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The cost-effectiveness of prophylaxis for Mycobacterium avium complex in AIDS.
To develop a simulation model to project costs, life expectancy, and cost-effectiveness in discounted dollars per quality-adjusted life-year (QALY) saved for clinical strategies to prevent Mycobacterium avium complex (MAC) in patients with AIDS. We used natural history data from the Multicenter AIDS Cohort Study, efficacy and toxicity data from randomized clinical trials, and cost data from the AIDS Cost and Services Utilization Survey. The model permits timing of prophylaxis to be stratified by CD4 count (201-300, 101-200, 51-100, and < or = 50/mm3), and allows combinations of prophylaxis, crossover to second- and third-line agents for toxicity, and consideration of adherence, resistance, and quality of life. The model projects that the average HIV-infected patient with a beginning CD4 count between 201 and 300/mm3 has total lifetime costs of approximately $43,150 and a quality-adjusted life expectancy of 42.35 months. If azithromycin prophylaxis for M. avium complex is begun after the CD4 declines to 50/mm3, costs and quality-adjusted survival increase to approximately $44,040 and 42.78 months, respectively, for an incremental cost-effectiveness ratio of $25,000/QALY compared with no M. avium complex prophylaxis. Other prophylaxis options (i.e., rifabutin, clarithromycin, and combination therapies) either cost more but offer shorter survival, or have cost-effectiveness ratios above $260,000/QALY. Sensitivity analysis reveals that, for reasonable assumptions about quality of life, risk of infection, prophylaxis cost, adherence, and resistance, azithromycin remains the most cost-effective prophylaxis option. Azithromycin prophylaxis, begun after the CD4 count has declined to 50/mm3, is the most cost-effective M. avium complex prophylaxis strategy. Consistent with new United States Public Health Service guidelines, it should be the first-line prophylaxis option. |
Comments (10)
I try to reduce my land fill waste as much as possible. One problem area is my house cat’s used litter. I live in a first floor apartment on a very busy highway with no garden, hence the ‘house’ cat. I do have an allotment but don’t really fancy putting used litter in the compost. As a student any solution needs to be low cost as well as low impact.
@Dawn: Hi Dawn, this is a problem for many. Instead of using cat litter, you could use shredded newspaper for the reuse idea – this will save you money too, but you still need to dispose of it.
If you have no garden to compost (a friend of ours has a compost section purely for the cat litter, so it never gets used or mixed in with the other compost) then I can’t think of a solution apart from toilet training your cat; which has been done 😉
@renzi renzo: Hello Renzi, I have understood that you are interested in more information about recycling household waste, but I’m not sure I understood the rest of your message. I know someone who is fluent in Italian and English, so I will ask her to help and get back to you!
Hello!
Today I saw a report about you in the televison and I was or better I´m STILL fascinated.
I never thought that it could be that “easy”, but now I´m motivated to live like your family.
I live in Austria so I hope I find a shop (with plastic who is recyclbale) like in your country ^.^ but I´ll try my best and I won´t give up.
Thanks for the homepage it´s a great help.
Best Wishes
I think it’s pretty little what I do, but I collect old jam-glasses and old candles. Then I make the candle-wax get liquid and put it into the jam-glasses. The only new thing in it is the wick (?) (wich can be bought everywhere)
It’s fun to do this, because you can get great colours, by mixing different waxes, but as I said: That won’t save earth.
@ Dawn This is my main source of waste too – every Sunday, 2 carrier bags worth of cat litter into the bin (with a couple of smaller bags of solids through the week)…
I’ve found things online that say, if you use a compostable litter, you can have a seperate compost bin for cat litter and one for other house-hold waste (and although household waste can go in the catlitter one, it’s best to keep the litter out of the household one).
I’m hoping to swap to Bio-Catolet ( http://www.biocatolet.co.uk/site/ ) as it’s had a lot of good reviews, or possibly a wood-based litter, once I’ve made a second compost bin (trying to find a source of second-hand wooden pallets at the minute). From what I understand, it’s generally recommended to ensure you’re not using chemical de-wormers on your cat (so they don’t kill the worms in the compost) and to use it on things like fruit bushes/flowers, rather than root-veg, so that the actual produce doesn’t come in direct contact with the compost… Though I don’t really understand why, because it’s more than likely that the cats will see my freshly dug rows for the root veg (once I have a veg garden next year) and go there anyway! I know they’ve been using my potato tubs this year, but it doesn’t really bother me as all of the root veg gets washed and scrubbed before eating anyway!
Another option is the litter kwitter:http://www.litterkwitter.com/en/index.php
Not something I fancy trying when we have one elderly (and rather large) cat that struggles to jump on the sofa… The queue for the bathroom can be long enough with just me and my partner after the loo, never mind 4 others! 🙂
For the more extreme composters, there’s:http://humanurehandbook.com/
Though I don’t think it’s something I’ll be trying, it has further information on ensuring that any poop composted is usable. 🙂 |
Pablo de Olavide
Pablo de Olavide y Jáuregui (Lima, Viceroyalty of Peru, 1725 January 25 – Baeza, Spain, 1803, February 25) was a Spanish politician, lawyer and writer.
Biography
He was born in a rich and influential creole Liman Basque family and studied at the San Marcos University of Lima. He hold the doctorate in Theology in 1740 and the degree of Law in 1742. He was appointed assistant of the Consulate Tribunal and oidor (judge) of the Audiency of Lima. In 1746, he was indicted for embezzlement and he had to go to Spain to be prosecuted by the Council of the Indies in 1750. He was imprisoned briefly in 1754, but he was finally condemned in 1757 just to temporary disqualification for public offices. In 1755 he married a rich widow and traveled through Italy and France. He met the most outstanding European enlightened philosophers and writers, like Voltaire (who he said was "A Spaniard who thinks") and his Madrid house was one of the most notable meeting points of the Spanish enlightened elites.
Thanks to his influential friends and to the new political climate after the Esquilache Riots (1766), he resumed his bureaucratic and political career. In 1767, he was appointed director of the San Fernando and Madrid Royal Hospices. He enthusiastically followed the reformist policies promoted by Campomanes and Aranda. That same year he was appointed intendent and asistente (corregidor) of Seville and he was the first superintendent of the newly established Nuevas Poblaciones (New Settlements) of Andalusia, that were intended to exploit vast portions of arable lands. He succeeded to establish forty new settlements. As Seville's asistente, he implemented enthusiastically enlightened and reformist policies. He improved Sevillian municipal treasury, public supplies, urbanism and public works. He reformed and secularised welfare assistance and planned a reform for the University of Seville. He wrote a report about the project for a new agrarian law (1768), which is one of the most important Spanish physiocrat writings.
His alleged reformist policies provoked the opposition of the most conservative opinion. This resulted from his refusal to allow a German monk, Father Romauld, to build a monastery in one of the Andalusian settlements "to help the (wealthy) German settlers get to heaven". The envious Fr Romauld let it be known that Olavide was part of an indiscrete transgression concerning the Spanish clergy; accusing him of reading prohibited books and speaking disrespectfully of the Catholic religion. And the Spanish Inquisition charged him with impiety and heresy in 1775. He was thus removed from his offices, exiled from Madrid, the Royal residences, from Sevilla and even from Lima; imprisoned on remand in 1776, and condemned to eight years of reclusion in a monastery in 1778 for being a believer in the doctrines of the Encyclopedie and for having kept company with Voltaire and Rousseau. His trial and condemnation caused great consternation among Spanish and European enlightened thinkers. Due to his health problems, he was authorized to bathe often in spas. In 1780, during one of these stays, in Caldes de Malavella, very near to the French frontier, he fled to France. He resided in Paris but with no involvement in political life. He observed the French Revolution with interest and sympathy but its radicalization worried him. In 1791 he moved to a castle in Meung-sur-Loire, but he was arrested in 1794 as a suspicious foreigner and he was imprisoned until the fall of the Jacobins. The French imprisonment experience was shocking for him and he returned to religious observance and even wrote an apology of Christianity, anonymously published in Valencia in 1797: El Evangelio en Triunfo, o historia de un filósofo desengañado (The Gospel of Triumph, or the story of a disenchanted philosopher). The success of this book in the anti-revolutionary Spain was great and he could return to his country in 1798. He was publicly rehabilitated and gained an annuity. He retired to Baeza.
Pablo de Olavide University, in Seville, founded in 1997, is named after him.
Bibliography
Defourneaux, Marcelin: Pablo de Olavide ou l'afrancesado (1725–1803), Paris: Presses Universitaires de France, 1959 (Spanish translation: Pablo de Olavide, el afrancesado, Seville: Padilla Libros, 1990)
García de León, María Encarnación: Pablo de Olavide: su obra narrativa, Madrid: Universidad Complutense de Madrid, 1989
Perdices, Luis: Pablo de Olavide (1725–1803): el ilustrado, Madrid: Complutense, 1993
Fernández Sanz, Amable-Ángel: Utopía y realidad en la Ilustración española. Pablo de Olavide y las «Nuevas Poblaciones», Madrid: Universidad Complutense de Madrid
Marchena, Juan: El tiempo ilustrado de Pablo de Olavide. Vida, obra y sueños de un americano en la España del s. XVIII, Seville: Alfar, 2001
External links
Biography by Alfonso Pozo
Category:1725 births
Category:1803 deaths
Category:People from Lima
Category:Peruvian people of Basque descent
Category:Spanish politicians
Category:Complutense University of Madrid alumni
Category:People convicted of heresy |
Q:
Htaccess: add/remove trailing slash from URL
My website runs a script called -> WSS wallpaper script
My Problem -> I have been trying to force remove or add trailing slash to the end of my URL to prevent duplicated content and also to clean up my URLs.
I have tried all sorts and tried everything I could think of and loads from the interwebs but no such luck yet! It might be a quick fix but I have looked at it so much I am probably blind to something dead obvious.
So I present you with all my .htaccess code:
DirectoryIndex index.php
RewriteEngine on
RewriteRule ^download/([0-9]+)?/([0-9]+)x([0-9]+)/([^/\.]+) image.php?id=$1&width=$2&height=$3&cropratio=$4&download=1 [L]
RewriteRule ^file/([0-9]+)?/([0-9]+)x([0-9]+)/([^/\.]+) image.php?id=$1&width=$2&height=$3&cropratio=$4 [L]
RewriteRule ^preview/([0-9]+)?/([0-9]+)x([0-9]+)/([^/\.]+) wallpaper_preview.php?id=$1&width=$2&height=$3&name=$4 [L]
RewriteRule ^thumbnail/([0-9]+)?/([0-9]+)x([0-9]+)/([^/\.]+)/([^/\.]+)/([^/\.]+)/([^/]+) image.php?wallpaper_id=$1&width=$2&height=$3&cropratio=$4&align=$5&valign=$6&file=$7 [L]
RewriteRule ^cat/([0-9]+)?/([^/\.]+)/p([0-9]+) index.php?task=category&id=$1&name=$2&page=$3 [L]
RewriteRule ^cat/([0-9]+)?/([^/\.]+)/([0-9a-zA-Z?-]+)/p([0-9]+) index.php?task=category&id=$1&name=$2&sortby=$3&page=$4 [L]
RewriteRule ^cat/([0-9]+)?/([^/\.]+)/([0-9a-zA-Z?-]+)-([0-9]+) index.php?task=category&id=$1&sortby=$3&page=$4 [L]
RewriteRule ^cat/([0-9]+)?/([^/\.]+) index.php?task=category&id=$1&name=$2 [L]
RewriteRule ^tag/([^/\.]+)/([0-9a-zA-Z?-]+)/([0-9]+) index.php?task=tag&t=$1&sortby=$2&page=$3 [L]
RewriteRule ^tag/([^/\.]+) index.php?task=tag&t=$1 [L]
RewriteRule ^profile/([0-9]+)?/([^/\.]+) index.php?task=profile&id=$1&name=$2 [L]
RewriteRule ^profile/comments/([0-9]+)?/([^/\.]+) index.php?task=users_comments&id=$1&name=$2 [L]
RewriteRule ^page/([0-9]+) index.php?task=view_page&id=$1 [L]
RewriteRule ^register index.php?task=register [L]
RewriteRule ^lost-password index.php?task=lost_pass [L]
RewriteRule ^links index.php?task=links [L]
RewriteRule ^news/item/([0-9]+)/([^/\.]+) index.php?task=news&id=$1 [L]
RewriteRule ^news/page([0-9]+) index.php?task=news&page=$1 [L]
RewriteRule ^members/([^/\.]+)-([^/\.]+)/page([0-9]+)? index.php?task=member_list&sort=$1&order=$2&page=$3 [L]
RewriteRule ^members index.php?task=member_list [L]
RewriteRule ^messages index.php?task=messages [L]
RewriteRule ^submit index.php?task=submit [L]
RewriteRule ^search/([^/\.]+) index.php?task=search&q=$1 [L]
RewriteRule ^search index.php?task=search [L]
RewriteRule ^submit index.php?task=submit [L]
RewriteRule ^r-([0-9]+)?-([0-9]+)? go.php?id=$1&ref=$2 [L]
RewriteRule ^r-([0-9]+)? go.php?id=$1 [L]
RewriteRule ^([^/\.]+)/([0-9]+)/([^/\.]+) index.php?task=view&id=$2&name=$3 [L]
RewriteRule ^news/([^/\.]+) index.php?task=news&name=$1 [L]
RewriteRule ^profile/([^/\.]+) index.php?task=profile&name=$1 [L]
RewriteRule ^news index.php?task=news [L]
RewriteRule ^page/([^/\.]+) index.php?task=view_page&name=$1 [L]
RewriteCond %{REQUEST_FILENAME} !-f
RewriteCond %{REQUEST_FILENAME} !-d
RewriteRule ^([^/\.]+)/([0-9a-zA-Z'?-]+)/([0-9]+) index.php?task=category&name=$1&sortby=$2&page=$3 [L]
RewriteCond %{REQUEST_FILENAME} !-f
RewriteCond %{REQUEST_FILENAME} !-d
RewriteRule ^([^/\.]+)/([^/\.]+) index.php?task=view&name=$2 [L]
RewriteCond %{REQUEST_FILENAME} !-f
RewriteCond %{REQUEST_FILENAME} !-d
RewriteRule ^([^/\.]+) index.php?task=category&name=$1 [L]
## www reslove ##
RewriteCond %{HTTP_HOST} !^www\.
RewriteRule ^(.*)$ http://www.%{HTTP_HOST}/$1 [R=301,L]
## www reslove ##
## index reslove ##
Options +FollowSymLinks
RewriteCond %{THE_REQUEST} ^.*/index\.php
RewriteRule ^(.*)index.php$ http://www.epicwallpaper.net/$1 [R=301,L]
## index reslove ##
A:
Right below the RewriteEngine On line, add:
RewriteCond %{REQUEST_FILENAME} !-d
RewriteRule ^(.*)/$ /$1 [L,R] # <- for test, for prod use [L,R=301]
to enforce a no-trailing-slash policy.
To enforce a trailing-slash policy:
RewriteCond %{REQUEST_FILENAME} !-f
RewriteRule ^(.*[^/])$ /$1/ [L,R] # <- for test, for prod use [L,R=301]
EDIT: commented the R=301 parts because, as explained in a comment:
Be careful with that R=301! Having it there makes many browsers cache the .htaccess-file indefinitely: It somehow becomes irreversible if you can't clear the browser-cache on all machines that opened it. When testing, better go with simple R or R=302
After you've completed your tests, you can use R=301.
A:
To complement Jon Lin's answer, here is a no-trailing-slash technique that also works if the website is located in a directory (like example.org/blog/):
RewriteCond %{REQUEST_FILENAME} !-d
RewriteCond %{REQUEST_URI} (.+)/$
RewriteRule ^ %1 [R=301,L]
For the sake of completeness, here is an alternative emphasizing that REQUEST_URI starts with a slash (at least in .htaccess files):
RewriteCond %{REQUEST_FILENAME} !-d
RewriteCond %{REQUEST_URI} /(.*)/$
RewriteRule ^ /%1 [R=301,L] <-- added slash here too, don't forget it
Just don't use %{REQUEST_URI} (.*)/$. Because in the root directory REQUEST_URI equals /, the leading slash, and it would be misinterpreted as a trailing slash.
If you are interested in more reading:
PR 3145 for Laravel
A discussion on commit 343c31e
(update: this technique is now implemented in Laravel 5.5)
A:
This is what I've used for my latest app.
# redirect the main page to landing
##RedirectMatch 302 ^/$ /landing
# remove php ext from url
# https://stackoverflow.com/questions/4026021/remove-php-extension-with-htaccess
RewriteEngine on
# File exists but has a trailing slash
# https://stackoverflow.com/questions/21417263/htaccess-add-remove-trailing-slash-from-url
RewriteCond %{REQUEST_FILENAME} !-d
RewriteRule ^/?(.*)/+$ /$1 [R=302,L,QSA]
# ok. It will still find the file but relative assets won't load
# e.g. page: /landing/ -> assets/js/main.js/main
# that's we have the rules above.
RewriteCond %{REQUEST_FILENAME} !\.php
RewriteCond %{REQUEST_FILENAME} !-d
RewriteCond %{REQUEST_FILENAME}\.php -f
RewriteRule ^/?(.*?)/?$ $1.php
|
[Gigantic keloïds after chicken-pox. A case report].
Keloïds are tumors which appear after a lesion or spontaneously. They are frequent on black skin. We report a gigantic keloïd case appeared after chicken-pox on a 29 year-old black girl who had viral infection when she was 6 years old. The tumors increased after chirurgical treatment and became very unaesthetic. This observation specific by its clinical presentation relates the treatment difficulties of these tumors in our area. |
Barbara Frale
Barbara Frale (born 24 February 1970) is an Italian paleographer at the Vatican Secret Archives. Frale has written books about the Templars and she has a special interest in the history of the Shroud of Turin. In September 2001, she found an authentic copy of the Chinon Parchment.
Biography
She was born in Viterbo on 24 February 1970. She attended the University of Studies of Tuscia-Viterbo and she was the first graduated in Conservation of Cultural Heritage in Italy. Her thesis in Medieval History, which is based on the examination of more than 7000 notary documents of the 14th century, was published by the scientific publisher Vecchiarelli of Manziana (Orte 1303–1363. La città sul fiume, Manziana 1995), winning the first prize "Costantino Pavan", town of San Donà di Piave, both for the section "unpublished works" and "degree thesis". After her graduation she co-operated with the Civic Museum of Viterbo and with the Government Office for the Archivist Heritage of Lazio. In 1996 she obtained a post-degree specialization in Paleography, Diplomatics and Archival Science at the School of the Vatican Secret Archives, and in 1998 she obtained also the specialization in Greek Paleography.
In the year 2000 she obtained the Doctorate in "History of the European Society" at Ca' Foscari University of Venice. Also in 2000 she got a scholarship from the Historic Germanic Institute in Rome (Deutsches Historisches Institut in Rom). Since October 2001 she has been working as Paleographist at the Vatican Secret Archives.
Works and publications
In 2001 she published for the scientific publisher Viella of Rome part of the results of her Doctorate thesis, developed from the documents of the process against the Templars (Lʼultima battaglia dei Templari. Dal codice ombra dʼobbedienza militare alla costruzione del processo per eresia): her theory is that in the bill of indictment brought by the King of France Philip IV the Fair, which was shown in the process, and consequently the order was closed, there was a series of real facts suitably distorted by the current affairs direction in order to build up an indictment of heresy, the only kind of crime the order did not enjoy the total immunity. Templars' fault, according to the author, was not the heresy but a secret ritual of admission as a military obedience test containing vilification acts against the religion.
In 2002 she published for Viella of Rome the essay Il Papato e il processo ai Templari. L’inedita assoluzione di Chinon alla luce della diplomatica pontificia, where she analyses and debates the content of a parchment kept in the Secret Vatican Archives and neglected for a long time by historians, which keeps the acts of an inquiry held by three plenipotentiary cardinals of Pope Clement V into the last Great Master of the Templars Jacques de Molay and other members of the Staff of the order, who were shut in the Castle of Chinon by the king Philip the Fair. Consequently, having the chiefs of the Templars begged the Church's forgiveness, the Pope granted them the absolution. The study of the parchment of Chinon attracted some international historians' attention.
The results of this research were then shown in the essay edited by Il Mulino, I Templari, Bologna 2004, which received positive remarks on the cultural pages of different Italian and foreign newspapers and was translated in English, French, Spanish, Portuguese, Polish and Czech. The book got a positive review by Umberto Eco, who called the author to draw up a chapter on the Templars inside the encyclopaedia about the Middle Age, of which he is the editor. Some theories supported by Frale are welcomed by experts of history of the Templars, among them Malcolm Barber, Alain Demurger, Franco Cardini and Simonetta Gerrini, pupil of Alain Demurger.
On 25 October 2007, the Vatican decided to publish a valuable reproduction of some of the most important documents of the process against the Templars, among those the famous parchment of Chinon, in the collection of Exemplaria Praetiosa; Frale wrote the historical introduction to the edition of the documents.
In June 2009, Frale published, always for Il Mulino, another essay dedicated to the Templars, I Templari e la sindone di Cristo, where she debates some documents concerning the mysterious idol, which was used during the process as charge against the order to accuse the order itself of idolatry, being actually a particular image of Christ dead, which has similar characteristics to the Shroud of Turin.
In November of the same year another essay, La sindone di Gesù Nazareno, Il Mulino (historical Library) followed the above-mentioned volume, where Frale examines some presumed sketches of writing discovered on the shroud in 1998 by a team of French scientists, experts in analysis of marks of the Institut Superieur d’Optique d’Orsay – Paris; comparing them with other ancient documents and inscriptions, Frale assumes that those writings have the characters of a burial document of the 1st century; a fact that obviously would make people think about the shroud of Turin as authentic. This essay received the national prize "Torre di Castruccio" for the year 2010, section of Letter, and the National Cultural Prize "Brava Barbara!” promoted by the Cultural Association "Santa Barbara nel mondo" of Rieti. It has been translated in French (Bayard, Paris 2010) and in English (Maveryck house publishers).
In April 2010, Frale published for the Libreria Editrice Vaticana, the historical essay La Sindone e il ritratto di Cristo, and on 2 May she carried out the historical comment broadcast live from the Dome of Turin, linked up to the Mass celebrated by Pope Benedict XVI on the occasion of his pilgrimage to the shroud.
Death certificate of Jesus
In November 2009 Barbara Frale claimed that she had discovered the burial certificate of "Jesus of Nazareth" on the Shroud of Turin, and that the date was in accord with the Gospel records. Frale stated that her reconstruction of the text reads:
"In the year 16 of the reign of the Emperor Tiberius Jesus the Nazarene, taken down in the early evening after having been condemned to death by a Roman judge because he was found guilty by a Hebrew authority, is hereby sent for burial with the obligation of being consigned to his family only after one full year".
Since Tiberius became emperor after the death of Octavian Augustus in AD 14, the 16th year of his reign would be within the span of the years AD 30 to 31.
Frale's methodology has been criticized, partly based on the objection that the writings are too faint to see.
Recognition
Her book on the Templars and the Turin Shroud received the National Cultural Prize "Foemina d’oro" of the Cultural Association "La vecchia Lizza" of Marina di Carrara for the year 2009; in July 2010 it was translated in Portuguese (Edições, Lisboa) and in English (Maverick house publishers).
Bibliography
Le pergamene dell'Archivio comunale di Bolsena. Mostra documentaria, Bolsena: Dromos, 1994
Orte 1303–1367. La città sul fiume, Manziana: Vecchiarelli, 1995 –
L'ultima battaglia dei Templari. Dal codice ombra d'obbedienza militare alla costruzione del processo per eresia, Roma: Viella, 2001 –
Strategia di un delitto. Filippo il Bello e il cerimoniale segreto dei Templari, Firenze: Giunti, 2001 –
Il papato e il processo ai Templari. L'inedita assoluzione di Chinon alla luce della Diplomatica pontificia, Roma: Viella, 2003 –
I Templari, Bologna: Il Mulino, 2004 – , (The Templars, The Secret History Revealed, Arcade Publisher, 2009)
I Templari e la sindone di Cristo, Bologna: Il Mulino, 2009 – (The Templars and the Shroud of Christ, Maverick House, 2011. )
La sindone di Gesù Nazareno, Bologna: Il Mulino, 2009
References
Category:1970 births
Category:Living people
Category:Italian medievalists
Category:Women medievalists
Category:Researchers of the Shroud of Turin |
Q:
What is the name of this song in Kingdom Hearts 3D?
There is a song in Kingdom Hearts 3D that plays during cutscenes, usually when one of the villians is explaining a mind screw concept to one of the protagonists. Particularly you can hear it at this point in the game where Sora is on The Grid and Xemnas describes the digital nature of the Grid, and that Ansem the Wise used a copy of its data for his operating system at the Radiant Garden. I can't find it anywhere in the soundtrack on youtube, and my google search has been turning up blank as well. Can anyone name this song?
A:
Your sample starts about 40 seconds in and is at a low volume, but the song is The Nightmare. It's song number 3 on disk 2 of the soundtrack.
|
[Relationship between gender and posterior pole choroidal thickness in normal eyes].
To investigate and compare the choroidal thickness between healthy male and female subjects. Six-hundred and twenty eyes of 310 healthy volunteers with no ophthalmic disease history were recruited, including 152 males and 158 females. All volunteers were subgrouped into Group A to F according to their ages. Enhanced depth imaging choroidal scans were obtained in all eyes by using spectral-domain optical coherence tomography. Subfoveal choroidal thickness (SFCT) and choroidal thickness at 1 mm/3 mm superior, inferior, nasal and temporal to the fovea were measured. Choroidal thickness was compared between male and female in the subgroups with different age. Mean SFCT was higher in 152 males (298.02 ± 101.47) µm than that in 158 females (256.28 ± 90.87) µm with statistically significant difference (t' = 4.853, P < 0.05). Choroid at 1 mm and 3 mm from the fovea were also thicker in the male (t' = 5.050, t = 4.597, t = 5.225, t = 5.363, t = 5.608, t' = 4.239, t = 4.108, t' = 5.589; P < 0.05). In any subgroup from A to E, SFCT in male was significantly thicker than female, after adjusted for refractive error (t = 2.343, t' = 2.163, t = 3.239, t = 2.181, t' = 2.982; P < 0.05). In Group F, mean SFCT in male was thicker than female, but without statistical significance (t' = 0.681, P > 0.05). Gender was one of the factors that affect the choroid thickness in healthy populations. In subjects under 70, male have thicker choroid than female. This result at least partially explained the gender predilection of macular diseases, such as central serous chorioretinopathy and idiopathic macular hole. |
GSI ist Mitglied bei
Gefördert von
Außenstellen
Transport and Experiment Simulations
The main goal of heavy-ion research is to probe and understand the properties of strongly-interacting matter, in particular the structures in the phase diagram of QCD matter. By colliding heavy ions at almost the speed of light, temperatures and densities are reached as they existed in the early universe or in collisions of astrophysical objects. Within the GSI-FAIR program, CBM and HADES explore the dense region of the phase diagram.
The underlying field theory of the strong interaction, namely quantum chromodynamics (QCD), cannot be used to directly solve this many-body problem. Therefore, effective approaches become necessary. Transport approaches are microscopic non-equilibrium descriptions of the relevant degrees of freedom (hadrons or partons) and provide information of the full space-time information of all interactions occurring in heavy-ion collisions. These approaches are providing the essential link between QCD properties and the experimental measurements. Pursuing this type of research, it is crucial to solve the same problem with different techniques and focusing on different aspects. Therefore, within the group at GSI there are several complementary approaches being developed. |
Do dental calculi predict the presence of renal stones?
Pathological calcifications that occur in various parts of the body may cause stone formation over time. The structure of these stones is similar in many regions of the body. We have studied the relationship between dental calculi and kidney stones. A total of 183 patients with dental stone complaints or dental calculi were included between April and August 2016 in the Cagri Dental Hospital, Elazig, Turkey. Patients were evaluated with regard to a urinary tract ultrasonography, urinalysis, oral hygiene, and stone and surgical disease history. All information was statistically investigated. The age of the patients in the kidney stones group was significantly higher than the non-kidney stone patients (p < 0.05). In the group with kidney stones, the percentage of dental calculus formation was significantly higher than the group without stones (p < 0.05). In the groups with and without kidney stones, dental stone recurrence rates did not differ significantly (p < 0.05). Urinary pH was significantly lower in the group with stones than the group without stones (p < 0.05). During a physical examination, the formation of a visible stone, such as a dental calculus, may be an indicator of other types of stones, such as kidney stones, and this should be further investigated. |
The invention relates to a biopsy needle especially suited for use in a so-called biopsy gun, as well as a biopsy system.
Biopsy needles according to the species are generally known. Mention is made of DE-A-39,24,291 merely as an example, to which reference is expressly made otherwise to explain all terms not presented here in greater detail.
Known biopsy needles have at least one inner needle (mandrel) and an outer tube (also called a cannula). The mandrel has a recess (notch) located in the vicinity of its distal end, provided with a point, said notch receiving the tissue sample to be collected and having at its proximal end a first connecting element for connection with a slide of the biopsy gun. The outer tube or cannula is displaceably guided on the inner needle, and is likewise provided at its proximal end with (a second) connecting element for connection with another slide of the biopsy gun. The connecting elements in known biopsy needles are designed as flanges that cooperate with matching contact surfaces on the slides.
The biopsy needle described in DE-A-39,24,291 is shown in FIGS. 1a-1d and 2.
The inserting unit illustrated in FIGS. 1 and 2 serves to insert biopsy cannulae and includes three slide elements 1 to 3 which are supported in a housing 4 for displacement along a common axis 5. In order to reduce the illustration to the essentials, merely one pin element 6 is shown as one example of the supporting elements on which the slide 1 is supported for displacement along the extension of the axis 5.
Compression springs 7 to 9 are provided to drive the various slides, whereof spring 7 is inserted between the casing 4 and the rear face of the slide 2, while spring 8 is located between a stop 10 at the slide 1 and the bearing surface 2' at the slide 2, whereas spring 9 is clamped between another stop 11 at the slide 1 and the slide 3.
Moreover, pawIs 12 to 14 are provided as trigger elements whereof pawl 12 is supported at the casing while the pawIs 13 and 14 are provided at the slide 2. The pawIs 12 and 14 engage into associated recesses at the slides 2 or 3, respectively, while the pawl 13 bears against the stop 10 of the slide 1.
FIG. 2 illustrates the attachment of a biopsy needle 21 at the slide 2 and of an exterior tube 22 of a biopsy cannula at the slide 3. FIG. 2 shows the provision of a positive connection as an example of the interconnection between the elements 21 and 22 of the biopsy cannula, on the one hand, and the slide elements 2 and 3, on the other hand.
In the initial condition prior to the initiation of the inserting procedure, which is illustrated in FIG. 1a, the compression springs 7 to 8 are biased while the slide elements 1 to 3 are each arrested by the associated pawls or triggering elements 12 to 14. The cannula is retracted accordingly, with the exterior tube 22 covering the cavity in the biopsy needle 21.
The sampling operation is started by actuation of the pawIs or triggering elements 12. This action causes the slides 1 to 3 to be jointly displaced by the spring 7 along the axis 5. A stop 41 at the casing 4 limits the distance by which the three slides may be displaced.
FIG. 1b illustrates the condition of the inserting unit after insertion of the biopsy cannula. As a result of the joint movement of the individual cannula elements, the exterior tube 22 remains in a position pushed over the needle 21 so far that the cavity in the needle 22 is covered.
With the elements in this position, it is now possible to actuate the trigger element 14 either automatically under control of appropriate actuator elements such as a (non-illustrated) cam guide at the casing 4 or manually. This operation initiates the movement of the slide 3 under the action of the spring 9 toward the stop 10. FIG. 1c shows the result of this movement for the inserting unit. Retraction of the exterior tube 22 into a position behind the cavity in the biopsy needle is caused by the movement of the slide element 3 relative to the slides 1 and 2.
Then the triggering element 13 is actuated equally automatically, e.g., by means of an appropriate cam guide, or by hand. This action causes the spring 8 to displace the slide 1 together with the slide 3 fixed to it in a direction toward the stop 41 while the slide 2 remains stationary (FIG. 1d). As a result of this movement, the exterior tube 22 is pushed again over the cavity in the needle 21. The advancing movement of the exterior tube 22 separates that part of the tissue from the remaining tissue which has bulged into the cavity due to the elasticity of the tissue, such that a small tissue sample is retained in the cavity, which may then be removed, e.g., by a suitable rearward movement of the inserting unit, with the biopsy cannula following as one unit consisting of the needle 21 and the exterior tube 22.
Known biopsy needles have the disadvantage that under certain conditions it may be difficult to insert the biopsy needle into the biopsy gun under sterile conditions. In known biopsy needles, the mandrel is freely displaceable in the cannula; on the other hand, the two slides of the biopsy gun, with which the connecting elements provided on the mandrel and the cannula must be connected, have a certain spacing that depends upon the state of the biopsy gun (cocked or not cocked). It may therefore be necessary, prior to inserting the biopsy needle, to align the latter relative to the relative position of the mandrel and cannula. In addition, under certain conditions the flange connection does not prevent individual elements from slipping relative to the slide. |
The use of bird replicas as hunting decoys is well known. A substantial amount of ingenuity has been applied to creating bird decoys that realistically depict waterfowl and other birds of interest to hunters and bird watchers. Particular attention has been paid in the most recent generation of decoys to creating bird replicas that realistically represent a bird in active flight in order to maximize the appearance of safety to overflying wildfowl.
In addition to the established use of bird replicas as decoys, replicas of raptors are commonly used as deterrents to discourage the presence of unwanted birds such as pigeons and seagulls in a variety of settings such as buildings and vessels, and also in agricultural environments where they are used to ward off rodents and other pests.
One problem with the existing art is that wildfowl eventually become inured to bird replicas whether the replicas are acting as an attractive decoy or as a deterrent. Another problem is that many replicas, particularly decoys, are bulky, awkward to handle, heavy, and expensive to manufacture. Moreover, some require complicated assembly and disassembly procedures which must frequently be performed under adverse environmental conditions in the field.
Any bird replica which can realistically depict the natural movements of a bird in flight and avoid the above disadvantages will serve many useful needs. |
try:
from cStringIO import StringIO
except ImportError:
from StringIO import StringIO
from django.contrib.auth.management import create_permissions
from django.contrib.auth import models as auth_models
from django.contrib.contenttypes import models as contenttypes_models
from django.core.management import call_command
from django.test import TestCase
class TestAuthPermissions(TestCase):
def tearDown(self):
# These tests mess with content types, but content type lookups
# are cached, so we need to make sure the effects of this test
# are cleaned up.
contenttypes_models.ContentType.objects.clear_cache()
def test_permission_register_order(self):
"""Test that the order of registered permissions doesn't break"""
# Changeset 14413 introduced a regression in the ordering of
# newly created permissions for objects. When loading a fixture
# after the initial creation (such as during unit tests), the
# expected IDs for the permissions may not match up, leading to
# SQL errors. This is ticket 14731
# Start with a clean slate and build the permissions as we
# expect to see them in the fixtures.
auth_models.Permission.objects.all().delete()
contenttypes_models.ContentType.objects.all().delete()
create_permissions(auth_models, [], verbosity=0)
create_permissions(contenttypes_models, [], verbosity=0)
stderr = StringIO()
call_command('loaddata', 'test_permissions.json',
verbosity=0, commit=False, stderr=stderr)
self.assertEqual(stderr.getvalue(), '')
|
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GPA considers debt moratorium: Board meets as aircraft leasing group fights for life
GPA, the embattled Irish aircraft leasing group, is considering a moratorium on all repayments of its dollars 5.5bn debts if last-ditch attempts to find new shareholders fail over the next couple of weeks.
This was one of the options under discussion last night at a crunch board meeting being held at Schroders, the group's merchant bankers, as GPA fought for survival.
The crisis comes against the background of a deadline looming later this month for repayment of dollars 200m ( pounds 130m) to bondholders.
A moratorium would avoid examination, the Irish equivalent of administration, an option that has finally surfaced on the agenda of the board, whose non-executive members include Lord Lawson, the former Chancellor, Sir John Harvey-Jones, and Garret Fitzgerald, the former Irish premier.
But the option preferred by both the company and bank creditors is still to raise new equity, by continuing last-ditch negotiations with GE Capital Corporation of the US and one other unnamed potential equity investor who may buy a large strategic stake.
GPA's bank creditors, which have been in the driving seat for the past six months of negotiations over the company's debts, have not given up hope that new equity can be injected. The current waiver on GPA's dollars 3.6bn of bank debt expires this Friday. If any further extension is granted it will be for only three weeks. But in the wake of GPA's failure earlier this year to launch a combined rights issue and sale of new shares to a wider group of investors, the two potential strategic investors have set tough terms.
A GPA spokesman denied last night that Tony Ryan, founder and chairman, was under pressure to stand down along with his deputy, Maurice Foley, and other top directors. 'We are not aware of demands for any changes at board level,' he said.
But the conditions imposed by the outside investors with which GPA is now in talks would almost certainly involve them in effect taking control.
If the GPA board accepts the tough terms on offer, it will still have to ask its banks for a bridging loan to allow payments to the bondholders while the details of the restructuring are finalised.
Examination is, at least for the moment, the least likely option because it is opposed by GPA's bank creditors, which want to avoid letting the company go to the wall while any other option remains open.
A source close to the negotiations admitted that 'one or two' bank creditors see examination as appealing, because they believe it would allow a wide-ranging deal with all creditors and give time to devise a new capital structure. But the bank group in charge of the negotiations, led by Citicorp, believes examination would prove complex and difficult, especially in dealing with holders of publicly issued debt in the US.
One bank creditor said: 'We are still hopeful that they will be able to avoid it and that the equity route will be a viable one. The company still has a not insubstantial tangible net worth.' He added: 'The company will seriously and realistically review the options. I would be very surprised if there was precipitate action.'
But two banks, including one of the biggest lenders, are still holding out against the restructuring because they want bigger concessions from bondholders.
If talks with new shareholders break down and a bank bridging loan is not forthcoming, the company would therefore be forced back on the moratorium option, which would cause a big row with bondholders.
Bankers close to GPA admitted that a moratorium would have to be carefully handled to persuade bondholders not to push for the company to be put into examination. To make it work it would have to be on all repayments.
Mr Ryan, whose personal stake in GPA has slumped in value dramatically since the failure of last year's dollars 1bn share offer, conceded at the weekend that GPA was facing 'a tense two weeks'. He is due to fly to New York later in the week to resume negotiations with bankers and potential investors.
Backing Mr Ryan, a bank source said wholesale board changes would be 'dangerous and premature and would lose continuity in negotiations'. |
A photosensitive material capable of easily and rapidly obtaining images by a developing process comprising a dry process using heat, i.e., a heat-processable photosensitive material, has been usually known. Such heat-processable photosensitive materials and the image forming processes thereof are described in, for example, Japanese Patent Examined Publication Nos. 43-4921 (1968) and 43-4924 (1968); The Fundamentals of Photographic Engineering, pp. 553-555, Corona Publishing Co., 1979; Research Disclosure, RD-17029, pp.9-15, June, 1978; and so forth.
In recent years, there have been some attempts to research and develop heat-processable color photosensitive materials in which color images are obtained by making selective use of various types of dye-donors. Among these attempts, there is a system for obtaining color images in such a manner that a diffusible dye is released or formed in a heat developing process and is then transferred. This system is excellent in stability and sharpness of images as well as in easiness and rapidness of processing operations. These dye-transfer type heat-processable color photosensitive materials and the image forming processes thereof are described in, for example, Japanese Patent Publication Open to Public Inspection (hereinafter called Japanese Patent O.P.I. Publication) Nos. 59-12431 (1984), 59-159159 (1984), 59-181345 (1984), 59-229556 (1984), 60-2950 (1985), 61-52643 (1986), 61-61158 (1986), 61-61157 (1986), 59-180550 (1984), 61-132952 (1986) and 61-139842 (1986); U.S. Pat. Nos. 4,595,652, 4,590,154 and 4,584,267; and so forth.
Besides the above, there are heat-processable photosensitive materials which use a coupler capable of forming a non-diffusible dye, such as those described in, for example, Japanese Patent O.P.I. Publication Nos. 62-44737 (1987), 62-129852 (1987) and 62-169158 (1987); and heat-processable photosensitive materials which use a coupler capable of forming a diffusible dye, such as those described in, for example, U.S. Pat. Nos. 4,631,251, 4,650,748, 4,656,124 and so forth. These photosensitive materials are excellent in that color images having a higher density and lower fogging can readily be obtained.
However, these heat-processable color photosensitive materials still have the problems remaining unsolved, such as not so satisfactorily lowered fogging, color mixed up by interlayer transfer of the oxidized products of a reducing agent, or seriously produced stains.
For the purpose of solving these problems, the compounds capable of capturing the useless oxidized products of a reducing agent, such as the couplers or the reducing agents described in, for example, Japanese Patent O.P.I. Publication Nos. 60-119555 (1985), 60-133449 (1985), 60-198540 (1985) and 60-230652(1985), each of which has already been known. The compounds described in these patent applications still have the problems; the oxidized products of a reducing agent are not satisfactorily captured, fogging is not satisfactorily lowered, and color mixing or fogging is produced by transfer of the colored compounds reacted with the oxidized products of a reducing agent: and besides the above problems, they have another problem that a maximum density as well as fogging is lowered to a large extent. |
The New York Attorney General wants to take a closer look at the proposed merger of T-Mobile and Sprint. New York Attorney General Barbara Underwood has been investigating the T-Mobile-Sprint merger shortly after it was announced in April and recently stepped up its efforts, according to sources speaking to the New York Post. Underwood has concerns that the merger could result in increase prepaid prices as a result of less competition between MetroPCS, Boost Mobile, and … [read full article]
About PhoneDog
PhoneDog is one of the largest and most popular interactive mobile news and reviews resource that attracts a community of more than 2.5 million unique visitors each month. The site may have a "cute" name, but it offers up serious editorial content and video reviews that users rely on to make important decisions about their next mobile purchases. |
Following the trend of the week, the trend of the month and in general the trend of the year, once again the cryptocurrency markets are in red.
The EOS cryptocurrency is making steady progress, up to almost 2% this morning, with no sign of an interval in sight. This Cryptocurrency started the month with a steady climb, and despite some falls continues to move in a positive direction.
With the help of multiple decentralized applications, the IT infrastructure need of the company is reduced. This is the reason why more and more enterprise level clients are expected by the platform. If indeed, it becomes the platform of choice for the enterprise level clients, the appreciation in the token will be huge.
This is the reason why this platform holds such a lot of potential. As more and more companies start using this platform for decentralized applications, the valuation of this platform will increase significantly. This is the reason why it might be a good option for the investors to invest in.
Currently worth $ 5.91, it has gained about 10% compared to Bitcoin and Ethereum in recent times, perhaps it is on its way back to recent levels of $ 17?
New platform for EOS
Perhaps the good performance of this digital asset is the result of the new version – ‘EOSIO Dawn 3.0’. It is a platform for creating blockchain applications, coined by the foundation as “the most powerful infrastructure for decentralized applications”.
The media hype surrounding this was minimal, the tweet for example has only accumulated 165 re-tweets and 490 likes (at the time of writing) so who knows how many effects it has had on the value of EOS, perhaps the gains simply depend on organic interactions that occur with EOS on the blockchain, compared to interactions or lack of interactions between its neighbors and rivals.
Regardless, the facts are clear, EOS is trying to grow at a sustained pace. The past few days have had a steady increase that seems to be escaping the trends set by Bitcoin and Ethereum.
Things will change and there is really no way to know which direction this project will take. If some kind of hype develops around EOSIO Dawn 3.0, this weekend will see further interest in the EOS platform and potentially will see further gains in the digital currency. |
There is advice easily available on the different ways she could go about his for kids their age. You don't give a little one all the details; you simplify it for their age. The details come way later, and by then, they'll be telling you. Lol.
I typically agree with everyone on this site and love Perez, but this entire post is absolute bullshit. I too am a single mother, do you have children Perez? How fucking dare you question a single mother's ability to speak to her sons? For the first time, I will tell you straight up that you are speaking out of your fudge packed ASS!!! You raise two boys alone, you raise anyone other than that dog, that you shift off to mom, you can't even fucking parent a dog, so Shut your Gay Fat fucking hideous mouth. You just lost a fan. If you haven't been there, shut the fuck about it ASSHOLE!!!
I love how she's so protective of her sons and it saddens me that she thinks so bad about the entertainment industry, everything that happened over her career must have hurt her so much I have nothing but deep respect for this woman.
Before Britney tries to explain how "babies are made" to her sons, she needs to have someone try to tell her…short bus riders aren't the best of mothers. The kids would be better served asking Kevin about sex…
Re: poorlittlerichiegirl – maybe parents should make up for the time in the stroller and take them to the park and they won't be that way. you just have to balance it out. little kids need naps more often and they like to nap in strollers when they are at malls.
UMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMM this LOON wont be teaching her kids ANYTHING. Kevin has custody FOR A REASON. Her camp must think everybody is as STUPID as she is. We see the REAL Shitney walking around looking like a homeless crack whore EVERYDAY!!!!! She isnt capable of teaching a dog how to roll over much less teach her boys about anything.
In July, father John McCain was diagnosed with stage 4 glioblastoma, an aggressive form of brain cancer, which also claimed Beau's life.
When the 33-year-old began crying, the politician went over and consoled her, adding:
"There is hope... And if anybody can make it, your dad [can]."
Biden is also optimistic about "breakthroughs that are occurring now," regarding potential treatment options and cures.
"There's a lot of things happening. Any of you who have somebody who is diagnosed with gliobastoma, which is about as bad as it gets, there's breakthroughs that are occurring now... And it can happen tomorrow." |
This may be an argueable behaviour but for me it would perfectly make sense to have the sim_customizationscriptcall_cleanup called before saving a scene or a model. By this, changes from the scripts could be remove again (if wanted/implemented in the cleanup section) before saving and so saving just... |
Q:
Disallow use of 3g in android socket app
I have made an Android application that sends data over networks using sockets.
I'm guessing (haven't tested because I don't have an outside IP address I can use) that it works with 3G. It definitely does with WiFi.
First: If my app works with WiFi, sending data to an inside IP address, is it safe to assume that it works with 3G, if I had an outside IP-adress to send to?
- Of course I'm going to test this when I get the chance.
Second: If 3G works, how would I go about making an option, for the user to not allow use of 3G, only WiFi, inside the application?
A:
First: it is safe
Second:
private boolean checkOnlyWiFiNetworkConnection() {
ConnectivityManager cm = (ConnectivityManager) getSystemService(Context.CONNECTIVITY_SERVICE);
NetworkInfo[] netInfo = cm.getAllNetworkInfo();
for (NetworkInfo ni : netInfo) {
if (ni.getTypeName().equalsIgnoreCase("WIFI")){
if (ni.isConnected()){
return = true;
}
}
}
return false;
}
|
198 F.3d 567 (6th Cir. 1999)
Dyno Construction Company, Plaintiff-Appellant,v.McWane, Inc., Defendant-Appellee.
No. 98-4050
UNITED STATES COURT OF APPEALS FOR THE SIXTH CIRCUIT
Argued: September 22, 1999Decided and Filed: December 20, 1999
1
Appeal from the United States District Court for the Northern District of Ohio at Toledo, No. 97-07151--John W. Potter, District Judge.[Copyrighted Material Omitted]
2
Thomas P. Whelley II, Scott L. Braum, Jack Kurt Denkewalter, CHERNESKY, HEYMAN & KRESS, Dayton, Ohio, for Appellant.
3
Joan C. Szuberla, Byron S. Choka, SPENGLER NATHANSON, Toledo, Ohio, for Appellee.
4
Before: NELSON and SILER, Circuit Judges; QUIST, District Judge.*
OPINION
5
GORDON J. QUIST, District Judge.
6
Plaintiff, Dyno Construction Company, sued Defendant, McWane, Inc., alleging various breach of contract claims arising out of Dyno's purchase of ductile iron pipe from McWane that was later found to be defective. The district court denied the parties' cross-motions for summary judgment, and a jury returned a general verdict in favor of McWane. The district court denied Dyno's motion for a new trial. Dyno appeals the order denying its motion for summary judgment, the judgment entered after trial, and the order denying Dyno's motion for a new trial. We find no error and affirm.
I. FACTUAL AND PROCEDURAL BACKGROUND
7
Dyno is a company engaged in the business of constructing underground utility projects, specifically underground water and sewer lines. Dyno was purchased in the fall of 1995 by Frederick Harrah, Laymond Lewis, and a third party. Prior to purchasing Dyno, Harrah and Lewis were employees of Reynolds, Inc., a large underground pipeline construction company also in the business of installing underground water and sewer lines.
8
McWane is a manufacturer and seller of ductile iron pipe and fittings for underground utility projects. Harrah and Lewis frequently purchased pipe from McWane during their employment with Reynolds, as McWane was the exclusive supplier ofcertain types of ductile iron products to Reynolds.
9
Sometime shortly before November 6, 1995, Dyno submitted a bid to the City of Perrysburg, Ohio, for a multimillion dollar water and sewer system project. In order to prepare the bid, Lewis contacted various suppliers, including McWane, to obtain quotes for necessary materials. On November 6, 1995, Dyno learned that it was the low bidder on the project and would be awarded the contract.
10
On November 8, 1995, McWane's district sales manager, Kevin Ratcliffe, faxed Dyno a document containing quantities and prices for the materials Dyno requested for the Perrysburg Project.1 Ratcliffe sent a second fax to Lewis on November 13, 1995, which included handwritten prices and notes next to each item. On the fax cover sheet, Ratcliffe asked Lewis to "[p]lease call."
11
On or prior to November 22, 1995, Lewis phoned Ratcliffe and told him to order the materials. Lewis testified at his deposition that he thought that there was a "done deal" when he got off the phone with Ratcliffe. However, after the phone call, Ratcliffe prepared and sent a package to Lewis via Federal Express. The Federal Express package included a purchase order, a credit application, and a cover letter in which Ratcliffe asked Lewis to review and sign the purchase order and credit application and return the originals to Ratcliffe. The purchase order and credit application each stated that the sale of the materials was subject to the terms and conditions printed on the reverse sides of those documents. The reverse side of each document contained additional terms and conditions, including a provision which limited McWane's liability for defective materials. The Federal Express invoice kept in McWane's files showed that Dyno received the package on November 24, 1995, at 8:53 a.m.
12
Lewis called Ratcliffe on December 1, 1995, to inquire about the status of Dyno's order. Lewis testified that Ratcliffe told him that "you have to sign our forms." Lewis indicated both in his deposition and at trial that he was not surprised when Ratcliffe told him that the purchase order and credit application would have to be signed before McWane would ship the materials. Lewis told Ratcliffe that he had not received the forms Ratcliffe sent via Federal Express and could not find the package in his office. At Lewis' request, in order to expedite the transaction, Ratcliffe faxed Lewis copies of the documents that were sent on November 22, 1995. However, Ratcliffe did not fax the back sides of the documents which included, among other things, this provision limiting McWane's liability:
13
SELLER SHALL NOT BE LIABLE FOR EXEMPLARY, PUNITIVE, SPECIAL, INCIDENTAL, CONSEQUENTIAL DAMAGES OR EXPENSES, INCLUDING BUT NOT LIMITED TO, LOSS PROFIT REVENUES, LOSS OF USE OF THE GOODS, OR ANY ASSOCIATED GOODS OR EQUIPMENT, DAMAGE TO PROPERTY OF BUYER, COST OF CAPITAL, COST OF SUBSTITUTE GOODS, DOWNTIME, LIQUIDATED DAMAGES, OR THE CLAIMS OF BUYER'S CUSTOMERS FOR ANY OF THE AFORESAID DAMAGES, OR FROM ANY OTHER CAUSE RELATING THERETO, AND SELLER'S LIABILITY HEREUNDER IN ANY CASE IS EXPRESSLY LIMITED TO THE REPLACEMENT (IN THE FORM ORIGINALLY SHIPPED) OF GOODS NOT COMPLYING WITH THIS AGREEMENT, OR, AT SELLER'S ELECTION, TO THE REPAYMENT OF, OR CREDITING BUYER WITH, AN AMOUNT EQUAL TO THE PURCHASE PRICE OF SUCH GOODS PRIOR PAID TO AND RECEIVEDBY SELLER, WHETHER SUCH CLAIMS ARE FOR BREACH OF WARRANTY OR NEGLIGENCE . . . .
14
Dyno signed the faxed pages without the quoted damages limitation provision and returned them to Ratcliffe later that day.
15
Dyno had substantial problems with the pipes it purchased from McWane. Although McWane repaired and reinstalled the pipe to the satisfaction of Dyno, it refused to pay Dyno for consequential damages suffered as a result of the defects in the pipes on the basis of the limitation of damages provision on the back of the purchase order. Dyno filed this suit in an attempt to recover its consequential damages.
16
Both parties moved for summary judgment with respect to the question of whether the quoted provision limiting McWane's liability for consequential damages was a part of the Dyno/McWane contract.2 In denying the motions, the district court rejected Dyno's contention that the two written quotations which Ratcliffe sent to Lewis were offers that Dyno accepted when Lewis informed Ratcliffe that Dyno wished to purchase the pipe from McWane because the quotations were part of preliminary negotiations between the parties. Instead, the court concluded that the contract was formed or, alternatively, modified, when Lewis signed the documents he received from Ratcliffe by fax on December 1, 1995. The district court also rejected as a matter of law McWane's arguments that Dyno's acceptance of documents containing the warranty limitation provision established a course of performance and that a course of dealing was established by Lewis' dealings with McWane while Lewis was employed at Reynolds. Instead, the district court found that McWane's argument that Lewis had knowledge of the disputed provision based upon his receipt of the Federal Express package presented a genuine issue of material fact. Thus, the district court framed the issue for the jury with respect to the limitation of damages provision as whether Lewis knew or should have known about McWane's terms and conditions at the time he signed the fax copy.
17
At trial, during the conference on jury instructions, the district court rejected Dyno's proposed instruction number 7, which would have allowed the jury to find that the contract had been formed on or before November 22, 1995, on the basis of its ruling with respect to the summary judgment motions that the contract was formed on December 1, 1995.3 At the conclusion of trial, the jury returned a verdict in favor of McWane.
II. ANALYSIS
A.Summary Judgment
18
Dyno first contends that the district court erred when it found that the contract was formed on December 1, 1995, rather than on November 22, 1995. Although Dyno does not argue that the denial of its motion for summary judgment was erroneous, Dyno asserts that the determination made by the district court in ruling on the motion that the contract was made on December 1, 1995, when Lewis signed the fax documents, was erroneous.
19
Dyno asserted in its motion for summary judgment, and continues to argue to this Court, that the contract was actually entered into on November 22, 1995, when Lewis told Ratcliffe to go ahead and order the materials that Ratcliffe had listed in his November 8 and November 13 faxes. Dyno claims that the parties agreed to the essential terms of price, quantity, and description, and any other terms to the contract could be supplied by the "gap-filler"provisions of the Uniform Commercial Code, which do not limit the seller's liability for consequential damages.
20
In order to prove the existence of a contract, a plaintiff is required to demonstrate the essential requirements of an offer, acceptance, and consideration. See Helle v. Landmark, Inc., 15 Ohio App.3d 1, 8, 472 N.E.2d 765, 773 (1984). A valid and binding contract comes into existence when an offer is accepted. See Realty Dev., Inc. v. Kosydar, 322 N.E.2d 328, 332 (Ohio Ct. App. 1974)(per curiam). Dyno contends that the written price quotations Ratcliffe faxed to Lewis on November 8, 1995, and November 13, 1995, constituted the offer, which Lewis accepted on behalf of Dyno on or about November 22, 1995, when Lewis told Ratcliffe to order the materials listed on the price quote.
21
"Typically, a price quotation is considered an invitation for an offer, rather than an offer to form a binding contract." White Consol. Indus., Inc. v. McGill Mfg. Co., 165 F.3d 1185, 1190 (8th Cir. 1999)(citing Litton Microwave Cooking Prods. v. Leviton Mfg. Co., 15 F.3d 790, 794 (8th Cir. 1994)); see also Realty Dev., Inc., 322 N.E.2d at 332 (finding that the price quotation furnished to the appellant was "susceptible to the interpretation that [it] was nothing more than an invitation to appellant to make an offer"). Instead, a buyer's purchase agreement submitted in response to a price quotation is usually deemed the offer. See Master Palletizer Sys., Inc. v. T.S. Ragsdale Co., 725 F. Supp. 1525, 1531 (D. Colo. 1989). However, a price quotation may suffice for an offer if it is sufficiently detailed and it "reasonably appear[s] from the price quotation that assent to that quotation is all that is needed to ripen the offer into a contract." Quaker State Mushroom Co. v. Dominick's Finer Foods, Inc., of Illinois, 635 F. Supp. 1281, 1284 (N.D. Ill. 1986); see also Master Palletizer Sys., 725 F. Supp. at 1531. While the inclusion of a description of the product, price, quantity, and terms of payment may indicate that the price quotation is an offer rather than a mere invitation to negotiate, the determination of the issue depends primarily upon the intention of the person communicating the quotation as demonstrated by all of the surrounding facts and circumstances. See Interstate Indus., Inc. v. Barclay Indus., Inc., 540 F.2d 868, 871 (7th Cir. 1976)(quoting R..E. Crummer & Co. v. Nuveen, 147 F.2d 3, 5 (7th Cir. 1945)); Maurice Elec. Supply Co. v. Anderson Safeway Guard Rail Corp., 632 F. Supp. 1082, 1089 (D.D.C. 1986)(mem. op.). Thus, to constitute an offer, a price quotation must "be made under circumstances evidencing the express or implied intent of the offeror that its acceptance shall constitute a binding contract." Maurice Elec. Supply, 632 F. Supp. at 1087.
22
In Interstate Industries, Inc. v. Barclay Industries, Inc., 540 F.2d 868 (7th Cir. 1976), the court determined that a letter sent by the defendant to the plaintiff stating that the defendant would be able to manufacture fiberglass panels for the plaintiff pursuant to specified standards at certain prices did not constitute an offer. Among other things, the court found that the letter's use of the term "price quotation," lack of language indicating that an offer was being made, and absence of terms regarding quantity, time of delivery, or payment terms established that the letter was not intended as an offer. See id. at 873. Thos. J. Sheehan Co. v. Crane Co., 418 F.2d 642 (8th Cir. 1969), cited by the court in Interstate Industries, concluded that a price list for copper tubing which a supplier furnished to a subcontractor in connection with the latter's bid on a job was merely an invitation to engage in future negotiations. The court observed:
23
The only evidence of defendant's alleged September 1963 offer is the oral communication to plaintiff that Crane Company could supply copper for the Mansion House Project at a lower price than originally quoted. Reference was made to the new "Chase" price sheet concerning deliveries in minimum quantities of5000 pounds or 5000 feet, and that prices for copper would be guaranteed for the "duration of the job." At this time nothing was stated by the defendant or plaintiff as to (1) the time in which plaintiff had to accept the "offer," (2) the quantity of copper tubing, fittings, or other supplies to be ordered, (3) the terms of payment or (4) the time when Crane Company promised to perform.
24
. . . The "Chase" price sheet was nothing more than a circular sent to distributors by the manufacturer, Wolverine. Without other terms of commitment, we find that the proposal as to "price protection" was related only to the quoted price as a condition upon which the supplier would be willing in the future to negotiate a contract of shipment.
25
. . . . Prices and price factors quoted by suppliers to contractors for the purposes of aiding contractors to make bid estimates, without more specific terms, do not obligate the supplier to comply with any purchase order upon whatever terms and conditions the contractor may choose to offer at some undetermined date in the future. The fact that the prices quoted are not withdrawn or that a withdrawal of them is not communicated to the contractor is immaterial. No duty exists to revoke terms which without words of commitment merely quote an existing price at which a contract of purchase might be negotiated.
26
Thos. J. Sheehan, 418 F.2d at 645-46 (italics in original).
27
Similarly, in Day v. Amax, Inc., 701 F.2d 1258 (8th Cir. 1983), the Seventh Circuit affirmed the district court's grant of a directed verdict to the defendant on the issue of whether the defendant's description of mining equipment and a quotation of prices constituted an offer, reasoning that "[a]lthough questions of intent are usually for the jury to decide . . . the record discloses no evidence that any of the defendants manifested an intent to enter into a contract with [the plaintiff]." Id. at 1263. Thus, the plaintiff's evidence that the defendant had given the plaintiff signed writings containing detailed descriptions of the mining equipment and the terms of sale and had set up an escrow account were insufficient to demonstrate the defendant's intent to enter into a contract. See id. at 1264-65; accord Maurice Elec. Supply, 632 F. Supp. at 1088 (concluding that the defendant's price quote "was simply a statement of price for three individual high mast poles of varying height" because "[i]t did not specify quality or quantity, time and place of delivery, or terms of payment" and "[t]here was no promise that the quote would remain open for a specified period of time").
28
In contrast to the cases discussed above, the court in Bergquist Co. v. Sunroc Corp., 777 F. Supp. 1236 (E.D. Pa. 1991), found that the question of whether the price quotation at issue constituted an offer was a question of fact for the jury. Some of the factors cited by the court as creating an issue for the jury were: (i) the price quotation was developed by the defendant after the parties had engaged in substantial negotiations; (ii) the quotation included a description of the product, a list of various quantities at various prices, terms of payment, and delivery terms; (iii) the quotation contained the statement "This quotation is offered for your acceptance within 30 days"; and (iv) the price which the purchaser paid was the price listed in the price quotation rather than the price listed in the purchaser's subsequent purchase order. See id. at 1249.
29
In this case, the facts before the district court furnished a sufficient basis for it to conclude as a matter of law that the contract was formed when Lewis signed the fax from Ratcliffe on December 1, 1995, rather than when Lewis told Ratcliffe to order the materials on November 22, 1995. In particular, neither the November 8 nor the November 13 price quotations contained words indicating thatRatcliffe intended to make an offer to Dyno. The word "Estimate" was printed at the top of the document faxed on November 8, and the message "Please call" was printed on the cover sheet for the document faxed on November 13. These words are indicative of an invitation to engage in future negotiations rather than an offer to enter into a contract. Although both price lists set forth descriptions of the materials, prices, and quantities, nothing was stated about the place of delivery, time of performance, or terms of payment. See Litton Microwave Cooking Prods., 15 F.3d at 795 (rejecting the contention that the defendant's price letters and catalogs, which failed to address the place of delivery, quantities, and availability of parts to be purchased were not offers). Finally, the fact that Lewis voluntarily signed the December 1 fax demonstrated that he understood that a binding contract had not been formed as a result of the previous price quotations sent by Ratcliffe. In light of these facts, we agree with the district court that McWane's price quotations did not constitute offers and that the contract was formed on December 1, 1995.4
B. Motion for New Trial
30
Dyno also contends that the trial court erred in denying its motion for a new trial. Dyno argued to the district court that it was entitled to a new trial because the district court made several erroneous rulings on evidentiary issues and jury instructions. Motions for a new trial are addressed to the sound discretion of the trial court. See Hopkims v. Coen, 431 F.2d 1055, 1059 (6th Cir. 1970). We review a district court's denial of a motion for a new trial under an abuse of discretion standard. See Holmes v. City of Massillon, 78 F.3d 1041, 1045 (6th Cir. 1996). An abuse of discretion occurs when this Court has "a definite and firm conviction that the trial court committed a clear error in judgment." Logan v. Dayton Hudson Corp., 865 F.2d 789, 790 (6th Cir. 1989).
1. Evidentiary Issues
31
Dyno first argues that the district court erred in allowing testimony concerning Lewis' familiarity with McWane's standard purchase order, including its terms and conditions, based on Lewis' prior dealings with McWane as an employee of Reynolds. Dyno argues that Lewis' prior dealings with McWane as an employee of Reynolds are completely irrelevant to the issue of whether the contract between Dyno and McWane included a limitation of liability provision and that this evidence confused the jury and caused prejudicial error.
32
We agree with the district court that the evidence about Lewis' prior dealings with McWane, particularly as it related to Lewis' knowledge of McWane's standard terms and conditions, was relevant and properly admitted. The faxed copy of the purchase order signed by Lewis on December 1, 1995, stated on the front in large print directly above his signature that the purchase order was subject to the terms and conditions on the reverse side. There is no disputing that McWane intended those terms and conditions on the back of the purchase order to be part of the contract but that Ratcliffe inadvertently failed to fax the back of the purchase order to Lewis. Therefore, Lewis' knowledge of those terms or his knowledge that McWane used standard terms and conditions in its sales, based on hisprior dealings with McWane, was particularly relevant to whether those terms and conditions became part of the contract. The jury could properly determine whether Lewis knew or should have known about the limitation of liability in McWane's standard terms and conditions, and therefore intended that the limitation of liability be part of the contract.
33
Dyno next contends that the district court abused its discretion and committed prejudicial error when it refused to admit Lewis' testimony that McWane had waived its limitation of liability for consequential damages on several occasions in its dealings with Reynolds while Lewis was an employee of that company. Dyno contends that if Lewis' prior dealings with McWane as an employee of Reynolds were relevant, McWane's waiver of its limitation of liability clause for Reynolds was also relevant.
34
We agree with the decision to exclude this evidence because its admission would have likely caused jury confusion. The issue for the jury was whether McWane's standard terms and conditions were part of the contract, not whether those terms and conditions would be enforced. Had the district court admitted the evidence, McWane would have been entitled to explore the circumstances under which consequential damages were allegedly paid and explain why those circumstances were different from those at issue in the case. The whole foray into the issue, which was collateral to the actual issues at trial, would have caused substantial prejudice to McWane. Furthermore, McWane's terms and conditions stated that any waiver of a right by McWane in a particular instance would not constitute a future waiver of that right.
35
Dyno's final evidentiary argument is that the district court erred in admitting Federal Express delivery records generated from Federal Express' computer system. McWane sought to lay the foundation for introduction of these records under the business records exception to the hearsay rule through the testimony of Fred Jacobs, the Operations Manager at the Federal Express office in Wauseon, Ohio. Jacobs explained that he was fully familiar with Federal Express' system for moving and tracking packages and testified that these records were generated and kept in the regular course of business by Federal Express in its centralized computer system in Memphis, Tennessee.
36
Dyno objected to the admission of the records, arguing that the records were not under Jacobs' "custody or control" because: (1) he was not responsible for the geographic area in Ohio where the package was shipped; and (2) the computer records were printed in Memphis. Dyno contends that because these records were not under Jacobs' custody or control, Jacobs could not lay a proper foundation for introduction of the records and they are therefore inadmissible as hearsay.
37
Federal Rule of Evidence 803(6) provides that the following evidence is not excluded by the hearsay rule:
38
A memorandum, report, record, or data compilation, in any form, of acts, events, conditions, opinions, or diagnoses, made at or near the time by, or from information transmitted by, a person with knowledge, if kept in the course of a regularly conducted business activity, and if it was the regular practice of that business activity to make the memorandum, report, record, or data compilation, all as shown by the testimony of the custodian or other qualified witness, unless the source of the information or the method or circumstances of preparation indicate lack of trustworthiness. . . .
39
Fed. R. Evid. 803(6).
40
While Dyno is correct that Jacobs could not lay a foundation for introduction of the Federal Express records under Rule 803(6) as a "custodian" of the records, Jacobs would be a proper witness to lay a foundation as an "other qualified witness" as described in the Rule. To bean "other qualified witness," it is not necessary that the person laying the foundation for the introduction of the business record have personal knowledge of their preparation. See United States v. Franks, 939 F.2d 600, 602-03 (8th Cir. 1991)(rejecting the defendant's contention that the district court erred in admitting Federal Express records on the basis that the witness laying the foundation was unable to determine which employees prepared delivery records and airbills). All that is required of the witness is that he or she be familiar with the record-keeping procedures of the organization. See United States v. Wables, 731 F.2d 440, 449 (7th Cir. 1984)(stating that "[i]t is clear that, in admitting documents under the business records exception to the hearsay rule, 'the testimony of the custodian or otherwise qualified witness who can explain the record-keeping of his organization is ordinarily essential")(quoting 4 Weinstein, Evidence ¶ 803(6)[02] (1981)); NLRB v. First Termite Control Co., 646 F.2d 424, 427 (9th Cir. 1981)(noting that through the custodian or "other qualified witness" requirement, Rule 803(6) "insures the presence of some individual at trial who can testify to the methods of keeping the information"). Thus, in United States v. Hathaway, 798 F.2d 902 (6th Cir. 1986), we stated that "[w]hen a witness is used to lay the foundation for admitting records under Rule 803(6), all that is required is that the witness be familiar with the record keeping system." Hathaway, 798 F.2d at 906. In that case, we rejected the defendant's contention that the government could not lay a foundation through the testimony of an FBI agent for the admission of records seized from the defendant's business offices under the business records exception. We found "no reason why a proper foundation for application of Rule 803(6) cannot be laid, in part or in whole, by the testimony of a government agent or other person outside the organization whose records are sought to be admitted." Id. at 906; see alsoZayre Corp. v. S. M. & R. Co., 882 F.2d 1145, 1150 (7th Cir. 1989)(noting that a person qualified to lay the foundation under Rule 803(6) need not even be an employee of the entity keeping the records, as long as the witness understands the system by which they are made).
41
Jacobs testified in depth about his understanding of Federal Express' system for delivering and tracking documents, as well as its system for central storage of its voluminous computerized records in Memphis. That Jacobs was not involved in the preparation of the documents or that he did not know who prepared them were not matters that precluded the admission of the documents as business records. Therefore, the district court did not abuse its discretion in admitting the Federal Express records.
42
Furthermore, there was other evidence from which the jury could have concluded that Dyno received the Federal Express package by December 1, 1995. For instance, McWane also introduced into evidence a copy of a Federal Express invoice kept in its files as a business record, for which there is no dispute that a proper foundation was laid for admission at trial under the business records exception, through the testimony of its custodian, Ratcliffe. The invoice showed that Dyno received the package on November 24, 1995, at 8:53 a.m. Accordingly, there was sufficient evidence for the jury to find that Dyno was or should have been aware of McWane's terms and conditions, including its limitation of liability, at the time it signed the faxed purchase order on December 1, 1995.
2. Jury Instructions
43
Dyno argues that the district court committed reversible error in refusing to give two of its proposed jury instructions. Jury instructions in civil cases are reviewed "as a whole to determine whether they adequately inform the jury of the relevant considerations and provide a basis in law for aiding the jury in reaching its decision. A judgment on a juryverdict may be vacated when the instructions, viewed as a whole, were confusing, misleading and prejudicial." Jones v. Consolidated Rail Corp., 800 F.2d 590, 592 (6th Cir. 1986)(citation omitted).
44
Dyno first argues that the district court committed reversible error in refusing to give Dyno's proposed jury instruction number seven, which would have allowed the jury to find that the contract was formed on November 22, 1995, when Lewis told Ratcliffe by telephone to go ahead and order the materials. Because this Court has already affirmed the district court's conclusion that the contract was formed on December 1, 1995, when Lewis signed the document faxed by Ratcliffe, it would have been improper for the district court to instruct the jury that it could find that the contract was formed on November 22, 1995. Accordingly, the district court properly rejected Dyno's proposed instruction.
45
Dyno's final argument is that the district court committed reversible error in not giving its proposed instruction number twelve, which read:
46
McWane must show that the agent designated to receive such information as Federal Express packages actually received and had knowledge of the contents of the package before Dyno is deemed to have knowledge of the disputed terms.
47
We believe that this instruction is an erroneous statement of the law and would have placed an unwarranted burden on McWane at trial. The evidence presented at trial was sufficient to allow the jury to find that the Federal Express documents had been delivered to an authorized agent of Dyno because the Federal Express documents were actually located in Dyno's job file for the Perrysburg project and contained Lewis' handwriting at the top of the documents. In addition, McWane's evidence showed that the documents were actually delivered to Dyno's offices on November 24, 1995. Moreover, McWane could demonstrate that Dyno had received and had knowledge of the contents of the package even if the "agent designated to receive such information" did not actually receive and have knowledge of the contents of the package. For example, if some agent of Dyno other than the "agent designated to receive such information" received the package, that knowledge could be imputed to Dyno. There was also evidence that Lewis had knowledge of the contents of the package, in that he had previous knowledge about McWane's credit application and terms and conditions, even though he testified that he never received the package. This instruction thus ignored other means by which McWane could have demonstrated Dyno's knowledge of McWane's terms and conditions and would have placed an unreasonable burden on McWane to prove actual receipt and review of the documents by the specified Dyno agent. That burden would have been extremely difficult to meet because no one at McWane specifically observed Dyno's handling and receipt of the November 22 documents. Thus, the failure to give this instruction does not render the instructions, "viewed as a whole, [] confusing, misleading and prejudicial . . . ." Jones, 800 F.2d at 592.
48
Therefore, Dyno was not entitled to a new trial.
III. CONCLUSION
49
For the foregoing reasons, the judgment of the district court is AFFIRMED.
Notes:
*
The Honorable Gordon J. Quist, United States District Judge for the Western District of Michigan, sitting by designation.
1
Ratcliffe was actually the district sales manager for Clow Water Systems, Co., a division of McWane. To avoid confusion, the Court will refer to the Clow division as McWane.
2
McWane also sought summary judgment on the issue of whether the pipe was defective.
3
Judge James G. Carr, to whom the case was initially assigned, made the ruling on the parties' cross motions for summary judgment. The case was then reassigned to Senior Judge John W. Potter, who conducted the trial.
4
The cases cited by Dyno, Reaction Molding Technologies, Inc. v. General Electric Co., 585 F. Supp. 1097 (E.D. Pa. 1984), and Loranger Plastics Corp. v. Incoe Corp., 670 F. Supp. 145 (W.D. Pa. 1987), are both distinguishable from the instant case on their facts. In Reaction Molding Technologies, the quotations contained payment and delivery terms and thus were substantially more detailed than the price quotations at issue in this case. See Reaction Molding Tech., 585 F. Supp. at 1099. In Loranger Plastics, the quotation stated that it was "subject to acceptance without modification within 30 days" from the date it was issued. See Loranger Plastics, 670 F. Supp. at 146. The language in the quotation therefore indicated that it was intended as an offer.
|
Gastric cancer is the fourth most common cancer and the second leading cause of cancer-related deaths in the world.^[@bib1],\ [@bib2]^ Given that most of patients are usually diagnosed at advanced stages in developing countries and the outcomes are still poor, the early diagnosis is thus extremely important for good prognosis.^[@bib3],\ [@bib4]^ Like other cancers, multiple genetic and epigenetic alterations have a critical role in the pathogenesis of gastric cancer. Therefore, identification of prognostic and/or therapeutic targets may improve early diagnosis and treatment efficacy for this disease.
The E26 transformation-specific (ETS) transcription factor family is one of the largest transcription factor families, which can be structurally categorized into 11 subfamilies including ETS, ERG, ELG, ELF, ERF, TEL, PEA3, SPI, TCF, PDEF and ESE.^[@bib5],\ [@bib6],\ [@bib7],\ [@bib8]^ All ETS factors are characterized by the ETS domain, which is a highly conserved DNA-binding domain comprising \~85 amino acids that form the winged helix-turn-helix DNA-binding motif, and recognizes the core consensus DNA sequence 5′-GGA(A/T)-3′ (ETS-binding site, EBS).^[@bib9],\ [@bib10]^ Some of them have been found to alter expression patterns involving diverse mechanisms, such as gene fusion and chromosomal rearrangements,^[@bib11],\ [@bib12]^ amplification and/or overexpression,^[@bib13],\ [@bib14]^ point mutations.^[@bib15]^ Thus, the ETS factors have a key role in various diseases, including cancers.^[@bib8],\ [@bib16],\ [@bib17]^
EHF/ESE-3 is new member of the ETS transcription factors. Like ESE-1 and ESE-2, it is exclusively expressed in a subset of epithelial cells.^[@bib18]^ The previous studies have showed that altered expression of EHF may affect the normal process of epithelial cell differentiation and contribute to cell transformation.^[@bib18],\ [@bib19],\ [@bib20]^ Moreover, EHF may regulate epithelial growth and differentiation and have an important role in oncogenesis of epithelium-derived tumors.^[@bib18],\ [@bib21]^ *EHF* has been demonstrated to function as a potential tumor suppressor gene in prostate cancer and esophageal squamous cell carcinoma (ESCC),^[@bib19],\ [@bib22],\ [@bib23]^ and be frequently downregulated by promoter methylation.^[@bib22]^ On the other hand, it is overexpressed in ovarian and mammary cancers^[@bib24],\ [@bib25],\ [@bib26]^ and may be a predictive marker for poor survival in ovarian cancer.^[@bib24],\ [@bib25]^ However, the roles of EHF in gastric tumorigenesis are not fully understood.
In this study, we found frequent *EHF* overexpression and genomic amplification in gastric cancers, and demonstrated *EHF* amplification was one of the major mechanisms for its overexpression. Importantly, we for the first time revealed a close association of *EHF* amplification with poor patient survival. EHF downregulation significantly reduced *in vitro* and *in vivo* oncogenic potential of gastric cancer cells by regulating HER family of receptor tyrosine kinases.
Results
=======
*EHF* is highly expressed and amplified in gastric cancers
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We first examined *EHF* expression in a cohort of tumor tissues including gastric cancers, gliomas, lung cancers and thyroid cancers and non-cancerous tissues. As shown in [Figure 1a](#fig1){ref-type="fig"} and [Supplementary Figure 1](#sup1){ref-type="supplementary-material"}, compared with matched non-cancerous gastric tissues, *EHF* was significantly upregulated in gastric cancer tissues at both mRNA and protein levels. Similarly, we found that EHF expression was higher in gastric cancer cell lines than gastric mucosal epithelial cell line GES-1 ([Supplementary Figure 2a and b](#sup1){ref-type="supplementary-material"}). Moreover, *EHF* was also significantly upregulated in gliomas (*P*\<0.0001), lung cancers (*P*=0.005) and thyroid cancers (*P*=0.001) compared with control subjects. We also investigated *EHF* expression in a total of 384 stomach adenocarcinomas using TCGA data set from the Cancer Browser database.^[@bib27]^ As expected, *EHF* expression in tumor tissues was significantly higher than that in normal controls (*P*\<0.0001; [Figure 1b](#fig1){ref-type="fig"}). In addition, we found that *EHF* expression was positively correlated with poor survival in gastric cancer patients (data from the Kaplan--Meier Plotter; *P*=0.003; [Figure 1c](#fig1){ref-type="fig"}).
Given that genomic amplification is one of the major causes of oncogene overexpression in human cancers including gastric cancer,^[@bib28]^ we analyzed the copy number of *EHF* in 131 gastric cancers and 37 control subjects by using qRT-PCR assay. *EHF* copy number corresponding to each individual case was presented in [Figure 2a](#fig2){ref-type="fig"}. Further analysis showed that *EHF* copy number in gastric cancers was significantly higher than that in control subjects (*P*\<0.0001). We also analyzed *EHF* copy number in cell lines. The results showed that *EHF* copy number was higher in BGC823 and SGC7901 cells than GES-1, MGC803 and AGS cells ([Supplementary Figure 2c](#sup1){ref-type="supplementary-material"}). With a gene copy number of 4 or more defined as gene amplification, *EHF* amplification was detected in 55 of 131 (41.98%) gastric cancers, but not in control subjects. This finding was supported by fluorescence *in situ* hybridization (FISH) analysis ([Figure 2b](#fig2){ref-type="fig"}).
To test the relationship between of *EHF* copy number and its expression, we randomly selected 16 gastric cancer cases with different *EHF* copies and did immunohistochemistry (IHC) for EHF. Increased staining of EHF was seen with increased *EHF* copies ([Figure 2c](#fig2){ref-type="fig"}). Linear regression analysis on the 16 cases revealed a positive correlation between the IHS score and copies of *EHF* (*R*^2^=0.71; [Figure 2d](#fig2){ref-type="fig"}). Similarly, our data showed that there was a significantly positive relationship between mRNA expression of *EHF* and its genomic amplification (*P*=0.017; [Figure 2e](#fig2){ref-type="fig"}). However, *EHF* expression was still higher in the cases without *EHF* amplification than matched normal gastric tissues (*P*\<0.001), suggesting the existence of other possible mechanisms leading to its overexpression.
*EHF* amplification is associated with poor clinical outcomes in gastric cancer
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We investigated the association of *EHF* amplification with clinicopathologic features and clinical outcomes in a cohort of gastric cancers. As shown in [Supplementary Table 1](#sup1){ref-type="supplementary-material"}, *EHF* amplification was significantly positively associated with differentiation (*P*=0.049), lymph node metastasis (*P*=0.029) and survival status (*P*=0.001). We further conducted a multiple multivariable logistic regression ([Supplementary Table 2](#sup1){ref-type="supplementary-material"}). As exppected, after adjustment, *EHF* amplification was still closely correlated with survival status (OR=3.748, 95% CI=1.525--9.214; *P*=0.004).
Next, Kaplan--Meier method was used to determine the effect of *EHF* amplification on patient survival. The data showed that the patients with *EHF* amplification had significantly shorter median survival times than those without *EHF* amplification (32.2 months *versus* 62.0 months; *P*=0.0002; [Figure 2f](#fig2){ref-type="fig"}, left panel). Accumulated evidences have demonstrated that residual tumor after surgery is an independent risk factor for gastric cancer patients.^[@bib28]^ Thus, we excluded the cases with residual tumor to evaluate the effect of *EHF* amplification on patient survival. The results showed that *EHF* amplification still significantly shortened patient survival times (34.4 months *versus* 63.8 months, *P*=0.001; [Figure 2f](#fig2){ref-type="fig"}, right panel). Moreover, univariate cox regression analysis indicated that *EHF* amplification was significantly associated with poor survival with a hazard ratio (HR) of 2.593 (95% CI=1.583--4.249; *P*=0.0002; [Table 1](#tbl1){ref-type="table"}). Multivariate cox regression analysis further demonstrated that *EHF* amplification might be an independent prognostic factor in gastric cancer (HR=2.426; 95% CI=1.474--3.991; *P*\<0.0001; [Table 1](#tbl1){ref-type="table"}).
EHF promotes gastric cancer cell growth
---------------------------------------
To elucidate the role of EHF in gastric carcinogenesis, we tested the growth-suppressive effect by knocking down *EHF* expression in gastric cancer cell lines AGS, BGC823 and SGC7901 using siRNA approach. EHF knockdown by two different *EHF* siRNAs (si-EHF-979 and si-EHF-309) was confirmed by qRT-PCR and western blot assays ([Figure 3a](#fig3){ref-type="fig"}). These two specific siRNAs significantly inhibited cell proliferation ([Figure 3b](#fig3){ref-type="fig"}) and colony-forming ability in monolayer culture ([Figure 3c](#fig3){ref-type="fig"}) compared with control siRNA (si-NC). Conversely, ectopic expression of *EHF* in GES-1 and MGC803 cells significantly promoted cell proliferation compared with empty vector ([Supplementary Figure 3](#sup1){ref-type="supplementary-material"}). Altogether, these results suggest the growth-promoting role of EHF in gastric tumorigenesis.
EHF knockdown induces gastric cancer cell cycle arrest and apoptosis
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We next evaluated the effect of EHF knockdown on cell cycle distributions and apoptosis in gastric cancer cells. The results showed that cell cycle was arrested at the S phase in si-EHF-979 transfected cells compared with si-NC transfected cells ([Figure 3d](#fig3){ref-type="fig"}). This effect could be reversed by exogenous overexpressing EHF in these three cell lines ([Supplementary Figure 4](#sup1){ref-type="supplementary-material"}). In addition, si-EHF-979 transfection caused an increase in the numbers of apoptotic cells compared with control cells ([Figure 3e](#fig3){ref-type="fig"}).
EHF knockdown inhibits gastric cancer cell growth in nude mice
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We assessed the effect of EHF knockdown on the growth of xenograft tumors in nude mice. As shown in [Figure 4a](#fig4){ref-type="fig"}, tumors induced by si-EHF-979 transfected BGC823 cells showed significantly longer latency and smaller mean tumor volume than tumors induced by control cells. At the end of experiments, tumors were isolated and weighed. The mean weight of si-EHF-979 transfected cell-derived tumors was significantly less compared with control tumors (*P*=0.002; [Figure 4b](#fig4){ref-type="fig"}). Moreover, we analyzed the expression levels of EHF in xenogaft tumors by using qRT-PCR and western blot assays. As shown in [Supplementary Figure 5](#sup1){ref-type="supplementary-material"}, EHF expression was significantly decreased in si-EHF-979 group compared with si-NC groups at both mRNA and protein levels. These data suggest that transient transfection of si-EHF-979 may knockdown EHF expression and inhibit the growth of xenogaft tumors within 15 days after injection, although there may be off-target effect. To assess the proliferation index in the xenograft tumor, tumor sections were stained with anti-Ki-67 antibody. The percentage of Ki-67-positive cells was significantly decreased in si-EHF-979 transfected cell-derived tumors compared with control tumors (*P*\<0.001; [Figure 4c](#fig4){ref-type="fig"}). These observations further support that *EHF* is a functional oncogene in gastric cancer cells.
EHF enhances gastric cancer cell migration and invasion
-------------------------------------------------------
We also attempted to test the effects of EHF on gastric cancer cell migratory and invasive ability. There were a significantly lower number of migrated/invaded cells in si-EHF-979 transfected cells than si-NC transfected cells ([Figure 5a](#fig5){ref-type="fig"}). Conversely, ectopic expression of EHF in MGC803 cells significantly enhanced the migration and invasive potential of cancer cells ([Supplementary Figure 6](#sup1){ref-type="supplementary-material"}). Given an important role of matrix metalloproteinases (MMPs) in cell invasiveness,^[@bib29]^ we next tested the effect of EHF on the expression of *MMP-2*, *-7*, *-9* and *-14*. EHF knockdown significantly inhibited the expression of these genes in at least one cell lines ([Figure 5b](#fig5){ref-type="fig"}), whereas overexpressing EHF in MGC803 cells increased the expression of these genes ([Supplementary Figure 7a](#sup1){ref-type="supplementary-material"}). These data indicate that metastasis-associated phenotypes may be link to the regulation of MMPs by EHF in gastric cancer.
We further tested the effect of EHF on the process of epithelial--mesenchymal transition (EMT), which is one of the critical steps during tumor metastasis including gastric cancer.^[@bib30]^ As shown in [Figure 6a](#fig6){ref-type="fig"}, knocking down EHF expression in AGS, BGC823 and SGC7901 cells increased E-cadherin expression, and decreased Vimentin expression. Conversely, overexpressing EHF in MGC803 cells decreased E-cadherin expression and increased Vimentin expression ([Supplementary Figure 7b](#sup1){ref-type="supplementary-material"}). These findings were also supported by immunofluorescence (IF) assay in [Figure 6b](#fig6){ref-type="fig"}. Collectively, these results suggest that EHF contributes to gastric cancer cell metastasis via promoting EMT process.
EHF modulates the activities of the HER family of receptor tyrosine kinases in gastric cancer cells
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The HER family includes four members: EGFR/HER1, HER2, HER3 and HER4.^[@bib31]^ Alterations in HER family play a critical role in the progression and survival of many cancers including gastric cancer.^[@bib32]^ In addition, we found the core GGAA/T motif (EBS) in the promoters of *EGFR*, *HER2*, *HER3* and *HER4* by analyzing their promoter sequences using MatInspector online software (<http://www.genomatix.de/online_help/help_matinspector/matinspector_help>). Thus, we attempted to determine whether oncogenic role of EHF in gastric cancer is associated with the activation of HER family. As shown in [Figure 7a](#fig7){ref-type="fig"}, *EHF* expression was significantly positively correlated with the expression of *EGFR* (*R*=0.43; *P*=0.018), *HER2* (*R*=0.51; *P*=0.004) and *HER3* (*R*=0.39; *P*=0.034) in gastric cancers. Similarly, we found a positive association of *EHF* expression with the expression of *HER2* (*R*=0.29; *P*\<0.0001) and *HER3* (*R*=0.36; *P*\<0.0001) by using TCGA dataset from the Cancer Browser database ([Supplementary Figure 8](#sup1){ref-type="supplementary-material"}). In addition, EHF knockdown dramatically decreased the expression of HERs in the indicated cell lines compared with the controls, particularly HER2 and HER3 ([Figure 7b and c](#fig7){ref-type="fig"}). On the other hand, overexpressing EHF in MGC803 cells upregulated the expression of HER2-4 ([Supplementary Figure 9](#sup1){ref-type="supplementary-material"}). Interestingly, we found that the expression of *BMP1*, *BMP4* and *c-Met* was decreased by EHF knockdown in at least two cell lines compared with the controls ([Supplementary Figure 10](#sup1){ref-type="supplementary-material"}). As expected, EBS could also be found in their promoters.
Increasing evidences have demonstrated that overexpression of HER family members leads to the activation of downstream pathways including the MAPK/Erk and PI3K/Akt pathways.^[@bib33]^ As expected, EHF knockdown significantly inhibited the activities of both pathways in gastric cancer cells, characterized by reduced phosphorylation of Erk (p-Erk) and Akt (p-Akt) ([Figure 7d](#fig7){ref-type="fig"}). This was supported by a very recent study that the levels of p-Erk and p-Akt were inhibited by EHF knockdown in ovarian cancer cells.^[@bib25]^
To examine whether EHF was indeed involved in directly regulating promoter activities of *HER2*-*4*, we cloned their promoters into a pGL3-Basic luciferase plasmid to construct luciferase reporter plasmids including pGL3-HER2-Luc (−607/+11), pGL3-HER3-Luc (−997/+440) and pGL3-HER4-Luc (−697/+306). The results showed that ectopic expression of EHF was able to significantly increase promoter activity of *HER2*, but not *HER3* and *HER4*, in BGC823 cells ([Figure 8a](#fig8){ref-type="fig"} and [Supplementary Figure 11a](#sup1){ref-type="supplementary-material"}). Next, to further identify *HER2* promoter core region, three different lengths of *HER2* promoter region (F1: −607/+11; F2: −175/+11; F3: −607/−175 bp) were inserted into the pGL3-Basic luciferase plasmid, and co-transfected into BGC823 cell with pcDNA3.1(-)A-EHF or empty vector, respectively. The results showed that pGL3-HER2-Luc-F1 and -F2 exhibited strong luciferase activity, but not pGL3-HER2-Luc-F3, compared with pGL3-Luc-Basic ([Figure 8a](#fig8){ref-type="fig"}). On the other hand, EHF knockdown significantly decreased the promoter activity of *HER2* (*P*\<0.01) ([Figure 8b](#fig8){ref-type="fig"}), but not *HER3* ([Supplementary Figure 11b](#sup1){ref-type="supplementary-material"}), in BGC823 cells. In addition, we found that the promoter activity of *HER2* in HEK293T cells was increased with the increased amounts of EHF-expressing plasmid ([Figure 8c](#fig8){ref-type="fig"}). Taken together, these observations suggest that EHF may be a potential transcription factor of *HER2*, and the regulation site of EHF is located at −175/+11 of *HER2* gene.
Next, we attempted to explore whether the activity of *HER2* was regulated by EHF through directly binding to its promoter. Thus, the chromatin immunoprecipitation (ChIP) assay was performed in BGC823 cells transfected with pcDNA3.1/myc-His(-)A-EHF and empty vector using anti-Myc tag antibody, followed by qRT-PCR targeting their promoter regions. As expected, EHF strongly bound to *HER2* promoter and weakly bound to *HER3* promoter, but not *HER4* in BGC823 cells ([Figure 8d](#fig8){ref-type="fig"}). Three different fragments within *HER2* promoter (P1: −604/−484; P2: −274/−155; P3: −147/-37) were all enriched by 8.14-fold on average in pcDNA3.1/myc-His(-)A-EHF-transfected cells compared with vector-transfected cells (*P*\<0.001; [Figure 8d](#fig8){ref-type="fig"}). To be consistent with the dual luciferase findings, the ChIP assays further support *HER2* as a target of EHF.
To test whether EHF directly interacts with *HER2* promoter, an oligonucleotide sequence (SH2) containing the putative Ets binding site (EBS; GAGGAA) from *HER2* promoter was used to assess DNA-binding and transactivation by *in vitro*-translated full-length EHF protein using EMSA assay. This oligonucleotide sequence has previously been demonstrated to be responsive to another ETS factor ESE1/ESX.^[@bib34]^ As shown in [Figure 8e](#fig8){ref-type="fig"}, full-length EHF protein exhibited high-affinity, sequence-specific binding to SH2. Moreover, unlabeled specific competitor probes (WT) completely competed with SH2 for EHF binding. As seen with other ETS factors, unlabeled competitor probes (MT1; 100 fold) with mutations in the GGAA ETS core of SH2 failed to compete against SH2 for EHF binding, whereas those (MT2; 100 fold) with mutations in flanking nucleotides of core sequence were relatively effective at competing for EHF binding. To determine the role of HER2 in growth-promoting effect of EHF on gastric cancer cells, we knocked down HER2 expression in GES-1 and MGC803 cells overexpressing EHF. The results showed that proliferation-promoting effect of EHF were significantly attenuated upon HER2 depletion ([Figure 9](#fig9){ref-type="fig"}). Altogether, our data suggest that EHF promotes gastric tumorigenesis through transcriptionally regulating HER2 expression via binding to GGAA core sequence within its promoter.
Discussion
==========
In this study, we first provided strong evidences supporting the oncogenic activities of EHF in gastric cancer. First, *EHF* was frequently overexpressed and amplified in gastric cancers compared with matched non-cancerous gastric tissues. Second, *EHF* amplification (or overexpression) was significantly associated with poor clinical outcomes and may be used as a potential prognostic marker for gastric cancer patients. Third, knocking down EHF expression in gastric cancer cells significantly inhibited cell growth and invasiveness. Fourth, EHF was identified to be a new transcription factor of *HER2*, and also modulated the expression of *HER*3 and *HER4* in gastric cancer.
It has been well documented that genomic amplification is one of the major causes of oncogene overexpression in human cancers.^[@bib28],\ [@bib35]^ To identify the mechanisms that may contribute to *EHF* overexpression in gastric cancers, we examined *EHF* copy number and its mRNA/protein expression in gastric cancers, and demonstrated a significantly positive relationship between them, suggesting that *EHF* amplification is one of the major mechanisms of *EHF* overexpression in gastric cancers. In addition, our data showed that *EHF* amplification dramatically affected patient survival, implicating that it may be used as a potential prognostic marker for gastric cancer patients. However, our data also showed that *EHF* overexpression did not always coincide with its genomic amplification, suggesting that there are other possible mechanisms may contribute to its overexpression.
Although a previous study has reported frequent *EHF* amplification in gastric cancers,^[@bib36]^ the role and mechanisms of EHF in gastric tumorigenesis remain totally unknown. We thus tested its oncogene function in gastric cancer by a series of *in vitro* and *in vivo* studies. As expected, EHF knockdown in gastric cancer cells showed significant growth-inhibitory effect by inhibition of cell proliferation and colony formation *in vitro* and tumorigenic potential in nude mice *in vivo*. EHF knockdown induced cell cycle arrest and apoptosis, and inhibited cell migration, invasion and EMT process in gastric cancer cells. We also demonstrated that knocking down EHF expression in gastric cancer cells significantly inhibited expression of *MMP-2*, *-7*, *-9* and *-14 g*enes, suggesting that the decrease in the metastasis-related phenotypes may be associated with suppression of expression or activities of MMPs. This is supported by previous studies that MMPs genes are key targets of ETS proteins and Ets-mediated induction of these genes contributes to the invasive and angiogenic phenotypes of malignant cells, such as PEA3, ETS1, and ETS2.^[@bib37],\ [@bib38]^ These findings further suggest that *EHF* may be a potential oncogene in gastric cancer cells.
As a member of the ETS family, downstream targets/pathways of EHF in gastric cancer remain to be identified. A previous study has reported that there is a conserved ETS-responsive element (GAGGAA) within a DNase I hypersensitive site in the proximal *HER2* promoter and demonstrated that it can be recognized by an ETS-immunoreactive factor in HER2-expressing breast cancer cells.^[@bib39]^ However, although more than 10 different ETS factors have been found to be co-expressed with HER2 in cancer cells, only a few ETS family members such as Elf-1, PEA3 and ESE1 have been studied as potential *HER2* transactivators.^[@bib34],\ [@bib40],\ [@bib41],\ [@bib42]^ The core GGAA/T motif (ETS binding site, EBS) was found in the *HER2* promoter by using MatInspector online software. To be consistent with this, we found that there were positive correlations between the expression of *EHF* and HER receptors in a cohort of gastric cancers including *EGFR*, *HER2* and *HER3*, particularly *HER2*, in a cohort of gastric cancers, as supported by the information from TGCA database. Down-regulating EHF expression in gastric cancer cells significantly reduced mRNA expression of *HER2-4*. However, the luciferase reporter gene assays demonstrated that ectopic expression of EHF only enhanced promoter activity of *HER2*, but not *HER3* and *HER4*, in gastric cancer cells. These data suggest that *HER2* may be a potential downstream target of EHF, whereas *HER2* and *HER4* may be indirect targets of EHF, as supported by the ChIP assay. Accordingly, EHF knockdown remarkably inhibited the activity of their downstream signaling pathways such as the MAPK/Erk and PI3K/Akt pathways. Collectively, EHF may be a new transcription factor for *HER2* in gastric cancer by binding to a functional EBS within its promoter, and promotes gastric tumorigenesis by activating HER family of receptor tyrosine kinase.
EHF has been demonstrated to be a potential tumor-suppressor in prostate cancer and ESCC,^[@bib19],\ [@bib22],\ [@bib23]^ whereas our data suggest that *EHF* may be a functional oncogene in gastric cancer. We thus speculate that EHF derived from different types of cells or tissues has strikingly distinct functional activities in tumorigenesis. It is the fact that the DNA binding domains of ETS factors are very similar, thus their specific roles in tumorigenesis are largely dependent on other factors including interaction with other nuclear factors such as transcription factors, co-activators or co-repressor.^[@bib43],\ [@bib44]^ Moreover, the activities of ETS proteins are also regulated by post-translational modifications such as phosphorylation, acetylation, sumoylation, ubiquitinylation and glycosylation.^[@bib45]^
In summary, we found frequent overexpression and amplification of *EHF* in gastric cancers and revealed a strong association of *EHF* overexpression/amplification with poor patient outcomes. Moreover, our data support an oncogenic role of EHF as a *HER2* transcription factor and the modulator of *HER3* and *HER4* in gastric tumorigenesis. A better understanding of the physiologic and pathologic function of EHF will significantly improve our knowledge of the pathogenesis of gastric cancer, and targeting this frequently overexpressed/amplified oncogene may elucidate the effective treatment of this cancer in the future.
Materials and Methods
=====================
Clinical samples
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A cohort of primary cancer tissues and matched non-cancerous tissues or benign tumors were obtained from patients who underwent surgery at the First Affiliated Hospital of Xi\'an Jiaotong University, including gliomas, gastric, lung and thyroid cancers. Moreover, a total of 131 paraffin-embedded gastric cancer tissues were randomly obtained from the First Affiliated Hospital of Xi\'an Jiaotong University between January 1999 and December 2005, with a follow-up period of 10 years after the surgery. Normal controls from 37 patients with chronic gastritis who underwent endoscopic biopsy were also obtained from the same hospital. Informed consent was obtained from each patient before the surgery. All patients did not receive chemotherapy and radiotherapy before the surgery, and all sections were histologically examined by a senior pathologist at Department of Pathology of the Hospital based on World Health Organization criteria. Clinicopathological data were collected from the patients\' files or by interview with the patients or their relatives and were summarized in [Supplementary Table 1](#sup1){ref-type="supplementary-material"}. The study protocol was approved by the Human Ethics Committee of the First Affiliated Hospital of Xi\'an Jiaotong University.
Cell culture and short interfering RNA (siRNA) cell transfection
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Human gastric cancer cell lines AGS, BGC823, MGC803 and SGC7901, human immortalized gastric mucosal epithelial cell line GES-1 and embryonic kidney cell line 293T were used in this study. These cells were maintained in RPMI medium 1640 or Dulbecco\'s modified Eagle medium (Gibco, Grand Island, NY) with 10% fetal bovine serum (FBS; Hyclone, Logan, UT). Oligonucleotides of target-specific and control siRNAs were obtained from GenePharma (Shanghai, P.R. China) and the sequences were presented in [Supplementary Table 3](#sup1){ref-type="supplementary-material"}. Cells were transfected at 70% confluence using Lipofectamine 3000 (Invitrogen, Grand Island, NY), with a final siRNA concentration of 50 nM. Specific oligonucleotides with maximal knockdown efficiency were selected among three different sequences until use. All silencing experiments were performed in three replicates.
EHF expression plasmid construction
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To construct EHF expression plasmid, total RNA from GES-1 cell line was isolated by TRIzol Reagent following manufacturer\'s instruction (Invitrogen, Grand Island, NY). The cDNA was reverse transcribed by using PrimeScript™ II 1st Strand cDNA Synthesis Kit (Takara Inc., Dalian, P.R. China). The full-length open reading frame (ORF) of human ESE with or without stop codon TGA was amplified and then cloned into pcDNA3.1(−)A mammalian expression vector with a Myc-His tag (Invitrogen, Grand Island, NY), which was designated as pcDNA3.1/myc-His(−)A-EHF or pcDNA3.1(−)A-EHF.
RNA extraction and quantitative RT-PCR (qRT-PCR)
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Total RNA from tissues and cell lines were extracted using Trizol reagent (Takara Inc., Dalian, P.R. China) following the manufacturer\'s protocol. The cDNA was synthesized with 500 ng total RNA by using PrimeScript RT reagent Kit (Takara Inc., Dalian, P.R. China). Quantitative RT-PCR (qRT-PCR) was carried out on a CFX96 Thermal Cycler DiceTM real-time PCR system (Bio-Rad Laboratories, Inc., CA) using SYBR Premix Ex TaqTM (Takara Inc., Dalian, P.R. China). The mRNA expression of the indicated genes was normalized to 18S rRNA cDNA. Each sample was run in triplicate. The primer sequences were presented in [Supplementary Table 4](#sup1){ref-type="supplementary-material"}.
Tissues and DNA preparation
---------------------------
Paraffin-embedded serial sections were cut at intervals of 5 *μ*m. One of sections was stained by hematoxylin and eosin (H&E) and was marked as a tumor representative tissue by a senior pathologist for gastric cancer. Tumor tissues were isolated by manual microdissection under an inverted microscope using the marked H&E section as target tissue identification. DNA was extracted from isolated tissues as previously described.^[@bib28]^ The fresh gastric tissues were collected and immediately frozen in liquid nitrogen and stored at −80 °C prior to DNA extraction. DNA was then isolated using standard phenol/chloroform protocol.
Copy number analysis
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Real-time quantitative PCR was performed to analyze *EHF* copy number in gastric cancers and control subjects as described previously.^[@bib28],\ [@bib46]^ The TaqMan probe for *EHF* was 5′-6FAM-AAC CTG CCT TTCTGC TTT TCA TCA GAC CC-TAMRA-3′, and the primers were 5′-CCT ATC TTTGCT GTG ACT TAG ATC ATT AG-3′ (forward) and 5′-CGG ATG AAT TCCCAT AAG TGA GT-3′ (reverse). The TaqMan probe and primers for *β-actin* were described previously.^[@bib28]^ Each sample was run in triplicate, and *β-actin* was run in parallel to normalize the input DNA. Standard curves were established using serial dilutions of normal leukocyte DNA. *EHF* amplification was defined by a copy number ≥4.
Fluorescence *in situ* hybridization
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The FISH analysis was performed on formalin-fixed, paraffin-embedded gastric cancer tissues and matched non-cancerous tissues using the EHF DNA probe/CEN11 probe mixture (Exon Biotechnology Inc, Guangzhou, P.R. China). Briefly, the paraffin-embedded tissue slides were deparaffinized through xylene, and rehydrated in an ethanol series (100, 85 and 70%), and treated with protenase K solution (200 *μ*g/ml) and pepsin (0.005% in 0.01 M HCl solution) at 37 °C, respectively. The slides were then dehydrated in an ethanol series (70, 85 and 100%), and the probe mixture was added to the slides and immediately covered by coverslips and sealed the edges with rubber cement. The slides were subsequently denatured at 85 °C for 5 minutes and incubated at 37 °C overnight. After hybridization, the slides were washed in 2 × SSC, 2 × SSC/0.1% NP-40 buffer at 37 °C for 5 min each, and were counterstained with DAPI antifade solution. FISH signals in 20--30 cells for each specimen were counted, and the criteria for gene amplification were defined when FISH signals were detected by tested probes compared with control probes ≥1.5. Fluorescence images were captured with Olympus IX71 microscope (Olympus, Tokyo, Japan), which enables simultaneous detection of both FITC and Texas Red fluorescence. The color mergence was performed using ImageJ image software (ImageJ version 1.44p, NIH, MD).
Immunohistochemistry
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Immunohistochemical analysis was performed as previously described.^[@bib28],\ [@bib46]^ Briefly, after dewaxing in xylene and rehydrating in a gradient concentration of ethanol, the paraffin-embedded tissue slides were incubated in 0.3% hydrogen peroxide in distilled water to block endogenous peroxidase activity, and treated with an antigen retrieval method by heating, and were then incubated with rabbit anti-EHF antibody (Abcam, Inc; 1 : 100) or mouse anti-Ki67 antibody (BD Biosciences, Inc; 1 : 200) overnight at 4 °C. Subsequently, the slides were incubated with biotinylated goat anti-rabbit IgG or goat anti-mouse IgG (ZSGB-bio, Beijing, P.R. China). Immunodetection was performed with the Streptavidin-Peroxidase system (ZSGB-bio, Beijing, P.R. China) according the manufacture\'s protocol. After washing, diaminobenzidine and hematoxylin were respectively added to detect immunoreactive proteins. EHF protein expression was scored in double-blinding way (ie, without knowing the EHF copy number of the case), and 0, 1, 2, 3 reprents negative, weak positive, positive and strong positive, respectively.
Western blot analysis
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Cells were lysed in prechilled RIPA buffer containing protease inhibitors. The protein lysates were separated on SDS--PAGE and then transferred to PVDF membranes (Roche Diagnostics, Mannheim, Germany). The membranes were blocked for 2 h in 5% bovine serum albumin (BSA) in 1 × TBS-T (0.5% Tween-20) and incubated with the indicated primary antibodies, including anti-EHF (Abcam, Inc), anti-total-Erk1/2 (Abcam, Inc), anti-phospho-Erk1/2 (Epitomics, Inc), anti-phospho-AktSer473 (Bioworld Technology, co, Ltd), anti-total-Akt (Bioworld Technology, co, Ltd), anti-HER2 (Sino Biological, Inc), anti-HER3 (Sino Biological, Inc), anti-HER4 (Sino Biological, Inc), anti-E-cadherin (Epitomics, Inc), anti-Vimentin (Epitomics, Inc) and anti-GAPDH (Abgent, Inc). The membranes were then incubated with species-specific HRP-conjugated secondary antibodies from ZSGB-BIO, and immunoblotting signals were visualized using the Western Bright ECL detection system (Advansta, CA).
Cell proliferation, cell cycle and apoptosis assays
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Cell proliferation, colony formation, cell cycle and apoptosis assays were similarly performed as previously described.^[@bib46]^
*In vivo* tumorigenicity
------------------------
Four- to five-week-old male athymic nude mice were purchased from SLAC laboratory Animal Co., Ltd. (Shanghai, PR. China) and housed in a specific pathogen-free (SPF) environment. The mice were randomly divided into two groups (six mice per group). Tumor xenografts were established by subcutaneously injecting 4 × 10^6^ BGC823 cells transfected with the indicated siRNAs into the right armpit region of nude mice. From day 3 post-injection, tumor size was measured every 2 days. Tumor volumes were calculated by the formula (length × width^2^ × 0.5). The mice were sacrificed after 15 days. Tumors were harvested and weighted. Tumors obtained from representative animals were embedded in paraffin, sectioned at 4 *μ*m, and stained with H&E. Ki-67 staining was used to evaluate cell proliferation. All experimental procedures were approved by the Animal Ethics Committee of Xi\'an Jiaotong University.
Cell migration and invasion assays
----------------------------------
Cell migration and invasion assays were similarly performed as previously described.^[@bib46]^
Immunofluorescence staining
---------------------------
The process of IF staining was similarly performed as described previously.^[@bib46]^
Dual-luciferase reporter assay
------------------------------
To construct luciferase reporter plasmids, the promoter regions of *HER2-4* genes were amplified from genomic DNA of BGC823 cells. The amplification products were digested with restriction enzymes and inserted into pre-digested pGL3-Basic luciferase vector (Promega Corp., Madison, WI, USA) to produce the luciferase reporter plasmids pGL3-HER2-Luc, pGL3-HER3-Luc and pGL3-HER4-Luc. All of the constructs were verified by Sanger sequencing. The primers for plasmid constructs were presented in [Supplementary Table 5](#sup1){ref-type="supplementary-material"}.
To test the promoter activity of *HER2-4* genes modulated by EHF, BGC823 or 293T cells were transfected with pcDNA3.1(-)A-EHF or empty vector in six-well plates and were cotransfected with pGL3-HER2-Luc, pGL3-HER3-Luc or pGL3-HER4-Luc, and pRL-TK plasmids (Promega Corp., Madison, WI, USA) using Lipofectamine 3000 (Invitrogen, Grand Island, NY, USA). The pRL-TK plasmid, containing Renilla luciferase, was used to normalize transfection efficiency. Cells were collected 36 h post-transfection, and luciferase activities were analyzed on EnSpire Multimode Plate Reader (PerkinElmer, Waltham, MA, USA) using the dual-luciferase reporter assay system (Promega Corp., Madison, WI, USA) according to the manufacturer\'s instructions. Data were expressed as relative luciferase activity (Firefly luciferase activity/Renilla luciferase activity). Each experiment was performed in triplicate.
Chromatin immunoprecipitation assay
-----------------------------------
The ChIP assay was used to evaluate transcription factor EHF binding to its target DNA by using the Pierce Magnetic ChIP Kit (Pierce Biotechnology, Rockford, IL, USA). In brief, BGC823 cells were transfected with pcDNA3.1/myc-His(-)A-EHF and empty vector. After 2 days, the indicated cells (1 × 10^7^cells) were cross-linked with formaldehyde (final concentration 1% vol/vol) and the cross-linking reaction was stopped by the addition of glycine. The harvested cells were then lysed and digested by using membrane extraction buffer and MNase digestion buffer, and the chromatin was sonicated by using sonics VCX-130PB (Sonics & Materials, Inc., Newtown, CT, USA). Next, 10% of the chromatin from each lysate was saved as an input control. The remaining chromatin was immunoprecipitated by using mouse monoclonal anti-Myc tag, clone 4A6 antibody (Millipore, Temecula, CA, USA). The same amount of non-specific IgG was used as control. Immunoprecipitated protein DNA complex was then captured with ChIP Grade Protein A/G Magnetic Beads. After reversal of the cross-link, digestion of proteins with proteinase K and DNA recovery, the DNA fragments were used as templates for qRT-PCR analysis using the primers presented in [Supplementary Table 6](#sup1){ref-type="supplementary-material"}, and the data were normalized by respective 5% input. Each experiment was performed in triplicate.
Electrophoretic mobility shift assays
-------------------------------------
EHF protein was obtained when 1 *μ*g of pcDNA3.1(-)A-EHF or empty vector as DNA template was used according to the protocol of the TNT T7/SP6 Coupled Reticulocyte Lysate System (Promega Corp., Madison, WI, USA). EMSA was performed by using LightShift Chemiluminescent EMSA Kit (Pierce Biotechnology, Rockford, IL, USA) following the manufacturer\'s protocol. The binging reaction mixtures contained 2 *μ*l of the translation products, 100 fmol of biotin-labeled oligonucleotide probes (Sangon, Shanghai, China), 2.5% glycerol, 5 mM MgCl2, 50 ng/*μ*l Poly (dI-dC) and 1% NP-40 were incubated in binding buffer at room temperature for 20 min. Unlabeled wild type or mutant oligonucleotides (10 pmol) were incubated with the translation products at room temperature for 15 min prior to the addition of biotin-labeled probes. The mixtures containing loading buffer were separated on a 6% non-denaturing polyacrylamide gel in 0.5 × TBE buffer at 100 V, and oligonucleotides were electrophoretic transferred to a nylon membrane (Roche Diagnostics, Mannheim, Germany). After cross-linking with HL-2000 HybriLinker Hybridization Oven (UVP, Upland, CA, USA), the membrane was detected using a LightShift Chemiluminescent EMSA Kit. The sequences of the double-stranded oligonucleotides used to detect the DNA-binding activity of EHF were presented in [Supplementary Table 7](#sup1){ref-type="supplementary-material"}.
Statistical analysis
--------------------
Statistical analysis was performed using the SPSS statistical package (11.5, Chicago, IL, USA). *EHF* expression and amplification in cancer tissues and control subjects were compared by the paired-samples *t*-test, Mann--Whitney *U* test or Wilcoxon Signal-Rank Test. The correlation between *EHF* amplification and clinicopathological characteristics of gastric cancer patients was analyzed by Fisher\'s exact test or Pearson\'s *χ*^2^-test. Multivariate models that adjusted for the most important covariates were analyzed by logistic regression test. Survival curves were constructed according to the Kaplan--Meier method and statistical analysis was performed using the log-rank test. Univariate survival analysis was performed to investigate the effect of *EHF* amplification on the survival of gastric cancer patients. Multivariate cox regression analysis was used to examine the effect of *EHF* amplification on survival of independently of gender, age, differentiation and tumor stage. *P*\<0.05 were considered significant.
This work was supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (No. 81272933, 81372217, 81402340 and 81472622) and Science and Technology Project of Shaanxi Province (No. 2012K13-01-01).
ChIP
: chromatin immunoprecipitation
qRT-PCR
: quantitative RT-PCR
EBS
: ETS-binding site
EMSA
: electrophoretic mobility shift assay
EMT
: epithelial--mesenchymal transition
ESCC
: esophageal squamous cell carcinoma
ETS
: E26 transformation-specific
FISH
: fluorescence *in situ* hybridization
H&E
: hematoxylin and eosin
HER
: human epidermal growth factor receptor
IF
: immunofluorescence
IHC
: immunohistochemistry
MMPs
: matrix metalloproteinases
PI3K
: phosphatidylinositol-3-kinase
[Supplementary Information](#sup1){ref-type="supplementary-material"} accompanies this paper on *Cell Death and Disease* website (http://www.nature.com/cddis)
Edited by R Johnstone
The authors declare no conflict of interest.
Supplementary Material {#sup1}
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###### Prognostic value of *EHF* amplification in univariate and multivariate Cox regression analysis (*n*=131)
**Characteristics** **Univariate analysis** **Multivariate analysis**
-------------------------------------------- ------------------------- --------------------------- ---------------------- ----------
*EHF* amplification 2.593 (1.583--4.249) 0.0002 2.426 (1.474--3.991) \<0.0001
Male *versus* female 0.886 (0.483--1.626) 0.696 --- ---
Age[a](#t1-fn2){ref-type="fn"} 1.334 (1.052--1.692) 0.017 1.210 (0.949--1.543) 0.125
Differentiation[b](#t1-fn3){ref-type="fn"} 1.439 (0.874--2.369) 0.152 --- ---
TNM stage[c](#t1-fn4){ref-type="fn"} 2.814 (1.940--4.081) \<0.0001 2.748 (1.872--4.043) \<0.0001
Abbreviations: CI, confidence interval; HR, hazard ratio
Age (per 10 years)
Differentiation (well or moderate; poor or no differentiation)
TNM stage (I; II; III; IV)
|
In the lead up to the EU referendum, the Leave campaign urged voters to “take back control from Brussels”. Their message invoked the dominance of EU laws and institutions – such as the European Commission and the European Court of Justice – over UK ones, to argue that the EU “undermined democratic governance”.
It remains to be seen when and how the UK will finally split from the EU, but we do know that the balance and distribution of power within the nation will radically change.
A nation divided
The referendum exposed the geographical divisions within the country. It’s well known that the majority of people in Scotland, Northern Ireland and London voted to remain, while the rest of the country voted to leave. Now, a second Scottish independence referendum is firmly on the table, while there are murmurs of a similar poll for Northern Ireland.
What’s more, politicians and the public are now being forced to recognise the extent to which London is marching to a different political and economic tune to the rest of the country. And while the call for “Londependence” is likely to be a non-starter, demands for greater political powers to be devolved to London are being taken more seriously.
To international observers, this might look like madness. But the referendum has highlighted the chasms between different parts of the nation, and demands for greater autonomy are set to wedge them even further apart.
London alone
After the referendum results were announced, London mayor Sadiq Khan argued that he was best placed to protect London’s economy, and that he needed further tax-raising powers and political freedoms to do so. While Khan has a strong mandate to make such calls, those living in the rest of England will look on aghast if London continues to float ever higher above the rest of the nation.
London’s economy has grown much faster than other parts of the country over the past 30 years. The city has been at the heart of an economic model that has widened spatial and social divisions. Many would say that we need to do more to redistribute wealth and opportunity to other parts of England, yet our post-referendum politics is likely to widen divisions between the country and its capital even more.
So although the Leave campaign was all about reclaiming national sovereignty, Brexit is, in fact, boosting the case for sub-national sovereignty – so much so that different parts of the country are looking to go their own way.
Going local?
This doesn’t just apply to Scotland, Northern Ireland and London though – Brexit is also likely to bolster the devolution deals and localist statecraft, which were already well underway before the poll. In theory at least, devolution and localism are about allowing people to have greater control over the decisions that affect their communities – which seems to be what the majority of British people are demanding.
Of course, there is scope to reconcile the demands made by Khan, with the wishes of Brexiteers throughout the rest of the country. Indeed, both are demanding more control over the decisions that affect their communities: Khan on the basis of a desire to defend the city against the purported risks of Brexit; and those who voted to leave on the basis of a desire to tear up the established political order.
But amid all the fuss about Brexit, we risk rushing to redistribute powers, without having a proper debate about the outcomes of the limited devolution and localism that has already occurred.
People power
When George Osborne’s devolution deals were in their early stages, it looked all too likely that power and money would move from one set of elites in Whitehall and Westminster, to another in cities such as Manchester and Sheffield. While regional politicians knew that they should be reaching out beyond “their own kind” to engage with the people, there was little clarity about how that could or would be done.
Indeed, council officers have long struggled to find the most effective way to engage with local citizens. For instance, my own research into Lambeth Council’s attempts to become a co-operative council found that it was extremely difficult to shift the power dynamics between local politicians and citizens.
While the vision was to find “new ways in which citizens can participate in the decisions that affect their lives” and to do things “with the community, rather than to the community”, council staff struggled to change the way that they worked. As one community development worker told me:
I think the officers have a view of the community which is not helpful … It doesn’t feel like an equal [relationship] … and it doesn’t feel like we’re respected for what we’re doing … [They] have got a huge amount of resource and we’ve got a tiny bit of resource and yet still we get things done … and then they even obstruct what we’re trying to do and take away from the little we’ve got.
Changing the culture of our public service organisations is likely to be a very long job. And while my research found that neighbourhood planning had a much better record when it comes to public engagement – by giving people genuine powers to shape local change – there is, as yet, little thought being given to the civic infrastructure that would be needed to build on this experience.
Most urban areas have very limited political representation, and localism cannot work without the local structures that facilitate representation, deliberation, negotiation and action. Neighbourhood planning requires local people to come up with a scheme to represent the diversity of local interests, and be able to take it to a vote. This has led to the creation of new urban forums, which are something like the age-old parishes, re-made for modern times.
The 12 councillors can use a small local mandate to organise events, send out a newsletter, lead on the neighbourhood plan and negotiate with public service organisations on behalf of local people. It is hard to imagine localism working without these new organisations. What’s more, they tend to be resolutely non-partisan, resisting the charms of political parties in order to focus on shared local needs and their own agenda for change.
In the negotiations over our national ambitions to leave the EU it is important not to neglect other layers of government across the country. When people are encouraged to take back control, they need access to the political institutions that might allow this to happen. Brexit could prompt a remaking of our political geography at a local level – as well as an international one. |
Pretty nice worki like how you used lines with different thickness in this picture.. and all the details on Elsa's dress ^^ |
List of power stations in Costa Rica
The following page lists power stations in Costa Rica. Most of them are managed by Instituto Costarricense de Electricidad.
Installed generating capacity and production
Costa Rica had an estimated installed generating capacity of 3,039 MW in 2012 and produced an estimated 10.05 billion kWh in 2012. According to La Nación Costa Rica in 2014 had an installed capacity of 2,732 MW with a peak consumption of 1,604 MW.
Geothermal
Geothermal power plants with a nameplate capacity > 100 MW.
There are further geothermal power plants with a smaller capacity.
Hydroelectric
Hydroelectric power plants with a nameplate capacity > 30 MW.
There are further hydroelectric power plants with a smaller capacity. The proposed 630 MW El Diquís dam was not built.
Thermal
Thermal power plants with a nameplate capacity > 200 MW.
There are further thermal power plants with a smaller capacity.
Wind
Currently, there are 13 wind farms in Costa Rica. The 3 wind farms with the biggest capacity are:
See also
List of power stations
References
Category:Lists of buildings and structures in Costa Rica
Costa Rica |
The Philippines is one of the most populous Catholic countries in the world. About 80 percent of the country’s 100 million people belong to the faith.
Now, the country’s Catholic bishops’ conference has elected a new president: Archbishop Romulo Valles.
Since 2012 Archbishop Valles, 66, has headed the Archdiocese of Davao, on the southern Philippines island of Mindanao. Davao is the largest city in the region.
Over 60 percent of Mindanao’s total population is Catholic, while Muslims make up 20 percent. In the past the island has suffered a communist insurgency and an armed Moro separatist movement, Vatican Radio reports. The region is currently suffering an insurgency of Islamic insurgents who have pledged allegiance to the Islamic State group and have captured Marawi City, burning the Catholic cathedral and taking hostage a Catholic priest and several church workers.
Archbishop Valles served as the most recent vice-president of the bishops’ conference. He has chaired the conference’s Commission on Liturgy.
His election took place at the beginning of the Catholic Bishops’ Conference of the Philippines’ July 8-10 plenary assembly at the Pope Pius XII Catholic Center in Manila.
Bishop Pablo Virgilio David of the Manila-area Diocese of Caloocan was elected the conference vice-president.
Archbishop Valles’ archdiocese is the home base of controversial President Rodrigo Duterte, a past mayor of Davao City. The president has vocally insulted the bishops who criticized his harsh crackdown on drugs.
In his final keynote as conference president, Archbishop Socrates Villegas of Lingayen-Dagupan stressed the need to reach out to society with an open hand.
“Closed fists do not love; they hurt. Closed fists do not touch, they strike and injure. Closed fists and prayer do not match,” he said.
Without mentioning by name President Duterte, Archbishop Villegas alluded to how the bishops had been “calumniated and slandered.”
“We have been cursed and ridiculed but you our shepherds have chosen to fly high when the mockers of the Church chose to go so low,” he said.
“I know that the values of an open hands, fortitude and listening will be same pastoral tools that we will use to serve and guide the flock of God,” he added.
Archbishop Villegas’ tenure included a massive earthquake in Bohol province and a major typhoon in the Visayas. Pope Francis visited in 2015. The country also hosted the 51st International Eucharistic Congress.
Politically, during the archbishop’s tenure the Philippines bishops clashed with previous president Benigno Aquino over a population control bill and over issues of corruption, Vatican Radio reports. |
Well, you just never know what you’ll stumble upon when doing a little digging on the interwebs. While doing some legwork for our recent story on The Enfield Haunting, we came to notice that the IMDB page for The Conjuring 2 had been updated with a new title – The Conjuring 2: The Enfield Poltergeist.
According to a friend of Lorraine Warren via Horror.wikia, Warren had this to say about the new film:
“The case file they’re looking at [occurs] in the late ’70s and centers on two sisters in Enfield, England, who were allegedly possessed. Warren said she personally saw them levitate and even saw one of the sister[s] dematerialize in front of her only to be found 20 minutes later stuffed into an oversized fuse box, contorted in such an unnatural way that they couldn’t have replicated it if they tried. She also said that the demon spoke directly to her husband on many occasions. Warren cited this case as one of the most terrifying experiences of her career.”
David Leslie Johnson is rewriting The Conjuring 2: The Enfield Poltergeist from an earlier draft director James Wan penned with Chad and Carey Hayes with revisions by Eric Heisserer.
Patrick Wilson and Vera Farmiga will return as paranormal investigators Ed and Lorraine Warren.
Look for The Conjuring 2: The Enfield Poltergeist in theatres on June 10, 2016. |
In 1611 German mathematician Johannes Kepler made a conjecture about the densest way to stack oranges or other spheres with a minimum of space between them. It seemed nothing could beat the standard produce stand configuration, but he could not prove it for sure. Four hundred years later University of Pittsburgh mathematician Thomas Hales finally showed that the grocers were right all along. But the question of how to pack spheres most tightly is not confined to our measly three dimensions—mathematicians can also imagine the problem in hypothetical spaces of any number of dimensions.
In March Ukrainian mathematician Maryna Viazovska, a postdoctoral researcher at the Berlin Mathematical School and at Humboldt University of Berlin, solved the sphere-packing problem in eight dimensions. The next week she and several co-authors extended her techniques to 24 dimensions. The solution of the problem in the seemingly arbitrary dimensions of eight and 24 highlights the fundamental weirdness of sphere packing, which has now been solved only in dimensions one, two, three, eight and 24. The breakthrough has given researchers hope that building on her techniques may be a viable way to answer questions about sphere packing in higher dimensions. “This is the beginning of understanding sphere packings rather than the end,” says Henry Cohn, a mathematician at Microsoft Research and one of Viazovska’s collaborators for the 24-dimensional case.
Although it is virtually impossible to visualize eight-dimensional space, mathematicians are comfortable working with spaces of eight, 24 or thousands of dimensions by analogy to lower-dimensional spaces. In three dimensions points are labeled using three coordinates—length, width and height, or x, y, z—so in eight dimensions points are labeled using eight coordinates.
In three dimensions a sphere is the set of points in three-dimensional space that are all equidistant from one center point. In eight dimensions it is the set of points in eight-dimensional space that are all equidistant from one center point. In any dimension the sphere-packing problem is the question of how equal-size spheres can be arranged with as little empty space between them as possible.
Whereas it would seem logical for mathematicians to solve successively higher dimensions in turn—after solving three, researchers could build on their work to solve four and then five—it is no accident that Viazovska leapfrogged over dimensions four through seven and solved sphere packing in eight dimensions or that 24 was the one to follow that. “Part of what I love about the sphere-packing problem is that every dimension has its own idiosyncrasies,” says Cohn, who has worked at sphere packing for many years. “Some dimensions just behave much better than others.”
In two dimensions sphere—or in this case circle—packing is easy because circles of the same size fit together so snugly. Each circle can be surrounded by exactly six other circles, and there is no wiggle room. In three dimensions there is no such super-snug packing. In fact, it is not until eight dimensions that there is another configuration, called the E8 lattice packing, where everything locks into place. In 24 dimensions a packing pattern called the Leech lattice has a similar property. Such patterns are what made these dimensions so amenable to attack.
A 2003 paper by Cohn and Harvard University mathematician Noam Elkies described a new technique for finding bounds for packing densities in many different dimensions. Their approach does not directly consider packings, but rather auxiliary functions—formulas with special properties. They believed their method could be extended to a complete solution of the sphere-packing problem in eight and 24 dimensions if they could find the right functions, but the functions eluded researchers for more than a dozen years. Viazovska says she almost gave up hope but then found a function that at first looked unrelated but aligned with Cohn’s and Elkies’ work perfectly. “For me, this was the moment when everything changed and I understood the problem really could be solved,” Viazovska says.
“Many other people spent a long time looking for the function that’s needed to make that approach work, and nobody had any solid clues about how to find it,” says Hales, who knows firsthand. In addition to solving the sphere-packing problem in three dimensions, he has worked on it in other dimensions as well and spent time looking for the function himself. “I think we were all quite shocked when Maryna Viazovska made the announcement of this discovery.”
Cohn says that with a problem like sphere packing the solution can provoke one of two responses: embarrassment, because the answer seems so obvious in retrospect; or awe, because the work was truly novel. Viazovska’s solution is a case of the latter. “Her definitions at first glance looked kind of ad hoc. Why on Earth would you do that? But it’s justified by the ingenious transformations she had,” he says. “It’s nice to be able to look at it and feel admiration rather than regret.”
The question of how to pack spheres most tightly into higher-dimensional spaces may seem like the kind of problem only a mathematician could ever love. It turns out, however, to be far from impractical. Higher-dimensional sphere packings form the basis for error-correcting codes that help us transmit data over cellular networks, fiber-optic cables and other places where information can be lost or altered in transit. These applications treat pieces of data as points in a higher-dimensional space.
Although Viazovska’s methods are not likely to solve the sphere-packing problem in other dimensions, at least not without another big breakthrough, they may help researchers improve their estimates of how tightly spheres can be packed in higher-dimensional spaces. Such advances are not as glamorous as solving the problem completely but could represent a significant improvement in higher-dimensional spaces where the data transmission stakes are high. |
Endothelin-induced contraction of bronchiole and pulmonary arteriole smooth muscle cells is regulated by intracellular Ca2+ oscillations and Ca2+ sensitization.
Endothelin-1 (ET) induces increases in intracellular Ca(2+) concentration ([Ca(2+)](i)), Ca(2+) sensitization, and contraction of both bronchiole and pulmonary arteriole smooth muscle cells (SMCs) and may play an important role in the pathophysiology of asthma and pulmonary hypertension. However, because it remains unclear how changes in [Ca(2+)](i) and the Ca(2+) sensitivity regulate SMC contraction, we have studied mouse lung slices with phase-contrast and confocal microscopy to correlate the ET-induced contraction with the changes in [Ca(2+)](i) and Ca(2+) sensitivity of bronchiole and arteriole SMCs. In comparison with acetylcholine (ACh) or serotonin (5-HT), ET induced a stronger and long-lasting contraction of both bronchioles and arterioles. This ET-induced contraction was associated with prominent asynchronous Ca(2+) oscillations that were propagated as Ca(2+) waves along the SMCs. These Ca(2+) oscillations were mediated by cyclic intracellular Ca(2+) release and required external Ca(2+) for their maintenance. Importantly, as the frequency of the Ca(2+) oscillations increased, the extent of contraction increased. ET-induced contraction was also associated with an increase in Ca(2+) sensitivity. In "model" slices in which the [Ca(2+)](i) was constantly maintained at an elevated level by pretreatment of slices with caffeine and ryanodine, the addition of ET increased bronchiole and arteriole contraction. These results indicate that ET-induced contraction of bronchiole and arteriole SMCs is regulated by the frequency of Ca(2+) oscillations and by increasing the sensitivity of the contractile machinery to Ca(2+). |
FluffHermites practice a discipline considered disgusting and decrepit. Even though as a whole they may not be evil, the vast majority are reclusive, ill mannered and vengeful at best. A hermite is a manipulator of death - not life, not a practitioner of necromancy, simply a student of the process of slaughter and practitioner of drawing negative energy from the moment of death.
They blend alchemical science and magic but particularly Hermites are specialists of 'the moment of death', the exact point when a creatures life force ceases to grip the material plane. They are capable of harnessing this shift in energy to create strange forbidden and forgotten magicís, enhancing their allies and harming their foes - even emulating spellcasters.
Adventures: Hermites are equally comfortable adventuring in the wilderness, and in urban environments. They have a special aptitude for misdirection, manipulation, literature and lore, as well as surviving in the natural world and make excellent informants as well as healers - thus are often in demand by those who can stomach their unsavoury nature. A hermite turns adventurer for a singular purpose - to experience life and the resulting inevitable death. In other words Hermites often choose a life adventuring because of the adventurers typical penchant for dealing death, not to mention the opportunity to experiment with different means of doing so.
Characteristics: Hermites tend toward being socially reticent, sometimes because of scholarly ambitions that leaves them little time to practice being pleasant and sometimes because they simply are not capable of social niceties. Their art may reek of evil or rather, evil by social acceptances, but a few Hermites are actually good natured and misunderstood individuals. Those that don't pursue death arts for a love of death might pursue it because of childhood trauma or upheaval, sparking a life-long obsession. The most however, if not outright evil, at least regularly dance with the prospect of evil.
Alignment: Hermites tend toward evil and neutrality (on the law and chaos axis). Their death practices are difficult to reconcile with a righteous morality system, but their studious devotion to the practice limits the time they can devote to holding up a code or law system, or opposing such things. Such concerns are often seen as petty and unimportant by most hermites. Not all hermites are evil, despite their practices, but none are good. It is next to impossible to manipulate dead spirits with a pure heart.
Background: Hermites originate from two camps of widely differing origins, those born and brought up in a hermetic order and those who sought out membership in a hermetic order. Either way hermites usually begin their training at a younger age, rarely beginning study after adulthood. The former vary drastically in outlook, some are distraught by and abhor the powers that they wield, that their families and brethren wield - seeking to either ignore or suppress their abilities, or to only use them in service to a greater good. Others are deeply respectful of the wide breadth of tradition, strong familial connection and enigmatic culture. These are the kind who tend to value the death arts above all else, the most staunchly and fervently fanatical. The latter hermetic origin, of those who sought out an order to train under, is the most tragic of all. Typically an individual only develops a fascination with death and the occult arts surrounding it in one of three ways, an emotionally compromised upbringing, a tragic event or a malevolent inclination. Compounding this are the battery of stringent tests and requirements that a hermetic order typically pushes upon prospective initiates. Those that seek out the hermetic orders of death are amongst the most unhinged of individuals.
Religion: Although they may not pay much respect to them, or venerate them in traditional ways, a hermite is as likely as anyone else to take up religious worship. Some scorn religious worship as futility, having seen first-hand the frailty of life. Others see religious worship as necessity, for the exact same reasons. Hermites typically worship deities that have dominion over death and the afterlife - but rarely do they venerate deities of undeath, as the undead are to be scorned as creatures locked and prevented from completing their journey toward true death. The one true master that all hermites share however, is the ever present shade of death. Some even go as far as personifying it as an entity or governing deity, assigning it mannerisms, beliefs and committing acts of worship and sacrifice in it's name, as they feel appropriate.
Races: Any race can be a member of a hermetic order, but the calling is especially present in humans, halflings and dwarves, three races who have prevalent tendencies toward veneration and celebration of the dead. Dwarves are the only exception to the typical rule that; the longer lived a race, the less likely it is for members to become hermites. Elves, as an example, tend not to think as much on death as shorter-lived races and are unlikely to dedicate portions of their lives to it's study. The only universal exception to this rule however, is that any race that reaches a venerable age might suddenly develop an interest in death.
Other Classes: Hermites feel most at ease with druids and rangers of a neutral or evil alignment, sharing beliefs in inevitability, stewardship and tradition. Druids/rangers of a good alignment are less likely to travel alongside hermites due to the stigma involved in the dark practices of the latter. Many people often associate hermites with necromancers, due to the obvious parallels of death-based magic, but the two classes frequently find themselves at odds not the least due to a hermite's aversion to undead creatures.
Multiclassing: Hermites do not typically multiclass without special training, their death arts require too much depth and devotion to juggle with other training excluding the few unique and capable individuals who devote their time to a dual mastery or more. Hermites suffer no penalties for multiclassing but, as with many other classes, no longer progress their class features. Some specially trained hermites (with specific feats) can progress their art whilst training as a barbarian, monk, bard, wizard or sorcerer. Prestigious and unique hermetic orders exist too, such as the grimfledged who specialise in assassination, the haruspex who divine the future from the entrails of dead animals or the congruent - a loosely organised group of individuals who excel at connecting others.
Role: A hermite can be a dangerous foe since they are skilled, practice magic and warfare in equal abandon, are difficult to detect by appearance alone (a typical hermite could appear as an armoured mercenary, a simple pilgrim, or anything in between) - and in combat they are unstoppable once fuelled by death. A hermite is by nature adaptable and is possessed of the ability to freely divert their energies and abilities as required - one moment a hermite is a protector or healer of allies, the next a crippler of foes or engine of melee destruction.
Combat: In combat a hermite typically weakens foes and enhances their allies, waiting for a perfect moment to strike so that they might refresh their pool of hermetic energy and contribute more to the battle. Their manipulation of darker forces allows them access to the spell effects of many different classes, stacking curse upon curse to cripple their enemies. Hermites must co-ordinate with their companions so that they can deal killing blows to maximise their abilities. Without being close to death a hermite is particularly limited in what capabilities they might bring to bear in any confrontation, but with an ample supply of enemies to be slain they become nigh unstoppable.
GAME RULE INFORMATION
Abilities: A hermites most important ability score is their wisdom modifier, as it governs their hermetic pool, spells known, saving DC of their curses, malefactions and other abilities. Additionally a hermite relies on their constitution modifier to supplement their low hit dice, as a higher level hermite can use it to power their hermetic pool. Strength and dexterity deserve a mention as the ability scores that can govern accuracy - swift decisive strikes are very important for a hermite.
Bonus Languages: Normally none, although certain evil druid clans that house and consort with hermites may share the druidic language in exceptional circumstances.
Spells: A hermite can cast divine spells drawn from their own unique spell list which comprises both arcane and divine spells. They can cast any spell they know spontaneously, without preparing it ahead of time. To learn or cast a spell a hermite must have a wisdom score equal to at least 10 + the spell level. The difficulty class for a saving throw against a hermite's spell is 10 + the spell level + the hermite's wisdom modifier.
A hermites selection of spells is limited. They begin play knowing three cantrips (0th level spells) and slowly gain spells of a higher spell level each new hermite level, as indicated on the 'spells known' table above. Unlike a sorcerer or other spontaneous caster, the number of spells a hermite knows is affected by their wisdom score, a higher wisdom score (even a temporary increase) granting additional known spells. If a hermite's wisdom score ever decreases to a point that it is less than the wisdom score that granted a bonus spell known they may no longer cast the spell, although they do not lose knowledge of it, until their wisdom score increases to the same point again.
Editor's Note (Clarification)If the hermite gains a temporary increase in wisdom score and chooses a new spell known, the chosen spell is known whenever the hermite's wisdom score grants the bonus spell. The hermite may not change their decision.
E.g. Icarus, the 7th level hermite, has a wisdom score of 19 but equips a periapt of wisdom +1, increasing his wisdom score to 20 and gaining a 1st level bonus spell known. Icarus chooses mark of the damned as his new 1st level bonus spell known. Icarus already knows incite, black karma curse and scare as 1st level spells, plus he learned colour spray as his first bonus 1st level spell known, for having a wisdom score of 12 or greater. If Icarus later unequips his periapt of wisdom, and his wisdom score decreases to 19 , he loses his most recently gained bonus 1st level spell which in this case is mark of the damned, not colour spray as it was gained earlier, nor any of his other 1st level spells as he gained those for increasing his hermite level. If Icarus advances to 8th level and chooses to increase his wisdom score to 20 by virtue of the 8th level ability score increase then he learns mark of the damned automatically as a bonus spell known, he may not change his previous choice.
Upon reaching 4th level, and at every even-numbered hermite level after that (6th, 8th, and so on), a hermite can choose to learn a new spell in place of one they already know. In effect the hermite "loses" the old spell in exchange for the new one. The new spell's level must be the same as that of the spell being exchanged, and it must be at least one level lower than the highest-level hermite spell the hermite can cast. A hermite may swap only a single spell at any given level, and must choose whether or not to swap the spell at the same time that he gains new spells known for the level.
Editor's Note (Clarification)If the hermite swaps out a spell granted by a bonus slot the new spell still counts as granted by the same bonus spell known for the purpose of spells restricted by an inhibited wisdom score. The hermite may not swap out spells that they cannot currently cast due to a decreased wisdom score.
Hermite's cast spells by manifesting the magical energies of spells previously cast, 'dead' spells, expending points from their hermetic pool to do so. Hermite's do not utilise spell slots and therefore do not have spells per day. In order to cast a spell a hermite must expend a number of points from their hermetic pool equal to the level of the spell to be cast. Special rules apply to spells cast by a hermite (see the 'cursecasting' ability).
Essence Bleed (Su): A hermite is fascinated with death - empowered by it even. Whenever a hermite is responsible for slaying an enemy creature they gain temporary hit points and restore their hermetic pool, if they have one. The temporary hit points gained are equal to half the hermite's class level, but the hermite may not gain temporary hit points beyond half their class level through this ability. Any temporary hit points gained in excess of this (from this ability only, the hermite may still gain temporary hit points in other ways) are lost.
If the hermite has a hermetic pool they regain a number of points equal to two thirds their hermetic pool bonus. If the slain creature was of the construct, ooze, outsider, plant, undead or vermin type then the hermite instead regains a number of points equal to one half their hermetic pool bonus but the creature grants no temporary hit points. The hermite may not exceed their hermetic pool maximum as a result of this restoration.
If the hermite was fatigued or exhausted they may choose to remove the fatigue condition, or become fatigued rather than exhausted, instead of gaining the benefit of temporary hit points. The hermite may not opt to do so if they would not gain any temporary hit points from the slain creature.
Editor's Note (Clarification)E.g. Regardless of whether a hermite or not chooses to forego the restoration of their hermetic pool after slaying an enemy creature, they may not later use the same creature's body to restore their hermetic pool through meditation.
Alchemical Focus (Ex): A hermite has special understanding of how to treat alchemical substances. Any thrown splash weapon that deals energy damage (fire, cold, acid, electricity or sonic) deals additional damage equal to the hermite's wisdom modifier and the hermite gains a +1 bonus to attack when making an attack with a thrown splash weapon. Additionally a hermite may apply an alchemical substance to a weapon as a standard action (that provokes an attack of opportunity). Any alchemical substance applied in this fashion afflicts the next creature hit with the weapon as if they had been directly struck by the splash weapon.
Spell Tricks (Sp): A hermite can cast a number of cantrips (see 'hermite spell list') without expending any energy from their hermetic reserves. A hermite of 1st level chooses three cantrips and may cast them up to a number of times per day equal to their wisdom modifier + 3. Hermite cantrips may not be swapped out when gaining hermite levels.
Cursecasting (Sp): Hermetic magic is twisted and unnatural. A spell 'cast' by a hermite is not truly cast through or by the hermite, it is instead a manifestation of a spell previously cast at some point in the past, likely by a long dead spellcaster although these echoes are no less potent than true spells. Hermites spells are referred to as 'curses'.
Spells cast by a hermite are altered, aspects are changed from the parameters of the original spells. All spells cast by a hermite have a range of 'close' (25 feet, improving by 5 feet for every 2 caster levels) and only affect a single target/creature. Their spells can be additionally augmented through use of hermetic taboos, increasing range, affected targets, area of effect and duration. Additionally any spell cast by a hermite may be dispelled by another spellcaster casting the spell 'remove curse' and succeeding on an opposed caster level check against the hermite. The target of any spell that previously affected an area is considered to always be within the centre of the effect for the purposes of effects based on positioning.
Hermetic Pool (Ex): A hermite draws magical power from the life essence of slain foes, capturing the moment of death. To outsiders it often isn't clear whether their ability is manifest from a manipulation of life energy, or an inner ability powered by killing. A hermite has a number of points in a 'hermetic pool' that they use to power their class abilities. The hermite's hermetic pool is equal to their pool bonus (beginning with one point at 2nd level but increasing as the hermite gains levels - see the hermetic pool bonus column of the class table) plus their wisdom modifier.
A hermite may restore their hermetic pool at any time by communing with dead spirits whilst at rest, so long as they manage a minimum of eight hours communal (although this period does not need to be consecutive). As a side effect of this communal is that by listening to the whispers of the dead the hermite may gain the benefit of an augury spell, cast at their hermite caster level, at the conclusion of their communal.
As long as the hermite has at least one point in their hermetic pool they may make a will save (DC20) to avoid becoming fatigued or exhausted when an effect calls for it. if the hermite fails this check they are fatigued or exhausted as normal but otherwise they avoid the effect.
Normally a hermite restores their hermetic pool through the slaying of creatures but, if anything else other than the hermite dealt the killing blow, then the hermite may instead refresh their entire Hermetic Pool (but not gain temporary hit points) by touching the body of a dead creature (of any type) and meditating for a full minute. A body does not have be 'complete' to be considered the body of a deceased creature (e.g. it may be missing a head or limbs), but it must comprise at least 50% of the original creatures weight or size, a single ear will not do.
The hermite may choose to forgo any restoration of the hermetic pool that they gain if they wish, but they may only gain benefits from a slain creature once even if they choose to forgo the restoration. A hermite may not attempt to restore their hermetic pool points from the creature's death in more than one way.
A hermite may restore their hermetic pool in a number of ways, as follows;
By being responsible for the attack that brings a creature to 0 hit points or less
Meditating for one full minute whilst touching the corpse of a slain creature
Communing with dead spirits for eight hours
Witnessing the death of a creature slain by another*
Sacrificing their own constitution score*
Taking serious hit point damage*
Editor's Note (Design)Originally this class did not add their wisdom modifier to their hermetic pool but, after concerns the class would frequently be unable to contribute, I slightly lowered the hermetic pool bonus (previously referred to as a 'hermetic pool maximum value') and added the wisdom modifier as an additional bonus, the two determining the new hermetic pool maximum. I'd love more feedback on whether this feels imbalanced or not prior to playtesting.
Hermetic Taboo (Su and Sp): Hermite's may harness the essence of slain creatures to produce beneficial effects for themselves and their allies. As they increase in level the hermite gains additional methods of harnessing this energy, choosing a new 'taboo' at 2nd level and every 2nd level afterwards (4th, 6th, 8th, etc.).
A hermetic taboo is a protection or augmentation that the hermite improves by expending points from their hermetic pool. Hermetic taboos are wards and blessings gleaned from the memories, skills and abilities of dead spirits and the hermetic pool points that represent them. Some taboos require the hermite to first reach a certain class level before they may choose it. Every taboo has a constant effect and an enhanced effect. The former is an always-on supernatural ability that provides a small benefit to the hermite themselves. The latter is an activateable ability that provides a more potent benefit to the hermite, and their allies as long as the hermite has expended at least one point from their hermetic pool to activate it and the ally is within line of effect. Expending points from a hermetic pool to activate or augment an enhanced taboo effect is a free action, and is only limited by the remaining number of points in the hermite's hermetic pool. Unless otherwise noted in the description an enhanced taboo effect has a radius of 20 feet and the hermite may continually augment it, expending more points as they restore their hermetic pool, until they have augmented it with a number of hermetic pool points equal to half their class level. Any additional points from a hermetic pool spent augmenting an enhanced taboo effect have no effect and are wasted.
Hermite's thrive when in dangerous situations, and the enhanced taboo effects are constant (their durations are paused) when in an encounter or an otherwise hostile situation in which the hermite is threatened by any number of creatures. Otherwise, for the purpose the enhanced taboo effects activated outside of encounter or their longevity after the conclusion of an encounter, an enhanced taboo effect lasts one round per hermite class level. Adding additional points to an enhanced taboo effect refresh the duration but do not stack the duration, hence when an enhanced taboo effect concludes all benefits from the enhanced taboo effect end, not just the oldest effects. All taboo effects, constant or enhanced, cease to function whilst the hermite is unconscious, dying or otherwise incapacitated and the hermite may end an enhanced taboo effect willingly as a free action.
Last Testimony (Ex): Death is gruesome and difficult to forget, even the hardiest of warriors still possess the capacity to be taken aback. At 3rd level a hermite causing or witnessing the death of a creature will always regain a single point of their hermetic pool, regardless of the type of creature or the hermite's participation in it's slaying. In order to gain this benefit the hermite must at least be able to see and have line of sight toward the creature.
Editor's Note (Clarification)If the hermite uses their last testimony ability to restore their hermetic pool they may not use the body of the slain creature to meditate and restore their full hermetic pool. As with other forms of hermetic pool recovery the hermite may willingly forego this recovery, except unlike with the essence bleed ability the hermite may still use the body of the creature to recover their hermetic pool through meditation as long as they themselves weren't responsible for the kill.
Alchemical Familiarity (Ex): In addition to the darker arts and their normal alchemical practices, hermites often dabble in poison craft. They tend toward a limited but specialist knowledge when it comes to applied poisons and alchemy, choosing particular substances and learning everything they possible can about them.
A hermite of 3rd level may choose any poison (ingestion, inhalation or contact-based) or alchemical splash weapon (e.g. alchemist's fire) to specialise in. They gain immunity to the chosen poison or splash weapon, may apply it to a weapon as a swift action instead of a standard action and once applied the chosen substance will last for two successful attacks rather than one.
Regardless of the hermite's choice they gain a +1 insight bonus to all saving throws against poisons and a +1 dodge AC bonus against all alchemical splash weapons. At 6th, 9th and 12th level the hermite may choose an additional poison or alchemical splash weapon to apply this ability to, and the general bonuses against poisons/splash weapons improve by +1.
Malefaction (Su): At 5th level, and every odd level afterwards (e.g. 7th, 9th, 11th etc.), the hermite may choose a 'malefaction'. A malefaction is a unique fluctuation of the energy coalesced from the defeat of creatures, unique to the hermite who created it. Every malefaction the hermite chooses applies to a single taboo, but most malefactions may be chosen multiple times as long as they apply to different hermetic taboos each time. Not every malefaction is applicable to every taboo, as listed in it's entry.
Deathblessing (Ex): Few hermites worship death as if it was an actual deity but most agree that it is a force worthy of respect and understanding. As a result many hermites dislike forms of death that they deem 'unnatural' such as undeath and magical disease. Through a special pact or ritual known only to members of hermetic orders a hermite may render themselves protected against such things. A hermite of 7th level is immune to all diseases, whether non-magical or magical, and gains +2 on saves against death effects and negative energy.
Blood Pact (Sp): Sometimes a hermite finds themselves without time to spare communing, nor death to witness or experience. In those such situations desperate hermites have been known to let their own blood and use their own anguish as fuel for their magic. As a standard action a Hermite of 8th level may take a sharpened knife and cut their own skin whilst muttering secret hermite words of power; doing so creates a wound that doesn't heal normally yet sharpens the hermite's energy and resolve. The hermite suffers 1 stacking point of bleeding damage (either staunched by magical healing or a DC15 + points of bleeding damage heal check) and 1 point of constitution burn (ability burn; see psionic conditions), but they restore their hermetic pool by a single point.
Greater Cursecasting (Ex): Powerful hermites understand a simple truth - their magic isn't true magic, everything they cast is tinged with necromantic energy, all their spells are comprised of 'dead' magical energy and distinctly different to normal spells. At 10th level a hermite's spells may no longer be dispelled, they are always considered true curses and may only be removed by another spellcaster casting remove curse and succeeding on an opposed caster level check. Additionally a hermite may convert any cast spell in to a spell of the necromancy school by expending an extra point from their hermetic pool at the time of casting.
Residual Blood Pact (Sp): By practice, and repeated application, a hermite may find themselves possessed of a constant bloodpact-like effect that activates whenever the hermite receives excessive damage. Any time the hermite receives 25 or more hit point damage their hermetic pool is restored by a number of points equal to the damage taken divided by 25 (rounded down). This ability may not increase your hermetic pool beyond it's normal maximum value.
Alchemical Immunity (Ex): A 15th level hermite is a master of poisons and alchemical material. They gain immunity to all poisons, magical and non-magical, and alchemical splash weapons.
Alchemical Manifestation (Sp): Hermite's use many poisons and alchemical substances as part of warfare - they breed a familiarity so strong that they can create certain substances through magical willpower alone. A hermite of 16th level is capable of recreating any ingestible or contact poison or any alchemical substance from nothing. The cost of the process is determined by the amount created. To create a normal sized quantity requires the hermite touch a container of suitable size (compared to normal instances of the substance), expend one point from their hermetic pool and sacrifice special hermite materials equivalent to half the normal material cost. To create enough to coat a weapon, if a contact poison or alchemical splash weapon, for one (regardless of your alchemical familiarity ability) attack requires the hermite touch the weapon but requires no expenditure of material nor points from the hermetic pool. This is a conjuration(creation) effect.
Essence Drain (Su): Extremely powerful hermites no longer thrive on the moment of death - they absolutely revel in it. To a powerful hermite death is an addictive drug and they grow despondent without it's presence. At 17th level the hermite is completely attuned to the nature of death and the fleeting essence of dying creatures. A hermite's hermetic pool is restored by their hemertic pool bonus, if the hermite is responsible for the killing blow. A creature of the construct, ooze, outsider, plant, undead or vermin type now restores the hermite's hermetic pool by two-thirds instead of one-half. Additionally instead of half their class level, they gain temporary hit points equal to their class level (although this may not bring their temporary hit points to higher than their class level). All these effects also apply if an ally is responsible for the death blow of a creature (rather than the hermite), so long as the creature is within 30 feet of the hermite upon it's death.
Endless (Ex): A hermite of 19th level no longer accrues penalties for ageing, only bonuses, although any penalties they have already gained still apply and they cannot be magically aged. Additionally, when the hermite reaches their maximum age, they may add half their lifespan + 1d10 to determine their 'true' maximum age thanks to the hermetic understanding of death. Once the hermite reaches this true maximum age they die of old age as normal however.
True Deathblessed (Ex): At 20th level a hermite is so knowledgeable about death, it's magic and the surrounding moments, that they become capable of ignoring and avoiding many ill effects. The hermite becomes completely immune to negative levels and instant death effects, whether non-magical or magical. They automatically become stable upon reaching negative hit points, and may choose to act as if disabled rather than dying (as per the 'diehard' feat). Additionally the hermite no longer dies upon reaching -10 hit points, instead having to reach negative hit points equal to half their maximum hit points before dying.
Editor's Note (Clarification)E.g. a Hermite with 150 hit points would have to reach -75 hit points before they die, and would be capable of acting if disabled from the moment they reached 0 hit points until that point.
PHBII = Players Handbook II
SC = Spell Compendium
BoVD = Book of Vile Darkness
* = New spell described in a later post
Alternate Class FeaturesNot all hermites are created equal - hermetic orders are many and they vary significantly in their teachings, practices and magical art. Some emphasise anticipating danger, some the importance of a guarded mind and others the nobility of martial combat.
Hermetic Discipline of the Watchful Eye
Hermetic orders that practice the discipline of the watchful eye have an inherent danger sense, simply gleaned from studying so many forms of death that they can recognise patterns leading up to the moment of death.
Lose: All 'Alchemical Familiarity' abilities (at 3rd, 6th, 9th and 12th level), 'Deathblessing' (at 7th level) and 'Alchemical Immunity' (at 15th level).
Gain: Trap Sense +1 at 3rd level, improving by +1 at every 3rd level to a maximum of +6 at 18th level.
Hermetic Discipline of the Staunch Thought
Hermites practising the discipline of staunch thought spend less time focused on the practical application of death and more time on the theoretical. These hermites often gain a significant appreciation for subtler forms of elimination and close themselves off as best they can. This approach can have a negative effect on their ability to manipulate death energy however.
Lose: All 'Alchemical Familiarity' abilities (at 3rd, 6th, 9th and 12th level), 'Deathblessing' (at 7th level), 'Alchemical Immunity' (at 15th level) and 'Essence Drain' (at 18th level).
Gain: +1 to all saves against mind-affecting effects at 3rd level, improving by +1 at every 3rd level until the hermite gains a constant mind blank effect (as per the spell) at 18th level.
Hermetic Discipline of the Vicious Arm
A traditional form of death dealing, most hermites will only celebrate the art of killing with a melee weapon, preferring spells, poisons and alchemy for their own work. Some however, will take up a blade themselves, cutting a swathe through their enemies in place of studying.
Lose: Alchemic Manifestation (at 16th level), the 1st level spell known gained at 3rd level, the 2nd level spell known gained at 5th level, the 3rd level spell known gained at 8th level, the 4th level spell known gained at 11th level, the 5th level spell known gained at 14th level and the 6th level spell known gained at 17th level.
Gain: Increased base attack bonus progression (equal to HD instead of 3/4 HD), martial weapon proficiency at 1st level, weapon focus at 5th level, weapon specialisation at 8th level, greater weapon focus at 14th level, greater weapon specialisation at 17th level
Special: As part of the hermite's 'spell tricks' ability you may only choose two cantrips, instead of three, and you may only use your cantrips a number of times per day equal to your wisdom modifier (minimum one).
Change Log2nd February 2014/ Original version posted to GiTP, includes two prestige classes and a number of customised feats.
23rd February 2014/ Began long planned rewrite of full post, have been wanting to do so because I feared the class significantly underpowered and borderline useless, and the requests to PEACH the post largely ignored because of the bad formatting. Noticed spell list hadn't been posted. Still needs real playtesting.
24th February 2014/ Finished formatting and content rewrite of hermite class. Changed taboo class ability to be a choice, rather than automatically assigned hermetic taboos. Added a large number of taboos and malefactions, significantly expending class options. Added spells from the players handbook II and spell compendium, rewriting the spell list to contain a majority negative effect and condition applying spells, with a tiny smattering of damage dealing spells thrown in.
25th February 2014/ Finished applying formatting and content edits to the grimfledged prestige class. Tidied the hermetic homebrew feats and got rid of a bunch of stupid/superfluous ones. Created a handful of custom spells.
26th February 2014/[I] Completed rewrite/formatting edits of the haruspex prestige class. Corrected some confusing hermite/haruspex information regarding bonus spells known. Planned additional prestige class - an abjuration/taboo based buffer class with a hermetic metaconcert ability.
Newwby
2014-02-01, 03:23 PM
Choices of TabooTaboo of Barrier
Constant Effect: A hermite with this taboo gains a bonus to deflection AC equal to their hermetic pool bonus.
Enhanced Effect: Each point spent from the hermite's hermetic pool grants the hermite and all allies within the radius of effect resistance 3 against all forms of energy damage (acid, cold, electricity, fire or sonic).
Taboo of Fleet Footedness
Constant Effect: The hermite does not lose their dexterity bonus, even when flat-footed.
Enhanced Effect: For every point spent from the hermetic pool this taboo grants the hermite and their allies a 5 feet movement speed increase, affecting all forms of movement.
Taboo of Limited Foresight
Constant Effect: A hermite with this taboo may always act during a surprise round.
Enhanced Effect: For every hermetic pool point spent, the hermite and all allies within the radius of the taboo gain a +1 insight bonus to attack.
Taboo of Magic Precision
Constant Effect: The hermite's curses may affect creatures at up to medium range (100 feet + 10 feet/level).
Enhanced Effect: This taboo can enhance the range at which the hermite may cast their spells, or 'curses' whilst it is active. By expending two points the hermite's curses change to long range (400 feet + 40 feet/level). For one point the hermite's curses may affect an additional target, up to one per point expended, although the curses cast at these targets do not create radius bursts if the hermite utilises the taboo of spell bursts and the targets must all be within 30 feet of each other.
Special: This taboo only affects the hermite themselves. This taboo only affects the hermite, specifically spells cast by the hermite.
Editor's Note (Clarification)With all taboos that affect hermetic spellcasting/curses the taboo must be activated before the spell is cast for the spell to gain the benefit of the enhanced effect. All spells cast whilst the taboo is active are affected by the enhanced effect.
Taboo of Metamagic
Constant Effect: A hermite with this taboo may choose and gain one metamagic feat that they qualify for, immediately upon taking this taboo.
Enhanced Effect: The hermite may expend additional points from their hermetic pool to apply metamagic feats to their hermetic 'curses'. The hermite must expend a number of points equal to the adjusted spell level of the spell, although they may not expend more points than the highest spell level they may cast.
Special: This taboo only affects the hermite, specifically spells cast by the hermite.
Editor's Note (Clarification)E.g. if the hermite can cast up to 5th level spells they may only spend up to five hermetic pool points on a spell, they may not apply metamagic that would increase the hermetic pool point cost beyond that. This taboo need not be activated before the hermite casts a hermetic spell/curse, it is activated as part of casting the spell/curse.
Taboo of Protection
Constant Effect: A hermite with this taboo gains a bonus to natural AC equal to their hermetic pool bonus.
Enhanced Effect: For every point from their hermetic pool expended the taboo of protection provides a +1 dodge AC bonus to the hermite and all allies within the effect radius.
Taboo of Restoration
Constant Effect: This taboo grants the hermite an additional amount of healing equal to their class level whenever they receive the benefit of a healing effect.
Enhanced Effect: For every point spent from the hermite's hermetic pool they heal every ally (but not themselves) within the radius of effect a number of hit points equal to their wisdom modifier multiplied by their hermetic pool bonus.
Special: This taboo's enhanced effect is not a constantly active effect once invested in, it is an activated effect, and it has no effect on the hermite themselves. You may only spend a number of hermetic pool points, equal to the normal maximum you may invest in a taboo, at one time.
Taboo of Skill Capability
Constant Effect: This taboo grants the hermite the chosen skill as a class skill for all classes.
Enhanced Effect: For every hermetic pool point the hermite and all allies within the radius of the taboo gain an insight bonus with the chosen skill equal to their hermetic pool bonus. Regardless of your hermetic pool bonus this taboo still does not allow you to have a taboo bonus greater than half your class level.
Special: You may choose this taboo multiple times but each time it applies to a different skill.
Editor's Note (Clarification)Each instance of this taboo counts as a different taboo entirely for the purpose of determining invested hermetic pool points and the maximum allowance of invested hermetic pool points.
Taboo of Spell Bursts
Constant Effect: The hermite's curses affect all creatures within 10 feet of the target creature.
Enhanced Effect: This taboo can enhance the range at which the hermite's spells (or 'curses') affect creatures. For every point from their hermetic pool spent the range of the hermite's curses increases by an additional 10 feet.
Special: This taboo only affects the hermite themselves. This taboo only affects the hermite, specifically spells cast by the hermite.
Editor's Note (Clarification)With all taboos that affect hermetic spellcasting/curses the taboo must be activated before the spell is cast for the spell to gain the benefit of the enhanced effect. All spells cast whilst the taboo is active are affected by the enhanced effect.
Taboo of Utter Strength
Constant Effect: The hermite gains a profane bonus to damage equal to their hermetic pool bonus.
Enhanced Effect: For every point spent from their hermetic pool the hermite (and all allies within the area of effect) may consider their strength score two points higher than it actually is, for the purpose of all bull rush, grapple, trip checks and strength checks.
Taboo of Annihilation
Constant Effect: The hermite may choose, at the moment of death, to disintegrate the body of any creature slain by their melee attack.
Enhanced Effect: For two points spent the hermite, and all allies within radius of the effect, gains +1d6 negative energy damage with their weapon, unarmed or natural weapon attacks.
Special: The hermite must be at least 6th level to choose this taboo.
Taboo of Curse Mastery
Constant Effect: The duration of the hermite's curses changes to caster level/rounds if it was less beforehand.
Enhanced Effect: By expending points from their hermetic pool the hermite may increase the minimum duration of their curses. One point increases the minimum duration to caster level/minutes, two points to caster level/hours and four points to permanent. Any curse with a lengthier duration is unaffected by the change and any curse with an instantaneous effect is unaffected by the change.
Special: The hermite must be at least 6th level to choose this taboo. This taboo only affects the hermite, specifically spells cast by the hermite.
Editor's Note (Clarification)With all taboos that affect hermetic spellcasting/curses the taboo must be activated before the spell is cast for the spell to gain the benefit of the enhanced effect. All spells cast whilst the taboo is active are affected by the enhanced effect.
Editor's Note (DM Discretion)Instantaneous effect not duration. Some instantaneous spells/curses are suitable for extending the duration, it all depends on the type of effect. For example, a spell that inflicts damage could inflict it's damage each round, but consider the hermite's caster level to be half what it otherwise is for the purpose of determining the damage (instantaneous duration spells usually inflict greater damage). Spells that inflict a condition should be considered to inflict the condition for the listed duration if successful, but should not attempt to inflict the condition each and every round. Ultimately the effect of this taboo on instantaneous duration spells is at the discretion of your DM.
Taboo of Empathic Manipulation
Constant Effect: When the hermite uses the aid another ability they may add a bonus equal to their hermetic pool bonus instead of the normal bonus of +2.
Enhanced Effect: The hermite may move hit points between allies within the radius of this taboo. They may choose to move up to 10 hit points per point spent from their hermetic pool, and the hit points must be moved from one willing creature to another willing creature. The hermite may be a willing recipient or donor. This ability has no effect on unwilling creatures.
Special: The hermite must be at least 6th level to choose this taboo. This taboo's enhanced effect is not a constantly active effect once invested in, it is an activated effect. You may only spend a number of hermetic pool points, equal to the normal maximum you may invest in a taboo, at one time.
Taboo of Hardiness
Constant Effect: The hermite gains an additional two points of constitution. This increase in ability score is non-magical and cannot be removed.
Enhanced Effect: For every point the hermite spends from their hermetic pool they, and all allies within the area of effect, gain 1 point of damage reduction. This damage reduction cannot be overcome by any type of attack.
Special: The hermite must be at least 6th level to choose this taboo.
Taboo of Lift
Constant Effect: The hermite gains the effect of a feather fall spell whenever falling from a height that would cause them physical harm.
Enhanced Effect: By expending a point from the hermetic pool the hermite grants themselves and allies within the radius of effect a flight speed of 20 feet and a manoeuvrability of clumsy. For every additional point spent the flight speed granted improves by 10 feet and the manoeuvrability improves by one step, to a maximum of perfect.
Special: The hermite must be at least 6th level to choose this taboo. The radius of this taboo improves by 10 feet per hermetic pool point spent.
Taboo of Potent Sorcery
Constant Effect: The hermite may choose one spell of either first level or second level that they can cast. They may cast this spell at a hermetic pool point cost reduced by the spell's level, up to a number of times equal to 3 - the spell's level.
Enhanced Effect: By spending additional hermetic pool points upon casting a hermetic spell/curse the hermite may increase the DC of a cast spell/curse. The increase in DC is equal to the number of additional hermetic pool points spent.
Special: The hermite must be at least 6th level to choose this taboo. This taboo only affects the hermite, specifically spells cast by the hermite. This taboo's enhanced effect is not a constantly active effect once invested in, it is an activated effect. You may only spend a number of hermetic pool points, equal to the normal maximum you may invest in a taboo, at one time.
Editor's Note (Clarification)With all taboos that affect hermetic spellcasting/curses the taboo must be activated before the spell is cast for the spell to gain the benefit of the enhanced effect. All spells cast whilst the taboo is active are affected by the enhanced effect.
Taboo of Profound Mystery
Constant Effect: The hermite gains an additional skill point per level, as if their intelligence ability score was two points higher than it actually is.
Enhanced Effect: For every two points spent the hermite, and all allies within the radius of effect, gain a 10% miss chance. This miss chance does not stack with the concealment, total concealment or any other form of miss chance, use the higher amount.
Special: The hermite must be at least 6th level to choose this taboo. This taboo only affects the hermite themselves.
Taboo of Fast Healing
Constant Effect: The hermite gains fast healing 1 upon gaining this taboo. The effect of this taboo improves by +1 (to fast healing 2) if the hermite is at least 16th level and again (to fast healing 3) if they are at least 20th level.
Enhanced Effect: For every point spent the hermite may designate one ally to gain the same constant effect that the hermite benefits from.
Special: The hermite must be at least 12th level to choose this taboo. This taboo only affects chosen allies, and only if they are within the radius of the effect.
Taboo of Hermetic Prowess
Constant Effect: You may always attempt a will save (DC20) to resist fatigue or exhaustion, even when your hermetic pool is empty.
Enhanced Effect: Choose two hermetic taboos you know - whenever you expend points from your hermetic pool to augment the enhanced taboo effect of one, consider the linked taboo's enhanced effect augmented by the same amount of points. This taboo does not increase the number of points you may invest in any single taboo, the hermetic pool points count toward the limit of both.
Special: The hermite must be at least 12th level to choose this taboo. You may choose this taboo multiple times and each time you may choose to add one more known taboo to the link.
Taboo of Mirroring
Constant Effect: The hermite gains spell resistance equal to 10 + their hit dice
Enhanced Effect: For every point spent the hermite may designate one ally to gain the same constant effect that the hermite benefits from.
Special: The hermite must be at least 12th level to choose this taboo. This taboo only affects chosen allies, and only if they are within the radius of the effect.
Taboo of Salvation
Constant Effect: On chosen saving throws where the hermite would normally take half damage on a successful save they instead take no damage.
Enhanced Effect: For every point spent the hermite and all affected allies gain a +1 insight bonus to the chosen save.
Special: The hermite must be at least 12th level to choose this taboo. You may choose this taboo multiple times but each time it applies to a different saving throw.
Choices of MalefactionMalefaction of Absorption
Effect: Upon gaining this malefaction you must choose an energy type (acid, cold, electricity, fire or sonic). For every point from your hermetic pool invested in the taboo of barrier you gain 20% immunity to the chosen energy type (e.g. with three points invested you would take only 2/5ths damage from the chosen energy type). This immunity applies before resistance. Any immunity beyond 100% causes you to receive healing equal to a percentage of the damage (equal to the immunity percentage - 100, e.g. 140% immunity grants you 40% of the original damage as hit points). Resistance does not lower the received hit points.
Applicable Taboos: Barrier
Special: You may choose this malefaction up to five times but each time it applies to a different energy type. Points invested in the taboo of barrier only grant immunity against one chosen energy type, not against all, and the hermite must split the points between their chosen energy types as they see fit.
Editor's Note (Clarification)If a hermite chooses the malefaction of absorption three times, for fire, cold and acid respectively, then invests six points in their taboo of barrier, this would grant them a total of 120% of immunity and they may then choose to assign the points to the energy types as they see fit. They could choose to gain 80% immunity to cold and 40% immunity to acid, 40% immunity to all three energy types, 120% immunity to fire and so forth.
Malefaction of Aptitude
Effect: Hermetic pool points invested in the chosen taboo are doubled, e.g. for every point the hermite expends to augment the taboo it instead receives benefit as if the hermite had spent two points. This malefaction does not allow you to invest more points from your hermetic pool than otherwise possible.
Applicable Taboos: Annihilation, Barrier, Curse Mastery, Empathic Manipulation, Fast Healing, Fleet Footedness, Hardiness, Lift, Limited Foresight, Magic Precision, Mirroring, Profound Mystery, Potent Sorcery, Protection, Restoration, Salvation, Skill Capability, Spell Bursts, Utter Strength
Special: You may choose this malefaction multiple times. You may choose the same taboo multiple times. Each time you choose this malefaction for the same taboo the effect increases by one step, e.g. once chosen twice the taboo receives the benefit of three points for every one point invested in the taboo.
Malefaction of Benevolence
Effect: Choose any one condition, e.g. negative levels, ability damage, poison, disease, silence. Whenever the taboo of restoration or the taboo of empathic manipulation are activated (by expending hermetic pool points) all affected allies (but not the hermite themselves) are cured of the condition. This ability does not prevent the condition from reoccurring.
Applicable Taboos: Empathic Manipulation, Restoration
Special: You may choose the malefaction multiple times but each time you must choose a new condition. Progressive iterations of conditions (e.g. shaken, frighten, panic) count as a single condition but similar versions (e.g. ability damage, ability drain) do not.
Malefaction of Bizarre Movement
Effect: Choose one movement type other than flight (e.g. burrow, climb, swim). The taboo of fleet footedness grants the hermite (and all applicable allies) this movement speed at an equal speed to the speed bonus granted by the taboo. The speed bonus additionally applies on top of this movement speed, effectively doubling the speed.
Applicable Taboos: Fleet Footedness
Special: You may choose this malefaction multiple times but each time it applies to a different movement type
Malefaction of Calm
Effect: The chosen taboo considers any stressful or distracting situation (e.g. a storm, a pitched battle around you or a wave-tossed ship) an encounter for the purposes of whether the normal duration of the enhancement taboo effect depletes. Additionally the chosen taboo applies for one hour from the point of activation, instead of the one minute normal duration, or the conclusion of the encounter it was activated within.
Applicable Taboos: Annihilation, Barrier, Curse Mastery, Fast Healing, Fleet Footedness, Hardiness, Lift, Limited Foresight, Magic Precision, Mirroring, Profound Mystery, Protection, Salvation, Skill Capability, Spell Bursts, Utter Strength
Special: You may only choose this malefaction twice per taboo. If chosen a second time the enhancement effect of the chosen taboo only expires at dawn every day, or after eight hours rest.
Malefaction of Dark Magic
Effect: For every point invested in the chosen taboo your spells to inflict one point of magical damage, regardless of whether they are otherwise successful. This damage stacks if you choose this malefaction in the other applicable taboos. Additionally your spells inflict 1d6 magical damage per point spent from the hermetic pool in order to cast them.
Applicable Taboos: Curse Mastery, Magic Precision, Metamagic, Potent Sorcery, Spell Bursts
Special: You may only choose this malefaction once per taboo.
Editor's Note (Clarification)As points invested in the taboo of potent sorcery count only toward the spell cast at the time of investment they count twice - once for having been invested in the taboo and once for being points spent from the hermetic pool on the spell. The same applies for spells/curses affected by the taboo of metamagic but only for additional points expended due to metamagic.
Malefaction of Embodiment
Effect: The chosen taboo constantly provides an enhancement effect as if you had invested a number of points equal to half your hermetic pool bonus (to a minimum of +1), without expending any points from your hermetic pool. This malefaction applies even when the hermite is dying, unconscious or otherwise incapacitated. If your hermetic pool bonus later increases, so does the effect of this malefaction.
Applicable Taboos: Annihilation, Barrier, Curse Mastery, Fleet Footedness, Hardiness, Lift, Limited Foresight, Magic Precision, Mirroring, Profound Mystery, Protection, Salvation, Skill Capability, Spell Bursts, Utter Strength
Special: You may choose this malefaction multiple times, but only three times per taboo. If you choose it a second time for the same taboo it instead grants an enhancement effect bonus as if you had invested a number of points equal to your hermetic pool bonus, if chosen for a third time the point bonus improves to equal twice your hermetic pool bonus. This malefaction still does not allow you to have a taboo bonus greater than half your class level.
Malefaction of Exceptional Perception
Effect: Choose either blindsight or tremorsense. You gain this sense out to 5 feet per point from your hermetic pool invested in the chosen taboo.
Applicable Taboos: Limited Foresight, Profound Mystery, Skill Capability
Special: You may choose this malefaction multiple times, but only twice per taboo. Each time you choose this malefaction for the same taboo you must select a different sense (blindsight or tremorsense).
Malefaction of Further Gifts
Effect: Choose a different skill, saving throw or taboo. The effect additionally applies to this skill/saving throw/taboo as if you had chosen the taboo again and picked this option.
Applicable Taboos: Hermetic Prowess, Salvation, Skill Capability
Special: You may not choose this malefaction more than once per taboo. You may not take this malefaction in the chosen taboo if no other option exists, e.g. if you already have the salvation taboo for all three saving throws or you have already linked all your malefactions with the hermetic prowess taboo.
Malefaction of Martial Supremacy
Effect: Whilst the chosen taboo is active any weapon the hermite wields is treated as if it had the 'keen' property. Additionally the taboo of limited foresight grants an insight bonus to damage equal to the attack bonus it grants through it's enhanced taboo effect, and the taboo of utter strength grants a profane bonus to attack equal to the damage bonus it grants through it's constant taboo effect.
Applicable Taboos: Limited Foresight, Utter Strength
Special: You may choose this malefaction twice but each time it applies to a different taboo.
Editor's Note (Clarification)The bonuses granted to the individual taboo effects only apply if you have taken this malefaction in the chosen taboo, e.g. taking malefaction of martial supremacy (utter strength) does not grant you an insight bonus to damage when you activate the taboo of limited foresight.
Malefaction of Power
Effect: You may increase the maximum number of points you may invest in a taboo by 2, to a new maximum limit of your class level. This malefaction does not grant you any additional or automatic hermetic pool points, you must invest them as normal. If your class level later increases, so does the limitation of this malefaction.
Applicable Taboos: Annihilation, Barrier, Curse Mastery, Empathic Manipulation, Fast Healing, Fleet Footedness, Hardiness, Lift, Limited Foresight, Magic Precision, Mirroring, Potent Sorcery, Profound Mystery, Protection, Restoration, Salvation, Skill Capability, Spell Bursts, Utter Strength
Special: You may only choose this malefaction up to five times per taboo.
Malefaction of Retribution
Effect: For every point invested from your hermetic pool in the activated taboo you inflict one point of energy damage to a creature damaging you with a melee range attack spell. The energy damage may be acid, cold, electricity, fire or sonic. This damage stacks if you choose this malefaction in the other applicable taboos.
Applicable Taboos: Barrier, Hardiness, Profound Mystery, Protection, Salvation
Special: You may choose this malefaction multiple times but each time it applies to a different taboo. Upon choosing a new taboo with this malefaction you may additionally choose a new energy type, or choose the same energy type to apply to the new taboo as well. Whenever you activate a taboo that has this malefaction, beyond the first, you may choose to change the chosen energy type to the energy type associated with the new taboo.
Malefaction of the Planes
Effect: Choose one energy type (acid, cold, electricity, fire or sonic). Every time you first activate your taboo of annihilation (when you invest the first point from your hermetic pool) you may choose how many energy types you wish to wield (to a maximum of four), and which. Any damage inflicted by attacks affected by the taboo is divided by the number of energy types (rounded down), inflicting an equal amount of damage of every type.
Applicable Taboos: Annihilation
Special: You may choose this malefaction multiple times but each time you must choose a different energy type.
Malefaction of Superior Speed
Effect: You may invest hermetic pool points in the chosen taboo as either an immediate action or free action, even whilst flat-footed (despite not normally being able to take swift actions whilst flat-footed) and even at the beginning of an encounter. If you invest hermetic pool points at the beginning of an encounter, utilising this malefaction, the number of hermetic pool points invested is additionally granted as a luck bonus to initiative. This bonus lasts until the end of the encounter.
Applicable Taboos: Annihilation, Barrier, Curse Mastery, Fast Healing, Fleet Footedness, Hardiness, Lift, Limited Foresight, Magic Precision, Mirroring, Profound Mystery, Protection, Salvation, Skill Capability, Spell Bursts, Utter Strength
Special: You may choose this malefaction multiple times but each time it applies to a different taboo.
Malefaction of Vampirism
Effect: Upon a successful attack whilst the taboo of annihilation is active the struck creature must make a fortitude save or suffer one negative level. The DC of this save is equal to half the hermite's class level + their wisdom modifier. For each negative level the struck creature already has they gain a +2 bonus on the save. Every time the hermite inflicts a negative level on a creature they gain a number of temporary hit points equal to their wisdom modifier and restore their hermetic pool by a single point.
Applicable Taboos: Annihilation
Special: You may choose this malefaction multiple times. Each additional time you take it the DC of this effect increases by +2. |
164 F.3d 370
John SEFICK, Plaintiff-Appellant,v.Richard GARDNER, Defendant-Appellee.
No. 98-1632.
United States Court of Appeals,Seventh Circuit.
Argued Oct. 26, 1998.Decided Dec. 28, 1998.
Edward M. Fox (argued), Shefler & Berger, Chicago, IL, for plaintiff-appellant
Thomas P. Walsh, Office of the United States Attorney, Chicago, IL, Jeffrica Jenkins Lee (argued), Department of Justice, Washington, D.C., for defendant-appellant.
Before EASTERBROOK, DIANE P. WOOD, and EVANS, Circuit Judges.
EASTERBROOK, Circuit Judge.
1
John Sefick creates satirical sculptures that he seeks to place in the lobbies of buildings connected to the events or persons being lampooned. Sefick's works combine public figures with audio tapes that deliver the point. For example, in 1979 Sefick mounted in the Richard J. Daley Civic Center a tableau of Michael Bilandic, who had recently been defeated for re-election as mayor (in part because of adverse public reaction to the City's handling of snow removal in the winter of 1978-79), relaxing in an easy chair, with his wife Heather perched on the chair's arm. A tape recording continuously played this statement in a parody of Bilandic's voice:
2
Heather, Heather, I think it is still snowing out there, Heather. I think it is still snowing. God, it must be around eight feet now, isn't it, Heather? At least eight feet. Maybe another log on the fire, Heather. Maybe another log on the fire. On the fire, another log on the fire, Heather. It is beginning to snow again. Another log on the fire, Heather. I think it is beginning to snow once again. My God, it must be eight feet out there now, Heather. I don't know what to do. What do you think we should do, Heather?
3
Sefick v. Chicago, 485 F.Supp. 644, 647 (N.D.Ill.1979). Sefick has placed sculptures in state and federal buildings throughout Chicago. But in 1996 the General Services Administration refused to permit Sefick to exhibit a sculpture in the lobby of the Everett McKinley Dirksen Federal Courthouse, the headquarters of the United States Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit and the United States District Court for the Northern District of Illinois, precipitating this litigation.
4
Sefick proposed to display a life-sized rendering of District Judge Duff astride a larger-than-life white horse. Horse and rider would be familiar to readers of political cartoons. Both are distorted; the horse, for example, has an elongated neck, eyes cast upward with exaggerated whites, legs without visible joints, and squared-off shoulders, haunches, and chest. Judge Duff appears to be smiling and is holding the reins. The piece is eight feet tall and occupies approximately 35 square feet of floor space. A foot pedal activates a tape recording. Sefick described the sculpture, the accompanying tape, and its meaning in an attachment to his application:
The Journey of Judge Brian Barnett Duff
5
The Judge arrives at the Dirksen Federal Building atop a giant symbolic steed representing the United States Court system. The horse pauses. The Judge speaks, "As for the life of me I can't figure out why they're overturning all my rulings upstairs. Must be a lack of understanding. If they got their facts straight, they'd see it my way. Even if I didn't know better I think they trying to usurp my powers. That could be it. Oh great horse!" The horse overburdened, staggers under the tremendous weight of all its duties and responsibilities. Peer review, nonpeer review, pinpoint judicial review and just general criticism.
6
The GSA turned down Sefick's request under the Public Buildings Cooperative Use Act, 40 U.S.C. § 490(a)(17), citing ongoing construction in the building's lobby as the principal reason and a concern that the exhibit "may be construed as an attempt to influence judicial proceedings" as a secondary reason. Sefick was offered and accepted the option of displaying the sculpture in the nearby Metcalfe Federal Building, where it appeared for two weeks. After Judge Duff retired from active service, Sefick revised his work to replace the tape with a recording of "Don't Cry For Me, Argentina" from Evita and asked again to display it in the Dirksen Courthouse. Once again the GSA said no, relying on continuing construction activity and security concerns that had led it to deny all applications for the time being. Sefick then commenced this litigation, contending that the GSA's refusal to permit the sculpture's display in the courthouse was viewpoint discrimination. After a bench trial, a judge from outside the Northern District of Illinois concluded that the GSA's stated reasons were honest and that no viewpoint discrimination had occurred. 990 F.Supp. 587 (N.D.Ill.1998).
7
At oral argument we inquired whether the case is moot. Sefick did not ask for damages but sought to have his sculpture displayed without regard to its message. One month before the trial, the GSA decided that for security and aesthetic reasons it will not authorize displays of any kind in the lobby of the Dirksen Courthouse. Today the nature and message of a sculpture is irrelevant; none will be displayed. The district judge did not mention this change in policy or inquire whether it moots the dispute, and the parties' appellate briefs likewise ignored the question whether there is an ongoing case or controversy. After reviewing the post-argument briefs filed at our request, we conclude that the case is live, for two reasons. First, a court could order Sefick's sculpture displayed as a remedy for a violation of his first amendment rights in 1996 and 1997, even though in 1998 the GSA stopped considering applications for new displays. See In re UNR Industries, Inc., 20 F.3d 766, 768 (7th Cir.1994). Second, the current no-display policy, adopted after the commencement of this suit, is not implemented by statute or regulation and could be changed again, so this voluntary cessation of the challenged conduct does not eliminate the controversy. See United States v. Concentrated Phosphate Export Ass'n, Inc., 393 U.S. 199, 203, 89 S.Ct. 361, 21 L.Ed.2d 344 (1968); Chicago Teachers Union v. Hudson, 475 U.S. 292, 305 n. 14, 106 S.Ct. 1066, 89 L.Ed.2d 232 (1986). Cf. Los Angeles v. Lyons, 461 U.S. 95, 100-01, 103 S.Ct. 1660, 75 L.Ed.2d 675 (1983); Parks v. Pavkovic, 753 F.2d 1397, 1403-04 (7th Cir.1985).
8
Sefick can prevail on the merits of his appeal only by establishing that the district judge, as trier of fact, was clearly erroneous in concluding that the GSA did not discriminate against his sculpture because it was critical of the judiciary. Given the extensive construction in the lobby at the time of his applications, and the security concerns that in the wake of the Oklahoma City bombing have led many federal buildings to restrict pedestrian traffic (and exhibits that might attract it), that demonstration is hard to make. All four walls of the lobby in the Dirksen Courthouse are glass, so anything unusual inside will attract attention and thus traffic, which makes life more difficult for those charged with maintaining security. Moreover, Sefick displayed another sculpture of Judge Duff in 1995,* before the Dirksen Building was renamed the Dirksen Courthouse to reflect its transformation from a mixed-use to a judiciary building. If the GSA is set against sculpture critical of federal judges, why did it permit the display in 1995?
9
But even if Sefick could persuade us that in 1996-97 the GSA held the work's satirical perspective against him, that would just raise the question: what's wrong with insisting that exhibits in a federal courthouse be dignified? The lobby of the courthouse is not a traditional public forum or a designated public forum, not a place open to the public for the presentation of views. No one can hold a political rally in the lobby of a federal courthouse. It is a "nonpublic forum," which government "may reserve ... for its intended purposes". Perry Education Ass'n v. Perry Local Educators' Ass'n, 460 U.S. 37, 46, 103 S.Ct. 948, 74 L.Ed.2d 794 (1983). When deciding what may be displayed in a nonpublic forum, the government may exercise considerable selectivity, see Arkansas Educational Television Commission v. Forbes, 523 U.S. 666, 118 S.Ct. 1633, 140 L.Ed.2d 875 (1998); Cornelius v. NAACP Legal Defense & Educational Fund, Inc., 473 U.S. 788, 105 S.Ct. 3439, 87 L.Ed.2d 567 (1985); Piarowski v. Illinois Community College, 759 F.2d 625 (7th Cir.1985), provided it does not transgress basic anti-discrimination rules. Thus it may forbid all political rallies, but it may not forbid one party's rallies while allowing another's. See Forbes, 118 S.Ct. at 1643; Chicago Acorn v. Metropolitan Pier & Exposition Authority, 150 F.3d 695 (7th Cir.1998).
10
Nothing in the first amendment prevents the government from allowing sedate and decorous exhibits--the lobby of the Dirksen Courthouse contains the Great Seal of the United States, copies of the Constitution and Declaration of Independence, a memorial to a deputy marshal killed in the line of duty, and a bust of Senator Dirksen--while excluding the comic, the caustic, and the acerbic. Courts seek to induce in the jurors, witnesses, and litigants who pass through the lobby on the way to the courtrooms a serious cast of mind. An implication in the lobby that judges do not take their oaths seriously, deal honestly with the facts, or respect the allocation of authority within the judiciary could undermine the seriousness with which other participants take their own oaths and tasks. The judiciary does not show reruns of the Three Stooges in courthouse lobbies, and from the perspective of promoting the judicial mission a sculpture satirizing judges would be worse than old physical comedies. No one doubts that displays in courtrooms and adjacent corridors may be limited to the icons of government, such as seals and flags, and that judges may insist that all those present behave in a dignified manner. Why should this be less true of the lobby? Newspapers and the streets outside are open to scathing criticism of what happens within the courthouse. See United States v. Grace, 461 U.S. 171, 103 S.Ct. 1702, 75 L.Ed.2d 736 (1983). But the halls of justice may be kept hushed. A preference for the somber over the sardonic within a courthouse is not viewpoint or even subject-matter discrimination. It is a standard time, place, and manner limitation. A courthouse is not the place for this manner of expression. Daumier's caricatures of lawyers, judges, and witnesses belong in a museum (or a political magazine, where they originally appeared), not in the lobby of the Dirksen Courthouse.
11
The lower level of the Supreme Court building contains art and exhibits. Descending a grand marble staircase, the visitor encounters an imposing statue of John Marshall, sitting as if enthroned. Corridors are lined with portraits of former Justices, dioramas illustrating famous cases, and material from the Court's history. We asked Sefick's lawyer at oral argument whether the Constitution entitles his client to install in this gallery a clangorous, plaster-of-Paris work satirizing the current Chief Justice (perhaps with a patter song from Trial by Jury substituted for the theme of Evita). Counsel was unwilling to claim that the first amendment prevents the Supreme Court from limiting its display to hagiography. Yet a demand to install a sculpture on the Supreme Court's ground floor would be much stronger than a demand to put a sculpture in the Dirksen Courthouse's lobby, for the Supreme Court has opened its space to art about the judiciary, while the Seventh Circuit has not. The Supreme Court favors the Supreme Court Historical Society (a private group) over artists such as Sefick; no similar favoritism is ongoing (or occurred in 1996-97) in the Dirksen Courthouse. Portraits of judges line the corridors and main courtrooms of the Dirksen Courthouse, but an artist's claim to have his own satirical portrait of a judge placed among these would be met with guffaws. Just so with a demand for display space in the courthouse lobby. "The First Amendment does not forbid a viewpoint-neutral exclusion of speakers who would disrupt a nonpublic forum and hinder its effectiveness for its intended purpose." Cornelius, 473 U.S. at 811, 105 S.Ct. 3439.
12
AFFIRMED.
*
The 1995 sculpture depicts Judge Duff "tongue lashing" an unseen person, following which the model Cindy Crawford enters, the judge speaks rapidly to her, and Crawford stands her ground with a look of "Who is this guy?". Sefick later added TV commentator Walter Jacobson to the tableau to increase its humor quotient. See Janan Hanna, Bill Crawford & John O'Brien, Pair Supermodel, Good-Hearted Judge; Will Sparks Fly?, Chicago Tribune (Feb. 14, 1995); Hanna, Crawford & O'Brien, Barings Demise Not Likely to Slow Pace of the Pacific Rim, Chicago Tribune (Mar. 14, 1995)
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1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates generally to a hard disk drive selector mechanism that permits the easy and rapid replacement of one hard disk drive that occupies a unique logical position in a computer system with another hard disk drive. The replacement occurs while the computer system is off. The replacement occurs without removal of either hard disk drive.
2. Description of the Related Art
A modern computer is an electrically powered machine that inputs, processes, and outputs data. It consists of a central processing unit or CPU, main memory, and a real time clock. To make the computer a useful device, many peripheral components are connected to it. These peripheral components include input devices such as keyboards and mice, display devices such as video monitors and printers, and storage devices such as hard disk drives. A computer and all equipment attached to it are hardware. Collectively, these components are known as a computer system.
A computer and its peripheral components input, process, and output data by following sets of instructions stored in memory. The instructions that the computer system follow are software. A set of instructions that accomplish a specific task is called a program. Three types of programs exist; input and output systems, operating systems and applications.
There are two types or levels of input and output systems. The first is the basic input and output system or BIOS. It is a program consisting of the essential instructions that permit a computer""s components to interact with each other and with some attached peripheral components. The second is peripheral component input and output systems. These programs allow the computer to communicate with any peripheral device whose input and output system was not part of the BIOS.
An operating system is a program that provides the interface between a computer user, a computer system, and a computer system""s other programs, the input and output systems and applications. In this role, an operating system executes and manages all running programs, manages all data being processed by the various running application programs, and controls the use and order of use of all computer hardware. The operating system also can provide system security by being set to restrict access to itself, to applications, and to data.
An application is a program that performs a specific task such as accounting, word processing, or chess playing.
The components of a computer system communicate with each other over the computer system""s bus. A bus is a common pathway between multiple devices. A computer system""s bus is composed of five groups of electrical conductors. The first group carries electrical current and is a power source for some components connected to the bus. (Other components receive their power directly from the computer system""s direct current power supply or from some external source such as typical 110-volt alternating current outlets). The second group of conductors carries data between components connected to the bus. The third group carries addressing information. The fourth group of conductors carries commands and command acknowledgements from one component to another. The fifth portion of the bus is the conductor that connects the real time clock to appropriate system components.
Several devices physically support the bus of a computer system. The first is the computer""s motherboard. The motherboard is the main, printed electronic circuit board of a computer system. The second is a daughterboard. A daughterboard is a secondary, printed circuit board that can be added to and removed from the motherboard; it is an expansion board. The third is cabling. Keyboard, mouse, and hard disk drive connecting cables are examples. (Though some devices have become connected to the computer system bus by infrared connection, they are not a consideration in this invention).
The primary computer bus or primary computer bus segment is the portion of the bus that the central processing unit is attached to. All other segments of the bus are thought of as peripheral buses. The order of buses is logically arranged so that higher speed buses are physically closer to the central processing unit while slower buses are farther away. These peripheral buses are actually peripheral devices.
FIGS. 1, 2, 3, 4, and 5 show the bus system from the central processing unit to various internal hard disk drives in a personal computer system.
FIG. 1, entitled Simplified Computer Bus, and tagged as 100, is a simplified block diagram of a typical personal computer system bits. The complete, hardwired bus system is shown and represented by the large block arrow labeled System Bus, and tagged as 200, and by the interconnecting arrow system joining all of the depicted ports or components.
The following hardware components are shown in FIG. 1:
1) the CPU, 401, or Central Processing Unit;
2) the main memory, 403, and cache memory, 402; volatile random access type memory;
3) the clock generator, 404, or CPU clock, used to synchronize communications between computer devices;
4) the BIOS, 405, typically a flash, read-only memory chip used to store the basic input and output software used by the computer at start-up;
and 5) the CMOS, 406, a battery powered/backed-up complementary metal oxide semiconductor chip used to store system configuration information.
Ports are points of connection to the bus for peripheral components. The following ports are shown:
1) a keyboard port, 212;
2) a mouse port, 210;
3) a floppy drive connector, 208;
4) a parallel port, 206;
5) two USB or universal serial bus ports, 214a and 214b;
and 6) two serial ports 202a and 202b.
Host adapters or device controllers are the points of interface between all peripheral devices and the rest of the computer system. Host adapters also hold the memory chips that provide the computer system with the input and output systems specific for many peripheral devices. The following removable host adapters are shown:
1) a sound adapter, 601, a device to which microphones, speakers, radio receivers, etc., are connected in order to use the audio capabilities of a computer;
2) a network adapter, 603, a device that allows the computer to connect to computer networks;
3) a 1394 adapter, 605, also known as Firewire, a high speed serial bus,
4) a video adapter, 501, a device that permits the connection of a video display monitor;
5) two ATA/IDE host adapters 0 and 1, 701 and 703, devices that permit the connection of ATA/IDE compliant devices (the terms ATA and IDE will be defined immediately below);
and 6) a SCSI host adapter, 801 (the term SCSI will be defined immediately below).
Connected to ATA/IDE Host Adapter 0, 701, is ATA/IDE HDD0, 702, or ATA/IDE hard disk drive, 0. Connected to SCSI Host Adapter, 801, is SCSI HDD0, 802, or SCSI hard disk drive 0.
ATA stands for Advanced Technology Attachment. ATA is also the use specification for this type of drive. IDE stands for Integrated Device Electronics. IDE devices are those devices that use the ATA specifications. The terms ATA and IDE are often used as synonyms. SCSI stands for Small Computer System Interface and is a type of device and a use specification.
FIG. 1 also shows an External Power Source, 901. This is something such as standard household electric current (110-Volt alternating current, or AC). This power source provides power to the computer""s Power Supply, 301, an alternating current to direct current converter and voltage divider, and to some peripheral components such as a scanner (not shown). Power is delivered from the external power source, 901, to the power supply, 301, by conductor Z.
Some computer hardware components receive electrical power by way of the bus. Conductors X deliver direct current, or DC, electrical power from the Power Supply, 301, to the bus, 200. Some computer hardware, such as hard disk drives, receives direct current electrical power directly from the Power Supply. Conductors Y delivers this power.
FIG. 2, entitled Detailed Computer Bus, and tagged as 101, details a representative hierarchy of the bus system. In this diagram, the portion of the bus that is supported by the system""s motherboard is shown.
The following elements of a computer bus and hardwired hardware are shown in this figure:
1) The elements of the bus system;
a) Local or Processor Bus, 201, the portion of the bus that the CPU is connected to.
b) PCI or Peripheral Components Interconnect Bus, 205, a high speed peripheral bus system.
c) ISA or Industry Standard Architecture Bus, 211, a relatively slow peripheral bus,
and d) the Power Delivery; 200a, Command Delivery, 200b, Address Delivery, 200c, Data Delivery, 200d, and Timing Signal Delivery or Timing, 200e, traces of the bus system.
2) The hardware hardwired to the bus:
a) Clock Generator, 404.
b) PCI or Peripheral Components Interconnect Controller, 203.
c) ISA or Industry Standard Architecture Bus Controller, 207.
d) Secondary ATA/IDE Controller, 209.
e) ISA Onboard Ports Controller, 211.
and f) BIOS or Basic Input and Output System Flash Read Only Memory Chip, 405.
3) The connectors or slots through which hardware that is not hardwired connect to the bus;
a) The CPU or Central Processor Unit connection, 401a.
b) Main Memory Connectors, 403a, 403b, and 403c.
c) AGP or Accelerated Graphics Port, 500.
d) USB or uniform Serial Bus Connectors, 214a and 214b.
e) ATA/IDE Connectors, 700a, 700b, 701a, and 701b.
f) PCI Connectors, 600a, 600b, 600c, 600d, and 600e.
g) ISA connector, 600f.
and h) keyboard, 212, mouse, 210, floppy drive, 208, parallel, 206, and serial ports, 202a and 202b, ports.
The most peripheral components are attached to the computer via the ports shown in FIG. 2
FIG. 3 entitled Prior Art and tagged as 102, shows a typical ATA/IDE hard disk drive, HDD, connection scheme when the ATA/IDE Controller in hardwired to the system bus and motherboard. Included in this diagram are the PCI Bus 205, the ISA Bus Controller 207 the ATA/IDE Connectors 700a and 700b, the ATA/IDE Hard Disk Drive 702, or ATA/IDE HDD0, DC Power conductor Y, and Power, Command, Address, and Data Delivery Traces 200a, 200b, 200c, and 200d.
FIG. 4 also entitled Prior Art and tagged as 103, shows a typical ATA/IDE hard disk drive, connection scheme when the ATA/IDE Controller in not hardwired to the system bus and motherboard. Included in this diagram are the PCI Bus 205, the PCI Connectors 600a and 600b, the ATA/IDE Host Adapter Card 703, the ATA/IDE Hard Disk Drive 702, or ATA/IDE HDD0, DC Power conductor Y, and the Power, Command, Address, and Data Delivery Traces 200a, 200b, 200c, and 200d.
FIG. 5 also entitled Prior Art and tagged as 104, shows a typical SCSI hard disk drive, connection scheme. Included in this diagram are the PCI Bus 205, the PCI Connectors 600a and 600b, the SCSI Host Adapter Card 801, the SCSI Hard Disk Drive 802, or SCSI HDD0, DC Power conductor Y, and the Power, Command, Address, and Data Delivery Traces 200a, 200b, 200c, and 200d.
FIGS. 3, 4, and 5, show that elements 200b, 200c, and 200d, the command, address, and data traces, are incorporated into the hard disk drive connector cable. Element 200a is not included in the hard disk drive connector cable. Hard disk drives in these schemes receive their DC power directly from the computer system""s Power Supply by conductor Y.
The hard disk drive, abbreviated HDD, is integral to the personal computer""s convenient operation. The hard disk drive is a peripheral, mass storage device that is rapidly accessible by the computer. It is used as a place in which to store and from which to retrieve data. It is also used as a place in which to store and from which to execute operating systems and application software.
The hard disk drive is composed of several elements. The first is the actual storage medium. This medium is usually a series of aluminum or glass platters coated with a ferromagnetic material upon which electromagnetic signals are stored. The second is the drive mechanism. This mechanism spins the platters. The third is the read and write heads. These elements read signals from or write signals to the storage medium. The fourth is the controller board. This component mediates the reading and writing of signals to and from the hard disk drive and rest of the computer system.
Hard disk drives may be connected to a computer system at many points. These points include parallel ports, uniform serial bus ports, FireWire or High Performance Serial Bus ports, or external SCSI, Small Computer System Interface, ports. The typical hard disk drive connection in a personal computer system, though, is by means of an internal port or connector; a port that can only be accessed after opening the case of the computer system. Hard disk drives utilizing these internal connections are usually mounted permanently inside the system""s case. These internal HDD(s) are the devices of choice for the storage of a computer system""s operating system.
Two different types of hard disk drives are found in personal computer systems. The most common is called an ATA or IDE hard disk drive (ATA/IDE). The second type of hard disk drive used in typical personal computer systems is the SCSI hard disk drive.
When a computer system is turned on, built in procedures cause the computer to load the basic input and output system stored on the bios chip, 405, into memory and to begin to inventory, recognize, and test certain attached peripheral devices. This process continues with the computer seeking to identify all remaining attached peripheral components. As these peripheral components are identified, any additional input aid output systems needed are taken from each device""s host adapter and loaded into memory. As each peripheral device is loaded, its logical position within the computer system is also entered into memory. The logical position that each component holds is called its address. Each address is exclusive and only one component may occupy an address. (The address that a component occupies might actually be a range of addresses).
Next, an operating system is executed and loaded into memory. As the operating system loads into memory it summarizes the logical position that mass storage devices hold by assigning each device a letter name. In a personal computer system using the Microsoft Corporation""s Windows Operating System that has one internal, ATA/IDE HDD connected as shown in either FIG. 3, 102, or FIG. 4, 103, the HDD is assigned the letter C.
The processes that occur from the turning on of the computer system through the complete loading of the operating system are called booting. If Drive C contained the operating system and was automatically able to execute the operating system, Drive C would be the boot drive.
During the booting process, this Drive C, or any other drive present, is recognized as present by the following process. The CPU, central processing unit, sends out a command demanding that the drive respond if present. The command is followed by the address that is reserved for the drive. If the drive responds, then its presence is loaded into memory.
After the computer system is successfully booted the same procedure is used to access the drive. A command such as a write command is sent followed by an address. If the address is the drive""s address, the drive obeys the command.
Commands are send via command delivery traces, object 200b in Figures. Address information is sent via address delivery traces, object 200c in Figures.
If the command delivery traces and the address delivery traces are interrupted during both booting and operation of the computer system the drive does not occupy a logical position in the computer system.
FIG. 6, entitled Typical ATA/IDE Bus Trace Assignments, and FIG. 7, entitled Typical Internal 50 Pin SCSI Bus Trace Assignments, detail which ATA/IDE and SCSI bus traces carry commands and addresses.
Presently, there are two methods in which different physical hard disk drives can occupy one logical position in a computer system. (The different drives would, of course, occupy the logical position singularly. That is, one disk drive would occupy the logical position during one booting and operation of the computer system, during one session. Another hard disk drive would occupy the logical position during another session).
The first method entails disconnecting the hard disk drive connecting cable from one hard disk drive and then connecting the cable to another hard disk drive while the computer is turned off The process might also entail the moving of the hard disk drive power cable, object Y in all Figures, from one drive to another.
The second method utilizes a bay and drawer docking mechanism. Such a device is disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 5,694,290, issued Dec. 7, 1997, to Chang. This patent is for a Replaceable Hard Disk Drive Box Structure. The type of device consists of a bay adapter, a removable hard disk drive carrier or drawer, and a set of matching male and female plugs. The male plug is mounted on the inside of the bay adapter. The female plug is mounted on the outside of the drawer. The plugs are arranged so that they mate when the drawer is properly and fully inserted into the bay adapter. The female plug on the drawer connects to either a short ATA/IDE or a short SCSI hard disk drive cable and a hard disk drive power cable that are inside of the drawer. A hard disk drive is mounted inside the drawer and is connected to the hard disk drive connecting cable and power cable of the drawer. The bay adapter is mounted in a computer system""s case in a bay that has an opening outside the case. The male plug of the bay adapter is connected to either the ATA/IDE or SCSI hard disk drive connecting cable and the hard disk drive power cable inside the computer system""s case. The hard disk drive connecting cable inside the case is connected to a hard disk drive interface. The hard disk drive power cable inside the case comes from the computer system""s power supply. Assuming that the connections are to the port and adapter that would assign a permanently mounted hard disk drive the logical position of Drive C as discussed before, any hard disk drive connected to the computer system by this method would be Drive C. In the case of logical Drive C, the drawer and its drive would have to be inserted fully into the bay while die computer was turned off and left in place for the entire session to have the computer system function correctly. By having five drawers, each with its own hard disk drive, the computer system""s user could readily change the physical drive occupying the logical drive position to any of four other physical hard disk drives between computer use sessions by changing drawers.
FIG. 8, entitled Present Art and tagged 105, FIG. 9, entitled Present Art and tagged as 106, and FIG. 10, entitled Present Art and tagged as 107, are copies of FIGS. 2, 3, and 4, Prior Art Diagrams. In FIGS. 8, 9, and 10, however, ATA/IDE hard disk drives 702 and SCSI Hard Disk Drive 802 are not shown. In these Figures the hard disk drives are housed in drawers as disclosed in Chang""s invention. These drawers are tagged as 2001 as all drawers are identical and interchangeable. Also in FIGS. 8, 9, and 10, is a bay adapter such the one in Chang""s invention. It is tagged as 2000.
The first method of exchanging different physical hard disk drives in one logical hard disk drive location is obviously not a method to be considered if such exchanges need to made frequently. The second method is a much more practical. However, the second method has several serious drawbacks. The most serious drawback is the physical safety of hard disk drives in the removable drawers. These devices are easily dropped or banged against something while being handled. Such an event can permanently destroy the storage device, the hard disk drive.
Though Chang""s invention and method of exchanging hard disk drives has its mentioned drawbacks, Chang""s invention offers unprecedented security for the software stored on a hard disk drive. If a hard disk drive is removed from its logical position in a computer system, the software on the hard disk drive can not be accessed, altered, or otherwise misused.
Already developed devices are now discussed.
U.S. Pat. No. 3,986,169, issued to Kobayashi et al., discloses a device that allows transferring of data between two computer systems and their data storage devices and makes provisions for the device to identify data sources and destinations. If the data source or destination is not properly identified to the device, the data transfer is inhibited. Kobayashi""s invention is an active mediator in the data path.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,176,341, issued to Miyazaki, discloses a device that permits time-sharing of a data path by multiple Input/Output devices.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,574,929, issued to Pieterse et al., discloses a device that permits computer systems that utilize two central processor units to synchronously function and access both random access computer memory and peripheral computer devices, including hard disk drives, in a coordinated manner. This device is an active mediator in the data path.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,630,171, issued to Chejlava, Jr., et al., discloses a device that translates DMA mode data transfers to PIO Mode transfers or to I/O Mode transfers in order to enhance the efficiency of the transfers to and from data storage devices. This devise is an active mediator in the data path.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,761,460, issued to Santos et al., discloses a device that is a dual-master storage device interface that is temporary and which reconfigures both the resident computer system hard disk drive and an auxiliary, nonresident hard disk drive. The device automatically directs and redirects the data path and permits the use of temporarily attached hard disk drives.
U.S. Pat. No. 6,272,533, issued to Browne, discloses a device that permits a hard disk drive to remain in its logical position within a computer system while it prevents writing to the hard disk drive.
This application for patent of an invention discloses a new and novel method and technique that permits the rapid and easy replacement of one physical hard disk drive by another physical hard disk drive in a single, logical hard disk drive position in a computer system. The method and invention allows the exchange to be made without the physical removal and replacement of hard disk drives and is accomplished by multiple pole, multiple throw switching devices. This method eliminates the dangers to the hard disk drives being exchanged that exist in all other present methods. This method makes such exchanges easy, rapid, and safe. Finally, this method preserves the unprecedented security that software is given when the hard disk drive that holds the software is removed from a computer system. |
---
abstract: |
This paper is concerned with the numerical approximation of stochastic ordinary differential equations, which satisfy a global monotonicity condition. This condition includes several equations with super-linearly growing drift and diffusion coefficient functions such as the stochastic Ginzburg-Landau equation and the 3/2-volatility model from mathematical finance. Our analysis of the mean-square error of convergence is based on a suitable generalization of the notions of C-stability and B-consistency known from deterministic numerical analysis for stiff ordinary differential equations. An important feature of our stability concept is that it does not rely on the availability of higher moment bounds of the numerical one-step scheme.
While the convergence theorem is derived in a somewhat more abstract framework, this paper also contains two more concrete examples of stochastically C-stable numerical one-step schemes: the split-step backward Euler method from Higham et al. (2002) and a newly proposed explicit variant of the Euler-Maruyama scheme, the so called projected Euler-Maruyama method. For both methods the optimal rate of strong convergence is proven theoretically and verified in a series of numerical experiments.
address:
- |
Wolf-Jürgen Beyn\
Fakultät für Mathematik\
Universität Bielefeld\
Postfach 100 131\
DE-33501 Bielefeld\
Germany
- |
Elena Isaak\
Fakultät für Mathematik\
Universität Bielefeld\
Postfach 100 131\
DE-33501 Bielefeld\
Germany
- |
Raphael Kruse\
Technische Universität Berlin\
Institut für Mathematik, Secr. MA 5-3\
Straße des 17. Juni 136\
DE-10623 Berlin\
Germany
author:
- 'Wolf-Jürgen Beyn'
- Elena Isaak
- Raphael Kruse
title: 'Stochastic C-stability and B-consistency of explicit and implicit Euler-type schemes '
---
Introduction {#sec:intro}
============
Initiated by the papers [@higham2002b] and [@hu1996] the field of numerical analysis for stochastic ordinary differential equations (SODEs) with super-linearly growing coefficient functions has seen a considerable progress, especially over the last couple of years. For instance, we refer to [@hutzenthaler2014a; @hutzenthaler2014c; @hutzenthaler2012; @mao2013a; @sabanis2013b; @tretyakov2013] and the references therein.
The starting point of this article is the following observation: There exist strongly convergent numerical schemes, whose one-step maps satisfy suitable Lipschitz-type conditions, although the underlying stochastic differential equation has non-globally Lipschitz continuous coefficient functions. For the numerical approximation of stiff deterministic ODEs this observation has been formalized in the notion of *C-stability*, see for example [@dekker1984 Definition 2.1.3] and [@strehmel2012 Chap. 8.4]. A related result is also found in [@hairer1996 Prop. 15.2].
In this paper we present a generalization of this notion to the stochastic situation. Together with its counterpart, the notion of *B-consistency*, we will show that the error analysis of stochastically C-stable numerical methods can be simplified significantly compared to existing approaches in the literature. In particular, it turns out that it is not necessary to study higher moment estimates of the numerical scheme nor to consider their continuous time extensions.
We apply this more abstract framework to study the strong error of convergence for the numerical discretization of SODEs under the *global monotonicity condition* (see ). This condition includes several examples of SODEs with superlinearly growing drift and diffusion coefficient functions, for which the explicit Euler-Maruyama method is known to be divergent, see [@hutzenthaler2011]. However, several explicit and implicit variants of the Euler-Maruyama method have been developed and analyzed in recent papers on this topic. For instance, we refer to [@mao2013a] for the strong error analysis of the backward Euler method, and to [@sabanis2013b; @tretyakov2013] for a corresponding result of the explicit tamed Euler method. Further, in [@hutzenthaler2014c] strong convergence rates are derived for a stopped-tamed Euler-Maruyama method applied to SODEs which lie beyond the global monotonicity condition.
In this paper we work with the following notion of strong convergence: We say that a numerical scheme converges strongly with order $\gamma$ to the exact solution $X \colon [0,T] \times \Omega \to {{\mathbb{R}}}^d$ if there exists a constant $C$ independent of the temporal step size $h$ such that $$\begin{aligned}
\label{eq0:strerr}
\max_{n \in \{1,\ldots,N\} } \| X(t_n) - X_h(t_n) \|_{L^2(\Omega;{{\mathbb{R}}}^d)} \le C
|h|^\gamma.\end{aligned}$$ Here, $X_h \colon \{t_0, t_1, \ldots,t_N\} \times \Omega
\to {{\mathbb{R}}}^d$ denotes the grid function generated by the numerical scheme. Let us remark that several of the above mentioned papers consider stronger notions of strong convergence, where, for example, the maximum occurs inside the $L^2$-norm or the norm in $L^p(\Omega;{{\mathbb{R}}}^d)$ with $p > 2$ is considered instead of the $L^2$-norm. Our choice of is explained by the fact that our proof of the stability lemma (see Lemma \[lem:stab\]), which plays a central role in our approach, relies on the orthogonality of the conditional expectation with respect to the norm in $L^2$.
In order to demonstrate the usefulness of our abstract results we present two more concrete examples of stochastically C-stable numerical schemes: First we are concerned with the *split-step backward Euler method* (SSBE) from [@higham2002b], which is shown to be strongly convergent of order $\gamma = \frac{1}{2}$ in Theorem \[cor:SSBEconv\]. Second, we propose a new explicit scheme, the *projected Euler-Maruyama method* (PEM), which turns out to be, in general, computationally less expensive then the implicit SSBE scheme. In Theorem \[th:PEMconv\] we verify that the PEM method is also strongly convergent of order $\frac{1}{2}$.
In our numerical experiments in Section \[sec:exp\] both methods perform equally well in terms of the experimental strong errors, which therefore indicates to favour the explicit PEM method due to its simpler implementation. However, this only holds true in the non-stiff case. As for deterministic ODEs, stiff problems may require an impractical small step size for an explicit numerical method while implicit schemes already give more useful results for larger step sizes, therefore reducing the overall computational cost. This is relevant if, for instance, the numerical one-step method is used for the time integration of a parabolic stochastic partial differential equation. Although we apply techniques from the numerical analysis of stiff equations in our error analyis we leave this issue to future research and concentrate here on non-stiff problems. In this context we also refer to [@hutzenthaler2012] for a detailed comparison between implicit numerical methods and a further purely explicit variant of the Euler-Maruyama method, the tamed Euler method, which is considered in several of the above mentioned papers.
Let us briefly highlight two results in the literature, which are closely related to our approach from a methodological point of view: In [@wang2012] the authors investigate a family of one-leg theta methods for the discretization of SODEs under a one-sided Lipschitz condition on the drift and a global Lipschitz bound on the diffusion coefficient function. Hereby, they make use of the related notion of B-convergence. The second paper [@tretyakov2013] presents a fundamental mean square convergence theorem for the discretization of SODEs under the global monotonicity condition. This theorem imposes a similar concept of the local truncation error as our notion of B-consistency. However, in the proof of the theorem the authors relate the global error at time $t_i$ to the error at time $t_{i-1}$ by one time step of the exact solution. Proceeding in this way one cannot benefit from the global Lipschitz properties of the numerical method.
The remainder of this paper is organized as follows: The following section contains a detailed description of the class of stochastic ordinary differential equations, whose solutions we want to approximate. Further, we state our main assumptions and present the numerical schemes, which are analyzed in the subsequent sections. In Section \[sec:def\] we develop our notions of stochastic C-stability and B-consistency in a somewhat more abstract framework. Then we prove the already mentioned stability lemma, from which we easily deduce our strong convergence theorem for C-stable numerical methods.
In Section \[sec:nonlinear\] we briefly summarize some results on the solvability of nonlinear equations, which are needed for the error analysis of the SSBE method. In Sections \[sec:SSBE\] and \[sec:PEM\] we verify that the split-step backward Euler scheme and the projected Euler-Maruyama method are stochastically C-stable and B-consistent, and, hence, strongly convergent. In Section \[sec:exp\] we present some numerical experiments which illustrate our theoretical results for the discretization of the stochastic Ginzburg-Landau equation and for the financial $3/2$-volatility model.
Problem description and the numerical methods {#sec:prob}
=============================================
In this section we introduce the class of stochastic differential equations, which we aim to discretize. Further, we state our main assumptions and the numerical methods, which we study in the remainder of this paper.
Let $d,m \in {{\mathbb{N}}}$, $T \in (0,\infty)$, and $(\Omega, {{\mathcal{F}}}, ({{\mathcal{F}}}_t)_{t \in [0,T]},
{{\mathbf{P}}})$ be a filtered probability space satisfying the usual conditions. We consider the solution $X \colon [0,T] \times \Omega \to {{\mathbb{R}}}^d$ to the SODE $$\begin{aligned}
\label{sode}
\begin{split}
{\,\mathrm{d}X(t)} &= f(t,X(t)) {\,\mathrm{d}t} + \sum_{r=1}^m g^r(t,X(t))
{\,\mathrm{d}W^r(t)},\quad t \in [0,T], \\
X(0)&=X_0.
\end{split}\end{aligned}$$ Here $f\colon [0,T] \times {{\mathbb{R}}}^d \to {{\mathbb{R}}}^d$ stands for the drift coefficient function, while $g^r \colon [0,T]\times {{\mathbb{R}}}^d \to {{\mathbb{R}}}^d$, $r=1,\ldots,m$, are the diffusion coefficient functions. By $W^r \colon [0,T] \times
\Omega \to {{\mathbb{R}}}$, $r = 1,\ldots,m$, we denote an independent family of real-valued standard $({{\mathcal{F}}}_t)_{t\in [0,T]}$-Brownian motions on $(\Omega,\mathcal{F},{{\mathbf{P}}})$. For a sufficiently large $p \in [2,\infty)$ the initial condition $X_0$ is assumed to be an element of the space $L^p(\Omega,{{\mathcal{F}}}_0,{{\mathbf{P}}};{{\mathbb{R}}}^d)$.
By $\langle \cdot, \cdot \rangle$ and $|\cdot|$ we denote the Euclidean inner product and the Euclidean norm on ${{\mathbb{R}}}^d$, respectively. Throughout this paper we impose the following conditions on the drift and the diffusion coefficient functions. Note that the strong convergence result for the SSBE method in Theorem \[cor:SSBEconv\] requires a more restrictive lower bound for the parameter $\eta$ appearing in .
\[as:fg\] The mappings $f \colon [0,T] \times {{\mathbb{R}}}^d \to {{\mathbb{R}}}^d$ and $g^r \colon [0,T] \times {{\mathbb{R}}}^d \to {{\mathbb{R}}}^d$, $r = 1,\ldots,m$, are continuous. Furthermore, there exist a positive constant $L$ and a parameter value $\eta \in (\frac{1}{2},\infty)$ with $$\begin{aligned}
\label{eq3:onesided}
\big\langle f(t,x_1) - f(t,x_2), x_1-x_2 \big\rangle + \eta \sum_{r =
1}^m \big| g^r(t,x_1) - g^r(t,x_2) \big|^2 &\le L | x_1 - x_2 |^2
\end{aligned}$$ for all $t \in [0,T]$ and $x_1,x_2 \in {{\mathbb{R}}}^d$. In addition, there exists a constant $q \in (1,\infty)$ such that for every $r = 1,\ldots,m$ it holds $$\begin{aligned}
|f(t,x) | \vee | g^r(t,x)| &\le L \big( 1 + |x |^q \big),
\label{eq3:poly_growth}\\
| f(t_1,x) - f(t_2,x) | \vee | g^r(t_1,x) - g^r(t_2,x) | &\le L \big( 1 +
|x|^q \big) |t_1 - t_2|^{\frac{1}{2}},\label{eq3:loc_Lip_t}\\
| f(t,x_1) - f(t,x_2) |\vee | g^r(t,x_1) - g^r(t,x_2) | &\le L \big( 1 +
|x_1|^{q-1} + |x_2 |^{q-1} \big) | x_1 - x_2 |,
\label{eq3:loc_Lip}
\end{aligned}$$ for all $t,t_1,t_2 \in [0,T]$ and $x,x_1,x_2 \in {{\mathbb{R}}}^d$.
The assumption is called *global monotonicity condition*. We exclude the case $q = 1$, since this coincides with the well-known global Lipschitz case studied in [@kloeden1999; @milstein1995]. In Section \[sec:exp\] we present two more concrete SODEs, which fulfill Assumption \[as:fg\].
Before we describe the numerical schemes we remark that Assumption \[as:fg\] is also sufficient to ensure the existence of a unique solution to , see [@krylov1999], [@mao1997 Chap. 2.3] or [@roeckner2007 Chap. 3]. By this we understand an almost surely continuous and $({{\mathcal{F}}}_t)_{t \in [0,T]}$-adapted stochastic process $X \colon [0,T] \times \Omega \to {{\mathbb{R}}}^d$ which satisfies ${{\mathbf{P}}}$-almost surely the integral equation $$\begin{aligned}
\label{exact}
X(t) = X_0 + \int_{0}^{t} f(s,X(s)) {\,\mathrm{d}s} + \sum_{r = 1}^m \int_{0}^t
g^r(s,X(s)) {\,\mathrm{d}W^r(s)}\end{aligned}$$ for all $t \in [0,T]$. In addition, if there exist $C \in (0,\infty)$ and $p
\in [2, \infty)$ such that $$\begin{aligned}
\label{eq:growthcond}
\big\langle f(t,x), x \big\rangle + \frac{p-1}{2} \sum_{r =
1}^m \big| g^r(t,x) \big|^2 &\le C \big(1 + | x |^2 \big)\end{aligned}$$ for all $x \in {{\mathbb{R}}}^d$, $t \in [0,T]$, then the exact solution has a finite $p$-th moment, that is $$\begin{aligned}
\label{eq:moments}
\sup_{t \in [0,T]} \big\| X(t) \big\|_{L^p(\Omega;{{\mathbb{R}}}^d)} < \infty.\end{aligned}$$ For a proof we refer, for instance, to [@mao1997 Chap. 2.4]. The condition is called *global coercivity condition*.
For the formulation of the numerical methods we introduce the following terminology: For $N \in {{\mathbb{N}}}$ we say that $h = (h_1,\ldots,h_{N}) \in (0,T]^{N}$ is a *vector of (deterministic) step sizes* if $\sum_{i = 1}^N h_i = T$. Every vector of step sizes $h$ gives rise to a set of temporal grid points $\mathcal{T}_h$, which is given by $$\begin{aligned}
\mathcal{T}_h := \Big\{ t_n := \sum_{i = 1}^n h_i \, : \, n = 0,\ldots,N
\Big\}.\end{aligned}$$ For short we write $|h| := \max_{i \in \{ 1,\ldots,N\}} h_i$ for the *maximal step size* in $h$.
The aim of this paper is to show that the following two schemes are examples of stochastically C-stable numerical methods.
\[ex:SSBE1\] Consider the so called *split-step backward Euler method* (SSBE) studied in [@higham2002b]. For its formulation let $h = (h_1,\ldots,h_N)$ be a vector of step sizes. Then the SSBE method is given by setting $X_h^{\mathrm{SSBE}}(0) = X_0$ and by the recursion $$\begin{aligned}
\label{SSBErecursion}
\begin{split}
\overline{X}_h^{\mathrm{SSBE}}(t_i) &= X_h^{\mathrm{SSBE}}(t_{i-1}) + h_i
f(t_{i}, \overline{X}_h^{\mathrm{SSBE}}(t_i)),\\
X_h^{\mathrm{SSBE}}(t_{i}) &= \overline{X}_h^{\mathrm{SSBE}}(t_i) +
\sum_{r = 1}^m g^r(t_{i}, \overline{X}_{h}^{\mathrm{SSBE}}(t_i)) \big(
W^r(t_{i}) - W^r(t_{i-1}) \big),
\end{split}
\end{aligned}$$ for every $i = 1,\ldots,N$. It is shown in Section \[sec:SSBE\] that the SSBE scheme is a well-defined stochastic one-step method under Assumption \[as:fg\] and that it is strongly convergent of order $\gamma =
\frac{1}{2}$, see Theorem \[cor:SSBEconv\].
Let us note that we evaluate the diffusion coefficient functions $g^r$ at time $t_{i}$ in the $i$-th step of the SSBE method. This is somewhat unusual when compared to the definition of the backward Euler scheme in [@kloeden1999 Chap. 12], where $g^r$ is evaluated at $t_{i-1}$ instead. The reason for this slight modification lies in condition , which is applied to $f$ and $g^r$, $r =
1,\ldots,m$, simultaneously at the same point $t$ in time. Compare also with the inequality further below. It helps to avoid some technical issues if we already take this relationship into consideration in the definition of the numerical scheme.
\[ex:PEM\] Another example of a stochastically C-stable scheme is the following explicit variant of the Euler-Maruyama method, which we term *projected Euler-Maruyama method* (PEM). It consists of the standard Euler-Maruyama method and a projection onto a ball in ${{\mathbb{R}}}^d$ whose radius is expanding with a negative power of the step size.
To be more precise, let $h \in (0,1]^N$ be an arbitrary vector of step sizes. The parameter value $\alpha \in (0,1]$ is chosen to be $\alpha =
\frac{1}{2(q-1)}$ in dependence on the growth rate $q$ appearing in Assumption \[as:fg\]. Then, the PEM method is given by the recursion $$\begin{aligned}
\label{PEMrecursion}
\begin{split}
\overline{X}_h^{\mathrm{PEM}}(t_i) &:= \min\big( 1 , h_i^{-\alpha} \big|
X_h^{\mathrm{PEM}}(t_{i-1}) \big|^{-1} \big)
X_h^{\mathrm{PEM}}(t_{i-1}),\\
X_h^{\mathrm{PEM}}(t_i) &:= \overline{X}_h^{\mathrm{PEM}}(t_{i})
+ h_i f(t_{i-1}, \overline{X}_h^{\mathrm{PEM}}(t_{i}) )\\
&\quad + \sum_{r = 1}^m g^r(t_{i-1}, \overline{X}_h^{\mathrm{PEM}}(t_{i}))
\big( W^r(t_{i}) - W^r(t_{i-1}) \big), \; \text{ for } 1 \le i \le N,
\end{split}
\end{aligned}$$ where $X_h^{\mathrm{PEM}}(0) := X_0$. The strong error analysis of the PEM method is carried out in Section \[sec:PEM\].
To the best of our knowledge the PEM method for stochastic equations is new to the literature. Its definition is inspired by a truncation procedure, which plays an important role in the proof of [@mao1997 Chap. 2, Theorem 3.4]. For deterministic ODEs projection methods appear in geometric integration, see [@grimm2005]. After the first preprint of this paper has appeared on `arxiv.org` the asymptotic stability and integrability property of a variant of the PEM method is studied in [@szpruch2015] using Lyapunov function techniques.
An abstract convergence theorem {#sec:def}
===============================
This section contains a detailed introduction to our notions of stochastic C-stability and B-consistency in a somewhat more abstract framework. Then we state our strong convergence theorem, whose proof turns out to be a direct application of the stability Lemma \[lem:stab\].
We begin by introducing some additional notation. By $\overline{h} \in (0,T]$ we denote an *upper step size bound* and we define the set $\mathbb{T} :=
\mathbb{T}(\overline{h}) \subset [0,T) \times (0,\overline{h}]$ to be $$\begin{aligned}
\mathbb{T} := \big\{ (t,\delta) \in [0,T) \times
(0,\overline{h}] \, : \, t+\delta \le T \big\}. \end{aligned}$$ Further, for a given vector of step sizes $h \in (0,\overline{h}]^N$ we denote by $\mathcal{G}^{2}(\mathcal{T}_h)$ the space of all adapted and square integrable *grid functions*, that is $$\begin{aligned}
\mathcal{G}^{2}(\mathcal{T}_h) := \big\{ Z \colon \mathcal{T}_h \times
\Omega \to {{\mathbb{R}}}^d\, : \, Z(t_n) \in L^2(\Omega,{{\mathcal{F}}}_{t_n},{{\mathbf{P}}};{{\mathbb{R}}}^d)\text{ for all
} n = 0,1,\ldots,N \big\}.\end{aligned}$$ Our abstract class of stochastic one-step methods is defined as follows.
\[def:onestep\] Let $\overline{h} \in (0,T]$ be an upper step size bound and $\Psi \colon
{{\mathbb{R}}}^d \times \mathbb{T} \times \Omega \to {{\mathbb{R}}}^d$ be a mapping satisfying the following measurability and integrability condition: For every $(t,\delta) \in \mathbb{T}$ and $Z \in L^2(\Omega,{{\mathcal{F}}}_{t},{{\mathbf{P}}};{{\mathbb{R}}}^d)$ it holds $$\begin{aligned}
\label{eq:Psicond}
\Psi(Z,t,\delta) \in L^2(\Omega,{{\mathcal{F}}}_{t+\delta},{{\mathbf{P}}};{{\mathbb{R}}}^d).
\end{aligned}$$ Then, for every vector of step sizes $h = (h_1,\ldots,h_N) \in
(0,\overline{h}]^N$, $N \in {{\mathbb{N}}}$, we say that a grid function $X_h \in \mathcal{G}^2(\mathcal{T}_h)$ is generated by the *stochastic one-step method* $(\Psi,\overline{h},\xi)$ with initial condition $\xi \in L^2(\Omega,{{\mathcal{F}}}_{0},{{\mathbf{P}}};{{\mathbb{R}}}^d)$ if $$\begin{aligned}
\label{eq:onestep2}
\begin{split}
X_h(t_i) &= \Psi(X_h(t_{i-1}), t_{i-1}, h_i), \quad 1 \le i \le N,\\
X_h(t_0) &= \xi.
\end{split}
\end{aligned}$$ We call $\Psi$ the *one-step map* of the method.
Next, we present our definition of stability for stochastic one-step methods. It is a suitable generalization of the notion of C-stability from [@dekker1984 Definition 2.1.3] and has been used in the context of numerical approximation of stiff differential equations. We also refer to [@hairer1996 Prop. 15.2] and to [@strehmel2012 Chap. 8.4] for a more recent exposition.
\[def:cstab\] A stochastic one-step method $(\Psi,\overline{h},\xi)$ is called *stochastically C-stable* (with respect to the norm in $L^2(\Omega;{{\mathbb{R}}}^d)$) if there exist a constant $C_{\mathrm{stab}}$ and a parameter value $\eta \in (1,\infty)$ such that for all $(t,\delta) \in
\mathbb{T}$ and all random variables $Y, Z \in L^2(\Omega,{{\mathcal{F}}}_{t},{{\mathbf{P}}};{{\mathbb{R}}}^d)$ it holds $$\begin{aligned}
\label{eq:stab_cond1}
\begin{split}
&\big\| {{\mathbb{E}}}\big[ \Psi(Y,t,\delta) -
\Psi(Z,t,\delta) | {{\mathcal{F}}}_{t} \big]
\big\|_{L^2(\Omega;{{\mathbb{R}}}^d)}^2\\
&\qquad + \eta \big\| \big( {\mathrm{id}}- {{\mathbb{E}}}[ \, \cdot \, |
{{\mathcal{F}}}_{t} ] \big) \big( \Psi(Y,t,\delta) -
\Psi(Z,t,\delta) \big) \big\|^2_{L^2(\Omega;{{\mathbb{R}}}^d)}\\
&\quad\le \big(1 + C_{\mathrm{stab}} \delta \big)
\big\| Y - Z \big\|_{L^2(\Omega;{{\mathbb{R}}}^d)}^2.
\end{split}
\end{aligned}$$
Here and in what follows we denote by $\big({\mathrm{id}}- {{\mathbb{E}}}[ \, \cdot \, |{{\mathcal{F}}}_{t}
]\big)Y = Y - {{\mathbb{E}}}[Y|{{\mathcal{F}}}_{t}]$ the projection of an ${{\mathbb{R}}}^d$-valued random variable orthogonal to the conditional expectation ${{\mathbb{E}}}[Y| {{\mathcal{F}}}_{t}]$. The next definition is concerned with the local truncation error. The conditions and are well-known in the literature and are found in slightly different form in [@milstein1995 Th. 1.1] and [@milstein2004 Th. 1.1]. A related concept has been applied in [@tretyakov2013], but the authors need higher moment estimates of the local truncation error.
\[def:bcons\] A stochastic one-step method $(\Psi,\overline{h},\xi)$ is called *stochastically B-consistent* of order $\gamma > 0$ to if there exists a constant $C_{\mathrm{cons}}$ such that for every $(t,\delta) \in \mathbb{T}$ it holds $$\begin{aligned}
\label{eq:cons_cond1}
\begin{split}
\big\| {{\mathbb{E}}}\big[ X(t+\delta) - \Psi(X(t),t,\delta) | {{\mathcal{F}}}_{t} \big]
\big\|_{L^2(\Omega;{{\mathbb{R}}}^d)} \le C_{\mathrm{cons}} \delta^{ \gamma + 1}
\end{split}
\end{aligned}$$ and $$\begin{aligned}
\label{eq:cons_cond2}
\begin{split}
\big\| \big( {\mathrm{id}}- {{\mathbb{E}}}[ \, \cdot \, | {{\mathcal{F}}}_{t} ] \big)
\big( X(t + \delta) - \Psi(X(t),t,\delta) \big)
\big\|_{L^2(\Omega;{{\mathbb{R}}}^d)} \le C_{\mathrm{cons}} \delta^{ \gamma +
\frac{1}{2}},
\end{split}
\end{aligned}$$ where $X \colon [0,T] \times \Omega \to {{\mathbb{R}}}^d$ denotes the exact solution to .
Finally, it remains to give our definition of strong convergence.
\[def:conv\] A stochastic one-step method $(\Psi,\overline{h},\xi)$ *converges* *strongly* with order $\gamma > 0$ to the exact solution of if there exists a constant $C$ such that for every vector of step sizes $h \in (0,\overline{h}]^N$ it holds $$\begin{aligned}
\max_{n \in \{0,\ldots,N\}} \big\| X_h(t_n) - X(t_n)
\big\|_{L^{2}(\Omega;{{\mathbb{R}}}^d)} \le C |h|^{\gamma}.
\end{aligned}$$ Here $X$ denotes the exact solution to and $X_h \in
\mathcal{G}^2(\mathcal{T}_h)$ is the grid function generated by $(\Psi,\overline{h},\xi)$ with step sizes $h \in (0,\overline{h}]^N$.
We first prove the following useful stability lemma. It follows from the discrete Gronwall Lemma and gives a motivation for the conditions to . The underlying principle is similar to the proof of [@milstein1995 Th. 1.1] and [@milstein2004 Th. 1.1], but differs in one important point: In [@milstein1995 Th. 1.1] the error at time $t_i$ is related to the error at time $t_{i-1}$ by one discrete time step of the exact solution (compare with [@milstein1995 Lemma 1.1]). Here we follow the same idea, but we propagate the error by one application of the one-step map. This turns out to be important since a stochastically C-stable one-step method enjoys a global Lipschitz property.
\[lem:stab\] Let $(\Psi,\overline{h},\xi)$ be a stochastically C-stable one-step method with constants $C_\mathrm{stab}$ and $\eta \in (1, \infty)$. Let $h
\in (0,\overline{h}]^N$ be an arbitrary vector of step sizes. For every grid function $Z \in \mathcal{G}^2(\mathcal{T}_h)$ it then follows that $$\begin{aligned}
&\max_{n \in \{0,\ldots,N\}} \| Z(t_n) - X_h(t_n) \|_{L^2(\Omega;{{\mathbb{R}}}^d)}^2
\le {\mathrm{e}}^{(1 + C_{\mathrm{stab}}(1 + \overline{h}))T} \Big( \| Z(0) -
\xi \|_{L^2(\Omega;{{\mathbb{R}}}^d)}^2 \\
&\qquad + \sum_{i = 1}^{N} \big(1 + h_i^{-1}\big) \big\| {{\mathbb{E}}}\big[
Z(t_i) - \Psi(Z(t_{i-1}), t_{i-1}, h_i) | {{\mathcal{F}}}_{t_{i-1}} \big]
\big\|^2_{L^2(\Omega;{{\mathbb{R}}}^d)}\\
&\qquad + C_\eta \sum_{i = 1}^{N} \big\| \big(
{\mathrm{id}}- {{\mathbb{E}}}\big[ \, \cdot \,
| {{\mathcal{F}}}_{t_{i-1}} \big] \big) \big( Z(t_i) -
\Psi(Z(t_{i-1}), t_{i-1}, h_i) \big) \big\|^2_{L^2(\Omega;{{\mathbb{R}}}^d)} \Big),
\end{aligned}$$ where $C_\eta = 1 + (\eta - 1)^{-1} $ and $X_h \in
\mathcal{G}^2(\mathcal{T}_h)$ denotes the grid function generated by $(\Psi,\overline{h},\xi)$ with step sizes $h$.
For every $1 \le i \le N$ we write the difference of the two grid functions as $$\begin{aligned}
e_h(t_i) &:= Z(t_i) - X_h(t_i).
\end{aligned}$$ By the orthogonality of the conditional expectation it holds $$\begin{aligned}
\| e_h(t_i) \|_{L^2(\Omega;{{\mathbb{R}}}^d)}^2 = \big\| {{\mathbb{E}}}[ e_h(t_i) | {{\mathcal{F}}}_{t_{i-1}} ]
\big\|^2_{L^2(\Omega;{{\mathbb{R}}}^d)} + \big\| e_h(t_i) - {{\mathbb{E}}}[ e_h(t_i) | {{\mathcal{F}}}_{t_{i-1}}
] \big\|^2_{L^2(\Omega;{{\mathbb{R}}}^d)}.
\end{aligned}$$ The first term is estimated as follows: Since $$\begin{aligned}
e_h(t_i) &= Z(t_i) - \Psi(Z(t_{i-1}),t_{i-1},h_{i}) +
\Psi(Z(t_{i-1}),t_{i-1},h_{i}) - X_h(t_i)
\end{aligned}$$ we first have $$\begin{aligned}
\big\| {{\mathbb{E}}}[ e_h(t_i) | {{\mathcal{F}}}_{t_{i-1}} ] \big\|_{L^2(\Omega;{{\mathbb{R}}}^d)}
&\le \big\| {{\mathbb{E}}}\big[ Z(t_i) - \Psi(Z(t_{i-1}),t_{i-1},h_{i})
| {{\mathcal{F}}}_{t_{i-1}} \big] \big\|_{L^2(\Omega;{{\mathbb{R}}}^d)}\\
&\quad + \big\| {{\mathbb{E}}}\big[ \Psi(Z(t_{i-1}),t_{i-1},h_{i})
- X_h(t_{i}) | {{\mathcal{F}}}_{t_{i-1}} \big] \big\|_{L^2(\Omega;{{\mathbb{R}}}^d)}.
\end{aligned}$$ Then, after taking squares, it follows from the inequality $(a + b)^2 = a^2 +
2ab +b^2 \le (1 + h_{i}^{-1}) a^2 + (1 + h_i ) b^2$ that $$\begin{aligned}
&\big\| {{\mathbb{E}}}[ e_h(t_i) | {{\mathcal{F}}}_{t_{i-1}} ] \big\|^2_{L^2(\Omega;{{\mathbb{R}}}^d)}\\
&\quad \le (1 + h_{i}^{-1}) \big\| {{\mathbb{E}}}\big[ Z(t_i) -
\Psi(Z(t_{i-1}),t_{i-1},h_{i}) | {{\mathcal{F}}}_{t_{i-1}} \big]
\big\|_{L^2(\Omega;{{\mathbb{R}}}^d)}^2 \\
&\qquad +(1 + h_i ) \big\| {{\mathbb{E}}}\big[ \Psi(Z(t_{i-1}),t_{i-1},h_{i})
- X_h(t_{i}) |{{\mathcal{F}}}_{t_{i-1}} \big]
\big\|_{L^2(\Omega;{{\mathbb{R}}}^d)}^2.
\end{aligned}$$ Replacing $h_i$ by $\eta -1$, the second term is estimated by $$\begin{aligned}
&\big\| e_h(t_i) - {{\mathbb{E}}}[ e_h(t_i) | {{\mathcal{F}}}_{t_{i-1}}
] \big\|^2_{L^2(\Omega;{{\mathbb{R}}}^d)} \\
&\quad \le C_\eta \big\| \big( {\mathrm{id}}- {{\mathbb{E}}}[ \, \cdot \, | {{\mathcal{F}}}_{t_{i-1}}
] \big) \big( Z(t_i) - \Psi(Z(t_{i-1}),t_{i-1},h_{i}) \big)
\big\|^2_{L^2(\Omega;{{\mathbb{R}}}^d)} \\
&\qquad + \eta \big\| \big( {\mathrm{id}}- {{\mathbb{E}}}[ \, \cdot \, | {{\mathcal{F}}}_{t_{i-1}} ]
\big) \big( \Psi(Z(t_{i-1}),t_{i-1},h_{i}) -
X_h(t_{i}) \big) \big\|^2_{L^2(\Omega;{{\mathbb{R}}}^d)},
\end{aligned}$$ where $C_\eta = 1 + (\eta - 1)^{-1}$. To sum up, we have shown that $$\begin{aligned}
&\big\| Z(t_i) - X_h(t_i) \big\|_{L^2(\Omega;{{\mathbb{R}}}^d)}^2\\
&\quad \le (1 + h_{i}^{-1}) \big\| {{\mathbb{E}}}\big[ Z(t_i) -
\Psi(Z(t_{i-1}),t_{i-1},h_{i}) | {{\mathcal{F}}}_{t_{i-1}} \big]
\big\|_{L^2(\Omega;{{\mathbb{R}}}^d)}^2\\
&\qquad + (1 + h_i ) \big\| {{\mathbb{E}}}\big[ \Psi(Z(t_{i-1}),t_{i-1},h_{i})
- X_h(t_{i}) | {{\mathcal{F}}}_{t_{i-1}} \big]
\big\|_{L^2(\Omega;{{\mathbb{R}}}^d)}^2\\
&\qquad + C_\eta \big\| \big( {\mathrm{id}}- {{\mathbb{E}}}[ \, \cdot \, | {{\mathcal{F}}}_{t_{i-1}} ]
\big) \big( Z(t_i) - \Psi(Z(t_{i-1}),t_{i-1},h_{i}) \big)
\big\|^2_{L^2(\Omega;{{\mathbb{R}}}^d)} \\
&\qquad + \eta \big\| \big( {\mathrm{id}}- {{\mathbb{E}}}[ \, \cdot \, | {{\mathcal{F}}}_{t_{i-1}} ]
\big) \big( \Psi(Z(t_{i-1}),t_{i-1},h_{i}) - X_h(t_{i}) \big)
\big\|^2_{L^2(\Omega;{{\mathbb{R}}}^d)}
\end{aligned}$$ for all $1 \le i \le N$. After inserting $X_h(t_i) = \Psi(X_h(t_{i-1}),
t_{i-1},h_i)$ and we get $$\begin{aligned}
&\big\| Z(t_i) - X_h(t_i) \big\|_{L^2(\Omega;{{\mathbb{R}}}^d)}^2\\
&\quad \le (1 + h_{i}^{-1}) \big\| {{\mathbb{E}}}\big[ Z(t_i) -
\Psi(Z(t_{i-1}),t_{i-1},h_{i}) | {{\mathcal{F}}}_{t_{i-1}} \big]
\big\|_{L^2(\Omega;{{\mathbb{R}}}^d)}^2\\
&\qquad + C_\eta \big\| \big( {\mathrm{id}}- {{\mathbb{E}}}[ \, \cdot \, | {{\mathcal{F}}}_{t_{i-1}} ]
\big) \big( Z(t_i) - \Psi(Z(t_{i-1}),t_{i-1},h_{i}) \big)
\big\|^2_{L^2(\Omega;{{\mathbb{R}}}^d)} \\
&\qquad + \big(1 + (1 + C_{\mathrm{stab}}(1 + \overline{h})) h_i \big)
\big\| Z(t_{i-1}) - X_h(t_{i-1}) \big\|_{L^2(\Omega;{{\mathbb{R}}}^d)}^2,
\end{aligned}$$ where we also made use of the fact that by $$\begin{aligned}
&h_i \big\| {{\mathbb{E}}}\big[ \Psi(Z(t_{i-1}),t_{i-1},h_{i})
- X_h(t_{i}) | {{\mathcal{F}}}_{t_{i-1}} \big]\big\|_{L^2(\Omega;{{\mathbb{R}}}^d)}^2 \\
&\quad \le h_i (1 +
C_{\mathrm{stab}}\overline{h}) \big\| Z(t_{i-1}) - X_h(t_{i-1})
\big\|_{L^2(\Omega;{{\mathbb{R}}}^d)}^2.
\end{aligned}$$ Next, we subtract $\big\| Z(t_{i-1}) - X_h(t_{i-1})
\big\|_{L^2(\Omega;{{\mathbb{R}}}^d)}^2$ from both sides of this inequality. Together with a telescopic sum argument this yields $$\begin{aligned}
&\big\| Z(t_n) - X_h(t_n) \big\|_{L^2(\Omega;{{\mathbb{R}}}^d)}^2 - \big\|
Z(0) - X_h(0) \big\|_{L^2(\Omega;{{\mathbb{R}}}^d)}^2 \\
&\quad = \sum_{i = 1}^n \Big( \big\| Z(t_i) - X_h(t_i)
\big\|_{L^2(\Omega;{{\mathbb{R}}}^d)}^2 - \big\| Z(t_{i-1}) - X_h(t_{i-1})
\big\|_{L^2(\Omega;{{\mathbb{R}}}^d)}^2 \Big)\\
&\quad \le \sum_{i = 1}^{n} \Big( \big(1 + h_i^{-1}\big) \big\| {{\mathbb{E}}}\big[
Z(t_i) - \Psi(Z(t_{i-1}), t_{i-1}, h_i) | {{\mathcal{F}}}_{t_{i-1}} \big]
\big\|^2_{L^2(\Omega;{{\mathbb{R}}}^d)}\\
&\qquad + C_\eta \big\| \big( {\mathrm{id}}- {{\mathbb{E}}}\big[ \, \cdot \,
| {{\mathcal{F}}}_{t_{i-1}} \big] \big) \big( Z(t_i) -
\Psi(Z(t_{i-1}), t_{i-1}, h_i) \big) \big\|^2_{L^2(\Omega;{{\mathbb{R}}}^d)}\\
&\qquad +(1 + C_{\mathrm{stab}}(1 + \overline{h})) h_i
\big\| Z(t_{i-1}) - X_h(t_{i-1}) \big\|_{L^2(\Omega;{{\mathbb{R}}}^d)}^2 \Big).
\end{aligned}$$ After adding $\| Z(0) - X_h(0) \|_{L^2(\Omega;{{\mathbb{R}}}^d)}^2 = \| Z(0) - \xi
\|_{L^2(\Omega;{{\mathbb{R}}}^d)}^2$ the assertion follows from an application of the discrete Gronwall Lemma.
A simple consequence of the stability lemma is the following estimate of the second moment of the grid function generated by the numerical method.
\[cor:bound\] Let $(\Psi,\overline{h},\xi)$ be stochastically C-stable. If there exists a constant $C_0$ such that for all $(t,\delta) \in \mathbb{T}$ it holds $$\begin{aligned}
\big\| {{\mathbb{E}}}\big[ \Psi(0, t, \delta) | {{\mathcal{F}}}_{t} \big]
\big\|_{L^2(\Omega;{{\mathbb{R}}}^d)} &\le C_0 \delta,\\
\big\| \big( {\mathrm{id}}- {{\mathbb{E}}}\big[ \, \cdot \,
| {{\mathcal{F}}}_{t} \big] \big) \Psi(0, t, \delta)
\big\|_{L^2(\Omega;{{\mathbb{R}}}^d)}&\le C_0 \delta^{\frac{1}{2}},
\end{aligned}$$ then there exists a constant $C >0$ such that for all vectors of step sizes $h \in (0,\overline{h}]^N$, $$\begin{aligned}
&\max_{n \in \{0,\ldots,N\}} \| X_h(t_n) \|_{L^2(\Omega;{{\mathbb{R}}}^d)}
\le {\mathrm{e}}^{C T}
\Big( \| \xi \|_{L^2(\Omega;{{\mathbb{R}}}^d)}^2
+ C_0^2 (1 + \overline{h} + C_\eta) T \Big)^{\frac{1}{2}},
\end{aligned}$$ where $X_h$ denotes the grid function generated by $(\Psi,\overline{h},\xi)$ with step sizes $h$.
The assertion follows directly from an application of Lemma \[lem:stab\] with $Z \equiv 0 \in \mathcal{G}^2(\mathcal{T}_h)$.
As the next theorem shows consistency and stability imply the strong convergence of a stochastic one-step method.
\[th:Bconv\] Let the stochastic one-step method $(\Psi,\overline{h},\xi)$ be stochastically C-stable and stochastically B-consistent of order $\gamma >
0$. If $\xi = X_0$, then there exists a constant $C$ depending on $C_{\mathrm{stab}}$, $C_\mathrm{cons}$, $T$, $\overline{h}$, and $\eta$ such that for every vector of step sizes $h \in (0,\overline{h}]^N$ it holds $$\begin{aligned}
\max_{n \in \{0,\ldots,N\}} \big\| X(t_n) - X_h(t_n)
\big\|_{L^2(\Omega;{{\mathbb{R}}}^d)} \le C |h|^{\gamma},
\end{aligned}$$ where $X$ denotes the exact solution to and $X_h$ the grid function generated by $(\Psi,\overline{h},\xi)$ with step sizes $h$. In particular, $(\Psi,\overline{h},\xi)$ is strongly convergent of order $\gamma$.
Let $h \in (0,\overline{h}]^N$ be an arbitrary vector of step sizes. Since $X(0) = X_h(0) = X_0$ it directly follows from Lemma \[lem:stab\] that $$\begin{aligned}
&\max_{n \in \{0,\ldots,N\}} \| X(t_n) - X_h(t_n)
\|_{L^2(\Omega;{{\mathbb{R}}}^d)}^2\\
&\quad \le {\mathrm{e}}^{(1 + C_{\mathrm{stab}}(1 + \overline{h})) T} \Big( \sum_{i =
1}^{N} \big(1 + h_i^{-1}\big) \big\| {{\mathbb{E}}}\big[ X(t_i) - \Psi(X(t_{i-1}),
t_{i-1}, h_i) | {{\mathcal{F}}}_{t_i} \big] \big\|^2_{L^2(\Omega;{{\mathbb{R}}}^d)}\\
&\qquad + C_\eta \sum_{i = 1}^{N} \big\| \big( {\mathrm{id}}- {{\mathbb{E}}}\big[ \,
\cdot \, | {{\mathcal{F}}}_{t_{i-1}} \big] \big) \big( X(t_i) -
\Psi(X(t_{i-1}), t_{i-1}, h_i) \big) \big\|^2_{L^2(\Omega;{{\mathbb{R}}}^d)} \Big).
\end{aligned}$$ After using and we get $$\begin{aligned}
&\max_{n \in \{0,\ldots,N\}} \big\| X(t_n) - X_h(t_n)
\big\|_{L^2(\Omega;{{\mathbb{R}}}^d)}^2\\
&\quad \le {\mathrm{e}}^{(1 + C_{\mathrm{stab}}(1 + \overline{h})) T}
C_{\mathrm{cons}}^2 \sum_{i = 1}^N \Big( (1 + h_i^{-1}) h_i^{2(\gamma + 1)}
+ C_\eta h_i^{2 \gamma + 1} \Big)\\
&\quad \le {\mathrm{e}}^{(1 + C_{\mathrm{stab}}(1 + \overline{h})) T}
(1 + \overline{h} + C_\eta) T C_{\mathrm{cons}}^2 |h|^{2 \gamma}.
\end{aligned}$$ This completes the proof.
Solving nonlinear equations under a one-sided Lipschitz condition {#sec:nonlinear}
=================================================================
This section collects some results on the solvability of nonlinear equations under a one-sided Lipschitz condition, which are needed for the error analysis of the split-step backward Euler scheme.
The following Uniform Monotonicity Theorem is a standard result in nonlinear analysis (see for instance, [@ortega2000 Chap.6.4], [@stuart1996 Theorem C.2]). We take explicit notice of the Lipschitz bound for the inverse which will be used later on.
\[th:monotonicity\] Let $G \colon {{\mathbb{R}}}^d \to {{\mathbb{R}}}^d$ be a continuous mapping such that there exists a positive constant $c$ with $$\begin{aligned}
\label{onesided}
\langle G(x_1) - G(x_2), x_1 - x_2 \rangle \ge c | x_1 - x_2 |^2
\end{aligned}$$ for all $x_1, x_2 \in {{\mathbb{R}}}^d$. Then $G$ is a homeomorphism with Lipschitz continuous inverse, in particular $$\begin{aligned}
\label{lipinv}
\big| G^{-1}(y_1)-G^{-1}(y_2) \big| \le \frac{1}{c} |y_1 - y_2|
\end{aligned}$$ for all $y_1, y_2 \in {{\mathbb{R}}}^d$.
It is well known [@ortega2000 Chap. 6.4], [@stuart1996 Theorem C.2] that $G(x)=y$ has a unique solution for every $ y\in {{\mathbb{R}}}^d$. Setting $x_1=G^{-1}(y_1),x_2=G^{-1}(y_2)$, condition implies $$\begin{aligned}
c |x_1-x_2 |^2 \le
\langle y_1-y_2, x_1-x_2 \rangle
\le |y_1 -y_2| |x_1-x_2|,
\end{aligned}$$ from which the Lipschitz estimate follows.
The following consequence of Theorem \[th:monotonicity\] contains the key estimates for the C-stability of the split-step backward Euler scheme. For related estimates under global Lipschitz conditions on the diffusion coefficient functions we refer to [@higham2002b Lemmas 3.4, 4.5].
\[cor:homeomorph\] Let the functions $f \colon [0,T] \times {{\mathbb{R}}}^d \to {{\mathbb{R}}}^d$ and $g^r \colon [0,T]
\times {{\mathbb{R}}}^d \to {{\mathbb{R}}}^d$, $r = 1,\ldots,m$, satisfy Assumption \[as:fg\] with Lipschitz constant $L > 0$ and parameter value $\eta \in
(\frac{1}{2},\infty)$. Let $\overline{h} \in (0,L^{-1})$ be given and define for every $\delta \in
(0,\overline{h}]$ the mapping $F_\delta \colon [0,T] \times {{\mathbb{R}}}^d \to {{\mathbb{R}}}^d$ by $F_\delta(t,x) = x - \delta f(t, x)$. Then, the mapping ${{\mathbb{R}}}^d \ni x \mapsto
F_\delta(t,x) \in {{\mathbb{R}}}^d$ is a homeomorphism for every $t \in [0,T]$.
In addition, the inverse $F_\delta^{-1}(t,\cdot) \colon {{\mathbb{R}}}^d
\to {{\mathbb{R}}}^d$ satisfies $$\begin{aligned}
\label{eq:Fhinv_lip}
\big| F_\delta^{-1}(t,x_1)-F_\delta^{-1}(t,x_2) \big| &\le (1 - L
\delta)^{-1} | x_1 - x_2 |, \\
\label{eq:Fhinv_growth}
\big| F_\delta^{-1}(t,x) \big| &\le(1 - L
\delta)^{-1} \big( L \delta + | x | \big),
\end{aligned}$$ for every $x,x_1, x_2 \in {{\mathbb{R}}}^d$ and $t \in [0,T]$. Moreover, there exists a constant $C_1$ only depending on $L$ and $\overline{h}$ such that $$\begin{aligned}
\label{eq:stab}
\begin{split}
&\big| F_\delta^{-1}(t,x_1) - F_\delta^{-1}(t,x_2) \big|^2 + \eta \delta
\sum_{r = 1}^m \big| g^r(t, F_\delta^{-1}(t,x_1)) - g^r(t,
F_\delta^{-1}(t,x_2)) \big|^2\\
&\qquad \le (1 + C_1 \delta) \big| x_1 - x_2 \big|^2
\end{split}
\end{aligned}$$ for every $x_1, x_2 \in {{\mathbb{R}}}^d$ and $t \in [0,T]$.
Fix arbitrary $\delta \in (0, \overline{h}]$ and $t \in [0,T]$. First, note that by the mapping $F_\delta(t,\cdot)
\colon {{\mathbb{R}}}^d \to {{\mathbb{R}}}^d$ is continuous and satisfies $$\begin{aligned}
&\langle F_\delta(t,x_1) - F_\delta(t,x_2), x_1 - x_2 \rangle\\
&\quad = | x_1 - x_2 |^2 - \delta
\langle f(t,x_1) - f(t,x_2), x_1 - x_2 \rangle
\ge (1 - L \delta) | x_1 - x_2 |^2
\end{aligned}$$ for all $x_1, x_2 \in {{\mathbb{R}}}^d$. Note that $1- L\delta > 0$ follows from $\overline{h} \in (0,L^{-1})$ and $\delta \in (0,\overline{h}]$. Hence, we directly obtain the first assertion and from Theorem \[th:monotonicity\].
Next, we set $x_0 := F_\delta(t,0) = -\delta f(t ,0) \in {{\mathbb{R}}}^d$. Then $F_\delta^{-1}(t,x_0) = 0$ and for arbitrary $x \in {{\mathbb{R}}}^d$ by and we derive $$\begin{aligned}
\big| F_\delta^{-1}(t,x) \big|
&= \big| F_\delta^{-1}(t,x) - F_\delta^{-1}(t,x_0) \big|
\le(1 - L \delta)^{-1} |x - x_0|\\
& \le (1 - L \delta)^{-1} \big( | x | + \delta |f(t,0)| \big)
\le (1 - L \delta)^{-1} \big( | x |+ L \delta \big).
\end{aligned}$$ It remains to give a proof of . By also taking the diffusion coefficient functions into account, it follows from that $$\begin{aligned}
&\langle F_\delta(t,x_1) - F_\delta(t,x_2), x_1 - x_2 \rangle\\
&\quad = | x_1 - x_2 |^2 - \delta
\langle f(t,x_1) - f(t,x_2), x_1 - x_2 \rangle\\
&\quad \ge (1 - L \delta) | x_1 - x_2 |^2 + \eta \delta \sum_{r = 1}^m \big|
g^r(t,x_1) - g^r(t,x_2) \big|^2.
\end{aligned}$$ For some $y_1, y_2 \in {{\mathbb{R}}}^d$ we substitute $x_1 = F_\delta^{-1}(t,y_1)$ and $x_2 = F_\delta^{-1}(t,y_2)$ into the inequality. Then, after rearranging we end up with $$\begin{aligned}
&\big|F_\delta^{-1}(t,y_1) - F_\delta^{-1}(t,y_2)\big|^2 + \eta \delta
\sum_{r = 1}^m \big| g^r(t,F_\delta^{-1}(t,y_1)) -
g^r(t,F_\delta^{-1}(t,y_2)) \big|^2\\
&\quad \le \big\langle y_1 - y_2, F_\delta^{-1}(t,y_1) -
F_\delta^{-1}(t,y_2) \big\rangle + L \delta \big| F_\delta^{-1}(t,y_1) -
F_\delta^{-1}(t,y_2)\big|^2.
\end{aligned}$$ Now, an application of , together with the Cauchy-Schwarz inequality, yields $$\begin{aligned}
&\big|F_\delta^{-1}(t,y_1) - F_\delta^{-1}(t,y_2)\big|^2 +\eta \delta
\sum_{r = 1}^m \big| g^r(t,F_\delta^{-1}(t,y_1)) -
g^r(t,F_\delta^{-1}(t,y_2)) \big|^2\\
&\quad \le |y_1 - y_2 | \big|F_\delta^{-1}(t,y_1) -
F_\delta^{-1}(t,y_2)\big| + L \delta \big| F_\delta^{-1}(t,y_1) -
F_\delta^{-1}(t,y_2)\big|^2\\
&\quad \le(1 - L \delta)^{-1} \big( 1 + (1 - L \delta)^{-1} L \delta \big)
|y_1 - y_2 |^2 =(1-L \delta)^{-2}|y_1-y_2|^2
\end{aligned}$$ for all $y_1, y_2 \in {{\mathbb{R}}}^d$. Finally, note that $b(\delta)=(1-L \delta)^{-2}$ is a convex function, hence for all $\delta \in [0,\overline{h}]$, $$\begin{aligned}
(1 - L \delta)^{-2} \le 1 + C_1 \delta , \quad
C_1 = \frac{b(\overline{h})-b(0)} {\overline{h}}= L(2-L\overline{h})
(1- L \overline{h})^{-2},\end{aligned}$$ and inequality is verified.
The following lemma contains some further estimates of $F_{\delta}^{-1}$, which will be useful for the analysis of the local truncation error.
\[lem:est\_homeo\] Consider the same situation as in Corollary \[cor:homeomorph\]. Then there exist constants $C_2$, $C_3$ only depending on $L$, $\overline{h}$ and $q$ such that for every $\delta \in (0,\overline{h}]$ the inverse $F_\delta^{-1}(t,\cdot) \colon {{\mathbb{R}}}^d \to {{\mathbb{R}}}^d$ satisfies the estimates $$\begin{aligned}
\label{eq:1ord}
\big| F_\delta^{-1}(t,x) - x \big| &\le \delta C_2 \big( 1 + |
x|^q \big),\\
\label{eq:2ord}
\big| F_\delta^{-1}(t,x) - x - \delta f(t,x) \big| &\le \delta^2 C_3 \big(
1 + |x|^{2q-1} \big)
\end{aligned}$$ for every $x \in {{\mathbb{R}}}^d$ and $t \in [0,T]$.
Let $x \in {{\mathbb{R}}}^d$ be arbitrary. For the proof of we get from that $$\begin{aligned}
\big| F_\delta^{-1}(t,x) - x \big| = \big| F_\delta^{-1}(t,x) -
F_\delta^{-1}(t, F_\delta(t,x)) \big| \le (1 - L
\delta)^{-1} \delta \big| f(t,x) \big|.
\end{aligned}$$ After inserting and since $\delta \le \overline{h}$ we arrive at $$\begin{aligned}
\big| F_\delta^{-1}(t,x) - x \big| \le L (1 - L \overline{h})^{-1} \delta
\big( 1 + |x|^q \big),
\end{aligned}$$ which is with $C_2 = L (1 - L\overline{h})^{-1}$.
Next, by making use of the substitution $y = F_\delta^{-1}(t,x)$ as well as we obtain $$\begin{aligned}
&\big| F_\delta^{-1}(t,x) - x - \delta f(t,x) \big|
= \big| y - F_\delta(t,y) - \delta f(t,F_\delta(t,y)) \big| \\
&\quad = \delta \big| f(t,y) - f(t,F_\delta(t,y)) \big| \\
&\quad \le L \delta \big( 1 + |y|^{q-1} + | F_\delta(t,y) |^{q-1} \big)
\big| y - F_\delta(t,y) \big| \\
&\quad \le L \delta \big( 1 + |x|^{q-1} + | F_\delta^{-1}(t,x) |^{q-1}
\big) \big| F_\delta^{-1}(t,x) - x \big|
\end{aligned}$$ for every $x \in {{\mathbb{R}}}^d$. After inserting and we find that $$\begin{aligned}
\big| F_\delta^{-1}(t,x) - x - \delta f(t,x) \big|
&\le C_2 L \delta^2 \big( 1 + |x|^q \big) \big( 1 + |x|^{q-1} + |
F_\delta^{-1}(t,x) |^{q-1} \big)\\
&\le \delta^2 C_3 \big( 1 + |x|^{2q-1} \big)
\end{aligned}$$ for a suitable constant $C_3$ only depending on $q$, $L$, and $\overline{h}$.
C-stability and B-consistency of the SSBE method {#sec:SSBE}
================================================
In Section \[sec:def\] we derived a strong convergence result in an abstract framework. Using Section \[sec:nonlinear\] we are now able to verify that the split-step backward Euler scheme from Example \[ex:SSBE1\] is stable and consistent with order $\gamma =
\frac{1}{2}$.
Let us first show that the SSBE method is indeed a well-defined stochastic one-step method in the sense of Definition \[def:onestep\]. In Section \[sec:nonlinear\] we saw that the implicit step of the SSBE method admits a unique solution if $f$ satisfies Assumption \[as:fg\] with one-sided Lipschitz constant $L$. To be more precise, let $\overline{h} \in (0,L^{-1})$ and consider an arbitrary vector of step sizes $h \in (0,\overline{h}]^N$. Then, we obtain from Corollary \[cor:homeomorph\] that for every $1 \le i \le
N$ there exists a homeomorphism $F_{h_i}(t_i,\cdot) \colon {{\mathbb{R}}}^d \to {{\mathbb{R}}}^d$ such that $\overline{X}_h^{\mathrm{SSBE}}(t_i) =
F_{h_i}^{-1}(t_i,X_h^{\mathrm{SSBE}}(t_{i-1}))$ is the solution to $$\begin{aligned}
\overline{X}_h^{\mathrm{SSBE}}(t_i) &= X_h^{\mathrm{SSBE}}(t_{i-1}) + h_i
f(t_{i}, \overline{X}_h^{\mathrm{SSBE}}(t_i)).\end{aligned}$$ Hence, we define the one-step map $\Psi^{\mathrm{SSBE}} \colon {{\mathbb{R}}}^d
\times \mathbb{T} \times \Omega \to {{\mathbb{R}}}^d$ of the split-step backward Euler method by $$\begin{aligned}
\label{eq:PsiSSBE}
\Psi^{\mathrm{SSBE}}(x,t,\delta) = F_{\delta}^{-1}(t+\delta,x) +
\sum_{r=1}^m g^r(t + \delta, F_\delta^{-1}(t+\delta, x)) \Delta_\delta
W^r(t)\end{aligned}$$ for every $x \in {{\mathbb{R}}}^d$ and $(t,\delta) \in \mathbb{T}$, where $\Delta_\delta
W^r(t) := W^r(t + \delta) - W^r(t)$. Next, we verify that $\Psi^{\mathrm{SSBE}}$ satisfies condition and the assumptions of Corollary \[cor:bound\].
\[prop:SSBE\] Let the functions $f$ and $g^r$, $r = 1,\ldots,m$, satisfy Assumption \[as:fg\] with $L \in (0,\infty)$ and $q \in (1,\infty)$ and let $\overline{h} \in (0, L^{-1})$. For every initial value $\xi \in
L^2(\Omega;{{\mathcal{F}}}_{0},{{\mathbf{P}}};{{\mathbb{R}}}^d)$ it holds that $(\Psi^{\mathrm{SSBE}}, \overline{h}, \xi)$ is a stochastic one-step method.
In addition, there exists a constant $C_0$, which depends on $L$, $q$, $m$, and $\overline{h}$, such that $$\begin{aligned}
\label{eq:SSBEzero1}
\big\| {{\mathbb{E}}}\big[ \Psi^{\mathrm{SSBE}}( 0, t,\delta) | {{\mathcal{F}}}_{t} \big]
\big\|_{L^2(\Omega;{{\mathbb{R}}}^d)} &\le C_0 \delta,\\
\label{eq:SSBEzero2}
\big\| \big( {\mathrm{id}}- {{\mathbb{E}}}[ \, \cdot\, | {{\mathcal{F}}}_{t} ] \big)
\Psi^{\mathrm{SSBE}}( 0, t,\delta) \big\|_{L^2(\Omega;{{\mathbb{R}}}^d)} & \le C_0
\delta^{\frac{1}{2}}
\end{aligned}$$ for all $(t,\delta) \in \mathbb{T}$.
For the first assertion we only have to verify that $\Psi^{\mathrm{SSBE}}$ satisfies . For this we fix arbitrary $(t, \delta) \in
\mathbb{T}$ and $Z \in L^2(\Omega,{{\mathcal{F}}}_t,{{\mathbf{P}}};{{\mathbb{R}}}^d)$. Then, we obtain from Corollary \[cor:homeomorph\] that the mapping $F_\delta^{-1}(t+\delta,
\cdot) \colon {{\mathbb{R}}}^d \to {{\mathbb{R}}}^d$ is a homeomorphism satisfying the linear growth bound . Hence, we have $$\begin{aligned}
F_\delta^{-1}(t+\delta, Z) \in L^2(\Omega,{{\mathcal{F}}}_t,{{\mathbf{P}}};{{\mathbb{R}}}^d).
\end{aligned}$$ Consequently, by the continuity of $g^r$ the mapping $$\begin{aligned}
\Omega \ni \omega \mapsto g^r(t+\delta, F_\delta^{-1}(t+\delta, Z(\omega)))
\in {{\mathbb{R}}}^d
\end{aligned}$$ is ${{\mathcal{F}}}_t / {{\mathcal{B}}}({{\mathbb{R}}}^d)$-measurable for every $r = 1,\ldots,m$. Therefore, $\Psi^{\mathrm{SSBE}}(Z,t,\delta) \colon \Omega \to {{\mathbb{R}}}^d$ is a well-defined random variable, which is ${{\mathcal{F}}}_{t+\delta} / {{\mathcal{B}}}({{\mathbb{R}}}^d)$-measurable. It remains to show that $\Psi^{\mathrm{SSBE}}(Z,t,\delta)$ is square integrable.
For this we first consider the case that $Z = 0 \in L^2(\Omega;{{\mathbb{R}}}^d)$. Then it is evident that $\Psi^{\mathrm{SSBE}}( 0, t,\delta) \in
L^2(\Omega,{{\mathcal{F}}}_{t + \delta},{{\mathbf{P}}};{{\mathbb{R}}}^d)$. In particular, it follows from that $$\begin{aligned}
\big\| {{\mathbb{E}}}\big[ \Psi^{\mathrm{SSBE}}( 0, t,\delta) | {{\mathcal{F}}}_{t} \big]
\big\|_{L^2(\Omega;{{\mathbb{R}}}^d)} =
\big| F_\delta^{-1}(t+\delta, 0) \big| \le (1 - L\delta)^{-1} L \delta
\le (1 - L \overline{h})^{-1} L \delta.
\end{aligned}$$ Further, from an application of Itō’s isometry, and we get $$\begin{aligned}
&\big\| \big( {\mathrm{id}}- {{\mathbb{E}}}[ \, \cdot\, | {{\mathcal{F}}}_{t} ] \big)
\Psi^{\mathrm{SSBE}}( 0, t,\delta) \big\|_{L^2(\Omega;{{\mathbb{R}}}^d)}^2\\
&\quad = \Big\| \sum_{r = 1}^m g^r(t+\delta, F_\delta^{-1}(t+\delta, 0) )
\big( W^r(t+\delta) - W^r(t) \big) \Big\|^2_{L^2(\Omega;{{\mathbb{R}}}^d)}\\
&\quad = \delta \sum_{r = 1}^m \big| g^r(t+\delta, F_\delta^{-1}(t+\delta,
0) ) \big|^2\\
&\quad \le L^2 m \delta \big( 1 + \big| F_\delta^{-1}(t+\delta,
0) \big|^q \big)^2 \le L^2 m\big( 1 + (1 - L \overline{h})^{-q} L^q
\overline{h}^q \big)^2 \delta.
\end{aligned}$$ This verifies and .
Next, for arbitrary $Z \in L^2(\Omega;{{\mathcal{F}}}_t,{{\mathbf{P}}};{{\mathbb{R}}}^d)$ we compute by similar arguments $$\begin{aligned}
&\big\| \Psi^{\mathrm{SSBE}}(Z,t,\delta) - \Psi^{\mathrm{SSBE}}( 0,
t,\delta) \big\|^2_{L^2(\Omega;{{\mathbb{R}}}^d)}\\
&\quad = \big\| F_\delta^{-1}(t+\delta, Z) - F_\delta^{-1}(t+\delta, 0)
\big\|_{L^2(\Omega;{{\mathbb{R}}}^d)}^2 \\
&\qquad + \delta \sum_{r = 1}^m \big\|
g^r(t+\delta, F_\delta^{-1}(t+\delta, Z) ) -
g^r(t+\delta, F_\delta^{-1}(t+\delta, 0) )
\big\|_{L^2(\Omega;{{\mathbb{R}}}^d)}^2\\
&\quad = {{\mathbb{E}}}\Big[ \big| F_\delta^{-1}(t+\delta, Z) -
F_\delta^{-1}(t+\delta, 0) \big|^2 \\
&\qquad + \delta \sum_{r = 1}^m \big|
g^r(t+\delta, F_\delta^{-1}(t+\delta, Z) ) -
g^r(t+\delta, F_\delta^{-1}(t+\delta, 0) )
\big|^2 \Big].
\end{aligned}$$ Thus, an application of yields $$\begin{aligned}
&\big\| \Psi^{\mathrm{SSBE}}(Z,t,\delta) - \Psi^{\mathrm{SSBE}}( 0,
t,\delta) \big\|^2_{L^2(\Omega;{{\mathbb{R}}}^d)} \le (1 + C_1 \delta) \| Z
\|^2_{L^2(\Omega;{{\mathbb{R}}}^d)}.
\end{aligned}$$ This completes the proof.
\[th:SSBEstab\] Let the functions $f$ and $g^r$, $r = 1,\ldots,m$, satisfy Assumption \[as:fg\] with $L \in (0,\infty)$ and $\eta
\in (1,\infty)$. Further, let $\overline{h} \in (0, L^{-1})$. Then, for every $\xi \in
L^2(\Omega,{{\mathcal{F}}}_0,{{\mathbf{P}}};{{\mathbb{R}}}^d)$ the SSBE scheme $(\Psi^{\mathrm{SSBE}},\overline{h},\xi)$ is stochastically C-stable.
Let us consider arbitrary $(t,\delta) \in \mathbb{T}$ and $Y, Z \in L^2(\Omega,{{\mathcal{F}}}_t,{{\mathbf{P}}};{{\mathbb{R}}}^d)$. For the proof of we first note that $$\begin{aligned}
{{\mathbb{E}}}\big[ \Psi^{\mathrm{SSBE}}(Y,t,\delta) -
\Psi^{\mathrm{SSBE}}(Z,t,\delta) | {{\mathcal{F}}}_{t} \big]
= F_{\delta}^{-1}(t + \delta,Y) -
F_{\delta}^{-1}(t + \delta,Z)
\end{aligned}$$ and $$\begin{aligned}
&\big( {\mathrm{id}}- {{\mathbb{E}}}[ \, \cdot \, | {{\mathcal{F}}}_{t} ] \big)
\big( \Psi^{\mathrm{SSBE}}(Y,t,\delta) -
\Psi^{\mathrm{SSBE}}(Z,t,\delta) \big)\\
&\quad = \sum_{r = 1}^m \big(
g^r(t + \delta,F_{\delta}^{-1}(t + \delta,Y)) -
g^r(t + \delta,F_{\delta}^{-1}(t + \delta,Z)) \big) \Delta_\delta W^r(t).
\end{aligned}$$ Then we obtain from $$\begin{aligned}
&\big\| F_{\delta}^{-1}(t + \delta,Y) -
F_{\delta}^{-1}(t + \delta,Z) \big\|_{L^2(\Omega;{{\mathbb{R}}}^d)}^2\\
&\quad + \eta \Big\| \sum_{r = 1}^m \big(
g^r(t + \delta,F_{\delta}^{-1}(t + \delta,Y)) -
g^r(t + \delta,F_{\delta}^{-1}(t + \delta,Z)) \big) \Delta_\delta W^r(t)
\Big\|^2_{L^2(\Omega;{{\mathbb{R}}}^d)} \\
&= {{\mathbb{E}}}\Big[ \big| F_{\delta}^{-1}(t + \delta,Y) -
F_{\delta}^{-1}(t + \delta,Z) \big|^2 \\
&\qquad + \eta \delta \sum_{r = 1}^m \big|
g^r(t + \delta,F_{\delta}^{-1}(t + \delta,Y)) -
g^r(t + \delta,F_{\delta}^{-1}(t + \delta,Z)) \big|^2 \Big]\\
&\le (1 + C_1 \delta) \big\| Y - Z \big\|^2_{L^2(\Omega;{{\mathbb{R}}}^d)}.
\end{aligned}$$ which is condition for the SSBE method with $C_{\mathrm{stab}} = C_1 $.
The following fact is a consequence of Theorem \[th:SSBEstab\] and Corollary \[cor:bound\] together with and .
\[cor:SSBEbound\] Let the functions $f$ and $g^r$, $r = 1,\ldots,m$, satisfy Assumption \[as:fg\] with $L \in (0,\infty)$ and $\eta \in (1,\infty)$. Let $\overline{h} \in (0, L^{-1})$. Then, for every vector of step sizes $h \in
(0,\overline{h}]^N$ it holds for the grid function $X_h$ generated by $(\Psi^{\mathrm{SSBE}},\overline{h},\xi)$ that $$\begin{aligned}
\max_{n \in \{0,\ldots,N\}} \| X_h^{\mathrm{SSBE}}(t_n)
\|_{L^2(\Omega;{{\mathbb{R}}}^d)} \le {\mathrm{e}}^{C T} \Big(
\| \xi \|^2_{L^2(\Omega;{{\mathbb{R}}}^d)} + C_0^2( 1 + \overline{h} + C_\eta ) T
\Big)^{\frac{1}{2}},
\end{aligned}$$ where the constant $C_0$ is the same as in Proposition \[prop:SSBE\].
In preparation of the proof of consistency we state the following result on the Hölder continuity of the exact solution to with respect to the norm in $L^p(\Omega;{{\mathbb{R}}}^d)$.
\[prop:Hoelder\] Let $f$ and $g^r$, $r = 1,\ldots,m$, satisfy Assumption \[as:fg\] with $L \in (0,\infty)$ and $q \in (1,\infty)$. For every $p \in [2,\infty)$ with $\sup_{t \in [0,T]}
\|X(t)\|_{L^{pq}(\Omega;{{\mathbb{R}}}^d)} < \infty$ there exists a constant $C$ such that $$\begin{aligned}
\big\| X(t_1) - X(t_2) \big\|_{L^p(\Omega;{{\mathbb{R}}}^d)} \le C \big(1 +
\sup_{t \in [0,T]} \|X(t)\|_{L^{pq}(\Omega;{{\mathbb{R}}}^d)}^q \big)
| t_1 - t_2|^{\frac{1}{2}}
\end{aligned}$$ for all $t_1, t_2 \in [0,T]$, where $X$ denotes the exact solution to .
Let $0 \le t_1 < t_2 \le T$. After inserting we get $$\begin{aligned}
\big\| X(t_1) - X(t_2) \big\|_{L^p(\Omega;{{\mathbb{R}}}^d)} &\le
\int_{t_1}^{t_2} \big\| f(\tau,X(\tau)) \big\|_{L^p(\Omega;{{\mathbb{R}}}^d)}
{\,\mathrm{d}\tau} \\
&\quad + \Big\| \sum_{r = 1}^m \int_{t_1}^{t_2} g^r(\tau,X(\tau))
{\,\mathrm{d}W^r(\tau)} \Big\|_{L^p(\Omega;{{\mathbb{R}}}^d)}.
\end{aligned}$$ For the drift integral it follows from that $$\begin{aligned}
\int_{t_1}^{t_2} \big\| f(\tau,X(\tau)) \big\|_{L^p(\Omega;{{\mathbb{R}}}^d)}
{\,\mathrm{d}\tau} \le L \big( 1 + \sup_{\tau \in [0,T]} \| X(\tau)
\|_{L^{pq}(\Omega;{{\mathbb{R}}}^d)}^q \big) |t_1 - t_2|.
\end{aligned}$$ In addition, the Burkholder-Davis-Gundy inequality yields $$\begin{aligned}
\Big\| \sum_{r = 1}^m \int_{t_1}^{t_2} g^r(\tau,X(\tau))
{\,\mathrm{d}W^r(\tau)} \Big\|_{L^p(\Omega;{{\mathbb{R}}}^d)} \le C \Big( \sum_{r = 1}^m
\int_{t_1}^{t_2} \big\| g^r(\tau,X(\tau)) \big\|^2_{L^p(\Omega;{{\mathbb{R}}}^d)}
{\,\mathrm{d}\tau} \Big)^{\frac{1}{2}}
\end{aligned}$$ for a constant $C = C(p)$. Then, we deduce from that $$\begin{aligned}
\big\| g^r(\tau,X(\tau)) \big\|_{L^p(\Omega;{{\mathbb{R}}}^d)} \le
L \big( 1 + \sup_{\tau \in [0,T]} \big\| X(\tau)
\big\|_{L^{pq}(\Omega;{{\mathbb{R}}}^d)}^q \big).
\end{aligned}$$ Therefore, it holds $$\begin{aligned}
&\Big\| \sum_{r = 1}^m \int_{t_1}^{t_2} g^r(\tau,X(\tau))
{\,\mathrm{d}W^r(\tau)} \Big\|_{L^p(\Omega;{{\mathbb{R}}}^d)}\\
&\quad \le C L m^{\frac{1}{2}} \big( 1 + \sup_{\tau \in [0,T]} \big\|
X(\tau) \big\|_{L^{pq}(\Omega;{{\mathbb{R}}}^d)}^q \big) | t_1 - t_2 |^{\frac{1}{2}}.
\end{aligned}$$ This completes the proof.
The following two lemmas contain estimates, which play important roles in the proofs of consistency for the SSBE scheme and the PEM method.
\[lem:cons1\] Let Assumption \[as:fg\] be satisfied by $f$ and $g^r$, $r = 1,\ldots,m$, with $L \in (0,\infty)$ and $q \in (1,\infty)$. Further, let the exact solution $X$ to satisfy $\sup_{t \in [0,T]} \| X(t) \|_{L^{4q-2}(\Omega;{{\mathbb{R}}}^d)} <
\infty$. Then, there exists a constant $C$ such that for all $t_1, t_2 \in
[0,T]$ and $s_1, s_2 \in [t_1,t_2]$ it holds $$\begin{aligned}
&\int_{t_1}^{t_2} \big\| f(\tau,X(\tau)) - f(s_1,X(s_2))
\big\|_{L^2(\Omega;{{\mathbb{R}}}^d)} {\,\mathrm{d}\tau}\\
& \quad \le C \big( 1 + \sup_{t \in [0,T]} \big\| X(t)
\big\|_{L^{4q-2}(\Omega;{{\mathbb{R}}}^d)}^{2q-1} \big) |t_1 - t_2|^{\frac{3}{2}}.
\end{aligned}$$
It follows from and that $$\begin{aligned}
\big| f(\tau_1,x_1) - f(\tau_2,x_2) \big| &\le \big| f(\tau_1,x_1) -
f(\tau_1,x_2) \big| + \big| f(\tau_1,x_2) - f(\tau_2,x_2) \big|\\
&\le L \big( 1 + |x_1|^{q-1} + |x_2|^{q-1} \big) |x_1 - x_2 |
+ L \big( 1 + |x_2|^q \big) |\tau_1 - \tau_2 |^{\frac{1}{2}}
\end{aligned}$$ for all $\tau_1,\tau_2 \in [0,T]$ and $x_1, x_2 \in {{\mathbb{R}}}^d$. By an additional application of Hölder’s inequality with exponents $\rho = 2 -
\frac{1}{q}$ and $\rho' = \frac{2q - 1}{q-1}$ we get for all $s_1, s_2, \tau \in [t_1, t_2]$ $$\begin{aligned}
\label{eq:term6}
\begin{split}
&\big\| f(\tau,X(\tau)) - f(s_1,X(s_2)) \big\|_{L^2(\Omega;{{\mathbb{R}}}^d)}\\
&\quad \le L \big\| \big( 1 + |X(\tau)|^{q-1} +
|X(s_2)|^{q-1} \big) | X(\tau) - X(s_2) | \big\|_{L^2(\Omega;{{\mathbb{R}}})}\\
&\qquad + L \big\| \big( 1 + |X(s_2)|^q \big) |\tau - s_1|^{\frac{1}{2}}
\big\|_{L^2(\Omega;{{\mathbb{R}}}^d)}\\
&\quad \le L \big( 1 + 2 \sup_{t \in [0,T]}
\|X(t)\|^{q-1}_{L^{2\rho'(q-1)}(\Omega;{{\mathbb{R}}}^d)} \big) \| X(\tau) -
X(s_2) \|_{L^{2 \rho}(\Omega;{{\mathbb{R}}}^d)}\\
&\qquad + L \big( 1 + \sup_{t \in [0,T]}
\|X(t)\|^{q}_{L^{2q}(\Omega;{{\mathbb{R}}}^d)} \big) |t_1 -
t_2|^{\frac{1}{2}}.
\end{split}
\end{aligned}$$ Observe that $2 \rho' (q-1) = 4q -2$ and $2q \le 4q - 2$ for $q \in
(1,\infty)$. Moreover, Proposition \[prop:Hoelder\] with $p = 2\rho$ yields $$\begin{aligned}
\| X(\tau) - X(s_2) \|_{L^{2 \rho}(\Omega;{{\mathbb{R}}}^d)} &\le C \big(1 +
\sup_{t \in [0,T]} \|X(t)\|_{L^{2 \rho q}(\Omega;{{\mathbb{R}}}^d)}^q \big)
| \tau - s_2|^{\frac{1}{2}}\\
&\le C \big(1 + \sup_{t \in [0,T]} \|X(t)\|_{L^{4 q-2}(\Omega;{{\mathbb{R}}}^d)}^q
\big) |t_1 - t_2 |^{\frac{1}{2}}.
\end{aligned}$$ Altogether, this proves $$\begin{aligned}
\big\| f(\tau,X(\tau)) - f(s_1,X(s_2)) \big\|_{L^2(\Omega;{{\mathbb{R}}}^d)}
\le C \big(1 + \sup_{t \in [0,T]} \|X(t)\|_{L^{4
q-2}(\Omega;{{\mathbb{R}}}^d)}^{2q-1} \big) |t_1 - t_2 |^{\frac{1}{2}}
\end{aligned}$$ for all $s_1,s_2,\tau \in [t_1, t_2]$. After integrating over $\tau \in
[t_1,t_2]$ the proof is completed.
\[lem:cons2\] Let Assumption \[as:fg\] be satisfied by $f$ and $g^r$, $r = 1,\ldots,m$. Further, let the exact solution $X$ to satisfy $\sup_{\tau \in [0,T]} \| X(\tau) \|_{L^{4q-2}(\Omega;{{\mathbb{R}}}^d)} <
\infty$. Then, there exists a constant $C$ such that for all $t_1, t_2,s \in
[0,T]$ with $0 \le t_1 \le s \le t_2 \le T$ it holds $$\begin{aligned}
&\Big\| \sum_{r = 1}^m \int_{t_1}^{t_2} \big(
g^r(\tau,X(\tau)) - g^r(s,X(t_1)) \big) {\,\mathrm{d}W^r(\tau)}
\Big\|_{L^2(\Omega;{{\mathbb{R}}}^d)}\\
& \quad \le C m^{\frac{1}{2}} \big( 1 + \sup_{\tau \in [0,T]} \big\| X(\tau)
\big\|_{L^{4q-2}(\Omega;{{\mathbb{R}}}^d)}^{2q-1} \big) |t_1 - t_2|.
\end{aligned}$$
By the Itō isometry we get $$\begin{aligned}
&\Big\| \sum_{r = 1}^m \int_{t_1}^{t_2} \big(
g^r(\tau,X(\tau)) - g^r(s,X(t_1)) \big) {\,\mathrm{d}W^r(\tau)}
\Big\|_{L^2(\Omega;{{\mathbb{R}}}^d)}\\
&\quad = \Big( \sum_{r = 1}^m \int_{t_1}^{t_2} \big\|
g^r(\tau,X(\tau)) - g^r(s,X(t_1)) \big\|^2_{L^2(\Omega;{{\mathbb{R}}}^d)} {\,\mathrm{d}\tau}
\Big)^{\frac{1}{2}}.
\end{aligned}$$ Then, the integrands are estimated in the same way as in by $$\begin{aligned}
&\big\| g^r(\tau,X(\tau)) - g^r(s,X(t_1)) \big\|_{L^2(\Omega;{{\mathbb{R}}}^d)} \\
&\quad \le L \big( 1 + 2 \sup_{t \in [0,T]}
\|X(t)\|^{q-1}_{L^{2 \rho'(q-1)}(\Omega;{{\mathbb{R}}}^d)} \big) \| X(\tau) - X(t_1)
\|_{L^{2\rho}(\Omega;{{\mathbb{R}}}^d)}\\
&\qquad + L \big( 1 + \sup_{t \in [0,T]}
\|X(t)\|^{q}_{L^{2q}(\Omega;{{\mathbb{R}}}^d)} \big) |\tau - s |^{\frac{1}{2}}\\
&\quad \le C \big( 1 + \sup_{t \in [0,T]} \|X(t)\|^{2q-1}_{L^{4
q-2}(\Omega;{{\mathbb{R}}}^d)} \big) |t_1 - t_2|^{\frac{1}{2}},
\end{aligned}$$ where we again made use of the $\frac{1}{2}$-Hölder continuity of the exact solution.
The next theorem finally investigates the B-consistency of the SSBE method.
\[th:SSBEcons\] Let the functions $f$ and $g^r$, $r = 1,\ldots,m$, satisfy Assumption \[as:fg\] with $L \in (0,\infty)$ and $q \in (1,\infty)$. Let $\overline{h} \in (0,L^{-1})$. If the exact solution $X$ to satisfies $\sup_{\tau \in [0,T]} \| X(\tau) \|_{L^{4q-2}(\Omega;{{\mathbb{R}}}^d)} <
\infty$, then the split-step backward Euler method $(\Psi^{\mathrm{SSBE}},\overline{h},X_0)$ is stochastically B-consistent of order $\gamma = \frac{1}{2}$.
Let $(t,\delta) \in \mathbb{T}$ be arbitrary. First we insert and and obtain $$\begin{aligned}
&X(t + \delta) - \Psi^{\mathrm{SSBE}} (X(t),t,\delta)
= \int_{t}^{t + \delta} \big( f(\tau,X(\tau)) - f(t + \delta,X(t))
\big) {\,\mathrm{d}\tau}\\
&\qquad + X(t) + \delta f(t + \delta,X(t)) -
F_{\delta}^{-1}(t+\delta,X(t))\\
&\qquad + \sum_{r = 1}^m \int_{t}^{t + \delta} \big( g^r(\tau,X(\tau)) -
g^r(t + \delta,X(t)) \big) {\,\mathrm{d}W^r(\tau)}\\
&\qquad +\sum_{r = 1}^m \big( g^r(t+ \delta,X(t)) -
g^r(t+\delta,F_{\delta}^{-1}(t + \delta,X(t))) \big) \Delta_\delta W^r(t).
\end{aligned}$$ For the proof of we therefore have to estimate $$\begin{aligned}
\label{eq:term4}
\begin{split}
&\big\| {{\mathbb{E}}}\big[ X(t + \delta) -\Psi^{\mathrm{SSBE}} (X(t),t,\delta) |
{{\mathcal{F}}}_{t} \big] \big\|_{L^2(\Omega;{{\mathbb{R}}}^d)}\\
&\quad \le \int_{t}^{t + \delta} \big\| {{\mathbb{E}}}\big[ f(\tau,X(\tau)) -
f(t + \delta,X(t)) | {{\mathcal{F}}}_{t} \big] \big\|_{L^2(\Omega;{{\mathbb{R}}}^d)}
{\,\mathrm{d}\tau}\\
&\qquad + \big\| X(t) + \delta f(t+\delta,X(t)) -
F_{\delta}^{-1}(t + \delta,X(t)) \big\|_{L^2(\Omega;{{\mathbb{R}}}^d)}.
\end{split}
\end{aligned}$$ Together with the inequality $\| {{\mathbb{E}}}[ Y | {{\mathcal{F}}}_t ] \|_{L^2(\Omega;{{\mathbb{R}}}^d)} \le \| Y
\|_{L^2(\Omega;{{\mathbb{R}}}^d)}$ for all $Y \in L^2(\Omega;{{\mathbb{R}}}^d)$ it follows from Lemma \[lem:cons1\] that $$\begin{aligned}
\int_{t}^{t + \delta} \big\| {{\mathbb{E}}}\big[ f(\tau,X(\tau)) - f(t + \delta,X(t))
| {{\mathcal{F}}}_{t} \big] \big\|_{L^2(\Omega;{{\mathbb{R}}}^d)} {\,\mathrm{d}\tau}
\le C_{\mathrm{cons}} \delta^{\frac{3}{2}}
\end{aligned}$$ for a constant $C_{\mathrm{cons}}$ depending on $L$, $q$, $m$, and $\sup_{\tau \in [0,T]} \|X(\tau)\|^{2q-1}_{L^{4q-2}(\Omega;{{\mathbb{R}}}^d)}$. In order to complete the proof of we need to show a similar estimate of the second term in . In fact, it follows from that $$\begin{aligned}
&\big\| X(t) + \delta f(t + \delta,X(t)) -
F_{\delta}^{-1}(t + \delta,X(t)) \big\|_{L^2(\Omega;{{\mathbb{R}}}^d)}\\
&\quad \le C_3 \delta^{2} \big\| 1 + | X(t) |^{2q-1}
\big\|_{L^2(\Omega;{{\mathbb{R}}})}
\le C_3 \delta^2 \Big(1 + \sup_{\tau \in [0,T]} \| X(\tau)
\|_{L^{4q - 2}(\Omega;{{\mathbb{R}}}^d)}^{2q-1} \Big).
\end{aligned}$$ This completes the proof of with $\gamma =
\frac{1}{2}$ and we turn our attention to the proof of . For this we need to estimate the following three terms $$\begin{aligned}
\label{eq:term5}
\begin{split}
&\big\| \big( {\mathrm{id}}- {{\mathbb{E}}}[ \, \cdot \, | {{\mathcal{F}}}_{t} ] \big)
\big( X(t + \delta) - \Psi^{\mathrm{SSBE}}(X(t),t,\delta) \big)
\big\|_{L^2(\Omega;{{\mathbb{R}}}^d)} \\
&\quad \le \int_{t}^{t + \delta} \big\| \big( {\mathrm{id}}- {{\mathbb{E}}}[ \, \cdot
\, | {{\mathcal{F}}}_{t} ] \big) \big( f(\tau,X(\tau)) - f(t+\delta, X(t)) \big)
\big\|_{L^2(\Omega;{{\mathbb{R}}}^d)} {\,\mathrm{d}\tau}\\
&\qquad + \Big\| \sum_{r = 1}^m \int_{t}^{t + \delta} \big(
g^r(\tau,X(\tau)) - g^r(t + \delta,X(t)) \big) {\,\mathrm{d}W^r(\tau)}
\Big\|_{L^2(\Omega;{{\mathbb{R}}}^d)}\\
&\qquad + \Big\| \sum_{r = 1}^m \big( g^r(t + \delta,X(t)) -
g^r(t+\delta,F_{\delta}^{-1}(t + \delta,X(t))) \big) \Delta_\delta
W^r(t) \Big\|_{L^2(\Omega;{{\mathbb{R}}}^d)}.
\end{split}
\end{aligned}$$ For the first term we get from Lemma \[lem:cons1\] and since $\| ( {\mathrm{id}}- {{\mathbb{E}}}[\,\cdot\, | {{\mathcal{F}}}_t ] \big) Y \|_{L^2(\Omega;{{\mathbb{R}}}^d)} \le
\| Y \|_{L^2(\Omega;{{\mathbb{R}}}^d)}$ for all $Y \in L^2(\Omega;{{\mathbb{R}}}^d)$ that $$\begin{aligned}
&\int_{t}^{t + \delta} \big\| \big( {\mathrm{id}}- {{\mathbb{E}}}[ \, \cdot
\, | {{\mathcal{F}}}_{t} ] \big) \big( f(\tau,X(\tau)) - f(t+\delta,X(t)) \big)
\big\|_{L^2(\Omega;{{\mathbb{R}}}^d)} {\,\mathrm{d}\tau}\le C_{\mathrm{cons}}
\delta^{\frac{3}{2}}.
\end{aligned}$$ We apply Lemma \[lem:cons2\] to the second term in . This yields $$\begin{aligned}
&\Big\| \sum_{r = 1}^m \int_{t}^{t + \delta} \big(
g^r(\tau,X(\tau)) - g^r(t + \delta,X(t)) \big) {\,\mathrm{d}W^r(\tau)}
\Big\|_{L^2(\Omega;{{\mathbb{R}}}^d)} \le C_{\mathrm{cons}} \delta.
\end{aligned}$$ Finally, for the last term in it follows from , , and that $$\begin{aligned}
&\big| g^r(t + \delta,X(t)) - g^r(t + \delta,F_{\delta}^{-1}(t +
\delta,X(t))) \big|\\
&\quad \le L \big( 1 + | X(t) |^{q-1} + |F_{\delta}^{-1}(t +
\delta,X(t))|^{q-1} \big)
\big|X(t) - F_{\delta}^{-1}(t + \delta,X(t)) \big| \\
&\quad \le \delta C_2 L \big( 1 + | X(t) |^{q-1} + (1 - L \delta)^{-(q-1)}
( L \delta + | X(t) | )^{q-1} \big)\big( 1 + | X(t) |^{q} \big)\\
&\quad \le C \delta \big( 1 + | X(t) |^{2q-1} \big)
\end{aligned}$$ for a suitable constant $C$ only depending on $C_2$, $L$, $q$, and $\overline{h}$. Therefore, $$\begin{aligned}
&\Big\| \sum_{r = 1}^m \big( g^r(t + \delta,X(t)) -
g^r(t + \delta,F_{\delta}^{-1}(t + \delta,X(t))) \big) \Delta_\delta
W^r(t) \Big\|_{L^2(\Omega;{{\mathbb{R}}}^d)}^2\\
&\quad = \delta \sum_{r = 1}^m \big\| g^r(t + \delta,X(t)) -
g^r(t + \delta,F_{\delta}^{-1}(t + \delta,X(t)))
\big\|_{L^2(\Omega;{{\mathbb{R}}}^d)}^2\\
&\quad \le C^2 m \delta^3 \Big( 1 + \sup_{\tau \in [0,T]} \|
X(\tau) \|^{2q-1}_{L^{4q-2}(\Omega;{{\mathbb{R}}}^d)} \Big)^2.
\end{aligned}$$ Altogether, this completes the proof of .
The strong convergence of the SSBE scheme follows now directly from Theorems \[th:SSBEstab\] and \[th:SSBEcons\] as well as Theorem \[th:Bconv\].
\[cor:SSBEconv\] Let the functions $f$ and $g^r$, $r = 1,\ldots,m$, satisfy Assumption \[as:fg\] with constants $L \in (0,
\infty)$, $\eta \in (1,\infty)$, and $q \in (1,\infty)$. Let $\overline{h} \in
(0,L^{-1})$. If the exact solution $X$ to satisfies $\sup_{\tau \in [0,T]} \| X(\tau) \|_{L^{4q-2}(\Omega;{{\mathbb{R}}}^d)} <
\infty$, then the split-step backward Euler method $(\Psi^{\mathrm{SSBE}},\overline{h},X_0)$ is strongly convergent of order $\gamma = \frac{1}{2}$.
\[rem:BEM\] Instead of the SSBE method many authors study the *implicit Euler-Maruyama method* or *backward Euler-Maruyama method* (BEM) from [@kloeden1999 Chap. 12]. For instance, in [@andersson2015; @higham2002b; @mao2013a] this scheme is considered for the approximation of stochastic differential equations with super-linearly growing coefficient functions.
Let $h = (h_1,\ldots,h_N)$ be a suitable vector of step sizes. Then, the BEM method is implicitly given by the recursion $$\begin{aligned}
X_h^{\mathrm{BEM}}(t_i) &= X_h^{\mathrm{BEM}}(t_{i-1}) + h_i f(t_{i},
X_h^{\mathrm{BEM}}(t_i)) \\
&\quad + \sum_{r = 1}^m g^r(t_{i-1}, X_h^{\mathrm{BEM}}(t_{i-1}) ) \big(
W^r(t_{i}) - W^r(t_{i-1}) \big),\quad 1 \le i \le N,\\
X_h^{\mathrm{BEM}}(0) &= X_0.
\end{aligned}$$ For the remainder of this remark, we assume that $h$ is a vector of equidistant step sizes, that is $h_i = h_j$, for all $i, j = 1,\ldots,N$. Further, we consider the situation of autonomous coefficient functions $f(t,x) = f(x)$ and $g^r(t,x) = g^r(x)$, $r = 1,\ldots,m$, for all $x \in
{{\mathbb{R}}}^d$ and $t \in [0,T]$.
Under these additional conditions we are able to mimic an idea of proof from [@higham2002b Lemma 5.1]. The starting point is the observation that the defining recursion of the BEM method can be rewritten artificially as a split-step method by $$\begin{aligned}
\label{eq:BEMsplit}
\begin{split}
\overline{X}_h^{\mathrm{BEM}}(t_i) &= X_h^{\mathrm{BEM}}(t_{i-1})
+ \sum_{r = 1}^m g^r(X_h^{\mathrm{BEM}}(t_{i-1}) )
\Delta_{h_i}W^r(t_{i-1}), \\
X_h^{\mathrm{BEM}}(t_i) &= \overline{X}_h^{\mathrm{BEM}}(t_i) + h_i f(
X_h^{\mathrm{BEM}}(t_i) )
\end{split}
\end{aligned}$$ for every $1 \le i \le N$. Thus, the SSBE scheme and the BEM method only differ in the order, in which the implicit step for the drift part and the explicit step for the diffusion part are applied. Consequently, one easily verifies that $\overline{X}_h^{\mathrm{BEM}}$ is the grid function generated by the SSBE scheme $(\Psi^{\mathrm{SSBE}}, \overline{h}, \xi)$ with initial condition $\xi = F_{h_1}(X_0)$. Then, one can interpret the BEM method as a perturbation of the SSBE scheme in the following sense: By the homeomorphism $F_{h_i}( \cdot )$ it holds $$\begin{aligned}
\label{eq:relBEM}
X_h^{\mathrm{BEM}}(t_i) = F_{h_i}^{-1}(
\overline{X}_h^{\mathrm{BEM}}(t_i) ).
\end{aligned}$$ Therefore, a strong error result for the BEM method can be derived by an application of the stability Lemma \[lem:stab\], where $X_h^{\mathrm{BEM}}$ takes over the role of the exact solution. To be more precise, we decompose the strong error of the BEM method into the following three parts $$\begin{aligned}
\label{eq:errBEM}
\begin{split}
&\big\| X(t_n) - X_h^{\mathrm{BEM}}(t_n) \big\|_{L^2(\Omega;{{\mathbb{R}}}^d)} \le
\big\| X(t_n) - X_h^{\mathrm{SSBE}}(t_n)
\big\|_{L^2(\Omega;{{\mathbb{R}}}^d)}\\
&\quad + \big\| X_h^{\mathrm{SSBE}}(t_n) -
\overline{X}^{\mathrm{BEM}}_h(t_n) \big\|_{L^2(\Omega;{{\mathbb{R}}}^d)} + \big\|
\overline{X}_h^{\mathrm{BEM}}(t_n) - X_h^{\mathrm{BEM}}(t_n)
\big\|_{L^2(\Omega;{{\mathbb{R}}}^d)}
\end{split}
\end{aligned}$$ for every $n \in \{1,\ldots,N\}$. Then the first term is the strong error of the SSBE scheme while the second can be estimated by Lemma \[lem:stab\] and . Similarly, we derive a suitable bound for the third term by inserting and making again use of . However, this line of arguments has the disadvantage that we are in need of higher moment bounds for the grid function $X_h^{\mathrm{BEM}}$, uniformly with respect to the step size $h$. We have not been able to prove if the BEM method is a stochastically C-stable numerical one-step scheme under Assumption \[as:fg\]. We refer to [@andersson2015] for a more direct proof of the mean-square convergence of the backward Euler method, which does not rely on higher moment bounds of the numerical scheme.
C-stability and B-consistency of the PEM method {#sec:PEM}
===============================================
In this section we prove that the projected Euler-Maruyama method from Example \[ex:PEM\] is stochastically C-stable and B-consistent of order $\gamma = \frac{1}{2}$.
We begin by showing that the PEM method is a stochastic one-step method in the sense of Definition \[def:onestep\]. Let Assumption \[as:fg\] be satisfied with growth rate $q \in (1,\infty)$. Then we set $\alpha = \frac{1}{2(q-1)}$ and for an arbitrary upper step size bound $\overline{h} \in (0, 1]$ we define the one-step map $\Psi^{\mathrm{PEM}}
\colon {{\mathbb{R}}}^d \times \mathbb{T} \times \Omega \to {{\mathbb{R}}}^d$ by $$\begin{aligned}
\label{eq:PsiPEM}
\begin{split}
\Psi^{\mathrm{PEM}}(x,t,\delta) &:= \min(1,\delta^{-\alpha}|x|^{-1}) x
+ \delta f(t, \min(1,\delta^{-\alpha}|x|^{-1}) x )\\
&\quad + \sum_{r = 1}^m g^r(t, \min(1,\delta^{-\alpha}|x|^{-1}) x)
\Delta_\delta W^r(t)
\end{split}\end{aligned}$$ for every $x \in {{\mathbb{R}}}^d$ and $(t,\delta) \in \mathbb{T}$. As before we write $\Delta_\delta W^r(t) = W^r(t + \delta) - W^r(t)$.
\[prop:PEM\] Let the functions $f$ and $g^r$, $r = 1,\ldots,m$, satisfy Assumption \[as:fg\] with $L \in (0,\infty)$, $q \in (1,\infty)$, and let $\overline{h} \in (0,1]$. For every initial value $\xi \in
L^2(\Omega;{{\mathcal{F}}}_{0},{{\mathbf{P}}};{{\mathbb{R}}}^d)$ it holds that $(\Psi^{\mathrm{PEM}},
\overline{h}, \xi)$ with $\alpha = \frac{1}{2(q-1)}$ is a stochastic one-step method.
In addition, there exists a constant $C_0$ only depending on $L$ and $m$ such that $$\begin{aligned}
\label{eq:PEMzero1}
\big\| {{\mathbb{E}}}\big[ \Psi^{\mathrm{PEM}}( 0, t,\delta) | {{\mathcal{F}}}_{t} \big]
\big\|_{L^2(\Omega;{{\mathbb{R}}}^d)} &\le C_0 \delta,\\
\label{eq:PEMzero2}
\big\| \big( {\mathrm{id}}- {{\mathbb{E}}}[ \, \cdot\, | {{\mathcal{F}}}_{t} ] \big)
\Psi^{\mathrm{PEM}}( 0, t,\delta) \big\|_{L^2(\Omega;{{\mathbb{R}}}^d)} & \le C_0
\delta^{\frac{1}{2}}
\end{aligned}$$ for all $(t,\delta) \in \mathbb{T}$.
As in the proof of Proposition \[prop:SSBE\] we first verify that $\Psi^{\mathrm{PEM}}$ satisfies . Let us fix arbitrary $(t, \delta) \in \mathbb{T}$ and $Z \in
L^2(\Omega,{{\mathcal{F}}}_t,{{\mathbf{P}}};{{\mathbb{R}}}^d)$.
By the continuity and boundedness of the mapping ${{\mathbb{R}}}^d \ni x \mapsto \min(1,
\delta^{-\alpha} |x|^{-1} ) x$ we obtain $$\begin{aligned}
\min(1, \delta^{-\alpha} |Z|^{-1} ) Z \in L^\infty(\Omega,{{\mathcal{F}}}_t,{{\mathbf{P}}};{{\mathbb{R}}}^d).
\end{aligned}$$ Consequently, by it also holds true that $$\begin{aligned}
f(t,\min(1, \delta^{-\alpha} |Z|^{-1} ) Z) \in L^\infty(\Omega,{{\mathcal{F}}}_t,{{\mathbf{P}}};{{\mathbb{R}}}^d)
\end{aligned}$$ as well as $$\begin{aligned}
g^r(t,\min(1, \delta^{-\alpha} |Z|^{-1} ) Z) \in
L^\infty(\Omega,{{\mathcal{F}}}_t,{{\mathbf{P}}};{{\mathbb{R}}}^d)
\end{aligned}$$ for every $r = 1,\ldots,m$. Therefore, $\Psi^{\mathrm{PEM}}(Z,t,\delta)
\colon \Omega \to {{\mathbb{R}}}^d$ is an ${{\mathcal{F}}}_{t+\delta} / {{\mathcal{B}}}({{\mathbb{R}}}^d)$-measurable random variable, which satisfies condition .
It remains to show and . From it follows at once that $$\begin{aligned}
\big\| {{\mathbb{E}}}\big[ \Psi^{\mathrm{PEM}}( 0, t,\delta) | {{\mathcal{F}}}_{t} \big]
\big\|_{L^2(\Omega;{{\mathbb{R}}}^d)} =
\big| \delta f(t, 0) \big| \le L \delta.
\end{aligned}$$ Similarly, from Itō’s isometry and we get $$\begin{aligned}
&\big\| \big( {\mathrm{id}}- {{\mathbb{E}}}[ \, \cdot\, | {{\mathcal{F}}}_{t} ] \big)
\Psi^{\mathrm{PEM}}( 0, t,\delta) \big\|_{L^2(\Omega;{{\mathbb{R}}}^d)}^2\\
&\quad = \Big\| \sum_{r = 1}^m g^r(t, 0 )
\big( W^r(t+\delta) - W^r(t) \big) \Big\|^2_{L^2(\Omega;{{\mathbb{R}}}^d)}
= \delta \sum_{r = 1}^m \big| g^r(t, 0 ) \big|^2
\le L^2 m \delta.
\end{aligned}$$ This verifies and .
For the formulation of the following lemmas we introduce the abbreviation $$\begin{aligned}
\label{eq:circ}
x^\circ := \min(1, \delta^{-\alpha} |x|^{-1}) x\end{aligned}$$ for every $x \in {{\mathbb{R}}}^d$ and every step size $\delta \in (0,1]$.
\[lem:circ\] For every $\alpha \in (0,\infty)$ and $\delta \in (0,1]$ the mapping ${{\mathbb{R}}}^d \ni x \mapsto x^\circ \in {{\mathbb{R}}}^d$ is globally Lipschitz continuous with Lipschitz constant $1$. In particular, it holds $$\begin{aligned}
\label{eq:PEMLip}
\big| x^\circ_1 - x^\circ_2 \big| \le \big| x_1- x_2 \big|
\end{aligned}$$ for all $x_1, x_2 \in {{\mathbb{R}}}^d$.
For a proof of the Lipschitz continuity we first compute $$\begin{aligned}
\big| x^\circ_1 - x^\circ_2 \big|^2 &= | x_1 - x_2 |^2 + \big[
\big|x^\circ_1 \big|^2 - |x_1|^2 - 2 \big( \langle
x_1^\circ, x_2^\circ \rangle - \langle x_1, x_2 \rangle \big)
+ \big|x^\circ_2\big|^2 - |x_2|^2 \big]
\end{aligned}$$ for all $x_1, x_2 \in {{\mathbb{R}}}^d$. We show that the second term is always nonpositive.
This is clearly true for the case $|x_1| \le \delta^{-\alpha}$ and $|x_2| \le
\delta^{-\alpha}$, since then $x_i = x_i^\circ$, $i \in \{1,2\}$. Therefore, for the rest of this proof we assume without loss of generality that $|x_1| > \delta^{-\alpha}$. After inserting this into the second term we obtain from an application of the Cauchy-Schwarz inequality $$\begin{aligned}
&\big|x^\circ_1 \big|^2 - |x_1|^2 - 2 \big( \langle
x_1^\circ, x_2^\circ \rangle - \langle x_1, x_2 \rangle \big)
+ \big|x^\circ_2\big|^2 - |x_2|^2\\
&\quad = \delta^{-2\alpha} - |x_1|^2 + \min(|x_2|,
\delta^{-\alpha} )^2 - |x_2|^2 \\
&\qquad + 2 \big( 1 - \delta^{-\alpha} |x_1|^{-1}
\min(1, \delta^{-\alpha} |x_2|^{-1}) \big) \langle x_1, x_2 \rangle\\
&\quad \le \delta^{-2\alpha} - |x_1|^2 + \min(|x_2|,
\delta^{-\alpha} )^2 - |x_2|^2 \\
&\qquad + 2 \big( |x_1| |x_2| - \delta^{-\alpha} \min(|x_2|,
\delta^{-\alpha}) \big)\\
&\quad = \big( \delta^{-\alpha} -\min(|x_2|,
\delta^{-\alpha}) \big)^2 - \big( |x_1| - |x_2| \big)^2 \le 0,
\end{aligned}$$ since we assumed $|x_1| > \delta^{-\alpha}$. This proves the asserted Lipschitz continuity.
The following inequality will play the same role for the stability analysis of the PEM method as does for the SSBE scheme.
\[lem:PEM\] Let $f$ and $g^r$, $r
= 1,\ldots,m$, satisfy Assumption \[as:fg\] with $L \in
(0,\infty)$, $q \in (1,\infty)$, and $\eta \in (\frac{1}{2},\infty)$. Consider the mapping ${{\mathbb{R}}}^d \ni x \mapsto x^\circ \in {{\mathbb{R}}}^d$ defined in with $\alpha \in (0,\frac{1}{2(q-1)}]$ and $\delta \in (0,1]$. Then, there exists a constant $C$ only depending on $L$ with $$\begin{aligned}
\label{eq:PEMcstab1}
\begin{split}
& \big| x^\circ_1 - x_2^\circ + \delta ( f(t,x_1^\circ) - f(t,x_2^\circ))
\big|^2 + 2 \eta \delta \sum_{r = 1}^m \big| g^r(t,x_1^\circ) -
g^r(t,x_2^\circ) \big|^2\\
&\qquad \le (1 + C \delta) | x_1 - x_2 |^2
\end{split}
\end{aligned}$$ for all $x_1, x_2 \in {{\mathbb{R}}}^d$.
For the proof of we obtain from $$\begin{aligned}
&\big| x^\circ_1 - x_2^\circ + \delta ( f(t,x_1^\circ) - f(t,x_2^\circ))
\big|^2\\
&\quad = \big| x^\circ_1 - x_2^\circ \big|^2 + 2 \delta \big\langle
x^\circ_1 - x_2^\circ, f(t,x_1^\circ) - f(t,x_2^\circ) \big\rangle +
\delta^2 \big| f(t,x_1^\circ) - f(t,x_2^\circ) \big|^2 \\
&\quad \le (1 + 2 L \delta) \big| x^\circ_1 - x_2^\circ \big|^2
- 2 \eta \delta \sum_{r = 1}^m \big| g^r(t,x_1^\circ) - g^r(t,x_2^\circ)
\big|^2
+ \delta^2 \big| f(t,x_1^\circ) - f(t,x_2^\circ) \big|^2
\end{aligned}$$ for all $x_1, x_2 \in {{\mathbb{R}}}^d$. Next, applications of and yield $$\begin{aligned}
\big| f(t,x_1^\circ) - f(t,x_2^\circ) \big| &\le L \big( 1 +
|x_1^\circ|^{q-1} + |x_2^\circ|^{q-1} \big) \big|x_1^\circ - x_2^\circ
\big| \\
&\le L \big( 1 + 2 \delta^{-\alpha(q-1)} \big) \big|x_1 - x_2 \big|,
\end{aligned}$$ where we also made use of the fact that $|x_1^\circ|, |x_2^\circ| \le
\delta^{-\alpha}$. Since $\alpha \in (0, \frac{1}{2(q-1)}]$ and $\delta \in (0,1]$ it follows that $\delta^{-\alpha(q-1)} \le \delta^{-\frac{1}{2}}$. Hence, we get $$\begin{aligned}
&\big| x^\circ_1 - x_2^\circ + \delta ( f(t,x_1^\circ) - f(t,x_2^\circ))
\big|^2 + 2 \eta \delta \sum_{r = 1}^m \big|
g^r(t,x_1^\circ) - g^r(t,x_2^\circ) \big|^2\\
&\quad \le (1 + 2 L \delta) \big| x_1 - x_2 \big|^2
+ \delta^2 L^2 \big( 1 + 2 \delta^{-\frac{1}{2}} \big)^2 \big|x_1 - x_2
\big|^2 \le (1 + C \delta) \big|x_1 - x_2 \big|^2
\end{aligned}$$ with $C = 2L + 9 L^2$.
The next theorem verifies that the PEM method is stochastically C-stable.
\[th:PEMstab\] Let the functions $f$ and $g^r$, $r = 1,\ldots,m$, satisfy Assumption \[as:fg\] with $L \in (0,\infty)$, $q \in (1,\infty)$, and $\eta \in (\frac{1}{2},\infty)$. Further, let $\overline{h} \in (0, 1]$. Then, for every $\xi \in
L^2(\Omega,{{\mathcal{F}}}_0,{{\mathbf{P}}};{{\mathbb{R}}}^d)$ the projected Euler-Maruyama method $(\Psi^{\mathrm{PEM}},\overline{h},\xi)$ with $\alpha = \frac{1}{2(q-1)}$ is stochastically C-stable.
Let $(t,\delta) \in \mathbb{T}$ be arbitrary and consider $Y, Z \in
L^2(\Omega,{{\mathcal{F}}}_t,{{\mathbf{P}}};{{\mathbb{R}}}^d)$. By recalling the notation we get that $$\begin{aligned}
{{\mathbb{E}}}\big[ \Psi^{\mathrm{PEM}}(Y,t,\delta) -
\Psi^{\mathrm{PEM}}(Z,t,\delta) | {{\mathcal{F}}}_{t} \big]
= Y^\circ + \delta f(t, Y^\circ) - ( Z^\circ + \delta f(t,Z^\circ))
\end{aligned}$$ and $$\begin{aligned}
&\big( {\mathrm{id}}- {{\mathbb{E}}}[ \, \cdot \, | {{\mathcal{F}}}_{t} ] \big)
\big( \Psi^{\mathrm{PEM}}(Y,t,\delta) -
\Psi^{\mathrm{PEM}}(Z,t,\delta) \big)\\
&\quad = \sum_{r = 1}^m \big(
g^r(t , Y^\circ) -
g^r(t , Z^\circ) \big) \Delta_\delta W^r(t).
\end{aligned}$$ Then, from the Itō isometry and it follows $$\begin{aligned}
&\big\| Y^\circ + \delta f(t, Y^\circ) - ( Z^\circ + \delta f(t,Z^\circ))
\big\|_{L^2(\Omega;{{\mathbb{R}}}^d)}^2\\
&\quad + 2 \eta \Big\| \sum_{r = 1}^m \big( g^r(t , Y^\circ) -
g^r(t , Z^\circ) \big) \Delta_\delta W^r(t) \Big\|^2_{L^2(\Omega;{{\mathbb{R}}}^d)} \\
&= {{\mathbb{E}}}\Big[ \big| Y^\circ + \delta f(t, Y^\circ) - ( Z^\circ + \delta
f(t,Z^\circ)) \big|^2 +
2 \eta \delta \sum_{r = 1}^m \big| g^r(t , Y^\circ) -
g^r(t , Z^\circ) \big|^2 \Big]\\
&\le (1 + C \delta) \big\| Y - Z \big\|^2_{L^2(\Omega;{{\mathbb{R}}}^d)}.
\end{aligned}$$ which is condition for the PEM method with $C_{\mathrm{stab}} =C$.
It remains to show that the PEM method is stochastically $B$-consistent of order $\gamma = \frac{1}{2}$. An important ingredient of our proof is contained in the following lemma, which is based on an argument already found in the proof of [@higham2002b Theorem 2.2].
\[lem:PEMcons1\] Let $L \in (0,\infty)$ and $\kappa \in [1, \infty)$. Consider a measurable mapping $\varphi \colon {{\mathbb{R}}}^d \to {{\mathbb{R}}}^d$ which satisfies $$\begin{aligned}
|\varphi(x) | \le L \big(1 + |x|^\kappa \big)
\end{aligned}$$ for all $x \in {{\mathbb{R}}}^d$. For some $p \in (2,\infty)$ let $Y \in
L^{p\kappa}(\Omega;{{\mathbb{R}}}^d)$. Then there exists a constant $C$ only depending on $L$ and $p$ with $$\begin{aligned}
\big\| \varphi(Y) - \varphi(Y^\circ) \big\|_{L^2(\Omega;{{\mathbb{R}}}^d)} \le C \big(
1 + \|Y\|_{L^{p\kappa}(\Omega;{{\mathbb{R}}}^d)}^\kappa \big)^{\frac{p}{2}}
\delta^{\frac{1}{2} \alpha (p -2 ) \kappa}
\end{aligned}$$ for all $\delta \in (0,1]$, where $Y^\circ = \min \big(1, \delta^{-\alpha}
|Y|^{-1} \big) Y$ with arbitrary $\alpha \in (0,\infty)$.
We apply the same idea as in the proof of [@higham2002b Theorem 2.2]. Consider the two measurable sets $$\begin{aligned}
A_{\delta} := \big\{ \omega \in \Omega \; : \; | Y(\omega)| \le
\delta^{-\alpha} \big\} \in {{\mathcal{F}}}\end{aligned}$$ and $A_{\delta}^c := \Omega \setminus A_{\delta}$. Note that $Y(\omega) = Y^{\circ}(\omega)$ for all $\omega \in A_{\delta}$. Thus, $$\begin{aligned}
\big\| \varphi(Y) - \varphi(Y^\circ) \big\|_{L^2(\Omega;{{\mathbb{R}}}^d)}^2 & =
\int_{\Omega} \big| \varphi(Y(\omega)) - \varphi( Y^\circ(\omega))
\big|^2 {\mathbb{I}}_{A_{\delta}^c}(\omega) {\,\mathrm{d}{{\mathbf{P}}}(\omega)}.
\end{aligned}$$ For $\nu, \rho, \rho' \in (0,\infty)$ with $\frac{1}{\rho}+ \frac{1}{\rho'} =
1$ we apply the Young inequality $ab \le \frac{\delta^\nu}{\rho} a^\rho +
\frac{1}{\rho'} \delta^{- \nu \frac{\rho'}{\rho}} b^{\rho'}$. If we set $\rho = \frac{p}{2}$ then we obtain $$\begin{aligned}
&\int_{\Omega} \big| \varphi( Y(\omega) ) - \varphi(Y^\circ(\omega))
\big|^2 {\mathbb{I}}_{A_{\delta}^c}(\omega) {\,\mathrm{d}{{\mathbf{P}}}(\omega)}\\
&\quad \le \frac{2 \delta^\nu}{p} \big\| \varphi( Y) - \varphi( Y^\circ)
\big\|^{p}_{L^{p}(\Omega;{{\mathbb{R}}}^d)} + \big(1 - \frac{2}{p}\big) \delta^{-
\frac{2 \nu }{p-2}} {{\mathbf{P}}}( A_{\delta}^c).
\end{aligned}$$ Now, the polynomial growth condition on $\varphi$ yields $$\begin{aligned}
\| \varphi(Y) - \varphi(Y^\circ) \|_{L^{p}(\Omega;{{\mathbb{R}}}^d)} &\le \|
\varphi(Y)\|_{L^p(\Omega;{{\mathbb{R}}}^d)} + \|
\varphi(Y^\circ)\|_{L^p(\Omega;{{\mathbb{R}}}^d)}\\
&\le 2 L \big( 1 + \| Y \|_{L^{p\kappa}(\Omega;{{\mathbb{R}}}^d)}^\kappa \big).
\end{aligned}$$ Further, it holds $$\begin{aligned}
{{\mathbf{P}}}( A_{\delta}^c) = {{\mathbb{E}}}\big[ {\mathbb{I}}_{A_{\delta}^c} \big] \le
\delta^{\alpha p \kappa} {{\mathbb{E}}}\big[ {\mathbb{I}}_{A_{\delta}^c} |Y|^{p\kappa} \big]
\le \delta^{\alpha p \kappa} \|Y\|^{p\kappa}_{L^{p\kappa}(\Omega;{{\mathbb{R}}}^d)}.
\end{aligned}$$ To sum up, if we choose $\nu := \alpha (p-2) \kappa$, then we obtain $\alpha p
\kappa - \frac{2 \nu}{p-2} = \nu$ and, consequently, $$\begin{aligned}
\big\| \varphi(Y) - \varphi(Y^\circ) \big\|_{L^2(\Omega;{{\mathbb{R}}}^d)}^2 &\le
\frac{2}{p} (2L)^p \delta^{\alpha (p-2)\kappa} \big( 1 +
\|Y\|^\kappa_{L^{p\kappa}(\Omega;{{\mathbb{R}}}^d)} \big)^p\\
&\quad + \big(1 - \frac{2}{p}\big) \delta^{\alpha (p-2)\kappa}
\|Y\|^{p\kappa}_{L^{p\kappa}(\Omega;{{\mathbb{R}}}^d)}.
\end{aligned}$$ This completes the proof.
\[th:PEMcons\] Let $f$ and $g^r$, $r = 1,\ldots,m$, satisfy Assumption \[as:fg\] with $L \in (0,\infty)$ and $q \in (1,\infty)$. Let $\overline{h} \in (0,1]$ be arbitrary. If the exact solution $X$ to satisfies $\sup_{\tau \in [0,T]} \|
X(\tau) \|_{L^{6q-4}(\Omega;{{\mathbb{R}}}^d)} < \infty$, then the projected Euler method $(\Psi^{\mathrm{PEM}},\overline{h},X_0)$ with $\alpha =
\frac{1}{2(q-1)}$ is stochastically B-consistent of order $\gamma = \frac{1}{2}$.
Let $(t,\delta) \in \mathbb{T}$ be arbitrary. First we insert and and obtain in the same way as in the proof of Theorem \[th:SSBEcons\] $$\begin{aligned}
&X(t + \delta) - \Psi^{\mathrm{PEM}} (X(t),t,\delta)
= \int_{t}^{t + \delta} \big( f(\tau,X(\tau)) - f(t,X(t))
\big) {\,\mathrm{d}\tau}\\
&\qquad + X(t) + \delta f(t,X(t)) - X^\circ(t) - \delta f(t,X^{\circ}(t))\\
&\qquad + \sum_{r = 1}^m \int_{t}^{t + \delta} \big( g^r(\tau,X(\tau)) -
g^r(t,X(t)) \big) {\,\mathrm{d}W^r(\tau)}\\
&\qquad +\sum_{r = 1}^m \big( g^r(t,X(t)) -
g^r(t,X^{\circ}(t) ) \big) \Delta_\delta W^r(t),
\end{aligned}$$ where as before $X^\circ(t) = \min(1, \delta^{-\alpha} |X(t)|^{-1} ) X(t)$. In order to show we therefore have to estimate $$\begin{aligned}
\label{eq:term10}
\begin{split}
&\big\| {{\mathbb{E}}}\big[ X(t + \delta) -\Psi^{\mathrm{PEM}} (X(t),t,\delta) |
{{\mathcal{F}}}_{t} \big] \big\|_{L^2(\Omega;{{\mathbb{R}}}^d)}\\
&\quad \le \int_{t}^{t + \delta} \big\| {{\mathbb{E}}}\big[ f(\tau,X(\tau)) -
f(t ,X(t)) | {{\mathcal{F}}}_{t} \big] \big\|_{L^2(\Omega;{{\mathbb{R}}}^d)}
{\,\mathrm{d}\tau}\\
&\qquad + \big\|X(t) - X^\circ(t)\big\|_{L^2(\Omega;{{\mathbb{R}}}^d)}
+ \delta \big\| f(t,X(t)) - f(t,X^{\circ}(t)) \big\|_{L^2(\Omega;{{\mathbb{R}}}^d)}.
\end{split}
\end{aligned}$$ From Lemma \[lem:cons1\] and the inequality $\| {{\mathbb{E}}}[ Y | {{\mathcal{F}}}_t ] \|_{L^2(\Omega;{{\mathbb{R}}}^d)} \le \| Y
\|_{L^2(\Omega;{{\mathbb{R}}}^d)}$ for all $Y \in L^2(\Omega;{{\mathbb{R}}}^d)$ we infer that $$\begin{aligned}
\int_{t}^{t + \delta} \big\| {{\mathbb{E}}}\big[ f(\tau,X(\tau)) - f(t,X(t))
| {{\mathcal{F}}}_{t} \big] \big\|_{L^2(\Omega;{{\mathbb{R}}}^d)} {\,\mathrm{d}\tau}
\le C_{\mathrm{cons}} \delta^{\frac{3}{2}}
\end{aligned}$$ for a constant $C_{\mathrm{cons}}$ depending on $L$, $q$, $m$, and $\sup_{\tau \in [0,T]} \|X(\tau)\|_{L^{4q-2}(\Omega;{{\mathbb{R}}}^d)}$.
For the proof of it therefore remains to verify that similar estimates hold true for the second and third term in . For this we apply Lemma \[lem:PEMcons1\] with $\varphi =
{\mathrm{id}}_{{{\mathbb{R}}}^d}$, $\kappa = 1$, and $p = 6q - 4$. Then we obtain $$\begin{aligned}
\big\|X(t) - X^\circ(t)\big\|_{L^2(\Omega;{{\mathbb{R}}}^d)} \le C \big(1 + \| X(t)
\|_{L^{6q - 4}(\Omega;{{\mathbb{R}}}^d)} \big)^{3q - 2} \delta^{\frac{3}{2}},
\end{aligned}$$ since $\frac{1}{2}\alpha(p-2) = \frac{3}{2}$. A further application of Lemma \[lem:PEMcons1\] with $\varphi = f(t,\cdot)$, $\kappa = q$, and $p =
4 - \frac{2}{q}$ yields $$\begin{aligned}
\big\| f(t,X(t)) - f(t,X^{\circ}(t)) \big\|_{L^2(\Omega;{{\mathbb{R}}}^d)} \le
C \big(1 + \| X(t) \|_{L^{4q - 2}(\Omega;{{\mathbb{R}}}^d)}^q \big)^{2 -
\frac{1}{q}} \delta^{\frac{1}{2}},
\end{aligned}$$ since in this case $\frac{1}{2}\alpha(p-2) q = \frac{1}{2}$. Altogether, this proves with $\gamma =
\frac{1}{2}$.
For the proof of we have to estimate the following three terms $$\begin{aligned}
\label{eq:term11}
\begin{split}
&\big\| \big( {\mathrm{id}}- {{\mathbb{E}}}[ \, \cdot \, | {{\mathcal{F}}}_{t} ] \big)
\big( X(t + \delta) - \Psi^{\mathrm{PEM}}(X(t),t,\delta) \big)
\big\|_{L^2(\Omega;{{\mathbb{R}}}^d)} \\
&\quad \le \int_{t}^{t + \delta} \big\| \big( {\mathrm{id}}- {{\mathbb{E}}}[ \, \cdot
\, | {{\mathcal{F}}}_{t} ] \big) \big( f(\tau,X(\tau)) - f(t, X(t)) \big)
\big\|_{L^2(\Omega;{{\mathbb{R}}}^d)} {\,\mathrm{d}\tau}\\
&\qquad + \Big\| \sum_{r = 1}^m \int_{t}^{t + \delta} \big(
g^r(\tau,X(\tau)) - g^r(t,X(t)) \big) {\,\mathrm{d}W^r(\tau)}
\Big\|_{L^2(\Omega;{{\mathbb{R}}}^d)}\\
&\qquad + \Big\| \sum_{r = 1}^m \big( g^r(t,X(t)) -
g^r(t,X^\circ(t)) \big) \Delta_\delta W^r(t) \Big\|_{L^2(\Omega;{{\mathbb{R}}}^d)}.
\end{split}
\end{aligned}$$ First, we use the inequality $\| ( {\mathrm{id}}- {{\mathbb{E}}}[\,\cdot\, |
{{\mathcal{F}}}_t ] ) Y \|_{L^2(\Omega;{{\mathbb{R}}}^d)} \le \| Y \|_{L^2(\Omega;{{\mathbb{R}}}^d)}$ for all $Y \in L^2(\Omega;{{\mathbb{R}}}^d)$ and then we obtain from Lemma \[lem:cons1\] that $$\begin{aligned}
&\int_{t}^{t + \delta} \big\| \big( {\mathrm{id}}- {{\mathbb{E}}}[ \, \cdot
\, | {{\mathcal{F}}}_{t} ] \big) \big( f(\tau,X(\tau)) - f(t,X(t)) \big)
\big\|_{L^2(\Omega;{{\mathbb{R}}}^d)} {\,\mathrm{d}\tau}\le C_{\mathrm{cons}}
\delta^{\frac{3}{2}}.
\end{aligned}$$ Next, we directly apply Lemma \[lem:cons2\] to the second term in . This yields $$\begin{aligned}
&\Big\| \sum_{r = 1}^m \int_{t}^{t + \delta} \big(
g^r(\tau,X(\tau)) - g^r(t,X(t)) \big) {\,\mathrm{d}W^r(\tau)}
\Big\|_{L^2(\Omega;{{\mathbb{R}}}^d)} \le C_{\mathrm{cons}} \delta.
\end{aligned}$$ Regarding the last term in we obtain from the Itō isometry that $$\begin{aligned}
&\Big\| \sum_{r = 1}^m \big( g^r(t,X(t)) -
g^r(t,X^\circ(t)) \big) \Delta_\delta W^r(t) \Big\|_{L^2(\Omega;{{\mathbb{R}}}^d)}^2\\
&\quad = \delta \sum_{r = 1}^m \big\| g^r(t,X(t)) -
g^r(t,X^\circ(t)) \big\|^2_{L^2(\Omega;{{\mathbb{R}}}^d)}.
\end{aligned}$$ Similarly as above the estimate is completed by a further application of Lemma \[lem:PEMcons1\] with $\varphi =
g^r(t,\cdot)$, $\kappa = q$, and $p = 4 - \frac{2}{q}$, which gives $$\begin{aligned}
\big\| g^r(t,X(t)) - g^r(t,X^{\circ}(t)) \big\|_{L^2(\Omega;{{\mathbb{R}}}^d)} \le
C \big(1 + \| X(t) \|_{L^{4q - 2}(\Omega;{{\mathbb{R}}}^d)}^q \big)^{2 -
\frac{1}{q}} \delta^{\frac{1}{2}}.
\end{aligned}$$ Thus, as desired it holds $$\begin{aligned}
&\Big\| \sum_{r = 1}^m \big( g^r(t,X(t)) -
g^r(t,X^\circ(t)) \big) \Delta_\delta W^r(t) \Big\|_{L^2(\Omega;{{\mathbb{R}}}^d)}
\le C_{\mathrm{cons}} \delta,
\end{aligned}$$ for a constant $C_{\mathrm{cons}}$ depending on $L$, $q$, $m$, and $\sup_{\tau \in [0,T]} \| X(\tau) \|_{L^{4q - 2}(\Omega;{{\mathbb{R}}}^d)}$.
We conclude this section by stating the strong convergence result for the PEM method, which follows directly from Theorems \[th:PEMstab\] and \[th:PEMcons\] as well as Theorem \[th:Bconv\].
\[th:PEMconv\] Let $f$ and $g^r$, $r = 1,\ldots,m$, satisfy Assumption \[as:fg\] with $L \in (0,
\infty)$, $\eta \in (\frac{1}{2},\infty)$, and $q \in (1,\infty)$. Let $\overline{h} \in
(0,1]$. If the exact solution $X$ to satisfies $\sup_{\tau \in [0,T]} \| X(\tau) \|_{L^{6q-4}(\Omega;{{\mathbb{R}}}^d)} <
\infty$, then the projected Euler-Maruyama method $(\Psi^{\mathrm{PEM}},\overline{h},X_0)$ with $\alpha = \frac{1}{2(q-1)}$ is strongly convergent of order $\gamma = \frac{1}{2}$.
Numerical experiments {#sec:exp}
=====================
In this section we perform a series of numerical experiments which aim to illustrate the strong convergence results of the previous sections. In particular, we compute estimates of the strong error of convergence for the numerical discretization of the stochastic Ginzburg-Landau equation [@kloeden1999 Chap. 4.4] and the $3/2$-stochastic volatility model (see e.g. [@goard2013; @henryL2007] and [@sabanis2013b Sec. 1]).
First, we consider the stochastic Ginzburg-Landau equation (GLE) given by $$\begin{aligned}
\begin{split}
\label{eq:Ginz_landau}
{\,\mathrm{d}X}(t)&= \big(-X^3(t)+(\mu+\frac{1}{2}\sigma^2)X(t) \big){\,\mathrm{d}t}+\sigma
X(t){\,\mathrm{d}W}(t), \\
X(0)&=X_0,
\end{split}\end{aligned}$$ where $\mu$, $\sigma$, $t\geq 0$. This equation satisfies Assumption \[as:fg\] and condition with $q=3$ since the cubic term in the drift function has a negative sign. As already noted in [@kloeden1999 Chap. 4.4] the exact solution to is $$\begin{aligned}
\label{eq:GLex}
X(t)=X_0\exp(\mu t+\sigma W(t))\big(1+2X^2_0\int_0^t\exp(2\mu
s+2\sigma W(s)){\,\mathrm{d}s}\big)^{-\frac{1}{2}},\quad t \ge 0.\end{aligned}$$ Having an explicit expression for the exact solution, explains why the GLE is often used for numerical experiments in the literature. For instance, we refer to [@wang2012], where similar experiments have been conducted for split-step one-leg theta methods.
![Single trajectories of each numerical method with step size $h=2^{-6}$ of the stochastic Ginzburg-Landau equation with parameters $\mu=0.5$, $\sigma=1$ and $X_0=2$. Threshold for the PEM projection is a shown as a dotted line.[]{data-label="fig"}](dreimethPfad.eps){width="11cm"}
In our experiments the SODE is discretized by the split-step backward Euler method, the backward Euler-Maruyama scheme and the projected Euler-Maruyama method, respectively. Figure \[fig\] shows single trajectories of the exact solution and the three numerical methods with equidistant step size $h = 2^{-6}$ and parameter values $\mu=0.5$, $\sigma=1$, and $X_0=2$. Since Assumption \[as:fg\] is satisfied with growth rate $q = 3$, the parameter value $\alpha= \frac{1}{2(q-1)} =
\frac{1}{4}$ is used for the PEM method. The implementation of the two implicit schemes SSBE and BEM employs Cardano’s method for directly solving the nonlinear equations. Further, for the simulation of the exact solution it is necessary to approximate the deterministic integral appearing in . This is done by a Riemann sum with step size $2^{-12}$.
Regarding the PEM method we are particularly interested in such trajectories which do not coincide with those generated by the standard Euler-Maruyama method. This event occurs when the scheme leaves the sphere of radius $h^{-\alpha}$ at least once and is then drawn back by the projection. More precisely, if it holds true that $$\begin{aligned}
\label{eq:proj}
\big\{ i= 1,\ldots, N \; : \; |X_h^{\mathrm{PEM}}(t_i)| > h^{-\alpha} \big\}
\neq \emptyset, \end{aligned}$$ then the PEM method deviates from the standard Euler-Maruyama scheme. In Figure \[fig\] the trajectory of the PEM method crosses the line with height $h^{-\alpha} =
2^{\frac{3}{2}}$ in the fourth step. Thereafter, the scheme seemingly underestimates the exact solution, although this effect vanishes when time evolves due to the dissipative nature of equation .
Obviously, this behavior is undesirable and the standard Euler-Maruyama method would have given a better approximation of the exact solution in this case. However, let us stress that the main purpose of the projection in the PEM method is to counteract the effect described by Hutzenthaler et al. [@hutzenthaler2011], where the product of the norm of explosive trajectories by the explicit Euler-Maruyama method times the probability to observe such explosive trajectories goes to infinity as the step size goes to zero. Thus, the Euler-Maruyama values have no bounded moments in the limit $h \to 0$ and, consequently, it is divergent in the mean square sense.
On the other hand, the projection in the PEM method essentially prevents the numerical methods from leaving the ball with radius $h^{-\alpha}$. Due to the existence of higher moments, this also holds true for the exact solution up to a set of very small probability (c.f. with the proof of Lemma \[lem:PEMcons1\]). Hence, while being possibly large, the error in such an instance remains essentially bounded and the line of arguments in [@hutzenthaler2011] leading to the divergence of the standard Euler-Maruyama method does not apply to the PEM method.
![Strong convergence errors for the approximation of the stochastic Ginzburg-Landau equation with parameters $\mu=0.5$, $\sigma=1$, and $X_0=2$ for .[]{data-label="fig1"}](bild1.eps){width="11cm"}
----------- --------- ------ --------- ------ --------- ------ ----------
SSBE BEM PEM
$h$ error EOC error EOC error EOC \#-Proj.
$2^{-6}$ 0.04637 0.04106 0.04553 33906
$2^{-7}$ 0.03013 0.62 0.02808 0.55 0.02945 0.63 2157
$2^{-8}$ 0.02029 0.57 0.01951 0.53 0.02002 0.56 26
$2^{-9}$ 0.01396 0.54 0.01365 0.52 0.01384 0.53 0
$2^{-10}$ 0.00975 0.52 0.00960 0.51 0.00968 0.52 0
$2^{-11}$ 0.00683 0.51 0.00678 0.50 0.00681 0.51 0
----------- --------- ------ --------- ------ --------- ------ ----------
: Estimated errors and EOCs for the approximations of []{data-label="tab:matprog"}
Table \[tab:matprog\] and Figure \[fig1\] show the estimated strong error of convergence for six different equidistant step sizes $h= 2^{k - 12}$, $k=1,\dots,6$. For simplicity we only estimate the error at the final time $T
= 1$, that is $$\begin{aligned}
\label{eq:error_def}
\text{error}=({{\mathbb{E}}}(|X_h(T)-X(T)|^2))^\frac{1}{2},\end{aligned}$$ where $X_h(T)$ denotes the respective numerical approximations of the exact solution $X(T)$. The expected value is estimated by a Monte Carlo simulation based on $10^6$ sample paths. Our experiments indicate that the Monte Carlo error then drops well below the strong error to be estimated. As before the parameter values are $\mu=0.5$, $\sigma=1$, and $X_0=2$.
In Figure \[fig1\] one clearly observes strong order $\gamma=\frac{1}{2}$ for all three methods. Further, no numerical method has a significant advantage over one of the others. Table \[tab:matprog\] also contains the estimates of the errors and the corresponding *experimental order of convergence* defined by $$\begin{aligned}
\text{EOC}=\frac{\log(\text{error}(h_i))-\log(\text{error}(h_{i-1}))}{
\log(h_i)-\log(h_ { i-1 } ) }, \ i=2,\dots,k.\end{aligned}$$ For each method we also computed an average of the experimental order of convergence by determining the best fitting line in a least-squares sense for the logarithmically scaled errors. The slopes of these lines are $0.55$, $0.52$, and $0.54$ for the SSBE, BEM, and PEM method, respectively.
Finally, the last column in Table \[tab:matprog\] contains the number of Monte Carlo samples for which the trajectory of the PEM method leaves the sphere of radius $h^{-\alpha}$, that is the event described in has occurred. Relating this to the total number of Monte Carlo samples we see that approximately $3.3$ percent of the PEM trajectories with step size $h=
2^{-6}$ do not coincide with the trajectories of the standard Euler-Maruyama method. However, as the step size gets smaller the number of those samples drops quickly.
Note that we do not know if those excursions from the sphere of radius $h^{-\alpha}$ are caused by the explosive behavior of the standard Euler-Maruyama method described in [@hutzenthaler2011] or if it is due to an intrinsic feature of the exact solution. In the latter case the projection may cause more harm than good. But in both cases a good advice is to choose a smaller step size if the relative frequency to observe the event is too high.
This becomes even more evident in our next example, which consists of the following nonlinear SODE $$\begin{aligned}
\begin{split}
\label{eq:volatility}
{\,\mathrm{d}X}(t)&=\lambda X(t)(\mu-|X(t)|){\,\mathrm{d}t}+\sigma|X(t)|^{\frac{3}{2}}{\,\mathrm{d}W}(t), \\
X(0)&=X_0,
\end{split}\end{aligned}$$ where $\lambda$, $\mu$, $\sigma$, $X_0 \geq 0$. This equation incorporates a super-linearly growing diffusion coefficient function and is used as a stochastic volatility model (SVM) in mathematical finance [@goard2013]. It has also been considered in [@sabanis2013b] for a tamed Euler method.
The mappings $f, \ g\colon{{\mathbb{R}}}\rightarrow {{\mathbb{R}}}$ defined by $f(x):=\lambda
x(\mu-|x|)$ and $g(x):=\sigma|x|^\frac{3}{2}$ are continuous for all $x\in{{\mathbb{R}}}$ and satisfy the global monotonicity condition in Assumption \[as:fg\] with $\eta\leq\frac{\lambda + \sigma^2 }{\sigma^2}$ and $L=\lambda\mu$. Moreover, the coercivity condition is fulfilled for every $p \le
\frac{2 \lambda + \sigma^2}{\sigma^2}$. We refer to the Appendix in [@sabanis2013b] for calculations of the constants $\eta$, $p$, and $L$.
For the numerical experiments the parameter values are $\lambda=3.5$, $\mu=3$, $\sigma=1$, and the initial value is $X_0=5$. Hence, the global monotonicity condition is satisfied with $1 < \eta < 4.5$. Further, the exact solution fulfills $\sup_{t\in [0,T]} \|
X(t) \|_{L^p(\Omega;{{\mathbb{R}}}^d)} < \infty$ for every $p \le 8$.
![Strong convergence errors for the approximation of the $3/2$-volatility model with parameters $\lambda=3.5,
\mu=3, \sigma=1$ and $X_0=5$.[]{data-label="fig2"}](volerror.eps){width="11cm"}
----------- --------- ------ --------- ------ --------- ------ ----------
SSBE BEM PEM
$h$ error EOC error EOC error EOC \#-Proj.
$2^{-6}$ 0.42856 0.28267 0.74770 139890
$2^{-7}$ 0.22499 0.93 0.18973 0.58 0.25858 1.53 22338
$2^{-8}$ 0.14359 0.65 0.13167 0.53 0.14208 0.86 2707
$2^{-9}$ 0.09603 0.58 0.09119 0.53 0.09484 0.58 294
$2^{-10}$ 0.06585 0.54 0.06371 0.52 0.06516 0.54 24
$2^{-11}$ 0.04524 0.54 0.04454 0.52 0.04508 0.53 0
----------- --------- ------ --------- ------ --------- ------ ----------
: Estimated errors and EOCs for the approximation of []{data-label="tab:exp"}
Since there is no explicit expression available, we replace the exact solution in by a numerical reference approximation with a very fine step size $h_{\mathrm{ref}} = 2^{-16}$. The implicit schemes are again implemented by solving the nonlinear equation in each time step explicitly. This time we take the parameter value $\alpha=\frac{1}{2}$ for the PEM method. As above our estimate of the errors are based on a Monte Carlo simulation with $10^6$ sample paths.
Figure \[fig2\] shows the strong convergence errors of the three methods with six different step sizes $h=2^{k}\Delta t$, $k=5,\dots,10$. The results are well in line with the predicted strong order $\gamma=\frac{1}{2}$ for all schemes provided that the step size is sufficiently small. In that case, there is again no significant difference in the behavior of the three schemes. For larger step sizes, however, the BEM methods outperforms the SSBE scheme and, on a much larger scale, the PEM method significantly.
This can also been seen from Table \[tab:exp\], which contains the numerical values for the strong errors shown in Figure \[fig2\]. The values for the corresponding experimental order of convergence verify the theoretical results only for small values of $h$. As above we also determine an average experimental order of convergence for the three methods as the slope of the best fitting line in the mean-square sense. The results for the SSBE, BEM, and PEM method are $0.63$, $0.53$, and $0.77$, respectively.
Note that in the stochastic volatility method the magnitude of the noise term is, intentionally, much larger than in the Ginzburg-Landau equation while the damping in the drift term is weaker if $X(t) > \mu$. Thus, the dynamic is more often dominated by the noise term. It appears that the BEM scheme works best in this situation as the noise term is always damped by the implicit step. In the SSBE scheme, on the other hand, the most recent noise increment is undamped which apparently affects the error negatively if the step size is large. This effect is even worse for the explicit PEM scheme. In addition, the high noise intensity makes it more likely for the exact solution to leave the sphere of radius $h^{-\alpha}$ while the PEM method cannot follow and is pulled back. This coincides with a larger number of trajectories in which the projection has been applied as can be seen from the values in the last column of Table \[tab:exp\].
To conclude this section, let us summarize our observations: We have seen in the numerical experiments that the three schemes perform equally well if the step size is small enough. For larger step sizes the implicit schemes turned out to be superior over the PEM method, especially if the noise term is more likely to dominate the underlying dynamics. However, by observing the relative frequency of the event one may have a simple indicator available if the step size of the explicit method should be further decreased. Since the PEM method is, in general, cheaper to simulate than the implicit schemes, one might afford this, eventually.
Acknowledgement {#acknowledgement .unnumbered}
---------------
The authors wish to thank R. D. Grigorieff for calling our attention to the reference [@strehmel2012] and thereby pointing us to the concept of C-stability. Further, the first two authors gratefully acknowledge financial support by the DFG-funded CRC 701 ’Spectral Structures and Topological Methods in Mathematics’. The same holds true for the third named author, who has been supported by the research center <span style="font-variant:small-caps;">Matheon</span>. He also likes to thank the CRC 701 for making possible a very fruitful research stay at Bielefeld University, during which essential parts of this work were written. Finally, the authors wish to thank an anonymous referee and the associated editor for very helpful suggestions and comments.
\#1[0=]{}
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|
An in-depth study of Fyodor Dostoevsky's Crime and Punishment
Category Archives: Characters
In the group discussion of the novel Lauren states that she believes Raskolnikov will feel a sense of relief once he commits the act that has been inhibiting his mind this past month. I fully agree with her on that expectation. Chapter 5 further highlights his desire to get the act over with and then he can get that out of his system and move on with his life. Dostoevksy highlights this sense of imprisonment due to his impending duty by showing Raskolnikov’s procrastination with everything else that he is to do. He decided that he would not see Razumikhin until after he has carried out the act, if he does.
Dostoevsky continues his use of suspense and foreshadowing into chapter six which is at this point the chapter that readers were waiting for: Raskolnikov firmly deciding that he will in fact kill Alyona. Dostoevsky introduced both of Raskolnikov’s dreams into the story as his devices for suspense, pushing back the crime and also using foreshadowing through Raskolnikov dreaming about witnessing a murder. Once he awakes from the dream, though, we see his typical momentary compassion by his repulsion to the idea of murdering Alyona.
Raskolnikov’s personality remains puzzling in these chapters because there has not been an exact reason given yet for why he ought to kill Alyona. His carelessness during his preparation and planning of the murder, Raskolnikov exhibits an abnormal indifference towards the atrocious act that he knows he is about to commit. We see the urgency in getting the crime over with rising in Raskolnikov and albeit his knowledge and compassion prove he knows better, it seems that this will be the only way that he can relieve himself from the torturous desire to lash out.
As Brittany points out the fury Raskolnikov feels over his sister’s arranged loveless marriage I had a slight realization. From the beginning of the novel we have been guided by Dostoevsky to view Raskolnikov as an emotionless sociopath. His lack of feelings and care build his character that we have discovered. However, the fact that he is so upset by his sister’s engagement shows the he believes in true love. It is not that he is possessive and does not want his sister getting married; it is that he thinks that she is “selling herself” and her marrying a man whom she does not love is absolutely immoral.
But why would a sociopath care about one’s feelings in a marriage. Maybe there is a layer of Raskolnikov’s personality that we still have not seen. He can be deeper than the erratic and unexplainable character that we have observed. He has a romantic side and this can lead to him possibly doing good, rather than the harsh crime that we believe we will soon see him commit. We see his moments of clarity when he cares for people and tries to help but he almost always follows up with a sociopathic freak out and disregard of the troubles the others are facing.
He truly cares about his family though, and only wants them to be happy and respected. It seems that he would do anything to protect his mother and sister, knowing that he is the only man who they can trust. He wants to be the man that they can rely and decides he must stop Mr. Luzhin, and that Dunia deserves to find someone that she loves and does not marry just because it is an easy way to support Pulcheria and Rodia.
Through Raskolnikov’s soliloquy in chapter four readers may form a better understanding of his life and the lives of those around him. His extremely angry reaction to his mother’s letter further continues our view of him as a sociopath. However, what I have found very interesting is that despite the fact that Crime and Punishment was originally written in the 1800s the characters are very relatable and the situations that they face are also prevalent in our society today. Raskolnikov is the typical over-protective brother who does not approve of his mother and sister’s actions although they have good intentions. He sees the bad that comes their way and decides to be that the man they need and declares that he will not approve of these actions no matter what. He compares Dunia and Sonia in the sense that they are both degrading themselves for the bettering of the family. This is very common in today’s societies with girls becoming strippers or prostitutes to provide for children or even their education. Furthermore, when Raskolnikov stumbles upon the extremely young drunk girl he is taken aback because that was a rare sight in those days for girls to be drunk. Today, however it does not surprise readers to see this activity amongst young girls. Raskolnikov’s initial worry about the girl highlights his confliction because soon after he immediately wonders why he cared and that it does not matter what happens to the girl. And so the question arises that he may not only be a sociopath, but bipolar as well…
In the second chapter of Crime and Punishment, Dostoevsky highlights the complexity of family life, specifically during times of struggle. Through the introduction of Semion Marmeladov, Raskolnikov is pulled into a world of greater hardships than his own. After being told of the vices of destitution, Raskolnikov is forced to listen to Marmeladov’s stories about his failing family life. From these stories Raskolnikov sees the importance of money to a family. While Marmeladov is without work, his daughter works as a prostitute, his wife is bitter, and the kids are unhappy and hungry. Once Marmeladov gets his job back, his wife and daughter praise his and brag about him. However, Marmeladov’s alcoholism leads him astray once again and he leaves the family without any money. He drunkenly drags Raskolnikov along with him to visit the family, and his wife scolds him and exhibits contempt towards him. By calling him a criminal and a drunk she strips him of his once positive ties with his family.
Seeing the pain that the family was going through impacted Raskolnikov so much that he left them the only money that he had left. He then goes through some thoughts reaximining the situation. Sonia will have to go back to having a yellow ticket and the family will remain in the mess that they got themselves into. He then goes onto question mankind, “What if man is not really a scoundrel, man in general, I mean, the whole race of mankind—then all the rest is prejudice, simply artificial terrors and there are no barriers and it’s all as it should be.” Raskinokov is questioning the justice system, stating that there are no natural laws; crimes are only crimes because we, humans have deemed them to be crimes. |
Chapter 207 - Chapter 43: Storm #4
Chapter 207 - Chapter 43: Storm #4
It was still far off into the distance. This was the first time In-gong had felt that energy. However, it felt familiar to him. He could naturally recall the names of those approaching from afar at a terrific pace.
Kwang!
The ground split again as the frost worm hit the ground with its huge body once more. It was like a giant tower crashing down. Once again, there were those who couldn’t escape. Their bodies and blood froze instantly after becoming injured.
However, because of his senses, honed through many battlefields, Vandal didn’t look back. Instead of heading towards the frost worm, he rushed towards the frost corps. The independent army he had trained did the same, and the battlefield itself widened.
“G-General Vandal?”
"Stay close behind me!”
Vandal said to Nayatra, who was clinging to his back, causing her to form two fists. He rushed like a tank towards the frost corps and zombies, smashing into them and making the battlefield wider.
The center of the battle moved away from the frost worm. Then Nayatra used secondary magic from behind Vandal, while he watched the front. He had a hunch that something would happen in the rear.
He wouldn’t be the one dealing with the frost worm. There were separate people assigned to that role.
The blizzard was strong. After pushing out from the ground, the frost worm once again straightened its body.
Chris cursed inwardly and roared loudly. His command, which spread clearly though the snowstorm, was in line with Vandal’s behaviour. It was a command to rush to the frost corps instead of the frost worm. Immediately after giving the command, Chris turned around. Just like Vandal, his role wasn’t to deal with the frost worm. He didn’t say anything and simply turned around, exchanging a gaze with someone.
Silvan stared at the frost worm. His open fairy glowed golden, and a strong magic power was surrounding Amita’s sword. It was clear that the power seemed to be under control.
"Chris!"
Felicia shouted. Rather than responding, Chris nodded to Caitlin, who was standing near Felicia and Anastasia. Caitlin understood immediately and sprang forward with an angry growl.
“Let’s go! Noonim!”
Chris grabbed Felicia’s and Anastasia’s waists and moved at a high speed. Anastasia gave a short scream. Although she wanted to grumble about his rough treatment, her lips were already moving to cast a spell. As Chris dug through the frost corps, Felicia’s and Anastasia’s magic swept through the frost corps. The three of them seemed like a moving turret.
“Silvan!”
Felicia shouted in the midst of the snowstorm. Her voice didn’t have the power to break through the storm, but it reached him clearly. Silvan smiled as he shone with the light of the fairy and charged towards a frost worm.
Caitlin ran next to Silvan. This was the first time the two had fought closely on a battlefield. However, Caitlin and Silvan understood each other with their eyes. Both were trained warriors, so they could see what the other person wanted.
Caitlin outpaced Silvan. She turned hastily, brought both hands together and lowered her posture. Silvan leaped towards Caitlin’s hands, and as soon as his feet touched her, Caitlin lifted Silvan up with all her strength.
Silvan flew forward. He broke through the snow and raised Amita’s sword up high. The frost worm’s dozens of eyes turned toward him.
Chukwakakak!
Dozens of thorns, which had been covering the frost worm’s body, flew toward Silvan. Instead of squatting, Silvan turned his body in the air. He swung Amita’s sword around, and the magic power in the blade erased the thorns and blizzard at the same time.
Silvan took a deep breath and focused the magic power of the fairy on Amita’s sword. Like when he fought the Famine Knight, lightning covered Amita’s sword!
Kwakang!
The lightning tore through the blizzard, and Amita’s sword pierced the body of the frost worm. Lightning bolts scattered all over the place and exploded continuously. Amita’s sword, the lightning sword, split the body of the frost worm apart. The worm’s thick outer skin was torn open and green blood burst out, causing the it to shake and scream.
However, the speed in which it was attacked was faster. Silvan, who had created an enormous wound more than 10 meters wide, pulled the sword out. He kicked against the body of the frost worm and threw himself into the air before wielding his sword again.
A golden light extended from Amita’s sword and struck the frost worm. The frost worm thrashed around and sprayed thorns at Silvan. As the frost worm’s dozens of eyes stared at Silvan, its wounds grew wider and green blood continued to leak out.
Silvan took a deep breath again. It felt like his lungs were freezing from the cold, but his mind was clear. He changed his body position by somersaulting in the air while panting. At that moment, Caitlin moved between Silvan and the frost worm.
She was like a white meteor blazing through the sky. During the time in which Silvan had been injuring the frost worm, Caitlin had gathered a lot of aura and didn’t hesitate to fly into the wound. Instead of closing her eyes against the sticky green fluid, she moved straight ahead, and the Starlight Core responded to the amplification of power from the apostle upgrade.
Caitlin didn’t punch out. Instead, she exploded with a strong aura from all over her body.
Kwang!
The was a loud roar, and the frost worm’s body swelled up like a snake bloating after swallowing a large amount of food. That was the end of the frost worm. Without even a scream, the frost worm finally collapsed.
Silvan lowered the speed of his fall using magic power and settled on the ground at almost the same time as the frost worm. Caitlin, covered in a white light, emerged from the frost worm’s wound. Her hair, soaring upwards like a flame, was impressive, but the sight of her torn winter clothes and the green fluid covering her body made Silvan sad.
However, Caitlin was used to being covered with the enemy’s blood on the battlefield. So, she just looked toward the sky, where the battle between In-gong and Yosarina was in full swing.
Kwang!Kwang!Kwang!
There were several explosions, and the ice pieces scattered. Then Yosarina attacked In-gong with an ice storm. Huge ice blades made from magic were aimed at him from all directions. There were so many that In-gong would be torn into pieces if they struck. However, In-gong used his divinity to destroy all the ice blades and narrowed the distance to Yosarina. White Eagle, the Alpha and Beta Black Eagle, and the Giant King’s Sword wandered around In-gong, crushing everything which headed toward him.
Finally, In-gong and Yosarina collided. Ice crawled over Yosarina and thickened the ice armour around her. She smiled as she endured the attacks of White Eagle, Black Eagle and the Giant King’s Sword.
The frost queen’s armour was invincible in the cold. As long as Yosarina was in this armour, she was safe. Moreover, she still had many things remaining which she had prepared.
Yosarina didn’t think she could finish In-gong with the ice blades, but time was on her side. How long could those down below survive in this frigid cold? Every minute and second was precious as 9th Prince and his followers headed for their deaths.
However, Yosarina wasn’t just buying time, and the reason why she didn’t care about the death of the frost worm was clear.
The ground shook again. There were big cracks in several places of fighting, and frost worms extended their heads out of the ground. Then the ground quaked with wild tremors as though the frost worms wanted to wipe out all the frost corps as well as the troops In-gong led.
As screams of horror and death occurred all over the place, Nayatra closed her eyes tightly and buried her head into Vandal’s neck. Felicia’s lips were blue from the cold, while Silvan and Caitlin looked at each other.
Yosarina sat happily in her thick armour. She had expected In-gong to retreat to save his troops or not be able to concentrate due to worrying about the ground.
However, his reaction was neither one of those. Rather than looking at the ground, In-gong struck the frost queen’s armour with the Giant King's Sword which was filled with a strong aura! A part of the armour split, and as the ice broke, cracks formed around the point which had been struck.
Yosarina panicked. Did the 9th Prince have the same mentality as 2nd Prince, unlike the information she received? Why didn’t he look back once?
The reason was simple, and it wasn’t because In-gong was cold-hearted.
They had finally arrived. On the mini-map, the purple dots, which meant neutrality, shone.
Silvan and Caitlin, who were rushing towards the frost worms, slowed down for some reason. Felicia and Anastasia stopped using magic and looked up at the sky blankly.
Then at that moment...
The blizzard stopped, and the wind subsided. There were no clouds in the clear sky. It was only for this battlefield, like a glass wall had been built up and the blizzard raged outside it.
This was climate manipulation... The power of divine magic. Only two people in the world could use divine magic to this extent:
Dark Saintess Altesia, who received the favour of Erebos, the god of darkness; and Saintess Beatrice, who was called the incarnation of Mother Earth.
It wasn’t Altesia. It was Beatrice. The gold cross in the clear sky showed this.
There was one more thing... One more fact which proved it was Beatrice!
A huge sword of light, made from amassed aura, pierced a frost worm. The name of the sword was the Warrior’s Sword. It was something which only Warrior Locke could use. The sword of light exploded and scattered the aura. The frost worm fell with a shriek, and the Warrior’s Sword crossed the air. It moved quickly past In-gong and struck Yosarina.
The upper part of the frost queen’s armour was now broken. Yosarina screamed, and In-gong rose up into the air instead of following Yosarina or looking back.
Warrior Locke had appeared. In-gong didn’t know why he was encountering Locke in a place like this, but Locke was a powerful ally. This was proven by the fact that he attacked Yosarina and the frost worm instead of In-gong and his companions.
Warrior Locke moved near In-gong, using the sword given by Guardian Queian to pressure Yosarina. Yosarina restored the ice armour hurriedly and shot out ice blades, but Locke faced them head on without retreating. Every time his sword flashed, dozens of ice blades were smashed.
‘Master.’
Green Wind whispered from within White Eagle. In-gong understood the meaning of her short call. The climate manipulation was only temporary. No matter how great Beactrice’s divine power was, it was unreasonable to completely remove the cold from this area.
In the cold, Yosarina’s defense was beyond imagination. However, even without the cold, the armour could still survive the Warrior’s Sword.
In-gong needed to knock Yosarina down before the climate manipulation was lifted. Once the cold returned, everyone with already lowered body temperatures wouldn’t be able to last much longer. Even In-gong was affected by the cold as he confronted Yosarina, and his stamina was already low.
Taking deep breaths, In-gong swallowed the cold air anyway as he concentrated on Earth Quaker. The fairy embedded in it started to emit a strong magic power in response to him. In-gong didn’t stop there and squeezed out all the aura from his aura heart.
It wasn’t the power which had destroyed the fairy king. This was now something else entirely. In-gong remembered the sun he had encountered in a ruin of the indigenous species. The power of divinity, aura, and magic power gathered together, and the image was realized through Dragon Words.
Those fighting on the ground looked up at the sky with no conscious reason. Then Felicia laughed like it was ridiculous, while Anastasia shook her head and muttered, ‘Shutra.’ Carack felt warm. Chris and Silvan forgot to fight, while Caitlin, who had been staring at the frost worms with fearsome eyes, cried out with a mixture of confusion and joy.
“A-Amazing.”
Locke felt the warmth above his head as well. He laughed while cornering Yosarina, who looked up at the sky from within her armour and felt fearful.
The sun shone brightly in the sky. It was a 30-meter-wide mass of power which glowed with a white light.
In-gong formed a fist, and the white woman in his soul whispered. Green Wind embraced In-gong and delivered her strength. The sun was compressed, and the sphere became a large spear. As it emitted flames which were hotter than a furnace, In-gong manipulated it using Telekinesis.
Yosarina tried to escape, but Locke didn’t allow it. He called several huge swords of light to stop her retreat and used divine magic to interfere with Yosarina’s movements.
As Yosarina shrieked, the sun spear crossed the air. Yosarina moved her body to try and avoid the sun spear, but it was manipulated by Telekinesis. In response to Yosarina’s movement, the tip of the sun spear shifted, and the gigantic mass of heat melted the frost armour, piercing Yosarina’s chest!
There was no screaming. The spear pierced Yosarina’s chest, and she took her last breath in the armour. With her emerald hair, she became a piece of ice, and the frost armour around her shattered and scattered.
[Your level has risen.]
In-gong closed his eyes and panted heavily. Although his stamina was restored, the sweat still remained on his body. However, In-gong didn’t reveal his difficulties. He opened his eyes and gazed at the face in front of him.
“The Drakon Kechatulla created by the Demon World.”
It was the face of Warrior Locke, a protagonist of Knight Saga. He was the new Drakon Kechatulla raised by Guardian Queian.
The owner of the Warrior’s Sword held out his right hand as if he wanted In-gong to shake it. |
Saturday, September 28, 2013
When I was in the training stages with my kids, I would pick one trait to work on that week. The pattern of the week was usually the same.
Day One - Introduce what we were going to work on. Have them start memorizing a corresponding Bible verse. Remind them what positive reinforcements would happen if I caught them showing this behavior. I would also take time to remind them that they were not allowed to tell me when they showed this behavior, I must catch them at it.
Day Two - Introduce a game or activity that reinforced the behavior and practiced saying the Bible verse.
Days Three through Six- Play the game or activity, if appropriate. Pay special attention to children and give them much praise and positive reinforcement of the behavior shown. Make sure that you praise the kids, in front of Dad, of the times that day when they showed the behavior. Continue to practice Bible verse.
Day Seven - Have the kids recite their Bible verses. I always like to give kids a small treat, each and every time they could recite the verse for me. Like an m&m or a jelly bean or a fruit chewie. Psalm 119:103 says, “How sweet are your words to my taste, sweeter than honey to my mouth!” Earlier on, I wanted this to resonate with my kids, that the Words of the Bible are sweet to our soul and to our mouth. Years later, they now run for the jelly bean jar when they recite verses for me and any kids who come to my house know that if they can recite a verse, I will give them candy. On the last day, I also remind them that I will still be watching for them to show this behavior but now that I know that they know what they are supposed to do, I expect that from them. I also warn them that there will be discipline if they fail to do what they know they are supposed to.
Now, that you have the basic pattern you put any behaviors into this.
There are several behaviors that I would recommend putting into place for a smoother home and school time.
First Time Obedience
One of the first times I presented this topic at a convention a woman stood up in the middle of the workshop and asked me what I meant by ‘first time obedience’. I was a little taken aback but since it then happened at successive conventions, I try to define what I mean by that. By first time, I mean, if you ask your child to sit down at the table, will they sit down the very first time you ask? If you ask them to pick up their toys will they pick up their toys the very first time you ask? If you ask them to come to you, will they come the very first time you call? If your child will obey consistently ( say 80% of the time) then I would say that they are obedient the first time.
The Bible verse I use to teach this is Ephesians 6:1 “Children obey your parents in the Lord, for this is right.” I would use this verse for children 2-5 years old, but for older kids I would add verses 2 and 3, “Honor your mother and father - for this is the first commandment with a promise - so that it may go well with you and you may enjoy a long life upon the earth.”
I play a modified game of hide and go seek with my kids to introduce first time obedience. I go and hide and then call my kids. They have to yell, “Yes, Mom” and then run to find me. When they find me, if they have said, “Yes, Mom” then I give them a treat. I play this several times the first time and perhaps have my husband do it too and then throughout the week, I would hide unexpectedly and call to them. Little kids really love this but your older kids will get into it if you challenge them with your hiding places. Teaching is so much more effective if we can think of fun ways to introduce and reinforce topics.
Thursday, September 19, 2013
I have been challenged to take some of my seminars and expound on some of the ideas so I am going to try ( I said try, no promises) and be disciplined and post once a week on some of these ideas.The seminar and article I get the most questions on is from, "Ten Practical Things Every Homeschooler Should Know" so I thought I would start with that.Today we are going to talk about Parent Training.
“The reasonableness of the command to obey parents is clear to children, even when quite young.” - Noah Webster
One of the very first things I ask Moms who are stressed and overwrought and clearly at their wits end with this crazy homeschooling thing is, “ If you ask your child to please go to the table and sit down, what happens?” and the second thing I ask is, “How many times would it take of you asking before your child would do it?”. More often than not, the answer comes with a pause and a stammer or even an answer that it depends on the child’s mood that day. Children that do not obey right away make homeschooling 10 times harder than it has to be and if you have more than one child, that can make it almost impossible. Consider this scenario -
“Johnnny and Susie, please come to the table and sit down. We are ready to start school.” Mom asks. Johnny and Susie keep playing with the legos with no acknowledgement or sign of movement.
“ Kids, it is time for school. Come over. I have fun activities planned for today.” The two briefly raise their heads from their toys at the mention of fun but quickly go back to playing.
“I said, it is time for school, don’t make me count to 3!” Mom’s voice starts getting louder. Finally, Mom comes over and takes their hands and puts the toys down and makes them come to table all the while the two have begun to wail which then wakes up little brother who has been taking a nap. Mom struggles to get them to table and hopes the baby goes back to sleep so she can do school. Mom is stressed, the kids are whining and crying and it is only the beginning of the day.
The calm, wonderful school day Mom has meticulously planned is now shot to pieces and she just does the best she can to teach the have-to’s in the remaining time. Anyone would have a hard time teaching phonics and math to children who won't even come sit down at the table. It becomes more about just getting it done than really teaching and educating. One of the interesting and more difficult parts of homeschooling is the fact that we are educating and parenting. We are training their minds and their hearts at the same time. You don't stop being the Mom when school starts, you just add the Teacher hat to the mix.
Now, before we go any further, I know that some of you are thinking, “Dawn must have compliant children. She clearly doesn’t have any strong-willed children.” Not true, AT ALL. We are blessed with three children, Connor, and the twins, Caileigh and Collin. My husband often says that if we would have just had Connor we would have thought we were the best parents ever. We said, "No", and he stopped. We could look sternly at him and he would apologize. Then we had the twins. Caileigh, bless her sweet heart, is definitely my child and that is both a blessing and a curse. I often heard growing up, “ I hope you have a child just like you!” and I did. Caileigh does her own thing, in her own time and is willing to let you know when she doesn’t like something. Her twin, Collin, sees everything in black and white and while mostly obedient, if you do something that he sees as wrong ( like turning the cartoon off while he was watching), he will hold a grudge all day long. I understand, really, I do. That’s also why I know this works. I read all the books, went to the seminars, talked to the leaders and gathered all the information I could.
So what is a mom to do? Plan to spend the summer training your children in first time obedience, no whining and complaining and cleaning up after themselves. What if you are in the middle of the school year? Then start where you are. You can schedule homeschooling light for the next few weeks, take a week or two off or pare down on activities for the next several weeks. It can be done in the school year, it just might take more of your time, emotions and energy than usual.
Parent Training
First things first, we need to do some parent training. I would suggest you take a week before you start on child training to train and prepare yourself and possibly your spouse.
In my experience, one of the most powerful and helpful parenting Bible verses is Matthew 5:37 which says, “Simply let your ‘Yes’ be ‘Yes’ and your ‘No’, ‘No’; anything beyond this comes from the evil one.”
When my children were little, I was challenged to really put this into practice in my home. It meant that I had to take a moment and think about what they were asking and what my response would be. It meant that if I said,’Yes’, I was committed to doing what I said I would do. If I said I would make cookies, then I did. If I said they could play with playdough I needed to be prepared to help get out all the playdough toys and set them up outside on the patio. (I can not deal with playdough in the house. It makes me crazy) If I said that as soon I was done folding the laundry then I would take them to the park, then I did. Sure life can get crazy and sometimes things happen but I tried to be very careful to keep my word. I wanted my kids to know that I when I said I would do something then I would. I didn't need to promise because my kids knew that if I said ‘Yes’, I meant, ‘Yes’.
This took me a little time to adjust to as I really needed to think about it before I said, ‘Yes’ or ‘No’. I had to weigh out all that I had to do, what other expectations I had on my time and what was most important that day. Had I spent enough time with the kids or had I been too focused on other matters. Did I have company coming and messy kids what the last thing I needed? Was there a moral or Biblical reason to say ‘No’, or was it just because it might annoy me. This last statement was one I was also challenged on, did I just say ‘No’ to things because I just didn’t really want to deal with it or did I have a valid reason to say, ‘No’? Don’t get me wrong, there were days when I said, ‘No’ and then I told them, “ Mom, really isn't up to it today. Can we do it later in the week?’. I really tried to limit the ‘Nos’ that had more to do with what I felt like then really whether it was a bad idea.
Saying, ‘Yes’ is far easier than the concept of saying, ‘No’ and meaning it. Your ‘No’ as parent must hold weight. If I tell my kids, ‘No’ they understand that I am willing to follow up on the ‘No’. I do try and give them a why with the ‘No’ so they can learn the whys behind my ‘Nos’ and hopefully begin to see the wisdom and pattern in my ‘No’.
“No, you may not take the toy away from your sister because that is rude and the Bible says that love is not rude”.
“No, you may not play with your brother’s toys as it is not yours. We must love and respect your brother enough to ask before we touch his things.” I said this a lot to the twins who wanted to play with their older brothers cool toys. Actually, they still want to play with his cool toys, but they now ask before they touch.
When I said ‘No’ to my kids, I had to be willing to follow up on whatever the consequences might be. My ‘Yes’ meant ‘Yes’ and my ‘No’ meant ‘No’. I didn’t count to three, I didn’t ask several times because they needed to know that I meant what I said and I was willing to follow through. Was this fun? Absolutely not. There were days when I met my husband at the door and said, “The kids are sitting and reading on the couch, dinner is on the table and I won’t be back until they are all in bed”. Saying ‘No’ and meaning it means that your children will test you on your ‘No’ and you have to have to have the fortitude to follow through. It will be worth it though. I don’t get angry and I don’t raise my voice but my kids know when Mom says ‘No’ she means it and they very rarely challenge that anymore. It makes our home and much more peaceful and pleasant place.
I think that this is very first step in having your children listen to you both as a parent and a teacher and it is up to the parent to determine in their heart and mind to follow the Bible’s advice.
Tuesday, September 17, 2013
As most of you may be aware, this last week in my part of the world, the skies opened and rain poured forth. For those of you in wetter climates this may not have quite the same impact as it has here on the Front Range of Colorado. In the past week, we have had more than a normal years worth of rain. If it were snow, we would totally know how to handle it, but the wet stuff falling from the skies has been problematic to say the least.Within miles of our home, bridges have collapsed, roads crumbled and homes and businesses were completely flooded. Several friends have been totally cut off from water, power and indeed the ability to leave without being airlifted from their towns. We have friends who are still evacuated from their homes, family who have been without clean water for days and a community rocked by what they are calling a 500 year flood. It will take a years to repair the damages.Through the crises, I have the loved the response from the people of faith. Churches opened as Evacuation Centers, stories of people going door to door in evacuated areas making sure everyone had left (in one case this saved a life of an elderly woman in a wheelchair), homes being opened for those who were displaced, meals prepared and made for those in need. The digging out of basements and businesses and clean water handed out to those who have none. This is what the church was supposed to be. The fact that double the amount of people needed to feed evacuees showed up at 6 in the morning ready and willing to help shows that when rallied, the church still is the hands of Jesus. I love that. I love that our pastor had to send a note telling the congregation to slow up, the authorities weren't ready for us to descend upon the surrounding towns yet. I love that Samaritan's Purse has made its home base at our church for the next several months. Samaritan's Purse was here by Saturday. The floods happened on Thursday and Friday. I loved that in the midst of personal trials people on FB were saying, "How can I help? My house is dry, come here". God showed up in a big way and His people are being His hands. It has given me some faith in God's people back. It was dark and stormy but the sun is shining both literally and figuratively. I know there are many who still have dark days ahead in digging out and repairing and some who have lost loved ones. (Though mercifully, that number has been miraculously low) But prayerfully, God's people will show up to lend a hand to all those in need.
For those wondering, we have been very blessed in this time. We lost a little sleep in bailing out a window well and have a small part of the basement carpet wet but other than that have stayed high and dry. Our water is clean and only a few roads are closed around us. God gave us extra grace.
For those wondering how they can help. I will direct you to our church's website. |
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<!--
Copyright 2017 Yan Zhenjie.
Licensed under the Apache License, Version 2.0 (the "License");
you may not use this file except in compliance with the License.
You may obtain a copy of the License at
http://www.apache.org/licenses/LICENSE-2.0
Unless required by applicable law or agreed to in writing, software
distributed under the License is distributed on an "AS IS" BASIS,
WITHOUT WARRANTIES OR CONDITIONS OF ANY KIND, either express or implied.
See the License for the specific language governing permissions and
limitations under the License.
-->
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xmlns:android="http://schemas.android.com/apk/res/android"
xmlns:app="http://schemas.android.com/apk/res-auto">
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android:id="@+id/album_menu_finish"
android:icon="@drawable/album_ic_done_white"
android:title="@string/album_menu_finish"
app:showAsAction="always|withText"/>
</menu> |
Wine Review: 2010 Aphros Silenus Vinhao Portugal What a pleasant surprise it was to taste this wine. Aphros Silenus Vinhao Portugal is the sleeper hit of 2014 wine discoveries for me. A better example of red wine currently produced from this region would be hard to find. No, really; actually seeing a red from the […]
Repeatedly I have tried to enjoy these Vinho Verde wines from Portugal enough to get behind and promote them. The green taught flavors combined with the lithe body and low alcohol expressed in most Vinho Verde just never did it for me. The Vinho Verde Adega Ponte de Lima Adamado has enough alcohol creating a […]
Let me clarify from the beginning this last minute gift guide is about true port from Portugal. Don’t get me wrong, port style wines from various regions certainly have their place in the hearts and cellars of their supporters, but not in an article about port. They do not belong in this article/post because it […]
A few months ago I attended a tasting of the newly declared 2011 Vintage Port at the W hotel in San Francisco. It was a really fun and informative event. It was apparent from the attendance by industry heavy hitters like Christian Seely and Adrian Bridge they wanted to make sure the American audience was […] |
Note: Users are encouraged to use these XRND (cross-round) variables, as they combine the information gathered in 2010, 2012, and 2014.
Prior to 2010, only limited information was collected on business ownership in the NLSY79. In 2010 (round 24), NLSY79 respondents who were current or former business owners were asked a lengthy series of questions about each business owned since age 18. The business ownership questions were also asked in 2012 and 2014 for those not interviewed in 2010.
Respondents who reported having owned a business gave the year each business was established and how ownership was acquired: whether the respondent established the business themselves or with partners, received ownership as a gift, purchased ownership, inherited ownership, or received an ownership stake through marriage. Respondents answered questions about working for a related type of business prior to starting their business, the source of the money used to establish or acquire the business, the number of employees and the number of physical locations of the business, the legal form of the business (sole proprietorship, corporation, etc.) the sales or revenue in a typical year, and whether the business was family owned.
In addition, all NLSY79 respondents interviewed in round 24 (regardless of "own business" status) were asked several questions on family ownership of businesses, their own patent-seeking activities, and whether they consider themselves to be entrepreneurs. These questions were repeated in rounds 25 and 26 for those who missed the round 24 interview.
To find these business ownership questions in NLS Investigator, use "BUSOWN" as the Question Name search criterion. These variables are listed as cross-round (XRND) variables. To determine whcih survey year the data were collected, use the created variable "BUSOWN_SOURCEYR." |
A fitting response
After the actions, or lack thereof, by Sean Cardinal Brady became apparent, reports notes that “Just 20 of 150 priests in the Armagh Archdiocese invited to attend a prayer gathering in support of Dr Brady actually showed up”. |
Q:
Validation for Form and QueryString in ASP Classic using Regex. Almost working but missing something?
I'm trying to add some Input Validation in Classic ASP by using the function/code seen below.
The only one that looks like it's working correctly is the "text" type. the others I keep getting errors or it just does not filter correctly.
I'm trying to understand what I'm doing wrong please help me.
Valid Data Types: "email", "integer", "date", "string" and "text".
The first three are obvious, the last two have slight differences.
The "email" should only allow numbers and leters, and the following characters "@" , "-" , "." , "_"
The "date" should validate by running IsDate and if True then allow if False DON'T.
The "string" should validate text-based querystrings, allowing only letters, numbers, _, - and .
Whereas "text" is any free-form text form field type content.
The "integer" should only allow numbers and a period (.)
Usage Example: <input type="text" value="<%=MakeSafe("test@test.com</HTML>1234.5",integer,50)%>">
Eg: MakeSafe(dataInput,dataType,dataLength)
<%
'// CODE BY: dB Masters
'// FOUND AT: http://successontheweb.blogspot.com/2008/03/input-validation-for-security-in.html
Function MakeSafeConvert(encodeData)
encodeData = replace(encodeData,"&", "&")
encodeData = replace(encodeData,"'", "'")
encodeData = replace(encodeData,"""", """)
encodeData = replace(encodeData,">", ">")
encodeData = replace(encodeData,"<", "<")
encodeData = replace(encodeData,")", ")")
encodeData = replace(encodeData,"(", "(")
encodeData = replace(encodeData,"]", "]")
encodeData = replace(encodeData,"[", "[")
encodeData = replace(encodeData,"}", "}")
encodeData = replace(encodeData,"{", "{")
encodeData = replace(encodeData,"--", "--")
encodeData = replace(encodeData,"=", "=")
MakeSafeConvert = encodeData
End Function
Function MakeSafe(dataInput,dataType,dataLength)
Dim regex, validInput, expressionmatch
regex = ""
validInput = "1"
If dataType = "string" And Len(dataInput) > 0 Then
regex = "^[\w-\.]{1,"& dataLength &"}$"
ElseIf dataType = "email" And Len(dataInput) > 0 Then
regex = "^[\w-\.]+@([\w-]+\.)+[\w-]{2,6}$"
ElseIf dataType = "integer" And Len(dataInput) > 0 Then
regex = "^\d{1,"& dataLength &"}$"
ElseIf dataType = "date" And Len(dataInput) > 0 Then
If Not IsDate(dataInput) Then validInput = "0" End If
ElseIf dataType = "text" And Len(dataInput) > 0 Then
If Len(dataInput) > dataLength Then validInput = "0" End If
End If
If Len(regex) > 0 And Len(dataInput) > 0 Then
Set RegExpObj = New RegExp
RegExpObj.Pattern = regex
RegExpObj.IgnoreCase = True
RegExpObj.Global = True
RegExpChk = RegExpObj.Test(dataInput)
If Not RegExpChk Then
validInput = "0"
End If
Set RegExpObj = nothing
End If
If validInput = "1" And Len(dataInput) > 0 Then
MakeSafe = MakeSafeConvert(dataInput)
ElseIf Len(dataInput) = 0 Then
MakeSafe = ""
Else
Response.Write "<h2>Processing Halted.</h2>"
Response.End
End If
End Function
%>
EXAMPLE CODE AND ERROR(S):
When I test this using the code:
<%=MakeSafe("test@test.com1234.5",email,50)%>
* Does NOT Validate Anything.*
I don't get an error message but it DOES NOT Validate anything.
**The OUTPUT IS : test@test.com1/27/20121234.5
SHOULD BE ONLY: test@test.com**
When I test this using the code:
<%=MakeSafe("test@test.com1/27/20121234.5",date,50)%>
I don't get an error message but it DOES NOT Validate anything.
The OUTPUT IS : test@test.com1/27/20121234.5
SHOULD BE ONLY: 1/27/2012
The other two give me this error message:
<%=MakeSafe("test@test.com1234.5",string,50)%>
* ERROR!!! Wrong number of arguments or invalid property assignment: 'string'
<%=MakeSafe("test@test.com1234.5",integer,50)%>
* ERROR!!! Syntax error
Thank you so much for any help that you provide...
A:
If it's not a typo then your fault was in the second parameter of the function call.
You call the function like:
<%=MakeSafe("test@test.com1234.5",email,50)%>
which is wrong because you should "..." the second parameter too. This should work:
<%=MakeSafe("test@test.com1234.5","email",50)%>
|
The Duopoly Is Really Real; The Telco Space Is Active
In case you weren’t sure, The Duopoly is very real. While both Facebook and Google parent Alphabet raked in billions of dollars in ad revenue this quarter, next-tier competitors like Twitter and Snap are struggling to keep up. The Duopoly controls more than 60% of the global digital ad market, according to eMarketer, with no other digital platform at market share of more than 5%. The giants are poised for success with TV as well. YouTube’s “fastest-growing screen” is the home television, CEO Sundar Pichai announced on the company’s earnings call last week. Bank of America recently pegged YouTube’s independent value at $70 billion. Facebook will debut its first original TV-style programming in August, on top of its sprawling video empire across its news feed, Instagram and Facebook Live. One of the likeliest mechanisms to undercut the platforms’ growth is courts and regulations, but "as long as they toe the line and stay in the market position they're in, it's going to be kind of hard to go after them under the existing antitrust laws," says Herbert Hovenkamp, a University of Pennsylvania professor of antitrust law. More at Reuters.
The Other Ad Giants
Telcos accelerated their M&A activity in the final years of the Obama administration, like Verizon snapping up AOL and Yahoo and AT&T proposing to merge with Time Warner in a deal that’s still pending. But under the new FCC – where any deal that hinges on regulatory approval is likely to get it – cable and TV network operators are in a headlong rush to consolidate the supply chain. Sprint just emerged from parallel negotiations with Comcast and Charter over wireless reselling with no deals to show, but now reportedly wants a full-blown merger with Charter. “The idea is that adding mobile-phone service to bundles of TV, phone and broadband internet service would make the offerings more essential and cost-efficient,” writes The Wall Street Journal. More.
Writing On The Paywall
Facebook said that it will not take any of the revenue or data generated when readers sign up for subscriptions on Instant Articles. Instead of operating its own subscription service, Facebook will operate a paywall publishers can turn on after non-subscribers view 10 articles per month in order to help publishers monetize on the platform. “Quality journalism costs money to produce, and we want to make sure it can thrive on Facebook,” says head of news partnerships Campbell Brown. More at Recode.
The Sell-Around
Birkenstock built its reputation in America on “hippies” and counterculture movements, and is once again throwing itself into the gnashing teeth of American capitalism. This time around, that means Amazon. Birkenstock pulled all licensed apparel off Amazon earlier this year due to counterfeits and unauthorized sellers. Amazon responded by reaching out to thousands of authorized retailers with offers to buy Birkenstocks directly and resell on the platform. “I will state clearly, any authorized retailer who may do this for even a single pair will be closed FOREVER,” wrote Birkenstock USA CEO David Kahan in a letter to retailers obtained by The Washington Post. “This is modern-day piracy on the high seas,” he later told the Post. “This is a middle finger to all brands, not just Birkenstock.” More.
In A Good Placed
Investors worry about Snap’s ability to maintain and grow its user base and, ultimately, ad revenue. But the platform’s $125 million acquisition of location data company Placed last month may give it another revenue stream outside of advertising. By the end of Q3, Snap advertisers will be able to tap into Placed to see how well their ads performed on the channel versus others in driving traffic to stores, Adweek’s Lauren Johnson reports. And Placed’s own deals, like the one it just inked with STX Entertainment to measure how media channels across TV, out-of-home and digital drive ticket sales for two upcoming movies, will ultimately result as money in Snap’s pocket. More. |
Q:
AWS Cloudformation
Well, I am trying to find a cloudformation template in AWS.
Where would I need to create three VPC's with single subnet and instance in it. Where you have internetgateway in it with 2 one-way from vpc to gateway and one two-way connection like this:
A:
You can leverage the AWS Quick Start's Amazon VPC Architecture template to get started quickly with a boilerplate VPC architecture. This AWS-supported template creates a single VPC containing both a public (2-way) and private (1-way, outbound Internet only) subnet within each specified Availability Zone (you provide 2-4 Availability Zones as Parameters). I would recommend starting with the Quick Start, then later customizing to better fit your specific needs if necessary.
For your use case, you could specify 2 Availability Zones, then use the Private Subnets in each AZ for SubnetA and SubnetB, and the Public Subnet in one of the AZs for SubnetC.
(Note: I recommend against creating 3 separate VPCs for a single application. Distinct Subnets provide adequate network isolation, creating 3 separate VPCs duplicates many unnecessary additional resources such as Internet Getways, and there is a limit of 5 VPCs per region per AWS account.)
Here's a full working example that uses the Quick Start template directly as a nested stack:
Description: Create a VPC with 2 private and 1 public subnets, with an EC2 instance in each.
Mappings:
RegionMap:
us-east-1:
# amzn-ami-hvm-2016.09.1.20161221-x86_64-gp2
"opal": "ami-9be6f38c"
"rstudio": "ami-9be6f38c"
Parameters:
InstanceType:
Description: EC2 instance type
Type: String
Default: t2.medium
AllowedValues: [t2.nano, t2.micro, t2.small, t2.medium, t2.large, t2.xlarge, t2.2xlarge,
m4.large, m4.xlarge, m4.2xlarge, m4.4xlarge, m4.10xlarge, m4.16xlarge,
c4.large, c4.xlarge, c4.2xlarge, c4.4xlarge, c4.8xlarge,
r4.large, r4.xlarge, r4.2xlarge, r4.4xlarge, r4.8xlarge, r4.16xlarge]
ConstraintDescription: Please choose a valid instance type.
AvailabilityZones:
Description: List of 2 Availability Zones to use for the subnets in the VPC.
Type: "List<AWS::EC2::AvailabilityZone::Name>"
KeyPairName:
Description: Public/private key pair to provide SSH access to the EC2 instances.
Type: "AWS::EC2::KeyPair::KeyName"
Resources:
VPCStack:
Type: AWS::CloudFormation::Stack
Properties:
TemplateURL: 'https://s3.amazonaws.com/quickstart-reference/aws/vpc/latest/templates/aws-vpc.template'
Parameters:
AvailabilityZones: !Join [',', !Ref AvailabilityZones]
KeyPairName: !Ref KeyPairName
NumberOfAZs: 2
SecurityGroup:
Type: AWS::EC2::SecurityGroup
Properties:
GroupDescription: VPC Security Group
VpcId: !GetAtt VPCStack.Outputs.VPCID
OpalServer1:
Type: AWS::EC2::Instance
Properties:
ImageId: !FindInMap [ RegionMap, !Ref "AWS::Region", opal]
InstanceType: !Ref InstanceType
SecurityGroupIds: [!Ref SecurityGroup]
SubnetId: !GetAtt VPCStack.Outputs.PrivateSubnet1AID
KeyName: !Ref KeyPairName
OpalServer2:
Type: AWS::EC2::Instance
Properties:
ImageId: !FindInMap [ RegionMap, !Ref "AWS::Region", opal]
InstanceType: !Ref InstanceType
SecurityGroupIds: [!Ref SecurityGroup]
SubnetId: !GetAtt VPCStack.Outputs.PrivateSubnet2AID
KeyName: !Ref KeyPairName
RStudioClient:
Type: AWS::EC2::Instance
Properties:
ImageId: !FindInMap [ RegionMap, !Ref "AWS::Region", rstudio]
InstanceType: !Ref InstanceType
SecurityGroupIds: [!Ref SecurityGroup]
SubnetId: !GetAtt VPCStack.Outputs.PublicSubnet1ID
KeyName: !Ref KeyPairName
|
Diamond firetail
The diamond firetail (Stagonopleura guttata) is a species of estrildid finch that is endemic to Australia.
Taxonomy
Origin and phylogeny has been obtained by Antonio Arnaiz-Villena et al. Estrildinae may have originated in India and dispersed thereafter (towards Africa and Pacific Ocean habitats).
Description
The diamond firetail is a finch that has a fiery red bill, eyes, and rump. Just below the throat, it has a thick black band that extends horizontally until it reaches the lower part of the wings which are also black with white spots. There is also a black eye band that starts at the beak and ends right at the eye. The bird's tail is also black. The rest of the wings are a slightly tan, light brown colour. Its head and back is light grey and its belly and chin are white. The colour of the egg is also white. This bird is considered one of the smallest of the finches.
Song
The male song is similar to a low raspy mating call. The male will hold a piece of dried grass in his mouth and hop up and down while singing on a perch.
Behaviour
The behavior is aggressive to other birds. They will kill other weak birds and that is why one should keep grass finches with them if kept in an aviary.
Breeding
The nest is put together by both the male and the female, but only the female does the weaving. They like creating their own nests, not having one made for them. They use materials such as coconut fibers, shredded paper, dried grass, and feathers. Diamond firetails have been known to breed from September to the end of April and August to January in the wild. As mentioned earlier, the male gets the female's attention by holding a piece of dead grass in his beak while singing and bobbing up and down. They normally breed in the privacy of the nest or somewhere secluded and close to the ground. After breeding, the female can lay about four to six eggs and incubates them along with the male for 14 days. About 21 days after hatching, they will leave the nest and just about 21 days after that, they fledge. Both the male and the female feed the young. Female diamond firetails can start breeding after 9 to 12 months of life and are best when paired at a young age. Their life span is usually between 5 and 7 years.
Feeding
In the wild, they eat ripe or partially ripe fruits and their seeds. They also eat some insects and their larvae. The birds spend a significant amount of time on the ground finding seeds and insects.
Distribution and habitat
The finch is found in eastern Australia from the Eyre Peninsula, South Australia, to south-eastern Queensland, often on the slopes of the Great Dividing Range. The bird lives in eucalypt forest and woodland, mallee country, farmland and grassland.
Important bird areas
BirdLife International has identified the following sites as being important for diamond firetail conservation:
New South Wales
Bundarra-Barraba
Capertee Valley
Goonoo
Greater Blue Mountains
Mudgee-Wollar
Pilliga
South-west Slopes of NSW
Queensland
Traprock
Victoria
Barmah-Millewa
Bendigo Box-Ironbark Region
Little Desert
Maryborough-Dunolly Box-Ironbark Region
Patho Plains
Puckapunyal
Rushworth Box-Ironbark Region
St Arnaud Box-Ironbark Region
Warby-Chiltern Box-Ironbark Region
Status and conservation
The IUCN previously classified the species as near threatened, but in 2016 downlisted it to least concern due to a decrease in the rate of its population decline.
The bird's habitat has been threatened by alteration of vegetation structure caused by over-grazing, weed invasion, salinisation and other flow-on processes. This loss of main food plants and habitat results in competition with invasive species, and increased predation.
Aviculture
Mutations
There are few mutations in the diamond firetail. However, one mutation produces an orange tail instead of the fiery red. In this case the bird is known as the yellow diamond. Other mutations are the pied diamond which has splashes of white, the white diamond, and the fawn diamond.
Nutrition
The birds will eat lettuce, spinach, chickweed, spray millet, eggfood, broccoli tops, sprouted seed, meal worms, small cockroaches, small crickets, hulled oats and carrot tops.
References
External links
BirdLife International species factsheet
Birds in Backyards - Birdlife Australia
Description and care (archived) - Doug Hill & Marcus Pollard
Description and aviary notes - BirdCare.com.au
diamond firetail
Category:Birds of Queensland
Category:Birds of New South Wales
Category:Birds of Victoria (Australia)
Category:Birds of South Australia
diamond firetail
Category:Articles containing video clips
Category:Taxa named by George Shaw |
Q:
Targeting specific objects in jsonb array
I need to select rows from table that match specific criteria which involves jsonb object field comparison.
In the example below, I'd like to get only rows for which a value is within a min/max range as specified by an object from array: for any given row if any object from its array_of_objects "contains" (using min/max comparison) a value, I need that row.
CREATE TABLE test_table (
id serial,
value int,
array_of_objects jsonb[]
);
INSERT INTO
test_table (value, array_of_objects)
VALUES
(8, ARRAY ['{"min":5,"max":15}', '{"min":4,"max":18}']::jsonb[]),
(6, ARRAY ['{"min":12,"max":18}', '{"min":19,"max":22}']::jsonb[]),
(22, ARRAY ['{"min":16,"max":18}', '{"min":34,"max":47}']::jsonb[]);
So for given example I'd get only rows with values 8 and 22.
A:
if you want original columns:
t=# with a as (select unnest(array_of_objects) j,* from test_table)
select distinct id,value, array_of_objects
from a
where (j->>'min')::int < value and (j->>'max')::int > value;
id | value | array_of_objects
----+-------+-----------------------------------------------------------
1 | 8 | {"{\"max\": 15, \"min\": 5}","{\"max\": 18, \"min\": 4}"}
(1 row)
and here is "explanation" why value 22 did not get into it (array_of_objects[1]->>max is less then 22:
Time: 0.441 ms
t=# with a as (select unnest(array_of_objects) j,* from test_table)
select distinct id,value,j
from a
where (j->>'min')::int < value and (j->>'max')::int > value;
id | value | j
----+-------+-----------------------
1 | 8 | {"max": 18, "min": 4}
1 | 8 | {"max": 15, "min": 5}
(2 rows)
Time: 0.390 ms
|
1. Introduction
===============
Nearly 80% of the US population experience neck or back pain at some time during adulthood.^\[[@R1]--[@R3]\]^ Together, back and neck pain comprise the second most common reason for physician office visits.^\[[@R4]--[@R6]\]^ Adults with back or neck pain often elect surgical intervention and rates of spine surgery have substantially increased over the last 40 years, especially among older adults.^\[[@R7]--[@R9]\]^ Because of increasing rates of surgery on increasingly older populations, higher complication rates may be expected. Understanding modifiable risk factors for the development of complications of spine surgery could facilitate presurgical interventions to reduce risk.^\[[@R10]\]^
Preoperative nutritional status reflects a patient\'s ability to successfully undergo a physically demanding surgical procedure, resist infection, and heal from surgical incisions.^\[[@R11],[@R12]\]^ Albumin, prealbumin, and transferrin are all nutritional biomarkers that are used clinically to assess overall nutritional status.^\[[@R13]--[@R18]\]^ Prealbumin may be a more sensitive marker than albumin due to its shorter half-life and ability to reflect more immediate changes in nutrition.^\[[@R14],[@R16],[@R19]\]^ Transferrin is also a sensitive and specific indicator of early iron deficiency that may serve as another important biomarker.^\[[@R20]\]^ As surgery poses significant stress on the body and triggers a depletion of nutrients, we reasoned that nutritional status represented by prealbumin or transferrin could influence the development of complications following spine surgery.
The association of preoperative nutritional status as a potentially important modifiable risk factor for complications of spine surgery has not been fully investigated to date. Two small studies using convenience samples showed that low presurgical prealbumin level was positively associated with surgical site infection after spine surgery. However, inference from these studies is hampered by limitations including missing prealbumin levels for many potentially eligible patients, lack of assessment of the full range of prealbumin levels, and restricting the outcome to infection in a single surgical site.^\[[@R21],[@R22]\]^ Thus, further investigation is needed to determine the extent to which presurgical prealbumin or transferrin are associated with risk of any complications following spine surgery and whether there is evidence of a dose-response effect across the range of values for these biomarkers.
To more clearly determine the association of preoperative nutritional status with risk of complications following spine surgery, we used data from our academic medical center in which presurgical prealbumin and transferrin are obtained as a clinical standard on all patients undergoing elective spine surgery. We hypothesized that lower compared with higher levels of preoperative prealbumin or transferrin would be associated with an increased risk of complication within 30 days of surgery. We further hypothesized a dose-response such that complication risk would be reduced with successively higher levels of these nutritional biomarkers.
2. Materials and methods
========================
Since 2013, the Oregon Health and Science University Spine Center surgeons have ordered prealbumin and transferrin to be measured among their surgical patients as a standard of care. We aimed to assess the first year of experience in obtaining these biomarkers in relation to spine surgery complications. At clinical laboratories, prealbumin is assayed using an immunoturbidimetric assay with a lower limit of detection of 3 mg/dL, and transferrin is assayed using quantitative immunoturbidimetry with a lower limit of detection is 10 mg/dL. Coefficients of variation (CV%) for the prealbumin assay range from 1.2% to 2.1% for intra-assay variation and from 1.9% to 2.2% for interassay variation. Intra- and interassay CV% for the transferrin assay are, respectively, 1.9% and 2.7%.
2.1. Selection of potentially eligible participants
---------------------------------------------------
We performed a retrospective cohort study using OHSU electronic medical records (EMR). The study procedures described here were approved by the Institutional Review Board. Potentially eligible patients were identified by systematically searching the EMR and billing systems for patients who met the following criteria: age at admission ≥ 50 years; elective cervical, thoracic, thoraco-lumbar or lumbar spine surgery by one of 4 primary spine surgeons; dates of service from 6/1/2013 through 6/1/2014; and preoperative blood work completed at the OHSU clinical laboratories.
Of the 442 patients identified from the initial query, we excluded 88 (19.9%) due to non-elective surgery, 69 (15.6%) for missing prealbumin or transferrin levels, 12 (2.7%) for multiple distinct surgeries in the study period, and 2 (0.4%) for missing follow-up. The remaining 274 patients comprised the analytic cohort (Fig. [1](#F1){ref-type="fig"}).
{#F1}
2.2. Ascertainment of serum measures, patient and surgical characteristics
--------------------------------------------------------------------------
Information on serum prealbumin, transferrin levels, patient demographic characteristics, and peri-operative factors was manually abstracted from EMRs for patients in the analytic cohort. Patient characteristics were gender, body mass index (BMI), marital status, current tobacco and alcohol use, American Society for Anesthesia (ASA) score, blood pressure, and history of spine surgery.^\[[@R23]\]^ Peri-operative characteristics were number of vertebrae levels fused, surgical approach (anterior, posterior, anterior--posterior), estimated blood loss, blood transfusion use, length of hospital stay, and total anesthesia time.
Data on surgical complications were abstracted without knowledge of the presurgical information described above. Prior to abstraction, the authors created a list of 27 specific complications that were likely to occur following spine surgery (Supplemental Table 1). Examples include wound problems (e.g., seroma, dehiscence), infections (e.g., urinary tract infection, pneumonia), morbidity (e.g., renal failure, pulmonary embolism) and mortality. A spine surgeon who was blinded to prealbumin and transferrin level then reviewed and adjudicated the list of complications abstracted from the records.
To assess reliability of the abstracting procedure, data were independently re-abstracted on a random sample of 10% of the initial cohort and compared to the original values. The percent concordance was 98%. Discrepancies were then reviewed and resolved.
2.3. Statistical analysis
-------------------------
Distributions of the primary independent variables, prealbumin and transferrin, were examined. Distributions of patient pre- and peri-operative characteristics were compared according to prealbumin and transferrin quartiles. One-way ANOVA or Kruskal--Wallis ANOVA were used to compare continuous variables and chi-square or Fisher\'s exact tests for categorical variables.
Frequency of complications was measured with cumulative incidence, a measure of risk for complication occurring during the 30-day postoperative follow-up period. The crude and adjusted relation between the biomarkers and risk of complications was assessed using chi-square tests and log-binomial regression, respectively. Risk ratios (RR) and 95% confidence intervals (CI) were computed as the ratio of the cumulative incidence in the group with lower biomarker values to the cumulative incidence in the group with higher biomarker levels. Risk ratios greater than 1.0 indicate increased risk of complication.
Variables assessed as confounders of the association between prealbumin, transferrin, and complication risk were gender, age, BMI, blood pressure, ASA score, history of previous spine surgery (Y/N), and number of levels fused. Variables were considered confounders if they changed the RR by \>10%.^\[[@R24]\]^ The final model included BMI, levels fused, gender, age, and ASA score. Lumbar, thoracic, and thoraco-lumbar surgeries may be more invasive than cervical surgeries, thus representing a unique patient population. To address this issue, we repeated the foregoing analyses after restriction of the analytic cohort to patients with lumbar, thoracic, and thoraco-lumbar surgeries. All analyses were performed using SAS software, Version 9.4 of the SAS System (Cary, NC).
3. Results
==========
The analytic cohort was 46.4% women and the mean age (standard deviation, SD) was 64.0 (8.8) years. Mean (SD) prealbumin levels were 27.5 mg/dL (±5.6 mg/dL) and mean (SD) transferrin levels were 266.8 mg/dL (±43.8 mg/dL). Malnutrition is defined as prealbumin \<15 mg/dL and transferrin \< 170 mg/dL.^\[[@R25],[@R26]\]^ The prevalence of malnutrition was low, being 1.8% (5 patients) when defined as prealbumin \<15.0 mg/dL (Fig. [2](#F2){ref-type="fig"}) and 0.3% (1 patient) when defined as transferrin \<170.0 mg/dL (Fig. [3](#F3){ref-type="fig"}).
{#F2}
{#F3}
Distributions of patient demographic and preoperative characteristics were examined according to quartile of prealbumin (Table [1](#T1){ref-type="table"}). Patients in the lowest prealbumin quartile were more likely to be male, and have a higher ASA score compared with patients in the highest quartile. Distributions of peri-operative characteristics varied little by quartile of prealbumin, with the exception that those in the lowest quartile tended to have 4 or more levels fused compared to those in highest prealbumin quartile (Table [2](#T2){ref-type="table"}). When distributions of demographic, preoperative, and peri-operative characteristics were examined by quartile of transferrin, patients in the lowest compared with the highest transferrin quartile were more likely to be younger, female and have a lower BMI (Supplemental Table 2). Distributions of peri-operative characteristics varied very little by quartile of transferrin (Supplemental Table 3).
######
Distribution of demographic and preoperative characteristics among 274 adult elective spine surgery patients according to prealbumin (mg/dL) quartile 2013--2014.
######
Distribution of peri-operative characteristics among 274 adult elective spine surgery patients according to pre-albumin quartile 2013--2014.
During the 30-day follow-up period, 35 patients experienced at least 1 postoperative complication, resulting in a cumulative incidence of 12.8% (95% CI: 8.8%, 16.7%). In quartiles 1 through 4 of prealbumin, respectively, the number (%) with complications were 6 (9%), 12 (17%), 11 (16%), and 6 (9%). In quartiles 1 through 4 of transferrin, respectively, the number (%) with complications were 6 (9%), 10 (14%), 7 (10%), and 12 (17%). Risk of complication did not vary significantly by quartile for either prealbumin (*P = *0.26) or transferrin (*P = *0.49). Thus, for the remaining analyses, we categorized prealbumin and transferrin as below the median (quartiles 1 and 2) and at or above the median (quartiles 3 and 4 together) to maximize statistical power for the multivariable analyses. Accordingly, risk of complication was 12% in patients who had prealbumin levels above the median value and 13% in patients with levels below the median value. Risk of complication was 14% in patients with transferrin levels above the median value and in 12% in patients with levels below the median value.
Before and after adjustment for potential confounding factors, the association of low serum prealbumin with risk of complication was null (Table [3](#T3){ref-type="table"}). Likewise, there was no evidence of a linear trend in the RR when we repeated the analysis using the prealbumin as a continuous variable (RR = 1.0, 95% CI: 0.9, 1.1 (*P*-trend = .90) per 1 mg/dL increase in prealbumin). We also observed no association of low transferrin with the risk of complication (Table [4](#T4){ref-type="table"}). Similarly, when we repeated the analysis using transferrin as a continuous variable the RR was 1.0 (95% CI: 0.99, 1.01; *P*-trend = .30).
######
Risk ratios and 95% confidence intervals of complications within 30 days among adults undergoing elective spine surgery according to presurgical level of prealbumin.
######
Risk ratios and 95% confidence intervals of complications within 30 days among adults undergoing elective spine surgery according to presurgical level of transferrin.
We performed 2 sensitivity analyses. First, we compared the analytic cohort of 274 patients to the 69 who were missing prealbumin and transferrin. All preoperative and perioperative characteristics were compared between the 2 groups, and no characteristics significantly differed between the patient groups. For those patients missing these variables, the overall cumulative incidence of complication was 10.6% (95% CI: 1.8%, 19.5%), similar to that among the 274 patients comprising the analytic cohort. Second, when we also repeated the analyses restricting to patient\'s undergoing lumbar, thoracic, and thoraco-lumbar surgeries, the observed association of prealbumin and transferrin with risk of post-operative complications remained null (data not shown).
4. Discussion
=============
This retrospective cohort study of 274 elective spine surgery patients aged 50 years and older provided new information on biomarkers of nutritional status in relation to 30-day risk of complications. First, we observed that \<2% of this cohort had malnutrition, as defined by prealbumin and transferrin levels below 15.0 mg/dL and 170 mg/dL, respectively. The low prevalence of presurgical malnutrition supports examination of the entire range of nutritional biomarkers in relation to surgical outcomes. Second, contrary to our hypothesis, we observed no association of presurgical prealbumin or transferrin levels with 30-day risk of medical complications and no evidence of any dose-response reduction in risk with increasing levels.
We did observe that certain preoperative health and surgical characteristics indicative of poorer health were associated with being in the lowest quartiles of prealbumin. Patients with higher ASA scores, a preoperative measure of overall patient health, were more likely to be in the lowest quartiles of prealbumin. Additionally, patients undergoing procedures where more than 4 spinal levels were fused were also more likely to be in the lowest prealbumin quartile, suggesting poorer overall health is associated with more advanced spinal pathologies and more complex procedures. However, control for these factors did not appreciably change our RR estimates. Thus, even though our descriptive data do support the relation between poor health and lower prealbumin, these factors did not negatively confound the associations between prealbumin level or transferrin level and 30-day complication risk.
To further examine the possibility of the patients with more complex spinal pathologies being different, we removed patients that had undergone surgery only on the cervical spine and repeated the analyses. However, the null association remained. These results provide further evidence that even among patients with spinal pathology requiring complex procedures, there is still no association between the nutritional biomarkers and the 30-day risk of complication.
This study extends prior research that reported a positive association of malnutrition using serum albumin (\<3.5 g/dL) and postoperative complication risk following spine surgery.^\[[@R27]--[@R30]\]^ The reasons that our findings differ from those of previous studies can only be hypothesized but we explore several potential possibilities. First, a substantially higher prevalence of malnutrition was present in the previous patient cohorts studied, ranging from 12% to 25% of the sample.^\[[@R27]--[@R29]\]^ In the current analytic cohort, the proportion of patients with malnutrition was less than 2%. The 2 prior studies with the largest sample only obtained albumin measurements on less than 50% of the total patient population, ranging from 36.5% to 37.6% of the initial sample.^\[[@R29],[@R30]\]^ Incomplete data on the nutritional biomarkers introduces the potential for biased results. One possibility is that patients for whom presurgical albumin measures were ordered were sicker and therefore more likely to have complications than patients with no presurgical albumin order. This type of selection bias, if it occurred, could lead to an overestimate of the malnutrition prevalence, as well as to a spurious association of malnutrition and complication risk. Data from our study showed that nearly 40% of patients undergoing fusion at more than 4 levels had prealbumin levels in the lowest quartile. This observation supports the possibility that lower average albumin levels would have been obtained in previous studies if albumin was preferentially obtained in those undergoing the most complex surgeries. Our study design minimized the possibility of selection bias, because prealbumin and transferrin were routinely ordered at the preoperative clinic visit for all patients undergoing elective spine surgery. Second, the previous studies have been small and limited to specific types of spine surgery. For example, Klein et al studied 74 patients undergoing elective surgery of the lumbar spine only, while Adogwa et al examined 136 patients undergoing spinal fusion.^\[[@R27],[@R28]\]^ The current study of 274 patients is considerably larger than samples used previously and includes a broad range of elective spine procedures utilized to treat symptoms and spinal pathology in patients presenting to a busy urban academic medical center spine practice. Finally, all previous studies^\[[@R27]--[@R30]\]^ examined malnutrition defined by serum albumin (\<3.5 g/dL); serum albumin, with a half-life of 20 days, reflects a longer-term measure of an individual\'s overall nutrition status. The current study utilized serum prealbumin and transferrin which may reflect more acute changes in recent dietary intake and nutrition status.
The results from our study are new compared to previous work demonstrating positive associations of prealbumin and transferrin with risk of postoperative outcomes in patients undergoing cardiac and gastric surgery.^\[[@R31]--[@R33]\]^ The difference between our results and these previous works suggests that associations of nutritional status with risk of post-surgical complications depend on the patient population. Patients undergoing gastric or cardiac surgery may represent a less healthy population than elective spine surgery patients, especially if they require immediate or emergency cardiac or gastric surgery. The low prevalence of malnutrition in our patient cohort supports this reasoning.
There were several limitations to this study. Although the nutritional biomarkers were routinely obtained as standard of care, other variables, such as smoking status, were not consistently recorded. However, with the data available these variables were not found to confound the association between biomarker and risk of complication; it is unlikely that any of these variables are strong enough negative confounders to mask an actual association. Second, the ascertainment of complications was limited to those who returned to the specific institution for treatment or those who reported complications to their providers. It is possible that medical complications were treated elsewhere and were not captured, potentially underestimating the overall risk of any complication. However, the short follow-up period of 30-days minimized the possibility of patients leaving the area or seeking treatment elsewhere. Finally, generalizability of study results may also be limited given that our sample represents the experience of a single hospital in a large urban academic medical center.
Future studies should consider a larger sample size and a more diverse cohort of elective spine surgery patients, perhaps from multiple medical centers. Larger studies would enable the relation of prealbumin or transferrin levels to be examined in relation to specific types of complications, which appropriately have low overall frequency at any single institution. Additionally, a prospective cohort study in which independent and outcome variables are collected prospectively would be a more ideal design to examine associations of nutritional biomarkers and risk of complication. Finally, given the number of studies citing the positive association between serum albumin and the risk of complication, an additional study utilizing the same patient cohort to examine serum albumin\'s association with 30-day risk of complications could potentially add to the body of previously published studies. It is of interest to explore both this association of serum albumin with the risk of complication in this patient population as well as the discordance between serum albumin and serum prealbumin.
5. Conclusions
==============
Low levels of prealbumin and transferrin are not associated with increased risk of postoperative complications following elective spine surgery. Additional work in large patient cohorts is needed to determine the association between these nutritional biomarkers and specific complications, such as wound infections, that may be closely related to recent nutrition status.
Author contributions
====================
**Conceptualization:** Erin Takemoto, Jung Yoo, Jackilen Shannon, Lynn Marshall.
**Data curation:** Erin Takemoto, Jung Yoo, Sabina Blizzard, Lynn Marshall.
**Formal analysis:** Erin Takemoto, Sabina Blizzard, Lynn Marshall.
**Funding acquisition:** Jung Yoo.
**Investigation:** Erin Takemoto, Lynn Marshall.
**Methodology:** Erin Takemoto, Jackilen Shannon, Lynn Marshall.
**Writing -- original draft:** Erin Takemoto, Lynn Marshall.
**Writing -- review & editing:** Erin Takemoto, Jung Yoo, Sabina Blizzard, Jackilen Shannon, Lynn Marshall.
Erin Takemoto orcid: 0000-0001-7211-2704.
Supplementary Material
======================
###### Supplemental Digital Content
Abbreviations: ASA = American Society for Anesthesia, BMI = body mass index, CI = confidence interval, CV% = coefficients of variation, EMR = electronic medical record, RR = risk ratio, SD = standard deviation.
Dr Yoo has received royalties from Osiris Therapeutics.
Each author certifies that his or her institution approved or waived approval for the human protocol for this investigation and that all investigations were conducted in conformity with ethical principles of research.
The authors have no conflicts of interest to disclose.
Supplemental Digital Content is available for this article.
|
Q:
Split-screen in Left 4 Dead 2
Is it possible to play the PC version of Left 4 Dead 2 in split-screen, where one player uses the mouse/keyboard and the other uses a gamepad?
A:
Yes, you can. You have to make sure you know your way around the console, and playing online might or might not work.
Basically, you have to enter these commands in the console to make it work:
ss_enable 1
ss_map "map_name"
connect_splitscreen localhost
You have to make sure your Xbox 360 controller is set up correctly, for that, read this forum post: Left 4 Dead: SplitScreen PC Guide.
It's possible play split screen with a non-Xbox 360 controller, but you'll need to set up your own controller configurations by editing edit \left4dead\cfg\360controller.cfg. The lines you'll need to edit are the ones starting with "cmd2 bind".
|
Anyone have ideas, suggestions, advice for Shacklebolt's outer robe? I liked it a lot and thought it wouldn't be all that difficult to modify it to something Jedi-ish. Sadly, I've found precious few pictures of him showing all of it.
The 2 costume cards have different fabric. Neville's does have a fine twill weave and I believe it is a gabardine. Harry's costume card from POA looks like it was the black lining fabric from the inner part of the robe (since the robes are not fully lined with red). It looks like an acetate, polyester, or rayon. It isn't shiny like many lining fabrics, it is more matte. But it looks a bit thin and cheap to be the outer part of the robe.
Click to expand...
The Harry one sounds indeed like the Lining.
I accidentally got 2 of it and I am sure it's Acetate Lining as it looks and feel like the ones I used for my first few Costumes (before I switched to using Pongee/Polyester Lining)
Remember that only part of the Robe is lined in the Color Lining, rest in the Black Acetate Lining. Can see some photos of it here as I put up in my website:
My Gryffindor
http://www.dartheagle.com/poa_gryffindor.html
My Slytherin
http://www.dartheagle.com/poa_slytherin.html
School Robe Tutorial
http://www.dartheagle.com/poa_robe1.html
Will try to post the photos from the past Harry Potter events here next week. There is few upgrades for my Slytherin Costume but had done a Ravenclaw School Robe for myself and friend to wear which unfortunately is far from meeting my expectations.
Thank you for posting your tutorial. I'm lucky, I have both patterns in my stash that people have used as a base for the robes!
Oh yes, I already saw that the colored portion is just a facing and for the hood. Otherwise it is black and I agree, I looked at some acetate lining I had and it was very close to that Harry costume card.
The only think I'm stressed out about right now is my sweater. I had orderdd a hand knit one with enough time to have it made for Dragon*Con. But for some reason when I re-reviewed some information on the web site I realized I'd place an order for Acrylic which only comes in BLACK rather than charcoal gray! I caught the mistake, but now they say that pushes my delivery time on my sweater back because they don't have enough wool on hand at the moment to knit it
This is going to suck if I don't have a sweater in time for the convention. I bought a ton of stuff for this, and I tried to order a pull over from Whimsic Alley in the mean time but it seems they might be having business problems right now.
The rest are here: http://www.starfirephoenix.net/gallery/main.php/v/events/hpdeathlyhallows/
Was lots of fun! I finished my Hufflepuff robes years ago, but never got good pics until now. I could finally wear my sweater at last too, but I didn't wear my skirt on Saturday because it was far too cold! lol
I've also finally added a little how to of how to draft the neckline seam out of your robe pattern and how it goes together.
For me, the problem with my latest version, the Ravenclaw School Robe is that in my hurry, I didn't do a proper Mock-Up (only worked on the paper patterns) so the Hood Lining Opening and back is too wide than the Black Lining and Black Right Side. So there is a bunch-up on the Hood Lining just below the back of neck (ya, thankfully it's the back).
Will do a proper Mock-Ups to fix the pattern later after I settle my Scout Trooper (ya still on it ) and thus do my Hufflepuff Robe. Might also need to redo my Gryffindor as the Black Right side is slightly fading due to the cloth used and no. of times it got washed. Then, I guess I can open my "shop" making the School Robes for more people or even outsiders.
http://www.starwarsdotcom.com/miba/DH/002.jpg
http://www.starwarsdotcom.com/miba/DH/005.jpg
http://www.starwarsdotcom.com/miba/DH/007.jpg
http://www.starwarsdotcom.com/miba/DH/015.jpg
http://www.starwarsdotcom.com/miba/DH/016.jpg
http://www.starwarsdotcom.com/miba/DH/054.jpg (I'm the one in the Trust Snape shirt, which I made as well)
I hate the skirt I got her, but I was rushed and it was the best I could find cause I didn't feel like making one. I know the hood doesn't connect to the body in the right way, but she said she didn't want me to try to fix it so I left it alone.
I finished my Hermione Yule Ball Gown for Comic-Con! I'm still not very happy with it...but I think I know how to do it properly now and will probably re-do it soon. I thought I'd share a picture all the same! I don't have any proper pictures yet, but here is one from our performance in the Masquerade.
I finished my Hermione Yule Ball Gown for Comic-Con! I'm still not very happy with it...but I think I know how to do it properly now and will probably re-do it soon. I thought I'd share a picture all the same! I don't have any proper pictures yet, but here is one from our performance in the Masquerade.
Oh that is beautiful! I want to make that dress so bad. Was it difficult to make? I always thought it would be because of all the different seams.
Click to expand...
Yeah, I had a pretty hard time with it. I had to be really slow and careful with the seams, and drafting the triangles on top to fit my body was a huge headache. The hardest part for me was making the flounces on the bottom, though. I was perfectly happy with my mock up, but then my chiffon reacted quite differently than the muslin and everything ended up pretty distorted. I made the flounces out of lots and lots of circles, and the circles would pull out of shape when cut on the bias, and shrink when cut on the grain...ugh. It was very confusing. I'm not really sure how I'm going to prevent that from happening next time, but oh well?
I finished my Hermione Yule Ball Gown for Comic-Con! I'm still not very happy with it...but I think I know how to do it properly now and will probably re-do it soon. I thought I'd share a picture all the same! I don't have any proper pictures yet, but here is one from our performance in the Masquerade.
Haha- you have the same question I do about the back of the robe! I also spotted the seam in the lining, but had a theory that perhaps they used a 45" wide fabric for the lining and that may be why it has a seam? So far I can't find any shots that show a seam. All the screen caps I have a kind of blurry - so nothing is conclusive. My hunch is they may have used 60" wide gabardine/suiting and thus no need for a center back seam on the outer part of the robe.\
I think I'm going to try to comb through GOF to see if there are any scenes that show the cloak clearly.
Your skirt came out great by the way! Thanks for posting the to tutorial, I know I will refer to it. In the interest of time, since I'm putting together 2 costumes before Dragon*Con, I had to cheat and get pre-made school uniform skirts and trousers. The charcoal gray sold at these uniform sites is not nearly dark enough though. So I know my next step will be to probably find some wool and make something more screen accurate for the future. I'd also considered trying to over-dye the skirts and pants I got... but I'm not sure I can afford to risk it. If something goes wrong then there isn't enough time to order new ones before the convention!
See, I'm not worried about piecing, I'm wondering if the back seam was needed for flair or not, I'm worried about it being too tight like my first Jedi robe was. I've combed through every good hi-res image gallery I could find! I so wish they had good costume specials on the DVDs. We need a "Dressing the Castle" book or something I'm half tempted to go see OOTP on the big screen again to see if I can spot something.
Have fun at Dragon*Con! I've been dying to go but I'm coming into my last year of college and it's just too hard. Can't wait to see everyone's pictures!
See, I'm not worried about piecing, I'm wondering if the back seam was needed for flair or not, I'm worried about it being too tight like my first Jedi robe was. I've combed through every good hi-res image gallery I could find! I so wish they had good costume specials on the DVDs. We need a "Dressing the Castle" book or something I'm half tempted to go see OOTP on the big screen again to see if I can spot something.
Have fun at Dragon*Con! I've been dying to go but I'm coming into my last year of college and it's just too hard. Can't wait to see everyone's pictures!
Click to expand...
I'm in the same boat as you. It's killing me that I can't go to Dragon Con this year but I'm in school and just can't come.
I love your skirt, btw, I'm going to use your directions when I finally make my Hermione skirt. Right now I'm just using an old black skirt that has faded to a dark gray. I put in fake pleats. It looks alright, but I want a skirt like the one you made.
Here is a link to a video about the OOTP costumes. They really do not go into detail about the school robes but there is great information on Sirius, Bellatrix, Moody, Umbridge's costumes and more. There are three parts to it.
Enjoy
PART ONE:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_rX8O0ng6uI
PART TWO:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Dch2R3wzMhY&mode=related&search=
PART THREE:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AELmh0qPVpc&mode=related&search=
See, I'm not worried about piecing, I'm wondering if the back seam was needed for flair or not,
Click to expand...
Well, I still say that is probably dependent on how wide the fabric is that you start with. You can draw the center back 'seam' at an outward angle and still place the pattern piece on the fold of the fabric. Thus, eliminating the seam. I just think that the center back line would be a straight line down top to bottom. So if your fabric is wide enough, you don't need a seam. Does that make sense?
Yup, most definetly does. Sometimes the back seam on these things is slightly angled so the top is more flat, but there's a slight flair to the skirt. I plan to get 60" wide so width isn't a problem, I just want it to hang right.
Ebay has wands of lesser known witches and wizards. Way too costly, but I thought it was cool because it does give an idea of what they look like. (I went as Luna and was happy to see what her's looked like, even though it was after the movie and book).
Those new wands are part of the Japanesse collection. I went to the site and saw they had ALOT of stuff we don't have in America. They are offical merchandise so I guess the wands are cannon. Now if you can just get it made...
I wonder how difficult it would be to carve one. I have heard of people do that. It would make the wand durable, but I don't know how easy it would be to do. I am sure it would be easier another way, but that does create the question. Durable or the ease/time of making it? Which do you choose? |
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Lego sets aren’t just for kids–and they certainly don’t come at kid prices. I’ve gazed longingly at the “Death Star” and “Imperial Shuttle” kits, the “Mindstorms NXT 2.0,” the adorable “Hogwarts Castle,” and even “The Black Pearl.” But for the combined price of those sets, you could make a mortgage payment.
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In fact, every time my husband and I see a Lego display, we comment on how they’re so cool, but so darn expensive. And everyone we knew had piles of them when we were kids–it doesn’t seem like our parents would have bought them at these crazy prices! I decided to compare the inflation-adjusted prices of Lego sets over the years to see how big the difference was.
As it turns out, after going up in the 70’s and 80’s, the average price per brick has actually been trending down. I sampled the prices of sets through the years as listed on brickset.com from across themes and set sizes. To try to make it an apples-to-apples comparison, I excluded minifigs by themselves, accessories, promotional items, games, or anything that required batteries, as well as Mindstorms, Duplo, and non-brick items. Here’s how the data graphs:
One factor that is not accounted for here, which is harder to track, is price/weight. Many people believe (and have observed in their own purchases) that price-by-weight is more consistent than price/brick (i.e., is that a set with 10 2×4 bricks or 10 4×6 bricks?). Prices in any given year are also subject to the changes in oil prices, which may be the biggest factor influencing brick price in the coming years…
I have two theories about the cause of the apparent-but-imagined price increases (feel free to chime in with your ideas in the comments). Initially, I thought that licensing costs for names like Harry Potter and Pirates of the Caribbean were driving the prices up–but the licensed sets don’t seem to be any more expensive per brick than other sets. This lead me to my first theory–that these sets seem more expensive because they contain a lot more bricks than sets did when I was a kid. For example, the $399.99 “Super Star Destroyer” contains 3,152 pieces! In comparison, 1975’s “London Bus” had 110 pieces and sold for $49–after adjusting for inflation, that is an appalling $1.87/brick!
My second theory is that, in my childhood memories, I am actually recalling the products of Lego competitors. We had both Lego and non-Lego brand bricks in our house. (Woe be to the kid who tried to stick the two types together: they never come apart.) One of my favorite sets was the Papa Smurf Loc Blocs set (even if one forum poster I came across calls Loc Blocks, “Legos for kids whose parents hated them.”).
On the up side, the bricks are nearly indestructible (as opposed to your feet, should you step on a stray brick in the dark). This means that the old Lego box languishing in your parents’ garage is just waiting to find a new home in your kid’s room, with 100% of the joy that you had the first time around, for absolutely free.
For tons more Lego brick price data, read more below.
Price data
The following tables sample across the price ranges for specific themed sets, based on the data available at brickset.com
Star Wars
Average price/piece: $0.143
Name Year Price Pieces Minifigs Inflation adjusted price Price/piece Droid Fighter (Ep I) 1999 $6.00 62 0 $8.15 $0.13 Snowspeeder (Ep IV-VI) 1999 $20.00 215 3 $27.18 $0.13 X-Wing Fighter (IV-VI) 1999 $30.00 266 4 $40.77 $0.15 X-Wing Fighter (re-release oromff 1999) 2002 $30.00 267 4 $37.76 $0.14 Mos Espa Podrace (Ep I) 1999 $90.00 896 7 $122.32 $0.14 Naboo Starfighter 2011 $49.99 318 6 $49.99 $0.16 Hoth Echo Base 2011 $89.99 773 8 $89.99 $0.12 Genosian Starfighter 2011 $29.99 155 3 $29.99 $0.19 Super Star Destroyer 2011 $399.99 3152 5 $399.99 $0.13
Castle
Average price/piece: $0.183
Name Year Price Pieces Minifigs Inflation adjusted price Price/piece Escape from the Dragon’s Prison 2011 $19.99 185 4 $19.99 $0.11 King’s Castle 2011 $99.99 933 8 $99.99 $0.11 Prison Carriage Rescue 2011 $9.99 50 3 $9.99 $0.20 Wizard 2011 $3.99 19 1 $3.99 $0.21 Magic Shop 1993 $4.50 47 1 $7.05 $0.15 Medieval Knights 1993 $6.75 41 4 $10.58 $0.26 Black Knight’s Castle 1992 $85.00 588 12 $137.18 $0.23 Knight’s Joust 1981 $16.00 211 6 $39.85 $0.19
Town/City
Average price/piece: $0.156
Name Year Price Pieces Minifigs Inflation adjusted price Price/piece Pet Shop 2011 $149.99 2032 4 $149.99 $0.07 City Airport (re-release of Century Skyway) 2004 $90.00 928 12 $107.88 $0.12 Century Skyway 1994 $109.00 894 12 $166.53 $0.19 Mobile Outpost 2000 $30.00 218 2 $39.45 $0.18 Jet Airliner 1985 $12.75 136 2 $26.83 $0.20 Delivery Center 1985 $25.50 305 4 $53.66 $0.18
Space
Average price/piece: $0.176
Name Year Price Pieces Minifigs Inflation adjusted price Price/piece Alien Striker 2011 $4.99 42 2 $4.99 $0.12 Mini-Robot 2008 $3.49 24 2 $3.67 $0.15 Alien Fossilizer 1996 $6.00 53 1 $8.66 $0.16 Cosmic Cruiser 1982 $11.00 115 1 $25.81 $0.22 Space Cruiser 1978 $10.00 170 2 $34.73 $0.20 Surface Explorer 1982 $7.50 82 1 $17.60 $0.21
Pricier sets overall
The sets in the following table are the most expensive sets published in a given year, every five years, until the earlier years, at which point I found less price data was available. Some years may have had more expensive sets, but this is based on the data available at brickset.com. Price/piece does not include minifigs, but the included minifig count is noted.
Name Year Price Pieces Minifigs Inflation adjusted price Price/piece Super Star Destroyer 2011 $399.99 3152 5 $399.99 $0.13 Mercedes Benz Unimog U 400 2011 $199.99 2048 0 $199.99 $0.10 Robie House 2011 $199.99 2276 0 $199.99 $0.09 Cargo Train Deluxe 2006 $149.99 856 5 $168.48 $0.20 Ferrari F1 Racer 2006 $139.99 1246 0 $157.23 $0.13 Tow Truck 2006 $119.99 1877 0 $134.76 $0.07 Rebel Blockade Runner 2001 $200.00 1747 0 $255.70 $0.15 Darth Maul 2001 $150.00 1868 0 $191.77 $0.10 Metroliner (rerelease) 2001 $149.00 782 11 $190.50 $0.24 Space Shuttle 1996 $158.00 1368 0 $228.01 $0.17 Freight and Crane Railway 1996 $140.00 914 3 $202.03 $0.22 Giant Truck 1996 $139.00 1757 0 $200.59 $0.11 Metroliner 1991 $149.00 784 11 $247.70 $0.32 Rock Island Refuge 1991 $66.00 381 7 $109.72 $0.29 Intercoastal Seaport 1991 $63.75 545 5 $105.98 $0.19 Black Falcon’s Fortress 1986 $35.00 430 6 $72.31 $0.17 Flour Mill and Shop 1986 $26.75 73 2 $55.26 $0.76 Riding Stable 1986 $26.00 275 2 $53.71 $0.20 Castle 1981 $48.00 767 14 $119.56 $0.16 Basic Building Set, 5+ 1981 $38.00 384 2 $94.65 $0.25 Public Works Center 1981 $30.00 421 4 $74.73 $0.18 Building Set, 6+ 1977 $40.00 467 3 $149.45 $0.32 London Bus 1975 $49.00 110 0 $206.22 $1.87 Basic Set #8 1973 $19.00 776 0 $96.89 $0.12 Tipper Truck 1971 $14.00 48 0 $78.27 $1.63
Inexpensive sets
The sets in the following table are the least expensive sets published in a given year, every five years, until the earlier years, at which point I found less price data was available. Some years may have had less expensive sets, but this is based on the data available at brickset.com. Price/piece does not include minifigs, but the included minifig count is noted. |
UN peacekeepers leave East Timor
MISSION ACCOMPLISHED:A ‘liquidation team’ is to dismantle the UN presence amid calm, after factional violence had threatened to destroy the country in 2006
AFP, UNITED NATIONS
With the country’s oil-based sovereign wealth fund now above US$11 billion, it has resources.
Silas Everett of the Asia Foundation said the government has to work harder on improving the business environment.
“Like other poor, newly democratic, oil-dependent nations, Timor-Leste’s development dreams are likely to be increasingly interrupted by instances of corruption, largess and inefficiency in its institutions for some time,” he said in a recent commentary.
“It is these very institutions, abiding by and upholding the rule of law, that are needed to turn petro-dollars into broad based economic growth for the benefit of all rather than for a few powerful elite,” he said. |
Comments for Acyut : The Humanoid Robot https://acyut.wordpress.com
Just another Humanoid robot
Thu, 25 Nov 2010 18:57:37 +0000
hourly
1 http://wordpress.com/
Comment on Yes! Yes! Finally !! by john https://acyut.wordpress.com/2008/03/12/yes-yes-finally/#comment-68
Thu, 25 Nov 2010 18:57:37 +0000http://acyut.wordpress.com/?p=33#comment-68hi team ACYUT! i’m john, college student from the philippines! we’re currently working on our project study. i would just like to ask what servo did you guys use on Acyut 😀
thank you so much! your reply is so much appreciated! 🙂
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Comment on Acyut by nitish goyal https://acyut.wordpress.com/about/#comment-61
Fri, 30 Jul 2010 18:03:29 +0000#comment-61hey i have a great idea for you people…..
why dont you arrange a workshop at IIIT allahabad. me a student at IIIT allahabd and i can help you…..
tell me if you people are interested…..
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Comment on Work Resumes…………………. by anurag https://acyut.wordpress.com/2008/09/14/work-resumes/#comment-49
Thu, 30 Apr 2009 13:11:05 +0000http://acyut.wordpress.com/?p=64#comment-49hiiiiiii …this is anurag from engg. colleg bikaner..
we have creates the team to project a humanoid..
but we r facing many problems….as u have created first humanoid of india…we want some help from you….
so plz tell me how can we contact you…….
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Comment on First Movers Advantage by Guruswamy Revana https://acyut.wordpress.com/2008/05/27/first-movers-advantage/#comment-47
Mon, 23 Mar 2009 09:09:50 +0000http://acyut.wordpress.com/?p=53#comment-47Hi Guys,
I have read about Acyut in a News paper and found it very interesting. Cogrates!! to the team. Also I too am very keen to build up such a Robot. Will you please guide me??
As a first yr student who’s really into robotics, i really appreciate the efforts u guys have taken
U rock guys!!
BTW congrats on coming sixth @ Robogames 08
gun for gold @ robogames 09!!
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Comment on The death of Acyut 2 …. the birth of Acyut 3 ! by Luis Beck https://acyut.wordpress.com/2008/05/18/the-death-of-acyut-2-the-birth-of-acyut-3/#comment-43
Wed, 08 Oct 2008 15:51:54 +0000http://acyut.wordpress.com/?p=44#comment-43Hi, I am sending you a Webpage about Humanoid Robots, it is a Resume with a lot of new technologies. If you like new ideas to improve your research or produtcs… you also can find there the list of the most famous robots with videos on Youtube.
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Comment on Work Resumes…………………. by acyut https://acyut.wordpress.com/2008/09/14/work-resumes/#comment-42
Thu, 02 Oct 2008 05:01:43 +0000http://acyut.wordpress.com/?p=64#comment-42@Nishant,
Thanks a lot for the best wishes.
Hope to see you soon in QUARK-2009. 🙂
Cheers,
Sushma
Team AcYut
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Comment on Work Resumes…………………. by Nishant https://acyut.wordpress.com/2008/09/14/work-resumes/#comment-40
Sat, 20 Sep 2008 16:07:22 +0000http://acyut.wordpress.com/?p=64#comment-40Hey.! Great going guys. Makes us Goa people want to get our posteriors up and go do some work.! Really inspiring! Best of luck for 2009.
Nishant
BITS- Goa
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Comment on Back to work! by Sars https://acyut.wordpress.com/2008/08/22/back-to-work/#comment-35
Fri, 22 Aug 2008 17:22:24 +0000http://acyut.wordpress.com/?p=58#comment-35congrats team acyut!
u make me proud as a bitsian!
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Winter storm warning! Are you ready?
All of us are at the mercy of nature. Disasters can occur quickly and without warning. Recent disasters have revealed a lack of preparedness and a need for improvement in response. No matter what the disaster may be, there are common problems in all. These include communication, water, power, supplies, transportation, and safety. The ice storm of 1998 that struck the extreme Northeast portion of New York state tested all of these areas. |
Potassium-dependent cambial growth in poplar.
To study the involvement of potassium in wood formation, poplar plants ( Populus tremula L. x Populus tremuloides Michx.) were grown over a period of one growing season, under different potassium regimes. Seasonal changes in cambial potassium content, osmotic potential, and cambial activity correlated strongly throughout the season, increasing from spring to summer and decreasing from summer to autumn. Moreover, changing the potassium supply during the growing season affected the seasonal changes of these parameters in a similar way. Low potassium supply markedly reduced cambial activity, the number of expanding cambial cell derivatives, the seasonal rate of radial wood increment, and the vessel frequency. The possible effect of hormones on potassium-dependent cambial growth was investigated and revealed that abscisic acid (ABA) strongly decreased the potassium content within the cambial zone and reduced cambial activity, as well as the number of expanding cambial cell derivatives. In summary, our results indicate a key role for potassium in the regulation of cambial growth and wood formation due to its strong impact on osmoregulation in expanding cambial cells. They also demonstrate involvement of ABA in regulation of potassium-dependent cambial growth. |
Governor Jerry Brown doesn't hold a lot of news conferences. He doesn't sit down for interviews with California media very often. He seems to prefer interviews with national media such as NBC's Meet the Press or the Atlantic.
So it was notable-newsworthy on its own-that Brown consented this week to a round of interviews with Sacramento-based reporters in his Capitol office. That practice was common, by the way, with previous governors.
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I sat down with governors Arnold Schwarzenegger and Gray Davis regularly; probably three to four times a year in which we covered a range of topics. Both consistently spoke to reporters after public events, unlike Brown. Both of their press offices held weekly press briefings, unlike Brown.
His decision to grant interviews this week, in light of that pattern, speaks volumes about the importance Brown attaches to the issue of climate change and its impact on the globe's future.
Brown once studied for the priesthood as a Jesuit seminarian, before trading that idea for the more secular pursuits of a political career. He's still that politician, but has also become an evangelist with an environmental message about the importance of reducing carbon emissions.
Brown has made climate change a key part of his administration's agenda. He's traveled widely to speak about it. At home, he talks about it frequently and has been known to scold California reporters and editors for failing to devote enough ink, space, and air time to the topic.
Like any good evangelist, Brown greatly values an audience with whom to spread his message. Paris, hosting the United Nations Conference on Climate Change, provides that audience on a global scale.
"California has cut carbon pollution and grown its economy at the same time-and so can the rest of the world," Brown said in a statement released by his office this week as he prepared to travel to France.
Over the course of five days, the governor will take part in 21 different events, delivering remarks and participating in roundtable and panel discussions.
One of those events, on Sunday, will feature a signing ceremony highlighting new members of a global compact that California has entered into with government leaders in Canada, Germany and elsewhere.
That pact's goal is to prevent a further rise in global temperatures by having government agencies enact programs designed to cut carbon emissions. That's where Brown argues California can influence world leaders to act accordingly, by serving as a model to follow.
He'll get pushback from third world countries which are more concerned with economic growth than pollution controls.
Brown drew scorn four decades ago, when he was governor the first time, for talking about environmental protection. He has now seen the issue of climate change become mainstream, making Paris a platform like no other. |
A study conducted by the National Institutes of Health and Ohio State University and published this month in the journal Fertility and Sterility has found a worrisome link between caffeine consumption and miscarriage.
The analysis involved information from the Longitudinal Investigation of Fertility and the Environment Study, which includes 501 couples interested in having children who were recruited to participate between 2005 to 2009. The men and women were asked to record their daily use of cigarettes, caffeinated drinks, alcohol and multivitamins during pre-conception and early pregnancy. They were asked to use ovulation detection and digital pregnancy kits to track the pregnancies. A pregnancy test’s conversion from a positive to negative, onset of menstruation or clinical confirmation were all categorized as pregnancy losses.
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The data shows that couples who drank more than two caffeinated drinks a day during the weeks before conception had a higher risk that the woman would miscarry. That’s right — the study found that both Mom’s caffeine intake and Dad’s caffeine intake could play a role.
“Our findings also indicate that the male partner matters, too,” said Germaine Buck Louis, who directs population health research at NIH’s Eunice Kennedy Shriver National Institute of Child Health and Human Development. In fact, Buck Louis said, a man’s pre-conception consumption of caffeinated beverages was just as strongly associated with pregnancy loss as a woman’s.
Theories about how a man’s caffeine consumption affects a woman’s pregnancy mostly involve the sperm. Previous research conflicts on how caffeine affects sperm. But one of the larger studies, published in 2010 in the American Journal of Epidemiology and based on a sample of 2,554 young Danish men, found that high cola intake of more than 14 half-liter bottles a week and/or high caffeine intake of more than 800 milligrams a day were associated with both a reduced sperm concentration and total sperm count. (A typical eight-ounce cup of coffee contains about 100 milligrams of caffeine.)
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The NIH study also confirms previous research that shows that women who drink more than two caffeinated beverages each day during early pregnancy — defined in this study as the first seven weeks — may also be more likely to miscarry. In the study, 98 of the 344 women with a singleton pregnancy lost a baby.
The authors of the NIH study cautioned that they don’t know for sure whether it’s the caffeine that caused the pregnancy loss and noted that those women who drank a lot of caffeine during pre-conception and lost their babies also tended to be on the older side, age 35 or older. That could mean that the health of the fetus may have been affected by the advanced age of the sperm and egg in older couples or by environmental exposures that could become cumulative over time as people age.
Finally, there was one piece of positive and practical news in the study: Women who took a daily multivitamin before and after conception appeared to greatly reduce miscarriage risk.
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Unique plasma metabolomic signature of osteonecrosis of the femoral head.
Metabolomic analysis was performed to determine the metabolomic signature of osteonecrosis of the femoral head (ONFH), and to investigate the underlying relationship between the metabolomic signature and the pathogenesis of ONFH. Plasma samples were collected from 30 ONFH patients and 30 normal subjects. The global metabolomic profile was obtained through a combination of high-throughput liquid- and gas-chromatography-based mass spectrometry analyses. All statistical analyses were conducted using the R software. The results showed clear differences in the metabolomic signature between the plasma of ONFH patients compared with normal subjects. Among the 354 identified metabolites, the expression of 123 metabolites were significantly changed in ONFH patients compared with normal subjects (p < 0.05, q < 0.10). Bioinformatics analysis revealed that these abnormal metabolites were mainly involved in lipid-, glutathione-, nucleotide-, and energy-associated pathways, which might be related to enhanced inflammation, oxidative stress, and energy deficiency due to ONFH. This study provides the first metabolomic analysis of ONFH, and identifies a previously unrecognized metabolic signature in ONFH plasma. The results offer new insights into the pathological mechanisms of ONFH through its influence on metabolic pathways, providing the requisite framework for identifying biomarkers or novel targets for therapeutic intervention. © 2015 Orthopaedic Research Society. Published by Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J Orthop Res 34:1158-1167, 2016. |
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Hillary Clinton sees a role for nuclear power and the Idaho National Laboratory in her clean energy future but Bernie Sanders wants to end nuclear power and provide funds to transition workers into other jobs.
Both Bernie Sanders and Hillary Clinton have ambitious plans to shift the nation’s economy away from fossil fuels to clean energy to combat the global warming caused by their burning.
But as the two Democratic presidential candidates campaign and compete in Idaho in the days before the Tuesday caucus, the largest contrast is their views of the role nuclear power will play in the clean-energy future.
Little polling has been in the state, but the last poll in February by Dan Jones and Associates for Idaho Politics Weekly showed Sanders with a tiny 47-45 percent lead, within the margin of error. That was a rise of 12 points for the Vermont senator from a poll earlier this year.
“It was very close,” said Dan Jones, the Salt Lake City, Utah, pollster. “My guess is it is still close.”
Sanders was picking up votes from independents, the poll showed, who can vote in the caucuses if they did not vote in the March 8 Republican primary. |
The statements in this section merely provide background information related to the present disclosure and may not constitute the prior art.
There are active researches and developments of methods for using ultrasound to check the internal status of materials, or applying it to diagnosis and treatment toward human health as medical field and some other industrial areas have already commercialized the applied ultrasonic technologies.
An exemplary application of ultrasound in medical field is diagnosis such as prenatal diagnosis or cancerous tissue diagnostics, and therapies such as fat removal or destruction of cancerous tissue (or malignant tumors).
A method is recently known for acquiring images of elastic deformations inside the viscoelastic medium by giving a strong impact of focused ultrasonic waves to a point of the viscoelastic medium and thus using transverse elastic waves generated from the focal point as being the wave source. One of the related techniques is suggested by Korean Patent Registration No. 10-0782045 invented by Kim; Cheol An, et al., assigned to Medison Co., Ltd., and entitled ultrasonic diagnostic system for providing elastic image with additional information.
If two substances with different moduli of elasticity are subject to transverse elastic waves generated, the substances experience different elastic deformations. For example, since such tissue of the body as cancer or tumor is more solid than normal surrounding tissue, the former deforms less than the latter by the transverse elastic waves. This enables the chronological sequence of images to be acquired and visualized corresponding to elastic deformations of tissues by propagations of the transverse elastic wave from the focusing of ultrasonic waves and thereby observing and diagnosing the internal state of the tissues.
In general, since a small impact of the focused ultrasonic waves at a point (hereinafter called ‘focal point’) causes a minute elastic deformation, an adequately accurate diagnosis of a tissue needs the viscoelastic medium to have greater elastic deformations by generating stronger transverse elastic waves from focusing high-intensity ultrasonic waves to more accurately diagnose the viscoelastic medium tissue.
However, when applying such use of transverse elastic waves to body tissue, the heat generated at the focus areas by the ultrasonic waves may cause destruction of the normal tissue and excessive deformations of the focus areas to give rise to an incoherence within the tissue, which undesirably puts the body under too much strain of the high-intensity focused ultrasonic signals for longer than a proper period of time (exposure time).
On the other hand, International Publication No. WO2007/110375 invented by Jérémy Bercoff, David Sabery, et al. and coapplied by Super Sonic Imagine (Titled A Method and A Device for Imaging A Visco-elastic Medium) suggests a technology to focus ultrasonic waves on a number of locations, simultaneously or in alternation. |
FIRST DISTRICT COURT OF APPEAL
STATE OF FLORIDA
_____________________________
No. 1D18-3828
_____________________________
JERMAINE EARL,
Appellant,
v.
STATE OF FLORIDA,
Appellee.
_____________________________
On appeal from the Circuit Court for Leon County.
James C. Hankinson, Judge.
June 7, 2019
WOLF, J.
This is a timely appeal of the denial of a motion filed pursuant
to Florida Rule of Criminal Procedure 3.800(a). The issue is
whether the postconviction court erred in denying appellant’s rule
3.800(a) motion in which he argued the trial court’s failure to
impose mandatory minimum sentences rendered his sentence
illegal.
We find the decision of the trial court was not adverse to
appellant and dismiss this appeal. We also certify conflict with
decisions from the Third and Fifth District Courts of Appeal that
reached the merits of this issue and did not dismiss the appeal.
FACTS
Appellant filed a rule 3.800(a) motion alleging his sentences
were illegal because the trial court failed to impose a 10-year
mandatory minimum sentence. He stated he was convicted of
armed robbery and kidnapping, and he was sentenced to life in
prison for each count as a Prison Releasee Reoffender (PRR).
However, the court did not impose a mandatory minimum
sentence, which appellant argues was legally required pursuant to
section 775.087(2), Florida Statues, because the jury found he was
in actual possession of a firearm.
The postconviction court denied the motion, finding that
although the trial court could have included a 10-year mandatory
minimum for each sentence, the failure to do so did not make the
sentences illegal because such a determination would not have
changed appellant’s incarceration by one day.
ANALYSIS
Appellant is correct that the trial court should have imposed
a mandatory minimum sentence here. Under the 10-20-Life
statute, any person convicted of certain numerated offenses
including robbery and kidnapping, who was in actual possession of
a firearm, shall be sentenced to a mandatory minimum term of 10
years in prison. § 775.087(2)(a)1.c., g., Fla. Stat. Imposition of a
mandatory minimum sentence under the 10-20-Life statute is
required even where the defendant was sentenced as a prison
releasee reoffender. McDonald v. State, 957 So. 2d 605, 611 (Fla.
2007) (“[T]he language of the 10–20–LIFE statute plainly requires
that the mandatory minimum sentence be imposed concurrently
with the minimum mandatory sentence of the PRR statute even
though the 10–20–LIFE sentence is less than the PRR sentence.”).
The imposition of a mandatory minimum sentence is
“nondiscretionary.” Dunbar v. State, 89 So. 3d 901, 906 (Fla. 2012)
(finding a trial court did not violate double jeopardy by adding
“nondiscretionary” mandatory minimum sentence to the
defendant’s written sentence).
Both the Third District and the Fifth District have permitted
defendants to raise this issue through a rule 3.800(a) motion and
2
have remanded for resentencing. The Fifth District reasoned that
“[m]otions seeking to impose mandatory minimums are typically
filed by the State, but nothing prohibits a defendant from filing
such a motion.” Vargas v. State, 188 So. 3d 915, 916 n.1 (Fla. 5th
DCA 2016) (reversing and remanding for resentencing where the
trial court failed to impose mandatory minimum sentences but
declining to reach the issue of whether the trial court erred in
running the sentences consecutively). In a similar case, the Fifth
District further reasoned that “[a]lthough it would seem
counterintuitive for a defendant, postconviction, to move for an
enhanced sentence, rule 3.800(a) provides . . . recourse as it plainly
states . . . that ‘[a] court may at any time correct an illegal
sentence,’” and the failure to impose a mandatory minimum
sentence under the 10-20-Life statutes “makes each sentence
illegal.” Solomon v. State, 254 So. 3d 1121, 1124 (Fla. 5th DCA
2018). Thus, the Fifth District granted the motion and remanded
for resentencing even though the defendant conceded that doing so
“will not change the composite term for [his life] sentence[s].” Id.
at 1125.
Relying on Vargas, the Third District agreed that nothing
prohibits a defendant from filing a rule 3.800(a) motion
challenging the trial court’s failure to impose a mandatory
minimum sentence under the 10-20-Life statute. Burks v. State,
237 So. 3d 1060, 1062 n.1 (Fla. 3d DCA 2017) (reversing and
remanding for resentencing).
We decline to follow the Third and Fifth Districts. While a
sentence that fails to impose a mandatory minimum sentence may
be “illegal,” that illegality is in appellant’s favor. It is not adverse
to him. “The general rule on appeal to review proceedings of an
inferior court is that a party to the cause may appeal only from a
decision in some respect adverse to him.” Credit Indus. Co. v.
Remark Chem. Co., 67 So. 2d 540, 541 (Fla. 1953). “A party may .
. . appeal when he is ‘aggrieved by the judgment.’” Fountain v. City
of Jacksonville, 447 So. 2d 353, 354 (Fla. 1st DCA 1984).
Specifically, “defendants have the right to appeal an adverse
ruling of a 3.800(a) motion.” Johnson v. State, 961 So. 2d 195, 197
(Fla. 2007) (emphasis added) (requiring trial courts to advise
defendants of their right to appeal from rule 3.800(a) motions). The
3
appellate rules permit a defendant to appeal an order “denying
relief” under rule 3.800(a). Fla. R. App. P. 9.140 (b)(1)(D).
Here, though the trial court denied appellant’s motion, that
order was not adverse to appellant, nor did it deny him relief,
because he did not seek “relief” through his motion. He sought a
harsher sentence.
Because the order denying appellant’s rule 3.800(a) motion
was not adverse to appellant, we dismiss appellant’s request for
relief and certify conflict with the Third and Fifth District Courts
in Vargas v. State, 188 So. 3d 915 (Fla. 5th DCA 2016); Solomon v.
State, 254 So. 3d 1121 (Fla. 5th DCA 2018); and Burks v. State, 237
So. 3d 1060 (Fla. 3d DCA 2017). Dismissal rather than affirmance
is appropriate where an appellant challenges a non-adverse
decision. See Credit Indus. Co., 67 So. 2d at 541.
This case is DISMISSED.
BILBREY and WINSOR, JJ., concur.
_____________________________
Not final until disposition of any timely and
authorized motion under Fla. R. App. P. 9.330 or
9.331.
_____________________________
Jermaine Earl, pro se, Appellant.
Ashley Moody, Attorney General, Tallahassee, for Appellee.
4
|
Jordan Ramos
Jordan Ramos (born 18 July 1995 in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil) is a British sprinter, former British Gymnast, five-times British Tumbling (gymnastics) Champion, a European Silver Medallist, a Guinness World Records Breaker for the longest slam dunk from a trampoline. Jordan Ramos also entered into the 2011 edition of the Guinness World Records book, for the farthest basketball slam dunk from a trampoline.
Biography
Family
Jordan is the son of Brazilian Stuntman "Marcelo The Daredevil" and Acrobat and Keep Fit Instructor Anita Grosvenor Ramos. He's the eldest son of the Ramos Family, having 2 younger brothers, gymnast Samuel Ramos and Rio Ramos. Jordan also participates in the family act The Ramos Acrobats alongside mum Anita, dad Marcelo and brother Samuel.
Sports
Gymnastics
Jordan began training gymnastics and acrobatics with his dad at the age of 2, and by the time he’d reached his 10th birthday he became a British Tumbling (gymnastics) Champion. Jordan has represented Great Britain in 2 World Junior Championships and 1 European Championship. Ranking top six in two of the World Tumbling (gymnastics) Championships and winning a Gold medal at the Loule World Cup in Portugal in 2007. He also went on to win a Silver European medal in France in 2010.
Reality TV
Guinness World Record Smashed
Because of his amazing gymnastics ability, in 2008 he was set a challenge by Sky1 to try and beat the Record for the longest slam dunk ever performed from a trampoline. He rose to the challenge and live on TV at Pinewood Studio, Jordan at just 13 became the Guinness World Record Breaker. He held onto his Record for 3 Years performing on programs such as Blue Peter, China Central Television and also on Italian TV. In 2011 he entered the Guinness Book of Records.
Wife Swap Controversy
On 29 June 2009 Jordan, his mum, dad and brother Samuel appeared on the last series of the British Reality TV program Wife Swap on Channel 4. In the program the swapping mum was not happy because at the time, 13-year-old Jordan and five-year-old Samuel spend over nine hours each week training trampolining and tumbling (gymnastics). On the rule change, she made the boys stay at home to bake cakes instead of training gymnastics.
References
External links
Jordan Ramos official website
Acrobats - Jordan is part of The Ramos Acrobats
Category:Participants in British reality television series
Category:Living people
Category:Sportspeople from Liverpool
Category:British male trampolinists
Category:1995 births
Category:People from Liverpool
Category:Male gymnasts |
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|
Mindfulness Exercises
Mindfulness exercises let you “tune in” to yourself. Distractions are let go, and your brain power is increased. The exercises help you think more clearly and concentrate better. The best news is that they are easier than you might think to learn.
Easy Mindfulness Exercises
Anytime you are stressed, stop, and carefully watch yourself to identify what’s bothering you. You may be expecting something bad to happen, or perhaps there is an argument going on just below the surface of your consciousness, or you’re worried about something, or in pain in some way. Notice everything you can.
This self-observation is crucial. It will get easier as you do it more. You’ll start to realize just how many things are going on in your own head, distracting you.
Now deal with these mind-irritants. Make the phone call that’s on your mind, take an aspirin, apologise to whomever you were fighting with. You can write things on tomorrow’s to-do list, to get them off your mind. And if there’s nothing you can do right now, tell yourself that. When you do this exercise, you’ll feel less stressed, and more able to concentrate on the tasks at hand. You can have more brain power today.
A Better Mindfulness Exercise
Sit down, relax and breath deeply through your nose. Let your eyes close and be aware of your breath going in and out. Move your attention to your body, one part at a time, noting sensations of cold, hot, tight, sore and anything else you identify. After a few minutes, start listening to sounds in the room, without thinking about them. Just listen, while still maintaining an awareness of your body and your breath.
In ten minutes or so, or when it feels right, open your eyes and look around as if you are seeing for the first time. Let your eyes rest on an object for half a minute, examining it without talking about it in your mind. Then move to another object, and another, while still maintaining an awareness of your body, your breathing, and any sounds. Just stay in this state of mindfulness for a few minutes, until you are ready to get up.
When you are aware of your body, breath and immediate enviroment, you are more fully “in the moment.” Your mind is in a receptive state, with fewer mental distractions that can prevent clear thinking. An exercise like this before important mental tasks will give you greater brain power, specifically more focus and concentration. Today is a good day to learn something new. Why not try one of these mindfulness exercises? |
Anna: Nope. I’m afraid there are no photos for a while. Trying to cook and serve a meal with an impatient toddler doesn’t lend itself to photography.
Peter: This looks like a fish pie. Pie. Yum.
Louis: Nana’s fish casserole!!
Anna: Yes, we’ve had this before. Nana made it last time. You love it don’t you Louis?
Peter: Bacon and smoked haddock make a pretty good combination.
Anna: It’s the saltiness that makes it so nice. As with all fish pies I used virtually every pan in the kitchen to make it, but I can get past that. We’ve fed four adults and have about 6 portions leftover for Louis. I will make this again! |
Optical Arbitrary Waveform Generation (O-AWG) is a promising technology for generating high-bandwidth analog microwaves used in advanced radar systems and ultra-wideband communications systems. O-AWG utilizes waveform generation and shaping in the optical domain to overcome the speed limitation of electronics. By “arbitrary” is meant that any waveform of interest may be generated. The ability to dynamically change the waveforms in the field is of particular interest because it allows higher degree of freedom for optimization and control.
Techniques for dynamic pulse shaping in the optical domain can be generally divided into two categories: direct temporal shaping (such as that described in: Capmany et al., Journal of Lightwave Technology, 13, pp. 2003, 1995; Shen et al., IEEE Photonics Technology Letter, 16, pp. 1155, 2004) and temporal shaping through spectral manipulation (such as that described in: Weiner, Review of Scientific Instruments 71, 1929, 2000; Azana et al., Optics Letters 30, pp. 3228, 2005; Kaplin et al., in Ultrafast Optics IV: Selected Contributions to the 4th International Conference on Ultrafast Optics (Springer, 2004), pp. 105-118). The former utilizes multiple delays in time to sample and then manipulate the optical signal in time domain. The latter case typically uses free-space diffraction gratings (as described in Weiner), arrayed waveguide gratings (as described in: Yilmaz et al., IEEE Photonics Technology Letter, 14, pp. 1608, 2002), Fiber Bragg Gratings (as described in: Brennan III et al., U.S. Pat. No. 6,195,484), or dispersive fiber (as described in Azana et al.) to separate the frequency contents of a signal, and then use a Spatial Light Modulator (SLM) (as described in Weiner) or an Electro-optic Modulator (EOM) (as described in: Azana et al.; Brennan III et al.) to manipulate the spectral content of the signal. All these techniques, however, requires the light signal to couple out of fiber for spectral manipulation and then couple back into the fiber—the inherent loss is therefore high.
It would be desirable to provide a method for dynamic waveform shaping that addresses at least some of the above concerns. |
Viable control of an epidemiological model.
In mathematical epidemiology, epidemic control often aims at driving the number of infected humans to zero, asymptotically. However, during the transitory phase, the number of infected individuals can peak at high values. Can we limit the number of infected humans at the peak? This is the question we address. More precisely, we consider a controlled version of the Ross-Macdonald epidemiological dynamical model: proportions of infected individuals and proportions of infected mosquitoes (vector) are state variables, and vector mortality is the control variable. We say that a state is viable if there exists at least one admissible control trajectory - time-dependent mosquito mortality rates bounded by control capacity - such that, starting from this state, the resulting proportion of infected individuals remains below a given infection cap for all times. The so-called viability kernel is the set of viable states. We obtain three different expressions of the viability kernel, depending on the couple control capacity-infection cap. In the comfortable case, the infection cap is high, the viability kernel is maximal and all admissible control trajectories are viable. In the desperate case, both control capacity and infection cap are too low and the viability kernel is the zero equilibrium without infection. In the remaining viable case, the viability kernel is neither zero nor maximal and not all admissible control trajectories are viable. We provide a numerical application in the case of the dengue outbreak in 2013 in Cali, Colombia. |
# English (en) translation strings for Booktype.
# Copyright (C) 2014-2018 Booktype contributors
# This file is distributed under the same license as the Booktype package.
#
# Translators:
# aalmeida <alinecs.82@gmail.com>, 2016
# Willian Dolence Ribeiro <willian@curitiba.org>, 2016
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#: lib/booki/editor/models.py:38 lib/booki/editor/models.py:52
#: lib/booki/editor/models.py:74 lib/booki/editor/models.py:101
#: lib/booki/editor/models.py:358 lib/booki/editor/models.py:424
#: lib/booki/editor/models.py:763
msgid "name"
msgstr "nome"
#: lib/booki/editor/models.py:39 lib/booki/editor/models.py:53
msgid "abbreviation"
msgstr "abreviatura"
#: lib/booki/editor/models.py:40
msgid "url"
msgstr "url"
#: lib/booki/editor/models.py:46
msgid "License"
msgstr "Licença"
#: lib/booki/editor/models.py:47
msgid "Licenses"
msgstr "Licenças"
#: lib/booki/editor/models.py:60
msgid "Language"
msgstr "Idioma"
#: lib/booki/editor/models.py:61
msgid "Languages"
msgstr "Idiomas"
#: lib/booki/editor/models.py:66 lib/booki/editor/models.py:200
msgid "published"
msgstr "publicado"
#: lib/booki/editor/models.py:67
msgid "not published"
msgstr "não publicado"
#: lib/booki/editor/models.py:68
msgid "not translated"
msgstr "não traduzido"
#: lib/booki/editor/models.py:73 lib/booki/editor/models.py:89
#: lib/booki/editor/models.py:333 lib/booki/editor/models.py:393
#: lib/booki/editor/models.py:410 lib/booki/editor/models.py:421
#: lib/booki/editor/models.py:472 lib/booki/editor/models.py:679
#: lib/booki/editor/models.py:761 lib/booki/editor/models.py:807
#: lib/booki/editor/models.py:816 lib/booki/editor/models.py:828
#: lib/booki/editor/models.py:848
msgid "book"
msgstr "livro"
#: lib/booki/editor/models.py:75 lib/booki/editor/models.py:765
msgid "weight"
msgstr "peso"
#: lib/booki/editor/models.py:76
msgid "color"
msgstr ""
#: lib/booki/editor/models.py:83 lib/booki/editor/models.py:84
msgid "Book status"
msgstr "Status do livro"
#: lib/booki/editor/models.py:90 lib/booki/editor/models.py:871
msgid "notes"
msgstr "notas"
#: lib/booki/editor/models.py:96
msgid "Book note"
msgstr "Nota do livro"
#: lib/booki/editor/models.py:97
msgid "Book notes"
msgstr "Notas do livro"
#: lib/booki/editor/models.py:102
msgid "url name"
msgstr "nome da url"
#: lib/booki/editor/models.py:103 lib/booki/editor/models.py:205
#: lib/booki/editor/models.py:426
msgid "description"
msgstr "descrição"
#: lib/booki/editor/models.py:105 lib/booki/editor/models.py:195
msgid "owner"
msgstr "proprietário"
#: lib/booki/editor/models.py:107
msgid "members"
msgstr "membros"
#: lib/booki/editor/models.py:109 lib/booki/editor/models.py:199
#: lib/booki/editor/models.py:429 lib/booki/editor/models.py:483
#: lib/booki/editor/models.py:644 lib/booki/editor/models.py:682
#: lib/booki/editor/models.py:875
msgid "created"
msgstr "criado"
#: lib/booki/editor/models.py:151
msgid "Booktype group"
msgstr "Grupo Booktype"
#: lib/booki/editor/models.py:152
msgid "Booktype groups"
msgstr "Grupos Booktype"
#: lib/booki/editor/models.py:163
msgid "Author(s)"
msgstr "Autor(es)"
#: lib/booki/editor/models.py:165
msgid "Title"
msgstr "Título"
#: lib/booki/editor/models.py:166
msgid "Short title"
msgstr "Título curto"
#: lib/booki/editor/models.py:167
msgid "Subtitle"
msgstr "Subtítulo"
#: lib/booki/editor/models.py:169
msgid "Publisher"
msgstr "Editor"
#: lib/booki/editor/models.py:170
msgid "Publication date"
msgstr "Data de publicação"
#: lib/booki/editor/models.py:171
msgid "Copyright date"
msgstr "Data dos direitos autorais"
#: lib/booki/editor/models.py:172
msgid "Copyright holder"
msgstr "Detentor dos direitos autorais"
#: lib/booki/editor/models.py:175
msgid "City of publication"
msgstr "Cidade da publicação"
#: lib/booki/editor/models.py:176
msgid "Country of publication"
msgstr "País da publicação"
#: lib/booki/editor/models.py:177
msgid "Short description"
msgstr "Breve descrição"
#: lib/booki/editor/models.py:178
msgid "Long description"
msgstr "Descrição completa"
#: lib/booki/editor/models.py:180
msgid "Ebook ISBN"
msgstr "Ebook ISBN"
#: lib/booki/editor/models.py:181
msgid "Print ISBN"
msgstr "Imprimir ISBN"
#: lib/booki/editor/models.py:186 lib/booki/editor/models.py:473
msgid "url title"
msgstr "título da url"
#: lib/booki/editor/models.py:187 lib/booki/editor/models.py:474
msgid "title"
msgstr "título"
#: lib/booki/editor/models.py:188 lib/booki/editor/models.py:475
#: lib/booki/editor/models.py:681
msgid "status"
msgstr "status"
#: lib/booki/editor/models.py:189
msgid "language"
msgstr "idioma"
#: lib/booki/editor/models.py:191 lib/booki/editor/models.py:335
#: lib/booki/editor/models.py:471 lib/booki/editor/models.py:678
#: lib/booki/editor/models.py:759
msgid "version"
msgstr "versão"
#: lib/booki/editor/models.py:193 lib/booki/editor/models.py:808
msgid "group"
msgstr "grupo"
#: lib/booki/editor/models.py:197 lib/booki/editor/models.py:869
msgid "license"
msgstr "licença"
#: lib/booki/editor/models.py:202
msgid "hidden"
msgstr "oculto"
#: lib/booki/editor/models.py:203 lib/booki/editor/models.py:809
msgid "permission"
msgstr "permissão"
#: lib/booki/editor/models.py:206
msgid "cover"
msgstr "capa"
#: lib/booki/editor/models.py:209
msgid "Book"
msgstr "Livro"
#: lib/booki/editor/models.py:210
msgid "Books"
msgstr "Livros"
#: lib/booki/editor/models.py:336 lib/booki/editor/models.py:599
#: lib/booki/editor/models.py:764
msgid "chapter"
msgstr "capítulo"
#: lib/booki/editor/models.py:337
msgid "chapter history"
msgstr "histórico do capítulo"
#: lib/booki/editor/models.py:338 lib/booki/editor/models.py:484
#: lib/booki/editor/models.py:601
msgid "modified"
msgstr "modificado"
#: lib/booki/editor/models.py:339
msgid "args"
msgstr "args"
#: lib/booki/editor/models.py:340 lib/booki/editor/models.py:602
#: lib/booki/editor/models.py:642 lib/booki/editor/models.py:806
#: lib/booki/editor/models.py:817 lib/booki/editor/models.py:829
#: lib/booki/editor/models.py:849
msgid "user"
msgstr "usuário"
#: lib/booki/editor/models.py:341 lib/booki/editor/models.py:359
msgid "kind"
msgstr "tipo"
#: lib/booki/editor/models.py:361
msgid "value string"
msgstr "value string"
#: lib/booki/editor/models.py:362
msgid "value integer"
msgstr "value integer"
#: lib/booki/editor/models.py:363
msgid "value text"
msgstr "value text"
#: lib/booki/editor/models.py:364
msgid "value date"
msgstr "value date"
#: lib/booki/editor/models.py:397 lib/booki/editor/models.py:398
msgid "Metadata"
msgstr "Metadados"
#: lib/booki/editor/models.py:415
msgid "Book setting"
msgstr "Configuração do livro"
#: lib/booki/editor/models.py:416
msgid "Book settings"
msgstr "Configurações do livro"
#: lib/booki/editor/models.py:422
msgid "major"
msgstr "principal"
#: lib/booki/editor/models.py:423
msgid "minor"
msgstr "secundário"
#: lib/booki/editor/models.py:481
msgid "assigned"
msgstr ""
#: lib/booki/editor/models.py:485 lib/booki/editor/models.py:603
msgid "revision"
msgstr "revisão"
#: lib/booki/editor/models.py:486 lib/booki/messaging/models.py:34
msgid "content"
msgstr "conteúdo"
#: lib/booki/editor/models.py:487
msgid "content json"
msgstr ""
#: lib/booki/editor/models.py:490
msgid "Chapter"
msgstr "Capítulo"
#: lib/booki/editor/models.py:491
msgid "Chapters"
msgstr "Capítulos"
#: lib/booki/editor/models.py:604
msgid "comment"
msgstr "comentário"
#: lib/booki/editor/models.py:611
msgid "Chapter history"
msgstr "Histórico do capítulo"
#: lib/booki/editor/models.py:647
msgid "Chapter Lock"
msgstr "Encerramento do capítulo"
#: lib/booki/editor/models.py:648
msgid "Chapters Locks"
msgstr "Encerramentos dos capítulos"
#: lib/booki/editor/models.py:680 lib/booki/editor/models.py:853
msgid "filename"
msgstr "nome do arquivo"
#: lib/booki/editor/models.py:694
msgid "Attachment"
msgstr "Anexo"
#: lib/booki/editor/models.py:695
msgid "Attachments"
msgstr "Anexos"
#: lib/booki/editor/models.py:754
msgid "section name"
msgstr "nome da seção"
#: lib/booki/editor/models.py:755
msgid "chapter name"
msgstr "nome do capítulo"
#: lib/booki/editor/models.py:756
msgid "line"
msgstr "linha"
#: lib/booki/editor/models.py:762
msgid "parent"
msgstr "parent"
#: lib/booki/editor/models.py:766
msgid "typeof"
msgstr "typeof"
#: lib/booki/editor/models.py:768
msgid "settings"
msgstr "configurações"
#: lib/booki/editor/models.py:791
msgid "Book TOC"
msgstr "Índice do livro"
#: lib/booki/editor/models.py:792
msgid "Book TOCs"
msgstr "Índices do livro"
#: lib/booki/editor/models.py:823 lib/booki/editor/models.py:824
msgid "Attribution Exclude"
msgstr "Excluir Atribuição"
#: lib/booki/editor/models.py:830
msgid "wizard type"
msgstr "tipo de assistente"
#: lib/booki/editor/models.py:831
msgid "wizard options"
msgstr "opções de assistente"
#: lib/booki/editor/models.py:837 lib/booki/editor/models.py:838
msgid "Publish Wizard"
msgstr "Publicar assistente"
#: lib/booki/editor/models.py:855
msgid "Cover title"
msgstr "Título da capa"
#: lib/booki/editor/models.py:857
msgid "Width"
msgstr "Largura"
#: lib/booki/editor/models.py:858
msgid "Height"
msgstr "Altura"
#: lib/booki/editor/models.py:859
msgid "Unit"
msgstr "Unidade"
#: lib/booki/editor/models.py:860
msgid "Booksize"
msgstr "Tamanho do livro"
#: lib/booki/editor/models.py:862
msgid "Book cover"
msgstr "Capa do livro"
#: lib/booki/editor/models.py:863
msgid "E-book cover"
msgstr "Capa do e-book"
#: lib/booki/editor/models.py:864
msgid "PDF cover"
msgstr "Capa do PDF"
#: lib/booki/editor/models.py:866
msgid "Cover type"
msgstr "Tipo de capa"
#: lib/booki/editor/models.py:868
msgid "Cover"
msgstr "Capa"
#: lib/booki/editor/models.py:873
msgid "Approved"
msgstr "Aprovado"
#: lib/booki/editor/templates/authors.html:13
msgid "Modifications:"
msgstr "Alterações:"
#: lib/booki/editor/templates/errors/editing_forbidden.html:8
msgid "Access error"
msgstr "Erro de acesso"
#: lib/booki/editor/templates/errors/editing_forbidden.html:9
msgid "You have no permission to edit this book."
msgstr "Você não tem permissão para editar este livro."
#: lib/booki/messaging/models.py:32
msgid "sender"
msgstr "remetente"
#: lib/booki/messaging/models.py:33 lib/booki/messaging/models.py:67
msgid "timestamp"
msgstr "Data e hora"
#: lib/booki/messaging/models.py:35
msgid "attachment"
msgstr "anexo"
#: lib/booki/messaging/models.py:36
msgid "snippet"
msgstr "snippet"
#: lib/booki/messaging/models.py:37
msgid "context"
msgstr "contexto"
#: lib/booki/messaging/models.py:61
msgid "Post"
msgstr "Post"
#: lib/booki/messaging/models.py:62
msgid "Posts"
msgstr "Posts"
#: lib/booki/messaging/models.py:66
msgid "post"
msgstr "post"
#: lib/booki/messaging/models.py:68
msgid "endpoint"
msgstr "endpoint"
#: lib/booki/messaging/models.py:74
msgid "Post appearance"
msgstr "Aparência do post"
#: lib/booki/messaging/models.py:75
msgid "Post appearances"
msgstr "Aparências do post"
#: lib/booki/messaging/models.py:85
msgid "syntax"
msgstr "sintaxe"
#: lib/booki/messaging/models.py:146
msgid "Endpoint"
msgstr "Endpoint"
#: lib/booki/messaging/models.py:147
msgid "Endpoints"
msgstr "Endpoints"
#: lib/booki/messaging/models.py:150
msgid "notification filter"
msgstr "filtro de notificação"
#: lib/booki/messaging/models.py:156
msgid "Endpoint config"
msgstr "Configuração do endpoint"
#: lib/booki/messaging/models.py:157
msgid "Endpoint configs"
msgstr "Configurações do endpoint"
#: lib/booki/messaging/models.py:160
msgid "follower"
msgstr "seguidor"
#: lib/booki/messaging/models.py:161
msgid "target"
msgstr "meta"
#: lib/booki/messaging/models.py:167
msgid "Following"
msgstr "Seguidor"
#: lib/booki/messaging/models.py:168
msgid "Followings"
msgstr "Seguidores"
#: lib/booki/messaging/templates/messaging/book_followbutton.html:5
msgid "Follow this book"
msgstr "Seguir este livro"
#: lib/booki/messaging/templates/messaging/book_followbutton.html:10
msgid "Stop following this book"
msgstr "Parar de seguir este livro"
#: lib/booki/messaging/templates/messaging/messagefield.html:6
msgid "Attach file"
msgstr "Anexar arquivo"
#: lib/booki/messaging/templates/messaging/messagefield.html:9
msgid "Add Snippet"
msgstr "Incluir Snippet"
#: lib/booki/messaging/templates/messaging/messagefield.html:10
msgid "Optional snippet context URL:"
msgstr "URL opcional de contexto do snippet:"
#: lib/booki/messaging/templates/messaging/messagefield.html:13
msgid "Share"
msgstr "Compartilhar"
#: lib/booki/messaging/templates/messaging/messagefield_button.html:3
msgid "Post a message"
msgstr "Publicar uma mensagem"
#: lib/booki/messaging/templates/messaging/post.html:8
msgid "send a reply"
msgstr "enviar resposta"
#: lib/booki/messaging/templates/messaging/post.html:11
msgid "ago"
msgstr "atrás"
#: lib/booki/messaging/templates/messaging/post.html:22
msgid "Snippet:"
msgstr "Snippet:"
#: lib/booki/messaging/templates/messaging/post.html:24
msgid "Context"
msgstr "Contexto"
#: lib/booki/messaging/templates/messaging/tag_followbutton.html:5
msgid "Follow this tag"
msgstr "Seguir esta tag"
#: lib/booki/messaging/templates/messaging/tag_followbutton.html:10
msgid "Stop following this tag"
msgstr "Parar de seguir esta tag"
#: lib/booki/messaging/templates/messaging/timeline.html:4
#, python-format
msgid "Timeline of %(syntax)s:"
msgstr "Linha do tempo de %(syntax)s:"
#: lib/booki/messaging/templates/messaging/timeline.html:10
msgid "No messages."
msgstr "Não há mensagens."
#: lib/booki/messaging/templates/messaging/user_followbutton.html:5
msgid "Follow me"
msgstr "Seguir-me"
#: lib/booki/messaging/templates/messaging/user_followbutton.html:10
msgid "Stop following me"
msgstr "Parar de me seguir"
#: lib/booki/messaging/templates/messaging/view_tag.html:5
msgid "Tag timeline"
msgstr "Linha do tempo da tag"
#: lib/booki/messaging/views.py:113
#, python-format
msgid "Message from %s"
msgstr "Mensagem de %s"
#: lib/booki/messaging/views.py:172
msgid "Error"
msgstr "Erro"
#: lib/booki/messaging/views.py:218
msgid "Sent."
msgstr "Enviado."
#~ msgid ""
#~ "\n"
#~ " <p>Thank you. We have created your account and signed you in. Do you want to learn more how to use Booktype? Read the <a href=\"http://en.flossmanuals.net/booktype\">user guide</a>!</p>\n"
#~ " \n"
#~ " <p><form method=\"GET\" action=\"%(frontpage_url)s\"><button>Great! Let's use Booktype now!</button><span class=\"redirectmessage\" style=\"padding-left: 20px\">Automatic redirection in <span class=\"sec\">sec</span> seconds.</span></form></p>\n"
#~ " "
#~ msgstr ""
#~ "\n"
#~ " <p>Thank you. We have created your account and signed you in. Do you want to learn more about Booktype? Read the <a href=\"http://sourcefabric.booktype.pro/booktype-16-for-authors-and-publishers/\">user guide</a>!</p>\n"
#~ " \n"
#~ " <p><form method=\"GET\" action=\"%(frontpage_url)s\"><button>Great! Let's use Booktype now!</button><span class=\"redirectmessage\" style=\"padding-left: 20px\">Automatic redirection in <span class=\"sec\">sec</span> seconds.</span></form></p>\n"
#~ " "
#~ msgid ""
#~ "Do you want to learn more how to use Booktype? Read the <a target=\"_new\" "
#~ "title=\"Booktype user guide\" "
#~ "href=\"http://en.flossmanuals.net/booktype\"><i>user guide</i></a>!"
#~ msgstr ""
#~ "Do you want to learn more about Booktype? Read the <a target=\"_new\" "
#~ "title=\"Booktype user guide\" "
#~ "href=\"http://sourcefabric.booktype.pro/booktype-16-for-authors-and-"
#~ "publishers/\"><i>user guide</i></a>!"
|
Malignancy-induced secondary achalasia.
Secondary achalasia refers to the development of clinical, radiographic, and manometric findings of achalasia as a result of (i.e., secondary to) another underlying disorder. A variety of malignancies have been associated with secondary achalasia. Adenocarcinoma of the esophagogastric junction accounts for the majority of cases of malignancy-induced achalasia, however, noncontiguous tumors may also cause this disorder. Although rare, malignancy-induced achalasia will occasionally be encountered by gastroenterologists and gastrointestinal radiologists who see patients with dysphagia and/or achalasia. Since treatment is aimed at the underlying neoplasm, it is important to recognize this disorder. Three clinical features suggest the possibility of malignancy as a cause of achalasia: 1) short duration of dysphagia (< 1 year); 2) significant weight loss (> 15 pounds); and 3) age > 55 years. The presence of any of these should at least raise a suspicion of malignancy. Diagnosis may not be evident on routine esophagrams and endoscopy, and requires clinical suspicion for further evaluation with thoraco-abdominal CT scanning and endoscopic ultrasonography. |
Clinical features and disability progression in multiple sclerosis in Tunisia: do we really have a more aggressive disease course?
Few epidemiological data are available on multiple sclerosis (MS) patients in North Africa (NA). Studies of immigrants from NA showed a more aggressive course compared to European patients. The aim of this study is to describe clinical and long term course characteristics of MS in Tunisia and to compare it to European cohorts. A total of 437 MS patients from three hospital based cohorts in Tunisia and having prospective follow up between 2010 and 2012 were analyzed. We considered as endpoints the time to reach EDSS scores of 3, 4 and 6 in the different clinical forms of MS and the beginning of a secondary progressive (SP) phase. Sex ratio was 2.34. Mean age of onset was 30.3 years. The course was relapsing-remitting (RR) in 91% of patients and primary progressive (PP) in 9%. The most frequent isolated onset symptoms were respectively motor (28%), optic neuritis (20%) and sensory (16%) dysfunction. Median time to SP onset was 19.1 years. Median times from onset of multiple sclerosis to assignment of a score of 3, 4 and 6 were 8, 10.7 and 15 years respectively. Benign form of MS represented 31.5%. Median interval from the onset of the disease to EDSS score of 3, 4 and 6 was shorter in PP-MS than in RR-MS. However, there was no difference between these two groups for the median time from the assignment of EDSS 4 to the assignment EDSS 6. Our study shows that Tunisian MS patients have a quite similar clinical feature to European patients. Still, larger MS multicenter cohort studies in NA with longer follow-up duration could clearly respond to the issue. |
FEAR or FAITH? FRIGHT or FLIGHT?Welcome Eagles to the New Crusade!Will thou help defend the Fortress of Faith?BOOKMARK us & check in DAILY for the latest Endtimes News!SPREAD WORD TO YOUR FRIENDS & FAMILY!
"And I beheld, and heard the voice of one eagle flying through the midst of heaven, saying with a loud voice: Woe, woe, woe to the inhabitants of the earth....[Apocalypse (Revelation) 8:13]
Saturday, December 17, 2016
Francis Axis To Avoid
Francis Axis To Avoid
With what is about to happen in this country I wouldn't want to be in any of these three cities. 3 Heretics...
While Boston, Chicago and Washington have always been important forces in American Catholic life, they haven’t always been exactly in alignment. That, however, is certainly not the case in 2016, when one could make a good case that those three cities now form a key “Pope Francis Axis” in the American church
Throughout American Catholic history, the archdioceses of Boston, Washington and Chicago have always been important centers of influence, generally led by strong prelates with national and international profiles.
In the 1980s, arguably no American was more consequential in John Paul II’s Vatican than Cardinal Bernard Law of Boston, until the explosion of the sexual abuse scandals that ultimately cost Law his job in 2003.
For most of that time, Cardinal James Hickey of Washington stood shoulder-to-shoulder with Law as an American power-broker and papal ally.
Equally, no American prelate was more influential during the same period in providing a slightly different, more social justice-oriented vision of the Church and its role in the culture than Cardinal Joseph Bernardin of Chicago, under his rubric of the “seamless garment.”
Flash forward 20 years, and the geographic roles were a bit reversed. Cardinal Francis George of Chicago was seen as the primary intellectual interpreter of both John Paul II and Pope Benedict XVI in the United States, while Cardinal Theodore McCarrick of Washington, both on the job and after his alleged retirement (I say “alleged” because McCarrick has remained busier after leaving office than most people are in it), is seen as a center-left, reformist point of reference.
After 2003 and Law’s departure, new Cardinal Sean O’Malley of Boston was so focused on internal crisis management that he didn’t emerge as a national and international leader until later down the road.
As those examples also illustrate, while Boston, Chicago and Washington have always been important forces, they haven’t always been exactly in alignment. Sometimes, they’ve even represented rival ecclesiological, theological and political outlooks.
That, however, is not the case in 2016, when one could make a good case that those three cities now form a key “Pope Francis Axis” in the American church.
Chicago is occupied by Cardinal Blase Cupich, Francis’s first major episcopal pick in the United States and a man clearly in sync with the Pope Francis agenda.
He’s reached out to gays and lesbians, supported calls at the two Synods of Bishops on the family for opening Communion to divorced and civilly remarried Catholics, and broadly established himself as a leader of the more progressive constituency within the bishops.
Boston, of course, is led by O’Malley, who in some ways was basically Francis before Francis was cool. He exudes the same personal simplicity and humility, the same love for ordinary people and direct pastoral contact, and the same instinctive preference for concrete human experience over ideology.
O’Malley also speaks fluent Spanish, is the lone American on Francis’s “C9” council of cardinal advisers from around the world, and was also tapped by Francis to lead his new Pontifical Commission for the Protection of Minors, which is leading the pontiff’s reform effort on the clerical sexual abuse scandals.
Finally, there’s Wuerl in Washington, who may actually be the most important “Francis man” in the States of all.
The Archbishop of Washington since 2006 and a cardinal since 2010, Wuerl has long been seen as one of the most effective behind-the-scenes figures among the American bishops, engendering wide respect for his intellect, his management skill, and his almost preternatural sense of calm.
At the two Synods of Bishops on the family in 2014 and 2015, Wuerl was the only American named by Pope Francis to the drafting committees for the summit’s final documents.
That was in part likely because Wuerl had dropped strong hints that he was open to a “pastoral” solution to the debate over Communion for divorced and civilly remarried Catholics, and has since emerged as one of the most forceful defenders in the States of the pontiff’s apostolic exhortation Amoris Laetitia.
We got another small but telling reminder of Wuerl’s reach this week when Bishop Edward Burns, his former secretary in Pittsburgh, was named as the new shepherd of Dallas. That’s another Wuerl man in a key post, which has long been considered a key index of ecclesiastical clout.
It’s worth noting, by the way, that the man Burns replaced in Dallas, Cardinal Kevin Farrell, is also a friend of Wuerl, having been an auxiliary bishop in Washington and serving briefly under Wuerl as the archdiocese’s vicar general.
Farrell currently heads the pope’s new Dicastery for Family, Laity and Life, making him the most important American prelate in Rome.
Both Wuerl and Cupich now serve on the Vatican’s ultra-powerful Congregation for Bishops, responsible for recommending clergy to the pope to be appointed as bishops. In effect, that means that Wuerl and Cupich are the “kingmakers” in the United States, and their influence in shaping the next generation of the U.S. episcopacy is clear.
(One could add Newark under Cardinal Joseph Tobin to that list, but Newark doesn’t exactly enjoy the same history as a Catholic power.)
Does this Chicago-Boston-Washington axis represent a majority among the American bishops? Perhaps not, and one hint is that in the recent race for the leadership of the U.S. bishops’ conference, Cupich, O’Malley and Wuerl weren’t even nominated, let alone elected.
Interestingly, while Wuerl, Cupich and O’Malley in different ways may be key Francis allies, they are also very different personality types: Cupich a savvy political operator, Wuerl a consummate diplomat and thinker, and O’Malley a palpably pastoral Capuchin.
In that sense, the history of contrasts among these three critical dioceses may have receded in some ways, but by no means all.
Yet, to be honest, Law, Hickey and Cardinal John O’Connor of New York didn’t really represent a majority among the American bishops during much of the John Paul years, when the tone was more generally set by Bernardin and his allies.
It took time to shape a new cohort of bishops closely tied to the Polish pope’s more robustly evangelical outlook, much as it may take a while now to do the same for prelates closer to Francis’s vision and agenda.
That’s not to say, of course, that prelates with doubts or concerns about some aspects of what they’re seeing today are thereby defying the pope.
On the contrary, sometimes bishops serve the pope best not only by carrying his agenda, but by pressing him to rethink elements of it they worry may be as ill-advised, doctrinally suspect, or pastorally unhelpful.
That said, Cupich, O’Malley and Wuerl, in their different ways, illustrate the sort of churchmen feeling the wind at their backs on Pope Francis’s watch.
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Archbishop Lefebvre
“This Second Vatican Council Reform, since it has issued from Liberalism and from Modernism, is entirely corrupt; it comes from heresy and results in heresy, even if all its acts are not formally heretical. It is thus impossible for any faithful Catholic who is aware of these things to adopt this Reform, or to submit to it in any way at all. To ensure our salvation, the only attitude of fidelity to the Church and to Catholic doctrine, is a categorical refusal to accept the Reform.”
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Archbishop Lefebvre
“And we have the precise conviction that this new rite of Mass expresses a new faith, a faith which is not ours, a faith which is not the Catholic Faith. This New Mass is a symbol, is an expression, is an image of a new faith, of a Modernist faith. ….Now it is evident that the new rite, if I may say so, supposes another conception of the Catholic religion-another religion.”
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Archbishop Lefebvre
That Conciliar Church is a schismatic Church, because it breaks with the Catholic Church that has always been. It has its new dogmas, its new priesthood, its new institutions, its new worship, all already condemned by the Church in many a document, official and definitive.... The Church that affirms such errors is at once schismatic and heretical. This Conciliar Church is, therefore, not Catholic. To whatever extent Pope, Bishops, priests, or faithful adhere to this new Church, they separate themselves from the Catholic Church...
Fr. Hesse Summary on Vatican II
Vatican II = Heretical & Schismatic
Exposing Vatican II & New Mass, Fr. Villa
Archbishop Lefebvre
“Well, we are not of this religion. We do not accept this new religion. We are of the religion of all time; we are of the Catholic religion. We are not of this 'universal religion' as they call it today-this is not the Catholic religion any more. We are not of this Liberal, Modernist religion which has its own worship, its own priests, its own faith, its own catechisms, its own Bible, the 'ecumenical Bible'-these things we do not accept."
Traditional Quotes & Prayers
The Real 3rd Secret of Fatima
Inlcudes Vatican II and the soon Apostate Church..."...because Fatima is a very apocalyptic message. It says that no matter what happens there are going to be terrible wars, there are going to be diseases, whole nations are going to be wiped out, there are going to be 3 days darkness, there are going to be epidemics that will wipe out whole nations overnight, parts of the earth will be washed away at sea and violent tornadoes and storms. It's not a nice message at all." Fr Malachi Martin
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Pope XII: “Suicide Of Altering the Faith In Her Liturgy…..”
"I am worried by the Blessed Virgin's messages to Lucy of Fatima. This persistence of Mary about the dangers which menace the Church is a divine warning against the suicide of altering the Faith, in Her liturgy, Her theology and Her soul. … I hear all around me innovators who wish to dismantle the Sacred Chapel, destroy the universal flame of the Church, reject Her ornaments and make Her feel remorse for Her historical past."A day will come when the civilized world will deny its God, when the Church will doubt as Peter doubted. She will be tempted to believe that man has become God. In our churches, Christians will search in vain for the red lamp where God awaits them. Like Mary Magdalene, weeping before the empty tomb, they will ask, 'Where have they taken Him?'"
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St. Bernard:
Go forth confidently then, you knights, and repel the foes of the cross of Christ with a stalwart heart. Know that neither death nor life can separate you from the love of God which is in Jesus Christ, and in every peril repeat, "Whether we live or whether we die, we are the Lord's." What a glory to return in victory from such a battle! How blessed to die there as a martyr! Rejoice, brave athlete, if you live and conquer in the Lord; but glory and exult even more if you die and join your Lord. Life indeed is a fruitful thing and victory is glorious, but a holy death is more important than either. If they are blessed who die in the Lord, how much more are they who die for the Lord!
How secure, I say, is life when death is anticipated without fear; or rather when it is desired with feeling and embraced with reverence! How holy and secure this knighthood and how entirely free of the double risk run by those men who fight not for Christ! Whenever you go forth, O worldly warrior, you must fear lest the bodily death of your foe should mean your own spiritual death, or lest perhaps your body and soul together should be slain by him.
Indeed, danger or victory for a Christian depends on the dispositions of his heart and not on the fortunes of war. If he fights for a good reason, the issue of his fight can never be evil; and likewise the results can never be considered good if the reason were evil and the intentions perverse. If you happen to be killed while you are seeking only to kill another, you die a murderer. If you succeed, and by your will to overcome and to conquer you perchance kill a man, you live a murderer. Now it will not do to be a murderer, living or dead, victorious or vanquished. What an unhappy victory--to have conquered a man while yielding to vice, and to indulge in an empty glory at his fall when wrath and pride have gotten the better of you!
But what of those who kill neither in the heat of revenge nor in the swelling of pride, but simply in order to save themselves? Even this sort of victory I would not call good, since bodily death is really a lesser evil than spiritual death. The soul need not die when the body does. No, it is the soul which sins that shall die.
The knight of Christ, I say, may strike with confidence and die yet more confidently, for he serves Christ when he strikes, and serves himself when he falls. Neither does he bear the sword in vain, for he is God's minister, for the punishment of evildoers and for the praise of the good. If he kills an evildoer, he is not a mankiller, but, if I may so put it, a killer of evil. He is evidently the avenger of Christ towards evildoers and he is rightly considered a defender of Christians. Should he be killed himself, we know that he has not perished, but has come safely into port.
Once he finds himself in the thick of battle, this knight sets aside his previous gentleness, as if to say, "Do I not hate those who hate you, O Lord; am I not disgusted with your enemies?" These men at once fall violently upon the foe, regarding them as so many sheep. No matter how outnumbered they are, they never regard these as fierce barbarians or as awe-inspiring hordes. Nor do they presume on their own strength, but trust in the Lord of armies to grant them the victory.
.
.
Saint Athanasius
"May God console you! ... What saddens you ... is the fact that others have occupied the churches by violence, while during this time you are on the outside. It is a fact that they have the premises – but you have the Apostolic Faith. They can occupy our churches, but they are outside the true Faith. You remain outside the places of worship, but the Faith dwells within you. Let us consider: what is more important, the place or the Faith?The true Faith, obviously. Who has lost and who has won in the struggle – the one who keeps the premises or the one who keeps the Faith? True, the premises are good when the Apostolic Faith is preached there; they are holy if everything takes place there in a holy way ..."You are the ones who are happy; you who remain within the Church by your Faith, who hold firmly to the foundations of the Faith which has come down to you from Apostolic Tradition. And if an execrable jealousy has tried to shake it on a number of occasions, it has not succeeded. They are the ones who have broken away from it in the present crisis. No one, ever, will prevail against your Faith, beloved Brothers. And we believe that God will give us our churches back some day. "Thus, the more violently they try to occupy the places of worship, the more they separate themselves from the Church. They claim that they represent the Church; but in reality, they are the ones who are expelling themselves from it and going astray. Even if Catholics faithful to Tradition are reduced to a handful, they are the ones who are the true Church of Jesus Christ." |
/*
* SonarQube JavaScript Plugin
* Copyright (C) 2011-2020 SonarSource SA
* mailto:info AT sonarsource DOT com
*
* This program is free software; you can redistribute it and/or
* modify it under the terms of the GNU Lesser General Public
* License as published by the Free Software Foundation; either
* version 3 of the License, or (at your option) any later version.
*
* This program is distributed in the hope that it will be useful,
* but WITHOUT ANY WARRANTY; without even the implied warranty of
* MERCHANTABILITY or FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE. See the GNU
* Lesser General Public License for more details.
*
* You should have received a copy of the GNU Lesser General Public License
* along with this program; if not, write to the Free Software Foundation,
* Inc., 51 Franklin Street, Fifth Floor, Boston, MA 02110-1301, USA.
*/
package org.sonar.javascript.se.points;
import java.util.Optional;
import org.sonar.javascript.se.Constraint;
import org.sonar.javascript.se.ExpressionStack;
import org.sonar.javascript.se.ProgramState;
import org.sonar.javascript.se.sv.SymbolicValue;
public abstract class BinaryProgramPoint implements ProgramPoint {
private Constraint firstOperandConstraint;
private Constraint secondOperandConstraint;
@Override
public final Optional<ProgramState> execute(ProgramState state) {
return Optional.of(transformState(state));
}
private ProgramState transformState(ProgramState state) {
ExpressionStack stack = state.getStack();
ExpressionStack stackAfterExecution = stack.apply(newStack -> {
final SymbolicValue secondOperandValue = newStack.pop();
this.secondOperandConstraint = state.getConstraint(secondOperandValue);
final SymbolicValue firstOperandValue = newStack.pop();
this.firstOperandConstraint = state.getConstraint(firstOperandValue);
newStack.push(resolveValue(firstOperandConstraint, secondOperandConstraint, firstOperandValue, secondOperandValue));
});
return state.withStack(stackAfterExecution);
}
public Constraint resultingConstraint(ProgramState currentState) {
ProgramState newPS = this.transformState(currentState);
return newPS.getConstraint(newPS.peekStack());
}
// This method signature should be simplified: either we keep operand constraints or values.
// In order to make this decision, we should carefully consider design on symbolic execution.
// In particular define the responsibilities of "ProgramPoint", "SymbolicValue" and "ProgramPointExecution" (doesn't exist yet).
protected abstract SymbolicValue resolveValue(Constraint firstOperandConstraint, Constraint secondOperandConstraint, @Deprecated SymbolicValue firstOperandValue,
@Deprecated SymbolicValue secondOperandValue);
/**
* NOTE This method should be called only after {@link BinaryProgramPoint#resultingConstraint(ProgramState)} or {@link BinaryProgramPoint#execute(ProgramState)}
*/
public Constraint firstOperandConstraint() {
return firstOperandConstraint;
}
/**
* NOTE This method should be called only after {@link BinaryProgramPoint#resultingConstraint(ProgramState)} or {@link BinaryProgramPoint#execute(ProgramState)}
*/
public Constraint secondOperandConstraint() {
return secondOperandConstraint;
}
}
|
// Copyright 2020 Chaos Mesh Authors.
//
// Licensed under the Apache License, Version 2.0 (the "License");
// you may not use this file except in compliance with the License.
// You may obtain a copy of the License at
//
// http://www.apache.org/licenses/LICENSE-2.0
//
// Unless required by applicable law or agreed to in writing, software
// distributed under the License is distributed on an "AS IS" BASIS,
// See the License for the specific language governing permissions and
// limitations under the License.
package archive
import (
"context"
"fmt"
"net/http"
"time"
"github.com/gin-gonic/gin"
"github.com/jinzhu/gorm"
"github.com/chaos-mesh/chaos-mesh/api/v1alpha1"
"github.com/chaos-mesh/chaos-mesh/pkg/apiserver/utils"
"github.com/chaos-mesh/chaos-mesh/pkg/config"
"github.com/chaos-mesh/chaos-mesh/pkg/core"
"sigs.k8s.io/controller-runtime/pkg/client"
)
// Report defines the report of archive experiments.
type Report struct {
Meta *core.ArchiveExperimentMeta `json:"meta"`
Events []*core.Event `json:"events"`
TotalTime string `json:"total_time"`
TotalFaultTime string `json:"total_fault_time"`
}
// Service defines a handler service for archive experiments.
type Service struct {
conf *config.ChaosDashboardConfig
kubeCli client.Client
archive core.ExperimentStore
event core.EventStore
}
// NewService returns an archive experiment service instance.
func NewService(
conf *config.ChaosDashboardConfig,
cli client.Client,
archive core.ExperimentStore,
event core.EventStore,
) *Service {
return &Service{
conf: conf,
kubeCli: cli,
archive: archive,
event: event,
}
}
// Register mounts our HTTP handler on the mux.
func Register(r *gin.RouterGroup, s *Service) {
endpoint := r.Group("/archives")
// TODO: add more api handlers
endpoint.GET("", s.listExperiments)
endpoint.GET("/detail/search", s.experimentDetailSearch)
endpoint.GET("/detail", s.experimentDetail)
endpoint.GET("/report", s.experimentReport)
}
// ArchiveExperimentDetail represents an experiment instance.
type ArchiveExperimentDetail struct {
core.ArchiveExperimentMeta
ExperimentInfo core.ExperimentInfo `json:"experiment_info"`
}
// @Summary Get archived chaos experiments.
// @Description Get archived chaos experiments.
// @Tags archives
// @Produce json
// @Param namespace query string false "namespace"
// @Param name query string false "name"
// @Param kind query string false "kind" Enums(PodChaos, IoChaos, NetworkChaos, TimeChaos, KernelChaos, StressChaos)
// @Success 200 {array} core.ArchiveExperimentMeta
// @Router /archives [get]
// @Failure 500 {object} utils.APIError
func (s *Service) listExperiments(c *gin.Context) {
kind := c.Query("kind")
name := c.Query("name")
ns := c.Query("namespace")
data, err := s.archive.ListMeta(context.TODO(), kind, ns, name)
if err != nil {
c.Status(http.StatusInternalServerError)
_ = c.Error(utils.ErrInternalServer.NewWithNoMessage())
return
}
c.JSON(http.StatusOK, data)
}
// @Summary Get the details of chaos experiment.
// @Description Get the details of chaos experiment.
// @Tags archives
// @Produce json
// @Param namespace query string false "namespace"
// @Param name query string false "name"
// @Param kind query string false "kind" Enums(PodChaos, IoChaos, NetworkChaos, TimeChaos, KernelChaos, StressChaos)
// @Param uid query string false "uid"
// @Success 200 {array} ArchiveExperimentDetail
// @Router /archives/detail/search [get]
// @Failure 500 {object} utils.APIError
func (s *Service) experimentDetailSearch(c *gin.Context) {
var (
err error
info core.ExperimentInfo
expDetailList []ArchiveExperimentDetail
)
kind := c.Query("kind")
name := c.Query("name")
ns := c.Query("namespace")
uid := c.Query("uid")
datalist, err := s.archive.DetailList(context.TODO(), kind, ns, name, uid)
if err != nil {
if !gorm.IsRecordNotFoundError(err) {
c.Status(http.StatusInternalServerError)
_ = c.Error(utils.ErrInternalServer.NewWithNoMessage())
} else {
c.Status(http.StatusInternalServerError)
_ = c.Error(utils.ErrInvalidRequest.New("the archive is not found"))
}
return
}
for _, data := range datalist {
switch data.Kind {
case v1alpha1.KindPodChaos:
info, err = data.ParsePodChaos()
case v1alpha1.KindIOChaos:
info, err = data.ParseIOChaos()
case v1alpha1.KindNetworkChaos:
info, err = data.ParseNetworkChaos()
case v1alpha1.KindTimeChaos:
info, err = data.ParseTimeChaos()
case v1alpha1.KindKernelChaos:
info, err = data.ParseKernelChaos()
case v1alpha1.KindStressChaos:
info, err = data.ParseStressChaos()
default:
err = fmt.Errorf("kind %s is not support", data.Kind)
}
if err != nil {
c.Status(http.StatusInternalServerError)
_ = c.Error(utils.ErrInternalServer.WrapWithNoMessage(err))
return
}
expDetailList = append(expDetailList, ArchiveExperimentDetail{
ArchiveExperimentMeta: core.ArchiveExperimentMeta{
ID: data.ID,
CreatedAt: data.CreatedAt,
UpdatedAt: data.UpdatedAt,
DeletedAt: data.DeletedAt,
Name: data.Name,
Namespace: data.Namespace,
Kind: data.Kind,
Action: data.Action,
UID: data.UID,
StartTime: data.StartTime,
FinishTime: data.FinishTime,
Archived: data.Archived,
},
ExperimentInfo: info,
})
}
c.JSON(http.StatusOK, expDetailList)
}
// @Summary Get the details of chaos experiment.
// @Description Get the details of chaos experiment.
// @Tags archives
// @Produce json
// @Param uid query string true "uid"
// @Success 200 {object} ArchiveExperimentDetail
// @Router /archives/detail [get]
// @Failure 500 {object} utils.APIError
func (s *Service) experimentDetail(c *gin.Context) {
var (
err error
info core.ExperimentInfo
expDetail ArchiveExperimentDetail
)
uid := c.Query("uid")
if uid == "" {
c.Status(http.StatusBadRequest)
_ = c.Error(utils.ErrInvalidRequest.New("uid cannot be empty"))
return
}
data, err := s.archive.FindByUID(context.TODO(), uid)
if err != nil {
if !gorm.IsRecordNotFoundError(err) {
c.Status(http.StatusInternalServerError)
_ = c.Error(utils.ErrInternalServer.NewWithNoMessage())
} else {
c.Status(http.StatusInternalServerError)
_ = c.Error(utils.ErrInvalidRequest.New("the archive is not found"))
}
return
}
switch data.Kind {
case v1alpha1.KindPodChaos:
info, err = data.ParsePodChaos()
case v1alpha1.KindIOChaos:
info, err = data.ParseIOChaos()
case v1alpha1.KindNetworkChaos:
info, err = data.ParseNetworkChaos()
case v1alpha1.KindTimeChaos:
info, err = data.ParseTimeChaos()
case v1alpha1.KindKernelChaos:
info, err = data.ParseKernelChaos()
case v1alpha1.KindStressChaos:
info, err = data.ParseStressChaos()
default:
err = fmt.Errorf("kind %s is not support", data.Kind)
}
if err != nil {
c.Status(http.StatusInternalServerError)
_ = c.Error(utils.ErrInternalServer.WrapWithNoMessage(err))
return
}
expDetail = ArchiveExperimentDetail{
ArchiveExperimentMeta: core.ArchiveExperimentMeta{
ID: data.ID,
CreatedAt: data.CreatedAt,
UpdatedAt: data.UpdatedAt,
DeletedAt: data.DeletedAt,
Name: data.Name,
Namespace: data.Namespace,
Kind: data.Kind,
Action: data.Action,
UID: data.UID,
StartTime: data.StartTime,
FinishTime: data.FinishTime,
Archived: data.Archived,
},
ExperimentInfo: info,
}
c.JSON(http.StatusOK, expDetail)
}
// @Summary Get the report of chaos experiment.
// @Description Get the report of chaos experiment.
// @Tags archives
// @Produce json
// @Param uid query string true "uid"
// @Success 200 {array} Report
// @Router /archives/report [get]
// @Failure 500 {object} utils.APIError
func (s *Service) experimentReport(c *gin.Context) {
var (
report Report
err error
timeNow time.Time
timeAfter time.Time
)
uid := c.Query("uid")
if uid == "" {
c.Status(http.StatusBadRequest)
_ = c.Error(utils.ErrInvalidRequest.New("uid cannot be empty"))
return
}
report.Meta, err = s.archive.FindMetaByUID(context.TODO(), uid)
if err != nil {
if !gorm.IsRecordNotFoundError(err) {
c.Status(http.StatusInternalServerError)
_ = c.Error(utils.ErrInternalServer.NewWithNoMessage())
} else {
c.Status(http.StatusInternalServerError)
_ = c.Error(utils.ErrInvalidRequest.New("the archive is not found"))
}
return
}
report.TotalTime = report.Meta.FinishTime.Sub(report.Meta.StartTime).String()
report.Events, err = s.event.ListByUID(context.TODO(), uid)
if err != nil {
c.Status(http.StatusInternalServerError)
_ = c.Error(utils.ErrInternalServer.NewWithNoMessage())
return
}
timeNow = time.Now()
timeAfter = timeNow
for _, et := range report.Events {
timeAfter = timeAfter.Add(et.FinishTime.Sub(*et.StartTime))
}
report.TotalFaultTime = timeAfter.Sub(timeNow).String()
c.JSON(http.StatusOK, report)
}
|
David Goggins Workout Routine and Diet Plan [2020]
David Goggins Workout Routine and Diet Plan: David Goggins, an American athlete and motivational speaker who also has got the title of the world’s toughest man alive. As he’s the only person ever to complete the US navy seal, US army ranger school, and Air Control training. He is also the person who has completed over 60 marathons, triathlons, and ultra-triathlons.
David Goggins Workout Routine and Diet Plan
You may now see him on his YouTube channel showing his training and how he gives tips about fitness. Keeping that aside when you are a world toughest man alive means you need to train like one as well. So this is why today we will take a look at David Goggins workout and David Goggins’s diet plan.
David Goggins Workout Routine
Now David Goggins has been to navy seal training. So let me remind you currently that his workout is not going to be easy. David Goggins workout consists of exercise 6 days a week and rests for one day. His workout includes doing cardio, full-body workout training, and some strength training as well.
David Goggins Workout routine
David Goggins Workout Includes:
Running
When it comes to running, there isn’t any other thing that he will do. Running has always been part of David Goggins’s life, even when he was not a part of the navy seal.
He was obese before joining the navy seal, and that time also running helped him to get that fantastic body shape. David Goggins usually runs for 6 miles and then does some push-ups as an active rest. Then carry on with it for 4 to 5 more times. So his running workout will look something like this.
6 miles run
50 push-ups
Repeat 4 more times
David Goggins Running
David Goggins Full-Body Workout
David Goggins, most of the time, does his full-body workout at home or hotel room only as he is always on the road going from places to places. When he needs to travel so much to keep himself fit, he still does this workout. The David Goggins workout routine goes on for 45 minutes to an hour.
Strength Training
The strength training is also an essential part of David Goggins workout training as it helps him to condition his body and make it stronger. He does around an hour of strength training every day. In that, it’s mostly functional exercises, but he does have some bodybuilding exercises involved.
David Goggins Diet Plan
The diet plan of David Goggins is just like a Keto diet. He eats very less amount of carbs just like any other person on the keto diet will do, but David Goggins’s amount of protein is way more than an average keto diet person.
David Goggins Diet Plan
David Goggins eats his food before 6:30 pm. All meals are done before that time only. He also drinks a lot of water throughout the whole day to keep himself hydrated. |
////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////
//
// Copyright 2016 Realm Inc.
//
// Licensed under the Apache License, Version 2.0 (the "License");
// you may not use this file except in compliance with the License.
// You may obtain a copy of the License at
//
// http://www.apache.org/licenses/LICENSE-2.0
//
// Unless required by applicable law or agreed to in writing, software
// distributed under the License is distributed on an "AS IS" BASIS,
// WITHOUT WARRANTIES OR CONDITIONS OF ANY KIND, either express or implied.
// See the License for the specific language governing permissions and
// limitations under the License.
//
////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////
#include "sync/sync_session.hpp"
#include "sync/impl/sync_client.hpp"
#include "sync/impl/sync_file.hpp"
#include "sync/impl/sync_metadata.hpp"
#include "sync/sync_manager.hpp"
#include "sync/sync_user.hpp"
#include <realm/sync/client.hpp>
#include <realm/sync/protocol.hpp>
using namespace realm;
using namespace realm::_impl;
using namespace realm::_impl::sync_session_states;
using SessionWaiterPointer = void(sync::Session::*)(std::function<void(std::error_code)>);
constexpr const char SyncError::c_original_file_path_key[];
constexpr const char SyncError::c_recovery_file_path_key[];
/// A state which a `SyncSession` can currently be within. State classes handle various actions
/// and state transitions.
///
/// STATES:
///
/// WAITING_FOR_ACCESS_TOKEN: upon entering this state, the binding is informed
/// that the session wants an access token. The session is now waiting for the
/// binding to provide the token.
/// From: INACTIVE
/// To:
/// * ACTIVE: when the binding successfully refreshes the token
/// * INACTIVE: if asked to log out, or if asked to close and the stop policy
/// is Immediate.
/// * ERROR: if a fatal error occurs
///
/// ACTIVE: the session is connected to the Realm Object Server and is actively
/// transferring data.
/// From: WAITING_FOR_ACCESS_TOKEN, DYING
/// To:
/// * WAITING_FOR_ACCESS_TOKEN: if the session is informed (through the error
/// handler) that the token expired
/// * INACTIVE: if asked to log out, or if asked to close and the stop policy
/// is Immediate.
/// * DYING: if asked to close and the stop policy is AfterChangesUploaded
/// * ERROR: if a fatal error occurs
///
/// DYING: the session is performing clean-up work in preparation to be destroyed.
/// From: ACTIVE
/// To:
/// * INACTIVE: when the clean-up work completes, if the session wasn't
/// revived, or if explicitly asked to log out before the
/// clean-up work begins
/// * ACTIVE: if the session is revived
/// * ERROR: if a fatal error occurs
///
/// INACTIVE: the user owning this session has logged out, the `sync::Session`
/// owned by this session is destroyed, and the session is quiescent.
/// Note that a session briefly enters this state before being destroyed, but
/// it can also enter this state and stay there if the user has been logged out.
/// From: initial, WAITING_FOR_ACCESS_TOKEN, ACTIVE, DYING
/// To:
/// * WAITING_FOR_ACCESS_TOKEN: if the session is revived
/// * ERROR: if a fatal error occurs
///
/// ERROR: a non-recoverable error has occurred, and this session is semantically
/// invalid. The binding must create a new session with a different configuration.
/// From: WAITING_FOR_ACCESS_TOKEN, ACTIVE, DYING, INACTIVE
/// To:
/// * (none, this is a terminal state)
///
struct SyncSession::State {
virtual ~State() { }
// Move the given session into this state. All state transitions MUST be carried out through this method.
virtual void enter_state(std::unique_lock<std::mutex>&, SyncSession&) const { }
virtual void refresh_access_token(std::unique_lock<std::mutex>&,
SyncSession&, std::string,
const util::Optional<std::string>&) const { }
virtual void bind_with_admin_token(std::unique_lock<std::mutex>&,
SyncSession&, const std::string&, const std::string&) const { }
// Returns true iff the lock is still locked when the method returns.
virtual bool access_token_expired(std::unique_lock<std::mutex>&, SyncSession&) const { return true; }
virtual void nonsync_transact_notify(std::unique_lock<std::mutex>&, SyncSession&, sync::Session::version_type) const { }
// Perform any work needed to reactivate a session that is not already active.
// Returns true iff the session should ask the binding to get a token for `bind()`.
virtual bool revive_if_needed(std::unique_lock<std::mutex>&, SyncSession&) const { return false; }
// Perform any work needed to respond to the application regaining network connectivity.
virtual void handle_reconnect(std::unique_lock<std::mutex>&, SyncSession&) const { };
// The user that owns this session has been logged out, and the session should take appropriate action.
virtual void log_out(std::unique_lock<std::mutex>&, SyncSession&) const { }
// The session should be closed and moved to `inactive`, in accordance with its stop policy and other state.
virtual void close(std::unique_lock<std::mutex>&, SyncSession&) const { }
// Returns true iff the error has been fully handled and the error handler should immediately return.
virtual bool handle_error(std::unique_lock<std::mutex>&, SyncSession&, const SyncError&) const { return false; }
// Register a handler to wait for sync session uploads, downloads, or synchronization.
// PRECONDITION: the session state lock must be held at the time this method is called, until after it returns.
// Returns true iff the handler was registered, either immediately or placed in a queue for later registration.
virtual bool wait_for_completion(SyncSession&,
std::function<void(std::error_code)>,
SessionWaiterPointer) const {
return false;
}
#if REALM_HAVE_SYNC_OVERRIDE_SERVER
virtual void override_server(std::unique_lock<std::mutex>&, SyncSession&, std::string, int) const { }
#endif
static const State& waiting_for_access_token;
static const State& active;
static const State& dying;
static const State& inactive;
static const State& error;
};
struct sync_session_states::WaitingForAccessToken : public SyncSession::State {
void enter_state(std::unique_lock<std::mutex>&, SyncSession& session) const override
{
session.m_deferred_close = false;
}
void refresh_access_token(std::unique_lock<std::mutex>& lock, SyncSession& session,
std::string access_token,
const util::Optional<std::string>& server_url) const override
{
REALM_ASSERT(session.m_session);
// Since the sync session was previously unbound, it's safe to do this from the
// calling thread.
if (!session.m_server_url) {
session.m_server_url = server_url;
}
if (session.m_session_has_been_bound) {
session.m_session->refresh(std::move(access_token));
session.m_session->cancel_reconnect_delay();
} else {
session.m_session->bind(*session.m_server_url, std::move(access_token));
session.m_session_has_been_bound = true;
}
#if REALM_HAVE_SYNC_OVERRIDE_SERVER
if (session.m_server_override)
session.m_session->override_server(session.m_server_override->address, session.m_server_override->port);
#endif
// Register all the pending wait-for-completion blocks.
for (auto& package : session.m_completion_wait_packages) {
(*session.m_session.*package.waiter)(std::move(package.callback));
}
session.m_completion_wait_packages.clear();
// Handle any deferred commit notification.
if (session.m_deferred_commit_notification) {
session.m_session->nonsync_transact_notify(*session.m_deferred_commit_notification);
session.m_deferred_commit_notification = util::none;
}
session.advance_state(lock, active);
if (session.m_deferred_close) {
session.m_state->close(lock, session);
}
}
void log_out(std::unique_lock<std::mutex>& lock, SyncSession& session) const override
{
session.advance_state(lock, inactive);
}
bool revive_if_needed(std::unique_lock<std::mutex>&, SyncSession& session) const override
{
session.m_deferred_close = false;
return false;
}
void handle_reconnect(std::unique_lock<std::mutex>& lock, SyncSession& session) const override
{
// Ask the binding to retry getting the token for this session.
std::shared_ptr<SyncSession> session_ptr = session.shared_from_this();
lock.unlock();
session.m_config.bind_session_handler(session_ptr->m_realm_path, session_ptr->m_config, session_ptr);
}
void nonsync_transact_notify(std::unique_lock<std::mutex>&,
SyncSession& session,
sync::Session::version_type version) const override
{
// Notify at first available opportunity.
session.m_deferred_commit_notification = version;
}
void close(std::unique_lock<std::mutex>& lock, SyncSession& session) const override
{
switch (session.m_config.stop_policy) {
case SyncSessionStopPolicy::Immediately:
// Immediately kill the session.
session.advance_state(lock, inactive);
break;
case SyncSessionStopPolicy::LiveIndefinitely:
case SyncSessionStopPolicy::AfterChangesUploaded:
// Defer handling closing the session until after the login response succeeds.
session.m_deferred_close = true;
break;
}
}
bool wait_for_completion(SyncSession& session,
std::function<void(std::error_code)> callback,
SessionWaiterPointer waiter) const override
{
session.m_completion_wait_packages.push_back({ waiter, std::move(callback) });
return true;
}
#if REALM_HAVE_SYNC_OVERRIDE_SERVER
void override_server(std::unique_lock<std::mutex>&, SyncSession& session,
std::string address, int port) const override
{
session.m_server_override = SyncSession::ServerOverride{address, port};
}
#endif
};
struct sync_session_states::Active : public SyncSession::State {
void refresh_access_token(std::unique_lock<std::mutex>&, SyncSession& session,
std::string access_token,
const util::Optional<std::string>&) const override
{
session.m_session->refresh(std::move(access_token));
// Cancel the session's reconnection delay. This is important if the
// token is being refreshed as a response to a 202 (token expired)
// error, or similar non-fatal sync errors.
session.m_session->cancel_reconnect_delay();
}
bool access_token_expired(std::unique_lock<std::mutex>& lock, SyncSession& session) const override
{
session.advance_state(lock, waiting_for_access_token);
std::shared_ptr<SyncSession> session_ptr = session.shared_from_this();
lock.unlock();
session.m_config.bind_session_handler(session_ptr->m_realm_path, session_ptr->m_config, session_ptr);
return false;
}
void log_out(std::unique_lock<std::mutex>& lock, SyncSession& session) const override
{
session.advance_state(lock, inactive);
}
void nonsync_transact_notify(std::unique_lock<std::mutex>&, SyncSession& session,
sync::Session::version_type version) const override
{
// Fully ready sync session, notify immediately.
session.m_session->nonsync_transact_notify(version);
}
void close(std::unique_lock<std::mutex>& lock, SyncSession& session) const override
{
switch (session.m_config.stop_policy) {
case SyncSessionStopPolicy::Immediately:
session.advance_state(lock, inactive);
break;
case SyncSessionStopPolicy::LiveIndefinitely:
// Don't do anything; session lives forever.
break;
case SyncSessionStopPolicy::AfterChangesUploaded:
// Wait for all pending changes to upload.
session.advance_state(lock, dying);
break;
}
}
bool wait_for_completion(SyncSession& session,
std::function<void(std::error_code)> callback,
SessionWaiterPointer waiter) const override
{
REALM_ASSERT(session.m_session);
(*session.m_session.*waiter)(std::move(callback));
return true;
}
void handle_reconnect(std::unique_lock<std::mutex>&, SyncSession& session) const override
{
session.m_session->cancel_reconnect_delay();
}
#if REALM_HAVE_SYNC_OVERRIDE_SERVER
void override_server(std::unique_lock<std::mutex>&, SyncSession& session,
std::string address, int port) const override
{
session.m_server_override = SyncSession::ServerOverride{address, port};
session.m_session->override_server(address, port);
}
#endif
};
struct sync_session_states::Dying : public SyncSession::State {
void enter_state(std::unique_lock<std::mutex>&, SyncSession& session) const override
{
size_t current_death_count = ++session.m_death_count;
std::weak_ptr<SyncSession> weak_session = session.shared_from_this();
session.m_session->async_wait_for_upload_completion([weak_session, current_death_count](std::error_code) {
if (auto session = weak_session.lock()) {
std::unique_lock<std::mutex> lock(session->m_state_mutex);
if (session->m_state == &State::dying && session->m_death_count == current_death_count) {
session->advance_state(lock, inactive);
}
}
});
}
bool handle_error(std::unique_lock<std::mutex>& lock, SyncSession& session, const SyncError& error) const override
{
if (error.is_fatal) {
session.advance_state(lock, inactive);
}
// If the error isn't fatal, don't change state, but don't
// allow it to be reported either.
// FIXME: What if the token expires while a session is dying?
// Should we allow the token to be refreshed so that changes
// can finish being uploaded?
return true;
}
bool revive_if_needed(std::unique_lock<std::mutex>& lock, SyncSession& session) const override
{
// Revive.
session.advance_state(lock, active);
return false;
}
void log_out(std::unique_lock<std::mutex>& lock, SyncSession& session) const override
{
session.advance_state(lock, inactive);
}
bool wait_for_completion(SyncSession& session,
std::function<void(std::error_code)> callback,
SessionWaiterPointer waiter) const override
{
REALM_ASSERT(session.m_session);
(*session.m_session.*waiter)(std::move(callback));
return true;
}
#if REALM_HAVE_SYNC_OVERRIDE_SERVER
void override_server(std::unique_lock<std::mutex>&, SyncSession& session,
std::string address, int port) const override
{
session.m_server_override = SyncSession::ServerOverride{address, port};
session.m_session->override_server(address, port);
}
#endif
};
struct sync_session_states::Inactive : public SyncSession::State {
void enter_state(std::unique_lock<std::mutex>& lock, SyncSession& session) const override
{
// Inform any queued-up completion handlers that they were cancelled.
for (auto& package : session.m_completion_wait_packages) {
package.callback(util::error::operation_aborted);
}
session.m_completion_wait_packages.clear();
session.m_session = nullptr;
session.unregister(lock);
}
void bind_with_admin_token(std::unique_lock<std::mutex>& lock, SyncSession& session,
const std::string& admin_token,
const std::string& server_url) const override
{
session.create_sync_session();
session.advance_state(lock, waiting_for_access_token);
session.m_state->refresh_access_token(lock, session, admin_token, server_url);
}
bool revive_if_needed(std::unique_lock<std::mutex>& lock, SyncSession& session) const override
{
// Revive.
session.create_sync_session();
session.advance_state(lock, waiting_for_access_token);
return true;
}
bool wait_for_completion(SyncSession& session,
std::function<void(std::error_code)> callback,
SessionWaiterPointer waiter) const override
{
session.m_completion_wait_packages.push_back({ waiter, std::move(callback) });
return true;
}
#if REALM_HAVE_SYNC_OVERRIDE_SERVER
void override_server(std::unique_lock<std::mutex>&, SyncSession& session,
std::string address, int port) const override
{
session.m_server_override = SyncSession::ServerOverride{address, port};
}
#endif
};
struct sync_session_states::Error : public SyncSession::State {
void enter_state(std::unique_lock<std::mutex>&, SyncSession& session) const override
{
// Inform any queued-up completion handlers that they were cancelled.
for (auto& package : session.m_completion_wait_packages) {
package.callback(util::error::operation_aborted);
}
session.m_completion_wait_packages.clear();
session.m_session = nullptr;
session.m_config = { nullptr, "", SyncSessionStopPolicy::Immediately, nullptr };
}
// Everything else is a no-op when in the error state.
};
const SyncSession::State& SyncSession::State::waiting_for_access_token = WaitingForAccessToken();
const SyncSession::State& SyncSession::State::active = Active();
const SyncSession::State& SyncSession::State::dying = Dying();
const SyncSession::State& SyncSession::State::inactive = Inactive();
const SyncSession::State& SyncSession::State::error = Error();
SyncSession::SyncSession(SyncClient& client, std::string realm_path, SyncConfig config)
: m_state(&State::inactive)
, m_config(std::move(config))
, m_realm_path(std::move(realm_path))
, m_client(client)
{
#if REALM_HAVE_SYNC_STABLE_IDS
// Sync history validation ensures that the history within the Realm file is in a format that can be used
// by the version of realm-sync that we're using. Validation is enabled by default when the binding manually
// opens a sync session (via `SyncManager::get_session`), but is disabled when the sync session is opened
// as a side effect of opening a `Realm`. In that case, the sync history has already been validated by the
// act of opening the `Realm` so it's not necessary to repeat it here.
if (m_config.validate_sync_history) {
Realm::Config realm_config;
realm_config.path = m_realm_path;
realm_config.schema_mode = SchemaMode::Additive;
realm_config.force_sync_history = true;
realm_config.cache = false;
if (m_config.realm_encryption_key) {
realm_config.encryption_key.resize(64);
std::copy(m_config.realm_encryption_key->begin(), m_config.realm_encryption_key->end(),
realm_config.encryption_key.begin());
}
// FIXME: Opening a Realm only to discard it is relatively expensive. It may be preferable to have
// realm-sync open the Realm when the `sync::Session` is created since it can continue to use it.
Realm::get_shared_realm(realm_config); // Throws
}
#endif // REALM_HAVE_SYNC_STABLE_IDS
}
std::string SyncSession::get_recovery_file_path()
{
return util::reserve_unique_file_name(SyncManager::shared().recovery_directory_path(),
util::create_timestamped_template("recovered_realm"));
}
void SyncSession::update_error_and_mark_file_for_deletion(SyncError& error, ShouldBackup should_backup)
{
// Add a SyncFileActionMetadata marking the Realm as needing to be deleted.
std::string recovery_path;
auto original_path = path();
error.user_info[SyncError::c_original_file_path_key] = original_path;
if (should_backup == ShouldBackup::yes) {
recovery_path = get_recovery_file_path();
error.user_info[SyncError::c_recovery_file_path_key] = recovery_path;
}
using Action = SyncFileActionMetadata::Action;
auto action = should_backup == ShouldBackup::yes ? Action::BackUpThenDeleteRealm : Action::DeleteRealm;
SyncManager::shared().perform_metadata_update([this,
action,
original_path=std::move(original_path),
recovery_path=std::move(recovery_path)](const auto& manager) {
manager.make_file_action_metadata(original_path, m_config.realm_url(), m_config.user->identity(),
action, std::move(recovery_path));
});
}
// This method should only be called from within the error handler callback registered upon the underlying `m_session`.
void SyncSession::handle_error(SyncError error)
{
enum class NextStateAfterError { none, inactive, error };
auto next_state = error.is_fatal ? NextStateAfterError::error : NextStateAfterError::none;
auto error_code = error.error_code;
{
// See if the current state wishes to take responsibility for handling the error.
std::unique_lock<std::mutex> lock(m_state_mutex);
if (m_state->handle_error(lock, *this, error)) {
return;
}
}
if (error_code.category() == realm::sync::protocol_error_category()) {
using ProtocolError = realm::sync::ProtocolError;
switch (static_cast<ProtocolError>(error_code.value())) {
// Connection level errors
case ProtocolError::connection_closed:
case ProtocolError::other_error:
#if REALM_SYNC_VER_MAJOR == 1
case ProtocolError::pong_timeout:
#endif
// Not real errors, don't need to be reported to the binding.
return;
case ProtocolError::unknown_message:
case ProtocolError::bad_syntax:
case ProtocolError::limits_exceeded:
case ProtocolError::wrong_protocol_version:
case ProtocolError::bad_session_ident:
case ProtocolError::reuse_of_session_ident:
case ProtocolError::bound_in_other_session:
case ProtocolError::bad_message_order:
case ProtocolError::bad_client_version:
case ProtocolError::illegal_realm_path:
case ProtocolError::no_such_realm:
case ProtocolError::bad_changeset:
#if REALM_SYNC_VER_MAJOR > 1
case ProtocolError::bad_changeset_header_syntax:
case ProtocolError::bad_changeset_size:
case ProtocolError::bad_changesets:
case ProtocolError::bad_decompression:
case ProtocolError::partial_sync_disabled:
#else
case ProtocolError::malformed_http_request:
#endif
break;
// Session errors
case ProtocolError::session_closed:
case ProtocolError::other_session_error:
case ProtocolError::disabled_session:
// The binding doesn't need to be aware of these because they are strictly informational, and do not
// represent actual errors.
return;
case ProtocolError::token_expired: {
std::unique_lock<std::mutex> lock(m_state_mutex);
// This isn't an error from the binding's point of view. If we're connected we'll
// simply ask the binding to log in again.
m_state->access_token_expired(lock, *this);
return;
}
case ProtocolError::bad_authentication: {
std::shared_ptr<SyncUser> user_to_invalidate;
next_state = NextStateAfterError::none;
{
std::unique_lock<std::mutex> lock(m_state_mutex);
user_to_invalidate = user();
advance_state(lock, State::error);
}
if (user_to_invalidate)
user_to_invalidate->invalidate();
break;
}
case ProtocolError::permission_denied: {
next_state = NextStateAfterError::inactive;
update_error_and_mark_file_for_deletion(error, ShouldBackup::no);
break;
}
case ProtocolError::bad_server_file_ident:
case ProtocolError::bad_client_file_ident:
case ProtocolError::bad_server_version:
case ProtocolError::diverging_histories:
next_state = NextStateAfterError::inactive;
update_error_and_mark_file_for_deletion(error, ShouldBackup::yes);
break;
}
} else if (error_code.category() == realm::sync::client_error_category()) {
using ClientError = realm::sync::Client::Error;
switch (static_cast<ClientError>(error_code.value())) {
case ClientError::connection_closed:
#if REALM_SYNC_VER_MAJOR > 1
case ClientError::pong_timeout:
#endif
// Not real errors, don't need to be reported to the binding.
return;
case ClientError::unknown_message:
case ClientError::bad_syntax:
case ClientError::limits_exceeded:
case ClientError::bad_session_ident:
case ClientError::bad_message_order:
case ClientError::bad_file_ident_pair:
case ClientError::bad_progress:
case ClientError::bad_changeset_header_syntax:
case ClientError::bad_changeset_size:
case ClientError::bad_origin_file_ident:
case ClientError::bad_server_version:
case ClientError::bad_changeset:
case ClientError::bad_request_ident:
case ClientError::bad_error_code:
case ClientError::bad_compression:
case ClientError::bad_client_version:
case ClientError::ssl_server_cert_rejected:
// Don't do anything special for these errors.
// Future functionality may require special-case handling for existing
// errors, or newly introduced error codes.
break;
}
} else {
// Unrecognized error code; just ignore it.
return;
}
switch (next_state) {
case NextStateAfterError::none:
break;
case NextStateAfterError::inactive: {
std::unique_lock<std::mutex> lock(m_state_mutex);
advance_state(lock, State::inactive);
break;
}
case NextStateAfterError::error: {
std::unique_lock<std::mutex> lock(m_state_mutex);
advance_state(lock, State::error);
break;
}
}
if (m_error_handler) {
m_error_handler(shared_from_this(), std::move(error));
}
}
void SyncSession::handle_progress_update(uint64_t downloaded, uint64_t downloadable,
uint64_t uploaded, uint64_t uploadable, bool is_fresh)
{
std::vector<std::function<void()>> invocations;
{
std::lock_guard<std::mutex> lock(m_progress_notifier_mutex);
m_current_progress = Progress{uploadable, downloadable, uploaded, downloaded};
m_latest_progress_data_is_fresh = is_fresh;
for (auto it = m_notifiers.begin(); it != m_notifiers.end();) {
auto& package = it->second;
package.update(*m_current_progress, is_fresh);
bool should_delete = false;
invocations.emplace_back(package.create_invocation(*m_current_progress, should_delete));
it = (should_delete ? m_notifiers.erase(it) : std::next(it));
}
}
// Run the notifiers only after we've released the lock.
for (auto& invocation : invocations) {
invocation();
}
}
void SyncSession::NotifierPackage::update(const Progress& current_progress, bool data_is_fresh)
{
if (is_streaming || captured_transferrable || !data_is_fresh)
return;
captured_transferrable = direction == NotifierType::download ? current_progress.downloadable
: current_progress.uploadable;
}
// PRECONDITION: `update()` must first be called on the same package.
std::function<void()> SyncSession::NotifierPackage::create_invocation(const Progress& current_progress,
bool& is_expired) const
{
// It's possible for a non-streaming notifier to not yet have fresh transferrable bytes data.
// In that case, we don't call it at all.
// NOTE: `update()` is always called before `create_invocation()`, and will
// set `captured_transferrable` on the notifier package if fresh data has
// been received and the package is for a non-streaming notifier.
if (!is_streaming && !captured_transferrable)
return [](){ };
bool is_download = direction == NotifierType::download;
uint64_t transferred = is_download ? current_progress.downloaded : current_progress.uploaded;
uint64_t transferrable;
if (is_streaming) {
transferrable = is_download ? current_progress.downloadable : current_progress.uploadable;
} else {
transferrable = *captured_transferrable;
}
// A notifier is expired if at least as many bytes have been transferred
// as were originally considered transferrable.
is_expired = !is_streaming && transferred >= *captured_transferrable;
return [=, package=*this](){
package.notifier(transferred, transferrable);
};
}
void SyncSession::create_sync_session()
{
REALM_ASSERT(!m_session);
sync::Session::Config session_config;
session_config.changeset_cooker = m_config.transformer;
session_config.encryption_key = m_config.realm_encryption_key;
session_config.verify_servers_ssl_certificate = m_config.client_validate_ssl;
session_config.ssl_trust_certificate_path = m_config.ssl_trust_certificate_path;
session_config.ssl_verify_callback = m_config.ssl_verify_callback;
m_session = std::make_unique<sync::Session>(m_client.client, m_realm_path, session_config);
// The next time we get a token, call `bind()` instead of `refresh()`.
m_session_has_been_bound = false;
// Configure the error handler.
std::weak_ptr<SyncSession> weak_self = shared_from_this();
auto wrapped_handler = [this, weak_self](std::error_code error_code, bool is_fatal, std::string message) {
auto self = weak_self.lock();
if (!self) {
// An error was delivered after the session it relates to was destroyed. There's nothing useful
// we can do with it.
return;
}
handle_error(SyncError{error_code, std::move(message), is_fatal});
};
m_session->set_error_handler(std::move(wrapped_handler));
// Configure the sync transaction callback.
auto wrapped_callback = [this, weak_self](VersionID old_version, VersionID new_version) {
if (auto self = weak_self.lock()) {
if (m_sync_transact_callback) {
m_sync_transact_callback(old_version, new_version);
}
}
};
m_session->set_sync_transact_callback(std::move(wrapped_callback));
// Set up the wrapped progress handler callback
auto wrapped_progress_handler = [this, weak_self](uint_fast64_t downloaded, uint_fast64_t downloadable,
uint_fast64_t uploaded, uint_fast64_t uploadable,
bool is_fresh, uint_fast64_t /*snapshot_version*/) {
if (auto self = weak_self.lock()) {
handle_progress_update(downloaded, downloadable, uploaded, uploadable, is_fresh);
}
};
m_session->set_progress_handler(std::move(wrapped_progress_handler));
}
void SyncSession::set_sync_transact_callback(std::function<sync::Session::SyncTransactCallback> callback)
{
m_sync_transact_callback = std::move(callback);
}
void SyncSession::set_error_handler(std::function<SyncSessionErrorHandler> handler)
{
m_error_handler = std::move(handler);
}
void SyncSession::advance_state(std::unique_lock<std::mutex>& lock, const State& state)
{
REALM_ASSERT(lock.owns_lock());
REALM_ASSERT(&state != m_state);
m_state = &state;
m_state->enter_state(lock, *this);
}
void SyncSession::nonsync_transact_notify(sync::Session::version_type version)
{
std::unique_lock<std::mutex> lock(m_state_mutex);
m_state->nonsync_transact_notify(lock, *this, version);
}
void SyncSession::revive_if_needed()
{
util::Optional<std::function<SyncBindSessionHandler>&> handler;
{
std::unique_lock<std::mutex> lock(m_state_mutex);
if (m_state->revive_if_needed(lock, *this))
handler = m_config.bind_session_handler;
}
if (handler)
handler.value()(m_realm_path, m_config, shared_from_this());
}
void SyncSession::handle_reconnect()
{
std::unique_lock<std::mutex> lock(m_state_mutex);
m_state->handle_reconnect(lock, *this);
}
void SyncSession::log_out()
{
std::unique_lock<std::mutex> lock(m_state_mutex);
m_state->log_out(lock, *this);
}
void SyncSession::close()
{
std::unique_lock<std::mutex> lock(m_state_mutex);
m_state->close(lock, *this);
}
void SyncSession::unregister(std::unique_lock<std::mutex>& lock)
{
REALM_ASSERT(lock.owns_lock());
REALM_ASSERT(m_state == &State::inactive); // Must stop an active session before unregistering.
lock.unlock();
SyncManager::shared().unregister_session(m_realm_path);
}
bool SyncSession::wait_for_upload_completion(std::function<void(std::error_code)> callback)
{
std::unique_lock<std::mutex> lock(m_state_mutex);
return m_state->wait_for_completion(*this, std::move(callback), &sync::Session::async_wait_for_upload_completion);
}
bool SyncSession::wait_for_download_completion(std::function<void(std::error_code)> callback)
{
std::unique_lock<std::mutex> lock(m_state_mutex);
return m_state->wait_for_completion(*this, std::move(callback), &sync::Session::async_wait_for_download_completion);
}
uint64_t SyncSession::register_progress_notifier(std::function<SyncProgressNotifierCallback> notifier,
NotifierType direction, bool is_streaming)
{
std::function<void()> invocation;
uint64_t token_value = 0;
{
std::lock_guard<std::mutex> lock(m_progress_notifier_mutex);
token_value = m_progress_notifier_token++;
NotifierPackage package{std::move(notifier), is_streaming, direction};
if (!m_current_progress) {
// Simply register the package, since we have no data yet.
m_notifiers.emplace(token_value, std::move(package));
return token_value;
}
package.update(*m_current_progress, m_latest_progress_data_is_fresh);
bool skip_registration = false;
invocation = package.create_invocation(*m_current_progress, skip_registration);
if (skip_registration) {
token_value = 0;
} else {
m_notifiers.emplace(token_value, std::move(package));
}
}
invocation();
return token_value;
}
void SyncSession::unregister_progress_notifier(uint64_t token)
{
std::lock_guard<std::mutex> lock(m_progress_notifier_mutex);
m_notifiers.erase(token);
}
void SyncSession::refresh_access_token(std::string access_token, util::Optional<std::string> server_url)
{
std::unique_lock<std::mutex> lock(m_state_mutex);
if (!m_server_url && !server_url) {
// The first time this method is called, the server URL must be provided.
return;
}
m_state->refresh_access_token(lock, *this, std::move(access_token), server_url);
}
void SyncSession::bind_with_admin_token(std::string admin_token, std::string server_url)
{
std::unique_lock<std::mutex> lock(m_state_mutex);
m_state->bind_with_admin_token(lock, *this, admin_token, server_url);
}
#if REALM_HAVE_SYNC_OVERRIDE_SERVER
void SyncSession::override_server(std::string address, int port)
{
std::unique_lock<std::mutex> lock(m_state_mutex);
m_state->override_server(lock, *this, std::move(address), port);
}
#endif
SyncSession::PublicState SyncSession::state() const
{
std::unique_lock<std::mutex> lock(m_state_mutex);
if (m_state == &State::waiting_for_access_token) {
return PublicState::WaitingForAccessToken;
} else if (m_state == &State::active) {
return PublicState::Active;
} else if (m_state == &State::dying) {
return PublicState::Dying;
} else if (m_state == &State::inactive) {
return PublicState::Inactive;
} else if (m_state == &State::error) {
return PublicState::Error;
}
REALM_UNREACHABLE();
}
// Represents a reference to the SyncSession from outside of the sync subsystem.
// We attempt to keep the SyncSession in an active state as long as it has an external reference.
class SyncSession::ExternalReference {
public:
ExternalReference(std::shared_ptr<SyncSession> session) : m_session(std::move(session))
{}
~ExternalReference()
{
m_session->did_drop_external_reference();
}
private:
std::shared_ptr<SyncSession> m_session;
};
std::shared_ptr<SyncSession> SyncSession::external_reference()
{
std::unique_lock<std::mutex> lock(m_state_mutex);
if (auto external_reference = m_external_reference.lock())
return std::shared_ptr<SyncSession>(external_reference, this);
auto external_reference = std::make_shared<ExternalReference>(shared_from_this());
m_external_reference = external_reference;
return std::shared_ptr<SyncSession>(external_reference, this);
}
std::shared_ptr<SyncSession> SyncSession::existing_external_reference()
{
std::unique_lock<std::mutex> lock(m_state_mutex);
if (auto external_reference = m_external_reference.lock())
return std::shared_ptr<SyncSession>(external_reference, this);
return nullptr;
}
void SyncSession::did_drop_external_reference()
{
std::unique_lock<std::mutex> lock(m_state_mutex);
// If the session is being resurrected we should not close the session.
if (!m_external_reference.expired())
return;
m_state->close(lock, *this);
}
|
This is not a UNHCR publication. UNHCR is not responsible for, nor does it necessarily endorse, its content. Any views expressed are solely those of the author or publisher and do not necessarily reflect those of UNHCR, the United Nations or its Member States.
Status change explanation: Liberia improved from Not Free to Partly Free to reflect the passage of West Africa's first freedom of information law and a decrease in physical attacks on journalists.
The 1986 constitution guarantees citizens the right of free expression but makes them "fully responsible for the abuse thereof," a clause that has often led to complications in the application of the law. In 2010, Liberia enacted West Africa's first freedom of information law. After a lengthy period of public consultation, the law was passed unanimously by both houses of the Legislature in July and September, and signed by President Ellen Johnson-Sirleaf soon thereafter. Journalists had already been able to access government information with relative ease in Liberia, but the new measure marked the first time the right was enshrined in law. Both journalists and the general public now have the right to access any public document, with exemptions for those related to national security.
Libel is still a criminal offense in Liberia, though only two new cases appeared in court during 2010. In February, the former agriculture minister filed a US$2 million defamation suit against the newspaper FrontPage Africa over accusations linking him to a rubber-industry corruption scandal. The court had not yet heard the case at the end of the year. A series of libel cases stemming from the same scandal had been filed in 2009, primarily by Johnson-Sirleaf and her administration. Separately, in November 2010, the administration filed a US$5 million libel suit against the New Broom newspaper, which had accused the president of accepting bribes. Fines sought and imposed in civil cases are often astronomical, leading to severe financial difficulties for journalists and their outlets, and encouraging self-censorship in the media. In February 2010, a court ordered the New Democrat newspaper to pay US$900,000 in damages to the Consolidated Group in a civil defamation case. While the Press Union of Liberia (PUL) rated the New Democrat as the best newspaper in the country early in 2010, in August the union condemned the paper for unprofessional behavior after it published a nude photograph of supermodel Naomi Campbell during the trial of former president Charles Taylor, at which she testified.
Despite a notable number of death threats, the number of direct attacks against the press decreased in 2010. In 2009, there had been more attacks against the media than in other years since Johnson-Sirleaf's election in 2005, including police-led assaults and unlawful detentions. The incidents reported in 2010 were mostly directed at the New Democrat, including the harassment of a staff photographer who was covering the libel trial of his colleagues, and the repeated hacking of the paper's website, where the perpetrators posted threats. In April, the mayor of Monrovia ordered police to detain a reporter from the private radio station Love FM, but he was promptly released after the PUL complained to the Ministry of Information. Separately, a number of incidents suggested government intolerance of dissenting opinions. Most egregiously, four news editors with the state-run Liberia Broadcasting System were demoted to senior reporters after they proposed covering an opposition press conference.
The media sector includes both state-owned and private outlets. Although a dozen newspapers publish regularly, distribution is limited to the capital and literacy rates remain low, meaning most Liberians rely on radio broadcasts for news. There were 15 independent radio stations in Monrovia and 24 community radio stations outside the capital, as well as three television stations. There were no cases in 2010 of the government or other parties attempting to influence editorial content through the withholding of advertising. However, reporters commonly accept payment from individuals covered in their stories, and the placement of a story in a paper or radio show can often be bought and influenced by outside interests. Most media outlets are not self-sustaining and rely heavily on financial support from politicians or international donors. According to the Liberia Media Center, most newspapers are owned and operated by journalists, who are rarely trained in managing a business. Journalism training is also limited, with the Center for Media Studies and Peace-Building providing one of the only venues for training in journalism ethics.
Access to foreign broadcasts and the internet is not restricted by the government, though internet usage is limited to approximately 0.07 percent of the population due to cost, literacy, and infrastructural barriers. |
Reducing whole-body vibration of vehicle drivers with a new sitting concept.
A new car seat design, which allows the back part of the seat (BPS) to lower down while a protruded cushion supports the lumbar spine, was quantitatively tested to determine its effectiveness in reducing whole-body vibration (WBV) in automobile drivers. Results on 12 drivers show that, by reducing contact between the seat and the ischial tuberosities (TTs), the new seating design reduced both contact pressure and amplitude of harmful vibrations transmitted through the body. Significant reduction of WBV, in terms of RMS and VDV, was found as large as 30% by this seating design (P < 0.05), especially at lumbar spine region. This reduction in WBV allows more sustained driving than permitted by conventional seating devices, by around 2 hours daily, before reaching harmful WBV levels. The new seating design also promotes improved posture by restoring normal spinal curvature. Such seating devices, implemented in cars, buses, large trucks, and other high-vibration vehicles, may effectively reduce the risk of musculoskeletal disorders among long term drivers. |
Summary: When Spock and Saavik have a child who babysits? Perrin, of course. Hurray for Grandmas!
Disclaimer: Star Trek is copyrighted by Paramount/Viacom. I do not own any of their characters.
Archive: Fine, but let me know where.
-------------------------------------------------
The evening breeze was cool and they simultaneously pulled their cloaks closer as they walked together towards home. The colloquium at the Science Academy had been thought provoking and they talked the entire way home until they reached the gate of the townhouse in ShiKahr. Spock pressed his hand to the lock and it swung open silently. Saavik headed for the door, but Spock pulled her back.
"We could stay here for a while," he suggested.
"Yes, but...."
"Perrin is fine with her. She is probably asleep."
"What if she missed us? Just let me look at her, then I will return."
Saavik turned back for the door just as it burst open. Perrin's face was frantic. "I can't find T'ai," she said. "I put her to bed about half an hour ago, but when I went back to check, she wasn't there."
Spock ran around the back of the townhouse saying, "I'll check the back garden."
"Where have you looked?" asked Saavik as she went in the door.
"The first thing I did was check the security system, but there have been no breaches. I checked the bedrooms, bathrooms, and the living area. I was just about to check the closets." Perrin paused. "Can you sense her?"
Saavik closed her eyes and cleared her mind. Since she had been pregnant with T'ai she had sensed her. With all Vulcan parents, there was a telepathic bond that allowed them to know whether their children were well or in danger, present or absent. Saavik spoke nervously, "The bond has changed, but she is my first child. I am not sure what this change means."
"Is she nearby?" prompted Perrin.
"I think she is here," answered Saavik.
Spock heard them as he entered from the back of the house, "I have felt the change too. We will keep searching. I will get the tricorder from the study."
Spock entered the dark study and reached into the desk drawer; then he felt it, a bright awareness there under his desk. "Come out," he commanded.
A small being emerged from under the desk. In the dark, she could not see the grim look on her Father's face.
"Peek-a-boo," she said innocently.
"What?"
"Peek-a-boo."
Spock knelt down and held T'ai by the shoulders. "Do that again," he asked.
The bond was dimmed and then came back as T'ai said again, "Peek-a-boo."
"Ahhh. Saavik come here," Spock called.
Saavik rushed into the study, relief forming on her face at the sight of the child.
"Again, T'ai-kam," requested her father.
T'ai demonstrated her new talent for her mother. "What is Peek-a-boo?" asked Saavik.
"Itís a game played by Terran parents with their children to teach object permanence. I used to play it with T'ai when she was just a few days old, until Spock informed me that Vulcan children have an inborn sense of permanence. So I stopped," said Perrin from the doorway.
"It seems that our little one has found a new way to play. She is perfecting her shielding abilities well. In one so young it usually implies a high psi-rating," said Spock, letting a hint of pride in his offspring show through and leaving himself open. |
INTRODUCTION {#SEC1}
============
Model organisms are necessary to advance our understanding of the molecular underpinnings of biomedical traits and evolutionary processes. *Caenorhabditis elegans* is a small, free-living nematode found throughout the world. This nematode has several advantages that contribute to its power as an animal model. *C. elegans* is easily maintained in laboratory environments, has a 3 to 4 day generation time and produces ∼300 offspring per generation ([@B1]). The facile genetics and large experimental toolkit have made this organism a highly productive model in addressing biological questions. Furthermore, *C. elegans* has a transparent body that enables direct observation of developmental and physiological processes ([@B2]) and strains can be frozen in liquid nitrogen indefinitely creating a long-term resource for stable genetic stocks. The species also has a small genome that is comprehensively annotated ([@B3]). These experimental advances have yielded significant accomplishments, including mapping the cellular lineage of all 959 somatic cells in the hermaphrodite ([@B4],[@B5]), a complete wiring diagram of the nervous system ([@B6]) and crucial insights into evolutionarily conserved RNA interference ([@B7]) and cell-signaling pathways ([@B8]).
Remarkably, the majority of discoveries facilitated by the study of *C. elegans* have come from the use of a single, laboratory-adapted strain from Bristol, England known as N2 ([@B9]). Because only one genetic background has been studied extensively, we have much more to learn by using the natural diversity present within this species ([@B10],[@B11]). To address this significant gap in our experimental toolkit, a large global population of wild strains has been collected by the *C. elegans* community and citizen scientists ([@B12],[@B13]). These strains serve as a reservoir of natural genetic variation that can be leveraged to understand the genetic drivers of evolutionary processes and the underlying causal variation for traits relevant to biomedicine using genome-wide association (GWA) mappings. These mappings correlate genotypic variation with phenotypic differences across a population to identify quantitative trait loci (QTL) ([@B14]).
Even though a few studies have shown the utility of GWA mappings to identify the genetic variation causing phenotypic differences across the *C. elegans* species ([@B12],[@B13],[@B15]--[@B17]), the technique has still not been widely adopted. One explanation for the lack of GWA studies in *C. elegans* is the diverse challenges associated with several necessary steps, each of which has corresponding difficulties. First, researchers require large collections of wild strains. To ensure the fidelity of these strains, care must be taken to avoid strain confusion ([@B18]). Second, researchers must genotype this large collection of wild strains to ascertain the genotypic variation for the population. The scale of this task is cost-prohibitive and organizationally difficult. Third, the large number of independent strains must be measured for a trait of interest. Finally, researchers must correlate genotypic variation with phenotypic differences using association mapping to identify QTL. This final task requires computational skills and knowledge of statistical genetics. Altogether, these tasks require considerable laboratory, bioinformatics, and statistical expertise often performed collaboratively.
One strategy used by several model organism communities to facilitate the study of natural variation is to develop centralized repositories of strains, genotype data, and analytical pipelines that perform GWA mappings, obviating the need for laboratories to develop all of these resources independently. For example, *Drosophila* strains can be obtained from the *Drosophila* Genetic Reference Panel, a collection of genotyped inbred lines from Raleigh, NC, USA ([@B19]). In turn, these lines can be measured for a trait of interest and submitted to a web portal that performs GWA mapping ([@B20]). Similar centralized repositories and association mapping portals exist for *Arabidopsis thaliana* ([@B21]--[@B23]), and *Mus musculus* ([@B24],[@B25]).
Here, we introduce the *C. elegans* Natural Diversity Resource (CeNDR), a comprehensive database and set of tools for examining natural variation in *C. elegans* wild strains and performing GWA mappings. CeNDR organizes metadata on natural strains, provides tools to disseminate these strains to the community, offers whole-genome sequence and variant data for each strain, and enables users to perform GWA mappings and analyze the results. CeNDR also builds upon the ideas of existing resources with an application programming interface (API). CeNDR is freely accessible without registration at <http://www.elegansvariation.org>. Software used to run CeNDR is open source and is available at <http://www.elegansvariation.org/Software>. Below, we describe how CeNDR is implemented, relevant applications, the optimized toolkit, and future plans.
IMPLEMENTATION {#SEC2}
==============
We have built CeNDR to facilitate the study of natural variation with three different areas of focus (Figure [1](#F1){ref-type="fig"}). First, CeNDR offers a platform for collecting, distributing and maintaining strains isolated from nature. Our laboratory amassed a large collection of wild strains from the *C. elegans* research community and has developed collection kits for isolating and processing additional strains. Following the receipt of new strains, a single hermaphrodite animal is propagated to ensure that the genotype is genetically distinct from a potentially heterogeneous wild population. We collect information on each strain such as its isolation location, date of collection, substrate where nematodes were found, elevation, etc. These data are integrated into the CeNDR database and can be browsed via a geographic interface on the website (Figure [2A](#F2){ref-type="fig"}). This dataset is also available for download or accessible through the API. After isolation and propagation of the strains, we split the population to freeze animals for long-term storage and to isolate DNA for whole-genome sequencing. This step ensures that the genotype information obtained from whole-genome sequencing can be connected directly back to a specific strain. Sample mix-ups and strain contamination ([@B9],[@B18]) are possible when managing many strains and samples. However, our ability to retain frozen stocks allows us to verify the genetic identity of strains should the need arise and improves the data fidelity for downstream GWA mappings.
{#F1}
{#F2}
Second, CeNDR offers whole-genome sequence and variant data of all archived wild isolates, along with metadata on gene conservation and functional studies. Most reproduction in *C. elegans* occurs through self-fertilization by hermaphrodites, resulting in the propagation of identical individuals near one another in nature. By contrast, distinct strains are sometimes found in the same isolation location. Therefore, we examine the concordance of genetic variation among strains and combine whole-genome sequence data for identical or nearly identical strains into isotypes, which represent genetically distinct genome-wide haplotypes from the same isolation location. The strain set for future GWA mapping experiments comprises a single representative strain from each isotype set. By combining sequence coverage of all strains within an isotype, we obtain high-coverage sequence data that are aligned and used to perform variant calling (see Software used for further details). All variant data are available through the API or can be downloaded in tab-delimited format or Variant Call Format files ([@B26]). Aligned sequence data is available in CRAM and BAM formats ([@B27],[@B28]). Additionally, we have developed a genome browser for querying and visualizing genetic variation across the *C. elegans* species (Figure [2B](#F2){ref-type="fig"}). The genome browser allows users to toggle different tracks that detail genomic information. Available tracks include genes, conservation scores across nematode species ([@B29]) (e.g. phyloP ([@B30]) and phastCons ([@B31])), single-nucleotide variants (SNV) identified within individual strains, and variant effects predicted with SnpEff ([@B32]).
Third, CeNDR combines whole-genome genotype data with measurements of quantitative traits to perform association mappings. The GWA mapping process is optimized for *C. elegans*, which has been used successfully in many applications ([@B12],[@B13],[@B16]). The GWA mapping portal is designed for non-experts and has several user-defined options along with drag-and-drop capabilities. Multiple traits can be submitted simultaneously and organized within a report, which can be kept private indefinitely, embargoed for one year, or made public. Public mapping reports that return significant QTL are added to an interactive graphic that shows all QTL identified to date (Figure [2C](#F2){ref-type="fig"}). CeNDR uses cloud-based virtual machines to perform GWA analyses. Results are stored in the CeNDR database, and the pipeline outputs a web-based report. Within these reports, we present users with figures, tables, interactive elements, and provide access to data in a tab-delimited format.
Additionally, we have incorporated several datasets from external sources designed to aid in comparative studies of genetic variation across diverse species and to facilitate the identification of candidate genes from GWA mappings. To query whether *C. elegans* natural variation affects genes conserved in other species, we integrated data from the Homologene database ([@B33]), associated human disease gene data listed in the Online Mendelian Inheritance in Man (OMIM) database ([@B34]), and a more nematode-focused collection of orthologs and paralogs available from WormBase ([@B29]). Once a QTL is identified, we created tools to browse the genes and potential functional connections underlying that genomic region. We integrated functional studies based on RNA interference (RNAi) screens and biochemical pathway predictions. Lastly, we developed features to enable CeNDR to interact with other services and allow access to the underlying databases through an API, which can be used to query, among other things, genetic variants, strain information, mapping report data, and *C. elegans* genes and homologs.
Software used {#SEC2-1}
-------------
CeNDR website: the CeNDR website was developed using Flask (version 0.11.1). It is hosted using Google App Engine. MySQL (version 5.6.26) is used to store strain, variant, homology, and mapping data.
Sequence Analysis: raw FASTQ sequence data has been deposited under NCBI Bioproject accession PRJNA318647. Sequences were aligned to the WS245 reference genome using BWA (version 0.7.8-r455) ([@B35]). Optical/PCR duplicates were marked using PICARD (version 1.111). We used bcftools (version 1.3) to perform SNV calling ([@B36]), and SnpEff (version 4.1g) ([@B32]) to predict functional effects. Data were processed using additional scripts available at <http://www.github.com/Andersenlab/vcf-kit>.
Association Mapping: association mapping is performed on cloud-based virtual machines. Statistical analysis is performed using R (version 3.2.3) ([@B37]). Association mapping is performed within R using rrBLUP (version 4.4) ([@B38]). Graphics are generated using ggplot2 (version 2.0.0) ([@B39]). The CeNDR website and mapping pipelines are open source and are available on GitHub.com. See [www.elegansvariation.org/software](http://www.elegansvariation.org/software) for details. We welcome community contributions.
Web-based visualization: the interactive genome browser is implemented using igv.js (version 1.0.0; [github.com/igvteam/igv.js](http://github.com/igvteam/igv.js)). d3.js (version 3; [d3js.org](http://d3js.org)), is used for certain interactive visualizations. Geographic visualizations are constructed using leaflet.js (version 0.7.7; [leafletjs.com](http://leafletjs.com)).
APPLICATIONS {#SEC3}
============
Strain distribution and procurement {#SEC3-1}
-----------------------------------
All wild *C. elegans* isolates in the CeNDR collection can be requested as individual strains or sets of strains. These sets are organized either into a small panel of 12 divergent strains to assess whether variation exists in a trait across the species or into several larger panels of 48 strains to measure quantitative traits for GWA mappings. Additionally, the data for each strain can be used to investigate ecological or environmental factors that influence *C. elegans*, including isolation location, substrate where the nematodes were found and the date of isolation. We also allow for anyone to submit *C. elegans* wild strains. Nematode collection kits are available from the Andersen research group and can be used to isolate new strains of *C. elegans*. As new strains are identified, they will be entered into CeNDR.
Functional studies of natural variation in *C. elegans* {#SEC3-2}
-------------------------------------------------------
Many *C. elegans* laboratories are interested in a single or small set of genes and the impacts of those genes on diverse traits. Traditional approaches used to study gene function involve the creation of loss-of-function alleles or overexpression of genes to assess phenotypic consequences. However, these methods may result in embryonic lethality or prohibit examination of more subtle aspects of gene function not observable under such extreme perturbations. For these reasons, we created tools to identify genetic variants and their predicted effects for any gene(s) of interest using a genome browser. In contrast to mutagenized strains, variants identified within wild isolates are less likely to be highly deleterious because those alleles would have been removed by natural selection if they negatively affect organismal fitness. Natural genetic variants can be integrated into a desirable genetic background, such as the laboratory-adapted strain N2 ([@B9]), using backcrossing or genome editing ([@B40]) to evaluate their effects on phenotype.
Comparative studies across *Caenorhabditis* nematodes and beyond {#SEC3-3}
----------------------------------------------------------------
To investigate evolutionary processes that have occurred over longer time scales, comparative studies are often performed among different species. These studies, from *Drosophila* ([@B41],[@B42]) to *Arabidopsis* ([@B43]), have taught us a great deal about the mechanisms of evolutionary change. Within the *Caenorhabditis* genus, comparisons of sex determination ([@B44]--[@B48]), mating behaviors ([@B49]) and gene expression regulation ([@B50]--[@B52]) are among many studies informing topics like the evolution of developmental mechanisms and behaviors. Within CeNDR, we built a homologous gene searching feature into the genome browser that can be used to identify *C. elegans* orthologs and examine genetic variation within these genes across nematodes and other species. Additionally, the genome browser includes tracks illustrating conservation using phyloP and phastCons scores across the *Caenorhabditis* genus and other nematode species. These tools allow investigators to rapidly assess whether a gene of interest has natural variation and whether that variation is in a gene region conserved across the genus. Additionally, we provide methods for researchers studying other organisms to identify homologs of their genes of interest in *C. elegans* and assess whether variation affects the functions of those genes. This tool gives non-*C. elegans* researchers an approach to test conserved gene functions in this highly tractable system.
Identifying genotype-phenotype correlations {#SEC3-4}
-------------------------------------------
A central goal of GWA mapping is the identification of candidate genes and genetic variants responsible for phenotypic differences across a population. We provide a GWA mapping pipeline optimized for *C. elegans* ([@B13]). This pipeline produces an easy to understand report with figures, tables, descriptions and data aimed at helping users to narrow the list of genes and variants underlying significant GWA signals. Figures include Manhattan plots (Figure [3A](#F3){ref-type="fig"}) that provide visualization of significance values for all markers used in the statistical test of association and plots depicting the difference in phenotype with respect to genotype at the most significant marker within a QTL confidence interval. Because *C. elegans* has linkage disequilibrium even among chromosomes ([@B53]--[@B55]), the correlation of genotype and phenotype identified on multiple chromosomes could be caused by a single region alone. Figures illustrating the linkage disequilibrium among the most significant markers from each associated region are provided to help users interpret mapping results (Figure [3B](#F3){ref-type="fig"}). Mapping reports also provide two interactive visualizations. The first is a map of the geographic distribution of the most significant marker with the QTL confidence interval (Figure [3C](#F3){ref-type="fig"}). The second interactive visualization allows users to examine Tajima\'s D in associated regions, which can be used to suggest whether the genotype-phenotype correlation is caused by processes under neutral, directional, or balancing selection ([@B56]). Evidence of selection at a particular locus can indicate that the QTL could have a fitness consequence in nature. Also, a list of genes within the QTL confidence interval and the predicted effects of variants within those genes are provided (Figure [3D](#F3){ref-type="fig"}). To integrate results obtained from the study of natural variation with the extensive knowledgebase developed from experiments using the laboratory strain, we added tools to connect identified genetic correlations to external data about gene function, including RNAi phenotypes. The genes within a QTL confidence interval can also be connected to human disease genes through the OMIM database. These diverse connections could provide additional insights into the function of a particular gene and how natural variation might affect conserved processes.
{#F3}
DISCUSSION {#SEC4}
==========
The current version of the *C. elegans* Natural Diversity Resource (CeNDR, version 1.0.0; August 2016) provides a comprehensive set of tools for examining natural variation in *C. elegans* and supports a diverse array of applications spanning studies of evolutionary processes to traits conserved with humans. History has shown that centralized resources provide numerous benefits to research communities to address important scientific questions ([@B23],[@B29],[@B33],[@B34],[@B57]). CeNDR offers reduced redundancy of data collection (e.g. whole-genome sequencing) along with consistent data collection and organization as a centralized resource. Additionally, the unification of strain management facilitates studies of natural variation across the wide *Caenorhabditis* community and beyond. Because CeNDR is built as open-source software, it benefits from additional oversight and contributions from an active research community.
CeNDR builds upon the ideas of existing platforms designed to aid studies of natural variation in several ways. First, we uniquely provide access to strains, whole-genome sequence and variant data, and a GWA mapping pipeline within a singular resource. Second, CeNDR is highly extensible by enabling access to strain, variant and mapping report data through an API. Finally, we have developed tools to apply natural variation data beyond *C. elegans*, including tools for comparative analysis of genetic variation among species.
Future directions {#SEC4-1}
-----------------
CeNDR will continue to grow in three important areas. First, we will incorporate more wild *C. elegans* strains, sequence their genomes and identify natural variants. Each year, we will release a new validated set of strains to increase the statistical power of GWA mappings. Second, we will integrate additional classes of natural variants beyond SNVs, including transposon insertion, insertion-deletion, copy-number and genomic rearrangement variants. These additional classes of variation will better inform predictions of functional effects and improve our mapping resolution. Third, we will release new visualization and interactive tools to mine variation, quantitative phenotypes and conservation within and beyond *Caenorhabditis*.
We would like to thank members of the Andersen laboratory for critical comments on this manuscript. We also thank the CeNDR scientific advisory panel: Marie-Anne Félix, Matthew Rockman, Ann Rougvie, and Paul Sternberg.
FUNDING {#SEC5}
=======
National Institutes of Health (NIH) \[R01GM107227\]; American Cancer Society Research Scholar Award (to E.C.A.); Amazon Web Services Research Grant (to E.C.A.); Weinberg College of Arts and Sciences starter innovation award (to E.C.A.); National Science Foundation Graduate Research Fellowship \[DGE-1324585 to D.E.C.\]; Northwestern University Start-up Funds (to E.C.A.). Funding for open access charge: NIH \[R01GM107227\].
*Conflict of interest statement*. None declared.
|
1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a waterproof connector used in an automobile or the like. More particularly, the present invention relates to a waterproof connector in which seal members are pressed and held between a cover and a connector housing.
The present application is based on Japanese Patent Application No. Hei. 10-254120, which is incorporated herein by reference.
2. Description of the Related Art
For example, Unexamined Japanese Utility Model Publication No. Hei. 4-81471 discloses the related waterproof connector used for an electrical connection within an engine room of a vehicle or the like which can be exposed to rain water.
As shown in FIG. 5, the waterproof connector 51 comprises a connector housing 52 which includes a terminal receiving chamber 53 for receiving a connection terminal 41, secured at its rear end to an end portion of a wire 40, and a wire support portion 54 extending rearwardly from the terminal receiving chamber 53.
The waterproof connector also comprises a cover 58, which covers the wire support portion 54, and is retained in a closed condition by retaining holes 56 and retaining projections 57 (which serve as cover retaining portions 55), a housing-side seal member 60, and a cover-side seal member 62, the two seal members 60 and 62 holding the wire 40 therebetween to achieve a waterproof effect.
More specifically, an upper surface of a front end of the cover 58 is connected to an upper surface of a rear end of the terminal receiving chamber 53 by a flexible hinge 59. The housing-side seal member 60 and the cover-side seal member 62 are made of an elastic material such as soft rubber, and a housing-side groove 61 and a cover-side groove 63 are formed respectively in the seal members 60 and 62 so that the wire 40 can be suitably held therebetween in a waterproof manner.
The cover-side seal member 62 has an L-shape, and covers an inner surface of the cover 58, and a cover-side slanting surface 66 is formed at a front end of this seal member 62. When the cover 58 covers the wire support portion 54, the cover-side slanting surface 66 is held against a housing-side slanting surface 67, formed at an upper portion of the rear end of the terminal receiving chamber 53, thereby achieving a waterproof effect.
A retaining groove 42 is formed in a lower side of the connection terminal 41, and a housing lance (not shown), formed on a bottom plate 64 of the connector housing 52, can be retainingly engaged in this retaining groove 42.
In the waterproof connector 51 of the above construction, when the connection terminal 41, secured to the end portion of the wire 40, is inserted into the terminal receiving chamber 53, the housing lance is retainingly engaged in the retaining groove 42, and also the lower surface of the wire 40 is supported by the housing-side groove portion 61 of the housing-side seal member 60. Then, when the hinge 59 is turned, so that the cover 58 is closed to cover the wire support portion 54, the retaining holes 56 are retainingly engaged with the retaining projections 57, respectively, and the cover-side groove portion 63 is pressed against the upper surface of the wire 40, and cooperates with the housing-side groove portion 61 to firmly hold the wire 40 therebetween.
In this condition, the lower end (edge) of the cover-side seal member 62 is pressed hard against the upper end (edge) of the housing-side seal member 60, and also the slanting surface 66 of the cover-side seal member 62 is pressed hard against the housing-side slanting surface 67. And besides, opposite side surfaces of the cover-side seal member 62 are held in contact with opposite inner side surfaces of the wire support portion 54, respectively, and therefore the intrusion of water into the wire support portion 54 and the terminal receiving chamber 53 is prevented.
In the above waterproof connector 51, however, the opposite side surfaces of the cover-side seal member 62, though held in contact respectively with the opposite inner side surfaces of the wire support portion 54, can not be pressed hard against these opposite inner side surfaces, respectively, and therefore a sufficient waterproof effect can not be achieved at the inner side surfaces of the wire support portion 54, which has resulted in a problem that water and others under high pressure intrude into the wire support portion.
In order to overcome the above problem, it is necessary to increase the area of contact between the side surface of the cover-side seal member 60 and the inner side surface of the wire support portion 54. However, this leads to possibilities that the shape of the cover-side seal member 62 is much deformed, and that a large force is required for closing the cover, so that the hinge 59 can be broken. |
Q:
how to create confusion matrix for classification in tensorflow
I have CNN model which has 4 output nodes, and I am trying to compute the confusion matrix so that i can know the individual class accuracy. I am able to compute the overall accuracy.
In the link here, Igor Valantic gave a function which can compute the confusion matrix variables.
it gives me an error at correct_prediction = tf.nn.in_top_k(logits, labels, 1, name="correct_answers") and the error is TypeError: DataType float32 for attr 'T' not in list of allowed values: int32, int64
I have tried typecasting logits to int32 inside function mentioned def evaluation(logits, labels), it gives another error at computing correct_prediction = ... as TypeError:Input 'predictions' of 'InTopK' Op has type int32 that does not match expected type of float32
how to calculate this confusion matrix ?
sess = tf.Session()
model = dimensions() # CNN input weights are calculated
data_train, data_test, label_train, label_test = load_data(files_test2,folder)
data_train, data_test, = reshapedata(data_train, data_test, model)
# input output placeholders
x = tf.placeholder(tf.float32, [model.BATCH_SIZE, model.input_width,model.input_height,model.input_depth]) # last column = 1
y_ = tf.placeholder(tf.float32, [model.BATCH_SIZE, model.No_Classes])
p_keep_conv = tf.placeholder("float")
#
y = mycnn(x,model, p_keep_conv)
# loss
cost = tf.reduce_mean(tf.nn.softmax_cross_entropy_with_logits(y, y_))
# train step
train_step = tf.train.AdamOptimizer(1e-3).minimize(cost)
correct_prediction = tf.equal(tf.argmax(y,1), tf.argmax(y_,1))
accuracy = tf.reduce_mean(tf.cast(correct_prediction, tf.float32))
true_positives, false_positives, true_negatives, false_negatives = evaluation(y,y_)
lossfun = np.zeros(STEPS)
sess.run(tf.global_variables_initializer())
for i in range(STEPS):
image_batch, label_batch = batchdata(data_train, label_train, model.BATCH_SIZE)
epoch_loss = 0
for j in range(model.BATCH_SIZE):
sess.run(train_step, feed_dict={x: image_batch, y_: label_batch, p_keep_conv:1.0})
c = sess.run( cost, feed_dict={x: image_batch, y_: label_batch, p_keep_conv: 1.0})
epoch_loss += c
lossfun[i] = epoch_loss
print('Epoch',i,'completed out of',STEPS,'loss:',epoch_loss )
TP,FP,TN,FN = sess.run([true_positives, false_positives, true_negatives, false_negatives], feed_dict={x: image_batch, y_: label_batch, p_keep_conv:1.0})
this is my code snippet
A:
You can simply use Tensorflow's confusion matrix. I assume y are your predictions, and you may or may not have num_classes (which is optional)
y_ = placeholder_for_labels # for eg: [1, 2, 4]
y = mycnn(...) # for eg: [2, 2, 4]
confusion = tf.confusion_matrix(labels=y_, predictions=y, num_classes=num_classes)
If you print(confusion), you get
[[0 0 0 0 0]
[0 0 1 0 0]
[0 0 1 0 0]
[0 0 0 0 0]
[0 0 0 0 1]]
If print(confusion) is not printing the confusion matrix, then use print(confusion.eval(session=sess)). Here sess is the name of your TensorFlow session.
A:
import tensorflow as tf
y = [1, 2, 4]
y_ = [2, 2, 4]
con = tf.confusion_matrix(labels=y_, predictions=y )
sess = tf.Session()
with sess.as_default():
print(sess.run(con))
The output is :
[[0 0 0 0 0]
[0 0 0 0 0]
[0 1 1 0 0]
[0 0 0 0 0]
[0 0 0 0 1]]
|
Q:
How do I parse JSON log file with jq?
I have two types of logs in a JSON log file and I want to parse and label each event with a tag using a jq filter. An example of each event below:
The goal is to label each event so that if message begins with a TR, .sourcetype=application_log, else if message begins with an IP, .sourcetype=access_log.
So far, I'm working with this: test.log jq -r '.[] | select(.log[12:14] == "TR") | .sourcetype = "application_log" | .sourcetype'
{
"log": "{\"message\":\"TR=failed to send order confirmation to \\\"someone@example.com\\\": rpc error: code = Unavailable desc = all SubConns are in TransientFailure, latest connection error: connection error: desc = \\\"transport: Error while dialing dial tcp 10.64.5.235:5000: i/o timeout\\\"\",\"severity\":\"warning\",\"timestamp\":\"2019-07-23T00:47:07.216693578Z\"}\n",
"stream": "stdout",
"time": "2019-07-23T00:47:07.222368843Z"
}
{
"log": "{\"message\":\"IP=failed to send order confirmation to \\\"someone@example.com\\\": rpc error: code = Unavailable desc = all SubConns are in TransientFailure, latest connection error: connection error: desc = \\\"transport: Error while dialing dial tcp 10.64.5.235:5000: i/o timeout\\\"\",\"severity\":\"warning\",\"timestamp\":\"2019-07-23T00:47:07.216693578Z\"}\n",
"stream": "stdout",
"time": "2019-07-23T00:47:07.222368843Z"
}
A:
If I understand the task correctly, a solution would be:
.log[12:14] as $code
| if ($code == "TR") then .sourcetype = "application_log"
elif ($code == "IP") then .sourcetype = "access_log"
else .
end
If you want the .log values as JSON objects so you can add the .sourcetype there, you would have to use fromjson on the original .log values, along the lines of:
.log |= fromjson
| .message[0:2] as $code
| if ($code == "TR") then .log.sourcetype = "application_log"
elif ($code == "IP") then .log.sourcetype = "access_log"
else .
end
| .log |= tostring . # is this line really needed?
|
509 F.3d 1344 (2007)
Patricia SPRINGER, Plaintiff-Appellant,
v.
CONVERGYS CUSTOMER MANAGEMENT GROUP INC., an Ohio corporation, Defendant-Appellee.
No. 06-14652.
United States Court of Appeals, Eleventh Circuit.
December 14, 2007.
*1345 Scott Thomas Fortune, Jax Beach, FL, for Springer.
Kristyne E. Kennedy, Randall Walker Lord, Jackson Lewis, LLP, Orlando, FL, for Defendant-Appellee.
Before EDMONDSON, Chief Judge, and CARNES and FAY, Circuit Judges.
PER CURIAM:
Patricia Springer ("Plaintiff") appeals the district court's grant of summary judgment in favor of Convergys Customer Management Group Inc. ("Convergys") in her employment discrimination claim alleging a racially discriminatory failure to promote under the Civil Rights Act of 1991, 42 U.S.C. § 1981. For the reasons explained below, we affirm the district court's grant of summary judgment.
I. BACKGROUND
Plaintiff, an African American woman, worked for Convergys and its predecessors from November 1983 until her termination seventeen years later in August 2001. During that time, Plaintiff worked in the Employee Care Organization within Convergys, holding various positions, including Account Representative, Team Manager, Instructor, Human Resources Staff Recruiter, and Operations Manager. *1346 As an Operations Manager, the position she held at the time of her termination, Plaintiff supervised team managers and several teams, totaling approximately fifty people.
Plaintiff consistently received satisfactory annual job evaluations. In fact, one of Plaintiff's supervisors testified that he was very satisfied with her performance and thought she had the potential to progress in the company and perform well in upper management positions. However, Plaintiff also demonstrated several performance deficiencies. In March 1999, Convergys placed Plaintiff on a developmental plan for the purpose of improving upon some of her professional weaknesses. A few of Plaintiff's subordinates had complained about the manner in which Plaintiff addressed them. Plaintiff later agreed to take some courses on proper management skills, but there is a dispute as to whether such courses were taken directly in response to the subordinates' complaints or merely to advance Plaintiff's career prospects.
Other employees of Convergys noted that Plaintiff had difficulty accepting feedback and demonstrated weak communication skills. A Director at Convergys, Patrice London, testified that based on her observations and interactions with the Plaintiff, she regularly exhibited grammatical and spelling mistakes in her work-related emails. In addition, the Plaintiff demonstrated attendance and punctuality problems. Plaintiff admitted being late or missing several scheduled meetings; however, it appears from the record that several other employees had been late or missed scheduled meetings without being disciplined.
In 2001, Convergys had an opening for the position of Senior Operations Manager. Plaintiff had applied for a similar opening in November 2000, but she did not receive the promotion. In 2001, there were four Operations Managers, including Plaintiff, eligible for the Senior Operations Manager promotion. The other three eligible Operations Managers included a Caucasian woman named Susan Johnson, an African American woman, and an African American man.
In March 2001, Convergys announced that Susan Johnson, Plaintiff's Caucasian co-worker, had received the promotion to Senior Operations Manager. Shortly thereafter, Plaintiff filed a complaint with the Human Resources Department stating that she was more qualified for the position than Susan Johnson and had been denied the promotion because of her race. Plaintiff further claimed not to have known of the position's availability prior to Susan Johnson receiving the promotion.
Although it was Convergys' corporate policy that all job positions be posted for a minimum of three days to allow all qualified candidates to apply and be considered for the positions, there is a dispute as to whether this particular position was ever announced or posted internally. Patrice London, the supervisor in charge of selecting the candidate for the promotion, and Susan Johnson contend that the opening for the position was announced at a team meeting. However, Plaintiff and her two African American colleagues insist that no announcement was ever made.
A human resources representative for Convergys initiated an investigation into Plaintiff's claims and concluded that racial discrimination was not a factor in the promotion of Susan Johnson. Convergys eventually terminated Plaintiff in August 2001, stating that they were forced by business necessity to eliminate an Operations Manager position. In response, Plaintiff filed a complaint in district court against Convergys alleging, inter alia, that Convergys discriminated against her based upon her race when it promoted *1347 Susan Johnson to Senior Operations Manager. Plaintiff claimed that she was more qualified than Susan Johnson and that the position was never posted, in violation of company policy. Convergys moved for summary judgment on all seven counts asserted in Plaintiff's complaint. The district court granted summary judgment in favor of Convergys on Count I alleging an unlawful failure to promote and Count II alleging disparate pay under 42 U.S.C. § 1981. Plaintiff voluntarily dismissed Counts V and VII alleging unlawful retaliation under state law and the Employee Retirement Income Security Act, respectively. A trial was held and a jury concluded that Plaintiff's remaining counts claiming retaliatory discharge under federal and state law were baseless. Thereafter, the district court entered a final judgment in favor of Convergys on all seven counts in the complaint. Plaintiff's appeal is limited to Count I alleging an unlawful failure to promote under 42 U.S.C. § 1981.
II. DISCUSSION
We review a district court's grant of summary judgment de novo, viewing the evidence in the light most favorable to the party opposing the motion. See Skrtich v. Thornton, 280 F.3d 1295, 1299 (11th Cir. 2002). Summary judgment should be granted only when "the pleadings, depositions, answers to interrogatories, and admissions on file, together with the affidavits, if any, show that there is no genuine issue as to any material fact and that the moving party is entitled to a judgment as a matter of law." Fed.R.Civ.P. 56(c).
In cases where direct evidence of employment discrimination is lacking, we analyze the claim under the McDonnell Douglas framework, which requires the plaintiff to create an inference of discrimination through her prima facie case.[1]McDonnell Douglas Corp. v. Green, 411 U.S. 792, 802, 93 S.Ct. 1817, 1824, 36 L.Ed.2d 668 (1973). Once the plaintiff has made out the elements of the prima facie case, the burden shifts to the employer to articulate a non-discriminatory basis for its employment action. Texas Dept. of Comty. Affairs v. Burdine, 450 U.S. 248, 253, 101 S.Ct. 1089, 1093, 67 L.Ed.2d 207 (1981). If the employer meets this burden, the plaintiff must show that the proffered reasons were pretextual. St. Mary's Honor Center v. Hicks, 509 U.S. 502, 511, 113 S.Ct. 2742, 2749, 125 L.Ed.2d 407 (1993). The ultimate burden of persuading the trier of fact that the defendant intentionally discriminated against the plaintiff remains at all times with the plaintiff. See Reeves v. Sanderson Plumbing Products, Inc., 530 U.S. 133, 146, 120 S.Ct. 2097, 2108, 147 L.Ed.2d 105 (2000); Burdine, 450 U.S. at 253, 101 S.Ct. 1089.
For the purposes of its Motion for Summary Judgment only, Convergys conceded that Plaintiff could establish a prima facie case of racial discrimination based upon a failure to promote.[2] Thus, the burden shifted to Convergys to articulate a legitimate, nondiscriminatory reason for promoting Susan Johnson rather than Plaintiff for the position of Senior Operations Manager. Convergys' articulated reason for promoting Susan Johnson *1348 was that she was the more qualified candidate. To support this assertion, Convergys provided substantial evidence that Susan Johnson's annual ratings were consistently higher than Plaintiff's. Convergys also pointed to Susan Johnson's significant experience relevant to the new position, including effective management of subordinates and prior experience with the specific client with whom the promoted person would be working.
It is undisputed that Susan Johnson was highly regarded by her co-workers. In fact, one of the African American Operations Managers eligible for the promotion commented that he believed Susan Johnson was more qualified than any other Operations Manager. Further, a former supervisor of Susan Johnson testified that she was a stellar performer that should have been promoted long before she was.[3]
Plaintiff argues that our holding in Joshi v. Florida State Univ. Health Ctr., 763 F.2d 1227 (11th Cir.1985), precludes Convergys from relying on the assertion that Susan Johnson was the more qualified candidate. In Joshi, we held that where a defendant did not consider the qualifications of the candidate from the protected class at the time of making the employment decision, it cannot later assert as a nondiscriminatory reason the superior qualifications of the candidate actually promoted. Id.
To prove that Convergys did not consider her qualifications, Plaintiff points to Patrice London's testimony that she did not consider Plaintiff a candidate for the Senior Operations Manager position. However, that statement, when read in the context of her testimony, indicates only that Patrice London's familiarity with Plaintiff's qualifications led her to the conclusion that Plaintiff was not a good candidate for the position. Patrice London testified that she had first-hand knowledge of Plaintiff's qualifications at the time Susan Johnson received the promotion, and it was that direct knowledge of Plaintiff's qualifications and performance deficiencies that informed her opinion that Plaintiff should not be considered a candidate for the promotion.
This case is distinguishable from the facts in Joshi. In Joshi, the defendant had no prior knowledge of Joshi's qualifications because Joshi was not an employee of the defendant. Joshi was an outside applicant. However, in this case, Plaintiff worked for Convergys and its predecessors for over fifteen years at the time the promotion was granted to Susan Johnson. Patrice London was Plaintiff's supervisor prior to the promotion decision and consequently was in a position to have direct knowledge of Plaintiff's qualifications or lack thereof. Thus, we do not find Joshi particularly applicable to the case at hand.
We agree with the district court that Convergys met its burden of articulating a legitimate, nondiscriminatory reason for promoting Susan Johnson over Plaintiff. Under the McDonnell Douglas framework, the burden then shifts back to Plaintiff to demonstrate that Convergys' articulated reason is pretext. We find that Plaintiff has failed to meet this burden of proving pretext.
Plaintiff may demonstrate that Convergys' reasons were pretextual by revealing "such weaknesses, implausibilities, inconsistencies, incoherencies or contradictions in [Convergys'] proffered legitimate reasons for its actions that a reasonable factfinder could find them unworthy of credence." Cooper v. Southern Co., 390 F.3d *1349 695, 725 (11th Cir.2004), cert. denied, 546 U.S. 960, 126 S.Ct. 478, 163 L.Ed.2d 363 (2005) (quoting Combs v. Plantation Patterns, 106 F.3d 1519, 1538 (11th Cir.1997)). However, a reason is not pretext for discrimination "unless it is shown both that the reason was false, and that discrimination was the real reason." Brooks v. County Comm'n of Jefferson County, 446 F.3d 1160, 1163 (11th Cir.2006) (quoting St. Mary's Honor Ctr., 509 U.S. at 515, 113 S.Ct. 2742).
In the context of a promotion, "a plaintiff cannot prove pretext by simply arguing or even by showing that he was better qualified than the [person] who received the position he coveted. A plaintiff must show not merely that the defendant's employment decisions were mistaken but that they were in fact motivated by race." Id. (citing Alexander v. Fulton County, 207 F.3d 1303, 1339 (11th Cir.2000)). Furthermore, a plaintiff must show that the disparities between the successful applicant's and his own qualifications were "of such weight and significance that no reasonable person, in the exercise of impartial judgment, could have chosen the candidate selected over the plaintiff." Cooper, 390 F.3d at 732 (citation omitted); see also Ash v. Tyson Foods, Inc., 546 U.S. 454, 126 S.Ct. 1195, 1197, 163 L.Ed.2d 1053 (2006) (approving of this language from Cooper).
Plaintiff attempts to prove pretext by claiming that she was in fact the more qualified candidate for the Senior Operations Manager position. Plaintiff points primarily to her educational background to support this assertion. The job requisition form for the Senior Operations Manager position listed a four-year college degree as a requirement; however, Patrice London testified that the job description permitted six to eight years of experience as the equivalent of the educational requirements. While Plaintiff was the only Operations Manager that possessed a four-year degree, Susan Johnson possessed the requisite experience to substitute for a lack of a college degree.
Patrice London also testified that experience was more important to her placement decisions than education. "Personal qualities . . . factor heavily into employment decisions concerning supervisory or professional positions. Traits such as common sense, good judgment, originality, ambition, loyalty, and tact often must be assessed primarily in a subjective fashion, yet they are essential to an individual's success in a supervisory or professional position." Denney v. City of Albany, 247 F.3d 1172, 1186 (11th Cir.2001) (citation and internal quotations omitted) (quoting Chapman v. A.I. Transport, 229 F.3d 1012, 1033-34 (11th Cir.2000) (en banc)). Given the undisputed evidence with respect to Susan Johnson's qualifications for the position, Plaintiff's possession of a four-year degree thus is insufficient by itself to conclude that Convergy's proffered reason for promoting Susan Johnson is pretext.
Plaintiff has provided no evidence that Convergys' reliance on the superior qualifications of Susan Johnson as the reason for her promotion is a mask for racial discrimination. "Absent evidence that subjective hiring criteria were used as a mask for discrimination, the fact that an employer based a hiring or promotion decision on purely subjective criteria will rarely, if ever, prove pretext. . . ." Denney, 247 F.3d at 1185. While Convergys' decision to promote Susan Johnson rather than Plaintiff was based on Patrice London's subjective view of whose qualifications were superior for the position, "[a] subjective reason is a legally sufficient, legitimate, nondiscriminatory reason if the defendant articulates a clear and reasonably specific factual basis upon which it based its subjective opinion." Id. at 1186. We find that Patrice London, in her testimony *1350 describing her first-hand experience with the candidates, provided a sufficiently specific factual basis for her opinion that Susan Johnson was the more qualified candidate for the promotion.
Plaintiff also argues that pretext can be inferred from Patrice London's pre-selection of Susan Johnson without the internal posting of the position required by Convergys' corporate policy. Yet, even where preselection violates corporate personnel policies, it does not necessarily indicate racial discrimination. See Kennedy v. Landon, 598 F.2d 337, 341 (4th Cir.1979); Randle v. City of Aurora, 69 F.3d 441, 454 (10th Cir.1995) ("The mere fact that an employer failed to follow its own internal procedures does not necessarily suggest that the employer was motivated by illegal discriminatory intent or that the substantive reasons given by the employer for its employment decision were pretextual."). Furthermore, Plaintiff testified that she was aware that Convergys, despite its corporate policy, did not always post available positions.
"We do not sit in judgment of the wisdom of an employer's selection." Cooper, 390 F.3d at 732. Where a supervisor has first-hand knowledge of the potential applicants and makes an employment decision based on that knowledge, the failure to post the job is insufficient evidence of pretext. Patrice London was familiar with the work of the four Operations Managers who were candidates for the available position because she had directly supervised them in her role as a Director. Posting the position would have been superfluous to her decision making process. "If the proffered reason is one that might motivate a reasonable employer, a plaintiff cannot recast the reason but must meet it head on and rebut it." Wilson v. B/E Aerospace, Inc., 376 F.3d 1079, 1088 (11th Cir.2004). Patrice London's preselection of Susan Johnson for the position of Senior Operations Manager reflected her knowledge of the candidates' experience and qualifications and the client's specific needs for the position. Plaintiff has provided no evidence that the failure to post the position was based on racial animus or an intent to deny the African American Operations Managers the opportunity to apply for the promotion.
We conclude that the promotion of Susan Johnson over Plaintiff, based on their supervisor's view of their relative qualifications, was a reasonable business decision. "[A] plaintiff employee may not establish that an employer's proffered reason is pretextual merely by questioning the wisdom of the employer's reason as long as the reason is one that might motivate a reasonable employer." Pennington v. City of Huntsville, 261 F.3d 1262, 1267 (11th Cir. 2001) (citation and internal quotation marks omitted). Plaintiff has not provided "sufficient evidence to find that the employer's asserted justification is false," Sanderson Plumbing Prods., Inc., 530 U.S. at 148, 120 S.Ct. 2097, and therefore, we conclude that Plaintiff cannot satisfy her burden of proving that Convergys' proffered reason for not promoting her was a pretext for discrimination.
III. CONCLUSION
For the foregoing reasons, we AFFIRM the district court's judgment.
NOTES
[1] Both Title VII and § 1981 have the same requirements of proof and present the same analytical framework. Standard v. A.B.E.L. Services, 161 F.3d 1318, 1330 (11th Cir.1998).
[2] In order to establish a prima facie case on the basis of a failure to promote, Plaintiff must demonstrate that: (I) she belonged to a protected class; (ii) she was qualified for and applied for a position; (iii) despite qualifications, she was rejected; and (iv) the position was filled with an individual outside the protected class. McDonnell Douglas Corp., 411 U.S. at 802, 93 S.Ct. 1817; Vessels v. Atlanta Indep. Sch. Sys., 408 F.3d 763, 768 (11th Cir.2005).
[3] We note that after the promotion at issue here, Susan Johnson was promoted yet again to the position of Director at Convergys.
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What We Can Learn From My Brain Tumor
I first sensed something might be wrong from inside the MRI; I saw the reflection of several people staring at my brain imaging and they asked me to clarify my doctor’s name (I’d later learn they needed to call her.) As I got up from the machine, the technician said, “This is Dr. Patel, the radiologist. He’s going to go over your results with you.” I knew immediately this wasn’t good; in fact, it was likely very bad (they usually mail the results.) The doctor informed me that I had a serious problem: a brain tumor that was likely benign, treatable and operable but would probably require surgery and radiation — soon. It only took a second to realize that this meant brain surgery. My tumor, called a meningioma, was about an inch and a half in diameter and already pressing on my brain stem.
This was late on a Friday afternoon of what would be a very long weekend. I had really hoped to avoid brain surgery in my life. And not surprisingly, moments of the next four days would be intermittently terrifying and poignant. Seeing my tumor on the MRI, I quickly realized that my treatment specifics and outcome would depend mostly on its position, size and what vital areas it had grown around and into thus far. I chose not to Google much. I wouldn’t learn more until meeting with a neurosurgeon the following Tuesday morning.
As you read this, you’re probably feeling the way I used to reading articles like this – a hint of voyeurism, a touch of empathy, and thankfulness that it’s not happening to you. Whatever your experience, I think my brain tumor has a lot to teach you.
Perhaps you’re asking yourself how you would handle this. If you want to be prepared for adversity, I have two pieces of advice: First, get to know yourself and the details of your inner psychological and emotional landscape. Second, build yourself some mindfulness skills.
The two things that helped me handle these first two weeks were my training in yoga philosophy and practice, and more than a decade of counseling. At this point in my life, I know my triggers and pretty much everything that scares me. I know how surgeries and invasive, often impersonal, medical interventions affect me. I had no hesitation acknowledging the range of my feelings and admitting to friends that brain surgery terrified me. “As it would anyone,” said a friend.
I’m no master, but gradually I realized that I have built up a number of skills to tolerate what lay ahead, to calm myself and to face the possibility of death. What does this look like? For me, the practice ground has been moments in yoga discovering the peaceful refuge of a calm mind. It begins simply by noticing the inhalation and exhalation of the breath and following this path to deeper mind states. As part of this practice, I’ve contemplated my life’s meaning and reflected on what it might mean to let go of it.
Regardless, I’ve considered not writing publicly about my tumor in part because I want the option to quietly run away from surgery. If you hear that I’ve fled, I hope you’ll drink a toast to me. If there’s a colony of medical expats somewhere living out your lives free of invasive surgeries and treatments, I’d love to hear from you. I might be pretty happy in your midst.
The truth is my diagnosis could be a lot worse. One friend said, “You got great news yesterday!” She was right. You know what’s scary? Malignant, recurring brain tumors that eat into areas of your brain that you need for speech, thought and mobility. As far as we can tell, my tumor is a fairly well-behaved vegetarian pushing against but not consuming vital anatomy.
Seize the day is a theme in our culture because we never know how long we have. It’s a cliché that’s always abstract until it isn’t. With my diagnosis, the abrupt change in my experience felt surreal. There’s comfort in the surreality until gradually I realized that it’s not unreal at all, this is as real as it gets.
My tumor signaled that it’s time to bring my A-game at life and that means setting priorities better than I ever have. Time and precision matter more. There’s less need to filter. While not surreal, it’s an alternate state of being with heightened consequences and opportunities.
For the most part, I’ve been incredibly fortunate in my life and I’ve had the privilege of worrying about small things for a very long time. Over the last two weeks, I’ve found myself questioning whether I’d miscalculated my work-life balance the past number of years. But while I regret some choices, I realize it’s also important to allow myself space to be imperfectly human.
My neurosurgeon inspired confidence in me that I would survive to live a long normal life; she said I might even be driving ten days after surgery. As such, I’ve been walking a sort of middle path. My condition’s not fatal but managing my tumor will require some serious attention and risk. I am about to become a professional patient for a time – a journey that begins with walking along the path often tread by the very sick and the elderly.
On Wednesday, I spent an hour getting tested in the Infusion Lab where many people go for chemo. I thought for a moment how grateful I am not to be in their shoes — and then I realized that most people would probably not want to be in my shoes right now either — maybe not even some of the chemo patients.
After the nurse inserted an IV, took the first sample of my blood and left me to sit for half an hour until the next sample, I felt the first real wave of vulnerability on my journey.
The View from the Infusion Lab
Looking out the fifth floor corner window, I realized that it was time for me to step out of the rat race and re-evaluate my ambitions for a while in order to take care of myself and heal. How would I stay relevant and feel purposeful? I thought perhaps that writing publicly about my experience would accomplish this. Then my heart broke as I realized I too had internalized our culture’s devaluation of the sick, the old and those that must step away for self-care — people like me.
Radiosurgery Mesh
The next morning, I met with a neuro-optometrist to evaluate my vision. He described to me how precisely targeted, fractionated radiation treatments could likely slow my tumor’s growth where surgery couldn’t reach, protecting my eyesight and safeguarding the flow of blood through my left carotid artery. As I left the building, I felt deep humility and gratitude that such technology existed and that I would be a beneficiary of it. I crossed the street and noticed a homeless person asleep on a bench in the cold, covered only by a thin blanket, his lower legs exposed. My humility turned to outrage: I get high tech radiation treatments to save my life but we can’t afford to find this person a safe place to sleep.
I doubt many of you would wish for that homeless person to be left outside overnight but for some reason these collective values aren’t well realized by our society. I’ve paid into health insurance my entire adult life and right about now it feels like a bargain. It’s never been clearer to me that collectivism has a place in a compassionate society. The failure of our political system to project our values over corporate greed seems to me nothing more than a tumor on our democracy.
Perhaps your political views have convinced you that your skill and independence will take care of you and all people should be as responsible for themselves as you are. A brain tumor in your future or a loved one’s might one day shake your unshakable world view. For the past decade reading articles like this, I too thought myself apart from these experiences while my tumor grew silently inside me.
These first two weeks, I’ve learned from my tumor that the separation we create between the accomplished and the disadvantaged, the healthy and sick, and the young and old is arbitrary and illusory. I hope that my tumor reminds you, as it has me, to appreciate the gift of each moment and be mindful of the effects of your actions and inaction.
9 Comments
My grandmother (father’s side) had a brain tumor removed, before I was born; not sure if 1940s or ’50s. You can imagine the crudeness of brain surgery then, but she survived and was pretty normal, to my memory. Well, a bit eccentric! … Now via another relative today, I’ve become acquainted with gamma knife and cyber knife technology. Brain tumor surgery without need of anesthetic! Incredible.
I choose to expect a positive outcome for you, Jeff. You developed this condition at an amazing time when medical technology makes possible what previously we would call “miracles.” Sending positive thoughts your way. Take care.
Hey man, I go to this article through a tutorial you wrote on Tuts+. We have quite a bit in common, I am also a designer, and in 2013 I found out I had a brain tumor as well. My tumor was rather large (my surgeon was surprised I could function like a normal human and I came very close to being put into a coma and immediately put into surgery) and it was a very strange journey that I’m still dealing with now.
unlike you, I didn’t have insurance. I was a just starting out as a freelance graphic designer, I had some money saved up but it wasn’t brain surgery money. I found out one morning when I woke up on my couch and my coffee table was kicked across the living room. the first thing I thought was “how’d I end up on my couch?” I went to sleep in my bed the night before. I still didn’t realize at this point anything bad happened until I looked in the mirror and there was blood all over my face and shirt. Of course that was what made me go to the dr that day.
I didn’t know what to think about it but I mean, who ever thinks brain tumor? Maybe it was just a seizure, or idk, I just never thought brain cancer. It took a few days before I found out and so I had time to tell my girlfriend and my parents what was going on. They were all there the day I found out, I didn’t know how to accept it as I’m sure you felt the same way. It took a minute to realize what I was going through.
I was having having several seizures everyday, I had medicine too and still I was having a bunch of seizures daily. Everyone around me was upset, and I had to make a lot of tough decisions about my life. I ended up selling most of my things, having to move back in with my parents (which they lived far from where I was living) and leave my girlfriend behind.
But you know what the worse part of this was? it wasn’t the money, or how upset everyone was (I actually wasn’t that distraught as everyone else was) or leaving my life behind. It was that for a long time I couldn’t find a surgeon that would take me as a patient or that could even be able to take out the tumor.
Luckily, thank god, not only was I able to find a surgeon to do the surgery but I also was able to get it done for free! I can’t tell you how blessed I felt. This is the reason I bring this up, you mention about the bum and how blatantly wrong it was for someone to have to live that way.
Thank god that there are people out there that feel this way because if it wasn’t for the support of people I barely knew or didn’t know at all (not to mention all the people that love and care about me whole heartily) I don’t know where I would be today. I would probably be dead, or in some messed up way of living on the street or idk what it would be like.
Thank god I never have to think about that because of programs for people that need it most, and for the people that stepped out and helped me at my second most vulnerable time in my life. It was a big eye opening situation and I’ll never look at life the same way, I’m still going through some slight things but I’ve been blessed to get through the situation with out becoming extremely in debt, I’m back where I lived before, I’m married and I’m freelancing again. I wish you the best of luck and I hope things get better for you if they haven’t already.
Veed, thanks for sharing your story. It’s a fairly amazing, intense read. It must have been very difficult and painful – losing people you care about, struggling to find a surgeon, et al. I’m glad that you did find people to help you and that you are doing well today. It’s obviously made you sensitive to those in need. Again, thanks for sharing all of this.
This was a pretty insightful read. I’ve enjoyed your tutorials a lot, and I’m wishing that everything will go well and you’ll have a quick recovery. Glad to hear yoga and mindfulness can provide support not only in our daily lives but also in times of extreme anxiety. Looking forward for your next update
Hi Jeff, I just wanted to pop by and say thank you for the donation to my cause. I read your story about your brain tumour. You are very courageous in my eyes. I think when we are faced with things that have to do with our lives, we all become courageous! |
Gadolinium neutron capture in glioblastoma multiforme cells.
A proof of principle for cell killing by Gadolinium (Gd) neutron capture in Magnevist preloaded Glioblastoma multiforme (GBM) cells is provided. U87cells were pre-loaded with 5 mg/ml Magnevist (Gd containing compound) and irradiated using an enhanced neutron beam developed at NIU Institute for Neutron Therapy at Fermilab. These experiments were possible because of an enhanced fast neutron therapy assembly designed to use the fast neutron beam at Fermilab to deliver a neutron beam containing a greater fraction of thermal neutrons and because of the development of improved calculations for dose for the enhanced neutron beam. Clonogenic response was determined. U87 cell survival after gamma irradiation, fast neutron irradiation and irradiation with the enhanced neutron beam in the presence or absence of Magnevist were determined. U87 cells were the least sensitive to gamma radiation, and increasingly sensitive to fast neutron irradiation, irradiation with the enhanced neutron beam and finally a significant enhancement in cell killing was observed for U87 cells preloaded with Magnevist. The sensitivity of U87 cells pre-loaded with Magnevist and then irradiated with the enhanced neutron beam can at least in part be attributed to the Auger electrons emitted by the neutron capture event. |
Hello, anyone have firsthand info on exactly how plentiful or rare timber rattlers and copperheads are in the Catskills? Have you ever seen one, anywhere ever? Now I am not asking out of fear for myself, because I would let the animal be, but I have a German Shorthaired Pointer here, who literally can go into any wooded area and come out with a deer bone in her mouth, because she can find any and every deer kill every time, I have a skull with antlers here that she handed me, she picks up every trail from any animal in the woods every time. Now because she is trustworthy and stays with me infallibly, I can let her do as she chooses. It's part of my hiking joy to let her be as close to what she loves as I can, as we romp thru the mountains together. So here is the deal, if I can expect to encounter even a single poisonous snake, EVER that my dog will not respect until the bite is done, should we even be there. Are there mountain areas that have never had a snake sighting and others that they are common on, I gather that Overlook mountain has signs warning people to stay on the trail as the snakes abound. Anyway, I have had dogs for twenty years and never encountered one, but I have never had a dog with a nose like this, and also never once been to the Catskills, typically I go to Virginia or Vermont National Forest as the backcountry camping rules are excellent as they also are in the Catskills...... So if you know where the snakes are or aren't, we would love to leave them alone on their mountain and choose another..... (runon I know)
I am not a snake expert, but I've never seen a RS or CH in the Catskills in my 20+ years of hiking there. I have seen several RS in an the Lake George area in the ADKs. They are very shy creatures and want nothing to do with people. I cannot say what they will do re: dogs. Leashes are made for several reasons, however.
dundee wrote:I am not a snake expert, but I've never seen a RS or CH in the Catskills in my 20+ years of hiking there. I have seen several RS in an the Lake George area in the ADKs. They are very shy creatures and want nothing to do with people. I cannot say what they will do re: dogs. Leashes are made for several reasons, however.
Leashing a dog on a 5 to 20 mile hike and on a two day trip would not be practical, nor would the dog or I have any fun. I am not concerned about what I might see on the trail as I am about what my dog might smell and track. For every mile that I walk, she runs at least 5, she is a machine of sorts, beautiful to watch. I know some dogs are not this active, depriving her of her freedom would be senseless to me. Her purpose is to find stuff, bears wouldn't worry me as they could not touch her with her speed, and she would back off due to their size anyway. ........ just don't know here....
Very few snakes in the Catskills. Once in a while you will see a garder snake. But, there are lots rattlesnakes on Overlook Mtn and Echo Lake. You can also find them on Tremper Mtn. There are rattlesnake dens at those 3 locations. Getting tagged by a rattlesnake is a pretty bad event. Copperheads are mainly a pain event. Both are pretty big snakes. They are as thick as a mans arm. If you stay away from those 3 areas you are in pretty good shape. You can also check out the section on this web site which shows the locations where you can find them.
A lot of hikers bring their dogs along for a hike without leashes on. Everyone brings a leash for those difficult moments. Porkies can be difficult for some dogs. Some hikers bring a pair of pliers in case they need to pull them out. Black bears can be an issue. Other dogs for sure.
"A lot of hikers bring their dogs along for a hike without leashes on. Everyone brings a leash for those difficult moments. Porkies can be difficult for some dogs. Some hikers bring a pair of pliers in case they need to pull them out. Black bears can be an issue. Other dogs for sure."
Not everyone brings a leash. I constantly run into people who have a dog on the trail, but fail to bring a leash. If a dog is leashed it greatly reduces the chances of having a run-in with a porkie, a snake, bear, raccoon or another hiker's dog. If the problem is prevented in the first place, there will be no need to pull out quills with pliers. Then there are ticks.
mtnclimber wrote:Very few snakes in the Catskills. Once in a while you will see a garder snake. But, there are lots rattlesnakes on Overlook Mtn and Echo Lake. You can also find them on Tremper Mtn. There are rattlesnake dens at those 3 locations. Getting tagged by a rattlesnake is a pretty bad event. Copperheads are mainly a pain event. Both are pretty big snakes. They are as thick as a mans arm. If you stay away from those 3 areas you are in pretty good shape. You can also check out the section on this web site which shows the locations where you can find them.
A lot of hikers bring their dogs along for a hike without leashes on. Everyone brings a leash for those difficult moments. Porkies can be difficult for some dogs. Some hikers bring a pair of pliers in case they need to pull them out. Black bears can be an issue. Other dogs for sure.
Where are you planning on backpacking?
Well if I decide to do a Catskill pack, it looks like it will need to be in the Western section, Ulster and Green counties seem to be off limits for me in my situation. In my opinion a porcupine would be more dangerous than a bear to the dog, as the dog might well challenge a porcupine but not a bear, but the porcupine would be a learning experience for my girl, however both animals, even a 500 pound bear, are little kittens when compared to a rattler, which is what makes me think twice about the Catskills. As for dog leashes, there is no right answer, as some dogs need to be leashed for either aggression or due to the fact that if they got free inside a forest area they would be gone in 30 seconds and never seen again. I came upon two hikers two weeks ago here in Jersey, that had two dogs on leashes, my dog ran up wanting just to play, they barked and yelped and almost pulled their owners arms off. I thought the people were going to lambaste me for not having my girl on a leash, but they did not, probably out of embarrassment, as their dogs obviously could never be allowed to be free, if they had said something I would calmly ask them if how they would like to be leashed for their entire lives. I then came upon a woman with an unleashed border collie and her dog and mine ran up the side of the mountain and down three times and back and forth seeing who was faster just having a blast of a time, the next man had two golden retrievers taking a swim in the river. I always bring a leash, on my last trip to the Green mountains, I got there at 1:30 in the morning and could not get a fire started, nor pitch my tent in the dark, so I pulled out the sleeping bag tied the dog to me and we slept under the stars, as a duck in the pond behind us warbled all morning at this point, when we woke up I freed her and she immediately went duck hunting... Thanks for the response...!
dundee wrote:You've just listed several reasons WHY you should leash your dog. What about porkies, raccoons, etc? What about other hikers? Other hikers leash their dogs on trips like this.
Well in all reality, though I am not a hunter at all, I can say that a porcupine, while mildly dangerous is in no way a serious threat to an animal that is used by hunters to track and hunt raccoons, bears and even cougars. As for other hikers, if they are allergic to dog licks my dog could well be fatal. Other people might need to keep their dog on a leash, to me leashing a dog for two or more days when they are inside a candystore, which is what the forest is to this breed, is just plain cruel. Besides the leashed dog learns nothing, my girl is just about a year old and is still learning. I have photos of my girl chasing whitetail, some owners no matter how excellent the dog is can not allow this as the dog will follow the fleeing deer into the next county, the thing freedom breeds respect, what does a chained animal respect? Thanks for responding though, your ideas are not wrong, you just have never seen a quality shorthair in motion. Here are some shots of her and the parks that I have visited, none of those photos can happen on a leash..... https://www.flickr.com/photos/105281199@N03/https://www.flickr.com/photos/105281199 ... 055511795/
Maybe a porkie isn't "dangerous", but it sure is painful, but going in and when you have to pull hem out. How about an ifection from the quills? You want a dog to go thru this because you are too lazy to leash it?
You think it's cruel to leash your dog on a hike? Oh, please! Why can other hikers leash their dogs and you can't? What about courtesy ot other hikers? Every dog is friendly, just like yours. You never heard that one, I bet.
What is going to happen when you come acrose another hiker and they don't have their dog leashed either and it goes after your?
Why is there a leash law in the ADK High Peaks? Because of al the people with unleashed dogs have created too many problems.
You'll do what you want, but after something happens, don't cry about it.
This reminds of the true story of the couple who used to walk their unleashed dog in the back roads and woods of Lake Luzerne (southern ADKs). Their lovely (and friendly!) family dog went running ahead and they heard it scream a few minutes later. It's skull had been broken becuae it got its head into an animal trap. The dog died a painful death. They screamed bloody murder and denounced all trapper as evil villains. Truth is, trapping is legal and if they had ha their dog on a leash, this probably wouldn't have happened.
dundee wrote:Maybe a porkie isn't "dangerous", but it sure is painful, but going in and when you have to pull hem out. How about an ifection from the quills? You want a dog to go thru this because you are too lazy to leash it?
You think it's cruel to leash your dog on a hike? Oh, please! Why can other hikers leash their dogs and you can't? What about courtesy ot other hikers? Every dog is friendly, just like yours. You never heard that one, I bet.
What is going to happen when you come acrose another hiker and they don't have their dog leashed either and it goes after your?
Why is there a leash law in the ADK High Peaks? Because of al the people with unleashed dogs have created too many problems.
You'll do what you want, but after something happens, don't cry about it.
There are dogs, and then there are German Shorthairs, a shorthair is not obedient, it's highly intelligent, obedient dogs heel and do their tricks, shorthairs can feed their owners if need be . The human brain just like the dog brain is a muscle, it needs to experience new things to learn, grow and be strong. My dog has never been unleashed in the Catskills, because I have never been there with her, she has been unleashed deep inside of Vermont and my previous dogs have been camping with me in Virginia many times. Have you ever sat around a campfire and toasted chicken and hot dogs to share with a dog that is waiting unleashed by your side to eat? Show me a leashed German Shorthair in the forest, and I will show you an unhappy dog, and an ignorant human. Live for freedom, not chains. That said after seeing snake bites here, I am not sure that my dog will ever even see the Catskills much less romp in them, seems sad because it's near me and clearly a beautiful place. |
Q:
Why does my model render differently with different BasicEffect instances?
I'd like to understand why I get a completely different result when I replace the effects of a model (as suggested by How To: Draw a Model with a Custom Effect) with a BasicEffect that I instantiate myself:
var basicEffect = new BasicEffect( game.GraphicsDevice );
basicEffect.EnableDefaultLighting();
foreach (var mesh in _modelHead.Meshes)
foreach (var part in mesh.MeshParts)
part.Effect = basicEffect;
My goal is of course to use an effect of my own later, but for the moment I'd really like to understand what's going on!? What is different with the predefined BasicEffect from the one I instantiate myself? When I inspect the properties of the two instances they seem to be all the same.
How it looks with the "default" BasicEffect
How it looks when I instantiate a new BasicEffect
A:
The model file contains data about materials, in this case it looks like the diffuse color or texture. When you create a new BasicEffect object it doesn't contain the right colors and such, so you get white.
See here:
http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/microsoft.xna.framework.graphics.basiceffect.diffusecolor.aspx
http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/microsoft.xna.framework.graphics.basiceffect.texture.aspx
If you want to use the same texture, you can do this (I haven't tested though):
foreach (var mesh in _modelHead.Meshes)
{
foreach (var part in mesh.MeshParts)
{
var specificEffect = new BasicEffect(game.GraphicsDevice);
specificEffect.EnableDefaultLighting();
specificEffect.Texture = ((BasicEffect)part.Effect).Texture;
specificEffect.DiffuseColor = ((BasicEffect)part.Effect).DiffuseColor;
part.Effect = specificEffect;
}
}
Obviously this code can be optimized a lot as it becomes redundant after the first call.
EDIT:
Just to explain why the properties seem the same, once your code runs once the effects become the same, so if you're seeing anything but the first call the properties will be the same.
|
Q:
Packing an integer number to 3 bytes in Python
With background knowledge of C I want to serialize an integer number to 3 bytes. I searched a lot and found out I should use struct packing. I want something like this:
number = 1195855
buffer = struct.pack("format_string", number)
Now I expect buffer to be something like ['\x12' '\x3F' '\x4F']. Is it also possible to set endianness?
A:
It is possible, using either > or < in your format string:
import struct
number = 1195855
def print_buffer(buffer):
print(''.join(["%02x" % ord(b) for b in buffer])) # Python 2
#print(buffer.hex()) # Python 3
# Little Endian
buffer = struct.pack("<L", number)
print_buffer(buffer) # 4f3f1200
# Big Endian
buffer = struct.pack(">L", number)
print_buffer(buffer) # 00123f4f
2.x docs
3.x docs
Note, however, that you're going to have to figure out how you want to get rid of the empty byte in the buffer, since L will give you 4 bytes and you only want 3.
Something like:
buffer = struct.pack("<L", number)
print_buffer(buffer[:3]) # 4f3f12
# Big Endian
buffer = struct.pack(">L", number)
print_buffer(buffer[-3:]) # 123f4f
would be one way.
|
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"Saisoi not only with the two of us had a leg" "The people you want to bring" "There is also a small store store owner" "Take advantage of Kun Khae go to school to send her past" "Saisoi pregnant: pregnant three months" "You and her for the first time less than three months it" "So ah worry!" "Oh really?" "Get what benefits" "Face to ask ah" "How many rounds you are tumbling and her ah" "Dead Ken your face off the hook!" "One of these days my father ..." "And Miss Pan Lian from Singapore back" "Hao wide to pick Saisoi" "And the couple live together" "How Ken regret it?" "Re looking for chanting women" "I later learned that Kun Khae Miss" "She can not stand this kind of thing" "Saisoi permanently expelled from the family" "Small Ãû°¢ÇÇ" "Hello Dear Pan Lian" "Cha Yong family is honored to welcome you soon" "Kun Khae really a nice girl" "Hope everyone friendly" "The beloved of ¿â×æ¶÷¸ç¸ç hello" "I am very honored and you become a person" "The Kun Khae Miss I" "And this is the mother of Wei Laili" "Hello, here is your home" "Miss Xie Xiehua reception" "Await your beck and call at any time" "Glad to see everyone" "Delivered to your hands" "I hope you understand each other" "Have Mr. Pan Lian Luang and Kuzu En upstairs" "I have everything ready for the" "Please" "Very bad to see your face" "His servant would so tired" "And non-alcoholic beverages" "Oh Ken tonight so handsome" "Really difficult to see you wear" "I feel more Bikuzuen handsome" "Hush Ken Kuzu En him down" "Hello lords said that he and his mother a few moments and then down" "First greeted what guests" "Kuzu En This is the eldest son of A Jan Luang" "Dear Kuzu En hello" "Mr. A really nice to meet you" "With drinks" "I am so sorry I can help you clean up" "Really too sorry" "Not too familiar with these scenes" "It does not matter right" "Mr. A Jan" "Ken attention to point behavior" "It was fortuitous events are not intentional" "A really to meet" "Good" "Good evening, Mr." "Good evening." "They are busy right now lords and ladies" "Them for a moment about to down" "This way, please" "Mr. they come" "Welcome Peter Welcome to my house" "Good evening Luang Good evening, Miss Pan Lian" "Good evening, Peter Thank you soon" "Please allow me to introduce my daughter Mary" "Good evening, Ms." "My daughter Wei Laili" "Good evening, Miss" "You already know him" "Hello Peter, of course, Mary" "Good evening" "Come on Mary" "You or go somewhere else." "Here, are not you the kid should stay" "Will not have to go back to school on the side to help it" "Is Waad aunt" "Distinguished guests" "The next owner of Cha Yong." "Wearing guess Cha Yong family" "Peiji Wang Chairman of the company" "Is proud to announced to every guests that we have made a trade" "Shares of foreign trade agreements signed" "Has been successfully completed" "I firmly believe that our company ..." "I firmly believe that our company ..." "I firmly believe that our company ..." "As important a part of the industry" "Participation in international trade to" "There from Phuket International Company" "Dear Miss Pan Lian" "Full participation to the project's decision-making" "Again this set" "I am a Shao to grand" "The most important woman in my life" "Please" "I was a less talking" "Or sing a song" "Add to the fun for everyone" "Those guys leak" "Was transferred Front" "I guess the government will soon be overturned" "This is gone?" "Could not eat the estimated eat angry" "That me and my uncle's car to go to school right?" "But you do not call me uncle" "Call my father should be more appropriate" "Yes Dad" "The Ken this?" "Yeah really it?" "You should not come here" "Why?" "In addition to the sweeping health the aunt Waad aunt and Ken" "No one here before" "If the father knows it is not good" "Very bad" "It ... do not let him know the good" "This works well" "I do not know that you are drawing, photo or live?" "Please back to me right?" "What if I do not also do" "I dead" "You when is my gift to send to do good" "You can also go to draw a new, ah" "I went to the other gift to Hello some" "Then how do you know" "Do not like what the young man" "Miss Pan Lian" "You bomb the nice and singing the same nice" "Thank you very much" "You start to do fruit carving" "My little mind" "Thank you very much" "Good to see I do not have the heart to eat" "Very chic fabrics" "A good look at Kun Khae" "Guests said the foreigners, but the craft" "My bedroom Western fashion books?" "There are many new styles of clothing" "To Like Which one to choose" "Then you bought the cloth to the grindstone" "A thank you" "You do not have too along Kun Khae" "Luang one had to spoil her" "Girls like normal things neat" "Lord" "Today, I went to A Jan school" "See A I did not?" "See he is a very polite child" "Reminds me of" "Her family to take care of so well" "Also A Jan and Kun Khae character" "Culture was so good" "A Jan" "Ah Jan" "Kun Khae and A Jan" "Is such a good child" "The lords most important is" "I see this" "A Jan English job" "Very good" "In particular, some current events judgment" "The idea is very good" "I think A Jan talent in English too" "Lords continue to take education A Jan learning English" "What to teach it?" "The lords I feel we need to" "Some people often learn English in Singapore" "That person must believe" "Later to sharing the Luang" "And I think in addition to this family grow outside" "Can not find a more suitable person" "Good red good horror" "It" "This can not be dissipated" "Months will not be better" "Haha poor" "The mother certainly very sad" "A Jan Luang called you in the past" "We have discussed" "A really good learning English" "I will send you to study in Britain" "But there is a condition" "Each semester you should test first" "That next year you should be able to send you to go" "Do you know what I mean, right?" "I know a father" "A Jan you something" "A real go abroad that who is going to accompany me?" "Do not worry if I can really go abroad" "I definitely want the way you are with me" "I'm just too happy." "Really honored" "Do not know how to let also" "It was hard!" "Walked ask to take it wants" "I went to her asking for trouble" "Certainly not go abroad" "Loose lips" "A really really not hard to do" "I heard my mom said" "Go to the building to serve" "Ira Cotton is more important is not it?" "Yes" "Ira Cotton needs a strong attention to all aspects of" "Afternoon and she needs to go to serve the" "Ira Cotton" "And we change" "Here comfortable?" "Comfortably" "I bring you to the bathroom" "Certainly comfortable than now" "Please!" "A building can really" "Luang and Kun Khae back left" "Believe me." "Ira Cotton?" "Is my" "I want to get back to my job in this" "A Jan ah, I will" "Why peek bathing?" "I did not mean" "Shaonian Lang I understand you" "Want to peek at the woman taking a bath" "Is A Jan?" "That may be Jan" "I tell you straight" "I forgot your homework this put where" "But do not worry" "I think certainly in this room" "Tonight I seriously look for" "Then I go" "Since first chatted for a while!" "Good" "You should see my work." "Yes, I thought ..." "You actually have such good works and art cell" "And childhood Luang send me to Europe to learn" "Very beautiful every art has its own characteristics" "And religion is no difference" "You want the art of this world ..." "Are really good" "Today good hot ah" "I took the ice Come" "Is that all right?" "What is it?" "I do not know" "A strong he would help me get over" "You should be smaller than his age" "Driving ice brought it" "Good" "Then coated the ice on my back" "Good" "Come along for a while ice melt" "Good" "So comfortable" "You how you doing?" "Help ah ..." "Hit me hit me." "Hit it ..." "A Jan!" "A I really do not be afraid" "You did not do nobody wanted to punish you" "Ken Why do you do this?" "Life-saving and life-saving ah help ah" "Help ah" "A Jan A Jan" "A really tap Sorry" "A I'm sorry" "Do not hit" "Whose voice is what happens?" "As if the sound of Kun Khae Kun Khae!" "Yes" "A really listen to me." "A Jan" "God!" "What's going on" "Save me ah" "Save me ah" "First Kun Khae go upstairs" "Wrap the body out of" "Auntie A really ..." "Ken really did not expect such a despicable" "Come to Ken upstairs" "Ken rape Kun Khae" "What happened?" "Ken rape Kun Khae" "What happens is too messy" "Ken rape Kun Khae" "You come in my room" "Supporting the good Kun Khae" "Do not worry" "You too bold." "Too bold a bastard" "Go away" "He out" "Yes, sir" "Do not go" "You come to make trouble is not it?" "Is raped Kun Khae" "Not Ken" "Yes Dad is A Jan rape me" "If not Ken to help" "I might be more injured" "You and your mom to go to hell" "You do not have to go abroad and a rebellious son" "Do not say" "You're not my son, you are a wild species" "Shut up!" "I do not like son" "How to teach his son" "Be this way" "You're not my son" "I disinheritance from today" "Disinheritance" "You and I never" "Luang what to do" "What to do?" "Can not do that" "You and I promise" "You said to me to spend a lifetime" "Otherwise, there would be no A clear presence" "Will subvert before commitment" "Wait a minute ..." "Come ah ..." "Lord I beg you." "Luang pacified Luang pacified" "Let go of me!" "Let go of me!" "Dead" "Luang pacified" "The Luang pacified Note body" "You leave immediately" "Go?" "Tonight on live and go to your classmates" "Slut" "Deserve A Jan must leave the house" "Kun Khae come to me" "Tease me" "Forced me to unlock clothes" "Forced me to go to bed with her" "Otherwise, people will hear" "I do not want to" "Tell Kun Khae I am sick" "Kun Khae do not believe" "I commit a sin actually like daughter" "I want to know" "My dad" "A strong really is it?" "You know the truth" "Have a long history and respected" "Their careers" "Unfortunately, our elders are short-lived" "Only grandmother to maintain the entire family" "Only two granddaughter" "Is Dara" "Your mom" "There Na" "Na one day to the temple to pray for blessings" "Encountered A strong" "But this love is not allowed" "Because it is not a good match" "So secretly dating" "Can not let the elders know" "While Na to A strong first" "That is pure love" "Day her grandmother Dara" "To go visit exposing Germany" "At that time the Dala" "Young and beautiful" "He was prominent" "There is a certain amount of influence at the national" "Have great achievements in business on the military and political" "A strong day Na look for" "In our old place" "A strong first missed appointments" "And Na thought" "The bad news happened" "Her grandmother that afternoon Dara" "To visit relatives" "On the way back" "A strong and personal ambush" "You want to hurt them" "Raped your mother" "When police killed after trying to A strong" "They fight" "Bloody but only two bodies float of the water" "A police did not find strong" "Only saw Dara" "A strong escape" "A strong how bad" "Grandmother with Dara got home" "To forget this time of grief" "Home a few months" "Dara pregnant" "In order to deceive the public" "The grandmother want the solution" "Dara marry with his brother" "And that became a Luang of relatives" "Huangqinguoqi" "Become noble" "And now the lords became Dara's husband" "Became A Jan father" "Sure my father" "Is A strong" "Yes" "That Waad aunt parenting I grew up" "Teach me manners were" "A strong son is not it?" "A really Dara's son" "I love A strong" "Let's go a miss train" "Since birth, I have not separate A Jan" "I want to really go with" "Please allow me to go with him!" "Waad aunt" "A Jima up to collect her things." "A class pack things go and Ken" "Yes, Madam Waad" "First stop" "The original A Jan" "A Jan these days where" "We just talking about you." "I now want to leave the house" "Do not know when to come back" "I will write to you" "I will not forget you" "I'm leaving" "A Jan here" "I'm gone" "Go to start their lives anew." "I go now, mother" "Take care of A Jan" "Mom do not worry" "The Train is departing" "Mom" "Mother, take care of yourself" "Go" "Aunt Waad, A really is not the son of Luang" "May i change my last name?" "You can use your mother's last name" "I would use the name of the mother surname" "I want to really use Jan Dara" "Sounds like a good name" "Jan Dara leaves then!" |
{
"extends": "../../tsconfig.json",
"compilerOptions": {
"allowSyntheticDefaultImports": true
},
"include": [
"src",
"types",
"../../types"
]
}
|
“My old route, which was more families, the dogs did not like you,” he told BuzzFeed News.
“They moved me to a different area of town with more people my age, more single people, and the dogs were a lot friendlier.” |
// Copyright 2000-2019 JetBrains s.r.o. Use of this source code is governed by the Apache 2.0 license that can be found in the LICENSE file.
package jetbrains.communicator.core.users;
import jetbrains.communicator.core.EventBroadcaster;
import jetbrains.communicator.core.transport.XmlMessage;
import jetbrains.communicator.core.vfs.CodePointer;
import jetbrains.communicator.core.vfs.ProjectsData;
import jetbrains.communicator.core.vfs.VFile;
import jetbrains.communicator.ide.IDEFacade;
import javax.swing.*;
/**
* @author Kir Maximov
*/
public interface User {
String getName();
String getDisplayName();
Icon getIcon();
String getGroup();
/** Sets this user's displayName. If userModel is not null and user exists in userModel,
* displayName is set also for the user in the userModel and
* event about group change is sent.
* @see UserEvent.Updated */
void setDisplayName(String name, UserModel userModel);
/** Sets this user's group. If userModel is not null and user exists in userModel,
* group is set also for the user in the userModel and
* event about group change is sent.
* @see UserEvent.Updated */
void setGroup(String group, UserModel userModel);
/** If returns true, this user can view my opened files (method getProjectsData)
* and get content of my files (method getVFile). Default value - true. */
boolean canAccessMyFiles();
void setCanAccessMyFiles(boolean enableAccess, UserModel userModel);
String getTransportCode();
UserPresence getPresence();
boolean isOnline();
boolean isSelf();
String[] getProjects();
ProjectsData getProjectsData(IDEFacade ideFacade);
String getVFile(VFile vFile, IDEFacade ideFacade);
void sendMessage(String message, EventBroadcaster eventBroadcaster);
void sendCodeIntervalPointer(VFile file, CodePointer pointer, String comment, EventBroadcaster eventBroadcaster);
void sendXmlMessage(XmlMessage message);
/** return true if user has IDEtalk client installed*/
boolean hasIDEtalkClient();
}
|
2015 BelgianGP – Thursday Drivers Press Conference
It’s so close you can smell it. Yes, the second half of the 2015 Formula 1 season kicks off with Belgian Grand Prix and as is the norm, the dirver’s press conference on a Thursday. Today we hear from Max Verstappen (Toro Rosso), Daniil Kvyat (Red Bull Racing), Will Stevens (Manor), Fernando Alonso (McLaren), Kimi Raikkonen (Ferrari), Lewis Hamilton (Mercedes)
PRESS CONFERENCE
Kimi, we have to start with you. Obviously Spa has been very good to you over the years – four wins – but your drive for 2016 confirmed yesterday. What do you hope to achieve given the way the team is developing at the moment and your own performance level at this stage of your career?
RAIKKONEN: Well, obviously it the same as every year – we want to do as well as we can and hopefully challenge for championships for next year and I’m sure we can produce even a quite bit better car than this year next year. Obviously the team is all working well together and we all feel very good and obviously I’m happy to stay there but we have to try to do a good second part of the year and maximise what we have and then prepare for next year.
You will have seen that after he won Sebastian gave you a lot of support with his words in Hungary before the break. What did that support mean to you?
KR: I know him well and we have a very good relationship and it’s nice… I don’t know exactly what you mean, I mean I haven’t read so much things lately, but he tells me and I tell him if he does well and I do well, we have a very good feeling of respect in the team. It’s always nice to hear from him also. We try to beat each other in the races but we still can be friends as before, so I think that is also very good for us as a team that we can work very closely.
OK, thank you for that. Lewis, coming to you: twice on pole here, you’ve got a win, of course, at this circuit as well. You said that your performance in Hungary was short of your own expectations, but you still managed to increase your championship lead. Does that kind of thing make you feel that this might be your year?
HAMILTON: Definitely not, definitely not. I think the team effort that goes in; seeing how hard my team is working, seeing the progress we’re making I think encourages me to believe that it’s going to be our year. You know you just have to keep your head down and you can’t win them all.
Sebastian Vettel is just 42 behind you at this stage; 225 points maximum up for grabs. Any concerns there about the threat from him or does your qualifying superiority underpin confidence for the second half of the season in particular?
LH: Well naturally we’re here to win and we’re focused on making sure we stay up front but we’re conscious… we’re fully aware that other teams are pushing very hard and Ferrari are looking great. So we don’t arrive at any race thinking that we are superior to anyone. We know that we have a fight on our hands and so we’re doing to work at trying to make sure we work harder than them.
OK, thanks for that. Fernando, coming to you, amazingly you’ve never won at Spa in Formula One. You’ve won in plenty of other categories but not in Formula One. Looking back a remarkable Hungary; fifth place for you, both cars in the points. Does that represent real progress or does it just represent and opportunity taken?
ALONSO: Well, I think half and half; a little bit of both. There was a better performance from us in Hungary. I think the circuit layout helped us a little bit in terms of the characteristics of our car and then secondly, I think we have been lucky with some of the retirements and some of the incidents that happened in Hungary, [they] helped us to get some places. I think 12 or 13 cars had some issues during the race in terms of penalties or in terms of mechanical failures, so I think that was definitely a help.
Now, you’ve experienced many different situations, technical situations and rules around grand prix starts during your long career, could you give us an insight into how much these new rules, starting this weekend in Spa, will change things for the drivers?
FA: I think not much. It will not be a significant change. I know that there is some talk about this but maybe for next year or the following years will be more different. What we will have here is just some restrictions in communications with the drivers and the team etc but I think… at least in our team we were not doing any specific communication or strategy during the formation laps etc so it will not change much.
Q: Coming to you Will, on podium here I believe here in World Series, first time here racing in Formula One. What are your thoughts on racing at this historic venue, what it means to a driver in his first full season in F1 to race here. Is this one that, when you looked at the calendar on your kitchen wall you looked at and really thought ‘I’m looking forward to racing at F1 car at Spa.’
STEVENS: Yeah, I think Spa is always a special circuit. I think all the drivers always like coming here a lot. Every car you come in goes quicker and quicker and the track gets better so really excited to get out to see what an F1 car feels like ‘round here. It’s always been a good track for me and looking forward to getting out there.
Q: Tell us about the match-up with your team-mate. It seems to have been in his favour a little bit in the last couple of races. What’s the story behind that.
WS: I think our pace has been really strong throughout the year. Just the last few grands prix haven’t really fallen my way to be honest but I know that I’ve got good pace in the car and I think coming back to a circuit like this it should really suit what I like. I’m confident to kick on for the rest of the season and finish strongly.
Q: Coming to you Daniil. Obviously your best-ever Formula One result last time out in Hungary, second place, also, the best result for a Russian in Formula One. What was the reaction like back home?
KVYAT: It was a good race for me in Hungary. Hard to say what was the reaction – I didn’t count any reactions or stuff like that but I think it was good for myself, good for the team generally to achieve that in this hard season. Now there’s been the summer break and we are back to our basic work. We hope to keep working hard to achieve similar results – even though we know it’s not going to be easy because also in Hungary we had to take some opportunities. Nevertheless, when they come, you have to take them.
Q: It’s very clear that Red Bull has made significant steps, particularly on the chassis side since Silverstone. How do you fancy your chances of repeating that kind of result in the second half of the year? Which races are you looking at in particular?
DK: Once it happened I think it’s possible to do second time as well. We should never give up on that. I think you know in theory Singapore is looking good for us but I wouldn’t limit… I wouldn’t say that we would just work on one particular race. We have to take any chances in every race – and this will be one of them. Anything can happen in any other race and we have to keep pushing for any opportunity because every race is a new chance.
Q: And talking of best-ever career Formula One results, Max Verstappen, you won three times here in F3 at Spa but you got your best-ever Formula One result, fourth place in Hungary, a real breakthrough for you. What does that say about you and your challenge this year?
VERSTAPPEN: I think it was also a bit unexpected result there but, I mean, you still need to be there when people make mistakes or have problems so, at the end, I was very happy to finish fourth especially after the beginning of the race which was a bit difficult for me. But I think the first half of the season went quite well. I think if I new this before I would have signed off – I would have liked it like this but now it’s time to focus again on this weekend. On my home grand prix. Won’t be as good, I think, as Hungary but you never know. We can get some good chances here again. We just have to optimise everything.
Q: You’re about to race a Formula One car around this daunting F1 track – but can you give us an update on how you’re going with getting a road car licence?
MV: I still don’t have it. Still not 18. But yeah, I don’t have so much time – so I’ll do it a bit later.
QUESTIONS FROM THE FLOOR
Q: (Heikki Kulta – Turun Sanomat) Kimi, fighting for your fifth victory here, does it help you that all the pressure of the new contract is now put behind and you don’t have to prove yourself that much any more?
KR: It doesn’t change anything. I mean we still try to do the same as every other race. So, that contract thing, it’s not going to change our approach for the weekend or the end result. Hopefully the end result will be good but no, we will do the same things as in all the other races. So, hopefully we can have a good weekend, no problems and see where we end up.
Q: (Dan Knutson – Auto Action, Speedsport Magazines) Next year, the engineers will not be able to coach the drivers over the radio on things like tyre degradation and fuel saving, so I would like to ask an experienced driver, Fernando, and a new guy, Max, if you welcome this because it’s more in the driver’s hands or do you prefer to have as many tools and inputs to optimise your driving?
FA: Well, I don’t think it will make a huge change because… yeah, we are receiving some information now on the radio about tyres, about fuel or other things on the car but we are perfectly aware of what is happening in the car and what is the best solution for the specific issues that we are facing during the race so if that information is not coming, it will come anyway by instinct and by the reactions of the car. So yeah, we will have to pay a little bit more attention to a few things that now we rely a little bit on the radio but it’s not a big change and probably it’s welcome, all those changes, to have a little bit more to do in the car and feeling a little bit more important.
MV: For me, I don’t think it will change a lot. You always drive on your instincts. You feel when the tyres are dropping off so the engineer doesn’t need to tell you that. I think you learn that already from a very young age so yeah, I don’t mind, to be honest, to talk a little bit less on the radio.
Q: (Flavio Vanetti – Corriere della Serra) Kimi, you are approaching your sixth season with the red car. You have won a title, some races, you’ve got some podiums. What are you still missing in your experience with Ferrari?
KR: Obviously we want more wins, me and the team, but I’ve had good years, difficult years, some up and downs but I always enjoy it, always enjoy it more when things are going more nicely when you get results but as a team, I’ve had a great time there and I’m very pleased that we can be working together next year again. As a team, as they are now, I really feel that we are going in the right direction and we can do great things in the future. No, if I miss something… like I said, people more happy, we are more happy when we can do better results. Obviously you write less negative things after that. We keep working and believe in what we’re doing so I’m sure we will get there and we will have many happy days in front of us and a lot of good results.
Q: (Thomas Bastin – La Derniere Heure) Max, I remember your wins last year in Formula Three very well. It seems that when you arrive at this track you were immediately very much at ease. Does it give you more confidence before your first attempt in Formula One?
MV: I’m always confident but I’m racing against very competitive and experienced guys so we will see. I always try to do my best and from there on we always go into the weekend.
Q: (Angelique Belokopytov – Autodigest) Lots of drivers just love Spa for its legendary corners, for opportunities to overtake and so on so my question is for all drivers: what do you dislike in Spa, what would you optimise or improve? So let’s start with Kimi as he has the record for the most wins of any driver here?
KR: What would I change? I think I would go back to how the last chicane was, coming into the chicane and I guess it was called the Bus Stop at that time, it was nicer than how it is now. It was just better, kind of more like it should be. Now one part is a bit different to the others, the new one doesn’t feel like it fits exactly there. I think it was a nicer corner, there was a bit more speed, over the kerbs more. I guess that not much else has changed really, a little bit the first corner.
LH: I think I would agree but I never drove that circuit, I just watched and played it on the computer game but it was definitely even more fun on computer games so I would imagine it would be better in real life.
Q: Is this one of your favourite tracks?
LH: No
Q: Anybody else like to make any changes?
MV: There are quite a lot of wasps. I don’t like them. That’s the only thing. I think the track is great.
Q: (Livio Oricchio – Globosport.com) Lewis, you have been seen in the social media, many pictures of your maybe new way of life. What do you think, do you think you can arrive at the races more relaxed, it helps you to develop even better work? Or in the future, you can charge some price?
LH: I don’t really have a new way of life. This is what I’ve sort of been doing… it’s just more visible to you, that’s about it. It’s been working quite well the last couple of years. |
The list of airlines that want to bring back supersonic travel is growing.
Boom Aerospace, an ambitious aerospace start-up, says it has convinced five airlines to buy into its vision for developing a airliner that flies faster than the speed of sound.
Blake Scholl, founder and chief executive of Denver-based Boom, said during a presentation at the Paris Air Show Tuesday that the five carriers have reserved their spots for 76 of Boom's successor to the Concorde. That aircraft was taken out of service in 2003 after 27 years of commercial flights at more than twice the speed of sound.
With a planned speed of 2.2 times the speed of sound or 1,451 mph, the project's lofty goals include sharply cutting flight time: New York to Paris to three and a half hours, San Francisco to Tokyo in less than five and a half hours and Los Angeles to Sydney in just seven hours.
Only one airline interested in Boom, so far, has made itself known. Sir Richard Branson's Virgin Atlantic Airways in 2016 has an option to take the first 10 aircraft the company builds.
Related: Best business class airline lounges around the world
Scholl won't say who the four unidentified "world airlines" are. He promised the individual carriers would identify themselves at a later point to explain how a new generation of supersonic travel fit in their business.
"The airlines that are placing reservations with Boom now are putting real money against them, not small amounts, significant amounts of cash," he said during a presentation at the Paris Air Show.
Two-steps to supersonic flying
Boom is advancing on a two-stage process to revive supersonic commercial air travel. Its first step is to develop a small aircraft called the XB-1 "Baby Boom" to validate many of the technologies for flying at Mach 2.2. Boom will first need to prove these work if it is to go forward with a full-size 45 to 55-seat airliner.
That small two-seat model begins assembly this year and flies late in 2018, Scholl said.
Scholl said that computer simulations have significantly sped up its initial process of finding the the right design of the full-size Boom jet.
"We've tested about a 1,000 design variations...most of them aren't very good," Scholl said. "But we've had a few that are."
Related: Boom lands $33 million to test supersonic aircraft
To date, the company has raised $41 million, which Scholl said will get the XB-1 airborne for the first time.
But Boom is going to need considerably more capital to turn its initial airborne technology trials into a full-fledged commercial aircraft program.
Japan, Russia and China have all offered significant state support as part of the development of new homegrown airliners. The barriers for a new commercial aviation start-up, especially a private one, are enormous.
"I think healthy skepticism is only fair," Scholl said. "This is not a simple project." |
Cellular locomotion is a central hallmark of eukaryotic life. It is governed by cell-extrinsic molecular factors, which can either emerge in the soluble phase or as immobilized, often adhesive ligands. To encode for direction, every cue must be present as a spatial or temporal gradient. Here, we developed a microfluidic chamber that allows measurement of cell migration in combined response to surface immobilized and soluble molecular gradients. As a proof of principle we study the response of dendritic cells to their major guidance cues, chemokines. The majority of data on chemokine gradient sensing is based on in vitro studies employing soluble gradients. Despite evidence suggesting that in vivo chemokines are often immobilized to sugar residues, limited information is available how cells respond to immobilized chemokines. We tracked migration of dendritic cells towards immobilized gradients of the chemokine CCL21 and varying superimposed soluble gradients of CCL19. Differential migratory patterns illustrate the potential of our setup to quantitatively study the competitive response to both types of gradients. Beyond chemokines our approach is broadly applicable to alternative systems of chemo- and haptotaxis such as cells migrating along gradients of adhesion receptor ligands vs. any soluble cue.
This work was supported by the Swiss National Science Foundation (Ambizione fellowship; PZ00P3-154733 to M.M.), the Swiss Multiple Sclerosis Society (research support to M.M.), a fellowship from the Boehringer Ingelheim Fonds (BIF) to J.S., the European Research Council (grant ERC GA 281556) and a START award from the Austrian Science Foundation (FWF) to M.S. #BioimagingFacility |
/*
Copyright (c) 2020 VMware, Inc. All Rights Reserved.
Licensed under the Apache License, Version 2.0 (the "License");
you may not use this file except in compliance with the License.
You may obtain a copy of the License at
http://www.apache.org/licenses/LICENSE-2.0
Unless required by applicable law or agreed to in writing, software
distributed under the License is distributed on an "AS IS" BASIS,
WITHOUT WARRANTIES OR CONDITIONS OF ANY KIND, either express or implied.
See the License for the specific language governing permissions and
limitations under the License.
*/
package volume
import (
"context"
"errors"
"flag"
"github.com/vmware/govmomi/cns"
"github.com/vmware/govmomi/cns/types"
"github.com/vmware/govmomi/govc/cli"
"github.com/vmware/govmomi/govc/flags"
"github.com/vmware/govmomi/vim25/soap"
)
type rm struct {
*flags.ClientFlag
}
func init() {
cli.Register("volume.rm", &rm{})
}
func (cmd *rm) Register(ctx context.Context, f *flag.FlagSet) {
cmd.ClientFlag, ctx = flags.NewClientFlag(ctx)
cmd.ClientFlag.Register(ctx, f)
}
func (cmd *rm) Usage() string {
return "ID"
}
func (cmd *rm) Description() string {
return `Remove CNS volume.
Examples:
govc volume.rm f75989dc-95b9-4db7-af96-8583f24bc59d
govc volume.rm $(govc volume.ls -i pvc-de368f19-a997-4d5d-9eae-4496f10f429a)`
}
func (cmd *rm) Run(ctx context.Context, f *flag.FlagSet) error {
vc, err := cmd.Client()
if err != nil {
return err
}
_ = vc.UseServiceVersion("vsan")
c, err := cns.NewClient(ctx, vc)
if err != nil {
return err
}
ids := []types.CnsVolumeId{{Id: f.Arg(0)}}
task, err := c.DeleteVolume(ctx, ids, true)
if err != nil {
return err
}
info, err := task.WaitForResult(ctx, nil)
if err != nil {
return err
}
if res, ok := info.Result.(types.CnsVolumeOperationBatchResult); ok {
for _, r := range res.VolumeResults {
fault := r.GetCnsVolumeOperationResult().Fault
if fault != nil {
if fault.Fault != nil {
return soap.WrapVimFault(fault.Fault)
}
return errors.New(fault.LocalizedMessage)
}
}
}
return nil
}
|
Bus tragedy: Govt woos victims' families with grant
Chandigarh, March 6: A day after the terrible mishap involving a school bus which collided with a truck leaving 12 children dead, the Punjab government, has sanctioned an ex-gratia grant of Rs 2 lakh each to the families of the school children and the bus driver. Punjab Chief Minister Parkash Singh Badal also approved an aid of Rs 25,000 each for every injured student, a spokesperson of the Chief Minister's Office said.
On March 4 the school bus carrying children from a private school collided with a brick-laden truck which was coming on a wrong lane. The incident took place on Monday morning near Jaheera village in Lambhra which is close to Nakodar. Around 30 children were travelling in the van. Many of the children travelling in the bus were under 10 years of age.
While all of them were rushed to a hospital, 5 children are battling for their life at a local hospital. The impact of the accident was so bad that the school van was virtually reduced to a piece of metal scrap. The entire stretch had bags and tiffin boxes strewn across.
The Lok Sabha today mourned the death of children in a road accident in Jalandhar district. "I am deeply saddened to learn about the tragic accident," Speaker Meira Kumar said in the Lok Sabha. She also conveyed her condolences to the members of the bereaved families of those children who died in the tragic incident. |
In this paper, a case-supported principle-based behavior paradigm is proposed to help ensure ethical behavior of autonomous machines. We argue that ethically significant behavior of autonomous systems should be guided by explicit ethical principles determined through a consensus of ethicists. Such a consensus is likely to emerge in many areas in which autonomous systems are apt to be deployed and for the actions they are liable to undertake. We believe that this is the case since we are more likely to agree on how machines ought to treat us than on how human beings ought to treat one another. Given such a consensus, particular cases of ethical dilemmas where ethicists agree on the ethically relevant features and the right course of action can be used to help discover principles that balance these features when they are in conflict. Such principles not only help ensure ethical behavior of complex and dynamic systems but also can serve as a basis for justification of this behavior. The requirements, methods, implementation, and evaluation components of the paradigm are detailed as well as its instantiation in both a simulated and real robot functioning in the domain of eldercare.
For many service robots, reactivity to changes in their surroundings is a must. However, developing software suitable for dynamic environments is difficult. Existing robotic middleware allows engineers to design behavior graphs by organizing communication between components. But because these graphs are structurally inflexible, they hardly support the development of complex reactive behavior. To address this limitation, we propose Playful, a software platform that applies reactive programming to the specification of robotic behavior.
We propose a method for instance-level segmentation that uses RGB-D data as input and provides detailed information about the location, geometry and number of {\em individual\/} objects in the scene. This level of understanding is fundamental for autonomous robots. It enables safe and robust decision-making under the large uncertainty of the real-world. In our model, we propose to use the first and second order moments of the object occupancy function to represent an object instance. We train an hourglass Deep Neural Network (DNN) where each pixel in the output votes for the 3D position of the corresponding object center and for the object's size and pose. The final instance segmentation is achieved through clustering in the space of moments. The object-centric training loss is defined on the output of the clustering. Our method outperforms the state-of-the-art instance segmentation method on our synthesized dataset. We show that our method generalizes well on real-world data achieving visually better segmentation results.
Grasping objects under uncertainty remains an open problem in robotics research. This uncertainty is often due to noisy or partial observations of the object pose or shape. To enable a robot to react appropriately to unforeseen effects, it is crucial that it continuously takes sensor feedback into account. While visual feedback is important for inferring a grasp pose and reaching for an object, contact feedback offers valuable information during manipulation and grasp acquisition. In this paper, we use model-free deep reinforcement learning to synthesize control policies that exploit contact sensing to generate robust grasping under uncertainty. We demonstrate our approach on a multi-fingered hand that exhibits more complex finger coordination than the commonly used two- fingered grippers. We conduct extensive experiments in order to assess the performance of the learned policies, with and without contact sensing. While it is possible to learn grasping policies without contact sensing, our results suggest that contact feedback allows for a significant improvement of grasping robustness under object pose uncertainty and for objects with a complex shape.
We address the challenging problem of robotic grasping and manipulation in the presence of uncertainty. This uncertainty is due to noisy sensing, inaccurate models and hard-to-predict environment dynamics. Our approach emphasizes the importance of continuous, real-time perception and its tight integration with reactive motion generation methods. We present a fully integrated system where real-time object and robot tracking as well as ambient world modeling provides the necessary input to feedback controllers and continuous motion optimizers. Specifically, they provide attractive and repulsive potentials based on which the controllers and motion optimizer can online compute movement policies at different time intervals. We extensively evaluate the proposed system on a real robotic platform in four scenarios that exhibit either challenging workspace geometry or a dynamic environment. We compare the proposed integrated system with a more traditional sense-plan-act approach that is still widely used. In 333 experiments, we show the robustness and accuracy of the proposed system.
One of the most basic skills a robot should possess is predicting the effect of physical interactions with objects in the environment. This enables optimal action selection to reach a certain goal state. Traditionally, dynamics are approximated by physics-based analytical models. These models rely on specific state representations that may be hard to obtain from raw sensory data, especially if no knowledge of the object shape is assumed. More recently, we have seen learning approaches that can predict the effect of complex physical interactions directly from sensory input. It is however an open question how far these models generalize beyond their training data. In this work, we investigate the advantages and limitations of neural network based learning approaches for predicting the effects of actions based on sensory input and show how analytical and learned models can be combined to leverage the best of both worlds. As physical interaction task, we use planar pushing, for which there exists a well-known analytical model and a large
real-world dataset. We propose to use a convolutional neural network to convert raw depth images or organized point clouds into a suitable representation for the analytical model and compare this approach to using neural networks for both, perception and prediction.
A systematic evaluation of the proposed approach on a very large real-world dataset shows two
main advantages of the hybrid architecture. Compared to a pure neural network, it significantly (i) reduces required training data and (ii) improves generalization to novel physical interaction.
This paper presents work on vision based robotic grasping. The proposed method adopts a learning framework where prototypical grasping points are learnt from several examples and then used on novel objects. For representation purposes, we apply the concept of shape context and for learning we use a supervised learning approach in which the classifier is trained with labelled synthetic images. We evaluate and compare the performance of linear and non-linear classifiers. Our results show that a combination of a descriptor based on shape context with a non-linear classification algorithm leads to a stable detection of grasping points for a variety of objects.
Robot learning methods which allow au- tonomous robots to adapt to novel situations have been a long standing vision of robotics, artificial intelligence, and cognitive sciences. However, to date, learning techniques have yet to ful- fill this promise as only few methods manage to scale into the high-dimensional domains of manipulator robotics, or even the new upcoming trend of humanoid robotics. If possible, scaling was usually only achieved in precisely pre-structured domains. In this paper, we investigate the ingredients for a general ap- proach policy learning with the goal of an application to motor skill refinement in order to get one step closer towards human- like performance. For doing so, we study two major components for such an approach, i. e., firstly, we study policy learning algo- rithms which can be applied in the general setting of motor skill learning, and, secondly, we study a theoretically well-founded general approach to representing the required control structu- res for task representation and execution.
For complex robots such as humanoids, model-based control is highly beneficial for accurate tracking
while keeping negative feedback gains low for compliance. However, in such multi degree-of-freedom
lightweight systems, conventional identification of rigid body dynamics models using CAD data and
actuator models is inaccurate due to unknown nonlinear robot dynamic effects. An alternative method
is data-driven parameter estimation, but significant noise in measured and inferred variables affects it
adversely. Moreover, standard estimation procedures may give physically inconsistent results due to
unmodeled nonlinearities or insufficiently rich data. This paper addresses these problems, proposing
a Bayesian system identification technique for linear or piecewise linear systems. Inspired by Factor
Analysis regression, we develop a computationally efficient variational Bayesian regression algorithm
that is robust to ill-conditioned data, automatically detects relevant features, and identifies input and
output noise. We evaluate our approach on rigid body parameter estimation for various robotic systems,
achieving an error of up to three times lower than other state-of-the-art machine learning methods.
In this work we present the first constrained stochastic op-
timal feedback controller applied to a fully nonlinear, tendon
driven index finger model. Our model also takes into account an
extensor mechanism, and muscle force-length and force-velocity
properties. We show this feedback controller is robust to noise
and perturbations to the dynamics, while successfully handling
the nonlinearities and high dimensionality of the system. By ex-
tending prior methods, we are able to approximate physiological
realism by ensuring positivity of neural commands and tendon
tensions at all timesthus can, for the first time, use the optimal control framework
to predict biologically plausible tendon tensions for a nonlinear
neuromuscular finger model.
METHODS
1 Muscle Model
The rigid-body triple pendulum finger model with slightly
viscous joints is actuated by Hill-type muscle models. Joint
torques are generated by the seven muscles of the index fin-
We present a novel algorithm for efficient learning and feature selection in high-
dimensional regression problems. We arrive at this model through a modification of
the standard regression model, enabling us to derive a probabilistic version of the
well-known statistical regression technique of backfitting. Using the Expectation-
Maximization algorithm, along with variational approximation methods to overcome
intractability, we extend our algorithm to include automatic relevance detection
of the input features. This Variational Bayesian Least Squares (VBLS) approach
retains its simplicity as a linear model, but offers a novel statistically robust â??black-
boxâ? approach to generalized linear regression with high-dimensional inputs. It can
be easily extended to nonlinear regression and classification problems. In particular,
we derive the framework of sparse Bayesian learning, e.g., the Relevance Vector
Machine, with VBLS at its core, offering significant computational and robustness
advantages for this class of methods. We evaluate our algorithm on synthetic and
neurophysiological data sets, as well as on standard regression and classification
benchmark data sets, comparing it with other competitive statistical approaches
and demonstrating its suitability as a drop-in replacement for other generalized
linear regression techniques.
In the proceedings of American Control Conference (ACC 2010) , 2010, clmc (article)
Abstract
We present a generalization of the classic Differential Dynamic Programming algorithm. We assume the existence of state- and control-dependent process noise, and proceed to derive the second-order expansion of the cost-to-go. Despite having quartic and cubic terms in the initial expression, we show that these vanish, leaving us with the same quadratic structure as standard DDP.
In a not too distant future, robots will be a natural part of
daily life in human society, providing assistance in many
areas ranging from clinical applications, education and care
giving, to normal household environments [1]. It is hard to
imagine that all possible tasks can be preprogrammed in such
robots. Robots need to be able to learn, either by themselves
or with the help of human supervision. Additionally, wear and
tear on robots in daily use needs to be automatically compensated
for, which requires a form of continuous self-calibration,
another form of learning. Finally, robots need to react to stochastic
and dynamic environments, i.e., they need to learn
how to optimally adapt to uncertainty and unforeseen
changes. Robot learning is going to be a key ingredient for the
future of autonomous robots.
While robot learning covers a rather large field, from learning
to perceive, to plan, to make decisions, etc., we will focus
this review on topics of learning control, in particular, as it is
concerned with learning control in simulated or actual physical
robots. In general, learning control refers to the process of
acquiring a control strategy for a particular control system and
a particular task by trial and error. Learning control is usually
distinguished from adaptive control [2] in that the learning system
can have rather general optimization objectivesâ??not just,
e.g., minimal tracking errorâ??and is permitted to fail during
the process of learning, while adaptive control emphasizes fast
convergence without failure. Thus, learning control resembles
the way that humans and animals acquire new movement
strategies, while adaptive control is a special case of learning
control that fulfills stringent performance constraints, e.g., as
needed in life-critical systems like airplanes.
Learning control has been an active topic of research for at
least three decades. However, given the lack of working robots
that actually use learning components, more work needs to be
done before robot learning will make it beyond the laboratory
environment. This article will survey some ongoing and past
activities in robot learning to assess where the field stands and
where it is going. We will largely focus on nonwheeled robots
and less on topics of state estimation, as typically explored in
wheeled robots [3]â??6], and we emphasize learning in continuous
state-action spaces rather than discrete state-action spaces [7], [8].
We will illustrate the different topics of robot learning with
examples from our own research with anthropomorphic and
humanoid robots.
We present a control architecture for fast quadruped locomotion over rough terrain. We approach the problem by decomposing
it into many sub-systems, in which we apply state-of-the-art learning, planning, optimization, and control techniques
to achieve robust, fast locomotion. Unique features of our control strategy include: (1) a system that learns optimal
foothold choices from expert demonstration using terrain templates, (2) a body trajectory optimizer based on the Zero-
Moment Point (ZMP) stability criterion, and (3) a floating-base inverse dynamics controller that, in conjunction with force
control, allows for robust, compliant locomotion over unperceived obstacles. We evaluate the performance of our controller
by testing it on the LittleDog quadruped robot, over a wide variety of rough terrains of varying difficulty levels. The
terrain that the robot was tested on includes rocks, logs, steps, barriers, and gaps, with obstacle sizes up to the leg length
of the robot. We demonstrate the generalization ability of this controller by presenting results from testing performed by
an independent external test team on terrain that has never been shown to us.
This paper explores a memory-based approach to robot learning, using memory-based neural networks to learn models of the task to be performed. Steinbuch and Taylor presented neural network designs to explicitly store training data and do nearest neighbor lookup in the early 1960s. In this paper their nearest neighbor network is augmented with a local model network, which fits a local model to a set of nearest neighbors. This network design is equivalent to a statistical approach known as locally weighted regression, in which a local model is formed to answer each query, using a weighted regression in which nearby points (similar experiences) are weighted more than distant points (less relevant experiences). We illustrate this approach by describing how it has been used to enable a robot to learn a difficult juggling task. Keywords: memory-based, robot learning, locally weighted regression, nearest neighbor, local models.
1991
Our goal is to understand the principles of Perception, Action and Learning in autonomous systems that successfully interact with complex environments and to use this understanding to design future systems |
Oil industry worries Libya unrest could spread
The first major protests to hit an OPEC country put the oil industry on edge Monday, sending crude prices jumping and raising speculation about the use of emergency oil reserves that have been touched only twice in two decades.
View full sizeHussein Malla, The Associated PressA Libyan protester holds a poster of Libyan leader Moammar Gadhafi, as two Egyptian soldiers stand guard in front of the Libyan embassy entrance in Cairo, Egypt, on Monday.
In addition to Libya, the industry is closely watching protests in Algeria, Bahrain and Iran, the second-largest crude exporter in the OPEC behind Saudi Arabia.
"The concerns in the market go beyond Libya," said Victor Shum, an energy analyst with Purvin & Gertz in Singapore. "It's unlikely we're going to see any meaningful disruption of oil from the Middle East or North Africa, but the spread of this unrest has raised anxieties."
Libya is more important to the oil industry than Egypt or Tunisia, scenes of the previous upheaval in North Africa. Oil passes through Egypt, where protesters recently forced out longtime ruler Hosni Mubarak, but Egypt is not an oil exporter. Tunisia is a minor exporter.
Bahrain is not a big oil exporter either, but it has some political similarities to Saudi Arabia, which sits atop the world's largest reserves of conventional crude.
Libya exports some 1.1 million barrels of crude a day from production of 1.6 million barrels -- ranking it about 17th among world oil producers. And it has the largest proven oil reserves in Africa.
The United States, the world's largest consumer of oil, does not import any petroleum from Libya. But disruptions elsewhere can raise the price of oil worldwide.
Even more worrisome for oil markets is the potential for instability to spread to other countries in the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries, especially Saudi Arabia and Kuwait.
"The elephant in the room that has the potential to really ignite the markets is Saudi Arabia," said senior commodity analyst Edward Meir at MF Global in New York.
Oil prices jumped Monday to $8.05 a barrel, or 9 percent, with benchmark crude for April delivery at $97.76 in electronic trading on the New York Mercantile Exchange. Regular trading in U.S. markets was closed for the Presidents' Day holiday, and the thin trading volumes had the potential to amplify price fluctuations.
Some in the industry had their eye on world oil reserves that can be tapped if production is threatened or curtailed. The reserves have only been opened twice -- after Hurricane Katrina in 2005 and the first Gulf War in 1991.
David Fyfe, head of the oil industry and markets division at the International Energy Agency, said the agency's member countries have reserves of 1.6 billion barrels of oil -- equivalent to the amount of crude the U.S. imports in almost six months.
The agency's members are mainly oil-consuming industrial nations such as the United States, Japan, Britain and Germany.
Using government oil supplies to stabilize the oil market is "very much a last resort, but it's worth pointing out that it exists and has been used before when supplies have been disrupted," he said.
Fyfe said there are differences between now and the last time the world experienced widespread oil shortages and price increases, in 2008, including more spare capacity and greater OPEC production.
J.P. Morgan analyst Lawrence Eagles wrote in a note to investors that history shows that political turmoil does not necessarily hurt the flow of oil.
"Any government in an oil-producing country will ultimately need the revenue from oil production," he wrote. "As such, there is a natural tendency for oil flows to continue over time."
American oil companies were barred from doing business in Libya until the U.S. lifted its embargo in 2004. Since then, contracts between Libya and foreign oil companies have been frustrating for both sides, said PFC Energy analyst David Kirsch.
The amount of oil and natural gas discovered has been disappointing, and oil companies have felt that the contracts were not generous enough, given the limited size of new discoveries, Kirsch said.
If the Gadhafi government falls, oil companies may find that the new government demands terms even more favorable to Libya and less favorable to the oil companies, Kirsch said.
U.K.-based BP and Germany's Wintershall temporarily suspended operations in Libya on Monday, while Italy's Eni said production continued normally. Some firms also began evacuating foreign employees.
BP evacuated around 40 expatriate staff and their families, halting operations just four years after the company returned to Libya following a 30-year hiatus. In 2007, BP signed a deal worth at least $900 million in 2007 to explore in Libya.
The company said it would monitor the situation on a daily basis, but stressed that offshore operations in the region were still open and that the closure would not effect current production.
Among U.S. oil companies, ConocoPhillips and Marathon Oil Corp. each have a 16 percent interest in an oil drilling operation in Libya, with almost 60 percent held by Libya's state-run oil company. ConocoPhillips spokesman John McLemore said the company is monitoring the situation but had no comment on the security of its workers there.
Marathon said it has evacuated dependents of expatriate workers was "taking the necessary steps to ensure the safety and security" of those who remained. The company said it was not aware of any disruptions to production.
Occidental Petroleum Corp., the first American company to resume operations in Libya when the U.S. government lifted sanctions, did not immediately return a call seeking comment. Last year, Occidental produced 13,000 barrels of oil, gas and liquids per day in Libya.
Exxon Mobil Corp., which has licenses for offshore drilling near Libya but no active drilling now, said it did not discuss security matters.
By Jane Wardell and Joshua Freed, AP business writers
Pablo Gorondi in Budapest and Alex Kennedy in Singapore contributed to this report. |
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