text stringlengths 8 5.77M |
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Q:
Sql Server Insert a new row if 1 value does not exist in dest table
I have 2 tables, A and B. I want to insert the name and 'notInTime' into table B if that name IS NOT currently falling into the period between time_start and time_end.
eg: time now = 10:30
TABLE A
NAME TIME_START (DATETIME) TIME_END (DATETIME)
A 12:00 14:00
A 10:00 13:00
B 09:00 11:00
B 10:00 11:00
C 12:00 14:00
D 16:00 17:00
Table B
Name Indicator
A intime
B intime
If run the query should add the following to Table B
C notInTime
D notinTime
A:
This will add those in time and those not in time to table_b
declare @now time = '10:30'
INSERT INTO TABLE_B(Name, Indicator)
select
a.NAME, case when b.chk = 1 THEN 'intime' else 'notInTime' end
from
(
select distinct NAME from TABLE_A
) a
outer apply
(select top 1 1 chk from TABLE_A
where @now between TIME_START and TIME_END and a.Name = Name) b
|
15 years in boy's death
Grace Trotman sobbed inside a packed downtown Charleston courtroom Tuesday as she described how her deep-seated fears of an abusive boyfriend drove her to help him cover up the death of his 2-year-old son.
The toddler's mother, Shaneka Washington, listened and cried in the front row of the courtroom as Trotman apologized for taking part in hiding the body of Rodricus Williams in a trash can full of concrete.
Trotman, 27, expressed regret over never telling Washington that the man they had both dated, Roger Williams, beat Rodricus, hoping to “man him up,” until it led to his death in 2010.
“I love you no matter what,” Trotman told Washington. “You will always have a place in my heart, as well as Rodricus.”
Trotman told the court she was terrified of Roger Williams, 31. She said he spent four years beating her, and she felt no choice but to obey him when he drew her into the plot to dispose of Rodricus' body.
Circuit Judge Markley Dennis said his heart went out to Trotman for her struggles but she still deserved to be punished.
The judge sentenced her to 15 years in prison, five years less than the recommended sentence that was attached to the plea deal she made with prosecutors.
With credit for time served in jail and with the possibility of release after serving 85 percent of the sentence, Trotman could be out of prison in 12 years.
Trotman makes deal
Trotman pleaded guilty Feb. 16 and agreed to testify against Williams. In exchange, prosecutors dropped one of the charges against her — unlawful conduct toward a child — and recommended a 20-year sentence.
Her testimony during Williams' October trial in Moncks Corner helped prosecutors win a conviction against him for homicide by child abuse. Dennis sentenced him to life in prison, without the possibility of parole, a decision the judge said he doesn't regret.
“He deserved it,” Dennis said.
Trotman's attorney, Keith Bolus, told the judge about splatters of Trotman's blood found on the walls of the Summerville home she shared with Williams. The splatters ended up there when Williams punched Trotman in the face and threw her against the wall, he said.
“Her blood was dripping on the walls,” Bolus told the judge.
Two psychiatrists testified that Trotman was a textbook case of a woman acting under the control of a man who abused her mentally and physically.
His grip was so tight on Trotman that she didn't have a phone or a way to get to work without him, Bolus said.
Bolus showed Dennis the mug shot from Trotman's arrest and pointed to two black eyes. He said the bruises came from a beating Williams administered in which he also pulled out her hair.
One of her biggest mistakes, Bolus said, came the moment Trotman didn't call 911 when she found Rodricus unresponsive on June 7, 2010.
Instead, she called his father, who instructed her not to call an ambulance. The child was dead by the time Williams got home.
Trotman watched as Williams stuck his son's lifeless body into a trash can and filled it with concrete. She watched as Williams left the encased body behind a trailer in Orangeburg.
“I'm so sorry I didn't do the things I should have done because I was terrified,” Trotman told Washington in court.
Trotman's cooperation in the conviction of Williams went a long way for Washington.
“I don't think we would have gotten this far (without that),” she told the judge before Trotman was sentenced.
Why she stayed
Trotman led authorities to the body after a botched attempt to cover up the child's death with a fake story about Rodricus going missing at The Battery in downtown Charleston about a month after he actually died.
Despite her gratitude for Trotman's help in the case, Washington told the court it wouldn't bring back her son. After the sentencing, Washington said she could have lived with Trotman getting as little as 10 years in prison, but mostly she's “glad it's finally over.”
In court, Trotman was supported by the distant relatives who took her in as a teen following a “hard upbringing” in which she moved from foster home to foster home.
Derrick Deas, a father figure of Trotman's, told the court he failed her. As she broke down in tears for the first time in the proceedings, Deas said he assumed she knew she could always come home.
“I made that assumption and, evidently, I didn't do a very good job,” he said.
Trotman said she will always regret not leaving Williams and never reporting how he beat his own son.
For Ronald Acierno, a professor of psychiatry at MUSC's National Crime Victims and Research & Treatment Center, Trotman's failure to escape the relationship is understandable.
Acierno testified that this behavior is an inevitable, hard truth of domestic violence cases, one that won't likely end with Grace Trotman.
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History of public transport authorities in Manchester
The history of public transport authorities in Manchester details the various organisations that have been responsible for the public transport network in and around Manchester, England, since 1824.
Timeline
On 1 January 1824, the first horse bus service started by John Greenwood, the proprietor of the Pendleton Toll Gates
On 1 March 1865, the Manchester Carriage Company was formed which brought together a number of horse-bus operators in the Manchester area.
In 1880 this became the Manchester Carriage and Tramways Company with some further consolidation, including the Manchester Suburban Tramways Company.
On 7 June 1901, Manchester Corporation Tramways Department started electric tram operations, as the public operation. The former Carriage Company was wound up in 1903
In 1929 the name was changed to Manchester Corporation Transport Department to reflect the changing to motor buses
In mid-1966 the name of this public operation was changed to Manchester City Transport.
On 1 November 1969, control of Manchester City Transport and other surrounding council transport departments were transferred to South East Lancashire North East Cheshire Passenger Transport Executive (SELNEC PTE).
On 1 April 1974, SELNEC'S operating name became Greater Manchester Transport, and its coverage was expanded.
During 1974 Greater Manchester Transport was rebranded as the Greater Manchester Passenger Transport Executive (GMPTE). This lasted until 2011.
On 27 February 1986, Greater Manchester Transport's bus operation was transferred to a separate entity, Greater Manchester Buses Limited, to comply with the Transport Act 1985, adopting the GM Buses trading name.
On 13 December 1993, GM Buses was further split into GMB North and GMB South on an approximate geographic basis. Just under four months later they were sold to employee buy out teams.
In February 1996, GMB South was sold to Stagecoach Group, becoming Stagecoach Manchester.
In March 1996, GMB North was sold to First Bus, eventually becoming First Greater Manchester.
In April 2011. GMPTE became Transport for Greater Manchester (TfGM).
References
Category:Political timelines
Category:Transport in Manchester
Public transport authorities
Category:History of transport in Greater Manchester |
Gold Country Trails
El Dorado National Forest
This older Rock Creek off-road map has a new name and has been split into 2 maps now. Gold Country Foothills OHV. This forested area is just west of the 4×4 Rubicon Trail and very popular among the off roaders and equestrian riders. |
Upon arrival at the space station orbiting an ocean world called Solaris a psychologist discovers that the commander of an expedition to the planet has died mysteriously. Other strange events soon start happening as well, such as the appearance of old acquaintances of the crew, including some who are dead. |
Facing good and evil: early brain signatures of affective biographical knowledge in face recognition.
Extracting meaning from faces to understand other people's mental states and intentions, and to quickly adjust our actions accordingly, is a vital aspect of our social interactions. However, not all emotionally relevant attributes of a person are directly observable from facial features or expressions. In this study event-related brain potentials were used to investigate the effects of affective information about a person's biography that cannot be derived from the visual appearance of the face. Faces of well-known and initially unfamiliar persons with neutral expressions were associated with negative, positive or neutral biographical information. For well-known faces, early event-related brain potential (ERP) modulations induced by emotional knowledge, their scalp topographies and time course strongly resemble the effects frequently reported for emotional facial expressions even though here, access to stored semantic knowledge is required. These results demonstrate that visually opaque affective knowledge is extracted at high speed and modulates sensory processing in the visual cortex. |
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Friday, September 19, 2014
On The Ambiguity Of The Fed's Dot Plot
by Nick Colas
In the Q&A period during yesterday’s Federal Reserve Chair press conference, Janet Yellen was careful to describe the projections made by Fed officials on future interest rate policy as point estimates. The implicit caveat here is that every “Dot” on the Fed’s chart of expected future Fed Funds rates carries its own confidence interval – a statistical range with the dot at the center. Today we take Chair Yellen’s observation to heart, and ponder what range (rather than simple average) of potential future rates is most likely.
For example, the average projection for 2015 year-end Fed Funds is 1.27%, but the standard deviation of the 17 estimates that make up that mean is 0.71. Recall your college statistics: that means that a range of 0 to 2.7% covers 95% of the likely outcomes for Fed Funds by the end of next year. Based on this math, it isn’t until 2016 that an increase to Fed Funds becomes a statistical certainty, with a 2.7% mean estimate and a range of 0.75 – 4.7% Fed Funds at a 0.98 standard deviation.
Bottom line: forget the averages - markets actually aren’t far off the Fed’s estimates – they’re just shading their bets to the lower end of the curve.
* * *
Market sage and Yankee great Yogi Berra said it best: “It’s tough to make predictions, especially about the future.” He would have hated working at the Federal Reserve – or Wall Street, for that matter – where forecasting is an important part of the job. At the same time both baseball and market projections do have one thing in common: it’s more about your averages than any specific at-bat or play. Even the best traders on the Street seldom have win ratios better than 60%. And Yogi “Only” had a .285 batting average over his career at the Yankees and Mets.
All that is worth keeping in mind as you look at the projections made by Federal Reserve officials for where Fed Funds will be at the end of 2015, 2016, 2017, and the longer run. This is the now-famous “Dot Plot” chart that got so much attention at today’s press conference with Fed Chair Janet Yellen. There’s a link to the document at the end of this note, but the basics are as follows:
The Federal Reserve regularly surveys members of the Federal Open Market Committee on their opinions regarding “Appropriate monetary policy in the future”. The Fed defines this as “The future path of policy that each participant deems most likely to foster outcomes for economic activity and inflation that best satisfy his or her interpretation of the Federal Reserve’s dual objectives of maximum employment and stable prices.” The information is part of the central bank’s “Summary of Economic Projections”, or SEP for short.
One of the more interesting nuances that Chair Yellen highlighted in her Q&A session with reporters today was the need to think about such projections as merely a point along a continuum. An estimate of 1% Fed Funds at the end of 2015, for example, did not include how certain the respondent actually was in making that projection. That’s an important point, for how valuable is an estimate of 2 percent if the respondent could also tell you that they really thought the range was zero to 4 percent?
The capital markets, however, do tend to focus their analysis on the average of these estimates. Today’s Fed dot plot, for example, showed a mean estimate for year-end 2015 Fed Funds of 1.27%, up from the average of 1.2% that the Fed published in June. For 2016, the average rose to 2.68% from June’s 2.52%. Longer dated bonds like the U.S. 10-year Treasury sold off after the Fed release, closing the day at a yield of 2.60%, up from the 2.56% level right before the release. The change in the Dot Plot seemed to play a role in that move.
Taking Chair Yellen’s advice to heart, we got to wondering: just how much certainty does the Dot Plot actually express? To assess that, we ran the standard deviation for each year’s projections: 2015, 2016, 2017, and what the Fed calls the “Longer run”. A few points here:
If you want 95% certainty that the Fed will raise interest rates, then 2015’s estimates in the Dot Plot will not provide that level of conviction. Here’s the problem in a nutshell. The mean estimate for the 17 projections in the SEP is for Fed Funds to end next year at 1.27%. At the same time, the standard deviation of those estimates is 0.71.
Recall your college statistics: in a normally distributed population, you need 2 standard deviations on either side of the mean to cover 95% of the dataset. In this case, that gives us a range of negative 15 basis points (essentially zero) to positive 2.69%. In other words, Fed Funds could stay at zero for another year and still be consistent with the probabilities expressed by the Fed’s Dot Plot.
The story changes for year-end 2016, where a similar statistical analysis shows that the FOMC absolutely believes Fed Funds will be at least 74 basis points. The math here: a mean observation of 2.70% for Fed Funds, and a standard deviation of the Fed’s estimates of 0.98. The same holds true for 2017, where Fed Funds should be at least 2.32% (mean of 3.54, standard deviation of 0.61).
Going out to the FOMC’s “Longer run” projections, the average here is 3.79% and a quite small 0.26 standard deviation. That’s a much higher degree of certainty than the 2015-2017 forecasts, indicating that the FOMC does have a lot of conviction over where they would like to see rates normalize. One odd historical point: the year end 2006 Fed Funds rate was 5.25%, and 4.25% in December 2005. Why doesn’t the FOMC think these (higher) rates are more appropriate than the lower point estimates for retarding the advancement of unwelcomed developments like asset bubbles?
This math provides an alternative explanation for another question posed in the press conference yesterday, highlighting a paper out of the San Francisco Fed (Chair Yellen’s “alma mater”). Essentially, the problem is this: why does the public (as expressed in the prices for financial assets, for example) “Expect a more accommodative policy than Federal Open Market Committee participants”?
Our statistical analysis shows one possible answer: the point estimates in the FOMC’s Dot Plot yield an artificial accuracy than markets and the public understand is actually a bit fuzzier than what the simple average shows. It’s not that asset prices are at real loggerheads with the FOMC. Rather they are handicapping the possibility that the Fed’s projections will change – modestly and in line with statistical ranges – downward over the course of the next 12 months.
In summary, the Fed’s Dot Plot may look like a precise set of forecasts, with a series of purposeful markings meant to portray certainty and conviction. The math, however, says something else entirely. Ambiguity is part of life, either as a central banker or investor. As Yogi once said while giving directions to his house: “When you come to a fork in the road, take it.” |
Details are forthcoming but two fan favorites are being added to Sentinel's 4Inch-Nelline: Mega Man Volnutt and Star Force Mega Man. The pair were spotted at Wonder Festival. Hit the jump for a few more images. Stay tuned for updates!No word yet on price or release date. In the meantime, feel free to weep with joy! |
The Indian space agency may be sending rockets and satellites to various planets but are also guided by their own superstitions and beliefs, said a retired official of the Indian Space Research Organisation (Isro).
On the home front, Isro will not start the countdown for a rocket flight at Rahu Kaalam, said the official not wanting to be quoted.
Rahu Kaalam, or the one-and-a-half-hours of planet Rahu, is considered inauspicious to start any new work.
"In the case of interplanetary missions, it is not possible to coincide auspicious time with the rocket's launch time. The latter is decided based on the position of the target planet on the day when the spacecraft is expected to enter its orbit. So, the countdown is started on the auspicious time," he explained.
Similarly, prior to every rocket mission, ISRO officials pray at the famed Lord Venkateswara Temple in Tirumala in Andhra Pradesh and place a replica of the rocket at the God's feet seeking his blessings for a successful flight.
Over the years, some more temples near the Sriharikota rocket port have been added to the list and officials or their juniors will visit those temples and pray for a mission's success.
Similarly, pujas, or ceremonies, will be conducted before starting the integration of different stages of a rocket.
"It is all individual beliefs. One cannot take chance with God and poison," a former ISRO chief told IANS.
According to a retired ISRO rocket scientist, a project director used to wear a new shirt on the day of a rocket launch.
Officials of ISRO are still unable to explain away the absence of the rocket named Polar Satellite Launch Vehicle-C13 (PSLV-C13) from their launch roster.
After sending up the rocket PSLV-C12, ISRO jumped one number to number its next PSLV rocket as PSLV-C14 that put into orbit Oceansat-2 and six European nanosatellites.
"There is no such rocket designated with that number," a high ranking official had told IANS while declining to comment whether the space agency considered the number 13 as unlucky.
Curiously, following the failure of Apollo-13 to land on the moon, the American space agency has not named any other mission with that number.
India's Rs 450 crore Mars Orbiter Mission, however, was a tradition breaker in a way by flying on a Tuesday.
"This was the first time in ISRO's history that a rocket was launch on a Tuesday. Tuesday is generally considered as inauspicious day," an ISRO official had told IANS.
However, another senior official involved in the Mars Orbiter Mission told IANS that for him Tuesday was a lucky day as the mission succeeded.
"It is all individual belief. One cannot take chance with God and poison," a former ISRO chief told IANS earlier. |
An Indianapolis teen was beaten over a video game by a woman who drove from Chicago looking for a fight.
An Indianapolis teen was beaten over a video game by a woman who drove from Chicago looking for a fight.
Metro police say the woman kicked in the front door of a home in the 1900 block of North Medford Avenue around 8:15 p.m. March 28. She went upstairs in the home, looking for a 15-year-old girl that she said took a video game from her home in Chicago during a visit.
The woman challenged the girl to a fight and the 15-year-old accepted, throwing punches. The girl was punched in the face and head several times, receiving a bloody nose and swelling on the right side of her face. The fight moved downstairs, where the combatants broke a glass table, which cut the teenager's finger.
The woman took a PlayStation 4 video game system and a "Call of Duty" video game and drove back to Illinois.
The teenager's grandfather took her to the hospital for treatment. |
Mitch Trubisky, Roger Goodell
North Carolina's Mitch Trubisky, left, poses with NFL commissioner Roger Goodell after being selected by the Chicago Bears at No. 2 overall.
(Matt Rourke | AP Photo)
Maybe Mitch Trubisky will work out for the Chicago Bears.
But that doesn't mean folks around the NFL still aren't trying to piece together what happened Thursday night, when Chicago paid a hefty price to the San Francisco 49ers to move up one spot and grab the inexperienced quarterback.
For starters, why did the Bears offer so much -- a third- and fourth-round pick and a 2018 third-rounder -- to San Francisco? Was another team also in the bidding and trying to move up?
Apparently not.
Trying to track down the teams that might have competed with Bears for the second pick and have not found one--Jets never called 49ers — Michael Lombardi (@mlombardiNFL) April 28, 2017
The decision to trade up for a "franchise" quarterback -- and Trubisky has to develop into one to salvage this for the Bears -- is a big one. And a strange one for the Chicago, considering it just invested in Mike Glennon in the offseason.
So, maybe you would check in with your head coach first? Nah.
Wow. Per @mortreport, even @ChicagoBears coach John Fox didn’t know about plan to draft QB Mitchell Trubisky until a couple hours before. — Kevin Seifert (@SeifertESPN) April 28, 2017
Again, well done, John Lynch and San Francisco.
The 49ers still landed Solomon Thomas at No. 3 overall and used one of those "free" picks from the Bears to trade up and get Reuben Foster at the bottom of the first round.
Shanahan told Lynch, when they were trying to figure out if Bears were after Thomas, "That offer is not for a d-lineman. That's for a QB." — Jeff Darlington (@JeffDarlington) April 28, 2017 |
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Hybrid headless
Hybrid headless is a fancy name for a simple concept: use a full CMS which also serves its content directly via REST API, and manages clean, presentation-independent content. In this article, I'll share four key hybrid headless techniques. All of these techniques revolve around the interplay of the delivery of content via REST of a headless CMS, plus the full-featured UX of a full CMS.
The headless CMS approach is great for so many reasons. Decoupling content from presentation ftw! Innovate with mobile apps and the new crop of front-end frameworks! Get started instantly! But with headless, there are some limitations that could bog your project down a little down the road.
These are the two key issues for me:
Marketers and content creators (users who aren't developers) cannot do as much.
A headless CMS simply doesn't cover many of the common content management requirements.
But this isn't a "headless CMS are bad" article. I just want to set the stage for hybrid headless, in order to highlight some of the benefits of this approach.
You'll have to balance the pros and cons for your project. Maybe these limitations are not relevant to your project, or are outweighed by the benefits of going totally headless.
Let's take a look.
The UX of a full CMS
What's so great about this UX? It empowers non-developers to perform key website tasks themselves. Of course all CMS are different, but there are two tools that are shared by most full CMS in some form:
The page tree (aka site map or content tree)
You can see and manipulate the structure of your entire project, typically represented as a hierarchy with the homepage at the top.
The page editor (aka WYSIWYG editor, content editor, post editor)
You can build and edit a page - choose a template for the page, modify its layout, drag-and-drop components, and populate it with content stored in your CMS. While it's still called a "page editor", a better term in this day and age is "experience editor" - it's where you can really build an experience, not just enter content data in a form.
The four key hybrid headless techniques
Full CMS and REST API
Create clean, presentation-independent content. Serve the content through a website managed via the page tree and page editor, and serve it through REST endpoints.
Driven by the popularity of mobile apps, front-end js frameworks and SOA, many companies already use this fundamental technique. Marketers and content creators are self-sufficient and have full freedom to create and manage the website. Meanwhile, with the REST API, developers can create mobile and front-end apps in their programming languages and frameworks of choice - or pipe the content through existing delivery pipelines or third-party systems.
Page fragments as JSON
Marketers use the page editor to curate a fragment of a page with content and specific templates. Developers pull just the pure content of that fragment, as JSON, and render it in their app.
The benefit of this approach is that marketers can arrange not just their website, but also experiences that are used in apps and other systems. And they can do it in familiar tools, potentially including the ability to use the personalizaton and targeting features of the CMS.
Since developers pull content directly as JSON, they can use it however they want in a headless fashion. Developers have control over the actual display of the content, so it might look different than in the page editor.
At Magnolia, we have a banking client who uses this approach to enable their marketing team to update campaigns that are displayed in the consumer banking application. That banking application is delivered from a different server and vendor. This gives the marketing team the power to push new campaigns whenever they need to, independent of the lifecycle of the banking app itself.
Page fragments as HTML
As above, marketers use the page editor to curate a fragment of a page with content and specific templates. The developer configures another system or app to pull that fragment, rendered by the CMS as HTML. This is similar to the previous technique, but delivers rendered HTML instead of JSON.
"Wait, wait, what about a REST API? What about presentation-independent content?" you say. You caught me! It's relevant in this list because it's still about another app or delivery system grabbing some content from the CMS.
As before, the marketer creates experiences that are used in apps and other systems, with familiar tools. In this technique, since rendered HTML is delivered, the marketer also has a WYSIWYG authoring experience with live preview of the content.
At Magnolia, we have a number of customers who have chosen this approach for their web properties - such as e-commerce retailers whose marketing team wants to hand-craft the marketing content for the various departments of their shop with the page editor. The e-commerce system pulls these HTML fragments from the CMS to spice up the important, but dry, product data stored in the e-commerce system.
Build front-end apps
Developers design their front-end apps with a modern component-based architecture. Marketers use the page editor to manage the content of, configure, and assemble front-end javascript apps (aka SPA).
The first three techniques can all be used to manage the content of front-end apps (among other things). This one goes further.
With this approach, marketers can actually build a front-end app - in the same way that they are used to building a web page today.
This is huge since there is such momentum with frameworks like React, Angular and Vue. We have a lot of customers who love these frameworks, but are struggling with how to give their non-technical staff a way to manage them - so that the devs are not always burdened making tweaks and doing new releases whenever there is a change required.
In this technique, the "page editor" becomes an app editor. Marketing teams can build the apps that they need in a WYSIWYG environment and work with a live preview of the end-user's experience.
The javascript frameworks all support this technique - but developers must take some care to create such dynamic apps that can be changed on-the-fly. The key difference is that instead of the app "hard-coding" exactly which components are nested within a parent component, it rather specifies a list of the components it could contain. When the app initializes, it loads a JSON configuration file that defines which components should actually be instantiated at each location.
There are aleady some nice libraries out there that make this easier, such as React Habitat from Deloitte.
At Magnolia, we are working on a generic solution which we plan to open source soon.
Hybrid headless in practice
It's probably helpful to get concrete and see how those techniques can be applied in practice. As a product manager at Magnolia, I can draw from my knowledge of that CMS. (And maybe pique your curiosity about it too. :)
Stories app provides a rich "medium-esque" editor for long-form content, giving the author freedom to create a full story instead of just fill in a form. Content is stored in clean blocks for retrieval as JSON via REST.
Content can be easily retrieved as JSON. Developers can quickly configure endpoints in a few lines of YAML. Access can be controlled through a full-featured role-based security system.
Page fragments as JSON
There are two ways to get the content of a page fragment via JSON.
The REST API can return a fragment from within a page, a complete page, or a collection of pages.
Render variations: Any template can provide multiple rendering variations, one of those can return JSON. A developer must code the JSON response using standard templating practices. The jsonfn library can be used to return the full content in one line of code. This approach can be used if the format of the REST API response is not the exact one you require.
Page fragments as HTML
In Magnolia, a feature called "Direct Component Rendering" gives easy access to any fragment of a page simply by including the "address" of the fragment in the url.
The Magnolia page editor uses simple HTML comments on the page to configure and indicate where the WYSIWYG editing widgets should be displayed. These invisible comment blocks provide information such as which areas of the page are editable, and which components can be inserted in that area.
With a little javascript code, these HTML comments can just as easily be inserted in the HTML generated by front-end javascript frameworks. This makes it easy to make front-end apps editable in Magnolia. I assume a similar mechanism is used in other CMS page editors, and so that the general approach will be do-able in other CMS as well.
Conclusion
Over the past 15 years, the pendulum has swung back and forth in favor of strict separation between content and presentation. At one extreme: only entering content in database-like forms is allowed, putting a wall separating authors from their readers. At the other: all content entry in-place in a WYSIWIG editor with the attendent risks of breaking the design.
But now I see a nice opportunity with the hybrid headless approach to become more subtle, less extreme, and take the aspects from both which really help people get their jobs done.
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About the author Christopher Zimmermann
Christopher is a software developer and startup enthusiast with a focus on front-end web technologies. His interest in innovative UI leads to diverse experimentation from phone based GPS services, to Oculus Rift immersive experiences. He organizes the 'basel.js' javascript meetup group. Christopher is a product manager at Magnolia. |
Mongo, Scourge of Tamriel By NeroSkwid Watch
14 Favourites 4 Comments 1K Views
My Elder Scrolls character since Morrowind. His father was a Daedroth which granted him immortality. Since he has been alive so long he has been driven mad and has left entire villages in his wake. Before he was fully grown he was sold into slavery by the dark elves and has since held a grudge against them. However his hate for dark elves is dwarved by his hatred of wood elves after one insulted him some odd hundred years ago in a bar in Morrowind. His fellow slave and dark wizard Leviticus the Khajiit is also at large in Tamriel. Accipiter the Spider King (a Wood Elf) is Mongo's sworn enemy and he will stop at nothing until the spider king is banished to Oblivion.
Line art was done by Wakman111 aka Accipiter the Spider King
IMAGE DETAILS Image size 9565x10274px 5.36 MB Show More
Published : Apr 24, 2012 |
Isioma’s Style Report List: Leather Peplum Jacket by Fendi
This leather peplum jacket by Fendi gives the essential black jacket a beautifully refined update. The style is sophisticated and flattering and definitely deserves to be in all Fall wardrobes, or at least in our style list. Available for sale at net-a-porter.com
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Published by Isioma's Style Report
Isioma's Style Report is an online platform dedicated to providing high end content for African women that includes fashion, beauty, culture, people, news, career, and travel. We aim to take an intelligent approach to cover a broad range of issues African women face in their personal and professional lives.
View all posts by Isioma's Style Report |
Sunset with rare formation of mammatus clouds.
Took this at the Cavallaro Transit Center in Scotts Valley, CA.
Done |
Thalassemia major between liver and heart: Where we are now.
The aim of the study was to assess the current state in terms of liver and heart iron overload as well as of liver and heart related morbidity and mortality in a large cohort of thalassemia patients. Myocardial iron loading was present in 28.9% patients, which was severe in 3.2%. Liver iron was normal in 9.3% and severe in 15%. The rate of cardiac deaths started to decrease between 2000 and 2003 and dropped significantly afterwards. The prescription of combination therapy soon after the hospital admission for decompensated heart failure was associated with a decrease in the short-term mortality. In 111 adult patients who underwent liver elastometry, 14 HCVRNA positive subjects and 2 HCVRNA negative, had stiffness values suggestive of cirrhosis. No cases of hepatocarcinoma were reported. Liver "iron free foci" occurred in a HCV negative patient and the occurrence of a malignant epithelioid hemangioendothelioma led to liver transplantation in another. The study suggests that a subset of patients continues to develop progressive hemosiderosis that may lead to cardiac disease and death. Beyond its key role in preventing myocardial iron overload, liver iron chelation is essential for hampering the onset of hepatic tumors, which may not be limited to hepatocarcinoma. |
<?php
/*
* This file is part of Sulu.
*
* (c) Sulu GmbH
*
* This source file is subject to the MIT license that is bundled
* with this source code in the file LICENSE.
*/
namespace Sulu\Bundle\ContactBundle\Entity;
use Doctrine\Common\Collections\Collection;
use Sulu\Bundle\CategoryBundle\Entity\CategoryInterface;
use Sulu\Bundle\MediaBundle\Entity\MediaInterface;
use Sulu\Bundle\TagBundle\Tag\TagInterface;
use Sulu\Component\Persistence\Model\AuditableInterface;
/**
* interface for accounts.
*/
interface AccountInterface extends AuditableInterface
{
public function setName(string $name): self;
public function getName(): string;
public function setExternalId(?string $externalId): self;
public function getExternalId(): ?string;
public function setNumber(?string $number): self;
public function getNumber(): ?string;
public function setCorporation(?string $corporation): self;
public function getCorporation(): ?string;
public function setUid(?string $uid): self;
public function getUid(): ?string;
public function setRegisterNumber(?string $registerNumber): self;
public function getRegisterNumber(): ?string;
public function setPlaceOfJurisdiction(?string $placeOfJurisdiction): self;
public function getPlaceOfJurisdiction(): ?string;
public function setMainEmail(?string $mainEmail = null): self;
public function getMainEmail(): ?string;
public function setMainPhone(?string $mainPhone = null): self;
public function getMainPhone(): ?string;
public function setMainFax(?string $mainFax = null): self;
public function setLogo(MediaInterface $logo): self;
public function getLogo(): ?MediaInterface;
public function getMainFax(): ?string;
public function setMainUrl(?string $mainUrl = null): self;
public function getMainUrl(): ?string;
public function getId(): int;
public function getMainContact(): ?ContactInterface;
public function setMainContact(?ContactInterface $mainContact = null): self;
public function setLft(int $lft): self;
public function getLft(): int;
public function setRgt(int $rgt): self;
public function getRgt(): int;
public function setDepth(int $depth): self;
public function getDepth(): int;
public function setParent(?self $parent = null): self;
public function getParent(): ?self;
public function addUrl(Url $url): self;
public function removeUrl(Url $url): self;
public function getNote(): ?string;
public function setNote(?string $note): self;
/**
* @return Collection|Url[]
*/
public function getUrls(): Collection;
public function addPhone(Phone $phone): self;
public function removePhone(Phone $phone): self;
/**
* @return Collection|Phone[]
*/
public function getPhones(): Collection;
public function addEmail(Email $email): self;
public function removeEmail(Email $emails): self;
/**
* @return Collection|Email[]
*/
public function getEmails(): Collection;
/**
* @return Collection|AccountInterface[]
*/
public function getChildren(): Collection;
public function addFax(Fax $fax): self;
public function removeFax(Fax $fax): self;
/**
* @return Collection|Fax[]
*/
public function getFaxes(): Collection;
public function addSocialMediaProfile(SocialMediaProfile $socialMediaProfile): self;
public function removeSocialMediaProfile(SocialMediaProfile $socialMediaProfile): self;
/**
* @return Collection|SocialMediaProfile[]
*/
public function getSocialMediaProfiles(): Collection;
public function addBankAccount(BankAccount $bankAccount): self;
public function removeBankAccount(BankAccount $bankAccount): self;
/**
* @return Collection|BankAccount[]
*/
public function getBankAccounts(): Collection;
public function addTag(TagInterface $tag): self;
public function removeTag(TagInterface $tag): self;
/**
* @return Collection|TagInterface[]
*/
public function getTags(): Collection;
public function addAccountContact(AccountContact $accountContact): self;
public function removeAccountContact(AccountContact $accountContact): self;
/**
* @return Collection|AccountContact[]
*/
public function getAccountContacts(): Collection;
/**
* @return Collection|AccountAddress[]
*/
public function getAccountAddresses(): Collection;
public function getMainAddress(): ?Address;
/**
* @return ContactInterface[]
*/
public function getContacts(): array;
public function addMedia(MediaInterface $media): self;
public function removeMedia(MediaInterface $media): self;
/**
* @return Collection|MediaInterface[]
*/
public function getMedias(): Collection;
public function addAccountAddress(AccountAddress $accountAddress): self;
public function removeAccountAddress(AccountAddress $accountAddress): self;
public function addChild(self $child): self;
public function removeChild(self $child): self;
public function addCategory(CategoryInterface $category): self;
public function removeCategory(CategoryInterface $category): self;
/**
* @return Collection|CategoryInterface[]
*/
public function getCategories(): Collection;
}
|
Assessment of iron status in association with excess alcohol consumption.
Biochemical evidence of iron overload (transferrin saturation greater than 60% and/or serum ferritin concentration greater than 1000 micrograms/L) was observed in 16% of patients admitted to an alcohol withdrawal unit. No subjects in an age and sex matched control group showed such biochemical changes. Whilst changes in serum ferritin concentration closely correlated with aspartate aminotransferase activity and could be explained by alcohol induced liver damage, the increased transferrin saturation was not similarly explained. In nine patients withdrawal of alcohol resulted in a decrease in transferrin saturation and serum ferritin, the former due to a reduction in serum iron concentration. In patients with high alcohol intake biochemical measures of iron status may be misleading and a decrease in both transferrin saturation and serum ferritin concentration after withdrawal of alcohol may help to rule out the possible diagnosis of hereditary haemochromatosis. |
Helpful Guides to Gaming
Cover by Dark Link
TheDarkLord666 will be the main artist for this, and I'm the assisstant.
This comic focuses on helping you understand certain games better, some of those games being Fire Emblem, Dragon Quest, and Golden Sun. It also helps you understand how to handle certain Final Fantasy Character Classes.
TheDarkLord will be doing this with a graphics tablet, I'll be doing this with good ol' pen and paper. |
Researchers at Indiana University say that in the world of social media, any news is good news for political candidates.
In a study released Monday, researchers found a strong correlation between the percentage of votes candidates received in 2010 and 2012 House races and the percentage of tweets that mentioned the candidates’ names — whether or not those tweets were complimentary.
“It’s a natural human tendency to talk about what’s hot or what’s interesting or what’s important,” said Fabio Rojas, associate professor of sociology in the College of Arts and Sciences at IU Bloomington. Twitter is uniquely able to gauge the level of “buzz” a candidate is receiving, he added. “People don’t want to talk about losers – they want to talk about winners.”… Read More »
Republicans still sifting through the wreckage of last year’s election are working to solve one particularly vexing riddle: how to tap those middle-class voters who remain deeply frustrated with the direction of the country.
YG Network, a conservative advocacy group with ties to House Majority Leader Eric Cantor (R., Va.) and other GOP leaders, recently commissioned a series of focus groups as part of a broader effort to develop a long-range agenda for conservatives. The results were decidedly mixed for the GOP. (Click here and here for the results.)
On the bright side for Republicans, these voters are deeply distrustful of both major parties, with the GOP viewed as the party of the rich and Democrats viewed as a party that focuses solely on the poor. A swing voter in Manassas, Va., described Democrats as “out of touch, financially.” These voters also harbor deep skepticism about the new health-care law and favor expanded domestic energy exploration… Read More »
Congress has waged well-documented fights in recent years to corral the country’s swelling debt, but the two parties are proving more efficient when it comes to their campaign accounts.
In June, House Democrats paid off the balance of the $17 million line of credit they opened ahead of the 2012 election, according to an aide, marking the earliest the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee has ever paid off its debt.
On the other side of the aisle, Republicans still owe $2.25 million of the $12 million they borrowed for the last election, but they are on pace to pay that off by September, ahead of their pace two years ago… Read More »
As I assume you will appreciate, every life has various dimensions: Your family, your faith, you community work, and then the work that puts bread on the table.
I was a little community-centric over the last six years. I was spending a lot of time in public. At this stage, I will have a family portion of my life. I will have a faith part. I will be working, but primarily to help my sons, and of course to help myself, in their businesses… Read More »
Since its loss in November, the Republican Party has been going through the typical stages of political grief that starts with anger and ends with recalibration. On Monday, in its latest attempt to assess what went wrong in 2012 and what it should do going forward, the GOP released its Growth and Opportunity Project report.
While it tackles everything from policy to logistics, the report pays special attention to the need for the Republicans to reach out to women and minorities. That’s long been a party battle cry, but the need for such outreach took on a special urgency in the 2012 results as the country’s current and future demographic picture became clearer.
In short, the GOP’s problems extend beyond big-picture, philosophical questions to a matter of basic arithmetic that could prove complicated to solve.
The demographic shifts over the past few decades have not only changed the composition of the national electorate, they have had a particularly heavy impact on the electoral vote. Two things have happened over the last 20 years in the U.S. First, the non-white population has grown. The white, non-Hispanic population has shrunken to about 65% today from about 75% in 1990. Second, and crucial for national elections, that population has grown in states that are also growing… Read More »
Sally Bradshaw of Florida, one of the five authors of the new Republican National Committee report sharply criticizing the GOP after the 2012 election, was interviewed by The Wall Street Journal on Monday. Ms. Bradshaw is a veteran strategist and an ally of former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush, a potential 2016 presidential candidate.
WSJ: When you began preparing the report, did you anticipate producing such negative conclusions?
Ms. Bradshaw: “I think we hoped to end up with a product that told the truth, and provided options for a future path. We got a very clear sense that Chairman [Reince] Priebus wanted us to scrub every aspect of campaign 2012.”
WSJ: Your report talked about losing the women’s vote. But you didn’t address the social issues – birth control, abortion, threats to end Planned Parenthood – that many women, including Republicans, cited as reasons they were voting Democratic last year.
Ms. Bradshaw: “The report talks very specifically that we were directed to scrub on tactics and on messaging that can impact the election.”… Read More »
President Barack Obama isn’t backing away from Organizing for Action, the lobbying group built on his presidential campaign, despite complaints from campaign finance watchdogs about its fundraising and close ties to the White House.
The president is addressing Organizing for Action’s first “founders summit” Wednesday night in Washington, where members of his 2012 campaign team are discussing ways to reuse the information and infrastructure of the Obama election machine, Obama for America, to push his second-term legislative agenda through Congress. The summit is also working on plans to meet a $50 million fundraising goal.
At the summit’s opening session Wednesday morning at the St. Regis Hotel, OFA Chairman Jim Messina, Mr. Obama’s former campaign manager, said OFA is trying to fight “the forces against change.”… Read More »
MSNBC TV is planning to air an interview with the man who shot the now-infamous video of Mitt Romney's “47%” comments, and says the man’s identity will be revealed during the show. The interview will air on the “Ed Show” Wednesday night at 8 p.m.
The House of Representatives is poised to pass legislation as soon as today to ban the Obama administration from giving states greater flexibility to design welfare-to-work programs, reviving a fight from the 2012 presidential campaign.
Republicans added the restriction to a broader measure to reauthorize the welfare-to-work program, known as Temporary Assistance for Needy Families. The vote is largely symbolic, since Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D., Nev.) has no intention of bringing the bill to a vote in the Senate. But on Tuesday, the Obama administration offered Republicans an olive branch and indicated that it would not recommend a presidential veto.
“The administration is disappointed that the bill includes this unnecessary bar to innovative welfare-to-work strategies,” the White House’s Office of Management and Budget said. But it declined to issue a veto threat, and said it “does not oppose the extension of authority and funding” included in the legislation… Read More »
The 2012 political campaign was grueling, costly and unpredictable. And now you can relive it.
The Wall Street Journal recently released an e-book, “The Wall Street Journal’s Best Political Writing of 2012.” Produced with Inkling.com, the book – in articles and video — retraces the arc of a remarkable, and historic, campaign year. Using innovative story-telling, extensive investments in public polling, and old-fashioned street reporting, the book allows readers to understand the forces that shaped Campaign 2012. Read More »
About Washington Wire
Washington Wire is one of the oldest standing features in American journalism. Since the Wire launched on Sept. 20, 1940, the Journal has offered readers an informal look at the capital. Now online, the Wire provides a succession of glimpses at what’s happening behind hot stories and warnings of what to watch for in the days ahead. The Wire is led by Reid J. Epstein, with contributions from the rest of the bureau. Washington Wire now also includes Think Tank, our home for outside analysis from policy and political thinkers. |
Section 2: The importance of improving function in patients with pain.
When evaluating pain in the rheumatic diseases, assessment of adequate therapy has expanded from purely biochemical measures and joint counts to determining the degree of function. Because pain is an important predictor of function, instruments have been developed that attempt to measure how disease and pain affect parameters such as activities of daily living, quality of life, ability to work, and emotional well-being. Some measures, such as visual analogue scales, measure only the intensity of pain; multidimensional scales assess a variety of factors related to the patient's overall ability to function. The Short Form-36 measures the impact of disease on overall quality of life; adaptations have been made to some specific diseases. The Health Assessment Questionnaire was one of the first multidimensional questionnaires developed for rheumatic diseases, and this has been further refined for rheumatoid arthritis with the Multidimensional Health Assessment Questionnaire. |
Forest Way
The Forest Way is a linear Country park providing walking, cycling, horse riding and the quiet enjoyment of the countryside. It runs for around 16 km from East Grinstead to Groombridge.
The Forest Way lies within the High Weald Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty in the heart of the picturesque East Sussex countryside with the Ashdown Forest lying to the south. It takes the route of a disused railway line and now provides an important habitat for wildlife forming a ‘green corridor’ through the upper valley of the River Medway. The route runs from East Grinstead, via Forest Row, Hartfield, and Withyham to Groombridge.
Walking, cycling and accessibility
A flat, surfaced track runs along the entire length of the Forest Way providing easy access for disabled users and an ideal place for children to learn to cycle away from traffic. There are toilet facilities at Forest Row. The western end of the Forest Way links up, at East Grinstead, with the Worth Way which extends as far as Three Bridges.
There are a number of circular trails leading from the Forest Way. These vary in length and difficulty. East Sussex County Council provides leaflets giving information on "Forest Way Country Park and circular walks" and "Forest Row walk".
Along the route trees have regenerated naturally on the embankments and cuttings providing an excellent habitat for swallows, badgers, deer and foxes, in the fields and woodlands.
Forest Way provides access to Weir Wood Reservoir with its plentiful bird life and sailing and to Standen country house designed by Philip Webb which contains fine examples of William Morris designs.
History
In 1866, a railway line, the Three Bridges to Tunbridge Wells Central Line, opened from East Grinstead through to Tunbridge Wells - an extension of the line from Three Bridges. In 1967 it was closed under the Beeching axe. Ironically, Dr. Richard Beeching lived at East Grinstead (adjacent to the line) and regularly travelled up to London on the line when he was Chairman of British Rail. The disused railway line was bought by East Sussex County Council in 1971 and designated as a Country Park in 1974.
Major improvements to the track surface in 2002 led to its inclusion in the Sustrans National Cycle Network. To the west of East Grinstead, the cycle route continues as the Worth Way along the disused section of line to Three Bridges. In addition, there are as yet unrealised plans to link the Forest Way from Groombridge with the Cuckoo Trail, another trail following the route of a disused railway line, which runs from Heathfield to Hampden Park near Eastbourne.
References
External links
East Sussex County Council on the Forest Way
Ashdown Friends of the Earth
Category:Cycleways in England
Category:Country parks in East Sussex
Category:Long-distance footpaths in England
Category:Footpaths in East Sussex
Category:Rail trails in England
Category:East Grinstead
Category:Railway lines opened in 1866
Category:Railway lines closed in 1966
Category:1866 establishments in England |
Duplex real-time polymerase chain reaction assay for the detection of human KIPyV and WUPyV in nasopharyngeal aspirate pediatric samples.
In this study, we describe a duplex real-time PCR assay for the simultaneous detection of KIPyV and WUPyV polyomaviruses based on TaqMan probes. This assay detected 500 copies/mL both for KIPyV and WUPyV in 100% of tested positive samples. We assessed this technique on 482 nasopharyngeal aspirate specimens from hospitalized pediatric patients with respiratory symptoms, previously analyzed with commercial multiplex assay for 16 major respiratory viruses. Our assay detected KIPyV genome in 15 out of 482 samples (3.1%) and WUPyV genome in 24 out of 482 samples (4.9%), respectively, and in three samples the coinfection of the two viruses was found. Interestingly, 29 out of 36 of samples with KIPyV and/or WUPyV infection exhibited a co-infection with one or more respiratory viruses confirming that KIPyV and WUPyV were often detected in association to other viral infections. Of note, KIPyV and WUPyV were detected singularly in 4 out of 15 cases and 3 out of 24 cases, respectively, suggesting a possible direct role of these viruses in the respiratory diseases. In conclusion, this method could be taken into account as an alternative technical approach to detect KIPyV and/or WUPyV in respiratory samples for epidemiological and diagnostic analyses. |
Is freezing an adaptive reaction to threat? Evidence from heart rate reactivity to emotional pictures in victims of war and torture.
The influence of past traumatic experiences on the defense cascade in response to affective pictures was examined in survivors of war and torture. Trauma-exposed refugees with and without Posttraumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) as well as healthy individuals viewed 75 pictures that varied in emotional content. Heart rate (HR) was recorded during the flickering stimulation of affective pictures in the context of a steady-state experiment. Whereas healthy controls showed the typical orienting response to aversive stimuli, PTSD patients reacted with an almost immediate increase in HR toward unpleasant pictures. Trauma-exposed participants without PTSD showed an indiscriminate orienting response regardless of picture category. The present findings argue for a faster flight/fight response to threatening cues in PTSD. In contrast, trauma-exposed controls seem to exhibit a state of permanent alertness toward a wide range of stimuli. |
When you walk into Willows on South Main Street in downtown Concord, you are greeted by the vibrant purple walls and bright artwork that fills the dining room.
Willows opened up in April and its menu is entirely vegan and organic.
That’s because owner Willow Mauck was raised in a vegetarian home to a vegan mother in Deerfield. She was nine when she decided to become vegan.
Listen to the broadcast version of this story.
“You know being an animal lover my whole life and being raised that animals are friends not food, I kind of just made the connection,” Mauck.
But 29-year-old Mauck said that while her mother, Norma Koski, never forced her children to be vegan, she did teach them how to cook like a vegan. She taught her three children how to make dishes with tofu, seitan and veggie burgers.
Koski also owns her own vegan restaurant in Northwood called Susty’s Café, which has been around for more than 17 years. And yes, the same shade of purple adorns her walls as well.
While her daughter dreamed of opening a restaurant since childhood, Koski just sort of fell into the business.
“We just wanted to get vegan food out in other places so people had options – that’s all it was about," Koski said.
Twenty years ago vegan wasn’t trendy like it is now, Koski said.
“They couldn’t pronounce the word – veg-gan what’s veeg-in," she said laughing. "No, the world has changed a lot."
But even though the vegan community has grown – Koski’s business doesn’t plan to. Koski said she lives by the business motto "small is beautiful."
“A lot of people want to do chains and stuff, so many people have tried to get me to be a chain or put my sandwiches in a box or all this, it’s like no," she said laughing. "There is enough business stuff to take care of who wants to be doing that?"
This business philosophy differs from her daughter’s, who hopes the hustle and bustle of Concord will allow her business to grow to other locations.
Unlike Koski, Mauck also wants to keep up with the times. Mauck is planning to be active on social media and is working on a website – something her mother’s cafe never had.
Willows also accepts credit cards, which has been a recent addition to Susty’s. For the first 12 years it was open – Koski was accepting IOUs from anyone and everyone who came in.
“Because it’s just such a trusting thing – people don’t steal vegan food and if they do, I want them to have it, seriously,” she said with a chuckle.
Although their business models may differ, their menus are pretty similar - except when it comes to one thing: fried food.
“I get people wanting them here thinking that because I am the daughter of the owner of Susty’s that we are automatically going to have tofu fries and soy fritters but that’s not the case," Mauck said.
But in the next few months, Mauck said she does hope to add booze to her menu, something that her mother’s café doesn't offer. |
Theory: basis for the study and practice of nursing education.
The theoretical base for nursing education is described as a hierarchy made up of nursing's metaparadigm, conceptual models, and theories. The types of theories needed for the practice of nursing education and the research methods used to develop these theories are discussed. Criteria to be met by a theory before it may be used in nursing education practice are identified. |
ANOHANA: THE FLOWER WE SAW THAT DAY
109 min | NR
Adapted for the big screen from the beloved anime series, ANOHANA is the tale of 5 childhood friends who drifted apart following the death of their mutual friend, Meiko “Menma” Honma. These friends come together once again when Menma appears before one of them, saying she cannot pass on to the afterlife unless she is granted one last wish. Produced by the highly acclaimed studio A–1 Pictures (MAGI: THE LABYRINTH OF MAGIC, OREIMO 2), the ANOHANA film moved the hearts of 3 million viewers across Japan when it was released in theaters there.Tickets are $15 available in advance at the box office and online. Each admission ticket includes a chance to win an exclusive giveaway items, while supplies last. |
10 Best Sci-Fi Movies of 2013
There are so many movies that almost qualify for our 10 Best Sci-Fi Movies of 2013 list, but don’t quite make the cut. ‘World War Z‘ was great, but was more of a zombie flick. ‘Iron Man 3‘ was amazing but we all know that’s more of a comic book movie. Then there were all those hilarious post-apocalyptic movies like ‘This is the End‘ and ‘The World’s End‘ that just didn’t meet our science quota. We decided to limit our Sci-Fi movies list to flicks that feature space ships, robots, or at the very least a piece of technology more complex than an iPhone. These are GuySpeed’s 10 Best Sci-Fi Movies of 2013.
This sci-fi horror flick gets on our Sci-Fi Movies list because its plot surrounds the exciting thought that there may be life on Europa, one of Jupiter’s moons. Unfortunately, the mission goes pretty horribly wrong and, surprise surprise, the astronauts start dying off one by one. However, failing equipment and space radiation are only part of the problem. The life they do find on Europa is much more than they were prepared to handle. The film work in this movie is astounding, waiting to show the “monster” until the last minute, and even then giving us only a glimpse.
'Cloud Atlas' almost didn’t get on this list because it just barely counts as sci-fi. The movie is really about how events have a lasting effect throughout history. The movie starts in 1849 and ends in 2321, but even then the world is more post-apocalyptic than science fiction. However, the story is amazingly powerful and the actors do an outstanding job. This movie has pirates and nuclear melt downs and tribal fights and rebellions and slaves and all sorts of compelling storytelling. It could use a few more explosions, true, but it’s a phenomenal movie nonetheless, even if it does sort of straddle the boundaries of sci-fi.
'Ender’s Game' is a movie that has quite a bit of controversy surrounding it. Orson Scott Card has said some pretty bigoted things in the past, but 'Enders Game' almost expresses values directly in opposition to its author. It’s about responsibility and growing up and how the words of your elders are not always trustworthy. It also has some outstanding space sequences and special effects. Though you may be boycotting the movie due to your personal politics, and that is a valid choice, we can confidently say you are missing out on one hell of a sci-fi flick by doing so.
A sci-fi movie written by Will Smith, starring Will and Jaden Smith, and directed by M. Night Shyamalan is… believe it or not… actually pretty good. It was kind of like Man VS Wild, sci-fi edition. Jaden Smith had to learn how to conquer his own fear, fight back against the wilds of an alien planet, and eventually come to an understanding with his father, though he never drinks his own piss. Will and Jaden actually do a great job acting across from each other and the fights and conversations they have in the movie feel genuine and while there is a bit of hokey shyamalany twist stuff going on, it was an enjoyable sci-fi experience in the end.
Up next on our 2013 list of the best sci-fi movies is 'Elysium,' a movie that is absolutely saturated with POLITICAL SYMBOLISM! We typed that as hard as we possibly could. It tells a story of a world divided into two classes: rich and affluent citizens of 'Elysium,' a space station that offers impeccable medical care and living conditions, and the poor, sick, and hungry residents of a post-apocalyptic earth. It’s a pretty heavy handed commentary on our current healthcare situation, but it also super-strength robot exoskeleton fist-fights, so it balances out in the end.
'Oblivion' is an adaptation of the graphic novel of the same name. It takes place in a far future earth, ruined by aliens called the Scavs… or does it? It’s difficult to explain much of the plot of 'Oblivion' without spoiling it, but trust us, it’s awesome. It asks questions like “are we our bodies or our memories?” and “what is a human life actually worth when technology outpaces biology?” It also has Tom Cruise playing an actual space man, and Morgan Freeman playing the leader of a band of post-apocalyptic renegades. What more do you want?
When in doubt, watch Vin Diesel punch things! Riddick is an awesome return to the sci-fi action that made Pitch Black so great. It’s far less goofy than The Chronicles of Riddick was and it gets across a tone of solitude on a ruined alien planet. It’s kind of like Metroid: The Movie, but with Vin Diesel’s fist in the starring role instead of Samus Aran.
'Gravity' is, simply put, a terrifying movie. There aren’t jump scares or aliens or sharknados to terrify you. There is just the cold, oppressive, uncaring vastness of space, and the thought that if anything goes wrong out there, you could die and no one would ever even be able to locate your body. It makes us feel utterly small when compared to the emptiness of the universe. You’ll have to get past a couple nitpicky physics errors to enjoy this one, but if you can it will leave you shaking in your seat in both fear and admiration.
Benedict Cumberbatch steals the show as… a character that we can’t really name… in this amazing sequel to 2009’s alternate time-line Star Trek movie. Benedict shows us that there is a darker and more sinister side to… uh… that guy he played, who could really strike fear into the hearts of a movie audience that exists in a world where terrorism is a very real threat. It makes a ton of political statements about the use of excessive force in war and Kirk has to make tough decisions when he goes up against… Cumberbatch’s character, and the conflict only gets resolve when- HE’S KAHN OK! OF COURSE HE’S KAHN! SPOILERS! WHATEVER! JUST GO SEE THIS MOVIE!
Giant robots fighting giant monsters in the middle of the ocean with a chainsaw sword… Gentlemen, we have found a singularity of awesomeness. This movie is a giant monster movie fan’s wet dream. It’s like a living anime brought to life through gratuitous use of CGI that makes your eyes want to jump out of your head due to the sheer shineyness of it all. It’s a movie that will get you standing up and cheering when you see a huge Kaiju get punched in the face and then wondering who you are drift compatible with when the movie is over. It also has one of the best “go get em” speeches of movie history. “Today, we are canceling the apocalypse!”
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Reduced levels of neuraminidase of influenza A viruses correlate with attenuated phenotypes in mice.
We have previously obtained four transfectant influenza A viruses containing neuraminidase (NA) genes with mutated base pairs in the conserved double-stranded RNA region of the viral promoter by using a ribonucleoprotein transfection system. Two mutant viruses (D2 and D1/2) which share a C-G-->A-U mutation at positions 11 and 12 of the 3' and 5' ends, respectively, of the NA gene, showed an approximate 10-fold reduction of NA-specific mRNA and protein levels (Fodor et al., Journal of Virology 72, 6283-6290, 1998). These viruses have now allowed us to determine the effects of decreased NA levels on virus pathogenicity. Both D2 and D1/2 viruses were highly attenuated in mice, and their replication in mouse lungs was highly compromised as compared with wild-type influenza A/WSN/33 virus. The results highlight the importance of the level of NA activity in the biological cycle and virulence of influenza viruses. Importantly, mice immunized by a single intranasal administration of 10(3) infectious units of D2 or D1/2 viruses were protected against challenge with a lethal dose of wild-type influenza virus. Attenuation of influenza viruses by mutations resulting in the decreased expression of a viral protein represents a novel strategy which could be considered for the generation of live attenuated influenza virus vaccines. |
An elderly man is ripped from his bed in the dead of night. Blindfolded, the last thing he feels is the blade slitting his throat. A taxi driver, made to kneel on the side of the road, trembling as a gun is put to his head and the trigger is pulled. In one summary execution, the bodies of five men are shown convulsing under the force of the bullets being fired into their backs. |
Methylmalonate toxicity in primary neuronal cultures.
Several inhibitors of mitochondrial complex II cause neuronal death in vivo and in vitro. The goal of the present work was to characterize in vitro the effects of malonate (a competitive blocker of the complex) which induces neuronal death in a pattern similar to that seen in striatum in Huntington's disease. Exposure of striatal and cortical cultures from embryonic rat brain for 24 h to methylmalonate, a compound which produces malonate intracellularly, led to a dose-dependent cell death. Methylmalonate (10 mM) caused >90% mortality of neurons although cortical cells were unexpectedly more vulnerable. Cell death was attenuated in a medium containing antioxidants. Further characterization revealed that DNA laddering could be detected after 3 h of treatment. Morphological observations (videomicroscopy and Hoechst staining) showed that both necrotic and apoptotic cell death occurred in parallel; apoptosis was more prevalent. A decrease in the ATP/ADP ratio was observed after 3 h of treatment with 10 mM methylmalonate. In striatal cultures it occurred concomitantly with a decline in GABA and a rise in aspartate content and the aspartate/glutamate ratio. Changes in ion concentrations were measured in similar cortical cultures from mouse brain. Neuronal [Na+]i increased while [K+]i and membrane potential decreased after 20 min of continuous incubation in 10 mM methylmalonate. These changes progressed with time, and a rise in [Ca2+]i was also observed after 1 h. The results demonstrate that malonate collapses cellular ion gradients, restoration of which imposes an additional load on the already compromised ATP-generation machinery. An early elevation in [Ca2+]i may trigger an increase in activity of proteases, lipases and endonucleases and production of free radicals and DNA damage which, ultimately, leads to cells death. The data also suggest that maturational and/or extrinsic factors are likely to be critical for the increased vulnerability of striatal neurons to mitochondrial inhibition in vivo. |
[The piRNA pathway and spermatogenesis: Advances in studies].
Piwi-interacting RNAs (piRNAs) are a distinct class of small non-coding RNAs specifically expressed in the germline of many species. Studies show that the piRNA pathway influences spermatogenesis by translation regulation, germline stem cell maintenance, RNA degradation and gene defense in addition to inhibition of transposable elements. This review presents an overview of the piRNA pathway focusing on piRNA, PIWI protein and other related proteins and outlines the latest advances in the studies of the piRNA pathway in spermatogenesis. |
The publisher has extended their trademark of the cancelled action RPG, meaning they're allowed to provide themselves with another three extensions, or 18 months, without showing proof of commerce before their rights are permanently revoked.
Microsoft has recently filed for a trademark extension on, the cancelled action RPG from PlatinumGames and Microsoft Game Studios.
Though this should be taken with a grain of salt, what this means is that Microsoft has another six months to provide proof that the trademark is being used commercially. If a company still hasn’t provided proof that said trademark is being used in commerce in the country of registration every six months after the registration of a trademark, an extension has to be requested lest the trademark be cancelled.
This can be done up to five times before the mark is lost, which means Microsoft can extend another three times and provide themselves with another 18 months, seeing as how this is only the second extension of the trademark.
Trademark law states that an extension is equivalent to a “sworn statement that the applicant still has a bona fide intention to use the mark in commerce, but needs additional time actually to use the mark.”
As previously mentioned, this doesn't give any indication of the game's resurrection and could very well mean next to nothing. However, there is a possibility that Scalebound could live on through another developer.
What do you think of this news? Will Scalebound ever see the light of day? Let us know in the comments below! |
ES News email The latest headlines in your inbox twice a day Monday - Friday plus breaking news updates Enter your email address Continue Please enter an email address Email address is invalid Fill out this field Email address is invalid You already have an account. Please log in Register with your social account or click here to log in I would like to receive lunchtime headlines Monday - Friday plus breaking news alerts, by email Update newsletter preferences
Border police stormed the “bogus” wedding of two Harrods workers only to be left embarrassed when they realised it was real.
Immigration officers ruined Massimo Ciabattini and Miao Guo’s big day when they burst in and halted the nuptials at Camden Town Hall.
The 31-year-old Italian groom, 34-year-old Chinese bride and their two bridesmaids were led away into separate rooms and grilled for half an hour before police realised it was not a sham marriage to obtain a visa.
The couple, who met while working at the Knightsbridge store, were subsequently allowed back into the room and allowed to get married.
The fiasco happened last Thursday in front of a reporter from a local paper who was invited by police to see raid on a “bogus marriage.” But when they realised they had made a mistake, the journalist was quickly ushered away and not prevented from taking photographs.
Home Office officials suspicions were raised because the pair had trouble spelling each other’s surnames when they registered to marry and the bride’s visa was due to expire in six weeks. The only guests at the wedding were the bridesmaids.
The wedding had been “red flagged” by Camden Council as a possible sham marriage who called in the Home Office to investigate.
Officials waited until the wedding was underway to avoid the bride and groom fleeing.
However, the couple’s answers to questions about their relationship and life had matched up perfectly - and they had genuine bookings afterwards at a restaurant with friends and a hotel room for the night.
One official admitted afterwards: “It is either the best sham wedding I have ever seen or it is real.”
Guy Taylor, of the Joint Council for the Welfare of Immigrants, condemned the mistake, saying: “This is a life event where people’s expectations, money and energy is being poured into this one day and the Home Office don’t seem to care about ruining it by not making better background checks. Why didn’t they interview them beforehand?”
A Home Office spokesman said: “Where suspicions are raised that a marriage may not be genuine we will investigate. On this occasion no action was taken.”
A spokesman from Camden Council said: “We are legally obliged to report any suspected sham marriages or civil partnerships to the Home Office, based on the criteria outlined in the Immigration and Asylum Act of 1999. It is then for the Home Office to decide how to progress and whether to take action.” |
Clementoni Crystal Laboratory Kit
“
With Clementoni’s Crystal Laboratory children can create and colour differently-shaped crystals, create geodes and discover the chemical reactions of the salts. Plus it’s approved by the Science Museum!
About Little Look
I created Little Look when my daughter girl Alba was born. When shopping for her layette, I had to work hard to find children’s products that were beautiful, practical and environmentally friendly.
I decided to put all my finds (and the pieces I discover along the way) in one place. Little Look combines a curated shopping network, inspirational blog and unique interior design service, all in one place.
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using System;
using System.Collections.Generic;
using System.IO;
using System.Text;
using System.Threading;
using NUnit.Framework;
using RegressionTests.Shared;
namespace RegressionTests.Infrastructure
{
public class LogHandler
{
public static void DeleteEventLog()
{
CustomAsserts.AssertDeleteFile(GetEventLogFileName());
}
public static void DeleteErrorLog()
{
var errorLog = GetErrorLogFileName();
if (File.Exists(errorLog))
{
File.Delete(errorLog);
}
}
public static string ReadAndDeleteErrorLog()
{
string contents = ReadErrorLog();
DeleteErrorLog();
return contents;
}
public static string ReadErrorLog()
{
string file = GetErrorLogFileName();
CustomAsserts.AssertFileExists(file, false);
return File.ReadAllText(file);
}
public static string GetErrorLogFileName()
{
return SingletonProvider<TestSetup>.Instance.GetApp().Settings.Logging.CurrentErrorLog;
}
public static string GetDefaultLogFileName()
{
return SingletonProvider<TestSetup>.Instance.GetApp().Settings.Logging.CurrentDefaultLog;
}
public static void DeleteCurrentDefaultLog()
{
for (int i = 0; i < 50; i++)
{
try
{
string filename = GetDefaultLogFileName();
if (File.Exists(filename))
File.Delete(filename);
return;
}
catch (Exception)
{
Thread.Sleep(100);
}
}
throw new Exception("Failed to delete default log file.");
}
public static string ReadCurrentDefaultLog()
{
string filename = GetDefaultLogFileName();
string content = string.Empty;
if (File.Exists(filename))
return TestSetup.ReadExistingTextFile(filename);
return content;
}
public static bool DefaultLogContains(string data)
{
string filename = GetDefaultLogFileName();
for (int i = 0; i < 40; i++)
{
if (File.Exists(filename))
{
string content = TestSetup.ReadExistingTextFile(filename);
if (content.Contains(data))
return true;
}
Thread.Sleep(250);
}
return false;
}
public static string GetEventLogFileName()
{
return SingletonProvider<TestSetup>.Instance.GetApp().Settings.Logging.CurrentEventLog;
}
}
}
|
A man was shot and seriously injured in Regent Park on Wednesday night, Toronto police say.
Just after 11 p.m. on Wednesday, police responded to reports of multiple gunshots in the area of Dundas and Sackville Streets.
When police arrived on the scene they found a man with a gunshot wound and also located shell casings in the area.
Paramedics transported the man to hospital.
Police said Thursday they have no information about possible suspects. |
Quantum Threat
IBM has just come out with the world’s very first commercially available quantum computer known as the Q System One .
For those of you who aren’t familiar, quantum computers think a bit differently than the PCs and smartphones we have now and are much better at solving complex mathematical problems.The release of this new computer instantly piqued the interest of some members in crypto who asked: “does this new quantum computer threaten bitcoin?”The answer as usual, can be found in the video archives of the great Andreas Antonopoulos who said explains…The threat of quantum computing is only real if it’s available to one actor and not to others. Even still, if a person did manage to develop their own supercomputer, bitcoin would probably be too small a target to waste it on.Meaning, if quantum computers are readily available to everyone, then the entire bitcoin network will upgrade together and there is no threat.When I tweeted this answer out yesterday, I was delighted to receive further clarification from legendary cypherpunk and cryptographer Adam Back, who I had the pleasure of meeting at a bitcoin birthday party last week.In these three tweets , Adam explains that the Q System One is “super weak” even compared to a 1972-era computer. Furthermore, there are quantum resistance solutions currently in bitcoin’s development roadmap, although we may be decades away from it even being relevant.“#bitcoin can calmly & slowly watch QC…”@MatiGreenspaneToro, Senior Market AnalystToday’s HighlightsPatience PolicyShutdown: Day 21Bitcoin’s new RangePlease note: All data, figures & graphs are valid as of January 11th. All trading carries risk. Only risk capital you can afford to lose.Traditional MarketsJerome Powell, the Chairman of the US Federal Reserve Bank, answered questions at an event yesterday and clarified the Fed’s position on monetary policy, just as the markets were hoping.The Fed is currently the biggest player in the market, so this is a pretty big deal. Jay, as his family calls him, stressed caution and patience above all when dealing with interest rate hikes. The markets were previously expecting two or three hikes this year and it seems like Jay is trying to bring them down to one or less.There was, however, a noticeable drop down in the Dow Jones when they discussed the Fed’s balance sheet. Not that anything critical was really discussed but it seems to have become a trigger word for the markets.
The truth is that according to the explanations given last night, it doesn’t seem like they have any plans at the moment and rather will act according to the situation when the time comes. It’s a bit disappointing on one hand because “forward guidance” was a theme stressed by Powell’s predecessors, Bernanke and Yellen. On the other hand, perhaps now we can quite Fed watching and let the markets be a bit more independent.Still ShutBy tomorrow, this will have been the longest government shutdown in US history.Jay Powell also gave a rare comment on this last night saying that usually, shutdowns don’t have a great impact on the economy because they don’t last very long. However, if we were to see a prolonged shutdown the implications could be very big indeed.For example, one of the wings currently closed is the Consensus Bureau , who is responsible for putting out critical economic data like retail sales and GDP. If those stats aren’t published, investors, economists, and even the Fed will essentially be flying blind.
Bitcoin’s new RangeYou’ve probably already noticed that Bitcoin and the other cryptos took a sharp plunge yesterday . Actually, two sharp plunges.As we discussed in yesterday’s update, there appear to be no specific reasons for this drop and it’s more likely due to the lack of liquidity inherent in the crypto markets, possibly mixed with some large orders being placed on exchanges.If yesterday’s explanation of no specific explanation annoyed you in any way, you’re really gonna love this next one.The total movement of 12% from peak to trough was actually insignificant. All we’re seeing is a movement from the top to the bottom of the range. Check it out. Here we can see bitcoin’s price since it first fell below $6,000.
As we’ve been discussing since mid-November, the current range is from $3,000 to $5,000 (dotted blue lines). It seems now, that bitcoin has opened a new mini-range within that from $5,550 to approximately $4,200 (yellow lines).Movements within a range can sometimes be sudden like we saw yesterday, but unless there’s a breakout of the key levels there really isn’t much to write home about.Wishing you a relaxing weekend.
This content is provided for information and educational purposes only and should not be considered to be investment advice or recommendation.Past performance is not an indication of future results. All trading involves risk; only risk capital you are prepared to lose.The outlook presented is a personal opinion of the analyst and does not represent an official position of eToro.eToro is a multi-asset platform which offers both investing in stocks and cryptocurrencies, as well as trading CFD assets. Please note that CFDs are complex instruments and come with a high risk of losing money rapidly due to leverage. 65% of retail investor accounts lose money when trading CFDs with this provider. You should consider whether you understand how CFDs work and whether you can afford to take the high risk of losing your money.Cryptocurrencies can widely fluctuate in prices and are not appropriate for all investors. Trading cryptocurrencies are not supervised by any EU regulatory framework. The post Quantum Threat appeared first on Bitcoinist.com . |
Paddy Siglin
Wesley Peter "Paddy" Siglin (September 24, 1891 – August 5, 1956) was a second baseman in Major League Baseball. He played parts of three seasons for the Pittsburgh Pirates and also spent 14 seasons in various minor leagues. Siglin was tall and weighed .
Career
Siglin was born in Aurelia, Iowa, in 1891. He started his professional baseball career in 1913 with the Central Association's Waterloo Jays. After batting .227 during his first season, Siglin was hitting .320 in July 1914 when he was purchased by the Pittsburgh Pirates. He made his major league debut on September 12 of that year.
Siglin appeared in 23 MLB games from 1914 to 1916, and he went 9 for 56 (.180) at the plate. In 1917, he moved west to join the Pacific Coast League's Oakland Oaks. He spent one season with Oakland, one with the Salt Lake City Bees, and then two with the Portland Beavers, never hitting above .283.
After the 1920 season, the Beavers traded Siglin to the Salt Lake City Bees for Marty Krug. While reporting the trade, The Deseret News noted that, "Due to his personal inclinations to the Salt Lake club, it is very likely that Siglin will play a much better game for Salt Lake than he did for Portland."
Siglin proved the newspaper correct, as he immediately had the best offensive season of his career in 1921. He set career-highs in hits (270), doubles (67), home runs (22), batting average (.344), slugging percentage (.522), and total bases (409), and he led all PCL players in hits, doubles, home runs, and total bases. Siglin had another solid performance in 1922, batting .316 with 16 home runs and leading the league with 60 doubles and a .972 fielding percentage at second base.
Siglin then spent three years with the Sacramento Senators. His batting average went down from .303 in 1923 to .256 in 1925. He played one more season after that before retiring from professional baseball.
Overall, Siglin had 2,264 hits in his 14-year minor league career. In addition to being a good hitter and fielder, he was a leader on the baseball diamond and served as the captain of the Portland Beavers when he played for them. He could also be aggressive when he had to. Former PCL umpire Beans Reardon once said:I had a fistfight with Paddy Siglin during a game in San Francisco ... The newspaper the next day carried three big pictures of the fight. One of them showed me landing a punch on Paddy's nose. Another one showed him beating on the back of my neck.
Siglin died in Oakland, California, in 1956 and was buried in Santa Clara Mission Cemetery.
References
External links
Category:1891 births
Category:1956 deaths
Category:Major League Baseball second basemen
Category:Pittsburgh Pirates players
Category:Waterloo Jays players
Category:Youngstown Steelmen players
Category:Rochester Hustlers players
Category:Oakland Oaks (baseball) players
Category:Salt Lake City Bees players
Category:Portland Beavers players
Category:Sacramento Senators players
Category:Mission Bells players
Category:San Antonio Bears players
Category:Baseball players from Iowa |
The anatomical basis for the cerebellar infarcts.
Very little can be found in the literature concerning the variation of the irrigation area of the cerebellar arteries, as well as the characteristics of anastomoses among these vessels. The anatomical features may determine certain features of cerebellar infarcts. Consequently, we examined the irrigation area of and the anastomoses among the cerebellar arteries. The anatomical features of the posterior inferior cerebellar artery (PICA), the anterior inferior cerebellar artery (AICA), and the superior cerebellar artery (SCA) were studied in 26 cerebella injected with india ink, while their irrigation areas and anastomoses were examined in 8 of these cerebella. The PICA, which most often (82%) arose from the vertebral artery, was found most commonly (81.3%) to supply the largest part of the occipital surface of the cerebellar hemisphere, the caudal or caudomedial part of the tentorial surface, and the inferior vermis. The AICA, which usually (92%) arose from the basilar artery, commonly (68.8%) supplied most of the petrosal surface of the hemisphere and the flocculus. The SCA, which divided into the medial and the lateral trunks, always irrigated most of the tentorial surface of the cerebellum, the superior vermis, and the dentate nucleus. The PICA, AICA, and SCA were always interconnected by anastomoses, which ranged from 40 microns to 420 microns in diameter. Cerebellar infarcts were documented by computed tomography (CT) or magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) examinations in 10 patients. The infarcts were located in the PICA territory (60%) or the SCA region (40%). The authors compared the obtained anatomic data to the features of the cerebellar infarcts in these patients. |
121 B.R. 493 (1990)
In re Eric R. PITT, Barbara G. Pitt, Debtors.
LAWYERS TITLE INSURANCE CORPORATION, Plaintiff,
v.
Eric R. PITT, and Barbara G. Pitt, Defendants.
Bankruptcy No. 90-20529-B, APN 90-2121-B.
United States Bankruptcy Court, E.D. Virginia, Norfolk Division.
November 29, 1990.
*494 James R. Sheeran, Portsmouth, Va., for debtors.
C. Jay Robbins, IV, Chesapeake, Va., for plaintiff.
OPINION AND ORDER
HAL J. BONNEY, JR., Bankruptcy Judge.
This is a short opinion with long consequences. It may considerably affect the relationship among developers, lenders, title insurance companies, general contractors and subcontractors for time to come. Here is a lesson that the law cannot become subordinated to convenience.
In the construction industry and, unfortunately, in the realm of bankruptcy we are familiar with the system by which the general contractor affirms that he has completed a certain portion of the work, that all subcontractors and suppliers have been paid or that they waive their rights pertaining thereto. Such an affidavit is presented to the title insurance company and to the lender and a draw upon the loan is made. On Friday afternoon everyone is happy.
This case unearths a convenient approach to the system, but, alas, one incumbent with problems. It appears that for convenience sake, to save the contractor from making the rounds of subcontractors and suppliers prior to every draw, the "Owner's and Contractor's Affidavit (Construction In Progress)" form of Lawyers Title Insurance Corporation is executed and notarized in advance at the closing of the loan with the date later filled in when presented. The contractor usually verifies by telephone that the affidavit is valid.
Having heard similar cases before and knowing that such affidavits have been actually circulated, the Court inquired of a witness, Ernest C. Consolvo, Esquire, a knowledgeable real estate attorney with considerable experience, if the practice had changed. He acknowledged it had changed in recent years for the convenience of which we speak. Of course, this is conceded by the plaintiff here, Lawyers Title Insurance Corporation.
The debtors and defendants in this dischargeability action, Eric R. and Barbara G. Pitt [Pitts], were principals and officers in a business known as E.R. Pitt Construction Company, Inc., and in order to secure funds from lenders had to purchase title insurance, in this case from Lawyers Title Insurance Corporation. It is stipulated among the parties that the affidavits [see, by way of example, the pertinent part of Exhibit 2] were executed in blank the date each loan was originally closed.
For the seven lots involved, Lawyers Title Insurance Corporation seeks to *495 save from discharge in the debtors' bankruptcy a total of $151,303.89.
To have a debt declared non-dischargeable in bankruptcy pursuant to 11 U.S.C. § 523(a)(2)(A), a creditor/plaintiff must show misrepresentation alleged by a preponderance of the evidence, prevailing upon the elements of
(1) having made the representation,
(2) knowing at the time it was false,
(3) making it with the intent and purpose of deceiving,
(4) with the creditor relying thereon, and
(5) the creditor sustaining loss and damage as a result thereof. Sweet v. Ritter Finance Co., 263 F.Supp. 540 (W.D.Va. 1967)
Here the debtors represented payment of suppliers and subcontractors and the creditor sustained loss; however, since the representation was made up front at the time of the loan, it was not then untrue. The facts must show intent at the time and not later. In re Maxwell, 75-338-NN (E.D. Va., Clarke, J., 1976). Clearly, neither knowledge nor intent to deceive was originally present at the time the affidavit was made.
It is argued by the plaintiff that these elements were later present when the Pitts tendered an affidavit. Ah, but the plaintiff cannot in truth say it relied upon the latter day event since it knew the affidavit was a lie. Indeed, it was a party to the deed, the form is its own.
Further, the testimony is uncontradicted that Mrs. Pitt had told Lawyers Title along the way the company was having difficulty paying the jobs.
Too, Paula Kaplinger of Lawyers Title testified, "LTIC was aware the dates (on the affidavits) were filled in after the closing signing."
To allow this system to prevail makes of affidavits a known lie and defeats in the Commonwealth of Virginia the sanctity of affidavits. They would come to mean nothing.
It is so sacred that affidavits may only be given before designated officials. Section 49-4, Code of Virginia (1950).
It is a statement reduced to writing, the truth of which is sworn to before someone authorized to administer an oath. 1A Michie's Jurisprudence "Affidavits," Section 2 citing Farm Bureau Mut. Ins. Co. v. Hammer, 177 F.2d 793 (4th Cir.1949), cert. denied, 339 U.S. 914, 70 S.Ct. 575, 94 L.Ed. 1339 (1950).
What we have here is a system of acknowledged convenience known to all. From the very onset, at the loan closing, "the paper work is done," the affidavits are signed and sworn to with the dates to be filled in as draws are made. Oh, the contractor is supposed to tell Lawyers Title of the current status, but, in truth, it is not now under oath.
A plaintiff might prevail against the debtors in other forums, but it must be remembered it is the bankruptcy standard which must be applied against the Pitts here. The clear involvement of Lawyers Title in "the convenient system" precludes defeating a discharge. Gleason v. Thaw, 236 U.S. 558, 35 S.Ct. 287, 59 L.Ed. 717 (1915); Royal Indemnity Co. v. Cooper, 26 F.2d 585 (4th Cir.1928); Roberts v. Ford, 169 F.2d 151 (4th Cir.1948); Davison-Paxson Co. v. Caldwell, 115 F.2d 189 (5th Cir.1941).
While fraud, too, was alleged, no evidence of such prevails. That means guilty scienter and it is nowhere present.
The indebtedness of Eric R. and Barbara G. Pitt to Lawyers Title Insurance Corporation is discharged in bankruptcy.
IT IS SO ORDERED.
EPILOGUE
Lawyers Title has lost here, is certainly no villain and has learned a great deal from the present case. Indeed, it is much wiser.
As one of America's foremost title insurers, it has long been active in this market. In Tidewater Virginia, development has been at a stupendous rate with hundreds of projects, hundreds of contractors, thousands of suppliers and subs or workmen, scores of lenders and but a few title insurers.
*496 The paper work has been more than enormous. Remember, thousands lined up behind the contractors to be paid. All yearned for a shorter system. Lawyers Title went from a long form affidavit to this shorter one and turned its head when affidavits were signed and sworn to in advance.
Now, with the fall of many developers and contractors, Lawyers Title has had to pay large losses. Even before this case came to trial, it ceased giving affirmative mechanic's lien coverage altogether in the cities of Chesapeake and Virginia Beach.
I believe Lawyers Title will tell you in hindsight it, and others, foolishly agreed to provide coverage in areas beyond the fundamental concept of title insurance.
This is a small dischargeability case. Its implications, however, along with non-bankruptcy losses, will alter title insurance as we have recently known it. Here Lawyers Title is the whipping boy, but we know there are many others out there who are more to blame.
|
Weight loss and body fat reduction under sibutramine therapy in obesity with the C825T polymorphism in the GNB3 gene.
The relationship between weight reduction after sibutramine treatment and a single nucleotide polymorphism, rs5443 (C825T), in the guanine nucleotide binding protein beta polypeptide 3 (GNB3) gene is currently inconsistent. In this study, we aimed to reassess whether the GNB3 rs5443 single nucleotide polymorphism could influence weight reduction and body composition change under sibutramine therapy in 131 obese Taiwanese patients. By comparing the sibutramine and placebo groups with analysis of covariance, our data showed a strong effect of sibutramine on weight reduction (7.4+/-1.4 vs. 3.4+/-1.2 kg; P<0.001) and on body fat percentage loss (4.2+/-0.1 vs. 2.1+/-0.1%; P<0.001) in the combined TT+TC carriers. In contrast, sibutramine caused no significant additional effect on weight loss (P = 0.078) or on body fat percentage loss (P = 0.441) in homozygous C allele carriers. |
Researchers at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center are using artificial intelligence to identify images of bacteria quickly and accurately through an AI-enhanced microscope, which they contend has the potential to alleviate the current national shortage of clinical microbiologists.
BIDMC’s Clinical Microbiology Laboratory is a “hidden part” of the Boston hospital, explains James Kirby, MD, director of the lab, but one that serves a critical function in diagnosing potentially deadly blood infections which is passed along to clinicians to determine appropriate therapies.
“We have a microbiology technologist workforce, and one the things they spend a lot of time doing is looking at patient specimens in order to make a diagnosis of the type of infection people have,” says Kirby, who is also associate professor of pathology at Harvard Medical School. “That’s a very labor-intensive task. It takes time, and it takes a lot of skill.”
However, Kirby notes that there is a nationwide shortage of highly trained microbiologists, with 9 percent of lab technologists positions remaining unfilled—a situation that will only get worse with 20 percent of technologists projected to reach retirement age during the next five years, according to the American Society for Clinical Pathology.
To fill this gap, BIDMC researchers are leveraging an automated AI-enhanced microscope system from MetaSystems with a digital camera—which collects high-resolution image data—and so far has proven “highly adept” at identifying images of bacteria quickly and accurately based on their shape and distribution, according to Kirby.
Researchers specifically trained a class of AI modeled on the mammalian visual cortex, called convolutional neural network (CNN), to analyze visual data from blood samples on microscopic slides in order to categorize bacteria in suspected bloodstream infections.
“One characteristic of these convolutional neural networks is the more you train it, the better it becomes” at these tasks, observes Kirby, who says his research team generated more than 100,000 training images for the system. “It’s like a child going from primary to secondary school.”
Results of a study, published recently in the Journal of Clinical Microbiology, show that the CNN was able to sort images into the three categories of bacteria—rod-shaped, round clusters and round chains or pairs—ultimately achieving nearly 95 percent accuracy.
In addition, researchers had the algorithm sort new images from 189 slides without human intervention, which achieved more than 93 percent accuracy in all three bacteria categories.
“We view this as a first step as a proof of principle,” says Kirby, who believes that in the future with further development and training the AI-powered platform could be used as fully automated bacteria classification system, “conceivably reducing technologist read time from minutes to seconds.”
Time is of the essence for clinical microbiologists, he notes, as rapid identification and delivery of antibiotic medications is the key to treating bloodstream infections, which kill as many as 40 percent of patients who develop them.
“You have the power of the machine’s intelligence and the power of the microbiologist together to render a diagnosis,” Kirby concludes. “I work at a big teaching hospital, but there are many smaller sites that don’t have local expertise. Slides could be scanned at these remote sites and then analyzed potentially at a central site to suggest what the diagnosis might be.”
Besides clinical applications, the AI-based system could also be utilized for microbiology training and research as a “living data repository,” he adds. |
Objective Caml Plugin for Xcode
Last version : beta 10. Download it
News
January, 4th - port to Xcode 3 (beta 10)
Table of Contents
Objective-Caml is a programming langage created by the INRIA, a french research center in computer science. For more informations, go to the Objective Caml web site. Extract from this site :
Objective Caml is the most popular variant of the Caml language. From a language standpoint, it extends the core Caml language with a fully-fledged object-oriented layer, as well as a powerful module system, all connected by a sound, polymorphic type system featuring type inference. The Objective Caml system is an industrial-strength implementation of this language, featuring a high-performance native-code compiler (ocamlopt) for 9 processor architectures (IA32, PowerPC, AMD64, Alpha, Sparc, Mips, IA64, HPPA, StrongArm), as well as a bytecode compiler (ocamlc) and an interactive read-eval-print loop (ocaml) for quick development and portability. The Objective Caml distribution includes a comprehensive standard library, a replay debugger (ocamldebug), lexer (ocamllex) and parser (ocamlyacc) generators, a pre-processor pretty-printer (camlp4) and a documentation generator (ocamldoc).
The official Objective-Caml compiler and runtime release only includes command line version of the developer tools. So, you need to use makefiles to deal with more-than-one-file projects. Makefiles are powerful, but a bit complex to use. Even if you may use makefiles in Xcode, it's more practical to have a full integration into Xcode.
This Xcode plugin allow you to :
create a Objective Caml projet or target with Xcode
add files to this target like you do for a C program
modify the OCaml compiler or linker settings through the Xcode's build-in build setting GUI.
adding a library in library build phase of a OCaml target
syntax higlighting
use ocamllex and ocamlyacc
use of the native compiler (select architecture "ppc" instead of the default "ocaml")
dependance between source files
mixing OCaml and C code
However, as it's a beta version, it doesn't support yet :
better dependance between source files (you must put them manually in the good order in the target build phase)
targeting the intel procs (only bytecode & ppc support at this time)
ocamlp4 preprocessor
debugging from Xcode (but possible with direct use of ocamldebug)
Groups & Files Errors & warnings, syntax coloration Compiler build Settings Linker build Settings OCaml targets
Requirement :
Xcode 3.0 (which itself only runs on Mac OS X 10.5.x).
Objective Caml development tools 3.08.3 or later installed in /usr/local/bin (unofficial packaged version here, official installer here).
To install the plugin, you have to put the following files in your Library folder or in the system Library folder :
To install previous version of the plugin working with xcode 2.3/4/5, available here, you have to put the following files in your Library folder or in the system Library folder : OCamlPlugin.pbplugin in :
Library/Application Support/Apple/Developer Tools/Plug-ins/
in : Target templates in :
Library/Application Support/Apple/Developer Tools/Target Templates/OCaml/
Project templates in :
Library/Application Support/Apple/Developer Tools/Project Templates/OCaml/
If your ocaml tools are not installed in /usr/local/bin , you may set up the installation base path with the following command (it's a per-user setting) :
# ocaml installed with fink : defaults write com.apple.Xcode INOCamlBasePath /sw # ocaml installed with darwinports defaults write com.apple.Xcode INOCamlBasePath /opt/local
The Objective-Caml plugin is distributed under the GPL license.
Download the source code.
The description of Xcode's plugin interface.
Sourceforge page for Xcode Plugins
1.0b10 (Jan 2008) - Xcode 3.0 compatibility. Add support for nested comments in syntax highlighting.
1.0b9 (Dec 2006) - fix a bug preventing to run the compiled executable from Xcode.
1.0b8 (Dec 2006) - Support for ocaml tools at non-standard paths
1.0b7 (Sep 2006) - Some support for source file inter-dependances, support for mixing C & OCaml
1.0b6 (Jun 2006) - Xcode 2.3 & 2.4 compatibility
1.0b5 (Feb 2006) - Xcode 2.2 & 2.2.1 compatibility
1.0b1 (Aug 2005) - First version
I'd like to thank : |
Effect of enteral feeding bag composition and freezing and thawing upon vitamin stability in an enteral feeding solution.
The effect of enteral feeding bag composition and freezing and thawing upon the stability of riboflavin and vitamins A and E in an enteral feeding solution was tested. Feeding bags composed of either polyvinyl chloride or polyethylene were filled with an enteral feeding solution. The samples were frozen for 3 months, thawed in warm water, and allowed to stand in room temperature for 12 hr. Samples for vitamin analysis were obtained prior to freezing, upon thawing, and at 12 hr after thawing. No significant differences in vitamin stability due to bag composition or time were seen. These results support the viability of the concept of mixing large batches of enteral feeding solution, and freezing aliquots in individual feeding bags for later use. |
Tuesday, November 30, 2004
Joyce became an officially licensed driver yesterday, and this morning was her first ever solo drive to school.
Truly, I thought it would all be just fine. She’s smart and dependable, mature and competent and she’s nobody’s fool. She’s capable and observant. She’s a good driver. She’s driving a very dependable vehicle. Good in ice and snow, even. I mean, I really, really thought I was way ready for this. Not that big of a deal. A-OK.
Sunday, November 28, 2004
Yesterday's rain created a big ol' slushy for the ground, which drank it right up. The wind is blowing and the sun is intermittently shining. The sky is gray – several beautiful shades of gray.
Our football team lost at the Dome yesterday, but it was awesome anyway. I know they wanted to win. I wanted them to win, too. But they didn’t... but they played at the Dome! It was a helluva good ride. The newspaper article quoted one of the players as saying, "next year’s season starts tomorrow, and we’ll be working hard." Those boys are driven.
It was really awesome to see our marching band at the Dome. They went on the field and played the national anthem, and then shared half-time with the other school’s marching band. We were so much better! Our band rocks.
During the game, though, the only band I could hear well was the other team’s band. Our band was seated down and over to our left, while the other band was almost directly across from us. Acoustics being what they were... I couldn’t really hear our band well at all.
All in all, I enjoyed all the previous games more than the Dome. Even though the significance of getting to the point of playing at the Dome is great, it was just not as much fun. Too many people and too loud. Our fan camaraderie was diluted by sheer space. Sitting outside in the cold and the rain, packed in bleachers, cheering and screaming all together, singing with the band, being led in cheers by cheerleaders we could actually see and hear, watching the mud fly... now that's high school football.
Today is de-decorate Thanksgiving and go get the Christmas tree day. Yippee!
Saturday, November 27, 2004
Today we’re heading to the Dome to see our high school varsity football team play for the State title. This is a big deal, and I mean a BIG DEAL. Our school has never made it this far before. We’re a smaller school, so this is a huge accomplishment. (And the best part is that most of our key players are juniors, so next year will be great, too!)
The team we’re playing against has gone often and won often. It’ll be a fight, that’s for sure. But like our brand new t-shirts say, “The road to success... is heart!”
And we get to see our daughter, and nephew, in the marching band at the Dome. Wow. Got the camcorder batteries all charged up!
p.s. The snow is disappearing with rain this morning :-(
Sam’s basketball team was in the Turkey Classic tournament yesterday, held at our high school. It was supposed to be held on Saturday, but since we’re goin’ to the Dome, they switched the schedule around to play Friday. Since we had made plans to have Thanksgiving with friends on Friday, it caused a potential dilemma. Sam so wanted to go to that, but he also wanted to play ball with his team. The team commitment had to win out. So... I had thought of a plan to call the mom of a boy that Sam really likes (teammate) and see if they could take care of Sam during the tournament. And Wednesday evening just after I got home, she called me! They were inviting Sam to go home with them after the last game on Friday, spend the night and ride down to the football game with them. Of course, Sam was totally thrilled. The mom was A-OK with taking Sam all day, too, and it worked out perfectly! And we got to see Sam play in the last game for his team yesterday evening.
Thanksgiving with our friends was with Nathan and his mom & dad, Mary Anne and Jesse. Nathan’s older brother and his fiancé were there, too. Dinner was excellent, and I’m not just talking about the food. Mary Anne has a way of making you feel totally comfortable and welcome. Their home is beautiful and very large, but it’s warm and inviting, and somehow cozy. Calling such a big home cozy would be strange, but that’s Mary Anne’s doing. We really enjoyed the time with them. I’m real happy that Joycie and Nathan connected in that drivers training class...
Nathan gave Joyce a beautiful bracelet with her name engraved on it for her birthday. He wrapped it in this huge box in gold wrapping paper. Then there was a medium box in blue wrapping paper, and then a smaller box in pink paper, and then the black velvet box with the bracelet in it. It was quite an event. We haven’t seen the ol’ box-in-a-box-in-a-box routine in years, so it was unexpected and pretty darn fun. I know Joycie was wondering what in the heck was in that big box, as was I! Too cool.
Well, Joyce is making way too much noise with her new PS2 and DDR, so that’s it for me.
Friday, November 26, 2004
Today our daughter turns into a 16-year-old. A milestone birthday if ever there was one. She Can Now Obtain a Driver's License.
I'm ready for it, really. And I know she is.
It's just that last weekend in our town a 16-year-old girl driving a car with her 15-year-old boyfriend made a 2-second fatal mistake -- she drove through a blinking red light on a busy road at about 10 pm. A large truck had a blinking yellow and, appropriately not stopping, hit them at the intersection. The boy died and she survived with little physical damage. Psychological damage is a whole 'nother story, I'm certain.
That's what is occasionally freaking me out. Just a couple of seconds of inattention and a life can be lost and those left will hurt deeply. And it's not just that I worry that Joyce, or Nathan, will be the inattentive ones, but ANYONE driving where they, or we, are driving... I mean, defensive driving only goes so far.
And then with the snowfall on Wednesday... it was coming down fast, and it was slushy and icy, and driving was a bitch. Around town, traffic was backed up all over the place, and I saw the aftermath of 2 fenderbenders. Driving home on the highway was ok, but it was slick. Other drivers were driving too fast for the conditions, and I hate that. So I think of Joyce driving in that and I hate that, too. Her dad declared that when it's nasty conditions for driving she wouldn't be driving to school that day. Yeah, that's fine, except when you wake up to a beautiful, sunny, clear day and then by the time you are driving home, it's a minor blizzard. That always happens in winter here. So she just has to know how to handle it. And how to be prepared for all the idiots that risk life and limb to prove their truck (or SUV) can handle anything at any speed. Ugh.
ANYWAY, today my baby girl is 16. Where'd the time go??! She's around 5' 10" and so tops me by about 8". I look up to her in more ways than one. She's awesome. I'm so proud of her. She's so smart and has a wonderful sense of humor. She's so creative and talented in so many areas. Sports, guitar, writing (she had me read an assignment project she put together on Huck Finn, and it blew me away, it was so good, so unique and wonderful, I mean really good). She's so capable and dependable. I can see the fine woman she's becoming. She'll be way better than me. I love my girl so much.
On Tuesday I was going out and about with just a sweater. On Wednesday it started snowing. The heavy, thick wet snow that really sticks and makes a great snowman. We got hit! YES! I love snow.
We wake up Thanksgiving morning to being blanketed with snow. Every twig and branch and last stubborn leaf is coated. It was a beautiful morning. And since one of my sisters made the turkey for today, I got up in the daylight. YES! The view out of our bathroom windows faces East and our pond, and with the sun coming up with all the snow framing the pond, and the pond looking so dark in contrast to the snow... well, it was just too dang beautiful.
All I had to make this year for Thanksgiving dinner was mashed potatoes and corn. I have a potato peeler thing, but you still have to do a lot of "clean up" on the 'taters. I think I peeled and cooked more potatoes yesterday than I have in the past year. But, man were they good. I also use a "secret recipe" for corn.
Corn is important in my family. Growing up and well into adulthood, we used to grow tons of it in my folks' garden, then we'd pick it, husk it, clean it, blanche it, cool it in ice water, cut the corn off the cob with an electric knife, scrape all the good juicy stuff off the cob into the corn, pack it and freeze it. Pull it out on a winter's day and it's summer in your mouth. So, here we are in the 21st century and no one has time to grow a garden lately, and my mom and dad are old enough now not to care too much about it. It's kinda sad, actually.
Thanksgiving dinner yesterday was 19 at the table. Well, 2 tables, actually. We were missing 1 person only (my adult niece who is now doing "every-other-year" with her boyfriend/fiance). It was so nice. I'm thankful for my wonderful family.
Saturday, November 20, 2004
This past May, on an absolutely beautiful sunny day, I decided to go out on my lunch hour. Normally, I work through lunch, because I’m a sucker, that’s why. Driving along in my LeSabre, window down, it was just perfect to get a dose of fresh air and sunshine. Beats the heck outta my cramped and crowded cubicle. So, as I was at a dead stop in the street, about 5th in a line of vehicles waiting for the 1st car to make a left-hand turn, a Big GMC pickup with big ol’ dualies in the back and a Gigantic front grill failed to notice all of us there waiting until the very last minute, when it was, of course, Too Late.
I watched him driving up behind me, and he was definitely enjoying the beautiful Spring day, looking all around. To his left, mostly. I screamed at him to LOOK UP, but alas, he didn’t hear me.
Since I always make a habit of stopping well behind the vehicle in front of me (I stop so that I can clearly see all of their tires on the pavement and then a little some), the damage to the front of my lovely LeSabre was minimal. Its ass-end, however, took a beating.
The pickup truck driver was very nice and apologetic. Just a moment of inattention. Hey, we’ve all been there. I was nice back. The older gal driving the Lincoln in front of me was quite nice, as well. Turns out, she and the pickup truck driver’s mother were acquaintances (everyone knows everyone in my town, or knows someone close to everyone, it’s like only 2 degrees of separation, max). So the 3 of us chatted until the cops showed up. And, yep, the cops were real nice, too. Of course, it helped that no one was seriously injured. (I’m sure my reaction would have been much different should my kids have been in my car.)
Anyway, over $6,000 damage to the ol’ LeSabre. Took 3 weeks to get it fixed, and insurance covered all of the cost. The car looked great when we got it back. Though, of course, it’s just not the same. There are a few little squeaks and whistles where none previously existed. Since May, we’ve not only learned to live with them, we’ve forgotten about them.
But... this past Wednesday, I suddenly realized that my car stinks and that it has been stinking for about 4 months. It has a faintly musty odor. In the past 4 months, on occasion, I’ve searched my car for left-over odor causing items. Initially, I did find a food item under the passenger seat, and I thought it was the source. Though, now I think about it, the food was dry as a board. Dried up food doesn’t generally smell, it’s the juicy, molding stuff that stinks. Another time, my son left clothes in there from football, all sweaty and stinky. So, anyway, I just realized, hey, my car STINKS and it’s been stinking steadily for several weeks. Then I took a box out of my trunk. This cardboard box was sitting on top of a blanket that was thrown into my trunk in a careless manner, not folded up all nice and neat. The blanket and the bottom of the box were both damp. My whole trunk is damp. And smelly. I don’t know how I didn’t notice this before. I must always be in a helluva hurry when using my trunk. I truly wish I had noticed this earlier. Actually, I wish I would have tested the trunk out for leaks when I picked it up. Doncha just love hindsight.
So now I have an appointment to take my car back to the body shop. But I don’t have much hope for a complete recovery. I’ll probably have to drive a stinking car around now for years. Albeit a very comfortable stinky car.
Thursday, November 18, 2004
We’re giving Joyce a new computer for her upcoming birthday – that is, we’re buying all the parts... her extremely talented boyfriend is building it for us. Everything’s been ordered, so yesterday began the first of many expected deliveries.
Yesterday’s 2 boxes were delivered by USPS, and our regular postman, Dan, must have been off for the day. Both boxes were left on the cement in front of our garage entrance door, & Dan would never do that. And, yes, it rained. Just a little. Like, Box No. 3 from USPS today, Dan always gives our boxes to my folks, because he knows all of us and he knows we’re not home, my folks are & that we go there everyday to pick up the kiddos. Dan the postman is great!
So last night I typed up this beautiful note and put it in a plastic sheet protector and actually taped it to my garage entry door. It reads, “Please place all packages on the front porch, out of weather. Thanks!” Since it’s a big, white sign on a dark brown door, you can’t miss it. And since it’s an attached garage, the front porch is, uh... right there next to the garage.
Obviously, the FedEx delivery person is a professional, because he or she left today’s box from FedEx on the front porch.
We also got a 2nd box delivered to us by UPS... so why was that box not on my porch??? Hmm... Because the UPS person can’t read? Because the UPS person was in such a hurry, he or she didn’t have the extra 14.7 seconds it would take to walk to and from the front porch? Because the UPS person was afraid of my cat on the porch? Hmm... Why, oh why?
I’m guessing the UPS person is a jerk, that’s why. Because only a jerk would leave a box on the damp cement on the ground with all the bugs on such a rainy day as today, sitting it directly under that sign posted on my door. It was the monitor, as it clearly showed on the box, and the dumbass UPS person didn’t even leave the box right side up, but rather on its side on the damp cement with all the bugs.
Wednesday, November 17, 2004
I remember when I was a kid, the state highway into town was one lane heading East and one lane heading West. That was it, 2 lanes. Now, it’s 2 lanes in each direction plus a turn lane in the middle. Construction to enlarge this road started about 20 years ago or so, I guess. I also remember that when I was a kid there were no billboards on that road, so now, of course, there are several. I guess it doesn’t really matter to me. It’s not like these billboards are blocking any nice view or anything. And sometimes the billboards are very entertaining.
For the past year or so, this local communications company has been putting up signs with this great marketing spiel. They find local people who have the same names as celebrities, put their photo up on the billboard with them holding a cell phone with the slogan, e.g., “Jennifer Lopez and Baycom Nextel” & “Stephen King and Baycom Nextel” & even “Harry Potter and Baycom Nextel”. I tell you, it’s truly a stroke of marketing genius. Everyone I’ve talked with about those billboards gets a big kick out of them.
I have to explain a little bit about something before I tell you my about my favorite Baycom billboard. In our neck of the woods, Nov. 15th is a Big Day. It’s the opening day of whitetail rifle hunting season. Deer hunting is not only a huge tradition ’round here, it’s Big Business. Our school district even takes that day off, and it’s assuredly a wise financial decision – they’d have to pay too many subs to cover teachers, staff and even bus drivers, all to keep school open on a day when half the student body would be absent.
So the newest Baycom billboard, and my favorite thus far, is a photo of a nice, big buck, probably a 12-point at least. Shoulders up, not a whole body shot. Beautiful. With the words, “Buck Naked and Baycom Nextel”.
Saturday, November 13, 2004
We live in a good sized town, probably about 40,000 people in the city, and double that for the whole county. The thing about our town is that it's pretty normal, but we do have probably more than our fair share of well-to-do folks. We have people in our town that have come from all over the globe, so there's quite a variety of people. There's a lot of lamenting about the lack of certain entertainment and dining options (oh, boo hoo hoo, bye the way), but I've not heard any complaints about not being able to find a really good bottle of wine... Where to go in our town? The best place to purchase your high end wines is Eastman Party Store. Sounds like a name for a joint where you'd pick up Fritos and a bottle of Boone's Farm, and for years, it kind of looked that way from the outside, too. (But they've had a very nice facelift recently.) Actually, I think it used to just be a normal party store, but then the owner, or maybe it was the new owner, had a thing for wines. And the rest is history. You can keep your Chambers Street Wine and your Gotham Wines & Liquors and your Madison Avenue Liquors Inc... we'll keep our Eastman Party Store.
Today my son had his first piano lesson. We’ve been trying to find a teacher for him for almost 3 years. Everyone we contacted was either a kook or really good and thus booked solid. That combined with our desire to have the weekly lesson on a day and time that was remotely convenient left us with no piano lessons for Sam. My nephew’s teacher, who is, I’m guessing, an excellent teacher (because my nephew plays so well), could possibly have fit Sam into his schedule, but the guy has such a strong British accent… and it’s strange, it’s so strong that his side of the conversation is mostly unintelligible. (And he’s lived in the States for years and years… and he ain’t all that old.) Sam just couldn’t deal with that. Last weekend, we got a phone call from Jim, the person we’ve been wanting Sam to take lessons from for almost 3 years. Jim’s Saturday 2 pm student has quit piano. YIPPEE! 2 pm on Saturdays is perfect.
Jim teaches piano and percussion, and it’s what he does for a living. His music studio is the upper floor of a store on our town’s main street. It’s a really old building, but one of those buildings that was well built. Lots of character. Beautiful woodwork, beautiful big wooden interior doors, the kind with the transoms above the door, and with brass hardware and ivory porcelain door handles. Gorgeous. A really cool place to go and have a piano lesson. Sam is so happy. He’s downstairs now practicing. I’m loving this.
Changeling Clouds
Earlier today on the way home from town from Sam’s basketball game, the air was crisp and cold and the sky was blue, blue, blue. The sun was faintly surrounded by clouds, those wispy strips of clouds, but like a big sheet of it, so it filtered the sunlight. There was only one other cloud in the sky, and it was a small cloud. Sam & I determined it looked most like a dragon flying with its mouth open, going after something… because there was a tiny piece of that cloud kind of hanging beneath it, almost not attached. Then right away, the tiny cloud started to get bigger and bigger, like it was eating the cloud above it. That original cloud was gone, leaving only the newer, now-big cloud. And then it looked like a horse with a rider on it. And then there was a little tiny small tail that developed beneath the new cloud. And… it started to grow and grow, while the horse and rider disappeared. It was strange and awesome. Then after the 2nd cloud was gone, the new 3rd cloud grew a little tail beneath it, and… it ate the bigger cloud! Then, yep!, it grew a tail…. This happened over and over, and actually each transition was very quick, and then we drove too far away from it to see it.
Dress Up, Part 2
Joyce and Nathan are at Nathan’s school’s Fall Formal Dance tonight. Joycie got an up-do earlier, and with her very intricate up-do and her lovely cranberry wispy dress, with 3 beaded and sequined oh-so-subtle butterflies on it, she just looked so very beautiful. She’s so tall and slender, and she carries herself so well. We bought clip-on “pearl” earrings for her (she still doesn’t want her ears pierced!), and she wore those with her pearl necklace – real pearls, and when you put those next to the costume jewelry, you can really tell the difference. They glow. She looked so elegant. So very beautiful. And Nathan looked wonderfully handsome in his black suit. He was wearing a tie of Kev’s that I bought for Kev years ago – it’s a pattern of oak leaves, but the background is cranberry like Joycie’s dress color, so I had asked him if he wanted to wear it. He really liked the tie. This tie is my most favorite tie ever. The leaves are all different colors, and it’s gorgeous. It’s a great tie. Probably 12 years ago or so, I saw it in a local men’s store and totally wanted it for Kev, but then I saw the price. It took me 3 or 4 days, and then I caved and went and bought it. I think it’s so cool that Nathan liked it and that he’s got it on tonight. They sure made a beautiful couple.
Our daughter had her last basketball game of the season Thursday evening. Her dad observed often throughout the game that it could very likely be the last game of high school basketball that we were to see her play. Since she’s been playing for quite a few years, on one hand it seemed rather a sad thought. But actually, if it was her last game, I am mostly glad. This year, I watched as basketball changed for Joyce – I don't think she has had fun with it for a while now, not like earlier in the season. In my opinion, it's because of the JV and the Varsity coaches – I feel like they've changed, and not, as I see it, for the better. Maybe they haven't, but it seems to me like they have. Basically, I think they are concentrating so much on winning, that they are not regarding the players as actual people with real feelings, particularly actual teenage girls with all that entails. I think they’re often too mean*. Frankly, I am hoping Joycie doesn't want to play basketball next year. I'm trying not to let her know that's how I feel, because I do want her to decide for herself. But I think it's just too much. The 2 coaches want only players who Live And Breathe Basketball, and I don't want that for Joyce. Maybe that's what it takes to play any HS sport, I don't know. Regardless, Joyce just isn't that overwhelmingly passionate about basketball. She really enjoys it and she’s a good, strong player, but apparently that's not enough.
It’ll be interesting to see how many girls try out for basketball next year. This year the word was that they had trouble getting enough girls… I was so surprised. Now, I’m not.
Instead of basketball, Joyce has told me she is considering playing indoor soccer with 2 of her friends – I would love that. She’d still get tons of exercise, the fun of playing with a team, and – here’s the clincher – I think it would do a hell of lot more for her self-esteem than playing in the basketball program we currently have.
Anyway, volleyball is next. Yay!
*Here’s an example of what I would call mean coaching behavior – one of the sophomores on the Varsity team, who was always one of the best players and who was on the JV team as a Freshman (which is a biggish deal because most of the Freshmen were on the Freshman team), and who was called up to the Varsity team mid-way through the year (also kind of a big deal), and who was on the Varsity since the beginning of this season, for whatever reason, didn’t get a lot of playing time. She’s still an excellent player, but the Varsity coach announced at practice, with no warning, that this player was going back down the JV and that one of the Freshmen currently on the JV team was being moved up to Varsity. This was at the beginning of a Saturday practice. The Freshman girl had warning, because she was there to practice with the Varsity team. The coach then told the girl being moved down that she didn’t need to practice with them that day (only Varsity practices over the weekend). Only thing was, since this girl is too young to drive, her dad had dropped her off and she had to wait until the end of practice time to be picked up by her mom, so she spent the time alone in the locker room, basically crying. She was publicly humiliated, and the coach didn’t even get it. He is such an ass.
Further, this girl has already been experiencing some self-esteem problems, I believe, because she wasn’t getting what she thought was enough playing time last year and this year. At least I suspect that's part of it, probably a lot more to the story. Anyway, I heard not getting to play was really bothering her (she’s one of those girls that live and breathe basketball, playing year-round, traveling teams, etc). Turns out, she’s bulimic. The general feeling is that this last hit by the Varsity coach really was a low blow for this girl and basically sent her over the edge. To her credit, she really played hard on the few JV games she was at, but “due to health reasons” she had to quit before the end of the season. With just a bit more caring & consideration by that coach, I believe this poor girl may have behaved differently. She put way too much stock into the opinion of one very large asshole.
Saturday, November 06, 2004
Thursday afternoon Kev and I met at the school and picked up Sam and 6 of his friends to go to Sam's much-looked-forward-to Bowling Birthday Party. Kev took Sam & Cody and 1 of the girls, and I took the other 4 girls in my car. They are all 4th graders and all 10 years old or around 10. Halfway to the bowling alley, I think the girls actually forgot I was in the car.
The conversation was all about who liked who, who was nice, who wasn't, who didn't like who, who liked who last year.
"You like MATT!" ...followed by laughing/screaming/screeching
"Oh My Goodness, NO I DON'T! I wouldn't touch him if he was the last one on God's Green Planet, not if he were the last one alive in carnation. Well, maybe I'd touch him if I had on plastic gloves. Those really thick ones." ...more laughing/screaming/screeching
Hey, I know the boy they were talking about, and I wouldn't touch him either.
And then on to talking about other girls:
"She is SO annoying. Any little thing happens and she cries. Yesterday she forgot her SHOES and she CRIED. What a baby."
"Oh, but she's new. She doesn't know anybody. It must be hard for her. I feel bad for her when she cries."
Guess which little girl in that conversation that I like the most??!! But, guess which one I can relate to the most??!!
It was very enlightening. And the bowling birthday party was So Much Fun.
Thursday, November 04, 2004
Looks like we have another cat. This one has been hanging around for the past couple of months. Very elusive. I tried to get close to it several times, but he wouldn't let me... until last Saturday evening. It was dark and I was very patient, calling and calling to him and he finally let me pick him up. It was like flipping a switch. One second, wild cat; next, my cat. He's a dark tiger coat, and definitely a he. (We'll have to get those 2 little things taken care of soon...) Turns out, he's very affectionate. And he has really big feet. I can't even guess his age, but I wouldn't call him a kitten... maybe he has yet to grow into his feet. Actually, he is about the same size as N.C., our orange cat that showed up this past May. N.C. and Henry, as we've named him, have similar markings, just different colors. It has made me wonder if they're related... possibly dropped off at the same time, just that N.C. adopted us more quickly than Henry decided to do.
He's Henry because we love that Herman’s Hermits song – it’s a favorite to belt out when we’re in the car on the road. Because these are the cats I’ve had:
1. Taffy – a wonderful Siamese mix, best cat ever, and I still miss her
2. Sabertooth, aka Sabbie – a small orange and white sweetie, one of 2 barn cats that loved to lay on top of my horses, all warm and comfy, and sleep, and I still miss her, too (& I miss my 2 horses, too)
3. Elfie – the other barn cat, a light-gray Persian mix who was like an ethereal being, long, long hair, strange eyes, and such an intelligent look, another cat I miss,
4. Nasty Maine Coon Cat – whose name I can’t recall, who drove off Sabbie for a time and picked on Elfie no end, definitely a cat that should live with no other cats, so I gave her to a friend of my sister’s, and good riddance
5. Cornelia, aka Corny – a small beautiful kitty that we should have named Cybil, what a psycho… attack-cat and my 4-year-old daughter just didn’t mix, so….
6. Francine, aka Frankie – our gray cat, getting on in age, one of the least affectionate cats ever, but still a sweetheart (and a good mouser in her younger years), and
7. N.C., or as Sam likes to spell it, Ensie, but it stands for New Cat, and he’s a doll, and one of the best mousers, chipmunk/mole hunters ever,
which brings me to:
8. Henry, because he’s Henry the 8th he is! Henry the 8th, he is, he is!!!!!
Now if he’ll just quit fighting with the other 2 cats all the time instead of just some of the time, life on the front porch would be oh so serene, as well as totally mouse-free.
p.s. People who drop off cats and dogs, including kittens and puppies, out on country roads just because they don't want them anymore really suck. Just once, I'd like to catch one of those assholes in the act, and when I catch them, I'd like to have with me a heavy stick of oak or other hardwood, such as a bat.
I have a relatively new Le Sabre. It is one of the most comfortable cars I’ve ever owned, and in my 40+ years of life, I’ve actually owned several different vehicles. Also, I had a Le Sabre about 5 years ago, and I loved that car, too. Drove it for years to almost 200,000 miles. I was recently driving a small SUV which is a cute, red, sporty little thing that handles well in ice & snow… but it’s not comfortable. I bought the SUV from a friend of mine who buys and sells cars, so I asked her to look for a newish Le Sabre for me. I had given her a list of criteria, and lo and behold, the exact car I wanted was at one of the very next auctions she went to and she picked it up for a song. Just one of those lucky days. And I love this car.
After we got it, my kids started to notice more Le Sabres on the road than they had previously noticed. It’s always that way, y’know. Once you get a vehicle, you begin to notice the others like it... it isn’t as if there are suddenly more of them on the roads, just you notice them more. But the most interesting thing about all the Le Sabres we were now noticing is that most of them were being driven by people whose hair was one of 2 colors: gray or white. Seriously. We even began keeping a “Le Sabre Log” with a column for old drivers and a column for younger drivers. Many, many more checks on the old side. About 4:1. (And of the younger drivers, my guess is that many of them were borrowing their parent’s car.)
This only further reinforced my theory that the Le Sabre is one of the most dependable & comfortable of all the affordable cars. That’s why old people like ’em.
Apparently, handicapped folks like ’em, too. This morning after I dropped my birthday boy off at school, I went into the grocery store to pick up his birthday cake at the bakery. Since it was early, I parked in one of the closest parking spots near the entrance, one of the spots right next to the group of handicap parking spaces. My car was kind of alone in with a group of 5 handicap cars. Of those 5 cars, 4 of them were Le Sabres, & of those, 2 were the exact same color as mine.
I drove Sam to school today, which is a special treat because he usually takes the bus & I’m usually at work while he’s riding it. Sam & his 48 cupcakes. He can’t take in a treat just for his class, he must also give cupcakes to the school secretary, principal, janitor, art teacher, gym teacher, bus driver, last year’s teacher, etc etc. He’s such a sweetie.
First, though, we dropped his sister off at the high school, and then we went into town for a bagel for breakfast. A chocolate chip bagel with chocolate chip cream cheese. A nice way to start a new-double-digit-age. Then on the way to school, I told Sam that at this time 10 years ago, I was in the hospital screaming, and then I stopped screaming & said, “ok, I’m ready for the drugs now,” and then the nurse said, “it’s too late, dear, the baby’s head is nearly crowning.” For some reason, Sam thought that was hilarious. And whoever said that a woman forgets the pain of childbirth never gave birth to a big-headed baby.
about me...
I am a wife, mom, gramma, daughter, sister, aunt, great-aunt... yep, family is very important to me. I write this blog just for the fun of it... and because I like to use ellipses, and this blog is the perfect vehicle for that... I live by 2 mottos... one I grew up with of "if wishes were horses, beggars would ride" and the other, which is really more of our family's No. 1 rule, "no whining." I enjoy going barefoot. |
A lawyer and animal-rights campaigner is backing calls for a rodeo ban and would like to see it in place beyond the Gold Coast.
Angella Pollard is the Coordinator of the Animal Law and Education Project.
She says it is the 'unnecessary nature' of rodeos that makes them cruel.
"It says quite clearly in the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals Act that unless you can establish that it is necessary you shouldn't be causing any level of distress to an animal.
"There's an awful lot of animal cruelty out there in relation to how we do scientific experimentation and produce our food, but that cruelty is deemed to be legal and necessary.
"How is it necessary when it is a form of entertainment?"
She says it is clear that animals are injured in rodeos and that 'psychological stress' is also caused by the use of electric cattle prods.
"If you actually read government inquiries there's lots of evidence that there are injuries that animals suffer.
"Particularly around the issue of calf roping, that's particularly cruel, but also the injuries that animals sustain with the flank ropes and also the psychological stress that caused by electric cattle prods as well as they are prodded to go into the ring."
Ms Pollard says the sport of rodeos has been given an exemption from section 20 of the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals Act, NSW.
"I'm quite concerned about the fact that rodeos continue to operate despite section 20 of the act which clearly says [they] are prohibited."
Dianne Hallam is the General Manager of the Australian Bushman's Campdraft and Rodeo Association.
She believes many of the claims of cruelty, surrounding the sport are made by people who have not been to a rodeo.
She says the animals are bred to buck and that they enjoy what they do.
"You can't actually make and animal do something that it doesn't want to do ... you can't get them to perform at their peak."
Flank straps, Ms Hallam says, are used to 'assist with the bucking' but that they cause an animal no serious discomfort.
"I'm sure that if anyone had a genuine interest in the welfare of the animals, if they went to a rodeo and spoke to the organisers ... and actually inspected the flank straps for themselves, they would see that they are actually not ropes that are pulled tight ... and that they are actually lined.
"The strap is covered in sheepskin lining usually ... it's soft, so it doesn't cause any friction."
Electric prodders are also currently used according to Ms Hallam, but their use is guided by the same restrictions as apply in Saleyards.
She says that injuries to stock occur in 'probably less than one percent' of cases.
"People get injured, horses and stock do get injured in different sports, but the thing is that the percentage of the injury rate is very, very low.
"I know in our association, the records that we're keeping it's probably less than one per cent.
"The reason for that is the stock that we use in Rodeo are very well taken care of."
Ms Hallam says the concern for animals used in rodeos goes beyond their role in owner's livelihoods.
"If you spend enough time with animals, there's a bond," she says.
"If you've got a close bond with an animal, you take care of it."
Ms Hallam also says all stock suppliers must be accredited in order to be part of the industry.
"All the stock must be inspected beforehand; [the suppliers] must understand what's in the animal welfare code of practice."
She says if suppliers don't abide by the regulations they are fined and/or suspended.
"There's no room for them in our sport."
She also says her organisation has invited the RSPCA to their major event and that she has spent time with an RSPCA representative at a rodeo.
"We like to work with those departments because we've all got a common goal." |
Special Feature:
Antonius - a double winner
It’s not every pig that has its own patron saint, but the Antonius breed is special in a number of respects. Named after St. Anthony, the protector of the “lower” animals, Antonius was the first of Denmark’s “speciality” pigs and dates back to 1976 when a gap in the market for premium pork products was identified.
In the sparsely populated region of Northern Jutland, Karsten Pedersen and his son, Daniel, keep 2,100 sows in conditions they describe as “the most modern in Denmark in terms of animal welfare”. Of the 60,000 piglets they produce per year, 44,000 are Antonius while the rest are sold under the Contract for Production of UK Pigs.
When the market for Antonius increases, father and son want to become exclusive Antonius producers. “With Antonius, the quality of the meat is crucial, but as our farm is geared up for the highest of welfare standards, we’re also keen for this to be a key parameter in Antonius production,” explains Daniel, who graduated from agricultural college in 2012.
“For us, Antonius production makes better sense commercially because we receive about DKK 20-25 more per pig (approx. £2.50-£ 3.00). But it’s not all about the bottom line. It’s also a question of feeling pride in the work we do.”
Freedom Farrowing
Much of that pride derives from the Freedom Farrowing system that the Pedersens installed in 2010. (Under Antonius rules, all sows must be in loose farrowing systems from 2017). “I tell my fellow farmers that if they want to stay in farming for the long-term, they should switch to Freedom Farrowing. This is the future. It may take some years before it becomes legislation in Denmark, but we have to bear in mind that there are five and a half million people in Denmark and 25,000 farmers – a small percentage of the population. Yes, we own over half the land, but we don’t set the rules about how we want to farm. The general public perceives that Freedom Farrowing is a better system and this is what matters. I believe that this is the way to go and half of the Antonius producers have already switched to Freedom Farrowing.”
The Pedersens’ farrowing pens, which are divided into a feeding, resting and defecating area, have heated floors and a sprinkler system to cool the sow down in summer and to encourage the piglets to separate from the sow after the first couple of days and retreat to their heated area.
“Although our piglet mortality rate is around 14-15%, which is higher than in conventional pig production, we have fewer stillborn pigs,” says Daniel. “There’s no doubt that freedom farrowing gives the sow a higher standard of welfare. We now need to study whether there are genetic reasons for some sows to have a tendency to crush their piglets – which I think there are.”
To be an approved Antonius producer, the following must be complied with: no tail docking, 66% of the flooring must be non-slatted, piglets must be 50% Duroc and should be at least 28 days old before weaning, only organic fat should be used in feed, the pigs should be afforded 30% more space compared to current legislation and fresh straw should be dispensed on a daily basis.
The Pedersens’ production system not only complies with all Antonius requirements, it exceeds them in a number of respects. For instance, fresh straw is dispensed three times a day.
Asked whether he would like to improve his farm in any way, Daniel’s answer is an unequivocal ‘no’. “Our intention was to make our farm future-proof and I think we’ve succeeded. I would like to see the market for Antonius grow, particularly beyond Denmark, but at the moment, I’m satisfied with the way things are.”
Danish Crown has put the Antonius Assurance Scheme forward for a Compassion in World Farming Good Sow Commendation award. The submission is based on the fact that Antonius producers have committed to be farrowing-crate free by January 2017. The result will be known later this year. |
I understand your main concern which is being worried on a surgical procedure and also probably having a scar on you after the procedure. First let me be direct and sincere with you, the only possible we to treat/cure inguinal hernia is a surgical procedure called herniorrahphy. Methods such as reduction could be applied but most surgeons will recommend surgical correction because of the potential future complication of the hernia which is usually strangulation or incarceration. My suggestion is you get a surgery ( closure of your skin should be done with care to minimize visible scarring). Take note that the surgery is not very invasive and often presents with little complications Try discussing with your doctor again. |
using Orchard.Forms.Services;
using Orchard.Localization.Services;
namespace Orchard.DynamicForms.Services {
public class FormElementServices : IFormElementServices {
public FormElementServices(IFormManager formManager, ICultureManager cultureManager) {
FormManager = formManager;
CultureManager = cultureManager;
}
public IFormManager FormManager { get; private set; }
public ICultureManager CultureManager { get; private set; }
}
} |
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Billings
The West Central neighborhood of Billings, Montana, is a community that offers a variety of options for food and entertainment. There are many establishments that are within walking distance of this community. The area of this neighborhood is about 7 square miles with a population of more than 14,000 people. In the southern end of this neighborhood, you can access Interstate 90. |
[Three M-components (IgG kappa, IgA kappa, IgM kappa) in a patient with non-Hodgkin's lymphoma].
Co-existence of three M-components in the serum or urine is rare. A case of non-Hodgkin's lymphoma was associated with three M-components. A 64-year-old woman was referred to our hospital because of M-proteinemia in June, 1989. On admission, serum electrophoresis on cellulose acetate membrane disclosed a triple M-peak. Immunoelectrophoresis showed M-bows for anti-IgG, anti-IgA, anti-IgM and anti-kappa simultaneously. In the urine, kappa type only Bence Jones protein was found. Scanning computed tomography revealed bulky masses in the lower abdomen, and the tumor masses were removed and diagnosed as non-Hodgkin's lymphoma. Immunohistochemical staining with antibodies to each immunoglobulins revealed the cells producing single M-component of each isotype of immunoglobulins. Although surgical removal of tumor caused a marked decrease in M-component especially IgA kappa, consistent presence of plasmacytoid lymphocyte was observed in peripheral blood. Combination therapy with melphalan and procarbazine resulted in disappearance of IgG kappa and IgA kappa from the serum. In January 1990, she achieved partial remission and was discharged. The patient has remained in remission for 16 months. |
When the day is done and nothing to do I call up a boy named Christian this is true. He says hi and I say hey he says how's it going I say nothing much today. There is a pause on the other end of the line, I brake the silent by saying wanna come over he ya I'll be right up. I hang up the phone and wait 1 minute and the doorbell rings IT'S HIM IT'S HIM! I scream in my head. I open the door and there he is Christian, tall, blonde, smart, popular, and my best friend I could never tell the truth about my feelings.
Love-O-Meter
3.06 out of 5 hearts
Add your vote! How many hearts does this story rate? 1 is lowest, 5 is highest. |
Q:
PowerMockito: mock private method to throw private class
I've got a class that looks like this:
public class Foo {
public meth() {
try {
privMethod();
System.out.println("Yay!");
} catch (FooException e) {
System.out.println("Boo!");
}
}
private void privMethod() throws FooException {
//doOtherStuff
if (someCondition()) {
throw new FooException();
}
}
private class FooException extends Exception {
FooException(String message) { super(message); }
}
}
I want to write a unit test for this, using Mockito and Powermock. I know I can mock the private method like this:
Foo spy = PowerMockito.spy(new Foo())
PowerMockito.doNothing().when(spy, "privMethod");
But how do I tell it to throw the exception? I know it'll be something like this:
Powermockito.doThrow(/*what goes here?*/).when(spy, "privMethod");
What goes there?
Note that the exception is a private inner class, so I can't just do doThrow(new FooException()), since FooException isn't accessible from the unit test.
A:
In general, you go.
Powermockito.doThrow(theThingToThrow)
goes there. Like doThrow(new RuntimeException("should be thrown")) for example. Or a more specific exception, depending what you want the code under test to do about the exception.
But of course: you want to instantiate a private class there. Which you can't do (easily, see here for terribly complicated ways to do that). From that point of view: you created a very-hard-to-test design. The answer is to rework that design, making it easier to test.
And a final word of warning: I think you should not need to use PowerMockito for this. Spies work with plain Mockito.
And when there is no hard need to use the PowerMock(ito) versions, then do not use them. Period. They have their place, but honestly: most often, needing PowerMock(ito) equals to "hard to test code".
Beyond that: looking at private methods translates to testing implementation details. And that is also something to avoid when possible.
So, in other words: A) it is close to impossible to test the above code in meaningful ways. B) It would also be bad practice to do so (as envisioned in the question). Therefore the "best" solution here is to step back and re-design the whole thing. Yes, I am serious.
|
Near-infrared light and glucose dual-responsive cascading hydroxyl radical generation for in situ gelation and effective breast cancer treatment.
A general therapeutic strategy to treat breast cancer is attractive as different subtypes of breast cancers often exhibit distinct response to existing cancer therapeutics. To this end, we prepare a catalyst couple of glucose oxidase (GOx) and gallic acid-ferrous (GA-Fe) nanocomplexes, a type of near-infrared (NIR) absorbing Fenton catalyst, to enable NIR-trigger in-situ gelation and enhanced chemodynamic/starvation therapy that appears to be effective for different types of breast cancer cells. In this system, GOx is mixed with GA-Fe in a solution of N,N-dimethylacrylamide (DMAA) and poly (ethylene glycol) double acrylate (PEGDA). Upon intratumoral injection and NIR laser exposure, such GA-Fe show rapid temperature increase, which would simultaneously increase the catalytic efficiencies of GA-Fe and GOx. The cascade production of hydroxyl radicals (•OH) from glucose is then initiated to enable polymerization of DMAA and PEGDA to form a hydrogel at the injection site within the tumor. The continuous production of cytotoxic •OH together with glucose depletion by the intratumorally fixed catalyst couple would further confer effective destruction of breast cancer tumors by such chemodynamic/starvation therapy. Our work presents a hydrogel-based therapeutic strategy for local treatment of solid tumors with high tumor destruction efficacy and low systemic toxicity. |
723 N.E.2d 1269 (2000)
311 Ill. App.3d 332
243 Ill.Dec. 668
NORTHERN TRUST BANK/LAKE FOREST, N.A., as Trustee, Under Trust Agreement No. 8333, dated August 13, 1987; L.B. Andersen and Company, Inc.; Daniel B. Light and Leah Rae Light; and William McLaughlin, Plaintiffs-Appellants,
v.
The COUNTY OF LAKE, Defendant-Appellee (The Village of Mundelein, Intervenor and Defendant-Appellee).
No. 2-99-0368.
Appellate Court of Illinois, Second District.
January 28, 2000.
*1272 Joseph T. Morrison, Margaret M. Borcia, Morrison & Morrison, P.C., Waukegan, for L.B. Andersen & Co., Inc., Daniel B. Light, Leah Rae Light, William McLaughlin, Northern Trust Bank/Lake Forest, N.A.
Michael J. Waller, Lake County State's Attorney, James R. Carr, Assistant State's Attorney, Civil Division, Waukegan, for County of Lake.
David M. Marino, Charles F. Marino, David M. Marino, P.C., Chicago, for Village of Mundelein.
Justice INGLIS delivered the opinion of the court:
Following a bench trial, plaintiffs, Northern Trust Bank/Lake Forest, N.A., as trustee, under trust agreement No. 8333, dated August 13, 1987, L.B. Andersen & Co., Inc., Daniel B. Light, Leah Rae Light, and William McLaughlin, appeal the judgment entered in favor of defendants, County of Lake (County) and the Village of Mundelein (Village). We affirm.
Plaintiffs' property consists of 266 acres located in unincorporated Fremont Township. The property lies west of Route 60/83, bounded on the south by Hawley Street and the north by Route 176. The property is contiguous to the Village's western boundary. Plaintiffs' property is currently zoned "countryside." It contains some farms and an area used for a hunting club. The property immediately to the east of the subject property is a forest preserve golf course. To the northeast is an office building, proposed shopping center, an existing shopping center, and a gas station. A cemetery and church lie to the north of the property. Northwest of the property is an area known as the Ivanhoe Club. Located contiguous to and immediately to the west of the property is the Towne property, which has been rezoned "suburban." South of the property is a residential development known as Steeple Chase, which contains a golf course that wraps around the development.
Plaintiffs filed an application to rezone their property to "suburban." Suburban zoning allows an owner to develop a mixture of uses, including industrial, residential, or commercial, permitting multifamily developments, multiplex developments, and single-family developments. The County denied plaintiffs' petition to rezone.
Following the denial of their petition by the County, plaintiffs challenged the validity of the zoning ordinance, requesting the trial court to set aside the ordinance. Plaintiffs submitted to the trial court a residential development plan for the subject property consisting of 662 single-family, multiplex and multifamily dwellings. The trial court allowed the Village to intervene as a party defendant. The trial court determined that the proposed use was unreasonable and refused to set aside the ordinance. Plaintiffs appeal from the judgment of the trial court, contending that the County's refusal to rezone the property from countryside to suburban was arbitrary, capricious, and unreasonable, that it constituted unlawful discrimination, and that the presumptive validity of the ordinance has been dissipated. Plaintiffs also contend that the trial court *1273 erred in allowing the Village to intervene. We will recite the specific facts as they relate to the issues.
Preliminarily, however, we must address the following motion taken with the case. Defendants' motion seeks to strike portions of plaintiffs' reply brief. Defendants argue that plaintiffs' reply brief contains maps that should not be considered because they are outside the record on appeal and that plaintiffs have waived their right to rely on the case of Continental Homes of Chicago, Inc. v. County of Lake, 37 Ill.App.3d 727, 346 N.E.2d 226 (1976), because they raised it for the first time in the reply brief. Plaintiffs respond that the maps are not to be used to supplement the record on appeal. Rather, plaintiffs attached the maps to assist this court in understanding the legal description in the Continental Homes case. Plaintiffs further respond that they cited the Continental Homes case in their reply brief to support their argument that the proposed plan was not too dense and was compatible with the land uses of nearby properties. These points were raised by plaintiffs both before the trial court and in their brief on appeal and, therefore, plaintiffs argue that they are not waived. Plaintiffs further argue that defendants cited the Continental Homes case in their brief in support of their argument that a governmental body may reasonably restrict increases in population density. After due consideration, we agree with plaintiffs and therefore deny defendants' motion to strike portions of plaintiffs' reply brief.
We next address whether the trial court erred in allowing the Village to intervene. The subject property is located outside the Village's boundaries. Plaintiffs argue that, in order to have standing, the Village must present evidence of a direct injury. Plaintiffs contend that the Village failed to present evidence to show that it would be directly injured.
We first note that the allegations of an applicant's petition to intervene are to be taken as true in determining whether the interests of the applicant are sufficient. Redmond v. Devine, 152 Ill.App.3d 68, 74, 105 Ill.Dec. 269, 504 N.E.2d 138 (1987). Thus, the Village need only allege sufficient allegations to show that it could be injured.
Under Illinois law, a municipality has standing to challenge a zoning ordinance that affects land outside its boundaries if it has a real interest in the subject matter of the controversy. City of West Chicago v. County of Du Page, 67 Ill. App.3d 924, 926, 24 Ill.Dec. 685, 385 N.E.2d 826 (1979) (nearest municipality located within 1½ miles from subject property). The decision to grant a petition to intervene is a matter within the trial court's discretion, and its decision will not be disturbed absent an abuse of discretion. Redmond, 152 Ill.App.3d at 74, 105 Ill.Dec. 269, 504 N.E.2d 138.
In the present case, the property is in an unincorporated area of Lake County, approximately 266 acres in size, and contiguous to the Village's western boundary; the Village is the nearest municipality. Additionally, the density proposed by plaintiffs of four units per acre is inconsistent with the Village's comprehensive plan of one unit per two acres. The Village alleged that the proposed development would seriously impact the schools, the traffic, and the police and fire departments. Based on the above, we do not find that the trial court abused its discretion in permitting the Village to intervene.
We next turn to plaintiffs' argument that the zoning ordinance as applied to their property is arbitrary and unreasonable. A party attacking a zoning ordinance must first establish the invalidity of the existing zoning ordinance and then prove that the proposed use for the property is reasonable. Glenview State Bank v. Village of Deerfield, 213 Ill.App.3d 747, 758, 157 Ill.Dec. 330, 572 N.E.2d 399 *1274 (1991). Plaintiffs argue that, because the trial court found that the existing zoning was invalid, we need only address whether the trial court's finding that plaintiffs' proposed use of the subject property was unreasonable was against the manifest weight of the evidence. We disagree.
Although the trial court acknowledged that "to some degree the County's position is that [the subject property is] just in a classification as a holding classification," the evidence does not reveal that the trial court determined that the existing zoning was invalid. Nor does the evidence indicate, as plaintiffs argue, that defendants conceded the invalidity of the existing zoning.
Moreover, a zoning ordinance, as a legislative judgment, is presumptively valid. La Salle National Bank v. County of Cook, 12 Ill.2d 40, 46, 145 N.E.2d 65 (1957). If there is room for a legitimate difference of opinion concerning the reasonableness of an ordinance or if the question of reasonableness is fairly debatable, courts will not interfere with the legislative judgment. Glenview State Bank, 213 Ill. App.3d at 759, 157 Ill.Dec. 330, 572 N.E.2d 399. The party challenging the zoning bears the burden of proving by clear and convincing evidence that the application of the ordinance to the property is unreasonable and arbitrary and bears no substantial relation to public health, safety, morals, or welfare. Cosmopolitan National Bank v. County of Cook, 103 Ill.2d 302, 310, 82 Ill.Dec. 649, 469 N.E.2d 183 (1984). The trial court did not make a specific finding that the zoning ordinance was invalid, and nothing in the trial court's analysis or judgment indicates that the evidence produced at trial overcame the presumptive validity of the existing zoning of the property. Consequently, we conclude that the trial court determined that the ordinance was valid.
In deciding whether the ordinance is valid, courts consider the following factors: (1) the existing uses and zoning of nearby property; (2) the extent to which property values are diminished by the particular zoning restrictions; (3) the extent to which the destruction of the value of plaintiffs' property promotes the health, safety, morals, or general welfare of the public; (4) the relative gain to the public compared to the hardship imposed upon the individual property owner; (5) the suitability of the subject property for the zoned purposes; (6) the length of time the property has been vacant as zoned, considered in the context of land development in the vicinity; (7) community need for the proposed use; and (8) the care with which the community has undertaken to plan its land use development. La Salle National Bank, 12 Ill.2d at 46-47, 145 N.E.2d 65; Sinclair Pipe Line Co. v. Village of Richton Park, 19 Ill.2d 370, 378, 167 N.E.2d 406 (1960).
A reviewing court cannot reverse a trial court's findings of fact unless the findings are against the manifest weight of the evidence. Cosmopolitan National Bank, 103 Ill.2d at 318, 82 Ill.Dec. 649, 469 N.E.2d 183. The trier of fact is in a better position to determine the credibility to be accorded witnesses and their opinions. Glenview State Bank, 213 Ill.App.3d at 759, 157 Ill.Dec. 330, 572 N.E.2d 399. A reviewing court should not reverse a trial court simply because it might have reached a different conclusion based on conflicting evidence presented at trial. Glenview State Bank, 213 Ill.App.3d at 759-60, 157 Ill.Dec. 330, 572 N.E.2d 399. Accordingly, we first examine whether the trial court's finding that the ordinance was valid is against the manifest weight of the evidence.
The first factor, the existing uses and zoning of nearby property, is of paramount importance. Glenview State Bank, 213 Ill.App.3d at 760, 157 Ill.Dec. 330, 572 N.E.2d 399. The trial court found that plaintiffs' proposed mixed residential development of 662 units was not consistent with the surrounding area.
*1275 Plaintiffs argue that there are developments of single-family subdivisions on 6,000-square-foot lots, townhouses, and apartments in Mundelein and the trend of development is west towards the subject property. Plaintiffs argue further that the trial court improperly considered Route 60/83 as a line of demarcation because land on both sides of the route is planned and developed with suburban-type uses and densities.
Although small portions of Mundelein overlap Route 60/83, the majority of its western boundary is on the east side of the route as it runs in a northwesterly direction. Moreover, the proposed 662-unit development consists of approximately 50% apartments, condominiums, and townhouses and 50% single-family residences on lots ranging in size from 5,000 square feet to 8,400 square feet. The evidence shows that the minimum-sized lots under the current Mundelein zoning ordinance are 10,000 square feet and those lots that have been developed in the last three to five years are on Mundelein's western borders.
Further, the density of the proposed development is substantially greater than the densities in the existing subdivisions in the area. The proposed development has over three times as many units as the largest existing development in the township. The existing developments in the area consist of single-family residences, of which the majority are on lots of one or more acres. The Ivanhoe Development, the southern end of which abuts the north side of Route 176 and lies northwest of the subject property, contains 218 single-family dwelling units consisting of .57 units per acre. Directly to the south of the subject property is the Countryside Chase golf course, which is part of a development consisting of single-family homes of .19 per acre. There are no apartments or condominiums in the township.
Plaintiffs cite Continental Homes in support of their argument that the property is clearly suitable for a greater density of development. They assert that Continental Homes involved the same property and the mixed residential use proposed in that case was very similar to the proposed use in the present case. Both uses have over 50% townhomes, apartments, and single-family homes on small lots. However, the density of the proposed use in the Continental Homes case of 4.5 dwelling units per acre is much more intense than the use proposed by plaintiffs here. They assert that the area surrounding the property then, in 1976, is similar to the existing uses today. We reversed the trial court, finding that the plaintiffs clearly demonstrated that the proposed use was compatible with surrounding uses in zoning existing and proposed, and that the property was clearly suitable for the proposed purpose. Continental Homes, 37 Ill.App.3d at 735, 346 N.E.2d 226. Because these are the same properties and because the relevant factors are substantially similar, plaintiffs argue that we should make the same finding in the present case. We disagree.
Continental Homes was decided in 1976, when the property surrounding the subject property was predominantly used for agriculture. Then, the only area used for housing in the township centered around Sylvan Lake. Continental Homes, 37 Ill.App.3d at 729, 346 N.E.2d 226. Therefore, the low density, single-family residential developments prevalent today did not exist then. Moreover, the plaintiffs in Continental Homes submitted a development plan to the planning commission, which approved the plaintiffs' proposal conditioned on their satisfying numerous conditions. The Lake County Zoning Board of Appeals then unanimously accepted the recommendations of the commission and approved the plaintiffs' plan subject to the conditions. The Lake County Board of Supervisors voted to approve the special use permit requested by the plaintiffs. Continental Homes, 37 Ill.App.3d at 728-29, 346 N.E.2d 226. However, plaintiffs were denied *1276 relief only because of the three-fourths majority requirement imposed on the board of supervisors by the filing of an objection by the Village. Continental Homes, 37 Ill.App.3d at 735, 346 N.E.2d 226. In the present case, plaintiffs did not submit a development plan to the county board when they petitioned to rezone the subject property, and their petition was denied. Therefore, we find plaintiffs' reliance on Continental Homes unpersuasive.
Plaintiffs argue that it is inconceivable that the proposed plan is unreasonable when the Towne property, which is immediately adjacent to the southwest corner of the subject property, is zoned suburban. The evidence reveals that the plan presented by the owners of the Towne property showed a gross density of less than one dwelling unit per acre. Thus, this would be in character with the low-density, single-family residential uses established in the area. Given these facts, we cannot say the trial court's finding that the first factor weighed in favor of the current zoning classification was against the manifest weight of the evidence.
Plaintiffs contend that the trial court failed to make a finding as to the second factor, the extent to which property values are diminished by the particular zoning restrictions. This contention is without merit. The trial court stated that it thought that both sides did not consider the second factor to be very conclusive. Additionally, the second factor is generally not considered persuasive because in virtually all reclassification cases property would be worth more. Glenview State Bank, 213 Ill.App.3d at 761, 157 Ill.Dec. 330, 572 N.E.2d 399. Plaintiffs contend that the unrefuted evidence reveals that the difference between the subject property as zoned and the value if the property were put to the proposed use is millions of dollars. Again, this is not necessarily persuasive because plaintiffs acquired the property with full knowledge of its zoning classification. Glenview State Bank, 213 Ill.App.3d at 762, 157 Ill.Dec. 330, 572 N.E.2d 399.
Plaintiffs have merged their argument concerning the third and fourth factors, which require the court to weigh the effects of the zoning restriction as it promotes the health, safety, morals, or general welfare of the public against the hardship imposed on the property owners. See Oliver Construction Co. v. Village of Villa Park, 257 Ill.App.3d 750, 755, 195 Ill.Dec. 891, 629 N.E.2d 199 (1994). Plaintiffs argue that there is no gain to the public by a continuation of the present countryside zoning classification. Plaintiffs contend that the development of the subject property for a mixed-use residential development would not have any adverse impact on the surrounding property, and defendants produced no evidence that the proposed use would have an adverse impact on the area.
The trial court considered that the third and fourth factors were affected by the density arguments, which it believed were a legitimate public concern. We agree. Density is a legitimate concern in a zoning case and an adequate basis for classification. Hoekstra v. City of Wheaton, 25 Ill.App.3d 794, 797, 323 N.E.2d 124 (1975). As stated above, the evidence supports that the proposed use would be far more dense than the existing single-family developments on nearby properties.
Plaintiffs contend that the suburban classification permits a density in excess of 2.5 units per acre and lot sizes of less than 5,000 square feet and, therefore, the argument that the proposed use is overly dense and the lot sizes are too small has no merit. However, the possibility that the suburban classification permits a greater density together with plaintiffs' failure to submit a development plan to the county board when they requested rezoning were valid reasons for the county board to refuse to approve the request. Further, the introduction into the township of apartments, condominiums, and single-family *1277 lots of 5,000 square feet as proposed by plaintiffs would start to change the character of the area. Finally, the trial court considered evidence of problems with the proposed spray irrigation sewage treatment system proposed by plaintiffs as well as problems associated with school crowding. While these are not determinative factors, they nevertheless were properly considered.
As to the fifth factor, plaintiffs maintain that, because defendants presented evidence that the highest and best use of the subject property would require a change in zoning, defendants concede that the use allowed under the suburban zoning is reasonable. We disagree. Until an appropriate plan is developed in character with the zoning and use of nearby properties as contemplated by the Lake County framework plan and the Village's plan, countryside is an appropriate zoning.
The sixth factor is the length of time the subject property has been vacant as zoned in the context of the land development in the vicinity. Plaintiffs argue that most of the properties surrounding the subject property have been developed over the last decade and there is a large increase in the demand for residential development. However, plaintiffs must establish that the subject property is unsaleable, vacant, or underdeveloped because of the existing zoning classification. State Bank v. City of Chicago, 287 Ill. App.3d 904, 916, 223 Ill.Dec. 250, 679 N.E.2d 435 (1997). Although plaintiffs have attempted to sell the property, they currently are not offering it for sale. Nor have plaintiffs attempted to sell or develop the property with a proposed development in character with the surrounding properties. That the property has remained vacant does not establish that the zoning applicable to it is improper. Georgen v. Village of Mount Prospect, 65 Ill.App.3d 512, 524, 22 Ill.Dec. 203, 382 N.E.2d 523 (1978).
Regarding the seventh factor, both Lake County and the Village have comprehensive plans covering the area in which the subject property is located. The adoption of a comprehensive plan that incorporates valid zoning goals increases the likelihood that the zoning of a particular parcel in conformity therewith is not arbitrary or unrelated to the public interest. Wilson v. County of McHenry, 92 Ill. App.3d 997, 1002, 48 Ill.Dec. 395, 416 N.E.2d 426 (1981).
The Lake County 1989 framework plan shows the property zoned as countryside. In 1994, Lake County amended the framework plan designating the area, including the subject property, as suburban in anticipation of the property being developed without sewer on lots of 40,000 square feet or more or annexed by the Village and developed with sewer on lots of one-half acre or more. The Village's 1990 framework plan designated the subject property and surrounding area as single-family residential with sewer. The Village's population projection was based on lots ranging in size from one-half acre to three acres. The 1995 "West Side Update" to the Village's comprehensive plan shows the area west of the Village, including the subject property, as estate, which permits one single-family residential unit per two acres without sewer. It is apparent that neither plan contemplated the area as being served with sewers or with residential densities as great as plaintiffs' proposed plan.
Plaintiffs argue that, if Lake County wished to restrict the density and size of lots on their property, it would have designated their property as estate when it amended the framework plan in 1994. We disagree. It is apparent that, at that time, the County attempted to incorporate the Village's 1990 comprehensive plan to designate the area single-family residential with sewer on lots ranging from one-half acre to three acres. The following year, the Village updated its comprehensive plan designating the subject property as estate. Thus, the County's 1994 update does not *1278 contemplate the Village's 1995 updated plan.
Plaintiffs further assert that defendants failed to present any credible evidence to show why the Lake County Board (Board) did not rezone the property suburban as designated in the 1994 framework plan. At that time, as stated above, the County anticipated that the property would be developed without sewer on lots of 40,000 square feet or more or annexed by the Village and developed with sewer on lots of one-half acre or more. The Village then later changed the plan from single-family residential with sewer to estate without sewer. Moreover, plaintiffs did not submit a development plan to the Board when they requested rezoning from countryside to suburban and did not propose a specific use for their property. Further, when the Board considered the rezoning of the subject property, the Village filed a protest indicating its resolve to have the property designated estate. Accordingly, we find that the trial court properly concluded that this factor favors defendants.
Under the eighth factor, plaintiffs assert that the community growth shows a need for various types of housing and that the trend extends in a northwesterly fashion. While there exists evidence of such a trend, we agree with defendants that, at present, there are no public sewers and other municipal services indicating a need and market for the type of housing proposed by plaintiffs. Further, the lack of interest by developers strongly suggests that the trend is not as great as plaintiffs assert.
The last factor concerns the highest and best use. Highest and best use is defined as that use that effectively utilizes a parcel of land and at the same time is in harmony with the growth goals and planning policies of the community. See Harvard State Bank v. County of McHenry, 251 Ill.App.3d 84, 88, 190 Ill.Dec. 99, 620 N.E.2d 1360 (1993). At trial, plaintiffs' expert planner and expert appraiser each testified that the proposed 662-unit, mixed residential development is the highest and best use of the subject property. Defendants' expert testified that a low-density development, such as that shown by the alternative plan submitted, with 90 single-family residential lots and 19 business park lots, is the highest and best use of the property. In this case, the trial court found the testimony of defendants' expert more persuasive, which we will not disturb. Moreover, where opinions differ as to the reasonableness of the zoning restriction, the court must defer to the legislative judgment. State Bank, 287 Ill.App.3d at 918, 223 Ill.Dec. 250, 679 N.E.2d 435.
Plaintiffs argue that the trial court improperly considered defendants' proposed plan for an alternate use of the subject property. We disagree. The admissibility of evidence is a matter within the trial court's discretion, and the ruling of the trial court will not be overturned unless it is an abuse of discretion. Yamnitz v. William J. Diestelhorst Co., 251 Ill.App.3d 244, 249-50, 190 Ill.Dec. 593, 621 N.E.2d 1046 (1993). In this case, we cannot conclude that the trial court abused its discretion.
Our determination is grounded on the basis that the alternate use was offered as a reference for assessing the reasonableness of plaintiffs' proposal and that plaintiffs have other options that are in character with the established uses in the area that would yield a reasonable return on their investment. Alternative plans proposed by defendants, if reasonable, may be a factor in determining the central question of whether the plaintiffs' proposed use is an appropriate use of the subject property. Glenview State Bank, 213 Ill.App.3d 747, 157 Ill.Dec. 330, 572 N.E.2d 399; Gunderson v. Village of Hinsdale, 156 Ill.App.3d 92, 108 Ill.Dec. 635, 508 N.E.2d 1212 (1987). We believe that, under the circumstances, the Village was justified in presenting an alternative use.
*1279 Plaintiffs' reliance on St. Lucas Ass'n v. City of Chicago, 212 Ill.App.3d 817, 156 Ill.Dec. 885, 571 N.E.2d 865 (1991), Aurora National Bank v. City of Aurora, 41 Ill. App.3d 239, 353 N.E.2d 61 (1976), and Stalzer v. Village of Matteson, 14 Ill. App.3d 891, 303 N.E.2d 489 (1973), does not support their position that an alternative use may not be considered. Rather, these cases hold that a party challenging the validity of an ordinance is not obligated to disprove the validity of all intermediate zoning classifications.
We next address plaintiffs' contention that the County unlawfully discriminated against them by refusing to rezone their property from countryside to suburban. Here, the Board's decision to rezone the Towne property was induced by a specific land use proposal showing a gross density of less than one dwelling unit per acre. The Board then had before it a land use proposal that would be in character with the established uses in the area and consistent with the Village's comprehensive plan. In plaintiffs' case, however, the Board had no land use proposal or plan from plaintiffs when plaintiffs petitioned for rezoning. Plaintiffs submitted these plans after they filed this suit. Thus, the Board never saw any of these plans. Under these circumstances, the Board was justified in refusing to rezone plaintiffs' property. We find no discrimination.
From our careful review of the record, we conclude that the trial court's finding that the existing zoning was not unreasonable was not against the manifest weight of the evidence. We need not address whether the proposed use for the subject property is reasonable because of our prior conclusion that the zoning ordinance is valid. See Glenview State Bank, 213 Ill. App.3d at 765, 157 Ill.Dec. 330, 572 N.E.2d 399. However, based on this record, we are satisfied that the trial court's determination that the proposed use was not reasonable for the subject property was not against the manifest weight of the evidence. We have reviewed plaintiffs' remaining contentions and find them to be without merit.
For the foregoing reasons, the judgment of the circuit court of Lake County is affirmed.
Affirmed.
BOWMAN, P.J., and GEIGER, J., concur.
|
ST. PAUL – Minnesota lawmakers struck a deal Thursday to legalize medical marijuana, handing a major victory to severely ill children and adults whose emotional appeals for help propelled a major policy change that once appeared dead for the session.
Gov. Mark Dayton said he would sign the legislation, which was closer to the House's more restrictive bill than the Senate's. Some patients lamented that the agreement doesn't allow them to use actual plant material — they instead can use the drug in oil, pill and vapor form — but others were overjoyed.
"This will change my daughter's life and thousands of lives around Minnesota," said Angie Weaver of Hibbing, whose 8-year-old daughter is afflicted by a rare form of epilepsy.
The compromise bill allows for two manufacturing facilities and eight dispensaries statewide, more than the House bill called for. But it covers fewer conditions than the Senate favored. Its prohibition against using plant material disappointed some advocates, who said vaporizing the leaf or smoking the drug were the only ways some patients could get relief from their maladies.
"People in Minnesota who are suffering today who have no good options or options at all can have the hope of gaining some relief," Dibble said during a news conference.
Opponents said legalizing medical marijuana in any form would be a step toward legalizing recreational use, and risked addicting more children to pot and other drugs.
"The voices that weren't represented during this debate were the parents who have lost children to drug abuse, in which marijuana played a part," said Sen. Bill Ingebrigtsen, R-Alexandria.
Ingebrigtsen, a former sheriff, predicted drug treatment costs will soar. He said it was a fantasy if anyone thought that more children wouldn't use marijuana by legalizing its medical uses.
"It's just like alcohol and tobacco. We haven't done a very good job keeping those out of the hands of children. We're legalizing the third killer in Minnesota," he said.
One sign of the difficulty advocates had in winning over lawmakers is that Minnesota is the only state to explicitly ban smoking of medical marijuana, according to the National Conference of State Legislatures. Other states simply don't include smoking among approved methods for delivering the drug.
Eight medical conditions would qualify for treatment, including cancer, glaucoma and AIDS, with a possible ninth if the health commissioner acts on a House amendment requesting that "intractable pain" be considered as a justification.
Patients would receive an identification number if a doctor, a physician assistant or advanced-practice registered nurse certified a qualifying illness existed. Health-care providers would provide treatment data to the Minnesota Department of Health to enable researchers and policymakers to determine the medical effects of cannabis treatment.
Background checks would be required for those working at the manufacturing sites and dispensaries. Anyone participating in the medical marijuana program caught using cannabis for non-medical purposes would be ousted and subject to criminal penalties.
Jennessa Lea, 27, of North St. Paul, was among people who wanted a more liberal law. She and her 6-year-old daughter, Raegan, suffer from Ehlers-Danlos syndrome, a group of inherited disorders that affect connective tissues. Lea said smoking cannabis diminishes the pain enough that she may play with her daughter.
"That's why we need the whole plant," Lea said, choking up during an interview after the Thursday news conference. "I can't function when I'm taking only oxycodone to cope."
Twenty-one other states and the District of Columbia allow medical marijuana.
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Tech Startup Craftsmanship
Eating your own dog food
Early feedback is important. The earlier in the life cycle of development feedback comes in, the faster you can iterate, figure out what is working and what is not working, improve, and iterate again. You should release early and release often.
Releasing early and often usually aims at release cycles of something like 2 weeks. Depending on your kind of system, this can be shorter, but especially for native apps, much shorter release cycles aren’t really feasible. An even quicker way to get feedback is to give your software into the hands of your own colleagues and selected testers – constantly. Within your own organization, nobody prevents you from releasing continously, as often as multiple times in a day, without the overhead of an official release. You can then take the feedback of your own peers to iterate even faster. In modern tech slang this has become known as “eating your own dog food”.
Here at Klamr we try to get ongoing development into the hands of all our colleagues as fast as possible. The key to do this is Continuous Integration, that’s where everything ties in. Here’s how we do it:
Jenkins: We’re using Jenkins as our continuous integration server and use it to automate most of our tasks. For each project there is a Jenkins job that pulls the latest code regularly, builds it, tests it, and then distributes it. Jenkins is amazingly easy to set up and configure, yet incredibly flexible and powerful. Ever since we started using it, it has grown with us into dozens of very different jobs for pretty much every project we’re working on.
GIT branching strategy: while working on new features we need to decide when exactly changes should be made available internally. The general requirements are never to break builds altogether and not to break core functionality. We don’t pull every single change that is made anywhere in the project. We hook our Jenkins job into our GIT branching strategy to give the responsibility to decide which change is ready to our engineers. They have control over it by pulling changes into certain branches when they are ready.
Schedule your distribution: depending on the project we either distribute immediately on every new change, or nightly. This is configured in Jenkins. My personal rule of thumb is: the more transparent new versions are for your (internal) users, the quicker and easier distributions/deployments are, and the less frequent commits to your distribution branch are, the better is to distribute changes immediately. When starting a new project, I generally start with this. Once problems appear that can be solved by slowing down, go to nightly distributions. Everything running server-side like a web app, for example, is completely transparent for users (just as they are in your production environment), new versions aren’t disrupting anybody. That’s a good candiate for very frequent distributions. An iOS application, on the other hand, needs to installed manually, hence pushing out 20 new versions every day tends to be disrupting for everybody. The last thing we want to do is make our co-workers feel disrupted and annoyed, that just leads to less and worse feedback.
Distribute: the actual deliveries are all automated, but differ quite a bit depending on the type of software. Some examples of what we do:
Backend application: this get built and deployed to internal servers. This is the most complex deployment process we’ve got, especially things like database migrations don’t make it exactly trivial.
Web application: our klamr.to web application is deployed on every new change to an internal, protected web server. It is then connected to our live database, so everybody in the company can use this web application instead of our live production web application. Changes on here have sometimes only been finished for minutes until they get available.
Android: our Android app is distributed in two ways: new APK files are sent out directly via email (Android makes installing new APK’s directly from email attachments so much easier than iOS) and via the service Appaloosa Store. The latter has some nice advantages like providing a custom store app and push notifications for new versions.
iOS: our iOS app is distributed via Testflight. There’s a few catches for iOS, for example that you need to build on a machine running Mac OS. That’s why we have a separate Jenkins instance only for building the iOS app. Most other Jenkins jobs are running on one Linux-based instance hosted on Amazon EC2. Also, devices must be explicitly registered in your ad-hoc provisioning and Apple restricts the number of internal devices to 100. No rocket science once it’s all set up, but a few extra hoops to jump through.
Real data: It’s important to allow internal users to use these early builds against their real Production data. Our web application, for example, runs on an internal URL, but is configured against our Production servers and database. This allows us to test drive new features early on with our real accounts. This leads to much better feedback than asking people to test features on isolated servers with fake data and helped a lot with internal acceptance.
Automate: the key to all of this is automation. If it’s not automated, regular distribution either doesn’t happen, or it wastes valuable engineering time. And as mentioned already above, this all ties into continuous integration. Much of the process and infrastructure described above should be in place anyways to continuously build and test your software in an automated way.
Release notes: for us it proved incredibly helpful to automate release notes for each internal distribution. Remember that one of the main reasons to do all this in the first place is to get early feedback. Without release notes, it’s not possible for anybody to know what has changed and to know which part of your apps to pay attention to. We’re not doing this in all places but if we do it, we’re using GIT commit comments. They aren’t suitable for end users, but they are more than good enough for internal users.
Respect: although these builds are only internal, we highly respect them. This means we never try to break them (see above), we try to make using and updating them as easy as possible for our co-workers, and our engineers are quickly reacting to any kind of feedback that comes in.
Regular internal distribution helps us to keep the feedback cycle as short as possible, sometimes even down to minutes. Automation of all the tasks involved helps us to keep moving fast, even as the number of systems and their complexity grows. I would highly recommend trying to automate as much as possible right from the start.
Are you eating your own dog food? What is your experience with this? Are you using different techniques and tools? Leave a comment, I’m very interesting to hear what you’re doing. |
Athens man loses two cell phones to thief
Monday
Jun 24, 2013 at 3:45 PM
A 28-year-old homeless man told Athens-Clarke police he lost not one, but two cell phones to the same man late Sunday.
The man said he stopped by a convenience store on Baxter Street and left his cell phone in the store. When he remembered the phone, the store was closed, according to the report. The man said he called his phone and a person answered. They worked out an agreement to meet at the corner of Rockpsrings and Baxter streets.
The victim said when he arrived, the man wanted to know how much money he was giving for the phone, but the victim said he told the man he didn't have any money. A struggle ensued and the robber took from the victim a borrowed cell phone worth $699 and drove off in a red Pontiac.
The man told police he reported the theft to the 40-year-old man who owned the second phone and the owner called police.
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xdomainExecSequence.push("local2-1");
dojo.provide("dojo.tests._base.loader.xdomain.local2");
xdomainExecSequence.push("local2-2");
// put the loader in xdomain loading mode
dojo.require("dojo.hash");
xdomainExecSequence.push("local2-3");
// load a local module that will have to be transformed
dojo.require("dojo.tests._base.loader.xdomain.local3");
xdomainExecSequence.push("local2-4");
dojo.tests._base.loader.xdomain.local2.status = "local2-loaded"; |
Hepatocyte growth factor expression correlates with cyclooxygenase-2 pathway in human salivary gland tumors.
It has been reported that cyclooxygenase-2 (COX-2) plays roles in cell proliferation, tumor invasion and inhibition of apoptosis. We reported COX-2 expression in salivary adenoma and its involvement in inhibition of apoptosis. COX-2 is known to induce a number of cytokines and growth factors. On the other hand, hepatocyte growth factor (HGF) plays roles such as cell migration, proliferation, angiogenesis and inhibition of apoptosis. Recently it has been reported that HGF also plays a role in tumor differentiation in salivary gland tumors. So, we investigated that whether COX-2 expression affected HGF expression clinicopathologically, and discussed the roles of COX-2 pathway in salivary gland tumors. Tissues samples were pleomorphic adenomas (n = 40) obtained surgically. COX-2 expression and HGF expression were examined immunohistochemically. Immunostaining intensities of COX-2 and HGF were classified as +3 to 0. Spearman's rank correlation was used to examine correlation of COX-2 and HGF expression. Furthermore, a salivary gland tumor cell line, HSG, was cultured after administration of either 0, 10, 100 units of COX-2 and quantification of HGF mRNA was analyzed by Real Time PCR using the Light Cycler System. In pleomorphic adenoma, COX-2 and HGF were mainly expressed in luminal tumor cells, and the sites of expression of the two were almost the same. Immunostaining intensity of COX-2 expression was significantly correlated with intensity of HGF expression (p = 0.003, r = 0.457). Moreover, the content of HGF mRNA expression increased when COX-2 was administered to salivary gland tumor cell line HSG. It is suggested that COX-2 expression may induce HGF expression in salivary gland tumors. |
The National Security Agency is winning its long-running secret war on encryption, using supercomputers, technical trickery, court orders and behind-the-scenes persuasion to undermine the major tools protecting the privacy of everyday communications in the Internet age, according to newly disclosed documents.
The agency has circumvented or cracked much of the encryption, or digital scrambling, that guards global commerce and banking systems, protects sensitive data like trade secrets and medical records, and automatically secures the e-mails, Web searches, Internet chats and phone calls of Americans and others around the world, the documents show.
Many users assume or have been assured by Internet companies that their data is safe from prying eyes, including those of the government, and the N.S.A. wants to keep it that way. The agency treats its recent successes in deciphering protected information as among its most closely guarded secrets, restricted to those cleared for a highly classified program code-named Bullrun, according to the documents, provided by Edward J. Snowden, the former N.S.A. contractor.
I remember freepers trying to assure us that loyalty cards and asking for zip codes was not to track us but to make their service better. We were assured that it didn’t get specific enough to track us personally.
Then my Brother In Law recieved some awesome coupons for the items he bought all the time. The coupons were specifically tailored to his buying habits. I kid you not.
Properly implemented strong crypto systems are one of the few things that you can rely on, he said, though cautioning that the N.S.A. often bypasses the encryption altogether by targeting the computers at one end or the other and grabbing text before it is encrypted or after it is decrypted.”
The usual method used is either to steal the encryption passphrase, or use a passphrase-guessing program. These programs are quite useful if you know a lot about the target.
The usual method used is either to steal the encryption passphrase, or use a passphrase-guessing program. These programs are quite useful if you know a lot about the target.
Not just that, they've also apparently come up with a mechanism for storing encryption keys for commercial encryption technologies, found a way to break SSL and hack into VPNs. This will cause every country in the world to create new encryption technologies -- unbelievably broad leak.
12
posted on 09/05/2013 12:32:34 PM PDT
by Alter Kaker
(Gravitation is a theory, not a fact. It should be approached with an open mind...)
Stopping terrorism is only a new priority of theirs -- their original mission is foreign intelligence. And this leak will cause the Russians, the Chinese, the Pakistanis and probably every other country in the world to switch technologies.
15
posted on 09/05/2013 12:36:35 PM PDT
by Alter Kaker
(Gravitation is a theory, not a fact. It should be approached with an open mind...)
Wait until people start getting health insurance premium hikes based on the groceries they bought. Oh, and some stores (I’m looking at you, Target!) are requiring the cashiers to swipe the driver’s license into the cash register for all alcohol purchases. I left the cashier with that bottle of Baringer and bought one at walmart instead.
16
posted on 09/05/2013 12:40:19 PM PDT
by Orangedog
(An optimist is someone who tells you to 'cheer up' when things are going his way)
They are apprently using key-stealing to do this. The algorithms are mathmatically unbreakable, but that doesn’t matter if you swipe the key somehow.
You have to understand how SSL works to understand how this is possible. It is a three-step handshake. The server sends you a signed message, which you verify against the public certificates in your browser’s keystore. You then send it an message encrypted with its public key, and it replies with an encrypted message with a proposed symmetric key. You then accept the symmetric key, and from then on communicate in a symmetric cipher.
Now all the NSA has to have is the server’s private certificate, and it can read the asymmetric traffic and pick up the symmetric key as it is sent. If you have a buddy at Verisign, this is easily done.
What the password-guessing program does is take your personal information, like birthdays, phone numbers, street address, girlfriends and combines it into various strong passwords that you might have used.
For example, if you are Joe Blow of 486 Main Street, Anytown, Illinois 60823, and you girlfriend is Doris and you dog is Spike, it will try stuff like
doris60823spike
spike486doris
illiniDoris60823spike
...and so on. It can do thousands of combinations a second. They get hits about 25-30% of the time.
Any encryption scheme merely delays and increases the effort needed to read a message. That should be well understood by anyone who uses any encryption scheme. In some ways encryption makes your communications more vulnerable as attention tends to be focused on encrypted messages, rather than the vast number of clear text messages.
Of course the best way to keep your message safe is to use a one time use code, not a repeated cipher.
The other thing that protects your messages is the provision of vast amounts of false information with similar cipher techniques to those used with your true information. To work best, this is done with a plan as to the false ideas you want your enemy to think is true, and the true ideas you want your enemy not to know.
During WWII Germany tried to present an image of great strength, so enemies would be discouraged. They sought to plant the notion that they were manufacturing 1400 tanks a month.
Analysis of a few captured tanks in north Africa put the lie to that. The serial numbers were collected and seemed to all be very close together. Analysis of castings showed that the parts came from a small number of masters, and that put an upper limit on the rate of manufacture.
For people who seek to look behind the lies disseminated by propagandists, there is a good Wikipedia article on “The German Tank Problem”.
33
posted on 09/05/2013 1:16:38 PM PDT
by donmeaker
(Blunderbuss: A short weapon, ... now superceded in civilized countries by more advanced weaponry.)
It’s always been a race, someone comes up with a way of protecting something and then someone that wants that comes up with a way to crack that protection. The NSA has been doing what governments always do which is to constantly seek power and advantage. SSL and VPN’s are mostly based on public key cryptography that is old and in dire need of replacement and has been known to be vulnerable for some time. Even the newer public key algorithms are not anywhere near as good as AES so don’t expect any of them to provide protection against any government because they won’t.
The distressing thing is not that we are vulnerable but that the USG has bought and paid for so many technology companies and service providers that the encryption methods have become moot because they are using back doors to suck up everything before the data hits any encryption device. We’ve been sold out by Facebook, Goggle, Yahoo, Microsoft, Verizon, AT&T, etc.
Snowden did tremendous damage to our countries ability to suck up foreign intelligence and more than likely a lot of damage to the US economy long term as I see most countries moving away from US based suppliers and more towards either open source or suppliers from second and third world (read not China, Russia, UK, etc.). If I was a non-US based company or country I’d certainly be shopping elsewhere now and would imagine that a lot of them are scrambling to do just that.
How does a decrypter know it has been successful? How does it know the difference between gibberish and clear text? It’s a computer program and doesn’t understand anything. Does it look for words like “the” and “bomb”?
Don’t real terrorists use words like “the” and “Package”? Wouldn’t it write in code, like “Aunt Susie is going to deliver the package to New York”
And anyway, why would a true terrorist write in English?
In other words, if the decrypter doesn’t know what it’s looking for, what does it look for?
Personally I like Blowfish and RC4 .. many think RC4 is weak but I think it’s fine if properly implemented. It’s very easy to code RC4 for use in embedded systems. I love RC4 for its elegance and simplicity. http://ciphersaber.gurus.org/
ECC is what we need to use for public key, it’s what the NSA uses.
I imagine the NSA uses a lot of custom ASIC chips for code breaking...probably made in their own Fab. I bet NSA would be great at Bitcoin mining.
The ability of NSA to decrypt a particular implementation or type of encryption is tested by foreign adversaries by encoding false info with the system and watching to see if the U.S. takes any action based on that info.
Don’t trust anything but open-source encryption products.
For the most critical data I’d recommend the two parties create a truly random set of data using a noise source like brownian noise. Both parties must hold this data and keep it secure. This allows the parties to add a one-time-pad step to their usual encryption routine. The one-time-pad is unbreakable by any method, even when powerful quantum computers come on line they will have no hope of penetrating a one-time-pad system. The big problem with one-time-pad is you are taken back to the bad old days of the key exchange problem...secret data that must be shared by all users, it’s a drag!
Steganography must still be a huge problem for the NSA since there are nearly limitless ways to implement it. Just a few bits inside a huge data set can hold important info...how do you discern this??
It’s mathematics, it’s not hard to tell if a bunch of bits is random or contains a pattern. True randomness is very hard to do. Once data is encrypted it still can contain some non-randomness that can be discerned. The job is to decrypt to the most non-random state you can. The most non-random state might still be something like a simple book cypher so it won’t be readable yet...or it could be plain-text.
Subtle steganography is a real headache for those looking for secret meaning in masses of data.
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But hold that thought. First, let’s take in the biggest news ever for American soccer: this week, the entire country seemed riveted to a soccer match. At its end, Team USA was eliminated from the World Cup in a 2-to-1 loss to Belgium. This excerpt from a New York Times article is typical of the American media’s euphoria over the way our team played:
Trying to figure out where soccer fits into the fabric of America is a popular topic but, for one afternoon at least, there was this unexpected truth: All around the country, from coast to coast and through the nation’s belly, sports fans of every kind were inspired by the performance of a soccer goalkeeper. In a loss.
The key to figuring out “where soccer fits into the fabric of America,” of course, has always been figuring out where America fits into the fabric of the world. The key is coming up with an alternative to mere tribalism, to what Jenkins calls our “nagging emphasis on nationality.” To restart that figuring, we might look into why we find ourselves celebrating this loss.
We are celebrating because our goalkeeper, Tim Howard, broke a World Cup record for saves. I’ve seen an Internet meme conflating Tim Howard with George Washington, and for good reason: General Washington was a master of that most defensive of tactics, the retreat. His resilience at our end of the field won us the world’s respect. Howard’s resilience did the same thing.
We are celebrating this loss because, deep down and to the surprise of many – including ourselves – we still care what the rest of the world thinks. We cared when we fought the Revolutionary War. We had a “decent respect to the opinions of mankind” back then, to borrow the Declaration of Independence’s famous noun phrase. That respect, in fact, drove us to write the Declaration.
The Declaration’s respect for world opinion isn’t just a throwaway line. Grammatically speaking, the word “respect” is the sole subject of the Declaration’s introduction. If that weren’t enough to raise its profile, “respect” comes at the end of the Declaration’s opening sentence, a periodic sentence that dramatically highlights its point by saving its subject for the end:
When in the Course of human events, it becomes necessary for one people to dissolve the political bands which have connected them with another, and to assume among the powers of the earth, the separate and equal station to which the Laws of Nature and of Nature’s God entitle them, a decent respect to the opinions of mankind requires that they should declare the causes which impel them to the separation.
Aristotle taught us that every speech or writing has an audience that shapes it. The Declaration’s explicit audience is mankind. We owe the world an explanation, it says. The Declaration, which reached England, France, Italy, and even Poland by the end of 1776, was our first apology tour.
The Declaration doesn’t declare our independence from the world or its opinions. It declares our independence from Britain, but in the process, it declares also our “separate and equal station” with the rest of the nations. And it expressly solicits those nations’ opinions.
In fact, the Declaration of Independence never calls itself that. I think a better name for it would be the Declaration of Interdependence. Independence, after all, is just a necessary stage between dependence and interdependence. This progression from Stephen Covey’s Seven Habits of Highly Effective People is true also for highly effective nations. We have a lot to offer other nations, of course, not the least of which are the rights enumerated in the Declaration. But for other nations to benefit from us, we must understand that they still share an “equal station” with us. For other nations to adopt our rights, we need to be willing to respect theirs.
Lincoln knew that other nations would not adopt the Declaration’s abstract principles – equality and the rights to life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness – through American military might. He countered Stephen Douglas’s version of Manifest Destiny with an understanding, as political scientist Harry V. Jaffa has it in his book Crisis of the House Divided, that America’s “primary action upon the international scene was to be moral, not political” (85). We need to get our house in order because other nations need us.
The reverse is also true. Long after France helped us bottle up Cornwallis at Yorktown, we still need other nations. We don’t need them to form another “coalition of the willing,” as George W. Bush called the nations that supported America’s invasion of Iraq. Instead, we need mankind’s culture, its fellowship, its perspectives. (How obvious this is; how sad to feel the need to write this.) We need its candid opinions, as the Declaration claims. In his 1939 essay “The Indispensable Opposition,” Walter Lippmann argues that the foundation for freedom of speech is our need to learn from one another. The same need is the foundation for diplomacy.
The Framers believed in a “candid world” – the final two words in the Declaration’s famous preamble. “Candid” back then didn’t mean “forthcoming” but, as the Oxford English Dictionary defines it, “free from bias; fair, impartial, just.” Do we still believe in such a world?
Our reaction to this week’s World Cup loss suggests we might. Despite the dismissal of world opinion that has characterized our politics and even our foreign policy this young century, we may have rediscovered a truer understanding of ourselves this week on the pitch. There, for at least ninety minutes, we remembered what it was like to be respected rather than feared.
Today, and hopefully for ages to come, the Declaration of Interdependence can help us more fully adopt that perspective.
And so can the Post, though for a limited time. It put together an assessment of each remaining World Cup team – why you should root for each, and why you shouldn’t. So adopt a team as well as the Declaration’s perspective, and for the remainder of the Cup, celebrate our nation’s interdependence!
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3 thoughts on “Soccer and Our Founding Document”
Excellent post, Peter. I can’t even remember if I ever read the Declaration of Independence – would have been in high school if I did. But I love the point about concern for others’ opinions at our humble beginnings. As for the World Cup, I was rooting for Columbia yesterday, but glad for Brazil. I watched them against Germany in 2002 and it was a beautiful thing. But holy cow, devastating news about Neymar. Plus their captain out with yellow card. Not sure how many games I’ll see this week given my schedule, but will follow and looking forward to the final next Sunday.
By the way, I never watched any football (soccer) until I was learning Spanish around 2001-2002 and, by extension, learning the culture and practicing with some native speakers. It dawned on me in the 2002 World Cup that everyone in the world had stopped what they were doing to watch and we were rudely ignoring the whole thing overall – although we had a brave young team in the game.
Leslee, thanks! I’m really a hypocrite. I don’t watch soccer. But I was rooting for Columbia and France. I heard France has a very pretty style, and I don’t want Germany just to walk away with the Cup. But baseball! Fresh off beating up on your guys, the Cubs are in town beating up on mine this weekend. Why did the Cubs have to start Hammel yesterday and have him hold the Nats (again) to next to no offense, and then announce hours later that they were trading him and their other great pitcher for future prospects? They couldn’t have announced it earlier? Ah, well. |
Q:
MySQL MyISAM disk-bound scaling issue / drive cache
I have the following lookup-table:
CREATE TABLE `widgetuser` (
`widgetuserid` char(40) NOT NULL,
`userid` int(10) unsigned NOT NULL,
`created_at` timestamp NOT NULL DEFAULT '0000-00-00 00:00:00',
PRIMARY KEY (`widgetuserid`)
) ENGINE=MyISAM DEFAULT CHARSET=utf8 DELAY_KEY_WRITE=1;
I have a widgetuser_tmp Table with the same structure but no key and I fill the widgetuser table with this data (4mio rows):
mysql> insert into widgetuser select * from widgetuser_tmp limit 0,4000000;flush tables;
Query OK, 4000000 rows affected (33.14 sec)
Records: 4000000 Duplicates: 0 Warnings: 0
Query OK, 0 rows affected (0.91 sec)
While it is writing, it goes directly to RAID-1 with 15MB/s, disk util <50% and we see no reads, since I filled the disk cache with the source table:
Device: rrqm/s wrqm/s r/s w/s rMB/s wMB/s avgrq-sz avgqu-sz await svctm %util
sda 0.00 3839.20 0.00 52.40 0.00 15.20 594.20 12.46 237.75 5.57 29.20
sdb 0.00 3839.00 0.00 52.60 0.00 15.20 591.94 14.50 275.59 7.19 37.80
I insert the next 1 Mio rows, it's all fine and the wMB/s goes back to 0 right after the flush:
mysql> insert into widgetuser select * from widgetuser_tmp limit 4000000,1000000;flush tables;
Query OK, 1000000 rows affected (10.18 sec)
Records: 1000000 Duplicates: 0 Warnings: 0
Query OK, 0 rows affected (0.87 sec)
mysql> insert into widgetuser select * from widgetuser_tmp limit 5000000,1000000;flush tables;
Query OK, 1000000 rows affected (10.21 sec)
Records: 1000000 Duplicates: 0 Warnings: 0
Query OK, 0 rows affected (1.02 sec)
mysql> insert into widgetuser select * from widgetuser_tmp limit 6000000,1000000;flush tables;
Query OK, 1000000 rows affected (10.67 sec)
Records: 1000000 Duplicates: 0 Warnings: 0
Query OK, 0 rows affected (1.17 sec)
But when I do the 7mio batch, the result still looks the same, but in the iostat -mdx sda sdb 5 suddenly we have 100% util for 30 seconds:
mysql> insert into widgetuser select * from widgetuser_tmp limit 7000000,1000000;flush tables;
Query OK, 1000000 rows affected (10.73 sec)
Records: 1000000 Duplicates: 0 Warnings: 0
Query OK, 0 rows affected (1.21 sec)
Device: rrqm/s wrqm/s r/s w/s rMB/s wMB/s avgrq-sz avgqu-sz await svctm %util
sda 0.00 88.60 0.00 295.60 0.00 1.52 10.53 130.60 435.93 3.38 100.00
sdb 0.00 89.20 0.00 300.80 0.00 1.57 10.68 143.99 483.97 3.32 100.00
The data-files are not touched after the flush:
-rw-rw---- 1 mysql mysql 1032000000 2009-10-30 12:10 widgetuser.MYD
-rw-rw---- 1 mysql mysql 522777600 2009-10-30 12:11 widgetuser.MYI
And also the table status seams normal:
+----------------+--------+---------+------------+----------+----------------+-------------+-------------------+--------------+-----------+----------------+---------------------+---------------------+------------+-----------------+----------+-------------------+---------+
| Name | Engine | Version | Row_format | Rows | Avg_row_length | Data_length | Max_data_length | Index_length | Data_free | Auto_increment | Create_time | Update_time | Check_time | Collation | Checksum | Create_options | Comment |
+----------------+--------+---------+------------+----------+----------------+-------------+-------------------+--------------+-----------+----------------+---------------------+---------------------+------------+-----------------+----------+-------------------+---------+
| widgetuser | MyISAM | 10 | Fixed | 8000000 | 129 | 1032000000 | 36310271995674623 | 522777600 | 0 | NULL | 2009-10-30 11:59:41 | 2009-10-30 12:10:59 | NULL | utf8_general_ci | NULL | delay_key_write=1 | |
+----------------+--------+---------+------------+----------+----------------+-------------+-------------------+--------------+-----------+----------------+---------------------+---------------------+------------+-----------------+----------+-------------------+---------+
And when I continue (since we have 100% drive utilization), it get's worse very fast:
mysql> insert into widgetuser select * from widgetuser_tmp limit 9000000,1000000;flush tables;
Query OK, 1000000 rows affected (31.93 sec)
Records: 1000000 Duplicates: 0 Warnings: 0
Query OK, 0 rows affected (2.34 sec)
mysql> insert into widgetuser select * from widgetuser_tmp limit 10000000,1000000;flush tables;
Query OK, 1000000 rows affected (2 min 39.72 sec)
Records: 1000000 Duplicates: 0 Warnings: 0
Query OK, 0 rows affected (7.82 sec)
The primary key is checked to see whether the new entry is unique or not. As soon as the key does not fit into memory (key_buffer_size=512MB = ca. 8Mio entries), it needs to fetch the missing key parts from the drive(-cache) for checking it. Therefore we should see more reads and slower insert times - we don't see the slower reads since the key is buffered in disk cache. But my question: who is writing suddenly so much and where and why and how can I fix this? Any ideas are appreciated!
Futher ideas and insights:
since the 1MB/s random writes follow the finished statement, the unique validation is already passed
it is a software raid-1 with ahci on, disks are 93% free and capable of about 80wMB/s
the machine has 8GB ram, 5GB cache, 600MB taken by MySQL, 1,7GB free
MySQL 5.1.31-1ubuntu2-log
the delay_key_write does not change this behavior
myisam_sort_buffer_size = 2 GB (not used here, though?)
key_buffer_size = 512 MB
bin_log is off
Linux 2.6.28-15-server #52-Ubuntu SMP Wed Sep 9 11:34:09 UTC 2009 x86_64 GNU/Linux
A:
It's not entirely clear from your question what behaviour you're expecting, or getting. Here are some things you might not know
FLUSH TABLES blows away the MyISAM key cache - it doesn't just write dirty blocks, it also discards clean ones so every index block must be fetched again to be modified
MyISAM uses a block size of 1k by default which is probably smaller than your filesystem blocks; this can create performance problems
If you intend any kind of durability (which you presumably don't, because you're using MyISAM), then you should use hardware raid with a battery-backed cache in the controller.
My guess is that either the index no longer fits in the key buffer, or that it's having to do a lot more writes, which trigger reads because they're unbuffered writes off the block-size boundaries.
Try changing myisam_block_size to 4k or higher and rebuild the table (this is a my.cnf-only option which only takes effect on new tables after a restart).
You can examine the block size on a table with myisamchk -dv
|
Q:
Computing contour integral - switch limit and integral
Context: I want to compute the Dirichlet integral with the help of $f(z)=\frac{\exp(iz)}{z}$ but without residues, Jordan's lemma etc, so everything by hand. While I understood how to show that something converges to $0$, I still don't understand how to show that something converges to a specific value.
I am confused about the rules of switching limits and integrals. In particular:
I want to show that the integral of $f(z)=\frac{\exp(iz)}{z}$ along the curve $\gamma:[0,\pi] \to \mathbb C$, $\gamma(t)=\epsilon \exp(it)$
- thus the small semicircle around $0$ - goes to $i\pi$.
So it boils down to showing $lim_{\epsilon \to0} \int_{0}^{\pi} \exp(\epsilon i e^{it} ) dt=\pi$
I know that one method would be showing that $\exp(\epsilon i e^{it} )$ converges uniformly to $1$ but I think formally i might get problems as
$|\exp(\epsilon i e^{it} )|=|\frac{1}{\exp(\epsilon \sin(t))}|$ and the convergence won't be uniformly as $\sin(t)$ can be small on $[0,\pi]$
Is it possible to use dominated convergence by showing that $|\frac{1}{\exp(\epsilon \sin(t))}|$ is integrable?
$\int_{0}^{\pi} |\frac{1}{\exp(\epsilon \sin(t))}| dt$
$\le \int_{0}^{\pi} |\frac{1}{1+\epsilon \sin(t)}| dt$
$= \int_{0}^{\pi/2} |\frac{1}{1+\epsilon \sin(t)}|dt+\int_{\pi/2}^{\pi} |\frac{1}{1+\epsilon \sin(t)}|dt$ and by convexity/concave of $\sin$
$\le \int_{0}^{\pi/2} |\frac{1}{1+\epsilon \frac{2}{\pi} t}|dt+\int_{\pi/2}^{\pi} |\frac{1}{1+\epsilon (-\frac{2}{\pi} t+2)}|dt$
$=\int_{0}^{\epsilon} \frac{1}{1+u}\frac{2}{\epsilon \pi}du+\int_{1}^{0} \frac{1}{1+\epsilon u} \frac{-\pi}{2} du$
$=\pi (\frac{\ln \epsilon+1}{\epsilon})$ $<\infty$
So by DCT: $lim_{\epsilon \to0} \int_{0}^{\pi} \exp(\epsilon i e^{it} ) dt=\int_{0}^{\pi} lim_{\epsilon \to0} \exp(\epsilon i e^{it} ) dt = \int_{0}^{\pi} 1dt=\pi$
So, my question is: Is this a formally correct way or were all these computation useless? Or is there a standard method for doing this?
A:
You have a mistake in the evaluation of the last integrals. And for the dominated convergence theorem, you need a dominating function that is independent of $\epsilon$.
But you are thinking too complicated. On $[0,\pi]$, we have $\sin t \geqslant 0$, and we have $\epsilon > 0$, so
$$\biggl\lvert\frac{1}{\exp (\epsilon \sin t)}\biggr\rvert \leqslant 1.$$
Since the domain of integration has finite measure, that shows that the dominated convergence theorem is applicable.
Also, the convergence of $\exp (i\epsilon e^{it})$ to $1$ is uniform. For every $z \in \mathbb{C}$ we have
$$\lvert e^z - 1\rvert = \Biggl\lvert \sum_{n = 1}^{\infty} \frac{z^n}{n!}\Biggr\rvert \leqslant \sum_{n = 1}^{\infty} \frac{\lvert z\rvert^n}{n!} = e^{\lvert z\rvert} - 1,$$
so we see
$$\lvert \exp(\epsilon ie^{it}) - 1\rvert \leqslant e^{\epsilon} - 1.$$
When $\epsilon \leqslant 1$, we can bound the right hand side by $(e-1)\cdot \epsilon$.
|
106 B.R. 359 (1989)
In re CITRONE DEVELOPMENT CORP., Debtor.
Bankruptcy No. 87 B 20490.
United States Bankruptcy Court, S.D. New York.
October 25, 1989.
Sidney R. Turner, White Plains, N.Y., for debtor.
HOWARD SCHWARTZBERG, Bankruptcy Judge.
Sidney Turner, attorney for the former Chapter 11 debtor, Citrone Development Corp., seeks final compensation for his services *360 which were performed before the debtor was converted for Chapter 7 liquidation, pursuant to a motion made by the United States trustee. The Chapter 7 trustee has not completely administered this case and there is no clear picture as to what assets, if any, are on hand for distribution.
Sidney Turner's application relates back to a time before the debtor filed its Chapter 11 petition and includes services performed in connection with a state court foreclosure action commenced by a mortgagee bank against the debtor. A judgment of foreclosure was obtained by the mortgagee in the sum of approximately $2,400,000.00. The only asset in this estate is a shopping center which is encumbered by mortgages which arose out of the financing and construction of the shopping center, totalling approximately $2,500,000.00.
On October 13, 1987, three creditors filed with this court an involuntary petition against the debtor under Chapter 7 of the Bankruptcy Code.
On February 1, 1988, Sidney Turner was authorized by order of this court to represent the debtor. Accordingly, any compensable legal services performed by Turner cannot include any activities before February 1, 1988, the date of his retention.
On February 3, 1988, the debtor filed with this court a voluntary petition for reorganizational relief under Chapter 11 of the Bankruptcy Code. The debtor first proposed to form a new corporation and sell its shopping center to the new corporation. The creditors, who were offered stock in the proposed corporation, successfully objected to the proposal. The debtor then proposed to assign its sole asset to an insider corporation controlled by the debtor's principal in exchange for which the insider corporation would assume the debtor's mortgage. Once again the creditors successfully objected to the debtor's motion to accomplish this proposal.
By motion dated December 21, 1988, the United States trustee moved to convert this case for liquidation under Chapter 7 of the Bankruptcy Code because the debtor failed to file monthly operating statements and failed to comply with the United States trustee's operating guidelines. Additionally, the debtor did not file a plan of reorganization or a disclosure statement. In the absence of any progress in this case and the fact that the debtor had not taken any action to benefit its creditors in their voluntary Chapter 11 petition, this court granted the United States trustee's petition for conversion on January 20, 1989.
By motion dated January 30, 1989, Sidney Turner moved to be relieved as attorney for the debtor, which motion was granted by order of this court dated February 12, 1989.
For the period between February 1, 1987, when Sidney Turner was retained as attorney for the debtor, and February 12, 1989, when he was relieved at his own request, he appeared at several creditor's meetings and in this court in connection with the proposals to sell and assign the debtor's sole asset in the face of the mortgage foreclosure judgment. Had an order for relief been entered in connection with the original involuntary petition on October 23, 1987, the creditors would have been spared two years of delay in the enforcement of their rights. During the Chapter 11 period, the debtor did nothing tangible to benefit any of its creditors. The proposed sale of the debtor's corporation to a corporation controlled by its principal would not have advanced the interests of the creditors because they would simply have to chase another corporation for the debts owed by this debtor.
Neither the debtor nor its attorney performed the duties imposed under Chapter 11 or under the United State's trustee's operating guidelines in that no plan of reorganization was filed nor were monthly operating statements submitted. Hence, there was no forward movement towards any reorganization contemplated under Chapter 11 which might have a reasonable prospect of success.
In reviewing the posture of this case it is also clear that after payment of the so-called "burial expenses" imposed under 11 U.S.C. § 726(b), which have priority in a superseding Chapter 7 case over the subordinated *361 administrative expenses in the aborted Chapter 11 case, there will be relatively few remaining funds, if any, to satisfy the attorney fees with respect to the Chapter 11 case.
The trustee in bankruptcy objected to Sidney Turner's application on the ground that he failed to describe how his services benefitted the estate. The United States trustee did not appear because Sidney Turner failed to submit a copy of his application to the United States trustee before the hearing. No other parties in interest were given notice of the hearing, despite the requirement in 11 U.S.C. § 330(a) which requires notice "to any parties in interest and to the United States trustee."
The application in support of the $55,000.00 fee sought by Sidney Turner consists mainly of 19 pages containing a list of every telephone call he made or received in connection with this case. There is no description as to what subjects or issues were discussed or how these telephone calls had any significance in this case. Indeed, names are listed without any indication as to who these people are or what connection, if any, they had to this case. There is no listing of any litigation or adversary actions commenced, probably because there were none. There is no reference to any preferences recovered, fraudulent conveyances set aside, turnover proceedings commenced, claims objected to or assets recovered for this estate, probably because the answer would also be none. There were two motions involving the proposed sale and assignment of the debtor's sole asset, both of which were denied by the court following opposition by the creditors. The applicant also opposed a creditor's motion for relief from the automatic stay and a motion made by the United States trustee for conversion of the case. Some time was spent preparing the Chapter 11 petition and drafting a plan which was never filed. Some time was spent attending creditor's meetings. The bulk of the time for which compensation is sought related to the undetailed list of telephone calls.
DISCUSSION
It was not until 1973 that an attorney for a debtor in an aborted arrangement case under Chapter XI of the former Bankruptcy Act could receive compensation in the Second Circuit for service rendered to the debtor, notwithstanding the conversion of the case for liquidation. In re Casco Fashions, 490 F.2d 1197 (2d Cir.1973). The Court of Appeals ruled that the debtor's attorney could be awarded compensation out of the estate over the objection of the trustee in bankruptcy because:
what the attorneys for the debtor have accomplished along the lines indicated will diminish pro tanto the work that must be performed by the attorneys for the trustee, and failure to compensate them would constitute unjust enrichment of the creditors at the expense of attorneys working in good faith with the approval and at the direction of the bankruptcy court.
Id. at 1201-2. The court went on to state that attorneys for debtors whose arrangements were not accepted should be compensated at subnormal rates explaining that "certainly this should be true if the proposed arrangement was so unfair that creditors could not be expected to accept." Id. at 1204.
In order to be compensated for attorney's fees under the Bankruptcy Code, a debtor's attorney need not have achieved a confirmed plan of reorganization. Pursuant to 11 U.S.C. § 330(a), an attorney retained by a debtor whose retention was approved by the court may recover reasonable compensation for the actual, necessary services rendered, and by the value and time spent in performing the services in accordance with the cost of comparable nonbankruptcy legal services. In order to obtain compensation, the attorney must comply with Bankruptcy Rule 2016 and file with the court an application setting forth a detailed statement of the service rendered and the time expended. Unless the order of retention allows for compensation nunc pro tunc, the attorney may not recover for any services performed before the retention order was signed. In re Henry *362 F. Raab, Inc., 85 B.R. 293, 297 (Bankr.S. D.N.Y.1988).
The major portion of the Chapter 11 time spent by the attorney for the debtor in this case, before conversion to Chapter 7, is listed as telephone conversations with named individuals whose connection with this case is not specified. The substance of the conversations is also not specified nor is there any explanation as to how any telephone call advanced the debtor's interests in the case or contributed to the administration of the Chapter 11 issues. The failure to provide sufficient details to allow the court to perform its task of determining the nature and value of the time spent by the attorney for the debtor while engaged in those telephone conversations compels a conclusion that they are not compensable. In re Chicago Lutheran Hospital Association, 89 B.R. 719, 739 (Bankr.N. D.Ill.1988); In re Crawford Hardware, Inc., 82 B.R. 885, 888 (Bankr.S.D.Ohio 1987); In re C. & J. Oil Co., Inc., 81 B.R. 398, 403 (Bankr.W.D.Va.1987). An applicant for attorney's fees has the burden of presenting a carefully detailed application and supporting documentation. In re Meade Land & Development Co., Inc., 577 F.2d 858, 860 (3rd Cir.1978); In re S.T.N. Enterprises, Inc., 70 B.R. 823, 832 (Bankr. D.Vt.1987). Items such as meetings, conferences, correspondence, and telephone calls should identify the participants, describe the substance of the communication, explain its outcome, and justify its necessity. In re S.T.N. Enterprises, Inc., 70 B.R. at 833.
Apart from the listing of telephone conversations, the debtor's attorney attended approximately eight creditor's meetings pursuant to 11 U.S.C. § 341, attended hearings involving his two unsuccessful motions to sell or assign the debtor's sole asset, attended a creditor's motion for relief from the automatic stay, attended the United States trustee's motion to convert the Chapter 11 case, prepared a fee application and a motion to be relieved as counsel for the debtor. In addition to preparing the Chapter 11 petition, he spent time preparing and amending a plan of reorganization which was never filed. In reviewing these activities in light of the twelve so-called Johnson factors delineated in Johnson v. Georgia Highway Express, Inc., 488 F.2d 714 (5th Cir.1974), it cannot be determined to what extent the debtor's former counsel performed legal services which benefitted the estate. Accordingly, the application must be denied, without prejudice to the submission of a detailed fee application which complies with 11 U.S.C. § 330 and Bankruptcy Rule 2016. Should the applicant submit another fee application in this case he must also comply with the requirement expressed in 11 U.S.C. § 330 and submit a copy of the application with proper notice in advance of any scheduled hearing to all interested parties, including the United States trustee, the debtor and those unsecured creditors who have appeared in this case, such as the three petitioning creditors who filed the involuntary Chapter 7 petition.
CONCLUSIONS OF LAW
1. This court has jurisdiction of the subject matter and the parties pursuant to 28 U.S.C. §§ 1334 and 157(a). This is a core proceeding in accordance with 28 U.S.C. § 157(b)(2)(A).
2. The fee application filed by the former attorney for the debtor is denied because it does not comply with the requirements of 11 U.S.C. § 330(a) and Bankruptcy Rule 2016. Such denial is without prejudice to a resubmission in compliance with the foregoing mandates.
It is so ordered.
|
Q:
How to add values to columns if field is NaN upon split()
How to set the values of fields to NaN using Pandas.
I have a spreadsheet file as an input and one of the columns has empty values which I filled with NaN values.
I am trying to split the first name with the suffix. I did use str.split().
But since there are NaN-value fields.
I encountered this error.
ValueError: Columns must be same length as key
This is my sample DataFrame.
input_data = {
["John III","Snow"],["",""],["John","Snow"]}
This is my expected output
expected_output = {["John","Snow","III"],["","",""],["John","Snow",""]}
This is my sample code
df[[fname[0][0],fname[1][0]]] = df[column].str.split('&', expand=True, n=1)
df.applymap(lambda x: x.strip() if type(x) is str else x)
df.fillna(value=pd.np.nan, inplace=True)
df[[fname[0][0],fname[0][2]]] = df[fname[0][0]].str.split('\s+(?=Jr|Sr|JR|SR|II|III|IV)', expand=True, n=1)
I am just a newbie in Pandas and Numpy.
A:
You can go about it like this:
input_data = [['John III', 'Snow'], ['', ''], ['John', 'Snow']]
split_data = [[k for j in i for k in j.split()] for i in input_data]
#[['John', 'III', 'Snow'], [], ['John', 'Snow']]
df = pd.DataFrame(split_data).fillna('')
# 0 1 2
#0 John III Snow
#1
#2 John Snow
df.values
#array([['John', 'III', 'Snow'],
# ['', '', ''],
# ['John', 'Snow', '']], dtype=object)
|
Q:
Unable to get out of loops
I'm trying to write a MasterMind game using classes and objects and I'm currently stuck around some of my loops.
while True:
# create a combination
# test the combination
while game_won == False:
print(scoreboard)
# player input combination
# combination is tested then added to scoreboard
tries_left = tries_left+1
if game_won == True:
print(You Won!)
input = Play Again? Y/N
if tries_left == 10:
print(You Lost!)
input = Play Again? Y/N
How do I do to go back to my while True -> create combination from my last if statement? (if tries_left == 10:)
A:
What's wrong
Your first while True doesn't have anything in it, You need to indent code under it if you want it to be inside the loop.
There is a few typos, missing comment characters, and quotation marks.
What needs to happen
When the nested while loop while game_won == True exits, the code will return looping the parent loop while True, which will replay the game, if the user wishes.
Your code fixed (with a few improvements)
Following is how you can loop the game forever (given the user wishes it).
# Assume user wants to play when the program runs
user_wants_to_play = True
ans = ""
# loop the entire game while the user wishes to play
while user_wants_to_play:
# Create the combination
# Test the combination
# Game isn't done when started
game_done = False
tries_left = 10 # Arbitrary number I chose
while not game_done:
# Play the game
print("Scoreboard")
# Subtract one to tries left
tries_left -= 1
if game_done:
print("You won!")
elif tries_left == 0:
print("You lost!")
game_done = True
# if users answer was 'n'
ans = input("Play again? Y/N \n")
if ans.strip().upper() == 'N':
user_wants_to_play = False
Improvements
Boolean logic is more pythonic using not instead of myBool == False
while True: changed to while user_wants_to_play:
User input is scrubbed to ignore white-space and lower case
Changed game_won to game_done
Made tries_left count down instead
|
{
"name": "SmartOS Global Zone",
"uname_v": "joyent_20160330T234717Z",
"result": {
"distribution_release": "SmartOS 20160330T234717Z x86_64",
"distribution": "SmartOS",
"os_family": "Solaris",
"distribution_version": "joyent_20160330T234717Z"
},
"platform.dist": ["", "", ""],
"distro": {
"codename": "",
"id": "",
"name": "",
"version": "",
"version_best": "",
"os_release_info": {},
"lsb_release_info": {}
},
"input": {
"/etc/release": " SmartOS 20160330T234717Z x86_64\n Copyright 2010 Sun Microsystems, Inc. All Rights Reserved.\n Copyright 2010-2012 Joyent, Inc. All Rights Reserved.\n Use is subject to license terms.\n\n Built with the following components:\n\n[\n { \"repo\": \"smartos-live\", \"branch\": \"release-20160331\", \"rev\": \"a77c410f2afe6dc9853a915733caec3609cc50f1\", \"commit_date\": \"1459340323\", \"url\": \"git@github.com:joyent/smartos-live.git\" }\n , { \"repo\": \"illumos-joyent\", \"branch\": \"release-20160331\", \"rev\": \"ab664c06caf06e9ce7586bff956e7709df1e702e\", \"commit_date\": \"1459362533\", \"url\": \"/root/data/jenkins/workspace/smartos/MG/build/illumos-joyent\" }\n , { \"repo\": \"illumos-extra\", \"branch\": \"release-20160331\", \"rev\": \"cc723855bceace3df7860b607c9e3827d47e0ff4\", \"commit_date\": \"1458153188\", \"url\": \"/root/data/jenkins/workspace/smartos/MG/build/illumos-extra\" }\n , { \"repo\": \"kvm\", \"branch\": \"release-20160331\", \"rev\": \"a8befd521c7e673749c64f118585814009fe4b73\", \"commit_date\": \"1450081968\", \"url\": \"/root/data/jenkins/workspace/smartos/MG/build/illumos-kvm\" }\n , { \"repo\": \"kvm-cmd\", \"branch\": \"release-20160331\", \"rev\": \"c1a197c8e4582c68739ab08f7e3198b2392c9820\", \"commit_date\": \"1454723558\", \"url\": \"/root/data/jenkins/workspace/smartos/MG/build/illumos-kvm-cmd\" }\n , { \"repo\": \"mdata-client\", \"branch\": \"release-20160331\", \"rev\": \"58158c44603a3316928975deccc5d10864832770\", \"commit_date\": \"1429917227\", \"url\": \"/root/data/jenkins/workspace/smartos/MG/build/mdata-client\" }\n]\n"
},
"platform.system": "SunOS"
} |
Q:
Restricting results included in SUM() with the condition in joined table?
I am trying to list my product table but with a link to my delivery orders to give me sums of stock in certain statuses; allocations, dispatched etc
There is a 'status' field to define where an delivery is currently at eg; 1 = allocated, 2 = dispatched, 3 = delivered etc
This is as far as I have got so far
SELECT product.*, sum(quantity) AS allocated FROM product
LEFT JOIN delivery_product ON ( product.id = product_id )
LEFT JOIN delivery ON ( delivery_id = delivery.id AND delivery.status = 1 )
GROUP BY code
ORDER BY code
It includes all quantity matches from delivery_product whereas I only want to include those where the delivery order status = 1. I think this is because i am joining to the delivery_product table first before the status restriction kicks in but how else can I do this?
Bonus points if you can see a much better way to approach my task altogether :)
-
product
id code stock
1 ABC 1000
2 DEF 2000
delivery
id status date etc
1 1 etc etc
delivery-product
id delivery_id product_id quantity
1 1 1 500
results
product.id product.code product.stock allocated
1 ABC 1000 500
2 DEF 2000 0
A:
I think a small modification to your query should work:
SELECT product.*
, sum(case when delivery.status = 1 then quantity else 0 end) AS allocated
FROM product
LEFT JOIN delivery_product ON ( product.id = product_id )
LEFT JOIN delivery ON ( delivery_id = delivery.id AND delivery.status = 1 )
GROUP BY code
ORDER BY code
You could avoid the conditional by converting the delivery join to inner from left outer, but the query would not return rows with quantity of zero if delivery records with the status of 1 are missing for the product.
|
Genotypic variation and mechanism in uptake and translocation of perfluorooctanoic acid (PFOA) in lettuce (Lactuca sativa L.) cultivars grown in PFOA-polluted soils.
The cultivation of crop cultivars with low pollutant accumulation is an important strategy to reduce the potential health risks of food produced from polluted soils. In this study, we identified three loose-leaf lettuce cultivars with low accumulation of perfluorooctanoic acid (PFOA), a highly toxic and persistent organic pollutant. PFOA concentrations in the shoots of low-PFOA cultivars were 3.7-5.5-fold lower than those of high-PFOA cultivars. The identification of low-PFOA cultivars could contribute to ensuring food safety despite cultivation in highly polluted soils (1 mg/kg) based on the tolerable daily PFOA intake (1.5 μg/kg/d). We detected lower desorbing fractions of PFOA in rhizosphere soil, lower bioconcentration factors, and higher distribution in the cell walls and organelles of roots in low-PFOA cultivars, all of which are key factors in limiting PFOA uptake and translocation from soil to shoots, than in high-PFOA cultivars. This study reveals the mechanism of PFOA uptake from soil to crop and lays a foundation for establishing a cost-effective strategy to plant crops in polluted soil and reduce exposure risk due to persistent organic pollutants in crops. |
135 F.3d 767
U.S.v.Ovando Rawlins
NO. 96-7758
United States Court of Appeals,Third Circuit.
Dec 16, 1997
Appeal From: D.V.I. ,No.96cr00011
1
Affirmed.
|
2007 September 30, Orlando Patterson, “Jena, O. J. and the Jailing of Black America”, in New York Times[1]:
The circumstances that far too many African-Americans face — the lack of paternal support and discipline; the requirement that single mothers work regardless of the effect on their children’s care; the hypocritical refusal of conservative politicians to put their money where their mouths are on family values; the recourse by male youths to gangs as parental substitutes; the ghetto-fabulous culture of the streets; the lack of skills among black men for the jobs and pay they want; the hypersegregation of blacks into impoverished inner-city neighborhoods — all interact perversely with the prison system that simply makes hardened criminals of nonviolent drug offenders and spits out angry men who are unemployable, unreformable and unmarriageable, closing the vicious circle. |
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Manchego Grilled Cheese sandwich is sweet, savory and buttery. This grown-up grilled cheese is simple to make but fancy enough for company!
THIS POST HAS BEEN UPGRADED FROM 4/21/15 TO IMPROVE READER EXPERIENCE.
Manchego Grilled Cheese is my favorite grilled cheese sandwich. It’s nothing like I grew up eating. Manchego is a soft buttery cheese that melts everything together. Exactly what you want in your grilled cheese sandwich.
I grew up going to religion classes on Saturday mornings. I thought that was the biggest rip off because Saturday morning was when the best cartoons were on television.
Not only that, the classes were so boring. All I knew is that I had to memorize a whole lot of stuff.
If I didn’t, I could end up in a very warm place at the end of my days. Yikes!
When our classes were over, we went home to a lunch of grilled cheese and tomato soup.
Tomato soup was from a can, and our grilled cheese was a skinny yellow piece of cheese on buttered white bread. I loved it. Of course, I loved anything drowned in ketchup.
The grilled cheese that I make now has grown up a bit. My little person self would probably turn up my nose.
My big girl self just loves every single layer of my grown-up version of this grilled Manchego Cheese Sandwich. Oh, and it doesn’t need one drop of ketchup to improve its flavor.
A Manchego Grilled Cheese starts with great bread slathered with butter on the outside and a smear of fig chutney or jam on the inside.
This yummy bread holds together a caramelized onion-mushroom mixture, fresh spinach, and all that buttery melted Manchego cheese.
Grilled Manchego Cheese Assembly
Butter the outside of two slices of bread. Spread fig jam on the inside of one piece of bread for a slightly sweet sandwich or on both sides if you want it sweeter. Add 1/4th of the sauteed mushroom-onion mixture. Top the mushrooms with fresh spinach Finish with a layer of Manchego cheese
What is Manchego cheese?
Castello Cheeses states Manchego cheese is from Spain and made from sheep’s milk. Manchego is aged from 2 months to 2 years. Manchego is a sharp, acidic, and nutty cheese.
What I love about Manchego cheese is that it’s nutty and buttery and it melts well without being real greasy like a cheddar often is.
Alternative cheeses – Cheeses that can substitute for Manchego
Parmigiano-Reggiano
Pecorino-Romano
White English Cheddar
Jarlesberg
What you may need to make a Manchego Grilled Cheese Sandwich:
The following are affiliate links. We are a participant in the Amazon Services LLC Associates Program, an affiliate advertising program designed to provide a means for us to earn fees by linking to Amazon.com and affiliated sites. For more information, please see our disclosure.
Panini Press – This is the one that I have. I like that the reversible grates become a griddle and that they can be removed for easy cleaning.
Slotted Spatula – Also called a fish spatula. I use mine for everything.
If you like this recipe, here are a few more I think you’re going to LOVE!
So, I may not have been great at memorizing my religion, but I aced grilled cheese! And, the tomato soup was there too, a bumped up big person version called Easy Tomato Florentine Soup!
Print 5 from 14 votes Grown-Up Manchego Grilled Cheese Sandwich Recipe Grown-Up Manchego Grilled Cheese Sandwich is simple to make but is fancy enough for company. It's buttery, sweet, savory and absolutely delicious. Prep Time 20 mins Cook Time 10 mins Total Time 35 mins Servings 4 Author Hostess At Heart Ingredients 2 teaspoons unsalted butter divided
1 tablespoon fresh thyme
1 yellow onion sliced thinly
16 oz mushrooms sliced – I used cremini
2 tablespoons sherry or white wine vinegar
3 ounces Manchego cheese shaved
2 cups Fresh baby spinach stems removed
2 tbsp Fig jam or chutney
8 slices Sandwich bread of your choice Instructions In a heavy skillet, melt 1 tablespoon of butter. Add sliced onions and mushrooms. Season with salt and pepper. Cook on medium heat until browned and caramelized.
Add sherry and continue cooking until sherry has evaporated. Stir in fresh thyme.
Assembly
Butter one side of each slice of bread. On the non-buttered side, spread a thin layer of fig jam or chutney on only one slice. Layer 1/4 each of the mushroom-onion mix, fresh spinach, and Manchego cheese. Top with the second piece of bread, buttered side out.
Place the sandwich butter side down in a panini maker or *heated skillet. Cook sandwich 7 to 10 minutes or until the bread is browned and the cheese is melted. Video Notes You can use a hot skillet if you don’t have a panini maker. After placing the sandwich in the pan, top it with another pan to lightly press the sandwich. I used slightly thin sourdough bread. You can use any mild tasting bread. Nutrition Calories: 312 kcal | Carbohydrates: 38 g | Protein: 14 g | Fat: 12 g | Saturated Fat: 7 g | Cholesterol: 28 mg | Sodium: 385 mg | Potassium: 458 mg | Fiber: 3 g | Sugar: 11 g | Vitamin A: 180 IU | Vitamin C: 5.3 mg | Calcium: 367 mg | Iron: 2.5 mg This recipe was calculated using the exact brands and measurements I used to make this recipe. If you are following a strict diet please note changing anything will cause the nutritional info to change. My calculations are intended as a guide only. Tried this recipe? That’s awesome! Mention @hostessatheart or tag #hostessatheart
What is your favorite grilled cheese recipe? Please share by commenting below. I’d love it if you left me 5 ✭✭✭✭✭ too! |
Five on the Fly: Will Andre Johnson be an invisible man moving forward?
1. He is who I thought he was – With Matt Leinart, I was hoping for the Texans to have a starter who just wouldn’t screw things up. I know there were plenty of Texans fans who had high hopes for Leinart, but I found most of them to be operating on mostly hope rather than anything concrete. Leinart hasn’t handled pressure very well in his limited starts in the NFL and I wasn’t all that excited with what I saw from him this year in the preseason. I felt like I knew who Leinart was as we headed into the game against Jacksonville and sure enough, he was pretty much still that same guy – Matty Checkdown. And you know what? I was okay with that as long as he didn’t screw things up. Still, this offense requires a QB who can make the safeties respect the big play down the field if you want to win in the playoffs and Leinart was never going to be that guy based on past history and based on the admittedly small sample size of Sunday.
2. When a running team can’t run – It is rare to lose a starting QB in the NFL and think you’ve still got a decent shot at winning in the playoffs, but when you run the ball and play defense like the Texans do, you can think that way. Hey, there’s always the Trent Dilfer led Ravens, right? With Leinart now lost for the season and the Texans on their 3rd string QB, the need for a dominant running game and defense ratchets up that much more. So how did the Texans run the ball yesterday in the second half with T.J. Yates at QB? Not well. While the Texans became extremely predictable in terms of their desire to keep the ball on the ground, the Jaguars really didn’t crowd the line of scrimmage with 8 or 9 on their defensive front and they weren’t run blitzing. The Jaguars simply won too many one-on-one battles and did a great job of setting the edge against the outside zone. Moving forward, the Texans can’t be too predictable, but they also must be able to impose their will on the ground and be able to run against the 8 man fronts that they’ll see.
3. Wade Phillips gets it done with four – While Wade Phillips threw some well-timed blitzes at the Jaguars, but for the most part he relied on his front four to rush Blaine Gabbert and they responded with seven sacks against the rookie. Connor Barwin ended up with four sacks while J.J. Watt had two and Brooks Reed had one. It was almost like Phillips realized at some point late in the first quarter that the Texans front was too much for the Jaguars over-matched offensive line and decided to take away any potential game-changing throws by Gabbert by sitting in coverage with seven. Then again, I get the feeling that Gabbert wouldn’t have been able to move the ball on the Texans if they had played with just 9 on defense.
4. Andre Johnson might disappear – After re-watching the game, I saw at least one throw by Leinart that should have gone to Andre Johnson on an intermediate crossing route. While Yates completed two passes to Andre, it was clear that Andre wasn’t back to his regular self and that QBs 2 and 3 didn’t really have a feel of how to get him the ball. If I were a defensive coordinator playing the Texans from this point forward, I would be committing 8 to the box and I would also be rolling my free safety over the top of Andre Johnson and forcing the rookie to beat me with Owen Daniels, Jacoby Jones, Kevin Walter and Arian Foster. I’m not sure that the return of Andre Johnson will mean quite as much as everyone had hoped based on the QB issues the Texans have an how defenses will probably play him now.
5. Glover Quin handles business – I wanted to utilize this final bullet point to spotlight the tremendous job of tackling that Glover Quin did against the Jaguars. Quin finished with 7 total tackles and 6 solo tackles and he rarely missed what he was aiming for on Sunday. With the defense being forced to continue their dominance, it will be important for Manning and Quin to continue to tackle like maniacs in the open field. While we all knew that Manning was a gifted open field tackler, it has been Quin’s improved tackling that has really helped the defense limit big plays.
Texans Podcast
John Harris and I talk about T.J. Yates and the Texans’ running woesin this podcast. |
// This file is part of MLDB. Copyright 2015 mldb.ai inc. All rights reserved.
/* evaluation.cc
Jeremy Barnes, 16 February 2005
Copyright (c) 2005 Jeremy Barnes. All rights reserved.
$Source$
Utility functions for evaluation of correctness of classifiers.
*/
#include "evaluation.h"
#include "training_data.h"
using namespace std;
namespace ML {
std::string Correctness::print() const
{
return format("(corr: %4.12f poss: %4.12f marg: %+5.12f)",
correct, possible, margin);
}
std::ostream & operator << (std::ostream & stream, const Correctness & corr)
{
return stream << corr.print();
}
const distribution<float> UNIFORM_WEIGHTS;
/** Returns the correctness of the given results vector.
First return value: correctness: 0.0 (completely incorrect) to 1.0
(completely correct).
returns: element 0: correctness (0.0 to 1.0)
element 1: possible (0.0 = label is missing, otherwise 1.0)
element 2: margin (-1.0 to 1.0)
*/
Correctness
correctness(const distribution<float> & results,
const Feature & label,
const Feature_Set & features,
double tolerance)
{
/* Make sure we handle:
1. Multiple correct answers (only need one of them)
2. Multiple top answers (divided between)
3. No correct answers (not correct)
*/
/* Find the range of all correct answers. */
std::pair<Feature_Set::const_iterator, Feature_Set::const_iterator> range
= features.find(label);
int num_correct = range.second - range.first;
if (num_correct == 0)
return Correctness(0.0, 0.0, -results.max());
else if (num_correct == 1) {
return correctness(results.begin(), results.end(),
(int)range.first.value(), tolerance);
}
else
throw Exception("correctness(): can't handle multiple labels yet");
}
float margin(const distribution<float> & results,
const Feature & label,
const Feature_Set & features,
double tolerance)
{
return correctness(results, label, features).margin;
}
float
accuracy(const std::vector<distribution<float> > & output,
const Training_Data & data,
const Feature & label,
const distribution<float> & example_weights)
{
if (output.size() != data.example_count())
throw Exception("accuracy: output and data sizes don't match");
if (!example_weights.empty()
&& example_weights.size() != data.example_count())
throw Exception("Classifier_Impl::accuracy(): dataset and weight "
"vector sizes don't match");
double correct = 0.0;
double total = 0.0;
for (unsigned i = 0; i < data.example_count(); ++i) {
double w = (example_weights.empty() ? 1.0 : example_weights[i]);
const distribution<float> & result = output[i];
Correctness c = correctness(result, label, data[i]);
correct += w * c.possible * c.correct;
total += w * c.possible;
}
float result = correct / total;
return result;
}
float
accuracy(const boost::multi_array<float, 2> & output,
const Training_Data & data,
const Feature & label,
const distribution<float> & example_weights)
{
unsigned nx = output.shape()[0];
if (nx != data.example_count())
throw Exception("accuracy: data set and output size don't match");
unsigned nl = output.shape()[1];
/* TODO: put this check back in */
//if (nl != label_count_)
// throw Exception("accuracy: data set and output labels differ");
double correct = 0.0, total = 0.0;
#if 0 // doesn't work until we have a dense results vector
if (nl == 2) {
for (unsigned i = 0; i < nx; ++i) {
double w = (example_weights.empty() ? 1.0 : example_weights[i]);
//cerr << "data[i].label = " << data[i].label << endl;
//cerr << "data[i].label.is(1) = " << data[i].label.is(1) << endl;
bool c = output[i][data[i].label.is(1)]
> output[i][1 - data[i].label.is(1)];
__builtin_prefetch(&output[i][0] + 48, 0, 0);
if (c) correct += w;
total += w;
}
}
#else
if (false) ;
#endif
else {
for (unsigned i = 0; i < nx; ++i) {
//cerr <<"***** ex " << i << endl;
distribution<float> result(&output[i][0], &output[i][0] + nl);
double w = (example_weights.empty() ? 1.0 : example_weights[i]);
Correctness c = correctness(result, label, data[i]);
correct += w * c.possible * c.correct;
total += w * c.possible;
//cerr << "ex " << i << " poss " << c.possible << " corr "
// << c.correct << " res " << result << endl;
//cerr << data.feature_space()->print(data[i]) << endl;
}
}
float result = correct / total;
return result;
}
} // namespace ML
|
Polymorphism in the vitamin D receptor gene is associated with maternal vitamin D concentration and neonatal outcomes: A Brazilian cohort study.
This study evaluated the associations between single-nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) of the vitamin D receptor (VDR) gene, maternal vitamin D concentration, and gestational outcomes. The cohort consisted of 270 pregnant women who received prenatal services at basic public healthcare centers in the city of Santo Antônio de Jesus, Bahia, Brazil. For statistical analysis, multiple linear regression was used. A mean of 72.62 (SD = 31.51) nmol/L for 25-hydroxyvitamin D (25(OH)D) concentrations was found. The mean birth weight was 3.340 g (SD = 0.545 g), and the mean duration of gestation was 38.66 (SD = 1.83) weeks. Pregnant women who were homozygous for the low-frequency allele GG of SNP TaqI had a higher concentration of vitamin D during gestation (β = 14.09 nmol/L; 95% CI = 0.85, 27.34) than the higher frequency homozygotes AA (β = 3.33 nmol/L; 95% CI = -4.37, 11.05). The children of heterozygous women for the ApaI SNP (GA) were born with a lower weight (β = -131.99 g, 95% CI = -258.50, -5.47, P = .04). The heterozygote genotype of the SNP TaqI (CA) decreased the risk of short duration of gestation (β = 0.54 weeks, 95% CI = 0.09, 0.99, P = .01), and the homozygote for the lower frequency allele in the SNP ApaI (CC) showed a negative effect, decreasing the duration of gestation (β = -0.69 weeks, 95% CI = -1.35, -0.26, P = .04). The VDR gene is an important genetic predictor of a higher concentration of vitamin D during gestation, low birth weight, and decreasing duration of gestation. |
Estimation of genetic and environmental factors for melanoma onset using population-based family data.
Estimation of genetic and environmental contributions to cancers falls in the framework of generalized linear mixed modelling with several random effect components. Computational challenges remain, however, in dealing with binary or survival phenotypes. In this paper, we consider the analysis of melanoma onset in a population of 2.6 million nuclear families in Sweden, for which none of the current survival-based methodologies is feasible. We treat the disease outcome as a binary phenotype, so that the standard proportional hazard model leads to a generalized linear model with the complementary-log link function. For rare diseases this link is very close to the probit link, and thus allows the use of marginal likelihood for the estimation of the variance components. We correct for the survival length bias by censoring the parent generation within each family at the time they attain the same cumulative hazard as the child generation, thus improving the validity of the estimates. Our finding that childhood shared environment in addition to genetic factors had a considerable effect on the development of melanoma is consistent with epidemiological studies. |
[Lipoprotein(a) and lipids in chronic renal insufficiency and kidney transplant].
To establish the prevalence of lipid and lipoprotein (a) abnormalities in patients under hemodialysis or who underwent renal transplantation. Forty dialyzed patients, 64 transplanted and a comparison group of 77 subjects of the general population paired by gender and age were studied. The most prevalent disorder in the hemodialysis was hypoalfalipoproteinemia followed by Lp(a) excess while the least common disorder was hypercholesterolemia. The transplanted patients had the lowest prevalence of Lp(a) excess and a higher proportion of hypercholesterolemia when compared to hemodialysis patients but similar to that of controls. Our results confirmed some previous findings observations of others but differed in that hypoalfalipoproteinemia and not hypertriglyceridemia was the predominant abnormality in the hemodialysis patients. |
HIV risk among drug-using men who have sex with men, men selling sex, and transgender individuals in Vietnam.
Knowledge about drug use and its association with HIV risk among men who have sex with men is limited. Although the HIV epidemic among this population in Vietnam is increasingly acknowledged, understanding the impact of drug use on the spread of HIV is largely lacking. Using qualitative data from in-depth interviews and focus group discussions with 93 drug users, 15 non-drug users and 9 community stakeholders, this analysis explores emerging patterns of drug use and risk factors for engaging in risk behaviours among drug-using men having sex with men, men selling sex and transgender individuals in Hanoi and Ho Chi Minh City. Findings revealed that drug use is shifting from heroin to ecstasy and ice. Drug users reported unsafe sex associated with drug use and men selling sex were particularly at elevated risk because of using drugs as a tool for sex work and trading sex for drugs. These findings are guiding development of programmes addressing unmet HIV-prevention needs in Vietnam. |
Introduction {#Sec1}
============
Super-resolution fluorescence microscopy has proven to be a fundamental tool in biology to unveil processes occurring at the nano-scale^[@CR1]^. Subdiffraction imaging can be obtained by exciting the fluorescent probes in a nonlinear regime, either inducing binary stochastic responses^[@CR2],[@CR3]^ or under saturated conditions^[@CR4],[@CR5]^. The saturated optical transition can be absorption^[@CR5],[@CR6]^, stimulated emission^[@CR4],[@CR7]^, ground state depletion^[@CR8]^ or fluorescence photo-switching, generalized as REversible Saturable Optical Linear Fluorescence Transitions (RESOLFT) techniques^[@CR9],[@CR10]^. Illumination with patterned light excitation then appears as an essential scheme^[@CR11],[@CR12]^.
In the linear excitation regime, structured illumination microscopy (SIM) with fringes^[@CR13]^, grids^[@CR14]^, or speckles^[@CR15]--[@CR17]^ can provide up to a twofold improvement in resolution as compared to widefield imaging, especially in three dimensions (3D)^[@CR18]^. Imaging in 3D is then obtained by acquiring every single transverse plane. In this configuration, fluorescence arising from out-of-focus planes is thus induced to be wasted since suppressed by numerical sectioning^[@CR19]^. Fluorescence-signal-wasting is all the more detrimental under optical-saturation conditions, required to allow breaking the diffraction limit up to theoretically unlimited resolutions, in which case nonlinear photo-bleaching may occur^[@CR5],[@CR20]^. Typically, the fragility of dyes has never allowed recording several transverse planes in saturated-excitation structured-illumination microscopy. 3D fluorescence nanoscopy requirements thus call for compressed sensing approaches^[@CR21]^.
Random wavefields feature two main interesting properties that make them suitable for 3D super-resolution microscopy. First, speckle patterns lying in different transverse planes are orthogonal relatively to the cross-correlation product (Supplementary Note [2](#MOESM1){ref-type="media"}), thus allowing axial discrimination of two-dimensional objects^[@CR22],[@CR23]^. This property exactly provides the random-projection-measurement configuration ideally suited for compressed imaging reconstruction^[@CR24],[@CR25]^, in particular for 3D imaging^[@CR26]^. Second, speckles exhibit strong intensity contrasts since naturally containing a high density of optical vortices of topological charge one^[@CR27]^, such as typically used in STimulated Emission Depletion (STED) microscopy^[@CR28]^. Optical vortices in speckles are associated with nodal lines of intensity (in 3D) that can confine fluorescence to subdiffraction dimensions^[@CR29]^, despite the contribution of the axial field. Indeed, in tightly focused beams, the vectorial nature of light cannot be neglected, especially under saturated conditions, in which case the axial field may destroy most of intensity zeros. Whether it is possible to break the diffraction barrier with saturated speckle patterns has remained an open theoretical question^[@CR30]^.
Here, we demonstrate the possibility to achieve 3D super-resolution imaging by a single 2D raster scan under saturated fluorescence excitation with tightly focused speckle patterns. Using a custom-built speckle scanning microscope, we can image with a factor 3.3 beyond the diffraction barrier. Super-resolution imaging capabilities are characterized using fluorescent nano-beads, and applied for imaging stained lysosomes in fixed cultured cells.
Results {#Sec2}
=======
Experimental setup {#Sec3}
------------------
The scanning speckle microscope is sketched in Fig. [1a](#Fig1){ref-type="fig"}. A spatial light modulator (SLM), conjugated to the back focal plane of the objective lens, is used to generate a 3D fully developed speckle pattern (See Methods and Supplementary Fig. [1](#MOESM1){ref-type="media"} for a more complete description). A regular diffuser could replace the SLM but the latter allows a dynamic control of the size of the illuminating speckle pattern and thus of the intensity at the sample plane. The random wave entering the objective is circularly polarized in order to minimize the axial field at isotropic vortices of same handedness and so, to provide isotropic super-resolution in transverse planes under saturated excitation conditions (see Supplementary Note [8](#MOESM1){ref-type="media"}).Fig. 1Principle of our speckle scanning microscope. A circularly polarized random wave-field generated by a spatial light modulator (SLM)---displaying a random phase mask---and a quarter wave-plate (QWP) is focused and scanned through an objective lens onto a fluorescent sample (**a**). The fluorescence signal from a thin and dense layer of fluorescent beads illuminated with a speckle is plotted in (**b**), as a function of the exciting-pulse energy. The curve is fitted with Eq. ([1](#Equ1){ref-type=""}). The 3D speckle point spread function (SPSF) can be experimentally characterized by scanning a single fluorescent nano-bead in three dimensions (**c**). The speckle in the transverse plane (**d**, **e**) and in a longitudinal plane (**f**, **g**) are shown for low pulse-energy (〈*s*〉 = 5 × 10^−3^ in (**d**, **f**) and for high pulse-energy (〈*s*〉 = 3.7) in (**e**, **g**). Black dotted ellipses in (**e**) and (**g**) point out dark points identifying the plane crossing by optical vortex lines. The power spectra of SPSFs in (**d**, **e**) are represented in (**h**, **i**), respectively, illustrating the transverse power spectrum enlargement due to saturated excitation (dotted circles in (**h**, **i**) materialize the spectrum boundary in (**i**), as a visual reference). Cross-correlation products between different transverse planes A and B is shown in (**j**, **k**), in the nonsaturated and in the saturated case, respectively. In both regimes, the plots show that the cross-correlation peak vanishes with increasing defocus under saturated excitation conditions. Saturation decreases the correlation width
Optical saturation {#Sec4}
------------------
To quantify the saturation excitation level, we may use a two-energy-level-dye model^[@CR31]^. The excitation probability of the dye typically depends on several parameters such as the fluorescence lifetime of the dye *τ*~f~, its absorption cross-section *σ*, and the laser-pulse temporal intensity profile (width *τ*~p~, amplitude *I*~p~ and shape). A subnanosecond laser is used, delivering pulses shorter than the fluorescence life-time of the dye (*τ*~p~ \~ 500 ps) in order to efficiently saturate the optical transition with the minimal average power, and long enough for keeping a low-multiphoton absorption probability. The repetition rate of 4 kHz is low enough to ensure dark-state relaxation between excitation pulses and so, to minimize photo-bleaching via intersystem crossing^[@CR20]^. When exciting fluorescence with pulses much shorter than the fluorescence lifetime ($\documentclass[12pt]{minimal}
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\begin{document}$$\tau _{\mathrm{p}} \ll \tau _{\mathrm{f}}$$\end{document}$), the fluorescence signal may be approximated by *F*(*s*) ≃ 1 − *e*^−*s*^ (See Supplementary Note [6](#MOESM1){ref-type="media"}), where we define *s* as the saturation parameter. In the case of a step-wise pulse, $\documentclass[12pt]{minimal}
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\begin{document}$$s = \frac{{\sigma I_{\mathrm{p}}\tau _{\mathrm{p}}}}{{h\nu }}$$\end{document}$ where *hν* is the quantum of excitation-light energy. For characterizing excitation saturation in our experiment, we illuminated a thin layer of beads with a speckle pattern and collected the average fluorescence signal. When averaging over intensity fluctuations of a fully developed speckle pattern (with probability density function *ρ*(*I*) = 1/〈*I*〉exp(−*I*/〈*I*〉)), the average fluorescence signal can be derived analytically as (Supplementary Note [7](#MOESM1){ref-type="media"}):$$\documentclass[12pt]{minimal}
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\begin{document}$$\left\langle F \right\rangle = \frac{{\left\langle s \right\rangle }}{{\left\langle s \right\rangle + 1}}{,}$$\end{document}$$where the notation 〈·〉 stands for spatial averaging. The experimental fluorescence curve shown in Fig. [1b](#Fig1){ref-type="fig"} is thus fitted with this function. More conveniently, the average saturation parameter 〈*s*〉 can be expressed as $\documentclass[12pt]{minimal}
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\begin{document}$$\left\langle s \right\rangle = \epsilon {\mathrm{/}}\epsilon _{\mathrm{s}}$$\end{document}$, with $\documentclass[12pt]{minimal}
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\begin{document}$$\epsilon = I_{\mathrm{p}}\tau _{\mathrm{p}}A$$\end{document}$ the pulse energy (*A* being the speckle spot surface) and $\documentclass[12pt]{minimal}
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\begin{document}$$\epsilon _s = h\nu A{\mathrm{/}}\sigma$$\end{document}$ the pulse excitation energy for which fluorescence reaches half the maximum signal. In Fig. [1b](#Fig1){ref-type="fig"}, we measured $\documentclass[12pt]{minimal}
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\begin{document}$$\epsilon _{\mathrm{s}} = 640\,{\mathrm{pJ}}$$\end{document}$ for a 10 μm speckle spot.
3D-point spread function characterization {#Sec5}
-----------------------------------------
The intensity profile of a 3D speckle pattern (Fig. [1c](#Fig1){ref-type="fig"}) in a transverse *xy*-plane (Fig. [1d, e](#Fig1){ref-type="fig"}) and in an axial *xz*-plane (Fig. [1f, g](#Fig1){ref-type="fig"}) is shown both under nonsaturated (Fig. [1d, f](#Fig1){ref-type="fig"}) and saturated (Fig. [1e, g](#Fig1){ref-type="fig"}) excitation conditions. Speckle point spread functions (SPSF) were obtained by scanning isolated fluorescent nano-beads. Under saturated illumination conditions, dark round-shaped points remain both in the *xy* and in the *xz* sections (highlighted by dashed ellipses in Fig. [1e, g](#Fig1){ref-type="fig"}), which can be attributed to the crossing of these planes by nodal vortex lines. These dark points ensure contrast conservation under saturated excitation, so enlarging the power spectrum of the SPSF (Fig. [1h, i](#Fig1){ref-type="fig"}) and demonstrating the larger accessible spectral support of the optical transfer function for imaging applications. Contrast conservation under saturated conditions is at the basis of RESOLFT microscopy, in which resolution typically scales as^[@CR32]^:$$\documentclass[12pt]{minimal}
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\begin{document}$$\delta x = \frac{\lambda }{{2{\mathrm{NA}}}}\frac{1}{{\sqrt {1 + s} }}{.}$$\end{document}$$Although the average saturation level in Fig. [1e, g](#Fig1){ref-type="fig"} looks modest (〈*s*〉 = 3.7) as compared with typical saturation levels used in RESOLFT microscopy, this value is averaged over intensity fluctuations of the speckle, meaning that locally the saturation can be considerably higher. Importantly, the field gradient, can be large at the vortex centers where the field is minimum, ensuring efficient spatial spectrum broadening under saturated conditions. Breaking the diffraction limit can thus be achieved by saturating an optical transition with speckles. However, super-resolution imaging implies exciting fluorescence up to the probes exhaustion, which is hardly compatible with 3D imaging. In this regard, imaging with random speckles is especially suited, thanks to their orthogonality properties.
2D speckle patterns appearing in different transverse planes are statistically orthogonal relatively to the cross-correlation product. When 2D-scanning a 3D sample with a speckle, each plane of the object is convolved with a distinct pattern. The resulting image is thus the linear combination of the contribution of all the planes. Since speckles are orthogonal, each plane can then be retrieved either by projection^[@CR23]^ or compressive sensing schemes^[@CR26]^. To be precise, speckles are only orthogonal for large-enough axial separations: *δz* ≥ 2*nλ*/NA^2^. When saturating an optical transition, not only saturated speckles remain orthogonal but this minimal separation distance is even reduced. The cross-correlation of two *z*-distant transverse planes A and B is illustrated in Fig. [1j, k](#Fig1){ref-type="fig"} for the nonsaturated and the saturated case, respectively, and for *z* = 0 (*A* = *B*) and $\documentclass[12pt]{minimal}
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\begin{document}$$z \gg 2n\lambda {\mathrm{/NA}}^{\mathrm{2}}$$\end{document}$. The plot of the cross-correlation product as a function of *z* shows that the correlation distance is shorter under saturated conditions by a factor $\documentclass[12pt]{minimal}
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\begin{document}$$\simeq \sqrt 2$$\end{document}$. Saturating the speckle patterns thus increases the axial density of modes, so-demonstrating the possibility to improve resolution along the propagation axis by optical saturation.
3D super-resolution demonstration {#Sec6}
---------------------------------
Imaging with random structures raises the specific challenge of object reconstruction. Techniques have been developed to reconstruct images even when the speckles are unknown^[@CR15],[@CR17]^ especially through scattering samples^[@CR33]--[@CR36]^. Adding sparsity constraints to the rebuilt object is particularly helpful, especially to retrieve 3D information from 2D images^[@CR26]^. Adding sparsity priors about the object in compressive sensing approaches may even provide details smaller than the resolution of the instrument^[@CR36]^. Conversely, in our case, super-resolution information is experimentally extracted from the sample thanks to the power spectrum enlargement of the optical transfer function under saturated fluorescence excitation. In order to demonstrate so, we first perform plane-by-plane Wiener deconvolution^[@CR37],[@CR38]^. Interestingly, Wiener deconvolution being just a cross-correlation product with a spectral renormalization, speckles satisfy the same orthogonality properties (see Supplementary Note [3](#MOESM1){ref-type="media"}). A single parameter must be adjusted: the mean power spectral density of the noise of images. In our results, we tuned this parameter by visual image optimization.
2D-scanned images of a sample consisting in three fluorescent beads located at different axial positions, are shown in Fig. [2a, b](#Fig2){ref-type="fig"}, under nonsaturated (〈*s*〉 ≪ 1) and saturated conditions (〈*s*〉 = 1.4), respectively. The experimental characterization of the 3D-SPSFs, required for reconstructing the object, is achieved by 3D-scanning of single isolated beads with the speckle (Fig. [2c](#Fig2){ref-type="fig"}) both in the linear and in the saturated regime. Plane-by-plane Wiener deconvolution of a 2D speckle image yields its projection on each transverse speckle plane (the 3D-SPFS) so-providing a 3D reconstruction of the object (Fig. [2d, e](#Fig2){ref-type="fig"}). Since the axial correlation length is shorter in the saturated regime as shown in Fig. [1j, k](#Fig1){ref-type="fig"}, super-resolution is also provided along the propagation axis of the beam. Line profiles of the beads along the axial coordinate (Supplementary Fig. [11](#MOESM1){ref-type="media"}) exhibit an average axial full width at half maximum *δz* = 2.5 ± 0.1 μm in the nonsaturated regime and varies from *δz*′ = 1.7 μm for the bottom bead closer to the coverslip, to ≃2.0 μm (two other beads) in the saturated regime. Axial resolution is here better for the bead closer to the coverslip for two main reasons: first, the index mismatch between the coverslip and the mounting medium (PVA) introduces aberrations to the speckle away from the coverslip. Second, the speckle spot was focused at the coverslip, thus exhibiting higher intensities, smaller speckle grains and steeper intensity gradients near the coverslip. For this reason, for 3D imaging of biological samples presented below, we carefully focused the median plane on the median plane of the 3D sample. For a bead lying at the surface of the coverslip, the axial resolution is measured by deconvolving a median-plane image by all the SPSF planes (Fig. [2m](#Fig2){ref-type="fig"}). In the saturated regime the correlation distance is reduced by a factor ≃2 as compared to the non-saturated case. We attribute the axial resolution improvement to the presence of nodal optical vortex lines dominating the contrast (and thus the cross-correlation product) in the saturated regime, while contrast is dominated by speckle grains in the linear excitation regime. The tilted trajectory of nodal vortex lines in 3D speckle patterns^[@CR39],[@CR40]^ improves axial resolution.Fig. 23D super-resolution capabilities. 2D-scanning of fluorescent nano-beads by speckles (**a**, **b**) allows 3D object reconstruction (**d**, **e**). Image reconstruction is achieved by plane-by-plane Wiener deconvolution thanks to the prior experimental characterization of the 3D-SPSF (**c**). Speckle images were taken under non-saturated (**a**, **f**) and saturated (**b**, **i**) conditions. By depositing fluorescent 100 nm-beads on a coverslip, a bead cluster could be observed to be only resolved under saturated conditions (**k**) and not by linear-excitation speckle imaging (**h**). Line profiles in (**h**, **k**) are plotted in (**l**) and compared to the profile obtained by deconvolved point-scanning imaging (Supplementary Fig. [12](#MOESM1){ref-type="media"}). Resolution is improved in the speckle imaging mode as compared to point-scanning mode and super-resolution is obtained under saturated excitation conditions. Axial resolution improvement is shown in **m** where an axial bead intensity profile is plotted both in the linear and in the saturated excitation regimes. In all images, NA = 0.77 and saturated images were recorded with an average saturation parameter 〈*s*〉 = 1.4
Next, a sample consisting in 100 nm fluorescent beads deposited on a coverslip was prepared to measure transverse resolution improvement under saturated excitation conditions. Speckle images are shown in Fig. [2f, i](#Fig2){ref-type="fig"} under nonsaturated and saturated excitation conditions, respectively. The experimental measurements of SPSFs in the nonsaturated and saturated cases (Fig. [2g, j](#Fig2){ref-type="fig"}, respectively) obtained using isolated 100 nm beads allow object reconstruction (Fig. [2h, k](#Fig2){ref-type="fig"}, respectively). The image retrieved from the saturated excitation condition clearly demonstrates a higher resolution power, resolving every individual bead. Some neighboring beads can only be resolved by saturating fluorescence excitation. Line profiles plotted in Fig. [2l](#Fig2){ref-type="fig"} show a resolution down to ≃147 nm in the saturated case. The width *w* of the effective point spread function can be estimated by removing the contribution of the bead size *d* from the width of the bead image *W* according to $\documentclass[12pt]{minimal}
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\begin{document}$$W = \sqrt {d^2 + w^2}$$\end{document}$, so giving *w* = 108 nm: a factor 3.3 below the diffraction limit (0.514*λ*/NA = 355 nm for NA = 0.77). The size of the bead used for the SPSF characterization limits the utmost achievable resolution, but smaller fluorescent beads yielded too low signal to background ratios. For comparison, an image was also taken by scanning a diffraction-limited spot in the sample, after correcting aberrations of the system thanks to the SLM (Supplementary Fig. [12](#MOESM1){ref-type="media"}). As expected, even the resolution of the deconvolved point-scanning image is already outperformed by the image retrieved from the non-saturated speckle image by a factor $\documentclass[12pt]{minimal}
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\begin{document}$$\simeq \sqrt 2$$\end{document}$. This improvement can be explained by the flatter optical transfer function of the speckle scanning microscope as compared to point-scanning one (see Supplementary Note [1](#MOESM1){ref-type="media"} and ref. ^[@CR41]^).
Imaging of vesicles in cultured cells {#Sec7}
-------------------------------------
To demonstrate the practical applicability of 3D super-resolution speckle microscopy to biological samples, we imaged lysosomes in fixed cultured HeLa cancer cells, immuno-labeled by targeting lysosomal associated membrane protein 1 (LAMP-1). Lysosomes are vesicles whose size vary in the range between 50 and 500 nm^[@CR42]^. A region of interest was first defined in a cell (Fig. [3e](#Fig3){ref-type="fig"}). Two 2D-speckle-images (nonsaturated and saturated) were recorded (as illustrated in Fig. [3a](#Fig3){ref-type="fig"}) and first Wiener deconvolved (Fig. [3b](#Fig3){ref-type="fig"}, left column). A point scanning image-stack (Fig. [3a](#Fig3){ref-type="fig"}) was also recorded and 3D-deconvolved with the point-scanning PSF (Fig. [3c](#Fig3){ref-type="fig"}). Regions of two 1 μm distant transverse planes are shown, where some nearby vesicles can only be resolved under saturated excitation conditions (see zoomed insets and white arrows in Fig. [3b](#Fig3){ref-type="fig"}). In speckle imaging, the depth-of-field is defined by the size of the SPSF. For Lysosomes imaging, a 5 μm SPSF was used providing a \~5 μm depth-of-field. In Supplementary Fig. [13](#MOESM1){ref-type="media"}, a more complex object, namely actin filaments, are imaged with a \~15 μm depth-of-field using a 10 μm speckle spot. The scaling of the depth-of-field with the speckle spot size and the numerical aperture is discussed in Supplementary Note [4](#MOESM1){ref-type="media"}.Fig. 3Images of lysosomes in fixed cultured cells. A region of interest materialized by a white square in the widefield view (**e**) was imaged both by 2D speckle scanning and 3D point scanning (**a**). Regions of two 1 μm distant transverse planes from the 3D reconstruction of fluorescence distribution are shown in (**b**, **c**), in three imaging modes: nonsaturated and saturated (〈*s*〉 ≃ 1.4) speckle imaging (**b**) as well as 3D deconvolved point scanning **c**. Reconstruction from speckle images is performed both by Wiener deconvolution and by the FISTA compressed sensing algorithm, for comparison. FISTA reconstruction suppresses noise arising from out-of-focus fluorescent objects. The line profile corresponding to the white dotted line in (**c**) is plotted in (**d**) (with quadratic interpolations) and compared to corresponding profiles obtained with FISTA reconstruction. White arrows at plane *z* = 0 pin-point two vesicles that can only be resolved under saturated conditions. Cross-sections of these two vesicles are shown in (**f**). All images were acquired using NA = 0.77
Reconstruction by compressed sensing {#Sec8}
------------------------------------
Reconstruction by plane-by-plane Wiener deconvolution of the 2D speckle image exploits the statistical orthogonality of speckles lying in different axial planes. However, since speckles are only orthogonal in a statistical sense, out-of-focus point-sources contribute to a background noise whose amplitude is inversely proportional to the number of speckle grains (see Supplementary Note [4](#MOESM1){ref-type="media"}). In a worst-case scenario, a bright out-of-focus point-source may even theoretically blind a fainter one because of the out-of-focus reconstruction background. In Supplementary Note [4](#MOESM1){ref-type="media"}, we demonstrate that for a scanning speckle pattern containing *N* speckle grains in each axial plane, the sample should not exhibit more than $\documentclass[12pt]{minimal}
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\begin{document}$$\simeq \sqrt N$$\end{document}$ point-sources to maintain a signal to noise ratio higher than 1 after cross-correlation projection. Wiener reconstruction is expected to require similar conditions. Moreover, even for an isolated point source, reconstruction by Wiener deconvolution yields a peak surrounded by noise. For these reasons, although vesicles can be distinguished, a significant background is observed in Wiener-reconstructed images in Fig. [3b](#Fig3){ref-type="fig"}.
Such reconstruction noise artifacts can be suppressed using compressed sensing algorithms. In this regard, our speckle scanning techniques probing the sample with random point spread functions, is ideally suited^[@CR21],[@CR24]^. Here, a fast iterative shrinkage-thresholding algorithm (FISTA) was used^[@CR43],[@CR44]^. This algorithm iteratively solves such linear inverse problem as ours, by additionally taking the sample sparsity into account. FISTA converges toward a Lagrangian minimization:$$\documentclass[12pt]{minimal}
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\begin{document}$$\min _x\{ F({\mathrm{x}}) \equiv ||{\mathrm{Ax - b}}||^2 + \lambda ||{\mathrm{x}}||_1\}{,}$$\end{document}$$where *x* designates the object's coefficients (here, in the voxel basis where lysosomes can be described with a minimum number of coefficients), *A* is the random projection matrix (the 3D-SPSF), *b* the experimental 2D speckle-image, and *λ* a Tikhonov regularization parameter. According to compressed-sensing theory^[@CR21]^, one can reconstruct a K-sparse object (containing K nonzero coefficients) in a volume containing *N*~*x*~*N*~*y*~*N*~*z*~ voxels if the number of independent random measurement points *M* satisfies: *M* ≥ *O*\[*K* log(*N*~*x*~*N*~*y*~*N*~*z*~)\]. The results obtained by FISTA are shown in Fig. [3b](#Fig3){ref-type="fig"} (right column) for comparison with Wiener deconvolution. As a result, reconstruction is achieved with a drastic reduction of noise. Removal of out-of-focus background is also evident on axial cross-sections shown in Fig. [3f](#Fig3){ref-type="fig"} where the two vesicles pointed out by white arrows in Fig. [3b, c](#Fig3){ref-type="fig"} are represented. As a results, axial resolution is better with FISTA reconstruction. However, transverse resolutions are similar in both reconstruction schemes, meaning that super-resolution can solely be attributed to optical saturation. A more complete description as well as a quantitative characterization of sample-sparsity requirements is given in Supplementary Note [5](#MOESM1){ref-type="media"}, demonstrating high fidelity reconstruction by FISTA, even for much denser objects.
Discussion {#Sec9}
==========
We demonstrated that speckle patterns are ideally suited to achieve compressed 3D microscopy beyond the diffraction limit under saturated fluorescence excitation conditions. Despite the vectorial nature of light waves which disallow perfect zeros of intensity in a random light-wave structure, 108 nm resolution could be obtained for a NA of 0.77, a factor 3.3 below the diffraction limit. Here, samples were imaged thanks to 2D raster scans but, in principle, for sparse-enough objects, reconstruction could be achieved with even fewer measurements. This technique, based on the sparsity of the sample, opens up new perspectives to perform super-resolution imaging with potentially drastic acquisition-time reduction and photo-bleaching minimization. Contrary to regular SIM and confocal microscopy which wastes out-of-focus fluorescence signal, compressive 3D speckle imaging by 2D scanning makes use of all the detected fluorescence signal. Efficient compressive probing of 3D objects with a single 2D scanned image is ensured by the statistical orthogonality of random speckles. The cross-talk between different transverse planes can be suppressed by using a FISTA. Here, imaging of samples that are sparse in the voxel basis was achieved. Simple numerical deconvolution techniques could also be used for the sake of physical evidence both of 3D imaging and super-resolution capabilities. However, in practice, more complex objects could be imaged since all typical objects can be described with a sparse set of modes, provided a proper basis is used^[@CR45]^. For objects not sparse in the voxel basis, the only limitation is the contrast of the 2D speckle image which must be larger than the photon shot-noise. Even for such objects, imaging with speckles allows efficient compressed sensing^[@CR25],[@CR46]^ since random structures are strongly incoherent (i.e., orthogonal) with all typical sparsifying bases^[@CR21]^.
The presented results were obtained with a very simple and inexpensive system, where the microscope objective could be easily changed for any high NA optics (like a condenser), whose optical properties are poor but which can efficiently collect the fluorescence signal. In our experiments, we observed that photo-bleaching (Supplementary Fig. [8](#MOESM1){ref-type="media"}) was less critical than background signal originating from the optics and the immersion oil (Supplementary Fig. [7](#MOESM1){ref-type="media"}). Here, background signal was important because fluorescence excitation was saturated, but 3D super-resolution speckle imaging could also be performed saturating other optical transitions such as stimulated emission, which makes use of red-shifted light as an intense laser beam and thus both reduces background signal and photo-bleaching. In this case, speckle patterns having inverted intensity contrast^[@CR47]^ could be used for the excitation and the de-excitation speckle patterns. Speckles with tailored statistical properties could also be used^[@CR48]^, such as non-Rayleigh speckles^[@CR49]^, potentially improving statistical orthogonality. Nondiffracting speckle beams^[@CR50]^ could also allow tuning the depth of field.
Methods {#Sec10}
=======
The speckle-scanning microscope {#Sec11}
-------------------------------
A complete scheme of the experimental setup can be found in Supplementary Fig. [1](#MOESM1){ref-type="media"}. For saturated speckle imaging, the laser source is a 532 nm Q-switched laser diode delivering \~4 μJ, 500 ps pulses at 4 kHz (Teem Phononics, Meylan, France, STG-03E-120). A fully developed speckle pattern is generated by a SLM (Hamamatsu Photonics, LCOS, X10468-01) conjugated to the back focal plane of a 1.4 NA microscope objective (Olympus, Tokyo, Japan, 100×, NA 1.40, UPLanSApo, Oil) which focuses the beam into the sample. A quarter wave-plate is placed right before the objective lens to polarize the illuminating beam circularly. In addition, an iris placed before the SLM allows controlling the NA of the speckled beam. Finally, the speckle pattern is scanned transversely in the sample by a pair of galvanometric mirrors and fluorescence is then collected through the same objective lens and sent to a photo-multiplier tube (Hamamatsu Photonics, H10721-20). A pinhole limiting the field of view to \~10 μm was placed in an intermediate image plane between the objective and the photomultiplier tube to minimize background signal. The pixel dwell time corresponds to two laser pulses in 2D images and four pulses for the 3D images. In Fig. [1f, g](#Fig1){ref-type="fig"}, NA = 0.77, and for the sake of illustration clarity, in Fig. [1d, e](#Fig1){ref-type="fig"}, NA = 0.33. In Fig. [2f--k](#Fig2){ref-type="fig"}, 100 nm-beads and 50 nm pixel size were used for transverse resolution characterization. For axial resolution characterization, brighter 200 nm beads were used (in Fig. [2a, b](#Fig2){ref-type="fig"}) in order to help the experimentalist finding a region of interest on the camera. In Fig. [3](#Fig3){ref-type="fig"}, 2D speckle images were recorded using a 5 μm speckle spot with a 100 nm pixel size.
Object reconstruction {#Sec12}
---------------------
In Fig. [2d, e](#Fig2){ref-type="fig"}, plane-by-plane Wiener deconvolutions were performed. The speckled point spread functions were characterized by scanning isolated 100 nm fluorescent beads (200 nm for axial resolution characterization). For deconvolution of speckle images of Lysosomes in Fig. [3](#Fig3){ref-type="fig"} (and actin filaments in Supplementary Fig. [13](#MOESM1){ref-type="media"}), both SPSFs were obtained by scanning distinct samples of fluorescent nano-beads. The saturated SPSF were estimated form these beads although the dye used was different. It appeared that the uncertainty about the exact saturation level is not critical for reconstruction. For Wiener deconvolution, the spectral noise density was adjusted by visual inspection in order to optimize the compromise between resolution improvement and the signal to noise ratio. In Fig. [2](#Fig2){ref-type="fig"}, deconvolved images are shown without any threshold to show the noise level. FISTA algorithm has two tuning parameters: the sparsity degree *λ* and the step size *t*. For optimal reconstruction, the step size *t* is maintained as small as possible (10^−7^) and *λ* is varied between 0 and 1; 0 is optimal for least sparse objects and 1 for most sparse objects. The optimization is done by comparing the root mean squared error a posteriori on reconstructions using different parameters. Object reconstruction by FISTA typically took from roughly 4--6 min (371.58 s for 170 × 170 × 25-voxels data and 226.54 s for 150 × 150 × 25-voxels data), performing 2000 iterations (providing good resolution as shown in Fig. [3](#Fig3){ref-type="fig"}), on an Intel core i7-6700 processor, clocked at 3.4 GHz.
Samples {#Sec13}
-------
Fluorescent beads (FluoSpheres®, Molecular Probes, carboxylate-modified microspheres, 0.1 μm, orange fluorescent (540/560) 2% solid) were spin-coated in a PVA matrix on a coverslip and mounted in an anti-fade mounting medium (Fluoromount, Sigma-Aldrich). Cultured cancer HeLa cells grown on coverslips were washed in phosphate-buffered saline (PBS) and fixed with 4% paraformaldehyde. Then, they were incubated in blocking solution for 30 min at room temperature. Primary antibody targeting LAMP-1 were diluted in blocking buffer and incubate 1 h at room temperature. After several rinces, coverslip were incubated with fluorescent Alexa 555-conjugated secondary antibody for 45 min at room temperature, rinced extensively in PBS and mounted with Fluoromount antifading medium. The cell preparation and staining protocole followed the European Union and institutional guidelines and was validated by the Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (CNRS). For actin samples, monomeric G-actin was polymerized by addition of 100 mM KCl and 2 mM MgCl~2~^[@CR51]^. Actin filaments were stabilized using Alexa Fluor 546 phalloidin (Thermo Fisher), and anchored on coverslips functionalized with inactive Myosin 1b^[@CR52],[@CR53]^. Finally, the sample was mounted in Fluoromount after several washes. Samples of beads in 3D were prepared by simply drying a colloidal suspension of beads with PVA. The actin filaments in 3D were mounted in Fluoromount.
Reporting summary {#Sec14}
-----------------
Further information on experimental design is available in the [Nature Research Reporting Summary](#MOESM3){ref-type="media"} linked to this article.
Supplementary information
=========================
{#Sec15}
Supplementary Information Peer Review File Reporting Summary
**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.
Supplementary information
=========================
**Supplementary Information** accompanies this paper at 10.1038/s41467-019-09297-5.
The authors thank Isabelle Fanget for preparing the HeLa cells, Julien Pernier for providing the actin filaments and the corresponding staining protocol, and Laura Caccianini, Madjouline Abou Ghali, and Dany Khamsing for helping with samples. The authors also acknowledge Grace Kuo and Laura Waller for their support with the FISTA algorithm, and Marcel Lauterbach for careful reading of the manuscript. This work was supported by grants from the Région Ile-de-France (PhD program) and the French-Israeli Laboratory ImagiNano. It has received funding from the European Research Council (ERC) under the European Union Horizon 2020 research and innovation program (Grants no. 677909) and from the French National Agency (ANR-10-INBS-04-01). This research was also supported by the ISRAEL SCIENCE FOUNDATION (Grant no. 1361/18), the Azrieli Foundation, the Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique and the France Bio-Imaging infrastructure.
M.P. built up the experimental system, did experiments and numerical image processing. S.G. did experiments. A.T. and O.K. performed numerical image reconstruction by FISTA. O.K. and V.E. co-supervised the project. M.G. conceived and supervised the project. M.P., A.T., O.K. and M.G. wrote the paper.
Data that support the findings of this study are available from <http://www.biomedicale.parisdescartes.fr/doc/raw.zip>.
Competing interests {#FPar1}
===================
The authors declare no competing interests.
|
2009 CV Whitney Cup
The 2009 CV Whitney Cup was played at Florida's International Polo Club, as a World Polo Tour Cup event, February 38th-March 9, 2009.
Participating teams
Results
First Round
Date Time Teams
Sat. Feb. 28 3:00 pm Pony Express def. Las Monjitas 12-11 in OT
Sun. Mar. 1 12:00 pm Lechuza Caracas def. Orchard Hill 14-13 in OT
3:00 pm Audi def. White Birch 11-10
Semifinals
Wed. Mar. 4 1:00 pm
Audi def. Zacara
15-13
3:00 pm
Lechuza Caracas def. Pony Express
14-7
Consolation Cup
Thu. Mar. 5 3:00 pm Semifinal:
Las Monjitas def. Orchard Hill
9-7
Sun. Mar. 8 12:00 pm IPC Cup Final:
Las Monjitas vs. White Birch
The game was stopped after Mariano Aguerre suffered an injury in the first chukker and a substitute was unavailable.
Final
3:00 pm CV Whitney Final
Audi def. Lechuza Caracas
8-7
See also
C.V. Whitney Cup
External links
International Polo Club
La Bocha
Category:Polo competitions in the United States
Cv Whitney Cup, 2009 |
The invention relates to compositions, methods, and apparatuses for improving the production and recycling of antimicrobial fluids used to treat raw meat and poultry in meat and poultry slaughter and processing facilities. Fresh food animal products, including raw meat and poultry, are susceptible to contamination by microorganisms that contact meat surfaces immediately after slaughter and evisceration, including organisms in the gastrointestinal tracts which can be transferred during processing. Contaminating microorganisms include bacteria such as Salmonella and Campylobacter species, Listeria monocytogenes, Escherichia coli and other coliforms, and other enteric organisms. Once bacteria such as Salmonella contact tissue surfaces, they rapidly attach and are difficult to remove even with chlorine disinfectant permitted for use in poultry sprays and chill tanks. In beef processing, for example, a particularly virulent strain of E. coli, denoted O157:H7, reportedly contaminated hamburger meat sold by a fast-food chain and caused several deaths in the U.S. in 1993.
The problems created by Salmonella and Campylobacter bacteria in poultry products are particularly noteworthy. The presence of these organisms in food are serious dangers which impose significant costs and dangers. Improper cooking and physical transfer of the bacteria to food handling surfaces and thereafter to other foods result in the spread of the microorganisms, can cause gastrointestinal disorders and, in some cases, death.
Breeders, hatcheries, feed ingredient suppliers, farms, processors, and distributors have all been implicated as contributors to Salmonella contamination in chickens and turkeys (Villarreal, M. E., et al., J. Food Protection 53: 465-467 (1990)). Contamination of but a few birds can lead to broader range contamination of other birds and cross-contamination to carcasses. Bacterial proliferation and other signs of spoilage can be delayed by refrigeration, but there is a limit to the degree of refrigeration that can be imposed on meat products, short of freezing the meat, and some bacteria such as psychrophiles can survive and even flourish at temperatures approaching the freezing point. It is thus preferable to control and destroy pathogenic and other microbial contaminants during processing to reduce the number of organisms on the meat.
Poultry processing is similar to the processing of other meat animals. Briefly summarized, caged birds arrive by truck at the processing plant. Typically, the birds are not fed for at least one to four hours before slaughter to allow the bird's intestinal tract to clear, thereby lowering the risk of fecal contamination during subsequent processing. The birds are hung by their feet on shackles in a dressing line, stunned and bled via throat cuts. After bleeding and while still hung, the birds are scalded, plucked and transferred to an evisceration line, where they are manually or mechanically eviscerated, inspected and spray-washed. The spray may contain chlorine or other approved as a disinfecting agents. Historically, the last step of the process has been chilling in a hydro-chill tank, by movement through a counterflow of cold water containing chlorine or other approved antimicrobial agent are chilled, which usually takes about 45 minutes to one hour in a typical many-thousand gallon tank. The carcasses may additionally pass through a post chill spray, drench or dip antimicrobial treatment before being rehung, packaged or further processed into parts, other value-added products including but not limited to ground, mechanically separated and subsequently refrigerated or frozen.
Salmonella, Campylobacter and other organisms can survive the scalding process, which involves temperatures of about 50° C. to 58° C. Though cross-contamination can occur during any stage of processing, the major problems arise during and after evisceration when microorganisms are freed from the intestinal tract and transferred to other tissue surfaces. For example, the water becomes contaminated with organic matter and microbes from meat, and other organic matter provides nutrients for microbial growth over time or through additional use. The microbes can grow and contaminate additional meat, poultry, and equipment. Processing water can also serve as a source of contamination and cross-contaminate to other meat carcasses if organism in the water are not removed, inactivated or otherwise controlled.
A number of mechanisms have been attempted to address this problem. Such mechanisms include the application of chlorine, chlorine dioxide, peroxyacetic acids, GRAS acids, organic acids and mixtures thereof, octanoic acid, acetic acid, acidifed sodium chlorite, carnobacterium maltaromaticum stain CB1; cetylpyridinium chloride; citric acid; 1,3 di-bromo-5,5-dimethylhydantoin; citric acid, phosphoric acid, and hydrochloric acid mixtures; lactic acid; lactoferrin; lauramide arginine ethyl ester; nisin, oZone; hydrogen peroxide; peroxyacetic acid; peroxyoctanoic acid; potassium diacetate; lactic acid and acidic calcium sulfate mixtures; lactic acid, acidic calcium sulfate, and propionic acid mixtures; lactic acid, calcium sulfate, and sodium phosphate mixtures; sodium metasilicate; trisodium phosphate; or combinations thereof. An example of a suitable commercially available antimicrobial solution includes, but is not limited to: irradiation, trade designated SANOVA® acidifed sodium chlorite, available from Ecolab, Incorporated, Saint Paul, Minn.; and high pressure pasteurization applied during various stages of the meat/poultry handling process. As described in U.S. Pat. Nos. 7,887,850, 6,475,527, 6,761,911, 6,063,425, 5,830,511, and 5,389,390, the use of metal chlorites/chlorates are a particularly effective strategy for reducing or eliminating microbiological contamination of raw meat and poultry.
An impediment to the use of such metal chlorites/chlorates however is the cost and expense of producing and applying them. Metal chlorites/chlorates typically are acidified to a very narrow pH range to obtain a specific pKa value and to be highly selective regarding which chlorine species are produced. Efficient in situ maintenance of such conditions is an ongoing challenge in the industry. Moreover this complexity has proven to make the re-use of already used metal chlorite/chlorate solutions extremely difficult. As a result the cost of applying metal chlorite/chlorate antimicrobial solutions is much higher than is optimal.
Thus there is clear utility in novel methods, chemicals, and apparatuses for the production and re-use of antimicrobial fluids used to treat raw meat and poultry in meat and poultry slaughter and processing facilities. The present invention addresses these needs and provides further related advantages.
The art described in this section is not intended to constitute an admission that any patent, publication or other information referred to herein is “prior art” with respect to this invention, unless specifically designated as such. In addition, this section should not be construed to mean that a search has been made or that no other pertinent information as defined in 37 CFR § 1.56(a) exists. |
Latin America’s Protests Are Likely to Fail
Chile’s government had big plans for the last two months of 2019. The Southern Cone country has long been a member of international trade agreements and exclusive multilateral organizations and was the first Latin American country to join the OECD in 2010. The country was set to host the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) forum in November and the United Nations’ COP25 climate summit in December. International observers saw this as the moment for Latin America’s most stable democracy and market economy to take a greater role in global affairs.
Then, demonstrations broke out on Oct. 18 over a planned subway fare hike, growing quickly into a massive wave of popular protests that continue today. The huge demonstrations, punctuated by incidents of violence, led President Sebastián Piñera to declare a state of emergency and call the armed forces to the streets in a show of force that has been eerily reminiscent of Augusto Pinochet’s dictatorship.
The Chilean government has now called off both the APEC and COP25 meetings, and Piñera continues to scramble to propose changes that protesters will find meaningful. Despite the different causes driving a wave of popular protests across the region, the common interpretation is that the upheavals in Chile, along with protests in Bolivia, Haiti, and Ecuador, were long-overdue popular eruptions over economic and political discontent.
The common interpretation is that the upheavals in Chile—along with protests in Bolivia, Haiti, and Ecuador—were long-overdue popular eruptions over economic and political discontent. It’s more complicated.
While that may be partly true, it also obscures important differences across these cases. While protests in Haiti have stemmed from inflation and popular disgust over government corruption, the Ecuadoran protests have seen the Confederation of Indigenous Nationalities of Ecuador, or CONAIE, emphasize claims of marginalization and discrimination. Alleged election fraud in Bolivia has led to calls to strengthen democratic institutions, and protests in Chile continue to stem from anger over an unaccountable political class and socioeconomic immobility.
First there is the case of Haiti. Six months ago, inflation and government plans to increase fuel taxes sparked protests, which quickly morphed into broader allegations that government leaders—including the president—embezzled an estimated $2.3 billion from the Venezuelan oil program Petrocaribe. While the oil patronage agreement indicated the revenue from the resale of Venezuelan oil was intended to fund desperately needed infrastructure and social programs in the poorest country in the hemisphere, the majority of the proceeds have not been accounted for.
The result has been a near-half year of protest, resulting in at least 20 Haitians dead, broad and continuing calls for the resignation of President Jovenel Moïse, and food shortages. This environment further exacerbates the ongoing impoverishment of the country. More than 6 million Haitians live below the poverty line, and of those 2.5 million fall below the extreme poverty line, relying on only $1.23 per day. Per capita income in Haiti is significantly lower than the Latin American average, as is life expectancy.
In Ecuador, protests began this fall when President Lenín Moreno touched the third rail of Ecuadoran politics: lifting state fuel subsidies. Demonstrations erupted, as they have in the past when governments have attempted to withdraw subsidies, briefly leading Moreno to declare a state of emergency and move the capital from Quito to Guayaquil. For now, an official peace has been negotiated after seven people died and over 1,000 were injured, and the protests hurt the economy by preventing 360,000 barrels a day of oil exports.
As the street protests have settled down, the indigenous group CONAIE has continued its campaign, using the occasion to call attention to its longstanding complaints over economic disparities between cities and rural areas and exclusion and prejudice against indigenous communities. The indigenous movement’s leaders have offered to meet with the government, and it remains a potent force, employing popular mobilization to demand government action to address unmet social and political demands.
In the case of Bolivia, a contested, constitutionally questionable effort at reelection by President Evo Morales has led to nationwide protests and predictable charges of electoral theft. After losing a public referendum to overturn a constitutional ban on a fourth term, Morales turned to his packed constitutional court to allow him to run again, which claimed that both the constitutional ban on reelection and a popular plebiscite rejecting his candidacy constituted a violation of his human right to political participation.
After the first round of elections held on Oct. 20, the electoral council mysteriously suspended vote-counting as it began to appear possible that Morales would fail to achieve the 10-percentage-point margin needed to avoid a runoff. Days later, the council announced the results: Miraculously, Morales had barely surpassed the 10-point margin, precluding a second round. The announcement has sparked weeks of protests over an allegedly stolen election.
The Organization of American States is conducting an external audit of the votes, which should be released in the upcoming weeks, but Bolivia’s opposition has already announced that it will not accept the audit and has called—unsuccessfully—for Morales’s resignation. But as with the other protests across the region, the demonstrations have also brought up other longstanding concerns, in this case over Morales’s consolidation of power, the illegal burning of national forests, slowing economic growth, and declining social mobility.
Most experts, including the authors of a recent Foreign Affairs article, “Why Latin America Was Primed to Explode,” trace the recent spate of protests to inequality, anger over corruption, unaccountable political systems and political elites, and the collapse of rising popular expectations after the end of the commodities boom of the early 2000s. All of these have contributed to popular discontent. But these explanations fail to account for the timing of these protests and fail to examine the different pathways out of these upheavals.
Latin America experienced a boom in economic growth starting in the early 2000s. Between 2003 and 2011, the region’s GDP grew at an average of more than 4 percent. This was a substantial jump from previous decades, as average growth from 1980 to 2002 fell under 2.5 percent. While reaching a peak in 2011, economic growth continued at a stable rate, averaging around 2.3 percent in 2013. Growth, however, was not distributed equally across the region or within countries.
Haiti saw only 0.4 percent GDP growth in 2003, lower than other Latin American states and even more so given their per capita income is less than one-tenth of the Latin American average. Chile and Ecuador, by contrast, experienced an increase of 4.1 percent and 2.7 percent that year, respectively. Between 2004 and 2017, Bolivia recorded an average GDP growth rate of 4.8 percent.
Across the board, countries in the region faced an economic slowdown after a drop in commodity prices in 2014. As a result, the Bolivian government implemented fiscal measures that, while increasing its public debt, maintained stable economic growth. Other countries have not been as successful. Projected growth rates for 2019 have placed Bolivia at 3.9 percent, Chile at 2.5 percent, and Haiti at just 0.1 percent , and estimates show Ecuador’s economy shrinking by 0.5 percent.
With the boom years came an unprecedented but fragile growth of the middle class. From the early 2000s to about 2012, the middle class in Latin America grew by over 1 percent year to year. The shift from 2013 to 2014, however, was a mere 0.2 percent of Latin Americans joining the middle class—a gut punch to upward mobility. The problem with using this growth in the middle class as an assurance of stability, though, was twofold.
First, the World Bank’s definition of “middle class” was too simple: those living between $10 and $50 per day. The international enthusiasm over the growth of the middle class was based on income metrics without regard to the degree of access to formal jobs or services, or the presence of a social safety net. Second, much of the new income came in the form of credit—spent on purchases of flat screen televisions, cars, appliances, and the like. In several countries in the region, despite these trappings of a middle-class life, the majority of the population in both rural and urban areas still labors in the insecure informal sector, with no job security and without access to benefits such as social security.
Recent events are more than just symptoms of a bad economic downturn and dashed expectations. There is also a broader issue of popular distrust and, in some cases, outright rejection of the political class. According to Vanderbilt University’s Latin American Public Opinion Project, more than 80 percent of citizens across the region believe at least half of their politicians are corrupt. In Bolivia, only 16.3 percent of the population trusts political parties; in Haiti, only 13.5 percent have faith in their parties; and in Chile—with the second-lowest level of trust in the hemisphere—only 8.5 percent of citizens have any confidence in their current party options.
In addition to this endemic mistrust, several of these democracies have failed to renew their leadership. In Chile, 30 years of democratic government has failed to produce much-needed new blood at the top. The last four presidential terms were filled by two individuals elected to nonconsecutive terms, Michelle Bachelet (2006 to 2010 and 2014 to 2018) and Piñera (2010 to 2014 and 2018 to present). Despite being on opposite sides of the political spectrum, both Bachelet and Piñera are considered to be part of the political elite, out of touch with concerns of the voters.
While the two passed the presidency between them, several other old guard politicians who had helped lead the 1989 transition to democracy are still publicly waiting their turn for the next presidential elections, including the indefatigable José Miguel Insulza, the minister of interior under former President Ricardo Lagos and former secretary-general of the Organization of American States from 2005 to 2015.
Failure to renew leadership is not unique to Chile—although Morales’s initial ascension to the presidency was seen as a huge break from tradition given his indigenous background, his refusal to concede to a runoff with the opposition indicates a lack of will to step aside.
Some of the governments facing this popular blowback have alleged that international actors are behind the protests. While presidents Moreno and Piñera have denounced the alleged influence of autocratic regimes in Venezuela and Cuba in inciting protests in their countries, Morales in Bolivia has cited imperialists and capitalists.
In several countries in the region, despite the trappings of a middle-class life, the majority of the population in both rural and urban areas still labors in the insecure informal sector, with no job security and without access to benefits such as social securitOn Oct. 16, the Organization of American States secretary-general released a statement highlighting its belief that current unrest could be a result of Venezuela and Cuba’s attempts to spread destabilization and chaos across the region, but the group emphasized that “the intentional and systematic strategy of the two dictatorships to destabilize democracies is no longer as effective as in the past.”
In the end, the confluence of protests in countries as diverse as Bolivia, Chile, Ecuador, and Haiti tell us less about the common roots or—especially—any shared destiny of these movements. While all of them stem in part from unmet socioeconomic expectations and distrust, even disgust, with the political class and incumbents, the solutions are very different.
In Bolivia, a more trustworthy, transparent electoral system is a crucial first step. Election observers from the Organization of American States and the European Union are on the ground helping to evaluate the credibility of the recent elections. In Haiti, polarization over the electoral process and a collapsed, ineffective state have simmered for decades. Turning the corner on an entrenched institutional, economic, and political crisis will require more than dialogue and reform—perhaps even international efforts toward brokering yet another election.
In Ecuador, Moreno’s suggestion of lifting fuel subsidies and International Monetary Fund austerity measures, a policy stumble that was seized upon by his predecessor and nemesis Rafael Correa and the traditional opponents of market-rate fuel prices, forced Moreno to backtrack and restore the subsidies. Going forward, Moreno has an organized broker with whom to negotiate: the indigenous group CONAIE, which also played a role in popular mobilizations against past presidents, including Jamil Mahuad and Lucio Gutiérrez.
No such organized group exists in Chile. For now, the Piñera administration faces a popular movement without an obvious leader, with ever-expanding demands. Recent media coverage attempting to lump all of these events together has only perpetuated an unfortunate misperception: that these protests share common roots, despite the fact that the differences among them are more important. In many cases, these are democratic problems that could be dealt with democratically.
But if past protests from Guatemala and Mexico to Brazil and Venezuela—which were equally different in their geneses—are any indication, the defining similarity of today’s protest movements may be the failure of these demonstrations to produce much-needed institutional reform. |
{
"name": "Sheep",
"baseManaCost": 1,
"type": "MINION",
"baseAttack": 1,
"baseHp": 1,
"heroClass": "ANY",
"rarity": "FREE",
"race": "BEAST",
"description": "",
"collectible": false,
"set": "MEAN_STREETS_OF_GADGETZAN",
"fileFormatVersion": 1
} |
Welcome to Eating Well & Living a long healthy life! This Blog will be your guide to a healthier diet, tips on how to remain healthy at any age, making wise nutritional choices and practicing a healthy lifestyle. ‘Eat to Live, don’t Live to eat.’ Consume more nutritious meals daily, remain even more active as you get older and refrain from bad lifestyle HABITS. Always exercise and balance (work) & relaxation (rest). Lastly, Think positive- avoid negative thoughts.
Wash peel and dice Potatoes, Carrots, Peel cut Garlic Cloves & Onion halves
Place vegetables in roasting pan layer Onions on top
Place Chicken on Bed of vegetables add Rosemary
Bake at 350F for about 55 minutes(Note: you can do the following while pan is still in the oven just pull rack forward)
Remove pan from oven and place on cooling pads or wood cutting board
Baste with pan drippings (pour white wine over chicken&veggies), coat with butter (or olive oil)
Cover Roasting pan with lid or Foil, place in oven
Cook for an additional 35 minutes
Let cool and serve with side salad or side dish of your choice. Enjoy!
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MISSION
Hello & Welcome Everyone!
We’re here to gladly assist with your Wellness and Nutritional Goals for a Healthier you.
It’s no Fun being ill at any age, but it’s a ‘Party’ being healthy and well!
...Let this Blog be your Guide to Great Health and Longevity. The 5 principles of health includes a healthy diet, avoid alcohol & drugs (alcohol abuse, smoking, drugs, compulsive eating etc), regular exercise, adequate rest and positive thinking. These things can be easily integrated into our everyday lives if we want. With use of these health principles, we can live a long, happy-healthy life and can avoid most diseases. Your Comments or thoughts are valued & really appreciatedplease feel free to leave commentsat the end of each post. Eat Well, live longer and stronger! |
Q:
MongoDB aggregation $elemMatch inside $lookup stage
I have a MongoDB collection that is looking like this:
{
players: [
{uuid: "A"},
{uuid: "B"}
]
},
{
players: [
{uuid: "A"},
{uuid: "C"}
]
},
{
players: [
{uuid: "D"},
{uuid: "E"}
]
}
I want to use results of a previous aggregation stage and now find all documents where a player shows up, using a $lookup stage:
from: "collection",
pipeline: [
{
$match: {
players: {
$elemMatch: {
uuid: "$playerId"
}
}
//using "players.uuid": "$playerId" doesn't work either
}
}
],
as: "field"
The input to my $lookup stage looks like this:
{
"playerId" : "A"
}
{
"playerId" : "B"
}
{
"playerId" : "C"
}
This query returns an empty array in field. It seems like $uuid is not getting evaluated correctly, because if I exchange $uuid with a hardcoded value (e.g. A), this query returns results.
I have also tried using the let property, this gave me the same result.
What am I doing wrong?
A:
Using the documents you've provided. I believe this might work for you:
I've used $lookup to do a join onto the collection which holds the playerId, which creates an array called field. I then use $unwind to extract all the array elements from both field and player. Finally I use $cond to crosscheck if both values match.
db.getCollection('foo').aggregate([
{ $lookup : {
from: "bar",
localField: "players.uuid",
foreignField: "playerId",
as: "field"
} },
{ $unwind : "$players" },
{ $unwind : "$field" },
{ $project : {
"players": 1,
"field" : 1,
"isMatch": {
"$cond": [ { "$eq": ["$players.uuid", "$field.playerId"] }, 1, 0 ]
} } }
])
I've purposely left the output verbose..
/* 1 */
{
"_id" : ObjectId("5a7f534b337e8d2b97ff2ffb"),
"players" : {
"uuid" : "A"
},
"field" : {
"_id" : ObjectId("5a7f5374337e8d2b97ff2ffe"),
"playerId" : "A"
},
"isMatch" : 1.0
}
/* 2 */
{
"_id" : ObjectId("5a7f534b337e8d2b97ff2ffb"),
"players" : {
"uuid" : "A"
},
"field" : {
"_id" : ObjectId("5a7f539b337e8d2b97ff2fff"),
"playerId" : "B"
},
"isMatch" : 0.0
}
/* 3 */
{
"_id" : ObjectId("5a7f534b337e8d2b97ff2ffb"),
"players" : {
"uuid" : "B"
},
"field" : {
"_id" : ObjectId("5a7f5374337e8d2b97ff2ffe"),
"playerId" : "A"
},
"isMatch" : 0.0
}
/* 4 */
{
"_id" : ObjectId("5a7f534b337e8d2b97ff2ffb"),
"players" : {
"uuid" : "B"
},
"field" : {
"_id" : ObjectId("5a7f539b337e8d2b97ff2fff"),
"playerId" : "B"
},
"isMatch" : 1.0
}
/* 5 */
{
"_id" : ObjectId("5a7f5356337e8d2b97ff2ffc"),
"players" : {
"uuid" : "A"
},
"field" : {
"_id" : ObjectId("5a7f5374337e8d2b97ff2ffe"),
"playerId" : "A"
},
"isMatch" : 1.0
}
/* 6 */
{
"_id" : ObjectId("5a7f5356337e8d2b97ff2ffc"),
"players" : {
"uuid" : "A"
},
"field" : {
"_id" : ObjectId("5a7f53a8337e8d2b97ff3000"),
"playerId" : "C"
},
"isMatch" : 0.0
}
/* 7 */
{
"_id" : ObjectId("5a7f5356337e8d2b97ff2ffc"),
"players" : {
"uuid" : "C"
},
"field" : {
"_id" : ObjectId("5a7f5374337e8d2b97ff2ffe"),
"playerId" : "A"
},
"isMatch" : 0.0
}
/* 8 */
{
"_id" : ObjectId("5a7f5356337e8d2b97ff2ffc"),
"players" : {
"uuid" : "C"
},
"field" : {
"_id" : ObjectId("5a7f53a8337e8d2b97ff3000"),
"playerId" : "C"
},
"isMatch" : 1.0
}
|
// 7zCompressionMode.h
#ifndef __7Z_COMPRESSION_MODE_H
#define __7Z_COMPRESSION_MODE_H
#include "../../../Common/MyString.h"
#include "../../../Windows/PropVariant.h"
#include "../../Common/MethodProps.h"
namespace NArchive {
namespace N7z {
struct CMethodFull: public CMethod
{
UInt32 NumInStreams;
UInt32 NumOutStreams;
bool IsSimpleCoder() const { return (NumInStreams == 1) && (NumOutStreams == 1); }
};
struct CBind
{
UInt32 InCoder;
UInt32 InStream;
UInt32 OutCoder;
UInt32 OutStream;
};
struct CCompressionMethodMode
{
CObjectVector<CMethodFull> Methods;
CRecordVector<CBind> Binds;
#ifdef COMPRESS_MT
UInt32 NumThreads;
#endif
bool PasswordIsDefined;
UString Password;
bool IsEmpty() const { return (Methods.IsEmpty() && !PasswordIsDefined); }
CCompressionMethodMode(): PasswordIsDefined(false)
#ifdef COMPRESS_MT
, NumThreads(1)
#endif
{}
};
}}
#endif
|
The present invention relates to ultrasonic transducers generally.
Various types of ultrasonic or acoustic transducers are known in the art. (It is noted that the terms ultrasonic transducer and acoustic transducer shall be used interchangeably herein throughout the specification and claims.) The following U.S. Patents are believed to represent the state of the art: U.S. Pat. No. 5,103,129 to Slayton et al., U.S. Pat. No. 5,094,108 to Kim et al., U.S. Pat. No. 5,054,470 to Fry et al., U.S. Pat. No. 4,959,674 to Khri-Yakub et al., U.S. Pat. No. 4,912,357 to Drews et al., U.S. Pat. No. 4,888,516 to Daeges et al., U.S. Pat. No. 4,869,278 to Bran, U.S. Pat. No. 4,825,116 to Ito et al., U.S. Pat. No. 4,659,956 to Trzaskos et al., U.S. Pat. No. 4,528,853 to Lerch et al., and U.S. Pat. No. 4,208,661 to Vokurka.
Acoustic transducers are characterized inter alia by an angle of dispersion, and the ability to vary this angle is of major concern in transducer design. There are three major approaches in the prior art to vary the angle of dispersion:
1. Modification of transducer frequency
2. Modification of transducer size
3. Use of a horn to limit the angle of dispersion
Each of these approaches has its advantages and disadvantages, and the transducer designer generally selects a solution which best fits his/her requirements,
The present invention seeks to provide an improved ultrasonic transducer which provides a compact and inexpensive solution to the problem of varying the angle of dispersion.
The present invention provides an ultrasonic transducer in off-axis relationship with a reflective surface, which surface is preferably paraboloidal. The ultrasonic transducer directs a beam onto the reflective surface, which beam is reflected therefrom to the outside world. If the beam is reflected from an object in the outside world back to the reflective surface, the reflective surface focuses the returned ultrasonic energy onto the transducer, thereby causing the transducer to provide a signal output in accordance with the reflected energy. A stray energy shield is mounted on the ultrasonic transducer for limiting the angular range of ultrasonic energy which impinges on the transducer.
It is noted that U.S. Pat. No. 3,792,480 to Graham and U.S. Pat. No. 4,791,430 to Mills both describe ultrasonic antennas with the source of ultrasonic energy off-axis to the reflective surface. However, both of these references are not concerned with transducers and indeed the structures shown in both of these references are not readily applicable for reflecting ultrasonic energy from the reflective surface back to a transducer for providing a signal output, as is of course essential in ultrasonic transducer design. It is the present invention which provides a novel arrangement of off-axis transducer and stray energy shield in order to achieve a compact and inexpensive transducer design with remarkably accurate and reliable performance. This novel arrangement is not taught nor suggested by any of the above cited art.
There is thus provided in accordance with a preferred embodiment of the present invention an ultrasonic transmitting and receiving transducer reflector assembly including an ultrasonic transducer support and a reflector extending therefrom, the reflector defining a reflective surface having optical power, an ultrasonic transducer producing a beam which is directed onto the reflective surface and providing a signal output from ultrasonic energy reflected thereonto from the reflective surface, the transducer being mounted on a mounting surface of the support in off-axis relationship with the reflective surface, and a stray energy shield at least partially enveloping the ultrasonic transducer for limiting the angular range of ultrasonic energy which impinges on the ultrasonic transducer.
In accordance with a preferred embodiment of the present invention the ultrasonic transducer support and the reflector are integrally formed as one piece. Alternatively the ultrasonic transducer support, the reflector and the stray energy shield are together integrally formed as one piece. As another alternative, the ultrasonic transducer support, the reflector and the stray energy shield are together integrally formed as one piece with a housing of the transducer.
Further in accordance with a preferred embodiment of the present invention the ultrasonic transducer is selectably locatable within the stray energy shield.
Still further in accordance with a preferred embodiment of the present invention a distance of the ultrasonic transducer relative to the reflective surface determines a shape of a beam emanating from the transducer and reflected by the reflective surface.
In accordance with a preferred embodiment of the present invention the ultrasonic transducer is located at a focus of the reflecting surface. Alternatively the ultrasonic transducer may be located inwardly or outwardly of a focus of the reflecting surface.
Further in accordance with a preferred embodiment of the present invention the ultrasonic transducer is threadably mounted within the stray energy shield.
In accordance with a preferred embodiment of the present invention the reflecting surface is a paraboloid.
Additionally in accordance with a preferred embodiment of the present invention the ultrasonic transducer and the stray energy shield are pivotally connected to the support, such that an angle of incidence of a beam reflected from the reflecting surface with respect to the transducer is variable.
There is also provided in accordance with a preferred embodiment of the invention an integral ultrasonic transmitting and receiving transducer assembly comprising an ultrasonic transducer producing a beam and a multiple beam path horn assembly operatively associated with said ultrasonic transducer and directing said beam along at least two distinct paths.
In accordance with one embodiment of the present invention, the two distinct paths are at least partially overlapping. Alternatively, the two distinct paths are not overlapping. |
Arsenal played Napoli yesterday in a vital Champions League match. It was important because they were drawn into the group of death in the most prestigious club tournament in the world, so of course any points they could pick up at home against last year's Italian runners-up would help them advance to the knockout round. But the match outcome also had a very real domestic implication.
There are 32 teams left after the Champions League playoff round ended yesterday, and so today was…
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The Premier League doesn't deal in chaos. It doesn't deal in miracles or fairy tales. It doesn't deal in parity. England's top league is an exhibition of the power of money, of what happens when the haves take on the have-nots. And yet six weeks into the season, the standings look to be nothing more than junk and rot.
In their first season after the departure of legendary manager Sir Alex Ferguson, reigning champions Manchester United have lost three of six, and now sit three points clear of the relegation zone. Top flight sophomores Southampton have scored just five goals in six matches and yet are level on points with fifth-place Chelsea, who were everyone's pick to hoist the trophy at season's end when they brought genius manager José Mourinho in for a second run at Stamford Bridge. Just behind the Saints are Manchester City, who lost to Aston Villa last weekend after smashing United 4-1 last week, and losing 3-2 to newly-promoted Cardiff City earlier this year. Liverpool are in second. Everton haven't lost.
And above it all, two points clear, are Arsenal. The Gunners finished fourth by a single point last year over rivals Tottenham, and were expected to parlay their hard-fought Champions League qualification and newfound riches into a slew of expensive, world-class players. Going into the first match of the season, though, they'd signed... a 20-year-old project forward with a nasty injury history. And in that first match, they got blown up by a wholly inferior Aston Villa side.
They looked fucked. They were fucked, right? Definitely fucked. Fans called for manager Arsène Wenger's job, for the board members' heads. The squad had seemingly regressed, when everyone around them had worked all summer to improve. Marred by injury, one of the richest clubs in the world were reduced to filling out their brittle bench with children.
Today, English club Arsenal are playing Turkish side Fenerbahçe in the first leg of the Champions…
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But the Gunners recovered to beat Fulham in the Premier League, and Turkish side Fenerbahçe over two legs to make the Champions League group stage. To celebrate, they signed ex-Arsenal defensive midfielder Mathieu Flamini on a free transfer. Two days after signing Flamini, Arsenal slipped by Tottenham, 1-0. The next day, with hours left to spare in the transfer window, the Gunners bought Mesut Özil, arguably the best attacking midfielder in the world.
With their new superstar pulling the strings, they won, again and again and again and again and again. As their streak grew, the calls to sack Wenger quieted. (They were all but silenced when Özil said it was Wenger alone who convinced him to sign.) Headed into yesterday's match, Arsenal had won nine straight in all competitions since the debacle on opening day. They currently look like one of the best clubs in the world, which is why Arsenal's faithful and doubters both wanted to see how they would do against a Napoli side unbeaten since selling their best player, Edinson Cavani, to Paris Saint-Germain over the summer.
Because even with the great start, there were caveats. The main one? Arsenal hadn't played anyone yet. Spurs sit second in the league, but when the two played, the legion of players Tottenham bought with the Gareth Bale money were still coming together. Arsenal so far have dodged United, City, Chelsea, Liverpool, Everton, and mighty Southampton.
A hundred years ago, Arsenal moved to North London and built Highbury minutes away from…
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Napoli were the first real test of Arsenal's ability. There was something poetic about the matchup against the Italians. Though the two have little actual shared history, they were seen as qualitative equals. Napoli were also the main benefactors of Arsenal's failures for most of the transfer window. When they missed out on star Real Madrid striker Gonzalo Higuaín, Napoli swooped in and bought him to replace Cavani. And in Arsenal's preseason tournament, the Emirates Cup, Napoli wiped the floor with the London side before both teams swapped out their starters and the Gunners salvaged a late draw. In all, the match looked like a good chance to see whether Arsenal were actually all that good, or merely the same sad posers they've been for the better part of the decade. And, well... the Gunners fucked them up.
Last week, Italian runners-up Napoli sold their best player, striker Edinson Cavani, to French…
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After 15 minutes, Arsenal were cruising 2-0 following goals from Özil and striker Olivier Giroud. Napoli were never close. Everyone who'd asked if Arsenal were contenders for trophies suddenly had their answer—an answer so emphatic, so unbelievable, that the question, "Can they keep this up?" wasn't even asked.
We all know about Mesut Özil by now. The 24-year-old playmaker is the truth. From the moment he…
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The thing of it is, the Gunners might actually be the shit. There's Özil, of course, who many called Real Madrid's best player behind cheatcode Cristiano Ronaldo, and who might be the best player in England right now. There's also Flamini, who finally returned to Arsenal as cover, but is giving them the tenacious defensive organizer they've lacked in the middle of the park. What's most shocking about Arsenal, though, is that on paper, they still have the holes fans were screaming for them to fill just weeks ago. What no one counted on was the dramatic improvement of returning players, which when combined with the addition of Özil and Flamini changed the very way Arsenal play.
Arsenal are still thin, and early injuries to Lukas Podolski and Alex Oxelade-Chamberlain left the Gunners bereft of a left winger in their favored 4-3-3 formation. So Wenger did without one. For all their deficiencies, Arsenal do not have a shortage of creative midfielders, and for much of the season, the manager has played central midfielder Jack Wilshere on the left, while leaving speedy winger Theo Walcott on the right to stretch the defense in a lopsided 4-2-3-1. He's more prone to track players up and down the flank, which helps shore up the defense, but when Arsenal have the ball, Wilshere slides toward the middle. When left back Kieran Gibbs pushes up the flank, Arsenal almost resembles a 3-6-1, with players swarming and choking the midfield. They simply outnumber teams, and have enough quality in their side to play the tight, intricate style they were known for over a decade ago. Then, however, Arsenal had Ashley Cole to schlep up and down the sideline. He was—is—one of the best left backs of his generation, and had the pace, wherewithal, and talent to serve as an option in the attack and solidify the left side in defense. Arsenal have searched for a left back the last three seasons who could fill this role. Turns out, he was in the side all along. Gibbs looks almost unbeatable defensively, and also gets forward when he can.
Next is the emergence of Giroud. After a decent first season with the club last year, many thought him no better than a high-end reserve for a squad of Arsenal's ambition. Wenger searched for a superstar signing this summer—Wayne Rooney, Luis Suárez, Higuaín—a genius who could spearhead the frontline, score and create at will. But none came. So the Gunners rolled with the big Frenchman.
There are much better, more complete strikers to be had, like Liverpool's Suárez, who create chances for themselves and others. But with Özil playing in behind, that's almost redundant. A poacher who can hold up play would be just as effective. That's what Giroud is. What's underrated about him is that he has the willingness and ability to drop off or float wide, to play and combine with supporting players. It increases the fluidity in the attacking third, which makes it difficult to track players. His presence is one of the reasons why Özil is such a devastating player going forward. Outside of his ridiculous technical ability, Özil's main strength is his movement without the ball. He's a genius. Özil often drifts to either wing to receive the ball, which pulls players and creates holes through the midfield. Often, Wilshere will switch inside, where he's more comfortable. When Özil drifts to the right, Walcott, when healthy, pushes higher up the pitch and inside, closer to Giroud. It's difficult to track these players switching positions, creating channels with their movement. And it also leaves more room for Aaron Ramsey.
This afternoon, we'll see Manchester United play Liverpool in the English League Cup. Cool.…
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Ramsey is the reason for much of the Gunners success, and also the reason it still feels a little surreal. Ramsey was tipped to be Arsenal's next great central midfielder until two and a half years ago, when a defender broke his lower leg in half. He didn't looked recovered until the latter half of last season. This summer, we heard rumblings from Asia that Ramsey supposedly looked like the Gunners' best player. But no one expected him to perform as well any other midfielder in Europe.
Ramsey is the glue. He does everything, fills all the gaps. He lines up behind Özil along with Flamini, but plays from box to box. He's made more tackles than anyone in the Premier League, which helps Arsenal dominate possession, and affords Özil the latitude to chill a little bit. He's second in the league in scoring, behind Liverpool's Daniel Sturridge. He's completed more passes than all but two players in the Premier League. Theo Walcott is out injured, and so yesterday, Wenger played Ramsey out on the right against Napoli. The Welshman took just eight minutes to affect the game, getting behind the defense to assist Özil's first goal as a Gunner. Overall, yesterday was probably his best performance of a season already filled with ridiculous performances, which is why everyone is asking if he can sustain his current form throughout the season. It doesn't seem possible; but he doesn't have to.
With players like Özil, Gibbs, Ramsey, Flamini, and Giroud performing at their current level, Arsenal are a threat to win any competition they're in. Of course, with the ease with which they dispatched Napoli, pragmatists are looking to the next test of their ability. That starts October 22, when Arsenal will play Chelsea, Liverpool, United, Southampton, Marseille and Borussia Dortmund (twice) during a disgusting eight-match, monthlong span. That's likely when we'll see Arsenal struggle for the first time, and that's when we'll have a clearer picture of who they are. |
The Flat Earth Society
Technology Commentary By David Strom, Editor-in-Chief, Tom’s Guides Publishing
I am sick and tired of hearing about how the Internet has flattened the world. How instantaneous communications has made it easier for outsourcing to India and China. And how email has flattened organizations since the CEO can hear directly from the lowliest file clerk. Yeah, been there. So last week.
Nevertheless, I was fascinated and captivated by Tom Friedman’s latest book, “The World is Flat,” which has just been published. You should pick up a copy:
http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/0374292884/davidstromswebin/
Maybe it is because I am already a big fan of Friedman’s columns in the NY Times, although they are now hard to find since they have been time-shifted. But isn’t time
shifting all part of the Great Flattening? Now that we all have TiVos and Web access to nytimes.com, who cares when a program is broadcast or a piece is actually
printed?
Maybe because his book is extraordinarily well-written. It is chock-a-block with dozens of anecdotes from his travels around the Global Village. One of my favorites is how UPS is doing repairs on faulty Toshiba laptops. What does UPS know about repairing laptops? Since people were going to be sending their laptops back via UPS anyway, why not skip the step and have UPS run the repair facility, co-locate it next to their flight hub, and save time in getting the laptops back to the customers?
Reading his book made me start to think of what it means to live on a flat Earth and where other steps are being skipped in my daily work life. It isn’t just that I now
have a staff that spans nine time zones and works in five different countries and speaks three languages. It isn’t just that everyone has email and Skype and can access the common workflow applications and calendars. It is that we take it for granted now that people aren’t going to be coming into my physical office at 9 am and leaving at 5 pm, or that I even know what that means anymore.
My next thoughts were that computing platforms are almost flat to the point where they are invisible. Does it really matter which platform you choose? We all run some kind of browser, some kind of IMAP email and RSS readers, open the same kind of documents and spreadsheets, and use some form of Instant Messaging. We have our digital music collection on some software that has ripped all of our CDs into MP3s.
The rest is really irrelevant, whether it is on a Mac or Windows or Lindows or some embedded OS that we don’t even see like on a cell phone. Doesn’t really matter. What are the two most successful uptakes in the platform business of the past several years? CrackBerry and gaming consoles. You don’t hear people debating what kind of OS is running on their Nintendo, do you? It doesn’t matter. They don’t care, just as long as those games are available. We have arrived with the ultimate Flat Computer.
Here is another example. What should be the main digital source of entertainment in your car? Should it be a full-fledged audio system, an iPod with a car connector,
an in-seat DVD player, a real PC or a game console? All of them are valid answers. All of them are being installed in cars across the planet by talented and not-so-talented people. All of them make sense, depending on the particular application suite that you are trying to deliver. And increasingly, all of these solutions will eventually be offered by the same set of companies and suppliers.
(Just to toot my own automotive horn here for a moment: you can check out a piece I wrote for Tom’s on the subject here that will be posted on our site tomorrow:)
Another example: LCD TVs. Does it really matter what display device we have, and what video stream drives it? Nope. (Friedman has another note about how Wal Mart
convinced Sanyo to stay in the US and continue to make TVs here.)
Look at Microsoft, as another example. They have moved into the gaming market, and soon their revenues from gaming platforms will be larger than divisions that
produce IT productivity applications. As my boss Omid writes about in his column this week, “Imagine what would happen if Oracle suddenly got its own reality show on Fox, or SAP put on a Broadway musical, all to great acclaim.” Now that would be a flattening to be reckoned with.
What this means to me is that I need to spend time not on choosing platforms or which applications matter, but how to show what you need to accomplish your job and your life with whatever tools you have at hand. That was an eye-opener for me, and why I like Friedman’s book so much.
Friedman spent the past year traveling around the world and talking to a lot of different people before he got his epiphany about the flat earth. He spends a lot of time telling you about his insights into the various tectonic forces that we all have heard before, such as outsourcing, open sourcing, and in-sourcing. But his approach is fresh, interesting, and intriguing. His parents used to tell him when he was a boy (as did my own) “Finish your dinner. Children are starving in China and India.” Today, he says, we should be telling our children “Finish your homework. Children are starving for your jobs in China and India.” The difference is big. Any brief examination of the news will prove, as (to just take something that happened this
week) the huge distributor Ingram Micro will be laying off hundreds of people in the LA area and moving those jobs overseas to cut costs. The world is flat. Deal with it, or the next job to leave might be your own. |
In data communications it is often required that secure communications be provided between users of network stations (also referred to as "network nodes") at different physical locations. Secure communications must potentially extend over public networks as well as through secure private networks. Secure private networks are protected by "firewalls", which separate the private network from a public network. Firewalls ordinarily provide some combination of packet filtering, circuit gateway, and application gateway technology, insulating the private network from unwanted communications with the public network.
One approach to providing secure communications is to form a virtual private network. In a virtual private network, secure communications are provided by encapsulating and encrypting messages. Encapsulated messaging in general is referred to as "tunneling". Tunnels using encryption may provide protected communications between users separated by a public network, or among a subset of users of a private network.
Encryption may for example be performed using an encryption algorithm using one or more encryption "keys". When an encryption key is used, the value of the key determines how the data is encrypted and decrypted. When a public-key encryption system is used, a key pair is associated with each communicating entity. The key pair consists of an encryption key and a decryption key. The two keys are formed such that it is unfeasible to generate one key from the other. Each entity makes its encryption key public, while keeping its decryption key secret. When sending a message to node A, for example, the transmitting entity uses the public key of node A to encrypt the message, and then the message can only be decrypted by node A using node A's private key.
In a symmetric key encryption system a single key is used as the basis for both encryption and decryption. An encryption key in a symmetric key encryption system is sometimes referred to as a "shared" key. For example, a pair of communicating nodes A and B could communicate securely as follows: a first shared key is used to encrypt data sent from node A to node B, while a second shared key is to be used to encrypt data sent from node B to node A. In such a system, the two shared keys must be known by both node A and node B. More examples of encryption algorithms and keyed encryption are disclosed in many textbooks, for example "Applied Cryptography--Protocols, Algorithms, and Source Code in C", by Bruce Schneier, published by John Wiley and Sons, New York, N.Y. copyright 1994.
Information regarding what encryption key or keys are to be used, and how they are to be used to encrypt data for a given secure communications session is referred to as "key exchange material". Key exchange material may for example determine what keys are used and a time duration for which each key is valid. Key exchange material for a pair of communicating stations must be known by both stations before encrypted data can be exchanged in a secure communications session. How key exchange material is made known to the communicating stations for a given secure communications session is referred to as "session key establishment".
A tunnel may be implemented using a virtual or "pseudo" network adapter that appears to the communications protocol stack as a physical device and which provides a virtual private network. A pseudo network adapter must have the capability to receive packets from the communications protocol stack, and to pass received packets back through the protocol stack either to a user or to be transmitted.
A tunnel endpoint is the point at which any encryption/decryption and encapsulation/decapsulation provided by a tunnel is performed. In existing systems, the tunnel end points are pre-determined network layer addresses. The source network layer address in a received message is used to determine the "credentials" of an entity requesting establishment of a tunnel connection. For example, a tunnel server uses the source network layer address to determine whether a requested tunnel connection is authorized. The source network layer address is also used to determine which cryptographic key or keys to use to decrypt received messages.
Existing tunneling technology is typically performed by encapsulating encrypted network layer packets (also referred to as "frames") at the network layer. Such systems provide "network layer within network layer" encapsulation of encrypted messages. Tunnels in existing systems are typically between firewall nodes which have statically allocated IP addresses. In such existing systems, the statically allocated IP address of the firewall is the address of a tunnel end point within the firewall. Existing systems fail to provide a tunnel which can perform authorization based for an entity which must dynamically allocate its network layer address. This is especially problematic for a user wishing to establish a tunnel in a mobile computing environment, and who requests a dynamically allocated IP address from an Internet Service Provider (ISP).
Because existing virtual private networks are based on network layer within network layer encapsulation, they are generally only capable of providing connection-less datagram type services. Because datagram type services do not guarantee delivery of packets, existing tunnels can only easily employ encryption methods over the data contained within each transmitted packet. Encryption based on the contents of multiple packets is desirable, such as cipher block chaining or stream ciphering over multiple packets. For example, encrypted data would advantageously be formed based not only on the contents of the present packet data being encrypted, but also based on some attribute of the connection or session history between the communicating stations. Examples of encryption algorithms and keyed encryption are disclosed in many textbooks, for example "Applied Cryptography--Protocols, Algorithms, and Source Code in C", by Bruce Schneier, published by John Wiley and Sons, New York, N.Y. copyright 1994.
Thus there is required a new pseudo network adapter providing a virtual private network having a dynamically determined end point to support a user in a mobile computing environment. The new pseudo network adapter should appear to the communications protocol stack of the node as an interface to an actual physical device. The new pseudo network adapter should support guaranteed, in-order delivery of frames over a tunnel to conveniently support cipher block chaining mode or stream cipher encryption over multiple packets. |
Q:
Can a work-item with bigger global id be executed before a work-item with smaller global id?
I read the OpenCL specification and did not find how global id is assigned. Is it assigned in EnQueue time, or is it assigned in running time?
If later, it is easy to see that a work-item with smaller id is always executed earlier or at the same time as (if in a same warp) a work-item with bigger id. If it is assigned in EnQueue time, can we guarantee that execution order is consistent with the global id?
A:
There is no guarantee in OpenCL about the order in which the workgroups are executed, so your algorithm should not rely on that.
To give you a specific example of how such assumption would fail, imagine a kernel with a data-dependent branch in it. In one workgroup both sides of the branch may need to be taken, while in another, only one side. The latter workgroup will complete first, even though it may have been started at the same time as the former.
|
Latent Traits and the Possibility of Motion.
Points of agreement and disagreement with Maraun's (1996) account of factor indeterminacy are briefly stated. It is pointed out that if the common factor model must be discarded because of indeterminacy, so also must almost all the technology of psychological measurement, including the whole of item response theory. This unpalatable conclusion can be avoided by recognizing the behavior domain concept as the essential foundation of all theory for latent variables. Applications of behavior domain theory require a higher standard of psychological conceptualization than is commonly met by researchers. |
HUnit is Copyright (c) Dean Herington, 2002, all rights reserved,
and is distributed as free software under the following license.
Redistribution and use in source and binary forms, with or without
modification, are permitted provided that the following conditions
are met:
- Redistributions of source code must retain the above copyright
notice, this list of conditions, and the following disclaimer.
- Redistributions in binary form must reproduce the above copyright
notice, this list of conditions, and the following disclaimer in the
documentation and/or other materials provided with the distribution.
- The names of the copyright holders may not be used to endorse or
promote products derived from this software without specific prior
written permission.
THIS SOFTWARE IS PROVIDED BY THE COPYRIGHT HOLDERS "AS IS" AND ANY
EXPRESS OR IMPLIED WARRANTIES, INCLUDING, BUT NOT LIMITED TO, THE
IMPLIED WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTABILITY AND FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR
PURPOSE ARE DISCLAIMED. IN NO EVENT SHALL THE COPYRIGHT HOLDERS BE
LIABLE FOR ANY DIRECT, INDIRECT, INCIDENTAL, SPECIAL, EXEMPLARY, OR
CONSEQUENTIAL DAMAGES (INCLUDING, BUT NOT LIMITED TO, PROCUREMENT OF
SUBSTITUTE GOODS OR SERVICES; LOSS OF USE, DATA, OR PROFITS; OR
BUSINESS INTERRUPTION) HOWEVER CAUSED AND ON ANY THEORY OF LIABILITY,
WHETHER IN CONTRACT, STRICT LIABILITY, OR TORT (INCLUDING NEGLIGENCE
OR OTHERWISE) ARISING IN ANY WAY OUT OF THE USE OF THIS SOFTWARE, EVEN
IF ADVISED OF THE POSSIBILITY OF SUCH DAMAGE.
|
We were ambivalent about the trailers for the animated Space Battleship Yamato movie, but we're full-on excited for live-action space battleship fun. Something about the crusty old captain with and the ship firing all batteries just gets us going.
Space Battleship Yamato, known in the U.S. as Star Blazers, was a total classic of our youth, featuring a massive spaceship built into the ruins of the World War II battleship Yamato. It's off to outer space to save us from the evil forces of Gamilon.
The animated version, known as Uchū Senkan Yamato: Fukkatsu Hen, came out December 12 in Japan, but sadly it tanked. But we're hopeful we get to see this live-action version in 2010, as promised. According to Anime News Network, Takashi Yamazaki, director of Returner, is handling the film. And pop star Takuya Kimura (Howl from Howl's Moving Castle) plays the lead role, Sasumu Kodai. The main female lead, Yuki, is more of an action hero than in the 1970s version, and two characters who were male in the original will now be female.
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Let's just hope Desslok/Desslar brings the blue-skinned purring menace, or there's going to be some unpleasantness. [Anime Vice] |
The Tale of the Kissing Bandit
If you joined ACFW when it was ACFW and not ACRW (or if you’re not an ACFW member at all), you probably haven’t heard this story. To get you excited about the Conference Prep Series that starts next Monday, I wanted to share this story of something that happened the last evening of the first national ACRW conference in Kansas City.
One of the running jokes of the conference was that of “Floating Body Parts”—what we writers call disembodied hands, eyes, arms, etc., that seem to move or do things of their own accord without being attached to a character who’s making it happen. Brandilyn actually had some rubber eyeballs (the kind you see around Halloween) that she used to tease Tracie Peterson about FBPs throughout the conference. Also, Brandilyn was running a contest for people to give her their best (worst?) mixed metaphors.
(This account was written shortly after the event happened.)
…………………………………………………………………
“Can you train Cocker Spaniels?” Brandilyn Collins asked.
The last night of the conference had arrived and many of us tried to stretch it out as long as possible. We commandeered two tables along one wall of Christopher’s Tavern—the small bar/game room/restaurant just off the lobby of the Kansas City Clarion Hotel.
I sat with my back to the room at large, just across the table from Brandilyn, enjoying the opportunity to get to know the vivacious red-head.
As I launched into my experience of trying to train the Cocker Spaniel my family had gotten when I was a teenager, Brandilyn’s green eyes grew wide and her focus shifted to just above my right shoulder.
Probably one of the new friends I’ve made here this weekend, I thought.
Then something changed in Brandilyn’s expression. A sense of trepidation washed over me.
A hand touched my shoulder and suddenly a face entered my peripheral vision. It was a MAN!
Not only that, it was a MAN I didn’t know!
My heart stopped and my stomach twisted as this unknown man KISSED MY RIGHT CHEEK and asked, “Are you ladies here for a convention?”
“Yes,” I answered in a strangled yelp. By this time, I was practically in Tiff Miller [Stockton’s] lap, who had the misfortune of being seated to my left.
“That’s what we thought.” The man—probably in his late thirties with thinning blonde hair and light eyes (okay, I may be making this part up because I really did my best not to look at him)—smiled and walked across the room to rejoin his two male companions.
Anyway, I put my hands (attached to my body by my arms) over my mouth and looked across the table at Brandilyn.
Apparently, the expression on my face was her undoing – she laughed so hard tears formed in her eyes and she put her head down on the table.
I struggled to breathe as the stunned silence around the table was broken with:
“What happened?”
“What did he say?”
“Did he KISS you?”
“I’m glad you didn’t turn to look over your shoulder,” Allison said. “You’d have gotten it right on the mouth.”
“I probably would have slapped him if that had happened,” I said.
As I explained what had just occurred, everyone at the table burst into raucous laughter. I laughed so hard my sides hurt and tears rolled out of my eyes, not bothered that the “Kissing Bandit” and his friends were still in the bar. But hey, he’s the one who walked up to a table full of romance writers! I doubt if he has any idea what he really did to himself!
“Well, that’s going to be in my next book,” I commented.
More laughter.
Mere minutes later, anxiety once again gripped my heart when across the table, Brandilyn’s and Gayle’s gazes drifted just over my left shoulder.
This time, I turned to see a tall, dark-haired man—one of the Kissing Bandit’s friends—approach the table.
He stopped a comfortable distance away. “Did he just come over and kiss you?”
“Yes,” I answered. “He asked if we were at a conference and I told him we were.”
“Was it a dare?” Tiff asked.
“No,” the handsome stranger said. “We were just sitting there talking and he left the table and came over here.”
“So there wasn’t any money or betting involved?” I asked.
“No.” Mr. Tall Dark and Handsome grinned and returned to his table.
Although still amused and enjoying the laughter, my mind whirled. Why me? Of the dozen women gathered around the two tables, why had he singled me out? Had I been talking and laughing louder than anyone else? Was it because I was the one talking when he walked up to the table?
Why not Tiff with her gorgeous, long, strawberry-blonde hair? Or Allison whose blue eyes sparkled when she laughed?
Had it been a bet? You know, I’ll give you ten bucks to go kiss that heavy-set girl in the white t-shirt with the short dark hair.
Before this occurrence, Brandilyn had cast [one of the rubber] eyes around the table. Now, she crossed to the table where the Kissing Bandit and his friends were seated, plopped the fake eye down on the table with a splat and said, “I just wanted to let you know, I’m keeping an eye on you.” |
Family, friends mourn Newark daycare employee stabbed to death
PHOTO COURTESY OF THE ORTIZ FAMILYErica Ortiz Fuentes, 36, with her youngest of her four children Javier Criado Jr., 6. Fuentes, a teacher at the Newark PreSchool Council, Inc., was killed outside the school.
NEWARK — When the domestic violence complaints against him mounted, Erica Ortiz-Fuentes filed a temporary restraining order to keep her ex-boyfriend, Estol "Hector" Molina, away, her relatives said.
When that didn’t stop him, the 36-year-old mother of four began calling police, and even tried to move up her court date seeking a permanent restraining order, said her friend, SolMaria Salas.
That court date was scheduled for today, Salas said.
Thursday morning, Ortiz-Fuentes was fatally stabbed in the neck near the Newark preschool where she was a teacher’s aide. A short time later, Molina, 42, of Newark, turned himself in to police, and was later charged with murder and weapons offenses, the Essex County Prosecutor’s Office said. Bail was set at $1 million.
Authorities say Molina stabbed Ortiz-Fuentes at 7:45 a.m., just outside Newark Preschool Council on St. Francis Street. She died at University Hospital 15 minutes later. Officials soon closed the school for the day, and distraught teachers could be seen standing at the doorway, hugging each other and sobbing.
By mid-afternoon, a small group of friends and family had gathered outside the five-story apartment complex Ortiz-Fuentes moved to in August, the same building as her mother.
The longtime Newark resident was known as "Momma Goose" because she was always willing to care for the less fortunate, whether it was to serve a hot meal or give out a warm coat in winter, said Daniel Laguer, 24. "She never denied a plate of food to anybody. She would go outside and give clothes to the prostitutes. She treated everybody the same."
Ortiz-Fuentes had been a teacher for 11 years — though not at the preschool — and had nearly completed her master’s degree in psychology from New Jersey City University, Salas said. "She was a good friend and an excellent mother."
But the relationship with Molina was troubled, and it ended a few months ago, after they were together less than a year, said her son, Ferdinand Ortiz, 16. Despite the restraining order, he said, Molina didn’t go away.
Jennifer Brown/The Star-LedgerEddie Rios, a nephew, left, close friends Daniel Laguer, left center, and Gabbie Ortiz, (no relation) right, console Ferdinand Ortiz, 19, the oldest son of Erica Ortiz Fuentes, 36, who was stabbed to death yesterday. Family and friends gathered outside her home in the Pacific Apartments in Newark.
Two law enforcement officials confirmed the defendant had been under a restraining order. The officials, who did not want to be identified because they weren’t authorized to discuss the investigation, also said Fuentes had filed previous domestic abuse complaints against him.
But he behavior grew more frightening in the last week, with Molina climbing up to her second-floor apartment, throwing rocks at the window from outside and leaving threatening messages, said her brother, Christian Fuentes, 22. "There were plenty of police reports. It’s a shame. The police failed," he said.
Newark police did not immediately return a call for comment.
The victim’s son, Ferdinand Ortiz, said he didn’t know what could have stopped Molina. "She opened her eyes. But it was too late." |
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