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PUBLISHED UNITED STATES COURT OF APPEALS FOR THE FOURTH CIRCUIT SOUTHEAST CRESCENT SHIPPING COMPANY; SOUTHEAST CRESCENT TERMINAL COMPANY, INCORPORATED, Petitioners, No. 98-2464 v. NATIONAL LABOR RELATIONS BOARD, Respondent. NATIONAL LABOR RELATIONS BOARD, Petitioner, v. No. 98-2609 SOUTHEAST CRESCENT SHIPPING COMPANY; SOUTHEAST CRESCENT TERMINAL COMPANY, INCORPORATED, Respondents. On Petition for Review and Cross-application for Enforcement of an Order of the National Labor Relations Board. (11-CB-16155, 11-CB-2483) Argued: September 23, 1999 Decided: October 20, 1999 Before HAMILTON, LUTTIG, and WILLIAMS, Circuit Judges. Petition for review denied and cross-application for enforcement granted by published opinion. Judge Luttig wrote the opinion, in which Judge Hamilton and Judge Williams joined. _________________________________________________________________ COUNSEL ARGUED: Bruce McCoy Steen, MCGUIRE, WOODS, BATTLE & BOOTHE, L.L.P., Charlotte, North Carolina, for Petitioners. Christo- pher Warren Young, NATIONAL LABOR RELATIONS BOARD, Washington, D.C., for Respondent. ON BRIEF: W. T. Cranfill, Jr., Robert B. Meyer, MCGUIRE, WOODS, BATTLE & BOOTHE, L.L.P., Charlotte, North Carolina, for Petitioners. Frederick L. Fein- stein, General Counsel, Linda Sher, Associate General Counsel, John D. Burgoyne, Acting Deputy Associate General Counsel, Frederick C. Havard, Supervisory Attorney, NATIONAL LABOR RELATIONS BOARD, Washington, D.C., for Respondent. _________________________________________________________________ OPINION LUTTIG, Circuit Judge: Petitioners Southeast Crescent Shipping Company and Southeast Crescent Terminal Company seek review of the National Labor Rela- tions Board's determination that an employee with hiring authority refused to hire a worker because of his support of particular union leaders, in violation of sections 8(a)(1) and 8(a)(3) of the National Labor Relations Act. Petitioners also contest the Board's decision that the hiring employee was a statutory supervisor for whose conduct they were responsible. The Board cross-petitions for enforcement of its order. Because we find substantial evidence in the record to sup- port the Board's determinations, we deny the petition for review and grant enforcement of the Board's order. I. Petitioners Southeast Crescent Shipping Company and Southeast Crescent Terminal Company (collectively "Southeast") are party to a 2 hiring hall agreement with International Longshoremen's Association, Local 1426 ("Union"). Under the agreement, when Southeast needs a work crew for a particular job, it seeks the Union's recommendation for a "header," or senior employee to select and lead the crew. The header then forms a crew of men based on both their skills and a seniority plan. In December of 1993, James Grady became a header, and selected Emmett Denkins as a member of his seven-man gang. By mid-March of 1994, it became clear that this gang would soon dissolve. Southeast subsequently decided to form a three-man gang, with Grady as header, to begin work on a new full-time project. Grady initially offered a position on this gang to Denkins. In early April, Denkins signed a petition supporting Union trustee John Mackay, who had been appointed by the Union's international headquarters to run the Union in place of its president, Willie Sloan. The question whether Sloan or Mackay should head the Union was a divisive one among members, and Grady in particular was an out- spoken supporter of Sloan. The petition that Denkins signed was regarded as "anti-Sloan" among union members, and Grady thus per- ceived Denkins as having "jumped the fence" separating the Sloan and Mackay camps by signing the petition. In mid-July of 1994, Grady received a formal directive from South- east to select two co-workers for the new gang. Although he had promised Denkins a position, Grady selected in Denkins' place a worker who had not signed the petition. Denkins filed a grievance with the Union upon discovering that he had been passed over. In late August, he met with Sloan, who told him that Grady had decided to replace him on the three-man gang because he had signed the petition. Another union member testified before the Administrative Law Judge (ALJ) that Grady had told him that Denkins would not be a member of the three-man gang because Denkins had signed the petition. After the Union denied his grievance, Denkins filed a charge with the NLRB. An ALJ found that Southeast had committed an unfair labor practice under sections 8(a)(1) and (3) of the National Labor Relations Act (NLRA) by denying Denkins a place on the three-man gang. In so finding, the ALJ determined that Southeast was responsi- 3 ble for Grady's conduct both because Grady was a supervisor acting within the scope of his authority within the meaning of sections 2(2) and (11) of the NLRA, and alternatively because Southeast knew or should have known of Grady's discriminatory motive. Insofar as is relevant to this case, the Board adopted the ALJ's findings. II. Southeast claims that the record lacks substantial evidence to sup- port the Board's finding that Grady declined to hire Denkins for a spot on the three-man gang because Denkins signed the petition. Such discrimination based on union activity constitutes an unfair labor practice under NLRA sections 8(a)(1) and (3), 29 U.S.C. §§ 158(a)(1) and (3). See NLRB v. Transportation Mgmt. Corp., 462 U.S. 393, 394 (1983). This court must determine whether the Board's application of the law to the facts of this case is "supported by substantial evidence based upon the record as a whole." Pirelli Cable Corp. v. NLRB, 141 F.3d 503, 514 (4th Cir. 1997). "Substantial evidence `is such evidence as a reasonable mind might accept as adequate to support a conclu- sion.'" Id. (quoting Consolidated Edison Co. v. NLRB, 305 U.S. 197, 229 (1938)). We find that the present record contains substantial evidence to support the Board's conclusion that Grady acted out of statutorily impermissible motives. Specifically, the record includes: 1) Union member King's testimony that Grady stated he decided not to give Denkins the job because Denkins had signed the petition, see J.A. 175; 2) Union member Walker's testimony that Grady angrily con- fronted Denkins about his decision to shift his support from Sloan to Mackay, see J.A. 186-87; and 3) Denkins' testimony that Grady had initially offered the job to him, and that Sloan stated that Denkins was denied the job because he had signed the petition, see J.A. 80. Southeast offers two principal responses. First, it claims that the Board impermissibly relied on Denkins' self-interested testimony. We reject this argument both because Southeast can point to nothing in the record to suggest that Denkins' testimony was unreliable and because, as can be seen from the evidence noted above, the record 4 contains evidence from multiple sources that supports the Board's conclusion. Second, Southeast claims that Grady chose not to hire Denkins because of his belief that Denkins was not qualified to oper- ate certain vehicles that the three-man gang would use. However, the record contains evidence that Denkins knew how to operate the rele- vant equipment, and that Grady knew of Denkins' qualifications in this regard. See J.A. 56. Moreover, once the General Counsel had made out a prima facie showing that the refusal to hire Denkins was based on his having signed the petition, Southeast had "the burden of proving by a preponderance of the evidence that, even though dis- criminatory animus was present, `the employer nonetheless would have taken the same employment action for legitimate reasons.'" See Medeco Security Locks, Inc. v. NLRB, 142 F.3d 733, 742 (4th Cir. 1998) (citation omitted). Given that Grady initially offered Denkins the position and refused to hire him only after he signed the petition, and the testimony in the record that Grady's specific reason for not hiring Denkins was that Denkins signed the petition, we do not believe that Southeast met its burden of proving by a preponderance of the evidence that Denkins would not have been hired even if he had not signed the petition. III. Southeast also claims that, even assuming Grady acted out of statu- torily impermissible motives, the record lacks substantial evidence to support the Board's conclusion that Grady's decision not to hire Denkins was made in his capacity as a statutory supervisor for South- east, thus rendering Southeast liable for Grady's conduct. We reject this claim as well. For purposes of the NLRA, "[t]he term `employer' includes any person acting as an agent of an employer." NLRA§ 2(2), 29 U.S.C. § 152(2). When acting within the scope of his supervisory authority, a supervisor is such an agent. See NLRB v. Health Care & Retirement Corp., 511 U.S. 571, 578 (1994); Amalgamated Clothing Workers v. NLRB, 365 F.2d 898, 909 (D.C. Cir. 1966). Section 2(11) of the NLRA defines "supervisor" to include: [a]ny individual having authority, in the interest of the employer, to hire, transfer, suspend, lay off, recall, promote, 5 discharge, assign, reward, or discipline other employees ... [if] the exercise of such authority is not of a merely routine or clerical nature, but requires the use of independent judg- ment. 29 U.S.C. § 152(11). Thus, to be deemed a statutory supervisor, an individual must: 1) engage in one or more of the types of conduct enumerated in section 2(11), and 2) do so "in the interest of the employer." In the present case, there is no question that Grady engaged in con- duct covered by section 2(11): he hired workers for the three-man gang. Moreover, the record contains substantial evidence that Grady engaged in this conduct "in the interest of" Southeast. Most impor- tantly, the record contains a letter indicating that Southeast chose Grady directly and informed the Union of Grady's appointment and authority to select qualified workers, see J.A. 449, rather than follow- ing the standard practice of asking the Union to recommend a header for the three-man gang. Indeed, counsel for Southeast conceded at oral argument that this letter establishes that the company directly selected Grady to hire two co-workers. Southeast counters by relying on NLRB v. Master Stevedores Assoc. of Texas, 418 F.2d 140 (5th Cir. 1969), claiming that a hiring hall arrangement generally allows union headers to act in the interest of the union, rather than the employer, such that the arrangement does not evince sufficient kinship between header and employer to warrant attribution of the former's conduct to the latter. See id. at 142-43. However, this argument concerning the nature of hiring hall arrange- ments in general does nothing to controvert the evidence in the record that, with regard to the particular three-man gang at issue in this case, Grady was acting on the direct instruction of Southeast, not the Union.* _________________________________________________________________ *Because we find that the record contains substantial evidence to sup- port the Board's conclusion that Grady acted within the scope of his supervisory authority in failing to hire Denkins, we need not address the Board's alternative rationale for holding Southeast responsible for Grady's conduct, that Southeast knew or should have known of Grady's impermissible motives. 6 CONCLUSION For the reasons stated herein, we deny Southeast's petition for review of the Board's decision and order, and grant the Board's cross- petition for enforcement of its order. It is so ordered 7
Chromatic and contrast selectivity in color contrast adaptation. We used color contrast adaptation to examine the chromatic and contrast selectivity of central color mechanisms. Adaptation to a field whose color varies along a single axis of color space induces a selective loss in sensitivity to the adapting axis. The resulting changes in color appearance are consistent with mechanisms formed by different linear combinations of the cone signals. We asked whether the visual system could also adjust to higher-order variations in the adapting stimulus, by adapting observers to interleaved variations along both the L versus M and the S versus LM cardinal axes. The perceived hue of test stimuli was then measured with an asymmetric matching task. Frequency analysis of the hue shifts revealed weak but systematic hue rotations away from each cardinal axis and toward the diagonal intermediate axes. Such shifts could arise if the adapted channels include mechanisms with narrow chromatic selectivity, as some physiological recordings suggest, but could also reflect how adaptation alters the contrast response function. In either case they imply the presence of more than two mechanisms within the chromatic plane. In a second set of measurements, we adapted to either the L versus M or the S versus LM axis alone and tested whether the changes in hue could be accounted for by changes in relative contrast along the two axes. For high contrasts the hue biases are larger than the contrast changes predict. This dissociation implies that the contrast and hue changes are not carried by a common underlying signal, and could arise if the contrast along a single color direction is encoded by more than one mechanism with different contrast sensitivities or if different subsets of channels encode contrast and hue. Such variations in contrast sensitivity are also consistent with physiological recordings of cortical neurons.
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ERNEST STERN v. JODIE FEATHERS (02/10/82) No. 618 Pittsburgh, 1981, APPEAL FROM THE ORDER OF JUNE 4, 1981 IN THE COURT OF COMMON PLEAS OF ALLEGHENY COUNTY, CIVIL ACTION, LAW, No. GD 81-06410 COUNSEL Stanton D. Levenson, Pittsburgh, for appellant. Charles M. Means, Pittsburgh, for appellee. Brosky, Cirillo and Popovich, JJ. Author: Cirillo [ 307 Pa. Super. Page 434] On March 16, 1981, Ernest Stern confessed judgment against Jodie Feathers for possession of a leasehold held by Feathers in Pittsburgh. On March 24, 1981, Feathers petitioned for rule to open, strike or vacate judgment and stay execution. A rule to show cause was issued by the trial court on that date. Feathers admits that she was in arrears to Stern for rent owing on a property which she rented from Stern pursuant to a lease agreement. She contends, however, that the agreement was modified orally and that she was fulfilling her obligations as modified. The lower court held on June 4, 1981 that Feathers had presented the court no meritorious defense and, as such, it discharged the rule and vacated the stay by Order dated June 4, 1981. This appeal followed. Our scope of review on appeal is very limited. We will only reverse a lower court's decision not to open a judgment where that court abused its discretion. First Pennsylvania Bank, N.A. v. Lehr, 293 Pa. Super. 189, 438 A.2d 600 (1981). In Corson v. Corson's Inc., 290 Pa. Super. 528, 434 A.2d 1269 (1981), we said: Pa.R.C.P. 2959(e) now provides that "if evidence is produced which in a jury trial would require the issues to be submitted to the jury, the court shall open the judgment." "Thus, a court can no longer weigh the evidence in support of the defense, but must only determine whether there is sufficient evidence to allow the issue to go to the (sic) the jury." Wolgin v. Mickman, 233 Pa. Super. 218, 221-222, [ 307 Pa. Super. Page 435335] A.2d 824, 826 (1976). "Otherwise stated, the judgment should be opened where the evidence produced would be sufficient to prevent a directed verdict against [appellee]." Greenwood v. Kadoich, supra, 239 Pa. Super. [372] at 375, 357 A.2d [604] at 606. The issue for our determination, therefore, is whether appellee has produced evidence sufficient to prevent a directed verdict from being granted against it. Essentially, Feathers contends that in August of 1980 she and Stern agreed that she would pay her rent arrearages by specified installments. She asserts further that she paid Stern according to their agreed upon plan until December of 1980. The trial court held that the modification lacked specificity as to its terms and therefore that the modification was not proven. Thus, no issue of fact was required to be sent to the jury. Appellant asserts that the following terms constituted a new agreement or modification of the existing written lease: Appellant: Mr. Treidel (appellee's agent) told me that I had to show that I was attempting to pay off the balance . . . . So long as I showed that I was making an attempt, there would be no problem. We disagree and find her contentions without merit. In New Eureka Amusement Co. v. Rosinsky, 126 Pa. Super. 444, 191 A. 412 (1937), in which the facts are strikingly similar to those at bar, the court said: The main basis of lessee's right of action is that by virtue of the lessor's promises, a new agreement was substituted for the original lease. To establish such an agreement, the proof must be such as would amount to a novation. What constitutes a novation, we have recently discussed in Le Bar v. Patterson, 123 Pa. Superior Ct. 491, 187 A. 278. In every novation there are four essential requisites: (1) a previous valid obligation, (2) the agreement of all the parties to the new contract, (3) the extinguishment of the [ 307 Pa. Super. Page 436] old contract, (4) the validity of the new one; and the burden is upon one who alleges a novation to establish it by proper proof. It is clear that at the meeting of the parties held in January, 1934 no definite agreement was made by the lessor to waive any of his rights under the lease; nor does the testimony of what occurred at the meeting held in February rise any higher . . . . In Knight v. Gulf Refining Co., 311 Pa. 357, 166 A. 880 (1933), Chief Justice said: "The existence of an oral contract changing the terms of a prior written one must be clearly and positively shown. Its terms must appear definitely from the evidence. The acts of the parties, their conduct and the circumstances and relations existing between them, are all elements to be given due consideration in determining both the existence and terms of such an agreement." Here, as in New Eureka, appellee continually demanded payment in full and, further, the alleged agreement fails to set forth the amount of revised payments or the period of time over which the arrearages were to be satisfied. For these reasons, we agree with the lower court that appellant has failed to raise a meritorious defense as required by Pa.R.C.P. 2959. Since we find that the trial court has not abused its discretion in this regard, its findings should not be disturbed on appeal. First Pennsylvania Bank, N.A. v. Lehr, 293 Pa. Super. 189, 483 A.2d 600 (1981). Not only does a reversal based upon the instant case eradicate the efficacy of a confession of judgment provision in a commercial setting, but it could also discourage negotiations or compromises by lessors for fear that their actions might be construed as a waiver or relinquishment of a right or remedy. Accordingly, we affirm the decision of the lower court. Our website includes the main text of the court's opinion but does not include the docket number, case citation or footnotes. Upon purchase, docket numbers and/or citations allow you to research a case further or to use a case in a legal proceeding. Footnotes (if any) include details of the court's decision. Buy This Entire Record For $7.95 Official citation and/or docket number and footnotes (if any) for this case available with purchase.
Compassion makes for good macroeconomics today, even as the Republicans and Tea Partiers harden their hearts to the damage being done to the poor and unemployed. Raising marginal tax rates on the rich (top 1 percent) and “stinking rich” (as the Slate author terms the top 0.1 percent)—that is, taxing only the portion of their incomes over, say, $300,000 a year—and using the money to fund humanitarian income assistance to the unemployed and their children would put more money into the spending stream than any other fiscal policy measure, as our economy sinks into depression. Some would say America is already a hollowed-out state, gutted by money interests, powerless to effect such a social contract. I hope they are wrong. Wednesday, October 20, 2010 The “two party system” is a complete sham, as Carol Quigley pointed out fifty years ago. Republican, Democrat or Tea Party candidates all represent one party, the Money Party. The most important fiscal policy measure needed today is to raise marginal tax rates on incomes over $1 million to 90 percent, the way they were under Eisenhower. We need to bring our shameless ruling class down to Earth before they decide to start a world war to send our children off to. The Perfect Storm It’s a perfect storm. And I’m not talking about the impending dangers facing Democrats. I’m talking about the dangers facing our democracy. First, income in America is now more concentrated in fewer hands than it’s been in 80 years. Almost a quarter of total income generated in the United States is going to the top 1 percent of Americans. The top one-tenth of one percent of Americans now earn as much as the bottom 120 million of us. Who are these people? With the exception of a few entrepreneurs like Bill Gates, they’re top executives of big corporations and Wall Street, hedge-fund managers, and private equity managers. They include the Koch brothers, whose wealth increased by billions last year, and who are now funding tea party candidates across the nation. Which gets us to the second part of the perfect storm. A relatively few Americans are buying our democracy as never before. And they’re doing it completely in secret. Hundreds of millions of dollars are pouring into advertisements for and against candidates — without a trace of where the dollars are coming from. They’re laundered through a handful of groups. Fred Malek, whom you may remember as deputy director of Richard Nixon’s notorious Committee to Reelect the President (dubbed Creep in the Watergate scandal), is running one of them. Republican operative Karl Rove runs another. The U.S. Chamber of Commerce, a third. The Supreme Court’s Citizens United vs. the Federal Election Commission made it possible. The Federal Election Commission says only 32 percent of groups paying for election ads are disclosing the names of their donors. By comparison, in the 2006 midterm, 97 percent disclosed; in 2008, almost half disclosed. We’re back to the late 19th century when the lackeys of robber barons literally deposited sacks of cash on the desks of friendly legislators. The public never knew who was bribing whom. Just before it recessed the House passed a bill that would require that the names of all such donors be publicly disclosed. But it couldn’t get through the Senate. Every Republican voted against it. (To see how far the GOP has come, nearly ten years ago campaign disclosure was supported by 48 of 54 Republican senators.) Here’s the third part of the perfect storm. Most Americans are in trouble. Their jobs, incomes, savings, and even homes are on the line. They need a government that’s working for them, not for the privileged and the powerful. Yet their state and local taxes are rising. And their services are being cut. Teachers and firefighters are being laid off. The roads and bridges they count on are crumbling, pipelines are leaking, schools are dilapidated, and public libraries are being shut. There’s no jobs bill to speak of. No WPA to hire those who can’t find jobs in the private sector. Unemployment insurance doesn’t reach half of the unemployed. Washington says nothing can be done. There’s no money left. No money? The marginal income tax rate on the very rich is the lowest it’s been in more than 80 years. Under President Dwight Eisenhower (who no one would have accused of being a radical) it was 91 percent. Now it’s 36 percent. Congress is even fighting over whether to end the temporary Bush tax cut for the rich and return them to the Clinton top tax of 39 percent. Much of the income of the highest earners is treated as capital gains, anyway — subject to a 15 percent tax. The typical hedge-fund and private-equity manager paid only 17 percent last year. Their earnings were not exactly modest. The top 15 hedge-fund managers earned an average of $1 billion. Congress won’t even return to the estate tax in place during the Clinton administration – which applied only to those in the top 2 percent of incomes. It won’t limit the tax deductions of the very rich, which include interest payments on multi-million dollar mortgages. (Yet Wall Street refuses to allow homeowners who can’t meet mortgage payments to include their primary residence in personal bankruptcy.) There’s plenty of money to help stranded Americans, just not the political will to raise it. And at the rate secret money is flooding our political system, even less political will in the future. The perfect storm: An unprecedented concentration of income and wealth at the top; a record amount of secret money flooding our democracy; and a public becoming increasingly angry and cynical about a government that’s raising its taxes, reducing its services, and unable to get it back to work. We’re losing our democracy to a different system. It’s called plutocracy. Tuesday, October 12, 2010 Assuming that the unemployment rate does not materially improve over the next two years, “animal spirits” or confidence levels will fail in about 2013, after the next Presidential election. I premise the lack of improvement in the labor market on the extreme dysfunctionality of the American political system at this historical juncture. At a time when unemployment shows a persistence unprecedented in the postwar business cycle, the Tea Party and Republicans are snookering Americans into seeing government as their “enemy,” which in many ways it may be; but not in the respect that a humane and macro-economically sound government response to human suffering caused by unemployment would be a sensible redistribution of income—now at multigenerational levels of inequality—to those most damaged by the macro economy. As I have written, the macro economy would be better off if the Bush tax break on households with over $250,000 incomes—some 3 percent of Americans or about 9 million “souls”—were to lapse and the estimated $70 billion annual run rate given to the 15 million officially unemployed person, or less than $5,000 each. The unemployed would spend the money, every penny, and would do more to boost the macro economy than letting the rich keep it. It is a characteristic of human nature that we get used to things, and judge accordingly. Hence, we speak of “the new normal.” My model suggests that we will forbear the new normal for another couple of years, after which any deterioration in the economy will sink “animal spirits” again. The same qualitative result holds if we see some intermediate improvement in unemployment. My yield curve plus “animal spirits” recession forecasting model shows virtually no potential for a new collapse in the year ahead (this is not to say the economy is healthy, just that there is little chance of an NBER-type recession ahead, which I identify with a failure of confidence). The Great Depression saw its financial panic in 1929, its economic bottom in 1933, followed by about seven years of depressed output and employment, followed by war. I do not think we have seen the economic bottom of this cycle, and I believe the financial problems are worse than in the ‘Thirties, when America was the world’s greatest creditor nation. Today we are the world’s greatest debtor nation. The next great failure of American confidence is likely to be more challenging to the already stretched social fabric than the last one, or the one before it, the Civil War. Friday, October 8, 2010 Seven o'clock, and retired to my fireside, I have determined to enter into conversation with you; this [Fontainebleau] is a village of about 5,000 inhabitants when the court is not here and 20,000 when they are, occupying a valley thro' which runs a brook, and on each side of it a ridge of small mountains most of which are naked rock. The king comes here in the fall always, to hunt. His court attend him, as do also the foreign diplomatic corps. But as this is not indispensably required, and my finances do not admit the expence of a continued residence here, I propose to come occasionally to attend the king's levees, returning again to Paris, distant 40 miles. This being the first trip, I set out yesterday morning to take a view of the place. For this purpose I shaped my course towards the highest of the mountains in sight, to the top of which was about a league. As soon as I had got clear of the town I fell in with a poor woman walking at the same rate with myself and going the same course. Wishing to know the condition of the labouring poor I entered into conversation with her, which I began by enquiries for the path which would lead me into the mountain: and thence proceeded to enquiries into her vocation, condition and circumstance. She told me she was a day labourer, at 8. sous or 4 d. sterling the day; that she had two children to maintain, and to pay a rent of 30 livres for her house (which would consume the hire of 75 days), that often she could get no emploiment, and of course was without bread. As we had walked together near a mile and she had so far served me as a guide, I gave her, on parting 24 sous. She burst into tears of a gratitude which I could perceive was unfeigned, because she was unable to utter a word. She had probably never before received so great an aid. This little attendrissement, with the solitude of my walk led me into a train of reflections on that unequal division of property which occasions the numberless instances of wretchedness which I had observed in this country and is to be observed all over Europe. The property of this country is absolutely concentered in a very few hands, having revenues of from half a million of guineas a year downwards. These employ the flower of the country as servants, some of them having as many as 200 domestics, not labouring. They employ also a great number of manufacturers, and tradesmen, and lastly the class of labouring husbandmen. But after all these comes the most numerous of all the classes, that is, the poor who cannot find work. I asked myself what could be the reason that so many should be permitted to beg who are willing to work, in a country where there is a very considerable proportion of uncultivated lands? These lands are kept idle mostly for the aske of game. It should seem then that it must be because of the enormous wealth of the proprietors which places them above attention to the increase of their revenues by permitting these lands to be laboured. I am conscious that an equal division of property is impracticable. But the consequences of this enormous inequality producing so much misery to the bulk of mankind, legislators cannot invent too many devices for subdividing property, only taking care to let their subdivisions go hand in hand with the natural affections of the human mind. The descent of property of every kind therefore to all the children, or to all the brothers and sisters, or other relations in equal degree is a politic measure, and a practicable one. Another means of silently lessening the inequality of property is to exempt all from taxation below a certain point, and to tax the higher portions of property in geometrical progression as they rise. Whenever there is in any country, uncultivated lands and unemployed poor, it is clear that the laws of property have been so far extended as to violate natural right. The earth is given as a common stock for man to labour and live on. If, for the encouragement of industry we allow it to be appropriated, we must take care that other employment be furnished to those excluded from the appropriation. If we do not the fundamental right to labour the earth returns to the unemployed. It is too soon yet in our country to say that every man who cannot find employment but who can find uncultivated land, shall be at liberty to cultivate it, paying a moderate rent. But it is not too soon to provide by every possible means that as few as possible shall be without a little portion of land. The small landholders are the most precious part of a state.
development Education as a Path of Defense: Arming the world with knowledge -by Suzy Marselis Could there be a war that doesn’t know defeated man? A peaceful fight, in which we all would win? Should that not be the only war we fight? Wars are fought today, all around the world. Wars with winners and losers, but in the end even the winners lose so many. How to fight a war, how to live a life, how to change the mindset of the fighters, to a mindset of a peaceful battle? Awareness is the key; creating the consciousness in humanity, for what is happening all around us, that for which everyone closes their eyes. We all live on the same planet, and there is only one earth, only one place we can live. As humanity, we all want to feel good, we want to feel at peace, we want to feel loved and we want to live without fear. But all around us, people are sad, being scared of the future, of their neighbors, for a paycheck that did not come in. So naturally, we want to defend ourselves and in history we chose often do to so with weapons. Weapons are very effective in ruining the opponent. But what is left after a war fought with weapons? A degraded land, families ripped apart, societies broken, and even the winners turn out to have suffered great losses. It is time to shift the mind, for once and for always. History has already shown that there is one way of defense that is harmless and actually beneficial for all parties: Education. Education starts when a problem, that seems to be unsolvable, is faced by making the ignorant knowledgeable. In a time where globalization is as prevalent as today, it is increasingly important to work together to fight the inequalities in the world. Only when we join our forces, in all that we have learned from the past, we will be able to prevent the same from happening in the future. We have so many past experiences and there is so much data available about humankind as a whole, but still we fail to learn fully from these experiences. Remember; how the native Americans were killed by the Europeans? And remember that the same thing happened to the natives of Australia? And to the natives of Latin America? How can we have let lives and entire cultures be lost over and over again? Remember how humans cut down most natural forest in Western Europe? Remember how they did the same to North America? And yet the western world is blaming the Africans and Asians for cutting down their forest? We have no right to blame them. The only right we have is to share our past experiences and teach those that are ignorant and uninformed, by helping each other instead of blaming each other, by sharing the planet instead of trying to take as much for ourselves as we can. With the vast amount of information available and the current technological infrastructure, it is becoming increasingly easy to spread knowledge around the world. Access to information and education should be a global human right, so that awareness can be created through educating the people and mindsets can be shifted. With education, people can actually help people and humanity can fight the war to live in peace on a healthy planet in which everyone wins. The progress in Tasajera Island has been consistent, but a bit slow. This is not something negative, because community engagement should not be rushed; enough time should be allocated to engage with all people in the community. It is important to understand their issues, needs, and priorities. School kids practicing graduation dance To Tasajera Me (at a shop near the main port) I’ve been in El Salvador for one month now, and I believe I’ve learned a lot about the cultural and social issues affecting Tasajera. It is important to know the way they operate and how they’re organized. I concluded there is a lack of organizational capacity and poor self-governance within the community. Therefore, a multisectoral committee, under the authority of the Association for Community Development (ADESCO), has been called for. There are a few organizational traits the new committee must overcome, including dependency, information deficiency, and incentives. – Dependency – Given the location of Tasajera Island at the lower Lempa River mangroves, there has been great interest in the protection and exploitation of the region. The lower Lempa River is a national protected area and a RAMSAR site. The protection of the biodiversity-rich mangroves has led many external actors to intervene with the small communities that inhabit the region. The relationship between the communities and outside funding sources has caused a side-effect of dependency. A culture of dependency has consequences on the organizational behavior of local actors; people expect to receive help with minimum effort on their side. Unfortunately, Salvadorans are not known for their excellent management skills. People often get things done “no matter what”, but fail to keep good records of what was done. Tasajera works very similarly, and people don’t have a mid- or long-term perspective. As a result, they lack the capacity to measure their performance over time. It’s understandable too, because they have lived off the ocean for generations and fish seemed never to run out… until today. Since one of the principles employed here is to build on local and already existing information structures, I’ve noticed there is some information among local actors. However, the available information is mostly written down on paper and is not being analyzed over time. This information includes: fish catch data (source: Fishing Cooperatives) School attendance data (source: schools) Children census of the community (source: ADESCO) Groundwater sampling (source: CORDES) In addition, there are some assessments of the community performed by universities and NGOs, but are focus-specific and not periodical. There is also Local Knowledge that may be recorded, like traditions and culture, and intriguing stories about young men and women who are migrating to the United States illegally. – Incentives – Community leaders seem frustrated with community members because they say it’s hard to get the people organized to accomplish something. People are not very interested in making an effort or commit to investing time in organizing something. This may be as a result of the previous points on dependency and lack of capacity. Therefore, incentivizing adequate organization and goal-oriented projects is essential to any intervention that is meant to be sustainable. Communication may be a very important aspect of this, as the benefits of “owning their development” may be explained in a more comprehensive way. Other ways to encourage participation need to be explored as the process goes on. I set out to investigate the current academic situation in the community. I met with the teacher and the director of local public school and toured the facility. The first-hand experience, besides learning of the teacher’s perspective, reassured me of the urgency in which EMANA has to act. The conditions are so bad that they may be reaching a tipping point. The plan is to develop strong connections with all actors of the community; also called community engagement phase. November is a very important month in which a multi-sectoral committee, which will oversee the Summer School project, will be formed and meet regularly to determine which way is best to intervene with the school. broken water pump water container storage? The Relation Youth-Education: “Being a teenager is a sin here in El Salvador” stated Francisco, a member of ADESCO (Community Development Association), as he explained the risk teenagers find themselves in when gangs control certain territories. In several areas of El Salvador, gang members demand students to join their gangs, and if they deny they get shot. This is a warzone, and young people are the most vulnerable in communities where their parents are afraid of sending them to school, because they are concerned they won’t come back. This is the reason why our project focuses on education, to reach out and empower those young kids who are afraid of learning. What’s the current condition in Tasajera? There are 2 schools in Tasajera. One is public (k-9), and is funded by state funds, and the other is private (k-12), and is funded by Christian organizations. It’s worth mentioning that all high school students in Tasajera go to the private Christian school to earn a high school degree. About the Public School: Infrastructure Even though the infrastructure of the public school has been recently restored with support of Spanish NGO Ayuda en Accion, it still faces great challenges before it can be considered a safe learning place. Kids in recess Student dishes and cups Desks outside Among the main issues are the lack of general hygiene and cleaning, non-functioning bathrooms, unfiltered groundwater, rundown outer walls, insufficient and broken desks. In addition, I observed a lack of learning supplies (books, notepads, pencils, etc.) and supplies for extracurricular activities. Educational Capacity In terms of the educational quality of the public school, there are a few issues that were synthesized after several interviews with teachers and community members. A main issue is the fact that there are only 2 teachers in the school (including the Director) who take care of about 120 students. This problem is attributed to the lack of funds of the student families to cover the education cost entirely. In addition, public funds are very limited and according to the Director, Carlos Velasquez, it is only enough to cover a few books and materials, but not enough for every student. Storage? school shop Director Carlos V. Educational Needs The teacher and Director of the public school expressed the need to strengthen reading and writing in young students, because there are many 6th graders that cannot read properly or write. This is a big concern when it concerns the learning abilities of students and the side-effects poor reading/writing skills have on learning as a whole. In addition, the Director expressed the concerns about the self-esteem of students and the need for psychological interventions to assess and improve character development counteract the psychological effects of broken families, poverty, and deteriorating social fabric. About the Private Christian School: There is less to mention about the Christian School “El Sembrador”, because in a way, they are better suited than the public school. This school is part of a church and is being funded by the central “El Sembrador” church in San Salvador. Thus, it is perceived to have higher quality teachers and education. However, after interviewing Ernesto Peralta, Director, I found out that in fact the challenges are similar in terms of the students; all students belong to the same community and have the same poverty and social problems. Finally, we agreed that both Directors (Public and Private) will join the Committee to work together on an educational intervention that is community-centered.
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Two years ago, I was hired as a campaign coordinator for a community initiative in South L.A. I got the job because I’d been an organizer for labor unions, and I was eager and thrilled. I’d be coordinating The Belong Campaign, part of a nonprofit funded by government entities as well as large foundations. My cubicle was in the heart of The Children’s Bureau. What they said I was doing—what the foundations were paying us to do, what I thought I was doing—was working to prevent of child abuse and neglect. But the work was not what it seemed. I came into my job knowing a couple of things. I knew how to organize people to stand up for what they believed in. I knew I wanted to do something to fix the system that treated victims of abuse and neglect like bar codes. Then, on my first day, I was shown to my cubicle and handed a heap of papers that touted an ideology—a Theory of Change. On subsequent days, I sat at large round tables and looked on as a series of aggravating white liberals spouted the inherent value of this theory: Relationship Based Organizing is a specific model that recognizes and harnesses the power, and inherent skills and talents of individuals to create and drive the changes they determine are necessary to improve the lives of their families, friends and neighbors. The story the campaign told was a story of lost resilience. The narrative they preached was how to get it back. This is a common theme in community work. Over the years the term “resilience” has been applied more and more frequently to people in distressed communities to mean their capacity to bounce back from dysfunction or breakdown. Increasing community resilience becomes a solution to chronic barriers such as poverty, trauma, and class inequity. Dozens of programs that encourage resiliency have been introduced in schools and low-income neighborhoods all over the world in an effort to help children recover from trauma and also cope better with their day-to-day stresses. It’s poverty amelioration through behavioral change—a behavioral change that asks for utter stability. What the resilience preachers look for is a person to be unchanged in the face of trauma. But I would argue that this is impossible, that people are always changed by trauma, and furthermore, that we ought to be. Rather than shift ourselves to change what is, the foundations that fund these initiatives would be better off addressing the gaps, filling the lacks, changing what isn’t. To me, the story of the families we engaged in South L.A. was never the story of a lack of resilience. It was the story of your electricity getting turned off or your landlord being a slumlord, or your immigration status standing in the way of a good job, or your children graduating from high school with little to no money to pay for college, or your child joining a gang, or your child suffering from autism. The story, another way, goes like this: Once upon a time, there was a wealthy community. Just to the south was a poor community. Between the two ran a freeway. People from the poor community were always sneaking over, trying to partake of the wealth of the wealthy community. The people in the wealthy community resented this. Or some did. Some seemed fine with it, and even helped them once they got there. Some said it was a crisis. Others said: What crisis? It’s been going on for years, plus they work so cheap. The local nonprofits, city and county efforts seized on the situation and, as always, screwed it up: reduced it to pithy ideologies, politicized it, and injected it with faux urgency, until I was confused, and we all were confused and there was nothing much left to do but to throw some good wholesome foundation money at it. About five months into my employment as campaign coordinator, I attended a research meeting where all the plans for the organization were laid out and where I felt very conflicted. I already knew that, in these types of meetings, I was made a tourist to a world and a life that I already knew well. Oftentimes I was asked to be a translator of sorts—a translator of where things went wrong for all these people, for the me I had once been. At roundtables, this one woman who developed our particular Theory of Change sat at the head, and she carried with her a sort of dominance. Her rhetoric was accepted as the central rhetoric. Throughout time, the rest of us who worked with her stopped believing in our value as organizers. Some of us became passive and stopped believing in the validity of our own experience. We all began speaking in her language: protective factors, asset based organizing, personal resilience. We started to absorb this woman’s idea that changing people’s behavior was the solution to their problems, which meant absorbing the idea that people’s behavior was thesource of their problems. But I knew at the core of me this was false. The problem had never been that I didn’t know the right number to call. It’s a lack of resources that produces a lack of resilience, not the other way around. But the work of the initiative said otherwise. This is what we did: we gathered residents in the community and pointed out what their individual and community assets were. Nothing else. We didn’t provide services, or even find a way to coordinate between the different service providers. Our mission statement: The 35,000 children and youth, especially the youngest ones, living in the neighborhoods within the 500 blocks of the Magnolia Catchment Area will break all records of success in their education, health, and the quality of nurturing care and economic stability they receive from their families and community—Getting To Scale An Elusive Goal. Our target community was the Los Angeles neighborhoods known as West Adams, Pico Union, and the North Figueroa Corridor, where the streets are lined with sweet bread bakeries and fruit cart, hot dogs fried and wrapped in bacon, chicharrones the size of my head, round and puffed or flat with lime and chile, AA meeting spaces, Disney knock-offs. The making and selling of things was an endless mantra, repeated in my head with every step. The Belong Campaign chose this area because it’s a place that houses vulnerable, high-need, low-resource neighborhoods with multiple threats: high poverty, low employment rates, high incidence of diabetes and asthma, and high rates of involvement with the child welfare system. In other words, we served people who are already resilient. If there’s one thing that people in poverty, children in foster care, and recent immigrants already have in abundance, it’s the knowledge of how to be tough. How did this gaggle of liberals measure this mental toughness of resilience? One common tool to measure resilience is called the Children and Youth Resilience Measure (CYRM-28). The CYRM-28 is a 28-item questionnaire that explores the individual, relational, communal, and cultural resources that may bolster the resilience of people aged nine to 23. The measure was designed as part of the International Resilience Project, based in Canada—a group on the forefront of resilience studies and partially funded by the Nova Scotia Department of Justice Correctional Services. Part of the programming offered by The Belong Campaign was a training for the parents in the community. The theme, of course, was resilience. It would be encouraged through discussions about challenges that life presents you and what possible resources you can use to respond to those challenges. I felt this training endorsed a morally appealing self-castigation, and when I was hired, I did away with it. We’d built what I thought was a lonely hearts club; parents attended their “resilience meeting” casually, waiting for the day to unfold. They’d do this with or without us, without this hovering idea of what they lacked. Rather, I thought it would be best to go out in the community and assess who lived there, ask where the children were, what their barriers were. So the promotoras and I knocked on the doors within the geographic target area. We surveyed the questions within CYRM 28. I added an additional question: “What was it that you want or need most in the community?” Most everyone responded with jobs and safer spaces. This seemed reasonable and not something that stemmed from a lack of resilience. The questions were like this: When I am hungry there is enough to eat: Not at all A little Somewhat Quite a bit A lot Door to door, I thought about the Philippines, where my people drink coffee and smoke cigarettes, (backwards, the lit end in your mouth). It reduces the appetite. Babies drink coffee, children smoke cigarettes, little brown bellies go round and vacant, the coffee sloshing around. I’d think about it, asking people: I know how to behave in different social situations: Not at all A little Somewhat Quite a bit A lot And I’d remember my own capacity, or lack thereof, to behave in social situations, and then think back to a time when I too lacked resources. When I first entered the system as a foster kid I ran away a lot. I ran to a park in the Pacific Palisades, all trees and dips and picnic tables. I hung by the pay phones for a nighttime streetlamp. I pretended to be relevant and then later I retreated down a hill. Halloween of 1993, all the rich kids came to the park and called it “Midnight Madness.” I emptied a tub of Cool Whip and replaced it with Nair so when one of the pretty girls was being flirty I could douse her long, blonde, shiny hair with it and she’d think it was innocuous, and then scowl as handfuls of her hair fell out. Back then, I was a solid little bomb—young, angry, and energetic. I had nowhere to put all of these feelings so I pasted posters on the sides of buildings, leafleted college campuses, got people to sign petitions at supermarkets. I was angry because, after being placed into foster care, I hated all the rules of my life and being told what to do and when to do it. I hated that the people who were in charge of my well-being felt substantially less prepared and dumber than me. Less resilient, you could say. The moment I entered the system I felt my identity ebb further and further away, no longer a name to my body, no longer an address, no longer a mother, no longer a brother, no longer a host of dreams attached to my body. My body was a number. My body was assigned to a social worker. The social worker was responsible for lots of bodies, not just my body. And yet deep, deep inside I was certain that, if these people could just meet me—if they could hear me and listen to me and talk to me—they would know that I was different. I was special and articulate and to be handled with some kind of care. I did not deserve to be poor. I did not deserve to be forgotten. I wasn’t yet aware that no one did. Was I “resilient?” I don’t know. But I was a Marxist, a graffiti artist, a girl looking for love. I was needy and cool and confused and nonchalant, and I hitchhiked around town with my friends. I slept in parks and in rich kids’ homes and stayed up in coffee shops. I drank Carl’s Jr. coffee and smoked clove cigarettes. I did not pay for too many things, I stole food but was at an age where I could live off of a large french fries, cigarettes, and coffee. Meanwhile, there were other kids in foster care who were much worse off than me. As of 1989 Los Angeles County had already paid $18 million in settlements to children who were abused while placed in custody.The majority of the lagging Department of Children and Family Services (DCFS) investigations—which include allegations of serious abuse, inadequate food, homes in disrepair or other licensing violations—remained open for more than six months, according to data obtained under the California Public Records Act. One case involved a nine-year-old boy. He weighed only 28 lbs. That’s half the size of my dog. The social workers assigned to his number hadn’t visited him for four months. In their defense, my social worker was only required to see me once every six months. During that time, the boy was beaten, sodomized, burned on his genitals, and nearly drowned by his foster parents. He had become a spastic paraplegic. On the other side of the country, I had a brother who was being kicked out of our father’s home. He was being kicked out for being gay. “Bakla” is how he was called at home. It means “faggot” in tagalog. He was being called bakla and my rich girlfriends were taking ecstasy and making out with each other. And I was sleeping in their rooms in their clothes, fondling their CD collection, pretending it was all mine until the one day I got picked up and put back into the group home I’d run away from. If you ask one of these service providers they might say I reached my all time resiliency low when I was sent to the first group home, scared of the bed that had been already been so slept on. Scared of the used sheets and scared of the roommate and scared of not knowing things. The only thing I could compare this separation to is a break-up, one where you imagine your beloved at home, heartbroken, crying, hugging a pillow in the dark. In this new place I imagined the same of my mother, and then I took maybe one or two moments to pause and take in my own surroundings. It was clear to me then that nothing good was ever gonna come of me. It has taken me two decades to shape all that helplessness and anger into a career. Does that make me, now, resilient? I thought of my past a lot during the Belong Campaign. At one of our meetings, about three months into my tenure, I looked across the table at the people in nice suits, drinking coffee and eating bagels, talking about solving this poverty problem by increasing these community members’ sense of belonging. These people, my colleagues, traveled the world—Australia, Africa, and throughout the U.S.—speaking on panels and at conferences about their innovative new approaches to increasing resilience. Making money off poverty was their vocation. They were compensated for these studies, creating a career out of their ludicrous idea of “resilience,” that the circumstances of these people’s lives were somehow a result of their poor choices or ill behaviors. At this meeting, they proposed a new concept. What if we did a cortisol study, someone said. Cortisol is the hormone that is released when someone is distressed. The proposal was to enlist a group of parents in the target low-income community in a clinical trial—to take a mouth swab and check their cortisol level, and then ask them to do something stressful and take another mouth swab to check their cortisol level. Compare these cortisol counts to others in more stable environments. The hypothesis for this study was: people in low-income communities suffer greater levels of stress. The incentive for the initiative was that it might procure funding that could then be used to establish concrete measurable findings which would then in turn substantiate the need for more workshops on resilience, more outreach, and ultimately more funding. That day was enough for me. On that day I walked out of that job, understanding fully that the story of these people was not one of a lack of resilience but of too many systems to navigate. How to see a doctor, how to enroll in classes, how to get a driver’s license, how to tell people that you are already resilient, and what you need is a job that pays better, a job that will take you out of the surveys and focus groups to a place where you’re no longer so poor. Melissa has written for Guernica, Buzzfeed, Poets & Writers, Salon, McSweeney’s, Tin House, The Rumpus, American Public Media’s Marketplace, Al Jazeera America and dozens other places. Her essay, “The Throwaways,” received notable mention in Best American Essays and Best American Nonrequired Reading. Her first novel, A Tiny Upward Shove, is forthcoming with Houghton Mifflin Harcourt. This feature has been supported by the journalism nonprofit Economic Hardship Reporting Project.
Unlike many proprietary executable file formats, ELF is very flexible and extensible, and it is not bound to any particular processor or architecture. This has allowed it to be adopted by many different operating systems on many different platforms. Contents ELF file layout An ELF file has two views: The program header shows the segments used at run-time, whereas the section header lists the set of sections of the binary. Each ELF file is made up of one ELF header, followed by file data. The file data can include: Program header table, describing zero or more segments Section header table, describing zero or more sections Data referred to by entries in the program header table, or the section header table The segments contain information that is necessary for runtime execution of the file, while sections contain important data for linking and relocation. Each byte in the entire file is taken by no more than one section at a time, but there can be orphan bytes, which are not covered by a section. In the normal case of a Unix executable one or more sections are enclosed in one segment. Tools readelf is a Unix binary utility that displays information about one or more ELF files. A GPL implementation is provided by GNU Binutils. elfdump is a command for viewing ELF information in an elf file, available under Solaris and FreeBSD. With the BSDs having long supported Linux binaries (through a compatibility layer) and the main x86 Unix vendors having added support for the format, the project decided that Linux ELF was the format chosen by the industry and "declare[d] itself dissolved" on July 25, 1999.[6]
<p>Dit werktuig meet de exacte afstand tussen een object en een door de gebruiker opgegeven punt.</p>
The Strengths and Difficulties Questionnaire -Dysregulation Profile, Non-Suicidal Self-Injury Behaviors and the Mediating Role of Stressful Life Events. Non-suicidal self-injury (NSSI) behaviors are self-injurious behaviors inflicted without intending death. Literature has shown the relationship between stressful life events (SLE) and NSSI behaviors. The Strengths and Difficulties Questionnaire-Dysregulation Profile (SDQ-DP) is defined as an index of self-regulatory problems, related to higher risk for suicidal ideation and attempts in adolescents. In this study the relationship between SDQ-DP and NSSI behaviors, mediated by SLE in a clinical sample of children and adolescents is analyzed. A cross-sectional study was conducted on 239 subjects (aged from 11 to 17) to test the mediation model. SDQ-DP significantly correlates with NSSI behaviors (Wald = 6.5477, p = .0105); SDQ-DP significantly correlates with SLE (T = 5.7229, p < .001); SLE significantly correlates NSSI behaviors, and the relation remains significant whilst controlling for SDQ-DP (Wald = 4.1715, p = .041); the relation between SDQ-DP and NSSI behaviors stops being significant whilst controlling for the potential mediator (SLE) (Wald = 2.9951, p = .0835). Study of indirect effect supports the mediation model (.0585 CI [.0016, .1266]). Findings are compatible with the complete mediation scenario. These results point out the importance of self-regulatory problems in coping strategies with regards to SLE and the development of NSSI behaviors.
Uvangoletin induces mitochondria-mediated apoptosis in HL-60 cells in vitro and in vivo without adverse reactions of myelosuppression, leucopenia and gastrointestinal tract disturbances. This study investigated the cytotoxic effect of uvangoletin on HL-60 cells, and the effects of uvangoletin on myelosuppression, leucopenia, gastrointestinal tract disturbances and the possible cytotoxic mechanisms by using CCK-8, flow cytometry, western blot, xenograft, cyclophosphamide-induced leucopenia, copper sulfate-induced emesis and ethanol-induced gastric mucosal lesions assays. The results of CCK-8, flow cytometry and western blot assays indicated that uvangoletin showed the cytotoxic effect on HL-60 cells and induced the apoptosis of HL-60 cells by downregulating the expression levels of anti-apoptotic proteins (Survivin, Bcl-xl and Bcl-2), upregulating the expression levels of pro-apoptotic proteins (Smac, Bax, Bad, c-caspase-3 and c-caspase-9), and promoting the release of cytochrome c from mitochondria to cytoplasm. Further, the results of xenograft assay suggested that uvangoletin inhibited the HL-60-induced tumor growth without adverse effect on body weight of nude mice in vivo by regulating the expression levels of above apoptotic proteins. The results indicated that the reductions of WBCs count and thighbone marrow granulocytes percentage in cyclophosphamide-induced leucopenia assay, the incubation period and number of emesis in copper sulfate-induced emesis assay and the gastric mucosal lesions in ethanol-induced gastric mucosal lesions assay were not exacerbated or reversed by uvangoletin. In conclusion, the research preliminarily indicated that uvangoletin induced apoptosis of HL-60 cells in vitro and in vivo without adverse reactions of myelosuppression, leucopenia and gastrointestinal tract disturbances, and the pro-apoptotic mechanisms may be related to mitochondria-mediated apoptotic pathway.
on-line-tribune-relationships.Blogspot.com resolves to the IP 216.58.209.225 Result: on-line-tribune-relationships.Blogspot.com is hosted by the ISP Google in Mountain View / United States. We found that on the IP of on-line-tribune-relationships.Blogspot.com 211 more websites are hosted. on-line-tribune-relationships.Blogspot.com seems to be located on dedicated hosting on the IP address 216.58.209.225 from the Internet Service Provider Google located in Mountain View, California, United States. The dedicated hosting IP of 216.58.209.225 appears to be hosting 211 additional websites along with on-line-tribune-relationships.Blogspot.com.
[Prokaryotic expression and purification of recombination Salmonella invasion protein]. To express recombinant Salmonella invasion protein A(InvA) in E. coli and purify it. The invA gene of Salmonella was amplified by PCR from the Salmonella genome and cloned into expression vector pET-30c (+) to generate the pET-invA recombinants. They were comfirmed by restriction endonuclease digestion and sequence analysis. The verified recombinant was transformed into E. coli BL21 (DE3). After inducing with isopropyl-beta-D-thiogalactopyranoside (IPTG), the recombinant protein was purified via Ni-NTA affinity chromatography under denature conditions. The recombinant proteins were analyzed with SDS-PAGE and Western blot. The pET-invA recombinant for Salmonella was successfully constructed and the recombinant InvA protein was expressed in E. coli at a relatively high level. The SDS-PAGE results for the purified recombinant protein demonstrated that the purified protein had reached the electrophoresis purity. The successful expression of the Salmonella InvA protein will be very helpful for the further study on its antigenicity, immunological activity, and the development of rapid detection methods for Salmonella strains.
Q: Which condition is true? and why? in JavaScript Which condition is true? 1 == false 1 === false '1' == false none of the above? A: JavaScript will automatically convert the Boolean into an integer and then attempt to compare the two sides. For real equality, use the === operator.
President Obama demonstrated what free speech is all about today by refusing to throw a heckler out, and discussing the issue of deportations with him during his speech in San Francisco. Video: Transcript: AUDIENCE MEMBER: Mr. Obama — THE PRESIDENT: — most importantly, we will live up — AUDIENCE MEMBER: — my family has been separated for 19 months now — THE PRESIDENT: — most importantly, we will live up to our character as a nation. AUDIENCE MEMBER: I’ve not seen my family. Our families are separated. I need your help. There are thousands of people — THE PRESIDENT: That’s exactly what we’re talking about. AUDIENCE MEMBER: — are torn apart every single day. THE PRESIDENT: That’s why we’re here. AUDIENCE MEMBER: Mr. President, please use your executive order to halt deportations for all 11.5 undocumented immigrants in this country right now. THE PRESIDENT: What we’re trying — AUDIENCE MEMBER: Do you agree AUDIENCE: Obama! Obama! Obama! AUDIENCE MEMBER: — that we need to pass comprehensive immigration reform at the same time we — you have a power to stop deportation for all undocumented immigrants in this country. THE PRESIDENT: Actually I don’t. And that’s why we’re here. AUDIENCE MEMBER: So, please, I need your help. THE PRESIDENT: Okay — AUDIENCE MEMBER: Stop deportations! AUDIENCE MEMBER: Stop deportations! THE PRESIDENT: Thank you. All right. AUDIENCE MEMBERS: Stop deportations! Stop deportations! THE PRESIDENT: What I’d like to do — no, no, don’t worry about it, guys. Okay, let me finish. AUDIENCE MEMBERS: Stop deportations! Yes, we can! Stop deportations! THE PRESIDENT: These guys don’t need to go. Let me finish. No, no, no, he can stay there. Hold on a second. (Applause.) Hold on a second. So I respect the passion of these young people because they feel deeply about the concerns for their families. Now, what you need to know, when I’m speaking as President of the United States and I come to this community, is that if, in fact, I could solve all these problems without passing laws in Congress, then I would do so. But we’re also a nation of laws. That’s part of our tradition. And so the easy way out is to try to yell and pretend like I can do something by violating our laws. And what I’m proposing is the harder path, which is to use our democratic processes to achieve the same goal that you want to achieve. But it won’t be as easy as just shouting. It requires us lobbying and getting it done. (Applause.)
Revisiting the Optimal Nano-Morphology: Towards Amorphous Organic Photovoltaics. Organic photovoltaic cells commonly use an active layer with a polycrystalline bulk heterojunction. However, for simplifying the fabrication process, it may be worthwhile to use an amorphous active layer to lessen the burden on processing to achieve optimal performance. While polymers can adopt amorphous phases, molecular glasses, small molecules that can readily form glassy phases and do not crystallize over time, offer an appealing alternative, being monodisperse species. Our group has developed a series of reactive molecular glasses that can be covalently bonded to chromophores to form glass-forming adducts, and this strategy has been used to synthesize glass-forming donor and acceptor materials. Herein, the results of devices incorporating these materials in either partially or fully amorphous active layers are summarized. Additionally, these molecular glasses can be used as ternary components in crystalline systems to enhance efficiency without perturbing the morphology.
Outpatient Management of Fever and Neutropenia in Adults Treated for Malignancy: American Society of Clinical Oncology and Infectious Diseases Society of America Clinical Practice Guideline Update. Purpose To provide an updated joint ASCO/Infectious Diseases Society of American (IDSA) guideline on outpatient management of fever and neutropenia in patients with cancer. Methods ASCO and IDSA convened an Update Expert Panel and conducted a systematic review of relevant studies. The guideline recommendations were based on the review of evidence by the Expert Panel. Results Six new or updated meta-analyses and six new primary studies were added to the updated systematic review. Recommendation Clinical judgment is recommended when determining which patients are candidates for outpatient management, using clinical criteria or a validated tool such as the Multinational Association of Support Care in Cancer risk index. In addition, psychosocial and logistic considerations are outlined within the guideline. The panel continued to endorse consensus recommendations from the previous version of this guideline that patients with febrile neutropenia receive initial doses of empirical antibacterial therapy within 1 hour of triage and be monitored for ≥ 4 hours before discharge. An oral fluoroquinolone plus amoxicillin/clavulanate (or clindamycin, if penicillin allergic) is recommended as empirical outpatient therapy, unless fluoroquinolone prophylaxis was used before fever developed. Patients who do not defervesce after 2 to 3 days of an initial, empirical, broad-spectrum antibiotic regimen should be re-evaluated and considered as candidates for inpatient treatment. Additional information is available at www.asco.org/supportive-care-guidelines and www.asco.org/guidelineswiki .
Plasma levels of trimethoprim and sulfonamide after administration of trimethoprim-sulfamethoxazole and trimethoprim-sulfamoxole. In a cross-over study with ten healthy volunteers, the plasma levels of trimethoprim (TMP) and sulfonamides were compared using orally given trimethoprim-sulfamethoxazole (TMP-SMX: Septra) and trimethoprim-sulfamoxole (TMP-SMO: Supristol) in recommended doses. The dosage schedule for TMP-SMX was 2 tablets every 12 h for nine doses, and for TMP-SMO it was 2 tablets as in the first dose, followed by 1 tablet every 12 h for eight more doses. Serial plasma levels of TMP and sulfonamides after the first dose of each of the two products showed no significant differences. However, after the ninth dose of each product, the paired t test revealed significantly higher levels of TMP and sulfonamides after TMP-SMX as compared with TMP-SMO.
Q: Como inserir somente elementos que não existam? Eu tenho um script em python que busca elementos de um banco e salva em outro, so que quando eu rodo o script ele está duplicando os dados. sql = "INSERT INTO `alarm` (`data`, `seconds`, `culprit`, `status`) VALUES (%s, %s, %s, %s) Tem algum modo que eu posso alterar esse INSERT para inserir somente o que não está contido. A: Qual da chave primária da sua tabela "alarm"? Ela é que define se os seus registros estão duplicados. Esta parte é essencial. A partir daí, você pode fazer a inserção de várias maneiras: INSERT IGNORE INTO ... : Ignora os registros duplicados (veja aqui) INSERT INTO ... ON DUPLICATE KEY UPDATE : Atualiza campos específicos se a chave for duplicada (veja aqui) REPLACE INTO ... : Se o registro estiver duplicado, apaga e insere a nova linha.
Q: Tightness of an LP relaxation without using objective function How can we measure the tightness of a linear programming relaxation for a mixed integer linear program without using the objective value? I would like to get a measure in terms of the feasible set and independent of the objective function. This is due to the reason that I believe the tightness based on objective value is not informative enough and any change to the objective function might dramatically change the tightness. I believe there should be a different measure that is not affected by the change in the objective function. I am interested in both theoretical and computational answers. This is more of like a question out of curiosity. A: If the integer feasible set is finite and the LP polyhedron is bounded (a polytope), you could compare the volumes of the integer hull and this polytope. A: If (for small dimensions) it is feasible to enumerate the vertices of the polyhedron of the relaxation, as well as the actual feasible set, one could try to find a vertex with the highest distance to the feasible set. I guess this is equivalent to finding the "worst" objective function and could probably be posed as a bilevel problem with LP subproblem. A: Another way of looking at this is to construct randomized-rounding algorithms from both relaxations, and select the relaxation which yields a randomized rounding algorithm with the best approximation guarantee. For instance, in max-cut we can construct an LP relaxation which provides a $0.5$ approximation ratio, or an SDP relaxation which provides a $0.878$ approximation ratio, so the SDP relaxation is a better option (provided you can solve it). Admittedly, constructing randomized rounding methods might be more effort than its worth, but quite a bit of work has already been done in this area, so you can often get the relevant approximation ratios via a literature search. N.b. randomized rounding algorithms are typically agnostic to the objective function used, so i'm going to claim that this counts as not using an objective function ;)
Superconducting circuits are one of the leading technologies proposed for quantum computing and cryptography applications that are expected to provide significant enhancements to national security applications where communication signal integrity or computing power are needed. They are operated at temperatures <100 kelvin. Efforts on fabrication of superconducting devices have mostly been confined to university or government research labs, with little published on the mass producing of superconducting devices. Therefore, many of the methods used to fabricate superconducting devices in these laboratories utilize processes or equipment incapable of rapid, consistent fabrication. Recently there has been a movement to mass producing superconducting circuits utilizing similar techniques as those utilized in conventional semiconductor processes. One well-known semiconductor process is the formation of contacts and conductive lines in a multi-level interconnect stack to couple devices to one another over different layers of an integrated circuit. One such fabrication process for formation of conductive contacts and lines is known as a dual damascene process. This technique has recently been attempted in the formation of superconducting circuits. During the fabrication of dual damascene superconducting circuits, via/trench structures are patterned, etched, filled with metal (e.g., niobium, tantalum, aluminum), then polished back using a chemical mechanical polishing (CMP) process. The next level dielectric is then deposited, and the sequence begins again, building up a multi-level interconnect stack. The CMP process and any exposure to oxygen prior to deposition of the next dielectric layer can result in oxidization of the conductive contacts and lines, and dielectric layers which degrades performance.
Transpersonal Therapists in Gig Harbor, WA "I am committed to client care and service. I treat each client with respect, compassion and understanding. I am trained in Eastern and Western Philosophy, cognitive therapy, and I bring practice experience from a variety of settings. I explore with clients a creative use of dialogue to gather resources, open useful connections and find meanings that enable practical application to their life. Learning how to be present with, and let go of experience is a skillful way for being in the here and now. I have direct experience in helping with anxiety and depression. Start finding your way today." "I am committed to client care and service. I treat each client with respect, compassion and understanding. I am trained in Eastern and Western Philosophy, cognitive therapy, and I bring practice experience from a variety of settings. I explore with clients a creative use of dialogue to gather resources, open useful connections and find meanings that enable practical application to their life. Learning how to be present with, and let go of experience is a skillful way for being in the here and now. I have direct experience in helping with anxiety and depression. Start finding your way today." "I consider it a privilege whenever a client asks for my assistance in resolving personal conflicts or concerns. I am committed to being genuinely involved in helping each person, couple, or family to find ways to live more fulfilling lives. It is often difficult, but also often helpful, to discuss personal matters confidentially with a caring professional person who is non-judgemental, and is committed to helping the person seeking help to gain new insights, and hopefully to feel better about themselves and their abiity to manage their personal relationships and stressful life circumstances." "I consider it a privilege whenever a client asks for my assistance in resolving personal conflicts or concerns. I am committed to being genuinely involved in helping each person, couple, or family to find ways to live more fulfilling lives. It is often difficult, but also often helpful, to discuss personal matters confidentially with a caring professional person who is non-judgemental, and is committed to helping the person seeking help to gain new insights, and hopefully to feel better about themselves and their abiity to manage their personal relationships and stressful life circumstances." "If you struggle with circumstances in your relationships, emotions of anxiety, thoughts such as "I am unlovable," or behaviors like avoidance, I can help you. Relationships affect every aspect of our reality. Whether business, family, friendships or romantic, it all begins with the relationship with yourself. Life is a journey with a few storms along the way and everyone needs guidance at some point in navigating their way back to discovering a healthy relationship with themselves." "If you struggle with circumstances in your relationships, emotions of anxiety, thoughts such as "I am unlovable," or behaviors like avoidance, I can help you. Relationships affect every aspect of our reality. Whether business, family, friendships or romantic, it all begins with the relationship with yourself. Life is a journey with a few storms along the way and everyone needs guidance at some point in navigating their way back to discovering a healthy relationship with themselves." "As a practicing therapist for more than 25 years, I have reliable ways to help you overcome stress, anxiety and resolve past or recent traumas so that you can step into the life you truly want to live. I specialize in Cognitive Behavior Therapy (CBT), Mindfulness Based Therapies, Insight-oriented approaches and am certified in Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing (EMDR) to help you realize your goals. With a Master's degree and former career in the arts, I also enjoy helping those involved in aesthetic endeavors restore and deepen their connection to creativity." "As a practicing therapist for more than 25 years, I have reliable ways to help you overcome stress, anxiety and resolve past or recent traumas so that you can step into the life you truly want to live. I specialize in Cognitive Behavior Therapy (CBT), Mindfulness Based Therapies, Insight-oriented approaches and am certified in Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing (EMDR) to help you realize your goals. With a Master's degree and former career in the arts, I also enjoy helping those involved in aesthetic endeavors restore and deepen their connection to creativity." "I believe that each person has the wisdom to know what works for them. When someone comes to therapy, I do not see them as broken. I see them reaching out for skills, insight, and support. My job is to provide a safe place to explore options and process what is going on in the moment. We are working in partnership." "I believe that each person has the wisdom to know what works for them. When someone comes to therapy, I do not see them as broken. I see them reaching out for skills, insight, and support. My job is to provide a safe place to explore options and process what is going on in the moment. We are working in partnership." "Life can become overwhelming at times. Through exploring patterns of thought and behavior we can pinpoint what keeps you stuck and turn those thoughts and behaviors around to improve the quality of your life. Through greater self-acceptance you will gain personal power and define what you want in life. Developing a strategy to obtain and keep your goals. Together we can work toward healing the past and move toward a healthier life.We will explore how you can feel whole, strong and vital again by reflecting on what didn't work in the past and discover ways to change those destructive behaviors." "Life can become overwhelming at times. Through exploring patterns of thought and behavior we can pinpoint what keeps you stuck and turn those thoughts and behaviors around to improve the quality of your life. Through greater self-acceptance you will gain personal power and define what you want in life. Developing a strategy to obtain and keep your goals. Together we can work toward healing the past and move toward a healthier life.We will explore how you can feel whole, strong and vital again by reflecting on what didn't work in the past and discover ways to change those destructive behaviors." "Women seeking healthier relationships & freedom from addictive behaviors are my specialty. Using an object-relations approach I create a safe space where you can show up with authenticity, reclaim disowned parts of yourself, and learn to make new choices over old habits. I believe that transformation comes from making choices that are conscious, consistent, and rooted in compassion. The more one does this, the more one becomes an active participant in creating their own joy filled life. Ultimately, my goal is to help my clients increase their capacity to give and receive love." "Women seeking healthier relationships & freedom from addictive behaviors are my specialty. Using an object-relations approach I create a safe space where you can show up with authenticity, reclaim disowned parts of yourself, and learn to make new choices over old habits. I believe that transformation comes from making choices that are conscious, consistent, and rooted in compassion. The more one does this, the more one becomes an active participant in creating their own joy filled life. Ultimately, my goal is to help my clients increase their capacity to give and receive love." "Transcranial magnetic stimulation(TMS) is a noninvasive procedure that uses magnetic fields to small region of the brain to improve symptoms of depression. TMS therapy is a FDA-cleared safe and effective non-pharmacological depression treatment for patients who didn't respond to standard drug therapy." "Transcranial magnetic stimulation(TMS) is a noninvasive procedure that uses magnetic fields to small region of the brain to improve symptoms of depression. TMS therapy is a FDA-cleared safe and effective non-pharmacological depression treatment for patients who didn't respond to standard drug therapy." "Kylie is a licensed mental health counselor, licensed marriage and family counselor, and licensed chemical dependency counselor. She brings a high level of expertise, clinical experience, and a big heart to NW Family Psychology in helping children, adolescents, and their families work through tough issues, such as depression, anxiety, substance abuse, school failure, peer bullying, mood swings, parent-child conflicts, procrastination, failure to launch syndrome, etc." "Kylie is a licensed mental health counselor, licensed marriage and family counselor, and licensed chemical dependency counselor. She brings a high level of expertise, clinical experience, and a big heart to NW Family Psychology in helping children, adolescents, and their families work through tough issues, such as depression, anxiety, substance abuse, school failure, peer bullying, mood swings, parent-child conflicts, procrastination, failure to launch syndrome, etc." "As a practical, interactive, solution-focused therapist, my treatment approach is to provide support and practical feedback to help clients resolve current problems and long-standing patterns. With sensitivity and compassion, I help clients find solutions to a wide range of life challenges and psychological issues." "As a practical, interactive, solution-focused therapist, my treatment approach is to provide support and practical feedback to help clients resolve current problems and long-standing patterns. With sensitivity and compassion, I help clients find solutions to a wide range of life challenges and psychological issues." "My therapeutic philosophy rests on the premise that entering into a therapy relationship is a sacred act, and should be treated accordingly. It takes courage to challenge the limiting beliefs accumulated along life's journey, and I hold deep respect for those who are willing to do so. I provide a safe and respectful environment where you can explore the patterns keeping you from living a more authentic life." "My therapeutic philosophy rests on the premise that entering into a therapy relationship is a sacred act, and should be treated accordingly. It takes courage to challenge the limiting beliefs accumulated along life's journey, and I hold deep respect for those who are willing to do so. I provide a safe and respectful environment where you can explore the patterns keeping you from living a more authentic life." "Life is a journey and I welcome the opportunity to help you meet and overcome the challenges you meet on your path. If you are concerned about relationship issues at home, school or work, my work in systems therapy can help you see your way more clearly. I work with life transitions, such as divorce, aging, career change or retirement; parenting children, foster children or grandchildren. My desire is to support you in making the choices you want to bring more happiness, health and positive change into your life." "Life is a journey and I welcome the opportunity to help you meet and overcome the challenges you meet on your path. If you are concerned about relationship issues at home, school or work, my work in systems therapy can help you see your way more clearly. I work with life transitions, such as divorce, aging, career change or retirement; parenting children, foster children or grandchildren. My desire is to support you in making the choices you want to bring more happiness, health and positive change into your life." "My ideal client is one who is invested and motivated to work in therapy. I love working with individuals and couples. I believe that it takes a great deal of courage to come into counseling. I am gentle but direct in my approach. I do not want you to waste your time and money on useless therapy that does not help you change the things that you want to change. It is important to me that you walk away from therapy feeling better about yourself and believing that you have the effective tools to help you improve your life." "My ideal client is one who is invested and motivated to work in therapy. I love working with individuals and couples. I believe that it takes a great deal of courage to come into counseling. I am gentle but direct in my approach. I do not want you to waste your time and money on useless therapy that does not help you change the things that you want to change. It is important to me that you walk away from therapy feeling better about yourself and believing that you have the effective tools to help you improve your life." "I work with adults of all ages, individuals and couples, who are experiencing problems with anxiety, depression, post traumatic stress (including stress related to prior abuse and neglect), eating disorders, and relational problems (repairing and strengthening current relationships;identifying and changing relational patterns that cause problems in living). I work with persons who are experiencing panic attacks, phobic avoidance, intrusions, maladaptive anger, grief, and stress-related physical problems. I also work with persons challenged with a variety of adjustment problems and life transitions (e.g.,transition to young adulthood, family communication difficulties, divorce, career change, mid-life crisis, retirement)." "I work with adults of all ages, individuals and couples, who are experiencing problems with anxiety, depression, post traumatic stress (including stress related to prior abuse and neglect), eating disorders, and relational problems (repairing and strengthening current relationships;identifying and changing relational patterns that cause problems in living). I work with persons who are experiencing panic attacks, phobic avoidance, intrusions, maladaptive anger, grief, and stress-related physical problems. I also work with persons challenged with a variety of adjustment problems and life transitions (e.g.,transition to young adulthood, family communication difficulties, divorce, career change, mid-life crisis, retirement)." "Broken relationships, troubles at home and life's daily stresses can cause you to feel worn down and broken. These feelings do not have to take over your life, body and soul forever. That is why I embrace a holistic approach incorporating mind, body and spirit. I utilizes a model of openness, respect, curiosity and accountability. My solution-focused approach incorporates role-playing, play therapy, insightful questioning, education, empathetic listening, coaching and between-session assignments. My specialties and areas of interest are marriage/family systems, premarital counseling, singles' issues, adolescents, depression, conflict resolution and childhood trauma." "Broken relationships, troubles at home and life's daily stresses can cause you to feel worn down and broken. These feelings do not have to take over your life, body and soul forever. That is why I embrace a holistic approach incorporating mind, body and spirit. I utilizes a model of openness, respect, curiosity and accountability. My solution-focused approach incorporates role-playing, play therapy, insightful questioning, education, empathetic listening, coaching and between-session assignments. My specialties and areas of interest are marriage/family systems, premarital counseling, singles' issues, adolescents, depression, conflict resolution and childhood trauma." "Life can be very confusing at times for all of us. I see Children (10 and up), adolescents, individuals and couples specializing in marital relationships, ADHD, Eating Disorders and cutting, trauma, depression/anxiety and Woman Issues. I am an Eating Disorder Specialist and a Lifespan Integration Therapist for accidents and traumatic events. My office is warm and spacious as we journey together thru the healing process. I use a narrative, solution focused and CBT along with a bit of humor over life's bumps. You are welcomed to join me for your heart, soul and body health!" "Life can be very confusing at times for all of us. I see Children (10 and up), adolescents, individuals and couples specializing in marital relationships, ADHD, Eating Disorders and cutting, trauma, depression/anxiety and Woman Issues. I am an Eating Disorder Specialist and a Lifespan Integration Therapist for accidents and traumatic events. My office is warm and spacious as we journey together thru the healing process. I use a narrative, solution focused and CBT along with a bit of humor over life's bumps. You are welcomed to join me for your heart, soul and body health!" "Seeking counseling can be one of the most difficult decisions a person can make. It is also one of the bravest decisions. Day to day life is stressful, and at times, life tosses us a curveball. My goal is to help you identify your strengths, and help you navigate through the stresses and transitions that many people struggle with. You are not alone, and I am so glad that you are here. Some of my areas of focus are on addressing anxiety, depression, trauma, relationship issues, as well as family dynamics." "Seeking counseling can be one of the most difficult decisions a person can make. It is also one of the bravest decisions. Day to day life is stressful, and at times, life tosses us a curveball. My goal is to help you identify your strengths, and help you navigate through the stresses and transitions that many people struggle with. You are not alone, and I am so glad that you are here. Some of my areas of focus are on addressing anxiety, depression, trauma, relationship issues, as well as family dynamics." "As an RN with a Master's Degree in Psychosocial Nursing and a Certification in Counseling, I am goal directed and results oriented. I use Cognitive Behavioral Coaching (CBC) as my primary model for helping others as well as a personality assessment, for helping you learn more about yourself and how you relate to the world. I infuse teaching, compassion and humor into the experience for those individuals looking for a change either by choice or necessity and want results within a limited amount of time." "As an RN with a Master's Degree in Psychosocial Nursing and a Certification in Counseling, I am goal directed and results oriented. I use Cognitive Behavioral Coaching (CBC) as my primary model for helping others as well as a personality assessment, for helping you learn more about yourself and how you relate to the world. I infuse teaching, compassion and humor into the experience for those individuals looking for a change either by choice or necessity and want results within a limited amount of time." "Everyone can use a little help sometimes. Whether it's working through a personal or relationship problem, crisis, decision, transition, or loss; changing a habit; overcoming roadblocks to success; or learning how to make a good relationship better & increase the likelihood it will be long & happy; I'm here to help. Clients describe me as: "easy to connect with," "resourceful," "energetic," "creative," "considerate," "positive," "patient,""pragmatic: concerned with practical results," "logical: can go from the big picture to the application," "skill building: gives you tools you can use today," as well as "has a great sense of humor."" "Everyone can use a little help sometimes. Whether it's working through a personal or relationship problem, crisis, decision, transition, or loss; changing a habit; overcoming roadblocks to success; or learning how to make a good relationship better & increase the likelihood it will be long & happy; I'm here to help. Clients describe me as: "easy to connect with," "resourceful," "energetic," "creative," "considerate," "positive," "patient,""pragmatic: concerned with practical results," "logical: can go from the big picture to the application," "skill building: gives you tools you can use today," as well as "has a great sense of humor."" "I'm here to coach you through the barriers that are preventing you from living your best life. I will provide you with a safe, comfortable environment to identify these barriers and work through them. Every person, every couple, every family is unique and as such I tailor my approach to fit within your contextual needs. I can help you to find clarity and to live in the present without fear or anxiety. My approach is transparent, non-judgmental and caring but direct. Theoretically, I favor systems orientation, narrative, collaborative and evidence based practices." "I'm here to coach you through the barriers that are preventing you from living your best life. I will provide you with a safe, comfortable environment to identify these barriers and work through them. Every person, every couple, every family is unique and as such I tailor my approach to fit within your contextual needs. I can help you to find clarity and to live in the present without fear or anxiety. My approach is transparent, non-judgmental and caring but direct. Theoretically, I favor systems orientation, narrative, collaborative and evidence based practices." Transpersonal therapy emphasizes the transcendent or spiritual aspects of a client's development. A transpersonal therapist may help the client cultivate a greater sense of connectedness with others, with nature, and with a higher spirit. How can I tell if a therapist is right for me? Therapists in Gig Harbor are able to work with a wide range of issues. Email Email Don't be shy. Our therapists are here to help you and are pleased to hear from you. Feel free to ask for what you want... an appointment, a consultation or simply a response to a question. Keep it short, 200 words or less, this is just an initial contact. Remember to double check your return email address or your phone number if you prefer to be called. Psychology Today does not read or retain your email. However, a copy will be sent to you for your records. Please be aware that email is not a secure means of communication and spam filters may prevent your email from reaching the therapist. The therapist should respond to you by email, although we recommend that you follow up with a phone call. If you prefer corresponding via phone, leave your contact number. Sending an email using this page does not guarantee that the recipient will receive, read or respond to your email. If this is an emergency do not use this form. Call 911 or your nearest hospital.
Thursday, January 20, 2011 Exhausted and invigorated...similar to how I feel about yoga some days. Spent and glowing at the same time. That is how the first few weeks have been. I am learning many new moves...some just out of practice. Today, aware of exactly where I fit, I was completely content. Stretching...oh yes. Awake at 4 a.m. with questions and reminders....mind alive...body trying, I force myself to awaken with the "breath of fire". Everything has changed these last few weeks. Responsibilities have shifted, calendars have adjusted and yet through it all a peace and calm. Last night when warning bells might have sent me spiraling into the abyss of worry, a deep breath and the binary code of logic began. Yes - incision hurts - Yes you have a headache - Yes you also have extra fluid in your sinuses indicative of swollen cheeks - No - I will not tag this incident - I will walk it through with my God given wisdom - and tonight - she is fine - albeit perhaps suffering a minor sinus infection. Meadow is complaining of her ailments too. Natural for a sixteen year old. And so, I end my day, exhausted and invigorated.
Q: Grails taglib that returns a list I'm trying to create (my first ever) taglib in grails and I sort of got it down except that I'm trying to return a list/array of strings that has to be displayed in a table but all I'm getting is the first value of the list. Here's what I got: Taglib: def roles = { attrs, body -> def user = User.get(attrs.user) if(user) { def roles = Role.findAllById(UserRole.findByUser(user).roleId) def realRoles = [] roles.each { role -> realRoles.add(role.authority.substring(5)) } out << realRoles out << body() } } Html: <table class="table table-bordered table-hover" style="background-color: #FFFFFF;"> <thead> <tr style="background-color: #007FB2;color: #FFFFFF;"> <th>ID</th> <th>Name</th> <th>Surname</th> <th>Email</th> <th>Roles</th> <th>Delete</th> </tr> </thead> <g:each in="${users}" var="user"> <tr> <td>${user.id}</td> <td>${user.firstName}</td> <td>${user.surname}</td> <td>${user.username}</td> <td><g:roles user="${user.id}" /></td> <td><button type="button" class="gen-btn btn-red" style="width: 100%;" onclick="confDelete(${user.id}, '${user.firstName}');">Delete</button></td> </tr> </g:each> </table> What's supposed to happen is when the taglib gets called it's supposed to go get all the roles associated with the user id then take each role's authority property and cut the preceding "ROLE_" off of it. So ROLE_ADMIN just becomes ADMIN and ROLE_USER just becomes USER, etc. What I'd ideally like is a list that I can loop through in the gsp but I realise that's alot to ask so if I can just get help getting a comma separated list roles back from my taglib I'd really appreciated it. To make it more clear, what I'm currently getting back is literally [ROLE_ADMIN] regardless of whether the user has more roles than that. What I want is a complete list of roles, e.g. ROLE_ADMIN, ROLE_MANAGER, ROLE_WHATEVER. Thanks in advance EDIT Here are my User, Role and UserRole domain classes. I am using Spring security to generate these classes. User: package fake.package.name class User { transient springSecurityService String username String password String firstName String surname Date dateCreated boolean enabled boolean accountExpired boolean accountLocked boolean passwordExpired static constraints = { username blank: false, unique: true password blank: false firstName blank: false surname blank: false } static mapping = { password column: '`password`' } Set<Role> getAuthorities() { UserRole.findAllByUser(this).collect { it.role } as Set } def beforeInsert() { encodePassword() } def beforeUpdate() { if (isDirty('password')) { encodePassword() } } protected void encodePassword() { password = springSecurityService.encodePassword(password) } String toString(){ if((firstName)&&(surname)) firstName+ " " +surname else username } } Role: package fake.package.name class Role { String authority static mapping = { cache true } static constraints = { authority blank: false, unique: true } } UserRole: package fake.package.name import org.apache.commons.lang.builder.HashCodeBuilder class UserRole implements Serializable { User user Role role boolean equals(other) { if (!(other instanceof UserRole)) { return false } other.user?.id == user?.id && other.role?.id == role?.id } int hashCode() { def builder = new HashCodeBuilder() if (user) builder.append(user.id) if (role) builder.append(role.id) builder.toHashCode() } static UserRole get(long userId, long roleId) { find 'from UserRole where user.id=:userId and role.id=:roleId', [userId: userId, roleId: roleId] } static UserRole create(User user, Role role, boolean flush = false) { new UserRole(user: user, role: role).save(flush: flush, insert: true) } static boolean remove(User user, Role role, boolean flush = false) { UserRole instance = UserRole.findByUserAndRole(user, role) if (!instance) { return false } instance.delete(flush: flush) true } static void removeAll(User user) { executeUpdate 'DELETE FROM UserRole WHERE user=:user', [user: user] } static void removeAll(Role role) { executeUpdate 'DELETE FROM UserRole WHERE role=:role', [role: role] } static mapping = { id composite: ['role', 'user'] version false } } Do note that because this a work project and not a personal one I'm not allowed to edit the code in here. Also, I changed the package names to fake.package.name, that's not the actual names of the packages. A: I don't know, where your User<->Role Association comes from (Spring Security Framework?) or if it's coded by yourself. And you gave no examples of your domain-classes. Let me explain another solution a bit: If you design your domain-classes somehow like the following: package xyz class User { String name static hasMany = [authorities: Role] static constraints = { } } --------------- package xyz class Role { static belongsTo = User String name static hasMany = [user: User] static constraints = { } } a third table 'user_roles' will be created for saving the many-to-many relation/association With this configuration, you could shorten your taglib to: def roles = { attrs, body -> def user = User.get(attrs.user) if(user) { def realRoles = [] user.authorities.each { r -> realRoles.add(r.authority.substring(5)) } out << realRoles.join(', ') out << body() } }
A Slipery Rock man is facing several charges after supplying fentanyl-laced heroin to a 21-year-old girl who overdosed and died in February. The state police Thursday charged Shayne William Emery, 31, with counts of drug delivery resulting in death, criminal conspiracy and possession with the intent to deliver a controlled substance. The charges stem from the death of former Worth Township resident Brittany Hays, who died on Feb. 2 after consuming the tainted heroin. Hay's mother found her in a locked bathroom with four used bags of heroin, a needle and a spoon laying next to her body.
Great visionaries are often unappreciated in their own lifetimes, and indeed, in their own households. I’m sure Anne Hathaway used to snort disparagingly when Shakespeare read some of his best bits out loud, and Mrs Beethoven probably muttered under her breath, “You’d have to be bloody deaf to think that racket’s any good. What dear? I was just wondering if you wanted sauerkraut with your dinner.” Indeed, this is the case with my not-quite-burgeoning career as an urban music artist. It seems I’m alone in thinking I have any talents as a rapper. My husband and son are so convinced that I am not the next Fiddy Cent, that they’re afraid to say the word “rap” in case it sets me off. Presents are “encased” in our house. I can see why they might have an issue. As a forty-something mum, living in the suburbs, I don’t fit the usual demographic. And to be honest, our neighbourhood is less gritty than mulchy, and I am more H&M than Eminem. Still, I think a record should be kept of my unique street poetry style. So here, for your edification, is a short masterpiece known as the Apostrophe Rap. As I have not yet been blessed with a recording contract, please simulate the 8-Mile style performance environment for yourself. Put on a banging backing track, or get a friend to beatbox. Alternatively, get a small child to bang on a saucepan with a spatula. It will give the most authentic effect. All together now: Now listen up homies, I want you to agree That there’s nothing more important than the old apostrophe. It’s not hard to use and I’m gonna tell you once… And if you do not get it, then you gotta be a dunce Those pizza’s and those CD’s just really drive me nuts So it’s time to learn the rules, and I’ll hear no ifs or buts. An apostrophe is used to denote that there’s contraction, If you’re leaving out a letter then that comma does its action. So don’t, or won’t or can’t all need one, (though if you’re a bore, you might just choose to leave them out like that George Bernard Shaw).
Q: A notational problem of a double integral What does the following double integral mean?I don't quite understand the notation. $$\int_0^1dy\int_\sqrt{y}^\sqrt{2-y^2}f(x,y)~dx~.$$ Does it equal to $$\int_0^1\int_\sqrt{y}^\sqrt{2-y^2}f(x,y)~dx~dy~?$$ A: I was trained to place the differential first, which makes me stand out like a sore thumb in Math.SE. I like this notation because it is very clear which differential goes with which integral. In your example, I would agree that $$\int_0^1 \, \int_{\sqrt{y}}^{\sqrt{2-y^2}} f(x,y) \, dx \, dy = \int_0^1 dy \, \int_{\sqrt{y}}^{\sqrt{2-y^2}} dx \, f(x,y)$$ The reversal of the $f$ and the $dx$ in your first double integral is of no consequence.
Q: Adding a conditional column broke the entire page I added a conditional column to a list, it had a complicated algorithm to determine the value. I'm sure I had a syntax error in it, however now I can't even access it. When I try to view the list, I get the error... Error The "ListViewWebPart" Web Part appears to be causing a problem. Specified argument was out of the range of valid values. Web Parts Maintenance Page: If you have permission, you can use this page to temporarily close Web Parts or remove personal settings. For more information, contact your site administrator. Troubleshoot issues with Microsoft SharePoint Foundation. Correlation ID: 85d71f52-7f6f-42f9-901e-659b65eb1f31 I'm using SP 2010 Enterprise. Does anyone know how I can change the contents of that conditional column and save my list??? A: If you know the GUID of the list, then it should be easy. Type - http://servername:portnumber/_layouts/listedit.aspx?List={GUID} in the URL and then you will be redirected to the list settings page where you will be able to modify the columns. To find GUID of the list type this in PowerShell - $web = Get-SPWeb -Identity http://servername:portnumber $list = $web.Lists["List Name"] $list.ID
Don't Knock Twice is a first-person horror game based on a psychologically terrifying urban legend. One knock to wake her from her bed, twice to raise her from the dead. Supports VR on HTC Vive and Oculus Rift for the ultimate horror experience! All Reviews: Mostly Positive (175) - 76% of the 175 user reviews for this game are positive. August 6 Reviews “If you enjoyed Layers of Fear, you will enjoy this. It will scare the living daylights out of you, and you can’t knock that.”8/10 – Punk and Lizard “Don’t Knock Twice is a lot better than my uncle hiding in the cupboard with a sheet on his head… and that’s a very good recommendation.”4/5 – The Xbox Hub “Probably your best bet to pee your pants just a little. The creep factor is ramped up very high and I was on the edge of my seat through many moments of the game.”7/10 – The VR Grid About This Game ABOUT THE GAME Don’t Knock Twice is a highly-immersive first-person horror game with VR support on HTC Vive and Oculus Rift. To save her estranged daughter, a guilt-ridden mother must uncover the frightening truth behind the urban tale of a vengeful, demonic witch. Explore a grand manor house environment and interact with almost every object you see. To find and save your daughter, you will explore all depths of the manor, searching for hidden clues and wield items to fight or escape the terror that surrounds you. Developed alongside the 2017 horror film, Don’t Knock Twice, starring Katee Sackhoff (Battlestar Galactica). “One knock to wake her from her bed, twice to raise her from the dead.” Play with or without a VR device. Note: The demo is VR only and requires HTC Vive or Oculus Rift with Touch controls. VR FEATURES Don’t Knock Twice is designed to be played with or without a VR device. Only one purchase is necessary, you will be given the option to play in VR or Non VR when starting the game. You are free to switch between modes and carry on where you left off. A free VR demo available now on Steam for HTC Vive and Oculus Rift with Touch controls.
UNPUBLISHED UNITED STATES COURT OF APPEALS FOR THE FOURTH CIRCUIT No. 06-4670 UNITED STATES OF AMERICA, Plaintiff - Appellee, versus ANDY EARL BRATHWAITE, a/k/a Trini, Defendant - Appellant. No. 06-4825 UNITED STATES OF AMERICA, Plaintiff - Appellee, versus TESHARA L. SYKES, Defendant - Appellant. No. 06-4827 UNITED STATES OF AMERICA, Plaintiff - Appellee, versus TONITA SHARMAINE SYKES, Defendant - Appellant. Appeals from the United States District Court for the Eastern District of Virginia, at Norfolk. Rebecca Beach Smith, District Judge. (2:06-cr-00022-RBS) Submitted: April 11, 2007 Decided: June 18, 2007 Before NIEMEYER, GREGORY, and SHEDD, Circuit Judges. Affirmed by unpublished per curiam opinion. I. Lionel Hancock, III, BOHANNON, BOHANNON & HANCOCK, Norfolk, Virginia; Christopher I. Jacobs, ZOBY & BROCCOLETTI, Norfolk, Virginia; George A. Neskis, DECKER, CARDON, THOMAS, WEINTRAUB & NESKIS, Norfolk, Virginia, for Appellants. Chuck Rosenberg, United States Attorney, Michael C. Moore, Assistant United States Attorney, Norfolk, Virginia, for Appellee. Unpublished opinions are not binding precedent in this circuit. - 2 - PER CURIAM: In these consolidated appeals, Andy Earl Brathwaite, Tonita Sharmaine Sykes, and Teshara L. Sykes appeal their convictions and sentences stemming from a conspiracy to produce and distribute fraudulent driver’s licenses. Brathwaite pled guilty without a plea agreement to one count of conspiracy to produce and transfer identification documents and three counts of production of identification documents without lawful authority in violation of 18 U.S.C. § 1028(a)(1)-(2), (b)(1)(A)(ii) and (c)(3)(A) (2000). The Sykes sisters each pled guilty without plea agreements to one count of conspiracy to produce and transfer identification documents, and two counts each of production of identification documents without lawful authority, also in violation of 18 U.S.C. § 1028(a)(1)-(2), (b)(1)(A)(ii) and (c)(3)(A). Brathwaite was sentenced to twenty-four months in prison on each count, all terms to run concurrently. The Sykeses were sentenced to sixty months in prison on each count, all terms to run concurrently. Counsel for Brathwaite and the Sykeses filed a consolidated appeal in which appellants assert their sentences are, for various reasons, unreasonable. Brathwaite also filed a motion to file a pro se supplemental brief and a pro se supplemental brief in which he claims: (i) the indictment charging him was legally insufficient; (ii) the district court erred when it increased his offense level for his managerial role in the conspiracy; and (iii) - 3 - the district court erroneously refused to reduce his offense level for acceptance of responsibility. We grant Brathwaite’s motion to file a pro se supplemental brief and affirm Brathwaite’s and the Sykeses’ convictions and sentences. I. Andy Earl Brathwaite, No. 06-4670 A. Sufficiency of Indictment In his pro se supplemental brief, Brathwaite claims his indictment was legally insufficient because it did not allege the intended unlawful uses of the fraudulent driver’s licenses produced by the conspiracy of which Brathwaite was a part. Brathwaite’s argument is meritless. There is no requirement under § 1028(a)(1), (a)(2), or (c)(3)(A) that an indictment specifically allege the unlawful purpose for which the fraudulent documents were going to be used. Rather, all that is required is that a criminal defendant “knowingly and without lawful authority produce[] an identification document, authentication feature, or a false identification document”, and that “the production, transfer, possession, or use prohibited . . . is in or affects interstate or foreign commerce, including the transfer of a document by electronic means.” 18 U.S.C. § 1028(a)(1) & (c)(3)(A); see also 18 U.S.C. § 1028(a)(2) (criminal defendant must “knowingly transfer . . . a false identification document knowing that such document . . . was stolen or produced without lawful authority”). - 4 - While Brathwaite relies upon United States v. Rohn, 964 F.2d 310 (4th Cir. 1992), for the proposition his indictment was insufficient for failing to allege the intended unlawful use of the fraudulent driver’s licenses, Rohn is inapplicable. In Rohn, this court held that under 18 U.S.C. § 1028(a)(3), the Government must establish that an individual in possession of false identification intends to use the identification in a fraudulent and unlawful manner. Rohn, 964 F.2d at 312-13 (holding that mere possession is not enough to satisfy § 1028(a)(3)). Brathwaite was not indicted or convicted for a violation of this subdivision of § 1028. Moreover, Brathwaite does not deny he took part in a conspiracy to produce and transfer the fraudulent driver’s licenses. Accordingly, we conclude Brathwaite’s argument regarding the insufficiency of his indictment is meritless. B. Challenges to Sentence Brathwaite also raises several issues regarding the validity of his sentence. Brathwaite claims the district court erred when it: (i) increased his offense level by two for a loss of more than $5000 but less than $10,000 pursuant to U. S. Sentencing Guidelines Manual (“USSG”) § 2B1.1(b)(1)(B) (2005) because actual loss could not be determined; and (ii) imposed a “reasonable” sentence because “reasonableness” is the standard of review on appeal and the district court was required to impose a sentence “sufficient, but not greater than necessary, to comply - 5 - with the purposes” of 18 U.S.C. § 3553(a) (2000). In his pro se supplemental brief, Brathwaite also claims the district court erred when it: (i) increased his offense level by three pursuant to USSG § 3B1.1(b) (2005) for Brathwaite’s managerial role in the conspiracy for which he was convicted; and (ii) refused to reduce his offense level for acceptance of responsibility pursuant to USSG § 3E1.1 (2005). This court reviews a sentence for reasonableness. See United States v. Booker, 543 U.S. 220, 261 (2005). In determining whether a sentence is reasonable, this court reviews the district court's legal conclusions de novo and its factual findings for clear error. See United States v. Hampton, 441 F.3d 284, 287 (4th Cir. 2006). Post-Booker, a sentencing court must engage in a multi-step process that begins with correctly determining the defendant's guidelines range. See United States v. Moreland, 437 F.3d 424, 432 (4th Cir.), cert. denied, 126 S. Ct. 2054 (2006). “Next, the court must determine whether a sentence within that range . . . serves the factors set forth in § 3553(a) and, if not, select a sentence [within statutory limits] that does serve those factors.” Id. (alterations in original) (internal quotation marks omitted). “In doing so, the district court should first look to whether a departure is appropriate based on the Guidelines Manual or relevant case law.” Id. If it is appropriate, the court may - 6 - depart; if the “departure range still does not serve the factors set forth in § 3553(a), the court may then elect to impose a non-guideline sentence (a ‘variance sentence’).” Id. As part of this process, “[t]he district court must articulate the reasons for the sentence imposed, particularly explaining any departure or variance from the guideline range.” Id. A district court's mandate “is to impose a sentence sufficient, but not greater than necessary, to comply with the purposes of § 3553(a)(2).” United States v. Davenport, 445 F.3d 366, 370 (4th Cir. 2006) (internal quotation marks omitted). “Reasonableness is the appellate standard of review in judging whether a district court has accomplished its task.” Id. (emphasis in original). Ultimately, [T]he overarching standard of review for unreasonableness will not depend on whether we agree with the particular sentence selected, but whether the sentence was selected pursuant to a reasoned process in accordance with law, in which the court did not give excessive weight to any relevant factor, and which effected a fair and just result in light of the relevant facts and law. United States v. Green, 436 F.3d 449, 457 (4th Cir.) (internal citation omitted), cert. denied, 126 S. Ct. 2309 (2006). Thus, “reasonableness review involves both procedural and substantive components.” Moreland, 437 F.3d at 434. A sentence will be procedurally unreasonable if, for example, the district court provides an inadequate statement of reasons. Id. We conclude Brathwaite’s sentence is reasonable. - 7 - i. Increase of offense level for loss of more than $5000 but less than $10,000 pursuant to USSG § 2B1.1(b)(1)(B) We conclude the district court correctly increased Brathwaite’s offense level by two pursuant to USSG § 2B1.1(b)(1)(B). For offenses involving fraud and deceit, the district court is directed to increase a defendant’s offense level if loss precipitated by the fraud is greater than $5000. USSG § 2B1.1(b)(1). If there is a loss “but it reasonably cannot be determined,” the district court must then “use the gain that resulted from the offense as an alternative measure of loss.” USSG § 2B1.1, comment. (n.3(B)). Brathwaite claims the district court erred in using gain as a measure of loss because “[t]he record is devoid of any evidence that a victim incurred a loss.” Brathwaite also argues the Government should have produced a Department of Motor Vehicles (“DMV”) representative to testify as to the loss incurred. Brathwaite’s arguments are unavailing. Brathwaite’s presentence investigation report (“PSR”) stated that “the loss amount cannot be reasonably determined.” The PSR used the gain attributed to Brathwaite to determine the amount of loss to the DMV and, according to USSG § 2B1.1, attributed a loss of $9000 to Brathwaite. At the sentencing hearing, the Government introduced testimony establishing the DMV would have to take action to retrieve the fraudulent driver’s licenses and cancel - 8 - them. As of the time of Brathwaite’s sentencing, however, that process had only begun. Although Brathwaite generally objected to the PSR’s finding regarding the inability to determine the amount of loss, Brathwaite introduced no evidence at sentencing to contradict the Government’s testimony that a loss occurred and that the DMV was going to have to take action to cancel the fraudulent licenses. Based on the PSR and the testimony presented by the Government, the district court concluded there was a loss but the amount could not be reasonably determined. We conclude the district court correctly determined that the amount of loss could not be determined as of the time of sentencing and that the appropriate measure of loss was the gain to Brathwaite. See USSG § 2B1.1, comment. (n.3(B)) (2005); see also USSG § 2B1.1, comment. (n.3(C)) (2005) (“The court need only make a reasonable estimate of the loss. The sentencing judge is in a unique position to assess the evidence and estimate the loss based upon that evidence. For this reason, the court’s loss determination is entitled to appropriate deference.”) (internal citation omitted). Because the evidence established Brathwaite gained between $8000 and $9000 as a result of the conspiracy, we conclude the district court correctly increased Brathwaite’s offense level by two levels. See USSG § 2B1.1(b)(1)(B). - 9 - ii. District court’s alleged application of “reasonableness” as standard at sentencing Brathwaite claims the district court erroneously applied the appellate standard of review in sentencing him to what the district court believed to be a “reasonable” sentence. We conclude Brathwaite’s argument, which, in his case, merely puts form over substance, is meritless. At the sentencing hearing, the district court appropriately heard argument regarding Brathwaite’s objections to the calculation of his guidelines range and adopted the guidelines range calculated by the PSR as its own. The district court, after hearing testimony from an acquaintance of Brathwaite regarding Brathwaite’s past employment and the fact that he is an “excellent father”, thoroughly discussed the § 3553(a) factors and sentenced Brathwaite above the guidelines range. Although the district court did use the term “reasonable” in describing the sentence it imposed upon Brathwaite, the district court used this term only to explain it felt the sentence it imposed was the appropriate one under the circumstances. Nothing in the transcript of the sentencing hearing reveals the district court applied an incorrect standard in determining an appropriate sentence for Brathwaite. In fact, other than challenging the rationale behind the calculation of his guidelines range, Brathwaite does not challenge the duration of his sentence. Because the district court properly calculated the guidelines range - 10 - and thoroughly considered the relevant § 3553(a) factors, we conclude the district court’s use of the term “reasonable” to describe that sentence is irrelevant. See Moreland, 437 F.3d at 432. iii. Increase of offense level pursuant to USSG § 3B1.1(b) for managerial role in conspiracy In his pro se supplemental brief, Brathwaite claims the district court erred by increasing his offense level by three pursuant to USSG § 3B1.1(b) for his managerial role in the conspiracy. In his supplemental brief, however, Brathwaite concedes that his role in the conspiracy consisted of his procurement of purchasers for the fraudulent driver’s licenses, a duty to refer the purchasers to the Sykeses and another co- defendant and to collect the payment from the purchasers, and his responsibility to thereafter divide the payment among his co- conspirators. Moreover, the Government produced uncontradicted testimony at the sentencing hearing that Brathwaite instructed purchasers of the fraudulent driver’s licenses through the process of applying for the licenses at the DMV. Because we conclude this activity meets the requirements of a manager or supervisor of a conspiracy under USSG § 3B1.1(b), see United States v. Bartley, 230 F.3d 667, 673-74 (4th Cir. 2000) (holding increase appropriate where defendant arranged the logistics of marijuana deliveries or payments and coordinated the activities of others), we conclude the district court did not err - 11 - in increasing Brathwaite’s guidelines range based upon his managerial role in the conspiracy. iv. District court’s refusal to reduce offense level for acceptance of responsibility pursuant to USSG § 3E1.1 Brathwaite also claims in his pro se supplemental brief that the district court erred in refusing to reduce his offense level for acceptance of responsibility pursuant to USSG § 3E1.1. Brathwaite claims the Government did not meet its burden of proving Brathwaite minimized his role in the conspiracy. Brathwaite’s argument is meritless. Under USSG § 3E1.1, “[i]f the defendant clearly demonstrates acceptance of responsibility for his offense,” he qualifies for a two-level reduction in his offense level. “[M]erely pleading guilty is not sufficient to satisfy the criteria for a downward adjustment for acceptance of responsibility.” United States v. Nale, 101 F.3d 1000, 1005 (4th Cir. 1996). Although a defendant is not required to volunteer information, “a defendant who falsely denies, or frivolously contests, relevant conduct that the court determines to be true has acted in a manner inconsistent with acceptance of responsibility.” USSG § 3E1.1. In this case, the district court correctly determined that Brathwaite did “not fully and completely accept[] responsibility for his role in this offense. He has denied being responsible for being a supervisor and a manager of this operation. He has tried to put everything off on [his co-defendant].” - 12 - Moreover, it was Brathwaite’s burden to establish, by a preponderance of the evidence, that he “clearly recognized and affirmatively accepted personal responsibility for his criminal conduct.” Nale, 101 F.3d at 1005. Brathwaite failed to introduce evidence, other than pointing to his guilty plea, to establish he fully accepted responsibility for his managerial role in the conspiracy. Because we find the district court’s factual determination is supported by the record, we conclude the district court did not err in refusing to reduce Brathwaite’s offense level for acceptance of responsibility. II. The Sykes Sisters, Nos. 06-4825 and 06-4827 The Sykeses claim the district court imposed unreasonable sentences upon them because it: (i) applied the wrong legal standard in determining appropriate sentences; (ii) improperly included the cost to the DMV in investigating their crimes when calculating a loss under the guidelines; and (iii) failed to show it adequately considered all relevant § 3553(a) factors. The Sykeses’ arguments are meritless. A. District Court’s Alleged Application of “Reasonableness” as Sentencing Standard We conclude the district court did not apply the incorrect legal standard in determining appropriate sentences for the Sykes sisters. The district court, after hearing argument on the appropriate guidelines ranges, adjusted the guidelines ranges as it felt appropriate and thoroughly considered the § 3553(a) - 13 - factors. The mere fact the district court sentenced the Sykeses to what it believed to be “reasonable” sentences instead of stating on the record it was imposing sentences that were “sufficient, but not greater than necessary, to comply with the purposes of § 3553(a)(2)” in accordance with Davenport, 445 F.3d at 370, does not make the sentences unreasonable. The Sykeses’ argument to the contrary merely puts form over substance. Accordingly, we conclude the district court did not apply the incorrect legal standard in sentencing the Sykeses. See Moreland, 437 F.3d at 432- 34. B. Calculation of Loss Under USSG § 2B1.1(b) We also conclude the district court did not improperly include the cost to the DMV in investigating the Sykeses’ crimes when calculating loss under the guidelines. As with Brathwaite, the district court determined a loss amount could not reasonably be calculated under USSG § 2B1.1(b). The district court, finding the Government’s witnesses’ testimony regarding the actions taken by the DMV to obtain and cancel the fraudulent licenses generated by the Sykes sisters to be “extremely credible and straightforward,” appropriately determined gain to the Sykeses to be the correct measure of loss pursuant to USSG § 2B1.1, comment. (n.3(B)). Although the Sykeses argue the district court incorrectly included the costs to the Government in investigating and prosecuting their crimes in violation of USSG § 2B1.1, comment. - 14 - (n.3(D)(ii)) (2005) (“Loss shall not include . . . [c]osts to the government of, and costs incurred by victims primarily to aid the government in, the prosecution and criminal investigation of an offense.”), this argument is contradicted by the record. The district court explicitly stated it was not including costs to the Government in investigating the Sykeses’ crimes in its calculation of loss. The mere fact the district court stated it considered the victims of the Sykeses’ crimes to be “twofold, not only the system, but some of these individuals who are having their identities used and trying to straighten out this situation” does not, as the Sykeses would have the court believe, lead to the conclusion the district court included these costs in its calculation. Rather, the district court made this statement to support its conclusion the loss amount was incalculable and that, pursuant to USSG § 2B1.1, comment. (n.3(B)), it was required to look to the Sykeses’ gain in calculating their guidelines ranges. Accordingly, we reject the Sykeses’ argument that the district court improperly included the cost of the DMV’s investigation as part of the loss attributed to their crimes. C. Validity of Sentence Variances We reject the Sykeses’ argument that their sentences are unreasonable because the district court did not adequately explain its reasons for varying from their guidelines ranges. Although the district court did vary from the guidelines ranges and imposed - 15 - sentences double the maximum provided by the ranges,* the district court did not do so without first explaining why it was varying. Rather, after adjusting the Sykeses’ guidelines ranges, the district court thoroughly discussed the § 3553(a) factors as they pertained to the Sykes sisters and sentenced them accordingly. With regard to Teshara Sykes, the district court first discussed the “nature and circumstances of the offense and the history and characteristics of the defendant,” and determined that the “nature and circumstances of the offense weigh heavily against this defendant, given the position that she was in at the Department of Motor Vehicles, which is a position of trust, and the extensiveness of her activities, together with her sister and” another co-defendant. The district court continued that “at this point . . . the authorities have barely scratched the surface in trying to right these wrongs, and that the harm at this point in my opinion is just immeasurable.” Although the district court found that Teshara Sykes’ lack of a criminal history weighed in her favor, it also determined that her college education and background weighed against her; although Teshara Sykes is a bright woman who comes from a stable background, the district court found she used her intelligence to commit her crimes. Because the loss to the * The Sykeses’ guidelines ranges were both calculated at twenty-four to thirty months for each charge. The district court sentenced the Sykeses’ to sixty months on each charge, all terms to run concurrently. - 16 - system and the impact that fraudulent driver’s licenses can have on the system is vast, the district court felt compelled to vary Teshara Sykes’ sentence above the guidelines range. With regard to Tonita Sykes, the district court also considered the “nature and circumstances of the offense and the history and characteristics of the defendant” which, in the district court’s opinion, “weigh[ed] quite heavily against” her. The district court found that the “residual harm to the system is immeasurable in a case such as this,” and based on Tonita Sykes’ abuse of her position of trust with the DMV and the “significant level of disruption to a government function,” coupled with the “residual damage to the citizens of this country . . . for every one of those licenses that [was] issued falsely,” felt compelled to sentence her to double the maximum under her guidelines range. The district court also took into consideration Tonita Sykes’ lack of a criminal history, but found the fact that she used her intelligence and higher education to commit her crimes to be a factor against her favor. Although the Sykes sisters generally argue the district court did not appropriately consider “all of the relevant § 3553(a) factors,” the Sykeses do not point to which factors the district court failed to consider. On the contrary, we conclude the district court thoroughly discussed each and every relevant § 3553(a) factor. In any event, a district court “need not - 17 - explicitly discuss every § 3553(a) factor on the record.” United States v. Eura, 440 F.3d 625, 632 (4th Cir. 2006), petition for cert. filed, __ U.S.L.W. __ (U.S. June 20, 2006) (No. 05-11659). Accordingly, we conclude the Sykeses’ sentences are reasonable. Based on the foregoing, we grant Brathwaite’s motion to file a pro se supplemental brief and affirm appellants’ convictions and sentences. We dispense with oral argument because the facts and legal contentions are adequately presented in the materials before the court and argument would not aid the decisional process. AFFIRMED - 18 -
How an Automated Phone System Can Increase Your Revenue Productivity One aspect of the modern age is finding new ways to be efficient. In many aspects, we have succeeded in doing so and many innovative ideas were proven to be very successful. Businesses tend to follow in the footsteps of the modern age and mostly it is because the innovations are time-saving and cost-effective. Revenue The first aspect to turn to is obviously revenue. To increase your revenue you can employ many different strategies. As a functioning business, you can expand clientele or alter your prices. Raising your prices a tiny bit will have an immediate and evident effect on your overall business and, of course, your earnings. More Ideas There are many ideas which people don’t even think of but which can help you better your business and have nothing to do with profit. One such idea is the automated phone system which most modern businesses tend to use. These systems interact with users without a need for human interference. The contact thus has an automated nature and bridges the gap between humans and machines. Example A system which serves this purpose very efficiently is the cloud based phone system. Its advantages are many but we’ll just name a few. It is a money-saver. It reduces the cost of calls for almost 50%, and this includes both local and international calls. These system providers charge less per minute than most other service providers and are life-changing in the long run. They can save you a ton of money without you having to lift a finger. You are offered different packages for both fewer users and bigger businesses which tend to have a higher rate of this sort of traffic. If you are looking for an economical and practical way to save time and money – look no further. Practical These systems don’t require expensive equipment or complex setups to get it going. You won’t need a team of experts just to make it happen. You will not need a bunch of people in order to maintain the phone lines and the system up and running. Your provider will take care of that. It is portable and flexible. You can do anything regardless of your location. Follow your call activities, or your company’s activities, access the system from smartphones and tablets. Do everything in a timely manner and connect with people in an easier way. You just need an internet connection and your set. Whether you’re home, at work or running errands you will be able to get in touch with everyone. If this is for your business you will be able to connect offices under a single phone system. The upside is that you will not have to be torn by considering which location suits you the best since the location will no longer matter. This is a very practical and reliable system. It will not have any issues or disconnections. It is the idea of a decentralized system which makes it so forward-thinking and useful. People should learn to take advantage of these sorts of innovations on time.
Category: beach I’m in the mood to post some pics from my new favorite designer for Spring. Check out these images from Zimmerman’s Spring runway presentation. This Australian label, known mostly for it’s innovative and stylish swimwear, made it’s New York Fashion Week debut back in September. I cannot wait for this collection to hit the stores. Here are my favorite looks from the show… Like this: My family and I just returned from a very relaxing pool-side vacation, so naturally I have swimwear on the brain. If you haven’t already done so, now is the time to dive into a new one-piece swimsuit. The trend has swept the runways and fashion-minded women are embracing this fun, yet sophisticated style. While I love the retro-inspired one-piece numbers shown all over the runways, I don’t want to look like I just popped out of a vintage Florida post card. I’m looking for something a bit more subtle. These printed versions bring a modern vibe to the classic swimsuit style…
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[A study of young offenders undergoing forensic psychiatric evaluation. There is a need of correctional care alternatives]. With effect from January 1, 1992, legislation regulating the practice of forensic psychiatry in Sweden, the Forensic Mental Care Act, was changed to meet more restrictive demands. A retrospective study of 15-20-year-old male offenders, investigated at the Dept. of Forensic Psychiatry in Stockholm during the period 1990-93, showed the proportion sentenced to forensic psychiatric care to have decreased by 21 per cent since the introduction of the new legislation. The majority of young offenders otherwise sentenced, mainly to correctional treatment, were suffering from personality disorders. Most of them had previously been in contact with the correctional and social service sectors. Several of them received prison sentences despite the fact that young offenders are not to be sent to prison without exceptional reasons. One such exceptional reason might be the lack of an appropriate alternative. A third treatment alternative is called for.
Ajhai Pani Ajhai Pani is a Nepali film released in February 2015. It is the final film of director Alok Nembang. The film features Sudarshan Thapa and Puza Sharma in lead roles. Plot The movie portrays a romance between Kushal (Sudarshan Thapa) and Yunisha (Puza Sharma). It also features Surakshya Pant as Shaili, and Bijay Lama as Yunisha's uncle. Cast Sudarshan Thapa as Kushal Pooja Sharma as Yunisha Surakshya Panta as Shaili Mithila Sharma as Kushal's grandmother Ramsharan Pathak as of Kushal's grandfather Bijay Lama as Yunisha's uncle Bishal Dhungana as Bhuwan Pushpa Khadka as Biren Soundtrack References Category:Nepalese romantic comedy films
// RUN: %clang_cc1 %s -verify -fsyntax-only // Basic parsing/Sema tests for _Atomic // No operations are actually supported on objects of this type yet. // The qualifier syntax is not supported yet. _Atomic(int) t1; _Atomic(int) t2 = &t1; void testf(void); void f(void) { _Atomic(_Atomic(int)) t3; _Atomic(_Atomic(int)) t4[2] = { &t3, 0 }; testf(t4); } extern _Atomic(int ()(int()[], int()[10])) mergetest; extern _Atomic(int ()(int()[10], int()[])) mergetest; extern _Atomic(int ()(int()[10], int()[10])) mergetest; _Atomic(int()) error1; // expected-error {{_Atomic cannot be applied to function type}} _Atomic(struct ErrorS) error2; // expected-error {{_Atomic cannot be applied to incomplete type}} expected-note {{forward declaration}} _Atomic(int[10]) error3; // expected-error {{_Atomic cannot be applied to array type}} _Atomic(const int) error4; // expected-error {{_Atomic cannot be applied to qualified type}} _Atomic(_Atomic(int)) error5; // expected-error {{_Atomic cannot be applied to atomic type}}
Baltimore, MD Average As of May 30, 2020, the average annual pay for the MBA jobs category in Baltimore, MD is $84,095 a year. While ZipRecruiter is seeing annual salaries as high as $181,973 and as low as $19,824, the majority of salaries within the MBA jobs category currently range between $46,764 (25th percentile) to $105,727 (75th percentile) in Baltimore, MD. The average pay range for a MBA job varies modestly (up to $58,963), which suggests there may be fewer opportunities for advancement based on skill level, but increased pay based on location and years of experience is still possible. Based on recent job postings on ZipRecruiter, the MBA job market in both Baltimore, MD and the surrounding area is very active. To estimate the most accurate annual salary range for MBA jobs, ZipRecruiter continuously scans its database of millions of active jobs published locally throughout America. Find your next high paying job within the MBA category on ZipRecruiter today.
News.me, the social news service built on top of Twitter (and Facebook), today announced it is killing its curation apps for iPhone and iPad. The company is blaming Twitter for the move and says it wants to focus on its Digg efforts instead. The company explains Twitter recently started competing with News.me, but it’s the social network’s new Display Requirements, which it says are going to be too difficult for it to implement with its current resources, that tipped the scales. “Here’s what it comes down to,” says News.Me’s Jake Levine, “we don’t want to invest time and energy into an application that competes with a platform on which it relies.” News.me first launched for the iPad back in April 2011 and started using an algorithm to pull in popular news shared by your friends (and your friends’ friends) on both Twitter and Facebook. News.me’s algorithm ranked links based on whether the company thought they were newsworthy, how many of your friends shared them, and how many users clicked on them across the Web. A year later, in March 2012, it arrived on the iPhone. At the time of writing, News.me for iPhone and News.me for iPad are no longer available for download. Meanwhile, Digg for iOS is available on the official Apple App Store (iPad support arrived less than a month ago). News.me says it will continue to support its iOS apps for users that have already downloaded them, and the News.me email service will trudge on, unaffected by today’s news. Betaworks, the company behind Bit.ly and News.me, acquired Digg in July with promises that it will be revamped to be different than Reddit. That’s exactly what happened some three months ago, and now “already over 4 million people have checked out the new Digg,” according to Levine. “But what’s more shocking is that usage of the iPhone and iPad apps are close to surpassing web, and those apps didn’t exist 12 weeks ago!” Levine also says News.me wants to “take what we learned from News.me to build the Internet’s best social news applications” and keep “helping people find the best stories on the Internet.” Given the Twitter changes and Digg’s potential, using the News.me brand to achieve those goals just doesn’t make sense anymore. See also – Developers surprised by Oct 5th deadline rush to comply with Twitter’s new tweet Display Requirements and Why IFTTT being forced to remove its Twitter triggers is a red alert for developers Image credit: Griszka Niewiadomski Read next: "Memory techniques are a technology of the imagination" Ed Cooke of Memrise on changing learning
Government pledges to tackle use of high-powered lasers The UK government has announced plans to curb the use of high-powered laser pointers, which pose risks to airline and rail services as well as the general public. The Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy has pledged additional support to local authority ports and border teams, to stop unsafe laser pointers entering the UK. This will include support for increased checks at borders, the testing of products to ensure they are safe, and ensuring teams have access to necessary scientific, technical and testing expertise. The government said it will also work with manufacturers and retailers to improve labeling, and will improve the policing of online pointer sales by working with online retailers including Ebay. In 2016 the Civil Aviation Authority received reports of 1,258 laser incidents in the UK, with Heathrow unsurprisingly being the most frequent location, and the British Transport Police recorded an average of just under 100 laser incidents per year on rail services between the period of April 1, 2011 and November 30, 2017. It is already an offence to target aircraft with laser pointers, but the Laser Misuse (Vehicles) Bill, which will have its second reading this week, will seek to expand the list of vehicles covered under the offence. The Bill will also make it easier to prosecute offenders by removing the need to prove intention to endanger a vehicle, and those caught could be jailed for up to five years. The UK’s pilot association BALPA has welcomed the move, with general secretary Brian Strutton warning that “Shining a laser at an aircraft is extremely dangerous and has the potential to cause a crash that could be fatal to not only those on board, but people on the ground too”.
A team of experienced professionals transforms businesses with a unique approach: rethinking brick and mortar and ecommerce merchandising, and and product development from a consumer-centric perspective. Posts navigation Amazon in 2019: Enemy or Ally? Hey guys, I’m Syama Meagher, CEO of Scaling Retail, and you cannot go into 2019 without thinking about the impact that Amazon might have on your business. Whether you’re an enterprise business or a fashion startup, it is important for us to see the ways in which Amazon will be impacting the way we shape our retail strategies. So let’s unpack a couple of really interesting things that have happened in 2018, and what’s to come in 2019. Well, in 2018, Google collaborated with this tech startup called Pointy. Now why is that so interesting? Well, what they ended up doing was giving a lot of voice to small businesses. Pointy integrates with a lot of small retailers and their back end inventory, and it allows you to see what kinds of products are being sold within those small retailers when you do a Google search. Now why do we care about this? Well guys, we all know that Amazon likes to tout that they have the largest inventory. But we all know that consumers are looking to purchase and have a lot of that immediacy and one-on-one relationship with a lot of their retail store partners now. So, this collaboration between Google and Pointy allows small businesses to get some visibility, allow them to share the inventory that they have in-store, and, guys, if those retailers then flip it and provide fast shipping, could potentially allow them to have the customer bypass that Amazon search altogether. Now, the next interesting thing that Amazon’s been doing, a lot of brands now can now register on amazon.com to register their intellectual property. Now what does that mean? Well, it means that Amazon is now helping a lot of businesses be able to register their businesses and create a lot of services that businesses are now relying on. So things from fulfillment, right, things from distribution, obviously being able to sell in the marketplace on Amazon, and having that easy connection between Prime, so that two-day, one-day delivery service. Amazon has been making it so incredibly easy for businesses – even the fashion startup firms out there – to get started on their platform and to support them with a variety of different services. Now this I would say is a huge benefit for many small businesses. Why is that? Well, it can be challenging to find fulfillment partners. It can be challenging to be able to give products and ship products on a quick one-day, two-day service. So, as a small business looking to stay competitive in the market, this is a benefit that seems really amazing, because it helps to really add so much value and take a lot off of a business’ plate. So, so far we have one point against Amazon, and one point for Amazon. Let’s see what other kinds of examples we can dive into. Well, another interesting thing, guys, is Amazon’s been ramping up a lot of their advertising on the platform, really trying to take a piece of that market share of that $88 billion digital advertising spend that right now, Google and Facebook have been primarily dominating. So what does that mean exactly? Well, if you guys go onto Amazon, you’re likely, when you type in a search, to see sponsored ads. In fact, sponsored ads have now been really taking over a lot of the consumer-visible real estate when you are searching for Amazon products. This is both a great thing, as far as being able to make sure your products have high ranking and high visibility, but definitely problematic from a customer experience standpoint, and also problematic if you are not a large enterprise business and cannot compete competitively with those ad spends. So we’ve all seen that companies like Facebook have become a lot more competitive in terms of the amount you have to spend, a lot more in terms of the cost per click, the cost per view. And so when you start to think about Amazon taking up more of that digital ad spend, that means that, guys, you have to have the money in order to pay to play. Now, the other really interesting thing that Amazon’s forced us to do is to really pay more attention to experiential. It’s forced us to spend a lot more time really thinking about the value-add. And this, I think, is so important. Jeff Bezos really understood the power of the one-click shopper, right, being able to quickly get something into your cart and get it right to your door within one to two business days. However, this has really forced us in the retail landscape to be a lot more critical about that customer experience. I haven’t seen in my career so much of a focus on customer experience and experiential in retail that I have in the last two years. Now, this is very important. This has driven companies like Target to get a lot more specific about their localized shopping experiences, really bridging in-store and online. This has also forced companies like Target, again, to get a lot smarter about how they deliver product to the customer. This means that they can either be delivering goods, let’s say, same-day delivery, offering two-day shipping, having things like order online and pick up at curbside pickup. And we’re seeing other businesses follow suit, right, we’re seeing Sears take a similar approach, we’re seeing Nordstrom take a similar approach, and this I really think is accredited to the force that Amazon put on us as retailers to be more innovative, to create Insta-bait moments by creating more experiential events inside of our retail stores, and to create more hyper-local shopping experiences. It’s no doubt that Walmart sees Amazon as its biggest threat. And what has Amazon done in retaliation to that? Well, they keep doing what they do best. They keep mining data. What has Walmart done? Well, Walmart now ensures that within a 50-mile radius of any major city or smaller mid-tier city that there are multiple Walmart options. So what does that mean? Well, if you want to touch and feel the product, you can go buy it at Walmart. If you want to actually get that product to you in two days, Walmart can do that as well. So now we start to see what are the major conglomerates going to be doing as they start to vie more for that big money spend. All right, so lots of reasons why we don’t like Amazon. Lots of reasons why I think Amazon is actually helping a lot of retailers, but what does that mean for you in 2019? Enterprise businesses, it is really important that we start to think of amping up our Amazon advertising spend if we currently have that as a sales channel. This is critical. Without investing dollars into that spend, you’re going to be lagging behind, and then all of a sudden, it’s going to become much harder to close that sale on an Amazon channel if you have it. Growth stage companies, this is an important pivotal moment for you to ask yourself, “Am I able to compete with Amazon?” Do I want to sell on their platform, in which case now I know that that’s not only an investment into creating them as a distribution channel, but also as a marketing channel? Used to be we would only think about Amazon as being a distribution channel, but now we know we need to spend money in terms of getting eyeballs on your product on Amazon. Or, do we want to say, hey, we’re going to completely forego Amazon as a distribution and marketing channel and really push towards experiential? That is a choice that you have. Lastly, when it comes to fashion startup businesses and looking at Amazon, it’s important to see Amazon at this juncture as potentially a big asset for you. This means that you can leverage Amazon, from their distribution platform to their marketing channel, and you can really grow and build a business on Amazon. However, there is a huge caveat here, and that is Amazon is known for being able to really go home hard with their private label products. So that means, guys, Amazon is mining data. They are looking to see what’s trending, what’s working, what are the great price points, and guess what? If you grow your fashion startup on Amazon, you are really only allowing yourself to take advantage of one channel. So you have to think in terms of multiple prongs and multiple distribution points. The one thing that I’ve seen a lot of fashion startup brands suffer from is getting on Amazon and then having their products ripped off, not being able to afford the advertising spend, and all of a sudden, now their businesses are becoming far less profitable, and they have to shut their doors. So, in order to prevent that from happening to your business if you go the Amazon route, you want to make sure you’re thinking of this as a distribution channel as well as a new place for your marketing spend. All right, guys, thinking about going the Amazon route? Want to know how that fits into your custom business model, and what your future plans for growth are? Send us an email. I’m at hello@scalingretail.com. Would love to see what your approach is to Amazon, so please leave us comments below. Make sure you follow us on YouTube, and hey, we are where you are, guys, so when you are out there thinking about what’s happening in terms of pop-ups, what’s happening in terms of Amazon, what do I do next, where do I pivot, come find us at Scaling Retail. We are here to serve you. All right, guys, talk to you later. Bye. A team of experienced professionals transforms businesses with a unique approach: rethinking brick and mortar and ecommerce merchandising, and and product development from a consumer-centric perspective.
According to conventional techniques, a casing (case) of a mobile phone is formed by molding a synthetic resin such as a polycarbonate resin or an ABS resin. A folding mobile phone having a receiver side and a transmitter side coupled to each other by a hinge mechanism is taken as an example. A transmitter-side casing is composed of a front case having, on its surface, an operation portion, and a rear case that is arranged to make contact with the rear of the front case and has a battery containing portion therein. In recent years, it has been increasingly desired to reduce the thickness of mobile phones and improve the appearance and usability thereof. Further reduction in the thickness of mobile phones requires reduction in size and thickness of individual parts of the mobile phone such as front cases, rear cases, batteries, printed circuit boards, and other electronic components. Further, there is an increasing trend in the use of a built-in antenna in a mobile phone in light of the appearance thereof. This requires an antenna to be efficiently housed in a small space within a casing. A conventional antenna (built-in antenna) of a mobile phone has a structure in which antenna elements made of metal are integrally formed with a bar-shaped support member made of a synthetic resin, and is located in a rear case along the upper side of the inside surface thereof. An example of a mobile phone containing such an antenna therein is “F882iES” placed on the market by FUJITSU LIMITED. Incidentally, a strap has conventionally been attached to a mobile phone in many cases. This is because such a strap helps a user to carry his/her mobile phone or to remove the same from his/her bag, or such a strap is attached as a mobile phone ornament. A casing, therefore, is provided with a strap retaining portion that projects into the casing, which reduces the internal space of the casing. The commercially available mobile phone described above has a strap retaining portion formed adjacent to an end of the upper side of a rear case. It is desired, however, to provide a strap retaining portion in the center of the upper side of a rear case to improve the usability and appearance of a mobile phone. In such a case, however, the strap retaining portion is caused to project into a casing at the center of the upper side thereof. The strap retaining portion, thus, interferes with an antenna to be located in the position where the strap retaining portion projects.
This is my newest swords, based on the Organization 13 theme from the kingdom hearts series. Along with the idea that each sword to be held in each hand, kind alike Avatar the last air bender’s Zuko [link] , Kingdom hearts’ Sora [link][link] , and Star Wars series’ sith [link] . As for the detailing, all I have to say that is that it ate time to no end. Along the blade edge, I use the repetitive number of nobody symbols (25 in all on each blade), and as you can see at the “business end” of the blade is two copious layers of interlocking stars (made out of nobody symbols). Before you see the Habaki (Blade Collar) I painted the Roman Number 13 in the Kingdom hearts front style. The Habaki itself is a two part design (the black and sliver part) and it is where the Link to what was not connected [link] to and Disconnected never connect arm band [link] . The Kashiri (Pommel) in short is the end point after the (Tsuka) handle of the sword is the Proof of existence tags [link] that I have added onto it. I will be more than happy to make copies of these swords (I am keeping the originals) just note me about it.
If they painted the tailpiece to match I'd like it a lot more. That tailpiece sticks out like a sore thumb. And $2300? A little too much. Of course I've never played it so I wouldn't know if it's worth it or not. I'd take that sweetheart in a flash! I think it looks great. I've never been one to care what a guitar looks like, looks don't have anything to do with how it plays. I bet it plays sweet! That's what is important to me. Not the greatest tuners on this Reso though. I have them on my National EN. Perhaps they made some changes. But I could live with them.... Some time back, I sold my National RadioTone and ended up buying 3 Republic guitars for about what I sold the RadioTone. I've been more than happy with them, although I still have regrets about selling the RadioTone. I've had it in my head that someday I'll own a National again, even though none of their current models really inspired much guitar lust in me. This new one does. The only thing that would make it an absolute no brainer is an ebony fret board. My guess is that this will be priced higher than the Delphi, which I consider a bit overpriced as is. Sheb Whitebred wrote:Some time back, I sold my National RadioTone and ended up buying 3 Republic guitars for about what I sold the RadioTone. I've been more than happy with them, although I still have regrets about selling the RadioTone. I've had it in my head that someday I'll own a National again, even though none of their current models really inspired much guitar lust in me. This new one does. The only thing that would make it an absolute no brainer is an ebony fret board. My guess is that this will be priced higher than the Delphi, which I consider a bit overpriced as is. Yeah I've sold a few that I regret selling. I will get that triolian though. They are overpriced but it will be nice to buy something and not have to work on it, like the republics. Not bashing Frank, but there's no excuse for a mushroom inside that is bouncing around and some of the other issues I've seen. On one of mine, the truss rod is bent inside such that it pushed up the 1st fret on the fretboard and cracked it. I had to fix that. But yeah, National if you can afford it. I won't not buy one because it's a few hundred over what I think it is. I'll get one no matter what. Even if I have to sell krank to school kids i guess with real nationals it is easy to tell the difference between a duolian and a triolian,and of course usually the duolian sounds better,unless of course you hit them hard enough then even an O sounds the same,haha. but with these reissue nationals,what's the dif between a delphi and a triolian?is it just a paint job,or does the triolian have the dreaded maple neck? Yep, I've never regretted buying my secondhand National Style O for a moment. Cost me $1600 but what a guitar. Now that I've added a National hotplate pickup it's everything I need for slide.I just sit back and watch all the posts about chopping and changing Republics and realise how lucky I was to get it right first time.It's hard to make that initial decision to buy a National with so many cheaper alternatives but believe me you'll never regret it! They are great guitars even though they are more expensive.How's that?And I'm not even a yank!! Hi guys, Hope you don't mind me popping in to say hi. Someone just emailed me this link and I thought it'd be cool to join and say hello. Yes, that was me in the video w the white hat. Should have filmed a lot more but the whole NAMM thing was overwhelming. I'll just add a little bit to the thread to clear a few things up on the new Triolian. The old Delphi has thicker sheet metal, .032 vs. .028 on the new Triolian. The Delphi actually had a steel top and back and brass sides for the last several years. The new Triolian is all steel. The old Delphi was Powder Coated w a heavy krinkle finish. The new Triolian has thinner paint, NON krinkle, and is baked at low temp to dry hard and sooner for assembly. The old Delphi had rolled F holes, the new Trio has flat cut as you see. The old Delphi was called the Delphi, the Triolian is called the Triolian including a cool retro Triolian decal. Game, Set, Match! I would say the new Trio is a very nice improvement over the Delphi, and the price is exactly the SAME. Standard price for a new Triolian will be the same $2,300 as the Delphi retail, less 20% which is $1,840. Anyhows, hope you liked the NAMM clips, very nice of Steve James to demo the Triolian. He had just sat down w an El Trovador and I said, "mind if you play the new trio and let me record you for a nice sound bite?". He said, sure, no problem. Anyhow, good to find you all and hope to pop in now and then. I've seen many threads on the various brands of reso's on here, and it's all interesting. I've actually never had in my hands many of these other models but have friends who really like em. It's all good. Hope this helps a bit.... Oh, and if you all want a cool white hat like I'm wearing there (and I know you do) I got it at The Vault outside Disneyland in the mall section. Good luck finding one! (kidding) Cheers, Lenny
HeLa cell tumor response to 60Co, Cs-137, Cf-252 radiations and cisplatin chemotherapy in nude mice. HeLa cells were implanted into athymic nude mice from tissue culture and solid tumors established (HeLa cell tumor or HCT). Large cell numbers of 1 X 10(7) were required to obtain consistent and progressive growth, and tumor growth followed a Gompertzian mode. Irradiation studies were carried out using acute Cobalt-60 (60Co), low-dose-rate (LDR) Cs-137 and LDR Cf-252. Cf-252, a neutron-emitting radioisotope, produced an immediate tumor shrinkage and regression response after a dose of 279 cGy. Acute 60Co or LDR Cs-137 irradiation with 1000 cGy had little effect on the HCT. After a dose of 2000 cGy of 60Co radiation tumor shrinkage followed a latent period of approximately 5 days. Cisplatin had no effect on the HCT in nude mice in stationary or late exponential growth.
Q: pandas.to_datetime: which format to choose? I have a .csv like that: "Date","Time","Open","High","Low","Close","Volume" 12/30/2002,0930,0.94,0.94,0.94,0.94,571466 I want to convert the "Time" column values with pandas.to_datetime module, but I can't find the correct format to use because there's not a separator between hours and minutes. Can someone help me please? A: You can a pass a list of the columns to parse as a complete datetime by passing a list of lists to parse_dates param: In [6]: import io import pandas as pd t='''"Date","Time","Open","High","Low","Close","Volume" 12/30/2002,0930,0.94,0.94,0.94,0.94,571466''' df = pd.read_csv(io.StringIO(t), parse_dates=[['Date','Time']], keep_date_col=True) df Out[6]: Date_Time Date Time Open High Low Close Volume 0 2002-12-30 09:30:00 12/30/2002 0930 0.94 0.94 0.94 0.94 571466 You can see that the dtypes are as expected: In [7]: df.info() <class 'pandas.core.frame.DataFrame'> RangeIndex: 1 entries, 0 to 0 Data columns (total 8 columns): Date_Time 1 non-null datetime64[ns] Date 1 non-null object Time 1 non-null object Open 1 non-null float64 High 1 non-null float64 Low 1 non-null float64 Close 1 non-null float64 Volume 1 non-null int64 dtypes: datetime64[ns](1), float64(4), int64(1), object(2) memory usage: 144.0+ bytes
(CNN) -- A 26-year-old member of the U.S. national swimming team died Saturday during an open-water race in the United Arab Emirates, according to event officials. Fran Crippen died during the last leg of the 10-kilometer Marathon Swimming World Cup in Fujairah, said the International Swimming Federation, or FINA. The cause of death is under investigation, FINA said. Swimming World magazine reported that Crippen fell unconscious during the event and was found by deep-sea divers two hours later near the race's final buoy. The U.S. Olympic Committee issued a statement Saturday saying it was "extremely saddened" to learn of Crippen's death. "We send our condolences and deepest sympathies to the Crippen family as well as to our entire swimming community," the USOC statement said. "While details of this tragedy are still forthcoming, we shall keep this outstanding young athlete and his family in our thoughts and prayers." Crippen won bronze in the 10-kilometer event at the 2009 FINA World Championships and was the gold medalist in the same event at the 2007 Pan American Games, according to USA Swimming. Crippen of Conshohocken, Pennsylvania, was inspired to take up swimming at age 6 after watching older sister Maddy Crippen compete. Maddy Crippen was a member of the 2000 U.S. Olympic team, according to USA Swimming. Crippen graduated in 2006 from the University of Virginia, where he was twice named Atlantic Coast Conference Swimmer of the Year.
What's incorrect? Report a Problem Issue Type: The Zestimate is a starting point in figuring out the true value of a house. The amount of data we have for the house affects the Zestimate accuracy. If your home facts are incorrect or missing, this may affect your Zestimate value. More on the Zestimate Other Zestimate Details A Zestimate home valuation is Zillow's estimated market value. It is not an appraisal. Use it as a starting point to determine a home's value. Learn more The Value Range is the high and low estimate market value for which Zillow values a home. The more information, the smaller the range, and the more accurate the Zestimate. See data coverage and accuracy table Don't agree with your home's Zestimate? Owners can edit their home facts to make the Zestimate more accurate. Plus, you can leave an opinion on your Zestimate value below. Just click "Owner Estimate". $665,521 -$1,672 Last 30 days $632K $699K Zestimate range Rent Zestimate A Rent Zestimate is Zillow's estimated monthly rental price, computed using a proprietary formula. It is a starting point in determining the monthly rental price for a specific property. Learn more The Rent Range is the high and low estimate for which an apartment or home could rent. The more information we have, the smaller the range, and the more accurate the Rent Zestimate. See data coverage and accuracy table Neighborhood Market guide Zillow predicts 95035 home values will rise 4.8% next year, compared to a 4.8% rise for Milpitas as a whole. Among 95035 homes, this home is valued 11.1% less than the midpoint (median) home, and is valued 11% less per square foot. Foreclosures will be a factor impacting home values in the next several years. In 95035, the number of foreclosures waiting to be sold is 0.4% greater than in Milpitas, and 33.5% lower than the national average. This higher local number may prevent 95035 home values from rising as quickly as other regions in Milpitas. 609 Wool Dr, Milpitas, CA, 95035 is a single family home of 1,550 sqft on a lot of 3,200 sqft (or 0.07 acres). Zillow's Zestimate® for 609 Wool Dr is $665,521 and the Rent Zestimate® is $2,961/mo. This single family home has 3 bedrooms, 3 baths, and was built in 1987. The 4 bed single family home at 1221 Park View Dr in Milpitas is comparable and for sale for $725,000. This home is located in Milpitas in zip code 95035. Nearby ZIP codes include 95036 and 94089. Santa Clara, San Jose, and Sunnyvale are nearby cities.
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Lost and found Some familiar words that we’re not singing tonight, in this Taizé-style service: Amazing grace, how sweet the sound, that saved a wretch like me; I once was lost but now I’m found, was blind but now I see. We heard in tonight’s Gospel reading: Now all the tax-collectors and sinners were coming near to listen to him. And the Pharisees and the scribes were grumbling and saying, ‘This fellow welcomes sinners and eats with them.’ To the religious people, they were sinners, unclean, unworthy; in his parables, Jesus gave them their true name: ‘lost’. A lost sheep, a lost coin. And then a lost son, whom we usually call the Prodigal Son. There’s a psychological payoff when we name people ‘sinners’. It means that we are not ‘sinners’. We can’t be sinners. How could we see their sin if we were? There’s a psychological payoff when we name people ‘unclean’. It means that we are ‘clean’. We must be clean. How else could we see their dirt? There’s a psychological payoff when we name people ‘unworthy’. It means that we are ‘worthy’. Of course we’re worthy. How else could we see their lack of worth? Things are a very different when, with Jesus, we name people ‘lost’, if we always keep this in mind: I once was lost but now I’m found. We are found. But that means that we too were once lost. We too needed to be found. What’s more, we’re still needing to be found. The parables Jesus tells are about looking for the lost. We can say that once we were ‘lost’; but do we know that we are still partly lost? Because we are. We’ve got ‘lost’ parts of ourselves. We doubt ourselves; we have our besetting sins, our disappointments, brokenness, failures and fears. We are both ‘lost’ and ‘found’. We belong in God’s lost and found department. Sometimes our lostness can cripple us: these doubts, disappointments, failures and fears stop us from being the people God made us to be. But if we know what it is to receive the free gift of God’s forgiveness and acceptance, we can begin to accept the lost parts of ourselves. We know what it is to be separated from God—yet also to be brought into communion with God and with God’s people. ‘I once was lost, but now I’m found.’ That’s not the whole story though: parts of us are still lost; parts of us—our fears, our self-doubts, our bitternesses, our brokennesses—still need to be found. Our first instinct may be to hide these part of ourselves from God, as Adam and Eve tried to hide their nakedness in the Garden. But we can’t hide from God. But why should we want to hide from the God who loves us? Let’s not hide these parts of ourselves from the God who seeks and saves whatever is lost. If we open ourselves to God, then the Spirit can work her hidden healing work in us. Let’s continue to open ourselves to God, to allow these ‘lost’ parts of ourselves to be found and healed and come to life. Amen.
Q: Remove a lot of files in git filter-branch I'm migrating a repository from svn to git. In this last step, I want to remove tons of files that aren't needed from the history. I'm trying the following command: git filter-branch --prune-empty --index-filter \ "for file in $(cat files); do git rm -rf --cached --ignore-unmatch ${file}; done" -f But it says that the argument list is too long. I could rewrite this like: for file in $(cat files); do git filter-branch --prune-empty --index-filter \ "git rm -rf --cached --ignore-unmatch ${file}" -f done But it will run filter-branch tons of times, and the history is long.. so, it would take too much time. Is there a faster way to filter-branch removing lots of files? A: I'd recommend using The BFG, a simpler, faster alternative to git-filter-branch specifically designed for removing unwanted files from Git history. You mentioned in your comment that the problem files are generally big binaries, and The BFG has a specific option for handling this - you should carefully follow the BFG's usage instructions, but the core part is just this: $ java -jar bfg.jar --strip-blobs-bigger-than 10M my-repo.git Any files over 10MB in size (that aren't in your latest commit) will be removed from your Git repository's history. You can then use git gc to clean away the dead data: $ git gc --prune=now --aggressive The BFG is typically at least 10-720x faster than running git-filter-branch, and generally easier to use. Full disclosure: I'm the author of the BFG Repo-Cleaner.
For the quilting I did a free-form loopy pattern in white thread. Nice and easy. I think I mentioned before that I was nervous about this whole 'low-volume' approach. I like light fabrics just as much as the next gal, or maybe even more, but working with just light value fabrics intimidated me. Would all the prints work together? Would they mesh? Would it look too chaotic? These were just a few of the questions I had. Thankfully Tara had pieced her own version of this pattern a few weeks before I did. She encouraged me by saying that the quilt could be anything that I wanted it to be. Of course it could be, (right?) but I needed that friendly reminder. The other thing I struggled with is how big to make the quilt. The blocks are 10" finished...so I finally settled on 70" x 90", which is a large twin size. I knew I was going to love the quilt, so I made it bigger than my default (lap size). My train of thought was bigger=more versatile. It took me a few days to figure out what to do for the backing. I love the yellow print (Pinafore in butterfrom Connecting Threads) and considered ordering more, but then I came to my senses and realized that I certainly DO NOT need to buy any more fabric! I ended up using 3 different pieces of small calico-ish prints from my stash. I do love a pieced backing... ...and it felt so good to use what I had on hand. The binding is Circa 1934 by Cosmo Cricket for Moda, which I cut on the bias. I'm pleased with how it finishes off the quilt....just the right punch of color without overpowering the quilt. It's the cherry on top! I love, love, LOVE this quilt! I'm ready to make another low-volume quilt (or two, or three....). I had a few questions regarding the term 'low-volume' in previous posts. Low-volume fabrics have predominately white, light or neutral backgrounds. More often than not the prints are graphic and simple. There is a low volume quilt along in progress on flickr, with a lot of eye candy to browse. There is also a link to an article that talks about low-volume more in depth, should you want to check that out. This is gorgeous. My quilts tend to be the other - very high volume. Tried to tone it down using your double hourglass pattern - am thrilled with my attempt at lower volume. Karen . www.madewithmytwohands.blogspot.com I absolutely love that quilt. Something about the lightness makes it look softer - snuglier. And, as I guess is the case with any scrap quilt, I can just picture myself on it, looking at fabrics for hours because there are so many to look at. What can I do but follow in the comments of my previous buds--Love it, Love it, Love it. most of my work is done with darker fabrics too and this looks so yummy I may be persuaded to try a small piece with fabrics such as these. Hmmmm, thanks for the inspiration. This is just so beautiful and serene! It gives such a lovely effect and a peaceful sleep too I bet! I've been working on a lot of high volume projects so I know I'll need to make one of these soon! Very inspiring :) Love it!! I must admit, when I first saw pictures of the fabrics you were using, I thought to myself, low volume? Really? Because most of those fabrics don't look like what I imagine are low-volume, but I am pleasantly surprised! So when I end up doing a low-volume quilt, I won't feel so limited because I know it can work with fabrics like yours :) Beautiful, beautiful! quilt. Thanks for defining "low-volume." I was thinking easy, no stress type of quilting. Light or neutral does make sense, though, and I love the outcome. Thanks for sharing.Mary Not sure if anyone else said this, but the link to the article on the low volume quilts takes me to a yahoo flickr group that is private. :( Says that I don't have permission to access it. any way we can get that?
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NEW YEAR QUOTES Be at war with your vices, at peace with your neighbors, and let every new year find you a better man.Benjamin Franklin tagged in war I like starting off the new year fresh. I'm excited to see how 2013 turns out. Maybe because I'm an actress and I am always on a diet and fitness program, but my New Year's resolution is to let myself be nice to myself about my body.Busy Philipps tagged in fitness
Taking time How often do you find yourself saying “I don’t have enough time”? Our lives can so easily be dominated by time, We juggle time, we balance time, we waste time, we catch up on time. We think it’s a modern phenomenon (or curse) – but surely each generation has always felt the pressure of time. For the Christian, there are particular ways of looking at time. At the start of Genesis – God uses time to mark out the process of creation. The very first act of creation is to make day and night, setting time at the heart of creation. The rest of God’s activity is marked out by those days. So busy is that first week – that God needs a day off. This creation narrative could be seen as a reflection about the busyness of life and work and the need for rest. The Sabbath is born in creation. Most of the major world religions emphasise the importance of time, punctuating the day with times for prayer at regular intervals. This is something that Jesus would have been familiar with, and that Christians have absorbed. the idea of setting apart time for daily pattern of prayer is a feature within many Christian traditions. So in your busy life, with your time pressures – do you have time to pray? Desmond Tutu famously said “I’m too busy to pray for less than 2 hours a day.” Many of us would struggle to find 2 minutes let alone 2 hours! A survey done in the 1990’s on the life of clergy revealed some interesting information about their work and prayer life. “The average minister worked around 60 hours per week. More than 22 hours of that week were spent in administration. Just 38 minutes per week were spent in prayer. That’s less than 6 minutes per day.” from Jesus’ People – what the Church should do next. Steven Croft. So take a moment to reflect on your own life. Too busy to pray? Too busy to take time for a moment? Don’t get stressed by trying to squeeze another thing into your routine – but learn the importance of ‘blissful nothingness’ – which is Bishop Stephen Cotterell’s phrase. Learn the importance of simply kicking the leaves. Those moments can seem to be wasting time – but in fact can themselves be valuable meeting places with God. Many of us struggle with prayer and feel that if we try to make time for God it just doesn’t work out. Rowan Williams (former Archbishop of Canterbury) has a great line about prayer – “it’s not the absence of God, it’s often the absence of you” . Today – consider having some blissful nothingness moments, consider ‘kicking the leaves”, staring out of the window, putting the phone down and sitting with nothing in your hands. That moment may help you be present rather than absent with God. Time well spent?
Q: Mysql --> Mysqli hi i need some help again. can anyone do me a favor to convert my code from Mysql --> Mysqli I've been using mysql so im not that familiar yet with mysqli thanks in advance Here is my php code that i want to convert <?php $query = mysql_query("SELECT sched_ID, venue FROM tblschedule"); echo '<select id="sched_ID" name="sched_ID" class="form-control" >'; echo '<option>-- Select Venue --</option>'; while ($row = mysql_fetch_array($query)) { echo '<option value="'.$row['sched_ID'].'">'.$row['venue'].'</option>'; } echo '</select>'; ?> A: To learn how to use mysqli syntax, please check the documentation here. Seems to me the mysqli syntax for your code would be: <?php $query = "SELECT sched_ID, venue FROM tblschedule"; echo '<select id="sched_ID" name="sched_ID" class="form-control" >'; echo '<option>-- Select Venue --</option>'; $result = mysqli_query($dbconnection, $query) or die(mysqli_error($dbconnection)); while ($row = mysqli_fetch_assoc($result)) { echo '<option value="'.$row['sched_ID'].'">'.$row['venue'].'</option>'; } echo '</select>'; ?>
Q: Basic Networking: Connecting two private networks First off - I am a newbie to network stuff so please don't flame me for not understanding a basic function right ^^' To my question: How do I need to configure my Modem and Router to get two separate networks (10.0.0.xxx and 192.168.5.xxx)? I want to have to following configuration: My Status quo: AKNW_M: AKNW_R: (I can't upload pictures...) Local IP Address 192.168.5.1 Subnet Mask 255.255.255.0 Gateway 10.0.0.138 Local DNS 10.0.0.138 Comment on the answer of Vinh Tran I configured AKNW_M and AKNW_R as you said: AKNW_M: IP = 10.0.0.138 SN = 255.255.255.0 DHCP = ON AKNW_R: LOCAL IP = 192.168.5.1 LOCAL SN = 255.255.255.0 LOCAL Gateway+DNS = 192.168.5.1 LOCAL DHCP = ON (as Automatic/DHCP config did not work, I configured it on static:) WAN IP = 10.0.0.50 WAN SN = 255.255.255.0 WAN Gateway+DNS = 10.0.0.138´ After I added a Hostname on the AKNW_R the router appeared on the AKNW_M. Sadly I do not have a internet connection. I can not access the AKNW_M on 10.0.0.138 But I can access AKNW_R by 192.168.5.1 and 10.0.0.50 (both tested from AKNW_HWK) Now, as I view the Status on the AKNW_R with said config: WAN: Connection Type...Static IP Address...10.0.0.50 Subnet Mask...255.255.255.0 Gateway...10.0.0.138 DNS 1...192.168.5.1 DNS 2...10.0.0.138 It seems that my AKNW_R adds the 192.x.x.x adress automatically as the first DNS even while it's 0.0.0.0 in the config-page. LAN: IP Address...192.168.5.1 Subnet Mask...255.255.255.0 Gateway...192.168.5.1 Local DNS...192.168.5.1 It works now! Here is what I configured, thanks to @VinhTran I figured out the last piece of the puzzle: AKNW_R: Advanced Routing > Operating Mode > Gateway WAN Connection Type > Static IP WAN IP Adress > Choose a client IP from the first network (10.0.0.xxx) WAN Subnetmask > Same as 10.0.0.xxx WAN Gateway and DNS > 10.0.0.xxx's Modem/Router IP Router IP > 192.168.5.1 Subnetmask > 255.255.255.0 Gateway and DNS > 192.168.5.1 DHCP > ON A: You should try these steps to configure your design network model: Config AKNW_M modem to connect aDSL, then enable [DHCP server] on this device, following subnet 10.0.0.xxx. Connect WLAN Extender A, WLAN Extender B & TV-Box to AKNW_M LAN port. You can use a layer 2 (normal) switch to extend AKNW_M LAN port for future use. Connect AKNW_R to AKNW_M LAN port also. And plug network cable from AKNW_M LAN port to AKNW_R WAN port. On AKNW_R control panel, configure its WAN (internet) IP address by getting from DHCP, or by static IP but follow this form: WAN IP address: 10.0.0.xxx Subnet: {Follow subnet of AKNW_M} Gateway: {AKNW_M LAN IP address} DNS: {AKNW_M LAN IP address} Enable [DHCP server] on AKNW_R with IP subnet 192.168.5.xxx, with gateway & DNS are AKNW_R LAN IP address. Hopeful you success configure your network!
Increased analgesia and alterations in distribution and metabolism of methadone by desipramine in the rat. Treatment of rats with desipramine (DMI) 1 hour before the subcutaneous administration of methadone increased the intensity and prolonged the duration of methadone analgesia, as determined by the hot plate method. DMI significantly reduced the analgesic ED50 of methadone from a control value of 3.4 to 1.6 or 0.5 mg/kg in rats treated with 20 or 30 mg/kg of DMI, respectively. DMI treatment also significantly reduced the LD50 of methadone. DMI (20 mg/kg i.p.) was given 1 hour prior to administration of 14C-methadone (5 mg/kg s.c.) and the distribution of total 14C, unchanged methadone and methadone metabolites in various tissues was studied. DMI treatment greatly increased the brain uptake of 14C and the methadone brain/plasma concentration ratios for up to 3 hours. The concentrations of 14C and unchanged methadone were higher in kidneys and lower in lungs of DMI-treated rats as compared to controls. However, the ratios of unchanged methadone to its metabolites in kidneys and lungs were not changed significantly by DMI treatment. The level of unchanged methadone in liver was markedly elevated by DMI treatment at 45 and 90 minutes (190 and 183% of controls, respectively). The level of a water-soluble glucuronide metabolite of methadone was significantly decreased at 45-, 90- and 180-minute intervals (37, 36 and 54% of controls, respectively.) However, the total 14C in liver and the concentrations of two N-demethylated metabolites of methadone were not changed significantly. In vitro addition of DMI to liver microsomal incubations resulted in inhibition of the N-demethylation of methadone. It is suggested that DMI potentiated and prolonged methadone analgesia by increasing the brain concentration of methadone and by inhibiting metabolism of methadone in the liver.
Washington schools ponder shortening summer vacation Washington School District is considering shortening the summer vacation from classes, a proposal that has met with opposition from some of its teachers. The school board could vote as early as Monday on a proposed calendar that has students beginning classes Aug. 21 and ending them June 12 or 14 to make it less likely they would forget over the summer what they learned during the previous term, Washington school Director Troy Breese said Friday. He said some in the district have complained the longer school year would be intrusive on family vacations. “I’m not sure we are going to find a middle ground for everybody,” Breese said. A large number of teachers turned out at a school board planning meeting last month to complain about the tentative calendar after finding out about it on short notice, said high school history teacher Jeff Bunner. “We are all for change that helps our kids and makes sense for the population,” Bunner said. He said the longer school year includes extending the days off students and teachers have for Thanksgiving, Christmas and spring break. At the same time, he said, it will make it more challenging for students to work full-time during the summer to help their families or earn money for college, as well as find volunteer opportunities to qualify for scholarships. Meanwhile, the calendar does not add any additional teaching days beyond the required 180 days. Bunner said the students, under the proposed schedule, would be at a disadvantage because they would have fewer days of instruction prior to their taking performance tests that determine whether school districts are meeting state and federal standards. “They’d like to eventually eliminate the summer vacation,” he said. Breese said the calendar on the table “isn’t a done deal” and he’s unsure whether it has enough board support for adoption. “I do not personally think we should cut too much into June or too much into August,” he said. Washington Superintendent Roberta DiLorenzo did not return a call Friday seeking comment. The board will meet at 6:30 p.m. Monday in the high school cafeteria.
We have recently demonstrated that LAG-3 (CD223), a CD4 homologue that binds to MHC class II with high affinity, is a key negative regulatory T (Treg) cell protein possessing both cell intrinsic and extrinsic activity. It is required for maximal Treg function and for the control of CD4+ and CD8+ T cell homeostasis. Remarkably, ectopic expression of LAG-3 alone can confer regulatory activity. Multiple experiments have shown that a unique 'KIEELE' motif in the LAG-3 cytoplasmic domain is essential for its function. Finally, we have shown that LAG-3 is efficiently cleaved from the cell surface within the membrane proximal connecting peptide. Despite the significant progress, important questions remain that will be addressed in the following Aims: Specific Aim 1: Does LAG-3 play a key role in controlling inflammatory reactions and autoimmunity? Even though we have shown that LAG-3 is required to control T cell function, no significant inflammatory reactions or autoimmunity are seen in LAG-3 -/- mice. We hypothesized that LAG-3 may only be important during an inflammatory or autoimmune disease. Our preliminary data support this view as IBD appears to be accelerated with LAG-3 -/- T cells and autoimmunity significantly enhanced in models of T1D and EAE. Here we will determine the mechanism behind this enhanced disease by analyzing LAG-3 -/- Teff and Treg function. Specific Aim 2: How is the intrinsic regulatory activity of LAG-3 released by T cells? We have recently shown that the metalloprotease-mediated cleavage of LAG-3 significantly modulates its regulatory activity. We hypothesize that LAG-3 cleavage is required to permit normal T cell proliferation and function. This will be assessed using shRNA mediated knockdown of ADAM10 and ADAM17, T cells from ADAM10fl/fl/ADAM17fl/fl/CreERT2 mice, and analysis of a knock-in mouse expressing non-cleavable LAG-3. Specific Aim 3: What is the mechanism of intrinsic LAG-3 activity in T cells? How LAG-3 works is an important question that remains unresolved. The co-receptor dependence of LAG-3 function has led us to hypothesize that LAG-3 interferes with coreceptor (and/or TCR) function on CD4* and CDS* T cells. (A) We will assess if the disruption of phosphorylation events by LAG-3 is restricted or global using multiplexed, reverse-phase protein lysate (RPPL) microarrays. We will also determine is LAG-3 modulates p56/c/< function and downstream signaling. (B) A novel reconstitution approach will be used to generate LAG-3 -/- /CD4 -/- peripheral T cells ectopically expressing a series of co-receptor/p56/cfc mutants to assess the molecular basis for coreceptor dependence. (C) The effect of LAG-3 on CD4/TCR localization and immunological synapse formation will be determined using time-lapse confocal and TIRF microscopy. Appropriate regulation of the immune system is imperative. LAG-3 has emerged as a key negative regulatory molecule and its clear requirement for optimal regulatory T cell function warrants further study. [unreadable] [unreadable] [unreadable]
Q: how to redirect to admin/login url after admin password reset in django In the project urls.py i have set these password reset url for forgot password.These url works fine .it resets the password but after reset completed in the login link , the login link redirects to the accounts/login url instead of admin/login url.How to redirect to admin/login url ?? urls.py path( 'admin/password_reset/', auth_views.PasswordResetView.as_view(), name='admin_password_reset', ), path( 'admin/password_reset/done/', auth_views.PasswordResetDoneView.as_view(), name='password_reset_done', ), path( 'reset/<uidb64>/<token>/', auth_views.PasswordResetConfirmView.as_view(), name='password_reset_confirm', ), path( 'reset/done/', auth_views.PasswordResetCompleteView.as_view(), name='password_reset_complete', ), path('admin/', admin.site.urls), A: Add the path to the success_url argument path( 'reset/<uidb64>/<token>/', auth_views.PasswordResetConfirmView.as_view(success_url='/admin/login/'), name='password_reset_confirm', ),
Q: How do I query MongoDB? I just created a collection and am trying to query certain objects inside the document but I seem to get no results. Btw I am using Robomongo for the GUI for mongoDB.These are my documents. /* 1 / { "_id" : ObjectId("58f58ba6739e558ced008df1"), "Inventory for NTA SAM Cards" : "Item no.", "Item Description" : "", "Opening QTY" : "", "Issued QTY" : "", "Corrupted QTY" : "", "Closing QTY" : "" } / 2 / { "_id" : ObjectId("58f58f23739e558ced008e3d"), "Inventory for NTA SAM Cards" : "01", "Item Description" : "EZ-Link SAM (Blank)", "Opening QTY" : "165", "Issued QTY" : "65", "Corrupted QTY" : "0", "Closing QTY" : "100", "Remarks" : "Received 100 blank SAMS from Geraldine on 4/1/15" } / 3 / { "_id" : ObjectId("58f58f9c739e558ced008e47"), "Inventory for NTA SAM Cards" : "02", "Item Description" : "EZ-Link SAM (Test)", "Opening QTY" : "220", "Issued QTY" : "184", "Corrupted QTY" : "0", "Closing QTY" : "36", "Remarks" : "updated 7/11/16" } / 4 / { "_id" : ObjectId("58f58fcd739e558ced008e4d"), "Inventory for NTA SAM Cards" : "03", "Item Description" : "EZL Production SAM", "Opening QTY" : "998", "Issued QTY" : "996", "Corrupted QTY" : "0", "Closing QTY" : "2", "Remarks" : "updated 11/11/2016 150 moved to 18.Auresys Prod" } / 5 / { "_id" : ObjectId("58f59034739e558ced008e57"), "Inventory for NTA SAM Cards" : "04", "Item Description" : "Payment Link SAM", "Opening QTY" : "500", "Issued QTY" : "500", "Corrupted QTY" : "0", "Closing QTY" : "0", "Remarks" : "" } / 6 */ { "_id" : ObjectId("58f5a1b2739e558ced008f2e"), "Inventory for NTA SAM Cards" : "05", "Item Description" : "MEA Production SAM", "Opening QTY" : "434", "Issued QTY" : "393", "Corrupted QTY" : "0", "Closing QTY" : "41", "Remarks" : "" } Does anyone know whats the problem? My query is db.documents.find({"Inventory for NTA SAM Cards":"01"}) I kept getting this Fetched 0 record(s) in 2ms My collection is called documents. A: Try this query db.documents.find( { Inventory for NTA SAM Cards: { $eq: "01" } } ) for reference fallow this link db.collection.find
[Spontaneous pneumomediastinum: A rare complication of dermatomyositis]. Dermatomyositis is a rare connective tissue disease of unknown origin, including inflammatory myopathy and cutaneous manifestations. Several pulmonary complications associated to dermatomyositis were described; especially interstitial lung disease. Some rare and particular pulmonary complications were reported in the literature such as pneumodiastinum and pneumothorax. We are describing here, a case report about a female patient, who presented with dermatomyositis associated to pneumomediastinum as a severe and lethal complication without pneumothorax. It is a novel observation depicting this severe and rare complication. Brutal dyspnea and cervical subcutaneous crackling are alarming signs that should make practitioners think about this complication.
Sodium dodecyl sulfate-Tween 20 mixed micellar electrokinetic chromatography for separation of hydrophobic cations: application to adrenaline and its precursors. Separation of hydrophobic cations in capillary electrophoresis under the mixed micellar system composed of SDS and Tween 20 was investigated from the viewpoints of thermodynamics and practical application. Hydrophobic cations interact strongly with the anionic SDS micelle, and this often lead to predominant dissolution of the analytes into the micellar phase, resulting in poor resolution. The ionic interaction was evaluated to be close in strength to the hydrophobic interaction between benzenes and the SDS micelle. Tween 20 as a component to the mixed micelle was found to weaken the attractive ionic interactions between the cationic solutes and SDS. In addition, the polyether chain of Tween 20 serves also as a hydrogen acceptor to cause the attractive hydrogen-bonding interactions with hydrogen-donating analytes. The two different functions of Tween 20 improve the separation of hydrophobic cations remarkably. Separation patterns are well controlled by varying the mixing ratio of the two surfactants. Adrenaline and its six precursors were successfully separated with this mixed micellar system. The improved separation efficiency was not affected by the presence of bovine serum matrix, realizing the direct MEKC analysis of serum sample without deproteination, in which proteins were comigrated with the micelle.
<html> <body> <h1>Directory listing</h1> <hr/> <pre> <a href="management-mongo_2.9.1-5.32-sources.jar">management-mongo_2.9.1-5.32-sources.jar</a> <a href="management-mongo_2.9.1-5.32-sources.jar.md5">management-mongo_2.9.1-5.32-sources.jar.md5</a> <a href="management-mongo_2.9.1-5.32-sources.jar.sha1">management-mongo_2.9.1-5.32-sources.jar.sha1</a> <a href="management-mongo_2.9.1-5.32.jar">management-mongo_2.9.1-5.32.jar</a> <a href="management-mongo_2.9.1-5.32.jar.md5">management-mongo_2.9.1-5.32.jar.md5</a> <a href="management-mongo_2.9.1-5.32.jar.sha1">management-mongo_2.9.1-5.32.jar.sha1</a> <a href="management-mongo_2.9.1-5.32.pom">management-mongo_2.9.1-5.32.pom</a> <a href="management-mongo_2.9.1-5.32.pom.md5">management-mongo_2.9.1-5.32.pom.md5</a> <a href="management-mongo_2.9.1-5.32.pom.sha1">management-mongo_2.9.1-5.32.pom.sha1</a> </pre> </body> </html>
Q: Symfony missing bootstrap.php.cache I am using continuous deployment with jenkins on AWS. Everything is OK, but when I look on my page, there is this error: Warning: require_once(/var/app/web/../app/bootstrap.php.cache): failed to open stream: No such file or directory in /var/app/web/app.php on line 6 Fatal error: require_once(): Failed opening required '/var/app/web/../app/bootstrap.php.cache' (include_path='.:/usr/local/lib/php') in /var/app/web/app.php on line 6 I know, it's because I miss bootstrap.php.cache which should be generated by composer, but there is nothing. In dockerfile I use RUN composer install --no-scripts --optimize-autoloader and in entrypoint I have composer run-script post-install-cmd --no-interaction A: Execute following command: sudo php vendor/sensio/distribution-bundle/Sensio/Bundle/DistributionBundle/Resources/bin/build_bootstrap.php
We know what we are, but know not what we may be. William Shakespeare
Q: JSON parsing through GSON returns null values I am trying to read the values of a JSON output. This is the JSON output: {"nameOfSummoner":{"id":56529189,"name":"test","profileIconId":550,"summonerLevel":30,"revisionDate":1422110739000}} And with the following code I am trying to read it: final Connector connector = new Connector(); String response = connector.connect("link"); // (Returns a String value of the JSON) final Gson gson = new Gson(); final Summoner summoner = gson.fromJson(response, Summoner.class); //Summoner is a model class System.out.println(summoner); Summoner class: public class Summoner { private String name; private long profileIconId; private long summonerLevel; private long revisionDate; public String getName() { return name; } public void setName(final String name) { this.name = name; } public long getProfileIconId() { return profileIconId; } public void setProfileIconId(final long profileIconId) { this.profileIconId = profileIconId; } public long getSummonerLevel() { return summonerLevel; } public void setSummonerLevel(final long summonerLevel) { this.summonerLevel = summonerLevel; } public long getRevisionDate() { return revisionDate; } public void setRevisionDate (long revisionDate) { this.revisionDate = revisionDate; } @Override public String toString() { return "Summoner{" + "name='" + name + '\'' + ", profileIconId=" + profileIconId + ", summonerLevel=" + summonerLevel + ", revisionDate=" + revisionDate + '}'; } } And I get the following output on the console: Summoner{name='null', profileIconId=0, summonerLevel=0, revisionDate=0} I have sadly no idea why this happens. Any help I get is appreciated. I am fairly sure it has to do with the JSON output that "nameOfSummoner" is on top and maybe that's why it does not read what is below. A: As mentioned by @PeterMmm , your input is a map with 1 key-value pair. You need to Create another POJO with Summoner object as attribute: public class Sample { private Summoner nameOfSummoner; //getters and setters } and then try parsing. Or, you could create a Map and parse. Map<String, Summoner> responseObj = new HashMap<String, Summoner>(); responseObj= gson.fromJson(response, responseObj.class); Summoner obj = responseObj.get("nameOfSummoner"); You will also need to have "id" attribute in Summoner class I believe, else gson will throw an exception.
Q: Problems with virtualbox after installing Ubuntu 18.10 I was having problems running virtualbox (I'm new to ubuntu so I don't know much) if anyone could help that would be great! Thanks in advance. DKMS: install completed. Job for virtualbox.service failed because the control process exited with error code. See "systemctl status virtualbox.service" and "journalctl -xe" for details. invoke-rc.d: initscript virtualbox, action "restart" failed. ● virtualbox.service - LSB: VirtualBox Linux kernel module Loaded: loaded (/etc/init.d/virtualbox; generated) Active: failed (Result: exit-code) since Thu 2019-05-09 10:04:20 CEST; 4ms ago Docs: man:systemd-sysv-generator(8) Process: 18333 ExecStart=/etc/init.d/virtualbox start (code=exited, status=1/FAILURE) mei 09 10:04:20 Ubuntu-Omen systemd[1]: Starting LSB: VirtualBox Linux kernel module... mei 09 10:04:20 Ubuntu-Omen virtualbox[18333]: * Loading VirtualBox kernel modules... mei 09 10:04:20 Ubuntu-Omen virtualbox[18333]: * modprobe vboxdrv failed. Please use 'dmesg' to find out why mei 09 10:04:20 Ubuntu-Omen virtualbox[18333]: ...fail! mei 09 10:04:20 Ubuntu-Omen systemd[1]: virtualbox.service: Control process exited, code=exited status=1 mei 09 10:04:20 Ubuntu-Omen systemd[1]: virtualbox.service: Failed with result 'exit-code'. mei 09 10:04:20 Ubuntu-Omen systemd[1]: Failed to start LSB: VirtualBox Linux kernel module. A: modprobe vboxdrv failed means the special drivers for VirtualBox aren't loading. This can happen for a variety of reasons but usually has to do with the Secure Boot UEFI protection. The user confirmed that was the case after a firmware update re-enabled Secure Boot. Disabling it allowed the module to load properly.
When it Comes to Pesticides, Birds are Sitting Ducks January 1, 1998 by Mary Deinlein The word pesticide is a catch-all term for chemicals that kill or control anything that humans have deemed to be a pest. Such chemicals can be grouped according to the kind of organism targeted, such as insecticide (insect), herbicide (weed), fungicide (fungus), or rodenticide (rodent). Most pesticide compounds in use today are synthetic; that is, they are man-made concoctions produced in a laboratory. A danger inherent to the use of synthetic poisons is that once the chemicals are released into the environment, they may harm unintended victims and have unanticipated effects. On a global scale, over 5 billion pounds of conventional pesticides are used annually for agricultural purposes, forest and rangeland management, and disease control, as well as in homes, and on lawns, gardens, golf courses, and other private properties. Twenty percent of this total volume, or 1.2 billion pounds, is used in the United States alone. What does this massive chemical dousing of the earth mean for the health of the environment? Birds provide some of the answers. Population declines and extensive mortality of birds strongly indicate that the health of the environment, and thus the health of organisms that depend on it, suffers due to the prevalence of pesticides. From songbird declines beginning in the 1940's, to population crashes of peregrine falcons, ospreys, and other predatory birds first detected in the 1960's, to the more recent deaths of over 5% of the world’s population of Swainson’s hawks during the winter of 1995, birds have been unwitting victims of pesticide contamination. The Legacy of "Silent Spring" In 1962, Rachel Carson’s eloquent and best-selling book, Silent Spring, drew international attention to the environmental contamination wrought by pesticides, particularly the insecticide DDT. Carson cited declines in the number of songbirds due to poisoning as a key piece of evidence. Six years later came documentation of a more insidious effect of pesticide use. Accumulations of DDE, a compound produced when DDT degrades, were causing reproductive failure in several species of predatory birds, including Peregrine Falcons, Brown Pelicans, Osprey, and Bald Eagles. Not only was DDE toxic to developing embryos, it also caused eggs to be laid with abnormally thin shells. So fragile were the shells that the eggs would easily break under the weight of the adult bird during incubation. DDT belongs to a class of insecticides known as organochlorines, which also includes dicofol, dieldrin, endrin, heptachlor, chlordane, lindane, and methoxychlor, among others. Some of these pesticide ingredients, such as dieldrin and heptachlor, are poisonous in very small amounts. However, the most dangerous traits of the organochlorines are their persistence– that is, their tendency to remain chemically active for a long time—and their solubility in fat, which means they become stored in fatty tissues within organisms and can accumulate over time. Because of these two traits, contaminant levels become more concentrated with each step up in a food chain—a process known as biomagnification. For example, when ospreys repeatedly feed on fish contaminated with DDT, increasing amounts of the pesticide are stored within their bodies. Biomagnification accounts for why predatory birds, being at the top of the food chain, are most severely affected by organochlorine pesticides. Thanks partly to the fervor generated by Carson’s book and partly to a study done by the National Institutes of Health which found DDT or its by-products in 100% of the human tissues it examined, DDT and most other organochlorines were banned for use in the United States in the early 1970's. Since the ban, numbers of the more severely affected bird species have slowly recovered. However, the fate of some populations of Peregrine Falcons remains uncertain because DDT, its breakdown products, and other organochlorines are still prevalent in the environment. If DDT was banned in the United States in the early 1970's, why is there still a problem today? One reason is that the United States continues to export DDT, along with other pesticides known to be hazardous to the environment and to human health. The countries of Latin America, the wintertime destination for many of the migratory birds that breed in the United States and Canada (including many Peregrine Falcons), are also the destination for many of these exported pesticides. Over 5 billion pounds of pesticides are used annually. What does this mean for the health of our environment? Birds provide some of the answers. New Pesticides, New Problems Because of the ban on DDT and the tight restrictions placed on other organochlorines, a new arsenal of pesticides predominates today. Organophosphates and carbamates are now two of the most common classes of active ingredients found in pesticide products. Although organophosphate and carbamate compounds are not as persistent as the organochlorines, they are much more acutely toxic, which means that even very small amounts can cause severe poisoning. It is estimated that of the roughly 672 million birds exposed annually to pesticides on U.S. agricultural lands, 10%– or 67 million– are killed. This staggering number is a conservative estimate that takes into account only birds that inhabit farmlands, and only birds killed outright by ingestion of pesticides. The full extent of bird fatalities due to pesticides is extremely difficult to determine because most deaths go undetected. Nevertheless, sobering numbers of dead birds have been documented. For example, in 1995, the pesticide monocrotophos, sprayed to kill grasshoppers, was responsible for the deaths of at least 20,000 Swainson’s Hawks in Argentina. Thanks to the efforts of the American Bird Conservancy and other organizations, Novartis (formerly Ciba-Geigy), a major manufacturer of monocrotophos, has recently agreed to phase out the production and sale of this pesticide. Over 150 bird "die-offs", involving as many as 700 birds in a single incident, have been attributed to diazinon, an organophosphate insecticide commonly used for lawn care. In 1990, diazinon was classified as a restricted ingredient, and banned for use on golf courses and turf farms, marking the first time regulatory action has been taken specifically on behalf of birds. However, in most states diazinon is still available over the counter for use on home lawns and parks. So despite the restricted-use status, as much as 10 million pounds of diazinon are still used yearly in the United States, primarily by home owners. Continued reports of bird fatalities, and additional evidence concerning the extreme toxicity of diazinon and its metabolites to aquatic invertebrates and mammals have prompted the US Fish and Wildlife Service and a consortium of environmental organizations headed by the Rachel Carson Council to petition the Environmental Protection Agency to further restrict uses of diazinon. In 1989, the Environmental Protection Agency reported that carbofuran was estimated to kill at least 1-2 million birds in the United States each year. This carbamate pesticide was introduced in the mid-1960's, but it wasn’t until 1994 that any regulations were imposed on the manufacturer, FMC Corporation. Granular forms are now banned for most uses because of widespread bird kills, although about 2 million pounds in liquid form are still used in the U.S. each year. So far, about 40 active ingredients in pesticides have been found to be lethal to birds, even when used according to the instructions on the label. Only about a quarter of these ingredients have been banned in the United States, and most are still used elsewhere. The active ingredients that have proven to be deadliest to birds include diazinon, phorate, carbofuran, monocrotophos, isofenphos, chlorpyrifos, aldicarb, azinphos-methyl, and parathion. Routes of Exposure and Direct Effects Ingestion is probably the most common way that birds are exposed to pesticides. Birds can swallow the pesticide directly, such as when a bird mistakes a pesticide granule for a seed, or indirectly, by consuming contaminated prey. They may also ingest pesticide residues off feathers while preening, or they may drink or bathe in tainted water. Pesticides can also be absorbed through the skin, or inhaled when pesticides are applied aerially. Whether or not a bird is harmed as a result of pesticide exposure depends on a number of factors, including the toxicity of the chemical(s), the magnitude and duration of exposure, and whether the exposure is recurrent. Potential harmful effects range from imminent death due to acute poisoning to a variety of so-called "sub-lethal" effects, including the following: eggshell thinning; deformed embryos; slower nestling growth rates; decreased parental attentiveness; reduced territorial defense; lack of appetite and weight loss; lethargic behavior (expressed in terms of less time spent foraging, flying, and singing); suppressed immune system response; greater vulnerability to predation; interference with body temperature regulation; disruption of normal hormonal functioning; and inability to orient in the proper direction for migration. Each of these sub-lethal effects can ultimately reduce populations as effectively as immediate death, since they lower birds’ chances of surviving or reproducing successfully, or both. Indirect Effects Pesticides can also affect birds indirectly by either reducing the amount of available food or altering habitat. Birds that eat insects are literally at a loss when insecticides cause a drop in the number of insect prey available, especially when they have young to feed. The breeding season of many birds has evolved to coincide with peaks of insect abundance. Unfortunately for them, peaks in insect abundance also mean peaks in insecticide use. Herbicides, too, can lead to decreases in insect availability by eliminating weeds on which insects live– a chain of events responsible for sharp declines of Gray Partridges in the United Kingdom. The food supply of birds that eat the seeds of weeds can also be reduced by herbicides. In Britain, Linnets, a type of seed-eating finch, have gone from being a rather common bird on agricultural lands to an extremely rare one due to this type of indirect herbicide effect. Another way that herbicides can harm birds is by reducing the amount of plant cover available for predator avoidance and nest concealment. For example, erbicides have been used extensively in the western United States to convert sagebrush habitat into cattle pastures. This loss of sagebrush has caused declines in Brewer’s Sparrows, which require the cover provided by the plant for nesting. Should we heed the warning signs provided by birds, or continue to pay the high environmental and social costs of rampant pesticide use? Neotropical Migratory Birds Birds that breed in the United States and Canada and winter in Latin America and the Caribbean are potentially exposed to more pesticides than are resident birds, given the great distances over which they travel. Whereas the regulatory process for protecting the environment and human health in the United States may not be exemplary, conditions are generally worse in most Latin American countries where there are few regulations banning or governing the sale and use of pesticides. Therefore, resident birds and birds that overwinter in these countries, not to mention the people who live there, have a greater likelihood of exposure to harmful pesticides. Pesticide contamination is often cited as one of the factors responsible for declining numbers of some Neotropical migratory birds, and yet so far there is very little hard evidence to support this claim. This lack of evidence does not necessarily mean that pesticides are not contributing to the declines; more likely it is testimony to the difficulty of detecting the role of pesticides in causing death or reproductive failure. It has been shown that exposure to acephate, an organophosphate, can interfere with an adult bird’s ability to orient itself in the proper direction for migration. Who knows how many vagrants (birds that are seen far from the range which is normal for their species) sighted off course each year have been disoriented by pesticides? Or, how many migrants don’t make it to their right destination for this same reason? When fat reserves are rapidly used up, as can occur during migration, enough accumulated organochlorine pesticides can be "liberated" within the body to cause death. Who knows what proportion of the birds that die during migration are victims of pesticide poisoning? The same sorts of questions can be posed regarding the numbers of young birds that do not survive each year. How many were in nests that were inadvertently sprayed with pesticides, or were fed contaminated food, or did not receive enough food because pesticides reduced the number of available insects? It is often difficult, if not impossible, to tease apart the many factors making life more and more difficult for migratory birds and to determine the relative contribution of each factor to population declines. Accordingly, the role that pesticides play remains unexplained. It stands to reason, however, that as the amount of wildlife habitat continues to dwindle and the quality of what remains takes on an even greater significance, anything that compromises that quality could be the proverbial straw that breaks the camel’s back. Lessons from the Birds and the Bees As evidence mounts regarding links between pesticide exposure and rates of sterility, cancers, hormonal disruption, and immune system disorders in humans, should we heed the warning signs provided by birds, or continue to pay the high environmental and social costs of rampant pesticide use? Here are a few thoughts and figures to consider. The benefits of pesticides are often cited in terms of their contribution to world food production, and yet it is estimated that crop losses to pests would increase only 10% if no pesticides were used. Between 1945 and 1989, pesticide use in the U.S. increased tenfold and yet crop losses doubled from 7-14%. Consider also that all of us, everywhere, are exposed to some pesticide residues in food, water, and the atmosphere. Residents of the United States eat an estimated 2 billion pounds of imported produce tainted with banned pesticides each year. Scientist Paul Ehrlich has compared pesticides to heroin in that "they promise paradise and deliver addiction." Pesticide use leads to dependency by killing not only the targeted pests but also the natural predators and parasites of those pests and through the development of resistance in the pests. The destruction of natural enemies and increased resistence are countered by heavier and more frequent pesticide applications, thus maintaining the "pesticide habit" and increasing the costs of supporting it. Honey bees and wild bees are among the victims of pesticide poisoning and their numbers are on the wane, a fact that is gaining increasing attention because of their economic, ecological, and agricultural importance as pollinators. With something as fundamental as the birds and the bees at stake, shouldn’t we all be concerned? If you want to help reduce global contamination and its costs, here are some things you can do: educate yourself and others about the effects of pesticides and alternative pest control methods, buy organically grown products, and support organizations working to reduce society’s dependence on pesticides.
Milecastle 40 Milecastle 40 (Winshields) was a milecastle on Hadrian's Wall (). Description Milecastle 40 is located northwest of Twice Brewed, just below the top of Winshields. The milecastle can be seen as turf-covered rubble banks up to 1.0 metre high. Excavations The milecastle was excavated in 1908. The remains were greatly disturbed but the south wall was still ten courses high. It was found to have a Type II gateway; no satisfactory plan of the interior buildings was recovered. Associated Turrets Each milecastle on Hadrian's Wall had two associated turret structures. These turrets were positioned approximately one-third and two-thirds of a Roman mile to the west of the Milecastle, and would probably have been manned by part of the milecastle's garrison. The turrets associated with Milecastle 40 are known as Turret 40A and Turret 40B. Turret 40A Turret 40A (Winshields) () was located in 1912 and was excavated in 1946. It had narrow walls, and had been almost completely destroyed during the Roman occupation. There are no visible remains. Turret 40B Turret 40B (Melkridge) () was also located in 1912 and excavated in 1946. It was badly preserved, with only the east doorjamb remaining. The excavations revealed that the turret was unusually wide, with an internal width of 2.7 metres. There are no visible remains. Public access The sites of the milecastle and both turrets are accessible via the Hadrian's Wall Path. References External links 40
Sancta Maria College Sancta Maria College may refer to: Colleges Trocaire College, a private college in Buffalo, New York; name changed from Sancta Maria College in 1967 Secondary schools Sancta Maria College, Louisburgh, a secondary school in Louisburgh, County Mayo, Ireland Sancta Maria College, New Zealand, a secondary school in Auckland, New Zealand Sancta Maria College, Rathfarnham, a secondary school in Ballyroan, Rathfarnham, Co. Dublin, Ireland
Edward Kelsey Edward "Ted" Kelsey (4 June 193023 April 2019) was an English actor. He was best known for voicing the role of Joe Grundy for 34 years in The Archers on BBC Radio 4 and for voicing various other characters on television. Career Kelsey was born in Petersfield, Hampshire and educated at Churcher's College. In 1954, he joined the Radio Drama Company by winning the Carlton Hobbs Bursary He was known for voicing the characters of Colonel K and Baron Silas Greenback in the animated series DangerMouse produced by Cosgrove Hall. He has also appeared on British TV programmes as The Avengers, Softly, Softly, The Saint, Public Eye, Dempsey and Makepeace, Z-Cars, Juliet Bravo, Doctor Who, Minder, Angels, Casualty, The Vicar of Dibley, Reilly: Ace of Spies, Shoestring, Wives and Daughters, Anna of the Five Towns, Campion, The Tripods and EastEnders. He acted in three Doctor Who stories, as a slave buyer in The Romans, Resno in The Power of the Daleks and Edu in The Creature from the Pit. He voiced Mr. Growbag in Wallace and Gromit: The Curse of the Were-Rabbit (2005), several characters in Victor and Hugo, Cosgrove Hall's The Reluctant Dragon and The Wind in the Willows (TV and film), H.H. Junketbury in The Talking Parcel, Farmer Listener and Forester in The Fool of the World and the Flying Ship and also for the voice of "The Thing" in another Cosgrove Hall production, Truckers, based on a book by Terry Pratchett. References External links The Archers Category:1930 births Category:2019 deaths Category:English male film actors Category:English male radio actors Category:English male soap opera actors Category:English male stage actors Category:English male television actors Category:English male voice actors Category:People educated at Churcher's College Category:People from Petersfield Category:Male actors from Hampshire Category:The Archers Category:20th-century English male actors Category:21st-century English male actors
// // DeviceDimensions.swift // // // Created by Sameh Salama on 11/28/17. // import UIKit internal struct DeviceDimensions { fileprivate let iPhoneXMaxDeviceHeight: CGFloat = 2688 fileprivate let iPhoneXDeviceHeight:CGFloat = 2436 fileprivate let iPhoneXRDeviceHeight: CGFloat = 1792 fileprivate let paddingHeight:CGFloat = 15 fileprivate let nonPaddingHeight:CGFloat = 20 fileprivate var device:UIDevice { return UIDevice.current } fileprivate var screen:UIScreen { return UIScreen.main } var hasNotch : Bool { guard device.userInterfaceIdiom == .phone else { return false } if #available(iOS 11.0, *), let safeHeight = UIApplication.shared.keyWindow?.safeAreaInsets.top { if safeHeight == 44 { return true } } if [iPhoneXDeviceHeight, iPhoneXMaxDeviceHeight, iPhoneXRDeviceHeight].contains(screen.nativeBounds.height) { return true } return false } var statusBarHeight: CGFloat { if hasNotch { return paddingHeight }else { return nonPaddingHeight } } }
The way the kids fly in the games and the technology are pretty spot on with how I imagined it. The only thing that bothered me was how many spoilers they put in the trailer. They could have maintained a level intrigue without revealing any of that.. I'm definitely going to see it. I read the book a long time ago, and I seem to recall less actual fighting than the trailer suggests, but that's probably just my memory. Should be good either way though. I wonder if it's going to focus on the action or the moral background of the original story? I think it'll focus on the action, which is the wrong direction imo. They show a scene where the buggers are attacking - I think they are going to use this as an opening to the movie showing how the first 2 invasions played out. In the book, the current threat of the buggers was never concrete. Some kids in battle school believed that it was all just a lie to train soldiers for some other reason. I really liked how the book forced the reader to think and not believe everything the "teachers" were saying. The reader actually never encounters real buggers until the very end, and it's just one alien. But the movie will probably not do this to the same degree, which will be disappointing but understandable. They want to attract the action going audience. I'm going to get a lot of "boos" from other members now when I say I've never read the book, as school never really talked about it and I had other things to read. Nevertheless I will be reading it shortly, after seeing this trailer. I thought Asa Butterfield was great in Hugo, and having him and Kingsley reunite is good. Thanks for giving me another book to put on my never-ending shelf of 'To Read'! There aren't many books in science fiction that I hate, but Ender's Game is one of them. I won't be seeing the movie. I loved Asa Butterfield in Hugo, but he's way too old to play Ender as he is in the book (the book begins when Ender is about six or so). My problem with Ender's Game is mostly that I don't buy the premise. I think it's stupid. I've read a TON of science fiction, and I'm used to suspending my disbelief if the scenario is even remotely plausible. Ender's Game isn't plausible. It's also kind of offensive. I don't think I've ever read a book I dislike as much as Ender's Game. This is actually kind of weird, because in the early 1970s I had a subscription to Analog magazine, and the original short-story version of Ender's Game was published there. I enjoyed it at the time, but I was a teenager then, and the concepts were more innovative. When Card blew it up into a novel, and I grew up, he ruined his work, and I recognized the ruination. It will be crap. Asa Butterfield, though he is a good actor, is too old for the role. Harrison Ford had better have a clause in his contract that he has to be awake during his scenes, otherwise we'll wind up with the typical Harrison Ford non-performance. My problem with Ender's Game is mostly that I don't buy the premise. I think it's stupid. I've read a TON of science fiction, and I'm used to suspending my disbelief if the scenario is even remotely plausible. Ender's Game isn't plausible. It's also kind of offensive. I don't think I've ever read a book I dislike as much as Ender's Game. Click to expand... I can understand that. Did you have trouble believing it because of their age? Or just the scenarios Ender was put through? All of the above? I too have doubts about the movie. I really don't think Ford is good for Graff. He's probably going play the typical hard-ass old guy, saying his lines the same way he always does because he knows it's passable to audiences. awww that warms my dark heart. And I was encouraged to read Ender's Game,but I never did it. Maybe someone(Looking at you Rhduke) could send me a digital copy Click to expand... Haha, wish I could.. I can't stand reading things on a screen let alone a whole novel. I like to feel the pages in my hands and stuff. I recommend you go out and buy/borrow it. I expect to be reading this baby more than once. I loved the book, and also read Ender's Shadow. They're great IMO, so I'll definitely see the movie. I don't like how they're focusing on the action a lot more than the actual moral story, like reviloennik said. Also, I pictured the battle room to be a hollow cube with walls... not a glass sphere. I am disappointed. Ender's Game is one of my favourite books, so I'll definitely go and see it. The trailer looks so trailery, hard to guess what it'll be like in the end, it might be that it shows most of the action there is, it might not. I loved Asa Butterfield in Hugo, but he's way too old to play Ender as he is in the book (the book begins when Ender is about six or so). Click to expand... They changed this for the script. The kids will be older and the battle school will take just a few years. I think it's for the better - more believable and of course much easier to shoot with the child actors. I loved the book, and also read Ender's Shadow. They're great IMO, so I'll definitely see the movie. I don't like how they're focusing on the action a lot more than the actual moral story, like reviloennik said. Also, I pictured the battle room to be a hollow cube with walls... not a glass sphere. I am disappointed. Click to expand... I pictured it as a cube too - weren't there corners mentioned somewhere? Glass makes sense, though. The teachers definitely have to watch them somehow. Well, Ender's Game does split people... like Marmite... some love it, others hate it. I am not sure the writing is brilliant and the setup is a bit hard to believe or long-winded, but the whole moral dilemma is what makes the story so interesting. I remember getting fed up with the book half-way through because it all seemed to take such a long time, but I am glad I persevered. I reckon the film will be an action spectacle, like everyone else here seems to think too, which should be good. I am a fan of Ender's Game, along with some of the other books in the Ender saga (namely Speaker for the Dead). I'm a cynic when it comes to the book-to-movie-made-in-Hollywood thing, so I don't expect much as it is. In this trailer, though, it seems to me that Ender is cognizant of his role as ... ahem ... and that this is being actively communicated to him throughout the narrative. Am I remembering correctly that actually, Ender wasn't aware of his role until he wins the final battle and saves his people from complete annihilation? Given the tendency toward trilomilionologies, I can see this going down a disappointing, oh-man-not-another-one road if the first film is successful at the box office. he knew exactly what he was studying for, only he thought that he was still studying untill the end, even though the battles were real from some point on. Click to expand... This is correct. He knew that he was training himself to kill the buggers, and that the IF wanted him to be the one to destroy them. It wasn't until after the final battle at the bugger's home world, when everyone was ecstatic, that he found out the simulations had been real all along. All of the simulations with the buggers were real when Anderson (if I remember correctly) takes him to do them. He knew that he was training himself to kill the buggers, and that the IF wanted him to be the one to destroy them. It wasn't until after the final battle at the bugger's home world, when everyone was ecstatic, that he found out the simulations had been real all along. All of the simulations with the buggers were real when Anderson (if I remember correctly) takes him to do them. Click to expand... That's right! It's coming back to me now. Thank you everyone for clarifying. Well, I personally LOVED this book. I've read it at least six times cover-to-cover. I think Card does an amazing job showing the mental anguish this little boy goes through. It is so deep and has so many levels that every time I read it I notice something different. I'm a little upset with Ford as Graff. I wanted somebody a little more pudgy and stuffy. We'll see. Also, Anderson is a woman? Now that I think about it, I don't recall there being any female adult roles in the book, so I guess they had to add the diversity. I dunno. I love this and will definitely go see it. It has to be better than the Hitchhikers Guide movie. (Don't get me started.) Also, Anderson is a woman? Now that I think about it, I don't recall there being any female adult roles in the book, so I guess they had to add the diversity. I dunno. I love this and will definitely go see it. It has to be better than the Hitchhikers Guide movie. (Don't get me started.) Click to expand... I also thought Anderson was a guy. There's only like 2 or 3 times when Card actually refers to her as a woman, but my mind seemed to just gloss over them lol I thought the HGTTG movie had some funny parts (don't get mad I didn't read the book!), and some really dumb parts. The way I hear it, a lot of the humour just didn't translate properly. I plan to read it in the future though.
Q: Netbeans C++ MinGW settings I've installeed Netbeans 7.0.1 and MinGW on my computer, but when I tried to build a project, it shows the error message: I googled the problem, and every solution said that I need to add MYSY to Path, so I did it; and restarted netbeans, but the problem still shows up, I'm thinking about maybe it's because I installed Qt4.7.4 so there maybe some conflicts in %Path%, here is the two Paths in my computer: User variables for shengy: C:\Program Files\Microsoft Visual Studio\Common\Tools\WinNT;C:\Program Files\Microsoft Visual Studio\Common\MSDev98\Bin;C:\Program Files\Microsoft Visual Studio\Common\Tools;C:\Program Files\Microsoft Visual Studio\VC98\bin;C:\Program Files\IDM Computer Solutions\UltraEdit\;C:\boost_1_34_1;C:\Program Files\Telelogic\Telelogic Synergy 6.5\bin;C:\Program Files\Telelogic\Telelogic Synergy 6.5\lib; System variables: C:\Perl\bin\;C:\WINDOWS\system32;C:\WINDOWS;C:\WINDOWS\System32\Wbem;C:\WINDOWS\system32\WindowsPowerShell\v1.0;C:\Program Files\doxygen\bin;C:\Program Files\QuickTime\QTSystem\;C:\Program Files\COSMIC\CXS12X;C:\COSMIC\CX12;C:\Program Files\PC Connectivity Solution\;C:\shengy\ComplieCommands;C:\QtSDK\Desktop\Qt\4.7.3\mingw\lib;C:\Program Files\Telelogic\Telelogic Synergy 6.5\bin;C:\MinGW\msys\1.0\bin;C:\MinGW\bin; please help me about this. Thanks A: make shure you have set the correct tool collection for mingw (options -> C/C++ -> Build tools, Base directory: C:\MinGW\bin). All compilers / commands (excluding make / qmake) should point to there too. Also make shure ... you can run mkdir from cmd if qt ships its own MinGW: you use yours (maybe you can remove the one from qt) move the path variables from mingw before the one from qt See: MinGW Compilers and Tools This Answer edit: does C:\shengy\ComplieCommands contain any mingw / gcc programs?
People are generally aware of the most common causes of hallucinations, like schizophrenia and a really high fever. But lesser known are the more rare causes; here are six you probably haven't heard about. Childhood obesity is a growing health concern in the public sphere, but for many of us, it also hits close to home. But while public health campaigns have singled in on parents providing children with unhealthy nutrition options and with poor examples of healthy eating, new research indicates that some of the problem may lie with fast food companies and their overly effective marketing campaigns. A study has found that fast-food logos are branded into the minds of children from an early age. According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, childhood obesity has more than tripled over the past 30 years. And perhaps more damning, the government bureau reports that "[the] percentage of children aged 6-11 years in the United States who were obese increased from 7% in 1980 to nearly 20% in 2008. Similarly, the percentage of adolescents aged 12-19 years who were obese increased from 5% to 18% over the same period." When showed images of fast food companies, the parts of the brain that control pleasure and appetite lit up. The brains did not do the same when showed images from companies not associated with food. The brain's reaction may not seem like a big deal. After all, when someone mentions food, a common bodily response is to feel hungry. But researchers also found that children were more likely to choose the food branded with the logo with which they were familiar. When asked to taste a hamburger from a box with no label, and a hamburger from a box labeled McDonald's, the children overwhelmingly preferred the McDonald's burger. Researchers' concern is that marketers for these companies are tapping into the reward portions of the brain long before children develop self-control. In addition, most of the foods marketed to children are high in caloric content, sugars, fat and sodium. "The brains of children are 'imprinted' with food logos," said Dr. Amanda Bruce, who led the study. "Without the necessary inhibitory processes to aid in decision-making, youth are particularly susceptible to making poor choices about what to eat."
49ers QB Kaepernick Continues League Lead In Jersey Sales Related Tags: SAN FRANCISCO (CBS SF) – San Francisco 49ers quarterback Colin Kaepernick has seen his stats taper off this season, but he still leads all quarterbacks in one category: jersey sales. According to NFL.com, Kaepernick’s No. 7 remained the top-selling jersey on the league’s online web store in the period spanning from April 1 through Sept. 30. Denver Broncos quarterback Peyton Manning has moved into the number two slot, ahead of Seattle Seahawks’ Russell Wilson, in jersey sales. San Mateo native and New England Patriots quarterback Tom Brady also remains in the top 10. Kaepernick’s jersey soared in popularity following his breakout performance in the 49ers NFC division playoff win against the Green Bay Packers in January and the team’s subsequent appearance in Super Bowl XLVII. The 49ers quarterback has also boosted his profile through numerous magazine spreads and TV commercials. On Tuesday, sports marketing firm IMG Worldwide announced it would represent Kaepernick for exclusive marketing, sponsorships and endorsements. (Copyright 2013 by CBS San Francisco. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.)
Background {#Sec1} ========== The use of stakeholder analysis (SHA) as a systematic technique for gathering insights relating to a proposed action or reform is not new, and has commonly been used in business, change management, public policy, health care management and development. SHA gathers these insights by identifying, categorising and analysing individuals or groups that are likely to have a 'stake' (be affected by, or have an interest in) a proposed action \[[@CR1]--[@CR3]\]. More recently, the utility of this approach has been reiterated amongst scholars of Health Policy and Systems Research (HPSR) \[[@CR4]--[@CR6]\]. HPSR has evolved into an interdisciplinary field encompassing the policy realm, acknowledging the interconnections between policy and health systems, and highlighting the social and political nature of healthcare \[[@CR5]\]. SHA has been developed to better understand stakeholder power and positions around specific new policies or actions, and assess the likely implications for the acceptability of new policies or interventions. However, published research regarding its use or how to perform such analyses within the context of HPSR has been limited \[[@CR4], [@CR7]\]. Health systems often fail to effectively implement evidence-based public health interventions, particularly in Low- and Middle-Income Countries (LMIC). This is due to poor knowledge translation, over-emphasising the production (supply) of research, rather than stimulating its consumption (demand) \[[@CR8]\]. Defined by the Canadian Institutes of Health Research, knowledge translation is a "dynamic and iterative process that includes the synthesis, dissemination, exchange and ethically sound application of knowledge to improve health, provide more effective health services and products, and strengthen the health care system \[[@CR9]\]". In order to understand the 'needs' of knowledge users and minimise poor knowledge translation, SHA has been applied as a technique to firstly identify the stakeholders (many of whom are likely to be knowledge users), and to gather insights into their position vis-a-vis the proposed action of a mental health research programme. Such insights will likely point to strategies for stimulating the demand for research amongst knowledge users, and hence, minimise the knowledge gap between research and policy. Mental health is no exception to poor knowledge translation, and the failure of health systems implementing evidence-based interventions. This is supported by the assertion of global mental health scholars that mental health does not receive the policy attention expected of it globally \[[@CR10]--[@CR13]\]. The primary aim of this study is to document the value of SHA as a technique for identifying and characterising support for the proposed action. In addition, the study aims to identify the level of involvement of stakeholders within the PRogramme for Improving Mental health carE (PRIME). PRIME aims to generate health systems research on the best ways to integrate and scale up mental health into maternal and primary health care systems in LMIC, and to stimulate demand for this research. PRIME does this by advocating for evidence-based decision-making, and by promoting the uptake of its implementation research amongst knowledge users, including health and related sector policymakers and practitioners, through a dedicated 'Research Uptake Strategy' \[[@CR14]\]. PRIME is piloting the scale-up of mental health services in one District in each country: Sodo in Ethiopia, Sehore in India, Chitwan in Nepal, Dr Kenneth Kaunda in South Africa and Kamuli in Uganda \[[@CR15]\]. In terms of SHA, the 'proposed action' identified is linked to the goal of PRIME, which is to scale-up mental health services in the districts of the five LMIC. Until the advent of this initiative, little was known about PRIME stakeholders, and their engagement with mental health policy and systems research. The SHA technique is intended to enable PRIME to identify and understand stakeholder power and positions, and assess the likely implications for the acceptability of the proposed action. Furthermore, this paper aims to add further knowledge about the method of SHA by sharing the experiences of its application in the field of mental health. Methods {#Sec2} ======= The study design is that of a qualitative stakeholder analysis. PRIME's research programme consists of three phases over a 6-year period: Inception Phase, Implementation Phase and Scaling Up Phase \[[@CR14]\]. As part of the Inception Phase, formative research was conducted including literature reviews, a situation analysis of mental health systems \[[@CR15]\], in-depth interviews and focus group discussions with stakeholders \[[@CR16]\] and Theory of Change (ToC) workshops \[[@CR17]\]. During the Inception Phase, the following systematic steps were followed in order to collect the cross-country data required for qualitative content analysis of stakeholder perceptions. Formulation of PRIME's research uptake strategy {#Sec3} ----------------------------------------------- A research uptake strategy was formulated as part of PRIME's Theory of Change (ToC) framework describing the pathway between research evidence and policy impact. The purpose of this strategy was to ensure that the research evidence produced by PRIME would be translated into policy and practice (illustrated in Figure [1](#Fig1){ref-type="fig"}). The Development Research Uptake in Sub-Saharan Africa (DRUSSA) programme describes research uptake as a management process "working with scientific research that has both a traditional focus on building and disseminating the bodies of knowledge created in the academic domains, and a newer and wider focus on maximising the conditions for the application of these bodies of knowledge to achieve outcomes that have a developmental impact \[[@CR18]\]".Figure 1PRIME theory of change for a research uptake strategy. The figure highlights the role of PRIME's Research Uptake Strategy in the context of its Theory of Change map. The research uptake strategy took into consideration the three levels of the health system that PRIME is integrating mental health into primary health care: health service organisation, health facility and community levels \[[@CR14]\]. The initial research uptake strategy was developed in consultation with 15 PRIME country and cross-country partners. Given the dynamic and often fickle nature of the pathway from research to policy, the strategy is understood by partners as a living document, open to adaptation as circumstances change. Identifying stakeholders {#Sec4} ------------------------ The research uptake strategy identified a broad range of groups that may have a 'stake' in the objectives of the programme, and who could influence the translation of research findings into policy and practice. Specific stakeholders within groups were also identified at a country level (e.g. Ministry of Health in the category for 'Policy Makers'). Traversing the three levels of health system, these groups included:Health practitioners (mental health specialists, general primary health care workers including doctors and nurses, and community health workers);Persons affected by mental illness including those with psychosocial disabilities, their families, carers and service user groups;Civil society organisations including Non-Governmental Organisations (NGOs), Community Based Organisations (CBOs) and Faith Based Organisations (FBOs);The media at all levels (international, regional, national, state and district);Donors including DFID UK, DFID regional or country offices, and other funding agencies; andPolicy makers, including WHO and Ministries of Health, other intersecting Ministries or government departments (such as social development, economic development, correctional services, police services, peace and reconciliation) and parliamentary committees such as health, and related sector committees. Although translating the research findings into policy and practice is one of the goals of the programme, the rationale for including a diverse set of stakeholders is based on the premise that each has a significant role to perform in the knowledge translation process by stimulating the demand for the evidence-based scale up of mental health services \[[@CR11], [@CR19]\]. Characterising stakeholders by country {#Sec5} -------------------------------------- Having identified the broad stakeholder groupings, a comprehensive stakeholder analysis instrument was constructed using Varvasovszky and Brugha's 'stakeholder characteristics' table as a framework \[[@CR20]\]. The table recorded stakeholders' interest, influence, position and impact in relation to the issue (integrating and scaling-up mental health care) for each country. In order to minimise the potential for bias from individual analysis and considering the feasibility of various data collection options across five countries, PRIME researchers and project co-ordinators from country teams were identified to lead the completion of stakeholder analysis tables as a component of the country-level research uptake strategy across the consortium. Stakeholder tables were completed based on local knowledge at the time and initial stakeholder engagements early in the programme. The knowledge was informed by a wide range of engagements that took place during PRIME's formative research process (introduced early in the methods section above), including situation analysis, theory of change workshops, in-depth interviews and focus groups. The findings of this formative research informed the PRIME partners' assessments of the various stakeholders included in the stakeholder analysis. The interviews in the formative research included questions about various stakeholders' perceptions of mental health, the feasibility and acceptability of integrating mental health into primary care and the packages of care that should be included in the PRIME mental health care plans \[[@CR16], [@CR17], [@CR21]\]. A participant from the country teams was identified to lead the completion of the stakeholder analysis instrument. This was done through group brainstorming and by consensus, with core team members contributing to the characterisation of stakeholders. The lead participants included the PRIME Principal Investigator in Ethiopia (psychiatrist), and project coordinators in India, Nepal, South Africa and Uganda (either researchers or research psychologists). Additional team members contributing to the characterisation included principal investigators, site coordinators and research assistants. Analysing stakeholders across countries {#Sec6} --------------------------------------- A cross-country stakeholder analysis table was developed for each stakeholder group, synthesising five country tables of stakeholder characteristics (see Additional file [1](#MOESM1){ref-type="media"}: Table S1, Additional file [2](#MOESM2){ref-type="media"}: Table S2, Additional file [3](#MOESM3){ref-type="media"}: Table S3, Additional file [4](#MOESM4){ref-type="media"}: Table S4, Additional file [5](#MOESM5){ref-type="media"}: Table S5, Additional file [6](#MOESM6){ref-type="media"}: Table S6, Additional file [7](#MOESM7){ref-type="media"}: Table S7). This facilitated cross-country comparisons by stakeholder groups. Qualitative content analysis was conducted across countries based on the following variables identified by Varvasovszky and Brugha \[[@CR20]\]:Involvement in the issue/proposed action (described for each stakeholder);Interest in the issue/goal (coded low, medium or high)Influence/power over the issue/goal (coded low, medium or high)Position regarding the issue/goal (coded supportive, opposed or neutral/non-mobilised)Potential impact of the proposed action on the stakeholder (coded low, medium or high) Force field analysis {#Sec7} -------------------- Given the array of stakeholders identified across countries and the vast potential engagement opportunities that the analysis yielded, a mechanism was necessary to summarise stakeholder positions for higher-level analysis. Traditionally used in the field of change management, force field analysis has been suggested by scholars of the stakeholder analysis technique as a useful means of summarising stakeholder analyses. A force field analysis, adapted from a hybrid of approaches from Varvasovszky and Brugha \[[@CR20]\] and Gilson et al \[[@CR4]\], was applied to the cross country stakeholder analyses. Ethical issues {#Sec8} -------------- Ethics approval for PRIME was obtained by the institution leading PRIME (Human Research Ethics Committee of the Faculty of Health Sciences, University of Cape Town, UCT HREC Ref 419/2011) and the respective institutions linked to country investigators (Addis Ababa University in Ethiopia, Sangath in India, Nepal Health Research Foundation, University of KwaZulu-Natal in South Africa, Makerere University/Butabika Hospital in Uganda). In accordance with these ethical requirements, the identities of specific stakeholders were kept confidential by country teams. Results {#Sec9} ======= Cross-country analyses by stakeholder groups {#Sec10} -------------------------------------------- Five country teams identified specific stakeholders by group, and tabulated their characteristics in relation to the proposed action: scaling-up mental health care. Cross-country stakeholder analyses of policy makers (Additional file [1](#MOESM1){ref-type="media"}: Table S1), donors (Additional file [2](#MOESM2){ref-type="media"}: Table S2), health practitioners (Additional file [3](#MOESM3){ref-type="media"}: Table S3), persons affected by mental illness (Additional file [4](#MOESM4){ref-type="media"}: Table S4), civil society (Additional file [5](#MOESM5){ref-type="media"}: Table S5), the media (Additional file [6](#MOESM6){ref-type="media"}: Table S6) and academics (Additional file [7](#MOESM7){ref-type="media"}: Table S7) are analysed presented at country and cross-country levels (see Additional file [1](#MOESM1){ref-type="media"}: Table S1, Additional file [2](#MOESM2){ref-type="media"}: Table S2, Additional file [3](#MOESM3){ref-type="media"}: Table S3, Additional file [4](#MOESM4){ref-type="media"}: Table S4, Additional file [5](#MOESM5){ref-type="media"}: Table S5, Additional file [6](#MOESM6){ref-type="media"}: Table S6, Additional file [7](#MOESM7){ref-type="media"}: Table S7) and described below. Policy makers {#Sec11} ------------- PRIME Ethiopia identified the high level of interest and support of the WHO regional office and the Federal Ministry of Health. Other sectors such as the Ministry of Social and Labour Affairs were reported to be supportive, although with lower levels of interest. Amongst other democratic institutions, Parliament was reported to be supportive given the personal interest of an influential Member of Parliament, although the team reported that greater efforts were necessary for engaging with Parliament. Given the collaboration of the PRIME Indian team with the WHO in implementing the mental health Gap Action Programme (mhGAP), the WHO regional office was reported to have high levels of interest and support. Despite the District (Madhya Pradesh) Department of Public Health and Family Welfare being a collaborator in PRIME consortium, it was reported that the interest in the issue was mixed given that some senior level policy makers may have had low levels of interest, especially considering other priority programmes such as Reproductive and Child Health, Family Planning and HIV/AIDS. Other stakeholders identified as having a medium level of interest in the issue included the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare, and National AIDS Control Organisation (national level), Department of Medical Education, the State Mental Health Authority and State AIDS Control Society in Madhya Pradesh (district level). Amongst these stakeholders, particularly those believed to have a medium impact on the issue, opportunities to mobilise them were identified. Other opportunities for mobilisation identified include stakeholders with a high influence, high impact but low interest, such as the Madhya Pradesh Legislative Assembly, and Panchayati Raj Institutions (local self-governing bodies). The PRIME Nepal team identified the Primary Health Care revitalisation department as having a high interest in the issue, and being supportive of the issue as an active collaborator with PRIME. Other non-health sectors were also identified as having a high interest, specifically the Ministry of Women, Children and Social Welfare; and the Ministry of Peace and Reconstruction, and opportunities were identified to mobilise these Ministries. Although supportive, the WHO country office was believed to have a medium interest, whilst the Ministry of Health and Population was believed to have a low interest due to, in both cases, the prioritisation of other issues. Other democratic institutions, such as Parliament, have not been explored as yet given Nepal's political environment. PRIME South Africa regarded policy stakeholders, including WHO, Department of Health (national, provincial and district) and other government departments such as social development, as being supportive of the issue. However, it was believed that the stakeholders have medium levels of interest given that it is not a priority. Furthermore, the team indicated that the interest in mental health exists in relation to priority health issues such as HIV/AIDS and maternal health. PRIME Uganda identified the WHO country office and Ministry of Health as having high levels of interest, and as being highly supportive of the issue. Despite low levels of interest, it was believed that other non-health sector departments and democratic institutions such as Parliament had medium--high levels of influence. Opportunities to mobilise these sectors were identified. Donors {#Sec12} ------ All countries believed DFID UK to be supportive of the issue, given their funding of the consortium. PRIME in Ethiopia and Nepal believed regional or country DFID offices to have high levels of interest in the issue, whilst India and South Africa believed there to be medium levels of interest amongst DFID country offices given the competing priorities of other Research Programme Consortia (RPCs). Uganda predicted a low level of interest amongst DFID country offices. Most countries, with the exception of India, report medium levels of interest amongst other donors or development agencies. Health practitioners {#Sec13} -------------------- Whilst Ethiopia regarded mental health specialists, particularly psychiatrists, as having high levels of interest for the issue, it regarded PHC and community health workers as having medium levels of interest. Despite the support identified, Ethiopia believed that further engagement was needed with mental health specialists and particularly amongst PHC workers, as their involvement is crucial for meeting PRIME's objectives. Although PRIME India did not mobilise support from mental health specialists at that stage, PHC workers (medical officers and nurses/midwives), community health workers and voluntary workers, were all regarded as having medium levels of interest in the issue. This is due to the fact that they are overburdened, without having much time to devote to things beyond their scope of work, as per the priorities set by the District Health Administration. Voluntary health workers known as Accredited Social Health Activists (ASHA) who are responsible for psychosocial education at the community level were identified as having high levels of influence on the issue, particularly from the perspective of mental health stigma reduction. In Nepal, although health practitioners (PHC workers, community and voluntary health workers) were thought to be supportive, medium levels of interest were registered due to them being overburdened. In the case of mental health specialists, the lower interest was also explained by their presence mostly in urban areas. It was believed that the issue of scaling up mental health services will have a high impact on PHC workers (doctors, nurses and midwives), given the new roles that they will be expected to perform. South African health practitioners were understood to have medium levels of interest, given that support at a provincial level was being nurtured at the time. Nevertheless, the level of impact was understood to be high given the political will of the government at the national level, and the fact that implementation of policy and legislation rests with the provinces and districts. Uganda registered high levels of interest and support amongst mental health specialists, however, recognised that greater support and interest needs to be garnered from PHC and CHWs. Persons affected by mental illness {#Sec14} ---------------------------------- Ethiopia believed there to be high levels of interest and influence amongst mental health service user groups, people with psychosocial disabilities, and their families or carers. Although service user groups (such as the Mental Health Society, Ethiopia) were supportive of the issue, their level of influence was regarded as low given the small number of members. Opportunities were identified for mobilising people with psychosocial disabilities and their families or carers, such as their inclusion in Community Advisory Boards (CABs). Based on previous projects, these persons affected by mental illness were expected to be supportive of the issue. India recorded medium levels of interest in the issue amongst service users, people with psychosocial disabilities, and their families or carers. High levels of influence, and impact of the issue on these sub-groups were recognised by India, as have opportunities to mobilise them. Despite believing a lower level of influence, Nepal recorded high levels of interest and support amongst service user groups, people with psychosocial disabilities, and their families or carers in relation to the issue. Although not yet mobilised, medium levels of interest were predicted by South Africa, pointing to the fact that some affected persons may be uninterested due to apathy, discrimination and stigma and a lack of awareness and education about mental health and their right to health care. In Uganda, families or carers of people with psychosocial disabilities were understood to have low levels of interest, followed by medium interest from people with psychosocial disabilities, followed by high levels of interest from service user groups, which are also believed to be supportive of the issue. Opportunities to mobilise people with psychosocial disabilities, and their families have been recognised. Civil society {#Sec15} ------------- In Ethiopia, international NGOs and FBOs were believed to be supportive of the issue, with medium levels of interest. Some in these groups are represented in PRIME's Community Advisory Board (CAB). The medium--high influence of FBOs, and their power to raise awareness through anti-stigma campaigns have been recognised. Due to the high potential for influencing communities, opportunities to mobilise CBOs were recorded. In India, low levels of interest in the issue were recorded amongst international NGOs, however, medium to high levels of interest were recorded amongst national NGOs, many of whom were regarded as being supportive. Opportunities to mobilise CBOs, FBOs and international NGOs were documented. Nepal recorded high levels of interest and support amongst national NGOs and CBOs, regarding the issue as having a high impact on these groups given their ability to provide technical support to PHC staff, and advocate for people to seek mental health services. Lower levels of interest and support were recorded amongst FBOs and traditional healers given the fact that this group has been providing a service for persons affected by mental illness. Although supportive, international NGOs were also regarded as having lower levels of interest given the competing priorities. South Africa identified some specific international NGOs (Basic Needs) and national NGOs (South African Federation for Mental Health) as having high levels of interest and support, with opportunities to mobilise CBOs and FBOs. Ugandan civil society was recorded as having low-medium levels of interest in the issue. International NGOs were regarded as being supportive of the issue, whilst the opportunity to mobilise CBOs and FBOs has been recognised. Media {#Sec16} ----- The Ethiopian media was regarded as having medium levels of interest and being supportive of the issue at a national level. Variable levels of interest amongst District media, and opportunities to engage this sector have been recorded. Although regarded as highly influential, the media in India were expected to have low levels of interest in the issue. Opportunities to mobilise them further were recognised. Nepalese media were believed to have medium--high interest in the issue, and to be highly supportive of the issue, particularly from the perspective of sensitization and awareness. Whilst South African media had not yet been mobilised regarding the issue, medium levels of interest, and high levels of influence were expected, particularly in terms of placing the issue higher on the policy and implementation agenda. The Ugandan national media was believed to have a medium interest in the issue, and was identified as being supportive, with high levels of influence, and impact on the actor. Lower levels of interest were recorded amongst District level media, and opportunities to mobilise media at this level were recorded. Academics {#Sec17} --------- Although academics and researchers in Ethiopia (such as high level officials in universities) were regarded as being supportive of the issue, the level of interest was believed to be low-medium given that mental health programmes were not prioritised. However, the potential influence on the issue was noted as high, as mental health issues could become mainstreamed into education and training at the universities. In India, universities were regarded as having high levels of interest in order to enhance the academic pool of resources, however, other research institutes were believed to be less interested in the issue given their objectives, priorities and links with government. Nepal regarded universities and other research communities as having high levels of interest, and support for the issue due to the potential impact that the scaling-up of mental health services has on their development agenda. South Africa regarded universities and research communities as having medium levels of interest, with some academics having specific interests in mental health, whilst others, more general interests in public health. The potential influence of universities and research communities regarding the issue was recognised, as more research was being published about scaling-up mental health care, which was believed to have a greater impact. Uganda believed universities to be supportive, with a medium interest in the issue. Lower interest was anticipated amongst other research communities, and the opportunity to mobilise them has been noted. Cross-country force field analysis map: summarising stakeholder engagement opportunities {#Sec18} ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Content analysis of the stakeholder analysis tables identified a range of opportunities for increasing the evidence-based scale-up of mental health care across countries. However, not all of these may succeed given varying degree of support and power of stakeholders. Hence, a cross-country force field analysis (Table [1](#Tab1){ref-type="table"}) indicating the extent of stakeholder support (across) and their perceived power (down) has been applied. The block on the top right indicates those stakeholders that are the most influential and supportive of scaling-up mental health care, whilst the bottom left block indicates the least influential, least supportive stakeholders.Table 1Cross-country stakeholder forcefield analysis mapPowerOppositionNot mobilisedMostly supportiveSupportiveHighParliament (IN, UG)MH Specialists, PHC Workers, CHW (SA)WHO, MoH (ET, NP, UG)PHC Workers (UG)Parliament (ET)Volunteer Workers (IN)DFID UK (ET, NP, UG)Persons with mental illness, Families (ET, IN)DFID local (ET)Service User groups (IN)Other donors (NP)CBOs (ET)MH Specialists (UG)I-Media (SA)N-Media (NP, UG)R-Media (ET, SA)State/District Media (NP)N-Media (IN, SA)Universities (ET)State/District Media (ET, IN, SA)Medium--highNon-Health Ministries (ET)MH Specialists (ET)Service User groups (NP)INGOs, NGOs, CBOs (NP)FBOs (ET)N-Media (ET)MediumNon-Health Ministries (NP, UG)WHO, MoH (IN, SA)CHW (UG)Non-Health Ministries, Parliament (SA)Persons with mental illness (UG)DFID UK (IN, SA)CBOs, FBOs (IN)DFID local (IN, NP, SA)I-Media (IN)Other donors (ET, SA)State/District Media (UG)CHW (ET)Universities (IN, SA)Service User groups (UG)INGOs (UG)NGOs (IN, SA)CBOs, FBOs (SA)Universities (UG)Low--mediumMH Specialists, PHC Workers, CHW (IN)MH Specialists (NP)PHC Workers (ET)Persons with mental illness, Families (NP)LowNon-Health Ministries (IN)FBOs (NP)PHC in MoH (NP)DFID local (UG)PHC Workers, CHW, Volunteer Workers (NP)Other donors (IN, UG)Service User groups (ET)Persons with mental illness, Families (SA)INGOs (ET)Families of persons with mental illness (UG)I-Media (NP)INGOs (IN)Universities, Research Institutes (NP)CBOs, FBOs (UG), Research Institutes (UG)Perceived power to influence the scaling up of mental health care (down) by position relating to the scale up of mental health care (across).ET Ethiopia, IN India, NP Nepal, SA South Africa, UG Uganda. In terms of priority setting in the context of limited resources, it can be deduced that success amongst the mobilised will be most likely amongst highly influential (powerful) stakeholders, who are most supportive. Should further capacity exist, medium-highly influential stakeholders that are supportive can be targeted next, followed by the supportive medium influential stakeholders, or the highly influential non-mobilised stakeholders. Although it was early in the programme and many stakeholders were not mobilised at the time of this research, it is noteworthy that none of the key informants recorded any opposition or resistance to scaling-up mental health care, indicating that there is no direct opposition to the issue from a wide range of stakeholders. In Ethiopia, the policy engagement opportunities with the WHO regional office, Federal Ministry of Health and Parliament could be prioritised. In the case of other stakeholders, the donor sector (DFID UK and local offices) and universities could also be prioritised. In the case of India, policy engagement opportunities could be prioritised with the WHO regional office; Ministry of Health and Family Welfare and AIDS control organisation (national level); Department of Medical Education, state mental health authority and state AIDS control society in Madhya Pradesh (district level). Other opportunities identified that could be prioritised included the donor sector (DFID UK and local offices) and national NGOs. Nepal could prioritise its policy engagement activities with the WHO and the Ministry of Health, including PHC revitalisation department. Other engagements could be prioritised with the donor sector (DFID UK and other donors), national and district media, service user groups, international and national NGOs and CBOs. Policy engagement priorities in South Africa could be with the local WHO, Department of Health (national), non-health sector departments (Department of Social Development) and Parliament. Other stakeholders that could be prioritised by South Africa include health practitioners (mental health specialists, PHC workers and CHWs), donors (DFID UK and other donors) and civil society (NGOs, CBOs and FBOs). Uganda's policy engagement priorities could be with the local WHO and Ministry of Health. Other stakeholder engagement priorities could be with donors, mental health specialists, national media (high power); followed by service user groups, international NGOs and universities (medium power). Discussion {#Sec19} ========== Stakeholder analysis: use in identifying stakeholders and opportunities for research uptake {#Sec20} ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- The stakeholder analysis method, with the participation of diverse country and cross-country partners, provided a useful means of identifying a range of specific stakeholders within countries. From a policy perspective, most countries report high levels of support and interest from the WHO with the exception of Nepal, which reports a medium level of interest from WHO country offices, despite being supportive. Ministries of Health, as active partners involved since the inception of PRIME, are reported to have high levels of support and interest in most countries, with the exception of India and South Africa which report medium levels of support and interest due to other programmes having priority. This is in contrast with the low policy attention mental health has traditionally received \[[@CR10]--[@CR13]\]. Opportunities exist for the Indian and South African teams to align PRIME with other Ministry of Health programmes, such as with HIV/AIDS in South Africa \[[@CR22]\]. The identification of stakeholders in countries has been particularly useful for identifying other non-health public policy actors that may have an interest in scaling up mental health care, and in supporting the implementation of PRIME, pointing to the importance of intersectoral collaboration and adopting a Health in All Policies (HiAP) approach \[[@CR23]\]. Specifically, the Ministry of Social and Labour Affairs, the Ministry of Women and Children Affairs and the Ministry of Youth and Sport in Ethiopia; the National AIDS Control Organisation in India; the Ministry of Women, Children and Social Welfare, and the Ministry of Peace and Reconstruction in Nepal; the Department of Social Development in South Africa have been identified, and could be explored for strengthening collaborations. Although specialist mental health practitioners' (psychiatrists and psychologists) across PRIME countries were commonly believed to have high levels of support, general health practitioners (primary health care workers, community and voluntary health workers) were believed to have low-medium levels of support and interest due to being overburdened, which has also been widely documented \[[@CR15], [@CR16], [@CR24], [@CR25]\]. This has important implications for integrating mental health into public health facilities, and creates opportunities for sensitising human resources for mental health, strategies of which are also well documented \[[@CR20], [@CR24]\]. With regards to persons affected by mental illness (including their families and carers), countries record mixed levels of interest and support, with Ethiopia and Nepal recording particularly high levels of interest and support from service user groups. Where support is low, service users should be actively encouraged to participate in mental health policy and service reform. This will not only improve the integration of mental health into primary care, but also support their recovery process \[[@CR26]\]. Amongst civil society organisations, high levels of support have been reported amongst NGOs and CBOs. Although their role has been acknowledged \[[@CR27]\], greater efforts to engage this sector will contribute towards a more integrated health system. Where mobilised (Ethiopia, Nepal and SA), FBOs were regarded as mostly supportive, with medium to high levels of power. This is important given the fact that traditional healers or religious advisors are often the first to see persons living with mental illness. The role and importance of engaging with this group, and of finding ways of blending traditional practices with modern medicine has been widely recognised \[[@CR28]--[@CR30]\]. Where mobilised, high levels of support and power have been identified amongst the media in Nepal and Uganda. The role and power of the media to influence public perceptions regarding mental health has been documented \[[@CR31]\]. Opportunities to engage with media should be maximised. Universities and research institutes are generally believed to be supportive of the issue, with varying levels of power in countries. Continued engagement with universities and research communities will help to facilitate increased support for scaling-up mental health care from those working in public health, and other related faculties and disciplines such as social sciences, economics, political science and religious studies. At a country level, stakeholder analysis proved a useful technique to identify specific stakeholders, their interests, positions and power, and accordingly, opportunities for increased stakeholder engagement \[[@CR1]--[@CR4]\]. These strategies should be assessed for feasibility by consultation with PRIME country teams, and if feasible, incorporated into PRIME's research uptake strategy. PRIME's cross-country stakeholder analysis reveals generally high levels of support amongst WHO and Ministries of Health. This may be explained by the fact that these stakeholders are partners in PRIME. DFID is also identified by most countries as having high levels of support based on their funding and acceptance of the research programme proposal. Where mobilised, health practitioners, persons affected by mental illness, civil society, media and academics also tend to be generally supportive. Despite the fact that mental health receives little policy attention \[[@CR10]\], no stakeholder opposition to the issue has been recorded. This may be due to the fact that some stakeholders were not mobilised at the time, and where mobilised, it may have been recorded as such for diplomatic reasons, and in order not to jeopardise engagement opportunities in the future life of the programme. Despite the inclusion of a wide range of stakeholder groups in the above analysis, it is apparent that some groups, which may have the potential of introducing policy windows or barriers, may have been omitted. In conducting a stakeholder analysis to support moves for health insurance reform in South Africa and Tanzania, Gilson and colleagues \[[@CR4]\] identify a number of stakeholder groups that are potentially highly influential that have not been considered in PRIME. These include political parties, the private healthcare system and business, some of which may explain the lack of any recorded opposition to the scaling up of mental health services. These groups of stakeholders, and their interest, position and influence in relation to the issue should be incorporated into the framework, and considered for the next stakeholder analysis planned for the programme. Force field analysis: Identifying stakeholder engagement opportunities {#Sec21} ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Force field analysis has been a useful tool to explore and understand stakeholder motivations and to prioritise stakeholder engagements. However, the prioritisation of these potential engagement opportunities should not be depended upon entirely in light of the fact that a large number of stakeholders were not mobilised at the time of data collection. True to the findings of Gilson et al. \[[@CR4]\], force field analysis has been helpful to summarise stakeholder analyses and provide a comprehensive picture of the balance of support and power around a policy issue at a particular time, and for developing a 'political management strategy'. More specifically, applying force field analysis to PRIME's stakeholder analysis has been an invaluable technique for prioritising the stakeholders to focus on. Cross-country stakeholder analyses of PRIME have demonstrated the usefulness of this approach to illuminate the host of opportunities available to narrow the gap between research, and its translation into knowledge, including policy and practice. However, it is acknowledged that not all strategies may be feasible to implement, and are dependent on the programme's capacity and resources. In such cases, a force field analysis is an invaluable tool for prioritising the stakeholder engagement strategies likely to be most successful. Limitations {#Sec22} ----------- The study has several limitations. The first relates to the method of data collection. In a paper on using stakeholder analysis to support moves toward universal coverage in two countries, Gilson et al. \[[@CR4]\] indicate that stakeholder analysis can be conducted by gathering data through document review, media analysis and in-depth interviews, or by brainstorming with knowledgeable participants. In the case of PRIME, stakeholder analysis was conducted by gathering information from knowledgeable participants. Knowledgeable participants were local PRIME teams within countries, including the Principal Investigators (psychiatrists or psychologists), project coordinators and district coordinators (Masters qualified) who have had past or current experience of regularly engaging with stakeholders. Whilst brainstorming happened face-to-face within countries, the lack of face-to-face engagement by the lead researcher with knowledgeable participants across countries may have resulted in reduced data quality. The second relates to the choice of key informants. Although spanning a range of research institutions, some may regard the key informants as 'insiders' \[[@CR20]\] since they are partners in the PRIME consortium, and hence may bias their responses. With the necessary resources, one way to address this concern is by conducting actual interviews or focus group discussions with external stakeholders, or by seeking opportunities to do so within PRIME's research methodology by, for instance, mapping stakeholder inputs from the Theory of Change workshops conducted with stakeholders. Thirdly, the manner in which the data were recorded was inconsistent, with some countries providing stakeholder characteristics at a category level (e.g. same characteristics for all policy makers), whilst others provided characteristics for specific stakeholders (e.g. Ministry of Health). Another data recording inconsistency related to the amount of additional qualitative information that was yielded from the analyses, with most informants providing explanations for stakeholder positions. A more detailed guideline and survey instrument for completing the stakeholder table is likely to yield higher quality data in future. Despite the limitations identified, stakeholder analysis has been significant in providing a systematic means of identifying, and documenting the position of stakeholders in relation to the scaling-up of mental health care into health systems in five LMICs. The findings regarding its utility were largely consistent with most authors in the field, and force field analysis was a useful technique to prioritise stakeholders for the purposes of strategic research uptake management. Future research {#Sec23} --------------- Given that stakeholder analysis is an indication of stakeholder positions and power at a single point in time, PRIME intends to repeat this process as part of its research uptake strategy during the scaling-up phase of the programme in order to measure changes over the life of the programme, and in so doing, shed some light on the extent to which research may have translated into policy and practice. Citing the success of integrating HIV research into policy and practice, Collins et al. appropriately call for a global, coordinated uptake of data driven findings \[[@CR12]\]. The formulation of a cross-country research uptake strategy was a useful means of collecting data for stakeholder analysis, and coordinating the uptake of evidence-based research amongst PRIME stakeholders at a programme level. Opportunities exist for conducting further stakeholder analysis across global mental health research programmes, and in turn, for including this into research uptake and communication strategies to scale up and integrate mental health into primary health care for the improvement of health systems. Conclusion {#Sec24} ========== Stakeholder analysis of PRIME has identified policy makers (WHO, Ministries of Health, other non-health sector Ministries and Parliament), donors (DFID UK, DFID country offices and other donor agencies), mental health specialists, the media (national and district) and universities as the most powerful, and most supportive actors for scaling up mental health care in the respective PRIME countries. Stakeholder analysis has been valuable in identifying, characterising and mobilising support for the proposed action. Force field analysis has not only been a useful means of summarising stakeholder power and positions regarding the scaling up of mental health services, but has also demonstrated its relevance as a tool to prioritise engagement activities amongst the already mobilised stakeholders. The prioritisation of stakeholders is of particular importance in maximising the efficiency of limited programme resources, strategically supporting the research uptake management process. We hope that the insights gained from stakeholder analysis regarding the scale up of mental health care in low and middle-income countries is likely to result in more targeted strategies for stimulating the demand for research amongst knowledge users. In theory, this should result in improved translation of evidence-based research into policy and practice, and in turn, better mental health outcomes. Additional files {#Sec25} ================ Additional file 1:Table S1. Policymakers: Cross-country stakeholder characteristics regarding the scale-up of mental health care. Country Key: ET -- Ethiopia; IN -- India; NP -- Nepal; SA -- South Africa; UG -- Uganda (ranked High-Low; Supportive-Opposed or NonMob -- Not yet mobilised).Additional file 2:Table S2. Donors: Cross-country stakeholder characteristics regarding the scale-up of mental health care. Country Key: ET -- Ethiopia; IN -- India; NP -- Nepal; SA -- South Africa; UG -- Uganda (ranked High-Low; Supportive-Opposed or NonMob -- Not yet mobilised).Additional file 3:Table S3. Health Practitioners: Cross-country stakeholder characteristics regarding the scale-up of mental health care. Country Key: ET -- Ethiopia; IN -- India; NP -- Nepal; SA -- South Africa; UG -- Uganda (ranked High-Low; Supportive-Opposed or NonMob -- Not yet mobilised).Additional file 4:Table S4. Persons affected by Mental Illness: Cross-country stakeholder characteristics regarding the scale-up of mental health care. Country Key: ET -- Ethiopia; IN -- India; NP -- Nepal; SA -- South Africa; UG -- Uganda (ranked High-Low; Supportive-Opposed or NonMob -- Not yet mobilised).Additional file 5:Table S5. Civil Society: Cross-country stakeholder characteristics regarding the scale-up of mental health care. Country Key: ET -- Ethiopia; IN -- India; NP -- Nepal; SA -- South Africa; UG -- Uganda (ranked High-Low; Supportive-Opposed or NonMob -- Not yet mobilised).Additional file 6:Table S6. Media: Cross-country stakeholder characteristics regarding the scale-up of mental health care. Country Key: ET -- Ethiopia; IN -- India; NP -- Nepal; SA -- South Africa; UG -- Uganda (ranked High-Low; Supportive-Opposed or NonMob -- Not yet mobilised).Additional file 7:Table S7. Academics: Cross-country stakeholder characteristics regarding the scale-up of mental health care. Country Key: ET -- Ethiopia; IN -- India; NP -- Nepal; SA -- South Africa; UG -- Uganda (ranked High-Low; Supportive-Opposed or NonMob -- Not yet mobilised). ASHAs : Accredited Social Health Assistants (India) CBOs : Community-Based Organisations CHWs : Community-Health Workers ET : Ethiopia FBOs : Faith-Based Organisations FCHVs : Female Community Health Volunteers (Nepal) HiAP : Health in All Policies IN : India NGOs : Non-Governmental Organisations NP : Nepal PHC : primary health care PRIME : PRogramme for Improving Mental health carE SHA : stakeholder analysis SA : South Africa UG : Uganda The study was conceptualised by AM under the guidance of CL. AF, VM, NL, TK and JS led the completion of the stakeholder tables in consultation with PRIME country team members. AM conducted the cross-country data analysis and drafted the manuscript under the guidance of CL. All other authors were involved in providing input into the manuscript. All authors read and approved the final manuscript. Acknowledgements {#d30e1413} ================ This document is an output from the PRIME Research Programme Consortium, funded by UK Aid from the UK Government, however the views expressed do not necessarily reflect the UK Government's official policies. Compliance with ethical guidelines {#d30e1418} ================================== Competing interests The authors declare that they have no competing interests.
1. Introduction {#sec1-ijms-20-03566} =============== For several decades, contamination of aqueous environments and poisoning of drinking water by toxic substances has been a serious concern because of their adverse effects on public and human health \[[@B1-ijms-20-03566]\]. Among the variety of toxic substances, arsenic is the most widespread chemical element that has the potential to endanger humanity by poisoning groundwater \[[@B2-ijms-20-03566]\]. Low-level exposure to arsenic triggers dysfunctioning of the immune system, which leads to an increased risk of infection to lethal pathogens, such as H1N1 and swine flu viruses \[[@B3-ijms-20-03566]\]. Moreover, long-term exposure to arsenic leads to significant mortality. Of special concern are chronic diseases such as skin cancer, lung cancer, and kidney cancers, which can also lead to postoperative complications \[[@B4-ijms-20-03566]\]. Thus, the International Agency for Research on Cancer (IARC) designated arsenic compounds as group 1 carcinogens, and their provisional value recommended by the World Health Organization (WHO) and the United States Environmental Protection Agency (USEPA) has been adjusted to less than 10 μg/L \[[@B5-ijms-20-03566],[@B6-ijms-20-03566]\]. To date, a wide variety of conventional physicochemical methods such as coagulation, precipitation, adsorption, membrane technologies, and electrodialysis have been developed for the removal of As(V) from the aqueous solution \[[@B7-ijms-20-03566]\]. Despite its widespread use, some obstacles such as labor-intensity, high-cost, and secondary contamination have remained a challenge to be solved. Thus, much exploration of hybrid technologies to overcome those of hurdles is underway that goes beyond academic boundaries. Nanoparticles with properties including strong adsorption capacity, high selectivity, and extensibility have been developed as an efficient and stable agent for the treatment of toxic substances in aqueous media. In particular, iron oxide magnetic nanoparticles (FeNPs) are attractive nanomaterials for the adsorption of arsenic contaminants because of their high affinity toward arsenic species. Chemically synthesized α-Fe~2~O~3~ nanoparticles exhibit about 95 mg/g and 47 mg/g of adsorption capacity toward As(III) and As(V), respectively, at a near neutral pH \[[@B8-ijms-20-03566]\]. Another report stated that the maximum adsorption capacity of the biochar supported nanoscale zerovalent iron (nZVI/BC) is 124.5 g/kg at a pH of 4.1, in a batch study \[[@B9-ijms-20-03566]\]. However, several drawbacks remain to be addressed for practical applications, such as the instability of nanomaterials under various environmental conditions, the energy-consuming synthesis method, and the recovery of unsettled adsorbents after the treatment \[[@B10-ijms-20-03566],[@B11-ijms-20-03566],[@B12-ijms-20-03566]\]. Recently, bioremediation technology incorporating nanomaterials (Nano-biotechnology) has emerged as an alternative method to overcome the drawbacks of nanotechnology. For example, in vivo biosynthesis of novel metal nanoparticles such as Au, Ag, and Pd have been reported in recombinant Escherichia coli by increasing the cellular redox potential through overexpression of phytochelatin synthase (PCS) and metallothionein (MT) \[[@B13-ijms-20-03566]\]. As another example, green synthesis of nanomaterials and the biosynthesis of zerovalent iron nanoparticles (ZVNI) have been reported using treatment with leaf extracts of Eucalyptus globules and 0.1 M FeSO~4~·7H~2~O for 1 min at room temperature \[[@B14-ijms-20-03566]\]. In most cases, cellular metabolites with strong reducing power, such as carotenoids, flavonoids, and oxidative peptides, play an important role in the synthesis of biogenic nanoparticles. Thus, the extremophilic microorganisms containing strong antioxidants are widely used in the field of nanotechnology \[[@B15-ijms-20-03566],[@B16-ijms-20-03566]\]. Among the extremophilic microorganisms, Deinococcus radiodurans R1 strain, a radiation-resistant bacteria, has great potential to be used in biogenic nanoparticles as it has evolved strong antioxidant systems and cellular metabolites \[[@B17-ijms-20-03566]\]. Previously, we reported the development of a treatment method for radioactive iodine using gold nanoparticle-immobilized Deinococcus radiodurans R1 strain (D. radiodurans R1; DR). The gold nanoparticle-containing DR strain showed excellent removal capacity for radioactive iodine (\>99%) in various aqueous solutions \[[@B18-ijms-20-03566]\]. Moreover, the treatment method using a nanomaterial-embedded microorganism is superior to other previously reported remediation processes in terms of its efficiency and sustainability. These observations led us to develop a rapid and highly efficient removal method for arsenic \[As(V)\] by adsorption using a magnetic iron nanoparticle-immobilized D. radiodurans R1 strain (DR-FeNPs). First, the magnetic nanoparticles were synthesized by DR strain and immobilized onto the cell. Next, adsorption conditions such as pH, contact time, amount of biomass, and initial concentration were evaluated for identifying the optimal conditions. In addition, the maximum removal efficiency, stability, and sustainability were also investigated under the optimized conditions. Finally, the practical application of DR-FeNPs for As(V) removal was verified under the presence of competitive anions and the recovery of used DR-FeNPs using magnets was also investigated as a proof-of-concept. 2. Results {#sec2-ijms-20-03566} ========== 2.1. Establishment of Live Cell Fabricated Iron Nanoparticles (FeNPs) {#sec2dot1-ijms-20-03566} --------------------------------------------------------------------- D. radiodurans was selected as the host strain to make biogenic iron nanoparticles, as it expresses a variety of strong antioxidants and enzymes that provide reducing power, which is beneficial for the in vivo synthesis of nanomaterials \[[@B15-ijms-20-03566]\]. The main strategy for the removal of arsenic \[As(V)\] using live cell fabricated iron nanoparticles is described in [Figure 1](#ijms-20-03566-f001){ref-type="fig"}. To synthesize iron nanoparticles using living bacterial cells, DR strain was cultured in TGY (Tryptone, Glucose, and Yeast) media supplemented with 6.25 mM of FeCl~3~. The color of the culture broth was found to gradually turn dark brown with increasing incubation time. To check whether the iron nanoparticles were synthesized, the nanomaterials were analyzed by scanning electron microscopy-energy dispersive X-ray spectroscopy (SEM-EDX) analysis. As shown in [Figure 2](#ijms-20-03566-f002){ref-type="fig"}a,b, the fairly irregular shape of iron nanoparticles (FeNPs) was efficiently synthesized in vivo and immobilized onto the DR strain (see the inset of each figure). Also, the peaks indicating Fe are displayed in the EDX spectrum compared to the same strain without supplementation of FeCl~3~. The dynamic light scattering (DLS) analysis also demonstrated that the size of FeNPs synthesized by the DR strain was about 141.8 nm to 164.2 nm ([Figure 2](#ijms-20-03566-f002){ref-type="fig"}c), which is relatively smaller than that of chemically synthesized FeNPs (192 ± 5.96 nm), which were also used for the removal of As(V) \[[@B19-ijms-20-03566]\]. Previous studies on the characterization of nanomaterials reported that the adsorption capacity of the irregular and smaller size of nanomaterials tended to increase \[[@B20-ijms-20-03566],[@B21-ijms-20-03566]\]. Thus, the adsorption capacity of FeNPs synthesized by DR strain was expected to be higher and more efficient compared with the chemically synthesized crystal iron nanoparticle. Furthermore, the isoelectric point (IEP) of between pH 4 to pH 5 ([Figure 2](#ijms-20-03566-f002){ref-type="fig"}d), which is similar to the IEP value of chemically synthesized Fe~2~O~3~ nanoparticle \[[@B22-ijms-20-03566]\], was estimated by the zeta-potential analysis. On the basis of this IEP value, it can be predicted that the maximum removal efficiency of FeNPs for As(V) can be achieved at pH 4 or below, where the electrical charges of FeNPs (positive) and As(V) (negative) are different from each other \[[@B23-ijms-20-03566]\]. Therefore, it was concluded that iron nanoparticles (FeNPs) were efficiently synthesized by the living DR strain and suitable for the removal of As(V) under the acidic condition \[[@B24-ijms-20-03566]\]. 2.2. Characterization of Morphological Parameters and Composition of FeNPs {#sec2dot2-ijms-20-03566} -------------------------------------------------------------------------- Traditionally, because the functionality of nanomaterials is highly dependent on their morphology, they have been synthesized by chemical reactions and then modified to obtain the desired sizes and shapes. Unlike chemically synthesized nanomaterials whose shape and size are constant, biologically synthesized nanomaterials vary in size and shape. Thus, FT-IR, X-ray diffraction (XRD), and X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS) analysis were performed to characterize FeNPs synthesized by DR strain. First, the FT-IR analysis was performed to investigate the functional groups of biomolecules involved in the fabrication of FeNPs in vivo. As shown in [Figure 3](#ijms-20-03566-f003){ref-type="fig"}a, intensive band at 1644 cm^−1^, which corresponds to the stretching peaks of amide I group of polypeptides \[[@B15-ijms-20-03566]\], was slightly shifted to 1647 cm^−1^. The bands at 1456 and 1389 cm^−1^ attributed the methylene scissoring vibration in the proteins and C--O stretching vibration from carboxylate ion were also shifted to 1437 and 1418 cm^−1^ during the process of in vivo synthesis of FeNPs \[[@B15-ijms-20-03566],[@B25-ijms-20-03566],[@B26-ijms-20-03566],[@B27-ijms-20-03566]\]. Furthermore, the band at 1062 cm^−1^ representing P--O--C stretching vibrations was also shifted to 1058 cm^−1^ in FeNPs immobilized D. radiodurans R1 strain (DR-FeNPs), which is consistent with the result of EDX analysis composing the C, O, and P peaks, as described in [Figure 2](#ijms-20-03566-f002){ref-type="fig"}a,b. Thus, these results indicated that the amide and phospho groups might be involved in the formation of the live cell fabricated FeNPs. Next, the XRD and XPS analyses were performed to determine the morphological parameters and composition of FeNPs. As shown in [Figure 3](#ijms-20-03566-f003){ref-type="fig"}b, the single broad diffused peak near the 20° in the 2θ in the range of 10°--70° was observed in the XRD analysis, indicating that the FeNPs synthesized by DR strain showed an amorphous structure, which is in coincidence with the previous study reporting the XRD pattern analysis for the characterization of FeNPs \[[@B28-ijms-20-03566]\]. In the XPS analysis, the core-level spectra of C 1s, N 1s, O 1s, P 2p, and Fe 2p supported the functional groups involved in the synthesis of FeNPs, which is coincidence with FT-IR analysis. Furthermore, three types of FeNPs composed mainly of Fe~2~O~3~ (47.2%; 710.9 eV) and the rest of FeO (17.9%; 709.3 eV and 715.4 eV) and FePO~4~ (34.9%; 713.0 eV) were confirmed by the magnified spectrum of Fe 2p~2/3~ \[[@B29-ijms-20-03566],[@B30-ijms-20-03566],[@B31-ijms-20-03566]\] ([Figure 3](#ijms-20-03566-f003){ref-type="fig"}c). 2.3. Removal of As(V) Using Iron Nanoparticle Immobilized D. radiodurans R1 (DR-FeNPs) {#sec2dot3-ijms-20-03566} -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Next, the removal efficiency of As(V) using DR-FeNPs was tested in aqueous media. Before the investigation of the removal of As(V) by adsorption, the optimal pH, amount of biomass, contact time, and initial concentration of As(V), which are known to affect the adsorption capacity, were optimized under the various conditions. As shown in [Figure 4](#ijms-20-03566-f004){ref-type="fig"}, the maximum removal efficiency of the DR-FeNPs was observed at pH 3 (61.99% ± 2.61%), contact time 16 h (67.99% ± 1.99%), 2.5 g/L of biomass, and 50 mg/L of the initial concentration of As(V) (99.06% ± 0.15%). In addition, the Langmuir and Freundlich isotherm models were employed to understand the interaction between DR-FeNPs and As(V) during the process of adsorption \[[@B25-ijms-20-03566]\]. The Langmuir isotherm model is represented by the following Equation (1). $$Q_{e} = \frac{Q_{0}K_{L}C_{e}}{1 + K_{L}C_{e}},$$ where Q~e~ (mg/g) is adsorption capacity at equilibrium, Q~0~ (mg/g) is maximum adsorption capacity, C~e~ (mg/L) is the concentration of metal ions in aqueous solution at equilibrium, and K~L~ (L/mg) is Langmuir adsorption constant. The Freundlich isotherm model is represented by the following Equation (2):$$Q_{e} = K_{F}C_{e}{}^{\frac{1}{n}},$$ where K~F~ (L/g) and 1/n are Freundlich constant and adsorption intensity, respectively. The isothermal adsorption curve was fitted to the Freundlich model because the values of R^2^ for Freundlich model (R^2^ = 0.961) were higher than that of the Langmuir model (R^2^ = 0.870) ([Table 1](#ijms-20-03566-t001){ref-type="table"}, [Figure 5](#ijms-20-03566-f005){ref-type="fig"}a,b). This result indicated that the removal of As(V) using DR-FeNPs could be explained by a heterogeneous surface site-mediated multiple-layer adsorption \[[@B23-ijms-20-03566],[@B32-ijms-20-03566]\]. Moreover, the pseudo-first (3) and the pseudo-second (4) order of kinetic equations were also applied to analyze the kinetics of As(V) adsorption \[[@B23-ijms-20-03566],[@B33-ijms-20-03566]\]. $$In\left( {Q_{e} - Q_{t}} \right) = InQ_{e} - K_{1}t,$$ $$\frac{1}{Q_{t}} = \frac{1}{k_{2}Q_{e}^{2}} + \frac{t}{Q_{e}},$$ where Q~t~ (mg/g) is adsorption capacity at time t (h); and K~1~ (1/h) and K~2~ (g/mg·h) are adsorption rate constants of pseudo-first order and pseudo-second order, respectively. The adsorption kinetics of As(V) was well explained by the pseudo-second-order because the value of R^2^ for pseudo-second (R^2^ = 0.999) was higher than that of the pseudo-first (R^2^ = 0.984) ([Table 2](#ijms-20-03566-t002){ref-type="table"}, [Figure 5](#ijms-20-03566-f005){ref-type="fig"}c,d). Furthermore, the value of Q~exp~ (131.565 ± 3.783 mg/g) was almost identical to the value of Q~cal~ (133.333 mg/g) in the pseudo-second-order model. Thus, it was predicted that the adsorption was achieved through the chemisorption process \[[@B34-ijms-20-03566]\]. Then, the removal capacity of DR-FeNPs for As(V) was further investigated under the optimized conditions. As can be seen in [Figure 6](#ijms-20-03566-f006){ref-type="fig"}a, rapid uptake kinetics and maximum removal efficiency (\>98%) were successfully achieved within 1 h and the removal efficiency was maintained stable for up to 32 h (98.97%). The peaks corresponding As(V) in the EDX spectrum indicated that As(V) was selectively adsorbed by the DR-FeNPs ([Figure 6](#ijms-20-03566-f006){ref-type="fig"}b). Furthermore, the vibration of As--O at 810 cm^−1^ \[[@B23-ijms-20-03566]\] analyzed by FT-IR analysis demonstrated that the FeNPs was selectively coupled with As(V) ([Figure 6](#ijms-20-03566-f006){ref-type="fig"}c). However, it was interesting to note that less than 17% of removal efficiency was also found in DR strain without FeNPs ([Figure 6](#ijms-20-03566-f006){ref-type="fig"}a). It seems to be because of the biological components such as terpenoids, amides, and aldehyde capable of chelating metal ions \[[@B35-ijms-20-03566],[@B36-ijms-20-03566]\]. 2.4. Effects of Competitive Anions on the Removal of As(V) {#sec2dot4-ijms-20-03566} ---------------------------------------------------------- In most cases, the removal efficiency of As(V) is known to decrease dramatically under the presence of various competitive anions such as NO~3~^−^, Cl^−^, SO~4~^2−^, CO~3~^2−^, and PO~4~^3−^, which can block the active site of adsorbents resulting in the interference of coupling with As(V) \[[@B23-ijms-20-03566],[@B37-ijms-20-03566],[@B38-ijms-20-03566],[@B39-ijms-20-03566]\]. Thus, the removal efficiency of DR-FeNPs for As(V) was evaluated in the presence of various competitive anions to simulate the practical application for the removal of As(V) contaminated natural underground water. Interestingly, the removal efficiency of DR-FeNPs for As(V) was scarcely influenced by competing anions. The removal efficiency was slightly decreased under the presence of competing anions, but more than 91% of removal efficiency was still maintained for 16 h ([Figure 7](#ijms-20-03566-f007){ref-type="fig"}a). It seems to be because of the cellular membrane-bound biological components that have the ability to chelate various co-existing ions and make a driving force that positively increases the removal efficiency and selectivity for As(V). Furthermore, owing to the magnetic property of FeNPs, the used DR-FeNPs could be easily recovered by employing magnets from aqueous solution within 24 h ([Figure 7](#ijms-20-03566-f007){ref-type="fig"}b). This is also one of the benefits of preventing secondary contamination by the used adsorbent, which is the obstacle to the bioremediation of environmental toxic pollutants. 3. Materials and Methods {#sec3-ijms-20-03566} ======================== 3.1. Synthesis of DR-FeNPs {#sec3dot1-ijms-20-03566} -------------------------- Iron chloride hexahydrate (FeCl~3~·6H~2~O) was purchased from JUNSEI Co. (Tokyo, Japan). D. radiodurans R1 strain (ATCC13939) was inoculated in TGY (0.5% tryptone, 0.1% glucose, and 0.3% yeast extract) and cultured at 30 °C with rotation at 200 rpm. The liquid medium was incubated until the sample reached an optical density of 1 at 600 nm (OD~600~). After cultivation, 6.25 mM FeCl~3~·6H~2~O was added to the cell and incubated for 24 h at 30 °C with 200 rpm. The cultures were centrifuged at 4000 rpm for 10 min at 4 °C, and the resulting pellets were washed two times with deionized water. The pellets were freeze-dried and used for further analysis. 3.2. Characterization of DR-FeNPs {#sec3dot2-ijms-20-03566} --------------------------------- The surface morphology and elemental analysis of D. radiodurans R1 and DR-FeNPs were observed by SEM-EDX (FEI Inspect F50, FEI, Hillsboro, OR, USA). For analysis by SEM-EDX, the samples were fixed with 2.5% glutaraldehyde solution and then dehydrated with 30%, 50%, 70%, 80%, 90%, 95%, and 100% ethanol. After dehydration with ethanol, the samples were further dried overnight. The size distribution of FeNPs was measured by DLS (Zetasizer Nano, Malvern Instruments, Worcestershire, UK). To isolate FeNPs from DR-FeNPs, the DR-FeNPs were disrupted by using bead beater (FastPrep-24 Instrument, MP Biomedical, Santa Ana, CA, USA) at 6000 rpm for 1 min. Then, disrupted samples were filtered by 0.45 μm cellulose acetate membrane (Hyundai Micro, Seoul, Korea). Zeta potential of DR-FeNPs was measured with a zeta-potential and particle size analyzer (ELSZ-1000, OTSUKA ELECTRONICS, Osaka, Japan). FT-IR spectra of the materials were recorded with KBr disks using the FT-IR spectrometer (Thermo Scientific NICOLET iS10, Thermo Fisher Scientific, Waltham, MA, USA) in the range of 4000--600 cm^−1^. The crystallinity of DR-FeNPs was monitored by XRD (D max-2500 PC, RIGAKU, Tokyo, Japan) from 2θ = 10°--70°. The surface states of DR-FeNPs were characterized by XPS (K-alpha plus, Thermo Fisher Scientific, Waltham, MA, USA) using an Al Kα (hv = 1486.7 eV) micro-focused monochromator. All spectra were calibrated using the adventitious C 1s peak with a fixed value of 284.8 eV. 3.3. Optimization of As(V) Adsorption Using DR-FeNPs {#sec3dot3-ijms-20-03566} ---------------------------------------------------- Disodium hydrogen arsenate heptahydrate (Na~2~HAsO~4~·7H~2~O) was purchased from Wako Co. (Tokyo, Japan). A stock solution of 1000 mg/L was obtained by dissolving Na~2~HAsO~4~·7H~2~O in deionized water. The effect of several parameters such as pH, contact time, amount of biomass, and initial concentration of As(V) on biosorption efficiency was evaluated. To determine optimum pH value, biosorption experiments were performed in an Erlenmeyer flask containing 10 mL solution for 24 h at 30 °C with 200 rpm. The initial pH of the solution was adjusted using 0.1 M HCl and 0.1 M NaOH solution. The amount of biomass and initial concentration of As(V) were fixed at 0.2 g/L and 50 mg/L, respectively. The effect of contact time on biosorption efficiency in the range of 1--32 h was conducted in an Erlenmeyer flask containing 10 mL of As(V) solution with 50 mg/L biomass. The other parameters including pH, agitation, biomass, and temperature were kept constant at 3, 200 rpm, 0.25 g/L, and 30 °C, respectively. Further experiments were carried out to investigate the effect of biomass and initial concentration of As(V) on biosorption efficiency in ranges of 0.25--5 g/L and 50--500 mg/L, respectively. pH, agitation, and temperature were kept constant at 3, 200 rpm, and 30 °C, respectively. The samples were harvested at 4000 rpm for 10 min. The supernatants were filtered through a 0.45 μm cellulose acetate filter. The residual As(V) in the supernatant was measured by inductively coupled plasma optical emission spectroscopy (ICP-OES, iCAP 7000 series, Thermo Scientific, Waltham, MA, USA). All biosorption assays were performed in triplicate and the mean values were calculated. 3.4. Remediation Procedure of As(V) Using DR-FeNPs {#sec3dot4-ijms-20-03566} -------------------------------------------------- The amount of 2.5 g/L of D. radiodurans R1 and DR-FeNPs was added to pH 3.0 solution containing 50 mg/L of As(V). The mixtures were shaken at 30 °C with 200 rpm. At each time point, 1, 2, 4, 8, 16, and 32 h samples were withdrawn from the solution. The supernatants were filtered through a 0.45 μm pore size cellulose acetate filter. The residual As(V) in the supernatant was measured by ICP-OES (inductively coupled plasma-optical emission spectrometry). The removal efficiency (%) was defined by the following equation to assess the adsorption capacity of DR-FeNPs for toward As(V): where C~0~ and C~e~ represent the initial and equilibrium concentrations of As(V), respectively. DR-FeNPs with As(V) \[DR-FeNPs-As(V)\] was analyzed by SEM-EDX. FT-IR spectra of DR-FeNPs and DR-FeNPs-As(V) were recorded with KBr disks using a FT-IR spectrometer in the range of 4000--600 cm^−1^. 3.5. Analysis of the Effect of Co-Existing Ion on As(V) Adsorption {#sec3dot5-ijms-20-03566} ------------------------------------------------------------------ Sodium phosphate tribasic dodecahydrate (Na~3~PO~4~·12H~2~O), sodium sulfate anhydrase (Na~2~SO~4)~, sodium nitrate (NaNO~3~), and sodium carbonate anhydrous (Na~2~CO~3~) were purchased from DAEJUN Co. (Gyeong gi, Siheung, Korea). To study the effect of co-existing anions on the removal of As(V), 10 mg/L NO~3~^−^, 200 mg/L Cl^−^, 200 mg/L SO~4~^2−^, 50 mg/L CO~3~^2−^, and 50 mg/L PO~4~^3−^ were treated under 2.5 g/L of DR-FeNPs and 50 mg/L of As(V) \[[@B40-ijms-20-03566]\]. The pH was adjusted to 3 with the addition of 0.1 M HCl solution. Suspensions were shaken for 16 h at 30 °C with rotation at 200 rpm. The supernatants were filtered through a 0.45 μm cellulose acetate filter. The residual As(V) in the supernatant was measured by ICP-OES. 4. Conclusions {#sec4-ijms-20-03566} ============== We developed a new bioremediation platform technology using a magnetic iron nanoparticle immobilized D. radiodurans R1 strain (DR-FeNPs) capable of removing toxic arsenic species \[As(V)\]. This was achieved in vivo, by the synthesis of magnetic iron nanoparticles in the presence of strong reducing biomolecules in a living D. radiodurans R1 (DR) strain. The As(V) removal method using DR-FeNPs developed here showed an adsorption capacity of 131.6 mg/g, which has the highest removal efficiency among the methods using iron nanomaterials ([Table 3](#ijms-20-03566-t003){ref-type="table"}). The bioremediation process using DR-FeNPs has the following advantages over the conventional physicochemical methods: (1) various types of nanocomposite can be synthesized by controlling the culture condition without seasonal effects; (2) key drawbacks of physicochemical methods such as time-consumption, high-cost, and labor-intensiveness can be overcome; and (3) secondary contamination resulting from the used DR-FeNPs can be prevented by employing magnets, as can be seen in [Figure 7](#ijms-20-03566-f007){ref-type="fig"}b. Also, if desired, systems metabolic engineering can be applied to design customized microorganisms capable of removing a variety of toxic substances. Furthermore, our bioremediation method based on a living DR strain is not limited to removing As(V), but can be extended to the removal of other toxic substances by in vivo synthesis of a variety of nanomaterials. We appreciate So Hee Kim from the Korea Institute of Science and Technology (KIST) for the SEM-EDX analysis. Conceptualization, J.E.Y. and Y.J.C.; Formal analysis, S.-W.J.; Investigation, H.K.K.; Supervision, Y.J.C.; Writing---original draft, H.K.K.; Writing---review & editing, J.E.Y. and Y.J.C. This work was supported by the National Research Foundation of Korea (NRF) grant funded by the Korea government (NRF-2017R1C1B1007040) and C1 Gas refinery program (NRF-2017M3D3A1A01037019). The authors declare no conflict of interest. DR D. radiodurans R1 DR-FeNPs Iron nanoparticle immobilized D. radiodurans R1 DR-FeNPs-As(V) DR-FeNPs adsorbing As(V) Q e Adsorption capacity at equilibrium Q t Adsorption capacity at any time Q 0 Maximum adsorption capacity Ce Concentration of metal ions in aqueous solution at equilibrium K L Langmuir adsorption constant K F Freundlich adsorption constant 1/ n Adsorption intensity Q exp Adsorption capacity at equilibrium (experimental value) Q cal Adsorption capacity at equilibrium (calculation value) K 1 Adsorption rate constant of the pseudo-first model K 2 Adsorption rate constant of the pseudo-second model XRD X-ray diffraction XPS X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy SEM-EDX Scanning electron microscopy-energy dispersive X-ray spectroscopy ![Schematic illustration of an overall strategy for the adsorption of As(V) using iron oxide magnetic nanoparticles (FeNPs) immobilized D. radiodurans R1.](ijms-20-03566-g001){#ijms-20-03566-f001} ![Scanning electron microscopy-energy dispersive X-ray spectroscopy (SEM-EDX) analysis of (a) D. radiodurans R1 and (b) iron nanoparticle immobilized D. radiodurans R1 (DR-FeNPs). Inset represents 50 kX magnified SEM images of D. radiodurans R1 without (left) or with (right) FeCl~3~; (c) dynamic light scattering (DLS) analysis of FeNPs synthesized by D. radiodurans R1 in vivo; (d) zeta potential analysis of DR-FeNPs. All experiments were performed in triplicate; error bars denote standard deviation.](ijms-20-03566-g002){#ijms-20-03566-f002} ![(a) FT-IR analysis of D. radiodurans R1 and iron nanoparticle immobilized D. radiodurans R1 (DR-FeNPs); (b) X-ray diffraction (XRD) pattern and (c) X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS) spectra of iron nanoparticle immobilized D. radiodurans R1 (DR-FeNPs). The red colored square indicated the magnified version of the Fe 2p signal.](ijms-20-03566-g003){#ijms-20-03566-f003} ![Optimization of adsorption conditions for maximum removal efficiency according to (a) pH, (b) contact time, (c) the amount of biomass, and (d) initial concentration of As(V). Experimental conditions were as follows: (a) contact time = 24 h, biomass = 0.2 g/L, initial concentration of As(V) = 50 mg/L; (b) initial pH = 3, biomass = 0.25 g/L, initial concentration of As(V) = 50 mg/L; (c) initial pH = 3, contact time = 16 h, initial concentration of As(V) = 50 mg/L; (d) initial pH = 3, contact time = 16 h, biomass = 2.5 g/L. All experiments were performed in triplicate; error bars denote standard deviation.](ijms-20-03566-g004){#ijms-20-03566-f004} ![Adsorption isotherms plots of (a) Langmuir and (b) Freundlich; adsorption kinetics plots of (c) pseudo-first-order model and (d) pseudo-second-order model. All experiments were performed in triplicate; error bars denote standard deviation.](ijms-20-03566-g005){#ijms-20-03566-f005} ![(a) Removal efficiency of D. radiodurans R1 (DR) and iron nanoparticle immobilized D. radiodurans R1 (DR-FeNPs). Experimental condition: initial pH = 3, biomass = 0.25 g/L, initial concentration of As(V) = 50 mg/L. All experiments were performed in triplicate; error bars denote standard deviation. (b) SEM-EDX analysis of DR-FeNPs with As(V) \[DR-FeNPs-As(V)\]. (c) FT-IR analysis of DR-FeNPs and DR-FeNPs-As(V).](ijms-20-03566-g006){#ijms-20-03566-f006} ![(a) Effect of co-existing anion on the removal efficiency. Experimental condition: initial pH = 3, biomass = 0.25 g/L, contact time = 16 h, initial concentration of As(V) = 50 mg/L. Initial concentration of co-existing anions: NO~3~^−^ = 10 mg/L, Cl^−^ = 200 mg/L, SO~4~^2−^ = 200 mg/L, CO~3~^2−^ = 50 mg/L, PO~4~^3−^ = 50 mg/L. All experiments were performed in triplicate; error bars denote standard deviation. (b) Recovery of DR-FeNPs-As(V) by magnet.](ijms-20-03566-g007){#ijms-20-03566-f007} ijms-20-03566-t001_Table 1 ###### Langmuir and Freundlich model parameters. DR-FeNPs, magnetic iron nanoparticle-immobilized D. radiodurans R1 strain. Biomass Langmuir Isotherm Freundlich Isotherm ---------- ------------------- --------------------- ------- -------- ------- ------- DR-FeNPs 172.414 0.176 0.870 25.146 1.596 0.961 ijms-20-03566-t002_Table 2 ###### Pseudo-first order and pseudo-second-order kinetic models. ------------------------- ----------------- ----------------- ----------------- --------- Pseudo-First Order Q~exp~ (mg/g) K~1~ (1/h) Q~cal~ (mg/g) R ^2^ 131.565 ± 3.783 0.197 32.089 0.984 Pseudo-Second Order Q~exp~ (mg/g) K~2~ (g/mg·h) Q~cal~ (mg/g) R ^2^ 131.565 ± 3.783 0.018 133.333 0.999 ------------------------- ----------------- ----------------- ----------------- --------- ijms-20-03566-t003_Table 3 ###### Comparison of iron nanomaterial adsorbent for As(V) removal. Adsorbent Preparation Method Adsorption Capacity pH Ref ----------------------------------------------------------- ----------------------- --------------------- ----- -------------------------- Magnetic nanoparticles coated zeolite Ultra sonication 95.6% 2.5 \[[@B41-ijms-20-03566]\] Fe-hydrotalcite supported mangetic nanopartilces (M-FeHT) Co-precipitation 104.8 μg/g 9 \[[@B42-ijms-20-03566]\] Green nano iron particle (GnIP) Mint leaves extract 94.47 mg/g \- \[[@B43-ijms-20-03566]\] Ascrobic acid coated Fe~3~O~4~ nanoaprticle Hydorthermal (180 °C) 16.56 mg/g 7 \[[@B44-ijms-20-03566]\]
Fish intake is associated with lower cardiovascular risk in a Mediterranean population: Prospective results from the Moli-sani study. Fish consumption reportedly reduces the risk of heart disease, but the evidence of cardiovascular advantages associated with fish intake within Mediterranean cohorts is limited. The aim of this study was to test the association between fish intake and risk of composite coronary heart disease (CHD) and stroke in a large population-based cohort adhering to Mediterranean Diet. Prospective analysis on 20,969 subjects free from cardiovascular disease at baseline, enrolled in the Moli-sani study (2005-2010). Food intake was recorded by the Italian version of the EPIC food frequency questionnaire. Hazard ratios were calculated by using multivariable Cox-proportional hazard models. During a median follow-up of 4.3 years, a total of 352 events occurred (n of CHD = 287 and n of stroke = 66). After adjustment for a large panel of covariates, fish intake ≥4 times per week was associated with 40% reduced risk of composite CHD and stroke (HR = 0.60; 95%CI 0.40-0.90), and with 40% lower risk of CHD (HR = 0.60; 95%CI 0.38-0.94) as compared with subjects in the lowest category of intake (<2 times/week). A similar trend of protection was found for stroke risk although results were not significant (HR = 0.62; 95%CI 0.26-1.51). When fish types were considered, protection against the composite outcome and CHD was confined to fatty fish intake. Fish intake was associated with reduced risk of composite fatal and non-fatal CHD and stroke in a general Mediterranean population. The favourable association was likely to be driven by fatty fish.
A blog by Tim George. Follow my other work at http://www.tewahanui.nz/by/tim.george, http://www.denofgeek.com/authors/tim-george, theatrescenes.co.nz, and theragnz.com. Wednesday, 29 August 2018 NZIFF 2018 Diary: The Miseducation of Cameron Post America, 1993. After she is caught with her girlfriend at prom, Cameron (Chloe Grace Moretz) is shipped off to a gay conversion camp in the middle of nowhere. She quickly falls in with a pair of rebels, 'Jane Fonda' (Sasha Lane) and Adam Red Eagle (Forrest Goodluck), and together the trio plot their escape. Man, there is something off about this movie. The performances are good and the overall approach feels rather understated and empathetic. But I left the movie with the nagging feeling that it did not accomplish what it set out to do. I wonder what the US audience response is, because mine found the movie hilarious. The movie does have its blackly comic moments (the concept of gay conversion is a perfect site for satire), but with the priorities of the current administration, gay conversion is not something from the distant past. It feels weird to write this but I was a little underwhelmed by the whole thing. The focus on a white female POV feels a bit old-fashioned, and it does not help that the execution of her story lacks dimension. What makes it worse is who Cameron is in juxtaposition with, like Adam (Goodluck), who has to deal with his roommate's castration (a subplot that feels sidelined because the movie is framed from Cameron's perspective); or Erin (Emily Skeggs), her roommate who channels her sexual frustration into following the camp's edicts to the letter. Chloe Grace Moretz is solid as the lead - I have never really believed her in the past, but she has finally reached an age where her world-weariness reads. However, while this is intended to be Moretz's movie, if anyone shines it is Sasha Lane. As the worldly Jane Fonda, she is funny, whip-smart and radiates charisma. I needed more character and conflict from the main character. Cameron does not seem to change or learn that much throughout the movie, and it was hard to track what her conflict was. She is secure in her sexuality, and when she faces pushback, there is no escalation between her rebellion and the repression from the people running this shit show. It is heartfelt, and treats all of its characters as human beings, but there is a listless, undercooked quality to the story that prevented me from becoming fully invested in it.
Forget - me - Not A woman struggles with the memory of her dead lover. As she holds onto the memories she has of him, she gradually loses her sanity and strength and has to let them go culminating in her forgetting everything about him, including his last words to her "Forget me not my love".
Thursday, March 26, 2009 Corrugated plastic bins can be reused durable nesting shelters for wild bees, according to an Agricultural Research Service (ARS) research entomologist. Female wild bees will readily use a properly placed, suitably furnished tote as a shelter for their nests, according to James H. Caneof the ARS Pollinating Insects Biology, Management and Systematics Research Unit in Logan, Utah. Turned on their long side, the totes can be held firmly in place on a wooden or metal post by means of a lightweight steel chain and a customized metal support frame. Cane came up with the idea of using corrugated plastic totes (like those used for handling mail and packages) as nesting shelters, and has tested them during spring and summer in California, Oregon, Wyoming and Utah. His experiments show that the lightweight, rectangular bins, each 23-1/2 inches long by 15-1/2 inches wide by 15-1/2 inches high, serve as a sturdy, inexpensive and reusable shelter for protecting bee nests against wind and rain. Growers, professional and hobbyist beekeepers, and backyard gardeners who want wild bees to live near and work in their fields, orchards, vineyards or home gardens can use the totes to house nesting materials, such as five-sixteenths-inch diameter paper drinking straws enclosed in cardboard tubes and stuffed inside empty cardboard milk cartons. Wild female bees such as the blue orchard bee, Osmia lignaria, can use the straws as homes for a new generation of pollinators. Wild bees are needed now, perhaps more than ever, to help with jobs usually handled by America's premier pollinator, the European honey bee, Apis mellifera. Many of the nation's honey bee colonies have been decimated by the puzzling colony collapse disorder or weakened by varroa and tracheal mites or the microbes that cause diseases such as chalkbrood and foulbrood. A single corrugated plastic tote can accommodate as many as 3,000 young, enough to pollinate one-half to one-acre of orchard. And, unlike bulky or stationary shelters, the tote houses can easily be moved from one site to the next. Tuesday, March 24, 2009 There is something about life in the country that makes a person start collecting things. Sure, city people collect things too. But often there's a difference in what they collect and why. Stamps. Coins. Paintings. Those are urban collectibles. A good investment, some would say. Rural collectibles are more often things like wrenches and feed sacks and old tobacco tins. I've been in farmhouses where long rows of salt and pepper shakers lined the walls and others where toy tractors were parked prominently above the hearth. Some of this stuff has value, especially to like-minded collectors. But the kind of collection that grows in the country usually isn't for sale, even if there were a market for well-worn ballcaps, old motor oil cans, or seashells. Take Hattiie Gietzen's collection, for example: Last time I saw her she was holding a piece of the Holy Land in one hand. In the other palm she gripped part of Hawaii. And on shelves and bureaus throughout her tidy Idaho home were portions of Belize, Death Valley, Alaska, Panama, Saudi Arabia and the Gulf of Mexico.`` Hattie, 89 years old at the time, had been collecting sand from all over the world for more than 20 years. The samples -- hundreds of them -- were gathered in small baby food jars marked with neat labels identifying the source of the sand. "This one here is from the oldest pyramid in Egypt," she said, holding up a jar of white sand. "My niece brought me that one in 1983 after she went on a tour over there." Each jar of pink and green and pale yellow sand has a history. One grandson brought back sand from the beach at Cape May, New Jersey. Another gave her a jar from his backyard in Chicago. Some samples Hattie collected herself, like the jar of ash from the 1980 eruption of Mount St. Helens, and others were gathered by friends and relatives during their travels. "When my son and daughter-in-law were on a trip to Belize they went through the Panama Canal," Hattie recalled with a chuckle. "As they were passing through they hollared out to a guy on the shore, 'Sand! Sand!' He didn't speak English, but he finally got the idea and scooped up a handful of sand and handed to them on the boat as they were going by." The first jar in Hattie's collection was filled with sand from Fire Island Park on Long Island. An old friend had a small collection of sand sitting in plastic cottage cheese containers on a table in his basement. "Why don't you put the sand in glass jars so you can see it?" Hattie asked him. The friend said he'd do that someday, but never did. When Hattie's grandchildren asked her what they could bring her from their travels she jokingly requested handfuls of sand. They've been bringing her samples ever since. Having raised two children with her late husband, Frank, Hattie had six grandchildren and 11 great-grandchildren. Together with devoted nieces and nephews, this small army of sand gatherers literally brought the world to her door. When a niece had a well drilled on her property she brought over a jar of sand from 200 feet beneath the surface. A small note is attached to its lid. "May we all contribute to your sand collection," Hattie read with a big smile. "I wanted to keep a specimen for myself, but figured that people who kept jars of sand around might be considered odd." Monday, March 16, 2009 Houseflies congregating around broiler poultry farms have once again been linked to drug-resistant bacteria, creating increased risk for human exposure. The findings of researchers at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health demonstrate another potential link between industrial food animal production and exposures to antibiotic resistant pathogens. Previous studies have linked antibiotic use in poultry production to antibiotic resistant bacteria in farm workers, consumer poultry products and the environment surrounding confined poultry operations, as well as releases from poultry transport. "Flies are well-known vectors of disease and have been implicated in the spread of various viral and bacterial infections affecting humans, including enteric fever, cholera, salmonellosis, campylobacteriosis and shigellosis," said Dr. Jay Graham. "Our study found similarities in the antibiotic-resistant bacteria in both the flies and poultry litter we sampled. The evidence is another example of the risks associated with the inadequate treatment of animal wastes." Graham and his colleagues collected flies and samples of poultry litter from poultry houses along the Delmarva Peninsula, a coastal region shared by Maryland, Delaware and Virginia that has one of the highest densities of broiler chickens per acre in the United States. The analysis by the research team isolated antibiotic-resistant enterococci and staphylococci bacteria from both flies and litter. The bacteria isolated from flies had very similar resistance characteristics and resistance genes to bacteria found in the poultry litter. Flies have ready access to both stored poultry waste and to poultry houses. A study by researchers in Denmark estimated that as many as 30,000 flies could enter a poultry house over the course of a six-week period. Friday, March 13, 2009 In recognition of St. Patrick's Day, we went looking for something green in the market and found pickles available from one of the greenest of states, Oregon. 'Tis Tasty of Gold Beach, Oregon, lists its all natural homemade pickles on the Buy Direct Directory. The pickles are made in 43 different varieties using locally grown vegetables, pure cane sugar, fresh and dried herbs, and quality vinegars. Each batch is prepared in small quantities and packed by hand. Wednesday, March 11, 2009 Recognized globally as an ideal means of conserving soil and water while also storing soil carbon, the agricultural practice known as "no-till" may not be applicable under all environmental conditions. No-till farming means leaving residue left on the soil surface after harvest in place rather than plowing it under. Compared to plowing, no-till has myriad benefits: less labor, less machinery wear, decreased fossil fuel consumption, reduced soil erosion, improved soil productivity, increased wildlife habitats and a better method of maintaining and conserving soil water. No-till is considered a successful carbon sequestration practice when carbon input (storage) exceeds carbon output (loss). Carbon input includes crop residues, winter cover crops, complex farming systems, and use of compost and manure. The output includes losses of carbon by decompositon, erosion and leaching. Ohio State University soil scientists recently measured carbon levels in no-till fields throughout seven states and found that soil texture, moisture, temperature, and terrain parameters affected the amount of carbon stored on the soil surface. "No-till is not applicable everywhere as a means of practicing carbon sequestration," says Rattan Lal, soil scientist at Ohio State's Ohio Agricultural Research and Development Center. "There are situations where other carbon sequestration methods would be more effective. I'm not saying that no-till is not good. It is a good practice, but it does not work for all soils, for all crops and all conditions. We must not make carbon sequestration synonymous with no-till. The strategy is to develop a system of soil management in which carbon input into the system exceeds the output." Lal and his colleagues studied no-till fields in Ohio, Michigan, Indiana, Pennsylvania, Kentucky, West Virginia and Maryland and identified situations where the practice was the most effective in storing carbon and where it was not. "Basically, those soils that are well-drained, are silt/silt-loam in texture, warm quickly and have some sloping characteristics prone to erosion are excellent candidates for no-till. Clay soils or other heavy soils that drain poorly, are prone to compaction and are in areas where the ground stays cooler may not always increase carbon storage through no-till." In Ohio, for example, the researchers found that no-till would store carbon on about 40 percent of the state's cropland. In actuality, no-till is practiced on 35 percent of Ohio's field crops, said Lal. "Globally, no-till is practiced on only 6 percent of the total cropland and mostly practiced in the United States, Canada, Brazil, Australia, Argentina and Chile. There's a reason for that -- because it can be worked into practices in which carbon input exceeds carbon output." In situations where no-till may not be ideal, there are plenty of other carbon sequestration methods available, including mulching, cover crops, complex crop rotations, mixed farming systems, agroforestry, and biochar (a charcoal-like biomass material). The study also compared carbon levels between no-till and conventional tillage fields and found that, in some cases, carbon storage was greater in conventional tillage fields. But the key is soil depth. "If you compare carbon storage between no-till and plowed fields with the plow depth, or the first 8 inches of the soil, carbon storage is generally much greater in no-till fields than in plowed fields. But if you go deeper, say 12 inches and deeper, one may find more carbon stored in plowed fields than in no-till." Farmers should not measure soil carbon based just on surface depth. Lal recommends going to as much as 1 meter (3.25 feet) below the soil surface. Lal said that the study is not a criticism of no-till and its benefits, but simply a way of determining where the practice best fits and where other carbon sequestration methods may work better. "In situations where no-till is ideal, it's a sustainable soil management practice that simply can't be ignored," said Lal. "It saves time, money and wear on machinery and its profit margin is much higher than plowing." Source: Ohio State University College of Food, Agricultural, and Environmental Sciences Reading the four essays and prologue in this volume of nature prose is like taking a stroll in the woods with a literary philosopher whose penchant for rural life informs every step and observation. These rambling conversations draw inspiration from the transcendentalists Emerson and Thoreau and the naturalist Gilbert White in their respect for the lessons and wisdom that can be drawn from nature. "Each life is a universe unto itself. A big bang. Sperm collides with egg. There you are," Richard Quinney explains. "Then a lifetime of galaxies and stars and planets and asteroids flying and orbiting in a vast and expanding space. More dark matter than light. Shiva dancing. A great mystery. And a beautiful morning it is this day. I keep notes along the way. Now and then an accounting and some reflecting." Quinney's Field Notes, illustrated with his black-and-white photographs of rural Wisconsin, combines the ethereal reflections of literature with the palpable realities of nature observation to produce a record of the scholar's life at this point in time. "With pen in hand and camera at my side, traveling between town and country, I make my notes and live this day. One world at a time, here on earth." Thursday, March 5, 2009 On certain dry plains and hillsides of the West, the Astragalus species of wildflower grows in abundance, spreading carpets of pea-shaped pink, purple or yellow blossoms across the arid landscape. The delicate colors and innocent-looking nature of the plants belie a deadly disposition. Astragalus, more commonly known as "locoweed," thrives on soils rich in selenium, an element toxic to people and animals in high doses. Locoweed absorbs selenium and passes it along to livestock that graze on its bushy leaves, causing the infamous "loco disease" that has decimated many herds. Irrigation water also picks up selenium as it moves through soils rich in the element, which is what happened in California's San Joaquin Valley in the 1980s when irrigation discharge emptied into the Kesterson National Wildlife Refuge. "Laced with dissolved salts and minerals, the tainted drainage was a lethal brew. Too saline to leave in the fields, it was being dumped into Kesterson as part of an experiment to convert pollution into providence," writes Tom Harris in Death in the Marsh, his account of the disaster that followed in the mid-1980s. Within a few short seasons wildlife biologists began to notice terrible changes in Kesterson's wetland ecosystem. The marsh's vegetation was dying back and fewer fish, birds and animals were being counted. The nests of waterfowl that once held chirping nestlings now yielded many stillborn embryos and, worst of all, chicks with hideous deformities like missing legs or wings, external stomachs, and twisted beaks. Death in the Marsh details the nightmarish discoveries at Kesterson and traces the scientific search for the source of the problem with selenium, which has been alternately studied and ignored for nearly a half century. The livestock die-offs that early-day ranchers in the West attributed to "alkali disease" may have been selenium poisonings, according to Harris. "It wasn't until the early 1930s that researchers began to pin down the evidence that it was not the mineral salts associated with the prairie's ubiquitous alkali crust that were doing the poisoning, but selenium," Harris explains. As an environmental reporter for the Sacramento Bee, Harris covered the Kesterson story and led an investigative report on evidence of similar problems throughout the West. With fellow reporter Jim Morris, he surveyed other federal water projects in nine states in 1985 and found potentially dangerous levels of selenium at all of them, including Idaho's Lake Lowell near Nampa. Dave Carter of the USDA's Agricultural Research Service office in Kimberly, Idaho, said he knew of no reported toxicity problems with selenium in his state, but admitted that the potential exists. "Wherever we have a lot of seepage water there is potential for selenium concentrations to build up," he said. More common in southern Idaho, with its extensive layers of lava formations, is selenium deficiency. Livestock, like humans, require small amounts of selenium in their diet to remain healthy. Without it, they may lose weight and hair. "Selenium deficiency has caused, and continues to cause, a lot of economic loss in Idaho," Carter pointed out. For many years, livestock in Idaho were vaccinated with selenium to prevent deficiencies, he noted. Now selenium is commonly applied to alfalfa fields with fertilizer in small amounts, increasing the selenium content of crops. Harris' book suggests that human health can be endangered by inhaling the selenium dust in feed or fertilizer additives, eating plants and animals harboring excessively high levels of the substance, or drinking selenium-tainted water. He cites the example of Burns, Oregon, rancher Girard Perkins who wasted away and died from a mysterious disease in 1972-73. Selenium counts in the man's organs were among the highest ever detected in a human, Harris reported. How did Perkins get so much selenium in his body? "One theory is that Perkins came across just one tainted batch of pothole water too many," according to Harris. "Like the cowpokes of an earlier generation, when he was out on solitary range rides, checking his herd, he would quench his thirst by scooping his Stetson into one of the numerous ponds, creeks, or seeps that dot the undulating plains." According to Dr. Sandra Susten of the Agency for Toxic Substances and Disease Registry (ATSDR) in Atlanta, Georgia, there have been no reports of populations in the U.S. suffering from selenium poisoning. "There's evidence, though, that some workers might be hypersensitive to selenium," she said. The symptoms of selenium poisoning are much the same as the symptoms for selenium deficiency: brittle hair, deformed nails, loss of feeling and control in arms and legs (in extreme cases). Selenium, Harris's book points out, is one of the least understood and least regulated of the toxic elements -- five times more poisonous than arsenic. It underlies thousands of square miles of North America and affects the livestock that graze, the crops that grow, and the people that live on its surface. But few are aware of its presence or the dangers that it poses. Death in the Marsh raises plenty of alarm, but offers few solutions. Selenium has helped shape the landscape of the West since at least the Cretaceous period 65 million years ago. Animals have grazed upon its surface and people have dwelled near it since the last Ice Age. How did they survive its poison? Is it the massive federal water projects of this century that made selenium a threat? Or has tainted water always been a consequence of irrigation? In his epilogue, Harris acknowledges the gloominess of his report. Selenium is so widespread in the West and its effects so poorly understood, he writes, that the chances for constructive change are daunting. Only a coordinated and well-funded program of research and intervention, Harris suggests, will reduce the threat to livestock, wildlife and human lives.
<!DOCTYPE html> <html> <head> <meta charset="UTF-8"> <title>Number Range - jQuery EasyUI Demo</title> <link rel="stylesheet" type="text/css" href="../../themes/default/easyui.css"> <link rel="stylesheet" type="text/css" href="../../themes/icon.css"> <link rel="stylesheet" type="text/css" href="../demo.css"> <script type="text/javascript" src="../../jquery.min.js"></script> <script type="text/javascript" src="../../jquery.easyui.min.js"></script> </head> <body> <h2>Number Range</h2> <p>The value is constrained to a specified range.</p> <div style="margin:20px 0;"></div> <div class="easyui-panel" style="width:400px;padding:20px 100px 60px 100px;"> <p>Amount:</p> <input class="easyui-numberbox" data-options="min:10,max:90,precision:2,required:true"> <p>Weight:</p> <input class="easyui-numberbox" data-options="min:10,max:90,required:true"> <p>Age:</p> <input class="easyui-numberbox" data-options="min:0,max:100,required:true"> </div> </body> </html>
Light emitting, transmitting and detecting semiconductor devices are well known in the art. In the field of optoelectronics, it is known that doped gallium arsenide and other semiconductor materials can emit light upon the application of a current, and are therefore useful in the manufacture of double heterostructure quantum well, and quantum wire lasers, and light emitting diodes. With a properly chosen semiconductor sandwich structure, light can also be guided within the semiconductor, and it can also be detected by optical detectors. One of the more widely used light emitting devices is a heterojunction light emitter which is fabricated, for example, using a gallium arsenide/aluminum gallium arsenide material system. In such devices, a pair of layers such as aluminum gallium arsenide of opposite conductivity type are sandwiched around an active region of a smaller band gap material such as gallium arsenide. The interfaces between the active region and the wide band gap layers form a pair of heterojunctions. These heterojunctions effectively provide both carrier and optical confinement. Double heterojunctions are also used to confine light in waveguides. The light emitters are generally energized by using an electrical current but they can also be optically pumped. Light emitting devices such as those described are generally grown by metal organic vapor phase epitaxy (MOVPE), molecular beam epitaxy (MBE), liquid phase epitaxy, or other suitable thin film deposition techniques. The most preferred means to control vertical dimensions in semiconductor devices is to grow thin films by MBE or MOVPE. These are used to form multilayers of semiconductors having various band gaps. The control of lateral dimensions by forming layers of different band gaps laterally allows the manufacture of such advanced devices as high performance heterostructure lasers, passive optical waveguides, quantum well boxes and quantum well wires. Such has been achieved in the art by impurity induced lattice disordering which causes the discrete layers to interdiffuse thereby forming a more homogeneous mixture. The properties of the homogenized layer are approximately the average of the two originally separate layers. An important point is that the homogenized layer has a larger energy gap and a smaller index of refraction than the GaAs layer, thus enabling the homogenized region to confine and guide the light generated in the GaAs layer.
Major ion chemistry of a representative river in South-central China: Runoff effects and controlling mechanisms. The Gan River is a large tributary of the Yangtze River in Jiangxi Province, South-central China. Hydrochemical data for this river were analyzed for the period 1958-2016. Ca2+, Na+ + K+, HCO3-, and SO42- were dominant in river water, and pH and total dissolved solids (TDS) varied from 6.0 to 8.8 and 15.7 to 141 mg/L, respectively. The chemical composition of river water was different between the two periods 1958-1979 and 1980-2016. Monthly yields of all ions were positively correlated with river runoff. Monthly yields of SO42-, NO3-, and Cl- were more positively correlated with river runoff before 1980, indicating non-point sources, while multiple sources were indicated after 1980. Sea salt-sourced Cl- comprised less than 19% of the total Cl- in river water. Weathering of basin rocks with sulfuric acid reflected strengthening of anthropogenic activities after 1980. This was reflected by increases in Cl-/(Na+ + Cl-) and SO42-/(Na+ + Cl-) with gross domestic production, population, coal consumption, fertilizer use, and wastewater discharge. Although water quality in the Gan River makes the water acceptable for drinking according to the World Health Organization standards, increases in Cl- and NO3- concentrations after 1980 are of some concern.
[Long-term survival results according to cytogenetic risk in patients with acute myeloid leukemia--singl center experience]. Cytogenetic analysis of leukemic blasts has become a part of the standard diagnosis approach of acute myeloid leukemia patients. Chromosomal aberrations findings separate AML patients into three broad prognostic categories: favorable, intermediate and high risk. We analyzed retrospectively 179 adults with de novo acute myeloid leukemia (AML), younger than 60 years admitted to our Department between January 1999 and April 2009 to evaluate the prognostic impact of cytogenetic abnormalities on complete remission (CR) rate, disease free survival (DFS), and overall survival (OS). All patients received similar induction therapy. Median follow-up of 3.8 years for favorable cytogenetic group CR rate was 85%, 3-year DFS was 70% and 3-year OS was 65%, for intermediate group CR rate, 3-year DFS and 3-year OS were respectively: 64%, 43%, and 38%. Among high risk patient CR rate was 40%, 3-year DFS was 24%, 3-year OS was 17%. We conclude that cytogenetics is among the most useful factors in predicting attainment of CR, DFS, and long-term overall survival in adult de novo AML patients younger than 60 years.
Our food pantry needs your help! St. Paul’s sponsors a Food Pantry for the poor and needy of the surrounding community. On the first weekend of each month, our parishioners are asked to bring in canned and packaged foods, which have a reasonable shelf life. You may also bring items during the week and leave them in the kitchen. If you need help please ask Anna in the church office or Jessica in the Religious Education office. ITEMS NEEDED TO REPLENISH FOOD PANTRY Pancake Mix, Pancake Syrup, Canned Tuna, Canned Chicken, Mayonnaise, Soap andToothpaste, Cans of Spam, Ravioli/Spaghetti O’s, Canned Fruit, Macaroni & Cheese, Jam or Jelly, Peanut Butter, Ramen Noodles, Coffee-ground or instant Tea, Can Chili, Baked Beans. Thank you for your support!!
import lit.formats config.name = 'shtest-env' config.suffixes = ['.txt'] config.test_format = lit.formats.ShTest() config.test_source_root = None config.test_exec_root = None config.environment['FOO'] = '1' config.environment['BAR'] = '2' config.substitutions.append(('%{python}', '"%s"' % (sys.executable)))
This invention relates to containers, and more particularly to marking components of metal cans. Two piece metal cans include a can body on which a can end is attached by a seam. Commercial two piece beverage cans are formed by a drawing and ironing process that forms the body sidewall integral with the base. Three piece metal cans include a cylindrical body, each end of which has a can end attached by a seam. Two piece beverage cans are produced in vast quantities for beverages and foods use; three piece beverage cans are produced in vast quantities for food uses. Accordingly, the components of the cans must be produced at high speeds. Conventional beverage cans and many easy open food cans have pull tabs. Pull tabs are formed from metal sheet in a tab press. Because of the quantities required, conventional tab presses form many tabs at once in several lanes. Typically, pre-lacquered coil of aluminum is fed into a shell press to form the can end shells. A pre-lacquered coil of aluminum is fed into a tab press to form the pull tabs. The shells and pull tabs are combined in a conversion press to form the unseamed can end. Decoration of can ends, especially pull tabs, is known. For example, U.S. Pat. No. 6,105,806 discloses laser etching or removal of portions of a coating on a pull tab. U.S. Pat. No. 6,498,318 acknowledges difficulties in marking metal cans and discloses ablating metal pull tab stock. The inventors are aware of a commercial, conventional system for laser etching pull tabs that includes a CO2 laser that often operates at about 100 W. Each lane of a tab press has its own laser such that the tab press can operate at about 700 tabs per minute with a laser having a resolution or dimension of approximately 100 microns. Typically, a dark coloured lacquer is removed by the laser to expose bare aluminum in the form of a simple logo or a few characters. The limitation on the process speed is also a limitation on the amount of decoration. Laser marking of coatings is employed for flexible and card packaging for various marking applications. Typically, a thermally active pigment is loaded into a transparent or light colored lacquer, and a CO2 laser induces a color change. For example, a laser may be applied to a white lacquer label to display black text. Laser marking systems of this type are available from Sun Chemical, under the trade name Sunlase and employ a 100 micron YAG laser.
Chevy Silverado 1999, Pro-Beam™ Headlight Covers by GTS®, 4 Pieces. Your car will have an exclusive look, unmatched by any other headlight accessory on the market, with Pro-Beam Headlight Covers. They have a raised, clear... Chevy Silverado 1999, Pro-Beam™ Tail Light Covers by GTS®, 2 Pieces. Your car will have an exclusive look, unmatched by any other tail light accessory on the market, with Pro-Beam Tail Light Covers. They have a raised, clear... Chevy Silverado 1999, Headlight, Fog Light and Signal Light Protection Kit by XPEL®. This product will ensure maximum protection from the hazards of the open road that leave ugly chips and scratches on the surface of your vehicle.... Chevy Silverado 1999, Door Lever Covers by AVS®. Basic black is fine for the masses, but not for you. Customize and personalize your vehicle with bright, shiny chrome trim from AVS. Made from tough ABS plastic and then chrome... The next time you are hand-washing your vehicular pride and joy (you DO hand-wash your car or truck, don't you?), take a really good look at the front end. We mean a really good look. Even if your ride is new, it only takes a matter of weeks before daily driving starts to take its toll. And the older your car is, the more you will see it: the effects of sand and... These headlight covers look great. Very easy to install. Made of high strength thick high quality plastic. A very clean look. Lets more light through than the tint paint. Still doesn't let much light through though, I would recommend an HID kit with this. Not always a perfect fit, might have to do some trimming. They will warp from the heat of you head light bulbs. I just bought headlight covers for my black 07 chevy silverado new body style and they look awesome! a little hard to see at night but buy brighter bulbs and you will be fine. the only problem i had with this is the long shipping time. i didnt get my order for about 10 days and still had to pay about 10 dollars for shipping. but all in all awesome product. All manufacturer names, symbols, and descriptions, used in our images and text are used solely for identification purposes only.It is neither inferred nor implied that any item sold by CARiD.com, is a product authorized by or in any way connected with any vehicle manufacturers displayed on this page.
Q: Animating a line plot and saving it as an avi movie in Matlab I am trying to animate a line plot from a saved vector and save it as an avi file in Matlab. The code below can do it, but it does not capture the axis (numbers on the axis etc.) and does not show the legend. How can I fix this issue? Attached a screenshot from the movie. vidObj = VideoWriter('OneWeekJune.avi'); vidObj.Quality = 100; open(vidObj); h = animatedline; axis([min,max,ymin,ymax]) xlabel('Time (minute)') ylabel('Demand') legend('Demand in June') grid on x = 1:7*1440; y = [Day1 Day2 Day3 Day4 Day5 Day6 Day7]; for k = 1:10:length(x) addpoints(h,x(k),y(k)); drawnow currFrame = getframe; writeVideo(vidObj,currFrame); end close(vidObj); A: Do currFrame = getframe(gcf); https://www.mathworks.com/help/matlab/ref/getframe.html F = getframe(fig) captures the figure identified by fig. Specify a figure if you want to capture the entire interior of the figure window, including the axes title, labels, and tick marks. The captured movie frame does not include the figure menu and tool bars.
Q: Opening Embedded Excel Workbook on Sharepoint using Javascript I am currently attempting to open an embedded excel file found on my company's sharepoint: <!DOCTYPE html> <head> <title> Project </title> <script type="text/javascript"> var excel = new ActiveXObject("Excel.Application"); var excel_file = excel.Open("sharepoint_url/myfile.xlsx"); </script> </head> <body> </body> </html> However, whenever I run this, I keep receiving the following error: Subscript out of range I was hoping someone could shed some light as to how I should approach this issue. Any help is appreciated. A: Try this. <html> <body> <form name="form1"> <input type=button onClick="openmyfile()" value="Open File"> <br><br> </form> <script type="text/javascript"> function openmyfile() { var Excel = new ActiveXObject("Excel.Application"); Excel.Visible = true; Excel.Workbooks.Open("sharepoint_url/myfile.xlsx"); } </script>
1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates generally to digital image processing and, more particularly, to improved techniques for accessing image data when processing (e.g., filtering) digital images. 2. Description of the Background Art Today, digital imaging, particularly in the form of digital cameras, is a prevalent reality that affords a new way to capture photos using a solid-state image sensor instead of traditional film. A digital camera functions by recording incoming light on some sort of sensing mechanisms and then processes that information (basically, through analog-to-digital conversion) to create a memory image of the target picture. A digital camera's biggest advantage is that it creates images digitally thus making it easy to transfer images between all kinds of devices and applications. For instance, one can easily insert digital images into word processing documents, send them by e-mail to friends, or post them on a Web site where anyone in the world can see them. Additionally, one can use photo-editing software to manipulate digital images to improve or alter them. For example, one can crop them, remove red-eye, change colors or contrast, and even add and delete elements. Digital cameras also provide immediate access to one's images, thus avoiding the hassle and delay of film processing. All told, digital photography is becoming increasingly popular because of the flexibility it gives the user when he or she wants to use or distribute an image. In order to generate an image of quality that is roughly comparable to a conventional photograph, a substantial amount of information must be captured and processed. For example, a low-resolution 640×480 image has 307,200 pixels. If each pixel uses 24 bits (3 bytes) for true color, a single image takes up about a megabyte of storage space. As the resolution increases, so does the image's file size. At a resolution of 1024×768, each 24-bit picture takes up 2.5 megabytes. Because of the large size of this information, digital cameras usually do not store a picture in its raw digital format but, instead, apply compression technique to the image so that it can be stored in a standard compressed image format, such as JPEG (Joint Photographic Experts Group). Compressing images allows the user to save more images on the camera's “digital film,” such as flash memory (available in a variety of specific formats) or other facsimile of film. It also allows the user to download and display those images more quickly. Current memory architecture in widespread use for storing/processing digital images (e.g., synchronous DRAMs—SDRAMs) is optimized for sequential data access in a horizontal manner, such as page-based or row-based access. For example, in the SDRAM memory commonly employed in PCs, horizontal access may be achieved on the order of 7-10 nanoseconds. This speed results from a pre-fetch pipelining mechanism, which is optimized for fetching the next data element (e.g., machine word) in a given row (“page”). Vertical access (e.g., accessing a pixel value below), in contrast, requires around 120 nanoseconds, a ten-fold increase in access cost. This increased cost results from the time-intensive task of switching to another row of memory cells. Here, the underlying memory access mechanism must be reconfigured to switch to the next memory page to access the next group of bits. One approach to mitigating the above limitation of current memory architecture is to employ alternative memory architecture—that is, forego use of RAM that is page oriented. One such example is static RAM (SRAM). Unfortunately, that approach has distinct disadvantages in terms of greatly increased cost, power requirements, and larger chip size. It is instead advantageous to find a solution that may be implemented using less-costly page-based memory architecture, if such a solution is possible. Often in digital image processing, it is necessary to apply various two-dimensional filters, which may be of varying sizes and varying data access requirements. Accordingly, it would be advantageous to have an approach that supports random types of two-dimensional image processing applications. Traditionally, the foregoing has been addressed in terms of software-implemented techniques. With DRAM architecture, it is easy to work in the horizontal but difficult to work in the vertical, due to the previously described problems encountered with page-oriented memory. Additionally, for digital imaging applications embodied in low-cost devices, one usually employs a small, low-cost processor with a limited address space. At the same time, however, the images to be processed are relatively large and easily exceed the scope of the processor's address space. To make a filter or image processing application as efficient as possible (e.g., operates in the least amount of time, with the lowest consumption of power), it is desirable to have a mechanism that provides image data in an easy to use format, rather than a format that requires a device to retrieve each element (e.g., pixel value) of the image data separately. One approach to the problem is to provide a FIFO-based (i.e., first-in, first-out) solution, such as described in U.S. Pat. No. 5,748,178 to Drewry. In that approach, the system basically processes “FIFOs” of data. However, that approach does not address the general aspects of the problem described above as a FIFO-based approach constrains the number of implementations available. For example, for a three-line FIFO implementation, one is restricted to performing filters that operate on three vertical elements. Further, for purely FIFO-based implementations, a system must take the incoming data and must pre-implement the mechanisms for the width of the filter. There is no easy way to process the image vertically, such as moving a horizontal FIFO filter in the vertical space to deal with vertical elements. Because of the foregoing limitations of existing approaches, a better solution is sought. What is needed is an easy-to-implement mechanism that is efficient in terms of image processing speed and power consumption, yet does not require expensive or esoteric hardware. Further, the solution should have general applicability to image processing—that is, it should not place too many constraints or restrictions on the nature or size of the image data. The present invention fulfills this and other needs.
Lawmaker Khalida Jarrar is carried by supporters, near the Jabara checkpoint in the northern occupied West Bank, following her release from an Israeli jail on 3 June. Nedal Eshtayah APA images After 14 months in an Israeli prison, Palestinian legislator Khalida Jarrar was released on Friday at the Jabara checkpoint on the boundary between present-day Israel and the occupied West Bank. Jarrar, a 53-year-old member of the Palestinian Legislative Council and a leader of the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP), was arrested on 2 April 2015 during a night raid on her home in Ramallah. Dozens of supporters waited to greet her upon her release, including Ayman Odeh, the head of the Joint Arab List in Israel’s parliament, the Knesset. At her home in Ramallah, she reminded reporters that “There are still many prisoners, more than 7,000 – including judges, parliamentarians, children and the sick.” Last December Jarrar was sentenced to 15 months in prison, including the time she’d already been held, and also ordered to pay a fine of $2,500. She was reportedly released a month early due to prison overcrowding. Political charges Jarrar was initially ordered held in administrative detention for six months, which was reduced to one month following international pressure. Administrative detention is the British colonial practice still used by Israel of detaining people, almost always Palestinians, without charge or trial for indefinitely renewable terms. The Israeli military then produced a list of 12 charges against her that focused on her prisoner advocacy and activism, including delivering speeches at meetings and rallies, visiting and honoring a released prisoner and participating in a book fair. Last December, after spending eight months in prison, Jarrar reached a plea deal with the Israeli authorities and her charges were reduced to membership in an illegal organization and incitement to violence. Israel considers most Palestinian political factions, including Jarrar’s PFLP to be illegal under its military occupation regime. There are currently six Palestinian lawmakers members in Israeli prisons. Her lawyer, Mahmoud Hassan, explained at the time that Jarrar accepted the plea deal because she didn’t “expect [to receive] any justice from the court of the occupation.” “They are a joke,” Jarrar said of Israeli military courts. “It’s like a big theater, I do not trust them and my detention has been political since the beginning.” Israel’s military courts have a nearly 100 percent rate of convicting Palestinians. Human Rights Watch said “her case is rife with due process violations.” Amnesty International has said that Khalida Jarrar “has been subjected to decades of harassment and intimidation by the Israeli authorities.” After Jarrar’s sentencing, Amnesty said that the “proceedings against her and her sentence appear to be punitive measures used to supress her right to free and peaceful expression.” Active parliamentarian Jarrar is head of the Palestinian Legislative Council’s prisoners’ committee and serves as the Palestinian representative to the Council of Europe. She also sits on the board of Palestinian prisoners rights group Addameer. Jarrar was arrested one day after Palestine officially became a member of the International Criminal Court. She had been selected to serve on the official committee to oversee the membership. At her hearing in May, the military court judge rejected the defense argument that she be granted diplomatic immunity. Israel has maintained a travel ban on Jarrar since 1998. In 2014 the military tried to banish her to Jericho for six months. Jarrar defied the order, setting up a protest tent in Ramallah until her expulsion was reduced to 30 days.
Retroviral infection of the FGF2 gene into MCF-7 cells induces branching morphogenesis, retards cell growth and suppresses tumorigenicity in nude mice. FGF2 (basic fibroblast growth factor) is a multifunctional growth factor and exhibits diverse function in different cell types. In breast, loss of FGF2 expression is associated with malignant progression. In order to understand the role of FGF2 in maintenance of normal breast structures and control of cell growth, we restored FGF2 expression in the breast cancer cell line MCF-7. The FGF2 retrovirally infected MCF-7 cells (MCF-7.F2.5) not only expressed FGF2 in cytoplasm and nuclei, but also released FGF2 into culture medium both on plastic and in Matrigel conditions. The MCF-7.F2.5 cells formed branches in Matrigel and this effect was abolished by the addition of a neutralising anti-FGF2 antibody or function blocking antibodies to alpha2, alpha3 and beta1 integrins. Furthermore, MCF-7.F2.5 cells lost their ability for anchorage-independent growth in soft agar. When MCF-7 and MCF-7.F2.5 cells were injected into nude mice, there was a 1.6- to 3.2-fold reduction of tumour volume with MCF-7.F2.5 cells in comparison with the parental MCF-7 cells. MCF-7.F2.5 cells also demonstrated a reduction in oestrogen receptor-alpha (ERalpha) both in vitro and in vivo. Our results suggest that introduction of the FGF2 gene into MCF-7 cells altered the malignant tumour cells towards a more benign phenotype in vitro and in vivo.
--- author: - \| D. Bećirević, , Ph. Boucaud, A. Le Yaouanc, J.P. Leroy and O. Pène\ Laboratoire de Physique Théorique, Université Paris-Sud, 91405 Orsay Cedex, France\ E-mail: title: '$B_s-\overline{{B}_s}$ mixing with a chiral light quark action ' --- Introduction ============ $B^0_s-\overline{B^0_s}$ mixing is highly important in testing the Standard Model (SM) and constrains strongly its extensions. Since it is a flavor changing neutral process it occurs through loops so that the corresponding mixing amplitude is a sensitive measure of $\|V_{ts}\|$ and $\|V_{tb}\|$, as the major SM loop contribution comes from $t$-quark. The mixing of weak interaction eigenstates $B^0_s$ and $\overline{B^0_s}$ induces a mass gap $\Delta M_s$ between the mass eigenstates $B_{sH}$ and $B_{sL}$. Experimentally, only a lower bound to $\Delta M_s$ is currently known, namely $\Delta M_s > 14.4 \; \rm{ps}^{-1}$ [@PDG], and the hope is that experimenters will soon provide us with an accurate measurement. Theoretically the $B^0_s-\overline{B^0_s}$ mixing is described by means of an Operator Product Expansion, $i.e.$ the Standard Model Lagrangian ${\cal L}_{SM}$ is reduced to an effective Hamiltonian ${\cal H}_{eff}^{\Delta B=2}$, up to negligible terms of ${\cal O}(1/M^2_W)$: \^[B=2]{}\_[eff]{}=M\^2\_W (V\^\\_[tb]{}V\_[ts]{})\^2\_B S\_0(x\_t) C(\_b)Q\^[B=2]{}\_[LL]{}(\_b), Q\^[B=2]{}\_[LL]{}=\|[b]{}\_[L]{}s \|[b]{}\_[L]{}s, \_b\~m\_b where $\eta_B=0.55\pm 0.01$ $S_0(x_t)$ is a known Inami-Lim function of $x_t=m^2_t/M^2_W$ [@inami], $C(\mu_b)$ is the Wilson coefficient computed perturbatively to NLO in $\alpha_s(\mu_b)$ in the $\overline{\rm MS}$ (NDR) scheme, and $Q^{\Delta B=2}_{LL}$ is a four-fermions operator coming from the reduction of the box diagrams in ${\cal L}_{SM}$ to a local operator in the effective theory. The hadronic matrix element of $Q^{\Delta B=2}_{LL}$ is conventionally parameterized as \|Q\^[B=2]{}\_[LL]{}(\_b)\|B\^0\_s8 3 m\^2\_[B\_s]{} f\^2\_[B\_s]{}B\_[B\_s]{}(\_b) , where $B_{B_s}(\mu_b)$ is the $B_s$ meson bag parameter and $f_{B_s}$ its decay constant. So far $B_{B_s}(\mu_b)$ has been computed by using lattice QCD [@bernard]-[@aoki2]. One of the major problems with those computations is in the following: the standard Wilson light quark lattice action breaks explicitely the chiral symmetry, which tremendously complicates the renormalization procedure of $Q^{\Delta B =2}_{LL}$ and its matching to the continuum. To get around that problem we compute $B_{B_s}(\mu_b)$ by using the lattice formulation of QCD in which the chiral symmetry is preserved at finite lattice spacing [@overlap]. On the other hand, it should be stressed that our heavy quark is static, as the currently available lattices do not allow to work directly with the propagating $b$ quark. Thus our results will suffer from $1/m_b$-corrections. Computation on the lattice ========================== In our numerical simulation we choose to work with the action $S=S^{\rm EH}_h+S^{\rm N}_l$, where S\^[EH]{}\_h=a\^3\_[x]{} {\|[h]{}\^+(x)- \|[h]{}\^-(x)} is the static limit of HQET action [@eichten] which has been modified after using the so-called HYP (hypercubic blocking) procedure [@hyp], that is enough to substantially improve the signal/noise ratio [@Dellamorte] \[the field $h^+(h^-)$ annihilates the static heavy quark (antiquark)\]. $S^{\rm N}_l=a^3 \sum_x \bar{\psi}(x) D^{(m_0)}_N\psi(x)$ is the overlap light quark action with D\^[(m\_0)]{}\_N=(1- am\_0 )D\_N+m\_0, D\_N=(1+), X=D\_W -, where $D_W$ is the standard Wilson-Dirac operator. The overlap Dirac operator $D^{(m_0)}_N$ verifies the Ginsparg-Wilson relation $\{\gamma^5,D^{(m_0)}_N\}=\frac{a}{\rho}D^{(m_0)}_N\gamma^5D^{(m_0)}_N$ and the overlap action is invariant under the chiral light quark transformation [@luscher] +i\^5(1-D\^[(m\_0)]{}\_N), \|\|(1+i\^5), which is essential to prevent mixing of four-fermion operators of different chirality [@becirevic]. In other words, in the renormalization procedure, the subtraction of the spurious mixing with $d=6$ operators will not be needed. ![Effective binding energy of the $0^-$-state when currents are local (unfilled symbols) or smeared (filled symbols)[]{data-label="smearing"}](smearsmear.eps){width="6.5cm" height="4.7cm"} We thus compute the two- and three-point functions: \[c2\] \^[(2)]{}\_[AA]{}(t)=\_\^\_0(,t)\^\_0(0)\_[\_[U]{}]{} \_A e\^[-t]{},\ \[c3\] \^[(3)]{}\_[VV+AA]{}(t\_i,t)=\_[,]{} \^+\_0(,t\_i)\_1(0,0)\^[-]{}\_0(,t)\_[\_[U]{}]{} &&\_A \_v\|\_1()\|B\_s\_v e\^[-(t\_i-t)]{},\ \[c32\] \^[(3)]{}\_[SS+PP]{}(t\_i,t)=\_[,]{} \^+\_0(,t\_i)\_2(0,0)\^[-]{}\_0(,t)\_[\_[U]{}]{} && \_A \_v\| \_2()\|B\_s\_v e\^[-(t\_i-t)]{}, \^\_0\|[h]{}\^\_0\^5 s, \_1=\|[h]{}\^[(+)i]{}\_(1-\^5)s\^i\|[h]{}\^[(-)j]{}\_(1-\^5)s\^j, \_2=\|[h]{}\^[(+)i]{}(1-\^5)s\^i\|[h]{}\^[(-)j]{}(1-\^5)s\^j. $\sqrt{\tilde{Z}_A}=\lgl 0\|\tilde{A}^-_0\|B_s\rgl_v =\lgl 0\|\tilde{A}^+_0\|\overline{B_s}\rgl_v$ and $\epsilon$ is the binding energy of the pseudoscalar heavy-light meson. In $\tilde{C}^{(2)\pm}(t_i,t)$ one current $\tilde{A}^\pm_0$ is local whereas the other is smeared. The role of the smearing is to isolate earlier the ground state [@boyle], as shown in Fig. \[smearing\] [^1]. We see that the same state is isolated when purely local currents are used (with those currents the signal does not exist if $V^{\rm HYP}_0$ is not used in the heavy quark action). The source operators in $\tilde{C}^{(3)}_{VV+AA}(t_i,t)$ and $\tilde{C}^{(3)}_{SS+PP}(t_i,t)$ are the smeared currents $\tilde{A}^\pm_0$, whereas the four-fermion operators $\tilde{O}_1$ and $\tilde{O}_2$ are purely local. In (\[c2\]), (\[c3\]) and (\[c32\]) the subscript “$v$” and superscript “$\sim$” are designed to remind the reader that states and operators are defined in HQET. Note that in the computation of $\tilde{C}^{(3)}_{VV+AA}(t_i,t)$ and $\tilde{C}^{(3)}_{SS+PP}(t_i,t)$ there are two terms, coming from two different Wick contractions, namely $\displaystyle{\sum_i} B_{ii}(t)\displaystyle{\sum_j}B_{jj} (t_i)$ and $\displaystyle{\sum_{i,j}}B_{ij}(t)B_{ji}(t_i)$, where $i$, $j$ are the color indices and $B_{ij}(t)={\rm Tr}\left[\sum_{\vec{x}} \gamma_{\mu L}{\cal S}^{\dag ik}_L(0;\vec{x},t) \gamma_0\gamma^5 {\cal S}^{kj}_H(\vec{x},t;0)\right]$; ${\cal S}_L$ and ${\cal S}_H$ are the light and heavy propagators respectively and the trace is over spinor indices. After having computed the correlation functions (\[c2\]), (\[c3\]) and (\[c32\]) we build the following two ratios $R_1(t_i,t)$ and $R_2(t_i,t)$: \[ratio\] R\_1(t\_i,t)= \_1(a),\ R\_2(t\_i,t)= \_2(a). Those ratios are calculated either with a fixed time $t \in [-6,-8,-10,-12,-14,-16]$ and $t_i$ free, or by fixing $t_i \in [6,8,10,12,14,16]$ while letting $t$ free. We take the average of the two options. In Fig. \[rap\] we show the quality of the signals for $R_{1,2}(t_i,t)$, with $t_i=6$ fixed. The signal for $\tilde{B}_1(a)$ is quite stable as a function of $t_i$, whereas the signal for $\tilde{B}_2(a)$ rapidly deteriorates for larger $t_i$, and is completely lost for $t_i>10$. ![Signals for $R_{1,2}(t_i,t)$ defined in eq $(2.4)$: green and blue lines indicate the time interval on which we fit the signal to a constant to extract $\tilde{B}_1(a)$ and $\tilde{B}_2(a)$ respectively[]{data-label="rap"}](op.eps){width="6.5cm" height="4.7cm"} Extraction of physical $B_{B_s}$ ================================ Three steps are required to extract $B_{B_s}\equiv B_1$ from the lattice:\ (1) $\tilde{B}_{1,2}(a)$ are matched onto the continuum $\overline{\rm MS}$(NDR) scheme at NLO in perturbation theory at the renormalization scale $\mu=1/a$ [@becirevic],\ (2) $\tilde{B}_{1,2}$ are evolved from $\mu=1/a$ to $\mu=m_b$ by using the HQET anomalous dimension matrix, known to 2-loop accuracy in perturbation theory [@spqcdr; @run],\ (3) $\tilde{B}_{1,2}(\mu=m_b)$ are then matched onto their QCD counterpart, $B_{1,2}(m_b)$, in the $\overline{\rm MS}$(NDR) scheme at NLO [@run].\ The advantage of using a chiral light quark action for the step (1) lies in the fact that four-fermion operators can mix only with a four-fermion operator of the same chirality. In other words we have not more than 4 independent renormalization constants in the renormalization matrix, because $\tilde{O}_1$ and $\tilde{O}_2$ can mix neither with $\tilde{O}_3\equiv \bar{h}^+\gamma_{\mu L}s\;\bar{h}^-\gamma_{\mu R}s$, nor with $\tilde{O}_4\equiv \bar{h}^+(1-\gamma^5)s\;\bar{h}^-(1+\gamma^5)s$ : ( [c]{} \^\_1()\ \^\_2() ) = ( [cc]{} Z\_[11]{}(a)&Z\_[12]{}(a)\ Z\_[21]{}(a)&Z\_[22]{}(a) ) ( [c]{} \_1(a)\ \_2(a) ). Actually, because of the heavy quark symmetry, those constants are not all independent. By using the heavy quark symmetry (HQS) transformations $\bar{h}^{(\pm)}(x)\stackrel{HQS(i)}{\longrightarrow} -\frac 1 2 \epsilon^{ijk}\bar{h}^{(\pm)}(x)\gamma_j\gamma_k \;\; (i=1,2,3)$, and the equations of motion for the heavy quark $\bar{h}^{(\pm)}\gamma_0=\pm \bar{h}^{(\pm)}$, we see that: O\_[SS+PP]{}-O\_[(VV+AA)\_0]{}, O\_[VV+AA]{}O\_[VV+AA]{}, O\_[SS+PP]{}-O\_[(VV+AA)\_i]{}. As the action is invariant under the HQS transformations, we can deduce important constraints on the renormalization matrix $Z_{ij}$: O\_[VV+AA]{}() &=& Z\_[11]{} O\_[VV+AA]{}(a) +Z\_[12]{} O\_[SS+PP]{}(a) ,\ O\_[VV+AA]{}() &=& Z\_[11]{} O\_[VV+AA]{}(a) -Z\_[12]{} O\_[(VV+AA)\_i]{}(a) ([HQS(i)]{}), which implies that $Z_{12}=0$. Moreover O\_[SS+PP]{}() &=& Z\_[21]{} O\_[VV+AA]{}(a) +Z\_[22]{} O\_[SS+PP]{}(a) ,\ -O\_[(VV+AA)\_i]{}() &=& Z\_[21]{} O\_[VV+AA]{}(a) -Z\_[22]{} O\_[(VV+AA)\_i]{}(a) ([HQS(i)]{}), -\_[i=1,3]{} O\_[(VV+AA)\_i]{}() O\_[(VV+AA)\_0]{}() && -O\_[SS+PP]{}() - O\_[VV+AA]{}() ,\ &=& (3Z\_[21]{}-Z\_[22]{}) O\_[VV+AA]{}(a) - Z\_[22]{}O\_[SS+PP]{}(a),\ &=& -(Z\_[11]{}+Z\_[21]{}) O\_[VV+AA]{}(a) - Z\_[22]{} O\_[SS+PP]{}(a), which leads to $Z_{21}=(Z_{22}-Z_{11})/4$.\ Finally we have ( [c]{} \^\_1()\ \^\_2() ) = ( [cc]{} Z\_[11]{}(a)&0\ 1 4 &Z\_[22]{}(a) ) ( [c]{} \_1(a)\ \_2(a) ) Therefore only two independent renormalization constants are required to match the bag parameters $\tilde{B}_{1,2}(a)$ computed on the lattice to their counterpart renormalized in $\overline{\rm MS}$ scheme. Results and discussion ====================== Our results are based on two simulations, with the parameters given in Tab. \[table\]. $\beta$ V ${\rm N_{conf}}$ $\rho$ $m^s_0$ --------- ----------------- ------------------ -------- ---------- 6.0 $16^3\times 32$ 80 1.4 0.06 GeV 5.85 $16^3\times 32$ 30 1.6 0.09 GeV : Parameters of our simulations: $m^s_0$ and $\rho$ have been chosen following [@giusti; @hernandez][]{data-label="table"} We find $B^{\overline{\rm MS}}_{B_s}(m_b)=0.940(16)(22)$, where the first error is statistical, the second is systematic and contains the error from the estimation of $\alpha_s(1/a)$ and the finite $a$ effects. From Fig. \[comp\] it can be seen that our value is larger than the previous static result [@gimenez]. This difference is likely due to the use of Neuberger light quark action (no subtractions), due to the use of the HYP procedure, or the combination of both. From Fig. \[comp\] we also notice that our value is also somewhat larger than the results obtained with the propagating heavy quark, which is due to our neglect of $1/m_b$ corrections or their not so proper renormalization. JLQCD collaboration showed that the errors due to quenching are likely to be small [@aoki1; @aoki2]. We also plan to address that issue by unquenching the $B^0_s-\overline{B^0_s}$ mixing amplitude in the static limit and by avoiding the subtraction procedure as well. The feasibility study by means of twisted mass QCD is underway. (180,30)(60,-10) (0,40)(160,40)(3,4,-3.2,0,0.2) (0,-140)(160,-140)(3,4,3.2,0,0.2) (0,40)(0,-140) (160,40)(160,-140) (-20,-110)(160,-110)[2]{} (0,-150)\[\][0.7]{} (40,-150)\[\][0.8]{} (80,-150)\[\][0.9]{} (120,-150)\[\][1.0]{} (160,-150)\[\][1.1]{} (20,30)\[\] (20,10)\[\] (20,-10)\[\] (20,-30)\[\] (20,-50)\[\] (20,-70)\[\] (20,-90)\[\] (20,-120)\[\] (90,-120)(110,-120) (90,-122)(90,-118) (110,-122)(110,-118) (97,-120)(100,-116)(100,-124)[Blue]{}[Blue]{} (100,-116)(100,-124)(103,-120)[Blue]{}[Blue]{} (38,-100)(81,-100) (38,-102)(38,-98) (81,-102)(81,-98) (60,-100)(4,4)[Red]{}[Red]{} (40,-80)(80,-80) (40,-82)(40,-78) (80,-82)(80,-78) (60,-80)(4,4)[Red]{}[Red]{} (60,-60)(80,-60) (60,-62)(60,-58) (80,-62)(80,-58) (67,-63)(70,-56)(73,-63)[Red]{}[Red]{} (72,-40)(95,-40) (72,-42)(72,-38) (95,-42)(95,-38) (80,-40)[3]{}[Red]{}[Red]{} (52,-20)(122,-20) (52,-22)(52,-18) (122,-22)(122,-18) (92,-20)[3]{}[Red]{}[Red]{} (12,0)(72,0) (12,-2)(12,2) (72,-2)(72,2) (42,0)[3]{}[Blue]{}[Blue]{} (70,20)(158,20) (70,18)(70,22) (158,18)(158,22) (114,20)[3]{}[Red]{}[Red]{} (168,-120)\[l\][Orsay, static heavy quark (2005)]{} (168,-100)\[l\][JLQCD (unq. $N_f=2$), NRQCD (2003)]{} (168,-80)\[l\][JLQCD, NRQCD (2003)]{} (168,-60)\[l\][SPQcdR (2002)]{} (168,-40)\[l\][UKQCD (2001)]{} (168,-20)\[l\][APE (2000)]{} (168,0)\[l\][Gimenez and Reyes (1999)]{} (168,20)\[l\][Bernard, Blum and Soni (1998)]{} (-10,-30)\[\]\[l\] (-14,-125)\[\]\[l\] (-7,-125)\[\]\[l\] [99]{} S. Eidelman [et al]{}, . T. Inami and C.S. Lim, [Prog. Theor. Phys.]{} [65]{}, 297 (1981). C.W. Bernard, T. Blum and A. Soni, \[hep-lat/9801039\]. V. Gimenez and J. Reyes, \[hep-lat/9806023\]. D. Bećirević [et al]{}, \[hep-lat/0002025\]. L. Lellouch and C. J. Lin, \[hep-hep/0011086\]. D. Bećirević [et al]{}, JHEP [0204]{}, 25 (2002) and Nucl. Phys. Proc. Suppl. [106]{}, 385 (2002) \[hep-lat/0110091\]. S. Aoki [et al]{}, \[hep-lat/0208038\]. S. Aoki [et al]{}, \[hep-ph/0307039\]. H. Neuberger, \[hep-lat/9707022\]. E. Eichten and B. Hill, . A. Hasenfratz and F. Knechtli, \[hep-lat/0103029\]. M. Della Morte [et al]{}, \[hep-lat/0307021\]. M. Lüscher, \[hep-lat/9802011\]. D. Bećirević and J. Reyes, [129]{}, 435 (2004) \[hep-lat/0309131\]. P. Boyle \[UKQCD Collaboration\], [J. Comput. Phys. ]{} [179]{}, 349 (2002) \[hep-lat/9903033\]. D. J. Broadhurst and A. G. Grozin, \[hep-ph/9410240\]; V. Gimenez, ; X. Ji and M. J. Musolf, . L. Giusti, C. Hoelbling and C. Rebbi, ; Erratum-ibid \[hep-lat/0108007\]. P. Hernandez, K. Jansen, L. Lellouch and H. Wittig, [Nucl. Phys. Proc. Suppl.]{} [106*]{}, 766 (2002) \[hep-lat/0110199\]. [^1]: Even if the time interval from which we extract the binding energy starts at $t=9$ (green line), the overlap with radial excitations is quite reduced since $t=6$ when currents are smeared.
Q: How to fix the LinearLayout as listview item This is first time I post a android question here. Let me know if I did something wrong. I have a listview and I am using this code as my listview item in my android project (xamarin, c#) <FrameLayout xmlns:a="http://schemas.android.com/apk/res/android" a:layout_width="match_parent" a:layout_height="wrap_content"> <ImageView a:layout_width="wrap_content" a:layout_height="wrap_content" a:adjustViewBounds="true" a:id="@+id/imgRecipeView" /> <TextView a:id="@+id/recipeTitle" a:layout_width="wrap_content" a:layout_height="wrap_content" a:layout_alignParentTop="True" a:layout_below="@id/imgRecipeView" /> </FrameLayout> I want this imageview to take full width and height of it's own. Next currently my textview show on the image. I want to show them after the image (image on top, text on bottom, currently it's overlpapping). I tried with linearlayout and relativelayout and it doesn't work the way I want. A: Try this use LinearLayout with orientation="vertical" <LinearLayout xmlns:a="http://schemas.android.com/apk/res/android" a:layout_width="match_parent" a:orientation="vertical" a:layout_height="wrap_content"> <ImageView a:layout_width="match_parent" a:layout_height="wrap_content" a:adjustViewBounds="true" a:scaleType="fitXY" a:id="@+id/imgRecipeView" /> <TextView a:id="@+id/recipeTitle" a:layout_width="wrap_content" a:layout_height="wrap_content" /> </LinearLayout> OUTPUT
Goldeyes Add Left-Hander Bernardino Bernardino made 21 relief appearances earlier this season in the Cincinnati Reds’ organization for the Double-A Southern League’s Pensacola Blue Wahoos. The Valencia, California native was 1-2 with two saves and a 6.30 ERA for Pensacola, striking out 24 and walking seven in 20.0 relief innings. Last year, Bernardino posted a 4.46 ERA with 42 strikeouts in 40.1 relief innings for Pensacola. The 26-year-old left-hander is in his fifth season of professional baseball, and is 11-11 lifetime with 15 saves and a 3.76 ERA in 170 appearances, all of them in relief. The 6-foot-4, 180-pound Bernardino has averaged 9.2 strikeouts per nine innings during his career. Bernardino was drafted by the Reds in the 26th round in 2014 out of California State University, Dominguez Hills (Carson, California). The Reds assigned Bernardino to the prestigious Arizona Fall League this past October where he pitched to a 1.80 ERA in 10.0 innings for the Scottsdale Scorpions. Earlier this week, right-handed pitcher Cameron McVey signed with the Mexican League’s Algodoneros de Union Laguna. The Goldeyes’ active roster currently stands at 22 players. The Winnipeg Goldeyes play the rubber game of a three-game series tonight at home against the Cleburne Railroaders. First pitch from Shaw Park is at 7:05 p.m. Tickets for all Goldeyes’ home games are on sale now by clicking here, or visiting the box office at Shaw Park.

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