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The effect of cadmium on cytosolic free calcium, protein kinase C, and collagen synthesis in rat osteosarcoma (ROS 17/2.8) cells.
Cadmium affects normal bone growth but the mechanisms of Cd2+ toxicity are not fully understood. Calcium is an integral component of bone growth and a second messenger necessary for the actions of calciotropic hormones. Ca2+ activates protein kinase C (PKC), and PKC is a mediator of [Ca2+]1 and mediator of collagen synthesis in osteoblastic cells. Therefore, PKC is a possible loci of Cd2+ effects on Ca2+ metabolism and Ca(2+)-regulated processes. This work was conducted to determine the effect of Cd2+ on cytosolic free Ca2+ ([Ca2+]i) levels, characterize the activation and/or inhibition of PKC by Cd2+ and Ca2+, and measure the effect of Cd2+ on collagen synthesis in ROS 17/2.8 cells. Cells were treated for 120 min with Cd2+ (0 to 30 microM) and [Ca2+]i was measured. Basal [Ca2+]i was 132 nM and the maximal increase to 268 nM occurred in the presence of 5 microM Cd2+. Treatment with 1 or 5 microM Cd2+ caused an increase in [Ca2+]i at 40 min with return to basal levels at 120 min of treatment. Pretreatment (24 hr) with 0.1 microM calphostin C (CC), a PKC inhibitor, produced no change in [Ca2+]i and prevented any rise in [Ca2+]i in response to Cd2+. Free Cd2+ activates PKC with an activation constant of 7.5 X 10(-11) M, while Ca2+ activates PKC with an activation constant of 3.6 X 10(-7) M. Cd2+ also caused a dose-dependent decrease in collagen synthesis, a PKC-mediated process. These data suggest that Cd2+ affects Ca2+ metabolism and Ca(2+)-mediated processes via unwarranted PKC activation as demonstrated by Cd2+ perturbation of collagen synthesis.
| 125,305,142
|
Spectrum of lesions of the anterior capsular mechanism of the shoulder.
The anterior capsular mechanism appears to be the common denominator in a number of shoulder problems ranging from the recurrent dislocation ("too loose") to the frozen shoulder ("too tight"). The shoulder region and the anterior capsular mechanism can be carefully and accurately assessed by arthrography and cineradiography. Bicipital tenosynovitis has been held accountable for shoulder problems at each extreme of the spectrum. Bicipital tenosynovitis may exist in many shoulders; however, in corrective procedures for the unstable shoulder, the biceps becomes a dynamic reinforcement of the anterior capsule. In the frozen shoulder, the biceps tendon frequently is seen as normal at surgery and the anterior capsular mechanism is identified as the site of the essential lesion. Surgery may switch the patient's problem from one side of the spectrum to the other. Shoulder problems should be investigated thoroughly and evaluated in terms of the patient's requirements for shoulder motion as well as in terms of the orthopaedic surgeon's usual criteria for recommending corrective procedures.
| 125,305,291
|
Appearing on CNN Saturday morning, Green Party candidate Jill Stein gave a rambling explanation for why she met Russian President Vladimir Putin before the election saying no one cared about it until after former Secretary Hillary Clinton lost the 2016 election.
Speaking with host Michael Smerconish, Stein seemed incredulous that attention was focused on the meeting in Russia organized by Russia Today.
ADVERTISEMENT
“Take me inside the dinner you had with Vladimir Putin in 2015 and the prominence it afforded you,” the CNN host began. “My question is was that in and of itself a form of meddling along the lines of ‘let me give some attention to green party candidate Jill Stein’ — you know the theory — any vote for Stein that otherwise would have gone to Hillary. What was that dinner about?”
‘Let’s be clear, that was a conference,” Stein replied. “That picture didn’t start to circulate until long after the election. It essentially wasn’t covered here in the U.S. there was media at that conference, and it was a day-long conference where my message was very clear. It was the message of my campaign. which is that we need a peace offensive in the Middle East. Now, this was a message that was particularly friendly to the Russians. It was saying to them that we need to stop the bombing. they had just begun bombing in Syria.”
“I would have loved for that message to have gotten out but there’s basically zero coverage,” she continued. “It’s now circulating. It’s funny, Michael, you have to ask why is that picture kicking up a storm right now? I think it’s very related to the fact that the Democrats are looking for someone to blame.”
Watch the video below via CNN:
| 125,305,305
|
Q:
In gdb, I can call some class functions, but others "cannot be resolved". Why?
I have not worked on shared pointers yet .. I just know the concept. I'm trying to debug functions in the following c++ class, which stores data of an XML file (read-in via the xerces library).
// header file
class ParamNode;
typedef boost::shared_ptr<ParamNode> PtrParamNode;
class ParamNode : public boost::enable_shared_from_this<ParamNode> {
public:
...
typedef enum { DEFAULT, EX, PASS, INSERT, APPEND } ActionType;
bool hasChildren() const;
PtrParamNode GetChildren();
PtrParamNode Get(const std::string& name, ActionType = DEFAULT );
protected:
....
ActionType defaultAction_;
}
Now if I'm debugging a piece of code in which I have an instance of the pointer to the class ParamNode, and it's called paramNode_
PtrParamNode paramNode_;
// read xml file with xerces
paramNode_ = xerces->CreateParamNodeInstance();
// now, the xml data is stored in paramNode_.
std::string probGeo;
// this works in the code, but not in (gdb)!!
paramNode_->Get("domain")->GetValue("gt",probGeo);
cout << probGeo << endl; // <-- breakpoint HERE
Using gdb I'm inspecting the paramNode_ object:
(gdb) p paramNode_
$29 = {px = 0x295df70, pn = {pi_ = 0x2957ac0}}
(gdb) p *paramNode_.px
$30 = {
<boost::enable_shared_from_this<mainclass::ParamNode>> = {weak_this_ = {px = 0x295df70, pn = {pi_ = 0x2957ac0}}},
_vptr.ParamNode = 0x20d5ad0 <vtable for mainclass::ParamNode+16>,
...
name_= {...},
children_ = {size_ = 6, capacity_ = 8, data_ = 0x2969798},
defaultAction_ = mainclass::ParamNode::EX, }
and print its members:
(gdb) ptype *paramNode_.px
type = class mainclass::ParamNode : public boost::enable_shared_from_this<mainclass::ParamNode> {
protected:
...
mainclass::ParamNode::ActionType defaultAction_;
public:
bool HasChildren(void) const;
mainclass::PtrParamNode GetChildren(void);
mainclass::PtrParamNode Get(const std::string &, mainclass::ParamNode::ActionType);
However, I can only call the functions HasChildren or GetChildren, whereas calling Get from gdb results in an error:
(gdb) p (paramNode_.px)->HasChildren()
$7 = true
(gdb) p (paramNode_.px)->GetChildren()
$8 = (mainclass::ParamNodeList &) @0x295dfb8: {
size_ = 6,
capacity_ = 8,
data_ = 0x29697a8
}
(gdb) p (paramNode_.px)->Get("domain")
Cannot resolve method mainclass::ParamNode::Get to any overloaded instance
(gdb) set overload-resolution off
(gdb) p (paramNode_.px)->Get("domain")
One of the arguments you tried to pass to Get could not be converted to what the function wants.
(gdb) p (paramNode_.px)->Get("domain", (paramNode_.px).defaultAction_)
One of the arguments you tried to pass to Get could not be converted to what the function wants.
In the code, executing the Get("domain") function works just fine. Why is that? I'm thankful if you include explanations in your answer, due to my limited knowledge of shared pointers.
A:
gdb is not a compiler, it will not do the (not-so-)nice user-defined type conversions for you. If you wish to call a function that wants a string, you need to give it a string, not a const char*.
Unfortunately, gdb cannot construct an std::string for you on the command line, again because it is not a compiler and object creation is not a simple function call.
So you will have to add a little helper function to your program, that would take a const char* and return an std::string&. Note the reference here. It cannot return by value, because then gdb will not be able to pass the result by const reference (it's not a compiler!) You can choose to return a reference to a static object, or to an object allocated on the heap. In the latter case it will leak memory, but this is not a big deal since the function is meant to be called only from the debugger anyway.
std::string& SSS (const char* s)
{
return *(new std::string(s));
}
Then in gdb
gdb> p (paramNode_.px)->Get(SSS("domain"))
should work.
A:
In such a situation I just had success after giving the command
set overload-resolution off
A:
A couple additions to the previous answer --
gdb will probably eventually learn how to do conversions like this. It can't now; but there is active work on improving support for C++ expression parsing.
gdb doesn't understand default arguments, either. This is partly a bug in gdb; but also partly a bug in g++, which doesn't emit them into the DWARF. I think DWARF doesn't even define a way to emit non-trivial default arguments.
| 125,305,314
|
[Synthesis of monomoraprenyl- and monodolichylsuccinates and maleates].
The reactions of moraprenol and dolichol with succinic and maleic anhydrides in the presence of pyridine or triethylamine were studied, and the conditions were found for the efficient synthesis of moraprenyl and dolichyl hydrogen succinates and maleates. These may be of interest as analogues of moraprenyl and dolichyl hydrogen phosphates with modified anionic groups. The English version of the paper: Russian Journal of Bioorganic Chemistry, 2004, vol. 30, no. 2; see also http://www.maik.ru.
| 125,305,414
|
Q:
IDA Pro - rewriting HIBYTE, LOBYTE and __OFSUB__ macros to C++
I was able to hook one function and now I'm trying to rewrite it's code, but I have issues with
translating some macros generated by IDA Pro's pseudocode
LOBYTE(v8) = v8 & 3;
LOBYTE(v12) = 0;
HIBYTE(v12) = *result;
v21 = __OFSUB__(v24 + 1, 30);
LOBYTE and HIBYTE are detected by Visual Studio but when I copy-paste them I get this error
Error (active) E0137 expression must be a modifiable lvalue
I tried to rewrite it to something like this
LOBYTE(v8); v8 = v8 & 3;
and then the error dissappears, but it doesn't seem to work fine.
As for offsub, it is not detected at all as a valid macro.
Do you have any ideas what should I do?
A:
LOBYTE and HIBYTE are macros that do some bit shifting logic so you can extract specific values from an unsigned short. So, for example if you had an unsigned short with value 0xAB93, you could get the specific bytes as so:
unsigned char lo = LOBYTE(0xAB93);
unsigned char hi = HIBYTE(0xAB93);
lo would hold the value 0x93 and hi would hold the value 0xAB
You want to use a separate macro to combine the values. For example:
unsigned short both = MAKEWORD(lo,hi);
| 125,305,516
|
Grounds for revival
For many, coffee can feel like a religious experience. At least one night a month, Corner Perk owner Josh Cooke hopes to infuse his coffee shop with a double shot of divine love.
And just like Jesus, the coffee comes free.
“There will be a place where you can put contributions (for charity), but since we don’t need to rent a space or hire a minister, we really won’t need any money,” he said.
At 7 p.m. Monday night, the Corner Perk coffee shop at 142 Burnt Church Road Suite C will transform into a house of worship.
“It’s somewhere between a church and a worship service,” said Cooke, who earned his seminary degree from Mercer University in Atlanta. There will be music, led by Christian musician Jonathan King. Then Cooke will read a passage from the Bible, and then open the floor up for discussion.
“We’re going to keep it really simple: A scripture reading and discussion, no message or sermon,” Cooke said.
Children are welcome, although there won’t be a special activity or place for them.
“I think a lot of people are searching for spiritual/religious truth in their lives, but they don’t want someone saying ‘This is how it is,’” said Cooke, who owns the Corner Perk with his wife Kami, a music therapist.
Josh Cooke said for the past 10 years, through both college at Charleston Southern University and in seminary, he felt called by God to start a church.
He’s also experienced many different Christian denominations: Baptist, Episcopal, Presbyterian, to name a few. He attends Church of the Cross, and said his church and others have been very supportive.
“Carl Martin and Steve Scudderer from Crosspoint Church, Bob Hinley and Chris Rosenberry from The Refuge and Chuck Owens and the Leadership team at my Church, the Church of the Cross have volunteered to lend their support, finances, wisdom, and teaching abilities anytime they are needed,” said Cooke.
He said that while Christian denominations sometimes disagree on how they interpret some of the details of Christianity, “the big things don’t change.”
The worship services will initially be held on the first Monday of each month. And on these special evenings, the coffee will be free, too.
Cooke said he’s not trying to pull anyone away from any other churches, but instead to create a church “home” in a new venue. He hopes that the informal coffee house setting will help people feel comfortable.
“I want anyone, no matter how they look or dress or live, to come and listen and learn and ask questions,” he said. “My hope is they come one step closer to knowing the love Jesus has for them.”
| 125,305,592
|
Posted by Robert Abernethy on 1/22/2018, 2:27 pm, in reply to "George Grove"
As all on this site, my wife and I were Kinston Trio fan from the time of "Tom Dooley". However, we did not have the opportunity to see them until the early 70s with Bob, Bill, and Roger. The next time was Bob, George, and Bobby. Continuing with George, Bill, and Rick with Bob doing a couple of appearances. We were fortunate to see GBR approximately 100 times and never tired of it. all three are very accomplished musicians and singers. Probably second only to the original trio. Besides being so, they are true gentleman.
Let me say this. Please remember George was a Vietnam era GI as was I. George has a personal CD "Where Have All the Flowers Gone?" which a Vietnam Memorial album. While written for Vietnam Veterans, what it says applies to vets of all wars to include the Middle East and Afgan.
(George and I are from the same home town but I am a year older). I got a number of this album and gave to all vets in graduating class (35 out of 50 men, approximately) along with the local American Legion and VFW. This CD is definitely worth the price for both vets and non-vets who have friends that are.
Yes, I was POed with what happened to them last year and can only hope and pray that good things come from them in the future. Just as Bob Hope said, "Thanks for the Memories" and a hope and prayer for the future.
--Previous Message-- : Hello Music Lovers :>) : >>> HAPPY + HEALTHY 2018 TO ALL : THANK YOU, GEORGE GROVE : : Rick Daly knows this to be true. I am a : hardcore original + semi-original KINGSTON : TRIO fan. I have always worshipped... : BOB SHANE + NICK REYNOLDS + DAVE GUARD + : JOHN STEWART. : : Due to the recent fiasco which ended up with : the betrayal and backstabbing and total : discard for KT members GEORGE GROVE + BILL : ZORN + RICK DOUGHERTY....I had a chance to : revisit this "post-67" rendition : of THE KINGSTON TRIO, and I've come to the : conclusion these guys were very good. : : All 3 guys are professional musicians who : were gifted with loads of talent and they : were top-notch entertainers. : : GEORGE + BILL + RICK were LOVED by KINGSTON : TRIO FANS !!! This explains the pain and the : suffering and the outbursts by Rick Daly, : Sue, John Birchler, Sandy Greenberg, and so : many of you. : : I just wanted to thank GEORGE GROVE for : giving us KINGSTON TRIO FANS 40 years of his : life to performing and : shmoozing (sp?) with the fans either : backstage or at Fantasy Camp. : : You can teach somebody how to sing or how to : play guitar or how to play banjo, sure. : But you can't teach somebody how to care or : to give a damn about other people or to have : CLASS. : : GEORGE GROVE embodies all of this spirit. He : cares, he is reliable, he is a class act, : he is a fantastic human being. : : Thank you George for your CD you sent me. : Thank you for those kind words you wrote me. : But most of all.... : : THANK YOU FOR BEING YOU !!! : : - Brucester : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : :
| 125,305,991
|
Directions from Warner Robins
Choose a New C-Class, E-Class, Outback or S60 from Jackson Automotive Group Today & Cruise the Streets of Warner Robins Confident and Secure
Whether you're a Web surfer, old-school radio fan or TV junkie, you've likely heard all of the critically-acclaimed reviews for the new Mercedes-Benz, Volvo and Subaru lineup. From dramatic exterior facelifts to the addition of convenience features to enhanced performance and safety, this year's models are the best Mercedes-Benz, Volvo and Subaru has offered yet. What are you waiting for? Start exploring acclaimed models such as the C-Class, E-Class, Outback and S60.
| 125,306,001
|
WARNING: The following contains spoilers for Thursday’s season finale of Rookie Blue — and beyond. If you have yet to watch, avert your eyes now. Everyone else, you may proceed….
In Thursday night’s Season 3 finale of Rookie Blue, Andy finally got from Sam what she’s wanted for so long: to hear him say “I love you.” But still aching from their abrupt break-up and feeling like she’s neglected her career, the rookie decided to leave for a secret task-force assignment — with fellow cop Nick joining her on the undercover mission — instead of meeting up with her ex. Meanwhile, Traci decided to stay at the precinct to be with her son, and Chris pondered a move to be with his own boy.
Below, executive producer Tassie Cameron explains Andy’s big decision and previews where the action will pick up in Season 4.
PHOTOS | Fall TV Spoiler Spectacular: Exclusive Scoop and Photos on 46 Returning Favorites!
TVLINE | This season has been kind of heartbreaking with Dov’s storyline, Gail getting kidnapped and Sam breaking up with Andy. Do you go into it intending to do something a little bit darker?
We always go into every season trying to be as honest as possible about where we think our officers are in their own growth. We all felt after two fun seasons of young cops on the beat and some big storylines, we wanted to show them growing up a little bit. That involves a little bit of a change in tone and involves some of the darker storylines. I don’t think we set out to be darker this season, per se, but we were trying to grow our characters up and grow some of the stories. That, obviously, meant that some of the stories had to go to darker places.
TVLINE | Sam finally said those three little words to Andy. But she still chose to leave for the task force. What’s going through her head when she makes that decision?
We try really hard with the Sam and Andy stuff to design situations — and write these moments with these characters — in a way that they both have very strong and very different perspectives on what is going on. When you’re looking at this from Andy’s perspective, she has been fully into this relationship all season. She said, “I love you.” She’s trying to make it work, and then he dumps her after this horrible thing happens without a word of explanation and breaks her heart. She’s been sidelining herself at work… She doesn’t know he’s going to come back. So she needs to move on. She needs a fresh challenge. She needs to prove herself and distract herself and get on with it. She doesn’t know that he’s going to come in and say this thing. It’s frustrating. We tried to build it in a way that she had a really good argument for leaving and not being that girl, the girl who’s going to stick around just ’cause the guy finally decides he made a mistake — and with the perspective that if he really loves her, he’ll be there when she gets back. Then we tried to build that he has an equally passionate and righteous argument about how things went this season.
TVLINE | Will the action take place in multiple locations next season, with Andy and Nick in one place and Chris maybe in another city?
That storyline is tied up in the first episode. You’re going to feel like you’re back on our show again by Episode 2.
TVLINE | Is there a bit of a time jump, then?
We are jumping ahead six months. We’re picking up with [Andy] and Nick in their undercover operation at the moment that it intersects with [Precinct] 15.
TVLINE | How will their unexplained departures affect Sam and Gail?
I hope that is the fun of watching Season 4. [Laughs]
TVLINE | Sam, in particular, doesn’t seem like one to let this unanswered question go by.
I just gave you my passionate argument on Andy’s behalf. I could give you an equally passionate one on Sam’s behalf. He would be pretty upset. He’s been back and forth with this girl a number of times now. He would be pretty frustrated.
RELATED | ABC Renews Rookie Blue for Season 4
TVLINE | He seems like the type that would go digging for answers about where Andy is.
[Laughs] That’s interesting. I actually had a similar conversation with Ben Bass [who plays Sam]. We’re shooting Episode 1 [of Season 4] right now, and he’s like, “Does he know where she is?! He would know!”
TVLINE | Will the cliffhanger about where Chris ends up be resolved in the Season 4 premiere, too?
Not in the first episode. He’s going to have finally received an answer from the other police department about whether he can go or not. It’ll be a decision he’s trying to make.
TVLINE | Dov’s storyline was really interesting and complex and messy this year. Since it wasn’t touched upon in the finale, can you talk about where he’s headed?
We felt that the end of the story, in some ways, happened in Episode 11. We like leaving it in that slightly messy place for him and then picking up six months later to see where he’s at. What I can say about Season 4 is after quite a dark Season 3, we’re hoping to have a little more fun with Dov in Season 4.
TVLINE | Is Dov still with the sister of the guy he killed? Did you mean to leave it ambiguous?
It’s over. We feel we played that story out. It was complicated and messy and hard to do. We were nervous about it. When he gets beaten up, he leaves her alone. I don’t know. Maybe we should have been more conclusive about it and finished that up. Maybe we’ll address that in one of the episodes [next] season. But for us, that was the ending.
TVLINE | With so many characters possibly in different places next season, will we see new character interactions? Andy and Nick have lots of potential, we’ve talked about Luke and Gail before. There was even a great scene with Sam and Gail in the finale.
Yes, I think so. [Laughs] It’s tricky. It’s hard to say more. Andy and Nick, we’ve showed quite an interesting, strong friendship developing between those two in Season 3. Now they’re going to go off and work together for six months without anybody else, so that’s going to deepen the friendship, which is always complicated. We always try and come up with new dynamics for our characters every season to keep us — and them and you guys — on your toes.
TVLINE | Will Traci regret her decision to stay at the precinct?
In the wake of her private tragedy with Jerry, it was so clear to that character that leaving her son at this moment for an undetermined time [to go] undercover would just be the wrong decision. I don’t think she has a huge amount of regret about that. But it is really interesting working on Traci’s character and where she’s at after last season, because it was a pretty heavy one.
| 125,306,154
|
"""Support for Timers."""
from datetime import datetime, timedelta
import logging
from typing import Dict, Optional
import voluptuous as vol
from homeassistant.const import (
ATTR_EDITABLE,
CONF_ICON,
CONF_ID,
CONF_NAME,
SERVICE_RELOAD,
)
from homeassistant.core import callback
from homeassistant.helpers import collection
import homeassistant.helpers.config_validation as cv
from homeassistant.helpers.entity_component import EntityComponent
from homeassistant.helpers.event import async_track_point_in_utc_time
from homeassistant.helpers.restore_state import RestoreEntity
import homeassistant.helpers.service
from homeassistant.helpers.storage import Store
from homeassistant.helpers.typing import ConfigType, HomeAssistantType, ServiceCallType
import homeassistant.util.dt as dt_util
_LOGGER = logging.getLogger(__name__)
DOMAIN = "timer"
ENTITY_ID_FORMAT = DOMAIN + ".{}"
DEFAULT_DURATION = 0
ATTR_DURATION = "duration"
ATTR_REMAINING = "remaining"
ATTR_FINISHES_AT = "finishes_at"
CONF_DURATION = "duration"
STATUS_IDLE = "idle"
STATUS_ACTIVE = "active"
STATUS_PAUSED = "paused"
EVENT_TIMER_FINISHED = "timer.finished"
EVENT_TIMER_CANCELLED = "timer.cancelled"
EVENT_TIMER_STARTED = "timer.started"
EVENT_TIMER_RESTARTED = "timer.restarted"
EVENT_TIMER_PAUSED = "timer.paused"
SERVICE_START = "start"
SERVICE_PAUSE = "pause"
SERVICE_CANCEL = "cancel"
SERVICE_FINISH = "finish"
STORAGE_KEY = DOMAIN
STORAGE_VERSION = 1
CREATE_FIELDS = {
vol.Required(CONF_NAME): vol.All(str, vol.Length(min=1)),
vol.Optional(CONF_NAME): cv.string,
vol.Optional(CONF_ICON): cv.icon,
vol.Optional(CONF_DURATION, default=DEFAULT_DURATION): cv.time_period,
}
UPDATE_FIELDS = {
vol.Optional(CONF_NAME): cv.string,
vol.Optional(CONF_ICON): cv.icon,
vol.Optional(CONF_DURATION): cv.time_period,
}
def _format_timedelta(delta: timedelta):
total_seconds = delta.total_seconds()
hours, remainder = divmod(total_seconds, 3600)
minutes, seconds = divmod(remainder, 60)
return f"{int(hours)}:{int(minutes):02}:{int(seconds):02}"
def _none_to_empty_dict(value):
if value is None:
return {}
return value
CONFIG_SCHEMA = vol.Schema(
{
DOMAIN: cv.schema_with_slug_keys(
vol.All(
_none_to_empty_dict,
{
vol.Optional(CONF_NAME): cv.string,
vol.Optional(CONF_ICON): cv.icon,
vol.Optional(CONF_DURATION, default=DEFAULT_DURATION): vol.All(
cv.time_period, _format_timedelta
),
},
)
)
},
extra=vol.ALLOW_EXTRA,
)
RELOAD_SERVICE_SCHEMA = vol.Schema({})
async def async_setup(hass: HomeAssistantType, config: ConfigType) -> bool:
"""Set up an input select."""
component = EntityComponent(_LOGGER, DOMAIN, hass)
id_manager = collection.IDManager()
yaml_collection = collection.YamlCollection(
logging.getLogger(f"{__name__}.yaml_collection"), id_manager
)
collection.attach_entity_component_collection(
component, yaml_collection, Timer.from_yaml
)
storage_collection = TimerStorageCollection(
Store(hass, STORAGE_VERSION, STORAGE_KEY),
logging.getLogger(f"{__name__}.storage_collection"),
id_manager,
)
collection.attach_entity_component_collection(component, storage_collection, Timer)
await yaml_collection.async_load(
[{CONF_ID: id_, **cfg} for id_, cfg in config.get(DOMAIN, {}).items()]
)
await storage_collection.async_load()
collection.StorageCollectionWebsocket(
storage_collection, DOMAIN, DOMAIN, CREATE_FIELDS, UPDATE_FIELDS
).async_setup(hass)
collection.attach_entity_registry_cleaner(hass, DOMAIN, DOMAIN, yaml_collection)
collection.attach_entity_registry_cleaner(hass, DOMAIN, DOMAIN, storage_collection)
async def reload_service_handler(service_call: ServiceCallType) -> None:
"""Reload yaml entities."""
conf = await component.async_prepare_reload(skip_reset=True)
if conf is None:
conf = {DOMAIN: {}}
await yaml_collection.async_load(
[{CONF_ID: id_, **cfg} for id_, cfg in conf.get(DOMAIN, {}).items()]
)
homeassistant.helpers.service.async_register_admin_service(
hass,
DOMAIN,
SERVICE_RELOAD,
reload_service_handler,
schema=RELOAD_SERVICE_SCHEMA,
)
component.async_register_entity_service(
SERVICE_START,
{vol.Optional(ATTR_DURATION, default=DEFAULT_DURATION): cv.time_period},
"async_start",
)
component.async_register_entity_service(SERVICE_PAUSE, {}, "async_pause")
component.async_register_entity_service(SERVICE_CANCEL, {}, "async_cancel")
component.async_register_entity_service(SERVICE_FINISH, {}, "async_finish")
return True
class TimerStorageCollection(collection.StorageCollection):
"""Timer storage based collection."""
CREATE_SCHEMA = vol.Schema(CREATE_FIELDS)
UPDATE_SCHEMA = vol.Schema(UPDATE_FIELDS)
async def _process_create_data(self, data: Dict) -> Dict:
"""Validate the config is valid."""
data = self.CREATE_SCHEMA(data)
# make duration JSON serializeable
data[CONF_DURATION] = _format_timedelta(data[CONF_DURATION])
return data
@callback
def _get_suggested_id(self, info: Dict) -> str:
"""Suggest an ID based on the config."""
return info[CONF_NAME]
async def _update_data(self, data: dict, update_data: Dict) -> Dict:
"""Return a new updated data object."""
data = {**data, **self.UPDATE_SCHEMA(update_data)}
# make duration JSON serializeable
if CONF_DURATION in update_data:
data[CONF_DURATION] = _format_timedelta(data[CONF_DURATION])
return data
class Timer(RestoreEntity):
"""Representation of a timer."""
def __init__(self, config: Dict):
"""Initialize a timer."""
self._config: dict = config
self.editable: bool = True
self._state: str = STATUS_IDLE
self._duration = cv.time_period_str(config[CONF_DURATION])
self._remaining: Optional[timedelta] = None
self._end: Optional[datetime] = None
self._listener = None
@classmethod
def from_yaml(cls, config: Dict) -> "Timer":
"""Return entity instance initialized from yaml storage."""
timer = cls(config)
timer.entity_id = ENTITY_ID_FORMAT.format(config[CONF_ID])
timer.editable = False
return timer
@property
def should_poll(self):
"""If entity should be polled."""
return False
@property
def force_update(self) -> bool:
"""Return True to fix restart issues."""
return True
@property
def name(self):
"""Return name of the timer."""
return self._config.get(CONF_NAME)
@property
def icon(self):
"""Return the icon to be used for this entity."""
return self._config.get(CONF_ICON)
@property
def state(self):
"""Return the current value of the timer."""
return self._state
@property
def state_attributes(self):
"""Return the state attributes."""
attrs = {
ATTR_DURATION: _format_timedelta(self._duration),
ATTR_EDITABLE: self.editable,
}
if self._end is not None:
attrs[ATTR_FINISHES_AT] = self._end.isoformat()
if self._remaining is not None:
attrs[ATTR_REMAINING] = _format_timedelta(self._remaining)
return attrs
@property
def unique_id(self) -> Optional[str]:
"""Return unique id for the entity."""
return self._config[CONF_ID]
async def async_added_to_hass(self):
"""Call when entity is about to be added to Home Assistant."""
# If not None, we got an initial value.
if self._state is not None:
return
state = await self.async_get_last_state()
self._state = state and state.state == state
@callback
def async_start(self, duration: timedelta):
"""Start a timer."""
if self._listener:
self._listener()
self._listener = None
newduration = None
if duration:
newduration = duration
event = EVENT_TIMER_STARTED
if self._state == STATUS_ACTIVE or self._state == STATUS_PAUSED:
event = EVENT_TIMER_RESTARTED
self._state = STATUS_ACTIVE
start = dt_util.utcnow().replace(microsecond=0)
if self._remaining and newduration is None:
self._end = start + self._remaining
elif newduration:
self._duration = newduration
self._remaining = newduration
self._end = start + self._duration
else:
self._remaining = self._duration
self._end = start + self._duration
self.hass.bus.async_fire(event, {"entity_id": self.entity_id})
self._listener = async_track_point_in_utc_time(
self.hass, self._async_finished, self._end
)
self.async_write_ha_state()
@callback
def async_pause(self):
"""Pause a timer."""
if self._listener is None:
return
self._listener()
self._listener = None
self._remaining = self._end - dt_util.utcnow().replace(microsecond=0)
self._state = STATUS_PAUSED
self._end = None
self.hass.bus.async_fire(EVENT_TIMER_PAUSED, {"entity_id": self.entity_id})
self.async_write_ha_state()
@callback
def async_cancel(self):
"""Cancel a timer."""
if self._listener:
self._listener()
self._listener = None
self._state = STATUS_IDLE
self._end = None
self._remaining = None
self.hass.bus.async_fire(EVENT_TIMER_CANCELLED, {"entity_id": self.entity_id})
self.async_write_ha_state()
@callback
def async_finish(self):
"""Reset and updates the states, fire finished event."""
if self._state != STATUS_ACTIVE:
return
self._listener = None
self._state = STATUS_IDLE
self._end = None
self._remaining = None
self.hass.bus.async_fire(EVENT_TIMER_FINISHED, {"entity_id": self.entity_id})
self.async_write_ha_state()
@callback
def _async_finished(self, time):
"""Reset and updates the states, fire finished event."""
if self._state != STATUS_ACTIVE:
return
self._listener = None
self._state = STATUS_IDLE
self._end = None
self._remaining = None
self.hass.bus.async_fire(EVENT_TIMER_FINISHED, {"entity_id": self.entity_id})
self.async_write_ha_state()
async def async_update_config(self, config: Dict) -> None:
"""Handle when the config is updated."""
self._config = config
self._duration = cv.time_period_str(config[CONF_DURATION])
self.async_write_ha_state()
| 125,306,238
|
This invention relates generally to inspection techniques, and more specifically to methods and apparatus for inspecting components.
Accurately measuring a surface of a component may be a significant factor in determining a manufacturing time of the component, as well in determining subsequent maintenance and repair costs and activities. Specifically, when the component is a gas turbine engine shroud, accurately measuring the contour of the shroud may be one of the most significant factors affecting an overall cost of fabrication of the gas turbine engine, as well as subsequent modifications, repairs, and inspections of the blade airfoils. For example, at least some known gas turbine engine shroud segments are small and include a snubber section and a racetrack section. For performance reasons, both the snubber section and the racetrack section require an accurately machined thickness. However, accurately measuring the thickness of the snubber and racetrack sections may be difficult because of the relative small size of the shroud segment.
At least some known inspection processes use coordinate measuring machines (CMMs) or other gages to obtain dimensional information for a shroud segment. Within at least some CMMs and gages, the thickness of a section of a shroud segment is determined by measuring a drop from a surface of the shroud segment to a surface whose location is known, such as a fixture used with the CMM or other gage. However, determining the thickness of a section of a shroud segment by measuring the drop to a known surface does not directly measure the thickness of the shroud segment, and therefore may be inaccurate. Furthermore, at least some known shroud segments must be removed from the machining apparatus prior to being inspected by a CMM or other gage. Removing the shroud segment from a machining apparatus increases the number of fabrication operations and the number of apparatuses used for manufacturing, thus increasing manufacturing time and cost. In addition, if the shroud segment fails the inspection, the segment may then need to be reinstalled in the machining apparatus for further machining. However, because of the size and contour of the shroud segment, it may be difficult to reinstall the shroud segment within the machining apparatus in the same relative position with respect to the original machining, thereby increasing error and manufacturing time.
| 125,306,249
|
Q:
Cambiar la el punto decimal del double por una coma
Resulta que el ouput sale punto de los doubles y lo que quiero es cambiarlo por una coma
A:
Si quieres lograr tu objetivo puedes usar el metodo replaceAll("\.", ",").
A continuación te muestro como puedes usarlo en el método listarElementos.:
public void listarElementos() {
for (int i = 0; i < codigo.length; i++) {
if (codigo[i] != null) {
System.out.println("El codigo es : " + codigo[i] + ", el nombre del producto es : "
+ nombre[i] + " , el precio de compra es de : "
+ precioCompra[i].toString().replaceAll("\\.", ",")
+ " , el precio " + "de venta es de : " + precioVenta[i].toString().replaceAll("\\.", ",") + " y el stock es de"
+ " : " + stock[i]);
}
}
}
| 125,306,420
|
A year ago, I was sitting in this very room thinking of dozens of changes I wanted to make in my life. Some of them seemed impossible, others were just a matter of committing. As I sit here now and reflect on the past year, I am amazed at how different my life is and how much happier I am as a result.
Change is never easy, and it can be scary making decisions that move you into unchartered territory. The unknown appears scarier than the known, so we often just sit back and leave things the way they are. It’s more comfortable that way. No matter how much we hate our lives or how much we complain, we don’t change anything.
I finally found the courage to do something. I changed jobs this summer. And I changed my hours, so I have my evenings free and actually have a life again. This was scary, and sad, and not an easy decision to make or follow through on. But once I made that decision I knew deep down that there was no turning back. It’s what I needed to do, and I stoically prepared for and executed my plan.
I was doing what was right for me, but as the summer progressed, it turned out to be the best decision I could have made for completely unrelated reasons. Some things are too personal to write about on a blog, but there were some very sad and scary moments this summer and having the flexibility I had kept me sane. I was able to be there for someone who really needed me, and I would’ve been a mess if I had been working every day at my old job, almost always unavailable until the wee hours of morning…
I’m happy to say that that situation has been resolved, and things worked out better than anyone could have hoped. I’m so thankful for this, and am definitely convinced that miracles do happen.
I’ve been spending my free time reading and researching, growing my flowers and herbs, writing, experimenting with herbal recipes, and completing an online wellness coaching course. I think I’ve used my time well, and plan to continue doing more of the same.
I grew probably hundreds of calendula flowers, as well as other herbs and vegetables, and I’m very proud of that. My boyfriend and I learned as we went and we were pleasantly surprised with our rewards. We can’t wait until spring to come so we can do it again! For now, we are keeping busy admiring and propagating our various succulent plants.
I’m also proud of the fact that I’ve mostly kept up this blog since I (re)committed to writing regularly. I really do enjoy it, and there is so much to write about. Sometimes it’s hard to find or make time to blog, but I am getting better at disciplining myself. One of my problems is that I like to read and learn lol, so that takes away from writing time…but two posts a week is doable…especially since it usually helps reinforce my learning.
Realistic goals lol
Speaking of goals, my rock climbing has definitely improved, both in strength and technique. It’s my favorite form of exercise, and I love the mental aspect. I’ve also done quite a bit of hiking and biking this year, and found a lot of new places to go back to. I love having more time to be outside, especially during daylight hours lol!
All of this has given me a more positive outlook and a forward momentum that keeps me motivated. Most of the changes and improvements have been achieved through a series of baby steps, and it’s amazing to see where I’ve gotten in a year. I am definitely happier and I have amazing plans for the future!
If I had to pick something I’d like to commit to for the new year, I’d probably go with a morning yoga practice. There is not really anything stopping me from doing this, and I think it would benefit me in a lot of different ways. I really like those extra minutes of sleep! Sometimes, it’s really hard to convince my morning self to motivate…
Also, even though I try to eat healthy, I have to admit that my diet could use some improvement. It’s not just the holidays, I’ve generally been slacking off for the past few months. Not so much eating the wrong foods (although there is that), but not eating enough of the good things my body needs for optimal functioning. (No doubt contributing to that months-long sinus infection…) So I will be making nutrition a priority again in the coming weeks.
I am so grateful to every one who’s been following my journey on this blog. Your support means so much to me and I thank each of you from the bottom of my heart! I hope you all have a very Happy and Healthy 2018!
All in all, 2017 turned out to be a pretty good year for me. But I’m not sorry to see it go…
| 125,306,489
|
Mount Adelung
≠≥≥≥≤§§§·←×−
Mount Adelung () is the highest peak in Pskem Range () in the extreme north-east of the Tashkent Province, Uzbekistan. Mount Adelung is the highest point of Tashkent Province at 4,301 meters, just 2 meters higher than the nearby Mount Beshtor, located a little further to the south-west in the same range, and it is often erroneously identified in various web sources as the "highest point in Uzbekistan". In fact, this honor goes to the Khazret Sultan, a peak with an altitude of 4,643 m in Surkhandarya Province, in the Uzbek part of the Gissar Range, on the border with Tajikistan, which was formerly known as Peak of the 22nd Congress of the Communist Party.
Some web sources use the name Adelunga Toghi, where Adelunga corresponds to the Russian possessive form of Adelung and Toghi presumably stands for mountain in the Uzbek language (tog’ in Latin script, тоғ in Cyrillic script). It is not known at this stage of writing which Adelung the mountain is named after.
References
Adelung
Category:Four-thousanders of the Tian Shan
| 125,306,498
|
History of PHilosoPHy Quarterly Volume 30, Number 3, July 2013 271 WILLIAM JAMES'S DIRECT REALISM: A RECONSTRUCTION Erik C. Banks 1. IntroductIon: An HIstorIco-crItIcAl reconstructIon This paper offers a historico-conceptual reconstruction of William James's direct realism about our perceptions of external objects. According to James, under certain circumstances, we can directly perceive the proper parts of external objects, not indirect mental representations of them. In addition, judgments of perception such as "I am in some sort of room with objects around me" are directly assertable, but only if there is an external environment with perspectival objects arranged around the perceiver, not the mere play of his own sensations. I will point out some important similarities between Jamesian direct realism and Kantian empirical realism and show that James has struck a powerful blow against theories of mental representation generally. The operative terms, concepts, and arguments of this kind of Jamesian direct realism are probably unfamiliar, even to those well versed in direct realist theories of perception, and since there are so many different forms of direct realism in the literature, it might help to state some of the main claims of the Jamesian position up front: 1. Taken just as they appear, sensations are real concrete particulars, not mental representations. As they occur, they are neither true nor false of anything, nor do they intentionally represent anything beyond themselves. 2. We distinguish between "acts" or "events" of sensation and "judgments" of perception in which it is asserted that we perceive objects of some kind. Judgments may be assertable or not assertable, but only if they are assertable can they be true or false of the objects they are about. 272 HISTORY OF PHILOSOPHY QUARTERLY 3. Judgments of direct perception of objects, even false ones, can only be asserted in a case where real mind-independent external objects are present in the environment of the perceiver. This condition is satisfied even when we perceive falsely and mistake one particular object for another. 4. In a judgment about a direct perception of an object, sensations are linked to external, mind-independent, physical objects through perspectival causal relations, in which case sensations are the actual proper parts of external physical objects perceived directly by us, not indirect mental representations of those objects. In the first part of this essay, I show how James distinguished between a perceptual judgment such as "I am now in a room surrounded by real objects in space" and having a sensation of blobs, flashes, and squiggles that merely look like objects in a room in space but that bear no actual resemblance to this experience. On James's analysis, a sensation is simply the collection of colors, blobs, and squiggles it appears to be, representing nothing truly or falsely. When considered in themselves like this, mere sensations, even if they seem quite detailed, are not intentional and do not have the actual capacity to represent external objects. Nor, then, do judgments asserted before an array of sensations, in a dream or delusion, really qualify as assertions of judgments of perception about objects truly or falsely. In the next part, I seek to broaden James's insights by digging deeper into the intellectual truth conditions of perceptual judgments and by showing that they cannot be satisfied within the egocentric perspective of a single subject but require an external embedding "perspectival" system of objects and other points of view on perceptual objects that a single subject simply cannot occupy all at once. There will also be an important connection with Immanuel Kant and his empirical realism. Finally, I will show how I think James has struck a powerful blow against representative theories generally. 2. JAmes's Essays in Radical EmpiRicism James began his radical empiricist series of lectures, published as articles in the Journal of Philosophy and Scientific Methods, with a sustained attack on consciousness as a thing or a substance. The first article from 1904 is provocatively titled "Does 'Consciousness' Exist?" In it, James introduces a neutral stuff called "pure experience," which is the common constituent of minds and physical bodies and belongs to neither order exclusively. Indeed, these differences are only made secondarily in the dual variations that each bit of pure experience obeys: My thesis is that if we start with the supposition that there is only one primal stuff or material of the world, a stuff of which everything is composed, and if we call that stuff "pure experience" then knowing can easily be explained as a particular sort of relation towards one another in which portions of pure experience may enter. The relation itself is part of pure experience, one of the terms becomes the subject or bearer of the knowledge, the knower, the other becomes the object known. (James 1977, 170). James also denies that the act of conscious representation bestows on the bit of pure experience its concrete quality or existence, since the same bit would still have its quality and existence under the head of a physical occurrence linked to the history of a physical object. The same red patch that we think of as our sensation is also a physical brain event tied in with the histories of mind-independent objects, so it is not our "seeing of the patch" that makes it red. Removing the act of awareness of the red patch leaves the bit of pure experience neutral, neither exclusively mental nor physical. It relates both to external objects, through its physical variations, and to the mind of the knower, through its psychological variations of memory or association. Even calling them "mental" variations as opposed to "physical" ones does not define any fundamental difference, merely a difference of interest for a psychologist or a physicist (James 1977, 136, 193–94). Nor must we stop speaking about the "mind" of the knower or even about his "acts" and "judgments," just as long as this mind is understood as a collection of its constituent functions or activities. Are there other bits of "pure experience" that are fully located in external objects that are not anyone's sensations under any functional interpretation? Here James is far from clear; he may be a neutral monist or a panpsychist or even both (see Gale 1999, 198–215; and especially Cooper 2002, ch. 2). Many passages in James do suggest an order of mind-independent natural qualities that are not sensations, as Ernst Mach and Bertrand Russell also assumed as part of neutral monism (Banks 2003, 144–50; Thiele 1978, 172–76). Mach called mind independent events "elements"; Russell called them "sensibilia" and later simply neutral "event-particulars." Most of James's ideas up to this point (the "two orders," the neutral stuff, the functional ego) are actually found in Mach's 1886 Analysis of Sensations, not surprising given the close relationship between Mach and James (for more, see Banks 2003, 143–51). 3. JAmes's "two-tAkIngs" tHeory To ground his theory of knowledge, James lays down a "two-takings" theory, in which a "bit of pure experience" is shared between the knower and the physical object, by being simultaneously part of both functional WILLIAM JAMES'S DIRECT REALISM 273 274 HISTORY OF PHILOSOPHY QUARTERLY orders as "one identical point can be on two lines . . . situated at their intersection" (James 1977, 173). In perception, a physical object, or a proper part of it anyway, is directly known by being a proper part of the knower's mind, without the intermediary sense-datum or image standing between the knower and the external object, as in the indirect representative theory of perception. The directly perceived object extends all the way from the environment into the mind of the perceiver. This seems to satisfy James's desideratum for a direct realist theory where objects are perceived exactly as they are: If the reader will take his own experiences, he will see what I mean. Let him begin with a perceptual experience, the "presentation" socalled of a physical object, his actual field of vision, the room he sits in, with the book he is reading at its center; and let him for the present treat this complex object in the common-sense way as being "really" what it seems to be, namely . . . a collection of physical things cut out from an environing world of other physical things. . . . Now at the same time it is those self-same things which his mind, as we say, perceives, and the whole of philosophy of perception from Democritus' time downwards has been just one long wrangle over the paradox that what is evidently one reality should be in two places at once, both in outer space and in a person's mind. "Representative" theories of perception avoid the logical paradox, but on the other hand they violate the reader's sense of life, which knows no intervening mental image but seems to see the room and the book immediately as they exist. (James 1977, 173) The pure experience that is a part of the physical object (the book, the room) is also, at the same time, part of the mind that knows it. So James thinks that, when I am actually in the room, I perceive the room and the book themselves as they really exist, not indirectly through intermediary images or ideas. James gleefully flies in the face of the representative theory of perception, in which external objects somehow cause internal "mental" representations like sense data and what we see are these indirect representations, not the objects themselves or their proper parts. How an external object can cause a "mental representation" of an entirely different nature and how the mental representation can "represent" external objects of an entirely different nature are both completely unexplained on the traditional theory. James also takes sensations in a realistic, but nonrepresentative, sense. A neutral bit of pure experience can be taken as real merely by taking it to be the "flat" complex of colored blobs (James 1977, 201), squiggles, and flashes that it is. Taken in itself like this, it is neither a physical object, nor is it a mental sensation. It is just exactly the neutral collection of blobs and flashes it seems to be and does not represent any object truly or falsely because it does not intrinsically represent anything (ibid.), a point previously made by Mach in his discussion of so-called sense-illusions (Mach 1886/1959, 10), which are really just phenomena like any others. James points out, for example, that there is no difference between a real fire and a sensation of flames and light qua phenomena, except for the fact that one fire burns real sticks and the other does not. This fact does not make mental phenomena any less real when they are taken as simple natural occurrences: mental fire and real fire are on the same footing there. In the physical order, the blobs and flashes can be causally linked with the history of an external physical object and the human nervous system, but this causal linkage does not play on any representative relation or intrinsic similarity between them. This point is made by James in his famous "Memorial Hall" example. A bunch of blobs and flashes, even if they look exactly like Memorial Hall and are shaped exactly like Memorial Hall, will not count as a perception of Memorial Hall unless an external causal relation can be established between the blobs and the real hall, bestowing on them their "knowing office": Suppose me to be sitting here in my library at Cambridge, at ten minutes' walk from Memorial Hall and to be thinking truly of the latter object. My mind may have before it only the name, or it may have a clear image, or it may have a very dim image of the hall, but such intrinsic differences in the image make no difference in its cognitive function. Certain extrinsic phenomena, special experiences of conjunction, are what impart to the image, be it what it may, its knowing office. For instance, if you ask me what hall I mean by my image and I can tell you nothing; or if I fail to point or lead you toward the Harvard Delta; or if being led by you, I am uncertain whether the hall I see be what I had in mind or not, you would rightly deny that I had "meant" that particular hall at all, even though my mental image might to some degree have resembled it. The resemblance would count in that case as coincidental merely, for all sorts of things of a kind resemble each other without being for that reason to take cognizance of each other. (James 1977, 200–201) Timothy Sprigge (1996) points out that James was rejecting the contemporary phenomenological tradition, replacing the "inherent intentionality" of experience insisted on by the phenomenologists with purely natural causal links that may or may not hold between sensations and an external object. (See also Lamberth [1999, 78] for James's critique of intentionality and use of causal links a decade earlier.) Of course, it would be extremely difficult to isolate raw sensations just as they appear. In everyday experience, we are constantly adding WILLIAM JAMES'S DIRECT REALISM 275 276 HISTORY OF PHILOSOPHY QUARTERLY to our sensations with our imaginations and our intellectual judgments, both consciously and unconsciously. Actual sensation is also quite fragmentary and incomplete, so that we often think we sense more than we really do. Thus, it often seems that we could point to the arrangement of blobs and the fact that they are in space and say that they at least look like objects or a room to us, even if they are only raw sensations. And while it is true that raw sensations do support some simple phenomenological judgments like "this blob is blue and that blob is red" or "this blue one is to the right of that red one," like painted daubs on a canvas, these judgments fall well short of any perceptual judgment about objects, as we shall see. What do real objects have that a mosaic of sensations cannot simulate? As we shall see in more detail below, objects in space exist from multiple perspectives, not just the single egocentric perspectives in which sensations occur. Objects have unsensed parts like a back, sides, and past and future stages, none of which is present in the monoperspective of a sensation that is all surface and all present in single moment. Sensations also lack any intentional ability to "reach out" to a perspectival system of external objects; they are simply individuals with no relations to any other individuals other than causal relations. There is just not enough in raw sensation to even call it a "perception" of an object. 4. tHe "dIfference-of-kInd" tHesIs, "retrospectIve," And "protensIve" certAInty There is one very serious flaw in what James says above about the "twotakings" theory, which must be addressed. The mere fact of the existence of the blobs and flashes as they are, neither true nor false of anything, does not contain any direct perceptual knowledge of an external object. So when I am taking the blobs and flashes as real in themselves, I am not taking them to be part of an object like Memorial Hall. But when I take them for a perception of Memorial Hall, I am assuming some further causal relation that ties the blobs and flashes to a real external building, and they become proper parts of that external object that I perceive directly. But these further external relations that make the blobs and squiggles a perception of a building are not directly perceived by me. So where James's theory of perception is direct, it is not a theory of perception of external objects, and where it is a theory of perception of external objects, it is not direct. Let us see if we can resolve this dilemma, starting with a phenomenological observation. James claims that, in a judgment of perception, our thoughts actually seem to "reach out" to the external objects in the room around us, a feature of perception I think everyone can at least claim to be familiar with and also one emphasized by Thomas Reid: namely, that, no matter how many times we tell ourselves that the colors, the room, and the book are only indirect mental representations or pictures in our minds, our perceptions still do seem to reach out beyond our minds to the real objects in the room. James claims that this phenomenological feature is not an illusion but a feature marking out an actual judgment of perception of objects that should be taken at face value. That seems absurd, for could not the same be said of a hallucination of a room? If what James says is true-that we can take the phenomenological experience at face value-he must somehow establish an internal, introspectively knowable, difference between the act of sensation, that is, of blobs and squiggles that do not reach out to anything, and the judgment of perception of mind-independent objects, such as books and rooms that do exhibit this phenomenology. Their internally introspected "intentional" features, in other words, should serve to distinguish the experiences of sensation and perception according to James. But, again, how can he possibly make good on this claim when, as everyone acknowledges, sensation and perception seem internally to be the same from within skeptical scenarios like a dream or hallucination? This notion that the acts of sensation and judgments of perception are different and distinguishable internally, or introspectively, is sometimes called the "difference-of-kind" thesis. James shares this thesis with disjunctivist epistemologists such as J. M. Hinton (1967). On this view, judgments of perception and acts of sensation are internally different, have different conditions of assertability and different truth conditions. The sensation is an agglomeration of blobs, flashes, squiggles, and so forth. A perception of an object is completely different in its phenomenology. I do not see blobs and squiggles, as if painted on a canvas in daubs; I see a world of solid spatio-temporal objects to which my perceptions seem intentionally to "reach out." Perceived objects are also very different from sensations. For example, they have sides and a back that I do not sense. They have past and future states that I must imagine adjoined to their present appearance. They exist in other spatial perspectives, in addition to my own egocentric perspective, linked together in a systematic way. This chair, appearing perspectivally in a certain way to me, should appear in a different perspective to someone situated elsewhere, the way an object in space like a penny does from multiple viewpoints. A judgment of perception, thus, adds further "intellectual" truth conditions to the objects being perceived, such as the condition that there is an external object in space in front of me, only some of which is experienced directly through its proper parts that my mind shares with them and of which my egocentric perspective is only WILLIAM JAMES'S DIRECT REALISM 277 278 HISTORY OF PHILOSOPHY QUARTERLY one in a connected system of perspectives that includes the object from all vantage points. So the perception of the object and having sensations of blobs and squiggles are totally different. But, as the skeptic insists, would not the phenomenology of the room and the objects be exactly as James describes it during a hallucination, as well as in a veridical perception of the room? Would the subject not still agree that he "sees the objects in the room exactly as they are," and not blobs and flashes, even when all he actually sees are blobs and flashes? Acts of sensation may indeed be different from judgments of perception, and the knower may even know there is a difference between them; but he may not be in a position to tell the difference in a skeptical scenario, so what does it matter that one is really a judgment of perception and the other is not? They seem the same to us, and that should be all that matters to the epistemologist. I believe this skepticism is not justified and that we do have leverage, even from within a skeptical scenario to assert naïvely that we perceive objects to which our thoughts "reach out" intentionally. The key has to do with what I will call "conditions of assertion" for making judgments. To assert a judgment of perception presupposes that you are actually able to assert it before it can be true or false of anything. Compare the act of speaking a sentence. You not only have to get the sequence of syllables right, but you have to know the language and the circumstances under which the sentence is used; indeed, probably a great deal more background information besides that all has to be correct before your speech can be considered a sentence and not just noise. And the same goes for perceptual judgments. Say I am having a sensation of what seems to me like my being in my room surrounded by my books and table. I may not be able to tell the difference internally between this sensation and a very realistic dream or hallucination. I have no doubt that the purely mental accompaniments of the blobs and the accompanying acts of the mind would seem to me to be exactly the same in the sensation and a true perception of the room. Now, if it turns out to be a dream, then, of course, it would not actually have been a perception at all, not even while I was having it; it would just have been a sensation of some blobs and squiggles that seemed like the room, without bearing any external connection to it and, thus, by James's Memorial Hall argument, bearing no real resemblance to a room at all, now or then. In the sensation, the "books" had no pages, sides, or back. The sheaf of "pages" could have been just a swath of white spread out by a paintbrush, as in a Velasquez or Sargent painting, all surface. There were no other occupied perspectives on the "room" but my own egocentric viewpoint. The interior of the "room" was more like a break-away movie set with no outside and with just enough filled in to fool the camera. In a classic sense illusion known as the Ames room (Gregory 1994), for example, a wildly oblique array of shapes and surfaces set at angles can seem to resemble a room if one looks at it from one and only one monoperspective, through a peep hole. Those are the things sensations present at their very best. So when the dream or hallucination is revealed to me, say, by a kind of instant replay where I can go back and watch the dream again, I immediately deny that I was ever really perceiving anything, and I say that I was only sensing, hallucinating, or dreaming, instead. The phenomenology of the dream on instant replay is that of a tableau of shifting blobs and squiggles now fully recognized as such, and the phenomenology of perceptions "reaching out" to objects is not present in retrospect. So, with a little thought, I could even say that what is now perfectly clear to me on instant replay was true even before I knew the difference or knew what I was asserting or even whether I could assert anything. Even when we are unable to tell the difference, there still is a difference, a great one, between the performance of acts of sensation and judgments of perception. Just as the blobs and squiggles do not represent Memorial Hall and never did, so too the act of sensing blobs and squiggles is not a judgment of perception and never was one. I am, thus, able to achieve a kind of "retrospective" backward-looking certainty about the acts performed even under the conditions of a skeptical scenario. These conditions of uncertainty actually did not affect the acts and judgments themselves, which were always different, only my ability to tell which I was performing at the time or which I was unable to perform. The subject's thinking at the time that the acts and judgments were similar, or the same, did not, in fact, make them so. Seeming to assert a judgment is not the same thing as actually asserting one. And with a little more thought, we find that this certainty is not just retrospective either. The informed subject knows the difference between the assertability conditions of the perceptual judgment and the act or event of sensing even under conditions of uncertainty. So I can actually assert a naïve judgment of perception that I perceive some kind of room with objects in it, just as James insists I can, even under those skeptical conditions. I assert that I am perceiving a room when I am because, if I am not in fact perceiving a room but merely some blobs and squiggles, then I know I will not say later that I perceived a room at all, not even falsely. There are, of course, cases of false perception where one object is taken for another, like mistaking a scotch bottle for a book or a garbage can for a man lurking outside the window, but this dream or hallucination is not one of them since the blobs and squiggles will not even support the assertion of a mistaken judgment. Instead, I will withdraw the assertion that I was ever in a condition to perceive any object in the first place. The conditions of assertion of the judgment WILLIAM JAMES'S DIRECT REALISM 279 280 HISTORY OF PHILOSOPHY QUARTERLY were not met under the conditions of the skeptical scenario: a perceptual judgment about objects was "asserted" before what was really just an array of blobs and squiggles. Finally, as we approach that naïve confidence with which James asserts perceptual judgments in the quote above, we can transform our "retrospective" certainty into what I will call a forward-looking or "protensive" certainty, even from within the skeptical scenario. If I do perceive the room and the room exists, then my perception goes straight through to the very external objects I seem to be perceiving and in exactly the way I seem to be perceiving it, from their directly perceived proper parts filling out into an external perspectival system that includes me as an observer and fills in all of the other perspectives besides. If I am only sensing blobs and squiggles with no real ability to represent a room at all, not even an illusion of a room, then I never was in a condition to assert anything about perceiving a room in the first place. All of these facts about future states of affairs are known to me in the skeptical scenario, so I have no difficulty in projecting the judgment forward beyond the conditions of the test anticipating its eventual outcome. Therefore, I do have a kind of forward-looking certainty about my perceptual judgments about being in some kind of a room with objects, even if some of my particular judgments about those objects could be false. At least, I am saved from the kind of total deception skeptical scenarios offer. But now suppose the subject turns the tables on us and asks, "Why am I not warranted in asserting I perceive objects if you admit that the sensation of blobs and squiggles seemed to me exactly like a room with books? Are these not the very same internal conditions, gazing on an array of sensations of blobs and squiggles (as you would have it) under which I always do assert the judgment that I perceive a room with books? I never directly perceive more than that even when I assert successful perceptual judgments." No, James would say, for, after you are disabused by watching the instant replay, you too would say that the blobs and squiggles do not even "seem" to resemble a room with books and that your sensory act does not even "seem" remotely similar to a judgment of perception. His answer: "But how then can I assert the perception of objects with such naïve confidence if I don't know if I am capable of assertion or not." I believe James would answer that, on the contrary, you can only naïvely assert this judgment "I am in some kind of room with books," just as it seems to you, since, if the room does turn out to be just a collection of blobs and squiggles, you have not actually asserted anything. There is no other option but to assert a judgment of perception of a room with objects, of some sort anyway, when it seems to you to be so, and that is what you should do in all cases. This would back up James's taking the phenomenology of the room with objects always at face value, as he says above. But what if it is not incoherent to carry out judgments of perception while looking at an array of what turn out later to be blobs and squiggles in a dream or hallucination? The assertions are well made, but they simply come out false. My answer is that there are indeed cases where one perceives falsely, where perceived objects A are mistaken for other objects B. The same judgments that lead us to correct perception also lead to false perceptions. For example, a garbage can is mistaken for a man outside the window. But an object is perceived in both cases, one truly and another falsely. The judgment that the object is a man is actually assertable of a garbage can too, but false. The judgment is false because some other object is actually perceived, not because all of the objects dissolve into the blobs and squiggles of a hallucination and nothing is perceived because no perceptual judgment was ever asserted. These extreme cases of total delusion, which are the ones under discussion here, are where we must challenge the idea that the subject could have made any coherent assertion to perceive any object whatever. Take the case of having a dream where you think you are speaking French and pulling it off with panache. But you do not really know French, so the syllables you utter only seem to you to make up a French sentence with the meaning "Voltaire was Molière's brother." You might wake up and realize this is a false assertion, when you correctly phrase an English sentence, expressing a proposition that can be true or false, but did you succeed in making the assertion then by uttering a random string of syllables and calling it a French sentence expressing the proposition that Voltaire was Molière's brother? No, it never happened, no matter what you believed at the time. This so called "assertion" of a proposition was not anything beyond an agglomeration of syllables and a feeling that one was making sensible assertions. (This strange and uncomfortable sensation of mouthing "mere syllables and accompanying feelings" sometimes comes over me unbidden when I am giving a public lecture, when it is most unwelcome!) The feelings and sensations certainly exist in themselves and are neither true nor false; they should be taken in the direct sense as exactly the strings of syllables and feelings they seem to be. These sorts of arguments, associated with Putnam (1981) and the later Ludwig Wittgenstein, have their ultimate historico-conceptual roots in James's Memorial Hall example, but they are better developed in the way I am suggesting, first to establish a "retrospective" certainty and then a "protensive" certainty from within the skeptical scenario. Putnam recognizes some kind of retrospective certainty about hallucinations as a possible reading of James (Putnam 1990, 248–49) but rejects it since he thinks it makes James an antirealist about past experience; WILLIAM JAMES'S DIRECT REALISM 281 282 HISTORY OF PHILOSOPHY QUARTERLY that is, Putnam seems to think the perceiver who has hallucinated later has to say that he never experienced anything, when clearly he did at least experience the blobs and squiggles of his sensation. But James is only saying that experiences that retrospectively do not measure up as perceptions are still sensed exactly as they are in themselves without representing a perception of an object such as a dagger or Memorial Hall, not that the sensations never happened. Also, according to Putnam, James never refuted the skeptic (ibid., 246) but simply held up direct realism as a viable alternative to the "sense data" theory that we never perceive external objects directly (ibid., 251). James may not argue in the traditional way against the Cartesian skeptic, but he still shows us much more than just an "alternative to sense data." To sum up the position we have reached so far, James's quote above, about taking the room and its objects to be directly real perceptions of those external objects "as they exist" now makes more sense, where it seemed hopelessly naïve before. On the Jamesian view, the perceptual judgment that I perceive real external objects in space is always asserted full strength, or it is not asserted at all. Thus, when I do perceive, my thoughts go straight through without intermediary to the external physical objects they seem to be about and of which my sensations (colors and all) are concrete proper parts. Even false judgments presume some general conditions like this, even if we take some objects for others. Putting it all together: 1. Either I am in some kind of real room with objects arranged around me, or I am before an array of my own sensations of blobs and squiggles that do not even resemble any room with objects. 2. If I assert the judgment that "I am perceiving some kind of room with some objects around me" and I am really before an internal array of blobs and squiggles, then I will never have succeeded in asserting a judgment to perceive anything. 3. If I assert the judgment that "I am perceiving some kind of room with objects around me" and I am really in a room with objects around me, then I will have succeeded in making the assertion, and the assertion will have been true at least of some general sorts of objects. It may be false of specific objects. 4. I know (1, 2, 3) under the conditions of a skeptical scenario. 5. I know I can always correctly assert, with forward-looking certainty, the naïve judgment that "I am in some kind of a room with real objects around me" when I am having that experience, and I can do so even before the truth is revealed to me. 5. IntellectuAl condItIons of perceptIon The remaining problem with the "no-common-kind" thesis is that we are owed some kind of explanation why the acts of sensation and judgments of perception still seem the same in skeptical scenarios if they are really so totally different in kind that no one would take one for the other when shown the instant replay. Acts of sensation and judgments of perception have to be absolutely indistinguishable in skeptical scenarios and yet retrospectively recognizable as completely different in kind, but how can this be? Certainly, the purely sensory components of both acts are completely the same: they both consist of blobs and squiggles, and there is no internal way to tell apart the blobs and squiggles of a sensation or hallucination from the directly perceived proper parts of external objects in a perception. But there always is a difference, and there will have been a difference between acts and judgments we perform even under conditions of uncertainty. So, since perceptions and sensations are internally different acts and since the difference clearly does not consist in their having any different sensory contents, it must consist in something else: namely, the intellectual contents of a perceptual judgment. It is, therefore, true what the disjunctivists and Jamesians assert about the difference in kind; but, to make a Kantian point, to be explained below, it is rather thought and understanding that contribute this difference to the perceptual judgment that is not contained in the mere act of sensing. Thus, for example, on replaying the dream in instant replay, we consciously withhold these intellectual features of perceptual judgment, so the phenomenological feature of perceptions "reaching out to objects" disappears, replaced by the nonintentional sensation of a flat tableau of shifting blobs and squiggles. Since we have already assumed that there is no "inherent intentionality" to sensory contents, the phenomenon James refers to, of experiencing perceptions that actually "reach out" to external objects, is effected purely by the intellectual contents of the judgment of perception, which we must now investigate. I have been suggesting that a perceptual judgment like "I am in some sort of room with objects" has the following preconditions: my egocentric experience of "walking around a room viewing various objects" from my own monoperspectival point of view cannot be all there is. There must be, at a minimum, an occupied system of perspectives surrounding these objects and me, which includes my own monoperspective as one, but most of which I am not able to observe from my monoperspective, a system that fills in all of the possible points of view on the room from those other perspectives. In those other perspectives, chairs and books will have backs and sides unseen by me and a history in time beyond the present, a temporal perspective in other words. The room will not WILLIAM JAMES'S DIRECT REALISM 283 284 HISTORY OF PHILOSOPHY QUARTERLY be some Ames room or break-away movie set with just enough walls and furniture to fool the viewer and nothing besides. A town seen out the window will not be a Potemkin village with fake storefronts and cut-out windows with false interiors and simulated cardboard figures walking back and forth. In a perception, the room and its objects will exist from every perspectival point in it, which they clearly do not in these nightmarish monoperspectives. In fact, it is literally impossible for any given experience of objects to a subject internally to represent this entire sum of circumambient perspectives because no one can occupy more than one egocentric point of view at once. These missing perspectives occupied by objects must, therefore, be filled in by the intellect and the imagination in addition to any of the sensory contents of the perception on the side of the judgment, but they must also be really occupied by objects on the side of the external environment as well. Thus, for my judgment of perception to even be assertable, I must be surrounded by a perspectival system of objects of which my monoperspective is one and where any perspective can serve as a vantage point from which to represent all of the others.1 These assertability conditions are known to me internally, of course; thus, I can argue, as above, that, if I do turn out to occupy a monoperspective that is all surface with no other occupied perspectives, I will say that a judgment of perception was not asserted under those circumstances and withdraw it, no matter how realistic it might have seemed to me at the time. Consider, for example, a realistic-seeming dream in which one is chased by a dog. It certainly seems real enough, but we lack any occupied vantage point for the dog and the other objects in the dream. What we are really saying in reporting the dream is that we felt pursued, from our monoperspective, not that anything pursued us. Also to be eliminated from consideration are situations involving "deviant" causal chains to external objects that are not even possibly perspectival relations between a perceiving subject and his perceived objects. The system of perspectives must include the subject's immanent, internal viewpoint as one such perspective within it, and it must be a systematic and connected continuation of the subject's internal perspective outward. It cannot be replaced by some other set of perspectives of objects of which he is not directly aware, nor can he be in contact with them in some indirect, nonstandard, nonperspectival way that he himself would not assert when he talks about "these objects he perceives with his eyes as being five feet in front of him." If, for example, an evil scientist wires up the subject's brain to a simulation but takes care to connect the sensations of the simulation via deviant causal connections to other external objects in a secret room, in another system of perspectives that exactly duplicates those of the simulation, the subject still cannot assert any perceptual relation to these objects. His own occupied perspectives are empty; thus, he occupies a monoperspective just as before. A clever philosopher in this situation might try to assert that a scientist is connecting his perception of a room to another perspectival system of objects in another room and assert guesses about those objects and the scientist's occupied perspective, too. But these missing perspectives on the perceived room are still not occupied; some other system of objects, around some other room, is occupied, and the missing perspectives on the actually perceived room remain empty. The philosopher can think whatever he wishes, and he may even guess correctly, but he must give up the idea that he perceives the room in front of him. Perception is still, for all its intellectual preconditions, a sensory matter of being in direct contact with objects and their proper parts in a way that is projected outward from the perceiver's own perspective in the way he intends it, not through indirect or merely representative contact through any imaginable links someone else might think up. If I am not linked to the object in the way I perceive myself to be linked to it, then it is not really a perception at all. 6. otHer perspectIvAl systems: kAntIAn "empIrIcAl reAlIsm" There are limits, however. What this argument does not show is what sort of perspectival system of objects surrounds the observer when he makes these perceptual judgments. What are the intellectual conditions for a valid perspectival system continuing a subject's own perspective and perceptions outward to an environment of objects? Space and time certainly satisfy the intellectual requirements of a perspectival system. Any point within space can be the origin of coordinates for representing any other point elsewhere in the same space; any point in time can serve to represent any other point within the same time line as a past, present, or future point in temporal perspective. To introduce a key Kantian observation, this objective intellectual "skeleton" of a subject-object perspectival system undergirds the sensory and imagined space-time form of our perceptions, as Kant declares at several key points in the transcendental deduction, particularly in the B-edition (but see also Kant 1787/1998, A 107–9). In brief, the argument is something like this: Kant declares that the "synthetic unity of apperception" is the highest principle guiding the understanding in the construction of experience, higher even than the categories, for it is the synthetic unity that ultimately justifies the categories' application to any possible experience (this is what transcendental "deduction" means). The synthetic unity takes all intuitions and sensations delivered by WILLIAM JAMES'S DIRECT REALISM 285 286 HISTORY OF PHILOSOPHY QUARTERLY sensibility as a disordered bundle of "snapshots," if you will, and unifies them under the principle that they are one and all experiences of objects to a subject.2 When I walk around a house taking in the different sides in a certain order, this ordering of the snapshots is determined by the series of vantage points taken up by a subject (with his own ordered inner states in time) to an object in a distinct sequence of perspectival views of the house. If these experiences were presented in a series of disordered photos of the house lying in a heap, it would still be possible to reconstruct the objective series via the categories under the overall heuristic principle that they must present an ordered series of perspectival views of the object to an observing subject. In the B-deduction (B 151–52), Kant distinguishes between an "intellectual synthesis" of experience, carried out by the categories and the synthetic unity, and applicable to other forms of sensibility besides ours, and a "figurative synthesis" carried out by the imagination and sensibility under the direction of the understanding. For Kant, the construction of the underlying perspectival system of vantage points of subjects and objects, the "intellectual synthesis" of the understanding, is what is really objective about spatio-temporal representation, not the schematized space-time form contributed by sensibility and the imagination, which depends on the former for its objectivity. This intellectual synthesis of a system of perspectives would apply even where the intuitions of space and time were replaced by other forms of intuition or sensibility, and, when they are present, it is the intellectual synthesis again that explains why synthesized constructions in space and time, like drawing a line or synthesizing a certain number, are objective, as in math and physics, and are not just constructions of the human imagination, for example, where we adjoin images of previous and future stages of the construction to a presently sensed stage in drawing out an object like a house in stages or a motion in intuition like the parabola of a falling body. As proof of the primacy of the synthetic unity under the categories, Kant points out that even the infinite manifolds of space and time can themselves be represented as "objects" to an observing self (B 159–61), indicating that the synthetic unity of apperception is an even more all-encompassing unity of the understanding than that provided by sensibility and intuition. Kant also shows in two examples (B 151–52) that the understanding actually directs the sensibility and the imagination in the construction of objects, in taking in the sides of a house and watching water freeze. He says we can "abstract from" the spatial and temporal form of these experiences and consider ordering the states intellectually, with the categories and the synthetic unity of apperception operating on receptive sensory and intuitive content of whatever nature. The intellectual synthesis of ordered perspectival views of objects to a subject would apply even if the sensory spatio-temporal form of the experience were different, perhaps for other thinking beings with differently constructed sensibilities. In fact, there are many ways to consider constructing representation systems that have the same intellectual "hard core" of a perspectival system of objects to a subject, not just spatio-temporal ones. Gottfried Leibniz's system of unextended monads is an example of which Kant was particularly aware, and we can readily think of others. Consider construing objects as constructions out of elementary "point-events" ordered spatio-temporally in one arrangement, but which can also be ordered in a variety of other arrangements that are not necessarily spatio-temporal, for example, in abstract quality or property "spaces" that still retain a perspectival structure (see Banks 2013). These other possible systems will also have to count as possible candidate environments for my perception. We perceive objects intellectually, objects that we "reach out to" through perceptual judgments, and not through our sensations alone. Those judgments have a firmer intellectual "hard core" of assertability and truth conditions that the external world can satisfy many different ways. Even though we directly perceive the proper parts of mind-independent objects, then, we cannot be said to perceive more than their overall intellectual structure in an external perspectival system in their relation to us. To sum up this Kantian line of argument, we perceive empirically real objects directly but not uniquely; only the intellectual content of our perceptual judgments represents the external objects our perceptions are about. In the sense that spatio-temporal objects are one such way to satisfy these conditions, then I do indeed directly perceive an environment of spatio-temporal objects around me in a room and sense their proper parts directly. But other rational beings could reinterpret my spatio-temporal perceptions and objects in terms of their own empirical representation system, and we would both be equally right in our direct perceptions of those objects. This idea that we perceive spatio-temporal objects directly, but not uniquely, is what I believe Kant meant by calling space and time "empirically real" but also "transcendentally ideal," since spatio-temporal representation of objects cannot be applied beyond human sensibility but the intellectual preconditions of spatio-temporal representation actually can. Spatio-temporal objects in perspectives always serve us as an objective empirical representation, as in physics, but this representation is only one valid way to represent many possible intellectual systems of perspectives of which space and time are only one. Other rational beings would agree on these intellectual conditions of a perceptual judgment but not on its sensory spatio-temporal form. WILLIAM JAMES'S DIRECT REALISM 287 288 HISTORY OF PHILOSOPHY QUARTERLY We, however, do perceive objects using this form, and we are justified in taking this admittedly subjective form of representation of external objects in a completely realistic and direct sense, just as long as we stick to the hard-core intellectual features of our own representation. Is this antirealism? I think not. Our scientific theories can involve realistic spatio-temporal models and mechanisms of natural events and processes continuous with our own form of spatio-temporal perception, and we can even think of these models in a realistic sense as long as we do not thereby limit ourselves only to this form of representation or attribute what may only be sensory or visual aspects of the models and mechanisms to reality an sich. Barring that, we are free to pursue whatever models and analogies we wish. Is there also an historical connection between James's direct realism and Kant's empirical realism? Like Kant, who struggled to explain to literal-minded readers how he could be empirically realistic about spatiotemporal objects yet insist that objects need not be spatio-temporal in themselves, James too was at pains to explain how he could be pluralistic and direct in his realism all at the same time. In an oft-quoted letter to Dickinson S. Miller, dated August 5, 1907, James gives a homely example of beans to illustrate this. One perceiver classifies the beans by weight, another by color or size. All have legitimate and empirically real systems of classification determined by the subject's system of representation of the world and interests; they may all be direct and real, but no single classification has a unique monopoly on the one true system of beans an sich, nor do they even really disagree. James was teaching Kant before he began the radical empiricist essays, from 1897–99, although his remarks are dismissive (James 1975; Carlson 1996, 363–64). As Carlson points out (364), James was irked by colleagues who remarked on his similarities with Kant. James and Kant do differ on many points (see Myers 1986), but at least their forms of realism share a deep affinity. 7. epIlogue: AgAInst representAtIonAl tHeorIes One consequence of the view presented here is that mental representations so called are never complete in themselves if they are going to represent external objects. If we take them in the completed sense, in themselves, we are left with nonrepresentative blobs and squiggles or monoperspectival dreamscapes that do not represent anything. If an experience is going to represent anything, it must be incomplete, needing to be filled in, for example, by the intellectual contents of a judgment that makes the experience intentionally "reach out" to external objects, as James rightly says; but these objects cannot entirely appear in experience, else the experience would already be complete, lacking nothing, and would not "reach out" to anything. The lesson to draw is this: mental phenomena must be incomplete fragments of an unseen whole in order to intentionally represent anything. They cannot be an already internally complete internal simulacrum of the world à la René Descartes, for, if mental representations are complete, they represent nothing beyond themselves and have no "intrinsic" intentionality. And if they do "intentionally" represent external objects, then they are not complete, and the needed but missing objects and perspectives must be provided by an intellectual judgment of perception. Descartes thought a picture, which is a completed representation or arrangement of objects, always required something else for it to be a picture of, but this view is wrong for two reasons. One, the picture is a completely existing thing that requires nothing else to complete it; it has its own complete "formal reality," as Descartes himself says. But when your representation has all the structure or "formal reality" the object has, why does it need the object? What would the object add to the already completed picture? Two, the external reality that supposedly does complete the picture is no more "formally" complete than the picture was originally. We can add a real arrangement of real buildings and real sailboats around a bay to the painted ones in a picture, but each is a completed thing on its own that does not intrinsically represent anything. Adding the external reality to the picture merely adds a picture to a picture. Neither arrangement lacks anything for which it needs the other. If they are not causally related, then why should they be related to each other at all? Isomorphism of structure does not, in any way, demand a further representative relation between those structures. This was James's original point about Memorial Hall: let it have as perfect a similarity to the hall as you like, but without an external causal relation, there is nothing to paste them together and certainly no magical "representative" relations to suggest one is related to the other, a relation that may be accidental or arbitrary after all (see also Putnam 1981 for his effective critique of "magical" theories of reference and ensuing skeptical consequences for model theory in logic). James's Memorial Hall argument is a powerful blow not only against theories of mental representation but also against any theories of representation that work by mere similarity or isomorphism of structure. As an afterthought, take it for what you will, I think our having essentially "incomplete" mental representations, needing to be completed by intellectual judgments about their real external relations to mind-independent objects, makes a great deal of evolutionary sense, especially as a space saver in our skulls. Why duplicate effort modeling the whole world in a simulacrum mind with its own complete internal WILLIAM JAMES'S DIRECT REALISM 289 290 HISTORY OF PHILOSOPHY QUARTERLY world representation? Why not just sketch in some incomplete fragments, model only as much of an "interface mind" as it takes to perceive directly limited bits of the world, and project intentional judgments that reach out transcendentally beyond these bits, letting the world fill in the rest? Wright State University NOTES 1. See Friedman (2012) for an exegesis of this "perspectival principle" and the role it plays for Kant. See also Brewer (2002) for the view that this "perspectival" content of space and time is directly perceived. 2. The principle is metaphysical, not psychological. Any reality is capable of subject-object representation by taking up a standpoint within it and representing the rest from that vantage point, with all other internal standpoints equally valid. REFERENCES Banks, Erik C. 2003. Ernst Mach's World Elements: A Study in Natural Philosophy. Dordrecht: Kluwer. ---. 2013. "Extension and Measurement: A Constructivist Program from Leibniz to Grassmann." Studies in History and Philosophy of Science 44, no. 1: 20–31. Brewer, Bill. 2002. Perception and Reason. Oxford: Oxford University Press. Carlson, Thomas. 1996. "James and the Kantian Tradition." In Putnam, ed., The Cambridge Companion to William James, 363–83. Cooper, Wesley. 2002. The Unity of William James' Thought. Nashville, TN: Vanderbilt University Press. Friedman, Michael. 2012. "Kant on Geometry and Spatial Intuition." Synthese 186, no. 1: 231–55. Gale, Richard. 1999. The Divided Self of William James. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. Gregory, Richard L. 1994. Even Odder Perceptions. New York: Routledge. Hinton, J. M. 1967. "Visual Experiences." Mind 76, no. 302: 217–27. James, William. 1975. Manuscript Essays and Notes: The Works of William James. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press. ---. 1977. The Writings of William James. Edited by J. J. McDermott. Chicago: University of Chicago Press. Kant, Immanuel. 1787/1998. Kritik der reinen Vernunft. Hamburg: Felix Meiner Verlag. Lamberth, David C. 1999. William James and the Metaphysics of Experience. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. Mach, Ernst. 1886/1959. The Analysis of Sensations. Translated by Sydney Waterlow and C. M. Williams. New York: Dover. Myers, Gerald E. 1986. William James: His Life and Thought. New Haven, CT: Yale University Press. Putnam, Hilary. 1978. "The Meaning of 'Meaning.'" Philosophical Papers. Vol 2. Mind Language and Reality. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. ---. 1981. Reason, Truth and History. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. ---. 1990. "James' Theory of Perception." In Realism With a Human Face. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press. ---. 1994. "Sense, Nonsense and the Senses: An Inquiry into the Powers of the Human Mind." Journal of Philosophy 91, no. 9: 445–517. Putnam, Ruth Anna, ed. 1997. The Cambridge Companion to William James. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. Sprigge, T.L.S. 1996. "James, Aboutness and his British Critics." In Putnam, ed., The Cambridge Companion to William James, 125–44. Thiele, Joachim. 1978. Wissenschaftliche Kommunikation: Die Korrespondenz Ernst Machs. Kastellaun: Henn Verlag. WILLIAM JAMES'S DIRECT REALISM 291 x
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MTV debuted Green Day's video for "The Forgotten" tonight, which is the final song of the trilogy and coming on ¡Tre! this December. This track was released early as part of the new soundtrack for the upcoming Twilight movie.
What do you think about the song? I really really dig it. It sounds very 'Beatles-esque' to me.
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Poliomyelitis, measles and neonatal tetanus: a hospital based epidemiological study.
Vaccine-preventable diseases constitute a major health problem contributing to the morbidity and mortality in many developing countries including Egypt. WHO adopted resolutions to eradicate poliomyelitis by the year 2000, eliminate neonatal tetanus by the year 1995, and reduce measles mortality by 95% and morbidity by 90%, compared to the pre-immunization levels by 1995. Evaluation of preventive programs for these diseases necessitates availability of up to date information on their occurrence. The present study was undertaken to determine the current epidemiological features of poliomyelitis, neonatal tetanus and measles, to identify the trends of these diseases as well as to determine their outcomes and hospital loads. Data about the admitted cases of poliomyelitis, neonatal tetanus and measles were collected from the hospital register of Alexandria fever hospital for five successive years (1992-96). Available information on age, sex, residence, diagnosis, outcome of treatment, dates of admission and discharge were collected. The total number of cases of the three diseases admitted to the hospital during the period 1992-96 were 1406, measles represented 85.4%, neonatal tetanus 13.9% and poliomyelitis 0.7%. The results revealed that in the year 1994 only one case of poliomyelitis was admitted and since then no other cases were reported. The number of measles cases increased gradually in the latter years and about 78% of them were older than five years of age. A significant increase in the age of measles occurrence was observed. A gradual decline in the number of neonatal tetanus cases was observed. These cases were more apt to occur among early neonates but still clustered in certain geographical areas. The results of the study pinpoint the long term impact of the well run program aiming at eradicating poliomyelitis in Alexandria. However, for elimination of neonatal tetanus and controlling measles morbidity, further activities are required including strengthening the surveillance activities for detection of the high risk geographical areas and the high risk factors.
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Little Pony People! Pinkie Pie! This design has already changed!!! WHATEVAH THO!
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Q:
Sharepoint 2010 content types?
I am a newbie working on Sharepoint 2010 & trying to find out what all properties or metadata available for content items stored in it.
Till now i could find that GUID is one of them providing unique id for content but i am interested in what all properties available in it with syntax of properties e.g. sp:name or something else.
Thanks for help.
A:
Heres the official list of properties/methods that are members of the SPListItem class. Then you can any number of additional fields (properties) available for yours items if you add them to the list of the content type it is using.
http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/microsoft.sharepoint.splistitem_members(v=office.15).aspx
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Resources to Discover and Use Short Linear Motifs in Viral Proteins.
Viral proteins evade host immune function by molecular mimicry, often achieved by short linear motifs (SLiMs) of three to ten consecutive amino acids (AAs). Motif mimicry tolerates mutations, evolves quickly to modify interactions with the host, and enables modular interactions with protein complexes. Host cells cannot easily coordinate changes to conserved motif recognition and binding interfaces under selective pressure to maintain critical signaling pathways. SLiMs offer potential for use in synthetic biology, such as better immunogens and therapies, but may also present biosecurity challenges. We survey viral uses of SLiMs to mimic host proteins, and information resources available for motif discovery. As the number of examples continues to grow, knowledge management tools are essential to help organize and compare new findings.
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Richard Lobban
Richard A. Lobban, Jr., husband of Dr. Carolyn Fluehr-Lobban, is an anthropologist and early pioneer in social network modeling, archaeologist, Egyptologist, and Sudanist, foreign policy expert, human rights activist, mentor, father, and beekeeper. He is Professor Emeritus of Anthropology and African Studies at Rhode Island College, Providence, Rhode Island since 1972; also a lecturer at the Archaeological Institute of America and the Naval War College. He is an expert in Ancient Sudan and Ancient Egypt, with a particular focus on Nubia. He is a co-founder of the Sudan Studies Association.
Lobban has authored numerous books and publications such as the Historical Dictionary of Ancient and Medieval Nubia, Historical Dictionary of Sudan (2002), and Social Networks in Urban Sudan (1973). He has also authored/co-authored books such as Historical dictionary of the Republic of Guinea-Bissau (1997), Cape Verde: Crioulo colony to independent nation (1995), Historical dictionary of Cape Verde (2007), and Middle Eastern women and the invisible economy (1998).
References
Category:American anthropologists
Category:American archaeologists
Category:American Egyptologists
Category:Living people
Category:Rhode Island College faculty
Category:1943 births
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The present invention is directed to stabilized compositions of particulate materials and the use of such compositions to remediate contaminants from soil and groundwater.
There are many useful remediation agents for removing organic and inorganic contaminants from groundwater. Such agents can operate in a variety of modes including through sorption, direct destruction, stimulation of biodegradation and/or through stabilization of the contaminants. Through these various modes of action, the remedial agents act to detoxify the water and reduce any health risks associated with the contaminant.
While some remedial agents are completely soluble in water and allow for their relatively straightforward application in both in place (in situ) and out of place (ex situ) systems, many useful remedial agents are not soluble in water. In these cases, the application of the insoluble remedial agents is often limited to above ground treatment systems (e.g., pump and treat systems) or in trench barriers (e.g., permeable reactive barriers). However, it is desirable to use these solid remediation agents in situ and apply them via various injection or percolation techniques in order to increase the range of sites that can be treated and to reduce project costs.
The limitation with solid remedial agents is that they are commonly manufactured in granular or powdered forms and therefore lack mobility in the subsurface which limits their contact with contaminants and the efficacy of treatment. The lack of mobility requires installation techniques that are more expensive, more disruptive to the subsurface, and often render less control of emplacement; an example of this is high pressure injections (e.g., hydraulic fracturing or fracking). Even if the solids are manufactured in a smaller particle size, they tend to agglomerate and then still require similar disruptive injection techniques.
For example, the use of metal sorbents, particularly materials that are derived from or contain apatite-type phosphate minerals, is an established method for remediating water and soil contaminated with metals or radionuclides. Several of these materials may include hydroxyapatite, bone char, and apatite II, among others. The apatite-containing materials can capture or chemically immobilize metals and radionuclides as insoluble forms with extremely low solubility constants to reduce their bioavailability and decrease human and ecological risks by removing them from the dissolved phase and preventing their migration.
Typically, these materials are used in granular or powdered form within above ground treatment systems or they can be emplaced in situ via various physical methods e.g. soil mixing, back-filling of excavations, fracking, or installing in trenches known as permeable reactive barriers. These relatively disruptive application methods are required for apatite-based materials in powder or granular form because they do not readily distribute through soil to reach areas of contaminated water. This lack of mobility causes the cost of treatment to be very high, whereas the contact with contaminated water remains quite low. The high cost is primarily due to the installation requirements to thoroughly treat a contaminated area.
Exemplary prior art teachings of metal sorbents for use in metals remediation include the following references:
Tofe, U.S. Pat. No. 5,711,015, Filed 1996. Discloses the use of pulverized or particulate animal bone or synthetic bone as a source of hydroxyapatite to decontaminate various metals (transuranic, Pu, radioactive). Discloses the use of <0.1 mm to 10 mm sized particulates. Discloses the method of passing metal contaminated water through a container that holds the hydroxyapatite-based particulates.
Conca & Wright, U.S. Pat. No. 6,217,775 B1, Filed 1998. Discloses the use of fish bones and fish hard parts with associated organics in order to treat soil leachates or waste sites contaminated with various metals (lanthanides, actinides, Pb, Zn, Cu, Cd, Ni, U, Ba, Cs, Sr, Pu, Th). Discloses methods for using the material that includes backfilling an excavation, horizontal drilling,
Moore, U.S. Pat. No. 6,416,252 B1: Discloses a method for in situ formation of apatite barriers by injecting precursor reagents, ex. sodium phosphate and calcium chloride, into the subsurface. Also discloses optimal pH ranges of 7 to 8 and optimal temperatures of 40° C. to 100° C. for this process.
In another example, activated carbon is commonly used as a sorbent medium for removing organic and inorganic contaminants from water. It is used in treatment systems to detoxify industrial process water, as well as in pump-and-treat systems for above-ground treatment of contaminated groundwater. In use, activated carbon is typically manufactured and used in granular or powder form whereby the particulate is loaded into fluid- or fixed-bed treatment systems or dispersed or distributed over the area subject to contamination.
The in situ application of activated carbon to soil and groundwater allows for the capture or immobilization of contaminants from groundwater via sorption onto the carbon. This inhibits the migration of a contaminant plume and lowers the risk of damage to human health or ecological systems. Exemplary prior art teachings of carbon-based compositions for use in environmental remediation include the following references:
U.S. Pat. No. 4,664,809, issued May 12, 1987, to Fenton, entitled GROUNDWATER POLLUTION ABATEMENT, discloses drilling of wells in the ground and injecting a sorbent for contaminants into the path of groundwater plume, in order to stop the plume. Such reference further discloses the use of activated carbon as a sorbent and the addition of stabilizing substances to sorbent slurries.
In the name of Kopinke, F.-D.; Woszidlo, S.; Georgi, A., European Patent Application EP 1462187 A2, filed Mar. 2, 2004, “Verfahren zur in-situ Dekontamination schadstoffbelasteter Aquifere,” discloses a process for in-situ decontamination of polluted aquifers—by injection of colloidal carbon. Such reference discloses that a charcoal particle size <10 microns is optimal and that ionic strength inhibits colloid transport. The objective of the invention is to increase distribution of carbon colloids in subsurface by flushing with deionized water or raising pH of aquifer.
Georgi, A.; Schierz, A.; Mackenzie, K.; Kopinke, F.-D., Terra Tech, 2007, 16, (11-12), 2-4. “Mobile Kolloide. Anwendung von kolloidaler, Aktivkohle zur In-Situ-Grundwasserreinigun, (in German) also refers to aquifer treatment with colloidal activated carbon and that a 0.1 to 10 micron activated carbon particle size is needed for stability and mobility. The optimal particle size is disclosed as 0.5 to 2 microns. Moreover, such reference teaches that humic acid and carboxymethylcellulose (CMC) are stabilizers of activated carbon colloids and can have a max loading of <10% on carbon.
Mackenzie, K., et al.; Water Research 2012, entitled “Carbo-iron—An Fe/AC composite—As alternative to nano-iron groundwater treatment” and supporting information is a paper teaching the use of “carbo-iron” an activated carbon material that has embedded iron metal particles for contaminant treatment. The carbo-iron is comprised mostly of activated carbon and behaves similarly to activated carbon as a colloidal material. Such reference discloses that max loading of CMC onto carbo-iron is 7% w/w and that no further stabilization benefit occurs above 5% w/w loading of CMC.
The prior art Georgi (2007) and Mackenzie (2012) references referred to above disclose that sodium carboxymethyl cellulose (a polyanionic polymer) stabilizes colloidal activated carbon against settling. It also has some effect to increase transport of activated carbon through soil and groundwater in situ. As the carbon contacts the contaminated groundwater, contaminants are sorbed out of solution and onto the carbon particles. Carboxymethyl cellulose-stabilized colloidal carbon can also transport somewhat in the aquifer, but is destabilized and deposited by ionic strength of the water (Kopinke 2004).
There are additional examples that describe the use of carboxymethyl cellulose to stabilize and enhance the transport of mobility limited nano- or colloidal-sized remediation agents. An example of this is with zero valent iron (ZVI) that is described in U.S. Pat. No. 7,635,236 issued to Zhao and Xu on Dec. 22, 2009, entitled “In situ remediation of inorganic contaminants using stabilized zero-valent iron nanoparticles.” This patent discloses the use of CMC to control the dispersivity of ZVI to remediate inorganic toxins.
The mobility limitations described for activated carbon, apatite-containing materials, and ZVI above are inherent to insoluble remediation agents. And while the use of CMC has been established to enhance these types of materials, there is still a desire to enhance the transportation of the materials in situ where they will interact with the natural ionic strength of groundwater.
The teachings of all the aforementioned references are incorporated herein by reference. Notwithstanding their respective teachings, however, there are significant limitations regarding the use and efficacy of in situ treatments. In particular, as a powder or granular material, remediation materials, such as activated carbon, cannot distribute through soil to reach areas of contaminated water. Instead, it must be applied in a trench to treat water passing therethrough, or must be injected as a slurry which has limited or no mobility in the aquifer. This lack of mobility causes the cost of treatment to be very high, whereas the contact with contaminated water remains quite low. The high cost is primarily due to the large number of application points required to thoroughly treat a contaminated area.
To facilitate treatment of contaminated groundwater, it is desirable that the remediating agents be able to transport effectively through an aquifer to reach contaminated zones while remaining highly active toward contaminants. To facilitate treatment of contaminated groundwater, it is desirable to have a form of solid remedial materials that can be emplaced in situ with minimal disturbance to the native aquifer conditions and that can transport effectively through an aquifer to reach contaminated zones while retaining its treatment efficacy. Additionally, the remediating agent should be effective across a wide range of aquifer conditions, including pH and redox.
It is therefore desirable to have improved methods and compositions that will distribute colloidal remediation agents, including those treating organic and inorganic contaminants (e.g., chlorinated solvents, pesticides, energetics, hydrocarbons, metal contaminants, etc.), much farther in the subsurface than simple carboxymethyl cellulose. It is likewise desirable to provide such a composition that is of simple formulation, easy to deploy, is substantially effective at remediating contaminants from soil and groundwater, and is further substantially more effective in becoming dispersed and capable of being quickly and effectively deployed over a greater area of volume of soil and groundwater than prior art compositions and methods of using the same for environmental remediation.
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Under National Electricity Rules clause 2.9A, a registered participant (transferor) can apply to AEMO to transfer its registration in a particular category to another person (transferee). The transferee must establish that it meets all the eligibility criteria for registration in that category.
If there is no intermediary relationship involved, and if there is no material change to the way the underlying facilities are classified, the transferee and the transferor must each complete the forms and provide the additional documentation indicated below. Otherwise, the transfer may need to be treated as a new application for registration. Please contact AEMO to discuss your requirements in this case.
NEM Generator Transfer Guide
Guide to Market Systems
Changing NEM scheduled bid and valuation data
If you are already registered as a generator, customer, or network service provider, and need to change your scheduled bid and valuation data (such as ramp rates), complete the Schedule 3.1 Review Form.
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Optical characteristics of a quantum-dot laser with a metallic waveguide.
We report the optical characteristics of a quantum-dot laser with a metal-coated waveguide, which shows a large group index of 4.2 compared to 3.2 for an uncoated laser. Temperature-dependent measurements reveal a high characteristic temperature in the temperature range of 7 degrees C-25 degrees C. The optical gain, refractive index change, and linewidth enhancement factor are extracted from the measured Fabry-Perot amplified spontaneous emission spectra. We use the pulse measurements to eliminate the thermal effect and obtain a low linewidth enhancement factor of 0.35.
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Algo más que morir
Algo más que morir is a 2014 Spanish Western film directed by Oier Martínez de Santos and José Luis Murga. It was released on October 11, 2014 at the 4º Almeria Western Film Festival, where it received the Premio al Público and Especial Almeria Collection. It was shot in Kuartango. It is portrayed by José Luis Murga in the role of Dick Murray.
It was shown on May 13, 2015 at the Facultad de Letras de Vitoria of the Universidad del País Vasco.
Cast
Laida Burguera as Lizzi Murray, Dick and Lilly's daughter.
Kepa Jiménez as Carson, a cacique who kills and kidnaps ranchers.
Maite Marcos as Lilly Murray, Dick's spouse.
José Luis Murga as Dick Murray, who has been looking for his brother during seven years.
Javier Salazar as Pat, a dishonest player and drinker.
References
External links
Category:Films shot in Spain
Category:Spanish Western (genre) films
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Education has always been at the heart of Ag Expo. Whether it’s a seed dealer explaining the features of a new hybrid to growers, a manufacturing company representative demonstrating the options available on a new tractor or an MSU researcher discussing the benefits of a new management practice, everyone is on site to help visitors learn.
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---
abstract: 'We study the constraints on reionization from five years of [*WMAP*]{} data, parametrizing the evolution of the average fraction of ionized hydrogen with principal components that provide a complete basis for describing the effects of reionization on large-scale $E$-mode polarization. Using Markov Chain Monte Carlo methods, we find that the resulting model-independent estimate of the total optical depth is nearly twice as well determined as the estimate from 3-year [*WMAP*]{} data, in agreement with simpler analyses that assume instantaneous reionization. The mean value of the optical depth from principal components is slightly larger than the instantaneous value; we find $\tau=0.097\pm0.017$ using only large-scale polarization, and $\tau=0.101\pm0.019$ when temperature data is included. Likewise, scale invariant $n_s=1$ spectra are no longer strongly disfavored by WMAP alone. Higher moments of the ionization history show less improvement in the 5-year data than the optical depth. By plotting the distribution of polarization power for models from the MCMC analysis, we show that extracting most of the remaining information about the shape of the reionization history from the CMB requires better measurements of $E$-mode polarization on scales of $\ell\sim 10-20$. Conversely, the quadrupole and octopole polarization power is already predicted to better than cosmic variance given [*any*]{} allowed ionization history at $z<30$ so that more precise measurements will test the $\Lambda$CDM paradigm.'
author:
- 'Michael J. Mortonson$^{1,2}$ and Wayne Hu$^{1,3}$'
title: 'Reionization constraints from five-year WMAP data'
---
Introduction {#sec:intro}
============
The amplitude of fluctuations in the $E$-mode component of cosmic microwave background (CMB) polarization on large scales provides the current best constraint on the Thomson scattering optical depth to reionization, $\tau$. Assuming that the universe was reionized instantaneously, [@Dunetal08] estimate the total optical depth to be $\tau=0.087\pm0.017$ using five years of [*WMAP*]{} data. Theoretical studies suggest that the process of reionization was too complex to be well described as a sudden transition [e.g., @BarLoe01]. Previous studies have examined how the constraint on $\tau$ depends on the evolution of the globally-averaged ionized fraction during reionization, $x_e(z)$, for a variety of specific theoretical scenarios. If the assumed form of $x_e(z)$ is incorrect, the estimated value of $\tau$ can be biased; this bias can be lessened by considering a wider variety of reionization histories at the expense of increasing the uncertainty in $\tau$ [@Kapetal03; @Holetal03; @Coletal05].
For the previous release of three years of [*WMAP*]{} data, using a more model-independent analysis of reionization based on principal components does not change the basic conclusions of studies that assume instantaneous reionization or other simple models; however, as the polarization power spectrum becomes better determined, it is increasingly important to adopt an approach with sufficient freedom to approximate a variety of possible reionization scenarios in order to minimize parameter biases [@MorHu08a; @MorHu08b]. In this letter, we study how model-independent constraints on reionization have changed with the addition of two more years of data from [*WMAP*]{} and on what scales further measurements would have the largest impact on ionization constraints. We review the principal component parametrization of the ionization history in § \[sec:pcs\]. We then present the current constraints on the principal component amplitudes and the optical depth to reionization (§ \[sec:tau\]) and the range of polarization power spectra for general models that are currently allowed by the data (§ \[sec:cl\]). We discuss these results in § \[sec:disc\].
{width="3.5in"} {width="3.5in"}
0.25cm \[fig:pctau2d\]
Ionization Principal Components {#sec:pcs}
===============================
We parametrize the reionization history as a free function of redshift by decomposing $x_e(z)$ into its principal components (PCs) with respect to the $E$-mode polarization of the CMB [@HuHol03; @MorHu08a]: $$x_e(z)={x_e^{\rm fid}}(z)+\sum_{\mu}m_{\mu}S_{\mu}(z),
\label{eq:mmutoxe}$$ where the principal components, $S_{\mu}(z)$, are the eigenfunctions of the Fisher matrix that describes the dependence of ${C_{\ell}^{EE}}$ on $x_e(z)$, $m_{\mu}$ are the amplitudes of the principal components for a particular reionization history, and ${x_e^{\rm fid}}(z)$ is the fiducial model at which the Fisher matrix is computed. The components are rank ordered by their Fisher-estimated variances. The lowest-variance eigenmode ($\mu=1$) is an average of the ionized fraction over the entire redshift range, weighted toward high $z$. The $\mu=2$ mode measures the difference between the amount of ionization at high $z$ and at low $z$, and higher modes follow this pattern with weighted averages of $x_e(z)$ that oscillate with higher and higher frequency in redshift. The main advantage of using principal components as a basis for $x_e(z)$ is that only a small number of the components are required to completely describe the effects of reionization on large-scale CMB polarization, so we obtain a very general parametrization of the reionization history at the expense of only a few additional parameters.
The principal components are defined over a limited range in redshift, ${z_{\rm min}}<z<{z_{\rm max}}$, with $x_e=0$ at $z>{z_{\rm max}}$ and $x_e=1$ at $z<{z_{\rm min}}$. We take ${z_{\rm min}}=6$, since the absence of Gunn-Peterson absorption in the spectra of quasars at $z\lesssim 6$ indicates that the universe is nearly fully ionized at lower redshifts [@FanCarKea06]. In the MCMC analysis presented here, we always use the five lowest-variance principal components of $x_e(z)$ with ${z_{\rm max}}=30$, constructed around a constant fiducial model of ${x_e^{\rm fid}}(z)=0.15$. The amplitudes of these components then serve to parametrize general reionization histories in the analysis of CMB polarization data. We refer the reader to [@MorHu08a] for further discussion of these choices and the demonstration that five components suffice to describe the $E$-mode spectrum to better than cosmic variance precision.
We impose priors on the principal component amplitudes corresponding to physical values of the ionized fraction, $0 \leq x_e \leq 1$, according to the conservative approach of [@MorHu08a]. All excluded models are unphysical, but the models we retain are not necessarily strictly physical. Finally, we neglect helium reionization, which is a small correction at the current level of precision but will be more important for future analyses [e.g., @ColPie08].
{width="3.0in"} {width="3.0in"}
0.25cm \[fig:cleedist\]
Optical Depth Constraints {#sec:tau}
=========================
We examine the implications of the [*WMAP*]{} 5-year data for general models of reionization parametrized by principal components using a Markov Chain Monte Carlo analysis that mirrors our previous study of the 3-year data in [@MorHu08a]. We consider constraints from either large-scale polarization alone, with parameters that do not directly affect reionization fixed to values that fit the temperature data (“EE”), or from the full set of temperature and polarization data, varying the parameters of the “vanilla” [$\Lambda$CDM]{} model (baryon density ${\Omega_{b}h^2}$, cold dark matter density ${\Omega_{c}h^2}$, acoustic scale ${\theta_{A}}$, scalar amplitude ${A_{s}}$, and scalar spectral tilt ${n_{s}}$) in addition to the reionization PC amplitudes (“TT+TE+EE”). In both cases, the total optical depth to reionization, $\tau$, is a derived parameter.
The MCMC constraints on principal component amplitudes and the derived optical depth for both of these cases are plotted in Fig. \[fig:pctau2d\], along with the previous constraints from 3-year [*WMAP*]{} data [@MorHu08a]. While there are some improvements in all 5 of the individual components when considering $EE$ alone, these changes are not as large as the improvement in the optical depth constraint when all of the data are considered. Adding both temperature data and extra parameters in going from EE only to TT+TE+EE has the net effect of slightly strengthening constraints on the higher ranked PC amplitudes, although there is very little effect on $\tau$. The additional constraining power for both 3-year and 5-year data comes mainly from the measured temperature power spectrum at $\ell\sim 10-100$, which excludes models with additional Doppler effect contributions due to narrow features in the ionization history [@MorHu08a].
Modeling reionization as an instantaneous transition at some redshift ${z_{\rm reion}}$, [@Dunetal08] estimate the optical depth from the 5-year [*WMAP*]{} data to be $\tau=0.087\pm 0.017$, almost a factor of two more precise than the estimate from three years of data [@Speetal07]. For ionization histories parametrized by PCs, we find that the constraint on optical depth is $\tau=0.097\pm0.017$ for the EE case and $\tau=0.101\pm0.019$ for TT+TE+EE. As with the 3-year data, the error on $\tau$ is roughly 10% larger with the inclusion of temperature data and a larger set of parameters, and the error in both cases is the same or only slightly larger than for the instantaneous reionization analysis.
The central value of $\tau$ for more general ionization histories is higher than the instantaneous reionization value by $\sim 0.5-1~\sigma$; a similar shift toward larger optical depths was seen in PC analysis of the 3-year data [@MorHu08a]. The maximum likelihood model, however, has $\tau=0.088$ for EE data and $\tau=0.090$ for TT+TE+EE, much closer to the instantaneous reionization maximum likelihood optical depth of $\tau=0.089$ [@Dunetal08]. The larger mean optical depth is at least partly due to having a large parameter volume of models with finite ionization fraction at high redshift that are still allowed by the data. With flat priors on the principal components, this volume effect can boost the mean optical depth of models even though the mean likelihood of low optical depth models remains the same. Our assumption of full ionization at redshifts below ${z_{\rm min}}=6$ for all models also limits how small the optical depth can be. Relative to the best-fit instantaneous model with ${z_{\rm reion}}=11.0\pm 1.4$ [@Dunetal08], there are simply more ways to increase $\tau$ than there are to decrease $\tau$ by changing the ionization history, given these priors and the current data.
For the TT+TE+EE analysis, the larger mean optical depth is accompanied by shifts in correlated parameters, particularly the spectral tilt: $n_s=0.990\pm0.024$ with $x_e(z)$ parametrized by PCs, and $n_s=0.960\pm0.015$ for instantaneous reionization [@Kometal08]. As with the optical depth, however, some of this shift is a parameter volume effect. The maximum likelihood model for the principal component analysis has $n_s=0.976$. The best fit scale invariant model (fixing $n_s=1$) is a poorer fit to the data by $\Delta \chi_{\rm eff}^2 \equiv -2 \ln (\mathcal{L}/\mathcal{L}_{\rm max}) \sim 1$, where $\mathcal{L}_{\rm max}$ is the maximum likelihood. (The instantaneous reionization maximum likelihood model is also at $\Delta \chi_{\rm eff}^2 \approx 1$ relative to the best fit with principal components.) As measurements of CMB polarization improve with future data, particularly with detections in the $10 < \ell < 20$ range (see §\[sec:cl\]), the constraints on parameters such as optical depth and tilt should become less sensitive to our assumptions about the priors.
Unlike the total optical depth, constraints on the optical depth over more limited redshift ranges have only improved slightly. With three years of [*WMAP*]{} data, the 95% upper limit on the optical depth from $z>20$ (allowing for a significant ionized fraction up to $z\sim 40$) was $\tau(z>20)<0.08$ [@MorHu08a]. The limit from 5-year data is $\tau(z>20)<0.07$. If we instead choose the dividing redshift to be the best-fit value of the redshift of instantaneous reionization, ${z_{\rm reion}}=11$, we find a similar constraint for the contribution to the optical depth from high redshift: $\tau(z>11)<0.07$. Compared to the 3-year data, there is also a more significant (but still weak) preference for nonzero optical depth from $6<z<11$.
Power spectra of allowed models {#sec:cl}
===============================
To better understand at which scales the reionization peak of $E$-mode polarization is best constrained by the current data, we plot the 68% and 95% CL limits on ${C_{\ell}^{EE}}$ from the Monte Carlo chains in Fig. \[fig:cleedist\]. These limits reflect the range of ensemble-averaged power allowed by the 5-year data and the PC-parametrized reionization histories. Since this parametrization is complete in the power spectrum, the range in Fig. \[fig:cleedist\] reflects the allowed model power spectra for [*any*]{} ionization history at $z<z_{\rm max}=30$.
At $\ell\lesssim 5$, the variation in allowed models is smaller than the uncertainty due to cosmic variance. In other words, the data at $\ell \sim 5$ in combination with any ionization history and the power law initial power spectrum make a prediction for the ensemble-averaged power at lower $\ell$ that is sharper than can be measured. Conversely, measurements that violate this prediction at a statistically significant level require modifications to the $\Lambda$CDM paradigm itself, much like low measurements of the temperature quadrupole. It is interesting that the maximum likelihood $E$-mode polarization quadrupole reported by [@Noletal08], $6 C_2^{EE}/2\pi \approx 0.15~\mu{\rm K}^2$, is in excess of the 95% cosmic variance region shown in Fig. \[fig:cleedist\].
The uncertainty in the model space is largest at intermediate scales of $\ell \sim 10-20$, where the large-scale polarization power is expected to be smallest. There is substantial room for improved measurements of the spectrum on these scales before reaching the cosmic variance limit. Tighter constraints on the $E$-mode power at $10<\ell <20$ would better determine the amplitude of principal components beyond the first; such measurements are necessary to be able to discriminate among different reionization histories with the same total optical depth. Physically, these measurements would better constrain the ionization history at high redshifts ($z\gtrsim 15$).
On small scales ($\ell > 30-40$) the limits on power spectra of reionization models from the chains again become tighter than cosmic variance since the theoretical amplitude of the recombination peak is well determined due to constraints on parameters from the temperature data.
Comparison of the two panels in Fig. \[fig:cleedist\] shows that the main effect of including temperature data in constraints on principal components is to eliminate models with large power at $10<\ell<30$. As mentioned in the previous section, these models are excluded by the data due to their increased temperature fluctuations at $\ell \sim 10-100$. Even with TT+TE+EE data, the range of power in models allowed by current data is a few times larger than cosmic variance.
Discussion {#sec:disc}
==========
The 5-year [*WMAP*]{} polarization data significantly improve the estimate of the total optical depth, reducing the error from $\sigma_{\tau}\approx 0.03$ to $\sigma_{\tau}\approx 0.017$. This improvement is seen in both a model-independent analysis using principal components of the ionization history and in an analysis that assumes instantaneous reionization, although there is a small shift in the central value with the model-independent method preferring a slightly higher mean around $\tau=0.1$.
As with the 3-year data, the $E$-mode reionization peak is currently best measured on the largest scales, $\ell\sim 5$. Determining details of the ionization history beyond the optical depth requires information about the full shape of the reionization peak, which can be obtained by supplementing the current observations with better measurements of the $E$-mode power on scales of $5<\ell<30$. In particular, improved knowledge of the power on scales between the main reionization peak and the recombination peak at $\ell\sim 10-20$ would be the most useful for distinguishing models of reionization with different ionization histories but the same optical depth.
Conversely, the data along with [*any*]{} allowed ionization history at $z<30$ in the standard $\Lambda$CDM context already predict the ensemble-averaged polarization quadrupole and octopole powers to better than cosmic variance. More precise measurements in this regime can test the standard model itself.
: This work was supported by the KICP through the grant NSF PHY-0114422 and the David and Lucile Packard Foundation. WH was additionally supported by the DOE through contract DE-FG02-90ER-40560.
[13]{} natexlab\#1[\#1]{}
, R. & [Loeb]{}, A. 2001, , 349, 125
, L. P. L., [Bernardi]{}, G., [Casarini]{}, L., [Mainini]{}, R., [Bonometto]{}, S. A., [Carretti]{}, E., & [Fabbri]{}, R. 2005, , 435, 413
, L. P. L. & [Pierpaoli]{}, E. 2008, arXiv:0804.0278
, J. [et al.]{} 2008, arXiv:0803.0586
Fan, X.-H., Carilli, C. L., & Keating, B. 2006, Ann. Rev. Astron. Astrophys., 44, 415
, G. P., [Haiman]{}, Z., [Kaplinghat]{}, M., & [Knox]{}, L. 2003, , 595, 13
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, M., [Chu]{}, M., [Haiman]{}, Z., [Holder]{}, G. P., [Knox]{}, L., & [Skordis]{}, C. 2003, , 583, 24
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| 125,307,835
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ABSTRACT
Introduction. An association between psoriasis and sexual dysfunction (SD) has been explored. However, the risk of SD after the diagnosis of psoriasis relative to the age-matched general population remains unknown.
Aim. To clarify the risk of developing SD in male patients with psoriasis.
Methods. From 2000 to 2001, we identified 12,300 male patients with newly diagnosed psoriasis and 61,500 matching controls from National Health Insurance Database in Taiwan.
Main Outcome Measures. The two cohorts were followed up until 2008, and we observed the occurrence of SD by registry of SD diagnosis in the database. Stratified Cox proportional hazard regressions were used to calculate the 7-year SD risk for these two groups.
Results. Of the 73,800 sampled patients, 1,812 patients (2.46%) experienced SD during the 7-year follow-up period, including 373 (3.03% of patients with psoriasis) in the study group and 1,439 (2.34% of patients without psoriasis) in the comparison group. The hazard ratio (HR) for SD for patients with psoriasis was 1.27 times (95% confidence interval [CI], 1.11–1.46; P = 0.001) as high as that for patients without psoriasis after adjusting for age, monthly income, number of health-care visits, systemic treatment, and other comorbidities. Stratified analysis showed that the risk of SD was higher in patients older than 60 years old (HR: 1.42, 95% CI: 1.12–1.81) and patients with psoriatic arthritis (HR: 1.78, 95% CI: 1.08–2.91). However, the risk of SD was not significantly elevated in patients receiving systemic treatment, including retinoid, methotrexate, and cyclosporine.
Conclusions. Male patients with psoriasis are at increased risk of developing SD. Physicians should pay attention to the impact of psoriasis on psychosocial and sexual health, especially in old-aged patients.
| 125,307,859
|
Left ventricular approach to multiple ventricular septal defects.
Multiple muscular ventricular septal defects were closed through an apical left ventriculotomy in 11 patients. The patients were divided into two groups: Group 1, 8 patients who had transposition of the great arteries, and group 2, 3 patients without transposition. There were 4 deaths in Group 1 and non in Group 2. Two of the deaths were caused by a hypoplastic right ventricle, 1 by airway obstruction, and 1 by heart failure and pulmonary edema in a patient who had additional unrecognized muscular defects. An apical left ventriculotomy provides excellent exposure of the septum. The field is not obscured by trabecular bands or papillary muscles. Although 1 patient died because of residual VSDs, this approach, compared with previously described methods, minimizes the risk of unrecognized defects.
| 125,307,890
|
A case of mitral-aortic intervalvular fibrosa aneurysm with unique flow patterns and long-term natural survival.
We report a patient with a large aneurysm of mitral-aortic intervalvular fibrosa as a complication of prosthetic aortic valve endocarditis diagnosed on transthoracic echocardiography. This aneurysm began to expand with atrial systole, filled fully during ventricular systole, and collapsed in diastole on transesophageal examination. The patient refused corrective surgery and has survived on medical treatment for close to 2 years.
| 125,307,904
|
The Resilient
I had a good day with the children today despite my mood was kinda ruined in the morning because of a guy in the bus. So this guy got on the bus and started to sing (in a very soft almost unheard voice), i gave him coins out of pity (despite his nonsens intention to really sing), which confusingly resulted in him sitting next to me and asking me a lot of questions. Where I was going, what I was to do there, etc etc. In every turn or bump, he moved his shoulder and thigh/leg to touch mine, until I was cornered to the window, and he talked with his face was close to mine, which was very terrifying and disgusting. It was still morning and only few people were there in the bus. Anytime I moved my leg away from his leg, he would stare bluntly at me, I could see it from the side of my eye. I wanted to get off the bus but I was afraid he would too. What if I shoved him and he brought a knife? When he started to ask me questions about my religion, my relationship status, and said that he wanted to follow me, I felt really bugged. I remember I read somewhere that sexual harassment has become culture because women think it is futile to fight back. So when he accused me of lying about my marital status (which I did, I told him that I am married), I yelled at him. Then he laughed at me, as if it was something rather cute or funny, like a puppy barking to a thief. I was really angry, and I thought to myself, that men’s demeaning attitude towards women transcends anything. Whether you’re poor, rich, ugly, politically powerful or whatever, for these culprits, you’re prey. And it pisses me off so much the fact that I am scared of him. I wonder why I’m scared. Is it instinctually (he’s physically bigger than me), or is it his social status? Whatever it is, we still are in the culture where he believes he has the ‘substance’ to overpower me. Did I believe it too? I want to say no, but hell I was afraid of him tells that I believe he is ‘stronger’ than me. Was it culturally or physically? I hope the latter. I try to analyze this to get rid of irrational fears, if there’s any. The exasperating thing is, sometimes, whether you look scared or ignore them, whether you tell them to go to hell or yell at them, it still fucking entertains them. But anyhoo, I’m okay, I was off the bus, I trembled, I texted my boyfriend just to let my feelings out, and I proceeded my way to the slum.
(I should’ve known that he is not a real busker. He has no intention singing to be heard. He is just.. well i dont know what he is, but he speaks really slow like a stoned guy, and he had a ‘handmade’ tattoo on his hand, the one that you could see is made by puncturing self with needles)
I finally reach the slum. There is not so many children today because it is already school holiday for most. Some are playing, some help mothers in the market, some go to relatives, etc. Sali, the enthusiast boy I spoke about, is already there when I come. The others are not there yet so I start to chat with him to get to know him. I ask him when is his birthday, he says he doesn’t know. I ask him what month, he says he doesn’t know. I tell him, why don’t you ask your mother. He says he barely sees his mother because she goes to work very early in the morning.What does your mother do?Peanut…Frying peanut?No, sorting peanuts..
I learn more about these kids and lives here from the tutor. Some kids have full support by the parents, and some not. Some still goes busking, and those who are supported usually only work during the holiday, like helping the father scavenging, and sells the items collected by the kilos. It is unbelievable how much sacrifice they have to do to go to school. At the other side of the slum, there’s another slum that also has children centre (under the same organization) in it. I could see it from up the overpass bridge.
The slum where I work (if i can say) a nice slum. It’s clean, the children are rather innocent, and the people are nice. The other slum, based on the tutor’s account who also works there, is worse. There’s more prostitution and sometimes husbands sell their own wives for money. It is full of garbage, it stinks and is damp, people pee on walls, there’s loud music, and more kids go on the street to beg or busk. An interesting thing is… albeit dominated by muslim/religious people, people (adults) shower in a shared public shower that has no walls around it. Nudity is natural, showering is natural. Whats the fuss. The tutor thinks that they have no concept of shame but I think it’s a curious phenomenon, considering this is a modern city (and also religious society). I guess they do bring their village to the city.
Anyway class went well, we made art&craft and learned numbers in English. I will not see them in the next two weeks for Lebaran Holiday. I wish to start making materials for this module. I go back after accompanying the tutor to shop for onions and ketchup in the market (she’s amazing, really). I go back to Kampung Melayu. Get on the bus, look around, and for safety I choose to sit next to a woman. Although after I think about it, I wouldn’t do it again next time, I don’t want to generalize men, and more importantly I don’t want to be scared of men. I stop at Cikini to shop for grocery and to have lunch and sit and rest a little bit. I think of the children. The man that I see scavenging on filthy garbage everyday could easily be their father. There’s a corner near my old house, where every night, a man waits outside with his cart to rummaging the garbage. There’s a rat hole in there, I see rats around him when he forage the trash. He collects mineral water bottles.
I take another bus to my house. Two buskers get in. They dressed neatly, one with guitar and one with percussion. I though to myself, now this is real musician buskers! The guy with the mini guitar smiled enthusiastically and greeted everybody:“Assalamualaikum wr. wb untuk saudara/saudari, dan Salam Sejahtera untuk saudara2 yang bukan beragama Islam. Kami akan bernyanyi untuk mencari nafkah, apabila saat kami mencari nafkah, Anda merasa terganggu, kami mohon maaf” -Assalamualaikum for brothers and sisters, and greetings for everybody who is not Muslim. We are going to sing to earn for our living. If you feel discomforted of our way of earning for living, we apologize to you…
They start to play the instruments and one starts to sing..I don’t remember the lyrics.. but I remember him singing “I can only turn to you„, I will always try to be my best..”They sing really beautifully it makes me see the beauty of the strength that springs from weakness, an extraordinary resilience that derives from fragility. And suddenly in the heat of the sun in an old ugly bus, tear came out from my eyes. Emotions that I have repressed since morning bursted out. Fear, anger, sadness, amazement, and love… I just want to be a good person..
| 125,308,135
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The natural course of multiple endocrine neoplasia type IIb. A study of 18 cases.
Multiple endocrine neoplasia (MEN) type IIb is an autosomal dominantly inherited disorder associated with medullary thyroid cancer, pheochromocytoma, and a characteristic phenotype. The present study was performed to investigate the natural course of the syndrome and to describe its expression. The medical records of 18 patients with MEN IIb, seven male and 11 female, were reviewed. The mean age at diagnosis of MEN IIb was 18 years (range, 8 to 41 years). All 18 patients had medullary thyroid cancer. In three patients, medullary thyroid cancer was diagnosed via screening. In two of these patients, the calcitonin value normalized after thyroidectomy. One patient died of metastases from medullary thyroid cancer at the age of 20 years (median duration of follow-up, 10 years). Eight of the 18 patients had pheochromocytomas. All of our patients had neuromas and bumpy lips, and all but one had a marfanoid habitus. A large proportion of the patients had intestinal abnormalities (75%), thickened corneal nerves (69%), skeletal abnormalities (87%), and delayed puberty (43%). The course of medullary thyroid cancer in MEN IIb is not always as aggressive as is generally thought. Periodic examination of relatives who are at risk may lead to early diagnosis and curative treatment. Intestinal abnormalities, skeletal abnormalities, and delayed puberty are commonly found in association with MEN IIb.
| 125,308,186
|
Prices shown in currencies other than USA Dollars are estimates based on current exchange rates. We will charge your credit card in USA Dollars on the day your order is shipped, and the conversion to your local currency will be done at the prevailing rate by your credit card issuer.
Shipments outside the USA are declared as “bike parts” for customs purposes and will include the actual amount paid for merchandise and shipping. Jenson USA will not mark your parcel as a “gift”, declare a value lower than the actual price paid, or otherwise prepare false customs information.
Giro Cipher Helmet
The all-new Cipher is built around the demands of freeride and enduro,
with a lightweight fiberglass shell, plush interior padding, and vented
brow ports for unrivaled cooling and comfort. Vinyl Nitrile padding
along the jaw line enhances impact management in this critical area,
and the integrated P.O.V. camera mount plus built-in speaker pockets
let you dial in your sound and images. Altogether it’s a new level of
performance, for a new era of trail riding.
Description:
Giro Aeon Helmet Redesigned with weight and ventilation
in mind, the Aeon from Giro is poised to deliver high end performance to even the most demanding cyclists. For this version of the Aeon, Giro optimized every component of the helmet, ...
Description:
The Bell Volt is a champion�s helmet. As
a regular sight in the pro peloton, be it in on the muddy race course of an XC worlds championship or in the thick of a criterium sprint finish, the Volt is ...
Description:
Bell Stoker Helmet 2014 The Bell Stoker was
designed with trail riders in mind. Get ready to step up your technical trail riding game with this impressive piece of head protection. This go to all mountain helmet has just the ...
Since I am exactly between the L and M size I decided to go with the L.Out of the box the helmet is just beautiful ,I purchased the red white and...Read complete review
Since I am exactly between the L and M size I decided to go with the L.Out of the box the helmet is just beautiful ,I purchased the red white and black ( a matter of taste of course) The GoPro bracket leaves a lot to be desired , it is loose and the camera rattles continuously , quick fix is to glue the bracket pieces together permanently (you are still able to remove it from the helmet )It appear that you have to use the provided bracket for the GoPro for "on top" position as the shape of the helmet cause the sun visor to block most of the forward view if you tried to mount a bracket anywhere else on top of the helmet.There are many panels inside of the helmet and it appears that removing them is too easy ( in comparison to other helmets) time will tell if it is not going to become a problem.The pockets for the earphones works real well but for me where there is "hike a bike" and some pedaling involves it is impractical since the music is gone while the helmet is off so I am back to putting the helmet over the earphones and with this helmet it is still very comfortable .I really dislike the D ring strap , it's a real pain taking the helmet off and on and especially while wearing gloves.On first( and only ) ride the helmet felt tight so I was happy I went with the L size , 20 minutes into the ride and the helmet felt more and more loose to the point I couldn't ride any more.I exchanged it for the M size and after feeling real tight at first it felt better as the ride progressed so if you are too on the border or close to it I would recommend a size smaller ( and that is actually what was recommended to me by the Jenson rep)
I had the misfortune of testing the protection of this helmet ,I had a high speed "face first" crash , my face was dragged on a real rough terrain for a good 15-20 ft ,being dragged on the sun visor and the chin protection part , I was sure the helmet was gone and the sun visor would be in pieces , I was shocked to see that the helmet sustained only a minor paint chip and absolutely nothing happened to the sun visor. so as far as protection I would give it 5 stars.
VS
Most Liked Negative Review
Looks great...but poor QC by GIRO
Ordered this helmet back in November and was really excited about it. Jenson was able to get a few in and sent me one earlier than the back-order stated. Great customer service as they...Read complete review
Ordered this helmet back in November and was really excited about it. Jenson was able to get a few in and sent me one earlier than the back-order stated. Great customer service as they re-routed the package for me.
I opened the package and found a great looking helmet at first glance...sadly, there are too many details that show poor handling or poor quality control by Giro. There were small scratches on the helmet...not a big deal cause I'm sure there will be more, but I like to be the one who puts scratches on things I buy new. The velcro that holds the cheek liners is already ripped off from the helmet. I was inspecting how you remove the cheek pads and you can see the velcro is coming off the helmet, so I decided to leave it alone cause it will likely come off if I remove the "removable" pads. There was also a glop of what looks like super-glue on the visor. Also there are cut marks or tool marks on the helmet next to both bolts that hold the visor on.
I want to love this helmet, but it kind of feels like the helmet I bought is not "brand new." This isn't Jenson's fault, and all of what I mentioned are issues I can live with...I was just hoping for more quality control from GIRO.
As for the helmet fit, it fits tight as a new helmet should. I crushed my ears a little putting it on, but once it is on, my ears popped into the pocket nicely. Feels very secure and the strap is top notch. I haven't ridden with it yet, so can't speak to its ventilation. I have no doubt that it will stay secured on my head though. As stated earlier, it looks great, minus the paint scratches.
For the most part, I love the helmet...but I can only give it three stars due to the condition it arrived in. One star for GIRO's quality control!
Since I am exactly between the L and M size I decided to go with the L.Out of the box the helmet is just beautiful ,I purchased the red white and black ( a matter of taste of course) The GoPro bracket leaves a lot to be desired , it is loose and the camera rattles continuously , quick fix is to glue the bracket pieces together permanently (you are still able to remove it from the helmet )It appear that you have to use the provided bracket for the GoPro for "on top" position as the shape of the helmet cause the sun visor to block most of the forward view if you tried to mount a bracket anywhere else on top of the helmet.There are many panels inside of the helmet and it appears that removing them is too easy ( in comparison to other helmets) time will tell if it is not going to become a problem.The pockets for the earphones works real well but for me where there is "hike a bike" and some pedaling involves it is impractical since the music is gone while the helmet is off so I am back to putting the helmet over the earphones and with this helmet it is still very comfortable .I really dislike the D ring strap , it's a real pain taking the helmet off and on and especially while wearing gloves.On first( and only ) ride the helmet felt tight so I was happy I went with the L size , 20 minutes into the ride and the helmet felt more and more loose to the point I couldn't ride any more.I exchanged it for the M size and after feeling real tight at first it felt better as the ride progressed so if you are too on the border or close to it I would recommend a size smaller ( and that is actually what was recommended to me by the Jenson rep)
I had the misfortune of testing the protection of this helmet ,I had a high speed "face first" crash , my face was dragged on a real rough terrain for a good 15-20 ft ,being dragged on the sun visor and the chin protection part , I was sure the helmet was gone and the sun visor would be in pieces , I was shocked to see that the helmet sustained only a minor paint chip and absolutely nothing happened to the sun visor. so as far as protection I would give it 5 stars.
So this is my first full face helmet. However, i have rented many others before (which is gross, so i decided to buy one). This helmet is great! My head is about 59cm around and the size large fits great. However, if my head were any smaller, i would probably try a medium.
When I ride lifts I like a full face helmet. This was the best value. It is lighter than what I had and works well. The pads do press on my cheeks a little but I hope they will pack in. Otherwise the only other issue is the strap is buckle only which can be irritating with gloves on. I liked having a quick connect on my last helmet.
I've had many full face helmets, including the Giro Remedy, Troy Lee D2, Fox V3R, a couple different Bells, and a few others. This is BY FAR the best DH/FR helmet I've ever worn. It's the most comfortable, best fitting, and in my opinion the best looking. The TuneUps speakers (sold seperately) work amazingly as well. I have yet to try the GoPro on it but the mount seems very solid and there's no obstruction from the visor.
It does have a snug fit, but it feels like it's meant to, to help with protection. Haven't tested it's impact protection yet, but hopefully I won't need to. The quick-release side pads are a nice addition, should the wearer have a bad crash.
This helmet is my first full face and I really like it. Pretty light, with a solid overall feel. I had to reorder to size down the helmet from my normal CM range on my other lid. I'm assuming its because there is so much padding it felt loose so size down for a more secure fit. The pads will break in and it will be perfect after a ride or two. Helmet came in great condition and looks sharp with the matte finish. Would be 5 stars but the camera mount is shaky at best, its designed that way so it pops off vs break if you decide to get intimate with the ground at high speed. Replaced with the curved adhesive pad mount by go pro in call it 3 seconds which is a night and day difference in shot quality. Time to ride.
Not only does it look good, it protects! Wrecked yesterday on a jump pretty hard that resulted in my head slamming the ground hard enough to scratch the helmet and take a chunk out if the plastic shell. Didn't phase me. Broke my collar bone, but the ole noggin wasn't phased.
The first day I tried it on, I thought the cheek pads were too tight. After about 2-3 uses, the pads wore in and it's super comfortable now. I haven't used the speaker pockets. The mount for the GoPro is pretty nice. It seems sketchy but it's worked on 4 big gnarly rides. The visor does not adjust! That's probably the only downside. It's in a stationary position and cannot be moved. You can remove it but it's where it is. It's in a fine position but it would be nice to have the option.
Beautiful helmet, I wasnt quite sure about its looks (mouth piece) but in real life the helmet is awesome. It is very light for a non carbon helmet. The best full face Giro so far. And the price is OK.
The only negative comment is, that the inner lining (padding) looks, feels very cheap, a more quality would make this an absolute favorite.
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| 125,308,492
|
Preventing obesity: a life cycle perspective.
Traditional approaches to treating overweight and obese adults by focusing on individual weight loss have not been effective in stemming the tide of obesity in the population. Recent research has identified critical factors that, as they accumulate and interact over an individual's life span, may put a person at risk for obesity. These factors include rapid weight gain in infancy and childhood, early puberty, and excessive weight gain in pregnancy. Based on this research, a life cycle perspective can be used to develop comprehensive interventions that address the multiple determinants of obesity. Because obesity tracks across generations, it is essential to adopt effective obesity prevention measures now to prevent even higher rates of obesity in future generations. Dietetics professionals can reduce individual risks by providing nutritional services that support appropriate weight gain in childhood and pregnancy. We can also advocate for policies in communities, schools, and worksites that support breastfeeding, ensure access to health-promoting foods, and provide opportunities to be physically active.
| 125,308,499
|
Ischemia/stroke presents a major health problem worldwide. A prominent feature of ischemic cell death is an irreversible suppression of protein synthesis in vulnerable cells. Impairment of endoplasmic reticulum (ER) function has been identified as the mechanism underlying the shutdown of translation induced by ischemia. Our hypothesis has been that the post-ischemic impairment of ER function and subsequent long-lasting suppression of protein synthesis found in vulnerable neurons play an important role in the pathological process triggered by transient cerebral ischemia and culminating in neuronal cell death. To date this hypothesis has been based only on correlative evidence: a proof of the hypothesis is still lacking. Our Specific Aim is to test the hypothesis that the extent of ischemic cell death can be reduced by facilitating a recovery of protein syn- thesis and restoration of ER function. To this end, we will take advantage of the metabolic pattern found in vulnerable neurons after transient ischemia where protein synthesis is severely suppressed and transcription of stress genes is activated. We will perform experiments with neuronal cells transfected with genetic constructs exhibiting three distinct components that will guarantee that the protein required to restore function is synthesized specifically after ischemia. The constructs will contain the gene coding for a protein that is believed to facilitate recovery of protein synthesis and restoration of ER function, a sequence that will activate translation of the respective mRNA under conditions associated with suppression of protein synthesis, and a promoter with a consensus sequence for the binding of transcription factors known to be activated after ischemia. The genes coding for a potentially protective protein will include Bcl-2 targeted to the ER, GADD34, and GRP78, and we will use promoters with binding sequences for heat shock factors. Stably transfected cells will then be transiently exposed to oxygen/glucose deprivation, a severe form of stress causing metabolic disturbances that mimic those induced by transient ischemia. We will then investigate whether recovery of protein synthesis and restoration of ER function do indeed help cells to withstand the metabolic stress conditions. The proposed project will allow us to establish the conditional gene expression platform needed to confirm, in future animal experiments, the role of ischemia-induced impairment of ER function and subsequent shutdown of translation in the pathological process resulting in neuronal cell death. Furthermore, the conditional gene expression approach will enable us to elucidate mechanisms of neuronal cell death in various pathological states of the brain and other organs associated with suppression of global protein synthesis and activation of transcription factors. PUBLIC HEALTH RELEVANCE: Stroke is a major cause of morbidity and mortality, which according to the American Heart Association affects more than 700,000 citizens in the United States, resulting in more than 160,000 deaths per year and $55 billion direct and indirect annual costs. The proposed project is designed to elucidate the mechanisms underlying neuronal cell death caused by ischemia/stroke. The project will thus help to establish new avenues of therapeutic intervention to improving public health in the United States and therefore reducing the costs associated with stroke treatments.
| 125,308,982
|
News Now
CU System
IKansas City Business JournalI CUs help small biz
KANSAS CITY (1/11/11)--Credit unions are increasingly finding ways to provide loans to small businesses as they diversify their service portfolios for members, according to an article this week in the Kansas City Business Journal. “It’s a market we want to develop,” Dennis Pierce, CEO of $1.75 billion-asset Community America CU in Lenexa, Kan., told the Journal. “We go at it as an extension of our members’ personal business, and we tend to continue to focus that way.” Although the credit union doesn’t aggressively try to market products to local businesses, commercial loans are becoming more important because members are struggling to keep their small businesses thriving in a troubled economy, Pierce told the Journal. “If you look at national statistics, most of the job growth is going to happen with small businesses, so we want to be a part of that and support it,” Pierce added. Credit unions often provide loans that banks don’t because credit unions look at the character and individual circumstances of the applicants, Rob Givens, CEO of $410.6 million-asset Mazuma CU in Kansas City, told the Journal. “It varies case by case, but in general, I think the difference is the relationship we establish and the commitment we make to really understand their business,” Givens added. “We dig into it and try to find what is going on that inhibits them from getting a loan from a bank. Having a deeper level of understanding for what they are trying to do often gives us confidence to make a loan that a bank might not do.” From March 2009 to March 2010, credit union business lending rose 9%, while it decreased 9% at banks, according to Credit Union National Association (CUNA) data, the Journal said. CUNA and credit unions have advocated to Congress that their member business lending cap should be lifted to 27.5% of total assets from 12.25% to boost the economy with 100,000 jobs and $10 billion in loans to small businesses, at no expense to the taxpayer. To read the article, use the link.
| 125,309,148
|
Q:
Callback inside AJAX success
Im trying to add an optional callback inside an AJAX successful execution, but I can't seem to get the callback to run when I want it to.
heres and example of my AJAX code
function someAjaxFunction(hosturl, callback){
$.ajax({
type: "GET",
url: hosturl,
data: {'something': 'code' },
dataType: 'json',
success: function(html){
var arr = $.map(html, function(val) { return val; });
if(arr[0] != 'false'){
console.log('1');
console.log('2');
if (callback) {
console.log('calling the callback')
callback();
}
console.log('3');
}else{
console.log('fail')
}
}
});
}
here is the callback and example of how the AJAX is being executed
function thisIsACallBack(){
console.log("i'm a callback");
}
someAjaxFunction("some url", thisIsACallBack);
If I run this code the console outputs.
1
2
3
i'm a callback
I can even remove the callback if-condition all together and I would still get the same output.
Also is here a better way to handle my Ajax return currently my response wrapped inside a json object. If the database can't find the object I have to place 'false' inside an array and convert it to a json object before echoing it back to ajax.
A:
Couse you have to pass your callback as string to your function
someAjaxFunction("some url", thisIsACallBack); // <-- Wrong thisIsACallBack will be triggered after someAjaxFunction as some separate function call
like this
someAjaxFunction("some url", "thisIsACallBack()"); // <- Correct way
// Then call eval( callback ); inside Ajax success
....
success: function(html){
...
eval( callback );
}
your problem was that in case of this code someAjaxFunction("some url", thisIsACallBack); it was triggering someAjaxFunction then thisIsACallBack function as you written someAjaxFunction name not as string
UPDATE
if you have to pass params to your callback your option is
someAjaxFunction("some url", function(param1){
thisIsACallBack(param1)
); } );
...
success: function(html){
...
callback( yourArray );
}
JavaScript has many ways how you can pass callbacks depends on your need
| 125,309,282
|
The Cognitive Estimation Test (CET): psychometric limitations in neurorehabilitation populations.
The Cognitive Estimation Test (CET), which purportedly assesses aspects of executive functioning, consists of answering questions that require deductive reasoning. This paper explored the CET's psychometric properties in neurorehabilitation samples, including its reliability and strength of association with tests involving varying levels of executive skill. Among 112 patients (age = 65.3 years, SD = 12.5) with various neurological impairments, CET performance had limited reliability and was moderately correlated with nearly all cognitive tests examined, regardless of their executive demands. These findings highlight the poor divergent validity of the CET and raise questions of its utility in cognitive assessment.
| 125,309,335
|
A Life Worth Living
A Life Worth Living may refer to:
A Life Worth Living, autobiography of Michael Smurfit
A Life Worth Living, book by Nicky Gumbel
A Life Worth Living, a Bernice Summerfield anthology
A Life Worth Living, book by Mihaly and Isabella Selega Csikszentmihaly
A Life Worth Living, 2014 album by Marc Broussard
| 125,309,495
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GREENPEACE says it has begun testing water samples from the ocean near Japan's crippled Fukushima Daiichi nuclear plant for radiation contamination.
The samples will be collected outside Japan's 12-mile territorial waters in line with government rules, Greenpeace said, adding that it would continue to press Tokyo for permission to study water within 12 miles of shore.
The plant has leaked radiation into air, soil and ocean since it was severely damaged by the massive March 11 quake and tsunami, and government readings at the end of March found levels of radioactive iodine-131 3,355 times the legal limit in nearby sea.
Greenpeace has stressed the importance of an independent study of the level of contamination.
Local fishermen have already been ordered to stop catching certain kinds of fish, especially konago or sand lance, which have shown high levels of radioactivity.
Originally published as Greenpeace testing water near reactor
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Why I Traveled The World Instead Of Paying My $30,000 Student Loan.
I can feel the stares from the financial planners, accountants and budget gurus, *hands up*, I’m guilty, but I’m going to tell you why I decided to travel the world instead of paying down my hefty $30,000 student loan, so pack your judgement away in that carry-on.
When I decided to go to New York City for college, I made the decision to take on debt in the form of a private student loan from Sallie Mae *cringes*. When I graduated with my degree, it was one of the happiest and most fulfilling moments in life. Knowing I had set out to achieve a goal and to hit that mark, I felt like I could do anything! Then, I remembered, ‘you still got this 30k, to pay off!
It took me a while to get a decent job that I was in love with. My job empowered me to make consistent monthly payments; there were some months where I was paying up to $1000.00. Yep, I was paying the piper. I started off paying as much as I could to pay the loan off ASAP! Then one day, that all changed.
I was sitting down on my bed watching an episode of Chopped, one of the judges asked a chef what would he do if he won the $10,000 prize. His response was, ‘I’m thinking of paying off my student loan but I really want to travel the world’, the response from the judges was a life changer. The judges warned him not to take all of his prize money but instead follow his passion to travelling the world and honing his craft.
From that moment on, I decided that I would rethink the way I was paying off my loan and make room for the things that I loved. I revamped my budget and cut back my loan payments to accommodate travel. What I realised was, I was stressing myself to pay a debt that would probably be around for some time. I failed to enjoy life as it was passing consumed with tunnel vision – I had one goal, pay off this loan! The moment I made the switch, the clouds cleared, and I was able to see the sun. (I know, how corny!) I began to enjoy life because I decided to pack my loan up and put it in a box to the side with a label that said, “One Day”. Don’t waste your 20’s stressing over a loan that will still be there in the end.
I do not claim to be a financial expert, all of this is from personal experience, I just wanted to share with you something many people have asked me about. Student loan debt isn’t the worse debt you can have. Once you make your minimum payments on a timely basis, you’ll be fine. Even the former President and First Lady Barack & Michelle Obama had outstanding student loans into their 40’s.
My advice to you is to not waste your 20’s and 30’s fretting over debt. Make your payments and live life! If I had sacrificed travel, I know that I would’ve been able to pay off my debts quicker, but then I wouldn’t have been happy. I’ve travelled to Europe, Asia, Latin America, Africa and had life-changing experiences. I don’t regret any of my decisions, not even getting the loan in the first place. Education, while costly, opened up so many doors for me and allowed me to be eligible for so many opportunities.
I am happy to say that I can see the finish line and will be debt free in a few months. I’ve joked with my family and friends that I will buy a case of champagne and take a shower bath to celebrate! I’m half serious, but I’m too cheap to buy champagne and waste it!
If I can travel the world with a hefty student loan, so can you. Start planning your next vacation today. Download your free Travel Bucket List here:
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President Donald Trump intends to delay signing a revised version of the North American Free Trade Agreement until after the fall midterm elections, a move aimed at reaching a better deal with Canada and Mexico.
Trump said in an interview that aired Sunday that he could quickly sign an agreement with the United States’ neighbours, “but I’m not happy with it. I want to make it more fair.” Asked about the timing of an agreement, Trump said: “I want to wait until after the election.”
READ MORE: Donald Trump again lashes out at Justin Trudeau and G7 summit: ‘What’s your problem, Justin?’
The president’s decision to push back the NAFTA talks comes as the U.S. and Canada have been engaged in a tit-for-tat trade dispute over Trump’s tariffs on Canadian steel and aluminum. Canada announced billions of dollars in retaliatory tariffs against the U.S. on Friday, and the president signalled the trade rattling could continue.
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WATCH: Trump says auto tariffs won’t increase cost of vehicles because they’ll be built in U.S.
1:14 Trump says auto tariffs won’t increase cost of vehicles because they’ll be built in U.S. Trump says auto tariffs won’t increase cost of vehicles because they’ll be built in U.S.
In the interview on Fox News Channel’s Sunday Morning Futures with Maria Bartiromo, Trump again threatened to impose tariffs on imported cars, trucks and auto parts, saying, “The cars are the big ones.” The move has been viewed as a possible negotiating ploy to restart NAFTA talks, which could resume following Sunday’s elections in Mexico.
If the U.S. moved forward with tariffs on auto imports, it would be a blow to Canada’s economy because of the critical nature that the auto industry plays in the country. The U.S. Commerce Department is expected to hold hearings on auto tariffs in late July and to complete its investigation into auto imports later this summer.
READ MORE: Here’s the final list of Canadian retaliatory tariffs taking effect against Trump on July 1
Trump has sought to renegotiate NAFTA to encourage manufacturers to invest more in America and shift production from low-wage Mexico to the United States. The talks have stalled over several issues, including Trump’s insistence on a clause that would end NAFTA every five years unless all three countries agree to sustain it.
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WATCH: Freeland says NAFTA negotiations separate from tariff response
1:13 Freeland: NAFTA negotiations separate from tariff response Freeland: NAFTA negotiations separate from tariff response
The president has suggested he may pursue separate trade pacts with Canada and Mexico instead of continuing with a three-country deal. But any reworked deal would need to be considered by Congress, and negotiators missed a self-imposed deadline to wrap up the talks by mid-May to allow it to be considered by lawmakers before the November elections.
READ MORE: B.C. restaurants feel the squeeze as Pepsi raises prices due to trade war tariffs
Trump has clashed with Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau over trade, with the U.S. president tweeting last month after departing the G-7 meetings in Quebec that Trudeau was “weak” and “dishonest.”
Trump and Trudeau spoke by phone late Friday after Canada announced it would impose its own tariffs in retaliation for the U.S. tariffs on steel and aluminum imports. Trudeau’s office said the prime minister “conveyed that Canada has had no choice but to announce reciprocal countermeasures” to the U.S. tariffs.
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The present invention relates to a sports shoe.
Currently, for example in the manufacture of ski boots, it is known to articulate, at a shell, at least one quarter which embraces the rear region of the user's leg and must allow for an easy fit of the foot and the support of the leg of the user during sports practice.
This means that on one hand, the quarter has to rotate as much as possible for opening the boot to facilitate the insertion of the foot in the shell and on the other hand, the quarter must support the leg when the leg leans on the back of the quarter.
On this subject, French patent no. 71.2195, claiming Japanese priority no. 49.858/1970 of Jun. 11, 1970 and no. 131.142/1970 of Dec. 23, 1970, discloses a sports shoe comprising a rear quarter which is articulated to a shell and wherein a device for interconnecting the shell and the front quarter provides the rear support. The front quarter is in fact rigidly coupled to the rear quarter by means of adapted levers.
This solution has considerable disadvantages: on one hand, both the shell and the front quarter must be appropriately strengthened in order to withstand the stresses imparted thereto by the interconnection device and, on the other hand, the rear support can be achieved only by acting at two separate levers connecting the front quarter with the rear quarter.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,095,356 filed on Oct. 15, 1976, discloses a sports shoe which comprises a rear quarter having a recess at which it is possible to arrange a flap which is articulated to a shell: however, in this known solution the flap only allows a wider opening of the front quarter with respect to the rear one, thus facilitating the insertion of the skier's foot, but has no effect on the rear support, because the support is ensured exclusively by the interconnection between the rear quarter and the front quarter and with optional means for adjusting the mutual position of the front quarter and of the shell, interposed between these last.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,839,973, filed on Apr. 9, 1987, discloses a sports shoe comprising a shell to which a quarter is pivoted. The quarter is provided, at the rear, with a recess at which it is possible to arrange a cuff which embraces the heel region and is in turn articulated laterally to the shell.
Connecting means are interposed between the cuff and the quarter. A lever is associated with the cuff and selectively interacts with a tooth which protrudes to the rear of the shell.
This known solution allows, upon activation of the lever, to disengage the lever from the tooth and open the quarter by virtue of the articulation of said quarter to said upper quarter.
However, this solution has problems, since it is structurally complicated and difficult to industrialize, thus requiring numerous manufacturing steps due to the means used and to their placement at the quarter and the cuff, and all this increases its production costs.
Also, the user has to act on two distinct elements, such as the lever and the connecting means.
Finally, when the quarter is opened there is a considerable deformation imposed at a flap which is associated with the shell and protrudes to the rear of said shell.
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Known end-of-arm devices attached to robotic apparatuses are used to manipulate a workpiece. An end-of-arm device can be used to grasp a workpiece, transport the workpiece to a new location, and orient and release the workpiece. The end-of-arm device is preferably adjustable to permit utilization with workpieces of multiple designs. It is known to adjust an end-of-arm device for utilization with workpieces of multiple designs by manually adjusting specific elements of the end-of-arm device. Manually adjusting specific elements of the end-of-arm device is known to consume time and is prone to errors. Applications of robotic apparatuses with end-of-arm devices can encompass material handling, manufacturing, packaging, and testing.
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Background
==========
Fatal cardiovascular disease before 40 years old shows an almost 20-fold increase in patients with type 1 diabetes compared with non-diabetic individuals \[[@B1]\]. Dyslipidemia is a key cardiovascular risk factor (CVRF) in type 1 diabetes, with tighter treatment goals than the non-diabetic population \[[@B2]\]. Nevertheless, differences in the behavior of dyslipidemia in type 1 diabetes are not only quantitative but qualitative when compared with non-diabetic individuals. Although CVRF increase in the general population alongside increasing glucometabolic disturbances \[[@B3]\], some evidence point to lipid profile being globally worsened in type 1 diabetes, with lower HDL-cholesterol and higher LDL and triglycerides \[[@B4]\], whereas others have demonstrated higher HDL-cholesterol levels \[[@B5]\], albeit with a less protective profile \[[@B6]\]. Besides, some studies have shown lipids to take a less important role in the increased CV risk of type 1 diabetes than other factors \[[@B7],[@B8]\]. Furthermore, type 1 diabetes seems to attenuate or even erase gender differences in cardiovascular (CV) disease \[[@B5]\]. Although observational studies have shown improved lipid profile with better glycemic control \[[@B9]\], there is uncertainty about the role of improved glycemic control in the prevention of macrovascular disease in these patients, as there are no well-defined thresholds of HbA1~c~ beyond which lipid levels begin to change in type 1 diabetes \[[@B4],[@B10],[@B11]\].
Clustering of CVRF may occur in type 1 diabetes \[[@B12],[@B13]\], analogously to the one known as metabolic syndrome in type 2 diabetes, but there is a different multifactorial pathophysiology for the clustering in each of the two major types of diabetes \[[@B12],[@B14],[@B15]\]. Currently, a unified explanation for the buildup of CVRF with the progression of type 1 diabetes is debatable as a pathological entity, regarding its prognostic importance. In addition to the intricate interaction among CVRF, hyperinsulinemia caused by exogenous insulin replacement can add to the complexity of this scenario.
Factor analysis (FA) is a statistical method that provides correlation coefficients (called factor loadings) of studied variables with latent variables called factors, rather than among variables themselves. It has been frequently used to gain insight on the clustering of CVRF of type 2 diabetes \[[@B16]\]. This method has been criticized for its low reproducibility, since results depend on which variables are entered in the models \[[@B17]\]. While some FAs have suggested the existence of a single factor responsible for the clustering of CVRF in type 2 diabetes \[[@B18],[@B19]\], others have shown the existence of a lipid factor (correlated to HDL-cholesterol and triglycerides), an insulin resistance (IR) factor (blood glucose and insulin), and a body size factor (BMI and abdominal circumference) in both non-diabetic and type 2 diabetic individuals \[[@B20],[@B21]\]. Others have shown association of lipid variables with glycemic control \[[@B22]\], albeit not employing HbA1~c~. In type 1 diabetes, a previous FA has found roughly the same type 2 diabetes classical factors, but without assessing glycemic control in these models \[[@B23]\]. In another FA of CVRF in individuals with type 1 diabetes, we previously showed HbA1~c~ to have a continuous correlation with lipid variables and to disrupt the classical lipid factor when employed \[[@B24]\], suggesting the grouping of lipids and CVRF to vary across the wide glycemic control range displayed by individuals with type 1 diabetes. Since FA results are heavily influenced by which variables are entered in the models, the question of how glucose metabolism influences clustering of lipids and other CVRF is still open in type 1 diabetes.
We hypothesize that the heterogeneity in the clustering of lipids and other CVRF seems to arise partly from the heterogeneity in the concept of the cluster itself in individuals with diabetes mellitus, as recently discussed by Reaven \[[@B14]\]. Given the different results obtained in FAs of CVRF clusters in different populations \[[@B25]\], the clustering of lipid abnormalities and other non-lipid CVRF may not have the same meaning in different clinical settings.
In this study, we aimed to: 1) assess the behavior of dyslipidemia according to HbA1~c~ values individuals with type 1 diabetes; 2) detect a threshold of HbA1~c~ beyond which lipids start to change; 3) compare the clustering of lipids and other non-lipid CVRF among strata of HbA1~c~.
Methods
=======
Data from the Brazilian Type 1 Diabetes Study Group (BrazDiab1SG) have been analyzed. In brief, BrazDiab1SG is a multi-centre cross-sectional study of a population-based sample representative of individuals with type 1 diabetes from all 5 major geographical regions of Brazil, totaling 3591 patients. Research methodology has been described in detail elsewhere \[[@B26]\]. Individuals with available data on HbA1~c~ measured by a NGSP standardized method (with normal range 4-6%) and age equal or older than 12 years old have been selected for this study, resulting in a sample of 1275 patients.
The following variables were studied: gender, age, diabetes duration (log-transformed to approximate normal distribution), BMI, mean blood pressure (MBP), calculated as the sum of one-third of systolic blood pressure and two-thirds of diastolic blood pressure, total cholesterol, HDL-cholesterol, LDL-cholesterol, triglycerides, HbA1~c~, total insulin dose, statin use, smoking, microalbuminuria, and presence of nephropathy (defined as any degree of abnormality from macroalbuminuria to decreased renal function, but excluding overt renal failure). Lipids have been dichotomized according to the NCEP-ATP III criteria \[[@B27]\]: low-HDL-cholesterol was defined as HDL-cholesterol ≤ 1.04 mmol/L (≤ 40 mg/dL in conventional units), high-LDL-cholesterol as LDL-cholesterol ≥ 2.59 mmol/L (≥ 100mg/dL), and hypertriglyceridemia as triglycerides ≥ 1.7 mmol/L (≥150 mg/dL). HbA1~c~ values have been divided in quintiles. Continuous variables have been compared using ANOVA with Scheffe's post-hoc testing. Categorical variables have been compared by Chi-square.
Low-HDL-cholesterol, high-LDL-cholesterol, and hypertriglyceridemia have been entered as dependent variables in forward logistic regression models, with HbA1~c~ quintiles as independent categorical covariate, using the 1st quintile as reference category. All other studied variables have been entered in different combinations in continuous or categorical form, the best fit for each model being chosen according to Nagelkerke pseudo-R-squared values and Hosmer-Lemeshow goodness-of-fit test. Values were recorded as OR (99% CI).
Exploratory factor analyses of age, diabetes duration (log-transformed), total daily insulin dose, MBP, HDL-cholesterol, triglycerides, and HbA1~c~ have been performed separately by quintiles of HbA1~c~. Oblique rotation has been employed in order to achieve simple structure. Factor analysis has also been performed in 171 non-diabetic controls, utilizing the same variables as in type 1 diabetic individuals, except for serum fasting insulin in place of insulin dose to account for the role of hyperinsulinemia/IR and the exclusion of diabetes duration, which has no correlate parameter in non-diabetic individuals. Baseline characteristics of this group have been previously described \[[@B28]\].
Statistical analyses have been carried out with SPSS 13.0 for Windows software (SPSS Inc., Chicago, IL, USA). Graphics have been made in OmniGraphSketcher 1.2.1 (v22.23) for MacOS (The Omni Group, Seattle, WA, USA).
The study was approved by the local Ethics Committee of each participant institution, as previously described \[[@B26]\].
Results
=======
Baseline characteristics of participants according to HbA1~c~ quintiles are described in Table [1](#T1){ref-type="table"}, first only with univariate analysis.
######
**Clinical and laboratory characteristics of individuals with type 1 diabetes, divided by HbA1**~**c**~**quintiles**
**HbA1**~**c**~**quintiles**
--------------------------------- ------------------------------ -------------- -------------- -------------- -------------- -------------
Age (years) 26.1 ± 12.0 26.7 ± 11.6 25.2 ± 11.4 23.9 ± 10.5 20.9 ± 9.1 \< 0.05^a^
Duration of diabetes (years) 12.2 ± 10.1 12.9 ± 8.7 11.9 ± 7.9 10.5 ± 7.5 8.9 ± 6.4 \< 0.05^b^
Total daily insulin dose (U) 45.6 ± 19.9 52.7 ± 22.8 55.2 ± 20.0 58.5 ± 21.5 62.1 ± 23.5 \< 0.05^c^
BMI (kg/m^2^) 22.5 ± 3.7 23.2 ± 3.9 23.1 ± 3.9 22.8 ± 4.4 21.7 ± 3.8 \< 0.05^d^
HbA1~c~ (%) 6.6 ± 0.64 8.0 ± 0.32 9.1 ± 0.33 10.5 ± 0.55 13.6 ± 1.77 \< 0.05^e^
Fasting plasma glucose (mmol/L) 7.77 ± 4.12 9.30 ± 5.23 10.68 ± 5.81 11.22 ± 5.81 12.96 ± 7.37 \< 0.05^f^
Mean Blood Pressure (mmHg) 101.9 ± 12.8 100.9 ± 12.9 102.1 ± 13.4 101.2 ± 13.2 99.7 ± 12.8 NS
Total cholesterol (mmol/L) 4.08 ± 1.03 4.21 ± 1.05 4.34 ± 1.13 4.57 ± 1.01 4.86 ± 1.19 \< 0.05^g^
HDL-cholesterol (mmol/L) 1.34 ± 0.46 1.38 ± 0.38 1.37 ± 0.34 1.43 ± 0.41 1.38 ± 0.37 NS
LDL-cholesterol (mmol/L) 2.31 ± 0.78 2.42 ± 0.79 2.53 ± 0.88 2.67 ± 0.86 2.90 ± 0.99 \< 0.05^h^
Triglycerides (mmol/L) 0.92 ± 0.64 0.95 ± 0.72 1.00 ± 0.72 1.04 ± 0.70 1.31 ± 1.18 \< 0.05^a^
Male gender (%) 49.0 46.9 42.7 39.6 36.9 0.034^i^
Statin users (%) 10.2 14.7 10.6 7.5 5.6 0.007^i^
Hypertriglyceridemia (%) 7.6 8.5 12.3 13.9 25.2 \< 0.001^i^
Low HDL-cholesterol (%) 21.8 14.0 12.6 10.0 16.6 0.008^i^
High LDL-cholesterol (%) 31.6 34.2 40.4 50.0 57.2 \< 0.001^i^
Microalbuminuria (%) 44.7 56.6 51.4 47.5 45.6 \< 0.044^i^
Smokers (%) 4.7 6.6 4.7 2.4 6.7 NS
^a^ 5th quintile vs. all others; ^b^ 5th vs. 1st, 2nd, 3rd and 2nd vs. 4th quintiles; ^c^ 1st vs. all others, 2nd vs. 4th and 5th, 3rd vs. 5th quintiles; ^d^ 5th vs. 2nd, 3rd and 4th quintiles; ^e^ all pairwise comparisons; ^f^ 5th vs. all others; 1st vs. 3rd, 4th, 5th; 2nd vs. 4th quintile; ^g^ 1st vs. 4th and 5th; 2nd vs. 4th and 5th; 3rd vs. 5th quintiles; ^h^ 5th vs. 1st, 2nd, and 3rd; 4th vs. 1st quintiles; ^i^ 4 degrees-of-freedom significance; NS non-significant.
Logistic regression models with ORs (99% CI) of dyslipidemia (as categorical variables) per HbA1~c~ quintile are depicted in Figure [1A](#F1){ref-type="fig"} (low-HDL), B (high-LDL), and C (hypertriglyceridemia). All models were adjusted for age, diabetes duration, total daily insulin dose, statin use, BMI, blood pressure, presence of microalbuminuria and/or overt nephropathy, and smoking. Low-HDL-cholesterol was significantly less frequent in the 3rd HbA1~c~ quintile, with OR 0.48 (0.24-0.98), and in the 4th quintile, with OR 0.41 (0.19-0.85) when compared to the 1st quintile. Covariates associated to low-HDL-cholesterol were male gender (OR 1.82 \[1.14-2.90\]), total insulin dose (OR 1.013 \[1.002-1.023\] for each 1U increase), and triglycerides (OR 1.614 \[1.234-2.111\] for each 1 mmol/L increase). High-LDL-cholesterol had significant higher ORs in the 4th and 5th quintiles, respectively 2.07 (1.21-3.54) and 2.51 (1.46-4.31) when compared to the 1st quintile. Covariates associated with high-LDL were male gender (OR 0.687 \[0.488-0.966\]) and triglycerides (OR 1.669 \[1.282-2.173\] per each 1 mmol/L increase). Hypertriglyceridemia increased only in the 5th quintile of HbA1~c~, with OR 2.76 (1.20-6.37). Significant covariates were male gender (ORs 0.565 \[0.329-0.969\]), LDL-cholesterol (2.237 \[1.713-2.922\] per 1 mmol/L increase), and HDL-cholesterol (0.474 \[0.243-0.926\] per 1 mmol/L increase). Other covariates were not associated to dyslipidemia in any of the models. Although the presence of microalbuminuria was different among HbA1~c~ quintiles in univariate analysis, this difference was not maintained in various multivariate models tested.
{#F1}
Factor analysis has extracted three factors uniformly in all HbA1~c~ quintiles and in the non-diabetic control group. Factors have been denominated Hyperinsulinemia/IR, Body Size/Time, and Glucose Metabolism. The three factors along with factor loadings for significant variables (those with coefficients above 0.40) are depicted schematically in Figure [2](#F2){ref-type="fig"}. The Hyperinsulinemia/IR factor has correlated directly with insulin daily dose and inversely with HDL-cholesterol constantly in all five groups of individuals with type 1 diabetes. A similar correlation occurred in normal controls with fasting serum insulin. The Body Size/Time factor has showed a constant structure of BMI, age, MBP, and diabetes duration (except in non-diabetic individuals, in whom this variable is not applicable) in all six groups. Glucose Metabolism factor showed constant correlation to HbA1~c~ in all groups, with loadings in the 0.7-0.9 range in all groups, but correlation of lipids with this factor was variable. Of note, in non-diabetic controls and in the 1st HbA1~c~ quintile, correlations of HbA1~c~ and triglycerides occurred in opposite directions (i.e., decreasing triglyceride levels with increasing HbA1~c~). In the 3rd quintile, correlation of HbA1~c~, triglycerides, and HDL-cholesterol occurred in the same direction (simultaneous increase in HbA1~c~, triglycerides, and HDL-cholesterol). In the 4th quintile, triglycerides increased alongside HbA1~c~.
{#F2}
Discussion
==========
This population-based study showed distinct behavior of each class of serum lipids according to HbA1~c~ levels in individuals with type 1 diabetes. The risk of having low HDL-cholesterol did not show a homogeneous inverse relation to HbA1~c~, being lower in the middle range of HbA1~c~ (8.6 to 11.4%) than in HbA1~c~ levels equal or above 11.5%. The risk of high LDL-cholesterol and triglycerides levels both showed increase with worsening glycemic control, although in different thresholds of HbA1~c~. LDL-cholesterol worsened starting at 9.7% and triglycerides only above an 11.5% HbA1~c~ level. Regarding association with other variables, HDL-cholesterol showed marked inverse association with insulin dose. Rather than associating around a constant lipid factor, lipid variables correlated to glycemic control diversely according to HbA1~c~ level.
Not all previous studies have shown homogeneous behavior of HDL-cholesterol in type 1 diabetes. Some have reported worsening of HDL-cholesterol with poorer glycemic control \[[@B4],[@B29]\], whereas others have demonstrated better HDL-cholesterol levels in type 1 diabetes when compared to non-diabetic controls \[[@B10],[@B30]\]. Somehow in comparisons performed only among individuals with type 1 diabetes, patients with poorer glycemic control have also been shown to have a paradoxical elevation of HDL-cholesterol compared to well-controlled individuals \[[@B11],[@B31]\]. Different stratification of HbA1~c~ levels may account for differences between our findings and existing literature. Some studies have stratified subgroups in HbA1~c~ levels as low as 7.5% \[[@B11]\], therefore being unable to assess differences in lipid behavior in the heterogeneous group of individuals with HbA1~c~ levels above 7.5. While a lower threshold of HbA1~c~ around 8% for changing behavior of HDL-cholesterol may be inferred from previous studies, an upper threshold is unclear. This also can account for the finding of worsening HDL-cholesterol with poor glycemic control. The grouping of individuals with intermediate HbA1~c~ levels, who would supposedly have higher HDL, with individuals with higher HbA1~c~, who would have lower HDL-cholesterol values, could result in average worsening of HDL-cholesterol without accounting for the heterogeneity in the whole spectrum of glycemic control. This differentiation is important since there is evidence that these higher HDL-cholesterol levels can be associated with higher cardiovascular risk in individuals with type 1 diabetes, lacking the protective effect of high HDL-cholesterol in non-diabetic individuals \[[@B6]\]. Another important aspect of low HDL-cholesterol is its relationship to higher insulin daily doses in type 1 diabetes therapy, which may indicate a higher insulin resistance background. Previous studies have shown IR to be a CVRF in individuals with type 1 diabetes \[[@B5]\]. Low HDL-cholesterol is traditionally associated to IR and hyperinsulinemia in non-diabetic individuals, albeit the causal relationship among these three alterations is unclear. Our findings show association of higher insulin dose with low HDL-cholesterol consistently, independently of glycemic control. In type 1 diabetes, IR is not an established etiological factor but it can progressively develop after clinical diagnosis \[[@B32]\]. Moreover, current insulin therapy methods are themselves a potential cause of hyperinsulinemia in these patients. Although the cross-sectional design of our study precludes any assumption of causality, one could postulate there is direct relationship between daily insulin doses and low HDL, without going through IR. The association of low-HDL-cholesterol with total daily insulin dose, corrected for BMI in the multivariable models (both regression and FA), could point to a role of IR by augmenting insulin needs, thus isolating the roles of obesity and exogenous insulin on HDL, rather than merging them both by using insulin dose per body weight instead. In this regard, a recent article has shown the insulin concentration required for 50% suppression of hepatic glucose production in a hyperinsulinemic/euglycemic clamp to be almost two times higher in type 1 diabetes than in controls adjusted for age, gender, and HbA1~c~. The authors suggest that hepatic and skeletal muscle IR in type 1 diabetes is not explained only by previously known factors \[[@B32]\]. Previous studies have already suggested the CV risk conferred by IR to be detached from lipid variables \[[@B5]\].
The finding of higher triglyceride levels with worse glycemic control appears to depend also on the mode patients are stratified for glycemic control. Studies that have divided patients in two groups with low HbA1~c~ thresholds have both showed no difference \[[@B10]\] or higher triglycerides in the higher HbA1~c~ group \[[@B11],[@B29],[@B31]\]. Again, the stratification of HbA1~c~ in lower levels can group together individuals with normal and high triglycerides, without necessarily establishing a threshold. Our data show a HbA1~c~ threshold for increase in the probability of hypertrigliceridemia above 11%. This value has not been clearly established by previous studies and possibly varies according to diet and population differences.
The inverse relationship of triglycerides and HbA1~c~ in normal controls and individuals with type 1 diabetes observed with HbA1~c~ below 7.5 is less well explained although it has been previously demonstrated \[[@B11],[@B30],[@B33]\]. Previous studies hypothesized that more intensive insulin therapy, which is usually the case in well-controlled patients, can bring lipids to values below those shown by normal controls. Insulin has effects upon lipid metabolism by stimulating enzymes such as hormone-sensitive lipase \[[@B34]\]. It is possible that in the normal (non-diabetic controls) or near-normal (good glycemic control) glucose range the effects of hyperinsulinemia can be more effective in controlling glucose as a compensatory mechanism than normal insulin values, thus mild degrees of hyperglycemia being associated with better triglyceride metabolism. A role for portal insulinopenia, as opposed to systemic hyperinsulinemia, cannot be excluded as well \[[@B35]\]. Nevertheless, the correlation of triglycerides with the Hyperinsulinemia/IR factor hypothesized in our FA still leaves the order in the causal relationship of IR and hyperinsulinemia open to questioning.
LDL-cholesterol metabolism showed a pattern similar to triglycerides, although with a lower threshold. This finding furthermore supports the view that lipids are influenced by glycemic control of type 1 diabetes in a complex manner, not interacting with other cardiovascular risk factors such as blood pressure and obesity analogously to the CVRF cluster of type 2 diabetes.
Clustering of CVRF has been analyzed by factor analysis in various contexts. Its reproducibility has been criticized, since many reported models have yielded different results. Since this statistical technique (or any other, for that matter) is unable to assess biological plausibility of the models, one has to take especial care on previous planning of the analyses rather than in interpreting them. One-factor models of CVRF clustering are pathophysiologically implausible, given the multifactorial nature of involved conditions. The heterogeneity of previous results, therefore, can be attributed to differences in the populations analyzed and in the variables entered in the FAs. Glycemic control has not been frequently assessed previously in the clustering of CVRF in type 1 diabetes \[[@B23]\]. We have previously demonstrated correlation of lipids and HbA1~c~ in type 1 diabetes by means of factor analysis, but without the necessary statistical power to divide the 520 patients in subgroups according to HbA1~c~ levels \[[@B24]\]. From this point of view, the present study is adequately powered to perform the analyses, once the subgroups have samples above 200 hundred individuals, considered adequate by most authors \[[@B36]\]. Regarding reproducibility, FA is an adequate method to test our hypothesis of different clustering of CVRF according to HbA1~c~ level, since individuals form the same population have been compared using exactly the same variables.
The most important limitation of our study is its cross-sectional design, unable to assess temporal relationship among the various factors studied. Another limitation is that FA was not performed separately by gender. Gender significantly influenced the frequency of low-HDL-cholesterol, high-LDL-cholesterol, and hypertriglyceridemia in the logistic regression models, but dividing the five quintiles of HbA1~c~ in ten groups by gender would impair sample power for performing FA. Another alternative approach would be using wider intervals of HbA1~c~ to avoid excessive number of subgroups. In our view, this approach would generate more heterogeneous groups regarding glycemic control and would be inadequate to test our hypothesis. Nevertheless, gender differences in CV risk seem to be attenuated or even erased in type 1 diabetes \[[@B5]\], making our FA model without subdividing by gender valid to assess the main hypothesis of this paper. The absence of direct measurements of IR is also an important limitation, although it wouldn't necessarily be feasible in such a large sample.
Conclusions
===========
We present data from a large multi-centre cross-section study of type 1 diabetes in the Brazilian population, providing new insight on how glycemic control may influence behavior of dyslipidemia in type 1 diabetes, individually for each lipid fraction. Different levels of HbA1~c~ are significantly associated with change in fasting lipids, but a threshold of HbA1c beyond which lipid variables start to change is not homogenous, challenging the view of CVRF clustering as a single pathophysiological construct in type 1 diabetes. These considerations are important to decide when medical therapy may be required to optimize lipid and cardiovascular health besides diet, lifestyle interventions, and glycemic control level in individuals with type 1 diabetes, sometimes already at an early age.
Further prospective studies assessing cardiovascular events and intervention studies to evaluate if glycemic control also influences response to medical treatment of dyslipidemia are warranted to scrutinize the impact of the present information on actual cardiovascular prognosis of patients with type 1 diabetes.
Abbreviations
=============
CVRF: Cardiovascular risk factors; FA: Factor analysis; IR: Insulin resistance; MBP: Mean blood pressure; NCEP-ATP III: National Cholesterol Education Program-Adult Treatment Panel III.
Competing interests
===================
All authors declare that they have no competing interests.
Authors' contributions
======================
FMAG conceived the study, performed the statistical analyses and drafted the manuscript; ADG, PD, OSM, RMCF, RC, CAN, and MBG collected data on individuals with type 1 diabetes and provided critical appraisal during the drafting of the manuscript; ERR and DBM collected data on non-diabetic individuals and provided critical appraisal during the drafting of the manuscript; SAD conceived the study, drafted the manuscript, collected data on individuals with type 1 diabetes, supervised the project, and is the guarantor of this study. All authors read and approved the final manuscript.
Acknowledgements
================
Brazilian Type 1 Diabetes Study Group (BrazDiab1SG)
Executive steering committee: Marilia Brito Gomes (chair), Roberta Cobas, Sergio Atala Dib, Carlos Negrato.
Principal investigators are indicated by an asterisk. Program coordinators are underlined.
Universidade Estado Rio de Janeiro: Roberta Cobas\*, [Alessandra Matheus]{.ul}, Lucianne Tannus; Universidade Federal Rio de Janeiro: Lenita Zajdenverg\*, [Melanie Rodacki]{.ul}; Hospital Geral de Bonsucesso: Neuza Braga Campos de Araujo\*, [Marilena de Menezes Cordeiro]{.ul}; Hospital Universitário Clementino Fraga Filho -- IPPMG: Dr. Jorge Luiz Luescher\*; [Renata Szundy Berardo]{.ul}; Serviço de Diabetes da Disciplina de Endocrinologia e Metabologia do Hospital das Clínicas da Universidade de São Paulo: Marcia Nery\*; [Catarina Cani]{.ul}; Maria do Carmo Arruda Marques; Unidade de Endocrinologia Pediátrica da Santa Casa de Misericórdia de São Paulo: Luiz Eduardo Calliari\*, [Renata Maria de Noronha]{.ul}; Instituto da Criança do Hospital das Clínicas da Universidade de São Paulo: Thais Della Manna\*, [Roberta Salvodelli]{.ul}, Fernanda Garcia Penha; Hospital das Clínicas da Faculdade de Medicina de Ribeirão Preto -- USP: Milton Cesar Foss\*, [Maria Cristina Foss- Freitas]{.ul}; Ambulatório da Faculdade Estadual de Medicina de Sao Jose do Rio Preto: Antonio Carlos Pires\*, [Fernando Cesar Robles]{.ul}; Associação de Diabéticos de Bauru: Carlos Antonio Negrato\*, [Maria de Fatima Soares Guedes]{.ul}; Centro de Diabetes da Escola Paulista de Medicina: Sergio Atala Dib\*, [Patricia Dualib]{.ul}; Clınica de Endocrinologia da Santa Casa de Belo Horizonte Setor Diabetes Tipo 1: Saulo Cavalcanti da Silva\*, [Janice Sepulveda]{.ul}; Ambulatório Multiprofissional de Atendimento a Diabetes do Hospital de Clínicas da Universidade Estadual de Londrina: Henriqueta Guidio de Almeida\*, [Emerson Sampaio]{.ul}; Hospital de Clínicas da Universidade Federal do Paraná: Rosangela Roginski Rea\*, [Ana Cristina Ravazzani de Almeida Faria]{.ul}; Instituto da Criança com Diabete Rio Grande Sul: Balduino Tschiedel\*, [Suzana Lavigne]{.ul}, Gustavo Adolfo Cardozo; Hospital de Clínicas de Porto Alegre: Mirela Azevedo\*, [Luis Henrique Canani]{.ul}, Alessandra Teixeira Zucatti; Hospital Universitário de Santa Catarina: Marisa Helena Cesar Coral\*, [Daniela Aline Pereira]{.ul}; Instituto de Diabetes-Endocrinologia de Joinville: Luiz Antonio de Araujo\*; Hospital Regional de Taguatinga, Brasília: Hermelinda Cordeiro Pedrosa\*, [Monica Tolentino]{.ul}; Flaviene Alves Prado; Hospital Geral de Goiânia Dr Alberto Rassi: Nelson Rassi\*, [Leticia Bretones de Araujo]{.ul}; Centro de Diabetes e Endocrinologia do Estado da Bahia: Reine Marie Chaves Fonseca\*; [Alexis Dourado Guedes]{.ul}, Odelisa Silva de Mattos; Universidade Federal do Maranhão: Manuel Faria\*, [Rossana Azulay]{.ul}; Centro Integrado de Diabetes e Hipertensão do Ceará: Adriana Costa e Forti\*, [Maria Cristina Façanha]{.ul}; Universidade Federal do Ceará: Renan Montenegro Junior\*, [Ana Paula Montenegro]{.ul}; Universidade Federal de Sergipe: Naira Horta Melo\*, [Karla Freire Rezende]{.ul}; Hospital Universitário Alcides Carneiro: Alberto Ramos \*; Hospital Universitário Joao de Barros Barreto, Para: Joao Felıcio Soares\*, [Flavia Marques Santos]{.ul}; Hospital Universitário Getulio Vargas, Hospital Adriano Jorge: Deborah Laredo Jezini\*
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Innervation of the limb accessory flexor muscle in several decapod crustaceans. II. Electrophysiology.
The innervation of the distal and proximal heads of the accessory flexor muscle in three portunid crabs and two non-portunid decapods was studied electrophysiologically. In all species studied, the proximal head received only the two previously reported accessory flexor axons, an excitor and an inhibitor. The same two axons also innervated the distal head in all species, but in the portunids the distal head also received excitation from at least three, and probably sometimes four, of the main flexor excitor efferents. The accessory inhibitor exerted very strong effects in the tonic muscle fibers found in the proximal head and in the most proximal bundle of the distal head. The newly described inhibitory and excitatory distributions may have important implications for locomotory behavior.
| 125,310,182
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Q:
Grid search and KerasClassifier using class weights
I am trying to conduct grid search using scikit-learn RandomizedSearchCV function together with Keras KerasClassifier wrapper for my unbalanced multi-class classification problem. However, when I try to give class_weight as an input, the fit method gives me the following error:
RuntimeError: Cannot clone object <keras.wrappers.scikit_learn.KerasClassifier object at 0x000002AA3C676710>, as the constructor either does not set or modifies parameter class_weight
Below are the functions that I use to build the KerasClassifier and the script for RandomizedSearchCV:
build_fn:
import keras as k
def build_keras_model(loss = 'sparse_categorical_crossentropy', metrics = ['accuracy'], optimiser = 'adam',
learning_rate = 0.001, n_neurons = 30, n_layers = 1, n_classes = 3,
l1_reg = 0.001, l2_reg = 0.001, batch_norm = False, dropout = None,
input_shape = (8,)):
model = k.models.Sequential()
model.add(k.layers.Dense(n_neurons,
input_shape = input_shape,
kernel_regularizer = k.regularizers.l1_l2(l1 = l1_reg, l2 = l2_reg),
activation = 'relu'))
if batch_norm is True:
model.add(k.layers.BatchNormalization())
if dropout is not None:
model.add(k.layers.Dropout(dropout))
i = 1
while i < n_layers:
model.add(k.layers.Dense(n_neurons,
kernel_regularizer = k.regularizers.l1_l2(l1 = l1_reg, l2 = l2_reg),
activation = 'relu'))
if batch_norm is True:
model.add(k.layers.BatchNormalization())
if dropout is not None:
model.add(k.layers.Dropout(dropout))
i += 1
del i
model.add(k.layers.Dense(n_classes, activation = 'softmax'))
if optimiser == 'adam':
koptimiser = k.optimizers.Adam(lr = learning_rate)
elif optimiser == 'adamax':
koptimiser = k.optimizers.Adamax(lr = learning_rate)
elif optimiser == 'nadam':
koptimiser = k.optimizers.Nadam(lr = learning_rate)
else:
print('Unknown optimiser type')
model.compile(optimizer = koptimiser, loss = loss, metrics = metrics)
model.summary()
return model
Script:
import scipy as sp
from sklearn.utils.class_weight import compute_class_weight
from keras.wrappers.scikit_learn import KerasClassifier
from sklearn.model_selection import RandomizedSearchCV
parameters = {
'optimiser': ['adam', 'adamax', 'nadam'],
'learning_rate': sp.stats.uniform(0.0005, 0.0015),
'epochs': sp.stats.randint(500, 1501),
'n_neurons': sp.stats.randint(20, 61),
'n_layers': sp.stats.randint(1, 3),
'n_classes': [3],
'batch_size': sp.stats.randint(1, 11),
'l1_reg': sp.stats.reciprocal(1e-3, 1e1),
'l2_reg': sp.stats.reciprocal(1e-3, 1e1),
'batch_norm': [False],
'dropout': [None],
'metrics': [['accuracy']],
'loss': ['sparse_categorical_crossentropy'],
'input_shape': [(training_features.shape[1],)]
}
class_weights = compute_class_weight('balanced', np.unique(training_targets),
training_targets[target_label[0]])
class_weights = dict(enumerate(class_weights))
keras_model = KerasClassifier(build_fn = build_keras_model, verbose = 0, class_weight = class_weights)
clf = RandomizedSearchCV(keras_model, parameters, n_iter = 1, scoring = 'f1_micro',
n_jobs = 1, cv = 5, random_state = random_state)
clf.fit(training_features, training_targets.values[:, 0])
model = clf.best_estimator_
A:
To pass class_weights in this scenario with KerasClassifier, the class_weights should be passed in the fit method and then will be forwarded to the keras model.
grid_result = clf.fit(training_features, training_targets.values[:, 0], class_weight=class_weights)
In older versions it was neccecary to pass them with the clf__ prefix:
grid_result = clf.fit(training_features, training_targets.values[:, 0], clf__class_weight=class_weights)
| 125,310,453
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"There are some great questions that have intrigued and haunted us since the dawn of humanity." "What is out there?" "How did we get here?" "What is the world made of?" "The story of our search to answer those questions is the story of science." "Of all human endeavours, science has had the greatest impact on our lives - on how we see the world, on how we see ourselves." "Its ideas, its achievements, its results are all around us." "So how did we arrive at a modern world?" "Well, that is more surprising and more human than you might think." "The history of science is often told as a series of eureka moments, the ultimate triumph of the rational mind." "But the truth is that power and passion, rivalry and sheer blind chance have played equally significant parts." "In this series I'll be offering a different view of how science happens." "It's been shaped as much by what's outside the laboratory as inside." "Oh!" "This is the story of how history made science and science made history, and how the ideas that were generated changed our world." "It is a tale of power... ..proof..." "..and passion." "This time, an ancient human ambition - the search for limitless power." "We are the most power-hungry generation that has ever lived." "Energy is the heartbeat of our civilisation." "The pursuit of power has created and destroyed fortunes." "It has raised and toppled nations." "And it has utterly transformed how we live our lives." "But this relentless search for more power has an importance that is far greater than discovering what it can do for us." "When people ask themselves "What is power?" as opposed to simply, "Where can I get more of it?"" "well, that led to some of the greatest insights in the whole history of science." "The 17th century was a pivotal edge, when the balance between man and nature began to change forever." "There was no electricity." "There were no cars, no trains." "The most common power sources had to be fed and watered." "Horsepower meant just that." "But a remote beach in Holland would provide a glimpse of what was to come." "If you had been walking along a beach in north-west Holland 400 years ago you might have seen a much larger version of one of these zip past." "It was called the wind chariot." "Designed to carry heavily armoured soldiers along the coast line... ..it amazed and terrified in equal measure." "Here was the power of the wind being harnessed to produce motion on land." "It must have been an extraordinary sight." "Oh, yes." "The people were afraid of it and they called it a devil's rig." "The devil's rig." "Very dramatic, yeah." "How fast?" "It could outpace a horse running." "Outpace a horse?" "So that must have made it one of the fastest things in the world at the time." "Probably one of the fastest things." "Using wind power." "Just wind power." "Very impressive." "The wind chariot was designed by an engineer and mathematician called Simon Stevin, a remarkable man who would literally change the face of Holland and help turn it into a great trading empire." "Because Stevin's ambitions for wind power went far beyond chariots." "He wanted to transform his country using mathematics." "Mathematics was changing." "For hundreds of years, in the universities, geometry and arithmetic had been important theoretical pursuits." "Practical applications, like building bridges and firing canons, were limited." "But now, men like Simon Stevin would use maths theory to create something much bigger..." "A new, mathematically grounded science." "And that would help them solve a whole range of complex problems." "Now, Stevin was clearly a mathematician who didn't mind getting his hands dirty." "He saw the value of applying mathematical knowledge to the solution of practical problems." "The problem Stevin turned his mathematics to was a crucial one in low-lying Holland " "How to keep the country dry." "For over a century, Holland's windmills had been scooping water from drainage ditches, tipping it into canals to carry it away." "But Stevin was convinced that mathematics could make windmills much more efficient." "We're at the top of the windmill now and this is the gearing system." "This was the heart of what Stevin did." "Mathematically it's interesting because what he's done is, there is no whole number relationship." "It's not like two to one, three to one between this and this." "There's no regular relationship." "Also you can probably see these things are angled." "It is not a simple vertical plane meeting a horizontal plane." "It's going at an angle." "And that is quite difficult to deal with mathematically as well." "It looks crude, but it is fantastically refined." "It's very impressive." "I'm looking forward to seeing it run." "Magnificent isn't it?" "It's like being inside an enormous clock." "Standing here, you get the impression of immense, inexorable power which is sort of just driving round and round." "And the thing which surprises me is it is so quiet." "And that is a tribute to Stevin's mathematics because he obviously got it right." "The interactions all work." "There's very little clanking." "If all that power was being wasted in sound and heat, this whole place would be vibrating." "But actually it's very smooth." "This new, mathematically designed windmill was three times more efficient than the ones it replaced." "It's almost poetic." "I mean, this is a mathematical model realised in a physical reality." "Stevin designed new paddle wheel shapes, sluices, even a chain of windmills that could be used to drain not just fields, but a lake." "What's more, he patented his many inventions to ensure his work would be well rewarded." "Mathematics made Stevin rich." "And it wasn't long before it started to change the whole country." "Simon Stevin had shown what really well designed windmills were capable of." "And people now began to ask themselves, "If they could drain lakes, what else could they do?"" "Holland was already an emerging European force." "Now the power of windmills helped turn it into an industrial power house." "Seeds and nuts were ground to extract their valuable oil." "Paper mills became mechanised." "Wood could be cut 30 times faster and with greater precision than by hand..." "..helping to turn this small country into the biggest ship builders in western Europe." "To the sound of mathematically designed mills whirring in the wind" "Holland became an even more dynamic trading nation... ..and Amsterdam one of the richest and most cosmopolitan cities on earth." "Here, you could buy almost anything - diamonds, furs, exotic spices." "Amsterdam was enjoying a golden age." "The city produced the first central bank, the first stock exchange and the first economic crash." "The growth of Holland changed the power map of Europe." "It had been helped by advances in windmill design and new mathematically based science." "And a belief amongst men like Simon Stevin that science should be useful." "It was obvious what power could do." "But what was still missing was any scientific understanding of what power actually is." "That would only begin to emerge far later, on the other side of the Channel." "The English country house of the 18th century was a place of intrigue, romance and gossip." "But, between visits from dashing cavalry officers, these bastions of high society also hosted the occasional visiting experimenter." "The home of an unlikely alliance that marked the birth of a world changing new source of power." "Science had become popular entertainment for the drawing room." "Most of these contraptions had been developed to explore the wonders of the age, like static charge and magnetism." "Oh!" "Now that really is impressive." "Now, this was a real crowd pleaser." "The vacuum trick." "What you do is you take an alarm... set it to go off... then put it in here... and pump out the air." "Right." "The alarm clock goes off... ..and you hear...absolutely nothing." "No-one fully understood the science behind these demonstrations." "But the ability to dazzle and intrigue helped bring new ideas to a new and attentive audience." "Matthew Boulton was an entrepreneur who belonged to the Lunar Society, so called because they met on the night of the full moon." "They were industrialists, experimenters and natural philosophers who all shared a love of practical knowledge." "A leading lunar man was Scottish engineer, James Watt." "For some years Watt had been working with prototype steam engines." "And this prompted Matthew Boulton to invite him to take part in a joint business venture." "He had heard that Watt was trying to develop a new type of steam engine." "As he later wrote to Watt, the reason for backing were twofold - love of you and love of a money-getting ingenious project." "Now, the plan was clear." "Boulton had the capital, Watt had the idea." "Together they would get seriously rich." "This was capitalism in action." "The steam engine had enormous global impact." "And yet the surprising thing is, there was hardly any scientific theory behind it." "That would come later." "This is a Boulton and Watt steam engine." "And this the familiar bit - man, coal, furnace." "But what you might not expect is it is stationary and it is vast." "This single machine occupies the whole building." "So vast that this engine, originally built to keep the nearby canal topped up with water, boasts its very own driver." "Hello." "Hello." "Nice to see you." "You're the driver?" "Yes, I'm the driver of this engine." "I am amazed." "This is still working, isn't it?" "Actually doing the job." "This, at this moment, is actually maintaining the canal." "The electric pumps British Waterways normally use are switched off and we're actually doing that job." "Can I have a go at driving?" "You certainly can." "Step round this lever." "Always wanted to drive a steam engine." "This wasn't quite what I'd imagined it." "Right OK." "So.." "Turn that lever to the left, about a quarter of a turn." "There's a sort of narrow window between..." "There is." "There are indeed." "What drove the engine was not so much the power of the steam directly, rather an industrial version of that country house trick - the vacuum." "The steam is injected, then cooled, creating a vacuum." "It's this which drags the piston head down providing the engine with its lifting power." "Close it another quarter of a turn." "What's happened?" "Well, you actually closed it too far." "This is not good." "I was thinking it was really quite simple and then within 30 seconds of taking charge of this machine" "I managed to stop it, which is quite bad." "That's looking good." "James Watt didn't invent the steam engine or even the idea of using a vacuum." "Engines had been powered this way for decades." "Watt's fame, and that of his machine, rests instead on one small modification located here, right at the bottom of the engine." "It may not look like much, but down there is James Watt's unique contribution to the story of power." "It's called a separate condenser." "It's where the steam was cooled to create the all-important vacuum well away from the hot cylinders, a small but ingenious technical innovation with enormous benefits." "The Boulton and Watt steam engines were far more efficient than their rivals." "They used a quarter of the amount of coal." "The potential savings were enormous." "Something any business man could understand." "Over to you." "Thank you." "Why some ideas change the world while others languish, unloved and unnoticed, is seldom down to their intrinsic merit." "The success of Boulton and Watt's engine was not just due to new technology, but also a clever piece of financial engineering." "The machines were complicated and needed someone to install them and that someone was more often than not James Watt himself." "In his letters he complains bitterly about all the travelling he had to do." "Walk on." "Gee up, boys." "Go on." "Go on." "And you can sort of see why, can't you?" "Lots of jolting." "Now this is bearable..." "Short trip, middle of summer." "But imagine there it's cold, it's winter, it is absolutely lashing down - completely different experience." "But the discomfort of 18th-century travel was a price worth paying because once his engines had been installed, the money began to flood in." "This three-page document was the key to Boulton and Watt's wealth." "It's a patent." "It covers Watt's adaptations to the steam engine." "Now, you had to go on paying royalties year after year, long after the machine was installed." "Any savings you made from the machine, a proportion went straight back to them." "I think it's very telling how scientific discovery is rarely far away from the smell of money, and that's especially true of the search for power." "But, for all the riches on offer, there was still no real scientific framework to explain what power actually is." "Science would have to wait till steam power became a force throughout the land." "HORSE NEIGHS" "The big demand for steam engines was in the West Country, pumping flood water from mines." "Their owners soon became reliant on Boulton and Watt's more efficient machines." "Some mine owners, fed up with royalties, stopped paying." "Boulton and Watt got tough and responded with legal writs." "It's said that a delivery man who came to one of these mines was seized by the ankles, hung over the mine shaft and asked if he still wanted to deliver that writ." "The man behind that particular story was Richard Trevithick." "To get round of Watt's patent Trevithick began to build his own engines." "This was his greatest achievement, the Puffing Devil, all eight horsepower of it." "And unlike Boulton and Watt's engine, it moved." "Trevithick's genius was he built high pressure steam engines where the steam drives the piston." "So he didn't need vacuums or condensers." "Instead of being the size of houses, his steam engines were small, powerful, mobile." "And as an added bonus they produced that wonderful "whoo-hoo" noise." "That's the sound of high-pressure steam escaping." "ENGINE WHISTLES" "I'd read that people thought they were incredibly dangerous, and not unreasonably, that they would blow up, the high-pressure system." "You're quite right." "They didn't have the knowledge of metallurgy we do today, and they did get boiler explosions." "There's no risk of this one blowing up, I take it?" "Not at all." "This new steam engine clearly pointed to a better way of moving goods and people around." "Yet Trevithick has not gone down in history as the father of the modern railway." "I gather that he actually did, on one occasion, manage to get his steam car, if you like, on a track, on a railway." "Why didn't it work?" "The engine weighed five tonnes or so, so the rails broke under the weight of the engine." "So the problem wasn't the train at all." "It was the rail it was running on." "Absolutely." "Yes, the engine worked a dream." "Right." "That is incredibly ironic isn't it?" "Yeah." "The history of science is full of moments like this." "Great ideas have to come at the right place and the right time." "Sadly for Trevithick, the place and time were wrong." "So why didn't he die rich and famous?" "Well, it's partly because he didn't have his own Matthew Boulton to get his inventions out there and to make sure he was raking in the cash." "But it's also because his ideas were well ahead of their time." "In the early 1800s, if you wanted to get from A to B, you were better off buying a horse." "Steam engines would eventually bring unprecedented change borne out of a combination of different forces." "The Lunar Society, where men of science and business could meet and exchange ideas." "Technical innovations, like high-pressure steam." "The promise of money and the protection of patents." "From all this emerged a previously unimaginable source of power..." "..the mechanical equivalent of countless horses to work the factories and mills of the 19th-century landscape." "The steam engines, their profits, their owners, these were the forces shaping Victorian Britain." "But the effects of all this power were felt far beyond the world of heavy industry." "The new aristocracy of factory owners and businessmen knew just how they wanted to use their new-found influence." "Some used their wealth to campaign for social change, like the abolition of slavery or the education of women." "The search for power had given political power to a new group of people, the middle classes." "The quest for power had produced so much... but with no more scientific understanding than had existed a century before." "Only now, belatedly, came the theorists." "The Victorians were utterly entranced by the power of steam." "But the science behind it posed some of the greatest questions of the age." "It demanded a new theory, a new way of looking at nature." "Fortunately help was at hand." "This is Mrs Beeton's Book Of Household Management, a Victorian classic which contains pretty well everything you need to know about how to run a household efficiently and well, including how to sack your servants." ""Frugality and economy are virtues, without which no household can prosper."" "Mrs Beeton, like so many in Victorian society, was obsessed with efficiency." "Waste was not just uneconomical, it was also un-Christian." "In the kitchen, if you had old bones, you made soup." "If you had old bread, you made a pudding." "And this obsession was shared by the scientific community." "In fact, it led to the development of a whole new concept, that of energy." "As steam engines took off, people became interested in comparing which engines were most efficient." "A new theory of energy would now help them make precisely that sort of judgment." "No-one really knew what energy is." "Some people thought of it as a fluid which flows from one place to another." "But what was becoming increasingly clear is it could be transferred." "The steam engine, like a kettle, could be explained scientifically." "As it burns, chemical energy from the coal is turned into heat." "This energy heats the kettle and the water inside...." "Which turns into steam, which can then be used to perform work." "It sounds really simple, but this was a turning point in science." "For the first time, such diverse things as heating coals, warming water, production of steam, even the spinning of windmills could all be united by a single concept - that of energy." "It led to the formulation of a new law of physics, one that is absolutely fundamental." "It's called the first law of thermodynamics." "The first law of thermodynamics is a mathematical description of energy, known as conservation of energy." "It states that energy cannot be created or destroyed." "So you can never get more out than is contained in the fuel you put in." "And it applies to every source of power there is - from kettles, to steam engines, to windmills." "Everything." "Thermodynamics was one of the crowning glories of 19th-century science, inspired in part by the need to explain that wonder of the age, the steam engine." "And by an obsession with thrift and efficiency." "But thermodynamics was only one component of what was to be a far more comprehensive theory of energy and power." "In June 1772, a small sailing expedition set off for the coast of France on a voyage that would help point science towards the modern age." "Its leader was John Walsh, recently retired from the British East India Company." "Walsh was fascinated by the electricity found in nature." "He went looking for it, not in the skies, but under water... ..in a fish...." "..the torpedo fish... ..which uses electric shocks to catch its prey." "Walsh wanted to find out whether the power emitted by this strange fish was the same as that given off by lightning..." "..or a spark generator." "Having done numerous experiments on himself and his crew," "Walsh now headed back to London to try and find out just how the torpedo fish produced electric shocks." "Some of the fish Walsh brought back are still preserved at the Hunterian Museum in London." "They were dissected by the renowned surgeon John Hunter to reveal some very peculiar organs." "Well, you see these two patches of white tissue, one top, one bottom either side of the fish?" "These are things which Hunter hadn't seen before in other fish, other rays that he'd dissected." "Right." "This one looks very different." "It's a much more detailed dissection, but also Hunter's worked a bit of magic on it by injecting it with a red dye to show where the blood vessels are." "The electric charge seemed to come from these tiny cells, now known as electrocytes, found within the electric organs." "It is extraordinary because you begin to see where the charge would have come from." "You can actually see each of the cells." "It is beautiful, isn't it?" "A work of art." "A work of art in its own right, isn't it?" "Walsh was convinced that the electricity from the torpedo fish was not only the same as the electricity in lightning, but that it must be possible to produce it using a machine." "But plenty of people did not agree with Walsh." "It seemed almost sacrilegious to claim that electricity from a machine made by man was exactly the same as electricity from a fish which had been created by God." "And yet, proof that this was the case was not far away." "In the archives of the Royal Society in London sits a letter that dates back to 1800." "Written by an Italian scientist, Alessandro Volta, essentially it contains instructions on how to build your very own torpedo fish." "This is a copy of the letter that Volta sent to the Royal Society." "It's in French, got a useful diagram over in the corner." "I've also got a box here of bits and pieces." "Right, first of all I need some zinc and some copper." "Also I need some bits of cardboard or tissue capable of soaking up a briny solution." "It is very hard to believe this is actually going to do anything." "We shall see." "A piece of copper on the top and I've got a lead on it." "Now, if you look at it closely, it really does resemble the working bits, if you like, of a torpedo fish." "And he suggested to call it an artificial electric organ." "The "voltaic pile", as it became known, could generate a significant electric current." "Volta couldn't measure it, but he could demonstrate that it delivered a shock, just like the torpedo fish." "Ohh!" "Oh!" "Ooh!" "What's interesting is that Volta, when he writes to the Royal Society, effectively gives away all his secrets, which is a bit of a shame for him because this turned out to be one of the greatest technological discoveries of all time." "It is of course the battery." "What is really surprising, looking at it from a modern perspective, is that for a long time people had no idea what to do with the battery." "It had not obvious practical application." "There was nothing to plug it into." "It would be a generation before somebody managed to find a really significant practical use." "An ingenious response to a rather urgent problem." "On the 18th June 1815, the armies of the Duke of Wellington and the Emperor Napoleon met at Waterloo." "It was a battle on whose outcome rested the fate of Europe." "By the end of the day, the battle was over." "The French had lost." "Wellington was keen to get this good news to London as quickly as possible." "Major Henry Percy was ordered to carry the message." "He mounted his battle-weary horse and rode off across Belgium until he got to the coast." "When he arrived, he had to wait for the correct wind and tide before finally he could set sail for England." "In all, it took him four days to reach London, four days during which I'm sure the people in the war office were biting their fingernails with anxiety because many expected the French to win." "Now, if you could have got a secret message from Waterloo to London faster than Major Percy, you could have made a fortune, betting on an improbable English victory." "There was clearly a need for faster communication." "Volta's Pile was about to get plugged into something useful." "And this time it was science that led the way, thanks to a man called Hans Christian Oersted." "The story goes he was about to give a lecture and he was preparing his equipment." "Amongst it, he had a voltaic pile and some wire." "When he connected up the wire, something utterly unexpected happened." "The needle of a nearby compass twitched and every time he connected the wire or disconnected, it moved again." "People had known for centuries that compass needles were deflected by magnets." "Somehow the electric current in the wire was also acting like a magnet, deflecting the needle, which left Oersted completely baffled." "Now, he obviously realised this was important because he did further research and published his findings." "But I think it's extremely unlikely he ever appreciated just what a massive impact his discovery would make on the world." "Within a few years, that twitching compass needle had grown into the electric telegraph." "The power of electricity could now be used to get messages from A to B almost instantaneously." "Telegraph tables were soon running right across the globe." "And when the telegraph came together with that other great invention the steam engine, the combination was unstoppable." "Steam power did the heavy work - draining mines, spinning cotton, powering a new railway network." "And with the telegraph that ran alongside those same railways, the battery brought control - political and financial." "Together, they helped build the empires of 19th-century Europe." "The stage was now set for the next step in the scientific understanding of power." "The tiny, twitching needle of the telegraph had shown how electricity from a battery could be truly useful." "But what's happening here is also something which is much more profound." "It is the coming together of two great forces that previously were regarded as utterly separate." "And covering the link between two things as disparate as an electric current and a magnetic compass was one of the greatest achievements of science, a major step towards a unified concept of energy." "Electricity was the crowd pleaser." "Flashes, sparks, electric shocks." "Magnetism was altogether more sedate, something of interest mainly to navigators." "But when the two came together, they created the science of electromagnetism that would dominate the 19th century." "Electromagnetism not only explained the relationship between electricity and magnetism, it would go on to explain the very nature of light... ..of radio waves... of x-rays." "And it helped persuade 19th-century physicists that they had now discovered all the fundamental laws of nature." "As it turned out, this cosy assumption was somewhat wide of the mark." "At the turn of the 20th century, the discovery of a new element was splashed across front pages all over the world." "One reason for all the excitement was the way radium behaved." "It spontaneously glowed in the dark... ..and created ghostly patterns on photographic plates." "It seemed to be creating energy out of nowhere." "Radium's mysterious properties caught the public imagination, helping to sell a new range of consumer products..." "..which was unfortunate, since radium is radioactive." "..Yes." "Thank you." "Have a look." "OK." "So what am I looking at?" "Well, you're looking at a variety of radioactive consumer products, mostly from the 1920s, produced in the United States." "So this one here, for example, you actually put..." "Water in it." "You put water in it?" "That is the most famous of the radioactive quack cures, at least in the United States." "Over half a million of these were sold." "This is a similar device, except, rather than put the water in it, you would put this in the water." "This is not radioactive now, I take it?" "Or mildly?" "Yes, it is radioactive, but it's mild." "It is quite spooky, I must admit." "I can hear it still active all these years later." "So great was the hype that small amounts were put into toothpaste, heat pads, toys." "Just the name radium was enough to sell a product." "Radium, er...condoms!" "Oh, it's an empty box." "I was looking forward to seeing a radium condom." "The scientists responsible for first isolating radium were Marie Curie and her husband, Pierre." "It didn't take them long to recognise its extraordinary potential." "One of the things that stood out in Marie's mind and piqued her curiosity and interest was the tremendous amount of energy being released by the radium." "So they saw radium as a potentially unlimited source of energy, did they?" "Yes." "Absolutely." "So they saw radium as a potentially unlimited source of energy, did they?" "Yes." "Absolutely." "Just one gram contained enough energy to turn a tonne of freezing water into steam... while one tonne of radium could do the work of one-and-a-half million tonnes of coal." "The problem facing the scientists is that all this seemed to go completely against the established laws of physics." "Radioactivity presented a serious problem for scientists." "They knew that energy cannot be created or destroyed." "That is the first law of thermodynamics." "But they also knew that these radioactive substances were pouring out huge amounts of energy." "So where was it coming from?" "Across the world scientists had been studying radioactivity intensely." "People noticed something peculiar - that as radioactive substances emit energy, they transform." "They turn into something else." "Radium, for example, becomes lead." "And as they transform, they become lighter." "In other words, as they emit energy, they also lose mass." "The link between energy and mass was eventually explained by Albert Einstein's famous equation." "Energy equals mass times the square of the speed of light." "The energy from the radium wasn't coming from some magical source, but from the mass itself." "People had previously realised that you could describe heat and movement in terms of energy." "Now it seemed you could also describe mass in the same way." "Energy which hadn't even existed as a concept was now being used to explain the very nature of matter itself." "In fact there wasn't much that could not be explained in terms of energy." "Not just steam engines... and windmills, but living things." "Stars, even galaxies were all governed by the laws of energy." "In its quest to understand what power is, science had uncovered secrets which lay at the very heart of the universe." "The theory encapsulated in E equals MC squared would eventually lead to the release of nuclear energy and the atomic bomb." "But the consequences of that belong to a different story." "Instead, to complete the story of power, I want to go back to the 19th century." "CLOCK TICKS" "Back then theories of energy might have been lighting up men's minds, but they weren't lighting up homes." "Not yet, at any rate." "Most people's domestic lives were largely unaffected by developments in thermodynamics or electromagnetism." "Outside there were telegraphs and steam trains, but at home, gas lamps, candles and open fires." "What changed our personal relationship with power was the discovery that the link between electricity and magnetism worked both ways." "Oersted had shown that an electric current could act just like a magnet." "British scientist Michael Faraday was the first to demonstrate the opposite, that moving a magnet could produce an electric current." "He used the idea that switching on an electric current could make a magnetised piece of metal move to build the world's first electric motor." "But he also demonstrated the reverse is true." "Take a magnet, push it through some copper wire and you produce electricity." "Beautiful, isn't it?" "It's called electromagnetic induction and it was the key to the electric age." "If one could keep the magnet moving fast enough, one could produce an electric current that was continuous." "What was needed was something to keep the magnet moving." "Something like this." "Niagara Falls, one of the most powerful waterfalls in the world." "This is about as close as I can get to the Falls and it really is magnificent." "There's about a 150 million litres of water coming over the Falls every single minute." "And you can really feel the power." "The challenge lay in finding a way of converting this mass of energy into an altogether more useful form - electricity." "Until very recently, I couldn't have stood here because there would have been millions of litres of water just pouring down here, sweeping everything away." "Up that way, about a kilometre or so, is the power station." "The project began deep under ground." "Tunnels were dug into solid rock by hand to divert some of the water to an electrical generator." "Those taking part sensed the dawn of a new age." "When it was first built, it was described as a feat to rival the pyramids, the temples of the Greeks, the great cathedrals of Europe, a monument to the scientific age." "And personally I think they were right." "Because these giant turbines really are the ultimate expression both of what power is and what power does." "Huge magnets turned by the power of falling water, creating enough electricity to power three quarters of a million light bulbs." "But for electricity to become a true commodity, something that could be bought and sold, there was one final barrier to overcome - how to get electricity from here in Niagara to the places you'd actually want to sell it." "Cities like Buffalo, 24 miles away, or power-hungry New York, 400 miles away." "The problem was the power loss as the current travelled along the cable." "If you happened to live near a generating plant like this, then you were fine." "But the further away you moved, the less power you got." "After just a mile, you would begin to notice the difference." "After two miles, hardly any current would be getting through at all." "But here at Niagara, this problem was overcome." "Its generators produced what's known as alternating current - high voltage, low power loss..." "..which meant that electricity could finally travel." "When, in 1896, this new form of current was switched on, it took less than a second to reach Buffalo, over 20 miles away." "In that instant was born the electric age." "The discovery of what power can do for us has transformed our lives and set us on a relentless search for new sources of energy." "From deep within the earth to inside the smallest atom, to the sun itself, a hunger for more power knows few bounds." "Small wonder that our planet alone in the solar system glows in the dark." "But the quest to find out what power is has had an equally profound effect." "Using the language of mathematics, we have shown energy to be a basic property of the universe." "And it's the coming together of the practical and theoretical approaches to power which underpins the modern world." "For a long time, the search for power was led by practical men." "And then the theorists caught up." "And to the plaintive cry, "Can we have limitless power?"" "replied a resounding "No."" "But that search also led to the uncovering of the fundamental laws of nature which now tell us how everything in the universe operates." "Next time, the great puzzle of existence..." "What is the secret of life." "Subtitles by Red Bee Media Ltd" "E-mail subtitling@bbc.co.uk"
| 125,310,661
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Nigerian Asylum Seekers, Others Enter Finland Illegally From Russia
News reports have revealed that at least five people have entered Finland illegally with the help of soccer World Cup fan identity documents and subsequently applied for asylum. This was revealed by the Finnish border guard told Media on Wednesday saying the asylum seekers, of Nigerian, Moroccan and Chinese nationality, crossed the border into Finland…”
News reports have revealed that at least five people have entered Finland illegally with the help of soccer World Cup fan identity documents and subsequently applied for asylum.
This was revealed by the Finnish border guard told Media on Wednesday saying the asylum seekers, of Nigerian, Moroccan and Chinese nationality, crossed the border into Finland from World Cup host Russia, which provided match ticket holders with visa-free entry, border guard said.
| 125,310,937
|
Protection from primary infection and establishment of latency by vaccination with a herpes simplex virus type 1 recombinant deficient in the virion host shutoff (vhs) function.
A herpes simplex virus type 1 (HSV-1) recombinant virus deficient in the virion host shutoff (vhs) function was assessed for its ability to function as a live-attenuated vaccine. Protection of mice from wild-type challenge infection and the establishment and reactivation of HSV-1 latency was measured in a mouse ocular model. Challenge virus replication in corneas and trigeminal ganglia was significantly reduced for vaccinated mice. Consistent with these findings, the vaccinated groups showed no clinical signs during acute infection and high levels of virus-specific IgG and neutralizing antibodies were induced. The establishment of and reactivation from latency in trigeminal ganglia from the vaccinated group were also significantly reduced relative to controls. These data suggest that vhs deletion mutants may have significant utility as live-attenuated HSV-1 vaccines.
| 125,311,235
|
# coding=utf-8
# --------------------------------------------------------------------------
# Copyright (c) Microsoft Corporation. All rights reserved.
# Licensed under the MIT License. See License.txt in the project root for
# license information.
#
# Code generated by Microsoft (R) AutoRest Code Generator.
# Changes may cause incorrect behavior and will be lost if the code is
# regenerated.
# --------------------------------------------------------------------------
from msrest.serialization import Model
class DatabaseUpdate(Model):
"""A database resource.
Variables are only populated by the server, and will be ignored when
sending a request.
:param sku: The name and tier of the SKU.
:type sku: ~azure.mgmt.sql.models.Sku
:param create_mode: Specifies the mode of database creation.
Default: regular database creation.
Copy: creates a database as a copy of an existing database.
sourceDatabaseId must be specified as the resource ID of the source
database.
Secondary: creates a database as a secondary replica of an existing
database. sourceDatabaseId must be specified as the resource ID of the
existing primary database.
PointInTimeRestore: Creates a database by restoring a point in time backup
of an existing database. sourceDatabaseId must be specified as the
resource ID of the existing database, and restorePointInTime must be
specified.
Recovery: Creates a database by restoring a geo-replicated backup.
sourceDatabaseId must be specified as the recoverable database resource ID
to restore.
Restore: Creates a database by restoring a backup of a deleted database.
sourceDatabaseId must be specified. If sourceDatabaseId is the database's
original resource ID, then sourceDatabaseDeletionDate must be specified.
Otherwise sourceDatabaseId must be the restorable dropped database
resource ID and sourceDatabaseDeletionDate is ignored. restorePointInTime
may also be specified to restore from an earlier point in time.
RestoreLongTermRetentionBackup: Creates a database by restoring from a
long term retention vault. recoveryServicesRecoveryPointResourceId must be
specified as the recovery point resource ID.
Copy, Secondary, and RestoreLongTermRetentionBackup are not supported for
DataWarehouse edition. Possible values include: 'Default', 'Copy',
'Secondary', 'PointInTimeRestore', 'Restore', 'Recovery',
'RestoreExternalBackup', 'RestoreExternalBackupSecondary',
'RestoreLongTermRetentionBackup', 'OnlineSecondary'
:type create_mode: str or ~azure.mgmt.sql.models.CreateMode
:param collation: The collation of the database.
:type collation: str
:param max_size_bytes: The max size of the database expressed in bytes.
:type max_size_bytes: long
:param sample_name: The name of the sample schema to apply when creating
this database. Possible values include: 'AdventureWorksLT',
'WideWorldImportersStd', 'WideWorldImportersFull'
:type sample_name: str or ~azure.mgmt.sql.models.SampleName
:param elastic_pool_id: The resource identifier of the elastic pool
containing this database.
:type elastic_pool_id: str
:param source_database_id: The resource identifier of the source database
associated with create operation of this database.
:type source_database_id: str
:ivar status: The status of the database. Possible values include:
'Online', 'Restoring', 'RecoveryPending', 'Recovering', 'Suspect',
'Offline', 'Standby', 'Shutdown', 'EmergencyMode', 'AutoClosed',
'Copying', 'Creating', 'Inaccessible', 'OfflineSecondary', 'Pausing',
'Paused', 'Resuming', 'Scaling'
:vartype status: str or ~azure.mgmt.sql.models.DatabaseStatus
:ivar database_id: The ID of the database.
:vartype database_id: str
:ivar creation_date: The creation date of the database (ISO8601 format).
:vartype creation_date: datetime
:ivar current_service_objective_name: The current service level objective
name of the database.
:vartype current_service_objective_name: str
:ivar requested_service_objective_name: The requested service level
objective name of the database.
:vartype requested_service_objective_name: str
:ivar default_secondary_location: The default secondary region for this
database.
:vartype default_secondary_location: str
:ivar failover_group_id: Failover Group resource identifier that this
database belongs to.
:vartype failover_group_id: str
:param restore_point_in_time: Specifies the point in time (ISO8601 format)
of the source database that will be restored to create the new database.
:type restore_point_in_time: datetime
:param source_database_deletion_date: Specifies the time that the database
was deleted.
:type source_database_deletion_date: datetime
:param recovery_services_recovery_point_id: The resource identifier of the
recovery point associated with create operation of this database.
:type recovery_services_recovery_point_id: str
:param long_term_retention_backup_resource_id: The resource identifier of
the long term retention backup associated with create operation of this
database.
:type long_term_retention_backup_resource_id: str
:param recoverable_database_id: The resource identifier of the recoverable
database associated with create operation of this database.
:type recoverable_database_id: str
:param restorable_dropped_database_id: The resource identifier of the
restorable dropped database associated with create operation of this
database.
:type restorable_dropped_database_id: str
:param catalog_collation: Collation of the metadata catalog. Possible
values include: 'DATABASE_DEFAULT', 'SQL_Latin1_General_CP1_CI_AS'
:type catalog_collation: str or
~azure.mgmt.sql.models.CatalogCollationType
:param zone_redundant: Whether or not this database is zone redundant,
which means the replicas of this database will be spread across multiple
availability zones.
:type zone_redundant: bool
:param license_type: The license type to apply for this database. Possible
values include: 'LicenseIncluded', 'BasePrice'
:type license_type: str or ~azure.mgmt.sql.models.DatabaseLicenseType
:ivar max_log_size_bytes: The max log size for this database.
:vartype max_log_size_bytes: long
:ivar earliest_restore_date: This records the earliest start date and time
that restore is available for this database (ISO8601 format).
:vartype earliest_restore_date: datetime
:param read_scale: The state of read-only routing. If enabled, connections
that have application intent set to readonly in their connection string
may be routed to a readonly secondary replica in the same region. Possible
values include: 'Enabled', 'Disabled'
:type read_scale: str or ~azure.mgmt.sql.models.DatabaseReadScale
:ivar current_sku: The name and tier of the SKU.
:vartype current_sku: ~azure.mgmt.sql.models.Sku
:param tags: Resource tags.
:type tags: dict[str, str]
"""
_validation = {
'status': {'readonly': True},
'database_id': {'readonly': True},
'creation_date': {'readonly': True},
'current_service_objective_name': {'readonly': True},
'requested_service_objective_name': {'readonly': True},
'default_secondary_location': {'readonly': True},
'failover_group_id': {'readonly': True},
'max_log_size_bytes': {'readonly': True},
'earliest_restore_date': {'readonly': True},
'current_sku': {'readonly': True},
}
_attribute_map = {
'sku': {'key': 'sku', 'type': 'Sku'},
'create_mode': {'key': 'properties.createMode', 'type': 'str'},
'collation': {'key': 'properties.collation', 'type': 'str'},
'max_size_bytes': {'key': 'properties.maxSizeBytes', 'type': 'long'},
'sample_name': {'key': 'properties.sampleName', 'type': 'str'},
'elastic_pool_id': {'key': 'properties.elasticPoolId', 'type': 'str'},
'source_database_id': {'key': 'properties.sourceDatabaseId', 'type': 'str'},
'status': {'key': 'properties.status', 'type': 'str'},
'database_id': {'key': 'properties.databaseId', 'type': 'str'},
'creation_date': {'key': 'properties.creationDate', 'type': 'iso-8601'},
'current_service_objective_name': {'key': 'properties.currentServiceObjectiveName', 'type': 'str'},
'requested_service_objective_name': {'key': 'properties.requestedServiceObjectiveName', 'type': 'str'},
'default_secondary_location': {'key': 'properties.defaultSecondaryLocation', 'type': 'str'},
'failover_group_id': {'key': 'properties.failoverGroupId', 'type': 'str'},
'restore_point_in_time': {'key': 'properties.restorePointInTime', 'type': 'iso-8601'},
'source_database_deletion_date': {'key': 'properties.sourceDatabaseDeletionDate', 'type': 'iso-8601'},
'recovery_services_recovery_point_id': {'key': 'properties.recoveryServicesRecoveryPointId', 'type': 'str'},
'long_term_retention_backup_resource_id': {'key': 'properties.longTermRetentionBackupResourceId', 'type': 'str'},
'recoverable_database_id': {'key': 'properties.recoverableDatabaseId', 'type': 'str'},
'restorable_dropped_database_id': {'key': 'properties.restorableDroppedDatabaseId', 'type': 'str'},
'catalog_collation': {'key': 'properties.catalogCollation', 'type': 'str'},
'zone_redundant': {'key': 'properties.zoneRedundant', 'type': 'bool'},
'license_type': {'key': 'properties.licenseType', 'type': 'str'},
'max_log_size_bytes': {'key': 'properties.maxLogSizeBytes', 'type': 'long'},
'earliest_restore_date': {'key': 'properties.earliestRestoreDate', 'type': 'iso-8601'},
'read_scale': {'key': 'properties.readScale', 'type': 'str'},
'current_sku': {'key': 'properties.currentSku', 'type': 'Sku'},
'tags': {'key': 'tags', 'type': '{str}'},
}
def __init__(self, **kwargs):
super(DatabaseUpdate, self).__init__(**kwargs)
self.sku = kwargs.get('sku', None)
self.create_mode = kwargs.get('create_mode', None)
self.collation = kwargs.get('collation', None)
self.max_size_bytes = kwargs.get('max_size_bytes', None)
self.sample_name = kwargs.get('sample_name', None)
self.elastic_pool_id = kwargs.get('elastic_pool_id', None)
self.source_database_id = kwargs.get('source_database_id', None)
self.status = None
self.database_id = None
self.creation_date = None
self.current_service_objective_name = None
self.requested_service_objective_name = None
self.default_secondary_location = None
self.failover_group_id = None
self.restore_point_in_time = kwargs.get('restore_point_in_time', None)
self.source_database_deletion_date = kwargs.get('source_database_deletion_date', None)
self.recovery_services_recovery_point_id = kwargs.get('recovery_services_recovery_point_id', None)
self.long_term_retention_backup_resource_id = kwargs.get('long_term_retention_backup_resource_id', None)
self.recoverable_database_id = kwargs.get('recoverable_database_id', None)
self.restorable_dropped_database_id = kwargs.get('restorable_dropped_database_id', None)
self.catalog_collation = kwargs.get('catalog_collation', None)
self.zone_redundant = kwargs.get('zone_redundant', None)
self.license_type = kwargs.get('license_type', None)
self.max_log_size_bytes = None
self.earliest_restore_date = None
self.read_scale = kwargs.get('read_scale', None)
self.current_sku = None
self.tags = kwargs.get('tags', None)
| 125,311,270
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Peroral application of water-soluble derivative of propolis (WSDP) and its related polyphenolic compounds and their influence on immunological and antitumour activity.
Polyphenolic compounds are widely distributed in the plant kingdom and display a variety of biological activities, including chemoprevention and growth inhibition of tumours. Propolis contains a conglomerate of polyphenolic compounds. We investigated the effect of propolis and polyphenolic compounds, components of propolis, on the growth and metastatic potential of a transplantable mammary carcinoma (MCa) of the mouse. Metastases in the lung were generated by 2 x 10(5) tumour cells injected intravenously (i.v.). A water-soluble derivative of propolis (WSDP) and the polyphenolic compounds (caffeic acid (CA) and caffeic acid phenethyl ester (CAPE)) were given to mice perorally before or after tumour cell inoculation. WSDP, CA and CAPE reduced the number of metastases in the lung. This implies that the antitumour activities of the compounds used in these studies are mostly related to the immunomodulatory properties of the compounds, their cytotoxicity to tumour cells, and their ability to induce apoptosis and/or necrosis.
| 125,311,395
|
Q:
Is gravitational force affected by intervening medium?
If we leave a iron ball and feather into the water, feather returns to the surface and floats or moves into the water slowly. On the other hand, iron ball (of certain mass greater than mass of feather) moves into the water directly. Here, both iron ball and feather are accelerated towards the earth to the same extent. Then why does feather moves slowly into the water than iron ball? Shouldn't they reach the earth at the same time.
If we assume that water medium is making the feather to accelerate to lesser extent than iron ball, then doesn't it mean gravitational force is affected by intervening medium?
Similarly if we consider a feather and iron ball to be left from certain height, I hope iron ball reaches the earth first and then feather. The reason I think is because of air resistance, doesn't this mean air medium or intervening medium is affecting gravitational force?
We know that gravitational force is not affected by intervening medium, but it is contrary to the above situations. Is it that gravitational force is affected by intervening medium?
I might have misunderstood sometimes, if so, pardon me and explain.
A:
Your thought experiment of dropping an iron ball and a feather need not be in water; in fact, it is more commonly considered in air, but the pertinent facts are the same.
All objects, regardless of their mass or composition, are accelerated identically by gravity.
But within a particular medium, the acceleration of particular objects might be impeded by greater resistance than that of other objects. In ordinary air, your feather will fall more slowly than an iron ball, because of air resistance.
| 125,311,529
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Jambalaya, the Tulane University yearbook, was first published in 1896. It was not published from 1997-2003, nor in 2007. This is the Centennial Edition, and it contains a Student Directory in the back of the book.
| 125,311,534
|
The Gross Domestic Product per capita in Peru was last recorded at 6486.63 US dollars in 2019. The GDP per Capita in Peru is equivalent to 51 percent of the world's average.
GDP per capita in Peru averaged 3817.79 USD from 1960 until 2019, reaching an all time high of 6486.63 USD in 2019 and a record low of 2589.34 USD in 1992. This page provides - Peru GDP per capita - actual values, historical data, forecast, chart, statistics, economic calendar and news. Peru GDP per capita - values, historical data and charts - was last updated on September of 2020. source: World Bank
| 125,311,541
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cDNA and protein sequence of a major form of P450, CYP2L, in the hepatopancreas of the spiny lobster, Panulirus argus.
A P450 fraction was previously isolated from spiny lobster hepatopancreas microsomes and shown in reconstitution experiments to be efficient in catalyzing the monooxygenation of benzphetamine, aminopyrine, benzo(a)pyrene, progesterone, and testosterone. In this study, N-terminal sequence information up to residue 39 was obtained from this P450 and used to design degenerate primers for screening a cDNA library constructed from hepatopancreas mRNA. Clones were obtained that contained part of the coding region of a P450 protein. Further exact primers were designed that permitted the isolation of clones containing coding information for other parts of the P450 sequence, as well as a clone that coded for the complete P450 protein sequence. The open reading frame of the complete coding region corresponded to a protein of 492 amino acids. The deduced amino acid sequence of this P450 was about 36% similar to individual mammalian P450s in the 2 family and did not show strong matches with other proteins in the data base. Based on sequence and the previously determined function, this spiny lobster P450 was assigned by the P450 nomenclature committee to a new P450 subfamily, CYP2L. This is the first description of a P450 primary sequence from a marine crustacean species and the first assignment of an invertebrate P450 into the 2 family.
| 125,311,612
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The Jamul home and San Diego storefront of a prominent San Diego jeweler were searched by the FBI Wednesday morning as part of an investigation into a suspected firearms trafficking case, an official confirmed.
Ginger Colbrun with the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives told NBC 7 the ATF and FBI were executing multiple federal search warrants at several locations in the San Diego area in connection with alleged firearms violations.
This included Hamel's 7,100-square-foot, $1.6 million home along Presilla Drive in Rancho Jamul Estates, a gated community east of Jamul Casino in San Diego’s East County. Jamul is located about 20 miles east of downtown San Diego.
NBC 7 San Diego
Officials were focusing much of their attention on searching part of the three-car garage at the sprawling property. NBC 7 crews also saw agents searching what appeared to be a barn or stables located down a hillside at the property.
SkyRanger7 captured aerials of the home, which, according to the real estate website Zillow, sits on 5.14 acres.
A neighbor told NBC 7 she first spotted agents near Hamel's home at around 7:30 a.m. When she walked closer to the property, she said the home was surrounded by authorities.
The FBI and ATF raided the Jamul home and San Diego store of prominent local jeweler Leo Hamel in connection with a firearms trafficking investigation. NBC 7's Audra Stafford reports.
Court records show Hamel filed for divorce from his wife, Penelope Hamel, in late July 2017. At this point, it is unclear if Leo Hamel or Penelope Hamel are living at the Rancho Jamul Estates home.
An ATF official said there were several people inside the house at the time of the raid.
Hamel is the namesake and face of Leo Hamel Fine Jewelers, often appearing in commercials for the family-owned company. San Diegans may recognize the ads for their enthusiastic slogan, "Come see us!"
The company’s full-service jewelry store and showroom is located at 1851 San Diego Ave., where customers can also have repairs done to their watches or jewelry.
Google Maps
At around 10:30 a.m. Wednesday, the company's flagship store was also being raided by FBI and ATF officials as part of the investigation. Officials could be seen going in and out of the business.
Leo Hamel Fine Jewelers also buys pre-owned jewelry and gold out of five San Diego-area locations including La Mesa, Oceanside, Solana Beach, and Rancho Bernardo.
The company’s website says Hamel started his family-owned jewelry business in 1980.
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I love collecting vintage household items. They’re a really fun way to add surprising and unique flourishes to home decor. Several months back, I acquired a small set of card catalog drawers. They’re something I want to keep in good condition, so I hemmed and hawed for a long time before finally selecting and adding the hairpin table legs. With the help of my dad (a seasoned home DIY’er and son of a woodworker) on a recent visit, we attached the table legs in no time. Read on for the best tips for modifying your own potentially fragile vintage items.
Supplies
a small set of vintage card catalog drawers
marker
ruler
4 hairpin style table legs
enough wood screws to attach your legs (make sure they’re all the same size and type)
drill & drill bits
wood glue (optional)
Directions
The first step is deciding how tall you want the table to be, and measure the height of your set of drawers. Subtract the height of your drawers from how tall you want your table to be to determine how tall your table legs should be*. I found the best prices and selection of the hairpin style legs I used here.
*total desired table height – height of card catalog = leg height
Begin constructing your table by removing all drawers from the card catalog, deciding on the placement of the legs, and marking the location. You can measure for precision or simply eyeball the best location, it’s up to you. My dad’s big tips for adding legs to card catalogs:
Determine as best you can how thick the wood is that you’re drilling the screws into.
Don’t use screws that are too long (this is where knowing how thick the wood is comes in).
Don’t try to drill your screws in too close to the edge of the card catalog. If you accidentally screw them in at a slight angle, your screw could come out the outside of your card catalog, ruining its look.
Also avoid drilling a screw directly into where two pieces of wood come together. You could end up accidentally damaging your card catalog by wedging it apart. We ended up placing my table legs slightly in from the front and back edges but flush with the sides, as you can see somewhat below.
Set the legs aside. Using a drill bit that’s smaller than the wood screws you’ll attach the legs with, drill pilot holes for each screw you’ll be using to attach the legs. This helps avoid slippage when you’re putting in a screw, and it helps avoid damaging the wood.
Place a leg over the pilot holes. (The hairpin legs are nice because you can see what you’re doing the whole time.) You can use a drill or handheld screwdriver to screw the legs to the card catalog. My dad preferred switching between the drill for the pilot holes and the handheld screwdriver since he opted not to drill all 12 pilot holes at once. He worked one leg at a time, so having to switch back and forth from a drill bit for the pilot holes to a screwdriver head for attaching the legs would have been impractical.
PS: If you find your legs getting loose down the road, carefully unscrew them a little bit, put a small dot of wood glue under the head of the screw, and screw it back in.
This tutorial was for a fairly straightforward project that many could figure out on their own. I hope sharing some tips from someone who knows their stuff, even on an easy project, is useful for you!
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## Upgrade Kuberenetes Stack: WARNING
When upgrading to this version of Kubernetes, rolling back to the previous version is not supported.
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Description
Copyright 2012
Edition: 1st
Online Video
ISBN-10: 0-13-277834-3
ISBN-13: 978-0-13-277834-3
This is an online streaming video, not a download. After making your purchase online, you can log into your Peachpit account page to view People Pictures anytime, anywhere with Internet access. Run time: approximately 163 minutes.
Author/photographer Chris Orwig takes you on location in San Francisco to explore street, lifestyle, and environmental portraits using natural light. Chris guides you through five photo shoots with from start to finish, bringing his book People Pictures: 30 Exercises for Creating Authentic Photographs to life.
Chris explores the fabric of this city with his camera by telling a story, connecting with his subjects, and practicing his craft. This is not a traditional portrait photography course. The goal isn’t flattery, but connection and depth. And there is no quicker way to learn than to try something out yourself. Chris includes assignments to encourage you to have fun and establish your own style as a portrait photographer.
This stunning, high-quality streaming video is for beginning-and-intermediate photographers and is meant to change how you see the world and the pictures that you make. All that’s required is a camera, an intrepid attitude, and some imagination.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR: Chris Orwig is a celebrated photographer, author, and teacher at the Brooks Institute in Santa Barbara, California. He is the author of the best-selling Visual Poetry: A Creative Guide for Making Engaging Digital Photographs (New Riders/Voices That Matter) and People Pictures: 30 Exercises for Creating Authentic Photographs (Peachpit Press). Chris brings passion and unique perspective to all that he does. See his work at chrisorwig.com.
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Introduction
============
There is a continuing need to perform inflow correction of "simple" TGA in a large subset of patients, who are not candidates for the arterial switch operation, particularly in developing countries. This is because of a lack of resources, centres and expertise to perform the neonatal switch operation. This subsequently results in the "late" presentation of patients who are severely cyanosed and have thin-walled, banana-shaped left ventricles which are not suitable for switching.
Inflow correction by the Mustard^[@bib1]^ and Senning^[@bib2]^ operations can transform the lives of these patients. However, there is continuing concern about the relatively impaired exercise capacity and long-term results of these patients, thought to be due to the fact that the right ventricle is not suitable for support of the systemic circulation. There is growing evidence that the right ventricle can function normally into old age in certain patients with corrected TGA (AV and VA discordance). Ourselves and others^[@bib3]--[@bib5]^ believe that the less-than-optimal results after the Mustard operation are, at least in part, due to an impaired pattern of left and right ventricular filling, produced by the relatively narrow, rigid, non-contractile channels in the atria, resulting in significant loss of the conduit, reservoir and contractile functions of the atria.
In an attempt to correct this, we have modified the Mustard operation to include a larger part of the contractile atrial wall into the SVC and IVC channels including both atrial appendages. We have previously described the three dimensional shape and function of the atria and ventricles following the unmodified Mustard operation^[@bib6]^.
Patient and methods
===================
A three-year-old female patient presented with a history of cyanosis since birth. She was diagnosed as D-TGA with ASD and small PDA. She had balloon atrial septostomy on the fifteenth day of life. On presentation the oxygen saturation was 61%. Echo showed transposition of the great arteries with the aorta anterior and to the right, good size inter-atrial communication and deconditioned left ventricle.
A Mustard (atrial switch) operation was performed where the superior and inferior vena cavae were directed to the mitral valve using a trouser-shaped patch of autologus pericardium, while the pulmonary veins drained to the tricuspid valve. The atrial appendages were kept in the systemic venous channel, while the coronary sinus was kept in the pulmonary venous channel.
The patient had a smooth postoperative course and was discharged from the hospital one week after the operation, her pre-discharge echo showed good ventricular function with no systemic or pulmonary venous obstruction.
Imaging and 3D modelling
========================
The size and shape of the intra-atrial channels and of both ventricles during the different parts of the cardiac cycle play an important part in the Mustard operation. Atrial function, pattern of atrioventricular flow and ventricular filling were evaluated using postoperative computed tomography (CT) angiography and echocardiography.
The ventricular end-systolic and end-diastolic phase were identified using ECG gating and CT-derived volumes for the four chambers. 3D modelling of the right and left side was used to visualize the supra-mitral and supra-tricuspid chambers. Images stored in DICOM format were imported into a commercial medical image processing tool Mimics Research version 17.0 (Materialise, Leuven, Belgium) for semi-automated segmentation and reconstruction of the blood volume^[@bib4]^. Further processing allowed isolation of the four heart chambers with boundaries defined at the valve levels. Those models were exported in 3-matic 9.0 (Materialise, Leuven, Belgium) to trim the inferior vena cava, superior vena cava and pulmonary veins. The final volumes could be measured or re-exported into Mimics for visualization. The same processing was achieved for all 10 phases across the heart cycle. By rotating the model and observing the dynamic changes, particularly of the left and right atrial appendages as well as the intra-atrial channels, the influence of the New Mustard operation is visualized. Echocardiographic images were acquired to evaluate the pattern of filling in the intra atrial channels.
Results
=======
This study serves to document for the first time the three-dimensional structure of the neo-atrial components after the modified Mustard operation and discuss their functional significance.
The neo-systemic venous (supra-mitral) chamber
----------------------------------------------
This comprises an upper and lower component ([Fig. 1](#fig1){ref-type="fig"}), which represent the modified superior and inferior vena cava channels respectively. The upper component shows preserved SVC/right atrial junction designed to protect the SA node and its arterial supply. The upper component incorporates the right and left atrial appendages which provide reservoir and contractile function to the supra-mitral chamber.
The lower component of the systemic venous atrial chamber comprises the entry of the IVC and an adjoining "pouch" of atrial cavity designed to further increase the reservoir and contractile function of the supra-mitral chamber ([Fig. 1](#fig1){ref-type="fig"}). Blood from the upper and lower chambers passes smoothly to a relatively small collecting chamber, on to the mitral orifice, without the streams "colliding".
The neo-pulmonary venous (supra-tricuspid) chamber
--------------------------------------------------
The four pulmonary veins open in a relatively large posterior chamber ([Fig. 2](#fig2){ref-type="fig"}), which communicates freely with an equally large anterior chamber which lacks an appendage. The combined anterior and posterior chambers provide reservoir and contractile functions, the blood passes directly into the tricuspid valve when it is open.
Pattern of filling of the left ventricle
----------------------------------------
Colour flow mapping of the left ventricular inflow at the level of the mitral valve, showed unimpeded laminar flow ([Fig. 3](#fig3){ref-type="fig"}). Importantly, pulsed Doppler interrogation of flow across the mitral valve showed a clear wave, indicating neo-atrial contribution to ventricular filling ([Fig. 4](#fig4){ref-type="fig"}).
Right and left ventricular shape and function
---------------------------------------------
Three-dimensional determination of size, shape and function ([Fig. 5](#fig5){ref-type="fig"}) showed good diastolic volume of both ventricles with no evidence of "banana"-shaped left ventricle. Both ventricles contracted very well as indicated by the small systolic volumes.
Limitations of this study include the fact that all data are derived from one patient, and that detailed hemodynamic measurements, electro-anatomical mapping and fluid dynamics were not studied. These limitations need to be addressed in future studies.
Conclusions and future studies
==============================
This investigation strongly suggests that the modified Mustard operation produces superior flow dynamics due to enhancement of conduit, reservoir and contractile functions of the neo atria, which should translate into enhanced survival and quality of life. Long-term results with a larger cohort of patients is required to validate these concepts.
Both authors contributed equally to this paper.
{#fig1}
{#fig2}
{#fig3}
{#fig4}
{#fig5}
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A development blog of what Con Kolivas is doing with code at the moment with the emphasis on linux kernel, BFS and -ck.
Saturday, 13 October 2012
The vicissitudes of life
七転八起
I realise in this world there are people with far worse tragedies and far worse issues to deal with than my own so I've been reluctant to make a big deal of my own issues online, even though I have a mildly public persona. However I've been touched by the many warm wishes people have sent me over the last month when I mentioned that I had a family tragedy to deal with which was keeping me offline, despite the fact most of you did not even know what it was.
While I usually prefer to keep my private life separate from my online life, many of you have asked what it was that was so traumatic. Initially it was very difficult to talk about but now I find it somewhat helpful to speak about.
I'm from a family that has always been very close and I have two older brothers. On the Australian Father's day, 2nd September, my eldest brother George, who is the father of two himself, was involved in a motor vehicle accident which gave him critical head injuries. Unfortunately he has been left with massive brain damage with very little prospect of recovery. He also had asked me many years previously to be his enduring power of attorney. Over the last month I have had to deal with the grief of his (effective) loss, been the medical contact for the family since I'm the only doctor in the family, deal with issues of choices to do with end-of-life decision making versus potential life in a vegetative state, support for various people affected by this tragedy, dealing with lawyers, financial institutions, credit card companies, utilities, gaining access to email, work authorities, insurance bodies and so on. The "system" does not seem well set up to take over someone's life if they're indefinitely incapacitated.
I don't really wish to go into any greater detail about this online, but suffice to say it has been the worst month of my life and I wouldn't wish this on my worst enemies.
And yes, my parents are still alive, and they are, without doubt, taking this the hardest.
The only good news, I guess, is that I'm working towards what I call the "new normal" in my life. I'll be hacking on BFS and -ck again fairly soon.
After reading your post, I actually felt saddened as if listening from someone, in person.Considering I only know you as someone whose C code helps my OS experience, I find this fascinating.I almost felt like I would like to be your friend in this very moment to support and comfort you.Thanks for your continued work.
Thank you for sharing a glimpse into the darkness in which you and your family have been mired. I too went through a significant loss early on in my life and as you said, found some sort of release in sharing/talking as I dealt with it. It is strangely cathartic. My warm wishes are with you.
For those who do now know to, or for those who are too lazy to, I plugged the kanji into the wikitonary. It is quite poetic.
We all have heroes and there are many in the FOSS community, we users tend to believe those that are most influential live perfect lives dealing just with difficult programming task and frequent "I made it" statements, unfortunately is not the case.I just knew about you because I use the product of your work everyday and today a friend at the forum posted about this and I felt the need to tell you that even if I can't do anything about it I still can read it and felt for you. I hope time heals the pain of all your family soon. I don't know if you are a religious person but I think only something bigger than us can help to endure the death of a son, I wish to your parents the strength of spirit and resignation needed to deal with this.
I don't know if condolence is the right word. If I read your words correctly, he, your brother is still alive?! So, he'll have a chance. I include your family into my prayers (though I'm not religious, I practice praying to some greater "one" usually) and wish for the best for all of your family!
Your "Online-Community" is with you, too!
Best hopes, Manuel Krause
P.S.: Your -ck1 for 3.6 compiled fine and is up and running with 3.6.2 on here. Thank you!
Hi Con,Your 3.5-sched-bfs-425.patch is great for linux-3.6.2 !Thank you very much!
Also me and some other users knew that it needs not that many changes to adapt Bfs to linux-3.6 - nobody of us was able to do find the correct places to do the needed changes :(We need you doing this :) And we all are happy about you coming to normal life again!
Many greeting from Hamburg in Germany,Ralph Ulrich
PS: Did you read this story about numa scheduling:https://lwn.net/Articles/518329/
[Offtopic]Maybe this doesn't fit in here very well, now. But I know you guys/girls beeing affected by low latency desktop experience and maybe someone of you can help me out.Maybe you know that my machine is very old and is cheaper to replace than to discuss about.
My actual problem I search a solution for is: I have unpredictable audio stuttering when playing .avi video in SMPlayer and also in VLC. It happens every 6 to 15 min, is not file dependant and so not reproducible and understandable by rational means.
Yesterday I tried to remove pulseaudio within my openSUSE 12.2, but that didn't help much. Seems like too many other packages depend on some remaining pulseaudio libs. Now I have a half alsa / half pulse setup, I assume. So I've got at least one typical time related error message from VLC message log: alsa warning: broken pipe... (and then resyncing, what works).
From former kernels in former days I know there were many enhancement guides flying around the web in order to enhance the audio.
[Offtopic]Manuel change you distribution! That SUSE is a place of chaos the last months! With you old hardware give Gentoo a chance! I will see you there at forums.gentoo.org as manuSomething?Ralph Ulrich
Thank you both very much for your replies!New weekend, new spare time to test & fiddle around ^^ ;-)
@Ralph: I'm almost married with openSUSE for years now, I don't want to risk anything more at this point.
@Mike: I experienced many weird things when trying to apply your settings (and also setting them in /etc/pulse/daemon.conf) in steps of decreasing your horribly high values -- including KDE at first not starting i.e. locking up. Then "emulating" these settings by rescheduling with appropriate schedtool settings after startup I at least got better results in SMPlayer.But it seems like the VLC pulse audio output plugin is still not working correctly.
Can you both -- or all other readers -- imagine kernel options that may cause audio dropouts? Perhaps wrong choices of timer/clock components like RTC, enhanced RTC, HPET etc. ?
that's are not my values, I only use it (got it from here: http://forums.opensuse.org/applications/multimedia/400774-pulseaudio-cant-get-realtime-high-priority-permissions.html). Could be, that the memlock value is a little bit high, maybe you could leave it. But these values are limits. At the moment, pulseaudio runs here on all my machines with nice -11 and realtime 5 (as defined in the original /etc/pulse/daemon.conf). Check it as user with cmd 'pulseaudio -vvv'.
Important, pulseaudio should run as user deamon, not system deamon!!
Btw. all my machines are using these values on 64bit OpenSuse 11.2 with KDE (4.9.2 or 4.8.x, ok my old Dell X200 with Pentium M and 640MB Ram is on 32bit LXDE, but this is for testing only :) ). No problem with standard OpenSuse kernel and with my default ZEN (BFS, BFQ and other tweaks) kernel.
My player choice depends on the hardware, sometimes smplayer ist better, some times vlc, and sometimes even Kaffeine ;) Depends on graphics card. But there are no sound drop outs at all (besides on vlc over hdmi with onboard chipset radeon DKMS driver on one machine, but that's because I tried to pimp the cheapy speakers in my monitor with some pulseaudio equalizer settings :)
Btw, all my HPET settings are on.
Regards MikeCY sysitos.
PS: I think, if you have further questions, we could email this, or there are more OpenSuse users on Con's blog? ;)
Hi Mike, and all readers,just want to report back on this offtopic topic. Only adjusting the priorities did not help.Second of all I spent much time on reinvestigating the web-pages regarding pulseaudio and realtime audio & s.o. (Quite an Odyssee!)That leaded back to reenabling some RTC related options within kernel config (that I'd thrown away before, in order to have a more "lean" kernel setup).As these re-added options didn't show a complete relief regarding audio dropouts (smplayer) I went back to my PCI Chipset tuning settings. And I've found a solution for my chipset finally.
hi, i have trouble with 3.6-ck1 and 3.6.2 this is the log:perf_event_intel PEBS disabled due to cpu errata SMP boot cpu 1,the system hang at this line,no way to boot system i have used aufs and ck patch,with only aufs the system boot without problem,
CK, first of all, I wanted to tell you that you have a lot of well wishers. Me and my family will be praying for you and your family to recover from this tragedy. And thank you for all of your time and efforts you have put into -ck.
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Trends in bipolar disorder or depression as a cause of death on death certificates of US residents, 1999-2009.
Temporal trends in mortality from bipolar disorder (BD) or depression in the US population, based on multiple causes (MC) rather than underlying cause (UC) alone on death certificates, apparently have not been examined. The annual US age-standardized rate (ASR) for deaths per 100,000 US residents age 15+ years, and age-specific rates, for BD or depression using MC versus UC alone was examined for 1999-2009; percentage change (PC) from 1999 to 2009 was calculated. The ASRs at age 15+ years were much higher using MC than UC alone. For BD using MC, the ASR increased from 1999 to 2009 (PC +69.2 %) with larger increases in age groups within 15-64 years (PCs about 200 %). For depression using MC, the ASR rose from 1999 to 2003 and then declined, but the decline was restricted to age 65+ years; the ASR at age 15-64 years increased from 1999 to 2009 (PC +55.5 %). For deaths at age 15-64 years with BD or depression as other than UC, the ASRs increased for external causes, cardiovascular diseases, external causes, and neoplasms as UC. The large increases in mortality from BD using MC are consistent with reported increases in BD prevalence rates in the US population. The temporal increases in death rates related to mood disorders at age 15-64 years may provide further support for the need for interventions to address the mediators of excess mortality identified from cohort studies.
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Both were highly gifted artistes and perhaps lovers . So naturally they produced some of the most melodious songs you will ever hear .
Remember O P never composed a single song with the great Lata Mangeshkar , the reigning queen of playback singing since the mid 1950s . Only he could muster such courage and still succeed .
Instead he chose to hone the talent of the lesser known younger sister of Lata , Asha . She was the princess living in the shadow of the queen .
If O P hadn’t come into her life I doubt if Asha Bhosle would have scaled such heights of success .
The duo produced many great songs until O P broke up with her a quarter of a century later .
Once their affair was over he reportedly never spoke to her again for the rest of his life for more than another quarter of century . So typical of O P who in his later years even left his family and lived all by himself .
This 40 song MP 3 ‘Immortal Duo : Asha Bhosle & O P Nayyar’ by Saregama is the finest collection of the two greats you will ever find .
It begins with that unforgettable song from Howrah Bridge (1958) with the gorgeously beautiful Madhubala dancing and singing , “Aaiye Meherban Baithye Jane Jaan”.
Beutifully picturised . A truly great song of the golden era. Heightened by the black & white effect.
And the ever natural actor Ashok Kumar smiling enigmatically and puffing up clouds of smoke as he watches Madhubal sing in the golden voice of Asha Bhosle.
Very western, this song transports me to the black & white hollywood era of the 1930s .
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Ki-67 detects a nuclear matrix-associated proliferation-related antigen. I. Intracellular localization during interphase.
Ki-67 is a commercially available mouse monoclonal antibody, which reacts with a nuclear antigen in proliferating cells. The antibody can be used to determine the growth fraction of human tumours in situ and has been shown to be of prognostic importance. In this study it is shown that in interphase cells Ki-67 reacts with an antigen, mainly present in the nucleoli. Confocal scanning laser microscopy and immunoelectron microscopy on human MR65 monolayer cells revealed that this nucleolar antigen is predominantly localized in the nucleolar cortex and in the dense fibrillar components. The Ki-67 antigen appeared to be preserved in nuclear matrix preparations obtained after in situ fractionation of MR65 cells. Despite many efforts, we could not identify the antigen in immunoblotting or immunoprecipitation assays. Testing of cell cultures of different species by means of indirect immunofluorescence revealed that the antibody reacted with human cells and with the Rhesus monkey kidney-derived cell line LLC-MK2.
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Resorption beneath silastic mandibular implants. Effects of placement and pressure.
To evaluate the extent to which silicone rubber mandibular implant (Silastic; Dow Corning, Midland, Mich) pressure and placement (supraperiosteal or subperiosteal) affect underlying mandibular resorption. A randomized, controlled animal trial. Ten mixed-breed adult hounds. Each animal's mandible was implanted with 6 Silastic blocks, 3 inserted supraperiosteally and 3 subperiosteally. Within each grouping of 3 implants, pressure was varied from "minimum" to "moderate" to "maximum" by compressing the implant with titanium miniplates. After 4 months, the animals were killed and their mandibles sectioned for microscopic examination. Mandibular resorption occurred in varying degrees beneath all implants by the end of the study period. The extent of resorption was consistent with retrospective studies in humans. No statistically significant difference was found between supraperiosteal or subperiosteal placement of the implants. However, higher-pressure implants tended to produce less resorption than lower-pressure implants. While some bone resorption seems inevitable with Silastic mandibular implants, these results would seem to suggest that the placement of implants above or below the periosteum need not be a concern for the surgeon attempting to minimize this consequence. On the other hand, increased pressure may actually decrease resorption, contrary to current assumptions.
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That’s my hoodie. On Sept. 12, Lakewood police officers were dispatched to an apartment in the 7400 block of West 19th Avenue regarding a domestic violence incident. A man and a woman had been living together for the past five years, and the woman started yelling at the man because he was wearing her hoodie. The man said he sprayed her with a water bottle to calm her down, and she them punched him in the mouth. Both were cited.
No free rides. Two Lakewood police officers were conducting fare enforcement in plain clothes on the West Line on Sept. 10. While checking fares near the Lamar Station, 6363 W. 13th Ave., they issued one rider a summons for trespassing and fare evasion. The man had prior tickets and was under suspension from RTD services. He was released.
Thursday night’s not all right for fighting. A Lakewood police officer broke up a fight between two men Sept. 11 in the area of West Florida Avenue and South Owens Street. Both were issued summonses.
Not welcome. Lakewood police arrested a 36-year-old woman for active warrants Sept. 11. The woman appeared unannounced at her ex-boyfriend’s house in the 1700 block of Jay Street. She said she wanted to see their children, but the man did not want her present at his house.
Indecency. On Sept. 22, an Edgewater police officer discovered an intoxicated woman not wearing pants or underwear sitting beneath a tree behind Ace Hardware, 1719 Sheridan Blvd. She was arrested for indecent exposure and released to a hospital.
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I had an awesome Saturday at Hack4ac! It was all about the amazing things that we can do with open access to scientific content.
In particular, the focus was on papers and data licensed under the CC-BY license, which lets you not only read the papers yourself, but also write programs to efficiently mine them for connections and clusters and patterns. It seems obvious that you should be able to mine anything you can read, but that's unfortunately not the case — it may require special permissions from the copyright holder (publisher), who may drag their heels. The CC-BY license is one way of making sure that our right to mine is protected.
And fortunately there's a lot of CC-BY content out there already! My team's task was to mine detailed author contributions from open access papers on PLOS and PeerJ — these data record which authors did which jobs on each paper. Most PLOS papers have a semi-structured author contributions section, like:
Conceived and designed the experiments: HQ JKC AR NH. Performed the experiments: HQ JKC AR MP. Analyzed the data: HQ JKC AR MP NH. Contributed reagents/materials/analysis tools: CH. Wrote the paper: HQ JKC AR NH.
and PeerJ exposes similar data in a structured form through their API.
In six short hours, our team wrote programs to download and parse these author contribution data for about half of the 80 thousand articles on PLOS. All of our code to download the data, process them, and present the results is open source. We used github both to collaborate on the code and to publish our results.
I worked with mfenner to get the PLOS data into R for analysis. We used RStudio in a literate programming style, with both R code and Markdown documentation in the same file. RStudio uses the knitr package to take the fairly nice code (we were in a hurry!) and produce even nicer, more readable output. The result is a document that contains the final figures and numbers and all of the code needed to produce them from the raw data, which improves transparency and makes it more likely that minor errors will get spotted quickly.
My favourite graph answers the question, if you did only one thing on a paper, what was it?
Looks like it's usually ‘Performed the experiments’, which brings back memories of late nights in the (computer) lab! It's also interesting that so many people just wrote the paper and did nothing else; I wonder how that worked.
Of course, we're only just scratching the surface here. Do papers with more even division of labour get more or less citations? How do the roles of authors change as they progress through their careers? Fork the code and find out!
Also be sure to check out ScienceGist, a website for crowd-sourced summaries of papers, which won the day (we came second!). It's an awesome idea!
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Last updated on .From the section European Football
Villarreal have signed Salmam Al Dawsari, 26, from Al Hilal
Spain's footballers' union say a deal which has seen nine players from Saudi Arabia join Spanish clubs on loan sacrifices "the essence of this sport".
On Sunday, six first and second division teams signed nine players on loan from teams in Saudi Arabia.
"This new business model prioritises the economic aspect over the sporting one," said Spain's footballers' union (AFE).
La Liga sides Villarreal, Levante and Leganes have signed one player each.
The deal is between the General Sports Authority of Saudi Arabia, the Saudi Arabian Football federation and La Liga.
Villarreal have signed Salmam Al Dawsari, 26, from Al Hilal, while 23-year-old Fahad Al Muwallad has joined Levante from Al Ittihad. Leganes have also taken Yahia Al Shehri, 27, on loan from Al Nasr.
Villarreal confirmed the signing of Salmam Al Dawsari on Sunday
"This agreement impedes the development of young footballers and represents an obstacle to the opportunities for the youth academy, which isn't always accorded this type of opportunity," added the AFE.
Saudi Arabia will make their first World Cup appearance in 12 years in the summer in Group A alongside hosts Russia, Uruguay and Egypt.
"Football is the most popular sport in Saudi Arabia. Along with the Saudi football federation we are committed to give the youth the chance to achieve their objectives and play football at the highest level possible," said Turky Al Al Sheikh, chairman of the General Sport Authority of Saudi Arabia.
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500 bone marrow transplant centres in Europe put on standby to treat victims from Japan --More than 140,000 residents within 19 miles of the plant were ordered to stay indoors --France's Nuclear Safety Authority ranks crisis second only in gravity to Chernobyl in 1986 16 Mar 2011 Japan was consumed by panic last night as the nuclear crisis threatened to spiral out of control. Fears of 'an apocalypse' were raised as radiation levels soared - and experts warned the crippled Fukushima plant had become a nuclear risk second only to the Chernobyl disaster. More than 140,000 residents within 19 miles of the plant were ordered to stay indoors - in addition to the 180,000 already evacuated from the immediate area... In Europe, some 500 bone marrow transplant centres were put on standby to treat any victims from Japan.
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2009-03-25 Quiz: How many Airbnb listings worldwide (as of Aug 2017)?: 0.3 million 3 million 30 million
2009-03-26 Aug 2008 Airbnb founded
2008-10-01 Sometimes the same name appears at different locations. However, there is nothing wrong with the animation or your computer.
2009-03-04 March 2009 “AirBed and Breakfast, an online portal […], has re-launched its website to AirBnB”
2009-07-22 July 2009 “[…]]their apartment for a ridiculous fee, I still wouldn’t write the site off completely.”
2009-10-08 Oct 2009 “I just ran across this site, AirBnB, on the net, and wondered if anyone had used it to find a place to stay”
2010-05-25 May 2010 “Barcelona launches campaign against bikinis in the streets”
2011-07-01 July 2011 “Is Airbnb growing too fast?”
2011-07-10 Quiz: How many cities list homes with Airbnb (as of Aug 2017)?: 65,000 200,000 512,000
2012-02-07 Feb 2012 “AirBnb opens office in Spain”
2012-09-04 Sep 2012 CNN Money
2013-07-01 Quiz: How many countries have Airbnb listings (as of Aug 2017)?: 20+ 112+ 191+
2014-07-07 July 2014 “Airbnb fined €30,000 for illegal tourist lets in Barcelona”
2016-04-15 Apr 2016 “How Airbnb has lost its soul” (Financial Times)
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Q:
Backpropagation with Momentum
I'm following this tutorial for implementing the Backpropagation algorithm. However, I am stuck at implementing momentum for this algorithm.
Without Momentum, this is the code for weight update method:
def update_weights(network, row, l_rate):
for i in range(len(network)):
inputs = row[:-1]
if i != 0:
inputs = [neuron['output'] for neuron in network[i - 1]]
for neuron in network[i]:
for j in range(len(inputs)):
neuron['weights'][j] += l_rate * neuron['delta'] * inputs[j]
neuron['weights'][-1] += l_rate * neuron['delta']
And below is my implementation:
def updateWeights(network, row, l_rate, momentum=0.5):
for i in range(len(network)):
inputs = row[:-1]
if i != 0:
inputs = [neuron['output'] for neuron in network[i-1]]
for neuron in network[i]:
for j in range(len(inputs)):
previous_weight = neuron['weights'][j]
neuron['weights'][j] += l_rate * neuron['delta'] * inputs[j] + momentum * previous_weight
previous_weight = neuron['weights'][-1]
neuron['weights'][-1] += l_rate * neuron['delta'] + momentum * previous_weight
This gives me a Mathoverflow error since the weights are exponentially becoming too large over multiple epochs. I believe my previous_weight logic is wrong for the update.
A:
I'll give you a hint. You're multiplying momentum by the previous_weight in your implementation, which is another parameter of the network on the same step. This obviously blows up quickly.
What you should do instead is remember the whole update vector,
l_rate * neuron['delta'] * inputs[j], on the previous backpropagation step and add it up. It might look something like this:
velocity[j] = l_rate * neuron['delta'] * inputs[j] + momentum * velocity[j]
neuron['weights'][j] += velocity[j]
... where velocity is an array of the same length as network, defined with a bigger scope than updateWeights and initialized with zeros. See this post for details.
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National trends and practices in breast MRI.
The objective of our study was to report on the current practices of radiologists involved in the performance and interpretation of breast MRI in the United States. We invited the 1,696 active physician members of the Society of Breast Imaging to participate in a survey addressing whether and how they performed and interpreted breast MRI. Respondents were asked to select one member of their practice to complete the survey. A total of 754 surveys were completed. Every respondent did not reply to every question. Contrast-enhanced breast MRI was offered at 557 of 754 (73.8%) practices. Of these, 346 of 553 (62.6%) performed at least five breast MRI examinations per week, and only 56 of 553 (10.1%) performed > 20 per week. Radiologists qualified under the Mammography Quality Standards Act supervised the performance of and interpreted breast MRI in the majority of facilities. Of 552 respondents, breast MRI was interpreted as soft copy with computer-aided detection (CAD) in 280 practices (50.7%), as soft copy without CAD in 261 (47.3%), and as hard copy in 11 (2.0%). Of 551 respondents, 256 (46.5%) never and 207 (37.6%) rarely interpreted breast MRI without correlating mammography or sonography findings. The majority of respondents never (269/561, 48.0%) or rarely (165/561, 29.4%) interpreted breast MRI performed at an outside facility. Screening breast MRI was offered at 359 of 561 (64.0%) practices. Of the practices performing contrast-enhanced examinations, 173 of 557 (31.1%) did not perform MRI-guided interventional procedures. Contrast-enhanced breast MRI is now widely used in the United States. The information gained from this survey should provide reasonable approaches for the development of professional practice guidelines.
| 125,312,747
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1. Field of Technology
The present invention relates to computerized workflow management and operational support for persons engaged in complex business or other processes. It has particular utility in supporting operations by financial organizations serving as trustees for securitizations, i.e., financial instruments such as Mortgage-Backed Securities (MBS), and other Asset-Backed Securities (ABS) or other financing arrangements involving debt instruments for which periodic valuation and distribution computations, disbursements and reporting must be set up and executed.
Securitization is commonly defined as a pooling of assets and issuance of securities to finance the carrying of the pooled assets. This process allows understanding of the behavior of a class of assets as a whole to be employed in creating a financial structure to finance such assets without the need to be concerned about the behavior of the specific asset within the class. (See Kravitt, Securitization, The Financier, Vol. 4, No. 5, December 1997.) The actual securitization process involves issuance of bonds which are backed, not by capital assets of the issuer, but rather by the cash flow from the pooled assets. These may be residential or commercial mortgages, credit card receivables, equipment leasing or even student loans, etc.
For a securitization to be an attractive investment vehicle, it must be carefully structured, for example, to take into account factors such early payoff of loans by mortgage holders. This often results in a very complex financial instrument, and correspondingly complex processing is required to manage the transaction.
Each of the participants in a securitization transaction serves a different role. For example, in the case of a residential MBS, the participants might include the originating mortgage lender, the issuer of the MBS (which could be the lender or a third party which aggregates mortgages from several lenders, the underwriter which provides the initial financing for the issue, the public investors and the trustee. The latter is usually a financial institution which is responsible for receiving payments collected by the servicer at the collateral (i.e., loan) level, for computing and distributing payments to the investors and for computing the taxes due on such distributions, for maintaining records of ownership and transfer of the securities and for producing and disseminating reports to investors and other interested members of the public.
Disbursements (commonly called “waterfall” payments) are usually made on a monthly basis, so the trustee must perform monthly waterfall calculations based on funds collected, and must generate monthly reports for the investors. Monthly, quarterly and annually tax computations must also be performed and reported to the investors. The trustee might be handling hundreds of securitizations, each of which may involve a different deal structure and different computations. It will be appreciated that fulfillment of the trustee's responsibilities may require the effort of many individuals to perform the many complex calculations and other tasks.
2. Prior Art
Task management and scheduling, and repetitive, complex computations obviously lend themselves well to computerization, but this has both positive and negative implications. Among the obvious benefits of computerization are improved speed and accuracy of computation. Indeed, it is difficult to imagine the trustee's role in securitization transactions without the availability of powerful computers and software. Similarly, computerization has expanded reporting capabilities, both in terms of data presentation and ease of delivery of information to a large number of users.
On the less positive side, computerization does not always take place in an environment of comprehensive planning and systems engineering, and securitization management software is not an off-the-shelf item. To accomplish the many processing, reporting, supervisory and quality assurance activities required of the trustee, it has proven easier to do the work using pre-existing functional sub-systems designed to perform the same or similar functions in other applications. Inevitably, though, when this is done, integration is virtually non-existent due to interoperability problems, and remedying such problems completely is usually not possible.
Another problem is that the transactions themselves often have longer lifetimes than the software on which the processing and reporting tasks were originally implemented. Software used for transactions created, for example, in the early 1990's may be quite different from what is currently used, yet the trustee must efficiently and accurately handle old as well as new transactions. Having to work with a collection of software platforms, some of which might be obsolete, and at the very least, do not interface well with each other, has also been a source of inefficiency and reduced functionality.
An additional problem in the prior art has been difficulty in implementing changes in existing data structures to accommodate evolutionary changes in the underlying financial structures. Database management software and database designs themselves can be quite resistant to these kind of changes. To add the capability for handling even a single piece of additional data has sometimes proven to be a major undertaking.
Up to now, there has not been available an integrated system which permits convenient and reliable performance of all of the tasks required of the trustee.
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Even if he isn't, Vick is unlikely to be back in Philadelphia unless something is changed with his contract situation, so Foles -- at a minimum -- should be in a preseason quarterback competition for the 2013 season.
To see the rest of Matt Williamson's rankings of the top NFL rookies, you must be an ESPN Insider.
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It is an effective way to achieve green energy and the sustainable development of energy by collecting energy from the living environment, which has been paid attention to by the whole world. The piezoelectric technology, as a new energy development technology, is widely used in various industrial fields and expected to play important roles in environmental monitoring, energy-saving systems, implantable medical means, and even consumer electronics.
The piezoelectric technology is the technology based on a piezoelectric effect. When the dielectric is deformed due to an external force in a certain direction, its interior will generate polarization phenomenon, and positive and negative charges will appear on its two opposite surfaces. When the external force is removed, it will return to a non-charged state, and this phenomenon is called a positive piezoelectric effect. When the direction of the acting force changes, the polarity of the charge also changes.
It can be understood that the essence of the piezoelectric effect is that the mechanical action causes dielectric polarization. As for the displacement of the ionic charge in the crystal, when no strain exists, the distribution of charges on lattice positions is symmetrical, its internal electric field is zero. When a stress is applied to the crystal, the charge is displaced. If the charge distribution is no longer symmetrical, the net polarization occurs and produces an electric field accordingly. The electric field will appear as the piezoelectric effect. A type of sensor developed based on the piezoelectric effect of the dielectric is called a piezoelectric sensor.
When a conventional piezoelectric element is in use, wires are usually connected to upper and lower surfaces of a piezoelectric part of the piezoelectric element to form a loop, and the charge generated by the piezoelectric effect is derived through the wires, to supply to loads for use. The existing piezoelectric element has low sensitivity.
It should be noted that, information disclosed in the above background portion is provided only for better understanding of the background of the present disclosure, and thus it may contain information that does not form the prior art known by those ordinary skilled in the art.
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Figures
Abstract
Background
Observational studies suggest that male circumcision may provide protection against HIV-1 infection. A randomized, controlled intervention trial was conducted in a general population of South Africa to test this hypothesis.
Methods and Findings
A total of 3,274 uncircumcised men, aged 18–24 y, were randomized to a control or an intervention group with follow-up visits at months 3, 12, and 21. Male circumcision was offered to the intervention group immediately after randomization and to the control group at the end of the follow-up. The grouped censored data were analyzed in intention-to-treat, univariate and multivariate, analyses, using piecewise exponential, proportional hazards models. Rate ratios (RR) of HIV incidence were determined with 95% CI. Protection against HIV infection was calculated as 1 − RR. The trial was stopped at the interim analysis, and the mean (interquartile range) follow-up was 18.1 mo (13.0–21.0) when the data were analyzed. There were 20 HIV infections (incidence rate = 0.85 per 100 person-years) in the intervention group and 49 (2.1 per 100 person-years) in the control group, corresponding to an RR of 0.40 (95% CI: 0.24%–0.68%; p < 0.001). This RR corresponds to a protection of 60% (95% CI: 32%–76%). When controlling for behavioural factors, including sexual behaviour that increased slightly in the intervention group, condom use, and health-seeking behaviour, the protection was of 61% (95% CI: 34%–77%).
Conclusion
Male circumcision provides a degree of protection against acquiring HIV infection, equivalent to what a vaccine of high efficacy would have achieved. Male circumcision may provide an important way of reducing the spread of HIV infection in sub-Saharan Africa. (Preliminary and partial results were presented at the International AIDS Society 2005 Conference, on 26 July 2005, in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil.).
Introduction
Male circumcision (MC) is associated with various cultural factors, including religious sacrifice, rites of passage into adulthood, and the promotion of hygiene. The earliest documentary evidence for circumcision is from Egypt. Tomb artwork from the Sixth Dynasty (2345–2181 B.C.) shows circumcised men, and one relief from this period shows the rite being performed on a standing adult male. Genesis (17:11) places the origin of the rite among the Jews in the age of Abraham, who lived around 2000 B.C.
Presently, MC practices in Africa are varied. Whereas men in Muslim countries are circumcised, as in North Africa or a large part of West Africa, in other societies the prevalence of MC depends on other cultural factors, such as changes that occurred under colonization. In countries such as Cameroon and the Democratic Republic of Congo, which are predominately non-Muslim, most men are circumcised [1–3]. In Kenya, where only a minority of men are Muslims, men in all tribes except the Luo practice MC [4].
The first paper suggesting a protective effect of MC against HIV infection was published in 1986 [5]. Since then, many observational studies have been published, some of which have observed that most men living in East and southern Africa, the regions with the highest prevalence of HIV, are not circumcised [1–3]. A majority of these observational studies are cross-sectional, and a minority are prospective [6–11]. A systematic review and meta-analysis found that in sub-Saharan Africa MC is associated with a significantly reduced risk of HIV infection among men, with an adjusted relative risk of 0.42 (95% CI: 0.34%–0.54%) [12].
All of these studies were based on observational data, and, in the absence of experimental studies, a causal relationship between MC and protection against HIV infection could not be determined [13]. Direct experimental evidence is needed to establish this relationship and, should a protective effect of MC be proven, to convince public health policy makers of the role of MC in reducing the spread of HIV [7,13,14].
The primary objective of this study was to determine the impact of MC on the acquisition of HIV by young men through a randomized, controlled, blindly evaluated intervention trial. The secondary objective was to assess the role of behavioural factors known to be associated with HIV serostatus in explaining the possible impact. This study was conducted in the Gauteng province of South Africa, where HIV prevalence among pregnant women was estimated to be 29.6% in 2003 [15]. According to an earlier study in the research site area, 59% (95% CI: 55%–63%) of uncircumcised men said that they would be circumcised if it reduced their chance of acquiring HIV and STDs [16].
Methods
General Presentation
A randomized, controlled, blindly evaluated intervention trial was carried out in Orange Farm and surrounding areas, a semi-urban region close to the city of Johannesburg. The recruitment of participants took place in the general population from July 2002 to February 2004. Information about the trial was disseminated in the community through meetings during the recruitment period. Precise oral and written information was delivered at the investigation centre to potential participants during a pre-screen visit. Participants were then informed that the impact of MC on the acquisition of sexually transmitted infections (STIs), including HIV, is not known. A minimum of 3 d after the pre-screen visit, potential participants were screened for eligibility. Potential participants with genital ulcerations were temporarily excluded until successful treatment. The inclusion and exclusion criteria are listed in Table 1. The participants received a total of 300 South African Rand as compensation (1 South African Rand ~ 0.12 Euro). The protocol, the consent form, and the participant information sheet are provided as Text S1–S3.
Randomization
At the end of the screen visit, following screening and written consent, participants were divided into two groups, using sealed envelopes. Participants requested to participate actively in the random assignment. Consequently, each participant was invited by the manager of the centre to choose an envelope containing the group name from a basket of ten envelopes. After each randomization, a new envelope was added to the basket. This added envelope was taken sequentially from a set of envelopes pre-prepared in such a way that each set of envelopes contained five for the “Control” and five for the “Intervention” arm. Participants of the intervention group were offered to be circumcised within a week. Participants of the control group were asked to wait until the end of the trial before being offered to be circumcised.
Follow-Up and Data Collection
After the screen visit, which took place at month 1 (M1), the three follow-up visits took place at the end of M3, M12, and M21. The M3 visit was designed to study the possible impact of surgery on HIV acquisition as a result of sexual activity during the healing phase following circumcision or contamination during surgery. These three follow-up visits defined three sequential periods, M1–M3, M4–M12, and M13–M21, with expected durations of 3, 9, and 9 mo, respectively. The duration of these periods was measured in days from the dates of the visits, the day after the end of a period being the beginning of the next period.
A participant lost to follow-up was defined as a participant who had not completed a planned visit in the 2 mo following the planned date of this visit and who did not complete any further visit. A missing visit was defined as a visit not completed prior to a completed visit.
At each of the four visits, each participant was invited to answer a face-to-face questionnaire, to provide a blood sample, and to have a genital examination and an individual counselling session. The questionnaire allowed for collection of data on background characteristics and reported sexual behaviour. The last section of the questionnaire allowed for the description of all sexual partnerships over the previous 3 mo for the M3 visit and over the previous 12 mo for all other visits. This section allowed each participant to describe the number of sexual contacts, the date of first and last sexual contact, the frequency of condom use (never, sometimes, always), and the type of partnership (spousal or non-spousal), a spousal partner being defined as a sexual partner with whom the respondent is married or living as married. Characteristics of sexual behaviour during the 9-mo periods M4–M12 and M13–M21 were determined from this section, using the dates of first and last sexual contact of each sexual partner. The genital examination was performed by a trained nurse who recorded the circumcision status and took a blood sample from each participant. Blood samples were tested for syphilis and HIV-1.
The counselling session (15–20 min) was delivered by a certified counsellor and focused on information about STIs in general and HIV in particular and on how to prevent the risk of infection. During this session, participants were encouraged to attend voluntary counselling and testing in a public clinic located 200 m away from the investigation centre or in a voluntary counselling and testing (VCT) centre funded by the project and located in the same building as the investigation centre. Condoms were provided in the waiting room of the investigation centre and were also provided by the counsellor. Participants who had symptoms of STIs, as assessed by the nurse during the genital examination, or who tested positive for syphilis were treated at the local clinic or by doctors working for the project. A specific programme for prevention of opportunistic infections and delivery of antiretroviral treatment, if required, was put in place at the VCT centre to assist participants who attended VCT and who tested positive for HIV. The arrangement will remain in place until the public sector programme becomes operational in the area.
The standard of care in South Africa at the beginning of the trial in July 2002 included VCT but not access to antiretroviral therapy. With the formal introduction of access to antiretroviral therapy in 2004, there were increased efforts to encourage participants to attend VCT and referrals to appropriate facilities were instituted. In this context, it was decided to include participants independent of VCT attendance. Consideration for making HIV testing compulsory for participation in the trial or recruiting only those who tested HIV-negative would certainly lead to stigmatization, and the investigators considered that the whole concept of VCT was that it should be voluntary. They considered it unethical to inform participants of their HIV status without their permission, even if they thought that participants should be aware of their HIV status. They also considered it unethical to deter from participating in the study potentially at-risk men who did not want to know their HIV status. Indeed, HIV-positive participants would benefit from the trial: (a) by receiving counselling at each visit, (b) by undergoing clinical examination and syphilis testing, and (c) by having a medicalized circumcision that could possibly protect them or their sexual partners against other STIs or even against re-infection by HIV.
Male Circumcision
The median (interquartile range [IQR]) duration between randomization and MC was one day (0–2). The circumcisions were performed by three local general practitioners in their surgical offices. The general practitioners were experienced in MC practices. The cost of each circumcision was 300 South African Rand and was paid for by the project. The procedure was standardized and used the forceps-guided method, as is widely practiced in South Africa, and was reviewed by the Department of Urology, University of the Witwatersrand Medical School, South Africa.
Quality of the Data, Blinding, Confidentiality, and Data Management
To ensure confidentiality, participants' files were kept in a locked room at the centre and each participant received a number that was used to identify all documents related to that person. To ensure blinding of study personnel, the randomization group information was not available to the personnel in charge of counselling or collecting information in the centre during the participants' visits.
Questionnaires were checked at the end of each interview. Participants failing to turn up for any follow-up visit were visited at home by trial staff, who encouraged them to come for the follow-up visits or ascertained the reasons for dropping out.
Laboratory results were stored in a database that was independent of the one used to store the information related to each participant. During the study, no HIV results were available to the investigation centre or to the investigators, apart from the statistician in charge of the interim analysis.
Laboratory results and data collected from questionnaires were entered twice in a database (Microsoft Access, Redmond, Washington, United States) by different people. The two entries were compared, and discrepancies were corrected. The data were then re-checked for inconsistencies using the source documents. After the data had been cleaned, they were imported into the statistical package SPSS for Windows version 8 (SPSS, Chicago, Illinois, United States) and R (version 2.0.1) for analysis [17].
Laboratory Procedures
Following the interview, a trained nurse collected whole blood samples in the investigation centre. One EDTA blood tube of 10 ml of venous blood was taken and immediately centrifuged at 400 g for 10 min, and five aliquots of plasma were frozen at −20 °C. The samples were identified only by the participant number and transported each week to the laboratory, where they were stored at −70 °C and tested.
An ELISA screen (Genscreen HIV1/2 version 2, Bio-Rad, France) and two ELISA confirmatory tests (Wellcozyme HIV recombinant, Abbott Murex, Dartford, United Kingdom, and Vironostika HIV Uni-Formm II plus O, bioMérieux, Boxtel, Netherlands) were used to test plasma for HIV-1 infection. Samples that were positive on all three ELISAs were regarded as “positive” and all others as “negative” [18].
Ethics
The research protocol was reviewed and approved by the University of Witwatersrand Human Research Ethics Committee (Medical) on 22 February 2002 (protocol study no. M020104). The trial was also approved by the Scientific Commission of the French National Agency for AIDS Research (ANRS; protocol study no. 1265; 2002, decision No. 50) and obtained authorization from the City of Johannesburg, Region 11, on 25 February 2002. A Data and Safety Monitoring Board was responsible for analyzing adverse events and for deciding on the results of the interim analysis.
Adverse Events
Adverse events (AEs) were documented and analyzed for all participants, including those who were HIV-positive at randomization. These AEs related to surgery, and that occurred in the first month post-surgery, were reported by the practitioners using a specific form. In addition, at each visit to the centre the nurse completed a questionnaire after the genital examination to record adverse events. During home visits for missing participants, any deaths were recorded.
Sample Size and Interim Analysis
The total sample size was initially calculated to be 2,580 HIV-negative participants in order to obtain a power of 80% to detect a 50% reduction in the proportion of HIV infection between the groups at a 5% significance level, assuming an HIV incidence of 2.2 per 100 person-years (py) in the control group. This number, calculated using Fisher's exact test, was increased to 3,035 to account for 15% of participants lost to follow-up. An interim analysis was planned for when all the M12 visits had been completed, and this was conducted blind with the database obtained on 29 November 2004. At the time of the interim analysis, the total follow-up included an estimated 63% of the total number of py that would have been collected at the end of the study, leading to a threshold value of 0.0095, as determined by the Lan-DeMets alpha-spending function method [19].
Statistical Analysis
While participants with a HIV-positive test at M1 were followed in the same way as the other participants, they were excluded from the statistical analysis. HIV status was considered as censored data with time being continuous, observed in a grouped form (at the end of each period), with non-uniform duration of periods. These data were modelled using a piecewise exponential, proportional hazards model in which the baseline hazard is constant in each period. This theoretical model allows the precise duration between each visit and time-dependent covariate to be taken into account. It was implemented by running a Poisson log-linear model on a dataset composed of lines corresponding to the periods M1–M3, M4–M12, and M13–M21, in which the participant stayed HIV-negative or became HIV-positive [20–22]. Consequently, in this dataset, each individual was represented by a maximum of three lines. This type of model gives an incidence rate and incidence rate ratio (RR) of HIV infection among men of the intervention group in comparison with men of the control group. The protection against HIV infection was calculated as 1 − RR.
At the interim analysis, the RR was 0.37 in the intervention group, as compared with the control group, with a p value of 0.00073, below the threshold value. The Data and Safety Monitoring Board advised the investigators to interrupt the trial and offer circumcision to the control group, who were then asked to come to the investigation centre, where MC was advised and proposed. The database corresponding to planned visits up to 30 April 2005 was then analyzed, and the results are presented in this paper. Because the study was interrupted, some participants did not have a full follow-up on that date, and their visits that were not yet completed are described as “planned” in this article.
Adjusted rates and RRs were obtained by taking into account covariates that were calculated for each period when they were time-dependent. Three nested models were developed. The model-1 included the period number, which was included as categorical variables, with the logarithm of the duration of exposure in each period in days as an offset. In the model-2, the calendar period of recruiting and background characteristics of the participants were added. In the model-3, behavioural time-dependent covariates, characterizing the behaviour of participants during each period, were also added.
The background characteristics of the participants considered were age (less than or equal to 21 y, more than 21 y), religion (Catholic or Protestant, African traditional, other), ethnic group (Zulu, Sotho, other), and alcohol consumption in the past month. The five reported sexual behaviour covariates considered were, for each period of follow-up, being at-risk behaviour (defined as having at least one sexual contact unprotected by condom), having a spousal partner, the number of non-spousal sexual partners, the number of sexual contacts, having at least one relationship with only one sexual contact. In addition, health-seeking behaviour was characterized by at least one visit to a clinic for a genital problem during the 12-mo period prior to a visit to the centre.
Additional analyses were also performed. (a) The impact of the intervention was assessed among those having completed their M21 visit. (b) The impact of the intervention on participants who were 1 mo or more late to at least one follow-up visit or missed one follow-up visit was compared with the impact of the intervention on other participants by testing the corresponding interaction term between this factor and the randomization group. (c) To analyze the impact of the 6-wk period of abstinence, the analysis was repeated with the duration of the period M1–M3 reduced by 42 d in the intervention group. Forty-two days was the median (IQR = 28–56) interval between MC and first sexual contact reported by sexually experienced participants of the intervention group. (d) The effects of MC across the ethnic groups were studied by assessing this impact among the two major ethnic groups of this study (Zulus and Sothos) and by testing the corresponding interaction term. (e) Finally, while all analyses were performed in intention-to-treat, a per-protocol analysis was performed using the circumcision status observed at each visit.
Six comparisons of the behavioural factors for each of the periods M4–M12 and M13–M21 were performed. Independence of behavioural categorical data between the randomization groups was tested using Fisher's exact test, and the Kruskal-Wallis test was used for quantitative behavioural variables. Assuming that these comparisons were independent, and to keep the overall risk of type I error equal to 0.05, the level of significance was set as 1.00 − 0.95 1/6 = 0.0085.
Results
Table 2 gives the baseline characteristics for the HIV-negative participants. The median age (IQR) was 21.0 y (19.6–22.5). Most of the participants had completed the primary level of education. Very few were married or living as married, and about half were at-risk behaviour. Figure 1 shows the trial flowchart. A total of 3,274 men participated in the trial. There were 146 (prevalence 4.5%) HIV-positive participants at randomization. The difference in size between the intervention and control group was 34 (1,620 versus 1,654).
This figure describes the state of the trial corresponding to planned visits up to 30 April 2005. HIV-positive and HIV-negative participants were randomized. All were followed, but only participants HIV-negative at randomization were analyzed and are represented in the three follow-up visits of the figure. After randomization, the participants could attend the 3-mo visit, miss it, or be excluded from follow-up (death or loss to follow-up). The non-excluded participants who attended the 3-mo visit could then attend the 12-mo visit, miss it, or be excluded (death or loss to follow-up). The non-excluded participants of the 12-mo visit could then attend the 21-mo visit, be excluded (death or loss to follow-up) or were planning to attend the 21-mo visit but had not yet done so, because of the interruption of the trial.
*, did not come for the scheduled visit (refused, withdrew, moved away or died); **, no blood sample
Table 2. Baseline Characteristics of HIV-Negative Men Enrolled in the Trial
doi:10.1371/journal.pmed.0020298.t002
Among the 3,128 HIV-negative participants at randomization, the visits at M3, M12, and M21 took place at (median; IQR) 3.0 (3.0–3.2), 12.0 (11.9–12.1), and 20.9 mo (20.9–21.2) after randomization, respectively. The mean (IQR) follow-up was 18.1 mo (13.0–21.0).
The fraction of participants lost to follow-up was 8.0 % (251/3128), with 6.5% (100/1546) in the intervention group and 9.5% (151/1582) in the control groups (p = 0.0016, Fisher's exact test). Among the participants lost to follow-up at the visit M12 or M21, none (0/124) were HIV-positive at their previous completed visit.
During the study, 20 and 49 participants acquired HIV infection in the intervention and control groups, respectively, corresponding to incidence rates (95% CI) of 0.85 per 100 py (0.55–1.32) and 2.1 per 100 py (1.6–2.8) in the intervention and control groups, respectively. Using model-1, the RR of HIV infection for the intervention group in comparison with the control group was 0.40 (0.24–0.68), p = 0.00059 (Table 3). This RR corresponds to a protection of 60% (32–76) against HIV infection. This result is equivalent to saying that during the period M1–M21 the intervention prevented six out of ten potential infections.
When considering only those participants who completed their M21 visit, the RR was 0.38 (0.22–0.67), p < 0.001. In comparison with the others, those who were 1 mo or more late to at least one follow-up visit or missed one follow-up visit (1178/3128; 37.7%) had the same risk of HIV infection (RR = 1.06; 0.65–1.73; p = 0.82) and were not differently protected by MC (p = 0.69). When reducing the M1–M3 period by 42 d in the intervention group, the RR was RR = 0.43 (0.26–0.73), p = 0.0016, a value close to the RR obtained in the intention-to-treat analysis. This indicates that the 6-wk period of abstinence plays a minor role in explaining the effect of the intervention during the period M1–M21. Among the two major ethnic groups of the participants, Zulus (n = 1,109) and Sothos (n = 1,506), the RR was 0.60 (0.25–1.41), p = 0.24, and 0.42 (0.20–0.88), p = 0.022, respectively. These two RRs were not significantly different (p = 0.55). The per-protocol analysis gave RR = 0.24 (0.14–0.44), p < 0.001, a value lower to the RR obtained in the intention-to-treat analysis. The difference of the results given by the two analyses is at least partly explained by the cross-overs. In the intervention group, 6.5% (93/1432) were not circumcised at M3, and in the control group, 10.3% (114/1105) were circumcised at M21 (Figure 1).
For the periods M1–M3, M4–M12, and M13–M21, the number of HIV infections was two, seven, and 11 in the intervention group and nine, 15, and 25 in the control group. The RR for each of these periods is given in Table 3. In the period M1–M3, there was an RR of 0.23 close to the significance level, which was slightly higher when taking into account the 42 d of abstinence (RR = 0.37; 0.08–1.72; p = 0.21).
Using model-2, an RR was found similar to that obtained with model-1: 0.38 (0.23–0.65), p < 0.001. This result is attributable to the randomization process, which distributed the characteristics equally between the intervention and control groups.
Of the five reported sexual behavioural factors, all were higher in the intervention group than in the control group during the period M4–M12, and four out of five were higher during the period M13–M21. Only the mean number of sexual contacts showed statistically significant differences during the period M4–M12 (5.9 versus 5.0, p < 0.001) and during the period M13–M21 (7.5 versus 6.4, p = 0.0015). The proportion of participants attending a clinic for a genital problem in the 12 mo prior to M12 was lower in the intervention group than in the control group (4.7% versus 7.2%, p = 0.0067).
Using model-3, the RR, adjusted on behavioural characteristics, reported by participants during the follow-up is similar to the RR obtained with model-1 (Table 4). This last result indicates that the protective effect of the intervention is not attributable to the change of reported behaviour associated with the intervention and shows that adjustment for potential confounders has little effect on the association of MC and HIV incidence.
Figure 2 shows the fitted infection-free probability as a function of time and of randomization. Table 5 describes the 60 (3.8%) AEs that were reported during surgery or in the first month following surgery among 1,568 MCs performed in the intervention group, HIV-positive at randomization included. The proportion of AE was higher among those who were HIV-positive at randomization, and the difference is close to significance (p = 0.056, Fisher's exact test). At M3, 98.5% of those who were circumcised (HIV-positive at randomization included), were “very satisfied” with the result of the circumcision. Adverse events recorded at the end of the follow-up (M21) are described in Table 6.
Figure 2. Infection-Free Probability As a Function of Time and of Randomization
This figure represents the infection-free probability using a piecewise exponential distribution with boundaries at M3, M12, and M21 obtained with a Poisson log-linear model (see text). Each segment of exponential has been fitted to the data in each period for each randomization group. The 95% confidence intervals have been represented in the middle of each period. x/y is the number of HIV infections observed in each period (x) and the number of persons at the beginning of the period (y).
Table 6. Adverse Events at the End of the Follow-Up (M21) among Those Having Been Randomized in the Intervention Group, As a Function of HIV Status at Randomization
doi:10.1371/journal.pmed.0020298.t006
Home visits for late participants revealed 16 deaths among participants (HIV-positive at randomization included), of whom six had been circumcised, but examination of death certificates, reports from doctors who carried out the MC, interviews with relatives, and timing of these deaths revealed no deaths related to MC. The mortality rate from the South African Census 2001 data [23] in the age groups 15–19 and 20–24 for the black population of the Gauteng province was 2.4 and 3.9 per 1,000 per year. These figures lead to an estimate of 3.5 per 1,000 per year at the mean age (21.0 y) of our participants. In turn, this value leads to an estimated number of deaths of 15.7 using the mean follow-up, which is close to the number of deaths observed in our trial.
Discussion
This study provides the first experimental evidence of the efficacy of MC in protecting men against HIV infection. It was conducted in a general population, and it is the first randomized control trial testing the impact on health of MC. The demonstration in this study of a causal association between HIV infection and MC is consistent with protection suggested by meta-analyses of observational studies [12] but with a higher protective effect. This difference can be explained, at least partly, by the effect of bias and confounding factors associated with cross-sectional studies. High values ranging from 0.12 to 0.29 of protective effect of MC have been reported in prospective studies conducted in high-risk groups [6,8–11]. Our study is also the first experimental study demonstrating that surgery can be used to prevent an infectious disease. In addition, this finding is an a posteriori proof of the use of MC to improve hygiene in the common meaning of not being infected.
This study has some limitations. It was conducted in one area in sub-Saharan Africa and, therefore, may not be generalizable to other places. Nevertheless, because of the similar route of transmission of HIV in sub-Saharan Africa and because observational studies from various areas of sub-Saharan Africa have shown an association between HIV status and MC [12], the result of this trial is applicable to all of sub-Saharan Africa with some degree of confidence.
Even though some participants were lost during the follow-up, and the loss to follow-up rate was greater than the event rate, the impact of missing participants on the overall results of this study is likely to be small not only because the loss to follow-up was small for a cohort study conducted in a general population, but also because those who were late for at least one follow-up visit were protected by MC just as the other participants. The reason for this loss to follow-up was a result of participants moving from the area or being unreachable, and not a result of HIV infection.
Because the Data and Safety Monitoring Board recommended to stop the trial after the intermediate analysis, it was not possible to follow all the participants as initially planned, and, as a consequence, only those participants recruited at the beginning had a full follow-up. This potential bias was taken into account by adjusting the analysis for the recruitment period; such an adjustment cannot fully account for the confounding effect associated with partial follow-up. When restricting the analysis to those participants who had a full follow-up, the intervention had an effect that was similar in size and significance, suggesting that this potential bias had a negligible impact.
A specific survey was implemented after the end of the recruiting period in order to assess the satisfaction of the results of the randomization. Of the participants, 65.3% said they were happy. However, the results also showed that a limited number of participants (7.5%), strongly unhappy with their group of randomization, were allocated and recorded in the other group. They were analyzed in their randomization group in the intention-to-treat analysis. The findings were confirmed by the person in charge of randomization. This factor contributed to increase the cross-over, which remained low, and to dilute the measure of the effect of the intervention, which remained high.
Another limitation concerns the timescale of this study. Participants were followed up for a short period of time, and, therefore, this study did not explore the long-term protective effect of MC.
The protective effect of MC on HIV infection was unchanged when controlling for sexual behaviour, including condom use, which was taken into account when defining those at-risk behaviour, the period of abstinence in the intervention group following MC, and heath-seeking behaviour, which was considered because treatment of STIs can have an effect on HIV acquisition [24]. This shows that these factors play a minor role in explaining the protective effect of MC on HIV infection. The reasons for this protective effect of MC on HIV acquisition have to be found elsewhere, and several direct or indirect factors may explain this [25]. Direct factors may be keratinization of the glans when not protected by the foreskin, short drying after sexual contact, reducing the life expectancy of HIV on the penis after sexual contact with an HIV-positive partner, reduction of the total surface of the skin of the penis, and reduction of target cells, which are numerous on the foreskin [26]. Indirect factors may be a reduction in acquisition of other STIs, which in turn will reduce the acquisition of HIV. Our study does not allow for identification of the mechanism(s) of the protective effect of MC on HIV acquisition.
The first and obvious consequence of this study is that MC should be recognized as an important means to reduce the risk of males becoming infected by HIV. As shown by our study, MC is useful and feasible even among sexually experienced men living in an area with high HIV prevalence. Indeed, in our study the intervention delivered by local general practitioners resulted in a limited and reasonable number of adverse events and did not lead to an increase in deaths. In addition to the protective role in men, MC will indirectly protect women and, therefore, children from HIV infection because if men are less susceptible to HIV acquisition, women will be less exposed. Moreover, MC may also be protective against male-to-female HIV transmission, but this will require further investigation [7]. The role that women can play in promoting MC is potentially important. If women are aware of the protective effect of MC, this awareness could, in turn, have an impact on the prevalence of MC by encouraging males to become circumcised.
It was found that the protective effect of MC is high. MC provides a degree of protection against acquiring HIV infection equivalent to what a vaccine of high efficacy would have achieved. Consequently, the authors think that MC should be regarded as an important public health intervention for preventing the spread of HIV. MC could be incorporated rapidly into the national plans of countries where most males are not circumcised and where the spread of HIV is mainly heterosexual. This is even more important at a time when no vaccine or microbicides are currently available and when delivering antiretroviral treatments under WHO guidelines will have only a small impact on the spread of HIV [27]. In addition, MC is an inexpensive means of prevention, performed only once, and men can be circumcised over a wide age range, from childhood to adulthood.
The potential impact of prevention programmes based on MC is difficult to assess at population level and requires modelling. From the results of this study and of the meta-analysis quoted above, it can be predicted that widespread MC could lead to a strong reduction of the spread of HIV. The availability of a simple and ancient practice with a high potential effect on the spread of HIV is remarkable and should encourage decision makers to take MC into consideration as policy. Because most of southern and East Africa is concerned, the number of HIV infections that could be avoided by the widespread implementation of MC is high.
There are potential risks in promoting MC as way of reducing the risk of HIV infection. MC can be performed under poor hygienic conditions, leading to not only infection, bleeding, and permanent injury, but also HIV infection from non-sterilized instruments, and possible death if appropriate treatment of sequelae is not provided. In the healing period, sexually active men are likely to be at a higher risk of HIV infection, and this risk should not be underestimated. MC does not provide full protection and, if perceived as full protection, could lead to reduction of protection of men who, for example, decrease their condom use or otherwise engage in riskier behaviour. It was found that the intervention group had significantly more sexual contacts. While the protective effect of circumcision remained despite this increased risk, this should be a concern when considering implementation of circumcision as a means of preventing HIV infection. Finally, there is the danger of confusing MC with female circumcision, and that promotion of MC could be used by defenders of female circumcision to defend this practice.
Acceptability studies of the use of MC as a prevention measure against the spread of HIV have been conducted in South Africa [16,28], Kenya [29,30], Zimbabwe [31], and Botswana [32]. These studies, in which most of the uncircumcised African men expressed interest in becoming circumcised if performed safely and affordably, highlighted the potential of MC as a population-level intervention to reduce HIV spread. MC is a not a universal cultural practice, and cultural practices can be barriers in policy considerations. However, there are examples showing that the prevalence of MC can be changed. For example, in South Korea 50 years ago, almost no men were circumcised; today some 85% of Korean men 16–29 y old are circumcised [33].
The experimental demonstration of the protective effect of MC on the acquisition of HIV emphasizes the role of MC in explaining the heterogeneity of HIV prevalence in sub-Saharan Africa. From a multi-site study conducted in four African countries, MC, together with sexual behaviour, has been posited as an important factor in the heterogeneity of HIV prevalence in sub-Saharan Africa [34]. This role is confirmed and reinforced by the findings of the present study.
Acknowledgments
The authors thank all those who agreed to take part in this study, to answer the questions put to them, and to provide blood samples. The authors would like to thank Reathe Rain-Taljaard for her management support and assistance in this project, as well as Gaph Sipho Phatedi for his management of the recruitment process. The authors would like to thank the general practitioners who have performed the MCs for this study (Dr. Bhekuyise Gwala, Dr. George Shilaluke, and Dr. Dumiso Zulu), and Dr. Sergio Carmona for monitoring the MCs. The authors would like to thank Goliath Gumede for the clinical investigation and Zodwa Nkosi for interviewing all the respondents. They would also like to thank Bongiwe Klaas for the data capture, Mabel Hunter and the recruitment staff and all the assistants (Cynthia Dlamini, Sidwell Dumisi, Benjamin Masitenyane, Robert Matodzi, Tsietsi Mbuso, Anthony Motha, Sibongiseni Mpetsheni, Jabulani Nhlapo, Joseph Ntsele, Male Chakela, Audrey Tshabalala, Donald Mashamba, and Nkululeko Nhlapo) for their cooperation and support. Ewalde Cutler, Lesley Short, Moses Mashiloane, Beulah Miller, Beverley Singh, Sarah Hloma, and the HIV serology laboratory of the National Institute for Communicable Diseases, Johannesburg, South Africa, provided excellent technical assistance in regard to the laboratory testing and administration. The authors would like to thank Brian Williams, Philippe Aegerter, Phuong Pham, and Jean-Christophe Thalabard for their useful comments on an earlier draft of this manuscript.
The study was funded by ANRS, Paris, France; the National Institute for Communicable Diseases, Johannesburg, South Africa; and the Institut National de la Santé et de la Recherche Médicale, Paris, France. JST received support from SIDACTION, Paris, France. The funders had no role in study design, data collection and analysis, decision to publish, or preparation of the manuscript.
Author Contributions
BA designed the study with DT, EL, and AP. DT and AP were responsible for operational aspects, including laboratory and field work and in-country administration of the study. BA monitored the study with input from EL and wrote the paper with input from all authors. BA analyzed the data with RS, with inputs from JST. RS conducted the interim analysis.
Patient Summary
Background
HIV/AIDS is one of the greatest threats to health worldwide. More than 3 million people died of AIDS last year, and about 5 million others became infected with HIV, bringing the total number of people living with the infection to nearly 40 million. The situation is particularly severe in Africa, which has 10% of the world's population but two-thirds of the world's people with HIV. In many African tribal groups, men are circumcised, usually in late childhood or early adolescence, and this is an important part of their cultural identity. In other African ethnic groups, men are not circumcised. By the late 1980s, researchers noticed that HIV infection rates were lower in those tribes where men were circumcised. But it was not clear whether it was circumcision itself or some other difference in behaviour between the circumcised and uncircumcised groups that gave some protection to the circumcised men against getting HIV.
What Did The Researchers Do?
The researchers wanted to find out whether circumcising men could reduce their chance of becoming infected by HIV. They offered young, sexually active, heterosexual, uncircumcised men in Johannesburg, South Africa, the chance to have the operation. They explained that half of those who came forward would be circumcised right away (the “treatment group”) and the other half would be circumcised 21 months later (the “control group”). Some 3,000 men joined the study. The group that each man was put into was decided at random. The plan was that all the men would visit the research clinic four times during this 21-month period, and that they would be tested for HIV each time. However, after 14 months, the number of new infections in the control group (49) was so much greater than the number in the treatment group (20) that it was considered unethical to continue the study. (The men in the control group were told they could be circumcised without any further delay.)
What Do These Findings Mean?
Infections were 60% fewer in the treatment group, which seems to indicate that circumcised men are much less likely to become infected with HIV when having sex with infected women. In communities where HIV is common, circumcision may prove to be a valuable tool for reducing men's risk of getting infected. However, as with most studies, criticisms could be made of some aspects of the methods used, and more research is needed before we can be sure. We must also remember that circumcised men can still become infected, even though the risk might be lower. They should still take other steps to prevent themselves from getting HIV.
Where Can I Get More Information Online?
The United Nations health agencies, including the WHO and UNAIDS, issued a statement when this research was first presented at a meeting in Brazil in July 2005:
UNAIDS (http://www.unaids.org) has information about the state of the HIV/AIDS epidemic and prevention strategies. It produces an annual report and has documents on a wide range of topics. The Q&A documents are particularly useful:
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The largest Bitcoin bet in terms of absolute value, where on BitBet.us Mircea Popescu laid down 1000 BTC of his own funds on the proposition that Bitcoin would outperform Warren Buffett's Berkshire Hathaway class A stock has been resolved as "No" with Bitcoin's exchange rate having suffered over the past 12 months. A year ago Mircea announced the bet on his blog Trilema and further declared that to hedge the bet he had sold Berkshire. Asked about how he felt about the bet's final outcome he offered:
I could afford to lose it. While nobody that makes this sort of bets exists to my knowledge, should we wish to imagine their existence as a literary device, it'd necessarily be the case they bet to win. The way fiction usually works, little audience-alter-ego David challenges Goliath, wow and behold, only one David that ever dared! and then he wins. Here, it's more like… and then he loses, and shrugs it off, and Goliath dies anyway.
The total sum that accumulated on the bet was 5514.62 Bitcoin with 4393.47 Bitcoin on "No" and 1121.15 Bitcoin bet on "Yes" with Bitcoin trading for triple digit numbers of dollars over the entire span. Asked whether there was any remorse over the fact that in either of the two previous 12 month periods "Yes" would have won:
I don't think it's either a pity or the wrong 12 months. As to the pity, mind that I've to date spent upwards of 50,000 Bitcoin on the general purpose of making Bitcoin exist. A thousand here is a tiny fraction of that. As to the wrong 12 months, they were the right 12 months, being in early 2014. That was the year when Buffett claimed to look for a short, and then claimed to not have found one. That was the year Buffett had to come out with his endearingly senile "belief in American manifest destiny." It was the right year.
So while Bitcoin's exchange reported value lost in the case of this particular bet, greater than the loss is the fact that Bitcoin continues to enjoy and benefit from the presence of serious people committed to seriously investing their own skin in the venture of building an environment around Bitcoin which can render the fiat world obsolete.
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DJ Premier discussed his upcoming album with Nas while sitting down with Royce Da 5’9” and Adrian Younge for an interview posted by VladTV.
“Nas has one more album to obligate to Def Jam,” DJ Premier says in the clip. “He said he didn’t really want to do [the joint album] there, he wanted to move on and do it independently, so we could do it how we want it. So I was like, ‘All right, when the time come just holler at me, I’m here.’”
DJ Premier says that his chemistry with Nas is very strong.
“Nas is another one that I have a cool relationship like I have with Royce,” DJ Premier says. “It’s kind of, we may not see each other everyday, or talk to each other all the time but it’s regular. Royce and I have a regular relationship. It’s no big deal, but when it goes down, it goes down. When we get in the lab we both really represent. Same thing with Nas. We pick it where we left out in conversation…If he says, ‘Let’s do it,’ I’m not like, ‘Oh, I’m tired of waiting.’ It’s like he could say I’m ready tomorrow and I’m with it. I’m in no rush. Right now we have PRhyme. Whenever it goes down, it’s going to be natural to do. It’s going to be special because it’s not like anything I’ve done in the history of my career.”
DJ Premier recalls an instance of chemistry with Jay Z.
“Jay Z is the same thing,” DJ Premier says. “I’ll just jump into a conversation that we talked about 20 years [ago] and you think that we just hit a pause button and released a conversation. I remember when he was doing his Reasonable Doubt anniversary documentary at my studio, and we were having an argument about some stuff. Jay waked in and jumps in like he was there the whole half hour. It’s funny because that how natural we picked up from being around each other.”
DJ Premier collaborated with Royce da 5’9” on the December release PRhyme. The joint album received four out of five from HipHopDX.
Royce also addressed the potential Slaughterhouse collaboration with TDE.
“Just Blaze actually did a beat for the Slaughterhouse TDE song,” Royce Da 5’9” says. “It’s just hard to put together. Its something we pursued. Me, Q, Soul, Jay Rock, Kendrick and Marshall actually sat at talked about the song. They came to Detroit one time and talked Em’s studio about to make the song. Just Blaze and JUSTICE league collaborated and made a crazy beat and it just hasn’t come together yet.”
For additional DJ Premier coverage, watch the following DX Daily:
Please enable Javascript to watch this video
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Not sure how many folks need something like this but here it is anyway. Just a simple applescript that will query the SCutil command to see what search domains are available. Assuming that your Kerberos or Active Directory servers are configured with the same domain name that is handed to you via DHCP (they should…
Hi All, Thanks for your patience with Recovery Partition Creator. My last update was 4.0.3 which solved some of the issues people were having. That said, the main… error still plagued some folks. The one thing that seems to be consistent is that the “mainDrive/Partition” error seems to pop up much more often (possibly all…
For those interested in setting up CrashPlan on a NAS but want an easy way to manage the CrashPlan service on your NAS as well as the CrashPlan service on your local Mac I have created a little script to make life easier for you. If you only run CrashPlan on your NAS then this…
Updated to 4.0.3 Hi all, Thank you for your patience waiting for the bug fixes. I think I squashed a few of the bugs though I am sure more are out there. At any rate here is 4.0.2. Hopefully the “maindrive” bug so many were getting is now gone. Cheers, Chris Recovery Partition Creator…
Update: I know there are a few bugs causing some issues for a handful of users. I am trying to get a better testing environment setup so I can troubleshoot the problems (running out of disk space made this difficult). As soon as I get this squared away I hope to find the bugs and squash them. …
I know many have been waiting patiently for this release. After some extensive testing on a VM and my own production laptop I feel pretty confident I can release 4.x. So, later today I will post the final version up for those of you to use. This version is almost a complete re-write so it…
Hi Folks, Sorry for the long delay. It has been a busy last 6 – 9 months. I have re-written a bunch of the recovery partition creator in hopes that it is a bit better at handling the newer version of OS X. I hope to release it soon but need to do a bit…
Pretty stoked my little tool, Recovery Partition Creator, made it to Macworld’s Mac Gems. Thanks to Dan Frakes for taking the time to write up the article about it. I appreciate all those who have been kind enough to provide feedback the last 2 years. It wouldn’t have made it this far without you. Cheers,…
UPDATE 5/12/2016 – Version 4.x has launched. Get it here. UPDATE: Thanks to some intrepid users it has been confirmed that Recovery Partition Creator works with Yosemite (10.10) and the El Capitan (10.11) betas thus far. Version 4.0 coming soon! Without further ado here is the new version. Recovery Partition Creator 3.8 As always,…
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Q:
Is RQDA/RQDAtm package still working?
I'm a newer using RQDA package to do some text mining in Chinese.
Downloading and Installing this 2 packages successfully and packages needed to be imported before(such as GTK) are also done.
but when I want to use method RQDA2tm(), it always said no such methods.
when I use ?RQDA2tm, there is no result either.
Is this package still working?
thx.
A:
I've found where the problems was.
It was because packages RQDA had moved to RQDAtm, and corresponding methods had changed names, such as RQDA2tm() changed to codings2tm9().
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Q:
1D Number Array Clustering
So let's say I have an array like this:
[1,1,2,3,10,11,13,67,71]
Is there a convenient way to partition the array into something like this?
[[1,1,2,3],[10,11,13],[67,71]]
I looked through similar questions yet most people suggested using k-means to cluster points, like scipy, which is quite confusing to use for a beginner like me. Also I think that k-means is more suitable for two or more dimensional clustering right? Are there any ways to partition an array of N numbers to many partitions/clustering depending on the numbers?
Some people also suggest rigid range partitioning, but it doesn't always render the results as
expected
A:
Don't use multidimensional clustering algorithms for a one-dimensional problem. A single dimension is much more special than you naively think, because you can actually sort it, which makes things a lot easier.
In fact, it is usually not even called clustering, but e.g. segmentation or natural breaks optimization.
You might want to look at Jenks Natural Breaks Optimization and similar statistical methods. Kernel Density Estimation is also a good method to look at, with a strong statistical background. Local minima in density are be good places to split the data into clusters, with statistical reasons to do so. KDE is maybe the most sound method for clustering 1-dimensional data.
With KDE, it again becomes obvious that 1-dimensional data is much more well behaved. In 1D, you have local minima; but in 2D you may have saddle points and such "maybe" splitting points. See this Wikipedia illustration of a saddle point, as how such a point may or may not be appropriate for splitting clusters.
See this answer for an example how to do this in Python (green markers are the cluster modes; red markers a points where the data is cut; the y axis is a log-likelihood of the density):
A:
You may look for discretize algorithms. 1D discretization problem is a lot similar to what you are asking. They decide cut-off points, according to frequency, binning strategy etc.
weka uses following algorithms in its , discretization process.
weka.filters.supervised.attribute.Discretize
uses either Fayyad & Irani's MDL method or Kononeko's MDL criterion
weka.filters.unsupervised.attribute.Discretize
uses simple binning
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MANCHESTER — Elvis posters. An Elvis pig. An Elvis lunch box. Seven Elvis music boxes. Framed Elvis sheet music. An Elvis Precious Moments figurine. Twenty-one Elvis Presley's records. Elvis collectible plates. Elvis trading cards.
The lifetime collection of an ardent fan is up for sale.
But first Julie Anderson wants people to know her mom's Elvis collection is more than the story of one woman's love for a rock star.
It's also the story of the love that began with two teenagers in the 1950s. It's the story of the family those two teenagers built.
And Elvis, too.
"I don't want to get rid of the Elvis collection, but ..." Anderson said.
Anderson's parents, Ray Pankratz and Terra Peretti, were teenagers when they met. Her dad was 17 and the oldest of 10 kids on a Manchester farm.
Terra, 14, was walking home with friends from a DeMolay dance when Ray and a buddy pulled up. They'd been cruising the drag when they spotted the girls and offered a ride. Ray got in the back seat with Terra. They talked, and he asked if he could walk her to the door. She acquiesced. At the door, he asked for a kiss. She said yes again.
Anderson remembers hearing a story of the pair skipping school together. They were busted on the Burger Master ramp when Terra's dad pulled up behind them. Busted.
The pair married in 1960 and had four daughters, Debbie, Lori, Julie and JoAnne, named for Terra's sister.
The elder JoAnn borrowed some of Terra's records for a party, but they were stolen. Terra was angry at her sister. Her harsh words were the last words she spoke to her. JoAnne was killed by a drunk driver days later. She was 17.
In her shock and grief after the wreck, Terra developed Type I diabetes at age 20, and Anderson said her father was steadfast at her side as she struggled. Her mom wasn't a complainer, instead focusing on how she could help everyone around her.
"My mom was a very positive person," Anderson said. "Everyone loved her. She was the glue for our family."
When at the Mayo Clinic for treatment, Terra went into a coma for two weeks. When she surfaced, a doctor advised them to enjoy their time together as she probably wouldn't live another year.
Instead, they had decades together, married almost 58 years until Terra died in November 2017.
One of Anderson's favorite memories of her parents is the way her dad, an auto body man, would work in the garage, but when Elvis was on the radio, he'd call to Terra. She'd stand at the door and they'd gaze at each other as they listened to the song.
Terra's favorite Elvis song was "Memories."
Memories, pressed between the pages of my mind
Memories, sweetened through the ages just like wine
"We got to clean house to Elvis every Sunday," Anderson said. "If you had to clean, Elvis was still great, and we know all his songs by heart."
In her last years, Alzheimer's disease set in. Terra couldn't talk in her final days, but she still responded every time she heard Ray's voice. She said, clearly, one last "I love you."
Her family played Elvis, Charley Pride and Christmas music to comfort Terra on her way.
Related:Read Terra Pankratz's obituary
And now the time has arrived to process a lifetime of memories and the collection of a woman who collected not just Elvis things but also pigs and Christmas pieces.
As is often the case, many family and friends contributed to the collection, and they've taken back some pieces to remember Terra by, like the Elvis clock with the swinging legs pendulum.
Organizing the collection has been enjoyable, Anderson said. She's spent time with her dad and gotten to know his new wife, a fellow member of the Class of 1958.
Anderson originally posted the collection with "make me an offer" but realized she didn't know how much anything was worth.
Some things turned out to be valuable. The albums are in near-perfect condition since Terra never learned to work the record player. After some research, Anderson pegged the value at $1,000 or so.
"My dad's a farmer. He knows how to wheel and deal," she said.
"It's interesting how much some things are worth, and some things I couldn't find online," she said. "Some stuff isn't worth anything, but it was good memories for my mom."
She learned Elvis's 24th album, "Moody Blue," released less than a month before he died, is the most valuable.
Anderson thinks she'll hold on to one of the 45s, though. That's "My Way."
"My mom did things her way, to the end," she said.
But through it all, when there was doubt
I ate it up and spit it out
I faced it all and I stood tall
Terra never met Elvis, but she met several times impersonator Ryan Pelton. She had framed photos of Pelton, who gave her scarves, leis and kisses at his Elvis shows.
Made her day, Anderson said.
And her parents traveled together to Elvis's home Graceland about 10 or 15 years ago.
And she met Charley Pride. Ray would call her outside to listen to "Kiss an Angel Good Morning," too.
On a recent morning, Anderson, who teaches resource health, adaptive PE and resource financial technology at Great Falls High School, showed a few of the items in the collection.
Under an Elvis/bison "Belvis" that she drew, Anderson arranged an Elvis lunch box, an Elvis portrait drawn by a middle schooler she'd taught, sheet music for "Hound Dog" and Elvis stamps with a Graceland cancelation.
Anderson said her mother has sent signs assuring her everything's going to be all right.
As Elvis sang,
Take my hand
Let me stand
Where no one stands alone
Those interested in the collection may email Anderson at julieandersonandy@gmail.com.
More:Mansch On Montana: For Dean, Elvis lives
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Getty Images
Last Friday, after trade talks that would have brought Antonio Brown to the Bills fell apart, a narrative emerged that Brown didn’t want to play in Buffalo. On Thursday, Bills G.M. Brandon Beane pushed back.
“That pissed me off, to be candid because it was an ignorant comment,” Beane told reporters. “I’m not on social media, but if you live in Buffalo or you know anything about Buffalo — don’t speak about Buffalo if you don’t know what this city and what this fan base is like. It really pissed me off because it’s not true and when you talk to players — how many guys flowed through here today? Eight, nine, whatever, and we could have had more.
“We didn’t have that narrative, it totally started with a bad rumor on the whole Antonio Brown thing. People looking for reasons, and they didn’t have all of the facts. Again, people that have been here, I can’t tell you how many people have commented, ‘This is amazing. This is awesome. What a facility. What a place. What a culture.’ All of that stuff that we have going here and we love this city and all I want to say is anybody who says that doesn’t know Buffalo and really is just speaking out of ignorance.”
The comments come at a time when the Bills have done a nice job of attracting talent players to town, beginning the process of building around a budding franchise quarterback in Josh Allen and laying the foundation to be highly competitive in the AFC East, after Patriots quarterback Tom Brady finally retires — and possibly before.
Indeed, the Bills made it to the playoffs in 2017, for the first time in a generation. Last year, they deliberately took a step back with the goal of making a major leap forward, building a team that could soon become a playoff contender on an annual basis and that could perhaps at some point finish a job that was started nearly 30 years ago before being unintentionally abandoned for a couple of decades.
With a quarterback who had a solid season that was largely overlooked amid the exploits of Baker Mayfield in Cleveland, the Bills are laying the foundation for something potentially special. The idea that Brown regarded Buffalo as an undesirable destination, if true, doesn’t mesh with the reality that the Bills may be far better positioned that Brown’s new team to compete in a suddenly deep and star-filled conference that has a growing list of top-flight teams that has yet to include the Bills.
As soon as this season, the Bills could force their way into that conversation, and Brown may end up wishing he’d climbed aboard wagons that could soon be circling as effectively as they did in the early ’90s.
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What is the value of 4/(-2) + 9 + (-2 - 0)?
5
What is (-25)/((-1250)/(-240)) - -4?
-4/5
What is 0 - (153/(-63) - -3)?
-4/7
(0 + -3)/((-6)/4)
2
Evaluate 0/18 - (-2)/(-9).
-2/9
What is ((-5)/10)/(18/36)?
-1
What is the value of ((-39)/(-312))/(1 + 0)?
1/8
What is the value of (3/((-765)/10))/((-11)/(-33))?
-2/17
Calculate (2/(-9) - 0) + (-1736)/(-1008).
3/2
What is the value of (-9 - 36)/9 + -4?
-9
What is the value of (1 + -2)*(2 - 5)?
3
Calculate (-2 - -1)/(-3)*288/480.
1/5
10/5 - (-3 - -1)
4
Calculate 120/200 + (-11)/(-15) + -2.
-2/3
Calculate (-70)/(-72) - 3/4.
2/9
Calculate (-6)/14 + 18/(-42).
-6/7
Calculate 3/48 - (1 - 334/288).
2/9
What is (25 + -28)*(-4)/(-18)?
-2/3
What is 18/4*(-57)/171?
-3/2
-9 + 1/21*187
-2/21
Calculate -2 - -11 - 18/9.
7
Evaluate (19/19)/((-5)/(-8)).
8/5
What is the value of 1*((-168)/35 + (-2)/10)?
-5
What is the value of 1*(-1 - 0)*(-21)/(-42)?
-1/2
What is (144/28 + -5)/(2/6)?
3/7
-2 + (-6)/(-4) + (-11)/(-10)
3/5
What is 2 + 2/(-1) + -4?
-4
Evaluate (-4)/(-10)*(17 - 4068/234).
-2/13
Calculate (-26)/(-112) - (-270)/(-720).
-1/7
What is the value of 9*(4 + 117/(-27)) - 6?
-9
(30/45 - 4/6)/(-1)
0
Calculate (-8 - -9)*2/(-5).
-2/5
Calculate (2 - 2) + (-3)/51.
-1/17
(-63)/27 - (2 - 4)
-1/3
What is ((-28)/(-8))/((-14)/(-16))?
4
Evaluate 24/(-27) + ((-42)/54 - -1).
-2/3
Evaluate 7 + -11 - 8/(-1).
4
What is 0 - 3 - 246/(-78)?
2/13
What is the value of 8/(-12)*((-42)/(-12) + -2)?
-1
What is the value of (-8)/(-66)*(-873)/(-194)?
6/11
(-1)/4 - ((-35)/(-20) - 9)
7
Evaluate ((-72)/(-162))/(10/(-3)).
-2/15
(2/8)/((6/(-24))/1)
-1
(3/((-12)/(-8)) - -2) + -7
-3
What is the value of (-352)/(-48) + 4/(-12)?
7
Evaluate 6*14/(-28)*4/(-18).
2/3
What is the value of 8/20 - (-132)/(-480)?
1/8
Calculate 3/((1428/8)/(-7)).
-2/17
Calculate (-5)/((-75)/2)*(-830)/332.
-1/3
Evaluate (1 - 82/90)*(-6)/(-4).
2/15
Evaluate 33/22 - ((-3)/2 - 2).
5
(-5 - -10) + (-32)/7
3/7
Calculate (-6)/16*(-32)/72.
1/6
What is 135/(-54)*(-48)/40?
3
(22/(-44))/(6/4)
-1/3
What is 3/3 + 4 + 0 + -3?
2
What is 3 + 0 + 2 + 12 + -20?
-3
(2 - (-16)/(-6)) + 1
1/3
What is -3 + -1 + 5 + -6 + 3?
-2
1808/(-678)*1/(4/9)
-6
(-22)/143 - 100/(-312)
1/6
Evaluate ((-1)/10)/((-5)/(-30)).
-3/5
What is the value of ((-6)/(-33))/((-4)/(-8)*2)?
2/11
Calculate -4 + 511/49 - 6.
3/7
What is ((18/15)/3)/(-3 + 2)?
-2/5
Evaluate 2*(-3 - 148/(-48)).
1/6
14/(-8) - (1 + -10 + 8)
-3/4
What is 0/((-7 - -14) + -9)?
0
What is the value of 18/27*(64/(-52) + 1)?
-2/13
Calculate (-2)/(-5) - (1504/(-140) + 11).
1/7
(-15)/(-10)*(-9)/((-297)/(-2))
-1/11
Evaluate -1 + ((-3)/(-6))/(5/30).
2
Calculate ((56/24)/(-7))/(3/18).
-2
What is ((-172)/(-24) + -7)/((-1)/2)?
-1/3
Calculate (-6 - (-715)/117)/((-4)/6).
-1/6
What is 21/(-14)*(1 + 5/(-6))?
-1/4
Calculate (-88)/11*1 + 15.
7
Evaluate (3*1)/(48/128).
8
Evaluate ((-48)/(-540))/((-4)/(-10)).
2/9
Calculate (-48)/264 - 2/(-11).
0
What is (0 - 1/5)/(-15 + 13)?
1/10
Evaluate (-1)/6 - (0 - 2 - -2).
-1/6
What is (2 - 0) + 42/(-4 + -2)?
-5
What is the value of (-1 - 1) + (-16)/(-12)?
-2/3
(-1)/(((-4)/3)/((-16)/4))
-3
What is the value of 21/63 + (40/3)/(-4)?
-3
Evaluate (4 + -8 + 0)*7/(-98).
2/7
8/18*(-4 + 13)
4
Evaluate ((-76)/(-64) + -1)*(-3 + 1).
-3/8
What is 2/12*(-33)/44?
-1/8
What is the value of (15 - (6 - -3)) + 120/(-25)?
6/5
(-3)/207*(4 - -2)
-2/23
What is the value of (-6 + (7 - 1))/1?
0
Evaluate (-8)/28*-1*14.
4
Evaluate (-2)/(-7)*(-91)/(-52) + -2.
-3/2
What is -8 + 2 - 572/(-99)?
-2/9
What is the value of ((-15)/(-25))/((-6)/(-70))?
7
Calculate ((-12)/20)/((-4)/(-20)).
-3
Evaluate 6/4*(-13)/((-234)/12).
1
What is 100/36 + 1 + -4?
-2/9
What is the value of (-6)/8 - (-216)/672?
-3/7
Evaluate -29 + 28 - 38/(-34).
2/17
What is (-51)/(-68)*8/(-2)?
-3
Calculate -2 - 18*3/(-21).
4/7
(21/140)/(5/20)
3/5
What is (-168)/126*(-3)/2?
2
What is the value of 4/(-20) + (-141)/45 + 2?
-4/3
What is the value of 0 + 10/30*(-12 - 3)?
-5
What is the value of (-9)/27*(-14)/21?
2/9
What is the value of 4 - (12/(-9))/((-6)/18)?
0
What is 1/(-55) + (-30)/165?
-1/5
Calculate 1/(5/((-40)/(-2))).
4
Calculate (-3)/8*(-152)/133.
3/7
Calculate (-60)/(-504) - 1/(-6).
2/7
What is ((-10)/(-25))/(12/10)?
1/3
Evaluate (2/(-26))/(420/(-1820)).
1/3
(-168)/28 - 16*(-1)/3
-2/3
What is the value of ((-16)/10)/((-58)/(-145))?
-4
Calculate (-128)/(-448) - 39/(-84).
3/4
What is the value of 44/28 - 90/(-210)?
2
(-5)/4*(-32)/(-8)
-5
Evaluate 1/(1456/576 - 4/(-18)).
4/11
What is the value of (43/129)/(2/(7 + -1))?
1
Calculate ((-6)/(-10))/((-1)/((-10)/16)).
3/8
Evaluate (-6)/(-4)*(-8)/12.
-1
What is the value of (5/(-20)*-2)/(4/(-24))?
-3
Calculate -2 - (0 - 4 - -3).
-1
What is (-18)/15*(-20)/12?
2
Evaluate 9 + -8 + 0 + 9/(-7).
-2/7
What is the value of (33/(-18) - -2)/(3/(-12))?
-2/3
What is the value of (3/12 + 0)*-4 + -2?
-3
What is the value of (-26)/39*(-3)/2?
1
What is (-64)/144 + 20/(-36)?
-1
What is the value of (-1)/(((-18)/(-144))/(1 + -2))?
8
Calculate 16/(-10) + 2 + 320/(-550).
-2/11
Evaluate (4 + (-9)/2)/((-2)/12).
3
What is the value of ((-27)/18)/((5/2)/(-5))?
3
Calculate (132/90)/(-11) + 14/(-30).
-3/5
Evaluate -5 - (0/(-2))/5.
-5
What is the value of (-1066)/(-984) + (18/8)/(-3)?
1/3
What is 141*6/162 + 1*-5?
2/9
Calculate (-10 - (10 + -11))/1.
-9
Evaluate (-300)/1650 + (-28)/(-33).
2/3
-1 + 26/15 + 2/(-6)
2/5
What is the value of 50/15 + ((-8)/(-12) - 1)?
3
Evaluate 455/117 - 2/(-18).
4
What is ((-548)/(-252) - 2) + 4/36?
2/7
What is 2*7*(-50)/(-100)?
7
Calculate (-12)/(-4) - ((2 - 0) + 5).
-4
What is the value of (2 + 26/(-8))/((-150)/60)?
1/2
(3 - 7)*(0 - 1)*-1
-4
What is 2/126*2*225/75?
2/21
What is (-39)/(-63) - 12/42?
1/3
Calculate (-2*35/42)/(-5).
1/3
What is (6/(-10))/((-54)/(-12))?
-2/15
What is the value of 2/4*32/(-16)?
-1
What is the value of (7/35)/(12/20)?
1/3
Calculate ((-1)/10)/(1656/(-90) - -18).
1/4
Evaluate (-29)/(-87)*3/((-3)/2).
-2/3
-1*(5 + 1 + -4)/2
-1
What is the value of ((-1)/3)/((-48)/1152)?
8
What is the value of (-36)/(-8)*3/((-108)/(-32))?
4
What is the value of -1 - (2 + -4 + 2)?
-1
What is (4 - 1) + 416/(-96)?
-4/3
10 + -6 + 4/(-3 - -1)
2
What is 58/(-14) - (-1 - (-30)/35)?
-4
Evaluate (-4)/26 - (-4400)/8320.
3/8
-6 - 80/(-35) - (-2)/(-7)
-4
Calculate -6 + (3 - (-1)/1).
-2
What is the value of (-2)/6 + 39/(-18)?
-5/2
Calculate 3 + (9 + -1 - 12).
-1
What is (2/(8 - 22))/((-12)/(-14))?
-1/6
Calculate (-7)/(455/55) + (-4)/26.
-1
(8/(-24))/(19/570)
-10
Evaluate 27*((-338)/(-39) + -9).
-9
What is the value of (-3 + 3)*3/18*-3?
0
Evaluate 3*(-6)/(-4) - (-42)/84.
5
What is the value of 6 + -2*(-20)/(-8) - 3?
-2
Evaluate (17 - 15) + (1 + -1 - 2).
0
Evaluate ((-407)/(-1665) + 2/(-10))*5.
2/9
Evaluate (1/(2/(-3)))/(-12).
1/8
Calculate -5*(-13)/(-78)*8/(-10).
2/3
Evaluate ((-2)/(-6))/(18/27).
1/2
Evaluate (-4)/(8/(-6)*(-1)/1).
-3
Evaluate 4*(2 + -3) - -3.
-1
Evaluate (-320)/56 - -1 - (-1 + -4).
2/7
Calculate 52/16 - (-7)/(140/(-15)).
5/2
Evaluate (-9)/(-4 - -13) + (2 - 3).
-2
Evaluate 3*(-21)/45 + 2.
3/5
Calculate 1/(-13) + 1085/2275.
2/5
Evaluate 318/(-66) - 25/(-5).
2/11
Evaluate 5*(2/3 + (-4)/(-12)).
5
Calculate -8 + (-6)/(-3)*6.
4
What is 693/(-165) + (-12)/(-10)?
-3
Evaluate (-5)/(-50) - (-14)/35.
1/2
27/(-36)*(-4)/(-3)
-1
What is the value of ((-2)/6*-4)/(1/3)?
4
What is (12/10)/1*(-225)/(-630)?
3/7
What is (13/(-26) - 2/(-12))*-18?
6
0 + 9/(468/8)
2/13
What is the value of -4*(-13)/(-65)*(-5)/4?
1
Evaluate (-15 - -3)/(3 + -4 + 3).
-6
What is ((-12)/20)/((-45)/6)?
2/25
Evaluate 6 + (8 - 25) + 8.
-3
Calculate 24/(-42) - 195/(-35).
5
(-1)/(5 + (-48)/9)
3
Calculate (-3)/(-6)*(12 + -12).
0
Evaluate (-117)/(-54) - (-1)/(-6).
2
What is the value of (-8091)/(-1131) - (7 - 0)?
2/13
Calculate (11/(-10) + 1)/((-115)/575).
1/2
What is the value of ((-15)/20)/((-136)/(-32) + -4)?
-3
Calculate ((95/10)/19)/((-2)/(-4)).
1
Calculate 9 - 9 - 2/(-8).
1/4
What is the value of ((-30)/21)/(-2) - 1?
-2/7
(66/11 + -4)/((-2)/4)
-4
What is 6/2*55/198*6?
5
What is (140/(-21) - -4)*(-10 - -7)?
8
What is the value of -4*25/10*1/65?
-2/13
Calculate 0 + (-17)/(-5) - 104/(-65).
5
What is 39/(-36) - 21/(-28)?
-1/3
What is the value of 14/(-28)*8/26?
-2/13
Calculate 5/((-15)/(-8)) + (-33)/(-99).
3
What is (-71 + 73)/(2*-1)?
-1
What is 2/4*(-5)/((-25)/(-10))?
-1
Calculate ((-14)/(-4
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After we got cats we used it for several years and it was okay. When one of our cats started avoiding the litter box due to urinary issues, we briefly tried Swheat Scoop. I know some people swear by Swheat Scoop, but when it mixed with urine, ugh…. >_< The smell made me gag! There was no way we could keep using it. (The cat is fine now, btw.)
Time went on, and I decided to check out cat litters again just to see what was new. I read up on World's Best Cat Litter and figured we’d give it a shot. It still met my requirements of being natural, biodegradable, flushable, and dustless.
And O.M.G!!!! This stuff is AMAZING!! We have no issues with smell, it clumps great, and our cats took to it right away. What surprised me the most is how long one bag lasts! With three cats a 34lb bag lasts over a month. o_O
It’s made from corn, but for some reason the multi-cat formula naturally smells like BBQ. (I’ve had other people give a fresh bag a whiff, so I know it’s not just my brain that’s smelling BBQ.)
Once it’s in the litter box the BBQ smell dissipates. But yeah, that part is weird. *^_^* Regardless, I’m a total convert. I wish we’d started using it sooner!
If your local pet store doesn’t stock World's Best Cat Litter (or if you just prefer delivery), you can order it from Amazon.com. Just click the link above!
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Q:
How to collect liquids you can't safely stand in?
How do I bottle things like acid, teleportatium, and lava? I can't stand in them to put them in a bottle. In the cases of acid and lava, I die, and in the cases of teleportatium and polymorphine, I teleport away or polymorph into something that can't use a bottle.
Is it even possible to put these things in bottles?
A:
Empty and throw the bottle into whatever it is you're trying to get. This very problem confused me for a while too till I realized you can throw and empty the flasks.
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I started out in my software engineering life writing software for embedded real-time systems and communication stacks, so I often think of myself as an async native. I’ve written a lot of code in various languages, mostly not using event-driven programming models and design patterns, but hardware interrupts, callback functions, event loops and finite state machines – I still see these as reassuringly familiar features of my original habitat. Call it the baby duck syndrome.
Who is this post for?
This post is primarily aimed at developers working with (or planning to work with) server-side JavaScript using NodeJS. If you’re already familiar with event loops and state machines then much of this article will be familiar to you. For others, I’m hoping this post will provide you with an understanding of the fundamentals of the event-driven programming model you will need when creating Finite State Machines or working with NodeJS on the server or on a Raspberry Pi or similar device.
Events and Event-driven Programming
A conventional program takes input data and transforms it by processing into the required output data, and has full control of the linear processing thread from the beginning to the end.
In contrast, a lot of systems are naturally event-driven, which means that they are being continuously triggered by the occurrence of some external input or internal event such as a mouse click, a button press, a time tick, or an arrival of a data packet. After recognizing the event, the system reacts by performing some appropriate action. Once the event handling is complete, the system goes back to waiting for the next event.
A McAnalogy
To illustrate this contrast between a classic linear, “thread-based” model of handling program execution and the event-driven model, lets look at how you order food at a typical fast-food restaurant. (or “quick service restaurant” as they prefer to call themselves)
The linear, “thread-based” way of implementing the service would be to take an order, take payment, cook the food, give it to the customer, and then turn to the next customer. I actually worked in a burger bar that worked this way while paying my way through engineering school. This model is simple and works fine at low scale. And to service more customers; simply add another staff member doubles throughput.
Modern fast food restaurants don’t work that way. They are designed to scale (handle larger customer volume without growing staff numbers linearly) using an event-driven model. When you place your order, it’s sent out back for a cook to fulfill while the cashier takes your payment. The cashier then takes the next order. At some point, your cashier is notified of your order being ready, and hands it to you (this is analogous to the triggering of callback function).
The key point is that cooking is not “blocking” the receiving of new orders. Non-blocking functions are a key feature of successful event-driven systems.
Event-driven programming is the paradigm most used in GUI frameworks that are built to take specific actions in response to naturally unpredictable user input. Typically in event-driven systems, you need to deal with the fact that the appropriate action to take upon a particular event depends on actions that have taken place previously, and on their results. And like the restaurant, a key goal of event-driven programming is scalability (handle larger volume without growing CPUs linearly)
The Paradigm
A state machine is an abstraction of the basic event-driven model. An event-driven state machine can be simply compared to somebody with amnesia who is constantly asking:
Where am I?
What just happened?
and…
So what do I do (or where do I go) next?
In embedded systems, where you don’t have an operating system to get in the way …I mean support you… you use hardware interrupts to trigger interrupt handler functions directly.
In higher-level systems, you start with a simple main loop that takes events from a queue.
In a Finite State Machine (FSM), you let your state machine know “where am I?” and “what to do I do next?” by defining a finite list of states your system can be in, the events that can occur, and the functions which are triggered by events and which in turn drive state transitions. Then you start up your main loop and away it goes.
In an event-driven system like Windows, or the JavaScript runtime engine, there is an in-built background event loop that listens for events, and then triggers your callback functions when one of those events you’re listening for is detected. In such systems, instead of implementing a state machine, event-driven applications can be implemented using languages supporting high-level abstractions such as event listeners, callbacks and closures. More on closures later.
Finite State Machines
You can skip this section if it’s not FSMs you are interested in. You don’t need to understand FSMs to develop Node applications.
In an FSM, the response to an event generally depends on both the type of the event and on the internal state of the system.
As a by-product of the FSM model, it’s easy to represent your code behavior visually. My FSMs usually look like this one, used to implement a TCP/IP stack:
where the circles represent states and the arrows represent actions and state transitions. The concept of the FSM is important in event-driven programming precisely because it makes the event handling explicitly dependent on both the event-type and on the state of the system.
The good news is that using the JavaScript engine server-side doesn’t require you to implement a FSM in your application – maintenance of state is decentralized and implicit when you use closures in setting up your callbacks, as we’ll see below.
The traditional techniques for selecting the next action based on an event and a state and perhaps a condition will result in convoluted conditional logic (in C/C++, you’ll see these coded as deeply nested if-else or switch-case statements). Doing away with these conditional branches to make your code easier to write, understand, test, and maintain, will simplify your job by an order of magnitude – and that’s what a well-designed state machine will do.
Most of my early software was written in C, and it turns out that C has a feature that is very useful for writing simple and efficient finite state machines – the function pointer. You can always implement an FSM in any language using nested switch/case or if-then-else statements. But being able to define a variable that was a pointer to (i.e. the address of) a function, means you can write a simple FSM loop that processes events using a struct like this:
/* FSM States */ #define STATE_START 0 #define STATE_INITIALIZED 1 /* FSM Events */ #define EVENT_INIT 0 #define EVENT_ERROR 1 … /* FSM action functions */ int initialize(void) { /* Initialize FSM here */ return (STATE_INITIALIZED); } … /* FSM actions and transitions */ const struct { int state; int event; bool condition; (int)(*fn)(); } fsm [] = { {STATE_START, EVENT_INIT, initialize}, {STATE_START, EVENT_ERROR, error_handler}, {STATE_INITIALIZED, EVENT_ERROR, error_handler}, … };
I wrote an FSM using this technique for a public Bildshirmtext (“Btx”) terminal while working in Germany in the late 1980s. These were pre-Internet days, but the terminal had keyboard and block-graphics UI and used an embedded dial-up modem and the Btx protocol to implement some features pretty familiar to Web 1.0 users, like company sites, online shopping, information pages, and even online banking.
The downside of FSMs
The FSM is a great model for tackling problems where there are a manageable number of states – say up to a dozen or so states. The complexity of the FSM table quickly gets out of control beyond that. In the past, I’ve implemented nested hierarchies of FSMs to cope with more complex real-time solutions, but its really stretching the paradigm.
The use of an event-driven language and framework like JavaScript and Node can overcome this issue.
Node and JavaScript
Although Node is mostly seen as a way to run JavaScript on a server, JavaScript isn’t actually the point of Node; it was just a means to achieve a non-blocking event-driven platform. There is much more to Node than just JavaScript.
The nodejs.org homepage boldly declares:
Node.js is a platform built on Chrome’s JavaScript runtime for easily building fast, scalable network applications. Node.js uses an event-driven, non-blocking I/O model that makes it lightweight and efficient, perfect for data-intensive real-time applications that run across distributed devices.
Well, that’s pretty much Node in a nutshell right there. Node is a server-side JavaScript Runtime Environment designed on the event-driven paradigm. The Google V8 JavaScript engine used in the Chrome browser is used as its JavaScript interpreter, complemented with a complete non-blocking API library, based on an asynchronous I/O model. On top of this API, Node provides a whole raft of modules to help build your network-enabled applications quickly.
JavaScript was specifically designed for use in the browser and thus for an event-driven GUI context. It handles asynchronous events through callbacks attached to objects and events. If you’ve written any client-side JavaScript at all you will have used event listeners and callbacks.
In this simple example, when the user clicks on the button, “Hello World” appears in the browser window:
document.getElementById("myButton").onclick = function(){ document.getElementById("myTextElement").innerHTML = "Hello World"; };
There are even multiple ways to achieve the same event-driven behaviour :
document.getElementById("myButton").addEventListener("click", function(){ document.getElementById("myTextElement").innerHTML = "Hello World"; });
That makes JavaScript a good choice for event-driven programming in general.
In a browser context, the DOM is an API – effectively it’s the browser’s asynchronous I/O library, and the callbacks and listeners in its library functions deliver the events driving your application.
Once Node provided a corresponding asynchronous I/O framework for JavaScript to run on the server side, JavaScript was able to escape from the browser.
Callbacks
Where do my callbacks go when I submit them in an asynchronous function call ?
The JavaScript runtime engine has an event or message queue, which stores events to be processed, and their associated callback functions. In an event loop, the queue is polled for the next event and the callback for that event is executed. Callback functions processing an event can also fire off new callbacks, which result in new events appearing in the queue, often making for some pretty convoluted-looking code.
If you come from a “traditional” background in multi-threaded backend development in C/C++/C#, Java, etc., then you may have to go through some mental recalibration before you start to get asynchronous. Luckily, Node makes thinking asynchronously simpler.
Closures
JavaScript’s async libraries and closures mean there is no need for you to implement a formal FSM to explicitly manage states in your application. Closures make asynchronous programming elegant. To understand closures, you have to understand function scope.
In C, the parentheses { } always define scope, called block scope. JavaScript also uses parentheses, but they do not give you block scope. In JavaScript, functions provide scope – known unsurprisingly as function scope.
Function scope means that everything between parentheses operators { } of a function provides your scope. Use of this function scope is very common in JavaScript code, even as far as defining a “dummy” function purely to limit scope and prevent module variables having global scope.
As we’ll see, JavaScript being functionally scoped encourages asynchronous, event-driven programming.
In JavaScript, a function has access not only to its own local variables and global variables, but also has access to its “referencing environment” – that means a function defined within an outer function has access to all the variables defined in the scope of the outer function. In JavaScript, that inner function is a “closure”.
JavaScript’s closures allow you to submit callbacks that, when triggered, will still have access to the variables scoped by the outer function they were spawned from, even though the outer function has since terminated. That means you can simply maintain state in an outer function instead of having to remember to pass it all via the callback.
To illustrate how this allows a callback to access the environment it was initially created in, take a look at this browser-based JavaScript example, where we again display “Hello World” but this time 5 seconds after clicking a button:
function delayedHelloWorld () { var textElem = document.getElementById("MyTextElement"); setTimeout(function helloWorld() { textElem.innerHTML = "Hello World"; return false; }, 5000); return false; } document.getElementById("myButton").addEventListener("click", delayedHelloWorld );
In the example, the delayedHelloWorld callback function includes a local variable textElem. The async function setTimeout is invoked in this function, firing off another callback called helloWorld. This adds the hellloWorld callback to the event queue managed within the JavaScript runtime engine, and this callback is triggered after approximately 5 seconds. Our delayedHelloWorld function then returns. But here’s the thing: the textElem variable is still referenced via a closure and so is not garbage collected by the JavaScript runtime. When the timer event triggers the helloWorld function, it still has access to the textElem variable declared in the outer function’s scope, even though that function has already terminated. Once the helloWorld function has finished processing the event, the textElem variable can be garbage collected.
Using Node, you can get the same effect of private state using JavaScript outside the browser environment. The following example will display “Hello World” on the console, with a 5sec delay.
function delayedHelloWorld() { var state = 64; setTimeout(function () { if (state === 64) { console.log("Hello World"); } return false; }, 5000); return false; } delayedHelloWorld();
Node is retaining the callback’s context, ensuring the callback has access to the value of the state variable defined in the outer function.
In contrast, C doesn’t have closures, making it a bit more difficult to write this kind of non-blocking code in C.
To Node or not to Node ?
This post was mainly about understanding the event-driven programming model behind Node, rather than recommending the use of Node for a specific application. But if you are still considering whether to use Node for you next project, here are a few other pros and cons to consider.
More Advantages of Node
As a server-side framework, Node has a lot more going for it than just being an event-driven framework :
It’s fast. Do the math.
It was made for real-time communications. And not just http.
It fits seamlessly with noSQL databases like MongoDB.
Challenges using Node
It’s what’s euphemistically called “non-trivial” to learn.
The API is still evolving, which makes the top of that learning curve a bit of a moving target.
If you’re a JavaScript developer you may struggle with Node because of the low level nature and the level of control you have. It’s JavaScript, but it feels more like C in that regard. There’s lot of flexibility and power – and with great power comes great responsibility…
What Next ?
To try Node out, first install on your Mac as I described here.
Then if you want to create your first Node-based web application on Amazon, follow my 3-step how-to guide – “A Node.JS Application on Amazon Cloud”:
Finally, if your target device is a Raspberry Pi, read how to install Node on your Raspberry Pi.
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Synthetic markers are used to provide visual cues that are easy to detect for computer vision systems. Such markers can be used in robotics, automation and media-oriented applications such as advertising, coupon redemption, nutrition information on packaging, etc to encode a symbolic label (i.e. a number). An example of a synthetic marker is a bar-code. Other examples of general purpose synthetic markers and related encoding schemes are the US Postal Service's Maxi-Code™ as illustrated in FIG. 1a, which is used to encode shipping information in packages. QuickResponse™ and Data Matrix™ as illustrated in FIG. 1b is used for carrying information for part labeling.
A sub-class of synthetic markers are fiducial or fiduciary markers. Fiducial markers are synthetic markers which are better adapted to provide visual cues for positioning an object in space. These markers can thus be used to provide position estimates for robotics applications. They can also be used to label individual objects for their manipulation or for scene augmentation purposes in the field of augmented reality.
Some encoding methods used to create synthetic markers involve error correction schemes which allow for some recovery of encoded information in case part of the information retrieved from the marker is corrupted. Such encoding methods tend to produce markers which are however limited when employed as fiducial markers. This is in part because such markers can be hard to detect in a large field of view or at large viewing distances due to perspective distortion or atmospheric scattering for example. These markers are further limited to a relatively small detection range to ensure proper detection and decoding of the marker's information payload.
Examples of fiducial markers used in augmented reality applications are ARToolKit™ and ARTag™ markers which are illustrated in FIG. 1c and FIG. 1d, respectively. Theses markers are made of black and white (or bi-tonal) square or geometric patterns, which encode information payload such as multi-bit data.
In deteriorated viewing conditions (i.e. Large viewing distances, camera noise, environmental or other factors) the geometrical pattern of these markers eventually becomes ambiguous and although their landmark is possibly still observable, their information payload is either extractable only with great difficult or not at all.
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Spite and Malice Extreme
Play this classic card game also know as Cat and Mouse or Skip-bo against a computer opponent. The object of this game is to get rid of your stack of cards on the left by placing them on the 3 centre stacks. The first card on the centre stack needs to be an Ace and then you can place cards upwards to a Queen (A-2-3-4-5-6-7-8-9-10-J-Q and suits are irrelevant). You can play cards from your stack at the left, your hand (middle 5 cards) or your 4 discard piles (on the right). Your turn ends when you place a card from your hand to 1 of the discard piles. Only the top card of your play stack, your hand cards and the top cards of the discard piles are available for play. The King is wild and can be used for any value. In this extreme variant you are also allowed to use cards from the 4 discard piles of your opponent.
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‘Jesus helped me forgive the men who murdered my family’
Antoinette Mushimiyimana was just eleven when war erupted in her home country of Rwanda. On the 25th anniversary of the genocide she shares her journey from survival and suffering to forgiveness.
I was born in Kigali, Rwanda, in the heart of Africa. My parents didn’t have much, but I admired how they worked very hard to raise me and my brothers. My family – who are Tutsi – faced discrimination, and years before the genocide many Tutsi people were imprisoned and killed.
I remember being asked about my ethnic group at school. I wasn’t sure how to answer because I was afraid, so I told the teacher I didn’t know. I was sent back home to check. The next day all the Tutsi children were asked to raise their hands. There were only three in my class, and we were called many insulting names and beaten.
Genocide
The genocide started after the death of President Habyarimana. It was the night of 6th April 1994 and I was eleven. I remember playing at home when a bulletin came on the radio. My father said to us: “The president is dead, the Hutu will finish us.”
The following morning, the Interahamwe (the Hutu militia) came to our house, looking for “cockroaches”, which was the term of abuse they used for Tutsi people. Dad said we had to separate otherwise they might kill us all, so I hid in the pit latrine outside our house. It was awful. This was my hiding place for about three weeks. If I was lucky I had rainwater to drink, but other than that nothing passed my lips. I overheard the Interahamwe laughing about who they had killed and the women they had raped. I could do nothing other than stay there, hoping they wouldn’t find me. It was terrifying.
One day I decided to leave my hiding place, and I couldn’t believe what I saw. Dead bodies lay all over the ground. I passed a child sucking milk from its dead mother and this really upset me. The image has stayed with me to this day and I still wonder whether I could have done something to help that baby.
People began saying that the Inkotanyi had arrived in the village. They were the soldiers of the Rwandan Patriotic Force (RPF) who had come from outside the country to liberate Rwanda. With this news the Hutu realised their time was limited, so they tried to kill as many Tutsi as possible. As I ran amid the terror and chaos, I fell over and landed in a ditch. The person behind me was carrying a large sack of beans on his back, which fell off and landed on top of me. The sack was crushing me and I couldn’t move or breathe; I thought I was dying. All I could hear were children screaming and people begging for their lives. Unable to lift the sack off me I lay in the ditch for a few hours and eventually fell asleep, exhausted.
A miracle
When I awoke the sack was no longer on me but beside me. I have no idea how this happened but I believe it was a miracle. I made my way back home while saying to God: “Please protect me, if you exist.” Eventually I arrived back at the latrine. I sat in my safe place for many hours until my dad and two of my brothers, who I thought were dead, found me and told me that we had to leave. We were going to another town where my father had a friend who might protect us.
It was a long, exhausting journey and there was shooting all around us. On arrival, my father’s friend gave us a place to stay at night but said we would have to find a hiding place outside during the day.
On one occasion, while I was hiding in a bush, I saw two dogs eating dead bodies and this absolutely terrified me. Even now, I cannot handle being with dogs. One afternoon when I was returning to our friend’s house, I was noticed by one of the Interahamwe and was added to a long line of Tutsi who were waiting to be executed with machetes. The queue got shorter and shorter as one by one people were killed. There were only two people in front of me when the news broke that the National Bank in Kigali had been broken into. Immediately the killers stopped and ran in the direction of the bank to get a share of the money. Dazed, I escaped to find my dad and brothers.
The end of the war
The RPF liberated Kigali on 4th July 1994 and everyone was transferred to a high school that became a makeshift refugee camp. It was there that we discovered the awful news of what had happened to the rest of our family. My mum and brothers had been murdered. My brother Jacques was just two years old and had been hiding with 50 other children in a burrow dug in haste as parents desperately attempted to save them. The killers found the hiding place and made a huge fire with diesel at the entrance. All the children died; they had no mercy on them. My other brother Emile – who was just six – was hit by a grenade and was refused treatment at the hospital because he didn’t have Hutu identification. I don’t have a photo of him but I remember him every day. In total more than 100 members of our extended family died.
Finding faith
I became a Christian in 2000 after joining the Christian Union at the college I was attending. I was initially attracted by the singing, because that had always been one of my hobbies, but after becoming friends with the Christian students I realised I also wanted a relationship with God. So I responded one day to an invitation by a preacher and I experienced the power of the Holy Spirit and got baptised. Before then I had found it very difficult to enter churches because I had seen so many people killed in them.
Because of what Jesus has done in my life, I have found the strength to forgive those who killed my family. I have embraced forgiveness as a fundamental key to freedom and a stepping stone to reconciliation. However, my forgiveness journey has been tested many times. I have discovered that forgiveness is a choice you have to make over and over again. I still have to forgive people associated with my loss.
Through forgiveness I have found a freedom that I did not have when I held on to unforgiveness, when I was in bondage to hatred, bitterness, resentment and anger. I couldn’t see the killers as human beings; their acts of evil made them lower than animals in my eyes. True forgiveness is a deeper level of understanding just how much we have been forgiven by God. Luke 6:37: “Forgive, and you will be forgiven” has brought me so much inner peace.
Antoinette is now married and working as a missionary with Youth With A Mission (YWAM). You can purchase her book at highstreet.church/antoinette
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Total and net muscle protein breakdown in infection determined by amino acid effluxes.
The present investigation was undertaken to study whether, in human infection of varying severity, peripheral 3-methylhistidine efflux and urinary excretion are associated with net protein degradation and to estimate the protein synthesis rate from the combined effluxes of 3-methylhistidine, tyrosine, and phenylalanine. Quadruplicate femoral arteriovenous differences of 3-methylhistidine, tyrosine, and phenylalanine were multiplied by leg plasma flow in 15 infected patients. Leg effluxes for 3-methylhistidine, tyrosine, and phenylalanine were -0.074 +/- 0.011, -2.57 +/- 0.43, and -3.17 +/- 0.44 mumol/min, respectively. There was a significant linear relationship (P less than 0.01) between the effluxes of tyrosine and phenylalanine and the efflux and urinary excretion of 3-methylhistidine. A significant release of tyrosine and phenylalanine was observed in patients studied at the 3-methylhistidine level seen in normal healthy subjects. It is concluded that in infection 1) there is an increased breakdown of skeletal muscle protein and a reduced rate of protein synthesis, with the latter being relatively more important in patients with mild disease; and 2) urinary 3-methylhistidine excretion is associated with net skeletal muscle protein degradation for the patient group studied.
| 125,314,916
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Bolivia official says explosive caused deadly Carnival blast
LA PAZ, Bolivia – Bolivia's defense minister says an explosive was used in a blast that has killed at least four people during Carnival celebrations — the second deadly explosion to hit the city of Oruro during the celebrations.
Javier Zabaleta told ATB television on Wednesday that the explosion caused a hole so large that officials don't believe it could have been caused by a gas leak, as was originally thought. In his words: "It wasn't a gas leak. We're dealing with an explosive."
He says officials are trying to determine if Tuesday night's explosion is related to another, nearby blast that killed at least eight people Saturday.
Zabaleta didn't speculate on a possible motive for an attack. But Interior Minister Carlos Romero has said three people have been detained in the investigation.
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Effects of amygdala central nucleus lesions on blocking and unblocking.
The effects of lesions of the amygdala central nucleus (CN) on blocking and unblocking of appetitive Pavlovian conditioning were examined in 2 experiments with rats. In both lesioned and unlesioned rats, prior pairing of one conditioned stimulus (CS) with a food unconditioned stimulus (US) blocked the acquisition of conditioning to a second CS when a compound of both stimuli was paired with that same US. If the value of the US was increased or decreased when the second CS was added, unlesioned rats acquired substantial conditioning to the second cue (unblocking). Unblocking occurred in lesioned rats only when the US value was increased. In both lesioned and unlesioned rats, unblocking was prevented if the compound cue was paired with the original US prior to the change in US value. These data suggest that the CN is involved in increasing attention to signals for significant events but not in tuning out redundant cues.
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Two arts I have many friends in, and in fact tried to take but in both instances the closest classes were (at the time) several hours away. Though I have been thinking of taking Judo classes and possible participating in Tournaments, to improve my ground work, and if I took a Judo it would have to be Kodokan. Esp. since I now have a car and the 4 hour drive would be well justified :).
"Cogito cogito ergo cogito sum - I think that I think, therefore I think that I am." Ambrose Bierce
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Articles about visa
VISA is now aware of a potential attack on the payment system (card reader) that several gas stations utilize across North America.The main objective of the malicious attack by a cybercrime group is to gain access to the merchant’s network on these gas stations.Once they get access to the network – they can use it to collect card details of the customers.Of course, this is a dangerous exploit that should […]
Last week, it was reported that Facebook’s Libra cryptocurrency lost one of the companies that initially supported it. This came in the form of PayPal who decided to back out of the cryptocurrency. However, it seems that Libra could be in serious trouble because it looks like more founding companies are withdrawing their support as well.
Ever wondered how card networks like Visa and Mastercard make money? They charge processing fees from merchants. They have to pay a small fee to the bank that issued the customers’ card while the customers’ bank pays a fee to the company operating the card network. As it turns out, Visa and Mastercard are looking to raise some of those fees.
When you shop online, you are usually presented with several ways of payment. The most common way would be to either use your credit card directly, or more often than not you will find PayPal as one of the options as well which is one of the more popular ways of making online payments.
Global payments giant Visa has made a major commitment to renewable energy by pledging to use 100 percent renewable electricity across global operations by the end of next year. Visa has joined a global initiative called RE100 which includes some of the top companies globally and they’re all committed to shifting their energy needs to renewable sources. Some of the other members of this initiative include Apple, Microsoft, and HSBC.
Visa has joined the other three major credit card companies to do away with the signature requirement on credit card purchases in North America. This is a result of the ongoing migration to the EMV chip for cards which brings increased security and convenience to the point of sale. As a result of this migration, Visa has made the signature requirement options for all EMV contact and contactless-chip enabled merchants […]
When it comes to payment solutions, Visa is certainly no stranger when it comes to embracing new and unique pieces of technology. While the company might be known for their credit cards, over the years we’ve seen Visa experiment with various payment methods, such as an NFC-enabled ring and also NFC-enabled sunglasses.
While Visa might be primarily be known as a credit card company, they are looking at expanding their services beyond just a plastic card. For example last year the company debuted an NFC-enabled ring for Olympic athletes that would allow them to pay for stuff without having to bring their wallets out with them.
Because we carry our phones with us all the time that it makes sense to include mobile payment functionality on them. However what about those times it’s not convenient to bring our phones? Like at the beach or a festival where it could be easily stolen or dropped? Thanks to WaveShades, that will soon be a problem of the past.
Google today announced that it has inked strategic partnerships with Visa and Mastercard in order to bring Android Pay to more places online. The new partnerships will soon enable Android Pay users to pay on countless websites where Visa Checkout or Masterpass are accepted using the device authentication method of their choice, such as fingerprint recognition. This will eliminate the need for users to remember multiple usernames and passwords on […]
Earlier this year, we reported that Visa had worked with NFC Ring to deploy an NFC ring that would allow people to make payments with it. The ring was initially given to athletes taking part in the Rio 2016 Olympics, which makes sense since athletic clothing doesn’t really come with a lot of pockets for wallets, and wearing a ring could also be safer than walking around with wads of cash.
The concept of smart rings have been around for a long time, and at one point it was even speculated that Apple could adopt such technology (although nothing has come to fruition yet). That being said, it looks like the technology could soon become mainstream, thanks to Visa who has launched their own NFC mobile payments ring.
Retail giant Walmart has a problem with Visa that it thinks can’t be settled out of court, so it’s suing the company because it’s not happy about the fact that Visa still lets customers sign for their purchases even if they’re made via debit cards that have chips in them. Walmart has filed a lawsuit against Visa in New York hoping to force the company to make PIN verification mandatory […]
VISA has made a major move this morning by opening its platform via a set of APIs (Application Programing Interface). The company says that this is a global launch that aims at offering third party companies an easy way to interface their payment systems with VISA’s. San Francisco was chosen as a launch location because it is a major software development hub.
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Wall Street got worked up about iPhone sales weakness in Apple's second quarter earnings report, but CEO Tim Cook said the cause was quite simple.
"It's that there are more rumors floating and more press articles and mentions of new things, and when that happens, a percentage of people delay," Cook told "Mad Money" host Jim Cramer on Wednesday.
The CEO said that that the widespread leaks hit business particularly hard in China, where it is culturally popular to buy the newest gadgets.
"That probably affects us more in China than other places because there's a tendency there to buy the latest thing, although I have to say, the [iPhone] 7 Plus has done extraordinarily well there," Cook said.
Watch the full segment here:
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`hasOwnProperty` method
Weak vs Strict equality operator
Data type comparison in `switch` statements
Truthiness
Avoid using `with`
| 125,316,202
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Two-camera systems of the kind found in the newest smartphones have a pair of digital cameras facing the same direction. Each camera has a different lens: one camera has a lens with a short focal length, the other a lens with a long focal length. For instance, in some two-camera arrangements the short-focal-length lens can be a regular or wide-angle lens and the long-focal-length lens can be a telephoto lens with a 3× magnification compared to the wide-angle lens (i.e., if we designate the magnification of the regular or wide-angle lens to be 1×, the telephoto has triple the overall magnification, or 3X).
By themselves, these two-camera arrangements allow a user to capture only a wide-angle (1×) image or a telephoto (3×) image, and nothing in between. But what if the user wants to capture an image at an intermediate magnification that falls in between the two lens magnifications—say a 2× image in a system with 1× and 3× lenses? The focal lengths of the two lenses are fixed and cannot be changed, so true optical zoom cannot be implemented to create the 2× image. Nonetheless, to simulate optical zoom, images can be captured with both the 1× and 3× lenses and the captured digital images can be fused by known software methods to create an image that is substantially what would result if it was in fact possible to adjust the magnification of one of the lenses to 2×.
Problems arise with this simulated optical zoom if the difference in focal length between the short-focal-length lens and the long-focal-length lens becomes too large. In these situations, the algorithms that fuse images with different magnifications to form an image with a desired intermediate magnification have a difficult time creating a good image at the intermediate magnifications.
| 125,316,226
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