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THE BIZARRE CASE OF METEORS WITH TWO IDENTITIES
Astronomers have discovered why we see meteors flash through the night sky while they seemingly rain down on us gently at the same time. In a paper published in the December 20 issue of the Astrophysical Journal, models of the zodiacal cloud are reconciled with radar observations, revealing a game of hide and seek and an interesting identity switcharoo.
“This detective story was much a case of meteors you can see and those you can’t”, says lead author and planetary astronomer David Nesvorny of the Southwest Research Institute in Boulder, Colorado.
Meteors are caused by meteoroids that hit the Earth’s upper atmosphere at astronomical speeds, although some hit slower than others. Out in space, those meteoroids
move feverishly between the planets. They are seen as a diffuse glow of scattered sunlight in the night sky, called the zodiacal cloud.
While zodiacal cloud models predict that meteoroids should hit Earth relatively gently, raining down the micro-meteorites that lace the Antarctic snow, radar observations of meteors consistently see the sky filled with rapidly speeding ones, too fast for anything to survive.
“How is that possible?”, asked Nesvorny and his collaborators. “To reconcile things, we improved our model to predict meteor rates and took into account how radars are able to see meteors. And things worked!”
The new model showed that radars are nearly blind to slow meteors, but pick up just the right collection of fast meteors to explain what they see in nature.
One bizarre observation remained unexplained. Radars sensitive to small 100 micron sized sporadic meteors see the same speeds and approach directions as those sensitive to meteoroids ten times as big.
“That was a conundrum”, says meteor astronomer and co-author Peter Jenniskens of the SETI Institute and NASA Ames Research Center. “Bigger particles should disappear more quickly. Instead, they seem to survive for about the same time.”
In their new paper, Nesvorny and Jenniskens explain why: Meteoroids in the zodiacal cloud are born one way, and then turn into another after shedding most of their plumage.
Meteoroids are born from comets in a fragile form, prone to rapid destruction, most likely from heating and cooling in day-night cycles. These large centimeter-sized meteoroids cause the meteor showers we see at night. “Meteoroid streams don’t seem to survive for more than a few thousand years”, says Jenniskens.
They are broken into pieces a tenth to one millimeter in size that are observed as sporadic meteors by radar and as the diffuse zodiacal cloud in the night sky. It is those meteoroids that survive for almost 100,000 years before they are destroyed by collisions among themselves. “The radar data show that small and big ones are destroyed in this way at much the same rate”, concludes Nesvorny.
Co-authors on the paper include radar astronomer Diego Janches of the Space Weather Laboratory at NASA Goddard Space Flight in Greenbelt Maryland, as well as planetary astronomers David Vokrouhlicky, Petr Pokorny, and William F. Bottke of the South-West Research Institute. This work was supported by the NASA Planetary Geology and Geophysics and Planetary Astronomy programs.
About SETI Institute
The SETI Institute is a multi-disciplinary research organization whose mission is to explore, understand, and explain the origin and nature of life in the universe. Our research encompasses the physical and biological sciences and leverages expertise in data analytics, machine learning and advanced signal detection technologies. The Institute is a distinguished research partner for industry, academia and government agencies, including NASA and NSF. | <urn:uuid:a15402ab-fb86-4795-8aba-8b4da7a04055> | CC-MAIN-2016-44 | http://www.seti.org/seti-institute/press-release/bizarre-case-meteors-two-identities | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2016-44/segments/1476988719155.26/warc/CC-MAIN-20161020183839-00332-ip-10-171-6-4.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.943559 | 809 | 3.53125 | 4 |
Statutory interpretation dilemmas arise in all areas of law, where we often script them as scenes of conflict between a statute’s literal text and its animating purpose. This Article argues that, for an important class of disputes, this supposed discord between text and purpose is an illusion. In fact, lawyers are overlooking ambiguities of literal meaning that align well with statutory purpose. The form of ambiguity in question inheres not in individual words, but at the level of the sentence. What triggers a split in readings are verbs that linguists classify as “opaque,” which are perfectly common in legal texts: intend, impersonate, endeavor, and regard are among them. In ordinary speech we resolve their dual readings unconsciously and without difficulty. In law, however, our failure to notice multiple readings of ambiguous language has left a trail of analytically misguided judicial determinations and doctrinal incoherence across a broad swath of law, from disability rights to white collar crime to identity fraud to genocide.
Drawing on examples from these areas, this Article uses the tools of formal semantics to expose the ambiguity of opaque constructions and to make visible the family resemblance among the ways we misinterpret them. It then turns to the question of why lawyers misread and what we can do about it. The converging literatures of language development and the psychology of reasoning suggest an answer. When we analyze opaque sentences explicitly as statutory interpretation requires (as opposed to spontaneously in conversation), we may be particularly vulnerable to cognitive bias. Factors peculiar to law tend to amplify and propagate this bias rather than dampen and contain it, but they may also point the way toward more sophisticated and reliable legal reading.
The full text of this Article may be found by clicking the PDF link below. | <urn:uuid:f2e74db0-47f0-420a-b4e6-d3b248a8b376> | CC-MAIN-2017-04 | http://harvardlawreview.org/2014/04/misreading-like-a-lawyer/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2017-04/segments/1484560279933.49/warc/CC-MAIN-20170116095119-00118-ip-10-171-10-70.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.950292 | 357 | 2.03125 | 2 |
During the holidays, cold weather and decadent food can make it challenging to stay active throughout the seemingly never-ending winter season. This year, ditch that boring gym workout for something a little different.
You might have seen it at Cirque du Soleil or during Pink’s high flying performance at last year’s Grammy awards, and it’s called aerial silks. The performances are literally dances in the air complete with extreme poses and jaw-dropping drops. However, silks are much more than an acrobatic show—they provide a unique and challenging workout that requires a combination of flexibility and strength. I spoke with aerial silks enthusiast and class instructor Christina Kaoh about her passion for the big top.
In a nutshell, what do aerials and acrobatics technically consist of? Is there a proper name for it?
The sport (or performance art, really) that I practice the most, is known by several names: aerial silks, aerial acrobatics, and tissu (which is French for “fabric”). There are other apparatuses, such as aerial hoop, or lyra, which is a circular structure suspended on a rotating point; aerial straps, which consist of straps which the performer grabs by the hand or loops their foot into; and rope, or corde lisse, which is a fabric covered rope. Static and flying trapeze are other forms of aerial arts.
How popular do you think that aerial silks currently are?
It’s become increasingly used as an exercise and more and more appreciated as a performance art. People, such as myself, train in aerial arts for the pure performance aspect of it and gain the strength and flexibility in the mean time. But a lot of classes use aerial apparatus these days as fitness apparatus and build conditioning classes based on aerial moves. It’s also become increasingly blended with yoga to ease practitioners into upside down poses and help increase flexibility.
How did you first get started?
I saw Cirque du Soleil and was inspired to become just as proficient in the aerial art form (i.e. just as cool) that I saw in that show, which was aerial tissu, to be specific. I remember that I saw “KA” in Vegas one summer and was blown away by how amazing all the acts were. A few months later, I saw another Cirque show that traveled through my area and resolved to find myself aerial classes. Two days later, I was learning how to climb tissu and do footlocks!
Which muscles do aerial silks work? What health benefits does it have?
Aerial arts definitely work your back, core and shoulders, to name a few. Even your legs are engaged to keep them straight, lift them up and over your head, or keep your toes pointed. It really is a total body workout that engages parts of your body that may not be engaged in more traditional forms of exercise. Learning aerial arts can make you more flexible and it is an anaerobic workout since it forces you to work against gravity and use your own body weight by pulling yourself up or over the fabric. I also think it has psychological benefits because it forces you to face your fear of heights, being upside down and being in unconventional positions.
How can I get started with aerials and acrobatics?
Just go for it! That’s what I did anyway. I always hear, “I don’t have any upper body strength, so I’m going to wait till I’ve worked out more.” No. You’ll build it as you go. I could never complete a pull-up before and now I can do six really good ones at a time and it all came from going to class. Each time you struggle to pull yourself up the fabric or into a pose, you are strengthening your muscles. Be prepared to work muscles you may not normally use, such as back muscles, your forearms, and your hands. Your hand grip will become much stronger in time.
What can I search for when looking for gyms?
When looking for a gym, I suggest looking at the instructor’s style. How good are they with beginner students if that is your level? Some fabulous performers/coaches don’t make for the most understanding or compassionate instructors for beginners. Know what you’re willing to take. If they push you hard, is that going to leave you defeated, or do you thrive in that type of pressure? Most importantly, take a look at your instructor’s actual technique. I learn by emulating what I see and if I’m not impressed with what I see, then I’m not willing to learn from this person. An instructor can be strong and “know” the moves, but if he or she does everything with bent knees, relaxed feet, and by swinging into moves, then it’s likely that they won’t correct you in straightening your legs, pointing/flexing your feet, and developing muscle control as opposed to using momentum to get into position. All those small things make the difference in a mediocre performance and a fabulous one.
Editor’s Note: Christina Kaoh is an aerial silks instructor at Urban Evolution gym in Alexandria, Va. She has been practicing silks on and off for the last four years. | <urn:uuid:ae36c22e-7744-437f-ac3a-d93f26677253> | CC-MAIN-2017-04 | http://preventcancer.org/blog/education/aerial-silks-fitness-and-fun-at-the-big-top/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2017-04/segments/1484560283008.19/warc/CC-MAIN-20170116095123-00082-ip-10-171-10-70.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.965167 | 1,113 | 1.585938 | 2 |
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To order your copy of Cordell Housing Building Cost Guide call Cordell Costing Solutions today on 1800 80 60 60. | <urn:uuid:ca0914fc-354b-46a1-81ac-8e3ddd0487d2> | CC-MAIN-2016-44 | http://www.cordellestimating.com.au/main/housing.aspx | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2016-44/segments/1476988718423.28/warc/CC-MAIN-20161020183838-00270-ip-10-171-6-4.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.901716 | 241 | 1.664063 | 2 |
From the non-news-masquerading-as-news department, Moody’s downgraded Spain two notches from Aa2 to A1 (equivalent to A+), one notch below S&P and Fitch’s current ratings, both of which downgraded Spain earlier this month. Among the reasons given were the absence of a eurozone debt solution, poor growth prospects and difficulty meeting fiscal targets (none of which is especially new). They also mentioned the risk of a “confidence-driven funding crisis,” simultaneously noting the risk of Spanish default is still very low.
As we’ve mused before, why anyone pays much credence to ratings agencies at this point is beyond us. Not only is their track record rather poor when it comes to accurately assessing forward-looking creditworthiness (see US subprime debt, Ireland, Greece, etc.), but markets seem to pay little heed to their opinions (see Treasury rates in the wake of the US’s August downgrade).
But beyond that, there’s little reason to doubt the eurozone will continue taking the steps necessary to backstop struggling countries, regardless of what the ratings agencies may say. Recall: When Moody’s downgraded Portugal in July, ECB president Jean-Claude Trichet asserted they would continue lending against debt issued or guaranteed by Portugal’s government, despite general requirements debt be top-rated. And German Chancellor Angela Merkel publicly stated eurozone officials likely had a better feel for their own debt woes than ratings agencies.
We largely agree—eurozone officials to date (as said before) have demonstrated a willingness and an ability (though usually after much politicking and occasional feet-dragging) to address eurozone debt troubles. If that continues to hold true (as we believe likely), the likelihood this most recent Spanish downgrade—which in theory could create some balance-sheet difficulties for banks holding significant amounts of Spanish debt since their capital ratios could be weakened some—in the long run does much harm is slim.
From the largely-feckless-blame-speculators department, EU lawmakers approved legislation Tuesday preventing traders from buying credit default swaps (CDS) on government bonds unless they own either the corresponding sovereign debt or other assets whose prices move in tandem with it. The goal is preventing what some see as speculation—for example, buying insurance against Greek bonds’ default without holding Greek bonds themselves. Lawmakers also agreed on new powers for the EU securities regulator to ban equities short-selling in exceptional circumstances—though there appear to be some loopholes, including allowing individual countries to suspend the rules if they feel the ban will impede equity markets’ proper functioning.
While not terribly surprising given frequent recent discussions of such a move, it is the first instance of an EU-level directive. But in our view, it’s not likely to stem PIIGS speculation—markets likely find other ways to hedge risk—and may have some unintended detrimental effects. Like removing liquidity from an already fairly illiquid CDS market, interfering with free markets and encouraging those looking to speculate to use sovereign bond markets instead, which could further pressure the ECB to support yields.
Finally, from the continued-political-willingness-to-support-the-euro department, it seems the eurozone is inching toward a deal expanding the EFSF—though not by purchasing more eurozone countries’ sovereign bonds outright, but by essentially leveraging it. In other words, the EFSF would insure both public and private investors against the first 20% to 30% of losses, which would allow the EFSF to cover up to €1 trillion of bonds.
Though initially opposed to leveraging the EFSF, Germany’s indicated it’ll likely support such a plan, provided it doesn’t increase the size of its commitment—which leveraging it as proposed would avoid. Discussions which seemingly bode well for this weekend’s EU summit, though any agreed-upon plans are likely implemented slowly and deliberately, as all such eurozone measures have been thus far.
All told, a somewhat mixed bag in the continuing drama across the pond. But for the most part, in our view, encouraging in the sense the political will to find solutions seems to persist, despite the occasional hiccup. | <urn:uuid:8ec35eda-15fc-48a8-9267-78269b2ee7f5> | CC-MAIN-2017-04 | http://www.marketminder.com/a/fisher-investments-from-the-eurozone-department/0a186acb-ed7d-4640-a726-1f6a7fae879a | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2017-04/segments/1484560280929.91/warc/CC-MAIN-20170116095120-00430-ip-10-171-10-70.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.951365 | 881 | 1.734375 | 2 |
The solar energy market is increasingly positioned and is becoming the prevailing energy consumption system due to its multiple advantages. At the end of 2019, there were already 583 GW of photovoltaic sources installed in the world, according to the International Energy Agency (IEA PVPS).
That is roughly equivalent to over 1,100 large coal, natural gas, or nuclear power plants incapacity, and about 250 such power plants in terms of total annual generation. This latter number is lower because the sun obviously does not shine 24/7, and solar farms generally have a capacity factor of 25-35%.
According to this body, two years ago was the moment when the solar energy market stabilized. During this period, an increase in this energy was experienced in all continents, highlighting India, Australia, Mexico, Korea, and Turkey compared to previous years, but there were important projects that promoted and normalized the use of photovoltaic energy also in the Middle East and Africa such as the installation of large supply plants that began operating in 2019.
Meanwhile in Europe, Germany, and the Netherlands experienced a new energy renaissance by investing heavily in renewable projects. In this scenario, the decarburization and the change from fossil fuels to a renewed, more sustainable world in a resounding way began just two years ago.
Solar energy already covers 2.6% of world energy demand, and as the IEA affirms, it is the source that has the most potential to grow exponentially in many countries of the world. Its speed of development is due to the versatility of photovoltaic energy systems when adapting to different environments. Thus, it manages to cover a wide spectrum of different market segments, since it can be applied both in individual systems to electrify rural areas, built-up areas, urban and industrial areas, and gigantic power production plants for supply. Photovoltaic energy always has a solution to adapt adequately to the relevant demand and to any environment, which makes it the most suitable industry to grow within the field of renewables.
The speed of expansion according to the IEA studies, they predict that it could depend on the decrease (more and more) of the prices of batteries, and of the standardization of electric vehicles. Although these factors are already part of society, we must not forget that photovoltaic energy is already deployed worldwide and that, according to data from the same agency, it is estimated that renewables will grow by 50% in the next five years and that this growth will be driven by photovoltaic energy.
It is expected that by 2024 the total capacity of renewables will reach 1.2 TW of which it is estimated that 60% will be photovoltaic and 25% onshore wind energy. If this forecast comes true, renewables would be satisfying 30% of global energy demand in just 4 years.
Troy Helming, the founder of Pristine Sun, a leading solar energy company and author of the book The Clean Power Revolution, knows that solar energy is only going to become more and more popular over time. As the world realizes that solar energy is perhaps the best means of extracting energy and one that does little to harm the environment, “it won’t be long before the solar energy sector starts to completely dominate all other forms of energy,” he says.
“This is an encouraging trend for many reasons, including the health of humanity due to cleaner air, water and food, as well as lower costs to society due to mitigation of climate change, lower healthcare costs, lower energy prices (solar is cheaper than natural gas in most parts of the world and cheaper than nuclear or coal everywhere), and lower costs due to the avoidance of the typical fossil fuel price volatility,” adds Helming.
The drop in the costs of these facilities and the favorable policies have undoubtedly made possible the leadership positioning of renewables, but we must not forget that these actions are driven by a change in consciousness worldwide, which is very encouraging in the face of solving other Sustainable Development Goals. In fact, the cost of generating energy from photovoltaic systems for self-consumption is already below the consumption prices of the conventional grid in almost all countries, and another drop of between 15% and 35% is expected by 2024.
Already in many parts of Australia and Europe, solar energy is becoming a major contributor to global energy demands. This is only going to grow. In fact, Helming points out, Germany, the largest economy in Europe and 4th largest worldwide, recently achieve a whopping 44.6% of its power generation from renewables according to Clean Energy Wire’s coverage of a recent energy report from Germany (source). Furthermore, says Helming, “in 2020, renewable energy beat fossil fuels across Europe – for the first time ever (Forbes). We are living in exciting times, for those who value the health of humanity and Mother Earth, stimulating the world’s economies with good-paying clean energy jobs, and lowering both the cost and the unpredictable nature of price volatility inherent in fossil fuels,” says Helming. | <urn:uuid:39b88793-1aa1-4821-bf02-ec980ac00fa8> | CC-MAIN-2022-33 | https://theforbiz.com/the-future-of-solar-energy/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2022-33/segments/1659882571584.72/warc/CC-MAIN-20220812045352-20220812075352-00674.warc.gz | en | 0.961249 | 1,035 | 2.828125 | 3 |
Dear Future President,
Factory farming is a very large issue in America. The slaughterhouse workers treat livestock in a way that I could never imagine. Livestock animals are thrown, kicked and decapitated in these facilities. Not only are these livestock animals being abused, but factory farming is also harmful to humans. Factory farming should have laws to stop overcrowding and using growth hormones. If slaughterhouse workers are found illegally treating livestock, they should be severely punished.
Many livestock animals such as cows, chickens, turkeys, pigs, etc., are treated inhumanely and are shoved into tight cages where they have no open space to live their life. The cramped cages are overcrowded and they can’t partake in their natural behaviors. Livestock animals are thrown, by the thousands, into filthy, windowless sheds and shoved into wire cages, metal crates, and other torturous devices. When chickens or turkeys are ready to be slaughtered for food, the slaughterhouse workers cut off the animals’ heads or rip off their heads with their bare hands. Livestock are forced to live in their own feces and live around deceased animals. They are crammed into cages or pens to the point where they can barely even move around.
Factory farming puts the human population at risk of chronic disease, obesity, and bacteria. Poor sanitation and animal waste can lead to the contamination of food like e. coli and salmonella. To combat unsanitary conditions, animals are fed large doses of antibiotics, but the bacteria is constantly adapting to the conditions. According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, meat consumed from factory farms is the main source of saturated fat in the American diet. Studies have shown that unnatural feed used for growth in animals on factory farms increases the saturated fat content in meat. Saturated fat can lead to heart disease and obesity.
The animals are genetically mutated to make them grow so large so fast. These antibiotics are used to keep them alive in these harsh conditions. Since the 1950s, antibiotics have been used on factory farms to increase the rate of growth in livestock. Sometimes chickens grow so large that they become crippled and can't walk anymore, which means they will suffer from dehydration and starvation. Cows producing dairy can be given growth hormones in order to increase their dairy production. Six growth hormones, commonly used by the U.S. dairy industry have shown significant increase in the risk of certain types of cancer (Farm Sanctuary). These growth hormones usually contain antibiotics to counteract the harsh conditions of factory farms. This is unhealthy and inhumane and gets passed on to human consumption.
These upsetting reasons show that factory farming is inhumane and just wrong. Factory farming is a large issue that needs to be solved as soon as possible. If farms are found to be operating in this manner, there should be extreme consequences if they don’t shut down immediately. These farms should let their animals roam free and be able to live the life they deserve. Please take my thoughts into consideration and make laws to stop these slaughterhouses.
Kendall 7th Grade Student | <urn:uuid:d50d5f87-7d06-49a4-abd3-8b99601cb7b3> | CC-MAIN-2022-33 | https://letters2president.org/letters/7339 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2022-33/segments/1659882571246.56/warc/CC-MAIN-20220811073058-20220811103058-00274.warc.gz | en | 0.957888 | 627 | 2.84375 | 3 |
The purpose of this study was to investigate the epidemiological features of pityriasis rosea (PR) in the Eastern Anatolia, Turkey.
Three hundred ninety-one patients (214 females, 177 males) with PR seen during thc years 1992-1995 were analyzed for annual incidence among dermatologic outpatients, sex, age, and distribution by month and year.
The average annual incidence was 0.75 per 100 dermatologic patients.
PR was reported to be slightly more common in women by margin of 1.2 : 1.0. Eighty-seven percent of the cases were between the ages of 10 and 39 years, with a peak in the 20-29 age group.
The incidence of the disease was much higher in the rainy and snowy months.
No declining incidence was observed over the years.
Changes in incidence from year to year, though not great, were statistically significant.
Mots-clés Pascal : Pityriasis rosé Gibert, Maladie présumée virale, Infection, Epidémiologie, Facteur risque, Incidence, Homme, Turquie, Asie, Peau pathologie
Mots-clés Pascal anglais : Pityriasis rosea, Presumed viral disease, Infection, Epidemiology, Risk factor, Incidence, Human, Turkey, Asia, Skin disease
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Inist-CNRS - Institut de l'Information Scientifique et Technique
Cote : 98-0414833
Code Inist : 002B05C02B. Création : 25/01/1999. | <urn:uuid:951ccf4b-3d68-4bac-a8ec-ea12bd9ec48f> | CC-MAIN-2017-04 | http://www.bdsp.ehesp.fr/Base/172524/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2017-04/segments/1484560281649.59/warc/CC-MAIN-20170116095121-00445-ip-10-171-10-70.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.830282 | 346 | 2.25 | 2 |
Heart2015FNP, BSN, MSN, RN, APRN 2,610 Views
Joined Jun 22, '12.
Posts: 63 (44% Liked)
Advice, the patient's abdominal cavity is exposed and a portion of the "small" colon is removed during surgery. After the cavity is sutured, think about the complications of the surgical wound and your patient's body in response to the surgery. Good luck!
Look over Clinical Guidelines for Practice and pick the one that is most needed for all lifespans. Perhaps a topic on stress management. For children, there is stress with school or friends. For adults, the stress of working or raising a family. For the elderly, the stress of aging and chronic illnesses.
By recognizing the symptoms of chronic stress (insomnia, anxiety, prolong feelings of sadness or hopelessness, headaches, rapid weight loss, ETOH abuse), there are ways of dealing with it (therapy, acupuncture, antidepressants, support groups or discovering hobbies)
Hope it helps. Good luck!
Just wanted to vent about nurses' attitude when one of their own becomes a NP student. I get it....there are situations when you are truly happy for your fellow colleagues or bestie. As for the frenemies, it is pure elementary. I don't discuss (brag about) my school schedule, projects or my fatigue from cram sessions. if i do, it is because you initiated the conversation. I leave my assignments and textbooks at home. Until I graduate and pass my boards, I am the same nurse with a new role. Plain and simple.
It's just awful how nurses take out their inner frustrations on those who are advancing as Nurse Practitioners. Be inspired, instead of envious. Worked for me!
Congratulations on becoming a nurse! It is very overwhelming when you go through your first year as a novice. Ignore the self-righteous comments from your peers. Unfortunately, the culture of nurses eating their young is not a myth. Keep your head up and use any experience as an opportunity for professional growth. Good luck!
Wow! I say go after the bigger fish and report the physician to the State Boards. He is allowing the nurse to practice beyond her scope of practice. She has no business doing that unless she is an APRN. They are both a threat to the community.
She is a threat to patient safety in all levels. She needs to be reported and you need to fail a complaint with Wal-mart. She picked up a prescription in your name. Whose to say that she is diverting drugs that way too (narcotic or not). It's still wrong. This is your challenge to do the right thing as a professional. Remember the code of nursing that you recited at graduation. Stick to it.!
Personally, I wouldn't because our professional identity to our society is struggling as it is. How can we be taken seriously as healthcare professionals when we add to the stereotype every Halloween. How often do you see sexy male doctors coming to the party. Tell the sexy teachers, nuns, housekeepers and secretaries hello for me.
If you fall for something, then you'll fall for anything. The beauty of your position is your autonomy to practice. Continue being a patient advocate and stand up for your beliefs. It shouldn't be an ethical dilemma because your APRN position allows you to have a choice. Let the physician know how you feel. Perhaps, he'll compromise with you or maybe he'll change his view. Patient education on nutrition and exercise is key instead of diet drugs for someone with undiagnosed cardiac issues. If patients are insistent, then they will get it somewhere else. Unless you continue to enable them. Depending on the situations, drugs for weight loss is not always the solution. i agree with you on that one. Good luck!
There is a Class I medical device recall for the Neptune suction from the FDA. I'm surprise that your unit is still using it.
If you are exhibiting signs of depression, low self-esteem, and panic attacks within three months of employment. You will not get better "fighting back." without removing yourself from the hostile environment. Trust me. I know. This is unacceptable for a new graduate to go through. Their expectations should apply to a season nurse. It takes 4-6 months to precept a new grad. Do yourself a favor and go to HR for a transfer. They don't deserve you. Read your policy on workplace harrassment and present your proof. Those actions will make you a stronger nurse...that's fighting back.
It wouldn't surprise me that you are actually doing quite well and you are considered a threat to the unit. The culture of season nurses eating their young is still an issue. I suggest going to your HR rep. and request a transfer. Keep your progress notes as proof of the hostile environment. You are not crazy. You are being bullied.
My advice is to give her the realities of what is best for her to become a perioperative nurse. To suggest that getting an ADN is 'good enough' is injustice. Apparently, it wasn't good enough for you! I refuse to give minimal advice to those that ask. It's important to give the educational and political aspect of what is going on in nursing and how to advance yourself for future changes that will occur.
Here we go....Throughout the history of perioperative nursing, we have obtain our license to practice in the OR through dipolma (hospital), associates and undergraduate programs. Yes, I get it.....you don't have to obtain a BSN to practice in the OR "right now." However, did you notice that Magnet hospitals are hiring BSN nurses and requiring current employees to get their degree within 10 years? Many organizations, such as the AACN and ANA, endorses the intitative of making BSN the minimial preparation for professional practice. In the meantime, while you are being grandfathered, do you want to resist or adapt to change? Whether you're offended by my statement or not, I am speaking for those that are planning on becoming OR nurses.
While time allows, yes get yor ADN and then transition to BSN route. Make BSN your academic goal for job security and marketability. My statement of needing your BSN to work in the OR will happen.
To be an OR nurse, you need your BSN.
Don't be Tachy about 2012....Be Shocked that 2013 is Here!
Advertise With Us | <urn:uuid:83589bb2-e1aa-44fe-a657-3cf4346213ed> | CC-MAIN-2017-04 | http://allnurses.com/member-722657/posts.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2017-04/segments/1484560281649.59/warc/CC-MAIN-20170116095121-00437-ip-10-171-10-70.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.969172 | 1,343 | 1.53125 | 2 |
D/H ratio Ratio between deuterium (heavy hydrogen, 2H) and hydrogen (1H) in natural waters and other fluids, and in water combined in hydrous minerals. This ratio yields information about the origin and geologic history of the fluid, and about fluid/rock interactions. See also ISOTOPE FRACTIONATION.
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myna(h) , myna(h) see MINA. H , H, h [Generally called ‘AITCH’, and sometimes ‘haitch’ in IrE and AusE]. The 8th LETTER of the Roman ALPHABET as used for English. It derives from th… Homo Erectus , Homo erectus (hō´mō ērĕk´təs), extinct hominid living between 1.6 million and 250,000 years ago. Homo erectus is thought to have evolved in Africa fr… Homo , Homo Homo Homo The genus of primates that includes modern humans (H. sapiens, the only living representative) and various extinct species. The oldest… hydatid , hydatid (hy-dă-tid) n. a bladder-like cyst formed in various human tissues following the growth of the larval stage of an Echinococcus tapeworm. alve… hepatic , hepatic •achromatic, acrobatic, Adriatic, aerobatic, anagrammatic, aquatic, aristocratic, aromatic, Asiatic, asthmatic, athematic, attic, autocratic,…
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19 July 2010
By Shailvee Sharda
A large number of dengue cases in the country could be going unreported. Reason being that they do not meet the criteria for various stages of dengue fever fixed by the World Health Organisation (WHO). Notably, figures from the National Vector Borne Diseases Control Programme website show that over 2,000 dengue cases were reported in the country between January and May this year.
Researchers from the postgraduate departments of microbiology, immunology, paediatrics and biotechnology at Chhatrapati Shahuji Maharaj Medical University (CSMMU), Sanjay Gandhi Post Graduate Institute of Medical Sciences (SGPGIMS) and Baba Sahab Bhim Rao Ambedkar University have established that the WHO criteria for Dengue Haemorrhagic Fever (DHF) does not correctly classify all severe cases of dengue.
The finding– published recently in the Journal of Infection in developing countries– may be summed up as: “By using WHO criteria of dengue haemorrhagic fever (DHF) on Indian patients, all severe cases of dengue cannot be correctly classified. A new definition of DHF that considers geographic and age–related variations in laboratory and clinical parameters is urgently required.”
The study included 145 clinically suspected cases of dengue infection of all ages. Dengue was confirmed by serological methods which involve examining blood samples under a microscope. Clinical and laboratory parameters were compared between dengue patients with bleeding and those without bleeding.
The WHO criteria were applied to classify dengue positive patients into dengue fever (DF), Dengue Haemorrhagic Fever (DHF) and Dengue Shock Syndrome (DSS). Out of 50 serologically positive cases enrolled in the study, only three met the WHO criteria for DHF and one met the criteria for DSS. However, 42% cases had one or more bleeding manifestations.
When contacted, team leader and faculty with CSMMU’s microbiology department, Dr Prashant Gupta said, “If untreated, mortality from the complications is as high as 20% whereas if recognised early and managed properly, mortality is less than one per cent. Thus, it will be useful if certain symptoms, signs and laboratory parameters associated with the development of complications are identified so that such cases receive more attention.”
Sharing the credit with his teammates Vineeta Khare, Sanjeev Tripathi, Vijaya Lakshmi Nag, Rashmi Kumar, Mohammad Yahiya Khan and Tapan Kumar Nirod Chandra Dhole, he said there were certain limitations of the study. “The sample size was quite small and we need more detailed study to draw the attention of policy makers (on the issue),” he said.
- Dengue virus spreads through female Aedes aegypti, also called tiger mosquito
- It breeds in clear water and most of the time bites during the day
- Dengue symptoms appear after 5–7 days of infected bite and the disease has a 15–day incubation period. Body temperature rises upto 104 degree followed by acute pain in the joints, muscles and headache. Rashes appear 3–4 days after fever and blood platelets count start decreasing. It is alarming when platelet count come below 10,000
- Dengue could be prevented by simple steps. Discard items that collect water especially old tires, evacuate water collected in air coolers, throw away the water that collects behind the refrigerator after defrosting it, do not store fresh water openly and avoid mosquito bits by using mosquito nets, repellents First, dengue fever in which people suffer from high temperature
- Second, which is also said to be a serious stage, patient suffers from dengue haemorrhagic fever (DHF) in which rashes develop on the body surface and there is possibility of bleeding
- Third stage is dengue shock syndrome (DSS), which is dreadful because there is possibility of circulatory failure | <urn:uuid:04a43231-c5dd-4ea5-a567-94b711f6a16f> | CC-MAIN-2017-04 | http://www.aarogya.com/news-and-updates/year-2010/who-parameters-of-dengue-dont-match-with-those-of-india.html/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2017-04/segments/1484560280929.91/warc/CC-MAIN-20170116095120-00422-ip-10-171-10-70.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.930553 | 831 | 2.765625 | 3 |
LINCOLN, Neb. (AP) Nebraska lawmakers like to ridicule Washington for its gridlock and partisan bickering. They often insist that East Coast politicians should learn the “Nebraska way” of finding pragmatic, common-sense solutions.
But not this year. Despite having a single, nonpartisan chamber, state senators have become so engrossed in an argument about debate rules that they have passed just two bills in a month, and there”s no compromise in sight.
The deliberations in Lincoln are part of an effort to make it easier to overcome filibusters. But all the talk has eaten up more than a third of the 90-day legislative session that began in January.
Speaker Jim Scheer implored lawmakers to work together.
If they don”t change course, the session could go down as one of the least productive in state history. | <urn:uuid:0801e6d3-254c-478d-9253-b0683680f67a> | CC-MAIN-2022-33 | https://www.times-standard.com/2017/02/15/30-days-2-bills-passed-nebraska-session-marred-by-gridlock/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2022-33/segments/1659882571719.48/warc/CC-MAIN-20220812140019-20220812170019-00272.warc.gz | en | 0.958128 | 180 | 1.554688 | 2 |
Rankings have their strongest effects on college reputation. Over time, ranking and reputation have become one and the same.
Insiders Care the Most About College Rankings
Michael Bastedo is the director of the Center for the Study of Higher and Postsecondary Education at the University of Michigan.
Updated September 28, 2012, 3:04 PM
In some ways, concerns about the power of rankings are really overblown. Each year, first-year students are surveyed by the Higher Education Research Institute at U.C.L.A. about the influence of rankings on their college decisions. In fall 2011, only 18 percent said the lists had a strong influence on their decision. This shouldn’t be too surprising: the vast majority of students attend nonselective colleges where rankings do not matter one whit. But even at four-year private universities, only 30 percent say they matter.
This is confirmed by research I have done on rankings with Nicholas Bowman at Bowling Green State University. If selective colleges move up a few places in the rankings, the effects on admissions indicators, like average SAT and class rank, are minimal. Moving into the top tier of institutions is much more influential -- something we called “the front page effect.”
It turns out funders aren’t strongly influenced by rankings either. There’s no question that industry and private foundations are more likely to fund prestigious colleges than nonprestigious ones. But our research shows that funders outside higher education barely notice when rankings go up or down.
So who are influenced by rankings? It’s people inside higher education, the ones who are most vulnerable to the vagaries of college prestige. Alumni are more likely to donate when rankings go up, and out-of-state students are more likely to enroll and pay higher tuition. The faculty who make decisions on federal research applications also seem to be influenced.
But rankings have their strongest effects on college reputation. Although the U.S. News ranking relies on the opinions of college presidents, most of them have no clue what is happening at competitor institutions. The whole idea is fairly ludicrous. As a result, the most powerful influence on a college’s reputation is last year’s ranking. Over time, ranking and reputation have become one and the same.
Rankings aren’t going to go anywhere. They sell magazines and newspapers around the world. But those of us in higher education should admit we’re the ones who care most of all. | <urn:uuid:46671bc4-9293-46d3-ad9f-bf7bb9fee4a2> | CC-MAIN-2017-04 | http://www.nytimes.com/roomfordebate/2012/09/26/colleges-by-the-numbers/insiders-care-the-most-about-college-rankings | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2017-04/segments/1484560284352.26/warc/CC-MAIN-20170116095124-00191-ip-10-171-10-70.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.95278 | 512 | 1.695313 | 2 |
There have been many articles in the mainstream media showing how the Swiss law that allows assisted suicide is out-of-control and causing a concern for the Swiss government.
On October 28, Reuters reported that the Swiss government is looking to change the assisted suicide law to make sure that it is only used as a “last resort” for terminally ill people and that they would like to limit “suicide tourism”.
The issue of “Suicide Tourism” has become embarrassing for the Swiss due to the large number of high-profile suicide tourists from the UK, some of whom are not terminally ill, but simply tired of living and some cases were people who appear to be depressed.
The recent Canadian case of the couple from British Columbia who were seeking permission to die together at the Dignitas clinic in Switzerland was particularly distressing. The husband had a chronic health condition and his wife was perfectly healthy.
The Swiss Justice Minister stated at a news conference in Berne:
“We have no interest, as a country, in being attractive for suicide tourism,”
A heated debate on the issue of suicide tourism has erupted in Switzerland due to the rise of suicide tourism and due to a study last year that indicated that many of the people who go to Switzerland for assisted suicide are not terminally ill.
The Swiss cabinet is divided on the issue. In response to their concerns they have made two proposals for a consultation that will continue until March 1, 2010. The first proposal is to tighten regulations and the second proposal is an outright ban on suicide tourism.
The Swiss Justice Ministry stated that the government did not want to change the law but assisted suicide groups have increasingly tested the boundaries of the law creating an urgent need for guidelines.
Assisted suicide groups Dignitas and Exit have opposed the government proposals and have stated that they will seek a referendum on the topic if the law is tightened or if “suicide tourism” is banned.
The proposal to ban suicide tourism is based on the concerns of the Justice Ministry that:
“... individuals working in assisted suicide organisations are never actually motivated by purely altruistic reasons, and may develop a close relationship with the suicidal person.” they added “Suicide must only be a last resort. The government believes that the protection of human life must be uppermost.”
The government has stated that:
“Assisted suicide should be restricted to terminally ill and not be available to chronically or mentally ill individuals.” The government stated that they: “wanted to promote palliative care and suicide prevention.”
The Euthanasia Prevention Coalition is hopeful that the Swiss government will restrict assisted suicide. Some media reports have indicated that the Swiss government might severely restrict assisted suicide, but the actual quotes from the Swiss government indicate that they want to eliminate “suicide tourism” and restrict assisted suicide to people who are terminally ill. Nonetheless, this is a step forward. | <urn:uuid:653d4a51-f75a-40f9-8d79-388e9ebe7f21> | CC-MAIN-2017-04 | http://alexschadenberg.blogspot.com/2009/10/switzerland-considers-implementing.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2017-04/segments/1484560281746.82/warc/CC-MAIN-20170116095121-00280-ip-10-171-10-70.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.970845 | 610 | 1.945313 | 2 |
This course covers a variety of skills that every developer should know, like working with zipped folders and taking screenshots to working with Visual Studio Code and interacting with the developer community on Stack Overflow. These skills will help any developer be core prepared for additional learning and day-to-day work as a developer.
There are no prerequisites to taking this course.
Instructional Material Requirements:
The instructional materials required for this course are included in enrollment and will be available online. | <urn:uuid:43fdecbc-0820-4a4f-9cb6-49e5cdd70e64> | CC-MAIN-2022-33 | https://www.ed2go.com/1199seiunyc/online-courses/things-every-developer-should-know/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2022-33/segments/1659882573540.20/warc/CC-MAIN-20220819005802-20220819035802-00467.warc.gz | en | 0.92447 | 116 | 1.867188 | 2 |
Drugs should not be allowed in sports
Being an athlete has a great responsibility and once they neglect that duty, their glory would be engulfed by betrayal, lack of inspiration and disappointment. Steroids leave tragic effects on your body, therefore athletes should not waste time cheating themselves and others and should actually play the game the way it is meant to be played. In the roman period, chariot racers mixed drugs in their horse’s food to make them run faster. Gladiators allowed this to make the fight vigorous and bloody for the public. Steroids were first developed in the 1930’s and are used to build muscle, enhance performance and improve appearance but can be quite harmful to the body.
Apart from the fact that using drugs are cheating, it is also dangerous if an athlete overdoses on a drug which can be long term and sometimes even life threatening. The first recorded death was in 1886 from a cyclist named Arthur Linton, who overdosed on trimethly. The second incident was in 1904, when a marathon runner Thomas Hicks almost dies at the Olympics after mixing brandy and strychnine. If drugs were allowed in sports, being an athlete would be quite dangerous in many ways. If you were to use drugs, you would risk getting caught and getting disqualified and would miss out on the whole team spirit.
What do you gain from using drugs? The most common reasons steroids are used is to increase their own muscle mass and improve their appearance. It could also be because the particular person has low self-esteem, and you know what they say, “The bigger the better”. As most of you might have heard about the well-known incident of Lance Armstrong, he provided millions of people with an image of a hero but the image was shattered after a regretful confession to the public with his use of drugs. | <urn:uuid:2f3b4a1f-e731-45cc-ad4b-29bf5646824c> | CC-MAIN-2016-44 | http://www.brainia.com/essays/Drugs-Should-Not-Be-Allowed-In/279879.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2016-44/segments/1476988718285.69/warc/CC-MAIN-20161020183838-00106-ip-10-171-6-4.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.979532 | 376 | 2.28125 | 2 |
In the beginning of September 2013, the CryptoLocker malware variant appeared in the wild, spread exclusively by the infamous P2P ZeuS (aka Gameover ZeuS) malware. CryptoLocker had a simple purpose: to act as ransomware, encrypting important files such as images and documents, and then asking the victim for money to unlock the files.
Image source: Ars Technica
In collaboration with FireEye, InTELL analysts at Fox-IT worked on the investigation. By the end of 2013, certain groups that were focused on online banking fraud, were moving to less risky attacks, such as ransomware, click fraud, and crypto coin mining. All of these attack types pose lower risk to the criminals compared to online banking attacks. P2P ZeuS was one of these groups.
US Law Enforcement led a joint operation from the 30th of May 2014, leading to a long term disruption of both P2P Zeus and CryptoLocker. A detailed description of the operation is available here.
CryptoLocker used AES symmetric cryptography to encrypt the files and encrypted the AES key with an RSA-2048 bit public key generated on the server side of CryptoLocker. For each infection a new RSA asymmetric key pair was generated on the CryptoLocker server. This rendered files impossible to recover for CryptoLocker victims on their own. To recover files, the malware offered victims the option to purchase the required RSA-2048 private key. The CryptoLocker authors began charging victims 100 USD in September 2013 to recover their files, and by May 2014, were charging victims 500 USD for recovery.
Not every computer infected with P2P ZeuS malware became infected with CryptoLocker. The reason for this is that CryptoLocker ran on victim machines alongside P2P ZeuS malware, which was used to commit financial fraud. In order for P2P ZeuS to be successful, a victim had to remain unaware that his/her system was compromised. Therefore, only a handful of P2P ZeuS botnets within the full P2P ZeuS network installed CryptoLocker. From September 2013 through May 2014, over half a million (545,146) infections occurred. This is much less than the amount of infections of P2P ZeuS over the same period.
Of the botnets distributing CryptoLocker, infections were mostly limited to victims located in the US, Canada, UK and Australia. These regions were most likely selected for their use of English as the primary language. This is shown in the heat map below – with over 60% of the CryptoLocker infections located in the US.
While CryptoLocker infections started in the beginning of September 2013, the largest number of infections in one month occurred during October 2013, with over 155000 systems affected worldwide. This accounts for nearly 29% of all infections between September and May 2014. After October 2013 the rates dropped, but still steadily pacing at around 50,000 infections per month.
The CryptoLocker infrastructure was separate from the P2P ZeuS infrastructure. It used a fast-flux network offered by a bulletproof hoster and a service hidden in the TOR network. These two channels were terminated on a proxy system that lead directly to the backend system, allowing victims to pay the ransom even though the fast flux network experienced various disruptions by security researchers.
The majority of victim payments to CryptoLocker were processed through Moneypak, but also a considerable amount of money was paid through the use of Bitcoins. A new Bitcoin address was created for each infection, making it harder for researchers to track and easier for CryptoLocker operators to distinguish transactions. In total, over 1400 Bitcoins (1407.24575477 BTC, around 700,000 USD in current exchange rates) were received. That is more than the 1388 BTC the malware requested, apparently some victims tried to transfer partial amounts. Unfortunately for them these lower amounts were lost for them and they added a small bonus for the criminals. A small number of early payments were received via Paysafecard and Ukash. In total, the amount of money made during the 9 month CryptoLocker operation was around 3 million USD. This accounts for the fluctuating Bitcoin exchange rate over time.
In the end, 1.3% of victims paid a CryptoLocker ransom, therefore, a large amount of victims likely permanently lost files due to this attack. Fox-IT InTELL and FireEye provide a free service to victims, to recover the private keys associated to CryptoLocker infections. This was announced on August 6 2014, in this press release. This gives CryptoLocker victims the ability to recover their files and restore the contents. | <urn:uuid:744ba10f-cfa5-4101-a407-f3370b36d6e3> | CC-MAIN-2017-04 | https://blog.fox-it.com/2014/08/06/cryptolocker-ransomware-intelligence-report/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2017-04/segments/1484560281424.85/warc/CC-MAIN-20170116095121-00336-ip-10-171-10-70.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.947895 | 965 | 2.359375 | 2 |
The Paranormal is Normal: Strange Creatures Caught on Tape - DVD
The term paranormal is sometimes used in a derogatory way, to imply that certain phenomena are imagined and unreal. Yet we are beginning to realize that the paranormal is normal; it was actually our outmoded, materialist way of thinking that was the problem. See all sorts of paranormal phenomena caught on tape, such as ghostlike figures, humanoid beings with large ears or animal-like heads, and a "leaping" alien which moves almost as fast as the speed of light. Includes footage from ET contactees. 42-min. DVD
ISA is an eco-friendly company.Whenever possible, DVD's will ship in an eco-friendly recyclable plastic sleeve.
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Digital Millennium Copyright Act | <urn:uuid:5057b154-d2f8-454a-b749-239a6570c36d> | CC-MAIN-2016-44 | http://www.toolsforfreedom.com/Strange-Creatures-Caught-on-Tape-p/2600.htm | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2016-44/segments/1476988717963.49/warc/CC-MAIN-20161020183837-00374-ip-10-171-6-4.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.863497 | 180 | 1.570313 | 2 |
Maggie Goes on a Diet, a self-published children's book about a 14-year-old "transforming from being extremely overweight and insecure to a normal sized girl who becomes the school soccer star," hasn't been released yet. But this is one book we’re happy to judge by the cover.
As Treasury Islands points out,
This smiley girl with Pippi Longstocking plaits is probably Maggie. And Maggie is, lets face it, a little on the plump side. Maggie has a pretty pink frock. Girls like pretty pink frocks. But look! The pretty pink frock will not fit her – it is too small! Here’s a suggestion for your next book Mr. Kramer: write a book called MAGGIE’S MUM BUYS A DRESS THAT ACTUALLY FITS HER AND DOESN’T DEGRADE HER DAUGHTER, and get someone else to write it.
It's also interesting to note that Amazon has labeled this book as appropriate for 4 to 8 years old. I'd say Maggie Goes on a Diet is incredibly inappropriate for a 4-year-old. And really, the book is unnecessary for teens, too. There’s no question that childhood obesity is a serious problem. But there are better ways to encourage maintaining a healthy weight—sneaking in exercise, preparing healthy, kid-friendly meals, learning about portion control, and even playing active Wii games. "Going on a diet" is the likely the worst way to get kids healthier, as it often encourages obsessive behavior, self-loathing, and unrealistic ideas about body weight.
The TI writer has added some tags to the Amazon.com book profile, including "irresponsible publishing", "give your children neuroses", "anorexia trigger", "sick and twisted", "anti-women", "bad parenting", "how to make your child hate herself", "I blame the parents" and more.
Would you read this book to your kid? | <urn:uuid:a4677e8e-618b-44f8-9636-c3371f7ebefb> | CC-MAIN-2016-44 | http://www.parenting.com/blogs/show-and-tell/lauren-parentingcom/would-you-read-your-toddler-diet-book?con=blog&loc=bottomnext | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2016-44/segments/1476988719465.22/warc/CC-MAIN-20161020183839-00096-ip-10-171-6-4.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.948998 | 418 | 1.6875 | 2 |
DENVER, Dec. 28 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ -- The First Data Western Union Foundation today announced that it will make a donation of US$1 million to the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies to support victims in the Asian countries most impacted by the recent earthquake and tsunamis that struck the region. The donation is the single largest donation made by the Foundation since its inception in 2000. "Many of our consumers, employees and agents live in the countries that were devastated by this natural disaster," said Christina Gold, president, Western Union Financial Services. "This monetary contribution made by the Foundation is a way to lend a hand and show support in the rebuilding process." People in the U.S. and Canada wishing to make individual donations to support disaster relief efforts can visit a Western Union agent location and complete a money transfer directly to the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies free of charge. The Western Union Money Transfer service also is available in many areas that were affected by the tsunamis, so family and friends around the world can continue to transfer money to loved ones living in the impacted areas. In some cases, Western Union locations may be temporarily closed and the company is working diligently to restore service as quickly as possible. To inquire about service availability and the nearest Western Union location, consumers can call: U.S. 800-325-6000 Asia Pacific (61) 2 9226 9555 Latin America (011) 303-224-4284 Europe, Middle East and Africa (32) 2 639 7869 Since its inception, the Foundation has made more than 30 donations to support disaster relief efforts around the world. In 2004, the Foundation donated US$565,000 worldwide to support various disaster relief efforts. About Western Union Financial Services, Inc. and First Data Western Union Financial Services, Inc., a subsidiary of First Data Corp. (NYSE: FDC) is an international leader in consumer money transfer services. Consumers can quickly and reliably pay bills and transfer money around the globe using the company's proprietary money transfer network. Western Union and its subsidiary, Orlandi Valuta, together make up one of the world's largest money transfer networks with a total of approximately 200,000 agent locations in more than 195 countries and territories. Famous for its pioneering telegraph service, the original Western Union dates back to 1851 and introduced electronic money transfer service in 1871. For more information, please visit the company's web site at www.westernunion.com. First Data Corp., with global headquarters in Denver, helps power the global economy. Serving approximately 3.5 million merchant locations, 1,400 card issuers and millions of consumers, First Data makes it easy, fast and secure for people and businesses to buy goods and services, using virtually any form of payment: credit, debit, smart card, stored-value card or check at the point-of-sale, over the internet or by money transfer. For more information, please visit the company's web site at www.firstdata.com. About First Data Western Union Foundation The First Data Western Union Foundation, the charitable organization of First Data Corporation (NYSE: FDC), supports philanthropic initiatives worldwide. Since it's inception in December 2000, the Foundation has donated millions of dollars to help those most in need. Grants are made to non-profit organizations in health, education and human services that strengthen and improve the lives of many individuals in comminutes throughout the world. Scholarships are given to nontraditional college students. The Foundation also provides disaster relief funding to communities in need. Additionally, the Foundation raises money from First Data employees and business associates to increase the impact of grantmaking to communities worldwide. Please visit the Foundation's website at www.firstdatawesternunion.org.
SOURCE First Data Western Union Foundation | <urn:uuid:4d7763f6-acbf-49f2-853b-ebe024ef3c7b> | CC-MAIN-2016-44 | http://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/first-data-western-union-foundation-donates-us1-million-to-aid-victims-of-asia-tsunamis-75971527.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2016-44/segments/1476988721027.15/warc/CC-MAIN-20161020183841-00549-ip-10-171-6-4.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.932407 | 774 | 1.515625 | 2 |
The MacBook Air SuperDrive has unique firmware which prevents it from being properly recognized as a plug and play optical USB drive by Windows. Fortunately, Apple provides the drivers for running Windows on a Mac, as part of its BootCamp software.
If you download the latest release of BootCamp from Apple's support site, you will have a zip file wherein the path bootcamp\drivers\Apple contains the file "AppleODDInstaller64.exe".
Simply execute this file to install the Apple Optical Disk Driver for 64 bit Windows, and presto! You can then use the MacBook Air SuperDrive with your Windows PC. | <urn:uuid:35e4a007-7cbc-4396-a593-695ce572847c> | CC-MAIN-2017-04 | https://community.spiceworks.com/how_to/122122-how-to-use-macbook-air-superdrive-dvd-drive-on-windows-pcs | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2017-04/segments/1484560280929.91/warc/CC-MAIN-20170116095120-00430-ip-10-171-10-70.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.895211 | 126 | 1.523438 | 2 |
Nothing like a string of creepy quadruped robots pulling a sleigh to get you into the holiday spirit.
Boston Dynamics has released a Christmas video featuring a their BigDog robots pulling a sleigh, with a young woman dressed in Santa attire wishing you the best of the season - and she’s not flailing or screaming at all, so the robots can’t be that dangerous, right?
You may have seen these strange robotic creatures online before - they weigh 240 pounds and clock in at four miles per hour, they make a noise like an angry goat or maybe a swarm of hornets, they keep their balance when kicked (the human will pay for that) and they look horrifyingly drunk while slipping on ice.
The project is sponsored by the US Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA), who want the robotic pack mule to assist soldiers in terrain too tough for vehicles. Ground-based soldiers often need to carry 40 kilograms of equipment. | <urn:uuid:8ade58f2-9e94-47da-b406-c4bdf8bb3280> | CC-MAIN-2017-04 | http://whatstrending.com/hot-on-youtube/21024-boston-dynamics-robot-christmas | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2017-04/segments/1484560280835.60/warc/CC-MAIN-20170116095120-00465-ip-10-171-10-70.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.936183 | 196 | 1.859375 | 2 |
The Language of Authoritarians
As everyone knows, there are nine languages spoken in Eritrea. And, as everyone knows, the Government of Eritrea continues to preach and, in fact, enshrined in the retired-since-birth constitution, the clause that “all languages are equal.” And that, based on this principle, the government cannot possibly endorse any language as the official language.
This article is not going to be about the flaw in this policy. It is not going to talk about the hypocrisy of how the status of “official language” discriminates against other languages but “working language” doesn’t. It is not going to talk about the absurdity of a constitution that tells its citizens that they have no official languages was published only in Tigrigna and Arabic; that the Constituent Assembly that ratified the constitution conducted its meeting using Tigrigna and Arabic. It is not going to ask what it means to a Saho or Blin that Shaebia.org presents its articles in Tigrigna and Arabic and how he should find comfort that this is only because the two languages are only “working” but not “official” languages. It is not going to talk about the impracticality of “mother tongue” education; doesn’t. insist on the implementation of the “mother tongue” approach.
This article is going to talk about how the PFDJ is destroying the Tigrigna language. To those who think the PFDJ is “tigrignasizing Eritrea”, I have bad news: the PFDJ is tigrignasizing Eritrea but before it does so, it is making sure it is enfeebling Tigrigna. And, since Tigrigna is the dominant language in Eritrea and, since Tigrigna is the language of reference for the other languages, this will have a domino effect in destroying the other languages: an enfeebled Tigre, an emasculated Saho, etc.
By “destroying”, I mean it in the following sense: in free societies, all languages are meant to communicate and express in an interactive way; they evolve and grow to accommodate the dynamism of the society. Even in free societies, politicians are constantly attempting to create language that absolves them of responsibility but, thanks to a free media, competition among politicians and the ability of the populace to hire and fire politicians at will, the danger is mitigated. In authoritarian systems, where all the moderating influences are non-existent and governments reign supreme, languages are used to control and suppress and to communicate—in a hierarchical, top-to-bottom way—the belief system, and the values of the government. Since the belief system and the value of all authoritarian systems is about getting and maintaining power, language is used as a currency towards that end. Language becomes propaganda.
I will argue that this is partly the result of the influence of communism during Eritrea’s armed struggle, when “Anglicized Tigrigna” war born. What Anglicized Tigrigian didn’t kill, the style and the syntax is working overtime to incapacitate. I can think of at least four (by no means an exhaustive) tools that are beating our language to uselessness: the preference for the passive over the active (Irresponsible Language); the presentation of opinions as facts and presenting the obvious as an insight (the “Mallet Yu” Filler), the Obfuscation Obsession (“Tigrigna Cadre”) and finally, The Bury Them With Volume Principle (The “moqshish”). I believe all these maladies are common to all our languages now because they are prevalent in Eritrea’s dominating language: Tigrigna. I believe this is a very serious issue; but I have never believed you have to use depressing language to communicate how earnest you are.
Tigrigna Jebha and Tigrigna Shabia are not the Tigrigna that is spoken by the people. There are nuances and each side claims to know the style of the other but what we know is that the Tigrigna of ELF and EPLF has the same bad origin: German (Marx) concepts, filtered through English (Engels) then translated back to Tigrigna. Just like the ideologies that gave them birth, the Jebha and Shabia Tigrigna diverged into the Lenninist (Soviet) and Maoist (EPLF) camp. (TPLF’s Tigrigna went through another filtering—Albanian—but that is a different story.) The language of “democratic centralism” has given us a strange new language whose sole purpose is not to communicate but to control.
The Tigrigna of our politicians is an Anglicized Tigirigna. This is why the easiest thing to do is to translate Tigrigna Shabia (particularly Tigrigna Isaias) into English.
When our politicians speak in English, they are actually thinking in Anglicized Tigrigina and then translating their thoughts into words, in English. You can imagine how a few circuits may be blown in the process—which is why English interviews of Isaias make no sense at all. If you want to verify this for yourself read the striking similarity between the Anglicized Tigrigna letter Isaias sent General Uqbe on November 27, 1999 (“who is saying that I have changed? Since when? “Not consulting” with whom? About what? When? How does one express by evidence the emotional claims that the president thinks there is no other than him? Who are those saying this?) and the letter he sent the OAU on December 1998 requesting clarification on the OAU Framework Agreement (Where is Badme Town? What is meant by environs? What is reinstatement? )
Going a step further, Tigre Shabia is actually a further translation of Tigrigna Shabia. One of the ugliest words that gained much currency between 1998 and 2000 is “Chifra” as in “Chifra Woyane.” I call it ugly because Chifra in its original application (as understood by our forefathers) was reserved to refer to a herd of monkeys. (equating people with monkeys, with flies: This is another reason Ethiopians think Eritreans are bigoted.) Now, if you listened to Wed-Sheik’s popular Tigre song, “e-nt’hamel”, he makes reference to “Cherot.” I’ve asked many people, but nobody seems to know what Cherot means. But, from the context….”Indenqeber we indester, Cherot abiet….” (Despite our attempts to bury and hide its mistakes, “Cherot” said no…”) I’ve deduced that “Cherot” is probably a verbatim translation of “Chifra.” So here we have a case of a bad usage in one language translating into another.
Going even further, those who read Arabic publications in Eritrea tell me that, in many cases, the Arabic is “Tigresized Arabic.” The Arabic of Isaias is Anglicized Tigrigna translated to Arabic. The phrase “One can say…” is translated to the Anglicized Tigrigna of “kbhal yk’al iyu” to the Arabic “yumkin alQoul…”
What we have here then is Anglicized Tigrigna corrupting Tigrigna; corrupted Tigrigna corrupting Tigre and corrupt Tigre corrupting Arabic. It is safe to assume the same thing is happening to the other six Eritrean languages. What we have here is a failure to communicate. But it is alright as long as we are ALL getting corrupted: Hade hzbi, Hade Hmam.
The Irresponsible Language
This is probably the outcome of the “meda culture” of refraining from using a pronoun, particularly “I” or “me.” This was supposed to negate the ego and discourage the nurturing of a cult of personality. We know how well that has worked. The “anani” or egoist language would have created many but small egotistical people; now we have ONE egomaniac who is credited for creating this ego-free culture. Isn’t that wonderful? It is like someone saying, “the greatest thing about me is that I am humble.”
One other consequence of the passive tense is the birth of a dead language with an in-built escape-hatch from accountability. The PFDJ accuse the private press of “irresponsibility” but they are the biggest advocates of irresponsible communication. By irresponsible, I mean it in its most literal sense: the language is selected for its capacity to tell you as little as possible about the “actor” or “subject.” If you point out errors in this article, I can either say, “I made a mistake” or “mistakes were made.” (Or, of course, I can pretend that I never received your correction and refuse to acknowledge you, a preferred method of the practitioners of the politics of exclusion.) The former requires that someone atone for the mistake; the latter is just a thing that happened.
In this language, you can’t even begin a joke with: “Why did the chicken cross the street?” The chicken didn’t cross the street; the street was crossed by the chicken. Well then, let’s ask the street.
When the passive Anglicized Tigrigna is translated to English, we get the always-hilarious phrase “it is to be remembered….” a standby of every Shabia media outlet. It is to be remembered that the phrase “it is to be remembered” is used often to re-enforce manufactured or false memory.
Then there is the constant and redundant “mallet yu”, which literally means “it means.” In the PFDJ lingo, you don’t say, “we went to the store and we bought cigarettes.” You say, “which means, we went to the store, which means, we bought cigarettes.” Actually, they may concede that they went to the store but they will say, “Cigarettes were bought.” Why use the active when the passive will do. The street was crossed by the chicken, mallet yu.
The “mallet yu” is used to lend legitimacy and validity to a story, a claim or an opinion by clothing it in borrowed indisputable, self-evident fact. How can someone argue against a self-evident fact? A means B and B means C and therefore A means C. Mallet yu.
There is also the reverse of mallet yu: mallet aykonen. In this case, obvious statements are flowered up to give themselves an aura of unique insight. For example, everybody over the age of five knows that mistakes are inevitable and perfection is impossible. But the hgdefawian present this as if it is something a rarely revealed Truth (capital t) that only they stumbled on. Which is why we get the “gegatat aygbern mallet aykonen”: It doesn’t mean mistakes are not made. They won’t even admit that mistakes were made (even in the passive tense); they will only deny an imaginary claim that mistakes could not be made. Hypothetically speaking, of course.
Obfuscation: Tigrigna Cadre
Say you notice someone who just walked into your house appears wet and you ask a simple question like “Is it raining?”
An Ordinary Eritrean will give you a direct and charming answer. “tebeluKa Ke!!” (Indeed!) Or, “ayi, izi do mai ilkayo? TbTbsi ybl alo.” (This is not rain; it is just a sprinkle.)
A practitioner of Tigrigna cadre will say: “if you were to ask me, ‘is it raining outside’ and if I were to answer the question of ‘is it raining outside?’, we would have to first answer the question of ‘what is rain?’ And ‘what is outside’….By the time he is done answering the question, you won’t remember what you asked and for sure it will have stopped raining outside.
The idea is to numb you with the volume and to recast real questions as if it was a hypothetical, so they can always say, later, that they were responding to a hypothetical question. All PFDJistas (reformers and hardliners) suffer from this malady. For a full demonstration of this, refer to the mind-numbing interview of General Sebhat Ephrem, the man who coined the word “handebetnet.”
Incidentally, faced with the same question, the ever-pretentious Asmarino is likely to say something like: “No, it is not raining. I was just swimming with my clothes on.” Alora, years later, he will have convinced himself that he had a swimming pool and he will tell his friends that the Asmara of his time and his neighborhood had the purest aqua in the world.
The moqshish is where they answer questions you didn’t ask.
All our politicians give the moqshish answer. In Eritrea, the second most well known practitioner of the “moqshish” answer was Haile DeruE. (You know the first, of course.) In the good old days when the G-1 loved him, this practice had earned him the title of “Papas” (Pope) because he could calm down any group by anticipating and answering questions they thought of asking but didn’t ask. He was their troubleshooter. But not when they turned against him.
In fact, the “evidence” that the G-1 apologists point to prove that the G-15 was plotting the overthrow of the G-1, is the interview given by DeruE to Keste Debenawhere he hypothesizes about and defends the validity of asking for the resignation of a war-time President whose side did badly in a war.
Given the developments, if, at the time, someone were to say: “just like Gemal Abdel Nasser offered his people to resign at the conclusion of the 1967 war when Egypt was having military problems, the President and the Government ought to submit its resignation to the people.
The interviewer (reporter for Keste Debena) never asked him the question. That he provided an answer to a question that wasn’t asked was no proof that he was suffering from a guilty conscience. Later the entire G-15 wrote a letter denying that they had ever said such a thing. He was just practicing “Tigrigna Cadre” the way he had done his entire career.
The purpose of “Tigrigna Cadre” is to impress, not to communicate. Most of the long-time members of the EPLF/PFDJ, including the ones that were fawning all over DeruE when he paid his last visit to Oakland, and are now calling for his head on a platter, know this. They know that from the context, DeruE was talking about a post-war development (like Nasser’s) and he wasn’t calling just on the President but on the entire government (which included DeruE) to resign. Of course, in most places in the world, the “honorable” thing for civilian governments to do after a catastrophe is to resign. But our G-1 gang has put the buttons to their conscience on “mute” because “the timing is not right.” The louder the noise of their conscience, the more hyperactive and shrill their acts of condemnation. They will activate their conscience after “our border is demarcated.” Of course, we will be at war with Sudan by then…. but that is a different story.
Tigrigna Cadre is further illustration of the adage that says, “the message is the medium.” Western politicians have to use private media who charge a premium for airwaves and print space and are, thus, more likely to speak in compact ways or what they call “soundbites” in the American media. But when you own the media, you have no restriction and no need to discipline yourself and learn brevity.
There is another group of communicators who just go on and on sometimes for, let me count, five pages. The Internet writer. Why? Because we own the space and the PFDJ cannot ban us.
The only limit is people’s patience. The politicians are betting that we will exhaust the people’s patience (which is why you hear the constant and premature announcement of our death when we, the Internet writers are, in fact mushrooming and this website continues to increase readership); and we are betting that the politicians have exhausted the people’s patience (which is why we itemize their sins and they continue to insist that they have the support of “the overwhelming majority.”) We can quantify our claim; they cannot.
Who will prevail? To put it the Shaebia way, “if you were to ask me such a question and if I were to answer it, I would have to first answer what is patience? And what is exhaustion? It should be remembered that, undoubtedly, it doesn’t mean that people’s patience cannot be exhausted….” I could go on but I am betting that, by now, your patience is exhausted. You understand that it doesn’t mean mistakes could not have been made. | <urn:uuid:8a77d50b-52e3-4e01-a572-d368d3a907e5> | CC-MAIN-2022-33 | http://awate.com/the-language-of-authoritarians/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2022-33/segments/1659882571472.69/warc/CC-MAIN-20220811133823-20220811163823-00669.warc.gz | en | 0.967504 | 3,882 | 1.765625 | 2 |
By David J. Stewart
Romans 4:6, “Even as David also describeth the blessedness of the man, unto whom God imputeth righteousness without works.”
Chapter 10 — The Imputed Righteousness of Jesus Christ
What in the world does that big word mean . . . IMPUTETH? The word “impute” means “to pass to one’s account, to count over” It means that Jesus places His righteousness upon our record when we trust upon Him for salvation. Romans chapter four speaks concerning Abraham, “For what saith the scripture? Abraham believed God, and it was COUNTED UNTO HIM for righteousness” (Romans 4:3). What a beautiful truth! Abraham was not saved by good works; but rather, he believed God and was saved by Christ’s righteousness. Christ’s perfection was imputed (placed) on Abraham’s record in Heaven. God the Father viewed Abraham thereafter as having the righteousness of Christ. What a Savior!
Abraham believed God concerning the coming Messiah which was to save His people from their sins . . . “And he believed in the LORD; and he counted it to him for righteousness” (Genesis 15:6). Why was Abraham able to simply believe God in place of merit or good works? It's simply because Jesus paid the price for mankind's sins. You see, Abraham could NOT please God in his own self-righteousness, nor can we (Ephesians 2:8,9; Romans 10:3,4; Titus 3:5). No matter how much good we may do here on earth, our sins are still recorded in Heaven. Our sins must be dealt with. This is why Jesus came to earth to paid the price for our sins with His own precious blood . . . “Forasmuch as ye know that ye were not redeemed with corruptible things, as silver and gold, from your vain conversation received by tradition from your fathers; But with the precious blood of Christ, as of a lamb without blemish and without spot.” All mankind is corrupt and destitute of God. Even in our sincerest efforts, humanity is tarnished with the curse of sin and rebellion. We need HIS RIGHTEOUSNESS, i.e., the imputed righteousness of Jesus Christ. We are saved by Jesus' righteousness through faith.
“But to him that worketh not, but believeth on him that justifieth the ungodly, his faith is counted for righteousness” (Romans 4:5).
We read in Romans 4:8, “Blessed is the man to whom the Lord will not IMPUTE sin.” Not only was Christ’s righteousness imputed (counted) to Abraham’s record, but Abraham’s sinful record was imputed to Christ. Literally, Jesus became as sin for us and died a sinner's death . . . “For HE HATH MADE HIM TO BE SIN FOR US, WHO KNEW NO SIN; that we might be made the righteousness of God in him” (2nd Corinthians 5:21). Amen!
We read concerning Abraham . . .
“And therefore it was imputed to him for righteousness. Now it was not written for his sake alone, that it was IMPUTED to him; But for us also, to whom it shall be IMPUTED, if we believe on him that raised up Jesus our Lord from the dead” (Romans 4:22-24).
This is a beautiful passage of Scripture, teaching that God is willing to IMPUTE Christ's righteousness to us as well, just as He did to Abraham, if we'll simply believe on the Lord... “To him give all the prophets witness, that through his name whosoever believeth in him shall receive remission of sins.”
These Scriptures were written for us, that we might also have Christ’s righteousness imputed to our record, and our sins imputed to Christ’s record. He who knew no sin, became as sin, that we who knew no righteousness could be made the righteousness of God in Christ (2nd Corinthians 5:21). What a wonderful truth! To think that Jesus would actually bear our sins upon Himself and sacrifice His precious blood for our sins—we are not worthy. Thankfully, God looked beyond our faults through His love and saw our need . . . “But God commendeth his love toward us, in that, while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us.”
I cannot express in Words how much I thank the Lord for what He has done for a sinful worm like me. Do you realize all that you will miss if you reject Christ as your Savior? Eternal life is a free gift (Romans 5:15; 6:23), which anyone may have simply by acknowledging their guilt of sin and believing on the name of Jesus Christ for forgiveness . . . “To him give all the prophets witness, that through his name whosoever believeth in him shall receive remission of sins” (Acts 10:43). It is by grace through faith in Jesus Christ that we are saved, so that God the Father may view us as having the righteousness of Christ which is imputed unto us at salvation . . .
“Even as David also describeth the blessedness of the man, unto whom God IMPUTETH righteousness without works” (Romans 4:6).
“And the scripture was fulfilled which saith, Abraham believed God, and it was IMPUTED unto him for righteousness: and he was called the Friend of God” (James 2:23). Would you like to be the friend of God? It all begins when you say yes to Jesus and let Him become your Savior. Jesus earnestly wants to impute your sin to His record and impute His righteousness to your record. All you must do to be saved is admit your guilty condition before God for violating His holy Law (Romans 3:19), and then trust upon the Son of God to wash away your sins with His shed blood. Admit you’re a sinner deserving of Hell. Turn to Christ now in faith and trust Him to forgive your sins and cleanse you.
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No one wants a bad credit score. We all know it affects what we pay for insurance and our ability to borrow money, land a job, or rent a house. Avoiding a bad credit score is just the smart thing to do.
But what exactly is considered a bad credit score? Is there a magic number that is seen as a risk? Actually, there is — but it’s a little complicated.
Anything Below 660, Theoretically Speaking.
Everyone who has ever gotten a loan, charged something on a credit card, or paid a bill has a credit score. The scoring system the major credit rating agencies use is called the FICO system, and it has a range of between 300 and 850 points.
Using this system, a score of 850 is the best you can be assigned.
Depending on the credit rating agency you ask and what region of the country you’re in, the average credit score in the U.S. is between 660 and 700. Theoretically, this means a credit score below 660 is considered a bad credit score.
However, FICO itself considers a score of between 625 and 659 to be a “standard” rating. The score range they reserve for “subprime” is 624 and below.
If your credit score is above 700, you can be pretty sure banks and lenders will see you positively. Below 650 points or so and it’s a gamble.
If you are one of those unfortunate enough to have a score in the subprime category, there are things you can do to improve your credit score.
Lexington Law Credit Repair Can Help
By paying your bills when they’re due, you receive a positive weighting on your credit score. The more you meet your obligations and pay your debts, the better your credit score is likely to be. But if you should fall behind in your payments or default on a loan, your credit score will take a hit. And it doesn’t take too many of these hits to bring your credit score crashing down to earth.
A credit repair service can remove negative items from your credit reports. Lexington Law’s past clients have seen an average of 10.2 negative items removed from their credit reports within four months. It’s definitely worth it if you’ve got some things on your report dragging your score down.
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A Secured Credit Card is Another Good Option
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Remember, nothing is permanent. Our credit scores are being recalculated all the time. With a little help, you can quickly improve yours.
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Definition for the word Quadrilaterals.
- a four-sided polygon (noun)
- having four sides (adjective)
Is Quadrilaterals a Valid Scrabble Word?
Yes Quadrilaterals is a valid Scrabble word.
We hope this answered your question of "is Quadrilaterals a valid Scrabble word?". Included is the definition, examples of the Quadrilaterals in a sentence, and the Scrabble word values of Quadrilaterals. If you have any suggestions for WordFinderPro let us know on our contact page. Scrabble words are referenced with the 2020 NASPA Word List. | <urn:uuid:ef58947a-9735-4e09-b3a7-a93dc035ca63> | CC-MAIN-2022-33 | https://wordfinderpro.com/dictionary/quadrilaterals/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2022-33/segments/1659882571198.57/warc/CC-MAIN-20220810161541-20220810191541-00267.warc.gz | en | 0.801039 | 140 | 2.3125 | 2 |
Tsovta - details and analysis
What means Tsovta?
The meaning of Tsovta is unknown.
What is the origin of name Tsovta? N/A
Tsovta spelled backwards is Atvost
This name has 6 letters: 2 vowels (33.33%) and 4 consonants (66.67%).
Anagrams: Tsaotv Svatto Ovtats Attosv Stoatv Vtoats Staovt Vastot Vtoast Tvasto Svoatt Tsatvo
Misspells: Tsovts Ttsovta Tsowta Tovta Tsovtaa Tosvta Tsovat Tsotva
Do you know more details about this name?
Leave a comment... | <urn:uuid:41c15ad3-e62c-4cee-bd0a-09f445afe852> | CC-MAIN-2017-04 | http://www.name-list.net/russia/surname/Tsovta | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2017-04/segments/1484560283301.73/warc/CC-MAIN-20170116095123-00503-ip-10-171-10-70.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.665837 | 160 | 1.90625 | 2 |
For almost 30 years, scientists have demonstrated that human fetal ICCs transplanted under the kidney capsule of nude mice matured into functioning endocrine cells, as evidenced by a significant increase in circulating human C-peptide following glucose stimulation1-9. However in vitro, genesis of insulin producing cells from human fetal ICCs is low10; results reminiscent of recent experiments performed with human embryonic stem cells (hESC), a renewable source of cells that hold great promise as a potential therapeutic treatment for type 1 diabetes. Like ICCs, transplantation of partially differentiated hESC generate glucose responsive, insulin producing cells, but in vitro genesis of insulin producing cells from hESC is much less robust11-17. A complete understanding of the factors that influence the growth and differentiation of endocrine precursor cells will likely require data generated from both ICCs and hESC. While a number of protocols exist to generate insulin producing cells from hESC in vitro11-22, far fewer exist for ICCs10,23,24. Part of that discrepancy likely comes from the difficulty of working with human fetal pancreas. Towards that end, we have continued to build upon existing methods to isolate fetal islets from human pancreases with gestational ages ranging from 12 to 23 weeks, grow the cells as a monolayer or in suspension, and image for cell proliferation, pancreatic markers and human hormones including glucagon and C-peptide. ICCs generated by the protocol described below result in C-peptide release after transplantation under the kidney capsule of nude mice that are similar to C-peptide levels obtained by transplantation of fresh tissue6. Although the examples presented here focus upon the pancreatic endoderm proliferation and β cell genesis, the protocol can be employed to study other aspects of pancreatic development, including exocrine, ductal, and other hormone producing cells.
22 Related JoVE Articles!
Bioluminescent Orthotopic Model of Pancreatic Cancer Progression
Institutions: Monash University, University of Bern, University of California Los Angeles .
Pancreatic cancer has an extremely poor five-year survival rate of 4-6%. New therapeutic options are critically needed and depend on improved understanding of pancreatic cancer biology. To better understand the interaction of cancer cells with the pancreatic microenvironment, we demonstrate an orthotopic model of pancreatic cancer that permits non-invasive monitoring of cancer progression. Luciferase-tagged pancreatic cancer cells are resuspended in Matrigel and delivered into the pancreatic tail during laparotomy. Matrigel solidifies at body temperature to prevent leakage of cancer cells during injection. Primary tumor growth and metastasis to distant organs are monitored following injection of the luciferase substrate luciferin, using in vivo
imaging of bioluminescence emission from the cancer cells. In vivo
imaging also may be used to track primary tumor recurrence after resection. This orthotopic model is suited to both syngeneic and xenograft models and may be used in pre-clinical trials to investigate the impact of novel anti-cancer therapeutics on the growth of the primary pancreatic tumor and metastasis.
Cancer Biology, Issue 76, Medicine, Molecular Biology, Cellular Biology, Genetics, Biomedical Engineering, Surgery, Neoplasms, Pancreatic Cancer, Cancer, Orthotopic Model, Bioluminescence, In Vivo Imaging, Matrigel, Metastasis, pancreas, tumor, cancer, cell culture, laparotomy, animal model, imaging
Isolation and Culture of Mouse Primary Pancreatic Acinar Cells
Institutions: Centre de Recherche en Cancérologie de Lyon, Centre de Recherche en Cancérologie de Lyon, Université de Lyon, Université Lyon 1, Centre Léon Bérard.
This protocol permits rapid isolation (in less than 1 hr) of murine pancreatic acini, making it possible to maintain them in culture for more than one week. More than 20 x 106
acinar cells can be obtained from a single murine pancreas. This protocol offers the possibility to independently process as many as 10 pancreases in parallel. Because it preserves acinar architecture, this model is well suited for studying the physiology of the exocrine pancreas in vitro
in contrast to cell lines established from pancreatic tumors, which display many genetic alterations resulting in partial or total loss of their acinar differentiation.
Cancer Biology, Issue 78, Cellular Biology, Molecular Biology, Biomedical Engineering, Medicine, Anatomy, Physiology, Surgery, Oncology, Pancreas, Exocrine, Cells, Cultured, Mice, Primary Cell Culture, Exocrine pancreas, Cell culture, Primary acinar cells, Mouse, pancreatic cancer, cancer, tumor, tissue, animal model
In Vitro Pancreas Organogenesis from Dispersed Mouse Embryonic Progenitors
Institutions: Swiss Institute for Experimental Cancer Research, University of Copenhagen.
The pancreas is an essential organ that regulates glucose homeostasis and secretes digestive enzymes. Research on pancreas embryogenesis has led to the development of protocols to produce pancreatic cells from stem cells 1
. The whole embryonic organ can be cultured at multiple stages of development 2-4
. These culture methods have been useful to test drugs and to image developmental processes. However the expansion of the organ is very limited and morphogenesis is not faithfully recapitulated since the organ flattens.
We propose three-dimensional (3D) culture conditions that enable the efficient expansion of dissociated mouse embryonic pancreatic progenitors. By manipulating the composition of the culture medium it is possible to generate either hollow spheres, mainly composed of pancreatic progenitors expanding in their initial state, or, complex organoids which progress to more mature expanding progenitors and differentiate into endocrine, acinar and ductal cells and which spontaneously self-organize to resemble the embryonic pancreas.
We show here that the in vitro
process recapitulates many aspects of natural pancreas development. This culture system is suitable to investigate how cells cooperate to form an organ by reducing its initial complexity to few progenitors. It is a model that reproduces the 3D architecture of the pancreas and that is therefore useful to study morphogenesis, including polarization of epithelial structures and branching. It is also appropriate to assess the response to mechanical cues of the niche such as stiffness and the effects on cell´s tensegrity.
Developmental Biology, Issue 89, Pancreas, Progenitors, Branching Epithelium, Development, Organ Culture, 3D Culture, Diabetes, Differentiation, Morphogenesis, Cell organization, Beta Cell.
A System for ex vivo Culturing of Embryonic Pancreas
Institutions: Max-Delbrück-Center for Molecular Medicine.
The pancreas controls vital functions of our body, including the production of digestive enzymes and regulation of blood sugar levels1
. Although in the past decade many studies have contributed to a solid foundation for understanding pancreatic organogenesis, important gaps persist in our knowledge of early pancreas formation2
. A complete understanding of these early events will provide insight into the development of this organ, but also into incurable diseases that target the pancreas, such as diabetes or pancreatic cancer. Finally, this information will generate a blueprint for developing cell-replacement therapies in the context of diabetes.
During embryogenesis, the pancreas originates from distinct embryonic outgrowths of the dorsal and ventral foregut endoderm at embryonic day (E) 9.5 in the mouse embryo3,4
. Both outgrowths evaginate into the surrounding mesenchyme as solid epithelial buds, which undergo proliferation, branching and differentiation to generate a fully mature organ2,5,6
. Recent evidences have suggested that growth and differentiation of pancreatic cell lineages, including the insulin-producing β-cells, depends on proper tissue-architecture, epithelial remodeling and cell positioning within the branching pancreatic epithelium7,8
. However, how branching morphogenesis occurs and is coordinated with proliferation and differentiation in the pancreas is largely unknown. This is in part due to the fact that current knowledge about these developmental processes has relied almost exclusively on analysis of fixed specimens, while morphogenetic events are highly dynamic.
Here, we report a method for dissecting and culturing mouse embryonic pancreatic buds ex vivo
on glass bottom dishes, which allow direct visualization of the developing pancreas (Figure 1
). This culture system is ideally devised for confocal laser scanning microscopy and, in particular, live-cell imaging. Pancreatic explants can be prepared not only from wild-type mouse embryos, but also from genetically engineered mouse strains (e.g.
transgenic or knockout), allowing real-time studies of mutant phenotypes. Moreover, this ex vivo
culture system is valuable to study the effects of chemical compounds on pancreatic development, enabling to obtain quantitative data about proliferation and growth, elongation, branching, tubulogenesis and differentiation. In conclusion, the development of an ex vivo
pancreatic explant culture method combined with high-resolution imaging provides a strong platform for observing morphogenetic and differentiation events as they occur within the developing mouse embryo.
Developmental Biology, Issue 66, Molecular Biology, Cellular Biology, Medicine, Physiology, pancreas, organ culture, epithelial morphogenesis, confocal microscopy, live imaging
Simulating Pancreatic Neuroplasticity: In Vitro Dual-neuron Plasticity Assay
Institutions: Technische Universität München, University of Applied Sciences Kaiserslautern/Zweibrücken.
Neuroplasticity is an inherent feature of the enteric nervous system and gastrointestinal (GI) innervation under pathological conditions. However, the pathophysiological role of neuroplasticity in GI disorders remains unknown. Novel experimental models which allow simulation and modulation of GI neuroplasticity may enable enhanced appreciation of the contribution of neuroplasticity in particular GI diseases such as pancreatic cancer (PCa) and chronic pancreatitis (CP). Here, we present a protocol for simulation of pancreatic neuroplasticity under in vitro
conditions using newborn rat dorsal root ganglia (DRG) and myenteric plexus (MP) neurons. This dual-neuron approach not only permits monitoring of both organ-intrinsic and -extrinsic neuroplasticity, but also represents a valuable tool to assess neuronal and glial morphology and electrophysiology. Moreover, it allows functional modulation of supplied microenvironmental contents for studying their impact on neuroplasticity. Once established, the present neuroplasticity assay bears the potential of being applicable to the study of neuroplasticity in any GI organ.
Medicine, Issue 86, Autonomic Nervous System Diseases, Digestive System Neoplasms, Gastrointestinal Diseases, Pancreatic Diseases, Pancreatic Neoplasms, Pancreatitis, Pancreatic neuroplasticity, dorsal root ganglia, myenteric plexus, Morphometry, neurite density, neurite branching, perikaryonal hypertrophy, neuronal plasticity
Assessing Replication and Beta Cell Function in Adenovirally-transduced Isolated Rodent Islets
Institutions: Indiana University School of Medicine, Indiana University School of Medicine.
Glucose homeostasis is primarily controlled by the endocrine hormones insulin and glucagon, secreted from the pancreatic beta and alpha cells, respectively. Functional beta cell mass is determined by the anatomical beta cell mass as well as the ability of the beta cells to respond to a nutrient load. A loss of functional beta cell mass is central to both major forms of diabetes 1-3
. Whereas the declining functional beta cell mass results from an autoimmune attack in type 1 diabetes, in type 2 diabetes, this decrement develops from both an inability of beta cells to secrete insulin appropriately and the destruction of beta cells from a cadre of mechanisms. Thus, efforts to restore functional beta cell mass are paramount to the better treatment of and potential cures for diabetes.
Efforts are underway to identify molecular pathways that can be exploited to stimulate the replication and enhance the function of beta cells. Ideally, therapeutic targets would improve both beta cell growth and function. Perhaps more important though is to identify whether a strategy that stimulates beta cell growth comes at the cost of impairing beta cell function (such as with some oncogenes) and vice versa.
By systematically suppressing or overexpressing the expression of target genes in isolated rat islets, one can identify potential therapeutic targets for increasing functional beta cell mass 4-6
. Adenoviral vectors can be employed to efficiently overexpress or knockdown proteins in isolated rat islets 4,7-15
. Here, we present a method to manipulate gene expression utilizing adenoviral transduction and assess islet replication and beta cell function in isolated rat islets (Figure 1
). This method has been used previously to identify novel targets that modulate beta cell replication or function 5,6,8,9,16,17
Medicine, Issue 64, Physiology, beta cell, gene expression, islet, diabetes, insulin secretion, proliferation, adenovirus, rat
A Method for Murine Islet Isolation and Subcapsular Kidney Transplantation
Institutions: The Ohio State University, The Ohio State University, The Ohio State University.
Since the early pioneering work of Ballinger and Reckard demonstrating that transplantation of islets of Langerhans into diabetic rodents could normalize their blood glucose levels, islet transplantation has been proposed to be a potential treatment for type 1 diabetes 1,2
. More recently, advances in human islet transplantation have further strengthened this view 1,3
. However, two major limitations prevent islet transplantation from being a widespread clinical reality: (a) the requirement for large numbers of islets per patient, which severely reduces the number of potential recipients, and (b) the need for heavy immunosuppression, which significantly affects the pediatric population of patients due to their vulnerability to long-term immunosuppression. Strategies that can overcome these limitations have the potential to enhance the therapeutic utility of islet transplantation.
Islet transplantation under the mouse kidney capsule is a widely accepted model to investigate various strategies to improve islet transplantation. This experiment requires the isolation of high quality islets and implantation of islets to the diabetic recipients. Both procedures require surgical steps that can be better demonstrated by video than by text. Here, we document the detailed steps for these procedures by both video and written protocol. We also briefly discuss different transplantation models: syngeneic, allogeneic, syngeneic autoimmune, and allogeneic autoimmune.
Medicine, Issue 50, islet isolation, islet transplantation, diabetes, murine, pancreas
Inhibitory Synapse Formation in a Co-culture Model Incorporating GABAergic Medium Spiny Neurons and HEK293 Cells Stably Expressing GABAA Receptors
Institutions: University College London.
Inhibitory neurons act in the central nervous system to regulate the dynamics and spatio-temporal co-ordination of neuronal networks. GABA (γ-aminobutyric acid) is the predominant inhibitory neurotransmitter in the brain. It is released from the presynaptic terminals of inhibitory neurons within highly specialized intercellular junctions known as synapses, where it binds to GABAA
Rs) present at the plasma membrane of the synapse-receiving, postsynaptic neurons. Activation of these GABA-gated ion channels leads to influx of chloride resulting in postsynaptic potential changes that decrease the probability that these neurons will generate action potentials.
During development, diverse types of inhibitory neurons with distinct morphological, electrophysiological and neurochemical characteristics have the ability to recognize their target neurons and form synapses which incorporate specific GABAA
Rs subtypes. This principle of selective innervation of neuronal targets raises the question as to how the appropriate synaptic partners identify each other.
To elucidate the underlying molecular mechanisms, a novel in vitro
co-culture model system was established, in which medium spiny GABAergic neurons, a highly homogenous population of neurons isolated from the embryonic striatum, were cultured with stably transfected HEK293 cell lines that express different GABAA
R subtypes. Synapses form rapidly, efficiently and selectively in this system, and are easily accessible for quantification. Our results indicate that various GABAA
R subtypes differ in their ability to promote synapse formation, suggesting that this reduced in vitro
model system can be used to reproduce, at least in part, the in vivo
conditions required for the recognition of the appropriate synaptic partners and formation of specific synapses. Here the protocols for culturing the medium spiny neurons and generating HEK293 cells lines expressing GABAA
Rs are first described, followed by detailed instructions on how to combine these two cell types in co-culture and analyze the formation of synaptic contacts.
Neuroscience, Issue 93, Developmental neuroscience, synaptogenesis, synaptic inhibition, co-culture, stable cell lines, GABAergic, medium spiny neurons, HEK 293 cell line
Analysis of Nephron Composition and Function in the Adult Zebrafish Kidney
Institutions: University of Notre Dame.
The zebrafish model has emerged as a relevant system to study kidney development, regeneration and disease. Both the embryonic and adult zebrafish kidneys are composed of functional units known as nephrons, which are highly conserved with other vertebrates, including mammals. Research in zebrafish has recently demonstrated that two distinctive phenomena transpire after adult nephrons incur damage: first, there is robust regeneration within existing nephrons that replaces the destroyed tubule epithelial cells; second, entirely new nephrons are produced from renal progenitors in a process known as neonephrogenesis. In contrast, humans and other mammals seem to have only a limited ability for nephron epithelial regeneration. To date, the mechanisms responsible for these kidney regeneration phenomena remain poorly understood. Since adult zebrafish kidneys undergo both nephron epithelial regeneration and neonephrogenesis, they provide an outstanding experimental paradigm to study these events. Further, there is a wide range of genetic and pharmacological tools available in the zebrafish model that can be used to delineate the cellular and molecular mechanisms that regulate renal regeneration. One essential aspect of such research is the evaluation of nephron structure and function. This protocol describes a set of labeling techniques that can be used to gauge renal composition and test nephron functionality in the adult zebrafish kidney. Thus, these methods are widely applicable to the future phenotypic characterization of adult zebrafish kidney injury paradigms, which include but are not limited to, nephrotoxicant exposure regimes or genetic methods of targeted cell death such as the nitroreductase mediated cell ablation technique. Further, these methods could be used to study genetic perturbations in adult kidney formation and could also be applied to assess renal status during chronic disease modeling.
Cellular Biology, Issue 90,
zebrafish; kidney; nephron; nephrology; renal; regeneration; proximal tubule; distal tubule; segment; mesonephros; physiology; acute kidney injury (AKI)
Setting-up an In Vitro Model of Rat Blood-brain Barrier (BBB): A Focus on BBB Impermeability and Receptor-mediated Transport
Institutions: VECT-HORUS SAS, CNRS, NICN UMR 7259.
The blood brain barrier (BBB) specifically regulates molecular and cellular flux between the blood and the nervous tissue. Our aim was to develop and characterize a highly reproducible rat syngeneic in vitro
model of the BBB using co-cultures of primary rat brain endothelial cells (RBEC) and astrocytes to study receptors involved in transcytosis across the endothelial cell monolayer. Astrocytes were isolated by mechanical dissection following trypsin digestion and were frozen for later co-culture. RBEC were isolated from 5-week-old rat cortices. The brains were cleaned of meninges and white matter, and mechanically dissociated following enzymatic digestion. Thereafter, the tissue homogenate was centrifuged in bovine serum albumin to separate vessel fragments from nervous tissue. The vessel fragments underwent a second enzymatic digestion to free endothelial cells from their extracellular matrix. The remaining contaminating cells such as pericytes were further eliminated by plating the microvessel fragments in puromycin-containing medium. They were then passaged onto filters for co-culture with astrocytes grown on the bottom of the wells. RBEC expressed high levels of tight junction (TJ) proteins such as occludin, claudin-5 and ZO-1 with a typical localization at the cell borders. The transendothelial electrical resistance (TEER) of brain endothelial monolayers, indicating the tightness of TJs reached 300 ohm·cm2
on average. The endothelial permeability coefficients (Pe) for lucifer yellow (LY) was highly reproducible with an average of 0.26 ± 0.11 x 10-3
cm/min. Brain endothelial cells organized in monolayers expressed the efflux transporter P-glycoprotein (P-gp), showed a polarized transport of rhodamine 123, a ligand for P-gp, and showed specific transport of transferrin-Cy3 and DiILDL across the endothelial cell monolayer. In conclusion, we provide a protocol for setting up an in vitro
BBB model that is highly reproducible due to the quality assurance methods, and that is suitable for research on BBB transporters and receptors.
Medicine, Issue 88, rat brain endothelial cells (RBEC), mouse, spinal cord, tight junction (TJ), receptor-mediated transport (RMT), low density lipoprotein (LDL), LDLR, transferrin, TfR, P-glycoprotein (P-gp), transendothelial electrical resistance (TEER),
Coculture Analysis of Extracellular Protein Interactions Affecting Insulin Secretion by Pancreatic Beta Cells
Institutions: University of California, San Diego, Janssen Research & Development, University of California, San Diego.
Interactions between cell-surface proteins help coordinate the function of neighboring cells. Pancreatic beta cells are clustered together within pancreatic islets and act in a coordinated fashion to maintain glucose homeostasis. It is becoming increasingly clear that interactions between transmembrane proteins on the surfaces of adjacent beta cells are important determinants of beta-cell function.
Elucidation of the roles of particular transcellular interactions by knockdown, knockout or overexpression studies in cultured beta cells or in vivo
necessitates direct perturbation of mRNA and protein expression, potentially affecting beta-cell health and/or function in ways that could confound analyses of the effects of specific interactions. These approaches also alter levels of the intracellular domains of the targeted proteins and may prevent effects due to interactions between proteins within the same cell membrane to be distinguished from the effects of transcellular interactions.
Here a method for determining the effect of specific transcellular interactions on the insulin secreting capacity and responsiveness of beta cells is presented. This method is applicable to beta-cell lines, such as INS-1 cells, and to dissociated primary beta cells. It is based on coculture models developed by neurobiologists, who found that exposure of cultured neurons to specific neuronal proteins expressed on HEK293 (or COS) cell layers identified proteins important for driving synapse formation. Given the parallels between the secretory machinery of neuronal synapses and of beta cells, we reasoned that beta-cell functional maturation might be driven by similar transcellular interactions. We developed a system where beta cells are cultured on a layer of HEK293 cells expressing a protein of interest. In this model, the beta-cell cytoplasm is untouched while extracellular protein-protein interactions are manipulated. Although we focus here primarily on studies of glucose-stimulated insulin secretion, other processes can be analyzed; for example, changes in gene expression as determined by immunoblotting or qPCR.
Medicine, Issue 76, Cellular Biology, Molecular Biology, Biomedical Engineering, Immunology, Hepatology, Islets of Langerhans, islet, Insulin, Coculture, pancreatic beta cells, INS-1 cells, extracellular contact, transmembrane protein, transcellular interactions, insulin secretion, diabetes, cell culture
Endothelial Cell Co-culture Mediates Maturation of Human Embryonic Stem Cell to Pancreatic Insulin Producing Cells in a Directed Differentiation Approach
Institutions: University of Pittsburgh, University of Pittsburgh.
Embryonic stem cells (ESC) have two main characteristics: they can be indefinitely propagated in vitro
in an undifferentiated state and they are pluripotent, thus having the potential to differentiate into multiple lineages. Such properties make ESCs extremely attractive for cell based therapy and regenerative treatment applications 1
. However for its full potential to be realized the cells have to be differentiated into mature and functional phenotypes, which is a daunting task. A promising approach in inducing cellular differentiation is to closely mimic the path of organogenesis in the in vitro
setting. Pancreatic development is known to occur in specific stages 2
, starting with endoderm, which can develop into several organs, including liver and pancreas. Endoderm induction can be achieved by modulation of the nodal pathway through addition of Activin A 3
in combination with several growth factors 4-7
. Definitive endoderm cells then undergo pancreatic commitment by inhibition of sonic hedgehog inhibition, which can be achieved in vitro
by addition of cyclopamine 8
. Pancreatic maturation is mediated by several parallel events including inhibition of notch signaling; aggregation of pancreatic progenitors into 3-dimentional clusters; induction of vascularization; to name a few. By far the most successful in vitro
maturation of ESC derived pancreatic progenitor cells have been achieved through inhibition of notch signaling by DAPT supplementation 9
. Although successful, this results in low yield of the mature phenotype with reduced functionality. A less studied area is the effect of endothelial cell signaling in pancreatic maturation, which is increasingly being appreciated as an important contributing factor in in-vivo pancreatic islet maturation 10,11
The current study explores such effect of endothelial cell signaling in maturation of human ESC derived pancreatic progenitor cells into insulin producing islet-like cells. We report a multi-stage directed differentiation protocol where the human ESCs are first induced towards endoderm by Activin A along with inhibition of PI3K pathway. Pancreatic specification of endoderm cells is achieved by inhibition of sonic hedgehog signaling by Cyclopamine along with retinoid induction by addition of Retinoic Acid. The final stage of maturation is induced by endothelial cell signaling achieved by a co-culture configuration. While several endothelial cells have been tested in the co-culture, herein we present our data with rat heart microvascular endothelial Cells (RHMVEC), primarily for the ease of analysis.
Stem Cell Biology, Issue 61, Human embryonic stem cells, Endothelial cells, Pancreatic differentiation, Co-culture
A Method for Mouse Pancreatic Islet Isolation and Intracellular cAMP Determination
Institutions: University of Wisconsin-Madison, University of Wisconsin-Madison, University of Waterloo.
Uncontrolled glycemia is a hallmark of diabetes mellitus and promotes morbidities like neuropathy, nephropathy, and retinopathy. With the increasing prevalence of diabetes, both immune-mediated type 1 and obesity-linked type 2, studies aimed at delineating diabetes pathophysiology and therapeutic mechanisms are of critical importance. The β-cells of the pancreatic islets of Langerhans are responsible for appropriately secreting insulin in response to elevated blood glucose concentrations. In addition to glucose and other nutrients, the β-cells are also stimulated by specific hormones, termed incretins, which are secreted from the gut in response to a meal and act on β-cell receptors that increase the production of intracellular cyclic adenosine monophosphate (cAMP). Decreased β-cell function, mass, and incretin responsiveness are well-understood to contribute to the pathophysiology of type 2 diabetes, and are also being increasingly linked with type 1 diabetes. The present mouse islet isolation and cAMP determination protocol can be a tool to help delineate mechanisms promoting disease progression and therapeutic interventions, particularly those that are mediated by the incretin receptors or related receptors that act through modulation of intracellular cAMP production. While only cAMP measurements will be described, the described islet isolation protocol creates a clean preparation that also allows for many other downstream applications, including glucose stimulated insulin secretion, [3H
]-thymidine incorporation, protein abundance, and mRNA expression.
Physiology, Issue 88, islet, isolation, insulin secretion, β-cell, diabetes, cAMP production, mouse
Staining Protocols for Human Pancreatic Islets
Institutions: University of Florida .
Estimates of islet area and numbers and endocrine cell composition in the adult human pancreas vary from several hundred thousand to several million and beta mass ranges from 500 to 1500 mg 1-3
. With this known heterogeneity, a standard processing and staining procedure was developed so that pancreatic regions were clearly defined and islets characterized using rigorous histopathology and immunolocalization examinations.
Standardized procedures for processing human pancreas recovered from organ donors are described in part 1 of this series. The pancreas is processed into 3 main regions (head, body, tail) followed by transverse sections. Transverse sections from the pancreas head are further divided, as indicated based on size, and numbered alphabetically to denote subsections. This standardization allows for a complete cross sectional analysis of the head region including the uncinate region which contains islets composed primarily of pancreatic polypeptide cells to the tail region.
The current report comprises part 2 of this series and describes the procedures used for serial sectioning and histopathological characterization of the pancreatic paraffin sections with an emphasis on islet endocrine cells, replication, and T-cell infiltrates. Pathology of pancreatic sections is intended to characterize both exocrine, ductular, and endocrine components. The exocrine compartment is evaluated for the presence of pancreatitis (active or chronic), atrophy, fibrosis, and fat, as well as the duct system, particularly in relationship to the presence of pancreatic intraductal neoplasia4
. Islets are evaluated for morphology, size, and density, endocrine cells, inflammation, fibrosis, amyloid, and the presence of replicating or apoptotic cells using H&E and IHC stains.
The final component described in part 2 is the provision of the stained slides as digitized whole slide images. The digitized slides are organized by case and pancreas region in an online pathology database creating a virtual biobank. Access to this online collection is currently provided to over 200 clinicians and scientists involved in type 1 diabetes research. The online database provides a means for rapid and complete data sharing and for investigators to select blocks for paraffin or frozen serial sections.
Medicine, Issue 63, Physiology, type 1 diabetes, histology, H&E, immunohistochemistry, insulin, beta-cells, glucagon, alpha-cells, pancreatic polypeptide, islet, pancreas, spleen, organ donor
A Quantitative Assay for Insulin-expressing Colony-forming Progenitors
Institutions: California State University Channel Islands, Beckman Research Institute of City of Hope, Beckman Research Institute of City of Hope.
The field of pancreatic stem and progenitor cell biology has been hampered by a lack of in vitro
functional and quantitative assays that allow for the analysis of the single cell. Analyses of single progenitors are of critical importance because they provide definitive ways to unequivocally demonstrate the lineage potential of individual progenitors. Although methods have been devised to generate "pancreatospheres" in suspension culture from single cells, several limitations exist. First, it is time-consuming to perform single cell deposition for a large number of cells, which in turn commands large volumes of culture media and space. Second, numeration of the resulting pancreatospheres is labor-intensive, especially when the frequency of the pancreatosphere-initiating progenitors is low. Third, the pancreatosphere assay is not an efficient method to allow both the proliferation and differentiation of pancreatic progenitors in the same culture well, restricting the usefulness of the assay.
To overcome these limitations, a semi-solid media based colony assay for pancreatic progenitors has been developed and is presented in this report. This method takes advantage of an existing concept from the hematopoietic colony assay, in which methylcellulose is used to provide viscosity to the media, allowing the progenitor cells to stay in three-dimensional space as they undergo proliferation as well as differentiation. To enrich insulin-expressing colony-forming progenitors from a heterogeneous population, we utilized cells that express neurogenin (Ngn) 3, a pancreatic endocrine progenitor cell marker. Murine embryonic stem (ES) cell-derived Ngn3 expressing cells tagged with the enhanced green fluorescent protein reporter were sorted and as many as 25,000 cells per well were plated into low-attachment 24-well culture dishes. Each well contained 500 μL of semi-solid media with the following major components: methylcellulose, Matrigel, nicotinamide, exendin-4, activin βB, and conditioned media collected from murine ES cell-derived pancreatic-like cells. After 8 to 12 days of culture, insulin-expressing colonies with distinctive morphology were formed and could be further analyzed for pancreatic gene expression using quantitative RT-PCR and immunoflourescent staining to determine the lineage composition of each colony.
In summary, our colony assay allows easy detection and quantification of functional progenitors within a heterogeneous population of cells. In addition, the semi-solid media format allows uniform presentation of extracellular matrix components and growth factors to cells, enabling progenitors to proliferate and differentiate in vitro
. This colony assay provides unique opportunities for mechanistic studies of pancreatic progenitor cells at the single cell level.
Developmental Biology, Issue 57, Pancreas, insulin-expressing cells, embryonic stem cells, colony assay, progenitor cells, 3-dimensional culture, semi-solid media, Matrigel, methylcellulose
In vivo Postnatal Electroporation and Time-lapse Imaging of Neuroblast Migration in Mouse Acute Brain Slices
Institutions: King's College London, Massachusetts Institute of Technology.
The subventricular zone (SVZ) is one of the main neurogenic niches in the postnatal brain. Here, neural progenitors proliferate and give rise to neuroblasts able to move along the rostral migratory stream (RMS) towards the olfactory bulb (OB). This long-distance migration is required for the subsequent maturation of newborn neurons in the OB, but the molecular mechanisms regulating this process are still unclear. Investigating the signaling pathways controlling neuroblast motility may not only help understand a fundamental step in neurogenesis, but also have therapeutic regenerative potential, given the ability of these neuroblasts to target brain sites affected by injury, stroke, or degeneration.
In this manuscript we describe a detailed protocol for in vivo
postnatal electroporation and subsequent time-lapse imaging of neuroblast migration in the mouse RMS. Postnatal electroporation can efficiently transfect SVZ progenitor cells, which in turn generate neuroblasts migrating along the RMS. Using confocal spinning disk time-lapse microscopy on acute brain slice cultures, neuroblast migration can be monitored in an environment closely resembling the in vivo
condition. Moreover, neuroblast motility can be tracked and quantitatively analyzed. As an example, we describe how to use in vivo
postnatal electroporation of a GFP-expressing plasmid to label and visualize neuroblasts migrating along the RMS. Electroporation of shRNA or CRE recombinase-expressing plasmids in conditional knockout mice employing the LoxP system can also be used to target genes of interest. Pharmacological manipulation of acute brain slice cultures can be performed to investigate the role of different signaling molecules in neuroblast migration. By coupling in vivo
electroporation with time-lapse imaging, we hope to understand the molecular mechanisms controlling neuroblast motility and contribute to the development of novel approaches to promote brain repair.
Neuroscience, Issue 81, Time-Lapse Imaging, Cell Migration Assays, Electroporation, neurogenesis, neuroblast migration, neural stem cells, subventricular zone (SVZ), rostral migratory stream (RMS), neonatal mouse pups, electroporation, time-lapse imaging, brain slice culture, cell tracking
High Efficiency Differentiation of Human Pluripotent Stem Cells to Cardiomyocytes and Characterization by Flow Cytometry
Institutions: Medical College of Wisconsin, Stanford University School of Medicine, Medical College of Wisconsin, Hong Kong University, Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine, Medical College of Wisconsin.
There is an urgent need to develop approaches for repairing the damaged heart, discovering new therapeutic drugs that do not have toxic effects on the heart, and improving strategies to accurately model heart disease. The potential of exploiting human induced pluripotent stem cell (hiPSC) technology to generate cardiac muscle “in a dish” for these applications continues to generate high enthusiasm. In recent years, the ability to efficiently generate cardiomyogenic cells from human pluripotent stem cells (hPSCs) has greatly improved, offering us new opportunities to model very early stages of human cardiac development not otherwise accessible. In contrast to many previous methods, the cardiomyocyte differentiation protocol described here does not require cell aggregation or the addition of Activin A or BMP4 and robustly generates cultures of cells that are highly positive for cardiac troponin I and T (TNNI3, TNNT2), iroquois-class homeodomain protein IRX-4 (IRX4), myosin regulatory light chain 2, ventricular/cardiac muscle isoform (MLC2v) and myosin regulatory light chain 2, atrial isoform (MLC2a) by day 10 across all human embryonic stem cell (hESC) and hiPSC lines tested to date. Cells can be passaged and maintained for more than 90 days in culture. The strategy is technically simple to implement and cost-effective. Characterization of cardiomyocytes derived from pluripotent cells often includes the analysis of reference markers, both at the mRNA and protein level. For protein analysis, flow cytometry is a powerful analytical tool for assessing quality of cells in culture and determining subpopulation homogeneity. However, technical variation in sample preparation can significantly affect quality of flow cytometry data. Thus, standardization of staining protocols should facilitate comparisons among various differentiation strategies. Accordingly, optimized staining protocols for the analysis of IRX4, MLC2v, MLC2a, TNNI3, and TNNT2 by flow cytometry are described.
Cellular Biology, Issue 91, human induced pluripotent stem cell, flow cytometry, directed differentiation, cardiomyocyte, IRX4, TNNI3, TNNT2, MCL2v, MLC2a
Two Methods for Establishing Primary Human Endometrial Stromal Cells from Hysterectomy Specimens
Institutions: University of Virginia, University of Virginia.
Many efforts have been devoted to establish in vitro
cell culture systems. These systems are designed to model a vast number of in vivo
processes. Cell culture systems arising from human endometrial samples are no exception. Applications range from normal cyclic physiological processes to endometrial pathologies such as gynecological cancers, infectious diseases, and reproductive deficiencies. Here, we provide two methods for establishing primary endometrial stromal cells from surgically resected endometrial hysterectomy specimens. The first method is referred to as “the scraping method” and incorporates mechanical scraping using surgical or razor blades whereas the second method is termed “the trypsin method.” This latter method uses the enzymatic activity of trypsin to promote the separation of cells and primary cell outgrowth. We illustrate step-by-step methodology through digital images and microscopy. We also provide examples for validating endometrial stromal cell lines via quantitative real time polymerase chain reactions (qPCR) and immunofluorescence (IF).
Medicine, Issue 87, uterus, endometrium, endometrial stroma, (primary) cell culture, surgical blade, trypsin, tissue procurement, spontaneous decidualization
Extraction of Tissue Antigens for Functional Assays
Institutions: St. Vincent's Institute of Medical Research, University of Melbourne.
Many of the antigen targets of adaptive immune response, recognized by B and T cells, have not been defined 1
. This is particularly true in autoimmune diseases and cancer2
. Our aim is to investigate the antigens recognized by human T cells in the autoimmune disease type 1 diabetes 1,3,4,5
. To analyze human T-cell responses against tissue where the antigens recognized by T cells are not identified we developed a method to extract protein antigens from human tissue in a format that is compatible with functional assays 6
. Previously, T-cell responses to unpurified tissue extracts could not be measured because the extraction methods yield a lysate that contained detergents that were toxic to human peripheral blood mononuclear cells. Here we describe a protocol for extracting proteins from human tissues in a format that is not toxic to human T cells. The tissue is homogenized in a mixture of butan-1-ol, acetonitrile and water (BAW). The protein concentration in the tissue extract is measured and a known mass of protein is aliquoted into tubes. After extraction, the organic solvents are removed by lyophilization. Lyophilized tissue extracts can be stored until required. For use in assays of immune function, a suspension of immune cells, in appropriate culture media, can be added directly to the lyophilized extract. Cytokine production and proliferation by PBMC, in response to extracts prepared using this method, were readily measured. Hence, our method allows the rapid preparation of human tissue lysates that can be used as a source of antigens in the analysis of T-cell responses. We suggest that this method will facilitate the analysis of adaptive immune responses to tissues in transplantation, cancer and autoimmunity.
Immunology, Issue 67, Medicine, Physiology, Biomedical Engineering, Tissue Engineering, tissue lysate, functional assay, extraction, autoimmune disease, T cells, spleen
Ole Isacson: Development of New Therapies for Parkinson's Disease
Institutions: Harvard Medical School.
Medicine, Issue 3, Parkinson' disease, Neuroscience, dopamine, neuron, L-DOPA, stem cell, transplantation
Mouse Mammary Epithelial Cells form Mammospheres During Lactogenic Differentiation
Institutions: F. Edward Hebert School of Medicine, Uniformed Services University of the Health Sciences, Bethesda, MD.
A phenotypic measure commonly used to determine the degree of lactogenic differentiation in mouse mammary epithelial cell cultures is the formation of dome shaped cell structures referred to as mammospheres 1
. The HC11 cell line has been employed as a model system for the study of regulation of mammary lactogenic differentiation both in vitro
and in vivo 2
. The HC11 cells differentiate and synthesize milk proteins in response to treatment with lactogenic hormones. Following the growth of HC11 mouse mammary epithelial cells to confluence, lactogenic differentiation was induced by the addition of a combination of lactogenic hormones including dexamethasone, insulin, and prolactin, referred to as DIP. The HC11 cells induced to differentiate were photographed at times up to 120 hours post induction of differentiation and the number of mammospheres that appeared in each culture was enumerated. The size of the individual mammospheres correlates with the degree of differentiation and this is depicted in the images of the differentiating cells.
Cellular Biology, Issue 32, Mammospheres, HC11, lactogenic differentiation, mammary
Regulatory T cells: Therapeutic Potential for Treating Transplant Rejection and Type I Diabetes
Institutions: University of California, San Francisco - UCSF.
Issue 7, Immunology, Pancreatic Islets, Cell Culture, Diabetes, Ficoll Gradient, Translational Research | <urn:uuid:8e7d18ff-6774-4bd5-a4a5-4525982f22fa> | CC-MAIN-2017-04 | http://www.jove.com/visualize/abstract/25126749/mafa-is-required-for-postnatal-proliferation-of-pancreatic-cells | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2017-04/segments/1484560280730.27/warc/CC-MAIN-20170116095120-00250-ip-10-171-10-70.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.903812 | 9,570 | 2.328125 | 2 |
10 Simple Solutions for Building Self-Esteem
by Glenn R. Schiraldi
Learn to appreciate yourself with these ten simple solutions for building self-esteem.
A Good Friend
Ron Herron and Val J. Peter
This book advises children in such areas as the basics of conversation and friendship do's and don'ts.
A Practical Guide to Building Self-Esteem
Christine Maguth Nezu, Arthur M. Nezu
This is the first book to integrate research-based psychological coping strategies with spiritual practices to improve self-esteem.
Beating the Senior Blues
Leslie Eckford & Amanda Lambert
If you are an older adult who suffers from bouts of depression, use this book to learn how to set goals for feeling better physically with good nutrition and exercise habits.
Beyond the Blues
The forty exercises in this book show teens how to overcome feelings of hopelessness and isolation that often go along with depression.
Building Self-Esteem First - A Practical Solution
This programme consists of a series of twelve stages, which helps pupils come to a point where they can begin to believe in themselves again.
Conquer Your Critical Inner Voice
Robert W. Firestone, Lisa Firestone, Joyce Catlett
This book takes you through the step-by-step process of learning how to keep track of your negative thoughts, analyze their reality, and recognize how they impact your life.
Coping with Cliques
Coping with Cliques helps girls overcome feelings of isolation and rejection and develop the self-esteem that will make being left out of a clique seem not so tragic after all.
Crossing the Bridge: A Journey in Self-Esteem, Relationships and Life Balance
This interactive guide in selfdiscovery
uses a cognitive-behavioral approach for
developing self-esteem, improving relationships
and achieving life balance.
Dealing with Emotions
This is an opportunity for all young people to delve into the fascinating world of emotions, and in doing so find new ways to deal with their own and the emotions of others.
Dinosaurs Journey To High Self-Esteem
The Dinosaur's Journey takes children through the Valley of Values, the Cave of Acceptance, and the Land of Courage.
Enhancing Self Esteem Third Edition
C. Jesse Carlock, Ph.D.
This resources offers a balance of current theory and research on the topic of self-esteem as well as an array of practical exercises for each topic presented.
Enhancing Self-Esteem A Self-Esteem Training Package for Individuals with Disabilities
Nick Hagiliassis and Hrepsime Gulbenkoglu
It is a comprehensive resource that provides relevant, cognitively-suitable and age-appropriate information and exercises to aid trainers working with adults with physical and multiple disabilities, and is suitable for people with mild intellectual disability and severe communication impairment.
Helping Adolescents and Adults to Build Self-Esteem
Deborah M. Plummer
Based on the author's clinical experience, the easy-to-use photocopiable activity sheets encourage participants to draw on existing skills and to develop new approaches to building confidence and feelings of self-worth.
Helping Children to Build Self-Esteem
This fully photocopiable resource is invaluable for anyone looking for creative, practical ways of nurturing self-esteem in children.
How to Stop Backing Down and Start Talking Back
by Lisa Frankfort, Patrick Fanning
Here's a book for all those times you said "yes" but really meant "no."
Increasing Self-Esteem The QuietMind Series Volume Four
Increasing Self-Esteem is based on the premise that
low self-esteem can be unlearned.
It's OK to be Me
This practical workbook aimed at raising self awareness and self esteem for children aged 9-12.
Mind Matters - Self Esteem
Focusing on self-esteem this title is designed to raise awareness among young people of caring for their own mental health and encouraging them to support others experiencing mental health problems.
My Lifebook Journal
By Therese Accinelli
The simple The simple activities in this resource offer children the tools they need to adjust to their new situation in a healthy way.
Practical Techniques for Enhancing Self Esteem
Diane Frey, Ph.D. and C. Jesse Carlock, Ph.D.
This manual is divided into phases of intervention. The goal of each phase are to help individuals to develop positive self-esteem in a systematic, sequential approach.
Self-Esteem Games for Children
Deborah M. Plummer
In this practical handbook, self-esteem expert Deborah Plummer offers a wealth of familiar and easy-to-learn games carefully chosen to build and maintain self-esteem in children aged 5–11.
Self-Esteem Program Book with CD
By John Liptak, Ed. D., Kathy L. Khalsa OTR/L, & Estelle A. Leutenburg
This book focuses on such essential topics as body-image, effective decision-making, personal responsibility and values, and self-esteem. Each section has a self-assessment and pre-and post-tests with scoring directions.
Glenn R. Schiraldi, Ph.D.
The Self-Esteem Workbook is based on the author's original new research, which has shown that self-esteem can be significantly improved through the use of self-help materials. Now psychologist and health educator Glenn Schiraldi has shaped these tested resources into a comprehensive, self-directed program that guides readers through twenty essential skill-building activities, each focused on developing a crucial component of healthy self-esteem.
Self-Esteem, 3rd Edition
Matthew McKay, Ph.D. and Patrick Fanning
The third edition of this best-selling title on building and maintaining a healthy level of self-esteem benefits from a new chapter on setting and achieving those goals that will enrich our lives and nourish our belief in ourselves. Proven cognitive techniques help you talk back to the self-critical voice inside you and change the way you think and feel about yourself.
Shyness & Social Anxiety Workbook
Martin Anthony, Ph.D. & Richard Swinson, M.D.
This workbook provides cognitive-behavioral therapy in an intensive, self-directed program that helps readers conquer their fears and live lives no longer controlled by fear and anxiety.
Sisters: Self-Esteem Pack for Girls
A facilitator's pack of materials, resources and activities to help motivate and increase self-esteem and self-image in teenage girls.
Strategies for Motivation: Learning Ways to Get Unstuck! Book with CD
By Nancy Day, OT Reg. (Ont.) and illustrated by Amy L. Brodsky, LISW
Whether it's unearthing the motivation to study, find a job, change an unhealthy social situation or confront a problem, this book is filled with activities that will get teens thinking and talking about getting motivated.
Teen Self-Esteem Workbook
Dr. John J. Liptak and Ester A. Leutenberg
The Teen Self-Esteem Workbook is designed to help teens engage in self-reflection, examine their thoughts and feelings that either enhance or detract from healthy self-esteem, and learn effective tools and techniques for building feelings of self-esteem and self-worth.
The Compassionate-Mind Guide to Building Social Confidence
Lynne Henderson Ph.D.
The Compassionate-Mind Guide to Building Social Confidence helps readers overcome shyness using compassion-focused therapy (CFT), which has been proven to reduce feelings of depression, anxiety, self-criticism, shame, and inferiority.
The Power of Self-Compassion
Mary Welford DClinPsy, Paul Gilbert PhD
With compassion-focused therapy, you will adopt an accepting attitude about your strengths and weaknesses, and a commitment to change that doesn't depend on being overly critical of yourself or comparing yourself with others. In addition, you will learn how the concept of self-confidence fits in the context of our evolution, biology, and life experiences.
Think Confident, Be Confident for Teens
Marci G. Fox Ph.D., Leslie Sokol Ph.D.
What's Right for Me?
Ron Herron and Val J. Peter
This book addresses many of them: jealousy, prejudice, teen sex, anger and aggression, teasing, sexual harassment, harmful or violent relationships.
Who's In the Mirror?
Ron Herron and Val J. Peter
Readers are given an easy, effective method of problem-solving, useful in dealing with negative peer pressure. | <urn:uuid:bc83439b-7311-4750-ab48-f6f78a27a486> | CC-MAIN-2022-33 | https://therapeuticresources.com/selfesteem.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2022-33/segments/1659882573540.20/warc/CC-MAIN-20220819005802-20220819035802-00465.warc.gz | en | 0.906515 | 1,891 | 2.515625 | 3 |
Single-crystalline samples of type-VIII clathrate Ba8Ga 16-xAlxSn30 (0≤x≤12) were grown from Sn flux to characterize the structural and thermoelectric properties from 300 to 600 K. The lattice parameter increases by 0.5% as x is increased to 10.5 whose value is the solubility limit of Al. The Seebeck coefficients of all samples are largely negative and the absolute values increase to approximately 300 μV/K on heating to 600 K. This large thermopower coexists with the metallic behavior in the electrical resistivity. The values of resistivity for 1≤x≤6 at 300 K are in the range 3.3-3.8 mωcm which is 70% of that for x=0. As a result, the power factor for x=4 and 6 has a rather large maximum of 1.83× 10-3 W/m K2 at 480 K. The thermal conductivity stays at a low level of 0.72 W/mK up to 480 K, and the sample with x=6 reaches a ZT value of 1.2 at 500 K.
All Science Journal Classification (ASJC) codes
- Physics and Astronomy(all) | <urn:uuid:ef0fc1b8-f705-4b51-8656-121e2efd2c89> | CC-MAIN-2022-33 | https://kyushu-u.pure.elsevier.com/en/publications/enhancement-of-thermoelectric-efficiency-in-type-viii-clathrate-b | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2022-33/segments/1659882571536.89/warc/CC-MAIN-20220811224716-20220812014716-00274.warc.gz | en | 0.881274 | 268 | 1.867188 | 2 |
Greetings from ANROEV secretariat!
International Workers Memorial Day (IWMD), 28 April 2019 is knocking at the door.
Every year IWMD observed on April 28 as a day of commemoration and action for workers those who killed, disabled, injured, intoxicated by chemical exposure or made unwell by lack of safety and health at work. It is a day to commemorate for those who died at work, fight for the rights of injured workers and to acknowledge the grievous suffering experienced by families and communities.
This day is also an opportunity for us to highlight the OSH awareness , demands and promotion of preventative safety culture.
This year the proposed theme of ANROEV for IWMD is: ʺRaising Voice to Ratify ILO Convention no. 155 (Occupational Safety and Health Convention, 1981)ʺ.
It will be appreciated if you could share us your organisation’s plan of action on 28 April.
Furthermore, we also request you to send us activities picture or produced materials (if any) after the event.
With best regards, | <urn:uuid:d04814e3-7add-420d-92ab-605003fb6054> | CC-MAIN-2022-33 | https://28april.org/?p=2645 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2022-33/segments/1659882572221.38/warc/CC-MAIN-20220816060335-20220816090335-00072.warc.gz | en | 0.946247 | 229 | 1.789063 | 2 |
is one of regencies in East Java, which lies on the
north coast between Probolinggo and Banyuwangi. To
get to Situbondo, it takes about 4 hours from Surabaya
and 5 hours from Denpasar, Bali. Situbondo district
is 1,638,150 km2 or 163,850 ha. Situbondo is one tourism
destinations in East Java that is very attractive
to visit; beautiful beaches, mountains, hills, forests,
and historical heritages of Dutch colonial. Situbondo
has save its tourism potential to be visited. It offers
the beautiful of the area to the tourists, both the
foreign tourists and domestic tourists.
Situbondo Tourism In East Java Province - Indonesia.
Found many interesting and beautiful natural tourism
object, religious tourism, savannah and many others.
Invite you family and your friend to spend your holiday
by visiting Situbondo tourism object. | <urn:uuid:cb820f22-6091-44b3-a08a-43c2beb05b4f> | CC-MAIN-2017-04 | http://situbondotourism.com/?lang=id | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2017-04/segments/1484560283301.73/warc/CC-MAIN-20170116095123-00510-ip-10-171-10-70.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.824677 | 203 | 2.015625 | 2 |
I may have explained myself poorly. I am not advocating any separation of the wubu
from the bamen
. What I meant was that although directional and compass terms are used with respect to the bamen
, these are not their principal elements. Although Press is associated by some with "forward" and the "east," we do not describe as Press every forward movement or every movement to the physical east. Similarly, I am questioning whether every leftward movement should be described in terms of Gaze Left.
Because I am proposing for argument's sake that direction is not the essential component of either the wubu
or the bamen
, I am saying that there is no need to discuss any inclusion or exclusion of "up" or "down." These are arguably already included in the theory in the same way that one can do Press to the west or in a downward direction. I think that left, right, forward, backward, etc. have some relationship to our anatomical structure, but I am suggesting that the theory may not primarily be defined in these terms, but rather in terms of typical interactions with the opponent.
In talking about stepping on or underneath an opponent, I was trying to address the issue of grappling. Although I have heard that such training is an intergral part of Wu2 Style, I have not read anything about this in the general classical theory. I am suggesting that the classical theory presupposes a standing confrontation square-on with an opponent. I have heard various explanation and justifications for this, but that is probably a matter for another thread.
<BLOCKQUOTE><font size="1" face="Verdana, Arial">quote:</font><HR><font face="Verdana, Arial" size="2">Steve said:Similarly, the shi "Lu" (Rollback) is almost universally done while moving to the rear, turning to one side, and somewhat downward.
I could be wrong, but I thought that Yang Chengfu's form also has instances of Lu in a forward stance, such as in the transition into Separate Foot Left and Right? In learning basic Lu push hand applications, I also learned one going backward and one going forward, depending on whether I was circling over onto the opponent's forward or backward leg. Do I have this wrong?
<BLOCKQUOTE><font size="1" face="Verdana, Arial">quote:</font><HR><font face="Verdana, Arial" size="2">Steve said: For example, I don't think I want the opponent's energy to circulate "through" me. I want to lead it into emptiness.
I guess for me, the path the energy travels through is a different issue from where it lands. In my view, the issue is more with what method ones uses to lead. For instance, there is an Aikido skill that involves dodging a punch to the face with such exquisite timing that the opponent simply misses and lands the punch on thin air. For me, this fits the definition of "landing/falling on emptiness" (luo4 kong1). Because you have to leave your face as a target up until the last moment, I would also accept that this skill includes "leading." I would, however, argue that this skill is not typical of Taiji skills, because the interplay of empty and full and of zhan-nian-lian-sui ("adhere-stick-continue-follow") is not very evident. I am also doubtful that the concept of being double weighted has much utility in such situations. It seems to me that typical Taiji skills involve touch, physical contact, an exchange of energy, and control over the energy flow. If all one does is lead into emptiness, how can one borrow energy from the opponent?
<BLOCKQUOTE><font size="1" face="Verdana, Arial">quote:</font><HR><font face="Verdana, Arial" size="2">Steve said:I personally would not put primacy in the wubu or the bamen. I think they work together.
I agree they work together, but if the wubu
are not the foundation of the bamen
, how can one relate these to the adage that the "power is rooted in the feet, generated by the legs, controlled by the waist, and manifested in the hands and fingers"?
<BLOCKQUOTE><font size="1" face="Verdana, Arial">quote:</font><HR><font face="Verdana, Arial" size="2">Steve said:Ah, looking at the steps as "stages" is interesting. Looking at each "shi" as having five stages is complicated. Please expand.
Perhaps the key is in the Yi Jing/ I Ching? Can anyone elaborate on how the theory of the Five Elements fits in with the trigrams and hexagrams? I do not know much about this. On second thought, perhaps the key is in interpretations given to Zhou Dunyi's Taijitu and how it relates the Five Elements to the trigrams. As I recall, his visual arrangement puts the trigrams on top of the Five Elements, like the arms and hands are over the feet; however, he also seems to imply that the Five Elements are secondary to the trigrams.
I think that Sam Masich is researching or has researched the wubu
and will write a book about it. See this link for more information: http://www.embracethemoon.com/core_principles.htm
. In the seminar I mentioned before, he alluded to psychological phenomena that are hard to describe in words, but which centered on the qualitative differences in the names of each of the steps.
As I have pondered this issue, I think that one is left with a limited amount of choices.
One choice is to see the wubu
as describing power interchanges that are principally characterized by forward, backward, leftward, rightward movement, or central stability over the course of performing a posture. Here the question of up and down is most clearly left begging.
Another choice is to see the wubu
as describing power interchanges at any single instant in time. In this case, the emphasis would be on maintaining good structure, intent, etc. with respect to each of the 360 degrees, at least in two dimensions. Anderzander's comments strike me as a better developed version of this, but I will let him elaborate for himself. Again, "up" and "down" arguably go begging for a clear role in the scheme; but if the real meaning is that one needs to have awareness and maintain the principles in all directions, perhaps this is not serious deficiency in the imagery of the theory.
A third choice is to see the wubu
as describing power interchanges that govern the different stages or steps necessary to complete any one posture. I am not much of an expert on Five Element Theory, but I will try to offer up one possible way of interpreting this.
Rather than dealing principally with cycles of destruction (like Xingyi?) or of creation, I will approach these in terms of the agricultural year. As I recall, winter is Water, the time that energy is quiescent. Spring is Wood, the time that energy grows. Summer is Fire, the time that energy expands. Autumn is Metal, the time that energy is harvested and stored. In some views, earth corresponds to late summer; in others, it is the phase or "element" that "mediates" all the other transitions.
First, let's take the one-hand circling push hands exercise as the simplest case. This is what I think the Association would call horizontal circling. This exercise involves transitions between the Four Square Energies (Wardoff, Rollback, Press, and Push), although Press is not clearly represented.
If we take the moment after our Push energy is exhausted, we arguably have a brief moment of Press. At this moment, we have no active attacking energy and can be seen as entering a recovery phase. We might call this analogous to the Water Phase, where energy is quiescent and stored for future potential. Water corresponds to Retreat Step. In addition, this is the moment when the opponent most likely initiates an intent to advance in attack, which corresponds to Fire. Water is the Phase/Element that overcomes Fire.
As we then transition into Ward Off, we enter a stage where we are facing to the left and our energy potential grows. Attack (in the form of a subsequent Rollback) again becomes possible. This stage would be Wood, where energy grows. Wood corresponds to Look Left or Take Care of the Left (zuo3 gu4). This is also the moment where we try to use Zhan (Adhere) to attack our opponent's equilibrium and uproot him or her. Wood is the element that overcomes Earth, which could represent the Central Equilbrium of the opponent.
As we then go to Roll Back, we turn the waist to the right and neutralize the opponent's Push. We can do this in order to initiate an attack that would consummate with a subsequent push. This stage would be Fire, where energy expands. Fire corresponds to Attack Step. This is the element that overcomes Metal, which might be considered the opponent's attempt at harvesting the results of his or her attack.
We end by attempting to push in the final right quadrant of the circle and look toward our release of energy into the opponent. This stage would be Metal, where energy is harvested and consumed. Metal corresponds to Look Right (really, "Look with expectation to the right"). Metal is the element that overcomes Wood, which might represent the opponent's attempt to recover and gain energy to reach stability.
Depending on one's views, Earth could either be the Central Equilibrium that one needs to control all these transition or the Central Equilbrium that one can achieve after pushing the opponent out.
These are just my musings for discussion, and I am not wedded to this scheme. Off hand, a theory of this nature would seem to have the advantage of focusing the practitioner on finding the circular energy exchange and the five stages of each posture. I have had my Press corrected on these lines, where my movements have lacked half of the energy circle. As I think about it, I think I could profitably analyze each of Yang Chengfu's named postures in this way.
[This message has been edited by Audi (edited 01-27-2005).]
[This message has been edited by Audi (edited 01-27-2005).] | <urn:uuid:2c6b5d22-4d00-49e3-9cbb-0497028e97f6> | CC-MAIN-2016-44 | http://www.yangfamilytaichi.com/phpBB3/viewtopic.php?p=1493 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2016-44/segments/1476988719416.57/warc/CC-MAIN-20161020183839-00363-ip-10-171-6-4.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.950896 | 2,212 | 2.21875 | 2 |
How to Validate Your Minumum Viable Product Idea?
Before you build an MVP following the Lean startup methodology, the core idea of your future project has to be validated. The confirmation that a product or service meets the needs and requirements of its potential users can be carried out in several ways. Which is the best way to validate MVPs and choose the most efficient, time-saving and cheapest one?
This process can be carried out in the form of problem listing which the product is assumed to solve. Moreover, customers can express their ideas on how they would rank the problems. It is a topical issue for all start-ups. There’s a good saying of Steve Blank, the co-author of The Start-Up Owner’s Manual: “In a start-up, no facts exist inside the building, there are only opinions”.
Make a landing page/website
The landing page is the first-page website visitor see. There are many examples of people who are advocating the idea of using landing pages to “sell first, build later”. The sooner you build a landing page with pre-ordering functionality the better. See the case below. A wonderful example of the successful use of a landing page (which in most cases is a pre-order page as well) is Optimizely offering to request a demo and try the demo of the product for free for 30 days.
Also, landing pages can exist in the form of pre-order pages. It is much similar to fundraising MVPs, too, but the difference is that the Pre-Order MVPs let present the product to potential customers with the objective of enticing them to buy it as soon as it is released. The virtual reality gaming kit, Oculus Rift, launched a pre-order page for its device before they started the development.
Launch Fundraising campaign
MVP tests can be run on many up-to-date platforms, such as Kickstarter, Indiegogo, GoFundMe, Pozible, Fundable, etc. These services are operating like catalogs of various kinds of MVPs which are looking forward to receiving essential marketing information from initial customers and aficionados. Such means combines the benefits of validated learning, product fundraising, and access to a group of interested. The Pebble e-paper smartwatch and Ouya gaming console are perfect examples proving that this method does work out. What was Pebble making people pay for the product before building it? In this case, Kickstarter performed the role of a pre-order platform, where funders were rewarded with the promise of the product once it hits a minimum funding goal. So, how much money Pebble managed to collect this way? Over 10M$!
Mockups, wireframes, and prototypes can be used to express the product’s functionality in a way that copies the full product and actual usage. Low-fidelity sketches, screenshot previews, “dummy” apps — these are the varieties of how the user can receive that “demo-version” experience. It is possible to use collaborative wireframing and prototyping tools like UXPin. This asset allows to express the sketch of the draft product and share the idea with the team or followers.
Develop a Single-feature MVP
Some companies prefer focusing on a single feature of the product to save MVP development time and effort as well as prevent users from becoming confused with the initial idea of the product. Foursquare is a good example of this point. At first stages, it was planned to be an app letting its users check-in to the social network with their location. Now you can see by yourself what the whole idea has turned into.
As you see, the number of varieties to test the MVP is really big. All of the examples provided above concern the launch of the very successful products we face today. What are your ideas for validating the business idea?
Originally published at https://sumatosoft.com. | <urn:uuid:84af18a7-14b9-4768-b08d-1135d1cc8fd0> | CC-MAIN-2022-33 | https://sumatosoft.medium.com/how-to-validate-your-minumum-viable-product-idea-9f4ebbf7b5f3 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2022-33/segments/1659882571222.74/warc/CC-MAIN-20220810222056-20220811012056-00678.warc.gz | en | 0.947785 | 823 | 1.71875 | 2 |
A pilot program run by radiologists at the University of Michigan offers breast cancer screenings to women on rural Indian reservations.
A truck equipped with mammography equipment has been delivering care to Native American women in North Dakota and South Dakota, connecting patients with clinicians at the University of Michigan. The pilot program performed hundreds of screens over the summer, and the Indian Health Service will provide the service again in 2007.
Without the roving mammogram truck, women would need to travel up 100 miles to get a mammogram done. Only about 10 percent of Native American women over age 40 get a yearly mammogram.
Under the mobile mammography program, administered by clinicians at the University of Michigan Comprehensive Cancer Center, screening images are transmitted in real time via a satellite connection to a GE SenoAdvantage 2.0 workstation at the breast imaging division at the University of Michigan.
Radiologists said that the quality of remote images was similar to that of locally performed digital images. The time to transmit the images was about five minutes. A separate study
sponsored by the National Cancer Institute found that digital mammography is just as accurate as film and that women under 50 or with dense breasts are more accurately screened with digital versions.
Click here to read about another study that suggests that body scans performed by experts using remote control software can produce higher-quality images than those obtained by on-site operators.
In over 80 percent of the screenings, images were analyzed and reports returned to patients in less than an hour after image transmission. And timing improved as the study progressed. In the fourth week of the study, 94 percent of reports were generated in under an hour. When technology worked properly and weather conditions were ideal, reports were returned in as little as 30 minutes.
The rapid turnaround meant that most patients who should receive follow-up screens were able to get them. The unit performed 515 mammography examinations on 506 patients in rural areas. Fifty-eight patients were called back for additional screens, and 42 of them received them within two days.
"The results demonstrate that digital mammograms can be transmitted rapidly by satellite without loss of image quality and can be interpreted remotely," said Marilyn A. Roubidoux, professor of radiology at University of Michigan Health System, in Ann Arbor, in a statement. "Furthermore, patients reported high satisfaction with the professional and sensitive care they received."
Roubidoux presented the results of the pilot program at the annual meeting of the Radiological Society of North America. An abstract is available here.
Check out eWEEK.coms for the latest news, views and analysis of technologys impact on health care. | <urn:uuid:1f443ae4-7a36-4fa8-9e16-a90c06bae800> | CC-MAIN-2017-04 | http://www.eweek.com/c/a/Health-Care-IT/Digital-Mammography-Brings-Cancer-Screening-to-Remote-Reservations | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2017-04/segments/1484560280761.39/warc/CC-MAIN-20170116095120-00092-ip-10-171-10-70.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.966711 | 538 | 3.234375 | 3 |
The Case Against Navy Sonar Testing – Joshua Horwitz’ War of the Whales
The case against the U.S. Navy’s controversial use of deadly sonar testing activities, which causes substantial harm to marine mammals, continues in the courtroom today, with ALDF’s joint lawsuit against the U.S. Navy. Joshua Horwitz’ The War of the Whales explores this conflict between the safety of marine life and the Navy’s use of lethal sonar training exercises. It is also the true story of how two men took on the U.S. Navy’s best kept secrets: submarine surveillance and its impact on whales.
Most of what we know about whales and dolphins today, says Horwitz, comes from Navy-funded research dating back to the 1950s. “I call the book War of the Whales because the Navy pretty much single-handedly created the discipline of marine mammal science. There were no whale scientists to speak of. The only people who knew anything about whales were whalers—and they mostly knew which kinds of whales were easy to hunt.” The discovery of the ability of dolphins and whales to “echolocate” was paramount—with this discovery, however, came the Navy’s desire to reverse engineer this bio-sonar and the “acoustic mastery” of these marine mammals. The irony is that now the U.S. Navy harms animals while trying to reproduce their natural abilities.
“The Silent Service”
Submarine warfare is known as “the Silent Service” and depends upon stealth tracking. Horwitz explains, “The Navy has a tradition of secrecy, understandably, where all of their operations are classified. Every time I interviewed an active duty officer the Navy would have a public affairs person in the room. As you can imagine, that has a dampening effect on an interview.”
“My breakthrough,” Horwitz told ALDF, “came from speaking to retired Navy admirals—the people who achieve admiral status are the real leaders of the Navy. They retire at the peak of their powers and want to stay involved, and do so in backchannel ways in Navy policy and so forth. I found my way to these retired admirals, including one who was the former director of antisubmarine warfare at the Pentagon. These people want to be heard. And they have a lot more discretion of what they can talk about.”
Tracking enemy submarines plays a significant part of the Navy’s duties. Horwitz explains that “in the 1990s two different wars converged—the Navy’s attempt to train and recruit dolphins and small whales as combatants in war zones and to reverse engineer echolocation so the Navy could create their own dolphin drones and sonar systems, which ironically turned out to be lethal to certain kinds of whales. The other ‘war’ was the battle to save the whales, which grew out of this same movement.”
National Security vs. Animal Welfare?
The idea of environmental concerns vs. national security concerns is a false dichotomy, Horwitz says. “Number one, all of the lawsuits—including the current one that ALDF is party to—all they want to do is limit peace-time training and exercises. In a war situation… where Navy sailors and ships are under threat and attack, obviously the Navy needs to do what it needs to do to protect its people and protect the country. However, whales and dolphins shouldn’t have to die for practice. You don’t need to train in known marine habitats. That’s the position of NRDC and ALDF in this, and it’s a self-evident position.”
Natural Resources Defense Council (NRDC) senior attorney Joel Reynolds and Navy veteran Ken Balcomb brought forth a lawsuit in the 1990s to compel the Navy to tell the truth about acoustic warfare activities. A lower court ruled against the Navy, but the Bush administration overturned that decision by executive order, claiming national security issues. NRDC did not give up and that case reached the Supreme Court in 2008. The higher court ruled that protection of the public interest came from “securing the strongest military defense rather than in enforcing marine mammal protection.” However, the case invoked further comprehensive environmental research on the topic. Thanks to NRDC’s lawsuit, such studies are required and often funded by the Office of Naval Research.
Devastating Impact on Marine Mammals
Research has increasingly shown that noise pollution has devastating impact upon marine mammals. For example, we now know the Navy’s testing exercises are causing whales to be confused and as a result they often end up stranded on beaches. Whale stranding, Horwitz insists, “is an ongoing problem the Navy would like us to believe has been solved, but in fact it is a recurrent issue.” Just this April, the U.S. Navy was implicated in a mass stranding off the southern shore of Crete.
Active sonar tests are the Navy’s attempts to take a sonogram of a body of water by introducing high-intensity sound waves. “These surface warships are pouring huge amounts of sound into a closed marine environment, which fills up with sound, continues to reverberate and becomes more and more intense,” says Horwitz. “These whales, who dive to depths of over a mile in these canyons, have nowhere to go to escape this acoustic storm… except onto beaches.” Nonlethal harms to whales—including to endangered species—include reproductive decline and changes to migratory patterns.
The Case Against The Navy
Why do these tests continue when we already know how harmful they are? For decades after the Cold War the Navy conducted these classified tests without going through the required permitting process. “By the end of the Cold War, in order to justify their budgets they had to become more transparent about what they were doing. Under compulsion from NRDC, the Navy started to apply for permits. For twenty years there have been legal challenges to those permits. The problem is there is an inherent conflict of interest—you have one small federal agency (National Marine Fisheries Service) regulating another federal agency, in this case the Navy, who has a multi-trillion dollar budget.”
NMFS is wildly understaffed and outgunned in political power. “When there is an ‘Unusual Mortality Event,’ which Fisheries is supposed to investigate, they don’t even have the resources to investigate the Navy. It’s inherently a conflict of interest. It’s also classic case of the fox guarding the henhouse,” Horwitz says. “They continue to give permits to the Navy, and that’s why the work of groups like NRDC and ALDF is so important: to keep large federal agencies like the U.S. Navy accountable to federal law.”
Along with the NRDC, the Animal Legal Defense Fund is currently involved with a similar lawsuit against the U.S. Navy for amplifying its sonar testing program. ALDF and NRDC allege that the National Marine Fisheries Service (NMFS) illegally granted the Navy permission to harm marine mammals nearly ten million times off the coast of southern California and Hawaii during the 2013-2018 “training” period. In the Navy’s own environmental review, the Navy estimates that sonar training, underwater detonations, and gunnery exercises will cause 9.6 million “takes” (or harms), 155 mortalities, more than 2,000 instances of permanent hearing loss or other permanent injury for dolphins and whales and millions of instances of temporary hearing loss. Endangered blue whales and beaked whales are at particular risk. This is more than a 1000% increase from the previous five year period—which was already under question by environmental and animal advocates in the lawsuit featured in War of the Whales.
Joshua Horwitz has worked for decades with humane, environmental, and animal groups—including ALDF—and is a book author and publisher (he is cofounder and publisher of Living Planet Books). For more information, visit warofthewhales.com. | <urn:uuid:526880fe-4d50-40dc-af9b-8035d34b35fc> | CC-MAIN-2017-04 | http://aldf.org/resources/laws-cases/the-case-against-navy-sonar-testing-joshua-horwitz-war-of-the-whales/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2017-04/segments/1484560285001.96/warc/CC-MAIN-20170116095125-00309-ip-10-171-10-70.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.960331 | 1,706 | 1.867188 | 2 |
With fascinating landscapes from the Amazon rainforest to the beautiful tropical beaches Brazil is one of the most captivating destinations for travellers. The country has more than 2,000 beaches, 1,000 islands, 62 national parks and many other conversation areas, all teeming with wildlife and diversity.
We didn’t have time to explore the whole country (Brazil is the 5th largest country in the world!) but we did get to spend 2 and a half months in the more Southern regions.
We truly love Brazil. From innovative Curitiba and it’s ample green spaces.To the incredible beaches of Florianopolis and of course, the awe-inspiring Iguazu falls where 250 spectacular waterfalls plunge into the river on the border between Brazil, Argentina and Paraguay. And finally the wildlife rich Pantanal – the world’s largest wetlands and my personal favourite the unforgettable fresh water snorkelling in beautiful Bonito.
There are so many reasons why you’ll love Brazil as well, continuing reading our posts below to find out more. | <urn:uuid:f1e0e824-01e5-4e0a-9b04-45a4a87d825b> | CC-MAIN-2022-33 | https://www.twolostfeet.com/brazil/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2022-33/segments/1659882570879.1/warc/CC-MAIN-20220808213349-20220809003349-00478.warc.gz | en | 0.895101 | 223 | 1.507813 | 2 |
The INFOSEC (INFOrmation SECurity) Certificate program is for undergraduate computer science students who want to intensively study cybersecurity and privacy. The Certificate is awarded to students who complete the required courses, with grades of C- or better, and graduate with a Bachelors degree in Computer Science.
The INFOSEC certificate entails the completion of the following requirements:
- A core CS systems sequence, which may be either of:
- CS 356 Computer Networks or C S 356R Wireless Networks
- CS 361 Introduction to Computer Security
- CS 361S Network Security and Privacy
In addition, one of the classes from the following list:
- CS 361C Information Assurance and Security
- CS 378 Real World Information Security
- C S 378 Ethical Hacking
- C S 378 Information Security Product Development
- C S 346 Cryptography
The Department of Computer Science is authorized to award the INFOSEC Professional Certificate by the Committee on National Security Systems, which is managed by the National Information Assurance Education and Training Program Office within the Information Directorate of the National Security Agency. After completing the required classes, a student may apply for the INFOSEC Professional Certificate by filling out the INFOSEC certification request. The form must be brought to the CS Advising Center for submission.
Graduates who earn the Certificate commonly receive starting-salary bumps of $10,000/year from government labs and agencies concerned with cybersecurity. | <urn:uuid:3624b999-bde1-4e5a-8514-11a8bd6cb86b> | CC-MAIN-2016-44 | https://login.cs.utexas.edu/undergraduate-program/academics/certificate-programs/infosec?quicktabs_tabs_infosec=0 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2016-44/segments/1476988721595.48/warc/CC-MAIN-20161020183841-00478-ip-10-171-6-4.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.900958 | 296 | 1.914063 | 2 |
Lonzanida vs COMELEC, G.R. No. 135150 case brief summary
July 28, 1999
Facts: Petitioner Lonzanida was duly elected and served two consecutive terms as municipal mayor of San Antonio, Zambales prior to the May 1995 elections. In the May 1995 elections Lonzanida ran for mayor of San Antonio, Zambales and was again proclaimed winner. He assumed office and discharged the duties thereof. His proclamation was contested and resulted to declaring his opponent winning the election and ordered Lonzanida to vacate the office. In the May 11, 1998 elections Lonzanida again filed his certificate of candidacy. His opponent filed a petition for disqualification on the grounds that it is a violation of the three-term rule. COMELEC granted the petition. Petitioner filed a petition challenging the validity of the COMELEC resolution.
Issue: Whether petitioner’s assumption of office from May 1995 to March 1, 1998 is considered full term of office for the purpose of three-term rule
Ruling: The Supreme Court ruled that it cannot be considered a full term of office for two reasons, he cannot be considered elected as the proclamation was void and he also did not voluntary renounce office, but was involuntary severance from office.
The petition is granted and the resolution of the COMELEC declaring petitioner Lonzanida disqualified to run for mayor in the 1998 mayoral elections are hereby set aside. | <urn:uuid:7d5cb1c1-ec03-4df8-9de4-3937e5a016d5> | CC-MAIN-2017-04 | http://www.lawschoolcasebriefs.net/2014/06/lonzanida-vs-comelec-gr-no-135150-case.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2017-04/segments/1484560280587.1/warc/CC-MAIN-20170116095120-00557-ip-10-171-10-70.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.972595 | 302 | 1.578125 | 2 |
In this work cadmium telluride thin film photovoltaic devices have successfully been produced using a novel closed-field magnetron sputtering technique. This technique offers the possibility of producing cells in an all-in-one vacuum process with the potential to provide a new lower cost production route. The sputtered cadmium telluride layers were characterised in detail using a range of advanced microscopy based techniques both in the as deposited and after the cadmium chloride treated state, a treatment that is necessary to produce a working cell. In the as deposited condition the cadmium telluride layer was seen to have a fine-grained columnar structure containing a high density of stacking faults. After the cadmium chloride treatment these grains recrystallized and the new grains were equiaxed with a much lower density of intragranular defects. Similar effects were also observed in samples prepared using close space sublimation.
To understand this recrystallization behaviour during the cadmium chloride treatment, the key treatment parameters were systematically varied. Chemical analysis in Scanning Transmission Electron Microscopy (STEM) showed that chlorine travelled down the cadmium telluride grain boundaries and accumulated adjacent to the cadmium telluride/cadmium sulphide interface. This interface is where the cadmium telluride grains were found to recrystallise first during interrupted cadmium chloride treatments.
The nature of the stacking faults was examined using High Resolution Transmission Electron Microscopy (HR-TEM). This showed that in localised regions up to one plane of atoms per sequence was missing based on the expected zinc blende structure. This changed the packing of the atoms such that a local change in crystal structure occurred. This local change in phase was successfully mapped using Electron Backscatter Diffraction in planar section produced using Focused Ion Beam milling. This was subsequently studied in more detail using Transmission Electron Backscatter Diffraction in the Scanning Electron Microscope, where the intra-granular arrangement of the phases was observed.
HR-TEM was used to quantitatively measure the linear defects in the cadmium telluride layer after thermal annealing with and without the cadmium chloride present. This showed that annealing alone resulted in only a modest reduction in the density of linear defects and grain recrysallisation only occurred in the presence of cadmium chloride.
Cadmium magnesium telluride (CMT) was successfully grown epitaxially onto the cadmium telluride as an electron reflector layer to improve cell performance. During deposition the cell experienced high temperatures and this caused the stacking faults to return in a cell that had been previously cadmium chloride treated. This resulted in a reduction in cell efficiency, providing another link between linear defects and a degradation in cell performance.
A Doctoral Thesis. Submitted in partial fulfilment of the requirements for the award of Doctor of Philosophy of Loughborough University. | <urn:uuid:46065673-5eb0-4c2a-ad4d-88bb347adf1e> | CC-MAIN-2017-04 | https://dspace.lboro.ac.uk/dspace-jspui/handle/2134/16389 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2017-04/segments/1484560281450.93/warc/CC-MAIN-20170116095121-00173-ip-10-171-10-70.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.940349 | 619 | 2.359375 | 2 |
Sticky Monkey Flower and Orange Bush Monkey Flower.
Sticky Monkey flower is a perennial with 1" orange flowers that likes partial shade and look better with little water. Sticky Monkey flower is normally 3-4 feet tall and cold tolerant to about 12-15 degrees F in the ground with no damage. They froze to the ground at 0-5 degrees F., but came right back. Monkeyflower is a HUMMINGBIRD PLANT and has been deer proof in all areas to date. Monkeyflower goes dormant in summer if you have a hot dry climate. It will grow in any soil including serpentine
as long as it has drainage and is not overwatered. The new Jepson Manual combines many monkeyflowers under the moniker Mimulus aurantiacus. They are not even remotely the same in horticulture. Most if not all Mimulus spp. need water,(R type); most Diplacus species are drought tolerant (C type). Some tolerate full sun, and some full shade. Find some way to specify the monkey flower for your area.
(Mimulus aurantiacus, Diplacus latifolius ) Click here for more about Monkeys in California
Syn: Mimulus aurantiacus
Diplacus aurantiacus tolerates clay and serpentine.
Diplacus aurantiacus is great for a bird garden.
Diplacus aurantiacus's foliage color is green and type is stressdeciduous.
Diplacus aurantiacus's flower color is orange.
Communities for Diplacus aurantiacus:Chaparral, Closed-cone Pine Forest, Coastal Sage Scrub, Mixed-evergreen Forest, Northern Coastal Sage Scrub, Northern Oak Woodland, Redwood Forest and Central Oak Woodland.
||5.00 to 8.00
||7 to 10
||0.50 to 1.00
||0.50 to 1.00
||48.00 to 141.00
What does all this mean!?! | <urn:uuid:823360d4-2791-43a0-9332-56d22056e215> | CC-MAIN-2017-04 | http://www.laspilitas.com/nature-of-california/plants/242--diplacus-aurantiacus | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2017-04/segments/1484560280761.39/warc/CC-MAIN-20170116095120-00094-ip-10-171-10-70.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.801493 | 424 | 2.140625 | 2 |
For Moses, the fear of the Lord was inseparable from God’s promise that Israel was his treasured possession. His awe, wrapped in love, led to a response. Moses believed the Lord more than his own fears. He lived under the God of great love and great power. “You, O God, are strong, and that you, O Lord, are loving” (Ps 62:11–12).
“There is no fear in love, but perfect love casts out fear” (1 John 4:18). These words from the apostle John tell us that love replaces—it casts out— fear. At first glance, this seems to put the biblical command to “fear the Lord” in jeopardy. But John is writing to those who fear judgment even after confessing their sins. He is not undercutting the importance of the fear of the Lord in our lives or suggesting that such fear was part of a fading, law-oriented era.
Yet, the fear of the Lord remains unclear for most of us, and it is critical to embrace it if we are to grow in wisdom (Pro 1:7). Let’s assume that we benefit from understanding it, and we could use more of it.
The basic idea is that the Lord is with us and he is also over us. He is the great and Holy God and is to be feared. This is a good fear because whatever we fear controls us. When we fear the Lord, we are controlled by him and his words. In short, we do what he says. We can pick out his voice from all the competition. And we certainly need to hear it. When we bow to sinful temptations, we usually ignore the Lord or justify ourselves with “this will be the last time.” | <urn:uuid:0e0e8b08-173c-451e-9e81-4d00e8059c18> | CC-MAIN-2022-33 | https://theaquilareport.com/the-fear-of-the-lord-for-today/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2022-33/segments/1659882572221.38/warc/CC-MAIN-20220816060335-20220816090335-00075.warc.gz | en | 0.976894 | 371 | 2.03125 | 2 |
President Barack Obama‘s (pictured) “Better Bargain for the Middle Class” plan introduction kicked off this week in grand fashion, causing a stir within the beltway and across the nation as cities struggle to create new jobs. As the economy exhibits a slow recovery, President Obama is aggressively pursuing his economic plan via a series of policy speeches, the first of which took place Tuesday afternoon in Chattanooga, Tenn. at the Amazon Fulfillment Center. And not surprisingly, Republican lawmakers have balked at the plan, even with a number of compromises partial to that party’s aims.
Flanked by Amazon workers, President Obama spoke plainly and directly about the aims of the “Better Bargain” plan. Making certain to mention the 7.2 million new jobs created in the past 40 months, Obama was frank in saying his administration and Congress needs to come together to do more:
But so far, for most of this year, we’ve seen an endless parade of distractions and political posturing and phony scandals. And we keep on shifting our way — shifting our attention away from what we should be focused on, which is how do we strengthen the middle class and grow the economy for everybody?
And as Washington heads toward yet another budget debate, the stakes couldn’t be higher. And that’s why I’m visiting cities and towns like this -– to lay out my ideas for how we can build on the cornerstone of what it means to be middle class in America.
So I’m doing a series of speeches over the next several weeks, but I came to Chattanooga today to talk about the first and most important cornerstone of middle-class security, and that’s a good job in a durable, growing industry.
President Obama went on to list a series of actions that would boost the aims of his economic plan and explained how manufacturing jobs have seen recent growth. Infrastructure was another focal point of growth and gave way to the President mentioning his “Fix It First” plan, which will focus on the nation’s most immediate repair needs, such as bridges, roads, and other related items. Jobs in the energy industry also surfaced during the President’s speech in addition to exporting. | <urn:uuid:574eeffb-8ac3-4b3f-904d-14beefb26bfa> | CC-MAIN-2016-44 | http://communityjournal.net/tag/bargain/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2016-44/segments/1476988718957.31/warc/CC-MAIN-20161020183838-00437-ip-10-171-6-4.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.966288 | 462 | 1.640625 | 2 |
The impact of urban areas on the deposition of air toxics to adjacent surface waters: A mass budget of PCBs in Lake Michigan in 1994
The impact of urban air toxics on the proximate water bodies was investigated as part of the AEOLOS Project (Atmospheric Exchange Over Lakes and Oceans). The hypothesis of this project was that emissions of hazardous air pollutants into the coastal urban atmosphere increased atmospheric depositional fluxes to proximate Great Waters. Areas of major field and modeling campaigns were located in southern Lake Michigan near Chicago, IL and northern Chesapeake Bay near Baltimore. The impact on Lake Michigan of PCB emissions from the urban area of Chicago was evaluated through field experiments to determine atmospheric concentrations, surface water concentrations, wet and dry deposition and bi-directional gas exchange. These values were used to construct a PCB mass budget for the Lake Michigan ecosystem, which includes the urban influence. PCB emissions in the Chicago atmosphere lead to dramatically increased atmospheric concentrations of PCBs off shore and significantly increased wet, dry particle and air-water exchange fluxes in southern Lake Michigan compared to the regional signal. High PCB concentrations occur over the lake only when the wind is from the direction of the urban/industrial complex inclusive of the shoreline from Gary, IN to Evanston, IL toward the lake. Although atmospheric loading of PCBs was much higher in the southern basin of Lake Michigan, water column concentrations have significantly decreased from 1980 to 1994 through the rapid uptake by settling particles, and have continued to decrease at a rate of 0.17 yr–1. In contrast to earlier PCB mass budgets that missed significant inputs, outputs and/or process terms, inclusion of the urban-influenced air-water exchange processes and a re-evaluation of new lake data effectively closed the PCB budget for Lake Michigan. Atmospheric exchange processes dominated the whole lake budget. The Chicago area, with high industrial density, emits large quantities of hazardous organic pollutants and has important impacts on the down wind coastal atmosphere and proximate surface waters. | <urn:uuid:28346c85-163a-42b2-82f7-bbfa5e54c12b> | CC-MAIN-2017-04 | https://www.environmental-expert.com/articles/the-impact-of-urban-areas-on-the-deposition-of-air-toxics-to-adjacent-surface-waters-a-mass-budget-o-4884 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2017-04/segments/1484560282926.64/warc/CC-MAIN-20170116095122-00399-ip-10-171-10-70.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.938647 | 402 | 2.46875 | 2 |
The story is set in '69-'70 in Louisville, KY and spans the seventh-grade year in a parochial school. Twelve-year old Chas Huckabee is grounded for having been kicked out of school at the end of the school year. From this vantage point he tells his very funny story of the rigors of the early stages of puberty, a tumultuous relationship with a comically protrayed older brother, and the lessons of loyalty, betrayal and friendship. One of the book's greatest strength is the narration by 12-year old Chas Huckabee. It has an authentic, slightly southern ring to it – and it's just as entertaining hearing the voice in your head as following the story itself. It's fast-paced, amusing, and at times hilarious. Maybe I can relate to it because I too was raised a Catholic.
The review of this Book prepared by Lynn | <urn:uuid:5aa8eaa2-d712-4db8-b819-0ebd6d42a4d4> | CC-MAIN-2017-04 | http://allreaders.com/book-review-summary/frenching-violet-22673 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2017-04/segments/1484560281226.52/warc/CC-MAIN-20170116095121-00381-ip-10-171-10-70.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.976655 | 179 | 1.648438 | 2 |
Twice weekly devotions and some miscellaneous ramblings about ministry… Please feel free to interact with our blog and ask questions.
Today I came across an interesting opinion piece from the website, Daily Good: News that Inspires. It’s written by Sriram Shamasunder, an associate professor of medicine at UCSF and the director of UCSF HEAL—a health training program in Navajo Nation and rural India....
Sunday, March 24th from 5:00 to 7:00 pm.
On this day we explore Revelation (pages 57-60 in the Student Handbook). The last book of the Bible is basically the dream journal of John of Patmos, and it’s a wild ride!
Sunday, March 10th from 5:00 to 7:00 pm.
Our study of the Paul and his letters continues with a dive into the letter to the churches in Galatia (pages 49-52 in the Student Handbook).
Throughout John’s Gospel, Jesus engages people in honest and sometimes difficult conversations that lead to faith, renewal and transformation.
Five years ago, I read a fascinating book by Diana Butler Bass–Christianity After Religion. In it she writes about the spiritual renewal that she sees going on around the globe. To live into the Spirit’s movement, she suggests four actions: prepare, practice, play and participate.
We all share a fascination for discovering ‘the rest of the story.’ We enjoy learning the behind-the-scenes facts about seemingly familiar events. | <urn:uuid:0122077c-0796-4671-a9b3-4b507c8428ff> | CC-MAIN-2022-33 | https://marinlutheran.org/resources/blog/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2022-33/segments/1659882572833.95/warc/CC-MAIN-20220817032054-20220817062054-00468.warc.gz | en | 0.919776 | 316 | 1.515625 | 2 |
What does WAT mean in Chat?
This page is about the meanings of the acronym/abbreviation/shorthand WAT in the Internet field in general and in the Chat terminology in particular.
Find a translation for WAT in other languages:
Select another language:
What does WAT mean?
- A medieval English given name, short for Walter. | <urn:uuid:fc430cb0-303b-40eb-ba6a-34b450a71b8d> | CC-MAIN-2017-04 | http://www.abbreviations.com/term/307302 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2017-04/segments/1484560280483.83/warc/CC-MAIN-20170116095120-00291-ip-10-171-10-70.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.865987 | 77 | 1.515625 | 2 |
Date of this Version
In higher plants, dominant mitochondrial mutations are associated with pollen sterility. This phenomenon is known as cytoplasmic male sterility (CMS). It is thought that the disruption in pollen development is a consequence of mitochondrial dysfunction. To provide definitive evidence that expression of an abnormal mitochondrial gene can interrupt pollen development, a CMS-associated mitochondrial DNA sequence from common bean, orf239, was introduced into the tobacco nuclear genome. Several transformants containing the orf239M gene constructs, with or without a mitochondrial targeting sequence, exhibited a semisterile or male-sterile phenotype. Expression of the gene fusions in transformed anthers was confirmed using RNA gel blotting, ELISA, and light and electron microscopic immunocytochemistry. Immunocytological analysis showed that the 0RF239 protein could associate with the cell wall of aberrant developing microspores. This pattern of extracellular localization was earlier observed in the CMS common bean line containing orf239 in the mitochondrial genome. Results presented here demonstrate that 0RF239 causes pollen disruption in transgenic tobacco plants and may do so without targeting of the protein to the mitochondrion. | <urn:uuid:f3b8237e-4493-4ee6-9af6-2d762e739193> | CC-MAIN-2022-33 | https://digitalcommons.unl.edu/plantscifacpub/44/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2022-33/segments/1659882571502.25/warc/CC-MAIN-20220811194507-20220811224507-00069.warc.gz | en | 0.910977 | 245 | 2.578125 | 3 |
For years National Geographic has honored some of the world’s top explorers, scientists and humanitarians with the distinction of being called Adventurers of the Year. That title is generally reserved for men and women who climb the highest mountains, plunge headlong into the deepest jungles or sail to the furthest points on the map, all in the name of exploration and science. Making the annual list of Adventurers of the Year is a feat that few ever earn and it brings with it a tremendous amount of respect and admiration.
Nat Geo is hoping to bring that same level of distinction to the travel world by announcing its first ever recipients of the Travelers of the Year award. According to the National Geographic website, this honor is given to “individuals who explore the world with passion and purpose,” which seems a bit arbitrary at first glance. After all, who amongst us doesn’t fit that description, right? But once you read the bios on the inaugural winners you start to see why these particular people were chosen from a list of hundreds of nominees sent in by readers.
For example, Paula Busey and Samwel Melami were given the award because of their unique cooperative relationship, which has been fostered over the past few years. Paula, who is a high-school librarian, met Samwel while on safari in his home country of Tanzania. While on that trip, Samwel served as the guide, impressing Paula with his knowledge of wildlife conservation, ecotourism and tribal history. When she returned home, Busey thought that the students in her school could benefit from meeting Melami and learning a few things from the young guide. So, she raised enough money to bring him to the States, where he spent a week teaching more than 1500 students about African traditions and culture. In return, the students raised funds to help Samwel build a modern kitchen in a school back home. The venture was so successful, that it has continued over the past three years.Other recipients include Diana Gross, an educator who used her sabbatical to connect students and teachers in diverse and distant places, and Theron Humphrey, who spent a full year visiting all 50 states, taking over 90,000 photos along the way. Fifteen-year-old Booker Mitchell earned his spot amongst the Travelers of the Year by starring in a series of videos that show him skateboarding in different destinations around the globe, while Aussie Robert Pennicott gets the nod for his circumnavigation of Australia in a tiny dinghy, raising funds and awareness for the eradication of polio along the way.
These are just a sampling of some of the interesting travelers who have taken home this honor for the first time. Considering most of the men and women on the list are not unlike many of us, perhaps a Gadling reader or two will make the list in the future as well.
[Photo Credit: Dana Romanoff] | <urn:uuid:d733ca97-2dfa-4e8d-9265-52f26266adfb> | CC-MAIN-2017-04 | http://gadling.com/2012/12/07/national-geographic-introduces-travelers-of-the-year/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2017-04/segments/1484560280900.71/warc/CC-MAIN-20170116095120-00006-ip-10-171-10-70.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.971364 | 604 | 1.875 | 2 |
On November 23rd last year, [Dhairya] attended a little shindig at MIT. Three drinks into the night, he blacked out and woke up in the hospital the next day. It was an alcohol-induced blackout, and like all parties at MIT, there’s an ingenious solution to [Dhairya]’s problem.
[Dhairya] came up with an alcohol-aware ice cube made of a coin cell battery, an ATtiny microcontroller, and an IR transceiver are molded into an edible gelatin ice cube. The microcontroller counts the number of sips per drink, and after one glass of adult beverage changes the color of the flashing LED from green to yellow. After two drinks the LED changes from yellow to red, signaling [Dhairya] to slow down.
If [Dhairya] feels the night is too young and keeps on drinking, the IR transmitter signals to his cell phone to send a text to a friend telling them to go take [Dhairya] home.
Less than three weeks after waking up in the hospital, [Dhairya] tested out his glowing ice cubes at another party. Everything performed wonderfully, even if he admits his creation is a little crude. A neat piece of work, and we can’t wait to see an update to this project. | <urn:uuid:3ac85613-7efb-40d0-9f15-a3ff741dd225> | CC-MAIN-2016-44 | http://hackaday.com/2013/01/09/led-ice-cubes-prevent-alcohol-induced-blackouts/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2016-44/segments/1476988725475.41/warc/CC-MAIN-20161020183845-00510-ip-10-171-6-4.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.963763 | 276 | 1.992188 | 2 |
UMW News Bureau
Seventh and Eighth graders from around Montana were on UMW campus participating in the first CSI-Birch Creek Summer Camp.
There were CSI investigators on the University of Montana Western campus, but they weren’t filming another spinoff of the popular television show.
Thirty middle school students from across Montana spent a week on the Dillon campus for the CSI: Birch Creek summer camp. The seventh and eighth graders investigated a fictitious crime scene in the Birch Creek drainage.[caption id="" align="alignnone" width="500" caption="Nichole Rang of Arlee, Mont. watches as Lisa Holt of Marion, Mont. places a sample into the thermo cycler. "][/caption]
The students were divided in two groups, with one group doing field work and the other doing lab work. Using the skills learned at the camp, the students unlocked the secrets of the crime that happened at the Birch Creek Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC) camp in 1936.
Camp activities were held both at the Birch Creek Center and in science labs on the Montana Western campus. Students learned all aspects of crime scene investigation techniques and the history of the CCC.
On the final day, each group gave a presentation of evidence and their conclusions of who did it! After each presentation, the group performed a skit detailed of the events of the crime.
CSI-Birch Creek was funded by a GEAR UP grant from the U.S. Department of Education and administered by the Montana Office of Commissioner of Higher Education. | <urn:uuid:621b2986-7baa-4852-8b9c-14c0893692eb> | CC-MAIN-2017-04 | http://www.umwestern.edu/academic-news/60-news/archive/495-16csi-birch-creek-at-montana-western.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2017-04/segments/1484560280718.7/warc/CC-MAIN-20170116095120-00409-ip-10-171-10-70.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.952027 | 317 | 2.453125 | 2 |
When we hear the word "Addiction" it is usually associated with drug abuse, excessive drinking, smoking and even too much gambling are all negative activities that are addictive.But if there is one kind of addiction that is actually beneficial for adults and kids alike, it would be an addiction to sudoku puzzles. Not only sudokus, but also, crosswords, ken ken, kakuro to name a few. As I was doing my research on these kind of puzzles, I came across this site " Startdl.puzzle" which has help me and my kid in our daily exercise.
I started off with Sudoku, then Sudoku high-fives ( 5 puzzle in one grid), Sudoku Ball (I donno how many puzzle in one ball). Sudoku was followed by Ken Ken, Kakuro, Anagrams, Qbox ( Qbox game in this site has really captivated my mind. You just don't want to stop doing it.) and then there is "Quote lovers" , you name it.
In my son's everyday routine, he has this site in his list. It is a must for him to solve any one of these puzzles a day, which has helped him a lot in his logical thinking skills. Since the puzzles entail the use of logic, common sense, and concentration, his brain is put out of the stupor of doing routine, mundane tasks. In other words, his brain actually gets a break and a good work-out. These puzzles keeps the brain cells healthier.
Education is important, but studies actually show that students who do mental workouts like sudoku and other puzzles have higher IQs than students who do not. This only shows that doses of puzzles solving are more than just ways to pass time. They actually help in improving your ability to comprehend more complex ideas.
Instead of watching TV, being on laptop and video games, hand them sudoku puzzles. Then, both you and your kids can defend your love of puzzle solving to those poor souls who do not understand the beauty, joy, and benefits of solving it.
The nice thing about doing a puzzle is that you know that there is solution. So lets solve some and find solutions !!!
1. Ken Ken:
2. Sudoku Ball: I solved this in 2 hrs and 17 mins.
Happy Puzzling !! | <urn:uuid:f7dbe3d6-5d4e-4825-87b3-bd89d9f10ade> | CC-MAIN-2017-04 | http://khairusworld.blogspot.com/2013/02/brain-health-and-puzzles.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2017-04/segments/1484560280128.70/warc/CC-MAIN-20170116095120-00392-ip-10-171-10-70.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.971395 | 485 | 2.265625 | 2 |
Data Center Description
The Flanders Marine Institute (VLIZ, http://www.vliz.be/) was created on 2 April 1999 by the Flemish Government, the Province of the West-Flanders and the Belgian National Science Foundation. It is an autonomous institution, with the legal status of a not-for-profit organization. The Flemish Government and the Province West-Flanders both contribute financially. The organizational structure and objectives of VLIZ are determined in the statutes and in a five-yearly management agreement. Privileges and obligations of the members are determined in a code of order; a membership form can be obtained from the secretariat or from the web site. VLIZ is a membership organization. Everyone with an interest in research in the coastal zone can, individually or as a group, become a member.
The main task of VLIZ is supporting and visualizing scientific research in the coastal area. By doing so, it developed a co-ordination forum, an oceanographic platform and the Flanders Marine Data and Information Centre. Besides, the institute acts as contact point and provides advices on demand of the government or on our own initiative. The VLIZ contributes also in popularizing science, in sensitizing in further expanding our marine multi-media center. The VLIZ has an interface function between the scientific community, the public authorities and the public at large. | <urn:uuid:9f1db229-9f91-4d5b-95d6-630214bb9a7d> | CC-MAIN-2016-44 | http://gcmd.nasa.gov/KeywordSearch/Supplementals.do?Portal=GCMD&KeywordPath=DataCenters&NumericId=3091&MetadataType=0&lbnode=mdlb3 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2016-44/segments/1476988722459.85/warc/CC-MAIN-20161020183842-00345-ip-10-171-6-4.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.916115 | 287 | 1.828125 | 2 |
CBA DESIGNATION: Represented
Under general supervision, to maintain landscaped areas by planting, trimming, and cultivating shrubs, lawns, trees and other plants; to maintain grass playing fields according to rules and specifications for specific uses and events; and to do related work as required.
REPRESENTATIVE DUTIES (Illustrative Only)
- Duties may include but are not limited to the following:
- Plants and cultivates trees, grass, flowers and shrubs.
- Cuts and edges lawns and borders.
- Sweeps and rakes lawns and adjacent areas.
- Maintains grass fields to meet seasonal sport demands and lines courts and playing areas for specific uses and events.
- Applies insecticides, fungicides, and weed controls as needed.
- Prepares soil for various kinds of planting; seeks new lawns.
- Operates mid-size and smaller power sweepers.
- Operates motorized blowers.
- Operates weed control equipment.
- Checks, adjusts and changes brushes on sweepers.
- Cleans and services equipment daily.
- Hoses decks, steps, and other concrete surfaces and operates power water blaster.
- Operates and maintains hand and power tools.
- Installs, services, and operates irrigation systems.
- May be required to put up chain link fencing for protection of plants and crowd control.
- At the request of a supervisor, performs a variety of unscheduled duties normally and traditionally performed by a Gardener.
Performs other duties as assigned.
KNOWLEDGE AND ABILITIES
- Knowledge of lawn planting and cutting procedures.
- Learn various methods, materials, and equipment used in propagating, cultivating, pruning, and caring for plants, flowers, shrubs, trees, and lawns.
- Operate light motorized equipment.
- Carry out oral and written instructions.
- Work cooperatively with others.
- Work in a multiethnic environment.
EDUCATION AND EXPERIENCE
Any combination of training and experience that would provide the required knowledge, skills, and abilities is qualifying. A typical way to obtain the required qualifications would be:
Completion of a course in gardening methods or some paid or unpaid experience in maintaining lawns and shrubs.
NOTE: Valid California Driver License is required.
Experience in planting, weeding, cultivating, and maintaining plants for several seasons.
NOTE: Eligibility is determined by a review of the following:
- Performance Tests
- Reference checks
- Medical history
- A pre-employment physical examination is required. Cost of physical will be paid by the Pasadena Area Community College District.
Lifting and carrying objects weighing up to 75 pounds, pushing and pulling, walking and standing for extended periods of time, dexterity of hands and fingers to operate a variety of hand-and power tools, reaching overhead, above the shoulders and horizontally, and kneeling or crouching.
Employees work primarily in an outdoor environment maintaining the grounds with sound, ventilation, and lighting inherent to the work environment typical to a community college. Landscaping equipment creating higher noise levels may require the use of hearing protection. Temperature conditions vary including occasional inclement weather conditions. Employees may interact with students, faculty, administrations and/or public and private representatives in interpreting and enforcing departmental policies and procedures.
LEVEL OF SUPERVISION EXERCISED
PROBATIONARY PERIOD: Six months.
Pasadena City College
1570 East Colorado Boulevard, Pasadena, CA 91106
(626) 585-7361 direct ⋅ (626) 525-7924 fax | <urn:uuid:83e7904d-31ed-472b-b1bc-a07df9deda40> | CC-MAIN-2022-33 | https://www.pasadena.edu/hr/employee-classification/csea-gardener.php | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2022-33/segments/1659882570871.10/warc/CC-MAIN-20220808183040-20220808213040-00267.warc.gz | en | 0.892318 | 829 | 1.8125 | 2 |
Occupational Health is concerned with the impact of health on work and vice versa. We discuss the key approaches and broad principles in matching an individual’s medical background with the environment and making sensible decisions about whether they should participate with a focus on diving, military deployments, offshore oil and gas and expeditions.
- Why preparation is the key to success!
- Mapping the individual and their condition to the environment.
- The key components of the ‘dive medical’, the role of respiratory and ENT problems
- The unique challenges of a remote maritime environment.
- A patient with a history of anaphylaxis to peanuts – can they be safely deployed to a remote oil rig that is over a day's travel from definitive care?
- Doing a risk assessment - who is at risk and why - what can you do about it?
- Proactive and reactive components of a risk assessment.
- The issue of non-disclosure on health questionnaires. Helping the organisation asking the right questions in the first place!
- The role of occupational medicine in protecting the individual AND the organisation (in that order).
- Being able to back yourself when you feel exposed in your decision making and manage risk and uncertainty.
- An approach to pre-existing mental health problems
- Taking a positive approach: Screening people in rather than screening them out.
- Why the UK military believe it’s important to join well, train well, live well, work well and leave well.
- Identifying and managing the return and transition to an individual's normal home environment after a long deployment.
Guest Bio: Dr Kent Haworth
MB ChB MSc BMedSci (Hons) FFOM MRCGP DTM&H DAvMed DRCOG DFFP
Consultant Occupational Medicine Physician
Kent studied medicine at St. Andrews and Manchester Universities graduating in 1992. While at university he joined the British military and spent many happy, professionally rewarding years in uniform in the British Army and Royal Navy, travelling extensively and practising medicine in wide range of physical environments.
Initially trained in general practice, he then commenced higher specialist training in occupational medicine gaining approval as a consultant in 2010. Thereafter followed a variety of clinical and policy/strategy development roles before hanging up his uniform for the last time in 2018. For his final assignment he led the department responsible for occupational medicine aspects of Army recruitment. On leaving the military he entered independent practice in the City of London before moving to Saudi Arabia in 2019. He returned to the UK in 2021 and is based in the South East of England.
Kent was elected a Fellow of the Faculty of Occupational Medicine, Royal College of Physicians in 2017. He is passionate about occupational medicine and its application to maximum benefit in real-world working environments. | <urn:uuid:d7fba2d6-9616-4b0e-9f06-f2d4667aad68> | CC-MAIN-2022-33 | https://wemcast.podbean.com/e/assessing-medical-fitness-for-extreme-environments-with-dr-kent-haworth/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2022-33/segments/1659882571097.39/warc/CC-MAIN-20220810010059-20220810040059-00264.warc.gz | en | 0.932488 | 587 | 1.578125 | 2 |
“Mary took about a pint of pure nard, an expensive perfume; she poured it on Jesus’ feet and wiped his feet with her hair. And the house was filled with the fragrance of the perfume.” – John 12:3
“She did WHAT?”
Word quickly spread throughout Bethany. People were shocked. Amazed. Dumbfounded. They couldn’t imagine what had possessed Mary to do something so ridiculous.
Six days before the Passover, a dinner was held in Jesus’ honor at the house of Lazarus, Mary’s brother. While Jesus was reclining at the table, Mary approached him, got down on her knees, and poured out a whole pint of pure nard on his feet. Then, she washed his feet with her hair.
It’s difficult for us to appreciate the amount of sacrifice portrayed here. Most people don’t have a clue about what nard is or how much it was worth in Bible times. Pure nard was a fragrant ointment imported from the mountains of India, and one pint was worth about a year’s wages. Because of its value, nard was often purchased as an investment. The nard Mary poured on Jesus’ feet may have represented her life savings. Therefore, to pour it out on someone’s feet seemed foolish. Asinine. Incomprehensible. So, why did Mary do it? Why did she “waste” such a precious gift?
First of all, Mary didn’t use the expensive perfume on just anyone. She used it to bathe the feet of her Lord. Mary loved Jesus and was deeply devoted to him. He was her King. He was the One who had raised her brother, Lazarus, from the dead. He was her Hope, her Comfort, her Joy. Therefore, it seemed right and fitting to honor him with her most valuable possession.
Second, Mary wanted to show the Lord how thankful she was for all he had done for her. Her heart longed for a meaningful expression of worship. Yes, she gave up something very costly for the Lord. Yes, it was a tremendous sacrifice. However, Mary didn’t let the value of her gift detract her from offering it. She could have kept the perfume to herself and enjoyed it for a long time, but she didn’t. Mary held nothing back. She gave it all.
Perhaps the most striking part of her story is how her gift changed her surroundings: “And the house was filled with the fragrance of the perfume (John 12:3b).” Not only was there a sweet-smelling aroma in the room, but Mary’s act of worship affected everyone else in a positive way that day. Because she gave to the Lord, others were lifted up. Encouraged. Blessed.
What was Jesus’ response to Mary’s gift? “She has done a beautiful thing to me (Matthew 26:10).” Your gifts to the Lord, no matter how big or small, are precious and pleasing to him. People around you may not understand. They may even mock you. However, don’t let that stop you from worshipping your Lord. Your sacrifices of love are always beautiful in his eyes. | <urn:uuid:d9313377-f810-40bd-806d-8e699e3e26d1> | CC-MAIN-2017-04 | http://www.ultimatedanielfast.com/marys-sacrifice/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2017-04/segments/1484560282926.64/warc/CC-MAIN-20170116095122-00393-ip-10-171-10-70.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.98995 | 688 | 2.65625 | 3 |
You could blame most of the teenage car accidents to music, as researcher have found a close relation between driving mistakes committed by teenagers, and driving mistakes.
Researchers from Ben-Gurion University of Negev in Israel have found that male novice drivers make serious driving mistakes when they are listening to their preferred music. The mistakes they commit when driving have been found to be in fact more serious than their female counterpart.
This study included 85 young novice drivers who were accompanied by a researcher and a driving instructor. Then each of these drivers took six trips for 40 minutes each while the music played from their own playlists. Two of these were background music which was designed for to increase driver’s safety; they were music that was for easy listening, soft rock, light jazz and the likes. Two additional trips were made without any music. It was found that when the teen drivers listened to their preferred music almost 98 per cent of them demonstrated an average of three deficient driving behaviours in at least one of the trips.
Also, without listening to any music, 92 per cent of them made errors. However, when driving with an alternative music background designed by Brodsky and Israeli music composer Micha Kisner, deficient driving behaviours decreased by 20 per cent. "Most drivers worldwide prefer to listen to music in a car and those between ages 16 to 30 choose driving to pop, rock, dance, hip-hop and rap. Young drivers also tend to play this highly energetic, fast-paced music very loudly - approximately 120 to 130 decibels," Brodsky said.
Read more articles on Health News
Whatever may be High Court’s decision with regards to the actor’s conviction, there is an important subject that has gotten little too less reference in the recent past.read more
Four in ten people living with constant pain reported that listening to their favourite tunes helps them relax and feel better.read more | <urn:uuid:b27e1b8f-b3b7-43eb-bbe9-edffa5b4ee9e> | CC-MAIN-2017-04 | http://www.onlymyhealth.com/rash-driving-by-teens-when-favourite-music-is-on-1377511416 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2017-04/segments/1484560283008.19/warc/CC-MAIN-20170116095123-00081-ip-10-171-10-70.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.982518 | 387 | 2.578125 | 3 |
Giardia and Giardiasis
*Subscription may be required
It is over 10 years since Meyer and Radulescu (1979) reviewed Giardia and giardiasis in Advances in Parasitology. In their introduction, they emphasized that "despite their ubiquity and antiquity, the Giardia have, until recently, been little studied". In the intervening years, Giardia has been extensively studied. The number of papers published has increased enormously, two books on the parasite have been produced (Erlandsen and Meyer, 1984; Meyer, 1990a), and an international conference on Giardia has been organized (Wallis and Hammond, 1988). Yet it is still very difficult to keep up with developments in this productive field of research and, despite all these research efforts, several fundamental questions concerning Giardia and giardiasis remain unresolved (Table 1), particularly with respect to the relationship of Giardia and disease, and the role of zoonotic transmission. Indeed, it is only recently that we have started to appreciate the clinical significance of Giardia infections in developing countries and among disadvantaged groups. Giardia is now recognized as one of the 10 major parasites of humans, being equal to ascariasis as a cause of death in the developing world (Warren, 1989; Meyer, 1990b). In developed countries, Giardia has the distinction of being the most commonly reported human intestinal parasite (Acha and Szyfres, 1987; Thompson et al., 1990a; Schantz, 1991). Regrettably, however, the range of drugs available to treat giardiasis is limited and their efficacy leaves much to be desired. There is an urgent need for new antigiardial agents, yet this search is hampered by our lack of understanding of many fundamental aspects of Giardia biochemistry and metabolism. In addition, although the application of molecular biological techniques to research on Giardia has revealed new avenues of investigation, it has also given rise to many new questions about this intriguing organism concerning its phylogenetic position, reproductive behaviour and genetic diversity.
To review Giardia and giardiasis in detail would require at least an entire volume of Advances in Parasitology. Such treatment in depth is not warranted at this time in view of the excellent book recently edited by Meyer (1990a). Our intention here is to give an up-to-date overview of Giardia and giardiasis and provide an insight into the enormous wealth of literature on the subject, as well as highlight the most important recent developments and unresolved questions.
|Publication Type:||Journal Article|
|Murdoch Affiliation:||School of Veterinary Studies|
|Item Control Page| | <urn:uuid:99b1950b-d3d6-4ee4-8c2b-153f29bee187> | CC-MAIN-2016-44 | http://researchrepository.murdoch.edu.au/10674/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2016-44/segments/1476988718957.31/warc/CC-MAIN-20161020183838-00435-ip-10-171-6-4.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.939435 | 552 | 2.9375 | 3 |
The Jewel Tree of Tibet
BY Robert Thurman
This book began as an intensive retreat with a small group of students. It is a teaching on the steps on the path of enlightenment that is common to all the forms of Tibetan Buddhism. The Tibetans have taken teachings from all kinds of Buddhism, especially those preserved and developed in India over fifteen hundred years before they traveled to Tibet. But there in Tibet, Buddhism was made into a systematic method for people to practice and perform in order to become perfectly enlightened in this life, or in a short number of lives, starting from wherever they started.
This is what we'll aim to practice on this retreat, on this quest for enlightenment in book form. You'll start wherever you are in your life, today. We'll retreat into one of the greatest sacred wisdom texts of Tibetan knowledge of the soul, called The Devotion to the Mentor, in which a glorious wish-fulfilling gem tree is used to focus our minds. We're on a quest to contemplate this great text line by line, so that we come to understand its full, rich meaning, the brilliant reflections of its many facets guiding us, lighting up our awareness. And we'll take this awareness with us, out into the world, into our lives. It is a powerful text, just the reading of which has the capacity to lift you out of your individual self and into a perspective of unity, refreshing your individuality immeasurably. It will help you cultivate the sensitivity and appreciation to love more fully, feel compassion more intensely, and become a fountain of cheerfulness for all you meet and know.
The steps on the path of enlightenment in this text are a distillation of the vast profusion of healing techniques dispensed by the Shakyamuni Buddha -- the historical Buddha -- to his many thousands of disciples, two thousand five hundred years ago. I first encountered The Devotion to the Mentor and the jewel tree, in this life, forty-two years ago, when I met the Very Venerable Geshe Wangyal at his monastery in the Pine Barrens of New Jersey, which was in a little pink tract house on East Third Street in Freewood Acres. He read to me a version of this same enlightenment path, the way to a higher quality of being, that had been written by the great south Indian philosopher sage Nagarjuna in the second century c.e. Nagarjuna had written it as Letter from a Spiritual Friend to his friend and disciple the south Indian King Udayibhadra, whose name means "King Happily Good."
My teacher read this text aloud in a Tibetan translation, accompanying it with a commentary written by a great fourteenth-century Tibetan lama, and as he read he would translate and explain in English to me and my friend Chris. The three of us would sit together in the chapel room or out in the yard of the little pink house that served as a monastery in New Jersey, under the spell of the great wish-fulfilling jewel tree of Tibet. Then, in the evening and late into the night, I would memorize the Tibetan, learn the text's meaning, and meditate on the steps and themes -- incorporating it all into my mind and psyche and spirit.
The fresh and reasonable vision of life, the deep meaning of existence, the imminence of freedom, the vast horizon of my human potential -- all this leapt out at me from these words in the lovely Tibetan script, block-printed on beautiful, long, fibrous pages. I loved Nagarjuna and his friend the king. I loved the Tibetan alphabet, so logical and elegant. I felt totally at home in it.
At that time, I was in the middle of a long pilgrimage that had led me to drop out of college and had taken me across Europe on a motorcycle and across Asia on foot, all the way to India. There, I had met the Tibetans and begun to learn from them and work with them when the death of my father brought me back to New York City for a month of family sadness and mourning, as well as a reimmersion into the hypocrisy and anxiety of the world that I was eager to transcend. Yet there I also met my teacher and went to work with him in the Jersey Pine Barrens, in a Russian Mongolian refugee community. Through him, I met the path of enlightenment. I met a true mentor. I had come home -- to myself and my soul -- through this great teacher and the jewel tree text he revealed to me.
And it was not just the text and the teachings that affected me so deeply. It was the special context in which Tibetans meditate and use their teachings. I learned to look up with my inner eye, the third eye of imagination, which lies in the middle of our foreheads and opens a channel of vision into a subtle realm of reality. In this inner sky revealed by my third eye, I discovered mystical beings, buddhas, bodhisattvas (persons who strive for enlightenment in order to help others on their quest for their highest development), historical lama mentors, angels, deities mild and fierce, and all the saints and teachers and philosophers from all the world's spiritual traditions. I beheld the shining tree of jewels, decked with living jewel beings.
I recognized the jewel tree as the world tree, Yggdrasil, the great ash tree extending over the entire earth, growing from the well of wisdom, where Odin, the highest god, had to cast one eye as sacrifice in order to receive the eye of wisdom from the goddess of the tree. The jewel tree is the tree of life, the tree of wisdom, and it is also the giant fig tree under which the Buddha attained perfect enlightenment, the bodhi tree. It grows from earth to heaven and is filled with the wish-granting jewels that make up the family of living mentors who have reached immortal life and can share their bliss with you, protect you, bless you, and help you open up your own inner doorway to peace and fulfillment. The jewel tree opens its loving embrace to everyone and promotes happiness -- which is our natural state and birthright.
Since that time when I began to enjoy the luminous shelter of the jewel tree of Tibet, I have studied and meditated year after year. I went on to become a monk; I learned more and more advanced teachings, tried to put them into practice, and seemed to succeed with insight after insight. But then I began to realize that last week's insight was superseded by the next one. For a while, all I wanted was to stay in my Buddhist community of seekers of enlightenment, to be embraced as a monk. My inner life was rich, full of insights and delightful visions, with a sense of luck and privilege at having access to such great teachers and teachings and the time to study and try to realize them. Eventually, I realized that there was more I needed to learn from the world, from engagement with others, from developing compassion in my interactions rather than the solitary quest of wisdom. So I resigned as a monk and reentered the university, determined to find a way to continue to study while engaging more actively with others.
As I have grown older and become less sure about everything -- and even confused and discouraged when my inherited negative personality traits reemerge in the heat of relationships -- I have repeatedly turned back to the beginning of my studies of the jewel tree. I regularly rest under the jewel tree and reflect on the steps it provides us to enlightenment, freedom, and happiness. A golden ladder from earth to heaven, the great jewel tree is an inner space for a retreat, a spiritual vacation, a refreshment and recharging that comes from stepping back from our emotions and habitual perspectives -- even for a few moments. You can spend minutes under the jewel tree or you can spend entire days or weeks, depending on the time you can afford to take. Sometimes it helps to meditate with others on the jewel tree, since your thoughts will become amplified and intensified by the resonance of one living mind with another.
Whenever I conduct a retreat, I try to remember that the main person who needs the retreat is myself. The person who most needs to learn what I say, even though I may be saying it, is me. So, therefore, I'm very thankful that you're joining me in your reading of this text and on this quest. I don't pretend to be a great teacher, but I do claim that this, the wish-granting jewel tree of Tibet, is a great teaching.
We love and admire Tibet because Tibet is the guardian, custodian, preserver, developer, and utilizer of these great enlightenment teachings. Originally, all the teachings came from what the Tibetans call the Noble Country, Aryavarta, the country of the noble beings. These beings followed the Buddhist tradition and achieved nobility in the spiritual sense, they were selfless beings -- beings who did not live enclosed within their own personal, egocentric perspective but lived within a multiperspectival world. The perspectives of the others were to them as important as, or more important than, the perspective of the self. The noble beings realized the meaning and the reality of selflessness. A noble person is defined by the Buddha not in terms of social class or race or nationality or sex or religion but by whether you perceive things only from your own perspective or whether you perceive them simultaneously from all others' perspectives.
So, what we're going to try to do on this quest together is to go from the beginning of the Tibetan path of enlightenment to its end. And we're going to rehearse various short meditations that will help us get deeper along the path. And we're going to learn about what that path is so that we understand it, so that you can do this retreat yourself again and again, and I can do this retreat myself again and again, each time learning something new. We're aiming to develop a tolerance for cognitive dissonance, a greater subtlety of consciousness. You don't want to get all fascinated or obsessed or entranced with one particular thing that you experience as you go along, but keep moving and learning, seeing things freshly again and again.
Even if you are not a Tibetan Buddhist or any kind of Buddhist, I hope you will be able to follow along with this teaching and gain something from it. I follow His Holiness the Dalai Lama. He's my main teacher, my mentor. I follow his view that, in the world today, we don't want millions and millions and millions of new Buddhists. We're not competing with the Christians, the Jews, the Muslims, the Hindus. We're not competing for market share, for a population explosion. But we are looking to the quality of people's lives, hoping that people will become more enlightened, whatever their religious affiliation or secular humanist beliefs. Conversion is not the goal here. Therefore, in teaching a teaching like this, which we hope the public will use widely, we want to make it accessible to as many people as possible.
However, if we teach a spiritual practice in a completely bland, watered down way, then no one will really have much inspiration to use it. I love the Buddha, and I love the Dharma, which is the teaching of the Buddha, and I love the Tibetan versions of it. And I particularly love the version that was perfected by Tsong Khapa, who lived in the fifteenth century. It is the core teaching that the Dalai Lamas have practiced since then, including the current Dalai Lama, the Fourteenth, His Holiness Tenzin Gyatso. So, I want to share my love for their vision and wisdom with you through the ancient text that inspires this retreat in book form.
In this book, I will draw from those teachings and focus on the particularly vivid teaching about the wish-fulfilling jewel tree by the Fourth Panchen Lama, called the Guru Puja, or the Devotion to the Mentor. A mentor is not considered merely a teacher but is seen rather as an exemplar of the teaching, a model to follow. So, in each lesson or subject or verse, I will veer away from my own narrow understanding and Tibetan images, and I will encourage you to meditate, whether you are Sufi, Christian, or another kind of Buddhist, and to draw in your own images and ideas to enhance your own understanding. This retreat is divided into six chapters that can serve as retreats in themselves, with different meditations and a regular review of the principles that form the steps on the path to enlightenment. I want you to figure out how to enter a kind of jewel space of awareness, to populate and retreat to that jewel space in your own way. There you will be energized to discover your own feeling of insight into your own soul -- and into the soul of the entire universe. The wish-fulfilling jewel tree will restore you to yourself and illuminate your path through life...and illuminate your spirit into the next life.
Copyright © 2005 by Bob Thurman, Inc. | <urn:uuid:172857f1-344e-47e8-9dc1-f951700da8d4> | CC-MAIN-2017-04 | http://www.dailyom.com/cgi-bin/display/librarydisplay.cgi?lid=307 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2017-04/segments/1484560280065.57/warc/CC-MAIN-20170116095120-00541-ip-10-171-10-70.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.965988 | 2,679 | 2.078125 | 2 |
client/server - Computer Definition
A network architecture that distributes intelligence and responsibilities at several levels, with some machines designated as servers to serve the needs of client machines. A server can be a mainframe, minicomputer, or personal computer that operates in a time-sharing mode to provide for the needs of many clients. Client machines are complete, standalone computers that optimize the user interface, relying on servers to handle the more mundane tasks associated with application and file storage, network administration, security, and other critical functions. See also peer-to-peer.
An architecture in which the user's PC (the client) is the requesting machine and the server is the supplying machine, both of which are connected via a local area network (LAN) or a wide area network (WAN) such as the Internet. Throughout the late 1980s and early 1990s, client/server was the hot buzzword as applications migrated from minicomputers and mainframes with input/output terminals to networks of desktop computers. With ubiquitous access to company LANs and the Internet, almost everyone works in a client/server environment today. However, to be true client/server, both client and server must share in the business processing. To understand this principle, follow the examples below of a query to a hypothetical database of a million records, each 1,000 bytes long. Notice the amount of data flowing over the network. | <urn:uuid:f004e867-6476-4f0e-94ad-f12ee8dec8a3> | CC-MAIN-2017-04 | http://www.yourdictionary.com/client-server | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2017-04/segments/1484560283008.19/warc/CC-MAIN-20170116095123-00086-ip-10-171-10-70.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.947378 | 286 | 3.734375 | 4 |
If your car’s battery is more than three years old you might want to consider replacing it. Of course the best way to know for sure if your battery needs replacing is to take it to a professional for a checkup but three years is a good general rule of thumb.
There are a few things that can help you extend the life of your car battery:
– Keep your car’s battery clean. Dirt and corrosion can build up on the terminals and prevent the battery from working properly.
– Make sure your car’s battery is properly charged. A weak or discharged battery will shorten its life.
– Keep your car’s engine tuned. A poorly running engine can place a strain on the battery.
– Avoid extreme temperatures. Heat speeds up the chemical reaction inside the battery while cold slows it down. Either extreme can shorten the life of your battery.
If you take good care of your car battery it should last for three to five years. Of course if you live in an area with extreme temperatures you might need to replace your battery more frequently.
How often should I replace my car battery?
Every four years.
How will I know if my car battery needs to be replaced?
If it’s four years old or the battery isn’t holding a charge.
How long does a car battery typically last?
What are some signs that my car battery is dying?
The car is slow to start or the lights are dim.
Can I replace my car battery myself?
Yes but it’s often easier to have a mechanic do it.
How much does it cost to replace a car battery?
Between $50 and $100.
Should I get my car battery tested?
Yes every few months.
How do I test my car battery?
With a voltmeter or hydrometer.
How do I clean my car battery terminals?
With a wire brush and some baking soda.
What should I do if my car battery dies?
Call a tow truck or roadside assistance.
How can I prevent my car battery from dying?
Keep it clean and charged and don’t let it go completely dead.
What are some common causes of car battery death?
Leaving the lights on or short drives that don’t allow the battery to fully charge.
What can I do if my car battery won’t hold a charge?
What should I do with my old car battery?
Is it dangerous to drive with a dead car battery?
Yes because you could get stranded or get into an accident. | <urn:uuid:2435dbcc-a701-4cb1-8992-d6f78d39d5f6> | CC-MAIN-2022-33 | https://recaro-nao.com/how-often-should-i-replace-my-car-battery/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2022-33/segments/1659882572161.46/warc/CC-MAIN-20220815054743-20220815084743-00472.warc.gz | en | 0.935539 | 551 | 2.046875 | 2 |
Method of Measuring and Specifying Colour Rendering Properties of Light Sources
ISBN 978 3 900734 57 2
The CIE recommended in 1965 the procedure of measuring and specifying colour rendering properties of light sources, based on a test colour sample method. This method was updated in 1974 taking the chromatic adaptation shift into account. During the past 20 years several misprints were observed and corrected reprints were published from time to time. CIE 13.3-1995 is the corrected version of CIE 13.2-1974 that has been brought up to date to present spectroradiometric and calculation practice. The technical recommendations have not been changed.
Two computer programs to calculate the CIE colour rendering indices according to the present publication are available for "DOS"-computers to be run in a DOS or in an "MS-WINDOWS" environment as CIE D008.
This Technical Report establishes the CIE recommended method of measuring and specifying colour rendering properties of light sources based on resultant colour shifts of test objects, referred to as the "Test-colour Method". It is the fundamental method for appraisal of colour rendering properties of light sources, and is recommended for type testing as well as for testing individual lamps.
This specification applies to most general purpose illuminants (e.g. tungsten filament lamps, tubular fluorescent lamps, and all other kinds of gaseous discharge electrical lamps except sources of predominantly monochromatic radiation such as low pressure sodium, etc.). This method may also be applied to modified daylight.
The rating consists of a General Colour Rendering Index which may be supplemented by a set of Special Colour Rendering Indices. The derivation of the Special Colour Rendering Indices is based on a general comparison of the length of colour difference vectors in the CIE 1964 Uniform Space.
To apply the recommended Test-Colour Method the resultant colour shifts for suitably chosen test-colour samples must be calculated. A set of eight test-colour samples is specified by their spectral radiance factors for calculating the General Colour Rendering Index. These samples cover the hue circle, are moderate in saturation, and are approximately the same in lightness. Data for six additional test-colour samples representing a strong red, yellow, green and blue as well as complexion and foliage colours are also supplied. From the colour shifts, Colour Rendering Indices may be found.
The Technical Report is written in English, with a short summary in French and German. It contains 20 pages, with 2 tables.
This Technical Report is based in CIE 13.2-1974.
The following members took part in the preparation of this technical report:
T. Azuma, Japan
E. Barthés, France
H.D. Einhorn, South Africa
M. Halstead, Great Britain
C.W. Jerome, USA
J. de Kerf, Belgium
J. Krtil, Czechoslovakia
W. Münch, Germany (Chair)
J.L. Ouweitjes, The Netherlands
M. Richter, Germany (Secretary)
G. Siljeholm, Sweden
The updating and editing of the present edition was done by: | <urn:uuid:4c3fb55b-efbe-402b-ba61-dd90b74d389f> | CC-MAIN-2017-04 | http://www.cie.co.at/publ/abst/13-3-95.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2017-04/segments/1484560279410.32/warc/CC-MAIN-20170116095119-00164-ip-10-171-10-70.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.912985 | 653 | 2.390625 | 2 |
Mosman Municipal Council – Balmoral Beach Channel Improvement Works
In 2020 Optimal Stormwater was commissioned by Mosman Municipal Council to design improvements to the watercourse discharging to popular Balmoral Beach. The watercourse was subject to severe erosion and sediment deposition as a consequence of urban stormwater flows. The headwall at the downstream end of the watercourse routinely blocked with organic debris (e.g. trees, branches, leaves) leading to flooding of Balmoral Water Sports Centre and the adjacent Balmoral Sea Scouts meeting hall. The Scope of Work included: detailed design of watercourse improvements (e.g. identification of debris, weeds and foreign material to be removed); bank stabilisation; sandstone block walls to protect the banks from scour and debris control structure. Optimal Stormwater was subsequently engaged to design and construct exclusion bars on the headwall to reduce the likelihood of it blocking in future. | <urn:uuid:43b8a494-e980-42d3-9115-e4bea2a547ca> | CC-MAIN-2022-33 | https://www.optimalstormwater.com.au/optimalprojects/mosman-municipal-council-balmoral-beach-channel-improvement-works/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2022-33/segments/1659882570868.47/warc/CC-MAIN-20220808152744-20220808182744-00072.warc.gz | en | 0.90881 | 182 | 1.882813 | 2 |
As cosmetic dentistry options that can fix the look of damaged or stained teeth, dental veneers can help restore the smile of patients with gum disease. Many are able to get this treatment when the disease is under control. However, gingivitis or periodontitis is different for every patient. One patient may have a disease that…
When a Broken Tooth Will Require a Root Canal
A broken tooth can be the result of severe decay, cracks, or trauma. Continue reading to learn whether a root canal will be included in the repair process. A broken tooth means a portion of the tooth’s structure above the gum line has come off. You should visit a dentist immediately after the incident to have the tooth checked. In many cases, the tooth will require a dental crown for support.
Root canal treatment for a broken tooth
Dentists commonly perform root canal therapy for broken teeth. The possibility of the procedure depends on the type of breakage and the condition of the remaining tooth structure. The type of tooth affected also determines the possibility of root canal therapy.
The causes of breakage for a front-row tooth are often different from those for the back teeth. The most common cause of front-tooth fracture is trauma or physical injury. For fractures where the tooth pulp is not affected, a root canal will not be necessary, except if patients show signs of pulpitis (pulp infection). If the pulp gets exposed due to breakage, a root canal will certainly be necessary.
Sometimes, a root canal can be performed on a front tooth and some premolars as a preventive measure. If the dentist thinks the tooth requires a crown but lacks adequate healthy tooth structure, a root canal will be done before crown placement. A post is often placed down the now-empty canal in the tooth roots. A rubber-like material called gutta-percha covers the posts to create enough surface and support for the tooth structure to hold the dental crown. The placement of posts inside a tooth is only possible after removing the blood tissues and nerves.
In rare cases where the breakage happens on the root and not the crown, treatment is not possible, except when the fracture occurs closest to the root tip. Then, an advanced treatment like apicoectomy will be done instead of a root canal. However, the nerves will still be removed.
Treatment for back teeth
Back teeth often break due to severe tooth decay, failed restoration, or old tooth fillings. Since these teeth are larger than front teeth, post placement is usually unnecessary. Dentists usually perform a root canal on the back tooth if the nerves are exposed or if removing decay will expose the pulp. The extend of the breakage will determine if a root canal is possible. If the fracture reaches below the gum line or affects the tooth roots, tooth extraction will be required.
The roots of back teeth hardly break, compared to front teeth. Even if it happens, a root removal process can be done to save the tooth. Root removal is only possible for teeth with multiple roots like molars.
Root canal treatment is done to save a broken tooth and restore its health and function. Even if there is pulp exposure or severe decay, removing the pulp will make dental restoration with a dental crown possible. If you have broken a tooth, contact our dental office right away to schedule an appointment for treatment.
Check out what others are saying about our services on Yelp: Read our Yelp reviews.
Having a beautiful smile is crucial for many people. However, not everyone is pleased with their smile. Veneers are a wonderful treatment option that can be used to help improve the appearance of teeth. These thin, tooth-colored shells are typically made out of porcelain and cover the entire surface of the tooth.Veneers are customized and…
Full mouth reconstruction is needed when most of your teeth need to be repaired. Various dental treatments are used as part of a reconstruction. The full mouth reconstruction process is unique for each patient since no two sets of teeth are the same. The function of all of the patient’s teeth should be restored by…
Are you or your child getting ready to start orthodontic treatment? If so, you may be wondering about different types of braces. Clear braces are an alternative to traditional metal braces.Metal braces are attached to the front or back of teeth. They are made of stainless steel brackets connected with wires. Rubber bands, also known… | <urn:uuid:dbeb9100-ce50-4563-a5ae-956aed304f98> | CC-MAIN-2022-33 | https://www.newyorkdentaloffice.com/when-a-broken-tooth-will-require-a-root-canal/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2022-33/segments/1659882571147.84/warc/CC-MAIN-20220810040253-20220810070253-00468.warc.gz | en | 0.921411 | 912 | 3.046875 | 3 |
The Mormons: or, Latter-Day Saints. With Memoirs of the Life and Death of Joseph Smith, the "American Mahomet."
Place Published: London
Publisher: Office of the National Illustrated Library
Date Published: 1851
Description: 40 engravings. 326pp. + 18pp. of publisher's ads. 8vo, handsomely bound in original blind-stamped brown cloth with gilt decorated spine. London: Office of the National Illustrated Library, (1851). First Edition. Very good
Comments: Flake 5179.Edition: First
Condition: very good
Book ID: 250927 | <urn:uuid:6f5920ce-da5e-468b-8599-c4239c038d6d> | CC-MAIN-2017-04 | http://www.argosybooks.com/shop/argosy/250927.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2017-04/segments/1484560280835.60/warc/CC-MAIN-20170116095120-00472-ip-10-171-10-70.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.807099 | 129 | 2.046875 | 2 |
Hotchkiss trip planner
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Hotchkiss is a statutory town in Delta County, Colorado, United States. The population was 944 at the 2010 census.A post office called Hotchkiss has been in operation since 1882. The town has the name of Enos T. Hotchkiss, a local pioneer.GeographyHotchkiss is located in eastern Delta County at, on the north side of the North Fork Gunnison River.Colorado State Highway 92 passes through the center of town as Bridge Street, leading west to Delta, the county seat, and southeast to U.S. Route 50 at Blue Mesa Reservoir. Colorado State Highway 133 starts at the east end of town and leads northeast over McClure Pass to Carbondale.According to the United States Census Bureau, the town of Hotchkiss has a total area of 2.4km2, all of it land.DemographicsAs of the census of 2000, there were 968 people, 412 households, and 271 families residing in the town. The population density was 1,452.8 people per square mile (557.8/km²). There were 451 housing units at an average density of 676.9 per square mile (259.9/km²). The racial makeup of the town was 93.18% White, 1.03% Native American, 0.52% Asian, 3.51% from other races, and 1.76% from two or more races. Hispanic or Latino of any race were 9.40% of the population.To plan United States vacation without wasting time, ask Inspirock to design an itinerary.
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Popular things to do in Hotchkiss
Side trips from Hotchkiss
Black Canyon of the Gunnison National Park
Black Canyon Of The Gunnison National Park
Duration: 8 hours
Places to visit with Hotchkiss
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2 days in Hotchkiss & West Branch BY A USER FROM UNITED STATES Hotchkiss West Branch 1 day in Hotchkiss SEE PLAN Leroux Creek Inn & Vineyards 11 days in Western US & Rapid City BY A USER FROM UNITED STATES Billings Yellowstone National Park Hotchkiss 8 days in Hotchkiss BY A USER FROM UNITED STATES Hotchkiss 4 days in Hotchkiss BY A USER FROM UNITED STATES Colterris at the Overlook Carlson Vineyards Winery & Tasting Room Leroux Creek Inn & Vineyards 30 days in Colorado BY A USER FROM UNITED STATES Boulder Estes Park Georgetown | <urn:uuid:6c74b9cc-da7f-4ebf-a11c-0dc4cee50fdf> | CC-MAIN-2022-33 | https://trip-planner.visittheusa.com/united-states/hotchkiss-trip-planner | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2022-33/segments/1659882571584.72/warc/CC-MAIN-20220812045352-20220812075352-00669.warc.gz | en | 0.896622 | 707 | 1.851563 | 2 |
Last month, we were introduced to the Arduino and made an LED blink. I’m betting that many of you went off to the Arduino website and played around with other examples. So, you’ve seen The Arduino Way and are now ready to move up to a more advanced ‘Way.’ This month, we learn how to convert Arduino programs into regular C programs that can be used with the Atmel official software: AVRStudio and the semi-official WinAVR and AVRDude. [Note that in the month since our last episode: Arduino moved from version 12 to version 13, and the Duemilanove now uses the ATmega328 — 16k more memory at no additional charge — yeah! There is information at the end of this article on how you can get your very own Arduino Duemilanove and a special components kit for this and future Smiley’s Workshop projects.]
|FIGURE 1. The ATmega Learning Platform (ALP).|
Arduino is a combination of ingredients: a hardware platform, a simplified programming language based on C, a PC side IDE (Integrated Development Environment), a set of libraries to ease the use of the hardware, an online community, AND it is all open source. These ingredients lead to a Way of doing things — The Arduino Way that was created for designers (artists) and is excellent for total novices to get started. I want to take the Arduino to the next step, however, to use it as a basis for learning the IMHO ‘real’ C programming language and understanding the AVR hardware. So, let’s move from The Arduino Way (TAW) to A C Way (ACW) and use some of the more standard tools like those discussed in Workshops 1 to 8. Our first task will be to convert that TAW Blink example program shown in last month’s workshop to ACW.
If you want to build the base shown in Figure 1 and a box to carry it around in, see Supplement 1 for this workshop: The Arduino Workshop ATmega Learning Platform.pdf which is available on the Nuts & Volts website (www.nutsvolts.com).
Before we convert the code from TAW to ACW, let’s take a brief look at how the Arduino names the ATmega168/328 pins. This will come in real handy when we want to start thinking about hardware designs using ACW. I/O pin naming is one of the things that Arduino does that is a bit different from what we’ve seen so far. It considers the 14 digital input/output pins as individuals rather than one of eight pins in a port. For instance, as shown in Figure 2 (modified from the Arduino website) and Figure 3, the Arduino pin 9 is the same as the ATmega328 PortB pin 1 (PB1).
|FIGURE 2. Mapping ATmega 168/328 to Arduino pins.||FIGURE 3. Arduino pin 9 is ATmega328 PortB pin 1.|
We are going to copy the Arduino Blink example to AVRStudio and run it with only a few minor modifications. Last month, we did this example using Arduino pin 13; this month, we will change it to pin 9 so that we can reuse the hardware for a later example.
Before getting started with the code, wire up the ALP with both an LED and pushbutton as shown in the schematic and photo of the layout (Figures 1, 10, and 11). We will use the LED now and the pushbutton later.
|FIGURE 4. Add existing source.
|FIGURE 5. Files to add.|
If you’ve been following the Workshop, you may have noticed that the Arduino Blink.c program didn’t have the main() function required by C programs. This is one of the simplifications that Arduino takes care of for you (it hides main() in another module). Let’s do this cookbook style:
#include “wiring.h”to the top of Blink.c.
#define F_CPU 16000000L.
You will note that you get about 31 warnings and though I never ignore warnings, in this and only this case I will ignore them, because the compiled code works and the only purpose of this exercise is to show us how to move Arduino examples to AVRStudio (TAW to ACW). Later when we write our own libraries to duplicate the Arduino built-in functions, we will not allow warnings to pass unheeded.
* The basic Arduino example.
* Turns on an LED for one second,
* then off for one second, and so on...
* We use pin 13 because, depending on your
* Arduino board, it has either a built-in
* LED or a built-in resistor so that you
* need only an LED.
* [JP 3/15/09 – changed to pin 9]
// LED connected to digital pin 9
int ledPin = 9;
// run once, when the sketch starts
// sets the digital pin as output
// run over and over again
// sets the LED on
delay(1000); // waits for a second
// sets the LED off
delay(1000); // waits for a second
As we saw last month, the Arduino IDE has an upload button that transparently uses AVRDude to send the hex code to the Arduino board. It does this by calling AVRDude with a script that has all the hard stuff written out for you. That is great if there are no errors — which there probably won’t be when you are doing any of the Arduino example projects. But if there is a problem, you get some bright red text in the serial window at the bottom of the Arduino IDE, and if you are to have any hope of figuring out what happened, you’re going to have to get friendly with AVRDude. Well, that’s not quite correct ... you can post questions on the Arduino forum and maybe get help figuring out what happened, but eventually, to really understand what is going on, you are going to have to learn to use AVRDude. And while that would be a good topic for at least one full Workshop, let me just provide an introduction with a cookbook approach and also recommend that if you are really interested, you can find the AVRDude manual in your WinAVR directory under ..\doc\avrdude\avrdude.pdf. For now, just follow the recipe:
|FIGURE 6. Start run.|
|FIGURE 7. Run cmd.exe.|
avrdude -p m328p -c avrisp -P com6 -b 57600 -F -U flash:w:Blink.hex
|FIGURE 8. The cmd.exe window.|
|FIGURE 9. AVRDude upload.|
Press the Arduino reset button and pin 9 should blink once per second. We have now done the Blink example TAW last month and converted it to ACW this month.
Next, we will start doing some hardware projects that let us convert more of the Arduino examples from TAW to ACW.
Converting the Arduino Debounce example to C for AVRStudio is much like converting the Blink example, but I want to repeat the steps — condensed a bit — to help reinforce the conversion process:
int inPin = 8; // number of the input pin
outPin from: int outPin = 9; // number of the output pin
avrdude -p m328p -c avrisp -P com6 -b 57600 -F -U flash:w:Debounce.hexremembering that your device may not be on com6.
The AVRStudio version of the Debounce code is also available in the Workshop10.zip. And, as a reminder, yes — this is harder than using the Arduino IDE, but it provides a clear path to C programming using the Atmel official tools, which is the direction I’ll be going with future Workshops.
|FIGURE 10. Schematic for LED and pushbutton.||FIGURE 11. Close-up of LED and pushbutton breadboard layout.
Push the button and the LED state toggles between on and off. That was fun, and now, as shown in Figures 10 and 11, you have what is essentially a very expensive light switch, but who said learning was cheap?
|FIGURE 12. PWM Fade.|
We can use the LED attached to pin 9 to demonstrate PWM (Pulse Width Modulation). Figure 12 shows the ALPs being waved up and down with the LED fading in and out. Notice that the red streaks seem like beads whereas the green streaks are smooth. This is because the red LED is being turned on and off every ~33.3 times per second, with the on time varying. The camera lens was left open to capture several hundred of those intervals. Look at the center of the red streaks and you will see each red ‘bead’ gets progressively brighter until they seem to blend in the brightest part of the sweep.
The concepts behind PWM are worthy of a full Workshop (or two), but as you will see from the source code, it is actually a fairly simple concept. There are two loops: one for fading in and the other for fading out. Each loop steps through 0 to 255 in increments of five and uses that value in the Arduino analogWrite() function that sets the length of time the LED is turned on in each cycle. When you look at the LED sans shaking, it seems to brighten and fade smoothly since the eye/brain smoothes out rapidly blinking lights. This phenomenon is called persistence of vision (POV) and is the same thing that makes movies and TV seem to move smoothly when, in fact, you are seeing a sequence of still images.
For this exercise, we will assume that you learned enough in the first two examples to convert the Arduino Fading example code yourself (if not, you can find the converted example in Workshop10.zip). Please note that when I did this last example, I forgot to close the Arduino IDE — which had the com port open causing an AVRDude synch error — AND I forgot to add the F_CPU to the wiring.c file. You have to be patient and persistent doing this kind of work. So, don’t feel too bad when you make the inevitable dumb mistakes like I make. It is part of the process, so learn to enjoy it. NV
Smiley’s Workshop 200905 (Workshop10.zip) | <urn:uuid:6ab23636-be91-4a9c-9b77-4fc9c6ac9b64> | CC-MAIN-2017-04 | http://www.nutsvolts.com/magazine/article/smileys_workshop_an_avr_c_programming_series_part_10 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2017-04/segments/1484560281162.88/warc/CC-MAIN-20170116095121-00528-ip-10-171-10-70.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.912036 | 2,231 | 2.90625 | 3 |
If you’re a leader, you’ve likely heard of Amazon’s 14 leadership principles. If you haven’t, now’s the time to the look into it. What exactly can you learn from those leadership principles? A lot.
It’s difficult to go wrong with being a leader who is obsessed over customers, thinking long-term, and embracing new challenges even if the task isn’t “their job,” finding ways to simplify, recognizing talent and developing them, along with thinking big.
What if I told you these qualities are only a handful of principles implemented by Amazon. Clearly, Amazon isn’t your average organization, especially in what they do best: lead. No wonder the Wall Street Journal has labeled Amazon America’s CEO factory
Forbes contributor Peter Cohan believes that Amazon is the world’s best business. He goes further and states that “Amazon has a sustainable competitive advantage.” Amazon has an efficient supply chain able to handle and fulfill orders with ease yet maintains a stellar level of customer support, he adds.
Remarkable, isn’t it?
Associate Editor for the Leader To Leader magazine, Peter Economy, goes further to say that Amazon’s 14 leadership principles can help a business to achieve remarkable success because Amazon’s DNA has a desire to innovate and deliver results and earn customer trust in the process.
In this article, you will learn how leaders can leverage Amazon’s 14 leadership principles to become better leaders themselves and act as a catalyst in their organization.
What Are Amazon’s 14 Leadership Principles?
According to Amazon’s website, they are:
1. Customer Obsession
Amazon pays attention to other retailers, but they obsess over their customers. Customer trust is important to Amazon’s leadership.
Amazon encourages its employees to act like leaders. The team needs come second to the needs of the organization at large.
3. Invent and Simplify
It’s an expectation for Amazon employees to invent and simplify. Being misunderstood is part of the process of greatness for them.
4. Are Right a Lot
Amazon looks to hire leaders with diverse perspectives, with good judgement and instincts.
5. Learn and Be Curious
Improvement and exploration is encouraged.
6. Hire and Develop the Best
In short, Amazon recognizes exceptional talent and creates mechanisms to discover the very best.
7. Insist on the Highest Standards
Amazon insists on continuously raising the bar in order to achieve a sustainable degree of excellence. Problems are solved ahead of time and are rarely repeated.
8. Think Big
Leaders are encouraged to create and think outside the box.
9. Bias for Action
Risk-taking and speed is encouraged by leaders at Amazon.
Accomplishing more with less is Amazon’s way of constantly reinventing their operation and increasing their rates of self-sufficiency.
11. Earn Trust
Treating others with respect, speaking their minds, and listening are three ways in which Amazon builds trust in their organization.
12. Dive Deep
Amazon’s leaders are detail oriented and pay close attention to the reaction between the actual numbers and anecdotal data.
13. Have Backbone; Disagree and Commit
Disagreement is welcomed. Social cohesion isn’t a practice that Amazon leaders adopt.
14. Deliver Results
Amazon leaders are expected to always rise to the occasion.
How to Put the Leadership Principles into Practice
In order to develop your leadership skills, experiment with the following combination of Amazon principles and pay attention to which one works best for you in your organization.
1. Think Big, Create, and Simplify
Albert Einstein once said, “Creativity is more important than knowledge.”
When I served as an Interim Department Chair at Jackson State University, we were able to create a document arguing for why the department needed to be a school of journalism and media studies in the state through a “think big” mentality and simplification of delivery. We made it simple for the Institutions of Higher Learning (IHL) of Mississippi, which is the governing body that approves and rejects proposals for turning departments into schools and more, to understand our petition by taking out language complexity yet showing a bold proposal for the creation of the third school of journalism.
Six months after our petition was submitted to IHL, the department was approved to start operations as a “school” by the organization. By thinking big and creating a simple yet persuasive document with hard data proved to be effective in the creation of a new school of journalism in the south.
By applying the same tactics in your organization, you can leverage these principles to achieve your own success and create something new.
2. Invent, Earn Trust, Deliver Results
Great leaders invent, earn trust, and deliver results. Ford invented the assembly line in 1913 and changed the way we produce cars today. Percy Spencer revolutionized our society by introducing the microwave oven in 1946. Jonas Salk invented a vaccine that reduced the number of polio cases in the world from a bit over 28 thousand a year in 1955 to 22 in 2017. More recently, Apple invented a tech gadget that can make phone calls, surf the internet, take photos… they called this device ”the iPhone” in 2007. We can now print in three dimensions with 3D printing, thanks to invention!
It’s no accident that many of us drive Ford cars, have a microwave in our homes, don’t have polio, have an iPhone, and perhaps own a 3D printer. Leaders who invent eventually earn trust if they deliver the results promised. As a leader, you must do the former religiously.
In 2010, my wife and I decided to invent a company called “I Do Therapy.” It is still a company that offers massage therapy services in a post industrial northern town in Pennsylvania. Our actual invention wasn’t the techniques that my wife used to treat clients with head and body aches but a completely new system of customer service that allowed everyone to get a massage for a reasonable price in a luxury spa environment — “I Do Therapy: For EVERYbody.”
Our innovation was our strategy. We invented our way of doing business that was foreign in that town. We ended up earning the trust of a large number of townspeople because we delivered what we promised. Three years after I Do Therapy’s inception and almost 300 clients in our books, we sold the business for a profit in 2015.
The business lives by its name and is still operational to this day.
3. Frugality, Ownership, and Curiosity
Jeff Bezos once said, “Frugality drives innovation just like other constraints do.” I want to start this section with this quote because I’ve seen the former working wonders in a recent organization that I lead here in Tennessee.
Although my presidency at the Cleveland Media Association (CMA) has been cut short due to a recent job offer, CMA is now in much better shape financially because of my insistency on frugality. At the beginning of this year, I inherited an organization with a very low cash position. Under my leadership, the board immediately took a look at our fixed expenses, membership, and resources, and in a semi-crisis mode, we decided to reinvent our operation and cut non-essential expenses in order to bring the organization to a better monetary position.
In a period of a few months, new members joined our organization and old members renewed their yearly memberships. The organization now has a healthy cash position and is growing again. The thought process I used to bring back organizational stability was literally based on Amazon’s 14 leadership principles.
By encouraging an enthusiastic VP and other members of the executive leadership team to be curious about operating to capacity and by looking at CMA as something bigger than ourselves, we found a solution to our financial challenges and helped the organization to get on its feet gain. Through an exploration of possible ideas and curiosity, CMA is a better organization now than yesterday.
We were able to accomplish more with less with our diversity of perspectives.
Amazon didn’t become a Fortune 5 company by accident. The leadership principles introduced by Jeff Bezos has made amazon.com what it is.
“You can’t solve today’s problems with yesterday’s solutions,” said Einstein.
Leaders have much to learn from Amazon. Focusing on the customers’ needs, encouraging invention, creativity and simplification, along with the need to be frugal and develop trust are a must in the current landscape of our modern economy. Thinking big, developing curiosity, and allowing a team member to disagree freely are principles that should be incorporated into every organization.
Higher standards emerge from such principles, and success follows the results. Amazon’s 14 leadership principles will make you into a stronger leader if you take the time to implement them.
More Leadership Tips
- What Makes a Good Leader: 9 Critical Leadership Qualities
- 7 Ways to Improve Your Management Leadership Skills
- Leadership vs Management: Is One Better Than the Other?
Featured photo credit: Perry Grone via unsplash.com
|||^||Wall Street Journal: Amazon Is America’s CEO factory|
|||^||Forbes: 3 Reasons Amazon Is The World’s Best Business|
|||^||Inc magazine: The 14 Amazon Leadership Principles That Can Lead Your Business To Tremendous Success|
|||^||Amazon: Amazon Leadership Principles|
|||^||Wharton Magazine: Learn From Amazon’s Leadership Principles|
|||^||Business News Daily: Albert Einstein Business Tips| | <urn:uuid:a24d3823-43e4-4b5a-8ded-0905a286e884> | CC-MAIN-2022-33 | https://www.lifehack.org/875452/leadership-principles?utm_campaign=Organize.%20Plan.%20Succeed.&utm_medium=email&utm_source=Revue%20newsletter | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2022-33/segments/1659882571222.74/warc/CC-MAIN-20220810222056-20220811012056-00672.warc.gz | en | 0.94479 | 2,070 | 1.664063 | 2 |
Gaining the Tools To Make a Difference
Aparna Datta’s path to becoming a lawyer began thousands of miles away, on trips to visit family in India. By the time she was 9, she started to notice the profound poverty in her parents’ native country. But she soon realized inequity and need weren’t limited to her journeys abroad — she found it even in her hometown of College Station, Texas.
“You do notice all these other systemic, big issues and inequalities,” said the third-year University of Virginia School of Law student. “There are still so many problems and so many people in need.”
That’s when the idea to go to law school — to make a difference — started to percolate, the decision sealed by a high school government class in which she learned how activists have helped change laws and minds. Later, in her final semester at the University of Texas, where she majored in government and economics, she interned at the Center for American Progress. There, she heard the refrain that a J.D. can open doors, reaffirming her decision to pursue law.
“I just thought that going to law school would give me the tools necessary to one day advocate on behalf of people who need it,” she said.
Datta is set to graduate May 19 with those tools in her belt. After that, she will clerk for a year with Judge Carlton Reeves ’89 of the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Mississippi, then work for Williams & Connolly in Washington, D.C.
“I could honestly not have asked for a better law school experience,” she said. “Overall it’s been such a blessing and privilege to attend this law school, and I think that’s a real testament to the student body and faculty and staff here.”
At UVA, Datta embraced a number of roles, serving as managing editor of the Virginia Law Review, a member of the Extramural Moot Court team, and a senator and Diversity Committee chair for the Student Bar Association. She also became a member of the Raven Society and a recipient of the Mary Claiborne and Roy H. Ritter Prize, given to students who best exemplify the qualities of honor, character and integrity envisioned by Thomas Jefferson when he founded the University of Virginia.
During her first-year summer she returned to Texas to work on domestic violence and family violence cases in Brazos County’s District Attorney’s Office.
“I was helping with things they needed help with to make sure they could properly prosecute a child molester,” she said. “I felt like we were doing something that was good for the community.”
The next summer she interned for Williams & Connolly, where she assisted the pro bono defense of a Blackwater Security Consulting employee in a murder trial.
“I was lucky to be assigned to the case because they were going to trial in two weeks,” she said. She spent the summer working on the high-profile case.
The firm’s dedication to pro bono work attracted her to work there full time.
“They have a lot of opportunities for people to do pro bono work, so even though I’ll be working at a firm, I’ll be able to help indigent clients as well,” she said. She has been dedicated since before law school to civil rights, racial justice and voting rights issues.
Datta praised the value of going to school in the kind of place where a professor knows your name by the second day of school. Female faculty members in particular helped her succeed. She recalled debating whether to get further involved in an activity when her interest was lacking, and Professor Molly Brady advised her, “‘You have to learn to be comfortable saying ‘no’ sometimes.’”
“She’s been a really great mentor throughout law school,” Datta said.
Along the way, courses in regulating the political process, religious liberty, state and local government, and asylum law, and the Immigration Law Clinic influenced her development as a lawyer and a thinker.
On top of the rigorous academic environment, Datta said, she has enjoyed experiencing a true bond with her peers.
“That sense of collegiality is really evident here,” she said. “It’s not some recruiting tactic, it’s actually genuine.”
She met Reeves at an American Constitution Society convention, and soon decided — if it worked out — to clerk before joining the firm.
“His jurisprudence is exactly what I agree with,” she said. “He just has a really strong moral compass, but he also understands even if the outcome isn’t what you want it to be, you have to follow what the Constitution says and what the law says.”
When she graduates, she will be the first lawyer in a family of engineers. Her father, an electrical engineering professor at Texas A&M University, once dreamed of being an attorney, inspired by a years-long property dispute involving his family that reached the Supreme Court of India, which still remains in limbo.
Datta said if the case continues, she won’t be the one to advocate for it. She will have plenty to do stateside.
- From Civil Rights Advocate to Legal Advocate, Jah Akande ’19 Amplifies His Voice
- Experience in the Courtroom, Strong Role Models Give Kendall Burchard ’19 Her Start
- Robbie Pomeroy ’19 Rolls Up His Sleeves To Defend Others
- Graduation Information for the Class of 2019
- Landmark Exec Linda G. Howard ’73 To Speak to Grads
Founded in 1819, the University of Virginia School of Law is the second-oldest continuously operating law school in the nation. Consistently ranked among the top law schools, Virginia is a world-renowned training ground for distinguished lawyers and public servants, instilling in them a commitment to leadership, integrity and community service. | <urn:uuid:47889c9c-70a2-4998-be9f-979d7c5eeb74> | CC-MAIN-2022-33 | https://www.law.virginia.edu/news/201904/gaining-tools-make-difference | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2022-33/segments/1659882572221.38/warc/CC-MAIN-20220816060335-20220816090335-00072.warc.gz | en | 0.972326 | 1,294 | 1.59375 | 2 |
noaoann11006 — Announcement
Galaxy-hopping stars detected in the Large Magellanic Cloud
19 July 2011
The Milky Way’s near neighbor, the Large Magellanic Cloud (LMC), has accreted a smattering of stars from its smaller neighbor, the Small Magellanic Cloud (SMC). This image shows the LMC imaged by the Spitzer Space Telescope. Overlaid in red and blue, with the colors representing their line-of-sight velocities, are the stars whose origin has been traced to the SMC. These stars were discovered by a team led by NOAO astronomer Knut Olsen, through analysis of spectra obtained at the CTIO 4-m Blanco telescope.
- See NOAO Press Release for more details. | <urn:uuid:22b02716-c509-439a-ab11-4531dda46dce> | CC-MAIN-2022-33 | https://www.noirlab.edu/public/announcements/noaoann11006/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2022-33/segments/1659882572581.94/warc/CC-MAIN-20220816211628-20220817001628-00077.warc.gz | en | 0.946869 | 169 | 2.75 | 3 |
__America sees her as the polished, private daughter of the world's most famous power couple. But the real Chelsea is a woman all her own, with a happy marriage, baby plans, and, as Glamour discovered when we joined her on a trip to Africa, a job she absolutely loves. __
Chelsea Clinton, 33, is having a Fear Factor moment. We are at a primary school on the outskirts of Kigali, Rwanda. She is standing on the school's field, wearing a trim white blazer and jeans and surrounded by a group of students in vibrant yellow and blue uniforms. The kids crowd around, mouths open and eyes wide with anticipation. On a table in front of Chelsea and her father, President Bill Clinton, sits a bucket of water so thick with grime you could lose the sun in it. In a few minutes, Chelsea is going to drink this water.
Chelsea dumps a small packet of powder into the bucket and begins to stir. While she and her father take turns with the spoon, representatives from the Clinton Foundation and some of its partners explain that the mix will trigger a chemical process that has brought more than 6 billion liters of drinkable water to the developing world. President Clinton gets a little lazy with his stirring. Chelsea gives him a nudge. "C'mon, Dad," she teases, "like you mean it."
Soon, the water in the bucket is astonishingly clear. Chelsea and her father lift their glasses in a toast and knock them back. The crowd erupts in applause. A grin stretches across Chelsea's face—a grin you're not used to seeing on the serious, measured woman once known as America's Most Private First Daughter. It's the grin of a woman who straight-up loves her job.
The job in question is as vice chair of the new Bill, Hillary & Chelsea Clinton Foundation (previously known as the William J. Clinton Foundation; it was renamed this spring to reflect the increased presence of Chelsea and former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton). After years of avoiding the family business, Chelsea's now fully committed, helping to shape the foundation and even putting her name on the door.
She looks happy—but what Chelsea should be is exhausted. Kigali was day six of a whirlwind tour through sub-Saharan Africa. We've been in four countries, visiting more than 20 different foundation facilities. By the end of this day, Chelsea and her father will have helped fit children with hearing aids, met young medical trainees who are learning lifesaving technologies, and rubbed elbows with dignitaries at a state dinner. Chelsea will also squeeze in some gym time, leave her husband a rambling good-night voice mail, respond to every email she's received in the past 24 hours, and catch up with a friend over a late-night glass of wine. It's a day that would bring most of us to our knees, but for Chelsea it's Monday as usual, and she's savoring every minute.
The new gig is a major change for Chelsea, who for years took pains to keep her work separate from that of her parents. "I was proud of my parents and grateful for the work that they did, but I was living my own life," she says. After earning degrees at Stanford and Oxford universities, she took jobs not in politics but at McKinsey & Company and later Avenue Capital Group. "I loved working on Wall Street," she says. "I loved the meritocracy of it and the camaraderie of the trading floor. There was one metric for success: Did you make or lose money? I think we need to care about the metrics of success in life, and I'm a pretty competitive person. But whether I made the company $2 or $2 million just didn't matter to me. I didn't fundamentally care about making money."
She started to think about public health—an issue that had interested her since her dad's White House years. She went to Columbia University, quietly earning a master's degree while keeping her day job at Avenue Capital. "I was working full-time and going to school at night and on the weekends. It was just crazy," she says. "At one point a month had gone by, and Marc—my then boyfriend, now husband—and I hadn't gone out on a date. I was like, I don't want to be this person. I want to be a person who cares where she's investing her time and energy. And I want to be a good wife, daughter, and friend."
Chelsea took this conundrum to her grandmother and oracle, Dorothy, Hillary's mother. "She had strong ideas about what I should do with the opportunities I had been given. I realized that as much as I tried not to care about the things my parents cared about, I did care about them," she says. "Which was frustrating, in some ways. My grandmother, in her wizened way, just said, 'Yes, I've been waiting for you to come to this realization.'"
Chelsea tried to leave her job, "but my bosses asked me to stay and I just said, 'Oh, I'll—totally. I'll stay.' I think a lot of women struggle with this. Marc came home and was like, 'So, did you quit?' I said, 'Well, I agreed to work part-time.' And he just said, 'What's wrong with you? If you were a man, you would have quit.' And that's probably true." But in November 2011, Dorothy died—and the loss cast a veil of grief over every aspect of Chelsea's life. "It was such a fundamentally unmooring event for me," recalls Chelsea. "I've never been so lost as I was when she passed." Chelsea and Marc had been married a little more than a year; the loss pushed them to examine what they wanted their lives to be about. "We sat down and said, 'Here's what we want to do.' The first thing on the list was simple: We want, God willing, to start a family. So we decided we were going to make 2014 the Year of the Baby. And please," Chelsea pleads, "call my mother and tell her that. She asks us about it every single day." Next on the list? "Work really, really hard, and in a way that makes an impact," says Chelsea. "I was ready to answer that calling and be the person my grandmother had always known I was."
By then the foundation had more than 1,400 employees and volunteers in 40 countries. Chelsea had held a board position since 2011 and routinely offered advice ("often unsolicited," she admits), but she took her time signing on the dotted line, first taking a gig as a special correspondent at NBC. She also considered other nonprofits: "I looked for a place where I could be more effective, but there wasn't one," she says. Then her mother's tenure as secretary of state came to an end, and Hillary made a home at the foundation as well. Just like that it was a family affair. (When I mentioned to Chelsea that the foundation would make a great launching pad for a 2016 Hillary Clinton presidential bid, she politely replied, "I'll support my mother in whatever she does. Always.")
This is the moment in Chelsea's life in which I meet her, and she knows she's in a sweet spot. She refers a lot to the "psychological coherence" that has come with answering this call, and with knowing that she and Marc are working as a team. "It's a delight to watch Chelsea in this phase," says Jen Lee Koss, who was one of her bridesmaids at her wedding. "She's good at everything she's done, but this work brings her real joy. As a friend you only ever want to see the people you love flourish, and that's exactly what's happening right now."
Case in point: On the first day of our trip, in Malawi, we visit a farm where the foundation has brought in methods that have dramatically increased crop outputs. Some of the wives describe the things their new income has afforded them—more bags of seed, education for their children, a tin roof for their home. "Did you hear that?" she asked me excitedly. "A tin roof is one of the greatest indicators of prosperity in the developing world. If these people can now afford them, then this program is really working." This enthusiasm is not rare for Chelsea. Over the course of our time together, she spoke with similar excitement about malaria-preventing bed nets, the regulated price of AIDS medication, and—her personal favorite—diarrhea as a public health hazard. "I think it's unconscionable that so many people die of a disease that, in our country, could be treated with Pepto-Bismol," she says. And you have to hand it to her: When Chelsea tells you about it, diarrhea indeed sounds fascinating—and important.
Nobody appreciates this moxie more than her father, but that's not the only reason he's glad she took the job. He points to her advanced degrees and lifelong interest in public health and adds that "she also has all of this management experience and a keen sense of how things should operate.... We're the fastest-growing foundation in the world, with millions of people whose lives depend on us. And she's helping us become sustainable."
Later that evening—after we'd left Malawi and flown to Zambia—Chelsea and I meet for a drink. She talks about growing up in Arkansas, where her father was governor at the time she was born. "When I was with my parents, I was the governor's daughter," she says. "But when I wasn't, I tried very much to just be a kid. I was just Chelsea Clinton in school, or ballet class, or on the softball field." Their family was small, but their collection of family lore and inside jokes was robust. "My parents were definitely on the incentive side of parenting," she says, laughing. "Like, they told me that my father had learned to read when he was three. So, of course, I thought I had to too. The first thing I learned to read was the newspaper. I had these word flash cards—this is so nerdy—and we would practice every day. When I learned 500 words, my parents gave me a little trophy. When I learned 1,500 words, I got another one." (These trophies, I am told, still have a place of pride in her parents' house in Chappaqua, New York.)
Apart from all of the obvious things that made it extraordinary—the Secret Service, the politics, the scandals—Chelsea's upbringing does seem remarkably normal when you hear her talk about it. So normal, in fact, that the people closest to her sometimes forget about the other stuff. "Obviously I understand that her dad was the president and her mom was secretary of state, but that quickly fades into the background," says D.C., and I asked Chelsea what part of town she grew up in. She just kind of looked at me and was like, 'Uh, Jen?' "
Another thing Chelsea learned around the kitchen table:how to handle the public scrutiny that comes with her last name. When Chelsea was six and her father was running his gubernatorial reelection campaign, he took some heat in the press. "They were saying some pretty rough things about me," he tells Glamour. "And she was reading about it. We started a game at breakfast where Hillary, Chelsea, and I would be either me or one of my opponents. By the end of the election, she was defending me better than I could defend myself." That early training paid off. Shortly after our return from Africa, The New York Times ran a story criticizing the foundation for mismanagement of funds and cronyism. When I ask her what it's like to wake up to criticism like that, she takes issue with some of the charges but is thoughtful and measured. "When people say crazy stuff about me or my family, I don't take it seriously. Someone didn't like what I wore? I don't care about that. But there's also criticism that I take seriously—if the foundation wasn't represented in the way that it should be? That you have to learn from."
For Chelsea, one thing that keeps the public hullabaloo from cutting too deeply is the comfort she takes in her marriage to Marc Mezvinsky. "I said this in my toast at their wedding," says Koss. "Marc brings out this incredibly silly, sidesplittingly hilarious side of Chelsea, and that's something she really needs." The two met in 1993 when she was at the Sidwell Friends School, in Washington, D.C. They were friends first but are each other's champions now. "I've known Chelsea since I was 15 and she was 12. What can I say? She's the love of my life," says Mezvinsky, who started his own hedge fund around the same time Chelsea ramped up her role at the foundation. "Chelsea has Herculean willpower, but for all her intensity, she still doesn't take herself too seriously. Just yesterday, we were laughing at ourselves for laughing, not remembering what we were giggling about in the first place."
And it's true that when I'm with her, the stories she lights up most while telling often start with, "So then Marc said...." She tells me about the quirky tendencies that endear him to her—his way with her friends, his predisposition for buying everything from tissues to Bordeaux in bulk. "Marc is in so many ways a feminist," Chelsea says. "I love that about him." In contrast to her small family, his 10 brothers and sisters have brought a welcome stripe of chaos into her life. "We have 18 nieces and nephews—19 by the time this story comes out, I think," she says. "There were so many people around the table growing up that one of his siblings actually caught a fork in the hand when reaching for something at the dinner table."
On the Tanzania leg of our trip, we tour a national park with an elephant expert. The illegal ivory trade is a passion point for Chelsea and her mother, and Chelsea wants to know everything: What deterrents are working best? Do they have community support? Which elephants are most rambunctious? This is the Chelsea that colleagues are impressed by. If President Clinton is like a circus coming to town—big, bright, and attention-getting—then Chelsea is more like the ballet: nuanced, studied, and graceful.
On the flight back from Tanzania, I ask Chelsea why the ivory trade is so important to her. What comes is a detailed lesson—part civics, part race relations, part zoology—describing how the rise of China's middle class is increasing the demand for ivory and subsequently poaching. It's like that story about how a butterfly flapping its wings in the Amazon can cause a tornado in Oklahoma, and Chelsea can explain, in detail, every step of the process.
In an outdoor market near a train station in Johannesburg, the president and I discuss his daughter's role in the foundation. We had just met a group of female food vendors who had been provided entrepreneurial training by the Clinton Foundation and Coca-Cola's 5by20 initiative. Chelsea laughs with the women, and her father is proud. "She has always been this way," he says. "When I ran for president, some of the kids were being mean to her at school—you know, kids can be cruel—and this huuuge guy came up to the group that was harassing her and said, 'She's my friend. She helped me learn to read when nobody else would, so don't you do this.' And it all went away. Now, she'd never said anything to me about what was happening or what she did for this guy. Chelsea has always just figured out what was going on and found a way to help."
Two decades later Chelsea says she's finally found a way to do that daily—and that she dedicates the work to her grandmother Dorothy. "My grandmother was determined that everyone feel a sense of optimism and opportunity," she says. "Marc and I want to make sure we're doing that. This period of our lives is not just a tribute to her, it's inspired by her. And it's for when we have our own children—I want to help make sure we've got a world I want them to live in."
Genevieve Roth is Glamour*'s special projects director.* | <urn:uuid:757f3d3b-f182-430d-87b1-2ece046dcfd6> | CC-MAIN-2017-04 | http://www.glamour.com/story/chelsea-clinton-clinton-foundation-glamour-november-2013?currentPage=3 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2017-04/segments/1484560279933.49/warc/CC-MAIN-20170116095119-00125-ip-10-171-10-70.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.989214 | 3,439 | 1.609375 | 2 |
Wilmington, NC – Cape Fear Community College says it will try again in the next legislative session to get state funding for its aging research vessel.
The R.V. Dan Moore is a 40-year-old research vessel used by Cape Fear Community College students.
The college's aim this legislative session was to get the $7.5 million dollars it needs from the state to replace the vessel.
But that's not going to happen, says Marine Technology Department Chair Jason Rogers, who says it's unclear how the delay will impact the new ship's price tag.
We're hoping that it will at least stay close. We think we will have a little wiggle room. But that's going to depend on how available shipyards are and the cost of steel.
Rogers says a perception from lawmakers that the R.V. Dan Moore only benefited local students blocked the bill from moving forward. | <urn:uuid:3d612e5b-1507-48f4-a168-3991566253cf> | CC-MAIN-2017-04 | http://whqr.org/post/funding-hold-rv-dan-moore | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2017-04/segments/1484560279368.44/warc/CC-MAIN-20170116095119-00324-ip-10-171-10-70.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.95445 | 184 | 1.625 | 2 |
The Nettie J. McKinnon Collection of American Art
La Grange Elementary District 102 is fortunate to have a remarkable collection of fine art that consists of 140 pieces, including sculpture. Nettie J. McKinnon was a visionary and a principal of the Oak Avenue School (now known as Ogden School) from 1930 to 1960. During this time she was instrumental in helping the graduating classes raise money for and choose original works of art of the time. It is known that a few of the original artists hand delivered artwork to Oak Avenue School.
Currently this collection is on display in the Nettie J. McKinnon Gallery located at Park Jr. High. It is the district's goal to integrate this art into the curriculum, providing tours for children, parents and the community at large.
Ogden students visit the Nettie J. McKinnon Gallery in third grade and sixth grade. Visit the McKinnon Gallery Web site at http://mckinnonartcollection.weebly.com/index.html | <urn:uuid:d601e561-e6b7-40f4-8891-0a7e50fafb97> | CC-MAIN-2017-04 | http://ogden.102ptc.net/ae_overview_nettie | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2017-04/segments/1484560280891.90/warc/CC-MAIN-20170116095120-00162-ip-10-171-10-70.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.959882 | 208 | 2.390625 | 2 |
An aerial view of DWC during the Dubai Air Show.
The pictures shows the existing LCC terminal expansion, the single main runway but also the much smaller runway under construction for the Emirates Aviation College, the DAS site at the stop of the picture and the storage location for mainly EK 777 airframes at the bottom.
The first phase of the airport’s full development is due to start in 2018; it is unlikely to be completed before 2023.
The first phase includes two satellite buildings with capacity for 120 million passengers annually and accommodate 100 A380 aircraft at any one time. The entire development will cover an area of 56 square kilometres.
Phase I includes the following:
Runways: 3 parallel Code F, CAT III B, 4.5 Km each (2 New+1 existing) with a capability of simultaneous operation
Terminals: West terminal with 165,000 sqm footprint for 35 million passengers annually
Satellite Concourses: 2 Satellite Concourses each with 385,000 sqm footprint each; accommodation 65 million passengers in annual capacity per concourse for a total capacity of over 120 million passengers
200 wide-body aircraft contact stands – 100 stands each for Code E and Code F aircraft
A train will link the Terminal to the Concourses. Each concourse has three stations.
The airport would then be expanded in phase two with the addition of two more runways; an east terminal and two more concourses would be added.
Links to the city will include high speed rail and the Dubai metro.
There has been no clear statement as to the long term future of the existing airport at DXB. | <urn:uuid:1f238ee5-fac6-4451-b8f7-834f852b1f37> | CC-MAIN-2022-33 | https://www.rascott.com/2018/01/02/dwc-from-above/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2022-33/segments/1659882571950.76/warc/CC-MAIN-20220813111851-20220813141851-00674.warc.gz | en | 0.928541 | 334 | 1.625 | 2 |
The United States Department of Defense tested HJ3-backed technology to wrap a structure in carbon fiber and test it’s strength against a violent explosion.
HJ3 conducted testing to demonstrate the performance of the BlastSeal™ System. Two un-reinforced concrete masonry walls were constructed within a larger containment structure. BlastSeal™ was applied to the interior and exterior of the right side.
Detonation of explosive created a crater that was approximately 108 inches in diameter with a maximum depth of 21 inches. The control wall was completely destroyed.BlastSeal™ Retrofitted wall remained intact, and no debris of any kind was found in the interior space behind the retrofitted wall.
Maximum pressure exerted on the exterior face of each wall was 178 psi; sensor located in the interior space behind the retrofitted wall recorded a peak pressure of 1.46 | <urn:uuid:7ab6b050-2e5d-4efd-b40e-23ff127e2170> | CC-MAIN-2022-33 | https://hj3.com/u-s-dod-hj3-blast-test/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2022-33/segments/1659882572221.38/warc/CC-MAIN-20220816060335-20220816090335-00075.warc.gz | en | 0.942736 | 192 | 2.453125 | 2 |
In January, George W. Bush became president, and Joseph Britt had some prescient words on the new leader:
As a Governor and then Presidential candidate, neither Bush nor Clinton was required to spend much time on foreign policy, a subject that did not especially interest him. This can be remedied. … [Bush] is much more decisive than Clinton, or for that matter his own father. This may be the most important quality a President can have in conducting foreign policy.
Mr. Weisberg forgot to mention the one place that takes all comers no matter how heinous the crime: Hell. The revised last sentence of his article should read: "At which point, the next port of call is generally Caracas, Venezuela, or Zug, Switzerland, but these are all just way stations on the road to Hell."—Ender
There were continuing discussions on inheritance tax, with the best comment coming from Marcos Kohleron the term "death tax": "Why complain about the state taking 55 percent of your treasure, if God has just taken the whole stuff?"
In April former Sen. Bob Kerrey's Vietnam exploits were in the news, and Fray favorite A.G. Android showed off his flair for undermining standard arguments. To a poster who said that only those who fought in Vietnam could judge Kerrey, he replied, "Have you ever been an unarmed civilian, killed by foreign troops? No? Then what qualifies you to defend Kerrey?"
In the spring, Sopranos feverhit Slate and The Fray, and disrespecting—and deconstructing—the Bing were key pastimes. We liked this from Roger McGuinn—it's the censored version:
[Bada bing bada boom] is used in the context of emphasizing the immediate dispatch of an issue or problem by the employment of effective ameliorative means. For example, "E woodent give me da money so I took im by iz … hair and smashed iz face into the grill of iz … car and bada bing bada boom ez pullin' 10 large outta iz ... tool box."
Timothy McVeigh's execution in May brought this post, which received the most Fray responses ever:
Killing McVeigh is wrong because of what it does to each of us. Ethically, it turns every American citizen, every man, woman, and child, into McVeigh's executioner. If we have a decent respect for human life, we should be ashamed of taking it—even if the human life is McVeigh's.—Devil's Advocate
In July and August, readers worried about the disappearance of Chandra Levy, and Shark said, "There are women who are attracted to power, and there are women who play on the shortcomings of powerful men for their own reasons. To suppose otherwise is to deny them the very three-dimensional existence that women's empowerment is supposed to provide."
As it happens, sharks were the other big source of concern, and Logical Me suggested that every shark post needed one of these phrases: "George W is incompetent or It's all Clinton's fault or Put sharks in a lockbox."
When the horror of Sept. 11 came, readers wanted to express their feelings, be with friends, and find out what was going on, and they turned to The Fray: There were more than 100,000 posts in the week following the attacks. LT said, "For every thought and feeling I've had (and many I haven't), there's been an answer or an echo on Slate or The Fray."
Neill Hamilton can be proud of this post he made on the morning of the Sept. 11: "Americans don't, or shouldn't, commit foul deeds to trade for foul deeds. Bury and mourn the dead, take a close look at who rejoices and who joins us in mourning, rebuild and repair. ... Tomorrow the sun rises for most of us."
Every possible aspect of the war, of policies, and of ethics were discussed over the following months. This was part of a long, extraordinary thread on the future of Afghanistan:
The beauty and horror of the Afghan character is such that it is perfectly capable of fighting to the last boy, without whimpering or having any second thoughts. We cannot touch that adamant resolve. Mothers and wives and children can. Empower them. If we don't know how, we should start figuring it out.— Zeitguy
In the hard weeks of the war, Arthur Stock made us laugh with his take on William Saletan's article saying the Taliban is finished: "Only once since the beginning of time has Saletan made a similar prediction, last year, when his topic was an obscure Texas governor with a presidential campaign in about the condition the Taliban is today …"
Some readers had called for more censorship after the attacks, but there was room for all views. That was one of the services The Fray offered. Ex-Fed's comment on writing about the attacks applies to The Fray too:
Extraordinary evil, like beauty, calls upon each human to feel something that transcends the ordinary—by extension, it calls upon the writer to transcend genre. ... As humans, we think out loud and profit by the thoughts of others, however inadequate to the occasion.
More Fray Notes
Fray posters this year included: Ray Suarez, Natalie Angier, Keith Olbermann, David Horowitz, Batman writer Alvin Schwarz, PETA President Ingrid Newkirk, Max B. Sawicky of the Economic Policy Institute, and Steve Sailer. Many of the "Diary" writers (including, of course, the Fray editor) came into their Frays, as did the authors of books under discussion in "The Book Club," academics, and experts. We also welcomed diplomats, Slate writers, the media director of The Sally Jessy Raphael Show, a senior executive at BMW, W.H. Auden's literary executor Edward Mendelson, and the executive editor of the Miami Herald.
A year ago (you can look at last year's review here), The Fray was a different place. Fray Editor's Picks and what one reader calls "More By This Loser" had only just been introduced. Hard though it now is to remember such a time, there were no stars. Now there are 42, the backbone of the board. Some of the best have started their own mezines: A.G. Android is InstaPundit, and WillV and Tony Adragna run QuasiPundit. We think of them as our graduating class but, on the Amway system, expect them to keep posting to home base.
The very best Frays: It is usually easy to predict which will be the most quarrelsome Frays (religion, evolution, gun control), but the great Frays are harder to spot coming. You've probably forgotten that trouble in Nepal in June: Go to this "Chatterbox" and scroll to the end to find notes on our Fray of the year.
Other good ones (scroll to the notes) were on: this "Culturebox" on poetry; the awesome "David Plotz as Bill Gates" Chatterbox; Wilson the Volleyball (don't ask); the terrific "Breakfast Table" by Fraysters Arthur Stock, WillV, and Joseph Britt; arcade games; the literary shelf of shame; and tee-ball at the White House.
The "Best of the Fray" and its own Frayare very busy these days with endless contests, self-referential discussions, and Fraysters competing for hats. We recently inaugurated the Fray Awards. Biggest surprises this year were appearances by Charles B. Tiffany, Commoner, and the Whizzer in "Best of the Fray." There's hope for you all … One last piece of advice (courtesy of Donjon8), and our New Year wish for all posters: "Don't get a big head—or fat fingers." | <urn:uuid:4b49a2b8-a09d-47c5-b623-47750749b834> | CC-MAIN-2017-04 | http://www.slate.com/articles/news_and_politics/best_of_the_fray/2001/12/best_fray_posts_of_the_year.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2017-04/segments/1484560285001.96/warc/CC-MAIN-20170116095125-00305-ip-10-171-10-70.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.965735 | 1,653 | 1.851563 | 2 |
Physicians commonly prescribe Metformin if you have Type 2 diabetes and need help controlling your blood sugar. It reduces how much glucose you absorb from food and the amount your liver produces. On rare occasions, however, Metformin causes liver dysfunction and a serious metabolic condition involving the liver. For this reason, physicians exercise caution when prescribing Metformin to patients with liver disease.
In healthy individuals, the liver produces glucose to keep blood sugar stable when you haven't eaten for several hours. Uncontrolled glucose production in the liver may cause high blood sugar in individuals with Type 2 diabetes. Researchers discovered that Metformin blocks critical enzymes involved in signaling the liver to produce glucose, thereby decreasing blood sugar levels. Their work was reported in the February 2013 edition of the journal "Nature."
Lactic Acid Production
Your muscles, brain, skin and other tissues produce a substance called lactic acid. Under normal circumstances, your liver and kidneys remove lactic acid from the blood and convert some of it to glucose. If a life-threatening metabolic condition known as lactic acidosis occurs, lactic acid levels increase faster than the liver can keep up with. Though its mechanism is unclear, Metformin causes lactic acidosis in a small segment -- up to 1 percent -- of patients, according to NYU Langone Medical Center. Almost all reported cases occurred in patients with underlying metabolic issues, such as liver or kidney disease.
Mild Liver Dysfunction
According to LiverTox, a publication of the U.S. National Library of Science drug database, Metformin may occasionally cause mild liver toxicity, characterized by minor elevations in liver enzymes. It occurs in less than 1 percent of the patients taking Metformin and usually appears within the first one to eight weeks of treatment, according to LiverTox. Liver problems usually resolve quickly once you stop taking the Metformin, according to LiverTox.
Knowing the Signs
Your liver is a critical organ that is responsible for detoxifying your blood. While Metformin influences the liver in some positive ways that result in decreased glucose output, it's capable, under rare circumstances, of negatively affecting liver function. Seek immediate medical attention if you notice signs of liver toxicity, which include weakness, fatigue or jaundice. | <urn:uuid:f443ab0a-b45d-4a65-994b-0811ed8de261> | CC-MAIN-2017-04 | http://www.livestrong.com/article/245459-metformin-effects-on-the-liver/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2017-04/segments/1484560284411.66/warc/CC-MAIN-20170116095124-00456-ip-10-171-10-70.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.913123 | 460 | 2.921875 | 3 |
dreadverb [ T ]uk /dred/ us /dred/
dread to think
- We are dreading the idea of having my son's friends to stay.
- I dread to think what they say about me behind my back.
- That night as he dreamed, the warrior was confronted by the enemy he dreaded most.
- Although I was absolutely dreading telling Dad, he was actually very understanding when I told him.
- What is now happening in the country is what I dreaded most - it is descending into anarchy and civil war.
Thesaurus: synonyms and related words
dreadnoun [ U ]uk /dred/ us /dred/
adjective [ before noun ] uk us formal | <urn:uuid:59809faa-83a8-4bf6-a98c-bb5238f63bd2> | CC-MAIN-2017-04 | http://dictionary.cambridge.org/dictionary/english/dread?a=american-english | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2017-04/segments/1484560279189.36/warc/CC-MAIN-20170116095119-00064-ip-10-171-10-70.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.963912 | 157 | 1.539063 | 2 |
There is no single idea
freudian theory, rather it is a collection of ideas related to Sigmund Freud
's work on psychoanalysis
- from The Oxford Companion to English Literature.
Many people in freudian-denial
object to, and are even disgusted by, Freud's ideas which only seems to give them further credence | <urn:uuid:d2e751bd-15d8-490b-9466-38810496a157> | CC-MAIN-2017-04 | http://everything2.com/title/Freudian+theory | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2017-04/segments/1484560280825.87/warc/CC-MAIN-20170116095120-00207-ip-10-171-10-70.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.942636 | 72 | 1.648438 | 2 |
Welcome to the Healthy eating area for children aged 3-5 years.
In this area you will find four activity sessions.
Activity 1 - What foods do you like?
Activity 2 - What is the eatwell plate?
Activity 3 - Do you need to eat lots, some or a little of these foods?
Activity 4 - How many fruit and vegetables do you need to eat each day?
Each activity comprises notes to help you run the session, and supporting resources.
6 computer activities for pre-school children:
For more information on the sources used in this text, please contact email@example.com
Last reviewed: 09/10/2009
Next review date: 01/09/2012 | <urn:uuid:f3741531-5e42-4fed-a12d-f8c15bca33a3> | CC-MAIN-2016-44 | http://www.foodafactoflife.org.uk/section.aspx?t=93&siteId=17§ionId=93 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2016-44/segments/1476988718296.19/warc/CC-MAIN-20161020183838-00540-ip-10-171-6-4.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.922952 | 149 | 3.375 | 3 |
It's a word that's used to express anger, shock, awe, disgust - even joy. It's a word that's extremely commonly used in the everyday language of young people but one rarely appears in the mainstream media.
Yes, even I hesitate to use the F word - both in polite company and in my writing.
But as the publisher of a youth magazine it's a question we have had to grapple with. When rock bands give us interviews, for example, they often use the F word. And we censor the same by printing f***.
That has been the established convention. But does it make sense anymore? The F word is being used as a verb, a noun, an adjective, or merely for effect and attitude. It's lost its original meaning or edge.
Besides, the word commonly appears on the internet. Not cloaked under *** but in its full glory.
There was this one time JAM published the F word minus the ****. It was a sub-editing mistake.
Well, the only person who noticed was a fellow journalist - he didn't think it was a good idea at all. Not a single reader wrote it to say he/ she found it offensive.
Yet, after a heated debate, we decided to stick to journalistic convention. It felt a little wannabe to do otherwise.
But it looks like times may be changing... A recent issue of DNA - a completely mainstream paper with family readership - has taken the liberty of breaking the Rule.
In an interview with film maker Tarsem Singh published in the paper's Brand-Equity type supplement 'Ad Zip' last week, the F word is used in full - not once but twice. (Sorry, no web link - DNA has no online version yet).
Was this a policy decision, or a sub-editing mistake? Would be interesting to know! And was I the only one to notice or have there been a ton of responses - negative and positive - from readers?
My view is that certain lines have to be drawn and maintained. If newspapers started publishing news in sms format bcause that is the lingo of the day - well, that would be a rather sad day!
Which is why I can't really digest this strange bit of news: A high school in England is allowing the f-word to be used in each class, but only five times per class...
Is it an experiment in reverse psychology (allow them say it - then they won't feel like it?). Or one confused, desperate-to-be-hip school! What's next? Teachers lobbying to use the F word 5 times in every lecture, perhaps.
The world is well and truly fucked. | <urn:uuid:e5c80b8d-23a3-4225-a3b9-2f9940a6b7c6> | CC-MAIN-2017-04 | http://youthcurry.blogspot.com/2005/08/who-let-dog-out.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2017-04/segments/1484560281151.11/warc/CC-MAIN-20170116095121-00109-ip-10-171-10-70.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.965885 | 554 | 2.40625 | 2 |
Become a Connecticut Notary Public
Connecticut Notary Commission Overview
Notary.net is here to help with any notary bonds, insurance, notary training, or notary supplies you need to become a Connecticut notary public. The step-by-step process for becoming a notary public in the state of Connecticut is detailed below. Once you are ready to shop for supplies, simply visit our store.
Importance of Connecticut Notary Training
As a notary public in the State of Connecticut, you have unlimited financial liability on every document you notarize. You do not want to take the office of Notary Public lightly. The Connecticut Online Notary Course is the fastest, easiest and most affordable way for you to learn what to do and how to protect yourself as a notary. Whether you are a new or current notary public, you should spend some time learning the laws.
How to Become a Notary Public in ConnecticutStep-by-Step Instructions
How to Become a Connecticut Notary Public
How to Become a Notary Public in CT
1. Read the Notary Public Manual.
2. Complete a Jurat and Writing Sample.
3. Print the Certificate of Character. The Certificate must be completed by a public official, or reputable businessperson, who is unrelated to you and has known you for at least one year.
4. Create an account on the eLicense website.
5. Log in and complete the application. Pay the $120 fee.
6. Once your application has been approved, you will receive your new notary certificate.
7. Within 30 days of receiving your certificate, you must file the certificate and take your oath of office with a town clerk. Pay the $10 fee.
8. Purchase your Connecticut notary seal.
Congratulations! You are now a Connecticut notary public! | <urn:uuid:7fd85541-8e1f-4680-84b7-242b8402c14d> | CC-MAIN-2022-33 | https://notary.net/state/connecticut/?ref=104 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2022-33/segments/1659882572043.2/warc/CC-MAIN-20220814143522-20220814173522-00465.warc.gz | en | 0.932355 | 381 | 1.539063 | 2 |
Web site design encompasses a range of competencies and specialities within the upkeep and formation net sites. Different grounds of website design incorporate net visuals design web-site publishing, which feature functional design and style and complex facets usability, which make reference to connections and investigation and interaction website marketing, which tackles marketing of web sites for search engines. Other design and style specialities incorporate aesthetic interaction disciplines, like the generating of skill or flicks connects, which is the layout of products using a site multi media, which refers to computer software included in multimedia system tasks and computer animation, which means the creating of movies as well as other multi-media items. Other design and style matters consist of content publishing and server-aspect technology. Website development is the method of combining buyer-side website programs into the web page.
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An additional vital take into account website development is a selection of expressions and tools familiar with build the web-site. Virtually every medium sized which is used to create a products or deliver a service have their own expressions and set of tools. Developers will have to select their tools carefully to make certain that fundamentally a user-favorable encounter for anyone who may very well be with it. Typeface web developers are often employed by firms that are aware of those languages, but every last method features its own resources and terminology.
Tag-up that is created with Contract is substance and allows website designers to develop incredibly water layouts. The objective-up comprises of series and copy, instead of the traditional several content. The advantages of contract draw-up include things like its simplicity of enactment, power to create intricate cool layouts, and a chance to update templates without re-training HTML. Some Bend over websites allow for developers to alter the complete appearance of the page by adding or touch-ups its Cascading stylesheet value. Developing material internet sites requires time and many meticulous planning, but it can be done through the help of professionals like Ethan Marcotte.
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Asbestos and the law
Litigation related to asbestos injuries and property damages has been claimed to be the longest-running mass tort in U.S. history. Since asbestos-related disease has been identified by the medical profession in the late 1920s, workers' compensation cases were filed and resolved in secrecy, with a flood of litigation starting in the United States in the 1970s, and culminating in the 1980s and 1990s. A massive multi-district litigation (MDL) complex filing has remained pending in the Eastern District of Pennsylvania for over 20 years. As many of the scarring-related injury cases have been resolved, asbestos litigation continues to be hard-fought among the litigants, mainly in individually brought cases for terminal cases of asbestosis, mesothelioma, and other cancers.
- 1 Background
- 2 Regulation
- 3 Civil litigation
- 4 See also
- 5 References
- 6 Further reading
- 7 External links
In the late 19th century and early 20th century, asbestos was considered an ideal material for use in the construction industry. It was known to be an excellent fire retardant, to have high electrical resistance, and was inexpensive and easy to use.
The dangers related to asbestos arise mainly when the fibers become airborne and are inhaled. Because of the size of the fibers, the lungs cannot expel them. These fibers are also sharp and penetrate internal tissues.
Health problems attributed to asbestos include:
- Asbestosis - A lung disease first found in textile workers, asbestosis is a scarring of the lung tissue resulting from the production of growth factors that stimulate fibroblasts (the scar-producing lung cells) to proliferate and synthesize the scar tissue in response to injury by the inhaled fibers. The scarring may eventually become so severe that the lungs can no longer function. The latency period (meaning the time it takes for the disease to develop) is often 10–20 years.
- Mesothelioma - A cancer of the mesothelial lining of the lungs and the chest cavity, the peritoneum (abdominal cavity) or the pericardium (a sac surrounding the heart). Unlike lung cancer, mesothelioma has no association with smoking. The only established causal factor is exposure to asbestos or similar fibers. The latency period for mesothelioma may be 20–50 years. The prognosis for mesothelioma is grim, with most patients dying within 12 months of diagnosis.
- Cancer - Cancer of the lung, gastrointestinal tract, kidney and larynx have been linked to asbestos. The latency period for cancer is often 15–30 years.
- Diffuse pleural thickening
Considerable international controversy exists regarding the perceived rights and wrongs associated with litigation on compensation claims related to asbestos exposure and alleged subsequent medical consequences. Some measure of the vast range of views expressed in legal and political circles can perhaps be exemplified by the two quotes below, the first from Prof. Lester Brickman, an American legal ethicist writing in the Pepperdine Law Review, and second, Michael Wills, a British Member of Parliament, speaking in the House of Commons on July 13. 2006:
"A review of the scholarly literature indicates a substantial degree of indifference to the causes of this civil justice system failure. Many of the published articles on asbestos litigation focus on transactional costs and ways in which the flow of money from defendants to plaintiffs and their lawyers can be expeditiously and efficiently prioritized and routed. The failure to acknowledge, let alone analyze, the overriding reality of specious claiming and meritless claims demonstrates a disconnect between the scholarship and the reality of the litigation that is nearly as wide as the disconnect between rates of disease claiming and actual disease manifestation".
"Many of those who I see in my surgeries have worked in a number of workplaces and they could have been exposed to asbestos in each of them, but medical science is such that no one can identify which of them it is. As a result, there has been a long and complex history of legal discussion on how to apportion liability. The lawyers and the judiciary have wrestled, rightly and valiantly, with complex and difficult law, but it has created despair for the families whom we represent. Many of my constituents’ families have been riven by the consequences of litigation in trying to get some compensation for a disease that has been contracted through no fault of theirs. That is cruel and unacceptable."
Worldwide, 60 countries (including those in the European Union) have banned the use of asbestos, in whole or in part. Some examples follow.
Asbestos is listed as a category of controlled waste under Annex I of the Basel Convention on the Control of Transboundary Movements of Hazardous Wastes and their Disposal . Specifically, any waste streams having asbestos (dust and fibres) as constituents are controlled (Item Y36). In general terms, Parties to the Convention are required to prohibit and not permit the export of hazardous wastes to the Parties which have prohibited the import of such wastes via the notification procedure in Article 13 of the Convention.
A nationwide ban on importing and using all forms asbestos took effect on 31 December 2003. Reflecting the ban, the National Occupational Health and Safety Commission (NOHSC) revised asbestos-related material to promote a consistent approach to controlling exposure to workplace asbestos and to introduce best-practice health and safety measures for asbestos management, control and removal. The ban does not cover asbestos materials or products already in use at the time the ban was implemented.
Although Australia has only a third of the UK's population, its asbestos disease fatalities approximate Britain's of more than 3,000 people per year.
Western Australia' center of blue asbestos mining was Wittenoom. The mine was run by CSR (a company that had been the Colonial Sugar Refinery). The main manufacturer of asbestos products was James Hardy, which set up a minor fund for its workers, then transferred operations to the Netherlands where it would be out of reach of the workers when the fund expired.
In late 2011, Canada's remaining two asbestos mines, both located in the Province of Quebec, halted operations. In September 2012, the Parti Québécois defeated the Quebec Liberal Party in the Quebec provincial election. The Parti Québécois followed through with an election promise to halt asbestos mining. In the process, the newly elected Quebec provincial government cancelled a $58 million loan that was to be provided to one of the two mines in order to make upgrades necessary to continue operations for 20 more years. Subsequently, the Canadian federal government announced that it would no longer oppose efforts to add asbestos to the list of hazardous substances under the international Rotterdam Convention.
France banned the use of asbestos in 1997, and the WTO upheld France's right to the ban in 2000. In addition, France has called for a worldwide ban.
The Vision Statement of the Environment and Human Health of The Government of India clearly states "Alternatives to asbestos may be used to the extent possible and use of asbestos may be phased out."
In Case No.693/30/97-98, National Human Rights Commission (NHRC) has clearly directed to “Replace all asbestos sheets roofing with roofing made up of some other material that would not be harmful to inmates.”
The Secretary of the Post Graduate Institute of Medical Education & Research (PGIMER, Chandigarh also voiced its opinion “Asbestos is definitely a harmful material, it causes cancer and other related diseases.” In their complete statement and recommendation to NHRC they have clearly expressed their concern: “White Asbestos (Chrysotile Asbestos) is implicated in so many studies with the following diseases:-Mesothelioma (Cancer of Pleura), Lung Cancer, Peritoneal Cancer, Asbestosis, and is also considered as a cause for Ovarian Cancer, Laryngeal Cancer, Other Cancererous Diseases are produced in the person involved in Asbestos Industry.” It concludes its position by speciyfing, “Hence, Use of White Asbestos should be completely banned in India and the same may be replaced by some safer alternative material.”
The Joint Secretary, Government of Uttarakhand in Case No.2951/30/0/2011, submitted to the NHRC that “There is no cure for Asbestos Diseases. Stopping all exposure to Asbestos is only essential.”
The Union Ministry of Labour’s concept paper declared, "The Government of India is considering the ban on use of chrysotile asbestos in India to protect the workers and the general population against primary and secondary exposure to Chrysotile form of Asbestos." The Concept paper further notes, "Asbestosis is yet another occupational disease of the Lungs which is on an increase under similar circumstances warranting concentrated efforts of all stake holders to evolve strategies to curb this menace".
The Indian Factory Act and Bureau of Indian Standard already have rules and regulations for safe usage of Asbestos Contaminated products such as:
- IS 11769 Part 1: Guidelines for Safe Usage of Asbestos Cement Products like Asbestos Cement Sheets and Asbestos Cement Blocks.
- IS 11769 Part 2: Guidelines for Safe Usage of Asbestos Friction Products like Asbestos Friction Sheets and Brake Liners
- IS 11769 Part 3: Guidelines for Safe Usage of Asbestos Sealing and Insulation Products like CAF Gaskets, Gland Ropes, Insulation, Rope Lagging, Millboard
- IS 12081: Pictorial Warning to be implemented on equipment containing Asbestos Contaminated Products.
- IS 11451: Safety and Health Requirements related to Occupational Exposure to Asbestos contaminated Products.
However, there is no enforcement of the rules at ground level, hence Asbestos usage is prevalent without following even the simplest basic safety rules.
There continues to be a high usage of Friable or Dust based Asbestos in Compressed Asbestos Fibre (CAF) Gaskets, Ropes, Cloth, Gland Packings, Millboards, Insulation and Brake Liners in Factories and Industries within India as well as inadvertently exported by Equipment Manufacturers without adequate knowledge and information to the other countries.
On 21 January 2011, the Indian Supreme Court banned the usage of Asbestos in India.
In spite of the health hazards, Asbestos is widely used in India without any restriction. Activists in India and abroad have tried to persuade the governments of Canada and Quebec to stop asbestos mining in Quebec and Exporting to India. The Canadian government has repeatedly blocked Asbestos being listed as a hazardous chemical by the UN even though it spends massive amounts of money to remove it from Canadian homes and offices. While India recognizes it as a hazardous substance and has banned asbestos mining and its waste trade, it keeps its price low through patronage.
On 15th August 2016, in the strongest statement till date, the Hon Mr. Anil Madhav Dave, Union Minister of Environment, Forest & Climate Change categorically specified “Since the use of asbestos is affecting human health, its usage should gradually be minimised and ended. As far as I know, its use is declining, but it must end”
The Ban Asbestos Network of India (BANI) has been working towards an Asbestos Free India to safeguard the health of the present and future generations amidst the misinformation campaign of the White Chrysotile Industry.
Italy fully banned the use of asbestos in 1992 and set up a comprehensive plan for asbestos decontamination in industry and housing.
Japan did not fully ban asbestos until 2004. Its government has been held responsible for related diseases.
In May 1997, the manufacture and use of crocidolite and amosite, commonly known as blue and brown asbestos, were fully banned in South Korea. In January 2009, a full-fledged ban on all types of asbestos occurred when the government banned the manufacture, import, sale, storage, transport or use of asbestos or any substance containing more than 0.1% of asbestos. In 2011, South Korea became the world's sixth country to enact an asbestos harm aid act, which entitles any Korean citizen to free lifetime medical care as well as monthly income from the government if he or she is diagnosed with an asbestos-related disease.
In 1984, the import of raw amphibole (blue and brown) asbestos into New Zealand was banned. In 2002, the import of chrysotile (white) asbestos was banned.
The British Government's Health and Safety Executive (HSE) has promoted rigorous controls on asbestos handling, based on reports linking exposure to asbestos dust or fibres with thousands of annual deaths from mesothelioma and asbestos-related lung cancer.
- "At least 4,000 people in Great Britain die each year from mesothelioma and asbestos-related lung cancer as a result of past exposure to asbestos. Annual numbers of deaths are predicted to go on rising into the next decade."
- The TUC (UK) report cites a figure of 5,000 deaths per year.
The HSE does not assume that any minimum threshold exists for exposure to asbestos below which a person is at zero risk of developing mesothelioma, since they consider that it cannot currently be quantified for practical purposes; they cite evidence from epidemiological studies of asbestos exposed groups to argue that even if any such threshold for mesothelioma does exist, it must be at a very low level.
Previously it was possible to claim compensation for pleural plaques caused by negligent exposure to asbestos, on the grounds that although it is in itself asymptomatic, it is linked to development of diffuse pleural thickening, which causes lung impairment. It has been highly contentious, however, as to the probability of pleural plaques developing into pleural thickening or other asbestos-related illnesses. On October 17, 2007 this point was clarified by the Law Lords' ruling that workers who have pleural plaques as a result of asbestos exposure will no longer be able to seek compensation as it does not in itself constitute a disease. This ruling was, however, superseded, so far as sufferers of pleural plaques in Scotland are concerned, by the passing of the Damages (Asbestos-related Conditions)(Scotland) Act 2009, which provides that in Scots law pleural plaques are to be considered an actionable type of personal injury.
The Control of Asbestos Regulations were introduced in the UK in November 2006 and are an amalgamation of three previous sets of legislation (Asbestos Prohibition, Asbestos Licensing and the Control of Asbestos at Work Regulations) aimed at minimising the use and disturbance of asbestos containing materials within British workplaces. Essentially this legislation bans the import and use of most asbestos products and sets out guidelines on how best to manage those currently in situ.
Dutyholders of all non-domestic properties within the UK must establish an asbestos register and a management plan. The definition of "non-domestic" is "a property or structure (commercial, domestic or residential) where work is carried out" the obligation of the dutyholder is that such operatives are not exposed to any asbestos-based materials during the course of the work, the Asbestos Register states the presence or non-presence of asbestos related to the inside and outside of the structure. The exception is where the property age (post-1999 when chrysotile asbestos was banned) would indicate that such products will not have been used during the construction of the building.
The removal of high-risk asbestos products from non-domestic properties is tightly controlled by the HSE and high-risk products such as thermal insulation must be removed under controlled conditions by licensed contractors. Further guidance on which products this applies to can be found on the HSE website along with a list of licensees.
The Control of Asbestos Regulations were amended and came into force on 6 April 2012 to take account of the European Commission's view that the UK had not fully implemented the EU Directive on exposure to asbestos (Directive 2009/148/EC). These changes were relatively minor and included additional requirements for non-licensed asbestos work. These changes mean that some non-licensed asbestos work now requires notification, and has additional requirements for managing this work (e.g. record keeping and health surveillance).
According to the Environmental Working Group Action Fund, 10,000 people die each year from asbestos-caused diseases in the United States, including one out of every 125 American men who die over the age of 50. The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has no general ban on the use of asbestos. However, asbestos was one of the first hazardous air pollutants regulated under Section 112 of the Clean Air Act of 1970, and many applications have been forbidden by the Toxic Substances Control Act (TSCA). The United States has extensive laws regulating the use of asbestos at the federal, state, and local level.
The first lawsuits against asbestos manufacturers were brought in 1929. Since then, many lawsuits have been filed. As a result of the litigation, manufacturers sold off subsidiaries, diversified, produced asbestos substitutes, and started asbestos removal businesses. In June 1982, a retired boiler-maker, James Cavett, won a record award of $2.3 million compensatory and $1.5 million in punitive damages.
The Manville Corporation, formerly the Johns-Manville Corporation, filed for reorganization and protection under the United States Bankruptcy Code in August 1982. At the time, it was the largest company ever to file bankruptcy, and was one of the richest. Manville was then 181st on the Fortune 500, but was the defendant of 16,500 lawsuits related to the health effects of asbestos. The company was described by Ron Motley, a South Carolina attorney, as "the greatest corporate mass murderer in history." Court documents show that the corporation had a long history of hiding evidence of the ill effects of asbestos from its workers and the public. One of many examples is a memo from Manville's medical director to corporate headquarters:
- The fibrosis of this disease is irreversible and permanent so that eventually compensation will be paid to each of these men. But, as long as the man is not disabled it is felt that he should not be told of his condition so that he can live and work in peace and the company can benefit from his many years of experience.
By the early 1990s, "more than half of the 25 largest asbestos manufacturers in the US, including Amatex, Carey-Canada, Celotex, Eagle-Picher, Forty-Eight Insulations, Manville Corporation, National Gypsum, Standard Insulation, Unarco, and UNR Industries had declared bankruptcy. Filing for bankruptcy protects a company from its creditors."
One of the major issues relating to asbestos in civil procedure is the latency of asbestos-related diseases. Most countries have limitation periods to bar actions that are taken long after the cause of action has lapsed. For example, in Malaysia the time period to file a tort action is six years from the time the tort occurred. Due to several asbestos-related actions, countries such as Australia have amended their laws relating to limitations to accumulate starting from time of discovery rather than time when the cause of action accrued.
Asbestos litigation is the longest, most expensive mass tort in U.S. history, involving more than 8,000 defendants and 700,000 claimants. Current trends indicate that the rate at which people are diagnosed with the disease will likely increase through the next decade. Analysts have estimated that the total costs of asbestos litigation in the USA alone will eventually reach $200 to $275 billion. The amounts and method of allocating compensation have been the source of many court cases, and government attempts at resolution of existing and future cases.
The controversy over asbestos-related liability issues is reflected by recent press reports and the position taken by the American Bar Association.
Guardian Unlimited reported a test-case ruling in 2005, that allowed thousands of workers to be compensated for pleural plaques. Diffuse or localised fibrosis of the pleura, or pleural plaques, is less serious than asbestosis or mesothelioma, but is also considered a disease closely linked to the inhalation of asbestos. However, insurers claimed the plaques are "simply a marker for asbestos exposure rather than an injury." Mr Justice Holland rejected the insurers' arguments, and counsel for workers hailed the decision as a "victory that puts people before profits." However this decision was reversed by the Court of Appeal. On 17 October 2007, the House of Lords confirmed the Court of Appeal's decision. Pleural plaques no longer constitute actionable injury in England, Wales and Northern Ireland. The Scottish government introduced legislation in 2009 to preserve the status of pleural plaques as an actionable injury in Scotland and there are proposals to introduce similar legislation in Northern Ireland.
Insurance companies allege that asbestos litigation has taken too heavy a toll on insurance and industry. A 2002 article in the British Daily Telegraph's associate quoted Equitas, the reinsurance vehicle which assumed Lloyd's of London's liabilities, which argued that asbestos claims were the "greatest single threat to Lloyd's of London's existence." Of note is that Lloyd's of London had been sued for fraud by its investors, who claimed Lloyd's misrepresented pending losses from asbestos claims.
In May 2006, the House of Lords ruled that compensation for asbestos injuries should be reduced where responsibility could not be attached to a single employer. Critics, including trade unions, asbestos groups and Jim Wallace, former justice minister, have condemned the ruling. They said it overturned the traditional Scottish law to such cases, and was a breach of natural justice. As a result of this outcry, the ruling has been overturned by section three of the Compensation Act 2006.
In February 2010 a court ruling set a new precedent for asbestosis claims. The case, in which widow Della Sabin attempted to claim compensation following her husband's death from asbestosis, hinged on the issue of how many asbestos fibres must be present in the lungs for a claim to be valid. A research team based at Llandough Hospital initially reported that the minimum amount of fibres that needed to be present for a claim to be valid was 20 million (only 7 million were found in the sample taken from Mrs Sabin's husband Leslie). However, a subsequent US study suggested that, due to the fact that Leslie had lived for more than forty years after his exposure, a large number of fibres would have cleared from his body naturally; had he died twenty years earlier the asbestos count in his lungs would have been about 35 million fibres per gram. The judge preferred this evidence, and ruled in favour of Mrs Sabin.
In June 2008, the Brazilian Supremo Tribunal Federal (STF), voted to maintain the law (12.684/07) which prohibits the use of any product which utilizes asbestos in São Paulo State. It is expected that the decision will be extended to include the whole country.
Asbestos-related cases increased significantly on the U.S. Supreme Court docket after 1980. The court has dealt with several asbestos-related cases since 1986. Two large class action settlements, designed to limit liability, came before the court in 1997 and 1999. Both settlements were ultimately rejected by the court because they would exclude future claimants, or those who later developed asbestos-related illnesses. These rulings addressed the 20-50 year latency period of serious asbestos-related illnesses.
In 1988, the United States Environmental Protection Agency (USEPA) issued regulations requiring certain U.S. companies to report the asbestos used in their products.
Several legislative remedies have been considered by the U.S. Congress but each time rejected for a variety of reasons. In 2005, Congress considered but did not pass legislation entitled the "Fairness in Asbestos Injury Resolution Act of 2005". The act would have established a $140 billion trust fund in lieu of litigation, but as it would have proactively taken funds held in reserve by bankruptcy trusts, manufacturers and insurance companies, it was not widely supported either by victims or corporations.
On April 26, 2005, Dr. Philip J. Landrigan, professor and chair of the Department of Community and Preventive Medicine at Mount Sinai Medical Center in New York City, testified before the US Senate Committee on the Judiciary against this proposed legislation. He testified that many of the bill's provisions were unsupported by medicine and would unfairly exclude a large number of people who had become ill or died from asbestos: "The approach to the diagnosis of disease caused by asbestos that is set forth in this bill is not consistent with the diagnostic criteria established by the American Thoracic Society. If the bill is to deliver on its promise of fairness, these criteria will need to be revised." Also opposing the bill were the American Public Health Association and the Asbestos Workers' Union.
On June 14, 2006, the Senate Judiciary Committee approved an amendment to the act which would have allowed victims of mesothelioma $1.1M within 30 days of their claim's approval. This version would have also expanded eligible claimants to people exposed to asbestos from the September 11, 2001 attacks on the World Trade Center, and to construction debris in hurricanes Katrina and Rita. Ultimately, the bill's reliance on funding from private entities large and small, as well as debate over a sunset provision and the impact on the U.S. budgetary process caused the bill to fail to leave committee.
Since the bankruptcy filing of Johns-Manville in 1984, many U.S. and U.K. asbestos manufacturers have escaped litigation by filing bankruptcy. Once in bankruptcy, these companies typically are required to fund special "bankruptcy trusts" that pay pennies on the dollar to injured parties. However, these trusts do permit larger numbers of claimants to receive some kind of compensation, even if greatly reduced from potential recoveries in the tort system.
Since 2002, asbestos lawsuits in the U.S. have included the following as defendants: (1) manufacturers of machinery that are alleged to have required asbestos-containing parts to function properly; (2) owners of premises at which asbestos-containing products were installed (which includes virtually anyone who owned a building prior to 1980); (3) banks that financed ships or buildings where asbestos was installed (on the grounds that no rational lender would take a security interest in an asset without studying the risks involved); (4) retailers of asbestos-containing products (including hardware, home improvement and automotive parts stores); (5) corporations that allegedly conspired with asbestos manufacturers to deliberately conceal the dangers of asbestos (e.g., MetLife, a well-known insurance company which worked with Johns-Manville); (6) manufacturers of tools which were used to cut or shape asbestos-containing parts; and (7) manufacturers of respiratory protective equipment.
Defendants in the first category have contested liability on the grounds that nearly all of them either did not ship asbestos-containing parts with their products at all (that is, asbestos was installed only by end users) or did not sell replacement parts for their own products (in cases where the plaintiff was allegedly exposed well after any factory-original asbestos-containing parts would have been replaced), and either way cannot be responsible for toxic third-party parts that they did not manufacture, distribute, or sell. In 2008, the Washington Supreme Court, the first state supreme court to reach the issue, decided in favor of the defense. On January 12, 2012, the Supreme Court of California also decided in favor of the defense in O'Neil v. Crane Co. This is significant as a 2007 study found that California and Washington were the two most influential state supreme courts in the United States in the period from 1940 to 2005.
In a decision from January 2014, Gray v. Garlock Sealing Technologies had entered into bankruptcy proceedings, and discovery in the case uncovered evidence of fraud that led to a reduction in estimated future liability to a tenth of what was estimated.
Another area of dispute remains the so-called chrysotile-defense. Manufacturers of some products containing only chrysotile fibers claim that these are not as harmful as amphibole-containing products. As 95% of the products used in the United States historically were mostly chrysotile, this claim is widely disputed by health officials and medical professionals. The World Health Organization recognizes that exposure to all types of asbestos fibers, including chrysotile, can cause cancer of the lung, larynx, and ovary, mesothelioma, and asbestosis.
Adamo Wrecking Company
On February 20, 1973 a federal grand jury in Detroit, Michigan indicted Adamo Wrecking Company ("Adamo") for violating provisions of the Clean Air Act by knowingly causing the emission of asbestos by failure to wet and remove friable asbestos materials from demolitions.
Adamo was one of a number of demolition contractors indicted throughout the country for the alleged violation of the Clean Air Act. The United States District Court for the Eastern District of Michigan dismissed the criminal indictment on the ground that it was not an "emission standard," but a "work practice standard," which under the terms of the statute, did not carry criminal liability.
The government appealed and the Sixth Circuit Court of Appeals reversed the decision of the trial court, stating that it erred in determining that it had jurisdiction to review the validity of the standard in a criminal proceeding. Adamo's attorneys appealed to the Supreme Court.
On January 10, 1978, the Supreme Court ruled in favor of Adamo when it held that the trial court did have jurisdiction to review the standard in a criminal proceeding and also agreed with the trial court that the requirements in the act were "not standards" but "procedures" and therefore the proceedings were properly dismissed.
W. R. Grace and Company
A federal grand jury indicted W. R. Grace and Company and seven top executives on February 5, 2005, for its operations of a vermiculite mine in Libby, Montana. The indictment accused Grace of wire fraud, knowing endangerment of residents by concealing air monitoring results, obstruction of justice by interfering with an Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) investigation, violation of the Clean Air Act, providing asbestos materials to schools and local residents, and conspiracy to release asbestos and cover up health problems from asbestos contamination. The Department of Justice said 1,200 residents had developed asbestos-related diseases and some had died, and there could be many more injuries and deaths.
On June 8, 2006, a federal judge dismissed the conspiracy charge of "knowing endangerment" because some of the defendant officials had left the company before the five-year statute of limitations had begun to run. The wire fraud charge was dropped by prosecutors in March.[when?]
On April 2, 1998, three men were indicted in a conspiracy to use homeless men for illegal asbestos removal from an aging Wisconsin manufacturing plant. Then-US Attorney General Janet Reno said, "Knowingly removing asbestos improperly is criminal. Exploiting the homeless to do this work is cruel."
On December 12, 2004, owners of New York asbestos abatement companies were sentenced to the longest federal jail sentences for environmental crimes in U.S. history, after they were convicted on 18 counts of conspiracy to violate the Clean Air Act and the Toxic Substances Control Act, and actual violations of the Clean Air Act and Racketeer-Influenced and Corrupt Organizations Act. The crimes involved a 10-year scheme to illegally remove asbestos. The RICO counts included obstruction of justice, money laundering, mail fraud and bid rigging, all related to the asbestos cleanup.
On January 11, 2006, San Diego Gas & Electric Co., two of its employees, and a contractor were indicted by a federal grand jury on charges that they violated safety standards while removing asbestos from pipes in Lemon Grove, California. The defendants were charged with five counts of conspiracy, violating asbestos work practice standards and making false statements.
Environmental - asbestos removal and cleanup
Asbestos abatement (removal of asbestos) has become a thriving industry in the United States. Strict removal and disposal laws have been enacted to protect the public from airborne asbestos. The Clean Air Act requires that asbestos be wetted during removal and strictly contained, and that workers wear safety gear and masks. The federal government has prosecuted dozens of violations of the act and violations of Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations Act (RICO) related to the operations. Often these involve contractors who hire undocumented workers without proper training or protection to illegally remove asbestos.
W. R. Grace and Company faces fines of up to $280 million for polluting the town of Libby, Montana. Libby was declared a Superfund disaster area in 2002, and the EPA has spent $54 million in cleanup. Grace was ordered by a court to reimburse the EPA for cleanup costs, but the bankruptcy court must approve any payments.
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On Being Neither Liberal nor Conservative | by Fr. James V. Schall, S. J.
On Being Neither Liberal nor Conservative | by Fr. James V. Schall, S. J.
The division of the world into "liberal" and "conservative"
on every topic from politics to our taste in cuisine, clothes, or automobiles
is one of the really restricting developments that has ever happened to
us. If we are not what is considered popularly a "liberal," then
we must, by some convoluted logic, be a "conservative," or vice
versa. No third or fourth option is available as is usually the case in
the real world. It has to be, we are told, either this way or that.
Such a view makes things very simple, I suppose. But it also reduces our
minds to utter fuzziness. We are required to define everything as either
liberal or conservative even when the two allowable terms of definition
are not adequate to explain the reality that they are intended to describe.
Our political language is likewise amusingly confusing, especially when
used to describe theological issues or currents. When I am asked whether
I am a "liberal" or a "conservative," I reply that I
am a "Thomist." Needless to say, Thomas, who was once considered
a liberal Whig, is now considered a hopeless conservative, even though what
he actually held defies such simple categories. In Thomass own methodology,
the first thing he did was precisely to define what is a liberal or what
is a conservative. He then explained why both, while containing some point
of truth, were inadequate. Yet, it is almost impossible to escape this system
of "either conservative or liberal," since whatever other category
we use becomes merely grist for the liberal/conservative dichotomy.
Is Pope Benedict XVI, for instance, "liberal" or "conservative?"
Or both? Or neither? As far as I can tell, many think he was once "liberal,"
but, alas, he has become "conservative," due perhaps to something
in the Roman water. In TIME magazines edition on the election
of the pope, Pope Benedict is depicted as either "arch-conservative"
or an "ardent conservative."
Andrew Sullivan, in the same journal, tells us that Pope Benedict is "immune
from reasoned inquiry," precisely the opposite of the truth. Sullivan
evidently thinks that anyone who does not agree with him is unreasonable.
Ratzinger himself says that he has not changed much over the years, but
the world has. This observation brings up the directional question, how
has the "world" itself changed? Is the change an improvement or
a deformity? How can we tell if something is a deviation or a development
if we have no idea of what the thing we are talking is in the first place?
Whether the notions of "liberal" or "conservative" themselves
are, in content, stable and definite concepts or not is anotherand
not unimportantmatter. An economic liberal of the nineteenth century
is a conservative economist today, but the ideas are roughly the same. The
liberals of one age notoriously become the conservatives of the next. But
without some criterion of judgment both notions may indicate mere change,
not either decline or improvement.
Most social coercion today seems to come from those called liberal/left,
not from those called conservatives, who are pretty "liberal"
by comparison to self-designated "liberals." But then social coercion
has always been a trademark of the left, which is overly anxious to improve
things in this world, as, in their view, there is no other world or no other
way to accomplish any improvement. So we find a certain impatience and restlessness
in their agenda. The spiritual origins of totalitarianism are often found
in a certain impatience at the slowness of the world to become what the
ideologies tell us it ought to become.
Take, for example, the word "primitive." All through the Reformation
there were Christians who wanted to return to the "primitive"
Church as if all that happened since the founding of the Faith was a deviation
from some set standard of practice that ought never to have developed or
been further clarified. Yet the word "primitive" can have a very
different kind of meaning.
Tertullian (d. 225 A.D.), for instance, was concerned with heresies. He
wanted to find out what the various churches of his time (all Catholic,
to be sure) had in common. "Every family has to be traced back to its
origins," Tertullian said. "That is why we can say that all these
great churches constitute that one original Church of the apostles; for
it is from them that they all come. They are all primitive, all apostolic,
because they are all one.... The principle on which these associations are
based is common tradition by which they share the same sacramental bond."
So here we see that we should be neither liberal or conservative, but "primitive,"
that is, we should know and preserve what was handed down.
Take another set of oft-heard words"radical" or "revolutionary,"
for instance. Or take "dogmatic" or "reactionary." The
first thing we need to notice is that each of these words has something
fluid about it. What was once considered to be "liberal" can come
to be called "reactionary." How so? Take, for instance, the Muslim
practice of having four wives. In context, this precept should rather be
stated, "having only four wives." It was a "conservative"
standard. For this limit was originally conceived as a restrictionfour,
not ten or twenty. Who is more "liberal," the man with four wives
or the one with ten? In this context, the really "radical" or
"revolutionary" man is the one with only one wife. He is the one
defying the culture. Yet, in a society of widespread divorce and infidelity,
having only one wife is "conservative," if not down right primitive
or reactionary, except for the fact that primitives never seem to have evolved
the one wife theory. That came from Christianity, though it was in the logic
of marriage itself.
The reason the present pope is consistently called "conservative,"
or "arch-conservative has nothing to do with the normal use of
these terms or a fair understanding of his ideas. We might better call Benedict
XVI a wild "radical" or even a crypto-"revolutionary,"
because what he stands for is not something that is constantly changing.
His whole purpose in the world as pope, in a way, is to be sure that what
was presented in the beginning is still presented in our own time, however
it be depictedliberal or conservative, radical or reactionary. It
is much more "liberal," that is freeing, to hold the essence of
the Decalogue than to deny it in the name of personal freedom.
That is to say, if most every one maintains that abortion, divorce, homosexuality,
and so on are all right, it is a truly brave and "radical" view
to think that they are not and to have reasons why they are not. After so
much argument or controversy, we have to decide where we stand. If we think
that the proper way to act is what was handed down to us, we are not "normal"
citizens of this culture for whom the Decalogue can be changed, even by
a pope, so they think. We go against such a view by holding that there are
truths in every time. We are "liberal" or "radical"
or even "revolutionary" over against the ingrained habits and
established laws of our time, which do not reflect abiding standards.
If we are what is classically called "orthodox," we are neither
liberal or conservative as these terms are used today. We are wildly radical
and revolutionary. No one is radical as we are over against a culture that
has embodied these practices into its very soul. This is what Pope Ratzinger
meant by observing that it is the world, not he, that has changed. When
Benedict XVI is called a "conservative" or an "arch-conservative,"
he is in fact nothing of the sort. He is much more "radical" than
the wildest theory on the left or the right, however it be designated.
Any pope is ultimately judged by only one criterion, "did he keep the
essence of the faith in an articulate manner that was the same as that originally
handed down to him?" If he did not, what he has become is nothing more
than a conformist to our times in the values are used most to define liberal
and conservative. If he is beyond these things, as he is, he listens to
another voice. This is the root of our freedomthat this voice remains
for us to hear.
There is, in the end, something beyond liberal and conservative. That is
the truth of things according to which we have a criterion that is not constantly
changing between liberal and conservative and, in the meantime, one that
means nothing but what we want it to mean. Thus if we claim we are "neither
liberal nor conservative," we announce that there are criteria that
exist outside of our narrow way of thinking, categories that better define
for us what we are and ought to be.
James V. Schall, S.J., is Professor of Political Philosophy at Georgetown
He is the author of numerous books on social issues, spirituality, culture,
and literature including Another
Sort of Learning, Idylls and Rambles, On the Unseriousness of
Human Affairs: Teaching, Writing, Playing, Believing, Lecturing,
Philosophizing, Singing, Dancing, and A Student's Guide to Liberal
Read more of his essays on his
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The Coalition is currently saying they will make no changes to negative gearing, but the Labor Party are proposing it will apply to the purchase of new buildings only – although existing negatively geared properties would remain so.
A recent report by RiskWise Property Research and Wargent Advisory shows the ALP policy would lead to a decline in property prices. This is great news for first home buyers, but more challenging for renters.
Fewer investors means less rental properties, particularly in metropolitan areas. In the past 12 months, there’s already been a drop in lending to investors, even without any changes to negative gearing.
Negative gearing has been a popular strategy for Australian investors for many years, but in other developed markets around the world it’s actually not allowed, with many economists claiming that it inflates house prices. Here’s a few things to think about:
Pros of negative gearing:
- Reduces taxable income
- Has long term gains
- Sound investment strategy
- Wide variety of tax deductions
Cons of negative gearing:
- Can be risky
- Not great for the economy
- Not great for the property market
- Favours high income earners. | <urn:uuid:15e51fc2-c050-4c38-bab5-1da38fb69597> | CC-MAIN-2022-33 | https://www.wattrealty.com.au/news/will-negative-gearing-be-an-election-issue/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2022-33/segments/1659882571745.28/warc/CC-MAIN-20220812170436-20220812200436-00469.warc.gz | en | 0.941379 | 242 | 1.796875 | 2 |
DIFFICULT MEN: BEHIND THE SCENES OF A REVOLUTION FROM ‘THE SOPRANOS’ AND ‘THE WIRE’ TO ‘MAD MEN’ AND ‘BREAKING BAD’
By Brett Martin
Penguin Press, $27.95, 320 pages
Don Draper (“Mad Men”), Tony Soprano (“The Sopranos”) and Walter White (“Breaking Bad”) are indeed difficult men. They are emotionally tormented, brooding and moody. Yet, they wield significant influence. These dark characters, brought to life by equally unhappy men, have ushered in a new era of storytelling.
Television critics are fond of saying we are living in television’s “Third Golden Age.” The First Golden Age was the 1950s, with the introduction of TV as the leading form of mass communication; the Second Golden Age began in the early 1980s with realistic, emotional dramas such as “Hill Street Blues” and “St. Elsewhere.”
In his new book, “Difficult Men: Behind the Scenes of a Revolution: From ‘The Sopranos’ and ‘The Wire’ to ‘Mad Men’ and ‘Breaking Bad,’” GQ reporter Brett Martin explores the changes in storytelling that revolutionized television in the first decade and a third of the 21st century. In the book, Mr. Martin analyzes influential hourlong cable dramas that spanned 10- to 13-episode seasons. The 2000s marked the rise of the “showrunner,” a term applied primarily to a writer with near autocratic control over the entire production — from casting to cinematography to editing.
Mr. Martin begins with “The Sopranos,” the first big hit drama of the Third Golden Age. He sets up his analysis of showrunners by explaining that early TV writing was once considered to be “for hacks.” Writers such as “Sopranos” creator David Chase were influenced by 1970s filmmakers Robert Altman, Martin Scorsese and Francis Ford Coppola. David Chase grew up in New Jersey in an Italian family that looked down upon gangsters as “caroni,” or peasants. After spending years working on network series such as “The Rockford Files” and “Northern Exposure,” Mr. Chase had been gnawing on the idea of writing something for TV that resembled Mario Puzo’s “The Godfather.”
“The Sopranos” became a sensation, and was recently named the “best-written television show of all time” by the Writers Guild of America. Mr. Chase made numerous risky, counterintuitive decisions that included casting unknowns and pitching the show to HBO. Mr. Martin explains that ratings didn’t matter. He wasn’t worried about offending advertisers. Even within the circle of “The Sopranos” writers, there was uncertainty concerning the limits of how far they could take the action. That manifested itself in the “College” episode of “The Sopranos.” Tony Soprano takes his daughter, Meadow, to see Colby College in Maine. At a gas station, Tony spots a former associate who is in the witness-protection program. He was, in mob parlance, a “rat.” Tony strangles the man in a scene lasting one minute and 16 seconds. Mr. Chase could not justify any other course of action. This example of creative freedom is one of many in “Difficult Men.”
The title, “Difficult Men,” refers to the showrunners themselves, not just the antiheroes of their creation. Mr. Martin provides myriad examples of the showrunners as “difficult men.” Mr. Chase fired “Sopranos” writer Todd Kessler the very morning the two were nominated for a writing Emmy. Mr. Chase reconsidered and rehired him, only to permanently discharge him again several months later. When “Mad Men” creator Matt Weiner worked on “The Sopranos,” one staffer found him so difficult that she resorted to recording all of her interactions with him. David Milch, creator of “Deadwood,” is known to have engaged in behavior so outlandish that the details are unfit for a family newspaper. While he does not linger on them, Mr. Martin also touches on some of the writers’ foibles, such as drug use and alcoholism, providing insight into the writers’ overall makeup.
“Difficult Men” is an excellently sourced book. Mr. Martin had extensive access to all of the key players at the shows discussed in the book and the networks that aired them. Many sources spoke on the record, giving the book accuracy and legitimacy, rather than trading in gossip. The showrunners profiled are presented as successful, yet Mr. Martin avoids deifying them. Moreover, Mr. Martin eschews an overuse of show business jargon. Instead, he sprinkles the narrative with maxims such as, “Every great TV show tells its whole story in its pilot. Often in only one line,” and although it is a subject of curiosity, he does not delve into the profitability of the shows that are profiled.
The book is helpfully divided into chapters that analyze shows in the order in which they made it to the airwaves. Each chapter is loaded with anecdotes about the creative process. Even though all of the shows featured in “Difficult Men” were hits, their future never seemed to be assured, and this ramped up the creative fights recorded in the book.
Fans of “Mad Men” and “Breaking Bad” have to wait until the last quarter of the book to get the inside story on these shows, although they can always skip ahead, and somewhat disappointingly, Mr. Martin only devotes one rather short chapter to “Mad Men.”
Nevertheless, “Difficult Men” is required reading for anyone interested in the sweeping changes in television and the creative forces behind them. The news that Netflix’s “House of Cards” is the first Internet-based show to be nominated for the Outstanding Drama Emmy indicates that there are more changes to come. If this is the dawn of the next Golden Age, let’s hope Brett Martin will chronicle it.
Kevin P. McVicker is account supervisor with Shirley & Banister Public Affairs in Alexandria, Va.
Copyright © 2022 The Washington Times, LLC. | <urn:uuid:fdaddfa5-74b1-48cf-985a-c1e042311bac> | CC-MAIN-2022-33 | https://m.washingtontimes.com/news/2013/jul/29/book-review-difficult-men/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2022-33/segments/1659882573172.64/warc/CC-MAIN-20220818063910-20220818093910-00265.warc.gz | en | 0.960483 | 1,405 | 1.929688 | 2 |
Please boost your Plan to download papers
Religion and Theology
Pages 10 (2510 words)
Throughout the course of human history there have been many different attempts by individuals to define life and explain what, if any, relationship exists between the temporal and the divine. For centuries, even millennia, humanity strove to define the relationship between God and man as something of a miraculous, mysterious, and complex relationship; mixed with varying levels of divine interference within human matters…
Moreover, belief in a miraculous and/or mysterious representation of the divine cannot and should not be viewed as something unique to monotheism. As can readily be understood from a cursory examination of the Hindu or Greek pantheon, a direct level of interference on the part of the gods is evidenced throughout the traditions and scriptures that these individual religious interpretations have developed. From such a long and historical/traditional understanding of what defines God/gods, it comes as something of a surprise that the belief system of deism ever came to any prominence whatsoever. As a means of understanding, explaining, defining, and drawing a level of inference with regards to how deism affected, and continues to affect the world in which we live, this brief analysis will seek to engage the reader with a more well-rounded and complete understanding of this belief system; as well as the key factors that contributed to it and the impacts that this particular belief system continues to engender. As with many historical theories and definitions of the world, deism was born out of a particular historical movement and time. ...
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Top Tourist Attractions in Michigan
Tourist attractions from Detroit to the state's beautiful landscapes, there are a lot of things to see! People who are interested in Nature will find that the Great Lakes coastline offers unique opportunities to enjoy dunes & shorelines not found close by the ocean.
Many people enjoy visiting historical sites. One of the most popular places to visit is Fort Mackinac on Mackinac Island and Greenfield Village, which is part of the Henry Ford historic site.
Those looking for a faster pace, Detroit is an excellent place to visit. It has worked hard to embrace its contributions as the motor city and evolved into a top tourist destination and cultural center.
From the bright lights of a city to the Great Lakes, there are more things to see and do in Michigan with our list of attractions for tourists.
Michigan's Sleeping Bear Dunes National Lakeshore is a 35 mile long park and spans two islands in Lake Michigan.
The Park was created with its variety of natural features, including forests, beaches, dune formations and glacial phenomena in mind.
Sleeping Bear Dunes National Lakeshore includes many cultural features like an 1871 lighthouse, three former Life-Saving Service/Coast Guard stations and an extensive rural historic farm district.
The Lakeshore offers a range of activities suitable for every age. You can climb the sand dunes, go swim on one of the beaches, or take a walk through the beech/maple forest to one of our many scenic overlooks.
Maybe you would like to spend some time at the museums to learn a little bit about the history and culture of this place. The Sleeping Bear Heritage Trail offers you over four miles of paved trails for you to explore.
Mackinac Island has remained untouched by time. It is the only theme park in America which is not powered by transport vehicles - it relies on its visitors' abilities to travel on foot, horseback or as a passenger. Surrounded by water, it has been able to avoid major changes like the arrival of cars and bikes.
The small, permanent population of 500 and summer residents keep the original Victorian image preserved and enhanced.
Mackinac Island State Park's natural beauty is perfect for all. Families and children alike love the opportunity to explore a new environment that features world-famous historic landmarks.
Mackinac Island is famous for its Lilac Festival which celebrates the color & fragrance of the Isle's trademark flower. It's a major tourist attraction that culminates with one of the largest "All Horse Hitch" parades in North America. The American Bus Association has designated this event as one of the nation's top 10 attractions.
The residents are quite friendly and welcoming. Best time to visit is during the winter holiday or cross-country season. Prices do go down in the cold seasons, but there's always a warm atmosphere that you won't find anywhere else.
When you step off of the Island Ferry Dock, you will be in a living Victorian Village. Please cross streets on straight angles rather than diagonally and be aware of street traffic. You will also see a lot of horses, bikes and people coming and going in carriages. Enjoy all that this area has to offer while staying safe!
Summers on the island are typically calm, with mild mornings and warmer afternoons. It is suggested to dress comfortably in layers as it can change throughout the day. During the evening, sweaters can be put back on in order to stay warm through the night.
Winters in the Midwestern US are interestingly cold and by February, the Straits freeze and Lake Huron is covered with ice.
The average temperatures vary throughout the year while the winter holidays and cross-country skiing season occur in the month of December.
The Detroit Institute of Arts is an art museum in Detroit, Michigan that features paintings from artists including Dutch, Flemish, and Italian artists in its large collection. It holds more than of artwork and is one of the best-known museums in the United States.
This museum contains a large collection of ancient and Islamic arts based on works acquired by Frederick Stearns, the pharmaceutical magnate. Ancient Greek, Roman, Egyptian, and ancient Persian holdings have been augmented by artifacts from western Europe and ancient Arabia. The Frederick Stearns Collection also houses a large collection of ancient Greek and Roman objects, including ancient Egyptian artifacts, as well as an extensive range of Islamic art. It is among the oldest and most comprehensive in North America.
The museum houses works from many cultures through time, including Asian, African, Oceanian, and Native American arts. The museum also has modern works from artists around the world.
The Detroit Museum of Art was founded in 1885 by a group of Detroit citizens. In 1919, it was given to the city and moved into its present Neoclassical-style structure. The building was enlarged by additions completed in 1966 and 1971.
The MHT's central courtyard is decorated with 27 murals by Mexican painter Diego Rivera that depict the automobile industry. The General Motors Center for African American Art was formed in 2001, followed by the new department to help spread out culture and sharing of resources among others.
Frederik Meijer Gardens & Sculpture Park has various environments such as the outdoor courts and Japanese wood garden that would be enjoyed by art lovers. Their gardens are a great place to re-energize and relax. They offer different outdoor landscapes in addition to the traditional landscaped garden, a children's garden, and "Butterfly Maze." Their Japanese Garden offers two water falls that provide the perfect contrast with its peaceful nature.
The 1880s farmhouse is a replica of Lena Meijer's first home and includes the Farm Garden. The Lena Meijer Conservatory is a five-story tropical environment that houses many rare and exotic plants, and in March and April, visitors can watch the amazing process of Monarch butterflies transforming from caterpillar to delicate insect. Sculptures are found throughout both indoor and outdoor spaces.
The Henry Ford consists of three attractions: a museum, an auto-museum, and a history center. "The Henry Ford" explores life and work of the auto-industry icon as well as American innovation from 1800 to present day. You will be able to step back in time while visiting historic Greenfield Village. It is a living history museum that offers what life was like in the 19th century.
There are many points of interest including working farms, a restaurant serving traditional fare from the 1830s, the depot where you can catch a train on a steam-powered locomotive and even rides in a Model T. Henry Ford Museum of American Innovation tells the story of inventors and forward-thinkers who helped shape the world we see today, from the Wright brothers' dream to fly to Rosa Parks' conviction.
For a look at the most recent inventions and innovations, visit the Ford Rouge Factory Tour. Regardless of work preferences, this tour is sure to be intriguing.
6. Detroit Zoo
The Detroit Zoo has animals all over the world and allows you to experience different ecosystems. From African animals in the forest or grassland, to many family favorites including aardvark and zebra - it's always an innovative zoo adventure
The zoo's famous polar bears live in an arctic habitat where they share territory with six jaguars, 50 Canadian and American black bears, five seals, and some salmon. The Australian Outback is home to sixteen resident kangaroos and wallabies. The exotic Asian Forest has lots of amazing animals, such as red pandas and Amur tigers. The North American habitats feature some of the continent's most interesting animals, including bears, wolverines, and bald eagles.
Visitors can tour the zoo on the Tauber Family Railroad, which has been in operation since 1931. It has been hosting guests to help appreciate nature and art for many years. The island also houses reptile and amphibian centers, an aviary, and even a fine art collection.
Belle Isle tourist attraction is an island in the Detroit River that contains a park filled with numerous attractions, as well as a public entrance fee to enter.
Most family favorites to visit are the Belle Isle Aquarium, housed in a historic 1904 building with a stunning green opalite vaulted ceiling and including resident favorites like pufferfish, clown fish, turtles & more.
Another popular attraction, the Anna Scrips Whitcomb Conservatory has occupied 13 acres beside the Lilu Pond and Formal Gardens for over two hundred years. It is one of the oldest conservatories in the country, and extends from The Show House, into The Palm House, Cactus House, & Tropic House.
To learn more about the region's maritime history, visit the Dossin Great Lakes Museum & Science Center. This museum displays permanent and changing exhibits that celebrate the importance of these waters.
Among the many other attractions on Belle Isle are the grand James Scott Memorial Fountain, a Giant Slide, a Boat House, and the Belle Isle Golf Range.
Please call Superior Compounding Pharmacy in Plymouth Michigan to speak with one of our licensed pharmacists today at 734-404-6065. We can help answer any medication questions that you may have before traveling. | <urn:uuid:89ba4e9a-1a9b-4731-a340-98a7e6b38fb3> | CC-MAIN-2022-33 | https://www.superiorcompounding.com/health-news/health-news/top-7-rated-tourist-attractions-in-michigan/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2022-33/segments/1659882572581.94/warc/CC-MAIN-20220816211628-20220817001628-00065.warc.gz | en | 0.958227 | 1,910 | 1.90625 | 2 |
Mohamed Morsi’s last public act as President was a brief — by his long-winded standards — 30-minute address on national television on July 2. In the prerecorded statement, he repeatedly hailed the legitimacy of government and his right to rule and warned against looming plots to usurp his authority and the electoral will of the Egyptian people.
Within 24 hours, Egypt’s first democratically elected civilian President was in army custody and hasn’t been heard from since. As Morsi enters his third week of detention, his status is becoming an increasingly uncomfortable issue as Egypt’s transitional military-backed government attempts to move on with the post-Morsi era. Foreign governments and even a few isolated secular Egyptian political leaders are starting to call for his release. Germany and Turkey have both openly dubbed Morsi’s continued detention without formal charges an illegitimate act. The U.S. also called for his release — although in much more passive language.
There are signs that the issue is gaining momentum. On July 17, Germany’s ambassador to Egypt, Michael Bock, told local reporters: “Morsi’s release is useful for the country’s redemocratization. The judiciary should rapidly determine a verdict. Is there a case against him or not?” E.U. foreign policy chief Catherine Ashton met with members of Morsi’s Muslim Brotherhood during a visit to Cairo on July 17. Ashton later told reporters, “I believe [Morsi] should be released. I was assured he is well. I would have liked to see him.”
As Morsi’s time in custody lengthens, the more likely it becomes that the man who was Egypt’s first democratically elected head of state could be deemed in international circles a political prisoner, even one of conscience — something Egypt’s nascent transitional government, which swept into power on the grounds that Morsi and his Islamist cohorts were taking the country off a cliff, should be desperate to avoid. Egypt’s prosecutors announced earlier this week a wide-ranging set of investigations against Morsi for crimes that include incitement to violence, complicity in the killing of protesters, damaging the economy and even espionage. No formal charges have been filed yet.
“Putting somebody in prison like Morsi is undoubtedly a violation of the [U.N. human-rights] covenant, and that’s why there is this frantic search to find something to accuse him of,” says Cherif Bassiouni, an Egyptian-born law professor emeritus at DePaul University and a former U.N. human-rights investigator in Serbia and Afghanistan. “There is no doubt that he is a prisoner of conscience.”
Since Morsi’s ouster on July 3, a host of leaders from his Muslim Brotherhood organization have been charged with incitement to violence over incendiary public speeches and statements. Most of those accused leaders remain in hiding or removed from the reach of authorities as they wait surrounded by thousands of their loyalists at an open-ended sit-in outside a mosque in northeastern Cairo. But Bassiouni said Morsi’s statements in his final speeches in office simply don’t qualify as incitement to violence. However, he understands the transitional government’s logic: “The position of the government is to try and link Morsi to the announcements and actions of the other Muslim Brotherhood leaders,” he says. “When you consider them collectively like that, then that way Morsi can be considered a threat to public order and safety.”
Apart from his supporters, few inside Egypt view Morsi as a political prisoner. In the current deeply polarized national environment, anyone expressing discomfort over Morsi’s treatment or the ongoing security crackdown on other leaders of his Muslim Brotherhood is likely to be labeled a Brotherhood sympathizer.
However some local political figures have floated the idea that perhaps the deposed President should be released in order to defuse the controversy surrounding his detention. Mohammed Aboul Ghar, head of the Egyptian Social Democratic Party, told the al-Arabiya satellite news channel last week that Morsi should “return home, unless he is required to face justice.”
But when contacted by TIME, Aboul Ghar offered a slightly more muddled perspective. “I don’t think just holding him as a bargaining chip is a good idea,” Aboul Ghar tells TIME. But at the same time he seemed to endorse the idea of keeping Morsi in custody until the Brotherhood accepts the country’s new political realities and abandons its campaign to return him immediately to office. “If there is an overall agreement between the Muslim Brotherhood and the new government regarding the Brotherhood’s status and position, then this will certainly include the release of Morsi,” he says.
In the meantime, the nation plays an ongoing guessing game as to Morsi’s exact whereabouts. The Brotherhood’s belief that he was being held at a Republican Guard base in northeastern Cairo helped turn that location into a protest flash point — one that exploded into deadly violence early on July 8 with clashes between Morsi supporters and security forces that left at least 50 Brotherhood members dead.
Egyptian-military spokesman Colonel Ahmed Ali has repeatedly refused to reveal Morsi’s location and recently said only that he was being kept in “a safe place” and was “being treated like a former President.” Earlier this week, Ali objected to the use of the word detained to describe Morsi’s status.
Prosecutors, meanwhile, continue in their efforts to find crimes to pin on Morsi. So far, the publicly announced investigations have partially focused on the long-simmering rumors that Morsi and other Brotherhood leaders were broken out of jail in the midst of the 2011 revolution by compatriots from the Palestinian Islamist group Hamas. However that is a curious legal angle to take: any lawyer would argue that Morsi’s arrest and detention was illegitimate since it was ordered by the hated regime of deposed dictator Hosni Mubarak in one of Mubarak’s final, desperate crackdowns.
The Brotherhood — perhaps realizing that the political winds have turned against it — continues to rally international support for its cause and for Morsi’s status as a political prisoner and rightful President of Egypt. The longer he remains detained without charges, the greater the chance that those claims will be backed by foreign governments or international human-rights groups.
It’s a crisis that Aboul Ghar hopes resolves itself relatively quickly and quietly. “I don’t think it will continue for that much longer,” he says. “Once things calm down, I think [Morsi] will go home.”
Khalil is a Cairo-based journalist and the author of Liberation Square: Inside the Egyptian Revolution and the Rebirth of a Nation. | <urn:uuid:91e559f8-f90e-44cd-9c84-06ca61575884> | CC-MAIN-2016-44 | http://world.time.com/2013/07/17/where-is-morsi-absence-of-egypts-detained-ex-president-attracts-scrutiny/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2016-44/segments/1476988718285.69/warc/CC-MAIN-20161020183838-00107-ip-10-171-6-4.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.975637 | 1,410 | 2.0625 | 2 |
RC, AM. Davis, JP Lariviere, and JW Hamilton 2001. Arsenic Alters
the Function of the Glucocorticoid Receptor as a Transcription Factor.
Environmental Health Perspectives 109:245-251.
coverage of this research]
[29 Aug 2002: EPA
assumption about risks of old arsenic treated decks and playground
et al. demonstrate that, at extremely low levels
of exposure—levels far too low to call cell damage
or 'traditional' toxicity—arsenic alters hormonal function
in the glucocorticoid system. The metal interferes with glucocortoid
signaling necessary to turning on genes involved in tumor suppression
and other activities. By preventing these genes from turning on,
arsenic may increase the risks of cancer. This new result may require
radical strengthening of arsenic exposure standards, because it
takes place at levels far beneath current safety thresholds.
glucocorticoid system is centrally involved in a wide range of physiological
processes, ranging from the control of growth to glucose regulation
and protein metabolism [More...].
By implication, disrupting the glucocorticoid system can have profoundly
negative impacts on development and health. Dysfunction in the glucocorticoid
system has been linked to weight gain/loss, protein wasting, immunosuppression,
insulin resistance (which can lead to diabetes), osteoporosis, growth
retardation, and hypertension and hypertension.
et al. show that very low levels of arsenic--equivalent
to about 10 parts per billion-- selectively inhibit the ability
of glucocorticoid and its receptor to turn on genes normally under
glucocorticoid control. The levels capable of endocrine disruption
are far below those necessary to cause cell toxicity. And in an
on NPR's Living on Earth Dr. Josh Hamilton, one of the authors
of the study, comments that
doses that we're using in cell culture that cause these endocrine-like
effects are well below any levels that caused any signs of
toxicity in the cells. In fact, we were down in what's called
the nanomole range, or parts per trillion, and still seeing
these effects. Now, if you look at what people are exposed to,
it suggests to us that we could see these endocrine effects
quite reasonably, probably, at the levels that people are exposed
to here in the U.S."
of the Hamilton interview on Living on Earth]
et al. speculate that this low level endocrine disruption
may be involved in links between chronic exposure to low amounts
of arsenic and several human diseases, including cancer and diabetes.
alterations in GR function may play an important role in the
mechanism of arsenic carcinogenesis. ... GR has been suggested
to play a fundamental role in carcinogenesis in both lung and
skin in experimental animal models. "
are known to suppress tumor growth. It may be that arsenic suppression
of glucocorticoid activity reduces the effectiveness of glucocorticoid
go on to observe:
if environmentally relevant doses of arsenic are able to suppress
the normal function of GR as a mediator of gene regulation,
as suggested by our results, we hypothesize that this may contribute
to its ability to promote tumorigenesis and contribute to other
pathophysiological states in these tissues. This unique mechanism
would suggest further that arsenic may be able to act synergistically
with other toxic and carcinogenic agents to increase disease
risk, which is supported by epidemiological data that indicate
a synergistic increase from cigarette smoking and exposure to
arsenic. Because arsenic contamination of drinking water is
widespread in the United States and elsewhere, and it is usually
found in combination with many other toxic chemicals at most
Superfund and other toxic waste sites, these combined exposures
may represent a significant human health risk. "
findings should stimulate the US EPA to lower exposure standards
to arsenic. EPA had developed new standards in the final days of
the Clinton Administration, decreasing them from 50 ppb to 10 ppb,
but in March 2001 the Bush Administration announced it was withdrawing
them because, according to Administrator Christie Todd Whitman,
"the science is squishy." Given the 1999 conclusion by
Academy of Sciences that the old standards "could easily
result" in a 1 in 100 risk of cancer to people drinking arsenic-contaminated
water, Whitman's assertion is ludicrous. The Academy is habitually
extremely conservative on all matters chemical, yet concluded that
the old standards were inadequate. The New
York Times reported (21 March 2001) that Whitman's decision
reflected intense political pressure from mining interests, whose
operating costs would rise if the new standards were enforced. The
Times also observed that mining companies were significant financial
contributors to the Bush 2000 presidential campaign.
is unique (to date) about the mechanism discovered by Kaltreider
et al. is that arsenic's disruption of the glucocorticoid
system takes place after the hormone-receptor complex enters the
the nucleus, arsenic interferes with the way that the glucocorticoid-receptor
complex activates genes.
hormone disruptors act by (1) affecting the amount of hormone (either
by increasing/decreasing hormone synthesis or increasing/decreasing
hormone metabolism) or (2) by interfering with the binding of the
hormone with its receptor. In contrast, Kaltreider et al.
found no indication that arsenic intefered with hormone-receptor
binding or entry of the complex into the nucleus. Their data indicate
that changes in the system instead took place within the nucleus
and involved selective inhibition of DNA transcription that normally
would have been stimulated by the glucocorticoid-GR complex.
The detailed mechanisms of the interference are not yet known.
disruption by PCBs has already been documented,
and appears to work because PCBs interfere with glucocorticoid-receptor
binding. This PCB effect may underlie the ability of PCBs to affect
immune system function. | <urn:uuid:edbce26e-fd2b-4946-8de3-d527b280e4e1> | CC-MAIN-2022-33 | http://ourstolenfuture.com/NewScience/oncompounds/2001kaltreideretal.htm | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2022-33/segments/1659882572870.85/warc/CC-MAIN-20220817062258-20220817092258-00671.warc.gz | en | 0.905378 | 1,416 | 2.515625 | 3 |
* This is the Professional Version. *
Floaters are opacities that move across the visual field and do not correspond to external visual objects.
With aging, the vitreous humor can contract and separate from the retina. The age at which this change occurs varies but most often is between 50 and 75 yr. During this separation, the vitreous can intermittently tug on the retina. The mechanical traction stimulates the retina, which sends a signal that is perceived by the brain and interpreted as light. Complete separation of the vitreous leads to an increase in floaters, which may last for years.
However, traction on the retina may create a hole (retinal tear), and if fluid leaks behind the tear, the retina may detach. Retinal detachment may also be caused by other factors (eg, trauma, primary retinal disorders). Lightning-like flashes, common in retinal detachment, are called photopsias. Photopsias can also occur when rubbing the eyes or when looking around after awakening.
The most common cause of vitreous floaters is
Less common causes are listed in Some Causes of Floaters.
Rare causes of floaters include intraocular tumors (eg, lymphoma) and vitritis (inflammation of the vitreous). Intraocular foreign bodies can cause floaters but usually manifest with other symptoms, such as loss of vision, eye pain, or redness.
Some Causes of Floaters
The most important goal is to identify serious vitreous and retinal disorders. If these disorders cannot be ruled out, patients should be examined by an ophthalmologist using an indirect ophthalmoscope after pupillary dilation. Recognizing ocular migraine is also helpful.
History of present illness should ascertain onset and duration of symptoms and the shape and volume of floaters, as well as whether they are unilateral or bilateral and whether they have been preceded by trauma. The patient should try to distinguish floaters from lightning-like flashes of light (as in photopsias) or jagged lines across the visual field (as in migraine). Important associated symptoms include loss of vision (and its distribution in the visual field) and eye pain.
Review of systems should seek symptoms of possible causes, such as headaches (ocular migraine) and eye redness (vitreous inflammation).
Past medical history should note diabetes (including diabetic retinopathy), migraine headaches, eye surgery, severe myopia, and any disorders that could affect the immune system (eg, AIDS).
Eye examination should be reasonably complete. Best corrected visual acuity is measured. The eyes are inspected for redness. Visual fields are assessed in all patients. However, recognition of visual field defects by bedside examination is very insensitive, so inability to show such a defect is not evidence that the patient has full visual fields. Extraocular movements and pupillary light responses are assessed. If patients have a red eye or eye pain, the corneas are examined under magnification after fluorescein staining, and slit-lamp examination is done if possible. Ocular pressure is measured (tonometry).
Ophthalmoscopy is the most important part of the examination; it is done after dilating the pupils. To dilate the pupils, the physician first makes sure to record pupillary size and light responses, then instills drops, usually 1 drop each of a short-acting α-adrenergic agonist (eg, 2.5% phenylephrine) and a cycloplegic (eg, 1% tropicamide or 1% cyclopentolate). The pupils are fully dilated about 20 min after these drops are instilled. Ophthalmoscopy is done by a nonophthalmologist using a direct ophthalmoscope. An ophthalmologist does indirect ophthalmoscopy, which provides a more complete view of the retina, particularly the periphery.
Retinal detachment is suggested by sudden increases in floaters, photopsias, or any of its other, more specific characteristics (eg, visual field defects, retinal abnormalities). Bilateral synchronous symptoms suggest ocular migraine, although patients often have difficulty deciphering the laterality of their symptoms (eg, they often interpret scintillating scotoma of the left field of both eyes as left-eyed). Loss of red reflex suggests opacification of the vitreous (eg, vitreous hemorrhage or inflammation), but it also can be caused by advanced cataracts. Loss of vision suggests a serious disorder causing dysfunction of the vitreous or retina.
Floaters by themselves rarely indicate a serious disorder.
Patients with any abnormal findings on examination require ophthalmologic referral.
If floaters are accompanied by any other symptoms (eg, persistent flashing lights, visual deficit, sensation of a moving curtain of vision loss) or develop suddenly, patients require ophthalmologic referral, regardless of examination findings.
Drug NameSelect Trade
phenylephrineNo US brand name
* This is the Professional Version. * | <urn:uuid:b8c833a4-7a39-49df-a21b-426d584ad488> | CC-MAIN-2017-04 | http://www.merckmanuals.com/professional/eye-disorders/symptoms-of-ophthalmologic-disorders/floaters?tabid=tabNav3 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2017-04/segments/1484560280929.91/warc/CC-MAIN-20170116095120-00430-ip-10-171-10-70.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.920702 | 1,030 | 3.515625 | 4 |
Fox's Latest Attempt To Revive The Myth Of Obamacare's "Exemptions" For Congress
Blog ››› ››› SAMANTHA WYATT
Fox's Greta Van Susteren pushed the debunked myth that members of Congress have special exemptions from Obamacare by attempting to spin the fact that they may revert to federal benefits upon retirement as special treatment. In reality, not requiring retired members of Congress to stay on an exchange plan avoids giving them unfair advantage over other federal employees in retirement, and is in compliance with the wording of the Affordable Care Act (ACA).
On the March 3 edition of Fox News' On the Record, host Greta Van Susteren introduced a segment on an alleged Obamacare loophole by saying that "members of Congress and their staff members are being offered that escape hatch when they retire" which will allow them to "go back to their federal employee health coverage." Van Susteren's guest, former Republican senator and president of the conservative Heritage Foundation Jim DeMint, twisted the retirement stipulation as evidence that "the big guys get taken care of with one plan, but the average Joe gets to deal with a cash for clunkers type of health plan that we got with Obamacare":
This attempt to cast the fact that retired members of Congress are not required to stay on Obamacare as a loophole ignores the fact that the ACA did not specify how a member of Congress should be treated once they leave office and retire. The Office of Personnel Management (OPM) decided that requiring retired members of Congress and their staffers to stay on an exchange plan would give them an unfair advantage of greater benefits than other federal employees in retirement (emphasis added):
Under a rule issued by the Office of Personnel Management (OPM) late last year, members and staff who retire will be able to revert back to health coverage under the Federal Employees Health Benefits Program (FEHBP). That's the same coverage thousands of other federal workers can use when they retire.
The FEHBP lets government retirees choose from a range of options, including health savings accounts, PPOs or HMOs. And none of it has anything to do with ObamaCare.
The OPM had not included a retirement escape clause in its August draft of the rule on congressional coverage. But this flexibility was added in its Oct. 2 final rule, after "numerous commenters" called on the OPM to reconsider.
The OPM ultimately agreed with those commenters and said that, when read closely, the law only applies to members and staff "while they are employed in those positions."
A Feb. 18 report from the Congressional Research Service (CRS) puts it plainly. "[T]he final rule allows members and designated congressional staff who are eligible for retirement to enroll in a FEHBP plan upon retirement," the CRS summarized.
The OPM decided that forcing members and staff to stay on ObamaCare would give them "broader health insurance options" than other federal employees upon retirement, which would be unfair.
"We make this change for the additional reason that, otherwise, Members of Congress and congressional staff would have broader health insurance options in the Exchange in retirement than are available to other Federal annuitants," the OPM said.
A report by the Congressional Research Service likewise flies in the face of claims by Van Susteren and DeMint that the ACA's retirement stipulation constitutes a special exemption or "escape hatch." According to the report, members of Congress and their staffers have to meet the same eligibility criteria to purchase a Federal Employees Health Benefits Program (FEHBP) plan in retirement as every other federal employee:
OPM indicates that Members and congressional staff designated as working for an official office of a Member (hereinafter "staff" or "designated staff") who purchase coverage through an exchange will have the ability to enroll in plans offered through FEHBP when they become annuitants, provided they meet the eligibility criteria to do so under 5 U.S.C. Section 8905.12 The eligibility criteria are generally the same criteria that all other federal employees must meet to continue FEHBP coverage in retirement.
This new myth that members of Congress have an "escape hatch" from Obamacare upon retirement is in keeping with Fox's ongoing attempt to manufacture Congressional "exemptions" from the law, an effort that has even been criticized by Republicans. | <urn:uuid:40aed1f6-d367-43be-aebf-23a61952fe72> | CC-MAIN-2016-44 | http://mediamatters.org/blog/2014/03/03/foxs-latest-attempt-to-revive-the-myth-of-obama/198319 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2016-44/segments/1476988719468.5/warc/CC-MAIN-20161020183839-00529-ip-10-171-6-4.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.966388 | 890 | 1.523438 | 2 |
Feline sightings spread to Pearl River
With the number of wild animal sightings being reported this spring, you'd think Rockland County was more untamed than a suburb.
Join the discussion below, or Read more at The Journal News.
“Show no Quarter !”
Since: Nov 07
#1 Apr 20, 2009
I know the area well. Big cats have been sighted more often in the past 5 years.Their major food source is deer and they hide kills well so it would not be common to find sign that easy. From Ehrhardt in Pearl river go through a few back yards and your on the old Erie railroad bed straight to Blauvelt, Clausland mt. Tallmann mt. or up the river to Nyacks Hook mt. Easy for an animal that usually doesn't let anyone see it to travel undetected. I'm only an hour away, and we've gotem up here!
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Copyright © 2017 Topix LLC | <urn:uuid:27b39c22-d15e-4c75-b035-1c73231428c0> | CC-MAIN-2017-04 | http://www.topix.com/forum/city/pearl-river-ny/TMCQJA9665EA05JGU | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2017-04/segments/1484560281226.52/warc/CC-MAIN-20170116095121-00381-ip-10-171-10-70.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.895848 | 388 | 1.546875 | 2 |
Diwali is celebrated using diyas. In each and every household, lighting the diyas is considered to be very auspicious. There are diyas easily available in the market; however we can make decorative diyas which adds an extra spark to the traditional diyas. Here we show you how to make diwali diya decoration from plastic spoons.
Please have a look at step by step procedure for making decorative diyas From Plastic Spoons.
- Plastic spoons
- Paint brush
- Decorative pearls
- Glue gun
- Colour palate
Procedure For Diwali Diya Decoration From Plastic Spoons
- Take a cardboard and draw 3 circles on it.
- Join the circles to each other by making small arcs on the outer surface of the circle.
- Cut the circle along with the arcs.
- Take the plastic spoons.
- Use a colour palate to collect the paint.
- Use yellow, green and red colour to paint the spoons with a paint brush.
- Once the spoons are painted, allow the paint to dry.
- Paint several spoons as we need many pieces for diya decoration.
- Cut the bottom end of the spoon so that we get petal shape pieces.
- Take the cut out cardboard piece.
- Paste the yellow colour spoon petals on one of the circles to form the outer layer of the circle.
- Repeat the same process for the red and green circles as well.
- Next form the inner layer by pasting the spoon in the similar manner as that of the outer layer.
- Decorate the spoon petals by using decorative pearls.
- Place the candle diya in the centre of the decorated item.
- The decorated candles are now ready to use.
Plastic spoons are easily available in the market. We usually throw these spoons considering them to be a waste. However, these can be utilized to make excellent Diwali decoration. Hope you enjoyed making this craft. Happy crafting!! | <urn:uuid:3f40a5c7-b8f3-4bd9-bdda-5c1b0edf02ca> | CC-MAIN-2017-04 | https://stylenrich.com/plastic-spoons-diwali-diya-decoration/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2017-04/segments/1484560279189.36/warc/CC-MAIN-20170116095119-00063-ip-10-171-10-70.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.880986 | 427 | 1.882813 | 2 |
CHICAGO — It’s been a time-honored tradition for almost 50 years: Dyeing the Chicago River green for the annual St. Patrick’s Day parade.
But how to they do it?
CBS sister station WXRT-FM (93.1) went behind the scenes with Mike Butler, who has led the coloring crew since the first dye job back in 1962.
Butler says they have perfected the process over the past 49 years and have never missed a year–no matter the weather.
But he prefers to keep the details a secret, although he wants to assure the public that the process is environmentally safe.
The coloring tradition continues on Saturday, starting at 10 a.m., just east of Michigan Avenue. The annual St Patrick’s Day parade steps off at noon. Click here for the parade route. | <urn:uuid:80caee88-21be-4f79-a77c-8f1589809e74> | CC-MAIN-2017-04 | http://chicago.cbslocal.com/2011/03/11/what-does-it-take-to-dye-the-chicago-river-green/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2017-04/segments/1484560280791.35/warc/CC-MAIN-20170116095120-00356-ip-10-171-10-70.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.954379 | 178 | 1.640625 | 2 |
Best Foods For Your Dog. This video will be of great help to all those dog lovers out there, since many of us just do not know what is beneficial for our favorite pets. Therefore, this has been resolved finally, so you are given the list of all healthiest dog foods.
Tuna and Salmon: Fish is extremely beneficial since it is high in omega 3 fatty acids. These fatty acids keep your dog’s coat shiny and healthy.
It’s high in proteins and vitamins as well. Feeding your dog with salmon and tuna will support your dog’s immune system. Dogs love cooked salmon and you can even add salmon oil to their food.
Lean Meat: The lean meat is highly beneficial, and numerous vets have improved it, which means that through its consumption, you give an extra quality protein to your dog.
It’s a great source of amino acids and B vitamins. These vitamins are involved in maintaining great energy in your dog’s metabolism.
Thick chicken, pork or beef with no visible fat and added seasonings or sauces is a great training treat.
Liver: Similarly to lean meat, the liver is a great training treat and can also serve as a meal replacement. This meat is known as a great source of B Vitamins, Vitamin A and Vitamin K, as well as iron. You can buy it fresh from the grocery store to feed your dog at home and you can cook or bake it. | <urn:uuid:0a73cfe1-6b28-41a1-91eb-62a0e3e416f5> | CC-MAIN-2022-33 | https://newcritics.com/best-foods-for-your-dog/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2022-33/segments/1659882571210.98/warc/CC-MAIN-20220810191850-20220810221850-00469.warc.gz | en | 0.969213 | 304 | 2.03125 | 2 |
Why choose Cyber Agents?
Our agency is small and mighty. We offer the same services as larger firms in our industry, but with unmatched customer service affability.
We have performed more than 1,000 examinations and testified in more than 100 trials.
We have never been disqualified from trial.
Our agency is nonpartisan – we have experience with prosecution and defense counsel. Data doesn’t take sides; neither does Cyber Agents.
What is digital forensics?
Digital forensics is a specialization in the field of forensic science that embodies the intersection of technology and criminal justice. This includes recovery and analysis of material found on digital devices.
A “digital device” could include anything from an iPhone 11 Pro Max to an automotive navigation system.
Is my client being truthful about what they did on their device?
Our forensic tools allow us to inspect device data, including information normally inaccessible to users, to verify client accounts.
Did a disgruntled employee access or copy proprietary information from my company?
We analyze workstations, company-issued devices, and personal devices for issues with current or offboarding employees. We target information such as accessed files or user logs – depending on specific client interests.
Where was this device at a specific date or time?
We can build a timeline of events or match device information with specific events using location data.
Was a driver involved in an auto accident using their mobile device during or leading up to the incident?
We examine call records, text records, app access, and more immediately preceding, during, and after the time of collision.
Were sensitive documents downloaded?
Find out whether someone downloaded sensitive documents from a computer or server.
Did someone steal your client list?
We can find out whether your business information has been accessed or stolen.
Was someone texting at the time of an auto accident?
We can analyze devices and associated data to reconstruct a timeline around specific events. | <urn:uuid:778728f7-6c0c-47a1-b43d-fadae2576a6f> | CC-MAIN-2022-33 | https://www.cyberagentsinc.com/our-services-2/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2022-33/segments/1659882572033.91/warc/CC-MAIN-20220814113403-20220814143403-00269.warc.gz | en | 0.931559 | 394 | 1.53125 | 2 |
Between February 9th and 13th, 2015, the United Nations Commission on International Trade Law’s Working Group III held its 31st session, the 10th session devoted to “the preparation of legal standards on online dispute resolution” (ODR) and, most probably, the last. After close to fifty days of negotiations (over five years), United States and European delegates proposed that the Working Group cease its work on ODR and redirect its resources to projects that had a better chance at reaching a successful outcome since discussions had been at a stalemate for a few sessions.
After a disastrous 30th session where almost as much time was spent taking “consultation breaks” as actually discussing matters as a group, the 31st session was seen by many observers as the quintessential “make it or break it” point for the Working Group. Unfortunately, notwithstanding the efforts put forth by the secretariat to help reach a compromise, it now seems as if the Working Group will not “make it”. Granted, countries such as Egypt and Japan are still trying to salvage the project, but without two of the three most important ecommerce economies in the World (China being the other with a stronghold on the second spot after the US), any rules coming from the Working Group would be likely to have as little success as other UNCITRAL ecommerce efforts such as the 2005 United Nations Convention on the Use of Electronic Communications in International Contracts, that has, to this day, been ratified by merely six countries, only one of which – Russia – has cracked the top ten of the world’s largest economies (the next highest ranked being Singapore in 36th place).
It’s obviously too early to write the eulogy for the Working Group’s efforts since the Commission, not the Working Group itself, has the power to dictate that a project should or should not be abandoned. However, taking into account economic considerations, the current state of negotiations, as well as the last version of the draft procedural rules, all signs point to this being the end, and participating delegations will have no one to blame but themselves for this failure. Where the Commission instructed delegates to keep in mind that “low value, high volume transactions […] require an efficient and affordable dispute resolution process”, some delegations pushed for a somewhat convoluted process compatible with the New York Convention. Taking into account the most recent data that suggests that average online purchases range between $94.80 and $126.26, depending on the device, it seems obvious that such a process was ill conceived. In fact, the secretariat had warned against it when it wrote, back in 2010, that the New York Convention might not be seen as “an optimal solution for small value claims in the context of ODR”. If only they had listened…
To summarize our position, although we still believe that clearly drafted, simple, rules – such as was the plan put forth by the Commission – would have been welcomed by the international ecommerce community, this is not what these rules were shaping up to be. In fact, important legal problems regarding application of the rules can be identified throughout the draft documents, starting with paragraph 1, which states that:
“The Rules shall apply where the parties to a sales or service contract concluded using electronic communications have, at the time of a transaction, explicitly agreed that disputes relating to that transaction and falling within the scope of the Rules shall be resolved under the Rules.”
This definition is much too broad since it does not limit the rules’ reach to “the context of disputes arising out of cross-border, low-value transactions conducted by means of electronic communication” (the agreed upon reach of the rules according to their preamble). In fact, as it is currently written, paragraph 1 of the draft rules goes far beyond “cross-border, low-value transactions”. Moreover, it does not limit itself to electronic commerce in the common sense of the term (activities that relate to the buying and selling of goods and services over the Internet). Granted, it might not be a bad thing to expand on the definition to allow for the rules to evolve with the times, but the current definition technically covers ticket purchases at your local cinema, or the purchase of public transport titles, if one or the other is done through a terminal, something that is more and more common, although not considered electronic commerce by most. In fact, in places like Quebec, it’s not even considered a distance contract. Now, suggesting that parties to such transactions should turn to ODR to settle disputes is not, as such, a bad idea. We would in fact encourage it – although, depending on the final version of the rules, it might be impossible in certain jurisdictions. However, this clearly falls outside of the Working Group’s mandate, i.e.: “to undertake work in the field of online dispute resolution relating to cross-border electronic commerce transactions”.
As for the rest of paragraph 1 of the draft rules, since four different proposals remain on the table, some of which deal with the somewhat complex two-track system we addressed in previous posts, needless to say that it does not correspond to the idea of clearly drafted, simple, rules.
We could spend page after page going through every problematic idea, phrase, and comma within the rules, but the very fact that the delegates present at the last session could not agree on the meaning or reach of the draft rules seems sufficient to substantiate our argument that the rules were too complex. When two well-meaning, educated, and well-informed experts read the same paragraph and cannot agree as to what it allows, it seems obvious that clarity and accessibility have been neglected in the search for an ever-fleeting consensus…
Have we witnessed the last session of the UNCITRAL’s work on ODR? We cannot say for sure. Working Group III is tentatively scheduled to meet again in Vienna between October 5th and 9th, 2015. However, if we were betting men, we would wager that said meeting will not be held or, at the very least, its focus will most probably move away from ODR… If such is the case, expect one of our future blogs to be titled “We Told You So”, since we announced our scepticism as to the possibility for the Working Group to reach a consensus back in 2013. That being said, we get no joy in knowing that yet another ODR project could fail since it shines a very bad light on a struggling but promising practice. | <urn:uuid:146024f3-4e35-4ecc-9993-536099b4313e> | CC-MAIN-2022-33 | https://www.slaw.ca/2015/04/10/uncitrals-working-group-iii-on-online-dispute-resolution-is-all-but-done/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2022-33/segments/1659882572286.44/warc/CC-MAIN-20220816090541-20220816120541-00277.warc.gz | en | 0.970511 | 1,353 | 1.523438 | 2 |
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ItemComputational substructure querying and topology prediction of the beta-sheetHo, Hui Kian ( 2014)Studying the three-dimensional structure of proteins is essential to understanding their function, and ultimately, their dysfunction that causes disease. The limitations of experimental protein structure determination presents a need for computational approaches to protein structure prediction and analysis. The beta-sheet is a commonly occurring protein substructure important to many biological processes and are often implicated in neurological disorders. Targeted experimental studies of beta-sheets are especially difficult due to their general insolubility in isolation. This thesis presents a series of contributions to the computational analysis and prediction of beta-sheet structure, which are useful for knowledge discovery and for directing more detailed experimental work. Approaches for predicting the simplest type of beta-sheet, the beta-hairpin, are first described. Improvements over existing methods are obtained by using the most important beta-hairpin features identified through systematic feature selection. An examination of the most important features provides a physiochemical basis of their usefulness in beta-hairpin prediction. New methods for the more general problem of beta-sheet topology prediction are described. Unlike recent methods, ours are independent of multiple sequence alignment (MSAs) and therefore do not rely on the coverage of reference sequence databases or sequence homology. Our evaluations showed that our methods do not exhibit the same reductions in performance as a state-of-the-art method for sequences with low quality MSAs. A new method for the indexing and querying of beta-sheet substructures, called BetaSearch, is described. BetaSearch exploits the inherent planar constraints of beta-sheet structure to achieve significant speedups over existing graph indexing and conventional 3D structure search methods. Case studies are presented that demonstrate the potential of this method for the discovery of biologically interesting beta-sheet substructures. Finally, a purpose-built open source toolkit for generating 2D protein maps is described, which is useful for the coarse-grained analysis and visualisation of 3D protein structures. It can also be used in existing knowledge discovery pipelines for automated structural analysis and prediction tasks, as a standalone application, or imported into existing experimental applications.
ItemScalable approaches for analysing high density single nucleotide polymorphism array dataWong, Gerard Kum Peng ( 2012)Prior to making inferences from the raw data produced by these microarrays, several challenges need to be addressed. First, it is important to limit the impact of noise on microarray measurements while maintaining data integrity. An unexplored aspect of noise is the extent of probeset sequence identity in SNP microarrays. Second, microarray-based datasets often have at least two orders of magnitude more probesets than the number of samples they describe. This poses a challenge for traditional statistical tests when used in this context. Third, the number of features in each dataset is large even when sample sizes are small, thus computationally efficient approaches are required to analyse these datasets. Finally, with improving resolution of SNP arrays, there is a need to exploit this improvement in resolution to identify finer-scaled mutations in the human genome. Most existing approaches deal with these challenges at an individual sample level and do not look for consensus change across the population to identify sites of DNA mutation. Other approaches artificially smooth or segment the data to obtain uniform segments of copy number change, and lose possible fine-scaled copy number changes in the process. Others are based on computationally expensive approaches that do not scale well to array resolution and sample size. Our first contribution is a comprehensive survey of the sequence identity of all probesets for all variants of the Affymetrix Genome-Wide Human SNP array. This survey assesses the target uniqueness of every probeset and provides a basis for the development of a set of gold standard labels of copy number change between genders. The derived sets of gold standard labels are a benchmark for assessing the performance of various algorithms in detecting recurrent copy number change. This benchmark is utilised in the evaluation of our second and third contribution. Our second contribution is a statistical approach called Detecting Recurrent Copy Number Changes Using Rank Order Statistics (DRECS), which is designed to identify regions of consensus copy number change across multiple samples in SNP array datasets. Through the use of rank-based statistics, DRECS efficiently draws on the statistical power of using multiple samples to identify fine-scaled copy number changes down to the width of a single probe in a computationally efficient way. Our third contribution is called Sum of Ranks Exact Test (SoRET), a non-parametric extension of DRECS. SoRET addresses SNP datasets with small sample sizes and makes no assumptions about the distribution from which the data was sampled. Its performance in terms of Type I and Type II errors is superior to competitive parametric and non-parametric statistical tests for small sample sizes. Our fourth contribution is a feature set reduction approach called FSR. FSR enables existing filter-based feature selection approaches to handle large dimensional microarray-type datasets by pruning irrelevant and redundant features. A novel scoring measure is developed to assess the strength of each feature in terms of sample class discrimination. FSR uses measures of entropy to efficiently gauge the contribution of higher order feature patterns to avoid combinatorial explosions in assessing the utility of features. In our tested datasets, classifiers trained on features selected from FSR-reduced feature sets have shown notably better predictive accuracy than classifiers trained on features selected from complete feature sets. | <urn:uuid:1bc02ef7-9a58-4b5e-9dc3-8aa125258759> | CC-MAIN-2022-33 | https://minerva-access.unimelb.edu.au/collections/25e1a285-c08f-56b1-9684-d2895bb9e43f?spc.page=1&view=listElement&spc.sf=dc.date.available&spc.sd=DESC&f.subject=machine%20learning,equals&f.subject=bioinformatics,equals | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2022-33/segments/1659882573699.52/warc/CC-MAIN-20220819131019-20220819161019-00270.warc.gz | en | 0.909273 | 1,127 | 1.84375 | 2 |
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