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Introduction {#Sec1}
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The solute carrier family 26 (SLC26), also known as the sulfate permease (SulP) family, facilitates the transport of a broad variety of organic and inorganic anions^[@CR1]^. Members of this family are found in all kingdoms of life and operate predominantly as secondary transporters (symporters and exchangers)^[@CR2]--[@CR4]^. As an exception, prestin (SLC26A5) functions as a voltage-sensitive motor protein that evokes robust length changes in outer hair cells and thereby contributes to cochlear amplification^[@CR5],[@CR6]^. The relevance of the SLC26 family in maintaining anion equilibria is underlined by the causative role of mammalian SLC26 proteins in diseases such as congenital chloride diarrhea^[@CR7]^ and cytotoxic brain edema^[@CR8]^.
SLC26 proteins are composed of a membrane-inserted transport domain and a carboxy-terminal cytoplasmic STAS (sulfate transporter and anti-sigma factor antagonist) domain. The SLC26--STAS domain is relevant for intracellular trafficking^[@CR9],[@CR10]^ and protein--protein interactions^[@CR11]--[@CR13]^. Its deletion impairs substrate transport by the membrane domain^[@CR4],[@CR10],[@CR14]^. The crystal structure of SLC26Dg, a prokaryotic SLC26 protein from *Deinococcus geothermalis*, revealed a spatially separated membrane and STAS domain^[@CR4]^. The SLC26Dg membrane domain holds two intertwined inverted repeats of seven transmembrane segments (TMs). Despite a poor sequence homology, the SLC26 family shares this 7-TM-inverted repeat (7TMIR) architecture with the SLC4 and SLC23 families that transport bicarbonate and nucleobases plus vitamin C, respectively^[@CR15]--[@CR22]^. The 14 TMs are arranged in two subdomains: a compact core domain that holds the substrate binding site as inferred from the location of the nucleobases in the SLC23 crystal structures^[@CR20]--[@CR22]^, and an elongated gate domain that shields one side of the core domain. A mounting body of evidence^[@CR16],[@CR19],[@CR22],[@CR23]^ suggests that these proteins operate based on an elevator alternating-access mode of transport^[@CR24]^ involving a rigid-body translation-rotation of the core domain with respect to the gate domain.
Dimeric states have been previously observed for pro- and eukaryotic members of the SLC4^[@CR25]--[@CR27]^, SLC23^[@CR28]^, and SLC26^[@CR4],[@CR29]--[@CR32]^ families. Recent structures subsequently confirmed this oligomeric state for SLC4^[@CR17]--[@CR19]^ and SLC23^[@CR21],[@CR22]^ proteins and indicated that in both families the gate domains form the main interaction surface between protomers, though each family appears to hold a distinct dimer interface. As the crystal structure of SLC26Dg captured the protein in a monomeric state, the mode of interaction between SLC26 protomers has remained elusive. Interestingly, the protomers within the SLC26 dimer have been found to interact functionally^[@CR29],[@CR33]^ despite the presence of a complete translocation path in each individual protomer. Here, we provide structural and mechanistic insights in the allosteric interactions between SLC26 protomers. We integrated pulsed electron--electron double resonance (PELDOR, also known as double electron--electron resonance) distance measurements and in vitro transport studies with structural modeling and refinement using molecular dynamics (MD) simulation to determine the architecture of the membrane-embedded SLC26 dimer and characterize its functional relevance.
Results {#Sec2}
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Resolving the SLC26Dg dimer interface in the lipid membrane {#Sec3}
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To define the SLC26Dg dimer interface, we used interspin distance constraints derived from PELDOR experiments. As SLC26Dg is monomeric in its detergent-solubilized state, we reconstituted spin-labeled protomers in lipid membranes to assure dimer formation^[@CR4]^. As the gate domain in the SLC4^[@CR17]--[@CR19]^ and SLC23^[@CR21],[@CR22]^ families establishes the main protomer--protomer contacts in the membrane (Fig. [1a, b](#Fig1){ref-type="fig"}), we engineered spin labels at 13 different positions on the termini of gate domain helices in SLC26Dg. One additional central position in the core domain (TM8) was also selected (Fig. [1c](#Fig1){ref-type="fig"}). By site-directed modification of single-cysteine mutants, we efficiently introduced the probe 1-oxyl-2,2,5,5-tetramethylpyrroline-3-methyl-methanethiosulfonate (MTSSL)^[@CR34]^ (Supplementary Table [1](#MOESM1){ref-type="media"}, Supplementary Fig. [1](#MOESM1){ref-type="media"}). Size-exclusion chromatography and transport assays in proteoliposomes demonstrated that all mutants were folded well and active (Supplementary Fig. [2](#MOESM1){ref-type="media"}).Fig. 1Dimer interfaces in 7TMIR proteins. **a** Side view of the membrane domains of NBCe1 (PDB: 6CAA) and UraA (PDB: 5XLS). Core and gate domain are colored orange and gray, respectively, with residues within 4 Å of the opposing protomer in pink. **b** Top views of the dimeric arrangements of NBCe1 and UraA. For each dimer, the gate domain of one of the protomers follows a rainbow coloring scheme (blue-to-red for N-to-C direction). TMs central in the respective dimers are numbered. **c** Side view of the membrane domain of SLC26Dg (PDB: 5DA0). Residues mutated to cysteine for site-directed spin labeling are colored blue. The circled numbers indicate the respective TMs
Systematic analysis of all positions led to the identification of three labeled positions, K353R1, V367R1, and L385R1, that gave well-defined interspin distance distributions centering around 4.4 ± 0.2, 3.9 ± 0.3, and 1.8 ± 0.1 nm, respectively (Fig. [2b--d](#Fig2){ref-type="fig"}). These positions are located in TM13 and TM14 and place this region in close proximity to the center of the SLC26Dg dimer interface. This particular dimer arrangement combined with the short phase memory time (*T*~*M*~) of the spins in membranes (Supplementary Fig. [3](#MOESM1){ref-type="media"}) did not allow to accurately determine the long interspin distances between other helices (Supplementary Fig. [4](#MOESM1){ref-type="media"}). An exponential decay was observed for the PELDOR measurement of the detergent-solubilized protein (Fig. [2a](#Fig2){ref-type="fig"}), supporting the notion that the identified region is part of the native SLC26Dg dimer interface formed in the lipid membrane. Given the spin-labeling efficiencies of 70--100%, the obtained modulation depths of the PELDOR time traces are in the range expected for a dimer (Supplementary Table [1](#MOESM1){ref-type="media"}), suggesting that the majority of the protomers in the membrane is part of a dimer.Fig. 2Interspin distances in the SLC26Dg dimer. **a** Primary PELDOR data of detergent-solubilized K353R1. **b**--**d** Left panels: background-corrected PELDOR time traces for membrane-reconstituted K353R1, V367R1, and L385R1 (black traces), overlaid with the fit from Tikhonov regularization (green), and forward-calculated PELDOR time traces from BioEn spin-label rotamer refinement of the MD simulation model (magenta, dashed; *θ* = 10). Right panels: distance distributions obtained by Tikhonov regularization (green), overlaid with the distance distributions resulting from BioEn analysis of the MD simulation model (magenta, dashed). Original PELDOR data in Supplementary Fig. [2](#MOESM1){ref-type="media"}. **e** C~α~-atom root mean squared distance (RMSD) values of the core, gate, TM13, and 14 relative to the monomer crystal structure as a function of MD time (1 μs)
Structural model of the SLC26Dg membrane dimer interface {#Sec4}
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On the basis of the PELDOR data and the SLC26Dg crystal structure, we constructed a dimer model. First, to obtain an equilibrated structure for rigid-body docking, monomeric SLC26Dg without its carboxy-terminal STAS domain was embedded in a palmitoyl-oleoyl-phosphatidylcholine (POPC) bilayer and submitted to 1 μs of MD simulations. We observed considerable flexibility of the gate domain in comparison with the core domain (Fig. [2e](#Fig2){ref-type="fig"}). In particular, TM13 and TM14 exhibited significant motions in the monomer, in line with their suspected involvement in the membrane dimer interface. Owing to the observed flexibility, we used several relaxed monomer conformations obtained at 110 ns intervals of MD for docking. For each conformation, a rigid-body search restricted by C2 symmetry with an axis normal to the membrane was performed and the rotation angle that showed the best overall fit with the PELDOR data was determined. Using this approach, we identified a candidate dimer structure based on a monomer conformation observed at 440 ns of MD and a polar plane angle of 210 ± 5° (Supplementary Fig. [5](#MOESM1){ref-type="media"}). An alternative rigid-body docking approach guided by the inferred distance distributions resulted in a very similar dimer model (Supplementary Fig. [6](#MOESM1){ref-type="media"}). The initial C2 symmetric MD dimer was then relaxed by additional MD simulation. The forward-calculated PELDOR traces for the relaxed dimer, after gentle spin-label rotamer refinement^[@CR35]^, are in excellent agreement with the experimental background-corrected time-domain data (Fig. [2b--d](#Fig2){ref-type="fig"}, left panels, Supplementary Fig. [7](#MOESM1){ref-type="media"}). The structure of this SLC26Dg membrane domain dimer model is shown in Fig. [3](#Fig3){ref-type="fig"}. Simulations performed on this model for two additional positions, V129R1 (TM5) and L248R1 (TM8), agree with the experimental data as well (Supplementary Fig. [4a](#MOESM1){ref-type="media"}). For the other nine positions in the gate domain, simulations predict mean interspin distances in the range of 6.3--10.6 nm, which could not be accurately determined owing to the short *T*~*M*~ (Supplementary Fig. [4b](#MOESM1){ref-type="media"} and Supplementary Fig. [3](#MOESM1){ref-type="media"}).Fig. 3Model of the SLC26Dg dimer interface. **a** Side view of the SLC26Dg membrane domain in the same orientation as Fig. [1a](#Fig1){ref-type="fig"}. Core and gate domain are colored orange and gray, respectively, with residues within 4 Å of the opposing protomer in pink. **b** Top views of the dimeric arrangement of SLC26Dg. The gate domain of one of the protomers follows a rainbow coloring scheme (blue-to-red for N-to-C direction)
The model of the SLC26Dg dimer displays a protomer--protomer membrane interface that is remarkably different from the membrane interfaces observed for the SLC4 and SLC23 families, both in its location and in its size^[@CR17]--[@CR19],[@CR21],[@CR22]^. Whereas the membrane dimer interfaces of SLC4 and SLC23 proteins center around TM6, and TM5 plus TM12, respectively, the midpoint of the SLC26Dg dimer is TM14. Furthermore, although the membrane dimer interface of SLC4 and SLC23 proteins involves extensive interactions covering large fractions of the exposed membrane surface of their gate domains, the membrane interface of SLC26Dg is relatively small. Also, in comparison with other oligomeric membrane proteins, the surface buried by dimerization of the membrane domain is modest^[@CR36]^. This observation agrees with the complete absence of dimerization in detergent and suggests that other factors, such as subunit-bridging lipids or the cytoplasmic STAS domain may contribute to the stabilization of the dimeric state.
STAS domain affects central regions in the dimer {#Sec5}
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The cytoplasmic STAS domain is one of the major structural constituents that distinguishes the SLC26 family from the SLC4 and SLC23 families, which do not hold carboxy-terminal domains^[@CR16]^. Although deletion of the STAS domain compromises the transport capacity of the SLC26Dg membrane domain, the structure of the membrane domain is not altered^[@CR4]^. As the STAS domain immediately follows the central TM14, we further determined to what extent the STAS domain contributes to the dimer interface.
As evidenced from the PELDOR time trace for L385R1 in SLC26Dg^ΔSTAS^, deletion of the STAS domain did not affect the ability of the membrane domain to form dimers (Supplementary Fig. [8](#MOESM1){ref-type="media"}). STAS domain deletion resulted in a small increase in the mean L385R1 distance from 1.8 ± 0.1 to 2.1 ± 0.1 nm, that, given the narrow distance distribution, rather suggests a rearrangement of the MTSSL rotamers than a physical separation of the protomers. The complete disappearance of oscillations in the primary PELDOR data of SLC26Dg^ΔSTAS^-K353R1 and -V367R1 in TM13 suggests that either similar rearrangements of spin-label rotamers or an increased flexibility at these positions may underlie these changes (Supplementary Fig. [8](#MOESM1){ref-type="media"}). The latter could not be confirmed owing to the limited time window of the dipolar evolution. Thus, although deletion of the STAS domain appears to affect the environment around the spin labels in TM13 and TM14, the STAS domain itself is not a prerequisite for dimerization.
SLC26Dg dimer interface represents the SLC26 family {#Sec6}
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To further validate the SLC26Dg membrane dimer model and determine to what extent it represents the SLC26 family in general, we used oxidative cross-linking in biological membranes. Owing to its central position, we focused on TM14 (Fig. [3b](#Fig3){ref-type="fig"}). Oxidative cross-linking of single-cysteine variants at several positions in TM14 of SLC26Dg, fused to superfolder green fluorescent protein (GFP) to facilitate detection, leads to the appearance of a band with lower electrophoretic mobility (Fig. [4a](#Fig4){ref-type="fig"}). We assign this band to SLC26Dg homodimers because an identical anomalous shift was observed on cross-linking in proteoliposomes (Supplementary Fig. [9](#MOESM1){ref-type="media"}). Cross-links were observed for residues located at both ends of TM14, but not for residues facing the interior of the bilayer in line with a general lower reactivity of cysteines at this position^[@CR37]--[@CR39]^. The ability of cysteine residues in TM14 of SLC26Dg to form a disulfide bond with the opposing protomer further validates our SLC26Dg dimer model (Fig. [4b](#Fig4){ref-type="fig"}).Fig. 4Oxidative cysteine cross-linking between TM14 of SLC26Dg. **a** In gel GFP fluorescence analysis of disrupted *E. coli* cells expressing single-cysteine variants of SLC26Dg fused to superfolder GFP. Following oxidative cross-linking, samples were analyzed by non-reducing SDS-PAGE. Cysteine-free SLC26Dg (cysless) and L144C (TM5) represent negative controls. Black and white arrows indicate dimeric and monomeric SLC26Dg. Source data are provided as a Source Data file. **b** Side view of the SLC26Dg dimer model. Core and gate domain are colored orange and gray, respectively. Positions in TM14 susceptible to cross-linking are colored in green, non-susceptible residues are colored pink. The gate domain of the right protomer is depicted in surface representation. TM13 of the left protomer is contoured. The circled numbers indicate the respective TMs
Although the known dimer interfaces between SLC4 and SLC23 families differ greatly, a high degree of similarity is observed between members of the same family^[@CR17]--[@CR19],[@CR21],[@CR22]^. This suggests that the dimer interfaces for this fold are specific to a family. To test this, we used the same TM14 cross-linking approach on SLC26 proteins from *Sulfitobacter indolifex* and *Rattus norvegicus*, which hold 23% and 21% sequence identity to SLC26Dg, respectively (Supplementary Fig. [10](#MOESM1){ref-type="media"}, [11](#MOESM1){ref-type="media"}). For both proteins, we observed the formation of TM14 disulfide cross-links between protomers, which provides evidence that the membrane dimer interface may be very similar, if not conserved, throughout the SLC26 family.
Functional relevance of the SLC26Dg dimer {#Sec7}
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The observation of a structural SLC26Dg dimer led us to ask whether this oligomeric state is important for function. As both protomers have independent binding sites and non-overlapping translocation paths, the relevance of the dimeric state is not evident. Functional interactions between protomers in oligomeric proteins can be revealed by mixing protomers with different functional characteristics and analyzing the resulting hetero-oligomers. We opted to create an inactive variant by locking the protein in the inward-facing conformation using disulfide cross-linking. Based on the crystal structure, we selected Ile-45 on the extracellular side of TM1 (core) and Ala-142 in TM5 (gate) as most suited positions concerning cross-linking efficiency and ability to lock the protein (Fig. [5a](#Fig5){ref-type="fig"}). Oxidative cross-linking of SLC26Dg-CL-I45C/A142C, hereafter named SLC26Dg-IL (inward-locked), resulted in a nearly complete shift in the electrophoretic mobility of the protein that could be restored by the addition of the reductant dithiothreitol (DTT) (Fig. [5b](#Fig5){ref-type="fig"}). Likewise, fumarate transport of the cross-linked mutant in proteoliposomes was close to background activity, but could be fully recovered to wildtype activity by the addition of DTT, indicating that the protein was well-folded and reconstituted (Fig. [5c](#Fig5){ref-type="fig"}).Fig. 5Generation and functional characterization of SLC26Dg-IL. **a** Surface representation of MD-simulated SLC26Dg clipped through the funnel toward the putative substrate-binding site. Cytoplasmic water molecules in a \~ 10 Å slab at the clipping plane are shown. Ile-45 and Ala-142 indicate the relative position of the cysteine mutants in the core (orange) and gate (gray) domain, respectively. **b** SDS-PAGE analysis of purified and cross-linked SLC26Dg-IL monomers in the absence and presence of DTT. Single and double stars indicate not-cross-linked and cross-linked protein, respectively. **c** Functional characterization of membrane-reconstituted and cross-linked SLC26Dg-IL (dark blue), wildtype SLC26Dg (orange), and both proteins mixed in equal ratio's (pink). Closed and open symbols indicate the absence and presence of a pre-incubation step with DTT. **d** Initial transport rates of membrane-reconstituted and cross-linked samples containing wildtype and SLC26Dg-IL mixed in different ratio's. Dark blue, pink, and orange dashed curves indicate the anticipated curves assuming an activity of the heterodimers corresponding to 0, 50, and 100% of the wildtype homodimers. These models were calculated assuming stochastic dimer formation (e.g., mixing WT:IL protomers in a 50:50 ratio results in 25% WT--WT, 50% WT--IL, and 25% IL--IL dimers) and specific transport activities of 32.3 or 6.8 nmol fumarate per mg WT or IL homodimer per min, respectively, and heterodimer activities corresponding to 0, 50, or 100% of WT homodimer. Data points represent mean and standard deviations of three technical replicates. Source data are provided as a Source Data file
As SLC26Dg is monomeric in detergent and dimerizes only after reconstitution in the lipid membrane, we achieved stochastic formation of heterodimers as demonstrated by the decreased TM14 cross-linking upon the addition of SLC26Dg-IL in a control experiment (Supplementary Fig. [12](#MOESM1){ref-type="media"}). Interestingly, the initial transport rates of proteoliposomes holding different ratios of wildtype and SLC26Dg-IL followed a positive quadratic relationship (Fig. [5d](#Fig5){ref-type="fig"}). The activity of the heterodimers exceeded the expected values for independent functioning of protomers, which is half the sum of the activities of the wildtype and SLC26Dg-IL homodimers (Fig. [5d](#Fig5){ref-type="fig"}, straight line). In fact, in the most parsimonious model for the quadratic dependence of the activity on the mixing ratio, only the SLC26Dg-IL homodimer is inactive and all other dimers have the same activity. This could imply that either only one protomer is active in a dimer or the activity of a wildtype protomer is doubled when paired with an inward-locked protomer. In any case, the robust coupling evident in this transport activity data is a strong indication that dimerization is functionally relevant.
Discussion {#Sec8}
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The structural model of the SLC26Dg membrane domain dimer interface, based on electron paramagnetic resonance (EPR) measurements on membrane-reconstituted protein and validated by cysteine cross-linking in biological membranes, places TM14 of the gate domain at the center of the SLC26Dg dimer. Further cross-linking studies on additional prokaryotic and mammalian homologs suggest that this interface might be evolutionary conserved in the SLC26 family. Nevertheless, amino-acid sequence alignments of TM14 show no conserved features between or even within prokaryotic and mammalian SLC26 proteins, other than a GxxxG-like motif toward the extracellular side of TM14 (Supplementary Fig. [13](#MOESM1){ref-type="media"}). Though this motif often mediates dimerization in single-pass membrane proteins^[@CR40]^, its role in multi-pass membrane proteins lies more likely in folding of the protomers^[@CR41]^. Besides, this specific region of TM14 is not directly involved in protomer--protomer interactions in our model. Specificity of the SLC26 protomer--protomer interaction may instead arise from general complementarity of the interacting surfaces combined with other, potentially conserved features such as interfacial lipids (*vide infra*). The central position of the gate domain in the SLC26 membrane dimer interface corresponds well with the SLC4 and SLC23 families in which the gate domains also form the major contacts between the membrane domains^[@CR17]--[@CR19],[@CR21],[@CR22]^. However, although the dimer interfaces seem conserved within a family, the regions involved in the protomer--protomer contacts seem to differ greatly among the three families.
It appears likely that these different dimeric arrangements represent stable constellations between which the protomers do not alternate during transport. The structures of dimeric SLC4 and SLC23 proteins in different conformations^[@CR17]--[@CR19],[@CR21],[@CR22]^ have identical contact surfaces within each family. This is further supported by repeat-swap homology modeling of AE1, which indicated that no changes in the dimerization interface were required during the transition from the outward-facing structure to the inward-facing model^[@CR23]^. Transitions between interfaces seem further unlikely owing to the requirement for significant rearrangements in structural elements, such as the cytoplasmic region following TM12 in SLC4A1 and SLC4A4^[@CR17],[@CR18]^, which also appears stable and blocking alternative interfaces in SLC26Dg (Supplementary Fig. [14](#MOESM1){ref-type="media"}). Finally, our PELDOR data on SLC26Dg, especially the well-defined distance distributions for the interface region, strongly disagrees with a dynamic interface. A stable oligomer interface is in line with other observations on unrelated elevator proteins^[@CR42],[@CR43]^.
The buried surface resulting from dimerization in the SLC26Dg membrane domain amounts to \~ 350 Å^2^, which is small, not only in comparison with the SLC4 and SLC23 family whose membrane interfaces measure \~ 1000 Å^2^ and \~ 2000 Å^2^ ^[@CR44]^, respectively, but also in relation to other oligomeric membrane proteins^[@CR36]^. It is likely that additional extrinsic factors contribute to extend and stabilize the SLC26 membrane dimer interface, e.g., interfacial lipids that were recently reported to stabilize an SLC23 dimer^[@CR45]^ and other oligomeric membrane proteins^[@CR36]^. In this respect, the STAS domain appears to be relevant as well. The short linker region connecting TM14 and the STAS domain implies its close proximity to the membrane dimer interface. In addition, the STAS domain affects TM13 and TM14 at the center of the dimer interface (Supplementary Fig. [8](#MOESM1){ref-type="media"}). Given that isolated SLC26--STAS domains do not appear to form dimers^[@CR13],[@CR46],[@CR47]^, we expect the STAS-mediated effect on the gate domain to result from a direct interaction between the STAS domain and the membrane domain. This interaction may also form the basis for the enhanced transport rates observed in the presence of the STAS domain^[@CR4],[@CR10],[@CR14]^.
All 7TMIR proteins form structural dimers in the membrane, but the general relevance of this oligomeric state for their function is not clear. The available structures of the SLC4, SLC23, and SLC26 proteins all indicate that the complete substrate translocation path is contained within one protomer. This is supported by the recessive inheritance mode of SLC26-linked diseases^[@CR29],[@CR48]^ and further confirmed by the functional characterization of heterodimers composed of a wildtype and an inactive mutant protomer. Most of these heterodimers were found to be active for NBCe1^[@CR49]^ (SLC4), UraA^[@CR22]^ (SLC23), and SLC26Dg (SLC26, this work), though for UapA (SLC23), inactive heterodimers were observed as well^[@CR21]^. With the exception of SLC26Dg, these studies were carried out in the context of whole cells, employed different mutations that interfered in diverse ways with substrate transport, and, in case of NBCe1 and UraA, involved the use of concatemeric constructs. This diversity in experimental approaches makes it difficult to precisely compare these data. Nevertheless, although the inferred specific activity of the heterodimers of NBCe1 (50% active) suggests that the protomers can operate independently, the apparent negative and positive dominance observed for UapA, and UraA plus SLC26Dg, respectively, indicates that the dimeric state may have a functional role as well. This notion is further supported by studies on rat prestin (SLC26A5) heterodimers composed of protomers that in the context of a homodimer hold a very different voltage-dependence of their non-linear capacitance. For these heterodimers an intermediate phenotype was observed, suggesting a strong co-operative interaction in which the two protomers jointly determine the voltage-dependence of the conformational changes^[@CR29]^.
Though the mechanistic basis for functional interactions in 7TMIR dimers is currently unclear, important insights were obtained from the characterization of monomeric 7TMIR proteins. Monomeric variants of UraA, generated by the introduction of bulky residues at the dimer interface, bind substrate with wildtype affinities and are thus expected to be well-folded, but are incapable of facilitating transport^[@CR22]^. In our study, we characterized the transport properties of individual protomers as well, but in the context of a dimer. These SLC26Dg-WT protomers, embedded in WT--IL heterodimers, are fully active. In fact, the WT--IL heterodimers have the same activity as wildtype homodimers. Together these observations highlight the relevance of the interaction between opposing gate domains for facilitating transport. This interaction may stabilize an essential conformation of the gate domain required for transport, as suggested previously^[@CR22]^ and in line with our observation that the transport-incompetent SLC26Dg^ΔSTAS^ undergoes small rearrangements in the gate domain. Alternatively, the gate--gate domain interaction may provide a stable membrane-embedded scaffold that enables the vertical translation of the core domain and its anticipated deformation of the bilayer. In this context, the inward-locked SLC26Dg protomer may serve as an extended scaffold that fixates the gate domain even better in the membrane, providing a rational for the apparent increase in transport rate observed for the wildtype protomer in the heterodimer. Though the similar transport rates of wildtype homodimers and WT--IL heterodimers may also imply that only one protomer is active in the SLC26Dg dimer, the latter appears in conflict with the intermediate non-linear capacitance observed for rat prestin heterodimers^[@CR29]^. Additional structures of dimeric 7TMIR proteins in multiple states will be required to further pinpoint the role of the gate domain.
Understanding the transport mechanism of 7TMIR proteins requires that proteins are not studied only as individual protomers, but also in the context of the dimer, their functionally relevant oligomeric state. Structures of SLC4 and SLC23 proteins have provided exceptional insight into protomer interactions by providing snapshots of dimeric constellations, but the structure of a dimeric SLC26 protein has been elusive. Here, we have determined the architecture of dimeric, membrane-embedded SLC26Dg using an integrated structural biology approach. The SLC26 dimer interface is unique and distinguishes itself from SLC4 and SLC23 proteins. We have demonstrated that the interface is not dynamic, and that the carboxy-terminal STAS domain, although not required for dimerization, affects regions central in the dimer. Finally, our heterodimer studies have underlined the functional significance of the dimer. Together these structural, dynamic, and functional characterizations provide the framework for further studies on the SLC26 family and offer mechanistic insights that may extend to other elevator proteins as well.
Methods {#Sec9}
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Site-specific mutagenesis of SLC26 transporters {#Sec10}
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Cysteine residues were introduced into pINITcat-SLC26Dg by Quikchange mutagenesis or a two-step PCR method (mega-primer approach; primer sequences in Supplementary Data [1](#MOESM2){ref-type="media"}). Sequence-validated pINITcat-SLC26Dg variants were subsequently subcloned into pBXC3GH by FX cloning^[@CR50]^ for protein expression and purification.
Protein expression and purification {#Sec11}
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*Escherichia coli* MC1061 (ATCC 53338) containing pBXC3GH-SLC26Dg or the variants was cultivated in 9 L TB/ampicillin in a fermenter (Bioengineering). Cells were grown at 37 °C until an OD~600~ ≈ 2 was reached, after which the temperature was gradually decreased to 25 °C over the course of 1 h. Expression was induced by the addition of 0.005% (w/v) [l]{.smallcaps}-arabinose and continued for 16 h. Cell pellets were resuspended in 50 m[m]{.smallcaps} potassium phosphate (KPi), pH 7.5, 150 m[m]{.smallcaps} NaCl, and 1 m[m]{.smallcaps} MgSO~4~ and incubated for 1 h at 4 °C in the presence of 1 mg/mL lysozyme and traces of DNase I before disruption with an APV Gaulin/Manton homogenizer. The lysate was cleared by low-spin centrifugation, and membrane vesicles were obtained by ultracentrifugation. Vesicles were resuspended to 0.5 g/mL in 50 m[m]{.smallcaps} KPi, pH 7.5, 150 m[m]{.smallcaps} NaCl and 10% glycerol (buffer A). All subsequent steps were carried out at 4 °C. Membrane proteins were extracted for 1 h at a concentration of 0.1 g/mL buffer A supplemented with 1--1.5% (w/v) *n*-decyl-*β*-maltoside (DM, Glycon). Solubilized SLC26Dg was purified by immobilized metal affinity chromatography (IMAC). Target protein was immobilized on Ni-NTA resin and impurities were removed with 20 column volumes (CV) washing with 20 m[m]{.smallcaps} HEPES, pH 7.5, 150 m[m]{.smallcaps} NaCl (buffer B) supplemented with 50 m[m]{.smallcaps} imidazole, pH 7.5 and 0.2% DM. Protein was eluted with buffer B containing 300 m[m]{.smallcaps} imidazole and cleaved by HRV 3 C protease during dialysis against buffer B without imidazole. Histidine-tagged GFP and protease were removed by IMAC, and cleaved protein was concentrated and subjected to size-exclusion chromatography (SEC) on a Superdex 200 Increase 10/300 column (GE Healthcare) equilibrated with 20 m[m]{.smallcaps} HEPES, pH 7.5, 150 m[m]{.smallcaps} NaCl, and 0.2% DM (buffer C).
Site-directed spin labeling of SLC26Dg cysteine mutants {#Sec12}
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Cultivation and isolation of membrane vesicles were essentially performed as detailed above, but buffers for resuspending cells and membrane vesicles were supplemented with 3 m[m]{.smallcaps}, and 1 m[m]{.smallcaps} DTT, respectively. IMAC purification was conducted in the same way as described in the previous section but 5 m[m]{.smallcaps} 2-mercaptoethanol was included in all purification buffer to preserve the reduced state of the cysteine residues. Peak fractions from SEC purification were pooled and 2-mercaptoethanol was removed with Econo-Pac 10DG desalting column (Bio-rad), which was pre-equilibrated with buffer C. The concentration of eluted protein was adjusted to 7.5 µ[m]{.smallcaps} with buffer C. The labeling of cysteine residue was initiated by stepwise addition of 100 m[m]{.smallcaps} MTSSL spin label (in dimethyl sulfoxide, Toronto Research Chemicals) in the protein solution to a final concentration of 300 µ[m]{.smallcaps} and incubated at room temperature for 45 min with gentle agitation. The spin-labeled protein was further concentrated and free label was removed using Micro Bio-Spin 6 Chromatography Columns (Bio-rad) pre-equilibrated with buffer C.
Membrane reconstitution of SLC26Dg {#Sec13}
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Proteoliposomes were prepared using the detergent-doped liposomes method^[@CR4],[@CR51]^. Dry pellets of [l]{.smallcaps}-α-phosphatidylcholine (derived from soybean, Sigma) were dissolved in chloroform, dried in a rotary evaporator, resuspended to 20 mg/ml and sonicated in buffer containing 50 m[m]{.smallcaps} KPi, pH 7.5. After three freeze--thaw cycles, large unilamellar vesicles were prepared by extrusion through a polycarbonate filter with pore diameters of 400 nm. Liposomes were diluted to 4 mg/ml and destabilized beyond *R*~sat~ with Triton X-100. SEC-purified SLC26Dg in 0.2% DM was added to the liposomes at a weight ratio of 1:50 (protein/lipid) for transport assays or 1:20 (protein/lipid) for PELDOR measurements, and detergent was subsequently removed by the addition of Biobeads. For radioisotope transport assays, proteoliposomes were harvested by centrifugation for 1.5 h at 250,000 × *g* and resuspended in 50 m[m]{.smallcaps} sodium phosphate (NaPi), pH 7.5, 2 m[m]{.smallcaps} MgSO~4~ to a lipid concentration of 20 mg/ml. After three freeze--thaw cycles, proteoliposomes were stored in liquid nitrogen until analysis. For PELDOR measurements, proteoliposomes were harvested by centrifugation for 20 min at 250,000 × *g* and resuspended in 50 m[m]{.smallcaps} KPi, pH 8.0 to a final spin concentration of 80--130 µ[m]{.smallcaps}.
PELDOR EPR {#Sec14}
----------
All the PELDOR experiments were performed at Q-band frequencies (33.7 GHz) using a Bruker E580 spectrometer equipped with an EN 5170 D2 cavity, 150 W traveling-wave tube (Applied Systems Engineering Inc.) microwave amplifier, and an ELEXSYS SuperQ-FT accessory unit. The temperature was kept at 50 K using a ITC 502 temperature control unit (Oxford Instruments) and a continuous-flow helium cryostat (CF935, Oxford Instruments). For all samples, 20 % (v/v) deuterated glycerol was added. For measurement, a 10 μL sample was transferred into a 1.6 mm outer diameter quartz EPR tubes (Suprasil, Wilmad LabGlass) and immediately frozen in liquid nitrogen. The dead-time free four-pulse PELDOR sequence with a phase-cycled *π*/2-pulse was used^[@CR52],[@CR53]^. Typical pulse lengths were 22 ns (*π*/2 and π) for the observer pulses and 12 ns (*π*) for the pump pulse. The delay between the first and second observer pulse was increased by 16 ns for eight steps to average deuterium modulations. The frequency of the pump pulse was set to the maximum of the echo-detected field swept spectrum to obtain maximum inversion efficiency. The observer frequency was set 70 MHz lower. Distance distributions were determined using DeerAnalysis^[@CR54]^. The normalized primary PELDOR data *V*(t)/*V*(0) were processed to remove the intermolecular contribution and the resulting form factors *F*(t)/*F*(0) were fitted with a model-free Tikhonov regularization to determine the distance distributions. The MATLAB-based MMM^[@CR55]^ software was used for simulation of interspin distances on the form factor-based dimer model.
CW EPR {#Sec15}
------
Continuous wave (CW)-EPR spectra were recorded to determine the spin-labeling efficiency. The spectra were recorded at a Bruker ELEXSYS E500 spectrometer (9.4 GHz) at room temperature with the following parameter settings: microwave power of 2.00 mW, modulation amplitude of 0.15 mT, and modulation frequency of 100 KHz.
MD simulation of the SLC26Dg monomer {#Sec16}
------------------------------------
The crystal structure of the membrane domain of SLC26Dg monomer (PDB: 5DA0)^[@CR4]^ was used in all-atom explicit solvent MD simulation for equilibration and to uncover structural flexibility. The WT MD simulation model included residues Q14 to S392. The unresolved region between TM12 and TM13 (T334, L335, T336, V337) was modeled using Modeller^[@CR56]^. The transmembrane domain of SLC26Dg was embedded into 241 POPC lipids and 13185 TIP3P water molecules^[@CR57]^ were added (total system size 77650 atoms). We used GROMACS 5.1.3^[@CR58]^ to perform simulations with a time step of 2 fs at a constant temperature (303.15 K) set with a Nosé-Hoover thermostat^[@CR59]^ using a coupling constant of 1.0 ps. A semi-isotropic Parrinello-Rahman barostat^[@CR60]^ was used to maintain a pressure of 1 bar. The all-atom CHARMM36 force-field was used for the simulation of protein and lipids^[@CR61],[@CR62]^. We performed the monomer MD simulation for \~1.1 μs.
Modeling of the SLC26Dg dimer using PELDOR time traces {#Sec17}
------------------------------------------------------
The conformation of monomeric SLC26Dg at 440 ns of the MD simulation was used for investigation of the dimeric state. We performed rigid-body docking by placing a second protomer against the first protomer. We imposed C2 symmetry by rotating the second protomer in steps of 10 and 5 degrees about axes normal to the membrane plane centered at protomer two and one, respectively, and then bringing the two protomers to contact. For conformations without steric clashes, we forward calculated the PELDOR signals assuming uniform spin-label rotamer distributions^[@CR63]^. We found that the interface had to be formed by TM13 and TM14 to match the PELDOR data for L385R1. Details on the selection of conformations and dimer modeling procedures are indicated in Supplementary Fig. [5](#MOESM1){ref-type="media"}.
Modeling of the SLC26Dg dimer using distance distributions {#Sec18}
----------------------------------------------------------
In addition to the docking using PELDOR time traces, the SLC26Dg conformation at 440 ns of the MD simulation was used for rigid-body docking using mean ± SD of the PELDOR distance distributions (*P*(*r*)s) and C2 symmetry as the restraints. To determine the initial dimer structure model, rigid-body docking was performed using a grid search approach as implemented in the MMMDock tool of the Matlab-based software MMM^[@CR55],[@CR63]^. The experimental distance distributions for the positions K353R1 (4.4 ± 0.2 nm), V367R1 (3.9 ± 0.3 nm), and L385R1 (1.8 ± 0.1 nm) were used as the restraints, because the corresponding PELDOR time traces show clear oscillations. As the STAS domain of the SLC26Dg monomer is in a non-physiological orientation in the crystal structure, the STAS domain was deleted and the MD refined monomer was used as the starting structure. Assuming C2 symmetry for the dimer (*γ* = 0) and a parallel orientation (*z* = 0), a grid of the angle values for *α* (between 0--360° with 10° steps) and *β* (between 0--180° with 5° steps) and of the translation parameters *x* and *y* (between ± 7.5 nm with 0.25 nm steps) was generated.
For each model corresponding to a particular parameter set (*α*~i~, *β*~i~, *x*~i~, *y*~i~), mean distances for the positions K353R1, V367R1, and L385R1 were simulated. To obtain the initial grid search dimer model, the model with the minimum root mean square deviation (RMSD) to the input values was chosen. The parameter set from this initial search (*α*~0~ = 360°, *β*~0~ = 5°, *x*~0~ = 5 nm, *y*~0~ = 1 nm) served as the starting point for subsequent refinement, where small changes of the parameters further minimized the RMSD. As the refinement does not sample the whole possible parameter space, it was used after a global grid search to avoid becoming caught in local minima of the error surface. The parameters for the final model are *α* = 359.93°, *β* = 5.49°, *x* = 5.034 nm, *y* = 1.022 nm.
MD simulation of the SLC26Dg dimer {#Sec19}
----------------------------------
To relax the SLC26Dg dimer conformation (docked based on PELDOR time traces), we performed an additional MD simulation. The dimer was embedded into 648 POPC lipids and 37227 TIP3P water molecules (total system size 210,115 atoms). We used the same settings for the dimer MD simulation as described above for the monomer MD simulation. We performed the MD simulation for \~ 200 ns.
BioEn spin-label reweighting {#Sec20}
----------------------------
We calculated PELDOR signals for SLC26Dg dimer conformations saved along the MD simulation at 1-ns intervals. For each saved conformation, we performed a spin-label rotamer refinement^[@CR35]^ by (1) attaching MTSSL labels^[@CR63]^, (2) calculating PELDOR traces for each label position (K353, V367, L385) and rotamer combination, and (3) ensemble-reweighting the spin-label rotamers using the Bayesian inference of ensembles (BioEn)^[@CR64],[@CR65]^ maximum-entropy method for each individual dimer conformation. We selected the conformation at 107 ns as the SLC26Dg dimer conformation with minimal total *χ*^2^ for further analysis. L-curve analysis was used to identify suitable confidence parameters *θ*~*i*~ that trade off consistency between the simulated data at each site and experiment (using a chi-squared metric *χ*^2^) and the changes in the ensemble weights (using relative entropy $\documentclass[12pt]{minimal}
\usepackage{amsmath}
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\setlength{\oddsidemargin}{-69pt}
\begin{document}$$S_{KL}^{(i)}$$\end{document}$ for label positions *i* = 1,2,3)^[@CR35]^. Corresponding marginalized reweighted rotamer weights are visualized in Supplementary Fig. [4](#MOESM1){ref-type="media"}.
Radioisotope transport assays {#Sec21}
-----------------------------
For transport studies, proteoliposomes were thawed and extruded through a 400 nm polycarbonate filter. Extruded proteoliposomes were pelleted by centrifugation for 20 min at 250,000 × *g* at 15 °C and resuspended to a final lipid concentration of 100 mg/ml in 50 m[m]{.smallcaps} NaPi, pH 7.5, 2 m[m]{.smallcaps} MgSO~4~. The sample was homogenized with a 26 gauge needle and stored at room temperature until use. Radioisotope transport studies were performed on stirred samples at 30 °C. To initiate transport, proteoliposomes were diluted 40-fold into the external buffer (50 m[m]{.smallcaps} KPi, pH 6.0, 2 m[m]{.smallcaps} MgSO~4~ containing 24 µ[m]{.smallcaps} of \[^14^C\]-fumarate (Moravek) and 100 n[m]{.smallcaps} valinomycin). At appropriate time points, 100 μL samples were taken and immediately diluted with 2 mL ice-cold external buffer, followed by rapid filtration on 0.45 μm nitrocellulose filters. After washing the filters with another 2 mL buffer, the radioactivity associated with the filter was determined by scintillation counting.
Oxidative cross-linking of SLC26Dg-IL {#Sec22}
-------------------------------------
SLC26Dg-IL (I45C/A142C, inward-locked) was expressed and purified as described method for cysteine variants used in PELDOR studies. The eluted and HRV 3 C protease-cleaved protein was subjected to SEC in buffer C supplemented with 3 m[m]{.smallcaps} DTT. Proteins from peak fractions were pooled and DTT was removed with an Econo-Pac 10DG desalting column (Bio-rad) which was pre-equilibrated with buffer C. The concentration of protein was adjusted to \~ 7 µ[m]{.smallcaps} and oxidative cross-linking was initiated by adding a 10-fold concentrated CuPhen stock (3 m[m]{.smallcaps} CuSO~4~, 9 m[m]{.smallcaps} 1,10-phenanthroline monohydrate, freshly prepared) into the protein solution. The sample was incubated at room temperature for 45 min with gentle agitation and subsequently 0.5 [m]{.smallcaps} Na-EDTA, pH 7.0 was added to a final concentration of 20 m[m]{.smallcaps} to quench the reaction. The locked protein was injected for SEC to remove the cross-linking reagent and peak fractions were pooled and used for subsequent reconstitution and transport studies.
Oxidative cross-linking of cysteine mutants along TM14 {#Sec23}
------------------------------------------------------
*E. coli* MC1061 containing pBXC3sfGH holding the gene coding for cysteine variants of SLC26Dg fused C-terminally to superfolder GFP^[@CR66]^ were cultivated in 700 µL of TB/Amp in a 96 deep well plate. Cells were grown at 37 °C until an OD~600~ ≈ 1 was reached, after which the temperature was gradually decreased to 25 °C over the course of 1 h. Expression was induced by the addition of 0.005% [l]{.smallcaps}-arabinose and proceeded for 16 h. Cells were pelleted and resuspended in 500 µL of 50 m[m]{.smallcaps} KPi, pH 7.5, 1 m[m]{.smallcaps} MgSO~4~, 10% glycerol, 3 m[m]{.smallcaps} DTT, 1 m[m]{.smallcaps} phenylmethylsulfonyl fluoride with trace amounts of DNase I. After 20 min incubation on ice, cell disruption was carried out by 1 min sonification on ice at output level 4, and a 50% duty cycle (Sonifier 250, Branson). Unbroken cells and debris were removed by 5 min centrifugation at 13,000 × *g*. The supernatant was collected and DTT was removed by a Bio-Spin 6 column (Bio-rad) which was pre-equilibrated with 50 m[m]{.smallcaps} NaPi, pH 7.2. Oxidative cross-linking was initiated by adding a 10-fold concentrated CuPhen stock (3 m[m]{.smallcaps} CuSO~4~, 9 m[m]{.smallcaps} 1,10-Phenanthroline monohydrate, freshly prepared) into the vesicle solution. Samples were incubated at room temperature for 20 min and terminated by adding 100 m[m]{.smallcaps} *N*-ethylmaleimide and 0.5 [m]{.smallcaps} Na-EDTA, pH 7.0 in a final concentration of 5 m[m]{.smallcaps} and 20 m[m]{.smallcaps}, respectively. The reaction mixture was mixed with sodium dodecyl sulfate polyacrylamide gel electrophoresis (SDS-PAGE) sample buffer and the degree of cross-linking was determined by 8% SDS-PAGE and in gel GFP fluorescence imaging (ImageQuant LAS4000).
Preparation of CHO cell membrane vesicles {#Sec24}
-----------------------------------------
CHO/dhFr^-^ cells (ATCC CRL-9096) were cultivated as described previously^[@CR67]^. After 24 to 36 h of transfection, CHO cells expressing eGFP-tagged rat prestin (cysteine-free) or single-cysteine variants (V499C and I500C located at the cytoplasmic end of TM14^[@CR68]^) were treated with trypsin, harvested and washed with phosphate-buffered saline (PBS) containing 10 m[m]{.smallcaps} DTT. The cells were resuspended in disruption buffer (20 m[m]{.smallcaps} HEPES, pH 7.5, 150 m[m]{.smallcaps} NaCl, 10% glycerol, 1 m[m]{.smallcaps} MgSO~4~, 3 m[m]{.smallcaps} DTT, 20 µg/mL DNase I, 1 tablet of EDTA-free protease inhibitor cocktail) and lysed by six series of 5 sec sonification at 100% amplitude with 1 min incubation on ice in between (Sonoplus GM mini 20, Bandelin). The unbroken cells were removed by centrifugation at 1500 × *g* for 5 min and the membranes were obtained by ultracentrifugation at 50,000 rpm for 1 h (TLA110 rotor). The membrane pellet was resuspended in membrane resuspension buffer (20 m[m]{.smallcaps} HEPES, pH 7.5, 150 m[m]{.smallcaps} NaCl, 10% glycerol, 3 m[m]{.smallcaps} DTT) to a final protein concentration of \~ 0.7 mg/mL.
Oxidative cross-linking in CHO cell membrane vesicles {#Sec25}
-----------------------------------------------------
The resuspended rat prestin membrane vesicles were pelleted at 200,000 × *g* for 30 min at 4 °C. After centrifugation, the membrane vesicles were gently washed with 20 m[m]{.smallcaps} HEPES, pH 7.5, 150 m[m]{.smallcaps} NaCl, 10% glycerol without disturbing the pellet. The cross-linking reaction was initiated by homogeneously resuspension of membrane vesicles in the same amount of cross-linking buffer (20 m[m]{.smallcaps} HEPES, pH 7.5, 150 m[m]{.smallcaps} NaCl, 10% glycerol, 300 µ[m]{.smallcaps} CuSO~4~, 900 µ[m]{.smallcaps} 1,10-phenanthroline monohydrate, freshly prepared) and incubated at room temperature for 20 min. The cross-linking reaction was quenched by addition of 0.5 [m]{.smallcaps} Na-EDTA to a final concentration of 20 m[m]{.smallcaps}. To decrease anomalous migration of rat prestin in SDS-PAGE, cross-linked vesicles were treated with PNGaseF (New England BioLabs) at 37 °C for 1.5 h. The reaction mixture was mixed with non-reducing SDS-PAGE sample buffer and the degree of cross-linking was determined by 8% SDS-PAGE and in gel GFP fluorescence imaging (ImageQuant LAS4000).
Reporting summary {#Sec26}
-----------------
Further information on research design is available in the [Nature Research Reporting Summary](#MOESM5){ref-type="media"} linked to this article.
Supplementary information
=========================
{#Sec27}
Supplementary Information Supplementary Data 1 Peer Review File Description of Additional Supplementary Files Reporting Summary
Source Data
**Journal peer review information:** *Nature Communications* thanks the anonymous reviewers for their contribution to the peer review of this work. Peer reviewer reports are available.
**Publisher's note:** Springer Nature remains neutral with regard to jurisdictional claims in published maps and institutional affiliations.
These authors contributed equally: Yung-Ning Chang, Eva A. Jaumann, Katrin Reichel,
Supplementary information
=========================
**Supplementary Information** accompanies this paper at 10.1038/s41467-019-10001-w.
We acknowledge professor Thomas Prisner for his support on the EPR measurements. We thank Melanie Engelin and Kai Steinmetz for their support in mutagenesis, and Dr. Brinda Vallat for assistance with the PDB-Dev deposition. We acknowledge financial support from the Max Planck Society (KR, GH), the International Max Planck Research School (IMPRS) of the MPI of Biophysics in Frankfurt (EAJ), and the German Research Foundation via the Cluster of Excellence Frankfurt (Macromolecular Complexes; GH, ERG), the SPP1608 (Ultrafast and temporally precise information processing: normal and dysfunctional hearing; OL 240/4--2 to DO), and the SFB807 (Transport and Communication across Biological Membranes; GH, BJ, ERG).
YNC prepared samples for EPR and designed and performed cross-linking and functional studies under supervision of ERG. EAJ designed and performed EPR measurements under supervision of BJ. KR designed and performed MD simulations and spin-label ensemble refinement under supervision of GH. JH expressed rat prestin under supervision of DO. GH, BJ, and ERG designed the research. ERG drafted the manuscript. All authors analyzed and interpreted the data and contributed to the manuscript.
Data supporting the findings of this manuscript are available from the corresponding authors upon reasonable request. A reporting summary for this Article is available as a Supplementary Information file. The source data underlying Figs. [4](#MOESM6){ref-type="media"}a, [5b--d](#MOESM6){ref-type="media"}, and Supplementary Fig. [2c](#MOESM1){ref-type="media"} are provided as a Source Data file. Our structural model of the SLC26Dg dimer is deposited at PDB-Dev under accession code PDBDEV_00000031.
The code used for spin-label rotamer reweighting is freely available at <https://github.com/bio-phys/BioEn>.
Competing interests {#FPar1}
===================
The authors declare no competing interests.
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Q:
CSS/Jquery Dropdown Submenu Positioning Horrible
$(document).ready(function () {
$("ul.dropdown li").hover(function()
{
$(this).addClass("hover");
$('ul:first',this).css('visibility', 'visible');
}, function(){
$(this).removeClass("hover");
$('ul:first',this).css('visibility', 'hidden');
});
$("ul.dropdown li ul li:has(ul)").find("a:first").append(" » ");
})
$(document).on('click', 'ul#soleSubMenu li a', function () {
$('span#sole').text($(this).attr('data-sole'));
$('ul#soleSubMenu li a').removeClass('active');
$(this).addClass('active');
});
$(document).on('click', 'ul#dualTF li a', function () {
$('span#dual').text($(this).attr('data-dual'));
$('ul#dualTF li a').removeClass('active');
$(this).addClass('active');
});
$(document).on('click', 'ul#friendZN li a', function () {
$('span#fz').text($(this).attr('data-fz'));
$('ul#friendZN li a').removeClass('active');
$(this).addClass('active');
});
ul.dropdown {
list-style: none;
position: relative;
padding: 0px 0 10px 0;
}
ul.dropdown li {
float: left;
margin: 0px 10px 7px 0;
}
ul.dropdown li a {
display: block;
font-size: 11px;
}
ul.dropdown li.hover,
ul.dropdown li:hover {
position: relative;
}
ul.dropdown ul {
visibility: hidden;
position: absolute;
list-style: none;
}
ul.dropdown ul li {
font-weight: normal;
float: left;
}
/* IE 6 & 7 Needs Inline Block */
ul.dropdown ul li a {
display: inline-block;
}
ul.subMenu li a {text-algin: left;}
ul.subMenu li a.active { display:none }
<script src="https://ajax.googleapis.com/ajax/libs/jquery/2.1.1/jquery.min.js"></script>
<link rel="stylesheet" href="https://maxcdn.bootstrapcdn.com/bootstrap/3.3.7/css/bootstrap.min.css" integrity="sha384-BVYiiSIFeK1dGmJRAkycuHAHRg32OmUcww7on3RYdg4Va+PmSTsz/K68vbdEjh4u" crossorigin="anonymous">
<div>
<ul class="dropdown">
<li><a href="#">Sole: <span id="sole">Me</span></a>
<ul class="subMenu" id="soleSubMenu">
<li><a href="#" data-sole="Me">Me</a></li>
<li><a href="#" data-sole="Mine" class="active">Mine</a></li>
</ul>
</li>
<li><a href="#">Dual: <span id="dual">Yours</span></a>
<ul class="subMenu" id="dualTF">
<li><a href="#" data-dual="Yours" class="active">Yours</a></li>
<li><a href="#" data-dual="Ours">Ours</a></li>
</ul>
</li>
<li><a href="#">Friendzone: <span id="fz">New York</span></a>
<ul class="subMenu" id="friendZN">
<li><a href="#" data-fz="New York" class="active">New York</a></li>
<li><a href="#" data-fz="London">London</a></li>
<li><a href="#" data-fz="Singapore">Singapore</a></li>
<li><a href="#" data-fz="Cannes">Cannes</a></li>
</ul>
</li>
</ul>
Happy Holidays Everyone!
So I have a three topic menu with between 1 and 4 submenu items. This is just text menu using an unordered list and list items. I am having issues with two things.
Submenu item positioning is not lined up under the parent item and if there is more then 1 submenu item the other items are not lined up under the first submenu item.
If there is content below the longer menu item it just flows over top and the text becomes illegible. So either I need a white background behind it maybe something like an arrow pointing to the parent menu item so its encapsulated or push the content below it down.
Here is the fiddle link
Here is my CSS:
ul.dropdown {
list-style: none;
position: relative;
padding: 0px 0 10px 0;
}
ul.dropdown li {
float: left;
margin: 0px 10px 7px 0;
}
ul.dropdown li a {
display: block;
font-size: 11px;
}
ul.dropdown li.hover,
ul.dropdown li:hover {
position: relative;
}
ul.dropdown ul {
visibility: hidden;
position: absolute;
list-style: none;
}
ul.dropdown ul li {
font-weight: normal;
float: left;
}
/* IE 6 & 7 Needs Inline Block */
ul.dropdown ul li a {
display: inline-block;
}
ul.subMenu li a {text-algin: left;}
ul.subMenu li a.active { display:none }
Here is my HTML:
<div>
<ul class="dropdown">
<li><a href="#">Sole: <span id="sole">Me</span></a>
<ul class="subMenu" id="soleSubMenu">
<li><a href="#" data-sole="Me">Me</a></li>
<li><a href="#" data-sole="Mine" class="active">Mine</a></li>
</ul>
</li>
<li><a href="#">Dual: <span id="dual">Yours</span></a>
<ul class="subMenu" id="dualTF">
<li><a href="#" data-dual="Yours" class="active">Yours</a></li>
<li><a href="#" data-dual="Ours">Ours</a></li>
</ul>
</li>
<li><a href="#">Friendzone: <span id="fz">New York</span></a>
<ul class="subMenu" id="friendZN">
<li><a href="#" data-fz="New York" class="active">New York</a></li>
<li><a href="#" data-fz="London">London</a></li>
<li><a href="#" data-fz="Singapore">Singapore</a></li>
<li><a href="#" data-fz="Cannes">Cannes</a></li>
</ul>
</li>
</ul>
</div>
Here is my JS:
$(document).ready(function () {
$("ul.dropdown li").hover(function()
{
$(this).addClass("hover");
$('ul:first',this).css('visibility', 'visible');
}, function(){
$(this).removeClass("hover");
$('ul:first',this).css('visibility', 'hidden');
});
$("ul.dropdown li ul li:has(ul)").find("a:first").append(" » ");
})
$(document).on('click', 'ul#soleSubMenu li a', function () {
$('span#sole').text($(this).attr('data-sole'));
$('ul#soleSubMenu li a').removeClass('active');
$(this).addClass('active');
});
$(document).on('click', 'ul#dualTF li a', function () {
$('span#dual').text($(this).attr('data-dual'));
$('ul#dualTF li a').removeClass('active');
$(this).addClass('active');
});
$(document).on('click', 'ul#friendZN li a', function () {
$('span#fz').text($(this).attr('data-fz'));
$('ul#friendZN li a').removeClass('active');
$(this).addClass('active');
});
I included the JS for completeness as my feeling this is likely a pure CSS issue.
Any help would be greatly appreciated :)
A:
ul.dropdown ul li {
float:none;
}
.ul.dropdown ul {
padding-left:0;
}
this fixed it for me
You li does not need to be floating and you have a huge padding on the ul. You can use chrome inspect tools to see this and better understand what is going on. If you have any additional questions, don't hesitate
Here is your jsfiddle modified : https://jsfiddle.net/458Lh40a/1/
|
1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an insert-molding method for obtaining resin-molded products in which insert products such as electronic parts are sealed with a resin to a sufficient degree without deviation in position, and to a molding device therefor.
2. Description of the Related Art
In order to maintain the water-proof properties of electronic parts, there have heretofore been employed a method by which the surfaces of the electronic parts are covered with a potting material, a method by which a resin sealing plug is attached thereto, and the like method.
In recent years, however, there has been widely employed a method by which the surfaces are sealed with a resin in order to decrease the cost of products and to enhance the ratio of recycling. The sealing with the resin is generally based on an insert-molding method which features excellent mass-productivity at a decreased cost.
As the device used for the insert molding, there has heretofore been known the one disclosed in, for example, Japanese Unexamined Patent Publication (Kokai) No. 55-91642. That is, as shown in FIG. 10, there has been proposed a molding device 9 comprising a mold 90 having a cavity 91 in which will be arranged an insert product 2, and a holding pin 92 retractably provided in the mold 90 to hold the insert product 2 at a tip 921. Reference numeral 95 denotes a port for pouring-in the synthetic resin.
Described below is an insert-molding method using the above-mentioned mold 9.
First, the insert product 2 is arranged at a predetermined position in the cavity 91 being held by the holding pin 92. Next, the cavity 91 is filled with a synthetic resin 3 and, then, the holding pin 92 is retracted from the cavity 91. Thereafter, the cavity is further filled with the synthetic resin 3.
Thus, there is obtained a resin-molded product in which the whole surface of the insertion product is sealed with the resin.
According to the above-mentioned insert-molding method and device, however, the quality of the molded product is affected by the timing of retracting the holding pin 92 from the cavity 91. That is, when the holding pin 92 is retracted before the cavity 91 is completely filled with the synthetic resin 3, there remains no melted portion caused by the holding pin 92, and the sealing with resin is accomplished to a sufficient degree. Due to the synthetic resin 3 that is filled, however, the insert product 2 moves and its position is deviated. When the holding pin 92 is retracted after the cavity 91 is completely filled with the synthetic resin 3, on the other hand, the space in which the holding pin 92 used to be positioned is not sufficiently filled with the synthetic resin 3, and the insert product 2 is not sealed with the resin to a sufficient degree.
There has further been proposed a method according to which the synthetic resin 3 is forcibly extruded and introduced into space where the holding pin used to be positioned as disclosed in Japanese Unexamined Patent Publication (Kokai) No. 57-163528 or Japanese Unexamined Patent Publication (Kokai) No. 8-306718.
That is, as shown in FIG. 11, a device 8 used for this method includes a mold 80 having a cavity 81, a cylindrical holding pin 82 retractably provided in the mold 80, and a pole-like moving pin 83 retractably provided in the holding pin 82.
Briefly described below is the insert-molding method by using the above-mentioned molding device 8.
That is, referring to FIG. 11, an insert product 20 is arranged in the cavity 81 and is held by the holding pin 82. The cavity 81 is then filled with the synthetic resin 3.
Then, as shown in FIG. 12, the moving pin 83 is moved in the direction of the cavity 81 while the holding pin 82 is retracted, and the synthetic resin 3 is forcibly extruded and introduced into space where the holding pin 82 used to be positioned.
The insert product 20 has a through hole 201 formed in the central portion thereof and an accessory 202 such as a reed frame on the end surfaces thereof, the accessory 202 extending beyond the cavity 81 so as to be held by the mold 80.
However, the above-mentioned conventional insert-molding method and device have problems as described below.
That is, after the synthetic resin 3 is introduced, the surface of the synthetic resin 3 contacting to the holding pin 82 is cooled by the holding pin 82, resulting in the formation of a skin layer (solidified layer on the surface of the resin) 31.
The holding pin 82 has a cylindrical shape and, hence, the skin layer 31 assumes a cylindrical shape, too, as shown in FIG. 13.
Therefore, the area of the skin layer 31 inevitably increases but is never concentrated to one point despite being extruded by the moving pin 83.
Accordingly, the skin layer 31 does not melt again despite of the ambient heat or pressure, and the unmelted portion is very likely to remain.
When the holding pin 82 is retracted at a delayed timing, therefore, the unmelted portion remains and the insert product 20 is not sealed with the resin to a sufficient degree.
The present invention was accomplished in view of the above-mentioned problem inherent in the prior art, and its object is to provide an insert-molding method capable of sealing an insert product with a resin to a sufficient degree without permitting the position of the insert product to be deviated as a result of suppressing the residence of the unmelted portion caused by the holding pin, and a molding device therefor.
A first aspect of the present invention is concerned with an insert-molding method in which an insert product is arranged in a cavity of a mold and is held by a holding pin, a molten synthetic resin is poured into said cavity, and said holding pin is retracted to obtain an insert-molding product in which said insert product is covered with said synthetic resin, wherein a moving pin is provided adjacent to said holding pin, said moving pin is moved in the direction of the cavity while retracting said holding pin after said cavity is filled with said synthetic resin, and said synthetic resin is extruded and introduced into space where said holding pin used to be positioned.
In the present invention, what most draws attention is that the moving pin is moved in the direction of the cavity while retracting the holding pin after the cavity is filled with the synthetic resin, and the synthetic resin is extruded and introduced into space where the holding pin used to be positioned.
A second aspect of the present invention is concerned with a molding device for carrying out the above-mentioned molding method to produce an insert-molding product in which an insert product is covered with a synthetic resin, comprising a mold having a cavity for molding, and a holding pin retractably provided in said mold to hold the insert product, wherein said mold has a moving pin that retractably moves in the direction of the cavity adjacent to said holding pin.
In this molding device, what most draws attention is that the moving pin retractably moves in the direction of the cavity adjacent to the holding pin.
Therefore, the molding device of the invention makes it possible to produce an insert-molding product in which the insert product is sealed with the resin to a sufficient degree while suppressing the deviation in position of the insert product. |
Q:
List authors that have written certain number of posts in category/tags in Wordpress
I'm struggling to get the list of authors on the category page. I need to list the authors who have written at least 5 articles in that category.
I need something like this in tags also.
Any idea how to do this in wordpress?
A:
Its only possible with a custom SQL query so here is a simple function which should return an array with user id's of users with at least $n posts in the current term archive, which means it should work in categories, tags and custom taxonomies
function get_authors_with($num = 5){
global $wpdb;
$term_slug = get_query_var( 'term' );
$taxonomyName = get_query_var( 'taxonomy' );
$current_term = get_term_by( 'slug', $term_slug, $taxonomyName );
$sub_q = $wpdb->prepare("SELECT * FROM $wpdb->posts
INNER JOIN $wpdb->term_relationships ON ($wpdb->posts.ID = $wpdb->term_relationships.object_id)
INNER JOIN $wpdb->term_taxonomy ON ($wpdb->term_relationships.term_taxonomy_id = $wpdb->term_taxonomy.term_taxonomy_id)
WHERE ($wpdb->term_taxonomy.term_id = %s
AND $wpdb->term_taxonomy.taxonomy = '%s'
AND $wpdb->posts.post_type = 'post'
AND $wpdb->posts.post_status = 'publish')",
$current_term->term_id,
$taxonomyName
);
$sql = $wpdb->prepare("SELECT $wpdb->posts.post_author, FROM (%s)
GROUP BY $wpdb->posts.post_author
HAVING count(*) > %s",
$sub_q,
$num
);
return $wpdb->get_results($sql);
}
A:
Try this.
function list_author_in_this_cat ($with) {
if (is_category()) {
$current_category = get_query_var('cat');
$args = array(
'numberposts' => -1,
'category' => $current_category,
'orderby' => 'author',
'order' => 'ASC'
);
} else {
$tag_id = get_query_var('tag_id');
$args = array(
'numberposts' => -1,
'tag__in' => $tag_id,
'orderby' => 'author',
'order' => 'ASC'
);
}
$cat_posts = get_posts($args);
$author_id_array = array();
$user_posts = array();
foreach( $cat_posts as $cat_post ):
$user_posts[$cat_post->post_author][] = $cat_post->ID;
endforeach;
foreach( $user_posts as $key => $user_post ):
$user_post = array_unique($user_post);
$count_user_posts[$key] = count($user_post);
if ($count_user_posts[$key] >= $with) {
$author_id_array[] = $key;
}
endforeach;
return $author_id_array; }
In your theme files, place this code wherever you want the list of authors to be displayed:
if (is_category() || is_tag()) {
$at_least = 5; // at least 5 articles in current category or tags
$author_array = list_author_in_this_cat ($at_least);
foreach (array_slice($author_array, 0, 4) as $author) : // limit 4 results
$name = get_userdata($author)->display_name;
$link = get_userdata($author)->user_login;
echo "<a href='/author/".$link."'>".$name."</a>\n";
endforeach;
}
|
Q:
Firebase Firestore get user related data
In my Firestore database I have two collections, users and feeds. Feeds contains data about the field, like comments, followers... etc. The followers data type is a simple (string) array.
My question is, that how can I get every feed where the follower's array contains the user's id? Is there any other way than query all the feeds, and select the related ones in a foreach?
A:
It's not possible to query documents based on the contents of an array field. From the documentation:
Although Cloud Firestore can store arrays, it does not support
querying array members or updating single array elements. However, you
can still model this kind of data by leveraging the other capabilities
of Cloud Firestore.
If you want to query only fields that have a certain follower, you should use an object fields instead of an array.
That same page of documentation goes on to describe the strategy for converting your array to an object. The object will map user ids to a boolean true if they are following that feed.
|
Thanks for sending that over! I must admit I haven’t read much of Sartre, so the lecture you sent helped remedy that.
I have a hard time differentiating existentialism from hedonism, something Sartre seems to acknowledge at least by accident when he talks about how existentialism got an early reputation for exalting man’s baser actions.
I suppose if we are to consider existence to come before essence then it logically follows that whatever I experience (ie. my present state of existence) should be considered of greater value than what I know (ie. knowledge of a transcendent essence). And if we are to begin with the subjective then it stands to reason that we can never attain knowledge of the divine. This struggle of where to begin epistemologically was also wrestled with by Plato and Aristotle (succinctly captured in this piece of art which depicts Plato’s notion of idealism which is the polar opposite of what Sartre is arguing for) and was also eloquently expressed by Francis Schaeffer (notably in his “Modern Man & Epistemology” lecture).
The third objection, stated by saying, “You take with one hand what you give with the other,” means, at bottom, “your values are not serious, since you choose them yourselves.” To that I can only say that I am very sorry that it should be so; but if I have excluded God the Father, there must be somebody to invent values.
One of the most instrumental Christian philosophers who paved the way for this kind of thinking, at least in the Church, was Friedrich Schleiermacher who argued that the primary way we know God is through our emotions and not through revelation/reason.
Its interesting how Sartre calls for men to be stewards of the emerging essence of mankind at the same time he claims that there is no ideal essence we are obliged to grow towards. I would agree with his notion that we should act as if all of mankind is defined by our actions, but that only makes sense if there is an objective and external observer whose favor or disapproval mattered. Sartre borrows much from the Christianity he misrepresents (ie. that Christian teaching is determined by the subjective whims of priests) and loathes. In fact, his a priori assumption that moral ideals would remain unchanged if we were to find that God doesn’t exist stands in direct opposition to his admission that Dostoevsky’s notion that “without God all things are permissible”. And he further contradicts himself when he talks about an ideal form of morality whose particulars are subject to change!
I understand why he claims that existentialism is a form of humanism, mostly because it puts man in the center of the universe. But like all other humanistic variants, it suffers from the same frailties that all men do. Namely our lack of omniscience and immortality, both of which it seems Sartre struggles with mightily to no avail.
Thanks again for the paper. Here are some movies on existentialism in case you’re interested to see what Hollywood does with this philosophy. There are a lot of big name actors in these movies which leads me to believe that existentialism is held in high esteem by much of Hollywood.
eXistenZ – The director required the cast to read Sartre and other existential philosophers in preparation for the movie
Many people today consider government regulation to be a necessary evil. Without government overseeing greedy corporations, the thinking goes, attention to quality, and especially safety, will degrade.
It is assumed that government is the only entity with the ability and motivation to look out for the interests of everyone.
To help illustrate how faulty the notion of government regulation being our saving grace is, let’s take a look at how the Soviet Union regulated the production of its most effective propaganda outlet, the common TV set. Keep in mind that the USSR had an interest in producing quality TVs in order to govern more effectively.
Soviet television sets tended to explode, because of faulty manufacturing. The surprising and alarming propensity of Russian receivers to blow up, and by extension the apprehension it causes in Soviet viewers, was one of the stranger features of Soviet life. By one estimate, sixty percent of all apartment fires in Moscow are caused by mass-produced Soviet television sets, which hada tendency to explode. Of the 715 apartment fires in Moscow in November 1987, 90 were blamed on exploding television sets, a statistic the Soviet press viewed as an alarming commentary on Soviet technology. Police said three television models notorious for defective wiring are being removed from the market, and millions of warning leaflets have been mailed to television owners.
Its true that markets aren’t efficient (in terms of the efficient market hypothesis ), but as inefficient as they are, governments are worse. It is a fallacy to think that a small subset of the market can do a better job than the whole market in ferreting out bad products.
It was pointed out 11 years ago how time and again scientists have claimed that particular genes or chromosomal regions are associated with behavioral traits, only to withdraw their findings when they were not replicated. Findings linking specific genes to complex human behaviors all were announced with great fanfare; all were greetedwithout skepticismin the popular press; all are now in disrepute. Nevertheless, considerable grant money has been available in this country for research seeking to show a genetic basis for homosexuality. Researchers now openly admit that after searching for more than 20 years, they are still unable to find the gay gene.
Some deny that Jesus ever existed and I find that odd. Bart does too and Bart isn’t a Christian! I believe people deny the existence of something (God, Jesus, the soul, etc.) when they don’t want to study it and/or deal with the ramifications of their study. |
The Gundam.info portal site began streaming the first 15 minutes of "Tanjō Akai Suisei" (Rise of the Red Comet), the sixth episode of the Mobile Suit Gundam: The Origin anime and the last in the anime's "Loum Arc," on Wednesday. (Note: The Youtube link in the link above is region-locked to Japan.)
The videos below are available in both the English dub and in Japanese audio with English, Simplified Chinese, Traditional Chinese, Korean, and French subtitles.
The episode will open in Japan on May 5, and will focus on the young Zeon ace Char Aznable earning his "Red Comet" nom de guerre. The episode will also focus on the beginnings of the Federation's "Project V" weapons project that will eventually give birth to the RX-78-2 Gundam.
Masayoshi Yamazaki will perform the anime's opening theme song "Hasen no Namida" (Dotted Line Tears).
Mobile Suit Gundam The Origin V: Clash at Loum ( Mobile Suit Gundam The Origin V: Loum no Kaisen ), the anime's fifth episode, opened in Japan on September 2 in 35 theaters — more than double the previous four episodes' 15 theaters. The episode screened for four weeks, double the two-week screening run that each of the previous episodes had.
The anime project adapts Yasuhiko's manga of the same name, which in turn is inspired by the first Mobile Suit Gundam anime's story. Yasuhiko designed the characters in the first Gundam anime, and he serves as the chief director and storyboarder for the Gundam The Origin anime. The manga has 10 million copies in print. |
Q:
can I save an entire scrollpane as "pdf"?
I have been working on javafx and I want to save an entire scrollpane as "pdf". Is there a way I can do it without printjob?just a save button and it'll directly save the pane as pdf to directory using file chooser.
A:
Yes, it is possible. You can use iText (and possibly instance of class Robot) for example. Use iText and instance of Class Robot if you want to save an image of the scroll pane to a pdf file, otherwise you can just use iText.
|
The op-ed raised a host of ethical and journalistic questions many have never considered before, including for journalists who work for the New York Times. | Spencer Platt/Getty Images With anonymous op-ed, it’s Times vs. Times
President Donald Trump ripped Wednesday’s bombshell New York Times op-ed as “gutless” and demanded that the paper turn its author “over to government at once!” His press secretary called the unidentified senior administration official “a coward” and urged the person to resign.
Jim Dao, The Times’ op-ed editor, has a very different view. The official, he told POLITICO, clearly believes in a “sense of mission in being in government” and felt “quite strongly that they needed to speak out at an important moment in our history.”
The first-person opinion piece , “I Am Part of the Resistance Inside the Trump Administration,” hit like a thunderclap in Washington — as well as in the Times newsroom, where reporters were blindsided. The op-ed raised a host of ethical and journalistic questions many have never considered before, including whether Times news reporters — who work independent of the editorial department, which published the op-ed — should now set about determining the identity of an anonymous Times opinion writer.
One Times reporter said colleagues were already volleying back and forth with sources, trying to guess the writer’s identity. But for others, a sense of annoyance quickly set in, with some journalists frustrated about the position the Times’ editorial page had put the news section in.
Times reporter Jodi Kantor summed up the conundrum on Twitter, writing, “So basically: Times reporters now must try to unearth the identity of an author that our colleagues in Opinion have sworn to protect with anonymity?” She added: “Or is the entire newspaper bound by the promise of anonymity? I don’t think so, but this is fascinating. Not sure if there’s precedent.” (Kantor later emphasized that the tweets weren‘t a critique of the Times‘ handling, but “just the sound of my head exploding at such a dramatic, unprecedented situation.“)
Morning Media Your guide to the media circus — weekday mornings, in your inbox. Email Sign Up By signing up you agree to receive email newsletters or alerts from POLITICO. You can unsubscribe at any time. This site is protected by reCAPTCHA and the Google Privacy Policy and Terms of Service apply.
Ethical questions aside, there might also be strategic concerns for reporters. While the news and opinion sections operate separately, that point could be lost on potential sources, who could be spooked by Times news reporters working to reveal a Times editorial source.
“I don’t think any of us were expecting it,” said Helene Cooper, a veteran Times reporter who covers the Pentagon, adding, “I was shocked when I saw it.” Cooper said that while she was still processing the decision, she was not unhappy about it.
“My first reaction was, ‘Why are we doing this?’” she said. “But the more I think about it, is there any difference between that and when we give anonymity to sources?”
The Times’ opinion section has granted writers anonymity in the past. But that’s typically because the author, such as an undocumented immigrant or Syrian refugee, would be in clear danger if his or her identity were revealed. Dao said it was the first time in “anyone’s memory that we’ve done it with an American official.”
In the op-ed, the Times said it was withholding the author’s identity because the writer’s “job would be jeopardized by its disclosure.” That same justification is frequently used by Times reporters to grant sources anonymity, but Dao said that on the opinion side, editors don’t view an official speaking out in quite the same way that reporters view sources.
“We don’t call these people sources, we call them writers,” Dao said.
“Our mission is a bit different,” he added. “It’s to get people to write as honestly as they can about what they’re experiencing.”
In the piece, the senior administration official described high-ranking staffers as “working diligently from within to frustrate parts of [Trump’s] agenda and his worst inclinations” and having even discussed invoking the 25th Amendment to possibly remove the president from office.
While Trump’s erratic behavior and the concerns of exasperated staffers have been chronicled before, The Times’ framing and first-person perspective helped the piece ricochet quickly across social media. It also appeared amid this week’s frenzy over Bob Woodward’s forthcoming book, “Fear,” which, according to The Washington Post , depicts “Trump’s inner sanctum” as trying “to control his impulses and prevent disasters.”
The president already trashed Woodward’s book on Tuesday, claiming the legendary journalist “made up” quotes. (Woodward says he stands by his reporting.) On Wednesday, Trump took aim at the “failing New York Times” for running what he called a “gutless editorial.” He later cryptically tweeted, “Treason?”
Dao said the senior administration official reached out to him through an intermediary. He said the op-ed page is a platform to “let people express themselves in their own words” and that “there was no effort to hide, mask or otherwise distort the person’s writing voice.”
Across Twitter, internet sleuths pounced, as users fixated on keywords and clues to try to run down the writer’s identity. A few Times accounts even provided unintentional, but inaccurate, clues.
Assistant Managing Editor Sam Dolnick tweeted about an op-ed from a “senior White House staffer” — as opposed to the op-ed itself, which referred much more broadly to a “senior administration official.” He later had to walk back his tweet, saying , “I have zero knowledge about the identity.”
Similarly, The Times’ official Twitter account referred to the writer as “he,” but Times spokeswoman Eileen Murphy said that the tweet , which remains up, was an error and that the person who posted it does not know the op-ed writer’s identity; only senior opinion editors do.
Cooper said she expected that Times reporters would try to determine the identity of the writer, like journalists at any other outlet.
“That’s our job, right?” she said. “The first thing I wanted to know was who wrote it, but I can guarantee you that the op-ed section is not going to tell us.”
No, the op-ed section isn’t going to tell reporters the writer’s identity — or how they should handle it.
“The Times newsroom is going to do what it’s going to do,” Dao said. “Just as they do not demand we run a certain op-ed, we don‘t tell them what to report on and not report on.”
|
The invention relates to a belt retractor for an occupant restraint system.
In addition to the usual belt webbing and/or vehicle-sensitive locking functions modern belt retractors are equipped with additional functions where necessary. One of these additional functions is safeguarding loads or child seats by a state of blockage which is activated by complete unwinding and subsequent retraction of the belt webbing. Switching back into the locking condition in case of an emergency is achieved by complete retraction of the belt webbing. Another additional function is a belt fastening detection for which the withdrawn belt webbing length is determined.
Such additional functions of a belt retractor necessitate a high complexity of mechanical components. Particularly complex is to provide different types of belt retractors for the respective additional functions requested.
This is achieved in a belt retractor for an occupant restraint system comprising a frame, a belt reel rotatably mounted in the frame, an electric motor drive coupled to the belt reel, a locking mechanism for selectively blocking the belt reel, and a vehicle-sensitive sensor. The locking mechanism is actuated by an actuator. An electronic control unit is provided with an input interface and an output interface. The vehicle-sensitive sensor is connected to the input interface, and the actuator and the electric motor drive are connected to the output interface.
The invention provides a novel belt retractor having a uniform mechanical basic design enabling a series of additional functions to be achieved when requested.
Instead of the conventional retraction spring the belt retractor according to the invention provides an electric motor instead of the conventional retraction spring which loads the belt reel with the retraction torque required in each case. The functions of the belt retractor are controlled by an electronic control unit including an input interface and an output interface. The vehicle-sensitive sensor is connected to the input interface and the actuator is connected to the output interface, as is the electric motor. This basic concept facilitates the adaption of the locking and retraction functions of the belt retractor to the respective requirements, since merely program data need to be adapted, according to which the electronic control unit works. Furthermore, various sensors can be connected to the input interface of the electronic control unit, the output signals of which are taken into account in driving the locking mechanism. Likewise further actuators or positioners and the like may be connected to the output interface of the electronic control unit, the functions of which are controlled in dependence of the sensor signals as polled via the input interface of the electronic control unit. The control unit signals the electric motor to provide a belt tensioning when the signal constellation of a plurality of sensors, connected to the input interface indicates an imminent vehicle collision. The control unit takes into account at least one of the following sensor signals: ABS signal, braking pressure signal, acceleration signal, vehicle speed signal, engine speed signal, belt force signal and absolute belt reel angle of rotation.
In the preferred embodiment the belt retractor includes an electric motor, more particularly a servo motor, which not only carries out the task of the retraction spring in a conventional mechanical belt retractor but also can ensure a pretension of the belt webbing in an imminent vehicle crash.
One of the sensors connected to the input interface yields in the preferred embodiment an incremental signal representing the rotation of the belt reel, preferably in conjunction with a further signal indicating the sense of rotation. These signals are analyzed by the electronic control unit by up/down counting to determine the absolute angle of rotation of the belt reel and thus the length of the belt webbing withdrawn.
In this preferred embodiment of the belt retractor has the following functions, some of which may also be achieved only when required:
child seat/load safeguarding
belt fastening detection
vehicle-sensitive blocking: where the belt reel of the belt retractor is blocked when a vehicle-sensitive sensor signals a severe vehicle impact;
retraction spring;
comfort gearing: smooth gear transmission between the motor shaft and the belt reel;
blocking on non-locked seatback: where the belt reel is blocked when the backrest of a vehicle seat is not a locked position (to indicate that the backrest should be locked before the seat belt is fastened);
belt webbing-sensitive blocking: where the belt reel is blocked when the belt webbing is abruptly pulled;
belt webbing pretensioning.
On the basis of a uniform electromechanical basic concept, numerous embodiments, differing in terms of functionality, can be provided with the belt retractor system according to the invention. The functionality is essentially determined by the sensors connected to the input interface of the electronic control unit and by the unerasably stored program according to which the control unit operates.
The preferred embodiment provides additional functions which can not be realized in conventional belt retractors. One of these additional functions is the precautionary tensioning of the belt webbing in a critical situation, e.g. a full braking. By making use of a high-performance electric motor drive a tensioning force of 250 N or more is possible. A tensioning travel of 120 mm or more for a tensioning time of only about 120 ms is realistic. Such pretensioning enables the belt slack to be eliminated already prior to an accident to minimize the risk of injury of the vehicle occupants and to optimize the effectiveness of the conventional belt tensioner, in particular the pyrotechnic-type belt tensioner.
Belt webbing pretensioning may also be used to correct the sitting posture of a vehicle occupant to minimize the risk of injury by inflatable restraint means (air bag).
When, following a belt webbing pretensioning, normal driving conditions reoccur, belt tensioning can be reversed.
On the other hand, after pretensioning of the belt webbing and subsequent release have occurred, a renewed pretensioning of the belt webbing is possible.
In the preferred embodiment the electric motor is coupled by a toothed belt to a gearwheel side-mounted to the belt reel, the gearwheel having a diameter larger than that of the drive pinion of the electric motor. The toothed belt is set under tension by a belt tightener as a function of the load. In normal operation the belt tension is small, so that the drive works extremely silent and with low wear. On tensioning of the belt webbing, the belt tension is increased in order to assure a transmission of force without skipping of teeth. At the same time, there is achieved an optimum balance in terms of tooth clearance and tolerances.
The electric motor employed is preferably a low-wear, brushless four-phase motor, its bifilar stator winding achieving low commutating losses. Using a motor with an outside rotor a compact design is achieved. The outside rotor carries preferably a 14-pole neodymium magnetic ring to enable a high drive moment in line with a compact design, particularly in a short-time overload operation. Two Hall sensors yield the rotor position, the sense of rotation and, from this, the length of belt webbing withdrawn.
The locking mechanism of the belt retractor consists of an apertured disk on the flange of the belt reel and a latching pin mounted axially shiftable and spring-loaded at the frame of the retractor, that pin being selectively latched in the holes of the apertured disk of the belt reel. This engagement of the latching pin in the holes of the apertured disk is facilitated by lead-in ramps adjacent to the holes. The latching pin is maintained in the non-activated resting position by an electromagnet. In the non-energized condition the latching pin is moved into the locked position by the spring loading.
The electronic control unit of the belt retractor meets more particularly the following requirements:
motor commutation;
torque control;
overload protection:
drive of the belt reel release;
control of all comfort and safety functions;
continual computation of the actual belt withdrawal length via the absolute angle of rotation of the belt reel;
input signals of the various connected sensors, discretely and via a connected bus system (CAN):
fast 8-bit control unit with idle mode and integrated EEPROM;
stator integrated on printed circuit board.
In the preferred embodiment of a vehicle occupant restraint system all belt retractors have the same electro-mechanical basic design and differ only in their functionality determined substantially by the program data stored in the electronic control unit. Thus, for example, the functionality of the front belt retractors differ from those of the rear belt retractors. The electronic control units of all belt retractors may be linked to a common central sensor. |
Wide Wheels And Tires Buyer's Guide - Size Matters
A Guide To Wide Wheels And Tires And The Stuff To Make 'Em Fit
When it comes to custom trucks, size matters in one way or another. Don't believe us? We can prove it. The next time you talk to someone about your truck see how long it takes for the conversation to move towards the size subject. Remember, the amount of drop, lift, and engine cubic inches all fall into the size category. When the subject moves to wheels there are two sizes that can be considered-diameter and width. The diameter trend has been well-covered over the years with rims increasing to 30-plus inches, so we are checking out wide wheels here. The main focus of this guide is the aftermarket wheel size that started it all-width. That's right, way before there were 17s there were 17-inch-wide slicks slapped on the back of hot rods. The wide tires weren't just put out back because they look cool. They were installed in an attempt to wrangle the oodles of horsepower guys were starting to find. When that need for traction and added style met the road it was called the Pro Street look. Heck, there was even a Phantom Dually trend that fueled the fat tire truck market in the early '90s as well. Needless to say, the wide-tire look is pretty cool, even our models Elisabeth and Sarah know that wider is better. So sit back and enjoy our guide to everything you need to achieve the wide look, and hopefully it will help transform your stocker into a steamroller, Phantom Dually, Pro Street, or whatever you want to call it.
1. Air BagIt Suspension
The company has a full line of rear suspension setups from bolt-on to universal kits for just about every truck made. Shown here is a universal triangulated four-link kit that comes with everything you need minus the welder. You can also pick up a C-notch, 'bags, and everything else needed to complement your new suspension.Airbagit.com Suspension(800) 842-8789
www.airbagit.com
2. Art Morrison
You can't just stuff wide wheels on your truck without some chassis mods and Art Morrison can engineer, build, and fabricate custom rear clips for a variety of applications. Whether it is for drag race, Pro Street, corner carving, or laying rail, AME can take your dimensions and by utilizing a number of suspension options (ladder bar, 4-link, 3-link, 4-bar, air springs, coil springs, etc), create a rear subframe to fit your needs. All custom orders are drawn on a CAD (computer aided design) program, and the drawing is sent to you for final approval. Once the company gets the OK, fabrication begins. Art Morrison Enterprises Inc. can also supply axles, brakes, and third-member components to complete the package.Art Morrison Enterprises
(866) 321-4499
www.artmorrison.com
3. Billet Specialties
These 15-inch-diameter Street Lite Wheels are available in either 14 or 15 inches wide with the 5-on-5 bolt circle. Of course a matching front wheel is available in sizes from 15x4 thru 15x10. Each Street Lite comes with SFI 15-1 certification for street or strip use and will work with 5/8-inch race studs and washers or standard mag shank lug nuts. The Street Lite is also lightweight with a 15x4 barely moving the needle on the scale at 9 pounds and a 15x15 coming in at 22.2 pounds. With these wheels you can truly walk the walk and talk the talk.Billet Specialties
(800) 245-5382
www.billetspecialties.com
4. Cando Specialties
These upper and lower '97-'04 Dodge Dakota arms are designed to allow you to lay out on 22s but come with an added feature of pulling in the front track width. So these can be used to add wider tires to the front of a Dakota. The Lower A-arm comes with a TIG-welded lower bag plate made of 1/4-inch steel.CanDo Specialties, Inc.
(530) 533-8680
www.candospecialties.com
5. Center Line
The 915 Retro is a two-piece billet wheel constructed of one-piece rotary forged aluminum center and a tradition rolled outer, resulting in the ability to diversify sizing and vehicle applications. The Retro is from the Legend Series, available in diameters ranging from 15 inches all the way to 20 inches. Widths vary in size but top out at 15 inches. Pad heights on this wheel are made to fit stock and aftermarket upgraded brake systems. Polished or black finishes are available.Center Line Wheels
(800) 345-8671
www.centerlinewheels.com
6. Currie Enterprises
Currie specializes in building complete 9-inch Ford rearends to customer specs. Narrowed, back-braced, heavy-wall tubes, 28-, 31-, 35-, and 40-spline axle options are all available. Currie basically just needs you to supply the overall width dimension from brake face to brake face, and where you would like the pinion set side-to-side, and the company will take it from there. It offers bracketry installation services and has a full service assembly area that can provide you with a complete rearend ready to install right out of the box.Currie Enterprises
(714) 367-2672
www.currie-rearends.com
7. Falken Tire
When you go to a big rim diameter like a 26, the tire has to be at least 11-inches wide so it doesn't look like a wagon wheel. Enter Falken's Ziex S/TZ04. This all-season tire features a non-directional tread pattern, which allows for unrestricted rotation, extending the life of the tire. The 23-, 24-, and 26-inch diameters come in 11-inch widths so you don't have to roll on big skinnies.Falken Tire Corporation
(800) 723-2553
www.falkentire.com
8. Fatman
Fitting wide tires and adding traction is easily accomplished with Fatman's Rear Pro Link Four Bar kit. Nearly any axle can be used, with chrome coilovers standard, and all-stainless bars and hardware as an option. The Four Bar and coilovers can be mounted inside the framerail, allowing maximum tire clearance.Fatman Fabrications
(704) 545-0369
www.fatmanfab.com
9. Grant Kustoms
When it comes time to cover up those wide rollers, you will need new tubs. The wheeltubs from Grant Kustoms are fully welded and metal-finished and come with the option of a beveled edge or a radiused edge. Notch covers can also be built with radiused corners or sharp brakes. They can be made in a variety of custom sizes and shapes, and you can even send the company a profile pattern and it will build it to match.Grant Kustoms
(530) 532-7832
www.grantkustoms.com
10. MHT
Check out the two-piece (bolt-together or welded) 20-inch Foose Nitrous, which is available in widths ranging from 7 to 15 inches. The wheel comes in chrome, polished, or any color in the spectrum. The Foose Nitrous is also available in a 22x12 three-piece version. Foose Nitrous and other Foose designs are exclusively manufactured and distributed through MHT Luxury Alloys and its warehouses.MHT Wheels
(800) 493-7891
www.mhtwheels.com
11. Mickey Thompson
M/T has the biggest DOT-approved street-legal radial tire on the market right now with its Sportsman S/R. These wide rollers are available for 15-, 18-, and 20-inch wheels in tire diameters from 26 to 33 inches, and widths up to 20 inches. The tires feature polyester/fiberglass belting and radial construction for a smooth comfortable ride, a rim flange protector to protect wheels from curb damage, and a directional tread pattern designed for improved wet traction and handling. Matching front "skinny" tires and billet rims are available as well for a complete package.Mickey Thompson Performance Tires and Wheels
(800) 222-9092
www.mickeythompsontires.com
12. Nitto
The NT420S was specifically engineered to be a high-performance radial, and the company has 18 different sizes that are over 11 inches wide. The tires outer shoulder has large, continuous blocks to improve dry traction, while the inner shoulder channels away water for wet performance. The NT420S has a non-directional tread pattern that can be rotated front-to-back and side-to-side.Nitto Tire
www.nittotire.com
13. QA1
The company has some products that will make the job of scratch-building a rear suspension much simpler to accomplish. QA1 has a full line of rod ends, spherical bearings, pre-cut tabs, weld-on wrench hexes, tube adapters, and coilover shocks that you can use to design and build your own suspension setup. Grab the welder and some tubing and you could be four-linked in no time.QA1 Motorsports
(800) 721-7761
www.qa1.net
14. Stockton
When you need an extra wide wheel but don't want to stray away from the factory look, Stockton Wheel Service offers custom wheel widths and offsets that fit any application, including Pro-Street vehicles. Stockton offers factory 14- through 17-inch steel GM Rally, Mopar Rally, Ford Henry (shown), or any factory steel wheel up to 18 Inches wide and in just about any offset and popular bolt pattern. In addition, Stockton's custom steel wheels are available in raw steel, fully chromed, or with a powdercoated finish.Stockton Wheel Service
(800) 395-9433
www.stocktonwheel.com
15. Summit Racing
Hoosier's Quick Time D.O.T. tires feature a reduced tread pattern that somehow got D.O.T. approval and a special soft compound that provides gobs of traction. This makes them ideal for drag racing classes that require a street-legal tire. They feature bias-ply construction with solid white letters on the sidewall. They're available in tread widths from 9 inches all the way up to 17 inches, with section widths up to 21.5 inches and 14- and 15-inch diameters.Summit Racing
(800) 230-3030
www.summitracing.com
16. Toyo
The Proxes ST II by Toyo Tires is the newest high-performance tire created for today's SUVs, sport trucks, and select crossovers. The fresh design and advanced tread elements of the Toyo Proxes ST II deliver a balance of style and all-season performance and consistent wear. They are available in 16- to 26-inch rim diameters with widths range from 225 to 315mm and 65- down to 30-series profiles. The Proxes ST II is available in V, W, and Y speed ratings and includes OE and plus fitments. Toyo Tire U.S.A.
(800) 678-3250
www.toyotires.com
17. Wheels Vintiques
Another company that offers the factory-look wheels in just about any width and backspacing combination is Wheels Vintiques. You can get a set of these 15-inch-diameter Rallye rims in widths ranging from 6 inches all the way up to 14 inches. To accessorize these rims you can choose from numerous hubcap and trim ring options (a Camaro style is shown). The rims can be ordered in bare steel, chrome, or powdercoat finishes.Wheel Vintiques
(559) 251-6957
www.wheelvintiques.com
18. Vintage Wheel Works
The Vintage 45 has five curved spokes that have a rounded "D" shape. It has a media-blasted center and polished outer barrel. The center disc is manufactured from virgin 356 aluminum ingots and heat-treated to a T6 factor. The outer barrel is made from spun 6061 sheet-aluminum and has a fully polished front surface. Available in 17x7-, 8-, 9-, 9.5- and 11-inches, the rims are available in a variety of different five-lug patterns with custom backspacing and bolt patterns available.Vintage Wheel Works
(714) 690-4700
www.vintagewheelworks.com |
Evans tweeted recently about their fight and said it was a great experience, and that GSP is a really nice guy. GSP said in an interview today that his work on the film has already wrapped, after a week in Cleveland. He says he plays a French mercenary, who has some impressive leaping ability --- so....yeah.
Sounds like a minor character, for sure, but hopefully a good scene. Or two.
I thought they weren't filming in Cleveland until next month. Every shot we have of the cast so far has been in LA. |
Directions
Property Specs
Price$4,000.00
CityWINDSOR, ON
Address691 OUELLETTE
Listing ID1800850
Square Footage4000
Lot Size50 X IRREG FT
StyleMulti-Storey
AgeOld
ParkingIncluded In Rent
StatusFor Lease
TypeOffice(S)
ZoningCD3.1
Details:
Fantastic location near downtown city core, usa tunnel, courts, university & college downtown campus. Building features up to 9 professional offices entire bldg, plus prkg for lease. Continuously improved and maintained. 26 spot paved parking lot accessible from pelissier ave. Location just south of the corner of wyandotte. Close to hospital. |
A Brain-Robot Interaction System by Fusing Human and Machine Intelligence.
This paper presents a new brain-robot interaction system by fusing human and machine intelligence to improve the real-time control performance. This system consists of a hybrid P300 and steady-state visual evoked potential (SSVEP) mode conveying a human being's intention, and the machine intelligence combining a fuzzy-logic-based image processing algorithm with multi-sensor fusion technology. A subject selects an object of interest via P300, and the classification algorithm transfers the corresponding parameters to an improved fuzzy color extractor for object extraction. A central vision tracking strategy automatically guides the NAO humanoid robot to the destination selected by the subject intentions represented by brainwaves. During this process, human supervises the system at high level, while machine intelligence assists the robot in accomplishing tasks by analyzing image feeding back from the camera, distance monitoring using out-of-gauge alarms from sonars, and collision detecting from bumper sensors. In this scenario, the SSVEP takes over the situations in which the machine intelligence cannot make decisions. The experimental results show that the subjects can control the robot to a destination of interest, with fewer commands than only using a brain-robot interface. Therefore, the fusion of human and machine intelligence greatly alleviates the brain load and enhances the robot executive efficiency of a brain-robot interaction system. |
Life grows wondrously beautiful when we look at it as simple, when we can brush aside the trivial cares and sorrows and worries and failures and say: “They don’t count. They are not the real things of life; they are but interruptions. There is something within me, my individuality, that makes all these gnats of trouble seem too trifling for me to permit them to have any dominion over me.” Simplicity is a mental soil where artifice, lying, deceit, treachery and selfish, low ambition,— cannot grow.
The man whose character is simple looks truth and honesty so straight in the face that he has no consciousness of intrigue and corruption around him. He is deaf to the hints and whispers of wrongs that a suspicious nature would suspect even before they existed. He scorns to meet intrigue with intrigue, to hold power by bribery, to pay weak tribute to an inferior that has a temporary inning. To true simplicity, to perceive a truth is to begin to live it, to see a duty is to begin to do it. Nothing great can ever enter into the consciousness of a man of simplicity and remain but a theory. Simplicity in a character is like the needle of a compass,—it knows only one point, its North, its ideal. |
Cytologic assessment of endobronchial ultrasound-guided transbronchial needle aspirates in sarcoidosis.
The purpose of this study was to determine interobserver variability, the relative importance of cytologic preparations, and factors influencing the diagnostic yield of mediastinal lymph node aspirates in suspected sarcoidosis. Analysis of mediastinal lymph node aspirates obtained during a randomized study of endobronchial ultrasound transbronchial needle aspiration (EBUS-TBNA) and conventional TBNA in patients with suspected sarcoidosis. All aspirates were processed by the monolayer ThinPrep method and cell blocks were prepared when feasible. The slides were reviewed by 2 cytopathologists, blinded to the study group. Lymph node location, size, number of aspirates, and diagnosis were recorded. A research cytopathologist recorded the presence of noncaseating granulomas in the monolayer and cell block preparations separately. Fifty patients were enrolled in the study, with 152 lymph nodes available for analysis (95 EBUS-TBNA, 57 conventional TBNA). The overall diagnostic yield was 64.5% on a per-lymph node basis. There was good agreement between cytopathologists (κ=0.677, P<0.001). Both liquid-based cytology and cell blocks were important in identifying granulomatous inflammation, with each being solely positive in 22% of cases. The diagnostic yield was not altered by lymph node location, size, or number of aspirates per node. Liquid-based cytology and cell block specimens are equally important in maximizing the diagnostic yield in EBUS-guided and conventional TBNA in suspected sarcoidosis. Good interobserver agreement between cytopathologists was noted, with improved diagnostic yield after review by a pulmonary cytopathologist. None of the clinical factors assessed impacted on the diagnostic yield of the procedure on a per-node basis. |
APARTMENT HOMES
For spacious living with easy access to all of our services and amenities, choose from our one- and two-bedroom apartment homes. Each one is outfitted with modern features and finishes designed to complement your furnishings.
Terraced into the natural contours of the landscape, the homes feel at one with nature, offering beautiful views of woodlands and rolling hills. Their convenient location keeps you close to all of the action.
Various floor plan options range from 720 to 1,260 square feet and are thoughtfully designed to provide space for living, dining and entertaining. Depending on the style you choose, additional features may include a fireplace, walk-in closets, guest bedroom and bathroom, or pantry. |
A direct ELISA assay for quantitative determination of the inhibitory potency of small molecules inhibitors for JNK3.
The c-jun N-terminal kinase 3 (JNK3) is a promising drug target for the treatment of neurological disorders. Here we report a direct ELISA including the optimization of a nonradioactive immunosorbent JNK3 activity assay to determine inhibitory potency of small-molecule inhibitors. Based on our previous JNK3 assay and our recently optimized p38α mitogen activated protein kinase (MAPK) protocol for monitoring the phosphorylation of activating-transcription factor 2 (ATF-2), we present a rapid and straightforward alternative to conventional radioactive and indirect ELISA kinase assays. To validate the assay with the optimized assay conditions we used reference compounds and achieved well comparable IC(50) results to published data. The use of a linked monoclonal antibody increased the specificity and the sensitivity of the assay, reducing the required antibody concentration by approximately 100-fold. The novel protocol is an accurate, easy-to-handle and robust screening assay for JNK3 and the assay performance was reduced from 7.5 to 3h. |
Marie's Pizza and Liquors, the most romantic restaurant in town
February 14, 2013
The most romantic restaurant in Chicago must be Marie's Pizza & Liquors on the Northwest Side in Albany Park. This must be true because they have heart shaped pizza. And you should know the importance of heart shaped pizza.
Yes, other restaurants have heart shaped food for Valentine's Day, but none have lasted 73 years. Originally opened in 1940 by Theodore Karavidas as a tavern and packaged goods store, it wasn't until 1950 that Karavidas' son George added pizza. Marie's was named after Mary Karavidas, Theodore's wife and George's mother. If that's not love, I don't know what is.
Over the years Marie's Pizza and Liquors has expanded, now under the ownership of George's daughter, Nadine Karavidas. It takes a certain kind of romantic to create a vineyard within a liquor store, lit with starry lights amidst hanging grapes. |
General
01.06.2018
Science and Faith: Partners or Rivals? Special Issue of SEARCH Out Soon
The summer issue of the Church of Ireland journal,
Search, edited by Canon Ginnie Kennerly, will be available shortly. This issue will concentrate on science and faith to help readers engage in a conversation, rather than an altercation, in this area, seeing the two as complementary in our understanding of reality. The leading article is by Keith Ward, former Regius Professor of Divinity at Oxford University and noted writer in this field: his latest book, Love is His Meaning, is reviewed in this issue by the Archbishop of Armagh.
Theodicy is a key area for pondering in the conversation, since so often the question arises ‘How can God – if he exists – allow suffering in his creation?’ There is no neat answer to the question, as is pointed out by Cathriona Russell in her article ‘Creation:
an invitation to share God’s love’. However William Olhausen in his ‘Christian apologetics and the challenge of science’ shares some helpful observations, as does Keith Ward.
Engaging both head and heart in this area is not easy, and the contributors have done so in different ways.
Michael Fuller of Edinburgh University puts his passion into insisting on conversation, not conflict, reminding us that many scientists are also faithful Christians. Mark Russell, recently graduated from CITI, chides church people for making little attempt to engage
scientists in discussion, relating to the symbol and metaphor of scientific discourse. Gillian Straine, a cancer survivor herself, brings her own experience to bear on how prevailing metaphors surrounding cancer help or hinder the sufferer to understand themselves as made in the image of God.
Moving outside the specifically Christian sphere of thinking, the Muslim cosmologist M. Basil Altaie of Yarmouk University in Jordan reflects on modern cosmological thinking in relation to the Qu’uran and developments in Islamic philosophy are enlightening.
This issue concludes with an In Retrospect by Professor John Bartlett on his onetime mentor in TCD, Professor H F Woodhouse, and a Liturgica page by the Dean of Leighlin,
the Very Revd Tom Gordon. |
DNA repair in HIV-1 infection: a case for inhibitors of cellular co-factors?
At each step of its life-cycle, human immunodeficiency virus type 1 (HIV-1) interacts with cellular proteins. In some cases, such as the cellular cytidine deaminase APOBEC3G, cellular proteins repress HIV-1 replication. In other cases, cellular proteins serve as essential co-factors, and inhibition of their function blocks HIV-1 replication. This review explores the opportunities for anti-HIV-1 therapy that stem from the recent discoveries that cellular proteins, which are involved in double-strand break DNA repair, are also required for completion of integration of HIV-1 DNA into host cell DNA. |
1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates in general to magnetic heads and in particular to a magnetic head employing a thin film magnetically coated wire in the back section of the head.
2. Description Relative to the Prior Art
U.S. patent application Ser. No. 835,110 of McClure discloses a flux sensitive magnetic head in which a wire, coated with a single domain magnetic film, bridges the windowed back part of the magnetic head. The coated wire, which at its ends resides in notches in the (ferrite) pole pieces of the head, has a sense coil wound around it; and current pulses or the like are adapted to be passed through the conductive core of the coated wire. Signal flux entering the head front gap traverses the magnetic film on the wire, causing the pulse current to be modulated in accordance with such signal flux.
As disclosed in U.S. patent application Ser. No. 835,110, the coated wire is pulsed by connecting a pulse source across the extremities of the wire. Although this is a convenient way to connect the wire into an excitation circuit, such a connection results in head behavior which may be less than would otherwise be desired: It has been found that since the extremities of the coated wire contact the ferrite pole pieces, any current through the coated wire tends to saturate the pole pieces, increasing their reluctance, and diminishing the level of signal flux available to switch the film dipoles as required in such a head. |
When it comes to promoting electric cars, California is rightfully viewed as the most active.
But efforts are not limited to the Golden State.
If one electric utility has its way, more electric cars will soon be plying the roads of America's heartland.
A charging-infrastructure program launched two years ago by Kansas City Power & Light is now starting to show results, reports NPR.
In early 2015 the utility announced plans to install more than 1,000 charging sites in its service area, which straddles the Kansas-Missouri border.
About 850 of those sites are now operational.
The network—constructed at a cost of around $20 million—includes mostly 240-volt AC Level 2 stations, with a handful of DC fast charging stations.
All are free to use, and will remain so until at least this summer, according to NPR.
To recoup money spent on the charging sites, Kansas City Power & Light asked regulators in both Kansas and Missouri for permission to add a 2- to 3-cent monthly fee to customer bills.
Kansas has already ruled against the fee, while Missouri regulators are still deliberating.
The issue is whether utilities should use customers' money—known as "rate-basing" a cost—to pay for stations, even if not all customers in a service area will use them.
It's a question that crops up whenever a utility decides to install charging stations in its area of operations.
But Kansas City Power & Light believes the charging network could ultimately lower customer bills by making better use of generating capacity.
The company claims its grid is underutilized 80 percent of the time.
So a major increase in electricity use by electric cars would drive down per-unit costs, in turn lowering customer bills, it reasons.
Another major issue with utility-run charging networks is where the power comes from.
Kansas City Power & Light says its grid is relatively clean, meaning the overall carbon footprint of cars charged from it will be lower than that of cars charged with power generated primarily by fossil fuels.
The company claims its use of fossil fuels is declining, and that about half of its electricity is now generated from nuclear and renewable sources, including wind.
So far, there is plenty of capacity to go around: at 9:00 a.m. one weekday, LilyPad EV, the company contracted by Kansas City Power & Light to monitor the charging stations, noted only about 75 cars charging on the entire network.
Some surveys show that a pervasive public charging network is more important to electric-car shoppers than to actual owners, who quickly come to understand that overnight home charging is sufficient for the vast majority of their needs.
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But, as the saying goes, "if you build it, they will come."
This story originally appeared on GreenCarReports. |
This invention attaches between an automobile trunk lock strike and trunk lock latch in order to tie down the automobile trunk lid while carrying an oversize load.
People often carry oversize loads in an automobile trunk which keep the trunk lid open and unlatched. For this reason various ad hoc straps, ropes, and elastic cords are typically used to tie down the unlatched trunk lid. These ad hoc devices are not easy to attach, ale not easy to remove, are not easy to adjust, and are not reliable to withstand the large forces which can be encountered in use.
Devices shown in prior art have similar opportunities for improvement. Miener in U.S. Pat. No. 2,919,946 and Gregoire in U.S. Pat. No. 2,973,217 show devices which attach between structural elements of the automobile trunk lid and the rear of the automobile. Because of variations in the manufacture of automobiles the attachments to the structural elements are not easy and require awkward manipulations.
Gardels in U.S. Pat. No. 2,618,497 shows a rigid bar attached between the trunk lock latch and strike. This device is not adjustable and can not work with today's locks. Charman in U.S. Pat. No. 4,666,194 shows an adjustable strap attached between the latch and strike. This device has many parts which must be awkwardly manipulated in use and which would be difficult to manufacture at low cost if the parts am to be reliable for the large forces which can act on the device. This device will also interfere with the remote controlled trunk lock openers and trunk lock sensors now common on automobiles.
Thus, there is an opportunity to make a tie down which is easy to attach, which is easy to adjust, which is easy to manufacture, which is reliable, and which is low in cost. |
Q:
Three vertices of a parallelogram have coordinates (-2,2),(1,6) and (4,3). Find all possible coordinates of the fourth vertex.
Do I use the distance formula for the two points and use them to add to each other to get two parallel sides?
A:
If three points are $P,Q,R$ then $R+(P-Q)$ gives a fourth vertex for a parallelogram. So pick the ordered pair $(P,Q)$ in all six ways, and that gives three parallelograms.
There are actually only three such paralellograms, some using my description being repeats (same vertices). So if $P,Q,R$ are the three given points (which are not collinear) the three parallelograms are those formed by using the given three vertices along with any one of the three choices $$P+Q-R,\ P+R-Q,\ Q+R-P$$ as the fourth vertex of the parallelogram.
Added note: In each case the subtracted point winds up being diagonally opposite the constructed point in that parallelogram. For example, if $X=P+Q-R,$ then also $X-P=Q-R$ as expected in a parallelogram labeled going around say counterclockwise in the order $X,P,R,Q.$ The equality of the vectors $X-P$ and $Q-R$ means they are parallel and point in the same direction, so that side $XP$ is parallel to side $QR.$ And also from $X=P+Q-R$ we get $X-Q=P-R$ showing the other pair $XQ,PR$ are parallel (the remaining pair of parallel sides of that parallelogram). Suggest draw a picture to see why for this case each of $XR$ and $PQ$ wind up as "diagonals" of the parallelogram formed.
|
Q:
navigation based template with out using xib file
hii every one
can i use a navigation based template to create project in which screens will be designed programaticaly (with out using interface builder)
thanx in advance
A:
You would like to programmatically create a navigation interface.
There are many references to getting this done. I have done it many times too. I assure you that the following link describes exactly this.
You might find it helpful to follow the useful steps on there.
http://developer.apple.com/library/ios/#featuredarticles/ViewControllerPGforiPhoneOS/Introduction/Introduction.html
Go to create a navigation controller on the left side of the pane, you dont want to click the first two sub links because they talk about it with xib files, you want the third link where it does exactly what you want Creating a Navigation Interface Programmatically
let me know if that helps
PK
|
1. Introduction {#sec1}
===============
Inflammatory bowel disease (IBD), including Crohn\'s disease (CD) and ulcerative colitis (UC), is characterized by a loss of intestinal mucosal homeostasis associated with inappropriate and aggravated immune responses to intestinal lumen antigens \[[@B1]--[@B3]\]. The clinical symptoms of IBD include diarrhea, abdominal pain, bloody stools, tenderness, and abdominal mass. The increased incidence of IBD is a worldwide healthcare problem \[[@B4]\]. It is widely believed that IBD is caused by complex interactions between genetic and environmental factors, such as immune-response disorders and microbial community changes. However, the cause of IBD remains unclear, and further research is needed \[[@B5], [@B6]\].
Several types of pharmacologically induced animal colitis models have been developed, such as dextran sulfate- (DSS-), trinitrobenzene sulfonic acid- (TNBS-), or acetic acid- (AA-) induced models \[[@B7], [@B8]\]. DSS is widely used for this purpose, as is TNBS, typically in combination with ethanol. AA causes UC (hereafter termed "colitis") by damaging the intestinal mucosa epithelium and is a low-cost and convenient technique. Previous studies demonstrated that AA-induced colitis might be a good model with which to study the efficacy of drugs \[[@B9]\], so we used AA to induce colitis in this study.
Anti-inflammatory drugs such as cytokine antagonists and immunosuppressive drugs such as corticosteroids are currently used for IBD treatment \[[@B10]--[@B12]\]. However, long-term use of cytokine antagonists may have severe side effects \[[@B13]\]. Therefore, new adjuvant therapies are required to overcome the limitations of current drug therapies \[[@B14]\].
Many amino acids have been shown to have beneficial effects in IBD. For example, arginine reduces mucosal permeability, inhibits inflammation, and increases inducible nitric oxide synthase (iNOS) activity in mice with DSS-induced colitis \[[@B15]\]. It has also been shown that Gly may inhibit cytokine secretion in monocytes, macrophages, and neutrophils, and regulate T cell activities \[[@B16]\]. Dietary Gly prevents diarrhea, bodyweight loss, and ulceration in rats with DSS-induced IBD \[[@B17], [@B18]\]. However, the effects of Gly on AA-induced IBD in mice remain unclear.
This study aimed at investigating the effect of Gly on AA-induced colitis in mice. The results add to our knowledge of a possible role for Gly in colitis treatment.
2. Materials and Methods {#sec2}
========================
2.1. Animal Model {#sec2.1}
-----------------
This study was conducted following the guidelines of the Animal Welfare Committee of the Institute of Subtropical Agriculture, Chinese Academy of Sciences (2015-8A). Female six-week-old ICR (Institute for Cancer Research) mice were purchased from the SLAC laboratory animal center (Changsha, China). The mice were housed in a temperature-controlled environment with a 12 h light/dark cycle and had free access to food and water. Sixty mice were randomly divided into three groups of 20 animals: a control (Con) group (fed the basal diet), a model (Mod) group (fed the basal diet), and a model+Gly (ModGly) group (fed the basal diet supplemented with 0.1% Gly). The dose of Gly was selected following preliminary experiments. The Con group and Mod group shared the data with our previous study \[[@B19]\]. On the seventh day of the experiment, all of the mice were fasted for 36 h and were intrarectally treated with 5% AA (Mod and ModGly group) or saline solution (Con group). The surviving mice were monitored for 1 week after the administration of AA, and all of the mice were then sacrificed by cervical dislocation, and blood, colons, and colonic contents were collected.
2.2. Analysis of Serum Amino Acids {#sec2.2}
----------------------------------
High-performance liquid chromatography (HPLC) was used to analyze serum amino acids. Briefly, 0.1 ml of the serum sample was thoroughly mixed with 4.9 ml of 0.01-M hydrochloric acid and then centrifuged at 5000 rpm and 4°C for 5 min. The supernatant (500 ml) was then removed and incubated at 4°C for 12 h and then homogenized with 8% salicylic acid. The resulting homogenate was centrifuged twice at 12,000 rpm and 4°C for 10 min. Authentic standards (Sigma Chemicals) for quantifying amino acids in serum samples were prepared in 0.01-M hydrochloric acid and stored at -70°C.
2.3. RT-PCR {#sec2.3}
-----------
Total RNA was extracted from colonic tissues using the TRIZOL reagent kit (Invitrogen, USA). The PrimeScript RT kit with gDNA Eraser (Takara Bio Inc., Qingdao, China) was used to synthesize cDNA, according to the product manual. Primers ([Table 1](#tab1){ref-type="table"}) used in this study were designed under the principles of primer design using Primer 6.0 software (PRIMER-E, New Zealand) and Oligo 5.0 software (Molecular Biology Insights, Inc., USA), based on the gene sequences of the house mouse (*Mus musculus*) on GenBank. The SYBR Premix Ex Taq kit (Takara, Japan) was used for RT-PCR analysis, and triplicate reactions were performed using the Applied Biosystems 7900HT Fast Real-Time PCR System (Thermo, USA) by the following methods: (1) initial denaturation (90°C 30 s); (2) amplification and quantification (40 cycles at 95°C 5 s, 1 cycle at 60°C 30 s). Relative gene expression was calculated with the formula 2^-(*∆∆*Ct)^.
2.4. Gut Microbiota Analysis {#sec2.4}
----------------------------
16S rDNA sequencing was used for intestinal microbiota analysis, according to our previous study \[[@B20]\]. Digested matter in the colon cavity was collected, and the DNA was extracted from this material using a Qiagen QIAamp DNA Stool Mini kit. Illumina MiSeq sequencing was used to analyse the V3 to V4 regions of bacterial 16S rDNA, and the data analysis was performed by Anoru Genomics Technology Co., Ltd., (Beijing, China). Briefly, the library was generated and sequenced to produce 400 base pair/600 base pair single-end reads. Single-end reads were assigned to the samples based on their unique barcode and truncated by the removal of their barcode and the primer sequence. Sequence analysis and operational taxonomic unit (OTU) clustering were performed using UPARSE software (v7.0.1001, <https://drive5.com/usearch/>) following quality filtering, and sequences with more than 97% similarity were clustered to the same OTU. RDP Classifier (V2.2, Michigan State University Board of Trustees, East Lansing, MI) was used for species annotations, based on the GreenGene database. MUSCLE software (Version 3.8.31) was used to study the phylogenetic relationships of different OTUs, to examine differences in the dominant species in different samples (groups), and for multiple-sequence alignments. The abundant information in the OTUs was normalized for suvbsequent analysis of the alpha diversity, beta diversity, and the environmental-factor correlation analysis.
2.5. Statistical Analyses {#sec2.5}
-------------------------
GraphPad Prism 6.0 (GraphPad Software, Inc., La Jolla, CA) was used for statistical analyses and to create graphs. Statistical analyses between the Con and Mod groups and the Mod and ModGly groups were performed by *t*-test. Results are shown as mean ± SD. *P* \< 0.05 was considered significant; ^∗^*P* \< 0.05, ^∗∗^*P* \< 0.01, ^∗∗∗^*P* \< 0.001.
3. Results {#sec3}
==========
3.1. Survival Proportions and Ratio of Colon Weight to Length {#sec3.1}
-------------------------------------------------------------
We evaluated the effect of GLY on AA-induced colitis in mice by comparing the survival rate and the ratio of colonic weight to length. The survival rate in the Mod group was significantly lower than that in the CON group ([Figure 1(a)](#fig1){ref-type="fig"}), and the colonic weight/length ratio was increased (*P* \< 0.05) ([Figure 1(b)](#fig1){ref-type="fig"}). However, Gly did not affect the survival rate or the colonic weight-to-length ratio in the ModGly group (Figures [1(a)](#fig1){ref-type="fig"}--[1(b)](#fig1){ref-type="fig"}).
3.2. Serum Amino Acid Profile {#sec3.2}
-----------------------------
The results showed that the serum leucine (Leu), isoleucine (Ile), valine (Val), and glutamic acid (Glu) concentrations were significantly higher (*P* \< 0.05) in the Mod group than in the CON group (Figures [2(a)](#fig2){ref-type="fig"}--[2(d)](#fig2){ref-type="fig"}), whereas the concentrations of other amino acids were largely unchanged (data not shown). Notably, dietary Gly reduced the serum concentrations of Leu, Ile, Val, and Glu in the Mod group.
3.3. Colonic Expression of IBD-Associated Cytokines {#sec3.3}
---------------------------------------------------
We analyzed the gene expression of colonic proinflammatory cytokines (such as IL-1*β*, IFN-*γ*, and IL-17) and inhibitory cytokine (IL-10). Compared with the CON group, the MOD group had significantly reduced expression of IL-10 (*P* \< 0.05) ([Figure 3(d)](#fig3){ref-type="fig"}) but had an unaltered expression of proinflammatory cytokines (Figures [3(a)](#fig3){ref-type="fig"}--(c)). In contrast, the ModGly group had significantly increased IL-10 expression ([Figure 3(d)](#fig3){ref-type="fig"}) and reduced IL-1*β* expression ([Figure 3(c)](#fig3){ref-type="fig"}).
3.4. Intestinal Microbiota {#sec3.4}
--------------------------
16sRNA was analyzed by Illumina high-throughput sequencing to examine the effect of the experimental conditions on the gut microbiota of mice. A total of 260 OTUs were found overall, and 233 of these OTUs were present in all three groups ([Figure 4(a)](#fig4){ref-type="fig"}). Twenty-six taxa were detected at the genus level, such as *Bacteroides*, *Prevotella*, *Helicobacter*, *Akkermansia*, *Lactobacillus*, and *Sutterella* ([Figure 4(b)](#fig4){ref-type="fig"}). Clostridia, Clostridiales, and Ruminococcaceae were relatively more abundant in both the Con and ModGly groups than in the Mod group ([Table 2](#tab2){ref-type="table"}). The prominent populations in each group were also determined based on linear discriminant analysis coupled with effect-size measurements, which revealed that Clostridia and Clostridiales were dominant in the Con group, Alcaligenaceae, Burkholderiales, and Betaproteobacteria were dominant in the Mod group, and Ruminococcaceae were dominant in the ModGly group ([Figure 4(c)](#fig4){ref-type="fig"}). A correlation analysis showed that the serum concentrations of Val and Leu were negatively correlated with the abundance of Clostridia and Clostridiales ([Figure 4(d)](#fig4){ref-type="fig"}). Moreover, colonic IL-10 expression was positively correlated with the abundance of Clostridia, Clostridiales, and IL-1 expression was negatively correlated with the abundance of Ruminococcaceae ([Figure 4(e)](#fig4){ref-type="fig"}).
4. Discussion {#sec4}
=============
Previous studies have shown that body weight, survival rates, and the ratio of colon weight to colon length decreased in the AA-induced IBD mouse model \[[@B17], [@B21]\]. It has also been shown that the expression of proinflammatory cytokines (i.e., IL-1*β*, IFN-*γ*, and IL-17) is significantly increased in the AA-induced IBD model. Intriguingly, it has been found that dietary supplementation Gly partially restores the above indicators in Wistar rat models of TNBS-or DSS-induced IBD \[[@B17]\]. However, we found that dietary Gly did not have a significant effect on survival rate and colonic weight-to-length ratio in the mouse model with AA-induced IBD. This different result may be attributable to the mouse model and/or the dosage of Gly we used.
Amino acids are necessary for intestinal growth and for the maintenance of mucosal integrity and barrier function \[[@B22]--[@B24]\]. Dietary supplementation with amino acids, such as threonine, serine, proline, and cysteine, improves mucin production, protects intestinal epithelial cells, and enhances the health of the intestinal microbiome \[[@B25]--[@B27]\]. Some amino acids have been suggested to be suitable as biomarkers for diagnosis and treatment in IBD, such as branched-chain amino acids (BCAAs; i.e., Leu, Ile, and Val) and tryptophan \[[@B28]\]. Concentrations of BCAAs and Glu have also been found to be significantly increased in a model of IBD \[[@B7]\], and these increases could be reversed by dietary Gly. Studies have also reported that BCAAs enhance the intestinal immune system by improving the morphological integrity of the intestinal tract and increasing the production of immunoglobulin. For example, Leu enhances cell proliferation and amino-acid transporter expression by activating the mTOR pathway \[[@B29]\]. However, a high concentration of BCAAs may activate the mTOR and NF-*κ*B pathways and thereby increase oxidative stress and inflammation. Other non-BCAAs have shown beneficial effects: for example, arginine reduces mucosal permeability, inhibits inflammation, and increases iNOS activity in mice with DSS-induced colitis \[[@B15]\]. Moreover, Gly inhibits cytokine secretion in monocytes, macrophages, and neutrophils and regulates T cell activities \[[@B16]\].
Current evidence suggests that immune disorders contribute to the IBD process via cytokine production in bowel lesions. Many proinflammatory cytokines, such as TNF-*α* and IL-1/6/22/23, and anti-inflammatory cytokines (such as IL-10) have been studied to determine their roles in IBD \[[@B30]\]. For example, it was found that IL-1 is highly activated in IBD patients and that IL-1*β* activates CD4+ T cells \[[@B31]\]. It was also found that mice that the lack of IL-10 or IL-10R are sensitive to colitis \[[@B32]\], largely due to the promotion of IL-1 production.
In another study, it was found that dietary Gly supplementation could reverse the increase of colonic IL-1*β* and the induction of TNF-*α* gene expression triggered by neutrophil-produced chemokines and inflammatory proteins secreted by macrophages \[[@B17]\]. Similarly, we found in this study that dietary Gly supplementation inhibited IL-1 expression and promoted IL-10 expression (as shown by increased IL-10 mRNA abundance), suggesting the potential of Gly for IBD treatment.
The gut microbiome has been linked to many diseases, such as IBD, obesity, diabetes, and autism \[[@B33]\]. Some studies have reported dramatic changes in the composition of the intestinal microbial community in mice with IBD, which is in keeping with our results. Dietary supplements, such as amino acids, may regulate physiological activity via their effects on gut microbes \[[@B34], [@B35]\]. In addition, a low-Gly diet is associated with changes in gut flora \[[@B36]\]. In this study, we found that Gly changed the composition of the microbiota, and this has associations with serum concentrations of amino acids and colonic gene expression of IL-1 and IL-10 in IBD models.
Interestingly, *Clostridium butyricum*, a member of Clostridia and Clostridiales, has been reported to promote the growth of gut IL-10-producing innate immune cells and alleviate colitis in a mouse model by activating Treg and inhibiting activated macrophages \[[@B37]\]. The findings indicate that dietary Gly regulates colonic cytokine expressions, especially that of IL-10, possibly via effects on gut bacteria. However, further studies are needed to investigate this possible mechanism.
In conclusion, our data show that dietary Gly modulated serum amino acid concentrations and gut cytokine expression in AA-induced colitis mice and that this may have occurred via the regulation of the intestinal microbiota. These findings enhance our understanding of the roles of Gly in the metabolism of serum amino acids, intestinal immunity, and its effects on the intestinal microbiota of mice.
This study was supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (Nos. 31772642, 31672457, and 31672433), the International Partnership Program of Chinese Academy of Sciences (161343KYSB20160008), the Hunan Provincial Science and Technology Department (2017NK2322), the China Postdoctoral Science Foundation (2018M632963), and the Key Programs of Frontier Scientific Research of the Chinese Academy of Sciences (QYZDYSSW-SMC008).
Data Availability
=================
The data used to support the findings of this study are available from the corresponding author upon request.
Conflicts of Interest
=====================
The authors have no conflicts of interest.
Authors\' Contributions
=======================
Shuai Chen and Jie Yin designed the experiment, which was performed by Xin Wu and Yongmin Zheng. Jie Ma analyzed the data and prepared tables and figures. Shuai Chen and Xin Wu prepared the manuscript. All of the authors reviewed the manuscript. Xin Wu and Yongmin Zheng contributed equally to this study.
{#fig1}
{#fig2}
{#fig3}
{#fig4}
######
Primers used in this study.
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Gene ID Nucleotide sequence of primers (5′--3′) Product length
--------- ------------- ------------------------------------------------- ----------------
IL-1*β* NM_008361.3 ATGAAAGACGGCACACCCAC GCTTGTGCTCTGCTTGTGAG 175
IL-17 NM_010552.3 TACCTCAACCGTTCCACGTC TTTCCCTCCGCATTGACAC 119
IL-10 NM_010548.2 GCCACATGCTCCTAGAGCTG CAGCTGGTCCTTTGTTTGAAA 71
IFN-*γ* NM_008337.4 ATGAACGCTACACACTGCATCTTGGCTT\ 361
CCTCAAACTTGGCAATACTCATGAATGC
Actin NM_007393.5 GGACTCCTATGTGGGTGACGAGG GGGAGAGCATAGCCCTCGTAGAT 366
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
######
Taxa with significantly changed relative abundances at the genus level.
Con Mod Gly
----------------- ------------ --------- -------------
Clostridia 0.21380^∗^ 0.07538 0.1699^\#^
Ruminococcaceae 0.03527^∗^ 0.01695 0.06516^\#^
Clostridiales 0.2138^∗^ 0.07538 0.2130^\#^
The relative abundances of Clostridia, Clostridiales, and Ruminococcaceae were significantly higher in both the Con and ModGly groups than in the Mod group. The data are presented as means ± SD; ^∗^*P* \< 0.05, Con vs. Mod; ^\#^*P* \< 0.05, ModGly vs. Mod.
[^1]: Guest Editor: Xiaolu Jin
|
/* -*- Mode: C++; tab-width: 4; indent-tabs-mode: nil; c-basic-offset: 4 -*- */
/*
* This file is part of the LibreOffice project.
*
* This Source Code Form is subject to the terms of the Mozilla Public
* License, v. 2.0. If a copy of the MPL was not distributed with this
* file, You can obtain one at http://mozilla.org/MPL/2.0/.
*
* This file incorporates work covered by the following license notice:
*
* Licensed to the Apache Software Foundation (ASF) under one or more
* contributor license agreements. See the NOTICE file distributed
* with this work for additional information regarding copyright
* ownership. The ASF licenses this file to you under the Apache
* License, Version 2.0 (the "License"); you may not use this file
* except in compliance with the License. You may obtain a copy of
* the License at http://www.apache.org/licenses/LICENSE-2.0 .
*/
#include <cppuhelper/implbase.hxx>
#include <cppuhelper/implementationentry.hxx>
#include <cppuhelper/supportsservice.hxx>
#include <com/sun/star/lang/XServiceInfo.hpp>
#include <com/sun/star/document/XDocumentEventListener.hpp>
#include <com/sun/star/document/XDocumentEventBroadcaster.hpp>
#include <com/sun/star/beans/XPropertySet.hpp>
#include <com/sun/star/frame/theGlobalEventBroadcaster.hpp>
#include <com/sun/star/graphic/GraphicProvider.hpp>
#include <com/sun/star/graphic/XGraphicProvider.hpp>
#include <com/sun/star/task/XJob.hpp>
#include <comphelper/processfactory.hxx>
#include <unotools/resmgr.hxx>
#include <vcl/window.hxx>
#include <vcl/floatwin.hxx>
#include <vcl/timer.hxx>
#include <vcl/idle.hxx>
#include <vcl/lineinfo.hxx>
#include <vcl/menu.hxx>
#include <vcl/outdev.hxx>
#include <vcl/weld.hxx>
#include <vcl/settings.hxx>
#include <vcl/svapp.hxx>
#include <sfx2/strings.hrc>
#include <rtl/ustrbuf.hxx>
#include <bitmaps.hlst>
#define PROPERTY_TITLE "BubbleHeading"
#define PROPERTY_TEXT "BubbleText"
#define PROPERTY_IMAGE "BubbleImageURL"
#define PROPERTY_SHOW_BUBBLE "BubbleVisible"
#define PROPERTY_CLICK_HDL "MenuClickHDL"
#define PROPERTY_SHOW_MENUICON "MenuIconVisible"
using namespace ::com::sun::star;
namespace
{
Image GetMenuBarIcon( MenuBar const * pMBar )
{
OUString sResID;
vcl::Window *pMBarWin = pMBar->GetWindow();
sal_uInt32 nMBarHeight = 20;
if ( pMBarWin )
nMBarHeight = pMBarWin->GetOutputSizePixel().getHeight();
if (nMBarHeight >= 35)
sResID = RID_UPDATE_AVAILABLE_26;
else
sResID = RID_UPDATE_AVAILABLE_16;
return Image(StockImage::Yes, sResID);
}
class BubbleWindow : public FloatingWindow
{
Point maTipPos;
vcl::Region maBounds;
tools::Polygon maRectPoly;
tools::Polygon maTriPoly;
OUString maBubbleTitle;
OUString maBubbleText;
Image maBubbleImage;
Size maMaxTextSize;
tools::Rectangle maTitleRect;
tools::Rectangle maTextRect;
long mnTipOffset;
private:
void RecalcTextRects();
public:
BubbleWindow( vcl::Window* pParent, const OUString& rTitle,
const OUString& rText, const Image& rImage );
virtual void MouseButtonDown( const MouseEvent& rMEvt ) override;
virtual void Paint(vcl::RenderContext& rRenderContext, const tools::Rectangle& rRect) override;
void Resize() override;
void Show( bool bVisible = true );
void SetTipPosPixel( const Point& rTipPos ) { maTipPos = rTipPos; }
void SetTitleAndText( const OUString& rTitle, const OUString& rText,
const Image& rImage );
};
class UpdateCheckUI : public ::cppu::WeakImplHelper
< lang::XServiceInfo, document::XDocumentEventListener, beans::XPropertySet >
{
uno::Reference< uno::XComponentContext > m_xContext;
uno::Reference< task::XJob > mrJob;
OUString maBubbleTitle;
OUString maBubbleText;
OUString maBubbleImageURL;
Image maBubbleImage;
VclPtr<BubbleWindow> mpBubbleWin;
VclPtr<SystemWindow> mpIconSysWin;
VclPtr<MenuBar> mpIconMBar;
std::locale maSfxLocale;
Idle maWaitIdle;
Timer maTimeoutTimer;
Link<VclWindowEvent&,void> maWindowEventHdl;
Link<VclSimpleEvent&,void> maApplicationEventHdl;
bool mbShowBubble;
bool mbShowMenuIcon;
bool mbBubbleChanged;
sal_uInt16 mnIconID;
private:
DECL_LINK(ClickHdl, MenuBar::MenuBarButtonCallbackArg&, bool);
DECL_LINK(HighlightHdl, MenuBar::MenuBarButtonCallbackArg&, bool);
DECL_LINK(WaitTimeOutHdl, Timer *, void);
DECL_LINK(TimeOutHdl, Timer *, void);
DECL_LINK(UserEventHdl, void *, void);
DECL_LINK(WindowEventHdl, VclWindowEvent&, void);
DECL_LINK(ApplicationEventHdl, VclSimpleEvent&, void);
VclPtr<BubbleWindow> GetBubbleWindow();
void RemoveBubbleWindow( bool bRemoveIcon );
void AddMenuBarIcon( SystemWindow* pSysWin, bool bAddEventHdl );
Image GetBubbleImage( OUString const &rURL );
public:
explicit UpdateCheckUI(const uno::Reference<uno::XComponentContext>&);
virtual ~UpdateCheckUI() override;
// XServiceInfo
virtual OUString SAL_CALL getImplementationName() override;
virtual sal_Bool SAL_CALL supportsService(OUString const & serviceName) override;
virtual uno::Sequence< OUString > SAL_CALL getSupportedServiceNames() override;
// XDocumentEventListener
virtual void SAL_CALL documentEventOccured(const document::DocumentEvent& Event) override;
virtual void SAL_CALL disposing(const lang::EventObject& Event) override;
//XPropertySet
virtual uno::Reference< beans::XPropertySetInfo > SAL_CALL getPropertySetInfo() override;
virtual void SAL_CALL setPropertyValue(const OUString& PropertyName, const uno::Any& aValue) override;
virtual uno::Any SAL_CALL getPropertyValue(const OUString& PropertyName) override;
virtual void SAL_CALL addPropertyChangeListener(const OUString& PropertyName,
const uno::Reference< beans::XPropertyChangeListener > & aListener) override;
virtual void SAL_CALL removePropertyChangeListener(const OUString& PropertyName,
const uno::Reference< beans::XPropertyChangeListener > & aListener) override;
virtual void SAL_CALL addVetoableChangeListener(const OUString& PropertyName,
const uno::Reference< beans::XVetoableChangeListener > & aListener) override;
virtual void SAL_CALL removeVetoableChangeListener(const OUString& PropertyName,
const uno::Reference< beans::XVetoableChangeListener > & aListener) override;
};
UpdateCheckUI::UpdateCheckUI(const uno::Reference<uno::XComponentContext>& xContext) :
m_xContext(xContext)
, mpIconMBar( nullptr )
, mbShowBubble( false )
, mbShowMenuIcon( false )
, mbBubbleChanged( false )
, mnIconID( 0 )
{
maSfxLocale = Translate::Create("sfx");
maBubbleImage = GetBubbleImage( maBubbleImageURL );
maWaitIdle.SetPriority( TaskPriority::LOWEST );
maWaitIdle.SetInvokeHandler( LINK( this, UpdateCheckUI, WaitTimeOutHdl ) );
maTimeoutTimer.SetTimeout( 10000 );
maTimeoutTimer.SetInvokeHandler( LINK( this, UpdateCheckUI, TimeOutHdl ) );
uno::Reference< document::XDocumentEventBroadcaster > xBroadcaster( frame::theGlobalEventBroadcaster::get(m_xContext) );
xBroadcaster->addDocumentEventListener( this );
maWindowEventHdl = LINK( this, UpdateCheckUI, WindowEventHdl );
maApplicationEventHdl = LINK( this, UpdateCheckUI, ApplicationEventHdl );
Application::AddEventListener( maApplicationEventHdl );
}
UpdateCheckUI::~UpdateCheckUI()
{
Application::RemoveEventListener( maApplicationEventHdl );
RemoveBubbleWindow( true );
}
OUString SAL_CALL
UpdateCheckUI::getImplementationName()
{
return "vnd.sun.UpdateCheckUI";
}
uno::Sequence< OUString > SAL_CALL
UpdateCheckUI::getSupportedServiceNames()
{
return { "com.sun.star.setup.UpdateCheckUI" };
}
sal_Bool SAL_CALL
UpdateCheckUI::supportsService( OUString const & serviceName )
{
return cppu::supportsService(this, serviceName);
}
Image UpdateCheckUI::GetBubbleImage( OUString const &rURL )
{
Image aImage;
if ( !maBubbleImageURL.isEmpty() )
{
uno::Reference< uno::XComponentContext > xContext = ::comphelper::getProcessComponentContext();
if( !xContext.is() )
throw uno::RuntimeException(
"UpdateCheckUI: unable to obtain service manager from component context" );
try
{
uno::Reference< graphic::XGraphicProvider > xGraphProvider(graphic::GraphicProvider::create(xContext));
uno::Sequence< beans::PropertyValue > aMediaProps( 1 );
aMediaProps[0].Name = "URL";
aMediaProps[0].Value <<= rURL;
uno::Reference< graphic::XGraphic > xGraphic = xGraphProvider->queryGraphic( aMediaProps );
if ( xGraphic.is() )
{
aImage = Image( xGraphic );
}
}
catch( const uno::Exception& )
{
}
}
if ( aImage.GetSizePixel().Width() == 0 )
aImage = Image(StockImage::Yes, SV_RESID_BITMAP_INFOBOX);
return aImage;
}
void UpdateCheckUI::AddMenuBarIcon( SystemWindow *pSysWin, bool bAddEventHdl )
{
if ( ! mbShowMenuIcon )
return;
SolarMutexGuard aGuard;
MenuBar *pActiveMBar = pSysWin->GetMenuBar();
if ( ( pSysWin != mpIconSysWin ) || ( pActiveMBar != mpIconMBar ) )
{
if ( bAddEventHdl && mpIconSysWin )
mpIconSysWin->RemoveEventListener( maWindowEventHdl );
RemoveBubbleWindow( true );
if ( pActiveMBar )
{
OUStringBuffer aBuf;
if( !maBubbleTitle.isEmpty() )
aBuf.append( maBubbleTitle );
if( !maBubbleText.isEmpty() )
{
if( !maBubbleTitle.isEmpty() )
aBuf.append( "\n\n" );
aBuf.append( maBubbleText );
}
Image aImage = GetMenuBarIcon( pActiveMBar );
mnIconID = pActiveMBar->AddMenuBarButton( aImage,
LINK( this, UpdateCheckUI, ClickHdl ),
aBuf.makeStringAndClear()
);
pActiveMBar->SetMenuBarButtonHighlightHdl( mnIconID,
LINK( this, UpdateCheckUI, HighlightHdl ) );
}
mpIconMBar = pActiveMBar;
mpIconSysWin = pSysWin;
if ( bAddEventHdl && mpIconSysWin )
mpIconSysWin->AddEventListener( maWindowEventHdl );
}
if ( mbShowBubble && pActiveMBar )
{
mpBubbleWin = GetBubbleWindow();
if ( mpBubbleWin )
{
mpBubbleWin->Show();
maTimeoutTimer.Start();
}
mbShowBubble = false;
}
}
void SAL_CALL UpdateCheckUI::documentEventOccured(const document::DocumentEvent& rEvent)
{
SolarMutexGuard aGuard;
if( rEvent.EventName == "OnPrepareViewClosing" )
{
RemoveBubbleWindow( true );
}
}
void SAL_CALL UpdateCheckUI::disposing(const lang::EventObject&)
{
}
uno::Reference< beans::XPropertySetInfo > UpdateCheckUI::getPropertySetInfo()
{
return nullptr;
}
void UpdateCheckUI::setPropertyValue(const OUString& rPropertyName,
const uno::Any& rValue)
{
SolarMutexGuard aGuard;
OUString aString;
if( rPropertyName == PROPERTY_TITLE ) {
rValue >>= aString;
if ( aString != maBubbleTitle ) {
maBubbleTitle = aString;
mbBubbleChanged = true;
}
}
else if( rPropertyName == PROPERTY_TEXT ) {
rValue >>= aString;
if ( aString != maBubbleText ) {
maBubbleText = aString;
mbBubbleChanged = true;
}
}
else if( rPropertyName == PROPERTY_IMAGE ) {
rValue >>= aString;
if ( aString != maBubbleImageURL ) {
maBubbleImageURL = aString;
maBubbleImage = GetBubbleImage( maBubbleImageURL );
mbBubbleChanged = true;
}
}
else if( rPropertyName == PROPERTY_SHOW_BUBBLE ) {
rValue >>= mbShowBubble;
if ( mbShowBubble )
Application::PostUserEvent( LINK( this, UpdateCheckUI, UserEventHdl ) );
else if ( mpBubbleWin )
mpBubbleWin->Show( false );
}
else if( rPropertyName == PROPERTY_CLICK_HDL ) {
uno::Reference< task::XJob > aJob;
rValue >>= aJob;
if ( !aJob.is() )
throw lang::IllegalArgumentException();
mrJob = aJob;
}
else if (rPropertyName == PROPERTY_SHOW_MENUICON ) {
bool bShowMenuIcon = false;
rValue >>= bShowMenuIcon;
if ( bShowMenuIcon != mbShowMenuIcon )
{
mbShowMenuIcon = bShowMenuIcon;
if ( bShowMenuIcon )
Application::PostUserEvent( LINK( this, UpdateCheckUI, UserEventHdl ) );
else
RemoveBubbleWindow( true );
}
}
else
throw beans::UnknownPropertyException(rPropertyName);
if ( mbBubbleChanged && mpBubbleWin )
mpBubbleWin->Show( false );
}
uno::Any UpdateCheckUI::getPropertyValue(const OUString& rPropertyName)
{
SolarMutexGuard aGuard;
uno::Any aRet;
if( rPropertyName == PROPERTY_TITLE )
aRet <<= maBubbleTitle;
else if( rPropertyName == PROPERTY_TEXT )
aRet <<= maBubbleText;
else if( rPropertyName == PROPERTY_SHOW_BUBBLE )
aRet <<= mbShowBubble;
else if( rPropertyName == PROPERTY_IMAGE )
aRet <<= maBubbleImageURL;
else if( rPropertyName == PROPERTY_CLICK_HDL )
aRet <<= mrJob;
else if( rPropertyName == PROPERTY_SHOW_MENUICON )
aRet <<= mbShowMenuIcon;
else
throw beans::UnknownPropertyException(rPropertyName);
return aRet;
}
void UpdateCheckUI::addPropertyChangeListener( const OUString& /*aPropertyName*/,
const uno::Reference< beans::XPropertyChangeListener > & /*aListener*/)
{
//no bound properties
}
void UpdateCheckUI::removePropertyChangeListener( const OUString& /*aPropertyName*/,
const uno::Reference< beans::XPropertyChangeListener > & /*aListener*/)
{
//no bound properties
}
void UpdateCheckUI::addVetoableChangeListener( const OUString& /*aPropertyName*/,
const uno::Reference< beans::XVetoableChangeListener > & /*aListener*/)
{
//no vetoable properties
}
void UpdateCheckUI::removeVetoableChangeListener( const OUString& /*aPropertyName*/,
const uno::Reference< beans::XVetoableChangeListener > & /*aListener*/)
{
//no vetoable properties
}
VclPtr<BubbleWindow> UpdateCheckUI::GetBubbleWindow()
{
if ( !mpIconSysWin )
return nullptr;
tools::Rectangle aIconRect = mpIconMBar->GetMenuBarButtonRectPixel( mnIconID );
if( aIconRect.IsEmpty() )
return nullptr;
auto pBubbleWin = mpBubbleWin;
if ( !pBubbleWin ) {
pBubbleWin = VclPtr<BubbleWindow>::Create( mpIconSysWin, maBubbleTitle,
maBubbleText, maBubbleImage );
mbBubbleChanged = false;
}
else if ( mbBubbleChanged ) {
pBubbleWin->SetTitleAndText( maBubbleTitle, maBubbleText,
maBubbleImage );
mbBubbleChanged = false;
}
Point aWinPos = aIconRect.BottomCenter();
pBubbleWin->SetTipPosPixel( aWinPos );
return pBubbleWin;
}
void UpdateCheckUI::RemoveBubbleWindow( bool bRemoveIcon )
{
SolarMutexGuard aGuard;
maWaitIdle.Stop();
maTimeoutTimer.Stop();
if ( mpBubbleWin )
{
mpBubbleWin.disposeAndClear();
}
if ( bRemoveIcon )
{
try {
if ( mpIconMBar && ( mnIconID != 0 ) )
{
mpIconMBar->RemoveMenuBarButton( mnIconID );
mpIconMBar = nullptr;
mnIconID = 0;
}
}
catch ( ... ) {
mpIconMBar = nullptr;
mnIconID = 0;
}
mpIconSysWin = nullptr;
}
}
IMPL_LINK_NOARG(UpdateCheckUI, ClickHdl, MenuBar::MenuBarButtonCallbackArg&, bool)
{
SolarMutexGuard aGuard;
maWaitIdle.Stop();
if ( mpBubbleWin )
mpBubbleWin->Show( false );
if ( mrJob.is() )
{
try {
uno::Sequence<beans::NamedValue> aEmpty;
mrJob->execute( aEmpty );
}
catch(const uno::Exception&) {
std::unique_ptr<weld::MessageDialog> xErrorBox(Application::CreateMessageDialog(nullptr,
VclMessageType::Warning, VclButtonsType::Ok,
Translate::get(STR_NO_WEBBROWSER_FOUND, maSfxLocale)));
xErrorBox->run();
}
}
return false;
}
IMPL_LINK( UpdateCheckUI, HighlightHdl, MenuBar::MenuBarButtonCallbackArg&, rData, bool )
{
if ( rData.bHighlight )
maWaitIdle.Start();
else
RemoveBubbleWindow( false );
return false;
}
IMPL_LINK_NOARG(UpdateCheckUI, WaitTimeOutHdl, Timer *, void)
{
SolarMutexGuard aGuard;
mpBubbleWin = GetBubbleWindow();
if ( mpBubbleWin )
{
mpBubbleWin->Show();
}
}
IMPL_LINK_NOARG(UpdateCheckUI, TimeOutHdl, Timer *, void)
{
RemoveBubbleWindow( false );
}
IMPL_LINK_NOARG(UpdateCheckUI, UserEventHdl, void*, void)
{
SolarMutexGuard aGuard;
vcl::Window *pTopWin = Application::GetFirstTopLevelWindow();
vcl::Window *pActiveWin = Application::GetActiveTopWindow();
SystemWindow *pActiveSysWin = nullptr;
vcl::Window *pBubbleWin = nullptr;
if ( mpBubbleWin )
pBubbleWin = mpBubbleWin;
if ( pActiveWin && ( pActiveWin != pBubbleWin ) && pActiveWin->IsTopWindow() )
pActiveSysWin = pActiveWin->GetSystemWindow();
if ( pActiveWin == pBubbleWin )
pActiveSysWin = nullptr;
while ( !pActiveSysWin && pTopWin )
{
if ( ( pTopWin != pBubbleWin ) && pTopWin->IsTopWindow() )
pActiveSysWin = pTopWin->GetSystemWindow();
if ( !pActiveSysWin )
pTopWin = Application::GetNextTopLevelWindow( pTopWin );
}
if ( pActiveSysWin )
AddMenuBarIcon( pActiveSysWin, true );
}
IMPL_LINK( UpdateCheckUI, WindowEventHdl, VclWindowEvent&, rEvent, void )
{
VclEventId nEventID = rEvent.GetId();
if ( VclEventId::ObjectDying == nEventID )
{
SolarMutexGuard aGuard;
if ( mpIconSysWin == rEvent.GetWindow() )
{
mpIconSysWin->RemoveEventListener( maWindowEventHdl );
RemoveBubbleWindow( true );
}
}
else if ( VclEventId::WindowMenubarAdded == nEventID )
{
SolarMutexGuard aGuard;
vcl::Window *pWindow = rEvent.GetWindow();
if ( pWindow )
{
SystemWindow *pSysWin = pWindow->GetSystemWindow();
if ( pSysWin )
{
AddMenuBarIcon( pSysWin, false );
}
}
}
else if ( VclEventId::WindowMenubarRemoved == nEventID )
{
SolarMutexGuard aGuard;
MenuBar *pMBar = static_cast<MenuBar*>(rEvent.GetData());
if ( pMBar && ( pMBar == mpIconMBar ) )
RemoveBubbleWindow( true );
}
else if ( ( nEventID == VclEventId::WindowMove ) ||
( nEventID == VclEventId::WindowResize ) )
{
SolarMutexGuard aGuard;
if ( ( mpIconSysWin == rEvent.GetWindow() ) &&
mpBubbleWin && ( mpIconMBar != nullptr ) )
{
tools::Rectangle aIconRect = mpIconMBar->GetMenuBarButtonRectPixel( mnIconID );
Point aWinPos = aIconRect.BottomCenter();
mpBubbleWin->SetTipPosPixel( aWinPos );
if ( mpBubbleWin->IsVisible() )
mpBubbleWin->Show(); // This will recalc the screen position of the bubble
}
}
}
IMPL_LINK( UpdateCheckUI, ApplicationEventHdl, VclSimpleEvent&, rEvent, void)
{
switch (rEvent.GetId())
{
case VclEventId::WindowShow:
case VclEventId::WindowActivate:
case VclEventId::WindowGetFocus: {
SolarMutexGuard aGuard;
vcl::Window *pWindow = static_cast< VclWindowEvent * >(&rEvent)->GetWindow();
if ( pWindow && pWindow->IsTopWindow() )
{
SystemWindow *pSysWin = pWindow->GetSystemWindow();
MenuBar *pMBar = pSysWin ? pSysWin->GetMenuBar() : nullptr;
if (pMBar)
{
AddMenuBarIcon( pSysWin, true );
}
}
break;
}
default: break;
}
}
#define TIP_HEIGHT 15
#define TIP_WIDTH 7
#define TIP_RIGHT_OFFSET 18
#define BUBBLE_BORDER 10
#define TEXT_MAX_WIDTH 300
#define TEXT_MAX_HEIGHT 200
BubbleWindow::BubbleWindow( vcl::Window* pParent, const OUString& rTitle,
const OUString& rText, const Image& rImage )
: FloatingWindow( pParent, WB_SYSTEMWINDOW
| WB_OWNERDRAWDECORATION
| WB_NOBORDER
)
, maBubbleTitle( rTitle )
, maBubbleText( rText )
, maBubbleImage( rImage )
, maMaxTextSize( TEXT_MAX_WIDTH, TEXT_MAX_HEIGHT )
, mnTipOffset( 0 )
{
SetBackground( Wallpaper( GetSettings().GetStyleSettings().GetHelpColor() ) );
}
void BubbleWindow::Resize()
{
SolarMutexGuard aGuard;
FloatingWindow::Resize();
Size aSize = GetSizePixel();
if ( ( aSize.Height() < 20 ) || ( aSize.Width() < 60 ) )
return;
tools::Rectangle aRect( 0, TIP_HEIGHT, aSize.Width(), aSize.Height() - TIP_HEIGHT );
maRectPoly = tools::Polygon( aRect, 6, 6 );
vcl::Region aRegion( maRectPoly );
long nTipOffset = aSize.Width() - TIP_RIGHT_OFFSET + mnTipOffset;
Point aPointArr[4];
aPointArr[0] = Point( nTipOffset, TIP_HEIGHT );
aPointArr[1] = Point( nTipOffset, 0 );
aPointArr[2] = Point( nTipOffset + TIP_WIDTH , TIP_HEIGHT );
aPointArr[3] = Point( nTipOffset, TIP_HEIGHT );
maTriPoly = tools::Polygon( 4, aPointArr );
vcl::Region aTriRegion( maTriPoly );
aRegion.Union( aTriRegion);
maBounds = aRegion;
SetWindowRegionPixel( maBounds );
}
void BubbleWindow::SetTitleAndText( const OUString& rTitle,
const OUString& rText,
const Image& rImage )
{
maBubbleTitle = rTitle;
maBubbleText = rText;
maBubbleImage = rImage;
Resize();
}
void BubbleWindow::Paint(vcl::RenderContext& /*rRenderContext*/, const tools::Rectangle& /*rRect*/)
{
SolarMutexGuard aGuard;
LineInfo aThickLine( LineStyle::Solid, 2 );
DrawPolyLine( maRectPoly, aThickLine );
DrawPolyLine( maTriPoly );
Color aOldLine = GetLineColor();
Size aSize = GetSizePixel();
long nTipOffset = aSize.Width() - TIP_RIGHT_OFFSET + mnTipOffset;
SetLineColor( GetSettings().GetStyleSettings().GetHelpColor() );
DrawLine( Point( nTipOffset+2, TIP_HEIGHT ),
Point( nTipOffset + TIP_WIDTH -1 , TIP_HEIGHT ),
aThickLine );
SetLineColor( aOldLine );
Size aImgSize = maBubbleImage.GetSizePixel();
DrawImage( Point( BUBBLE_BORDER, BUBBLE_BORDER + TIP_HEIGHT ), maBubbleImage );
vcl::Font aOldFont = GetFont();
vcl::Font aBoldFont = aOldFont;
aBoldFont.SetWeight( WEIGHT_BOLD );
SetFont( aBoldFont );
tools::Rectangle aTitleRect = maTitleRect;
aTitleRect.Move( aImgSize.Width(), 0 );
DrawText( aTitleRect, maBubbleTitle, DrawTextFlags::MultiLine | DrawTextFlags::WordBreak );
SetFont( aOldFont );
tools::Rectangle aTextRect = maTextRect;
aTextRect.Move( aImgSize.Width(), 0 );
DrawText( aTextRect, maBubbleText, DrawTextFlags::MultiLine | DrawTextFlags::WordBreak );
}
void BubbleWindow::MouseButtonDown( const MouseEvent& )
{
Show( false );
}
void BubbleWindow::Show( bool bVisible )
{
SolarMutexGuard aGuard;
if ( !bVisible )
{
FloatingWindow::Show( bVisible );
return;
}
// don't show bubbles without a text
if ( ( maBubbleTitle.isEmpty() ) && ( maBubbleText.isEmpty() ) )
return;
Size aWindowSize = GetSizePixel();
Size aImgSize = maBubbleImage.GetSizePixel();
RecalcTextRects();
aWindowSize.setHeight( maTitleRect.GetHeight() * 7 / 4+ maTextRect.GetHeight() +
3 * BUBBLE_BORDER + TIP_HEIGHT );
if ( maTitleRect.GetWidth() > maTextRect.GetWidth() )
aWindowSize.setWidth( maTitleRect.GetWidth() );
else
aWindowSize.setWidth( maTextRect.GetWidth() );
aWindowSize.setWidth( aWindowSize.Width() + 3 * BUBBLE_BORDER + aImgSize.Width() );
if ( aWindowSize.Height() < aImgSize.Height() + TIP_HEIGHT + 2 * BUBBLE_BORDER )
aWindowSize.setHeight( aImgSize.Height() + TIP_HEIGHT + 2 * BUBBLE_BORDER );
Point aPos;
aPos.setX( maTipPos.X() - aWindowSize.Width() + TIP_RIGHT_OFFSET );
aPos.setY( maTipPos.Y() );
Point aScreenPos = GetParent()->OutputToAbsoluteScreenPixel( aPos );
if ( aScreenPos.X() < 0 )
{
mnTipOffset = aScreenPos.X();
aPos.AdjustX( -mnTipOffset );
}
SetPosSizePixel( aPos, aWindowSize );
FloatingWindow::Show( bVisible, ShowFlags::NoActivate );
}
void BubbleWindow::RecalcTextRects()
{
Size aTotalSize;
bool bFinished = false;
vcl::Font aOldFont = GetFont();
vcl::Font aBoldFont = aOldFont;
aBoldFont.SetWeight( WEIGHT_BOLD );
while ( !bFinished )
{
SetFont( aBoldFont );
maTitleRect = GetTextRect( tools::Rectangle( Point( 0, 0 ), maMaxTextSize ),
maBubbleTitle,
DrawTextFlags::MultiLine | DrawTextFlags::WordBreak );
SetFont( aOldFont );
maTextRect = GetTextRect( tools::Rectangle( Point( 0, 0 ), maMaxTextSize ),
maBubbleText,
DrawTextFlags::MultiLine | DrawTextFlags::WordBreak );
if ( maTextRect.GetHeight() < 10 )
maTextRect.setHeight( 10 );
aTotalSize.setHeight( maTitleRect.GetHeight() +
aBoldFont.GetFontHeight() * 3 / 4 +
maTextRect.GetHeight() +
3 * BUBBLE_BORDER + TIP_HEIGHT );
if ( aTotalSize.Height() > maMaxTextSize.Height() )
{
maMaxTextSize.setWidth( maMaxTextSize.Width() * 3 / 2 );
maMaxTextSize.setHeight( maMaxTextSize.Height() * 3 / 2 );
}
else
bFinished = true;
}
maTitleRect.Move( 2*BUBBLE_BORDER, BUBBLE_BORDER + TIP_HEIGHT );
maTextRect.Move( 2*BUBBLE_BORDER, BUBBLE_BORDER + TIP_HEIGHT + maTitleRect.GetHeight() + aBoldFont.GetFontHeight() * 3 / 4 );
}
} // anonymous namespace
extern "C" SAL_DLLPUBLIC_EXPORT css::uno::XInterface*
extensions_update_UpdateCheckUI_get_implementation(
css::uno::XComponentContext* context, css::uno::Sequence<css::uno::Any> const&)
{
SolarMutexGuard aGuard;
return cppu::acquire(new UpdateCheckUI(context));
}
/* vim:set shiftwidth=4 softtabstop=4 expandtab: */
|
This is transcript of the talk given by Rinpoche on Pranidanaraja, under the title, king of aspiration prayers. The original video can be found in the below links, Part 1 and Part 2. If anyone would like to edit this talk to make it more clearer, please drop me a mail here
DAY 1
I shall remind myself to expound this with a motivation of benefiting as many sentient beans beings as possible. Likewise I also request you to listen this so that you will benefit as many sentient beings as possible. I shall also invoke the blessings of all the Buddha’s of the past, present and the future to be present here now. I shall specially invoke Samantabhadra Bodhisattva to bless this occasion. Where ever he may be, whether it is in the Tushita heaven or whether he could be somewhere in Sichuan. He can arrive here in a metro or he could arrive here riding an elephant. But we invoke him, we invoke his presence for now. And this is because we are going to talk about the most important element of the Bodhisattva path. I say this is the most important because aspiration is something that beings like you and me can and be able to do. Now and then we can talk about profound subjects such as sunyata. We may even try to meditate on sunyata. We may try to not to dwell on the past, not to dwell on the future and to be present and be here but we also know that this is not easy because of our addiction to go to the past and the future is so strong that to remain in the present is almost impossible. But there is something that beings like you and I, we know what, there is something that we do which is, we wish. We human beings specially, we are full of wishes. Hoping, wishing, expectation are almost like our second nature. So this habit of wishing, expecting and aspiring, let us use this habit into something profound, meaningful, something that is meaningful not just for myself but for all sentient beings.
We know that sometimes we can benefit people practically giving food shelter, even a simple hug. But to give shelter and food to so many sentient beings, I mean to even hundred people let alone all the sentient beings is difficult and we may never be able to hug every sentient being. We just don’t have that kind of appetite anyway. Some of them really have bad smell. So to really practically do something, applying action is still very difficult for young aspiring Bodhisattvas like us. Again, aspiration is something we can do. Love, compassion, kindness are very very wholesome source and yes we must have, but to have love and compassion continuously is difficult because sentient beings are difficult to be pleased. Even one sentient being, you can please in the morning but by afternoon this same sentient being can be annoyed with you. And to please one or two sentient beings may be easy but to please many and everyone is difficult. At this stage, trying to please everyone will end up making ourselves suffer. So here again, aspiring to love, have compassion, to be kind is something that we can do. Aspiration is economical and it doesn’t require team work which is a very good thing. Aspiration is humbling. It creates humility and that’s really really important for a human being because humility is the key to the dignity confidence, beauty, magnetizing majestic quality, all of these come from humility. So, here again aspiration brings this humility. Because when you pray, when you aspire, you are acknowledging that what you are praying for, you don’t have it yet.
So these are some of the many many reasons why aspiration is the most important, profound, most vast subject that can be talked, contemplated and have. You know we have heard incredible power of wisdom of Manjushri. We have heard incredible quality of compassion of Avalokiteshvara. We have often heard of the power and strength of Vajrapani. After hearing the greatness of aspiration, I hope we will begin to appreciate Samantabhadra Bodhisattva. Actually not many people really want to have wisdom but lot of people want their wish to be fulfilled. So, in a way the Samantabhadra Bodhisattva should be more popular than the Manjushree because it is Samantabhadra bodhisattva that helps us fulfill wishes. You know just his grace, his elegance as he arrives silently riding the giant elephant, all our wishes will be fulfilled and specially, there is something great about the Samantabhadra bodhisattva is, even if you wish something so mundane, stupid and mediocre, he has a way to somehow turn this into something profound. If you wish for a long life which is very mundane and a very mediocre thing to wish for, he will make sure that you live long but somehow in your course of your longevity, you will then begin to practice the Dharma and benefit the sentient beings. Wishes for wealth, success, victory, everything one way or another, bodhisattva Samantabhadra transforms them something into meaningful. It’s partly because of his own wish when many many eons before when he was just beginning to be the Bodhisattva, his wish is never ever to be enlightened until all sentient beings are enlightened. How selfless can one get?
So I consider that I’m fortunate to have this opportunity to share Samantabhadra prayer tonight and tomorrow. So since we only have tonight, what I’m going to do is, I’m going to cover this aspiration not in order. I’m going to shuffle it a little bit. First I’m going to talk about the benefit of this aspiration. This is what a Samantabhadra has to say, if someone adorning the whole the earth with precious jewels and offer this to the tathagatas, there must be so much of merit. But someone else, upon hearing this aspiration and then through the hearing of this aspiration if they even have a glimpse of enthusiasm towards the Bodhisattva path, the power of virtue is far far more than offering tathagatas with jewel filled earth. And you should never think that this is just a poetic statement. In fact due to the human language, limitation of human language, I would say this is understatement. The merit of doing the aspiration such as this is, it just doesn’t fit in our small mind. I hope, we can cover this in later part but briefly now, the reason is because the aspiration is based on grandest view and the grandest motivation. That is why the merit of this aspiration is just infinite. If someone actually have this aspiration, according to the Pranidhana Raja, this person actually abandons all the lower realms. I actually believe this. Almost to the extent that sometimes I become lazy. But then again, it’s not really laziness too. I really believe that because I’ve prayed and I’ve also heard the Pranidhanaraja, I’ll be OK, this life and next life and in my dying time, I’ll be OK.
I’m sure some of you know, intellectuals we see, they might think I’m just going through some very blind tripping. So I’ll die much more peacefully than him and this is a blessing of the Buddha.
If you are a follower of the Mahayana buddhism and you are a regular visitor of mount Emei Shan for instance, you should also feel happy. Furthermore he says those who does this aspiration, they will abandon, they will separate from non-virtuous friends. Because non virtuous friends, the reason why they are non-virtuous is they don’t have this kind of aspiration. If your aspiration is big, the moment you have this kind of attitude, automatically you have abandoned the small minded, petty minded non virtuous friend and soon you will see Amitabha. I believe this totally. You know, believe is all we can do and non-believer believes in his own beliefs not to believe. Non-believers blindly believes in their reason and if I happen to believe in grand vision, grand aspiration, I think it’s much much better and much more rewarding. The one who have such aspiration will live well. Why? Because you have a grand vision. A little bit of scratch here, a little bit of breaking there, dent here and there doesn’t bother you anymore. I mean I believe this but I haven’t sort of managed to completely not worry about when things gets dented and this is because, I know my aspiration is still not on the practical level. When you have grand view, grand vision, grand plan, a little bit of failure here and there is nothing. So you sleep well, this is why you live well. If you don’t have the grand vision, if you are thinking very limited things, then you have so many things to worry about and we all know we have done quite a lot of worrying business and it’s not going to end. But the moment you put more emphasis on this grand aspiration then others are not that important.
The next one is a big statement, the force of karma is really really strong. Usually to manipulate, ideally even to cancel out a force of karma is difficult but here Pranidhanaraja says if you have grand aspiration, no matter what kind of negative karma you have created, all will be dispelled. Again karma is fundamentally a mental phenomenon. This is what the Buddha said, everything is cause and condition and of the cause and condition it is the motivation that is more powerful. So it is a mental phenomenon. So generating a grand aspiration immediately manipulates the past, present and the future karma. Aspiring for mundane things such as fame, prosperity, relationship can be achieved through mediocre aspiration, mediocre hope and mediocre wishes but a bodhisattva is not just looking for these kind of mundane achievement. Bodhisattva is aiming for wisdom of all wisdoms. Bodhisattva is aiming for a perfect form so that it can benefit so many sentient beings. Perfect, you know like beauty or the perfect marks. Bodhisattva is aiming to be or belong to a perfect race or perfect family. Bodhisattva is aspiring to have a perfect color because bodhisattvas aim to benefit sentient beings. Bodhisattva needs different color, different shape, different form, and all these different manifestations that can be used appropriately in different times and situations and with different people. That can be achieved through the Pranidhanaraja and the bodhisattva will not be defeated by any other obstacles, demons or other kind of philosophical systems if the bodhisattva is practicing such aspiration because again, grand aspiration. This bodhisattva is worthy to be venerated by three worlds and this bodhisattva will soon go to bodhi tree and upon going to the bodhi tree the bodhisattva will sit under the bodhi tree and after sitting the bodhisattva will actualize the Buddhahood and after actualizing the Buddhahood he will then turn the wheel of the Dharma and will vanquish the maras including the mara’s entourage. There are so many stories about this, actually the maras, the demons they are most afraid of somebody who has the grandest aspiration. So if you have a really really grand aspiration, for the obstacle makers it is more scary. If your aspiration is small, limited, then there is room to trick you. To be precise, I mean forget doing the aspiration, actually reading and contemplating on it, but even if you have the text or booklet in your bag or in your pocket and casually sort of flipping through the pages or reading it without concentrating much, the merit of infinite. Do not doubt these words because we are talking about an act or a mental act based on grand aspiration. So these are few of the benefits of doing this aspiration that I have extracted.
Now the actual aspiration. This has two parts, one is preparing for the aspiration and the other is actual aspiration. But before that, one may wonder for how long should we aspire for? As infinite as the sky, there are infinite sentient beings. As infinite as the sentient beings there are also infinite number of emotions. A bodhisattvas aspiration will also be infinite. So as you can see this is a long term project. Actually long is not the right word, forever project. We should really give up on the idea of getting enlightenment. We should just pray that forever and ever you will be a practitioner of Pranidhanaraja. This is the only thing you will do. That should be our aspiration.
Now preparing for the aspiration, it suggests, first to offer our homage with body, speech and mind to all the tathagatas of the past, present, future and the ten directions and then again here he says because of the power of aspiration, it takes no time to gather all the tathagatas of the 10 directions and three times. The moment you want to aspire, they are all there, ready to be your witness, ready to be your support. And I guess amidst all the hundreds and thousands and thousands of the Buddhas you should not forget Shamantabadra bodhisattva silently riding this giant elephant. I always like to visualize hundreds of elephants, walking slowly, you know, I don’t know whether you have seen elephants. They are very silent. They are the biggest animal but when they walk you don’t know and also they have the most beautiful eyes. They have beautiful way of looking at you. They see you but they always make you feel that they are not looking at you, so thousands and thousands is good. It is an auspicious thing and there are many other related stories with this elephant thing but maybe we should just go through the text.
As many atoms in the world that many Tatagathas exists on each atom. We offer our homage to them. We sing songs of their praise. We remember their qualities. We announce or declare their glory and greatness to the three worlds and then we offer what we human beings can think of as good and worthy to be offered. For instance flowers, garland, music, perfume and lamps. You know each of this is very romantic, you understand, it’s amazing. Think about 2500 years before India, there is no electricity, so it is such a beautiful gift to give somebody a lamp, like somebody giving an iPhone charger nowadays, already ready-made with oil, wick, its such a beautiful gift and especially to the sublime beings. Incense, robes, all kinds of food, bath soaps, bath robes, toothpaste, whatever comes to your mind basically. Offering substances are not limited to our human perception of what can be offered but are infinite.
We offer this with a motivation or attitude of joy to the bodhisattva activity. We are in front of the Buddhas and bodhisattvas, we confess all the misdeeds we committed in the past, misdeeds coming from desire, anger, jealousy, all kinds. From the depth of our hearts we confess, we don’t hide. We expose and then we rejoice and get excited about the quality of the Buddhas. You know rejoice is the most mundane way of putting it. It’s really like getting so excited about someone having good time and good qualities, incredible qualities of Buddhas, bodhisattvas and pratyekabuddhas and not only them, all other beings who have sublime and ordinary virtue. We rejoice and we are really happy that such qualities exists. We are not envious, we are not jealous, we don’t feel competitive. We almost feel relief that there are these guys, they exists with such great qualities, maybe we could relax a bit, because there is somebody who could take care of us. There are somebody who knows what they are doing. The world is not that lost, so we create this kind of joy and then we supplicate to all these Buddhas, who are really the eliminator of the darkness that filled this world. To these Buddhas we request them to turn the wheel of the dharma, to teach us, to point us out our mistakes and request them to lead us to right path, answer our questions, clear our doubts, increase our enthusiasm, generate our confidence to spiritual path and if there are Buddhas and bodhisattvas who may be wishing to conclude their display of benefitting the sentient beings, in other words those who pass into parinirvana, in haste, urgently tell them not to do that. Yes we are slow, yes we are stupid, we don’t learn right away, have compassion and bear us. Please live long. If it is necessary live for eons and eons. After that dedicating all the merit you’ve acquired through prostrations and making offerings to sentient beings. This is the standard Mahayana’s painless, incredible and powerful technique to accumulate merit. And through this we set up foundation for aspiration. You have merit, merit is an ability, it’s a power. If you have merit, you have ability to do things and since you have just accumulated the merit, you have the ability to aspire. So then we begin to aspire accordingly to Samanthabadra.
The aspiration of a bodhi sattva is grand as I keep on repeating, so therefore some of them are probably, especially for the new comers, it’s hard to sort of understand. Pranidhanaraja is kind of important text, there are so many many commentaries. I mean there are commentaries from very big shots. Nagarjuna has a commentary, Dingnaga has a commentary, Vasubandhu has a commentary and later in Tibet there are hundreds of commentaries and this time I’m going to use Dingnaga’s, since I’m addressing mainly to the Chinese community. I thought Chinese are more cozy with Asanga department. Nagarjuna and company may be not that much familiar. And Asanga is very important. He is one of main teachers who actually upheld the teachings of Pramana, which is Buddhist logic. He also has several commentaries. One of them is actually a synopsis of the aspiration, short synopsis of each stanza. That is what we are going to use since we only have two nights.
Now the first is to aspire, to have the Buddhas of the past present and the future, all feeling this existence and not only their presence but have their wish fulfilled right away. Now this is a very big one. Aspiring the Buddhas presence and not just one or two, inviting everyone. This is like inviting everyone to your party. Having that aspiration. I don’t know if we are even managing to fathom the implication of this stanza. If you understand even a little bit, it should give you goose bumps. Aspiring the presence of every tatagatha, right here, this moment.
The next aspiration is yet again another grand aspiration of the bodhisattva. Let me think of an example here, I don’t know if this works with our small mind but let me try. Let’s say I walk into a room and asking someone that, this is going to my bed room, this is going to be the toilet basically planning on this room as I own this territory, making all the blue print already. The next stanza is making the blueprint of the Buddha field, you the bodhisattva is already saying, everything, all this belongs to me (gesturing to the auditorium Rinpoche is speaking in)and that all this will be Buddha field and of course there will be Bodhi trees and underneath all the bodhi trees there will be Buddhas. I’m already planning this, this is aspiration, we are already planning this, no one cares about all these rows for people to sit, we don’t even think of this, here is going to be hundreds of thousands of bodhi trees and there will be billions of bodhisattvas receiving teachings of Prajnaparamita. It’s actually connected to lot of Mahayana teachings. In Mahayana teachings they say when a bodhisattva looks at a sentient beings, he sees them as theirs, like they belong to them, like they are their children, like they need to take care of them. The parents, they also plan for their children, my daughter will have this house, son will have that house, it’s sort of like this. All the sentient beings are mine and they need to be somewhere. This is sort of realistic planning, actually it is a big planning. May the earth be filled by Bodhisattvas. Anyways as I said this is according to synopsis of Dingnaga
Then the aspiration of being able to pacify ailments and problems of all sentient beings. May I be able to fulfill the wishes of sentient beings according to the dharma.
And then the aspiration of perfecting the antidote and being able to apply the antidote, the bodhisattva techniques such as the six paramitas or the ten paramitas.
Being able to remember the past lives and foresee the future lives and then aspiring to have the power so that we will not be stained and overpowered by emotions. May we be able to remember the past lives and upon remembering the past lives may we be able to have a perfect renunciation mind and therefore renounce futile samsaric life and emulate all the tatagathas of the past, present and the future and complete the act of kindness and apply the perfect discipline of the bodhisattva.
After renouncing the samsaric life and perfecting the discipline, may we be able to benefit sentient beings in all manners and manifestations. For example, may I be able to teach in different languages such as of gods, nagas and yakshakas. May I be able to interpret the dharma in different languages, different nuances and different symbols.
May I be able to perfect my diligence in Practice of the paramitas and let others also have the diligence in practicing the paramitas.
May I be able to never forget the bodhi mind and by not forgetting the Bodhi mind, may I be able to purify obscurations, obstacles and hindrances to the bodhi mind.
May I be able to overcome the karma of the past, the emotions of past and present and addiction to all the destructions.
From here we are talking about something quite important so I will stop here tonight and will let you ask questions if you have any.
Audience 1: You say when we have thoughts no matter good or bad we just watch them, you also say something like we should really try to protect our virtuous thoughts so that we have more virtuous thoughts. So what should we do after we are first aware of our thought, do we try to cultivate good thoughts or we just watch our thoughts?
Rinpoche: Both are correct techniques. I think not changing and not altering is more when we talk about meditation such as Samatha and Vipasana but altering, changing, trying to actually transform is also important especially during the Lojong for instance.
Audience 2: Hello Rinpoche, I have a question about aspiration. I feel that even when I say any aspiration prayer I’m never really sincere and even when I think that I’m sincere and if I feel very sincere, I still think in reality I’m not really sincere. Can you give us your thoughts like what you think about this sincerity issue?
Rinpoche: This is quite an important question, so today I’m going to dwell on this question and may be after answering this we will finish. The issue of sincerity or not really comes from having the full picture or not, so to speak. This is difficult, you are right, first thing I’ll tell you, the practical stuff which is, even myself many times I don’t feel sincere but if I keep on repeating, if I keep on faking and sometimes once in a blue moon when it is sincere, hopefully this sincere state slowly takes over, this is what I aspire. You know the real issue of sincerity, the problem is because we end up seeing things in context to past, present and future. We always separate these. So the past is gone, it’s never going to come back, future is a wild guess, well you can have an educated wild guess but still we never really know, we never really are certain and most of the times even the present is controlled by cause and condition. So this sort of alienation of three times really if the cause of sincerity issue you are talking about. In the sutras there is an expression. If you put a goose berry on your palm and the Arahats when they look at it they see the entire world. That’s how they see the world. The separation of past present and future is less, much less for the Arahats. So past is now, future is now, now is now, so it’s much less guessing and you have to reach that level to really generate the sincerity. So for us, since we are still bound by time and space there is lot of guessing and where ever there is guessing, it is understandable that sincerity is difficult. This is why we stopped here, this is why we need to hear about grand view because most of the reasons why you are not sincere is very very limited. Mostly it has to do with not being able to have the bird’s eye view of everything. So again going back to the practical thing, if you wish that somebody be happy, sometimes you feel you have wished sincerely, other times it is almost like an obligation and also when you wish somebody be happy you may also immediately contradict yourself by thinking that this is just a wish, it doesn’t necessarily mean that somebody is going to be happy just because you wish him happy and this kind of doubt is endless. Even if somebody did experience happiness after your wish, you may still doubt that this has got nothing to do with your wish. Now here we need to learn the vast phenomena of mind and also how karma works so to speak. As I said earlier a big part of karma is wish, motivation. Your intention to wishing good for this person is actually because this person has good karma to have you wishing well. I don’t know how you are understanding this, what I’m basically saying is that world is lacking so much of people who are having good wishes. If we can have even one good wish a day, if lot of people like a whole nation decide that every morning 9’o clock we all consciously wish good for others, if we can actually do that, the society or the group of people will definitely experience the effect of this good wish. We know that our action is secondary, action is followed by motivation. But the reason why most of good wish even if there are few are rooted to self-cherishing and self-clinging. We are just not experiencing this ultimate kindness enough. We will be talking about this root tomorrow more.
Just before we go, to answer this, to give a conclusion, when you really wish a good wish to all sentient beings or to all of Taiwan right now, instead of worrying about whether this wish will come true or not, an young bodhisattva, if he learns that the very moment of a sincere good wish, that will come true and if we can acknowledge that, that is the seed for sincerity. I don’t know if I’m explaining it clearly but sometimes we do have a good wish and if we can acknowledge that usually it is the seed of what the question is taking about, sincerity.
You will lose it though, you will lose it very soon, this sincerity because the next thought is, “well it’s just a wish, and it’s not going to happen”, all that judgment. The critical mind, what it does is, it dampens the sort of freshness. This is quite an important question actually related to some of the things that are actually within the Pranidhanaraja. Tomorrow we will discuss more and for tonight we will end it here.
DAY 2
The term Mahayana is not an arbitrary label or term. The word Maha in Sanskrit means grand. There is a reason why there is this term Maha. In fact Mahayana is almost too vast for ordinary minds like ours, in many different ways actually. Sharvakayana on the other hand is designed for those who can’t really chew and swallow grand teachings such as Mahayana and this is not at all a comment or statement to look down upon Sharvakayana. In a way we appreciate Sharvakayana for their accessibility, closer to the human thinking so to speak. For instance even when we talk about the story of the Buddha, a Sharvakayana would say Siddhartha was an ordinary man. I mean he was not a sublime being. Yes he is a very special Bodhisattva but still has not yet vanquished the samsara and only after six years of penance near by the banks of Niranjana river and finally coming to a very decisive conclusion under the bodhi tree, he then vanquished all the cause and conditions and traces of samsara and went to the zone of sublime being and not only that, from Sharvakayana point of view, even after enlightenment under the bodhi tree, Buddha was subject to sickness. He coughed for instance, He got thirsty. So until he passed into parinirvana in Kushinagar he was still subject of the aggregates. So this is how a Sharvakayana, even when they talk about the life of Buddha, this is how they explain, very humanely acceptable so to speak. Now when we talk about Mahayana even the so called story of the Buddha, the twelve deeds of the Buddha is just a show, it was all staged. From the time he was in the heaven, making decisions of who is going to be his parents, what race he will choose to be born in, the location such as Lumbini and being born in the palace, seeing old age and sickness and death, renouncing the palace life, penance by the banks of Niranjana river, even the enlightenment under bodhi tree is absolutely staged and the reason why he had to stage is, he want to show ordinary beings that ordinary beings can reach such a state. So even to tell the life of a Buddha between Sharvakayana and Mahayana, there is quite a big difference because Mahayana view is grand. We have to be careful here, every time I use the word grand, it is not to look down upon Sharvakayana’s view as something small or less and incomplete. The Sharvakayana path is actually, I’m repeating here, is catering for the mass. Mahayana on the other hand is supposedly for those who have grand view. Sometimes I’m puzzled why throughout Chinese history, majority of Buddhism that prevailed is Mahayana Buddhism. It really means a lot, in one way, it really means the Chinese belong to this exclusive audience who can actually think grand. So we are going to talk a little bit about this today.
Remember, I’m shuffling the stanzas quite a bit because since we only have tonight to actually summarize the aspiration, to make it more easy to access the aspiration, I feel it’s necessary to shuffle, for instance there are stanzas where it says “may I have no limit in my action, may I have no limit to my qualities and by obtaining limitless actions and limitless qualities, may I benefit limitless sentient beings” and there is a stanza where it says “may I perfect ocean like Buddha field”, we were talking about perfecting the Buddha field, this is very peculiar Mahayana concept. There is something like each Bodhisattva will actually bless a certain field as their own, like the Amithaba realm, the Sukhavati is considered as the Buddha field that was blessed or arranged or aspired by the Amithaba Buddha when he was a Bodhisattva. His aspiration was, whoever hears the name Sukhavati, the Western Buddha land, may they be born in that Western Buddha field which then becomes an important and very big foundation of Buddhism in China, Japan, Korea and also in Tibet. I believe it’s called pure land school or something like that and this is such an important path, the pure land path. It has need to be really nurtured and maintained in China, this pure land path. Really it’s not as simplistic as wishing to be born in heaven etc,
Likewise there are many many other Buddha fields that are specially arranged and aspired and designed by the Bhodhisattvas of past. According to some sutras, some of the sizes of the Buddha fields are as small as a piece of an atom cracked into 1000 pieces. I will tell you the reason why the field is important. To begin with, when you deal with deluded beings, you need a premise, you need some sort of location where you can perform your act of Bodhisattva and it’s quite interesting some of the Buddha fields are aspired by group of Bodhisattva, like two Bhodhisattvas aspiring for one Buddha field or even 100 Bodhisattvas or thousand.
Whether you believe it or not, the Buddha field that we are at the moment, sitting, taking shower whatever, this earth, Jambudvipa is in the Buddha field called fearlessness. This is a Buddha field arranged, aspired, designed and aimed by 1000 Bodhisattvas and this is most interesting Buddha field, I don’t know how to begin, this is so interesting, this Buddha field. I was talking to a lady in a restaurant and she was talking about her sadness, she said she feels very sad. The Bhodhisattvas of the past, this 1000 Bodhisattvas, when they designed this Buddha field one of the things they aspired for is, may this sentient beings have sadness because sadness is such a valuable thing, sadness leads you to go searching for higher truth. The Buddhists, they are afraid to go to hell of course but you know they are also afraid to go to heaven. Remember when we talk about precious human body one thing we don’t want to do is, we really don’t want to be born in heaven, in fact a sober, more smart Buddhist would prefer to go a lower hell realm than the highest heaven because in heaven you really don’t have this sadness until last minute and last minute sadness is not really productive. So this constant sadness, dissatisfaction is one of the criteria of this Buddha field. Anyways there are grand stories of this 1000 Bodhisattvas aspiring for this territory by the way.
In any way I should just continue with the stanzas. Here the aspiration is, May I perfect ocean like Buddha fields and may I aspire to have eons of such Buddha fields. May I aspire to have ocean like Dharma in the Buddha fields from ocean like Buddhas. These are some of the stanzas I’m quoting to really talk about grand vision, I’m slowly coming to grand vision.
And then little bit later, there is also another set of stanzas where Pranidanaraja says , perfecting ocean like Buddha fields, may I liberate ocean like sentient beings, may I make ocean like sentient beings understand ocean like truth. May I make ocean like sentient beings achieve ocean like wisdom and perfect ocean like activities and accomplish ocean like aspirations and please ocean like Buddhas and tirelessly perform the Bodhisattva activity for ocean like eons.
Another stanza where the grand view is explained is, on top of one single atom there are as many Buddha fields as the atoms in this earth and in each of the Buddha fields, Buddha surrounded by his entourage of Bodhisattvas and arahants, turn the wheel of Dharma constantly performing ocean like Buddha activity all the time and may I be able to witness without missing one single one of them.
May I be able to listen and contemplate and understand ocean like teachings given by all these Buddhas in a single moment. These are the stanzas that indicate something else, something which if view. It is very important to know, in the Mahayana, the path of Mahayana, I mean generally the path of all the Buddha dharma is Union of wisdom and method. This is important you know, fundamentally if a path is missing one of them then it’s a faulty path. For instance like the wisdom of selflessness that is thought in the Sharvakayana. When we talk about wisdom we talk about understanding the fact, the truth. The truth of matter is there is no such thing as me, self, truly existing. It is just a label, it is a label that is given by our self and we get habituated in thinking that this self truly exists, beyond that there is not a single solid reason to say that there is something called self, knowing this is wisdom. But how do you know this view, you have to know this view otherwise the habit of thinking that there is a self truly existing is still strong. So the technique of working with habit is called method. So for instance even in Sharvakayana, vipasana is fundamentally where selflessness is gradually taught. When we meditate, usually the method involves sitting straight and breathing normally, concentrating on a specific object like breath or stone or whatever, this is called a method. So this method should always be in align with wisdom as I was just speaking. Similarly wisdom must also be aligned with method otherwise the wisdom is useless. Without this Union you don’t have the path. So the wisdom can be formless and method can have form. Wisdom might not have any color, symbol or shape but method might have plenty of those color, shape, symbol, discipline and action. Similarly in Mahayana wisdom and method should be in union. For instance, Pranidanaraja is obviously a method but the Mahayana method of aspiration must be in align with Mahayana wisdom. Sunyata, the form is not other than emptiness and emptiness is not other than form. This is the Mahayana’s grand view. So our aspiration must be in align with that view.
So if you continue where we left from yesterday, I have used some of the latest stanzas but for instance, “may I be able to teach in different languages” and then “may I be able to roam in the samsara to benefit sentient beings”. As the Bodhisattva roams around stained and defiled samsara to benefit sentient beings and may I do this like a lotus, may I bloom like a lotus, beautiful, serene, and stainless even though the lotus is born in the mud. So the Bodhisattvas can manifest as prostitutes, hunters, robbers, politicians, gangsters but they are not stained by any of these worldly defilements or stains.
Without any delay or obstructions or intrusions as I roam around in the samsara to benefit sentient beings, may I illuminate the darkness of the world like the sun and moon. This particular stanza had another side to it. It’s taking about the sun and moon doesn’t have a motivation to illuminate a certain spot on earth or not illuminate a certain spot. The sun rises and illuminates where its light reaches. Likewise may the sentient beings receive the Bodhisattva’s illumination or activity as the sun and Moon rises, even though the Bodhisattva may not have any kind of partiality.
And then similarly, May I be able to dispel the suffering of sentient beings, may I be able to give sentient beings happiness and causes of happiness. May I be able to benefit sentient beings appropriately with whatever they require and gradually may I able to make sentient beings perfect their Bodhisattva act.
The next is such a beautiful stanza, “may I also act according to sentient beings behavior, attitude and custom and tradition”. You can get the sense that the Bodhisattvas don’t want to be this thorny teacher, always correcting that you shouldn’t do this, you shouldn’t do that but a Bodhisattva is really aspiring to be a friend rather than an inspector or a corrector. And then, may I be able to have the opportunity to accompany other Bodhisattvas who share my view, my strategy, and my wish. I think this is like aspiration for master also. I think master is not right word. Actually in Buddhism master is very human language, it’s not appropriate. Probably for kungfu it is appropriate. Because in Sanskrit the word is Kalyanamitra meaning spiritual friend, virtuous friend. The so called guru or master actually in the sutras, it’s always the virtuous friend. May I have that friend, may I have the opportunity to be accompanied by such a virtuous friend. May I and this virtuous friend together aspire for one goal. I’m emphasizing together here, body, mind and speech together, may we together aspire for one goal which is to benefit sentient beings. Again and again and again may I encounter this kind of virtuous friend. People talk about finding the guru and stuff like that, do the Pranidanaraja prayers then you will find the teacher. Big part of Pranidanaraja is finding the right friend. May I encounter this virtuous friend at all times and at all occasions. For instance just like when we feel like misbehaving may he turn up from a corner. Of course it’s kind of annoying but that’s your virtuous friend. It’s his job to save you from getting into trouble.
May I never ever dishearten my virtuous friend, may I never break their heart and by the power of not breaking his heart, may I then be able to see ocean like the Buddhas teaching his another ocean like entourage, turning the wheel of Dharma. May I be able to see this with my very own eyes and flesh. The Vajrayana people, they love this because Vajrayana always says if you want to see the Buddha, you want to really have the guru’s blessing, it’s connected to these things. If you really want to see ocean like Buddhas you don’t want to break the heart of virtuous friend, it says. And it doesn’t matter where we roam in this Samara, higher birth, lower birth, wherever we roam in this cyclic existence, may my merit and wisdom be inexhaustible and may I never lose my treasure of my wisdom, method and Samadhi or concentration and may I be able to have the power to understand the desires, expectations, assumptions, wishes of hundreds and thousands of ocean like samsaric beings.
Actually first to begin with may I be able to know that each and every sentient beings have different wishes and different moods and different assumptions and knowing it may I be able to fulfill and correspond to each and every wish and expectation and assumptions. Likewise by the power of this aspiration, may I have the power to enter into the infinite different subjects and teachings of different Buddhas. By the power of this aspiration, may I understand the teachings of the Buddhas of not only the past and present but may I be able to visit the future. By sitting here right now, may I be able to listen to the teachings the Buddhas of the future that they hasn’t given yet. And when the ocean like the Buddhas manifest in many many forms and activities, by the power of this aspiration may I be able to witness them all, may I be able to visit all the Buddhas of the past, present and the future missing not even one and acquire infinite power. Power to perform miracles, power of understanding different vehicles and different methods. Power to act according to the teachings and according to the wishes of the sentient beings.
May I be able to have the power to love all sentient beings. May I have the ability to accumulate virtuous deeds and merit. May I be able to have power of never getting distracted or attached to any kind of dualistic phenomenon. By perfecting the power of wisdom and method and samadhi, may I be able to accomplish all the Bodhisattva activities and may I be able to have the power to extinguish, dismantle, destroy the consequences of karma and defeat the power of emotions, defeat the four Maras. The Maras of aggregates, Maras of emotion, Maras of death and Maras of pride.
In short, now we are concluding this prayer. May I be able to follow or emulate Samanthabadra bhodhisattva’s view and action. Like the Bodhisattva Samanthabadra, may my body, speech and mind be pure. May my Buddha field and my dedication be perfect. Also in order to perfect a Bodhisattva activity, I shall aspire just as how Lord Manjushri aspired. So this is sort of the main body of Pranidanaraja as condensed in form of short synopsis by Dingnaga. Last time when I thought the Pranidanaraja I was using a different commentary. So if you are comparing these two, maybe there will be some differences. I thought this time we will be more practical rather than being more intellectual or academical. So concentrating more on the stanzas of Pranidanaraja, just as how Dingnaga put it fundamentally, I would like to remind you that it’s important to unite wisdom and method and this is the principle of aspiration. If these two get separated, as last night a lady asked, this is where we also get into the trouble of being sincere or not. For a moment we can understand the view, the emptiness and the method, the aspiration as something to be united, then all these seemingly impossible and seemingly unreachable, all can be reachable. I like to repeat this again, aspiration is something that beings like us can do. It’s measurable so to speak. It’s something you can judge yourself with whether you are doing it or not. Beyond that most of the spiritual path is very subtle and kind of difficult to measure.
The actual explanation of the body of Pranidanaraja will wrap it here. I’ll let you ask some questions and then I thought to make the evening more fruitful, we will chant the aspiration prayer once in Chinese. So if you have questions please.
Question 1: In the stanzas there is one prayer where the Samanthabadra says that when he passes away, may he be born in Amithaba’s Sukhavati pure realm and we should also aspire to be born in Sukhavati but when I listen to most of your teachings online, it doesn’t seem that you encourage people to be reborn in Sukhavati. Can you tell more on that and about Samanthabadra prayer of aspiration and Sukhavati relation.
Answer: It looks like these Bodhisattva’s when they aspire, they specifically choose some sort of point or a value. I’ll try to explain this a little difficult, For instance, like Avalokadeswara, supposedly he blessed his name, he aspired to have his name to be the most popular and who ever hear this will have some sort of connotation or link with love and compassion and it looks like it is true because, I would say Avalokadeswara is probably the most well-known, from Sri Lanka, all the way to China, all the way to Japan, everywhere there is Avalokadeswara invoking. Likewise it is believed that, there was this monk, I forgot the name, this was eons and eons before and his aspiration was to bless a specific place called Sukhavati where everyone will be attracted to go. It’s almost like Sukhavati is more famous than Amithaba himself, you understand what I mean. For instance, how many of you wish to be reborn in, how do I translate this, land of pony tails? OK let’s call it ponytails. I don’t think you have even heard of it. Isn’t it. That’s the place of the Vajrapani. I haven’t heard any of you rushing towards being born in land of ponytails. Actually ponytails is not the right word, it’s called land of long hair. And how many of you wish to go to land of turquoise leaves, that’s where Tara is. If there is some Nyingmapas here, probably some of you guys wish to go to copper colored mountain. To me the most attractive place is Kechara. That’s where Vajrayogini is, it’s in the Sakya tradition. To me that’s the most attractive land. From a very young age, I was attracted to this idea of letters made with corals and I like the idea such as, if I really really just wholeheartedly devote to Vajrayogini, even as I am about to enter into donkeys womb for instance, this beautiful 16 year old girl with Sindoor will grab my wrist and pull me up, I like this. And I think there are Sakyapas sitting here, Sakyapas, they pray to the Amithaba realm, the reason is of course it is Amithaba but the other reason is there are also other sakyapa lamas there and they want to go where the sakyapa lamas are. But anyway among these pure realms, Amithaba realm is in top list. And also the Amithaba realm also seems to have lot of chances, even if you are not that good but if you are really really wholeheartedly devote to Amithaba, you will be reborn in the Amithaba realm in inside a lotus, the lotus might not blossom but it’s OK, one of these days it’s going to be blossomed. Any way as I speak these, I talk like as if it’s some sort of theistic religious concept of heaven but it’s not like that in Buddhism. Because Amithaba realm comes in many different levels. As it is stated in the Amithaba sutras the moment you close your eyes you are already there in the Amithaba realm meaning Amithaba realm is here and now. But for those who can’t understand this profound teachings, yes there are mentions such as towards the West where the sun sets there is the Amithaba realm so on and so forth. Because Pranidanaraja is an aspiration to benefit sentient beings in every way while we are aspiring to enter into ocean like Buddha field, Amithaba realm being the most popular and easy to access, I guess it’s included here specifically. Actually Manjushri’s land is not certain also. In many sutras, sometimes it’s refereed as land of sound of drum but most importantly it’s believed that Manjushri land is actually earthly bound, it exists on this earth. I think it’s 5 hour drive from Beijing(smiling). I’m serious, this I’m not making up. It’s supposedly Earthly bound.
Question 2: Rinpoche, actually I have several questions but which one you want to answer and which one is more important is your decision. So first is, the reason why we want to have enlightenment is sometimes we want to finally have some rest and I don’t know why we should have to pray and do so many troublesome and tiring work and what is the strong motive to do that, this is the first question. And the second one is, how to really combine wisdom and skillful method and the third one is, we actually want to uproot all of our suffering but also many of our sufferings really helps, so how to balance these two thinkings. Thank you Rinpoche.
Answer: I will try to combine them all. Uniting the wisdom and method might take some time. The practitioners always find it difficult. And there is a reason why it is difficult is because these two also many times they contradict. For instance even when we talk about the aspiration we have to talk about wisdom that talks about no self, meaning no one who does the aspiration. And when we talk about wisdom we talk about no numbers and then when we talk about accumulation of merit we do talk about numbers such as the seven branch prayers but this is why the Pranidanaraja is quite special because even though there are numbers, the numbers are all kind of gearing towards infinite wisdom, such as ocean like, you know ocean like Buddhas, ocean like sentient beings, ocean like teachings, so it’s already breaking this limitations. I would suggest our main motivation to do the aspiration is to understand the truth so that we can benefit sentient beings even though it may not be so strong yet, I think we should try to educate ourselves to think that way.
Transcribed by: budpad |
Rumors that it’s filled not just with Central Americans seeking asylum but with people from Venezuela, Nigeria and Syria — even Islamic militants. Rumors that caravan members were secretly trained by the United Nations. Rumors that it’s funded by Jewish billionaire George Soros. Rumors that MS-13 is involved. Rumors of cartels. Rumors of violence. Rumors of death.
Johnny Horton Jr. is a self-proclaimed border militia leader who believes the rumors are true. Except he doesn’t call them rumors. He calls them facts. And like several other militia leaders, he says he has fielded a team of “patriots” to travel to the southern border to stop the caravan from coming into the U.S.
“Our information comes from the very top,” Horton said in a recent interview with the Southern Poverty Law Center (SPLC). “I’m not telling you where, but it comes out of very high agencies.”
Militia leaders like Horton have been hyping up the threat of the caravan in recent weeks and vowing online to take action. They say they’re putting “boots on the ground” from Texas to California to support the active-duty troops that have been ordered to the border in response to the caravan.
In the process, the militias have gorged on an array of hoaxes and conspiracy theories floated by conservative media, anti-immigrant groups and President Donald Trump himself, who released an ad about the caravan before the midterms that was deemed so racist that Fox News and other news channels pulled it off the air. The fantasies the militias have embraced smear the caravan as an invading army rather than a group of a few thousand desperate people fleeing poverty and violence. The militias see themselves as duty bound to stop the caravan, even if that means a shooting war breaks out.
At the same time, however, the militia movement has been afflicted by infighting and backstabbing over the caravan and their response to it. In their frenzy, they’ve told reporters that they are prepared to bring hundreds, even thousands, of armed men and women to the border to form a united front. But behind the scenes, these irregular armies are made up of unreliable individuals. Leaders have insulted other leaders. Groups have broken alliances with other groups. And self-described commanders have resigned their positions in the militias they run.
It all might be a bit comical if the groups weren’t armed and didn’t believe war was approaching. According to Newsweek, the Pentagon has already assessed the possibility that civilian militias could pose a threat to the 5,000 troops that are being deployed to the border. Beyond that, the broader antigovernment movement also has a history of breeding lone wolves who become so gripped by paranoia that they take matters into their own hands. That was the case with Jerad and Amanda Miller, who shot and killed two police officers in North Las Vegas in 2014 after attending the Bundy Ranch standoff. It was also the case with Shawna Forde, a former member of the border vigilante group Minuteman Civil Defense Corps who murdered a man and his 9-year-old daughter in 2009 during another outbreak of hysteria about the southern border.
The ballad of Larry Hopkins
It’s a little hard to know what to make of Johnny Horton Jr., who calls himself the national commander of the United Constitutional Patriots (UCP).
For one, that’s not his real name. He’s Larry Mitchell Hopkins.
“Horton” is the stage name used by the 69-year-old, who describes himself as an “artist, entertainer.” On YouTube, there are videos of Hopkins performing under the Horton name, singing covers of old country songs, including some by the original Johnny Horton, who died in a car crash in 1960.
Hopkins also uses the alias in the militia movement.
Larry Hopkins (aka Johnny Horton Jr.), head of the United Constitutional Patriots militia, posts a message on Facebook about heading to the border.
His group, UCP, is headquartered in Flora Vista, New Mexico, a small town in the northern part of the state. It’s unclear how many people are part of his group, and he declined to cite any figures when asked by the SPLC.
“I cannot give you numbers,” he said. “That would be the worst thing I could do.”
The main online presence for UCP, its Facebook page, is sparse. It contains a few reposts of videos, some of which are conspiracy-driven. The page also includes at least two links to videos of Hopkins performing “The Ballad of the Green Berets.”
Hopkins has said his group has a presence along the Mexico border and is working with other militia groups throughout the Southwest in response to the caravan. He was unwilling to provide proof to support these claims. However, UCP’s Facebook page published links to two fundraising sites — PayPal and GoFundMe — soliciting donations for the border-watch efforts. Both campaigns show they were started by a man using the name Mark Cheney, whose own Facebook page describes him as a “former disabled vet” and “currently on Social Security disability.” The page says he also lives in Flora Vista.
The GoFundMe pitch, which uses similar language to the one on PayPal, is simple:
We are raising money to help finance the various Patriot groups who have volunteered to go to the U.S. Border to help the Border Patrol in securing the Border before the invasion happens. We are doing this by assisting in fuel cards, food and water and various other supplies that are needed. Please give what you can, no amount is too small or too large.
As of Wednesday, Nov. 14, the GoFundMe campaign had raised $125 with a goal of $1,000. The PayPal campaign had netted $180 toward a goal of $1,500.
As for Hopkins, he’s all-in on conspiracy theories about the caravan. His rhetoric at times has been dire. On his personal Facebook page, he recently posted a message speculating about his death:
im 69 years old and i am going to the border when i know the enemy is close to the border, i am going to fight and i may give my life but at least i will be there and stand by my oath, they didnt get me when i was in the army and i will stand for our country, if they get me now at least i will die for our country and what keeping america free is all about, GOD WILL GUIDE AND PROTECT ME,
During his interview with the SPLC on Oct. 26, Hopkins explained that he expects his group to be shot at. He said he’d been “prewarned” by “very high level” law enforcement sources. “Armed groups are already here,” he said. “They’re planning on flanking us … to shoot us.”
“If we’re fired on,” he added, “we will fire back.”
When the SPLC pressed Hopkins about his claim that he was getting information from high up in the government — or as he put it elsewhere in the conversation, “from the very top” — he remained vague.
“I am not giving any information where my information comes from,” he said. But, he added, “I’m not implying the president.”
However, on Saturday, Nov. 3, in a video interview posted on a Facebook page called The Renegade Network, Hopkins did more than just imply he was in touch with President Trump — he claimed the president was relying on him for border intelligence.
Screenshot of video interview between "Mr. X" of The Renegade Network and militia leader Larry Hopkins (aka Johnny Horton Jr.)
The claim came during an interview with someone going by the alias “Mr. X,” who appears to administer The Renegade Network page. The page itself is steeped in militia propaganda and traffics in plenty of conspiracy theories, but Mr. X was skeptical of many of the claims Hopkins had been making recently, particularly when it comes to border watch operations.
Mr. X — dressed in a gasmask and black hoodie, his voice distorted — grilled Hopkins on his claims. About midway through the interview, Hopkins defended himself by making grand statements about knowing Trump personally. He said their relationship began because of his own career in music.
“When I was doing music, I met Trump and his first wife when he had the casino in Las Vegas, and I played there numerous times. OK?” Hopkins said. “That’s how I knew him. And Trump and I have kept in touch ever since.”
He went on to say that Trump was a listener of an internet radio show he broadcasts on YouTube and that the president wanted intel from him, not about the southern border, but about the northern border. Because, Hopkins said, that’s where “all of the Muslims are coming in.”
Trouble in New Mexico
Jim Peyton, who called himself a "general" of the Patriots of the Constitution militia. (via Facebook)
Hopkins also claimed to be working closely with another militia, Patriots of the Constitution, which is based out of Alabama but had traveled to New Mexico in response to the caravan.
When the SPLC spoke to Jim Peyton, who calls himself the militia’s general, on Oct. 25, he said that he and the group’s other general, Terry Kelley, had recently arrived in Columbus, New Mexico, just a few miles north of the Mexico border. They’d driven straight through, without sleep, for two days to get there, he said.
Like Hopkins, Peyton wouldn’t say exactly how many people besides Kelley were taking part in his militia activities, but claimed it was “over 100 people.” Peyton also claimed that he was in charge of all the militia activities along the border.
“All the other militias have been contacted. We’re all acting as one,” Peyton told the SPLC. “When they come here, I’ll be commanding officer. And they’ll follow my ord — the orders that we have.”
He said that everyone in his group had served in the military in the past.
“We’re not a bunch of hillbillies running around with muskets,” he said. “People know what the rules are, what the rules of engagement are, what the rules of the border patrol are. And that’s how we’re operating.”
Peyton’s belief in a number of conspiracy theories prompted him to head to the border. Nigerians in the caravan? Check. Militants with the Islamic State? Check. Soros financing it? Check. His information, he said, came “from good sources, reliable sources, government-type sources.” What were those sources? He wouldn’t say. But he said he believed the caravan and other recent events were attempts to distract from what he saw as crimes committed by “the left.”
“Obama, Hillary, Schumer, Soros need to go in front of a military tribunal,” Peyton said. Asked what he meant by that, he replied: “Arrested. Tried by the military for treason.”
Despite Peyton’s claims of commanding a major joint militia operation at the border, problems with his plan were already clear.
His group, Patriots of the Constitution, previously advertised Hopkins’ militia as part of its coordinated effort. But when speaking with the SPLC, Peyton said that was no longer the case.
“We have split ties and affiliation with United Constitutional Patriots, OK?” Peyton said. “We don’t deal with them any longer. That’s, like I said, a recent thing. And we have our own reasons for doing so. And I just can’t get into that with you.”
(Hopkins later denied the groups had split. “He hasn’t severed no ties with us,” he said, adding that he would call Peyton to find out what was going on.)
Less than a week later, Peyton posted a message on Facebook announcing another departure from Patriots of the Constitution — himself.
“I, General James F, (sic) Peyton, do hereby submit this letter of resignation to General Terry Kelley of the Patriots of The Constitution,” he wrote. “I will still retain the rank of General that was given to me by (sic) former Commander, prior to General Kelley, and will be willing to assist any Patriot group in need of assistance.”
Generals and Crooks
Jim Peyton announces his resignation from Patriots of the Constitution on Facebook.
Before his departure, Peyton said Patriots of the Constitution had been sending donations and manpower to a longtime border militia leader: Robert Crooks.
Crooks leads the Mountain Minutemen, a group founded more than a decade ago to conduct civilian border watch operations. He lives in the Las Vegas area these days but makes regular trips to Southern California for armed patrols at a spot near the Mexico border called Patriot Point.
When he spoke to the SPLC in late October, he was alone at Patriot Point. He was posting messages on Facebook asking for volunteers and financial donations, but he was working solo. His regular volunteers — his “base group,” he called them — had day jobs and were unavailable.
“So, you know, I gotta stand the line by myself until the cavalry shows up,” Crooks said.
He complained about the state of the border militia movement. The way he sees it, he said, people will talk a big game on the internet, but it’s all for show. They’ll promise to come to the border, and they might even donate to him, but they rarely follow through.
“I’m alone right now. I don’t have anybody,” Crooks said. “It’s all lip service, you know? These keyboard commandos, these Walmart warriors, they go down to Cabela’s and buy all these shitty looking goods — stuff to make ‘em look good in the mirror.”
The SPLC asked Crooks about Peyton’s group, Patriots of the Constitution, and how messages posted on the group’s Facebook page said it was working with Crooks.
“They sucked me into that without my knowledge, them people — what are they called? Um, Uniform Construction or Constitutional Patriots or some bullshit. I don’t know. I told them to take that off and they haven’t done it yet,” Crooks said. “I’m not affiliated with them. Don’t tie me to them. They did that on their own volition, and I’ve told them to pull me off that. I guess they haven’t, have they? Is it still up?”
Later in the interview, Crooks laughed about militia leaders who call themselves “generals.”
“Oh, this weekend I’m gonna be a general. All right!” he said. “They know they’re mindless midges, you know what I mean?”
When Peyton was asked later about Crooks’ comments, he was in disbelief.
“Really? Really? OK. It cost me over a thousand dollars out of my own pocket just to get down here. So what kind of a keyboard warrior is that?” Peyton said. “I don’t know why he would say that when we just sent him money!”
A neo-Nazi, not a rocket scientist
Crooks was the most explicit of the bunch in his assessment of the caravan. He used the slurs “cockroaches” and “ditch crickets” to describe immigrants who crossed the border illegally. And he talked up the anti-immigrant fantasy that the caravan was part of a secret plot by Mexico to take over the Southwestern U.S. — a conspiracy theory known as “la reconquista.” The eventual goal, he said, was a “New World Order.”
“These entities, these diabolical manifestations in this plane of consciousness, they’re trying to destroy the sovereignty of this nation, and have been from the onset,” Crooks said. “It’s pushing for the New World Order, pushing for the elitist takeover and the domination of and the destruction of America. And that’s exactly what it is. It has been all along.”
“One world government,” he added. “Total domination of the human species.”
Those types of comments are nothing new for Crooks, of course. In the past, he patrolled the Arizona desert south of Phoenix with longtime neo-Nazi Harry Hughes, who also uses the term “cockroaches” to describe migrants and rails against “globalists” and the “New World Order.” Hughes is entrenched in the border militia movement in Arizona and is friendly on Facebook with a number of its leaders. But he also plays a role as the communications director for the National Socialist Movement (NSM), a violent neo-Nazi group headquartered in Detroit.
Harry Hughes at a National Socialist Movement (NSM) event in 2012.
Hughes’ role in the swastika-carrying, Hitler-worshipping group is no secret. One of his own blogs shows a mix of selfies of him dressed alternately in either desert fatigues for border operations or else donning the black uniform and swastika armband that was formerly the dress code of the NSM. He was also a longtime friend and confidant of J.T. Ready, another NSM member who lived in Arizona and patrolled the desert with Hughes. Ready killed himself in 2012 after murdering four people, including an 18-month-old girl, inside a house in the Phoenix suburbs.
Crooks didn’t skip a beat when the SPLC asked him about his relationship with Hughes. “Harry’s a good friend of mine!” he said, adding that Hughes’ views, which he described as “political,” didn’t really matter to him.
“Am I a neo-Nazi?” Crooks said. “No, I am not. And if he is in fact a neo-Nazi and part of the Aryan — that’s his life, and I have no problem with that. I don’t care.” Crooks said his own patriotism didn’t deter him from being friends with a man who holds a leadership role in a group that celebrates Adolf Hitler.
“Nobody ever called him a rocket scientist, you know what I mean?” Crooks said of Hughes. “But he does go out in the desert and he patrols the desert for illegal aliens. I’ve gotta commend him for that. And if he’s gonna continue doing that with me, I’ll run with him.”
All of this, and the caravan had yet to arrive. In the days since the SPLC talked to the militia leaders, Trump had mobilized thousands of active-duty troops to the border, and photos surfaced showing them placing concertina wire along stretches of it. Earlier this year, when another caravan of migrants crossed Mexico to seek asylum in the U.S., 93 percent ended up getting it, according to BuzzFeed News. In other words, they immigrated legally.
This week, the first wave of the new caravan began arriving in Tijuana, Mexico, just across the border from San Diego. And VICE News reported that Trump’s border troops in Texas had nothing to do. The caravan was nowhere near them.
As for the border militia movement, its members are likely finding out they’re in the same boat.
Photo illustration by SPLC |
WALTHAM, Mass. -- Boston Celtics coach Doc Rivers was fined $25,000 for public criticism of officiating, NBA executive vice president of basketball operations Stu Jackson announced on Thursday.
After Celtics center Kevin Garnett ran into early foul trouble during Tuesday's Game 2 loss, earning two whistles in an 18-second span early in the first quarter, Rivers voiced his displeasure in his postgame press conference.
"I thought the fouls on Kevin were horrendous and had a huge effect on us," said Rivers.
Rivers hinted during a conference call on Wednesday that his words might have raised the league's antennae.
"I didn't think I said much and that could be a problem," said Rivers. "Because all I basically said was, Kevin getting into foul trouble had a huge impact on the game. That's not criticizing officials. So I've just got to make sure I focus on our stuff."
Rivers signed a five-year, $35 million contract extension with Boston after the 2010-11 season.
Garnett was fined $25,000 earlier this season for his role in a dust-up with the Brooklyn Nets, while Chris Wilcox earned a $25,000 for an obscene gesture on the JumboTron during a game in Philadelphia. |
Q:
Override Doctrine2 types in Symfony3
I would like to use Carbon objects in my Symfony 3.2 application instead of the SPL \DateTime object. I found a set of DoctrineExtension classes in here.
Edited my config.yml file:
doctrine:
dbal:
...
types:
carbondatetime: DoctrineExtensions\Types\CarbonDateTimeType
carbondate: DoctrineExtensions\Types\CarbonDateType
carbontime: DoctrineExtensions\Types\CarbonTimeType
mapping_types:
datetime: carbondatetime
date: carbondate
enum: string
time: carbontime
I successfully check if the types are loaded with:
Doctrine\DBAL\Types\Type::getTypesMap()
And the mapping as well is working properly (returns carbondatetime):
$this->getDoctrine()->getManager()
->getConnection()->getDatabasePlatform()
->getDoctrineTypeMapping('datetime');
I execute a query over a Doctrine repository and still get DateTime objects. It is working in 2 cases:
Changing the Entity to @ORM\Column(type="carbondatetime")
Or executing the following code \Doctrine\DBAL\Types\Type::overrideType('datetime', 'DoctrineExtensions\Types\CarbonDateTimeType');
Is there a Best-Practice to override the Doctrine DBAL types? Preferably in the YAML configuration.
Thanks
A:
Woah.... Like always, as soon you ask the question you find the solution:
doctrine:
dbal:
...
types:
datetime: DoctrineExtensions\Types\CarbonDateTimeType
date: DoctrineExtensions\Types\CarbonDateType
time: DoctrineExtensions\Types\CarbonTimeType
mapping_types:
enum: string
|
With SSF4: AE about to hit consoles via DLC in about a week here, I'm sure many of you are looking forward to checking out some of the new characters. By now you might have already gotten your fill of Yun and Yang without even playing the game due to all the videos that are out there, but if you're curious as to what high level Evil Ryu gameplay looks like, check out these videos uploaded by GAMEacho. Each video clocks in at about 40 minutes each and have some great Evil Ryu matches scattered through out each one.
Thanks to Biosnake20 on NeoGAF for the heads up. |
/** Generated by YAKINDU Statechart Tools code generator. */
#include "gtest/gtest.h"
#include "BitwiseExecutionOrder.h"
#include "sc_timer_service.h"
#define SC_UNUSED(P) (void)P
static BitwiseExecutionOrder statechart;
class BitwiseExecutionOrderTest : public ::testing::Test
{
public:
/* All operations from the SCTUnit test class. */
void test();
void setTimer(BitwiseExecutionOrder* statechart, const sc_eventid evid, const sc_integer time_ms, const sc_boolean periodic);
void unsetTimer(BitwiseExecutionOrder* handle, const sc_eventid evid);
protected:
sc_unit_timer_service_t timer_service;
virtual void SetUp();
};
static BitwiseExecutionOrderTest * tc;
void BitwiseExecutionOrderTest::SetUp()
{
bitwiseExecutionOrder_init(&statechart);
sc_timer_service_init(
&timer_service,
0,
(sc_run_cycle_fp) &bitwiseExecutionOrder_runCycle,
false,
200,
&statechart
);
tc = this;
}
void BitwiseExecutionOrderTest::test()
{
bitwiseExecutionOrder_enter(&statechart);
sc_timer_service_proceed_cycles(&timer_service, 1);
EXPECT_TRUE(bitwiseExecutionOrder_isFinal(&statechart));
bitwiseExecutionOrder_exit(&statechart);
}
void BitwiseExecutionOrderTest::setTimer(BitwiseExecutionOrder* statechart, const sc_eventid evid, const sc_integer time_ms, const sc_boolean periodic){
SC_UNUSED(statechart);
sc_timer_t timer;
sc_timer_init(&timer, time_ms, periodic, evid);
insert_timer(&(tc->timer_service), timer);
}
void BitwiseExecutionOrderTest::unsetTimer(BitwiseExecutionOrder* handle, const sc_eventid evid){
SC_UNUSED(handle);
delete_task(&(tc->timer_service), find_time_event(&timer_service, evid));
}
TEST_F(BitwiseExecutionOrderTest, test) {
test();
}
|
Small & midcaps
As is typical towards the latter stages of an economic recovery cycle, US and European small caps have attracted significant interest from international investors in recent years. However, Asian small caps have not enjoyed the same degree of attention – perhaps partly due to some common misconceptions about the asset class. Here we set out seven reasons why adding Asian small caps can benefit investors’ long-term strategic asset allocation.
Reason 1: Distinct asset class
Asian small caps are a distinct asset class offering access to an entirely different segment of the Asian equity market compared to large caps. The MSCI AC Asia ex-Japan Small Cap index is well-diversified, and comprises approximately 1700 stocks that have zero overlap with the MSCI AC Asia ex-Japan index constituents which have a higher concentration of large caps.
Reason 2: More defensive
Asian small caps are more defensive than large caps. For example, some may be surprised to learn that since 2000, the volatility of listed Asia ex-Japan small caps has been lower than that of both Asian large caps and US and European listed small caps.
Reason 3: Greater domestic focus
In eight out of the ten Asia ex-Japan countries represented in the MSCI indices, listed small caps comprise more internally-focused businesses that target key growth areas within the domestic economy, and are therefore less dependent on external demand for growth.
Exhibit 3: Domestic Revenue Exposure
Source: FactSet, UBS Quant Research, data based on last reported financials as of 3 April 2017
Reason 4: Undemanding valuations
Asia ex-Japan small caps are trading at 14x price-to-earnings and 1.4x price-to-book, based on fiscal year 2017 Bloomberg consensus earnings estimates. This is an undemanding valuation relative to Asian large caps (13.2x P/E for the MSCI AC Asia ex-Japan Index) and global small caps (more than 20x P/E for the MSCI AC World Small Cap Index).
Reason 5: Attractive dividend yield
The last 12 month trailing dividend yield for the MSCI Asia ex-Japan Small Cap Index was 2.3%. In a world of elusive yield, a dividend of more than 2% can be considered attractive.
Reason 6: Good growth prospects
Smaller companies have the potential to be tomorrow’s leaders. These ‘emerging franchises’ – well-managed, young, solid businesses – have the capacity to deliver above-average earnings growth prospects and strong share price performance. And with many companies under-analysed and under-owned, Asian small caps provide experienced stock pickers with an opportunity to generate alpha as fundamentals are not always fully reflected in share prices.
Reason 7: Strong economies and demographics
Asian small caps operate in the region with the world’s highest GDP growth rate, where a number of economies will see further positive structural reforms. Meanwhile the young demographics of India, the Philippines and Indonesia, together with the consumption power of nearly 50% of the world’s population on emerging Asia’s doorstep, should support domestic consumption growth in the decades to come.
Published on 19 April 2017
The value of investments and the income they generate may go down as well as up and it is possible that investors will not recover their initial outlay.
Investing in emerging markets, or specialised or restricted sectors is likely to be subject to a higher than average volatility due to a high degree of concentration, greater uncertainty because less information is available, there is less liquidity, or due to greater sensitivity to changes in market conditions (social, political and economic conditions).
Some emerging markets offer less security than the majority of international developed markets. For this reason, services for portfolio transactions, liquidation and conservation on behalf of funds invested in emerging markets may carry greater risk. |
Nagpur, June 9: “The Rashtriya Swayasevak Sangh (RSS) has shouldered the responsibility of equipping Bharat to fulfill its God-assigned mission for the entire world. RSS works for Bharat but Bharat has a global responsibility and we have taken up this fundamental task to prepare Bharat to fulfil that mission of spreading the message of peace, brotherhood and progress with perfect coordination with the nature.”
These views were expressed by RSS Sarsanghchalak Dr Mohan ji Bhagwat here on Thursday. He was speaking at the valedictory function of the 25-day long Third Year Sangh Shiksha Varg at the Reshambag ground. General Rukmang Katwal, former Commander-in-Chief (C-in-C) of Nepal Army was the chief guest. Sarvadhikari Prithviraj Singh,Vidarbha Prant Sah-Sanghchalak Ram Harkare, and Nagpur Mahanagar Sanghchalak Rajesh Loya shared the dais.
Read FAQ on Sangh Shiksha Varg
Bharat is the only country in the world that accepted all the diversities experiencing the inherent oneness in them. Those who attained this unity in diversity are the people of this country now known as Hindus who have developed an innate relationship with this land. In this sense this is a ‘Hindu Desh’, the RSS Sarsanghchalak said, adding that this country accepted all, understood all, respected and honored all. This has been the basis of the ‘Samskriti’ of Bharat. “Sabka sweekar aur samman”. Hindu is not a worship, it is way of life. And there is a dire need to impress upon the world torn asunder with conflicts and violence, this view of Hindu life to help it attain peace and happiness.
This is possible only when the Hindu society understands its mission, makes itself ready imbibing all the virtues and qualities to accomplish that mission. No single party, leader, or government could accomplish this task. It has to be achieved by the cooperation of and coordination with all. This had happened in the past and we have to make it happen in the present time, he said, adding that the RSS has taken up this most fundamental task of preparing Bharat for this mission by organizing the Hindu society.
Stating that RSS is not just another organization within the society but an organized state of the entire society, Bhagwat recalled how the founder Dr Hedgewar thought beyond the visible and took upon himself this daunting task of organizing Hindu society.
Pointing to the American exit from Paris pact and the UK opting out of the European Union, the Sarsanghachalak said, "some so-called superpowers first tried to bring the world under one system but when they realized that this would not benefit them, they quit. This is not the tradition of Bharat”.
RSS works for Bharat and Bharat lives for the world. Therefore, it has to become strong not to bully the weak but to protect them. The position of Vishwa Guru is lying vacant and only Bharat can be its rightful claimant. It is the mission destined for Bharat and Hindus by the God, and the world needed it badly.
However, the world does not listen to the weak hence Bharat has to acquire strength and power. Bharat needs to be ‘Vishwaguru’ and not just a super power, he said.
Bharat by tradition and nature is a ‘Sajjan’ country because of the Hindu society. Hence, the RSS is organizing the Hindus, he clarified.
With the passage of 90 years, there have been visible changes in the society. People have faith in RSS; they have expectations and aspirations from the RSS too. The country is marching ahead but it can gain momentum with the organization of the entire society. Still the path is not smooth. There are hurdles and we have to make our efforts with more speed.
Chief Guest Gen Rukmang Katwal in his speech praised the RSS for organizing the Hindu society. He said that the founder Dr Hedgewar had a vision beyond the visible and he started the RSS with a view to reviving Indian mindset with spirituality.
Stressing the need to preserve culture and values, Gen Katwal said that there is nothing called impossible for the dedicated and committed people and hoped with confidence that the RSS swayasmevaks can achieve this.
Describing the swayamsevaks as messengers of change he advised them to put service before self, imbibe character, sterling discipline, and dedication to set the example for others to emulate. This is the mission of RSS, he said.
Read The history of Sangh Shiksha Varg
Earlier, Nagpur Mahanagar Sanghchalak Rajesh Loya introduced the special dignitaries specially came for this program. Sarvadhikari of the camp Prithviraj Singh made introductory remarks and proposed vote of thanks. The Swayamsevaks presented eye-catching display of physical training and parade. |
Friday, August 15, 2008
the uncle of my baby, stayed in ema's house for his study in junior middle school in the last year, due to visit his home in Beijing. so the grandma brought my baby son with the uncle left for Beijing on July 1st. the grandma has a large family, and quite some of them live in Beijing, mainly doing business of selling pump. we urged baby visit us online but he indeed seldom talked with us in the last month. the grandma likely brought baby visiting some places in Beijing. they lingered there after the 2008 Beijing Olympic game. the families there said attended 2 games there. today they returned. what disappointed me is that they didn't shoot much photos of baby, which underwent growth in the month we absent. here r the photos shot in the journey, only a single photo baby was left alone.
this morning i left office just after 11 am, in the aim to receive baby returning via train. but the route due to arrive on 1 pm. so ema and i retreated home and i tried to fix the ill working mouse. around 12:30 we launched again. we bought ticket to enter the railway station and received baby and his companions just aside the wagon. baby seemingly sound and in high spirit. he ride on my shoulders as usual to leave the station, till we reached a restaurant, with lots of baggage. i ordered 3 dishes and a soup. baby asked to change a restaurant but his mother managed to calm him down. we headed again to ema's house, where we played with baby while the grandma soon went to public bathroom and the uncle watched tv on Olympic game. later i left to computer market to buy a new mouse. on the way home i bought some cookies for baby and he accepted them gladly. then i powered pc and baby asked to watch movie "assembly" again. before dinner he asked to haunt outside and cried for his mom trying to refuse him. we hanged near the stadium where lots of young men gaming there. baby played with sands and we all enjoyed the peace. on the way home i bought a water melon. we drank a bottle of bear at dinner.
that's our happy day on baby's return. its a sunny day after cloudy days, even sometimes drizzled yesterday. can't be more perfect today.
the damned blog ware hanged in the mid of spell check. i had to retype all again. shit.
Friday, August 01, 2008
I had contented with my knol, but yesterday i read an article about automatically registering knol with software, i recognized i need claiming knol under my baby, warren, hope of China, lest his name been occupied by others. i launched and in a brizzle i finished a knol. but when i edit his profile, dog in China surveillance started to break in and let errs upon submission and can't finish the task. later i had to give up and returned home.
my home pc's Internet connection these days constantly very slow, esp. surfing with firefox, really a pain. now i know my home pc likely much easier for dog to surveillance on telcom's router, for i spent 3 hours since 6 to 9 pm i can't finished the task editing profile page and publish the submitted knol. without proxy i even can't access google knol site. they fataly blocked my access to knol, and even with proxies, they likely also broke my submission and torn apart the data and result errs.
however, in this morning in office, i finished all tasks, in addition claiming knol for my another google account, be21zh.org. fear of hacking and blocking, i prepared all knols contents offline. i indeed prepared them last night, when i restless doubting about how to write about be21zh.org, and God let me dream of his way, to be ur own and no other way to access the unity, except God. God also descended a storm in mid night to inform me. i rightly woke up by it and ema shut down the window. i at once felt blessed. i dreamed of bird shooting.
claiming knol under be21zh.org's title quite smooth, with another lan proxy i didn't use usually. i also can fine tuned all my family's knol at leasure, thx God. i see so many beauties in google knol and the web. i love google.
here is all my family knols:
China Democracy - a knol by ben zhu http://knol.google.com/k/ben-zhu/china-democracy/fr65rgdtqbpx/2
war in world and China - a knol by warren zhu http://knol.google.com/k/warren-zhu/war-in-world-and-china/1wp6j8mgqi178/2
warwinzh, save China from war fire-baptism - a knol by warren zhu http://knol.google.com/k/warren-zhu/-/1wp6j8mgqi178/3
bright, the history and long life of Ming Dynasty - a knol by be21zh org http://knol.google.com/k/be21zh-org/bright-the-history-and-long-life-of/3th72qph5td8u/2 |
About Gangrene
Contact Methods
Profile Information
Personal Info
A Paddy, from the 'Auld Sod, living a decent life for which I am grateful.
Where do you live?
Vinegar Hill, Brooklyn, NYC
What are your interests? Hobbies?
My hobby is my work, Hello everybody, I am a workaholic.
What do you do for a living?
photograph and video
Jets Info
What is your favorite Jets related memory?
I was sitting in front of Willy Joe at the Meadowlands when he said to Suzy Kolber " I want to Kiss You". I'm sorry, I know the moral majority was outraged but that was the funniest thing ever. We all want to say something and not give a damn, Joe did. Drunk or not , I said that's pretty damn cool.
Do you have season tickets?
On the waiting List, when I broke up with my girlfriend 7 years ago, the tickets were her family's.
What Jets memory broke your heart?
Marino's Fake Spike is second on the list but easily Doug O'Brien missing that field goal to send the Jets into the AFC championship
Who is your favorite member of the NY Jets flight crew?
Amateurs. Want to see what cheerleaders should look like in Green, google the BosCeltic cheerleaders
The quote last year in the media that I remember was that Hackenberg, despite being taken high in the second round, was considered a major project.
The plan was to rebuild his mechanics in the off season, hence he did not play much in last year's preseason... there was no point.
My gut feeling was that if they were going to completely change his mechanics, he would need more than one offseason to realistically challenge for a starting gig.
Many of us were not fans of the pick, Hackenberg worked his butt off in the off season and so far he's improved but uneven in camp.
We will not really know anything this year until he get's some extended playing time in preseason games.
I expect McCown to start the season but not stay healthy, I expect both Hack and Petty will each end up starting some games.
My wild guess is that we will be picking a first round qb next year and that Hackenberg will be in a much better place developmentally to compete for a starting job.
That may be the first real qb competition we have had in years.
I read the link above and wonder why Bob McNair said what he said. Here's the quote "Texans owner Bob McNair said. ”We needed some players who were veterans to provide some leadership, and we were fortunate that we were able to make a deal with the Jets that we could get Aaron down here.”
My memory is that we put our two cornerbacks in the expansion draft, Aaron Glenn and Marcus Coleman. Aaron Glenn was put in the espansion draft because every team had to submit two players and the Jets FO gambled that Aaron Glenn's salary was two high for the Texans to take him in their expansion draft. The ruse backfired and we lost two cornerbacks. False memory ?
Glenn was heading to his hometown so he was likely not upset by being taken in the Texans expansion draft.
Decker probably wouldn't stay healthy but given his reputation as a great route runner, the young wide receivers might have learned something from him. Likewise Harris is such a solid human being and team player, the team could have used his example on and off the field.
Demario Davis is a locker room leader who is durable but clearly with his playing time being reduced dramatically in the second half of the season they lost faith in him.
Pryor is a former first round pick,they have nothing to loose...a change of scenery might help, a low risk investment for the Browns.
Both players will likely be out of the league within a year or two unless as depth players.
A view on the trade from the other side of the fence...from Cleveland.com on trade...
Demario Davis
Pro (for Browns)
After the Browns signed Davis as an unrestricted free agent last March, he was expected to not only be a starting linebacker for the Browns, but a veteran leader on a team shedding veterans left and right.
He was named a team captain and paired with Christian Kirksey at middle linebacker, then started 15 of 16 games last season, finishing second to Kirksey in tackles (59 solo, 99 total). Davis also had two sacks, including the one below against the Steelers.
via GIPHY
Veteran leadership can't be discounted on the league's youngest team, which had 18 rookies start games in 2016.
And on a defense dealing with injuries throughout the season, Davis stayed healthy. He was one of just 10 Browns to start at least 15 games. That might not seem like much to most NFL fans, but in Cleveland, that means something.
Con (for Browns)
Davis was at the center of a defense that gave up the second-most rushing yards in the NFL last season. It was also a defense that was last in coverage against tight ends, according to FootballOutsiders.com.
While Davis started 15 games, his snap count declined during the second half of the season. He was on the field for at least 58 snaps each of the first seven weeks, but topped 50 just once the rest of the way. He played just nine snaps in Week 12. His final four weeks looked like this: 28, 54, 22, 31.
ProFootballFocus.com ranked Davis 59th among linebackers, and 78thvs. the run. He was just 43rd in coverage, and contributed to the Browns' inability to cover tight ends.
I don't have a problem with what any of the players said. You are not going to get an honest opinion from management or the coaches, just tired sound bites.
The players are only stating a personal opinion but in a world where everything is filtered through a PR department, it's refreshing.
What we learned there is some progress and so far experience has the edge in the QB competition. Not earth shattering but the team seems to be on the same page in the OTAs.
Steve Serby's wrote a short readable piece... it gives you an idea through the eyes of teammates where Christian H. is at with his progress
‘A cannon’: What Hackenberg’s Jets mates say about him
By Steve Serby
May 30, 2017 | 9:29pm
When you ask Sheldon Richardson about the difference in Christian Hackenberg from a year ago, he won’t tell you there are five reasons the locker room is better this season … but he won’t rush to spout any sugarcoated party line either.
“Slowly progressing … still got a little ways to go. … He’s getting better every day … that’s pretty much it. Slowly progressing, man,” Richardson said.
“He still needs to get past the learning curve. It’s still too fast for him. But other than that, man, he’s still got a cannon. He’s firing it. When he’s on point, he’s on point, but when he’s not, he’s not, so got some growing still.”
Coach Todd Bowles, following a 5-11 season, doesn’t have the time to wait for Hackenberg to grow up. It is why Josh McCown, if he still is standing at the end of training camp, will be the starter, and the open quarterback competition initially will be Hackenberg versus Bryce Petty for the No. 2 job.
Hackenberg’s throwing motion appears noticeably smoother, but he still has yet to throw a regular-season pass in anger, and it remains true that Rome wasn’t built in a day.
“Quicker release,” cornerback Buster Skrine said. “Way quicker. He used to wind up a little bit, but now it’s just out, out.”
But for all the accurate throws Hackenberg makes on a cloudy day at the end of May — a beautiful deep ball that Charone Peake could have caught for a touchdown, for example — there are enough that remind you that Hackenberg wasn’t built in a day either. Or rebuilt in a day.
“It’s still early,” Richardson said. “Ain’t no telling what he comes back and [does] in training camp, but it’s still early.”
Richardson was asked about the difference in Petty, who worked third behind McCown and Hackenberg on Tuesday, from a year ago at this time.
“Way better,” he said. “Him and Josh are going at it, they’re competing on every play.”
Does Richardson think the quarterback battle is between McCown and Petty?
“That’s just how I feel,” Richardson said. “Me personally.”
Based on Bryce having more experience than Hackenberg?
“Yeah, and actually by showing production on the field,” Richardson said.
Except Petty (three touchdowns, seven interceptions, 56.4 completion percentage) hardly distinguished himself at the end of last season once the Ryan Fitzpatrick Era unceremoniously ended, nor did he distinguish himself at Tuesday’s OTA, for what it’s worth on a cloudy day at the end of May.
His worst moment was a throw right to linebacker Randell Johnson. Petty’s best moment came when he threw a dime down the seam to rookie tight end Jordan Leggett. It drew a “Good shot!” from offensive coordinator John Morton.
“It’s more of a competition mindset of, ‘OK, he made a great throw. I’m gonna make a better throw.’ That kind of thing,” Petty said.
There is more invested in Hackenberg, the controversial 2016 second-round pick, than Petty, the 2015 No. 4 pick. Hackenberg likely will be The Chosen One — actually Chosen Two — if he learns the new offense quicker than Petty.
“He’s reading things a lot faster,” Skrine said.
Teammates can’t help but notice a change in Hackenberg’s body language.
Modal Trigger
Hackenberg and Bryce Petty (right) talk with the Jets quarterback coaches.Bill Kostroun
“He learned from a guy that was really smart in Fitz, and so I think he’s taken that confidence over into this aspect,” receiver Quincy Enunwa said. “He has the ability to get it deep, short …”
Hackenberg had a short pass that appeared to be tipped and dropped by rookie safety Jamal Adams, the Jets’ first-round draft pick.
“Missed opportunity,” Adams said. “It came out wobbly. I definitely had to make the play.”
Adams will be a Day 1 starter. Hackenberg didn’t see the field as a rookie.
“Steps forward. … Last year, he probably didn’t know what to expect as a rookie coming in and all that stuff,” running back Matt Forte said, “but mentally, he’s getting better. Josh is a great guy for him to be around because he’s been around a long time and can give him so much wisdom and advice towards the game and towards being a quarterback, on and off the field. So he’s gonna keep growing.”
Hackenberg is growing. Just not without the growing pains.
“He’s doing a lot better with his decisions and everything,” safety Rontez Miles said. “Looking forward to see how these guys do in the preseason … when it counts.”
When we’ll get a better read on whether Hackenberg truly can hack it. |
(Reuters) - Equifax Inc EFX.N on Thursday reported lower quarterly profit, and quarterly revenue missed estimates, as the credit bureau warned that its massive data breach had prompted some customers to hold back business.
FILE PHOTO: Credit reporting company Equifax Inc. corporate offices are pictured in Atlanta, Georgia, U.S., September 8, 2017. REUTERS/Tami Chappell/File Photo
The breach, which compromised sensitive data of 145.5 million people, has harmed the company’s reputation and prompted investigations in every U.S. state, a federal criminal probe and hundreds of lawsuits. Equifax said it was not possible to estimate how much it would cost the company to respond to the probes and litigation.
The Atlanta-based company said it recorded $87.5 million in expenses related to the hack during the quarter, including legal fees, investigation of the breach, and free credit monitoring for U.S. consumers whose data was exposed in the breach.
Equifax estimated a range of additional costs between $56 million and $110 million to continue providing the free services.
The company warned there could be further attacks. “We cannot assure that all potential causes of the incident have been identified and remediated and will not occur again,” it said in a quarterly filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission.
Eric Johnson, dean of Vanderbilt University’s Owen Graduate School of Management, said that uncertainty could cost Equifax future business.
“They need to be able to nail those pieces and have a clear explanation of what happened and how they solved it,” said Johnson. “I think they can get there, but they aren’t there now.”
Johnson estimated the costs from the breach will total in the hundreds of millions of dollars, but that lost revenue could be even larger.
The company said the breach was already taking a toll on sales.
“We believe that certain of our customers have determined to defer new contracts or projects unless and until we can provide assurances regarding our ability to prevent unauthorized access to our systems and the data we maintain,” it said in the SEC filing.
Equifax needs to do a better job of communicating whether it believes the hackers are still inside its network, said Mark Rasch, a former U.S. federal cyber-crimes prosecutor who advises businesses on responding to breaches.
“What I want to know is ‘How did they get in?’ and ‘How are they preventing hackers from getting in the future?’ They haven’t answered those questions,” said Rasch.
The SEC is one of more than a dozen regulatory bodies investigating Equifax over the hack. Additionally, several agencies, including the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Northern District of Georgia, had probes into the trading activities of some Equifax employees before the breach was made public, the company said.
Equifax reported third-quarter revenue of $834.8 million, missing analysts’ average estimate of $845.94 million, according to I/B/E/S Thomson Reuters.
Net income attributable to Equifax fell to $96.3 million, or 79 cents per diluted share, from $132.8 million, or $1.09 per diluted share, a year earlier.
Adjusted for one-time costs, such as hacking- and merger-related expenses, Equifax said it earned $1.53 per share, topping analysts’ average estimates by 4 cents.
Shares of Equifax, which reported after the closing bell, were down a penny in aftermarket trading at $108.94. The stock is down around 24 percent since Sept. 7, when Equifax disclosed the breach. |
<?php
use tests\_pages\DeleteNotePage;
$I = new TestGuy($scenario);
$I->wantTo('ensure that note deletion works correctly');
$user = ['email' => 'exists@example.com', 'password' => '123123'];
$notePage = DeleteNotePage::openBy($I, ['id' => 1], $user);
$I->amGoingTo('delete pad');
$notePage->delete();
$I->expectTo('see success message');
$I->see('Note is successfully deleted');
// @TODO
//$I->amGoingTo('delete not my note');
|
// Copyright (c) .NET Foundation. All rights reserved.
// Licensed under the Apache License, Version 2.0. See License.txt in the project root for license information.
using System;
using System.Collections.Generic;
using System.Diagnostics;
using System.Linq;
using System.Net;
using System.Net.Sockets;
using System.Threading.Tasks;
using Microsoft.Dnx.Compilation;
using Microsoft.Dnx.Compilation.Caching;
using Microsoft.Dnx.DesignTimeHost.Models;
using Microsoft.Dnx.Runtime;
using Microsoft.Dnx.Runtime.Common.DependencyInjection;
using Microsoft.Extensions.CompilationAbstractions;
using Microsoft.Extensions.PlatformAbstractions;
using Newtonsoft.Json;
using Newtonsoft.Json.Linq;
namespace Microsoft.Dnx.DesignTimeHost
{
public class Program
{
public static void Main(string[] args)
{
// Expect: port, host processid, hostID string
if (args.Length < 3)
{
Console.WriteLine("Invalid command line arguments");
return;
}
int port = Int32.Parse(args[0]);
int hostPID = Int32.Parse(args[1]);
// In mono 3.10, the Exited event fires immediately, so the
// caller will need to terminate this process.
if (!RuntimeEnvironmentHelper.IsMono)
{
// Add a watch to the host PID. If it goes away we will self terminate.
var hostProcess = Process.GetProcessById(hostPID);
hostProcess.EnableRaisingEvents = true;
hostProcess.Exited += (s, e) =>
{
Process.GetCurrentProcess().Kill();
};
}
string hostId = args[2];
OpenChannel(port, hostId);
}
private static void OpenChannel(int port, string hostId)
{
var contexts = new Dictionary<int, ApplicationContext>();
var protocolManager = new ProtocolManager(maxVersion: 3);
// REVIEW: Should these be on a shared context object that flows?
var applicationEnvironment = PlatformServices.Default.Application;
var runtimeEnvironment = PlatformServices.Default.Runtime;
var loadContextAccessor = DnxPlatformServices.Default.AssemblyLoadContextAccessor;
var compilationEngine = new CompilationEngine(new CompilationEngineContext(applicationEnvironment, runtimeEnvironment, loadContextAccessor.Default, new CompilationCache()));
var frameworkResolver = new FrameworkReferenceResolver();
var services = new ServiceProvider();
services.Add(typeof(IApplicationEnvironment), PlatformServices.Default.Application);
services.Add(typeof(IRuntimeEnvironment), PlatformServices.Default.Runtime);
services.Add(typeof(IAssemblyLoadContextAccessor), DnxPlatformServices.Default.AssemblyLoadContextAccessor);
services.Add(typeof(IAssemblyLoaderContainer), DnxPlatformServices.Default.AssemblyLoaderContainer);
services.Add(typeof(ILibraryManager), DnxPlatformServices.Default.LibraryManager);
// This fixes the mono incompatibility but ties it to ipv4 connections
var listenSocket = new Socket(AddressFamily.InterNetwork, SocketType.Stream, ProtocolType.Tcp);
listenSocket.Bind(new IPEndPoint(IPAddress.Loopback, port));
listenSocket.Listen(10);
Console.WriteLine($"Process ID {Process.GetCurrentProcess().Id}");
Console.WriteLine("Listening on port {0}", port);
while (true)
{
var acceptSocket = listenSocket.Accept();
Console.WriteLine("Client accepted {0}", acceptSocket.LocalEndPoint);
var stream = new NetworkStream(acceptSocket);
var queue = new ProcessingQueue(stream);
var connection = new ConnectionContext(
contexts,
services,
applicationEnvironment,
runtimeEnvironment,
loadContextAccessor,
frameworkResolver,
queue,
protocolManager,
compilationEngine,
hostId);
queue.OnReceive += message =>
{
// Enumerates all project contexts and return them to the
// sender
if (message.MessageType == "EnumerateProjectContexts")
{
WriteProjectContexts(message, queue, contexts);
}
else
{
// Otherwise it's a context specific message
connection.OnReceive(message);
}
};
queue.Start();
}
}
private static void WriteProjectContexts(Message message, ProcessingQueue queue, IDictionary<int, ApplicationContext> contexts)
{
try
{
var projectContexts = contexts.Values.Select(p => new
{
Id = p.Id,
ProjectPath = p.ApplicationPath
})
.ToList();
var versionToken = message.Payload.HasValues ? message.Payload?["Version"] : null;
var version = versionToken != null ? versionToken.Value<int>() : 0;
queue.Send(writer =>
{
if (version == 0)
{
writer.Write("ProjectContexts");
writer.Write(projectContexts.Count);
for (int i = 0; i < projectContexts.Count; i++)
{
writer.Write(projectContexts[i].ProjectPath);
writer.Write(projectContexts[i].Id);
}
}
else
{
var obj = new JObject();
obj["MessageType"] = "ProjectContexts";
var projects = new JObject();
obj["Projects"] = projects;
foreach (var pair in projectContexts)
{
projects[pair.ProjectPath] = pair.Id;
}
writer.Write(obj.ToString(Formatting.None));
}
});
}
catch (Exception ex)
{
var error = new JObject();
error["Message"] = ex.Message;
queue.Send(new Message
{
MessageType = "Error",
Payload = error
});
throw;
}
}
}
} |
[Anti-U1RNP antibodies and lupus nephritis].
Systemic Lupus Erythematosus is characterized by production of numerous autoantibodies as an abnormal immune response. The most important antibodies are those aimed at constitutive elements of cell nucleus. After antigen typing of antinuclear antibodies in 30 patients with Systemic Lupus Erythematosus we analyzed the correlation between anti-Sm antibodies and anti-U1RNP antibodies and the degree of disease activity, such as correlation of these two antibodies with some clinical manifestations of this disease. This study included patients who fulfilled all revised American Rheumatism Association criteria to diagnose systemic lupus. To determine the degree of disease activity we used Systemic Lupus Erythematosus Disease Activity Index after Bombardier. To detect antinuclear antibodies technique of indirect immunofluorescence and ELISA procedure for antigen typing of these antibodies were used. We registered antinuclear antibodies (ANA) in 100% of our patients, with domination of homogenous pattern of immunofluorescence (70%). Speakled pattern was registered in 16.66% and margin type in 6.66%. Using ELISA procedure of antigen typing of ANA we registered anti-U1RNP antibodies in 26.7% patients, while anti-Sm antibodies were registered in 20%. Anti-U1RNP antibodies finding is associated with mild forms of disease and rare appearance of lupus nephritis, while anti-Sm antibodies finding is characteristic for very active forms of disease and often lupus nephritis. |
[SPOILER] to return in The Mandalorian season 2?
The chances are that this has already been spoiled for you, but in case you are at least trying to avoid spoilers for The Mandalorian season 2, this is your last warning: SPOILERS AHEAD!
Sources have revealed to Hollywood Reporter that an iconic character will return to our screens in the second season of the lauded Disney+ Star Wars TV show, and it's one that may have already been teased to us in season 1.
At the end of episode 5 "The Gunslinger", we briefly see a mysterious figure approach the body of Fennec Shand, who was dispatched by the wannabe bounty hunter Toro Calican, but we never see who this character actually was. It's reasonable to assume that this was Moff Gideon hot on the trail of Mando and the Child, but it could just as easily have been another bounty hunter. Wearing distinctive spurs which can be heard in the character's previous appearance in The Empire Strikes Back, could this mystery figure have been none other than Boba Fett?
Well, this casting leak seems to lend more weight to this take on the scene, as it has been reported that Temuera Morrison will be donning Mandalorian armour once more. Morrison previously played the bounty hunter Jango Fett in Attack of the Clones, so it makes perfect sense that he would return to play his own clone "son" Boba.
But wait, isn't Boba Fett dead? Well, that's complicated. Boba Fett first appeared in the infamous Star Wars Holiday Special, but most people remember him from his big screen debut in The Empire Strikes Back. In Return of the Jedi Fett was rather disappointingly killed off during the fight on Tatooine, and while various books and comics showed that he had survived his fall into the Sarlacc Pit they have all been decanonised in the Disney era. The Mandalorian season 1 takes place 5 years after the Return of the Jedi, and episode 5 took place on Tatooine - coincidence? |
This invention relates to current measuring techniques, and more particularly relates to current measuring techniques employing a Hall generator.
Hall generators for measuring the current carried through a conductor have been known in the past. However, the accuracy of such devices has suffered in the past due to inadequate regulating, current biasing and readout circuits associated with the Hall generator. Although coiled metal strips having the configuration described herein have been used in the past in connection with Hall generators, the fabrication of the coils from silicon steel has limited their usefulness.
Accordingly, it is an object of the present invention to provide an improved constant current circuit for biasing a Hall generator by means of a sample voltage proportional to the current flowing through the Hall generator, a reference voltage, and means for comparing the reference and sample voltages.
Another object of the invention is to provide a bias circuit of the foregoing type in which the Hall generator and an adjustable portion of the circuit are held within a probe which can be placed around the conductor carrying the current to be measured, and in which the remaining portion of the bias circuit is contained in a separate cabinet connected to the probe through a cable, so that Hall generators with different characteristics can be adjusted to work interchangeably with like bias circuits.
Still another object of the present invention is to provide a readout for the Hall generator in which the Hall output voltage is conducted to the inputs of at least one operational amplifier which floats in relationship to the power supply operating the amplifier.
Yet another object of the present invention is to provide a readout circuit of the foregoing type in which a meter for indicating the current to be measured is connected in the feedback loop of an operational amplifier having inputs adapted to receive the Hall voltage.
Another object of the present invention is to provide a method of detecting defects in a vehicular alternator by measuring the fluctuating current produced by the alternator.
Still another object of the present invention is to provide a method of the foregoing type in which the fluctuating current is attenuated below a predetermined frequency.
Yet another object of the present invention is to provide a probe of the foregoing type in which the magnetic field produced by the current to be measured is concentrated in the area adjacent the Hall generator by means of a toroidal, laminated core comprising nickel and iron.
Another object of the invention is to provide an improved regulator in which the voltage drop is sufficiently low to enable operation from a partially discharged vehicular battery. |
Q:
How to fetch both live video frame and timestamp from ffmpeg to python on Windows
Searching for an alternative as OpenCV would not provide timestamps for live camera stream (on Windows), which are required in my computer vision algorithm, I found ffmpeg and this excellent article https://zulko.github.io/blog/2013/09/27/read-and-write-video-frames-in-python-using-ffmpeg/
The solution uses ffmpeg, accessing its standard output (stdout) stream. I extended it to read the standard error (stderr) stream as well.
Working up the python code on windows, while I received the video frames from ffmpeg stdout, but the stderr freezes after delivering the showinfo videofilter details (timestamp) for first frame.
I recollected seeing on ffmpeg forum somewhere that the video filters like showinfo are bypassed when redirected. Is this why the following code does not work as expected?
Expected: It should write video frames to disk as well as print timestamp details.
Actual: It writes video files but does not get the timestamp (showinfo) details.
Here's the code I tried:
import subprocess as sp
import numpy
import cv2
command = [ 'ffmpeg',
'-i', 'e:\sample.wmv',
'-pix_fmt', 'rgb24',
'-vcodec', 'rawvideo',
'-vf', 'showinfo', # video filter - showinfo will provide frame timestamps
'-an','-sn', #-an, -sn disables audio and sub-title processing respectively
'-f', 'image2pipe', '-'] # we need to output to a pipe
pipe = sp.Popen(command, stdout = sp.PIPE, stderr = sp.PIPE) # TODO someone on ffmpeg forum said video filters (e.g. showinfo) are bypassed when stdout is redirected to pipes???
for i in range(10):
raw_image = pipe.stdout.read(1280*720*3)
img_info = pipe.stderr.read(244) # 244 characters is the current output of showinfo video filter
print "showinfo output", img_info
image1 = numpy.fromstring(raw_image, dtype='uint8')
image2 = image1.reshape((720,1280,3))
# write video frame to file just to verify
videoFrameName = 'Video_Frame{0}.png'.format(i)
cv2.imwrite(videoFrameName,image2)
# throw away the data in the pipe's buffer.
pipe.stdout.flush()
pipe.stderr.flush()
So how to still get the frame timestamps from ffmpeg into python code so that it can be used in my computer vision algorithm...
A:
You can use MoviePy:
import moviepy.editor as mpy
vid = mpy.VideoFileClip('e:\\sample.wmv')
for timestamp, raw_img in vid.iter_frames(with_times=True):
# do stuff
A:
Redirecting stderr works in python.
So instead of this pipe = sp.Popen(command, stdout = sp.PIPE, stderr = sp.PIPE)
do this pipe = sp.Popen(command, stdout = sp.PIPE, stderr = sp.STDOUT)
We could avoid redirection by adding an asynchronous call to read both the standard streams (stdout and stderr) of ffmpeg. This would avoid any mixing of the video frame and timestamp and thus the error prone seperation.
So modifying the original code to use threading module would look like this:
# Python script to read video frames and timestamps using ffmpeg
import subprocess as sp
import threading
import matplotlib.pyplot as plt
import numpy
import cv2
ffmpeg_command = [ 'ffmpeg',
'-nostats', # do not print extra statistics
#'-debug_ts', # -debug_ts could provide timestamps avoiding showinfo filter (-vcodec copy). Need to check by providing expected fps TODO
'-r', '30', # output 30 frames per second
'-i', 'e:\sample.wmv',
'-an','-sn', #-an, -sn disables audio and sub-title processing respectively
'-pix_fmt', 'rgb24',
'-vcodec', 'rawvideo',
#'-vcodec', 'copy', # very fast!, direct copy - Note: No Filters, No Decode/Encode, no quality loss
#'-vframes', '20', # process n video frames only. For Debugging
'-vf', 'showinfo', # showinfo videofilter provides frame timestamps as pts_time
'-f', 'image2pipe', 'pipe:1' ] # outputs to stdout pipe. can also use '-' which is redirected to pipe
# seperate method to read images on stdout asynchronously
def AppendProcStdout(proc, nbytes, AppendList):
while proc.poll() is None: # continue while the process is alive
AppendList.append(proc.stdout.read(nbytes)) # read image bytes at a time
# seperate method to read image info. on stderr asynchronously
def AppendProcStderr(proc, AppendList):
while proc.poll() is None: # continue while the process is alive
try: AppendList.append(proc.stderr.next()) # read stderr until empty
except StopIteration: continue # ignore stderr empty exception and continue
if __name__ == '__main__':
# run ffmpeg command
pipe = sp.Popen(ffmpeg_command, stdout=sp.PIPE, stderr=sp.PIPE)
# 2 threads to talk with ffmpeg stdout and stderr pipes
framesList = [];
frameDetailsList = []
appendFramesThread = threading.Thread(group=None, target=AppendProcStdout, name='FramesThread', args=(pipe, 1280*720*3, framesList), kwargs=None, verbose=None) # assuming rgb video frame with size 1280*720
appendInfoThread = threading.Thread(group=None, target=AppendProcStderr, name='InfoThread', args=(pipe, frameDetailsList), kwargs=None, verbose=None)
# start threads to capture ffmpeg frames and info.
appendFramesThread.start()
appendInfoThread.start()
# wait for few seconds and close - simulating cancel
import time; time.sleep(2)
pipe.terminate()
# check if threads finished and close
appendFramesThread.join()
appendInfoThread.join()
# save an image per 30 frames to disk
savedList = []
for cnt,raw_image in enumerate(framesList):
if (cnt%30 != 0): continue
image1 = numpy.fromstring(raw_image, dtype='uint8')
image2 = image1.reshape((720,1280,3)) # assuming rgb image with size 1280 X 720
# write video frame to file just to verify
videoFrameName = 'video_frame{0}.png'.format(cnt)
cv2.imwrite(videoFrameName,image2)
savedList.append('{} {}'.format(videoFrameName, image2.shape))
print '### Results ###'
print 'Images captured: ({}) \nImages saved to disk:{}\n'.format(len(framesList), savedList) # framesList contains all the video frames got from the ffmpeg
print 'Images info captured: \n', ''.join(frameDetailsList) # this contains all the timestamp details got from the ffmpeg showinfo videofilter and some initial noise text which can be easily removed while parsing
|
Another walk in a Parkway_73
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Geocache Description:
A path into a fairly unused section of the Little Menomonee Parkway starts at the end of N 119th St., north of W Hampton Ave at N43 6.577 W88 3.627. An easy find, but note that there are thorn bushes in the woods along the parkway path.
This cache Is a small camouflaged container with a log book and a pencil. It is just large enough for a few very small trade items. Kindly conceal this cache enough so that it does not drop to a difficulty 1. |
Q:
C++ Segmentation fault when running my random ID generation
I am currently getting a segmentation fault (Segmentation fault: 11), when I call newUnitID().
No idea what I am doing wrong.
This is my header file where the function is:
#include <iostream>
#include <cstring>
#include <string>
#include <cstdlib>
#include <ctime>
#include <vector>
#ifndef UnitManager
#define UnitManager
using namespace std;
char randomIDChar(){
static const char alphanum[] =
"0123456789"
"!@#$%^&*"
"ABCDEFGHIJKLMNOPQRSTUVWXYZ"
"abcdefghijklmnopqrstuvwxyz";
int stringLength = sizeof(alphanum) - 1;
srand(time(0));
for(int z=0; z < 21; z++)
{
return alphanum[rand() % stringLength];
}
return 1;
}
string newUnitID(){
vector<char> v;
for(int i=0; i < 50; i++){
v[i] = randomIDChar();
}
string str(v.begin(),v.end());
return str;
}
#endif
A:
vector's operator [] access existing elements; it doesn't create new elements. You start with an empty vector so
v[i] = randomIDChar();
access beyond the vector's end. You could change this to
v.push_back(randomIDChar());
Note that there is also a problem with randomIDChar. You should only seed the random number generator once, probably before calling either of the functions posted. Any given seed will generate a predictable stream of 'random' numbers; time(0) returns a number of seconds so every call you make within 1 second will have the same seed and so will generate the same number when you later call rand
|
False positive 18F-FDG-PET/CT in a patient after talc pleurodesis.
A 61-year-old man presented with spontaneous pneumothorax. After diagnosis of emphysemic bullae, the patient underwent talc pleurodesis and had no further complaints. Five years later a routine chest X-ray showed suspicious pleural lesions in addition to the emphysema, which was deemed compatible with the known history of talc pleurodesis. Subsequent chest CT, however, revealed one lesion in the right lung that appeared not typical for this condition in addition to multiple lesions in pleural proximity. FDG-PET/CT demonstrated high glucose uptake in all the lesions. Subsequent needle biopsy of the suspicious intrapulmonary and also of one mediastinal lesion yielded the histopathological diagnosis of talcum granuloma with long-standing calculous fibrotic changes and no evidence of malignancy. This report on PET/CT after talc pleurodesis addresses the potential pitfalls caused by this condition, as chronic granulomatous reactions, like other inflammatory lesions, may account for highly increased FDG uptake which should be interpreted with caution and not simply read as a sign of malignancy. PET/CT offers the opportunity to exactly localize the areas of increased FDG uptake within regions of pleural thickening caused by talc deposition, however, the dilemma of misleading FDG accumulation cannot be solved by this hybrid imaging modality. |
267 F.2d 5
MANUFACTURERS CASUALTY INSURANCE COMPANY, a corporation, Appellant,v.ARAPAHOE DRILLING COMPANY, a co-partnership; and John E. Schalk and M. R. Schalk, doing business as Arapahoe Drilling Company, Appellees.
No. 6033.
United States Court of Appeals Tenth Circuit.
May 12, 1959.
Rehearing Denied June 9, 1959.
Frank Andrews, Santa Fe, N. M. (A. K. Montgomery and Seth, Montgomery, Federici & Andrews, Santa Fe, N. M., on the brief), for appellant.
Russell Moore, Albuquerque, N. M. (Gilbert, White & Gilbert, Carl H. Gilbert, Edwin E. Piper, Jr., Santa Fe, N. M., and W. A. Keleher & A. H. McLeod, Albuquerque, N. M., on the brief), for appellees.
Before MURRAH, LEWIS and BREITENSTEIN, Circuit Judges.
LEWIS, Circuit Judge.
1
This cause was initiated by one David Campbell as an action for damages allegedly suffered by him as the result of personal injuries occasioned through the negligence of present appellees. Appellant, Manufacturers Casualty Insurance Company, entered the case as an intervenor plaintiff because of subrogation rights arising through the payment of workmen's compensation benefits to the plaintiff Campbell. To the complaint in intervention filed by the insurance company in which reimbursement for such payments was sought, the defendant-appellee asserted a counterclaim alleging that it was an additional insured under a policy of automobile liability insurance for $100,000 issued by the appellant insurance company to Campbell's employer and covering the accident giving rise to the main case. The counterclaim tendered the defense of the main case to the insurance company and then sought judgment thus:
2
"1. That if judgment be rendered against them, or either of them herein, that the Defendant or Defendants against which such judgment is rendered have judgment over against the Intervenor-Plaintiff for the full amount thereof, up to the sum of $100,000.00.
3
"2. That these Defendant-Counter-Claimants, and each of them, further have judgment against the Intervenor-Plaintiff for all attorneys fees and other expenses incurred by these Counter-Claimants and each of them in the defense of this cause.
4
"3. That these Counter-Claimants have and recover of and from the Intervenor-Plaintiff their costs of suit herein."
5
The trial court considered the counterclaim, determined that appellee was not an additional insured under the subject policy, granted summary judgment in favor of the insurance company by dismissing the counterclaim, proceeded to try the main case. It was then discovered that a limited partner of Arapahoe Drilling Company was a resident of New Mexico, as was the plaintiff, and that as a consequence the only basis for the claim of federal jurisdiction, diversity, was lacking. The trial court dismissed the main case for lack of jurisdiction and then vacated its previous order that had granted summary judgment to appellant upon appellee's counterclaim. The present appeal is from the order vacating summary judgment and from a subsequent order denying the insurance company's motion to set aside the order of vacation.
6
Under ordinary circumstances such an appeal will not lie because it is not premised upon a final judgment. In dismissing the appeal in State Tax Commission of Utah v. United States, 10 Cir., 136 F.2d 903, we stated:
7
"* * * This appeal was expressly taken from the order denying the petition to vacate and set aside the judgment. It was not from the judgment. In ordinary circumstances such as those presented here, an appeal will not lie from an order refusing to vacate or set aside a prior judgment or decree."
8
To the same effect see Stone v. Wyoming Supreme Court, 10 Cir., 236 F.2d 275; French v. Jeffries, 7 Cir., 161 F.2d 97; Hopkins v. McClure, 10 Cir., 148 F.2d 67. These cases all represent the ordinary situation where the trial court by denying post judgment relief affirms its prior final decision. Assuredly, a losing party cannot extend his time for appeal by claiming that the time did not begin to run until the trial court had disposed of all post judgment motions. Nor can a litigant seek piecemeal review of procedural incidents to a lawsuit. Bendix Aviation Corp. v. Glass, 3 Cir., 195 F.2d 267, 38 A.L.R.2d 356; United States v. Kansas City, 10 Cir., 159 F.2d 125.
9
But the scope of the problem is expanded under the peculiar circumstances of the instant case. Here, the determination of the rights and duties of appellant and appellees as put at issue through the counterclaim were settled on the merits by the summary judgment entered. Such judgment, had the main case progressed to a conclusion upon the merits, would admittedly have been subject to review. And had the trial court made the determination required by Rule 54(b), 28 U.S.C.A., an immediate appeal would lie. Through unusual procedural occurrences, totally disconnected with the counterclaim, the main case failed for lack of jurisdiction and the trial court vacated the judgment of dismissal of the counterclaim as "void and for lack of jurisdiction." The refusal to vacate this order is more than a simple post judgment motion which would in the usual case leave standing an appealable judgment. Here the order, for the first time, fixed the rights of the parties with finality. Since a final decision within the significance of 28 U.S.C.A. § 1291 depends not on its name, its propriety or its normal function but rather upon the determination or refusal to determine a justiciable issue we believe this appeal may be properly presented. The effect of the refusal to vacate the order of dismissal to the counterclaim is to remove a dismissal of the counterclaim determined upon the merits and to substitute a dismissal for lack of jurisdiction. So considered, an appeal will lie. Kasishke v. Baker, 10 Cir., 144 F.2d 384; Fern v. United States, 9 Cir., 213 F.2d 674.
10
In support of its contention that the trial court erred in not allowing a determination of the issues presented by the counterclaim, the appellant points out that plaintiff Campbell had no interest in the outcome of those issues; that, after dismissal of plaintiff Campbell's action diversity jurisdiction1 existed independently in the counterclaim; and that declaratory relief may be granted by way of counterclaim. And indeed it seems well settled that where a jurisdictional basis exists for a counterclaim it may sometimes be considered though the complaint fail for want of jurisdiction. Such was the background in Isenberg v. Biddle, 75 U.S.App.D.C. 100, 125 F.2d 741, 743, where summary judgment was granted on the counterclaim although the complaint was dismissed for "want of jurisdiction," and the Court of Appeals affirmed, stating:
11
"* * * Counsel insists that when the bill of complaint was dismissed, `the keystone of the District Court's jurisdiction fell and the counterclaim should have been dismissed with the bill'. Moore v. New York Cotton Exch., 270 U.S. 593, 607-609, 46 S.Ct. 367, 70 L.Ed. 750, 45 A.L.R. 1370, and Kelleam et al. v. Maryland Casualty Co., 312 U.S. 377, 61 S.Ct. 595, 85 L.Ed. 899 are cited to sustain this position. In the last named case, Justice Douglas, speaking to the facts in that case, said that once the bill of complaint was dismissed no jurisdiction remained for any grant of relief under the cross petition. But in that case there was no jurisdictional basis for the counterclaim independent of the main action. In the Moore case, the dismissal of the main bill was not for want of jurisdiction, and the court refused to dismiss the counterclaim. Though it is suggested by Professor Shulman that it is implicit in the case that, if a plaintiff's action is dismissed for want of jurisdiction, the counterclaim falls, he adds that this is so only if there is no independent jurisdictional basis for the counterclaim. 45 Yale L.J. 393, 413. Here there is such independent basis and the rule is that in such circumstances, when the counterclaim seeks affirmative relief, it is sustainable without regard to what happens to the original complaint. Lion Mfg. Corporation v. Chicago Flexible Shaft Co., 7 Cir., 106 F.2d 930, 933; Vidal v. South American Securities Co., 2 Cir., 276 F. 855, 874; Jackson v. Simmons, 7 Cir., 98 F. 768 * * *."
12
And in the case of Switzer Brothers, Inc. v. Chicago Cardboard Co., 7 Cir., 252 F.2d 407, 410, the rule is thus formalized:
13
"It appears to be settled that where a counterclaim states a cause of action seeking affirmative relief independent of that stated in the complaint, the dismissal of the complaint does not preclude a trial and determination of the issues presented by the counterclaim."
14
But it is apparent in those exceptional cases where a counterclaim may survive the jurisdictional failure of a complaint that at least three premises must exist. Jurisdiction must exist within the scope of the allegations of the counterclaim; the claim made in the counterclaim must be independent of that made in the main case; and, lastly, affirmative relief must be sought. We are convinced the instant counterclaim falls far short of meeting these requirements.
15
While it is true that plaintiff Campbell had, at least on legal theory, no interest in the claim set forth in the counterclaim it does not follow that the claim is necessarily independent of the main case. The relief sought by the appellee-counterclaimant was a money judgment as a balancing claim-over against appellant for such amount as was within the policy limit and determined to be compensable to the plaintiff Campbell in the main case. The claim for expenses and costs was merely incidental to that relief and dependent upon the success of their principal claim. So completely was the specific counterclaim related in practical effect to the outcome of plaintiff Campbell's cause of action that it became meaningless upon dismissal of the complaint. A claim for a money judgment, the amount to be determined by reference to a then existing but unliquidated claim made by a stranger, has no existence in law except as it may be contained through specific joinder procedures allowed by and dependent upon the suit of the stranger.
16
Finally, appellant contends that the counterclaim could survive the failure of the complaint as a declaratory judgment because either appellant or appellee could have instituted and maintained such an action in the federal court. In such regard it is sufficient to note that appellant did not respond to the counterclaim by asking for declaratory relief nor was the counterclaim brought as one for declaratory relief. The fact that it became necessary to interpret the insurance contract in order to decide appellee's right to a potential money judgment does not change the claim from that of a suit for a money judgment to one for declaratory relief. This court will not, of course, determine what "might have been." The court reviews judgments, not arguments.
17
We find no error in the court below and its judgment is
18
Affirmed.
Notes:
1
Appellant is incorporated in Pennsylvania
|
Infectious etiologies in acute exacerbation of COPD.
Acute exacerbation (AE) is a frequent episode during the prolonged chronic course of chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD), which entails significant morbidity and mortality. The purpose of this study was to determine the frequency distribution of infectious etiologies in these episodes. Two hundred forty hospitalizations for AECOPD were included in a prospective, purely serologically based study. Paired sera were obtained for each of the hospitalizations and were tested using immunofluorescence or EIA methods to identify 13 different pathogens. Only significant changes in antibody titers were considered diagnostic. The mean age ( +/- SD) of the patients was 66.8 +/- 9.0 years and 179 (84%) were males. In 175 (72.9%) hospitalizations at least one infectious etiology was identified. In 117 (48.8%) hospitalizations at least one of 7 viral etiologies was identified. In 72 (30.0%) hospitalizations at least one of the following atypical bacteria was identified: Legionella spp. in 40 (16.7%), Mycoplasma pneumoniae in 34 (14.2%), and Coxiella burnetii in a single hospitalization. In 58 (24.2%) hospitalizations at least one classic bacterial etiology was found: Streptococcus pneumoniae in 48 (20.0%), Hemophilus influenzae in 10 (4.2%) and Moraxella catarrhalis in 9 (3.8%). More than one etiology was found in 72 (30.0%) hospitalizations. There were no significant differences in the etiologic distribution when the patients were classified by severity of airway obstruction or the clinical type of the exacerbation. We conclude that in most cases of hospitalization due to AECOPD the infectious etiology is viral or atypical bacteria and is classic bacteria in only a minority of cases. More than one etiologic cause can be identified in a third of the cases. The frequency distribution of the etiologies is not associated with the severity of airway obstruction or the clinical type of the exacerbation. The results of our study suggest that atypical bacteria should be covered in antibiotic regimens recommended for AECOPD. This issue should be addressed in future studies. |
Diesel engine combustion is characterized by the injection of a self-ignitable fuel under very high pressure through an injector nozzle into a combustion bowl arranged in the piston. After the atomization and vaporization of the fuel in the combustion air heated to high temperatures through compression, a mixing of the already vaporized fuel components with the combustion air takes place. This carburetion is achieved on the one hand through the distribution of the fuel by means of 6- to 8-hole injector nozzles, and on the other hand through swirling air generated in the inlet channels. The chemical processing of the fuel-air mixture then occurs through cracking of the relatively long fuel molecules and the formation of active radicals. If the concentration of active radicals is sufficiently high, the self-ignition of the fuel-air mixture begins in the form of a chain reaction. The time required for the physical and chemical carburetion processes is referred to as the ignition delay. Due to the short amount of time available for carburetion as a result of the direct injection of the fuel, the remaining combustion takes place in a fuel-air mixture with locally non-homogenous fuel distribution. The ignition phase of this “non-homogenous” fuel-air mixture is characterized by the occurrence of “ignition cores” in already ignitable regions of the mixture. As combustion continues, the fuel droplets react first that have reached the compressed hot combustion air at the beginning of the injection of fuel and for which a relatively long time is thus available for mixture processing. Due to the resulting relatively faster combustion reactions, this combustion phase, which is also referred to as the combustion of “pre-mixed” mixture, is characterized by higher combustion temperatures and thus greater thermal nitrogen oxide formation and less soot formation. However, during this first combustion phase, only a certain portion of the fuel-air mixture determined by the length of the ignition delay is combusted. The remaining mixture quantity that is not yet ignitable at the moment of the start of combustion and depends on the required engine load, is first processed as the combustion process continues through steeply rising gas temperatures and an intensive charge motion and then combusts in part under lack of air at a relatively low rate of combustion. This combustion phase, which is also called “diffusion-controlled” combustion, is characterized by initial soot formation occurring as a result of local air deficiency and subsequent incomplete post-oxidation of soot with simultaneously reduced nitrogen oxide formation.
The various phases of the combustion process and the corresponding mechanisms of pollutant formation yield a relationship between the nitrogen oxide and soot emissions that is typical of diesel engine combustion and is also referred to as NOx particle trade-off. This NOx particle interrelation means that, if the engine operation parameters (e.g., the injection timing) are adjusted for low NOx emissions, a simultaneous rise in soot/particle emissions is unavoidable.
In order to comply with the legally prescribed pollutant emissions of diesel engines, measures are taken both within the engine and externally in the form of exhaust gas treatment processes. The most important of the measures taken within the engine to improve the fuel-air mixture formation consists in the use of high-pressure injection systems, which enable injection pressures of greater than 200 MPa. The improved breakdown of the injection spray into smaller fuel droplets achieved in this way leads to improved mixing of the fuel with the combustion air and thus to fewer rich mixture zones and, accordingly, to substantially lower soot and particle emissions. Due to the higher combustion temperatures, the carburetion intensified in this way results in higher NOx emissions, which are to be avoided through increased excess air by means of increased charge pressures and optimized injection quantity curves. Another measure is exhaust gas recirculation (EGR), which is increasingly also being used in heavy commercial vehicle engines. However, the exhaust gas return rate and thus also the possible NOx reduction through decreasing oxygen content in the combustion air are limited once again by rising soot and particle emissions.
Since the described measures taken within the engine to reduce pollutants are insufficient for bringing emissions to below the exhaust gas limits, DeNOX catalytic converser systems with urea as a reduction agent and, separately from diesel engines, particle filter systems that are known for use in passenger vehicles are being used in newly approved commercial vehicle engines that must meet the requirements of Euro 5 and Euro 6 pollutant categories. To achieve the emissions goals, the raw emission behavior of the diesel engine must be adapted to the exhaust gas treatment systems used. For instance, in typical Euro 5 diesel engines, the particle emissions are reduced to the corresponding limits through flexibly tunable Common Rail (CR) injection systems with 160 to 180 MPa injection pressure, whereas the nitrogen oxide emissions are usually reduced sufficiently through the use of a urea-based DeNOx system. Sometimes, the NOx emissions are also reduced through a combination of exhaust gas recirculation and downstream DeNOx system. Which economically tenable combination of methods is used depends essentially on the raw emissions of a diesel engine. In diesel engines of the Euro 6 emissions level, the use of additional optimized injection systems with injection pressures from 200 MPa and up are required in order to further reduce particle emissions, as well as more efficient EGR-DeNOx system combinations. In particular, the use of EGR systems with substantially higher EGR rates and of DeNOx systems with NOx conversion rates of up to 90 percent is necessary. If the NOx emission limits cannot be complied with through the described use of EGR and DENOx systems, the additional use of a particle filter system with commensurately adapted tuning of the EGR and DeNOx system is unavoidable.
It must therefore be noted that the Euro 5 and especially Euro 6 emissions levels applicable to heavy commercial vehicle engines can only be achieved with considerable additional technical and economic expenditure. Due to catalytic converter-related increased exhaust gas back pressure and the adaptations of the combustion process that may be required, a degradation of the fuel consumption performance can be expected for all combinations of methods for reducing NOx and particle emissions. What is being sought here in principle, however, are NOx particle emissions from the engine that are as low as possible, since that reduces the effort required on the part of exhaust gas treatment.
Besides measures taken on the interior of the engine and the use of exhaust gas treatment systems, composition-modified fuels also represent an attractive possibility, in principle, for reducing harmful emissions in diesel engines. Special interest has long existed in the addition of water and other components, such as alcohol, to diesel fuel, since the nitrogen oxide-soot trade-off can be favorably influenced in this way, cf. Bach, F., Luft, M., Bartosch, S., Spicher, U.: Einfluss von Diesel-Ethanol-Wasser-Emulsionskraftstoffen auf die Dieselmotor-Emmissionen [Influence of diesel-ethanol-water emulsion fuels on diesel engine emissions]. MTZ 05/2011, pp. 408-414.
When using water-in-diesel fuel emulsion, either a ready-to-use water-diesel emulsion is injected into the combustion chamber instead of pure diesel fuel while using an emulsifying additive or an emulsion produced on board the vehicle by the existing injection system. The production of the emulsion in the vehicle has the advantage that the water fraction in the mixed fuel can be selected relatively freely in consideration of the technical limits of combustion with regard to the maximum reduction of pollutants.
In principle, besides the use of water-in-diesel fuel emulsions, it is also possible to exploit the advantageous characteristics of water to reduce combustion temperatures through the injection of water into the intake air and the direct injection of the water into the combustion chamber. Due to the high enthalpy of vaporization of the water, when it is added through the intake pipe and especially when it is injected directly, substantial cooling of the intake air or combustion air is achieved in the cylinder and thus also a reduction in nitrogen oxide emissions of up to 50 percent. Due to the relatively little mixing of the diesel fuel with water in the combustion chamber and the resulting lesser homogenization of the diesel fuel in the combustion chamber in comparison to emulsion fuels, however, the reduction of the soot emissions ends up being less; cf. DE 10 2009 048 223 A1. Emulsion fuels therefore offer, in addition to easier use in series engines, greater potential for reducing the critical harmful components in the exhaust gas of diesel engines.
Water-diesel emulsions can be regarded as disperse multi-phase systems of at least two liquids insoluble in a mixture in which water is regarded as the inner, disperse phase. Accordingly, diesel fuel represents the outer phase, the dispersant. Water-diesel emulsions are not thermodynamically stable and separate after a relatively short standing time. Through the use of emulsifying additives, so-called emulsifiers, it is possible, in principle, to convert a water-diesel emulsion into a thermodynamically stable form. One criterion that is important for the suitability of an emulsion as fuel for diesel engines is that the water droplets be distributed as finely as possible in the diesel fuel. Emulsions produced in the vehicle using an emulsifier or, if no emulsifier is used, using an appropriate mixing device are suitable for mobile use. Emulsions produced outside of the vehicle, such as those available at gas stations, for example, have a constant composition that is not adapted to the requirements of the engine operation and therefore does not achieve full potential in terms of the reduction of emissions and consumption.
The effect of water-diesel emulsions consists, on the one hand, in a temperature reduction occurring during the water vaporization and, on the other hand, in reduced combustion temperatures as a result of the increased inert gas fraction in the form of water vapor. Both lead to a lengthening of the physical ignition delay, which leads to a more uniform (homogeneous) distribution of the fuel in the combustion chamber and thus to a greater proportion of “pre-mixed” combustion. The resulting intensified homogenization of the mixture in conjunction with the water droplets being finely distributed in the emulsion leads to a reduction of highly fuel-rich regions of the mixture, which are substantially responsible for the occurrence of soot during the combustion process. The reduction of the nitrogen oxide emissions can be attributed to a significant flame temperature reduction both as a result of the high enthalpy of vaporization of the water and the water-related lower local specific heat release in the combustion zone; cf. Pittermann, R., Hinz, M., Kauert, L: Einfluss von Abgasrückführung und Kraftstoff-Wasser-Emulsion auf Verbrennungsablauf und Schadstoffbildung im Dieselmotor [Influence of exhaust gas recirculation and fuel-water emulsion on combustion process and pollutant formation in the diesel engine]. MTZ 60(1999)12, pp. 812-818. The frequently used exhaust gas recirculation (EGR) for reducing the NOx emissions also brings about lower flame temperatures in accordance with the increased inert gas fraction. However, increased soot emissions occur at higher EGR rates, which can be avoided in the combination with water-diesel emulsion fuels. The use of water-diesel emulsion fuels thus increases EGR tolerance and hence the potential for reducing NOx and soot.
Another requirement for the optimal use of an emulsion fuel is the need to adapt the water fraction in the emulsion to different engine operating states, and to engine shutdown and startup even after extended non-operation.
In the starting phase of the diesel engine, reliable and quick startup and quick heating of the engine can only be achieved in pure diesel fuel operation, since stable combustion is already achieved after several stroke cycles. When using a water-diesel emulsion in the starting phase as well, the number of stroke cycles without combustion increases as a result of the worsened self-ignitability of the emulsion, with commensurately increased emissions of uncombusted fuel. As the engine warms up, the water fraction in the emulsion can be increased in the warm-up phase.
In the case of predominantly stationary engine operation and high output, a greater proportion of water can be contained in the emulsion due to the higher combustion chamber temperatures in order to thus achieve a combustion process that is as efficient as possible along with simultaneously high reduction of NOx and particle emissions. In low load states and commensurately low combustion chamber temperatures, a reduction of the water fraction in the emulsion is necessary in order to prevent excessive cooling of the flame zones and the associated emissions of uncombusted fuel. Predominantly stationary engine operation with only relatively slow changes in load and engine speed does not require dynamic emulsifying systems.
In principle, the use of the full potential of a water-diesel emulsion in terms of reduced NOx and soot is only possible if the water fraction is as close as possible to the respective technical combustion limit, as a function of the operating point. For the dynamic operation that usually occurs with automobiles, this means that it is absolutely necessary to have a very quick adaptation of the water fraction to the momentary combustion chamber temperatures and to the oxygen content available for combustion while making use of exhaust gas recirculation. The quicker the adaptation of the water fraction to the momentary operating state of the engine, the greater the reduction in emissions. This is all the more important given that the determination of the emissions behavior of diesel engines is done for commercial vehicles and mobile working machines using transient exhaust gas test cycles. |
Vivekananda Kendra Vidyalaya
Vivekananda Kendra Vidyalaya or VKV is the academic wing of Vivekananda Kendra (an organization based on Swami Vivekananda's preachings of life–reforming principles), operating a chain of schools under the project Vivekananda Kendra Siksha Prasar Vibhag (VKSPV). Vidyalaya is a sanskrit word meaning School. The corporate headquarters of the organization is at Kanyakumari, Tamil Nadu in southern India. The ideology of Gyan – Yagna, meaning Knowledge Worship started by Ekanathji Ranade led to the inception of VKV. The school teachings are inspired by the Vivekananda's philosophy of Man – Making & Nation Building.
Schools
There are a total of 64 VKVs providing education to approximately 20,000 students in the Indian states of Arunachal Pradesh, Assam, Karnataka, Nagaland and Tamil Nadu, besides the Andaman Islands. The schools are guided by their corporate values inspired by the general philosophies of Swami Vivekananda, such as Education is the manifestation of perfection already in man, If the poor boy can't come to education, education must go to him etc. The first VKV was started at Sher in Arunachal Pradesh. Most of these schools are fully residential and focus on the holistic growth of their students.
In Arunachal Pradesh
The schools in Arunachal Pradesh are run and managed under Vivekananda Kendra Arunachal Pradesh Trust (VKAPT) of Vivekananda Kendra headquartered at Dibrugarh in Assam.
In Assam
The schools in Assam are run and managed under Vivekananda Kendra Shiksha Prasar Vibhag (VKSPV) of Vivekananda Kendra headquartered at Guwahati in Assam.
In Nagaland
The schools in Nagaland are run and managed under Vivekananda Kendra Shiksha Prasar Vibhag (VKSPV) of Vivekananda Kendra headquartered at Guwahati in Assam.
In Andaman
Ten schools are run in Andaman of which VKV, PortBlair situated in the capital of Andaman and Nicobar Islands is one among the oldest and reputed schools in the islands.
Category:Schools in Tamil Nadu
Category:Swami Vivekananda
Category:Schools in Assam
Category:Schools in Nagaland
Category:Education in the Andaman and Nicobar Islands
Category:Schools in Arunachal Pradesh
Category:Vivekananda Kendra schools |
Q:
What happens to $\frac{|x-3|}{x}<2$ for $x\geq 3$?
I need to find real numbers $x$ that satisfy the inequality
$\frac{|x-3|}{x}<2$
My analysis goes like this:
Case 1) $x<0$
Then, $\frac{|x-3|}{x}<0<2$, so all negative $x$ satisfy the inequality.
Case 2) $0<x<3$
Then, $\frac{3-x}{x}<2$, and as $x>0$, we can say $3-x<2x\implies x>1$
$\therefore x\in(1,3)$ satisfies the inequality, but $x\in(0,1]$ does not.
This is all fine, but my issue is in the 3rd case.
Case 3) $x\geq 3$
Then, $\frac{x-3}{x}<2$
$\iff x-3<2x$
$\iff x>-3$
What does the final line tell us about the $x\geq 3$ case?
When I plot $\frac{|x-3|}{x}$, I can see that all $x\geq 3$ satisfy the inequality, but why does the $x>-3$ result tell us this?
A:
The logic might be more clear if you reverse the steps in the $x\ge3$ case, keeping only the reverse direction of the if-and-only-if double arrow:
$$x\ge3\implies x\gt-3\implies x-3\lt2x\implies{x-3\over x}\lt2\implies{|x-3|\over x}\lt2$$
where the first $\implies$ is trivial, the second is easy, and the final two depend on the assumption $x\ge3$ (which implies $x\gt0$ and $x-3=|x-3|$ for those two steps, respectively).
|
Front Loading the CVN-77 ... or ... Why Sausage Making is Like
Maneuver Warfare
This message refers to 3 attachments:
[1] Sec. 122, CVN-77 Program, National Defense Authorization Act 1998
Conference Report to accompany H.R. 1119, October 23, 1997
[2] "Shipyard says faster-built CVN-77 would save money, but final price
tag is unclear as ship is partly a protoype for next carrier class."
Virginian-Pilot, January 6, 1998.
[3] "Carrier's Cost Understated By Half A Billion," Defense Week, July 13,
1998.
Today, the United States spends about $265 billion on defense, almost three
times as much as all its potential adversaries combined (China, Russia,
Iraq, Syria, Iran, North Korea, Sudan, North Korea, Libya, Cuba). Yet
planners in the Pentagon have not be able to construct a proactive strategy
for evolving new force structures and capabilities to match the changing
set of threats or for financing the much smaller forces of the post-cold
war era. My aim in this message to use a case study to explain how
factional politics in the military-industrial-congressional complex plant
the seeds for continued paralysis.
Since the collapse of the Soviet Union, planners in each military service
have used a stylized, two-war regional strategy for confronting some
combination of Iraq, Iran, or North Korea (combined defense budgets of less
that $10 billion) to justify retaining the their existing mix of cold-war
capabilities, albeit in smaller force packages, for the intermediate term.
They have struggled to protect the status quo over the longer term
(2010-2020) by defining notional (imaginary) "peer" or "near peer"
competitors. More recently, they have resorted to constructing
hypothetical visions of "full spectrum dominance" across the entire
spectrum of "asymmetric niche competitors," who may emerge all over the
world during the 21st century.
There is a common denominator behind their tortured logic, however. It is
the unchanging "wish list" for new high-cost, high-complexity, weapons
(e.g., the F-22, Comanche helicopter, THAAD missile defense system, the new
attack submarine, and a whole litany of precision-guided munitions),
together with the supporting reconnaissance, surveillance, and command and
control systems to wire these weapons into the SAME kind of all-seeing,
all-knowing military machine envisioned by the technological soothsayers of
the Cold War.
Our capability to execute a two war regional strategy is now an open
question. Combat readiness is deteriorating sharply, in part because the
requirements of the regional strategy (which includes peace keeping) have
led to an over-commitment of a shrinking, albeit, high-cost force
structure. Moreover, the cost of maintaining aging cold-war weapons in
even a low state of readiness is increasing rapidly, so money has been
'migrating' from the modernization budget to the operating budget for
several years now, even though readiness continues to decline.
The 'migration' problem exacerbates the existing shortfall in modernization
created by low production rates. The new weapons are so expensive, the
Pentagon can not buy enough of them to modernize the force on a timely
basis, even if Congress approves its plan to increase the procurement
budget by 50% by 2003, there are no cost overruns, and modernization
budgets continue to increase sharply for 5 to 10 years thereafter. (Note,
this kind of budget growth can only be financed by reversing the direction
of migration, which, in turn, will create even more pressure to rob the
readiness budget). The low rates of replacement will steadily drive up the
average age of weapons during the first decade of the next century, and
because older weapons are more expensive to maintain and operate, there
will be increasing pressure to transfer money out of modernization budget
to pay for the rising cost of operations.
Finally, it is also clear that a corrupt accounting system renders it
impossible to figure out how to resolve the conflicting pressures created
by first two problems. Moreover, the budget shambles makes a mockery of
the Constitutional precepts of accountability and checks and balances.
Bear in mind, the strategy/budget conundrum exists even though we are
outspending our three regional adversaries by 26 to 1. The accounting
shambles exists even though everyone in the Pentagon has taken a sacred
oath to preserve and protect the Constitution (which clearly includes a
duty to preserve accountability and protect the system of checks and
balances). Bear also in mind, no one in the Pentagon or on Capital Hill
has rebutted the analyses upon which the preceding statements about
readiness, modernization, and corrupt accounting systems are based.
Nevertheless, the preparations for the summer program/budget review show
conclusively that senior leadership intends to IGNORE these problems for
yet another year.
No doubt planners in the Pentagon (and "pro-defense" big spenders in
Congress) will ask the President for more money to execute the two-regional
war strategy over the next six years, but when the Defense Department is
outspending all its regional adversaries by 26 to 1, and its accounting
system is broken, there is NO WAY anyone can assure the taxpayer that
increasing the budget will match our strategy or program plans to the
world's changing conditions.
So, why are decision makers paralyzed? To answer this question, we need
to look inside our federated system of distributed decision making. We
need to examine how the individual players in the
military-industrial-congressional complex game the system for their narrow
advantage.
The decision by Congress to accelerate spending for the next Nimitz class,
nuclear powered aircraft carrier, the CVN-77, provides an excellent case
study of the roots of paralysis.
First, some background.
Traditionally, money for weapons procurement is appropriated under the
concept of "Full Funding." In the case of a warship, this means Congress
appropriates the entire cost of a ship in one year. The money would then
be spent over the time interval (as much as 8 years) it takes to build the
ship. The only exception to the full-funding principle is an early
appropriation for advanced procurement to pay for long-lead items, like the
containment vessel of a nuclear power plant..
'Full funding,' in theory, has several advantages: It forces the decision
makers in the Pentagon and Congress to make their commitments visible,
because they must account for all the money at one time. This forces
planners to fit new commitments into the context of ongoing commitments,
which helps to avoid over-commitment. Full funding makes the total cost of
the program, together with cost overruns, evident to the taxpayer, who pays
the bill, and it provides an audit trail for ensuring accountability and
assessing liability when problems arise. Of course, all these advantages
are theoretical, because they assume integrity in the bookkeeping system.
The alternative to 'full funding' is 'incremental funding.' Under this
concept, Congress appropriates money to continue work on a year by year
basis. Incremental funding makes it easier to start a program and keep it
going, because Congress needs only to appropriate enough money to start or
continue work for a year. Under an incremental funding plan, it may not
even be necessary for the contractor to deliver a product in a given year.
The inherent elasticity in measuring work complicates issues of
accountability and liability, and because the focus is on inputs rather
outputs, there is no well-defined baseline for measuring performance,
particularly if the contractor is not required to deliver a product.
CVN-77 Case Study.
The Defense Department's Fiscal Year 1998 budget plan, submitted to
Congress in February 1997, contained a normal full funding schedule for
CVN-77, with about $700 million for advanced procurement in Fiscal Year
2000 and about $4.5 billion in 2002 for the CVN-77. Under this plan,
CVN-77 would be delivered to the Navy in 2008.
Newport News Shipbuilding (NNS), the prime contractor for CVN-77, began to
lobby Congress for a change in the funding schedule in the Spring of 1997.
Without a change, NNS claimed it would have to lay off 2000 to 3000 pipe
fitters, welders, and electricians as construction of the USS Ronald Reagan
(CVN-76) approached completion in 2002. Many of these people would leave
the area or find other jobs, and NNS said it would have to hire and train
new employees, which would raise the cost of the CVN-77 by the time of its
full-funding appropriation in 2002.
William P. Fricks, the CEO of NNS, said he could save jobs and reduce the
total cost of the CVN-77, if Congress accelerated appropriations by two
years and INCREMENTALLY FUNDED the CVN-77 over the four years between
Fiscal Year 1998 and 2001. Despite the two-year acceleration in the
funding schedule, NNS would still deliver the CNN-77 to the Navy in 2008,
however. Fricks called his plan 'Smart Buy' and said this procurement
strategy would require to Congress appropriate $345 million in FY 1998. He
claimed 'Smart Buy' would save $600 million over the long term, because the
acceleration of funding plus the shift to incremental funding would enable
NNS to preserve a strong supplier base and shipbuilding skills during the
construction gap between CVN-76 and CVN-77. His reference to a "supplier
base" is a veiled allusion to protecting jobs all over the nation.
(Fricks' idea is an old one. There is a sordid history of Incremental
Funding in ship construction, with horror stories dating back to at least
1816, which is one of the reasons why Congress adopted a Full Funding
policy, but that will be the subject of my next message.)
Congress took the bait and slipped the nose of Incremental Funding into the
programmatic tent, when it approved the National Defense Authorization Act
for FY 1998 in October 1997. Sec. 122 of the House-Senate Conference
Report [Atch #1], which accompanied the act, effectively approved Fricks'
Smart Buy proposal. But instead of authorizing $345 million of new money
in FY 1998, Congress authorized only $50 million in new money [paragraph
(b)] and gave the Secretary of Defense the authority, but did not require
him, to transfer $295 million from other programs [paragraph (c)] to make
up the difference. The FY 98 Authorization also established a "cost cap"
of $4.6 billion [paragraph (f)(1)], which is also consistent with "Smart
Buy," being about $600 million less than the money programmed under the
original Full Funding proposal.
The condiments accompanying this feast are more interesting than the main
course. Note, for example, Congress inserted an escape clause in the fine
print [Atch #1, paragraph (f)(2)(D)] which allows for adjustments in the
cost cap if "… there are increases or decreases in costs of the CVN-77
that are attributable to new technology compared to the technology used in
CVN-76 aircraft carrier." To be sure, the Authorization bill requires the
Secretary of the Navy to report the reasons for any changes in the cost cap
when the budget is submitted to Congress each January [paragraph (f)(3)].
But the language says that Secretary of the Navy would report those
adjustments which occurred during the preceding fiscal year. The preceding
fiscal year would have ended four months earlier on Sept 30. So, the
effect of this law is to let adjustments to the "cost cap" creep in
incrementally each year, and Congress will be asked to approve or
disapprove the new cost estimates after they have occurred.
Although the Congressional language authorized the Pentagon to completely
fund the $345 million of the first increment of 'Smart Buy' proposal, the
fine print did not force the Pentagon to put up all the money. Not
surprisingly, decision makers in the Pentagon chose not to transfer the
$295 million from other programs. Consequently, the Pentagon budgeted only
$50 million for first increment of 'Smart Buy.' But Fricks sold 'Smart
Buy' by saying the future savings would occur under a schedule of
incremental payments that assumed a much larger amount would be spent in FY
1998. So, by reducing the initial funding from $345 to $50 million, the
DoD, in effect, gave NNS an excuse to justify an absence of, or a reduction
in, the future savings, should either occur sometime during the next eight
years (long after most of the players have left the scene and their
promises are forgotten).
It seems fair to conclude, therefore, the loose language of the Conference
Report turned on the money flow SOONER, made it EASIER for the Navy or NNS
to increase costs in the future, but kept the same date for delivering the
final product.
Officials at Newport News Shipbuilding (NNS) lost no time in exploiting the
murky uncertainties implicit in this situation. On January, 6, 1998, Dale
Eiseman reported in the Virginian-Pilot [Atch #2] that Navy documents said
the cost of the CVN-77 would be $580 million less than its original $5.18
billion price tag. But a NNS official told him the savings did NOT account
for the added cost of "new technologies" that the Navy now wants to include
in the 90,000 ton carrier. He said the Navy views CVN-77 as "almost a
prototype," and while it will have the same hull design as a Nimitz class
carrier, it may be very different in other ways. In maneuver warfare, this
kind of hedging statement would be called a 'battlefield shaping' operation.
Six months later, the chickens started coming home to roost. John Donnelly
reported in Defense Week on July 13 [Atch #3] that the Navy's program
office estimates that the CVN-77 will probably cost $4.9 billion between
1998 and 2001 (or about $300 million over the $4.6 billion cost cap), but
the defense budget includes only $4.45 billion. When Donnelly queried key
staff members of the congressional defense panels about this $450 million
mismatch, they expressed no concern. On the contrary, it appears they
rationalized it as being natural, or at least expected, which should not be
surprising considering the loose language in the Conference Report they
helped draft and the shaping operation begun by NNS in January.
The Defense Power Games.
The insertion of an under-funded CVN-77 into the budget raises two general
questions about the current state of defense budgeting: (1) Why would the
Defense Department deliberately understate the likely cost of a new weapon
in its budget? (2) Why would staff members on Capital Hill casually
dismiss questions about the integrity of Defense Department's budget
numbers, given the powers delegated to Congress by the Constitution
(Article 1 Section 8), not mention its duty (Article 1 Section 9) to make a
"…regular statement and account of the receipts and expenditures of all
public money..?"
The key to answering these questions is to place particulars of the CVN-77
story in the larger, more general context of the Defense Power Games.
[The Defense Power Games Report is one of the documents hot-linked at the
web site below my signature block. In the interest of brevity, I will be
making a series of declarative statements in the following paragraphs.
Readers who doubt the veracity of these statements are urged to read this
report as well as the relevant sections of the two other reports available
at the web site.]
The Defense Power Games are a bureaucratic strategy for waging budget
warfare in Washington. The adversary is the system of distributed
decision-making power enshrined by checks and balances of the Constitution.
The Defense Power Games employ various combinations of the two
complimentary tactical techniques, known as Front Loading and Political
Engineering, to wage the budget war (much like maneuver-warfare
practitioners use combined-arms fire and movement techniques on a real
battlefield). The strategic aim in a Washington budget war is to
insensibly infiltrate the distributed decision-making system at all levels
in order to turn on the money flow and then build a powerful patronage
network to ensure the money continues to flow over the long term.
The Front Loaders are the penetration troops. They infiltrate the
decision-making system by downplaying or misrepresenting the future
consequences of current decisions. The aim of a front-loading operation is
twofold: (1) get the program STARTED and (2) buy the TIME needed by the
Political Engineers to build a political barrier to its cancellation.
Political Engineers are the follow-on storm troopers. They exploit the
gaps created by the Front Loaders, widening and deepening the initial
penetrations by spreading subcontracts and jobs to as many Congressional
districts as quickly as possible. These spreading operations may start
insensibly, but their operational aim is political blitzkrieg: build up
jobs and profits in congressional districts rapidly, making their effects
more visible and powerful over time, until their brutish ubiquity PARALYZES
the discretionary decision-making power of the Executive and Legislative
branches of government.
There are many tactics for misrepresenting the future consequences of
current decisions, but by far, the most popular Front Loading tactic is the
'buy in.' Low balling a cost estimate by predicting future savings in a
budget plan makes it easier to convince decision makers in the Pentagon and
Congress to spend more money in the near term. Once the program is
approved and inserted into the defense budget, the money starts flowing to
the prime contractors, who, with encouragement by the sponsoring agency,
start setting up the sub-contracting and vendor relations needed to spread
the money to hundreds of congressional districts. The Political Engineers
use this money to create the jobs and profits needed to buy the votes of as
many members of Congress as possible. The aim of a political-engineering
operations is to ensure that a majority in Congress continues to vote for
funding the program over the long term.
Once the real costs of a front-loaded, politically-engineered program start
to become apparent, the sponsoring military service and the contractor use
the political leverage gained by the spreading operation to extort even
more money out of the President and Congress (i.e., the taxpayers).
So, in a grand strategic sense, the Front Loaders and Political Engineers
use taxpayer's dollars to finance the construction their nationwide
political protection network (a multilateral system of alliances), which
increases their future leverage, when it becomes necessary to obtain even
more money from the taxpayers.
Some people have called this kind of incestuous amplification a
"self-licking ice cream cone." On the other hand, those with a
mathematical bent will sense immediately that the non-linear, positive
feedback loops created by these activities are likely to generate some form
of chaos.
When one considers that the defense budget is made up of hundreds of
front-loaded, politically-engineered programs, the combination of cooked
books, inevitable cost growth, and the power to extort money out of
Congress is a prescription for confusion and disorder, and ultimately
paralysis, on a colossal scale. It is in the nature of front loading to
start more programs than can be afforded over the long term. The resultant
welter of upward cost pressures wreaks havoc with the entire defense
budget. At the same time, the web of overlapping patronage networks
created by the Political Engineers makes it difficult, if not impossible,
for decision makers in the Pentagon or Congress to pick winners and losers
from among the individual programs competing for money. To make matters
worse, there will always be constraints on the total amount of money, so
the incapacity to pick winners and losers at the microscopic level means
that all programs get stretched out over time. Thus, it is difficult or
impossible shape priorities and adapt the larger system to changing
conditions.
So, given these pressures, it is not surprising, indeed, it is inevitable
that we have a modernization program that can not produce enough new
weapons to modernize the force. Nor is it surprising that decision makers
constantly dip into the readiness budgets in a futile effort to bail out
the sputtering modernization program. Viewed in this light, the
book-keeping shambles is not an aberration. On the contrary, cooked books
are a necessary condition to play the game.
WRAP UP
Now when we place the CVN-77 in the context of the Defense Power Games, we
see all the elements of a well-executed front loading operation. Each
player in the military-industrial-congressional complex did its part to
make the initial infiltration operation succeed over the long term. The
contractor promised future savings, if the government accelerated funding,
shifted to incremental funding, and did not change the delivery date.
Congress accepted the contractor's proposal, set a cost cap, and
accelerated the funding, but it wrote the enactment legislation is such a
way that the contractor or the Defense Department has all sorts of ways to
evade the cost cap over the long term. The Defense Department then iced
the cake by funding only about 15% of the first year's funding authority,
which was enough to start the program but gave the contractor an excuse to
blame the government if the savings don't materialize. The Navy also began
considering technological changes which, under the language of the
enactment legislation, would permit the contractor to jack up the costs
over time. Put all this under the ambiguous umbrella of incremental
funding, and it will harder to track costs, more difficult to determine
acceptable performance, and easier to stretch out or reschedule payments.
The front loading operations launched the CVN-77 program the two aims of
any front loading operationit started the program and bought time for the
Political Engineers to exploit the initial penetration. Congress is happy
and it looks like it will give the Political Engineers another $124 million
in Fiscal Year 1999 to expand the penetration.. The Pentagon is happy.
The contractor is happy. And if Donnelly's reporting is correct [Atch 3],
no one even seems to care that only ten months into 'Smart Buy,' the Navy's
program office estimates that CVN-77 may already have blown the cost cap by
$300 million.
What is particularly troubling about this particular front-loading
operation is that the Navy does not need to make a 40 to 50 year commitment
to a new aircraft carrier, particularly a commitment that projects
technologies that were designed to counter the threat posed by the Soviet
Union (or perhaps to the Japanese at Midway?). Today, there is no open
ocean threat to the US Navy, and the requirements to project maritime power
are changing in the direction of supporting expeditionary ground forces in
limited littoral scenarios. No one knows what threat the Navy will face
during the next 10 to 50 years, but it will not be the waves of Backfire
bombers (that shaped the make up of the current carrier battlegroup), nor
will is it likely the Navy will face a requirement to strike fixed
strategic targets deep in the heartland of an industrial power with
airplanes, particularly given its large investment in unmanned attack
weapons like cruise missiles.
Moreover, the Navy does not need a new carrier to keep its airplanes at
sea. It just placed two conventionally powered super carriers (Ranger and
America) in mothballs (for about $70 million per carrier), which means the
they have useful life remaining in them. The Navy does not even have
enough airplanes to equip its remaining carriers with full-strength units.
In the past several years, the size of a carrier air wing has dropped from
60 to 50 to 46 fighter/attack aircraft, yet the most politically persuasive
theoretical argument for buying the Nimitz class carriers has been that
their gigantic size make them the cheapest way to keep a large number of
airplanes at sea.
Given the uncertainties posed by the unknown threats of the post-cold war
era, the Navy might have been better off keeping its options open by
extending the life of the America or Ranger and using the savings the buy
the additional airplanes to fully equip its fighter/attack squadrons, which
after all, are the primary reason for having a carrier in the first place.
But of course, that action would not have satisfied the domestic needs of
the military-industrial-congressional complex, which is focused inwardly on
its own preservation, rather than on a high readiness, modernized force
that is matched to the real threats we face and is accountable to the
people who pay for it, not to mention the soldiers, sailors, and airmen we
ask to go in harm's way.
One could argue that this front loading operation has established a
paradigm an open-ended stream of payments, like the flow of R&D dollars
into the never-ending Star Wars, in a procurement program. As we will see
in the next commentary, this is by no means a new idea. Protecting
shipyards by incrementally funding unneeded shipbuilding programs over long
periods of time is a prescription for wasting money dating from at least
April 29, 1816.
Chuck Spinney
Archive of past commentaries or reports can be found at
<http://www.infowar.com/iwftp/cspinney/cspinney.html-ssi>
[Disclaimer: In accordance with 17 U.S.C. 107, the following material is
distributed without profit or payment to those who have expressed a prior
interest in receiving this information for non-profit research and
educational purposes only.]
------[Atch 1]------
NATIONAL DEFENSE AUTHORIZATION ACT FOR FISCAL YEAR 1998
CONFERENCE REPORT to accompany H.R. 1119
October 23, 1997.
105th Congress 1st Session
HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES
Report 105-340
TITLE I--PROCUREMENT
SEC. 122. CVN-77 NUCLEAR AIRCRAFT CARRIER PROGRAM.
(a) Authorization of Ship.--The Secretary of the Navy is
authorized to procure the aircraft carrier to be designated
CVN-77, subject to the availability of appropriations for that
purpose.
(b) Amount Authorized From SCN Account.--Of the amount
authorized to be appropriated by section 102(a)(3) for fiscal
year 1998, $50,000,000 is available for the advance procurement
and advance construction of components (including nuclear
components) for the CVN-77 aircraft carrier program. The
Secretary of the Navy may enter into a contract or contracts
with the shipbuilder and other entities for the advance
procurement and advance construction of those components.
(c) Other Funds.--Of the funds authorized to be
appropriated under this Act for programs, projects, and
activities of the military departments and Defense Agencies,
other than the CVN-77 aircraft carrier program, up to
$295,000,000 may be made available, as the Secretary of Defense
may direct, for the CVN-77 aircraft carrier program. Authority
to make transfers under this subsection is in addition to the
transfer authority provided in section 1001.
(d) Management of Funds.--The Secretary of the Navy shall
obligate and expend the funds available for advance procurement
and advance construction of components for the CVN-77 aircraft
carrier program for fiscal year 1998 in a manner that is
designed to result in such cost savings as may be required in
order to meet the cost limitation specified in subsection (f).
(e) Adjustments to Future-Years Defense Program.--The
Secretary of Defense shall make such plans for the CVN-77
aircraft carrier program as are necessary to attain for the
program the cost savings that are contemplated for the
procurement of the CVN-77 aircraft carrier in the March 1997
procurement plan.
(f) Limitation on Total Cost of Procurement.--(1) The
Secretary of the Navy shall structure the program for the
procurement of the CVN-77 aircraft carrier, and shall manage
that program, so that the total cost of the procurement of the
CVN-77 aircraft carrier does not exceed $4,600,000,000 (such
amount being the estimated cost for the procurement of the CVN-
77 aircraft carrier in the March 1997 procurement plan).
(2) The Secretary of the Navy may adjust the amount set
forth in paragraph (1) for the CVN-77 aircraft carrier program
by the following:
(A) The amounts of outfitting costs and post-
delivery costs incurred for the program.
(B) The amounts of increases or decreases in costs
attributable to economic inflation after September 30,
1997.
(C) The amounts of increases or decreases in costs
attributable to compliance with changes in Federal,
State, or local laws enacted after September 30, 1997.
(D) The amounts of increases or decreases in costs
of the program that are attributable to new technology
built into the CVN-77 aircraft carrier, as compared to
the technology built into the baseline design of the
CVN-76 aircraft carrier.
(E) The amounts of increases or decreases in costs
resulting from changes the Secretary proposes in the
funding plan (as contemplated in the March 1997
procurement plan) on which the projected savings are
based.
(3) The Secretary of the Navy shall annually submit to
Congress, at the same time as the budget is submitted under
section 1105(a) of title 31, United States Code, written notice
of any change in the amount set forth in paragraph (1) during
the preceding fiscal year that the Secretary has determined to
be associated with a cost referred to in paragraph (2).
(g) March 1997 Procurement Plan Defined.--In this section,
the term ``March 1997 procurement plan'' means the procurement
plan for the CVN-77 aircraft carrier that was submitted to the
Navy and Congress by the shipbuilder in March 1997. |
I am trying Sublime Text 2 on Ubuntu 12.04 64-bit and started loving it, but when I use Telugu compound letters inside the editor, it displays little boxes with "25CC" written inside the boxes, making the text unreadable.
For example, the simple letter క displays fine, but the compund letter కు doesn't.You can copy paste the కు into editor to see how it looks, comparing it to the letter showing here.
I wonder if the editor is trying to display a non-visual join code that may be present in a compound letter.The other editors like gedit, geany do not have this issue.
Telugu is one of the Indian languages, but I guess this would be a problem with any languages that use compound letters with unicode.
Since the last minor version, I no longer see the boxes.. however, letters and their modifiers are not joining.I have tested this with some other Indian languages and they all have the same display problem with their base letters and their modifiers appearing separately, without joining. They look fine in gedit but not in Sublime Text 2.0.1
For example, copy this Telugu word, తెలుగు in gedit and sublime to see the problem.Or another language, Hindi हिंदी word.
Btw, I could not attach the 8 kb screenshot to this post (got an error), so please see it here:http://www.flickr.com/photos/psatya/8117393178/in/photostreamThe first example contains 3 base letters with each having one modifier, so they are displaying like 6 separate letters in ST, instead of 3 compund letters.
Fixing that single issue will support the languages of one billion people (or may be more) in Sublime Text editor. And I am going to license every major version of it for the next 20 years! So, please... |
Pbx1 functions in distinct regulatory networks to pattern the great arteries and cardiac outflow tract.
MedLine Citation:
PMID:
18849531
Owner:
NLM
Status:
MEDLINE
Abstract/OtherAbstract:
The patterning of the cardiovascular system into systemic and pulmonic circulations is a complex morphogenetic process, the failure of which results in clinically important congenital defects. This process involves extensive vascular remodeling and coordinated division of the cardiac outflow tract (OFT). We demonstrate that the homeodomain transcription factor Pbx1 orchestrates separate transcriptional pathways to control great-artery patterning and cardiac OFT septation in mice. Pbx1-null embryos display anomalous great arteries owing to a failure to establish the initial complement of branchial arch arteries in the caudal pharyngeal region. Pbx1 deficiency also results in the failure of cardiac OFT septation. Pbx1-null embryos lose a transient burst of Pax3 expression in premigratory cardiac neural crest cells (NCCs) that ultimately specifies cardiac NCC function for OFT development, but does not regulate NCC migration to the heart. We show that Pbx1 directly activates Pax3, leading to repression of its target gene Msx2 in NCCs. Compound Msx2/Pbx1-null embryos display significant rescue of cardiac septation, demonstrating that disruption of this Pbx1-Pax3-Msx2 regulatory pathway partially underlies the OFT defects in Pbx1-null mice. Conversely, the great-artery anomalies of compound Msx2/Pbx1-null embryos remain within the same spectrum as those of Pbx1-null embryos. Thus, Pbx1 makes a crucial contribution to distinct regulatory pathways in cardiovascular development. |
---
abstract: 'We develop two analytic approaches to solve D-optimal approximate designs under generalized linear models. The first approach provides analytic D-optimal allocations for generalized linear models with two factors, which include as a special case the $2^2$ main-effects model considered by Yang, Mandal and Majumdar (2012). The second approach leads to explicit solutions for a class of generalized linear models with more than two factors. With the aid of the analytic solutions, we provide a necessary and sufficient condition under which a D-optimal design with two quantitative factors could be constructed on the boundary points only. It bridges the gap between D-optimal factorial designs and D-optimal designs with continuous factors.'
author:
- |
Liping Tong\
Loyola University Chicago
- |
Hans W. Volkmer\
University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee
- |
Jie Yang\
University of Illinois at Chicago
title: 'Analytic Solutions for D-optimal Factorial Designs under Generalized Linear Models'
---
[*Keyword:*]{} Analytic solution; D-optimal design; factorial design; generalized linear model; Karush-Kuhn-Tucker condition
Introduction {#section_introduction}
============
Generalized linear models (McCullagh and Nelder, 1989; Dobson and Barnett, 2008) have been widely used for modeling responses coming from an exponential family including Binomial, Poisson, Gamma, and many other distributions. Under generalized linear models, a link function $g$ connects the expectation of the response $Y$ with a linear combination of factors, either qualitative or quantitative. For example, under a $k$-factor main-effects model, $$g(E(Y)) = \beta_0 + \beta_1 x_1 + \cdots + \beta_k x_k\ ,$$ where $\beta_0, \beta_1, \ldots, \beta_k$ are regression coefficients, and $x_1, \ldots, x_k$ represent the levels of $k$ factors respectively. For many applications in agriculture, industry, clinical trials, etc, the experimenters are able to control the levels of factors in different runs of experiments to get more accurate estimates of $\beta_0, \beta_1, \ldots, \beta_k$ . Unlike the case of linear models, the information matrix in generalized linear models for the estimation of parameters usually depends on the unknown parameters (see Khuri, Mukherjee, Sinha and Ghosh (2006) for a good review). One solution solving the dependence is to use Chernoff (1953)’s local optimality approach in which the unknown parameters are replaced by assumed values. Then different optimality criteria, such as $D$-, $A$-, $E$-, $c$-optimality, may be applied to the information matrix with assumed parameter values to obtain the corresponding optimal designs (see, for example, Stufken and Yang (2012)). Alternative solutions include Bayesian approach (Chaloner and Verdinelli, 1995), maximin criteria (Pronzato and Walter, 1988; Imhof, 2001), and sequential design (Ford, Titterington and Kitsos, 1989; Khuri, Mukherjee, Sinha and Ghosh, 2006).
One solution is to deal with quantitative or continuous factors. For typical applications, the factor level $x_j$ is restricted to the closed interval $[a_j, b_j], j=1, \ldots, k$. A design problem is to find a set $\{ ({\bf x}_i, p_i), i=1, \ldots, m\}$, where ${\bf x}_i=(x_{i1}, \ldots, x_{ik})'$, $i=1, \ldots, m$ are design points that are combinations of factor levels, and $p_i$’s are the proportions of experimental units assigned to the corresponding design points (see, for example, Atkinson, Donev and Tobias (2007) and Stufken and Yang (2012)). For the case of single quantitative factor, Sitter and Wu (1993) provided characterizations of $D$-, $A$- and $F$-optimal designs for binary response. Stufken and Yang (2012) showed that the locally optimal design could be constructed by solving an equation of a single variable. For the case of two or more quantitative factors, numerical algorithms are typically used for searching for locally optimal designs (Stufken and Yang, 2012; Woods, Lewis, Eccleston and Russell, 2006).
Another solution is to deal with qualitative factors or quantitative factors but with pre-specified finite number of design points. In this case, a design matrix $X$ that consists of $m$ design points is given and the design problem is to find the optimal allocation ${\bf p}=(p_1, \ldots, p_m)'$ assigned on the $m$ design points. Yang, Mandal and Majumdar (2012) considered locally D-optimal designs with binary response and two two-level factors. They provided analytic D-optimal allocations for some special cases only. Yang, Mandal and Majumdar (2013) considered locally D-optimal designs with binary response and $k$ two-level factors. They proposed a highly efficient numerical algorithm, [*lift-one algorithm*]{}, for searching locally D-optimal allocations. Yang and Mandal (2013) extended Yang, Mandal and Majumdar (2013)’s results for more general models and any pre-specified set of design points, which provided a potential tool to bridge the gap between qualitative factors and quantitative factors (see Section \[section\_continuous\] for more details).
Although analytic solutions for optimal designs under generalized linear models are only available for some special cases, they are preferable to numerical solutions in terms of computation complexity and accuracy. For some applications (see Section \[section\_continuous\] for an example), even highly efficient algorithms can not compete with an analytic solution. Among different criteria of optimal designs, D-optimality leads to maximization of a homogeneous polynomial for a large class of generalized linear models (Yang and Mandal, 2013), which is relatively easier to deal with. Following Yang and Mandal (2013), one aim of this paper is to develop analytic solutions for D-optimal design problems with pre-specified design matrix $X$.
This paper is organized as follows. In Section \[section\_22\], we utilize the variable elimination techniques in a system of polynomial equations to derive the analytic D-optimal allocation for the $2^2$ main-effects model, which answers the question left by Yang, Mandal and Majumdar (2012) and generalizes their results. In Section \[section\_twofactor\], we use the same techniques to find analytic D-optimal allocations for any four distinct design points of two factors. In Section \[section\_threefactor\], we develop another analytic approach to find D-optimal allocations with three or more factors. In Section \[section\_continuous\], we develop a necessary and sufficient condition under which only the four boundary points are needed for a D-optimal design with two continuous factors. With the aid of the analytic solutions developed in Section \[section\_22\] and Section \[section\_twofactor\], we are able to interpret the condition in terms of the regression coefficients. In Section \[section\_simu\], we show by examples some advantages of analytic solutions over numerical answers.
Analytic D-optimal Allocation under $2^2$ Main-effects Model {#section_22}
============================================================
Yang, Mandal and Majumdar (2012) considered a $2^2$ main-effects generalized linear model $g(E(Y))= \beta_0 + \beta_1 x_1 + \beta_2 x_2$ for binary response $Y$ with link function $g$ and design matrix $$\label{2^2maineffects}
X=\left(
\begin{array}{rrr}
1 & 1 & 1\\
1 & 1 & -1\\
1 & -1 & 1\\
1 & -1 & -1
\end{array}\right)$$ which consists of four design points $(x_1, x_2) = (1, 1),\ (1, -1),\ (-1, 1)$, and $(-1, -1)$. A D-optimal approximate design (or allocation) is a 4-tuple $(p_1,$ $p_2,$ $p_3, p_4)$ that maximizes the determinant of the Fisher information matrix (up to a constant) $$|X'WX|=16 (p_1 p_2 p_3 w_1 w_2 w_3 + p_1 p_2 p_4 w_1 w_2 w_4 + p_1 p_3 p_4 w_1 w_3 w_4 + p_2 p_3 p_4 w_2 w_3 w_4)$$ or equivalently that maximizes the objective function $$f(p_1,p_2,p_3,p_4) = v_1p_2p_3p_4 + p_1 v_2 p_3 p_4 + p_1 p_2 v_3 p_4 + p_1 p_2 p_3 v_4\ ,$$ where $W={\rm Diag}\{p_1w_1, p_2w_2, p_3w_3, p_4w_4\}$, $p_i \geq 0$, $\sum_{i=1}^4 p_i =1$, $w_i > 0$, $v_i=1/w_i$, $i=1,2,3,4$. As pointed out by Yang and Mandal (2013), the D-optimal design obtained here is not just for binary response $Y$, but also for $Y$ that follows Poisson, Gamma, or other exponential family distributions with a single-parameter. Following their extended setup, $w_i = \nu(\eta_i)$, where $\eta_i = \beta_0 + \beta_1 x_{i1} + \beta_{i2}$ for the $i$th design point $(x_{i1}, x_{i2})$ and $\nu=\left((g^{-1})'\right)^2/r$ with $r(\eta) = r(\beta_0+\beta_1 x_1 + \beta_2 x_2)={\rm Var}(Y)$. Examples of $\nu$ include $\nu(\eta)=e^\eta/(1+e^\eta)^2$ for binary response and logit link, $\nu(\eta)=e^\eta$ for Poisson response and log link, etc. In order to find out locally D-optimal allocation $(p_1, p_2, p_3, p_4)$, $\beta_0, \beta_1, \beta_2$ are assumed to be known. Thus $w_i$ and $v_i$ are known positive constants for commonly used link functions.
In this section, we aim to solve the optimization problem $$\begin{aligned}
& & \max f(p_1,p_2,p_3,p_4)\nonumber\\
\mbox{subject to} & & p_1 \geq 0, p_2 \geq 0, p_3 \geq 0, p_4\geq 0\label{22optimalproblem}\\
& & p_1 + p_2 + p_3 + p_4 = 1\nonumber\end{aligned}$$ The solution always exists and is unique due to the strict log-concavity of $f$ (Yang, Mandal and Majumdar, 2012).
Without any loss of generality, we assume $0 < v_1 \leq v_2 \leq v_3 \leq v_4$. Yang, Mandal and Majumdar (2012, Theorem 1 & Theorem 2) found analytic solutions for the following special cases:
- If $v_4 \geq v_1+v_2+v_3$, then the solution is $p_1=p_2=p_3=1/3$, $p_4=0$.
- If $v_4 < v_1+v_2+v_3$ and $v_1=v_2$, then the solution is $$p_1 = p_2 = \frac{2v_1}{-2\delta_{12} + D_{12}},\>
p_3 = \frac{1}{2} + \frac{v_4 - v_3 - 4v_1}{2(-2\delta_{12} + D_{12})},\>
p_4 = \frac{1}{2} - \frac{v_4 - v_3 + 4v_1}{2(-2\delta_{12} + D_{12})},$$ where $\delta_{12} = v_3 + v_4 - 4v_1$, $D_{12} = \sqrt{\delta_{12}^2 + 12 v_3 v_4}$ .
- If $v_4 < v_1+v_2+v_3$ and $v_2=v_3$, then the solution is $$p_1 = \frac{1}{2} + \frac{v_4 - v_1 - 4v_2}{2(-2\delta_{23} + D_{23})},\>
p_2 = p_3 = \frac{2v_2}{-2\delta_{23} + D_{23}},\>
p_4 = \frac{1}{2} - \frac{v_4 - v_1 + 4v_2}{2(-2\delta_{23} + D_{23})},$$ where $\delta_{23} = v_1 + v_4 - 4v_2$, $D_{23} = \sqrt{\delta_{23}^2 + 12 v_1 v_4}$ .
- If $v_3=v_4$, then the solution is $$p_1 = \frac{1}{2} + \frac{v_2 - v_1 - 4v_3}{2(-2\delta_{34} + D_{34})},\>
p_2 = \frac{1}{2} - \frac{v_2 - v_1 + 4v_3}{2(-2\delta_{34} + D_{34})},\>
p_3 = p_4 = \frac{2v_3}{-2\delta_{34} + D_{34}},$$ where $\delta_{34} = v_1 + v_2 - 4v_3$, $D_{34} = \sqrt{\delta_{34}^2 + 12 v_1 v_2}$ .
For the more common case $0 < v_1 < v_2 < v_3 < v_4 < v_1 + v_2 + v_3$, Yang, Mandal and Majumdar (2012) did not find an analytic solution. In this section, we derive an analytic solution for the last and most difficult case.
\[2\^2lemma\] Suppose $0 < v_1 \leq v_2 \leq v_3 \leq v_4 < v_1 + v_2 + v_3$. Then the solution $(p_1,p_2,p_3,p_4)$ maximizing (\[22optimalproblem\]) satisfies $0<p_i<1$, $i=1,2,3,4$.
Lemma \[2\^2lemma\] is actually a special case of Lemma \[2klemmab\] in Section \[section\_threefactor\] whose proof is provided in Appendix. Based on Lemma \[2\^2lemma\], we obtain a necessary condition for the solution as a direct conclusion of the Karush-Kuhn-Tucker condition (Karush, 1939; Kuhn and Tucker, 1951).
\[2\^2conditionlemma\] Suppose $0 < v_1 < v_2 < v_3 < v_4 < v_1 + v_2 + v_3$. Then a necessary condition for $(p_1, p_2, p_3, p_4)$ to maximize (\[22optimalproblem\]) is $$\label{22condition}
\frac{\partial f}{\partial p_1} = \frac{\partial f}{\partial p_2} = \frac{\partial f}{\partial p_3} = \frac{\partial f}{\partial p_4}\ .$$
Note that the equations (\[22condition\]) are equivalent to $\partial f/\partial p_1 = \partial f/\partial p_4$, $\partial f/\partial p_2 = \partial f/\partial p_4$, and $\partial f/\partial p_3 = \partial f/\partial p_4$, that is, $$\left\{
\begin{array}{ccc}
(v_4 - v_1) p_2 p_3 + (v_3 p_2 + v_2 p_3) (p_4 - p_1) & = & 0\\
(v_4 - v_2) p_1 p_3 + (v_3 p_1 + v_1 p_3) (p_4 - p_2) & = & 0\\
(v_4 - v_3) p_1 p_2 + (v_2 p_1 + v_1 p_2) (p_4 - p_3) & = & 0
\end{array}
\right.$$
According to Lemma \[2\^2lemma\], $p_i > 0$, $i=1,2,3,4$. Let $y_i = p_i/p_4>0$, $i=1,2,3$. Then $p_1 + p_2 + p_3 + p_4 =1$ implies $p_4 = 1/(y_1 + y_2 + y_3 + 1)$ and $p_i = y_i/(y_1+y_2+y_3+1), i=1,2,3$. Equations (\[22condition\]) are equivalent to $$\begin{aligned}
(v_4 - v_1) y_2 y_3 + (v_3 y_2 + v_2 y_3) (1 - y_1) &=& 0\label{22con_a}\\
(v_4 - v_2) y_1 y_3 + (v_3 y_1 + v_1 y_3) (1 - y_2) &=& 0\label{22con_b}\\
(v_4 - v_3) y_1 y_2 + (v_2 y_1 + v_1 y_2) (1 - y_3) &=& 0 \label{22con_c}\end{aligned}$$
After solving equation (\[22con\_c\]) with respect to $y_3$, we get $$\label{y3}
y_3 = 1 + \frac{(v_4 - v_3) y_1 y_2}{v_2 y_1 + v_1 y_2},$$ or equivalently $p_3 = p_4 + (v_4-v_3)p_1p_2/(v_2 p_1 + v_1 p_2)$. Then we substitute (\[y3\]) for $y_3$ in equations (\[22con\_a\]) and (\[22con\_b\]) and get $$\begin{aligned}
v_2^2 y_1 (1 - y_1) + & &\nonumber\\
v_2 [(v_1 + v_4 y_1)(1 - y_1) + (v_4 - v_1)y_1] y_2 + & &\nonumber\\
\left[v_1 v_3 (1 - y_1) + (v_1 - v_3 y_1 + v_4 y_1) (v_4 - v_1)\right] y_2^2 &=& 0\label{22con_d}\\
v_2 y_1 [v_1 + (-v_2 + v_3 + v_4) y_1] + & &\nonumber\\
\left[v_1^2 + 2 v_1 (-v_2 + v_4) y_1 + v_4 (-v_2 - v_3 + v_4) y_1^2\right] y_2 + & &\nonumber\\
(- v_1)(v_1 + v_4 y_1) y_2^2 &=& 0 \label{22con_e}\end{aligned}$$
After solving equation (\[22con\_e\]) with respect to $y_2$, we get the only positive solution $$\label{y2}
y_2 = \frac{1}{2} + \frac{(v_3 - v_2)y_1}{2 (v_1 + v_4y_1)} - \frac{(v_2 + v_3 - v_4) y_1}{2 v_1} + \frac{\sqrt{D_2}}{2 v_1(v_1 + v_4 y_1)}$$ where $D_2 = \left[(v_1 + v_4 y_1)^2 - (v_3 - v_2) v_4 y_1^2\right]^2 - 4 v_2 (v_4 -v_3) (v_1 + v_4 y_1)^2 y_1^2$ . We then replace $y_2$ with (\[y2\]) in equation (\[22con\_d\]) and simplify the expression into $$\label{22solution}
c_0 + c_1 y_1 + c_2 y_1^2 + c_3 y_1^3 + c_4 y_1^4 = 0$$ where $$\begin{aligned}
c_0 &=& 2 v_1^3 (-v_1 + v_2 + v_3 + v_4)\>\>\> > \>\>\>0\\
c_1 &=& v_1^2\left[(-v_1-v_2+v_3+v_4)^2 + 4 (v_4 - v_1) (v_2 + v_4)\right] \>\>\> > \>\>\>0\\
c_2 &=& 2 v_1 v_4 \left[2 (v_1-v_4)^2 - (v_2-v_3)^2 - (v_1+v_4)(v_2+v_3)\right]\\
c_3 &=& v_4^2 \left[(v_1-v_2+v_3-v_4)^2 - 4 (v_4 - v_1) (v_1 + v_2)\right]\\
c_4 &=& 2 (v_1 + v_2 + v_3 - v_4) v_4^3 \>\>\> > \>\>\>0\end{aligned}$$
\[y1>1\] There is one and only one $y_1>1$ solving equation (\[22solution\]).
The proof of Lemma \[y1>1\] is given in Appendix. According to the solutions provided by the software [Mathematica]{}, the largest root of equation (\[22solution\]) after simplification is $$\label{y1solution}
y_1=-\frac{a_3}{4}+\frac{\sqrt{A_1}}{2} + \frac{\sqrt{C_1}}{2}\ ,$$ where $a_0=c_0/c_4$, $a_1=c_1/c_4$, $a_2=c_2/c_4$, $a_3=c_3/c_4$, $$\begin{aligned}
A_1 &=& -\frac{2 a_2}{3}+\frac{ a_3^2}{4}+\frac{G_1}{3\times 2^{1/3}}\ ,\\
C_1 &=& -\frac{4 a_2}{3}+\frac{a_3^2}{2}-\frac{G_1}{3\times 2^{1/3}} + \frac{-8 a_1+4 a_2 a_3-a_3^3}{4 \sqrt{A_1}}\ ,\\
G_1 &=& \left(F_1-\sqrt{F_1^2-4 E_1^3}\right)^{1/3}+ \left(F_1+\sqrt{F_1^2-4 E_1^3}\right)^{1/3}\ ,\\
E_1 &=& 12 a_0+a_2^2-3 a_1 a_3\ ,\\
F_1 &=& 27 a_1^2-72 a_0 a_2+2 a_2^3-9 a_1 a_2 a_3+27 a_0 a_3^2\ .\end{aligned}$$ Note that the calculation of $G_1$, $A_1$, $C_1$ and thus $y_1$ should be regarded as operations among complex numbers since the expression under square root could be negative. Nevertheless, $y_1$ at the end would be a real number. That is, all the imaginary parts will be canceled out. Now we are able to provide the analytic solution for the last case of the optimization problem (\[22optimalproblem\]).
\[thm:22solution\] Consider the optimization problem (\[22optimalproblem\]).
- If $0 < v_1 < v_2 < v_3 < v_4 < v_1 + v_2 + v_3$, then the unique solution can be calculated analytically as follows
- calculate $y_1>1$ according to formula (\[y1solution\]);
- calculate $y_2>1$ according to formula (\[y2\]);
- calculate $y_3>1$ according to formula (\[y3\]);
- $p_i = \frac{y_i}{y_1+y_2+y_3+1}$, $i=1,2,3$; $p_4 = \frac{1}{y_1 + y_2 + y_3 + 1}$ .
General Case of Two Factors {#section_twofactor}
===========================
In this section, we consider a more general setup of the two factors $x_1$ and $x_2$. The design points are not restricted to $(1, 1),\ (1, -1),\ (-1, 1),\ (-1, -1)$ any more. Suppose there are four distinct design points under consideration. The design matrix $X$ in this section could be written as $$\label{Xgeneral}
X=\left(
\begin{array}{rrr}
1 & x_{11} & x_{21}\\
1 & x_{12} & x_{22}\\
1 & x_{13} & x_{23}\\
1 & x_{14} & x_{24}
\end{array}\right).$$ According to Yang, Mandal and Majumdar (2013, Lemma 3.1), the objective function of a D-optimal design is $$|X'WX|=w_1w_2w_3w_4\left(p_1 p_2 p_3 u_4 + p_1 p_2 p_4 u_3 + p_1 p_3 p_4 u_2 + p_2 p_3 p_4 u_1\right)\ ,$$ where $u_4=|X[1,2,3]|^2/w_4$, $u_3=|X[1,2,4]|^2/w_3$, $u_2=|X[1,3,4]|^2/w_2$, $u_1=|X[2,3,4]|^2/w_1$, and $X[i_1,i_2,i_3]$ represents the $3\times 3$ submatrix consisting of the $i_1$th, $i_2$th, $i_3$th rows of $X$.
The design problem is to maximize $|X'WX|$, which is equivalent to maximizing the objective function $$f_u(p_1, p_2, p_3, p_4) = u_1p_2p_3p_4 + p_1 u_2 p_3 p_4 + p_1 p_2 u_3 p_4 + p_1 p_2 p_3 u_4\ .$$ The only difference between $f_u$ and $f$ in Section \[section\_22\] is that $u_1,u_2,u_3,u_4$ could be $0$. Since the rows of $X$ are required to be distinct, then ${\rm rank}(X)\geq 2$. We provide the analytic D-optimal allocation ${\mathbf p}=(p_1, p_2, p_3, p_4)'$ which maximizes $|X'WX|$ or $f_u$ in three cases as follows.
${\rm rank}(X)=2$. In this case, one column of $X$ can be written as a linear combination of the other two columns. The model essentially has only one factor. It’s a degenerated case such that $|X'WX|\equiv 0$. Mathematically, any allocation $(p_1, p_2, p_3, p_4)'$ is a solution maximizing $|X'WX|$.
${\rm rank}(X)=3$ and one row of $X$ can be written as a linear combination of two other rows. It can be verified that there is one and only one $u_i=0$ in this case. For example, if $\alpha_4 = a\alpha_2+b\alpha_3$, where $\alpha_i$ represents the $i$th row of $X$, then $u_1=0$ while $u_2 >0, u_3 >0, u_4>0$. Without any loss of generality, assume $0=u_1 < u_2\leq u_3 \leq u_4$. Using the same analytic approach as in Section \[section\_22\], we get
- If $u_4 \geq u_2 + u_3$, then the solution is $p_1=p_2=p_3=1/3$, $p_4=0$.
- If $u_4 < u_2 + u_3$ and $u_2=u_3$, then the solution is $$p_1=\frac{1}{3},\>\>\> p_2=p_3=\frac{2u_2}{3(4u_2-u_4)}, \>\>\> p_4=\frac{1}{2}-\frac{4u_2+u_4}{6(4u_2-u_4)}\ .$$
- If $u_3=u_4$, then the solution is $$p_1=\frac{1}{3},\>\>\> p_2=\frac{1}{2}-\frac{u_2+4u_3}{6(4u_3-u_2)},\>\>\> p_3=p_4=\frac{2u_3}{3(4u_3-u_2)}\ .$$
- If $0=u_1 < u_2 < u_3 < u_4 < u_2 + u_3$, let $y_i = p_i/p_4 > 0$, $i=1,2,3$. Following the calculations in Section \[section\_22\], the equation parallel to (\[y3\]) is $y_3 = 1 + (u_4-u_3)y_2/u_2$ . After solving the equation parallel to (\[22con\_e\]), we get $$\label{y2special}
y_2 = \frac{u_2(u_3+u_4-u_2)}{u_4(u_2+u_3-u_4)}\ .$$ We then substitute (\[y2special\]) for $y_2$ in an equation parallel to (\[22con\_d\]) and solve for $y_1$. The only positive solution is $$y_1 = 1 + \frac{u_4^2 - (u_2 - u_3)^2}{2u_4(u_2 + u_3 - u_4)} = \frac{2 u_2 u_3 + 2 u_2 u_4 + 2 u_3 u_4 - u_2^2 - u_3^2 - u_4^2}{2u_4(u_2 + u_3 - u_4)}\ .$$ It can be verified that $y_1 > 1$. Then $$y_3 = 1 + \frac{(u_3 + u_4 - u_2)(u_4-u_3)}{(u_2+u_3-u_4)u_4} = \frac{u_3(u_2 + u_4 - u_3)}{u_4(u_2 + u_3 - u_4)}\ .$$ Since $p_i = y_i/(y_1 + y_2 + y_3 + 1)$, $i=1,2,3$ and $p_4=1/(y_1 + y_2 + y_3 + 1)$, then the solutions is $p_1 = 1/3$, $p_2 = 2 u_2 (u_3 + u_4 - u_2)/(3\Delta)$, $p_3 = 2 u_3 (u_2 + u_4 - u_3)/(3\Delta)$, $p_4 = 2 u_4 (u_2 + u_3 - u_4)/(3\Delta)$, where $\Delta = 2 u_2 u_3 + 2 u_2 u_4 + 2 u_3 u_4 - u_2^2 - u_3^2 - u_4^2 = (\sqrt{u_2}+\sqrt{u_3}+\sqrt{u_4}) (\sqrt{u_2}+\sqrt{u_3}-\sqrt{u_4}) (\sqrt{u_2}+\sqrt{u_4}-\sqrt{u_3})(\sqrt{u_3}+\sqrt{u_4}-\sqrt{u_2}) > 0$, since $0<u_2<u_3<u_4<u_2+u_3$ .
[If we go back to the formulas provided in cases (i)$\sim$(v) in Section \[section\_22\] and let $v_1$ go to $0$, we can derive the same formulas listed in cases (2a), (2b), (2c) from cases (i), (iii), and (iv) respectively. However, if one wants to derive case (2d) here from case (v) in Section \[section\_22\] directly, one will see the formula of $y_2$ in (\[y2special\]) is not equal to the limit $(v_4-v_2)/v_4$ of (\[y2\]) as $v_1$ goes to $0$. It is actually another example that the solution of a polynomial may not change continuously along with the changes of its coefficients. ]{}
[*Case 3:*]{} ${\rm rank}(X)=3$ and no row of $X$ can be written as a linear combination of two other rows. In this case, $u_i>0$, $i=1,2,3,4$. The solution could be obtained from Section \[section\_22\] by replacing $u_i$ with $v_i$, $i=1,2,3,4$.
\[boundaryexample\][Motivated by applications with two quantitative factors, where typically the two factors are bounded, e.g. $x_1 \in [a_1, b_1]$, $x_2 \in [a_2, b_2]$, a special case of the design matrix $X$ in (\[Xgeneral\]) may consist of four boundary points, that is $$X=\left(
\begin{array}{rrr}
1 & b_1 & b_2\\
1 & b_1 & a_2\\
1 & a_1 & b_2\\
1 & a_1 & a_2
\end{array}\right).$$ Then $|X[1, 2, 3]| = |X[1, 2, 4]| = - (b_1 - a_1)(b_2 - a_2)$, $|X[1, 3, 4]|$ $=$ $|X[2, 3, 4]|$ $=$ $(b_1 - a_1)(b_2 - a_2)$. In this case, the objective function of a D-optimal design is $|X'WX|=(b_1-a_1)^2(b_2-a_2)^2w_1w_2w_3w_4 (p_1 p_2 p_3 v_4 + p_1 p_2 p_4 v_3 + p_1 p_3 p_4 v_2$ $+$ $p_2 p_3 p_4 v_1)$, which is proportional to $p_1 p_2 p_3 v_4 + p_1 p_2 p_4 v_3 + p_1 p_3 p_4 v_2 + p_2 p_3 p_4 v_1$ . Therefore, the D-optimal design in this case takes exactly the same form as the solution in Section \[section\_22\] in term of $v_1, v_2, v_3, v_4$, although the $v_i$’s here do depend on $a_1, b_1, a_2, b_2$. ]{}
Case with Three Factors or More {#section_threefactor}
===============================
In this section, we consider design problems with more than two factors. For example, in the generalized linear model $g(E(Y)) = \beta_0 + \beta_1 x_1 + \beta_2 x_2 + \beta_3 x_3 + \beta_{12}x_1x_2 + \beta_{13}x_1 x_3 + \beta_{23} x_2x_3$, there are three factors and seven parameters. If $8$ distinct design points are pre-specified, the design matrix $X$ would be $8\times 7$ with rows in the form of $(1,x_1,x_2,x_3,x_1x_2,x_1x_3,x_2x_3)$.
In general, for a locally D-optimal design problem with a pre-specified $n\times d$ design matrix $X$, the determinant $|X'WX|$ is an order-$d$ homogeneous polynomial of $p_1, \ldots, p_n$ (see Lemma 3.1 of Yang and Mandal (2013)): $$|X'WX| = \sum_{1\leq i_1 < \cdots < i_d \leq n} |X[i_1, \ldots, i_d]|^2 \cdot p_{i1} w_{i1}\cdots p_{id} w_{id}~,$$ where $X[i_1, \ldots, i_d]$ represents the $d\times d$ sub-matrix consists of the $i_1\mbox{th}, \ldots, i_d\mbox{th}$ rows of $X$. Numerical approaches were commonly used to search for the optimal allocation ${\mathbf p} = (p_1, \ldots, p_n)'$.
The analytic approach we developed in Section \[section\_22\] is to eliminate variables in a system of polynomial equations (see, for example, Chapter 2 in Cox, Little and O’Shea (2005) for more results from algebraic geometry). Through that way, we may obtain a polynomial equation of one variable $p_1$. However, if the number of factors $m$ becomes large the degree of the polynomial will become large and its coefficients will be complicated polynomials of the variables $v_i$’s. It will be almost impossible to use the method in Section \[section\_22\] for large $m$.
In this section, we provide another analytic approach for a class of design problems with two or more factors and a pre-specified design matrix. More specifically, we consider the D-optimal design problem with a pre-specified $n\times (n-1)$ design matrix $X$, that is, $X$ consists of $n$ distinct rows for $(n-1)$ parameters. We assume that $X$ is of full rank, that is, of rank $(n-1)$. Otherwise, one could reduce the number of parameters by model reparametrization. It should be noted that the design problem with a pre-specified $n\times n$ design matrix leads a trivial optimization problem since it always yields $p_1=p_2=\cdots=p_n=1/n$ as an optimal allocation.
To simplify the situation, we first assume that no row of $X$ can be written as a linear combination of $(n-2)$ other rows. In other words, any $(n-1)$ rows of $X$ are linearly independent, which implies that $|X[i_1, \ldots, i_{n-1}]|\neq 0$ for any $1\leq i_1 < \cdots < i_{n-1} \leq n$. This assumption will be removed later this section.
Under the assumptions above, the D-optimal allocation problem, that is, to find out the best ${\mathbf p} = (p_1, \ldots, p_n)'$ maximizing $|X'WX|$, is equivalent to the optimization problem $$\begin{aligned}
& & \max f(p_1,p_2,\ldots, p_n)=p_1p_2\cdots p_n\sum_{j=1}^n \frac{v_j}{p_j}\nonumber\\
\mbox{subject to} & & p_i \geq 0,\ i=1,\ldots,n\label{2koptimalproblem}\\
& & p_1 + p_2 + \cdots + p_n = 1\nonumber\end{aligned}$$ where $v_j = |X[1,\ldots, j-1,j+1,\ldots, n]|^2 w_1\cdots w_{j-1}w_{j+1}\cdots w_n > 0$, $j=1,\ldots,n$. Note that we denote $p_1p_2\cdots p_n\frac{v_j}{p_j}=p_1\cdots p_{j-1} v_j p_{j+1}\cdots p_n$ at $p_j=0$.
\[2kfullfactorialexample\] [Suppose there are $k$ two-level ($-1$ or $+1$) factors. Let $X$ be the $2^k\times (2^k-1)$ matrix whose rows include all combinations of the $k$ factors and whose columns include the $k$ main effects and all interactions but the one of order $k$. Then $|X[1,\ldots, j-1,j+1,\ldots, n]|^2=2^{k(2^k-2)}$ for all $j$, where $n=2^k$. In other words, the D-optimal allocation design problem takes the form of (\[2koptimalproblem\]) with $v_j = 2^{k(2^k-2)} w_1\cdots w_{j-1}w_{j+1}\cdots w_n > 0$, $j=1, \ldots, 2^k$. A special case is the $2^2$ main-effects model where $X$ is given by (\[2\^2maineffects\]). ]{}
Now we consider the optimization problem (\[2koptimalproblem\]) with $v_j > 0$, $j=1, \ldots, n$. Without any loss of generality, we assume $0 < v_1 \leq v_2 \leq \cdots \leq v_n$ . Based on a similar proof as the one for Theorem 1 in Yang, Mandal and Majumdar (2012), we obtain
\[2klemma\] If $v_n \geq \sum_{j=1}^{n-1} v_j$, then $f(p_1, \ldots, p_n)$ attains its maximum $v_n/(n-1)^{n-1}$ only at $p_1=\cdots=p_{n-1}=\frac{1}{n-1}$, $p_n=0$.
Otherwise, if none of $v_i$ is greater than the sum of the others, we have the result below to guarantee the solution must be an interior point. Proofs for both lemmas can be found in Appendix.
\[2klemmab\] If $v_n < \sum_{j=1}^{n-1} v_j$, then the $\mathbf{p}=(p_1, \ldots, p_n)'$ maximizing $f(\mathbf{p})$ must satisfy $p_i>0$ for all $i$.
Note that both Lemma \[2klemma\] and Lemma \[2klemmab\] are valid even if $0 = v_1 = \cdots = v_l < v_{l+1} \leq \cdots \leq v_n$ for some $1\leq l\leq n-3$, which are needed later this section.
Now we consider the case $0 < v_1 \leq v_2 \leq \cdots \leq v_n < \sum_{j=1}^{n-1} v_j$. Due to Lemma \[2klemmab\] and the Karush-Kuhn-Tucker condition, a necessary condition under which $\mathbf{p} = (p_1, \ldots, p_n)'$ maximizes $f$ is $$\label{2kcondition}
\frac{\partial f}{\partial p_1} = \cdots = \frac{\partial f}{\partial p_n} =\lambda$$ for some constant $\lambda$. Since $\frac{\partial f}{\partial p_i} = \frac{p_1 p_2 \ldots p_n}{p_i}\left(\sum_{j=1}^n\frac{v_j}{p_j} - \frac{v_i}{p_i}\right)$, $i=1,\ldots,n$, the equations can be written in its matrix form $$(J-I)\left(\frac{v_1}{p_1},\ldots, \frac{v_n}{p_n}\right)' = \frac{\lambda}{p_1\cdots p_n}(p_1, \ldots, p_n)',$$ where $J$ is the $n$ by $n$ matrix with all entries equal to $1$ and $I$ is the $n$ by $n$ identity matrix. Since $(J-I)^{-1} = \frac{1}{n-1}J - I$, we get the equivalent equations $$\label{2kmu0}
\frac{v_i}{p_i} = \frac{\lambda}{p_1\cdots p_n}\left(\frac{1}{n-1} - p_i\right), \>\>\> i=1,\ldots, n,$$ or equivalently $$\label{2kmu}
\frac{p_i\left(\frac{1}{n-1} - p_i\right)}{v_i} = \frac{\mu}{4(n-1)^2},\>\>\> i=1,\ldots,n,$$ where $\mu=4(n-1)^2p_1\cdots p_n/\lambda$ does not depend on $i$. It can be verified that $\mu>0$ and $0<p_i<\frac{1}{n-1}$ for all $i$. Note that $f(\mathbf{p})/(v_1\cdots v_n)$ is a symmetric function of $p_1/v_1, \ldots, p_n/v_n$. Due to the assumption $0<v_1\leq v_2 \leq \cdots \leq v_n < v_1 + \cdots + v_{n-1}$, it follows that $p_1 \geq p_2 \geq \cdots \geq p_n > 0$.
For a given $\mu>0$, we solve the quadratic equations (\[2kmu\]) and get two possible solutions for $p_i$, $$p_{i+}=\frac{1+\sqrt{1-\mu v_i}}{2(n-1)},\>\>\> p_{i-}=\frac{1-\sqrt{1-\mu v_i}}{2(n-1)},\>\>\> i=1,\ldots, n.$$ Note that $p_{1+} \geq p_{2+} \geq \cdots \geq p_{n+} \geq \frac{1}{2(n-1)} \geq p_{n-} \geq \cdots \geq p_{2-} \geq p_{1-}$ . Since $0 < p_i < \frac{1}{n-1}$ for all $i$, there is at most one $p_i$ that takes the value of $p_{i-}$ (otherwise $\sum_i p_i <1$). Therefore, either $p_i=p_{i+}$ for all $i$, or $p_i=p_{i+}$ for $i=1,\ldots, n-1$ but $p_n=p_{n-}$. Both cases are possible. For examples, let $n=4$, then $p_4=p_{4+}$ if $(v_1, v_2, v_3, v_4)=(5,5,6,7)$; $p_4=p_{4-}$ if $(v_1,v_2,v_3,v_4)$ $=$ $(1,1,2,3)$.
To find out $\mu$, we consider two functions as follows $$\begin{aligned}
h_1(\mu) &=& \sum_{j=1}^n \sqrt{1-\mu v_j}\\
h_2(\mu) &=& \sum_{j=1}^{n-1} \sqrt{1-\mu v_j} - \sqrt{1-\mu v_n}\end{aligned}$$ defined for $0\leq \mu \leq v_n^{-1}$. Note that $\sum_{i=1}^n p_{i+}=1$ implies $h_1(\mu)=n-2$; $\sum_{i=1}^{n-1} p_{i+} + p_{n-}=1$ leads to $h_2(\mu)=n-2$.
\[2ktheorem\] Assume that $0 < v_1 \leq v_2 \leq \cdots \leq v_n < \sum_{j=1}^{n-1} v_j$. If $\sum_{j=1}^{n-1} \sqrt{1-\frac{v_j}{v_n}}$ $\leq$ $n-2$, then there is a unique $\mu \in (0, v_n^{-1}]$ solving $h_1(\mu)=n-2$ and the solution for the optimization problem (\[2koptimalproblem\]) is $$p_i = \frac{1+\sqrt{1-\mu v_i}}{2(n-1)}, \>\>\> i=1,\ldots, n.$$ Otherwise, $\sum_{j=1}^{n-1} \sqrt{1-\frac{v_j}{v_n}} > n-2$, then there is a unique $\mu \in (0, v_n^{-1})$ solving $h_2(\mu)=n-2$ and the solution for the problem (\[2koptimalproblem\]) is $$p_i = \frac{1+\sqrt{1-\mu v_i}}{2(n-1)}, \>\>\> i=1,\ldots, n-1;\>\>\> p_n = \frac{1-\sqrt{1-\mu v_n}}{2(n-1)}\ .$$ For both cases, $f$ attains its maximum $$f(p_1, \ldots, p_n) = p_1\cdots p_n \left[\frac{v_i}{p_i} + \frac{4(n-1)^2 p_i}{\mu}\right], \>\>\> i=1,\ldots, n.$$
\[2\^3example\][Let $n=8$ and $v_j=j$, $j=1, \ldots, 8$. Then $0<v_1< \cdots < v_8 < v_1 + \cdots + v_8$ and $\sum_{j=1}^{n-1}\sqrt{1-\frac{v_j}{v_n}} \leq n-2$ are satisfied. The numerical solution of $h_1(\mu)=n-2$ is $\mu=0.09260780864$. Based on Theorem \[2ktheorem\], $p_1 =0.1394693827$, $p_2 =0.1359038626$, $p_3 =0.1321292663$, $p_4 =0.1281038353$, $p_5 =0.1237697284$, $p_6 =0.1190427279$, $p_7 =0.1137915161$, $p_8 =0.1077896806$, and the maximum of $f$ is $0.00001753019048$. ]{}
\[2kremark\][Theorem \[2ktheorem\] provides an alternative approach for the optimization problem (\[22optimalproblem\]), although the answer provided here is not totally analytic ($\mu$ needs to be found numerically by solving an equation of $\mu$, either $h_1(\mu)=n-2$ or $h_2(\mu)=n-2$). ]{}
Now we remove the assumption that $v_i>0$ for all $i$. Since $v_i = |X[1, \ldots,$ $i-1,$ $i+1,\ldots, n]|^2 w_1\cdots w_{i-1}w_{i+1}\cdots w_n$, this assumption is true only if no row of $X$ can be written as a linear combination of $(n-2)$ other rows. Otherwise, there might be a row of $X$ which is a linear combination of $s$ other rows, where $1\leq s\leq n-2$. For typical applications, the first column of the design matrix $X$ is a vector of $1$’s. In that case, $s=1$ violates that the rows of $X$ are distinct. So we allow $2\leq s\leq n-2$. Without any loss of generality, we may assume the $(n-s)$th row of $X$ is a linear combination of the rows below it. The lemma as follows asserts that $v_1=\cdots=v_{n-s-1}=0$.
\[2kgeneralv\] Let ${\bf x}_1, \ldots, {\bf x}_n$ denote the rows of $X$. Assume that ${\bf x}_i$’s are distinct and rank$(X)=n-1$. Suppose ${\bf x}_{l+1} = c_{l+2} {\bf x}_{l+2} + \cdots + c_n {\bf x}_n$, where $1\leq l\leq n-3$, $c_i \neq 0, i=l+2, \ldots, n$. Then $v_1=\cdots = v_l=0$ and $v_i>0$ for $i=l+1, \ldots, n$.
Given that $0=v_1=\cdots=v_l<v_{l+1} \leq \cdots \leq v_n$, the same arguments towards Theorem \[2ktheorem\] till equations (\[2kmu0\]) are still valid. Based on (\[2kmu0\]), we immediately obtain $p_i = \frac{1}{n-1}$ for $i=1, \ldots, l$. Then equations (\[2kmu\]) and the arguments afterwards are still valid if we restrict statements on $i=l+1, \ldots, n$ only. Thus a theorem similar to Theorem \[2ktheorem\] while dealing with degenerated ${\bf x}_i$’s is obtained as follows.
\[2ktheoremgeneral\] Assume that $0 = v_1 = \cdots = v_l < v_{l+1} \leq \cdots \leq v_n < \sum_{j=1}^{n-1} v_j$, where $1\leq l\leq n-3$. If $\sum_{j=1}^{n-1} \sqrt{1-\frac{v_j}{v_n}}\leq n-2$, then there is a unique $\mu \in (0, v_n^{-1}]$ solving $h_1(\mu)=n-2$ and the solution for the optimization problem (\[2koptimalproblem\]) is $$p_1=\cdots=p_l=\frac{1}{n-1};\>\> p_i = \frac{1+\sqrt{1-\mu v_i}}{2(n-1)}, \>\>\> i=l+1,\ldots, n.$$ Otherwise, $\sum_{j=1}^{n-1} \sqrt{1-\frac{v_j}{v_n}} > n-2$, then there is a unique $\mu \in (0, v_n^{-1})$ solving $h_2(\mu)=n-2$ and the solution for the problem (\[2koptimalproblem\]) is $p_1=\cdots=p_l=1/(n-1)$; $$p_i = \frac{1+\sqrt{1-\mu v_i}}{2(n-1)}, \>\>\> i=l+1,\ldots, n-1;\>\> p_n = \frac{1-\sqrt{1-\mu v_n}}{2(n-1)}.$$ For both cases, $f$ attains its maximum $4(n-1)p_1\cdots p_n/\mu$.
Bridging the Gap between Continuous and Discrete Factors {#section_continuous}
========================================================
In this section, we aim to make connections between D-optimal designs with quantitative factors and D-optimal designs with pre-specified set of design points, to which our results in previous sections can be applied.
Again, we consider an experiment with response $Y$ from a single-parameter exponential family and two factors labeled by $x_1, x_2$ respectively. Suppose $Y$ is modeled by a generalized linear model with link function $g$, that is, $g(E(Y)) = \eta = \beta_0 + \beta_1x_1 + \beta_2 x_2$ .
In this section, we assume that the two factors $x_1$ and $x_2$ are quantitative or continuous, $x_1 \in [a_1, b_1]$ and $x_2 \in [a_2, b_2]$. Following Stufken and Yang (2012), the D-optimal design problem here is to find the optimal set of design points $(x_{i1}, x_{i2}) \in [a_1, b_1]\times [a_2, b_2]$, $i=1, \ldots, m$, along with the corresponding allocation $(p_1, \ldots, p_m)'$, where $m \geq 3$ is not fixed. The objective function still takes the form of $|X'WX|$ with $X=({\bf x}_1, {\bf x}_2, \ldots, {\bf x}_m)'$ and $W={\rm Diag}\{p_1 w_1, \ldots, p_m w_m\}$, where ${\bf x}_i=(1, x_{i1}, x_{i2})'$, $i=1, \ldots, m$. Note that $w_i = \nu({\bf x}_i'\boldsymbol{\beta})$, $i=1, \ldots, m$, where $\nu = \left[(g^{-1})'\right]^2/r$ with $r(\eta)={\rm Var}(Y)$ (see Yang and Mandal (2013) for more details), and $\boldsymbol{\beta}=(\beta_0, \beta_1, \beta_2)'$ is assumed to be known for locally optimal design problems.
\[lm:ab11\] The D-optimal design problem with $x_1 \in [a_1, b_1], x_2 \in [a_2, b_2]$ and parameters $\beta_0, \beta_1, \beta_2$ is equivalent to the D-optimal design problem with $x_1^* \in [-1, 1], x_2^* \in [-1, 1]$ and parameters $\beta_0^*, \beta_1^*, \beta_2^*$, where $x_1^* = (2x_1 - a_1 - b_1)/(b_1-a_1)$, $x_2^* = (2 x_2 - a_2 - b_2)/(b_2 - a_2)$, $\beta_0^* = \beta_0 + \beta_1(a_1+b_1)/2 + \beta_2(a_2+b_2)/2$, $\beta_1^* = \beta_1(b_1 - a_1)/2$, $\beta_2^* = \beta_2(b_2-a_2)/2$.
According to Lemma \[lm:ab11\], in order to solve the original design problem with $x_1 \in [a_1, b_1], x_2 \in [a_2, b_2]$ and parameters $\beta_0, \beta_1, \beta_2$, one can always do linear transformations and solve the corresponding design problem with $x_1^* \in [-1, 1], x_2^* \in [-1, 1]$ and parameters $\beta_0^*, \beta_1^*, \beta_2^*$. If one obtains a D-optimal design $\{((x_{i1}^*, x_{i2}^*), p_i)\}_{i=1, \ldots, m}$ for the transformed design problem, then $\{((x_{i1}, x_{i2}),$ $p_i)\}_{i=1, \ldots, m}$ is a D-optimal design for the original problem, where $x_{i1} = (a_1+b_1)/2 + x_{i1}^*(b_1 - a_1)/2$, $x_{i2} = (a_2 + b_2)/2 + x_{i2}^*(b_2 - a_2)/2$.
From now on, we assume $a_1=a_2=-1$ and $b_1=b_2=1$ to simplify the notations. An interesting design question with two quantitative factors $x_1, x_2 \in [-1, 1]$ is when the set of boundary points $\{(1, 1), (1, -1), (-1, 1), (-1, -1)\}$ is a D-optimal set of design points. In that case, the experimenter only needs to consider the boundary points during the experiment.
\[thm:quantitative\] Consider a design problem under a generalized linear model with two quantitative factors with levels $x_1, x_2 \in [-1, 1]$. The D-optimal design can be constructed on the four boundary points only, that is, $\xi=\{((1,1),p_1), ((1,-1),$ $p_2),$ $((-1,1),p_3), ((-1,-1), p_4)\}$ is a D-optimal design for some allocation $(p_1,$ $p_2,$ $p_3, p_4)$, if and only if $(p_1, p_2, p_3, p_4, 0)$ is a D-optimal allocation for the design problem with pre-specified design matrix $$\label{X5mat}
X=\left(
\begin{array}{rrr}
1 & 1 & 1\\
1 & 1 & -1\\
1 & -1 & 1\\
1 & -1 & -1\\
1 & a & b
\end{array}\right)$$ for any $a,b\in [-1,1]$.
The proof of Theorem \[thm:quantitative\] is arranged in Appendix. Now we derive a more explicit condition of Theorem \[thm:quantitative\] which is easier to be justified in practice. Based on Yang, Mandal and Majumdar (2013, Lemma 3.1), the objective function of the design with design matrix $X$ defined as in (\[X5mat\]) is $$\begin{aligned}
|X'WX| &=& 16 q_1 q_2 q_3 + 16 q_1 q_2 q_4 + 16 q_1 q_3 q_4 + 16 q_2 q_3 q_4\\
&+& 4(1 - a)^2 q_1 q_2 q_5 + 4(1 - b)^2 q_1 q_3 q_5 + 4(a + b)^2 q_2 q_3 q_5\\
&+& 4(a - b)^2 q_1 q_4 q_5 + 4(1 + b)^2 q_2 q_4 q_5 + 4(1 + a)^2 q_3 q_4 q_5\end{aligned}$$ where $q_i=p_iw_i$, $i=1,2,\ldots, 5$.
Let $\mathbf{p}_{50}=(p_1, p_2, p_3, p_4, 0)'$, that is, a design restricted to the four boundary points. Then $f(\mathbf{p}_{50})= |X'WX|= 16(p_1 p_2 p_3 w_1 w_2 w_3 + p_1 p_2 p_4 w_1 w_2 w_4 + p_1 p_3 p_4 w_1 w_3 w_4 + p_2 p_3 p_4 w_2 w_3 w_4)$. Following Yang, Mandal and Majumdar (2013), we define for $i=1,2,\ldots, 5$ and $0\leq z\leq 1$, $$\label{fiz}
f_i(z) = f\left(\frac{1-z}{1-p_i}p_1, \ldots, \frac{1-z}{1-p_i}p_{i-1}, z, \frac{1-z}{1-p_i}p_{i+1}, \ldots, \frac{1-z}{1-p_i}p_5\right).$$ Applying Theorem 3.1 in Yang and Mandal (2013) to our case, we need to check whether or not $f_5(1/2) \leq f({\mathbf p}_{50})/2$. It can be verified that $f(\mathbf{p}_{50}) - 2 f_5(\frac{1}{2}) = 3f(\mathbf{p}_{50})/4 - w_5(a,b) h(a,b)$, where $$\begin{aligned}
h(a,b)
&=& p_1 p_2 w_1 w_2 + p_1 p_3 w_1 w_3 + p_2 p_4 w_2 w_4 + p_3 p_4 w_3 w_4\nonumber\\
& & + b^2 (p_1 p_3 w_1 w_3 + p_2 p_3 w_2 w_3 + p_1 p_4 w_1 w_4 + p_2 p_4 w_2 w_4)\nonumber\\
& & + 2 b (- p_1 p_3 w_1 w_3 + p_2 p_4 w_2 w_4)\nonumber\\
& & + a^2 (p_1 p_2 w_1 w_2 + p_2 p_3 w_2 w_3 + p_1 p_4 w_1 w_4 + p_3 p_4 w_3 w_4)\nonumber\\
& & + 2 a (- p_1 p_2 w_1 w_2 + p_3 p_4 w_3 w_4)\nonumber\\
& & + 2 a b (p_2 p_3 w_2 w_3 - p_1 p_4 w_1 w_4)\label{h(a,b)}\end{aligned}$$ Note that $w_5=w_5(a,b)=\nu(\beta_0+a\beta_1+b\beta_2)$ is a function of $a,b$, while $w_1 = \nu(\beta_0+\beta_1+\beta_2)$, $w_2 = \nu(\beta_0+\beta_1-\beta_2)$, $w_3 = \nu(\beta_0-\beta_1+\beta_2)$, $w_4 = \nu(\beta_0-\beta_1-\beta_2)$ do not depend on $a,b$. With the aid of $h(a,b)$, we are able to express the condition of Theorem \[thm:quantitative\] in a more explicit way. The preceding arguments prove the following theorem.
\[thm:22boundary\] Given $\beta_0, \beta_1, \beta_2$, a D-optimal design with quantitative factors $x_1, x_2$ $\in$ $[-1, 1]$ could be constructed only on the four boundary design points $\{(1,1), (1,-1),$ $(-1,1), (-1,-1)\}$ if and only if $$\label{boundarypointscondition}
\nu(\beta_0+a\beta_1+b\beta_2) h(a,b) \leq \frac{3}{4}f({\mathbf p}_4)\ ,\mbox{ for all }a,b\in [-1,\ 1],$$ where $h(a,b)$ is defined as in (\[h(a,b)\]), $\mathbf{p}_4=(p_1,p_2,p_3,p_4)'$ is the locally D-optimal allocation for the $2^2$ main-effects model, and $f(\mathbf{p}_4) = 16(p_1 p_2 p_3 w_1 w_2 w_3$ $+$ $p_1 p_2 p_4 w_1 w_2 w_4$ $+$ $p_1 p_3 p_4 w_1 w_3 w_4 + p_2 p_3 p_4 w_2 w_3 w_4)$ is the value of the $2^2$ main-effects design problem.
Note that ${\mathbf p}_4$ and $f({\mathbf p}_4)$ in Theorem \[thm:22boundary\] can be calculated analytically according to Theorem \[thm:22solution\]. Then the inequality (\[boundarypointscondition\]) is a known function of $a$ and $b$ only. Numerical approaches could be used for checking if the inequality is valid or not. The analytic solution derived in Section \[section\_22\] turns out to be critical for applying Theorem \[thm:22boundary\] (see Section \[section\_simu\].2).
Applications of Analytic Solutions {#section_simu}
==================================
Significance of analytic solutions
----------------------------------
We first show that our analytic approaches reduce computational time significantly. Three types of “optimal” allocations are under comparison: (i) analytic ones, ${\mathbf p}_a$ for two factors based on Theorem \[thm:22solution\] or ${\mathbf p}_e$ for $k$ factors ($k\geq 3$) based on Theorem \[2ktheorem\]; (ii) ${\mathbf p}_s$ based on a quasi-Newton method used by Yang, Mandal and Majumdar (2012); (iii) ${\mathbf p}_l$ based on the lift-one algorithm proposed by Yang, Mandal and Majumdar (2013) which works much faster and more accurate than commonly used nonlinear optimization algorithms.
Table \[table22computation\] lists the computational times of ${\mathbf p}_a, {\mathbf p}_s, {\mathbf p}_l$ for 10,000 cases with $\beta_i$’s simulated i.i.d. from uniform or normal distribution under $2^2$ main-effects model with logit link. The analytic ${\mathbf p}_a$ run significantly faster than the numerical ones. The difference tends to be larger as the variance of the distribution increases. It is because the proportion of extreme $\beta_i$’s become larger which leads to more saturated cases (see Yang, Mandal and Majumdar (2012)). The searching time needed by typical nonlinear numerical algorithms such as quasi-Newton is much longer for a solution at the boundary. The lift-one algorithm is not affected much by the saturated cases. Table \[table2kcomputation\] shows the change of computational times along with the number $k$ of factors. As for $k=6$, the original life-one algorithm suffers numerical errors due to the large number of parameters, while our analytic approach is not affected much. All the computational time costs here are recorded on a Windows 7 PC with Intel(R) Core(TM) i5-2400 CPU at 3.10GHz and 4GB memory.
Solution U$(-1,1)$ U$(-2,2)$ U$(-3,3)$ $N(0,1)$ $N(0,2)$ $N(0,3)$
----------------- ----------- ----------- ----------- ---------- ---------- ----------
${\mathbf p}_a$ 3.81 2.15 1.35 2.90 1.59 1.05
${\mathbf p}_s$ 9.54 17.40 20.78 13.78 20.37 21.86
${\mathbf p}_l$ 9.43 10.54 10.85 10.18 11.00 11.04
: Time cost in secs for 10,000 simulations for $2^2$ design[]{data-label="table22computation"}
$k$ 2 3 4 5 6
----------------- ------- ------- ------- -------- ------
${\mathbf p}_e$ 1.40 1.31 1.34 1.75 4.11
${\mathbf p}_l$ 10.85 23.51 50.14 135.41 $-$
: Time cost in secs for 10,000 simulations ($U(-3,3)$) for $2^k$ design[]{data-label="table2kcomputation"}
Secondly, we show the advantage of the analytic approaches over the numerical ones in terms of accuracy. Although numerical solutions can be highly efficient since the value of the objective function $f({\mathbf p})$ is typically the target of the algorithm, the behavior of numerically optimal allocations may not be satisfying at all. Figure \[palong\] shows the comparison of allocations in terms of changes along with parameter values. The numerical solutions (quasi-Newton or lift-one) may wiggly around the analytic one as $\beta_i$ changes, even they are highly efficient ($f({\mathbf p}_s)/f({\mathbf p}_a)$, $f({\mathbf p}_l)/f({\mathbf p}_e) > 99.99\%$). They may be misleading when one wants to study how the optimal allocation changes along with parameters. It is critical for locally optimal designs with assumed values of parameters.
-.5cm
Identify region of parameters for boundary designs
--------------------------------------------------
-.5cm
Although the numerical allocations can be highly efficient with respect to the analytical ones, the tiny difference matters when highly precise solution is needed. For example, in order to apply Theorem \[thm:22boundary\], one needs to check if (\[boundarypointscondition\]) is true for all $a,b\in [-1,1]$. Let $$s(a,b) = \frac{3}{4} f({\mathbf p}) - \nu(\beta_0 + a \beta_1 + b \beta_2) h(a,b),\>\> a,b \in [-1,1].$$ Since $s(a,b)$ is differentiable for typical link functions, nonlinear optimization such as quasi-Newton method with box constrains (Byrd, Lu, Nocedal and Zhu, 1995) works well in finding the minimum of $s(a,b)$. If $\min s = 0$, then a D-optimal design could be constructed on boundary points only. The critical part is to calculate optimal ${\mathbf p}$ and $f({\mathbf p})$ precisely. To illustrate the significance of ${\mathbf p}_a$ or ${\mathbf p}_e$, we fix $\beta_0=-1$ and vary $\beta_1, \beta_2$ from $-2$ to $2$. For each combination $(\beta_0, \beta_1, \beta_2)$, we use either ${\mathbf p}_a$ or ${\mathbf p}_l$ for $s(a,b)$ before its minimization. One can see from Figure \[figthm3a\] that a reasonable region of $(\beta_1, \beta_2)$ is built up based on ${\mathbf p}_a$ (see Figure \[figthm3a\](a)) while a failure occurs with the use of ${\mathbf p}_l$ (see Figure \[figthm3a\](b)). For boundary lines of the regions with other values of $\beta_0$, please see Figure \[figthm3b\].
-.3cm
Appendix
========
Proof of Lemma \[y1>1\]
--------------------------
Let $h(y_1)=c_0 + c_1 y_1 + c_2 y_1^2 + c_3 y_1^3 + c_4 y_1^4$. Note that $h(-\infty) = \infty$, $h\left(-v_1/v_4\right) = -4v_1^3(v_2-v_3)^2/v_4 < 0$, $h(0) = c_0 > 0$, $h(1) = -(v_1-v_4)^2[(v_1+v_4)^2 -$ $(v_2-v_3)^2]$ $< 0$, $h(\infty) = \infty$. Therefore, $h(y_1)=0$ has four real roots in $(-\infty, -v_1/v_4)$, $(-v_1/v_4, 0)$, $(0, 1)$, and $(1,\infty)$, respectively. The only solution $y_1>1$ is what we need to solve (\[22optimalproblem\]).
Proof of Lemma \[2klemma\]
--------------------------
Since $p_n = 1-\sum_{i=1}^{n-1} p_i$, then $$\begin{aligned}
& & f(p_1, \ldots, p_n)\\
&=&\sum_{j=1}^{n-1}p_1p_2\cdots p_{n-1}\left(1-\sum_{i=1}^{n-1}p_i\right)\frac{v_j}{p_j} + p_1p_2\ldots p_{n-1}v_n\\
&=& \sum_{j=1}^{n-1}p_1\cdots p_{j-1}p_{j+1}\cdots p_{n-1}\left(1-\sum_{i=1}^{n-1}p_i+p_j\right)v_j + p_1p_2\ldots p_{n-1}\left(v_n-\sum_{j=1}^{n-1}v_j\right)\\
&\leq & \sum_{j=1}^{n-1} \left(\frac{1}{n-1}\right)^{n-1}v_j + \left(\frac{p_1 + p_2 + \cdots + p_{n-1}}{n-1}\right)^{n-1} \left(v_n-\sum_{j=1}^{n-1}v_j\right)\\
&\leq & \frac{1}{(n-1)^{n-1}}\sum_{j=1}^{n-1} v_j + \frac{1}{(n-1)^{n-1}} \left(v_n-\sum_{j=1}^{n-1}v_j\right)\\
&=& \frac{v_n}{(n-1)^{n-1}}\\
&=& f(\frac{1}{n-1}, \ldots, \frac{1}{n-1}, 0)\ .\end{aligned}$$ Based on the inequality of arithmetic and geometric means, the two “$\leq$" above are both “$=$" if and only if $p_1 = p_2 = \cdots = p_{n-1} = \frac{1}{n-1}, p_n = 0$.
Proof of Lemma \[2klemmab\]
---------------------------
If $p_i=0$, then $f(\mathbf{p})=v_i p_1\cdots p_{i-1}p_{i+1}\cdots p_n$ which attains its maximum $\frac{v_i}{(n-1)^{n-1}}$ at $p_1 = \cdots = p_{i-1} = p_{i+1} = p_n=\frac{1}{n-1}, p_i=0$. The largest value across different $i$’s is $\frac{v_n}{(n-1)^{n-1}}$ at $i=n$. On the other hand, set $$F(t) = f\left(\frac{1-t}{n-1}, \ldots, \frac{1-t}{n-1}, t\right) = t\left(\frac{1-t}{n-1}\right)^{n-2} \sum_{j=1}^{n-1} v_j + \left(\frac{1-t}{n-1}\right)^{n-1} v_n\ .$$ Note that $F'(0) = \frac{1}{(n-1)^{n-2}}(\sum_{j=1}^{n-1} v_j - v_n) > 0$. $F(t)$ won’t attain its maximum at $t=0$ which implies that $f({\mathbf p})$ won’t attains its maximum at $(\frac{1}{n-1}, \ldots, \frac{1}{n-1}, 0)'$. Therefore, $f(\mathbf{p})$ won’t attain its maximum at any boundary point.
Proof of Theorem \[2ktheorem\]
------------------------------
We only need to show the existence and uniqueness of $\mu$.
If $\sum_{j=1}^{n-1}\sqrt{1-\frac{v_j}{v_n}} \leq n-2$, then $h_1(v_n^{-1}) \leq n-2$. Since $h_1(0)=n$ and $h_1$ is a strictly decreasing continuous function, there exists a unique solution of $h_1(\mu) = n-2$ with $\mu \in (0, v_n^{-1}]$.
If $\sum_{j=1}^{n-1}\sqrt{1-\frac{v_j}{v_n}} > n-2$, then $h_2(v_n^{-1}) > n-2$. Since $h_2(0)=n-2$, $h'_2(0)$ $=$ $\frac{1}{2}(v_n$ $- \sum_{j=1}^{n-1} v_j) < 0$, and $h_2$ is continuous, then $h_2(\mu) = n-2$ admits a solution in $(0, v_n^{-1})$. In order to show that the solution is unique, let $$g_2(\mu) = 2\sqrt{1-\mu v_n} h'_2(\mu) = v_n - \sum_{j=1}^{n-1} v_j\sqrt{\frac{1-\mu v_n}{1-\mu v_j}}\ .$$ Then $g'_2(\mu)=\frac{1}{2}\sum_{j=1}^{n-1} v_j \sqrt{\frac{1-\mu v_j}{1-\mu v_n}} \cdot \frac{v_n - v_j}{(1-\mu v_j)^2} > 0$ for $\mu \in (0, v_n^{-1})$. Since $g_2(0)=2h'_2(0) < 0$ and $g_2(v_n^{-1}) = v_n > 0$, then $g_2(\mu)=0$ for one and only one $\mu \in (0, v_n^{-1})$. Therefore $h'_2(\mu)=0$ for one and only one $\mu\in (0, v_n^{-1})$ which is for a local minimum of $h_2$. The conclusion is that $h_2(\mu)=n-2$ only admits one positive solution in $(0, v_n^{-1})$.
Since $\lambda=\partial f/\partial p_i$, $i=1, \ldots, n$, then $f(p_1, \ldots, p_n) = \lambda p_i + p_1\cdots p_n v_i/p_i$ which could be used conveniently for calculating $f(p_1, \ldots, p_n)$.
Proof of Lemma \[2kgeneralv\]
-----------------------------
Since ${\bf x}_{l+1} = c_{l+2} {\bf x}_{l+2} + \cdots + c_n {\bf x}_n$ and rank$(X)=n-1$, then ${\bf x}_1, \ldots, {\bf x}_l$, ${\bf x}_{l+2}$, $\ldots$, ${\bf x}_n$ are linearly independent, which implies $|X[1, \ldots, l, l+2, \ldots, n]|$ $\neq$ $0$ and $v_{l+1} >0$. For $i=1,\ldots, l$, $|X[1,\ldots, i-1, i+1, \ldots, n]| = 0$ and thus $v_i = 0$ due to ${\bf x}_{l+1} = c_{l+2} {\bf x}_{l+2} + \cdots + c_n {\bf x}_n$.
For $i=l+2, \ldots, n$, since ${\bf x}_1, \ldots, {\bf x}_l, {\bf x}_{l+2}, \ldots, {\bf x}_{i-1}, {\bf x}_{i+1}, \ldots {\bf x}_n$ are linearly independent too. If $|X[1, \ldots, l+1, \ldots, i-1, i+1, \ldots, n]|=0$, then $$\label{x(l+1)2}
{\bf x}_{l+1} = c'_1{\bf x}_1 + \cdots + c'_l {\bf x}_l + c'_{l+2} {\bf x}_{l+2} + \cdots + c'_{i-1} {\bf x}_{l-1} + c'_{i+1} {\bf x}_{i+1} + \cdots + c'_n {\bf x}_n$$ for some $c'_1, \ldots, c'_l, c'_{l+2}, \ldots, c'_{i-1}, c'_{i+1}, \ldots, c'_n$. Due to linear independence of ${\bf x}_1, \ldots, {\bf x}_l,$ ${\bf x}_{l+2},$ $\ldots,$ ${\bf x}_n$, $c_{l+2} {\bf x}_{l+2} + \cdots + c_n {\bf x}_n$ should be the unique linear expression of ${\bf x}_{l+1}$. It implies expression (\[x(l+1)2\]) is not possible which does not include ${\bf x}_i$. The contradiction leads to $|X[1, \ldots, l+1, \ldots, i-1, i+1, \ldots, n]|\neq 0$. That is, $v_i > 0$ for $i=l+2, \ldots, n$.
Proof of Lemma \[lm:ab11\]
--------------------------
Let $\{({\bf x}_i, p_i)\}_{i=1,\ldots, m}$ be an arbitrary design for the original design problem, where ${\bf x}_i = (1, x_{i1}, x_{i2})'$, $i=1, \ldots, m$. Define ${\bf x}^*_i = (1, x_{i1}^*, x_{i2}^*)'$, $i=1, \ldots, m$ be the transformed supporting points, that is, $x_{i1}^* = \frac{2x_{i1} - a_1 - b_1}{b_1-a_1} \in [-1, 1]$, $x_{i2}^* = \frac{2x_{i2} - a_2 - b_2}{b_2 - a_2} \in [-1, 1]$. It can be verified that $\eta_i^* = \beta_0^* + \beta_1^* x_{i1}^* + \beta_2^* x_{i2}^* = \beta_0 + \beta_1 x_1 + \beta_2 x_2 = \eta_i$, $i=1, \ldots, m$. Then $w_i^* = \nu(\eta^*_i)=\nu(\eta_i) = w_i$ and $W_*= {\rm Diag}\{p_1 w_1^*, \ldots, p_m w_m^*\} = {\rm Diag}\{p_1 w_1, \ldots, p_m w_m\}$ for the same set of allocations $p_1, \ldots, p_m$.
On the other hand, the transformed design matrix $X_* = ({\bf x}_1^*, \ldots, {\bf x}_m^*)' = XT$, where the transformation matrix $$T=\left(\begin{array}{ccc}
1 & -\frac{b_1+a_1}{b_1-a_1} & -\frac{b_2 + a_2}{b_2-a_2}\\
0 & \frac{2}{b_1 - a_1} & 0\\
0 & 0 & \frac{2}{b_2-a_2}
\end{array}\right).$$ The transformed design problem is to maximize $|X_*'W_*X_*|=|T'X'WXT|$ $=$ $|T|^2\cdot |X'WX|$, where $|T| = \frac{4}{(b_1 - a_1)(b_2 - a_2)}$ is a constant. Thus the transformed D-optimal design problem is equivalent to the original D-optimal design problem. Actually, $\{({\bf x}_i, p_i)\}_{i=1,\ldots, m}$ is D-optimal for the original problem if and only if $\{({\bf x}_i^*, p_i)\}_{i=1,\ldots, m}$ is D-optimal for the transformed design problem.
Proof of Theorem \[thm:quantitative\]
-------------------------------------
The “only if” part is straightforward. For the “if" part, let $\{ {\bf x}_1, \ldots, {\bf x}_m\}$ be the set of supporting points of a D-optimal design with maximum determinant $d_m=|X_m'W_mX_m| = |\sum_{i=1}^m q_i \nu({\bf x}_i'\boldsymbol{\beta}) {\bf x}_i {\bf x}_i'|$, where $q_1, \ldots, q_m$ are the corresponding D-optimal allocations. Let ${\bf z}_1=(1, 1, 1)', {\bf z}_2 = (1, 1, -1)', {\bf z}_3=(1, -1, 1)', {\bf z}_4 = (1, -1, -1)'$. Combine ${\bf z}_1, \ldots, {\bf z}_4$ and ${\bf x}_1, \ldots,$ ${\bf x}_m$ into ${\bf z_1}$, $\ldots$, ${\bf z}_l$ after removing duplicated supporting points. Then $\max\{m, 4\} \leq l\leq m+4$. Suppose $(p_1^*, \ldots, p_l^*)'$ is a D-optimal allocation of the design problem with pre-specified supporting points ${\bf z}_1, \ldots, {\bf z}_l$, then the maximum determinant is $d_l = |X_l' W_l X_l| = |\sum_{i=1}^l p_i^* \nu({\bf z}_i'\boldsymbol{\beta}) {\bf z}_i {\bf z}_i'|$. Since ${\bf x}_1, \ldots, {\bf x}_m$ are part of ${\bf z}_1, \ldots, {\bf z}_l$, then $d_m=d_l$.
To show that the D-optimal design with two quantitative factors can be constructed only on the boundary points with optimal allocations $p_1, \ldots, p_4$, we only need to show that $(p_1, \ldots, p_4, 0, \ldots, 0)'$ achieves $d_l$ for the design problem with pre-specified supporting points ${\bf z}_1, \ldots, {\bf z}_l$. Applying Theorem 3.1 of Yang and Mandal (2013), then $$f({\mathbf p})= \left|\sum_{i=1}^4 p_i \nu({\bf z}_i'\boldsymbol{\beta}){\bf z}_i {\bf z}_i'\right| > 0$$ which is equal to the determinant in the design problem with pre-specified supporting points ${\bf z}_1, \ldots, {\bf z}_4$ only. For $i=1, \ldots, 4$, $0<p_i\leq 1/3$ and $f_i(0) = \frac{1-3p_i}{(1-p_i)^3}f({\mathbf p})$ are satisfied because $(p_1, \ldots, p_4)'$ maximizes the design problem with ${\bf z}_1, \ldots, {\bf z}_4$. Here the definition of $f_i$ can also be found in (\[fiz\]). For $i=5, \ldots, l$, $p_i=0$ and $f_i(1/2) \leq f({\bf p})/2$ are correct because $(p_1, \ldots, p_4, 0)'$ maximizes the design problem with ${\bf z}_1, \ldots, {\bf z}_4, {\bf z}_i$. According to Theorem 3.1 of Yang and Mandal (2013), $(p_1, \ldots, p_4, 0, \ldots, 0)'$ is a D-optimal allocation for the design problem with ${\bf z}_1, \ldots, {\bf z}_l$ and thus achieves $d_l$.
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Cox, D., Little, J. and O’Shea, D. (2005). [*Using Algebraic Geometry*]{}, 2nd Edition, Springer-Verlag, New York.
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|
On the Centralized Bias of Renewable Energy Transition Plans
“For me, the most pressing and unspoken question each of these plans raise is: to what degree is it necessary, possible or desirable to rely on a massive, state, national or global-scale infrastructure build-out to save us from climate catastrophe and energy depletion? And what would such a build-out imply for the nascent but growing movement toward a more distributed, hyper-local and finely articulated economy and culture?
While the various renewable roadmap plans differ in many respects, most share a few key assumptions–assumptions that raise larger questions about what to focus on as we pursue this transition, and what our civilization will look like at the end of it.
First, each plan assumes that industrial output and travel will continue to rise over the next few decades, even as efficiency allows total energy consumption to fall.
Second, the plans call for the rapid electrification of energy demand, especially transportation. This is necessary because wind, water and solar power produce electricity, whereas cars, trucks and airplanes currently run by burning fossil fuels. The plans vary in terms of timing and degree of this part of the transition. For example the Ecofys report calls for electricity to rise from 1/5th of total energy use to 1/2 by 2050. Jacobson’s plan, by contrast, calls for a shift to 100 percent end-use electricity consumption by 2030, including for building heating and cooling.
Third, the plans all require the building of large-scale, centralized infrastructure to manage the diffuse and intermittent character of renewable energy. For their US plan, Fthenakis’ team relies heavily on a huge buildout of solar energy in the Southwestern United States, where the nation’s concentration of solar resource is the greatest.
In Fthenakis’ plan, high-voltage direct current supplies this power to the rest of the country, while compressed air in underground formations provides for storage–although less storage is required than you might think, given the time difference between the Southwest and the population centers of the East Coast (the sun is usually still shining brightly in Nevada when the lights come on for evening peak consumption in New York City). All of the technology required to implement this plan exists today and has been used in around the world.
The Jacobson plan, by contrast, relies more heavily on wind, at least for the New York State portion, which requires a buildout of more than 12,000 offshore turbines, in addition to much more onshore wind and solar. How difficult it will be to convince residents of the south shore of Long Island to accept windmills in the distance remains to be seen.
The WWF/Ecofys plan is more general, but assumes that intermittency can be dealt with through pumped hydropower (in which water generated by a hydro-electric generator is pumped upstream an stored for use when necessary), centralized hydrogen storage and grid improvements.
But if the future of renewable energy lies in large installations that share power over large areas and centralized storage, what to make of the simultaneous predictions that the future of energy is distributed — small scale, widespread and community owned?
Or, as a report from Navigant Research put it,
– “The global electric power industry is evolving from a financial and engineering model that relies on large centralized power plants owned by the utilities to one that is more diverse – both in sources of generation and ownership of the generation assets.”
In fact, the spread of renewable, distributed generation is happening so fast that utilities are now calling rooftop solar “an existential threat” to their business model, not to mention their ability to maintain the grid, according to a recent article in the New York Times.
At the heart of the companies’ complaints is the fact that the traditional utility business model works by investing in infrastructure and then recouping cost and making profit by charging customers enough to get a guaranteed return over time. But if enough solar customers are selling money back to the grid (“net metering”) then, the utilities say, there’s not enough left to pay for infrastructure maintenance and upgrades. This in turn effectively raises rates on non-solar users, encouraging even more people to put up solar panels — causing a solar “death spiral” as one executive put it in the article.
While this sounds like a tragic outcome from the perspective of the utility, those of us who support a move beyond the current centralized, corporate-dominated system will be tempted to cheer. With the increasing sophistication of microgrid technology, the potential move toward a decentralized, community-controlled energy regime seems closer than ever. Of course, as some advocates argue, there’s nothing to prevent the utilities from building their own microgrids and getting into the distributed generation business themselves.
The only catch is that while most current microgrids allow for a share of renewable energy integration, many rely on natural gas and small-scale generators for their baseload power. By generating power locally in buildings, these systems can take advantage of cogeneration, whereby waste heat from electricity is used to heat the building or district, saving significant energy.
But what happens if we want to move to an entirely renewable system? Doing so at a microgrid scale involves adding local-scale storage, usually in the form of batteries. For locations that are currently removed from a wider existing grid, renewable power with storage is already more cost-effective than fossil-fuel power in many cases.
In a place like the United States, however, the most abundant sources of energy aren’t where the people live, which seams to mean that moving to a one hundred percent renewable energy world will involve sharing power over distances and the building of some big installations–wind turbines, solar plants, compressed air storage, direct current high voltage transmission lines–to meet demand. Then the question is, can we get there without utilities–or without utilities in their current form?
As always, it seems likely that the answer will involve a complex mix of scales that incorporate everything from microgrid powered universities and villages to continent-wide distribution of renewable power. It will be interesting, to say the least, to see how it all plays out.”
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WRITTEN BY
Michel Bauwens
Michel Bauwens is the founder and president of the P2P Foundation and works in collaboration with a global group of researchers in the exploration of peer production, governance, and property. Bauwens travels extensively giving workshops and lectures on P2P and the Commons as emergent paradigms and the opportunities they present to move towards a post-capitalist world.
In the first semester of 2014, Bauwens was research director of the floksociety.org which produced the first integrated Commons Transition Plan for the government of Ecuador, in order to create policies for a 'social knowledge economy'.
In January 2015 CommonsTransition.org was launched. Commons Transition builds on the work of the FLOK Society and features newly revised and updated, non-region specific versions of these policy documents. Commons Transition aims toward a society of the Commons that would enable a more egalitarian, just, and environmentally stable world. He is a founding member of the Commons Strategies Group, with Silke Helfrich and David Bollier, who have organised major global conferences on the commons and economics. |
My heart is broken, deeply broken. Is there no one in Illinois who has the moral compunction to stand up to the corruption known as Chicago? Will any Illinois person of honor come forward to put a stop to what is going on? When I received an anonymous E-mail about the Land of Lincolnwhere our governors make our license platesI couldnt laugh any more. You see, there always has been a perverse sort of gallows humor, perhaps even misplaced sense of pride associated with Chicago. When I tell people here in Florida that Im from near Chicago, I sense that I have assumed a different status in their eyes. One guy even stepped back, suddenly refusing to interrupt me anymore!
As the current Illinois, all-Democrat-legislature tried every way possible to pass a series of unconstitutional gun bans last week, three sitting [Illinois] lawmakers [were] facing criminal charges. (1) All Democrats from Chicago, they include...
Disclaimer:
Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual
posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its
management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the
exemption for fair use of copyrighted works. |
/*******************************************************************************
* Copyright (c) 2015-2018 Skymind, Inc.
*
* This program and the accompanying materials are made available under the
* terms of the Apache License, Version 2.0 which is available at
* https://www.apache.org/licenses/LICENSE-2.0.
*
* Unless required by applicable law or agreed to in writing, software
* distributed under the License is distributed on an "AS IS" BASIS, WITHOUT
* WARRANTIES OR CONDITIONS OF ANY KIND, either express or implied. See the
* License for the specific language governing permissions and limitations
* under the License.
*
* SPDX-License-Identifier: Apache-2.0
******************************************************************************/
//
// Created by GS <sgazeos@gmail.com> at 3/30/2018
//
#include <ops/declarable/CustomOperations.h>
#include <ops/declarable/helpers/extract_patches.h>
namespace sd {
namespace ops {
CUSTOM_OP_IMPL(extract_image_patches, 1, 1, false, 0, 7) {
auto input = INPUT_VARIABLE(0);
auto output = OUTPUT_VARIABLE(0);
int ksizeRows = INT_ARG(0);
int ksizeCols = INT_ARG(1);
int kstrideRows = INT_ARG(2);
int kstrideCols = INT_ARG(3);
int krateRows = INT_ARG(4);
int krateCols = INT_ARG(5);
bool isSame = INT_ARG(6) != 0;
REQUIRE_TRUE(input->rankOf() == 4, 0, "extract_image_patches: The rank of input array should be 4, but %i is given", input->rankOf());
//
if (output->isSameShape(input))
output->assign(input);
else {
output->nullify();
helpers::extractPatches(block.launchContext(), input, output, ksizeRows, ksizeCols, kstrideRows, kstrideCols, krateRows, krateCols, isSame);
}
return Status::OK();
}
DECLARE_TYPES(extract_image_patches) {
getOpDescriptor()
->setAllowedInputTypes(sd::DataType::ANY)
->setSameMode(true);
}
DECLARE_SHAPE_FN(extract_image_patches) {
auto in = inputShape->at(0);
int outRank = shape::rank(in);
Nd4jLong *outputShape = nullptr;
int ksizeRowsEffective = INT_ARG(0) + (INT_ARG(0) - 1) * (INT_ARG(4) - 1);
int ksizeColsEffective = INT_ARG(1) + (INT_ARG(1) - 1) * (INT_ARG(5) - 1);
auto batchSizeDim = shape::sizeAt(in, 0);
auto inputRowsDim = shape::sizeAt(in, 1);
auto inputColsDim = shape::sizeAt(in, 2);
auto outputDepthDim = shape::sizeAt(in, 3) * INT_ARG(0) * INT_ARG(1); // last dim * ksizeRows * ksizeCols
auto inputRowSize = inputRowsDim; //shape::sizeAt(in, inputRowsDim);
auto inputColSize = inputColsDim; //shape::sizeAt(in, inputColsDim);
Nd4jLong outRowSize;
Nd4jLong outColSize;
if (INT_ARG(6) == 0) {
// Padding is "VALID":
outRowSize = (inputRowSize - ksizeRowsEffective + INT_ARG(2)) / INT_ARG(2);
outColSize = (inputColSize - ksizeColsEffective + INT_ARG(3)) / INT_ARG(3);
} else {
// Padding is "SAME":
outRowSize = (inputRowSize + INT_ARG(2) - 1) / INT_ARG(2);
outColSize = (inputColSize + INT_ARG(3) - 1) / INT_ARG(3);
}
ALLOCATE(outputShape, block.getWorkspace(), shape::shapeInfoLength(outRank), Nd4jLong);
outputShape[0] = outRank;
outputShape[1] = batchSizeDim;
outputShape[2] = outRowSize;
outputShape[3] = outColSize;
outputShape[4] = outputDepthDim;
ShapeUtils::updateStridesAndType(outputShape, in, shape::order(in));
return SHAPELIST(CONSTANT(outputShape));
}
}
} |
From another’s perspective, it’s possible to see things you may otherwise have missed or learn things you might otherwise not even imagine.
My Somali friends told me about how soon children become independent and how close families are in their homeland. Though we in America wouldn’t condone young marriages or setting kids off on their own at 15, we could learn from the way families teach and take care of each other, and how even young children prepare meals and tend siblings.
Listening to them caused me to look at how more time together could impact our families.
My young friend who is living in England said his associates there were surprised at our election-year hoopla over health care and support of the elderly.
“Why wouldn’t you in America take care of people who are sick or who are older?” they ask him.
Listening to him made me think that priority should continue to be placed on helping those in need, even if it means sacrificing in other ways.
A speaker talking about his native India listed all the discoveries and inventions made by people from India who now live in America.
Listening to him reminded me about what great things have happened in this country because we have welcomed people from all different walks of life and their ideas and their skills and their hard work.
When you’re coming from a different place, you see things differently. When you listen to people who come from a different place and you are willing to look at things from their angle, you can see things differently too. And maybe not only will your eyes be opened a little wider, but maybe your heart will be too.
Perspective can change with time or with experience.
Just as often, perspective can change by moving to a different place, by finding a new angle.
As reporters, we see and hear different perspectives a lot.
One person thinks higher taxes will help make better schools. One person can’t afford to pay higher taxes.
One person thinks progress requires more oil production in Davis County. One person thinks Davis County citizens shouldn’t have to deal with more air problems.
Looking nationally, one person thinks guns will solve problems. Another thinks guns are the problem.
One person thinks we need to spend more money to keep the economy moving. Another person thinks we need to curtail that spending for the same reason.
The danger comes in thinking our perspectives are the only ones.
It’s what comes from a closed mind. It’s what makes the ugly American.
Being willing to look at something from someone else’s perspective brings understanding, acceptance, maybe even answers.
It starts with looking, but for even greater impact, it’s better if we all make sure we’re listening. |
Dutch government puts more weight behind open standard for office - oever
https://www.forumstandaardisatie.nl/actueel/item/titel/dutch-government-puts-more-weight-behind-open-standard-for-office/
======
rbanffy
This is great news (for the Dutch, at least). I am forced to have Windows VMs
in order to properly interact with multiple functions of the Brazilian
government and it's not funny.
~~~
Maarten88
As a Dutch citizen, I'm not too excited. Why should our government spend time
and money promoting a document format that is little used and not very
suitable for document exchange, when conversion between formats is easy and
loosing relevance because of cloud based services.
This is simply aimed at replacing Microsoft Office for Open/Libre Office, and
breaking the Microsoft monopoly. But less than 1% of the national IT budget is
spent on Microsoft licenses, less than what is spent on other closed software
and an order less than what is spent on Services from companies like IBM, who
lobby for these policies to get more government business.
If the Dutch government wants to support open source and open standards, it
should create a policy that requires all its own software projects, outsourced
or not, to be published as open source. That would save much more.
~~~
viraptor
Because not doing this means that the government is saying: "If you want to
interact with our documents on the internet, you need to buy your OS from
Apple or MS and another application from MS."
I'm not sure what you mean by:
> not very suitable for document exchange, when conversion between formats is
> easy and loosing relevance because of cloud based services
It's actually the opposite - conversion between formats is very hard and you
may not even realise when you lose data unless you have the official software
available for comparison.
------
chestnut-tree
From the article:
_" The UK Government Digital Services shared the journey that led them from
user needs to a government-wide policy on the use of ODF, and the extensive
guidance on best practices for ODF usage they published last week."_
Here is the link to that guidance
[https://www.gov.uk/guidance/open-document-format-odf-
guidanc...](https://www.gov.uk/guidance/open-document-format-odf-guidance-for-
uk-government)
|
The following happened to your’s truly before Dork Elvis and Sam Presti decided to throw every blogger/ talking head a bone unlike most:
I took a nap
I woke up
Ate
Went to School
came back and slept
Sorry about that, I got my weekday timeline mixed with what I did a few hours ago. Anyway, I was flipping channels when I checked my phone, went on twitter, and saw this tweet from @WojYahooNBA ”Rockets send Kevin Martin, Jeremy Lamb and future draft considerations to the Thunder for Harden sources tell Y! Sports.” Whaat, is that it? That’s f***** insane! I’m going to just start typing and hope it turns into something coherent.
Winner: Dork Elvis (Darrell Morey)
Guess who’s back, back again. Elvis back, back again! The power of Dork Elvis never cease to amaze me. He was in a rut after a mediocre summer splash. He let Kyle Lowry go for a first round pick, and he overpaid for Jeremy Lin and Omer Asik. I thought he was running out of juice, I clearly was wrong, and there’s a reason why I’m not a GM. I’ll never ever doubt Darrell Honalulu Abdul Morey again
Winner : Royce White:
The most fascinating pick from the 2012 NBA Draft gets to play with one of the most fascinating players overall in the NBA. More importantly, White and Harden now are by far the most deadly, bearded 1-2 combo in the NBA. Who doesn’t win?
Winner: Kevin Martin:
Let’s get this out of the way, to the people that think that Kevin Martin will fill the void that James Harden left, you people need to be electrocuted right on spot. I like Kevin Martin. He can shoot, he can score, he’s got by far one of the weirdest shooting forms I’ve seen in a long time, and doesn’t need the ball in his hands all the time. That being said, the guy can’t play D, he’s not a great passer, and he’s played in 6 playoff games in his eight year career. However, he gets to play with Durant, Westbrook, and Ibaka. He’s in a contract year, so you know he’s going to give a s***, and he’s going to be the third option on a title contender. I’m going to go out on a limb and say that he’s got it pretty good right now.
Loser: Small Market Teams in the Future
Congratulation OKC, you’ve basically told every small market team “hey even though we were making revenue and currently have a team that will at the very least be something along the lines of the 1990′s Indiana Pacers, we can’t afford to keep three max guys on our team.”
Winner: Kevin Mchale
Here was what Kevin Mchale would have had to deal with before the Harden deal:
Kevin Martin (contract year)
Jeremy Lin (still not 100% even though it’s been 7 months)
Omer Asik (nobody knows how he’ll handle heavy minutes)
Royce White
Terrence Jones (inconsistent motor in college)
Jeremy Lamb (poor man’s Kevin Martin)
Translation, “why do I deserve this? Why me? I played through the 87 NBA Playoffs with a broken ankle. I had to put up with Larry Bird on a consistent basis. I personally gave the Celtics the 2008 NBA championship by accepting 60 cents on the dollar for KG. What did I do to piss you off god!” Now, he gets to work with a core of James Harden, Jeremy Lin, Royce White, and Omer Asik. I usually don’t advocate for gambling, but… I would seriously think of taking the over on the over/under win total on the Rockets.
Loser: OKC Fans
I feel bad for them. After supporting this team since that slime Clay Bennett stole the team from Seattle, they’ve done everything well. The team had a sense of an Eff You type of year, and now all of the sudden, they’ve got this void in their hearts. They loved that guy. He was arguably their second most favourite player after Durantula. Remember how close that got last season.
Now, they could be potentially throwing away a chance at being a potential dynasty just because they wanted to be fiscally responsible. I think this is a good time to point out that this team has never paid the luxury tax, put forth an exciting, likable contender since 2010, and generated $24.5 million in operating income according to Forbes revenue numbers. To basically say to your fans “ya we can’t pay the luxury tax even though small markets such as Cleveland (08-10) and San Antonio (2009) did” is just a slap in the face. I love Sam Presti, and I don’t totally blame him here for what he had to do, just know that the last time a young team that was on the verge went against paying the luxury tax to keep the team (2005-08 Phoenix Suns, thanks to Robert Sarver), that team slowly but surely began to crumble. Joe Johnson broke his nose in 05, Amare had micro-fracture surgery in 06, Big Shot Rob hip-checks Nash in 07, Duncan hits an improbable three in 08, and Kobe finished what was left of the Run and Gun Suns in 2010. I hope the OKC brass goes to sleep knowing the potential consequences they put forth. The Thunder did what they had to do, and Harden did the same. Let the NBA Season begin. |
Q:
SQL - query to SUM based on certain criteria from other columns
I have an issue where I need to essentially categorically sum dollars based on criteria from different columns. For instance, there are multiple ways that a Client can be categorized and in the categories, the only one that matters is HIT. If a client has at least one line that contains HIT it should always be categorized as HIT even when that specific line isn't (example (line 9). As you can see in my data set, client A has lines that are both HIT and NONE but since Client A has at least one line that is HIT, all of the dollars should be categorized as HITS dollars. Since none of the other clients have HIT categories, all of their dollars would go into NOT.
CLIENT DOLLARS CATEGORY
A 12434 HIT
B 212 NONE
C 21 NONE
D 1231 NONE
B 784 NONE
A 43577 HIT
D 64 NONE
A 123 NONE
D 12 NONE
A 53 NONE
A 10 NONE
I'm trying to build this into a CASE ie.
SELECT CASE
WHEN category = 'HIT' THEN 'HITS'
WHEN category <> 'HIT' THEN 'NOT'
ELSE 'OTHER' END AS 'RESULT'
SUM(dollars) AS Dollars
FROM table 1
GROUP BY 'RESULT'
Obviously this won't pick up HIT Dollars for Client A when the category is NONE. Any help would be greatly appreciated.
Thanks!
A:
You could join your table with a subquery that lists the hit clients:
select (case when (hits.client is null)
then 0
else 1
end) as hit,
sum(dollars) as Dollars
from t
left outer join ( select distinct client
from t
where category = 'HIT' ) hits
on t.client = hits.client
group by hit;
SQL fiddle: http://sqlfiddle.com/#!9/8d403e/7/0
|
BlogFestivus 2012
Dancer’s own role was simple. He watched ESS headquarters through binoculars to make sure no one came or went who was not part of the Resistance. But after two hours of watching, Dancer’s eyes were glazing over. Who knew a revolution could be so boring?
Within three days of the posting of the edicts, all those who were rebellious, contrary and those who simply loved gum too much had been dealt with by the ESS. All but one.
Blitzen loved gum. He loved the taste and the texture. He even loved how he could form it into shapes like silly putty or stick it to things to annoy others. So it was that on the afternoon of the third day, Blitzen made a conscious choice and walked down main street chewing the biggest wad of gum he could fit in his mouth.
Donner looked himself over in the mirror, made miniscule adjustments to his clothing and brushed invisible specks of imperfection from his fur. He glanced at the clock and saw it was precisely one o’clock. Satisfied, he grabbed his walking cane and headed out for his daily stroll.
He loved these walks as much for the routine as for the exercise. But today, as soon as his walk took him to the main street, Donner knew something non-routine was going on.
Cupid was engrossed, as she always was when working on her pet project. She was oblivious to everything but her laptop with its open windows of notes, spreadsheets and browser tabs.
So it was that Cupid did not notice the front door open. It was only when her laptop snapped closed that she realized that an elf sat across from her. He wore drab green overalls with a small pin on the lapel.
If it was sleazy or deviant at The Pole, it was at Vixen’s, which is why no elf was ever seen there. (Elfs are notorious prudes.) Dancer had to admit it was the perfect place to meet.
As he opened the door, a mélange of cigarette and marijuana smoke, alcohol and sweat enveloped him. He was barely inside when he was hit in the face with a ping-pong ball from one of the stages. It stuck to his fur and he quickly brushed it off.
Vixen’s was packed and the din from the music and crowd was deafening. Dancer spied Prancer in a corner booth and worked his way over.
Technically, Dancer didn’t so much know a guy as know a guy who knew a guy.
Prancer scowled as he listened to Dancer’s story. They were in Rudy’s and the noisy, well-oiled crowd helped drown out their conversation.
“I knew that story in The Times was bullshit,” Prancer said. “‘Dasher Dead After Freak Accident’ my ass.” He guzzled his Stout and signaled for another. “Now we have to break in some noob to replace him.”
“Yes, yes,” Dancer said impatiently. “What about the bigger picture? If they could do this to Dasher, they could do it to any of us.”
Dasher’s brother, Dancer, wandered the compound trying to work off the nervous energy that always hit him in the weeks before C-Day. Passing by Dasher’s house, he saw a broken window covered with plastic taped over the frame, and decided to see what happened. As soon as Mandy answered the door, he knew something was very wrong.
She told him how Dasher had been killed just as he decided to leave the Pole. “We should have known that our homes were bugged. That asshole,” Mandy said, pointing in the direction of Santa’s Mansion, “has always been a tyrant.”
You may remember that I participated in a writing challenge last December called BlogFestivus. The challenge was devised by the diabolical blogdramedy, who has concocted another challenge this year, BlogFestivus 2012.
The game this year is to write 243 words a day* for the nine days between December 11 and 19. Each day’s writing will include one of the nine reindeer: |
Inhibition of mucosal and systemic T(h)2-type immune responses by intranasal peptides containing a dominant T cell epitope of the allergen Der p 1.
Although the intranasal administration of peptides containing T cell epitopes has been shown to be a potent method of inhibiting responses to the allergen Der p 1, the experiments to date have concentrated on their ability to regulate immune responses to the injection of antigen in a T(h)1-type adjuvant. Their ability to regulate responses to a T(h)2-type immunization and to sensitization via the respiratory mucosa has not been examined. Here it is shown that peptide used in doses required to block delayed-type hypersensitivity can also readily inhibit IgE responses to Der p 1 injected in alum. To examine responses induced in the respiratory mucosa, mice pretreated with intranasal peptide were sensitized with an intranasal dose of Der p 1 in conjunction with a mutated enterotoxin adjuvant. Intranasal peptide even in very high doses did not reduce IgE titers, but the ability of cells from the draining lymph nodes to release IL-4 and IL-13 but not IL-2, IL-5, IL-10 or IFN-gamma was reduced. These are the first reports on the effect of intranasal peptides containing T cell epitopes on IgE in T(h)2 immunization and on responses to respiratory immunization. Thus the effect of the peptide-induced mucosal tolerance differs depending on the type of immunization used for sensitization, but the potential to inhibit T(h)2 responses and responses to respiratory sensitization as well as T(h)1 responses has been demonstrated. |
Dayton finished the DFL gubernatorial primary with about 6,800 more votes than Margaret Anderson Kelliher, the DFL-endorsed candidate.
He faces Independence Party candidate Tom Horner and Republican Tom Emmer in November.
Kelliher conceded the race late Wednesday morning, saying she had congratulated Mark Dayton on his victory.
"I offered him my full support. He will make an excellent governor," Kelliher said in a written statement. "Today we will come together as DFLers."
Dayton had waited until Kelliher's concession to declare victory. The third DFL candidate in the race, Matt Entenza, conceded Tuesday evening.
Dayton said in an interview with MPR's Morning Edition that he is confident Minnesota Democrats will work together to win the governor's office in November.
Chatting with a friendMPR Photo/Jeffrey Thompson
"We promised each other and promised the people of Minnesota that we would unite this party after the results were known, and I have no doubt that we'll do that," he said.
Dayton attributed his success to his long political career in the state, and he praised party officials' efforts to nominate Kelliher.
"They made a very strong effort, they turned out a lot of votes, they closed the margins for what some of the polls were showing," Dayton said.
While Dayton's main challenge heading into the November election could be courting the DFL Party faithful who endorsed Kelliher, he's far ahead of Horner and Emmer in fundraising.
Watching results at Dayton headquartersMPR Photo/Jeffrey Thompson
Dayton has already spent $3.3 million of his own money on his campaign, and he's expected to spend more. He also said it will be easier to raise money from supporters now that there will be only one DFL candidate.
"There's a big responsibility on my shoulders, and I'm going to do my best also to raise money from other people," he said.
In the Morning Edition interview, Dayton was already talking about his Republican opponent.
He accused Emmer of speaking about the state's projected $6 billion budget deficit "in broad platitudes with no detail at all."
In a separate interview with Morning Edition, Emmer didn't list any specific budget fixes but said his campaign has been "releasing specifics all along."
Instead, he emphasized what he believes is the main difference between his campaign and his two opponents.
"They both believe that higher taxes and more government intervention in the economy are the solutions to our high unemployment and our weak economy," Emmer said. "By contrast, we believe that higher taxes and more government intervention will kill jobs and weaken our ability to compete economically even more."
Dayton wants to raise income taxes for the state's top earners, and Horner has proposed extending the sales tax to clothing and services.
The Republican Party planned to release its first TV ad of the campaign on Wednesday afternoon.
Horner's main challenge in the 83 days before the November election will be raising money. He has said he will try to raise $2.5 million and run TV ads.
He told Morning Edition he will take advantage of about $250,000 in public money for his campaign, and he said he hopes to continue raising money from people across the state.
Horner said the state budget crisis is leading Minnesotans to look for something different.
"2010 is the year in which Minnesotans are looking for solutions, they're looking for action and they're looking for innovation," Horner said. "They've just grown weary of all the political fights over who's right instead of focusing on what's right." |
Federal funding is associated with the quality of science and researchers’ professional advancement.1 Female junior faculty received less university start-up support than males in one study,2 a factor associated with early-career attrition rates.3 We investigated another potential association: the size of National Institutes of Health (NIH) grant awards to first-time awardees.
Methods
Using the public NIH Principal Investigators (PI) database, we analyzed grant amounts to first-time female and male grant awardees from 2006 to 2017. A PI’s sex was determined algorithmically from first names. First-time PIs had no prior NIH awards as far back as 1985.
To examine factors related to funding, we first compared the median number of articles published per year, the median number of citations per article, and the number of areas of research expertise in published articles for first-time female and male PIs prior to their first NIH grant, using Microsoft Academic Graph (MAG). Areas of research expertise were estimated from the articles’ research topic as reported in MAG. Only articles with the PI as the last author were counted.4
To further control for confounding, we examined awardees of the top 10 most highly funded grants awarded to individual PIs only, which represents $14 billion in funding or 58% of all NIH funds awarded to 19 559 first-time PIs. Also, we investigated awardees at the same 14 Big Ten and 8 Ivy League universities ($1.8 billion in funding or 7.5% of NIH funds awarded to 8039 first-time PIs), as well as the top 50 NIH most highly funded institutions ($9 billion in funding or 38% of funding awarded to 20 335 first-time PIs). The 2-sided Mann-Whitney test of medians (threshold P < .05) and Python software (version 2.7.12) were used in the analyses.
Results
From 2006 to 2017, 53 903 NIH grants were awarded to first-time PIs across all 225 NIH grant types and 2766 institutions (Table 1). Of first-time PIs, 43.6% were female, similar to the female enrollment level of 38% in US MD-PhD programs during the same period.5
Baseline performance measures were available for 73.4% of first-time PIs. No statistically significant differences by sex were found for baseline performance measures. The median number of articles published for men and women per year was 2.0 (P = .64), the median number of citations per article was 15 (P = .99), and the median number of research areas was 2.0 (P = .90).
For first-time PIs across all grant types and institutions, women received a median of $126 615 vs $165 721 for men (median difference, −$39 106 [95% CI, −$46 099 to −$35 675]; P < .001). For the 10 highest-funded grant types across all institutions, first-time female PIs received a median award amount of $305 823 vs $316 350 for male PIs (median difference, −$10 527 [95% CI, −$17 240 to −$3082]; P = .002), with the largest differences in N01 and U01 grants. However, women receiving R01 grants received $15 913 more than men (P < .001).
Female PIs at the Big Ten universities received a median of $66 365 vs $148 076 for male PIs (median difference, −$81 711 [95% CI, −$92 734 to −$67 450]; P < .001) (Table 2). Similarly, women at Ivy League universities received statistically significantly smaller grant amounts ($52 190 for women vs $71 703 for men; median difference, −$19 513 [95% CI, −$31 310 to −$6976]; P < .001). At the top 50 NIH-funded institutions, first-time female awardees received significantly smaller grant amounts ($93 916 for women vs $134 919 for men; median difference, −$41 003 [95% CI, −$47 052 to −$31 316]; P < .001).
Discussion
This study found sex differences in the size of NIH funds awarded to comparable first-time female and male PIs, even at top research institutions. Funding disparities favoring men occurred among certain grant types, although for R01 grants, the most frequent award for first-time awardees, women received larger grants, as previously observed.6 Although the analyses controlled for key factors, limitations include possible unmeasured confounding and no data on grant applications that were turned down. Further study of the institutions where inequalities were lowest may provide insight into the reasons for sex imbalances in grant amounts awarded during formative career stages.
Section Editor: Jody W. Zylke, MD, Deputy Editor.
Back to top Article Information
Accepted for Publication: December 21, 2018.
Corresponding Author: Teresa K. Woodruff, PhD, Women’s Health Research Institute and Feinberg School of Medicine, Northwestern University, 303 E Superior St, Ste 10-121, Chicago, IL 60611 (tkw@northwestern.edu).
Author Contributions: Dr Uzzi had full access to all of the data in the study and takes responsibility for the integrity of the data and the accuracy of the data analysis.
Concept and design: Oliveira, Woodruff, Uzzi.
Acquisition, analysis, or interpretation of data: All authors.
Drafting of the manuscript: All authors.
Critical revision of the manuscript for important intellectual content: Oliveira, Woodruff, Uzzi.
Statistical analysis: All authors.
Obtained funding: Woodruff, Uzzi.
Administrative, technical, or material support: Oliveira, Woodruff, Uzzi.
Supervision: Uzzi.
Conflict of Interest Disclosures: None reported.
Funding/Support: This study is based on work supported by grant R01GM112938 from the National Institutes of Health, grant 1747631 from the National Science Foundation, and funding from the Northwestern Institution on Complex Systems and the Kellogg School of Management.
Role of the Funder/Sponsor: The funders played no role in the design or conduct of the study; collection, management, analysis, or interpretation of the data; preparation, review, or approval of the manuscript; or decision to submit the manuscript for publication. |
238 F.2d 241
Auguste PARKER, Plaintiff-Appellee,v.CHECKER TAXI COMPANY, Inc., a Corporation, Defendant-Appellee, andField Enterprises, Inc., a Corporation, Defendant-Appellant.
No. 11691.
United States Court of Appeals Seventh Circuit.
November 19, 1956.
Rehearing Denied December 26, 1956.
1
Donald John Tufts, Chicago, Ill., B. S. Quigley, Chicago, Ill., for appellant.
2
John C. McKenzie, Chicago, Ill., Helmut A. Fydrych, Chicago, Ill., for appellee.
3
Before LINDLEY and SWAIM, Circuit Judges, and WHAM, District Judge.
4
WHAM, District Judge.
5
This appeal arises out of an action filed by plaintiff-appellee, Auguste Parker, hereinafter called "Parker", against defendant-appellee, Checker Taxi Company, Inc., hereinafter called "Checker", and defendant-appellant Field Enterprises, Inc., hereinafter called "Field", seeking damages for bodily injuries sustained while riding as a fare-paying passenger in a taxicab owned and operated by Checker in a collision between said taxicab and a motor vehicle owned and operated by Field. The complaint charged each defendant with negligence in the operation of its vehicle proximately causing said collision and resulting injuries. Each defendant filed an answer denying fault or negligence and a cross or counterclaim seeking damages from its co-defendant for injuries done to its vehicle in the collision.
6
The case was tried to a jury. The verdict found both defendants liable to plaintiff for damages in the amount of $10,000; also found each defendant not liable to the other for damage to its vehicle. Judgment was entered on the verdict on October 10, 1955. Motions for a new trial by Field and for judgment notwithstanding the verdict by Checker were duly filed and, after hearing, denied on December 5, 1955. On January 4, 1956 Field filed a petition signed by its attorneys and verified by one of them on information and belief only, requesting the trial court on the basis of the allegations in the petition to vacate and set aside the verdict and the judgment against Field and to grant Field a new trial. This petition, after arguments heard, was denied by the trial court on the 9th day of January, 1956. On January 10, 1956 Field filed its notice of appeal. The appeal was (1) from the final judgment entered on October 10, 1955, (2) from the order entered on December 5, 1955 denying defendant Field's motion for new trial, and (3) from the order entered on January 9, 1956 denying defendant Field's petition to open, vacate and set aside the judgment entered on December 5, 1955 and for a new trial.
7
On motion of Parker duly supported by excerpts from the record, this court on April 24, 1956 entered an order herein as follows:
8
"It is ordered and adjudged by this Court that such portions of this appeal of Field Enterprises, Inc., as are predicated upon (1) the Appeal from the Final Judgment entered in this cause on October 10, 1955 and (2) the appeal from the Order entered on December 5, 1955 denying Motion of Defendant-Appellant for a new trial, be and the same is hereby DISMISSED with costs, because not timely taken. (Rule 73(a); F.R.C.P." [28 U.S.C.A.]) Thus, the appeal now before this court is based solely on the denial by the trial court of the relief sought in the petition filed by Field with the trial court on January 4, 1956.
9
The substance of said petition was that about the time the original complaint was filed Parker entered into an agreement with Checker whereby Parker would name Checker a party defendant but would not execute any judgment against Checker if obtained; that in return for this agreement Checker promised to make its file available to Parker; that the agreement was in effect at the time of trial; that its existence had not been disclosed and was not then known to the court, to the jury, or to Field; that the effect of said unknown agreement was to place before the court and jury a moot question and to deny Field a fair and impartial trial in that the only question actually placed before court and jury was the liability of Field; that during the trial Checker did permit Parker to have use of its file in the prosecution of the suit and permitted its employee to be called on behalf of Parker as an adverse witness under "Section 60 of the Illinois Civil Practice Act". (The trial being in the federal court we assume the petitioner meant to cite Rule 43(b), Federal Rules of Civil Procedure, 28 U.S.C.A., instead of Section 60 of the Illinois Civil Practice Act.) The petition further stated that Field knew nothing of the secret agreement until after the denial of Field's motion for a new trial on December 5, 1955; that the agreement was revealed to Field later and a demand was made upon Field by Parker to pay the full amount of the judgment. The petition was signed by Field's attorneys and verified by one of them. The verification read: "That the things and matters set out in this Petition are true according to his information and belief."
10
It is the contention of Field that the agreement as set out in the petition, kept secret from court, jury and Field, operated as a fraud upon the court, the jury and Field to the prejudice of Field so as to give the trial court the right and to impose upon it as a duty in the exercise of a sound judicial discretion to vacate and set aside the judgment entered in favor of Parker against Field and to grant a new trial. This contention Parker disputes.
11
Neither party to this appeal questions the inherent right and power of the court in exercise of a sound judicial discretion to vacate a judgment obtained through fraud or connivance and thereupon to grant a new trial. Nor is it denied that the court's failure under proper facts and circumstances adequately proved to vacate the judgment under attack for fraud and to grant a new trial would constitute such abuse of its discretion as to be reversible error. The court's discretion is not an arbitrary one to be capriciously exercised but a sound, legal discretion guided by accepted legal principles. Assmann v. Fleming, 8 Cir., 159 F.2d 332; Illinois Printing Co. v. Electric Shovel Coal Corporation, D.C., 20 F.Supp. 181; Jones v. Jones, 7 Cir., 217 F.2d 239; Independence Lead Mines Company v. Kingsbury, 9 Cir., 175 F.2d 983; Hines v. Muirheid, 346 Ill.App. 302, 104 N.E.2d 838.
12
The inherent right of the court to vacate a judgment for fraud, as stated above, is strengthened by Rule 60(b), Federal Rules of Civil Procedure, 28 U.S.C.A., which provides that on motion the court may relieve a party from a final judgment or order for fraud, misrepresentation, or other misconduct of an adverse party.
13
Referring to the foregoing rule in its opinion in Jones v. Jones, supra, this court said, 217 F.2d at page 241:
14
"Numerous cases support the view that a motion to vacate a judgment under Rule 60(b) is addressed to the sound legal discretion of the court and that its determination will not be disturbed upon appeal except for an abuse of discretion." (Citing authorities.)
15
The burden of proving fraud or connivance in the procurement of a judgment justifying relief under the rule is on the applicant for an order vacating the judgment and granting a new trial. Assmann v. Fleming, supra.
16
Applying here the foregoing principles, did the trial court exercise a sound judicial discretion when, after hearing counsel for the parties relating to the petition filed on January 4, 1956, it entered an order denying the petition? The burden of proof being upon the appellant to show fraud or connivance in the procurement of the judgment in question which would justify the relief sought, was the petition in and of itself sufficient to meet this burden?
17
The court had nothing before it except the record in the case and the bare petition made on behalf of Field by its attorneys and verified by one of them on information and belief. The record fails to show any additional proof offered by Field prior to or at the time of the hearing.
18
As we look at the contents of the petition in the light of the verdict of the jury whereby both Checker and Field were found guilty and liable alike, we see nothing other than the conclusions of the affiants that could justify a finding by the court that the alleged agreement between Parker and Checker in any way influenced or affected the outcome of the case. Nothing appears in the petition except the conclusions of the affiants that warranted a finding by the court that Field was prejudiced in the trial by the alleged agreement or that the evidence would have been different in its absence. The conclusions of affiants were not evidence. The case presented by the petition was peculiarly within the discretion of the trial court. In Independence Lead Mines Company v. Kingsbury, supra, 175 F.2d at page 988, the court used language that is applicable here when it said:
19
"It must be remembered that a petition to vacate a judgment is addressed to the sound legal discretion of the trial court, and its determination will not be disturbed except for abuse of discretion. [Citing authorities.] Particularly is this true in this instance, where the experienced judge passing on the petition had presided in the litigation in which the judgment was entered, and it is claimed that fraud was practiced upon the court. Certainly we are not able to say that the court's ruling adverse to the petition was wrong."
20
We cannot say from the record before us here that the district court did not exercise a sound legal discretion when it denied appellant's petition.
21
The order of the district court is affirmed.
22
On July 20, 1956, during the pendency of this appeal Parker filed herein a motion for assessment of damages against Field in the sum of $1,000.00 under the provisions of Rule 26 of this court on the ground that Field's appeal had been sued out merely for delay, with a request that the motion be considered with Field's appeal. Rule 26 provides that "In all cases where an appeal delays proceedings on the judgment of the lower court and the court finds that the appeal has been sued out merely for delay, damages at a rate not exceeding ten per cent, in addition to interest, may be awarded upon the amount of money judgment * * *." Upon such consideration we are unable to say that Field's appeal was frivolous or taken merely for delay. The appeal was taken immediately after the order appealed from was entered and the prosecution of the appeal has been zealous and in apparent good faith. The briefs and arguments, written and oral, on behalf of appellant were well prepared and earnestly presented. A supersedeas bond in adequate amount, conditioned to pay the entire judgment with accrued interest and costs in the event appellant failed to prosecute the appeal faithfully and successfully was filed by appellant. After consideration we are not convinced that the appeal was sued out merely for delay.
23
The motion for damages under Rule 26 is denied.
|
Our guest this week on London Real is the psychedelic researcher Dennis McKenna.
Dennis is brother to the late Terence McKenna who pioneered the use of plants as away to positively alter human consciousness.
Dennis and Terence blazed the trail for modern psychedelic experimentation as part of a group known as the Brotherhood of the Screaming Abyss.
This was a group of Berkeley students who went down to Columbia in the early seventies in search of DMT.
Given the fact that you are a London Real fan I am going to assume that you already understand the importance of psychedelics in my own personal journey.
Terence McKenna is something of a patron saint for the show.
His visionary lectures on consciousness, culture, the arts and natural drugs are legendary and continue to be a resource for people like myself who use such substances to explore and expand their own minds.
Both Terence and Dennis come from a different age in many respects, an age when spirituality, music, literature and drugs all went hand in hand, and when being called a rebel was still a compliment.
Forming a formidable team, Terence was the learned preacher, and Dennis was the researcher.
The two would travel America and the world bringing the gospel of mind enhancement through natural plants.
Both of them committed their lives to the idea that the reality we see in the everyday is not even a dot on the the true reality beyond our senses.
If you have never tried psychedelics, then this kind of talk is going to seem downright weird.
But like his late brother, Dennis is a very articulate, humorous and kind soul, who will immediately win the trust of any of you sceptics out there.
This is no ageing hippy spouting claptrap! This is a scholar of natural psychedelics, a man learned in science and the humanities.
Dennis has a perspective on the mind and its relationship to culture which is informative and revelatory.
Something which will strike you right away about Dennis is his ability to get deeply vulnerable about his story, his relationship with his brother, and his own flaws.
Dennis pretty much bears all in regards to his relationship with Terence — the comradeship and the fallings out, and the traumatic experience of watching his brother succumb to brain cancer.
For anyone watching this who is already a fan of Terence McKenna’s work, this might be a little painful too, when you hear how much suffering there was in the great man’s last decade.
Dennis tells me about the self-doubt, conflicts and personal trials Terence went through in his final years leading up to his disease, and also speaks about their own disagreements as brothers.
As two Irish-American brothers from Colorado, their relationship was intensely close, and even difficult.
Dennis’s book The Brotherhood of the Screaming Abyss, was self-published in 2012.
He tells me the book was as much a way of healing the grief of losing Terence as it was a way of recounting the facts of his journey with his brother.
A point to look out for in this absorbing discussion with Dennis is what he thinks of the influence of his brother’s message, and the work he and Terence were doing in the eighties and nineties.
It’s so difficult for us to imagine now, but back in the day plant psychedelics were extremely taboo, and people who advocated their use were thought of as quacks and frauds.
Dennis himself is surprised by the transformation in the last twenty years, and he tells me it is still hard to believe that Ayahuasca that basically become a household name, and pretty much mainstream.
Dennis is convinced that a lot of this can be attributed to his brother’s visionary stubbornness, and his willingness to just keep talking when everyone else was too scared to speak out.
Still a believer in the power of plant medicines, Dennis regards these substances the same way indigenous peoples have done for centuries. Not as drugs but as teachers.
Man’s relationship to nature is something that needs to be revolutionised and Dennis believes that Ayahuasca is reaching out to humanity with a message of oneness with nature.
Dennis recalls that first journey he and Terence did to Columbia in search of DMT.
Frankly, it’s an outrageous, enlightening and at times unbelievable tale of insanity and spiritual awakening!
These guys were really pioneers in the early seventies, and they had very little to rely on but their own scientific discipline and a passionate belief that plant substances had something to teach human kind.
If you remotely curious about what Terence McKenna was like as a man, then you are going to love Dennis’s discussion about his brother’s ability to capture an audience.
Dennis is outspoken about his frustrations with Terence over the wild and bizarre things he could get away with saying.
But Dennis also speaks with with pride and affection about his brother’s poetic and shamanic gifts.
Terence McKenna was revered for his articulate power as much as anything else, and Dennis and I talk about this.
Dennis tells me his brother’s saving graces were his commitment to independent thinking, and his ‘Irish twinkle’ or sense of humour.
Though he was, and still is, a kind of counter-culture icon, Dennis insists that Terence never wanted to be a guru.
He simply wanted to kick-start
self-awareness and independent thinking
in his audiences.
It’s fascinating to hear an intimate brother’s take on why Terence was so good at doing that, and why he continues to have an impact even to this day.
As well as talking at length about his brother as a man and an icon, Dennis and I have some interesting discussions about his own views on plant medicines, dosages and his own take on the meaning of the psychedelic experience.
Dennis is a scientist and scholar in his own right, and has contributed to the present day open-mindedness about consciousness-expanding substances.
Whatever your take on psychedelics is, and whatever you feel about our beloved plant allies, you’ll find this episode one of those special London Real experiences.
Dennis is a warm-hearted, gracious man, and has that same intonation and lilt of his brother, and in many ways Terence was in the room with us during the filming of this episode.
So sit back, relax, and enjoy the rest of your Sunday and join us in the Screaming Abyss.
“Terence never had anything to sell…and would have been a ‘false prophet’ had he been in it for the money…”
shortly after this is stated…
scumbag brian withholds one of Dennis’ answers as bait for paid membership to his site…
If you wanted to teach someone what hypocrisy was, this would be a textbook example.
The psychedelic experience is an intellectual endeavor, not a financial one.
The host asks, “What would be the equivalency of Terence McKenna?” I would’ve answered Alan Watts, but I suppose he’s interested in someone that’s alive. If that’s the case, then Kilindi Iyi is your man, Brian.
WOW. Thank you Brian for that interview. I, like many people, have spent hours upon hours enjoying old Terrence Mckenna talks. Dennis really nailed it in the interview where he said that Terrence was a poet and had a way of almost hypnotizing people with his voice, tone, vocabulary and the way that he wove incredibly novels ideas together with knowledge from so many other interests of study. He is one of, if not my most favourite person to listen to online, he’s so entertaining and never gets old to me. I wish so much that he would have stuck… Read more »
Terrence Changed my Life.. He Made Me realize we are not aliens for these substances and to experience your own damn reality.. thankyou Brian For the Share.. Really Enjoyed Listening to this.. i Spent the whole summer tripping and listening to terence Dennis Alan Watts Jung.. learning a Lot from mushrooms LSD and MDMA.. DONT THANK ME THANK THE PLANTS.. DENNIS HAS IT RIGHT,, TREES GIVE OXYGEN plants shamanism its all symbiosis
such a nice episode.. thx brian , i learned alot . he is very much a clever man, that dennis mckanna, and as a danish listener i understand more compared to when i listen to the brother terrence mckanna.. the other side of the coin.
Interesting and enlightening to finally meet Dennis McKenna. As a student of psychedelics and Terence McKenna for almost 20 years, I first encountered Dennis in the audio book version of “True Hallucinations” (a recommendable 9 hr version is available on YouTube), in which Terence, Dennis and a few other pioneers travel to South America in 1970 to experience different alternative realities through marijuana, psylocybin and ayahuasca. Around 40 minutes in, Dennis says that it’s a positive sign for the Earth that influential people like CEOs are taking the ayahuasca trips and return home with sustainable ideas for the environment. I… Read more » |
Apoptosis by retrovirus- and adenovirus-mediated gene transfer of Fas ligand to glioma cells: implications for gene therapy.
Astrocytic tumors frequently express Fas/APO-1 (Fas), in sharp contrast to surrounding normal brain cells, providing a potential window through which selective killing of tumor cells could be pursued. To assess this possibility, we transduced Fas into U251, a glioma cell line resistant to anti-Fas antibody-mediated apoptosis, and obtained transfectants with high levels of Fas expression. Anti-Fas antibody showed significantly enhanced cytotoxicity for the transfectants, suggesting that U251 cells maintained an intercellular cascade of Fas-mediated apoptosis. When U251 transfectants with high-level Fas expression were transduced with Fas ligand-encoding gene via retrovirus, they were unaffected by exposure to anti-Fas antibody or Fas ligand adenovirus (Adeno-FL). Thus, retroviral induction of Fas ligand into the glioma cells with high levels of Fas led to the selection of cells that were resistant to Fas-dependent apoptosis. These resistant U251 transfectants were susceptible to FADD adenovirus (Adeno-FADD)-induced apoptosis, indicating that a cascade of death signals was blocked at the steps between Fas ligand and FADD. As for adenoviral transduction of Fas ligand into gliomas, gliomas with a relatively high level of expression of Fas were remarkably sensitive to Adeno-FL-induced apoptosis. Besides, Adeno-FADD induced pronounced apoptosis in all glioma cells. Our data suggest the possibility of using adenovirus-mediated transduction of Fas ligand and FADD genes as a therapeutic approach to target gliomas. |
<?php
/**
* QuickCreateView model.
*
* @copyright YetiForce Sp. z o.o.
* @license YetiForce Public License 3.0 (licenses/LicenseEN.txt or yetiforce.com)
* @author Radosław Skrzypczak <r.skrzypczak@yetiforce.com>
*/
/**
* Class Vtiger_QuickCreateView_Model.
*/
class Vtiger_QuickCreateView_Model extends \App\Base
{
/**
* Function to get the instance.
*
* @param string $moduleName
*
* @throws \App\Exceptions\AppException
*
* @return self
*/
public static function getInstance(string $moduleName)
{
$modelClassName = Vtiger_Loader::getComponentClassName('Model', 'QuickCreateView', $moduleName);
$instance = new $modelClassName();
$moduleModel = Vtiger_Module_Model::getInstance($moduleName);
return $instance->set('module', $moduleModel);
}
/**
* Function to get the Module Model.
*
* @return Vtiger_Module_Model instance
*/
public function getModule()
{
return $this->get('module');
}
/**
* Function to get the list of links for the module.
*
* @param array $linkParams
*
* @return Vtiger_Link_Model[] - Associate array of Link Type to List of Vtiger_Link_Model instances
*/
public function getLinks(array $linkParams)
{
$links = Vtiger_Link_Model::getAllByType($this->getModule()->getId(), ['QUICKCREATE_VIEW_HEADER', 'EDIT_VIEW_RECORD_COLLECTOR'], $linkParams);
$links['QUICKCREATE_VIEW_HEADER'][] = Vtiger_Link_Model::getInstanceFromValues([
'linktype' => 'QUICKCREATE_VIEW_HEADER',
'linkhint' => 'LBL_GO_TO_FULL_FORM',
'showLabel' => 1,
'linkicon' => 'yfi yfi-full-editing-view',
'linkdata' => ['js' => 'click', 'url' => $this->getModule()->getCreateRecordUrl()],
'linkclass' => 'btn-light js-full-editlink fontBold u-text-ellipsis mb-2 mb-md-0 col-12'
]);
return $links;
}
}
|
{
"list": [
{
"title": "Let's Code: Test-Driven Javascript | Coming July 2012",
"url": "http://www.letscodejavascript.com/",
"content": "テスト駆動JavaScriptについてのスクリーンキャスト講座 Let's Code: Test-Driven JavascriptのサイトがPublic Open",
"tags": [
"testing",
"javascript",
"video"
],
"date": "2013-01-31T15:00:00.000Z"
},
{
"title": "jQuery Mobile 1.3.0 RC1 Released | jQuery Mobile",
"url": "http://jquerymobile.com/blog/2013/02/04/jquery-mobile-1-3-0-rc1-released/",
"content": "jQuery Mobile 1.3.0 RC1リリース.\npanel widget(side-by-side)、navigate event,methodの追加など",
"tags": [
"jQuery",
"mobile",
"ReleaseNote"
],
"date": "2013-01-31T23:06:00.000Z"
},
{
"title": "melonJS 0.9.5 is finally here ! «",
"url": "http://olivierbiot.wordpress.com/2013/02/04/melonjs-0-9-5-is-finally-here/",
"content": "ゲームエンジンライブラリmelonJS 0.9.5",
"tags": [
"javascript",
"game",
"library"
],
"date": "2013-02-01T07:12:00.000Z"
},
{
"title": "jQuery 1.9.1 Released | Official jQuery Blog",
"url": "http://blog.jquery.com/2013/02/04/jquery-1-9-1-released/",
"content": "jQuery 1.9.1 リリース.",
"tags": [
"jQuery",
"ReleaseNote"
],
"date": "2013-02-01T15:18:00.000Z"
},
{
"title": "Takazudolog - 地獄のvideo／audio要素",
"url": "http://takazudo.github.com/blog/entry/2013-02-06-videoaudio.html",
"content": "video／audio要素のQ&A\n実装のハマリどころやフォーマット、エンコーダー、処理が重たい場合の対処法、イベントハンドリングについてなど",
"tags": [
"HTML5",
"javascript",
"video",
"music"
],
"date": "2013-02-01T23:24:00.000Z"
},
{
"title": "Getting Started With the WebKit Layout Code | Web Platform Team Blog",
"url": "http://blogs.adobe.com/webplatform/2013/01/21/getting-started-with-the-webkit-layout-code/",
"content": "Webkitのレイアウトのプロセスについて.\nHow Browsers Workや仕様、関連ドキュメント等のリソースがまとまってる.\n CSS Box Modelについてや実際のコードではどのへんかについても書かれている",
"tags": [
"webkit",
"HTML",
"css"
],
"date": "2013-02-02T07:30:00.000Z"
},
{
"title": "Javascript Trivia Crossword :: Modit",
"url": "https://mod.it/Eb3TKLmO",
"content": "JavaScriptクロスワード",
"tags": [
"javascript"
],
"date": "2013-02-02T15:36:00.000Z"
},
{
"title": "Node v0.8.19 (Stable)",
"url": "http://blog.nodejs.org/2013/02/06/node-v0-8-19-stable/",
"content": "Node 0.8.19リリース",
"tags": [
"node.js",
"ReleaseNote"
],
"date": "2013-02-02T23:42:00.000Z"
},
{
"title": "airbnb/polyglot.js · GitHub",
"url": "https://github.com/airbnb/polyglot.js",
"content": "小さなi18n helperライブラリ",
"tags": [
"javascript",
"i18n",
"library"
],
"date": "2013-02-03T07:48:00.000Z"
},
{
"title": "O'Reilly Japan - 入門 モダンJavaScript",
"url": "http://www.oreilly.co.jp/books/9784873116051/",
"content": "2013年02月23日発売\n初心者向けのモダンなJavaScriptについての書籍",
"tags": [
"javascript",
"book",
"ReleaseNote"
],
"date": "2013-02-03T15:54:00.000Z"
},
{
"title": "jensarps/IDBWrapper · GitHub",
"url": "https://github.com/jensarps/IDBWrapper",
"content": "IndexedDB APIラッパーライブラリ",
"tags": [
"javascript",
"データベース",
"library"
],
"date": "2013-02-04T00:00:00.000Z"
},
{
"title": "jQuery Migrate plugin の使い方と警告文の自分なりのまとめ | 私的なjQuery",
"url": "http://myjquery.blog.fc2.com/blog-entry-15.html",
"content": "jQuery Migrate plugin の警告文の解説と取り得る対処法について",
"tags": [
"jQuery",
"document",
"翻訳"
],
"date": "2013-02-04T08:06:00.000Z"
},
{
"title": "warpech/jquery-handsontable · GitHub",
"url": "https://github.com/warpech/jquery-handsontable",
"content": "Excelライクなデータグリッドエディタライブラリ.\njQueryに依存してる",
"tags": [
"javascript",
"library"
],
"date": "2013-02-04T16:12:00.000Z"
},
{
"title": "CSS Reflow | Reflow Visualizations",
"url": "http://cssreflow.com/",
"content": "Firefoxを使ったリフロー/リペイントを可視化した動画のギャラリー",
"tags": [
"firefox",
"webservice",
"Tools"
],
"date": "2013-02-05T00:18:00.000Z"
},
{
"title": "Using WebAPIs to make the web layer more capable ✩ Mozilla Hacks – the Web developer blog",
"url": "https://hacks.mozilla.org/2013/02/using-webapis-to-make-the-web-layer-more-capable/",
"content": "WebAPIの紹介",
"tags": [
"WebAPI",
"firefox"
],
"date": "2013-02-05T08:24:00.000Z"
},
{
"title": "studiomohawk/javascript-koans at ja-koan-with-grunt · GitHub",
"url": "https://github.com/studiomohawk/javascript-koans/tree/ja-koan-with-grunt",
"content": "JavaScript Koansの日本語版\nテストケースも和訳されてる",
"tags": [
"javascript",
"testing",
"tutorial"
],
"date": "2013-02-05T16:30:00.000Z"
},
{
"title": "O'Reilly Japan - Nodeクックブック",
"url": "http://www.oreilly.co.jp/books/9784873116068/",
"content": "2013年02月23日 発売\nNode.js本",
"tags": [
"node.js",
"book"
],
"date": "2013-02-06T00:36:00.000Z"
},
{
"title": "zlib.js で PKZIP が扱えるようになりました (0.1.4リリース) : document",
"url": "http://blog.livedoor.jp/imaya_js/archives/6292808.html",
"content": "zlib.js 0.1.4リリース\nPKZIP(zip)のサポート",
"tags": [
"圧縮解凍",
"javascript",
"library"
],
"date": "2013-02-06T08:42:00.000Z"
},
{
"title": "JSDB.io - The Database of JavaScript Libraries",
"url": "http://www.jsdb.io/",
"content": "JavaScriptのライブラリをカテゴリ別などでまとめてるサイト. ジャンルは jster.net よりざっくりしてるけど、Githubのコミット間隔やフォース数等のレポジトリ情報も見られるようになってる",
"tags": [
"javascript",
"library",
"webservice"
],
"date": "2013-02-06T16:48:00.000Z"
},
{
"title": "mde/jake · GitHub",
"url": "https://github.com/mde/jake",
"content": "Make/Rakeみたいな感じのNode.js製ビルドツール",
"tags": [
"javascript",
"Tools"
],
"date": "2013-02-07T00:54:00.000Z"
},
{
"title": "Chrome Dev Tools: JavaScript and Performance | Nettuts+",
"url": "http://net.tutsplus.com/tutorials/tools-and-tips/chrome-dev-tools-javascript-and-performance/",
"content": "Chrome Developer Toolsの解説記事.\nSourcesパネルについて、revisions、ブレークポイント、TimelineパネルのrecordingやFiltering機能について",
"tags": [
"javascript",
"Chrome",
"デバック"
],
"date": "2013-02-07T09:00:00.000Z"
},
{
"title": "SPDY Protocol - Draft 3 日本語訳",
"url": "http://summerwind.jp/docs/spdy-protocol-draft3/",
"content": "SPDY Protocol - Draft 3の日本語訳",
"tags": [
"HTTP",
"document",
"SPDY"
],
"date": "2013-02-07T17:06:00.000Z"
},
{
"title": "DevTools: Visually Re-engineering CSS For Faster Paint Times",
"url": "http://addyosmani.com/blog/devtools-visually-re-engineering-css-for-faster-paint-times/",
"content": "Chrome devloper ToolsのTimelineパネルで見るrepaintについて.\n改善のワークフローについて.モバイルの場合10ms以内にそれぞれのrepaintが終わるのを目標に",
"tags": [
"Chrome",
"デバック",
"browser"
],
"date": "2013-02-08T01:12:00.000Z"
},
{
"title": "Can you help me understand the benefit of require.js?",
"url": "https://gist.github.com/desandro/4686136",
"content": "require.jsを使う利点は何?という議論(コメント欄)",
"tags": [
"AMD",
"javascript"
],
"date": "2013-02-08T09:18:00.000Z"
},
{
"title": "Bootstrap 2.3 released · Bootstrap Blog",
"url": "http://blog.getbootstrap.com/2013/02/07/bootstrap-2-3-released/",
"content": "Bootstrap 2.3リリース",
"tags": [
"twitter",
"css",
"ReleaseNote"
],
"date": "2013-02-08T17:24:00.000Z"
},
{
"title": "Chrome Devtools Cheatsheet",
"url": "http://anti-code.com/devtools-cheatsheet/",
"content": "Chrome Dev Toolsのチートシート\nショートカットやconsole API、about:/chorme: URLについてまとまってる",
"tags": [
"Chrome",
"デバック",
"チートシート"
],
"date": "2013-02-09T01:30:00.000Z"
},
{
"title": "Using WAI-ARIA Landmarks – 2013 | The Paciello Group Blog",
"url": "http://www.paciellogroup.com/blog/2013/02/using-wai-aria-landmarks-2013/",
"content": "ARIA Landmark Rolesについて.\nJAWSを使ったlandmark rolesの動作の動画やroleに指定できる属性値についてまとめれている",
"tags": [
"WAI-ARIA",
"まとめ",
"video"
],
"date": "2013-02-09T09:36:00.000Z"
},
{
"title": "Opera Developer News - 300 million users and move to WebKit",
"url": "http://my.opera.com/ODIN/blog/300-million-users-and-move-to-webkit",
"content": "OperaがWebkit/V8を利用したものへと移行\nhttp://www.opera.com/press/releases/2013/02/13/",
"tags": [
"Opera",
"ReleaseNote"
],
"date": "2013-02-09T17:42:00.000Z"
},
{
"title": "Promises/A+",
"url": "http://promises-aplus.github.com/promises-spec/",
"content": "CommonJS Promises/Aにいくつか変更を加えたプロポーサル.\nテストケースも用意されている",
"tags": [
"javascript"
],
"date": "2013-02-10T01:48:00.000Z"
},
{
"title": "AngularUI for AngularJS",
"url": "http://angular-ui.github.com/",
"content": "AngularJS向けのUIコンポーネントライブラリ",
"tags": [
"javascript",
"UI",
"library"
],
"date": "2013-02-10T09:54:00.000Z"
},
{
"title": "Addy Osmani - Google+ - TodoMVC 1.1 Released: Now Includes Kendo UI, TypeScript,…",
"url": "https://plus.google.com/115133653231679625609/posts/6ABtV7ntwPp",
"content": "TodoMVC 1.1 リリース\nDartやTypeScriptを使った実装、新しい実装の追加やライブラリの最新版への追従など\nhttp://bit.ly/Xcm4n1",
"tags": [
"javascript",
"library",
"MVC",
"ReleaseNote"
],
"date": "2013-02-10T18:00:00.000Z"
},
{
"title": "anvaka/jsruntime · GitHub",
"url": "https://github.com/anvaka/jsruntime",
"content": "runtimeでプロパティ名と値にマッチするオブジェクトを検索出来るChrome Dev Tools拡張",
"tags": [
"javascript",
"Chrome",
"デバック",
"Extension"
],
"date": "2013-02-11T02:06:00.000Z"
},
{
"title": "Say hello to CSS Regions Polyfill | Mihai Corlan",
"url": "http://corlan.org/2013/02/08/say-hello-to-css-regions-polyfill/",
"content": "CSS Regions polyfil.\n",
"tags": [
"css",
"javascript",
"library"
],
"date": "2013-02-11T10:12:00.000Z"
},
{
"title": "Nodefront",
"url": "https://gist.github.com/makotot/4148990",
"content": "\"Nodefrontはフロントエンド開発高速化のためのNode製コマンドラインユーティリティ\"\nNodefrontのreadme訳\nhttps://github.com/karthikv/nodefront",
"tags": [
"node.js",
"console",
"翻訳"
],
"date": "2013-02-11T18:18:00.000Z"
},
{
"title": "ブラウザゲーム時代のチートとセキュリティ - メモ代わり",
"url": "http://wate.jp/wp/?p=262",
"content": "オンラインブラウザゲームでのチート対策について。\n時間の偽装、送信/受信パケットの改ざん、BOT、SSLと暗号化について、APIを直接叩いた場合のレスポンスについて",
"tags": [
"browser",
"HTTP",
"javascript",
"game"
],
"date": "2013-02-12T02:24:00.000Z"
},
{
"title": "Home | JavaScript UI - w2ui",
"url": "http://w2ui.com/web/home",
"content": "jQueryベースの\nLayout,Grid,Tool/SideBar,Tab.Form,popup/popover等のUIライブラリ.",
"tags": [
"jQuery",
"UI",
"library"
],
"date": "2013-02-12T10:30:00.000Z"
},
{
"title": "svg.js - A lightweight JavaScript library for manipulating and animating svg",
"url": "http://svgjs.com/",
"content": "SVGアニメーションライブラリ",
"tags": [
"SVG",
"animation",
"library"
],
"date": "2013-02-12T18:36:00.000Z"
},
{
"title": "jQuery UI 1.10.1 | jQuery UI Blog",
"url": "http://blog.jqueryui.com/2013/02/jquery-ui-1-10-1/",
"content": "jQuery UI 1.10.1リリース",
"tags": [
"jQuery",
"UI",
"library",
"ReleaseNote"
],
"date": "2013-02-13T02:42:00.000Z"
},
{
"title": "Node v0.8.20 (Stable)",
"url": "http://blog.nodejs.org/2013/02/15/node-v0-8-20-stable/",
"content": "Node v0.8.20リリース",
"tags": [
"node.js",
"ReleaseNote"
],
"date": "2013-02-13T10:48:00.000Z"
},
{
"title": "jQuery Learning Center: Welcome! | Official jQuery Blog",
"url": "http://blog.jquery.com/2013/02/15/jquery-learning-center-welcome/",
"content": "jQueryを学ぶの補助するためのLearning Centerを公開.\nコミュニティドリブンで文章についてもGithubで管理されてる.\nコントリビューション方法について詳しく書かれていて、スタイルガイドは文章のスタイルについても書かれてて面白い\nhttp://learn.jquery.com/style-guide/",
"tags": [
"jQuery",
"ReleaseNote"
],
"date": "2013-02-13T18:54:00.000Z"
},
{
"title": "PeerJS - Peer-to-peer data in the web browser",
"url": "http://peerjs.com/",
"content": "WebRTCを使ったP2Pのデータのやり取りを補助するライブラリ.\n仲介サーバのPeerServerも公開してる(本質的なデータのやり取り部分はP2P)",
"tags": [
"javascript",
"library",
"p2p"
],
"date": "2013-02-14T03:00:00.000Z"
},
{
"title": "What is hoisting, really? - blog by @johnkpaul",
"url": "http://johnkpaul.com/blog/2013/02/11/what-is-hoisting-really/",
"content": "JavaScriptのHoisting(巻き上げ)と呼ばれる呼ばれる挙動についての解説.\n仕様的な面からどのようにして起きるのかについて書かれている",
"tags": [
"javascript"
],
"date": "2013-02-14T11:06:00.000Z"
},
{
"title": "Client-side Messaging Essentials",
"url": "http://freshbrewedcode.com/jimcowart/2013/02/07/client-side-messaging-essentials/",
"content": "イベント駆動JavaScriptとしてMediatorとObserverの違いについて。\n使い分けやBackbone.js的なobserverについて、実際に実装する場合にどのような引数を受けるかについてなど",
"tags": [
"javascript",
"event"
],
"date": "2013-02-14T19:12:00.000Z"
},
{
"title": "jQuery Migrate 1.1.1 Released | Official jQuery Blog",
"url": "http://blog.jquery.com/2013/02/16/jquery-migrate-1-1-1-released/",
"content": "jQuery Migrate 1.1.1リリース.\nRemove “use strict”:されたのと、dataType:\"json\"をちゃんと処理するように、",
"tags": [
"jQuery",
"ReleaseNote"
],
"date": "2013-02-15T03:18:00.000Z"
},
{
"title": "Ember.js - Ember 1.0 RC",
"url": "http://emberjs.com/blog/2013/02/15/ember-1-0-rc/",
"content": "Ember.js 1.0 RC1リリース",
"tags": [
"javascript",
"MVC",
"library",
"ReleaseNote"
],
"date": "2013-02-15T11:24:00.000Z"
},
{
"title": "rpflorence/ember-tools · GitHub",
"url": "https://github.com/rpflorence/ember-tools",
"content": "ember.jsのcreate/build/scaffold的なテンプレート生成するgeneratorなどemberに関するCLIツール",
"tags": [
"javascript",
"Tools"
],
"date": "2013-02-15T19:30:00.000Z"
},
{
"title": "juliangruber/review · GitHub",
"url": "https://github.com/juliangruber/review",
"content": "PhantomJSを使って色々な画面サイズでスクリーンショットを取得するCLIツール",
"tags": [
"browser",
"Tools"
],
"date": "2013-02-16T03:36:00.000Z"
},
{
"title": "Edge Reflow プレビュー版公開 - akihiro kamijo",
"url": "http://cuaoar.jp/2013/02/edge-reflow.html",
"content": "Edge Reflowのプレビュー版公開\nhttp://html.adobe.com/jp/edge/reflow/\nレイアウトを画面サイズ可変で作るのを補助するツール",
"tags": [
"design",
"adobe",
"software"
],
"date": "2013-02-16T11:42:00.000Z"
},
{
"title": "jQuery Core 1.9 アップグレードガイド 日本語訳 | WWW WATCH",
"url": "http://hyper-text.org/archives/2013/02/jquery_core_19_upgrade_guide_ja.shtml",
"content": "jQuery Core 1.9 Upgrade Guide の翻訳",
"tags": [
"jQuery",
"翻訳"
],
"date": "2013-02-16T19:48:00.000Z"
},
{
"title": "\"The jsPerf Guide\" (book) by Kyle Simpson — Kickstarter",
"url": "http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/getify/the-jsperf-guide-book",
"content": "jsPerf.com ガイドブックのKickstarter",
"tags": [
"javascript",
"webservice",
"book"
],
"date": "2013-02-17T03:54:00.000Z"
},
{
"title": "Alex Rothenberg - The \"Magic\" behind AngularJS Dependency Injection",
"url": "http://www.alexrothenberg.com/2013/02/11/the-magic-behind-angularjs-dependency-injection.html",
"content": "AngularJSのDependency Injection の不思議な挙動についての解説",
"tags": [
"javascript",
"Angular"
],
"date": "2013-02-17T12:00:00.000Z"
},
{
"title": "Using FormData to send forms with XHR as key/value pairs - Robert's talk",
"url": "http://robertnyman.com/2013/02/11/using-formdata-to-send-forms-with-xhr-as-keyvalue-pairs/",
"content": "FormDataとXHRの使い方について",
"tags": [
"javascript",
"XHR"
],
"date": "2013-02-17T20:06:00.000Z"
},
{
"title": "Say \"Hello\" to Lo-Dash - Kit Cambridge",
"url": "http://kitcambridge.github.com/blog/say-hello-to-lo-dash/",
"content": "Underscore互換APIを持ったLo-Dash 1.0.0がリリースされて、作られた背景や違いなどについてやカスタムビルド、ブラウザのサポートに付いてなど",
"tags": [
"javascript",
"library",
"ReleaseNote"
],
"date": "2013-02-18T04:12:00.000Z"
},
{
"title": "Changelog · bestiejs/lodash Wiki",
"url": "https://github.com/bestiejs/lodash/wiki/Changelog",
"content": "Lo-Dash v1.0.1リリース",
"tags": [
"javascript",
"library",
"ReleaseNote"
],
"date": "2013-02-18T12:18:00.000Z"
},
{
"title": "Grunt 0.4.0 released - Grunt: The JavaScript Task Runner",
"url": "http://gruntjs.com/blog/2013-02-18-grunt-0.4.0-released",
"content": "JavaScriptで書けるタスク実行ツール\nGrunt 0.4 リリース",
"tags": [
"node.js",
"Tools"
],
"date": "2013-02-18T20:24:00.000Z"
},
{
"title": "O'Reilly Japan - メンテナブルJavaScript",
"url": "http://www.oreilly.co.jp/books/9784873116105/",
"content": "2013年03月06日発売\nMaintainable JavaScriptの日本語版",
"tags": [
"javascript",
"book"
],
"date": "2013-02-19T04:30:00.000Z"
},
{
"title": "とほほのjQuery入門",
"url": "http://www.tohoho-web.com/js/jquery/index.htm",
"content": "jQueryリファレンス",
"tags": [
"jQuery",
"リファレンス"
],
"date": "2013-02-19T12:36:00.000Z"
},
{
"title": "MooTools - MooTools 1.2.6 Released",
"url": "http://mootools.net/blog/2013/02/19/mootools-1-2-6-released/",
"content": "MooTools 1.2.6リリース\nString.prototype.containsの競合問題ｎ修正",
"tags": [
"javascript",
"library",
"ReleaseNote"
],
"date": "2013-02-19T20:42:00.000Z"
},
{
"title": "AutoCompleteJS » Home",
"url": "http://autocompletejs.com/",
"content": "自動補完のUIライブラリ\njQueryを利用してる",
"tags": [
"javascript"
],
"date": "2013-02-20T04:48:00.000Z"
},
{
"title": "jQuery Mobile 1.3.0 Released | jQuery Mobile",
"url": "http://jquerymobile.com/blog/2013/02/20/jquery-mobile-1-3-0-released/",
"content": "jQuery Mobile 1.3.0リリース\n",
"tags": [
"jQuery",
"mobile",
"ReleaseNote"
],
"date": "2013-02-20T12:54:00.000Z"
},
{
"title": "Manning: Ember.js in Action",
"url": "http://www.manning.com/skeie/",
"content": "Ember.jsについての書籍\nEarly Access Edtionは既に購入できる状態",
"tags": [
"javascript",
"book"
],
"date": "2013-02-20T21:00:00.000Z"
},
{
"title": "Kimbo.js - An ECMAScript 5 only-compatible JavaScript library",
"url": "http://kimbojs.com/",
"content": "jQuery compatibleなAPI持ったライブラリ. 全体的に新しめのDOM APIやES5のメソッドを使って実装されている(基本的にネイティブ実装前提っぽい)",
"tags": [
"javascript",
"DOM",
"library"
],
"date": "2013-02-21T05:06:00.000Z"
},
{
"title": "testacular/CHANGELOG.md at master · testacular/testacular · GitHub",
"url": "https://github.com/testacular/testacular/blob/master/CHANGELOG.md#v060-2013-02-22",
"content": "JavaScriptテスティングフレームワーク testacular v0.6.0リリース",
"tags": [
"javascript",
"testing",
"library",
"ReleaseNote"
],
"date": "2013-02-21T13:12:00.000Z"
},
{
"title": "HTML5&CSS3リファレンス",
"url": "http://htmlcss.jp/index.html",
"content": "HTML5/CSS3リファレンス",
"tags": [
"HTML5",
"css",
"リファレンス"
],
"date": "2013-02-21T21:18:00.000Z"
},
{
"title": "ES6 Module Transpiler - Tomorrow's JavaScript module syntax today",
"url": "http://corner.squareup.com/2013/02/es6-module-transpiler.html",
"content": "ES6 moduleのimportなどをAMDやCommonJSな形式などに変換できるツール",
"tags": [
"ECMA",
"javascript",
"Tools"
],
"date": "2013-02-22T05:24:00.000Z"
},
{
"title": "Handlebars.js Tutorial: Learn Everything About Handlebars.js JavaScript Templating | JavaScript is Sexy",
"url": "http://javascriptissexy.com/handlebars-js-tutorial-learn-everything-about-handlebars-js-javascript-templating/",
"content": "Handlebars.jsのチュートリアル.\n基本的な使い方からヘルパーの書き方、テンプレートの使い方など詳しく書かれてる",
"tags": [
"javascript",
"library",
"tutorial"
],
"date": "2013-02-22T13:30:00.000Z"
},
{
"title": "browserify",
"url": "http://browserify.org/announcing_browserify_v2",
"content": "browserify v2.0リリース.\n動的にモジュール解決するのに追加して、事前に依存解決のマップを作成しておくことができるようになった",
"tags": [
"javascript",
"node.js",
"browser",
"library"
],
"date": "2013-02-22T21:36:00.000Z"
},
{
"title": "O'Reilly Japan - アクセシビリティハンドブック",
"url": "http://www.oreilly.co.jp/books/9784873115993/",
"content": "アクセシビリティについての書籍\nスクリーンリーダ、視覚障害、物理的なアクセシビリティ、認識障害",
"tags": [
"アクセシビリティ",
"book",
"電子書籍"
],
"date": "2013-02-23T05:42:00.000Z"
},
{
"title": "Manning: Dart in Action",
"url": "http://www.manning.com/buckett/",
"content": "Dart本",
"tags": [
"dart",
"book"
],
"date": "2013-02-23T13:48:00.000Z"
},
{
"title": "Try jQuery Interactive Course | Official jQuery Blog",
"url": "http://blog.jquery.com/2013/02/22/try-jquery-interactive-course/",
"content": "Code SchoolにjQueryのチュートリアル的なコースがオープンされた",
"tags": [
"jQuery",
"video",
"tutorial"
],
"date": "2013-02-23T21:54:00.000Z"
},
{
"title": "Amazon: Node.jsプログラミングガイド [単行本]: 高橋 登史朗",
"url": "http://www.amazon.co.jp/o/ASIN/4798037060/book042-22/ref=nosim",
"content": "2013年2月27日発売\nNode.js本",
"tags": [
"node.js",
"book"
],
"date": "2013-02-24T06:00:00.000Z"
},
{
"title": "A programmer’s guide to JavaScript by Dr. Axel Rauschmayer",
"url": "http://jsguide.org/",
"content": "Dr. AxelによるJavaScriptのガイドとなる書籍",
"tags": [
"javascript",
"book"
],
"date": "2013-02-24T14:06:00.000Z"
},
{
"title": "Takazudolog - Grunt v0.4.0 での変更点",
"url": "http://takazudo.github.com/blog/entry/2013-02-23-grunt04.html",
"content": "Grunt v0.4.0 の変更点について",
"tags": [
"ReleaseNote",
"node.js",
"Tools"
],
"date": "2013-02-24T22:12:00.000Z"
},
{
"title": "HTML / DOM におけるキーボードイベント周りの話 - ひだまりソケットは壊れない",
"url": "http://vividcode.hatenablog.com/entry/dom/keyboard-events",
"content": "DOM 3 Eventsの仕様からみるkeydown/keypress/keyupイベントや渡されるeventオブジェクト(KeyboardEvent)について。\nショートカットを実装する場合にどのような順序で見ていくといいかについて",
"tags": [
"DOM",
"キーボード",
"event"
],
"date": "2013-02-25T06:18:00.000Z"
},
{
"title": "stevekwan/best-practices · GitHub",
"url": "https://github.com/stevekwan/best-practices",
"content": "JavaScriptやCSSなどについてのベスプラクティスガイド",
"tags": [
"javascript",
"blog"
],
"date": "2013-02-25T14:24:00.000Z"
},
{
"title": "Node v0.8.21 (Stable)",
"url": "http://blog.nodejs.org/2013/02/25/node-v0-8-21-stable/",
"content": "Node 0.8.21リリース\ntestにTAP出力が追加されてる",
"tags": [
"node.js",
"ReleaseNote"
],
"date": "2013-02-25T22:30:00.000Z"
},
{
"title": "フロントエンドJavaScriptにおける設計とテスト",
"url": "http://hokaccha.github.com/slides/javascript_design_and_test/#page1",
"content": "JavaScriptアプリケーションのテストについてのスライド.\nModelとVIewを明確に分けてテストしやすくする。\n結合テストとユニットテストとスタブについて",
"tags": [
"javascript",
"slide",
"testing"
],
"date": "2013-02-26T06:36:00.000Z"
},
{
"title": "Grunt 0.4.0 released - Grunt: The JavaScript Task Runner",
"url": "http://gruntjs.com/blog/2013-02-18-grunt-0.4.0-released",
"content": "JavaScriptで書けるタスク実行ツール Grunt 0.4 リリース",
"tags": [
"node.js",
"Tools"
],
"date": "2013-02-26T14:42:00.000Z"
},
{
"title": "literateモードが加わった「CoffeeScript 1.5」がリリース - SourceForge.JP Magazine : オープンソースの話題満載",
"url": "http://sourceforge.jp/magazine/13/02/26/0533246",
"content": "CoffeeScript 1.5がリリースされた.\nliterateモードというMarkdownのコードブロックだけを実行する機能が入った",
"tags": [
"CoffeeScript",
"ReleaseNote"
],
"date": "2013-02-26T22:48:00.000Z"
},
{
"title": "Windows 7 SP1版向けIE10の提供を開始 - Internet Explorer ブログ (日本語版) - Site Home - MSDN Blogs",
"url": "http://blogs.msdn.com/b/ie_jp/archive/2013/02/27/10397523.aspx",
"content": "IE10がWindows7(SP1)、Windows Server 2008向け向けに公開された",
"tags": [
"IE",
"ReleaseNote"
],
"date": "2013-02-27T06:54:00.000Z"
},
{
"title": "Amazon: HTML5モバイルアプリケーションフレームワーク Sencha Touchパーフェクトガイド [大型本]: 大谷弘喜, 稲垣龍一, 川野忍, 土江拓郎, 森本恭平, 高岡大介",
"url": "http://www.amazon.co.jp/o/ASIN/4048869566/book042-22/ref=nosim",
"content": "SenchaTouch本\nhttp://dsuket.hatenablog.com/entry/2013/02/27/181028",
"tags": [
"mobile",
"Sencha",
"HTML5",
"library",
"book"
],
"date": "2013-02-27T15:00:00.000Z"
},
{
"title": "JSHint - JSHint 1.0.0 is out",
"url": "http://jshint.com/blog/2013-02-27/1-0-0/",
"content": "JSHint 1.0.0リリース",
"tags": [
"javascript",
"Tools",
"ReleaseNote"
],
"date": "2013-02-27T23:06:00.000Z"
},
{
"title": "Javascript development tools - resources",
"url": "http://clausreinke.github.com/js-tools/resources.html",
"content": "js-tools MLのJavaScriptツールやエンジン/エディタ/リソース等のリンク集",
"tags": [
"javascript"
],
"date": "2013-02-28T07:12:00.000Z"
}
]
} |
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---
abstract: 'We revise the $\pi^+\pi^-$ and $q\bar{q}$ annihilation mechanisms of dilepton production during relativistic heavy-ion collisions. We focus on the modifications caused by the specific features of intramedium pion states rather than by medium modification of the $\rho $-meson spectral density. The main ingredient emerging in our approach is a form-factor of the multi-pion (multi-quark) system. Replacing the usual delta-function the form-factor plays the role of distribution which, in some sense, “connects” the 4-momenta of the annihilating and outgoing particles. The difference between the c.m.s. velocities attributed to annihilating and outgoing particles is a particular consequence of this replacement and results in the appearance of a new factor in the formula for the dilepton production rate. We obtained that the form-factor of the multi-pion (multi-quark) system causes broadening of the rate which is most pronounced for small invariant masses, in particular, we obtain a growth of the rate for the invariant mass below two masses of the annihilating particles.'
author:
- |
D. Anchishkin$^{a,}$[^1] , R. Naryshkin$^{b,}$[^2]\
[*$^a$Bogolyubov Institute for Theoretical Physics, Kyiv 03143, Ukraine*]{}\
[*$^b$ Kyiv National University, Physics Department, Kyiv 03022, Ukraine* ]{}
title: Pion and Quark Annihilation Mechanisms of Dilepton Production in Relativistic Heavy Ion Collisions
---
Since leptons do not interact practically with the highly excited nuclear matter, they leave the reaction zone after their creation in a relativistic nucleus-nucleus collision without further rescattering. That is why, the dileptons ($e^+e^-$ and $\mu^+\mu^-$ pairs) observed in high-energy heavy ion collisions secure an excellent opportunity for obtaining information on the initial state and the evolution of the system created in a collision. The enhancement with an invariant mass of $200\div 800$ MeV observed by the CERES collaboration [@1; @2] in the production of dileptons has received recently a considerable attention and has been studied in the framework of various theoretical models (for the review, see Ref. [@3]). It was found that a large part of the observed enhancement is due to the medium effects (see Refs. [@4; @5] and references therein). Meanwhile, pion annihilation is the main source of dileptons which come from the hadron matter [@6; @7]. That is why, the proper analysis of the dilepton spectra obtained experimentally gives important observables which probe the pion dynamics in the dense nuclear matter that exists at the early stage of the collision. The purpose of the present letter is to look once more on the $\pi^+\pi^-$ annihilation mechanism of dilepton production from the hadron plasma by accounting the medium-induced modifications of the dilepton spectrum. In order to do this, we concentrate on the modifications which are due rather to intramedium pion states, than on the discussion of a modification of the $\rho$-meson spectral density. In accordance with our suggestions, the main features of a pion wave function follow from the fact that pions live a finite time in the system where they can take part in the annihilation reaction. As a consequence, the off-shell effects give an appreciable contribution to the features of the annihilation process specifically in the region of low invariant masses. Moreover, if pions are the entities of a local subsystem, then the spatial structure of the pion states is far from a plane-wave one and this also gives the essential contribution to the features of the dilepton spectrum.
To carry out the outlined program, we assume that the pion liquid formed after the equilibration exists in a finite volume, and the confinement of pions to this volume is a direct consequence of the presence of the dense hadron environment which prevents the escape of pions during some mean lifetime $\tau$. The same can be assumed concerning a hot system of quarks which are confined to a quark-gluon droplet. We sketch the proper geometry in Fig. 1. The small circle of radius $R$ represents a subsystem of pions which is in a local thermal equilibrium and moves with the collective velocity $\mathbf{v}$. If the fireball size is of order of $R_0\propto 6\div 10$ fm, then the mean size of the small subsystem is of order of $R\propto 1\div 5$ fm. So, we assume the system of pions (quarks) produced in high-energy heavy-ion collisions is effectively bounded in a finite volume. The pion (quark) wave functions $\varphi_\lambda(x)$, where $\lambda$ is a quantum number, satisfy the proper boundary conditions and belong to the complete set of functions. For instance, the stationary wave functions may be taken as the solutions of the Klein-Gordon equation $\left( \mathbf{\nabla} ^2 +k^2 \right)\varphi_\lambda({\bf x})= 0$, where $k^2=E^2-m^2$, which satisfy the Dirichlet boundary condition on the surface $S$: $\varphi_\lambda({\bf x})|_S=0$. For the box boundary, we get $\varphi_\mathbf{k}({\bf x})
=
\sqrt{8/V}
\prod_{i=1}^3 \theta(L_i-x_i) \theta(x_i) \sin{(k_i x_i)} $, where $V=L_1L_2L_3$ is the box volume, $\lambda\equiv {\bf k}=(k_1,k_2,k_3)$, and components of the quasi-momentum run through the discrete set $k_i=\pi n_i/L_i $ with $n_i=1, 2, 3, \ldots$ . For the spherical geometry, the normalized solutions are written as $\varphi_{klm}({\bf r})
=
\theta(R-r) \left( 2/r \right)^{1/2}
J_{l+1/2} (kr)
Y_{lm}(\vartheta,\phi)/
RJ_{l+3/2} (kR)$, where $\lambda=(k,l,m)$. Next, the field operators $\hat{\varphi}(x)$ corresponding to the pion field should be expanded in terms of these eigenfunctions, i.e. $$\hat{\varphi}(x)=
\int\frac{d^3k}{(2\pi)^32\omega_\mathbf{k}}
\left[
a(\mathbf{k})\varphi_\mathbf{k}(x)+b^+(\mathbf{k})\varphi^*_\mathbf{k}(x)
\right]
\, ,
\label{1}$$ where $a(\mathbf{k})$ and $b(\mathbf{k})$ are the annihilation operators of positive and negative pions, respectively.
[l]{}[0.3]{} [ \[width=0.3,height=0.21\][anchishkin-fig1.eps]{}]{} [Fig. 1. Sketch of an expanding fireball. The small circle of radius $R$ represents the subsystem of pions which is in a local thermodynamic equilibrium and moves with the collective velocity ${\bf v}$. ]{}
On the other hand, the states corresponding to confined particles can be written in a common way as $\varphi_\mathbf{k}({\bf x})
=
\sqrt{ \rho({\bf x})/V } \, \Phi_\mathbf{k}({\bf x})$, where $\rho^{1/2}({\bf x})=
\prod_{i=1}^3 \left[ \theta(L_i-x_i)\theta(x_i)\right]$ for a box and $\rho^{1/2}({\bf x})=\theta(R-r)$ for a sphere, respectively. The function $\rho({\bf x})$ presents the information about the geometry of a reaction region or cuts out the volume where the pions (quarks) can annihilate. Hence, for the evaluation of $S$-matrix elements wave functions $\varphi_\mathbf{k} (x)$ should be taken as the pion $in$-states once annihilating pions belong to finite system. The amplitude of the pion-pion annihilation to a lepton pair in the first non-vanishing approximation is calculated via the chain $\pi^+\pi^-\rightarrow \rho\rightarrow\gamma^*\rightarrow
\bar{l}l$, where the $\rho$-meson appears as an intermediate state in accordance with the vector meson dominance. The matrix element of the reaction is $\langle \mathrm{out} | S | \mathrm{in} \rangle
= - \int d^4x_1\, d^4x_2 \,
\langle {\bf p}_+,{\bf p}_- \left|
\, T \left[ {\it H}_I^\pi(x_1) \, {\it H}_I^l(x_2) \right] \,
\right| {\bf k}_1,{\bf k}_2 \rangle $, where ${\it H}_I^\pi(x)=-e\, j_\mu^\pi(x) \, A^\mu(x)$ and ${\it H}_I^l(x)=-e\, j_\mu^l(x) \, A^\mu(x)$. It is remarkable that the pion density $\rho({\bf x})$ appears as a factor of the pion current. Indeed, $$j^\pi_\mu(x)
=
-i \hat{\varphi} (x)
\stackrel{\leftrightarrow}{\partial_\mu} \hat{\varphi}^+(x)
=
\frac{\rho({\bf x})}{V}
\left[ -i \hat{\Phi} (x) \stackrel{\leftrightarrow}{\partial_\mu}
\hat{\Phi}^+(x) \right]
\, ,
\label{1a}$$ where the field operator $\hat{\Phi} (x)$ is defined in the same way as that in (\[1\]) with the functions $\varphi_\mathbf{k}({\bf x})$ replaced by $\Phi_\mathbf{k}({\bf x})$. Because of this factorization, after the integration over the vertex $x$ the density $\rho({\bf x})$ automatically cuts out the volume, where the $\pi^+ \pi^-$ annihilation reaction is running. At the same time, this means that the density $\rho({\bf x})$ determines the volume of quantum coherence, i.e. just the particles from this spatial domain are capable to annihilate one with another and make contribution to the amplitude of the reaction. To obtain the overall rate, it is necessary then to sum up the rates from every coherent domain of the fireball.
For the sake of simplicity, we assume that the pion states can be approximately represented as $\varphi_\mathbf{k}(x)=\sqrt{\rho(x)/V}e^{-i k\cdot x}$. Here, $\rho(x)$ is the 4-density of pions in the volume $V$ (marked by radius $R$ in Fig. 1), where pions are in a local thermodynamic equilibrium. In essence, this approximation considers just one mode of the wave function $\Phi_\mathbf{k}({\bf x})$. We expect that this ansatz reflects the qualitative features of the pion states in a real hadron plasma, and, below, the main consequences of the contraction of particle states in the dense environment are considered.
A simple calculation immediately shows that the $S$-matrix element is proportional to the Fourier-transformed pion density $\rho(x)$, i.e. $\langle \mathrm{out} | S | \mathrm{in} \rangle \propto
\rho(k_1+k_2-p_+-p_-)$, where $k_1$ and $k_2$ are the $4$-quasi-momenta of the initial pion states and $p_+$ and $p_-$ are the $4$-momenta of the outgoing leptons. This means that the form-factor of the pion source $\rho(k)$ stands here in place of the delta function which appears in the standard calculations, i.e. $(2\pi)^4\delta^4(K-P)\rightarrow \rho(K-P)$, where $K=k_1+k_2$ and $P=p_++p_-$ are the total (quasi-) momenta of pion and lepton pairs, respectively. An immediate consequence of this is a breaking down of the energy-momentum conservation in the $s$-channel of the reaction, which means that the total momentum $K$ of the pion pair is no longer equal exactly to the total momentum $P$ of the lepton pair. The physical interpretation of this fact is rather obvious: the effect of the hadron environment on the pion subsystem which prevents the escape of pions from the fireball can be regarded during the time span $\tau$ as the influence of an external nonstationary field. The latter, as known, breaks down the energy-momentum conservation. From now, the squared form-factor $|\rho(K-P)|^2$ of the pion system plays the role of a distribution which in some sense “connects” in [*s*]{}-channel the annihilating and outgoing particles instead of $\delta$-function. Indeed, the number $N^{(\rho)}$ of produced lepton pairs from a finite pion system related to an element of the dilepton momentum space, reads $$\left< \frac{dN^{(\rho)}}{d^4P}\right>=\int d^4K
|\rho(K-P)|^2 \left< \frac{dN}{d^4Kd^4P}\right>
\, ,
\label{2}$$ where $$\begin{gathered}
\left< \frac{dN}{d^4Kd^4P}\right>
=
\int \frac{d^3k_1}{(2\pi)^3 2E_1} \frac{d^3k_2}{(2\pi)^3 2E_2} \,
\delta^4(k_1+k_2-K)\, f_\mathrm{th}(E_1)\, f_\mathrm{th}(E_2)
\\
\times
\int \frac{d^3p_+}{(2\pi)^3 2E_+} \frac{d^3p_-}{(2\pi)^3 2E_-} \,
\delta^4(p_++p_--P)|A_0(k_1,k_2;p_+,p_-)|^2
\, .
\label{3}\end{gathered}$$ Here, $E_i=\sqrt{m^2+\mathbf{k}_i^2}$, $i=1,2$ for pions and $i=+,-$ for leptons, respectively. By the broken brackets, we denote the thermal averaging over the pion quasi-momentum space with the help of the thermal distribution function $f_\mathrm{th}(E)$. To obtain eq.(\[2\]), we represent the amplitude $A_\rho=\langle \mathrm{out} | S^{(2)} | \mathrm{in} \rangle$ of the reaction under consideration as $$A_\rho(k_1,k_2;p_+,p_-)
=
\rho(k_1+k_2-p_+-p_-) A_0(k_1,k_2;p_+,p_-)
\, .
\label{4}$$ We note that not only the form-factor $\rho(K-P)$ contains information about the pion system. The amplitude $A_0$ carries new important features as well, which are related to the violation of the energy-momentum conservation in the $s$-channel. Indeed, the pion-pion c.m.s. moves with the velocity $\mathbf{v}_{K}=\mathbf{K}/K_0$, whereas the lepton-pair c.m.s. moves with the velocity $\mathbf{v}_{P}=\mathbf{P}/P_0$. Hence, these two center-of-mass systems are “disconnected” now, that is why any quantity should be Lorentz-transformed when transferred from one c.m.s. to another. A particular consequence of this is the appearance of the correction factor $\left[1+\frac{1}{3}\left(\frac{(P\cdot K)^2}{P^2K^2}-1\right)\right]$ in the formula for the dilepton production rate (for details see [@8]).
Concerning the physical meaning of eq. (\[2\]), we note that one can regard it as the averaging of the random quantity $\left<\frac{dN}{d^4Kd^4P}\right>$ with the help of the distribution function $|\rho(K-P)|^2$ centered around the mean value $P$. In this sense, the hadron medium holding pions in a local spatial region for some time, which is expressed as the local pion distribution $\rho(x)$, plays the role of an environment randomizing the pion source. This randomization is a purely quantum one in contrast to the thermal randomization of the multi-pion system which is already included to the quantity $\left< \frac{dN}{d^4Kd^4P}\right>$.
In order to transform the distribution of the number of created lepton pairs over the dilepton momentum space to the distribution over invariant masses, one has to perform additional integration using $\left< dN^{(\rho)}/d^4P \right>$ from (\[2\]), i.e. $\left< \frac{dN^{(\rho)}}{dM^2} \right> = \int\frac{d^3P}{2P_0}
\left< \frac{dN^{(\rho)}}{d^4P} \right>$, where $P_0=\sqrt{M^2+\mathbf{P}^2}$. Taking this together we obtain $$\begin{gathered}
\label{5}
\left<\frac{dN^{(\rho)}}{dM^2}\right>
=
\frac{\alpha^2}{3(2\pi)^8} \left(1-\frac{4m^2_e}{M^2}\right)^{1/2}
\left(1+\frac{2m^2_e}{M^2}\right) |F_\pi(M^2)|^2
\int\frac{d^3P}{2P_0}\int d^4K \frac{K^2}{M^2} \,
\left|\rho(K-P)\right|^2 e^{-\beta K_0}
\\
\times\left(1-\frac{4m^2_\pi}{K^2}\right)^{3/2}\left[1+\frac13
\left(\frac{(P\cdot K)^2}{M^2K^2}-1\right)\right]\theta(K_0)
\theta(K^2-4m^2_\pi)
\, ,\end{gathered}$$ where $F_\pi(M^2)$ is the $\rho$-meson form-factor, and we take the Boltzmann distribution $f_\mathrm{th}(E)=\exp(-\beta E)$ with $\beta=1/T$ as inverse temperature. By the presence of the $\theta$-functions (last two factors on the r.h.s. of (\[5\])), we would like to stress that the invariant mass of a pion pair $M_\pi=\sqrt{K^2}$ is not less than two pion masses. On the other hand, possible finite values of the distribution $\left<\frac{dN^{(\rho)}}{dM^2}\right>$ below the two-pion mass threshold can occur just due to the presence of the pion system form-factor $\rho(K-P)$.
[l]{}[0.32]{}
[Fig. 2. Comparison of the Gaussian and $\theta-$function form-factors $|\rho(\mathbf{q})|^2/V$.]{}
The factor in the square brackets on the r.h.s. of (\[5\]) is a correction which is due to the Lorentz transformation of the quantity $(\mathbf{k}_1-\mathbf{k}_2)^2$ from the dilepton c.m.s. to the pion-pion c.m.s. This factor gives a remarkable contribution to the dilepton spectrum for invariant masses below the two-pion mass value. Its influence is especially pronounced for $e^+e^-$ production (see [@8]).
To clarify the effects under investigation as much as possible, for particular evaluations we take as a model of pion system the Gaussian distribution of the particles in space and the Gaussian decay of the system of pions: $$\rho(x)
=
\exp{\left(-\frac{t^2}{2\tau^2}-\frac{\mathbf{r}^2}{2R^2}\right)}
.
\label{6}$$ Meanwhile, it can be another choice of the model function for the pion source. Indeed, one can choose for instance a geometry with sharp boundaries which are determined by the $\theta$-functions. To elucidate this point we compare two formfactors (normalized to the unit volume) which correspond to the Gaussian distribution $\rho_g(\mathbf{r})=e^{-\frac{\mathbf{r}^2}{2R^2}}$ and to the $\theta$-function distribution $\rho_\theta(\mathbf{r})=\theta(R-|\mathbf{r}|)$ (see Fig. 2). Only a slight difference between these formfactors is seen and, therefore, the choice of pion source distribution doesn’t affect much the dilepton production rate. In what follows, we dwell on the Gaussian distribution.
To be closer to the quantities measured in experiment, we evaluate the rate related to the proper rapidity window $$\frac{dR}{dM\, dy}=2\pi M\frac{1}{\triangle y}
\int_{y_\mathrm{min}}^{y_\mathrm{max}}\, dy
\int_{P_{\perp}\mathrm{min}}^\infty dP_\perp\, P_\perp
\frac{dN}{d^4x\, d^4P}\, ,$$ where $\tanh{y}=P^3/P^0,\quad P_\perp^2=(P^1)^2+(P^2)^2$. The results of evaluation of the production rates $dR^{(\rho)}_{e^+e^-}/dMdy$ and $dR^{(\rho)}_{\mu^+\mu^-}/dMdy$ for electron-positron and muon-muon pairs, respectively, in pion-pion annihilation are depicted in Fig. 3. Different curves correspond to the different “spatial sizes” $R$ and different “lifetimes” $\tau$ of a hot pion system at the temperature $T=180$ MeV. Notice that the production rate in a finite small pion system differs from the rate in a infinite pion gas (solid curve) where pion $in$-states can be taken as plane waves. The deviation bigger when the parameters $R$ and $\tau$ are smaller. Of course, this is a reflection of the uncertainty principle which is realized by the presence of the distribution $|\rho(K-P)|^2$ as the integrand factor in (\[2\]). Basically, the presence of the form-factor of the multi-pion system will result in a broadening of the rate for small invariant masses $M\leqslant 800$ MeV/c$^2$ which is wider at the smaller parameters $R$ and $\tau$. This seems natural because the quantum fluctuations of the momentum are more pronounced in smaller systems. We emphasize as well that the behavior of the curves in Fig. 3, which correspond to a finite system, has a similar tendency to the CERES data [@1; @2].
{width="49.00000%"} {width="49.00000%"}
[Fig. 3. Rates of electron-positron (left panel) and muon-muon (right panel) productions in pion-pion annihilation in a small finite system, $T=180$ MeV.]{}
For comparison, we present in Fig. 4 the results of evaluation of the rate $dR^{(\rho)}_{e^+e^-}/dMdy$ of electron-positron pair production in quark-antiquark annihilation in a QGP drop. The evaluations was made under the same assumptions as for pion-pion annihilation. As in the previous case, one can see an increase in the rate with a decrease in the invariant mass up to two electron masses. This real threshold is close to the total mass of annihilating quarks $M=2m_q\thickapprox 10$ MeV/c$^2$. The different behavior of the rate for small parameters $R$ and $\tau$ in the region of small invariant masses $M\leqslant 500$ MeV/c$^2$, as compared to the rate for infinite parameters $R=\infty$, $\tau=\infty$, is due to an increase of quantum fluctuations which are evidently bigger for a smaller size of the QGP drop.
One more important result is worth to note: the enhancement of the dilepton production rate for the low invariant mass region is much more sensitive to the variation in the spatial size of a many-particle (pion, quark) system than to that in the system lifetime (see Fig. 4, right panel). This
{width="49.00000%"} {width="49.00000%"}
[Fig. 4. Electron-positron production rates in quark-antiquark annihilation in a hot QGP drop, $T=180$ MeV.]{} fact can be explained with the use of the particle density taken in a particular form (\[6\]). Indeed, for the system which is confined in three spatial dimensions, each of the three spatial densities in (\[6\]), for instance $\exp{(-x_i^2/R^2)}$ with $i=1,2,3$, corresponds to one integration in (\[1\]) over a component of the pion-pair total momentum $K_i$. Hence, each of the three integrations on the r.h.s. of (\[2\]) involves a factor which is responsible for quantum fluctuations in its own spatial dimension; for instance, one of the three factors is $(2\pi)^{1/2}R\cdot \exp{(-R^2K_i^2)}$. Meanwhile, the spectral function which is responsible for the system lifetime finiteness, for instance $(2\pi)^{1/2}\tau\cdot \exp{(-\tau^2K_0^2)}$ as in our approach, emerges as an integrand factor just once during the integration over $K_0$. That is why the 3-dimensional variations of the spatial size of a many-particle system, as seen in Fig. 4, influence the shape of the dilepton production rate much stronger than the variations of the lifetime of a small system.
[**Acknowledgements:**]{} We would like to thank D. Blaschke and V. Khryapa for fruitful discussions. D.A. wishes to express his deep appreciation to V. Ruuskanen and U. Heinz for instructive discussions and support.
[25]{}
G. Agakichiev et al., Phys. Rev. Lett. [**75**]{} (1995) 1272.
G. Agakichiev et al., Phys. Lett. B [**422**]{} (1998) 405.
C. Gale and K.L. Haglin, [hep-ph/0306098]{}. W. Cassing and E.L. Bratkovskaya, Phys. Rept. [**308**]{} , 65 (1999).
R. Rapp and J. Wambach, Adv. Nucl. Phys. [**25**]{}, 1 (2000).
V. Koch and C. Song, Phys. Rev. C [**54**]{} (1996) 1903.
K. Haglin, Phys. Rev. C [**53**]{} (1996) R2606.
D. Anchishkin, V. Khryapa, R. Naryshkin, V. Ruuskanen, Ukrainian Journal of Physics, [**49**]{} (2004) 1039, [nucl-th/0407042]{}; D. Anchishkin, V. Khryapa, and V. Ruuskanen, [hep-ph/0210346]{}.
C. Gale, J. Kapusta, Phys. Rev. C [**35**]{} (1987) 2107.
[^1]: E-mail: anch@bitp.kiev.ua
[^2]: E-mail: Naryshkin@univ.kiev.ua
|
Whitton Bridge Pasture
Whitton Bridge Pasture is a Site of Special Scientific Interest (SSSI) in the unitary authority of Stockton-on-Tees, England. At 3.18 hectares (7.9 acres) it lies to the south of Whitton village and north west of Stockton-on-Tees. SSSIs are chosen by Natural England, and Whitton Bridge Pasture was designated in 2004 because of its biological interest. It is one of 18 SSSIs in the Cleveland area of search.
The biological interest is focused on the species-rich mesotrophic grassland found across the site, which is actively maintained by grazing. The species present are predominantly grasses, although herbs and orchids are also found. The area has been classified as MG5 under the British National Vegetation Classification because of the species composition. The site is small and isolated, and therefore requires careful management to avoid damage caused by activity on neighbouring land.
Reason for notification
SSSIs are designated by Natural England, previously English Nature, which uses the 1974–1996 county system. This means there is no grouping of SSSIs by Stockton-on-Tees unitary authority, or County Durham which is the relevant ceremonial county. As such Whitton Bridge Pasture is one of 18 SSSIs in the Cleveland area of search.
Whitton Bridge Pasture is nationally important for its species-rich grassland which is unimproved by fertilisers. This type of grassland—once common in the Tees lowland—is becoming increasingly rare with its associated species also becoming scarce. Whitton Bridge Pasture is one of only two remaining examples of this habitat in the Tees lowland area. The other example is Briarcroft Pasture, an SSSI about to the south, which was designated at the same time but is significantly smaller.
Under the British National Vegetation Classification (NVC) Whitton Bridge Pasture is considered as mesotrophic grassland because it represents well-drained and permanent pasture. In particular it is considered to be an MG5 community because of the species present. MG5 is widespread in many lowland areas in England, Wales, and Scotland, particularly in the Midlands. Whitton Bridge Pasture is predominantly subcommunity MG5c (Danthonia decumbens), however subcommunity MG5a (Lathyrus pratensis) is present with a substantially different species composition.
Site description
Abiotic
Located north-west of Stockton-on-Tees and south of the village of Whitton, it is a small site of between a sewage works and Whitton Beck. Topographically the site slopes north towards the stream from a height of to less than . The underlying geology of Whitton Bridge Pasture is responsible for shaping the species-rich community found on the surface. Glacial tills and sands are the prominent geological features resulting in a relatively base-poor soil, characteristic of glacial drift geology. The soils of MG5c (Danthonia decumbens) subcommunity are typically acidic.
Because Whitton Bridge Pasture is located in North East England it experiences a climate that is different from the UK average. The North East receives on average less rainfall than the UK over a year. Similarly the North East has roughly 129 days each year with more than of rainfall, more than 25 days fewer than UK average. Despite these differences the temperature is similar for both the North East and the UK, although the North East does have fewer days with air frost and more hours of sunshine per year.
Biotic
The majority of the site is made up of species-rich grassland (subcommunity MG5c), which comprises three dominant species of grass and several other grass species at lower abundances. The dominant species are Red Fescue (Festuca rubra), Common Bent (Agrostis capillaris) and Yorkshire Fog (Holcus lanatus). The less abundant species of grass include, Crested Dog's-tail (Cynosurus cristatus), Heath-grass (Danthonia decumbens) and Cocksfoot (Dactylis glomerata). The subcommunity also has many broad-leaved herbs including Common Knapweed (Centaurea nigra), Tormentil (Potentilla erecta), Devils-bit scabious (Succisa pratensis) and Betony (Stachys officinalis).
A second subcommunity (MG5a) is present and is characterised by the legume Meadow vetchling (Lathyrus pratensis). Other species present in this subcommunity include Salad burnet (Sanguisorba minor), Quaking grass (Briza media), Pignut (Conopodium majus) and the Orchid species: Common Twayblade (Neottia ovata) and Early Purple Orchid (Orchis mascula). The subcommunity also contains Meadow barley (Hordeum secalinum), a perennial grass, which is a characteristic species of the Tees Lowland.
The two subcommunities of MG5, characterised by species rich grassland form a belt across the site, but they do not cover the whole site. Towards the north there is a community dominated by False oat-grass (Arrhenatherum elatius), a constant species in the MG1 and MG2 communities of the British NVC and therefore not typical of an MG5 community. At Whitton Bridge Pasture it is growing on alluvial soils located at the northern edge of the site, which have most likely been formed by Whitton Beck just to the north. A number of springs at the site are associated with flushes of the Pale sedge (Carex pallescens), which form small populations.
Management
Natural England's role is to advise and help the owners manage Whitton Bridge Pasture effectively. To achieve this Natural England provides guidelines for each SSSI. Species-rich grassland, such as that found at Whitton Bridge, requires careful management for it to retain its high species diversity. This means many activities are not allowed at the site including: ploughing, drainage and the use of fertilisers, pesticides or herbicides.
Management of the site requires moderate grazing during the summer and autumn to help maintain the species diversity. This is because grazing removes each year's new growth which helps stop the site becoming dominated by vigorously growing grasses. Such grasses would allow a buildup of dead organic matter, which together with the increased growth, would reduce the growth of less vigorous species. The overall effect would be a reduction in species diversity, which was one of the reasons for the SSSI designation. Trampling can be of benefit because it breaks up accumulated dead organic matter.
The small and isolated nature of the site makes it susceptible to damage from the surrounding area. For example, herbicides, thought to be generally damaging for the species richness, could get onto the site from the drift of spray from surrounding fields. To help combat this the maintenance of mature hedgerows around the perimeter is encouraged. As of 2006 the condition of Whitton Bridge Pasture is described as favourable, which means that the land is being adequately conserved and any conservation objectives are being met, but that there is scope for enhancement of the site. The condition of the site was also described as favourable in 2004 and 2005 assessments. In the future it is hoped that the grazing regime will become more regularised and will be of high priority.
References
Category:Borough of Stockton-on-Tees
Category:Sites of Special Scientific Interest in Cleveland, England
Category:Sites of Special Scientific Interest notified in 2004 |
Wynn’s offers a range of additives to prevent and solve problems that affect the operation of the engine. As an alternative to mechanical repairs, many car problems can be resolved or prevented using chemical treatments that are affordable, efficient and easy-to-use |
/*
* !!! DO NOT EDIT DIRECTLY !!!
* This file was automatically generated from the following template:
*
* src/subsys/ngx_subsys_lua_ssl.h.tt2
*/
/*
* Copyright (C) Yichun Zhang (agentzh)
*/
#ifndef _NGX_STREAM_LUA_SSL_H_INCLUDED_
#define _NGX_STREAM_LUA_SSL_H_INCLUDED_
#include "ngx_stream_lua_common.h"
#if (NGX_STREAM_SSL)
typedef struct {
ngx_connection_t *connection; /* original true connection */
ngx_stream_lua_request_t *request; /* fake request */
ngx_pool_cleanup_pt *cleanup;
ngx_ssl_session_t *session; /* retrurn value for openssl's
* session_get_cb */
ngx_str_t session_id;
int exit_code; /* exit code for openssl's
set_cert_cb callback */
int ctx_ref; /* reference to anchor
request ctx data in lua
registry */
unsigned done:1;
unsigned aborted:1;
unsigned entered_cert_handler:1;
unsigned entered_sess_fetch_handler:1;
} ngx_stream_lua_ssl_ctx_t;
ngx_int_t ngx_stream_lua_ssl_init(ngx_log_t *log);
extern int ngx_stream_lua_ssl_ctx_index;
#endif
#endif /* _NGX_STREAM_LUA_SSL_H_INCLUDED_ */
|
Karyometry of pseudostratified, metaplastic and dysplastic nasal epithelium by morphometry and stereology. 2. Automated image analysis (IBAS) of the basal layer of nickel workers.
A mathematical model for the stereological analysis of parallel-oriented, spheroidal nuclei has been applied to the basal layers of respiratory, metaplastic and dysplastic nasal epithelia. Nuclear profiles seen on tissue sections were measured with an automatic image analyser (IBAS). Nuclear profile area distributions were used to assess possible polyploidies. The result are compared to the histopathological grading, consisting of pseudostratified (respiratory), cuboidal, mixed cuboidal/squamous, squamous, and dysplastic epithelia. The estimated nuclear axis lengths, volumes, surface areas and volume/surface ratios are, in the great majority of cases, significantly smaller in pseudostratified or cuboidal epithelium than in squamous metaplasia and dysplasia. Correspondingly, the numerical density of the nuclei is lower in the latter cases, in which is also noted a smaller nuclear eccentricity. No significant difference is found between the nuclei of squamous and dysplastic epithelia. There is a clear correlation between the mean profile areas and the stereologically estimated volumes of the nuclei. When classifying the mean profile areas into four classes, a progressive shift from the smaller towards the larger size classes is observed when passing from pseudostratified to dysplastic epithelia, through the different metaplastic stages. The nuclear profile area plots often show several peaks, even in some pseudostratified and cuboidal epithelia, probably reflecting polyploidy. There is a marked tendency towards larger profile areas in squamous metaplasia and dysplasia. One histopathologically typical dysplasia showed only small-sized nuclei and another had a notable contribution of those in its profile area plot, in contrast with all the other dysplasias and squamous metaplasias, which displayed practically no small nuclei. The possible implications of the existence of "small-sized-nuclei-dysplasias" are discussed. The literature dealing with nuclear volumes or DNA quantities in putative preneoplastic situations in reviewed. Our method adds some valuable objective criteria to those used in classical histopathological grading. It should be possible to apply this method to other epithelial tissues. |
Functional analysis of the Schistosoma mansoni 28 kDa glutathione S-transferase gene promoter: involvement of SMNF-Y transcription factor in multimeric complexes.
The ability of the 5' flanking region of the gene encoding the 28 kDa glutathione S-transferase of Schistosoma mansoni gene to promote transcription, was studied in different mammalian cell lines. Results of transient transfection assays showed a strong activity of the -277 to +1 nt region of the Sm28GST gene, comparable to that of well-studied promoters. Deletion analysis indicated that an AP-1 site and two closely located CCAAT (Y1 and Y2) boxes were the principal motifs responsible for the promoter activity. Binding of the NF-Y complex to Y1 and Y2, as well as to a third CCAAT box (Y3) close to the promoter TATA box, was compared in gel shift and super-shift experiments. All of the three Y boxes bound protein complexes from S. mansoni nuclear extracts that were shown to contain the A subunit of the schistosome NF-Y complex (SMNF-YA). Competition assays revealed a differential affinity of the Y1, Y2 and Y3 sequences for NF-Y. The Y1, Y2 and Y3 regions were also shown to activate transcription when included in an heterologous promoter and data obtained strongly suggested the involvement of SMNF-Y in multimeric complexes during this process. |
Q:
dynamic pivot sql
I am trying to select data from a customers table, a contract spend table, and a contract name table. My tables look something like this
Customers
CustomerID CustomerName Address etc
1 "ABC Corp" "123 Here Ave"
2 "Acme Corp" "101 Lets Ave"
ContractTypes
ContractTypeID ContractName
1 "Website Hosting"
2 "Domain Hosting"
3 "Email Hosting"
ServiceSpend
ServiceSpendID ContractTypeID CustomerID Spend
1 2 1 5.99
2 1 1 5.99
3 1 2 9.99
I would like to produce the following table
CustomerID CustomerName Address DomainHosting WebsiteHosting
1 "ABC Corp" "123 Here Ave" 9.99 5.99
Currently I have the following sql statement which works but I need to be able to define the columns dynamically as we need to be able to add additional contract names to the database and still report on the customer spend
select *
from
(
SELECT
Customers.CustomerID, Customers.ContactName, Customers.Address, ContractTypes.ContractName AS ContractName, ServiceSpend.Spend
FROM
Customers INNER JOIN
ServiceSpend ON Customers.CustomerID = ServiceSpend.CustomerID
INNER JOIN
ContractTypes ON ServiceSpend.ContractTypeID = ContractTypes.ContractTypeID
) src
pivot
(
sum(spend)
for ContractName in ([Website Hosting],[Domain Hosting])) piv;
Does anyone know how I might add my columns dynamically
A:
You have to use dynamic sql to construct the columns for your output:
DECLARE @Columns VARCHAR(1000) = STUFF((
SELECT ',[' + ContactName + ']'
FROM ContactTypes
FOR XML PATH('')
),1,1,'')
DECLARE @Sql VARCHAR(1000) = '
SELECT *
FROM (
SELECT
Customers.CustomerID,
Customers.ContactName,
Customers.Address,
ContractTypes.ContractName,
ServiceSpend.Spend
FROM Customers
INNER JOIN ServiceSpend
ON Customers.CustomerID = ServiceSpend.CustomerID
INNER JOIN ContractTypes
ON ServiceSpend.ContractTypeID = ContractTypes.ContractTypeID
) SRC
PIVOT (SUM(Spend) FOR ContractName IN (' + @Columns + ')) piv;'
EXEC (@Sql)
|
ST. PAUL, Minnesota, May 26, 2017 (LifeSiteNews) -- A mother’s lawsuit against a Minnesota school system for secretly helping her 15-year-old son "transition" to "female" was dismissed by a federal judge.
Anmarie Calgaro of Iron Junction discovered all too late last November that her son's school was secretly giving him female hormone treatments with funding from the government. She sued the school district, the county health board, and a local health care entity for violating her rights as a parent.
But the school countered that the boy was “emancipated” from his mother because he had been living on his own, and was therefore legally able to make his own medical decisions.
The 15-year-old had previously moved in with his father — with the mother's permission — to go to a better school (Calgaro is divorced from her husband). The boy then moved in with friends before eventually living on his own. The school interpreted the boy living on his own as "emancipation" from parental influence, determining that the minor teen could make his own elective medical decisions.
Unbeknown to the mother, the boy had also filled out an emancipation form and filed it with the help of a homosexual advocacy group.
"If there had been a court order of emancipation, then Anmarie would have received notice and an opportunity to be heard," Calgaro's attorney Erick Kaardal of the Thomas More Society explained.
The mother says her son’s emancipation filing was filled with false information. For one thing, it claimed that the mother had surrendered her parental rights.
The boy's emancipation filing also claimed that Calgaro failed to report him "as a runaway" and "made no attempt to bring him home," concluding that she "no longer wishes to have contact with him." But the mother denies these claims.
The mother’s defense team says the case is essentially about protecting parental rights.
“The U.S. Constitution says that parental rights are fundamental rights, that can’t be terminated without due process,” Kaardal told the local CBS affiliate.
Calgaro said she is suing not just for herself but "for the benefit of all parents and families who may be facing the same violation of their rights.”
Because of the assumption of emancipation, the school refused to give Calgaro her son’s medical or educational records, and the Department of Human Services refused to give Calgaro information about his "transition" treatments, including a "life-changing operation," according to the Thomas Moore Society (TMS).
TMS even notes that ironically, the boy’s application for a name change was denied by the St. Louis County District Court because of the “lack of any adjudication relative to emancipation.”
This week District Judge Paul Magnuson dismissed Calgaro's lawsuit. He admitted the boy was not legally emancipated, and so Calgaro's parental right "remain intact." Despite this, the judge nevertheless decreed that the school and health care facility “cannot be held liable … because they did not act under color of state law.”
In essence, the judge decided that the school and government agencies could only be held accountable if it acted against a law or a “policy or custom.” Therefore, Calgaro had no legal claim, he argued.
The judge went so far in downplaying parental rights as to rule that a parent's access to their child's medical and education records is a question to be solved. He admitted in his ruling that he "explicitly left open the question ‘whether and to what extent the fundamental liberty interest in the custody, care, and management of one’s children mandates parental access to school records.'”
The mother's defense team plans to appeal the ruling to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Eighth Circuit.
“Anmarie Calgaro is living a parent’s worst nightmare," Kaardal of the Thomas More Society said. "Her minor child has been piloted by third parties through a life-changing, permanent body altering process by organizations that have no legal authority over him, and that have denied his own mother access.”
LGBTQ advocates supporting the boy's "transition" outside parental knowledge say the boy's mother proves her anti-trans prejudice by still referring to her biological son who now looks like a female as "he."
David Edwards of the transgender group Transforming Families told NBC News that he took offense when Calgaro referred to her son in male pronouns. "Purposefully mis-gendering a transgender person is an act of violence," Edwards claimed. "To continually do that to your child is not only insensitive but also really harmful," he said. |
Maxima is a symbolic computation program. It is full featured,
doing symbolic manipulation of polynomials, matrices, rational
functions, integration, Todd-coxeter, graphing, bigfloats. It has a
symbolic debugger source level debugger for maxima code. Maxima is
based on the original Macsyma developed at MIT in the 1970's. It is
quite reliable, and has good garbage collection, and no memory leaks.
It comes with hundreds of self tests.
Maxima is distributed under the GNU General Public License, with some
export restrictions from the U.S. Department of Energy. See the file
COPYING.
Installation information is available in the file INSTALL. Summary
information about this release can be found in the file NEWS. Detailed
change information is available in the ChangeLog.
For more information on Maxima, see the Maxima web site,
<http://maxima.sourceforge.net>.
|
A hybrid-specific, polymerase chain reaction-based amplification approach for chromosomal walking.
Here we report the development of an accurate and efficient genome walking approach based on ligation-mediated polymerase chain reaction (PCR) and magnetic capture hybrid selection technique. This approach overcomes the nonspecific amplification products that often occur in similar PCR-based methods. Our strategy was successfully applied for the cloning of the promoter region of the Cc RNase gene. This rapid, cost-effective, and sensitive protocol can easily be extended for use in the isolation and amplification of any target sequences for which only partial information is known such as identification of the position of transposable elements and integrated viral DNA sequences. |
North Korea
The Democratic People’s Republic of Korea (DPRK) has begun talks with the South that leave the US out of the discussion. This move is wholly just as the issue is an inter-Korean issue, not one that the US has any right to be speaking on. The division of the peninsula and the possibilities of unification…
Three renowned judges in the area of international human rights have declared that the DPRK and many of its leaders should be placed on trial for crimes against humanity. The panel alleges some of the most horrific crimes: systematic murder, including infanticide, and torture, persecution of Christians, rape, forced abortions, starvation and overwork leading to…
The Democratic People’s Republic of Korea (DPRK) has tested a new ballistic missile in defiance of UN security council rulings. The DPRK has edged even closer to being a nuclear-armed state that is capable of reaching the US mainland. The dream of the DPRK of having a full nuclear deterrent against invasion by the US…
The US secretary of defense [James Mattis] says he “cannot imagine” the US ever accepting North Korea as a nuclear state, and claimed that possessing nuclear arms makes Pyongyang vulnerable rather than more secure. (Source) Why do they think this? They think this because US imperialism simply cannot accept that the DPRK has the ability…
At first, it must seem wholly mystifying that Jimmy Carter seems to be helping Donald Trump. The two men could not be any more different. Carter is a well-mannered ex-president who seems to have great compassion for the poor – or the first world poor anyway. Trump by compassion is a loud-mouthed, ill-mannered, and frankly…
Once again president Trump has decided to speak before thinking. At the 72nd UN assembly today, he decided to threaten the DPRK who oppose US power in their countries. “The United States has great strength and patience, but if it is forced to defend itself or its allies, we will have no choice but to…
Technological progression of the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea’s ballistic missle program is accelerting day by day. The West has tremednously underestimated the technological capability of the embattled country. Each missile test is demonstrating a significant step forward in the refinement of weapons development. Just a few days ago antoher missile was tested crashing into… |
Teena By Hina Buttis one of the best fashion brand of Pakistan. Teena label by Hina Butt is now so famous for their womans outfits. it provide stunning style for seasonal occasions. recently they introduced silk kurtas with embroidered and printed logo on front and back of shirt. these are all both for girls and womans. if you want trendy look, wear these kurta with tight, jeans, trouser or pajamas. these long kurta style dresses you can also wear at formal parties. |
Casperson’s push comes in the final weeks before Gov.-elect Gretchen Whitmer, a Democrat, is to be sworn into office along with a more Democrat-heavy Legislature, and it has angered environmentalists and local government leaders.
The comments came after Casperson announced rare welcome news for some of his critics: He was scrapping Senate Bill 1210.
That legislation would have barred local governments from regulating mining activities and paved the way for a 500-acre gravel mine to open in the quaint village of Metamora, which residents had contested for 30 years.
Mining industry officials had pushed for the legislation, saying local opposition was threatening Michigan’s supplies of aggregate materials used in construction.
Casperson said he didn’t have enough information to comfortably advance the bill in the session’s waning days, and he was moved by the passionate opposition from Metamora residents.
The community, southeast of Flint, is already home to four gravel mines, and residents feared one more mine — far bigger — would ruin the town.
“They were heartfelt and they were sincere about it, and I certainly don’t want to disrupt their lives,” Casperson said, adding that a compromise solution to the fight is still needed.
Still, Casperson objected to how environmentalists and news media portrayed his efforts on mining and other environmental issues, where he sees himself standing up for “little guy” property owners against overzealous regulators.
“Most of the [news] stories I hear are framed in a way that look like our stance is unreasonable, based on what you’re hearing from them,” he said. “That’s unfair. Why not down the middle, saying people are concerned about personal property rights...and the environmental community’s concerned about the wetlands?”
On Tuesday, the Senate sent one of Casperson’s most loudly contested proposals to the House. Environmental critics say Senate Bill 1211 would open thousands of acres of wetlands and thousands of lakes to unregulated dredging, filling or construction.
"Despite public outcry, lawmakers are rushing this damaging legislation through lame duck. It literally paves the way for eliminating lakes and wetlands that provide vital water quality protections and important recreation resources for our state,” Tom Zimnicki, agriculture policy director for the Michigan Environmental Council, said Tuesday.
Casperson this month is capping a 16-year career in state politics, He previously spent two decades in a log trucking business his family owns — an experience that helped shape his pro-industry, pro-private property rights views.
His legislation over the years has regulated metallic mining in Michigan, capped how much land the state can own and cut red tape for those wishing to groom beachfront property. Earlier this year, legislation he sponsored gave industry representatives a larger role in environmental regulation. |
Judaism:
The Oral Law -Talmud & Mishna
The Oral Law
is a legal commentary on the Torah, explaining how its
commandments are to be carried out. Common sense suggests
that some sort of oral tradition was always needed to
accompany the Written Law, because the Torah alone,
even with its 613
commandments, is an insufficient guide to Jewish
life. For example, the fourth of the Ten
Commandments, ordains, "Remember the Sabbath
day to make it holy" (Exodus
20:8). From the Sabbath's inclusion in the Ten Commandments, it is clear that
the Torah regards it as an important holiday. Yet when
one looks for the specific biblical laws regulating
how to observe the day, one finds only injunctions against
lighting a fire, going away from one's dwelling, cutting
down a tree, plowing and harvesting. Would merely refraining
from these few activities fulfill the biblical command
to make the Sabbath holy? Indeed, the Sabbath rituals
that are most commonly associated with holiness-lighting
of candles, reciting the kiddush, and the reading
of the weekly Torah portion are found not in the Torah, but in
the Oral Law.
Without an oral tradition, some of
the Torah's laws would be incomprehensible. In the Shema's first paragraph, the Bible instructs: "And these
words which I command you this day shall be upon your
heart. And you shall teach them diligently to your children,
and you shall talk of them when you sit in your house,
when you walk on the road, when you lie down and when
you rise up. And you shall bind them for a sign upon
your hand, and they shall be for frontlets between your
eyes." "Bind them for a sign upon your
hand," the last verse instructs. Bind what? The
Torah doesn't say. "And they shall be for frontlets
between your eyes." What are frontlets? The Hebrew
word for frontlets, totafot is used three times
in the Torah always in this context (Exodus
13:16; Deuteronomy
6:8, 11:18)
and is as obscure as is the English. Only in
the Oral Law do we learn that what a Jewish male should
bind upon his hand and between his eyes are tefillin (phylacteries).
Finally, an Oral Law was needed to
mitigate certain categorical Torah laws that would have
caused grave problems if carried out literally. The
Written Law, for example, demands an "eye for an
eye" (Exodus 21:24).
Did this imply that if one person accidentally blinded
another, he should be blinded in return? That seems
to be the Torah's wish. But the Oral Law explains that
the verse must be understood as requiring monetary compensation:
the value of an eye is what must be paid.
The Jewish community of Palestine suffered horrendous losses during the Great
Revolt and the Bar-Kokhba
rebellion. Well over a million Jews were killed in the two
ill-fated uprisings, and the leading yeshivot, along with thousands
of their rabbinical scholars and students, were devastated.
This decline in the number of knowledgeable Jews
seems to have been a decisive factor in Rabbi Judah the Prince's
decision around the year 200 C.E. to record in writing the Oral
Law. For centuries, Judaism's leading rabbis had resisted writing down the Oral
Law. Teaching the law orally, the rabbis knew, compelled students
to maintain close relationships with teachers, and they considered
teachers, not books, to be the best conveyors of the Jewish
tradition. But with the deaths of so many teachers in the failed
revolts, Rabbi Judah apparently feared that the Oral
Law would be forgotten unless it were written down.
In the Mishna, the name for the sixty-three
tractates in which Rabbi Judah set down the Oral
Law, Jewish law is systematically codified, unlike in the Torah.
For example, if a person wanted to find every law in the Torah about the Sabbath, he
would have to locate scattered references in Exodus, Leviticus, and Numbers.
Indeed, in order to know everything the Torah said on a given subject, one either had to read through all of it or
know its contents by heart. Rabbi Judah avoided this problem by
arranging the Mishna topically. All laws pertaining to the Sabbath were put into one tractate called Shabbat (Hebrew for
"Sabbath"). The laws contained in Shabbat's twenty-four chapters are far more extensive than those contained in
the Torah, for the Mishna summarizes the Oral Law's extensive Sabbath legislation. The tractate Shabbat is part of a larger
"order" called Mo'ed (Hebrew for
"holiday"), which is one of six orders that comprise the
Mishna. Some of the other tractates in Mo'ed specify the Oral Laws of Passover (Pesachim); Purim (Megillah); Rosh haShana; Yom
Kippur (Yoma); and Sukkot.
The first of the six orders is called Zera'im (Seeds), and deals with the agricultural rules of ancient Palestine,
particularly with the details of the produce that were to be
presented as offerings at the Temple in Jerusalem.
The most famous tractate in Zera'im, however, Brakhot (Blessings)
has little to do with agriculture. It records laws concerning
different blessings and when they are to be recited.
Another order, Nashim (Women), deals
with issues between the sexes, including both laws of marriage, Kiddushin, and of divorce, Gittin.
A fifth order, Kodashim, outlines the laws
of sacrifices and ritual
slaughter. The sixth order, Taharot, contains the laws of
purity and impurity.
Although parts of the Mishna read as dry legal
recitations, Rabbi Judah frequently enlivened the text by presenting
minority views, which it was also hoped might serve to guide scholars
in later generations (Mishna Eduyot 1:6). In one famous
instance, the legal code turned almost poetic, as Rabbi Judah cited
the lengthy warning the rabbinic judges delivered to witnesses
testifying in capital cases:
"How are witnesses inspired with awe in
capital cases?" the Mishna begins. "They are brought in
and admonished as follows: In case you may want to offer testimony
that is only conjecture or hearsay or secondhand evidence, even
from a person you consider trustworthy; or in the event you do not
know that we shall test you by cross-examination and inquiry, then
know that capital cases are not like monetary cases. In monetary
cases, a man can make monetary restitution and be forgiven, but in
capital cases both the blood of the man put to death and the blood
of his [potential] descendants are on the witness's head until the
end of time. For thus we find in the case of Cain, who killed his
brother, that it is written: 'The bloods of your brother cry unto
Me' (Genesis 4:10) that
is, his blood and the blood of his potential descendants....
Therefore was the first man, Adam, created alone, to teach us that
whoever destroys a single life, the Bible considers it as if he
destroyed an entire world. And whoever saves a single life, the
Bible considers it as if he saved an entire world. Furthermore,
only one man, Adam, was created for the sake of peace among men, so
that no one should say to his fellow, 'My father was greater than
yours.... Also, man [was created singly] to show the greatness of
the Holy One, Blessed be He, for if a man strikes many coins from
one mold, they all resemble one another, but the King of Kings, the
Holy One, Blessed be He, made each man in the image of Adam, and
yet not one of them resembles his fellow. Therefore every single
person is obligated to say, 'The world was created for my
sake"' (Mishna Sanhedrin 4:5). (One commentary notes,
"How grave the responsibility, therefore, of corrupting myself
by giving false evidence, and thus bringing [upon myself the moral
guilt of [murdering] a whole world.")
One of the Mishna's sixtythree tractates
contains no laws at all. It is called Pirkei Avot (usually
translated as Ethics of the Fathers), and it is the "Bartlett's"
of the rabbis, in which their most famous sayings and proverbs are
recorded.
During the centuries following Rabbi Judah's editing
of the Mishna, it was studied exhaustively by generation after generation
of rabbis. Eventually, some of these rabbis wrote down their discussions
and commentaries on the Mishna's laws in a series of books known as
the Talmud. The rabbis
of Palestine edited their discussions of the Mishna about the year 400:
Their work became known as the Palestinian Talmud (in Hebrew, Talmud Yerushalmi, which literally means "Jerusalem Talmud").
More than a century later, some of the leading
Babylonian rabbis compiled another editing of the discussions on the
Mishna. By then, these deliberations had been going on some three
hundred years. The Babylon edition was far more extensive than its
Palestinian counterpart, so that the Babylonian Talmud (Talmud
Bavli) became the most authoritative compilation of the Oral Law.
When people speak of studying "the Talmud," they almost
invariably mean the Bavli rather than the Yerushalmi.
The Talmud's discussions are recorded in a
consistent format. A law from the Mishna is cited, which is followed
by rabbinic deliberations on its meaning. The Mishna and the rabbinic
discussions (known as the Gemara) comprise the Talmud,
although in Jewish life the terms Gemara and Talmud usually
are used interchangeably.
The rabbis whose views are cited in the Mishna are
known as Tanna'im (Aramaic for "teachers"), while
the rabbis quoted in the Gemara are known as Amora'im ("explainers" or "interpreters"). Because the Tanna'im lived earlier than the Amora'im, and thus were in closer
proximity to Moses and the revelation at Sinai, their teachings are
considered more authoritative than those of the Amora'im. For
the same reason, Jewish tradition generally regards the teachings of
the Amora'im, insofar as they are expounding the Oral Law, as
more authoritative than contemporary rabbinic teachings.
In addition to extensive legal discussions (in
Hebrew, halakha), the rabbis incorporated into the Talmud
guidance on ethical matters, medical advice, historical information,
and folklore, which together are known as aggadata.
As a rule, the Gemara's text starts with a
close reading of the Mishna. For example, Mishna Bava Mezia 7:1 teaches the following: "If a man hired laborers and ordered
them to work early in the morning and late at night, he cannot compel
them to work early and late if it is not the custom to do so in that
place." On this, the Gemara (Bava Mezia 83a)
comments: "Is it not obvious [that an employer cannot demand
that they change from the local custom]? The case in question is
where the employer gave them a higher wage than was normal. In that
case, it might be argued that he could then say to them, 'The reason
I gave you a higher wage than is normal is so that you will work
early in the morning and late at night.' So the law tells us that the
laborers can reply: 'The reason that you gave us a higher wage than
is normal is for better work [not longer hours].'"
Among religious Jews, talmudic scholars are regarded
with the same awe and respect with which secular society regards Nobel
laureates. Yet throughout Jewish history, study of the Mishna and Talmud
was hardly restricted to an intellectual elite. An old book saved from
the millions burned by the Nazis, and now housed at the YIVO library
in New York, bears the stamp THE SOCIETY OF WOODCHOPPERS FOR THE STUDY
OF MISHNA IN BERDITCHEV. That the men who chopped wood in Berditchev,
an arduous job that required no literacy, met regularly to study Jewish
law demonstrates the ongoing pervasiveness of study of the Oral Law
in the Jewish community. |
Q:
How to apply Collider to Particle and what components are needed for particles?
i want to apply collider to particle system because if i applied the collider to particle ,if any other game object touched to that particle its gives some action or do some operation.so only i need.
A:
In the particle system component properties you can find a tab that is called collision, then you just tick it and set it to world space, and in order to be detectable you could add a tag to the particle system and make other objects check for the collision with the objects with that tag.
|
I hate to be the one to spew the most obvious cliché, but there is far too much emphasis placed on the orgasm. "Able to come more than once, able to come at least this many times in such-and-such a time period..." Please people!
I tend to rapidly lose interest and tire easily after I orgasm. The faster I orgasm, the more quickly I lose "the zone". Sometimes this is a good thing, like if we have to go somewhere soon. Also, sometimes it's good if the guy ejaculates somewhat prior to the sex act, then he can focus on other things besides his impending orgasm.
Of course, these points have very little to do with whether or not someone wants sex in the first place.
This is an excellent point - there is definitely a difference between number of ejaculations and drive. I've been through periods of time where I've been less interested in sex, and I do need to feel "in the mood". If I'm covered in grease, working on my motorcycle, and frustrated by a problem I can't seem to solve, I'm not going to leap at the possibility, because I'll be stressed out. Once I solve that problem and wash my hands, then I'll feel all sexy and manly and want to boink.
...and as for personal records, mine was 13, I was 18 at the time. More recently, I've managed 8 or 9. I don't enjoy these marathon ejaculation sessions all that much though, I need breaks inbetween, and after the first four or so in a 12 hour period, it just isn't quite as functional, and doesn't feel quite as good. At some point I'm thinking "damn woman, you need a vibrator".
....and speaking of vibrators, an interesting anecdotal aside somewhat relevant to this story is that most men are excellent masturbators (whether we admit it or not). I've known some women who are good at it, but they seem to be far fewer than men. My wife, for example, has repeatedly expressed frustration at how difficult it is to bring a woman (specifically herself) to orgasm. This may be contributing to the lack of male sexual frustration the OP has mentioned. Another potential factor is, I have my doubts about highly satisfied women seeking the consultation of psychics, or really anyone.
Mono - I definitely recommend reading "Sex at Dawn" - while it gives an excellent overview of the evolution of human sexuality, and debunks many of the preconceptions regarding monogamy in humans, it never says you "have" to be poly, or anything like that. It merely suggests we make less of a big deal out of infidelity and our sexuality in general. In fact, it overviews the incredible adaptability of certain parts of male DNA and anatomy to deal with varying situations, and suggests we are adapting physically to our cultural choice of monogamy. I know you're Mono, but reading this book can only enhance your understanding of those you love, even if it brings you little insight into yourself (which I wouldn't entirely rule-out - we are very complex animals, after all). |
Real Madrid and the Bernabéu sent forces to Casillas
Players and fans took advantage of the game against Villarreal to show their affection again to the Porto goalkeeper, who suffered a heart attack this week.
Four days ago, on May 1, the world of football was shocked by the news from Portugal of infarction suffered by Casillas while training with Oporto. From that moment there was a continuous trickle of affection and support that has arrived today at the Bernabéu, the doorman's house from 1999 to 2015.
Casillas, which as has been counting As on foot of the CUF Porto Hospital progresses satisfactorily from acute myocardial infarction, was honored by the players and the fans of Madrid against Villarreal. Zidane's boys jumped on the lawn with shirts that read "Iker, everyone with you". On the other hand, the grandstand remembered its idol with a banner of the collective Grada Fans with the motto "MADRIDISMO IS WITH YOU, FORCE IKER, ETERNO CAPITÁN" . From that same sector, after the initial whistle, several chants began in honor of the mostoleño.
Madrid has been very aware of Casillas since the mishap was known, after which he issued an affectionate statement sending force to his "beloved captain" . This Sunday, under the headline "IKER, all with you", took him to the cover of Grada Blanca, the club's magazine for the fans present at the stadium. Besides in private and through social networks, Zidane himself had asked to speak before the press conference before the match against Villarreal to remember him. |
Paul Collingwood revels in celebrations
England may have broken a 24-year duck by beating Australia in their own back yard this winter but retiring batsman Paul Collingwood said celebrating with the Barmy Army made the SCG feel just like home.
With rain hovering overhead the tourists took the three wickets they needed to condemn their hapless hosts to yet another innings defeat in Sydney, placing the finishing touches on a 3-1 series victory in the process.
The team immediately broke out into joyous celebrations in the middle before making their way to share the moment with the huge English contingent in the Victor Trumper Stand.
For Collingwood it was a bittersweet moment: the end of his Test career and also its pinnacle, and he thanked his side's followers for ensuring it was enjoyed in the right fashion.
"I'm a softie really. There were times when I had goose bumps," he conceded.
"I always said I wanted to bow out in England in front of English fans and it felt like home here. The atmosphere out there was special. The lads standing in the slips were all looking at our arms and we had goose bumps going up them.
"It is a sad moment in many ways but I honestly think it is the right time. This is why I've been playing cricket - to be in a position like this against Australia in Australia.
"I can't think of a better way to bow out of Test cricket. There are some great guys in that dressing room and this feels very special.
"To bow out in front of so many English fans, having won the Ashes in Australia, it couldn't get any better."
Another man for whom the series represented a scarcely believable high was Surrey seamer Chris Tremlett.
Tremlett dismissed Michael Beer to close the final innings of the series and secure the win - a set of circumstances few would have predicted when he was a surprise call-up to the touring party after three years in the wilderness.
"It's unbelievable," he told Sky Sports 1. "It's great to get an opportunity and be here. It's an amazing feeling and I couldn't imagine this would happen.
"It was great to get an opportunity and be here. It's an amazing feeling and I couldn't imagine this would happen.
"We gave ourselves a chance to finish it yesterday, but didn't, so we turned up today and bowled in the right areas.
"I tried to bowl straight. Luckily he (Beer) dragged on and to take the last wicket is brilliant."
James Anderson, who finished the series as the leading wicket taker and the best bowler on either side, added: "It's a great day and it's been a great tour. It's an amazing feeling for us.
"I've been delighted with my form this tour. I enjoy my role leading the attack but my job has been made easier by the guys at the other end.
"Tremlett has been amazing, so has Swann and (Tim) Bresnan, not forgetting Broad and (Steven) Finn."
England batsman Alastair Cook was named as the man of the match and of the series for his astonishing 766-run haul across the five matches and he too carries lifelong memories from the tour.
"It's amazing," he said. "To be there when Chris Tremlett took the final wicket will live long in the memory. I want to thank everyone, it's been a great trip.
"I've put in a lot of hard work and have got more experience and got a little bit better. I couldn't imagine how these seven weeks would go.
"My best innings was the 200 at Brisbane. I'd never got a first class 200 or a Test 200 and to win man of the match in the final game of the Ashes is a dream come true.
"Our bowlers have been fantastic and have put some real pressure on the Australian batsmen."
Kevin Pietersen, who was part of the England side whitewashed 5-0 in Australia four years ago, said: "It's difficult to compare the two. It's amazing to win so convincingly in Australia. It's all credit to the team and the management. Every single bloke has done something to make it such a great trip.
"Every single time an occasion has been needed, one of us has stood up. I did in Adelaide, but every single bloke, player, member of the backroom staff has been outstanding."
Australia have never lost three Tests by an innings in the same series before, and spinner Graeme Swann admitted he had not been aware of that statistic.
"Someone told me that it's the first time it happened to Australia. You don't realise the historical significance of anything that's going on," he said
"To win three so convincingly helps us forget about the drubbing we had in Perth." |
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<name>new group 1</name>
<position x="0.0" y="0.0"/>
<style>new style</style>
<comment>new comments</comment>
<processor>
<id>7fc60e56-c7cd-47bc-8290-bcd52b42b4ac</id>
<name>new TerminationFileProcessor</name>
<position x="0.0" y="0.0"/>
<style>new processor</style>
<comment/>
<class>org.apache.nifi.test.processors.StubTerminationFileProcessor</class>
<maxConcurrentTasks>10</maxConcurrentTasks>
<schedulingPeriodSeconds>10</schedulingPeriodSeconds>
<maxWorkQueueSize>10</maxWorkQueueSize>
<lossTolerant>false</lossTolerant>
<running>true</running>
<flowFileExpirationMinutes>10</flowFileExpirationMinutes>
<queuePrioritizerClass>org.apache.nifi.comparator.NewestFlowFileFirstComparator</queuePrioritizerClass>
<annotationData>some annotation data</annotationData>
</processor>
<processor>
<id>1bc2d455-a45d-43fc-a96c-909b6a00311e</id>
<name>AttributeLoggerProcessor</name>
<position x="0.0" y="0.0"/>
<style>processor</style>
<comment/>
<class>org.apache.nifi.test.processors.StubAttributeLoggerProcessor</class>
<maxConcurrentTasks>1</maxConcurrentTasks>
<schedulingPeriodSeconds>0</schedulingPeriodSeconds>
<maxWorkQueueSize>0</maxWorkQueueSize>
<lossTolerant>false</lossTolerant>
<running>false</running>
<flowFileExpirationMinutes>0</flowFileExpirationMinutes>
<property>
<name>log.level</name>
<value>trace</value>
</property>
<property>
<name>log.payload</name>
<value>true</value>
</property>
<annotationData/>
</processor>
<inputPort>
<id>e8cf322a-7855-442b-8478-b76520ae62a2</id>
<name>new Remote In</name>
<position x="0.0" y="0.0"/>
<style>new input-port</style>
</inputPort>
<outputPort>
<id>069757e4-a3c9-474f-9593-c55516c510f8</id>
<name>new Remote Out</name>
<position x="0.0" y="0.0"/>
<style>new output-port</style>
<destination>
<hostname>localhost</hostname>
<controllerPort>8080</controllerPort>
<protocol>http</protocol>
<remotePortId>e8cf322a-7855-442b-8478-b76520ae62a2</remotePortId>
</destination>
</outputPort>
<label>
<id>59a5a3ff-1b87-45c6-b5b4-307735baf2b7</id>
<position x="0.0" y="0.0"/>
<style>new label</style>
<value></value>
</label>
<processGroup>
<id>994be764-7e03-421c-ab10-f21956073c2a</id>
<name>new gr</name>
<position x="0.0" y="0.0"/>
<style>new process-group</style>
<comment> some comments </comment>
<processor>
<id>d489d825-67da-45eb-a714-98a811608daf</id>
<name>new AttributeLoggerProcessor</name>
<position x="0.0" y="0.0"/>
<style>new processor</style>
<comment/>
<class>org.apache.nifi.test.processors.StubAttributeLoggerProcessor</class>
<maxConcurrentTasks>1</maxConcurrentTasks>
<schedulingPeriodSeconds>0</schedulingPeriodSeconds>
<maxWorkQueueSize>0</maxWorkQueueSize>
<lossTolerant>false</lossTolerant>
<running>false</running>
<flowFileExpirationMinutes>0</flowFileExpirationMinutes>
<property>
<name>log.level</name>
<value>debug</value>
</property>
<annotationData/>
</processor>
<inputPort>
<id>167e3556-b6f2-4e9a-b143-e02c91bb7fb6</id>
<name>Group In</name>
<position x="0.0" y="0.0"/>
<style>input-port</style>
</inputPort>
<outputPort>
<id>b14135ee-411d-46be-b377-5ed4c8d72cbe</id>
<name>Group Out</name>
<position x="0.0" y="0.0"/>
<style>output-port</style>
</outputPort>
<connection>
<id>b8886cad-373f-4ac4-8028-3968fdcd5252</id>
<name>new name</name>
<bendPoints/>
<labelIndex>1</labelIndex>
<zIndex>0</zIndex>
<style>new style</style>
<sourceId>167e3556-b6f2-4e9a-b143-e02c91bb7fb6</sourceId>
<sourceGroupId>994be764-7e03-421c-ab10-f21956073c2a</sourceGroupId>
<sourceType>INPUT_PORT</sourceType>
<destinationId>b14135ee-411d-46be-b377-5ed4c8d72cbe</destinationId>
<destinationGroupId>994be764-7e03-421c-ab10-f21956073c2a</destinationGroupId>
<destinationType>OUTPUT_PORT</destinationType>
<countFlowFiles>false</countFlowFiles>
<countBytes>false</countBytes>
<relationship/>
</connection>
</processGroup>
<remoteProcessGroup>
<id>52c47e32-91c5-40d4-bf0a-37d672ce8190</id>
<name>new Unable to Connect</name>
<position x="0.0" y="0.0"/>
<style>new remote-process-group</style>
<comment/>
<url>http://localhost:8080</url>
</remoteProcessGroup>
<connection>
<id>cede7d64-040e-4951-bea4-04c100bf1064</id>
<name/>
<bendPoints/>
<labelIndex>1</labelIndex>
<zIndex>0</zIndex>
<style/>
<sourceId>e8cf322a-7855-442b-8478-b76520ae62a2</sourceId>
<sourceGroupId>4190002f-8b17-4772-bd62-8efec12c0cd0</sourceGroupId>
<sourceType>INPUT_PORT</sourceType>
<destinationId>1bc2d455-a45d-43fc-a96c-909b6a00311e</destinationId>
<destinationGroupId>4190002f-8b17-4772-bd62-8efec12c0cd0</destinationGroupId>
<destinationType>PROCESSOR</destinationType>
<countFlowFiles>false</countFlowFiles>
<countBytes>false</countBytes>
<relationship/>
</connection>
<connection>
<id>edba74b5-8bd9-44a0-b0d7-1adfc946e948</id>
<name/>
<bendPoints/>
<labelIndex>1</labelIndex>
<zIndex>0</zIndex>
<style/>
<sourceId>1bc2d455-a45d-43fc-a96c-909b6a00311e</sourceId>
<sourceGroupId>4190002f-8b17-4772-bd62-8efec12c0cd0</sourceGroupId>
<sourceType>PROCESSOR</sourceType>
<destinationId>167e3556-b6f2-4e9a-b143-e02c91bb7fb6</destinationId>
<destinationGroupId>994be764-7e03-421c-ab10-f21956073c2a</destinationGroupId>
<destinationType>INPUT_PORT</destinationType>
<countFlowFiles>false</countFlowFiles>
<countBytes>false</countBytes>
<relationship>success</relationship>
</connection>
<connection>
<id>17a9cdd4-de3d-4d14-a57b-3dee8d503d3a</id>
<name/>
<bendPoints/>
<labelIndex>1</labelIndex>
<zIndex>0</zIndex>
<style/>
<sourceId>b14135ee-411d-46be-b377-5ed4c8d72cbe</sourceId>
<sourceGroupId>994be764-7e03-421c-ab10-f21956073c2a</sourceGroupId>
<sourceType>OUTPUT_PORT</sourceType>
<destinationId>7fc60e56-c7cd-47bc-8290-bcd52b42b42c</destinationId>
<destinationGroupId>4190002f-8b17-4772-bd62-8efec12c0cd0</destinationGroupId>
<destinationType>PROCESSOR</destinationType>
<countFlowFiles>false</countFlowFiles>
<countBytes>false</countBytes>
<relationship/>
</connection>
</rootGroup>
</flowController> |
Complete resection of colorectal adenomas: what are the important factors in fellow training?
The complete removal of adenomatous polyps is important for reducing interval cancer after colonoscopy. To identify factors affecting the completeness of colonoscopic polypectomies and to evaluate the experience level of fellows who achieve competence compared with that of experts. Medical records of 1,860 patients who underwent at least one polypectomy for an adenomatous polyp at Seoul National University Hospital between March 2011 and February 2013 were retrospectively reviewed. A total of 3,469 adenomatous polyps were included. The lateral and deep margins of the resected polyps were evaluated to check the resection completeness. Of the 3,469 adenomatous polyps, 1,389 (40.0 %) were removed by two experts and 2,080 (60.0 %) were removed by seven fellows. In the expert-treated group, larger size [odds ratio (OR) 2.81 for ≥20 mm, 95 % confidence interval (CI) 1.64-4.84, P < 0.001] and right-sided location (OR 1.31, 95 % CI 1.05-1.63, P = 0.019) were associated with incomplete resection. In the fellow-treated group, not only polyp characteristics [right-sided location (OR 1.41, 95 % CI 1.18-1.69, P < 0.001)], but also the cumulative number of procedures was also related to resection completeness. After 300 polypectomies, the complete resection rate of the fellows was comparable to that of the experts. In the fellow-treated group, the level of procedure experience was closely associated with the polypectomy outcomes. Meticulous attention is critical to ensure the completeness of polypectomies performed by trainee endoscopists during the training program. |
My picks in BoldLeeds v Salford. Leeds need it more than Salford and home advantage will give the the edge, By maybe 2 scoresToronto v Toulouse. Must win for both sides, but the wolfpack will prevail at home by 3 or more scoresWidnes v Halifax Halifax's cup final......a massive scalp there for the taking and widnes are down already, so no fight left in them. 1 score in it.HKR v London. Heart says London, reality says the cheap side of hull by a country mile
Would leave the table
SalfordLeedsHKRTorontoLondonToulouseWidnesFax.....and that'show I thin it'll stay up to the MPG.
JESUS WEPT HOW MANY TIMES?????£20 a ticket and £15 on beer and merchandise.....so an away fan is worth £35. At best, 1,000 is the average away support split across 11 rounds and I am being really generous here, so Toronto, replacing say Wakefield will cost a SL club £35,000. The minimum turnover of a SL club is £4,000,000 so Toronto instead of Widnes is worth less than 1% of a SL clubs turnover.
There are many valid reasons for and against expansion into America, but "AWAY FANS" isn't one of them.
My picks in BoldLeeds v Salford. Leeds need it more than Salford and home advantage will give the the edge, By maybe 2 scoresToronto v Toulouse. Must win for both sides, but the wolfpack will prevail at home by 3 or more scoresWidnes v Halifax Halifax's cup final......a massive scalp there for the taking and widnes are down already, so no fight left in them. 1 score in it.HKR v London. Heart says London, reality says the cheap side of hull by a country mile
Would leave the table
SalfordLeedsHKRTorontoLondonToulouseWidnesFax.....and that'show I thin it'll stay up to the MPG.
Agree but Rovers by 2
"Never forget the people who love you... The Supporters" Roger Millward MBE 1947-2016Hull Kingston Rovers, Hull's number one club
I think we can match you out wide, but you'll have too much grunt and match sense for us up the middle....only if you put the cue on the rack will we make it respectable
JESUS WEPT HOW MANY TIMES?????£20 a ticket and £15 on beer and merchandise.....so an away fan is worth £35. At best, 1,000 is the average away support split across 11 rounds and I am being really generous here, so Toronto, replacing say Wakefield will cost a SL club £35,000. The minimum turnover of a SL club is £4,000,000 so Toronto instead of Widnes is worth less than 1% of a SL clubs turnover.
There are many valid reasons for and against expansion into America, but "AWAY FANS" isn't one of them.
My picks in BoldLeeds v Salford. Leeds need it more than Salford and home advantage will give the the edge, By maybe 2 scoresToronto v Toulouse. Must win for both sides, but the wolfpack will prevail at home by 3 or more scoresWidnes v Halifax Halifax's cup final......a massive scalp there for the taking and widnes are down already, so no fight left in them. 1 score in it.HKR v London. Heart says London, reality says the cheap side of hull by a country mile
Would leave the table
SalfordLeedsHKRTorontoLondonToulouseWidnesFax.....and that'show I thin it'll stay up to the MPG.
Cheeky hull kr are not the cheap side of hull but I hope you are right and it stays has it is that will do for me
JESUS WEPT HOW MANY TIMES?????£20 a ticket and £15 on beer and merchandise.....so an away fan is worth £35. At best, 1,000 is the average away support split across 11 rounds and I am being really generous here, so Toronto, replacing say Wakefield will cost a SL club £35,000. The minimum turnover of a SL club is £4,000,000 so Toronto instead of Widnes is worth less than 1% of a SL clubs turnover.
There are many valid reasons for and against expansion into America, but "AWAY FANS" isn't one of them.
Sky have certainly picked the tie of the round to show in Toronto v Toulouse
What a dire game that was....
JESUS WEPT HOW MANY TIMES?????£20 a ticket and £15 on beer and merchandise.....so an away fan is worth £35. At best, 1,000 is the average away support split across 11 rounds and I am being really generous here, so Toronto, replacing say Wakefield will cost a SL club £35,000. The minimum turnover of a SL club is £4,000,000 so Toronto instead of Widnes is worth less than 1% of a SL clubs turnover.
There are many valid reasons for and against expansion into America, but "AWAY FANS" isn't one of them.
Toronto given the MCB try when it so obviously wasn't won them that game. Such a big mistake by the referee in such an important game as this.
Toulouse were robbed......London can take the wolfpak in the MPG but we need a proper ref and all the cameras and video replays...... Grubby side the manc pack...
JESUS WEPT HOW MANY TIMES?????£20 a ticket and £15 on beer and merchandise.....so an away fan is worth £35. At best, 1,000 is the average away support split across 11 rounds and I am being really generous here, so Toronto, replacing say Wakefield will cost a SL club £35,000. The minimum turnover of a SL club is £4,000,000 so Toronto instead of Widnes is worth less than 1% of a SL clubs turnover.
There are many valid reasons for and against expansion into America, but "AWAY FANS" isn't one of them.
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disapling text fields
Check out the JTextField API and search for a method that contains the word "enabled" (you may have to look into the methods from one of its parent classes -- JComponent). Do this, and I guarantee you'll find something that will work. |
Camps funded by NGOs and the UN are housing thousands of people Tens of thousands of people have been fleeing the fighting between the Pakistani army and the Taleban in the Swat district. According to the UN, there are more than 300,000 people registered as displaced and the Pakistani government says it expects that figure to reach one million. Here are the stories of three internally displaced people who were forced to leave everything behind and start a new life full of uncertainties. See a map of the region FARHAN, 23, STUDENT, NOW IN ISLAMABAD We left Mingora three days ago. The situation had become very dangerous. We were caught up in the brutalities between the Pakistani army and the Taleban. We were trapped inside our homes for a week, while there was constant shelling. A mortar demolished a house just a few yards from our home. There was no water, no power, everything was destroyed. Swat is empty now and we don't want to go back ever
To add to that, the Taleban threatened to kill young people if they didn't join them in their so-called 'jihad'. There have been personal threats to our family too, as my father is an outspoken critic of the Taleban. We had to leave. We left everything we had and went on foot to Malakand. There was no transport available. We were walking with thousands of people. It was a difficult journey. There was no food or water, but most importantly we were going through a war zone and we were scared that we'd encounter Taleban militants. Once in Malakand we hired a truck and drove to Islamabad. We are relatively safe here but I don't know for how long. We left everything and now we are with empty hands trying to start our lives again. We are trying to leave the country. Swat is empty now and we don't want to go back ever.
MAJID, 24, STUDENT, NOW IN PESHAWAR We fled Mingora last Friday, together with much of the population of the city. Our life had become very difficult: we were trapped in curfews, electricity was cut, there was no water or food.
School lessons have resumed for these girls at a refugee camp in Swabi In the early hours on Friday morning we were under attack from gunship helicopters. Later the army told us we had to leave Mingora. We got up, put clothes on and rushed out of the door. We didn't have time to pack anything. We didn't even prepare food for the journey. We just shut the door and left. People were running, everyone was so scared. We didn't know what was going to happen next. I feel depressed. Swat has been brought back to the Stone Age. There's no life there any more
We decided to go to Peshawar. The first part of our journey was on foot, until we reached Malakand. The road was packed with people, thousands of them. My grandfather is old, he couldn't walk for long and needed regular breaks. And it was a hot day. Then we hired a truck and drove to Peshawar. Many people stayed behind, as not everyone could afford to hire a vehicle. I am staying at a university hostel with friends. My family is at some relatives' house. Many joined refugee camps, but those must be full, because I see lots of people lying on the roads, people for whom there's no accommodation or help. The nearby park is full of people from Swat. There are Swat people all over the city, everyone with their own story. Everyone is deeply disturbed by this experience. We left everything and our life here is uncertain. I am thinking of leaving the country to study abroad. My dad says that he'll try to set up his own business and open a shop in Peshawar. I feel depressed. Swat has been brought back to the Stone Age. Each and every individual has left. There's no life there any more. I am not hopeful that things will get better any time soon - they can't clear this mess up in a hundred years.
GHALIB GUL, TEACHER, NOW AT A CAMP IN SWABI From the BBC's Urdu service I am from the Damghar area in Buner. There was no school in our area so I decided to start a school. At first we had only 28 children but with time the number rose to 90. Ghalib: I hope to be able to restart my school one day That was four years ago. One day, the Taleban arrived in my village. They threatened to kill me if I didn't close it down. I informed the other villagers that it was not possible for me to continue to run the school. That's how it ended. I feel very sorry, because the kids were so bright. A day after the school was closed, the army started the operation against the Taleban. My son Muaz did not have any food for three days and kept on asking why these planes were bombing us. I told him that they were killing the Taleban. The Taleban is to blame for this situation more than the government. It is true that the government forced us to leave the area, but at the same time it is providing relief for us. When we suffer from the Taleban, they never help us. I would like to be able to go back and restart my school but I don't have any hope that the army operation will end any time soon.
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Q:
PDF.js - Printing multiple documents at once
I need to place multiple PDFs on a page determined by an AJAX response, and when all documents and pages have rendered, call window.print.
The pages (canvases) of each document are being added to a div with class 'pdfdoc' to keep the pages in order by document.
I'm new to Promises, and I'm having trouble determining when to call window.print because of the async nature. Sometimes it is being called before all the pages are available even though I'm checking for the last page of the last document in the render promise before calling it. Below is the code:
// Called on each iteration of coredatalist
var getDoc = function(count) {
PDFJS.getDocument(srcUrl).then(function(pdf) {
var currentPage = 1;
$('<div class="pdfdoc" id="doc' + count + '"></div>').appendTo('body');
getPage(pdf, currentPage, count);
});
};
// Called for each page in PDF
var getPage = function(pdf, currentPage, count) {
pdf.getPage(currentPage).then(function(page) {
var scale = 2,
viewport = page.getViewport(scale),
canvas = document.createElement('canvas'),
context = canvas.getContext('2d'),
renderContext = {
canvasContext: context,
viewport: viewport,
intent: 'print'
};
// Prepare canvas using PDF page dimensions
canvas.setAttribute('class', 'canvaspdf');
canvas.id = 'canvas' + currentPage;
canvas.height = viewport.height;
canvas.width = viewport.width;
// Render PDF page into canvas context
page.render(renderContext).then(function(page) {
$('#doc' + count).append(canvas);
if (currentPage < pdf.numPages) {
currentPage++;
getPage(pdf, currentPage, count);
} else {
if (parseInt(count) === coredatalist.length - 1) {
window.print();
}
}
});
});
};
// Iterate through JSON object from AJAX request
for (var j in coredatalist) {
if (coredatalist.hasOwnProperty(j)) {
srcUrl = coredatalist[j].props.downloaduri;
getDoc(j);
}
}
Does anyone know how to call window.print after all documents AND pages are rendered?
A:
For anyone interested, I fulfilled my requirements by wrapping PDFJS.getDocument() inside a function with a callback 'next':
loadPdf: function (pdfUrl, pdfindex, next) {
var self = this;
PDFJS.getDocument(pdfUrl).then(function (pdf) {
var currentPage = 1;
function getPage() {
pdf.getPage(currentPage).then(function (page) {
var scale = 2,
viewport = page.getViewport(scale),
canvas = document.createElement('canvas'),
context = canvas.getContext('2d'),
renderContext = {
canvasContext: context,
viewport: viewport,
intent: 'print'
};
// Prepare canvas using PDF page dimensions
canvas.setAttribute('class', 'canvaspdf');
canvas.id = 'canvas' + currentPage + '-' + pdfindex;
canvas.height = viewport.height;
canvas.width = viewport.width;
// Render PDF page into canvas context
page.render(renderContext).then(function (page) {
document.body.appendChild(canvas);
if (currentPage < pdf.numPages) {
currentPage++;
getPage();
} else {
next();
}
});
});
}
if (currentPage < pdf.numPages) {
getPage();
}
});
}
And then calling it within the callback:
var pdfUrls = [],
next = function () {
if (pdfUrls.length === 0) {
window.print();
} else {
self.loadPdf(pdfUrls.pop(), pdfUrls.length, next);
}
};
for (var j in coredatalist) {
if (coredatalist.hasOwnProperty(j)) {
pdfUrls.push('url');
}
}
next();
|
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