$'$ if the galactic rotational velocity is relatively low: $v_{rot}
\stackrel{<}{\sim} 220$ km/s. This explanation is consistent with the constraints from the other experiments, such as CDMS/Ge, CDMS/Si and XENON100 when modest $\sim 20-30\%$ uncertainties in energy scale are considered.
Introduction
============
Over the last decade or so, progress has been made in efforts to directly detect dark matter. In particular, the DAMA/NaI [@dama1] and DAMA/Libra [@dama2] experiments have obtained very exciting results in their dark matter search. Recall that these experiments have observed a modulation in the ‘single hit’ event rate with a period and phase consistent with expectations from dark matter interactions[@dm]. Background rates are expected to be time independent with the possible exception of muon induced backgrounds. However it has been known for a long time that muons cannot mimic the dark matter annual modulation signature[@damamuon]. The DAMA experiments thus provide very convincing evidence that dark matter interactions have been detected.
Another interesting development is the results obtained in the CoGeNT experiment[@cogent]. That experiment features a Germanium target and very low energy threshold. The CoGeNT team observed a rising event rate at low energies. These events could not be explained by known backgrounds and can be interpreted as evidence supporting the DAMA signal. Very recently, the CRESST-II collaboration have announced results for their dark matter search with $730$ kg-days of net exposure in a CaWO$_4$ target[@cresst-II]. The CRESST-II data also cannot be explained by known backgrounds and are compatible with a dark matter signal also rising at low energies.
Attempts to explain the positive signals of DAMA, CoGeNT and CRESST-II in terms of standard WIMP dark matter have proven challenging[@std]. However, it has been known for some time[@foot69; @footold; @foot2008], that mirror dark matter has a number of novel and distinctive features which make it a suitable candidate to explain the data. In particular mirror dark matter features a mass dependent velocity dispersion $v_0 \propto {1 \over
\sqrt{m_{A'}}}$, $E_R$ dependent Rutherford scattering ${d\sigma \over dE_R}
\propto {1 \over E_R^2}$, and particles necessarily in the relevant low mass range. With these features the DAMA and CoGeNT data can be simultaneously explained[@foot2; @foot1]. The main purpose of this paper is to examine the implications of the new CRESST-II results for mirror dark matter. In the process we will update the CoGeNT analysis taking into account their recently reported surface event correction factor[@collartaupxxx]. It turns out that these developments point to new parameter regions within the mirror dark matter framework. Heavy mirror elements, $\sim$ Fe$'$, can explain all three experiments if the galactic rotational velocity is low $v_{rot}
\stackrel{<}{\sim} 220$ km/s. Other regions of parameter space are possible. We explore a few examples in some detail and examine the question of their compatibility with constraints from sensitive but high threshold experiments such as XENON100 and CDMS/Ge.
Mirror dark matter and its direct detection
===========================================
Mirror dark matter posits that the inferred dark matter in the Universe arises from a hidden sector which is an exact copy of the standard model sector[@flv] (for a review and more complete list of references see ref.[@review])[^2]. That is, a spectrum of dark matter particles of known masses are predicted: e$'$, H$'$, He$'$, O$'$, Fe$'$,... (with $m_{e'} = m_e,\ m_{H'} = m_H,$ etc). Kinetic mixing of the $U(1)_Y$ and its mirror counterpart allows ordinary and mirror particles to interact with each other[@he]. This $U(1)_Y$ kinetic mixing induces photon-mirror photon kinetic mixing: $$\begin{aligned}
{\cal L}_{mix} = \frac{\epsilon}{2} F^{\mu \nu} F'_{\mu \nu}
\label{kine}\end{aligned}$$ where $F_{\mu \nu}$ is field strength tensor for the photon and $F'_{\mu \nu}$ is the field strength tensor for the mirror photon. This interaction enables charged mirror sector particles of charge $e$ to couple to ordinary photons with electric charge $\epsilon e$ [@holdom]. The cross-section of such a particle, say a mirror nucleus, $A'$, with atomic number $Z'$ and velocity $v$ to elastically scatter off an ordinary nucleus (presumed at rest with mass and atomic numbers $A,\ Z$) is given by[@foot69]:[^3] $$\begin{aligned}
{d\sigma \over dE_R} = {\lambda \over E_R^2 v^2}
\label{cs}\end{aligned}$$ where $$\begin{aligned}
\lambda \equiv {2\pi \epsilon^2 Z'^2 Z^2 \alpha^2 \over m_A} F^2_A
(qr_A) F^2_{A'} (qr_{A'}) \\end{aligned}$$ and $F_A (qr_A)$ \[$F_{A'} (qr_{A'})$\] is the form factor which takes into account the finite size of the nucleus \[mirror nucleus\]. A simple analytic expression for the form factor, which we adopt in our numerical work, is the one proposed by Helm[@helm; @smith].
What about the distribution of mirror particles in the galactic halo? These are assumed to be, predominately,[^4] roughly spherically distributed in a multi-component plasma containing e$'$, H$'$, He$'$, O$'$, Fe$'$,...[@sph]. The interaction length is typically much less than a parsec[@footz] and the dark matter particles form a pressure-supported halo, ideally described by a common temperature, $T$ [^5]. This temperature can be estimated from the condition of hydrostatic equilibrium which implies: $$\begin{aligned}
T = {1 \over 2} \bar m v_{rot}^2 \end{aligned}$$ where $v_{rot}$ is the galactic rotational velocity and $\bar m = \sum n_{A'} m_{A'}/\sum n_{A'}$ is the mean mass of the particles in the halo. The halo distribution of mirror species is then $f_{A'} = exp(-E/T) = exp(-{1 \over 2} m_{A'} v^2/T) = exp(-v^2/v_0^2)$. Evidently $$\begin{aligned}
v_0[A'] &=& \sqrt{{2T \over m_{A'}}} \nonumber \\
&=& v_{rot} \sqrt{{\bar m \over m_{A'}}}\ .
\label{v0}\end{aligned}$$ The parameter $\bar m$ can be estimated within the mirror dark matter model. For a H$'$, He$'$ mass dominated halo, taking into account that the plasma is expected to be fully ionized, we have $$\begin{aligned}
{ \bar m \over m_p} \simeq {1 \over 2 - {5 \over 4} \xi_{He'}}\
\label{barm2}\end{aligned}$$ where $\xi_{He'}$ is the mass fraction of He$'$. The primordial He$'$ abundance can be computed as a function of the kinetic mixing parameter, $\epsilon$, and for $\epsilon \sim 10^{-9}$ the calculations suggest that the primordial $He'$ mass fraction, $Y'_p$, is around $0.9$[@paolo2]. If $\xi_{He'} \approx Y'_p$ then Eq.(\[barm2\]) suggests that $\bar m \approx 1.1 $ GeV. Even if mirror stellar evolution depleted H$'$ further (or somehow depleted both H$'$ and He$'$), this would have only a relatively minor affect on the estimation of $\bar m$.
A key feature of this model is that the heavy components with $m_{A'}
\gg \bar m$ have $v_0[A'] \ll v_{rot}$. This can drastically reduce the tail of the distribution \[c.f. standard WIMPs which have $v_0 = v_{rot}$\]. This feature can help explain why higher threshold experiments such as CDMS/Ge and XENON100 currently do not see a signal while the lower threshold DAMA and CoGeNT experiments do.
The differential scattering rate for $A'$ elastic scattering on a target nuclei, $A$, is given by[^6]: $$\begin{aligned}
{dR \over dE_R} = N_T n_{A'}
\int^{\infty}_{|{\textbf{v}}| > v_{min}}
{d\sigma \over dE_R}
{f_{A'}({\textbf{v}},{\textbf{v}}_E) \over k} |{\textbf{v}}| d^3v
\label{55}\end{aligned}$$ where the integration limit, $v_{min}$, is given by the kinematic relation: $$\begin{aligned}
v_{min} &=& \sqrt{ {(m_{A} + m_{A'})^2 E_R \over 2 m_{A} m^2_{A'} }}\ .
\label{v}\end{aligned}$$ In Eq.(\[55\]), $N_T$ is the number of target nuclei per kg of detector and $n_{A'}$ is the number density of halo dark matter particles, $A'$, at the Earth’s location. This number density can be expressed in terms of the halo mass fraction of species $A'$ , $\xi_{A'}$, and total mass density, $\rho_{dm}$ via $n_{A'} = \rho_{dm} \xi_{A'}/m_{A'}$ (we fix $\rho_{dm} = 0.3 \ {\rm GeV/cm}^3$). Also in Eq.(\[55\]) ${\bf{v}}$ is the velocity of the halo particles relative to the Earth and ${\bf{v}}_E$ is the velocity of the Earth relative to the galactic halo[^7]. The halo distribution function, in the reference frame of the Earth, is then given by the Maxwellian distribution: $$\begin{aligned}
{f_{A' } ({\bf{v}},{\bf{v}}_E) \over k} = (\pi v_0^2[A'])^{-3/2}
exp\left({-({\bf{v}}
+ {\bf{v}}_E)^2 \over v_0^2[A']}\right)\ .
\label{pw}\end{aligned}$$ The integral, Eq.(\[55\]), can easily be evaluated in terms of error functions[@foot2008; @smith] and numerically solved.
To compare with the measured event rate, we must include detector resolution effects and overall detection efficiency, $\epsilon_f (E_R^m)$, when the latter is not already included in the experimental results: $$\begin{aligned}
{dR \over dE_R^m} = \epsilon_f (E_R^m) {1 \over \sqrt{2\pi}\sigma_{res}
}
\int {dR \over dE_R} e^{-(E_R - E_R^m)^2/2\sigma^2_{res}} dE_R
\label{556}\end{aligned}$$ where $E_R^m$ is the measured energy and $\sigma_{res}$ describes the resolution. The measured energy is typically in keVee units (ionization/scintillation energy). For nuclear recoils in the absence of any channeling, keVee = keV/$q$, where $q < 1$ is the relevant quenching factor. Channeled events, where scattered target atoms travel down crystal axis and planes, have $q \simeq 1$. In light of recent theoretical studies[@newstudy], we assume that the channeling fraction is negligible. Channeling, though, is a complicated subject and the modeling used in ref.[@newstudy] might miss important physics. Therefore it is, of course, still possible that channeling could play an important role, which could modify the favored regions of parameter space somewhat.
Mirror dark matter interpretation of CRESST-II, DAMA/Libra and CoGeNT signals
=============================================================================
0.5cm [*The CRESST-II experiment*]{} 0.5cm
The CRESST-II data[@cresst-II] arises from 8 detector modules, with recoil energy thresholds (keV) of $10.2, 12.1, 12.3, 12.9, 15.0,
15.5, 16.2, 19.0$. The data is plotted in figure 1. With a view to performing a standard $\chi^2$ analysis of this data, we bin this data into 5 bins, summarized in table 1. This table also indicates the expected background rate estimated from all known sources of background[@cresst-II].
Bin / keV Total events Estimated background
------------- -------------- ----------------------
10.2 – 13.0 9 3.2
13 – 16 15 6.1
16 – 19 11 7.0
19 – 25 12 11.5
25 – 40 20 20.1
: CRESST-II data: total number of events and estimated background.
0.9cm
0.5cm
0.3cm [Figure 1: CRESST-II data.]{} 0.9cm
The rates, $R_i$, relevant for the CRESST-II experiment are computed using Eq.(\[55\]) and Eq.(\[556\]). As discussed earlier, the halo distributions in Eq.(\[55\]) depend on the parameter $\bar m$ which has been estimated to be $\bar m \approx 1.1$ GeV. A reasonable uncertainty in $\bar m$ is $\pm 20\%$, but such a variation does not significantly affect any of our conclusions. We therefore fix $\bar m = 1.1$ GeV in all of our numerical work. We use $\sigma_{res} = 0.3$ keV[@cresst-II] and assume detection efficiencies for the three target elements: $\epsilon_f = 0.90$ for O, W and $\epsilon_f = 1.0$ for Ca, which take into account their acceptance region. As per previous analysis[@foot2; @foot1] we make the simplifying assumption that the mirror metal components are dominated by a single element $A'$ in a given experiment. This can only be an approximation, however it can often be a reasonable one given the relatively narrow energy range probed in the experiments \[e.g. the signal region in the experiments are mainly: 2-4 keVee (DAMA), 0.5-1 keVee (CoGeNT), 12-14 keV (CRESST-II)\]. With this assumption and assuming a particular value for $v_{rot}$, the fit to the data depends on two parameters $m_{A'}, \ \epsilon\sqrt{\xi_{A'}}$. [^8] We define $\chi^2$ for the CRESST-II data in the usual way: $$\begin{aligned}
\chi^2 (m_{A'}, \epsilon \sqrt{\xi_{A'}}) =
\sum_{i=1}^{5} \left[ {R_i + B_i - data_i \over \delta data_i}\right]^2
\
\label{chi2bla}\end{aligned}$$ where $R_i$ is the theoretically predicted rate and $B_i$ is the estimated background in the $i^{th}$ energy bin. We evaluate $\chi^2$ as per Eq.(\[chi2bla\]), with the constraint $m_{A'} \le m_{Fe} \simeq 55.8m_p$. We have not considered any uncertainty in the CRESST-II energy scale.
0.6cm [*The DAMA annual modulation signal*]{} 0.3cm
For DAMA we analyse the annual modulation signal using the 12 bins of width $0.5$ keVee in the energy range: $2-8$ keVee[@dama2] taking into account the detector resolution[@damares]. An important issue is the nuclear recoil energy scale which is set by the values of the quenching factors $q_{Na}, \ q_I$. In the recent analysis[@foot2; @foot1] we used $q_{Na} = 0.30 \pm 0.06$, $q_I = 0.09\pm 0.02$, where the central values were taken from averages over a large range of energies[@dama1]. However quenching factors are in general energy dependent and many measurements of $q_I$ tend to show increasing values in the important low energy region. This is also supported by some theoretical arguments based on the classical Birks forumula[@tretyak]. \[See e.g. ref.[@kims] for a summary figure of much of the available information\]. In view of the current situation, we allow for a range of possible values for the quenching factors: $$\begin{aligned}
q_{Na} = 0.28 \pm 0.08, \ \
q_I = 0.12\pm 0.08
\label{moomba}\end{aligned}$$ We minimize $\chi^2$ varying $q_{Na}, \ q_I$ over the above range of values (assumed energy independent for simplicity). Values of $q_I, \ q_{Na}$ outside the above range are certainly possible, such as the higher values $q_{Na} \approx 0.6, \ q_I \approx 0.3$ suggested by Tretyak[@tretyak]. While we don’t specifically consider the possibility of such high quenching factors in the numerical work presented here, qualitatively we note that higher quenching factors generally move the DAMA allowed region to lower values of $\epsilon \sqrt{\xi_{A'}}, \ m_{A'}$ and also yields interesting parameter space overlapping with that from CoGeNT and CRESST-II.
0.3cm [*The CoGeNT experiment*]{} 0.3cm
Our analysis procedure for CoGeNT is different to our earlier analysis[@foot2; @foot1]. It has been pointed out that there may be surface events contaminating CoGeNT’s signal region[@collartaupxxx] which have not been excluded by CoGeNT’s rise time cut. Preliminary estimates indicate that this can be a very large effect - the signal may be reduced by a factor of around $0.3$ in the important low energy region ($E_R < 1.0 $ keVee)[@collartaupxxx; @hooper]. In view of this we analyse CoGeNT data using 15 bins of width $0.1$ keVee in the region $0.5-2.0$ keVee. We take the efficiency corrected and surface event corrected CoGeNT data from figure 4 of ref.[@hooper]. We allow a constant background, which we fit to the data in this energy range. We have taken into account some uncertainties in energy scale by minimizing the $\chi^2$ for CoGeNT over the variation in quenching factor, $q_{Ge} = 0.21 \pm 0.04$. Obviously, the CoGeNT spectrum is quite uncertain at the present time and one could easily assign $\sim
40\%$ uncertainty in the rate. Such an uncertainty would imply a $\sim 20\%$ uncertainty in inferred values of $\epsilon\sqrt{\xi_{A'}}$ from CoGeNT data. This is in addition to the uncertainties we have considered. Thus, the reader should be aware that the favored region we derive for CoGeNT might move considerably as future data is accumulated and the backgrounds are better understood.
0.3cm [*The analysis*]{} 0.3cm
Experiment $\chi^2 (min)/d.o.f. $ Best fit parameters
-------------------- ------------------------ ----------------------------------------------------------------------------
DAMA (annual mod.) $5.7/10$ ${m_{A'} \over m_p} = 55.8$ , $\epsilon \sqrt{\xi_{A'}}/10^{-10} = 2.5 $
CoGeNT (spectrum) $15.7/12$ ${m_{A'} \over m_p} = 42.0$ , $\epsilon \sqrt{\xi_{A'}}/10^{-10} = 1.7 $
CRESST (spectrum) $2.6/3$ ${m_{A'} \over m_p} = 55.8 $ , $\epsilon \sqrt{\xi_{A'}}/10^{-10} = 2.7 $
: Summary of $\chi^2 (min)$ for the relevant data sets from the DAMA, CoGeNT and CRESST-II experiments. \[Here $v_{rot} = 200$ km/s\].
Table 2 gives the $\chi^2_{min}$ values obtained from the fit to the DAMA annual modulation and CoGeNT, CRESST-II spectrum data for a fixed value of $v_{rot} = 200$ km/s, which we have found as an example where all three experiments have overlapping favored regions of parameter space. The value $v_{rot} = 200$ km/s is around $20\%$ less than some recent estimates of this quantity[@rot]. However allowing for a small bulk halo rotation, e.g. in a co-rotating halo, a $10\%-20\%$ smaller [*effective*]{} $v_{rot}$ value can easily be envisaged. There are also significant astrophysical uncertainties in this quantity.
0.5cm
0.3cm [Figure 2: DAMA, CoGeNT and CRESST-II favored regions of parameter space in the mirror dark matter model for $v_{rot} = 200$ km/s. ]{} 0.6cm
The 90% (99%) C.L. favored region of parameter space is bounded by the contours where $\chi^2 (m_{A'}, \epsilon \sqrt{\xi_{A'}}) = \chi^2_{min} + 4.6 (9.2)$. In figure 2 we plot the CRESST-II 90% C.L. favored region along with the 99% C.L. favored region of parameter space for DAMA and CoGeNT[^9].
Figure 2 indicates that in the high mass region, $m_{A'} \stackrel{>}{\sim} 50 m_p$ including $A' \sim$ Fe$'$, DAMA encompasses lower $\epsilon \sqrt{\xi_{A'}}$ values. This is because dark matter scattering on Iodine becomes kinematically favored and can dominate over Sodium scattering in this parameter region. The resulting lower values of $\epsilon \sqrt{\xi_{A'}}$ produce a favored region of parameter space overlapping with that of the other experiments. If the spectrum of mirror dark matter elements has some resemblance to ordinary matter, we might expect Fe$'$ to be the dominant heavy mirror metal component. To study this possibility further we fix $A' =$ Fe$'$ ($m_{A'} = 55.8m_p$) and vary $v_{rot}$ in the range: $160 \le v_{rot} ({\rm km/s}) \le 250$. The resulting $\chi^2_{min}$ values are given in table 3. Expanding around these $\chi^2_{min}$ values we obtain the CRESST-II 90% C.L. and the DAMA, CoGeNT 99% C.L. favored parameter regions in figure 3.
Experiment $\chi^2 (min)/d.o.f. $ Best fit parameters
-------------------- ------------------------ --------------------------------------------------------------------
DAMA (annual mod.) $5.5/10$ $v_{rot} = 210$ km/s , $\epsilon \sqrt{\xi_{A'}}/10^{-10} = 3.1 $
CoGeNT (spectrum) $15.8/12$ $v_{rot} = 201$ km/s , $\epsilon \sqrt{\xi_{A'}}/10^{-10} = 1.6 $
CRESST (spectrum) $0.3/3$ $v_{rot} = 250$ km/s , $\epsilon \sqrt{\xi_{A'}}/10^{-10} = 1.7 $
: Summary of $\chi^2 (min)$ for the relevant data sets from the DAMA, CoGeNT and CRESST-II experiments for $A' =$ Fe$'$.
0.5cm
0.4cm [Figure 3: DAMA, CoGeNT and CRESST-II favored regions of parameter space in the mirror dark matter model for $A' = $ Fe$'$ (i.e. $m_{A'} = 55.8m_p$). ]{}
0.8cm
Two examples, P1 and P2
=======================
As discussed earlier, the systematic uncertainties are potentially quite significant for CoGeNT. The favored region can move up or down by $\sim 20\%$ as future data is collected and backgrounds are better understood. A small channeling fraction or quenching factors outside the range considered in Eq.(\[moomba\]), can also move the DAMA region somewhat. In this light, figures 2,3 offer some encouragement as they indicate some parameter space where all three experiments can be explained by Fe$'$ scattering. At this point one could combine all three of these experiments and do a fit using the combined $\chi^2$. However, in view of the potentially large systematic uncertainties it is not clear how useful such a combined analysis would be. Instead we consider two example reference points. The first one is located near the overlapping allowed regions indicated in figure 2: $$\begin{aligned}
P1: A' &=& {\rm Fe}' \ (m_{Fe'} \simeq 55.8m_p),\ v_{rot} = 200\ {\rm
km/s}, \
\epsilon \sqrt{\xi_{Fe'}} = 2.2\times 10^{-10}\ .
%\nonumber \\
%P2: A' &=& Cl' \ (m_{Cl'} \simeq 35.5m_p),\ v_{rot} = 0\ {\rm km/s}, \
%\epsilon \sqrt{\xi_{Cl'}} = 4.3\times 10^{-10}\ .
\label{p1}\end{aligned}$$ Figure 4a,b,c, compares the predicted rates assuming the $P1$ parameter set with the relevant DAMA, CoGeNT and CRESST-II data.
0.5cm
0.3cm [Figure 4a: DAMA annual modulation spectrum for mirror dark matter with parameter choice $P1$ (solid line). The separate contributions from dark matter scattering off Sodium (dashed line) and Iodine (dotted line) are shown. In this example $q_{Na} = 0.33, \ q_I = 0.20$.]{} 0.5cm
0.3cm [Figure 4b: CoGeNT spectrum for mirror dark matter with parameters $P1$ (solid line). In this example $q_{Ge} = 0.17$. ]{}
0.5cm
0.3cm [Figure 4c: CRESST-II spectrum for mirror dark matter with parameters $P1$ (solid line). The signal component (dashed line) and background component (dotted line) are also shown. ]{} 0.8cm
For the example point $P1$, the CRESST-II signal is dominated by Fe$'$ scattering on the Ca target element. Of course the reasons for this are purely kinematical being due to $m_{Fe'} \sim m_{Ca}$.
The change in sign of the annual modulation amplitude at low energies indicated in figure 4a will not necessarily hold if there are lighter more abundant components such as O$'$, Ne$'$. The positive contributions to the annual modulation amplitude from these lighter components can overwhelm the negative contribution due to the heavier components at low energies. We illustrate this point with the following example: $$\begin{aligned}
%P2: \epsilon\sqrt{\xi_{Fe'}} = 1.7 \times 10^{-10},
%\ \xi_{O'}/\xi_{Fe'} = 10, \ v_{rot} = 205 \ {\rm km/s}
P2: A' = {\rm Fe}', \ \epsilon\sqrt{\xi_{Fe'}} = 1.7 \times 10^{-10},
\ \xi_{O'}/\xi_{Fe'} = 10,
\ v_{rot} = 210 \ {\rm km/s}
\ .\end{aligned}$$ Figure 5a,b,c, compares the predicted rates for the reference point $P2$ with the relevant DAMA, CoGeNT and CRESST-II data.
0.5cm
0.3cm [Figure 5a: DAMA annual modulation spectrum for mirror dark matter with parameters $P2$ (solid line). The separate contributions from Fe$'$ interactions (dashed line) and O$'$ (dotted line) interactions are also shown. In this example $q_{Na} = 0.34$, $q_I = 0.20$. ]{}
0.5cm
0.3cm [Figure 5b: CoGeNT spectrum for mirror dark matter with parameters $P2$ (solid line). The separate contributions from Fe$'$ interactions (dashed line) and O$'$ (dotted line) interactions are also shown. In this example $q_{Ge} = 0.17$.]{}
0.2cm
0.3cm [Figure 5c: CRESST-II spectrum for mirror dark matter with parameters $P2$ (solid line).]{}
0.6cm
Figures 5 show that with low $v_{rot} \stackrel{<}{\sim} 220$ km/s light metal components ($\sim $ O$'$) and lighter components (H$'$, He$'$) can be kinematically suppressed in DAMA, CoGeNT and CRESST-II. Future experiments at lower thresholds, such as Texono[@texono2], should be able to probe such light components.
Observe that the dark matter signal contribution in CRESST-II is relatively low in these examples. However it could easily be enhanced in many ways. Increasing $\epsilon \sqrt{\xi_{A'}}$ will increase the rate in CRESST-II and improve the fit in DAMA and is therefore an obvious possibility. Another possibility is that the CRESST-II energy scale might be overestimated by e.g. $\sim 10\%$. If CRESST-II events are at lower energies then this can increase the expected rate in CRESST-II. Also, a slight increase in $\bar m$ of order $\sim 20\%$ can greatly improve the fit in CRESST-II. Such small changes of $\bar m$ do not significantly affect DAMA or CoGeNT since these experiments are sensitive to dark matter in the body of the Maxwellian distribution[@foot2] while CRESST-II is probing interactions in the tail of the dark matter velocity distribution (in this example).
0.5cm
0.3cm [Figure 6: DAMA spectrum for mirror dark matter with parameters $P1$ (solid line), $P2$ (dashed line). In this example $q_{Na} = 0.34$, $q_I = 0.20$.]{} 0.7cm
Future data from DAMA, CoGeNT, CRESST-II and other experiments will obviously be able to constrain the parameter space within the mirror dark matter framework. As discussed recently[@diurnal], a particularly striking diurnal modulation signal should be observable for a detector located in the southern hemisphere, and maybe even in a detector in the northern hemisphere at low latitudes, such as detectors in Jin-Ping Underground laboratory. In the meantime, we must rely on annual modulation and spectrum data. In figure 6 we give the predicted spectrum for DAMA/Libra and Figure 7 the predicted annual modulation spectrum in CoGeNT for each reference point, $P1,\ P2$ \[detection efficiency = 1 for these figures\]. Clearly, the initial annual modulation amplitude measured by CoGeNT to be $A \approx 0.46 \pm 0.17$ cpd/kg/keVee averaged over the energy range: $0.5 < E({\rm keVee}) < 3.0$, is much larger than that predicted by our example points. It will be interesting to see if CoGeNT’s hint of a large annual modulation amplitude is confirmed by CDEX, C-4, and other experiments.
0.5cm
0.3cm [Figure 7: CoGeNT annual modulation spectrum for mirror dark matter with parameters $P1$ (solid line), $P2$ (dashed line). In this example $q_{Ge} = 0.17$. ]{} 0.8cm
Let us make a few comments. Firstly, there are alternative explanations of DAMA, CoGeNT and CRESST-II within the mirror dark matter framework. For example, if $v_{rot}$ is high ($\stackrel{>}{\sim}$ 240 km/s) then DAMA and CoGeNT can be mainly detecting the lighter metal components $\sim $ O$'$-Si$'$ [@foot2; @foot1]. In this case, it is possible that CRESST-II might be seeing a less abundant heavier component (e.g. Fe$'$), or even the same component if $v_{rot}$ is very high $\stackrel{>}{\sim} 260$ km/s. Secondly, more generic hidden sector dark matter can also explain the data in a similar way to the mirror dark matter case. One simply requires a hidden sector with two or more stable particles charged under an unbroken $U(1)'$ gauge interaction which is kinetically mixed with standard $U(1)_Y$[@foot1; @foot2008]. These ingredients can arise, for example, in spontaneously broken mirror models[@chinese].
Finally, observe that the experiments constrain $\epsilon \sqrt{\xi_{A'}}$ but do not allow for a precise determination of $\epsilon$ or $\xi_{A'}$ separately. It is difficult to estimate $\xi_{A'}$. Mirror metals might be generated in mirror stars, presumably at an early epoch[@mirrorstarstudy]. It might also be possible to produce the metal component in the early Universe, although this is disfavored in the simplest scenarios with high reheating temperature[@paolo2]. A third possibility is that the average metal component is actually very low in the galaxy, $\langle \xi_{A'} \rangle \ll 10^{-2}$, but its abundance is greatly enhanced in the galactic disk. One possible mechanism for this is the influence of the galactic magnetic field[@kolb] which can potentially exclude (or suppress) light elements ($m_{A'} \stackrel{<}{\sim}
m_{O'}$) from entering the disk[@footz] (see also ref.[@zurek]). This could thereby enhance the proportion of heavier components whose abundance should increase until the pressure equalizes with that of the rest of the halo (at the same radial distance). In this case $\xi_{A'} \sim 1$ is possible within the disk, i.e. at the detector’s location. The above possibilities suggest a broad range for $\xi_{A'}$: $10^{-4}
\stackrel{<}{\sim} \xi_{A'} \stackrel{<}{\sim}
1$. If the direct detection experiments are due to mirror dark matter with $\epsilon \sqrt{\xi_{A'}} \sim
\ {\rm few}\ 10^{-10}$ then this suggests that $\epsilon$ is in the range[^10] $\sim 10^{-10} - 10^{-8}$. The most stringent laboratory limit on $\epsilon$ arises from invisible decays of orthopositronium[@gla; @ortho], $\epsilon
\stackrel{<}{\sim} 1.5 \times 10^{-7}$. An important proposal exists[@ortho2] for a more sensitive orthopositronium experiment which can cover much of the $\epsilon$ range of interest. Also, note that values of $\epsilon \stackrel{>}{\sim} 10^{-9}$ can also be probed in early Universe cosmology[@footnov]. In particular, forthcoming results expected from the Planck mission might shed some light on $\epsilon$ in the near future. There are also other interesting possible effects of the kinetic mixing[@review; @mitra].
Constraints from CDMS and XENON100
==================================
Let us now examine the question of the compatibility of this model with the constraints from the XENON100[@xenon100], CDMS/Ge[@cdmsge] and CDMS/Si[@cdmssi] experiments[^11]. This question is somewhat non-trivial since the answer depends sensitively on the recoil energy threshold which (typically) has at least $20\%$ uncertainty and often the subject of controversy. The XENON100 experiment, which has the largest exposure, has especially poor knowledge of energy calibration in the important low energy region (see ref.[@collarzzz; @damaguts] for relevant discussions). In view of the above, we explore the compatibility question by estimating the energy threshold for which the parameter point $P1$ can be excluded at $95\%$ C.L. \[The constraint on $P2$ is similar to that of $P1$\]. We have taken into account the relevant detection efficiencies, exposure time etc, although we conservatively ignore effects of detector resolution for the XENON100 experiment. Our results are given in table 4. Note that the $95\%$ C.L. limits in the second column arise since CDMS/Ge, CDMS/Si and XENON100 observed $2, 0, 1$ events respectively in the low energy region.
Experiment $95\%$ C.L limit $E_R^{est}$ threshold $E_R^{nom}$ threshold $100\left[ 1 - {E_R^{nom} \over E_R^{est}}\right]$
------------ ------------------ ----------------------- ----------------------- ----------------------------------------------------
CDMS/Ge 6.3 13.1 keV 10.0 keV 23.7%
CDMS/Si 3.0 8.5 keV 7.0 keV 17.6 %
XENON100 4.7 12.9 keV 8.4 keV 34.9 %
: Estimated energy threshold ($E_R^{est}$) for which the CDMS/Ge, CDMS/Si and XENON100 experiments are consistent with the mirror dark matter expectations assuming the example point, $P1$. $E_R^{nom}$ is the nominal energy threshold of each experiment. The last column gives the percentage at which the energy threshold needs to have been underestimated for the point $P1$ to be consistent with these experiments at $95\%$ C.L.
Table 4 indicates that mirror dark matter with parameters given by the example $P1$ is consistent with the CDMS/Ge, CDMS/Si and XENON100 data provided that the energy scale has been underestimated by of order $20-30\%$ respectively. This level of energy scale uncertainty is within critical assessments of these experiments discussed in the literature. We conclude that the considered mirror dark matter explanation of the DAMA, CoGeNT and CRESST-II data is consistent with the data from CDMS/Si, CDMS/Ge and XENON100 experiments when reasonable systematic uncertainties in energy scale are included. It should also be noted that the two events seen in CDMS/Ge and also the events seen just above the threshold in the Edelweiss experiment[@edelweiss] are both compatible with dark matter interactions within this model given these energy scale uncertainties.
Finally, the KIMS experiment[@kims] is currently running with a $\sim 100$ kg CsI target. They have reported a (2$\sigma$) limit on the rate of dark matter interactions from a Pulse Shape Analysis (PSA) of their spectrum: $R < 0.02$ cpd/kg/keVee for $ 3.0 < E_R ({\rm keVee})
< 4.0$. We find that the Iodine interaction rate in a CsI target predicted by mirror dark matter for the particular point $P1$ is $R \approx 0.006$ cpd/kg/keVee in the $3 < E_R({\rm keVee}) < 4$ bin and falling sharply at higher energies. \[Assuming here that KIMS has the same resolution and $q_I$ quenching factor as the DAMA/Libra experiment\]. Thus, their PSA does not constrain mirror dark matter. However, the KIMS experiment also aims to measure/constrain the annual modulation amplitude. The annual modulation results are anticipated to be reported within the coming year. Assuming that they can reach a similar energy threshold to DAMA, they can potentially see a positive signal for a signficant portion of parameter space (c.f dotted line in figure 4a).
Conclusion
==========
In conclusion, we have examined the new results from the CRESST-II experiment along with the latest results from DAMA and CoGeNT experiments in the context of the mirror dark matter framework. In this framework dark matter consists of a spectrum of mirror elements: H$'$, He$'$, O$'$, Fe$'$, ... of known masses. Under the simplifying but reasonable assumption that DAMA, CoGeNT and CRESST-II might be observing a particular dark matter component, $A'$, we have found that mirror dark matter models can explain the data from each experiment. In particular, we have found that each experiment can be explained by $A' \sim $ Fe$'$ interactions if $\epsilon \sqrt{\xi_{Fe'}} \approx 2 \times 10^{-10}$ and $v_{rot} \sim 200$ km/s. Other regions of parameter space are possible. We have also shown that the considered explanation is consistent with the results of the other experiments when reasonable systematic uncertainties in energy scale are considered.
2.9cm [**Acknowledgments**]{}
0.2cm The author would like to thank Juan Collar, Juhee Lee and Leo Stodolsky for helpful correspondence. This work was supported by the Australian Research Council.
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[^1]: E-mail address: rfoot@unimelb.edu.au
[^2]: Note that successful big bang nucleosynthesis and successful large scale structure requires effectively asymmetric initial conditions in the early Universe, $T' \ll T$ and $n_{b'}/n_b \approx 5$. See ref.[@some] for further discussions.
[^3]: Unless otherwise indicated, we employ natural units where $\hbar = c = 1$.
[^4]: There may also be a remnant disk of dark mirror stars[@macho1], but constraints from gravitational microlensing (MACHOs searches) limit this component to be subdominant[@macho].
[^5]: There are limits on self interactions of dark matter from observations of the Bullet cluster[@bullet]. This sets stringent limits on self interactions provided that the bulk of the dark matter particles are distributed throughout the cluster and not bound to individual galaxies. However mirror dark matter is dissipative and in clusters (or at least in some of them) the bulk of the dark matter particles might be confined in galactic halos \[c.f. ref.[@zurab]\]. Under this assumption mirror dark matter is consistent with Bullet cluster observations.
[^6]: The upper limit of integration in Eq.(\[55\]) is taken as infinity since we are dealing with dark matter particles with significant self interactions. The self interactions will prevent particles in the high velocity tail of the Maxwellian distribution from escaping the galaxy.
[^7]: In all numerical work we include an estimate of the Sun’s peculiar velocity so that $\langle v_E \rangle = v_{rot} + 12$ km/s.
[^8]: In our numerical work we allow $A', Z'$ to have non-integer values, with $Z' = A'/2$ (except when we specifically consider $A' = $ Fe$'$, then $Z' = 26$ and $A' \simeq 56$). Since the realistic case involves a spectrum of elements, the effective mass number can be non-integer.
[^9]: The CoGeNT experiment does not discriminate electron recoils from nuclear recoils. In principle, e$'$ inelastic scattering on bound electrons in the target can therefore also contribute to the signal at low energies $E_R \stackrel{<}{\sim}$ keVee. Previous work[@footelec; @foot2] has indicated that the e$'$ contribution can be comparable to the rate of nuclear recoils. However, the previous analysis[@footelec; @foot2] assumed that the flux of e$'$ at the detector was much larger than the flux of mirror nuclei due to the large dispersion velocity $v_0 [e'] \gg v_{rot}$. In reality this cannot be the case. A larger flux of e$'$ would lead to a greater rate of e$'$ capture in the Earth c.f. mirror nuclei capture, and hence this would lead to an increasing mirror electric charge within the Earth, $Q'_E$. In fact, we expect $Q'_E$ to be generated such that the flux of e$'$ and mirror nuclei at the Earth’s surface approximately equalize. Taking this effect into account reduces the expected e$'$ flux by more than an order of magnitude, leaving nuclear recoils as the dominant contribution to the rate.
[^10]: Similar values of $\epsilon$ can be motivated from an astrophysical argument. Mirror dark matter is dissipative and radiative cooling would cause the halo to collapse on a time scale of a few hundred million years unless a substantial heat source exists. Kinetic mixing induced processes in the core of ordinary supernova (such as $e' \bar e'$ production via plasmon decay[@raf]) can supply the energy needed to compensate for the energy lost from the halo due to radiative cooling if $\epsilon \sim 10^{-9}$[@sph; @fsfsfs].
[^11]: There are also lower threshold analysis by the XENON10[@xenon10] and CDMS collaborations[@cdms]. However it has been argued[@collarguts] that neither analysis can exclude light dark matter when systematic uncertainties are properly taken into account.
|
704 So.2d 1055 (1997)
QUINCY CORPORATION, d/b/a Quincy Farms, Appellant,
v.
Hector P. AGUILAR, et al., Appellees.
No. 97-0284.
District Court of Appeal of Florida, First District.
November 5, 1997.
Robert L. Norton, David J. Stefany and Michael Mattimore of Allen, Norton & Blue, P.A., Tampa, for Appellant.
Robert A. Williams of Florida Legal Services, Inc., Tallahassee, for Appellees.
SMITH, Senior Judge.
The employer challenges an order of the Unemployment Appeals Commission (UAC) which affirmed the appeals referee's decision to award unemployment benefits to appellees upon a finding that the labor dispute disqualification of section 443.101, Florida Statutes (1995), no longer applied. We affirm.
I. THE LABOR DISPUTE
This case arose out of a labor dispute involving appellant, a mushroom farmer, and some of its employees, more than 100 mushroom harvesters, including appellees. The facts as determined by the appeals referee, which were found by the UAC to be supported by competent substantial evidence and which are not substantially in dispute on appeal, indicate that since 1995 there has been an ongoing controversy regarding appellant's refusal to recognize or negotiate with the organized harvesters who are affiliated *1056 with United Farm Workers, AFL-CIO. On March 14, 1996, the harvesters told their supervisor that they intended to demonstrate during both of the half-hour lunch breaks. Some of the demonstrators who refused to return to work after the first half-hour lunch break were arrested, and the others left the property as instructed by appellant through translators. There was confusion over whether the demonstrators had been fired, and one of them who tried to return to work the next day was not allowed to do so.[1] The others did not attempt to return to work, but demonstrated for several days.
On March 18, 1996, the union representative sent appellant a letter requesting clarification of the harvesters' work status and offering an unconditional return to work. Appellant did not respond to the union representative, but contacted the harvesters individually, instructing them to report to the job site and advising them that failure to do so would result in the assumption that they had no interest in returning to work. When they reported to the job site on March 21, 1996, they were each asked to sign a document stating that appellant did not recognize the union, that there was a limited number of job openings, and that to be considered eligible for job openings the harvester had to sign the document, which included a statement that the harvester offered to return to work unconditionally. Some of the harvesters signed the document prior to March 23,1996, and have been put back to work. Appellees did not sign the document; some did not understand it, some wanted their attorney or union representative to review it first, and some objected to not being put back to work right away. Appellant refused to give them copies of the document, and on March 23, 1996, it hired replacement harvesters to perform their jobs.
After consulting with their union representative, appellees reported to the job site on March 25, 1996, and signed statements making "an unconditional and unequivocal offer to return to work" with no changes in pay or working conditions. Appellant responded with letters dated March 28, 1996, acknowledging the unconditional offers to return to work and stating that each of the harvesters was being put on a preferential recall list for future openings. Appellees have continued since March 25, 1996, to demonstrate across the street from appellant's place of business and at supermarkets, seeking a union contract and a return to work. They are willing to return to work without a union contract, but they wish to retain the right to organize, to belong to the union, and to attempt negotiations with appellant for recognition of the union as their bargaining agent.[2]
II. PROCEEDINGS BEFORE THE DIVISION
Near the end of March 1996, appellees filed requests for unemployment benefits, denying that they were engaged in a strike. They stated that they had been locked out of the plant and had offered to return to work, but had not been put back to work. Appellant responded that appellees had "voluntarily quit" on March 14, 1996, because they "voluntarily elected to participate in a work stoppage & labor dispute." It asserted that appellees had been given an opportunity to return to work, that replacement workers had subsequently been hired, and that "[a]nyone who contacts us now will be put on a list and contacted for work when an opening is available." On April 10,1996, determinations were issued by the Division of Unemployment Compensation (the division), holding each appellee disqualified from receiving *1057 unemployment benefits from March 14, 1996, on the ground that the unemployment was "due to a labor dispute in active progress." This term refers to section 443.101, Florida Statutes (1995), which provides, in pertinent part:
An individual shall be disqualified for benefits:
. . . . .
4) For any week with respect to which the division finds that his total or partial unemployment is due to a labor dispute in active progress which exists at the factory, establishment, or other premises at which he is or was last employed; except that this subsection shall not apply if it is shown to the satisfaction of the division that:
(a)1. He is not participating in, financing, or directly interested in the labor dispute which is in active progress; however, the payment of regular union dues shall not be construed as financing a labor dispute within the meaning of this section; and
2. He does not belong to a grade or class of workers of which immediately before the commencement of the labor dispute there were members employed at the premises at which the labor dispute occurs any of whom are participating in, financing, or directly interested in the dispute;...
(b) His total or partial unemployment results from a lockout by his employer. For the purposes of this section, the term "lockout" shall mean a situation where employees have not gone on strike, nor have employees notified the employer of a date certain for a strike, but where employees have been denied entry to the factory, establishment, or other premises of employment by the employer. However, benefits shall not be payable under this paragraph if the lockout action was taken in response to threats, actions, or other indications of impending damage to property and equipment or possible physical violence by employees or in response to actual damage or violence or a substantial reduction in production instigated or perpetrated by employees.
There were no appeals of these initial determinations, but on April 18, 1996, a division field auditor reported that the unemployed harvesters "are not picketing at all" and that they "want their jobs back under any conditions." On April 22, 1996, the division director informed the chief of claims administration that the labor dispute "terminated effective March 25,1996." On April 24,1996, redeterminations were issued removing the disqualification as of March 25, 1996, on the ground that the unemployment was no longer "due to a labor dispute in active progress." The employer appealed these latter determinations, asserting that the labor dispute remained in active progress.
After a consolidated hearing, the appeals referee issued her notice of decision, affirming the determinations of the claims adjudicator "holding the claimants qualified for benefits based on the cessation of the labor dispute effective March 25,1996." She found that the evidence was conflicting as to the information provided to the protesting harvesters by the employer on March 14, 1996, and accepted the testimony of the harvesters. She noted some confusion at the hearing concerning how each harvester received information from the employer, but concluded that it was not necessary to resolve that confusion "because the record reflects that the workers acted cohesively in making the decision to actively engage in a labor dispute by demonstrating during scheduled working hours, to abandon the labor dispute on March 18 and to advise the employer of their unified decision to return to work unconditionally." She considered whether the harvesters were discharged on March 14, 1996, cited Meyer v. Florida Industrial Commission, 117 So.2d 216 (Fla. 2d DCA 1959),[3] and *1058 concluded "that the labor dispute which began on March 14, 1996, was initiated by the harvesters and that the employment relationship did not cease when they were advised on the same day that they would be replaced." She considered whether the harvesters had abandoned the labor dispute by March 25, 1996, noted that "once a labor dispute begins, it remains in active progress until it is finally settled, terminated or completely abandoned," and concluded that when the harvesters as a group submitted their written offer to return to work unconditionally, they "were then prepared to work without a contract and without changes in the working conditions, although they intended to continue their quest for recognition as a bargaining group." She concluded that "[b]y that time, the active progress of the labor dispute ceased." Citing George A. Hormel & Co. v. Asper, 428 N.W.2d 47 (Minn.1988),[4] she found that the fact that the harvesters "continue to demonstrate for their return to work and union recognition does not change the fact that they abandoned the labor dispute in order to unconditionally return to employment." She found that the harvesters' decision to promote a boycott of appellant's products "due to the employer's failure to put them back to work" and their organized protest "in an attempt to be put back to work" without changes in the conditions that caused their initial work stoppage "does not constitute a continuation of a strike or work stoppage by the workers."[5] She further found that on March 25, 1996, appellant accepted the harvesters' unconditional offer to return to work, but disallowed their return because it had no openings available for them, and that thus, "by agreement of the parties, the active progress of the labor dispute ended."
III. ISSUE ON APPEAL
In its order affirming the referee's action, the UAC concluded that removal of the disqualification as of March 25, 1996, based on the finding that the unemployment was no longer due to a labor dispute in active progress, was "a reasonable application of the law to the facts of this case and will not be disturbed." The issue before this court is therefore whether the Commission erred as a matter of law in accepting the referee's determination that after March 25,1996, appellees' unemployment was no longer due to "a *1059 labor dispute in active progress" and that, pursuant to section 443.101(4), Florida Statutes (1995), appellees were therefore no longer disqualified from receiving unemployment benefits.
Appellant argues that the Commission's decision imposes severe burdens upon it and requires it to fund a strike against itself, in contravention of the public policy behind the labor dispute disqualification provision.[6] However, its primary argument, both before the lower tribunals and on appeal, focuses on its contention that the Commission erred as a matter of law in construing section 443.101(4) and that, notwithstanding appellees' unconditional offer to return to work on March 25, 1997, their continuing protest of its hiring of permanent replacement workers, along with their continuing demonstrations calling attention to their desire to be returned to their jobs and to work under a contract with union recognition, constitute a "labor dispute in active progress" which disqualifies them from receiving unemployment benefits.
IV. APPLICABLE LAW
In order to determine whether the referee's and the Commission's rejection of appellant's contention is erroneous as a matter of law,[7] we have thoroughly examined the court decisions from Florida and from other jurisdictions having disqualification statutes similar to the one in effect in Florida, as well as other authorities on this and related subjects. These authorities reflect the difficulties experienced by the courts in considering the policies and principles pertinent to interpretation and application of labor dispute disqualification *1060 statutes. However, we find that a substantial body of case law supports the result reached in the case before us.
In determining whether the Commission properly construed section 443.101(4), we must consider its language and attempt to determine the legislative intent which prompted it, taking into account its historical background. Florida's original unemployment compensation statute, like the unemployment legislation enacted by most states in the late 1930s in response to the Social Security Act of 1935, took its language from one of the Social Security Board draft bills. These included a declaration of policy indicating that unemployment legislation was intended "for the benefit of persons unemployed through no fault of their own," and it also included a labor dispute disqualification provision.[8]
Many states have modified the original statutory language in various ways, but a substantial majority of the states have retained the so-called "work stoppage" type of disqualification statute included in the federal draft bills, under which an individual is disqualified from receiving unemployment compensation when the unemployment is due to a "stoppage of work" which exists because of a labor dispute.[9] In those states, workers unemployed under circumstances similar to those presented in the case before us would not be disqualified from receipt of unemployment compensation, those courts holding that unless the labor dispute causes a substantial curtailment of the employer's operations, the labor dispute disqualification does not apply.[10] In those states, the employer's act of hiring replacement workers is alone sufficient *1061 to remove the disqualification, even without an accompanying unconditional offer on the part of the striking employees to return to work.[11]
In contrast, the courts in the minority of states having "labor dispute in active progress" type disqualification statutes[12] hold that striking workers are disqualified from receiving unemployment compensation when the unemployment is due to the labor dispute, whether or not the strike results in any curtailment of the employer's operations. In circumstances similar to those presented in the case before us, these courts hold that the disqualification ends only when the unemployment is no longer "due to" the labor dispute, i.e., when the workers unconditionally offer to return to work, but work is not available because the employer has hired permanent replacement workers.[13]
Despite differences in statutory language, the focus of the analysis in these "labor dispute in active progress" states is on the current cause of the unemployment. See John Morrell & Co. v. South Dakota Department of Labor, Unemployment Insurance Division, 460 N.W.2d 141 (S.D.1990), in which the court rejected the argument that workers who had unconditionally offered to return to work, but whose jobs had been taken by replacement workers, were disqualified from receiving unemployment compensation *1062 because their initial unemployment and the hiring of replacement workers was "due to" the labor dispute. The court observed:
Additionally, the current cause analysis fully addresses the policy issues set forth by our legislature by addressing economic security while remaining neutral in labor disputes....
Throughout this labor dispute, the state remained neutral by denying benefits to striking workers. Once the labor dispute ended, however, the policy of neutrality was no longer pertinent. At that point, the state's interest in averting the crushing force of economic insecurity due to the unemployment of hundreds of workers became vital. This interest compelled payment of unemployment benefits and was fully compatible with South Dakota's labor dispute disqualification statute. Morrell would have us believe that the South Dakota legislature intended to adopt the most restrictive, unusual, and anti-labor labor dispute disqualification legislation in the United States. To give SDCL 61-6-19 that interpretation, this court would be completely ignoring our legislature's stated policy of alleviating the hardships of involuntary unemployment. Further, this court would be ignoring the policy of neutrality in labor disputes, punishing workers by denying them unemployment benefits after a labor dispute has ended. This would result in the denial of benefits to claimants who are legally entitled to receive them. No other state has made this departure, no case law supports it, and language of SDCL 61-6-19 precludes it.
Id. at 145.
In Skookum Co., Inc. v. Employment Division, 276 Or. 303, 554 P.2d 520, 521 (1976), the court held that the labor dispute disqualification ended when picket lines were removed and strikers who tried to return to work were told that no jobs were available because permanent replacements had been hired. It approved the lower tribunal's conclusion that as of the date the strikers attempted to return to work, their unemployment "was not caused by a labor dispute in active progress, but rather by the fact that their employer no longer had any work available for them." It observed:
[A]lthough it may be true, as Skookum contends, that there was no Final [collective bargaining] agreement reached as of [the date the striking workers attempted to return to work], it does not necessarily follow that the labor dispute continued to be the effective cause of claimants' unemployment after they again reported for work. In our view, the fact that no final agreement had yet been reached does not Automatically (sic) preclude a finding that, following a bona fide attempt to return to work, the claimants' continued unemployment was due to another causesuch as the fact that their employer no longer had any work available for them. Therefore, on the basis of the record in this case, we cannot say, as a matter of law, that the conclusion reached by the referee and the Appeals Board was incorrect.
Id. 554 P.2d at 522.
In re Sarvis, 296 N.C. 475, 251 S.E.2d 434 (1979), involved a determination that the labor dispute disqualification was no longer applicable when workers abandoned their strike by notifying the employer of their unconditional offer to return to work immediately, but were not reinstated because permanent replacement workers had been hired during the strike. The court ruled that under such circumstances, the employer's inability to reinstate the workers due to lack of available work "changes the cause of unemployment so as to lift the disqualification of employees for benefits" and that "the only type of active labor dispute which keeps the idle worker disqualified for benefits is one which causes unemployment." Id. 251 S.E.2d at 438.
In Piggly Wiggly of Springhill, Inc. v. Gerace, 370 So.2d 1327, 1331 (La.Ct.App. 1979), the court stated that "the determination of when a labor dispute ceases is to be made by the facts and circumstances of each case" and ruled that the labor dispute in that case was no longer "in active progress" as of the date the union was decertified as the bargaining representative and the striking workers unconditionally offered to return to work. It rejected the employer's contention *1063 that the labor dispute continued in active progress because of a boycott of its grocery store by union employees at a paper mill which was the area's largest employer, concluding that the agency's finding, that the grocery workers were not promoting or participating in a boycott to any extent that could be construed as a continuation of a labor dispute beyond the date the union was decertified, was supported by competent substantial evidence. It quoted the Louisiana Supreme Court's opinion in National Gypsum Co. v. Administrator, Louisiana Department of Employment Security, 313 So.2d 230, 233 (La.), appeal dism., 423 U.S. 1009, 96 S.Ct. 439, 46 L.Ed.2d 381 (1975):
[W]e think the more reasonable interpretation of the disqualification to be that unemployment due to `a labor dispute in active progress' includes only unemployment resulting from labor disputes in which the employee himself actively engages by refusing to work.... We thus regard the disqualification provision of La.R.S. 23:1601(4) as an expression of the public policy that the State remain neutral in labor disputes.... When employees are on strike, we have held that, by reason of the statutory policy, they cannot receive unemployment benefits. Senegal v. Lake Charles Stevedores, Inc., 250 La. 623, 197 So.2d 648 (1967). We hold today that, for similar reasons, the act was not intended to enforce a lock-out by the employer by denying unemployment benefits to employees who are available for work, but who are denied it by their employer.... We thus do not believe that a labor dispute is in active progress, insofar as disqualification for unemployment benefits is concerned, when the employees are exercising their legal right through peaceful negotiation to bargain for what they deem to be better working conditions.
In Randall, Burkart/Randall, Division of Textron, Inc. v. Daniels, 268 Ark. 375, 597 S.W.2d 71, 73 (1980), the court upheld the agency's determination that the labor dispute effectively ended for purposes of the disqualification provision when union employees ceased all strike activities and applied unconditionally for reinstatement, even though the union and the employer continued to negotiate the new collective bargaining agreement, observing:
When the employer disputed the union's right to accept its offer of settlement, the employees did not renew strike activities or suspend negotiations; they stood by their unconditional offer to return to work. Although the union and employer continue to dispute the terms and conditions under which the employees should return to work, there is no dispute about the terms and conditions under which they will return to work. When employees in fact return to work after cessation of strike activities induced by a labor dispute, the absence of a collective bargaining agreement between the union and employer is probably irrelevant but is at best only one factor which the fact finder has a responsibility to weigh in determining whether a labor dispute has ended for the purposes of unemployment compensation eligibility.
The state has no interest in withdrawing unemployment compensation from strike participants who have unconditionally offered to return to work for an employer who would willingly reinstate them if he had a job for them. Since the fact finder's decision has an adequate evidentiary base, and the award of unemployment compensation does not offend the public policies underlying unemployment compensation or the labor dispute exception, we can not disturb the award.
In Four Queens, Inc. v. Board of Review of Nevada Employment Security Department, 105 Nev. 53, 769 P.2d 49 (1989), the court affirmed a holding that previously disqualified striking workers were eligible for unemployment benefits after they offered to return to work but were told their jobs had been filled by permanent replacements and that they would be put on a preferential hiring list. It observed:
An unconditional offer to return to one's former employment or other acts which show a separation from the labor dispute may be taken by the director as evidence from which the director can conclude that the unemployment of an applicant for benefits *1064 is no longer "due to" the labor dispute.
Id. 769 P.2d at 52.
In Kraft v. Texas Employment Commission, 418 S.W.2d 482 (Tex.1967), factually very similar to the instant case although involving a somewhat differently worded statute, the employer hired replacements for striking oil workers, who later crossed the picket line with the union's permission and offered unconditionally to return to work, but were denied employment on the ground that jobs were no longer available. The opinion noted that "[a] semblance of a picket line was maintained thereafter, and the picket signs were changed from `strike' to `lockout'" and that the parties stipulated at the hearing "the labor dispute commenced by the strike called in August of the preceding year was still in existence" and the petitioners had participated in the "lockout" picketing after they were refused employment. Id. at 485. Relying on an earlier case, Texas Employment Commission v. Hodson, 346 S.W.2d 665 (Tex.Civ.App.1961), the Texas Supreme Court held that the oil workers were entitled to unemployment compensation from the date they offered to return to work. It rejected the employer's argument that Hodson was distinguishable because there was no evidence that the worker in Hodson had participated further in the labor dispute. It also rejected the contention that the Hodson court had wrongly construed the Texas disqualification statute and that disqualification was not removed by the employer's refusal to accept an unconditional offer to return to work because no work was available, but could be avoided only by the worker's "bringing himself within one of the exceptions or escape clauses of subsection (d)."[14] The Hodson court had found:
When appellee crossed his own picket line during the strike and was refused employment because there was no work available due to his job having been filled by another, his unemployment was no longer "because of a labor dispute at the factory"; it was because there was no job for him. Resort to the escape clauses, subsection (d)(1) and (2) is not required, since the basic disqualification did not then exist. A new cause of involuntary unemployment had then displaced the original disqualifying cause.
346 S.W.2d at 667. The Kraft court observed that it was "not prepared to say that respondent's theory of construction of the statute is unreasonable or untenable," but that it had found no reversible error in Hodson, and thereby necessarily approved that court's construction of the disqualification statute:
The construction placed upon the statute in that case is deemed clear, unambiguous and reasonable.... In the present case, as in Hodson, the basic disqualification no longer existed after claimants were refused work because no jobs were available, and there is no necessity to resort to the exceptions or escape clauses set forth in subsection (d).
418 S.W.2d at 486.
V. CONCLUSION
It is apparent from these decisions that labor dispute disqualification statutes similar to Florida's bar unemployment benefits only when there exist together three basic elements. There must be a "labor dispute" (i.e., a controversy between the employer and an organized group of employees regarding terms or conditions of employment) which must be in "active progress" to the extent required for disqualification purposes (i.e., the employees are refusing to work in an attempt to secure their demands and/or are engaging in other activities adversely affecting the operation of the employer's business), and the unemployment during the period for which compensation is sought must be "due to" the "labor dispute in active progress" (i.e., the actions of the workers involved in the labor dispute *1065 must be the current cause of their unemployment). When, as in the case before us, such initially disqualified workers unconditionally offer to return to work, but are denied employment because there are no jobs available to them, the labor dispute disqualification is no longer applicable to them because the cause of their unemployment is no longer their refusal to work.[15]
Appellant is essentially asking this court to adopt a rule which would, as a matter of law, continue the disqualification of striking workers even after those workers have unconditionally offered to return to work, so long as any controversy whatsoever continues to exist between them and their employer, and which would impose upon appellees, and other workers in similar circumstances, the burden of proving that they come within the subsection 443.101(4)(a) exception from disqualification by demonstrating that they are "not participating in, financing or directly interested in the labor dispute." We decline to adopt such a rule, because to do so would ignore the clear focus of section 443.101(4) on a current causation analysis. Whether the labor dispute disqualification applies in circumstances similar to those presented in the instant case will depend upon the effect of the continuing controversy, i.e., whether, during each week for which unemployment compensation is being sought, the dispute caused the unemployment. If the employer does not meet its burden of proving to the appeals referee and the Commission that the labor dispute is the current cause of the unemployment,[16] then the disqualification provision does not apply and the statutory exceptions to that disqualification do not become relevant.
We note that it may be possible, under circumstances other than those presented here, to obtain a determination that workers who have unconditionally offered to return to work continue to be disqualified from receiving unemployment compensation because their current unemployment is caused by their post-strike activities which constitute a "labor dispute in active progress." If, for example, in the instant case, appellant had pled and proven to the appeals referee that it was not able to rehire appellees after they unconditionally offered to return to work because of a substantial reduction in its production caused by a successful boycott of its products which appellees actively encouraged during the post-strike period for which they were seeking unemployment benefits, their requests for unemployment compensation might properly have been denied on the ground that the unemployment was "due to" a "labor dispute in active progress." However, no such proof was offered in this case, and we therefore decline to consider appellant's inappropriate argument on this point.
As the Commission determined, the referee's factual findings are supported by competent substantial evidence, and this court will not reweigh the evidence. The referee's legal conclusions, adopted by the Commission, are consistent with the case law construing section 443.101 and similar statutes from other jurisdictions, and therefore will not be disturbed by this court. The Commission's order is AFFIRMED.
KAHN and DAVIS, JJ., concur.
NOTES
[1] That worker has since been allowed to return to work.
[2] Under the National Labor Relations Act, "a comprehensive code passed by Congress to regulate labor relations in activities affecting interstate and foreign commerce," Nash v. Fla. Indus. Comm'n, 389 U.S. 235, 238, 88 S.Ct. 362, 365, 19 L.Ed.2d 438, 441 (1967), economic strikers who unconditionally request reinstatement are entitled to their former positions unless the employer has "legitimate and substantial business justifications" for refusing to rehire them, which would include having hired permanent replacement workers. NLRB v. W.C. McQuaide, Inc., 552 F.2d 519, 528 (3d Cir.1977). See also Shelly & Anderson Furniture Manufacturing Co. v. NLRB, 497 F.2d 1200, 1205 (9th Cir.1974) (the action of striking is not a renunciation of the employment relation, and the striker remains an employee "for the remedial purposes specified in the act").
[3] Meyer's primary holding, that the labor dispute did not terminate with the union's calling off the strike because an unfair labor practice charge relating to the strike was still pending, was nullified a few years later when the United States Supreme Court, in Nash v. Florida Industrial Commission, 389 U.S. 235, 88 S.Ct. 362, 19 L.Ed.2d 438 (1967), quashed a similar holding as contrary to the Supremacy Clause of the Constitution. In the instant case, the appeals referee was apparently referring to the district court's statement that when Meyer was discharged and replaced, "the employer-employee relationship was not absolutely terminated but was merely temporarily suspended until the settlement of the labor dispute or until petitioner secured bona fide permanent employment elsewhere." This statement is true only in the circumstance where, as here, a striking worker is replaced but not discharged. See Marathon Elec. Mfg. Co. v. Indus. Comm'n, 269 Wis. 394, 69 N.W.2d 573 (1955); Kitchen v. G.R. Herberger's, Inc., 262 Minn. 135, 114 N.W.2d 64 (1962). See also Rice Lake Creamery Co. v. Industrial Commission, 15 Wis.2d 177, 112 N.W.2d 202 (1961), which discusses Meyer.
[4] In that case, replacement workers had been hired to fill the jobs of strikers who thereafter, through their union, made an unconditional offer to return to work. The Minnesota court declined to extend the concept of "active progress" of the underlying labor dispute to subsequent negotiations for a new collective bargaining agreement, even though picketing continued after the offer to return to work. It concluded that, "for purposes of unemployment compensation benefits," the strike disqualification "was lifted when the employees indicated that they were ready and willing to work" and that once all preconditions for returning to work had been withdrawn, the cause of the workers' unemployment "was no longer the strike or labor dispute, but rather the non-existence of available jobs." It observed that "once the active progress of a strike ends, the active progress of the labor dispute comes to a halt as well" and found that the strike in that case ended when
through the [union representative], the claimants indicated that they were willing to accept any wages and working conditions which [the employer] would make available. It mattered not that some issues remained unresolved. It mattered not that, should the offer be accepted, these employees would be working without a contract. As far as these employees were concerned, the dispute was ended....
428 N.W.2d at 54. See also Randall, Burkart/Randall, Division of Textron, Inc. v. Daniels, 268 Ark. 375, 597 S.W.2d 71 (1980); In re Sarvis, 296 N.C. 475, 251 S.E.2d 434 (1979); Skookum Co., Inc. v. Employment Division, 276 Or. 303, 554 P.2d 520 (1976), each of which is discussed in section IV of the text.
[5] In the following cases, courts have ruled that continued picketing does not invalidate the unconditional nature of an offer to return to work in the context of the labor dispute disqualification provision: NLRB v. W.C. McQuaide, Inc., 552 F.2d 519 (3d Cir.1977); George A. Hormel & Co. v. Asper, 428 N.W.2d 47 (Minn.1988); Skookum Co., Inc. v. Employment Div., 276 Or. 303, 554 P.2d 520 (1976).
[6] The Florida Legislature's declaration of public policy with respect to unemployment compensation legislation is contained in section 443.021, Florida Statutes (1995), which notes that economic insecurity due to unemployment is "a serious menace to the health, morals, and welfare of the people of this state" which requires appropriate "action by the Legislature to prevent its spread and to lighten its burden," and that the public good requires measures "for the establishment and maintenance of free public employment offices and for the compulsory setting aside of unemployment reserves to be used for the benefit of persons unemployed through no fault of their own." It is widely accepted that two related purposes of labor dispute disqualification provisions in unemployment compensation legislation are to maintain the status quo which existed prior to the inception of the labor dispute so as to maintain the state's neutral position with regard to labor disputes, which are regulated by federal law, and to protect the employer from having to finance a strike against itself. Ex parte Williams, 646 So.2d 22 (Ala.1994); John Morrell & Co. v. S.D. Dep't of Labor, Unemployment Ins. Div., 460 N.W.2d 141 (S.D.1990); Randall, Burkart/Randall, Div. of Textron, Inc. v. Daniels, 268 Ark. 375, 597 S.W.2d 71 (1980); Brobston v. Employment Security Comm'n, 94 Ariz. 371, 385 P.2d 239 (1963); Kitchen v. G.R. Herberger's, Inc., 262 Minn. 135, 114 N.W.2d 64 (1962); Davis v. Aluminum Co. of America, 204 Tenn. 135, 316 S.W.2d 24 (1958); Ablondi v. Bd. of Review, Div. of Employment Sec., Dep't of Labor and Indus., 8 N.J.Super. 71, 73 A.2d 262 (App. Div.1950).
[7] Courts reviewing unemployment compensation disqualification provisions do not concern themselves with the wisdom of the statute involved, recognizing that setting of policy is a legislative function and that the judicial function is confined to interpretation and application of the statute in the light of its history, purpose, and context. Ablondi v. Bd. of Review, Div. of Employment Sec., Dep't of Labor & Indus., 8 N.J.Super. 71, 73 A.2d 262 (App.Div.1950). An agency's interpretation of the statute it administers is generally given deference, and its determination in an individual case is not disturbed unless it is based upon factual findings that are not supported by the evidence in the record or unless it is based upon an erroneous theory of law, Abadie v. Bayou Steel Corp., 645 So.2d 779 (La. 5th Cir.Ct.App. 1995), writ den., 649 So.2d 403 (La.), cert. den., Truly v. Bayou Steel Corp., 515 U.S. 1160, 115 S.Ct. 2614, 132 L.Ed.2d 857 (1995); George A. Hormel & Co. v. Asper, 428 N.W.2d 47 (Minn. 1988); Baughman v. Jarl Extrusions, Inc., 648 S.W.2d 954 (Tenn.Ct.App.1982); Skookum Co., Inc. v. Employment Div., 276 Or. 303, 554 P.2d 520 (1976); Kansas City Star Co., Flambeau Paper Co. Div. v. Dep't of Indus., Labor and Human Relations, 60 Wis.2d 591, 211 N.W.2d 488 (1973), cert. den., 419 U.S. 870, 95 S.Ct. 129, 42 L.Ed.2d 108 (1974); Johnson v. Wilson & Co., 266 Minn. 500, 124 N.W.2d 496 (1963); Davis v. Aluminum Co. of America, 204 Tenn. 135, 316 S.W.2d 24 (1958). Unemployment compensation statutes are remedial in nature and are therefore liberally construed, while provisions disqualifying claimants from receiving unemployment benefits are considered to be exceptions which must be construed narrowly, Hormel; Davis; Dep't of Indus. Relations v. Pickett, 448 So.2d 364 (Ala.Civ.App.1983). Section 443.031, Florida Statutes (1995), provides that the unemployment compensation chapter "shall be liberally construed to accomplish its purpose to promote employment security ... and to provide through the accumulation of reserves for the payment of compensation to individuals with respect to their unemployment."
[8] See Virgil J. Haggart, Jr., Unemployment Compensation During Labor Disputes, 37 Neb.L.Rev. 668, 668-70 (1958); Thomas P. McCormick, Unemployment Compensation-An Examination of Wisconsin's "Active Progress" Labor Dispute Disqualification Provision, 1982 Wisc.L.Rev. 907, 907-11; Marc Schoenfeld, Public Benefits: The Labor Dispute Disqualification from State Unemployment Compensation and Federal Food Stamp Eligibility, 1988 Ann.Surv.Am.L. 863, 864-65, 896-97; Milton I. Shadur, Unemployment Benefits and the "Labor Dispute" Disqualification, 17 U.Chi.L.Rev. 294, 294-95 (1949). See also, Comment, The Purposes and Provisions of the "Labor Dispute" Disqualification from Unemployment Compensation, 56 N.W.U.L.Rev. 662, 662-65 (1961). While labor dispute disqualification provisions are consistent with the declared legislative intent because striking workers are considered voluntarily unemployed, courts do not consider whether the labor dispute was the fault of the employer or the employees, because to do so would violate the policy behind such a disqualification, maintaining the state's neutrality in labor disputes, see Davis v. Aluminum Co. of America, 204 Tenn. 135, 316 S.W.2d 24 (1958).
[9] Florida's original unemployment compensation statute, s. 6, ch. 18402, Laws of Florida (1937), contained such a "work stoppage" disqualification provision:
An individual shall be disqualified for benefits
. . . . .
D. For any week with respect to which the Commission finds that his total or partial unemployment is due to a stoppage of work which exists because of a labor dispute at the factory, establishment, or other premises at which he is or was last employed: Provided,
That this subsection shall not apply if it is shown to the satisfaction of the Commission that
(1) He is not participating in or financing or directly interested in the labor dispute which caused the stoppage of work; and
(2) He does not belong to a grade or class of workers of which, immediately before the commencement of the stoppage, there were members employed at the premises at which the stoppage occurs, any of whom are participating in or financing or directly interested in the dispute....
In 1940, the "work stoppage" language was removed or replaced with "labor dispute" and the term "in active progress" was added to "labor dispute" in the first part of the statute, CGL 1940 Supp. 4151(493). In so amending its statute, Florida placed itself among the minority of states having a so-called "labor dispute in active progress" type of disqualification statute.
[10] See, for example, Lawrence Baking Co. v. Michigan Unemployment Compensation Commission, 308 Mich. 198, 13 N.W.2d 260, 263-64, cert. den., 323 U.S. 738, 65 S.Ct. 43, 89 L.Ed. 591 (1944), in which the court found that its disqualifying statute had been changed in 1941 from a "labor dispute in active progress" provision to a "work stoppage" provision:
We are convinced that by the 1941 amendment of section 29(c) the legislature intended to disqualify an employee for benefits, only when his unemployment resulted from a stoppage or substantial curtailment of the work and operations of the employer establishment because of a labor dispute. The phrase `stoppage of work' refers to the work and operations of the employer establishment and not to the work of the individual employee.
[11] See Ex parte Williams, 646 So.2d 22 (Ala. 1994); George A. Hormel & Co. v. Asper, 428 N.W.2d 47 (1988); Johnson v. Wilson & Co., 266 Minn. 500, 124 N.W.2d 496 (1963); Davis v. Aluminum Co. of America, 204 Tenn. 135, 316 S.W.2d 24(1958).
[12] These disqualification statutes are variously worded, referring to circumstances where the unemployment is "due to" or "directly due to" or "caused by" a "labor dispute" or "trade dispute" or "strike or other bona fide labor dispute," adding "in active progress" or "still in active progress" or "as long as such labor dispute continues" or "exists." In addition to the statutes which incorporate such "active progress" language, others are considered constructive "active progress" statutes because they incorporate the core elements of the explicit "active progress" statutes: 1) a labor dispute; 2) active progress of the labor dispute at the time of the unemployment; and 3) a causal relationship between the labor dispute and the unemployment. See McCormick, Unemployment Compensation-An Examination of Wisconsin's "Active Progress" Labor Dispute Disqualification Provision, 1982 Wisc.L.Rev. 907, 908. One such constructive "active progress" statute is the Texas statute, considered in Kraft v. Texas Employment Commission, 418 S.W.2d 482 (Tex.1967), which disqualifies an unemployment compensation claimant
For any benefit period with respect to which the Commission finds that [the claimant's] total or partial unemployment is (i) due to the claimant's stoppage of work because of a labor dispute at the factory, establishment, or other premises (including a vessel) at which he is or was last employed....
The court construed this statute similarly to statutes containing the "labor dispute in active progress" language, noting that the 1955 amendment changed the statutory language from the original "total or partial unemployment is due to a stoppage of work which exists because of a labor dispute ..." to its present language which conditions the disqualification upon "the claimant's stoppage of work."
[13] See John Morrell & Co. v. South Dakota Dep't of Labor, Unemployment Ins. Div., 460 N.W.2d 141 (S.D.1990) (discussed in text); Four Queens, Inc. v. Board of Review of Nev. Employment Sec. Dep't, 105 Nev. 53, 769 P.2d 49 (1989) (discussed in text); Geo. A. Hormel & Co. v. Asper, 428 N.W.2d 47 (Minn.1988)(discussed in footnote 4); Baughman v. Jarl Extrusions, Inc., 648 S.W.2d 954 (Tenn.Ct.App.1982) (previously disqualified striking workers "became entitled to [unemployment] benefits as a matter of law" when they unconditionally offered to return to work, but their jobs had been filled by others); Randall, Burkart/Randall, Div. of Textron, Inc. v. Daniels, 268 Ark. 375, 597 S.W.2d 71 (1980) (discussed in text); Building Prod. Co. v. Arizona Dep't of Economic Sec., 124 Ariz. 437, 604 P.2d 1148 (Ct. App.1979) (the hiring of permanent replacements is not enough to remove the disqualification; striking workers must show that they have abandoned the labor dispute and unconditionally offered to return to work); Piggly Wiggly of Springhill, Inc. v. Gerace, 370 So.2d 1327 (La.Ct.App. 1979) (discussed in text); In re Sarvis, 296 N.C. 475, 251 S.E.2d 434 (1979) (discussed in text); Skookum Co., Inc. v. Employment Div., 276 Or. 303, 554 P.2d 520 (1976) (discussed in text); Kraft v. Texas Employment Comm'n, 418 S.W.2d 482 (Tex.1967) (discussed in text); Johnson v. Wilson & Co., 266 Minn. 500, 124 N.W.2d 496 (1963)(labor dispute and strike terminated "for unemployment compensation purposes" when the employees agreed to go back to work and the parties agreed to accept the decision of arbitrators on the unresolved aspects of the controversy); Special Prod. Co. of Tenn., Inc. v. Jennings, 209 Tenn. 316, 353 S.W.2d 561 (1961) (disqualification ceased to apply when the striking workers notified the employer, who had hired replacement workers, that the strike had ended and unconditionally offered to return to their jobs).
[14] Kraft v. Texas Employment Comm'n, 418 S.W.2d 482, 486 (Tex.1967). We note that the Texas "escape clauses" are similar to subsections 443.101(4)(a)1. and 2., Florida Statutes (1995), which provide an exception to disqualification if the worker whose unemployment is due to a labor dispute is not "participating, financing or directly interested in the labor dispute" and does not belong to a class of workers who are participating, financing, or directly interested in the labor dispute.
[15] Significantly, appellant cites no case where unemployment compensation benefits have been denied for non-work stopping, post-strike activities of workers who have unconditionally offered to return to work, and whose offer has been accepted by the employer's placement of their names on a preferential hiring list.
[16] See Kansas City Star Co., Flambeau Paper Co. Div. v. Department of Industry, Labor & Human Relations, 60 Wis.2d 591, 211 N.W.2d 488 (1973), cert. den., 419 U.S. 870, 95 S.Ct. 129, 42 L.Ed.2d 108 (1974) ("A benefit claimant is presumed eligible for [unemployment] benefits and the party (the employer here) resisting payment of benefits has the burden of proving that the case comes within the disqualifying provision of the law (here, a bona fide labor dispute existed)").
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#Did you know is a new series of Enmascript where we write short and concise explanations about topics we consider might be relevant or underestimated, if you are looking for more complete in-depth articles check out our other series.
JavaScript is a language that evolves fast; for this reason, it is sometimes hard to catch up with all its features and capabilities. On this short article, we will explore some of the features that you may not know existed.
Getting query string parameters
URLSearchParams is an interface that allows us to process query string parameters, it's been around for some years now but it might surprise you to know that it is not that popular between developers, let's see how to use it:
const queryStrings = new URLSearchParams ( '?browser=chrome&action=redirect' ) ; queryStrings . get ( 'browser' ) ; queryStrings . has ( 'action' ) ;
Simple enough, here more information about the complete API, in case you are interested in the complete functionality.
Create a unique list of elements using the Set object
Creating unique lists in javascript is a common task, this is usually achieved by applying filters or for loops, but there is another way to accomplish this leveraging the Set object.
const list = [ 1 , 2 , 3 , 5 , 2 , 5 , 7 ] ; const uniqueList = [ ... new Set ( list ) ] ;
We pass the array of primitive values to the Set object; it creates a collection of unique values which is then converted to a list using the spread operator syntax and array literals.
Cast a list of primitive values to a different type
Sometimes endpoints or processed data from the DOM doesn't return the type of values we need, I have seen this especially happening when processing dataset properties. Let's say we have the following list:
const naiveList = [ '1500' , '1350' , '4580' ] ;
We want to execute a sum of all the elements in the array, in JavaScript if you "sum" two strings like '1' + '2' they will concatenate, generally, to solve this we would leverage the parseInt function, but there is another way; We can cast the elements in the array to the type of primitive we need:
const castedList = naiveList.map(Number);
castedList now contains the values with the correct Number type.
Flatten nested array values
With the rise of Single Page Applications architectures such as Redux and concepts like frontend data normalization became more popular, part of this "data normalization" trend sometimes implies having all the ids of elements listed at the same level.
Let's say we have the following list and we want to flatten it:
const nestedList = [ 133 , 235 , 515 , [ 513 , 15 ] ] ; const flattenList = nestedList . flat ( ) ;
and just like that our array of ids is now flattened.
Avoid object mutations with Object.freeze
When talking about functional code, one of the things that I have been asked the most is how to stop objects from mutating, the answer to this question is always the same Freeze them:
const immutableObject = { name : 'Enmascript' , url : 'https://enmascript.com' } ; Object . freeze ( immutableObject ) ; immutableObject . twitter = 'https://twitter.com/duranenmanuel' ; immutableObject . name = 'Another name' ;
Created Controlled objects with Object.seal
Does the same as Object.freeze but it allows you to change the values of properties that were already defined in the object, this will enable you to _control _the properties declared in an object but not the definitions:
const controlledObject = { name : 'Barry Allen' } ; Object . seal ( controlledObject ) ; controlledObject . name = 'Clark Kent' ; controlledObject . hero = 'Superman' ;
Do you know of any other javascript features that may not be popular but useful? share them with us. |
Q:
As3 some troubles with math and random selected objects [Help Please!]
I have some trouble getting things done in AS3. I have a var by the name of Rand and if this rand gets between the numbers 0 - 10 It will show the deathdisk. If rand gets between 90 - 100 the kingdisk will appear. The thing I want to achieve, Is that those Disks never show up two times in a row. I tried with Boolean but it didn’t work. Besides that The king and death disk must only appear if "var" rand is between the numbers i mentioned. Sometimes it appears outside the rand numbers. I hope someone can help me with this problem.
Some info:
disks is a MC and a button. This MC disks haves 8 frames in it 1 - 6 are normal disks and 7 & 8 the king and death disks. You can compare disks with a dice. When the player presses the disks Movieclip a random frame will be selected.
diskRoll [class]:
package {
import flash.display.*;
import flash.events.*;
import flash.display.*;
import flash.utils.*;
import flash.media.*;
public class DiskRoll extends MovieClip
{
//Vars
var diskTilt:Timer = new Timer(1350,1);
//var rand:int = Math.random() * 100;
var rand:int = (Math.random()*(100));
var deathDisk:Boolean = false;
var kinghDisk:Boolean = false;
//Sound Vars
var diskFxChannel:SoundChannel = new SoundChannel();
var diskHitFx:Sound = new diskHitsound();
var diskRollFx:Sound = new diskRollSound();
public function DiskRoll():void
{
this.addEventListener(MouseEvent.MOUSE_DOWN, hitDisk);
diskTilt.addEventListener(TimerEvent.TIMER_COMPLETE, tiltOnComplete);
diskFxChannel = diskRollFx.play();
}
//Disk hit function
private function hitDisk(event:MouseEvent):void{
//Picks random frame after MOUSE_DOWN from Disks Mc [1-8 Frames total]
this.gotoAndStop(Math.ceil(Math.random()* 6));
//Genarate random number calc chances and luck
rand = (Math.random() * (100));
//Disk of death between Random number (block second time)
if(rand >= 90 && rand <=100){
this.gotoAndStop(7);
kinghDisk = true;
}
if(rand >= 0 && rand <=10){
this.gotoAndStop(8);
deathDisk = true;
}
//Disk of death between Random number (block second time)
if(deathDisk == true){
rand = (Math.random() * (100))+11;
}
if(deathDisk == false){
rand = (Math.random() * (100));
}
//KingsDisk Random between number (block second time)
if(kinghDisk == true){
rand = (Math.random() * (89));
}
if(kinghDisk == false){
rand = (Math.random() * (100));
}
//If statements per Disk
if(this.currentFrame == 1){
trace("DiskRoll 1")
deathDisk = false;
kinghDisk = false;
}
if(this.currentFrame == 2){
trace("DiskRoll 2")
deathDisk = false;
kinghDisk = false;
}
if(this.currentFrame == 3){
trace("DiskRoll 3")
deathDisk = false;
kinghDisk = false;
}
if(this.currentFrame == 4 /*&& stage.getChildByName("block") == null*/){
trace("DiskRoll 4")
deathDisk = false;
kinghDisk = false;
}
if(this.currentFrame == 5){
trace("DiskRoll 5")
deathDisk = false;
kinghDisk = false;
}
if(this.currentFrame == 6){
trace("DiskRoll 6")
deathDisk = false;
kinghDisk = false;
}
if(this.currentFrame == 7){
trace("DiskRoll 7")
deathDisk = false;
kinghDisk = true;
}
if(this.currentFrame == 8){
trace("DiskRoll 8")
deathDisk = true;
kinghDisk = false;
}
trace(rand);
trace(deathDisk);
trace(kinghDisk);
diskFxChannel = diskHitFx.play();
this.removeEventListener(MouseEvent.MOUSE_DOWN, hitDisk);
diskTilt.start();
}
//Deblock Disk (button) Timer
private function tiltOnComplete(event:TimerEvent):void {
this.gotoAndPlay(1);
diskTilt.stop();
this.addEventListener(MouseEvent.MOUSE_DOWN, hitDisk);
diskFxChannel = diskRollFx.play();
}
}
}
A:
SO. If I'll try to explain with A and B to be more clear.
You want A to appear 10% of cases.
You want B to appear 80% of cases.
You want C to appear 10% of cases.
You want to never get an AA or CC or AC.
Now, make an array with the elements A and C which is 20% of your final array. Shuffle it by applying a sort function which its condition is Math.random() < 0.5.
Now, insert 1 element B between every 2 elements. You should have enough to go around from the 80% of the final array. This will ensure no two disks are consecutive.
Now insert the rest of the B's wherever you want, it won't matter. Do it randomly, of course. Just Math.random() * temporaryArray.length to get a random index in the array where to insert it.
If there are any questions or clarifications needed, shoot :)
EDIT
//used some string to identify them. you use your instances
var deathDisk : String = "death";
var kingDisk : String = "king";
var normalDisk : String = "normal";
//Any nr of total disks. I reserve 10% of death and 10% of king. The rest are normal.
var totalNrOfDisks : Number = 40;
var nrOfDeath : uint = totalNrOfDisks * 10 / 100;
var nrOfKing : uint = totalNrOfDisks * 10 / 100;
//Generate all kings and deaths.
var kingAndDeath : Array = [];
for( var i : int = 0; i < nrOfDeath; i++ )
{
kingAndDeath.push( deathDisk );
}
for( i = 0; i < nrOfKing; i++ )
{
kingAndDeath.push( kingDisk );
}
//shuffle them
kingAndDeath.sort( function( element0:Number, element1:Number ):Boolean
{
return Math.random() < 0.5;
});
//Put at least 1 normal between them.
var allArray : Array = [];
for( i = 0; i < kingAndDeath.length; i++ )
{
allArray.push( normalDisk );
allArray.push( kingAndDeath[ i ] );
}
//While there is room for normals (max nr of disks not attained), insert one at a random spot in the array.
while( allArray.length < totalNrOfDisks )
{
var randomIndex : uint = Math.random() * allArray.length;
allArray.splice( randomIndex, 0, normalDisk );
}
trace( allArray );
|
import { generate } from 'genql-cli/src/main'
import fs from 'fs'
import path from 'path'
generate({
schema: fs.readFileSync(path.join(__dirname, 'schema.graphql')).toString(),
output: path.join(__dirname, 'generated'),
scalarTypes: {
MongoID: 'string',
},
}).catch(console.error)
|
Going Places, Making Choices: Love Your Bus!
Hopping on a bus rather than waiting around for someone to take you to school, to the game, or over to your friend’s house lets you be independent. But with that independence comes some responsibilities.
Following the rules makes a difference for everybody on the bus. We don’t mean them to be downers–but we do mean them. Love your bus!
Leave no artifacts. Penalties for tagging buses or bus property are severe and could require you to pay for damages. Likewise for other kinds of vandalism.
Keep it clean. Always take your own litter off the bus. And you already know it– eating, drinking, and smoking on the bus are against the law.
Move your seat.Seniors and people with disabilities need that seat more than you do…and it’s appreciated.
Keep your cool. Pushing and fighting don’t belong on the bus. And remember you’re not outside–so save any kind of “loud” for somewhere else. Let everybody ride in peace.
Turn down noise pollution. Wear headphones–it’s the only way you’re allowed to play your music on the bus. And check your headphone volume so other riders can’t hear your tunes.
Pay what you owe. It’s not a free ride…pay your $1.05 or tag your Clipper card.
Listen up. The bus operator is in charge. So when you are asked to do something, you need to do it.
Final destination. Disruptive riders will be asked to leave the bus by the bus operator, who may, if necessary, be assisted by an AC Transit supervisor or a county sheriff. |
The release of Special Counsel Robert Mueller's Russia probe report has some journalists in apology mode, saying they paid too little attention to Mitt Romney's 2012 observations about the Kremlin's threat to U.S. interests.
Back in 2012, Senator Romney. R-Utah, was running for president. And he tagged Russia as the United States' greatest geopolitical foe.
Back then, Romney "was broadly mocked" over that position, New York Times reporter Maggie Haberman tweeted on Friday. "I was among reporters who should have given it more weight."
New Yorker reporter Ronan Farrow also joined in. So did Washington Examiner correspondent David M. Drucker, who said he wanted to "reset" his 2017 op-ed titled, "Romney was right about Russia."
ERIC SWALWELL: NO APOLOGY NECESSARY FOR SURVEILLING TRUMP CAMPAIGN
People on Twitter panned journalists for issuing those statements, suggesting they were disingenuous.
Their comments came as Romney caught heat for criticizing the president over claims made in the special counsel's report. "I am sickened at the extent and pervasiveness of dishonesty and misdirection by individuals in the highest office of the land, including the President," he said in a statement tweeted Friday.
That brought a Saturday tweet from Trump, saying that if Romney had "spent the same energy fighting Barack Obama as he does fighting Donald Trump, he could have won the race (maybe)!"
Both Democrats and Republicans have seized on the report and what its findings meant for American democracy. While the administration celebrated the fact that no one helped Russia meddle in the 2016 election, Democrats have emphasized the extent to which Russian interference did occur.
CLICK HERE TO GET THE FOX NEWS APP
Fox News contributor Donna Brazile called the report a "wake-up call." "We had a foreign power, another government that was interfering in our election," said Brazile, who served as interim chairwoman for the Democratic National Committee in 2016.
The Associated Press contributed to this report. |
Q:
stop submitting of previous data of form on page reload to DB in jsp
I have done the following coding
ContactUs.jsp
<form action="contact1.jsp" method="post" id="contact_form">
<div class="name">
<label for="name"></label> <input type="text" placeholder="My name is" name="name" id="name_input" required>
</div>
<div class="email">
<label for="email"></label> <input type="email"
placeholder="My e-mail is" name="email" id="email_input" required>
</div>
<div class="telephone">
<label for="name"></label>
<input type="text" placeholder="My number is" id="telephone_input" name="telephone" title="lenght of number should be 10 digits for valid number" pattern="[1-9]{1}[0-9]{9}" required/>
</div>
<div class="message">
<label for="message"></label>
<textarea name="message" placeholder="I'd like to chat about"
id="message_input" cols="30" rows="5" required></textarea>
</div>
<div class="submit">
<input type="submit" value="Send Message" id="form_button" />
</div>
</form>
the the code for contact1.jsp is
String name=request.getParameter("name");
String email=request.getParameter("email");
String telephone=request.getParameter("telephone");
String message=request.getParameter("message");
Class.forName("com.mysql.jdbc.Driver");
Connection con = DriverManager.getConnection("jdbc:mysql://localhost/cinushi_university", "CinthiyaSingh", "Cinthiya@098");
Statement st=con.createStatement();
ResultSet rs;
int i=st.executeUpdate("insert into contact values('"+ name + "','"+ email + "','"+ telephone + "','"+ message + "');");
if (i > 0) {
request.getSession().setAttribute("Message", "Sent Successfully!");
request.getRequestDispatcher("ContactUs.jsp").forward(request, response);
}
else{
request.getSession().setAttribute("Message", "Incomplete Process!");
request.getRequestDispatcher("ContactUs.jsp").forward(request, response);
}
//close connection
%>
Once I add the data to the form and submit it, this works fine, however post that on the same page when I click refresh it resubmits the data, I want the data from previous submission to clear when I redirect the response even to same ContactUs.jsp , if it is possible please help.
A:
you can use java script History.replaceState() function to fix this issue.
The History.replaceState() method modifies the current history entry, replacing it with the stateObj, title, and URL passed in the method parameters.
Add this script in jsp page-
<script>
if ( window.history.replaceState ) {
window.history.replaceState( null, null, window.location.href );
}
</script>
Or,
Only insert data in table 'user' if submit data in not there. you have to check with unique column.
|
[Carotid endarterectomy based on preoperative duplex ultrasound].
Carotid endarterectomy is the most common vascular procedure. Recent studies have suggested that carotid endarterectomy can be performed safely, based solely on ultrasound duplex evaluation in selected patients. We evaluated 12 men and 8 women who underwent carotid endarterectomy, 12 for significant symptomatic disease and 8 for tight, asymptomatic stenosis of the carotid artery. All had duplex ultrasound scans without angiography before operation. They all survived. 2 had hoarseness due to vocal cord paralysis which resolved 5 months later in 1, while in the other it still persisted 2 months after operation. There were no other neurologic complications. During follow-up all have remained symptom-free. We conclude that clinical assessment of carotid artery stenosis with duplex ultrasound scan of good technical quality provides appropriate information on which to base carotid endarterectomy, and is a safe alternative to preoperative angiography. |
It is known to the public that a piezoelectric device is used as an actuator. For example, a piezoelectric device has begun to be used as an actuator configured to drive a magnetic head of a hard disk drive. Normally, the head is fixed to a rotatable arm and, when the arm is rotated by a voice coil motor (VCM), the head is moved to a desired position on the disk. In recent years, in order to enhance the accuracy in positioning, a dual-stage actuator in which another accurate drive mechanism is added in the vicinity of the magnetic head separately from the VCM configured to drive the whole arm has been developed. A microactuator serving as the second stage is added to a distal end of the arm of the VCM serving as the first stage. A piezoelectric device is mounted on the suspension and, by applying a voltage to the piezoelectric device, the piezoelectric device expands or contracts to displace the magnetic head attached to the distal end of the suspension in the track direction.
Each of the piezoelectric devices varies in gain/voltage characteristics and, in order to accurately drive the actuator utilizing the piezoelectric device, it is necessary to measure the gain for each device to adjust the drive voltage. The gain of the piezoelectric device has voltage dependence, and hence it is necessary to obtain the gain by exciting the piezoelectric device by using a voltage that's actually used (on-track state). However, in general, the voltage of the on-track state is small, and hence the amplitude of the piezoelectric device is also small, and the measurement accuracy of the gain becomes poor. In order to improve the measurement accuracy, there arises the need to carry out measurement a plurality of times, and average the measurement results, and hence the overall measurement requires a lot of time.
In the conventional piezoelectric device drive apparatus, in order to compensate for the variation in gain, and improve the positioning accuracy, there has been a problem that the measurement of the gain takes a long time. |
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